January 13, 2010

5 Star List: actions, not time-wasting!

Giovanni Favia 10 out of 10 for behaviour
(4:42)

In the 5 Star MoVement “each person counts for one”, but also “every person is worth everything”, in the sense that they are connected to everyone in the organisation. You can’t beat the Internet and collective intelligence applied to an objective.
Giovanni Favia comes at the top position for activity in the Bologna city council. While the others were doing “politics” he, and all the people of the MoVement that he represents, were doing “actions”. Transparency and a spirit of service.
The MoVement has elected 37 town councilors in cities like Treviso, Reggio Emilia, Spoleto, Livorno, and Ferrara. In March there are also the local elections in a lot of cities.

In 13 towns, a 5 Star List is being put together. The towns are: Arco, Bollate, Corsico, Eboli, Gonnosfanadiga, Macerata Campania, Mandello Del Lario, Porto Torres, Procida, Quartucciu, Segrate, Voghera, Zagarolo.

Read and hand out to friends the "Charter of Florence", participate in the Forum of the towns, create your own 5 Star List and make sure you keep up to date about the 5 Star List in your town.
They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.


”Ciao Beppe,
Actually it’s one o’clock in the morning and I have just recently finished a skypecast meeting about the forthcoming regional elections. I’m tired but happy. Today in Bologna we were repaid for all the work we put in and for the widespread goodwill displayed over the last few months. In fact, the local edition of the
Corriere della Sera has published the research report of the Associazione Controllo Cittadino {Association for Citizen Control} that has monitored the work of Bologna’s town council during the last 6 months. Our council group, of which I am the only representative, in spite of the few resources available (2 offices and a secretary as opposed to the 8 offices and an equivalent number of secretaries for the PD) turned out to be the most active group, beating by more than twice the “second from the top” (Lega Nord).
No one would have ever imagined this after our election, a bit because of my age and inexperience and a bit because of the lack of an organisational structure for our MoVement. Now lots are coming after us and when I explain our work system, I talk of the “collective intelligence through the Internet” or sharing the mandate with the grassroots, my council colleagues stare at me as though I were talking a foreign language. We are lots of small councilors united into a single spokesperson who was elected and this is our great strength.
I want to share this recognition with all the people who have given their contribution to the List, with those who signed for the candidates, with the anonymous user who posts on the forum, with the activists who, every week, are debating, studying and participating in our initiatives.
However, I want to dedicate this recognition to you Beppe, because without your putting yourself into the ring and your courage, all of this would not have been possible and lots of us would still be closed inside our homes complaining in front of the TV news programmes, talking about corrupt politicians and the thieving government, convinced of the fact that anyway you can’t do anything to change things … Today, however, we know that it’s not like that and that we citizens, if we want to, we know how to do “politics” even better than the old career politicians …. that there’s an end to the moment of delegating our future to someone else, but that now is the time to put on a helmet and to get going. Hugs.” Giovanni Favia

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:42 PM in 5 Star Towns | Comments (0) | Comments in Italian (translated) | Write | Sign up | Send to a friend

December 02, 2009

Five Star Condominiums

Five Star Condominiums
(3:00)

After the 5 Star town we’ve got the 5 star condominium. That location - where you get knifed for a name on the speaker system, for children that are playing or for the volume of the radio - can become our Shangri La. The myth of the Italian condominium that has given birth to unforgettable scenes like Fantozzi’s meeting of the condominium residents and the couple of butchers, Olindo and Rosa, a place of suspicion and of social nastiness …

can be transformed into a laboratory of the New Italy. If the residents of the condominium change, everything else is plain sailing. “First they ignore you, then they deride you and then they fight you. Then you win.” They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.

