Archive for the ‘Roma dixit - News from Italy’ Category
venerdì, agosto 17th, 2012 |
Remarks on the cases of Julian Assange and Cesare Battisti
By Cybergeppetto
The Julian Assange’s case is a perfect example of how the ideology can affect any consideration about a person under trial for a serious crime.
The story is well known, he is accused of rape in Sweden, he does not intend to go under trial and he prefers to escape from his responsibilities.
He has declared many times that the accuse is false and it is just a revenge for the publications of secret files he made available to the public through his website “wikileaks”.
Just as a reminder, the publications by Assange of classified reports have not changed the history of the world, so far no historian came out by saying that new facts were discovered by reading those files. We are talking about items to be verified, analysed, and correlated, a lot of work for the decades to follow.
But for the ones that look at Assange as a paladin of the truth, an accuse of rape in Sweden is just a US revenge against the freedom of information. The fact that the military personnel in various operation was put in danger by a senseless espionage action is just disregarded and forgotten.
As far as the asylum is concerned, a similar case happened in France and Brasil about Cesare Battisti, former terrorist found guilty of at least four assassinations by an Italian court while the indicted decided to escape.
For a long time Battisti was protected by the so called “Mitterand’s doctrine”, a funny idea of the French left wing to protect people considered prosecuted for political reasons, unless they were responsible for murder. Battisti became a famous “noir” writer, probably something about a world he knew about.
When the situation became intolerable for the French, Battisti disappeared again and new extremists decided to protect him in Brazil.
The ideology is able to turn a crime in a legitimate political act, for this reason President Lula provided Battisti with political asylum upon the consideration that Battisti was in personal danger, probably unable to write his novels.
Now the Ecuador Governement, famous for not allowing freedom of information to the national media, has turned a rape allegation in a revenge against the freedom of information giving the political asylum to Assange.
The result of these two stories is that any crime can be protected by rough states for ideological reasons.
The curious thing is that states like Italy, Sweden, Great Britain and the United States are considered by France, Brazil and Ecuador unable to provide an adequate level of legal defence to Assange and to Battisti, the guys that have shown no intention to go under trial so far.
When the democracy allows such a politicians to go to the power, the asylum is very likely to be the “refugium peccatorum”, a mask and an excuse to provide criminals with support within the frame of lost ideologies.
Cybergeppetto
Related articles about Julian Assange and Wikileaks: clic here
Photo credits: Forbes
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giovedì, luglio 19th, 2012 |
By Jethro S.
The Italian Army Chief of Staff general Claudio Graziano paid a visit to the Exercise Hasty Attack 2012 in Monte Romano last 12th July.
The exercise has been conducted in the fire range of Monte Romano by the 191st course young Infantry Officers of the Turin Scuola di applicazione commanded by Ltc. Giulio Di Marzio.
The four-star general was welcomed by the two-star general Giuseppe Spinelli, Commander of the Scuola di applicazione who was firstly briefed by the exercise director.
Gen Graziano has then followed the platoon leaders during their attack giving at the meantime treasuring suggestion for the attack conduct.
Finally, during the hot wash up by the exercise director he addressed his speech and motivation to the young officers and all the Commander officers committed in the exercise. His four-hour stay was appreciated by all the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers and has to be considered as a great value for the young Infantry Officers.
Jethro S.
Related articles:
The Scuola di Appplicazione di Torino in Paola Casoli il Blog
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giovedì, luglio 12th, 2012 |
By Cybergeppetto
Some days ago a US friend of mine on a social network was complaining about the fact that, in his view, the current US politics is far beyond the “limited government” concept. Without having a deep knowledge of the States, I can fairly say that he would be very upset about the level we have reached in Italy.
He comes from a Country in which, since 1776, it was decided to give the Governement the so called “Just Powers” in order to avoid the risk to put the individual freedom in danger.
The political life in Italy has never been focused on the concept of limiting the action of the governement, the political parties in the peninsula have always pushed the governement to extend his action in order to get the vote of the people.
It is not a secret that the retirement system, the compensation for unemployment and the health system are the pillars on which Italian politicians base their electoral consent.
The Italian public debt is the usual result of a system unable to push the economy to develop, the difference from the debt of a year and the debt of the year before is a clear evidence of the amount of work that has not been done because of the public administration inefficiency and the negative role played by the political parties.
In Italy it is useless to be educated and hardworking, the only thing you need to get a job is to be linked to a political party.
If you are a doctor and you want to be appointed chief of a department of a Hospital you do not need to be a terrific surgeon o a Nobel researcher, you just need a political sponsorship. The managers of a lot of companies pretending to be private, but state owned, are just appointed by the politics in a sort of slavery market in which the only skill required is the allegiance to a party.
