Global Voices » Italian

Italy: Rome Celebrates its 2,765th Anniversary

Abdoulaye Bah — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:45:33 +0000

Rome, the Eternal City, where myth becomes reality. Rome, where there is always something new to discover.

Before becoming site of the Holy See, Rome was first a city, then a republic and eventually an empire. Rome “was the most politically important, richest, and largest city in the Western world” over a period of almost seven hundred years. At the height of its power, the Roman Empire spanned from Britain to the Arabic Peninsula, North Africa and Eastern Europe.

On April 21, 2012, Romans celebrated the 2,765th anniversary of their city. Legend says that the Rome was founded by Romulus, a demigod nurtured by a wolf.

Coliseum on April 21, 2012 (author's photo)

Website, Why Rome?, explained the legend of the so-called Eternal City:

This Saturday, April 21st, Rome will celebrate its 2,765th birthday. (Can you imagine being around that many years?!) This is based on the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC. In case you're not familiar with the legend, here is a brief overview. Romulus and Remus were twins. Their mother, Rhea, was a Vestal Virgin, and their father was a god (Mars, the god of war). Before they were born, male descendants in the family were killed by their Grandfather's brother. When the twins were born, they were left to die. However, a she-wolf came along and nursed them. The boys grew up to become natural leaders. They decided to found a new city, but couldn't agree on the exact location. The two quarrelled, and Remus was killed in the end. Romulus then founded the new city on the Palatine Hill, and named it after himself … Rome.

Celebrating Rome, senator-style (author's photo)

Maria Merola of Satyrnet highlighted [it] the programme of activities:

Punto nodale del compleanno della Capitale saranno i Fori Imperiali che faranno da sfondo a rappresentazioni in grado di cogliere tutti gli aspetti storici, artistici e culturali che hanno reso Roma quello che è oggi. Roma difatti, tocca tutte le forme d'arte da quelle più antiche a quelle più contemporanee.

The focal point of the birthday celebrations will be the Fori Imperiali which will serve as the backdrop to performances that capture all of the historical, artistic and cultural aspects that have made Rome what it is today. In fact, Rome touches all forms of art from the most ancient to the most contemporary.

Soldiers of Ancient Rome (author's photo)

Website Cool Toura gave [it] a more detailed programme of events, inviting readers not to miss the concert:

Da non perdere, la serata di Sabato 21 Aprile 2012 in via dei Fori Imperiali (altezza Mercati di Traiano), dove alle 20.30 avrà inizio lo spettacolo “Le stelle di Roma” con attori, cantanti e musicisti che si esibiranno dal vivo. … Dalle 23 a mezzanotte, i Mercati di Traiano diventeranno il palcoscenico di uno spettacolo di proiezioni di luci e colori.

Do not miss the evening of Saturday, April 21, 2012 in Via dei Fori Imperiali (Trajan's Market), the show “The stars of Rome” will begin at 8.30pm with actors, singers and musicians who will perform live…. From 11pm to midnight, Trajan's Market will become the stage for a spectacle of color and light projections.

Despite its age, Buzz in Rome found the city to be still in reasonable condition:

Yes, Rome is very old but still in pretty good shape, notwithstanding the damages done by its unruly citizens, politicians and visitors! On April 21 according to the legend/tradition, it turns 2765. But, of course, there is no scientific evidence that it was founded in 753BC, let alone on April 21. Anyway, before the Liberation Day (April 25)/Labour Day(May 1) very long weekend there is one more big occasion to celebrate and have fun in Rome. The City council has organized a lot of events. Let’s see those that might be more enjoyable for non-Italian speakers.

Website 06Blog highlighted [it] the role historical places like the Capitol, Circus Maximus and Fori Imperiali would play in these events:

La Lupa, Romolo e Remo, Giulio Cesare, Nerone, i centurioni, con la storia e le leggende della città antica tornano in pompa magna, con le rivisitazioni storiche al Circo Massimo, il corteo in costume lungo via dei Fori Imperiali, le cerimonie solenni in Campidoglio, il Roma Caput Mundi - The Eternal Musical all’Auditorium Conciliazione, dal 18 al 22 aprile 2012.

There will be the she-wolf, Romulus and Remus, Julius Caesar, Nero, the centurions, with the history and legends of the ancient city. All of them will be back in full regalia from 18 to 22 April 2012 with historical revivals in the Circus Maximus, along Via dei Fori Imperiali and the ceremonies at the Capitol, Roma Caput Mundi - The Eternal Musical Auditorium Conciliazione.

Celebration of Rome's anniversary (author's photo)

These places are a testimony to the glory of Ancient Rome. The Circus Maximus, still accessible despite ongoing restructuring works, was a theatre for all kinds of entertainments over 2,500 years ago, with a capacity of 150 000 spectators. To this day, it is one of the largest stadiums built by mankind.

Architect Tom Rankin of the Sustainable Rome blog linked the anniversary of Rome with Earth Day on April 22. He asked:

While it’s easy to associate cultural heritage with Rome and environmental sustainability with the Earth, I am interested in building bridges between these two fields both locally and globally since I see the city not as the source of our global environmental problems but as the solution…. Can Rome leverage its richly layered history to sustain itself economically and ecologically? Can it re-use the resources accrued over time to avoid excess consumption? I believe it can and teach a course called Ecological Urbanism which uses Rome as a Laboratory to address themes such as waste, energy, water, transportation and land use.

Italy: Tragic Death of Piermario Morosini Shocks the Soccer World

Sara Gold — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:30:11 +0000

Since April 14, 2012, the Italian radio stations, Twitter, Facebook, as well as blogs from across the world have all been discussing the sudden, on-field death of Piermario Morosini, a 25-year-old soccer player, while playing for Livorno, a Serie B team of the Italian football league system.

The site seneweb.com explains [fr] how this tragic event unfolded:

Piermario Morosini, joueur de Livourne, est mort samedi [14 avril]. Durant la rencontre de Serie B entre Pescara et Livourne, le milieu de terrain s'est écroulé sur le terrain à la 31e minute de jeu, victime d'un arrêt cardiaque. Les secours se sont pressés autour de lui et ont tenté de le ranimer en lui prodiguant de nombreux massages cardiaques avec un défibrillateur. Mais rien n'y a fait, le footballeur âgé de 25 ans a succombé. Il est arrivé mort à l'hôpital.

Piermario Morosini, a player for Livorno, died on Saturday, April 14. During the Serie B match between Pescara and Livorno, in the 31st minute of the game, Morosini collapsed on the pitch, the victim of cardiac arrest. Medics rushed onto the field and attempted to resuscitate him. Despite their best efforts, the 25-year-old footballer succumbed. He was dead on arrival at the hospital.

"Rest in peace, Piermario Morosini " by @RealEsparta on Twitter

Over the course of his brief life, Piermario Morosini suffered many hardships. The site meltybuzz.fr remembers [fr]:

avait évolué dans plusieurs clubs de Série B (Bologne, Vicenza, Reggina, Padoue et Livourne). Mais il avait surtout vécu plusieurs drames personnels. Il avait ainsi perdu sa mère à l’âge de 15 ans. Son père est décédé deux ans plus tard tandis que son frère mourrait également quelques temps après.

He played for many Serie B teams (Bologna, Vicenza, Reggina, Padova, and Livorno). However, during this period he also experienced several personal tragedies. He had lost his mother at the age of 15. Two years later, his father passed away. Shortly thereafter, his brother also died.

Cameroun24.net compares [fr] this tragedy to that of the soccer player from Cameroon's national team, Marc–Vivien Foé, who died in 2003 during an official match of the FIFA Confederations Cup:

Cet après-midi du Samedi 14 Avril 2012, les Italiens ont vécu le remake du drame Camerounais du 23 Juin 2003 à Gerland où Marc –vivien Foé s’écroulait en plein match et décédait des instants après de suite d’arrêt cardiaque.

This Saturday afternoon, April 14, 2012, the Italians lived through a reenactment of the Cameroonian tragedy of June 23, 2003 at Stade de Gerland (a stadium in Lyon, France, home to the Ligue 1 club, Olympique Lyonnais) where Marc-Vivien Foé collapsed in the middle of a match, went into cardiac arrest, and instantly died.

The website maroc.senego.com recalls [fr] other sudden deaths of high-profile athletes in recent years:

Les images du joueur italien nous rappellent, tristement, celles du joueur du WAC Youssef Belkhouja, décédé lors d’un match de son équipe. D’autres joueurs ont subi le même sort sur le terrain, comme l’Espagnol Antonio Puerta (FC Séville, 2008), le Hongrois Mikos Feher (Benfica Lisbonne, en 2004) ou Marc-Vivien Foé lors d’un match avec le Cameroun (2003).

The images of the Italian footballer remind us, sadly, of the Wydad Casablanca athlete, Youssef Belkhouja, who also died during a match. Other players too have suffered the same fate on the field, such as the Spanish footballer Antonio Puerta (FC Seville, 2008), the Hungarian striker Mikos Feher (S.L. Benfica, 2004), and Marc-Vivien Foé, who died during a match being played by Cameroon (2003) (editor's note: the correct name of Hungarian athlete is Miklos Feher and Antonio Puerta died in 2007).

Although all of Italy is saddened by the tragedy, compounded by Morosini's youth and personal struggles, several controversies persist. Valentin Pauluzzi writes [fr] on the site calciomio.fr:

Deux enquêtes ont été ouvertes à Pescara pour savoir si les secours se sont déroulés normalement. Première polémique, le non usage du défibrillateur malgré sa présence. … Autre trame judiciaire, le timing de l’ambulance, on sait que 6 minutes et 24 secondes sont passées entre le malaise de Morosini et le départ de l’ambulance….

Two investigations were opened in Pescara to discover whether aid was administered in the proper manner. The first question is why the medics brought the defibrillator onto the field, but did not appear to use it. …Another inquiry is focused on the timing of the ambulance, which left for the hospital six minutes and 24 seconds after Morosini's heart attack.

Matthias Bertoncelli explains this delay [fr] by pointing out that a car was blocking the ambulance's way onto the field:

La voiture en question serait un véhicule de police stationné devant l’entrée où transitent en cas de besoins les véhicules de secours et ceux des pompiers.

The car in question was a police vehicle. It was parked outside the entrance which is supposed to remain clear for the use of emergency vehicles or firemen.

While insisting that this delay did not have any impact on Morosini's death, the mayor of Pescara acknowledged [fr] that the vehicle belonged to the local police and that the officer who was driving had been suspended pending an investigation. Further fueling the controversy was the fact that Piermario Morosini's fiancee was made to identify [it] the body in the morgue. The sight of a tear-stricken Anna Vavassori, a volleyball player barely 20 years old, touched all of Italy. The autopsy has not yet revealed the cause of death. On this subject, alex54.blogspot.it writes [fr]:

L'autopsie pratiquée sur le corps de Piermario Morosini, le joueur de Livourne foudroyé samedi en plein match, n'a pas révélé la cause exacte de son décès. “Il n'y a aucun signe évident qui nous permette de déterminer les raisons de la mort de ce garçon”, a déclaré Christian D'Ovidio, un responsable des services de santé. Des examens toxicologiques devraient être menés dans les jours à venir.

The autopsy performed on the body of Piermario Morosini, the Livorno footballer struck down during a match on Saturday, did not reveal the exact cause of his death. “There were no obvious signs that would enable us to determine the cause of the boy's death,” declared Christian D'Ovidio, a medical services official. Further toxicological exams would be conducted in the days to come.

The funeral, by Sol Acik on Twitter

As a mark of respect for this tragedy, sporting events around the world observed one minute of silence. The soccer clubs that had shared the services of the unfortunate athlete also took more concrete steps. The site sport-maroc.com revealed [fr]:

Le club de Livourne a annoncé que le maillot N.25, porté par Morosini, sera retiré. Udinese, qui a prêté en janvier le joueur au club toscan, a de son côté assuré qu’il s’occupera à l’avenir de la sœur du défunt.

The Livorno club announced that jersey #25, worn by Morosini, would be retired. The Serie A Udinese club, which had loaned Morosini to the Tuscan club [Livorno], stated that they would look after Morosini's sister, Carla Maria Morosini. (Carla is severely disabled and relied on her brother for financial support).

