Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
genius
i was in the middle of a nostalgia crisis, listening to rino gaetano's songs and looking for those pieces of Italy that usually make me cry, e.g. tv programs like "La superstoria"...
and i somehow ended up in the website of "blob" (a peculiar italian program where pieces of everyday tv are edited together with archive material in a totally dissacrating?? manner) and started looking a random episode from last week
and just for a change there was something about guess?? garbage in campania... and after some politician saying we have to give a strong response, send the army and whatever, they put a scene from "the battle of algiers", the ridiculously solemn one when colonel mathieu arrives in town with the army to treat the rebels...
incidentally, my favourite movie, and never out of date
and while i am thinking about what should be done and what shouldn't, where this thin line lies, and yet i don't know and obviously can't come out with any answer, i realised the best idea is just to put here a piece of that great movie and suggest it to whomever has not watched it already (i have a copy on dvd btw)
and i somehow ended up in the website of "blob" (a peculiar italian program where pieces of everyday tv are edited together with archive material in a totally dissacrating?? manner) and started looking a random episode from last week
and just for a change there was something about guess?? garbage in campania... and after some politician saying we have to give a strong response, send the army and whatever, they put a scene from "the battle of algiers", the ridiculously solemn one when colonel mathieu arrives in town with the army to treat the rebels...
incidentally, my favourite movie, and never out of date
and while i am thinking about what should be done and what shouldn't, where this thin line lies, and yet i don't know and obviously can't come out with any answer, i realised the best idea is just to put here a piece of that great movie and suggest it to whomever has not watched it already (i have a copy on dvd btw)
home alone
it's the first time i think here in this new house, it feels so large and i don't really want to go to sleep. that's why i'm still in the kitchen doing whatever procrastination thing... damn! procrastinating even from going to bed, i could just go and read a book, but i'm too lazy
anyway was noticing this is the first post after a while where i'm not talking about italian garbage. back to my old moody posts. anyway, am not really doing any social damage: nobody's reading the blog, who could ever notice??
actually wanted to translate and post an article i found about garbage and burners, written by wu ming, that i really liked...
it's just that writers can say things in such a better way. it's not that they know more things (some maybe do) but what the hell, it's their job, writing... they can really say something the way it's supposed to be...
but got no strength for that, i'll do it another time.
i'm so fed up that i might even actually go to sleep...
' night
anyway was noticing this is the first post after a while where i'm not talking about italian garbage. back to my old moody posts. anyway, am not really doing any social damage: nobody's reading the blog, who could ever notice??
actually wanted to translate and post an article i found about garbage and burners, written by wu ming, that i really liked...
it's just that writers can say things in such a better way. it's not that they know more things (some maybe do) but what the hell, it's their job, writing... they can really say something the way it's supposed to be...
but got no strength for that, i'll do it another time.
i'm so fed up that i might even actually go to sleep...
' night
Saturday, January 12, 2008
garbage, italy & europe
here is another interesting point (thanks to eugenio's post!)
"... How has it been possible to produce millions of tons of 'garbage balls' without the legal and technical requirements to be burned? Even if the burner in Acerra was open, it wouldn't solve the problem.
This is a contraddiction that is not answered by those who blame the environmentalists... But the discussion must be deeper.
Because it appears clear that the current debate is about the emergency in Campania, where a common effort has to be put in order to give dignity back to the people, but it is also much more general. And it concerns, in my opinion, the huge amount of money given during the last years to those people in charge of burning the waste... i.e. the idea that garbage is a renewable energy.
As usual a comparison with Europe helps us understanding the Bizantine-like Italian events.
The fans of burners say that these plants exist throughout Europe. True. They have been there for long time and there are new generation ones. But they are called burners and not 'termovalorizzatori' (Italian word transl as thermo-improvers). And the laws ruling them are very strict, and they are the laws about waste, not those about energy.
They burn something, the left overs of the very end of a separate collection of waste, which is still defined as waste and not emphasised as energy source. They are forced to produce energy, but no way to get funding for that, pretendind it is a renewable source of energy (apart from the organic part).