A lot of Italians are eager to loose their individual freedom in change of a job, for this reason Italy is an indeed curious Country in which a soft, subtile, but very strong tyranny is in place since the end of World War II.
Cybergeppetto
A delegation of the Italian Parliament is in Washington to visit the Senate and the Congress. A Tea Party member has asked the Italian members of Parliament if they intend to implement the concept of “Just Powers” in the Italian law. The Head of the Italian delegation has explained that Italy is about to modify the Constitution to grant the citizens the “Just freedom rights” remaining from the governement’s action.
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domenica, aprile 22nd, 2012 |
By Cybergeppetto
After two months, the case of the incident in which two Italian marines are charged for murder for having allegedly killed two fishermen is still there showing the attitude of two governments unable to do any positive action and unable to take any appropriate decision.
If I was a pirate I would have been laughing because the international anti piracy efforts are now, at least in Italy, questioned by the media and the public opinion following to the case of the two Italian sailors.
After two months we know that a murder case was conducted without an authopsy, or an authopsy was conducted, maybe, without granting the marines’ lawyers the possibility to verify the procedure and the results.
After two months we do not have any report on the weapons confiscated on the involved ship, named “Enrica Lexie” by the “Fratelli D’Amato” Company. The accused people is not able to know the content of the ballistic search report conducted, but the media are speculating a lot and parts of the report came public.
After two months we continue to read on the Indian media all sorts of speculations on the incident without any solid element, while the Italian media are keeping a low level posture not to harm the poor image of the Italian government, the so called “governo tecnico”, a government not elected by the Italian people.
After two months Indian authorities are not even able to state where the incident happened, probably because this would cut any discussion about the applicable law on a ship in the deep sea. A GPS is probably missed in the Indian side.
We have read numerous statements of the Kerala political authorities openly accusing the marines, something really horrible in a State in which the Judicial System shouldn’t be subject to any political interference.
The Indian central government does not seem to have a foreign ministry able to treat the case properly and to show a positive approach of India in the field of anti-piracy or, at least, the ability to comply with basic international rules such as the maritime law.
It is really funny to see two governments hanging around while the result of a local investigation continue to be far away, it is even more funny the fact that the local judicial system do not dare to take a decision on the applicable law, since it is more than clear that a flag on a ship is the only element to state.
While the time is passing by, the Italian government has decided a very disputable action by declaring the intention to offer a money compensation to the families of the victims, so that the Italians will continue to be perceived as the people offering money to get out of this cases and accepting any blackmail. If the marines, as it is really probable, are innocent, the “compensation” is an insult to two public servants engaged in an anti piracy mission.
How many months are needed to solve the case? Is the fight to the Piracy still in place? Is Indian government able to comply with the maritime law? Is the Italian government able to stop offering money everywhere for any kidnapping?
When this story will be over, the two governments will remain with their bad reputation, soldiers are not kids to be left somewhere unattended or to be kept illegally.
Cybergeppetto
p.s. Do not join the Italian Armed Forces, do not join the Indian judicial system…
Articolo correlato:
India, time to step back – By Cybergeppetto (7 marzo 2012)
La vicenda dei marò italiani in Paola Casoli il Blog
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mercoledì, marzo 7th, 2012 |
Four ideas to think about the Italian marines jailed in Kerala
By Cybergeppetto
The story of the killing of two Indian fishermen allegedly committed by the Italian marines, “Marò” as they are named in Italy, represents something that is probably underestimated by the Countries involved and maybe from other countries and organizations worldwide.
One concept is related to the availability of the sea lines of communications, an old idea familiar to all the seamen.
It is a challenge for all the Countries interested to that, India should better consider the contribution to be given to the fighting against the piracy, it is not a good idea to reward Italy for having been cooperative in this respect.
It is now clear that a Greek ship was involved in a similar incident the same day, but nobody in the indian media is investigating the relation between the two incidents.
Other ships have killed people along the Indian coasts and escaped, but the Indian authorities left them go without any claim.
Is it normal that a Country facing the threat of piracy along her shores can prosecute an anti piracy team without considering the idea to be after the tail of pirates? Indians should consider their responsibilities in that respect.
Is it normal that international organizations conducting military operations in the region are considering this incident just like a common controversy between two Countries? This story has the potential to disrupt the international efforts against piracy.
A second important concept is about the right of the flag applicable to the ships, any university student considering the idea of applicability of a national law versus the jurisdiction of the Country to which the ship belongs to would be badly rejected in any examination.
