pezze a colore

On Monday, speaking from Chile, Cardinal Tarciso Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State - basically, the Pope's prime minister, said that psychiatrists and sociologists have proved that pedophilia is not related to celibacy, rather to homosexuality.

After the immediate and not surprising reaction of various GLBT associations, even the French Government has officially defined his declaration unacceptable. Trying to make things look slightly better, today the Holy See spokesperson declared that Bertone was referring to the specific issue of pedophilia cases inside the Church.

Provided that I obviously don't believe gays are horny pigs more likely to be pedophiles than straights, and that I am not sure wether allowing the catholic priests to marry would actually solve the problem, what I really don't get is how the psychiatrists and sociologists the guy was mentioning have denied any relation between pedophilia and celibacy, since the specimens studied should all be consecrated "with undivided heart to the Lord".

How about giving a frank thought, for once, to the fact that the vocation-seminary-ministerial practice cycle, as a system, is producing a disproportionate amount of criminals? How about a mea culpa?

ingiustizie elevate a diritto

Emma Bonino, a member of the Radical Party and former Italian Minister, EU Commissioner, divorce and abortion activist, upon being defeated last weekend in the elections for governor of Lazio, declared she lost from a true alliance between Berlusconi and the Catholic Church.

A couple of days before the elections, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, currently president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, invited catholic electors to vote pro-life parties, with the clear aim of influencing the elections in Lazio and in Piemonte, where Berlusconi's candidates were opposing strong pro-choice figures, Emma Bonino and Mercedes Bresso. The issue is especially relevant because health is, in Italy, a sector of regional competence, and the introduction of the abortion pill is currently being discussed both at the political and administrative level. Roberto Cota, the Lega Nord candidate who defeated Bresso in Piemonte, as a discreet "thank you for your support", few hours upon his election declared the pills will "rot in warehouses".

Emma Bonino also said she considered this alliance to be legitimate, blaming her defeat rather on the disproportionate coverage given by the media to Berlusconi's position, and to the complete absence of space for its critics. Still, although absolutely unsurprising, Bagnasco's last intervention has probably been the most explicit indication the Church has ever given before an election.

I am really upset by the hypocritical way the Church continues to openly support Berlusconi and his comrades (variously involved in sexual scandals, modern kinds of family, rituals to pagan gods, violent acts against migrants, etc), but I don't feel there's much more to do about it than to remark such contradictions, or try to drive the people's attention to different subjects.

In the end, it is just another lobby, and has the right to speak. Politicians and electors have the right to follow. But I assume it speaks everywhere in the world, and not everywhere is heard, not to mention followed. Does really the scarce 30% of Italian population (including children, non-voting and progressive or even critical catholics) that actually is faithful make a difference? Or are most of us, even those who couldn't care less in the day-to-day life, still trying not to give up all hope of eternal salvation and making their best on Christmas, Easter, and political elections? Or are they really convinced abortion and gay rights are the meteorites that will destroy our civilization?

Oh, by the way, would it help if the home page of "la Repubblica" didn't look like this? Breaking news: pro-life declaration by the Pope. The big picture: 2 interventions by his PRs.

like a koi in a frozen pond

would facebook tell me if a friend was dead?
or would I have to tell facebook?
would facebook presume someone's death after a certain period of inactivity?
would I have to write on obituary on his/her wall, and his/her friends would do the rest by sharing the element?
is posthumous tagging of videos and photos ethically correct?
is there an application to help manage one's profile upon departure - or can you at least set up an auto-reply for people posting stuff or sending messages?
would it be appropriate to list it as a past event, and would somebody invite me to the funeral by creating a new one?
would there be a random number of usual suspects liking the element?

does real death exist in one's digital life?

devils in red

I really couldn't care less about AC Milan going out of the Champions' League. I can rationally try and be sorry for the implications it can have on italian football on the international scene, I realize it is a symbol of how weak our teams (and our system) are if compared to other ones.

But Milan is probably THE équipe to hate if you are from Naples, and the fact that it is Berlusconi's team adds some not-too-subtle pleasure when it loses anything - even if one of Berlusconi's best tricks is to turn into the one who shall be praised, when he wins, and the one who's blaming someone else, when he loses. Plus, Manchester United has some kind of undeniable, totally contradictory working-class charme.

Still, ManU also has a 800.000.000 € debt. With that amount of money you could buy a whole team of Cristiano Ronaldo's. Still, football players in Spain only pay 25% of their revenue in taxes, which means that their teams have to pay them salaries about 25% lower than in the rest of Europe - a top team in Italy would save around 30.000.000 € every year. While this summer AC Milan had to sell Kaka to keep its financial situation acceptable.

