Non siamo sempre d'accordo con Beppe Grillo, ma mi sembra che questo post abbia varie considerazioni interessanti. Continuo ad essere piu' preoccupato dal fatto che si puo' solo votare i candidati dei partiti. Bisogna spingere per i referendums!
We live in a totally different world. Our employees are busy isolating themselves from the rest of the Country. Their alibi is governability. There can never have be too much governability for their liking. It has become like a drug. Maximum governability equates to minimum democracy. Control of the media equates to regime.
They are busy stripping democracy like one strips an artichoke of its leaves. One leaf at a time. They have already eliminated direct election. They have eliminated any differences between the various parties’ election programmes: the only remaining difference between the PD and the PDL is the letter “L”. They have eliminated the smaller parties. They have eliminated the opposition. Now they are about to eliminate Parliament.
Fini, the newly elected President of the Chamber, called Kriptonite Di Pietro to order when he brought up the matter of Tar Head’s criminal record and his conflict of interests. “Honourable Di Pietro, you are well aware that it is natural for there to be interruptions, but this also depends on what is being said”. An item missing from the bundle.
Topo Gigio and Tar Head sniffed each other. They decided that they actually liked each other. They got married. The marriage was consummated yesterday on a sofa inside a political complex, far away from the prying eyes of the rest of the Country. Far from the eyes of all those Italians that voted for the Democratic Party in the hope that they would constitute an effective opposition in Parliament rather than be buddy-buddy.
The decisions regarding our future are being made behind closed doors. There will no longer be any discussions held in Parliament. Parliament will only be expected to ratify the wishes of two people sitting drinking tea in some or other lounge. The deputies and senators will not present any opposition whatsoever. They have been elected by the party secretaries after all, not by the citizens. They are nothing more than well-paid employees dependent on their masters.
What is going on is the creation of closed-door democracy. The latest political creation of the italic genius. Emergencies by which the Country will be governed. The squatters, the refuse, security. First they create these emergencies and then they use them in order to justify their own existence. But they are the real emergency. A democratic emergency. The citizen must never find out, the Parliament must never speak out and the television and the newspapers must never inform. We can expect certain serious decisions to be taken for the good of the Country, always and only for the good of the Country. They are busy preparing the ground.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Naples residents rise up against rubbish crisis da AFB il 17 Maggio 2008
Questo scandalo continua as essere una fonte di imbarazzo per l'Italia.
Naples residents rise up against rubbish crisis
4 hours ago
NAPLES, Italy (AFP) — Residents of Naples, fed up with the stench from months of uncollected rubbish, on Sunday used the waste to barricade streets in protest at the long-running crisis.
For days running, residents of the southern Italian city have set scores of stinking rubbish heaps alight, some throwing stones at firefighters called out to deal with the blazes, often under police escort.
Firefighters said they put out 84 blazes overnight.
Traffic is impeded by mountains of rubbish pushed into the streets by protesters as rising temperatures aggravate the stench.
New Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to hold his right-wing government's first cabinet meeting on Wednesday in Naples to underscore an election campaign pledge to bury the continuing "scandal."
Some 6,000 tonnes of household rubbish litter the streets of the city, and another 50,000 tonnes line the roads of the Campania region surrounding Naples, according to the latest figures, a product of the dysfunctional waste collection system.
Earlier this month, the European Commission launched legal action against Italy before an EU court over its failure to tackle the crisis, which has dragged on for the last 14 years.
Although the previous government appointed a waste management pointman to tackle the problem -- former police chief Gianni De Gennaro -- the commission said that authorities have failed to come up with convincing plans that would lead to a long-term solution.
Many landfills in Campania are controlled by the region's Camorra mafia, which lines its pockets by subverting waste-handling procedures and shipping in industrial waste from the north.
Emergency plans adopted in late January by the outgoing centre-left government of Romano Prodi failed to resolve chronic backlogs at waste treatment centres, Italian press reports said.
Of Campania's 64 towns and cities, 22 failed to implement trash-sorting directives within the allotted time.
On Saturday they fell under De Gennaro's direct administration.
