Post on 16-Mar-2016
description
#02.2013
parallelozero reportage monthly
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Contacts
KenyaYoung Africans growing up
ItalyThe island of memory
WorldShips and the sea
TibetLiving under China’s rule
MoldovaWhite orphans
MultimediaMotel America
Editorial
BrazilAt the end of the river
MexicoBien fuerte
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19
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47
62
74
88
101
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EDITORIAL
Before we saw the story introduced by this issue’s cover photograph, we could have hardly believed that, of all places, Nairobi is ranking among the first cities in the world where child obesity is a widespread problem. Kenyan stereotypes tell us about a country plagued by poverty, unemployment, Aids and crime. The picture is not far from the truth, as often happens with stereotypes, but there is also another reality which speaks of a growing prosperity, and the subsequent demand for whatever it can buy, including the much-coveted junk food which is spoiling the kids of Nairobi’s new middle class. This is what happens when you look beyond the obvious, as Alessandro Gandolfi did while he was doing research for his story in Kenya.
And this is what happened to Giancarlo Radice when he travelled to Tibet to document how Tibetans cope with Chinese rule. He was convinced he would meet people who struggle to keep their own cultural identity safe, and who never gave up the hope of seeing their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, finally return to their motherland: and that’s exactly what he found. But to his surprise he also found out that more and more Tibetans end up buying goods produced in the country they consider their enemy, and they have no problem in saying that, thanks to their new Chinese refrigerator or TV set, their lifestyle has dramatically improved.
3
Luigi Baldelli was also in for a surprise, although a sad one, when he went to Moldova to photograph the villages whose population has been slowly drained by the European job market. He found himself in small ghost towns almost exclusively populated by kids, many of them forced to live on their own: the migrants’ sons and daughters, whom their parents where forced to abandon in order to provide them with a brighter future. Or, rather, simply with a future.
These are just three of the stories that you will find in the second issue of P’Zero. Our photographers will also take you on a journey on the oceans to explore the delicate relationship between sailor and sea, inside the impenetrable world of Mexico’s criminal gangs, on a magical southern Italian island whose inhabitants seem to be prisoners of their own history, in remote Brazilian villages where the need for electricity is jeopardizing the future, and inside some motel rooms in the U.S., where something is happening that tells us more than we would like to know about the world we have created for ourselves.
Come with us.
AT THE END OF THE RIVER
INSIDE THEUTOPIA
By Sergio Ramazzotti
In the heart of the impenetrable kingdom
of Kim Jong Un, the absolute dictator of
the most totalitarian state on the pla-
net. Completely isolated from the rest of
the world, North Korea is anchored to a
rigid pseudo-socialist ideal and founded
on the most maniacal cult of personality
which the human mind has ever been able
to create. In the immense cities, in the
BRAZIL
AT THE END OF THE RIVER
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The Brazilian economic growth is in contrast with the global recession. As the
country’s wealth is rising, new infrastructures are needed to support the
expansion. The Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu River, is one of them. The dam,
which will be the world's third largest and will flood an area of approximately
500 square kilometers, will have serious consequences on the environment and
the communities living on the shores of the Xingu. Apart from affecting several
indigenous territories, the dam will flood one third of the city of Altamira,
which is already suffering from an increasing crime rate due to the massive
immigration caused by the job opportunities offered by the dam. The tension on
the Xingu is rising, as the Amazon people try to cope with the so-called
progress and resist against the project.
AT THE END OF THE RIVERBRAZIL
By Dario Bosio
6
An Arara warrior relaxes on his hammock with
his son after lunch in the indigenous village
of the Big Bend of the Xingu. The tribe is among
the most affected by the construction of the dam
7
A stilt house in the favela known as Invasão dos Padres.
The stilts, which prevent the houses from being flooded
during the rainy season, will be useless in the future due
to the increased capacity of the Xingu caused by the dam
8
Eugenia, 23, is waiting for a call from her
boyfriend in the favela of Invasão dos Padres.
Her ex husband is in jail charged with homicide
9
Pyongyang, the usual propaganda
footage on national tv in my hotel room
Two workers in the construction site. At its peak,
the building consortium will give a job to 40,000 people,
but will dismiss everyone by completion in 2019
10
A kid is playing with a slingshot
in the favela of Invasão dos Padres
11
The main working area of Belo Monte, where the powerhouse will be
built. The turbines will generate up to 11,000 mW at full capacity.
