A divisive ruler

>Published: November 21 2005 02:00 | Last updated: November 21 2005 02:00 The way in which Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, governs his country never ceases to amaze - and dismay. Far too often, his priorities appear to be personal, or narrowly party political. He has been remarkably successful in keeping his centre-right coalition together and staying in office for four and a half years. His latest achievement has been to force big constitutional changes through the Italian parliament without any serious attempt at cross-party agreement. Yet at the same time he is bent on reversing the very electoral reforms that have brought much-needed stability to Italian governments in the past decade. Not only are the measures contradictory, they are in danger of absorbing so much parliamentary time that the only significant economic reforms of Mr Berlusconi's government - to overhaul the state pension system and strengthen the regulation of financial markets - may fail to become law before next April's elections. The constitutional reforms will devolve significant powers from Italy's central government to its regions, including responsibility for education, healthcare, and law and order. They also seek to enhance the prime minister's powers, and reduce those of the state president, for example to dissolve parliament and appoint cabinet ministers. Devolution will appease the populist Northern League, junior partner in the ruling coalition. But critics fear it will weaken the cohesion of the Italian state, and make fiscal transfers from the wealthy north to the poorer south much more difficult. Yet instead of seeking a broad consensus to make such fundamental changes, Mr Berlusconi used his parliamentary majority to force them through. Those reforms still need a national referendum to be approved. The prime minister's electoral reforms - to return to the old system of proportional representation that produced chronically unstable Italian governments for 45 years - need no such confirmation. The move is a blatant attempt to improve the chances of Mr Berlusconi's coalition next April, although it still lags well behind the centre-left opposition in opinion polls. It would revive the power of venal party barons, and weaken executive authority. On top of all this, Mr Berlusconi is still seeking to win approval for a law to reduce the statute of limitations for crimes including corruption, which would inter alia wipe out the conviction imposed on Cesare Previti, his former personal lawyer, in 2003. And he has vowed to introduce a new law in time for the elections to lift restrictions on political advertising, allowing him to exploit his vast media empire. Against such priorities, vital economic reforms threaten to come a poor second. If they do, Mr Berlusconi will go down in history as the man who squandered a unique opportunity in pursuit of a selfish agenda.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c75393ca-5a32-11da-b023-0000779e2340.html

Row over pill may see pro-life activists in Italy's abortion clinics

· Berlusconi moves to woo conservative Catholics
· Vatican intervenes over easy access to termination

John Hooper in Rome
Wednesday November 16, 2005

Guardian

Silvio Berlusconi's government is considering putting pro-life activists into state-funded abortion advice centres to discourage women from terminating their pregnancies.

The move follows a furious dispute over the growing use in Italy of the abortion pill, Mifepristone, which pro-life campaigners fear makes termination of pregnancies easier.

At the Vatican, the pope's chief adviser on health, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, told the Guardian yesterday: "An abortion, small or great, is homicide all the same." His remark was the latest in a string of condemnations by senior church officials of the pill, also known as RU-486. The Vatican's daily, L'Osservatore Romano, said last month the pill was an example of "science in the service of death" and the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has drawn a comparison between the use of the pill and King Herod's massacre of the innocents.

Italy's health minister, Francesco Storace, of the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance, who has tried to stem the use of the pill, said he was planning a shake-up of the advice centres created under Italy's abortion law to make sure they included Roman Catholic volunteers from the Movement for Life group. He said the 1978 law was passed "not just to legalise abortion but to prevent it".

Mifepristone can be used in the termination of pregnancies up to 64 days after conception. It was discovered in France in 1980 and has since been licensed for use in France, Britain, the US and other countries. It has not been specifically approved in Italy. But under a 1997 law, Italian health authorities can buy from abroad drugs licensed in other EU countries. A hospital in Turin began testing Mifepristone in September, but two weeks later Mr Storace halted the experiment saying he wanted to safeguard the health of the women involved.

The tests resumed earlier this month after the hospital agreed to keep women in hospital for at least two days while they were taking the pill and its accompaniment, Misoprostol. Since then, health authorities in at least four regions have made the treatment available much to the annoyance of Mr Storace, who yesterday accused them of coming together in a "movement for the overturning of principles". On Monday, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, said the abortion pill was a way of disguising "the suppression of an innocent human life".

Pro-choice campaigners have been fearing an assault by the church on Italy's legislation since last year, when a cross-party majority of MPs brought in a law on assisted fertilisation that gave embryos full rights from the point of conception. That appeared to be at odds with Italy's abortion act, which allows for termination in the first three months of pregnancy.

