What ABC refused to run before Presidential debate

Never ends!!! from L'Espresso

Vento razzista sui 'terroni'?

Una studentessa ha raccontato in una lettera a L'espresso l'episodio avvenuto al Politecnico in cui un ragazzo era salito in cattedra per spiegare la differenza fra "italiano" e "terrone". La discussione si è accesa tra i lettori. Cosa ne pensate?

La differenza tra un italiano e un terrone spiegata all’università

Scrivo per raccontare una vicenda successami oggi (15 aprile 2008).
Mi chiamo Elena, ho 23 anni, sono laureata in matematica all’università La Sapienza di Roma; sto frequentando la Specialistica in Ingegneria Matematica presso il Politecnico di Milano.
Oggi ero in aula, erano le 14:00 del pomeriggio, attendevo l’inizio della mia lezione, leggevo il giornale con i risultati (sconcertanti) delle elezioni di questi giorni; ed ecco che un ragazzo (mio coetaneo) sale sulla pedana della cattedra e davanti ad una platea di circa 30 persone (tutti uomini, la mia facoltà è a dominio maschile) sentenzia:
“Ragazzi, allora un attimo di attenzione; oggi vi spiegherò la differenza tra un italiano e un terrone”.
Io in silenzio sconcertata; la classe in tripudio.
Aspetto, mi dico di non partire prevenuta, di stare ad ascoltare, potrebbero essere le solite battute alle quali, oramai da due anni, non si scappa; che con leggerezza ti rivolgono e che con altrettanta leggerezza devi accettare (”Roma ladrona”, “Milano produce, Roma spreca”, “Milano capitale economica e morale d’Italia” ecc ecc.).
Il ragazzo persevera: “Dicevamo, il terrone, miei cari, è il tipico uomo bassottello, grassoccio e decisamente sporco.”
Dal fondo urla un voce d’uomo indistinta: “Olivastro, dimentichi olivastro.”
“Vero”, si scusa l’oratore, “Decisamente OLIVASTRO”.
Queste parole e il tono che sta assumendo la beffa cominciano a spaventarmi.
Non capisco il confine del gioco.
Uno di loro dice sottovoce ad un altro:”Oh, anche lui ha votato Lega vero?”
L’altro annuisce con fare fiero.
Continua il ragazzo alla cattedra: “Il terrone è caratterizzato da un atteggiamento tipicamente parassita ed è per questo, miei cari, che vi invito semplicemente a tracciare una linea sulle varie cartine dell’Italia. Una semplice linea di demarcazione”.
A questo punto schizza con il gesso uno stivale sulla lavagna e traccia con fare deciso una linea orizzontale all’altezza del Po’.
Ovazione. Urla e applausi.
Resto lì ancora incredula e mi balza alla mente la scena del film “La vita è bella”.
Benigni sulla cattedra con la fascia di sindaco in mezzo alle gambe e il suo beffardo sproloquio sulle caratteristiche della razza ariana.
Ricordo che, quando avevo visto “La vita è bella” per la prima volta, avevo immediatamente notato come Benigni mettesse l’accento sul fatto che certe idee, apparentemente bizzarre (come le superiorità fisiche della razza ariana), si erano diffuse in modo, potremmo dire, “proverbiale”, quasi come facessero parte di una cultura popolare, un modo di dire, un qualcosa di semplice che passa di bocca in bocca, una battuta scherzosa o un gioco tra amici, che alla fine diviene scontato, di dominio pubblico e indiscusso.
Ma è su questo tacito passaparola, quasi burlesco, che si sono fondate, successivamente, leggi e le loro tragiche conseguenze che segnarono un solco profondo e violento nel secolo scorso.
Torno a casa con la paura di aver assistito a una di questi simpatici “moti proverbiali”; porto sotto braccio il mio giornale che decreta milioni di voti alla Lega.