Can the Indians continue to state that? Of course not. Indian people should better consider the spreading of anarchy and misconduct against the navigation in deep sea as a result of irresponsible policy conducted so far by Kerala authorities. Indian media speculating about the national pride vs a foreign Country are playing a dirty game.
A third concept is about the handling of murder cases. Is there a modern Country in the world in which a murder case could be held successfully without an autopsy? I have a full respect about the habit of cremation, but the police standards to deal correctly such an important case are far from India.
The fourth, and last, concept is about the status of soldiers. Indians should ask to the Indian military the concept behind the status of a soldier to understand if the marines conducting a military operation in the deep sea can be investigated by a Country different from the one they are part of. Indians should better consider the link between the soldiers and their Homeland. Italy has military tribunals for that and has ratified the Convention about the International Criminal Court, definitely two better jurisdictions.
A lot of other considerations apply, but my intent is just to avoid any useless confrontation with irrelevant arguments and focus on the potential threat to the security in the area and to the economy based on the naval transport.
Cybergeppetto
p.s. “Daddy, my teacher told me to read “Sandokan” by Emilio Salgari, looks like a terrible story of a pirate in a wild country…”. “My son, rough people is everywhere, reasonable people should consider the idea to be more proactive…”.
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domenica, febbraio 19th, 2012 |
By Cybergeppetto
Italians are indeed performing very well in these times of economic crisis. Their style is worldwide famous and it’s not just a matter of fashion and good food and beverages.
They have a relatively new Prime Minister, looking like a British country gentleman, that has shown the will to put Italy in line with the European Union, the institution determined to commit suicide by killing Greece. Berlusconi was overthrown, nothing has changed, but the media are telling the people that everything is going to be solved.
This week the Italian people is focused on the “Festival della Canzone Italiana” in Sanremo, so everybody is discussing about songs and singers. In particular the people are engaged in funny discussions on two issues: the first one is about Adriano Celentano, former singer now claiming to be a sort of religious opinion maker, a guy paid three hundred and fifty thousand euros to give blunt speeches on society and religion instead of singing, the only thing he used to be good at. People is split in two, the supporters and those against.
The second issue is about the link between the undies of miss Belen Rodriguez, an Hispanic pin up and Italian TV starlet, and a butterfly tattooed on her belly.
Italians have learnt to talk about the spread, the difference between German and Italian bonds, it is quoted everyday on all the media, this difference is linked to almost everything, but the only two real things, the level of German bond sales and the Italian ability to pay the State debt, are forgotten. Not a voice is saying that Italians should consider the idea to start paying the debt instead of increasing it.
The Italian style is incredible, they are like a jet pilot running out of fuel far from the airport, but already planning the subsequent fitness session via mobile phone.
The politicians are quite the same, they are responsible for the management of an important Country, with an institutional system too complicated in which a quick decision is taken in not less than one month, but no party seems to be interested in changing the status quo, they prefer to discuss about the electoral system, something considered important to gain the elections. The question is: why a reasonable person should try to win the elections to run a Country like a car without the steering wheel?
But the best evidence of the Italian style in politics are the discussions among the government, the trade unions and the political parties about the “statuto dei lavoratori”, the law setting up the rules about the status of workers.
Italians have a strange idea of job positions, the only issue they are keen on discussing is the salary, a lot of talk shows are about ideological issues, rights, state constraints, but nobody seems to be interested in assessing the ability of the Italian economic system to create richness, to sustain the current standard of living. The Unions are declaring everyday that the “articolo 18”, the 18th article of the law stating the reintegration to work , is a tool to protect the workers, but it is now clear that the system is about to collapse and the young people do not get the job because industries want to avoid the risk of keeping the people in the wrong place. The idea to move human resources whenever and wherever needed is far to come.
Europe is a very interesting continent in which Nations are keen on making debts, Italy is surely the best one.
Cybergeppetto
p.s. Mr. Mario Monti has announced the Italian way to pay the debt and get out of the economic crisis. Any butterfly tattooed on the belly will have a 20% increase on VAT, the results of this taxation will be used to pay the debt.
Photo credits: infosannio.com
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lunedì, novembre 28th, 2011 |
By Cybergeppetto
Italy is worldwide famous for the slow food, but it should be famous even for the slow governance.
Italians get excited just when they change the government, but all the rest is to be done quietly and smoothly.
It’s more than funny to see that, after months in which Italian people were told that a quick change of government was needed to cope with a terrible crisis, a new slow motion governance has started to go through the usual never-ending story on “who-is-to-be-put-where”.
