This magazine was launched in Italy in Italian in 1999 to gather testimonies, descriptions and observations of and reflections on the private-public times we live in, in whatever forms writing allows for: notes, poetry, stories, letters, essays, diary entries, and so on. Starting from the issue of February 2005, and favouring one of the forms we have always pursued, it has become a diary. Also in this new edition the magazine is published in English, and its collaborators are and will, more and more, be people from different countries in the world. In other words, it is not going to be an ‘Italian’ magazine any more. Why? Simply because it is going to talk about ourselves, and for a long time now, and more and more often, when saying ‘us’ we have not been thinking of us Italians only. Its contributors include individuals for whom writing is a daily, at times professional, activity, as well as those for whom it is only an occasional, infrequent pursuit. In a word, intellectuals and non-intellectuals. But always with a critical eye towards priorities, social and political order, and the thinking and sensibility that, generally speaking, guide the world today.

Why a diary? Because all together on these pages we want to be ‘witness’ to the times we are living in: to read and comment on them together, periodically offering readers the possibility of reliving a recent past, which they themselves have experienced, through a ‘chorus’ of diverse voices. Moreover, a diary is an exercise of attention. And it can also be a container for scattered thoughts, observations, and questions: those which never become ‘fully expressed’, and which, especially in our times when it is a matter of re-considering everything, may offer some precious help. Finally, a diary is the kind of ‘personal’ writing par excellence, and this magazine has always intended to be a magazine of single people who talk to and exchange ideas with single people.

In outline, what we have imagined is a written diary that originates from one’s own ‘historical-political Self’ (the ‘Self’ that actively or passively confronts political, local or global events and issues) as well as from one’s ‘social Self’ (the one that comes into prominence, for example, when taking a bus or train or going to the supermarket: the generic ‘Self’ among others), from one’s ‘role-determined Self’ (the ‘Self’ related to one’s own work and activity), and also from one’s ‘private Self’ (the ‘Self’ among friends, in family life, with one’s feelings, desires, etc). The magazine comes out both on paper and on the Internet. Whoever would like to collaborate will be welcome, and will write, of course, what he or she prefers; but in selecting writings, we will prefer those reflections and life experiences that are not the most ‘original’, but the most incisive, revealing and free (the least contaminated, for instance, by the media blah-blah).