They came first for...

They came first for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up

Mario Monicelli

Revolution

What can I say?

He's right. Certainly right.

Protest in the street now is useless. 

With the media that we have now we could really invent something new.

What would happen?

We are all Calderoli

There is a good book by Golding: The Lord of the Flies.

The story seems to be rather simple. It’s about a group of shipwrecked kids who find themselves on a desert island. With no adults in sight, what drives these kids is their instinct.

Golding’s tale is an eye-opener that displays a truth that is not so obvious these days: kids aren’t born good, in spite of what we seem to give for granted. It’s quite the opposite, actually. Men are born with the worst primordial instincts. The selfishness of the spirit of survival, but also violence and fear of those who are different from us (it looks like the Lega’s manifesto!)

Only with a solid education we learn those ideals that allow us to hide, deep in our soul, the primitive animals we once were.

In short, man’s evolutionary path starts low in order to reach the most noble ideals: fraternity, solidarity, and the love for our neighbors.

To simplify even further: we all start as Calderoli, but one day we’ll be Jesus Christ.

Io non mi sento italiano

Congratulations to Berlusconi

I’d like to express my congratulations to Berlusconi.

Yesterday “our” PM managed to surpass himself. Once again he managed to turn the tables against his accusers while talking about the last issues he has been involved in.

The facts are, sadly enough, well-known: Berlusconi called the police headquarters in Milan to release a friend of his, the underage girl “of the week”. Her stage-name is Ruby – and her stage is, well, you know…Berlusconi lied to the policemen (he claimed that the girl was Mubarak’s niece) and asked them to turn a blind eye on the case.

The fuss that ensued was fairly predictable once these things came out. What to do though?

It’s here that Berlusconi – or his ghostwriters – came up with his biggest surprise, declaring that it’s “better to be fond of good-looking girls than being gay”

It’s hard to believe that Berlusconi wasn’t aware that his new “joke” wouldn’t go down well with everyone. Listening to the tape, however, it is possible to gauge that his wasn’t a gaffe, but rather a well-thought line.

By stating that it’s better to chase skirts than being homosexuals, Berlusconi is simply “speaking the truth”. Sadly a truth that is widely believed by many of his electors. Creating this corollary “mediatic mess”, however, Berlusconi managed to divert public  attention from two problematic issues:

Firstly, the Prime Minister has personally called the police headquarters in Milan (lying) in order to release a Moroccan escort that had been arrested for theft (must be hard to explain it to his friends from Lega Nord!)

Secondly, even the last hooker in Milan has Berlusconi on her speed-dial!

Absolutely brilliant!

A pretty weird country

Italy is a pretty weird country.

A normal citizen has to work for 40 years in order to – hopefully – get a pension at some point in his life.

A MP gets this after 5 years of service. There are even those who have been MPs for a day and get a pension of more than 3.000 Euros a month.

This is just one of the many things that differentiate us from what is now widely considered as a “caste” of politicians.

Politicians have evolved from representatives of the people into some kind of modern nobility.  

They live ignoring laws, protected by an immunity that applies to virtually every crime, from corruption to mafia crimes. And this is often not enough, as they change laws in order not to be persecuted.

 Their “reign” is based upon the indifference of the Italians – ready to worry about a football match, but too ignorant and superficial to analyze the decisions of our government. Those who try to protest – as in the case of the MP Antonio Borghesi – are ignored or denigrated by many of those TV channels and newspapers owned by our Prime Minister.

We haven’t been a democratic country for years, so much so that we can’t decide our own candidates – parties do this for us. And we don’t even understand what this means.

We are going through a new fascism. Less violent, for the time being. But with the same roots and the same ends: deny the rights of the majority in order to defend the interests of the lucky few.   

Fuck you

This song by Lily Allen is, first of all, a moral declaration.

This “fuck you” is for all those who discriminate against homosexuals (so much so that it’s almost become an anthem against sexual discrimination)

 But it also applies to all the bigots and racists around us.