”Dear Beppe,
Three weeks ago, with the councillors Matteo Olivieri and Davide Valeriani, I presented to the town and the West and North East constituencies, motions to bring in the idea of the “Virtuous condominiums” also called “5 star condominiums”. A concept that, starting with the meeting of the condominium residents in a spontaneous and non-obligatory way and in collaboration with associations of farmers, environmentalists, consumers, condominium administrators takes on useful actions that are shared like:
- Fittings to aereate the water for taps to save up to 50% on usage of drinking water (the water that the PDL and the Lega are privatising)
- Installation of energy-saving bulbs or LEDs in lights on the outside of the condominium to reduce the energy consumption and the expense
- Domestic composting for the condominium (discount of 20% on the costs) to reduce the organic waste and create natural fertilizer for the garden.
- Creating solidarity purchasing groups among the resident of the condominium to buy goods
- Promote the exchange of objects among the residents of the condominium
- Energy “audit” of the building to work out how to do a better job of insulating the structures and reduce energy consumption and heat loss
- Create a small space for a common kitchen garden, etc.
In a few words, you’re saving and helping the environment with small daily actions that have been decided together and people are going back to talking to each other. A virtuous path, difficult in certain situations but we believe of great civility. A path that is appreciated to such an extent that a Facebook group, inspired by the “Five Star Condominium” idea has got 1,645 supporters among the citizens. In this group, various citizens are giving concrete examples of what they are already doing.
The proposal put forward in Reggio’s West constituency will now be examined by the commission to have a look at certain initiatives that can get this idea of good citizenship off the ground with some condominiums in our constituency.
From the moment that the PDL leader Primo Berti was giving lectures in the newspapers about the time wasted in the constituency, the citizens “in primis” his electors, have to know how he carries out his duties inside a body that represents 38,000 citizens even with limited resources and competencies. For you there’s the reply from PDL leader Primo Berti in the West constituency … Recording of the session on 23 November already on YouTube.
Berti PDL leader finds no other arguments to criticise these practical proposals to save the citizens money by saying that it’s a matter of “violation of the private sphere”, "hot air" and he proposes reading a message thinking that he is being ironical (he’s the only one laughing), “vending machines for condoms, machines for distributing 500 euro notes, a room for inflatable dolls where the inhabitants can fight loneliness, lessons in the rain dance, bumper cars in the condominium …” Listen to believe. All during a session of the Council.
For me personally as the father of a family this response has made me sad, even because in my little sphere of a condominium of 8 apartments where we live, we have managed to decide together to put in a well for rain water, a common compost station for domestic waste and a small kitchen garden.
But this is the lack of seriousness and lack of education with which signor Primo Berti often tackles the topics put forward by other people within the West constituency.
Criticism of every proposal is legitimate. We are the first to use sarcasm and irony but outside the institutions. Inside the institutions from the towns to the constituencies, going right through to Parliament and the Regional Council, I believe that it is always necessary to engage seriously with the concrete proposals. First of all out of respect for the citizens who are the voters who are also taxpayers who are paying for the functioning of these bodies.” Vito Cerullo, councillor in the West constituency, Lista Civica Reggio 5 Stelle Beppe Grillo.

Join the "Condomini a 5 stelle" Facebook group.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:04 PM in 5 Star Towns | Comments (0) | Comments in Italian (translated) | Write | Sign up | Send to a friend

August 04, 2009

Grillo168 – Us, the citizens

Grillo168 - Us, the citizens
(5:35)

Why create a movement? Simple! Because it’s already there! If you remember, millions of people came out into the streets for the two V-Days. The first was to have a clean Parliament and the second was to have freedom of information. Millions of people who came out into the “piazza” from everywhere. In Piazza Farnese, together with the families of mafia victims, in Piazza Dante in Naples against the rubbish in Campania. Citizens who, by using the local MeetUps, have produced the Five Star Civic Lists. So there are around forty well-informed people to be found in thirty councils of important cities like Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Treviso, Ancona, and Livorno. There are hundreds of thousands of Italian citizens who have created a forum and have worked for eight months to do the Citizen Primaries, if you remember. They worked on the economy, on energy, on health. And then we took these Citizen Primaries to Prodi who immediately put them in a drawer.
The parties no longer exist. They are like Wile E. Coyote, have you noticed? To make them collapse it’s enough to tell them to look down. In fact, as soon as Wile E. Coyote realises that he is suspended in emptiness, he falls. Just as all these caricatures have fallen. From Topo Gigio Veltroni to the psycho-dwarf. They are caricatures, cartoon characters. From the “smemorato di Collegno”, Mancino up to the President of the Republic ,Morpheus.
Minister Tremorti is scraping the barrel. He doesn’t know what to do any more. He is even getting hold of gold bars from the Bank of Italy. He seems like “il Duce” fleeing Dongo with the treasure.
In September the manual workers will be leaving the factories. Who will welcome them? The anti-riot police!
The public debt is an abyss. It is increasing by 18-20 billion euro a month. This State has failed. It is in “default completo”. It’s enough to get a threat from Totò Riina and the threat of creating a “Party of the South” and straight away four billion euro are offered to Sicily, while in Abruzzo the earthquake survivors are still living in tents.
The Movement is the voice of millions of people who have no voice in the TV News, or in TV, but they will be the voice of the Italy of tomorrow. The Italy of honest, transparent, clean people, who don’t want nuclear power stations, incinerators, rubbish tips with toxic poisonous waste. An Italy for respectable people who don’t want power for its own sake. But who want to do something to change this state of things. People who are continuing to see State slaughters, like the one in Bologna, covered by State Secrecy. And if there’s still State Secrecy, it means that it was instigated by the State.
I want to see the people governing this Country to be amusing. People who can make you laugh, who can play with their children, who can go out and do the shopping. Not people who are protected by body guards, Army and anti-riot Police.
I want to see a Country where, if someone shouts out the truth and speaks the truth, they don’t have to see the Police coming into their house at 6:30 in the morning because in a TV programme they asked questions of our employee “avvocato Pecorella”, about why he defended a mafia assassin, the assassin of Don Diana.
I want that whoever wants to participate in person in the construction of his or her own future has that possibility. To go into the town council to decide things about the territory, about the quality of the environment, about their own life, the air, the water. A country in which a referendum is not stuffed in a drawer, like the popular laws, that just stay written on paper.
A Country where we live now that is without an Opposition, where the Parliament has been deprived of its authority. Where the ones who are governing are two business committees: the PDL and the PDminusL. I can guarantee that this Movement will not delegate anyone. It’s a first person movement. First person plural: Us, the citizens.
In the Autumn, by means of the Internet, I will start the Regional Five Star Lists and straight after that the Movement. A Movement of direct democracy. A virus that cannot be stopped because it is marching on through its ideas and its programmes. And above all with its joyfulness. Because laughter is contagious. Very contagious. Thus “a bout of laughter will bury you all!” Buon 168!

