Rome. buon giorno my friends! For the past week there’s been so much controversy about permitting the European Social Forum to have their convention-manifestation in Florence. Many argued that it was stupid to risk in Florence, because of it’s artistic patrimony, that which happened last year in Genova with G8. But, while the right on one hand was waging a media blitz against the pacifists accusing them of potential violence, on the other hand they were in Parliment literally fist fighting among themselves.
One of the nastiest anti-Social Forum blasts came from Oriana Fallaci, Florentine living in New York, who, once physically beautiful, is now old and sour. She encouraged the citizens of Florence to “show their balls” (I guess she was desperate to see some....) and protest against the presence of Social Forum even encouraging merchants to close their shops with a “chiuso per lutto” (closed for mourning) sign. (Must I add that Fallaci writes for Corriere della Sera, newspaper owned by right-wing premier, Berlusconi?)
One of the main concerns of the manifestation was that of the War of Prevention in Iraq. Where are our mothers? Why are women so willing to donate their sons to war? Why don’t women care about risking their sons’ limbs, lives and psyches? Do we have children just for decorative purposes and/or narcisstic needs? Mothers should be the first to protest against war!
The manifestation was a great success with 500,000 to 1,000,000 people from different countries and cultural backgrounds all united by basic common principals. Many Florentines stood in their windows clapping the demonstrators. Many even offered them food and water and the use of their bathrooms since many of the shops were closed. Even my son, Sergio, was there representing the family, I'm proud to say!
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."