Sleeping beauty (Un amaro confronto, Part V)

At TEDIndia, Hans Rosling provides a superb bird's eye view of social and economic progress since 1858. The overarching question is "when will India and China overcome the United States and United Kingdom in terms of income per capita and life expectancy?". (Soon, but don't get scared just yet)

Since Italy has been lagging all countries above in the last decade, our turn will be earlier...

...unless we stop pretending and get moving.

A wonderful country

Massimo Mantellini says (my quick translation, powered by Google):

«We are a wonderful country. Only in a wonderful country can the Government justify its failure to allocate funds to broadband by saying that technological development, a priority everywhere else deemed essential to overcome the crisis, will be the top priority for the Government immediately after the crisis is over. What's more, the Government can comfortably express these concepts, without anyone asking why the bridge between Calabria and Sicily and the new motorways in Lombardy (over 4.1 billion Euros approved in the same meeting in which the 800 million Euros for broadband were blocked) weren't similarly postponed.

We are also wonderful for other reasons. Firstly, because the stop-and-go over the last few months between the Government and the Telcos, who are anxious to get their hands on public funds for broadband, ends with the Government not even slightly embarrassed of having made promises that vanished in thin air. We are also wonderful because the Employers' Association one day yells for the abolition of the IRAP tax, and the next day is shocked at the lack of investment in broadband, following the very convenient argument that everything is equally urgent, as long as the money is not theirs. And we are wonderful even thanks to the political opposition, who rant today about inadequate investments in innovation by the Berlusconi government, forgetting their own, absolutely identical, shortcomings less that two years ago.

The situation is what we're accustomed to: an overwhelming predominance of words over facts and a tedious uniformity of views on issues that would instead require creativity and a search for discontinuity.

And the context is that of a country that is far from a virtuous path of innovation not so much because of infrastructure, but rather in its values and ideals. The overwhelming assumption, widespread at all levels, is that the day in which 100% of people will be reached by broadband, the issue will be definitively resolved. We bask in the sociological analysis of so-called "digital natives", as if to say "look, maybe today the landscape is bleak, but tomorrow's adults, who grew up in the era of the Internet, will have other needs and other expectations". Are we really confident that this will happen? We suggest to the many enthusiastic supporters of "digital nativity" that they visit a university, where those young people who grew up with e-mail and YouTube spend most of their time, to get an idea of the level of "technological culture" of this country. They would go home with somewhat less confidence.

The 800 million Euros for broadband are indeed important and the recent decision of the Berlusconi government is consistent with the usual myopia to which Italian politics has accustomed us over the last decade. Nothing that we haven't already seen, nothing that was not reasonably expected. But the latest Government's decision worsens only minimally the gigantic problem of a nation that has the same love for technology of that of cats for water.

We need long-term policies centered on schools and technological literacy, we need authentic information about the value of the Internet, we need incentives targeted at families to address the cultural impasse of the 50% of Italians that continually upgrade their expensive smartphones and still don't have a computer at home. We need to talk about the Internet, even on TV, as the great opportunity that it is. And then of course we also need better infrastructure, but without deluding ourselves that the problem lies all there.»

Yes, we can?

Aspettando la terza stella

«Al prossimo scudetto ci sarà la terza stella perchè gli scudetti per noi sono e saranno 29» (J.C. Blanc)
«Eh sì, aspettiamo la terza stella» (J. Elkann)

Del resto, l'avevano già detto 18 mesi fa (al minuto 3:26, da ju29ro), e nessuno può proibircelo.



PS Aspettiamo fiduciosi il processo di Napoli, tenendo d'occhio quello che succede a Roma.

Io sto con me

I Ratti della Sabina, Chi arriva prima aspetta (A passo lento, 2006)



Oggi è tempo di darsi da fare
giorni interi e notti lì a pensare
a qual è il modo per migliorare questa vita
e il tempo che deve venire
e il tempo che deve venire
C'è chi corre per il posto migliore
e chi suda per dimagrire
c'è chi progetta il viaggio perfetto
e non si è ancora accorto
che l'estate sta per finire
che l'estate sta per finire.

Io sto con chi cammina piano
perchè guarda intorno
con chi sorride ogni volta
che arriva il giorno
e non importa se ogni tanto
salto il turno
perchè mi sembra chiaro che
perchè è dimostrato che
chi arriva prima aspetta la la la...(x5)

Oggi è tempo di farsi notare
notti lunghe e giorni a ragionare
su quale giocattolo comprare per poter stupire
e non aver niente da desiderare
e non aver più niente da ividiare

Io sto con chi i sogni se li fa a mano
perchè c'è più gusto
con chi non sa il prezzo delle emozioni
e non se l'è mai chiesto
e arrivo sempre sempre in ritardo
con l'orologio guasto
perchè mi sembra chiaro che
perchè è dimostrato che
chi arriva prima aspetta la la la...

Io sto con chi cammina piano
perchè guarda intorno
con chi sorride ogni volta
che arriva il giorno
e non importa se ogni tanto
salto il turno
perchè mi sembra chiaro che
perchè è dimostrato che
chi arriva prima aspetta la la la...(x5)

Il futuro dei media è fare le cose bene

(in Italian)

Discorso magistrale di Luca Sofri a Venice Sessions #4.



Queste sono le slide viste rapidamente durante il discorso...

Venice Sessions IV - Luca Sofri - Le cose cambiano

View more presentations from venice sessions.

...e qui trovate il testo completo che si era preparato (l'appuntone, come lo chiama lui).

Lettura obbligatoria per tutti i giornalisti, aspiranti e affermati...IMHO.

Più intelligente che bella (Un amaro confronto, Part V)...

...lo era di sicuro Lady Margaret Thatcher, che nel 1981 (grazie Ilan) disse:

«For me, pragmatism is not enough. Nor is that fashionable word, “consensus”...To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects, the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner “I stand for consensus”?»

Una delle migliori premier degli ultimi 150 anni, IMHO.