Pioggia di decreti legge. Voti di fiducia. Testi varati senza dibattito in aula. Così il governo Berlusconi rende inutile il ruolo del Parlamento. Nonostante i richiami del Quirinale. E del suo alleato Gianfranco Fini
Antonio Di Pietro, leader dell'Italia dei Valori, è il più esplicito: "Il Parlamento è stato espropriato delle sue più essenziali funzioni legislative diventando lo zerbino del governo", protesta: "Se questa non è una dittatura certamente siamo di fronte a un regime molto pericoloso". Anche Luigi Zanda, vicecapogruppo del Partito democratico al Senato, va giù duro e denuncia una pesante alterazione degli equilibri costituzionali: "Il processo innescato dal presidente del Consiglio Silvio Berlusconi sta decretando la fine della divisione dei poteri", afferma: "Stiamo assistendo a un progetto di trasformazione dello Stato a sua immagine e somiglianza, con un Parlamento-azienda diventato un mero organo amministrativo chiamato solo a ratificare le decisioni di un esecutivo nel quale il premier vuole concentrare tutti i poteri".
Lo stile di governo inaugurato dal leader di Forza Italia in questo inizio di legislatura sta scatenando allarme e proteste. Troppi decreti legge che tolgono spazio al dibattito parlamentare: quasi 40 dall'inizio della legislatura; e troppi voti di fiducia, 10 a Montecitorio e 2 al Senato, chiesti, pur in presenza di una maggioranza blindata, per evitare le lungaggini dell'esame nelle aule e accelerare le procedure di approvazione dei provvedimenti. "E che male c'è?", si stupisce Gianfranco Rotondi, ministro per l'Attuazione del programma: "Con gli odierni meccanismi parlamentari e le pastoie regolamentari che abbiamo, solo a colpi di decretazioni d'urgenza è possibile riuscire a governare in modo decente questo Paese. Lo abbiamo fatto sinora, continueremo a farlo in futuro". Con tanti saluti alle rimostranze dell'opposizione. E non solo a quelle.
3/4/09 BBC
Gordon Brown has urged the US to renew the "special relationship for our generation" in a speech to Congress
Mr Brown, the fifth UK prime minister in history to address both houses on Capitol Hill, urged the US and UK to push for "essential" economic changes.
Neither nation should "succumb" to protectionism "which protects no-one", but "seize the moment", he said.
Mr Brown also announced that veteran Senator Edward Kennedy would receive an honorary UK knighthood.
The prime minister paid tribute to the work of US troops in Afghanistan and said terrorists could "not ever destroy the American spirit".
The partnership between the UK and the US is "unbreakable" and that "no power on earth can ever draw us apart", he also said.
'Standards'
The speech began and ended to standing ovations and was frequently interrupted for applause - with 17 such pauses counted.
Mr Brown called for agreed "rules and standards for accountability, transparency and reward" in banking.
On the recession, he said: "America and a few countries cannot be expected to bear the burden of the fiscal and interest rate stimulus alone. We must share it globally.
"So let us work together for the worldwide reduction of interest rates and a scale of stimulus round the world equal to the depth of the recession and the dimensions of the recovery we must make."
Mr Brown added: "An economic hurricane has swept the world, creating a crisis of credit and of confidence.
"History has brought us now to a point where change is essential. We are summoned not just to manage our times but to transform them."
In addressing Congress, Mr Brown follows in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.
'Pro-American'
He said: "Now more than ever the rest of the world wants to work with you...
"And let me say that you now have the most pro-American European leadership in living memory. A leadership that wants to cooperate more closely together, in order to cooperate more closely with you.
"There is no old Europe, no new Europe. There is only your friend Europe.
"So once again I say we should seize the moment - because never before have I seen a world willing to come together so much. Never before has that been more needed."
Announcing the honorary knighthood for Edward Kennedy, Mr Brown said that "Northern Ireland is today at peace, more Americans have healthcare, more children around the world are going to school" because of the long-serving Democratic senator.
The world owed "a great debt to [his] life and courage", he added.
Senator Kennedy, who is being treated for a brain tumour, was unable to attend Congress.
Following Mr Brown's speech, Conservative Party acting leader William Hague said: "It is right to remind Americans that we need to work together against protectionism, in defeating terrorism and in combating climate change.
"What was missing was any sense of contrition for past mistakes and an ability to translate words into action."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: "Gordon Brown seemed to offer a lot of warm words but very few hard plans to fight the recession which has engulfed the world economy and his government.
"Rather than trying to shore up his reputation in America, he should be focusing his attention on fixing the mess we face back home."
'Common interest'
After Mr Brown's meeting with Barack Obama on Tuesday, the US president said the "special relationship" between the countries would "only grow stronger".
After about an hour of talks at the White House, Mr Brown and Mr Obama said they agreed that improvements were needed to the regulation of the global banking system.
Mr Obama warned that countries should not "project inwards" by encouraging protectionism during the economic crisis.
Mr Brown said the two countries were pursuing a "common interest" in a "global new deal".
