Time’s Person of the Year: Barack Obama

President-elect Barack Obama is Time’s Person of the Year for 2008. Why? “For having the confidence to sketch that kind of future in this gloomy hour:”

“Two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, ‘Government’s not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government’s working for me. I feel like it’s accountable. I feel like it’s transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information.’”

And also “for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful that he will pull it off.”

“Can he really achieve all that?” asks Time Magazine. “Plenty of voters will be happy if he aces only Item 1 on his list.”

Perhaps this is not what as many people throughout the US (and even more throughout the world) would hope for. This might be not enough. Nor might be the achievement of all of the other above mentioned goals. Unfortunately, it’s not just a matter of “perception,” even though there is no doubt that psychology matters in politics. But good luck all the same.

Journalistic courtesy

I wonder what would the mainstream international newspapers have written had this happened to the ruling Italian center-right coalition. Well, I can’t say it with certainty, but my guess is that they would have written some very different articles … hey, wait a moment, different from what? Actually, now that I think about it, they didn’t write anything at all … Never mind, let’s come back to the point: what would they have written? But, to put things in chronological order, what actually happened?

It happened that Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party won by large margin regional elections in Abruzzo. But, what is more, at least in my personal opinion, Abruzzo is the central Italian region where the previous center-left Democratic Party (PD) governor had to step down following an alleged public health scam. Furthermore, Abruzzo is where there are 40 suspects in the investigation by the Pescara Public Prosecutor's office, on the alleged bribes for public contracts, which brought about the arrest of Mayor, Luciano D'alfonso, who is also the regional secretary of the PD.

Then again what would the Guardian, the Independent, the New York Times, and other liberal newspapers have written had that (something analogue) happened to the conservative coalition? Obviously I can’t say it with certainty, but I might have an idea of the amount of coverage and of the arguments which might have been advanced. Never mind though—different political views, different standards of journalistic courtesy …

Gaudete Sunday

Advent, the preparation season for Christmas, is basically a penitential period. Yet, in the Latin Church tradition the third Sunday of Advent—that is today—is also called “Gaudete Sunday,” from the Latin word for “rejoice,” thus corresponding with “Laetare” (another Latin word for “rejoice”) or Mid-Lent Sunday. On the third Sunday of Advent, as on Laetare Sunday, the organ and flowers, forbidden during the rest of the season, are permitted to be used, as well as rose-coloured vestments are allowed instead of purple. Which means that, beyond penitence, there is an indescribable joy—we believe that Joy is coming to us from God.

That is why a Christian should be joyful, and this joy should express itself in corresponding forms of behavior. Yet, so many Christians—and unfortunately even priests and bishops—look almost always grim and unhappy. There is no light in their eyes, no joy on their faces, no warmth or enthusiasm in their words. They are just like any other people and one can hardly recognise them as Christians, that is to say those who have been born again in the family of God (John 3:3)! How is it possible? I don’t know the answer. Do you?

To conclude, I would like to give an idea of what, in my humblest opinion, that Christian joy might look like. I mean, I thought that the following video could be somehow connected to the spirit of Gaudete Sunday: Johnny Cash & June Carter performing in Johnny's 1980 Christmas show. June plays the autoharp and banjo and then Johnny and June sing a duet. Again, in my view this is the kind of “joyful Christian” we are all called to be.

Affascinati da Gesù

Antonio Socci è bravissimo, lo sappiamo: scrive e ragiona bene (polemista eccezionale), racconta in modo coinvolgente, insomma ti prende, non è uno che passa inosservato. E tuttavia, a volte, la sua verve polemica e il suo latente “fondamentalismo” (uso il termine con “licenza poetica” …) risultano un po’ indigesti anche a coloro i quali, sui contenuti, non avrebbero nulla da obiettare. Detto questo, credo di far cosa gradita a parecchi lettori di wrh rinviandoli alla lettura di questo scritto, apparso nella più recente uscita della Newsletter del Nostro, che io ricevo regolarmente via email essendo abbonato. L’argomento è “Affascinati da Gesù,” dove la fascinazione riguarda i “laici,” gente come Pansa, che cita don Giussani, e, udite udite, Scalfari …

New Michelangelo's masterpiece on show

Yet another good news for art connoisseurs today! A wooden crucifix recently attributed to the young Michelangelo—the carving has been tentatively dated to 1495, when the artist was 20, by the experts—was on display in Rome yesterday, at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See, after being purchased (3.2 million euros) by the Italian State from a Turin arts dealer. It will also be in exhibition at the Italian Parliament on December 23 before finding a permanent home in one of Florence’s main museums.

