A dream in my heart

The first time I was in Naples I was 7 years old, I still remember that encounter.
Together with my grandparents, I came from a visit to the excavations of Pompei, it was early October, the air was calm and pleasant and the sound of seagulls, for months, inhabited my dreams, usually full of mountain silences.

The sea as blue as the sky, the sleeping giant dominating the gulf, the thousands of colours of a surprising city, a feast for the eyes of a child full of curiosity.

We got off at the Garibaldi station and from there crossing Forcella we headed towards the historic center, the buzz of life was something magical for me, I've always been used to a slightly slower pace and less crowded places.

Children in the street playing with Super Santos (a ball), with two stones as football goals, there was a life made of dreams, the same dreams I shared and my own passion for that game called football.

And it is precisely that passion that today unites all the Italian sportsmen and from all over the world in a choral and heartfelt applause for the deeds of the Neapolitan Azzurri.

But, even more than the team, it is the city of Naples with its wonders and its warm and creative people that warms the hearts of passion.
The streets decorated in white and blue, full of Neapolitan pride which, through a game, flows into the essence of life, that of the continuous search for a happiness too often lost behind futile things.

Living the city these days is understanding Happiness, the true concept of life, almost turns upside down and everything, for me, in a dimension of perennial childhood.

I think I have an irrational relationship with Naples that intoxicates my mind and fills my heart and I, disarmed by this, let myself be transported into a timeless dimension, where reason bows respectfully down to an immoderate Passion.

This is my small tribute to the city and its wonderful people, that make Naples the city of joy, where dreams came true.

The Thames's hidden treasure

It seems that almost every day there is another story about pollution of one form or another, in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Very often our own actions lead to that pollution and in many cases we can do something about it. This essay shows just a little part of the “treasure” trapped on the bottom of the Thames but, It could be, easily, find even in others rivers around the World.

Fly-tipping is a major cause of pollution in urban rivers in the UK.

Motorbikes leak toxic fuel, polluting the river directly, oil enters a slow-moving river it forms a rainbow-coloured film over the entire surface preventing oxygen from entering the water. On larger stretches of water the oil contaminates the feathers of water birds and when they preen the oil enters the gut and kills them.

Besides, other regularly fly-tipped items such as car parts, trolleys, safes, bicycles, bathtubs and armchairs trap silt and smother the natural gravels on the riverbed where plants and animals live and fish lay their eggs.

Only in UK’s rivers are also polluted by companies and agriculture and fewer than 15% are deemed to be in a favourable condition.

Over 97% of all the water on Earth is salty and most of the remaining 3% is frozen in the polar ice-caps. The atmosphere, rivers, lakes and underground stores hold less than 1% of all the fresh water and this tiny amount has to provide the fresh water needed to support the Earth's population. Fresh water is a precious resource and the increasing pollution of our rivers and lakes is a cause for alarm.

Each of Us should feel the responsibility to safeguard this treasure, so precious to the world and all its living beings, Plants, Animals and Human Beings.

A Child's Smile Lights Up Hope in the Universe

It is very hard to send a message, especially during Christmas time where it is easy to fall into the obvious but, in a dark period like the one We are living, dominated by selfishness, greed, ephemeral success , we all have an urgent need for sincere and pure Smile, full of Life, capable of urging our emotions, to dust off our values and ideals, all too often shredded in this perverse mechanism.

We always complain about the world in which we live, but we often delegate our responsibilities to others. They, the Children, would all have the right and yet, they do not complain, they do not delegate, they face life with dignity and lightness, despite the conditions to which We adults subject them.

The children live a true life, made up of colours, smiles, curiosity, they don't ask for anything in return, just be heard, taken into account, they just want to feel part of this adventure called Life.

They think, "naively" that we are all equal, without distinction, do not exist in their minds and especially in their honest hearts, differences of color, race, religion, there is no envy or malice.

Children dress only of their dreams, give smiles to all those willing to receive them, they do not ask for anything in return just a pleasant look through which to transmit all the Human warmth that a pure soul can give.

To play they have the essential, a kite, a white chalk, a small flute, just nothing to smile, and then that feeling of being in harmony with the essence of the world.

These days we need to rediscover that word abused and too often forgotten or erased that is Humanity, We are stealing the future from the new generations, We are Denying THEM the right to grow up in a more equal, more supportive, more human-like World, which "should" be the primary purpose of the Mankind.

Being in the Christmas time I try to translate into words the gestures of the children I met in my wandering around the world, as I wish for a slightly more just future:

Say hello to the children of your city, inexhaustible source of joy and imagination, give them a hug on my part and fill it with Love.

Merry Christmas