Friday, April 24, 2009

What needs to be said

Because actually left has left us.

When I saw quite more people demonstrating in the streets against the Gaza war than against the increase of unemployment, or against the dismantlement of more and more public parcels of core public services, I cannot help but feel that something is deeply wrong with us.

I am sure that we, Dario and I, are not alone. Quite a good number of people share some of our values and views to various degrees and senses. We see the Left as a basic worldview,  a set of values oriented to the world in which we want to live. One of my main objectives for this blog is to talk about these values: equality of opportunities, protection of the handicapped people (in the broadest sense of the term, instead of each one taking care of himself), citizenship, community building, economic system serving manhood (and not vice versa). Creating a human heritage that will be worthwhile of being conserved for next generations.

You see my ideas aren’t very complicated and are nothing new at all. Rights, responsibility and a life shared with others. Modernity arrived when enough people started to think seriously about this and acted in consequence. Part of our generation has inherited these values... but doesn't know what to do about them.

What is ‘Left’ nowadays?

In our countries, Unions have lost any sense of workers protection. Their main objective is to take care of themselves and to enjoy the good amount of privileges that were paid for a chain of treasons. So-called leftist politicians dress exactly like conservative ones and behave in the same way in what is important: economical politics & workers situation. "Leftists" politicians just care of the privileges that they can arrange for themselves and their related networks in exchange of good service to their true masters.

On the other hand, leftist are utmost divided and quite confused. Most of the time they are trapped in the past’s discourses or are commited to an alternative world that is too much word-centered instead of action-centered.

In the light of this, a lot of well-intentioned people looks for causes outside of our countries.

And we should ask ourselves, aren’t there actual and meaningful leftist causes in our countries?

I have a tiny hope: this crisis offers us a new possibility of awakening and recovering certain perspectives that were lost. Maybe we will start to recall the social achievements of the past century. These weren't recieved as gifts, but just after hard and long fights. It seems that we, or others self denominated left have our internal compass, take for granted was has been achieved and do not recognize anymore the real threats and the chanllenges we should take on.

Phew... I need to stop. This post was meant to be a mere presentation and finally it almost conclude into something. Beware! I have so much to say!

See you

 

Sunday, April 5, 2009

We are leftists, we like to speak

We are Juan and Dario. We were born in different continents and live in different countries, but share a world. We speak different languages but share one. We share no religion and no land.
My father taught me love for people and for my people.   Love for people not as compassion – love as the sense of seeking for what is just.  I cried over the story of the little child secretly working at night for his father, without him knowing of it (read it here). De Amicis, the writer, punched me in the stomach – he always accompanied me reminding me that not everyone are lucky and things like the smile of your father aren’t obvious. These stories embedded in you a sense of right and wrong – sometimes as strong as a religious, but with no God – as I knew, that if a child’s life can be so sorrowful, God must not exist or be on a prolonged vacation.

Our families, people and social background aren’t similar, but we share disappointments.  We mourn together for the disappearance of the left knew. And no, we aren’t communists. We are liberals, democrats and believe in competition as a way of continuous improvement.

Ultimately, years after reading De Amicis, I met Juan’s uncle. A truly religious man, who showed me that ‘the left’ extends far beyond the border lines of secularism vs. religion. We do not know what it means being ’left’ nowadays, nor we intend to define it. We just know that it is our stomach and mind that it comes from. We know that we want the stomach to teach the mind good and bad, and the critic mind to control the actions and beliefs of the few called ‘left’.
We are endeavoring in this journey to understand the place and meaning of left in these days. We promise to bother you with short posts, not that it won’t be easy. If there is something we like more thatn justice, people and love, it is talking about it…

So here is the first insight of this blog – the cry of today’s left is “Leftist of the world, speak!” – Yes! We are both devoted leftists…Uniting is too much effort….Speaking is much easier…

Dario

Heart - by Edmondo De Amicis

“The Little Florentine Scribe” (Pages 66-74)
http://www.archive.org/stream/cuoreitalianscho00deam/cuoreitalianscho00deam_djvu.txt