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No News is Good News they say. Though, others prefer it the other way round: Good News is no News. They are journalists and editors and the debate on how to rethink the negativity dominating mainstream news is getting more and more attention today in our 24-hour news consumption habits.
Having said that, some days ago, with all those bad news from Cologne, Istanbul and Burkina Faso still echoing in my mind, I went shopping at the discount food store down the road. While queuing at the counter with my load of goods, I attended a funny show performed by two cashiers working on two nearby lines. The first one was Italian, the second not. I couldn’t read her name on the badge pinned on the uniform, but the accent revealed her western origin: probably Bulgarian or Albanian. They were arguing and laughing remembering the TV shows of their youth, the animated series and the different names of the same characters in their native language and trying to rank the best ones.
I felt strange by thinking that what I was watching was nothing but another side of that same coin, another point of view on that same struggle for integration. A fight that most of us watch as a long far-off tragedy but, at the same time, have learnt to fear it is ready to leave the screens and come to affect our real lives, sooner than later. My little show instead was just one of the million everyday and unimportant stories you’ll never see on TV. One of the millions happening everyday, among the common people, everywhere and on both sides. Millions and millions of small frames picturing a very different scenario.
In that very moment I took my decision: I’ll trust humans once again – I said to myself. Men (and women. Well, most of all women…) will do their best to make this Living Together thing work. Sure it will be the human way: other mistakes will be made and other sufferings will come from that, but I swear I won’t trust media any longer, from now on. I won’t trust decision makers, think tankers, opinion or thought leaders like politicians, Middle East experts, relevant specialists and analysts, Government Agencies, independent advisors, community members, observers, commentators, researchers, academics, sociologists, stakeholders or celebs. I’ll be faithful to my own point of view only – and if you have been reading this down to here I guess you know it now. And just trust my senses: what I see, what I hear, what I feel.
You can call me naïve, if you like. Or join the club. It’s all up to you, now.
