She dreamed a dream ... and fulfilled it!

It was clear since the first three or four notes that her performance on Britain’s Got Talent would be something amazing and even … absolutely incredible (she received nearly 20 million hits on YouTube after she became an overnight star in the United States). She started singing “I dreamed a dream in time gone by/When hope was high,/And life worth living,” and both the judges and the public were completely wowed by the 47 year old Susan Boyle. I’m sure we’ll hear that name again. For the moment, enjoy the video (thanks: Sandra).

There is a guardian angel in L’Aquila

Can you read French? If so, and if you are interested in the after-earthquake, please check out this article in today’s Le Monde. The subject is Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italian civil protection, l’homme qui fait l’ange gardien à L’Aquila:

"On n'apprend pas à faire ce métier, dit-il. Il n'y a pas d'université pour cela. Il faut être un leader et en même temps savoir partager." Médecin spécialiste des maladies tropicales, il a découvert l'urgence à la frontière du Cambodge et de la Thaïlande dans les années 1970. "Italian doctor", capable de soigner mais aussi d'organiser, de monter un hôpital de campagne là où il n'y avait rien, il change de spécialité : "Je me suis découvert meilleur organisateur que médecin."

And Tax Day becomes Protest Day

Is it an American Revolution? Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states are holding “tea parties” to protest higher taxes and increased government spending.

Who's behind the Tax Day tea parties? Here is what Glenn Harland Reynolds has to say in the Wall Street Journal.

P.S.: Check also the special edition Tea Party page on NetRight Nation.

Obama's economy speech: 'He spoke eloquently, but ...'

“Clarity in Need of Courage” is the title of an editorial in today’s Washington Post about yesterday’s speech on the economy by President Obama. A very good speech, according to the WP, on many fronts, but Obama “overstates” his case in one crucial area and “loses all candor and courage” in another. The overstating comes

in linking his policy agenda to the economic recovery. The agenda focuses on education, renewable energy and health care. These are all worthy pursuits, areas where we support many of his proposals.

But these pursuits

have little to do with the economic crisis, and they are not the key to economic recovery. The recovery will result from successfully transitioning away from an economy overly dependent on debt and the American consumer, unclogging the banking system, stabilizing housing -- and dealing with the fiscal imbalances facing the country that were bad before, are worse now and, if left unattended, could well cause the next crisis.
[…]
We understand that spending more on education, energy and health care is an easy sell to a Democratic Congress, while deficit reduction and entitlement reform are hard. We thought the president had signed up for both.

They thought … Do they still think that now?

Obama's 'post-material economy'

Robert J. Samuelson wrote a very interesting piece in yesterday’s Washington Post—sorry for the delay, I was on vacation the past few days—about President Obama’s vision for America’s 21st-century economy:

What Obama proposes is a “post-material economy.” He would de-emphasize the production of ever-more private goods and services, harnessing the economy to achieve broad social goals. In the process, he sets aside the standard logic of economic progress.
Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, this has been simple: produce more with less. (“Productivity,” in economic jargon.) Mass markets developed for clothes, cars, computers and much more because declining costs expanded production. Living standards rose. By contrast, the logic of the “post-material economy” is just the opposite: Spend more and get less.
[…]
What defines the “post-material economy” is a growing willingness to sacrifice money income for psychic income – “feeling good.” Some people may gladly pay higher energy prices if they think they're “saving the planet” from global warming. Some may accept higher taxes if they think they're improving the health or education of the poor.

Unfortunately, “these psychic benefits,” according to Samuelson, “may be based on fantasies,” and Obama’s vision for economic renewal “is mostly a self-serving mirage.” The full article, well worth reading, is here. There is something to think about.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter

Joyeuses Pâques

Buona Pasqua

Frohe Ostern

Feliz Pascua

Boa Pascoa

The Last Supper

Among the masterpieces representing the Passion of Jesus, the Last Supper frescoed by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan, is perhaps the most famous in the world. Many people know it, but few know a) the precise moment of the last supper that it represents, b) how to interpret the meaning of Jesus’ actions, and those of the apostles, and c) that this fresco can be understood only in conjunction with another painting that occupies the front wall of the same refectory, representing the crucifixion.

To remove the blindfold, on March 30, 2009, Timothy Verdon, an American art historian and priest, published this essay in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. He explains from an artistic, theological, and liturgical perspective the profound meaning of the Last Supper.