I'm glad the italian system seems more strict than the others. I don't get why football should be treated differently from any other economic activity, where you pay salaries and taxes, and go into bankruptcy when you run out of money. It just doesn't seem fair to me to have a match where competitors are in so different legal and financial conditions. How is that different from buying the referee, playing with a 12th man on the pitch, or having your players doped?

and I eat lots of fruit, too

Last November, Piero Marrazzo, former president of Lazio, admitted he took cocaine during his meetings with Natalie, his trans friend.
Some 20 days ago, Marco Castoldi (aka Morgan), the frontman of Bluvertigo, declared he used to smoke cocaine as an antidepressant - following Freud's suggestion of therapy. Not especially surprising, considering that the title of their first album was "acidi e basi", and it had only partly to do with the little chemist.
Few days ago, the results of a drug test involving 232 voluntary Italian parliamentarians have been published (here). One of the volunteers (obviously the brightest of the crowd) tested positive for cocaine.

I don't think anybody would say these people are drug addicts. They lead their lives in a "normal" and "productive" way, they can probably do perfectly fine without drugs, they are not socially dangerous. Just like at least half of our former schoolmates, and quite a few teachers, parents, janitors, etc. Do you remember Titta di Girolamo in "le conseguenze dell'amore"? What's the ratio between the total of people you know have taken drugs and the number of those who have suffered any kind of negative consequences? I'm not saying drugs aren't bad for you. And I won't go into discussing why alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal, or the differences between hard and soft drugs. I'm just noticing that the common reaction when this kind of news comes up is a "public health" one. Drugs provoke addiction. Drugs are dangerous. Drugs are bad. Make sure you say it loud and clear in TV, when apologizing.

My main concern is that drugs are one of the pillars (if not the main one) of the economy of criminal organizations. They are one of their main sources of revenue, they give those organizations the means to rule over their territory as well as a decisive competitive advantage when entering the formal economy. They are the fundamental means of financial control of many societies worldwide, what allows such organizations to direct, slow down, or paralyze their development. Drugs basically allow them to be the kind of powerful entities they are, both on the Italian scene and in the international one, with all the consequences this power implies.

In some kind of more or less tortuous way, the cocaine Marrazzo, Morgan, and Mr Smart bought must have been produced and provided by a multinational criminal supply-chain, and their purchases have fueled a continuum of violations of human rights, concentration of wealth, economic inequality, underdevelopment, all the way from the farmer to the pusher. This is the something I don't really understand in the kind of engagé, socially active person who just seems not to be able to give up smoking pot. And it's something I don't really understand in our legislation, which, as far as I know, does not differentiate between the marijuana you grow in your garden and the cocaine you buy directly from some camorra employee.

Are we really sure the direct negative effects of drugs on consumers are worse than the systemic consequences of drug trafficking on our society as a whole? Isn't there a risk that these slightly bigot, prude reactions don't end up hiding a bigger, more urgent problem?

one more thing

Since there has been some discussion about cooking cats, let's see what happens with this one. What's exactly the problem with live feeding predators in zoos and parks?

nel frattempo, in Italia

- dal 24 febbraio i giocatori di calcio sorpresi a bestemmiare saranno squalificati per X giornate. posto che (giustamente) non è accettabile l'offesa ad arbitri/avversari/tifosi und loro familiari, morti, stramuorti ed altri antenati, cosa c'è di così deprecabile nel labiale di tale Buffon Gianluigi che se la prende (per il tramite divino) contro sé stesso per una cazzata invero indegna del portiere della nazionale?

- l'ottimo Bigazzi Beppe è stato cacciato con infamia da "La prova del cuoco" per aver aver spiegato come si cucina(va) il gatto. vibranti proteste del mondo animalista. tacendo il fatto che gatti e conigli sono stati (e magari sono tuttora) considerati fungibili in numerose macellerie, c'è qualche fondata ragione per cui indignarsi per il domestico felino e non per il nobile cavallo, l'elegante tonno, l'utile asino, l'esotico canguro, la mastodontica balena, la mimetica beccaccia o il tenero capretto?

papà

Exactly one year ago, after a legal struggle lasted more than a decade, Beppino Englaro interrupted the artificial feeding that was keeping his daughter alive. Eluana had been in vegetative state for 17 years following a car accident; his right to have the artificial feeding suspended had never been recognized before and he had waited for a definitive decision from the competent court, which was finally pronounced on July 9, 2008.

To prevent the father from actually interrupting the feeding, Berlusconi issued an executive order to overturn the Court of Cassation sentence. The President of the Republic refused to sign the order (that would have caused a clear institutional conflic), and Eluana was stopped from being fed.

Today, Italian newspapers open with Berlusconi's letter to the nuns who were taking care of Eluana, in which he writes to be extremely sorry for not having been able to avoid her death. 


Not a single line to the father. 

I don't know how dark a father's pain has to be to lead him to such a decision. I don't know how deep it has to be to crush any hope, any doubt that the man could have had in a decade. I don't think there's any ideology, any principle, any rational superstructure that can stand the possible joy of seeing your daughter alive and happy again. I think Beppino is the only person who can actually measure his own despair. The only person that could possibly have something to state, the only person worth listening to. 

The rest is just realpolitik small-talk. So depressing.