With a general election less than five months away, there are also signs Mr Berlusconi's government is out to woo the Catholic vote. The 2006 budget, currently making its way through parliament, frees the Catholic church and other denominations from the need to pay local authority rates.

The abortion row in Italy mirrors one in Australia, where the government is considering whether or not to lift a ban on Mifepristone imposed by the Labour government in the 1990s. One state, Victoria, has ordered mandatory counselling for women having late-term abortions.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005     http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1643503,00.html

 

Though Unpopular, Berlusconi Succeeds at Undoing 'Revolution'

Italian Leader's Critics Fear Return of Corruption, Inefficiency

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 24, 2005; A14

ROME -- It was called the Italian Revolution. In the early 1990s, dozens of politicians and their business allies were tossed into jail by anti-corruption prosecutors. Political parties that had dominated the country's revolving-door governments for 50 years crumbled. Voters demanded -- and got -- electoral reforms designed to ensure relatively stable governments.

Less than a decade and a half later, the revolution is over. A steady counterattack over the past four years by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's wealthy and assertive prime minister, has nullified many of the laws that made such prosecutions possible. In one recent stroke, Berlusconi's coalition in Parliament this month erased electoral rules that grew out of the upheaval of the '90s and that many voters once hoped would reduce government shakiness and sleaze.

Many of Berlusconi's critics see symptoms of a reborn corrupt and inefficient state in a recent upsurge of organized crime and in scandals that have rocked the country's business sector.

Berlusconi himself has done well under the changes. He has declared that he entered politics to protect his business interests from antitrust moves and himself from prosecution for corruption. He once said: "If I, taking care of everyone's interests, also take care of my own, you can't talk about a conflict of interest."

"It is remarkable that, in serving his own interests, Berlusconi has had the effect of reversing the entire revolution," said Erik Jones, a professor of European studies at Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center. "He may be giving away big achievements for the narrowest of reasons."

Giovanni Sartori, a law professor and frequent critic of Berlusconi's government, said: "Berlusconi has governed strictly from a cost-benefit analysis of how he can serve himself. By his calculation, his job showed results."

Opponents call the new electoral ordinance a prime example of a head of government tailoring laws to his own needs. There was no wide public demand for such a change; it was a Berlusconi initiative, announced six months before national elections scheduled for April.

"This is not about reform," Sartori said. "This is about expediency."

The rules restore Italy to a system of proportional voting in which parties gain seats in Parliament according to the percentage of votes they win nationwide. Voters discarded a similar system by referendum in 1993, after a long period in which Italian governments turned over at a rate averaging more than once a year.

Under the system adopted 12 years ago, 75 percent of seats were contested in winner-take-all districts, the rest by proportional vote. The referendum marked the end of the so-called First Republic, the designation for Italy's post-World War II years.

Berlusconi was elected under the new system twice -- in 1994 and again in 2001. In between, a coalition of Communists, former Communists, Christian Democrats and others took power and remained there for five years.

Analysts say Berlusconi will likely lose the upcoming election to former prime minister Romano Prodi, but that a proportional system will reduce the size of his loss.

Critics go further, saying the possible expansion in the number of small parties that could win seats will make it difficult to build and maintain future governing majorities.

At the time of the vote on Berlusconi's electoral law, Mario Segni, who promoted the 1993 referendum, predicted: "If this measure passes, it will mean that the will of the Italian people counts for nothing. We will soon have unstable governments. Each party will feel authorized to make and unmake governments well beyond the will of the voters."

The reason for Berlusconi's present bout of unpopularity, analysts say, is the sorry state of Italy's economy. It has been in recession for most of the past 12 months. Inflation has reduced purchasing power and depressed consumer spending. International manufacturing competition has made China a whipping boy for Italy's problems.

Voters were unfazed by the conflict of interest inherent in a prime minister who controls three television networks, publishing and advertising firms, retail outlets and a major soccer club. One example: When the government passed a measure designed to reduce tax burdens on professional soccer in Italy, which is beset by ever-higher player salaries and reduced television income, it benefited AC Milan, Berlusconi's team.

The public also was unperturbed by Berlusconi's numerous public displays of eccentricity. Among them: likening a German critic in the European Parliament to a Nazi; inviting U.S. investors to Italy on the grounds that the country possesses beautiful secretaries; and making an obscene gesture during a photo shoot with foreign leaders. Plastic surgery in 2003 and a hair transplant momentarily endeared him to a country obsessed with the appearance of physical well-being.

