I show you how it works censorship at Corriere.it (and in general on any mass-media)

My dear readers, if sometime you wish to understand how it works a censorship on mass-media, well, I can show it right now as follow:

1. Decide to write a "post" in a forum freely expressing your absolutely personal opinion about an event which is discussed, for instance, in an article of a newspaper (Notice: when I write "absolutely personal opinion" I mean that, even using a polite attitude, you are not going to follow the "main stream" and you are not using a "politically correct" attitude)
2. Upload your post and hold on 5 to 30 minutes to see if it has been published. If not, this means that your post has been censored by moderators of the forum
3. Then write another "post" using the "main stream" and "politically correct" language of the newspaper where you want to publish (Notice: for "main stream" and "politically correct" I mean that you are writing about something that the newspaper's editorial direction can find is matching with its editorial line)
4. Again upload your post and hold on 5 to 30 minutes to see if it has been published. Don't worry and be sure that this time in less than 3 minutes you will see appearing your post. It is absolutely true, trust me.

Anyway, in the event you don't want (and you are right) to believe only to my opinion and you want to see a proof of this opinion, well, I am delighted to offer you one. 

Herein you can find 2 posts I have tried to publish (this morning the first one and in the early afternoon the second one) on Italian web-site of Corriere della Sera (the oldest Italian newspaper) regarding an article I wished to comment some opinions. The web-site is Corriere.it. Since my posts were not following Corriere della Sera "main stream" and "politically correct" editorial line, they weren't published. Later, in the late afternoon, I wrote another post for the same web-site but this time following Corriere.it "main stream" and "politically correct" editorial line. Of course, this time, it has been published.

POST Nº 1

NOT PUBLISHED

Italians want a comeback, not decline

La commedia è finita, the farce is over.

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E' importante ciò che si dice ... 14.11|11:35 Charlie1960

victor the iron blade

lunedì 14 novembre 2011, 12:33

Finalmente qualcuno che pone un post da persona informata, qualcuno che prima di opinare per opinare si documenta. Charlie 1960 ha centrato il problema, quanto meno dal punto di vista tecnico-economico. Il punto è, scusate se il paragone vi sembrerà allucinante (ed in tal caso vi invito a leggere il capitolo opportuno in "The Shock Doctrine" di Naomi Klein), che qui siamo finiti come in Sud Africa quando crollò l'Apartheid. Da un lato i "negri" si preoccupavano di garantirsi il diritto alla "Libertà" (di voto, espressione, ecc.) mentre dall'altro i "bianchi" (del FMI e del World Bank) si preoccupavano di "blindare" tutte le ricchezze del paese nelle loro mani suggerendo provvedimenti legislativi ad hoc. Seppure Berlusconi è una "male" di cui l'Italia aveva bisogno di liberarsi ciò che dobbiamo capire è che qui si sta cadendo dalla "padella alla brace". Se da un lato intoniamo (giustamente) canti di alleluia per esserci liberati del Silvio nazionale dall'altro qualcuno (a Bruxelles e Washington) sta intonando un Requiem o un De Profundis sull'Italia. Dobbiamo capire una cosa: la UE e l'Euro si stanno rivelando una prigione. Dobbiamo liberarci di essa se vogliamo sopravvivere o finiremo come i Greci che hanno perduto la sovanità sul loro stesso debito perché adesso rispondono direttamente di esso alla Banca di Inghilterra. Esatto, questo è stato fatto, vi prego di documentarvi sul Blog di Paolo Barnard se non mi credete (http://www.paolobarnard.info/intervento_mostra_go.php?id=267) 

TORNA INDIETRO 

INVIA

POST Nº 2
NOT PUBLISHED

Italians want a comeback, not decline

La commedia è finita, the farce is over.

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Un applauso al Corriere che non pubblica post fuori dal coro

victor the iron blade

lunedì 14 novembre 2011, 13:55

Bisogna fare le riforme neo-liberali però in quanto ad applicare la prima regola della liberalità, ovvero il diritto alla libertà di espressione, sembra che a Corriere.it non abbiano letto né la Costituzione Italiana né La Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti dell'Uomo. Soprattutto quando si cita una fonte giornalistica che non è di gradimento alla direzione del Corriere per cui i "moderatori" in realtà non sono altro che dei moderni "torquemada" da inquisizione tecnologica. Bravo Corriere.it, continua pure a censurare chi, come me, sta fuori dal coro. Perché in Italia le voci alla Pasolini, per esempio, in nome del catto-comunismo tuttavia imperante bisogna sempre zittirle, vero? Infatti la missione giornalistica, in omaggio al cambio dei tempi, ormai non è far conoscere la Verità ma è: evitare che si conosca la Verità. Sempre c'è qualcuno disposto fare il lavoro sporco, vero Corriere.it? 

