Nicosia
Una vittima durante le operazioni di spegnimento dell'incendio divampato nelle campagne dell'Ennese.
Si chiamava Giuseppe Rizzo e aveva 35 anni. Stava cercando di domare le fiamme e si è sentito male per le esalazioni di fumo: è stato trasportato al Pronto Soccorso di Nicosia.
Nella notte le sue condizioni si sono improvvisamente aggravate ed è stato trasferito a Palermo, dove è deceduto.
Insieme a lui, pare che altre 4 persone siano rimaste intossicate, per fortuna senza gravi conseguenze, dai fumi scaturiti dallo stesso incendio. Una fra queste è un Ispettore del CFS.
Se qualcuno conosceva Giuseppe Rizzo, oppure conosce più particolari della vicenda, può lasciare un commento in calce a questo articolo.

Intanto, centinaia di roghi sono divampati al sud.
Epicentro la Calabria, ancora maglia nera per l'altissimo numero di incendi boschivi.
Il rogo di maggior rilievo in questi ultimi giorni è quello di San Sosti (nel Cosentino)
Roghi nei comuni di Rossano, Longobucco, Caccuri e Acri. Ma anche a Lamezia Terme e a Gagliano, un quartiere di Catanzaro.
E proprio nel capoluogo sono giunti, questa mattina, due ispettori della Protezione civile, inviati dal sottosegretario Guido Bertolaso per verificare lo stato di attuazione del piano antincendio boschivo.

In Puglia dopo l'incendio di Cassano delle Murge di ferragosto, che ha distrutto 40 ettari di bosco ed ha costretto all'evacuazione di 2.500 persone, nella mattinata del 16 si è sviluppato un incendio boschivo in zona 'Varcaturo', nel Tarantino.
Per domare le fiamme sono stati impiegati 3 velivoli "Fire boss" della Protezione civile.
Nel Leccese invece, è stato domato nel giro di poche ore un vasto incendio a Santa Cesarea Terme che, a causa del forte vento, rischiava di minacciare abitazioni e strutture alberghiere.

In Puglia, ricordiamo, sono presenti i Volontari del Corpo A.i.b. Piemonte (guarda qui) che per tutta l'estate supportano gli operatori locali nelle fasi di avvistamento, controllo ed attacco diretto degli incendi boschivi.

Fonti: Quotidiano.net , Repubblica.it

I'm lucky enough to be tied to this island through my mother, who is an archaeologist digging an ancient city in the more landlocked part of the island, where she has been digging for over 35 years. It seems to get older and older the longer she digs....but anyway!

My personal experience there has always been beloved and sentimental. Since beginning to go as a baby, I have dug with my mom, gone traveling around the island, bathed in the Mediterranean Sea, gone to the Baths of Aphrodite. This time was no different.

My mother and step-father now own a home there, built of mud-brick and stone, in a tiny village full of stray cats. It sounds cliche, but I can't express the overflow of joy in my heart to know that these places still exist. My sister and I woke before dawn to the roosters crowing at the neighbor's, drank tea as we listened to the BBC and had a traditional breakfast-snack of lountza, the traditional Cypriot cured ham.

After digging for a week in the East Temenos(Terrace) area of her ancient city, called Idalion, I was able to find outlet for my personal interest, namely, photography, of course! In the capitol of Nicosia, Lefkosia by it's Greek name, an old family friend who has known my mother since my sister and I were toddlers, happens to own a camera shop. He has been contributing to our happiness enthusiastically since we began to visit in our childhood. So I was able, with his facilitation, to capture and edit some incredible images of my beloved island, as well as urban travel shots of the city itself thanks largely to his central location inside the Phoenician walls surrounding the old city. Here's a freebie, to be featured soon on the website, www.HSGSPhoto.com

[gallery]

Per la verità l'iniziativa pur apprezzabile non è affatto nuova nel nostro comprensorio ne tantomeno nel nostro Comune, anzi sembra essere una sorta di "rito"  prerogativa delle nuove amministrazioni comunali, tese a manifestare in maniera tangibile le loro "buone intenzioni".
Già dieci anni fà una analoga iniziativa fu promossa dall'assessorato all'Ambiente del Comune di Castellammare del Golfo, nella persona della dottoressa Sabina Rossini Oliva in collaborazione con il WWF di Alcamo e con gli Scout C.N.G.E.I. di Castellammare, era il 15 febbraio del 1998, la prima giunta Ancona si era insediata il 7 gennaio 1998, e nel corso della mattinata domenicale numerosi giovani provvidero alla ripulitura dell'arenile di Cala Marina.
Piccola iniziativa, ma non per questo meno importante, dello stesso assessorato fù la promozione di un Concorso denominato "Balcone fiorito", teso a promuovere la partecipazione dei cittadini all'arredo verde della nostra città, e contemporaneamente l'acquisto di numerosi vasi di fiori per la sede municipale.