“It is an artistically sublime way to understand the first act of Jesus’ passion,” says Sandro Magister, who had the wonderful idea of re-publishing the article in his own website.

Not even an earthquake

Up until a few hours ago I was kind of suspecting this might be the case, but now it’s a certainty: not even an earthquake can stop them. I mean, not even an earthquake can keep both Silvio Berlusconi from making embarrassing gaffes and my beloved British newspapers from reporting them to the public with great emphasis. Needless to say, it’s not a criticism, it’s an observation: we are facing something more than a mere chain of events (only incidentally connected with each other), rather there is, so to speak, something like a metaphysical connection.

What did the Cavaliere say this time? Well, he told a German TV station that the 17,000 people left homeless by the Abruzzo earthquake should consider themselves to be on a “camping weekend” …

Touring camps set up for survivors of Monday’s disaster, in which at least 250 people were killed, Mr Berlusconi told a reporter from N-TV: “They have everything they need, they have medical care, hot food... Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. but they should see it like a weekend of camping.”

As I already said, I don’t want to criticize anyone or pontificate. After all, though I voted for Berlusconi, I am not what could be called a fan of il Cavaliere, whose legendary gaffes made him possibly the world’s political gaffeur par excellence—though he is undoubtedly in good company… Yet, let me just say this about that: It is not the best statement a Prime minister ever made, Ok, and he shouldn’t have said so, but I saw him on Italian TV saying these things: his voice was broken up with emotion, and while speaking his right hand was caressing a little girl’s head—well, I suppose I can understand what he was trying to do: just to boost the morale of families in very, very difficult times. What I wonder is whether the author of this article, for instance, had any idea of what was going on, and where he was when Berlusconi said that “sometimes, even during a tragedy like this you’ve got to smile because you can’t get results without optimism.”

Berlusconi also said that a staff of 1,000 technicians would begin evaluating the damage to public buildings and homes on Thursday. As for L’Aquila’s artistic heritage, it is to be said that it suffered very serious damage. Berlusconi has announced a €30 million ($40 million) aid package to rebuild historical buildings and to restore damaged artwork. In addition, U.S. President Barack Obama (thanks: John W. Clarke and Sandra Kennedy Shimmelpfennig) telephoned to offer aid to repair cultural sites and artistic works.

The Kinights Templar and the Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin

Now we know the true story behind what was once a mystery and a field in which there have been all kinds of theories, conjectures and hypotheses. And this, thanks to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, which on Sunday published a preview of the forthcoming book, I templari e la sindone di Cristo, by Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican Secret Archives.

The Knights Templar, as it is well-known, had been accused of worshipping idols, in particular a “bearded figure,” called Baphomet, but in reality the object they had secretly venerated was the Shroud, that is the linen cloth which is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, and which is believed by many—myself included—to be the cloth placed on Jesus of Nazareth at the time of His burial.

The Shroud, as the Vatican’s medieval specialist explains in her book, had disappeared in the sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, and did not surface again until the middle of the fourteenth century. Its fate in those years had always puzzled historians. But Barbara Frale’s study of the trial of the Knights Templar had brought to light

a document in which Arnaut Sabbatier, a young Frenchman who entered the order in 1287, testified that as part of his initiation he was taken to “a secret place to which only the brothers of the Temple had access”. There he was shown “a long linen cloth on which was impressed the figure of a man” and instructed to venerate the image by kissing its feet three times.

The Knights Templar had rescued that linen cloth

to ensure that it did not fall into the hands of heretical groups such as the Cathars, who claimed that Christ did not have a true human body, only the appearance of a man, and could therefore not have died on the Cross and been resurrected.

Barabara Frale says her discovery vindicates an hypothesis first put forward by the British historian Ian Wilson in 1978, though at the time this theory was still to be proved.

This book gives the Knights Templar their due and restores the honor of the most powerful monastic military order of the Middle Ages.

In August 21st 2008, L’Osservatore Romano also published for the first time the prayer the Knights Templar composed when “unjustly imprisoned,” in which they appealed to the Virgin Mary to persuade “our enemies” to abandon “calumnies and lies” and revert to “truth and charity.” The prayer was further proof that the order was not heretical. In that article Barbara Frale maintained that it was untrue that the knights were guilty of “decadence, heresy and immoral practices,” that is the reasons why the order was suppressed in 1314, and its members were arrested, tortured and executed.