But over the past two years, Berlusconi's coalition has fared poorly in European parliamentary elections and regional votes. "Italians have come to believe Berlusconi's time has passed," Sartori said.

The electoral law is only the latest reversal of the changes wrought in the early 1990s. Berlusconi's parliamentary coalition also passed a measure to decriminalize false accounting. In September, a judge ruled that because of the measure, charges against Berlusconi for alleged bogus bookkeeping dating to 1989 were no longer valid.

He had been charged with transferring money to Bettino Craxi, then the prime minister, through an offshore account. Berlusconi's attorney, Gaetano Pecorella, said of the case's dismissal that "it was the expected verdict. The court applied the new law, which says that if false bookkeeping causes no important harm, it should not be punished."

Berlusconi's government also passed a law making it difficult for investigators to gather information from foreign governments on financial dealings abroad. Many of the probes of his businesses have extended beyond Italy's shores.

Charges against him for allegedly bribing a judge in the 1980s to get control of a food conglomerate were dismissed, but a longtime associate, former defense minister Cesare Previti, was convicted. His case is on appeal.

Berlusconi now intends to have a bill passed that would reduce the statute of limitations on the charge and free Previti from a possible 11-year sentence. Parliament plans to take up the so-called Save Previti bill this fall. A study by Italy's top appeals court estimates that 88 percent of all pending corruption and fraud cases would be thrown out if the bill passes.

Berlusconi accused prosecutors and judges of going after Previti for political reasons. "The aim of these judges is not to establish justice, but instead to strike at those who have a mandate to rule Italy," Berlusconi said after Previti's 2003 sentencing.

On Wednesday, he denied that the new laws were for his own advantage. "Not only are these wholly legitimate laws, but even if they weren't, they would number three or four out of 400 and therefore less than 1 percent," he told reporters.

Berlusconi said he would not give up his blunt political style. "I try not to be politically correct, or else I'll become the same as everyone else," he said.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301090.html

 

In Italia i neo-papà più vecchi del mondo

Più che le donne, sono gli uomini a decidere di posticipare la nascita del primo figlio. E la natalità ci rimette

 

Una famiglia (Corbis) ROMA - Vecchi, vecchi, vecchi. Gli italiani sono vecchi. E continuano a collezionare un record di senilità dietro l'altro. L'ultimo in ordine di tempo è sui padri: i padri italiani sono i più vecchi al mondo. Più che per le donne, diventare papà in Italia è un' esperienza che, molto più di quanto avviene negli altri paesi, si fa in età avanzata e che alla fine registra un numero complessivo minore di figli. A sottolineare questo primato, non proprio prestigioso ma che smentisce l'opinione diffusa secondo la quale vede nelle donne le responsabili del basso livello di fecondità nazionale, è l'Istat, che oggi ha presentato una ricerca in cui per la prima volta ha messo a fuoco le caratteristiche della paternità nel nostro paese. Rispetto agli altri paesi, le donne italiane hanno il primo figlio un anno più tardi ma diventa oltre il doppio, ossia superiore ai due anni, negli uomini. La nascita del primo figlio per le donne (quelle nate nella prima metà degli anni '60) arriva mediamente intorno a 27 anni, un anno in più rispetto alla Francia e mezzo anno in più rispetto a Spagna ma mezzo anno in meno rispetto alla Finlandia. Gli uomini invece (sempre nati nella prima metà degli anni '60), diventano padri per la prima volta mediamente a 33 anni (3,5 in più rispetto a quelli nati dieci anni prima) mentre in Spagna, Francia e Finlandia l'età dei neo-padri è inferiore a 31 anni. Ma non solo. L'Istat dice che nella scelta di avere il primo figlio un «più marcato effetto negativo» è da attribuire all'età di lui rispetto all'età di lei: più tardi gli uomini arrivano a stare in coppia e più tendono a posticipare ulteriormente la decisione di mettere al mondo un figlio. La propensione ad avere il primo figlio si riduce di ben circa l'80% per chi si sposa attorno ai 35 anni rispetto a chi si sposta intorno ai 25. Questo vale sia al nord che al su del paese. L'età femminile sembra invece incidere negativamente solo quando è lei ad essere più grande. All'origine del fenomeno, per l'Istat, c'è il riferimento ad un modello di 'iperrazionalizzazione'; in età matura si diventa più prudenti, meno disposti a mettersi in gioco o in discussione per eventi carichi di vincoli e responsabilità. Tutto ciò sembra valere soprattutto per gli uomini, che possono rimandare la decisione di diventare padre 'sine die', mentre per le donne il periodo fecondo impone una 'deadline'. L'Istat conferma che i giovani italiani continuano a rimanere in casa con mamma e papà più dei coetanei europei. Nella fascia 30-34 anni vive con i genitori il 40% degli uomini e circa il 20% delle donne. L'uscita dalla casa di origine avviene solitamente intorno ai 30 anni e a seguito di matrimonio. È stata inoltre rinforzata la quota di donne con istruzione superiore a quello dello sposo, più che raddoppiata negli ultimi 30 anni (era meno del 10% per i matrimoni celebrati a fine anni '60, ora sono circa il 22%) mentre è diminuita nettamente la situazione nella quale lui ha un titolo di studio di livello superiore (da 18% a 14%). Alla nascita del primo figlio, prosegue l'Istat, i genitori sperimentano le difficoltà legate alla cura del bambino. Dopo la prima nascita la partecipazione domestica paterna risulta «nulla o insoddisfacente» ma, come avviene in altri paesi come gli Usa, nel caso la coppia sia giovane ed abbia un reddito doppio soprattutto al Centro nord - una consistente partecipazione dei padri alla cura del primo figlio si ripercuote positivamente sulla fecondità ed aumenta la probabilità di avere altri figli. Le coppie in cui lei non lavora e lui ha un lavoro di alto livello presentano una propensione di andare oltre al figlio unico tra il 10 e il 20% più elevato rispetto alle altre coppie. Il secondo figlio è tendenzialmente più difficile che nasca in una coppia d'istruzione intermedia mentre è più facile in quelle con bassa istruzione o in quelle con alto titolo di studio. 20 ottobre 2005