TORNA INDIETRO 

INVIA

POST Nº 3

PUBLISHED

Italians want a comeback, not decline

La commedia è finita, the farce is over.

That's all folks, mates!
14.11|17:41
victor the iron blade

Tra le tante cose dette ce ne sarebbe una da dire che non ho ancora udito, ed è la seguente. Se è vero come è vero che Berlusconi (che non amo, sia chiaro) non si può liquidarlo come se fosse il solo responsabile visto che lo hanno democraticamente eletto svariati milioni di italiani che evidentemente da lui si sentono ben rappresentati, allora proprio questi italiani sono i veri responsabili dello sfascio a cui siamo andati incontro. I quali elettori che hanno votato Berlusconi proprio perché in lui si rispecchiano, probabilmente una delle ragioni per cui lo hanno fatto è che pensavano fosse la "furbizia" la migliore qualità di Berlusconi. Allora, cari elettori berlusconiani, se vi sentivate cosí ben rappresentati avete commesso un gravissimo errore di valutazione. Una cosa essenziale per essere dei veri "furbi" è che prima di tutto bisogna capire ciò che gli altri stanno dicendo e soprattutto decidendo. Ma Berlusconi, per il fatto di mal parlare e sicuramente mal capire l'Inglese durante le riunioni UE e G8/G20, come può essere considerato furbo se gli manca una chiave tanto importante come l'inglese per "accedere alla stanza dei bottoni"? Ma lo volete capire che per quanti miliardi abbia alla fine ha sempre fatto la figura del fesso e del provincialotto laddove ci ha rappresentato? Insomma Berlusconi non ha rappresentato l'Italia bensí la caricatura dell'Italia. Ciò che però temo è che la caricatura dell'Italia alla fine sia l'Italia stessa. That's all folks, mates!

.................................................................................


So now you can have your own opinion and judge by yourself if I told you the truth or not . 

In the event you wish to know my opinion it is the following: at Corriere.it there is a serious problem about how to apply "Freedom of Expression" fairly. I would like to suggest to editorial direction of Corriere.it to spend a bit of time reading article 21 of Italian Constitution and also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Helsinki, 1959). Because I fear that even Mr. Berlusconi is rightly considered guilty to be a little Napoleon due to his dictatorship attitude, on the contrary it seems that to censor a different idea of yours is something fully inside the Italian DNA
.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The most probable reason because Corriere.it didn't publish my first post was because at the end of it I cite a journalistic source they don't like. The source is the web-site of Italian journalist Paolo Barnard. The second post was not published because was a complaint about the censorship they adopted on the first post.

Hallelujah hymn to dismiss Berlusconi is polite and ironic. Insults, whistles and launch of coins is really vulgar.

"The king is dead" said the Queen, announcing his husband's death. "Long life to the King" answered the monarchic court and the people reunited to listen the announcement.

How many times in a monarchic state people listened this exhortation since the past times? Tens of times, I suppose. Then people ask for a new king.

But in a republican democracy what people answer when the head of his government is dismissed or self-dismissed as in the case of Italy for instance? Well, they say something is not really polite to repeat here I suppose. 

You know, for my previous posts, I am not a fan of Mr. Berlusconi. But this doesn't mean that I have forgotten the rules on how fairy playing the game of democracy. One of these rules is: an adversary is not an enemy, first of all. If you beat your adversary, first of all you must respect him. Not to insult him or, worst, kill him.

All in all we have to consider that Mr. Berlusconi, yes, has been beaten but not in a general election, since he has beaten by a "Market's verdict". This is very much different, do you know?

So, even if I am not a supporter of a monarchic system, I have to admit that there is a wide difference of style of the people between the reaction at a king's death and the reaction to the Italian PM's fallen. Maybe, in this sense and only in this sense, monarchy model is better than republican democracy model. Because this last models, at least in Italy, it seems to me enough vulgar. (Do not forget, anyway, the origin of the world vulgar, that comes from Latin name "vulgus" that means people).

Said this and to compensate this fallen of style by some groups of Italian people, there are other groups that have demonstrate a good sense of humour and resigned and maybe Christian acceptance of the events. I am referring to some people that with music instruments and a vocal chorus had intonate Hallelujah hymn to celebrate Mr. Berlusconi's fallen. 

Ever there are two souls in Italy. One soul is populist and vulgar, another one is charming, sophisticated and even elegant. I tend to appreciate more this second Italian soul. This is the type of Italy that correctly represent the real magnitude of a population that something more than 500 years ago expressed the most renowned talents of the world, to which the world is still grateful. I am referring to all the genius of the Renaissance Age. 

For this reason I invite you to see and listen how this part of Italian people superbly thanked Mr. Berlusconi's resignation from the charge of Prime Minister. Enjoy it.

Do you know how many slaves are working for you? 39, for me. This is shocking, right?

