refusing to give up hope

Today I, a daughter of an Allied soldier, met with a friend, the daughter of a German soldier, to plan our peace work for next year, the 65th anniversary of the the end of the Battle of Cassino.

We work with veteran soldiers and youth, to commemorate and reconcile, to remember and to educate. We bring together the soldiers and the civilians. It is a small thing, perhaps, but surely it is worth doing?

Our blog may seem a small thing, but surely it is worth doing too?

Many people read, but do not write. That is the way of the world. We don't know if we have planted a small seed somewhere, and will not be able to watch that seed grow. But we must have hope,and peace and hope are not empty words to me.

Starting again, but from where?

The idea of this blog was born months ago with a specific purpose: education for a culture of peace.

It wanted to be a virtual place where the wonderful people who believe and are committed in their daily lives to seeing a different world emerge could meet and discuss to find the best way to achieve common objectives. That's because educating other people to peace is an almost desperate goal but educating yourself to peace is only a matter of time and will.

This blog was intended to be a place where people who want to cultivate a culture of peace could find the necessary exchange of ideas to do so.

However I must admit that things have gone in a different way.

I must admit that the debate and exchange have turned into a monologue from myself to a captive and wonderful audience, a select group of people with fantastic principles and strong motivation but who not talk to each other, who hear my words perhaps with pleasure, perhaps with friendship, but do not talk to the others and perhaps even do not hear themselves.

From my point of view I have learned so much from this work, every day having to find, understand and put in the form of short articles the struggles that many are fighting throughout the world in search of justice. Newspapers report such events only marginally giving us only superficial information instead of debate on justice in the world, and without justice there is no peace.
But this is a project for myself that I would do even without this blog, so then I do wonder why a blog? To whom should I speak and in which way? In the same moment I admit that I have not reached my goal then I need to rethink how to get back to work on the culture of peace effectively. Where should I start from?

I need to think about it and maybe I need help in my reflection.

Turn off Olympic flame, turn off TV

1 million 300,000 signatures in Italy against the "democradura" of the Italian media
1 million 300,000 signatures for the respect of human rights and the principle of self-determination of peoples
1 million 300,000 glances of disapproval toward the Olympic torch which celebrates the power of those who don't want any question to their own power
1 million 300,000 voices against the shameless opportunism of Western governments that give priority to GDP growth regardeless to moral issues
1 million 300,000 choirs against cultural genocide in Tibet and Eastern Turkestan, against 5,000 death sentences each year, against the repression of dissent
1 million 300,000 switched off TVs during the Olympic Games 2008
1 million 300,000 unsold copies of the main sport magazines
1 million 300,000 click less on the main online newspapers
1 million 300,000 advertising contracts less for those who give us information deprived of any content

1 million 300,000 people who believe that a better world is possibile

Gandhi said: be the change you wish to see in the world!

It would be a claim opposed to a true culture of peace asking a few thousand professional athletes to sacrifice years and years of work, to sacrifice perhaps the only chance in life to get a sponsor, because *** I *** do not agree with the significance of these Olympic Games 2008.
I do not agree then I boycott! I do not watch the Games on TV, I do not buy newspapers that talk about it, I do not talk with friends about it, I delete the Games from my existence. This year I will live without the Olympics.
This is non-violent struggle, intellectual resistance, active citizenship: let's turn off the Olympic torch by the cold of our disapproval!

By the same disapproval we will hit the hypocrites trade agreements signed by our blind politicians, the tributes to an illiberal regime by our deaf politicians, the silence on human rights by our dumb politicians.
By the same disapproval we will hit all acts of abuse, oppression, repression, cancellation of the opposition and dissent that go on all over the world, from China to Italy, from Tien An Men to Abu Ghraib to Bolzaneto.
We will rise our voices at the same time against all the lies to justify war, against all the hidden wars in the world, against the dominance of economy on civil society, against the increase of GDP at the expense of moral issues, we will shout to the arrogance of those who believe that having the power means having the truth.

Let's turn off the Olympic flame, unguilty symbol of injustice in the world.
During the Olympic Games, let's turn off TV!

This appeal starts from the BIPPIblog but must travel on the web. I invite all the bloggers to publish it.
I invite all my five readers to copy and paste this post on all blogs and forums that you can find, on message boards and mailing lists. Translate it into other languages, send it to all by mail, stick it in university bulletin boards, send it to newspapers and radios. I invite all those who live without chains to dissociate themselves from these Olympic Games 2008 and to declare it with a message. Declaring is important, so that everybody will be able to read and know it: I do not agree!

We are millions, let's not be dumb, we too, in this desert of dumb television, let's rise our voice high on Internet, the last place of intellectual freedom; let's hit the blind, deaf and mute power in his wadding kingdom of money and publicity; let's shout our peaceful protest in the only way that the nomenklatura and the caste can understand: let's turn off TV!

PS
Till May 10th there will be no other posts on this blog.

Mothers will cry...

The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, is an imposing mausoleum, erected after the “war to end all wars”, WWI. It was built to have a soul, designed like a Greek temple; democracy is thought to have begun in Greece. It was built to be everlasting, eternal. Two of the three architects were returned soldiers. It was built in the belief that there would be no more war.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Armistice Day, a ray of light passes through an opening and strikes the word “Love” on an inscription. The marble plaque, placed where it must be viewed with heads bowed, and where no hand may touch it, reads “Greater love hath no man than this”.

The imposing monument was built as a tribute to sacrifice for peace. That peace lasted only 21 years.

I stood amongst the wreaths and remembrance poppies looking at a statue of fathers and sons by Raymond Ewers. It was erected after WWII. I was told that it was erected by the women of Victoria, the mothers, the daughters. I cried.

I am a mother, and the daughter of a veteran soldier. I am not ashamed of my tears. Every soldier has a mother.

Does a culture of peace start in the home?

Read a veteran soldier's comments on a woman's tears

What was the tipping point?

Michael Stokely, 23, killed in 2000 a few miles south of Baghdad. Read the comments on The 48th goes to war.

What makes a man prepared to kill?

