The usual question of a consultant weekend are: read or not read? finish the paper or not finish the paper? review the sent last week or not? write a blog or not write a blog? go for a walk in town or not? eat in a restaurant alone or not? These question accompany the hours of the weekend and more often than not I am surprised to see that all of a sudden outside the […]
I started my round of interviews for the study I am conducting here in Ha Noi for the World Bank. I am working with two young researchers of an independent research institute which has been established just few years ago. It was nice to hear that Hoang on of the two colleagues, has studied for one year in Pavia which is les than hundred kilometres from my hometown. It is now possible to have English […]
I am in Doi Can, the street that goes from Lieu Giai to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. If is later afternoon. People are rushing out from their offices to go home. The street gets busy. I am sitting on a typical narrow plastic chair. Knees above the waist line. Motorbikes parked one the sidewalk, pushing people to walk on the street. Shops accompany this busy and lively street up to the mausoleum. Lights are […]
Let’s see if I manage to keep a diary of my stay in Ha Noi this time. It is the very first time I am here and will not do work for the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. It seems to me a sign of the passing of time, as well as the new route that the taxi took frorm Noi Bai airport to the hotel where I stay, the Horison. It took a narrow […]
It is July 1990. It is hot. I am jet legged and travelled for 24 hours. First by train from Cremona to Roma. Then with an Air Jordan flight to Amman and connection to Delhi. I am with a group of four other friends and for me is the first time outside Europe. I am 23. My blue Invicta rucksack is the first to be delivered by the belts so I am sent out of […]
Nice speech about people, solidarity, and respect. In my opinion it tells about the attempt by a country like Germany to recognize its multi-ethnic nature and the ways its shapes its society. We are all on the same journey here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8O5fvmnHgM?fs=1&w=480&h=295
When do you leave?. The question, when asked in English, has a broader meaning than the Italian: Quando parti?, which clearly refers to a trip, a travel, a rucksack which is being lifted on the shoulders to go to a railway station or an airport. I think that Quando parti? (both in English and Italian) has been the question I have been asked the most after: How are you? Is this good? Is this bad? […]
“Welcome,Sir”. “Good evening,Sir”. I take a deep breath. End of today’s trip. I am home. But is it home? No, but these greetings are reassuring and familiar by now. They remind me of the country where I live now when I enter the lobby of the Marriot airport hotel in Manila. I recognise some of the staff as I have been here a few times now. Always arriving in the evening and leaving very early […]
It is 7:00 in the morning. Sunday morning. We have Dumaguete, Manila,Hong Kong, the skies on China and Russia behind us. Helsinki is like a ghost town. As if all its inhabitants would have suddendly left or would have all be taken away during the course of the night by a alien forces from an unknown dimension leaving behind broken glasses, empty McDonalds paper cups swept by the autumn wind on the pavement. We walk […]