I have been shocked at the end of a survey I have been taking surfing the following site: http://www.slaveryfootprint.org/. Why shocked? Because I have found that at least 39 slaves are working for me but I was not informed about it.

I suppose would you now wonder me: what kind of person are you, Victor, if 39 people working for you are working as slaves?

My dear friends and readers, this is not the news. The news is that for everybody of us living in the Western World, there are at least 25 people working as slaves in countries not fully developed. Yes, you understand well. I wrote 25 slaves, not workers.

Nowadays we tend to think that slavery is an evil of past centuries. This is not true. Our lifestyle is producing a new form of slavery for which we are not fully conscious. Big and famous brands are running sweatshops as never happened before. That pair of shoes that you paid not so much maybe were done from a human being in infra-human conditions in China or India or Korea or Thailand or Vietnam or wherever. The same for your notebook, smartphone, PC, tablet, DVD/Blue ray, TV screen, sunglasses, t-shirt and so on. 

It is all a matter of supply chain, which is another way to say globalization. We don't know how and when a product have been done. All we know is how much it costs and if we like it or not. But if for that product somebody is working 21 hours a day in a mine or in a cotton field or in a factory we are not informed. Would have you bought that same product if you could read this information in the label? I don't think so.

This is the reason because I suggest you to have a look to the site http://www.slaveryfootprint.org/. Take my same survey and discover how many slaves are working to allow you your life-style. In my case, as told, they were 39. I am really ashamed for it. So I promise to myself to change my life-style. How can I do it? It is very simple: there is an application you can download from the site. This application on your mobile (only for Android and iPhone at the moment) allow you to check before buying any product if the brand producing it is employing workers in infra-human conditions and where. You can decide, in this way, if you are still convinced to buy it or refuse it. 

The freedom of millions of people is in our hands. No more excuse, please. We must act now, we are already late. Trust me.

How immigration is changing the face of Europe.

Well, it is hard to admit but there something to really alarm any European citizen if you watch at the following video:

Supposing that you have just watched at the above posted video, maybe as me you are wondering: is this all true or this is just an alarming propaganda from some think-thank of the European Political Right?

Well, there is something to say without any doubt: numbers are numbers and in their cold rationality they are absolutely right and correct. We can't discuss if the fertility rate of 8.1 per Muslin family immigrated here in Europe is good or not, is right or not. It is and it is all.

What maybe we have to start as reflection is if this Muslin growth is compatible with these others images taken in London just a few months ago:

I don't think there something more to say. Anybody is free to think what he/she thinks is the most correct. By my side I am already prepared to be attacked from Muslin extremist people because, of course, they are followers of "The Religion of the Peace". Yes, sure!!!

R-Evolution sometime is just a song

I wish to thank Gorka Cruz to compose and sing the song "The global economy is about to crash" because I think his song is rightly interpreting the R-Evolution spirit that I have been spinning off since this summer. Even if he doesn't know me and I doesn't know him (at least personally) however I feel we could share a lot of our opinions about and on global economy. I do hope earlier or later he could have a look to my Blog and let me know what he thinks about R-Evolution. And you, what do you think? Would you like to leave a comment to let me know your opinion? I will appreciate it very much, really.

By the way here you can see and listen the Gorka Cruz's video of his song "The global economy is about to crash". Take your moment of fun and reflection while harder times have been announced.

E una volta di più (già sono 4) Corriere.it utilizza l'arma della censura. Evviva il neo-fascismo, vero Corriere?

Ci risiamo. Di nuovo Corriere.it mi fa l'onore di farmi cadere sotto i colpi della sua censura. Io davvero non so se chi dovrebbe mettere in linea i miei commenti lo fa per eccesso di zelo o antipatia personale oppure davvero esiste una "black list" per cui i post di quelli come me devono essere censurati a priori. Ad ogni buon conto e per dovere di cronaca, qui sotto potete leggere il post che Corriere.it non ha voluto pubblicare.

Solo un avviso ai "naviganti": se siete degli sfegatati nazionalisti e vi offende tutto ciò che è la libera critica a ciò che è oggi diventata l'Italia, allora evitate di leggere il mio post, cosí vi eviterete un sano attacco di bile. In tutti gli altri casi, beh, se proprio non condividete del tutto la mia opinione potete sempre ribattere lasciando un vostro commento. Oltretutto, potete star certi che io non censuro, in quanto per principio sono contrario a qualsiasi tipo di censura. Anche nel caso scriviate commenti ingiuriosi. Perché in tal caso essi qualificano da soli il livello culturale, sociale e personale di chi li scrive e non c'è bisogno che io mi affanni tanto a ribatterli. Chi mi legge e poi legge i mei detrattori sono sicuro che sa da che parte sta la ragione.

Buona lettura e un caro saluto a tutti. Victor.