 

 

http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/10_Ottobre/20/papaitaliani.shtml

Italian riders protest at confiscation of scooters

By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 26 September 2005

Thousands of motor scooters have been confiscated in Italy since a tough new law was enacted a month ago, designed to force the nation's 10 million scooter riders to clean up their act. But now voices in the government say the law is too tough and must be modified.

The law laid down that anybody riding without a helmet or with the strap unfastened, carrying a passenger on a vehicle of 50cc, transporting animals, riding with only one hand on the handlebars, with only one wheel on the ground or being towed along risked having his machine confiscated and sold at auction.

The law was provoked by the wild scooterists of Naples who routinely ride two to a 50cc bike and without helmets, and who also indulge in bag-snatching. Twelve hundred scooters have been confiscated in Naples and 2,000 in the province of which it is capital, a record for the country. Elsewhere the harvest has been more modest - 130 in Milan, for example.

But everywhere the riders are up in arms. Most of the culprits are young and poor, and the loss of a scooter worth thousands of euros is a drastic blow. And with a general election due in months, their anger has reached the government. Mario Scali in the ministry of infrastructure said: "Some sanctions are too tough while others are too light. What's missing is fundamental coherence. Someone can drive a Ferrari at 300kph without having his car confiscated while someone who rides a scooter with his helmet strap undone sees his machine sold at auction." The first appeals are being heard in the courts; already the talk is of a possible amnesty.