Remi Lestang writes [fr] on the blog lestontonsdusport.fr:

Une situation qui a ému le club de l’Udinese, et plus particulièrement Antonio Di Natale. Ils ont promis de prendre soin d’elle. « Nous connaissons la situation de sa sœur et l’équipe, le club et Udinese for Life [l’association caritative du club] avons décidé de l’aider car elle est vraiment dans le besoin. …. Elle a déjà tout perdu, c’est essentiel de rester au côté de la sœur de Piermario pour le reste de sa vie. Elle a besoin de nous et nous voulons l’aider. Pour elle et pour Mario. », a déclaré le joueur.

This is a situation that moved the Udinese club, and in particular Antonio Di Natale ( captain of the Udinese team). They promised to take care of her. “We know the situation of his sister and the team, the club, and Udinese for Life [the club's charitable organization] decided to help because she is truly in need. …She has already lost so much, it is essential to stand alongside Piermario's sister for the rest of her life. She needs us, and we want to help her. For her and for Mario,” declared Di Natale.

For his part, the president of the Atalanta club, Antonio Percassi told [it] the press that he considered it his duty to take care of Carla Maria Morosini forever, as would have happened if Piermario's life had not been tragically cut short. This incident is prompting people to raise their voices and ask whether the pace to which these players are subjected, contributes to these sudden deaths. Cesare Prandelli, the manager of the Italian national soccer team, stated [it] during Piermario Morosini's funeral in Bergamo:

Di fronte a questa tragedia il calcio deve porsi degli interrogativi. Medicina sportiva e prevenzione in Italia sono all’avanguardia, ma si può migliorare’.

Faced with this tragedy, the football community must ask itself hard questions. Italy has state-of-the-art preventive sports medicine, but we must improve.

Alas, it was not the end of Morosini's ordeal. The athlete's body was transported through many cities: to Pescara, where his team was playing when he lost his life; to Chieti, where the autopsy took place; to Livorno, the city of Morosini's team in which it is estimated that more than 8000 [fr] fans paid tribute to the athlete; and finally to Bergamo, where Piermario Morosini was laid to rest.

The wake [it] took place at Livorno's Armando Picchi Stadium in the presence of a great many supporters, while the April 19 funeral in the Church of San Gregorio Barbarigo [it] was broadcast on five local and national television channels [it]: Bergamotv.it, Sky tg 24, Tgcom24, Rai Sport Eco di Bergamo. Several thousand people, from sympathizers to representatives of the governing bodies of Italian sports, gathered in the church and along the road for several hundred meters.

According to a report on the program “La vita in diretta” [it] (Live from Life) telecast on the primary Italian television station, RAI UNO, the funeral ceremony recognized the personality of “Moro,” as Morosini was affectionately known. During the homily, the priest, one of Morosini's friends, recalled a touching phrase that the athlete had liked to repeat,”Me, I have more reasons to be grateful than I do to complain”, despite all of the trials and tribulations that life had in store for him.

It has been decided by the local council that from now on, the bleachers in the south bend of the stadium in Bergamo (Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia) will bear the name [it] of Piermario Morosini.

Remembering Murdered Activist, Vittorio Arrigoni

Ciara Nugent — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:00:25 +0000

[All external links in Italian unless otherwise indicated]

On April 15, 2011, news came of the kidnapping and then murder in Gaza of Vittorio Arrigoni, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, an event which sent shock waves through the world of international activism, its ripples felt far beyond the online world.

Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza, from his Facebook profile.

Vittorio, better known as Vik, provided a first person account of Gaza and Palestine on his blog Guerrilla Radio, concluding each post with the message Restiamo umani (Stay Human). The blog is still active today, thanks to the efforts of friends and collaborators, who keep his memory and engagement alive by documenting and describing the everyday lives, difficulties and violence suffered by Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Facebook pages [ar] in several different languages have been created and dedicated to his memory.

A year after his death, many initiatives have been organised to commemorate his courageous defense of human rights and support of the Palestinian cause. Events and demonstrations are planned for various cities in Italy (for a complete list see this Facebook page), but there will also be events in several European cities, including Paris [fr] , Madrid [es], Cologne and Palma de Mallorca [es], as well as in Gaza, Ramallah and in Cairo [all en].

Demonstration in Gaza in memory of Arrigoni - April 15 , 2012, from Facebook

The independent news network Globalist.it is running a retrospective of Arrigoni's work and writings (some of it previously unpublished) and has allowed friends, writers and journalists ample space to share their memories and stories of Arrigoni.

Another initiative, established with the support of Arrigoni's family, has taken the form of a reading movie, produced thanks to a crowdfunding initiative which ended on March 31, 2012. Nineteen international figures (including Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno, Stéphane Hessel, Luisa Morgantini, Moni Ovadia, Ilan Pappé and Roger Waters) who have, in the past, shown interest and engagement, from a cultural or humanitarian perspective, with the tragic consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have agreed to “lend their voices” to the reading of 19 chapters of the book Gaza - Restiamo Umani (Gaza - Stay Human), a collection of Arrigoni's articles written during his months in Palestine as part of the “Piombo Fuso” [”Melted Lead”] operation.

The trailer for the film “Gaza - Stay Human” [en]:

In addition to the commemorative events there is also an important and significant initiative being organised by the international Freedom Flotilla network. On Sunday, April 15, an international mission of 1,500 Italian and international activists will set out to “break the isolation and the siege of Palestine”.

On the initiative's site they declared:

Questa nuova missione ha per obiettivo, quello di rivendicare il diritto di entrare in Palestina e la libera circolazione per i palestinesi e per chiunque voglia andare a trovarli, rompendo l’assedio “di fatto” che Israele pratica anche in Cisgiordania. […] Il nostro progetto è trasparente: noi andiamo direttamente in Cisgiordania per contribuire alla costruzione di una scuola. Il terreno è già stato acquistato, i lavori sono iniziati e quello che vedete qui sopra è il progetto degli edifici. All’uscita dell’aeroporto di Tel Aviv, il 15 aprile, ci aspetteranno delle auto per portarci direttamente a Betlemme, dove le famiglie e le associazioni palestinesi ci riceveranno.

This new mission's objective is to assert the right to enter Palestine and to free circulation for Palestinians and for anyone who wants to go and find them, breaking the de facto siege that Israel is also practicing in the West Bank. […] Our project is straightforward. We're going directly to the West Bank to contribute to the construction of a school. The land has already been purchased, the construction has already started and what you can see above is the plan for the buildings. On leaving Tel Aviv airport on the 15 April we will be met by cars which will bring us directly to Bethlehem, where Palestinian families and associations will host us.

For news and live updates on the initiative you can follow the @freedomflotita account and the hashtags #flytilla and #airflotilla2 on Twitter.

Currently Vittorio's Facebook page is the main location for sharing and announcing events and memories. Messages of support and memories have been circulating for days on Twitter as well, even if there are plenty of critics as well.

For example, @dscanferla writes:

I paci-finti non si smentiscono mai, #Arrigoni è morto da un anno, il processo a #Gaza è una farsa e per loro la colpa è d'#Israele ???

The false pacifists are always the same, #Arrigoni has been dead for more than a year, the trial in #Gaza is a farce and according to them it's all #Israel's fault ???

Rosa Schiano, an activist and photo-reporter who knew Vik personally, describes a demonstration organised by children from Beit Lahia:

@infoxresist I bambini di Beit Lahia, a nord della Striscia di Gaza, ricordano vik con musica e e rappresentazioni.

@infoxresist The children of Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, remember vik with music and plays.

A year after his tragic death however, the events leading to his death remain uncertain. A motive for the killing has yet to emerge from the 14 court hearings held so far and many suspect the Israeli police of mishandling information.

Michele Giorgio addressed that view on the Near East News Agency site:

Ritrattando in buona parte le confessioni che avevano reso negli interrogatori seguiti all’arresto da parte della polizia di Hamas, i tre – Mahmud Salfiti, Tamer Hasasnah e Khader Jram – hanno recitato, davanti ai giudici della corte militare di Gaza city, la parte dei giovani difensori delle tradizioni sociali «minacciate» da un presunto stile di vita troppo «liberal» di Vittorio. Più di tutto hanno negato di essere stati a conoscenza di un piano per uccidere l’attivista italiano. È evidente il tentativo degli avvocati della difesa di far ricadere tutte le responsabilità su Breizat e Omari che non possono raccontare la loro versione dei fatti. La prossima udienza è fissata per il 14 maggio e secondo alcune voci potrebbe essere l’ultima prima della sentenza.

Retracting, for the main part, the confessions that they made to interrogators after their arrest by Hamas's police force, in front of a military court in Gaza City, the three men - Mahmud Salfiti, Tamer Hasasnah and Khader Jram - played the parts of young defenders of social traditions “threatened” by Vittorio's lifestyle which they considered too “liberal”. Above all else they denied knowing about a plan to kill the Italian activist. The lawyers' attempts to place all the blame on Breizat and Omari, who cannot defend themselves, are obvious. The next hearing is set for the 14 May and according to several sources it may well be the last hearing before sentencing.

Two Partito Democratico (Democratic Party) MPs - Vincenzo Vita and Lucia Codurelli - tabled a question in the Italian parliament in order to seek clarification from the government of the motives behind the kidnapping and killing of the activist.

Please stay human.

Italy: Netizens Ponder the April 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake

Superjules — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:09:05 +0000

[All links lead to Italian language pages, except when otherwise noted]

As still marked by many church clocks and bell towers at the center of L'Aquila [en], at 3:32 am of April 6, 2009, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake broke the silence of the sleeping town and destroyed the lives of many of its inhabitants. To remember the third anniversary of the tragic event, citizens came together in support and remembrance, created numerous web pages for retelling and commenting upon the earthquake and its far-reaching effects.

Church clock stuck at 3:32 am of April 6, 2009 in L'Aquila. Photo by StazioneMIR, under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.5 License

There was no dearth of official visits and commemorations — significant to many was the presence of Fabrizio Barca, the minister of “Coesione territoriale” [the Italian office created in 2011 to coordinate the actions of local governments and support political infrastructure in central-southern Italy], who has shown particular concern for Aquila's situation and to creating transparency in the reconstruction process — amidst great sorrow and grief, demands for justice and for guarantees of reconstruction.

In the last two days, many have shared, above all via Twitter, (#laquila, #terremoto, #laquilapernoi, #6aprile) their memories and reflections, and expressed solidarity with the people of Aquila. Highly referenced in these tweets is a telephone conversation intercepted the day after the earthquake, in which two businessmen joke about the event, looking forward hungrily to the money to be made in rebuilding. In this short video you can hear a excerpt from the conversation.

‏ @ermeneleutico dedicates a few verses to the town:

Buonanotte l'Aquila / riempita di promesse / usata e abbandonata / per meschino interesse

Goodnight L'Aquila / full of promise / used and abandoned / for petty self-interest

While Marta Torres shows her solidarity with the people of the city of L'Aquila and the region of Abruzzo:

Non dimentico mai #laquila, città distrutta il #6aprile. VERGOGNA k sia ancora una città fantasma. Tutti il mio affetto al popolo abruzzese ♥

I will never forget #laquila, destroyed city the #6aprile. SHAME that it is still a ghost town. All of my affection to the people of Abruzzo ♥

@Bebo1936 recounts his experience three years ago:

Tre anni fa ero a scappare per la violenta scossa di #Earthquake all'#aquila #Abruzzo

Three years ago I was trying to escape the violent shaking of the #Earthquake in #aquila #Abruzzo

And @DaniDBJ adds:

L'Italia che quella notte non rideva, oggi non dimentica.. #6april #laquila

Italy did not laugh that night, today it does not forget.. #6april #laquila

Finally, @liv_77 demonstrates how there has not yet been a return to normalcy for the people of L'Aquila:

Da 3 anni, ahimè, guardo il sito di INGV -@INGVterremoti #laquila

For 3 years, alas, I look at the INGV website -@INGVterremoti #laquila

Many initiatives have been launched to safeguard the memory of the event. A video made by Shoot4Change and Anpas collected voices, images and live stories, creating a space for collective sharing and remembering.

Move Productions and Al Jazeera English produced a documentary titled “Ritorno a L'Aquila” (Return to L'Aquila), that was transmitted today by hundreds of web tv channels, coordinated by the Altratv.tv network together with Internet provider Tiscali.