Le norme ereditarie e i beni Fininvest L'Idv: «È un'altra legge ad personam»

La successione di Berlusconi e la disputa con Veronica Il Cavaliere potrà modulare liberamente le quote dei figli

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Gli italiani mi fanno davvero schifo!

victor the iron blade

martedì 25 ottobre 2011, 09:49

Solo ci manca che Berlusconi decida come dividere e a chi dare l'Italia quando non governerà più (speriamo presto, in ogni caso) come se si trattasse appunto di lasciare una eredità. Però, teoricamente, l'Italia non è sua. Teoricamente, perché in realtà lui si comporta come se lo fosse. Grazie soprattutto al fatto che l'Italia non è (e mai lo è stato) un Paese dove vive un popolo libero, ma è un feudo dove esiste un Signore regnante che ha sotto di sé milioni di sudditi, o forse sarebbe meglio dire servi. E poi c'è qualcuno tra i lettori che ancora si chiede, magari pure un po' indignato, perché gli italiani come me se ne vanno all'estero? Avrei dovuto forse restare per fare il lacché di Silvio e del suo entourage di nani, ruffiani e ballerine (o forse dovrei dire prostitute, eh?). L'italiano era, è e purtroppo temo che resterà sempre un popolo di servi. l'Italica progenie, purtroppo, ha un DNA profondamente servile. Chi, come me, rifiuta questo tragico destino è destinato a vivere da esule fuori dalla terra che altri stanno ignomigniosamente occupando. Italiani che vivete in Italia, vergognatevi di ciò che siete. Fate davvero schifo! 

TORNA INDIETRO 

INVIA

NOTICE for all people no Italian speaking: please remember there is a real time Google Translator in this Blog on the left side. Go for it, please. In this way you can understand what I write even in your language. Enjoy it!

Is "Ethic Individualism" the key opening the door to a valuable life in the Third Millennium?

Basically there are two social-economic systems still surviving in our age. One is Capitalism, which is apparently the winner. The other one, the loser, is Communism. But if we come back in human history just only 200 years ago neither Capitalism nor Communism were the leading system by which human beings were setting up their lives. 

Since we are just living the present and we are not able to behave thinking we are part of a temporal flux such as Past, Present and Future, we naturally tend to believe that our last discovers and inventions will last forever. Nothing could be more wrong. Our present capitalistic times are not forever. The seed of changes is already germinating. Along this unbelievable year 2011 we have assisted to a lot of social convulsions. It all started as we now know as "Arab Spring". Then the rage of Muslin people, even for other motivations and under different forms, emerged in Europe, especially with the so called movement of "15 March" in Spain. Now, in these first days of Fall, we are viewing how the protests are taking a new form of protagonist even in USA with the movement "Occupy Wall Street". 

Rightly people all over the world is just pissed off. Personally I consider myself a pisser (my American cousin baptised me in this way and I think he is right). I am part of that 99% people that is tired of the greed of 1% population. This 1% is destroying all that the 99% of the people has built over the last 200 years. So now don't be surprised if in a global economy, the struggle of the 99% is necessarily a global struggle.

However there is a question that is intriguing me in these days regarding all that is occurring all over the world. I would like to turn you this question, if you agree. The question is: how much ethic is the behaviour of the protesters and how much is an interested behaviour their behaviour? 

I believe we have to clear the field by a serious misunderstanding, if we want to really understand what is now happening and how the present will affect our next and far future. Sometimes to understand the present and the future could be useful to have a look to the past.

Forty-three years ago, it was 1968, started the so called "Revolution of May '68". It started in Paris and the motivation, if you look at the past with the eyes of today, sounds really ridiculous. The detonator that exploded the bomb just was a simple case of sexual discrimination. A male student was not allowed to visit his girlfriend in her college apartment. The prohibition was considered unacceptable by young Parisian students. They all went out on the streets protesting against what they considered a limitation of personal freedom. 

What nobody could forecast at that time was that this protesting behaviour was the stroke that broke the camel's back. Once the movement of students started his rebellion, it was like an immense river flowing to the sea. It grew suddenly up more and more, until the constituted Power had to admit that the protesters had overpassed their expectations. Since the Power was not prepared to this kind of rebellion it needed a lot of time to understand what to do. Finally the Power decide to use the only way it can admit to preserve its existence. The constituted Power used the force of the police to block any attempt of changing the legal order. Notwithstanding this Power's reaction it couldn't prevent that the "red terrorism season" especially in Germany and Italy could be born. The so called "70s" were considered in Europe by all conservative Governments the age of fighting a possible victory of the communist ideology.

Nowadays the Power is already alerted from that bad experience and is not wasting time. It is reacting promptly to any behaviour that can represent a danger even so far. Power is now well organized and it can't allow to miss his dominance. For this reason even if all the protests are basically pacific protests, Power is already using police against protesting people.