In attesa che si compia la seconda parte del "rito" chiamato "promozione di una politica ambientale" qualcuno vuol dire al "piccolo chimico" Mimmo Turano, presidente della Amministrazione della Provincia Regionale di Trapani, che gli abitanti di Castellammare del Golfo sono stufi di continuare a sostenere l'onere di portare i rifiuti a Siculiana (in provincia di Agrigento), e che siano essi di destra, di centro che di sinistra sono unanimi nel chiedergli di provvedere con sollecitudine a reperire, progettare, realizzare una discarica a distanza ragionevole dal Comune di Castellammare del Golfo , che eviti al nostro Comune la medesima sorte di Nicosia e dei comuni dell'ennese invasi dall'immondizia per l'eccessivo costo del servizio di smaltimento dei rifiuti ?

Grazie.

Deep in Debt to beat the prices - Crisis, what crisis? Cypriots just keep on spending away

A story on how the general gloom in Europe does not seem to be getting to the sunny Cypriots who seem to be merrily borrowing loads of dough to keep at it.

Under the knife : men going the extra mile for their looks - From nose jobs and hair removal to weight loss procedures, more and more young men are opting for surgery, but beware, it might not be for you...

Dr Andreas Chimonides, the plastic surgeon says " you would be surprised at just how many men I treat this way". Girls, Cyprus is hunk-heaven; visit it. Having said that, the girls are'nt too bad either.

Arty Landmark or eyesore: Should Big Mac stay put? - Unwieldy and out of proportion it may be, but the statue of Makarios in Nicosia has become a real tourist attraction.

What with Gandhigiri the rage in our land, this seems to be the season to get all affectionate with the father of the nation, in this case the Reverend Archbishop Makarios. But, is 'Big Mac' taking it a bit too far? The story is about mixed views on shifting a very big statue of the big man.

Who really owns your home? - Whether the house you bought is really yours depends on the procedures you followed when you signed the contract with the developer.

Evidently, Real Estate Developers in Cyprus have the same flexibility of character they have in ours.

Shhhh! Quiet copulation key for female chimps - They cry out during sex to attract nearby males, but keep quiet when other females are around

So, finally the incontrovertible proof is in. We are descended from the apes. And it took the Sunday Mail in Cyprus to let us in on it.

and so it went. A lot of it sounds familiar, doesn't it?

¨La entrega a la pasión grecochipriota por el café juega incluso con las voluntades de los desalmados poco amantes de la cafeína -registrado en la lista moderna de pecados griegos-: el componente social del café es demasiado fuerte en estas coordenadas. Es ‘in’. O es hábito. O es charla politica: enosis, la sombra del euro. O es matar el tiempo. O es dejarse ver¨ (LaTravesía, 31 agosto 2007).

1. Ta Kala Kathoumena
Nikokleous 21. 357-2266-4654.
En el casco antiguo de la Nicosia griega, muy cerca de la línea verde, se esconde en un callejón difícil de encontrar esta cafetería de espíritu joven. Murales culturales, charlas políticas, tabli (o backgammon), frappé...El Chipre griego en su carácter más auténtico. Si tuvieras que pisar sólo una, escoge sin duda ésta; no te la puedes perder.

2. Mondo Café
Arch. Makarios Avenue, 9. 357-7777-8044
Mondo Café es una de las mejores representaciones del ´strip´de cafeterías modernas y con clase de Makarios Ave, la arteria principal de la Nicosia moderna. Las vecinas tiendas escandalosas de trapos ingleses y europeos ven pasar a las jóvenes arregladas en exceso enfilando el tacón de mandamiento. Esta cafetería es uno de los núcleos del tan greco-chipriota ¨dejarse ver¨. Tiene una amplia terraza exterior en la que rara vez encontrarás asiento a cualquier hora del fin de semana.

3. Oktana
Aristis Street, 6. 357-2276-0099.
Es una librería y una casa reformada con tres pasillos. Los libros, en griego y en inglés, te saludan a la entrada al lado de las cachimbas, mientras que los dos pasillos laterales albergan mesas de madera y cuadros y posters bohemios colgados de las paredes de colores. Los bancos están cubiertos de almohadas y debajo del cristal de las mesas hay judías de café y libritos llamados como el recinto. Disponen de juegos de mesa, buen frappé, buenas tartas y música tranquila.

4. Gloria Jean´s Coffees
Leoforos Spyrou Kyrianou 3. 357-226-77766.
También en la parte moderna de la ciudad, esta cafetería de origen australiano es un buen lugar para ver pasar las horas con el resto de los chipriotas en el spot popular de la ciudad. ¨El arte de dejarse ver¨, descrito en el caso de Mondo Café, encuentra su apogeo en este centro de café internacional y tonos naranjas atrevidos.

