Former President Jimmy Carter takes a stand for women
If you only read one thing today, or this week, or this year, I hope you will read this essay by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (“Losing my religion for equality” The Age, July 15, 2009).
An excerpt:
During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn’t until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.
The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world.
Learning Italian: Roberto Benigni translated
A few days ago I came across an in-depth interview with Italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni published last August on i-Italy.org — “Benigni the Poet Makes Life Even More Beautiful.” The impressive website is by a group of academics, journalists and intellectuals, according to its About page. The website’s subhead is an Italian/American Digital Project.
Benigni’s interviewer is Grace Russo Bullaro, a City University of New York professor. Although the interview was in Italian, Bullaro translated it into English for the i-Italy website. The original Italian version is here on the Italian-language magazine OGGI 7 website (“Benigni poeta e la vita è più bella” July 16, 2008).
I’m a fan of Benigni’s and wrote another post about him a couple of years ago (“Roberto Benigni: Speaking in Second”). That post featured a 1998 interview Benigni did with the Guardian, and on that occasion he did the whole thing in English.
By the way, if you haven’t seen Benigni’s “The Tiger and the Snow,” I think you’ve missed one of his best works. As discussed in the interview with Bullaro, the movie bombed at the box office. Who knows why exactly, but a rash of lunk-headed reviews of the film at the time certainly didn’t help.
For a more favorable and informed review, see Deborah Young’s piece in Variety (“The Tiger and the Snow”/”La Tigre e la Neve“ Oct. 12, 2005).
And as one more plug for the film, here’s the trailer.
Learning Italian: Uffa! Those vowels!(Not to mention double consonants)
Carinissimo! “Sorry…I’m still learning Italian” at openfilm.com
Learning Italian: emozioni
Lucio Battisti “Emozioni” (bio)
Seguir con gli occhi un airone sopra il fiume e poi
ritrovarsi a volare
e sdraiarsi felice sopra l’erba ad ascoltare
un sottile dispiacere
E di notte passare con lo sguardo la collina per scoprire
dove il sole va a dormire
Domandarsi perche’ quando cade la tristezza
in fondo al cuore
come la neve non fa rumore
e guidare come un pazzo a fari spenti nella notte
per vedere
se poi e’ tanto difficile morire…
Full lyrics here – lyricsmania