Elena Di Bernardino

IL DIBATTITO: Dite la vostra
LA REPLICA: Scrive il rettore del Politecnico

Secondo voi

Parlare di ‘terroni’ in senso dispregiativo è il segno del degrado raggiunto dal nostro Paese

Ma quale scandalo, piuttosto preoccupiamoci della criminalità che viene dal Sud

In fondo anche per descrivere la gente del Nord si usano stereotipi

Questo è solo l’inizio, la vittoria della Lega rischia di fare aumentare il divario culturale e sociale tra Nord e Sud

MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD
a film by Daniele Luchetti
Reviewed by Beth Accomando

link to podcast with Beth Accomando and Pasquale Verdicchio

http://www.kpbs.org/blogs2/index.php/movies/category/podcast/

Sconfitta a tutto campo

Valentino Parlato

Speravo che, come nel 2001, dopo la sconfitta alle elezioni nazionali, ci sarebbe stata una reazione positiva alle amministrative di Roma. Speranza del tutto infondata: siamo di fronte a un voto popolare (sottolineo popolare) di destra, al punto che in Campidoglio va per la prima volta dopo la Liberazione un fascista. Già (alle 18,30 di ieri) è stata mandata in pezzi una lapide per i martiri delle Fosse Ardeatine - per fortuna, se così si può dire, per ora solo un cippo commemorativo all'estrema periferia di Ostia. Amici tedeschi, venuti a trovarci, ci hanno ricordato la parabola della Repubblica di Weimar.
È una sconfitta senza attenuanti, l'autobiografia di una nazione ci ricorda qualcuno. Questo siamo diventati nel 60° della Costituzione che la nuova maggioranza già si appresta a demolire. È, sul terreno più immediatamente politico, la sconfitta radicale dell'invenzione del Partito democratico. Cioè, ma non solo, della cancellazione del comunismo, ma anche del socialismo e persino della socialdemocrazia. Insomma, della sinistra.
Dopo la sconfitta alle elezioni politiche, dopo la scomparsa parlamentare dell'Arcobaleno, anche la riconsegna di Roma a un podestà. È troppo per non interrogarsi sul perché e sul che fare.
Il perché si concentra nella disattenzione ai cambiamenti della società e dei modi di sfruttamento. Si concentra nella rinunzia a cambiare il mondo, nell'affogamento degli ideali nella palude del politicismo e dell'opportunismo. Se molti operai hanno votato Lega e quartieri popolari di Roma hanno votato Alemanno, significa che le forze del centro sinistra sono diventate repellenti. Questa è la morale del voto di Roma.
Che fare? È un interrogativo che quasi ci fa traballare. Bisogna cominciare - scusate se sto al mio passato - con l'autocritica (l'esame di coscienza dicono i cristiani). Bisogna saper che i giustificazionismi servono solo a precipitare ancora più in basso. Cominciamo col dire, seriamente, a che cosa siamo contro e, quindi, trovare i terreni sui quali contrastare l'avversario vincente. Sforziamo di ridarci una identità non castale.
Dobbiamo sapere - lo dicono tutti - che siamo a una crisi economica mondiale, tipo 1929, e che questa crisi rafforzerà le spinte a destra, a una destra autoritaria, della quale le elezioni italiane di questo mese sono solo un'anticipazione e un avviso.
Sforziamoci di rispondere oggi, subito. Evitiamo il saggio storicismo che dice «ai posteri l'ardua sentenza». Il rischio è che - se va a questo modo - i posteri convalideranno la vittoria dei nemici, nostri e dell'Italia.

(from Il Manifesto, april 30/08)

YES, WE ARE ALL BROKEN UP ABOUT IT...AND NOW HIS WIFE GETS INVOLVED

Italy must be broken up, says Berlusconi's wife

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 1:37am BST 26/04/2008

Silvio Berlusconi's wife added her voice yesterday to the growing calls for Italy to be partitioned.

