Supercommissari per le tante spazzature del Sud
Tuesday January 8th, 2008 | 10:46 pm | Uncategorized
The scandal of garbage collecting in Naples shows the failure of the policies of the last decades in the South of Italy, where local politicians have received money and powers without being able to develop their territories and to defend the legal system. The South does not need only a “Supercommissioner” with special authority for the garbage of Naples: political powers should be given back to the central government in all activities infiltrated by the organized crime. But putting under tutorship the Regions of the South, while leaving autonomy to the other Regions, who have demonstrated that they can stand on their own, is impossible without a very strong political coalition.
Si può battere il record di Nelly Bly?
Sunday January 6th, 2008 | 11:21 pm | Uncategorized
On the route of Verne’s Phileas Fogg, in 1889 the American journalist Nelly Bly made a tour around the world in 72 days and wrote a book, now translated into Italian by Luisa Cetti. It is almost impossible to do the same thing today, using public means of tranportation (without planes, of course), because the passenger ships on the long routes have been abolished. But with long trips by train and using a cruiser and a cargo ship, you can circle the world in around 60 days.
2008: un po’ d’ottimismo, nonostante il degrado
Monday December 31st, 2007 | 12:17 pm | Uncategorized
A few thoughts at the end of the year after some optimistic (and surprising, for some people) articles by il Sole 24 Ore. Italy is condemned to an inevitable decay? No. It’s true that the country is losing ground (even if politicians often deny it), but I am with the people who think that we can still invert the trend. To do it we need some faith in our possibilities, a change of the political system, but also the willingness to modify some of our personal attitudes versus the public good.
Womenomics, le donne al centro dell’economia
Sunday December 23rd, 2007 | 09:49 am | Uncategorized
“Women are now the most powerful engine of global growth”, says The Economist. Womenomics are getting more and more important, and Italy is among the European countries where the female employment rate is lower. I had the occasion to work on this topic with a group who has been in charge of preparing the official “Nota Aggiuntiva” on “women, innovation and development”. This document is a specific annex which Minister Emma Bonino this year attached to the Lisbona Report presented to the European Commission, in order to underline the need of a “faster pace” in fostering the quantity and quality of women’s employment. After this interesting experience I wrote an essay in Italian and English for East, Europe and Asia Strategies.
Riflessioni ferroviarie, dopo l’articolo del NYT
Saturday December 15th, 2007 | 08:08 pm | Uncategorized
“Italy is in a funk”, wrote the New York Times. In my opinion, something worse is happening, because Italians do not believe any more that the political class, any political class, will be able to solve their problems. Even the small ones, like the dirty toilets in the trains. Incompetence, unefficient or corrupted administration, but also bad behaviour by some citizens combine in a tangle very difficult to solve.
Smash: non ci resta che ridere
Monday December 10th, 2007 | 09:57 am | Uncategorized
The Italian Vips don’t accept humour and are ready to sue the journalists who criticize them. A book about them gives us, at least, a chance to laugh.
Bilal, che fare contro l’immigrazione clandestina?
Sunday December 2nd, 2007 | 11:59 pm | Uncategorized
“Bilal“, written by the Italian journalist Fabrizio Gatti, is the story of the people who through the Sahara try to come to Europe as illegal immigrants. You cannot read this book without asking yourself what to do against this terrible exploitation of people who are the best among the young generation of their countries. Illegal immigration has to be stopped, and information campaigns are important, specially if organized in the countries from where the migrants start. But we have to find ways to help families and young people to organize a decent living in their local communities.
Sei top down o bottom up?
Monday November 26th, 2007 | 10:33 pm | Uncategorized
You can stand on the right or on the left of the political circus, but a new dimension is now getting critical. There are people who believe in the political institutions and in the need to improve their functioning in order to control globalisation and others who think that the only useful political activity can be at the local level and that any valid change should come from the bottom. For me it’s obvious that local best practices, national politics, international governance are all necessary. It’s no use to play them one against the other, as if they were different ideologies. But more and more I meet people who are just “top down” or “bottom up”.
Beyond Gdp, ambientalisti ed economisti a confronto
Thursday November 22nd, 2007 | 06:04 pm | Felicità e benessere, Uncategorized
The “Beyond Gdp” meeting in Brussels put together environmentalists and economists on the concept of sustainable development and the ways to measure it. The old Gross domestic product is not perfect, but instead of quarreling ideologically around it, it is much better to work together researching new measures of the human progress. But the task will not be easy: it requires acceptance by the politicians and capacity to use the new indicators for better policies.
La grande sfida della governance mondiale
Friday November 16th, 2007 | 06:50 pm | Uncategorized
We will not have a world government in the near future, but we can’t survive without a global governance: these are my conclusions after having been in charge of the journalists’ desk of the World Energy Congress, going through all the speeches and debates to produce with my team a hundred of press releases. We need global governance for a secure flow of oil, gas and electricity between different countries, for reducing the international speculation on energy prices, for the use of nuclear energy, for drafting a post Kyoto agreement acceptable to all and really useful for curbing the CO2 emissions, for all the consequences of the climate change. We need leaders with vision and courage and a great pressure from public opinion.