By law, rubbish that is not sorted cannot be dumped at the few landfills that still have space in Campania.
Courts routinely bar local authorities from reopening dumps because they are too close to residential areas amid an uncontrolled property development boom in the region.
In other cases, environmental groups or neighbourhood associations have opposed, sometimes by force, the reopening of old landfills or plans to build new incinerators.
Shipping waste out by train to German treatment plants or by boat to other Italian regions has not made enough of a dent in the backlog.
Authorities accuse the Camorra of undermining efforts to resolve the crisis, one of several issues that helped Berlusconi to power in mid-April elections.
News reports on Sunday said Berlusconi would likely use the army to confront the situation and that future dumping sites would remain secret to prevent protests.
Hosted by Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Naples residents rise up against rubbish crisis
4 hours ago
NAPLES, Italy (AFP) — Residents of Naples, fed up with the stench from months of uncollected rubbish, on Sunday used the waste to barricade streets in protest at the long-running crisis.
For days running, residents of the southern Italian city have set scores of stinking rubbish heaps alight, some throwing stones at firefighters called out to deal with the blazes, often under police escort.
Firefighters said they put out 84 blazes overnight.
Traffic is impeded by mountains of rubbish pushed into the streets by protesters as rising temperatures aggravate the stench.
New Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to hold his right-wing government's first cabinet meeting on Wednesday in Naples to underscore an election campaign pledge to bury the continuing "scandal."
Some 6,000 tonnes of household rubbish litter the streets of the city, and another 50,000 tonnes line the roads of the Campania region surrounding Naples, according to the latest figures, a product of the dysfunctional waste collection system.
Earlier this month, the European Commission launched legal action against Italy before an EU court over its failure to tackle the crisis, which has dragged on for the last 14 years.
Although the previous government appointed a waste management pointman to tackle the problem -- former police chief Gianni De Gennaro -- the commission said that authorities have failed to come up with convincing plans that would lead to a long-term solution.
Many landfills in Campania are controlled by the region's Camorra mafia, which lines its pockets by subverting waste-handling procedures and shipping in industrial waste from the north.
Emergency plans adopted in late January by the outgoing centre-left government of Romano Prodi failed to resolve chronic backlogs at waste treatment centres, Italian press reports said.
Of Campania's 64 towns and cities, 22 failed to implement trash-sorting directives within the allotted time.
On Saturday they fell under De Gennaro's direct administration.
By law, rubbish that is not sorted cannot be dumped at the few landfills that still have space in Campania.
Courts routinely bar local authorities from reopening dumps because they are too close to residential areas amid an uncontrolled property development boom in the region.
In other cases, environmental groups or neighbourhood associations have opposed, sometimes by force, the reopening of old landfills or plans to build new incinerators.
Shipping waste out by train to German treatment plants or by boat to other Italian regions has not made enough of a dent in the backlog.
Authorities accuse the Camorra of undermining efforts to resolve the crisis, one of several issues that helped Berlusconi to power in mid-April elections.
News reports on Sunday said Berlusconi would likely use the army to confront the situation and that future dumping sites would remain secret to prevent protests.
Hosted by Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Un'idea per l'Italia? - As Prices Rise, Crime Tipsters Work Overtime in New York Times del 17 Maggio 2008
As Prices Rise, Crime Tipsters Work Overtime
By SHAILA DEWAN and BRENDA GOODMAN
To gas prices, foreclosure rates and the cost of rice, add this rising economic indicator: the number of tips to the police from people hoping to collect reward money.
Calls to the Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers hot line in the first quarter of this year were up 30 percent over last year. San Antonio had a 44 percent increase. Cities and towns from Detroit to Omaha to Beaufort County, N.C., all report increases of 25 percent or more in the first quarter, with tipsters telling operators they need the money for rent, light bills or baby formula.
“For this year, everyone that’s called has pretty much been just looking for money,” said Sgt. Lawrence Beller, who answers Crime Stoppers calls at the Sussex County, N.J., sheriff’s office. “That’s as opposed to the last couple of years, where some people were just sick of the crime and wanting to do something about it.”