Furthermore, on April 15, the online magazine Wired.it has launched a campaign with the goal of maintaining a high level of attention on L'Aquila emergency in order to discuss publicly the reconstruction projects and the rebirth of the city. To this end, there's also been a barcamp organized in the central Duomo Square. For information and updates on the organization of these events, you can follow the hashtag #occupylaquila on Twitter.

The collective 3:32, put together in the weeks following the earthquake, published on its blog a long reflection on the most relevant events to characterize the past three years in L'Aquila:

Il terremoto del 2009 è stato senza dubbio una catastrofe; e quindi, come qualsiasi catastrofe nella storia dell’evoluzione del mondo, ha distrutto delle cose, delle forme di vita, ma ne ha fatte sorgere delle altre. Anzi, la sfida della ricostruzione è riuscita ad attivare dei processi di incontro e comunicazione tra le persone che prima sembravano impossibili. […] Più che restaurata, o semplicemente ricostruita, la nostra città deve essere rifondata. Battersi per L’Aquila oggi significa in primo luogo opporsi alle speculazioni edilizie e all’ulteriore consumo di suolo e territorio. […] La nostra è certamente una lotta territoriale, con la sua identità e le sue specificità, ma è anche una lotta per un modello complessivo fatto di politica trasparente, di decisioni realmente democratiche e partecipate, di rispetto del patrimonio ambientale e culturale e sviluppo eco-sostenibile.

The 2009 earthquake was without a doubt catastrophic; as with any catastrophe there's ever been, it destroyed many things, it destroyed many living things, but it gave way to new creations. The challenge of reconstruction has activated certain channels of communication that before would have seemed impossible. […] More than restored, or simply reconstructed, our city has to be founded again. To fight for L'Aquila today means, in the first place, to oppose building speculation and the further buying up of land and territory. […] Ours is specifically a territorial dispute, but it is also a fight for a totally transperant political model. A truly participatory model in which real democratic decisions are made, in which our environmental and cultural patrimony is respected and sustained.

L'Aquila still resisting. Photo by Abruzzo Indymedia under a Creative Commons BY-SA 2.5 License

There has been no lack of official voices either, like that of Stefania Pezzopane, councilwoman for culture in L'Aquila, who on the news website Articolo21.org wrote:

Il 6 aprile resta una data diversa dalle altre perché sono passati più di mille giorni e sentiamo sulle nostre vite il peso di una precarietà e di un disorientamento che persistono. La nostra città è ancora deserta, ferita, priva di quella vita pulsante che era, poi, la quotidianità di ciascuno di noi. […] Questo non è un giorno normale proprio perché, a fianco al lutto che è impresso come una ferita nei nostri cuori, ci stupiamo della nostra forza e della speranza che ancora riusciamo a donare allo sguardo con cui cerchiamo di abbracciare il futuro.

April 6 remains a date that is different from all others. Today, more than 1,000 days after that date, we yet feel the weight of persisting unpredictability and disorientation. Our city is still a wasteland, wounded, deprived of its pulse, which beat beneath the daily experience of every one of us. […] This is no normal day precisely because, next to the mourning that is cut like a wound into our hearts, we continually surprise ourselves at our strength and we still manage to look to the future with hope.

Walking about the streets of the city and its surrounding neighborhoods, one realizes that in L'Aquila the trauma is still present and visible, but stronger yet is the resentment of those families who will never see their homes again, of those who feel abandoned and who believe that not enough has been done, that in three years nothing (or almost nothing) has changed: debris and rubble piled on the streets downtown, houses propped-up in makeshift fashion, windowless buildings make up the cityscape awaiting tourists in the medieval jewel of Abruzzo.

Thousands were wounded and 309 people died, many of whom were students from all over Italy who had moved to L'Aquila to attend its university.

The L'Aquila tragedy, as it persisted after the earthquake, did not concern solely the loss of human life during the catastrophic event: there were many judicial inquiries (some still under way) regarding the handling of the emergency, the responsibilty of those companies that chose building materials and designs that were unfit for an earthquake zone (in particular, the construction of public buildings, like student housing, has come under questioning), and regarding lobbyists and other groups interested in receiving a portion of the funds allocated to reconstruction of the city and the entire seismic crater.

After the triple catastrophe (tsunami, earthquake, near nuclear meltdown) that a year ago battered Japan [en], there are many comparisons to be made between Fukushima and L'Aquila, comparisons that underline the differences in ‘approach' between Italian and Japanese scientists when it comes to making previsions for earthquakes based on seismology.

A couple of months after the event, when the media frenzy that brought L'Aquila such (sad) international notoriety had left, the floodlights suddenly turned off. Now, three years after the tragedy, there is still much work to be done before the city and community can return to the actual stability they once knew.

Italy: Protests Blaze Over High-Speed Rail to France

Ciara Nugent — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:54:32 +0000

[all links in Italian unless otherwise indicated]

The debate surrounding the construction of a new railway line linking Turin to Lyon [en], which faces fierce opposition from the “No to Tav” movement, has turned increasingly bitter and an upsurge in protests has brought the affair into the political and media spotlight.

Since 1991, this protest movement, made up mainly of inhabitants of Valle di Susa in Piemonte, has opposed the construction of a high speed (treno altà velocità, or TAV, in Italian) railway line between Turin and Lyon. According to its opponents, the TAV project is not only pointless and costly but will also prove environmentally, socially and economically damaging to the area and its inhabitants, given that construction of the railway line will destroy a wide swathe of the countryside, leaving several villages changed beyond all recognition and resulting in the closure of small local businesses.

The Italian government and the European Union are determined to press ahead with what they consider a strategic project, as it will eventually link Northern Italy with Eastern Europe. The mayors and inhabitants of the communities affected insist that the construction of a new railway line is completely unjustifiable, given that goods traffic on the existent line is minimal. The project is due to cost the Italian state 30 million euro at a time when its citizens are tightening their belts in response to the current crisis.

Suppression of the opposition movement by the forces of order has been particularly severe over the last few months. Following clashes last summer, work on the railway line was restarted on February 27 with the eviction of protesters from their camp and the fencing off of private land without due legal process.

A "No TAV" march, 25/02/2012, from Bussoleno to Susa. Photo reproduced under Creative Commons License BY-SA

During a recent demonstration against the dismantlement of the movement's camp, one of the best known members of the movement, Luca Abbà, was badly injured when he fell off a pylon, from a height of around ten metres. As a result, a halt to construction was requested. In the video which follows, which is also available on the YouReporter.it website, police officers burst into a bar after demonstrators blocked off a motorway, and proceeded to ID everyone present.

Police action of this kind and attempts in the national media to characterise opponents of the TAV as “violent”, have been interpreted by many netizens as a excuse to delegitimise the movement as a whole. On his blog Le Parole e le Cose (Words and Things), for example, Mauro Piras writes:

Il problema non è più prendere posizione. Pro o contro la TAV (o il TAV? la divisione passa anche per le parole, i No TAV della valle usano il maschile). E non è neanche quello dei “gruppetti di violenti” contrapposti alla “maggioranza dei manifestanti pacifici”. Questa rappresentazione è ingenua, o costruita. C’è qualcosa di più profondo, qualcosa che sfugge a noi quarantenni della classe media di, diciamo, centrosinistra

It's no longer a question of picking sides. Whether you're pro or anti TAV […] And it's not even a question of “small radical groups” versus a “peaceful majority”. This characterisation is ingenuous or false. It's something deeper, something that escapes those of us who are middle-aged, middle-class and, dare I say it, centre-left.

The debate has, by now, spread throughout the country, moving from centri sociali (non-profit community spaces, used for a variety of local activities and often centres of political and social dissent) [en] to schools. Students have also decided to demonstrate, as explained on the website Rete della conoscenza (Web of Knowledge):

Crediamo che quest'operazione della polizia avesse come unico obiettivo quello di criminalizzare e screditare un movimento che aveva organizzato una grande manifestazione pacifica (…).
La battaglia No Tav, non è solo una lotta di un popolo in difesa di una valle ma è una lotta di tutti coloro che credono che il territorio sia un bene comune da difendere e non da sfruttare per interessi economici, per questo torneremo in Val Susa e saremo sempre al fianco di chi lotta contro le opere inutili.

We believe that the sole aim of the police operation has been to discredit and criminalise a movement which had organised a large, peaceful demonstration(…).
The battle against the TAV isn't just for people fighting to defend their valley but for everyone who believes that the countryside is communal heritage to be defended and not to be milked for economic gain, it's for this reason that we will go back to the Val Susa and we will always stand alongside those who fight unnecessary development.

The Twitter debate has also been very heated. One of the critics of the the “No TAV” movement, @Axell, writes:

Gli studenti NO TAV dei licei che oggi hanno bloccato Porta Nuova e zone limitrofe sanno dove è la Val di Susa? #SiTav #aveterottoleballe

Do the NO TAV secondary students who blocked Porta Nuova station and surrounding areas today even know where the Val di Susa is? #SiTav #aveterottoleballe (you're complete pains in the arse)

Among its supporters, however, were @fulviomassa:

“inizia ora la passeggiata verso la Baita Clarea” [where TAV construction work was due to start] forza!

“The road towards Baita Clarea starts here” come on!

Antonio Ballestrazzi ‏ @pesce2802:

#sitav #notav spiegatemi bene,per migliorare il trasporto delle merci prosciughiamo i fiumi che servono a irrigare i campi che le producoono

#sitav #notav Let me get this straight, in order to improve the transportation of goods, we're going to drain the rivers that irrigate the fields where they're produced?

@uomoinpolvere:

ma com'è possibile che pure a un sondaggio mediaset il 70% sono #notav e in parlamento e sui giornali sono tutti #sitav? fatevi due domande

When even a Mediaset survey finds that 70% of people say #notav, how is it possible that the newspapers and the parliament are all #sitav? Ask yourself two questions

Reasons for expressing solidarity with the demonstrators varied. The No Tav movement was placed in the context of the current crisis in Europe [en] on the blog Uninomade:

Il No Tav è un movimento dentro la crisi e contro l’austerity, i suoi temi centrali sono dichiaratamente la lotta ai tagli, al debito e sul welfare. Non contro lo sviluppo e la modernità, ma per lo sviluppo dell’autonomia della cooperazione sociale contro lo sviluppo capitalistico che tenta di imbrigliarla o distruggerla.

The No Tav movement is born of the crisis and opposed to austerity, its central messages are the fight against cuts, against debt and in favour of the welfare state. Not against development and modernity but in favour of the development of autonomous social cooporation rather than capitalistic development that tries to hold back or destroy cooperation.

Antonio Negri, issued the following invitation to dialogue, which compares the movement to the global Occupy [en] movement:

Qualsiasi persona calma e tranquilla che non viva nel ricordo ossessivo degli anni ’70 come certi nostri dirigenti sembrano vivere, sa che trattare è possibile ed evitare radicalizzazioni inopportune e pericolose è utile. Ma per farlo bisogna che la politica in Italia rinasca e non può rinascere che dalla presa di parola di coloro che, resistendo, aprono a tutti la speranza di una nuova partecipazione democratica.

Any calm and reasonable person who, unlike certain of our leaders, is not stuck in the 70s knows that negotiation is possible and that avoiding inopportune and dangerous radicalisation is useful. But in order for this to succeed, politics in Italy must change and can only be reborn when people speak out and resist and thus gives everyone hope for a new democratic participation.

Throughout the country, solidarity with, and and actions in support of the Valle di Susa, have emerged, including the “Blocchiamo tutto” (Blockade Everything) initiative on the 1st of March when the main stations in Rome and Bologna and other key railway intersections were blockaded. Meanwhile demonstrations in support of the movement have spread across Europe, including to the French end of the proposed Turin-Lyon line.