We are tired of listening to your narrow-minded views. We’ve had enough of the hatred and fear that you spread like a mental plague.

Fuck you!

In the world we’ll build there is no space for you!

We are greedy

Italians, rats stealing Swiss cheese !

The Swiss campaign against Italian immigrants makes us reflect – or at least it should make us reflect.

By labeling as rats the tilers from Verbania, the lawyers from Lombardy, and the Romanians who reside in Italy, this campaign denounces the assault of 45 thousand Italians who “steal Swiss jobs”.

Many in Switzerland have been criticizing the opening of the borders for years, much in the same way as our very own Lega. The only difference is that this time we are on the wrong side, on the same boat as the usual Romanians.

Experiencing this kind of discrimination first-hand, understanding what it means to be considered rats stealing Swiss cheese and jobs, hopefully will teach our fellow Italians how counterproductive the current racist path actually is.

The Lega chisels you

“Federalism is near. We’ve pushed until we found the right way for it, the democratic way. As Albertoni [president of the regional council in Lombardy] said, everything has been arranged and we’ll be voting in Lombardy. Therefore we bring you today the beginning of Federalism inside our institutions. A great novelty: once we were your means to ask the Government about Federalism. Today, however, we bring you this Federalism. Yes, today we begin our Federalism inside the institutions. This is the great novelty: the federalist fight that the various regions will fight by asking to the Government, to the State, the right to their autonomy.”

With these words Umberto Bossi announced in Venice the beginning of federalism. Finally, after years of empty promises, Lega Nord keeps its word. Everyone, even those who thought that, once in power, the upper echelons of the Lega would have abused of their power to help friends and relatives, has to face the truth. Federalism has begun!

It’s just a shame that this speech is dated September 2006!

Bossi has been talking about Federalism for decades. In the meantime the municipalities no longer receive the council tax. Highway fares increase in the North whilst they remain unchanged in Rome. Government goods are on sale to privates (i.e. multinational companies). In Piedmont Cota and his friends are helping their friends and relatives.

On the streets there are signs that read: La Lega ti Frega (the Lega chisels you). Once upon a time Rome was the one (supposedly) stealing.

Scenes we’ve already seen

There is a weird atmosphere in Italy.

Luckily, I’m one of those people who still have a job and a decent life, and I rarely have the time to worry about those manifestations on the streets and in the harbors of the country. 

On the 21^st of July the unemployed of Naples, marching and pleading honest jobs, went as far as diving in the sea to stop the ships packed with tourists sailing towards the islands of the region.

What worries me, however, more than the daily frequency of these protests, is the reactions these manifestations cause.

Firstly I’m scared by the increasing use of force to forbid even the most civil protests. If we all agree that we can’t defend acts of vandalism by the protesters, we can’t defend police attacks on common and harmless people either.

It happened with the population of L’Acquila after the earthquake, but also with groups of students.

Not only.

Now the fear of independent voices is such that the police goes as far as stopping people who MIGHT protest.

It happened a few nights ago in Milan.

The police didn’t allow some people to reach Piazza del Duomo because they had already protested against Berlusconi.

For hours they were kept away from the “scene of the crime” (the presentation of an award to our Premier) by some sixty cops. They – all in all 20 people without banners or flags – could have shouted unwelcome words. They could have!

Leaving a curious parallelism with Minority Report (where Tom Cruise arrests criminals before they have the chance of committing a crime) this piece of news has the same nostalgic taste of those documentaries of the Istituto Luce.

Only difference: now, instead of those grey and black shirts, we have suits and ties, or maybe a nice jumper. The substance, however, seems to be the same.

The Big Kahuna

This is an extract from a truly unique movie, The Big Kahuna. It doesn’t need comments, it just has to be read.

“Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are NOT as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing. 

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss. 

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch. 

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel. 

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.”

Gracias a la vida

For most people on the globe, September 11^th is the symbol of a fight (in which we are directly involved only up to a certain extent) against an invisible enemy whose presence is yet patent in our every-day lives. This enemy can either be that terrorism that “bombs” the Western world on a daily basis through the media, or the infamous (neo)imperialism that allows the same Western world to export its brands and habits all over this planet of ours.