As a result, many programs report a substantial increase in Crime Stopper-related arrests and recovered property, as callers turn in neighbors, grandchildren or former boyfriends in exchange for a little cash.
On Friday, a woman called the Regional Crime Stoppers line in Macon, Ga., to find out when she could pick up her reward money for a recent tip. She was irritated to learn that she would have to wait until Monday.
“I’m in a bind, I’m really in a bind,” she told the hot-line operator. “There’s a lot of stuff I know, but I didn’t open my mouth. If I weren’t in a bind, I wouldn’t open my mouth.”
When she learned the money was not available, she said she would call back with the whereabouts of another suspect whom she had just seen “going down the road.”
Elaine Cloyd, the president of Crime Stoppers U.S.A., a national organization of local tip programs, said that not all of the 323 programs in the country had reported an increase in calls, and that some, like those in Lafayette, La., and Broward County, Fla., attributed most of their spike to increased publicity or technological improvements like accepting tips by text message. But there was no doubt, Ms. Cloyd said, that the faltering economy was a significant factor.
“When the economy gets rough, people have to be creative,” she said. “They might give a tip where they wouldn’t have in the past.”
For tips that bring results, programs in most places pay $50 to $1,000, with some jurisdictions giving bonuses for help solving the most serious crimes, or an extra “gun bounty” if a weapon is recovered. In Sussex County, the average payment for a tip that results in an arrest is $400, Sergeant Beller said.
“Usually you deliver the money in an unmarked car and meet them somewhere,” he said. “But these people come right to the office and walk right through the front door.”
Some Crime Stoppers coordinators say their program appeals to community spirit and emphasize that not everyone who calls is after money. But their advertising makes no bones about the benefits of a good tip.
“Crime doesn’t pay but we do,” say the mobile billboards cruising Jacksonville, Fla. A poster in Jackson, Tenn., draws a neat equation: “Ring Ring + Bling Bling = Cha-Ching.” The bling, in this case, is a pair of handcuffs.
Some coordinators suggest that rising crime rates might be driving up the number of tips. But in Jackson, Tenn., Sgt. Mike Johnson said his call volume had gone from two or three a day to eight or nine. He theorized that rising crime there was not a factor because the program advertises steadily regardless of trends. “People just need money,” Sergeant Johnson said.
Sergeant Johnson has been a Crime Stoppers coordinator for 15 years, watching crime rates and tips fluctuate. But, he said, “I’ve never seen an increase like it is now.”
Crime Stoppers programs strictly protect the anonymity of callers. Each tip is assigned a number, and if the tip results in an arrest, the caller can collect a cash reward, usually by going to a designated bank. Some programs pay tipsters within hours of an arrest; others have monthly meetings to approve reward amounts.
Not only have the number of tips increased, several program coordinators said, but people are also more diligent about calling back to find out if and when they can collect.
Jim Cogan, director of the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers program in California, said most of the rewards offered by his program used to go unclaimed. But with large numbers of foreclosures and heavy job losses, Mr. Cogan said, “now we’re seeing rewards get picked up right away and our tipsters being frustrated when tips aren’t available as quickly as they need the money.”
Karen Keen, the tips coordinator for First Coast Crime Stoppers in Jacksonville, said she had, on occasion, been given approval to pay tipsters early, if they persuaded her that they needed the money to pay a light bill or some other necessity.
Some people have made a cottage industry of calling in tips. Although repeat callers do not give their names, operators recognize their voices.
“We have people out there that, realistically, this could be their job,” said Sgt. Zachary Self, who answers Crime Stoppers calls for the Macon Police Department.
“Two or three arrests per week, you could make $700, $750 per week,” Sergeant Self said. “You could make better than a minimum-wage job.”
He said that his program typically averaged 215 arrests per year, but that this year it had already hit 100, and he projected it would make more than 300, a record, by year’s end.
In some cases, the quality of the tips is lagging as people grasp for any shred of information that might result in an arrest. A woman in Macon, for example, recently called to report that a family member — who was wanted for burglary and whose name and address were already known to the police — was at home. His home.