A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

Sunday, September 11th, 2005

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2005-09-11

Il Sudoku alla conquista del pianeta

Il Sudoku alla conquista del pianeta   swissinfo   17 agosto 2005 09.49   Il Sudoku sta facendo concorrenza ai tradizionali cruciverba (Keystone Archive) Il gioco giapponese ha le sue origini in Svizzera: ad inventarne il principio fu infatti il matematico Eulero nel diciottesimo secolo.   L'affarone lo ha però fatto soprattutto un neozelandese, che lo ha scoperto nel 1997 e lo ha brevettato.       Pochi forse sanno che il Sudoku ha radici lontane e... svizzere: a sviluppare il quadrato latino dalle infinite combinazioni fu infatti il matematico di origine elvetica Eulero (Leonhard Euler 1707-1783). Lo scienziato basilese, che visse quasi tutta la sua vita a St Pietroburgo alla corte di Caterina I, non si sarebbe mai immaginato che la sua invenzione sarebbe diventata un successo planetario. Con alcune modifiche, rispetto all'originale, il gioco ha ormai conquistato milioni di persone in tutto il mondo.   Dal giallo dell'estate al Sudoku   Il Sudoku – dal giapponese «su», numero, e «doku», solitario – è un gioco che assomiglia vagamente a un cruciverba. Invece di inserire le parole, però, nei riquadri si inseriscono i numeri. Ottantuno quadretti, 9 righe orizzontali, 9 colonne verticali, 9 sezioni di nove quadretti l'una: bisogna riempirli con numeri da 1 a 9. Solo una regola, semplice: in ogni colonna, in ogni riga e in ogni sezione, ogni numero deve apparire una sola volta. In Svizzera, il primo Sudoku è stato pubblicato ad inizio giugno dal «Tages Anzeiger». Da allora la moda ha contagiato tutti: sono sempre di più i quotidiani e i siti internet che offrono regolarmente ai loro lettori nuove varianti. In Italia, la febbre del Sudoku ha rimpiazzato il tradizionale giallo dell'estate. La scomparsa di una skipper, forse uccisa dal fidanzato e dalla giovane amante di lui. Oppure la comparsa dello squalo bianco nel Mediterraneo con tanto di sub massacrati. In mancanza di proposte più o meno accattivanti, quasi tutti i quotidiani, anche nella Penisola, si sono allora buttati sul Sudoku.   «Contano logica, sveltezza di mente e pazienza»   «La matematica c'entra poco», dice a swissinfo il matematico e appassionato di giochi Prof. Alberto Bersani. «Il nozionismo enigmistico non serve. Contano logica, sveltezza di mente, e molta pazienza». Il gioco sta facendo faville. La febbre del Sudoku conquistato il mondo intero, per la gioia di chi l'ha brevettato: il magistrato in pensione neozelandese, Wayne Gould che nel 1997 scoprì il gioco in Giappone e lo offrì al Times. Il Sudoku ha però una storia ben più lunga. A inventare lo schema, in origine, fu come detto il matematico elvetico Eulero. La sua fu una scoperta a fini puramente matematici. Nel suo quadrato latino o magico, i numeri erano disposti in modo che le somme dei valori di ciascuna riga, colonna o diagonale risultassero sempre uguali. Un sistema dalle infinite combinazioni.   Un gioco brevettato   È stato molto più tardi, una ventina di anni fa, che un cittadino giapponese partendo dal quadrato di Eulero sviluppò il Sudoku. Tutto sarebbe finito lì. Invece, durante un viaggio in Giappone nel 1997 l’ex magistrato neozelandese Gould si innamorò del gioco, e forse capì che poteva essere un buon affare. Senza dire nulla a nessuno lo fece suo e lo brevettò in tutto il mondo. Ora il sudoku è sulla bocca di tutti. Un enigma al giorno da risolvere sui quotidiani, tornei anche online, libri, suggerimenti per le soluzioni. Insomma un divertimento ma anche un business che sta spopolando sulle spiagge italiane, nel metrò londinese o nei caffè parigini. Qualcuno parla di globalizzazione ludica. Infatti il linguaggio dei numeri è universale, per cui chi lo vuole può trovarsi dei partner all’altro capo del mondo. Basta un computer in rete e la sfida è lanciata.   I giovani i più entusiasti   Anche perchè ormai tutto si basa sulla velocità di risoluzione del cruciverba numerico. «In questo assomiglia molto al famoso quadrato di Rubik» ci dice ancora il Prof. Bersani, «o ai giochi elettronici che impongono capacità di reazione e intuito». Come sempre, in questi casi, fanno la loro apparizione anche psicologi e esperti del ludico. Tutti a spiegare che il Sudoku accelera i neutroni, favorisce la capacità riflessiva soprattutto dei più giovani e via di questo passo. Forse sarà proprio per questo che i più entusiasti del Sudoku sembrano essere proprio i giovani e i giovanissimi. A guadagnarci, alla fine, sembrano essere quasi tutti. L’unico che invece non incassa proprio nulla è il suo vero inventore, il grande Eulero. swissinfo, Paolo Bertossa

URL di questo articolo http://www.swissinfo.org/sit/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=5992398

First in chaos: A litigious summer for Italian leagues

By Rob Hughes International Herald Tribune WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2005

Italy would struggle nowadays to boast that its soccer clubs are the best run in Europe - but in conspiracy, corruption and confusion, it is top of the league.

 

Until late Tuesday, the Italian federation, the FIGC, had still not released the fixtures for Serie A and Serie B, although the new season is due to kick off on Aug. 27.

 

Imagine the chaos. Think of the tifosi, the fans who do not know where, when or how to book a ticket or plan their journeys for the 2005-6 campaign. Their limbo is a symptom of a national sport in crises.

 

AC Milan is owned by Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi. Inter Milan is bankrolled by the son of an oil baron. Juventus runs under the patronage of the Agnelli family. Those clubs contest the Champions League as vigorously as Real Madrid or Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester United. Yet they do not, officially, have a clue which teams they will face in the Italian league less than two weeks from now.

