reflections
The
rights of the communities
When
a community, in balance with the places in which it is
established, directly managed their own needs and resources as
necessary and takes down the detailed rules of exploitation that
do not affect the potential of these resources. In this way does
not inhibit the future livelihood, and with appropriate
behaviors, tends to minimize the negative effects related to the
removal of matter and the transformation of the territory. When
the collection and processing is not dependent on a community but
by individuals acting on the basis of purely economic values
assume dall'inalienabilità solely based on size, typical
of the current economic and social model, increasing quantities
of products and related profits. This condition implies that the
production, once satisfied with the real needs of users, is based
on induced needs, on an unequal distribution, of enormous
inefficiencies, waste and on the under-utilization. This will
profoundly alter the landscape, destroy habitat, degrade the
environment, affecting the health of the inhabitants to an extent
immeasurably superior to those arising from real needs. Today,
the communities most affected external proactive action, can not
or do not have the capacity to take resources directly and are
excluded from effective management of its territory.
When a community refuses to bear the cumbersome and harmful
changes, the promoters call it the indispensable, even in the
case of an application artificially increased, and this often
allied business interests, governments and administrations. Even
the end-users often perceive critically the inescapability of
goods or processing requests for alternatives and not accrue not
only of location (so you do here or there), but structural (it
does or does not) and system (change in market , changes in mode
of transport, etc..) the choices made. The community that is
opposed is excluded, ridiculed, marginalized, become "selfish",
"not far-sighted", "no overview",
"retrograde", "supported by small interests",
"careful not to spread social welfare." In
many cases, the conflict with the local population is overcome by
using the lure of employment, the creation of temporary jobs
related to the implementation or operation of, other times it
proceeds with mitigative or compensatory measures, with
investments in schools, roads, public services. But
usually the price of environmental and social community is
immeasurably greater than the value of these interventions. These
forms of compromise offend the rights of communities and
individuals. The communities have every right to maintain and
improve the environmental quality of its territory and welfare of
individuals who compose it. This right is a top priority,
undeniable, inescapable by any other type of interest. There are
values higher than the right to live well in a place and manage
their own existence in a qualified relationship with the natural
and social system in which it takes place. It is a right that
goes beyond the economy and the '"national interest"
and can not be redressed through money. So, when the levy of a
resource, the transformation of an area, the construction of an
infrastructure damaged the balance of a region, worsens the
condition of the existence of individuals and communities is not
to be implemented.
There are two simple tests that could be done to verify the
adequacy and the indispensability of a transformation. Firstly,
if you can do in the "garden" each means that does not
bother anyone. "Not in my backyard" is not a form of
selfishness if accompanied by an awareness of the gardens of
others. Second, the profits arising from the use of resources
and transformations are the property of the community. The
community does not grant concessions, does not claim
compensation, does not seek other jobs or handouts: owns and
acquires all of the profits products. In this way, placing the
welfare of individuals and communities directly in the center of
the choices and reducing substantially the economic interests
that support only unnecessary transformations generating profit,
you could have a less clouded the real needs on the basis of
which could be make choices in which the community has an active
role and is able to manage their environment and their future.
The
housing question
The
poor can not buy homes, not fuel the housing market and therefore
will have no less than government intervention. Yet the territory
of the planet is covered with houses and in our country there is
an area per capita and a number of unoccupied homes or seasonally
occupied dwelling that they can make twice the population. This
condition has deconstructed the environment degraded the
landscape and led to all kinds of pollution (emissions, waste,
drainage, etc.). The problem is directly linked to the role that
is given to the wrong houses that:
are,
in industrialized society, and now global consumption, a way of
producing profits and not responding to a need. The are so
direct that the construction is opposed by the citizens, and
would rather let people hoping that one day in the barracks at
least some of them may be a question for the market rather than
allowing them to build their home in self-management in the
shoulder this way cost much, much smaller (think of the
permanence of hundreds of thousands of people in the Roman slums
until the end of the seventies of last century).
value
the land and therefore can make a significant profit on sale and
even the transition from agricultural land to land, in which the
people involved in the recent past we are strongly committed to
building to consolidate a right inherent in the property
forgetting that the ground deliberately, just to be part of an
ecological system and social unity and organic, which is a
common good, in the case, is granted by the community the
opportunity to build sub-condition of a predetermined level of
quality.
are
an investment because its value always increases, and in some
periods guarantees a return higher than any other type of
investment, even without considering the urban expansion, and
then the added value inherent in '"closer" or
incorporation of the buildings suburbs, the price of the
buildings was reduced only during the second world war (and
related bombing).
produce
an additional profit when rented (not just think of renting
apartments but to other shops in the historic and commercial
centers that provide revenue, almost black, of large-scale).
Most of the Italian population is integrated into the proposed
housing model, and makes ongoing benefits (while part suffers the
disadvantages). The attempt to reduce the uncertainty of old age
in the absence of adequate social coverage, the search for stable
integrative contributions to domestic economy, the desire to
secure savings outside the financial oscillations is realized
with the acquisition of property. This situation is an
intolerable burden not only for the environment but also for the
economy because it chokes with high rents crafts, manufacturing,
commercial, creative blocks amounts that could be used to fund
activities, places a huge burden on young to be sure of a home
are committed to dozens and dozens of years so that the entire
life of individuals in the Italian society is dominated by the
presence of bulky houses, rents, mortgages.
The
above blends to shapes entrepreneurial economically much
stronger, so, in a frantic rush to guarantee economic, small and
medium incomes support the great speculations. The small
interest, whose needs may be obvious in very different ways, says
the massacre of the territory, the major amnesties, brutal laws
on common assets and abuses, but also the exploitation of
students, immigrants, the poor have to pay rent unsustainable.