For a country in Latin America, however, that same date marks the anniversary of one of the most shocking golpes of the late 20^th century. On the 11^th of September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the legally elected government of Salvador Allende to set up a dictatorship that would last for nearly 17 long years. Even in this case, the events in Chile were part of a bigger, bipolar, picture. Allende’s politics were a dangerous challenge in Latin America, Washington’s very own backyard. Luckily, a number of Pinochet’s generals had been trained in the “Escuela de las Americas” and knew everything they needed to know about opposing communism – and resorting to incredible violence and cruelty in the process.

This post will not go on-line on September 11^th, but rather on the 16^th. This is to remember the death of Victor Jara. Most people who grew up in the early 1980s have vague memories of Jara as one of the names that come up in The Clash’s song Washington Bullets. “Remember Allende in the days before, before the army came, Please remember Victor Jara, in the Santiago stadium, Es verdad, those Washington bullets again”. Victor Jara was the leading figure behind the Nueva Canción Cilena. After the golpe, Jara was arrested and taken to the Santiago Stadium. Tortured, the soldiers broke his hands and fingers before yelling at him to play his guitar. They finished him by playing Russian roulette with him. They kept on pulling the trigger until a bullet was fired into Jara’s head.

This is an extract from Jara’s last song, written inside the stadium. The piece reached us because the songwriter hid it in the shoe of one of the other prisoners. Translating it wouldn’t do it justice.

Ay, canto qué mal me sales
Cuando tengo que cantar espanto!
Espanto como el que vivo
Como el que muero espanto.

De verme entre tanto y tantos
Momentos del infinito
En que el silencio y el grito
Son las metas de este canto.

Lo que veo nunca vi,
Lo que he sentido y lo que siento
Hará brotar el momento
Hará brotar el momento.

Ay, canto qué mal me sales
Cuando tento que cantar espanto.

Extract from “The Iron Heel” by Jack London

`Five men,' he said, `can produce bread for a thousand. One man can produce cotton cloth for two hundred and fifty people, woolens for three hundred, and boots and shoes for a thousand. One would conclude from this that under a capable management of society modern civilized man would be a great deal better off than the cave-man. But is he? Let us see. In the United States to-day there are fifteen million⁸ people living in poverty; and by poverty is meant that condition in life in which, through lack of food and adequate shelter, the mere standard of working efficiency cannot be maintained. In the United States to-day, in spite of all your so-called labor legislation, there are three millions of child laborers.⁹ In twelve years their numbers have been doubled. And in passing I will ask you managers of society why you did not make public the census figures of 1910? And I will answer for you, that you were afraid. The figures of misery would have precipitated the revolution that even now is gathering.

`But to return to my indictment. If modern man's producing power is a thousand times greater than that of the cave-man, why then, in the United States to-day, are there fifteen million people who are not properly sheltered and properly fed? Why then, in the United States to-day, are there three million child laborers? It is a true indictment. The capitalist class has mismanaged. In face of the facts that modern man lives more wretchedly than the cave-man, and that his producing power is a thousand times greater than that of the cave-man, no other conclusion is possible than that the capitalist class has mismanaged, that you have mismanaged, my masters, that you have criminally and selfishly mismanaged. And on this count you cannot answer me here to-night, face to face, any more than can your whole class answer the million and a half of revolutionists in the United States. You cannot answer. I challenge you to answer. And furthermore, I dare to say to you now that when I have finished you will not answer. On that point you will be tongue-tied, though you will talk wordily enough about other things.

`You have failed in your management. You have made a shambles of civilization.

The 2nd of August

The 2^nd of August 1980 was my fourth birthday.

It took a long time before I came to realize that, on that day, 85 people had died, and more than 200 had been injured, victims of what was called political terrorism.

I believe this has been one of the darkest pages of the already dark Italian history. A vile attack against common people.