5. Kafeneio
En frente del mercado municipal, en el casco antiguo.
Es un minúsculo cubículo o habitación donde un viejito octogenario hace café griego para tres o cuatro locales de la misma edad. No hay mesas, sí alguna silla, y la mejor conversación si uno tiene paciencia. La tradicional hospitalidad chipriota se asoma de manos del dueño de esta cafetería y el café en sí es fuerte y delicioso: una parada imprescindible para observar cómo de lentas y armoniosas pasan las horas entre estas cuatro paredes viejas rodeadas de las calles viejas del casco antiguo lefkosiano con tanto encanto.

Fotografiados: frappé, Gloria Jean´s Coffees y Kafeneio.

As my flight left Ljubljana, I wondered why it would take as much time to reach Pristina as it took to come from London. Naïve question soon answered. The plane went all along the Croatian coast, then into Italian airspace towards Brindisi, turned right into Albania and then North again to Pristina... Direct flights to Kosovo are not allowed into Serbian airspace.

I went to Mitrovica today, to meet the Serbian community. Airspace is not the only thing they are not prepared to compromise.

It is quite impressive how perceptions change when you change the point of view. South of the river, you are in independent Kosovo which contains a northern Serbian-inhabited region. You cross the river, and you are in the southern region of Serbia.

Mitrovica and Nicosia are the last divided cities in Europe. Different language, different religion, and a history that makes barbed wire difficult to remove.

In Cyprus, accession to the EU is playing a key role for the solution of the stalemate. The Turkish Cypriot community has showed a clear interest in dialogue, as does the newly elected President of the Republic. The hopes for reunification are at the highest point of the last 30 years.

Serbs in Mitrovica hope that the accession of Serbia will have the same effect on Kosovo, and that the independence process will be reverted. What they forget is that Northern Cyprus was never recognized by the international community (with the exception of Turkey), while Kosovo as been brought to life under the international protectorate.

As an outsider, walking in the streets of Mitrovica as well as in Nicosia, I feel the nonsense of once-neighbours transformed into enemies, while these places could host all their children in a peaceful community. Before 1999, Mitrovica used to be the most multi-ethnic municipality in Kosovo. Now it is the symbol of national identity for both Serbian and Albanian Kosovars.

Most of the responsibility lies at the door of the international community. Crimes of the recent past have never been prosecuted, ethnic cleansing has not been punished, displaced people have not been given the security to return to their homes.

Kosovo is at an historical turning-point. On 11 May, Serbian citizens (including Kosovars) will be called to elect the Government that will lead the country for the next year. It is the moment for Serbs to choose between renewed nationalism or dialogue.

Meanwhile, the new constitution of the Republic of Kosovo has been designed and must now be implemented.

Unless the new authorities on both sides – with the support of the European Community – create a safe environment for all communities, where human rights are protected and every citizen has equal opportunities, irrespective of its ethnicity, the frustration will rise again. And again... History has shown what unanswered frustrations and fear can bring. This is the moment to give answers.

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Divided Nicosia I

Divided Nicosia II

Divided Nicosia III

Divided Nicosia IV

Divided Nicosia V

Divided Nicosia VII

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Nicosia the capital of Cyprus, is now Europe's only militarily divided city. The city has been divided into Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot zones since the Turkish invasion in 1974. The ceasefire line from 1974 today separates the two communities on the island, and is commonly referred to as the Green Line. Ledra Street (closed since 1963), patrolled by UN peacekeepers is currently considered no-man's-land. Greek and Turkish Cypriot authorities reopened Ledra Street on April 3, 2008, raising hopes for a renewed drive to reunify the island.

In 1974, following a period of violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and an attempted Greek Cypriot coup d'état aimed at annexing the island to Greece (sponsored by the Greek military junta of 1967-1974) Turkey invaded and occupied Cyprus. Turkish forces invaded the island in two waves, occupying 37% of the islands northern territory. Approximately 160,000 Greek Cypriots fled to the south of the island, while 50,000 Turkish Cypriots fled north. Approximately 1,500 Greek Cypriot and 500 Turkish Cypriots remain missing. The Turkish invasion led to the widespread displacement of Cyprus's ethnic communities, dividing the island between a Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south. Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has received diplomatic recognition only from Turkey, on which it has become dependent for economic, political and military support. The international community, including the United Nations and European Union, does not recognize the TRNC as a sovereign state, but recognizes the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the whole island. The United Nations considers the declaration of independence by the TRNC as legally invalid in several of its resolutions. The ceasefire line from 1974 today separates the two communities on the island, and is commonly referred to as the Green Line. The United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus runs for more than 300 km along the Green Line, which partitions the island of Cyprus into a southern and a northern area. The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) was established in 1964 to prevent a recurrence of fighting between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. In 2004, Cyprus joined the E.U. and has been at the heart of tensions over Turkey’s troubled bid to become a member.