“Among the elements that it shows is an almost perfect anatomical knowledge of the human body. Its structure, muscles, tendons, skin compose a harmonious and strong image,” said Cristina Acidini, head of the Polo Museale Fiorentino or Florentine Museums group. And not by chance, since the artist “very often used to flay dead bodies in order to discover the secrets of anatomy,” as the Florentine painter and writer Giorgio Vasari, a contemporary of Michelangelo, once wrote. [UPDATE Dec. 23: see here]

Brunelleschi's Madonna di Fiesole, a discovery

An exceptional discovery, dear readers, one of those which will leave their mark: the early 14th-century Madonna di Fiesole, a polychrome terracotta statue by Filippo Brunelleschi! Discovered by chance by the restorers of the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, the statue (60 cm width x 88.5 cm height) has been under restoration for two years. Presented today, the masterpiece will be in exhibition at the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure from December 13 (tomorrow) through February 28, 2009. Go here and here to learn more about the statue (in Italian).

TocqueVille, per favore ...

Qualche giorno fa c’è stata una discussione interessante (si può far riferimento a questo post) tra bloggers di TocqueVille circa i rapporti tra blogosfera e “casta” (politica e giornalistica, espressamente del centrodestra). Personalmente condivido la pars destruens di entrambi gli interventi.

Ieri Enzo è tornato a parlare di TocqueVille, e non posso che dargli ragione. Il caso in discussione è quello di Rod Blagojevich [... continua a leggere]

Those conservative Italian banks

Management foresight and sharper risk analysis tools, or fatter coverage ratios? No. How a lack of global ambition and substantial conservatism—namely what was previously seen as a major weaknesses—helped Italian banks outperform larger continental rivals:

[D]espite the bleak outlook, one European country has bucked the trend of multibillion-dollar writedowns and government bailouts: It's Italy, Europe's fourth-largest economy, whose banks have outperformed larger continental rivals over the past 18 months.
Don't attribute it to management foresight, sharper risk analysis tools, or fatter coverage ratios, though. Italian banks such as Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) and UniCredito Italiano (CRDI.MI) have outpaced European heavy hitters such as Barclays (BCS) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) primarily due to their extremely conservative business models. The Italians steered clear of securitized assets and subprime loans, forgoing the windfall profits that boosted rivals' balance sheets in the salad days, but also avoiding the huge losses that later ensued.
Instead, Italian banks have remained squarely focused on traditional retail operations and corporate lending, relying on customer deposits to fund day-to-day operations. Even when the country's banks expanded to other countries, they moved mainly into nearby Eastern European markets that have outperformed Western European economies since the mid-1990s. "They don't make the same level of money as other European banks, but their business model certainly isn't broken," says Credit Suisse (CS) analyst Andrea Vercellone. "Italian banks didn't get into the securities business in a major way because frankly they just didn't understand it."

How to be intellectually (dis)honest about Tibet

David Gosset, director of the Academia Sinica Europaea at China Europe International Business School, Shanghai, in today’s Asia Times:

The expression “cultural genocide”—which has been used by the Dalai Lama himself—is supposed to describe the present conditions in the Tibet Autonomous Region is absurd and carries some baseless accusations which can not be conducive to harmony.

This is probably one of the worst ways to deal with the Tibetan issue, either in logical and in “ethical” sense. Why a struggle for freedom should first and foremost be “conducive to harmony?” In fact, politically speaking, that is apart from religion and philosophy, harmony could be regarded as the outcome of freedom, not as an end in itself—and in his piece David Gosset insists that “as the head of the Tibetan ‘government-in-exile’ in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama is a political figure with a political agenda,” and that “pretending that the Dalai Lama is purely a spiritual leader is deceptive and illusory.”

Tibet is currently changing rapidly but this change does not equate with “cultural genocide”. In fact, the region is going through a process of socio-economic modernization which benefits the majority of the population.

Which “majority of the population” are we talking about? The majority of people of the Han ethnic group—the main ethnic group in China—which has been settled in Tibet making Tibetans themselves a minority in their own land?

This process is far from perfect but does allow the Tibetans within the PRC to reinterpret their tradition and to preserve the best of their culture.

Have Chinese ever asked Tibetans whether and how they want to reinterpret their tradition, and so on?

Siena is over the top

According to a survey by the Italia Oggi daily newspaper Siena is the best Italian city for quality of life. The survey is based on eight factors, which have equal weight:

a) jobs/business life
b) environment / green living
c) crime
d) social problems
e) population
f) services
g) leisure
h) living standards

The Tuscan hill town is known worldwide for its wonderful twelfth-fourteenth century cathedral as well as for its shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, where the Palio is held twice a year.

Unfortunately for the Florentines—Siena has always been a fierce rival of Florence since the days of the Guelphs and Ghibellines and the battle of Montaperti (1260)—the survey held “soccer” in low esteem: Fiorentina has seven points advantage over the rival in the Serie A ranking table, while curiously Siena is seven places ahead of Florence in the quality of life ranking (I suppose this might mean something to someone, somewhere …).

