Ending the Welfare State

Recently I've heard a number of Americans gloating over how the chickens are coming home to roost in Europe - out of metaphor, how the massive public debts caused by years of reckless spending and ever-growing state apparatus now are too big to be ignored and are requiring drastic action to be brought back under control.

And reducing the size of the state is something I fully agree with.

Yet, it's how to do it that's open to discussion.

I'll talk about Italy because it's the place I know best. There, the state apparatus and public debt grew in a rather slow fashion from the end of the 60's to today's unsustainable levels.

A large part of this debt is caused by the welfare state expenses - pensions, health care and public sector wages above all.

This means that millions of people depend on the State for their lives. Not in the sense that they sit there all day waiting for the benefit paycheck (some do, tho), but that they make a living working in the public sector, or receive the state pension, and use the public health service to treat their illnesses.

If all this spending were suddenly cut in a significant manner, there would be positive effects, yes, but also problems, big ones.

Millions of people would find themselves with no or gravely reduced income and without the possibility to pay for the medical treatment they need.

The oldest and most frail ones may simply die off; for the others there will be hard times. And for the whole of Italy: expect a massive drop of internal demand of good and services, with many business forced to close down for lack of customers.

Bank deposits would plummet as well, eaten up by the need to buy basic goods and services. Less money available for the banks to lend means credit crunch.

In short, an economic recession in a country with an already agonizing economy.

A reduction of the size of the state must occur, but gradually.

Or with a revolution, but often those leave the ground soaked in blood for too many years.

Precaution Does Not Fly

The long and wide closure of European airspace due to the ash plume produced by that volcano with an improbable name in Iceland has just been lifted, and damage is being counted now.

Besides grounded flights and airlines claiming losses above one and half billion dollars, there are tons of rotten perishable goods to dispose of; delays in international shipments of various goods and probably also missed business opportunities. And passengers still slowly making their way back home here and there.

What has truly hit me about this story is not the magnitude of economic damage, tho. It is that the competent national and European authorities issued blanket bans, binary decisions in which the forecasted presence of ash was enough to completely shut down air traffic.

Yet, when the European transportation ministers finally had a meeting - after some five days, soon afterwards the airspaces were reopened.

Is it because the ash magically disappeared, or because thei nitiale "zero tolerance" approach was flawed? I bet on the second option.

Some interesting information can be found in this document prepared byt the Italian agency ENAC: exploratory flights, with various aircrafts, were ran over Italy and no damage was observed even after flying into an airspace indicated as contaminated. The only important recommendation there is to avoind flying into visible ash clouds.

It seems that decisions of great importance for the economy of entire nations and the lives of hundreds of thousands were taken on the basis of dispersion models of dubious reliability and - more damning - without the support of empirical measurements and observations. It is not even known what ash concentration remains safe for jet engines*; a rather generic statement from the British CAA says that manufacturers of airplanes and engines have agreed on a safe threshold of 0.002 g/m3 - while concentrations above Britain always remained way lower.

Why this does not surprise me much? First, because for bureaucrats it is easier to say NO than YES - in other words, the default response when asking for an authorization is negative unless a set of conditions is met. Second, because the EU has adopted the infamous precautionary principle as a policy. In fact, it seems that even ICAO has adopted a similar principle - and more curiously, that they rely on dust dispersion models without requiring actual measurements of ash concentration.

Now you see what precautionary principle does.

* Not even considering the many different models and specifications of jet engines out there.

Why I Homebrew

Yeah, why I do that?

In part, because I'm just curious and like to experiment. Remember, I have done a lot of experiments with vatfuls of chemicals in my past. Sugars and yeast are just a kind of novelty in this regard. It's not for the money, because the amount of time and effort taken by homebrewing is not really worth the few euros of cheap or average booze.

Another reason is that mead, for example, is hard to find here and probably expensive. But I can make my own and control the final outcome - at least I hope. And there's many other ferments that can be tried.

But if you want to know the real dark secret of homebrewing... I'm afraid that the nanny-state will massively curtail our ethilic pleasures in the course of my life, and I want to be ready to thumb my nose at them.