European rules are very clear and strict about that... the waste politics have been clearly hierarchical since 1975. First, reduce the amount of waste, then recycle and use it again. Get rid of it is the last step and burning the very last. With mandatory energy recovery, but still accounted as a means of getting rid of the garbage. It is still under debate whether including this into the recover category, but with a mandatory and very high energetic efficiency.
Because goods and recovered materials have a much higher energetic value than that one could obtain through burning them. And since Europe does not work with chats, but with thermodynamics, the hierarchy is respected."
from "Dietro l'attacco agli ambientalisti c'è la lobby dei Cip 6", Roberto Musacchio
Liberazione, 10-1-2008
"... How has it been possible to produce millions of tons of 'garbage balls' without the legal and technical requirements to be burned? Even if the burner in Acerra was open, it wouldn't solve the problem.
This is a contraddiction that is not answered by those who blame the environmentalists... But the discussion must be deeper.
Because it appears clear that the current debate is about the emergency in Campania, where a common effort has to be put in order to give dignity back to the people, but it is also much more general. And it concerns, in my opinion, the huge amount of money given during the last years to those people in charge of burning the waste... i.e. the idea that garbage is a renewable energy.
As usual a comparison with Europe helps us understanding the Bizantine-like Italian events.
The fans of burners say that these plants exist throughout Europe. True. They have been there for long time and there are new generation ones. But they are called burners and not 'termovalorizzatori' (Italian word transl as thermo-improvers). And the laws ruling them are very strict, and they are the laws about waste, not those about energy.
They burn something, the left overs of the very end of a separate collection of waste, which is still defined as waste and not emphasised as energy source. They are forced to produce energy, but no way to get funding for that, pretendind it is a renewable source of energy (apart from the organic part).
European rules are very clear and strict about that... the waste politics have been clearly hierarchical since 1975. First, reduce the amount of waste, then recycle and use it again. Get rid of it is the last step and burning the very last. With mandatory energy recovery, but still accounted as a means of getting rid of the garbage. It is still under debate whether including this into the recover category, but with a mandatory and very high energetic efficiency.
Because goods and recovered materials have a much higher energetic value than that one could obtain through burning them. And since Europe does not work with chats, but with thermodynamics, the hierarchy is respected."
from "Dietro l'attacco agli ambientalisti c'è la lobby dei Cip 6", Roberto Musacchio
Liberazione, 10-1-2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
garbage, a blog and a wu ming book
and i just found out there is a blog about all these "ecomafia" stories: verdenero, il blog i think i'll put it in the right column of permanent links
it refers to a series of books with stories about environmental crimes, which is going to publish soon a book by wu ming, called "weather forecast". it's advertised as a trip through a half of italy, into the dirty belly of the country
am curious about it
it refers to a series of books with stories about environmental crimes, which is going to publish soon a book by wu ming, called "weather forecast". it's advertised as a trip through a half of italy, into the dirty belly of the country
am curious about it
garbage & sustainability
"2 kg less" is the title of a new campaign that legambiente (the main Italian environmental association) just started
the motto is: if every Italian produced 2 kg of garbage less in 1 year there could be space in the Italian dumping grounds for all the trash accumulated recently in Campania. ok, it's not a way to solve the problem, because we cannot just rely on other regions. but it's the right message to send, in this moment, to the whole country: a more responsible and sustainable approach to what we put in the trash bin (as was pointed out in a comment to my first "garbage" post)
let's hope most people really catch it, and not only those who are already responsible
here are a couple of links (in Italian):
due chili in meno
documenti sull'emergenza rifiuti in Campania
il rapporto Ecomafia 2007
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
still garbage
yesterday the government apparently solved the garbage situation: dumping grounds and burning plants. and punishments to those towns who do not collect garbage differentially.
and i am still puzzled, as i was at the end of last post: no word mentioned about recycling facilities, and people should collect garbage separately anyway. to export it?? so that we go on being dependent on someone else??
don't get me wrong, i am a supporter of separating the garbage (or however you call it) i live in germany and have 5 different bins on my balcony. but i understand that people don't want to start doing it unless a project is seriously planned about recycling, unless a single, concrete word is truly spent towards that direction.
and i am still puzzled, and wonder how long the solution is going to last.
and to complete the press collection of last post, here are a couple of interesting things, which i will try to translate soon...