If the capital enemy is the Government ...

“ The teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection & comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal obstruction & nuisance with which we have to contend. Wherever we look, whether to Kansas, to Utah, to the frontier—as Mexico & Cuba, or to laws, & contracts for internal improvement, the capital enemy in the in the way is always this ugly government.

We could manage very well by private enterprise, for carrying the mails, associations for emigration, & emigrant aid, for local police & defence, & for prevention of crime; but the cheat & bully & malefactor we meet everywhere is the Government.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, April-May 1860], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachsetts) - London (England), 1982.

Dealing firmly with China

The Dalai Lama is in Europe. On Monday, during his visit to Prague—where he met his long-time friend Vaclav Havel, the former Czech President, as well as Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek—, he called on the world to stand firm when dealing with China. “I’m always telling my friends that a good, a close relationship with a huge country like China is very essential, and not only for the economy,” he said. “But in the meantime, there are principles, like freedom of expression, human rights, democracy... for which you have to stand firm. Genuine friendship leaves a space to be firm, and at the end the other does appreciate (that),” he added.

His Holiness will address the European Parliament in Brussels on December 4 and will have a meeting with French President Sarkozy on December 6 in Gdansk, Poland.

Well, what would be an appropriate outcome of this European tour? What about if “the European Union designate as soon as possible a high profile European Emissary to help resolve the issue of Tibet and put an end to tensions between China and Europe around Tibetan issues?” That is what the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) asks the European Union to do.

It would be a miracle if that were to happen, but, well, who knows?

'O Come, O Come Emmanuel'

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. To live it properly, I thought the listening of the wonderful hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” sang by Aled Jones with backing vocals of Libera, might be helpful. I wish you a blessed Advent season!

The genius of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

Michelangeli was known for his note-perfect performances. “His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired,” wrote of him the music critic Harold Schonberg. In this post is explained how his style is classical in the sense of Classicism, and in a way that is more than emblematic.

Why more than emblematic? Because Michelangeli (together with Maurizio Pollini) is further evidence of a sort of anti-romanticism present in the Italian culture and due, not many doubts about it, to the Italian classical heritage and its influence in all fields.

Ave, Caesar

If you are interested in ancient Roman history and you are in Rome during this time (or plan, as I do, to visit there soon), then I think you shouldn’t reasonably miss “Julius Caesar - Man, Feats and Myth” (Giulio Cesare. L'uomo, le imprese, il mito), the first ever exhibition to focus entirely on ancient Rome’s most famous political and military leader.

The exhibition, which is being held at the Chiostro del Bramante, started on Friday, October 24, 2008, through Saturday, May 3, 2009. It examines the historic aspects of Caesar’s rule, as well as the political and cultural atmosphere of his time, his astonishing military campaigns, his magnificent literary works, his climb to power and his brutal murder in the Roman Senate.

The exhibition—in my view the event of the year in the Italian capital—collects archaeological documents of the utmost importance, coming from the most prestigious Italian and foreign museums, and paintings by masters such as Rubens, Guercino, Pietro da Cortona and Guido Reni. Massive canvases of Caesar by Giambattista Tiepolo, sold to the Russian tsar in the early nineteenth century, have also returned to Italy for the occasion (and for the first time in 200 years).

Caesar, as the organizers explain, was “an exceptional character, a man of letters, historian, general and statesman of extraordinary far-sightedness.” It was he himself who “started even during his lifetime, to create his own myth.” In fact,

he presented himself as a descendant of Venus, thus tying himself to the original myth of the city of Rome itself, dating back, according to ancient tradition, to Aeneas himself, son of Venus, who supposedly landed at the Tyrrhenian shores of Latium at the end of his long wanderings, being exiled from Troy, as marvellously narrated in the Virgilian Aeneid.

Hence the exhibition’s guiding philosophy.

The final section looks at the depiction of Caesar in the world of cinema. The palace that houses the exhibit was designed by Donato Bramante in the 15th century and is attached to the church of Santa Maria della Pace along Via Della Pace close to piazza Navona.

P.S. Since it happens that just in these days I’m reading, Idi di Marzo (The Ides of March), the latest book by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (unfortunately for my English-speaking readers the English version is yet to be released), I can’t help confessing that this is one of those moments where I feel sorry that I live so far away from Rome …

Come nevica sul Pd ...

Ma che diavolo hanno da criticare quelli che le misure del governo a favore dei più poveri proprio non le hanno mandate giù? Non lo dico io, anche se potrei benissimo associarmi, ed anzi mi associo senz’altro, non lo dico io, dicevo, ma Lucia Annunziata. Una contestazione da sinistra della contestazione di sinistra di provvedimenti presi dalla destra. Non è un gioco di parole, magari lo fosse, è molto di più, è un altro sintomo che qualcosa si è rotto: diciamo il rapporto, il contatto con la realtà. E quindi, per dirla come la Annunziata, anche “il senso del denaro” se n’è andato in vacanza. Per quelli di sinistra, naturalmente, ché la gente comune il valore e il senso dei soldi li ha molto ben presenti. Su questo non ci piove, anzi, date le condizioni meteo, non ci nevica.

