La luna e il dito. Della primavera araba e della nostra inadeguatezza Annamaria Rivera, Paper, March 10, 2011:
http://www.carta.org/2011/03/la-luna-e-il-dito-la-primavera-araba-e-noi/? article2pdf
1 = 1. An unexpected upheaval?
It is repeated ad nauseum that the upheaval that goes through the Arab world was not predictable, so much so that even the clerks and western intelligence services had taken into account. In fact, to speak only in Tunisia, was sufficient attend and observe without prejudices that society to realize that some small fire was burning under the thick layer of ashes of the regime. It would have been enough to talk to ordinary people to understand the impatience, often barely disguised by irony and witticism, to the more grim aspects of Benali [the harsh repression of political dissidents and Islamists often alleged] or more grotesque: from 'obligation to show the portrait of the despot anywhere, even in small shops in the most remote desert, Newspeak from year to year that required it to change the names of streets according to the propaganda theme of the moment. So, for one thing, while modernizing the megalomania and speculative Ben Ali clan buried under concrete coastlines, palm trees, traditional architecture, all of a sudden it was called Boulevard de l'Environnement ".
To pretend that people mostly young, bright, educated, early familiarization with the Internet and mobile phones could endure much longer tyrants established for several decades [from twenty-four years and forty Mubarak to Gaddafi] you must have internalized the exceptionalism thesis Arabic until you have made the law of nature. In short, it seems to me to make a screen were mainly crude and fallacious paradigm of the clash of civilizations resulting in Islamophobia, and the bias that is the Arab world as in darkness of backwardness or otherwise caught between the threat of radical Islamism and the lesser evil of dictatorships servitude or flattered. This has prevented the ideological screen to consider, among other things, that many Arab countries are experiencing a rapid transition, marked by profound changes in all spheres: the family structure and relations of authority within the cultural and ideological references to Not to mention the increase of computer communication and the increasing presence of young generations educated and forced into unemployment or precarious [the latter factors, in fact, cited in abundance ex post]. To understand these changes just
a look at the demographics: the rise in literacy levels of young [men and women], the decrease in fertility rates, the decline of endogamy, just to name a few, are all signs of a rapid process of modernization, as We had been warned many specialists, including Emmanuel Todd and Youssef Courbage in forward-looking work, published in France in 2007 and in Italy in 2009 [1].
Certainly, the demographics of a country does not reveal all of his sufferings, and above all its moods and deep, nor is it alone that determines the possibility of collective rebellion. Resolution, ultimately, is always a subjective element: one who chooses Mohamed Bouaziz of sacrifice rather than suffer humiliation and contempt. But perhaps the demographics could open some political opening in the wall of stupidity which was holed up behind the old Europe. That now seems lost, determined only to reject refugees overwhelmed by the upheaval and young North Africans for whom freedom also means the conquest of mobility. Ignorant, poor Europe, the Arab spring has decreed that today we live in a single Euro-Mediterranean region.
2. "It seems that the ability to reason has failed us": confusion and mistakes within the Italian left
The wind was unexpected given the guidelines and has also embroiled in debates widely understood within the Italian left, which is also largely caught off guard or otherwise powerless to shake the indifference of public opinion to confirm the loss of the faculty of analysis and forecasting which is equal to provincialism and poverty policy and programmatic. On the left is not lacking, however, those who share the theorem conspiracy that denies any independent role in the uprisings against oppression, especially if you break out in a world that was believed trapped in the pincers of which I have said before. Fortunately, there are some exceptions: the individuals, the Radicals [2], some areas of the Left-left and small heads, NGOs, some trade union, associative realities, large and small, to the Arch. To support the Arab spring, also with concrete actions, especially those who are part of international movements, primarily the anti-globalization-and therefore, direct knowledge of countries and people, has a more realistic perception of what moves and changes over Europe's borders.
