Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Emergenza, istruzioni per uscirne -   di Furio Colombo

Emergenza, istruzioni per uscirne -   di Furio Colombo
     Qualunque cosa sia la politica, questa non è la politica.
Qualunque cosa sia la casta, questa non è la casta. In “Romanzo
criminale”, “il Libanese” incontra dei personaggi strani che lo hanno
avvicinato e gli hanno dato l’incarico di liberare Moro (era il 1978)
e domanda al Dandi, suo compagno di banda:
 “Ma quelli chi sono?” “Sono un pezzo dello Stato”, è stata la
risposta.
   FA PARTE dell’avventura della “banda della Magliana”. Poco dopo “il
Libanese”, fa notare con orgoglio ai suoi uomini:
“Noi facciamo l’affari, mica la politica, come quei coglioni dei
comunisti”. Stava nascendo la seconda Repubblica.
Prendete la storia del sottosegretario Cosentino di Casal di Principe.
Aveva due incarichi. Uno come “un pezzo dello Stato”. Era
sottosegretario all’Economia e se ne stava trincerato nel governo,
nonostante un mandato di arresto, confermato dalla Cassazione, per
presunti rapporti con la camorra   . L'altro incarico era coordinatore
del suo apparente partito, il Pdl, per la Campania. È stato stanato
dal suo bunker di membro del governo a causa di una rara mossa forte
dell’opposizione (minaccia di una mozione di sfiducia personale)
subito sostenuta del presidente della Camera.
   Cosentino è uscito dal governo con le mani alzate. Ma non ha
abbandonato il ruolo di coordinatore Pdl per la Campania. Poteva
rinunciare all'incarico governo, ma non al controllo degli affari.
 “Mica la politica, come quei coglioni dei comunisti” aveva detto, con
la vista lunga e l’istinto pronto, il capo della banda della
Magliana.
Quei coglioni dei comunisti, o comunque gente che si agita per far
politica e non si dà pace se i Cosentino, i Brancher, gli Scajola, i
Verdini continuano a governare, o comunque a pesare, anche quando in
apparenza se ne vanno, non ci sono più. E, se ci sono, rispettano le
buone maniere e disturbano il meno   possibile.
   INTANTO la politica va male, ma non gli affari. Su questo lato la
pattuglia d’avanguardia dei nuovi indagati, anche se esclusi da
incarichi istituzionali, se ne sta ben ferma sul posto.
Dopo tutto, gli incarichi di governo erano coperture di attività vere,
e le attività vere continuano. Lo spazio che la banda della Magliana
aveva notato e occupato, continua a dare frutti e c’è chi non si può
allontanare. Ma questo spostamento di forze lascia libero un altro
spazio, quello della politica, e delle istituzioni svuotate.
E cominciano a spargersi voci, purtroppo autorevoli.
Una dice: “L’emergenza è grande, dovremmo governare tutti insieme. Se
è necessario, con Berlusconi che resta primo ministro. Dopo tutto è
stato mandato a governare con milioni di voti”.
 L’idea di Berlusconi governatore, che resta formalmente nella sua
carica, mentre gente nuova occupa tutti i posti di potere, fa brillare
molti occhi.   Brillano soprattutto quelli di Pier Ferdinando Casini,
che spiega con eleganza che non era alla cena da Vespa per farsi
accettare da Berlusconi, ma per chiedere a Berlusconi di accettare   i
fatti: se la sua gente è così impegnata a presidiare settori di
attività e territorio, qualcuno dovrà pure apparire nella funzione di
governare.
   IL PROGETTO esposto da Massimo D’Alema in una intervista sul
“Corriere della Sera” (15 luglio) è più drastico. Niente Berlusconi
alla testa del governo. Ma un appello caldo e sentito a coloro che
sono ancora dentro la casa seriamente danneggiata del Pdl, un appello
per far capire che andremo loro incontro e faremo forza insieme. Dice
a Maria Teresa Meli: “io non credo che ci siano esclusivamente
cortigiani, perché comunque il Pdl è una grande forza politica, che ha
avuto il voto di tanti milioni di italiani. Questa prospettiva è
attuabile. Insomma, il Pdl deve dimostrare se è un partito o una sorta
di sultanato”. Interessante che D’Alema, per dare una scossa ai
compagni (quanti ex !) e amici del Pdl usi, come irritante, la parola
coniata da Giovanni Sartori per definire il governo d’affari
Berlusconi. Ma interessante anche di più il modo patriottico con cui
trasforma l’intervista in appello   : “I partiti delle democrazie
moderne hanno la capacità di guardare agli interessi del Paese anche
al di là del destino delle leadership, che possono anche cambiare. Per
loro è una prova importante”.