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 06:06 PM in 5 Star Towns | Comments (2) | Comments in Italian (translated) | Write | Sign up | Send to a friend

July 04, 2009

Political Press Release number twenty-three

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 05:48 PM in 5 Star Towns | Comments (2) | Comments in Italian (translated) | Write | Sign up | Send to a friend

May 15, 2009

Star number Four: Connectivity

(13:02)

Free connectivity for residents in the Municipal District is one of the stars on the 5-star Civic Lists. Maurizio Gotta of Anti Digital Divide delivered an address on the issue of connectivity in Florence on 8 March. Once access to the Internet spreads throughout Italy, it will spell the end of the road for the current political class. They may never give up (is it in their interests?), but neither will we.

Main points of the address:

Italy without connectivity

The sell-off of Telecom Italia

Politicians and lobby groups against the Web

Connected communities

Text:
"I want to talk to you today about the current situation as regards connectivity in Italy. I lived abroad for six years by reason of my work, part of the brain drain if you will, although my heart remained here in Italy. In following my heart, I landed up making what was perhaps the most stupid mistake of my entire life.
What is happening in our Country would be absolutely unthinkable in any Northern European Country. I have worked in Belgium, Holland and France where, during a job interview, no one would dream of asking whether you know how to use a computer because it would be tantamount to asking: “Can you read and write?”. The question is never even asked because if the interviewer should discover that someone is unable to utilise the available electronic tools, he would feel obliged to ask: “Excuse me, but why have you come for the interview?”.

Italy without connectivity
Unfortunately, the situation here in Italy is not the same, for a variety of cultural, technological and infrastructural reasons. We have founded an association in order to prove that not all of the advertising claims made by Telecom Italia and their competitors are consistent with the reality: in our Country, some 25% of the communities, some small and others not so small, have no connectivity other than the partial, 56K-type of connectivity.

The sell-off of Telecom Italia
How is this possible? It is possible simply because we have what is arguably one of the most outdated telephone networks in the world, which began with the former “Sip Tel” and that later became Telecom Italia, the very same Telecom Italia that, as you are no doubt well aware, was privatised in 1999. But how does it happen that a company of such national importance get privatised? It was privatised by selling off the company and its contents, which included the national telephone network. From 1999 to today, virtually no more money has been invested in the maintenance and expansion of this network. What does this mean? It means precisely what anyone who has worked in the telecommunications sector knows very well, namely that, on average, 10% of the network equipment breaks down each year. Since it was privatised, this company has allocated a maximum of 2% of its budget towards maintenance, meaning that a large part of the equipment that breaks down each year is never replaced.
The problem of connectivity is even more evident in a Country such as ours, which is being held to ransom by the television networks and the somewhat biased information provided by the mass media, because I, for example, am someone who watches very little in the line of television news and prefer to get my news predominantly via the Internet. Not everyone is able to do the same as I do, however, because not everyone has access to broadband connectivity. And why has broadband not yet reached these people you ask? Because, as we were saying, our infrastructure is so old and because the powers that be never thought it was worth their while to invest money to update that infrastructure. But why didn’t they think that it was worth their while to invest money in the modernisation of the infrastructure? Well, because Telecom Italia was privatised on the terms that we all know, in essence the company’s debt was absorbed, as Beppe has always explained so well, they absorbed the debt that was necessary in order to purchase the company. And so, financially, they are in no position to expand the network, to extend the reach of broadband services and to improve the service. In recent years, certain agreements have been entered into with some of the regions whereby, using heaven alone knows what mechanisms, the regions provided Telecom Italia with public funds for the company to increase its ADSL coverage. Telecom Italia said thank you very much and provided certain connections, the so-called “mini-ADSL” connections, with which, just to make sure that we are all on the same wavelength, users can’t even view video clips on YouTube, just to quote one example, because instead of travelling on optical-fibre like they do in the large cities, here the signal travels along twin-flex copper cable and, to be clear, these exchanges will never, ever be upgraded. They have simply used obsolete technology in an attempt to provide a new service but, unfortunately, the results come nowhere near meeting the expectations.

