Torniamo a Kyoto con la Blowcar

 "TERRA E MOTORI" RITORNA. LA RUBRICA CURATA DAGLI AMICI DI GRISMONCHEI SEGUE IL RINNOVATO SPIRITO DEL BLOG E ACCOMPAGNA LA CONSUETA NOTIZIA SETTIMANALE CON UN ARTICOLO DA THE INDEPENDENT CHE CI RICORDA DEL VERTICE SULL'AMBIENTE IN SUD AFRICA.

La legge è semplice,più leggere sono le autovetture più i consumi saranno ridotti e con essi l'inquinamento.

Di questa idea l'architetto italiano Dario Di Camillo,ex designer della FIAT, che prendendo spunto dal settore aereospaziale ha progettato una microcar con carrozzeria “gonfiabile”.

Si chiama BlowCar e la sua origine è legata alle strutture pneumatiche degli scivoli di emergenza usati sugli aerei e dagli airbag delle sonde spaziali, tutti elementi gonfiabili che sull'originale microcar prendono il posto delle lamiere esterne così da contenere i pesi e ridurre i consumi.

Andrea Zappa per Grismonchei srl

 Rising food prices caused by droughts and flooding make progress in global negotiations on climate change more vital than ever, world leaders are being warned today.

As the annual United Nations talks on curbing greenhouse gas emissions begin in the South African city of Durban, Oxfam said shortages of rice and grain will only increase as wildfires and monsoons affect some of the world's poorest regions.
The charity's call for the conference to agree to a legally binding deal on reducing carbon releases into the atmosphere was backed yesterday by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He called on governments to "step up to the responsibilities only they can exercise".
But with the world economy teetering on recession, their calls look likely to fall on deaf ears as it becomes harder than ever to reconcile the 194 governments represented at the convention. Even agreements made two years ago in Copenhagen are proving problematic. In 2009, it was agreed that $100m (£64.7m) a year would be given to the poorest countries suffering from global warming by 2020.
Now the world needs to agree how that money will be raised. The Kyoto Protocol, which obliged rich nations to cut emissions and is set to expire in 2012, is a still more serious issue. To ensure that gas emissions peak in 2020 before falling as agreed, the EU wants a new treaty including every major economy – including the US, which never ratified Kyoto, and China, which fell outside the remit when it was drawn up.
Both are resistant, as are many developing nations – who insist the measures outlined in Kyoto are the bare minimum they will accept. And further compounding the issue, Russia, Canada and Japan say they will not sign up to new commitments.  
The Independent 28/11/11

Non solo btp day

PER RICORDARE CHE IN ITALIA C'E' CHI E' FRUSTRATO DA ALTRE OBBLIGAZIONI

All’attenzione dei direttori della Banca Centrale Europea e Banca d’Italia
Jean Claude Trichet e Mario Draghi

Spettabili Direttori,
Ci chiamiamo Natalia e Ulisse. Non siamo banchieri, né capitani d’industria, né broker finanziari, né titolari di agenzie di rating; non siamo capi di governo o ministri delle finanze. Non siamo il genere di persone con cui andate abitualmente a colazione. Siamo un’educatrice e un ricercatore universitario. O meglio, proviamo a esserlo. Io, Natalia, avevo un contratto a progetto ma ora il progetto – che sorpresa! – è finito, e sono a casa (integra se vuoi); io, Ulisse, ho finito il dottorato di ricerca, e, mentre perdo il mio tempo dietro a concorsi e applicazioni che non vincerò mai, lavoro come partita iva in monocommittenza, a mille euro al mese, con contratti semestrali. Siamo due precari qualunque, insomma. Siamo lavoratori come molti, moltissimi altri: operai, operatori di call center, facchini, magazzinieri, autotrasportatori ecc… Anzi, ve lo dobbiamo rammentare, perché di sicuro la cosa vi è sfuggita: siamo la maggioranza della popolazione lavorativa in questo paese.
Il particolare non è secondario; si, perché non dovete credere che questa nostra sia l’ennesima narrazione lacrimevole della miseria (sfiga?) che ci attanaglia, verso la quale sfoderare il vostro paternalistico sorriso, e che liquiderete con la proverbiale pacca sulla spalla. Non veniamo con il cappello in mano a chieder l’elemosina: questo lo lasciamo al nostro governo.
Noi non chiediamo, pretendiamo. Esattamente come avete fatto voi, con la vostra lettera minatoria del 5 agosto. Dopo aver osservato, con compiacente disinteresse, banche d’affari e speculatori finanziari arricchirsi scommettendo sui debiti della gente comune, e aver coperto la loro bancarotta quando la bolla speculativa è esplosa, usando soldi pubblici, adesso osate fare ingiunzioni; osate rimproverare un paese per la sua insolvenza sventolando lo spauracchio del default, dopo averne prosciugato le risorse per salvare i vostri amici; osate pretendere. Ebbene, adesso pretendiamo noi. Voi avete la forza del denaro. Noi abbiamo la forza delle moltitudini, delle idee, e della rabbia.
Voi chiedete la piena liberalizzazione dei servizi pubblici locali e dei servizi professionali, attraverso privatizzazioni su larga scala.
Noi chiediamo invece il libero e consapevole accesso ai beni comuni: il diritto alla casa, e a uno spazio per la realizzazione e l’organizzazione della propria vita; il diritto alla formazione e all’istruzione, e a spazi per la produzione di sapere collettivo; il libero accesso all’informazione, attraverso la rimozione dei vincoli che lo limitano; il diritto alla comunicazione, con il libero accesso ai canali e ai media di comunicazione sociale e culturale; il diritto alla mobilità, e la garanzia della libera circolazione dei corpi, tramite la fruizione agevolata dei mezzi di trasporto; il diritto alla socialità, e a spazi comuni d’incontro e di relazione.
Voi chiedete la riforma ulteriore del sistema di contrattazione salariale collettivo, permettendo accordi a livello d’impresa e rendendo questi accordi più rilevanti rispetto ad altri livelli di negoziazione.
Noi pretendiamo la cancellazione dell’art. 8 e dell’accordo tra sindacati e confindustria del 28 giugno, rifiutiamo il ricatto della trattativa locale, che di fatto consegna i salari e le condizioni di lavoro all’arbitrio delle aziende, condanniamo il ruolo connivente delle sigle sindacali confederali, che svendono per trenta denari i lavoratori in cambio della legittimazione alla propria esclusiva sulla rappresentanza. Chiediamo invece la riduzione delle tipologie contrattuali, a fronte dell’attuale proliferazione di accordi collettivi, originati da una divisione del lavoro che non esiste più. Chiediamo di definire in un’unica cornice giuridico – contrattuale le garanzie di base a tutela del lavoro a prescindere dall’attività svolta e dal settore di appartenenza. Chiediamo un salario minimo orario e, per le attività non misurabili in termini di tempo, una retribuzione minima
Voi chiedete licenziamenti più facili, e indorate la pillola auspicando un welfare moderno e un sistema di ricollocazione impraticabili perché non finanziati.
Voi chiedete il pareggio di bilancio e il pagamento del debito.
Noi chiediamo l’accesso incondizionato al reddito di esistenza, a prescindere da qualsiasi condizione professionale, etnica, sessuale, generazionale, affinché sia riconosciuto che siamo produttivi anche solo vivendo.
Noi rivendichiamo il diritto all’insolvenza, il diritto a riappropriarci di ciò che ci è stato sottratto, con la forza e con l’inganno, da banche, speculatori finanziari, e un governo connivente. Vogliamo esercitare tale diritto come moltitudine, ponendo le nostre esigenze di produzione e cooperazione sociale prima di qualsiasi esigenza legata a logiche di profitto e  sfruttamento.
Questo noi chiediamo, anzi pretendiamo. E lo grideremo a gran voce oggi, in varie piazze d’Italia, e sabato 15 ottobre a Roma. Perché siamo stati buoni, ma mai stupidi. E ora non siamo neanche più buoni.
ALFABETA2 26/11/11

Potpourri settimanale

 LO SCENARIO POLITICO MONDIALE IN POCHE RIGHE

                            

Big protests erupted in Cairo and other cities, with calls for the generals who have run Egypt since Hosni Mubarak’s fall in February to hand over to civilians. Some 40 people were killed by the security forces. The ruling military council said that parliamentary elections due to begin on November 28th would go ahead, and that presidential elections would be held by July. A report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry said the authorities had used “excessive force” in a crackdown earlier this year against pro-democracy protesters, most of them from the Shia majority. King Hamad al-Khalifa, a Sunni, said that officials who had abused their power would be sacked. Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the son and heir of Muammar Qaddafi, was caught in southern Libya. So, separately, was the late dictator’s intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi. Both are wanted by the International Criminal Court, which has apparently agreed that they might face trial in Libya.
Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, at last signed an agreement brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council, saying that he would stand down and hand power to his vice-president.
South African MPs passed a controversial media secrecy bill, which the government says is needed to protect state secrets and safeguard national security. Critics say it will curb freedom of speech.