The prime minister's US visit comes ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 (G20) developed and emerging economies in London on 2 April.
The EU and Canada have warned that a "buy American" clause in the US economic recovery package could promote protectionism.
It seeks to ensure that only US iron, steel and manufactured goods are used in construction work funded by the bill - but has included a pledge to respect international trade obligations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7922426.stm
I’m all for hope and change, anything is better than were we’ve been for the past eight years. But there is a frightening truth in the old saying; “the higher you climb the harder you fall”. When Bush Jr failed in something we all just took it as a matter of course. With President Obama there’s such great and dire need to believe, to keep faith and hold on to hope. So when he promises the moon I get worried.
I don’t need him to cure cancer. I don’t need to hear that Americans can achieve anything and everything. And America doesn’t need him to fix healthcare, education and every other problem under the sun, in four years. We just need him to help us survive. We need him to make us believe we can survive.
Hope is ethereal, beyond that which allows us to touch and analyze. It makes us breath again, when despair has choked us for so long. But no one should ever place the heavy burden of impossible expectations on it. Hope will never endure under such pressure. It is only there to let us pick ourselves up from the pit of hopelessness, not to solve problems or cure disease.
I fear President Obama may have let himself be lifted too high on the power rush of his current job. It happens to the best of us and he is only human after all. But I have faith that, when life hands him his first massive defeat, when he makes that first unavoidable life and death mistake, he will pull his head out of the clouds and regain the posture that propelled him through the election. I have faith. I just don’t particularly look forward to the process.
Dear Obama Friends,
For those of you who can, I'll meet you next Saturday in London (UK), at the Tottenham....
We wiil share our experiences and patos...
See you there,
Simone, your italian friend
Net Neutrality
Twitter is a great source of information and links to news.
There are many members of Congress on Twitter as well as Twitter members around the world.
Here is an important issue for all to be aware of:
http://tinyurl.com/ehtjs - net neutrality is an important issue on the net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jHOn0EW8U
We finally have a US President who can speak in full sentences, who can take responsibility for mistakes made and have a stated interest in hearing dissenting opinions. The past few weeks have been filled with joyous relief for those few facts alone! But the challenges the US and the world face are enormous and with the recent debates on the economic crisis I can’t help but feel President Obama may be a little too limited in his perception of potential solutions.
The problem for our new President is that he has to do the impossible, and he has to do it fast. Unfortunately, even for the truly great, it’s easy to get caught up in the eye of the storm and not see what goes on beyond the immediate wall of despair and destruction. From my perspective this stimulus bill, although certainly much needed and done with the best of intentions, is a dangerous gamble. Consuming your way out of debt is only effective if there is a prospect of new funds on the horizon. As far as I can tell, this bill will only increase the national debt with very little influx of pure capital. In my humble opinion the US economy is in far too deep a recession to come out of it just by adding billions of borrowed dollars on some domestic touch ups.
I fully understand the thought process behind the stimulus bill and the need to get Americans back to work. And personally I can’t wait for the United States to join us in the 21st century when it comes to internet access, environmental developments, education and healthcare. But I can’t imagine anyone believing this is going to be enough. This stimulus bill is like adding oil in a car to make the engine run more smoothly when it is in fact all out of gas!
The effort that goes into the sheer political practicality of passing a bill as massive as this stimulus package is mindboggling. What is commonly referred to as pork is the price you pay to get politicians with very different agendas to come together to achieve a mutual goal. This is what politics is at its core; bargaining, squabbling and endless compromises until all agree but no one is happy. It’s the price we pay for democracy. A sovereign King can decide on any action he pleases, a democracy has to find ways to make hundreds of vastly different individuals with, in many cases opposing agendas, agree on one course of action, in theory as much of a challenge as in reality.
But to survive this recession, depression, slump or whatever you want to call it, the US desperately needs to pump gas into its engine, and fast. America’s debt is today so high it defies human comprehension. This debt is only going to get higher during the next few years, with all the bailouts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still needing funds. This debt can never be fully paid by American taxes or consumer spending.
What the US needs is external funds flooding into the country, money not attached to business deals or political deals, but pure profit. The only way this is going to happen is if America can come up with something to sell to the world that’s worth buying.
Today the whole world suffers from the economic crisis, every nation in its own way. The first instinct is of course to look to one’s own welfare with a deadly protectionism as a result. We are all dependent on the free flow of goods and funds to maintain our level of comfort and if the US were to close the door on fair trade and withdraw inward (effectively abandoning capitalism for planed economy) it would have disastrous effects on the entire balance of the global community. Where America goes, the world goes…
The only way to save the US economy, and in effect the worlds, is to make full use of the means available in the realm of the global community. But if Americans keep making up the rules as it suites them no one else is going to play along. President Obama will then be left standing alone, with his fancy new roads and shiny new houses and a national debt that will make the United States of America effectively bought and paid for by foreign nations and conglomerates.
