The BIPPIblog

refusing to give up hope

2008-06-08T17:13:00.001+02:00

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?

2008-05-13T08:38:00.001+02:00

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

2008-04-28T12:20:00.006+02:00

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...

2008-04-27T10:00:00.006+02:00

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?

2008-04-26T17:04:00.004+02:00

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?

2008-04-25T09:51:00.010+02:00

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

2008-04-24T09:44:00.004+02:00

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!

2008-04-23T23:51:00.004+02:00

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

2008-04-22T12:42:00.004+02:00

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

2008-04-21T15:30:00.005+02:00

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?

2008-04-20T10:29:00.006+02:00

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

2008-04-19T13:01:00.006+02:00

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

2008-04-18T11:14:00.002+02:00

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

2008-04-17T19:27:00.003+02:00

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

2008-04-16T11:45:00.006+02:00

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!

2008-04-15T13:30:00.006+02:00

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

2008-04-14T12:31:00.003+02:00

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!

2008-04-13T10:33:00.005+02:00

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!

2008-04-12T15:43:00.003+02:00

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!

2008-04-11T14:35:00.008+02:00

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!

2008-04-09T22:36:00.002+02:00

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

2008-04-09T17:00:00.004+02:00

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...

2008-04-08T12:54:00.004+02:00

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

2008-04-07T10:29:00.006+02:00

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

2008-04-06T12:37:00.003+02:00

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

2008-04-05T23:21:00.004+02:00

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?

2008-04-04T10:34:00.006+02:00

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?

2008-04-03T17:39:00.007+02:00

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

2008-04-02T15:29:00.001+02:00

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

2008-04-01T12:19:00.004+02:00

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

2008-03-31T15:17:00.004+02:00

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

2008-03-30T13:31:00.005+02:00

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?

2008-03-29T11:13:00.005+01:00

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?

2008-03-28T12:19:00.007+01:00

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!!!

2008-03-27T18:24:00.004+01:00

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

2008-03-26T15:33:00.004+01:00

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

2008-03-25T12:46:00.002+01:00

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

2008-03-24T12:54:00.005+01:00

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)

The first lesson that l have learned

2008-03-23T15:17:00.005+01:00

The pope, the supreme pastor of the Roman Catholic Church and spiritual leader of about one billion people, called for finding solutions that preserve "the good and peace in regions of the planet troubled from conflict, in which includes Darfur and Somalia, "the martyrized Middle East", the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, "and finally Tibet".
The papal infallibility expressed by Vatican Council I is just about religious doctrine in the strict sense and not about life as we live.
Indeed, the pope was wrong.
He forgot in his appeal the Caucasus, Haiti, Yemen, the Western Sahara, the delta of the Niger, Nepal, Mindanao and all the others and more than 70 places in the world where people kill other people for the right to govern.
Or maybe it wasn’t the pope who was wrong, maybe it was the newspapers and television which remind us the things of the world only when we are closely involved. But are we maybe not all involved in all of world conflicts?
No?
Who sells anti-personnel mines to Morocco for keeping the Saharawis away from deposits of phosphates?
Who supported and supports the Philippine government in attempts to cultural assimilation of Mindanao?
Who benefits from the wide Nigerian resources leaving only crumbs, resulting in the extreme poverty of the local population?
Who provides politic and military coverage to semi-dictatorial kingdoms and emerites of the Middle East?
Who goes to conclude billionaires trade agreements with governments which ignore fundamental human rights?
Whoever invents diminishing synonyms of the word "war" to go and destroy and then rebuild?

Education for a culture of peace, lesson one: we are all responsible, through our choices and our consumption, of all that takes place in a globalised world.
All means each of us!

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Which Caucasus are you talking about?

2008-03-22T15:00:00.008+01:00

Reading an article in the Repubblica I remembered that in the Caucasus they are fighting forgotten separatist wars: Cecenia, Inguscezia, Daghestan, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and perhaps others that I do not know of.

Very forgotten wars. In fact, anyone who wants to report the facts and perhaps say a point of view other than government's risks his life. That is why we know little about these unfortunate people, except maybe that they are Russians (even if they have neither Russian language nor religion, nor history, nor genetics, nor especially the sentiments).

I challenge anyone to explain simply exactly what happened in these places in the last two years. Whoever can, he/she wins a complete smiling thanks from me and from the world of blogs and free thinking.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Medal of Disapproval for military valor

2008-03-21T16:07:00.004+01:00

Is there anyone who remembers Franco Piperno and Potere Operaio (Power to Workers)? Who remembers the 1970s in Italy, when judges, policemen and politicians fell under the hammer of ideologues, revolutionaries and peones of armed struggle?
The first were called "servants of the State".
The second were called "terrorists".
It was a small war and the State won, writing the history that we read today.
I do not want any of my 5 readers to think that I justify terrorism. I affirm rather strongly the principle enshrined in the wonderful Article 11 of the Italian Constitution: "Italy repudiates war as an instrument of aggression against the freedom of other peoples and as a means of settling international disputes".
I find this rather incomplete, I would gladly change it into: "The Italian people reject all forms of violence and offence as a means to resolve any dispute", without any hesitation!

Franco Piperno, interviewed on TV, said: "Morality is multiple. There are people who go to bomb a city, and are considered heroes, and people who shoot at a particular target, who are considered criminals. In the second case, only because they were defeated."
Some journalist has ridiculed this sentence.

Enrico Cialdini was a hero of the Italian independence movement. During the period of struggles against the brigands he was responsible for collective punishment and mass executions against entire populations of the south. But this has disappeared from history.
William Tecumseh Sherman was a hero of the American Secession war. During the Indian wars he was responsible for collective punishment and mass executions against entire populations of the plains. But this has disappeared from history.

Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Caesar, were they heroes or murderers? How many innocent deaths were they responsible for? How many innocent deaths were Stalin and Mao responsible for? How many innocent deaths were Roosevelt and Churchill responsible for?
Our leaders today, the major allies and enemies of our time, are they heroes or murderers? To know this we just have to wait for one to win and another to be defeated. The winner will write the history and will tell us.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Not in My Back Yard

2008-03-20T13:19:00.009+01:00

On the frontpage of Carta, March 14, 2008, there was the following passage.

Perhaps the worst way to deal with obstacles posed by territorial movements that have emerged in Italy in recent years is to reduce them to numbers. The Sole24Ore, the newspaper of Confindustria, the Italian association of industrial managers, reported the results of a study on alleged cases of "Nimby syndrome", the tag the media put on the movement of citizens who contest 'apparently-public serving works'. According to the report, there are 193 works in Italy "blocked" by the protests of local people. And it's obvious that for the newspaper of Confindustria, this is unacceptable. Power stations, incinerators, landfills and regasification terminals are the most controversial projects. Numbers are misleading in many ways: they say nothing of the quality of the projects, or the reasons for the criticism, or the history of the territories and movements. Everything is summed up in one figure, which is to filter and interpret "economically". And instead often behind each 'no' there is a 'yes' to different models of energy, more sensible waste management or other forms of mobility, that the current policy and narration of the country given by the media and relegated, when we are lucky, in the notes of colour dedicated to "movements", are difficult to interpret and impossible to legitimise. As if the 'syndrome' speeches lead to uneven, ecologists delusions or illusions of energetic democracy.

To paraphrase the argument, reducing to numbers and slogans the countless movements, violent or less violent, that contest the established powers means ignoring the reasons behind the protests in favour of ethical or political opinions, rushed and incomplete. So those are terrorists, those other murders, here they do not know the history, there they do not respect geography, and nobody will care why people take a weapon and kill other people.

I remember a sentence that I have heard three times in my life, each time with slightly different words but not too different in meaning: "Those people are ignorant, peasants beating their wives and mistreating their children."
The first time was a Russian boy, speaking of Chechen independentists.
The second time was a Turkish girl, speaking of Kurdish nationalists.
The third time was an Indian boy, speaking of Kashmiri separatists.

I suppose that there is wrong done only when it comes to bombs and tanks, but I understand that, almost always, whoever shoots against the established power says "Nimby": Not In My Back Yard! If the established powers would hear the words perhaps no one would need to shoot ...

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Leopardi candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

2008-03-19T16:24:00.005+01:00

This morning I took a few minutes to chat with a friend from Lithuania. A young girl, intelligent and educated, certainly one of the best people I have met in recent years.

Here is part of our chat:

me – What do you think of the BIPPIblog?
she - I like it
just I am very scared of these things
me - scared?
she - mhm
I don t really know how to help or change something
so that's why it is like closing my eyes
maybe there could be some other way of helping for simple people like me
me - the very important thing u must change, u, me and everybody, is yourself
closing the eyes is not the good way
if every of us would change a little bit, the world would be much better
she - I know but sitting here in a cozy home and saying that I am very upset about those things that happen means the same like closing eyes

I see this attitude a bit everywhere. Young people feel small and unable to intervene in major world issues, which is a lawless and evil jungle; better to deal with things which are closer and more simple: sports, mobiles and Big Brother. Democracy itself, which is activism and participation, becomes an unconscious and bored expression of the vote, with great happiness for famous people who have nothing to say.
Because rebellion is useless, nothing much will change, better to live in peace with themselves and ignore to the pain by closing our eyes, like the young Giacomo Leopardi.
The Leopardi that they teach us in school is a sad and pessimistic poet, students have had enough of him.

Instead Leopardi, the great Leopardi, when 38 years old, shortly before his death and at the height of awareness, hoped for a renewed society in a sense of solidarity, not by abstract moral or religious teachings, but for natural awareness that only resistance against the common natural enemy, evil, can make men really men, and life worth living.
This Leopardi, the great Leopardi, I would dress with the little BIPPI umbrella and put him in the front row to say no to war, abuse, impositions, violence, torture, injustice, xenophobia, forced assimilation of cultural minorities, the destruction of the environment, no to lies, fears generated and fed by the media, induced needs, ignorance of government.
This Leopardi would protest with me against the destructive mega-projects, against military occupations, against any governmental caste, against piloted disruption.
This Leopardi would be a great activist for peace.
I propose Leopardi, posthumously, for the Peace Nobel Prize.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Peruvian Amazon on sale

2008-03-18T17:35:00.008+01:00

Vai al sito www.aiutalanatura.it/

I quote part of an article which appeared in Article 21 of January 29, 2008, entitled "Peruvian Amazon on sale". (Read the entire article, in Italian)

Peruvian President Alan Garcia has announced that he wants to sell to timber multinationals 8 million hectares of primary forest in the Amazon. According to Alan García only with privatization the forest can produce "oxygen, timber and work for the benefit of all Peruvians." But to make this announcement he had to go to Madrid, the so-called homeland, where he had the support of the multinational timber companies. This sale would finally exceed the limits established by the laws of the 1970s, which gave lands in concession only and not for sale, and only in small lots so that the state could monitor its use and encourage the traditional usage of the forest resources of the Amazon.
The privatisation draft of Peruvian Amazon regions is meeting strong opposition from the local people, indigenous and peasant communities that consider themselves not only excluded, but even at risk of extinction in a model of industrial exploitation of the forest such as the neoliberal model desired by Alan García. The Peruvian Amazon regions inhabitants traditionally live with an extensive model of forestry which coincides with long periods of rest of the forest. It is the model that has preserved the primary forest until today avoiding the primary forest depletion that characterizes large parts of Brazilian Amazon regions.

