Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has declared that granting the right to vote to regular immigrants is not included in the goverment’s plans. This put an end to the spars in the governing coalition regarding this topic.

A couple of days ago, Mr Fini of the National Alliance suggested giving limited voting rights for some immigrants- those who do their duty and and pay taxes should be granted the right to vote in administrative elections. This sparked a furious response from Mr Bossi of the far-right Northern League, which takes a tough position against immigration. Mr Bossi declared that such a concession “is wrong; it is not what the people want”. Berlusconi closed the argument stating that the right to vote for immigrants is not in the government’s future plans.

The Italian constitution currently grants the right to vote only to Italian citizens; in order to apply for Italian citizenship, immigrants must be resident in Italy for at least ten years.
Mr Fini’s suggestion was met with surprise from many other members of his own party, which has never been known for its liberal views towards migrants. As a matter of fact, he and Mr Bossi co-authored a law last year cracking down on illegal immigration, and his comments on the possible right to vote surprised many observers, while the centre-left opposition and some unions welcomed the proposal.

In my opinion, political participation is a right everybody should be able to exercise. It seems difficult to justify democratically that many immigrants in Italy do their duty, paying taxes, and do not have their rights, specifically the right to vote, recognised; they cannot have a say in the choice of people who are going to influence their lives, their work, the education of their children. Denying immigrants the right to vote creates an acute inequality with respect to nationals.

It is inconsistent to speak of the intention to integrate immigrants in our society if at the same time they are denied the right to participate in politics. The vote is a part of integration. We can not expect someone to feel comfortable, to be responsible and to integrate in this society when we do not allow them to participate fully and to take decisions about its future.

Resources:

* Migrant vote call sparks Italy spat
* Anti-immigrant party gains in Italy

This is probably one of the most famous squares in Italy and in the world: St Mark’s Square, one of the symbols of Venice. However, the 900-year-old piazza, which was defined by Napoleon as “Europe’s finest drawing room”, could very well be turning into a huge advertising showroom, as giant electronic screens have been located on the old buildings.

The electronic screens have been put up to cover the expenses for the necessary restoration work, which is taking place in Venice. As a matter of fact, officials plan to make €3.6 millions out of the ads, so as to pay for the complete restoration works.

The mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, declared that the advertising screens are neither beautiful nor ugly, but just necessary to pay for the costly restorations of St Mark’s buildings. However, the placing of the screens has elicited the outcry of local newspapers, which wrote that the square is turning into New York’s Times Square. Moreover, some art critics warned that other squares in Italy, such as Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, could possibly be next.

Is it right to cover up an ancient square such as St Mark’s with futuristic advertising panels? On the one hand, the advertisement is a huge source of money for the city, which would find it difficult to find the funds to finance the expensive restoration works. Venice obviously needs the money for the restorations.

On the other hand, however, St Marks’ Square is a big tourist attraction. Covering it up with advertisement could mean that tourists might be drawn off visiting the town centre. Moreover, some advertisement might not be appropriate to the place, thus creating the need for checking the ads beforehand. The placing of huge advertisement panels for fast food and soft drinks stays at a stark contrast to the “decorum” dispositions recently approved by Venice officials, according to which it is prohibited to sit cross-legged on the ground of the square, to walk shirtless and to pull out picnics.

Other resources:

The changing face of St Marks’ Square (article by the Guardian online)

Piazza San Marco (Wikipedia article)

Women wearing the Muslim veil which covers the entire face (the niqab, usually worn by Pakistani women) will nto be allowed to enter in Italian museums any longer.

In the Ca’ Rezzonico museum of Venice an Israeli woman of Muslim origin was denied access because she was wearing a veil covering her entire face. This is not a religious battle, as the direction of the museum declared, but an issue of public security: an Italian law intimates that all people in public places need to be identifiable, and thus prohibites people to walk around with veils covering their entire faces.

This measure will probably e adopted in other Italian museums, starting from Venice, Naples, and Florence. The women wearing the niqab will be asked to step in an apposite room of the museum, next to the ticket office, where a woman guardian will identify them. If not, they will be denied access to the museum. This would not be the case for women wearing the chador, the veil covering only the hair but leaving the face visible.

I think this is a necessary measure to prevent possible terrorist acts and to make Italian laws respected even by Muslim people. As already declared, it is not a religious issue, but aquestion of public security.

Paper is made from cellulose fibre, the source of which can be either pulped wood, or a variety of other materials, such as rags, cotton, grasses, sugar cane, straw, waste paper... Wood pulp is usually the most common source material for the manufacture of virgin paper, i.e. paper which has no recycled content.

