Jesus Malverde the Narcos Saint

In the north-west of Mexico, between the Sierra Madre mountains and the Pacific Ocean, there is the state of Sinaloa is known as the “cradle of drug trafficking.” Its state capital, Culiacan, the capital of the drug across the country. An average of 2-3 drug-related deaths are reported each day, and the drug violence between police and rival drug gangs is common in the city. However, just around the corner from the governor’s office, on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, a sanctuary exists as an ‘amalgam of narco-culture and his Catholicism. There he pays tribute to Jesús Malverde, also called Narcos Saint.
A steady stream of people can usually be found there, placing candles near busts, leaving framed photographs of loved ones who want healing or protection.

The dry floods

Jesus Malverde il Santo dei Narcos

Nel nord-ovest del Messico, tra le montagne della Sierra Madre e l’oceano Pacifico, c’è lo stato di Sinaloa che è conosciuto come la “culla del narcotraffico”. La sua capitale dello stato, Culiacán, è la capitale della droga di tutto il paese. Una media di un paio di decessi per droga sono segnalati ogni giorno, e la violenza della droga tra polizia e bande di narcotrafficanti rivali è comune in città.

The Goddess of Bliss and its plutonium

In the 60s the Himalaya was still considered the Shangri-La of exploration, a wild and legendary place free from celebrity that would have characterized it thanks to the mountaineering of the late twentieth century. The story I am about to tell concerns the 24th highest mountain in the world, the Nanda Devi (7,816m), which is located in India in the Great Himalaya in the northern sector of Uttar Pradesh in the domain of the Kumaum region, one of the areas with highest population density in the world.

Rambo live again in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea, is the second largest island in the world after Greenland, is the realm of complexity, whose extreme environmental variety is reflected in the fragmentation of peoples, languages, mores and customs as in no other country in the world. It is an ethnic kaleidoscope, a linguistic and cultural mosaic: just over seven million inhabitants between Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya speak almost a thousand different languages, about a fifth of all those spoken on the planet. Here among prehistoric corners hidden by time and nature, something still survives from the original human being, the one who has to work daily to solve problems related to food and survival.

The oldest Indian religion of non-violence

About a year ago i read a wonderful book called “Nine Lives”, which speaks of the living link between past and present in religious terms in Indian society. Hence was born my curiosity on Jainism which is considered one of the oldest religions in the world. Jainism arose from the same environments heterodox Indian classical, in the plain of the Ganges in the first century BC; and is slightly older than the Buddhism but very similar. Is defined ad as the “pre-Buddhism”, but in fact is much more demanding and extreme.

Saints and secret societies of Siberia

With its eleven million square kilometers Siberia it is one of the largest territories and remote in the world. For generations, the Russians have used it as a gathering place for all kinds of religious exiles and prisoners. The first thing you have to think about the idea of Siberia is a vast and desolate place where there were very few people. The Russians have always seen it as an empty space that you found them to be filled, but unfortunately we never succeeded because it was too big! There were no roads suitable for traveling to the country; and this has contributed to the sense of isolation that the Russian community in this environment felt very cold and hostile. Siberian religious scene is particularly rooted, as there was minimal overlap of other cultures. Siberian shamanism is therefore considered by the classical scholars, the less contaminated by other cultures.