2014 A.D., year of «terrorist awakening»

Bombings and ambushes rose all over the world, as well as the death toll

by Emanuele Bonini

The terrorist attacks in Paris are not something new. On the contrary, they appear as a confirmation of a phenomenon growing more and more worldwide. According to the existing data, the number of terrorist attacks in 2014 was double compared to that of 2004. In many aspects, 2014 can be described as a year of «terrorist awakening», since the number of terrorist attacks increased by 40% and altogether the number of casualties almost doubled compared to 2013. Attacks increased in number and have become more deadly. According to experts, this situation is the consequence of the in Sub-Saharian Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and southern Asia. A report of the European Parliament underlined that especially in Africa and in Middle East «weak governance structures have provided fertile ground for radicalization while constraints on the capacities of security forces facilitated the growth of jihadi and separatist groups», namely in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Analysts have no doubt Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharian Africa, and southern Asia are «the main theatres for terrorist operations», as shown by 2014 attacks.

Middle East and North Africa. This part of the world registered the highest number of attacks (6.913). Iraq remains the country most hit by terrorist attacks - twice as many as for the rest of the region altogether - followed by Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Substantial increase in terrorist attacks and victims were registered in Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Yemen and West Bank: almost a seven-fold increase in Israel and over two-fold in Libya and the West Bank. Algeria and Bahrain saw a slight decrease in the number of terrorist attacks. In 2014 the most active perpetrator groups in the region were Ajnad Misr and Ansar Bayt al‐Maqdis (Egypt), ISIL/Da'esh and Al-Naqshabandiya Army (Iraq), Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and Hamas (Israel), Al-Nusrah Front and ISIL/Da'esh (Syria), Al-Islah Party, AQAP and Houthis (Yemen).

Welcome to Molenbeek, capital city of Belgistan

It is one of the municipalities composing Brussels, and the recruitment centre for jihadists

by Emanuele Bonini

They call it «the jihadist hamlet», it is considered as an «hub of terrorism and arms trafficking», it has been nominated «capital city of Belgistan», i.e. the Islamic Brussels. It is simply known by everybody as Molenbeek-Saint Jean, one of the nineteen municipalities composing the city of Brussels. Molenbeek is the historical cradle of immigration, with foreigners who started coming in the XIX century, when Belgium wasn't yet the actual Belgium and the European Union wasn't even a fantasy. Pubs, restaurants, shops, schools and mosques (two). Children playing together, veiled and unveiled women, signboard written in Flemish, in French, in Arabian. Other signboard read names of some Iberian destinations. Molenbeek is a neighborhood with a huge multicultural spirit and strong contrasts. The museum of industry and work sounds ironic in a place where more than 30% of the local population is out of work. Nearly one third of the 96.000 inhabitants here is unemployed. Most of them live thanks to «chômage», the unemployment benefits, all the others finish to join criminality.
It's the Moroccan, Tunisian and Pakistani communities that makes Molenbeek the Belgistan, a land developed around Armenian, Portuguese and Spanish, too.
Despite all Molenbeek remains a crossroad. Italians know well, present as they always are when artists from their country come in tour at VK, well-known concert venue located along the streets of the jihadist compound. Another, smaller, different Bataclan where people all over Europe come to play and listen to music. It's here, behind this veil of a living and pulsing multicultural district, that the laboratory for radicalism works.

The tale by William Rookwood

Transcript: Our story begins, as these stories often do, with a young, up-and-coming politician. He's a deeply religious man and a member of the Conservative party. He's completely single-minded and has no regard for the political process. The more power he attains, the more obvious his zealotry and the more aggressive his supporters become. Eventually, his party launches a special project in the name of "national security". At first, it's believed to be a search for biological weapons and is pursued without regard to its cost. However, the true goal of this project is power. Complete and total hegemonic domination. The project, however, ends violently, but the efforts of those involved are not in vain, for a new ability to wage war is born from the blood of one of the victims. Imagine a virus, the most terrifying virus you can, and then imagine that you and you alone have the cure, but if your ultimate goal is power, how best to use such a weapon? It's at this point in our story that along comes a spider. He's a man seemingly without a conscience, for whom the ends always justify the means, and it is he who suggests that their target should not be an enemy of the country but rather the country itself. Three targets are chosen to maximize the effect of the attack: a school, a tube station and a water treatment plant. Several hundred die within the first few weeks. Fueled by the media, fear and panic spread quickly, fracturing and dividing the country until, at last, the true goal comes into view. Before the St Mary's crisis, no-one would have predicted the results of the election that year, no-one. And then, not long after the election, lo and behold a miracle. Some believe it was the work of God himself, but it was a pharmaceutical company controlled by certain party members that made them all obscenely rich. A year later, several extremists are tried, found guilty and executed while a memorial is built to canonize their victims. But the end result, the true genius of the plan was the fear. Fear became the ultimate tool of this government, and through it, our politician was ultimately appointed to the newly created position of High Chancellor. The rest, as they say, is history.

Senselessland (chapter 10)

Impressions and images from Belpaese

There's three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and the way that I do it. I'm sorry, but there is always a fourth way to do things: the way Italians do it. Maybe because of politeness, maybe because of style, maybe because of lack of familiarity with the Italian affairs, but be sure in Italy things will always work in a proper, different, way. Superficial, partial, incomplete, or with no logic - and thus senseless - Italy appears to be a sort of alternative wonderland, the senselessland I always talk about. This time we have the privilege of having an official source where find a classical example of how at this world things can be done in the right way, in the wrong way or in Italian way. The European Parliament issued "How to end Energy Poverty? Scrutiny of Current EU and Member States Instruments", a study for the Industry, Research and Energy committee. Here Italy became a study case, with the authors who have been forced to dedicate a specific chapter to the Italian member state of the EU. I say they have been forced to do it, because there is no doubt Italy represent a great case of lack of any kind of strategic view. According to the study, «Italy has no definition of energy poverty. Nevertheless, Italy targeted energy poverty by general policies and measures with short term  effects». So basically Italians look for solution in order whose nature appear to be of emergence or "last-minute". In one case, the country lives constantly in emergency, in the other case simply lives of improvisation.
How to end energy poverty? Good question. In Italy «the vulnerable target group is not sufficiently defined», states the expert of the European Parliament.

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.