I remember a conversation with a young man. A devout Christian and youth leader, he lived a responsible life. He wanted to take a year “off” after leaving school to work with street kids in another city through his music. His parents expected him to go to university and continue to live at home.

He was passionate about planes; he wanted to fly or to be a doctor, but he is colour blind. He thought about being a paramedic, being flown in to rescue injured in the mountains. His career options were always to serve others.
Finances were tight at home. Family expectations were for a university degree. The armed forces would provide a salary as well as a degree. He joined the army as an officer cadet. He was 18. He reached a point where he had to face the question about whether he was prepared to kill another human being, or order his men to kill.
He signed.

Another student who wanted to fly looked to the air force to get a degree, to have some adventure, to be with his mates. He was told that he would not be able to fly a particular plane because the length of his leg from his hip to his knee was too long. He would lose his legs if he had to eject. He thought a bit more.
He paid his own way through university.

Neither choice was “right” or “wrong”. But I wonder, when a self-declared Christian and pacifist who wanted to help street kids through music signs that he is prepared to kill, what happened along the way?

Does a culture of peace start with an equitable distribution of wealth? Or does it start when love and respect over-rides ambition?

Kay de Lautour Scott

14 years on, has anything changed?

Watch the video

From the blog Gnuwanda Lounge, April 7, 2008.

A mark and a question mark.
Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the "beginning" of Rwandese genocide . "Beginning" is in quotation marks because in reality the genocide began some years before with meticulous attention to detail, today (or rather yesterday evening at 8) brought down the President's plane and from there began the 100 days of collective madness that has pervaded this country [800 thousand people murdered]. 14 years, today the week of memory begins, dim lights, no music, a sense of mourning justifiably permeates the country this week. The country for 14 years has changed and much, I do not have enough information to really understand if there is the famous reconciliation, and there is probably no. Certainly the country is peaceful, certainly it is safe, even at the cost of an African-way democracy, where the leader takes 98% of the Bulgarian votes. But just as certainly there are outbreaks, which will disappear only with another two generations, others will take perhaps 15 years to reach one another or for both to seek reconciliation (with a vision 2020 in the midst). They're taking all the dead from the genocide and slowly are burying them in memorials. Hundreds of thousands of bodies will be moved today and in coming years to gather all the bodies of madness under common roofs. Today it is up to the husband of Valerie too. 14 years ... I do not know if it is enough to hear less pain, if things are safe enough to hold hope for a different future, and I hope for this country that it will be.

(in translation, original blog written in Italian)

The second thing I learnt

Culture of peace is also giving place to other's thinking and opinion. As a matter of fact only from a different opinion we can recognize the mistakes of our thinking.
On Los Angeles Times, March 9th, 2008, I found this very interesting article.

All wars have to be sold, but World War II, within the memory of the pointless carnage that then became known as World War I, was a particularly hard sell. Roosevelt and Churchill did it well, and their lies have been with us ever since.

Nicholson Baker's "Human Smoke" is a meticulously researched and well-constructed book demonstrating that World War II was one of the biggest, most carefully plotted lies in modern history. According to the myth, British and American statesmen naively thought they could reason with such brutal fascists as Germany's Hitler and Japan's Tojo. Faced with this weakness, Hitler and Tojo tried to take over the world, and the United States and Britain were forced to use military might to stop them...

Read the whole article on Los Angeles Times.

Would you like a Coca Cola? No thanks!

In Colombia twenty-two trade unionists were killed since the beginning of the year. The last victim was Jesùs Caballero, kidnapped on April 16 and found lifeless on a side street in a village north of Bogota, with obvious signs of torture.
Caballero, director of syndicated "Servicio Nacionalde Aprendiaje", was among the promoters of a large popular demonstration on March 6 last year against the extreme-right paramilitaries and against the deaths of state, as those of trade unionists killed because demanding rights for workers.
In the first line there is Coca Cola.
7 trade unionists who worked in various factories of Coca Cola were killed in the last ten years. Another 5 survived murder attempts. 61 received death threats. 74 workers were kidnapped and tortured. With these systems Coca Cola Company today buys low-cost Colombians workers and sells us tasty and expensive drinks and an excellent marketing campaign with Santa Claus as a testimonial.
Despite 97% of these murders remaining unpunished, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has put a price on those responsible, saying that the goal of paramilitary guerrillas is to "discredit the country and prevent the approval of the Treaty of free trade with U.S. ' in which he and the U.S. are so much interested.
To underline the words of the President, just yesterday Mario Uribe, cousin of the President, President's adviser and senator of the state was arrested: he will have to respond to conspiring with the death squads of the extreme right, the same that the President claims he wants to fight. At least this is what he says.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Leaders warn on biofuels and food

Today, on the BBCNEWS:

Speaking at the UN in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales said the development of biofuels harmed the world's most impoverished people. And President Alan Garcia of Peru said using land for biofuels was putting food out of reach for the poor.
Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is hosting a meeting to discuss European policy encouraging biofuels.
But as food prices climb worldwide, there is a fear that development of biofuels could reduce the production of badly-needed basic foodstuffs. The global prices of wheat, rice and maize have nearly doubled in the past year, while milk and meat have more than doubled in price in some countries.
Such rises, combined with high oil prices, are causing increasing political instability in less developed countries across the world. Food riots earlier this month in Haiti, which is highly reliant on imports of food and fuel, led to the deaths of at least six people, including a UN peacekeeper. There has also been unrest in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal.

"Biofuels" have shown great promise in weaning the world away from the use of petrofuels. They are supposed to be less polluting, renewable, and all that acreage (primarily corn and soybeans) will go a long way toward absorbing that excess CO2 in the atmosphere.
Not so fast, say critics in the science community. First of all, they say, there's no proof that "biofuels" are any better than their fossil-fuel counterparts when it comes to greenhouse emissions. The other concern is what it may do the planet's ecology. The rush to plant additional acreage for biofuel production could put rainforests at risk, deplete fresh water supplies, deprive wildlife of habitat and eventually, affect the world's food supply.
It comes down to deciding whose needs are greater: the 800 million people all over the world who own and drive automobiles, or the billions of others who survive on a day and already spend half their income feeding themselves.