Sex spells trouble, my friends ...

Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication.
[…]
Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases.

Don’t worry, my dear secularist readers, it was not the Pope who said this. It was Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. As for me, I would like to give thanks to the Lord for many things, one of which is … Columbus, that is for letting him be born, and for letting him think that, after all, it was time to discover a new World!

But now, for the sake of true Country Music connoisseurs, I’ll call upon Johnny Cash to speak. Let’s listen to Man in Black singing a rare song called “Thanksgiving Prayer” (words and music by Johnny himself and Josef Anderson). He sang it on the Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Show several years ago. Enjoy it, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Once upon a time ... La Dolce Vita

I can’t honestly say that La Dolce Vita is one of my favourite movies, nor that it is my favourite Federico Fellini’s masterpiece (I prefer I Vitelloni, La Strada, and above all Amarcord), but I understand and respect the reasons why millions of people from all over the world tend to consider it as one of the best films ever. In any case, there is no doubt that La Dolce Vita is a cult movie which represents a watershed moment in the history of both cinema and custom.

That is why, since its half-century mark—Fellini conceived the film in November 1958, shot in 1959 and premiered in early 1960—is approaching, Rimini, the director’s hometown, is pulling out the stops to give the movie a two-year-long international birthday bash. The celebrations will eventually extend to Los Angeles in 2009 (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hold an exhibition in Beverly Hills from January 24 to April 19 on Fellini’s “Book of my Dreams”).

All this, the Guardian writes today,

is a world away from the furore when the film was finally released in 1960 - when Fellini was spat on "in the name of the fatherland" at the Milan premiere, challenged to a duel by an outraged Roman, accused of inciting vice and immorality by the Vatican newspaper and saw fights break out in the audience after showings.

But the film was not even universally admired by liberal critics:

An early Guardian review observed that the film lasts three hours, "of which two are superfluous", before offering the withering judgment that "even the best sequences rise no higher than the level of good journalism".

Light years away, actually. Another major British newspaper, the Independent, tells the story of how it all started, namely when an American billionaire decided to cheer up a penniless young Venetian countess by bankrolling a birthday party for her in a trattoria in Trastevere. It was then that on the dance floor the then almost-unknown Anita Ekberg started pulling down her suspenders …

A 'Machiavellian' perspective on the Tibetan issue?

“We are in a democratic system, but the opinion of the majority may not be the right one,” said Lhadon Thethorg, a delegate (and New York president of Students for a Free Tibet) on the final day of the meeting between the Tibetan exile leaders which took place last week in Dharamshala. In fact nearly 600 delegates voted to continue to follow the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” strategy. However, Lhadon Thethorg added, “whether for the ‘Middle Way’ or independence for Tibet, people are calling for more vigorous action.”

Dolma Gyari, deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, in turn, said that “if China does not respond positively to our initiative, there is no other options left for us than to go for independence.” Yet, the Dalai Lama doesn’t seem too hopeful about the “positivity” of the Chinese approach towards the Tibetan issue: “My trust in Chinese officials has become thinner and thinner,” he said Sunday, addressing the delegates after they wrapped up the gathering. So what? Is he in doubt about his own “Middle Way” path itself, which seeks genuine autonomy through negotiations with the Chinese leadership? Yes and no, I’d say. No, because the alternative approach (to seek the path of negotiation over the way of violence) would lead nowhere. Yes, because of the undoubted failure of the negotiations which have been held so far. Is this contradictory? Yes, if we mean this in a logical sense, no, if we consider the true nature of the issue, or, to say it with Machiavelli’s words, if we go directly to “the effectual truth of the thing than to the imagination of it.”

But there is a different way to approach the issue: instead of wondering, as many people do, whether or not the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” is the best path, we might wonder whether or not Chinese views and policies on Tibet are actually wise and thoughtful. As a matter of fact, the Chinese are assisting the calls for Tibetan independence, and, as this leading article in yesterday’s Independent says, they are “encouraging radicalism as a way of splitting the Dalai Lama from his adherents and then waiting for him to reach an isolated death.”

But …

[t]his is a dangerous policy. Marginalising moderation, as we know from the Islamic world, only plays into the hands of the extremists, of which there are an increasing number amongst young Tibetans. The call for independence, as opposed to autonomy, will grow louder. Beijing should heed the Dalai Lama’s call for the “middle way” before it finds that events have moved beyond its control.

I find this perspective to be a good starting point for further discussions.