#02.2013

parallelozero reportage monthly

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Contacts

KenyaYoung Africans growing up

ItalyThe island of memory

WorldShips and the sea

TibetLiving under China’s rule

MoldovaWhite orphans

MultimediaMotel America

Editorial

BrazilAt the end of the river

MexicoBien fuerte

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EDITORIAL

Before we saw the story introduced by this issue’s cover photograph, we could have hardly believed that, of all places, Nairobi is ranking among the first cities in the world where child obesity is a widespread problem. Kenyan stereotypes tell us about a country plagued by poverty, unemployment, Aids and crime. The picture is not far from the truth, as often happens with stereotypes, but there is also another reality which speaks of a growing prosperity, and the subsequent demand for whatever it can buy, including the much-coveted junk food which is spoiling the kids of Nairobi’s new middle class. This is what happens when you look beyond the obvious, as Alessandro Gandolfi did while he was doing research for his story in Kenya.

And this is what happened to Giancarlo Radice when he travelled to Tibet to document how Tibetans cope with Chinese rule. He was convinced he would meet people who struggle to keep their own cultural identity safe, and who never gave up the hope of seeing their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, finally return to their motherland: and that’s exactly what he found. But to his surprise he also found out that more and more Tibetans end up buying goods produced in the country they consider their enemy, and they have no problem in saying that, thanks to their new Chinese refrigerator or TV set, their lifestyle has dramatically improved.

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Luigi Baldelli was also in for a surprise, although a sad one, when he went to Moldova to photograph the villages whose population has been slowly drained by the European job market. He found himself in small ghost towns almost exclusively populated by kids, many of them forced to live on their own: the migrants’ sons and daughters, whom their parents where forced to abandon in order to provide them with a brighter future. Or, rather, simply with a future.

These are just three of the stories that you will find in the second issue of P’Zero. Our photographers will also take you on a journey on the oceans to explore the delicate relationship between sailor and sea, inside the impenetrable world of Mexico’s criminal gangs, on a magical southern Italian island whose inhabitants seem to be prisoners of their own history, in remote Brazilian villages where the need for electricity is jeopardizing the future, and inside some motel rooms in the U.S., where something is happening that tells us more than we would like to know about the world we have created for ourselves.

Come with us.

AT THE END OF THE RIVER

INSIDE THEUTOPIA

By Sergio Ramazzotti

In the heart of the impenetrable kingdom

of Kim Jong Un, the absolute dictator of

the most totalitarian state on the pla-

net. Completely isolated from the rest of

the world, North Korea is anchored to a

rigid pseudo-socialist ideal and founded

on the most maniacal cult of personality

which the human mind has ever been able

to create. In the immense cities, in the

BRAZIL

AT THE END OF THE RIVER

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The Brazilian economic growth is in contrast with the global recession. As the

country’s wealth is rising, new infrastructures are needed to support the

expansion. The Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu River, is one of them. The dam,

which will be the world's third largest and will flood an area of approximately

500 square kilometers, will have serious consequences on the environment and

the communities living on the shores of the Xingu. Apart from affecting several

indigenous territories, the dam will flood one third of the city of Altamira,

which is already suffering from an increasing crime rate due to the massive

immigration caused by the job opportunities offered by the dam. The tension on

the Xingu is rising, as the Amazon people try to cope with the so-called

progress and resist against the project.

AT THE END OF THE RIVERBRAZIL

By Dario Bosio

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An Arara warrior relaxes on his hammock with

his son after lunch in the indigenous village

of the Big Bend of the Xingu. The tribe is among

the most affected by the construction of the dam

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A stilt house in the favela known as Invasão dos Padres.

The stilts, which prevent the houses from being flooded

during the rainy season, will be useless in the future due

to the increased capacity of the Xingu caused by the dam

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Eugenia, 23, is waiting for a call from her

boyfriend in the favela of Invasão dos Padres.

Her ex husband is in jail charged with homicide

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Pyongyang, the usual propaganda

footage on national tv in my hotel room

Two workers in the construction site. At its peak,

the building consortium will give a job to 40,000 people,

but will dismiss everyone by completion in 2019

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A kid is playing with a slingshot

in the favela of Invasão dos Padres

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The main working area of Belo Monte, where the powerhouse will be

built. The turbines will generate up to 11,000 mW at full capacity.

