Who Votes?

Here is a fine piece of writing on why a new decision must be taken in the British Isles on whether to leave, or stay within,  the European Union. 

The use of referendums to capture wishes on major political issues is unattractive given the United Kingdom's  parliamentary democracy system.  But the referendum has become the rallying cry of the dissenters to continued membership of the EU, and arguably must be accepted as the best understood and, therefore, probably the most efficient way of reaching a national decision.

So it is with the issue of Scottish independence.

So who votes in these referendums?  Forceful arguments have been made for the whole of the electorate of the current United Kingdom to vote on Scottish separation from the Union.  The English have been particularly vociferous in declaring their wish to end the union with Scotland.

Mutatis mutandis, when the referendum is held on separation from the European Union of whatever remains of the United Kingdom,  the European Union member-states, too, should have a voice in deciding whether the UK stays or goes.

Looking at the Democratic Spread

European nation states that are facing financial tensions are those who most recently have had authoritarian regimes. Greece, the country in the worst position, has the weakest of democratic arrangements and was the most recently under the control of a military junta;  then Portugal, still feeling the after-effects of Salazar; Spain is coping better with its Franco hangover.

Italy has a rather different problem of central state weakness: it never has been able to fully assert its control of the criminal alternative governance that has held power in the South for so long and is now deeply entrenched in some northern regions.   Criminal governance is by definition authoritarian and outside the rule of law.  It doesn't have its own rule of law either, despite all the mystical novelettishness about rules of honour and shame and clan allegiances;  it is violence and arbitrary revenge that maintains criminal, authoritarian rule.

Risk, expressed through spreads and yields, is not measured by economic fundamentals alone, but by an inchoate response to democratic fundamentals - democratic representation, rule of law, constitutional arrangements and the institutions of their enforcement,  capacity to assert the will of the sovereign throughout the state.  In part this explains why Italy's yields and spread continue to fall less fast than those of Spain, despite the greater economic strength of Italy. 

Senator Monti has democratic consent to govern and enjoys constitutional propriety, but the rule of law is weak and under determined assault by criminals.  Moreover the consent of the political parties represented in Parliament is fragile.  Neither left nor right have competent or even charismatic leadership, nor sufficiently united objectives among coalitions of parties,  to wish to precipitate early elections.   Spain was fortunate that elections were due when they were, and the electorate was clear in its democratic delivery of a mandate.

The  suggestion that Greece should be commissariata is a crude response to Greece's post-colonels' political underdevelopment.  No-one could risk taking on Greek fiscal governance: apart from  the unlikelihood of being any more successful than the elected Parliament at imposing fiscal restraint measures,  there are no means to assert sovereign control for Greeks, never mind Germans.

It isn't just economic diversity and maturity  that makes the European Union - and specifically that more important part, the 24 nations of the eurozone -   a handful.   Our nation states have their own histories and political inheritances to integrate.     

What a Schwab

'Davos' Schwab is given to presenting personally the most important speakers at the WEF in Switzerland.  Introducing one , if not the, of the most powerful bankers on the planet he went on and on:

"Italy is known for its cuisine, its fashion, " he maundered (in a week of all-round maundering that has bored everyone half to death with this failed 'meeting of the world's elite') "but not for its central bankers."

"Thank you, Klaus, for your kind words," said our hero crisply, with his usual impassivity of expression: and went on to deal with the financial crisis without further comment on the almost interminable drivel that was supposed to cover the discourtesy of  such stereotyping of Italian history and culture.

Italy does bankers really rather well, not to mention accountants, financial institutions, and money-lenders and manipulators various.

5.4 Richter. Liguria Trembles With the Northern Cities

Again the earthquakes have threatened the north of Italy.  (Milano, Parma, Venezia, Genova, Verona, Livorno, Bolzano, Torino, Perugia.)

It takes very little to fracture and shed the affreschi, to down the angels and the saints, the facades in marble and travertino, the stucco in all its elaborations and designs,   the physical expression of the Italian soul.

That soul has lent itself as the image of western culture. 

For some of us.

60-point Suicide Note by French Socialist Outstrips Even Michael Foot

Francois Hollande, socialist Leader, is gonna tax the rich until they squeak, he's gonna tax the banks and financial institutions till they flee France, he's gonna re-negotiate everything with Germany, possibly right back to ooooh - the nineteenth century, he's gonna make a lotta jobs for people -  young people - in the education system, he's gonna give everyone over 50 their pensions back, he's gonna tell the European Central Bank and Mario Draghi what's what and have European bonds, he's gonna stop austerity and usher in investment for growth and prosperity..... he says he's gonna 

..."do such things,
What they are yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth".

PS  It was like old times seeing photos of Gordon Brown at Davos with a strange, very wide, blue tie about his neck (rather than his collar) hanging down to below his knees.

Carnival Should Face the Music

"The US owner of the passenger liner wrecked off the Italian coast 12 days ago with the loss of up to 32 lives was accused last night of failing to take responsibility for the tragedy, as prosecutors shone a light on failed safety procedures.

