September in Litauen

In wenigen Tagen fangt die europäische Basketballmeisterschaft in Litauen an. Für das erste Mal gibt es 24 Mannschaften in der Meisterschaft, was sieht ein bisschen zu viel für Europa aus. Zum Beispiel, die sechs ex-Republiken von Jugoslawien sind da und Länder wie Finnland, Portugal oder Georgien, die nicht viele Tradition in Basketball haben. Vielleicht irre ich mich, aber die erste Woche wird nicht grandiosen Spielen haben. Zum Beispiel, in den esrten zwei Tagen muss Spanien gegen Polen und Portugal spielen und es gibt Spielen wie Montenegro-Makedonien oder Belgien-Georgien.

Durch diese Erweiteriung ist Italien zurück in einer Meisterschaft, nach manche Jahren ohne sie dort. Italien war einer Macht bis zum ungefähr 2000 (auch italienische Mannschaften, wie Virtus Bologna, beherrschten den Kontinent) und dann, wenn Bargagni, Gallinari and Belinelli sind zum NBA gekommen, hat die Mannschaft plötzlich von internationale Turnier verschwunden. Europäische Basketball braucht Italien zurück, aber die Frage ist wie es Italien zurückgekommen.

Gross Britanien ist auch eine grosse Frage. Vor fünf Jahren gab es keine britische Mannschaften. Als London die Olympische Spiele von 2012 gewonnen hat, sollte die Mannschaften gegründet, weil sie muss in Basketballturnier teilnehmen. Aber die Mannschaft ist viel mehr als das, manche Spieler (Freeland, Deng) sind wirklich stark und sie können viele überraschen. Achtung mit den Briten.

Trotz der Erweiterung zu 24 Mannschaften und die neue Kandidaten wird die Meisterschaft wahrscheinlich von zwei Länder dominiert (Spanien und Litauen), mit andere Kandidaten kurz hinten sie (Griechenland, Türkei, Serbien, Frankreich, Russland). In zwei Wochen haben wir die Lösung da...

A jewel in the shores of Elba

Thanks to an incredible offer for a five-stars hotel (the brand-new QF Hotel) and a nice price in the train ticket (almost five hours from Frankfurt, though), we spent last weekend in Dresden, a city which was devastated in the last days of the Second World War, when it was clear that Germany had lost the war, with a bombing which killed more than 100.000 civilians (ask Churchill for further details): an action which should shame mankind.Afterwards, the DDR did not have neither the money nor the intention to rebuild most of the mounuments destroyed in 1945, so it was not until the unification of Germany that the city started to get back the former brightness it used to have in the XVIIIth century, when it was the splendid capital of Saxony. Our trip started with a walk from the train station via Praguerstrasse. This street has turned into a huge commercial hub in Dresden, with modern shops at both sides. Nevertheless, the three Ibis hotels are there to remind visitors that comunist architecture once ruled the place.

After just ten minutes, we arrived to the Frauenkirche, close to which we had our hotel. Frauenkirche was destroyed after the bombing in 1945 and it was reopened again in 2005. Until then, its ruins remained there as a symbol of the bombing by the allies in 1945. The area around it is still being restructured but one feels really, really well there: everything has been made with taste and care. Another points of interest are Zwinger (a tremendous baroque palace which now hostes six museums), the Semperoper (which appears in Germany for a TV-ad of beer), the Japanase Palace (with its nice sculptures supporting the columns), the Dreikönigekirche (and the lovely area around), the Hofkirche,...

The atmosphere of the city is somehow different to that of a city in Western Germany. First of all, there are no immigrants from Asia or Africa: almost everybody is white. Secondly, the proportion of people with tatoos or piercings is incredibly high; even young parents with children have them. Some of the faces and the factions are truly Prussian to me, rather different to the Western Germany faces I am more used to see. It may sound racist or old-fashioned or whatever, but, 20 years after the unification, one still feels the difference with cities in Western Germany.The most typical view of Dresden is probably that which Canaletto put in his famous painting and which I tried to replicate, probably not with big success (see below). That weekend, the city was celebrating its big festival and there were people and attractions everywhere. I think that most of the population of Dresden (around 450.000) was there, because it was difficult even to walk.In our way back to the station, we also tried to visit Volkwagen's Glass Factory, but we should have booked a tour in advance and we had to just stay behind the glasses. By the way, in that area, not much is said about how the company was founded and about how it grew in its first years of existence... Also by chance, we found ourselves walking towards the football stadium together with a lot of people with yellow and black T-shirts, fans of Dynamo Dresden, which was playing at that very same time. This year they will play against Eintracht Franfkurt, in Second Division, and some of you may be surprised to know where my preferences lay.

