Italy is an exclamation mark in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. So it sounds normal that everything happens in the area, in the countries bordering this sea once called "mare nostrum", should somehow affect Italy. I always tried to imagine Italy linked to the societies of North Africa more than to Europe. And this is often true, especially for the South of Italy. Once upon a time the North Africa was only the other side of the same sea. In Roman time, those who were living in North Africa were citizens of the empire, often nothing less than the citizens of Rome "caput mundi" themselves. Then came the Arabs, came Islam, and conquered the North Africa and we Italians started thinking of us as the last bastion in defense of our civilization against theirs. I don't know who had this idea first and why this happened. Anyway I never felt son of the crusades. Because I don't believe in god, I am not racist, so why should I prevent myself from meeting those people who live on the other side of the sea? And then, meeting them, I have learnt that the things we share are incredibly more than what we can imagine, beyond any alleged ethnical or religious difference. We are just sons of the same sea, of the same sun, of the same olive trees, and many more things.
For example, Berlusconi pretends to be the best ally of Americans and to be a strong defender of the western values. But since time I am definitively convinced that if you look better, you'll discover that his idea of life, power, gender and society, is much more akin to the sultan and the rais than to the so called western values. His best friends were always, in fact, the dictators of the North African countries: Boutefilka in Algeria, Ben Ali in Tunisia, Gaddafi in Libia, Mubarak in Egypt. His friendship with them is so strong that sometimes it becomes ridiculous. He is the only one who could say that Mubarak is a wise man in recent times while his police was killing people in the streets and all the western countries were asking Mubarak to leave. He even claims to have pulled out of troubles the Mubarak's niece, when she was underage kept in a police station in Italy for theft (but then we discovered that she was Moroccan and she was one of the favorites of his harem), but this is another story. Or, for instance, some say he learnt the "bunga bunga" dance from Gaddafi, and just like him, he does such dance in his own harem. Not in the desert, but in his villa near Milan!!
Unfortunately to be akin to North Africa means to be so also in the bad things. We are not a good example for them, on the contrary, we learnt from them. But we don't know this, or at least we don't admit. We like corruption, because laws are fake, so that to follow the law is a loss of time, in the best case, and just the stupid ones do it. Actually there's maybe an explanation. We Italians suffered so much the colonization of foreign powers in the last centuries, and they were making laws on us, that's why, maybe, for us a law is not an agreement between equals, it's a form of oppression. We, descendants of the Romans, Romans who invented the concept of law itself, now can't accept a law. And in the south of Italy this is even more prominent, just because the south suffered also for the internal colonization of the north on the south. So, for them, a law sometimes is still an abuse.
Is it not the same thing for the countries of the North Africa? There's a similar explanation for them, too. They were harshly under colonization and later they suffered for the knuckle duster of puppets supported by the western countries in order to exploit them through an intermediary. That's exactly what is Bouteflika, what was Ben Ali, what was Mubarak. And that's what was the "Democrazia Cristiana" (Christian Democracy, the leading pro-American party in Italy after 2nd world until 1992) in Italy for decades. And that's what was Berlusconi in 1994, when the country could have ended for the first time in the hands of the communists and the game between US and mafia in order to keep down the country was about to be proved. Well, 2 among the best Italian magistrates on mafia were killed in 1992, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and Berlusconi 2 years later gained the power.
Now I want to step back to a page of this blog I have written (in Italian) in february 2008: 3 years ago! It was about the Obama speech in Nashua, one of the most famous in his caucus campaign. What I really didn't like was a sentence: "Yes, we can.. repair this world". What the fuck! Who gives the Americans the right to repair the world since they are the first damagers? There's no world to repair, just stay at home, the world will find its way to repair itself. I was (and I am) really angry for this statement.
Well, 3 years have passed and Obama is really trying to repair the world his way now. It happened that I was in a meeting last week here in Naples about the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. All of a sudden I have seen a flag in a video screened during the meeting. I immediately recognized that flag. It was among many more in the protest. It seemed to me to be again in a familiar scene. That flag had a fist up on a black background and the word: "resistance". Nothing strange, you may say. Except that this was not the first time I have seen that flag. The first time was in Belgrade in 1999. The movement who was displaying this flag was called "Otpor" which means exactly "resistance" in Serbian language. At that time I was following the Yugoslavian issue, so that it didn't take too much to discover that behind "Otpor" was moving a precise plan of the US administration, then led by Clinton. Mmm. So, please, give a look at this link: Albert Einstein Institution.
In a few words, this institute has developed the knowledge to overthrow regimes through non-violent means. Here we can say how Obama is opposite of Bush. But only about means. In fact, sometimes (especially when Clintons are in power) the US administration decides to use the skills of this institute to move its pawns on the international stage, in a way much cheaper, much less bloody, but equally questionable on the legitimacy level.