   SOLO PER LORO è una prova importante? E per noi?
Cioè per i cittadini italiani che votano, prendono parte, non rubano
pezzi dello Stato, non vanno e vengono fra le udienze preliminari e la
Cassazione?
Finalmente si capisce perché la protesta delle folle in piazza non
aiuta, e anzi è un ingombro. Vera sapienza politica è saper
attraversare, bravi e cauti, i giardini-labirinto del potere interno.
Sentite: “Siamo di fronte a un bilancio fallimentare, il che pone il
Paese in una condizione di emergenza. Una classe dirigente degna di
questo nome dovrebbe dire: fermiamoci   un momento, altrimenti
l’Italia va a rotoli. Naturalmente questo è un discorso che si rivolge
a tutte le forze politiche. Non si esce da una crisi di questo tipo
attraverso una soluzione giudiziaria, come può immaginare   una parte
dell’opposizione. O attraverso una campagna moralista o
giustizialista”. È vero.
La soluzione giudiziaria non risolve le crisi.
Serve solo a mandare in prigione chi ci deve andare, in modo che non
produca altre crisi.
Ma – se ci fate caso – come in puzzle ci sono tutte le parole, i
sostantivi, gli aggettivi, i passaggi che, durante tutta l’egemonia di
Berlusconi, ci hanno ammonito: l’antiberlusconismo è un errore che fa
il gioco di Berlusconi. Ed eccoci qui, 15 anni dopo, mentre “ quattro
pensionati sfigati” (definizione di Berlusconi) danno vita a un
pericoloso comitato segreto (definizione della magistratura)
coinvolgendo istituzioni, alti magistrati, personaggi di punta della
burocrazia, interi “pezzi dello Stato”.
   Due domande.
La prima: che cosa ha in comune la gente del Pd, chi vota e chi è
votato, con la cricca, la loggia P3, con Dell'Utri, Scajola, Brancher,
Verdini, Cosentino?
La seconda: ammesso che Berlusconi, buono buono, lasci Palazzo Chigi
prima del tempo, se ne andrà a casa o se ne andrà al Quirinale?

Emergenza, istruzioni per uscirne -   di Furio Colombo bipede del terzo tipo,
tanto amato da ernestkul, cosý ha scritto il New York Observer.
Che vergogna....
THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
ę 1993 The New York Observer Company Inc.
________________________________________
JULY 19-JULY 26, 1993
________________________________________
A Columbia Professor by His Own Fiat, Agnelli's Man in N .Y. Wears Out
Welcome
By Antony Shugaar
Furio Colombo, who holds the San PaoČlo Chair of International Journalism at
CoČlumbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, has an impressively
eclectic rÚsumÚ: former chairman of Fiat USA, chairman of the publishing
company FabČbri Bompiani, and longtime columnist for La Stanpa, a Turin daiČly
and one of Italy's most respected papers. Mr. Colombo is, moreČover, the
director of la Rivista dei Libri, the Italian-and the only,
foreign-language---edition of The New York Review of Brooks, a joint venture
of the American publication with Fabbri Bompiani. He is the diČrector of the
Italian CulČtural Institute, which is mai rained by the ItalČian consulate in
New. York, And when, two years ago, he was apČpointed to the San Paolo Chair,
The New York Times gushed that Mr. Colombo, then 60, had "added yet anČother
facet to his career."
The Times failed to note that virtually all the facets belong to one
Ritz-sized diČamond: Fiat, Europe's largest car manuČfacturer and the single
largest corporation in Italy, producing 4 percent of the country's gross
national product.
The Agnelli family, which controls Fiat, owns the publishing house, the
newspaper and the Italian edition of The New York Review of Books.
And the San Paolo Chair was endowed by the San Paolo bank, which is located in
Turin.  Turin is a Fiat company town, and the San Paulo bank does a great deal
of business with the autoČmobile company.
