parallelozero reportage monthly
#01.2013
Editorial North Korea
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Inside the Utopia
Italy
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Palestine
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Brazil
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Into the Silence
60
Italy
74
Ireland
88
Multimedia
102
Contacts
105
Love givers
Gaza is wonderful
Women of the Amazon river
Hermits of the third millennium
The power of Foolishness
God bless ya
The fantastic world of Lize
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EDITORIAL It has recently been said that photojournalists no longer need to roam the world looking for stories: these days it’s the stories which come to us, through the web and the legions of citizen journalists who tell them. It has also been said that the world no longer needs being explored: we know every corner of it, no matter how secluded. At Parallelozero, we believe the opposite. Every single day, one of our photojournalists finds a stunning story in some place where the web not only is unheard of, but there is no sign that it will get there anytime soon. Many of these stories have human beings as protagonists, and when you listen to them, you realize they would be worth not a simple collection of photographs, but a whole novel. In a globally connected world we should know everything about, these stories still manage to move and surprise us, to feed our knowledge and our soul, to change the way we look at our planet. This suggests that, as long as human beings will be born, their stories will be worth telling and the world will be worth exploring.
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On P’Zero, we want to share some of our best stories with you, so that you may feel the same sense of wonder and indignation and awe and inspiration that we felt when we looked at them for the first time: and we want to do it at no charge, with this first issue and with all the ones that will follow every month. For this issue, Sergio Ramazzotti shoots in the heart of North Korea, an enigmatic country which threatens to unleash deadly nuclear force in the Pacific. Paulo Siqueira and Nadia Shira Cohen travel to the Amazon river, where gasoline is traded with sex. Alessandro Gandolfi shows us an unexpected side of Gaza. Carlo Bevilacqua enters the hidden lives of the third millennium hermits. Mario Noto analyzes the topography of suffering in the faces of the people of his native Sicilian village. Francesco Alesi explores Catholic Ireland. Simone Cerio delicately tells the story of a woman who devotes her life to help the disabled in a very peculiar way, while Bruno Zanzottera introduces us to Lize, another disabled person who managed to become a tv star in the Netherlands. Be inspired.
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NORTH KOREA
INSIDE THE UTOPIA
NORTH KOREA
INSIDE THE UTOPIA By Sergio Ramazzotti In the heart of the impenetrable kingdom of Kim Jong un, the absolute dictator of the most totalitarian state on the planet. Completely isolated from the rest of the world, North Korea is anchored to a rigid pseudosocialist ideal and founded on the most maniacal personality cult which the human mind has ever been able to create. In the vast cities, in the woods, in the ancient villages, the people try to survive scorching summers, freezing winters, hunger and famines, without neglecting their duty as good citizens: to honour the sacred name of their Great Leader every day of the year.
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The 4-ton bronze door of the International Friendship Museum in Mount Myohyang, which houses all the 214,000 gifts presented to Kim Il Sung during his career
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A street in downtown Kaesong. As in any North Korean city, a policeman watches for nonexistent traffic
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Wonsan, children at the International Summer Camp doing their morning exercises
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Pyongyang, the usual propaganda footage on national tv in my hotel room
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Pyongyang, the library called Great House of People’s Study, along the Taedong River
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Mount Myohyang, families spend a Sunday afternoon in the woods
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Pyongyang, Kim Il Sung Square. Kids and adults train for a parade in honor of Kim Il Sung’s birthday, still celebrated even after his death
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Pyongyang, commuters and a train controller in a subway station
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Pyongyang, a woman pays her respect at the foot of 70-mt-high bronze statue of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae Hill
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A kid inside her house in a model farm in the vicinity of Kaesong. On the wall, the ever present portraits of Kim Il Sung and son Kim Jong Il
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Pyongyang, a bird flies at the base of 70-mt-high bronze statue of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae Hill
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LOVE GIVERS
ITALY
LOVE GIVERS
LOVE GIVERS
By 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
ITALY
LOVE GIVERS By 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 and erotic stimulation. It is commonly believed that disabled people have no sexual needs: their isolation causes them deep psychological problems. Gabriele Piovano, 27, is affected by spina bifida, a disorder that has forced him into a wheelchair since his birth. Debora De Angelis is one of the testimonials of Love Givers, a campaign to regulate the profession of sexual assistant: a person who is professionally trained to give sexual help to disabled people. This is perhaps the only way for disabled people to have such an experience. It is a life encounter. Milan-Turin one-way.
