Take that, Berlusconi!

I stole this photo from my friend Silvano's blog.

The rejection of the law "lodo Alfano" [the judical immunity for the four highest offices of State - Berlusconi included], deserves deep and complex political discussion.
In the mean time this panda bear, endangered animal just like endangered is democracy in Italy, enjoys a good fart in spite of Berlusconi.

Elections day

Let's go to vote in a large number and let's try to throw this idiot down from the throne.

The measure of man

Man is the measure of all things (Protagoras).

It's two hours that I am waiting and who cares if they look at me, I grumble in a low voice while I look for a corner in the mirror to check my hair and adjust my tie. There are several things in the mirror: synthetic material backs showing off branded jackets, legs slipped in linen trousers because summer is approaching, strange structures, vaguely anthropomorphic, to support shirts or sweathers, those ones that must be carried carelessly on one's shoulders, and there, between two pairs of moccasins, there is also my head, my face a little nervous, serious, hopeful.
People stare at me, somebody smiles, others give a nudge with the elbow to a mate to make him look at me, and I know that it's not because for what I am wearing. Dressed or in the nude i am not going to pass unnoticed. I collected some flowers in the nearby park, nothing exceptional, simple flowers that were there, easy to pick up. I don't even know their name.
Will she come? I doubt it, because I know how difficult it is to overcome a fear that is not fear, a shame that is not shame, the most innocent guilt. I doubt and, to win the distrust of the hours spent in waiting I light a cigarette. Now I attract much more the looks of the passers-by. It's always like that. "He's smoking", "He's eating", "He's crying". Anything I do it's always like that.
All of the sudden I look at the bunch of flowers and i notice that my hand, instead of holding, it grinds them, it chokes them with that minimum violence enough to defeat their fragile plant necks. I smile thinking how they wither in such a minimum lapse of time like the flags of an as much minimum and defeated army, and their ragged petals tell me that it's time to start my retreat.
I throw the flowers in the first trash bin and I go away, followed by the looks of the passers-by and their voices that say: did you see how the dwarf threw the flowers away? Did he have a date? With a dwarf-girl? They left the dwarf in the lurch. Dwarves are strange, and other comments on which stature i wouldn't and shouldn't say anything.

Luis Sepúlveda, La lampada di Aladino (Italian translation of La lámpara de Aladino) - English translation of mine.

Some time ago I watched on the TV program "La Vita in Diretta", this interview with Marco Sessa, vice-president of AISAC, Associazione per l'Informazione e lo Studio dell'Acondroplasia [Association for the Information and Study on Achondoplasia].
Usually i am not very interested in this gossip program, but in that occasion it had been suggested to me by a very close person, a mother of an achondroplastic boy, who knew that interview was scheduled for that day.

I'll spare you a search on Wikipedia: Achondroplasia is a genetical disease, a form of nanism. It particularily affects the limbs, that develops much less than the rest of the body (for whomever is interested here is the link.

Besides the medical side and the problem of the architectural feature that denies

access, what surprised me in the interview was the observation of how, although I have a case so close, I have never before considered the humiliation of who is affected by this syndrome. Every time they are mentioned as abnormal phenomena, the dwarf is considered a freak, and that word is lost in insult. I think to circuses, but also to other works of any cultural level (Snow White fairy tale, Lord of the Rings saga, Fantasy Island tv series, the song Il Giudice by De André...).
Or even the implicit offense towards them when they are compared with disdain to Berlusconi (psycho-dwarf), with a bad taste comparable to the one of Berlusconi himself towards the color of Obama's skin (sun-tanned), almost like if the physical stature was some way a mirror of the moral one...

Since that day I am trying to learn to weigh better that word.

Eluana Englaro and the Light of Truth

However one chooses to believe, it is a tragedy.
17 years ago, a 21 year old girl suffered a bad accident. Then she went into a coma for 17 years, till few days ago.
And then she passed away.
It is sad.
The kind of sadness that should be suffered in the intimate silence of our consciences.
And here i will stop talking about it, in order to suffer this sadness in the intimate silence of my conscience.

But there is another point of view in this case.

Democracy is based on the non-absoluteness of the Truth. Or, atleast, on the unknowability of the absolute Truth.

Silvio Berlusconi

In fact it is evident that if it existed a known absolute truth, also the moral would be absolute. And so, given the absurdity of any immoral position, any politic decision would be already fixed. There wouldn't be the need of any choice. Least of all a popular one.
If every citizen admitted the existence of the absolute truth and recognized at least one physical person as the holder of the knowledge of that truth, the problem of governing a people would be easily solved giving absolute powers to that person. So, we would have a government that not only acts well for the needs of the people, but it would also do that in the morally best way.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) absolute truth doesn't exist, or, if it exists, we cannot know it. Not even the most integralist catholics would really agree to acknowledge somebody the super-human ability to know it.
And so we have to settle for Democracy.

Our Constitution establishes the foundation of our democracy on a sharp division of the three powers: Judical, Legislative and Executive. Magistracy holds the Judical one, the Parliament the Legislative and the Council of Ministers the Executive one. And the President of the Republic has the task to keep the three powers separate, avoiding that the actions of who holds one of the three interfere with the other two.

