How exciting are the men who break our hearts is the book written by Dianella Bardelli, whom I thank very much.
The first contact I had with Dianella was vocal, I listened to her voice, which struck me even before discovering the main aspect of the book, and even before realizing what I was going to discover as I read: a feature in common between Dianella and Lenore, I think.
Lenore Kandel.
Dianella Bardelli in her book published by Compagnia Editoriale Aliberti writes in a style that is as personal, immersive as it is biographical.
Lenore Kandel is a poet belonging to the Hippie culture. Actually, often the Hippy movement is called a “counterculture,” but I don’t like to think in those terms.
Lenore in particular stood out for the intensity with which she lived and spread the very essence of her passion.
Passion that finds its most emblematic representation in The Love Book: a text deemed obscene, seized and banned to such an extent that three clerks were brought to trial on charges of dissemination through their bookstores.
San Francisco, 1967.
A year that began with the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park prelude to the summer remembered by all as the Summer of love.
An era that I had never fully explored until now but Lenore and Dianella showed me in all its philosophy.
Lenore and Dianella, two women, distant in space, time, and color, but close in writing as an expression of their intense passion.
Dianella’s face is framed by golden hair.
Lenore’s face is highlighted by the famous black braids.
Dianella writes novels and poems, and in addition to How Exciting the Men Who Break Our Hearts, she published Near but Far, Altruistic Fish are Reborn Children, Neal’s Psychedelic Bard, Toward Katmandu in Search of Happiness, I’m Going for a Look, 1968.
Lenore, beyond the aforementioned The Love Book left us, among other works, Word Alchemy … a title that I find poetic in itself.
Dianella’s destiny led her to discover Lenore by chance and to be the only woman to tell us about her in Italy.
Lenore’s destiny led her to be on stage at the Human Be-In on January 14, 1967, the only woman to speak, on her thirty-fifth birthday.
You can see her here after the greetings from minute 11:30.
Lenore left us this conversation with Carlos Fresneda, in which she also quotes Lawrence Ferlinghetti while you can have a view through Isaac Hernandez’s photos.
Basically, How Exciting the Men Who Break Our Hearts to me spoke about Women, and, in my own personal reading key, I found myself thinking about how our lives breaks us.
Without adding more I leave you with this sentence from the book: What is not sufficiently illuminated by the light of wisdom fails to move from idealization to concrete realization.
Treccani tells us that Coltan is a term which, by contraction, identifies columbo-tantalite, a black metallic mineral composed of columbite and tantalite. It is one of the combinations in which it is possible to trace tantalum, the metal with which small but very efficient capacitors are made (therefore essential in portable devices such as mobile phones and computers, as well as in automotive electronics), which is why coltan has become a highly sought-after material.
In Congo, and in particular in the border area with Rwanda and Uganda, there are the Luwow mines notorious for the exploitation of workers and the horrendous scourge of child labor.
Amnesty International reports a UNICEF estimate of 2014 but we can assume that the number is underestimated, given the continuous exponential increase of electronic devices in circulation.
We all still have the name of the Belgian Congo imprinted in our minds, which brings us directly back to the control of the territories which has ceased in recent times, as this video from the Istituto Luce dated 1960 also testifies:
A memory that for me is placed on the desks of elementary schools is: Zaire, the new name since 1971. The decision is made by Mobutu who, in a sort of political whirlwind between the alternations of Republics and de facto dictatorship, remained an ambiguous figure until 1997 in contrast between: the role of father of the homeland he intended to cover, and an authoritarian and corrupt profile.
The newly formed Democratic Republic of Congo, however, does not see peace looming, and the rush to grab coltan aggravates both the already severe internal conflict on ethnic grounds, as well as that with neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
By the statement of its President of 2 June 2000, the Security Council requested the Secretary-General to establish an expert panel on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for a period of six months, with the following mandate:
To follow up on reports and collect information on all activities of illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including in violation of the sovereignty of that country;
To research and analyse the links between the exploitation of the natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the continuation of the conflict;
To revert to the Council with recommendations.
With this letterdated April 2001 Kofi Annan presents his Report of the Expert Group on Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A 2003 UN Security Council report denounces that the proceeds from the exploitation of coltan by the opposing states have served to finance their armies against the Congo itself. In addition to the fact that the search for and extraction of coltan by rebel forces has caused serious environmental damage in Congo within reserves and national parks.
The main multinationals basically declare that they are not connected to exploitation, but basically it would be enough to go up the stream from company to company to get to the source.
Afrewatch mentions a cause: Last December, a US lawyer filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 13 Congolese families in a Washington court. In particular, he criticizes Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla for using cobalt despite knowing that it was forcibly mined by children. This lawsuit could push commodity miners and tech companies in need of cobalt to forgo sourcing it from artisanal miners. Glencore, which dominates the market, is following this strategy to no longer be associated with child labor.
Glencore website in fact, speaks only of Australia or Canada presenting in the home sustainability, international day of women and girls, international day of education and human rights. The same goes for Trasfigura that comes with a responsible program and supply chain.
But then, where does Congolese coltan end up, which is estimated to represent the largest percentage of total production?
Similarly, Reuters details the profiles of some Chinese companies: China Molybdenum Luoyang Co Ltd and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co Ltd and also in this case the wording appears at the bottom “China’s Huayou Cobalt will not buy artisanal cobalt from two mines in Democratic Republic of Congo until it is sure the material they produce is free of human rights abuses according to standards to be decided by the industry.”
Who knows if we can hope that theory will follow practice.
I have already mentioned organizations, associations, safety councils, companies and so on, yet in the Luwow mines people, and even children, continue to be exploited beyond all limits, for all to see. Or maybe I should say under everyone’s screens, including mine, from which I’m writing to you.
On the cobalt DRC case International rights Advocates writes: on behalf of the child miners, the lawsuit demands that the companies pay reparations and fund rehabilitation and education programs for the families of child miners killed or maimed by the horrific conditions in the cobalt mines. Apple, Alphabet (Google), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla are among the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world.
These companies purport to be green and futuristic, but their products are Powered by Blood Cobalt. Consumers buying these products should demand that the companies fix their supply chain rather than spend years fighting in court to avoid responsibility for the Blood Cobalt their products currently use to operate.
We are the consumers.
I conclude with the quote that Massimo sent me The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t mind happiness not always being so very much fun if you don’t mind a touch of hell now and then just when everything is fine because even in heaven they don’t sing all the time
The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t mind some people dying all the time or maybe only starving some of the time which isn’t half bad if it isn’t you
Oh the world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t much mind a few dead minds in the higher places or a bomb or two now and then in your upturned faces or such other improprieties as our Name Brand society is prey to with its men of distinction and its men of extinction and its priests and other patrolmen
and its various segregations and congressional investigations and other constipations that our fool flesh is heir to
Yes the world is the best place of all for a lot of such things as making the fun scene and making the love scene and making the sad scene and singing low songs and having inspirations and walking around looking at everything and smelling flowers and goosing statues and even thinking and kissing people and making babies and wearing pants and waving hats and dancing and going swimming in rivers on picnics in the middle of the summer and just generally ‘living it up’ Yes but then right in the middle of it comes the smiling mortician.
Hi I'm Claudia and this is KCDC.
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