Testimonial letter from Cesare Medail
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Cesare Medail. It is "Exhibit A-774" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original.
The original letter, written in Italian, appears first, followed by its English translation. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file with the whole original letter, the translation and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has 3 pages.
 GRUPPO RIZZOLI- CORRIERE DELLA SERA TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Il sottoscritto Cesare Medail, nato a Dolo (Venezia) il 21/12/1943, è diplomato del Liceo Classico (Verona 1961), opera dal 1963 ne! campo giornalistico, presso l'azienda editoriale "Corriere della Sera", il più diffuso quotidiano italiano, con la qualifica di capo-servìzio della Terza Pagina nell'ambito della redazione Letteraria Culturale, e presta anche la propria opera giornalistica presso altre pubblicazioni dell'azienda quali "La Domenica del Corriere", "Amica" saltuariamente. E1 iscritto all'ordine nazionale dei giornalisti con tessera del Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia n. 2909 de! 18/1/1968. Il sottoscritto si è accostato alla lettura di testi di Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh per ragioni professionali, dovendo condurre inchieste giornalistiche su di lui e sul suo movimento: la lettura di questi libri è stata trovata quanto mai interessante dal punto di vista dell'elaborazione filosofica a livello di teoria e anche a livello di insegnamenti di vita pratica: al di là di ogni risvolto mistico, il suo messaggio ne fa uno dei più acuti e originali pensatori del nostro tempo. Inoltre l'inchiesta giornalistica condotta dai sottoscritto sul movimento che a lui fa capo ha riscontrato come le idee non violente, ecologiche, antiautoritarie a cui gli aderenti s'ispirano sono particolarmente utili in una società dominata dalla violenza e dall'inquinamento morale e materiale. Ritiene pertanto auspicabile la permanenza di Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh negli USA. Il sottoscritto non ha conosciuto personalmente Bhagwan, ma ne ha avuto modo di parlare con molti amici che sono stati a Poona e ne ha letto, come già detto, diversi libri editi in Italia. Cesare Medail translationR. Group Rizzoli-Corriere della sera. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I, Cesare Medail, born in Dolo (in the province of Venice) on December 21, 1943, graduate of classical high school (Verona 1961) have been working as a journalist since 1963 with the publishers of the newspaper Corriere della Sera, the largest Italian daily paper. I am the chief editor of the "Third Page" - dealing with cultural literature. I also write from time to time for other publications of the same firm: La Domenica del Coppiere and Amica. I belong to the Italian Federation of Journalists (I.D. card # 2909 1.18.68 from the Ministry of Grace and Justice.). I came into contact with texts by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in my professional work as I was writing articles on him and his movement. Reading his books was as interesting from the theoretic and philosophical point of view as well as from the aspect of his teachings reflected in practice. Aside from the mystical aspect his teaching makes him one of the most perceptive and original thinkers of our time. Apart from my enquiries as a journalist into the movement headed by him, I discovered how the non-violent, ecological, anti-authoritarian ideas to which his followers aspire, are especially useful in a society dominated by violence and moral and material pollution. I consider Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s residence in the U.S.A. to be advantageous. I have not personally met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, but have had the opportunity to speak with many friends who have been to Poona and have read, as I have already said, many of his books published in Italian. (signed) CESARE MEDAIL |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
