Comprensorio Casilino
2012 § Leave a Comment
COMPRENSORIO CASILINO #1 from 101 Film on Vimeo.
Il VI Municipio ha la più alta densità abitativa di Roma, pari a 18k abitanti / km2, a fronte di una media romana di 2,2k/km2. Il Piano Particolareggiato Comprensorio Casilino prevede la costruzione di 3000 ulteriori abitazioni laddove sopravvive l’unico polmone verde della periferia orientale romana, un’area originariamente destinata alla costruzione dello SDO. Guidati dai volontari dell’Osservatorio Casilino, gli abitanti del Municipio VI si oppongono al progetto di cementificazione delle aree verdi.
di Davide Morandini e Matteo Keffer
Merqana (2012)
2012 § Leave a Comment
The experience of merqana binds together tens of millions of people in the Horn of Africa and beyond. Similar to that of the legendary Lotus, merqana is a profound state of high, deriving form the chewing of a leafy amphetamine called qat. Set in the ancient, walled city of Harar and its surroundings, the film takes you to an epic journey through the social life of one of the world’s most popular drugs, threading upon green carpets of leaves, and dancing at the rhythm of centuries-old mystic rituals.
MERQANA OFFICIAL TRAILER [ENG] from 101 Film on Vimeo.
Those who were given the honey-sweet lotus to eat, no longer wished to bring back word to us or sail for home. They wanted to stay, eating the lotus, forgetting all thoughts of return – Homer, Odyssey
‘Merqana’ explores the social universe of qat, cutting through an only apparently ordinary day in the plant’s commodity chain. It follows the fascinating work of Ramadan, a newly married farmer; Jarso, a successful merchant; and Amir, a young religious leader with a passion for long chewing sessions and traditional Sufi chants. The film unfolds the ways this little-known plant has become extremely popular among the people of Harar, becoming the main source of income for poor farmers and wealthy businessmen
Qat was chewed for centuries in the Horn of Africa and beyond, but has only recently become a major cash crop for farmers in Ethiopia, and a popular commodity in many countries around the world. As a consequence, qat is a powerful means of economic and cultural exchange between East African states, as well as with the diasporic communities living in Europe and in the US. ‘Merqana’ was entirely shot in and around the walled city of Harar, Ethiopia. Founded around the 7th century by Muslim migrants from the Arabian Peninsula, Harar was the main city on the trade route linking Yemen to the heart of Africa. Isolated from the rest of the region soon after the realisation of the Djibuto-Ethiopian railway, Harar and the nearby night market of Awoday remain the cultural, economic and political capitals of qat, being the plant cultivated mostly in their surroundings
A film by
David Chierchini
Matteo Keffer
Davide Morandini
Produced by
101 Film
Sharafuddin Mancioli
In collaboration with
Fourisync
zerosix productions
Al Cairo si riaccende lo scontro fra cristiani e musulmani
2011 § Leave a Comment
È improvvisamente riesploso lo scontro fra cristiani copti e musulmani ieri notte nel quartiere cristiano del Cairo. Durante una sparatoria fra un gruppo di fondamentalisti islamici e alcuni residenti del famoso quartiere a maggioranza copta, almeno dodici persone sono rimaste uccise e 150 ferite. Secondo quanto denunciato dai residenti del quartiere, alle radici dell’attacco ci sarebbero voci che vogliono una donna copta tenuta in ostaggio in chiesa perché pronta a convertirsi all’Islam. I preti della chiesa di Santa Mena avrebbero così pensato di impedirle la conversione, impedendole di venire allo scoperto.
Si è riacceso così un conflitto che sembrava sopito, dopo che quasi due mesi fa dieci cristiani erano rimasti uccisi in scontri settari nel quartiere popolare del Moqattam, a est del Cairo. Quella notte, un gruppo di fondamentalisti aveva attaccato una chiesa, aprendo fuoco indiscriminatamente sui passanti indifesi. Ma questa volta non tutti sono convinti della matrice islamica dell’attacco. Tamer, uno dei residenti del quartiere, giura che è stata tutta opera di alcuni teppisti, volenterosi di sollevare il caos per le strade del quartiere. Questi cosiddetti ‘teppisti’ (baltageya) ricoprono un ruolo famoso in Egitto: sono quei gruppi di malintenzionati al soldo dei potenti, il cui mestiere è provocare il caos su commissione e che arrivarono all’apice della loro (im)popolarità quando comparirono sulle prime pagine dei quotidiani internazionali dopo aver attaccato i manifestanti di Piazza Tahrir a dorso di cavallo e cammello, il 29 gennaio scorso.
Ma non è la prima volta che scontri di matrice religiosa vengono confusi con faide di altra natura. Molti in Egitto pensano che le esplosioni che distrussero le due Chiese di Alessandria prima delle celebrazioni per il Capodanno copto siano state opera dei servizi segreti volti ad aumentare la tensione nel paese, più che opera di un isolato gruppo di fondamentalisti islamici con pochissimo seguito in tutto l’Egitto.
La dissoluzione dell’ Amn ed-Dawla (l’odiato corpo dei servizi segreti) e la recente incarcerazione e condanna a 12 anni per l’ex ministro degli Interni Habib el-Adly non hanno fatto che dare più adito a questi sospetti. Già le manifestazioni (annunciate come anti-cristiane) che hanno bloccato per quasi una settimana la città meridionale di Qena non hanno tardato a rivelare la loro matrice non-religiosa. Lì i manifestanti hanno spontaneamente allentato la tensione quando un gruppo di fondamentalisti ha provato a rivendicare la paternità delle manifestazioni, sviando l’attenzione dai veri motivi proteste e attribuendo loro una matrice religiosa fuori contesto. Alla base di quelle manifestazioni, infatti, c’era la volontà di voltare pagina e lasciarsi alle spalle la corruzione e l’emarginazione dell’Alto Egitto voluta dall’Ancien Regime della cricca mubaracchiana, ancora rappresentata dal neo-nominato governatore Mikhail malvoluto da tutti gli abitanti della città, sia Musulmani che Cristiani. In un paese che ancora deve recuperare dalla grave crisi economica e sociale in cui è piombato dopo la storica rivoluzione del 25 Gennaio, al nuovo governo spetta l’arduo compito di stare al passo con le aspettative di un popolo che ha capito di essere in grado di poter cacciare un dittatore.