Politicians and lobby groups against the Web
The problem we face is one of infrastructure and in some cases we have attempted to overcome the problem by using alternative technologies, such as wireless technology and so, with effect from 2005 it became possible to create wireless Internet access networks, however, while this kind of service was permitted in 2005, suddenly in 2006, I believe that the Pisanu Law that Beppe mentioned earlier prevented the country’s citizens from connecting free of charge to the wireless services by obliging all users to identify themselves by means of an identity document. At the time, we thought that Wi-Max would come to our aid, as Beppe rightly pointed out in a number of his shows. In Reset, for example, I remember seeing Beppe going around with a Wi-Max aerial, so we began to think that perhaps Wi-Max would be the answer. They soon realised that this option posed certain problems with freedom of movement and so they came up with a very simple solution: a technology that could have been the best solution ever in terms of overcoming this problem was simply incorporated into the concept of transmission frequency towers, a concept that had already been adopted successfully for mobile telephone purposes, but in a way that essentially excluded from the tender process some 80 to 90% of the companies in the country that were already involved in the field of wireless communications and instead assigning the frequencies by means of tender to, yes, you guessed it, Telecom Italia and certain other companies, somewhat strange operators that in many ways remind us very much of water provision multinationals, in other words, established specifically for the purpose of submitting bids for these contracts but that have virtually no know-how in this field and are funded by risk capital invested purposely in order to get their hands on the frequencies.

Connected communities
What can you do, those of you whom I hope will soon be holding responsible posts in the town councils? I say this partly because I sincerely hope that I won’t be obliged to emigrate once again and also because, notwithstanding the fact that Beppe doesn’t hold out much hope, I have great faith in all of you. There is something very simple that you could do, namely to use the technology to your advantage and that of the residents for whom you will be responsible as Town Councillors. We spoke earlier about the Town Councillor of Treviso that has done a wonderful job of implementing a communication system for the Municipality and you should be aware that if somehow you manage to get the concept passed that connectivity is one of the essential assets of a modern society, perhaps by latching on to the local mobile telephone transmitters or by any other means that may come to mind, in this way you could, for example, set up municipal networks where the municipality itself provides free connectivity to the town’s inhabitants, to residents and perhaps even to tourists. I live in southern Piedmont, in the Langhe Region to be precise, where we make some very good wine and while we don’t have much connectivity, we do have many tourists. I often see the flabbergasted looks on the faces of certain tourists when they arrive in our area and say: “What, you don’t have Wi-FI and you don’t have ADSL? How on earth do you communicate, by smoke signals? How do we go about sending an e - mail?”. They are told: “No, but you can send a fax”, “A fax? Are you insane? Do you honestly think I take a fax machine on holiday with me?! No, I take a laptop and then look for a Wi–Fi connection”.
All in all, there is a lot that you can do. You can assist in setting up these public networks and you will soon discover that these networks can be used to provide an infinite number of other services too, such as free telephone calls: by loading a simple software package, be it Skype or one of many other telephone software packages, you will enable residents to log on to the public network, free of charge, and speak to each other, also free of charge. I do understand that perhaps my 90-year-old grandmother may find it somewhat difficult to understand the workings of Skype, however, with the technology looking after itself, if you put a telephone handset in her hand then there is no need for her even to know that she is using Skype. My grandmother and her sisters will speak for hours and my grandmother will feel less isolated. Your mothers, your grandmothers and your friends will also feel less isolated and any initial set-up costs will be very easy to defray entirely. Furthermore there are other truly revolutionary ways in which to use these networks. Just think, for example, you could use it to let everyone listen in on what is happening in your Town Council meetings, free of charge, just to mention one thing.
If there is such a communal Wi-Fi network to which everyone has access, irrespective of whether or not it is free and although it would be preferable if it were free because the costs can be defrayed in some other way, you could simply walk into your Town Council meeting carrying your little video camera, connect to the network via your Wi-Fi mobile phone and, hey presto, you will be transmitting the proceedings of your Town Council meeting in real time. There are a myriad of potential applications. Just think, for example, of emergency services. Once you have a wireless network, which costs relatively little to install and maintain and can be installed virtually anywhere, you could also have an emergency services management system. For example, take the little old granny who feels unwell. She could simply press a button instead of having to make the usual phone call, and this perhaps in an area where there are no telephones and perhaps no mobile phone signal, via your Wi-Fi aerial and wireless network you will be able to send help. The only thing you should know up front, is that, as Beppe has already mentioned and as you probably already know, the minute you touch the issue of telecommunications, it will be just like the issues of water provision and refuse collection and you will find yourself running into some very powerful interests, because the people running any Country’s telecommunications sector in fact control that Country, so you must hold on tight, be strong and try to use your head, be informed and remember that, for example, a Wi-Fi transmitter emits twenty times less electromagnetic radiation than the mobile phone that many of us carry around in our pockets, right alongside the family jewels. Therefore, by nature, these types of waves, namely Wi-Fi waves, hyperlan waves and Wi-Max waves that cannot affect you directly even at a distance of just 30cm, are already all around us in nature so, while I would suggest that you don’t sleep with the access point directly above your head, so far they haven’t been proven to pose any health risk. If any proof comes to light at a later stage, the specialists will soon advise us. I want to thank you and express my heartfelt hope that you will be able to bring back some legality into this country!". Maurizio Gotta of Anti Digital Divide