In reading the article I am reminded of what I have always regarded as an essential prerequisite to think about before any reasoning: it seems that in any financial or commercial event on a large scale – mega-concessions for exploitation, financial giants, hypermarkets or mega shopping malls, gigantic infrastructures, mega interventions on territory – the only real beneficiaries of all hyper, mega, giga, super enterprises of this kind are the major power groups in which the wealth of a country is concentrated, at the expense of ordinary people, of the needs, well-being and future of ordinary people.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

An Italy to be proud of.

2008-03-17T13:36:00.011+01:00

Watch an example of the fight between evironmentalism and counter-environmentalism.

I was struck by an article of March 13, on La Repubblica.

A small but growing group of countries is competing in an unwritten race to be a "neutral country" in emissions of carbon dioxide. A race against the greenhouse effect that is ideally called "Carbon-neutral World Cup" and that, currently is headed by Costa Rica, Norway, New Zealand and Iceland.
Reaching the "neutrality" of carbon dioxide emissions means balancing emissions of greenhouse gases that are produced by burning fossil fuels, with something that is able to capture them, such as extensive forest.
These days Roberto Dobles, Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy, says that his country has been awarded the 'prize' having achieved the goal of being a "neutral country".

It does not matter whether Costa Rica is the first or not, this is not the news. In reading the article the many detractors of climate change came to mind: industrial lobbies, re-routed or ‘bought’ scientists, ignorant opinion-makers, irresponsible ministers and a lot of ordinary people, even educated, who do not consider this an issue worthy of attention.
I remember that I talked some ago with a middle school teacher, a good person, who said with conviction that man claims the power to change the climate on the planet while these are natural things to which we just have to adapt. This man should work in the small shop at the beginning of the climb of Salvator Rosa, in Naples, and then we could speak again.

I wonder: if only in Italy we put into action that beautiful law that provides a new tree for every new born, if we build better railways (not TAV but the regional ones!) rather than invest in highways to be given to Benetton, if the Park of Vesuvius magically transforms into a real park from the big tip that it is today (Bassolinooo!!!), if we were collecting more in recycling and less in incinerators (Bassolinooo!!!), more wind and less coal, if the middle classes would buy fewer SUV, if we turn off lights when we don't need, if the mentality of the people were less subdued to their immediate and exclusive benefit... Perhaps also Italy would be proud to compete with Costa Rica in the "Carbon-neutral World Cup" instead of despairing for the elimination of mercenary Inter.
Of such a country I would be proud too!

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Cheers! Cheers!

2008-03-16T18:30:00.007+01:00

Watch the report on Chinese TV

Tibet. Everybody is talking about Tibet, that's why I also want to join them, I want to explain it all, but how can I?

Background: Tibet has been progressively and illegally invaded by the Chinese Maoist troops since 1949. The result of that invasion is a trail of blood and pain that, from a distance of more than fifty years, I have no fear of summarizing in the word 'ethnocide'.

The facts and figures (unfortunately not verifiable) reported by pro-Tibet movements are the following:
- Over a million dead
- 130,000 refugees (especially in India and Nepal)
- 6,000 monasteries destroyed
- Thousands of Tibetans imprisoned for political crimes
- Progressive destruction of traditional environment in favour of wild industrialization
- Massive militarization
- Forced cultural assimilation
View: http://www.comunitatibetana.org/it/uno-sguardo-sul-tibet.pdf (in Italian)

All true, or partly true, that may be, it's all really disgusting and I would smash all the windows of the Chinese shops as well. But ...
... before the Chinese invasion the independent Tibet was a theocratic monarchy (today the latest example, I think, is the Vatican) and was among the poorest and least developed countries of the world, yet anchored to a feudal system of exploitation. The caste of monks lived thanks to the hard working of the population, which was generally illiterate, poor and subject to a difficult life.
Tibet was not, as we believe, a peaceful state nor a pacifist one; it had its own army (although badly equipped in 1949, but still an army) and had a considerable military history, comprising wars, invasions, conquests, defeats, treaties, occupations and so on.
China, like every colonial country, claims the construction in Tibet of infrastructure, hospitals, schools, modern houses, as well as the improvement of the standard life conditions of the average Tibetan and their emancipation from the serfdom.

I personally would prefer to live free in misery rather than subdued in peace. But writing on a computer is easy, then I go to the kitchen to eat tiramisù. I do not know how many Tibetans feel like me. Those that today are risking their lives on the streets of Lhasa, would certainly agree with me.

The Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize winner, spiritual leader of Tibet and head of the Tibetan government in exile, is a great philosopher of nonviolence and, in general, an exceptional person. Reading one of his books is an enlightening experience. Many agree that his high standard of living and his force of propaganda are due to funding of the American CIA.

Epilogue.
I am the kind of athlete, who watches sport on TV, and I would certainly not go to celebrate the 'Olympic spirit' in the politically-oppressed China, the China of the 5,000 death sentences every year, but I would not even go to Morocco, where 2,500 kms of wall were built against the Saharawis, to Russia with its Chechen war, to the United States with their Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, to Burma, Cuba, Vietnam, Sudan, Uzbekistan, even not to France with its legion in Chad and the privatization of water, and perhaps even not to Italy with its Bolzaneto and Savignano Irpino, because, even in our country, human rights are not "roses and flowers".
But to be honest, if I were a professional athlete having only ten years to achieve all that I have worked for, and the Olympics were the opportunity of a lifetime, perhaps I too would go to compete in Beijing and would leave human rights to the politicians, who condemn and get upset but finally forge trade agreements singing from La Traviata: "Libiamo! Libiamo - Cheers! Cheers!"

