Makes you think (again)

Do please !!! have a look at this website: Storyofstuff.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been said before, written about before, filmed before (remember the movie Koyaanisqatsi?). We in the 'West' remain, majority-wise, a comfy crowd, not wanting to deal, one a regular basis, with where "the stuff" comes from that we buy and use. Still, many of us have a lingering sense of the absurd, the insane, the 'it can't go on this way'.

If you need a little push to act - to figure out what you and I can do to stop over-wanting, -consuming, and -wasting, the people behind this website might give you the push you need, not least because of the quirky graphics and to-the-point messages and info-bytes; some of which sound so preposterous, one feels like saying: "Give me the source!" or "Give me a break!". I came across it by accident, having checked out the website of a singer I like very much, Nikka Costa, who seemed to have disappeared from public view.

Lemme' tell ya. I try! (I could try harder...). To buy local, organic. To buy organic cosmetics. Haven't gone as far as only buying organic clothing yet. Don't even want to think about the dyes, how the cotton or the wool was produced ... . But then the dental hygenist says I should buy an ultrasound toothbrush. Do I want to find out where all the parts come from? My mobile phone has probably got coltrane in it, from Congo. I should chuck it.

perspective

Is our sense of history confined to our limited ability to imagine times past - any kind of history - beyond the lifespan of a two, three or four generations? How scientists do it, who research with millennia in mind, I certainly cannot imagine. There is time and there is cause and effect. Many people are concerned with the extinction of all manner of species, to which our human way of life contributes. But there are mightier causes at work, over very long periods of time, which you can read about in Elizabeth Kolbert's New Yorker article "The Sixth Extinction". Yes, we have a lot of work to do to reverse the reduction of biological diversity. But just because we humans made a great mess does not mean we can clean all of it up.

Still wondering why

Presidente del Consiglio, or Premier Silvio Berlusconi will turn 73 this September. With his Popolo della Liberta platform - think of the retinue, which incessantly surrounds Jennifer Lopez or Michael Jackson (used to) - Silvio won the election early 2008 to triumph over Prodi-successor Veltroni. The secessionist Northern League (keep Italy's South off, away) and right-wing National Alliance form a critical part of the retinue. This whole bag of sycophants used to be called 'Forza Italia', during his first two stints as Prime Minister (1994, 2004).

Like most foreigners and slightly dewy-eyed Italia-lovers, I have wondered many a time: "Why, oh why? Are Italians simply more masochistic or could they not care less? Who benefits from this and by him? Why did they elect this person once again?" Of course, by looking at the particularly crass Belusconi administration one tends to forget that very similar things happen elsewhere, in one's backyard for instance. In any case, there are many good reasons to explain this phenomenon. Nonetheless, I've heard the sigh "we'll simply have to wait until he dies" pronounced more than once by Italians. 

Significantly, the Forza Italia headquarters, which apparently still exist, lie in Rome's centro storico, just opposite the Elite 2 Nightclub, which is next to a small church. The headquarters are round the corner from the via dell'umilita (Humility Street). Too much for a Northern European to take in, but quite fitting for paradoxical Italia. Even more significantly, the headquarters are just below the Quirinale Palace, once papal, now the Italian President's offical residence - that's the President of the Republic, not the Consiglio (Cabinet), who also heads the Judiciary. It's been rumoured time and again that Berlusconi would like to assume that role before he parts from this earth. The comedian Roberto Benigni most recently alluded to Berlusconi's desire in a breathtaking performance at the San Remo Chanson Festival 2009. It's the most watched event on TV in Italy (by the way, Burt Baccarach was a guest this year). I certainly did not understand most of what he said - apparently it's a Tuscan dialect - but you'll hear the words 'Quirinale' several times. Ever the court jester in the Court of the Popolo, Benigni ties all the loose ends together, hoping the shake the Italian voters into some form of Liberta action - so that Berlusconi retires before invading the last vestige of Italian democracy. Or maybe, shit happens.