GIULIO PALETTA PHOTOGRAPHY

El Hierro is the most isolated and least known island of the Canary Island in Spain. It has a humid climate and a completely different vegetation from the other islands of the archipelago. Over the years it has become an example of "slow" and sustainable tourism, thanks to the use of renewable sources, both in agriculture and in the homes of the inhabitants. In 2018 El Hierro became the first completely independent island from an energy point of view, managing to supply self-produced electricity for all its eleven thousand inhabitants; this thanks to the complex system of wind turbines and the Gorona del Viento hydroelectric plant which since 2014 has been providing sustainable and renewable energy to the whole island. Thanks to the energy produced, and to the continuous incentives of the local government of El Hierro, the inhabitants were able to obtain significant incentives for the construction and installation of photovoltaic panels for the cultivation of wine and other local products, such as bananas and pineapple, creating a completely eco-sustainable and zero impact production

From the Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong river runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. With its 4,350 km, It's the world's twelfth longest river and the seventh longest in Asia. The "Mother of waters", as it is called in its original name, is the beating heart of Southeast Asia. A series from my ongoing long-term project about life along the mighty Mekong river.

Fine Art prints available for sale. Special price until January 2021. SIZE: 30 x 40/45 cm. PAPER: Museum quality paper Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta 325 g/m2. PRICE: 75 € (shipping costs included inside Europe). PAYMENT: Paypal or bank transfer. For info, costs and orders please contact me at: g.paletta@hotmail.com / gpaletta84@gmail.com

India’s tree-to-bar artisans are changing the chocolate industry in the country. While the brand name Cadbury in India has long been a synonym for chocolate, everything is slowly changing, as a new wave of artisan “bean-to-bar” chocolate producers are doing things differently across the country, especially in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where most of Indian cocoa is cultivated. It is here that brothers-in-law Karthikeyan Palaniswamy and Harish Manoj Kumar in 2017 founded the company Soklet (how chocolate is colloquially called in the local Tamil language), India’s first tree-to-bar chocolate brand. This new way of making chocolate is a slow and delicate organic process, followed by this new wave of chocolate artisans with extreme care, step by step. They grow the cocoa themselves and are involved in every step of the process, from the breeding of the cocoa trees to the tempering of the final bar, everything done respecting the principles of organic and biodynamic farming. In a country where the multinational company Cadbury has long been synonymous with chocolate and it has dominated the market for years, it is now the time for these artisan producers to show the way chocolate is done and lead this new organic "revolution" happening in India

India is the second largest producer of tea in the world. Its organic production comes from the Darjeeling region, in Northern India, where three decades of organic and bio dynamic tea cultivation has led to around 62 out of 87 gardens now being registered with the Tea Board of India as undertaking organic tea cultivation. These gardens constitute about 60 percent of the average annual production of 8.5 million kilograms of Darjeeling tea. Apart from these organised players there are numerous small tea growers who are passionately trying to contribute to the fast growing organic tea market of India. A worldwide growing awareness of sustainable farming systems and healthy eating has constantly increased the demand for organic food items. Responding to the changing consumption pattern, the century old Indian tea industry and tradition has slowly adopted the organic methods of agriculture. When we say organic agriculture, we mean an overall system of farm management and food production that combines best environmental practices which supports a high level of biodiversity and the preservation of natural resources. This kind of agriculture not only respects the land, but also the farmers, by avoiding their direct contact with harmful substances. Sustainability, biodiversity and environmental friendly production: The new era of the organic revolution in India has started.

The controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric plant has changed and destroyed forever the original ecosystem of the mighty Xingu river, in the Brazilian state of Pará. Here the fight for the environment and the rights of the indigenous people is often paid with your life, as it happened with the assassination of Sister Dorothy Stang, killed here in 2005. While Brazilian President Bolsonaro keeps defending the cruel activities done here of deforestation, extensive farming and unpunished and targeted killings of indigenous people and activists, local priests and human rights activists have come together to defend the natural rights of indigenous people to live in this huge territory: located in the heart of the amazon forest, Altamira province includes five natural parks and sixty-four indigenous reserves of nine different ethnic groups, with a total indigenous population of over ten million people; The Altamira area is a very complex and diverse reality, where all the problems of the Amazon region come together in one single place, creating a cultural, social and environmental bomb, ready to explode at any time, with disastrous consequences for all the native people living here

In one of the poorest country in South America, where the rate of street children is the highest in the whole continent, the rehabilitation center of Qalauma, created by the Italian missionary Riccardo Giavarini near the overpopulated city of El Alto at over 4.000 meters of altitude, is the first rehabilitation center in the country entirely dedicated to the re-education of minors, in a city where crime, violence, drugs and many more social problems have created an extreme difficult context where most of young people are struggling to survive

Açailândia (land of Açaí) was discovered by the indigenous tribes Curia e Cocranum as a prosperous land, full of beautiful palms of Açaí. Nowadays there isn't a single Açaí palm tree left and Açailândia is an important agroindustrial hub, where the export of iron, generated by five huge steel industries installed in the municipality, became its main source of income. It also has the largest cattle herd in the state of Maranhão. Dominated by the steel multinational Vale do Rio Doce, Açailândia is no more the land of Açaí palms, but the city of aggressive uncontrolled land exploitation which has caused a deep pollution of its rivers and air, causing the gradual and slow death of this precious land and its people

The recent wars in Syria and Iraq has forced thousands of Palestinian refugees to flee from their refugee camps in the Middle East. In the immense city of São Paulo, the economic and commercial heart of Brazil, this new wave of migrants has found a place they can now finally call home, perfectly integrated in the South American country and its culture

On assignment for Amref Italia. Nice Leng'ete was just eight years old when her time came to undergo "the cut". She then decided to run away from her Masaai village in southern Kenya. Sine then, Nice has saved an estimated 15,000 girls from undergoing FGM (female genital mutilation) and for many, childhood marriages. She was named by Time Magazine in 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Together with Amref Health Africa she keeps fighting to stop female genital mutilation all over Kenya and Africa

The young artists of Luanda are in the vanguard of an ambitious and free generation that is challenging the system and the central power of Angola. The Angolan art scene is in full swing ferment now. In Luanda young creative people came together to challenge censorship, denounce social injustices, protest against corruption and the repression of political power

Indonesia, the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation, has had a long tradition of pluralism, religious freedom and inter-religious harmony, and is widely respected around the world for its successful transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. Rising religious intolerance, however, threatens to destroy these achievements and poses a threat not only to the countrys religious minorities, but to all Indonesians who value democracy, human rights, peace and stability. Across the archipelago, a growing number of Christian churches are threatened with closure, or in some instances violently attacked and destroyed, by radical Islamist groups and local authorities. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community also faces serious persecution, with many Ahmadi mosques and followers attacked. In 2012, Shia Muslims faced increasing threats and violence, a Shia cleric was imprisoned on charges of blasphemy, and an atheist was jailed because he publicly declared his disbelief in God. According to the Setara Institute, which publishes annual reports on religious freedom, in 2012 264 incidents were documented, compared with 244 in 2011, 2016 in 2010 and 200 in 2009. Indonesia’s pluralism is increasingly in peril.

The Portuguese colonization first, the 25 years of Indonesian violent occupation and the years of post-independence violence and civil war after, have left deep scars on this small and poor Asian island. The journey will be though, but today, the young country of Timor-Leste has started to look at its own future with different eyes, full of hope and peace, at last.