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Milan. Gabriele Piovano works at the help desk of the Local Health Department and is the manager of an association of disabled people
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Gabriele on the train to Turin, the city where he will meet his sexual assistant
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At the railway station in Turin, Gabriele is helped by railway staff to get off the train
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Turin. Gabriele with sexual assistant Debora De Angelis at Porta Susa Station in Turin
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Turin. Sexual assistant Debora De Angelis 24
Turin. Gabriele with Aliona, his personal caretaker, who is preparing him to meet sexual assistant Debora De Angelis
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Turin. Due to his disability, Gabriele cannot get ready on his own and is helped by Aliona
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Turin. Debora and Gabriele get ready for a session of sexual assistance
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GAZA IS WONDERFUL
PALESTINE
GAZA IS WONDERFUL
GAZA IS WONDERBy Alessandro Gandolfi
PALESTINE
GAZA IS WONDERFUL By Alessandro Gandolfi From the outside Gaza looks like an open air jail. Even if the people who live here dream about a normal life, for the rest of the world Gaza looks like hell. Seen from the inside instead, Gaza is a place of dignity and hope that nobody tells about. This is the other side of Gaza, the positive face usually ignored by the media. A country in which young generations, who dream about peace and a better future, yell to the world: We are here! Here where the rappers put their anger into rhymes. The deejays play house and techno music. The poets, the writers, the film directors make art, the youth fall in love and the surfers look for the perfect wave. Because in Gaza, too, life can be wonderful.
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Women look at Mahmoud Osama Al-Rayashi waterskiing in the port of Gaza City
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Gaza City, artist and filmmaker Mohammed Nasser (art name Ana Arab) in his house
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Gaza City, rapper and skater Ahmed Rezeq shaves his hair in the bathroom of his house with the help of his friend Mohammed Salem
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Gaza, a stag party in a city square
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Khan Yunes, young men (in the center, parkour athlete Abed Allah Enshasy) play basketball in a cemetery
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Gaza, teenage girls on a fairground take a ride in the funfair near the zoo
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Gaza City, rapper Azez Sakka from Stop Team band records a song at the Masharq recording studio
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Gaza City, skater Abood K. Sha'ath skates at night on the city streets
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Gaza, a man leaving a Turkish bath
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Gaza, Mahmoud Osama Al-Rayashi surfing in front of the city
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Gaza, surfer Mahmoud Osama Al-Rayashi watches Barcelona-Real Madrid football match on tv together with friends in an open air restaurant
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Gaza City, rapper and skater Ahmed Rezeq sings in front of a window of his house
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THE POWER OF FOOLISHNESS
FACES OF PIAZZA ITALY
THE POWER OF FOOLISHNESS
By Mario Noto
Italy, Piazza Armerina: like one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, a non-place. A town which, because of its name, most Italians still mistake for a square (that's what Piazza means). A village in
ITALY
THE POWER OF FOOLISHNESS By Mario Noto Italy, Piazza Armerina: like one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, a non-place. A town which, because 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 own name to an existential limbo, a chronicized crisis of identity. To which the problems of every village in the island add up: unemployment, degradation, the sensation of having been left behind by the rest of the country, the resulting fatalism. All of this appears to contribute to a general distress which is higher among the people of Piazza than in the average Sicilian: we see it in the faces of those Piazzesi who finally gave up to it, becoming its prey to the point of losing sanity. Faces which seem to ask, rather than for help, to simply be recognized as human.