Così lo Stato affonda tra rifiuti e violenza (And the state is sinking in garbage and violence) - link to Repubblica
Fermiamo la lobby degli inceneritori (Let's stop the lobby of burning plants) - interview to the Italian Greenpeace president from Il manifesto, which i attach below since i think it will be removed within a week:
«Un'emergenza nazionale». È durissimo il giudizio di Walter Ganapini, chimico e presidente di Greenpeace, già docente nelle università di Venezia e Milano, sulle responsabilità della politica nella crisi dei rifiuti. «Quello che sta succedendo a Napoli - afferma l'ex assessore all'Ambiente che nel 1995 dotò Milano di un sistema di smaltimento modello - è la punta dell'iceberg di una commistione tra politica e lobby energetiche che in una regione dalla scarsa legalità come la Campania produce fenomeni parossistici di inquinamento». A essere sott'accusa è la gestione degli ultimi tre governi e l'assimilazione degli inceneritori a strumenti di termovalorizzazione, di produzione, cioè, di energia pulita. «Una scelta - denuncia Ganapini - sanzionata anche dall'Unione Europea», che ha condannato l'Italia a più riprese per l'assenza di politiche sostenibili.
Un legame tra crisi campana e gestione nazionale dei rifiuti, quindi?
Che esista una collusione tra politica e imprenditoria nazionale per impedire che vengano messe in piedi strategie di smaltimento degne di questo nome è stato dimostrato ampiamente dalla magistratura.
In che modo dinamiche nazionali hanno alimentato il caos campano?
Mentre nel paese ci si continuava a liberare dei rifiuti con metodi arretrati e inquinanti che permettevano alle imprese di non investire in innovazione, nelle regioni più fragili la malavita ha approfittato dell'improvvisazione per lucrare con il sottotrattamento e con la manovalanza. Come dimostrato dalla magistratura, in Campania l'Impregilo di Cesare Romiti ha vinto una gara d'appalto a dir poco irrituale, promettendo servizi nettamente sottocosto. Servizi che non ha svolto per anni, lasciando che al suo posto lo facesse la camorra, sversando i rifiuti in cave in disuso con danno per l'ambiente. Se a livello locale la malavita ha potuto fare affari è perché a livello nazionale si chiudeva un occhio per favorire le lobby dell'incenerimento e delle cave.
Come uscire da questa situazione?
I cittadini campani non sono diversi dagli altri. Anche loro apprezzerebbero amministrazioni che migliorassero la qualità della vita. È falso che per vincere le elezioni si debba scendere a patti con la camorra. Si può ottenere consenso, entrando in competizione con la malavita: dando lavoro, promuovendo sviluppo, rendendo la legalità più attraente e benefica dell'illegalità.
Più concretamente?
Si deve cominciare a spezzare il legame affari-rifiuti, stoccando l'immondizia su terreni del demanio e non in proprietà di camorristi che guadagnano con affitti elevatissimi. Poi, sbarazzandosi con rapidità delle ipoteche del passato, disfacendosi, cioè, dei milioni di ecoballe già accatastate ovunque. Ecoballe che non possono essere bruciate poiché non si sa cosa ci sia dentro. È notorio che sostanze tossiche provenienti da lavorazioni industriali sono state assemblate con rifiuti ordinari. Due anni fa, alcune ecoballe portate a Terni per essere smaltite si rivelarono radioattive e contaminarono l'inceneritore.
Se non incenerendole, come liberarsene?
La Germania si è detta pronta a stoccarle in grande profondità nel suo sottosuolo senza rischi ambientali. Una proposta che ha suscitato ironie ma che andrebbe presa in considerazione. Se non in Germania, si deve comunque trovare una soluzione a livello europeo per stoccarle senza rischio, visto che non possono essere incenerite.
Questo per liberarsi dell'eredità del passato. Come rompere, poi, il rapporto tra economia e rifiuti che dà lavoro a molti?