The Belo Monte dam complex will be the third largest in the world

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Seu Leoncio, 73, is the Arara village’s cacique. He is

the only one in the village who still remembers the

first contact with the white people. He fears

that the dam will be the last step of a process that

long ago started killing the indigenous culture

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A young boy from the Xipaya tribe in

his house in the Invasão dos Padres

favela, in Altamira. His family moved

there because they were displaced by the

hydroelectric dam of Tucurui. Most

likely the indigenous people living next

to Belo Monte are facing the same fate

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A man is being checked by

military police in the favela

of Invasão dos Padres

15A revolver which has been confiscated

by the military police in Altamira

16An Arara indigenous woman with her

kids in the village of Volta Grande

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Pyongyang, a bird flies at the

base of 70-mt-high bronze statue

of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae Hill

Monsonic clouds over the city of Altamira, which will be the

most affected by the construction of the Belo Monte dam

YOUNG AFRICANS GROWING UP

LOVEGIVERSBy Simone Cerio

This is a journey. A physical and

mental journey. Sexual assistance is a

technique of psychophysical approach to

disabled people, based on massages,

kisses, visual contacts and erotic

stimulation. It is commonly believed

that disabled people have no sexual

needs and their isolation causes them

deep psychological problems. Gabriele

KENYA

YOUNG AFRICANS GROWING UP

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"Africans have become sedentary. We spend our days in the car or in the

office, we eat fast-food and our children put on weight watching television".

Professor Vincent Onywera from Kenyatta University in Nairobi is studying a

problem that is becoming dramatic: escalating obesity, particularly among very

young people. While outside the capital the real problem is malnutrition, in

Nairobi things go the opposite way: middle class people, whose life style is

similar to that of Westerners, eat junk food and do not practice enough

sports. The Ministry of Health has recognized that this is a problem and in

schools menus are now under control while vending machines are forbidden.

However, figures are unmistakable: one person out of two in Nairobi is

overweight.

YOUNG AFRICANS GROWING UPKENYA

By Alessandro Gandolfi

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A student being photographed

in front of a case with an

embalmed lion at Nairobi’s

National Museum of Kenya

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Nairobi’s central business

district at sunset

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An instructor gives swimming lessons to

Jonathan, 6 (right), and his brother George,

9, in the swimming pool of the Nairobi Club

23A woman in the garden in

front of the Aga Khan Hospital

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Polo, 4, watches television

in his aunt’s living room

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Sweets for sale in

a shopping centre

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Virginia Muthoni, 28,

has her waist measured by

dietician Lyudmyla Shchukina

27A child with his mother

and aunt in a fast food

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Kids take food at a birthday party

in the Brookside neighborhood

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A man eats hamburger and

French fries in a bar of the

central business district

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Two young women in a

hairdresser’s waiting room

By Alessandro Gandolfi

BIEN FUERTE

GAZA ISWONDER-

MEXICO

BIEN FUERTE

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Monterrey, in north-east Mexico, is a patchwork of street gangs. During

the first eight months of 2012, members of two groups, Los Pokos Lokos

and Los Quimicos, allowed photographer Tom King into their world, the

world in which only the “bien fuerte”, the strongest ones, can survive.

The work started in the context of drug-related violence, which in 2011

reached unprecedented levels in the city. Nevertheless, the aim was

never to concentrate on the violence directly, but to explore social and

economic circumstances. Mexico has a large youth population, alongside a

significant rate of inequality among classes, while government figures

say that 90 percent of homicide victims are male, 40 percent are aged

between 15 and 29, and almost all are working class.

BIEN FUERTEMEXICO

By Tom King

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Chava, a member of Los Pokos, with

his freshly tattooed chest. Tattoos

in Mexico are a definite sign of rebellion.

Many companies refuse employment

to persons who have visible tattoos

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A member of Los Pokos holds marijuana in his

hand. The drug, illegal in Mexico, is widely

used. Supply is controlled by the cartels.

Young men are often arrested by police simply

for having the smell of it on their fingers

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Jacko of Los Pokos at

home in one of the working

class areas of Monterrey

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A 7,62-caliber machine

gun bullet found lying in the

street by a member of Los Pokos

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Dante plays basketball in his

neighborhood. One of his gang’s

members has been shot and

killed here one year earlier

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Chicken ready to be barbecued for a

birthday celebration. Barbecuing

meat is traditionally a male role

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Flaquito of Los Pokos

outside his home with his

pregnant wife-to-be

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Two cousins from Los Pokos funfighting.

Fights like this are seen as training for the

more serious fighting between rival gangs

41Dante of Los Pokos sits in his porch

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Members of Los Quimicos preparing for

the dance of Guadalupe. These young men

see the Virgin as their protector

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Arte of Los Pokos at home in Monterrey

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Manuel's coffin on the day of his

funeral. Manuel, a member of Los

Quimicos, consumed solvents, but was

not involved in the drug trade.