Just what machinaČtions underlay Mr. Colombo's appointČment to the chair has
been the subject of speculation at the jourČnalism school; sonic sources there
have said that the chair was enČdowed at Mr. ColomČbo's own instigation, and
with the condition that he sit in it. But the appointment has also prompted
questions of journalistic ethics - How independent can an international
journalist be who has for years been on the payroll of the largest
corČporation in Italy ? - as well as questions about the extent to which
chairs at CoČlumbia University are for sale.
Agnelli's Man at Columbia Wearing Out His Welcome
Professor Colombo, who teaches a course in international  journalism, brushes
aside the suggestion that his relationship to Fiat is closer than a
journalist's should he. " I am an intellectual and the important thing is to
do your work well," he told The Observer. "I know myself, and I know the level
of independence and reliability my life offers. I know what I write, and I
know what I am in the eyes of the Italians "
According to a memo From the jourČnalism school dean's office to the faculty
dated June 30, Mr. Colombo will go on leave next year, ostensibly to work on a
book about China. "I may or may not go on leave next year," he told The
Observer in early July.
"His appointment was on a year-to-year basis. [The professor] was supposed to
change and there 
would be another Italian journalist teaching," said Ken Goldstein, a professor
at the journalism school.
Agnelli Courtier
Mr. Colombo, dapper, urbane, the author of 21 books, is a charismatic and
self-assured man. Among his friends and acČquaintances he counts Gay Talese,
Henry  Kissinger, Gerald Ford and Umberto Eco. His most important friend,
however, is his patron, Gianni Agnelli, the dynastic head of Fiat and a noted
bon vivant. "He has always been ů Agnelli's personal man in New York," said
Claudio Gatti, a correspondent for Rizzoli's Europeo, also
Fiat-owned."AgČnelli needs to be entertained--he gets bored--and Colombo does
that."
"Agnelli is the King of Italy," said Gay Talese. "He comes out of a Medici
mythology, and so Furio Colombo is a prince of sorts to that court, a cultural
prince, a culČtural attachÚ."
The story of Mr. Colomboĺs arrival at the journalism school begins in May
1991, with a $17,5 million donation from the Italian Government to Columbia,
intended to renovate the venerable Casa Italiana, a building on Amsterdam
Avenue that is the locus of Columbia's Italian studies and activities, and to
establish a postgraduate resČearch center, called the Italian Academy for
Advanced Studies in America. Along with Mr. Colombo and Susanna Agnelli, Mr.
Agnelli's sister, the academy's board at first featured Francesco Cossiga,
former President of Italy, who resigned last year, as well as seven-time
Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, now under a cloud of scandal and soon
to face charges of orČdering the Mafia-implemented execution of a journalist
named Mino Pecorelli, and Michael Sovern, who stepped down as president of
Columbia--not under a cloud of scandal-- in June. An honorary fellow of the
academy is Gianni De Michelis, ItaIy's former Foreign Minister, now facing
prosecution on numerous corruption charges.
Soon after the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies was established in 1991, a
call was put out for corporate donations from Italian companies with a
presence in New York. The San Paolo bank was one of the first to respond.
(Marisella Lorch, the academyĺs  director, had been hopeful of getting a new
endowment for a new chair in either medicine or archeology, from an
association of alumni of Rome's La Sapienza university, an association headed
by Mr. Andreotti, but the project is currently on hold. "The time is not
right," she told The Observer. 'They say to me, let us get out of trouble
first.")
Self-Nominated ?
Here the situation becomes more complex. That the San Paolo Chair of
InternaČtional Journalism was endowed for $1.8 million in June 1991, and that
Furio Colombo now sits in it, are not open to dispute. But sources at the
university and at the bank have said that the gift was not a
no-strings-attached donation; rather it came at the solicitation of Mr.
Colombo himself. "It was Furio Colombo's wish that we set up this
professorship in international jourČnalism," Luisella Giorda, head of the
bank's public relations division, told a reporter from Lingua Franca, not long
after Mr. Colomboĺs post was announced.