Innovations and foreign relations should be President Obama’s main focus, in my opinion. This is where the money is and the solution to America’s many problems. One new invention is not going to be enough, nor will one solution ever be enough. But President Obama won the worlds approval through this recent election. He should capitalize on that now. The influx of money into his suffering nation depends on whether we believe America is once again worth investing in and if American products are worth paying for. If we are still ignored, as we have been for the past eight years, if the current President insists on pressing the idea that saving American jobs at all cost is the only solution then I fear, as great a man as I believe he is, President Obama will inevitably fail.
One of the most important rules of capitalism state that if a product can be produced at a smaller price with same quality in, let’s say India as opposed to Indiana, then that’s where it needs to be produced. The country that has a higher living cost and its workers therefore are unable to live on a the salaries the workers can, in for example India, will just have to find other things to do for profit, things that are too complex to be done in India, or other developing nations. Clinging to jobs that rightfully belong to people in poorer nations, simply because Americans lack the imagination or the education they should have considering the nations collective wealth, is inexcusable!
We shall soon see which road President Obama chooses for his country. What I hope for is that he will find the courage to let go of some type of jobs and businesses in order to allow the world to help fuel the American wonder once more. But if he ignores the needs of the other nations across the globe, which many of his fellow countrymen will insist on, I fear it will fasten the decent into despair for all nations, including the US. The American dream needs new material, new inventions and new ideas!!
President Obama won the election on the idea that anything is possible, that the American spirit can survive anything. This is a noble idea and in some ways it’s absolutely true. I just hope he doesn’t put too much faith in the premise that the only thing Americans need is more jobs and a house to live in. Investing in the future is a good thing. Giving people jobs is a good thing. But America has lost more than just jobs and houses. And it will take more than what Americans themselves can muster to get out of this recession.
I hope President Obama and his countrymen will realize in time that all humans are a part of this now, the world is one and the American engine needs to run smoothly, not just for its own sake but for all of us.
Dear Obama Family,
please have a look at the new internet site of the White House (www.whitehouse.com)
Then, leave impression and suggestion to the new Us President, our beloved Obama.
He really needs our help!
Your italian friend,
Simone
THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 9:48 am
President to Muslim World: "Americans are not your enemy"
In his first interview with an Arab television station, President Barack Obama offered a bold change to America's relations with the Muslim world.
"My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives," President Obama told Al Arabiya. "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy."
In the interview, conducted in the White House map room, President Obama also expressed his commitment to tackling the Middle East peace process immediately.
"Sending George Mitchell to the Middle East is fulfilling my campaign promise that we're not going to wait until the end of my administration to deal with Palestinian and Israeli peace, we're going to start now," he said. "It may take a long time to do, but we're going to do it now."
The interview is part of the President’s broader outreach to the Muslim world, which includes a promise to make a major address from the capital of a Muslim nation.
Al Arabiya is a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel based out of Dubai.
I’ve heard over and over today, that Barack Obama is historic because he is the first African-American to be President of the United States. Personally I couldn’t care less if his skin was white, black or green. To me it’s an historic day because he makes me care, because suddenly millions of people all over the world care. We listened to his amazing speech, actually listened. We heard his words, not just casually caught a sentence or two from occasional tidbits on TV. He touches me, us, out here in the world, as well as in living rooms all over America. That is historic! At least it hasn’t happened before in my lifetime.
I just played a few minutes of Bush Jr, inaugural speech from 2001 on YouTube. On a factual level he said almost exactly the same things President Obama did. But he never reached me, never made me believe it. He said things like “Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation, and this is my solemn pledge; I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.” Sounds good, but not nearly as good as President Obama’s words;
“America; In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations”.
These are words to inspire, to reach out and grab you!! These are the words worthy of a President. I even watched Kennedy’s speech to compare but I wasn’t nearly as impressed. Perhaps it just wasn’t my era. Obama will surely be my Kennedy though, and for that I am truly grateful.
As I watched Bush’s speech I noted the comments below it. Apparently there are those Americans who will miss him. One person asked if those who claimed to hate Bush even knew why. I have to confess my main reasons are somewhat childish. I hate how his words belittle me, make me feel less worthy than Americans. I hate it when he says things like Iraq not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment, as if he thought there should be such weapons in every country and that he was disappointed there weren’t. Of course I know what he meant, but he never said what he meant. Instead he said the most atrocious things and the world suffered for it.
Now we finally have a US President who says the most wonderful things in the most wonderful ways and that, as childish as it may seem, is what makes Barack Obama historic in my mind. He makes me believe, and in doing so he changes me. That’s how you create miracles, how you make the impossible possible! That’s how you go to the moon! You make people believe they can.
Still, there are good reasons for caution, as many have pointed out. If expectations are too high it can create the illusion that the work is already done, that we can sit back and enjoy the ride. But I don’t think President Obama will allow that. Nor do I think the millions of unemployed or suffering Americans would ever believe that. But maybe his words can pull them out of their self-pitying slump so many Americans seem to be in at the moment.
Then again, out of some four hundred thousand votes on CNNs website, almost 40% thought the whole inauguration thing was totally overhyped. Maybe they’re right. Maybe our beloved Obama isn’t all that, after all… Time will tell.