Earthquake in central Italy (updated)

BREAKING NEWS
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck at 3:32 am (0132 GMT) near the medieval city of L’Aquila, in the mountainous region of Abruzzo, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Rome. At least 20 people, including five children, were killed and many buildings (3,000 to 10,000) in the city’s historic center were severely damaged or destroyed. The quake was the latest in a series of jolts that struck the area over the past two days.

Massimo Cialente, mayor of L'Aquila, said around 100,000 people had left their homes as a result of the damage. Guido Bertolaso, the head of civil protection, said this is “the worst tragedy since the start of the millennium.”

See also here, here and here.

And here is a CNN video report:

-----

UPDATE - Monday, April 6, 2009, 7:30 pm 

- OVER 100 DEAD, 1,500 INJURED
- 'HUGE' ARTISTIC DAMAGE
- Quake: predictions impossible
- Abruzzo Earthquake – 100 Die, Hundreds Injured and Thousands Evacuated

- (ANSA) - L'Aquila, April 6 - Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday that around 1,500 people were injured in the L'Aquila earthquake that killed at least 92.
''At the moment 4,000 rescuers are at work and concentrating on extracting people from the rubble,'' said Berlusconi, who cancelled a trip to Moscow to travel to L'Aquila where he surveyed the damage from a helicopter.
The premier said a camp with 2,000 tents, each capable of housing 8-10 people, was currently being set up in the city for those who had lost their homes in the disaster, while around 4,000 beds in hotels in the area had also been reserved for survivors.
''The camp should be ready be tonight,'' Berlusconi told journalists at a press conference, during which another small quake was felt.
''The fundamental thing I want to say is that nobody will be left alone,'' he said.
The premier appealed to survivors not to remain in damaged houses.
''Nobody can tell if there will be further quakes in the next few hours or days,'' he said.

- 100 dead in Italian quake
- Death toll in Italy quake hits 50
- Witnesses describe what happened

What I dislike most ...

“ “What terrifies you most in purity,” I asked? “Haste,” William answered. ” 

—Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose


What I dislike most about the political attitudes and behaviors of a certain kind of “political activists” is the way some people tend to extremize their views, which often leads them, in the best cases, to a certain Manichaeism or, in the worst cases, to what I would call the intellectualization of political hatred. They never concede an inch to their opponents, whom they see as inherently “evil” or “immoral” or “stupid,” whatever they think, say and do.

They are natural and irreconcilable enemies not merely of political transformism and opportunism, which obviously would not be a bad thing in itself, but of common sense and also of a sense of proportion.

They seem to be fascinated by the myth of their own political purity, or what they firmly believe to be such. To these “true Conservatives,” without any ifs and buts, of course, or “true Liberals,” etc., I would like to dedicate the above quote.

Trusting to the future

They seem to be quite happy with the end result (“a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery,” said President Barack Obama). Let’s all cross our fingers and pray that they are right.

The new neocon alliance with Obama

Is there a “neo-isolationist” tendency on both the left and right wings of the American political spectrum? As Foreign Policy’s Laura Rozen has reported, the founders of Foreign Policy Initiative, a new advocacy group, think so—and it would be naïve, as far as we presently know, to think differently. So some prominent neocons such as former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, and national security writer Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, have vowed to counter that tendency and decided to intervene in support of President Obama’s Afghanistan policy.

And this is what Jacob Heilbrunn—the author of the newly released, They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons, and a senior editor at the National Interest—has to say in The Huffington Post:

It's clear that that neoconservatives are staking out a new course and want to retain an influential voice in foreign policy. Their latest strategy is to move closer to Obama. Kagan has already expressed his admiration for what he sees as Obama's determination to ensure that America remains No. 1 around the globe.
The idea that the intellectual champions of the Iraq War are now trying to reach an alliance with Obama is certainly a tribute to neocon audacity. But it's also an inevitable development. The neocons have always been interventionists first, then conservatives. In fact, many traditional conservatives argue that there isn't much that's conservative about neoconservatism. In any case, the neocons aren't going away.
For now, the founding of the Foreign Policy Initiative suggests that there will be a fierce battle for the soul of the Obama administration between liberal hawks and neocons, on the one side, and between anti-interventionist progressives, on the other, over policy towards Afghanistan, Russia, China, and Iran.
Who's going to win it?