Ps. Tonight at 21h00, this Blog will be broadcasting live from Sonia Alfano and Beppe Grillo’s public meeting in Palermo.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:48 PM in 5 Star Towns | Comments (4) | Comments in Italian (translated) | Write | Sign up | Send to a friend

May 08, 2009

Third star: Zero waste - Matteo Incerti

Zero waste - Matteo Incerti
(12:39)

I’m publishing the presentation from Matteo Incerti at the gathering of the Civic Lists on 08 March 2009 in Florence.

Text of the presentation

Five rules

”Hi to everyone. We are here to talk about “Zero waste”. Zero waste is the future. We hear the PD and the PDL talking about incinerators and refuse tips. Well, be aware that they are talking about the past. Zero waste is the future because it means more environment, more health, more work and more economic saving. There are five rules that you have to keep in mind as future administrators to get right into the mentality needed for Zero waste.
1.Everything that cannot be recycled, re-used or sent for composting has to be eliminated in the next few years from the production cycle of our economy, by collaboration with our institutions, our universities and our enterprises. In the coming years we have to work in such a way that this concept is really clear. The stuff is not “refuse” but “post-consumption material”.
2.”Zero waste ” means more work. According to research findings, that for every 15 jobs created with recycling, (source: Conai) only one job is created with incinerators and refuse tips. In a fundamental moment of crisis, this lot are investing in incinerators: just look at the results! Another research study shows that for every thousand inhabitants with door to door collections, 2 jobs are created and this lot are investing in cement and incinerators.
3.Let’s look at the costs. Burning is an incentive to waste public money, stuff to be investigated by the Court of Accounts because there is research done on the banks by Geronzi (Capitalia) that show that without public incentives incinerators do not hold up, which is what gave rise to CIP 6, this Italian disgrace, that was thrown out by the European laws and they voted for it in December of last year: 2 billion euro from the sun that are going back to incinerators in spite of the European laws and against the laws of a truly free market.
4.Let’s remind ourselves that incinerators and rubbish tips cause economic damage, from the viewpoint o f costs that are social, management, environmental and health. The costs go from 4 to 21 euro a ton to get rid of the waste with incinerators, from 10 to 13 euro a ton for the rubbish tips. They ruin the planet, our pocket books and the economy. From this we start to understand what it can mean.
5.For true energy saving, for energy recovery, we need decisive door to door collection. Here there is a research study done by a service provider in Mantua that has demonstrated that starting from a small town, true energy recovery, true savings can be made with door to door collection from the home rather than using big containers on the road that rather provide incentives for incinerators and rubbish tips.

Five actions

And now let’s look at what actions we need to take to achieve Zero waste that is the future for our towns. And we’ll see why it is our future.
1.Reduction of waste. There is a European programme called “Less than a hundred kilo of rubbish per person” that can be achieved in one or two years with decisive campaigns. You can see the various ways: domestic composting, action against wasting food, washable nappies as promoted by Beppe, discourage the distribution of fliers, the dematerialisation of goods, returnable “empties”, promotion of tap water and so on.
2.Reduce useless packaging with a series of agreements with the companies at a local level, returnable empties, distribution of products “on tap”, milk, cereals, let’s see what works. These products are OK, they even cost less and it reduces waste.
3.Sale of post-consumption material, recycling shops. These experiences that started in Piedmont, have an enormous educative value. By handing into these shops things like glass, tins, plastic and getting a “bonus” we understand at an educational level what is behind these things that should not be burned nor buried underground but should be re-used and re-cycled to create a true economy in a continuous cycle.

...

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:33 AM in 5 Star Towns | Comments (1) | Comments in Italian (translated) | Write | Sign up | Send to a friend

April 11, 2009

Beppe Grillo and the Florence Declaration

On the 8th March 2009 the Florence Declaration was launched, bearing the 12 essential points for a 5-Star Municipality. Notwithstanding many difficulties, Civic Lists are coming to life throughout Italy. Boycotts are part of the language used by the old parties, the corpses of our Country’s politics.
Padova’s Civic List needs some help, so whoever can, should please help them. Here is the letter they sent me, followed by the text of my address at the event in Florence. The text of the other addresses will follow over the coming days. One for each star. They may never give up (is it in their interests?), but neither will we.
Download and circulate the Florence Declaration.

