I am quite happy to learn that Peter Handke has been awarded the new Düsseldorf 's Heinrich Heine Prize. Not that I think prizes are really representative of someone's art or greatness: but this can so much piss off all the creepy attackers of Handke's work and it's very welcomed.

Yes I am quite happy for it, regardless the opinions of a once-great-novelist Salman Rushdie, who called years ago Handke 'moron of the year' for his opinions about the Yugoslavian war, starting the whole pillory against him, and regardless the so called 'philosopher' Bernard-Henri Levy, who recently stated that Handke's plays should be banned from all theaters of France; for the Comedie Francaise too, that cowardly and accordingly removed Handke's plays from the scenes, and for the many others who insulted or neglected him and his work without even reading it, because he (while accomplishing new great results with it, particularly with the splendid recent novel 'Der Bildverlust') asked for a country and its people, the Serbian people, room for listening and understanding.

I don't know if the Heinrich Heine Prize is meant to be a political one, since many European literary prizes unfortunately tend to be political (the Nobel Prize for Literature, for example, it's shamefully, stupidly political). The point is that Heine himself suffered criticism and censorship during his life, in his quest for an outspoken truth, but he managed anyway to be first of all a poet. I think that this is the best award Handke could receive, if only to accent this, that he remained first of all a storyteller and a poet, and his politcal opinions have not reduced his talents.
Heine was a poet, a satirist, an endless traveler just like Handke proved to be. And just like Handke do, he always kept his eyes wide, to see, understand, and live to tell. (I must have said already that Handke is my favorite living writer so I'll leave it at that. End of the post.)

-- in picture: Peter Handke in Kragujevac, 1999

As you probably noticed already, one of the sources we use the most blogging italian news is ANSA, the first news agency in Italy.

They have a page of English news for us (and Italy Magazine) so that we don't have to translate everything.
Strangely enough though, their English news section do NOT originate from the italian one. They offer two entirely different sets of news for the two corresponding languages.

Both news section are heavily or lightly self-censored, according to the political situation, as always happens in Italy especially with relevant or public media sources: but the english stock of news is even more censored. As we say in Italy, the dirty laundry must be cleansed in the Family (and yet we get pissed when they still compare us to the cliche of Corleone's family).

Usually in the ANSA english news the voice of the left-wing opposition is rarely mentioned; any news that may hint to big or shameful problems of our country is avoided; trite useless news about food, wine, arts and italian lifestyle are favoured, like we were still in an era were the news agency have to supply a propaganda job (and anyway those kind of news do not belong to a general "news" section! Other and more important crucial things take place in our country, people!).

Today, as we write, the ANSA italian general news section offers a certain choice: the political debates on the "Cirielli" law; some tragic chronicle reports, like the guy killed for a parking place in Rome; the "emergency" of one million of young cannabis consumers (sic); the critics of the spokesman of Iran against our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and so forth.
It could be better, but, on the other hand, the english news offers: Sudnay's entertainment guide; Arts guide; MotoGP and Melandri victory; risk of asthma for italian children according to a scientific study.
And that's it.

But, what was I saying? Of course it's all a propaganda job. It's not so old-school, so it looks like news.
But wearing their worse italian provincialism, our so-called journalists tend not to care about how the things are: just how they should look. Plus nobody wants those foreign folks to meddle into our dirty business, isn't it.

I know ANSA folks do read me: Hey guys! Nothing personal! Keep up the good work! And, no offense, but... are you ready for the change of government next April? You better go and look for that other red-green colored badge you closed in the drawer some nine years ago...