I just published in "Pages" section at the bottom of this Blog an interesting report by two Germans lawyers. The name of this report is: "The Living Conditions of Refugees in Italy are inhuman". Scroll down this Blog up to the bottom of it. On the left you will find "Pages" section if you want to look at the report.
If you are a kind of person who cares about other people's sufferings, especially misfortunes people whose only guilt is to be born in countries where human life is considered less than nothing, then you will be astonished to read what is published inside this report.
Please accept only a suggestion: if you are Italian or German be prepared to read some hard opinions of mine about Italy and Germany. This opinions are published at the end of the report.
No other suggestion to anybody, just feel free to have your opinion at your convenience and sensibility.
Lately Spain it is a sort of laboratory of new politic forms of protest. Spanish people, taking inspiration from Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Place in El Cairo, at the beginning of this year created the so called 15 March Movement (15-M), which also inspired Occupy Wall Street - OWS movement in New York. The beating heart of 15-M movement is still surviving months later, by different forms of protest against the old political system.
The most important of this forms of protest, in my opinion, is represented by a Party that will participate tomorrow, 20 November, in next Spanish general elections. The name of the Party is "Escaños en Blanco". Literally translated it means "Benches in White". The purpose of this Party is to avoid that voters who are raged, unsatisfied, frustrated with the actual political system are not going to indirectly help the two major Parties which are Partido Popular (Popular Party - PP) and Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Party of Workers - PSOE). If voters are not going to vote or they go and cancel the vote or vote in white, well, all this behaviours are going to make a favour to the two biggest Parties due to a complex mechanism on how the votes are distributed.
Escaños en Blanco Party (Benches in White) pretends to collect the votes of all unsatisfied people but, in the event that the sum of their votes produces an elected candidate or maybe candidates, they will not occupy their benches and they are not going to be paid for it. The seats in the Spanish Parliament will remain void for all the time of the legislature which is supposed to be 4 years. In this way Escaños en Blanco founders say the seat not occupied by a Parliamentary Member will remind to other MPs that there are people that have voted but they disagree with them.
Well, dear Spanish voters, if you are undecided or frustrated with the actual political Spanish system, then now you have found somebody available to (un)represent you. You can go to your polling station and express your rejection in an absolutely legal way.
By my side I feel satisfied that there are people, like people of Escaños en Blanco, able to apply R-Evolution principles. My sympathy is totally for you, guys and gals. Well done.
For your info, here the way how they present themselves on their web-site:
Benetton company is back, we must say. Once again Benetton is surfing the Spirit of Time, like in the '80s.
This time the new Benetton campaign is all but nobody in the world will remain indifferent. I know everybody wish to comment, positively or negatively, all the pictures all over the world. Everybody wish to comment from his/her point of view.
So this is my opinion: I find the idea of this campaign absolutely revolutionary and interesting. I do not enter in moral, ethic or aesthetic considerations. Anybody can think what prefers. What I would like to underline here is the following: why we live in times where a private company must push the "value of not hating" if we have a world organization like United Nations that should be worried about this kind of matters? Why we haven't the pleasure to see and listen something strong like this campaign since UN foundation in the '50s?
I know this kind of queries will never receive an answer from UN's General Secretary. However I find interesting if somebody, one day, could ask him the same.
Meanwhile, enjoy below the pictures of the Benetton campaign, in the event you don't know what I am talking about. Here the pictures (courtesy of UnHate Benetton web-site):
For your info, the last picture is a kiss between the Pope Benedict XVI and the Iman of El Cairo Mosque Al-Azhar. Vatican hierarchy has vigorously protested about it, so Benetton company probably must cancel this picture from the campaign. Once again Vatican missed a fabulous chance, I believe, to understand modernity.
For this reason let me ask for something to the same Pope: how can we walk on the road of peace if Catholic Church do not co-operate on the UNHate road? Again, in this occasion, Benedict XVI and his council of cardinals showed a feeling of intolerance. Welcome back to the Crusades times, my dear readers. Mala tempora currunt!!!
The new Italian government is born. Who, as myself, knows the times of Italian politic, than he/she must admit that Mario Monti did something absolutely new for Italy. He respected the "Timing". He promised a government for today and this same afternoon, just one hour ago, the new Italian government was born. Maybe is even born a new style in Italy, maybe.
Below you can find all the members of the new Italian cabinet:
There is nothing to say right now, because a new government has the right to a 100 days "honeymoon" with people, Italian people in this case. So any opinion or judgement is temporarily suspended.
All I can say is: good luck and good work, Mr. Monti. And, most of all, good luck Italy. Both are going to need a lot of it. I hope you could apply some of the principle of R-Evolution, as expressed since the beginning in this Blog. See you on February, at the the end of February. Bye.
People following this Blog already know I have expressed a positive opinion on how Femen activist group lead the battle on women cultural development in Ukraine and all over Europe.
The reason and in short is because I find the way the Femen activists use to express their rage and contrariety absolutely respectful of the first elementary democracy principle. I mean that Femen is always protesting in a way absolutely pacific, even if the form is enough folkloric.
However the matter Femen has a folkloric way to protest doesn't decrease the value of their ideas and the battle for them. I even suspect that it enforces them.
So again Femen has found a spectacular way to enjoy Silvio Berlusconi resignation from the charge of Italy's PM. Some of Femen activists reunited in front of the Italian embassy in Ukraine and once again half naked have uncorked bottles of champagne and dedicated banners and noises exclamations to Berlusconi's departure from Palazzo Chigi in Rome.
You can find here the visible documentation of this ironic and humoristic action. Have an hilarious moment, my dear readers. Life is short and too much dramatic sometime, so we absolutely needs somebody that makes us laugh. Thank you Femen to bring a smile in our lives that are so sad for some guilty criminals like financial speculators all over the world.
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:
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)
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
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)
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.
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)
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?
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.
"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.
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.
