Eleven years elapsed since Marco arrived in Italy. Now he is in the therapeutic community. My wife and I are trying to build an acceptable relationship. We have our ups and downs, but we have managed to have more or less a normal life. It was hard to fight in that situation, but life has to go on. We need to accept reality the way it is.
Heraclitus’s theory of the unity of opposites comforts me: peace and war, healthy and sick, good and bad. They are opposites on the surface but there is harmony deep down. I have the illusion that in every situation, even the worst one, there is something positive. If we did not have the concept of war, how could we appreciate peace. The same applies to health and sickness. I think of peace marches, and I wonder if those people ever ask themselves what war is.
The standard definition of war that comes to my mind is: “war is the solution of national and international conflicts by force”, I cannot think of any other definition.
Conflicts can be of various kinds, they can be triggered by economic reasons, power, religion. They turn into a war if they are resolved by force. There are conflicts among countries, regions, groups of people, individuals, therefore even a conflict between two people, which is sorted out by force, is a war.
When it is permissible to use force? If it is never permissible (as peace supporters think) why do Police use force to stop or neutralise or – if unavoidable – kill a criminal?
Do fair or unfair wars exist? Is a war always unjust?
Hitler's war, like that of Mussolini’s, or the Partisan’s war or Saddam’s war, or the war against Mafia ..... are they just or unjust wars?
I imagine a friend of mind, a peace supporter while he is at home with his lovely girlfriend.
Out of every window they have a rainbow flag, they are both wrapped up in their rainbow- coloured warm bed sheets and they are enjoying watching a beautiful TV show by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, on the wall there is a poster of Gino Strada with a watchful and fearful gaze.
Unfortunately for them it was not the right night! A criminal found them in bed and after having beaten and tied up the unfortunate man, raped the girl. A neighbour, who is himself a pacifist, was alarmed by the hustle, went into their bedroom with the peace flag and invited the criminal to stop. The criminal struck back punching the pacifist neighbour, who fell on the floor. In that traumatic moment he had a heavenly vision: Diliberto and Pecoraro Scanio wrapped in a rainbow flag. Pecoraro Scanio was also holding an original set of Police handcuffs while Diliberto was wearing a Lenin’s icon around his neck.
The pacifist neighbour was torn by a terrible doubt “should I or should I not call the Police?”
“If I call them they may use force! They have guns and a police baton, and the poor criminal could be hit to death.
I am against all war and the war between the Police and a criminal is a war anyway. I am sorry for my friend but it was fate’s will.
I do not want to end up like Bush who used force against a criminal who gassed twenty thousand Kurds, his attack was not justified, because Kurds – it is true - were killed with chemical weapons, but their warehouses were never found.
Basically my friend is in the same condition as the Kurds gassed by Saddam. They were both attacked by two offenders, but if one cannot intervene by force against Saddam, one cannot intervene by force against the criminal who raped my friend’s girl.
I am a plain pacifist and I really care about my peace, the fact that my behaviour leads to my friend’s and some Kurds’ death is completely irrelevant.
Left-wing Radicals are peace supporter, also my favourite leader Fausto is a pacifist and he was in such a pain because he could not present at the demonstration in Vicenza.
“left-wing Radicals”! Who are they?
Here I need to write a note regarding the use of language and words.
The Radical party has been a political group since the Fifties in Italy, it was the only one that never changed his name, and this appear to be unknown to the majority of press journalists and TV reporters who introduced the word left-wing Radical. The term radical is not obviously exclusively used by the Radical party, but for those in politics it has a very precise meaning. Thus reporters either abuse the term to confuse ideas or they are totally unable to communicate and inform. A colleague of mine (not my mother who is 82 years old and lives in a small village in Abruzzo) asked me: “what is that! Are you Radicals – as well as being faggots, drug addicts and hookers – forming a party with Rifondazione Comunista, Correntone, Environmentalist party, Italian communist and Fourth international”
Therefore dear journalists, political scientists, do us a favour: use words properly, if I were Diliberto I would sue you for defamation as Communists are as far away from the Radicals as altar boys from their opposites.
