The second thing I learnt

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

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

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

Read the whole article on Los Angeles Times.

Genetically Modified Organisms

The distribution of GMO cultivation in the world

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

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

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

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Bush aware!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are not doing a good job!

Look at video

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

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

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Want a Coca Cola? No thanks!

Watch the video

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

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

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

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

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

The Italians you didn't expect

Watch the video

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

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

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

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Does anybody know where Myanmar is?

Watch the video

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

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

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

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

PMC. Mamma mia!!!

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

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

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

An accurate and detailed work, essential reading.

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

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Peruvian Amazon on sale

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)

Know before you speak

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)

Invisible Colours of Benetton

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

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"

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)

Just two imbeciles...

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)

Culture of war

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