2001: Cement Odyssey

Per la versione in italiano di questo post: http://www.beppegrillo.it/2008/03/2001_odissea_ne.html

Year 2000: Towns can spend money from building licenses ONLY for investmentsYear 2001, October: Towns are authorised to spend money from building licenses to do what they like, thanks to the Unified Text on Building.The building boom arrives. Year 2000: 159,000 homes constructed.Year 2007: 298,000 homes constructed and 38,000 homes extended.Licenses double in 7 years. Italian territory is cementified with small blocks of flats, nano sky scrapers, hangars, second, third and fourth villas, car parks, garages. The towns double the cash coming into their coffers without any obligation according to how the money is to be used. They have a licence to kill the territory.The “territorio comunale” {territory of the town), as the word itself says, is the “communal” inheritance of the citizens who live there. It belongs to them. The wood, the meadow, the panoramic view, a place to go for a walk or to let one’s children play, the park, the gardens, or even, a simple empty space for looking at the horizon. Let it be clear that the territory belongs to the citizens and not to the mayor decorated for the feast and his cabinet members who are ONLY town employees. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions.What’s happened to the money from the building licenses that have been handed out with no longer any obligation to make investments? New services, nurseries, cycle tracks, public transport have not been seen. I’d do a survey. Town by town.How much more can the Italian countryside be cementified? It’s only possible to go back, to de-cementify. Tourism is dying from cement.Which are the main building companies that have obtained licenses? The constructors now are more in charge than mayor Moratti and mayor Topo Gigio. They have to get out of the town councils. They are there, even though they have not been elected.The infernal process put in motion by the 2001 Unified Text has to be stopped. We need to turn the clock back to the year 2000. Less cement, less money for the parties, the true bosses in the towns. The citizens must present themselves in the Town Councils to ask for the reasons for the building disaster and they should document the meeting with a video. The Bel Paese {Beautiful Country} is ours. Let’s claim it back.

The Train to Djibouti on Selamta Magazine (Ethiopian Airlines)

Selamta Magazine, the official website and magazine of the Ethiopian Airlines has included 'The train to Djibouti' by Lara Kassa among its books list.

Books on Ethiopia
The Train to Djibouti by Lara Bordin Kassa

'' … if you will receive my sayings and treasure up
My own commandments with yourself, if you
call out for understanding and for discernment,
if you keep seeking for it as if for silver, and as
for hid treasures you keep searching for it, in that
case you will understand the very knowledge of
God. For God himself gives wisdom.’’

[ Proverbs 2: 1-5]

What I’m about to tell, they’re not simply memories, thoughts drawn from the journal of a trip; it is not only the story of one adventure or the recollection of precious moments. It is rather my attempt to revisit the weft of a thick mosaic of emotions, never, before then, experienced; a wood inlaid with indelible, incorruptible images, a drape embroidered with the faces of an entire people; a painting of thousands of colours; a story of a world of dreams, sometimes not appreciated by those who want to achieve other dreams. A story of dreams not understood by those to whom that world does not belong. A story of lives hanging from a thread and that of landscapes hanging in the void.
The story of ancient hidden treasures; the story of a man vanished into nothing and that of others who came out of it. The story of an invisible train and that of a river that disappears into the sands.

About the Author:
Lara Bordin Kassa was born in Turin, Italy in 1976. She studied law and then moved to London where she lives with her husband since 1999.

Web site: http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~41028.aspx

Ethiopia celebrates 112th anniversary of Battle of Adwa Victory

Ethiopia marks the 112th anniversary of the Battle of Adwa Victory, in which the Ethiopian army defeated the invading Italian army on March 1, 1896. Ethiopia was the first and only country in Africa that defeated a European colonial power during the 'scramble for Africa', making it the only independent nation in Africa that has never been colonized.
Ethiopia under Emperor Menelik II decimated the invading Italian army in the Battle of Adwa, which made it a symbol of independence and pride for all black people around the World. The colors of Ethiopia's flag [Green, Yellow, Red] have been adopted by many African countries after their independence and school children across Africa are taught about the Battle of Adwa.