©2008 Jordan Kevrekidis

See all images from Nicosia: Kevrekidis on deviantART

Divided Nicosia VI  (Full-size image)

Former Cathedral of Saint Sophia, now a mosque (Selimiye Camii) in the Turkish occupied sector of Nicosia, Cyprus. The cathedral was constructed over a Byzantine church by French architects and craftsmen and it is a beautiful example of medieval French architecture. Building work on the church started in 1209, and took almost 150 years to complete. It is thought to be one of the best examples of Gothic Art in Cyprus. The minarets were added around 1570 when the Ottomans conquered Nicosia and it was converted into the chief mosque of Cyprus.

Nicosia the capital of Cyprus, is now Europe's only militarily divided city. The city has been divided into Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot zones since the Turkish invasion in 1974. The ceasefire line from 1974 today separates the two communities on the island, and is commonly referred to as the Green Line.

©2008 Jordan Kevrekidis

See all images from Nicosia:

Kevrekidis on deviantART 

Kevrekidis Photography on deviantART

Arriba, varios chipriotas celebran la inauguración de la calle Ledras. Abajo, la misma calle antes de la caída del muro.

Part of Ledra Street, which symbolically divides the Cypriot capital, Nicosia (photo, from BBC), was reopened on Thursday by local officials, for the first time in 44 years.

The island was split in 1964, during an outbreak of violence between the ethnic Greek and Turkish communities.

Known in Turkish as Lokmaci Street, Ledra Street has become the sixth crossing to open on the island since April 2003, when for the first time Turkish Cypriots lifted entry curbs for Greek Cypriots.

Last year Cyprus’ government demolished a wall and military checkpoint on Ledra Street, and last month the island’s newly elected president, Demetris Christofias, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, agreed to reopen Ledra Street, that had been at the centre of the island’s leading shopping district, before it was blocked in the middle with military posts on either side of the dividing line.

At the Ledra Street reopening, Osdil Nami, an aide to Mr Talat, said "we are living a historic day today". "We are witnessing one of the obstacles to a solution come down."

Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been divided since Turkey deployed troops after a coup by Greek Cypriots who wanted union with Greece, in 1974.

The mayor of Nicosia, Eleni Mavrou, said that "this is the first step. We hope many more will follow."

Greek and Turkish Cypriots leaders have also agreed to resume talks on reunifying the island. In 2004, a UN plan failed to reunite the island when the Greek Cypriots voted against it in a referendum, even though the Turkish Cypriots overwhelmingly voted in favour of the plan.

Laiki Marfin Bank has spent the last 25 years collecting works of art, a selection of which has been included in "Yours Sincerely", an exhibition opening this week. But there is so much on display, so many items, that you might say the exhibition doesn’t consist of paintings and sculptures, just things, or, in Foucault’s terms, objects.

Foucault used to say that a postmodern artist is one who does not like to be labelled, not even understood really. Once you know what to expect from him, he will change style, just to impress. These artists are secretive and their art is a secret. One of their principles, as Boulez stressed, is to represent what in art is usually only referred to, hidden, unnamed. Metaphors, for example, allegories, or symbols all point to something outside the canvas. In postmodern art there are no such things and there is not an outside.

That is not to say that the contemporary artist does not want to communicate: on the contrary, he wants to be just like the observer, and he wants the observer to be just like him. When the artist sets out to compose his work, he struggles to come to terms with his background, his education, he wants to be a virgin when it comes to inspiration and he does not like anyone to be able to name his predecessors. It is as if he is trading places with the audience and when he displays his work he wants to see the same puzzled eyes, the same effort in understanding, or, rather, shaping the object in front of him, just like a creator shapes his work.

Something has to be said, again, about the hosting of exhibitions at the Nicosia Municipal Art Centre. The spatial disposition is not great and the viewer sometimes struggles to separate one work of art from another. Brown sculptures, such as the interesting "Mother/Life cycle" by Angelos Makrides, are set against a brown background, in this case the polymorphic, Medusa-like painting "Roots" by Andreas Charalambides. Sculptures and objects are set in curious, not always efficient, ways although it must be said that many sculptors seem to have intended their work more as an "alto-rilievo" than as a 360° volume, Koumides’ "Folding Screen" is an example.

In general, it is not clear why certain works of art have been put next to one another. It is not chronological, nor chromatic, it has nothing to do with similar art tendencies nor with art schools.