Anonymous Italia, a hacker collective, has also swung into action, first blocking access to the Carabinieri's website and then to the official sites of the government, the Vatican, Trenitalia [National railway company] and Equitalia [National fine collector agency]. Below are some reactions to their actions:

Baruda:
#Anonymous e #Trenitalia: niente da fare, io li amo! TANGO DOWN #OpItaly wp.me/pfk0G-2dj #notav

Baruda:
#Anonymous and #Trenitalia: no bones about it, I love them TANGO DOWN #OpItaly wp.me/pfk0G-2dj #notav

andrea_nicolini:

@Skytg24: #Anonymous attacca #Trenitalia.it: tra il tilt e la normale fruibilita' del sito nessuna differenza…

@Skytg24: #Anonymous attacks #Trenitalia.it: the blocked site is no different to the normal one…

Info Free Flow:

Oggi paga #equitalia. #Anonymous riscuote. Ma i conti non sono ancora saldati. pastebin.com/BSX9gNs7

Today #equitalia pays. #Anonymous in action. But accounts still haven't been settled. pastebin.com/BSX9gNs7

While the judiciary is investigating several demonstrators, charged after the most recent protests, the affair remains uncertain and controversial. The hashtag #notav is more popular on Twitter, while I Fratelli di TAV (Brothers of the TAV) are uploading a series of videos on Vimeo about the movement's history, events and dynamics, including the following video of the blockade, on the 29th of February this year, of the Turin to Bardonecchia motorway:

Ylenia Gostoli and Bernado Parrella contributed to the writing of this post.

Italy Condemned for Violations of African Refugee Rights

Greg Ahlswede — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:43:17 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.

On February 23, 2012, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has come to a historic judgment, that Italy violated the European Convention on Human Rights by intercepting and sending back Eritrean and Somali migrants to Libya.

African Refugees by Vito Manzari on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Unione Diritti Umani Blog explains [it] the events:

Il caso Hirsi e altri contro Italia riguarda la prima operazione di respingimento effettuata il 6 maggio 2009, a 35 miglia a sud di Lampedusa, in acque internazionali. Le autorità italiane hanno intercettato una barca con a bordo circa 200 somali ed eritrei, tra cui bambini e donne in stato di gravidanza. Questi migranti sono stati presi a bordo da una imbarcazione italiana, respinti a Tripoli e riconsegnati, contro la loro volontà, alle autorità libiche. Senza essere identificati, ascoltati né preventivamente informati sulla loro reale destinazione. I migranti erano, infatti, convinti di essere diretti verso le coste italiane. 11 cittadini somali e 13 cittadini eritrei, rintracciati e assistiti in Libia dal Consiglio italiano per i rifugiati dopo il loro respingimento, hanno presentato un ricorso contro l’Italia alla Corte Europea, attraverso gli avvocati Anton Giulio Lana e Andrea Saccucci, dell’Unione forense per la tutela dei diritti umani.

The Hirsi case and others versus Italy pertains to the first push back operation carried out on May 6, 2009, in international waters, 35 miles south of Lampedusa. Italian authorities intercepted a boat carrying some 200 Somalis and Eritreans, including children and pregnant women. The migrants were then taken on board an Italian ship, sent back to Tripoli, and handed over against their will to Libyan authorities. They were not identified, no one listened to them or informed beforehand of their actual destination. In fact, the migrants were convinced that were heading toward the Italian coast. After this operation, 11 Somali citizens and 13 Eritrean citizens, who were found and helped in Libya by the Italian Council for Refugees, brought action against Italy before the European Court of Justice. Assistance was provided by Anton Giulio Lana and Andrea Saccucci, from the Union of Lawyers for Protection of Human Rights.

GiulioL [it] described the operation upon their arrival in Tripoli [it] on the blog ilmalpaese:

Sul molo di Tripoli li aspettava la polizia libica, con i camion container pronti a caricarli, come carri bestiame, per poi smistarli nelle varie prigioni del paese. A bordo di quelle motovedette c’era un fotogiornalista, Enrico Dagnino, che ha raccontato la violenza di quell’operazione. Poi fu censura.

The Libyan police were awaiting them on the dock with container trucks ready to pick them up, like livestock onto cattle cars, and then send them to various prisons around the country. A photojournalist, Enrico Dagnino, who was on board the patrol boat, described in detail the violence in this operation. After that, the proceedings were censored.

This action led to the non-implementation of the principles governing the treatment of people fleeing from danger, Henry Oliver explains on the UK Human Rights blog:

The return involved a violation of Article 3 (anti-torture and inhumane treatment), Article 4 of Protocol 4 (collective expulsion of aliens), and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy). The patrols that returned migrants to Libya were in breach of the non-refoulement principle.

An immigrant's t-shirt saying "I am an immigrant using soap and water" to avoid abuse. By Cristiano Corsini on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

The old Italian government, formed by Silvio Berlusconi's party, Popolo della libertà (People of Freedom), and Umberto Bossi's extreme right party, the Northern League, created a legal arsenal and took steps against immigration in Italy, which have been denounced on several occasions by civil society and the Catholic Church. Italy has also been condemned on various instances for its anti-immigration [it] policy, which is inconsistent with European treaties.

Gabriele Del Grande's blog fortresseurope.blogspot.com [it] publishes information about Fortess Europe's activities for the defense of immigrant rights. The association has produced a great number of reports, first hand accounts and films on refugee treatment in Italy as well as in other European countries.

Here he describes prison life [it] in Libya during the rule of the old regime:

Siamo a Misratah, 210 km a est di Tripoli, in Libia. E i detenuti sono tutti richiedenti asilo politico eritrei, arrestati al largo di Lampedusa o nei quartieri degli immigrati a Tripoli. Vittime collaterali della cooperazione italo libica contro l’immigrazione. Sono più di 600 persone, tra cui 58 donne e diversi bambini e neonati. Sono in carcere da più di due anni, ma nessuno di loro è stato processato. Dormono in camere senza finestre di 4 metri per 5, fino a 20 persone, buttati per terra su stuoini e materassini di gommapiuma. Di giorno si riuniscono nel cortile di 20 metri per 20 su cui si affacciano le camere, sotto lo sguardo vigile della polizia. Sono ragazzi tra i 20 e i 30 anni. La loro colpa? Aver tentato di raggiungere l’Europa per chiedere asilo.

We are in Misratah, 210 km east of Tripoli, in Libya. All the prisoners here are Eritrean asylum seekers, arrested offshore of Lampedusa or in immigrant neighborhoods in Tripoli. Collateral victims of Italy's and Libya's cooperation against immigration. More than 600 people, of whom 58 are women, there are also several children and babies in the group. They have been in prison for over two years, but none of them has been tried. Up to 20 people sleep laid out on mats or foam mattresses in windowless rooms measuring 4 meters by 5. During the day, they are placed under the police's vigilant eye into a courtyard, measuring 20 meters by 20, onto which the rooms open. They are all between 20 and 30 years old. And what did they do wrong? Attempt to reach Europe in search of asylum.

The blog observatoirecitoyen.over-blog.org discloses [fr] that:

Le principe de non refoulement, inscrit dans la Convention des Nations unies sur le statut des réfugiés de 1951, interdit de renvoyer une personne vers un pays où sa vie ou sa liberté peut être menacée. …

Quelque 602 migrants ont été interceptés en mer et immédiatement refoulés de mai à juillet 2009, principalement vers la Libye, un pays où “toute personne détenue risque d'être soumise à des mauvais traitements sérieux” ou d'être renvoyée vers un pays où existent de tels risques, note le CPT (Comité de prévention de la torture).

Certes, reconnaît-il, “les Etats ont le droit souverain de protéger leurs frontières et de contrôler l'immigration”, mais l'Italie doit revoir ses procédures pour s'assurer que tous les migrants interceptés reçoivent d'abord des soins et puissent déposer une demande d'asile.

The principle of non-refoulement, enshrined in the 1951 in the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, prohibits sending a person back to a country where his life or freedom may be threatened. …

From May to July 2009, some 602 migrants were intercepted at sea and immediately turned away. They were chiefly sent back to Libya, a country where “every person arrested risks being subjected to serious mistreatment,” or of being sent back to a country where such risks do exist, the CPT remarked (Committee for the Prevention of Torture).

Of course, the CPT admits, “States have the sovereign right to protect their borders and control immigration,” but Italy should review its procedures to ensure that all intercepted migrants first receive care and can apply for asylum.

Unfortunately in Europe, Italy is not the only country to carry out forced mass repatriations. This association reports [it] that:

Dal 1988 sono morte lungo le frontiere dell'Europa almeno 18.058 persone. Di cui 2.251 soltanto dall'inizio del 2011. Il dato è aggiornato al 7 dicembre 2011 e si basa sulle notizie censite negli archivi della stampa internazionale degli ultimi 23 anni. Il dato reale potrebbe essere molto più grande. Nessuno sa quanti siano i naufragi di cui non abbiamo mai avuto notizia. Lo sanno soltanto le famiglie dei dispersi, che dal Marocco allo Sri Lanka, si chiedono da anni che fine abbiano fatto i loro figli partiti un bel giorno per l'Europa e mai più tornati.

Since 1988, at least 18,058 [it] people have died along Europe's borders. Of this only 2,251 have died since the beginning of 2011. This data was updated on December 7, 2011, and was based on the census data from the international press archives over the past 23 years. The real figure could be much higher. No one knows how many ships have wrecked since we have never heard. Only the families of the missing persons know. These families, from Morocco to Sri Lanka, have been questioning for years what has happened to their children who left one day for Europe and never came back.

Paolo Lambruschi, for his part, wrote [it] on website of the Italian Episcopal Conference's newspaper:

E, cosa che interessa tutta l’Ue, andranno riviste le operazioni Frontex di pattugliamento del Mediterraneo perché per la prima volta viene equiparato il respingimento di gruppi alla frontiera e in alto mare allé espulsioni collettive. A 22 ricorrenti su 24, 11 somali e 13 eritrei, l’Italia dovrà versare un risarcimento di 15 mila euro più le spese processuali. Gli altri due sono morti.

And, something which concerns all EU countries, the operations of Frontex patrols in the Mediterranean will be revised, because for the first time the pushing back of groups at borders and on the high seas is tantamount to mass deportations. Italy will have to pay 15,000 euros plus legal costs to 22 of 24 plaintiffs, 11 Somalis and 13 Eritreans. The other two are dead.

Gabriele Del Grande's blog fortresseurope.blogspot.com concludes [it]:

Un giorno a Lampedusa e a Zuwarah, a Evros e a Samos, a Las Palmas e a Motril saranno eretti dei sacrari con i nomi delle vittime di questi anni di repressione della libertà di movimento. E ai nostri nipoti non potremo neanche dire che non lo sapevamo. Di seguito la rassegna completa e aggiornata delle notizie, dal 1988 a oggi. Per un'analisi delle statistiche, frontiera per frontiera, leggete la scheda Fortezza Europa.

One day, at Lampedusa and at Zouara, at Samos at Evros, at Las Palmas and at Motril, shrines will be erected with the victims' names from these years of repression of freedom of movement. And we won't be able to tell our grandchildren that we didn't know. Here you can find a comprehensive presentation and updates of information, from 1988 until today. For an analysis of the statistics, border by border, read the map Fortezza Europa (Fortress Europe).

This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.

Egypt: Among Bulaq's Ruins in an Unfinished Revolution

Mohamed Adel — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:56:56 +0000

It all started [Ar] around 2007 when “Vision of Cairo 2050″ was first declared, or as it is dubbed “Cairo 2050.” After that, the Egyptian government declared it's intention to demolish Cairo’s main informal neighbourhoods and relocate millions of people to new dwellings in the desert.

Blogger Yahia Shawkat, wrote about the project on his blog Shadow Ministry of Housing [Ar]:

هذا المشروع لاقى الكثير من النقد والمعارضة سواء من المهنيين والخبراء أو من المجتمع حيث يعارضه 61% من مواطنى المجتمعات التى سيؤثر عليها منذ أن كان تابع للجنة سياسات الحزب الوطنى المنحل حيث أنه يهدف إزالة ملايين من المواطنين من مجتمعاتهم بحجة التطوير.

This project faced a lot of criticism and opposition from professionals, specialists and society as 61 per cent of citizens affected by this project oppose it because it was adopted by the dissolved National Democratic Party (former ruling party in Egypt) as it aimed to transfer millions of inhabitants to carry out massive plans of this so-called development.

The blogger continues:

أعتقد الجميع أن الثورة قد أزاحت خطورة هذا المشروع لكن من الواضح أنه يتم تطرحه فى ثوب جديد لتفادى هذه المعارضة

Many thought that the revolution has eliminated the dangers of such a project. In reality, it is obvious that they are trying to relaunch the project in a new set up to try and avoid the opposition it is getting.

