Sommes nous tous des migrants?

La grave crisis qui touche l'Europe doit imposer une réflexion qui conduise à une réconnaissance de la verité sous les yeux de tout le monde

par Emanuele Bonini

Par définition un migrant est la personne «qui effectue une migration», soit le «déplacement volontaire d'individus ou de populations d'un pays dans un autre ou d'une région dans une autre, pour des raisons économiques, politiques ou culturelles». Sur la base des définitions générales alors, il est clair qu’il n'est pas nécessaire d'avoir des guerres ni des persécutions pour parler de migrants. Donc, pouvons-nous dire que nous sommes tous des migrants? Si on voit la societé actuelle on peut dire que, avec l'exception de cas particuliers, l'homme est consacré à la migrations. En Europe l'Union européenne a permis une plus facile mobilité des personnes et des travailleurs, en donnant forme au projet d'un village commun. Au niveau mondial, la globalisation a tout d'abord proposé l'idée du village global, et ensuite a déterminé un nouveau système pour lequel il n'y a plus de barrières au business. Voilà les migrants du nouveau siècle, toujours prêts à répondre aux logiques du marché. Bien que l'individu reste libre de refuser les offres pour travailler à l'étranger, dans le monde il y a de plus en plus de personnes qui laissent leur pays pour d'autres destinations. Ce sont alors des migrants par définition. Comme déjà dit, sont considérables les migrants qui réunissent une ou plusieurs des conditions mentionnées ci-dessus: effectuer un déplacement volontaire d'un pays dans un autre, ou d'une région dans une autre, pour des raisons économiques.
On peut avoir des migrants “internes” (c'est le cas des citoyens européens qui restent en Europe, mais c'est aussi le cas des citoyens d'un pays qui change de région), ou des migrants “extérieurs” (c'est le cas des ceux qui changent de continent). Parfois on reste à l'entranger pour une période limitée dans le temps, et alors nous avons des migrants temporaires. D'autres fois on reste pour toujours, et alors nous avons des migrants perpétuels. Mais il n'est que une pétite différence, parce-que à la fin la situation ne change pas beaucoup.

Lire aussi:

Paddington? A typical example of migrant

Emmanuel's (mis)adventures

Ladies and gentlemen,
here comes something really special. It's with great pleasure that I can announce, after months of intense work, my first strips opera. My comics are now available on-line to everybody interested in knowing Le (dis)avventure di Emanuele (Emmanuel's [mis]adventures). The text is available only in Italian, but given the (future) great success the book it will be translated in more than 50 languages in the coming months. Until the you can have a look by clicking here or on the right side of this blog, in "my books" section.

Pressmen, chapter 7

Truth by truth

Is a journalist an asshole or is there something more behind complaints and fakes? Most of the people think pressmen are motherfuckers because completely unable to describe the truth by truth. Well, sometime it can be the case (I will write about, one day) but other times is not. On the contrary, information is manipulated by non-pressmen. Politicians, lobbyists, NGOs, stakeholders, corporations... Every player has to be sure readers read the truth he wants. Starting from this concept we are full of situations where "stakeholders" try to get media endorsement for free, arriving to exert pressure and to interfere with journalists activity in case pressmen don't sell the new as "stakeholder" want. Let's take the Nativity and suppose that Joseph is Mary's spokesperson. You will forgive if I chose a holy example, but according to the first pressmen commandment «Thou shalt have no other gods before a journalist», so forget for a while to Jesus. I apologise with all those who believe, but I'm pretty sure in the Western societies there will be a lot of people who'll can better understand thanks to this example. So, Joseph is Mary's spokesperson and he sends a SMS to a group of journalist to inform that in the margin of the childbirth she will some meetings. Immediately after one of the journalists uses the SMS to twit the following message: «Mary will meet the Magi in the margin of the childbirth». In one minute time Joseph calls the journalist asking him «Who did you tell Mary is going to meet the Magi?» and pointing out that «you did something it hasn't to be done, because such a tweet can make Mary upset». Given the situation, we have to explain the case as follows:
1) When a spokesperson sends a message, he basically sends an information. In this way he is what in journalism is called "a source". Pressmen use sources in order to produce new, and the fact Mary is going to meet people is indeed a new. Thus, journalists make their job;

