Still Atop US Navy Sat Dish in Sicily

Update on Satellite Dish Climber:  Last we heard Sicilian activist Turi was still on top of the US military war fighting satellite dish surrounded by police standing at the bottom pleading with him to come down.  Turi is well known for having previously entered the base numerous times by cutting holes in the fence.  I’ve seen videos of him trying to plant seeds inside the base which was illegally built upon a oak nature preserve.

We spent yesterday touring two more ancient towns in southern Modica and Scicli.  We had lunch in a home with a great view of the town (which also had Wifi access which is so far hard to come by) and then our walking tour of Scicli was quite amazing – this is a place where people lived inside caves in the mountain sides right up until the 1960’s.  Once relatively unknown, a popular film about the cave dwellers brought the tourists to Scicli.

Our evening was spent at the home of a young man who recently won an award for his own film making which was his final project as he graduated college.  He cooked a lovely pasta meal for Dave, Yosi and I along with one of his lifelong friends.  Beginning supper at 8:00 pm, which has been normal for us so far, we sat around talking about the politics behind Italian wine and olive oil as well as US war mongering around the world.  We also discussed the growing military confrontation between the US and Russia-China as the later challenge Washington’s desire for unipolar global control.  By 11:15 we were still going strong and finally wrapped it up at 11:30 pm as we still needed to get a ride back to our digs in Ragusa 20 miles away.  So the three of us made it into bed just at midnight – another night on the political circuit in Sicily – with bellies full of wine, cheese and pasta.

Today we have a day off in Ragusa - we have come to the square by the cathedral where Wifi is available.  This evening a community supper is being organized for us.  We are learning much while here and eating well, drinking abundantly, and loving the passion of the Sicilian people. Our first talk is Friday night in Ragusa and then on Saturday we visit the US MUOS satellite warfare base.