 

To the cloak of conspiracy, add fiasco.

 

Judge Alvaro Vigotti in Genoa last week ordered the league not to issue the playing schedule until he rules on an appeal by Genoa against its demotion for allegedly fixing the last Serie B match of last season - a match that led to Genoa's return to the top division for the first time in 10 years.

 

The judge's verdict is expected later this week.

 

Meanwhile, Franco Carraro, the former mayor of Rome and now president of Italy's soccer federation, insisted that his committee would publish and be damned. "Postponement is impossible," he said. "It would violate the rules set out by the government, by the Italian Olympic Committee and by FIFA."

 

He condemns Genoa's recourse to civil courts as seriously damaging to Italian football "on all sporting, moral and economic levels."

 

On Genoa's streets and in the stadium, violence simmers. Some fanatics wreaked havoc in their city; some managed to have a cup match abandoned after 21 minutes by throwing flares onto the pitch.

 

La violenza goes with la corruzione.

 

According to the police, Genoa bribed its way to victory against Venezia last season. Venezia's general manager was stopped by the police as he drove away from the Milan offices of Enrico Preziosi, the Genoa president, days after the match.

 

Allegedly, the Venezia official had a suitcase containing €250,000, or $310,000, which he claimed was a down payment on the transfer of Ruben Maldonado, a Venezia player. However, the police confronted him with taped telephone conversations between Genoa's president, his son and Venezia's general manager before the game.

 

Eight men, including players and officials of both clubs, are charged with "sporting fraud."

 

Part of the Genoa defense is that lawyers for the club found handwritten notes in a trash can that show the sporting officials were biased against Genoa.

 

It is all too familiar. The crime of "sporting fraud" surfaced in 1980 against AC Milan and Lazio, which were demoted to Serie B because players were caught fixing matches for payment from a betting cartel. Paolo Rossi, a striker whom Gianni Agnelli admiringly called "the most magnificent goal thief," was one of 20 players banned for three seasons.

 

He ended up banned for only two. He was granted amnesty because Italy needed him for the 1982 World Cup - which Italy won, with Rossi the tournament's top scorer.

 

So there is history of conspiracy, and of pragmatism undoing the rule of soccer's authority.

 

Today that is compounded by the incompetence of the clubs' financial affairs. Not only is Genoa being demoted to the third division instead of promoted to Serie A, but Torino, the third team in last season's Serie B, is barred from going up because its finances are in a tawdry state.

 

That left Empoli, the second finisher in Serie B, as the only team among the top three to be promoted. Perugia, the fourth finisher in Serie B, was dropped a division because its financial housekeeping is also wretched. Treviso and Ascoli were called Tuesday from fifth and six place in Serie B to the top flight.

 

Bologna, which lost the relegation playoff, was kept in the second division. It had had a remote hope of being promoted back to Serie A because of inadequate bookkeeping by Reggina.

 

This summer of litigation, suspicion and insolvency is a mirror of the last four in Italy, all of which have given the fans little hope of knowing exactly when the season will start. And when it does, those supporters may not be sure that what they are watching is pure sport.

 

Small wonder that Juventus, the champion of Italy, has resorted to trying to fill the huge empty spaces in its Delle Alpi stadium by a form of legitimate bribery. For any male who pays €2,025 for a season ticket, the club offers a female companion and a bambino to be allowed in for the equivalent of €1 per game, less than the price of a coffee.

 

It is hard to imagine that paying the wages of Patrick Vieira, the newest Juventus recruit.

 

It is hard to see what has changed since 1999, when a professional player confessed in a letter to the magazine Famiglia Cristiana: "I have sold myself in an important match. The flow of money has killed everything, and who will forgive me for distorting the championship?"

 

The name of that player? Possibly only he knows. He wrote anonymously, though his message might apply to scores of others.

 

 

Copyright © 2005 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/16/sports/SERIE.php

 

Tutto bekloppto!

Wir lassen uns den
Urlaub nicht vermiesen

Von A. ENGLISCH

Hamburg/Rimini - Jetzt zeigen die deutschen Urlauber den Italienern einen Vogel: Ihr seid doch tutto bekloppto!
Aufregung an Italiens Urlaubsstränden: Bier-Verbot, Busen-Verbot, Bolz-Verbot - die Italiener wollen uns den Strandurlaub vermiesen.
Weil sich die Einheimischen genervt fühlen ( BILD berichtete ). Jetzt schlagen die deutschen Touristen zurück!
Am Lieblingsstrand der Deutschen zwischen Rimini und Riccione an der Adria-Küste herrscht trotz der Verbote Superlaune. Busen-Verbot? Tutto bekloppto!