People is doing absolutely nothing. Sometime people is just pacifically showing their opposition to the social-economic system with a song. Have a look, for instance, to the following video and let me know if you don't agree with my opinion. This is the video, which is absolutely tender, I promise.

On the other side the last October 15 (already baptised Movement 15-O) we have assisted in Rome to an indecent show organized by Black Block movements and all his anarchist supporters. In Italy there is an historic anarchic movement that always fight using violence as a tool to claim even little social transformation. It is in the Italian DNA to be anarchist, probably because Italian people what they evaluate more is a vision of life based on individualism.


Personally and in principle I am not opposing to an individualist vision of society, always and when this vision doesn't affect the majority people's life. If you consider that the heart of Capitalism ideology is based on an individualistic philosophy, well, there is nothing wrong in it. Unless, as it is now happening, this individualism is elevated to a previous never seen grade of egoism (Wall Street speculators' behaviour, for example) or using the violence as a politic tool (anarchist in Rome or London, for instance) instead of discussing social controversy into the appropriate legal forms and institutions. 


However if we accept that individualism is the base of any modern society (intending for modern all the western world societies born after World War Two) we must assume there will be something by which justify the correctness of this idea of life. 


I don't know you but I tend to believe that a vision of life based on collectivism is definitely faded for the following three reason: the fallen of Berlin Wall, the slow but constant progressive change of Chinese society from a communist society to a capitalistic society and even the recent changes in the policy of Raul Castro in Cuba. The last bastion of a collective ideology remains North Korea but, early or later, even there something will happen and things will start to change. 


So what we should have to consider is how to mitigate the influence that individualism can have on people and the way they organize their social life. 


It is not really easy to find a way to stop the bad influence that an exaggerated and extreme vision of individualism can bring to our life. As said, Wall Street speculators (and all speculators all over the world) are the living example on how people without ethic and moral principles can create an economic disaster on a global scale. 


But this is the point I am talking about and I wish you to fix your attention on. I have just talked about "Ethic and Moral Principles" as a filter by which looking at the reality or, if you prefer, as a barrier that we should never exceed to avoid predictable catastrophes as already happened in the past.


Any time a punch of greedy people doesn't respect this limit of ethic and moral principles we have assisted to an impoverishment of the majority of the people and their social downgrading on a global scale. What is, for instance, the World War Two if not the result of 1929 crisis? So don't be too much surprised if suddenly can explode another global war. By fact this global war is already happening even if it is a kind of war that is not fought by opposite armies since it is fought by civilian people against state organizations like police and secret services.


At this point of the human history we should all ask the following question: are we doing the right thing ignoring the request of 99% of the people? I don't know your answer, but I know mine. My answer is: no, we are committing a big mistake because this 99% of the people is just asking to live a decent life. But since a punch of greedy people is not interested to share the wealth on Earth and it is only interested to become richer every day more, well, it would be only my opinion, but I believe that this 99% of the people on Earth is right.


We are living in a world with too much economic and social inequalities. We are living in a world where it is believed normal and acceptable that a person can earn in a year what could satisfy the necessities of 100,000 people for a life time. Is this kind of world we have build all together a fair and correct world? Is this a world where ethic and moral principles are still respected?

No, my dear readers, I don't think so. This is a world where ethic and moral principles have been forgotten since a lot of time. What is incredible it is I can't say you when we started to forget them, because in any time and in any country of the world always happens the same. There is a moment, difficult to establish, that a society of good people starts to be corrupted by power and money. All the biggest empires in the past have passed through this bad and destructive experience.This is now happening again at a global level. It seems that a corruption of moral and ethic principles is widely expanding all over the world, as if it was a virus. 


The only defence we have is to enforce our ethic and moral principles so we can strengthen our personal behaviours. Without this that I can, one more time, define a R-Evolution we can't pretend to win the battle to re-equilibrate the wealth of people. In other words we must finish to behave like sharks during an attack to provide their food. Yes, we are animals, it is useless to deny it. But we are a special category of animals. We are a category of animals possessing a deep consciousness. I don't know you but I hear this consciousness shouting out loud. It is asking us to revise our vision of individualism and mitigate it with ethic and moral principles like compassion, charity, a moderate life, sharing part of our wealth if our wealth is so big that 1,000 people can live daily with the money we earn in a month. 


I am not stimulating a renaissance of communism. For God's sake, I hate communism. Nothing is worst than communism for me. But yes, I am promoting the idea that "Ethic Individualism" is the key opening the door to a valuable life in the Third Millenium. Are you ready for it? 

The bad influence of Silvio Berlusconi on Italian people.

Do you remember when on The Economist magazine appeared a report whose title was "Why Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy"? It was on April 26th, 2001. More then 10 years ago.