Penalty to Brazil
Brazil’s environmental regulator fined Chevron, an American oil company, $28m and suspended its drilling rights over an oil spill from an offshore well earlier this month. Chevron said it had stopped the seepage within four days and had complied with the terms of its licence.
Gunmen apparently hired by ranchers killed a chief from the Kaiowa-Guaraní Indian tribe in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Enrique Peña Nieto, who leads opinion polls for Mexico’s presidential election next July, was guaranteed the nomination of the formerly ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, after his only rival, Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, dropped out.
Haiti’s president, Michel Martelly, announced that he would set up a civilian committee to study whether or not to revive his country’s army, which was disbanded in 1995.
What a surprise
The “supercommittee” on America’s budget deficit admitted defeat in Congress. The panel was set up in August to thrash out a bipartisan agreement to reduce the deficit. Its failure to do so triggers automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion, to start in 2013. But arguments have already begun about how “automatic” the cuts should be, with some Republicans pressing for the Pentagon to be spared.



The latest Republican presidential candidates’ debate focused on national security. Newt Gingrich, who has vaulted into the lead in some polls as the most recent “anyone-but-Romney” favourite in the party, surprised many by calling for a partial amnesty for illegal immigrants who have lived in America for a long time and paid taxes.
Brought to justice
A special UN-backed court in Cambodia began to try the three most senior living leaders of the Khmer Rouge on genocide charges. The three men, who include Nuon Chea, “Brother Number Two”, are the only members of the regime deemed fit to stand as defendants. At the trial’s opening they justified their reign of terror in the context of the historical threat posed by Vietnam, and denied the charges outright.South Korea’s national assembly ratified a free-trade agreement with the United States, four years after the two countries first signed the deal and a month after it was approved by Congress. Despite a projected boost to the Korean economy and, the prospect of closer ties with America at a time of worsening relations with North Korea, the agreement was strongly resisted by the opposition. One assembly member disrupted the vote by letting off a tear-gas canister.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States was forced to resign, amid allegations that he was behind a memo pledging to eject senior soldiers close to the Taliban in Pakistan, in exchange for American help in preventing any potential coup. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said it would participate in Myanmar’s forthcoming by-elections. Last year the party boycotted Myanmar’s first general election in two decades. Julia Gillard, the prime minister of Australia, scored a political victory when the lower house of parliament passed the controversial Minerals Resource Rent Tax, which will subject mining companies to a higher levy on annual profits. Australia’s upper house is expected to pass the law early next year and the tax should then come into force on July 1st.
Hard work ahead
Spain’s general election was won by the opposition centre-right People’s Party, led by Mariano Rajoy. The ruling Socialists suffered their worst rout at the polls since the return of democracy to Spain in 1975. Mr Rajoy has an absolute majority, but will not take office for a month. Although he promises austerity and reform, nervous markets sent Spanish bond yields higher. In its latest efforts to solve the euro crisis the European Commission set out options for Eurobonds and for more intrusive control of national governments’ budgets. But Angela Merkel yet again rejected the idea of Eurobonds.Hungary turned to the IMF for a precautionary credit line. The government of Viktor Orban had previously ruled out any such course. Elio di Rupo, the politician charged with forming a Belgian government, submitted his resignation after failing to strike a deal on next year’s budget. Belgium has been without a new government since an election in June 2010.

Vladimir Putin, who plans to return as Russia’s president next year, got a surprise when a crowd booed as he entered a mixed martial arts ring to congratulate the winner of a fight. Officials, who tightly control Mr Putin’s crafted public appearances, at first suggested that the boos were aimed at the fighters.

The Economist

Europa e democrazia: Habermas.

LA GRANDE BATTAGLIA DI UN INTELLETTUALE DI ALTRI TEMPI.

Jürgen Habermas is angry. He's really angry. He is nothing short of furious -- because he takes it all personally.

He leans forward. He leans backward. He arranges his fidgety hands to illustrate his tirades before allowing them to fall back to his lap. He bangs on the table and yells: "Enough already!" He simply has no desire to see Europe consigned to the dustbin of world history.

"I'm speaking here as a citizen," he says. "I would rather be sitting back home at my desk, believe me. But this is too important. Everyone has to understand that we have critical decisions facing us. That's why I'm so involved in this debate. The European project can no longer continue in elite modus."
Enough already! Europe is his project. It is the project of his generation.
Jürgen Habermas, 82, wants to get the word out. He's sitting on stage at the Goethe Institute in Paris. Next to him sits a good-natured professor who asks six or seven questions in just under two hours -- answers that take fewer than 15 minutes are not Habermas' style.
Usually he says clever things like: "In this crisis, functional and systematic imperatives collide" -- referring to sovereign debts and the pressure of the markets.
Sometimes he shakes his head in consternation and says: "It's simply unacceptable, simply unacceptable" -- referring to the EU diktat and Greece's loss of national sovereignty.
'No Convictions'
And then he's really angry again: "I condemn the political parties. Our politicians have long been incapable of aspiring to anything whatsoever other than being re-elected. They have no political substance whatsoever, no convictions."
It's in the nature of this crisis that philosophy and bar-room politics occasionally find themselves on an equal footing.
It's also in the nature of this crisis that too many people say too much, and we could definitely use someone who approaches the problems systematically, as Habermas has done in his just published book.
But above all, it is in the nature of this crisis that the longer it continues, the more confusing it gets. It becomes more difficult to follow its twists and turns and to see who is responsible for what. And the whole time, alternatives are disappearing before our very eyes.
That's why Habermas is so angry: with the politicians, the "functional elite" and the media. "Are you from the press?" he asks a man in the audience who has posed a question. "No? Too bad."
Habermas wants to get his message out. That's why he's sitting here. That's why he recently wrote an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, in which he accused EU politicians of cynicism and "turning their backs on the European ideals." That's why he has just written a book -- a "booklet," as he calls it -- which the respected German weekly Die Zeit promptly compared with Immanuel Kant's 1795 essay "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch."
But does he have an answer to the question of which road democracy and capitalism should take?
A Quiet Coup d'État
"Zur Verfassung Europas" ("On Europe's Constitution") is the name of his new book, which is basically a long essay in which he describes how the essence of our democracy has changed under the pressure of the crisis and the frenzy of the markets. Habermas says that power has slipped from the hands of the people and shifted to bodies of questionable democratic legitimacy, such as the European Council. Basically, he suggests, the technocrats have long since staged a quiet coup d'état.
"On July 22, 2011, (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel and (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to a vague compromise -- which is certainly open to interpretation -- between German economic liberalism and French etatism," he writes. "All signs indicate that they would both like to transform the executive federalism enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty into an intergovernmental supremacy of the European Council that runs contrary to the spirit of the agreement."
Habermas refers to the system that Merkel and Sarkozy have established during the crisis as a "post-democracy." The European Parliament barely has any influence. The European Commission has "an odd, suspended position," without really being responsible for what it does. Most importantly, however, he points to the European Council, which was given a central role in the Lisbon Treaty -- one that Habermas views as an "anomaly." He sees the Council as a "governmental body that engages in politics without being authorized to do so."
He sees a Europe in which states are driven by the markets, in which the EU exerts massive influence on the formation of new governments in Italy and Greece, and in which what he so passionately defends and loves about Europe has been simply turned on its head.
A Rare Phenomenon
At this point, it should be mentioned that Habermas is no malcontent, no pessimist, no prophet of doom -- he's a virtually unshakable optimist, and this is what makes him such a rare phenomenon in Germany.
His problem as a philosopher has always been that he appears a bit humdrum because, despite all the big words, he is basically rather intelligible. He took his cultivated rage from Marx, his keen view of modernity from Freud and his clarity from the American pragmatists. He has always been a friendly elucidator, a rationalist and an anti-romanticist.