A view of Bulaq, taken by the film makers. Used with permission

Bulaq Abu el-Ela is one of those Cairo’s main informal neighbourhoods which could be demolished as the former government had declared. But until now no one knows anything about the fate of the project, especially after the revolution and the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

Now, the plight of Egyptians living in those dwellings has been turned into a documentary, thanks to two Italian film makers Davide Morandini and Fabio Lucchini. The idea of “Bulaq: Among the ruins of an unfinished revolution” materialized in 2009, when the two directors traveled to Egypt to carry out research on political organisation in Cairo’s informal neighbourhoods. They both returned to the city after the revolution and started to develop the subject of their documentary film, after being captivated by the story of the demolition of an area inhabited for hundreds of years and the resettlement of its people elsewhere.

Documentary pressbook

Following is the documentary trailer in Arabic with English subtitles, for French version click here, and Italian version here, which is available online, a medium used by the film makers to further spread the message carried in their work and amplify the voices of people inhabiting the districts:

Bulaq Official Trailer from Matteo Keffer on Vimeo.

On January 25, thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, sparking what we now call the Egyptian Revolution. Only a few hundred meters way from the world-famous square, the people from popular neighbourhood Bulaq Abu el-Ela took part in the revolution, finding in demonstrations something more than a glimmer of hope. Through their voices, ‘Bulaq’ portrays their collective struggle against eviction and social marginalisation, whose destiny seems to be strictly intertwined with the hesitant fortunes of the Egyptian Spring..

The documentary also has a Facebook group here, where news about the documentary is shared, as well as links and clippings to articles and posts written about the effected area.

The following short video was produced before shooting the real film as Davide Morandini, the documentary director told me. In the video, we can hear stories from the inhabitants of the district concerning its great location in the middle of Cairo, and also about selling the land to investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council, and about demolition and destruction of buildings and transferring inhabitant to live in flats in the middle of the desert:

The documentary was awarded the first Prize at the first Festival of Short Reportages “Pillole di Attualità” in Rome, in September 2011. [festival program] [It] and will also be screened in Paris International Film Festival for Human Rights, in March 2012.

Further Reading:

Jadaliyya: Struggles that fueled a revolution

Italy: New Volunia Search Engine Intrigues Blogosphere

Jane Ellis — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:29:39 +0000

Volunia is a brand new search engine which encourages interaction between people searching for the same topics in different languages. Although news of its creation was made public just a few days ago, on Monday 6 February, 2012, Volunia has already caused a stir in the blogosphere, ranging from enthusiasm to disappointment in many languages. The new search engine tool was created by an Italian professor of Computer Science.

Jean-Marie [fr] of website presse-citron.net seemed amazed not only that the project [fr] had seen the light of day, but also that it had originated within a university:

Créer un moteur de recherche ! En 2012 ? Dans un marché planétaire phagocyté par des monopolistes géants qu’on peut compter sur les doigts de la main. L’imaginer, au plan conceptuel, en développer toute la technique, extrêmement sophistiquée, pour le plus dans un contexte académique, en impliquant des étudiants dans ce beau projet, ambitieux, trouver des fonds, puis tenter de le déployer au niveau mondial, d’emblée en 12 langues (allemand, anglais, espagnol, français, italien, portugais, polonais, arabe, russe, japonais, chinois, coréen), tel est le défi accompli par Massimo Marchiori, professeur à l’Université de Padoue.

Why on earth would you create a search engine in 2012, in a global market divided up by just a few giant monopolies? To devise it conceptually, to develop the extremely sophisticated techniques, usually within an academic environment, as well as involving students in this ambitious project. To source funding, then to try to roll out worldwide in 12 languages (German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean), right from the start. These were the challenges overcome by Massimo Marchiori, professor of Computer Science at the University of Padua.

Smriti Jha, writer on the blog crazyengineers.com explains the origins of the name:

Deriving from the Italian words volo (flying) and luna (moon), Volunia is the fruitful result of three years of hard work put in by Marchiori.

On the blog abondance.com Olivier Andrieu [fr] gave his opinion [fr] following a performance review of this new search engine:

- Que nos premiers pas semblent prometteurs : le site est rapide (encore heureux en version bêta, ceci dit…), les résultats de recherche sont plutôt pertinents à première vue, bref, l'outil semble bien né…

- Volunia transformera-t-il l'essai ? Sans parler de véritable révolution, ce nouveau moteur de recherche est agréable sans réellement changer nos habitudes. Il a en tout cas l'avantage de proposer une alternative à Google. Quant à dire s'il va le concurrencer dans les mois qui viennent, c'est une autre question. C'est en tout cas ce que l'avenir dira lorsqu'il s'ouvrira de façon plus large à ses utilisateurs. Ce sont eux qui jugeront. Mais nos premiers tests semblent plutôt positifs…

- First impressions seem promising - the site is rapid (that said, it is still in beta mode), search results seem pretty accurate so far. This search engine seems to have been well thought out….

- Will Volunia transform the Internet search? Although not exactly a revolution, this new search engine is pleasant to use, while not dramatically changing how we do do things. At least it has the advantage of offering an alternative to Google. Whether it will be able to compete with it in the months to come is another question. The future will reveal all, as, when Volunia is more widely available, users will judge its potential. I would say our first trials have been fairly positive…

This article unleashed a wave of commentary, including the following [fr] from a user named Kershin [fr]:

Personnellement, je suis aussi un power user et, bien que l'idée soit sympa, je trouve l'interface ultra lourde. Il y a trop de barres partout, trop de fonctions. Quand on vient de Google et son style épuré, on est vite surchargé par l'interface. A mon avis, ils gagneraient à laisser l'utilisateur activer ou désactiver certaines fonctionnalités..

I too am a power user, and, although the idea is great, I found the interface ultra slow. There are too many toolbars and too many functions. When you come from Google and its pared down style, you quickly become overwhelmed by the interface. In my opinion they should let the user activate or deactivate certain functionalities..

A French tech website [fr] gave the following opinion:

L'index de Volunia ne souffre pas (encore) la comparaison avec de plus gros moteurs, et les SERPS n'affichent pour l'instant que des sites ayant une certaine autorité. Les discussions entre power users sur le chat font état d'un certain manque de pertinence sur les recherches de personnes (ahhhhh… les premières requêtes d'ego surfing pour s'admirer dans le miroir virtuel ;-)

The search index of Volunia cannot yet meet that of the biggest search engines, and the SERPS currently only latch onto sites which have some authority. Chat-based discussions between power users reveal a certain lack of accuracy while searching for individuals. (Ah, those first searches for your own name, admiring yourself in the virtual mirror ;)

A user named Andy said [fr]:

Je disais qu'on déloge un grand concurrent, non pas en l'attaquant de face, mais en introduisant des petites améliorations “pas menaçantes”. Sur ce plan Volunia a aussi des points positifs : l'idée de créer une sorte de “réseau social” entre personnes qui se sont intéressées au même sujet, et de les inviter à communiquer entre elles (et sans doute à donner aussi des informations à Volunia, de manière nettement plus intelligente que Knowl), est une bonne idée. Elle a ces caractéristiques : amélioration, sans attaque de front. En ce qui concerne les résultats des requêtes, pour l'instant c'est ridicule. Il vaut mieux que Volunia signe tant que c'est possible un accord avec “un des grands moteurs”. (Si je veux inventer un nouveau moyen de transport avec des roues, je ne vais pas mettre une équipe d'ingénieurs sur la réinvention de la roue…)

You get rid of a major competitor, not by a full frontal assault, but by introducing small, ‘non-threatening' improvements. Volunia has some positive points in this regard: the idea of creating a kind of 'social network' between people interested in the same subject, and inviting them to communicate with each other (and doubtless to also pass information to Volunia, in a vastly more intelligent way than Knowl), is good, and an example of an improvement with no head-on confrontation. However, the search results are ridiculous. It would be better if Volunia showed as much agreement as possible with the major search engines. (If I wanted to invent a new method of wheeled transport, I wouldn't set a team of engineers to work redesigning the wheel.)

Bobbie Johnson wrote the following in an article entitled “Is Volunia Italy’s answer to Google — or just hot air?” published on the blog gigaom.com:

To me, everything from Volunia so far seems to suggest it’s trying to solve a problem that nobody needs to solve right now. I can’t wait to see it open up and find out whether I’m right or wrong.

This opinion was also shared by Jian who posted this comment after the article:

I am a power user too and tried it.

You said well, it does look like it is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist yet.

But anyway, I hope it could make an impact, since we don’t want to have just a Google to take over the whole market…

Another reader of this article, Nebil Kriedi, not sharing this opinion, responded:

A problem which doesn’t exists? [sic]

Do you really think that searching for something on the web ends up on showing a dozen of links like most search engine does?
I personally think that your search ends when you find the CONTENT you’re looking for, not just a stupid and chaotic html.

For what I saw, volunia seems to be be designed for that kind of search, a search which brings you straight on the content by following your navigation inside the website.

The idea behind its design (awful) it’s brilliant to me and I hope the execution would be fine too.

A user named Liz left the following comment:

I like the idea of a way to interact with other visitors on a page. Question is how would it be monitored for security and safety reasons?

I’m always curious who will rival G[oogle]. The bigger you are the harder you fall… eventually…

After analysing the various aspects of this new search engine, online services specialist Paola Bonomo highlighted the new features which set it apart from other search engines. She did not seem terribly impressed in her review [it] on her blog pandemia.info:

Ha veramente senso commentare una pagina con gli altri utenti che la visitano? Se cerco informazioni, sono più interessato ai contenuti della pagina o ai commenti lasciati da altri pochi utenti? Forse più i primi che i secondi. Non necessariamente deve essere social ogni momento passato in rete, soprattutto se siamo già abituati a commentare con un tweet su Twitter o con una segnalazione su Facebook o usando uno dei plugin social di Facebook. Perché cambiare? Qui l’integrazione con Facebook e Twitter dovrà essere spinta per far cambiare comportamento agli utenti.

Is there really any point commenting on a page with other users who are visiting it? If I was searching for information, would I be more interested in the contents or the page, or the comments left by other users? Perhaps I would be more interested in the former than the latter. Not all time spent on social networks is necessarily spent being sociable, especially if we are already used to commenting via tweets or Facebook, or via Facebook social plug-ins. Why change? Facebook and Twitter integration must be actively pushed in order to change the behaviour of users.

A Spanish-based tech website, danilodellaquila.com, recorded its verdict:

Volunia adds new concepts and ideas about the web, also it adds the “Social” concept to the search engine. Also Google is doing it, with its +1 and G+ but I prefer the Volunia way, it feels closest to real life.

A Russian social media blog smm-promo.ru warned [ru]:

Итак начинается тестирование новой поисковой системы Volunia, представленной на 12 языках. Mail.ru и Яндекс берегитесь.

And so begins the trial of the new 12 language search engine Volunia. Mail.ru and Yandex had better watch out.

Italy: More Protests Against Austerity and Information Deficit

Ylenia Gostoli — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:25:08 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

The many protest movements that followed the implementation of austerity measures in a number of European countries dealing with the sovereign debt crisis, should have taught us that when a national economy is left at the mercy of interest rates and financial markets, sooner or later you can expect its people to express their discontent. Especially in a country, like Italy, already strained by years of government mismanagement, and where to the budget and democratic deficits, an information deficit needs to be added to the equation.

Since mid-January, Italy has been swept by a wave of protests, which began in Sicily with the mobilisation of farmers, truck drivers and fishermen, mostly small business owners, later joined by the Sicilian population at large, including waged workers, students and the unemployed. The movement goes by the name of Forza d'Urto [it] (”shock force”), better known as “the Pitchforks Movement”.

The Pitchforks Movement, image from Facebook.

From January 16, trucks brought the island's roads and motorways to a standstillfor six days through at least 26 blockades, disrupting the circulation of goods and bringing business to a halt, with long cues for petrol and empty supermarket shelves.