Such a tip might seem worthless on its face, said Jean Davis, who took the call. But many police departments do not have the personnel to watch a suspect’s comings and going. In that case, the young man was arrested.
Typically, the greatest number of calls comes in response to news coverage of a specific crime or a weekly list of wanted suspects. At other times, people call to report a crime the police might not even be aware of. Or, they might just call to report the whereabouts of someone with an old warrant. Warrant tips for minor crimes generate the lowest rewards, but that has not stopped people from turning in suspects.
“We’re getting a lot more calls related to wanted persons,” said Sgt. Tommi Bridgeman, who coordinates the Beaufort County Crime Stoppers program. “People who know that these people have warrants out for their arrest are calling to turn them in.”
Sergeant Bridgeman said her calls were up 25 percent even though the program’s one advertisement, a patrol car emblazoned with the hot-line number, was out of commission.
“Folks around here need the money,” she said. “There’s not a lot of jobs here. We try to pay out every two weeks because we know they need the money.”
Places with quick payments and particularly bleak economic conditions tended to report increases in call volume. Lee County, Fla., had the highest rate for home foreclosures in the United States in February and March, and its once-plentiful construction jobs have dried up.
Last week, the Crime Stoppers coordinator there, Trish Routte, got a call from a man reporting drug activity, a tip that paid him $450. It was his second call in a week, said Ms. Routte, who recognized the caller’s voice.
“He told me he really didn’t want to call but he just had a new grandbaby and he needed the money,” Ms. Routte said.
Economic problems for families, Ms. Routte acknowledged, were good business for Crime Stoppers. “We’re kind of banking on that, really,” she said. “If it helps put dinner on the table for somebody, that’s wonderful.”
By SHAILA DEWAN and BRENDA GOODMAN
To gas prices, foreclosure rates and the cost of rice, add this rising economic indicator: the number of tips to the police from people hoping to collect reward money.
Calls to the Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers hot line in the first quarter of this year were up 30 percent over last year. San Antonio had a 44 percent increase. Cities and towns from Detroit to Omaha to Beaufort County, N.C., all report increases of 25 percent or more in the first quarter, with tipsters telling operators they need the money for rent, light bills or baby formula.
“For this year, everyone that’s called has pretty much been just looking for money,” said Sgt. Lawrence Beller, who answers Crime Stoppers calls at the Sussex County, N.J., sheriff’s office. “That’s as opposed to the last couple of years, where some people were just sick of the crime and wanting to do something about it.”
As a result, many programs report a substantial increase in Crime Stopper-related arrests and recovered property, as callers turn in neighbors, grandchildren or former boyfriends in exchange for a little cash.
On Friday, a woman called the Regional Crime Stoppers line in Macon, Ga., to find out when she could pick up her reward money for a recent tip. She was irritated to learn that she would have to wait until Monday.
“I’m in a bind, I’m really in a bind,” she told the hot-line operator. “There’s a lot of stuff I know, but I didn’t open my mouth. If I weren’t in a bind, I wouldn’t open my mouth.”
When she learned the money was not available, she said she would call back with the whereabouts of another suspect whom she had just seen “going down the road.”
Elaine Cloyd, the president of Crime Stoppers U.S.A., a national organization of local tip programs, said that not all of the 323 programs in the country had reported an increase in calls, and that some, like those in Lafayette, La., and Broward County, Fla., attributed most of their spike to increased publicity or technological improvements like accepting tips by text message. But there was no doubt, Ms. Cloyd said, that the faltering economy was a significant factor.
“When the economy gets rough, people have to be creative,” she said. “They might give a tip where they wouldn’t have in the past.”
For tips that bring results, programs in most places pay $50 to $1,000, with some jurisdictions giving bonuses for help solving the most serious crimes, or an extra “gun bounty” if a weapon is recovered. In Sussex County, the average payment for a tip that results in an arrest is $400, Sergeant Beller said.
“Usually you deliver the money in an unmarked car and meet them somewhere,” he said. “But these people come right to the office and walk right through the front door.”
Some Crime Stoppers coordinators say their program appeals to community spirit and emphasize that not everyone who calls is after money. But their advertising makes no bones about the benefits of a good tip.