An interesting question, don’t you think?

Obama links Chrysler aid to Fiat (Updated)

BREAKING NEWS:

For Chrysler, America’s third biggest car manufacturer, the clock is ticking. The Obama administration has told the deeply troubled automaker it has 30 days of financial aid in which to complete its proposed deal for an alliance with Italy’s Fiat. And Chrysler has responded that it has reached an agreement on a framework of a global alliance with Fiat.

Chrysler’s troubles worsened last fall when the meltdown on Wall Street hit. So most analysts said the US automaker had little hope of surviving as a standalone company. Italy’s Fiat, in turn, has its own troubles, but it is still true that it is at the moment the stronger of the two and a recognized world leader in the area of innovative and environmentally friendly products, thanks to its chief, Sergio Marchionne, who has pulled the company back from the brink collapse since taking over in 2004.

So, in January, Fiat and Chrysler decided to lend a hand to one another. And yesterday the US President Barack Obama linked Chrysler aid to Fiat and made it clear that any aid to the American automaker would depend on it striking a partnership with Italy’s Fiat. “Chrysler needs a partner,” he said, and “if they are able to reach a solid agreement which protects American consumers, we will consider lending them $6 billion […] if no such accord is reached and if no other viable partnership surfaces, we will not be able to justify the investment of further taxpayer money to keep Chrysler operating.” Fiat, he added, “is ready to transfer its cutting-edge technology to Chrysler and, after having worked closely with my team, has promised to build new, fuel-efficient cars and motors here in America.”

A Chrysler-Fiat combination would be the world’s sixth-largest by vehicle sales, behind Ford Motor Co.

UPDATE - MARCH 31, 2009, 3:00 pm

1. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is in the United States to hammer out the details of the partnership with Chrysler which will allow the Detroit No.3 to qualify for up to $6 billion in government loans.

2. Corriere della Sera:

Sergio Marchionne, who has collected more than his fair share of plaudits, was stunned. He said: “I want to publicly thank President Barack Obama, on behalf of the entire management team, for his words of appreciation for the work done in the past five years, and for his encouragement to finalise a solid alliance between Chrysler and Fiat. Talks with the task force have been hard but fair. We are convinced that we can achieve a result that will offer a credible future to this crucial sector of the economy. We are extremely happy that Fiat can play a key role in this effort”.

Here is The People of Freedom

The three-day founding congress, with about 6,000 delegates gathered in Rome to baptize the Il Popolo della Libertà (People of Freedom) party, the new conservative party which is a merger of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the rightwing Alleanza Nazionale, is over. It’s an important event, but not an absolute novelty, since the two parties ran together and won under the PDL label in last year’s general election. In other words, the new party was already a fait accompli, even though its “official baptism” has certainly marked another highly important step for both the conservative coalition (though only two of the three main groups on the right are included in the PDL) and the Italian political system as a whole. However, the point is that the People of Freedom is expected to make the Italians a stronger force in the European Parliament’s largest party grouping—the conservative EPP-ED—after the next European elections (the latest opinion polls gave the new party a 44 per cent share of the national vote).

As it was widely predicted, however, the event sounded like an unending and ecstatic hymn of praise to the Cavaliere, elected by acclamation as the first president of the new party, which provoked much annoyance among the opponents, in Italy and outside, who rant about the supposed “cult of personality” that surrounds Silvio Berlusconi. What they seem to forget is the messianic cult that surrounds “their” Barack Obama, but it doesn’t really matter, because their proverbial ability to opportunistically exploit this kind of charges (ad usum delphini, of course) is well known.

But, perhaps, what Berlusconi’s fiercest opponents most disliked was this passage of his conclusion speech: “The constitution must be enriched and revitalised ... The powers of the prime minister are almost non-existent ... The country needs to be governed.” Which is the plain truth, as they themselves well know. He also said that he would seek the support of the center left opposition in changing the constitution—which is a mere illusion, and he knows it—but would go alone if it did not co-operate. If I should express my candid opinion I should say “better alone than in bad company,” or in a company that can kill you.