Angry consumer groups are demanding to know why Micky Arison, the billionaire head of Costa Cruise's Miami-based parent company, Carnival Corporation, has failed to make an appearance on the island of Giglio, where passengers' bodies are still being dragged out of the wrecked Costa Concordia."
(Independent)

Chances are the Italian magistrates might drag him in front of them, and keep him safe until a lot of the questions about safety procedures, not to mention chains of command and responsibility have been answered.  Israeli-American citizens don't leave their hidey-holes  when lots of dead passengers, identified and unidentified, are filling the mortuaries of a country with a robust investigative and legal system, or floating in the polluted water inside a sunken ship.

On the Adriatic Plate

Most of northern Italy has been experiencing earthquakes since last night.  The strongest  so far was 4.9 on the Richter scale at 9 o'clock this morning, near Parma.  They're still going on.  The northern citta' d'arte (that's just about every northern city) have all been shaken; even Florence has been waving the upper floors of its taller buildings  today.

It's much more worrying than threats to the economy and the euro.

To Lose Musicians is to Lose Part of Music Itself

Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichordist, organist and conductor, born 30 May 1928; died 16 January 2012

How to Speak Italian

  Capitano Gregorio de Falco telling the captain of the Concordia the difference between honour and dishonour  as he orders him back to his duty is exraordinary to listen to.

A Musician comments on the  previous post:

Dramatic text, eloquence of speech, impeccable pronounciation, force of delivery, variety in the speed of delivery to underline important moments, even beauty of tone: Capitain de Falco's call to Schettino contains all the ideals so dear to Count Bardi and the Florentine Camerata who aimed to restore the supremacy of speech over music, as in Greek tragedy, at the beginning of the 17th century.

Monteverdi developed the Genere Rappresentativo, more specifically recitar cantando (although there was not much variety in Capt. de Falco's tone so cannot really be called singing, still), taking it to great heights; there are moments when Capt. de Falco is reminiscent of Testo in the Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda ("Salga a bordo..."), although of course he doesn't have the continuo instruments backing him.

Capitain de Falco gave the performance of a lifetime and he knew it ("Schettino sto registrando...").

For those who still haven't seen it this is the link with subtitles:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/jan/17/costa-concordia-captain-phone-call-video

The text and interpretation are improvised, as is fitting with the style. His extraordinary performance has moved the whole of Italy: he is now being  hailed as a national hero.

18 January 2012 09:26

Who Commands?

A ship at sea is commanded by its captain who has absolute power over those on board.  At least that's what underlies so many stories and adventures and, presumably, the concept of mutiny.  It is that absolute power and hence absolute responsibility that enables a dangerous environment to be effectively mastered.

That is what I'd always thought, if I thought about it at all.  But the reports of the shipwreck of the Concordia give another account of who commands.   There seems to have been a complete breakdown of responsibilities.   Having hit the Island of Giglio at 28 kilometres an hour, bringing the ship's speed instantly to 6 kilometres an hour (imagine being inside with no warning, not wearing your  seatbelt would take on forceful meaning) the captain is reported to have got on the phone to the director of marine operations of the company that owned the boat.  And stayed on the phone for three calls-worth plus a call from a retired former captain in Grosseto.  The Second Officer has gone down to the engine room and found it full of water - and all electrical power sources flooded - the only power was a small emergency generator elsewhere in the ship.  He tells the bridge that the ship is without any means of control.  And the captain gets on the phone again.

Time passes: the ship is still upright, it will remain so for nearly an hour, time enough to lower all the life boats.  After 40 minutes of drifting it is driven further onto  rocks and starts to tilt.  The other officers start the evacuation procedures although the captain is still   on the telephone, now denying to the Capitaneria di Livorno that the ship needs help.  He then leaves the ship with another (Greek) officer.

By this time the Carabinieri of Prato!!  (Prato is a few kilometres west of Florence, you couldn't get further from the sea in Italy if you tried) have declared the emergency.    The Capitaneria, having asserted their acquisition of authority over the ship, calls the captain of the Concordia  who is  now safely on the shore and orders him back onto the Concordia to take charge of the evacuation of the people on board.  He takes the first ferry to Porto Santo Stefano.

There seem to have  been two mutinies:  of the officers against the captain, and  of the captain against the Capitaneria.  And a ceding of authority to a commercial organisation, far from the shipwreck,  which was not helping with the timely provision of plans of the ship or accurate lists of those on board.  This is not just a matter of acts of bravado or cowardice or stupidity or  criminality.

Who commands a vessel in Italian waters, or any other waters, and to what laws are they answering?

AND (for those who understand Italian) here is the phone call asserting command (it starts a short way in).  The furious voice speaking in beautiful Tuscan is from the Capitaneria , the Neapolitan voice ordered to put its mouth in front of the telephone and speak up, is that of the captain of the Concordia.