Più che odio religioso, sembra che alla base di questi scontri ci sia la quasi totale mancanza di forze di sicurezza a garantire l’ordine pubblico per le strade del Cairo post-rivoluzionario. Più di tre mesi fa ormai, la polizia si è vista obbligata a passare il testimone all’esercito, il giorno in cui le forze dell’ordine sono state surclassate e pubblicamente umiliate dalla folla di manifestanti accorsa a Piazza Tahrir per chiedere all’ex Presidente Hosni Mubarak di abbandonare il paese. Mentre in questi giorni la polizia fa solo gradualmente ritorno ai suoi presidi, il ruolo dell’esercito rimane limitato alla protezione di obiettivi sensibili, lasciando l’amministrazione dell’ordine pubblico alle ronde volontarie dei residenti di quartiere e al buon cuore della popolazione civile. È anche questa più o meno voluta mancanza di controllo a lasciare che le intenzioni molto poco religiose di un manipolo di estremisti si mischino a cose molto ma molto più grandi di loro.
il sito del Sole
Celebrating May-Day with Cairo’s (other) workers
2011 § Leave a Comment
The first May day in post-revolutionary Egypt saw hundreds of thousands of people gather in Tahrir Square. The crowd asked for the new government to guarantee reforms that would provide workers with basic rights.
But Magdir, a 45 years-old worker for a Cairo construction company, did not rally in Tahrir. He spent his Mayday working with his colleagues, re-painting the facade of a building only few blocks away from the world-famous Square where demonstrators had gathered.
“There is nothing to do there,” Magdir told Bikya Masr while holding a blue rope in his right hand spattered with yellow paint. Magdir raises his head, peering at the paint basket hanging at the opposite end of the rope. There, his workmates Ahmed and Abdallah sink their rollers and attentively paint the facade of a nineteenth century downtown building.
Ahmed and Abdallah stand on the same wooden beam, leaned on by two motorbike tires, each of them hanging from a rope they previously fixed on the top of the building. The two swing together at roughly 20 meters from the floor, giving a brush to the facade every time their fluctuation takes them close enough to the building.
“Thank God we work six days a week,” continued Magdir, “and on Friday I stay at home, play Playstation or football with friends.”
Magdir used to be a migrant worker. He worked as a cook in Jordan, as a waiter in Syria and as a builder in Saudi Arabia. When he found wife in Egypt and planned to settle down, this job was the best he managed to get.
However, he regards this as a lucky catch somehow, as his and his colleagues’ daily salary range between LE60-80 daily ($10-15), exceeding the monthly LE400 ($68) set by Egypt’s current legislation as minimum wage.
This is another reason why they might not have joined Tahrir’s protesters. There, demonstrators called for the government to immediately raise minimum wages up to LE1,200 ($200).
Until October 2010, minimum wage in Egypt was set at LE35 monthly ($6). It was then raised just over the World Bank’s Moderate Poverty Threshold ($2 daily) following unprecedented protests.
But many look on with nostalgia at the earlier stand, as employees would openly negotiate salaries with their own employer. As the minimum wage was set at a higher rate, many ended up with earnings lower then they would expect before the reform.
Instead, Magdir’s concerns depend on another topic. “His father died two years ago,” says him pointing at his young apprentice Amr, “he fell from the beam. Gone.” Lacking alternatives, Amr took his father’s place in the company and is now learning from his colleagues how to swing on the beam.
“It takes an iron heart to get up there,” intervenes Mohammed, one of the company’s veteran. Mohammed has been going up on the beam for more than thirty years. He now enjoys the petty tasks reserved to an experienced assistant like him.
He does not know how and when, but Magdir considers a trade union the only way out from their unlucky position.
He and his colleagues think many steps forward have been done towards the creation of a safer working environment in the last years. Nonetheless, as a consequence of the complete lack of public subsidies and the dangerous working conditions, their job is often not worth doing.
Independent trade unions outside the management of state-led Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) were formally banned under former President Hosni Mubarak. After the February 11 collapse of the regime, the ETUF’s 54 year-long monopoly was interrupted by the creation of a range of new associations, covering all sorts of categories including those previously discriminated by the ETUF like farmers and fishermen.
Lack of coordination and know-how are not the only obstacles between workers like Magdir and trade unions.
The Cairo Land Center for Human Rights (LCHR) recently warned of an ongoing genocide in the Egyptian village of Musa, as remnants of the former regime deprived inhabitants of current water and food supplies, as they discovered farmers were planning to institute a trade union to cover their interests.
As the battle rages on on Tahrir’s international stage, and newly-formed trade unions endorse interests of industrial workers (see those in Shebeen al-Kom or Mahalla), those like Magdir have a much longer and tougher battle ahead of them.
Abdallah and Ahmed slowly reach the base of the building and finally hop off the beam. Abdallah says he does not fear his job, but hopes he will soon have enough money to give it up. He wants to buy a Toyota and work as a microbus driver.
this was from Bikya Masr, photos by David Chierchini © 2011-2012