St Kilda, the famous artistic and bohemian neighbourhood of Melbourne is now booming with culture and art, new and alternative coffee shops, cool restaurants and bars and most importantly, the best and most famous beach in town. This is definitely the place to be in Melbourne if you want to experiment the vibrant and dynamic soul of this unique city

The new executive order of President Trump to begin the construction of a new wall between the whole United States and Mexico border line, has left many immigrants on both sides of the border worried, not knowing what this will mean for them, their families and the future. In the meanwhile, hundreds of Mexicans are deported every week from the US back into Mexico, through the famous Tijuana border, which during the past years has become the symbol of this humanitarian crisis

Almost two years after the beginning of the refugees crisis in Greece, now that the general attention of International Media is not focused anymore on the fewer arrivals on the island of Lesvos, a group of dedicated, brave and passionate women coming from different countries and different backgrounds, keep working on the Greek island, helping migrants and refugees, developing new interesting social projects such as Lesvos Solidarity or the Eco Relief Upcycling projects, and providing 24h help and support for them

Since 2015 Nepal has become a secular state. But today the religious freedom in the Himalayan country is threatened by the radical Hindu wing of the government, supported by India. A trip to a country where Christians and other religious minorities are at continuous risk of discrimination and attacks.

Ten years ago, Erica and Matthew decided to leave their homes and comfortable lives in the USA to find a peaceful and untouched land deep in Costa Rica's tropical rainforest, in the south Pacific coastal region, near the border with Panama. Here, in the middle of the forest, their visionary idea led them to create Finca Bellavista, a unique and totally sustainable treehouse community, spread across over 600 acres of secondary and primary rainforest. First of its kind in the world, Finca Bellavista is entirely off the grid, so all energy used on site is generated by the power of the sun and photovoltaic solar systems, and future energy needs will be met through a combination of solar and hydro assets. All homes must be stilt-built or arboreal in nature to allow for terrestrial migration of animals, the majority of food consumed inside the community and guest kitchens is grown on-site and the footprint of the community is minimized as much as possible

Italian doctor Pietro Gamba has been dedicating his life to the poor for over 30 years, in the small village of Anzaldo, near Cochabamba, at 4.000 meters of altitude, deep in the Bolivian Andes. Here, He built a modern hospital, point of reference, a safe place and most importanlty, the only hospital in the region available for the poor community of farmers "campesinos" who live here, in extreme poverty and difficult life conditions. The building provides emergency services to a population of around 12,000 people, located in 79 communities over an area of 1,000 square kilometers, performing every year more than 160 surgeries, saving lives and giving hope to the hopeless

In April 2015, the Brazilian Ministry of Health confirmed the autochthonous transmission of Zika virus, whose vector is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same one responsible for transmitting Dengue and Yellow fever. In September of the same year, in Brazil babies started to be born with microcephaly or other malformations. The clinical condition of these newborns was more aggressive than usual and wasn't following a pattern. The virus gets in the mother’s bloodstream and multiplies itself inside the fetus. As it gets sore, the brain tries but fails to grow. The sooner it happens during pregnancy, the more injuries the baby will have. The suspicion between the anomaly and the virus outbreak rose with the unprecedented increase of cases, especially in Recife and in the Northeast of Brazil. The researches gained weight when United Nations classified Zika as a worldwide emergency. So far the virus has already spread out by 45 countries, most in Latin America. On April 13th 2016, the American Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally confirmed the so feared link between these two outbreaks. In Recife, Pernambuco state's capital, families are uniting and organising to fight for the rights of their children with microcephaly, the Mothers of Angels Union, the Brazilian women making their voices heard and demanding a better future for their children.

In the morning of November 21, 2015, a sad and tense atmosphere was surrounding the beautiful and peaceful beach of Regência, located in Espírito Santo state, Southeast of Brazil. A stream of highly toxic mud was rushing his way down the Doce River, and would reach the Atlantic Ocean that Saturday afternoon. It was another chapter of the worst environmental crime in Brazil’s history. This toxic mud was generated by the collapse of a dam holding around 62 million cubic metres of mining waste, which belongs to Samarco, a joint venture of Vale and BHP Billiton. In sixteen days, it left traces of destruction through 663 kilometres, starting at the city of Mariana, in Minas Gerais state, the epicentre of the tragedy; it killed 17 people, displaced thousands, and killed life inside the waters of this river. Before the toxic mud, Regência used to be a peaceful village. Its 1,200 residents relied on the river and the sea to earn their living, by fishing, small-scale agriculture and tourism, especially surfing. The latter has been growing in the last three years, and this summer season was supposed to be the best ever. - Kevin Damasio-