Nevertheless, his previous books "Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere" and "Between Facts and Norms" were of course somewhat different than the merry post-modern shadowboxing of French philosophers like Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard. What's more, another of Habermas' publications, "Theory of Communicative Action," certainly has its pitfalls when it comes to his theory of "coercion-free discourse" which, even before the invention of Facebook and Twitter, were fairly bold, if not perhaps naïve.

Habermas was never a knife thrower like the Slovenian thinker Slavoj Žižek, and he was no juggler like the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk. He never put on a circus act, and he was always a leftist (although there are those who would disagree). He was on the side of the student movement until things got too hot for him. He took delight in the constitution and procedural matters. This also basically remains his position today.
Habermas truly believes in the rationality of the people. He truly believes in the old, ordered democracy. He truly believes in a public sphere that serves to make things better.

This also explains why he gazed happily at the audience on this mid-November evening in Paris. Habermas is a fairly tall, lanky man. As he stepped onto the stage, his relaxed gait gave him a slightly casual air. With his legs stretched out under the table, he seemed at home. Whether he's at a desk or not, this is his profession: communicating and exchanging ideas in public.

He was always there when it was a question of putting Germany back on course, in other words, on his course -- toward the West, on the path of reason: during the vitriolic debate among German historians in 1986 that focused on the country's approach to its World War II past; following German reunification in 1990; and during the Iraq War. It's the same story today as he sits here, at a table, in a closed room in the basement of the Goethe Institute, and speaks to an audience of 200 to 250 concerned, well-educated citizens. He says that he, the theorist of the public sphere, doesn't have a clue about Facebook and Twitter -- a statement which, of course, seems somewhat antiquated, almost even absurd. Habermas believes in the power of words and the rationality of discourse. This is philosophy unplugged.

While the activists of the Occupy movement refuse to formulate even a single clear demand, Habermas spells out precisely why he sees Europe as a project for civilization that must not be allowed to fail, and why the "global community" is not only feasible, but also necessary to reconcile democracy with capitalism. Otherwise, as he puts it, we run the risk of a kind of permanent state of emergency -- otherwise the countries will simply be driven by the markets. "Italy Races to Install Monti" was a headline in last week's Financial Times Europe.

On the other hand, they are not so far apart after all, the live-stream revolutionaries from Occupy and the book-writing philosopher. It's basically a division of labor -- between analog and digital, between debate and action. It's a playing field where everyone has his or her place, and it's not always clear who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. We are currently watching the rules being rewritten and the roles being redefined.

A Dismantling of Democracy

"Sometime after 2008," says Habermas over a glass of white wine after the debate, "I understood that the process of expansion, integration and democratization doesn't automatically move forward of its own accord, that it's reversible, that for the first time in the history of the EU, we are actually experiencing a dismantling of democracy. I didn't think this was possible. We've reached a crossroads."

It also has to be said: For being Germany's most important philosopher, he is a mind-bogglingly patient man. He is initially delighted that he has managed at last to find a journalist whom he can tell just how much he abhors the way certain media ingratiate themselves with Merkel -- how he detests this opportunist pact with power. But then he graciously praises the media for finally waking up last year and treating Europe in a manner that clearly demonstrates the extent of the problem.

"The political elite have actually no interest in explaining to the people that important decisions are made in Strasbourg; they are only afraid of losing their own power," he says, before being accosted by a woman who is not entirely in possession of her faculties. But that's how it is at such events -- that's how things go with coercion-free discourse. "I don't fully understand the normative consequences of the question," says Habermas. The response keeps the woman halfway at a distance.

He is, after all, a gentleman from an age when having an eloquent command of the language still meant something and men carried cloth handkerchiefs. He is a child of the war and perseveres, even when it seems like he's about to keel over. This is important to understanding why he takes the topic of Europe so personally. It has to do with the evil Germany of yesteryear and the good Europe of tomorrow, with the transformation of past to future, with a continent that was once torn apart by guilt -- and is now torn apart by debt.

Without Complaint

In the past, there were enemies; today, there are markets -- that's how the historical situation could be described that Habermas sees before him. He is standing in an overcrowded, overheated auditorium of the Université Paris Descartes, two days before the evening at the Goethe Institute, and he is speaking to students who look like they would rather establish capitalism in Brussels or Beijing than spend the night in an Occupy movement tent.

After Habermas enters the hall, he immediately rearranges the seating on the stage and the nametags on the tables. Then the microphone won't work, which seems to be an element of communicative action in practice. Next, a professor gives a windy introduction, apparently part of the academic ritual in France.

Habermas accepts all this without complaint. He steps up to the lectern and explains the mistakes that were made in constructing the EU. He speaks of a lack of political union and of "embedded capitalism," a term he uses to describe a market economy controlled by politics. He makes the amorphous entity Brussels tangible in its contradictions, and points to the fact that the decisions of the European Council, which permeate our everyday life, basically have no legal, legitimate basis. He also speaks, though, of the opportunity that lies in the Lisbon Treaty of creating a union that is more democratic and politically effective. This can also emerge from the crisis, says Habermas. He is, after all, an optimist.

Then he's overwhelmed by the first wave of fatigue. He has to sit down. The air is stuffy, and it briefly seems as if he won't be able to continue with his presentation. After a glass of water, he stands up again.

He rails against "political defeatism" and begins the process of building a positive vision for Europe from the rubble of his analysis. He sketches the nation-state as a place in which the rights of the citizens are best protected, and how this notion could be implemented on a European level.

Reduced to Spectators

He says that states have no rights, "only people have rights," and then he takes the final step and brings the peoples of Europe and the citizens of Europe into position -- they are the actual historical actors in his eyes, not the states, not the governments. It is the citizens who, in the current manner that politics are done, have been reduced to spectators.

His vision is as follows: "The citizens of each individual country, who until now have had to accept how responsibilities have been reassigned across sovereign borders, could as European citizens bring their democratic influence to bear on the governments that are currently acting within a constitutional gray area."

This is Habermas's main point and what has been missing from the vision of Europe: a formula for what is wrong with the current construction. He doesn't see the EU as a commonwealth of states or as a federation but, rather, as something new. It is a legal construct that the peoples of Europe have agreed upon in concert with the citizens of Europe -- we with ourselves, in other words -- in a dual form and omitting each respective government. This naturally removes Merkel and Sarkozy's power base, but that's what he's aiming for anyway.

Then he's overwhelmed by a second wave of fatigue. He has to sit down again, and a professor brings him some orange juice. Habermas pulls out his handkerchief. Then he stands up and continues to speak about saving the "biotope of old Europe."

There is an alternative, he says, there is another way aside from the creeping shift in power that we are currently witnessing. The media "must" help citizens understand the enormous extent to which the EU influences their lives. The politicians "would" certainly understand the enormous pressure that would fall upon them if Europe failed. The EU "should" be democratized.