Disorientation and lively controversy around the Arab revolution occurred-and even-more openly within the area of \u200b\u200bthe manifesto, the newspaper that more than any other subject is the continuity of a thought of the radical left, educated and engaged. A blow up the controversy in the "community" of the newspaper [as the set of founders, editors, contributors, subscribers, readers] was the Libyan case, in fact more difficult to decipher. But the lukewarm or somewhat pessimistic attitude towards the Arab revolution of a component part of the "historic" the newspaper seemed sketchy since the Revolution of jasmine "military coup. Ben Ali runs away "was the title of the first piece dry and partial [14 January] in commenting on the escape of the tyrant kleptomaniac [3].
This attitude, however, at variance from that of other journalists-to Ross Rossanda with Michael George, who has provided excellent reportage-is then revealed in connection with the insurrection of Cyrenaica. The reasons, it can be assumed, are numerous. Maybe he weighed at the solidarity expressed by Gaddafi Chavez, Fidel Castro Oriega and above that already February 21, the columns of Granma, denounced "the crimes of NATO, in its view, ready to invade Libya. But most of all is the fear prevailed, founded and supported, that the insurgency will end up being the pretext for a new "humanitarian" war. To Thomas Francis, for example, the Balkans is inevitable solution: speakers will because, whatever the power that comes after Gaddafi, performs the same function for us [...]: to bestow oil consumption and prevent the arrival of the West desperate relegating in un nuovo sistema concentrazionario” [4].
Di certo lo scetticismo verso l’insurrezione libica non può attribuirsi principalmente alla relazione di stima e di amicizia fra il Colonnello e una delle colonne del quotidiano, Valentino Parlato. Il quale, il 18 febbraio, subito dopo la “giornata della collera” repressa nel sangue, rilascia un’intervista al Sole 24 Ore, in cui ribadisce senza sfumature la “stima convinta” per Gheddafi e l’ammirazione per il Libretto verde, “un testo ancora valido”, un “messaggio roussoiano di potere diffuso, di democrazia diretta” [5].
All’opposto, Rossana Rossanda -che fin dal 31 gennaio aveva salutato la primavera Arabic as "an extraordinary movement, a courageous, secular, which has returned to the wind blow the lifting of freedom" [6] - in an editorial in the Feb. 24 complaint clearly our "illusions progressive" are those who have entrusted the entire weight of the anti-colonial struggle and / or anti-imperialist all'autocrate on duty, who, in company with no intermediate institutions to ensure popular participation in the course of time reveals the propensity delusional and repressive. "In the case of Gaddafi, he writes, with its glittering uniforms and mantelloni a knight of the desert, the conviction of being a liberator and a willingness to kill and be killed, the element of delirium is evident [7].
As is more unyielding rebellion Cyrenaica, its most ferocious repression and the looming risk of a Western military intervention, the voice is lost in Rossanda balanced articles Luciana Castellina, Manlio Dinucci, Maurizio Matteuzzi and other . Sent from Tripoli to openly embedded but out of obligation, Matteuzzi employs most of its matches to argue against the campaign of misinformation, led by the mainstream media, and the consequent tendency to inflate the number of victims of the regime. So, for outburst, nell'inciso of one of them escapes the clerical error on the Libyan that "unlike many other Arabs, are extraordinarily kind, without being servile "[February 27] [8].
At that time, and paradoxically, some of the heavyweights that the columns of the newspaper calls a good reason not to forget the story seems to have mummified the leadership of Colonel in the Revolution, for aged and decayed [9]. This not only ends up putting them in the background the figure of repressor of all forms of dissent, "vainglorious and cruel dictator," to quote Robert Fisk [10] which is not suspected of conniving with the enemy, NATO, without meaning to , it also reduces the role of gendarme of Fortress Europe. At that point, the indulgence that transpires embarrassed by certain items, it seems so forgetful of recent history: Set aside the concentration camps and the camp brothel for sub-Saharan migrants, violence and torture, raids and deportations in container tanks, schiavile exploitation of third-world workers, institutional racism against them and the folk-powered art and widely used.