In the first room, after the welcoming room with the candidly ironic "The canticle of the Muses" by Klitsa Antoniou, are many of Theodoulos Gregoriou’s creations. This artist shows a consistency in his calm inspiration that has not abandoned him through the years. His paintings look like sculptures and the sculptures are pure pictorial forms.

In the other rooms the works are all of a good level. A work by Umit Inatchi, certainly not one of his best, still sets the standard for the only true and valuable abstract, symbolic work on the island. I cannot stress enough how much Greek and Cypriot artists become original when they go back to their origins. Some of them believe that they need to be European to be modern, au contraire, I find that Yiannacouris’ "Archaic figures", a work almost 30 years old now, is more modern, more accomplished than any attempt or wink at cosmopolitan modernity. The puzzling "Where is my head II" by Yioula Hadjigeorghiou sounds, and looks, like a practical joke, not a work of art. Instead, Yiannacouris’ double figures, hieratic, old but at the same time modern stand tall and can even display the pleasure of playing with materials, faking the veins of a piece of marble, hinting to the pleats of fabric.

Another good example is Charalambides’ "Roots", scary as the Medusa’s head in Rubens’ famous portrait and narrative like a contemporary short story about the drowning of the past. I would like to conclude with the sarcasm in Angelos Makrides’ "White Conspirators" because sarcasm is such an important trait in contemporary art, and something, along with irony, especially self-irony, so absent in Greek-Cypriot art. It is a circular sculpture of black and white pigeon-like objects, the black ones encompassing the white ones. Solitary, outside the circle, an object with wings, the only one with wings, observes the scene. The artist and the observer finally meet and they are one and the same.

Yours Sincerely > Selections from the Marfin Laiki Bank Art Collection. Until April 20. Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Old Power House, 19 Apostolou Varnava Street, Nicosia. Wednesday-Saturday 10am-3pm and 5pm-11pm. Sunday 10am-4pm. For information call 22 7974000.

The new fashion week saw no less than 23 designers and emerging fashion houses presenting their new collections for Fall Winter 2008/09. The Paris-based, Greek Cypriot Erotokritos officially opened the fashion week. He was joined by others including Kika Ioannidou, Pandelis Pandeli, Elena Strogyliotou, Marios Grigoriadis, Elena Antoniades and Adreas Georgiou. Afroditi Hera, Mi-Ro, Ramona Filip and Yannis Xenis, who recently unveiled their collections in Athens during the Hellenic Fashion Week, also presented their collections.

Cyprus Fashion Week is organized by DIAS and is held at the Cyprus State Fairs Authority premises in Nicosia. It run from March 27 to March 30.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias said yesterday that finding a settlement to reunify the divided island would be “a very difficult task.” But he said the working groups he agreed to set up following talks with Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat were a practical first step. “They have not been set up for show or for reasons of propaganda but to produce results,” Christofias said.

President Christofias and Cyprus Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou are to visit Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice at the end of next month.

  United Nations demining experts swept the buffer zone dividing Nicosia for discarded explosives yesterday as part of efforts to open a crossing in Europe's last divided capital.

UN spokesman Jose Diaz said demining teams completed a search for unexploded devices or booby traps that could have been left over from the 1974 Turkish invasion, which divided the island along ethnic lines. The sweep of the 70-meter (230-foot) stretch of no man's land was necessary before work could begin to shore up dilapidated buildings on either side of the pedestrian thoroughfare.

«A six-person mine action team carried out the search with support from UNFICYP (United Nations Force in Cyprus), during which no dangerous items were found,» a UN statement said. The clearance, shoring up and other preparations were expected to last 10 days or more, Diaz said.

Barbed wire first divided Ledra Street, a busy shopping street in the Cypriot capital's medieval core, in the early 1960s amid fighting between the island's Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot communities. The leaders of the Greek and Cypriot communities agreed Friday to open a crossing at Ledra Street as a sign of good will before resuming talks on reunifying the island.

A sticking point appears to have been overcome after the Turkish army agreed to keep patrolling soldiers out of sight of the crossing point, officials close to the discussions said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The Greek Cypriot National Guard will also pull its soldiers back.

The new Cyprus' President of the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot Republic of Cyprus, currently in the south of the island, Dimitris Christofias, and the leader of the breakaway Turkish-Cypriots currently in the Turkish occupied and military controlled north area of Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey, Mehmet Ali Talat, also agreed Friday to reach a reunification deal «as soon as possible.» Aides to Christofias and Talat agreed yesterday to quickly set up 13 groups of experts to bridge the gaps between the two sides on issues such as security, territory, crime and health. The groups will have until June to make as much progress as possible before Christofias and Talat begin face-to-face negotiations.