So now we have the proof. Obama is behind the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, where the franchising is called "6th of April" organization. We have the smoking gun, as they say. However, it's still not clear how much influence this institute could have on the revolts, but for sure this is the target that their work was aiming. And that's a point.
But there's a famous statement of Gene Sharp that says: "revolts are never spontaneous". Which can be false, especially this time. But anyway it is certain that in the crucial stage of the protests in Egypt, when nothing seemed to shake Mubarak, then the US administration started releasing strong statements against him in support of the right of protest and of people itself, which sounds grotesque. And another thing made me suspicious. Both in the case of Tunisia and Egypt, the army was on the side of protestors without taking power directly with the force. That is normally the behavior of the army when is remotely working with an external power. The clear page of this manual was the last speech of Mubarak when it seemed that he had to leave but he claimed for the last time to maintain the power and he complained for a non-mentioned foreign influence.
It's however early to give a sentence on the arab revolutions, but this is certainly a subject to be monitored in the coming weeks and months.
I started this page talking about Italy, so I will end. Italy is on the edge. Berlusconi is under fire of justice once again. Not that this is not explicable and understandable. But this moment could come much earlier. It seems now the crucial point. Many here are comparing Berlusconi to Mubarak. The institutional clash is at its peak, like never before. Berlusconi is accusing reversely the justice system (which is not new) but also the President of the Republic, the president of the lower chamber and many more institutions, all of them because they are not defending him from the accusations. And it's surprising how a prime minister can call other institutions to defend him in (or from) a trial and can accuse them of being involved in a subversive plan if they don't do that. But such a civil zeal in this very moment made me suspicious. Italy is proving once again to be linked with the south mediterranean countries policies much more than we can think. Maybe Obama thought to repair Italy, too?
Reasons to protest are not missing, as it is clear. We have the older population in Europe, the highest unemployment, especially for young people, the highest indices of underdevelopment in any field, in energy policy, industrial, education and an alarming regression of the civic values thanks to 30 years of tv brainwashing. Berlusconi likes to speak about "people". Obama likes to speak about "people", too. There are at the moment 2 representations of the concept of "people" of Italy. One people is protesting against the "communist" justice which is haunting Berlusconi. The other one is asking the prime minister to leave and to go into tribunals to be sentenced. The command of the representations in Italy in these last 30 years was often, and recently very often, in the hands of Berlusconi. That's why nowadays the protests against the italian sultan are populated especially by intellectuals that, frankly speaking, have not a few responsibilities on the defeat of the second representation. So, I am sorry, I don't give my solidarity to these protests. Berlusconi still holds the belly of Italy and to defeat him in the tribunal chambers could be very painful for the country, maybe bloody. The only way to overthrow Berlusconi passes through the internet generation, that is simply the one who less suffered the conditioning of the tv and could stay linked to what is the world outside. But it's still half of that generation, the second half is still under the tv conditioning, so only the sacrifice of the first half can bring a real change. There was a demonstration on december 14, the students rushed in the streets of Rome having fights with the police. Everybody, many intellectuals too, condemned these riots and called them criminals. But, after all, this is the only people who have legitimacy to claim a change now, that's my opinion. Change passes through violence and criminals today in Italy. I believe in the non-violent philosophy, so I am not happy about that (but let's make it clear, Otpor and the young people in Tunisia and Egypt were making riots as well as the students did in Rome on december 14, this kind of re-actions are still non-violent according to Gene Sharp and to Obama, since in US when they speak of using violence normally they bomb civilians). So I am convinced that among them will raise soon a remotely controlled movement also in Italy. Actually we already have our colored movement (Gene Sharp likes colors so much), "il popolo viola", violet people, but it's still not clear to me what it is.
If I am not wrong the next country where a sultan will be overthrown will be Algeria. After that, bets are open: Libya, Albania, Italy and only later in case, Iran, Syria and Lebanon thinking of Palestine and Israel.
I am not happy that Obama is trying to repair the Mediterranean countries. Spare parts that Obama would use, will still be alien to our own feelings and will not be any good for us. Keep open minded, people.
Compare these 2 logos here above. The first one is "Otpor", the second is the "6 april" movement. At the beginning of the page, some similar flags in Tunisia.
A demonstration in Naples in solidarity with Egyptian revolution. "In Tahrir square we saw the new heroes, women, children and people like us".
Neither heads of State nor militaries, sisters and brothers united and in solidarity.
Ben Ali, Mubarak, who will be the next?
Italy: an exclamation mark in the middle of the Mediterranean sea.