The political experience of South America

Once South America was synonymous with dictatorship, bad governance, poverty, exploitation of the poor. Today I do not believe that the reality of the continent has changed. But reading carefully the complexity of the South American politics we discover that something is emerging which we do not understand. While the Western democracies are becoming increasingly 'democraduras' media drowned in the laws of profit, the Latin-American area is experiencing a Spring socialist who was confirmed in elections yesterday in Paraguay, giving power the Patriotica Alianza por el Cambio, a left-wing coalition led by "Red Bishop" Fernando Lugo after 61 years of dictatorship or pseudo-democracy from the very currupted Colorado party.

Today - excluding Uribe of Colombia - Latin America is governed by left-wing radical leaders (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina) or centre-left (Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru).
Time will tell if this is good news for Latin America. Lula, in Brazil, has already experienced how difficult it is to reconcile election promises with the reality of government. Chavez, in Venezuela has on his side the popular masses but has suffered an unexpected democratic stop to its programme of constitutional amendment.

Paraguay today is very poor and backward but has enormous wealth in the hands of a few families. We accept bets on the future of this country.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Does anybody know where Western Sahara is?

The image shows a view of Saharawi Dakhla's refugee camp, near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria.

Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975, starting a war which killed 11.000 people. Saharawi refugees from Western Sahara rarely make it into the news, but for the past 30 years up to 165.000 of them have been living in remote desert camps in Algeria, most of them totally dependent on humanitarian aid.

On December 14-16, 2007, the 12th Congress of the SADR (Saharawi Republic without a land) was held. More than 1,500 Saharawi delegates discussed if resuming armed struggle, pursuing negotiations or starting preparations for the resumption of war while pursuing negotiations at the same time.

Then on January 7-9, 2008, a third round of peace talks (Manhasset III) was held in Manhasset, just outside New York City. UN mediator Peter van Valsum said the parties continued to be far apart on the question of independence. Morocco maintained that its sovereignty over Western Sahara should be recognized and affirmed that independence cannot work as ethnic Sahrawis live in four different countries and a referendum is impossible to stage. The Polisario's position was that the Territory's final status should be decided in a referendum including independence as an option.

In March a fourth round of U.N.-sponsored talks ended without solution.

Someday the newspapers will announce a new war starting and nobody will know who, why and what!!!

Goodbye Pippa

From the blog of Pino Scaccia, 12 april 2008.

Buried few inches below ground, just before midnight the Turkish police have found the naked corpse of Giuseppina Pasqualino, the 33 year old Milanese artist who disappeared on 31 March in Istanbul where she had arrived with an Italian friend.
A chronicle of news like many others, a girl killed, the curiosity of her bridal clothes. Friends used to call her Pippa and she had a peace plan, those clothes had a specific meaning. There is the Brides on Tour website (note: in Italian but look at the map - Kay) to explain the project:

"An ambitious and poetic dream. A dream of travelling independently through countries that were upset by recent wars and not always completely secure. The trip is not the normal travel of two daring travellers, but the journey of two beautiful brides dressed for a wedding that perhaps has already happened or is not done or perhaps is the trip itself. A marriage to the earth, peace, all people, or in search of the bridegroom? Who is and what is the husband? Two brides, two is a number for togetherness and femininity, also of multiples, and difference. Readings of an artistic gesture of this type are endless. The bride is white, light, feminine, she generates life, so peace, love and purity. "
A dream shattered, in the worst possible way. The world is not yet ready for the idea of peace. Good bye, Pippa

Pino Scaccia (in translation)

Our global food crisis

Watch (in Italian) RAI Report

A few days ago Marco Revelli [Professor of Science of Politics at the University of eastern Piedmont] wondered how it was possible that the alarm launched by FAO in Rome on global food crisis in the closing days of the Italian election campaign was not taken into account by politicians. Right now, in thirty countries of the southern world, beginning with Egypt and Haiti, the population is in turmoil.

But during the weekend election in Italy one early evening a RAI Report dedicated to food was broadcast: importing a kilo of asparagus from Peru which is air-freighted to get to our flat, we were told, means leaving in the air six kilos of CO2; meanwhile we pay eight euros per kilo for grated carrots contained in a [plastic] tank, while those who produce it earn a few cents. But that price does not include even paying the cost that nature pays with the pollution of air, land and water.

Reports also gave some alternatives: Solidarity Purchasing Groups [and from that day hundreds of people have begun to question the promoters SPG], the "kilometer zero" food and restaurants, organic farming. Perhaps the model of industrialization of agriculture [and therefore the use of pesticides, the import of products not in season on the other side of the world, the removal of land to be allocated to agrofuels] all to the advantage of the multinationals' agrobusiness has arrived at the endpoint. Certainly, this food crisis and the interest of thousands of people wanting to consume good, healthy and equitable food, say that we can’t carry on like this.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Chronicles from a dictatorship

Burma, Birmania, Myanmar...
In 2007 the increase in the price of petrol caused the rise in price of basic needs, resulting in the famous protest of the Buddhist monks who were joined by students and other groups. Protests were strongly repressed by the military regime of General Than Shwe who holds unlimited power after decades of military "socialist" dictatorship .

A few days ago the fifty four members employed by the Burmese government for the drafting of the new constitution finished their work, 194 pages that will be on sale at 1000 Kyat, one euro in governmental libraries. All those who can afford to may buy and read the text before the referendum for its conversion into law set for May 10 next year. In the web it is said about strong pressures and threats to farmers by the military to get a "yes" vote.

The new constitution, the writing of which opposition parties were not allowed to contribute to, strengthens the power of the military against opposition and minorities. In the future Burmese parliament 440 seats out of 110 in the high chamber and about 56 of 224 lower chamber will be reserved for the military. There is also an "ethnic barrier": no politician married to a foreigner can be elected. This clause excludes nominations from the opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the widow of an English professor.