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WOMEN OF THE AMAZON RIVER
BRAZIL
WOMEN OF THE AMAZON R
WOMEN OF THE AMAZON RIVER
By Paulo Siqueira
Prostitution is a big word, to describe what goes on on the straights of the great Amazon River of Brazil in a region privy to years of conquest and exploitation. The life of the river people or “Ribeirinhas”as they are
BRAZIL
WOMEN OF THE AMAZON RIVER By Paulo Siqueira and Nadia Shira Cohen Prostitution is a big word to describe what goes on along the great Amazon river of Brazil, in a region privy to years of conquest and exploitation. The life of the river people, or “Ribeirinhas” as they are known, has always been about little more than survival, a daily hunt to put food on the table. Out of this necessity was born a practice of sexual exchange which began with the many passing ships and the young women who chase after them, rowing furiously in their small canoes, only to hook on and offer fruits, shrimp, and inevitably themselves. Yet money is not their currency: it is instead diesel oil, the most coveted commodity along the river for those who live in small communities like São Francisco de Jararacá, that still have not received electricity lines and thus rely on generators.
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Rosyane, 18, breastfeeding her son Robert, 2, in their home. She had her son at 15 with Robico, her boyfriend, and dropped out of school. Her family sells shrimps to the passing cargo ships
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Amanda helps her niece, Aanda, 13, into a corset top before she heads to the local football game down the river. The family who lives in Vila Cruzal, in the municipality of Boa Vista, recently received electricity under the government program known as “Luz Para Todos�(Lights for all)
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Lorena, 15, does her hair and make up in the candle light of her house. Her mother Juana works to sell goods on the passing cargo ships while her father trades oil, yet the family had to sell their generator for lack of money and oil. She sometimes accompanies her mother on the ships
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Saendy, 11, applies make up before heading to the local football game down the river
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Ezekuel Tecera Lopes (right) with his step-father Dez in his mother’s house. Ezekuel is 30 and was born with severe mental disorders. He spends most of his day in the house waiting for his mother to return from the cargo ships where she sells goods 65
Raifran, a crew member of the Matheus Pinto cargo ship, looks out onto a bay along the Amazon River
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The Amazon river just before a torrential rain storm on the Jararacรก strait
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Raimundinha Coutinho, 63, fishing on the boardwalk. She is from Jararacรก and spent years selling goods to the cargo ships until she became ill with her stomach and underwent surgery
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Ezekuel Tecera Lopes in his mother’s house
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Raimunda Do S. Gomez, 31, and her daughter Priciane, 3, who fell off the bed and broke her back, remaining crippled and unable to walk. Raimunda has been selling goods on the cargo ships for as long as anyone can remember. She has three other daughters aged 13, 11 and 4. Another died at 3 months because of malnourishment
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Olinda De Matos Miranda with her parrot in the back of her house. For a living, she and her husband pick the Acai fruit, along with shrimping and managing a small market in the front of their house. They have forbidden their three daughters to sell goods on the cargo ships for fear that they may get involved in prostitution
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Patricia De Matos Miranda, 16, watches a soap opera on tv. Her sister Karina recounted, “It takes almost two litres of diesel oil just to watch an episode.� Their parents forbid them to sell goods on the passing cargo ships for fear that they may get involved in prostitution
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INTO THE SILENCE
HERMITS OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
INTO THE SILENCE
HERMITS OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM By Carlo Bevilacqua A new utopia? A distant reality? Forget it. Hermitage might seem a paradox in our self-celebrating society, instead it is a growing and fascinating phenomenon. Modern hermits don’t indulge in the search for isolation for social or personal ambitions, neither it’s a matter of misanthropy. Most of them come from a religious background, but many others are (or rather, were) part of a well established middle class fed up with the social routine. Following their own personal path made of prayer, silence and meditation, they decided to live in isolated places to listen to and rediscover their own inner rhythm and individual atmosphere. 74
George, the hermit Of David Gareji. The area of David Gareji is located in Eastern Georgia
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Viviana Rispoli, a former model, lives in a church hall in the hills near Bologna, Italy. She made this decision ten years ago, after reading the Gospel
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Rachel Denton always had the idea of living alone in a cottage, in a remote location, with nothing to do but praying and growing her own fruit and vegetables. She moved to Lincolnshire, U.K., in 2002 and started her life as a hermit