The surfers of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro and Latin America's largest slum, are fighting to save their beloved home-break from man-made water pollution of their beach in São Conrado and at the same time trying to escape, through surf, to an otherwise unavoidable destiny of getting involve in drug trafficking, prison or maybe even death

Child trafficking is a pressing issue in the tea estates of Assam, in Northern India, near the border with Bhutan, where the worldwide famous Assam tea is produced. Tea gardens are the perfect places for human traffickers to entice young girls and boys with the promise of a better future, to escape from a life of poverty. The number of incidences involving child trafficking are growing every day as are the number of tea estate families whose children have gone missing. The tea state of Assam has become the leading areas for the incidence of child abuse and trafficking in India; According to the latest data of the State Crime Records Bureau, more than 1,071 female and 494 male children have gone missing in Assam in 2011-2012, the highest rate in the Northeast, which has now emerged as one of the biggest source area, transit route and destination for trafficking of children for forced labour. The lack of access to quality education from a young age and extreme poverty are the most important factors that in large numbers of children dropping out in their first year of schooling; an urgent and often untold issue, in the world’s prime region of tea production

Since January 2014, American – Bengali couple, Venessa Rude and Rashed Alam, are offering surf and English lessons to poor girls in difficult situations, on the beach of Cox’s Bazar, in the deep south of Bangladesh, near the border with Myanmar, through their Life saving and Surfing Club. Despite the opposition of the traditionally closed and men-centered Bengali community and society, they have managed to create this great space for these girls to learn and develop their surfing skills and passions. In a country where just forty percent of girls pass secondary exams, and approximately five million children ages between five and fifteen are engaged in child labour, the Life saving and Surfing Club provides the girls with education and freedom to realize their potential and maybe, one day, being able to leave Bangladesh in order to look for a better life and be able to provide for their families. For these girls, surf is not just a sport, but also a way of living and emancipate themselves

The Arabic word Sahrawi means "Inhabitant of the desert". Made up of tribal Arab-Berber, the Sahrawis are the original inhabitants of Western Sahara; A land and a people that suffered from decades of discrimination and exploitation, during the Spanish colonization before, and during the violent invasion and military occupation of Morocco after. Since 1975, the Sahrawis have lost their land, their homes as well as their loved ones. On October 31st 1975, the King of Morocco Hassan II ordered the invasion of Western Sahara. Since then, the Sahrawi people are on the run, forced to escape from their native lands and go to the refugees’ camps in the oasis of Tindouf, in Algeria, a few kilometers away from the border with their beloved land that was pulled out from them, among the general indifference of the international community. Every year, in the refugees camp of Dakhla, in Algeria, on the border with Mauritania and the Western Sahara, a group of brave and committed Spanish volunteers, organizes the FiSahara, the world’s most remote and isolated film festivals, with the aim of promoting the cause of the Sahrawi people in the world; For four days, refugees from all the oasis of Tindouf and the occupied territories, meet here to talk about their situation, their fears and their hopes, and watch the many films that come from all over the world on issues of peace and human rights. A chance to be together, to be strong with each other, in the hope, one day, not too far away, to finally cross, as free people, that border line and minefield that now separates them from home.

In the maquilas of El Salvador, in Central America, women workers manufacture clothing for major international brands . The work hours are very exhausting and salaries very low . And those who try to join a trade union or face the owners, asking for better rights and work conditions, are fired or even worse, threatened with death by the armed criminal gangs that control most areas of the capital, San Salvador, and where most of the factories are.