The reluctance of some of the newspaper with respect to this and other serious issues at stake ends to solicit the reactions of readers and contributors, evidenced by the numerous letters of protest arrived at the newspaper. One of the comments being left to Luciana Castellina. To understand why, he writes, "wherever it ended so badly," is d’obbligo “analizzare il passato, con tutte le sue contraddizioni”, quel che non farebbero gli indignati lettori del manifesto. Se sacrosanto è l’appello a riconsiderare la storia, più debole sembra la tesi di fondo, mutuata da Paolo Franchi che l’aveva proposta il 28 febbraio sul Corriere della Sera: la controversia sarebbe il frutto della divaricazione generazionale [11]. Questa frattura si manifesterebbe sotto la forma dell’inconsapevolezza della storia propria dei giovani, tutti: italiani, tunisini, egiziani, libici…Sarebbe facile replicare che, per quanto possa farci piacere, è arduo collocare fra i giovani Slavoj Žižek [12], Robert Fisk e tanti altri sostenitori della primavera Arabic, including myself.
Decided to rebalance the debate, March 6 shows the intervention, net as calm, Farid Adly, Libyan intellectual and journalist who lives in Italy, working with the manifest. Adly down the focus of the forgetfulness of history put forward by opponents of Gaddafi weak to argue that the ideas they propose "do not give the Libyan issue in its historical context," because they underestimate the "tragedy of a people being killed every day , in city squares and plazas Libyan business in the industrialized world. " It definitely takes sides in favor of the insurgents: "The democratic forces them to array rebel against the orders of the tyrant is beyond dispute "[13].
last March 9 is still on Rossana Rossanda if the dispute ends in a manner worthy of the history of the poster. His editorial, clear and incisive, opens with the basic finding: "the poster fails to say that Libya's Gaddafi is neither a democracy nor a progressive state, and that the attempt to ongoing insurgency opposed to a clan family which hopes the fall. " And the basic question: "Why so much caution on the part of a newspaper that has not hesitated to marry, to date, also causes the minority, but worth?" Rossanda also gives a frank and sharp response: "It seems that the ability to reason has failed us" [14]. And
'That's the crucial question: that even from parts of the manifesto, born of an act of solidarity with the Prague Spring, there are those who have not been able to escape the bite of the camps for fear of pre-made playing the game of the imperialist enemy. In this forgotten, some of their own history. Even at that time could not predict how it would end: there was maybe those who accused them of playing the game of capitalism and imperialism? Nevertheless, they had the courage to bet on quell'insurrezione and defend it generously. The most recent editorial
Rossanda finally relocated il manifesto sulla retta via. Una strada tutt’altro che lineare, irta di dubbi, con una sola indicazione certa: le difficoltà delle transizioni, ostacolate fra l’altro da agenti dei vecchi regimi, e il rischio dell’intervento militare atlantico in Libia non ci autorizzano a sminuire l’importanza enorme del 1848 arabo –per usare l’analogia di Tariq Ali [15]- e a negare che, comunque esso vada a finire, ribellarsi alla tirannia è stato giusto e possibile. Forse non è più il tempo delle Brigate internazionali, evocate dalla stessa Rossanda. Appartengono a un tempo remoto perfino la generosità e l’intelligenza politica che spinsero alcuni ad accorrere nella Spagna degli anni sessanta-settanta che resisteva al franchismo o nel Portogallo della Rivoluzione dei garofani [eppure non era sconcertante che a condurla fossero i giovani ufficiali?]. Ma almeno che si denunci la repressione e si esprima rispetto per i caduti. Che si riconosca il Consiglio temporaneo libico per la transizione [16] mentre ci si schiera contro l’intervento occidentale. Che si dia sostegno e solidarietà attiva a chi insegna a noi depressi o smemorati che al mondo vi sono ancora esseri umani disposti a morire per la dignità, la giustizia e la libertà. E un giorno forse anche per l’uguaglianza.
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[1] E. Todd e Y. Courbage, Le rendez-vous des civilisations. La modernité démographique de l’Islam, Seuil, Paris 2007 (trad. it., The Meeting of Civilizations, Marco Tropea, Milano 2009).