The Belo Monte dam complex will be the third largest in the world
12
Seu Leoncio, 73, is the Arara village’s cacique. He is
the only one in the village who still remembers the
first contact with the white people. He fears
that the dam will be the last step of a process that
long ago started killing the indigenous culture
13
A young boy from the Xipaya tribe in
his house in the Invasão dos Padres
favela, in Altamira. His family moved
there because they were displaced by the
hydroelectric dam of Tucurui. Most
likely the indigenous people living next
to Belo Monte are facing the same fate
14
A man is being checked by
military police in the favela
of Invasão dos Padres
15A revolver which has been confiscated
by the military police in Altamira
16An Arara indigenous woman with her
kids in the village of Volta Grande
17
Pyongyang, a bird flies at the
base of 70-mt-high bronze statue
of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae Hill
Monsonic clouds over the city of Altamira, which will be the
most affected by the construction of the Belo Monte dam
YOUNG AFRICANS GROWING UP
LOVEGIVERSBy Simone Cerio
This is a journey. A physical and
mental journey. Sexual assistance is a
technique of psychophysical approach to
disabled people, based on massages,
kisses, visual contacts and erotic
stimulation. It is commonly believed
that disabled people have no sexual
needs and their isolation causes them
deep psychological problems. Gabriele
KENYA
YOUNG AFRICANS GROWING UP
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"Africans have become sedentary. We spend our days in the car or in the
office, we eat fast-food and our children put on weight watching television".
Professor Vincent Onywera from Kenyatta University in Nairobi is studying a
problem that is becoming dramatic: escalating obesity, particularly among very
young people. While outside the capital the real problem is malnutrition, in
Nairobi things go the opposite way: middle class people, whose life style is
similar to that of Westerners, eat junk food and do not practice enough
sports. The Ministry of Health has recognized that this is a problem and in
schools menus are now under control while vending machines are forbidden.
However, figures are unmistakable: one person out of two in Nairobi is
overweight.
YOUNG AFRICANS GROWING UPKENYA
By Alessandro Gandolfi
20
A student being photographed
in front of a case with an
embalmed lion at Nairobi’s
National Museum of Kenya
21
Nairobi’s central business
district at sunset
22
An instructor gives swimming lessons to
Jonathan, 6 (right), and his brother George,
9, in the swimming pool of the Nairobi Club
23A woman in the garden in
front of the Aga Khan Hospital
24
Polo, 4, watches television
in his aunt’s living room
25
Sweets for sale in
a shopping centre
26
Virginia Muthoni, 28,
has her waist measured by
dietician Lyudmyla Shchukina
27A child with his mother
and aunt in a fast food
28
Kids take food at a birthday party
in the Brookside neighborhood
29
A man eats hamburger and
French fries in a bar of the
central business district
30
Two young women in a
hairdresser’s waiting room
By Alessandro Gandolfi
BIEN FUERTE
GAZA ISWONDER-
MEXICO
BIEN FUERTE
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Monterrey, in north-east Mexico, is a patchwork of street gangs. During
the first eight months of 2012, members of two groups, Los Pokos Lokos
and Los Quimicos, allowed photographer Tom King into their world, the
world in which only the “bien fuerte”, the strongest ones, can survive.
The work started in the context of drug-related violence, which in 2011
reached unprecedented levels in the city. Nevertheless, the aim was
never to concentrate on the violence directly, but to explore social and
economic circumstances. Mexico has a large youth population, alongside a
significant rate of inequality among classes, while government figures
say that 90 percent of homicide victims are male, 40 percent are aged
between 15 and 29, and almost all are working class.
BIEN FUERTEMEXICO
By Tom King
33
Chava, a member of Los Pokos, with
his freshly tattooed chest. Tattoos
in Mexico are a definite sign of rebellion.
Many companies refuse employment
to persons who have visible tattoos
34
A member of Los Pokos holds marijuana in his
hand. The drug, illegal in Mexico, is widely
used. Supply is controlled by the cartels.
Young men are often arrested by police simply
for having the smell of it on their fingers
35
Jacko of Los Pokos at
home in one of the working
class areas of Monterrey
36
A 7,62-caliber machine
gun bullet found lying in the
street by a member of Los Pokos
37
Dante plays basketball in his
neighborhood. One of his gang’s
members has been shot and
killed here one year earlier
38
Chicken ready to be barbecued for a
birthday celebration. Barbecuing
meat is traditionally a male role
39
Flaquito of Los Pokos
outside his home with his
pregnant wife-to-be
40
Two cousins from Los Pokos funfighting.
Fights like this are seen as training for the
more serious fighting between rival gangs
41Dante of Los Pokos sits in his porch
42
Members of Los Quimicos preparing for
the dance of Guadalupe. These young men
see the Virgin as their protector
43
Arte of Los Pokos at home in Monterrey
44
Manuel's coffin on the day of his
funeral. Manuel, a member of Los
Quimicos, consumed solvents, but was
not involved in the drug trade.