The military junta has also reiterated its rejection of the presence of UN observers during the referendum and the elections in June. Only the Chinese government can bring assistance.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

From war to peace in Nepal

This man has a complicated name but he is better known as Prachanda, the Fierce.
For ten years he drove tens of thousands of Nepalese Maoists in a bloody war against the ancient pluricentenaria monarchy and its one hundred thousand soldiers, in a country of nearly 30 million inhabitants. The war has killed more than 13 thousand, there has been abuse, kidnappings, torture, massacres, atrocities of all kinds. Both armies were responsible, civilians have been the victims, as always.
In 2006 the opposition parties and the Maoists agreed on a democratic programme based on the abolition of monarchy, and the war is over. The King did everything to oppose this but in the end there were democratic elections, supervised by an international team of observers led by Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States. The American government has the Nepalese Maoists on a list of terrorists!
Civilians, once victims, have become actors and democratically voted for a constituent assembly in which the Maoists have easily won a majority of seats, contrary to all expectations of Western observers.
Other parties to win elections were the autonomous southern ones struggling with strikes and weapons for the rights of Madhesi people, majority in the rich southern plains. Whoever called Madhesi to boycott was repudiated by the great participation in the vote.
The ferocious Prachanda has led his supporters in the war and now leads them to peace, in a democracy that will write a new constitution, abolishing the monarchy and its privileges, making agrarian reform and seeking good relations with powerful neighbours, India and China.
The people were called to vote and gave him great confidence. Confidence will be removed if the promises of the Maoists not become reality.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

China is a polluter!

Today on BBCnews homepage there is an article claiming: China 'now top carbon polluter'
The news say that according to a report from the University of California, China has overtaken the United States for CO2 emissions, even if they do not know exactly when this happened.
But we already knew it...
A very alarming sentence says, "unless China radically changes its energy policies, its increases in greenhouse gases will be several times larger than the cuts in emissions being made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol."
But we already knew it...
The only possible solution, says some super-researcher Max Auffhammer, is a "massive transfer of technology and wealth from the West."

...mmm ... ...?!?

But is it not the Western Countries who, while possessing wealth and technologies in abundance, have until now polluted more than China?
Is it not Australia that, in proportion to population, is pollutinig today ten times more than China?
Is it not that we have cut our forests, polluted our rivers, contaminated our land, depleted our seas, destroyed our biodiversity? Is it not that we go around with antismog masks and die of cancer and liver cirrhosis?
Technology and riches are sacred, nobody denies this.
But is it not the solutions perhaps in a massive change in lifestyle by middle-rich class? Anybody has ever heard of sustainable development?
When will they stop selling us the miracles of technology, 1 euro the bottle?
Technology does not make miracles.
The solutions are always in our political choices and China is failing its environmental policies as we have failed ours. And for the same reasons.

Dear Chinese,
We offer you our technologies and our lifestyle. And our lies and the secret to live well with all of it: blame the others for your future economic, social, cultural and environmental crises.
Good luck!

Genetically Modified Organisms

The distribution of GMO cultivation in the world

GMO, literally Genetically Modified Organisms, are organisms obtained through the alteration of their natural gene system through genetic engineering techniques.
There is talk about the use of GMOs for pharmaceutical purposes, to improve agricultural production, as an answer to hunger in the world.
The only certainty at the moment is the risk of genetic contamination due to the dispersion of transgenic pollen going to affect soil and other plants, with evident danger of altering the natural system with unpredictable consequences. The history of GMOs as an solution for hunger in the world is a fairy tale written by multinational companies that own and sell GM seeds. The hunger in the world is not due to a lack of production but to an unbalanced distribution of income and productive resources, which reduces access to food for the peoples of the southern world.

From Carta daily news, 14 March 2008.
The European Farmers Coordination [CPE] and the Coordination of agricultural organizations and farmers [Coag] have called for a moratorium on all European transgenic crops as of this year. In the call we can read:

"The European Union must now take a clear decision. The majority of Europeans farmers and consumers are opposed to the use of GMOs in agriculture and in food. GMOs are used by large corporations to privatize seed to the detriment of food sovereignty of peoples and communities of rural world. An increasing number of scientific studies show that the transgenic organisms are harmful to health and the environment."

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Bush aware!

Read the whole article on ABC News, April 11, 2008.

President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.

"Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

As first reported by ABC News Wednesday, the most senior Bush administration officials repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the CIA.

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.

Read the whole article on ABC News, April 11, 2008.

We are not doing a good job!

Look at video

Education for a culture of peace.
Some think that is the responsibility of the school, someone else points to the family, others unload the burden on the Child Jesus. Many think they are just words. We will make a big step forward when we will understand that a culture of peace depends on everyone, on all of us. Especially those who have great influence on young people: parents, teachers, tutors, stars. Yes, stars! The very VIP of the world of entertainment with whom young people identify themselves. They spend many hours a day with the children and talk to them of a fake world that to all children seems true. Children move increasingly to that world; they dream it, they follow suit.

I would say that we are not doing a good job!
We have all grown up with images of shootings and TV murders and self-made vendettas, destructive videogames, good against evil, the strong against the weak, reds against blacks, exasperating competition in every corner of our lives. The opponent is not to be respected nor understood, we must reduce him, attack verbally, physically, we must strip him of any sympathy and humanity, it is only an enemy to be destroyed. As in the award-winning video clip "Girlfriend" by the beautiful Avril Lavigne, idol of teenagers, where edifying acts of shameless arrogance and bullying three-against-one, absolutely without any irony, are rewarded with the prize for "Best Canadian Video", as this is the most clicked video clip of all time on Youtube.
I prefer to be considered a stupid moralist: this video clip appears to me imbecile, vulgar and uneducational!

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Want a Coca Cola? No thanks!

Watch the video

It had to happen sooner or later, talking about Coca Cola.
The symbol of "Made in the USA" is not having easy times in India. The community opposition to the exploitation of massive sources of fresh water for the bottling of soft drinks for the multinational Atlanta gave the go-ahead to a campaign that in a few years spread a stain of oil throughout the country, till it obtained the closure of one of the main plants.

The Indian movement against Coca-Cola has become a firmly rooted presence involving hundreds of thousands of people. In India, 70 percent of the inhabitants base their livelihood on agriculture and hence on the availability of water. The communities living next to the bottling plants of the multinational plants have, in few decades, suffered the gradual contamination of the territory and a progressive lack of water, caused by the large quantities of fresh water necessary for the processing of beverages. The impact of these factors has mainly affected the most vulnerable communities: indigenous peoples, women, disadvantaged social classes, small farmers, landless sharecroppers own, all people who have suffered the loss of traditional livelihoods and food security.
The impoverishment of local water reserves has put entire communities in serious danger.