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Know before you speak

2008-03-15T10:51:00.006+01:00

Someone wrote to me asking what I think of operations of peace/war (de según como se mire todo depende, song the Jarabe De Palo) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

First of all I believe that Afghanistan and Iraq are two places in the same adventure, with the necessary differences.
That said, I think that the best answer is this article in Voltaire Net written by Michael Schwartz, Professor at Stony Brook University of the state of New York, which presents the famous research of the prestigious American medical journal "The Lancet" on the number of casualties in Iraq and talks about what we call "rules of engagement" of the American soldiers in Iraq.
Just read it: http://www.voltairenet.org/article149840.html

In this regard someone pointed out to me a few days ago this film on youtube: An American scandal (in Italian).

Furthermore on the blog Alessio in Asia I read the following comment:

"I feel that if we withdraw from IRAQ, there might be terror."
Wow… if there might be terror… I wonder… what's going on since "we" invaded Iraq ?

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

We talk but we don't understand each other

2008-03-14T16:11:00.003+01:00

Go to wikipedia page Languages spoken in Italy

A recent study by Survival International says that every months two languages of the existing 6,000 in the world die. Continuing on this way, the linguistic heritage of humanity will be halved at the end of this century. To avoid this cultural catastrophe the United Nations has proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages.

The death of a language is a complex phenomenon, often related to the spreading of dominant languages such as English, Arabic or Spanish, which are, according to the linguist Michael Krauss, "a genuine cultural nerve gas". Today, 96 percent of the world's population speaks only 4 per cent of languages.
In practice a language dies when the last person who speaks it dies, but it's always a foretold death. The survival of a language is tied to a minimum number (one hundred thousand) of people who speak it. Below this number there is a risk of death.
Underlying this phenomenon is almost always a distorted political attitude: the protection of minor languages is not with conferences and debates, but allowing and enhancing their use. Spain, Russia, India and South Africa are some examples of effective recognition and protection of linguistic diversity.
In 2001 the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity was signed, which poses as an objective "to protect the linguistic heritage of humanity and defend the expressive capacity and dissemination of as many languages as possible. To encourage linguistic diversity, while respecting the mother tongue and stimulate multilingualism learning from a very early age". On the other side almost everywhere we find a 'totalitarian' idea of State which is expressed, among other things, by the enhancement of the exclusive official language, to the detriment of individual mother languages, often neglected, declassified and repressed. Italy is a good example in this regard.

The disappearance of a language is not a theoretical loss but a social catastrophe. Every language is an expression of a system of thought that disappears when it is unable to express itself anymore. The repression of a language brings unstoppable social tensions because entire generations are deprived of the opportunity to study with profit, to dialogue with the institutions, to take part in public life and, ultimately, to integrate into civil society, because it is forbidden to do so in their mother tongue.
The repression of a mother tongue always leads to a situation of exclusion of women and men who have not chosen which language to speak.

Invisible Colours of Benetton

2008-03-13T21:54:00.011+01:00

Watch the presentation
Go the website of the campaign The invisible colours of Benetton

This is from an article which appeared about a year ago on Selvas.org: (translated from Italian)

On 14 February (2007) they came before dawn and asked the forces of nature to work with them, then they established themselves in a community, claiming it back for the ancestors that "lived free on those lands and are now objects in museums and trophies of a culture that destroys anything which is different." The Mapuche are back to occupy the land that they demanded for years and that is part of the large estate of Benetton in Argentinean Patagonia.

On a Mapuche site we read:

The Italian fashion brand Benetton is well known for it's 'provocative'
promotion campaigns that appear to be socially critical.
But the internationally operating company is itself involved in dirty deals.
In south Argentina, Benetton has bought almost one million hectares of land.
The local population, mostly Mapuche indigenous people, are forcefully removed from this area.

Nineteenth century invasions, illegal sales, donations to a nobel prize... A true South American soap opera. To understand more, you can do a simple search on google: "Benetton vs. Mapuche". And read.
Benetton clothing is beautiful and relatively inexpensive, but what's behind that cotton or wool?
It doesn't matter how much you wash them, certain items will never be clean.

Verschärfte Vernehmung

2008-03-11T14:21:00.014+01:00

Letter from America (abridged)

Saturday, March 8, 2008

By David Wright

Today an event occurred that is so despicable, so devoid of all that’s decent; an event so pervasive that its fallout will eventually affect every corner of society. Remember this date; on Saturday, March 8 2008, the United States endorsed the use of torture. By signing a veto of the Bill from Congress banning torture, President Bush has approved its use. The President brutalized his society. And it will have an effect.
Condoning State violence will eventually touches us all. In time, state brutality perverts everyone. Our State does not call it torture of course, preferring, “Advanced Interrogation Techniques”. This from Wikipedia:

“The former editor of The New Republic Andrew Sullivan claimed that "enhanced interrogation" bears remarkable resemblance to the techniques the Gestapo called "Verschärfte Vernehmung", for which some of them faced prosecution after World War II and were "found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death." Besides the similarity of the practices, the German term "verschärfte Vernehmung" may be translated as "enhanced interrogation".
A 1948 Norwegian court case described the use of hypothermia identical to the reports from Guantanamo Bay. The defense used by the Nazis for applying the techniques "is almost verbatim that of the Bush administration." Most notably the concept of unlawful enemy combatant is invoked to justify its implementation on "insurgent prisoners out of uniform". The now familiar ticking time bomb scenario as a rationale for allowing torture had its precursor in the Gestapo's "Third degree" measures. But while the Nazis' interrogative methods were found to be torture, The New York Times writes that the Allies' methods at the time were far more effective and far less abusive than those the United States uses now.”

