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Carnival King of Europe: against the domestication of the festival

21/02/2012 admin 0
"Carnival has often provided an outlet for popular expressions of discontent with the ruling classes, and was actually banned in Spain during Franco’s Fascist dictatorship, under the pretext that the Carnival practice of disguising one’s identity with masks might provide cover for leftist insurgents to launch surprise guerrilla attacks.". Though Carnival King has been tamed almost all over Europe, it could come back to life in other continents of the world. A group of activists based in Fremantle (Perth, Australia) propose since 2004 a Carnival festival in the ancient European style: irriverent, nonconformist, countercultural. Meanwhile, in some parts of the old continent, Carnival is taking back its ancient value as an occasion for social protest.
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They keep calling them “baracche” (shanties)

09/02/2012 admin 0
Gentrification in Rome spreads in circles around the black hole of the historical center, attacking parts of town that we used to consider peripheral. In Tor Pignattara, the most densified and polyglot district of Rome, real estate speculators divide buildings in smaller units, and threaten the few little houses that are left: they keep calling them "baracche" (shanties) to legitimate their gradual demolition and substitution with palazzi. Organized crime and neofascism spread even in parts of town that used to be "red"; as politicians approve new urban plans that contain no urbanism except certifying any kind of old and new speculations. But resistance is also beginning to reorganize.