Now, i personally don' t like very much that one of the three branches of the state (the Magistracy), that in some way represents the society of the Italian citizens, is called to decide in a case like Eluana's, that instead should be limited to the reserve of conscience privacy and that, i think it cannot be generalized. The issue, anyway, concerns a philosophical and moral field, so it's not absolute. It's difficult to believe that it can have an exhaustive political solution.
In other words, i don't like that the Society decides on a subject that is, and should stay, individual. But that's how it is. Magistracy had been called to decide about the request of Eluana's father to be allowed to pull the plug. And it expressed in a complete, sharp and undoubtful way.

One can agree or not, but it must be adimitted that there is a sentence, and it had been obtained in a correct way. Now, a normal citizen can also rebel, accepting to suffer the consequences of that rebellion.
Also Berlucsoni, as a normal citizen, should have the possibility, and also the moral duty to uphold his disagreement, if he believes the sentence ethically wrong. And, in my opinion, if he really believe it right, also to try to illegally obstruct it.

But it happens that Berlusconi is not a normal citizen. Incidentally he is the President of the Council of Ministers, and he who holds the Executive power should never interfere with the Judical one, unless questioning the foundations of Democracy themselves. In fact, the President of the Republic Napolitano demonstrated this authority so that it didn't happen (refusing to submit the decree-with-the-force-of-law). In the same way also the President of the Chamber of Deputies Fini (Legislative power), well made reaffirming his authority in the Parliament.

Clearly Berlusconi believes himself a kind of moral guide. And he believes that what he considers just is absolutely just. And so he believes that it is licit to impose it. And so, who refuses to accept this moral infallibility of his, must be driven by Evil.
Berlusconi shows this disbelieving look towards who dares to question the certainity that he is right. Be damned all those assassins, communist, coglioni opponents that dare not to accept the semi-divine nature of Berlusconi.

Anyway i don't think that Berlusconi is so stupidly fanatic he really believes to be enlightened of God.
On the opposite, i believe he is really smart. His goal is not to achieve his moral good.
I think that he doesn't even consider the problem that he limits himself to do his own dirty interest. And that he tries to find the way to have carte blanche to do it with no obstacles. No matter what, he smashes the epilogue of the last breath, already seventeen years long, of a dying girl. Or on the reserve of her parents. No matter if to do it he must wipe his dirty ass with the social pact, the foundations of the Constitution, the Democracy itself.

Berlusconi is a wannabe dictator. The only thing, to him, is to find a safe and easy way to obtain the absolute power that a real dictator must have.
It looks we are really close to it, already.

Not in my name

Hey, there's my face, over here! ;-)

Yes, we are different!

The Idiot

The first Afro-American President of the United States has been elected.
Yesterday Berlusconi, unfortunately the Italian Prime Minister, during an official journey at Moscow was asked in a press conference what he thinks about Obama. The idiot answer was "He is young, handsome and suntanned".

This statement is racist, but not only. This statement is absolutely disrespectful of the role of the United States and their President. Moreover, the tone of gratuitous derision is drastically amplified by the official character of the situation, that would have demanded a totally different code of conduct.

The deplorable behavior of Berlusconi, as one can imagine, immediately turned around the world, and the Italian People, that some way he arrogates the right to represent, has to suffer the shame.
Not at all intentioned to apologize for the unpopular quip, he laid it on thicker defining his own words "a compliment".
Today an American journalist in a press conference asked him if it wouldn't be the case to apologize with Obama, and the arrogant and angry answer by Berlusconi was "Please... please! You should apologize with Italy instead!", offending once again.

Well, i don't believe that this man could ever arrogate himself the right to represent me and many other Italians in front of the rest of the world. It can also be elected democratically, but his own behavior discharges him, atleast morally.

And for this reason i subscribe with pleasure the initiative thought by the blog friend Silvano and born in this discussion at Il Russo's blog, which goal is to diffuse to some international media a message of dissociation from the "compliments" of Berlusconi.

A blog had been created in order to organize the practical details of the initiative, and to collect subscription at this address:

http://yeswearedifferentit.blogspot.com

Yes, Berlusconi is an Idiot.
I am different.

Demonstration

Today there is the demonstration against the "processes lock" law by Berlusconi at 6:00pm, Piazza Navona, Rome. Too bad not being able to be there.
Besides the promoters, Furio Colombo, Paolo Flores d'Arcais, Francesco "Pancho" Pardi, also Antonio di Pietro, Dario Fo, Andrea Camilleri, Margherita Hack, Sabina Guzzanti, Ascanio Celestini, Moni Ovadia, Rita Borsellino, Marco Travaglio, Dacia Maraini, Gianni Vattimo will participate.

MicroMega.

Even George W. Bush looks like he understood the real nature of The Dwarf!

