The recent declarations by the italian PM are a clear warm up for the forthcoming european elections.
Today reading the Spiegel article I discovered Colin Crouch and his notion of post-democracy. In his view, Italy is already a post-democracy. Well, it started back in the 80s, it’s not new.
We’re well beyond now. It’s neo-tribalism.
…I could assist to a very interesting event. The “Premio Speciale Scritture di Frontiera” will be awarded tonight in a place I love and where I spent hours and hours preparing my exams, the Caffe’ San Marco,
And the winner is…Metapolis’s author, Matteo Apuzzo, for his book “Citta’ Divise” . Listen to his interview by clicking on the book’s title, on Zygmunt Bauman, divided cities, gated communities.
On Monday I will go book-hunting: this book is incontournable for us frontier-junkies. As it is “Amiche per la pelle’, by Laila Wadia, a Mumbai girl who lives and writes in Triest.
In the meantime I’ll keep following the frontier theme in Metapolis, but also at Osservatorio Balcani, Bora.la, Balkan-crew, balKaN scapes, Euregio…
Ten years ago, august 1998, I was in Moscow when the The Ruble Crisis hit the markets. It was impossible to withdraw money (rubles or dollars) from the glitzy new banks. The exchange rate went from 6 rubles per dollar (as or our arrival at Sheremetevo airport) to about 25 rubles per dollar one week later.
Empty stores, but this time round packed with western multinationals’ goods. The Garnier shampoos. The Ferrero ubiquitous chocolates. The Procter detergents. That was a strange feeling after those queues for food in the stores of the 80s, with their empty shelves, that as a child I used to see in neighbouring Yugoslavia.
Talking about ruble crisis, this time it is not a lira, a euro or a dollar crisis. It’s just a plain “money” crisis. This morning I went to open an additional bank account (er…to diversify exposure) and I realized I had still in my bag Zygmunt Bauman’s book “Liquid society”.
Odd feeling…maybe The Liquid Society is very illiquid in the end?!
Maybe also during Weimar Republic the society was liquid…let’s go back to the 1923 events thanks to Arto’s excerpt of “Paper Money”. There are disturbing parallels with the present social and economic situation…especially populistic leaders promising protection and revenge…