It remains to their eternal shame that Clinton and Obama were too busy getting themselves elected, to get back to Washington and vote for the ban-on-torture measure. It goes to show the extent to which our society has already accepted force, pain and evil. But if you think their neglect was bad consider this. John McCain did turn up and voted against the Bill. Six years of being tortured by the citizens of the last country the United States invaded and McCain learned nothing. Whether through their neglect or action those wanting to guide this nation through the next four years have made a pretty poor start.

The "Stolen Generation"

2008-03-11T13:25:00.007+01:00

Watch the video

We often hear talk about the primacy of Western culture that has brought freedom and democracy to the world, defeating over time bloody dictatorships, totalitarian ideologies and empires of evil.
As an example of the cultural superiority of the free West, here are some parts of an article taken from the Berliner Zeitung, February 29, 2008 on the so-called 'stolen generation'.

"Between 1910 and 1970 ten thousand Aboriginal children were taken away by force from their homes to be adopted by 'white' families, in a programme endorsed by the state. This was for the sake of the children themselves, as a minority of Australians still believe.
In 1997 a research paper entitled 'Bringing them home' made public these striking violations of human rights. Historians speak of attempted genocide. The removal of children was solely intended to prevent the transmission of the culture and language of the Aborigines. (abridged)
Ten years have passed during which the then Prime Minister John Howard refused to apologise to the Aborigines before Parliament. Only his successor Kevin Rudd broke the silence by creating recently the 'National Sorry Day', to be celebrated on February 13, and apologising several times both personally and on behalf of the institutions. For the approximately 450,000 Aboriginal Australians finally being recognized this has immense significance.
Not all, however, are euphoric over the apologies of the Prime Minister. The government allegedly still did not mention even a word about the stolen lands and massacres which occurred. An increasingly large number of Aboriginal claim also economic compensation."

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Terrorism Works!

2008-03-10T18:55:00.004+01:00

In recent days we have been able to read in the newspapers of the threat of Uighuri, Muslim terrorists, allies of Al Qaeda, which could strike during the Olympic Games. At least so we read in newspaper headlines.

On reading more carefully it turns out that this is the separatists of the so-called East Turkestan, but the Chinese are angered to hear that; for them it is the Xinjiang.
We discovered that these people are turcophone, who have always been Muslim and related to the Turks and not at all to the Chinese, and have an ancient history.
We discovered that from mid-1800 to mid-1900 the province has tried several times to be independent, before being to be liberated / invaded by the People's Liberation Army, the same who liberated / invaded Tibet. Points of view!
In the books we learn that the Chinese assimilation of Eastern Turkmenistan is known as the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, except that the people are not all in agreement. Furthermore you find that this nation has been strong culturally but politically repressed by the Chinese government, at least according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
These cultural and social tensions periodically provoke violent clashes: in 1962 there were clashes which caused the exodus of 60,000 people; in 1990 there were 50 deaths; in 1997 there were riots and bomb attacks.

Reducing all this to 'bad Muslim allies of Al Qaeda' is the result of the worst kind of journalism that fills the pages of Big Brother and reduce to very few lines what happens in the world.
If they had not threatened the sacred Olympic Games, who would have ever heard of bad Uighuri in Xinjiang?
Terrorism therefore works.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Just two imbeciles...

2008-03-09T13:27:00.006+01:00

The video is offensive and cannot be seen without registration

To be imbeciles there is no need to be soldiers or to be Americans, and these two imbeciles in the video should not be considered either as soldiers or as Americans.
They are only two big imbeciles.

Moreover there are imbeciles in all countries and in all categories. Surely, for example, there will be in Guatemala a waggoner who is an imbecile. But a Guatemalan waggoner does not claim to bring civilization and democracy in the world and if he is an imbecile, too bad for him, certainly he will not do much damage.

Listen to reactions on CNN

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Goal 3

2008-03-08T16:13:00.004+01:00

But we can also have a bit of laughing...

The best way to make our best wishes to all women is by speaking of the third of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDGs): promote gender equality and empower women, mainly by eliminating gender inequity in primary and secondary education throughout the world, preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015. (reference Millennium Devepolment Goals)

The gender inequities are unequivocal. The 60% of the 115 million children who do not attend school are girls. The illiteracy rate among adult women in poor countries is very high. Two-thirds of all illiterate in the world are women. Women perform two-thirds of working hours in the world but earn only 10% of global income. Women hold only 1% of the world agricultural land. In the world, women occupy only 14% of parliamentary seats and meet the 30% only in seven countries. One woman in three is the victim of physical or sexual abuse at some time in their life; about half of the victims of sexual violence in the world are younger than 16.

MDG are not empty words. Anyone who wants to get an idea of how to intervene practically on MDG 3 can read this article taken from the website of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, in Italian or

http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/millennium_development_goals/

Thinking globally, acting locally

2008-03-07T13:21:00.005+01:00

This article by Stefano Varlese, National Coordinator of YAP Italy, appeared in Italian on Selvas.org on 9 December 2007. It talks of Equador as an experiment in regulated economy, participatory democracy, social redistribution, regional integration, socialism of the twenty-first century, and especially moratorium on oil extraction from the area ITT - Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini in Yasunì park. It is well worth reading all of it.