"Dear Beppe,
Here in Padua we have not yet begun gathering supporters’ signatures because no one has yet indicated their availability to act as scrutinizer. The very same town councillors that helped to authenticate hundreds of signatures at the V-Day event, thereby lending their support, are suddenly not prepared to help us this time around. Obviously we are seen as the competition. All of the notaries, judges and chancellors are either fobbing us off or their fees are too high.
Our last hope is that any prospective supporters take the trouble to go to the local municipal registry offices and ask for the applicable so that they can sign it. We are trying this option but we are obviously not very hopeful. We are afraid that, once all has been said and done, this is precisely the problem that will delay the birth of our Civic List.
One thing that could well make a major difference is Beppe Grillo’s appearance at a gathering in Padua and to have a scrutinizer available at the same time. I am certain that in just a couple of hours we could gather a good few hundred signatures.
Hoping beyond hope, we await your response. "Tiziana Michelotto, Maurizio d'Este, Matteo Colognesi

Contact the organisers of the Grillo List for Padua.
Partecipate in the Civic List forum


.

Text of the interview held in Florence with Beppe Grillo as regards the 5-Star Municipalities.
"We decided to draw up this Florence Declaration in an attempt to spark off another Renaissance in this wonderful city, this “maremma maiala” that they talk about... “maremma maiala”. The Florence Declaration: if you look carefully, you will see that each of the points looks truly fantastic, and they are in fact so, unsurprisingly because they are precisely the opposite of what is being implemented by the current Italian Government. Exactly the opposite in fact. It’s absolutely crazy but true!
These points are simply common sense, yet in this day and age, common sense is a revolutionary concept. You talk about saving and people ask you if you are crazy! They say: “What do mean by saving? What about the debt... you must consume!” They mistakenly equate consumption with development. These are people that are 70 or 80 years of age, with swollen prostate glands, that inject papaverine directly into their dicks just so that they can get laid! They are no better than whoremongers... the whoremongers’ strategies are now being applied in our Parliament: dwarves, dancers, there are all sorts... hooligans, infiltrators. I believe that you have all understood the fact that this Government is illegal, anti-constitutional, elected without any preferential vote. A fake opposition... PD, PDL, Pdwithoutanel...
Two years from now... I have always made predictions and it has not always been easy to get it right: two years from now we will look back, two years at most, and we will ask ourselves: “But how could this have happened???”.
Just look at the points: we are proposing that water be considered a public asset. Water is public property: look at what the left wing and the right wing governments have done. They privatised water provision services almost everywhere in the country. Water must remain a public asset. An asset that must not be allowed to fall into the hands of some or other Pty Ltd. Even little 8-year-old Ciro has understood this and every morning he says to me: “I am drinking some water, it isn’t from a multinational, is it?” and he is concerned. Public water as opposed to privatised water supplied by these zombies. Compulsory purification systems for every home, that cannot be connected up to any plant: I wrote down some feasible points, these are not dreams, we can start immediately, tomorrow morning in fact! Water purification systems, yes, let’s talk about the matter of De Magistris and about money that was destined for the installation of water purification systems. What about the Poseidon case: there were billions of Euro of European Union money meant for Calabria and Sicily, but this money simply disappeared and so these systems were never built! We want everyone whose home is not connected to the municipal sewerage system to have his or her own water purification system, with municipal subsidies.
Expansion of urban parkland: this law was passed two or three days ago. Yesterday, the dwarf with the tar-smeared hair... in this case we must... they are busy drowning us with optimism, optimism... its true! We’re doing this or we’re practicing reverse satire: we mustn’t aggravate things, the situation is serious but we must be optimistic, not harbingers of doom! Things in Italy are not so bad! Berlusconi is a good person! Gasparri is intelligent! Napolitano is wide-awake! Reverse satire...
Just imagine, the expansion is the latest news... after the Americans. We are the world’s biggest cement manufacturer, three times as much as the Germans, while some of our greatest architects, like Renzo Piano whom I know very well, are saying that our cities should be imploded rather than exploded out towards the outskirts, thus creating slums... In this case implosion means drawing a circle in the middle of the city and begin with the re-construction, knocking down anything that is not needed in the centre of town and replacing it with something that is in the interest of the residents.
The only problem is that our demented mayors have used the public money to gamble with, they have acted like croupiers, they have played the stock markets, bought into hedge funds, derivatives and all sorts of other things about which they knew absolutely nothing instead of looking after the people’s money.
Now they obviously don’t have a dime left and they need to lay their hands on some money. How do they do this? By selling off public property, by proposing unfeasible bridges... all sorts of impossible things that cannot stand up to scrutiny, just to get hold of some money. With the kind of Civic Lists we have, should we manage to come to power, all it will take is one of you guys sitting on each of the town councils an their game will be up before it even gets off the ground! Expansion of the parkland. Nursery schools or nuclear power stations? Expansion of the parkland, the exact opposite of this Government that instead wants to see yet more cement.