While the state debt is dramatically rising, the Italian politicians have their priorities:
- choose the “sottosegretari” (deputies of the ministers);
- set up a new Authority to control the public spending and invent new positions to reward political servants;
- give the pension to the workers of Termini Imerese (former FIAT production site);
- give the citizenship to the children of immigrants;
- get more taxes to keep going with the usual spending system
Some years ago Italians voted in a referendum against a constitutional reform that would have been a starting point in speeding up the running rhythm of the republic, now those who voted against are asking to set up a new constitutional reform.
Italian youngsters are hanging around listening music with the last mp3 reader and, while they are isolated by their earplugs, their relatives continue a public spending spree, the real reason of the enormous debt of the peninsula.
Some preliminary measures are foreseen in the coming days, but it is clear that the approval process in the parliament, divided in two houses with same duties, will take at least one month, maybe two: that is the famous “bicameralismo perfetto”, a unique system in the world to waste time and to be ineffective.
The Italian political system is always the same, smart, good looking, full of media communications, overloaded by unnecessary gossip on the competitors, but totally ineffective.
Everything is the hands of a large group of people to be called “cattocomunisti”, people partially communist and partially belonging to the former Democrazia Cristiana.
They started the system of inefficiency and corruption that has led to the current situation, they are everywhere in the public institutions, their music is always the same: get votes in change of unfair welfare and make debt to fund the system, but slowly, year by year with the same music of “diritti acquisiti” we already spoke about, see the link at the bottom.
Cybergeppetto
p.s. Mr.Napolitano approaches Mr.Monti during the Republic Gala Ball. “Please start a new government … pardon, a new dance…”, says the President. “Do we have music, Mr.President?”, replies the Prime Minister. “Sure we do, a new orchestra is coming from Brussel, anyway start with a slow waltz from my mp3 reader”.
Related article:
Italian for foreigners, the political jargon dictionary – By Cybergeppetto (6th November 2011)
Photo credits vip.it
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giovedì, novembre 17th, 2011 |
By Cybergeppetto
What is the main mission of the Italian government? Resigning. How many kinds of governments Italy can have? Italians have experienced a huge variety of governements, e.g. the “governo di unità nazionale” (national unity cabinet), the “governo del presidente” (president’s cabinet), the “governo balneare” (summer time cabinet) and, again in these days, the “governo tecnico” (non-political cabinet).
The “governo di unità nazionale” was invented in dark times of the fight on terrorism, but it was not intended to defeat the “Brigate rosse”, the left wing armed faction. It was just a way to set up a first experiment of putting all the parties together in the view of the so called “compromesso storico”, the alliance between catholic and communist forces.
Mr. Aldo Moro, former President of the Democrazia Cristiana, was killed by the terrorists because the Government was nor able to reach an agreement with the terrorists, nor prepared to conduct any serious law enforcement.
The “governo del presidente” was an invention of Mr Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, former President of the Italian Republic, to overthrow Mr Berlusconi in 1994, then the trade unions declared a general strike against the proposal to reduce the early retirement. The “governo tecnico” did right after a vague reform of retirement system with a too long time schedule.
The “governo balneare” was a funny way to call the cabinet intended to go over summer time waiting for the elections in autumn, probably the best political gag of all the times.
The “governo tecnico” is just the way to defeat the political competitor avoiding early elections, it is a nonsense the fact that the political life is to be managed by non-political characters just to allow the opposition to overthrow the majority and remain on the scene.
The fact that the Italian political history is full of cabinets is simply explained, the Parliament is permanently ill, it’s got a particular kind of flu and takes the cabinet as a sort of paper napkin to be used to clean the nose and to be thrown away immediately after.
This illness is the “parlamentarismo”, which means that any member of the Parliament is free to move from whatever political party he was elected with to any one else. In the “Camera dei Deputati” and the “Senato”, the two houses of the Parliament, there is a day by day move of members of parliament, some of them are able to change two, three or more parties during the “legislatura”, the political term of the Parliament. These frequent flyers of the politics, funny commuters among the political parties, are able to destroy any hope of continuity of the government action.
The useless complexity of the italian constitutional architecture and the complete disregard of the popular willingness by the politicians are the main reasons of the ineffectiveness of the Italian State as a whole.
Other funny expressions to be commented will follow in the coming moths.
Cybergeppetto
p.s. “Ogni membro del Parlamento rappresenta la Nazione ed esercita le sue funzioni senza vincolo di mandato”. Any member of the Parliament represents the Nation and performs his functions without being limited by any mandate. Italy is a unique Country with a special group of people totally irresponsible of their coups.
