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boat people

Posted on December 28, 2008 @ 11:48 am by massimo | Filed under: africa,another green world,beach,blog,illustration,island,news,people,politics,travel,wordpress

Someone told me on the Vietnamese boat people who had landed on Pulao Kapas’ beach many years before.  I came across the boat’s wreck a few d ays later. The boat’s left over, nearly completely buried by the sand, really struck me. I stopped and stayed by that unplanned and clandestine monument a long while and   felt distinctly the very tragedy that was behind it…
Since a few years Italy is first in Europe for illegal immigration by sea. Some 25.000 desperate people somehow reached our shores in 2008. During the last three days, from dec 24 up to dec 26, about 1500 African  migrants have landed in Lampedusa Island, nearby Sicily.
Due to jingle bells and the like, Italians mostly have not paid much attention to this significant occurrence, while the ghosts of Christmas ideals rerun on Prime Minister Berlusconi’s Channel Five…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: clandestine

theory travel at home

Posted on February 16, 2008 @ 7:36 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,ancona,blog,illustration,island,kenya,news,travel,wordpress

madagascar aynaku illustration travel

Twenty years ago Madagascar was in my mind: it was the place I wished to go at all costs!
I got hold of guidebooks, maps, and an atlas even; everything that could be possibly useful to me was collected and then recklessly scattered upon my room’s wooden floor…
I spent hours fancying about my travel to Madagascar, and reckoned well to get there by cargo ship from Mombasa Harbour.
At home I planned everything so accurately: even the most insignificant detail was carefully considered. Finally I got a visa at Madagascar Embassy in Rome and flew to Kenya, where I was supposed to stay just a very few days before boarding some cargo ship…
Once I got Mombasa I found out that no ship was about to sail for the promised island before than three months! I soon realized that my so long planned trip to Madagascar had been just illusion, a theoretical nonsense that had brought me somewhere else. But I also understood that despite every personal theory, Kenya was really a fascinating place to be in…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: theory

african plains

Posted on January 20, 2008 @ 4:56 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,another green world,blog,illustration,kenya,politics,travel,wordpress

amboseli kenya aynaku illustration travel

I come from a hilly region and I’ m not used to open prairies and plains.
This is the reason why, I can’t forget Amboseli National Park breathtaking views, one of the most classic of Kenya: the gigantic Kilimanjaro mountain, with its 5,985 meters dominating the plains.
Noteworthy Kilimanjaro is not within the limits of Amboseli, in fact it is not even in Kenya. The reason? Upon the partition of East Africa into two spheres of influence, German and British, England had two mountains vs. none for Germany, so queen Victoria gave the Kilimanjaro as a birthday present to her nephew-grandson, kaiser Wilhelm II !
Looking at the map you will notice the absurdly straight line that divides Kenya and Tanzania: as a matter of fact, this border splits as well the one people who had always lived in these plains.
Ethnic and political turmoil are presently upsetting Kenya… It’s easy to understand how such imposed artificial borders are part of Africa’s problems throughout.

Illustration Friday’s topic is: plain

the admiral’s hat

Posted on November 2, 2007 @ 10:53 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,blog,china,illustration,india,island,kenya,package tour,people,travel,ukiyo-e,wordpress

This is Zheng He the great Ming navigator wearing his favourite straw hat….
Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored a series of seven naval expeditions and Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet.
Zheng He’s first voyage consisted of a fleet of 317 ships …

emergency

Posted on August 11, 2007 @ 11:17 am by massimo | Filed under: africa,another green world,blog,illustration,music,news,people,politics,wordpress

“That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war – war…”

So wrote his song Bob Marley, some years ago… And war is still our greatest emergency. War is deep in our nature …

green tea

Posted on August 4, 2007 @ 5:11 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,bargain,blog,cheap,fashion,food,fun,holidays,illustration,news,people,travel,wordpress

Essaouira’s camping area was bordering the long sandy beach. I had got there at dusk, after a long, long drive, and parked my car by the sandy dunes. My two travelling companions and me sat on the sandy ground, and lit quickly the oil lamp with …

sarong

Posted on June 12, 2007 @ 10:05 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,ancona,art,beach,blog,fashion,fun,illustration,india,indonesia,island,kenya,mediterranean,news,philippines,thailand,wordpress

No much time to post this week: I’m rather busy with the Cuprarte Art Festival opening, next Saturday. So I have drawn myself wearing a sarong. Sarongs are large sheet of fabric, wrapped around the waist and worn as a skirt by men and women throughout much …

renault 4

Posted on May 26, 2007 @ 11:17 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,ancona,blog,cheap,fashion,fun,holidays,illustration,mediterranean,news,people,travel,wordpress

In 1980 my father bought me a second hand Renault 4: I was very proud of it: its lysergic and bright green body made me very happy ! In July I decided to venture to Morocco driving my car: after all, in 1979 a Renault 4 …

neighbour

Posted on May 6, 2007 @ 9:34 am by massimo | Filed under: africa,blog,fashion,fun,illustration,japan,kenya,music,news,people,travel,ukiyo-e,wordpress

Behind the walls of his room in Al Mansura Hotel, in bustling downtown Nairobi, a man breathed into a saxophone. My room was next to his and I could hear the musician training himself all day long. At about 7 pm, invariably it was all over. …

punk rock

Posted on January 13, 2007 @ 9:39 am by massimo | Filed under: africa,ancona,bargain,beach,blog,cheap,fashion,fun,illustration,island,kenya,lamu,music,news,people,travel,wordpress

The island of Lamu, Kenya, was -and maybe still is- one of the most exotic places a beachcomber may expect to come across. I was there in 1981, at the end of my first, single and glorious trip to …

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