In an interview with La Stampa, Veronica Lario, 51, said: "Italy has never been well-suited to being a single country, and has never matured enough to become one. There is no longer any value in a unified Italy."

Ms Lario, a former showgirl, married Italy's prime minister-elect 18 years ago after catching his eye on a television show. Since then, she has rarely courted publicity, but does run Il Foglio, an influential newspaper.

The prospect of a devolved Italy has grown significantly in recent weeks since the Northern League, a secessionist party, won strong support in the general election.

Umberto Bossi, its volcanic leader, has repeatedly threatened to "take up arms" against the "corrupt" politicians in Rome who divert the wealth of Italy's North to the impoverished South.

Ms Lario disclosed that she was a fan of Mr Bossi and added it was time for Italy to stop being "snobbish" about the League, whose politicians are frequently coarse and populist.

"This is a disillusioned country, even after Berlusconi's victory," she said. "The League expresses concrete demands from the most productive part of Italy, which is tired of dragging the rest of the country and does not find itself represented by the Left-wing."

Mr Berlusconi, who will find it difficult to maintain a majority in parliament without the League's support, is likely to make Mr Bossi a cabinet minister. He could also appoint Roberto Calderoli, Mr Bossi's second-in-command, as deputy prime minister.

In the past, Mr Calderoli has called for immigrants to be shot in their boats and for a national pork-eating day to defy Islam.

"If the people have voted for Mr Calderoli," said Ms Lario, "that gives him credibility".

SO GLAD SOMEONE KNOWS THE TRUTH AND IS WILLING TO SET PEOPLE STRAIGHT!
THANK YOU LISA CARDUCCI FOR HAVING SUCH INSIGHT INTO THE MATTER.
POOR DALAI LAMA...SUCH "AN INNOCENT VICTIM"!

and after you have read her article please see
http://www.stoptibetcrisis.net/

What's the matter with Tibet?

www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-25 03:13:39

Special report: Tibet: Its Past and Present

BEIJING, April 24 (xinhua) -- Canadian writer Lisa Carducci wrote an article entitled "What's the matter with Tibet?" for China Daily, a Beijing-based English newspaper, explaining why people outside China usually have a prejudice against Tibet. Here is the full text of the article, which was published on April 22:

It is one thing to be interested in Tibet, as most of my acquaintances are. It is another to have totally prejudiced views, which unfortunately is the case with most of them.

Only a handful are honest enough to hold their opinions until they visit Tibet and see things with their own eyes. Some others hear only what they want to hear and what doesn't disturb their "Tibetan imagination".

Here is an example. A Canadian friend of mine, a university professor, went to Tibet in May 1997. He later told me that his group had been sent away from a Tibetan restaurant by the police and directed to a Han establishment.

The reason, according to him, was racism, an attempt to "break" the "Tibetan nation". His immediate analysis - before he understood a word of what was going on - was obviously based on prejudice.

I was not there and didn't see what happened. But after discussing the fact with Han and Tibetan people who knew better, we all concluded that the real cause might have been one or more of the following: the owner of the Tibetan restaurant had no permit; he had not paid his taxes; the place was not hygienic enough for foreigners; the owner and the policeman had a personal dispute; or the owner was trafficking ancient tangka, a kind of Tibetan painting.

We also tend to assume that all Tibetans are the same and feel and act the same way. Far from it. Those I met in Tibet or in Xiahe county of Gansu province seem not interested in politics. They live happily and quietly, and have no complaints about the central government as long as their lives continue to prosper year after year.

At the village of Tashiling in Nepal, instead, the Tibetan women I chatted with for two hours at the market had different stories to tell.

The major difference between them and the Tibetans living in China is that the Tibetans in Nepal think that "the Hans invaded Tibet and forced them to flee the country".

The woman who spoke better Chinese and served as an interpreter for the group said: "When our country is free, we'll go back immediately and get good jobs! Do you think this is a life, what we do here? Commerce!"