You may think I'm wearing my tinfoil hat now, but consider these facts.

In the last few months, even in Italy we started seeing those annoying "Drink responsibly" messages on alcoholic drinks and in their ads - there's even the website, for fuck's sake! And some politicians were clamoring to raise the legal drinking age from 16 to 18 years.

In Britain, after the war against smoking one against alcohol is being waged: minimum pricing is probably going to be a reality over there.

And considering that we Italians have this detestable habit of adopting the worst fads of the anglo-saxon world after a few years, and that there is that execrable entity if the EU around, I'm afraid that something similar will come.

So if there will be cabals of bootleggers trading in secret vials of yeast and cooking their worts at nighttime in remote locations, I'll be there!

Zitti Zitti

I tranzisti continuano a lavorare - questa volta pressoché sotto al mio naso, in quel di Parma.

L'evento che si è chiuso ieri si chiama Quinta Conferenza Ministeriale su Ambiente e Salute, Parma 10-12 Marzo 2010 e queste ne sono le intenzioni dichiarate:

I ministri di 53 Paesi europei si incontrano a Parma per valutare il loro operato sulla protezione della salute dai rischi ambientali e per combattere le minacce emergenti.

La nostra salute è oggi piu' che mai vulnerabile a contaminazioni e cambiamenti dell'ambiente in cui viviamo. L’impatto dell’ambiente e' amplificato da ridotte risorse finanziarie, crescenti diseguaglianze socioeconomiche e di genere, eventi climatici estremi più frequenti. Proteggere la salute oggi richiede interventi ad alta efficacia.

Sulla soglia dei 20 anni di azione europea sulla salute ambientale, la Quinta Conferenza Ministeriale valuterà se e come gli impegni presi dai paesi sui principali fattori di rischio sono stati mantenuti, e definirà l’agenda europea sulle sfide di salute ambientale per gli anni a venire. I temi della conferenza includono la protezione della salute da rischi quali acqua e igiene inadeguate, scarsa qualità dell’aria, infortuni e attività fisica, sostanze chimiche nocive, e nuove minacce come gli eventi estremi dovuti al cambiamento climatico.

Ci si attende che la Dichiarazione finale rafforzi gli impegni firmati dai governi europei cinque anni orsono per ridurre l’impatto dei maggiori rischi ambientali e accrescere l’attenzione alle minacce emergenti. La Conferenza lancerà anche un piano d’azione su cambiamento climatico e salute in Europa.

L’Ufficio europeo dell’Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità organizza la Conferenza in collaborazione con il governo italiano, rappresentato dal Ministero della Salute e dal Ministero dell’Ambiente, Terra e Mare, e insieme al Comitato Europeo Ambiente e Salute che guida il processo. Oltre ai ministri, parteciperanno esperti, commissari europei e delegazioni della società civile.

Non so voi, ma io già sento un senso di inquietudine. Se non altro per il solito martellamento sui cambiamenti climatici e le "differenze di genere" e per la sensazione diffusa di allarmismo, di dover prendere provvedimenti drastici prima che la catastrofe sia inevitabile.

I soliti noti ci sono tutti, come il WHO ed altri esponenenti dell'ONU. La Dichiarazione di Parma, il risultato della conferenza, è per ora disponibile solo in inglese qui come PDF.

Leggerla è doloroso, ma utile per conoscere il nemico. Ci troviamo perle di questo tipo (Pag 6, Commitment to Act):

iv. We aim to provide each child by 2020 with access to healthy and safe environments and settings of daily life in which they can walk and cycle to kindergartens and schools, and to green spaces in which to play and undertake physical activity. In so doing, we intend to prevent injuries by implementing effective measures and promoting product safety.

v. We will implement the WHO European Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Policy (2007–2012), in particular by improving the nutritional quality of school meals, and support local food production and consumption, where it can reduce environmental and health impacts.

Per i bambini... in questo tipo di prescrizioni ci può stare dentro di tutto. Già mi vedo i pargoli nutriti con dieta approvata dalla UE che giocano in paesaggi rispondenti alle norme ONU vestiti di indumenti protettivi ecocompatibili che li proteggano da traumi, graffi e raggi UV senza offendere Madre Terra.