A UN statement said both sides agreed to set up additional groups if necessary «to ensure that their respective leaders may be able to negotiate as effectively as possible on the full spectrum of issues to be discussed.»

However, Turkish troops will stay in the occupied northern areas of Cyprus until a «just and lasting peace» has been achieved on the divided island, Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat said yesterday. The Turkish forces in the breakaway north have been deployed «in line with international agreements,» Talat said.

«They will continue to conduct their mission until a just and lasting peace has been achieved.» Talat was speaking at a meeting with visiting Turkish army chief, General Yasar Buyukanit, just days after he and newly elected Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias agreed to relaunch peace negotiations stalled since 2004.

Talat said the influential Turkish military, often accused of advocating a hardline position on the Cyprus conflict, «supports us on the issues we are working on, together with the Turkish government.» Buyukanit said: «The Turkish soldiers are here for the security of the Turkish Cypriots. They have ensured their security and will continue to do so.» Turkey, the only country to recognize the government in the occupied north, maintains more than 40,000 troops there.

La principal característica d'aquesta vila siciliana d'interior és que ha crescut a l'entorn de quatre turons. Bona part dels pobles de l'illa estan al capdamunt de muntanyes però no és tan habitual que siguin quatre. D'aquesta manera, cases, carrers i carrerons s'han d'adaptar a una orografia ben irregular. Val la pena pujar a algun d'aquests turons -una bona proesa amb cotxe si com nosaltres, no coneixes el camí- per observar la panoràmica. Al capdamunt d'aquests turons, les roques són plenes de forats que serveixen com a garatges i en algun cas com habitatge. És ben curiós veure una roca amb una porta i el corresponent número de carrer.

Vam passar per Nicosìa en el nostre camí cap a la regió de l'Etna. Per no passar per les autopistes vam fer una ruta llarga però recomanable a través de carreteres secundàries, solitàries i sovint amb grans sots. Carreteres que passen ben a prop del del Parc dei Nebrodi, de pobles com Agira o Regalbuto i del port del Contrast, a 1.100 metres d'alçada. A banda de revolts, sots i trams de carretera que no existeixen (parts enfonsades, això sí, degudament senyalitzades) el millor és poder parar tranquil·lament i observar el paisatge. Una Sicília verda que dura pocs mesos i que contrasta amb els colors marronosos i groguencs de la resta de l'any. Una illa amb molt pocs arbres -tots els boscos estan protegits!- i suaus turons amb usos ramaders i agrícoles. A Nebrodi, també destacaven les deveses, boscos absolutament nets de sotabosc per la pastura ovina i bovina. En definitiva, Sicília s'entén als pobles i a les carreteres secundàries, no pas a les grans ruïnes i modernes autopistes.

]]> http://arnauurgell.wordpress.com/?p=191 Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:22:41 +0000 Arnau Urgell http://arnauurgell.wordpress.com/?p=191 Nicosìa [web i vikipèdia] és un municipi de 15.000 habitants de la província d'Enna. Pocs turistes hi van a parar, ja que no té cap dels elements imprescindibles de qualsevol tour al voltant de l'illa i perquè està situada lluny de les autopistes, per allà on els autocars transporten de manera veloç als visitants de costa a costa de Sicília.

La principal característica d'aquesta vila siciliana d'interior és que ha crescut a l'entorn de quatre turons. Bona part dels pobles de l'illa estan al capdamunt de muntanyes però no és tan habitual que siguin quatre. D'aquesta manera, cases, carrers i carrerons s'han d'adaptar a una orografia ben irregular. Val la pena pujar a algun d'aquests turons -una bona proesa amb cotxe si com nosaltres, no coneixes el camí- per observar la panoràmica. Al capdamunt d'aquests turons, les roques són plenes de forats que serveixen com a garatges i en algun cas com habitatge. És ben curiós veure una roca amb una porta i el corresponent número de carrer.

Vam passar per Nicosìa en el nostre camí cap a la regió de l'Etna. Per no passar per les autopistes vam fer una ruta llarga però recomanable a través de carreteres secundàries, solitàries i sovint amb grans sots. Carreteres que passen ben a prop del del Parc dei Nebrodi, de pobles com Agira [web i vikipèdia] o Regalbuto i del port del Contrast, a 1.100 metres d'alçada. A banda de revolts, sots i trams de carretera que no existeixen (parts enfonsades, això sí, degudament senyalitzades) el millor és poder parar tranquil·lament i observar el paisatge. Una Sicília verda que dura pocs mesos i que contrasta amb els colors marronosos i groguencs de la resta de l'any. Una illa amb molt pocs arbres -tots els boscos estan protegits!- i suaus turons amb usos ramaders i agrícoles. A Neibrodi, també destacaven les deveses, boscos absolutament nets de sotabosc per la pastura ovina i bovina. En definitiva, Sicília s'entén als pobles i a les carreteres secundàries, no pas a les grans ruïnes i modernes autopistes.