In recent years in Sri Lanka, the two main religious minorities, Christians and Muslims, have been subjected to increased persecution and attacks owing to the widespread mono-ethnic Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism. A Buddhist group, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), is alleged to have been behind attacks on churches and mosques as well as having organized a moral unofficial police team to check and contrast the activities of Christian priests and Muslim influence in daily life, causing repeated assaults on Christian churches and on its members

First the mediation of Pope Francis in order to stop the US embargo, then Raul Castro went to the Vatican to pay a visit, and finally, in September 2015 Pope Francis will be going to Cuba. A trip to the famous Caribbean island, where things are gradually changing for the US and Cuba governments, while small or nothing has actually changed for Cubans, while relationships between the Catholic Church and Castro government are improving significantly, even though things are actually much slower than they should be, as the famous Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez once said: “Cuba is changing at the speed of a turtle that flies attached to an eagle’s wings”

Since the 2010 devastating earthquake, thousands of Haitians have fleed the country, in search of a better future and life. From 2010 to the end of 2014, more than 50.000 haitians have reached the new promised land in the heart of South America: Brazil. After a dangerous and exhausting journey of more than 10 days through Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador and Peru, the immigrants finally reach the border with Brazil, in the small town of Brasileia, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, in the Brazilian state of Acre, in the middle of the Amazon forest. During this odyssey, they lose everything they got, facing robbery, smugglers and police corruption, especially during the land crossing from Ecuador to Brazil, passing through Peru. After having reached Brazil, they face a long wait inside the shelters in the capital of Acre state, Rio Branco, while getting the necessary documents and vaccinations in order to be able to travel legally and safely inside Brazil, and be able to reach their final destinations, which are mainly in the south of the country, in particular São Paulo, where they hope to rebuild their life.

Songs, rituals and ceremonies of this religion that has found in the remote edges of the amazon forest its deep soul. Here in Brazil It has grown constantly during the the last 70 years, counting today more than 20.000 believers only in the South American country. Santo Daime is a syncretic religion founded in the 1930s in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre by Raimundo Irineu Serra, known as Mestre Irineu. Santo Daime incorporates elements of several religious or spiritual traditions including Catholicism, Spiritism, African animism and indigenous South American shamanism. Drinking the Daime o Ayahuasca (a strong blend containing several psychoactive compounds), believers can reach the Divine through an intense spiritual trip

A few miles and a short boat ride from the Maldivian capital, Malé, Thilafushi is an artificial island built to solve Malé's trash problems. But today, with more than 10,000 tourists a week in the Maldives adding their waste everyday, the so-called rubbish island now covers 50 hectares and can't keep properly all the waste which is burnt all day long producing a huge polluted cloud of smoke that keeps intoxicating the workers and habitants of Thilafushi and the near city of Malé and the few resorts nearby. So much is being deposited that the island is growing at a square metre a day. There are more than three dozen factories, a mosque and homes for 150 Bengali migrants who work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in the most difficult conditions imaginable, without any kind or health protection. Thilafushi is Hell in Paradise far away from the image of splendid white sandy beaches and turquoise water that tourists from all over the world seek coming here

Visions of bustling streets of Kathmandu

A group of brave Italian volunteers of the no-profit Italian movement OMG, Operazione Mato Grosso, together with their spiritual leader Father Ugo De Censi, fight against poverty and misery in the villages of the Peruvian Andes since 1967, helping these poor people with their hard work. They gave everything for them, they dedicated their life to them, without never asking anything in return. A great life adventure, based on compassion and love.

Deep in the amazon forest, along the triple border between Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, far away from the rich and bustling cities of Brazil, small indigenous women are trying to overpass their life's difficulties in a problematic area of this country and simply to grow up and have a decent life, thanks to the help of a group of brave nuns who dedicated all their life to them and the future of these strong small women

After years of cruel and devastating civil war, the country is slowly trying to start again and rebuild its future, in order to give a better life to its people

The Yazidi community in the Kurdistan region of Iraq is struggling to survive. Persecuted and oppressed by their Muslim neighbours who accuse them of devil worship, they became a small minority in the region and together with the few Christians left in the area, they struggle everyday for their right to live peacefully in their own country. Their religion is seen as a highly syncretic complex of local beliefs that contains Zoroastrian elements and Islamic Sufi doctrine introduced to the area by Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir in the 12th century. The Yazidi believe in God as creator of the world, which he placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel.