Nowadays we all know that traditional wars (i.e. conquest of territories, economic and religious reasons) are no longer viable. Nobody would ever think of attacking Slovenia to get back the Istrian peninsula, but anyhow this does not rule out the absolute use of force to resolve disputes.
“Modern armies are increasingly becoming an international Police body, the UN, a supranational authority, empowers them to intervene in the name of the universally accepted “Fundamental Human Right Declaration”
When Saddam or Polpot massacred their people denying them the fundamental rights, they were not at war with another planet’s people, but they declared war to me and to you. Once all diplomatic efforts and reasonableness in the conflict resolution are tried out, military intervention is not just a necessity it is a must.
Prevailing peace movement – i.e. the one shown in street parades – is basically an invitation to do nothing and hide our heads in the sand in the name of an abstract idea of peace.
It’s their problem! We are fine in our little yard. Instead of supporting military intervention to stop Saddam, Hamas etc, let’s give them schools, hospitals, let’s finance them so they can carry on slaughtering their people to fight against the American, Israeli and Italian devils. We are non violent people.
Have you ever seen a pacifist do the hunger or thirst strike for 40 days or intentionally break a law which is deemed unjust and report himself for this as real non violent people do?
I have only seen street parades where shop windows are smashed, the Police are attacked and flags are burnt. Mr Agnoletto’s poor, immaculate and defenceless lambs who join the parade inspired by deep respect for democracy and the rules of the game. They unconsciously march with others who have iron stick and their face covered, they do not realise that if they throw a fire extinguisher on a police car it is as if they throw it on theirs. They have a very odd concept of non violence, it is not Ghandi’s concept who did non parade for peace or protest against someone. Ghandi marched with a specific purpose i.e. salt which was the British Empire monopoly. He intentionally violated the law and demanded to be arrested and prosecuted. He did not burn the British flag, but demanded to be arrested and prosecuted. He did not burn the British flag, but claimed that His Majesty complied with the law. While my mind was wandering on these topics, someone rang the doorbell, it was my wife who came back from the food shopping. I immediately went out to avoid her rebukes, but it was useless.
“Don’t hurry, take it easy, do not give me a hand, unless I asked for it!”
Now I am kind of used to it: my wife expects me to be a mind reader and it addition to that she is also convinced that I have special powers. In fact she cannot make out why whenever she comes homes I am not already on the doorstep to wait for her.
"I spoke with Luisa and she invited me to Egypt during Easter holiday. A lawyer friend of hers is in love with Egypt – he already went there about ten times – and he is arranging everything. It is not the usual holiday, a visit to two oases with two nights in the desert are included”.
Well, I would not mind the idea, even if I preferred a holiday on the Red sea anyway also the desert and pyramids are charming and I think it is an interesting experience.
“There is no much time available we are supposed to leave in a week, so please organise yourself with your work otherwise I may go alone”.
Alone? Would you be able to tackle the desert and Muslims without my reassuring presence?
Just kidding I believe there should not be any problems at work because there are not fires at this time of the year, and air force firemen are out of work.
“Luisa is going to send me a detailed plan tomorrow but she already told me that it includes Cairo, Farafra oasis, oasis ....., Aswan, Luxor and Cairo again. It will take about ten days."
I am curious to find out where are these places, while you put away the food shopping I’ll surf in internet in Google Earth hoping to locate the two oases. We know where Luxor and Aswan are but the oases location is a question mark. Did she tell you how are we going to travel?
“Yes she did, we’ll travel to the towns by bus or train and then two guides will take us to the desert by jeep”.
Come and see! Basically Farafra oasis is about 250 km West from Cairo, whilst the other is at 300 km in the South. The desert lies between them.
“I have the feeling that this holiday will be very tiring, but it is worth it I guess. We have already seen the Pyramids and the Kings’ valley, but the rest in unknown to us. I am eager to see how people live there and see if the idea we, Westerners have about them is the real one!