Boycotting China

The suffered travel of the Olympic torch around the world, now in China, remember me every day about the deepest contradictions lying inside this country, and I feel worried. But China is really different from the other countries. It is the New Empire; they will rule the world (destroying it maybe very soon) and who am I to say something to the new Augustus Caeser? Don’t get me wrong, I am against all this injustice, I would like to see a Free Tibet but.. take a look to what I dress, what I buy…do I really can do anything for them? Or am I only the last accomplice in such a big crime?

 

 

The Intelligent, the Ignorant and the Lazy

So, Rome is lost.. A new wave of barbarians attacked and siege it. Am I scared? No. It is democracy, even with the power of the TV, the control of the medias, Italy still remains a democracy. Yes, because this is something that I have to agree with.  Everybody, every single people in this country, got the opportunity to decide. Decide to turn off the TV, decide to get involved in politics, to read or not to read the newspapers, to get information from neightbours or from the most wonderful telenovelas. I never loved this country, it was before, and it is now, is not a feeling casted in me. I am European, my capitals are Paris, London, Stockholm, Barcelona.

Anyhow there is an interesting discussion going on after the results of the election. It is an old thread, about who is the right side, where are the good people and the bad people, where are the gray-matter, the thinking heads, and where are the ignorants, the barbarians, the supermarket heroes, the Big Brother’s casting partecipants, the telesales housewifes. On the Left, or on the Right? Historically, the Left outnumbered the Right with writers, musicians, actors, thinkers, trendy and dandys. Now, it is also quite evident that the TV masses, the white quarters residents, the lowest classes are voting mainly the Right. So, is it obvious? 

No, I think it is not so easy. I respect the culture and the knowledge of everybody, and I am aware that the choice was between the bad and the ugly. It is just lazyness, just lazyness, to use better word, to semplify the aims, to do better without fighting for evey single Euro of funding, for every single chair, for defending every lobbistic interest.

 

Sometimes, a Black Swan..

I read today an interesting article about Nicholas Taleb. Very interesting, it didn’t read anything like from the time of Freakonomics. In particular he talk about the funny way people do estimations, forecasts and explain complex phenomenon like stock exchange market, social relationships, politics. We often impose our belief on the reality (later, when we try to explain it). Some ideas he brings:

• Since we can’t control unpredictable events, we should accept uncertainty and seek to maximize our exposure to serendipity, as by putting ourselves in the way of new ideas.
• Since there is such danger in accepting conclusions based on too little information simply because they confirm our beliefs, we should try to remain aware in the present of what we are doing, paying attention to what actually happens and refraining as far as possible from imposing theories on our experience.
• We should recognize our poor record as a species in predicting the future, that we are much better at doing than knowing. Some things are more predictable than others: we are safe enough in expecting tomorrow’s sunrise to plan on breakfast. We can start noticing which situations are most susceptible to black swans, and when we encounter them, remember how little we truly know so our ignorance doesn’t lead us around by the nose. 

He got the point…

http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/

Happy Trading

A (disappearing) forest

What is happening in these days on the financial markets about the agricultural goods prices is astonishing. The US (not only) decision to invest in biofuels fired a chain reaction that is hitting the underdeveloped countries. In the meanwhile the Amazon forest is going away.. Read this article:The Clean Energy Scam

 

Who let me down

Reading the newspapars, listening radio and people around, I have the feeling that Berlusconi will win. Everybody almost says this, the matter is only about how much will win. No matter what he saying, good or bad things, half of this country will vote him because they love him. So it goes, this is Italy. But what is really make me crazy this time, is that a lot of people usually voting on the other political side (my side of course) is not going to vote and they are struggling and sinking with strange minds about mysterious foundamental reasons.  Like a fist on my face, with the bittered taste  

Peurto Rico on my mind

I just read about another interesting report Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008. It is about how much countries are networtking, improving, enhancing leveraging on ICT technologies. 

Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland lead the ranking. I was wondering about Italy. So to find it you have to download the PDF and dig a little bit. Italy is ranked 42, after Puerto Rico and Cyprus.. I always dreamed to live in Peurto Rico..

 

NEXT

It is funny to read about forecast. I am not talking about weather (even if could be interesting too) but about the most promising new technologies, the upcoming revolutions. So today I read about the Gartner 2008 10 Top Strategic Technologies. Between the all 10 listed technologies I don’t find anything new. It is just a list of the most trendy today technologies, most of them hopefully will improve something, but it is absolutely not clear if they will be able to “change” our society and the justification argumented by the report is quite obvious, a brief sintax of what the research community already wrote. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to say that this report is a wasting of time. I just wonder every now and then if all these efforts spent to make this biblic reports (often wrote by very remarkable institutions, research group and other important people) got scientific value or they could be considered only a communication/PR operation

History Repeating

New day, new bullshit. This is the election time. So I just trying to don’t care too much on what politicians are saying. The time is gone, nobody will change my mind (could anybody?), but I am still gazing at this strange country I’m living in.  The worst of the day is the statement pronounced by Marcello Dell’Utri, co-founder of Forza Italia, the first Mr. Berlusconi’s party (before many marketing rebranding), and candidate in the next election for a chair in Parliament. He says, during an interview, that the history books used at schools are wrong, corrupted. The history is written by communist historians and point out a wrong side of the story. Reading between the lines, he is remarking the old fights between who want to review history, demoting who fighted against the Fascists and upgrading who collaborated with.  Honestly.. I am bored about this, bloody bored. We have thousands of problems to get solve in this unlucky country. We have the worst productivity index in Europe, we have the largest public debt, we have on of the worst burocrazy, we need new innovation policies, cost reduction strategies, new industrial ideas and many other stuffs..

No, for this chap is not true. He think we need to set the priority to change a book to write tha Fascists were good people, very good patriots, carefully caring about the country, educated and polite innovators, problem solver for the always-there Italian Issues. He think that all this criminals, wearing a red towel around the neck, hided in the mountains and whereever was possible, dreamer of a strange ideal, where all people could have the same opportunities, where nobody has to hide in the shade just because has a different opinion, where nobody get kille or injuried just because is jewish or other races.

No, this chap will never understand that if he could make this interview is thankful to everybody died more than 60 years ago (and somebody later). No he will never understand. I am sure

When the election will be over

It is sure, Berlusconi will win the upcoming elections. I cannot do anything against this happens. My political side did everything to help him to be on the run again and today main part of the italian population, believe me or not, want him as Prime Minister. So it goes, this is called democracy, I have to accept it, even if it is really orrible, disgusting, unbelievable. I just wonder if there is a way out, beside to move in another country.