E guardo le cicatrici sulle ginocchia che mi sono fatto tipo ad 8 anni cadendo dalla bicicletta su una strada inghiaiata, e divento triste perchè in un futuro prossimo venturo qualcosa del genere sarà considerato aberrante, roba da genitori degeneri.

E guai a pensare che i cambiamenti climatici di questi tempi non siano poi così catastrofici (Pag. 8):

iv. develop and implement educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and health, to encourage healthy, energy-efficient behaviours in all settings and provide information on opportunities for mitigation and adaptation interventions, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups and subregions;

Benvenuti in Europa e nell'ONU. Io credo che stanotte avrò gl'incubi.

Croce d'Europa

Vabbè, tanto per scrivere qualcosa...

Ormai lo sanno anche i sassi, la Corte Europea per i diritti umani (o come si chiama) ha stabilito che non è legittimo esporre il crocefisso nelle aule delle scuole italiane.

La prima cosa che penso è che uno dev'essere un fiore molto raro e delicato per avere i propri diritti umani offesi dalla mera vista di un simbolo religioso.

La seconda cosa che penso è, perchè deve essere una corte europea ad impicciarsi di queste cose? La sovranità dei cittadini, e dello stato italiano evidentemente non conta più nulla. Temo però che nessuno si fermerà a considerare quale mostrusità statal-burocratica è la UE.

Terzo, c'è quella che mi sembra una gara a fare a pezzi, e buttare i pezzi nel cesso, quella che era l'identità italiana. E certo, ci sono aspetti negativi e forse una vera identità unitaria non c'è mai stata, ma secondo me questo gioco al massacro non portarà nulla di buono.

Ecco perchè sono conservatore, più che libertario: preferisco non cambiare quegli usi e costumi che sono innocui anche se datati.

Solidarietà Europea

Se il Corriera riporta le dichiarazioni fedelmente (cosa sulla quale non scommetterei di certo la mia virilità), l'Unione Europea tende verso una maggiore unità ed uniformità... tranne che quando ci sono da togliere le castagne dal fuoco. A quel punto, ogni stato deve arrangiarsi da solo.

Alfano: Le carceri italiane sono «idonee» a ospitare soltanto «i detenuti italiani», altrimenti «si supera la capienza regolamentare e quella tollerabile» é l'allarme che il ministro della Giustizia ha lanciato rivolgendosi all’Unione europea: «Deve farsi promotrice di trattati» e «dare risorse economiche agli Stati per costruire nuove carceri»

Dennis Abbot: [...] uno dei portavoce della Commissione europea, ha anche sottolineato che «la gestione quotidiana della giustizia spetta agli stati membri».

Wonder And Amazement

I am always amazed when I see those Palestinian propaganda pics (click to enlarge) on the western media, and for two reasons.

One is how good the Palestinians are at propaganda. Real masters, nothing less: the image of the grieving, almost crucified with sorrow, woman is so dramatic.

The other is how can reputable media keep falling for the same trick again and again. They do not care about what they publish, or are they in the plan too? (A mix of both).

I am not sure, but I strongly believe that the picture is not a genuine display of grief. Instead, it was deliberately and carefully staged to be used as propaganda material outside of Gaza, especially in Europe and the USA. It already happened in the past, and it worked quite well, so the technique is expected to be used again.

The "internationl community" clamoring for a ceasefire (which of course only Israel has the command & control structure to respect properly) is the usual tranzist mess: dialogue as an end in itself and absence of conflict seen as peace. But in practical terms a ceasefire woul only give Hamas time to regroup and rearm. Israel is completely entitled to reject or accept ceasefire requests at her own leisure.

Malleus Evasorum

Oggi fa furore la notizia di un traditore ex-dipendente di una banca del Liechtenstein che ha rivelato al fisco tedesco - ma in cambio di una cospicua somma (la domanda sorge spontanea: esentasse?) - i nomi dei proprietari di molti ricchi conti bancari del piccolo paese.