His presentation is like his book. It is not an indictment, although it certainly does at times have an aggressive tone; it is an analysis of the failure of European politics. Habermas offers no way out, no concrete answer to the question of which road democracy and capitalism should take.

A Vague Future and a Warning from the Past

All he offers is the kind of vision that a constitutional theorist is capable of formulating: The "global community" will have to sort it out. In the midst of the crisis, he still sees "the example of the European Union's elaborated concept of a constitutional cooperation between citizens and states" as the best way to build the "global community of citizens."

Habermas is, after all, a pragmatic optimist. He does not say what steps will take us from worse off to better off.

What he ultimately lacks is a convincing narrative. This also ties Habermas once again to the Occupy movement. But without a narrative there is no concept of change.

He receives a standing ovation at the end of his presentation.

"If the European project fails," he says, "then there is the question of how long it will take to reach the status quo again. Remember the German Revolution of 1848: When it failed, it took us 100 years to regain the same level of democracy as before."

A vague future and a warning from the past -- that's what Habermas offers us. The present is, at least for the time being, unattainable.

Der Spiegel

Il partito di quale libertà?

L'EDONISMO NON E'LIBERALISMO. UN BELLISSIMO ARTICOLO DI MASSIMO MUCCHETTI DESCRIVE I LIMITI TEORICI DEL CASTELLO POLITICO BERLUSCONIANO.

Silvio Berlusconi non ha mantenuto la promessa della rivoluzione liberale. Di qui la disillusione degli elettori e il suo tramonto politico. Questa la critica che alcuni politologi - uno per tutti, Giuliano Urbani - muovono all' ex inquilino di Palazzo Chigi. Ma è una critica sensata? Oppure è un modo per non fare i conti con gli abbagli di un gruppo di persone e con i limiti della storia liberale in Italia? 

Berlusconi ha fatto fortuna in un settore regolato come la tv, e regolato a suo vantaggio. Non in attività aperte alla libera competizione. Sua Emittenza, per capirci, ha poco in comune con il tipico industriale liberale alla Gaetano Marzotto che alla Commissione economica della Costituente, da gran tessile qual era, criticava il protezionismo a favore dell' auto. Il Biscione ha avuto il supporto del Psi craxiano e di altri partiti (remunerato, dice Cirino Pomicino). E ha osteggiato la privatizzazione Rai. Un tale profilo imprenditoriale, già chiaro nel 1994, poteva e può dirsi liberale? 

Urbani è stato il cofondatore di Forza Italia, partito formato dalla concessionaria di pubblicità della Fininvest. Perfetto, se l'obiettivo fosse stato soltanto quello di sbarrare la strada alla gioiosa macchina da guerra di Occhetto. Ma se l'ambizione era più vasta, com' è possibile credere che il socio fondatore con lo zero virgola potesse condizionare il detentore del capitale? Forse Urbani, Biondi, Martino e Costa pensavano di erudire il pupo, che non aveva studiato Einaudi, e di guidarlo, rieducando l'elettorato democristiano e socialista riaccasato in Forza Italia: così, con belle prediche, loro quattro, assisi su poltrone ministeriali. La politica è un'altra cosa. 

Silvio avrà tanti torti, ma non ha tradito. L'aggettivo liberale era marketing. L'hanno capito in tanti, anche del Pli, senza aspettare che Forza Italia aderisse al gruppo popolare europeo. Gli intellettuali liberali di Forza Italia (il Pdl non ne ha più fatto uso) ricordano gli indipendenti di sinistra di 30 anni fa. Con la differenza che alcuni di quelli vennero davvero cooptati nella classe dirigente del Pci. In verità, l'Italia ha divorziato dalla cultura politica liberale nel 1945, in linea con quanto accadeva nelle democrazie occidentali allora egemonizzate dalle culture rooseveltiane, laburiste e cristiano sociali. 

C'è dunque un Novecento liberale da rivedere: il rapporto elitario con la Grande Guerra (l'inutile strage), i dubbi sul voto alle donne, il sostegno alla monarchia, il peso del Pli nella resistenza al fascismo, la subordinazione postbellica alla Confindustria. E c' è anche un oggi da ripensare: funziona o non funziona l'appoggio acritico al capitalismo finanziario globale, dato con un giustificazionismo tuttologico così simile a quello che Hayek rimproverava agli intellettuali progressisti in un aureo libello del 1949, ripubblicato dall' Istituto Bruno Leoni? Le culture politiche restano grandi se sanno rinnovarsi senza demiurghi. Che poi deludono.

Massimo Mucchetti da Micromega

Disunione europea.

LA CRISI ECONOMICA METTE IN EVIDENZA LA CONTRADDIZIONE POLITICA INSITA NEL SISTEMA POLITICO CHE REGGE L'UNIONE EUROPEA. LE MONDE PROPONE LA SOLUZIONE: SUFFRAGIO UNIVERSALE. ERA ORA.

On a besoin d'un sursaut européen. Alors il faut foncer. Voilà que la CDU, parti majoritaire en Allemagne, propose d'élire au suffrage universel le/la présidente de la commission européenne, actuellement nommé(e) après moultes tractations par les chefs d'Etats ou de gouvernements.

 Il faut prendre la balle au rebond au moment où l'Europe est mise en difficulté avec sa monnaie ou sa dette ou ses défauts de crédit et/ou de croissance. Il faut que les partis en France et les partis de gauche en Europe se prononcent pour cette élection, et qu'on le fasse vite.

Hélas, l'idée n'est pas reprise à Paris et dans nombre de capitales européennes qui, selon Le Monde, ne seraient pas emballés par la perspective d'avoir un/une président(e) allemand(e) à la tête de l'UE (en raison de son poids démographique et donc électoral).
Argument assez fallacieux, étant donné que l'addition de deux pays importants, au moins, annihile le poids d'un grand pays. Et puis l'élection se ferait probablement plus sur une personnalité que sur son appartenance à un pays..
Organiser la désignation par tous les Européens d'un président d'Europe éviterait en premier lieu l'imbroglio des trois présidents actuels (de la commission, de l'Europe et celui de la présidence tournante). Mais elle donnerait surtout une "personnalité" à l'Europe, en même temps qu'elle réconcilierait les peuples avec l'institution de l'Europe. Les citoyens européens qui se sont sentis jusqu'alors peu concernés par l'Europe, retrouveraient confiance en elle, motivés qu'ils seraient par une élection au suffrage universel, ainsi que le démontre l'intérêt qu'elle suscite en France.
Les Européens doivent savoir que même avec 450 millions d'habitants, ils ne sont plus guère qu'1/15ème de la population mondiale et que leur part à horizon 2050 va encore s'amenuiser à 1/20ème. Ils devraient prendre conscience que leurs divisions en nations les affaiblissent et les menacent de ce que certains milieux anglo-saxons prédisent, ou bien souhaitent, la voir sombrer avec l'euro.
Au fond, ce ne serait que la troisième fois en un siècle. En 1914, l'Europe venait de connaître des années d'essor économique, de brillance artistique et intellectuelle incomparables, cinq ans plus tard ses forces vives décimées, elle devenait le suiveur des Etats-Unis. Trente ans après, elle tombait en ruines après de très longs mois de cauchemar dont il devient presque difficile de se représenter la terreur, l'horreur et la barbarie. Soixante-cinq ans de paix plus tard, personne n'a envie de voir l'Europe libre, civilisée, pacifiée et pacifique, sombrer à nouveau dans on ne sait quel patafouillis.
Heureusement, cette hypothèse est tout à fait improbable. D'abord parce qu'il y a des solutions techniques pour s'en sortir. On voit en outre que les annonces les plus catastrophiques ne sont pas suivies par les faits. Et aussi que les prévisions sont "facétieuses" comme dit Michel Rocard à propos de celles concernant la croissance.
Et puis l'élection de son/sa président(e) ré-énergiserait l'Europe. Pourquoi donc la classe politique français ne parait pas vouloir reprendre la proposition allemande ? Outre qu'elle est trop focalisée sur sa propre élection présidentielle, elle s'est sans doute souverainisée, devenue souverainiste au fond, à force de compétition entre anti-européens, postulant que c'est là le désir de la population alors que son opinion à l'égard de l'Europe changerait sûrement si elle élisait son président (avec un vice président qui forcément serait d'une autre région d'Europe).
Doit-on y ajouter la crainte de perdre de son pouvoir de la part d'une classe politique nationale, pourtant devenue des "notables locaux", comme a pu dire Ségolène Royal. Ou bien, ce qui serait pire, trop repliée sur elle-même, elle n'y croit pas, elle ne croit plus à l'Europe. Cette élection au suffrage universel est pourtant possible et, selon toute vraisemblance, elle se fera.