This is a passage from the article, in translation:

"This is not just an attempt to protect an area unique in the world for its biodiversity but the introduction of a new model that changes the way in which man, until now, has used the natural resources. We will experiment with a model that would allow us to live without oil, which is likely to be normal in the future; oil use should decrease right now because of the environmental damage that it causes. The challenge is not just about Equador but all humanity."

On the same topic, but from a point of view somewhat different, I point out an article appeared on Andinamedia of October 27, 2007 and another article on the Global Project on 12 November 2007.

The general framework of this problem is made clear by the campaign Saving Yasuní spread in Italy from the organization Asud

Let's play peace games

2008-03-06T10:04:00.008+01:00

Watch the video

When I was a child I liked to play war games. It was fun.

When I became an adult I understood, completely independently and without any help from society, that war is not a game and it's not fun.

The culture of peace starts by saying that war is not a game.
Let children seek their own hierarchies without toy guns and swords, without carnage on videogames. Let them not kill for fun.
There is no fun in war. Harm is done and harm is received.

I found on Voltaire Network an interview with Jimmy Massey, a former soldier returning from war. It is a long article but I invite everyone to read it carefully. It doesn’t matter what army Jimmy was in, and which war he went to. All soldiers, he says, are at war because war is not a game. Harm is done and harm is received.

"I had been trained to run blindly on the orders of President (...) and bring to the country what he had requested without any moral consideration. I was a psychopath because I learned to shoot first and then ask, as a patient and not as a professional soldier who faces just another soldier. If necessary we were to kill women and children, and we did. "

In a French magazine I read this sentence: If the answer is war, the question must be wrong!

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Talking about Tibet

2008-03-06T09:41:00.002+01:00

Listen to the song

I report some parts of an article from BBC NEWS whose title is: "Bjork makes 'free Tibet' gesture"

Bjork, has caused controversy among fans in China by shouting "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of a concert in Shanghai.
The cry followed a powerful performance of her song Declare Independence.
Talk of Tibetan independence is considered taboo in China, which has ruled the territory since 1951.

After the concert some negative reactions were posted on Chinese websites.
"I like Bjork", said one, "it's OK for her to have a different point of view, but for her to do this is disrespectful to fans here - very selfish of her".
Another fan said Bjork had "behaved like an angry young person, acting in an underhand manner, not like Brad Pitt and Richard Gere, who are better known Free Tibet supporters".

The song Declare Independence has previously been used by Bjork to highlight other struggles for self-rule. She dedicated a performance of it in Japan last month to Kosovo. She has also used the song to campaign for Greenland and the Faroe Islands - territories controlled by Denmark.
Bjork performed in two Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the United States in the 1990s.

I must add few words.
Tibet was far from being a perfect state but was a free state when it was "liberated" by the Chinese army in 1951. (read the BBC timeline). The English wikipedia has an article about the invasion of Tibet: "The Chinese government has been accused of a campaign of terror after the invasion, which has led to the killings of up to 1.2 million Tibetans and the destruction of 6000 monasteries. The PRC denies these claims. Charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, state terrorism and torture are currently being investigated by a Spanish court."

Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008 (read the BBC NEWS report) despite protests by Serbia, Russia and People's Republic of China.

Greenland is a self-governing overseas province of Denmark since 1979. It originally joined the European Community with Denmark in 1973, but withdrew in 1985 after a dispute over fishing rights and a referendum on the issue. A substantial proportion of Greenland's population favours independence.

The Faroe Islands are a self-governing province of Denmark since 1948. They are not part of the European Union and Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union. The islanders are about evenly split between those favouring independence and those who don't. Support for independence has recently grown and is the objective of the government.

Flowers play, batons respond

2008-03-05T21:50:00.003+01:00

In recent days there has been an interesting exchange of letters between the National Coordinators of "Tavola per la pace" (The Table of Peace) and the premier candidate of the Italian centre-left Veltroni.

From the open letter to Walter Veltroni: Why is the world once again left out of the election campaign?
"After so many years of generous commitment to peace, after yet another march for peace from Perugia to Assisi we want to question the effectiveness of the political and cultural movement for peace. We will march again from Perugia to Assisi. To achieve what? What is the use of marching for peace if politics is increasingly blind and deaf?
On 7 October 200,000 of us marched to build "a new policy and a new non-violent political culture based on human rights. But by nightfall, that same day, the curtain also came down on that extraordinary march by the people. Media and politics have been filed without batting an eyelid. As if nothing had occurred. "

From the response letter of Walter Veltroni
"I appeal to a renewed political commitment for peace. Unless another path is found, the only way to express strong opinions now is through violence.
I believe that the core issue of our century is not a clash between civilizations, but between fanaticism and tolerance. And this is true for major tensions across the world as well as for the proclaimed history of our country: often unbridgeable distance is not so much between the bearers of this or that identity, but between those who choose to stay in the trenches and who discuss, between those who put the helmet and those seeking a virtuous conclusion. The commitment to peace, if not to remain mere talk, starts with these considerations. And so there must be real commitment to the policy and it must be taken to the women and men who aspire to live peacefully."

(In translation, please refer to original Italian text for accurate citation)

Winds of War in South America

2008-03-03T14:13:00.009+01:00

Why have millions of Colombians fled home??

It is well known that much cocaine is produced in Colombia. There is also war but few know it, even though it has caused 40,000 deaths and 3 million refugees, the second ranked refugee emergency in the world after Sudan. Among the few who know, some talk about terrorism (which today is a term used for everything) while others speak simplistically of drug trafficking, just as in Russia they simplify Chechnya by talking of bandits and Cavour in the south of Italy by talking of brigands.