In addition, Coca-Cola is accused of having distributed toxic waste as fertilizer to farmers living next to the plants. The long-term consequences of exposure to toxic residues cannot yet be calculated, but Coca-Cola is guilty of having contaminated soils and both ground and surface water, as well as having sold drinks with high levels of toxicity.
Following a study conducted by CSE (Centre for Science and Environment), December 7 2004, the Supreme Court of India has imposed on the multinational an obligation to label every package warning of danger to consumers.

Coca Cola has become a worldwide example of bad management of resources, and demonstrated that it operates in total violation of the criteria of social and environmental responsibility causing poverty, disease and contamination.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Come and march with us!

I publish the open letter of the Tibetan poet Tenzin Tsundue. I invite all the bloggers to do the same.

Dear Friends,
The time has come for me to go to Tibet again. Last time when I went to Tibet in 1997 - after my graduation - I was arrested by the Chinese authorities, beaten up, interrogated, starved and finally thrown out of Tibet after keeping me in their jails for three months in Lhasa and Ngari. I walked to Tibet, on my own, alone, across the Himalayan Mountains from the Ladakh.
Eleven years later, I am walking to Tibet again; this time too, without permission. I am returning home; why should I bother about papers from Chinese colonial regime who have not only occupied Tibet, but also is running a military rule there; making our people in Tibet live in tyranny and brutal suppression day after day, everyday for fifty years.
The Year 2008 is a huge opportunity for the Tibet movement to present the injustices the Tibetans have been subjected to, when China is going to attract international media attention. I am taking part in the return march from Dharamsala to Tibet, that is being organized as a part of the “Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement”, a united effort put together by five major Tibetan NGOs: Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (an association of former political prisoners), National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet, India.
The march will start on 10 March 2008, from Dharamsala, the capital of Tibetan exiles and will pass through Delhi and then head towards Tibet. Walking for six months, we might reach the Tibet border around the time China opens the Beijing 2008 Olympics ...

Read the complete letter on ProTibet Dot NET.

The Italians you didn't expect

Watch the video

ACEA spa is a public share company, 51 percent of which is owned by the City of Rome. ACEA’s main function should be to guarantee the right to water of the citizens of Rome, but it prefers to build incinerators and promote policies of water privatisation in many countries of the southern world. Some say wild privatisation but indeed the privatization of water is always just wild!

Those who have read only a bit of the social problems related to the scarcity of water in the world will have heard of the French SUEZ, the second manager of water services worldwide. For ten years SUEZ has been controlling 8.6% of ACEA. SUEZ policy has only one goal: transforming water all over the world into a commodity like any other. Cool!
But you can not live without water more than three days and in spite of this SUEZ prevent access to water to millions of people throughout the world. ACEA denies the right to water in Armenia, Peru and Honduras, where since 2004 the local population have been opposing the privatization imposed by the Italian company. In recent weeks, ACEA has cut its potable water service to all Honduras poorest, those who could not find the means to pay two consecutive bills, suggesting to buy bottles of Frasassi mineral water, bottled near the caves of the same name in Italy, by the same ACEA.

Privatisation of water is unacceptable. Everywhere!
Water is a right and not a business.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

If they would really give information...

Watch the video (in French)

Yesterday I saw Kiosque, a wide-ranging in-depth political programme which is broadcast every week on the French channel TV5. The program is delivered late morning, and is very simple: some foreign journalists comment on topical issues on the basis of different professional experience. Yesterday’s journalists were from Greece, Russia, Romania, Tunisia and the United States. The moderator was, of course, French. Without quarrel and without monologues, in pure style français, French commentator and foreign journalists discussed, among various topics, the situation in Zimbabwe, about which we hear a lot of news these days but with little substance.
This group of journalists, chatting in a friendly manner and in plain language, were able to clarify the situation very well to an audience of housewives and students on vacation: Zimbabwe, a former British colony in the heart of Southern Africa, was the scene a few years ago of a violent expropriation of lands against white landowners, the rich minority in the country, for the benefit of the poor strata of the population. The hero of this process was Robert Mugabe who since then has the power in hand and does not intend to leave now, despite having clearly lost the elections.
We are talking of a country where democratic awareness is only dawning and the law is not equal for all, as indeed it is not in western countries where the democratic experience has ancient roots.
Although old, Mugabe remains very popular. Catholic, cultivated, militarist, homophobic, he is considered a "person not welcome" and refused entry into the European Union and the United States but at the same time received an honorary degree in Scotland and was named Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire!
Many experts assess the situation as having a very high risk of civil war.

The program can be seen for free on the Internet: kiosque. (In French)

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

A blog, the sea and a spoon

Every morning I am in trouble: what will I speak about today, before my five readers? Will I tell about the violated and mutilated children in Darfur or about the war that is about to begin again in the Western Sahara? Of the rights denied to Madhesi of Nepal or of the ancient persecution of Catholic Vietnamese? The bloody repression of dissent along the beaches of the Maldives or Maya peasants 15 years of attempting to self-govern?
What is the sense of screaming against one injustice and being forced to stay silent about a thousand others? Turn off the unnecessary and unjust light in my room when billions of lights are lit unfairly?
What sense is it, I wonder every day, trying to empty the sea with an insignificant spoon?
I wonder, what really is a culture of peace?

Every morning, alone in front of the screen, I give myself two answers.
Culture of Peace is primarily education! Educating yourself every day to behaviours which are sustainable for all the billions of people on the planet. Doing so, without extremism and without excuse, as far as is possible in the society we live in.
The second response I was thinking about yesterday, during a meeting of active citizens: culture of peace is witness! Saying no, every day, to the waste of water and the death penalty. Claiming your daily personal disapproval of all that is unacceptable to your conscience. Feeding your conscience with knowledge and action. With your words and your actions, witnessing that another world is possible.
This is the meaning of this work, cultivating my culture of peace as if it were a delicate plant: water and love every day.