“Crime doesn’t pay but we do,” say the mobile billboards cruising Jacksonville, Fla. A poster in Jackson, Tenn., draws a neat equation: “Ring Ring + Bling Bling = Cha-Ching.” The bling, in this case, is a pair of handcuffs.
Some coordinators suggest that rising crime rates might be driving up the number of tips. But in Jackson, Tenn., Sgt. Mike Johnson said his call volume had gone from two or three a day to eight or nine. He theorized that rising crime there was not a factor because the program advertises steadily regardless of trends. “People just need money,” Sergeant Johnson said.
Sergeant Johnson has been a Crime Stoppers coordinator for 15 years, watching crime rates and tips fluctuate. But, he said, “I’ve never seen an increase like it is now.”
Crime Stoppers programs strictly protect the anonymity of callers. Each tip is assigned a number, and if the tip results in an arrest, the caller can collect a cash reward, usually by going to a designated bank. Some programs pay tipsters within hours of an arrest; others have monthly meetings to approve reward amounts.
Not only have the number of tips increased, several program coordinators said, but people are also more diligent about calling back to find out if and when they can collect.
Jim Cogan, director of the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers program in California, said most of the rewards offered by his program used to go unclaimed. But with large numbers of foreclosures and heavy job losses, Mr. Cogan said, “now we’re seeing rewards get picked up right away and our tipsters being frustrated when tips aren’t available as quickly as they need the money.”
Karen Keen, the tips coordinator for First Coast Crime Stoppers in Jacksonville, said she had, on occasion, been given approval to pay tipsters early, if they persuaded her that they needed the money to pay a light bill or some other necessity.
Some people have made a cottage industry of calling in tips. Although repeat callers do not give their names, operators recognize their voices.
“We have people out there that, realistically, this could be their job,” said Sgt. Zachary Self, who answers Crime Stoppers calls for the Macon Police Department.
“Two or three arrests per week, you could make $700, $750 per week,” Sergeant Self said. “You could make better than a minimum-wage job.”
He said that his program typically averaged 215 arrests per year, but that this year it had already hit 100, and he projected it would make more than 300, a record, by year’s end.
In some cases, the quality of the tips is lagging as people grasp for any shred of information that might result in an arrest. A woman in Macon, for example, recently called to report that a family member — who was wanted for burglary and whose name and address were already known to the police — was at home. His home.
Such a tip might seem worthless on its face, said Jean Davis, who took the call. But many police departments do not have the personnel to watch a suspect’s comings and going. In that case, the young man was arrested.
Typically, the greatest number of calls comes in response to news coverage of a specific crime or a weekly list of wanted suspects. At other times, people call to report a crime the police might not even be aware of. Or, they might just call to report the whereabouts of someone with an old warrant. Warrant tips for minor crimes generate the lowest rewards, but that has not stopped people from turning in suspects.
“We’re getting a lot more calls related to wanted persons,” said Sgt. Tommi Bridgeman, who coordinates the Beaufort County Crime Stoppers program. “People who know that these people have warrants out for their arrest are calling to turn them in.”
Sergeant Bridgeman said her calls were up 25 percent even though the program’s one advertisement, a patrol car emblazoned with the hot-line number, was out of commission.
“Folks around here need the money,” she said. “There’s not a lot of jobs here. We try to pay out every two weeks because we know they need the money.”
Places with quick payments and particularly bleak economic conditions tended to report increases in call volume. Lee County, Fla., had the highest rate for home foreclosures in the United States in February and March, and its once-plentiful construction jobs have dried up.
Last week, the Crime Stoppers coordinator there, Trish Routte, got a call from a man reporting drug activity, a tip that paid him $450. It was his second call in a week, said Ms. Routte, who recognized the caller’s voice.
“He told me he really didn’t want to call but he just had a new grandbaby and he needed the money,” Ms. Routte said.
Economic problems for families, Ms. Routte acknowledged, were good business for Crime Stoppers. “We’re kind of banking on that, really,” she said. “If it helps put dinner on the table for somebody, that’s wonderful.”
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