Per me, c'è solo un solo un brano musicale che può rappresentare l'incedere degli implacabili esattori fiscali

Perchè Darth Vader sa come far pagare le tasse... (qui ci vorrebbe qualcuno con più talento e tempo libero di me che disegnasse un Darth Visco per fare due ghignate)

Di questi tempi, se andiamo a considerare i toni di molti politici e media, ingroppare i bambini è brutto, ma evadere le tasse è un peccato che può essere lavato solo dalla pubblica confessione ed espiazione da parte di un peccatore che si rimetta completamente alla magnanimità dello Stato-dio.

Io inveco vedo l'evasione fiscale sempre più come legittima difesa contro la predazione ed estorsione "democratiche" spacciate per necessaria difesa del bene comune.

Referendum Costituzionale Europeo

Non tutti sanno, secondo me, che il recente Trattato di Lisbona è la vecchia proposta di costituzione europea che è stata fatta rientrare dalla finestra dopo che era uscita dalla porta.

Ad un gruppo di parlamentari europei non sta per niente bene che decisioni così importanti vengano prese senza consultare il popolo, per cui hanno deciso di lanciare una petizione online con lo scopo di raccogliere firme in supporto di un referendum pupolare, esteso a tutta la UE sul Trattato di Lisbona. So che le petizioni online valgono fino ad un certo punto, ma firmare costa poco.

Questo è sito della petizione. Andate, firmate e diffondete l'idea. Grazie a The Devil's Kitchen.

Boria Prodiana

Prodi dixit:

"Con questa azione l'Italia ha molto contribuito a diffondere la pace e la giustizia nel mondo".

Davvero, io mi chiedo? L'Iran smetterà di giustiziare omosessuali? La Cina abolirà la pena di morte per corruzione? Criminali, jihadisti e compagnia si faranno commuovere dalla risoluzione ONU? E poi, sinceramente, passi la giustizia, ma la pace cosa c'entra?

Io dubito che questa risoluzione otterrà alcun risultato pratico; qualcuno può convincermi del contrario?
Ma d'altra parte sappiamo che quando l'ONU parla di moratoria globale in realtà vuole dire "Vogliamo che quei bastardi yankee la smettano di fare a modo loro!".

Total Control

Kevin in the comment(s) to the post below asked me if I've heard about the disgraced idea proposed by the Prodi government to create a register for blogs and personal websites.

Yes, I've heard about it and already treated the issue in Italian. I'm not surprised in the slightest that a bunch of statalist bureaucrats like Prodi and his acolytes would propose even more registers and regulations: for them, the government has not only the right but the duty to control and regulate everything it can reach; the private life of citizens is not excluded.

And if you've followed my writings, you will know that I'm strenuosly opposed to this law. I will not register, not ever; there are times when a man must do what is just and good regardless of the law. This may seem a small thing, but Liberty is made of small things - a concept that I'm trying to develop into an essay from some time.

Over at BoingBoing some folks think that the protests are overblown, and the proposed law will not involve blogs and personal websites. I cannot be so optimistic, because at the bottomline you trust a government at your peril. It is true that Beppe Grillo - the originator of the protest - is, shall we say, prone to exaggerations, but when it comes to restrictions to freedom of speech, it's better to be slightly paranoid than vaguely gullible.

However, the forceful reaction of Italian bloggers and others seems to have obtained some effect: a few ministers already backtracked, and there are good chances that the law won't pass at least without substantial modifications. The true proper response by The People would be to assemble several trees, ropes and politicians, but one can only dream...

Visible, and Unknown

A few days ago, Al Maviva of Cold Fury wrote a (rather long) piece about the anti-americanism he experienced during his last trip to Europe. I don't want to write a rebuttal - because there isn't much to rebut to, in fact - but some other considerations on the same subject.

The curious situation is that the USA is very visible, but at the same time largely unknown.