Try to think about what it must have been the train station in Bologna on that day. Tourists were leaving, for the Adriatic coast or for the south. Bologna was, and still is, a crossroad for the entire peninsula. There were whole families, grandparents and grandkids, couples, and friends. Surely most people were happy and relieved for the long-awaited summer holidays.

But at 10:25 a bomb with 200 kg of explosives blew up. The lives of hundreds of people were to be changed forever.

The direct culprits of all this were two neo-fascists. But, besides them, condemns were issued against Licio Gelli, Francesco Pazienza, Pietro Musumeci, and Giuseppe Belmonte for throwing the investigations off track. They were all members of the infamous freemason lodge P2, the last three were even secret agents of the State.

They tried to throw the investigations off track by making up a Palestinian plot. A shameful action to hide the responsibilities of the P2 and the Movimento Sociale Italiano (father of Alleanza Nazionale).

Nowadays the PDL has put in practice most of Gelli’s program, wiretaps have shown the new face of the P2, and it’s fundamental to remember the responsibilities of these people.  

Here is an intervention by Davide Bono which I can totally subscribe to.

“Many call themselves anti-fascists and never anti-communists, forgetting the horrors caused by communist ideology. Well, I’m against all dictatorship and wars, I’m for the common good and I’m against the private interests of the lobbies, against clerical power, freemasons, and politicians that are marionettes. I’m for meritocracy, a controlled private property (since a build-up leads to power) and freedom. And if D’Alema, Bersani, and Bresso define themselves as anti-fascists, this doesn’t mean much to me. They defend freedom and the self-realization of the citizens, yet in these years their silent complicity has led to the creation of a Regime in disguise, masked as a source of entertainment.

We see this in our precarious jobs (now more than ever), and in our lives. Much like in the Ventennio the enemy managed to infiltrate in our houses, but this time he’s not bearing arms nor wearing a uniform; the breeding grounds of the civil war haven’t been completely erased, they have been kept alive by those who still pretend not to see and not to know…”.  

Ratzinger in Concert

Tickets are almost sold out.

The two English dates, London and Birmingham, will be an event not to be missed for the British fans.

Tickets aren’t exactly cheap. On the 18th of September a tenner will be enough to see J. Ratzinger in Hyde Park, but to see him the day after in Birmingham, the aficionados will have to pay 25 quid!

Give the exceptional event, however, organizers forecast a total sell out for both dates.

There will surely be many protesters given the complicated relation between the Catholic and the Anglican Church.

“At least this time they’ll pay the ticket” said one of the organizers.

T-shirts and other gadgets are all ready. How much for the DVD? This remains the big unanswered question.

A thousand euros less

 More often than not, we are still speechless when confronted with the parallel world of professional politicians.

One month ago we were still reading headings on newspapers asking whether with “1000 euros less we could still speak of a Caste?”

In the first row, as usual, we had the members of the Lega. Even before Tremonti’s maneuver was approved they were already praising this “ethical” – maybe even epic?!? – decision.

Appearing on the first page of the Italian newspapers for the Lega was absolutely essential. Given the sad story of Minister Brancher – who was a candidate solely to avoid a condemn – they needed a moral victory, even just a shallow one. In particular because the condemn (2 years) for the former minister was issued just yesterday, and he was forced to resign, not without raising a fierce debate.

However, “our” politicians, terrified at the thought of surviving with only 14 grand a month, couldn’t wait and managed to recover the money they lost. An official communiqué from the House of Parliament kindly informed us that they will receive an attendance fee for their works in Commission.

They are pulling our legs.

Luckily people seem to be waking up, and this kind of politics, made of bloating innovations and hidden tricks, is less tolerated than it once was.

The recent administrative elections have provided us with more than an example. Take Roberto Castelli, key figure of Lega Nord, candidate mayor in his Lecco. Sure to win easily, he was instead defeated in one of the power-bases of the Lega. Just like the infamous Brunetta, whose boundless ego has been severely beaten up in Venice.

Finally the promises – often delirious – of the Lega, and of “our” politicians in general, are coming to clash with reality. Finally people are realizing this.

