Chiara said

Chiarasaid is on Wordpress

2009-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

This blog has moved to www.chiarabolognini.wordpress.com

My words on Musibrasil

2009-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Musibrasil

Hi All! Check out my article on the Brasilian Festival in Basel on Musibrasil

How I became a wasps´ serial killer

2009-09-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Having been a real proud coward for ages, fleeing away as soon as a gentle zzzzzzz comes into any perception of sound or any unidentified flying object crosses any side sight, I was wondering if I could really overcome a wasp’s invasion in my own beloved apartment.
I was persuaded that this honestly pudding hearth behavior would have saved me from many distresses like stings, bites, pricks and associated side effects. I could have not figured out so far any other possible rational reactions to such attacks and harassments than a plain outrush.

Do you know what?

I could not even have killed a fly and let alone crush a worm before today. Nevertheless I have never been invaded by a bunch of insects’ or lived in any green area in my life.

Let me tell you something more about how this story began.

Though at first I was scared about living much closer to the countryside than to the city, it was already November and the autumn was going to delight me with falling leaves and no flowers and spring had sprung around.
It happened soon, even before autumn was able to turn into winter, snow had been falling on our green area for weeks changing it in a white area. It was such a high volume of snow that the only things I could see flying around were pure and white snowflakes, though the biggest ones ever seen. I could never have believed that I could have hated the snow as much as at the time, actually I had no equipment to go through all that cold and ice and I felt like a prisoner in my own house.

All of that was over and not soon, only in the late April/early May.
Such a long winter made me wish I could throw open the windows and any possible green hints were most welcomed. I could not have been disappointed, in fact a greenest avalanche of trees and bushes and colorful flowers sprawled in a few weeks and covered every little corner and edge as well as wide areas, regions which came into my sight from my neighborhood on.

Well, it brought along all sorts of insects whose shape I could have never imagined by myself and to which I could have never dared be so close. It should come easily into your mind that I received all kinds of unexpected flying guests and that I was not delighted by such a crowded cohabitation.

Despite his will my boyfriend was often requested to be involved in many aerial fights equipped with newspaper, vacuum cleaner and long arms weapons. So well did he succeed that I started to observe his war techniques from a safe corner instead of running out of the room shutting the door and waiting for him to come out victoriously.
More than an interest, it was a need: I could not count on him all day and night long since he works at a company and travels for business very often.

The opportunity to start my new insects’ serial killer life came during summer: a wasps´ cluster invaded my bedroom shutters.
At first it happened from time to time that a wasp came in to the room letting us wonder how it came in since the window was closed.
My first approach was the only one I knew: leaving the room immediately as it was burning out and waiting for my boyfriend to come back home.

Anyway a much more substantial event changed our mind regarding this issue that was considered just temporary. After some holidays we went back home and found 14 dead wasps in our bedroom.
We did not waste time in any burials and mourning and found the courage to go on and to think of global wasps´ extermination. However it was late evening and we wanted to go bed without feeling guilty because of ecological principles to be respected, so we just ignored the invasion and slept on it.

Neither dreams nor our sleeping will put this problem on hold, in fact 3 wasps woke us up early in the morning celebrating our new life together. Newspaper weapons worked well in this respect and we went back to sleep.

Nevertheless many other wasps were outside and looking forward to living with us. They adventurously passed through the shutter despite any possible harm and found a passage to our beloved house.

No way. They must be out.

My boyfriend plugged any entry connected to the shutter and it helped a lot. But how could we overcome the summer warmth with the windows constantly closed?
We must open them and let wasps come in again.

Living with wasps became a habit since I liked the room so much that I used to work there during the day and the wasps just sat on the window glass and buzzed bearably.
Until when would this peaceful cohabitation have to go on?
That was the question and it was quickly answered.

The summer was early over and windy rainstorms were becoming the steady everyday weather, though windows were still half opened. Are you wondering where wasps spend their winter? I was wondering the same before going to bed on a rainy night when 3 wasps came in to my kitchen and 2 into my bedroom.
I took a look at the bunch of magazines lying on shelves for months and I quickly chose one of them which I was so not interested in. I grasped it strongly in my hand, I took aim measuring the collocation of the wasp on the closet wall and mashed it!
Yes, I did it and I did it well and again.

Soon I discovered the pleasure of killing them and that I could not stop it. I became addicted to that, I had to find wasps and kill them more and more. I was definitely getting into my new personality: the wasps´ serial killer.

This confession could be criticised by ecological organizations without any understanding of what my life with wasps was like and how I really tried to live with them in peace. Borders could be crossed, that is fine, but they did not meet the requirements to get any residential permit and what can I say? I am grievously pleased with that, a contradictory feeling I must live with.