Devesa al Parque dei Nebrodi.

Turkish troops stopped a UN initiative to clear explosives and other materials from Ledra Street, which runs through the buffer zone that divides northern and southern Nicosia, citing “technical problems.” Meanwhile, sources said that Turkey’s armed forces chief Yasar Buyukanit is due in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus today. It was unclear whether the trip had been planned.

  Cyprus President Christofias and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat last week agreed to open up Ledra Street as a symbolic move ahead of renewed peace talks. The Cyprus President yesterday said he believed “barriers would be overcome.” Nicosia, the capital city of the Republic of Cyprus, is the last divided city in Europe.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday said he “warmly welcomed” the agreement by Christofias and Talat to “start full-fledged negotiations under UN auspices.”

The Greek Nation, today celebrates a dual feast, in respect of Greece's Independence Day, when the War for Independence was declared on 25th March 1821, seeking freedom and liberty from the then Ottoman empire, and a religious major Orthodox Christian feast, the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary.

Parades, both student and military, were also held in all towns of Greece and Cyprus. Some photos from these parades follow.

Students parade in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 25th March.

Students parade in Athens, Greece, on 24th March.

Photos from today's military parade in Athens, Greece, follow in the next post.

  The room where families get a first glimpse of relatives who vanished in fighting in the 1960s and 70s, at a new facility in Nicosia, in the buffer zone separating the Greek and Turkish-Cypriot communities, last Tuesday. The facility will allow families from both sides to see recently unearthed remains of a relative for the first time.

The final act in dozens of human tragedies from divided Cyprus’s troubled past is unfolding in a clinical room with four tables draped in white sheets. Here, in the buffer zone separating Greek and Turkish-Cypriot communities, families will get a first glimpse of relatives who vanished in fighting in the 1960s and 1970s, their hastily dug graves lost in the fog of postwar politics.

“We’ve had instances where children who hadn’t been born when their father disappeared see him for the first time as a skeleton,” said Elias Georgiades, the Greek-Cypriot member of a committee tasked with uncovering the fate of hundreds of missing Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

An international forensics team carries out the actual search for the approximately 1,500 Greek Cypriots and 500 Turkish Cypriots who are listed as missing. To date, the exhumation and identification program has unearthed the remains of 379 missing people. The disappearances began in 1964 at the onset of intercommunal violence. They culminated in 1974 when Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus in response to a failed coup by supporters of union with Greece. Many died in battle; others were victims of revenge killings, buried in unmarked graves undisturbed for decades until long-suppressed information guided anthropologists to them.

The new facility, inaugurated this week in the no man’s land that cuts across the island’s capital, Nicosia, will allow scores of families from both sides to see recently unearthed remains of a relative for the first time in decades.

“This is a place where a lot of emotion will unfold,” said Christophe Girod, the committee’s UN-appointed member. Until now, viewings of the remains were held in a cramped office that was once part of the old airport’s installations.

Since July, the families of 57 Greek Cypriots and 26 Turkish Cypriots have viewed the identified remains of their relatives. Remains first undergo laboratory analysis before DNA testing to identify them. Then families are called in.

At one recent viewing, an elderly grieving woman caressed the skull of her husband, weeping softly as she kissed his jaw bone. The Greek-Cypriot man had vanished in 1974, after being snatched from his home late one summer evening, his relatives said. They asked that neither they nor the man be identified. His remains were found in a shallow grave in the northeastern Karpasia peninsula alongside those of 11 others. He was handcuffed to another body lying beside him. Forensic scientists said they could not determine the exact cause of death. But in his relatives’ minds, there was little doubt – his skull was fractured and he had a bullet hole in his shoulder blade. The black-clad relatives viewed the skeletal remains with quiet resignation. “After so many years, we expected this,” said one of the man’s three daughters.

One relative lit incense to waft over the remains in accordance with Orthodox Christian custom. His children said that at least this time, their father would receive a proper burial. There was a palpable sense of relief at the end of the viewing. The relatives embraced the staff and expressed their gratitude, some even managing to smile.

Families take custody of the remains a day or so later after signing release papers. Officials say such viewings have a ceremonial quality to impart a sense of closure. Relatives are first ushered into a sitting room where experts involved in the exhumation and identification process field questions and offer emotional support.

They are then guided into an adjacent viewing area where the remains are neatly arranged on a table. Clothing and other items such as keepsakes and pocket change found at the burial site are displayed nearby.

“The families cry, they shout, they kneel, they kiss the bones, they touch them... they demand the truth, the whole truth,” Georgiades said. “These are sacred moments for the relatives,” he added. “They imagine the last days, hours and moments of the skeleton that lies before them.”