La question est de savoir si on s'y met, si on fonce, ou bien si on préfère attendre les calendes grecques! 
Le monde, 23/11/11

MultiGerman

NON SOLO KEBAB

Chancellor Angela Merkel will try to keep up appearances. She will meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Berlin this week, and together they will thank the first Turkish guest workers for their services to Germany. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), will speak, and so will Integration Coordinator Böhmer. It'll be the usual official treatment of this subject: lots of words, big speeches and, if possible, some sort of an appeal. But nothing will be offered to improve the current situation. Half a century after West Germany began promoting immigration, German society is having a hard time dealing with the second and third generations, and with the question of how to give meaning to the word integration. The country seems to be losing its connection with parts of the younger generation.
That is because they didn't grow up in Ankara, Palermo or Priština, but in Stuttgart, Braunschweig and Rostock. And although they did grow up in Germany, they have fewer prospects for success there than their fathers and grandfathers, who came to the country as adults to find work or political asylum. Almost a third of all men and women with foreign roots between the ages of 25 and 35 have no professional qualifications. The data is especially alarming for the roughly three million Turkish immigrants, Germany's largest minority. The share of young Turks with no professional qualifications rose from 44 to 57 percent between 2001 and 2006. This figure alone -- 57 percent -- perfectly illustrates the sheer magnitude of the failure on both sides.
At the same time, those with higher qualifications, the ones Germany urgently needs, say they want to get out as soon as possible. In 2006, there was net outward migration from Germany to Turkey for the first time. This too is an indication of the failure of a modern society. For many immigrants, Germany is no longer attractive enough.

   

An Unnecessary Social, Economic and Political Catastrophe
"Germany is starting to think about immigration when it has already been a country of emigration for some time," says Klaus Bade, chairman of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration. The failures of the children and grandchildren of guest workers, says Bade, is "an unnecessary social, economic and political catastrophe."
The country is unquestionably dependent on the children of immigrants, young people like Shalau Baban, whose family once fled from Iraq. He grew up in Marburg, a university town in central Germany. He goes to school there and has German friends, and yet he too uses terms like "the Germans" and "we foreigners" to classify people. The rap songs he and his friend Daniel Fisher, 18, write are furious responses to the insincerity of many politicians who discuss immigrants, thereby defining these two high-school students as problem cases, and as two boys who don't belong.
In a few years, well over 50 percent of the residents over 40 in many large western German cities will be immigrants. The Prognos research institute predicts that Germany will be short three million workers by 2015. For the economy, the children of immigrants could be a welcome reservoir of globally thinking and culturally diverse employees, and yet the reality is different in many respects. Some 2.3 million people between the ages of 15 and 25 with foreign roots live in Germany, or one in four members of this age group. Many struggle with similar problems. On average, they are less well educated than the children of German families, their German isn't as good, and they don't do as well in kindergarten, school and in the labor market.
Few of them make it to college. In an ideal world, the fact that 2.3 million people have their family origins in Iraq, Tunisia or Croatia would be an advantage and not a disadvantage in an interview. In an ideal world, there would be more managers, judges, engineers and tax officials of Turkish, Russian or Iranian descent. But in the German reality, the unemployment rate is almost twice as high among immigrants as Germans. In the public's perception, Germany's status as a country of immigration is reflected primarily in its crime and unemployment statistics.
Struggling with the Consequences of Immigration

Caglar Budakli, 30, was born in Berlin. His parents are from Turkey, but he has a German passport. He is one of those who were almost lost entirely. His father came to Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood from Kars, a city on the Turkish-Armenian border, in the 1970s. He moved into a three-room apartment with his family and took a job on the assembly line at Siemens. Budakli says that when his father came home from work in the evening, he would either go straight to bed or be so drunk that he would beat his wife and children. Budakli's parents were unable to teach their son how to get ahead in Germany, because they themselves were struggling with the consequences of immigration. According to the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists, children with foreign roots who were born in Germany are more likely to experience behavioral disorders than Germans of the same age. A research report by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees concludes that four out of five Turks in Germany between the ages of 38 and 64 have no more than a junior high school education, while only a little more than a quarter have at least five years of schooling.
And even well-educated immigrants have a tough time in the labor market. According to calculations by the State Office of Statistics in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, 9.1 percent of high-school graduates with immigrant parents are unemployed, compared with only 2.6 percent of those with German parents.
At the same time, parents are reacting more sensitively to increasing the immigrant quota in their children's' schools. The classroom has become a battleground. Many fathers or mothers would rather drive their children halfway across the city than send them to schools with high immigrant populations, leaving behind classrooms filled with the sons and daughters of poorly educated families. Germany is regularly at the bottom of the heap in international studies that compare the educational opportunities of children with and without immigrant backgrounds.

AUTUNNO ARABO?

I GIOVANI DELUSI DALLE FALSE PROMESSE, MA ANCORA MOSSI DALLA FAME DI PARTECIPAZIONE RITORNANO AD OCCUPARE LE PIAZZE EGIZIANE. L'EUFORICA PRIMAVERA ARABA IMPLODE NELL'INCERTEZZA. TUNISIA, EGITTO E LIBIA; RIUSCIRANNO I PAESI NORDAFRICANI A RESISTERE ALLA PROVA DELLA DEMOCRAZIA?

Cairo police fought protesters demanding an end to army rule for a third day today and morgue officials said the death toll had risen to 33, with many victims shot in the worst violence since the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

Tens of thousands of people packed Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-Mubarak revolt in January and February, as darkness fell, despite the clashes that threaten to disrupt Egypt's first free election in decades, due to start next week.

Protesters have brandished bullet casings in the square, where police moved in with batons and tear gas on Saturday against a protest then dominated by Islamists but since driven by young people with secular aims. Police deny using live fire.

Medical sources at Cairo's main morgue said 33 corpses had been received there since Saturday, most of them with bullet wounds. At least 1,250 people have been wounded, a Health Ministry source said.

"I've seen the police beat women my mother's age. I want military rule to end," said protester Mohamed Gamal, 21.

Army generals were feted for their part in easing Mubarak out, but hostility to their rule has hardened since, especially over attempts to set new constitutional principles that would keep the military permanently beyond civilian control.

Police attacked a makeshift hospital in the square after dawn today but were driven back by protesters hurling chunks of concrete from smashed pavements, witnesses said.

"Don't go out there, you'll end up martyrs like the others," protesters told people emerging from a metro station at Tahrir Square.

The violence casts a pall over the first round of voting in Egypt's staggered and complex election process, which starts on 28 November in Cairo and elsewhere. The army says the polls will go ahead, but the unrest could deter voters in the capital.

In an apparent sop to protesters, the army council issued a law to bar from political life "those who work to corrupt political life and damage the interests of the nation".

The announcement was unlikely to satisfy political parties and activists who have called for a blanket ban on former members of Mubarak's now defunct National Democratic Party.

"This is a meaningless move by the military council. In fact this is a slap in the face of protesters and those who died to demand freedom and respect," said activist Mohamed Fahmy. "The council is out of step with the people."