The protests later spread to other regions [it], with strikes and blockades all over Italy. In Rome, during a fishermen demonstration in front of the Chamber of Deputies, three demonstrators were reported injured. A mass mobilisation against the austerity package implemented by Prime Minister Mario Monti and his cabinet, lamenting especially the steep rise in the price of petrol. However, during the first few days of the protests, the Italian media was largely silent, except for a few local newspapers, as Marco Cedolin points out in his blog Il Corrosivo [it]:

I media mainstream in queste stesse ore tacciono, reputando (e lasciando intendere) che in Sicilia non stia accadendo nulla che meriti attenzione, tutto tranquillo e nessun problema.
Davvero la protesta in questione è una vicenda d’importanza ed incidenza così minimale da non meritare neppure un servizietto di 50 secondi, di quelli che comunemente vengono dedicati perfino al nuovo tatuaggio sfoggiato dal vip di turno?

Mainstream media are currently silent on the issue, judging (and implying) that nothing worth of attention is happening in Sicily right now, everything is calm and there's no problem.
Is the protest of such marginal importance that it doesn't even deserve a 50-second report, one of those that are usually reserved to discussing the latest tattoo sported by some random celebrity?

The sectors on strike are protesting against the government liberalisation package, but are also united by a sense of disenfranchisement from the whole of the “political caste”: fishermen who claim to be no longer able to sustain the costs of running their business because of excise tax; truckers who can't afford to transport goods at the low fee determined by open market competition because of rising petrol costs. Because of this, the mobilisation was met with a lot of skepticism and accusations that it merely represents a set of narrow interests.

On Fuori Onda Blog [it] David Incamicia reflects this position, which tends to criticise the movement for putting all the blame on the current government, which last November inherited from Berlusconi a country with a broken economy and a shattered international reputation:

Le piazze in rivolta avevano certamente motivo d'essere fino a qualche settimana fa, quando l'irresponsabilità di “un sol uomo al comando” e la sua ostinata resistenza al potere hanno finito per rendere ancor più dura e di difficile risoluzione la pesante situazione sociale del Paese (…)

Ma oggi, proprio per evitare il tracollo definitivo, occorre che tutti giochino nella stessa squadra (…) Gli egoismi vanno rimossi senza se e senza ma. Così come l'ancora poderosa demagogia che arringa a destra e a manca.

Those taking to the squares certainly had every reason to do so until a few weeks ago, when the irresponsibility of a “one man-leadership” and his stubborn refusal to give up power only made a resolution even more difficult for the country's already tense social fabric.

But today, precisely in order to avoid an irreversible downfall, everyone needs to play in the same team (…) Selfish interests need to be removed with no ifs and no buts. The same goes for the strong demagogic discourse coming from right and left.

While those keen to seize the opportunity to voice criticism of the current government (like the far-right party Lega Nord, now at the opposition) seem to ignore that the farmers movement (or Pitchforks Movement) was actually born last summer [it], and that fishermen have been organising strikes since 2008, there persists an inability (or lack of willpower?) to define the nature of the movement, which paves the way to confusion and exploitation for different political ends.

During the strikes, mainstream media focused on alleged mafia infiltrations [it] and the death of a trucker in Asti [it], while on Facebook the pages devoted to or associated with the movement proliferated, revealing, among other things, a number of links [it] with the neofascist movement Forza Nuova, which supports the Pitchforks. Commonly used hash tags on Twitter were #fermosicilia, #forzadurto e #forconi.

The following comment by Veneti stufi [it] on what labels itself the movement's official Facebook page [it] is representative of this confusion:

Non capisco più nulla, pagine colme di rabbia e non di vera indignazione/protesta, ma quali sono i VERI FORCONI? Il sito non è attivo, ognuno in rete dice tutto ed il contrario di tutto, USATE la rete e coinvolgete le persone, non date modo di strumentalizzarvi.

I don't understand, I see pages full of rage rather than real indignation/protest, who are the REAL PITCHFORKS? The website is inactive, online everyone says everything and the opposite of everything, USE the web and get people involved, don't give anyone the chance to exploit you.

However, at the various marches organised in various cities around Sicily, including Gela (in the video) and Palermo, there were students, the unemployed and young people with all kinds of political affiliations, as demonstrated by the following press release [it] signed by the Studentato Autogestito Anomalia [it] (Anomaly autonomous student centre) e dal Laboratorio Vittorio Arrigoni [it] (Workshop Vittorio Arrigoni), two of the city's main social centres:

La protesta popolare che si sta diffondendo in Sicilia come tutte le proteste di questo tipo sono complesse, di massa e contradditorie, ma di sicuro parlano il linguaggio della lotta contro la globalizzazione, contro equitalia e lo strozzinaggio legalizzato che sta mettendo in miseria larghe fasce della societa' siciliana , contro la casta politica di destra e di sinistra (…)
Noi, militanti di centri sociali e di spazi occupati della citta' di Palermo, sosterremo la lotta di “forconi” e autotrasportatori perchè frutto di una giusta battaglia e perchè ricca di positive e “incompatibili” energie; per questo, come sempre, saremo al fianco di chi lotta contro la crisi e questo intollerabile sistema.

Sicily's popular uprising, as every protest of this kind, is a complex and contradictory mass mobilisation, but it surely speaks the language of the fight against globalisation, against Equitalia (the government body responsible for tax collection) and its legalised usury, which is reducing large chunks of Italian society to poverty, against the “political caste” of both the Left and the Right (…)
We, militants of the social centres and of Palermo's occupied spaces, will support the struggle of Pitchforks and truckers because is it the result of a just battle and because it is full of positive and “incompatible” energies; because of this, as always, we will side with those who struggle against the crisis and against this intolerable system.

According to Marco Cedolin [it], the protest deserves attention because it tries to go beyond the ideological divide:

Non so quanta “fortuna” avrà la protesta dei Forconi che sta paralizzando la Sicilia, così come non conosco le prospettive di una movimentazione che sembra manifestarsi (per la prima volta in Italia) realmente trasversale, abiurando i partiti e tentando di mettere nel cassetto le divisioni settarie fra “rossi e neri” che da sempre minano alla radice qualsiasi battaglia in questo disgraziato paese, conducendola ogni volta sul binario morto della diffidenza e dei distinguo.

I don't know what will be of the Pitchfork protest that has been paralysing Sicily, as well as I'm not sure about what to expect from a movement that (for the first time in Italy) seems to represent diverse political interests, rejecting political parties and attempting to set aside sectarian divisions between “red shirts and black shirts” that have always undermined every struggle from its very start in this wretched country, mutual suspicion and differences leading each time to a dead end.

The failure of public opinion to comprehend the nature of the protests is also, and perhaps especially, the failure of the mass media to tell the story, another legacy of the Berlusconi years (Italy is 61st in Reporters Without Borders' world press freedom index 2011-12, and one which politicians still hesitate dealing with [it]. For Davide Grasso, writing on the blog Quiete o Tempesta [it], the Pitchfork protest was:

l’ennesimo successo a metà del sistema italiano dell’informazione. Successo nel combattere le aspirazioni dei soggetti sociali che scelgono la strada della protesta ma fallimento (opposto e speculare) nel comprendere e riportare un rilevante fenomeno sociale.

yet another half-baked success of the Italian information system. Success in repressing the aspirations of those who choose the path of resistance, but failure (its opposite mirror image) in comprehending and reporting such an important social phenomenon.

Lastly, Nicola Spinella writes on Agoravox [it]:

Il celebre motto “divide et impera” rivela ancora oggi, dopo due millenni, la propria immortalità: è bastato agitare davanti al popolo il fantasma della mafia infiltrata nelle fila degli autotrasportatori, assimilarli a sigle dell'estrema destra, per ridurre la protesta ad un fuoco di paglia. Difficile pronosticare uno scenario futuro per tutta un'Italia scossa dal salasso Monti e da un ventennio di malgoverno berlusconiano.

The famous maxim “divide and rule” has today revealed, after two millennia, its timelessness: drawing people's attention to mafia characters infiltrated among the ranks of the truckers, and associating them with far-right acronyms was enough to reduce the protest to a flash in the pan. It is difficult to predict what the future holds for a country drained by Monti and twenty years of mismanagement under Berlusconi.

The dialogue between the government and the movement appears to have reached a standstill, and a new wave of protests was due to start on Monday 6 February, with sit-ins in a number of sicilian towns and cities. A few of these have been reported, but it looks like the planned occupation of seaports and oil refineries has been postponed. Long queues at petrol stations in Messina were reported on Saturday 4 February, allegedly in preparation for the strikes.

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Black Women in European Politics: from Struggle to Success

Vivienne Griffiths — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:42:20 +0000

Nowadays, it is a common occcurence to witness African-born women having successful careers in Europe. Despite the evident challenges, many of them have also distiguished themselves in politics. Still, it was not so long ago that such success would have seemed impossible. To achieve greatness, these women have often come a long way, both literally and figuratively.

In order to better appreciate the progress made, one needs to think back to the 19th century and consider the image of black women in Europe then. For the purpose of this article, we will only address the story of women from the African diaspora who have been elected to positions of leadership in countries other than the colonial powers that previously ruled their home countries.

A history of racism

Postcard depicting Sarah Baartman, Wikipedia (public domain)

The story of the “Hottentot Venus” is symptomatic of the relationship between the West and African women in the last two centuries. Sébastien Hervieu, an Africa correspondent for Le Monde newspaper in France, tells the story of Sarah Baartman from South Africa, better known as the “Hottentot Venus”. In an article published in October 2010 in his blog afriquedusud.blog.lemonde.fr, he reviews [fr] Abdellatif Kechiche's [fr] film about her tragic story, Black Venus:

Au début du XIXème siècle, cette servante est emmenée en Europe et devient un objet de foire en raison de ses attributs physiques proéminents. Certains “scientifiques” utilisent sa présence pour théoriser l'infériorité de la “race noire”. Lorsqu'elle meurt à seulement 25 ans, ses organes génitaux et son cerveau sont placés dans des bocaux de formol, et son squelette et le moulage de son corps sont exposés au musée de l'Homme à Paris. C'est seulement en 2002 que la France accepte de rendre la dépouille de Saartjie Baartman à l'Afrique du Sud, concluant ainsi un long imbroglio juridique et diplomatique

At the beginning of the 19th century, this servant was brought to Europe and became a fairground attraction because of her prominent physical attributes. Some “scientists” used her presence to support the theory that the “black race” was inferior. When she died at only 25, her genitals and her brain were placed in jars of formaldehyde. Her skeleton and a molding of her body were exhibited at the Museum of Man in Paris. It was only in 2002 that France agreed to return Sarah Baartman's remains to South Africa, thereby drawing to a close a long running legal and diplomatic imbroglio [fr].

Sarah Baartman died in Paris on 29th September 1815. More than 100 years later, the Khoïkhoï people in South Africa called on Nelson Mandela to demand the restitution of Sarah's remains. The demand was met with the refusal of the French authorities and the scientific community citing the inalienable heritage of science and the state, but France eventually repatriated the body to South Africa where, in accordance with the rites of her people, it was purified and placed on a bed of dried herbs which were set alight.

Norway

Two centuries later, the position of black women in Europe has drastically changed. Amongst others, many have now been elected to political office.

Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen on Wikipedia (Norway) (CC-BY 3.0)

Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen in Norway is one of these women, and one of the most interesting because she shows the contradictions that still exist within some countries. She had to step down from a ministerial post in the Norwegian government just four months into her job. An article on Grioo.com sets out her career [fr]:

Originaire de l’Ile de la Martinique, à 44 ans, Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen a obtenu son poste de ministre de l’Enfance et de la Parité au sein du gouvernement de centre-gauche norvégien le 18 octobre 2007[…] Elle est mariée avec Terje Osmundsen, un homme politique membre du parti conservateur norvégien. Après son mariage, elle a pris la nationalité norvégienne et renoncé à celle de la France. Le pays n’autorisant pas la double nationalité.

Born in Martinique, 44 year old Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen gained her post as Minster for Children and Equality in the centre-left Norwegian government on 18th October 2007 […] She is married to Terje Osmundsen, a politician and member of the Norwegian conservative party. After their marriage she took Norwegian nationality and renounced her French nationality as the country does not allow dual nationality.

