The View from Bologna

Stamp of approval for clean energy (impure women kept at a distance)

Right-on left-winger Fausto Bertinotti, member of the Rifondazione Comunista party and currently elected speaker of the lower chamber of deputies in Italy, during the week popped on a visit to the main Greek Orthodox monastery on Mt. Athos.

As part of the junket informative trip Fausto checked out the groovy energy-supply systems employed by the monks, using technology provided by, amongst others, various Italian firms.

Good clean energy. Obviously, given that the monks ban women, and most female animals from their holy spots. This monkey isn't quite sure why an elected representative of the Italian parliament is giving his stamp of approval to these beardy fundamentalists, however green they maybe.

He'll be visiting the Vatican next...

Feelings, democratic feelings (with emphasis)

Silvio was in St. Petersburg the weekend that his buddy Vladimir Putin decided to take preventative measures against opposition protesters. His verdict? Illegal protests that the police had to clear in order to guarantee traffic circulation - a situation completely blown up by the media.

Meanwhile, back in Silvio's studios in Italy, the disney-like newscast of TG4's Emilio Fede aired, where Fede described the crackdown on protesters blithely: "some people were arrested, and then later released."

Somewhere along the official TG4 party line, communication broke down. The cameraman and reporter in Moscow and St. Petersburg sent back footage of burly riot police cracking skulls.

A satirical investigative show Striscia la Notizia, has a habit of getting film of Fede off-air between the newscasts. While the above footage was being shown, he went into a justifiable rage. Above the pictures the reporter had the cheek to mention arrests. Fede explodes 'who is this guy? He doesn't know a $!£% about politics'.

Need we say anymore?

Eetallee - Borat and the

Slightly old news, but worth commenting on briefly.

Italy has come up with a slick new corporate logo to brand it's tourism advertising. A wad load of cash was spent on the corporate rebranding.

Opinion on the new logo is far from divided. Design gurus have criticised it on several fonts, while opinion polls run by dailies like il Sole 24 Ore asking the question 'do you like the new logo' had up to 70% negative reaction.

How and ever. The real question is this. After shelling out loads of cash for a rebranding, couldn't Minister Rutelli afford to get someone for the following video who doesn't sound like Borat?

Serving Mom's Apple pie to the Italian blogosphere - the Wales O'Reilly code of conduct

The proposed code of conduct for Blogs, outlined by wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Internet 2.0 guru Tim O'Reilly has generated little interest in the media here in Italy thus far.

This strikes me as strange, given the general preoccupation with privacy, and the tendency of the news here to jump on every possible scandalous video posted on youtube of late.

In any case, perusing the code of conduct designed to bring some standard of civility to the blogosphere I noted with interest some of the definitions for 'unacceptable content':

We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that: - is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others - is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person, - infringes upon a copyright or trademark[my emphasis] - violates an obligation of confidentiality - violates the privacy of others

Interesting that a code of conduct seemingly conceived as a reaction to the highly publicised death threats received by blogger Kathy Sierra, should include a clause for protecting intellectual property rights.

We'll wait to see whether this particularly American form of 'civility' takes hold in the Italian blogosphere. Here's to mom's apple pie, and Freedom of speech - as long as it's deemed acceptable and more importantly doesn't infringe copyright...

Man Booker International Prize list announced

The Man Booker International Prize list has been announced for 2007.
Not surprisingly there are no Italian novelists included. Not surprisingly as the English-language publishing world takes a lot of interest in 'international' but not 'foreign' literature. There are plenty of great living novelists in Italy, but few who manage to get published in English. Walk into my local bookshop and I can get works, in Italian, by authors from England, America, Japan, Germany, Spain, France, Holland, Albania, and countless other countries.

It does throw open to question the worth of having an 'international' prize like the Man Booker, though. It's like those intriguing American sporting events, the world series, but extended to anglophone countries.

For what it's worth, the list of authors nominated for this year's prize are:

Chinua Achebe
Margaret Atwood
John Banville
Peter Carey
Don DeLillo
Carlos Fuentes
Doris Lessing
Ian McEwan
Harry Mulisch
Alice Munro
Michael Ondaatje
Amos Oz
Philip Roth
Salman Rushdie
Michel Tournier

Count to yourself the number of above authors whose mother tongue is not English, and smile wistfully.

The Barriera Italica

Generally speaking, nothing irritates this monkey more than bloggers talking about bloggers - be they Irish, Italian, or otherwise. Having said that, the latest post on Alessandro Longo's excellent blog is worth sharing.

Talking about the debate as to whether blogging - specifically in an Italian context - can become a profession, Longo draws attention to the Barriera Italica, an iron curtain that skirts the Alps preventing the growth of new forms of employment that don't fit into the rigid and bureaucratic Italian system.

Longo is a freelance writer, who writes with intelligence and insight on technology. Meeting an old teacher, he was asked what he does for a living. He explains that he writes as a freelancer, also publishing online. His philosophy teacher responds: "and what about work?"

Ba-da-boom...

Adjmal Nashkbandi executed by Taliban

Adjmal Nashkbandi, the Afghan interpreter kidnapped alongside the now-free Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, payed the ultimate price for not-being Italian, when the Taliban executed him yesterday.

Mastrogiacomo was released on the 19th of March, in a deal that involved the release of five taliban prisoners by the Afghan government. Nashkbandi, though, was not released at the same time, being kept by the Taliban in order to force more concessions from Karzait's government. Concessions that were never likely to come.