In Rapa Nui there are more horses living on the island than men; The stories of these wild horses and the local horsemen, "los jorgos". Tourism and ancient traditions trying to co-exist together in peace despite the modernity knocking at the door.

In the triple border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, live the biggest muslim community in Brazil. Here, where Paranà and Igazù river meet, a lively and active community live and work intensively and peacefully between the town of Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) and Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil) selling and buying literally everything. A good example of a succesfull integration in the heart of a prevalent Catholic South America

FRONTIERS is a long term project that took me almost 2 years to finish. This huge work is focused on photographing the daily-life of people who live in Brazil’s remote border towns. It has always amazed me how big Brazil is. Living in this magic country, I could start feeling the huge variety of origins and therefore, cultures, religions, dialects, habits, flavours and ways of living that form this country. It fascinated me even more to discover that all this variety could get broader if we go further to the borders, where all these rich Brazilian mixtures meet other South American mixtures giving birth to interesting blends of people made of these many different traditions, from two, sometimes three different nationalities, held together and apart by a line geographically created to separate territories. I started traveling and documenting this reality and I came across so many things worth telling. The main one is that in such places where “my” and “I” could be a reason for division and fight what I have seen so far is a beautiful atmosphere of union and peace among all differences. People in these frontier cities live in a perfect pace of integration, respect and cooperation. They have unique stories to tell, stories of lives across two countries, divided and yet united by a river, a bridge, a road, a forest, a language, a government. These people share much more than a simple territory line and different ID cards. They build friendships, move back and forward, commute, fall in love, start families and it would all be just the same as everywhere else, if it wasn’t for the fact that they do this everyday walking through a thin line between two nations. I wanted go on photographing these stories of lifestyle and the relationships these people have with their foreign neighbours and continue to document how life actually happens in the midst of diverse and common. I travelled to more than 15 different border towns between Brazil and other ten countries in South America, along almost 17.000 km of borders, registering people’s daily life in their environments looking for similarities and peculiarities of each of these regions from north to south of this huge country, frontiers thousand of kilometres away of each other with another country next door.

Brazil: Sao Paulo in art. Graffiti, murales and all the street art of the economic capital of Brazil from Vila Madalena's hipster neighbourhood, to the slum of Paraisopolis

Copts in Egypt constitute the largest and strongest Christian community in the Middle East. 10 % of Egyptian population are Christians. A huge minority at risk: the Christian Copts are terrified about their fate in Egypt. In their history, copts have always suffered and keep suffering discrimination, persecution and violence. What future is possible for them? What future can be seen in the present uncertain and unstable situation of Egypt nowadays?

Bali, Indonesia: this is paradise. Or maybe not? Not too far from the white sandy beaches of this famous Indonesian island lies a cruel reality that few people know about. Mental disease in Bali is not an easy thing. The secluded and traditional Balinese community doesn’t accept the existance of this illness. Mental disease is considered a sign of bad luck and not it is not considered to be an illness worth to be cured. Families and people are not well informed and ready to face the disease and the only way they face it is secluding their beloved ones in small rooms or even cells kept in chains without having the chance to move, to walk, to have a proper life. Not too far from the main touristic spots, this hidden reality is what tourists don’t wanna see and local government doesn’t want to show. This is Bali, between ignorance and poverty in one of the most visited places on Earth. Luckily Suryani Institute for mental health, an ONG with just few volunteers, is trying to change this trend and help the families and the patients to understand how this illness can and must be cure, not with chains but with patience, support, love and proper medicines