Serena H. (24) aus Berlin zog gestern am Strand blank, sagt: "Sonst sind die Italiener auch nicht so spießig. Außerdem: Meine knackigen Brüste brauchen viel Sonne!"
Wilfried S. (43) aus Düsseldorf zischt ein Bier, dann sagt er: "Ich lasse mir mein Helles schmecken - egal wo!"
Und auch das Verbot, Badehosen nicht an Sonnenschirme zu hängen, wurde nur belächelt. Barbara W. (32) aus Bochum: "Das mache ich jetzt mit Absicht ..."

Venedig - Mamma mia, was ist denn den Italienern für eine Laus über die Spaghetti gelaufen...?
Pünktlich zur Badesaison vermiesen sie uns deutschen Urlaubern den Strandspaß: Busen-Verbot, Bier-Verbot, Bolz-Verbot! Das steht in einem Regelkatalog des nationalen Verbands der Badeanstalten - tutto bekloppto!
Die Begründung: Die Italiener fühlen sich am Strand genervt. Verbandspräsident Riccardo Scarselli: "Das Schlimme ist, daß die Leute sich berechtigt fühlen, alles zu tun, was sie wollen. Bloß weil sie eine Badehose anhaben."
Das gesamte Regelwerk:
Umziehen ist nur noch in Kabinen erlaubt. Kein Fußball am Strand, wo viele Menschen auf Liegestühlen ausruhen. Unterwäsche im Innengerüst der Sonnenschirme zum Trocknen aufhängen ist verboten.
Kein Alkohol am Strand, wenn man baden gehen will. Gläser und Flaschen aus Glas sind am Strand auch nicht erlaubt. Frauen dürfen nur, wenn sie auf einer Liege liegen, das Oberteil abnehmen. Oben ohne durch das Strandbad zu laufen, ist verpönt.
Schmatzendes Essen auf der Strandliege ist nicht mehr erlaubt

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO

Mobiles 999 contact idea spreads

A campaign encouraging people to store personal details on their mobile phones to help identify victims of accidents and disasters has taken off since the bomb attacks in London.

Users are being urged to enter a number in their phone's memory under the heading ICE - In Case of Emergency.

Paramedics or police would then be able to use it to contact a relative.

The idea is the brainchild of East Anglian Ambulance Service paramedic Bob Brotchie and was launched in May.

Idea spreads

Mr Brotchie told Radio 4's Today programme: "I was reflecting on some difficult calls I've attended, where people were unable to speak to me through injury or illness and we were unable to find out who they were.

"I discovered that many people, obviously, carry mobile phones and we were using them to discover who they were.

"It occurred to me that if we had a uniform approach to searching inside a mobile phone for an emergency contact then that would make it easier for everyone."

Mr Brotchie said his idea had spread as far as the USA and Australia and had gathered pace since the 7 July attacks.

He has urged mobile manufacturers to take it on board by adding ICE headings to phones before they are sold.

Nel Gottardo, il caveau più sicuro del mondo

Negli anni sessanta era il bunker del governo federale, oggi ospita una gigantesca cassaforte.

 

Ad Amsteg ha trovato casa l’idea geniale di un imprenditore del canton Uri.

 

 

 

 

È probabilmente la cassaforte più sicura al mondo. Ma Dolf Wipfli, che l’ha inventata, da buon esperto di crittografia si schermisce: "La sicurezza assoluta non esiste: è sempre, e solo, una questione di tempo. Diciamo che siamo la cosa più sicura che si può comprare". Questo ingegnere quarantenne, occhi blu ed ascendenze spagnole e bergamasche, alla metà degli anni novanta ha scoperto che l’esercito svizzero metteva in vendita i bunker che non gli servivano più. "Ci siamo chiesti: cosa ci si potrebbe fare? La risposta è stata logica: usarli per lo scopo per cui erano stati costruiti. La sicurezza".

Era l’inizio dell’avventura di Swiss Data Safe: una società unica al mondo, che mette a disposizione uno spazio a prova di catastrofe nucleare e biologica, attacco terroristico, terremoto e naturalmente furto. L’idea è nata a metà degli anni novanta, ma cinque anni se ne sono andati in progettazione e "per ottenere i permessi necessari a livello comunale, cantonale e federale". Burocrazia straziante? "No", minimizza Wipfli, "non ci sono stati veri ostacoli. Ma c’è voluta pazienza e determinazione".