Meanwhile Afghan security officials have finally admitted that they are holding the Afghan functionary of Italian aid agency Emergency, Rahmatullah Hanefi. Rahmatullah was seized by unidentified armed men following Mastrogiacomo's liberation. Rahmatullah was the main go-between, charged byt the Italian government through Emergency, with the responsibility of negotiating directly with the Taliban. It was Rahmatullah, for example, who collected the freed Mastrogiacomo.

The Afghan government now claim that Rahmatullah was instrumental in the kidnapping of Mastrogiacomo, Adjmal Nashkbandi, and their driver (also executed by the Taliban)Syed Agha.

Responding to these accusations, Gino Strada, the Italian surgeon who founded and heads Emergency, said "I'm tired of hearing scum, cut-throats, murderers and delinquents circulating lies like this [...] They [the afghan security services] are a gang of murderers - the same ones to whom our government have given 50 million euros to reconstruct the Afghan justice system"¹

Emergency's position in Afghanistan hangs in the balance. Open hostility from the Afghan government will make their work virtually impossible. The hostility and accusations against Emergency are understandable, given that they treat all wounded in their hospitals regardless of the injured's role in any fighting. Or to put it simply, they treat injured Taliban fighters, alongside wounded civilians, and injured government troops.

If the Italian government is serious about its involvment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, it needs to pressure the Afghan government to give concrete proof regarding the accusations against Emergency's man - or to release him immediately.

It should go without saying that concrete proof should not include any confession. Sources within the Afghan administration have suggested to Emergency that Rahmatullah has been subjected to sustained bouts of torture since his capture. Torture that, through their unquestioning support of the Afghan government, our governments are partially responsible for.

The Italian government aren't responsible for the barbarous actions of the Taliban. With the refinancing of the Italian mission in Afghanistan they are responsible for those of the Afghan government. They had no leverage to force the Taliban to release Adjmal Nashkbandi. They do have leverage to force the Afghan government to act correctly in the case of Rahmatullah Hanefi, and were he an Italian citizen, rather than Afghan, you can bet they would use that leverage.

Let's hope that Rahmatullah Hanefi doesn't have to pay, any more than he already has, for not being Italian.

¹ Mastrogiacomo, accuse dai servizi afgani
"Il mediatore è coinvolto nel sequestro" - La Repubblica (09/04/2007)

The writing's on the wall - Police escort for Archbishop Bagnasco

On the 2nd of April a very public message was delivered to the new President of the Italian Bishops Conference, Archbishop Bagnasco. Daubed on the doors of Genoa's San Lorenzo cathedral were the words 'Shame on you Bagnasco'¹

The message was, presumably, a reaction to the controversy generated by the newly appointed succesor to Cardinal Ruini, and his clarification as to why the Italian Bishops Conference has publicly opposed upcoming legislation which would grant legal rights to de facto couples (including homosexuals)[legislation referred to popularly as DICO, from it's acronym in Italian].

Bagnasco, in a meeting with Diocesan communication co-ordinators, is reported to have said, in relation to the DICO legislation: "Why say no, today, to a form of alternative cohabitation to the family, but tomorrow to the legalisation of incest or to paedophilia amongstconsenting persons?"²

We won't waste any time blowing a fuse about the Archbishop's actual comments - suffice to say what would one expect from one of Benny's front-line stormtroopers.We'll also nimbly sidestep the debate on the right of the Catholic hierarchy to involve itself in the political sphere, leaving it for another post - as the DICO debate will run on for some time. Instead, this monkey wants to focus on the message delivered to Bagnasco, and the reaction caused by the slogan.

One day after the message was left, the local police, in discussion with the local authorities, decided to give Bagnasco a police escort.

Signs and signifiers run riot! Messages affixed to cathedral doors have more than a passing reference to Luther's accusatory 95 theses at Wittenberg**. There was no threat in the message left on the doors of San Lorenzo for Bagnasco - rather a moral accusation.

By giving Bagnasco a police escort, the context changes - or rather is changed - dramatically. During the '70s and early '80s the infamous Red Brigades were wont to paint their logo, a five pointed star, in strategic places to demonstrate their reach and to menace opponents. In recent months a new alleged BR cell was arrested, and the five pointed star has been painted outside, for example, the home of television news director Carlo Rossella.

Our anonymous messenger(s) thus go from moral protesters to revolutionary assasins with a simple bureaucratic decision. Then again, for the Church, no doubt, Luther and the Red Brigades fall under the convenient catch-all category of heretics.

The president of Italy's ArciGay movement, Sergio Lo Giudice, meanwhile questioned the political rush to stand by Bagnasco in the face of the dimly perceived threat (politicians across the spectrum expressed solidarity with the Archbishop), in contrast to the general lack of outrage at his initial comments equating homosexuality with paedophilia.

*no doubt those leaving comments on this 'holy' blog will be dissapointed by this backdown
**Catholic research has suggested that Luther never actually nailed his theses to the door of Wittenburg cathedral - instead sending a letter to his superiors

¹ 'Bagnasco Vergogna'
² "Perché dire no, oggi, a forme di convivenza stabile alternative alla famiglia, ma domani alla legalizzazione dell'incesto o della pedofilia tra persone consenzienti?" - Bagnasco: "No ai Dico come alla pedofilia"
Poi la precisazione: "E' stato frainteso - La Repubblica