Marcello Di Cintio

“Sand Blast”

In Uncategorized on January 7, 2012 at 6:35 pm

The current issue of Impact Magazine, a sports and fitness bimonthly published in Alberta, features a story about my running of the Sahara Marathon – 10km of it, anyway – while visiting the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria in 2008. The story, titled “Sand Blast,” is a tiny excerpt from the first chapter of my upcoming walls book. It also represents the first and likely the last time any magazine will publish a story about me doing something athletic.

(The issue also includes a workout section featuring a personal trainer who is an old high school mate of mine, making the magazine the first time two members of St. Francis’ Class of ’91 appeared in the same publication since the yearbook.)

You can read “Sand Blast” here.

“A courageous Palestinian has died, shrouded in stones”

In Uncategorized on December 13, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Almost two years ago, I posted an excerpt from the West Bank chapter of my book-in-progress. The excerpt described my observations of anti-Wall protests in the West Bank village of Jayyous. I wrote about the “furious beauty” of stone-throwing Palestinian men.

In today’s Haaretz, journalist Jonathan Pollak writes a compelling story of the death of one such stone-thrower, Mustafa Tamimi. Pollak writes:

Mustafa died because he threw stones; he died because he dared to speak a truth, with his hands, in a place where the truth is forbidden. Any discussion of the manner of the shooting, its legality and the orders on opening fire, infers that the landlord is forbidden to expel the trespasser. Indeed, the trespasser is allowed to shoot the landlord.

Pollak’s story is gorgeous and sad. Read it here.

“Promised Land”

In Uncategorized on November 24, 2011 at 10:11 pm

From The New YorkerCulture Desk“:

“Too often in politics, very complex subjects are being turned into sound bites, so it’s easy to take them apart,” says Christoph Niemann, this week’s cover artist. In “Promised Land,” he says, “I draw a parallel between current immigrants and early settlers—the hope is that it will provide context, to help keep things in perspective. Cartoonists, not politicians, should be the ones who condense political discussions into simple images.”

Reading this I can’t help but wonder: What does the Wall represent if not a complicated political discussion condensed into a simple image? What can be simpler, after all, than a wall. What is easier to grasp than Us and Them? Here and There? The Walls, on the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere, discard nuance and eliminate the need for discussion altogether.

And before I forget, Happy Thanksgiving America!

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