But I will love him anyway. If nothing else I will love him for the beautiful words he says and for making me believe, if only for a day!
Also, thank God! or I should say; Thank Obama! the White House website is finally worth paying a visit to!!! The last one was so sad, all empty and boring. I just hope that maybe in the future they’ll make a little room for us non US citizens. We don’t have zip codes and I hate to have to lie on all of these forms and what not. Maybe in time…
Anyway, time for me to sleep, it’s almost one in the morning here now. It’s been a glorious, amazing, unforgettable day. I hope President Obama (I can’t write that often enough!!) and his family have a great evening ball-hoping!
Depression, recession, war, disease, famine, global warming and total financial meltdown of all economies worldwide and the list goes on and on…
Surely President Obama will wake up with a considerable headache for many days to come. But the key to all of these problems are one and the same; global cooperation across borders and beliefs. In today’s world everything is so interconnected that simply focusing on one thing, one nation or one solution is futile. We need to start thinking of ourselves as one race together on this one planet. Only with that perspective can any actual solutions be found. Thankfully President Obama seems to understand this very thing.
It won’t be easy of course, but then again nothing worth having comes easy. Perhaps this dive into despair is what’s needed for countries like the United States to begin to redefine themselves and their role in the world. We have changed greatly as a race, the past century. With this new millennium we face challenges never before imagined. To deal with this we need new ways of thinking, feeling and relating to each other.
The internet made the world significantly smaller, airplanes narrowed distances between us and the media forged new bonds across all boundaries. The global warming and diminishing energy resources will soon tie us even closer together, billions of individuals as we are, stuck on this tiny planet in infinite space.
To unite a world, the world needs to be inspired to unite. Bullying never works, people will always find ways to fight it. But to inspire such a complex thing as a world like ours, one must have a clear understanding of the path ahead, knowledge of the path behind us and awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of one’s own heart. Only at the highest peak can you make yourself heard by all, and the climb there is thorny to say the least. But I can’t imagine anyone with more promise than Barack Obama.
Insecurity, distrust and fear have spread like wildfire across the globe in recent years. Wars and painful conflicts seem present or unavoidable everywhere you turn. The US is no longer the guaranteed peacekeeper it once was and President Obama is not a miracle worker. No outsider can ever bring peace. But he can, and must, rebuild mutual respect. This does not mean nations will suddenly become eternal friends, nor will they trust each other blindly. But for diplomacy to work, some degree of trust is essential. This will be President Obama’s greatest challenge; to build bridges, within his own country and between many others.
If President Obama can manage to get people talking again, get them to move forward instead of this stagnated depression, no challenge is too great to overcome. This is a simple fact. There are some six billion of us here, there’s nothing we can’t do.
But making this happen, uniting enemies and reconnecting old allies, will require a very special touch, a fingertip sensitivity to what each and all need to hear. There are keys to unleash every human’s inner creativity. But we each have a different key, so anyone desiring to inspire, has to understand our differences and adapt. A challenge worthy of any hero!!
It’s a good thing our new President is young! He’s got time… I’m looking forward to his eight years in the White House and the subsequent (?!) decades in charge of a new and reformed United Nations!
During the horrors of Bush’s reign I slowly began to come to the dreadful realization that before long the world might actually find itself in the midst of a third World War, something that had seemed unthinkable for many decades. But the new millennia seemed to hold far more frightening scenarios than ever before imagined and the outcome of all these fears would rest in the hands of the future President of the United States.
For so long it felt like disaster was inevitable, as the hope of all civilized nations, the country that held so much promise, had begun to act so erratically, irresponsibly and impulsively. This was cause for great concern, since the world needed a unifying force more than ever before. The challenges we all faced could not be solved alone and the United States of America was the only potential candidate to unite an unruly world. But President Bush, supported, at least in the beginning, by large numbers of his people, made it clear that the US thought nothing of the rest of the world or the wisdom that had evolved within it.
Then suddenly there was a young Senator from Illinois with the strange name of Barack Obama. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come since then.
When Obama won in Iowa, it was like the fog finally lifted after so many years of impenetrable darkness. There was hope and possibilities again, a chance at least for peace and prosperity. But going through my own blog posts, as they depict this incredible journey, I can’t help but marvel at the challenges he faced and obstacles he overcame. All of it converging on this day, in this moment in time, when I can finally write the words I have so longed to write; President Obama. It’s enough to take your breath away. But despite the fact that my belief in the possibility of this moment and my faith in this man has never wavered, I have to admit most days it did seem like an impossible dream.
Yet here we are. Today impossible has been proven null and void for all to see. Faith has finally prevailed over despair, commitment and dedication has prevailed over the age old prejudice of money and breeding, and the ethereal experience of hope became an actual beacon in the darkness.
Today millions all over the world enjoy the sensation of victory, the sweat aroma of joyous celebration. It is truly remarkable how many of us became personally invested in this campaign and shared in the struggles and woes of our fellow humans. Never before has the election in nation become such a shared endeavor for so many, so far apart!