Keep calm and carry on - the story

Turkey, once again a European problem

Accession process too long blocked by nationalism, now Ankara pretend a new start. With democracy and Kurdistan to be sacrificed in name of migrant crisis

by Emanuele Bonini

Turkey is a problem. Europe has to decide what to do with regard to a key player where democracy is far farer away. Key for migration, Turkey has today the power to destroy the European Union in a sense or another. Accepting the Country as a normal country, the EU would ignore problems such as respect of the fundamental rights and tolerance. Saying Turkey is not a Country to be not considered as credible would mean to see a lot of refuges coming to Europe. Turkey is blackmailing the EU, asking for a revitalisation of the accession process in return of an effective control of migrant flows. Europe needs Turkey for migrants, but can the EU need this Turkey? According to the European commissioner for Neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations there is not space for those who don't respect the basic rules of Euro. «Freedom of media is at the core of the EU integration process and is not negotiable», pointed out Johannes Hahn. «We have seen worrying developments in the last weeks in the run-up to the elections, such as the intimidation of journalists in various forms». According to him, «deteriorating media situation impacts the overall readiness of the accession country to join the European Union». Does it mean the European Union is going to use the force against Turkey?

More than a scandal, the Volkswagen case is a drama

Trust is not the major problem. Unemployment can be the real disaster for Europe

by Emanuele Bonini

Volkswagen was not only responsible for illegal diesel engines. Also fuel engines are against the European standards, according to the same car maker. In the US more models, Volkswagen have been accused of having illegal levels of diesel NOx emissions but the scandal size is growing more and more. There are those who believes we just see the tip of the iceberg, and those who believe this scandal pose a serious problem of confidence and credibility (that's what has been said by a spokeperson of the European Commission, Lucia Caudet) but what is untold is the real cost of all this. The financial consequence for Volkswagen will affect both workers and employees, as usually happens in such a case. Apart from resignations, managers have nothing to lose. On the contrary, in front of simple workers there are worse scenarios. In the worst one, they will be fired. In other words, unemployment is going to be the collateral effect of the Volkswagen case. The social dimension of this scandal is something Europe can't deal with in time of mild recovery. Now that the general situation seemed to be on a better track, having a new wave of unemployment would be a problem. That's basically the reason why the European Commission is taking its time to take a decision. According to the EU regulation on reduction in CO2 emissions of new passenger cars, the European Commission has the authority and the power to impose fines on manufacturer’s cars. More in detail, if the average CO2 emission from a manufacturer’s number of cars exceeds the 130g/km emission limit, then a large fine will be enforced. For each car, the manufacturer must pay €5 for the first g/km over the limit, €15 for the second, €25 for the third and €95 for every g/km after that. From 2019, every g/km over the limit will be charged at €95. What Volkswagen is risking is a super-fine, whose repayment will be imposed on staff. The European Commission recalled the EU legislation and the power of intervention, but nobody still has taken into account the possibility of use what law foresees. Applying rules now would be a disaster, not applying even worst. Thus, Europe can't win this challenge.