Paper cannot be recycled indefinitely: it can only be recycled 4-6 times, as the fibres get shorter and weaker each time. Some virgin pulp must be introduced into the process to maintain the strength and quality of the fibre. As a consequence, no matter how much we recycle, we will always need some virgin fibre to produce paper.

Advantages of recycling paper

* Disposal problems of waste paper are reduced.
* The production of recycled paper enables to save 28-70% of the energy necessary to produce virgin paper and uses less water. For example, for every tonne of recycled paper it is possible to save 30,000 litres of water and 3-4,000 KWh electricity.
* Recycled paper produces fewer polluting emissions to air and water. This happens because recycled paper is not usually re-bleached, thus reducing the amounts of dioxins released into the environment as a result of bleaching processes using chlorine.
* As paper is biodegradable, when rotting it produces a strong greenhouse gas such as methane. In order to reduce the effects of global warming, methane and carbon dioxide emissions need to be cut.
* With the increase in demand for wood pulp to produce paper, many old forests have been replaced by plantations of fast-growing conifers, thus causing the loss of a number of wildlife habitats and ecosystems. In addition, low tree species diversity in managed woods and plantations reduces the biodiversity of the whole area.

The most common types of paper which can be recycled are:

* Office white paper and computer print paper
* Newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets
* Cardboard
* Mixed or coloured paper

So how do you make a “green” book?

First of all, it is no longer the case that recycled paper costs more than their conventional counterparts: many publishers are able to meet environmental goals while achieving cost parity.

The first step in producing a “green” book is using recycled paper, of course. An excellent option is paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international organization with the aim to find solutions which promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Its product label allows consumers worldwide to recognize products that support the growth of responsible forest stewardship worldwide.

A good choice is employing paper that is labeled “Totally Chlorine-Free” (for paper sourced from virgin fiber), or “Processed Chlorine Free” (for paper containing recycled fiber), thus reducing the amount of water used to bleach the paper and the toxins released in the environment. Another way to cut down toxic emissions is using vegetable-based inks.

More radical ways to save paper include choosing to publish lighter books, which need a smaller amount of paper, and resorting to digital e-books or audiobooks. There require no paper or cover materials, no fuel for transportation (as they can be dowloaded), and their production costs are very low. Though it’s likely that digital books will never totally replace paper and ink, producing and publicizing them can reduce environmental impacts while increasing profit margins.

Resources:

* Paper recycling information sheet
* Paper recycling on Wikipedia
* How to Green Your Book
* TreeHugger: How to Go Green

The crucified frog will be staying where it is. A statue representing a frog on a cross like Jesus Christ, with eyes and tongue lolling out, will remain displayed in Bolzano’s Museion until the end of the exhibition “Peripheral Vision and Collective Body”, that is the 21st September 2008.

The work of German artist Martin Kippenberger, which has been attacked out of religious fanatism and political opportunism, will not be excluded from the exhibition. This is the decision of the borad of directors of Bolzano’s Museion, going against the general feelings and the request of pope Benedict XVI.

The Pope himself had denounced the statue because in his opinion it offended the religious feelings of many people who consider the Holy Cross a symbol of God’s love and redemption.

The Museion’s decision, however, seems to demostrate that art can be mightier than politics. As a matter of fact, the museum claims that “Zuerst die Fuesse” has nothing to do with religion, as it is the ironic self-portrait of an artist and the expression of his own angst. The author himself, who died in 1997, declared that he was making a statement against the hypocrisy of those who looked at appearances and not substance.

While being a Catholic, I, for one, am glad that the statue will be staying at its place. I believe that artists shoudl be free to represent their ideas in their works, even though their meanings are not immediately clear to the general public. The frog on a cross is a blasphemy only for those who, as teh author himslef said, look at appearances and not at substance.

These considerations were made by the WWF at the 2008 World Water Week, which finished a few days ago in Stockholm. The average Italian used 215 litres of water every day for washing and drinking, but the figure becomes 30 times higher if you consider the virtual water used to make the food we eat and the clothes we wear. In this way, every Italian consumes 6,500 litres of water per day. This is the highest figure in the world, excluding the USA. Moreover, 70% of it comes from abroad, as Italy in the fifth largest importer of water in the world.

Water can be considered one of Italy’s future emergencies. Northern Italy has plenty of good-quality water resources, while in the South and the islands water resources are scarce and will probably contract in the next few years.

Another considerable problem is water pollution, and the high costs connected with the purification of it. As a matter of fact, now Italians can drink water without purification, but up to a few years ago expensive processes were necessary to make water potable.

WWF is now focusing on ways to reduce water consumption. The first method consists in improving field irrigation and water collection technology, in order to avoid wasting more water in these processes. A second way would be reducing the consumption of meat, which is responsible for a high water use in its production. Some serious legislation in Italy is also needed in order to regulate the supply, demand and management of water.