Álvaro Uribe is the President of Colombia. Since his election in 2002 he has maintained a policy of firmness against Marxist rebels of the FARC, who killed his father during an attempted kidnapping. The policy of Uribe has brought him great friendship with the United States and billions of dollars in aids against drug trafficking.

East of Colombia is Venezuela. It is not so well known that Venezuela is among the top ten oil-producers of the world. Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela, charismatic leader of the new Latin-American left, follower of Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara. The policy of Chavez, so close to Cuban Fidel Castro, made him "build", so to speak, in the USA. Chavez also shares the antipathy since he has done everything to remove the South American continent from North American policies (NAFTA, the war on terrorism ...).

The FARC consider Chavez an ally, for ideological and political issues. Chavez and Uribe do not like each other, and like each other even less since Chavez has used his influence on the FARC to release some hostages, including the collaborator of the Colombian-French Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate.

Two days ago Colombian planes bombed an area of the FARC over the border with Ecuador and killed two of the greatest leaders of the movement. The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, good ally of Chavez, broke diplomatic relations with Colombia to protest against the violation of its national sovereignty, and has sent troops to the border. Chavez, supporting Correa, has deployed ten battalions of tanks on the border with Colombia and has been put on alert aviation, as well as breaking diplomatic relations.
Analysts say that a war between the three countries is unlikely but not impossible.

Anyone who wants to understand more can read an extensive dossier on Reuters AlertNet.

Culture of war

2008-03-03T00:57:00.005+01:00

On the 14th December 2007 the youngest prince of the United Kingdom, Harry, went to fight with the British troops in Afghanistan. This is not surprising if he, like many others, believes that peace can be brought about through war. Recalled home early for security reasons, all the patriotic and pro-government newspapers have rushed to tell the world about the courage that this young man has demonstrated.

The Sun printed a poster with the image of Harry and his patrol, showing the prince holding his rifle and ready to shoot, and invited people to study it. The same newspaper on its front page tells how Harry would have killed, or at least contributed to killing, thirty Taliban, directing by phone three air strikes on enemy positions. And that Harry, attacked by the Taliban on a mobile location where he was with his soldiers, promptly placed himself in front of a heavy machine gun, which he had never used before, and opened fire, repelling the attack.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica cites some interviews.

"He displayed exemplary conduct" is the comment of head of the Army, General Dannott. "All Britain is proud of him," says Prime Minister Brown.
Harry instead comments: "Finally I can seriously be a soldier, as I have always wanted to. ... I hope that my mum is proud, I hope that she watched me from heaven".

Ironically, Lady Diana Spencer, the mother of Harry, was at the forefront of the campaign to ban landmines. For this reason she was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.
Today there are more than 100 million landmines in the world, 10 million in Afghanistan. In 2006 landmines have killed, mutilated or injured 5,751 people in 68 countries and territories: 1 / 3 of them are children. The price of a mine varies between $3 and $30, the cost of de-mining varies between $300 and $1,000. 33 billion dollars are needed to make inactive 110 million mines; experts have estimated that with the current speed of de-mining 1,100 years would not be enough to remove the mines from the entire planet, assuming no new mines were laid. But for every deactivated mine, 20 others are laid on the ground: in 1994 100,000 were removed, while 2,000,000 were buried.

After due consideration I doubt that Lady Diana, watching her son Harry from heaven, would be proud of him.

Posted in English for Bruno Picozzi

Path to Peace

2008-03-01T16:20:00.007+01:00

On the blog Scuole per la pace (Schools for Peace) is this post of September 22, 2004, translated here from the Italian text.

"The idea that we would like to share is that peace is not an abstract, but something that should be built together and which is composed of different aspects.

Talking about peace also means dealing with some aspects of our social life, as they impact on the rest of the world, and how we can limit the impact at least in its most negative aspects.
That is why I think that talking about peace should also address these issues:
- Human rights (teaching Justice)
- Energy, production, consumption and pollution
- Conscious consumption and lifestyles
- Right to know, dissemination of knowledge, intellectual property
- Digital divide, new technologies, access to information, accessibility

And speaking about them we should try to change our behaviours, even small ones, but above all always wonder if what we have as "urgent needs" are not actually induced needs or desires of "spoilt children" which seem to us very accessible but we let other people pay for it.

We should think before acting and if it is like this, we should change our actions to make them more equitable to and compatible with the needs of those who still suffer from hunger, deprivation and violence.

Because "there is no peace without justice and no justice if we do not realize that our "advanced" lifestyle is the result of centuries of exploitation of peoples and predation of resources that do not belong to us.

There is no need for this to turn into neo-luddites or to go back to the Middle Ages (remember somebody's statements about sending Iraq back to Middle Ages? Point made, I would say ..), but otherwise you can change our consumption, reduce waste and needs.

That does not automatically give us a better world but we will be on the right track to make possible a different world!"

Words and chains

2008-03-01T14:34:00.004+01:00

Beyond all the rhetoric with which we fill our books there is a reality that many avoid at all costs to know and do not want to take responsibility for.

It took me time to remember that slavery was abolished as I read this passage from an article in la Repubblica.

"A trip among the Chinese slaves who make copies of Smart exceeds the imagination: they work at temperatures close to zero degrees, in big sheds without heating, without gloves, without masks, without any kind of protection when in direct contact with every type of poison. Shifts are 12-15 hours a day and no distinction is made between young and old or men and women. Everyone, in any case, sleeps on bunk beds in the factory.
The fakes all end up in the United States, Canada and Europe, at an estimated rate of 100 copies per day.
There are about twenty clandestine factories shamelessly copying Smart in China. All are small and all are full of slave-workers who work in these dangerous conditions for a handful of coins.