End of one child policy, PRC changing more than history

China authorized all couples to have two children. A new era or a new world challenge 

by Emanuele Bonini

The central committee of the communist party of China announced that couples can have two children. The "ancient regime" of one child per family is over, but is it a good or a bad new? Of course the answer is positive. Yes, it is a good new. The system put in place by the Communist party has always been a controversial one, but there was a reason behind that so criticised birth control. How to feed all the people? And how sustainable can be a country where more and more people asks for life? In People's republic of China these questions found an answer in the family policies imposed until yesterday. Now PRC has gained a huge economic power, a social wealth capable of enlarging demands and address new needs. China can do what it coudn't do until few years ago, and this is of course a good new. Of course now the question is how sustainable will be this historical choice. This good new means world food demand will rise in time of crisis and scarcity of resources. Desertification, intensive use of land, pollution and climate have been posing a serious threat to the world sustainability. China can live the change, but could the rest of the world do the same? The historical page turned in China risks to become a bad new for somebody else. Is the world ready to feed new generations? This is the challenge governments started to deal with, and it was not a case if Italy decided to focus EXPO 2015 on this specific issue. A new reminder is now coming from the PRC.

The European disaster on migration

Neither hotspots nor political oppositions. The EU relocation mechanism doesn't work because of lack of operational measures

by Emanuele Bonini

European strategy for migration doesn't work. Practical problems were not taken into account when both EU leaders and the head of State and head of governments had to decide the relocation scheme. Forget quotas, real problems are elsewhere. Of course quotas represent a political issue, but even in case of political decision the EU plan can't work. There are not direct flight to move migrants from a place to another, agreements between Member States and airlines to facilitate boarding procedures for people with no documents are not in place, military flights are too expensive, low-cost carriers are still not involved. Basically hotspots appear as last problems to thing about. This is the situation after months of intensive political debate. Fences are there, while all the rest is missing. Greece is waiting a transfer of migrants from the Hellenic Republic to Luxembourg, but no plane took off with such passengers on board. The reason is because of no direct connection between Greek and Luxembourgish airports, and special agreements have been signed only with Aegean. That means no operators can guarantee on normal flights a reservation of seats for migrants and people who travel with them. Europe was and still is under pressure, and the need of a rapid reaction to the migration flows crisis forced all decision makers to take actions. To do something has been translated in practice as "let's show we do something", and the result is a confusion that perfectly reflects what Europe is about today.

Worrying times ahead Europe

Fear for migrants feeds nationalism all across the EU. Values and stability at stake

editorial

Fear is growing up, fear is dominating general feeling in Europe. The answer offered to the migrant crisis showed the whole continent scared by the huge amount of people coming from other parts of the world. We could say we are talking about people coming from the same Countries the western world (so the EU, as well) have always exploited, but it couldn't change anything. The political message coming from Poland is clear: there is more and more people against the admission policy for migrants tabled by the European Union, and there is no place for foreigners. Migrants have become too much, and Europe can't or don't want to help all these people. Most important, more and more Member States have fear. Polish population gave a clear mandate to decision makers. Granting an absolute majority to Jaroslaw Kaczyński and his far right party Law and Justice mean Poland has chosen a tougher path. Equality, respect and tolerance are all values at stake, and not only in Poland. Far right parties are rising up all across Europe, and national governments are acting building up fences, sending troops on the border, calling migrants to go away. Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia are against any assistance. These countries basically are against everything different from national standards. Now Poland will join this group, while in France the xenophobic party Front National is strong as never happened in history of the Fifth Republic.

We are back

More than two months without a post on this blog, my blog, is something never seen before. Even in time of very busy period I found time to spend to cultivate this personal space. So, my personal sphere has been reduced. Reduced by a new professional life which can't allow to find time to write few lines on internet. Indeed a huge change come. A new adventure for a news agency open 24 hours per day is something not easy to deal with, and there is a price to pay for such a career. Despite the (a)typical nature of Italian contracts, there is no doubt I arrived to work for a more important media compared to those where I have worked before. In time of investments - in Europe there are still those who believe in the EU investment plan - maybe this experience could be my persona investment for the future. Of course nothing is for free, and nothing has granted with no sacrifice. Just to be clear: I'm not saying a blog is a sacrifice, I'm just using it as example of a busy life. Anyway, I promise my few readers to come back writing with more regular frequency.