Saviano
Click on the song to listen
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I read something quite disconcerting this morning on Repubblica
A monthly magazine, usually more prone to featuring the hot chick of the month in bikini or (preferably for its predominantly male readership) topless and beyond, is going to feature a cover showing Roberto Saviano at the morgue, complete with toe tag. According to the magazine, this photoshopped image represents what Saviano’s enemies wish could happen, and the list features not only the most notable Camorra bosses but also prominent government figures and influential bishops with ties to corrupt industrialists and the like.
I’m not sure this is the way to go, even if you’re trying to make a point. Saviano is a courageous man who is forced to live under constant protection, for the simple fact of exposing the way of the Neapolitan syndicates and how they control the whole region, and beyond. For this, which he considers his duty to inform, Saviano is a wanted man, unable to go get a coffee by himself, meet his fans casually, let alone have a relationship. He is a wanted man, but he is not a dead man. And neither does he want to be.
If you have ever seen him on TV, giving a speech, reading from his book or from other courageous journalists whom he admires, you’d be hard pressed to think of someone who feels more alive than him.
A few months ago, I started this track, in honour of him. And unlike the monthly magazine, it is not a fake eulogy, or a shock tactic to draw attention. It’s just my humble appreciation of a man who believes in something bigger than him, in a time when we are all too easily looking the other way. It takes more than courage to write like he does. It makes me sad, angry and ashamed to see how other journalists and TV personalities from Silvio Berlusconi’s channels are branding him an opportunist and, for lack of better words, a “media whore”. How can you look yourself in the mirror? Would you also insult Anna Politkovskaya’s death by the same token?
“Saviano”, this track in progress, features samples taken from a talk show. I am not including them here, because, well, I don’t own them yet! But if you do understand Italian, These snippets make a lot more sense than the instrumental version you have here. I hope you like it though.
Coraggio, Roberto.
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