In China those who assemble an iPod receive a salary of 40 euros. When it comes to salaries we Europeans aren't any better as in Eastern Europe "our" workers receive salaries below the poverty line. That is 380 euros per month for Poles who build a Fiat 500, 270 Euros for the Slovaks Aygò that assemble Toyota, Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and the new Renault Twingo and just 166 euros for Hungarians who produce the Opel Agila and Suzuki Splash. "

Of course, if the American, Canadian and European free markets boycott products sold below cost, or if we individuals do not buy them...

Let's do that...

2008-02-29T22:37:00.003+01:00

Watch the video

A page of the best Stefano Benni in "The company of Celestini" tells about the match of "let's do that", an extreme variant of streetball to be played 5 against 5.

Let's do that Naples becomes invaded by waste, so much so that you can't avoid walking in the middle of it, over it, under it.
Let's do that the Neapolitans, after 15 years of watste-crises, begin to protest against the bad government.
Let's do that the population asks for the organization of a modern system of waste management, limiting unnecessary packaging, practicing kerbside collection, treating the toxic waste, recycling empty containers, paper, wood, glass, metals and plastic, composting organic waste and, finally, dumping the remaining and safe 10% of the urban solid waste.
Let's do that the government imposes instead the cancerogenic incineration of the waste "such as it is", to which the interested communities oppose a clear NO.
Let's do that those who civilly and peacefully protest, defending their own rights and proposing good solutions inistead of bad solutions, become subdued as they are clubbed by the police forces.
Let's do that the number of citizens who protest peacefully is growing, and that there is a proportionate increase of clubbing. And that consequently there are more clubbing and more protests.
Let's do that the peaceful protest turns in rebellion...

Let's do that the populations of the Delta of the Niger see their oil fields exploited by the western multinationals, with no benefit to themselves, while they continue to live in extreme poverty.
Let's do that the trade agreements mean that Pakistan can buy technologies from Europe but it cannot sell in Europe their agricultural products in order to pay for the acquired technologies.
Let's do that for 25 years the Maldives government is one of nepotism, run by a bloody-thirsty dictator allowing torture, disappearances and repression of the dissenting voice, while the European and American tourists enjoy their holidays on the beach.
Let's do that in Botswana the AIDS is so widely spread among men and women that the average life expectancy is reduced to 40 years, but that the European and American drug companies refuse to reduce the cost of medicine (and the highest profits), preventing the poor people from being able to cure themselves.
Let's do that...
Let's do that...
Let's do that...

Justice, freedom, development!

2008-02-27T18:10:00.008+01:00

Watch the video and read the text

This is a start and every start is difficult. It is difficult to talk about peace without saying empty words. It took me 10 years to understand what peace is, admitting that I understood it well. On how to build it, I still have confused ideas, like everybody...

I know for sure what it is not.
Peace is not a gift of heaven and is not a gracious concession of the King. Peace depends on the men, the men only, on what they pursue and on how they act towards each another. That is why we all have responsibility on it, whether we like it or not.

Peace is a fundamental human right proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1984. To build it, it is essential "the renunciation of the use of force in international relations" (Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, UN, 1984).
But achieving this goal would be far only a step forward because conflicts and tensions not die by the signing of international treaties. Also today many conflicts are not international but intranational, between groups from the same state.

Martin Luther King in 1963, in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, distinguished "a negative peace which is the absence of tension" from "a positive peace which is the presence of justice".
In the same period, Malcolm X said: "You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has freedom."
Pope Paul VI, in the encyclical Populorum Progressio, 1967, bound schrewdly peace to "the progress of the poorer nations" and to "international social justice".

Today only children and mistifiers talk peace with absolute and empty words. All over the world operators, activists and philosophers talk about justice, freedom and development.
Peace exists where there is justice, freedom and development.
Peace exists when everyone is free to develop themselves in the way they want, without having to fight for their rights.

A culture of peace

2008-02-26T10:31:00.002+01:00

The BIPPIblog deals with education for a culture of peace.
It is not something that I invented myself.

The concept of Culture of Peace was delivered at the Congress on International Peace in Côte d'Ivoire in 1989. The Congress recommended to UNESCO to work to build a new vision of peace based on the universal values of respect for life, freedom, justice, solidarity, tolerance, human rights and equality between men and women.

Then it was discussed at the highest international levels for more than ten years in congresses, forums, conferences, committees and assemblies, a huge diplomatic effort to get the resolution 53/243 of 13 September 1999 in which the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on a Culture of Peace.

It states that "since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed".
Education for a culture of peace is "building peace in the minds of men".
This educational duty "belongs to parents, teachers, politicians, journalists, religious bodies and groups, intellectuals, those engaged in scientific, philosophical and creative and artistic activities, health and humanitarian workers, social workers, managers at various levels as well as to non-governmental organizations". (art.8 of the Declaration)
All actors in the civil society are called by the highest authorities of the world to guide young people to a culture of peace, namely towards a "set of values, attitudes, traditions and modes of behaviour and ways of life based on respect for life, ending of violence and promotion and practice of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation". (art.1 of the Declaration)

Education for a culture of peace is giving young people cultural models that orient them to meeting and not to confrontation, to dialogue and not to fight, to understanding and not to the injury, to the right and not to the oppression, to respect for diversity and not to its demonization. Building these values in the minds of young people all together, with great patience, in every corner of their daily lives.