So, in all honesty, it is not important how many injustices I can not speak about. This little blog, for myself and for those who desire to be with it, is still a small, beautiful, effective vehicle of a culture of peace.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Two stories about camels

Some time ago this little funny story turned around in the net. It talks about the difference between a culture of solidarity and a culture of exploitation. It needs no comment.

Once upon a time a lawyer was on his way in a fancy car through the desert. Passing an oasis he saw three men standing there, crying. So he stopped the car, and asked, What's the matter? And they answered, Our father just passed away, and we loved him so much. But -said the lawyer- I am sure he has made a will. Maybe I can help you, for a fee, of course! The three men answered: Yes, he did indeed, he left behind camels. And in his will it is stated 1/2 to the eldest son, 1/3 to the second and 1/6 to the youngest. We love camels, we agree with the parts to each. But there is a problem: he left behind 17 camels and we have been to school, we know that 17 is a prime number. Loving camels, we cannot divide them.

The lawyer thought for a while and then said: Very simple. You give me 5 camels, then you have 12. You divide by 2, 3 and 6 and you get 6, 4 and 2 camels respectively. And so they did. The lawyer tied the five unhappy camels to the car, and the last they saw was a vast cloud of dust, covering the evening sun.

Once upon a time a mullah was on his way on camel to Mecca. Coming to an oasis he saw three men standing there, crying. So he stopped the camel, and asked, My children, what is the matter? And they answered, Our father just passed away, and we loved him so much. But -said the mullah- I am sure he loved you too, and no doubt he has left something behind for you? The three men answered: Yes, he did indeed, he left behind camels. And in his will it is stated 1/2 to the eldest son, 1/3 to the second and 1/9 to the youngest. We love camels, we agree with the parts to each. But there is a problem: he left behind 17 camels and we have been to school, we know that 17 is a prime number. Loving camels, we cannot divide them.

The mullah thought for a while, and then said, I give you my camel, then you have 18. And they cried: No, you cannot do that, you are on your way to something important. The mullah interrupted them, My children, take the camel, go ahead. So they divided 18 by 2 and the eldest son got 9 camels, 18 by 3 and the second son got 6 camels, 18 by 9 and the youngest son got 2 camels: a total of 9 + 6 + 2 = 17 camels. One camel was standing there, alone: the mullah's camel. The mullah said: Are you happy? Well, then, maybe I can get my camel back? And the three men, full of gratitude, said yes, of course, not quite understanding what had happened. The mullah blessed them, mounted his camel, and the last they saw was a tiny cloud of dust, quickly settling in the glowing evening sun.

Congo RD, the monster created by Belgium

I’m publishing a letter I’ve received from Katia Rossi, international cooperator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo DR).

Hello Bruno and everyone else.
I am in CONGO RD, in a remote village in Western Kasai. I saw the map with all the conflicts in the world, maybe you do not know that here we are still at war ... Or better guerrillas. In the Eastern region, the richest, although now the Congo is a whole mine of valuable minerals everywhere. At the end of January there was the signing of a peace agreement between the government and leaders of some factions in the fight. Behind the guerrilla there are economic reasons, as usual of course. Let's add that here the proximity with Rwanda plays a decisive role. This country has contributed men and means to the rise of Kabila father, whispers say that it has been behind his murder, and now fomenting the guerrillas. The adoptive son, Joseph Kabila, probably a Tanzanian, who succeeded his father, does not meet the "agreements". It seems that they concern the transfer of a part of Congo to Rwanda. Obviously mining areas ...

The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, is one of the largest and most unfortunate states of Africa. At the moment of colonisation, after the Berlin Conference of 1885 the Congo was declared private property of King Leopold II of Belgium. The natives had to collect rubber for the king, a lot of rubber, because the market was growing for the growing demand for motor vehicles and their tires. This production made the fortune of Leopold and his heirs but working conditions were like a circle of hell. The practice of collective punishment and preventive mutilation (I cut a hand to one man to educate ten of them) were on the daily agenda.
Between 1885 and 1908, the mercenaries who worked for the king of Belgium murdered between 5 and 15 million Congolese (for comparison, it is estimated that in the carnage of the First World War 18 million people were killed).
The process of independence promoted by Émery Patrice Lumumba in the 1950s was obviously run by Belgium, which withdrew from Congo leaving a country half the size of Europe, multi-ethnic, socially and economically devastated, prey of the multinationals and absolutely empty of administrative and political human resources.
When Lumumba sought help from the Soviets to resolve the serious internal problems, the American and Belgian governments decided to get rid of him. Arrested by Colonel Mobutu, at the behest of the Belgian foreign minister he was handed over to the rebels from which he was tortured and killed. His body was dissolved in acid.
Mobutu renamed the country Zaire and established a pro-Western dictatorial regime until 1997, when he was overthrown by rebel Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who was in his turn assassinated in 2001. Succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila who in 2006 was reconfirmed the leadership of the country in the first democratic elections in the history of the Congo.
From 1997 to 2003 Congo RD has been the scene of two wars involving 8 African nations and killing more than 5 million people, mostly civilians (for comparison, it is estimated that in the carnage of Vietnam 2 million people died). Currently minor wars go on in Kivu, Katanga and Ituri, in total international disinterest.

The map shows the division of the country into areas controlled by various militias.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Does anybody know where Abkhazia is?

Knowing and understanding are the first steps towards judgement.

Abkhazia is a de facto independent state in Europe.