Even though I’m unable to be a part of the celebrations in Washington DC today, I will be there in heart and spirit, for this day feels like it belongs as much to me as it does to the American people and others across the globe. It’s more than just the swearing in of yet another President. It’s the pinnacle of a collective journey, where accepted truths were tested and faith challenged, with victory the final outcome. It has been a journey so much greater than one man or one voice.
Barack Obama became the focus point of a world full of hope, dreams and fears and he carried it all without faltering or wavering. I have never been more proud of a single individual before, and elated that he has not yet allowed my belief in him to be in vain.
As countless Americans proudly, and rightly so, declare themselves winners, not just of an election, but rather winners of the battle against the hopelessness and crippling fear that has held the nation in its grip for so long, we should all remember the fragility of this victory. The celebration is well deserved and should be a moment worthy of the history books. But tomorrow the true test and challenge begins.
1 /10/09 reprint of 1995 Le Monde newspaper article (English version). En Français.
"Ma priorité est de ramener les valeurs publiques ou collectives au centre du débat," said President-elect Barack Obama in an interview running in today's Le Monde newspaper.Mr. Obama was not speaking in French; his words had been translated. And in fact he hadn't uttered them in more than 12 years.The French newspaper Le Monde on Saturday took the Obama team by surprise by publishing an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama from 1996 in which the two spoke at length about their marriage, only four years after they were wed, and two years before their oldest daughter Malia was born.
Many themes will not surprise those who know or follow the Obamas. Sitting down to talk about their future the same year Obama eventually ended up running for state senate (and winning), his wife Michelle in the interview expresses reservations about whether a life in politics is what they want. And while her husband is less uncertain of his calling, he wonders aloud about his ability to maintain a balance between private and public life. He also sounds out some notes about restoring civility in discourse to public life and the notion that we're all in this together, themes that have stayed with him throughout his career up through this week.The interview, entitled "An Intimate Conversation with Michelle and Barack Obama," was conducted for a book about American marriages and was never published before today. The story was noticed in Le Monde by Tom McCarthy at the ABC News desk and translated from the French by Maeva Bambuck and Jean Fievet in ABC News' London bureau. (When assessing the precise accuracy of the quotes below, keep in mind they have now been translated from English to French to English.)"If You Look Deep Into Her Eyes, There's a Certain Vulnerability"President-elect Obama, who turned 35 that year, describes growing up with a single mother and absent father, and says, "I think that in a certain way, I’ve tried all my life to fabricate a family through stories, memories, friends or ideas. Michelle’s family life was different, very stable with two parents, a stay-at-home mom, a brother, a dog, that kind of thing. They’ve lived in the same house all their lives. And I think that in a certain way we complement each other, we represent two common models of family life in this country. One very stable and strong, another that frees itself from the constraint of a traditional family, travels, separates, is very mobile.""A part of me was wondering what a strong, reassuring family life would look like," he says, "while Michelle in a way, wanted to break from that model. In a way only, because she’s very attached to family values, but I think she sometimes sees in me a more adventurous way of life, more exotic, and in that respect, we’re complementary."Describing Michelle as "alluring" and with "a strong personality," the future President says, "if you look deep into her eyes, there’s a certain vulnerability. In any case, I see it even if most don’t realize it: she goes through life tall, beautiful, confident, very able…There’s a part of her that is fragile, young, sometimes scared, and I think these are contradictions that attracted me to her. And she makes me very happy. She is very familiar to me and so I can be myself around her, she knows me well, I completely trust her, but at the same time in certain respects she remains a mystery to me.""Sometimes, when we’re lying together," he says, "I look at her and I feel dizzy with the realization that here is another distinct person from me, who has memories, origins, thoughts, feelings that are different from my own. That tension between familiarity and mystery meshes something strong between us. Even if one builds a life together based on trust, attentiveness and mutual support, I think that’s it’s important that a partner continues to surprise.""I Was Thinking, 'He's Probably an Idiot, Whatever'" "It was strange, that excitement over this first-year student," then-32-year-old Michelle Obama recalls when describing the buzz about a new summer associate at the law firm Sidley and Austin. "So smart, so good-looking, so intelligent, everyone was talking about Barack. I’m more of the skeptical kind, I was thinking, 'Yeah, he’s probably an idiot, whatever.'"Why was she skeptical? "Because I always thought that when lawyers rave about someone, they always neglect the relational qualities," Michelle says, "so I told myself, 'He might be brilliant, but he’s probably very ordinary.' And then on the first day, he showed up late. He was late because it’d been raining! And then he walked into the office and we got along right away because he was charming and very good-looking, at least I found him good-looking. I think we were attracted to one another because we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, like some others did. He liked my dry humor and my sarcastic comments. I thought he was a good man, interesting, and I was fascinated by his personal story, so different from mine."The first lady-in-waiting clearly liked the fact that he was different and perhaps even a bit exotic. "It’s not every day that a girl from the South Side of Chicago meets someone who speaks Indonesian, who has traveled and has seen many fascinating things," she says. "It gave him a rather rare