Basta fare quello che fanno tutti gli altri paesi europei: riciclare il 70% dei rifiuti. Trasformare sostanze organiche in fertilizzanti utili per l'agricoltura e usare il restante 30% per produrre energia. Non in termovalorizzatori, ma in cementifici o in centrali elettriche. In stabilimenti che, invece di ricorrere al petrolio, potrebbero funzionare con l'immondizia. Sfido chiunque, infatti, a dimostrare a un ingegnere tedesco o statunitense che un inceneritore è un termovalorizzatore! Tutte queste attività, unite alla ricerca scientifica in istituzioni che a Napoli non mancano di certo, potrebbero creare lavoro e rendere competitiva una regione ricca di risorse come la Campania. Se per far rispettare la legalità, poi, fosse necessario l'intervento provvisorio dell'esercito, ben venga.
and i am still puzzled, as i was at the end of last post: no word mentioned about recycling facilities, and people should collect garbage separately anyway. to export it?? so that we go on being dependent on someone else??
don't get me wrong, i am a supporter of separating the garbage (or however you call it) i live in germany and have 5 different bins on my balcony. but i understand that people don't want to start doing it unless a project is seriously planned about recycling, unless a single, concrete word is truly spent towards that direction.
and i am still puzzled, and wonder how long the solution is going to last.
and to complete the press collection of last post, here are a couple of interesting things, which i will try to translate soon...
Così lo Stato affonda tra rifiuti e violenza (And the state is sinking in garbage and violence) - link to Repubblica
Fermiamo la lobby degli inceneritori (Let's stop the lobby of burning plants) - interview to the Italian Greenpeace president from Il manifesto, which i attach below since i think it will be removed within a week:
«Un'emergenza nazionale». È durissimo il giudizio di Walter Ganapini, chimico e presidente di Greenpeace, già docente nelle università di Venezia e Milano, sulle responsabilità della politica nella crisi dei rifiuti. «Quello che sta succedendo a Napoli - afferma l'ex assessore all'Ambiente che nel 1995 dotò Milano di un sistema di smaltimento modello - è la punta dell'iceberg di una commistione tra politica e lobby energetiche che in una regione dalla scarsa legalità come la Campania produce fenomeni parossistici di inquinamento». A essere sott'accusa è la gestione degli ultimi tre governi e l'assimilazione degli inceneritori a strumenti di termovalorizzazione, di produzione, cioè, di energia pulita. «Una scelta - denuncia Ganapini - sanzionata anche dall'Unione Europea», che ha condannato l'Italia a più riprese per l'assenza di politiche sostenibili.
Un legame tra crisi campana e gestione nazionale dei rifiuti, quindi?
Che esista una collusione tra politica e imprenditoria nazionale per impedire che vengano messe in piedi strategie di smaltimento degne di questo nome è stato dimostrato ampiamente dalla magistratura.
In che modo dinamiche nazionali hanno alimentato il caos campano?
Mentre nel paese ci si continuava a liberare dei rifiuti con metodi arretrati e inquinanti che permettevano alle imprese di non investire in innovazione, nelle regioni più fragili la malavita ha approfittato dell'improvvisazione per lucrare con il sottotrattamento e con la manovalanza. Come dimostrato dalla magistratura, in Campania l'Impregilo di Cesare Romiti ha vinto una gara d'appalto a dir poco irrituale, promettendo servizi nettamente sottocosto. Servizi che non ha svolto per anni, lasciando che al suo posto lo facesse la camorra, sversando i rifiuti in cave in disuso con danno per l'ambiente. Se a livello locale la malavita ha potuto fare affari è perché a livello nazionale si chiudeva un occhio per favorire le lobby dell'incenerimento e delle cave.
Come uscire da questa situazione?
I cittadini campani non sono diversi dagli altri. Anche loro apprezzerebbero amministrazioni che migliorassero la qualità della vita. È falso che per vincere le elezioni si debba scendere a patti con la camorra. Si può ottenere consenso, entrando in competizione con la malavita: dando lavoro, promuovendo sviluppo, rendendo la legalità più attraente e benefica dell'illegalità.