Well, I am not going to repeat what we already know because most of us, probably, have been reading that report. What I am going to talking about is how the Italian Prime Minister has had a bad influence on Italian people, especially young people, during these last 22 years.

So I am not going to discuss if he is fit or not to lead Italy. What I want to inform you is about the influence of this man on Italian people and how much this influence has been negative along this last 22 years. Or maybe over last 30 years, since he assumed an important role in the Italian economy being the owner of the most important Italian private group of media..

Basically I will inform you about Silvio Berlusconi's behaviour as private person and not about his job as public administrator. Because I am convinced that behind the screen of his public profile there is a person with his convictions, fears, idiosyncrasy, weakness and beliefs. Once we know this almost secret part of his personality then we can trace and understand his public profile. In another way we are only supposing something that is uncertain.

Last but not least we must consider something that is absolutely basic in a kind of analysis like this. I am referring to the social environment that, in this case, it is the Italian society. Both are strictly connected so we can't understand Silvio Berlusconi if we don't understand the Italian society i.e. the social environment. What I am trying to say is this: imagine that the environment is water and Silvio Berlusconi is a fish. If the water is a river the kind of fish swimming in it is totally different from a fish whose water is the sea, right?

I think that you have perfectly understood this last example so it is time I start to tell the story. First of all Silvio Berlusconi was born in Milan. If he was born in Rome or Naples or Palermo probably he would be never turned up to the top of the Italian society and then at the top of the world. Because Milan, among all the Italian cities, it is the most suitable for a man whose ambition is to arrive to the top. Milan is the only town of Italy with an European vocation, the only town whose citizens are able to think globally and not only locally like all the other Italian towns. If you know Milan as me, you know Milan it is an international centre enough well connected with the heart of Europe. This means that people living in Milan are able "to think big". They are not a kind of typical Italian middle-class, Roman style, for instance. Because people living in Rome (and even if Rome is the capital of Italy) are very, very provincial people. They are not able to see more far than their nose. If for instance you start to criticize Rome and Romans and at the end of your critics they understand you are right, do you know what they say to cut off any discussions? They say: "E che ce' mporta, tanto a Roma c'avemo er Papa!". Which, translated, means: "We don't mind anything, because we have the pope in Rome!" By this a Roman citizen means that he felt protected by the presence of the Pope even when things are going wrong. What they are saying is they feel protected as they were under the wings of the same Lord!


But a citizen of Milan doesn't think in this way. A citizen of Milan basically is convinced that with his effort and application in his job he can reach any kind of goal in his life. This is more a protestant-Calvinistic attitude than a catholic attitude. So Silvio Berlusconi is a son of this social Milanese environment. If you understand this now you understand why Silvio Berlusconi is such a fighter, for instance.


On the other side what is wrong in Milan is the "Bauscia" attitude. Under the name "Bauscia" in Milan is identified a man who became rich but he never had the culture and the attitude to be rich. It means that there is a lot of vulgarity in this man and this vulgarity is not cancelled by the fact he reached a status of rich man. 


If you compare, for instance, Silvio Berlusconi with the already dead Gianni Agnelli, the former president of Juventus football team and Fiat company cars, you can understand how big is the difference in terms of attitude between them. Gianni Agnelli, probably due to he came from Turin, the first capital of former Italy kingdom,  incarnated an aristocratic style and for this reason sometime he was called the "King of Italy". Silvio Berlusconi on the contrary is considered the typical "Bauscia", a self-made man but with no style, just an imitation of it.


This "Bauscia" culture, paradoxically, match very well with another Italian local culture, the culture of the town of Naples, in the South of Italy. A Napolitan type is well represented in the "Commedia dell'Arte" character whose name is Pulcinella. Pulcinella basically is a liar, he is living always cheating people and his external fun is almost always fake because, inside, he is always sad.


Bauscia style and Pulcinella style perfectly match into Silvio Berlusconi personality. He is a mix of both. But doing so the result is that Silvio Berlusconi is living a kind of life is not a real life, since he is living the life of a comedian on a theatre stage. Silvio Berlusconi is confusing his real life with the role he is interpreting, like an actor on a theatre stage or in a movie set. In this sense Italy is full of this kind of persons. One of the most famous, lately, was Giuliano Soria, an important Italian cultural operator that has recently destroyed a famous literary Italian prize due to his inability to make a distinction between his personal life and his role as president of "Premio Grinzane Cavour".


If you understand this you can now understand why Silvio Berlusconi is involved in so many scandals. Financial scandals, corruption scandals, sex scandals, etc. His life is the result of a full distortion of the Italian concept of "furbizia". The closest translation of this Italian word could be "foxiness". It is the only English name that can give an idea of what Italian people mean when they say "è un uomo furbo". This means that they see a man smart like a fox. 