Happiness is a state of mind

2009-07-30T02:30:00.000-07:00

It is a common perception that human beings can find happiness only in case they follow some standardised and recommended ways of life.

The media and advertisement convey messages of happiness connected to any sort of cultural patterns or merely to commercial products, the constant exposure to repeated advice affects people´s lives deeply and contributes to the formation of the public opinion generally and specially about what the meaning of happiness is.

Rarely would it be said that suggestions from media could be applied to the real everyday life. In fact common people struggle to reach the paradisiac state, which is projected through the widenind media´s lens. Even if they buy all advertised "happiness-producer" products and try to behave the same way as famous cinema or tv stars, their life does not improve so much in terms of happiness.

What does it mean?

This question is fully answered by that: if your thoughts are made of happiness, if your eye sees happiness, you will be happy beyond things that you can buy, beyond media cultural pattern that you can follow and finally beyond goals you can achieve.

I´m willing to suggest a careful consideration of pure and original feeling of happiness, which are highly likely to be misunderstood or replaced by thoughts belonging to the economic system about what it is supposed that people have to consume.

In conclusion, I would strongly suggest developing self-confidence and optimism by simply trying to review and correct pessimistic or false points of view. Personally speaking, spending time positively socialising could produce more happiness than spending the same time actively shopping in a commercial centre advertised by the local media.

Just change your eye and seldom will you have to face unhappiness again!

A travel back to a famous time and place in history

2009-07-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

Travelling back to a place and time in history could be adventurous and challenging, especially for those lime me who are going to choose: year 0. Nazareth.

It should not be such a big issue to understand what I´m going to write on: Jesus Christ´s birth. Instead the big issue could be the fact that I´m treating this theme, especially if you consider that I´m Italian and what does means in terms of religion and culture.

My aim would be to investigate the birth of God´s son and verify the truth of the story narrated by the bible and by the Christian belief itself. I would go to that place and see whether a baby was really born in such conditions in order to save the world.

Verifying the existence of that baby could change a lot of the current way of life. For example costumes, which have been evolving for centuries, could have evolved in a quite different way. This would have determined a fundamentally different social behavior. Furthermore, the calendar and the concept of time itself could have been developed following completely different rules.

Last but not least many political issues and wars could have been avoided or solved in a less dramatic or bloody way. So that travelling back to that time and place could be quite important, since religions have had a big role in human life and evolution.

Discovering and verifying the truth about Jesus Christ would lead us to a different future, where many sins could be viewed as they actually are, just pleasure. In addition to that the use of condoms and other contraceptives could be allowed and not so many Christians in Africa would die because of HIV, as it is happening right now.

The choice of doing this travel back has so many reasons, but there´s not enough space to list them all here and now. I´m quite convinced that I highlighted enough crucial points to be discussed and verified together. I´m ready for your comments.

Keeping in touch

2009-07-30T01:40:00.000-07:00

The increased use of modern technology to communicate with friends and families, beyond the business use, is bringing to the common questions:

Is this use improving or worsening relationships?
Should we use more or less of these technologies to improve communication and interaction?

Answering these questions is very challenging.
What should be said more than the web is connecting people over all the world and conquering the mobile mobile, tv and radio market, by merging the whole communication systems in one media channel?

It would not be said that the internet is one of the unrevealed dreams of humanity, instead it is one of the most evaluated and widespread dreams, still keeping many eyes stuck in wonder and surprise. This dream is called ubiquity and it is a similar dream that is supporting the globalization of economy, language, cultural patterns.

However, the real successful use of modern technology has to be intended as support and/or extension to the real life and never as its full replacement.

Virtual "places" where people can meet, online communities like the world wide famous Facebook, should be used to keep in touch with far away people, to support and to enrich relationships with people to meet then more often outside Facebook. Even possible virtual friends are considered as a benefit for people social life. In fact virtual friends are a great resource against loneliness and interaction issues which can be defeat and solved thanks to the anonymity given by distance and unawareness. These 2 features are fundamental for breaking the ice and for going beyond any lack of social skills. In addition to that there are many recorded cases of people met virtually which got married.

On the other hand the awful effects and consequences of a wrong use of these media tools are unfortunately well known. Just to quote the most famous and serious, a sort of web addictive syndrome whose most serious effect is making people’s isolation even worse. Imagining all other additional side effects is quite easy as well as sad for everyone.
This syndrome is spreading not only among teen-agers but also among other ages of people, especially those playing online social video games.

What has been presented are only some relevant aspects of the many, related to the growing multitude of modern communication tools whose proper use is left to people´s good sense.