Building permits granted only for demolition and re-construction projects, that is what I was saying. Precisely what the great architects are saying too, just look at the town centres: there are many memorable things that need doing, such as barracks and old buildings to renovate, marvellous things to be done within our towns.
Plans for environmentally friendly public transport and cycling paths: it seems to me that we need to start understanding that the motorcar is dead! I’m sorry, because we all loved it so much, but the love affair is already over! It ended ten years ago, not just yesterday. It is over, yet here we are, subsidising something that is finished. FIAT needs to mobilise its employees in a different direction: our future mobility will no longer depend on the motorcar. Instead, our future mobility will depend on us travelling as little as possible, in other words, we must travel only when we are going on holiday, or for recreation. I won’t have to travel fifty kilometres by car just to get to work. In the city that we envisage, I won’t have to travel fifty kilometres to get to the office because the office will be in my home. In other words, work-from-home, with all the necessary connections in place. Copying what is happening in Germany and what is happening in Seoul!
The traffic in the major cities will be controlled via GPS, from a central control room manned by ten youngsters that control the movements of 12 million inhabitants. How can this be? Every public transport vehicle will be fitted with a GPS unit that is linked to the control room, from where they will send out more trains to where they are needed, more underground cars where they are needed and more buses where they are needed. If there is some or other game on at the stadium, they will despatch more taxis. They will all be linked.
The Internet is the future of bottom-up democracy, transport systems and everything else too. It is the kind of groundswell democracy that rises up from below: I would like to see people like yourselves getting involved in these things. In Westphalia, they reduced traffic levels by three-quarters, and that without adding any more cement whatsoever. They didn’t build more roads: they put together a simple programme that cost fifteen Euro, which put four people per car to get to work, but even this won’t be enough. What we are talking about are increasingly integrated transport systems: an integrated system of trams and buses and perhaps even motorcars and bicycles. The motorcar can no longer be allowed to take pride of place in terms of ensuring our mobility: the motorcar must remain on the outskirts and we will get around by other means, such as walking, going by bicycle, walking on our hands... flying! Teletransportation! Plan for mobility for the disabled. Maybe this is a problem that doesn’t affect you in the least, but it has always had a major effect on me. Sometimes there are architectural barriers...and this really pisses me off: sometimes the architectural barrier is only two centimetres high. Sometimes you have to think twice about this issue because any city that makes it impossible for a disabled person to get around cannot really be classified as a civilised city.
Free connectivity: now if that isn’t bucking the trend, then what is. The Pisanu Law: with some idiotic anti-terrorism law he has also managed to prohibit WiFi. You cannot log on to the Net, why should you. If you do log on you would have to show your identity card because of some anti-terrorism law. As if there was something like “TERRORIST” printed on your ID card. There you go, we’ve got him!
These are seventy-year-olds with an enlarged prostate gland and a catheter, who don’t even know what WiFi is in the first place. In all major cities around the world, you can go to the city centre and connect to the Internet, as simple as that. Should you get voted onto the town council, I would like you to push this issue: simple, free connectivity for residents, then you will pay for additional services. We should have some sort of digital card: my identity card means nothing to me, I want a digital card: when a child is born, he/she must be issued with their very own e-mail address! Indeed, we must create public work areas. We must move forward: we are on the outskirts, together with the Poles, and we are regressing as regards Internet access numbers. Just think, a small businessman operating in Italy will have to pay three times as much for his bandwidth as does his counterpart in France. For the same amount of bandwidth. If needs to send off a parcel using the Italian postal service, it will cost him twice as much as it would if he used the French postal service. If you send off a parcel in France, you can simply go on the Internet a track where your parcel is and where it’s going. The population over there can track their own business affairs without having to go through any intermediaries.
Try sending off a parcel through the Italian postal service and then give them a call: “Is my parcel perhaps there with you?” “Just a moment please... what colour was it? Luigi!!! – that is the equivalent of Italian WiFi – Luigi!!! Have you seen any parcels???”. We are barbarians! Barbarians I tell you!
Zero refuse: we should be discussing this issue right now. Zero refuse is a winning strategy, the one that Obama talks about and that Schwarzenegger talks about. Schwarzenegger is saying that he refuses to spend one more cent on infrastructure. This is the fourth greatest power on Earth, namely California.