Santé pour tous, mais gratuite?

Dans le contexte de la crise de la dette actuelle, on parle souvent sur la situation de la santé publique en les pays européens. Une des expenses plus importantes dans le budget publique est toujours les services médicaux. Pour s'approcher à ce problème, on pouvait dire que il y a deux extrêmes: la situation où le service est totalmente gratuite et la situation où on paye pour tout.

À mon avis, la deuxième situation n'est pas acceptable dans le point de vu de la justice sociale et de la équité. L'idée selon laquel on est guéri seulement s'on paye à l'avance me produit doleur et est moralement écoeurant. Mais, on doit aussi ammettre que l'alternative contraire n'est pas financièrement possible. Dans la théorie economique, quand une marchandise n'a aucun prix pour le consommateur, ceci a tendance à le abuser et à consommer plus de ce qu'il a besoin; donc, les coût montent en flèche. On a beaucoup des exemples en Espagne où les services médicaux sont mal employés. Ce comportement me semble, aussi, moralement regrettable.
Donc, quelle est la meilleure option? Pour moi, c'est la mis en application d'un petite paiement chaque fois qu'on utilise les service médicaux. Comme ça, les services ne sont pas gratuites, mais avec un coût, ce que fait que les consommateurs n'en abusent; mais, simultanément, le petit paiement permet tous, et pas seulement le plus riches, de se profiter de les services médicaux. Ici, la grande question est comment calculer ce petite paiement. Il devrait être inclusif et abordable par la majorité de la population, simplement symbolique, mais suffisant pour y'éviter l'usage impropre.

Bien que ce ne soit pas une solution optimal (bien sûr qu'il y a des autres solutions plus beneficial pour tous), avec la crise actuelle, je pense (crains) qu'il est (soit) plus que possible à court term.

Storia di Venezia

Questi giorni d'estate, ho letto un libro in italiano, comprato a Venezia, sulla storia di Venezia, la città del leone marziano. Il libro, scritto da Alvise Zorzi, chi ha un cognome tipicamente veneziano, sebbene diventi a volte un po' nazionalista, ci mostra un racconto fedele della appasionante storia di Venezia.

Tutto comincia con la divisione dell' Impero Romano in due: Occidente e Oriente. Venezia, più vicina a Roma che a Constantinopla, è rimasta, però, dentro dell' Impero Romano di Oriente. Con il trascorrere del tempo, Venezia è riuscita a ottenere più independenza e riesce a entrare come invaditrice in Constantinopla, dopo tantissimi guerre ed scaramuccie. Venezia aveva il controllo del Mediterraneo Orientale senza discusione: le sue colonie si stendono fino a Cipro e le sue commercianti, come Marco Polo (e tanti altri sconosciuti), hanno arrivato fino a Pekino.

Il sistema politico di Venezia è diventato anche una piccola democrazia, dove il Doge veneva eletto dai Consigli (niente di avere una dinastia di re) e dove la separazione tra Stato ed Chiesa era totale. La giustizia attuava in termini impensabili (diritti dei sospetti, condizioni nelle carcere,...) in quegli anni. Questa struttura, però, è diventata molto complessa, con un numero crescente di comitati ed organi di controllo, lo quale ha, anche, creato una leggenda nera intorno alla vita politica veneziana.

E poi, quando Venezia era nel vertice più alto dopo anni di dominio nel mare e nel commercio, sembra che l'ozio e la inattività hanno preso il governo e i veneziani hanno dimenticato come sono arrivati lì. Quindi, Venezia è entrata in una dura e lunga fase di decadenza, la quale ancora si sente nella città, che adesso non è niente che un' attrazione turistica di primo livello.

Anche di questa triste storia si possono prendere conclusione valide per la situazione attuale, supratutto sulla struttura politica e i suoi vertù ed imperfezioni.

Violencia gratuita

Sin duda, dejando aparte la crisis, que lleva camino de pasar a ser parte de nuestras vidas muy pronto, las dos noticias del verano han sido la horrible matanza de Noruega y los incidentes de los últimos días en Londres. En ambos casos, el denominador común es que se ha tratado de actos de violencia gratuita a manos de gente educada en Occidente. Esto nos muestra que algo se ha hecho mal en la sociedad occidental de los últimos años, para permitir que se engendren estos comportamientos violentos y este desprecio por la vida en jóvenes, que tampoco parecen tener razones de mucho peso que puedan remotamente justificar estos comportamientos. Lo que está claro es que la paulatina vanalización de la violencia en nuestra sociedad occidental parece que ha empezado a inmunizarnos contra ella, a algunos más rápidamente que a otros.