Yet he was kidnapped and murdered by

one of Monterrey's cartels

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Kaly of Los Pokos has his

eyebrows shaved off by

two members of his gang

By Mario Noto

Italy, Piazza Armerina: like one

of Italo Calvino's Invisible Citi-

es, a non-place. A town which, be-

cause of its name, most Italians

still mistake for a square (that's

what Piazza means). A village in

the heart of Sicily doomed by its

SHIPS AND THE SEA

FACES OF PIAZZA

SHIPS AND THE SEAWORLD

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From one continent to another, in the Atlantic ocean on a cargo, the

Caribbean Sea on a cruise ship, the Mediterranean on a oil rig, the

Baltic Sea on an icebreaker, Sicily on a ship stuck by the economic

crisis. For years, photographer Maria Vittoria Trovato chased a humanity

that lives on water, a species at ease. The seaworld has no seasons or

rest. Captains, shipmates, sailors, welders and workers have all taken

to the sea going after a dream, struggling against hunger, following

their fathers' path. Different men and women, each with his or her own

hopes and ambitions and needs: but they all become the same when the

land is no longer in sight.

By Maria Vittoria Trovato

SHIPS AND THE SEAWORLD

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By Paulo Siqueira

Prostitution is a big word, to de-

scribe what goes on on the

straights of the great Amazon Ri-

ver of Brazil in a region privy to

years of conquest and exploita-

tion. The life of the river peop-

le or “Ribeirinhas”as they are

known has always been about little

FAVIGNANA, THE ISLAND OF MEMORY

WOMEN OF THEAMAZON

ITALY

FAVIGNANA, THE ISLAND OF MEMORY

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An ancient Paleolithic site, the island of Favignana hosted many people

over the centuries. In 1874 the island was bought by the Florio family,

which reinforced here the so-called “tonnara”, an Arab tuna-fishing

technique. The “mattanza” (the ritual killing of tuna) and the quarries

of calcarenite, a much appreciated kind of limestone, have influenced

the history of the island, which still survives in the tales told by the

local “tonnaroti” (tuna fishermen) and “piarrutura” (stonemasons).

Others just refuse to cope with a future of immigration and of a

tourism-based economy. Instead, they keep fishing for that peculiar fish

that made Favignana's fortune in the past.

By Bruno Zanzottera

FAVIGNANA, THE ISLAND OF MEMORY ITALY

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Clemente Ventrone, a “tonnaroto” who

has been working for almost fifty

years in a “tonnara” on the island

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The rocks and the ancient

limestone quarries in Cala Rossa

65A fisherman relaxing

onboard his fishing boat

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Fishermen work at night

between Favignana and

nearby island of Marettimo

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Giuseppe Gandolfo, one

of the last shepherds

who live on the island,

with son Matteo

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The small fishing

village of Punta Longa

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Marco Ponzio, originally

from Sicily, where he

used to work with his

father as a stonemason

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Relaxing onboard a

fishing boat after

a long night at sea

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Fish is sorted on board a

fishing vessel before being

sold at the Trapani port

72Orazio, owner and captain of a fishing

boat in Favignana, during a fishing trip

By Carlo Bevilacqua

A new utopia? A distant reality?

Forget it. Hermitage might seem a

paradox in our self-celebrating so-

ciety but it is a growing and fa-

scinating phenomenon, instead. Mo-

dern hermits don’t indulge in the

search for isolation for social or

personal ambitions, neither it’s a

INTO THE SILENCEHERMITS OF THE THIRD MILLEN-NIUM

TIBET

LIVING UNDER CHINA’S RULE

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After the anti-Chinese riots of 2008-2009, the Tibetan society is going

through a phase of deep changes. In Kham, as was called the eastern

region of the "greater Tibet" before the invasion of Mao's army (now

part of China's Sichuan province), the political and military control by

Beijng is less oppressive than in Lhasa and central Tibet, while among

the population the awareness of their own cultural identity has been

growing. Tibetans seem to live simultaneously in two separate realities.

On the one side they are fighting for wider political autonomy and

religious freedom. On the other side, they are learning to be part of

the "new world" that China brings with it, which means better roads,

subsidized housing, low-wage jobs and an invasion of material goods.