SMS Venice

SMS Venice (Saint Mark’s Square) is a campaign launched last year and aimed to help save Venice’s art heritage by receiving SMS and Internet funding. This year’s goals are to restore the city’s famed Rialto Bridge and three historic churches: San Giorgio Maggiore, San Giuseppe and the Chiesa dei Gesuiti, as well as the Scuola di San Rocco with its famed Tintoretto paintings.

The fund raising campaign was launched last Thursday at the Theatre La Fenice, with a great charity concert, starring the wonderful voice of Madeleine Peyroux, the jazz pop artist now considered the new Billie Holiday. For this occasion, she presented in a worldwide sneak preview her new album “Bare Bones,” produced by Larry Klein, Walter Becker and Joe Henry.

As part of the campaign, last year five concerts had been held in St. Mark’s by Momix, Elton John, Giovanni Allevi, Joan Baez and Vinicio Capossela. The high spot of this year’s SMS campaign will be a Simple Minds concert in St Mark’s in July.

To support the initiative visit the new SMS Venice website and click on the how to donate link.

Harvard researchers agree with Pope Benedict on condoms in Africa

Well, I know, this is a minefield, but shouldn’t blogging be, in itself, a continuous challenge to prevailing views of what is worth debating and how (with what purposes and inclinations) it should be debated, of what is arguable and what is not, and so on? So, here we go and let’s strike a blow for a man who dared to say that “the scourge [of AIDS] cannot be resolved by distributing condoms,” and that by doing so we “risk worsening the problem.” Which provoked a most predictable and well-rehearsed chorus of boos from left-wing politicians, mainstream media and activist groups. By the way, perhaps Frank Pastore is right when he writes, in a must-read post at Townhall.com., that “activists can’t help throwing condoms, either at those who oppose their policy, or at populations dying of AIDS in Africa and around the world.”

But, after all, how could it be a surprise? Who knew that … Harvard agrees with the pope? Activists certainly didn’t, neither did Pastore, as he himself acknowledges, nor did I: Condoms don’t lower the HIV-infection rate, they spread AIDS, instead! Have you ever heard this before? And it’s also hard to believe, as Pastore fairly points out, that there’s a classroom or newsroom in America—and elsewhere, in the Western world, I would dare to add—where this has ever been discussed or broadcast. So, please, don’t waste your time, stop being so damn argumentative, just read what Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, had to say in an interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online:

We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.
The pope is correct, or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments. He stresses that condoms have been proven to not be effective at the level of population. There is a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the US-funded Demographic Health Surveys, between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction technology such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by compensating or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.

I also noticed that the pope said monogamy was the best single answer to African AIDS, rather than abstinence. The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates (the other major factor is male circumcision).

Doctor in mid-surgery heart scare

Claudio Vitale, a 59-year-old brain surgeon, was carrying out a delicate operation to remove a brain tumour in a Hospital in Naples, Italy, when he began having chest pains. Well, even when he realized, some minutes later, that he was having an angina attack, he refused to stop the surgery, despite his team’s urging and the pain worsening. “I couldn’t leave the patient at such a delicate moment,” he later told La Repubblica newspaper. “I’m not a hero,” he added, “I was only doing my duty.” After finishing the surgery, the doctor had an angioplasty operation to treat his attack.

However unusual and unlikely this might seem, in the light of the times we live in, such things still keep on happening upon this planet. Besides, this shows that, after all, it's not true that “good news is no news.”

Both men are now said to be recovering well.

Together around Mary

Today is the Fest of Annunciation, that is the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus, by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. 

In the occasion Lebanon’s government launches a joint Christian-Muslim celebration in honor of Mary, who is venerated in both communities: the first “Islamic-Christian Day.” “Together around Mary, Our Lady,” is the title chosen for a celebration which will be more of a national event than a religious one. 

Frankly it seems to me to be a very good idea. H/T The Catholic Key Blog and Catholic Information Network.

Twice a year, the miracle ...

Holy Trinity Church in Barsham, Suffolk, England: it is not a scene from an Indiana Jones film, but a stirring piece of visual synchronicity that dates back to the 1300s, when a narrow window was built in the church tower … At the spring and autumn equinox, the setting sun hits the window and illuminates a carving of Christ on the Cross for a few unforgettable minutes. This spectacle was only rediscovered recently by the village church’s assistant curate, after having been completely forgotten for centuries. H/T Over the Water