 

Il pallino della segretezza

 

Dolf Wipfli non nasconde di avere il pallino della segretezza: non solo per passione personale, che lo porta a interessarsi alla P26 elvetica – la struttura militare clandestina, di recente raccontata in un libro dal ricercatore Daniele Ganser.

La segretezza è pure il limite oggettivo del marketing di Swiss Data Safe: "Non faremo mai una giornata porte aperte per il pubblico", scherza Wipfli. "Discrezione, affidabilità e fiducia sono la base della nostra impresa". I dipendenti sono scelti fra conoscenti e persone "senza precedenti penali e dalla vita privata stabile". Proprio come gli agenti segreti, non possono rivelare a nessuno che lavoro fanno.

Wipfli è assai cordiale, ma diventa serio per chiedere a swissinfo di sottoscrivere un NDA – "Not Disclosure Agreeement", accordo di non divulgazione – per visitare il bunker di Amsteg.

Mi sono dunque impegnata a tenere per me l’ubicazione e qualunque particolare che potrebbe rendere identificabile la sede. Pena? Decine di migliaia di franchi di multa e sei mesi di carcere, in base alla legge sul segreto bancario.

Ma è l’intera intervista che ha un lieve sapore di James Bond. Wipfli mi viene a prendere alla stazione ferroviaria e mi porta in un anonimo bar. Per almeno un’ora mi scruta diffidente, mentre cauto valuta le mie credenziali. Poi si rilassa un pelino: "Uhm, italiana donna e giornalista. Lei capisce, c’è ben da preoccuparsi", ammicca.

 

Nel cuore del Gottardo

 

L’ingresso del bunker è decisamente anonimo: una delle tante aperture del massiccio del Gottardo. Verosimile eppure finto l’indirizzo postale indicato sul sito: Gotthardstrasse 1. All’interno, la sicurezza della struttura è assicurata da un meccanismo a camere stagne: i visitatori vengono chiusi in un locale e sottoposti ad accurato controllo; solo dopo averlo superato, si schiude la successiva porta. Un’esperienza decisamente sconsigliabile a chi soffre di claustrofobia.

Affascinante il bunker vero e proprio. È scavato nella roccia e come la maggior parte di quelli ceduti dall’esercito svizzero ha conservato intatti gli arredi originari. Un vero salto nel tempo: dai mobili agli utensili da cucina, ci ritroviamo proiettati nel secolo scorso – anno di grazia 1950. Si tratta di molti metri quadri (non posso scrivere quanti), difesi a dovere (non posso scrivere come), dove lavorano un certo numero di persone (non posso scrivere quante).

 

Impresa di successo

 

Il punto forte di Swiss Data Safe è nella stessa identità nazionale: "La Svizzera è considerata un luogo sicuro per custodire valori. Il resto lo fanno la stabilità economica e politica del paese". L’azienda si serve di una rete di professionisti, come consulenti per espletare tutte le verifiche del caso: i beni depositati nel Gottardo devono essere in regola con leggi, tasse e dogane. Rispetto alle classiche banche, Swiss Data Safe non ha limiti di spazio ed è abbastanza flessibile per mettere a punto soluzioni individuali, tagliate su misura in base alle esigenze della clientela.

La specialità della casa è la custodia di banche dati elettroniche, off e on line: insieme al Fraunhofer Institut di Friburgo, in Germania, gli specialisti del canton Uri studiano soluzioni tecniche innovative. Per avere una copia di sicurezza del proprio archivio (che da manuale, spiega Wipfli, dovrebbe trovarsi ad almeno 50 chilometri dall’originale) e per custodire al riparo dai malintenzionati database preziosi. Anche se Dolf Wipfli spiega che "il pericolo più grande è sempre all’interno dell’azienda: i collaboratori che tradiscono sono molto più frequenti delle spie esterne".

Gli azionisti di Swiss Data Safe sono contenti dell’andamento degli affari: "Per anni abbiamo dovuto lavorare a fondo perso, ma ora siamo contenti e ottimisti sulle prospettive. L’11 settembre? Ci ha complicato la vita, ma poi ha decisamente rilanciato la nostra attività". Non è dato conoscere l’utile della società, né quanti e chi sono gli azionisti: "Non per farne chissà quale segreto, ma la nostra parola d’ordine è: discrezione".
E così sia.

swissinfo, Serena Tinari, Amsteg