dimension in my higher middle-class work environment. Usually, these people are all cast from the same mold, but he came from elsewhere. He had a high level of conversation, while still remaining an average guy. He had an impressive curriculum, but was very down to earth and liked playing basketball. That’s what I found attractive in him. Our relationship was first a friendship. It took off from there.""There's a strong possibility Barack will pursue a career in politics"Asked how she envisions her future with her husband, Michelle says, "there’s a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a career in politics, although it’s not very clear yet. It’s an interesting challenge, the Illinois senate, although we’ve had disagreements on that topic. Once you’re involved in politics, your life becomes public and the people who scrutinize it are not always well-intentioned. I’m rather secretive and I like to surround myself with people I care about and who’s loyalty I trust.""When you start in politics, you have to confide in all sorts of people," she continues. "We may go in that direction, even though I also want to have children, travel, and spend time with my family and friends. It’s not certain that we will succeed. But we’re going to be very busy with a number of different things, and it’s going to be interesting to see what life has to offer to us. We’re ready to take on that adventure for various reasons, for instance, for the opportunities it can open to us."Her husband was clearly leading her down the path."Barack helped my overcome my shyness, take on risks, and try a less traditional path, just to see how it would go, because that’s how he was raised," she says."I’m the more traditional in the couple and he’s the more audacious. I’m more cautious. I think it shows in photographs. He’s more extroverted, more expansive, me I’m more ‘let’s wait and see how things present themselves and how it can benefit us.’"Mr. Obama seems more sure that he will, in fact, enter politics."What concerns me the most are children and the way they are treated," he says about why he will pursue a career in public office. "As an African-American, I am very concerned about children from poor neighborhoods, the problems they deal with, the total lack of a stable environment to enable them to grow and develop. It depends a lot on the economy, the opportunities they are given, their own selves and their parents. It also depends on values, for instance on the kind of family values that get talked about a lot, especially by politicians."He continues, saying, "values don’t just belong to individuals, they are also collective. Children are exposed to the values around them, and if they come to believe that the lives of their parents and their community cannot be rewarded, if their schools and homes are crumbling, how can they come to believe in their own values when they don’t have any to begin with? My priority is to return social values to public debate, because we are all one big family, transcending racial or class differences. We have obligations and responsibilities towards one another."He says, "perhaps that’s where the private and public spheres meet, when it comes to couples, relationships, families or tribes. What’s important is empathy, an understanding of shared responsibilities, the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes. That’s why my marriage to Michelle is vibrant, because we are able to imagine the hopes, the pains, the personal battles of other people, and the challenge for everyone is to transfer that ability (for empathy) from the family sphere to the public sphere.""The Issue Will Be Finding a Balance Between Public Life and Private Life"Describing his father, Mr. Obama said "he studied economy in the United States, at the University of Hawaii and at Harvard. He wanted to contribute to development of Kenya but in the end, he was disappointed, he found himself implicated in political rivalries and the government blacklisted him because he’d protested against nepotism and tribalism. He had a bitter life and died young. Michelle’s father also had to overcome challenges and was stricken by multiple sclerosis. He too died young, but I think he had a steadier and more established life."Speaking of his mother's death just months before, Mr. Obama says, "she was only 53 years old. And when you have a small family, where every relative is very close to you…it was a difficult time for me. I have a sister on my mother’s side, she is half Indonesian like my mother’s second husband, and I also have brothers and sisters on the Kenyan side. They are very scattered, some live in Germany, others in Kenya, some here in the U.S."Mr. Obama says that for him and his wife, "kids are an important priority. We really look forward to having them. I think that the issue will be finding a balance between public life and private life, which will mean finding a balance between my temperament that leans towards risk-taking and ambition, and Michelle’s instinct for stability, family and strong values. The way we go about dealing with these issues will be crucial."- jpt
NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, 1/11/09
Barack Obama's election has already had a palpable impact in Europe: it is giving Europe's millions of minorities a new sense of pride and empowerment.
Guest host David Greene talks to NPR's Senior European Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli about her three-part series on minorities and racism in Europe, which airs on Morning Edition this week.
Series Overview: Race And Politics In Europe Today
Most Europeans were thrilled when Democrat Barack Obama was elected president of the United States because he promised to sweep away policies that Europeans found odious. But more than that, he represented hope, renewal and proof that the barriers of age, class and race can be transcended.
But Obama's victory also prompted soul-searching in Europe: Could his success be replicated there? Could a person of color ever become the leader of Germany? Italy? France?
Europeans know about America's segregationist past and the strains of racism that persist in the United States to this day. Many Europeans regard themselves as more enlightened than Americans in matters of race.
But when Europeans ask themselves, "Could a member of one of our own minorities be elected head of state?", the honest answer is: "Not any time soon."
NPR's Sylvia Poggioli explains why that's so in a three-part series, reported from Germany, Italy and France.