Purushatva. Domestic violence against women in India. Purushatva means "daring" in Hindi. Purushatva, men who dare. Men who dare to beat their wives and their own children. Who are these men? But most importantly, who are these women who had the goats to tell their stories? Their stories of ignorance, poverty and violence. Women who dare to tell their stories in this absurd strict Indian society. They have suffered for too long in the complete indifference of the whole country. Three women, three different stories, three different backgrounds but the same courage to tell their stories of beatings, rapes, violence, insanity. They are proud to be women, proud to be Indians. They just want justice, they just want women to be respected in India, they just want a society and a government to protect and help them like they deserve. They just want to be women. This is a story of suffers but also a story of hope. The hope that one day, with the help of each of us, this will also change. Part of the documentary short film "Purushatva-Men who dare" by Timothy Gaikwad

The great Canadian city welcomes you with nature, parks, skyscrapers and incredible views of the bay. Here is where nature and man managed to create a perfect balance where to coexist peacefully

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

As Syria plunges deeper into the fifth year of civil war, Christians have now become the main target of ISIL, being forced to flee the country. Uprisings against al-Assad, who became president in 2000 after the death of his father, began in March 2011, following the toppling of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. The Syrian uprising may have held promise for many citizens, but for Syria's fragile Christian community, the prospect of Assad's fall triggers fear of a dangerous and uncertain future. Images of a country and a reality that doesn't exist anymore.

Tear sheets, latest publications in magazines, websites and newspapers

The small island of Pianosa is one of the last existing natualistic paradise of Italy. Off Tuscany's coasts, not far from Elba island, It had being used as a high security prison for more than 142 years, it had host some of the most dangerous Mafia and terrorism criminals of Europe. Secluded to the world so far, it has now opened its doors to a little number of selected visitors in order to preserve its extraordinary naturalistic beauty and richnesses. A real treasure that definitely would deserve a better program of preservation

Shanghai, China. The modern face of this ancient country where new and old generation meets together. The future of China is here, now

Kaballah eletronic music festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil

IF THIS IS ITALY: the desperate living conditions of illegal immigrants in Italy. They come mainly from Africa and Eastern Europe. Completely abandoned by the Italian government without any help, they live in an absolute horrible and unhealthy environment, struggling everyday to survive working illegally as underpaid fields' workers. Just few people are really aware of the situation and try to help them as much as they can. One of them is Bartolo Mercuri who dedicated most of these last years helping these poor and miserable people, together with other volunteers, giving them food, medicines, moral support and clothes at "Il Cenacolo", a Christian immigrants daycare center near Rosarno, in the southern Italian region of Calabria. Almost nothing has been done so far by the local government and the local residents to help them, Who will ever stand up for them?

Nowadays, the image of Iraq media gives us, is war and devastation, car bomb attacks and terrorism. Is there peace in Iraq? Will there ever be peace in Iraq? Unfortunately it is pretty much impossible to answer those questions for the moment. But there is one place in this tormented country where people still live safely and in peace, far away from all these problems. Twenty kilometres north - eastern of Mosul, overlooking the Nineveh plateau, lies a peaceful village surrounded by olive trees. Its name is Bahzani, which means the land of panorama in Syriac language. This small village is inhabited only by Syriac-Orthodox Christians. Since the beginning of the post Saddam Hussein era in 2003, the Christian Assyrians have been persecuted and murdered by Islamic extremists. Most of them were therefore forced to move to Europe and America, Sweden and Germany in particular. Those who could not afford to move to Europe have found a safe refuge in Bahzani. The safety in the village and in the villages around is guaranteed by the Kurdish military force, which is operating in this area since the American invasion. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is actually reclaiming this area wanting it to be part of Kurdistan. Bahzani is a mere 20 km from the dangerous Mosul. It seems so near but at the same time so far from the peace and the serenity of this village. Here all the problems of Iraq and Christians in this country seem not to exist. The religious authority of Bahzani is Abouna Ephraim (Abouna in Arabic means priest), a generous priest who comes from a priests dynasty and he has dedicated all his life to this village. He lives protected by his bodyguards armed with Kalashnikov. These kind of bodyguards are just simple Christian youths from the village. They dont know anything about weapons and most of them have seen only one war, which is nothing compared to all the other Iraqis. "I did not want them to protect me but the Kurdish military force obliged me to accept their protection, just in case, nothing has ever happened but you never know". Abouna Ephraim explains to me while we are heading towards the Church of Bahzani. People here are simple, they still have ancient traditions and live as it was once, maybe 50-60 years ago in Europe, but with the addition of TV satellites, mobile phones and internet. After all it seems that technology has come even here in this remote village. Abouna is a wise politician as well. He knows how to behave in this difficult context. He knows how to keep the peace, how to keep the fragile balances of stability that he has created in Bahzani. "When I am not here, when I am travelling to Europe the situation here is really bad, he said; the central government of Baghdad cuts the electricity and the water, and we are cut out of the world. Once we will not have the Kurdish protection anymore, we will all have to migrate to Europe and abandon this place"

