Seeing ghosts and seeing them everywhere, shouting at censorship and still being proven wrong. The Italian-Tunisian rapper Ghali has understood that a good strategy to gather a little more consensus in this country is to wear the shoes of victim censored from the system. In the dystopian climate that reigns in Italy, where we see gags in every direction, yet the criticism is more ferocious than ever, he too wanted to participate in this unusual “pigeon shooting“, accusing the Radio Italia organization of having excluded him from the Naples event due to his pro-Palestine position.
Ghali participated in the Milan concert of the popular Italian radio and during his performance he asked for a minute of silence for the victims of Gaza. All this happened on May 15th. At the beginning of June, interviewed by a pro-Palestinian channel, Ghali pointed the finger at Italy, accusing Radio Italia of having excluded him due to his stance from the subsequent event, which will be held shortly in Naples, and of having found out just “two days before”. These are his words: “I was punished for this (the pro-Palesina appeal, ed.). Because I had to do a show, for June 27th, in Naples, and they canceled me“. And then he added: “I was surprised, in a country where there is freedom of expression and democracy (…) I wasn't sorry but I was surprised and shocked“.
But in reality things didn't go exactly like that. And it is Radio Italia itself that denies the reconstruction made by the rapper on a foreign channel, perhaps thinking that the echo of his words would not reach Italy. “The invitation for Ghali was initially scheduled for the event in Naples, later on insistence of the same artist and his management, directly with our President, it was possible to include him in the cast of Radio Italia Live – Il Concerto a Milano, last May 15th“, explains the broadcaster in a note. Ghali's insistence on participating in the Milan event was understood as an impossibility to participate in the one in Naples and so, Radio Italia continues, the invitation for the Neapolitan concert, “it is automatically decayed and, in fact, Ghali's name never appeared in theofficial list of the cast of Naples, released last May 28th“.
There was probably a misunderstanding within the artist's staff, or perhaps it was not made clear that the invitation for the singer related to only one date of the two and not both. If this is the case, it is a free, arbitrary choice on the part of the organization, which is not required to account to guests for the way in which it intends to manage them. Also for this reason the fact that, before even understanding what happened, the rapper went to give an interview moving an accusationeven rather unpleasant, without having asked for clarification from those responsible, reveals the desire to simply want to raise a question fuss. Or perhaps they want to regain some consensus on the cheap, as has already happened.
This desire to fuel ghosts that exist only in the controversies of those who move for political interest, because Ghali, willingly or not, with his music and his declarations makes politics, is symptomatic of a public debate which reached the minimum in terms of quality.