Some Egyptians, including Islamists who expect to do well in the vote, say the ruling army council may be stirring insecurity to prolong its rule, a charge the military denies.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said violence must end. "This is quite evidently an attempt to thwart a democratic transition process," he said.

Political uncertainty has gripped Egypt since Mubarak's fall, while sectarian clashes, labour unrest, gas pipeline sabotage and a gaping absence of tourists have paralysed the economy and prompted a widespread yearning for stability.

The state news agency MENA said 63 flights to and from Cairo had been cancelled because of the latest unrest.

The military plans to keep its presidential powers until a new constitution is drawn up and a president is elected in late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition.

The army said today it had intervened in central Cairo to protect the Interior Ministry, not to clear demonstrators from nearby Tahrir Square, whom it also offered to protect.

"The protesters have a right to protest, but we must stand between them and the Interior Ministry," said General Saeed Abbas. "The armed forces will continue in their plans for parliamentary elections and securing the vote."

The Independent 21/11/11

 

Elezioni libere in Liberia

UN EX-CALCIATORE, UN PREMIO NOBEL, IL SIGNORE DELLA GUERRA, IL MINISTRO DELLA GIUSTIZIA, L'ONU, GLI STATI UNITI, I MANIFESTATI: LE SECONDE ELEZIONI DEMOCRATICHE IN LIBERIA

 

Violence has broken out at opposition headquarters in Liberia, killing at least one person hours before a presidential run-off today.

The vote will test the West African nation's fragile peace after a devastating civil war.

Despite sharp criticism from the United States, the UN and election monitors, opposition leader Winston Tubman kept urging supporters to boycott Tuesday's vote.

Demonstrators clashed with police in one rally backing the boycott, leaving one young man dead inside the headquarters of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change party, or CDC. Nearby, four others were screaming in pain from what appeared to be bullet wounds in their legs.
Walking between the wounded, Mr Tubman and running mate George Weah - the former world footballer of the year - said the violence was further proof the run-off should not go ahead.

Mr Tubman is trailing in the polls by a more than a 10-point margin and the boycott is seen by many as an effort to tarnish today's election in the face of his likely defeat.

The move will not stop incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from winning, but it could undercut her victory.

Worse, it would also cast doubt on an election that was supposed to solidify the nation's peace, eight years after Liberia emerged from a horrific 14-year civil war that left its rolling hills and towering forests dotted with mass graves.

 

"This decision is unfortunate for the electoral process in Liberia, and for Liberia's young democracy," said Gilles Yabi, the director of the International Crisis Group West Africa.

"It's motivated by the fact that they (Tubman's party) think they don't have a chance. It's a way to stain the election, to create a problem of credibility for the president."

The 73-year-old Ms Sirleaf made history in 2005 when she became Africa's first elected female president and again last month when she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in stabilising the country after a 2003 ceasefire.

The Harvard-trained economist is credited with luring hundreds of millions of donor dollars to her destroyed nation and getting $5bn (€3.63bn) of its external debt wiped clean.

Her critics, however, note that two out of every three Liberians still live in dire poverty and the country remains one of the least developed on the planet, according to World Bank and UN statistics.

 

 

Corruption and cronyism continue to erode institutions, and Mr Tubman and Mr Weah have complained that the country's electoral process was stacked in Ms Sirleaf's favour.

The opposition party began threatening a boycott after the first round of voting on October 11 showed that Ms Sirleaf led with around 40% to the CDC's roughly 30%. When the third-place finisher announced he was endorsing Ms Sirleaf, her victory seemed assured.

To participate in today's run-off, the CDC demanded that the head of the election commission be replaced - and he was.

Then last week, Mr Tubman said the changes did not go far enough and called for the election to be postponed. Then on Friday he called for a boycott when the government refused further concessions.

Outside observers said there was no reason for the boycott.
"Liberia has taken important steps to consolidate its democracy since the end of its civil war. Those gains must not be set back by individuals who seek to disrupt the political process," US President Barack Obama said in a statement.

"The international community will hold accountable those who choose to obstruct the democratic process. We encourage all security forces in Liberia to exercise maximum restraint and to allow peaceful protest."

The head of the Carter Centre's observation mission in Liberia, Alexander Bick, said his staff had travelled to all 15 counties in Liberia, and while small irregularities were noted, there was no evidence of systematic fraud.

Electoral law allows candidates to pull out before the start of the election, but once the election is already in progress, ballots cannot be altered, he said. So both Mr Tubman and Ms Sirleaf will appear on today's ballot. The boycott will not result in the vote being cancelled.  Breakingnews.ie

 Le tensioni fra le diverse etnie emerse durante il governo di Doe (1985-1989) fecero si che numerosi profughi sconfinassero dal nord della Liberia in Costa d'avorio. Charles Taylor, che era stato ministro di Doe e poi imprigionato per corruzione, accolse questi profughi e li addestrò militarmente, creando un piccolo esercito chiamato National Patriotic Front of Liberia, il 25 dicembre l'NPFL penetrò in Liberia. Qui Taylor ricevette l'apporto di un gran numero di ribelli delle etnie Gio e Mano e di altri gruppi. La successiva guerra civile fu estremamente cruenta.

Doe fu catturato da un gruppo di ribelli fuoriuscito dall'NPFL, che lo torturarono e poi procedettero alla sua esecuzione. Sconfitto il loro nemico comune, tuttavia, i ribelli si suddivisero in fazioni contrapposte, proseguendo nei combattimenti.

Nel 1995 si tenne una conferenza di pace, in questo contesto Taylor acconsentì a un cessate il fuoco. Due anni dopo vinse le elezioni presidenziali, sebbene i combattimenti e le violenze nel paese non fossero ancora terminati del tutto.

Nel 1999 scoppiò una nuov guerra civile, questa volta causata dalla nascita di un movimento di ribelli chiamato Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, appoggiato dalla Guinea.  Taylor perse il controllo di gran parte del paese, e la stessa Monrovia fu messa sotto assedio.

Dopo un nuovo intervento delle forze dell'ECOWAS e degli Stati Uniti, l'11 agosto 2003 Taylor diede le dimissioni, trasferendosi in esilio in Nigeria.

Nel 2005 si tennero in Liberia elezioni democratiche multipartitiche, vinte da Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Johnson-Sirleaf fu il primo capo di stato di sesso femminile eletto della storia dell'Africa.

LIB(S)IRIA

ALMENO 35OO MORTI IN SIRIA

At least 15 people have been killed across Syria, including an eight-year-old girl and six soldiers, activists say.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the girl was among several people killed today in Homs, which has become the epicentre of the uprising.

In some of the day's attacks, security forces opened fire as they conducted raids in search of dissidents. There also were reports of fighting between army defectors and soldiers.

The UN estimates some 3,500 people have been killed in the Syrian crackdown on dissent over the past eight months.

Though internationally isolated, President Bashar Assad appears to have a firm grip on power, retaining the loyalty of most of the armed forces, despite some defections.

Malgrado condanni l’atteggiamento delle forze di sicurezza nei confronti della popolazione e deplori le centinaia di vittime della repressione ordinata dal governo, la Nato non intende intervenire in Siria. Lo ha dichiarato oggi a Vienna il Segretario generale dell’Alleanza atlantica Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“In Libia stiamo operando sulla base di un mandato delle Nazioni Unite e con il sostegno dei paesi della regione – ha detto Rasmussen – In Siria non vi sono condizioni simili.”
 

Migliaia sono i siriani che si sono rifugiati ad Antakya, in Turchia, accolti nei campi profughi organizzati dalle locali organizzazioni umanitarie e dalla Croce rossa internazionale.