Small steps towards a more self-conscious Italy?

A sadly sharp analysis, unfortunately totally come true.

“We have to be ready to present our apologies to Emilio Fede. We’ve always portrayed him as a brownnose, as the archetype of this fauna of jesters, with the aggravation of his cheerfulness. Often brownnoses, after performing, and when they are sure not to be seen by their bosses, appear disgusted and unhappy. That’s not the case of Fede. Having done his duty he smiles ecstatically. I’m afraid we’ll shortly have to change our opinions about him, regret his interventions and consider them as models of objectivity and moderation… Nowadays, in order to install a regime, there is no need for a march on Rome or a fire in the Reichstag, not even of a Winter Palace. Mass media are everything we need: and, chief amongst them, the irresistible television. (…) The result is obvious: a shroud of conformism and lies that, without using special laws, will cover this country reducing it to a soap-opera for boors and will lead to an awakening in which my generation won’t have time to be involved”.

Indro Montanelli

Fiat vs everyone else

The significance of Fiat’s last decisions shouldn’t be underestimated.

If, on the one hand, Marchionne expresses his desire to get out of Federmeccanica by the 1st of January 2013 (the day after the current contract of the metal workers will have expired), on the other hand he claims to be trying to overcome the conflict between owners and workers.

He asks to his workers to adopt a more modern point of view. But, despite his declarations, the facts seem to point in another direction.

Behind the menace of moving the entire production circle abroad – as has already happened with the last Fiat vehicle, to be produced in Serbia and not in Mirafiori – there is a precise aim.

Workers’ rights are being endangered. Marchionne’s intention would be that of erasing 60 years of fights by our trade unions. When he says that we have to forget the ‘60s he means that we have to turn back the clock to the ‘50s, if not earlier. Times in which workers only needed to produce. Every other advance in terms or workers’ rights is superfluous.

It was already clear with the contract imposed upon the workers of Pomigliano. Not everybody, however, had a clear picture of this new Industrial Revolution.

In order to face a company that has been enjoying a considerable power in Italy for the last few decades we would need a strong Government, capable of defending the Italian workers.

The pimps and Mafiosi who rule us won’t be able to force anyone to respect the rules of the game.

Sadly we no longer see that social cohesion that allowed the working class to destroy the cynicism of the owners more than half a century ago.

We would just need a law based on common sense. Things that aren’t entirely produced in Italy shouldn’t be considered as “Made in Italy”. In this way Marchionne would be forced to back down.

Freedom to inform

In Italy we’ve been discussing for a long time about the Gag-Law, the “law on wiretaps”, that law which should stop journalists from publishing tapped conversations (if this law was to pass we would barely have wiretaps at all!), the names of the accused people or those of the judges following the various trials, etc.

Basically, every piece of news regarding a crime.

Privacy, even that of criminals, is used as a pretext to limit freedom of the press and the efficiency of the investigations. A clumsy attempt to confuse the citizenship.

Serious Democracies, unlike ours, consider freedom of the press as a fundamental right. Newspapers and journalists have to be watchdogs who don’t limit themselves to repeating the owner’s words. 

Take, for example, the USA and Germany.

Americans have manifested their worries about the limitations imposed on the investigations. (North)Americans are worried by the potential impact of this step backwards on the investigations on the Mafia made in Italy (our investigators will be left to making assumptions like Sherlock Holmes).

Even more interesting is the German point of view: there, the Government (centre-right) is worried about the delicate balance between freedom of the press and confidentiality.

The federal government has approved 2 week ago the draft of a law aimed at protecting journalists, in particular when they publish confidential information or pieces of secret investigations.

Whilst in Italy we want to punish journalists and editors, even when they publish news of public domain (such as the names of an accused, or the accusations them), our neighbors want journalists to be free to publish pieces of news that are still secret.

In order to find countries that share “our” Government’s position we need to go far away. The Gag-law finds supporters in China, in a few countries of the Middle East and of Latin America. Even there, however, somebody wouldn’t be too happy about this.