Più concretamente?
Si deve cominciare a spezzare il legame affari-rifiuti, stoccando l'immondizia su terreni del demanio e non in proprietà di camorristi che guadagnano con affitti elevatissimi. Poi, sbarazzandosi con rapidità delle ipoteche del passato, disfacendosi, cioè, dei milioni di ecoballe già accatastate ovunque. Ecoballe che non possono essere bruciate poiché non si sa cosa ci sia dentro. È notorio che sostanze tossiche provenienti da lavorazioni industriali sono state assemblate con rifiuti ordinari. Due anni fa, alcune ecoballe portate a Terni per essere smaltite si rivelarono radioattive e contaminarono l'inceneritore.
Se non incenerendole, come liberarsene?
La Germania si è detta pronta a stoccarle in grande profondità nel suo sottosuolo senza rischi ambientali. Una proposta che ha suscitato ironie ma che andrebbe presa in considerazione. Se non in Germania, si deve comunque trovare una soluzione a livello europeo per stoccarle senza rischio, visto che non possono essere incenerite.
Questo per liberarsi dell'eredità del passato. Come rompere, poi, il rapporto tra economia e rifiuti che dà lavoro a molti?
Basta fare quello che fanno tutti gli altri paesi europei: riciclare il 70% dei rifiuti. Trasformare sostanze organiche in fertilizzanti utili per l'agricoltura e usare il restante 30% per produrre energia. Non in termovalorizzatori, ma in cementifici o in centrali elettriche. In stabilimenti che, invece di ricorrere al petrolio, potrebbero funzionare con l'immondizia. Sfido chiunque, infatti, a dimostrare a un ingegnere tedesco o statunitense che un inceneritore è un termovalorizzatore! Tutte queste attività, unite alla ricerca scientifica in istituzioni che a Napoli non mancano di certo, potrebbero creare lavoro e rendere competitiva una regione ricca di risorse come la Campania. Se per far rispettare la legalità, poi, fosse necessario l'intervento provvisorio dell'esercito, ben venga.
Monday, January 07, 2008
i left but the garbage is still there
it's been days that people everywhere, in italy and now in germany too, are asking me about the garbage situation in Napoli and surroundings. they ask me "HOW?" and "WHY JUST THERE?"
it's been a problem for 12 years or more, but a couple of weeks ago the national media seemed to remember about it again. today i even saw the news on the bbc.
personally i don't know that much about it. i was in salerno over xmas and there we didn't have problems. i am still wondering where our trash goes. but in the rest of the region it's terrible. it makes me want to cry.
and since i'm sick of getting asked the same question again and feeling impotent and unable to answer and basically only sorry as hell, i decided to collect as much information as i can about the problem.
am sorry but most of the stuff is going to be in italian.
here is the 3 min promo of a documentary called "biutiful cauntri" (see prev post) by esmeralda calabria, andrea d'ambrosio and peppe ruggiero:
i still haven't seen it (difficult to find) but even so i am of the idea it should be broadcast on unified channels at 20.00 for a week or so all over italy. information on it can be found here.
and here is a translation of a piece of what roberto saviano wrote yesterday on repubblica:
"It's in another country that the names of those who are liable for that are known, however that's not enough to make them guilty. It's in another country that the main economic power is that of criminal organisations, but still information is obsessed with politics and it fulfills the news everyday, while clans keep going on destroying and building the country without any real information reaction, because information is seldom and distracted.
The emergency was not initiated by Camorra. Camorra have no pleasure in creating emergencies, Camorra does not need emergencies. Camorra can exploit their own business on the garbage as well as on everything else anyway, as always, with sun or rain, during an emergency or in apparent normality, when they can take care of their business better, without anyone getting interested in its territory, when the rest of the country give them their poisons at an unbelievable price and think they can wash their hands and sleep in peace.