TIBET

By Giancarlo Radice

LIVING UNDER CHINA’S RULE

75Penbushi, the Layithao family in their new house,

posing with their new chinese refrigerator and tv set

76Kangding, low income public services

are carried out mainly by Tibetans

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Penbushi area. Tashi Chapa, 24, shows two

photographs from his family collection:

the beloved Dalai Lama and "enemy" Mao Zedong

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Kangding. Modern downtown

buildings, shops and a Tara, a

Buddhist deity, carved on the hill

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Tagong, a Tibetan woman shopping

at the monastery supermarket

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Tagong, landscape beyond the city limits

81Kangding, a Tibetan with

his dog on the main street

82Penbushi, the village’s primary school

83Kangding, trendy Tibetan teenagers

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Penbushi. Ngawang Gyauwu, 28, in his family

home watching a Dalai Lama speech on his laptop.

Dalai Lama speeches are banned in China

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Dege is one of the new villages built by the

Chinese government for the Tibetan nomads

in order to control them. The village is

almost empty: only one family lives there

86Miniak Guwa, the only store in the village

by Francesco Alesi

When St. Patrick set his feet on

Irish land to preach Christianity,

it is unlikely there were any

Irish Travellers in sight. Almost

sixteen Centuries later, the Irish

Travellers is one of the strongest

Catholic communities in the world.

Irish Travellers were a nomadic fa-

WHITE ORPHANS

GOD BLESS MOLDOVA

WHITE ORPHANS

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In Moldova, a country plagued by massive unemployment, one citizen out

of four lives abroad and works as a caregiver. What happens to their

children then? Some of these young kids are forced to live in

abandonment. Their grandparents, relatives or neighbors sometimes look

after them, while teenagers are left on their own, with parents coming

back only once or twice a year for the holidays. The number of these

abandoned kids is not officially estimated yet, however it is widely

assumed that they have been more than 100,000 since 2005. Migration

breaks families and modifies their lifestyle: for many kids who grew up

separated from their parents, primary values are no longer love and

caring, but money.

By Luigi Baldelli

WHITE ORPHANSMOLDOVA

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Varzarestii Noi. Marina, 12, and her

sister Ruslana, 5, with their grandparents

Vasile and Maria. The little girls have

been living with them since their mother

left for Italy to work as a caregiver

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Varzarestii Noi. Jon, 16, in front of

the house where he lives on his own after

his mother left for Italy to work

as a caregiver and his father left for

Russia to work as a bricklayer

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Sipoteni. Brothers Vasile, 13, and

Gheorghe, 11, in front of the house where

they live with their aunt. Their mother

left for Italy to work as a caregiver

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Varzarestii Noi. The shoes of Marina,

12, and Ruslana, 5. The two kids

have been living with their

grandparents since their mother left

for Italy to work as a caregiver

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Gura Galbena. Adriana, 16, inside the house where

she lives with her aunt. Her parents left for Israel.

Her mother is now working as a house cleaner

while her father found employment as a bricklayer

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Varzarestii Noi. Ruslana, 5, in her bedroom.

She has been living with her grandparents since her

mother left for Italy to work as a caregiver

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Gura Galbena. Sisters Elena,

14, and Valentina, 13, in the

house where they live with

their uncle and aunt after

their mother left for Italy

to work as a caregiver

96Sipoteni. A view of the village

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Croagh Patrick. The faithful during one of the fifteen

rounds of the chapel. Croagh Patrick is renowned

for its pilgrimage in honour of Saint Patrick, who fasted

for forty days in 441 AD on the top of this mountain

Varzarestii Noi. Ruslana, 5,

in her bedroom. She has been

living with her grandparents

since her mother left for

Italy to work as a caregiver

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Varzarestii Noi. Mihai, 12, in the

house where he lives along with her

aunt and his sister Mihaela, 15,

after their mother left for Italy to

work as a caregiver

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Varzarestii Noi. Marina, 12, has been

living with her grandparents since her

mother left for Italy to work as a caregiver

by Bruno Zanzottera

Lize is a 25-year-old Dutch woman

with Down syndrome. She has attend-

ed regular middle and secondary

schools, as well as green schools

and catering training courses. She

has taken part as an athlete in

the Special Olympic European Youth

USA

MOTEL AMERICA

Parallelozero Multimedia

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The Motel, an American institution, was invented in 1925 to stimulate

business travel along the highways of the nation. Motel culture reached

its peak in the 1960's as its popularity among vacationing American

families increased. Complete with swimming pools and rooms modeled after

Native American tee pees, motels made cross-country road travel for the

country's middle class possible, and became a stark symbol of capitalist

America. Today, many motels across America are serving as a permanent home

for millions of Americans caught in the flux of the Great Recession. Some

have lost their jobs and their homes to foreclosure, or just can't

generate enough income to afford an apartment. They are one step above

homelessness, living on the fringe in an unstable world of linoleum and

polyester bed spreads.

By Paulo Siqueira and Nadia Shira Cohen

MOTEL AMERICAUSA

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