I carri armati siriani inseguono i fuggitivi e sembrano volerli stanare anche oltre il confine. Alla frontiera tra Siria e Turchia la situazione è molto tesa e si teme addirittura che possa culminare in uno scontro armato. Il primo ministro turco Erdogan ha convocato i capi dell’esercito, i servizi segreti e il ministro degli Esteri per esaminare lo scenario di possibili operazioni militari siriane in territorio turco.

 

 

Dal 1963 il paese è governato dal PARTITO BA'TH; il capo di Stato dal 1970 è un membro della famiglia Asad. L'attuale Presidente della Siria è Bashar al-Asad, figlio di Hafiz al-Asad, che ha mantenuto il potere dal 1970 sino alla sua morte nel 2000. 

Il potere esecutivo è retto da un Primo Ministro, mentre il potere legislativo viene esercitato dall'Assemblea del Popolo, costituita da 250 membri eletti a suffragio universale generalmente ogni quattro anni.

Dal colpo di Stato del 1963 è in vigore la LEGGE MARZIALE, che sospende la maggior parte delle garanzie costituzionali (e aumenta i poteri del presidente), ufficialmente motivata dallo stato di guerra con ISRAELEe dalla minaccia del TERRORISMO.

DAL 2011 IL POPOLO SIRIANO E' IN RIVOLTA SUBENDO SISTEMATICHE REPRESSIONI DA PARTE DEL PRESIDENTE ASAD, ALLA STAMPA INTERNAZIONALE E' PROIBITO L'INGRESSO IN SIRIA DALLO SCOPPIO DELLE PROTESTE.

 

Un'Italia da prima pagina

UN COLLAGE DI DIVERSI ARTICOLI INTERNAZIONALI CHE DESCRIVONO LA SITUAZIONE POLITICA ITALIANA DI QUESTI GIORNI

Il paniquait les marchés, sapait la crédibilité de son pays. Il devait partir pour desserrer l'état dans lequel il enfonçait chaque jour un peu plus l'Italie. Au lendemain de l'annonce de la démission prochaine de Silvio Berlusconi de la présidence du conseil italien, les marchés ont pourtant été pris d'un nouvel accès de fièvre mercredi 9 novembre. Ainsi, les rendements des emprunts d'Etat italiens à dix ans se sont considérablement tendus, pulvérisant un nouveau record à 7,226 %, contre 6,742 % la veille, 5,907 % deux semaines plus tôt et 4,815 % le 1^er janvier. 11/11/11 Le Monde

• Le départ de Berlusconi est désormais acté. Que peut-il se passer à la tête du pays?
La démission de Berlusconi intervient alors que l'opposition est très divisée et ne propose pas d'alternative. Dans ces conditions, l'hypothèse d'un maintien au pouvoir pendant quelques mois de Berlusconi ou de ses alliés pour former un gouvernement de transition est probable. Même au sein de son parti, la succession ne sera pas facile. «Il va y avoir une lutte pour la succession et le mode de désignation», explique Hervé Rayner. «A droite, certains demandent des primaires pour désigner un candidat. Berlusconi avait déjà prévenu qu'il ne se représenterait pas en 2013. Cet été, il avait désigné Angelino Alfano comme son successeur, mais il est très jeune et donc mal accepté. C'est un homme qui lui doit tout. Comme la gauche est éclatée et qu'il y a un conflit au sein du parti de Berlusconi, il peut y avoir une crise sur la longue durée.» 10/11/11 Le Figaro

The main party to want elections is the separatist Northern League. Party officials said on Thursday that they would oppose a Monti government. "For us there is no alternative to early elections," Interior Minister and Northern League member Roberto Maroni said at a news conference, commenting on whether he would support a government led by Mr. Monti. 11/11/11 The Wall Street Journal

The main centre-left opposition party, the Democratic Party, and a group of centrist opposition parties all support the idea of a national unity government.Antonio Di Pietro, the leader of another centre-left party, Italy of Values (IdV), has said he would not be part of it, but may back individual pieces of legislation it proposes. 10/11/11 TripoliPost

El camino, pues, parece despejado, aunque no expedito. Nunca tratándose de Italia. Ya están surgiendo voces de peso, en el gobierno y en la oposición, que prefieren la convocatoria de elecciones a la formación del llamado gobierno técnico. Las más representativas, por el momento, son las del actual ministro del Interior, Roberto Maroni, miembro de la Liga Norte, el partido liderado por Umberto Bossi y que ha venido apoyando a Il Cavaliere. Maroni no se ha ido por las ramas: “Si el presidente de la República encarga formar gobierno a alguien, como Mario Monti, que no forma parte de la mayoría que salió victoriosa de las elecciones de 2008, la Liga no lo votará y pasará a la oposición”. 11/11/11 El Pàis

Gheddafi prima della resa

UN INTERESSANTE RACCONTO SUGLI ULTIMI PASSAGGI DELLA GUERRA IN LIBIA.        In an interview with CNN, Mansour Daou, one of former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi's top security officials, who is reported to have remained at his side until the final hours , describes how the dictator, was forced to scavenge for food and hide in abandoned houses in the coastal city of Sirte. Daou, who spoke the the American TV channel while awaiting trial at a detention facility in the city of Misurata, said that the man who was once of the world's most feared leaders was very worried and erratic. Supposedly because he was afraid. According to Daou, Al Qathafi became desperate to travel to his birthplace, the village of Jaref, 20 kilometres west of Sirte, a journey that Daou feared would have been a suicide. "He wanted to go to his village, maybe he wanted to die there or spend his last moments there," he said. Finally, after NATO jets attacked his convoy, Al Qathafi tried to escape on foot through drainage pipes, but was caught. He was later killed in circumstances that are still far from clear. Among the most significant charges Daou faces rare those relating to his alleged role in the1996 Abu Salim prison massacre, and his role in the alleged hiring of African mercenaries by the regime during the conflict. In his interview with CNN he said he had no role in those events. During the hour-long interview, Daou, in his late 50s, and wearing a traditional Arabic grey dishdasha robe, seemed to be in good health CNN said. He described how he had been in the same car as Al Qathafi as they made their chaotic escape from the former leader's hometown of Sirte. According to Daou, Al Qathafi left Tripoli for Sirte on August 18, just two days before NYC fighters entered the Libyan capital Tripoli. Daou himself said he had remained in Tripoli until it became clear the city was no longer safe for the regime's inner circle. He then fled to the city of Bani Walid on August 22, along with Al Qathafi's son, Seif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi, and stayed with them for four days before joining the Al Qathafi in Sirte. Daou said their living conditions went from bad to worse as the rebels tightened their siege of the city. They moved around abandoned houses every three to four days, he said, surviving on the little food they could find. Towards the end, they had no power, water or communication with the outside world. "Our lives had turned by about 180 degrees," he said. The former Libyan leader spent his final days writing and reading books he had stacked in suitcases, Daou said, but his behaviour became more unpredictable. As fighters surrounded Sirte, Al Qathafi's group wanted to leave the city. Daou said he and others knew that if they did not leave before the siege there would be no way out, But the former leader refused to leave - until October 20 - when he and his son Muatassem decided to make the move to the former dictator's birthplace. Their group of about 350 men had dropped to fewer than 200, Daou told CNN. "It started dropping daily with some killed, others wounded and those who had left with their families," he said. Daou described their force as a mostly undisciplined civilian one under the command of Muatassem. They had no plan - not for fleeing and certainly not for fighting, he said. Their convoy of more than 40 vehicles was supposed to head out before dawn when they thought NTC forces would be resting - but they were too late. At about 8 a.m. they set out to Jaref but NATO jets quickly struck one of the vehicles in the convoy. Daou remembered a scene of chaos, confusion and horror as the impact of the explosion triggered the airbags in the car and Al Qathafi sustained a slight injury to his head or chest. He went on to say that as they tried to escape anti-Al Qathafi fighters opened fire on their cars . Then followed a second air strike by NATO. "That is when we had the most casualties and destroyed vehicles, our car was hit after we got out of it. It was terrifying," Daou recalled, adding that they had no option but to run; their escape on foot ended with heavy fire from fighters who surrounded them by the drainage pipes they were using to escape through. Daou said he lost consciousness after he was hit by shrapnel in his back and does not know how Al Qathafi died. But he believed that the death of the former Libyan leader ended the possibility of an insurgency that his loyalists could have mounted. "The regime and any power it may have had died with Al Qathafi," he said. The legacy of Libya's former dictator is now being debated. "It will be up to the historians, everyone has their opinion, some see him as a dictator who killed his own people, and there is an opposite view. History is usually written by the more powerful," Daou said. According to Daou. Al Qathafi believed he could remain in power. He and other members of the inner circle tried to convince him to leave the country since March "to leave with respect ... to save face." His sons rejected the idea, especially Seif: "It is not easy for someone who had been in power for 42 years, to believe that it is over in a minute," Daou said. Daou said he had no idea where the former regime's most wanted men - Seif and al-Senuossi - were. But with the International Criminal Court pursuing them, he believes they are probably still in Libya as no country will take them. When asked if he thought Seif, who during the conflict vowed to fight until the end, was a fighter, Daou laughed quietly at the suggestion that Seif was a fighter. "I don't know - I don't think so," he said. Daou recalled that as unrest broke out in the region in January, officials in Libya were worried. "There was fear and there was concern that this wave could reach Libya and the feeling was right," he said. Daou said he was in a car with Al Qathafi and al-Senoussi driving back to Tripoli from Sabha in the south when news reached them about the ousting of the President of neighbouring Tunisia. He said they discussed it but the threat was not taken seriously. According to Daou, Al Qathafi felt betrayed by world leaders he considered allies, like Britain’s Tony Blair, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Daou explained to CNN that a bigger betrayal came from within. He said there was a defence plan in place for the capital, but it was treason among the ranks of those who were tasked with securing Tripoli that led to the fall of the capital in a few days. He said more than 3,800 troops were supposed to guard Tripoli's gates, but on the night the revolutionaries entered the capital, fewer than 200 troops were on duty. Daou, now awaiting trial, said that the revolution was the people's will and they won. Now they have to preserve it,- and Libya's unity,” he said. Asked if he regretted being part of the regime, he sighed and chuckled. "Sometimes I regret everything, I have even regretted being alive, of course a person has regrets at a time in his life and looks back but unfortunately you sometimes regret when it is too late."