When we throw something in the trash, there in the trash bin under our sink, or when we close the black plastic bag, we have to think it's not going to turn into compost, or into some shitty material feeding mice and seagulls, but it's going to turn directly into stocks, investments, soccer teams, buildings, finance fluxes, companies, election votes. From the emergency you can't and don't want to get out, because it's one of the moments when you gain the most out of it."
here is the whole version of the article: Imprese, politici e camorra - ecco i colpevoli della peste (in italian)
and that's what he said on tv a couple of days ago:
just to make things clearer, here is another article by roberto saviano, it's a bit older, from last june, when the emergency state had been - as usual - temporarily forgotten:
Ecco i padrini dei rifiuti (Here are the "padrini" of waste)
and here is another useful link, just to show that it's all real: rapporto ecomafia 2006, an official document where we can sadly read that my region wins the first prize for crimes against the environment
watch out:
environment: we're not talking about devastating the habitat of the polar bear or the pink panther but about making huge profits via systematic destruction of a large area and the health of its human population!
ok maybe you might think i'm obsessed with saviano. i don't know him, but i really like the way he says and writes things. especially when you're used to the same politicians who have been repeating you the same bullshit for 15 years and that the problem does not exist or whatever else...
and the same point was also on a repubblica issue a couple of days ago, couldn't find it on the website though. the title was "Democracy killed by garbage" by francesco merlo, here's a translated abridged version:
"May Antonio Bassolino and Rosa Russo Iervolino tell us not one more word about fighting the Camorra, the Reinassance of Napoli and the Southern Dream. May they stop once and for all pretending their moral commitment to the fight against crime organisations (...) The hope that Bassolino would have given a new organisation and new order, a new ethic and aesthetic, is choking under Napoli's gabage: to run the region without killing, without cheating, without corruption. Remember the Emilian model, the Tuscan model? Unfortunately in the trash of Napoli is dying (...) the illusion that the good old men from the left wing would have made it work, where Lauro, Gava, De Mita failed. But that old Napoli is getting its revenge on us. We look at the garbage and wonder how come it's not breaking down the conscience of our government and of our left wing parties (...) The trash in Napoli is questioning Italian democracy."
one last thought before going to sleep
i am finally happy that something which does make sense has been written also on national press. because more than once, during this media bombing about the garbage emergency, i have been reading the most incredible shit. first of all, i repeatedly read blaming the people of Campania and complaining that it's their fault, since they don't differ between plastic, paper, and so on.
Writing such a thing is a shame: you cannot blame the people for not doing something which is at the moment completely useless (because the recycling plants don't exist at all!). I was very angry. True, sometimes people should start differing the rubbish even if the recycling plants are not working yet, so they learn and get used to it. But in Napoli and surrounding the only thing people are getting used to is to store trash: it lies for days in the streets, and then it is stocked, either it is buried in dumping ground (very clever!) or it is stacked on some grounds - who knows who owns them and gets the rent from the state - waiting for the building of a burning plant.
and just to make the point even clearer, when i say stacking on some ground what i mean is this
Now, I really don't know much about burning plants. I heard that it can be a good technology, that you can get electricity and/or heating out of that. But I also heard it's poisoning for people who leave nearby. I don't know enough to say if it is a good idea or not. But what I know is, apparently we cannot find any better idea than burying the waste in dumping grounds. Even though dumping grounds get full after a while, even when you put there only a small amount of stuff (usually leftovers from burning plants), and you always need to find a new place and destroy another village or another country area by dropping there our waste... imagine when this has been for more than 10 years the only way to get rid of the trash! It's the worst idea ever, to solve an emergency by extending the natural conditions that made it arise!
So, since the situation is such, nobody please dare blame people for not differing the trash! There are so many reasons for which we should blame the people, ourselves, and not only in Campania. And they are good reasons. This is not one.
here's the same point and other stuff, just written better!
from Nazione Indiana: Post (moderno):la monnezza spiegata ai bambini -1
and for those who still didn't, please read Gomorra, at least THE LAST CHAPTER! which is about the garbage and its fluxes: regular trash from south to north, since we cannot treat it, and toxic waste from north to south, since we offer the best prize ever for taking it and poisoning our soil... forever! i really believe this chapter, especially now, should be printed and put in the mailbox of every single Italian
........TO BE CONTINUED - UNFORTUNATELY.......