Fascists

This man

Giuseppe Ciarrapico

is a fascist.
In a Republic like ours, that reject Fascism so that there are explicit laws which forbid in a firm and drastic way the re-formation of a Fascist Party, this statement could sound as an insult. And, in fact, it would sound like that to me if i didn't know that this man did declare himself to be a Fascist. An insult is an insult only if one does say it in order to offend, so, strictly speaking, mine is not an insult, because this man would not offend for sure.
In short, this man not only is, but he also is proud to be a Fascist.
De gustibus non disputandum. Everybody has the right to define him/herself as the hell he wants, and so this man has the right to define himself a Fascist.

But, as i was saying, Italian Republic forbid the re-formation of the Fascist Party, and this principle, in my opinion, has a meaning if it is applied to the values of Fascism, and not simply to its name.
In other words, i think that the meaning of this law is to prevent the election to a political office of who identifies him/herself in the values of Fascism. That is, i deduce, this man, self-defining Fascist, should waive the right to candidate to an electoral roll. If it happened, a Fascist could eventually be elected, which would make the meaning of that law fruitless, even if this would not be exactly even to the re-formation of the Fascist Party.

This other man

Silvio Berlusconi

founder and leader of a party competing in the next elections, inserted in the electoral rolls of that party that man up there, so that it could be elected by the electors that vote for its symbol.
Being that one presumes that the electors that vote for a party implicitly agree with its values, one should deduce that the reason that man up there is candidated by this man in the electoral rolls of that party is the assonance of the values of that man with the values of that party.
That means that the values of Fascism are some ways represented by the Partito delle Libertà party.
In few words, the formation of PdL looks closely like the re-formation of Fascist Party.
Which is forbidden by law.

Anyway i believe that this crime is not liable of persecution because it is difficult to interpret what the hell it does mean a law that forbid the re-formation of Fascist Party. What is a Fascist Party? A party that is named "Fascist"? If it is so, then this crime has not been committed. A party that model its programs with the principles of Fascism? Well, it's not clear what also this means. It is obvious that the reason of that law is to avoid the risk to go back to a regime similar to the one of the Ventennio. And it is also clear that if somebody that declare himself Fascist is elected, this risk would be real. But it is also obvious that nobody that can be elected would admit (even if it was true) he/she want to restore the Racial Laws, to exterminate Jews, homosexuals, communists and nigros, to make an alliance with the Emperor of Japan and the Nazist Germany against the Capitalist West and the Communist East.

Anyway, surprisingly, Ciarrapico is, since some days, in the electoral rolls of Berlusconi's Partito delle Libertà.
This following is Berlusconi's declaration about it:
"Noi dobbiamo vincere. Noi dobbiamo fare una campagna elettorale e si deve vincere. L'editore Ciarrapico ha giornali importanti a noi non ostili ed è assolutamente importante che questi giornali continuino ad esserlo, visto che tutti i grandi giornali stanno dall'altra parte".
"We must win. We must do an electoral campaign and we must win. The publisher Ciarrapico has important newspapers not hostile to us and it is absolutely important that these newspapers continue to be like that, being that all the big newspapers are in favor to the other side" [translation of mine].

Apart from the fact that hearing Berlusconi himself, owner of a half of the national TV networks and a good number of newspaper and weekly magazines (thing anyway well tolerated by the previous governments whichever side), complaining because "the other side" has the monopoly of media is absolutely ridicolous, this declaration is really a masterpiece of idiocy.

Resuming Berlusconi's words, since PdL must win and the way to win is to conquire the favor of somebody like Ciarrapico, owner of other part of publishing, because it would help electoral propaganda, we can close a bit our noses and we candidate him to the electoral rolls.

Which, in my opinion, means these things:

1. The reason to candidate Ciarrapico is not, as the electors would expect, the one to have a person considered valid to vote, but to provide an exchange of favors: i put you in the roll, you publicize me on your papers.
2. One thinks that putting Ciarrapico in the rolls, he would make a campaign in favor of PdL, while if he was not in the rolls, he would make a campaign against. And so one could consider implicit that an article on a Ciarrapico's newspaper would not be targeted to the search of the truth, which, atleast formally, should be the task of the Press, but to the return of the favor: I support you because you give me that seat.
3. Being previous point so obvioius, one can deduce that the readers of Ciarrapico's newspaper are not interested to the truth, but to Ciarrapico's opinion, or, even worse, to what Ciarrapico wants others believe it is his opinion, which is the unconditioned elougy of Berlusconi, whichever he is up to.
4. So, Ciarrapico's newspapers journaists are not free to write their own opinion, or atleast simply the truth, but they have to reflect Ciarrapico's dictat, unconditionally favoring Berlusconi.
5. Berlusconi's statement, that sound like "We don't like Ciarrapico, but he's useful for us" means, implicitly, I put him in the electoral rolls, but let's hope he'll not be actually elected. Which makes me think that either Ciarrapico is a stupid, and he accepts the candidature even if he won't be elected, or Berlusconi is a stupid, which let such a statement not in favor of Ciarrapico fall of his big mouth, or the electorate of PdL is so smart to understand that Berlusconi statement is artificially mendacious, that is that Berlusconi says he doesn't like Ciarrapico, but he means exactly the opposite. Which means that also Berlusconi is a Fascist, and he tells it between the lines because he cannot say it loud.