Valerio Cataldi, President of the Association “Carta di Roma”
How did Carta di Roma come about and with what intent?
Carta di Roma is a deontological code written in 2011, adopted by the Order of Journalists and the Federation of Italian Press. It is a decalogue to help find the right words to talk about immigration, refugees and asylum seekers, because words shape things and can distort the reality of facts. People’s perception of events such as migration is calibrated by the words they hear on television or read in newspapers.
Our goal is to help journalists understand the importance of words in reporting on a phenomenon that is very complex and, since the Charter code is binding, support them in using legally appropriate words.
Given your experience as a journalist and communicator, what do you think is still missing to be able to give voice to asylum seekers, refugees, minorities and their rights?
In the journalistic narrative we don’t find the migration, the escape of people fleeing war, hunger or adverse climatic events… often the voice of these people is missing. Basically what happens is that we talk to each other, we don’t stop to understand the reasons for the flight or the difficulties of the journey, the goals and the destination that each of them set for themselves. Annually we do a report that tells the state of information, and every year we find that only 7 percent of the global information on this issue is in the words of the protagonists. In the journalistic narrative on the issue, if we do not listen to the protagonists, the risk is that we are only talking to each other, focusing too much on our own vision that is influenced by expectations and fears.
The contribution of the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai was central to the creation of an exhibition, organized inside the Shoah Memorial in Milan, a very significant place, which displays objects that belonged to the shipwrecked people of Lampedusa on October 3, 2013. A tragedy in which 368 people lost their lives that drew the attention of world public opinion to the shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea. From the beginning with the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai it was essential to have a continuous exchange and enrichment with respect to the contents of what we wanted to be the message we wanted to launch together with the occasion of the exhibition.
Giulia Tornari, President of the cultural Association “Zona”
On September 26, the exhibition of objects that belonged to the castaways of October 3, 2013 opened at the Shoah Memorial in Milan. How did it come about and what are its goals?
The idea for the exhibition was born one evening in Rome, when we met over a beer with Valerio Cataldi. He told me that he had items that belonged to the Lampedusa shipwrecks of October 3, 2013 and that he was using them to raise awareness in schools about the tragedy of the shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea.
Soon it would be the 10th anniversary since that October 3 and we agreed to do something about it. Valerio had also talked with Vera Vigevani, who had the idea of organizing an exhibition at the Shoah Memorial in Milan. She is a Holocaust survivor and one of the founders of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, because she lost a daughter during the dictatorship in Argentina. A woman with such a tragic past had the insight to connect a place like the Memorial to today’s migrant tragedy. It became clear that the shared goal was to raise awareness through objects, which have great potential because they are objects that could belong to us, such as rings, chains, notebooks, passports, etc.
I am involved in photography, and I thought it would be important to document the objects to create a visual archive. To make the photographs, I involved Karim El Maktafi, an Italian-Moroccan photographer who has long dealt with the theme of migration in his work, related to its history. We had long thought about doing something together and this seemed like the ideal project. Seeing his photographs one can understand the kind of sensitivity and approach Karim had with respect to the theme, which is very difficult to deal with. In addition to the display of the Lampedusa objects, we also decided to represent the rescuers, those who gave their willingness and time to save these people. Photography can be conveyed in many digital ways and is a tool, a means of bringing more attention to these objects that are bodies of crime. Videos with testimonies and historical reconstruction of the events of the October 3 shipwreck are usable at the exhibition. Obviously this is a first chapter, we will continue the project with the hope of expanding with other contributions.
Testimony of Adal Neguse, Eritrean refugee
The exhibition The Memory of Objects means a lot to me because I lost my brother in this tragedy 10 years ago. When we talk about these tragic events, we often talk about numbers… 300 or 400 dead. What the exhibition conveys to visitors is a different perspective, seeing the objects that the victims had with them at the time of the shipwreck brings us closer to the fact that they too were human beings like us.
I would like to encourage young people to find solutions to protect human rights. It is very important to address this issue today because the world is full of misery, there are many people who are refugees; it is everyone’s responsibility to do their part to make it a better place to live. I would like to encourage young people to find the courage to go out and fight a “good fight” to have a positive impact on other people’s attitudes. Perhaps some people may think that their own voice is not that important or that they cannot do anything if they are alone. But let us always remember that we are not alone, there are many of us fighting. And if we also add our voice, we become even stronger. You are not alone! Come out and fight!