it's been a problem for 12 years or more, but a couple of weeks ago the national media seemed to remember about it again. today i even saw the news on the bbc.
personally i don't know that much about it. i was in salerno over xmas and there we didn't have problems. i am still wondering where our trash goes. but in the rest of the region it's terrible. it makes me want to cry.
and since i'm sick of getting asked the same question again and feeling impotent and unable to answer and basically only sorry as hell, i decided to collect as much information as i can about the problem.
am sorry but most of the stuff is going to be in italian.
here is the 3 min promo of a documentary called "biutiful cauntri" (see prev post) by esmeralda calabria, andrea d'ambrosio and peppe ruggiero:
i still haven't seen it (difficult to find) but even so i am of the idea it should be broadcast on unified channels at 20.00 for a week or so all over italy. information on it can be found here.
and here is a translation of a piece of what roberto saviano wrote yesterday on repubblica:
"It's in another country that the names of those who are liable for that are known, however that's not enough to make them guilty. It's in another country that the main economic power is that of criminal organisations, but still information is obsessed with politics and it fulfills the news everyday, while clans keep going on destroying and building the country without any real information reaction, because information is seldom and distracted.
The emergency was not initiated by Camorra. Camorra have no pleasure in creating emergencies, Camorra does not need emergencies. Camorra can exploit their own business on the garbage as well as on everything else anyway, as always, with sun or rain, during an emergency or in apparent normality, when they can take care of their business better, without anyone getting interested in its territory, when the rest of the country give them their poisons at an unbelievable price and think they can wash their hands and sleep in peace.
When we throw something in the trash, there in the trash bin under our sink, or when we close the black plastic bag, we have to think it's not going to turn into compost, or into some shitty material feeding mice and seagulls, but it's going to turn directly into stocks, investments, soccer teams, buildings, finance fluxes, companies, election votes. From the emergency you can't and don't want to get out, because it's one of the moments when you gain the most out of it."
here is the whole version of the article: Imprese, politici e camorra - ecco i colpevoli della peste (in italian)
and that's what he said on tv a couple of days ago:
just to make things clearer, here is another article by roberto saviano, it's a bit older, from last june, when the emergency state had been - as usual - temporarily forgotten:
Ecco i padrini dei rifiuti (Here are the "padrini" of waste)
and here is another useful link, just to show that it's all real: rapporto ecomafia 2006, an official document where we can sadly read that my region wins the first prize for crimes against the environment
watch out:
environment: we're not talking about devastating the habitat of the polar bear or the pink panther but about making huge profits via systematic destruction of a large area and the health of its human population!
ok maybe you might think i'm obsessed with saviano. i don't know him, but i really like the way he says and writes things. especially when you're used to the same politicians who have been repeating you the same bullshit for 15 years and that the problem does not exist or whatever else...
but now this has apparently become really obvious, when even the former director of repubblica writes something like
"Who committed this macroscopic mistake? ... the main people who are liable for that are the governor of the region, Bassolino, and the mayor of Napoli, Russo Iervolino. In the past I liked them both, but now my regard towards them is much weaker.
I believe they should leave. Apologise and leave. I wish the Prime Minister will ask them to. Their leaving the scene won't be a magic wand to make the hill of gargabe disappear from the city and suburbs, but should however represent the right punishment to their strategy mistake they made and kept making for years. People's disillusion towards politics is mainly due to an overforgiving system which rewards flatness and patronage.
The garbage in Napoli reflects the more general malfunctions of our democracy, which is late by several decades regarding the changes happened in the meanwhile in all other countries comparable to ours."
(here is the complete column written today by Scalfari: La montagna di "monnezza" che sfiora la luna)"Who committed this macroscopic mistake? ... the main people who are liable for that are the governor of the region, Bassolino, and the mayor of Napoli, Russo Iervolino. In the past I liked them both, but now my regard towards them is much weaker.
I believe they should leave. Apologise and leave. I wish the Prime Minister will ask them to. Their leaving the scene won't be a magic wand to make the hill of gargabe disappear from the city and suburbs, but should however represent the right punishment to their strategy mistake they made and kept making for years. People's disillusion towards politics is mainly due to an overforgiving system which rewards flatness and patronage.