In an interview with Patrick Karam from the website fxgpariscaraibe.com in 2008 she explains [fr] some of the things that played in her favour in being appointed and why she stepped down following a controversy over an alleged conflict of interest in the hiring of a political appointee:

En Norvège, il y a obligation de représentation des deux sexes dans les conseils d’administration, 40 % de femmes au minimum. Nous menons aussi une politique pour inciter les hommes à prendre plus de responsabilité dans le foyer pour laisser les femmes entreprendre professionnellement. J’ai travaillé aussi sur l’enfance en danger, les violences, les maltraitances… J’ai travaillé quatre mois sans être critiquée, c’était une expérience réussie. Les critiques sont venues avec la nomination d’une médiatrice. Avec du recul, tout le monde voit que c’est une bagatelle. J’ai cédé au pouvoir de la presse.

In Norway there must be parity of representation between the two sexes within the administrative councils, with a minimum of 40% women. We are also pursuing a policy which encourages men to take more responsibilty at home, leaving women able to pursue a career. I also worked on child endangerment, violence, abuse… I worked for four months without criticism and it was a real success. The criticism began with the appointment of an ombudsman for children. In hindsight everyone can see it was something being made out of nothing. I gave in to the power of the media.

Sweden

Nyamko Sabuni, Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA)

Nyamko Sabuni [fr] is a former minister in Sweden, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Born in Burundi in 1969, her father fled the country due to persecution. She was elected to the Riksday as a member of the parliament in 2002, and at 37 years old became a Swedish goverment minister from 2006 to 2010. An article published on congopage.com sets out [fr] her progress.

En 1981, à l’âge de 12 ans, elle est arrivée en Suède avec sa mère et trois de ses cinq frères et sœurs. Là, elle a retrouvé son père, un opposant politique plusieurs fois emprisonné au Congo (actuellement République démocratique du Congo), venu dans le pays nordique grâce à Amnesty International.

In 1981, at the age of 12, she arrived in Sweden with her mother and three of her brothers and sisters. There she was reunited with her father, an opposition politician imprisoned several times in Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), who had come to the Nordic country with the help of Amnesty International.

The Netherlands

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wikipedia (public domain)

The Hirsiali blog presents a profile of Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

Née en Somalie en 1969, excisée à l’âge de 5 ans, Ayaan Hirsi Ali est scolarisée dans un lycée musulman pour filles. Soumise à ses parents, à son clan et à sa religion jusqu’à l’âge de vingt-trois ans, elle profite d’un passage dans sa famille en Allemagne, pour s’enfuir et échapper à un mariage forcé. Réfugiée aux Pays-Bas, elle adopte les valeurs libérales occidentales au point de devenir une jeune députée à La Haye et de s’affirmer athée. Pour avoir travaillé dans les services sociaux du royaume, elle connaît, de l’intérieur, les horreurs tolérées à l’encontre des femmes au nom du multiculturalisme.

Born in Somalia in 1969 and circumcised at the age of 5, Ayaan Hirsi Ali went to a Muslim girls school. Subjugated by her parents, her clan and her religion up to the age of 23, she took advantage of a trip to visit family in Germany to flee and escape a forced marriage. Taking refuge in Holland, she adopted Western liberal values to the extent that she became a young member of parliament in The Hague and declared herself to be an athiest. After having worked in the country's social services she knows, at first hand, the horrors tolerated against women in the name of multiculturalism.

A fierce apponent of some of the aspects of Islam and African traditions that go against basic human rights, she founded an NGO whose aims are set out, on her website Ayaan Hirsiali in the following terms:

In response to ongoing abuses of women’s rights, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her supporters established the AHA Foundation in 2007 to help protect and defend the rights of women in the West from oppression justified by religion and culture.

Italy

The first black person to be elected to the Italian parliament is Mercedes Lourdes Frias from the Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean. This is how she is described [en] on the blogging site Black Women in Europe:

Mercedes Lourdes Frias was born in the Dominican Republic. She was the first black person elected to the Italian Parliament in 2006 where she served through April 2008. She was a member of the Commission on Constitutional Affairs and the Parliamentary Committee on the Implementation of the Control of Schengen Agreement, and the Control and Surveillance on Immigration. She works on anti-racist activities and welcoming immigrants. From 1994 1997 she was a member of the Council of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy. In the town of Empoli Ms Frias served a councilor for the environment, rights of citizenship, equal opportunities.

The most surprising of the black women to have been elected via universal sufferage or appointed to positions of elevated responsibility in European countries is Sandra Maria (Sandy) Cane, elected in 2009 on a Northern League ticket; the most racist and xenophobic of Italy's political parties. One of the party's objectives is the secessoin of some of the northern part the Italian peninsula (though the boundary is not clearly undefined) because the party leaders do not like Southern Italians.

The blog stranieriinitalia.it (foreigners in Italy) gives a brief outline of her career [it]:

Il primo sindaco di colore in Italia ha la camicia verde. Sandra Maria (Sandy) Cane si è aggiudicata con appena 38 voti di scarto la fascia tricolore a Viggiù, cinquemila anime in Valceresio, tra Varesotto e Canton Ticino. Alle sue spalle, una lunga storia di migrazioni. Di Viggiù era originaria la famiglia materna del neosindaco, scalpellini emigrati in Francia, dove durante la seconda guerra mondiale arrivò il padre, un soldato statunitense afroamericano. Il neo sindaco è nata a Springfield, nel Massachussets, nel 1961, ma a dieci anni, dopo la separazione dei genitori, ha seguito la madre nel paesino d’origine.

Italy's first coloured mayor wears a green shirt [the colour worn by Northern League supporters]. Sandra Maria (Sandy) Cane won the tricolour scarf of the Mayor of Viggiù, a town of five thousand inhabitants in the Valceresio region, between the town of Varèse and the Canton of Tessin, with a margin on only 38 votes.
A past with a long history of migration. The new mayor's family on her mother's side were stone masons, originally from Viggiù, who migrated to France. During the Second World War, her father, an African-American soldier from the United States arrived in France. The new Mayor was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1961, but ten years after the separation of her parents she followed her mother back to her home village.

This, according to the blog associazioneumoja.wordpress.com, is how she found herself [it] in politics, with a rather unlikely ideological platform:

Della Lega sono sempre stata sostenitrice, anche se mai vera militante. Quando ero ragazza morivo dal ridere a vedere i loro manifesti, curiosi e di forte impatto. Poi quindici anni fa, più o meno, mi sono avvicinata di più. […] Vedo come «molto americana» anche la Lega, per la richiesta di rispettare rigorosamente la legge, anche per i clandestini. Anche se a Viggiù, precisa, non ci sono problemi di integrazione, nè tantomeno di sicurezza. Tra le priorità, guarda al rilancio turistico del paese, con manifestazioni e attenzione alla cultura.

I have always supported the Northern League without ever being very active. When I was a little girl their posters used to make me laugh, they were curious and had a big impact. Then, around fifteen years ago I became a little more involved. […] I see it as being “very American”, even the Northern League, because they insist on a rigorous respect for the law, even for illegal immigrants. Even so, she points out that there are no problems of integration and still yet security in Viggiù. One of her priorities is to reignite tourism in the area, with events and a focus on culture.

Despite the marked progress in the inclusion of African women in European politics, they represent isolated cases as, beyond the difficulties they face due to racism or culture and religion, even within their own families and their own societies, they also have to face up to the challenges that all women across the world face [fr]: domestic violence, the challenge of bearing children, marginalisation and under-representation.

Syria: Emergency Refugees

Dieyna Ba — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:49:22 +0000

With large scale violence in Syria, the exodus towards neighboring countries is increasing continuously (Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey). As per Islamic Relief [it] non-profit organisation, at least 650 Syrian families (mostly from the high risk areas of Homs and Hama) are in urgent need of food, sanitation and other assistance. Currently different activities such as fundraising and other initiatives are taking place, details here.

Global Voices Most Read Posts in 2011

Solana Larsen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:46:50 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

Our top 20 list of most read posts on Global Voices for 2011 includes four from Japan, three from Egypt, and two from the Philippines. But only one story is about a giant crocodile!

It's been an incredible year for the reach and recognition of citizen media around the world, and that means Global Voices is no longer as lonely a media voice when it comes to reporting tweets and blog posts. Still, where mainstream media interest wanes, we're the ones who strive to continue documenting what local bloggers everywhere need the world to know.

Self Defence Forces arrive at the scene of the tsunami in Japan. Image by cosmobot, copyright Demotix (13/03/11).

Some of our proudest moments of 2011 will never be reflected on a top 20 list like the one below. This year we exceeded 500 active volunteer authors and translators of countless languages and countries, and we've published more than 2,600 long posts and 6,300 short ones in English alone.

Inevitably, many of the stories that don't get as wide a readership as they deserve are from countries that tend to be overlooked in international media. Unique coverage from across Africa, the Caucasus, Macedonia, the Russian language Internet, Latin America and indigenous rights are among some of the highlights. See the 2011 regional reviews by our editors and authors for a glance of what you may have missed.

Our Middle East and North Africa team deserves special mention this year. Throughout protests, blackouts, threats, they have managed to pull though and keep writing. The bloody images still proliferate, but our authors seek out constructive voices and angles for dialogue. So often, they've shared local humor and context that is difficult to appreciate from abroad without a guide.

Perhaps for the first time ever, China doesn't figure on our top 20 list of the year. These are particularly chilling times to blog about controversial subjects - something Global Voices authors in many other countries unfortunately also experience. This makes the stories that do come from anywhere free speech is frowned on even more precious.

Most read posts on Global Voices in 2011

Our most visited special coverage pages were:

In 2011 the world has learned more about the transformative power of online citizen media. We believe the best way to support these emerging voices on a global scale is to listen. Thanks for reading Global Voices! And please consider supporting our work with a donation.

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

Italy: African workers renew their call for open dialogue

Ylenia Gostoli — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:29:28 +0000

Following the murder of two Senegalese men in Florence, Italy, migrant African workers released an open letter on the web [it] to renew their call for dialogue with citizens of Rosarno, where in January 2010 violent riots took place. ‘Those that in the past few days have spread fear when talking about us will be held accountable.’ they write. ‘We’re here to work and contribute to the development of this town and region.’

Italy, Senegal: Strong Reactions Follow Murder of 2 Senegalese Men in Florence

Amanda Mc Lane — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:06:11 +0000

[All links forward to articles in French, unless otherwise stated]

On December 14, 2011, at the initiative of Mayor Matteo Renzi, the City of Florence, Italy, decided to suspend all commercial activity for ten minutes as a protest against racism. Shop owners closed their stores for the entire day in solidarity. The catalyst for these actions? A tragic event that took place in the day before.

On December 13, Gianluca Casseri, a 50 year-old hunter, far-right activist and author of books denying the Holocaust, opened fired on a group of Senegalese in two outdoor markets in Florence. The horrific event resulted in the death of two street vendors from Senegal, as well as the perpetrator of the crime, who committed suicide after a brief shoot-out with police. The incident also left three other Africans injured and hospitalized in critical condition.

Anti-racism demonstration in Florence by Antonella Beccaria on Flickr (CC-NC SA-2.0)

According to reports of the incident published in the media, the incident created chaos and fear in the very heart of Florence. It also provoked vehement reactions and speculation as to the motives behind Casseri's killing of two strangers. Was this a case of racism or insanity?

A video reviews the homicide and provides one Senegalese man's reactions; in his opinion, this was a case of racism. The video also features comments from members of a far-right group called Casapound, which counted Casseri among its enthusiasts.

Tiziano Rugi commented [it] on the event reporternuovo.it:

Il giorno dopo la strage di Firenze, restano solo mazzi di fiori e ceri dove ieri sono morti due venditori ambulanti senegalesi. Lì, in una delle bancarelle del mercatino di piazza Dalmazia tutti i giorni, dalle otto del mattino fino a tarda sera, lavoravano Samb Modou e Diop Mor. Uccisi dall’odio razziale di Gianluca Casseri, cinquantenne pistoiese vicino agli ambienti di estrema destra che credeva nella purezza della razza bianca.

The day after the Florence massacre, flowers and candles marked the spot where two Senegalese street vendors were killed. Right there, where every day, from eight o'clock in the morning until late at night, Modou Samb and Mor Diop had their own booth; killed by the racial hatred of fifty-something Gianluca Casseri from the town of Pistoia, known for his far-right tendencies and belief in the purity of the white race.