I took pity on her because she seemed to have been completely swayed by anti-China propaganda. I told her that all the Tibetans I had met earlier knew very well what the central government of China had done for them and appreciated it.

"I'm sorry to tell you," I said, "that you fool yourself if you think that your Tibetan fellows inside the country think the same way you do and support your efforts for independence."

She stared at me, her eyes wide open. "Have you ever been to Tibet?"

"Of course! If not, how could I speak like this?" She remained silent a moment, then said: "Every year on March 10, the Tibetans of the world march for independence. If you go to Tibet on that day, you'll see the Chinese army killing so many people in the streets."

If there was any truth in her words, I thought, I must have been transported to another planet.

"We have seen photos, and videos," she continued. "Every year we see them."

"Who took these photos?"

"Foreigners. From other places."

I calmed down, before asking: "Are you sure these photos and films were taken recently? They may be from the 'cultural revolution' period when Tibetans just as other Chinese suffered and were treated badly. Or during the civil rebellion in 1959? Might you not have been deceived? Maybe they show you the same pictures year after year? Maybe the photos were altered?"

As a spokesperson of her group, she turned around, and said: "It's possible, but we have no means of checking."

"Might these activist friends of the Dalai Lama," I continued, "be the authors of the photocopied letters on the board at the village entrance, issued by 'His Holiness Dalai Lama's office'? And the inscription 'Chinese, leave', who do you think wrote it?"

I explained to them all the changes that had happened in Tibet and talked about all the money invested by the central government into reconstruction and development, the progress in education, the religious freedom, the improvement of health, society, life, and they were astonished. Apparently, no one had ever spoken to them like this.

"Do you believe me?" I asked.

"I believe you because you are a foreigner," said the woman, "not a member of the communist party. Are you?"

"You can trust me. I tell you only what I have seen. Tibet is a beautiful and peaceful place where people sing while they work, where people smile and enjoy life."

The younger ones among them were born in Nepal; others had fled Tibet to go to Nepal in the 1950s and never returned to Tibet. They have no passports; of course they cannot enter China.

I then visited a temple where a young 17-year-old monk said that his greatest aspiration was to see Tibet. He thought monks were arrested, jailed or even killed in China, his thought based on the fact that his friend went there and never returned.

"I'll tell you something, young man. Your friend may have been arrested because he entered a country illegally. But if you never heard from him after that, don't you think he might have accomplished his great desire: to see Tibet. He may be living in a monastery there!"

He bowed his head and said, "I wish I had such a chance!"

Finally, I realized that the Tibetans outside Tibet are the victims not only of ignorance but of a well-organized campaign of misinformation. And it struck me that it may be the same for the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama, who left the country when he was still very young and under the influence of a group, and never saw Tibet with his own eyes later in life to be able to judge things for himself, is also a poor victim - much like the woman at the village market.

TRACKING COURSE - Anza Borrego

Photos taken during the Intermediate Level Tracking Course
offered by ABDI

Flowers are out in Anza Borrego. Wonderful array of colours.
Deep, deep blues and blood reds. Bright whites and yellows.
Large flowers and microscopic ones that pop out of the desert
floor at the slightest hint of humidity.

And the reason we were there...tracking class.

Borrego track. Fairly fresh. Not really visible in photo but
the print was darker inside telling us that it was still not
dried out. So, probably an early morning print?

Quail print. Also saw a few quail run past behind us later,

which gave us the opportunity to look at fresh prints.

And, of course, there is always plenty of scat to look at.
This is coyote on the left. Dry and old. But this on left is
fresher. It was identified as coyote as well, but the stools
are quite different from the usual coyote. A lot of seeds in it
and possibly a little fur...maybe coyote...my initial guess was racoon.

1966

A day in the Park

G and I visited
went to a movie
today and then
to Balboa Park
to the MOPA
to see a 25th
anniversary
exhibition and
an exhibition
of portrait
photography

MEDITATION GARDENS, ENCINITAS