Part 1: In Germany, there are half a million people of African descent and 3 million people of Turkish descent. Many of them say they are treated like foreigners or ignored, even though their families may have lived in Germany for generations. There is no national debate on racism. To paraphrase one Afro-German: White Germans do not perceive themselves as racist. They act as if there are no other races in Germany. They perceive Germany as a monoracial country and conclude "we can't be racist." Another observer says, "The German concept of identity is based on exclusion."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189265
Part 2: In Italy, immigrants make up about 7 percent of the population. But suspicion toward immigrants is pervasive and reflected in some of the West's most restrictive citizenship laws. Not far from Naples, 6,000 to 8,000 black people live in a town now referred to as "Little Africa." Most survive, barely, in a gray economy controlled by the local Mafia. To the north, in a town called Citadella, "The Citadel," ordinances are so restrictive that most immigrants could never afford to live there. "Yes, we're raising the drawbridge," the mayor concedes. Italian media and Italian politicians often exploit public fears about "the Other."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99255579
Part 3: The constitution of France enshrines the notion of egalitarianism. France was once a haven for black Americans, such as writers Richard Wright and James Baldwin. France's colonies were represented in the French assembly. "Negritude," a black pride movement spearheaded by the Senegalese poet and statesman Leopold Senghor, was once embraced as part of French cultural identity. But French society turned "white" again, one scholar observes, when the colonies sought independence in the 1960s. Today, millions of immigrants from Africa live in banlieue, large, rundown housing projects outside the big cities. Unemployment is high. Hope is low. But in the wake of Obama's election, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced new measures to increase diversity in the civil service, politics and the media, and, for the first time, concepts such as racism and discrimination are entering the national debate.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99298290
Dear American Friends,
Wish you all a very happy New Year! I am now officially a candidate for the European Elections.
Please look at www.unicovankooten.eu . You can leave a message at 'gastenboek' if you want.
I would like to write a blog about the importance of the American-European relationship and would be
greatful if you would share your views with me on that.
Best regards, Unico
I attended a funereal today. A close friend of the family died unexpectedly last month from cancer. I had known him all my life, but never really knew him. We’d meet at various festive occasions, share pleasantries, exchange brief updates on our lives and always part with a warm embrace. That’s what I remember the most about him, his great, big hugs. He was a man with a big heart and in church today there was no doubt he had been, and always will be, deeply loved by many.
I sat there in church, watching his wife of some forty years struggle to hold the turmoil of emotions in check while the sun made a rare appearance in the darkest days of the year. I’m not a religious person and while the priest went on about Christian things, I pondered the meaning of change.
Change can probably mean a billion things and more. If you search Google for the word Change you actually get over a billion results. Change can be welcomed, when life is hard and suddenly gets easier. It can also be cursed when a good life turns into pain and suffering. We change as human beings, as life runs its course. We change as a race through the eons and call it evolution.
Change is the thing that happens when atoms merge and create the building blocks of our existence. Change is what happens when our cells slowly decay and we finally draw our last breath. Change is what happens when cells mutate into cancerous tumors and ends our life too soon. But Change is also what happens when the sperm leaves the comfort of its origin, finds an egg and life begins anew.
It’s amazing how much meaning there can be in one single word.
Change is not something we can ever avoid. It will come in one form or another. The only thing we can do is humbly and bravely endeavor to shift this change in a direction we feel is good and right.
I began following Obama because I needed to change my life. I was stagnating, obsessing about all negative things and needed something positive to shift my focus. I used him to try to change my life to the better and it worked. I feel free now, free to do what I always wanted to do. Politics was never my passion, writing fictional stories are. That’s what I can concentrate on now, that’s the freedom Obama gave me.
But regrettably I need to let some things go. I can no longer spend weeks on one single posting here. I have to move on. I will continue to stay updated on Obama’s progress, but the journey he’s on is the journey of the citizens of the United States. This journey will undoubtedly affect us all profoundly but in truth, as much as I wish I could help, I have to accept the fact that there is nothing I can do. And today I was reminded of just how short and fragile life is and I how important it is for each of us to experience our own journey as fully as possible while we still can.
I can never fully express the gratitude I feel for the privilege of sharing thoughts, dreams and fears with everyone on this site. It really did change my life. I will keep blogging now and then but not the way I did. I have stories to write, characters to create and other galaxies to explore! But none of that could have been possible if Barack Obama hadn’t stood up and said “Change is possible in America”. For a while there I had almost given up…
Scores have been killed during a campaign of terror unleashed by Zimbabwe's rulers against illegal diggers in the east of the country
The young miner already recognised the sound of dogs as a terrifying harbinger of death but the dull thud of the helicopter blades was something new.
Minutes later a Zimbabwean air force helicopter swept over the hundreds of fleeing illegal diamond miners and mowed down dozens with machine-gun fire. After that the police arrived and unleashed the dogs that tore into the diggers, killing some and mutilating others. The police fired teargas to drive the miners out of their shallow tunnels and shot them down as they emerged.
How many died in the assault two weeks ago is not clear but the miners say it was at least scores. Some bodies remain unclaimed and unidentified in Mutare hospital mortuary.