Related article:
Italian for foreigners. The Political jargon dictionary - By Cybergeppetto (6th Nov 2011)
Photo: Dizionario Italiano Inglese
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domenica, novembre 6th, 2011 |
By Cybergeppetto
“The cat is on the table”. All the Italian students learning English language have repeated this apparently senseless sentence so far, the fact is that probably an Italian does not allow his cat to stay on the table in the dining room while an Englishman would.
Learning a language is learning a culture. In this frame I intend to analyze specific areas of the Italian language spoken by political characters to let non-Italian speakers understand.
The way the Italian politicians speak is indeed funny and in any expression there are a lot of hidden meanings as the dirt under the carpet.
The concept of retirement, for example, is quite simple, when you reach a certain age, you have to retire and you can get the pension.
In Italy everything is much more complicated, it depends on the sort of retirement you’re looking for, there are two different sorts, which are called “pensione d’anzianità” and “pensione di vecchiaia”.
“Anzianità” is a generic concept stating that a person has worked for an unspecified time: one day, ten years, thirty years.
“Vecchiaia” means that somebody is too old to work and the remaining capabilities the person has are not enough to continue to work effectively and safely.
The sentence “tu hai una certa anzianità” is to be translated literally “you have worked for a certain period of time”. The real and more appropriate translation woud be “If you do not want to work anymore, please vote for me and you will have the possibility to retire, somebody else will pay your pension”.
In the Eighties a lot of Italians, following to the “baby boom” of the Sixties, were allowed to retire after nineteen years, six months and one day: it is presumed that a lot of them are doing undeclared jobs to have a better standard of living.
No taxes are payed for that.
The concept of early retirement has even a more curious fall out in the political language because the politicians have invented a new expression: “I diritti acquisiti”, something that can be translated as “granted rights” which sounds pretty well but the reality is totally different.
A right is something to be granted to everybody, but it is now clear that is impossibile to grant an early retirement to everybody, so the coming generations will not have these sort of “diritti acquisiti”, this draws us to the conclusion that the right translation of “diritti acquisiti” is “privileges” and has nothing to do with rights.
These considerations are useful to understand the reason why the Italian political system is largely based on the debt, along with other nations having simular situations, but at a lower level. I do hope that this helps to understand the foggy way the Italian politicians talk to the people.
Cybergeppetto
p.s. “Suggest me a cocktail”, asks the bartender the guest of an Italian lounge bar. “Anzianità or vecchiaia?”, replies the bartender. “What’s the difference?”, asks the client. “Well, if you want it to be paid by the State you can either have a drop of “anzianità” right now or “vecchiaia” at the end of the night, but if you get enough money from your job you can buy yourself whichever cocktail you like. Forget State assistance and vote for somebody else”.
L’Immagine è tratta da Dizionario Italiano Inglese
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mercoledì, novembre 2nd, 2011 |
By Jethro S.
The REPASAN (Reparto di Sanità) battalion hub in the beautiful town of Merano changed hands last 20th October when Ltc Cavalry Ciriaco Volponi relieved Ltc Mountain Troops Giulio Di Marzio as Commanding Officer .
The ceremony took place in the early morning in a fresh snowed scenario of the Cesare Battisti Barracks in front of all 24 Alpine Manoeuvre Regiment personnel and kindly guests, and presided by Col Giuseppe Lucarelli Regiment Commanding Officer.
Outgoing commander served 12 months as Battalion Commander and will command the Infantry Officer Courses at the Scuola di Applicazione in Turin next 1st November.
During his speech he pointed out that “There are no words to adequately express what an honor and privilege it has been to lead and serve in this command,” then in his outgoing remarks he addressed a famous sentence from Gen Douglas Mc Arthur’s speech in West Point, 12th May 1962: “Duty, honor, country, these three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be”.
He continued by saying: “Those words sum up our military essence and stated our military being, more this is my 
believe, this is my endow to you my young alpine troops soldiers”.
Col Lucarelli thanked Ltc Di Marzio for his passion and enthusiasm in conducting, managing training activities and for building up cohesion, esprit-de-corps, values that make the REPASAN one of the top units in his Regiment.
The touching moment was the change of the colour which stated the new REPASAN Commanding Officer Ltc Volponi.
Nemo me impuni lacessit was the motto Ltc Di Marzio left in the area of the ceremony and is the REPASAN Motto.
Viva il 24° reparto di Sanita’ La Fenice, viva il 24° reggimento di Manovra alpino, viva l’Italia.
Jethro S.
Photo credits Jethro S.
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