The Tripoli Post, 7/11/11

ANGELI COL FANGO SULLE MAGLIETTE

UN OMAGGIO HA TUTTI I RAGAZZI CHE SI STANNO IMPEGNANDO PER FRONTEGGIARE L'ALLUVIONE IN LIGURIA.

 
Gli "angeli col fango sulle magliette" sono arrivati a quota diecimila in 48 ore, le loro "squadre" sono già a spalare per le strade di Genova, perfettamente organizzate in collaborazione con Protezione Civile. Diecimila adesioni alla pagina Facebook lanciata venerdì pomeriggio ¹ da Emanuela Risso, una giovane genovese laureata in lingue e appassionata di new media. Per due giorni, mentre le adesioni salivano a vista d'occhio, Emanuela e alcuni suoi amici hanno "amministrato" con sagacia la pagina facendola diventare un prezioso veicolo di informazione contribuendo, in qualche caso, a chiarire falsi allarmi o a smentire voci e leggende metropolitane fiorite nella città allagata. Nel frattempo hanno preso contatti con la Protezione Civile e con i municipi, individuati i punti in cui c'era bisogno di volontari, organizzate le squadre. Adesso, domenica pomeriggio, mentre alcuni continuano l'amministrazione, gli altri sono giù nel fango a dare una mano tra Borgo Incrociati e corso Sardegna.

Repubblica.it, si sente particolarmente vicina a questa bella esperienza di partecipazione via internet perché, per qualche verso, la cosa è partita anche da qui. Venerdì pomeriggio, infatti, Emanuela ci ha mandato un messaggio Facebook chiedendo se avevamo nulla in contrario a lasciarle utilizzare

un nostro il pezzo ². Il pezzo raccontava la storia dell'alluvione del 1970 e dei ragazzi che andarono a spalare dando una prova di eccezionale solidarietà e generosità. Quei ragazzi, raccontavamo, erano migliaia e si diedero un simbolo: una manata di fango sulle magliette. Da qui il nome di "angeli col fango sulle magliette". Spiegava Emanuela: "La lettura mi ha colpito molto e mi ha spinto ha creare insieme a degli amici questa pagina nel tentativo di stimolare un movimento d'opinione e far rivivere quell'esperienza". Ovviamente le abbiamo risposto che poteva fare ciò che voleva di quel pezzo: "Ho costruito la pagina in pochi minuti sull'onda dell'emozione che mi aveva suscitato il racconto di quelle vicende di oltre quarant'anni fa. L'ho messa in rete e ne ho parlato con un po' di amici per vedere se la cosa li interessava".

In capo a un'ora la pagina "Angeli col fango sulle magliette" aveva largamente travalicato la cerchi degli amici Fb di Emanuela. E lei si è trovata in mano una bella patata bollente da gestire. Con alcuni compagni di avventura e con l'aiuto del suo docente di "marketing e comunicazione applicati al web 2.0", Enrico Giubertoni, Emanuela si è messa al lavoro.

Mentre le adesioni salivano alle prime migliaia, la pagina ha preso forma concreta. In una serie di "note" sono state date le prime importanti indicazioni. Chiaro che venerdì sera (e anche sabato) sarebbe stato inutile andare a spalare. Così, gli "Angeli" del 2011 sono rimasti a casa davanti ai rispettivi computer e si sono messi a far girare tutta l'informazione reperibile. Hanno dato conto dell'intensificarsi della pioggia in certe zone, dei torrenti che salivano ai livelli di guardia, di come l'emergenza si spostava da una parte all'altra della città. Ma hanno anche messo in rete decine di numeri utili, hanno rimbalzato i comunicati degli organismi deputati al soccorso, hanno fatto giustizia di informazioni sbagliate che circolavano (come, a un certo punto, di quella che parlava di una seconda ondata di piena del Fereggiano). Ed è stata la stessa Emanuela, a un certo punto, a sconsigliare di usare l'acqua che usciva color terra dai rubinetti della case anche dopo averla bollita: "Mi è venuto in mente che se c'erano finiti dentro prodotti chimici, la bollitura non bastava". Poi, un esperto le ha dato ragione.

Intanto, in stretto contatto con i Municipi e con la Protezione Civile (quella locale, che, in Italia, funziona benissimo) qualcuno si è dato da fare a organizzare le prime squadre di soccorsi: nomi, cellulari, punti di raccolta, destinazioni. In modo che si andasse a dare una mano minimamente organizzati evitando di intralciare o di dare fastidio. "Ovviamente, abbiamo cercato di farlo senza prevaricare. Al massimo abbiamo 'sconsigliato'. Ma noi non siamo nessuno. Siamo solo i gestori di una pubblica pagina Facebook. Chi ci vuole ascoltare lo fa, chi vuole andare per conto suo, faccia come crede meglio. L'importante è lo spirito... Come quello di 41 anni fa, quando, se non sbaglio, Internet non l'avevate e siete andati lo stesso".

Comunque, Emanuela Risso annette importanza al mezzo: "Ho avuto la conferma delle sue enormi potenzialità. Internet ci ha liberato dalla Tv e ci ha dato una possibilità concreta di partecipazione. In questo caso, ho potuto constatarlo direttamente e, devo dire, molto positivamente".

Gli "Angeli" manderanno altre squadre a spalare domani e nei giorni successivi. Intanto continueranno a informare chi vorrà ascoltarli. Poi... poi chissà quale altra piega potrà prendere la loro fortunata pagina...
 

Massimo razzi, Repubblica, 6/11/2011

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