Yet he was kidnapped and murdered by
one of Monterrey's cartels
45
Kaly of Los Pokos has his
eyebrows shaved off by
two members of his gang
By Mario Noto
Italy, Piazza Armerina: like one
of Italo Calvino's Invisible Citi-
es, a non-place. A town which, be-
cause of its name, most Italians
still mistake for a square (that's
what Piazza means). A village in
the heart of Sicily doomed by its
SHIPS AND THE SEA
FACES OF PIAZZA
SHIPS AND THE SEAWORLD
47
From one continent to another, in the Atlantic ocean on a cargo, the
Caribbean Sea on a cruise ship, the Mediterranean on a oil rig, the
Baltic Sea on an icebreaker, Sicily on a ship stuck by the economic
crisis. For years, photographer Maria Vittoria Trovato chased a humanity
that lives on water, a species at ease. The seaworld has no seasons or
rest. Captains, shipmates, sailors, welders and workers have all taken
to the sea going after a dream, struggling against hunger, following
their fathers' path. Different men and women, each with his or her own
hopes and ambitions and needs: but they all become the same when the
land is no longer in sight.
By Maria Vittoria Trovato
SHIPS AND THE SEAWORLD
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By Paulo Siqueira
Prostitution is a big word, to de-
scribe what goes on on the
straights of the great Amazon Ri-
ver of Brazil in a region privy to
years of conquest and exploita-
tion. The life of the river peop-
le or “Ribeirinhas”as they are
known has always been about little
FAVIGNANA, THE ISLAND OF MEMORY
WOMEN OF THEAMAZON
ITALY
FAVIGNANA, THE ISLAND OF MEMORY
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An ancient Paleolithic site, the island of Favignana hosted many people
over the centuries. In 1874 the island was bought by the Florio family,
which reinforced here the so-called “tonnara”, an Arab tuna-fishing
technique. The “mattanza” (the ritual killing of tuna) and the quarries
of calcarenite, a much appreciated kind of limestone, have influenced
the history of the island, which still survives in the tales told by the
local “tonnaroti” (tuna fishermen) and “piarrutura” (stonemasons).
Others just refuse to cope with a future of immigration and of a
tourism-based economy. Instead, they keep fishing for that peculiar fish
that made Favignana's fortune in the past.
By Bruno Zanzottera
FAVIGNANA, THE ISLAND OF MEMORY ITALY
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Clemente Ventrone, a “tonnaroto” who
has been working for almost fifty
years in a “tonnara” on the island
64
The rocks and the ancient
limestone quarries in Cala Rossa
65A fisherman relaxing
onboard his fishing boat
66
Fishermen work at night
between Favignana and
nearby island of Marettimo
67
Giuseppe Gandolfo, one
of the last shepherds
who live on the island,
with son Matteo
68
The small fishing
village of Punta Longa
69
Marco Ponzio, originally
from Sicily, where he
used to work with his
father as a stonemason
70
Relaxing onboard a
fishing boat after
a long night at sea
71
Fish is sorted on board a
fishing vessel before being
sold at the Trapani port
72Orazio, owner and captain of a fishing
boat in Favignana, during a fishing trip
By Carlo Bevilacqua
A new utopia? A distant reality?
Forget it. Hermitage might seem a
paradox in our self-celebrating so-
ciety but it is a growing and fa-
scinating phenomenon, instead. Mo-
dern hermits don’t indulge in the
search for isolation for social or
personal ambitions, neither it’s a
INTO THE SILENCEHERMITS OF THE THIRD MILLEN-NIUM
TIBET
LIVING UNDER CHINA’S RULE
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After the anti-Chinese riots of 2008-2009, the Tibetan society is going
through a phase of deep changes. In Kham, as was called the eastern
region of the "greater Tibet" before the invasion of Mao's army (now
part of China's Sichuan province), the political and military control by
Beijng is less oppressive than in Lhasa and central Tibet, while among
the population the awareness of their own cultural identity has been
growing. Tibetans seem to live simultaneously in two separate realities.
On the one side they are fighting for wider political autonomy and
religious freedom. On the other side, they are learning to be part of
the "new world" that China brings with it, which means better roads,
subsidized housing, low-wage jobs and an invasion of material goods.
