euro|topics - Pierluigi Battista

05/09/2008

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Battista, Pierluigi

5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Corriere della Sera - Italy | 28/05/2008

A refuse removal conspiracy ?

Twenty-five members of the commission responsible for the rubbish crisis in Naples have been taken into custody and charged with criminally damaging public health and the environment. Pierluigi Battista comments: "Is it true that the refuse piles conceal a den of embezzlement? Or have the judges acted irresponsibly and frivolously, committing a fatal error and falling into a deadly trap? ... The arrest warrants were issued in January. Why have they been pulled out only now, when the state seems on the verge of removing the last obstacles to the solution of the waste crisis? ... The 25 arrests convey the impression of a criminal conspiracy which reached right up to the highest echelons of the apparatus which has been dealing with the waste problem for at least two years. If this is true, then a handful of courageous judges have dealt pitilessly with an appalling case of corruption. But what if it is not the case? What if the media attention stirred up by the arrests was a well-timed strategy to strip those who are leading the fight against the refuse of their legitimacy?"

Corriere della Sera - Italy | 04/03/2008

Are Israeli writers going to desert the Turin book fair ?

After Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arablia, Iran has just announced that it too intends to boycott the Turin Book Fair next May and the Paris Book Fair this March 14-19. Both events have invited Israeli writers as guests of honour. For Pierluigi Battista, "The threat of a boycott is once again casting a menacing and paradoxically triumphant shadow. Cultural authorities may well have reacted against the censors who want to deprive Israeli writers the right to speak in both salons, but rumours that the biggest Israeli writers are going to pull out have not been completely denied. The different calls for a boycott will have obtained their goal if the book fairs are abandoned by Abraham Yehoshua, David Grossman or Amos Oz, Israel's most representative writers."

Corriere della Sera - Italy | 09/01/2008

Naples' trash problem symbolizes Italy's crisis

The journalist and writer Pierluigi Battisti wonders if the waste disposal crisis in Naples will mark the end of the 'Second Republic'. This term refers to the political period that began fifteen years ago with the introduction of the majority vote. "Buried under a mountain of rubbish lie the remains of the Second Republic ... . The broken dream of a 'big change' is dumping its debris on a shameful wasteland. Buried in chaos and among the flames of Naples in revolt, the Italy of the Second Republic is taking the form of an accumulation of rubbish that television around the world is broadcasting non-stop like a humiliating symbol of our country. We are far from an Italian Renaissance. ... The blaze ignited in Naples is like a gigantic bonfire of the vanities."

Corriere della Sera - Italy | 14/06/2007

The Italian left wants to court intellectuals

Piero Fassino, Secretary-general of the left-wing Democrats (DS), the main group in the coalition in power, would like to see a revival of 'the Battle of Ideas' as defended by the Communist Party in its time. It is with this objective that it organised a meeting of the most pre-eminent figures of the Italian intelligentsia in Rome on June 13th. Pierluigi Battista looks back on the political engagement of intellectuals throughout history. "Seeing as the birth of the Democratic Party [the party of the alliance of left-wing] has already been very tumultuous in itself, was it really necessary to bring back the old communist rite of gathering together the Secretary-general and artists, poets, writers, political scientists and advertising agents... ? ... Relations between the Party and intellectuals were difficult at the time, sometimes conflicting, but always essential. ... We have reached an end of an era that no meeting of intellectuals and the Democratic Party will be able to resuscitate".

Corriere della Sera - Italy | 05/03/2007

A Dolce § Gabanna advertisement creates an uproar in Italy

Thirteen Italian senators have requested the withdrawal of a Dolce § Gabanna (a fashion label) advertisement showing a woman pinned down to the floor by a man while other men stand by watching. The senators consider this to be incitement to rape. For the editorialist Pierluigi Battista, this censorship represents "the eternal desire to keep the people under control. ... The temptation of censorship is a fatal short-cut that gives the impression, and only the impression of simplifying life in society while a actually imposing a single mode of thought in all fields of public life: publishing , music, film and advertising." Battista deplores the existence of censorship latent in all domains. "There is no uproar when a university professor is forced by media pressure and psychological pressure to withdraw a book from shop shelves. Nor when a journalist is forbidden by his or her trade union to write articles ... . Nobody is shocked to see politicians and members of parliament regularly suggest the banning of certain television programmes".

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