Below is the letter issued by the President of the Republic of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, to the Secretary-General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, just before the NATO summit in Bucharest, 2-4 April 2008. (Read the original letter published by UNPO)

Dear Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer,
The Bucharest Summit, which is going to review the issues of new members’ entry into NATO, may create serious problems in the Caucasus. For the preservation of peace and stability in our region and disperse fear and confrontation, it is necessary, to a greater extent, to consider present realities and opinions of all interested parties.
We are deeply concerned that on a background of political instability and unresolved conflicts, some prospective members of the Organization, in particular Georgia, still consider NATO as force to resolve conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Abkhazia repeatedly has been a victim of aggression by Georgia, which gives us reason to consider Georgia as a potential source of military provocations and illegitimate claims to Abkhazia.
Groundless recognition by the United Nations of the territorial integrity of Georgia within the borders of the former GSSR had indirectly acknowledged numerous violations of Human Rights and policy of discrimination of the Abkhaz people in the time of Stalin’s era. Moreover, the troops of newly adopted to the United Nations Democratic Republic of Georgia, had launched on the 14th of August 1992 a bloody war in Abkhazia, destroying peaceful population and monuments of Abkhaz culture and history. The Georgian-Abkhaz War had inevitably broken off the relations between Abkhazia and Georgia.
It is almost 15 years since Abkhazia id developing its own democratic political system, market economy, legislation, independent courts, civil society and human rights, in accordance with the international standards. Our National interests and external political priorities do significantly differ from those of Georgia.
Today’s Abkhazia is a state with sustainable development indicators. Abkhazia is able to incur obligations and play a full connecting role in the Caucasus. Considering the abovementioned, we appeal to You to take all possible measures to prevent reiteration of the mistakes of the past. While taking a decision on the Georgia’s membership in NATO, please consider valid opinion of Abkhazia.

Respectfully Yours,

PRESIDENT S. BAGAPSH

Does anybody know where Myanmar is?

Watch the video

It was called Burma, now it is Myanmar by the will of the military junta in power since 1988. The junta has written a new constitution for the country that is called "a farce" by independent observers. Soon they will ask for a referendum for approval from the population.
Trying to understand the situation a little better I found two stories: one of them is a joke, it's fun and describes the situation in Myanmar. The other is not a joke and it's not funny, but also describes the situation in Myanmar.
Guess which is the joke.

First story
Three guys were arguing as to what race Adam and Eve were. The Myanmar Christian guy said they must be Myanmar Christians as they are so good looking. The Burmese Chinese guy said that they must be Burmese Chinese as they are so calm even with a snake. The Burmese Indian guy said that they must be Burmese Indian as they have no shelter, no clothes, no money, share one apple, and are advised by a snake who told them that they are living in paradise!
Read the complete article on San Oo Aung’s Weblog (in English)

Second story
A captain and three soldiers armed and in uniform came to Man Yong, a village near An, and gathered all the inhabitants of six villages. Each village had to send a representative to a meeting. At this meeting the establishment of a group to punish those who will vote no in the referendum was announced. "We want to see only votes in favour, otherwise the villages and their inhabitants will pay for this."
Read the complete article on Articolo 21 (in Italian)

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Italy

Watch at the trailer of Aviano Italia (half in English)

In Italy, everybody knows that there are ninety nuclear warheads, in violation of the spirit of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signed by Italy, but almost no one worries.
They are not ours, we can not decide what to do with them. We can only accept the presence, the benefits (there are those who feel more secure with a nuclear bomb in the back yard ...) and the consequences.

In Caravana di Pace you can read the text of a draft law of a popular initiative to declare Italy "Nuclear Weapon Free Zone".
On 26 March it was announced that the fifty thousand signatures necessary to present the law have been collected, the result of a campaign that has worked in silence, thanks to small local groups. Political parties or large-membership international organizations refused to be involved. Small associations, fair trade shops, parishes and smaller unions have supported the initiative.

On 22 December 2005, a committee of citizens called the Government of the United States in the Civil Court of Pordenone requesting that the 50 atomic bombs present at Aviano be removed from Italian territory.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

The first post-Kyoto negotiations

Press release - Monday, 31 March 2008, at 11:03 am

Climate: The first post-Kyoto talks begin.

The first round of official negotiations for a post-Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions began in Bangkok this morning. "The world awaits a solution that is long-term and economically practicable," the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon warned in a video message to a thousand delegates from 163 countries, signatories to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (CNUCC). The objective of the five day negotiation is to mitigate the differences at the Conference in Bali last December that prevented agreement for laying the foundations for a new global protocol by next year. The Kyoto Protocol, signed by 37 countries (and not by the USA), expires in 2012. There is disagreement, however, about a possible new understanding among the major emerging economies such as China and India.

Two notes aside.
Firstly, we learn that the Conference in Bali in December 2007 failed, despite the widely proclaimed last-minute agreement and the wide smiles of all our politicians.
Secondly, I have not seen great attention from the newspapers to this story. Perhaps it is not interesting.
Who knows if they will al least tell us how it ends?

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

The Water Wars in Cochabamba

Watch the movie on the Water Wars in Cochabamba (in Italian)

Just do a simple search on google 'cochabamba water' and you will find plenty of information on this incredible story. All environmental activists throughout the world know it.

Shame shame shame on all entrepreneurs and all the politicians who are pushing for the privatization of water wherever they are in the world!
Water is essential to life. Without water you die in three days.
Water is a fundamental right of all human beings like air and freedom: nobody can own it.

If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water

Ismail Serageldin, vicepresident of the World Bank

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Education to peace for dinner

Yesterday I, as did millions of people, participated in the Earth Hour sponsored by the WWF. I turned off all the lights I could and we had dinner by candlelight, I, an Italian atheist EVS, a German Protestant student and a Muslim Pakistani researcher.
What was achieved by turning off three bulbs?
We asked ouselves this and we talked about the importance of this symbolic gesture that does not in itself create a significant savings of resources but creates awareness of the need to save resources and cut 30% of greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2020.
Sentence after sentence, between a glass of red and a chicken, among abstemious and vegetarians, we spoke of some of the unethically sourced products we buy, such as bananas or chocolate, cultivated by slaves in the south of the world. We talked about the Pakistani cotton and fair trade in Europe, labour law in developing countries, the chain of commerce liberal-style and of that ring, the last in the chain, the consumer choice, where each of us has power to act.
We came from different cultures and lifestyles but we were able to find similar words to define the society in which we live and that we contribute to forming every day with our choices.
It was only a dinner among friends and it turned into a wonderful opportunity for the affirmation of a culture of peace.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

What is Self-determination?

Here is a clear text about the right of self-determination, from the website of UNPO. Denying this right is the cause of dozens of armed conflicts around the world.