TIBET
By Giancarlo Radice
LIVING UNDER CHINA’S RULE
75Penbushi, the Layithao family in their new house,
posing with their new chinese refrigerator and tv set
76Kangding, low income public services
are carried out mainly by Tibetans
77
Penbushi area. Tashi Chapa, 24, shows two
photographs from his family collection:
the beloved Dalai Lama and "enemy" Mao Zedong
78
Kangding. Modern downtown
buildings, shops and a Tara, a
Buddhist deity, carved on the hill
79
Tagong, a Tibetan woman shopping
at the monastery supermarket
80
Tagong, landscape beyond the city limits
81Kangding, a Tibetan with
his dog on the main street
82Penbushi, the village’s primary school
83Kangding, trendy Tibetan teenagers
84
Penbushi. Ngawang Gyauwu, 28, in his family
home watching a Dalai Lama speech on his laptop.
Dalai Lama speeches are banned in China
85
Dege is one of the new villages built by the
Chinese government for the Tibetan nomads
in order to control them. The village is
almost empty: only one family lives there
86Miniak Guwa, the only store in the village
by Francesco Alesi
When St. Patrick set his feet on
Irish land to preach Christianity,
it is unlikely there were any
Irish Travellers in sight. Almost
sixteen Centuries later, the Irish
Travellers is one of the strongest
Catholic communities in the world.
Irish Travellers were a nomadic fa-
WHITE ORPHANS
GOD BLESS MOLDOVA
WHITE ORPHANS
88
In Moldova, a country plagued by massive unemployment, one citizen out
of four lives abroad and works as a caregiver. What happens to their
children then? Some of these young kids are forced to live in
abandonment. Their grandparents, relatives or neighbors sometimes look
after them, while teenagers are left on their own, with parents coming
back only once or twice a year for the holidays. The number of these
abandoned kids is not officially estimated yet, however it is widely
assumed that they have been more than 100,000 since 2005. Migration
breaks families and modifies their lifestyle: for many kids who grew up
separated from their parents, primary values are no longer love and
caring, but money.
By Luigi Baldelli
WHITE ORPHANSMOLDOVA
89
Varzarestii Noi. Marina, 12, and her
sister Ruslana, 5, with their grandparents
Vasile and Maria. The little girls have
been living with them since their mother
left for Italy to work as a caregiver
90
Varzarestii Noi. Jon, 16, in front of
the house where he lives on his own after
his mother left for Italy to work
as a caregiver and his father left for
Russia to work as a bricklayer
91
Sipoteni. Brothers Vasile, 13, and
Gheorghe, 11, in front of the house where
they live with their aunt. Their mother
left for Italy to work as a caregiver
92
Varzarestii Noi. The shoes of Marina,
12, and Ruslana, 5. The two kids
have been living with their
grandparents since their mother left
for Italy to work as a caregiver
93
Gura Galbena. Adriana, 16, inside the house where
she lives with her aunt. Her parents left for Israel.
Her mother is now working as a house cleaner
while her father found employment as a bricklayer
94
Varzarestii Noi. Ruslana, 5, in her bedroom.
She has been living with her grandparents since her
mother left for Italy to work as a caregiver
95
Gura Galbena. Sisters Elena,
14, and Valentina, 13, in the
house where they live with
their uncle and aunt after
their mother left for Italy
to work as a caregiver
96Sipoteni. A view of the village
97
Croagh Patrick. The faithful during one of the fifteen
rounds of the chapel. Croagh Patrick is renowned
for its pilgrimage in honour of Saint Patrick, who fasted
for forty days in 441 AD on the top of this mountain
Varzarestii Noi. Ruslana, 5,
in her bedroom. She has been
living with her grandparents
since her mother left for
Italy to work as a caregiver
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Varzarestii Noi. Mihai, 12, in the
house where he lives along with her
aunt and his sister Mihaela, 15,
after their mother left for Italy to
work as a caregiver
99
Varzarestii Noi. Marina, 12, has been
living with her grandparents since her
mother left for Italy to work as a caregiver
by Bruno Zanzottera
Lize is a 25-year-old Dutch woman
with Down syndrome. She has attend-
ed regular middle and secondary
schools, as well as green schools
and catering training courses. She
has taken part as an athlete in
the Special Olympic European Youth
USA
MOTEL AMERICA
Parallelozero Multimedia
101
The Motel, an American institution, was invented in 1925 to stimulate
business travel along the highways of the nation. Motel culture reached
its peak in the 1960's as its popularity among vacationing American
families increased. Complete with swimming pools and rooms modeled after
Native American tee pees, motels made cross-country road travel for the
country's middle class possible, and became a stark symbol of capitalist
America. Today, many motels across America are serving as a permanent home
for millions of Americans caught in the flux of the Great Recession. Some
have lost their jobs and their homes to foreclosure, or just can't
generate enough income to afford an apartment. They are one step above
homelessness, living on the fringe in an unstable world of linoleum and
polyester bed spreads.
By Paulo Siqueira and Nadia Shira Cohen
MOTEL AMERICAUSA
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