Titizano Terzani: "Letters against the
war" the point of view that the media don't care of.
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free e-book: "Letters against the war"
Few notes about the author of "Letters against
the War":
Terzani was born
in Florence in 1938. He attended the University of Pisa as a law student
and, after graduating, he started working for Olivetti, the most advanced
office equipment producer in Italy. In 1965, he had the chance to go
on a business trip to Japan. This was his first contact with Asia and
his first step towards his decision to change his life radically and
explore Asia. He then resigned from Olivetti and moved to Columbia University
in order to study chinese language and culture.
In 1971 moved to
Singapore as a reporter, with his wife and their two small children. The
German weekly Der Spiegel appointed him correspondent from Asia. He then
offered his collaboration to the Italian daily newspapers Corriere della
Sera and La Repubblica, thus becoming one of the most prestigious Italian
journalists on an international level.
Terzani knew much about the historical and political background of Asia,
but had also a deep interest in the philosophical aspects of Asian culture.
Though an unbeliever, he always looked in his journeys for the spiritual
aspects of the countries he was visiting. He lived in Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Bangkok and New Delhi which became his second home. His stay in
Beijing came to an end when he was arrested and expelled from the country
for "counter-revolutionary activities". Based on his experiences,
he wrote La Porta Proibita (Behind The Forbidden Door), a highly critical
book about post-maoist China.
Terzani's experiences in Asia are described in articles and essays in newspapers,
as well as the several books that he wrote. In the first book, which he wrote
in 1973, Pelle di Leopardo (Leopard Skin), he tells about the last phases
of the Vietnam war. One of his most interesting books is Un Indovino mi Disse
(A Fortune Teller Told Me), the report of a journey through different Asian
countries. The journey lasted for about a year. In this period, Terzani never
took a plane, following the advice and warning of a fortune teller he had
met.
In 1997, Terzani received the Luigi Barzini Prize for his activities as
a reporter. After 9/11 he wrote Lettere Contro la Guerra (Letters Against
the War). The book was born as a response to the anti-islamic invectives
published by the Italian journalist and author Oriana Fallaci on the daily
Il Corriere Della Sera on 29 September 2001.
In his last book Un Altro Giro di Giostra (One More Ride on the Merry-go-round),
Terzani deals with his illness, (a tumor) which eventually led to his death,
but not before he had travelled and searched through different and far away
countries and civilizations, looking for a cure for his cancer and for a
new vision of life. A short excerpt from his book: "...after a while,
the goal of my journey was not the cure for my cancer anymore, bur for the
sickness which affects all of us: mortality" He spent the last months
of his life in Orsigna, a little village in the Appenines near Pistoia that
he considered "his true, last love".
Terzani died on 28 July 2004. His last memories are recorded in a beautiful
interview for the Italian television entitled "Anam" an Indian
word that literally means "the one with no name", appellative gained
during an experience in an ashram in India.
See the itanian web site http://www.tizianoterzani.com/ fan
"fun" club for more info about this fantastic author.
Read
more about Tiziano Terzani and his book on Amazon.com.
- Pelle di leopardo, (Leopard Skin, 1973)
- Giai Phong! La Liberazione di Saigon (Giai Phong! The Fall
and Liberation of Saigon, 1975)
- Holocaust in Cambodia (1981)
- La Porta Proibita (Behind The Forbidden Door: Travels in
Unknown China, 1985)
- Buonanotte, Signor Lenin (Goodnight, Mr Lenin: A Journey
Through the End of the Soviet Empire, 1992)
- Un indovino mi disse (A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earth-bound
Travels in the Far East, 1995)
- In Asia - (1998)
- Lettere contro la guerra (Letters Against the War,
2002)
- Un altro giro di giostra (One More Ride on the Merry-go-round,
2004)
- La fine e' il mio inizio (2006)
The courses of war are to be found within us, more than they are outside
us. They are to be found in passions such as desire, fear, insecurity, greed
and vanity. Gradually we have to rid ourselves of them. On the 11th of September
the world has changed. Now we ourselves have to change.
It’s time to move into the open, time to make a stand for the values
we believe in. A society gains much more strength by its moral resolution
than it does by acquiring new weapons.
India is home. I’ve lived here for years. It’s here that I
keep my books, that I find the refuge a man seeks from the world’s
hustle and bustle. Here, as nowhere else, I get a sense of the senseless
flowing of life. But now even India is a disappointment. Even India talks
only of war, mobilizes troops and artillery, and happily wags its tail behind
the American military bandwagon. A country of a billion people! The country
which owes its independence to Gandhi, the Mahatma, the noble soul, today
a country just like any other. What a pity.
REVIEWS
Terzani declares peace on war and war on American thinking.
-International Herald Tribune, 11th of April 2002
Terzani attempts the difficult operation of forcing the West at war to
think it over. He suggests that the only way to stop terrorism is not by
killing terrorists, but by eliminating the reasons that turn a man or a woman
into a terrorist.
-L’Espresso, Rome February 2002
This is the cry of an honest man who in Afghanistan hasn’t seen yet
another war in his long career, but the West at its dead end.
-Il Corriere della Sera, Milan, February 2002
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: (Read
more on Amazon USA)
TIZIANO TERZANI, born in Florence, Italy, was for 30 years
Asia correspondent of the German magazine Der Spiegel. As such he was based
in Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Thailand. Since 1994 he lives in
India, now mostly in the Himalayas. He has written various books. In English
recently appeared The Forbidden Door, Good Night, Mister Lenin and A Fortune
Teller told me.
Table of Contents of the E-Book (free in english) Letters
Against The War:
- 10 September 2001
The Wasted Day
- Letter from Orsigna
An opportunity
- Letter from Florence
The Sultan and St Francts
- Letter from Peshawar
In the Story-tellers Bazaar
- Letter form Quetta
The Talib with the computer
- Letter from Kabul
The Potato seller and the wolf cage
- Letter from Delhi
Hei Ram
- Letter from the Himalayas
What shall we do?
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