Essentially, the right to self-determination is the right of a people to determine its own destiny. In particular, the principle allows a people to choose its own political status and to determine its own form of economic, cultural and social development. Exercise of this right can result in a variety of different outcomes ranging from political independence through to full integration within a state. The importance lies in the right of choice, so that the outcome of a people's choice should not affect the existence of the right to make a choice. In practice, however, the possible outcome of an exercise of self-determination will often determine the attitude of governments towards the actual claim by a people or nation. Thus, while claims to cultural autonomy may be more readily recognized by states, claims to independence are more likely to be rejected by them. Nevertheless, the right to self-determination is recognized in international law as a right of process (not of outcome) belonging to peoples and not to states or governments.

Does anybody know where Nepal is?

Watch the documentary Reality of Nepal

Nepal is a wonderful country, rich in history and culture, where an ideological revolt is at the end and an interethnic clash is at the beginning.
A very interesting article from BBC gives us an example of how environmental care, peace and private interests can be linked together. I try to summarize it briefly.

Nepal is home to the world's highest mountains and to a rich diversity of flora and fauna, but much of the work to conserve them is embroiled in political controversy.
The National Trust for Nature Conservation was until last year named in honour of a former king, Mahendra, and was chaired by Crown Prince Paras with his father, King Gyanendra, as patron.
An investigation has concluded that Nepal's royal family spent large amounts of the trust's money on themselves, over a period of several years, on travels abroad, lavish parties, and health check-ups for Queen Komal in British clinics.
The investigation was entirely conducted by Maoist former rebels, who are now in government and control the trust, but are not an entirely objective source. The report on the trust's funds comes two weeks before elections to an assembly which is supposed to rubber-stamp the abolition of the 240-year-old monarchy.
If the story is true, it would be an example of the abuses committed by the royal family, causes of the ten-year long ideological war in Nepal, in which an estimated 12,000 to 13,000 people have died from 1996 to 2006.

Read the BIPPI dossier on Nepal civil war

PMC. Mamma mia!!!

I received from MB (for his security I write only the first letters of the name) an essay on the reality of Iraq in 2008, as we Westerners wanted it.

Did Italy ever disengaged from Iraq? (in Italian)
From disengagement of regular troops to the Private Military Companies.

It talks of mercenaries and contractors, the involvement of private companies (Private Military Companies) and the behaviour of these, which is "consonant with the political conduct" of the States involved in the war.
It talks of contracts, mentioning names and figures, facts unknown to many political columnists of the "mission of peace".
It talks of Barbara Contini, governor for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA, the occupying coalition), in the province of Dhi Qar, in the south of Iraq.
It talks of "armed men, independent of any civil or military court, who act with total impunity in a region devastated by war."

An accurate and detailed work, essential reading.

To better understand which kind of culture we are talking about here is the link to the spot of StartSicurezza srl, one of the best Italian private security agency, and here is even the link to Arcoiris TV to see per vedere una big-game hunt to man in Iraq by a small group of American "contractors" from AEGIS, a hyperspecialized private agency.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Updating news

Mohamed Bacar, Anjouan's President-elect

Some small news from the world ignored by the disinformation media.

Approximately 450 Comorian soldiers backed by 1,500 soldiers of the African Union last Tuesday invaded the island of Anjouan, the second of the Comoros islands, and took control. Several supporters of the separatist government have been killed, some officers were captured. The President-elect of Anjouan, Colonel Mohamed Bacar, still hasn’t been located. His re-election in June 2007 has been declared illegal by the federal government of Comoros islands.

The Russian parliament, the Duma, has approved a non-binding resolution that calls on the government to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two filo-russian provinces of European Georgia which are de facto independent.
The Duma stresses respect for the sovereignty of Georgia, while saying that the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo has changed the rules of the game.
In the reasoning of the Russian Duma also enters the filo-russian Transdniestrian region of Moldova, also a de facto independent state.

Another member of Degar ethnicity (the so-called Montagnards) met his death in Vietnamese prisons where he was imprisoned because of his religious convictions. The Degars, former allies of the US during the disaster of Vietnam, are persecuted by the central government for reasons of cultural identity tied to the land they occupy and religion they practice, causes of autonomist pushes.

Taiwan, another de facto independent state but without any international recognition, chose in a referendum not to pursue at the moment the entry into the United Nations, choosing the (economic) meeting rather than the (military) clash with China .

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

You must be the change you want to see in the world

I suppose that education for a culture of peace has a great meaning: discovering in which way we all can make the world better for everybody, how can each of us make a difference.

It's not necessary to be a fundamentalist, our goal must not be perfection because perfection doesn't exist.
But the basic thing is striving to behave in a better way, starting from the knowledge of what happens in the wider world.
The most important thing is being aware of the impact of our actions on the entire world. Then we can choose for the best, according to our opinions and necessities.

The true enemy of peace is the one who leaves to other people the job of building it.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" Mahatma Gandhi

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Popeye, a man of peace

We are all responsible for what is happening in the world through our choices and our consumption. Inspired by an article in La Repubblica I want to introduce a topic relevant to the Easter holiday: the consumption of meat.

The consumption of meat - especially red meat - is a luxury in terms of resources used for nutrition: one hectare cultivated in grain produces five times more protein per hectare than the production of meat, a hectare cultivated with spinach produces 26 times more protein.
In the world there are 1.3 million cattle, an immense herd which occupies, directly or indirectly, 24% of the Earth's surface and consumes an amount of grain sufficient to feed hundreds of millions of people.
It has been estimated that 1000 grams of vegetable protein is necessary to produce 60 grams of animal protein. That a kilo of beef "drinks" 3,200 litres of water. That it takes 22 grams of oil to produce 1 kilo of flour against 193 to produce 1 kilo of meat.

Cattle are a nutrition source which need tons of water and energy. The result of it is food for only 20% of the global population of the planet. That 20% uses 80% of the world's resources.
If all this were not enough to reduce the consumption of red meat, one must think that a part of the cereal crops needed to feed cattle are cheap-imports from countries where hunger is killing human beings. Children of poor countries do not have enough cereals to let us eat our steak.
Popeye was eating spinach. If we imitate him the world would be better.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)