Samu gives his opinion [it] in the comment section of a blog post about the events posted on qn.quotidiano.net:

Provo orrore per quello che è successo, ma la situazione immigrati in Italia sta diventando insostenibile e se oggi a fare certe cose è un pazzo fanatico,un caso isolato, domani, tra qualche anno, non so se certi avvenimenti succederanno per mano di pazzi. A noi italiani ci viene chiesto sempre di più e vediamo diminuire i benefici e le nostre ricchezze,la nostra libertà, i nostri figli non trovano lavoro, e questi immigrati vengono quà e fanno ciò che vogliono, impunemente, alla luce del giorno; ”poverini devono pur mangiare” dicono i soliti buonisti. Bene, quando poverini come loro lo diventeremo anche noi, e se continua così non ci vorranno tanti anni perchè questo si verifichi, allora diventerà una guerra tra poveri e non sò come andrà a finire, penso molto male.

What happened is horrible, but the immigrant situation in Italy is becoming unbearable. This event is attributed to a fanatic, as an isolated incident, but in a few years, such events may not be perpetrated only by demented individuals. We Italians are continuously forced to make sacrifices, cut back on our lifestyle, our riches, freedom; our children can't find work, and here are these immigrants that come to our country to do whatever they please in total impunity, in broad daylight; ”the poor have a right to eat too” is what you hear from the usual do-gooders. But when we'll have become as poor as them, and if things continue to deteriorate, it won't take long before a full-out war is declared between people of the poorer class, and I have no idea how it will all finish. Badly, I'm sure.

Contrasting opinions were posted in the comments section. One commenter compared the event to a massacre that took place in Liège, Belgium on the very same day, although Maria 1 did not agree with the comparison [it]:

Non mi meraviglio che tu non capisca in cosa consista la differenza: il PAZZO in Belgio ha sparato sulla folla , il PAZZO RAZZISTA a Firenze ha sparato SOLO su persone con la pelle nera!!!

Funny that you miss the major difference between the two events: The CRAZY MAN in Belgium fired on an anonymous crowd, the RACIAL MANIAC in Florence ONLY fired on people with dark skin.

An anoymous commenter agreed [it]:

credo di no. ma poverini l'unica cosa che gli dice il cervello è che la violenza sia il giusto mezzo per evadere dall'ignoranza e dalla loro depressione mentale.

FATE LA VITA DA IMMIGRATO IN ITALIA PER UN SOLO MESE, poi vediamo da che parte state!

o forse credete che solo per essere nati nella parte “fortunata” del pianeta avete più diritti o sentimenti degli altri?

I don't think so…poor people…but the only thing his brain told him was that violence is the way out of ignorance and a mentally depressive state.

TRY LIVING IN AN IMMIGRANT'S SHOES IN ITALY FOR JUST ONE MONTH and then we'll see whose side you're on. Or maybe you think that because you were born as “one of the planet's lucky” you have more rights or feelings then the less-lucky?

On his Facebook page, which has more than 1.5 million fans, Roberto Saviano, author of the best-seller Gomorra, which inspired a major-motion picture, wrote [it]:

La morte di Samb e Diop a Firenze mi ha ricordato la strage dei ragazzi africani a Castelvolturno di tre anni fa. Ricordo anche, come fosse ora, la morte di Jarry Masslo a Villa Literno nel 1989 e la strage di Pescopagano nel 1990… l'Italia è il Paese europeo con più stragi di africani e questo dovrebbe farci riflettere.

The death in Florence of Samb and Diop reminded me of the massacre of young Africans in Castelvolturno three years ago. I also remember, as if it were yesterday, the death of Jarry Masslo in Villa Literno in 1989 and the Pescopagano massacre in 1990… Italy is the leading European country when it comes to massacring Africans and that should make us stop and think.

In Dakar, Senegal, an Italian sociologist and expatriate found an original way to present her apologies to the Senegalese people. According to a video report by Serigne Diaw on the web site leral.net:

Chiara Barisson, an Italian sociologist based in Senegal, handed out 200 flyers in the streets of Sandaga as a way of offering her condolences and apologies, not only to the families of the victims killed in Florence, but to the Senegalese people as a whole. Surrounded by her Italian friends, she insisted on saying “I'm sorry” for the racist act, said The Observateur. Shop owners were said to be very touched by the sociologist's gesture.

However this comment on the video from de schwarzeraal [en] puts a different spin on the murderer's act:

Africans from the Ivory Coast have been known to burn their Senegalese neighbors at the stake; one Senegalese man killed an African from Mali over garbage and God knows what else while pretending to be in charge… in the street, a Malian killed a man from Senegal over a place in front of a TV screen, etc…crazy people are everywhere…

On December 17, the outdoor markets of several Italian cities organized protest marches, as reported [it] in one opinion piece on the blog corriereimmigrazione:

La manifestazione, che si svolgerà in contemporanea in varie città, sarà l'occasione per rilanciare i problemi che attualmente vivono le comunità migranti in Italia: “il bisogno di una nuova sanatoria, la risoluzione del problema delle truffe, il rifiuto al permesso di soggiorno a punti, il diritto al voto e alla cittadinanza per i figli degli immigrati, la problematica di chi è scappato della guerra in Libia e la denuncia dei centri di detenzione come luoghi da chiudere”. L'evento sarà inoltre occasione per iniziare il cammino che porterà verso il primo marzo 2012, lo sciopero degli stranieri

This event will take place simultaneously in many cities as an opportunity to renew discussions of the problems currently encountered by the migrant communities of Italy, “the need for a new amnesty, the resolution of problems of corruption, the refusal to create a points system for workers' permits, the right to vote and to citizenship for the children of immigrants, the answer to the question of who was fighting in Libya and the request to shut down and stop using prisons as concentration camps.” This event is also the perfect opportunity to pave the way for March 1, 2012 and the foreigners' strike.

After Milan, protests are scheduled to take place in Caltagirone, Messine, Florence, Rome, Imola, Legnano and Cinisello Balsamo, in front of CARA di Mineo (CT).

On Twitter, @Doubangar, Félicité Doubangar offered her impression of the number of participants who turned out in Florence:

Thousands of people turned out last Saturday in Florence in protest at the action of a far-right activitst who killed two street vendors of Senegalese origin last Tuesday.

And this report appeared on the Senegal 24.7 Facebook page:

Senegalese men killed in Florence: protest against racism — At least 10,000 people marched last Saturday in protest against racism in Florence (centre) where a far-right activist shot and killed two street vendors of Senegalese origin last Tuesday, injuring three others.

We want to ring in a new era of hope, so that our two brothers didn't die for nothing, a spokesperson from the Senegalese community, Mr. Pape Diaw, declared to the press.

We must work harder for peaceful coexistence and respect. It has to become a real battle, and not just a façade, he added.

The number of protesters was estimated to be about 10,000, according to police; the figure 12,000 was reported by protest organizers.

Many wondered whether this was a case of political exploitation or proof of compassion. blogunugalsene.com published [fr] posted the following update:

As this goes to press, M^e Aïssata Tall Sall is taking part in the protest in Florence, to pay tribute to the memory of the two murdered Senegalese men, with the expected presence of the Italian Prime Minister, the President of the Regional Council, the Democratic Party leader (major opposition to the current governing party). The lawyer hired by the Socialist Senegalese party will head up a pool of French and American lawyers who will defend the victims. Tomorrow, December 18th, before leaving Italy, she is scheduled to meet with other Italian lawyers who will also join the pool.

The Italian authorities reacted with strong statements and actions to the tragedy, as did the Senegalese community and Italian civil society.

Crisis Camp Italy: Using Web 2.0 to Manage Emergencies

Ciara Nugent — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:16:18 +0000

After Paris [fr] - Bologna. Crisis Camp [it] is now landing in Italy, as part of a European network which has developed over the last few months, and whose main goal is to “engage with new technologies which can be be of use in the management of emergency situations and crises”.

These collaborative technologies are being made possible by the emergence and refinement of Web 2.0 applications which are readily accessed and used.

The philosophy (on the level of ideas and in practice) that these applications are based on is crowdsourcing, that is to say, active and direct participation in the community. But what is a Crisis Camp? It designates an informal conference, in this case a BarCamp specialising in online resources designed to help manage a wide range of crises, from the states of emergencies caused by natural disasters to conflicts and political and social revolutions.

Crisis Camp Italy

Mapping, geolocalization, citizen journalism, data management: these are just some of the topics which will be discussed in Bologna [it] on the 19 November, 2011. The provisional programme can be found here [it]. Everyone is welcome to propose topics for discussion by filling out an online application form [it].

Following the success of collaborative platforms like Ushahidi and of various other Web 2.0 applications, harnessing social media and directly involving citizens have become essential means of dealing with increasingly unsettling emergencies, as demonstrated by initiatives established in response to the recent floods in Thailand, and which is also evidenced by the International development of the Crisis Commons network.

We asked Elena Rapisardi [it], a web content strategist and an active promoter of the event, a few questions in order to better focus the meeting in Bologna.

Global Voices (GV): Why was Crisis Camp established, what are its aims and what are its plans for the future?

Elena Rapisardi (ER): Crisis Camp Italy aims to be a coming together of people who deal with crises, emergencies and risk, and who see in Web 2.0, an approach and tools which are useful in managing and, above all else, in preventing crises. The idea is to establish a network. A network of people with shared objectives and principles, like collaboration and resilience. Crises, emergencies and risks can only be prevented, managed and overcome by the development of a resilient and collaborative community which is capable of proactively involving all relevant parties, from the scientific community to citizens, as well as institutions, the media and experts. For this reason I think that any Crisis Camp held in Italy, as was the case in Paris and elsewhere in the world, must also consider how to begin establishing links with the existing response systems. A difficult challenge as it requires patient work and presupposes a willingness, on both sides, to understand the requirements and find shared tools for collaboration.

GV: Even in Italy, is there a need, as demonstrated by the the recent floods in Liguria, for more efficient and on hand tools, with which to respond to emergencies?And are people really ready to organise themselves over the Internet?

ER: On the technological side, many useful applications exist in Italy as well. But I think that innovations in the field of emergency and crisis management require a cultural change, above all else, so that technology can play its part but does not become an end in of itself and does not lead to competitiveness. Free and open technology exists, there are large numbers of open source projects. It is, perhaps, necessary to take into account standards, open data and everyday Internet usage “practices”, and even education, as Internet access does not automatically imply Internet literacy. The point is, however, that we need to move from the emotional engagement that makes us send a photo to our friends and “followers”, in order to share an emotional response, to a conscious and proactive participation. It is not an easy change to make but meetings like the Crisis Camps can unite strengths, experiences and energy and help make the change. I think that initiatives like the use of crowdmapping to collect visual evidence of the recent floods in Liguria, organised by the Genoa and Livorno offices of “La Reppublica”, in collaboration with the Department of Earth Sciences in the University of Turin and NatRisk, are a first step towards collaborations between the scientific community and the media. There are new methods of making news and new rules to be learned. I do not believe in instant solutions, the Internet is not a question of “just click this”, the Internet is much more than a simple “click”.

GV: On a more global level, applications like Ushahidi seem to be in wide use, but are these applications really helpful or do they end up creating rumours, unreliability and information overload?

ER: The reliability of information gleaned from social media or from initiatives such as crowdmapping, is a problem which is keenly felt by all VTCs [Volunteers Technical Communities] and there are projects in place to define and establish the trustworthiness of contributors. Personally I think that we have to think in terms of preparedness, of ”entering” the Internet and establishing a reputation and position. There is no ignoring the social and communicative phenomenon that is social media. It is impossible to exclude or control it. People will keep tweeting and posting on Facebook. That's why we have to enter the stream and “collaborate” to create shared spaces, become a trusted and recognised voice. Two interesting examples are INGV and the Consorzio Lamma Toscana [it], both of whom are constantly present on Twitter and use it as their principal means of communication. Events must be followed and contributions made while they are in progress. Certainly it is not an easy task, as communication is a responsibility and the new media demands speed and a “just in time” mentality that the established information management processes of some organisations cannot cope with, not out of malice, or at least I hope not, but because they lack the capabilities to adequately manage ”post-Gutenburg revolution” information, that is to say, information which is quick, on time and pervasive.

For updates on Crisis Camp Italy and related developments, you can visit the official website [it] and follow the hashtag #crisiscampit on Twitter.