American culture dominates all over the world. From France to Indonesia, passing through the UK and Italy, the most seen films, series and shows are American; American writers are those who write the best-selling books and songs by artists from the USA are the most popular ones (generalizing, of course: Vasco Rossi is a rocker hugely popular in Italy, but basically unknown beyond our borders). There is no way to ignore America, and this is especially true for anti-americans, who are truly obsessed with the USA.

The result is that America is very visible - in the news and media - and this creates a vicious cirlce: the media prefer to talk about what's visible, making it even more visible, and the cycle is repeated. That's why a few coal miners trapped inside a mine underneath Virginia got headlines and long reportages here across the Pond, while one hundred coal miners dying in China barely make the news (It is true that we ought to expect better safety standards in the USA than China, but that's not what made the Virginia tragedy so popular).

America is very often the gauge to measure all other countries; some take it as the absolute zero and others as the full-scale; but only few use another scale altogether.
And only very dim-witted folks cannot realize that America is much more succesfull than Europe in many regards. That's why the EU has came up with all sorts of quality-of-life indicators that, strangely enough, always say that life in Europe is better than Over There. I think those are dishonest: only per-capita GDP is an objective enough indicator to be used for comparison; other such as "happiness" are too subjective and thus quite meaningless. Alternatively, the USA is accused of not playing straight, of gaining its wealth from robbery through military force, blackmail and exploitation.

Nevertheless, many in Europe do know that things aren't going so well, despite all the pompous proclamations of the elites. The sense of decadence was palpable in London, at least for me - and Parma isn't the fine city it used to be, anymore. But the ruling elites here are stuck in "Escalation of Failure" mode, and thus unwilling to recognize that the Americans have it largely right, and the Euro-socialist model is flawed at its roots.


However, at the same time ignorance about the United States is deep and widespread. And I don't mean ignorance of the fine juridical details, or the most obscure apects of American culture. No, I mean ignorance of the actual text of the Constitution, or of the fundamental features of American culture.

This ignorance surfaces when talking about gun issues - very few here know of the Sceond Amendment, and the true intentions of the Founding Fathers. But another defining moment was in November 2006, when the Democratic Party gained control of the Congress in the mid-term elections: most media outlets in Europe talked about a "defeat for Bush". Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the American institutions should know that congressional and presidential elections are separate and distinct events, and the President is elected directly by the People; unlike the Prime Minister of many EU countries, he is not the expression of the majority party/coalition. I am a mere amateur student of American things, and I know this... while journalist who have done years of humanities studies, and are supposed to know their stuff get it wrong. Something is amiss, here.

The image many Europeans have of America is gathered from movies and novels; while those are grounded in reality (at least in part), they necessarily give a partial and distorted picture. I shared some of the anti-american prejudices (though I've never been sanguine about them), but then reading blogs I began to see the whole picture in full colours, and those prejudices evaporated. In passing, I should note that many Americans manifest the same lack of knowledge about Europe.


This situation of high, unnaturally amplified visibility combined with severe ignorance is a fertile ground for anti-americanism. I see education as the only serious antidote.

Good Riddance

So Saddam Hussein has finally been executed - and the ghouls are already searching the 'Net like mad for the thrill of his hanging video.

I surely won't shed a tear for Hussein - in fact, I think he got what he deserved, but Rick Moran is right: there is nothing fun about the fact, nothing to celebrate. I feel like a hard, nasty job has been done; satisfied but not happy.

What makes me roll my eyes is the position expressed by almost all the European elite (the common folks are a different breed): "We condemn Saddam's atrocities and recognize he was a brutal dictator BUT we think his execution is horrible anyway". I don't think this is a principled stance, and neither much simpathy for the man himself.

No, this is admitting that the Eurocrats don't know what to do in a case lying outside their worldview. They imagine a world without brutal dictators (but with a bureaucratic tyranny firmly in place; for our own good of course), and don't really know how to deal with one.

While we morally inferior people have this so unsophisticated view that scumbags are better dead and buried, at least sometimes.

In some other but partially related news, we have conclusive evidence that Hizballah systematically used human shields; and other "human rights" organizations downplayed the extent of this practice and even lied about it. Ah, the mighty NGOs... (thanks to Max Malvani).