DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Giuseppe Paterno, 96, Italy’s oldest student, celebrates after graduating from his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy during his graduation at the University of Palermo, in Palermo, Italy, on 29th July, 2020. PICTURE: Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File photo.
• Giuseppe Paterno, who is 98, has become Italy’s oldest graduate – again. Paterno has added a masters in history and philosophy from the University of Palermo to an initial degree in the same subjects he earned there two years ago. He passed the latest degree with top marks, again, his proud family said on Facebook. He has no plans to rest and wants to write a novel using his trusty typewriter. Born in 1923, Paterno grew up in a poor family in Sicily and despite his love of books and studying, he wasn’t able to go to university as a young man. Instead he served in the navy during World War Two from the age of 20 and went on to be a railway worker. – EMILY ROE/Reuters
A local resident takes a look to the book of proposed new constitution, at a hawker’s street stall at downtown Santiago, Chile, on 14th July. PICTURE: Reuters/Ivan Alvarado
• In cities around Chile, bookstores and street vendors are touting a new, purple book that promises – or, depending on the reader’s view, threatens – to reshape society in the Andean nation. The book outlays the country’s proposed new constitution. Its 388 articles touching on social rights, gender, politics and the environment aim to close the door on the current text, drawn up in 1980 under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Chileans will vote to approve or reject the new constitution on 4th September. While they overwhelmingly backed the plan to write a new one in a referendum two years ago, opinion polls suggest the final draft may be rejected. Support has dropped on fears that some of the proposals from the assembly in charge of formulating the text are too radical. In capital Santiago, long lines have been forming outside bookstores and street stalls of people looking to pick up the recently-finalized text – a bright purple paperback decorated with a Chilean flag. Street vendors said they were selling dozens of copies a day. “The money’s here now,” said Alfredo Lopez, a vendor who normally sells fruit on Santiago’s Ahumada thoroughfare. Lopez sold masks when the pandemic hit and now has a table full of the books and a hand-made yellow sign touting the text for 3,000 pesos ($US3). While Lopez hasn’t read the text and doesn’t plan to, the stream of customers is constant and Lopez says he’s been selling 70 to 80 copies a day. Isidora Varela, 25, a communications professional who bought a copy of the constitution on Tuesday, said she felt it was her duty to read the text and inform others. “Not everyone’s going to read the constitutional text because the information is super dense,” she said. Varela said she had seen a lot of misinformation and “fake news” relating to the proposed constitution circulating on social media. – ALEXANDER VILLEGAS and ESTEBAN MEDEL with NATALIA RAMOS/Reuters
Venezuelan professional breakdance athlete Kenyer Mendez, 27, who has gone viral by performing a head slide trick to make a living dancing at Colombia’s traffic lights and dreams of joining Venezuela’s first Olympic breakdance team in 2024, slides down a street headfirst at a traffic light, in Caracas, Venezuela, on 22nd June. PICTURE: Reuters/Gaby Oraa
• When the traffic light turns red on a busy Caracas street, Venezuelan dancer Kenyer Mendez seizes his chance – sliding headfirst between waiting cars to show off his daredevil breakdance moves. Videos of Mendez performing the so-called “head slide” with an oiled helmet on the streets of Venezuela’s capital have gone viral, and the 27-year old dancer is dreaming big now: hoping to make the national breakdancing team for the Olympics as well as break the Guinness World Record for longest head slide. “You need to be in good physical condition to perform each trick,” said Mendez. “Even for the easiest trick, you need to be in good physical condition. It is why it [break dancing] has to be admired and respected like the other sports.” – JOHNNY CARVAJAL/Reuters
