Saving Venice

Venice is a world heritage. It belongs to all of us. We must work together to ensure that this cultural heritage is preserved. As it’s the case with Notre Dame. As it’s the case with the Amazon. Neglecting the democratic multilateralism and entrusting the governance of our common destiny to only a few countries -in fact, to one sole country- is another huge mistake of the prevailing plutocratic system.

I must insist once more that we cannot tolerate that 4,000 million dollars be invested per day in military expenses and in the weapon industry while thousands of people are dying from hunger and extreme poverty, most of them girls and boys ranging from one to five years old. There is an ever-increasing, unquenchable need for funds allocated to territorial defence... But is there anything left for the inhabitants of these territories? What are the resources allocated to ensuring a dignified life in areas that are overprotected by means of increasingly efficient and expensive war devices? What technologies are being developed to cope with natural disasters, fire, floods, earthquakes...?

Mankind is still lacking access to the five priorities established by United Nations -food, water, healthcare, environment care and education- and we have not yet the ability to prevent and to address global threats. With Barack Obama as President of the USA, in the fall of 2015 there was a reason for hope: although the advice of scientists concerning ecological deterioration and the irreversible nature of some of the processes had been ignored for years, Obama finally succeeded in triggering a response from the keenest observers and having them sign -within a multilateral frame- the Paris Agreements on Climate Change and the Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at “Transforming our World”. Everything seemed to indicate that the extremely serious situations resulting from the action of irresponsible political leaders would at last be addressed.

But hope quickly vanished: as could be expected given the well known hostility of the Republican Party of the United States toward multilateralism, the election of Donald Trump as President of the USA led to a demand, immediately accepted by the G7, of more funds being allocated to defence, and the announcement that the SDGs and the urgent agreements on climate change would not be put into practice... And this serious offence committed by the implausible President of the USA against humanity as a whole did not give rise to any institutional or personal reply!

I’m referring to the above to make it clear to us all that rescuing Venice is part of the change of direction we must make without delay at a planetary scale. A great popular clamour -both in the streets and in the cyberspace- is now urgent if we want to promote a new concept of security allowing to address the above mentioned priorities, and thus to ensure a dignified life for all human beings, and a resolution of all conflicts - within a multilateral frame- through word and not force.

For the first time in history we are confronted with an imminent case of intergenerational responsibility because -due to the above mentioned irreversibility of some processes- the habitability of the Earth as a whole could be affected and the historic mistake of not having been able to avoid this consequence could fall upon current generations.

Venice is drowning... And at the same time the sea level is rising. Many centuries ago the course of rivers was altered and walls and big dams were built. More than three decades ago -I remember the actions taken by UNESCO in the nineties- a very interesting hydrological study was made to assess if the “high waters” could be held with 78 mobile dams or floodgates suitably located at the entrances of Venice lagoon... The MOSE (Experimental Electromechanical Module designed in the late eighties) was upgraded and it looked as though its implementation would be a suitable solution for the preservation of the “aquatic city”. Once more large sums were invested in bombers and rockets to the great satisfaction of big corporations of the war industry, while the implementation and efficient operation of the dams that could “isolate” the lagoon of the Adriatic Sea was delayed. The construction of the system of floodgates finally started in 2003 and it should have been operational by 2016.

35 million tourists every year! Everybody should visit -either personally or through the media- and enjoy the City of Canals, one of the most incredible World Cultural Heritage Sites. The neoliberal drift is coupled with a greater social gap, force as the only rationale and a progressive deterioration of the Earth’s habitability, the reason for the later being that, for the first time in the history of mankind, many of the features that are typical of our current way of life have an ecological impact. It is absolutely unacceptable that, despite the fundamental agreements that were reached in 2015 concerning the Climate Change, The Republican President Donald Trump still continues to set the pace of life in the whole Planet without anyone opposing his plans. Up to now. Venice, the Amazon, California fires... these could be the triggers for a popular reaction. The time has come for “We, the peoples”. The time has come to cease being mere spectators and to become the actors of our own destiny.