"First we heard the helicopter and we knew it wouldn't be good but I thought it would just deliver soldiers," said the young miner, a former student who gave his name only as Hopewell.
"Then it came over us and started shooting. There was a man next to me, he had been digging near me, and the bullet went right through his head. Everyone was in panic. People ran but they didn't want to leave their finds behind so they were stopping to grab them and getting shot ... The police were waiting for us with the dogs. I was lucky. A dog ran for me but there was this woman, she was slower than me and it attacked her. I don't know what happened to her. I went back to my diggings a few days later but she hasn't come back."
The police and military have for weeks been conducting a bloody campaign, which Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has described as "resembling a war", to drive thousands of illegal miners out of a recently discovered diamond field that some in the industry believe might be the richest in years.
The miners say hundreds have died. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says it has the names of 140 people killed although there is common agreement that many have been buried without a word.
Chris McGreal: 'Bodies have turned up riddled with bullets' Link to this audio
The diamond fields around Chiadzwa, about 20 miles north-west of the town of Mutare in Zimbabwe's eastern Manicaland province, are a collection of shallow tunnels and open gullies dug out after the discovery of gems close to the surface two years ago set off the rush.
Thousands of illegal diggers moved in - estimates run between 10,000 and 30,000 including foreigners from across southern Africa - spending days or even weeks to discover only tiny diamonds worth no more than a couple of hundred US dollars. But that is several months' pay for many Zimbabweans as their country collapses under the weight of hyperinflation.
Many of the miners are professionals, such as teachers and civil servants, who have abandoned jobs that do not pay enough to feed their families. Others are students who have dropped out of university in the hope of making a quick fortune and subsistence farmers whose land has not produced a crop in years. And some have got very rich.
Mutare, on the border with Mozambique, has taken on the air of a frontier town filled with brash young men touting US dollars and an air of menace. The hotels are filled with miners and dealers. Luxury cars prowl the streets. Shops have filled with imported goods sold for American dollars and South African rand. Spend any amount of time in a hotel bar and periodically someone will approach with diamonds for sale.
The governor of Zimbabwe's central bank, Gideon Gono, has estimated there are more than 500 syndicates handling more than $1bn a month in illegally dug diamonds that are swiftly smuggled out of the country.
Now Zimbabwe's government, or at least members of its discredited ruling elite, are apparently trying to take control. The military and police have moved in to try to drive the illegal diggers out of plots the miners say are claimed by Grace Mugabe, the president's wife, and Joice Mujuru, the vice-president. Both areas are now known by the women's names.
Legal and opposition political sources in Mutare say the prime mover behind the military assault is the Zimbabwean air force chief, Perence Shiri, the former commander of the notorious Fifth Brigade which massacred about 20,000 people in Matabeleland in the mid-80s.
Shiri oversaw the bloody military campaign of beatings and killings in Manicaland earlier this year that terrorised voters into supporting Robert Mugabe in June's presidential election.
He sent the helicopter gunships into the diamond fields three weeks ago. The police were already letting loose ferocious dogs, killing some miners and maiming others. One police tactic is to use teargas to drive them out of the tunnels, causing stampedes in which some have been crushed. The miners say that in some cases the police shoot down the men, blinded by teargas, as they flee.
One described how there is shooting nearly every day and particularly at night. "There were three of us mining together. In the night a policeman came and shot my friend, twice in the chest. We ran away but came back. He was still alive. We carried him to a hospital but he died," he said.
A policewoman working in Chiadzwa said she saw a pile of 50 bodies after one helicopter attack. "There were a lot of bodies. They were piled up. I don't know what happened to them. Some of the dead are just buried secretly," she said. "Miners are killed every day. The orders to the police are to shoot them if they find them digging but many of the police do not want to carry out those orders. These are ordinary people like us."
The situation has got so bad that some miners are now arming themselves and fighting back. The state-run press has reported that several police officers have been killed in shoot-outs.
But none of that deters the men who continue to work the diamond fields. "The risks are worth it," said Hopewell. "Some miners have run away but most of us don't leave for long. We hear stories of giant diamonds. I've already sold enough to make more money than I have made in five years. I have bought food for my mother and father. I have bought a television and a DVD from South Africa. Next I will buy a car. If they don't kill me," he says, and laughs.
A De Beers subsidiary held the exploitation rights to the fields but let them expire in 2006 because, according to industry sources, it believed the diamonds to be of poor quality. A British firm, African Consolidated Resources, bought the rights but it was ousted by the government when large quantities of high quality diamonds were discovered a short dig under the surface. Theoretically the diamond fields were then taken over by the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation but the illegal diggers moved in so fast it was unable to assert control.
Some economists speculate that Zimbabwe's rulers look on the diamond fields as a new source of US dollars now that the country's foreign reserves have largely been spent and the collapse of agriculture, industry and tourism means there is little new money coming in. But given the bitter experience of recent years Zimbabweans have little reason to believe that if the ruling elite gets control of the diamond fields, the revenues will be used to rescue the country.