Now they have a different problem, the problem of helping families to survive. Families over there need to survive, just as they do over here. The only difference is that over here they have not yet begun to think through what is about to happen, so they are spending money on unbelievable things. Zero refuse is a winning strategy because, as we all know, where there is refuse there are errors being made. We have been talking about this problem for five years now: there is some sort of construction error or design error. We shouldn’t be able to create something that eventually turns into refuse, because it should become the raw material for another process, in fact they are known as secondary raw materials. Vedelago: a businesswoman from Vedelago, near Treviso, has devised a system that allows her to recycle 100% of all the refuse from one hundred municipalities: she sorts and sells what she can, and what she cant sell as it is she then compacts to create building materials.
Ladies and gentlemen, a young 27-year-old Town Councillor who used to work in a pizza parlour and is a qualified computer technician, has managed to get himself elected onto the Town Council of Treviso. Treviso is a large municipality. Perhaps he is here with us and can tell you himself but, since he began serving on the Council, he has everyone on his side: initially they fought against him but now it is he that puts forward the ideas and he creates social networks via Skype. They never even knew what this meant: the town residents can log on to a Skype chat room from the comfort of his own home and is able to deal directly with the technician that can sort the problem out, instead of having to climb in his car and drive down to City Hall. This young man has managed to link together 98 different schools to recycle their refuse, watched over by the children, and this at zero cost to either the municipality or the schools. This what people are doing, that 27-year-old guys like yourselves are doing. Zero refuse means building a new world: we have a great, indeed a huge opportunity at our disposal, namely the current financial an economic debacle.
This system of ours, which attaches great value to growth and to producing more and more things that nobody needs, has produced people that are no longer needed. The world is full of people that we don’t need, so we need to sit down and review the situation: right back to the basics of how we manufacture a glass, a bottle or a television set. Or how we provide services. The provision of services! I don’t really need a fridge or a boiler. What I really need is cooling and heat, so there will be businessmen that won’t try to sell me a fridge or a boiler, but rather provide me with fridge and boiler services. There will then be little or no refuse to deal with. The companies that approach you will help you to save money and your savings will also be their profits!
Renovate our houses and redesign houses in general! We say that the motorcar is dead, yet the motorcar contains some extraordinary technologies, such as GPS, all the electronics and a five-year guarantee. The technology used to build our houses is much the same as that of eighty years ago! We need to rethink our house design so that the home becomes an energy factory: an real energy network.
Development of renewable energy sources. At the very least, the municipalities should set up their own installations. There are things such wind farms: we don’t need things such as nuclear power stations that generate one million watts of power, indeed, what we do need is one million residents producing one watt of power each! Turn the concepts upside down... but I am stealing these things from you, so you are worse than I am!!! Energy efficiency: efficiency, that is point 10. We can immediately start making things that are twice as efficient and consume half the amount of energy and materials. Half, I tell you, immediately! There are recyclable materials, such as Belland, which is a type of polymer that dissolves in lukewarm water, so we can make the same thing again.
We can make some wonderful things, as long as we have the knowledge and we currently only get that knowledge via the Net, because these people have got to the end of the road, and they know it! They are watching us in amazement because they know that they are shutting down the newspapers and the television. The advertising revenues are disappearing and terrestrial digital television is dead! It was born dead!
They are now realising that there is an Internet generation, but they are only finding this out now! There are millions of us and now an article appears in the newspapers stating that: “we must take note of these people that talk about this environment...”. This is set to be a major turnaround, this crisis will provide a major impetus, and they will all follow us. They will steal our ideas, claiming them as their ideas. Our destiny may be to disappear, but that’s okay, as long as our ideas live on!
Another point: favour local production. A shorter distribution chain rather than making trucks loaded with goods from a thousand kilometres away. It’s over, I tell you! It’s over, let’s have shorter distribution channels and favour local production! In Manhattan, there are 17,000 vegetable gardens on top of skyscrapers, where there used to be fitness centres. They are making vegetable gardens, these Wall Street guru’s with their briefcases which previously held shares and now carry artichokes and endive lettuce! The battle for food and the battle for land: this is happening already. Thailand, formerly one of the major rice exporters of the world is now keeping its rice for itself. China, which consumes 510 million tons of grain, only produces 500 million tons and needs to import 10 million tons. Where do they go to find it? In Africa, where they buy up the land and grow grain for the Chinese! Egypt is busy buying up land in the Ukraine, where they will cultivate food crops for the Egyptians, not for the Ukrainians! In Madagascar they are in the middle of a civil war sparked off by a Korean company that bought up half of Madagascar in order to grow food for the Korean people, not those of Madagascar. That’s what is happening in our world, so we need to cover our own arses somewhat in order to survive. We are certainly not used to the kind of poverty that is heading our way. We need to prepare ourselves mentally for a time of misery that will ultimately perhaps be good for us!" Beppe Grillo