'Furio Colombo is a prince o sorts to [the Agnelli] court,
a cultural prince, a cultural attachÚ.'  - Gay Talese
Mr. Colombo's post was announced. At any rate, the search for a candidate to
fill the chair was perfunctory at best, according to various of the professors
involved. ''Dean [Joan Konner] said that there was this wonderful man they had
been introduced to as the ideal candidate, ''said Karen Rothmyer, who, as a
professor at the journalism school, was on the committee for appointments, and
is now a business reČporter for Newsday. ''As far as I was ever io}ld Oq
he.ard, there was ever told or heard, there was never any other candidate. I
did make a point of reading the only book [by Mr. Colombo] that I knew of that
had been translated into English [God in America, published by Co-lumbia
University Press], I felt it was not the work of a true scholar, it was pretty
disjointed, and the information was largeČly taken from newspaper clippings."
"His name was not generated by our faculty, but by the Academy," Phyllis
Garland, a tenured professor at the journalism school and another member of
the committee on appointments, told The Observer. 'I am not certain that we
knew he was a member of the board of the Academy. We weren't aware of the
extent of the links to Fiat".Č
  He was a present to us, "Ms. Garland continued. "The money did not come from
our budget, and he filled a position that we had not established. If we had
established the position, we would have advertised. But there was no
advertising for this position. He came by a different avenue. "
Joan Konner, dean of the journalism school, had a somewhat different view of
Mr. Colombo's appointment. "A search was done," she told this reporter some
six months ago. "There were definitely other candidates. " However, she could
not recall if the other names where brought before the committee.
However the selection process was conducted, many--on both sides of the
Atlantic--have wondered whether a man of Mr. Colombo's background should be
teaching journalism at all. "We don't conČsider him to be a journalist," said
Giorgio Bocca, a columnist for LĺEspresso.  "He is a different sort of
journalist--he's rich, he's powerful, he's anomalous. He is more a
businessman, or a high-Level P.R. man than he is a journalist. He is an
ambassador for the Agnelli family, and he spends much of his time on that."
Mr. Bocca added, "More than a chair in journalism, he should have a chair in
caČreer advancement."
An American journalist based in Italy for a leading American news
organizaČtion--who asked not to be named--said, "It seems like a conflict of
interest to me. It seems like he can't help but protect [Fiat], even
subconsciously ... That's fine in Italy, that's the way it works over here.
But I think it's bad to have someone teaching American journalists different
standards."
And Ms. Garland said, "One of the problems we saw was that of a different
conČcept of journalism between America sad Italy. There is a different set of
Rules, esČpecially about relations with business. The point of view of someone
 writing about what happens in society must be separate, independent. That was
a major question,"
Ms. Kenny said, "We were aware there was a different environment in Italy.
CorČporations there are like college campuses. There is a great corporate
contribution to the cultural life of the country."
In his defense, Mr. Colombo said that in Italy, he la a respected and
much-read jourČnalist, and that, furthermore, he does not 
Write about economics or business. "When they made Pablo Neruda the ambassador
to France, "he said, "was he made ambassador because he was a poet, or was he
considered a poet because he was
ambassador ? " As an example of his independence from Fiat, he pointed out
that he wrote books in favor of Israel at a time when Libya' state oil company
had taken a 10 percent share in Fiat. "I don't think any P.R. man has engaged
in soiling strongly opinionated books at odds with the firm that employs him,
"he explained. 'That is La regarding the idea that I ever did P.R. If I was a
P.R. man, I was an extremely inČconvenient one. "
Get Me Rewrite !
Mr. Colombo's two years at Columbia have not been smooth sailing.
A professional editor reportedly had to be hired to edit the pieces his
students subČmitted. "There had been complaints about his editing, " a source
at the journalism school said. "It was presented as a probČlem with his
English, but a number of stuČdents seemed to feel. Differently."
Soon after Mr. Colombo was hired, a student interviewed him for a piece that
later appeared in the magazine Lingua Franca (and to which this reporter also
contributed). "He presented the matter at a fac-ulty meeting, and said that he
was upset at this inappropriate interview," recalled Ms. ČRothmyer, "We  told
him that a journalist is free to ask any question that the journalČist wants
to ask, and that that included a student journalist ... I became convinced
that this was someone who didn't under-stand the American way of journalism."
A source at the journalism school said that word was the faculty had
recomČmended that Mr. Colombo not be asked back after this year. Several
professors close to the process at the journalism school would neither confirm
nor deny that such a recommendation had been made, and Ms. Konner did not
return calls seeking comment. But one professor said that a meetČing between
Ms. Konner and Mr. Colombo took place in late May "to determine what was to be
done. "
--