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Alfredo, an ex craftsman, after retirement moved to his native Calabria, in Southern Italy, to live in isolation in the mountains
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After spending his first turbulent 14 years in Umbria, Italian-born Swami Atmananda began to travel around the world. Twenty years ago he settled in a small town in Calabria, Southern Italy, in a country house with no water and electricity
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For four years, Julia Bolton Holloway lived as a hermit in Montebeni, Florence, in a room without heating. Now she lives in the English Cemetery in Florence
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Salvation Mountain is located in the desert of Southern California, and is Leonard’s tribute to God. Leonard has created this art site in painted adobe, dedicated it to the love of God and made it his house
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Father Sergio is a Benedictine monk. He has been living for 30 years on a mountain top near Turin, Italy, in solitude and silence, surrounded by nature and his 55,000 books
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Gianni has spent the last three decades living in a wild canyon near the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy
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Claudio, a former rock singer, after a trip to India became a Hare Khrisna, and then a Camaldolese monk. He currently lives in the Hermitage of Minucciano, in Tuscany, following the Benedictine rule and sharing his days with two other hermits
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Father Sergio is a Benedictine monk. He has been living for 30 years on a mountain top near Turin, Italy, in solitude and silence, surrounded by nature and his 55,000 books
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Italian Mario Attombri, born in 1947, is called by his disciples Sri Guru Yogi Raja Lahari and lives in isolation in the mountains near Padua, in Northern Italy
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GOD BLESS YA
GOD BLESS
IRELAND
GOD BLESS YA
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.
IRELAND
GOD BLESS YA By Francesco Alesi When St. Patrick set foot 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. Originally the Irish Travellers were a nomadic group trading horses and tools with the farmers of rural Ireland. When the country became more mechanized, they lost their economic role and settled in permanent communities. Religion had always played a vital role in their life, and their adherence to Catholic morals is still one the strictest in the world. The way Travellers experience faith is far from being intimate and discreet, as not even Christian moderation is capable of hindering their vitality and exhuberance. 88
A man drinks after reaching the summit of Croagh Patrick. On “Reek Sunday�, the last Sunday in July, over 25,000 pilgrims visit the Reek. For many Travellers, it is the only chance to meet relatives or friends living far away
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Despite the silence and holiness of the church, children play jumping on the benches. Even during church service parents struggle to contain their exuberance
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A family from Dublin in pilgrimage to Knock Shrine
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A home in Finglas campsite, Dublin
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Two Travellers in front of the school in Finglas campsite, Dublin
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On the last Sunday in July, over 25,000 pilgrims visit the summit of Croagh Patrick. For many Travellers, it is the only chance to meet relatives or friends living far away
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Young Travellers in pilgrimage walk along the shop street in Knock Shrine
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A woman visits her niece’s grave in Ballymote
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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
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A man in his house in Finglas, Dublin
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A mother and her daughters visiting the Knock Shrine 99
Backstage of “Wedding Bells”, a play by Traveller author Ellen McDonagh 100
THE NETHERLANDS
THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF LIZE
THE by Bruno Zanzottera
Lize is a 25-year-old Dutch woman with Down syndrome. She has attended regular middle and secondary Parallelozero Multimedia schools, as well as green schools and catering training courses. She has taken part as an athlete in
THE NETHERLANDS
THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF LIZE By Bruno Zanzottera Lize is a 25-year-old Dutch woman with Down syndrome. She has attended 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 Games in Rome and as an ice-skater in the USA, where she has been awarded several gold metals. She has been living on her own for four years and works in a supermarket in the village where she lives. Last year Lize became quite famous as an actress of 'Downistie', a Dutch soap opera that caused a heated debate all over Holland. Lize has a boyfriend, Ruben. They are planning to get married and are considering having children. Lize’s experience shows how important being loved and intellectually stimulated is for people with Down syndrome to be an integral part of society.
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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Parallelozero Srl Via Donatello, 19/a Milano - Italy ISBN: 9788898512003 P’zero #02.2013 - All rights reserved - Copyright Parallelozero 2013 www.parallelozero.com