But Silvio Berlusconi has pushed the limit of foxiness over the moral and ethic limit. This is the problem. In his concept of foxiness there is something that doesn't reflect any more the original meaning of this word. Because in his original meaning all the Italian people assigned to the word foxiness (remember, furbizia in Italian) a sense of sharp and smart intelligence. If you empty the original meaning, as Silvio Berlusconi does, and you substitute it with a sense of cheating all people you meet on your way then, of course, all you get is to be involved in so many scandals. I think this is unavoidable. 


There is another matter we have to consider. I mean the typical Italian male obsession with sex. Since you are young, in Italy, you are not in competitions with your friends and mates to show you are the best in school or sport activities like in USA, for instance. No, all that minds to an Italian guy is to show how many girl he, sorry, fucked along his life. Italian males are really obsessed with this. It is something difficult to explain and understand where is coming from. I could do it, but I should involve in this explanation Italian women and I don't want, now, to enter another complex analysis. Take my words as good and trustful, at the moment. 


If you want that an Italian man feels proud with you don't ask him how much rich he is or which car is owning. Ask him how many women lied with him into his bed. You will see an incredible smile shining on his face. He will feel so proud to tell you about his sexual encounters. Trust me.


Is Silvio Berlusconi a son of this culture? Of course he is. He is fully absorbed into this culture since he was a young Italian boy. If you don't understand this you can't understand why Silvio Berlusconi, for instance, divorced by his first and second wife. Especially his second wife, the really beautiful former actress Veronica Lario.


When Silvio Berlusconi met Veronica Lario she was still working as actress. One day he saw her in Teatro Manzoni in Milan. In an interview of many years ago she told that Silvio Berlusconi to conquer her heart sent her giant bouquets of red roses to impress her. Every night she was acting she received that gift that she found in her dressing room. So finally she decided to meet him and he confessed her to be fully in love with her.


The beginning of this story is really nice, as any other love story in the world. Veronica Lario was really a beautiful woman, one of the most beautiful Italian women of that time. They finally married in 1990 and she told as her husband Silvio at the beginning of their relationship was really romantic. When they met at home in the evening  he asked her, both seated on their sofa, to caress and talk him about love. Probably this was the Silvio Berlusconi's way to forget all the problems and difficulties after an hard day of job.


On the other side this idyllic scene maybe hides some Edypic complex, I suppose, in a man already 54 years old in that moment. This need to be caressed and talked about love by a woman for long time in the evening denounces an internal fragility of Silvio Berlusconi. It seems that more than a woman he needed a mother reassuring him on his virility.


But do you remember what I told you some lines above regarding the Italian young males obsession with sex and women? So it seems that this obsession with women and sex in Silvio Berlusconi persisted even in his adult age. Worst, this obsession is still persisting in his older age till now he is 75 years old!!!


If you want to understand all the sex scandals like "bunga-bunga" and the more than 30 prostitutes involved in the allegations against him, you have to start since the beginning. The beginning is the Italian social environment where a young Italian boy must always show and demonstrate his virility to everybody. People around him (family members, friends, mates, etc. both males and females) will be always ready to applaud him any time he can show a new feminine conquest. So Italian males are victims of a system where sexuality is at the centre of their life. But not a correct sexuality in terms of quality, since only in terms of quantity. The psychological distortion is really evident. You don't need to be graduated in psychoanalysis or psychiatry to understand how wrong is this Italian vision about sex.


Well, now all we need to ask is: why all this badly influenced Italian people? 


In the early 40s, in Italy, there was a song whose lyrics (already translated) repeatedly said: "Teacher, please, can you tell me who was born first: the egg or the chicken?" This is the same situation. Who is guilty, the Italian society or Silvio Berlusconi? Who started first?


Of course, at a first sight, your answer will be: Italian society because it pre-existed to Silvio Berlusconi arrival on the Italian scene. Yes but not, it is my answer to this interpretation. Because even if it is true that Silvio Berlusconi arrived later, I can guarantee you that he exaggerated a lot what initially only was a funny way to look at sex in Italy. Of course we must consider that there is a part of Italy, Sicily for instance, whose vision of sexuality is more similar to a Muslin society than Northern European society. This is surely due to so much Arab invasions of Sicily, I suppose. In this region of Italy sex is still seen as a pity, something dirty, something to do hidden to the eyes of the community. But in general sex in Italy was more linked to the idea of fun and exhibition. If you think to all Fellini movies or the fabulous Sofia Loren's strip tease for Marcello Mastroianni in the Italian movie "Ieri, Oggi e Domani" (tr.: Yesterday,  Today and Tomorrow) you can easily understand what I mean. Even if we must never forget the role of the catholic Church in Italy. On sex question the Church point of view has been always an asphyxiation, as you surely know.