The garbage in Napoli reflects the more general malfunctions of our democracy, which is late by several decades regarding the changes happened in the meanwhile in all other countries comparable to ours."
and the same point was also on a repubblica issue a couple of days ago, couldn't find it on the website though. the title was "Democracy killed by garbage" by francesco merlo, here's a translated abridged version:
"May Antonio Bassolino and Rosa Russo Iervolino tell us not one more word about fighting the Camorra, the Reinassance of Napoli and the Southern Dream. May they stop once and for all pretending their moral commitment to the fight against crime organisations (...) The hope that Bassolino would have given a new organisation and new order, a new ethic and aesthetic, is choking under Napoli's gabage: to run the region without killing, without cheating, without corruption. Remember the Emilian model, the Tuscan model? Unfortunately in the trash of Napoli is dying (...) the illusion that the good old men from the left wing would have made it work, where Lauro, Gava, De Mita failed. But that old Napoli is getting its revenge on us. We look at the garbage and wonder how come it's not breaking down the conscience of our government and of our left wing parties (...) The trash in Napoli is questioning Italian democracy."
one last thought before going to sleep
i am finally happy that something which does make sense has been written also on national press. because more than once, during this media bombing about the garbage emergency, i have been reading the most incredible shit. first of all, i repeatedly read blaming the people of Campania and complaining that it's their fault, since they don't differ between plastic, paper, and so on.
Writing such a thing is a shame: you cannot blame the people for not doing something which is at the moment completely useless (because the recycling plants don't exist at all!). I was very angry. True, sometimes people should start differing the rubbish even if the recycling plants are not working yet, so they learn and get used to it. But in Napoli and surrounding the only thing people are getting used to is to store trash: it lies for days in the streets, and then it is stocked, either it is buried in dumping ground (very clever!) or it is stacked on some grounds - who knows who owns them and gets the rent from the state - waiting for the building of a burning plant.
and just to make the point even clearer, when i say stacking on some ground what i mean is this
Now, I really don't know much about burning plants. I heard that it can be a good technology, that you can get electricity and/or heating out of that. But I also heard it's poisoning for people who leave nearby. I don't know enough to say if it is a good idea or not. But what I know is, apparently we cannot find any better idea than burying the waste in dumping grounds. Even though dumping grounds get full after a while, even when you put there only a small amount of stuff (usually leftovers from burning plants), and you always need to find a new place and destroy another village or another country area by dropping there our waste... imagine when this has been for more than 10 years the only way to get rid of the trash! It's the worst idea ever, to solve an emergency by extending the natural conditions that made it arise!
So, since the situation is such, nobody please dare blame people for not differing the trash! There are so many reasons for which we should blame the people, ourselves, and not only in Campania. And they are good reasons. This is not one.
here's the same point and other stuff, just written better!
from Nazione Indiana: Post (moderno):la monnezza spiegata ai bambini -1
and for those who still didn't, please read Gomorra, at least THE LAST CHAPTER! which is about the garbage and its fluxes: regular trash from south to north, since we cannot treat it, and toxic waste from north to south, since we offer the best prize ever for taking it and poisoning our soil... forever! i really believe this chapter, especially now, should be printed and put in the mailbox of every single Italian
........TO BE CONTINUED - UNFORTUNATELY.......
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
maybe he would have done it anyway...
but still i like the idea that we made daniele silvestri sing cohiba in the end of the show :)
at least once we get a good concert for new year's eve also here in the outskirts of the empire!
it was really really nice although people were not really giving him a lot of feedback... apart from a bunch of us!!! so that's why in the end, when they left, we started singing and they came out and closed the show with that:
which i think is a nice way to wish everybody a happy new year :)
at least once we get a good concert for new year's eve also here in the outskirts of the empire!
it was really really nice although people were not really giving him a lot of feedback... apart from a bunch of us!!! so that's why in the end, when they left, we started singing and they came out and closed the show with that:
which i think is a nice way to wish everybody a happy new year :)
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