Special Issue - Colors with Love

WITH LOVE is a special issue of COLORS (December 2011) telling the stories of imprisoned lives that do not have the freedom to choose on which side to stay. There are love stories, too, of those who hold out in order to defend life. Like the 50 journalists working for Shabelle Media Network, an independent radio station of Mogadishu, Somalia, which broadcasts to a catchment area of some 250 km and online. Far from their loved ones, these brave journalists live barricaded in their studio because they fear the vengeance of Al Shabab. They put their safety at risk in order to provide non-partisan information.

Mayada, 55, decided to tell her story because the world should know what is happening in Syria where armed militias have for months repressed popular demonstrations with bloodshed, causing thousands of victims. After fleeing to Lebanon with her husband and their 18-year-old daughter, Mayada is anxiously awaiting the day when she can return to her homeland, which for her has the greatest value of all.

The Egyptian blogger Mina Ibrahim Daniel, Copt, fought for freedom and social justice too and believed in respecting religious beliefs. He was killed together with 24 others on 9 October 2011 during the Maspero demonstrations.

Gaetano, a businessman from Calabria, Italy, has been totally deprived of his freedom. His statements to the police led to the arrest of 48 ‘Ndrangheta mobsters, but for the past decade he and his family have lived under police protection. His greatest fear is not of being killed but of not succeeding in bringing about a radical change. Today his freedom is embodied in his courageous decision to stay in his home region and to not change his identity, in honour of his human dignity.

WITH LOVE is available in four bilingual editions: English + Italian, French, Spanish or Arabic and was officially presented in December 2011 in Libya. The occasion was the donation by COLORS magazine to the city of Tripoli of the UNHATE DOVE, a large, dove-shaped sculpture covered in over 22,000 spent cartridges picked up in the world’s “hot spots”. The art installation was officially donated on Saturday 24 December 2011, Independence Day, which the Libyan people celebrated again for the first time in 42 years.