So Silvio Berlusconi, I am ready to guess, has been always in conflict inside himself about sex. Pity or fun, fun or pity? This conflict has been surely complicated from the general Italian vision to look at sex only in terms of quantity and not in terms of quality. 


Silvio Berlusconi, instead of overtaking this vision and try to live a life free of this kind of obsessions, has lived fully absorbed in this dilemma up to the point that at the age of 75 years old he still feels the necessity to continuously and publicly show his virility. Franking speaking, I don't know you, but I found enough ridiculous this behaviour. Who matters the sexual excitements of such an old man? 

Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister

(picture courtesy of Platon photographer)

Don't you think he is smiling like an old satyr?

The only problem is he is not a Mr. Nobody but he is the Prime Minister of one of the most reputed countries in the Western World. But since he is filling such an important role I find his behaviour really unacceptable. Because his private sex life is under everybody's eyes, especially young generations eyes. These same young generations one day will be the adults. Since an adult is the product of what he/she was when he/she was young you now understand why I can sustain the thesis that Silvio Berlusconi is exercising a bad influence on Italian people, especially young people. 


To satisfy his desire to show to the whole world he is still full of sexual energy with the aim of receiving the Italian society applause, he has even sacrificed his family and his marriage with Veronica Lario. I really don't know if his five sons and daughters, in private, are proud to have a father like him whose sexual dirty life is analysed every day by the media all over the world. I feel a lot of compassion for them, really. I fell so sorry for Berlusconi's daughters and sons.


So now I have only one hope. My hope is that the Italian people can finally understand how big has been the mistake to have Silvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister of their Country. I hope the Italian people can understand they have been victims of the sexual obsessions of an old satyr. At the same time I hope Italians can understand that this old satyr is the product of a wrong Italian mentality about sex. So it is now time for them to turn the page and start a new capitol of the Italian story. Italian need a kind of Prime Minster with an ethic and moral vision of life, a man or woman whose dedication is to serve the nation leading the country towards a new ethic and moral heights. Italy and Italians deserves this, because this country has suffered too much in this last 22 years, since the Berlin Wall dropped down I mean. 

9/11/01: is the time of overcoming sufferings finally turned up?

10 years. Today is exactly 10 years since the Twin Towers were dropped down by a crazy kamikaze Islamic command. Today, for sure, we will see a lot of mourning celebrations all around the world, not only in the States. However, for many celebrations we can do, none of the 2,966 victims (2,998 as of Spring 2009) will come back to life.

Almost three thousands families will spend all the day remembering and suffering again that tragic day. It is highly probable that today, rising their eyes to the sky, they will simply ask: why?

Why this happened? Why anybody could do nothing to avoid that tragedy? Why ten years later we are all here wondering if again we can assist to another tragedy like that? Why, why, why?

It is incredible as it seems that, 10 years later from that horrible day on September, the world has not been able to understand the lesson of what really occurred. 

Maybe 10 years are not a lapse of time long enough to forget. For sure it seems it is not enough long for many, many people to forgive. 

I understand that it is almost impossible to forgive what a crazy Muslins command of terrorists did. But if 10 years after we do not start a common reflection if it could be a chance to close this chapter of the human history, maybe we are missing an incredible opportunity on the way of peace.

Do you remember Gandhi's lesson about peace? He said: there is not a walk towards peace, peace is the walk. Well, I believe that is now time to remember this important lesson.

I believe, in good faith, it is now time to proceed along the way to close all the bounds opened that day. It is now time to say: all it's over. So we have (or at least to try) to restart our relationship with the Muslin world.

I know, this is terribly hard. For sure the 2,966 families injured with the loss of a relative they don't agreed. But I think we have enough mourned for all of them. If we do not stop to cry for the victims 10 years later we are playing the game of whom wanting that the war with the Islam never ends. If 10 years later we are still here happy to fight this war I say something is going wrong.

Our Western world lies on some important values like compassion and forgiveness. If we do not apply compassion and forgiveness we are at the same level of the people that committed that horrible crime. We do not need and want to be at their same level, right?

So we must find the courage to say: that day there were other 19 victims more. Who were these victims? The 19 terrorists died in the attack. Because in the Islamic world there are 19 families crying for them today. Have not these families the same right to cry for the loss of their relatives?

What I think 10 years later it is not who was right or wrong. What I think 10 years later is: 3,017 people died, independently of the colour of their skin, the religion they believed, the political idea they had, the language they spoke and independently from their sexual orientation. 

A human being is a human being, this is the lesson I have learnt from 9/11. I don't mind who they were, where they lived and what they trusted. All that I know is that today I am deeply sad because on our planet there are 3,017 people less. And even if I do not trust that God exists, I will pray for their souls. Amen.


P.D. Follow this link: 
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/9-11-healing-the-mothers-who-found-forgiveness-friendship
if you wish to understand what I pratically mean on how to overcome pain and sufferings for so much deaths.