INCONGRUENCIES

• Much has been said about the need to “calm the markets”… when what should be done sufficiently in advance is to calm the people, who won’t tolerate much longer the social inequities and this entirely disrupted economic system, with biased rating agencies.
  

• In Italy the Coliseum is intended to be privatized… when a cultural symbol of such magnitude should be totally "italian”, totally "roman”, of a creative people who are in the hands of a few unscrupulous citizens.

• I’ve read in the press: “The scandal of mass layoffs will bring down Chávez and Griñán”, in the opinion of the Popular Party candidate to the Andalusian regional government, while they are presenting a handful of candidates who are presently under criminal investigation and who actually have good perspectives of being elected, according to the opinion polls. Is it true that “with more corruption, more votes”? Despite party loyalty and blindness toward certain cases, I refuse to believe this.

• Petroleum consumption is on the rise… and so are oil prices! And, thus, carbon dioxide emissions are also increasing. With increased consumption, you would expect prices to go down… . It is urgent to support renewable energies! It is one of our foremost commitments to future generations.

• There’s no money to fight extreme poverty, nor to maintain the healthcare in the United States that President Obama had achieved despite the Republicans’ lack of solidarity… and there’s no way on earth to get them to even minimally cut military expending.

• “Microcredits” provided excellent mini-solutions for many people… but as I warned many years ago, there was a risk that the “macrocredits” for development cooperation granted to replace exploitation would soon dry up.

• Instead of admitting the reality of citizens’ quality of life, international financial institutions and the World Bank insist on using indices such as the GDP and per capita income. And, thus, it turns out that Uganda and Ruanda have shown “spectacular growth”. But this is mostly due to the coltan mined in the Kivu region by huge multinational consortia, which leaves the country via Kampala and Kigali, but which in no way benefits the native Congolese. So I must insist: if we ignore reality, we will never be able to provide appropriate solutions.

• We talk of the overriding need to guarantee freedom of the press… while watching so many television channels concentrated in the same hands and, at the newsstands, choosing from so many biased newspapers that only reflect their “master’s voice”...

• The markets must be regulated and tax havens must be shut down… In the end it is they who are regulating daily politics and providing selfish citizens opportunities to commit tax fraud. We’ve read in the press that “The European Union has reinforced its rescue fund in exchange for a strict social adjustment program”. I am sure that in a few months this type of news will no longer be published, because distance participation will enable citizens to make the right decisions in democracies consolidated through their intervention.

• The social programs supported by savings banks have also been greatly cut back… . Another incongruency: the social programs have always been the “popular difference” that distinguished savings banks from other financial institutions. It’s clear that, until now, the chain always breaks at the weakest link. But, once again, take note of the “virtual tidal wave” and before they know it they will no longer be able to continue with this type of incongruencies.

Incongruencies, incongruencies… but for how long?