The exhumation program is seen as a way to heal a festering wound that has long impeded reconciliation between the two estranged communities, as efforts to reunify the island remain stalemated. The program has raised around $5.33 million in donations to carry on its work through 2008, with an estimated five years remaining for completion.

“Without closure, the pain and anguish of these families remains. That is why the work of the (committee) is so important, not only to the families themselves, but also to the future of the island,” US Ambassador Ronald Schlicher said.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias, whose election in February sparked a fresh drive for peace, and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat agreed on Friday to launch reunification talks in three months.

Hopes are high that this time around rival leaders from the separated Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities have the political courage and conviction to finally hammer out a road map to peace and end the 34-year divide.

“This is a new beginning that may turn out to be a starting point in a search for a settlement,” Joseph Joseph, Professor of Political Science at Cyprus University, told AFP. “After four long years of stagnation and deadlock, everybody now realizes it could be the last and best hope for a settlement. We have a new President with a fresh mandate, the right attitude and who is forward-looking. Talat is open-minded and flexible. Both leaders have a good personal and political relationship. So, the pressure is there. The right people are there and there is conviction from the international community.”

  The rival Cypriot leaders announced a landmark decision to open Ledra street in the heart of Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital city, as a gesture of good will. “Ledra Street is a good start but not enough on its own,” an EU diplomat told AFP.

Advisers from both sides will meet today to form working groups and technical committees which will set the agenda for future talks.

Christofias’s chief aid George Iacovou will meet with his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart Ozdil Nami to agree on the number of committees needed and the issues they will tackle. These issues will be a mixture of everyday problems, such as crime and immigration, as well as the more thorny subjects encompassing property rights.

Full of pirates and fairies, it’s a place where kids love to visit and adults love to remember. After all, there can’t be many grown ups out there who haven’t spent at least some of their childhood in this dreamy place. Now is the time to embrace the world of wild imagination as you and the kids join the mischievous Peter Pan, his hot tempered pixie pal, Tinkerbell, and the Darling children as they soar away to the mysterious Neverland, where childhood lasts forever.

But don’t think of theatre curtains drawing open and actors taking centre stage, this Neverland gang will be easing off the chill factor as they prance around on ice in a show at the Eleftheria Basketball Stadium in a week’s time.

A basketball stadium in the capital may not quite be what the Scottish JM Barrie had in mind when he thought up the tale, but then again, it’s all about forgetting reality as we’re taken to a world where boys fly and magically refuse to grow up. As the playful Peter arrives to blow fairy dust over Cypriot audiences you can expect a show featuring world class and Olympic champion skaters from the Russian Ice Stars in a production by the UK’s Wild Rose Company and John Yiannakis. “Having toured around the UK for the past two years, our performances are fully booked around the country until next summer,” says Yiannakis. “Because of the high standard of skating, the story may be for children but it’s also quite a visual experience for adults.”

It’s all things normal when the story starts off as we are introduced to the bedtime rituals of the Darling children living a proper middle class life in Edwardian London. Things take an unexpected turn when Peter Pan sneaks into the room one night to listen in on their bedtime stories. Convincing them to fly away with him out of the window and into the depths of Neverland, all sorts of adventures begin in the mysterious place. There are the mean pirates led by Captain Hook, while a whole bunch of Indians, mermaids and crocodiles transport the audience into a world of make believe. Having been so relentlessly hashed and re-hashed over the years, we often forget just how witty and delightfully odd the story is.

The character of Peter Pan first appeared in 1902 in a section of a novel for adults called The Little White Bird. It was so successful that Barrie reprinted it as a full story for children, first performed as a stage play 1904. Little did he know that it would become such a worldwide theatre success, a Walt Disney smash hit in 1953, adapted into the 1991 film Hook, and even providing the inspiration for the more recent Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp.

All this action is under the direction of Italian Guiseppe Arena, a former member and teacher of La Scala Ballet Company in Milan, often regarded today as one of the most innovative ice choreographers throughout the world. In 2004 Giuseppe was rewarded by the Italian government for his contributions to dance and was bestowed with the Italian equivalent of knighthood and the title of ‘Cavaliere’. In 2006 he was responsible for the choreography of the opening ceremony of Turin’s 2006 Winter Olympic Games. The music of the show has been composed by Maestro Silvio Amato. Who can say no to a little make believe brought to life by real talent?

Peter Pan on Ice > The magical classic children’s tale brought to life by the Russian Ice Stars. March 30 and 31. Eleftheria Basketball Stadium, Makedonitissa, Nicosia. €25 adults/€12 children. March 30, 8pm. March 31, 5pm and 8pm. For information call 22 818212.