Climbing up the dusty and arid roads towards the Monastery of Mor Gabriel, an important spiritual centre in the Syriac Orthadox tradition, the car crosses wide landscapes of rocks, with few snatches of cultivated land. In Tur Abdin, the toughness of the lands reflects the harshness of life here. But the view from the Monastery is stunning: the entire plateau is in front of me: from one side the Syrian desert, from another the Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Located between the Tigris and the Euphrates, Tur Abdin is one of the most important Syriac Christian regions in the Middle East. These desolated lands are inhabited by the Assyrians — the most ancient Christian community still alive — whose Syriac Orthodox people speak an ancient Aramaic dialect called Turoyo, the dialect of Jesus. Along the road, we pass a continuous flow of “Christian” villages with houses made of clay and stones: Hah, Salah, Sawro. Horses and cows cross the roads, paying no attention to us. But farmers stop working and kids stop playing and every smile from us is returned with hundreds from them. This land and these people have been persecuted for centuries, from the end of the Ottoman Empire, until now, by all sides, political and religious, from the so-called lay government of Ankara to the Kurdish nationalists in the 1990s. Always in the middle of political more than religious “matters”, these poor but proud people have faced terrible abuses from the Turkish government, assisted by the Kurds, which, particularly during the First World War, has tried to eradicate the Christian presence in this area. Moreover, the Turks are now accusing the Assyrians of supporting the “illegal” Kurdish movement, which is claiming independence over the region for the so-called “Kurdistan State”. In this complicated international context, the Christian minority find that they are still paying the consequences, primarily because they are the only ethnic group without political power or support. As a result Tur Abdin is facing a painful process of emigration of its native population, forced to escape from persecution to Syria, Europe and the USA. More than 90 per cent of the Christian population has fled. In the past few years a few brave families have begun to return to Tur Abdin, however, despite the situation remaining dangerous for them. “Only less than 2000 people are still living here,” our driver informs us, proudly underlining that he is one of them. While taking pictures among the villages of Tur Abdin, among these amazing and genuine people, I am told time and time again that they have managed to survive centuries of persecution because of their strong and unwavering Christian faith. It must be a sign that in the Syriac language, the name “Tur Abdin” means “Mountain of the servants of God”; for sure they are the strongest and most faithful of servants.

Going to work by ferry in London is one of the best and fastest way to reach the City. Not so many people use it as a regular commuter service but It is increasingly becoming popular among tourists that will use it for the Olympic Games in July 2012

The amazing and ancient complex of temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Mumbai, India. The raising hinduist integralism is pushing Christians against the wall. In the villages outside the city, people are tortured, persecuted, discriminated because they became Christians. Women raped, men and children beaten or burnt. Intolerance and lack of control from the government has lead to a terrible situation for the commmunity in these small and extremely poor villages far away from everything. Few people and organizations are trying to help these people but it is just not enough. Where is all this leading to? No answers so far.