[2] As far as I know, the Italian Radicals were the only ones to ask in Parliament and the immediate suspension of the unilateral treaty between Italy and Libya.
[3] Giuliana Sgrena, "military coup. Ben Ali flees, "the manifesto, January 14, 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/fuoripagina/anno/2011/mese/01/articolo/3995/
[4] Thomas Francis," Towards a ' other war 'humanitarian', "the manifesto, February 25, 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/il-manifesto/in-edicola/numero/20110225/pagina/01/pezzo/297990/
[5] Interview di Vittorio Da Rold a Valentino Parlato, Il Sole 24 Ore, 18 febbraio 2011.
[6] Rossana Rossanda, “Un respiro del mondo”, il manifesto, 31 gennaio 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/commento/anno/2011/mese/01/articolo/4084/
[7] Rossana Rossanda, “Illusioni progressiste”, il manifesto, 24 febbraio 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/il-manifesto/in-edicola/numero/20110224/pagina/01/pezzo/297902/
[8] Maurizio Matteuzzi, “La paura arriva a Tripoli”, il manifesto, 27 febbraio 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/fuoripagina/anno/2011/mese/02/articolo/4228/
[9]Così Valentino Parlato nella risposta ad alcune lettere di protesta al giornale. In questa replica Parlato conferma il giudizio positivo su Gheddafi, “benché nell’ultimo decennio sia molto decaduto e oggi definitivamente sconfitto”; ammette “la sorpresa per l’attuale rivolta popolare”; ricorda infine l’ultimo viaggio romano della Guida e la scorta costituita da soldatesse –“tutto il contrario del berlusconismo, bensì – in un mondo musulmano – un segno di emancipazione delle donne”, dimenticando però le 700 vallette italiane prezzolate pretese dal Colonnello e la lettera di protesta sottoscritta da un gran numero di donne: “Su Gheddafi provo a spiegarmi”, Scritto&Parlato, il manifesto, February 27, 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/il-manifesto/in-edicola/numero/20110227/pagina/10/pezzo/298184/
[10] Robert Fisk, "Cruel. Vainglorious. Steeped in blood. And now, surely, after More Than Four Decades of oppression and terror, on His Way Out? ", The Independent, February 22, 2011: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/cruel-vainglorious -steeped-in-blood-and-surely-now-after-more-than-four-Decades-of-terror-and-oppression-on-his-way-out-2221687.html
[11] Luciana Castellina, " The accounts with the past and the future that will be, "the manifesto, March 3, 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/commento/anno/2011/mese/03/articolo/4248/
[12] Slavoj Žižek, "Why fear the Arab revolutionary spirit?", The Guardian, 1 February 2011:
guardian.co.uk
[13] Farid Adly, "From Libya comes a cry for freedom", the manifesto , March 7, 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/commento/anno/2011/mese/03/articolo/4270/
[14] Ross Rossanda, "Speak clearly," the manifesto, March 9, 2011: http://www.ilmanifesto.it/il-manifesto/in-edicola/numero/20110309/pagina/01/pezzo/298762/
[15] Tariq Ali, "This is an Arab 1848. But U.S. hegemony is only dented ", The Guardian, February 22, 2011:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/22/arab-1848-us-hegemony-dented
[16] Il Consiglio nazionale temporaneo per la transizione si è dato il compito di “sovrintendere all’elezione di un’assemblea incaricata di elaborare una nuova costituzione per il Paese, da sottoporre a referendum, in modo che la sua legittimità sia fondata su: la volontà popolare, l’insurrezione vittoriosa del 17 febbraio, il rispetto dei diritti umani, la garanzia delle libertà civili, la separazione dei poteri, l’istituzione di un potere giudiziario indipendente, la creazione di istituzioni nazionali che prevedano una partecipazione larga e pluralistica, la transizione pacifica del potere e il diritto di rappresentanza di tutti i segmenti della società libica” [dal comunicato del Consiglio March 2, 2011].
For a world without cages or boundaries! 
