Category Archives: Geopolitics

C’è troppa Gaza su TikTok: per questo lo oscurano

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Gli studenti di centinaia di università nel mondo occidentale chiedono una sola cosa: la fine dello sterminio a Gaza. Le immagini che arrivano dalla Palestina passano con difficoltà nei media tradizionali, ma straripano nei social media ormai accessibili in tutto il mondo in tempo reale. Il vettore di questa diffusione è lo smartphone. Come spiega Juan Carlos De Martin nel suo bel libro Contro lo smartphone – Per una tecnologia più democratica (ADD editore), mai prima d’ora un’innovazione tecnologica aveva raggiunto una portata così vasta così velocemente, diventando indispensabile per le attività quotidiane.

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There is too much Gaza on TikTok: that’s why they shut it down

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Students from hundreds of universities in the Western world are demanding one thing: an end to the massacre in Gaza. The images coming from Palestine face difficulties in traditional media but overflow on social media platforms accessible worldwide in real-time. The vector of this dissemination is the smartphone. As Juan Carlos De Martin explains in his insightful book “Against the Smartphone – Towards a more democratic technology” (ADD Publisher), never before has a technological innovation reached such a vast scale so rapidly, becoming indispensable for daily activities.

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The Economy is Real: This is How China Wins

Geopolitics,

THE DOUBLE MISTAKE OF EUROPE – Relying on the neoliberal creed, believing it would guarantee supremacy and lasting prosperity, and giving up the role of being a bridge between the United States and the emerging world.

In their recent trip to Beijing, both German Chancellor Scholz and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reproached Xi Jinping for China’s alleged overinvestment in sectors such as electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries, well beyond the capacity of its domestic market, in order to flood global markets with more competitive goods. They both stated that they will not accept their industries being cornered simply because Chinese products enjoy lower production costs.

According to the Chinese, these claims are unfounded. They argue that China’s rise in these sectors has been driven, among other factors, by innovation and supply chains that have made the Chinese production system more competitive. The trade war between Western countries and China seems to be escalating every day, laying the groundwork for a military confrontation in line with the well-known saying by Von Clausewitz that war is the continuation of politics by other means.

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If you want peace, you don’t prepare for war, but for negotiations.

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According to an ancient aphorism attributed to Aeschylus, “in war, truth is the first casualty”: nothing could be truer as we have experienced in the last two years, during which the falsehoods propagated by politicians and mainstream media are countless. If reality can be distorted to convince the public of the righteousness of certain political choices—a phenomenon to which we have become accustomed—the problem becomes dramatic and dangerous when the ruling class loses all connection with the facts and becomes a victim of its own self-delusion.

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NATO still barks at the gates of Russia.

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The war drums are beating. Rob Bauer, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, stated that “we must realize that living in peace is not a given. And that is why we (NATO) are preparing for a conflict with Russia.” In the United Kingdom, the Defense Minister and the Chief of the Armed Forces speak of the current generation as the “pre-war” generation because “the era of peace dividends is over.” The rhetoric mounting is grave and seamlessly entering everyday narrative. When I read comments supporting the notion of “if you want peace, prepare for war,” I am reminded of the famous poem by Trilussa, “L’eroe ar caffè,” the one who “flattens mountains, breaks, shoots, kills, ‘for me – he mutters – there’s a road’ alone and dips his biscuits in the cup.” If these pathetic characters are popping up like mushrooms in public discourse, it’s not by chance: the militarization of society proceeds at the hands of an elite with no legitimacy to do so, but knows it’s the only way to maintain a power increasingly delegitimized every day.

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The emergencies in a changing world

Editorials, Geopolitics

We are experiencing a period of epochal changes that involve not only a revolution of our, as citizens of a Western country, world but also a reshaping of global power relations with risks for the very survival of the human species. The planetary emergencies are three, they are growing at an alarming rate, and they are interconnected: war, climate change, and inequality. Fully understanding what is happening before our eyes is difficult not only because the information coming from mainstream media (hereinafter the Main Stream Media – MSM) is often distorted by various interests and often constructed with the intention of confusing the public, but also because a period of such great changes as the one we are experiencing requires new conceptual lenses to interpret the present and envision the future. And this is what we must deal with because the three emergencies mentioned above correspond to an unprecedented political and cultural crisis.

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Le 10 sorprese della guerra in Ucraina

Geopolitics

Emmanuel Todd è un antropologo francese. Mi ricordo che la prima volta che l’ho sentito è stato alla fine degli anni 70: cioè non mi ricordo il suo nome ma la sua tesi sull’imminente crollo dell’URSS. Me ne parlò mio padre. La sua analisi era basata su indicatori semplici, come ad esempio la crescita della mortalità infantile. Quel suo libro è stato dunque una pietra miliare, ma non è stato l’unico di importanza storica. Ora ne ha appena scritto un altro “La Défaite de l’Occident” per le Editions Gallimard. E’ un libro importante che ancora non è tradotto in italiano. Ho trovato molto interessante questa parte sulle 10 sorprese della guerra in Ucraina.

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American intellectuals and the massacre in Palestine

Editorials, Geopolitics

Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with the United States voting against it and Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom abstaining, among a few others. A few days ago, the United States vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council that would have called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages (the United Kingdom abstained). Where is the outrage for this massacre? During the Vietnam War, American academics and intellectuals voiced their opposition: but where are they today? Critical voices, of great prestige and less isolated than it seems, do exist, as well as a significant ferment on U.S. campuses.

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Gli intellettuali americani e il massacro in Palestina

Editorials, Geopolitics

Proprio ieri l’Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite ha votato a stragrande maggioranza a favore di una risoluzione che chiede l’immediato cessate il fuoco a Gaza, con il voto contrario degli Stati Uniti e l’astensione, tra i pochi altri, dell’Italia della Germania e del Regno Unito.  Qualche giorno fa gli Stati Uniti hanno posto il veto alla bozza di risoluzione del Consiglio di Sicurezza che avrebbe richiesto un immediato cessate il fuoco umanitario a Gaza e il rilascio immediato e incondizionato di tutti gli ostaggi (il Regno Unito si è astenuto). Dove è l’indignazione per questo massacro? Durante la guerra del Vietnam, gli accademici e gli intellettuali americani fecero sentire la loro contrarietà: ma oggi dove sono? Delle voci critiche, di grande prestigio e meno isolate di quello che sembra, ci sono come anche sembra esserci un notevole fermento nei campus statunitensi.

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