giovedì 10 luglio 2008

P.za Navona, media and one street man reaction

Quite interestingly, the rally of two days ago was generally commented by italian newspapers mainly for the "insults" to the Pope and President Napolitano. So I and many from the PD who participated were asked whether we regret we were present that day. My personal answer is a definite "NO".
As it is clear from one of my posts, I criticized the speeches made by Grillo and Sabina Guzzanti, who are comedians, not politicians. As i said, I left the rally NOT because of what they were saying, but because I knew the effects those words would have had and how those words would have been reported on the media. So i deem their behavior to be idiotic.
Having said that, most of the speech made by Grillo was quite clean. You can find it here both the transcription (which unfortunately does not include his comments on the President) and the full video (of course, in italian). You can definitely say that it was off topic a few times or that it was populistic.
Let's break this down, though, to understand the media critics. He referred to the President by the nickname Morpheus, since Grillo thinks the President has been sleeping while some (unconstitutional) laws were passed. This nickname is a consequence of a fact. Is this really an insult ? Or maybe should one shut up and say nothing ? The other sentence referred to Napolitano calls for another fact. Namely, while there were riots on the streets of Naples due to the Trash problems of the region, the President (who is from Naples) was in Capri sunbathing or listening to music with Bassolino (PD and who has been in charge for solving the trash situation in Campania with the known results). Is this an insult ? or is it rather disgusting that Bassolino is doing nothing in Capri, instead of overseeing the situation together with the President, while there is a riot in the streets of the area ?
In a free Country, there is freedom of speech. Look at for instance the video I posted on Bush, or look at this other. There was no scandal after these in the US and actually any reaction is considered a sign of weakness.
Next, there is no mention of the Pope on his speech. What is outrageous here ? Who is the moralist ?
About Sabina Guzzanti. She never made me laugh. That is my problem. I judge her participation to the rally useless. Not only, she was out of line, a lot. Not because she can't say what she likes, she was out of line because that was a political demonstration and not satire, moreover, completely off topic. Indeed I (and many others) left.
That said, this was one of the speeches, NOT all. The demonstration lasted over 3 (or more) hrs, not 20 min, as her speech. The hypocrtical reaction of the Democratic party is briefly condensed in Fassino's words.
My reply to that, which you can find (in italian) within the comments is briefly reassumed in the following:
With those words, he is saying that the Democratic Party does not believe in a demonstration which poses at the center of the question the democratic process and system of the Country. Because this is what the core of the rally was, not what he states. He perfectly knows, that is his history, that opposing a government means actions at the Parliement, but also outside of it where one involves the people.
He should stop placing political interests before the interests of the Country. Because this is what is going on here. And many people from PD know it (see for instance D' Alema's interview at the Festa dell'Unita' in Rome). Moreover, one thing should be clear. The rally is not made by the people on stage, but by the 40/50000 people who were in the square. If there was one word said at the rally, that one was from 50000 people.

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