The European Union, one of the richest regions in the world, has designated 2010 as the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. This is to try to promote solidarity as a fundamental value and give security to the community at this time of world crisis.
The United Nations defines the concepts of poverty and wealth, and hence of development and underdevelopment, not by income, but according to the characteristics of existence: the average life expectancy, literacy, per capita income. These values \u200b\u200bform the Human Development Index (HDI), which expresses the degree of poverty. With this methodology, the United Nations consider the 55 countries with "high human development", 86 as a "medium human development" and 36 as a "low human development".
The Earth's population reached 6.8 billion people. Of these, 2 billion live comfortably, educated and receive health care. Two-thirds of them are concentrated in highly-developed countries. 5 billion people are, instead, concentrated in countries with developing medium and low. One and a half billion live in "absolute poverty", with less than a dollar a day. Another 2 billion to the $ 2 a day, but still can not meet basic needs such as nutrition, education, health. In this scenario, you identify 60% of people in Africa, Latin America 35% and 25% in Asia. Even in developed countries are found, however, pockets of poverty. This is called "relative poverty" and involves people living on less than half del reddito medio pro capite nazionale. Il 17% degli Europei dispone, infatti, di risorse limitate e non riesce a soddisfare le proprie necessità primarie. In Italia, 7 milioni di persone guadagnano meno di 500 euro al mese.
È un mondo diviso nettamente in due: un’elite dominante e benestante ed una massa di miliardi di persone disperate, spesso al servizio inconsapevole dei potenti. Esattamente come avveniva nel medioevo, anche se in un contesto territoriale più ampio, milioni di “servi della gleba” vengono sfruttati per mantenere alto il tenore di vita di noi “nobili moderni”. Nel nostro pianeta, il 20% della popolazione possiede l’86% delle ricchezze, e 63 milioni di persone ne concentrano su himself all the benefits. We Westerners eat alone most of what the world produces: 55% energy, 70% paper, 40% of the meat. The hotel also has 74% of cars in circulation and 55% of mobile working. E. .. die for this: millions of consumers in industrialized countries die because of the abundance seeking spasmodically (heart attack, cancer, diabetes). Abundance and riches that none of us will ever wear in the afterlife ...
Massimiliano Fanni Canelles
In past centuries, Italy was the cradle of art and culture thanks to the patronage of the Church, kings, lords, aristocrats, landowners. Their foresight and financial support to writers, painters, sculptors, musicians allowed to increase their prestige in the eyes of Europe and the world. Not only that, he sent a legacy of immeasurable value to the Italian people. A moral and material assets to be exploited but only to preserve, restore, defend. A base on which to grow the set of activities ranging from creative design industry that still maintain the value of Made in Italy brand around the world.
Purtroppo però, complice la recente crisi economica e l’attuale abitudine “culturale” italiana ad emarginare chi possessore di talento, anche nel campo dell’arte e della cultura stiamo assistendo, come nelle altre discipline, ad una vera e propria fuga di talenti artistici verso centri di formazione esteri.
In Italia ormai conservatori, scuole d'arte ed accademie sono in seria difficoltà per il marginale sostegno economico da parte di Governo ed istituzioni territoriali. Il personale è insufficiente alla gestione degli Istituti: il Metropolitan Museum di New York ha più addetti scientifico-culturali di tutti i musei d'Italia messi insieme e per ventisei soprintendenze esistono solo trecento storici dell'arte that focus in Florence and Rome, exposing much of the country. Few local people to participate actively in the cataloging of national cultural heritage so that it is estimated that public property is surveyed one fifth. And to make matters worse the cuts to the Fund for the Performing Arts will damage an industry that employs about 200,000 workers.
therefore be a greater commitment on the heritage and artistic and cultural training. It is unthinkable that they are invested only forty million euro to the maintenance of works of art in front of a tourism culture "that leads each year in Italy thirty million tourists one of the cornerstones potentially more effective for the recovery of our country.
But the positive effects seem to be not just economic. A search of the Norwegian University shows that active participation in art and culture to defend the best mood and depression. Professor Holmen and his colleagues have worked with a sample of 50,000 subjects. The results showed as a hobby "intellectuals" (painting, music, reading ...) improve the stability and psychological well-being rather than the successes at work or an increase in economic welfare.
At this point, however - and especially after the "tragic" result of the televoting Festival Sanremo Italian Song - one wonders whether it is appropriate to take immediate and serious steps to combat the "depression" that affects the Italian population now fasting for at least 20 years of culture.
Massimiliano Fanni Canelles
The international scientific community continues to publish reports that highlight the risks to which we are exposing the Earth, our home: the greenhouse gas emissions alter the climate because of their global warming potential (Global Warming Potential, GWP), industrial pollution, urban, agricultural, military, is responsible of chemical contamination and particulate matter and poisons from the food, air and water, the relationship is unstable resources / waste, with the gradual reduction of the rise in the first seconds, in order to the world's energy needs, nuclear and alternative sources eco-friendly can not replace fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal). But in an analysis on the future of our planet, the element that creates the greatest alarm is the relentless population growth. From 10 million people in the Neolithic period, has reached one billion in 1800. Over the past 100 years, the population rose from 1.6000000000 to 6,000,000,000 and is growing by 80 million every year. It is mainly in developing countries to record a real population explosion, with high birth rates and declining mortality as a result of improved health. In 2050, global population could double, reaching to 10-12 billion. Today, nearly 40% of people aged under 20, and of these, 85% live in developing countries. Missing work, lack the resources, there is no access to education. Just "population growth in the world's poorest can be a source of conflict and terrorism" (Population Institute). The future, therefore, very complex. The political world are called to one of the most difficult challenges in human history . At the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change climatici, si è parlato di clima e ambiente, ma anche di controllo demografico quale soluzione ai problemi del pianeta. Cinicamente, si è persino accennato a come una pianificazione familiare ed il controllo delle nascite possa essere considerato uno “strumento primario nella migliore strategia di riduzione delle emissioni di carbonio”. Va però evidenziato che il 50% delle emissioni di anidride carbonica è opera del mezzo miliardo di persone più ricche del pianeta, che popolano l'area nella quale la crescita è a zero; che il tasso di natalità diminuisce in proporzione al livello di istruzione e partecipazione delle donne alla vita sociale, come avviene negli Stati occidentali; che i Paesi industrializzati continuano a saccheggiare developing countries, and that the income of the 500 richest people exceeds that of the 416 million poorest. It is therefore obvious that as long as we fail to redistribute wealth and well-being more equitably so that we can not even 1 million of those 416 is organized to revolt against the system. And unless that humanity is not so foolish as to re-elect an elite determined to remove those "inferior" in modern gas chambers, the society of developed countries will never be the same. Professor Oliver Curry, evolution theorist at the London School of Economics, assumes a strict division of humanity into two races future, according to distinct physical characteristics and genetiche precise (una fondata sulla superiorità genetica e un sottoproletariato inferiore che mantiene l’elite dominante). Risulta impressionante l’analogia con “L'uomo che visse nel futuro”, un film di fantascienza del 1960 tratto dal romanzo di H. G. Wells "La macchina del tempo" (1895). Nel racconto l protagonista viaggiando nel futuro trova un mondo distrutto dalle guerre con uomini che vivono in superficie ignavi e senza sentimenti e un popolo sotterraneo di uomini deformi e antropofagi. Al suo ritorno sceglie tre soli libri di storia e cultura umana (volutamente non specificati) e ritorna nel futuro per tentare di sviluppare una nuova civiltà basata su regole diverse. Chissà se il genere umano potrà mai avere realmente this possibility.
Massimiliano Fanni Canelles