The small and widespread interest becomes an accomplice to a
modus operandi that deconstructs the environment and penalizes a
part of society. The solutions to this situation can not be
intervening in the construction sector alone, albeit with the
demand for social housing. However, it is essential to change the
context in which construction work and the mechanisms of the
demand for housing investment. For example you might:
Make
possible the direct construction by the inhabitants (the
communities Infrastructure areas and residents to build this way
reducing costs and limiting the speculative interests).
Sustainable
pensions, incomes and services for the elderly (community,
neighborhood).
Reduce
the market and to build only for overt and collective needs.
Support
the restructuring and rehabilitation of existing assets (huge
and underutilized) assets that characterized inter alia by the
production processes in which there is a lower concentration of
profits (increased use of craftsmen, small businesses, labor).
Change
the land income and consider the land a common good for which
there is no right to build by the owner but the right to retain
the free space (agricultural or natural) from the community. In
this way the possibility of construction would be an exceptional
and not a common practice.
These
are difficult problems to resolve because of the economic
structure at the base of the country to address them properly,
however, need to be addressed with a comprehensive view,
revealing the complexity of the reasons that have been originated
and finding durable solutions and self-managed.
testimonials
Adapt,
adjust: Indonesian Aboriginal
The
picture shows the traditional house of a population of
Indonesia. Before building the house of the branches of the
tree growth is directed to allow the presence of the platform on
which rests the structure. The tree is adapted to the presence of
man and the man's house adapts to the situation. The basis of the
survival of the house there is the survival of the tree to which
it does not survive death. In this delicate balance and
continued to adapt and adjust human action should be
characterized.
The
awareness of space Inuit and !Kung
In
the thirties of last century, a researcher asked the Inuit
(Eskimos) to draw their hunting grounds. The designs were
developed by different individuals resembled each other and very
similar to the aerial with the only difference being that the
most important areas for hunting and for the life of the
community were designed larger than the others. For! Kung of
South Africa's perception of the landscape is limited by natural
features defined within which highlight the places where they
manage resources including hunting areas and routes to them. Were
common knowledge and the whole community was aware of an area of
expertise and resources that were present in it. In our
society we have maps and satellite images of such high definition
that allows us to see far beyond the territory in which the
individual moves, but they do not know and is not aware of space
and has difficulty in giving value and then differentiate and
store space (also because of the excessive mobility). Lack
knowledge of their geographical area and there is no relationship
between the individual and resources, the relationship between
space and society is deficient, and even surface for this
aberrant.
observations
on the contemporary
Up
to which point
In some photos a few years ago we saw a number of
materials, mostly oxygen cylinders as well as plastic sheeting,
abandoned on a snowy plateau. The photo was taken in more than
8000 meters above sea level and showed the landfill equipment
thrown by the expeditions of the climbers before the last jump on
the peaks of Everest. In the early nineties an expedition of
volunteers gathered in this place about two tons of waste by
declaring that they were a small part of a total for the most
part lay in the depths of the crevasses, and so it was
irretrievable. If the peaks are reduced for the fun of
"adventurers" because the rest of the planet should be
in better condition? It is not obligatory to go to Everest,
does not bring benefits to the community (apart from begging for
carers), is just a "whim". But the consumer society is
based on the uncontainably induced desires of the market. This
uncontainably start processes that lead to structure the work to
make it easy so as not to exclude potential users even
non-fans. The problem is all here. Figuring out when to
stop. The conditions of environmental changes would force
humanity to make a deep reflection if only to ensure their
survival. The reduction in fuel consumption and birth control
are not only the systems most likely to allow the survival of
humanity but also to reduce the tensions arising from the need to
supply the market and thus the control of marketable resources.
On the contrary, the economy is all set on continued growth,
without end. How many roads necessary? How many roads which are
necessary in the future? This economy can not answer. If you
answer that would define the limits, as well as dismayed inhibit
the market. The growth can not be
unlimited if the work is growing "green" in which the
goods pose a greater attention to reducing the impact but still
pointing to increased sales and not to replace the existing
freight but they run in parallel. And in this economy, which
guaranteed huge profits for the few and fails to provide
widespread quality of life, if there is no growth recession. Yet
looking at the waste to 8,000 feet a little doubt on the model
used and the importance of limits determined by the availability
of resources from the necessity of maintaining environmental
quality and equity of access to those resources should come to
even the most ardent supporters of a model unfair.
Industrialization
and waste
There
are industrial processes that generate waste in the form of waste
production, packaging (which must be of greater consistency than
those of traditional products to ensure no alteration of the
goods on long journeys, in which large retailers do not want to
bulk) , production in excess of needs (to overcome the
competition, to reduce costs, to occupy new market areas), of
"innovations" designed to dispose of goods as effective
to support the production of products "disposable"
(which if the goods are environmentally aberrant perfect for this
type of production model). But industrial processes produce
waste with the limitation on the duration of goods (especially
food) and the production of goods of low quality (and in this
Chinese production is a teacher) that having the shape of objects
are in fact already operating waste at the time of sale. Now
if you think that the disposal is made by the general
public in the form of direct taxes as well as increased the sale
price of goods, and that the chain of disposal is also an
industrialized waste in this economic model are considered goods
and as such are subject to the criteria of growth as the basis of
well-being of the productive sector. The reduction of waste,
therefore, takes the same value and the same difficulty of the
objective of reducing consumption, but also as important.
The
waste in Napoli
The case of the accumulation of waste in the
streets that has affected Naples several times in recent years is
the result of a wrong model whose crisis if that city has had its
maximum exposure may also occur in other situations. The first
condition on which the structure of the model is incorrectly said
to expropriate the citizens of any possible direct action in
waste management. In the case of Naples citizens found
themselves buried under tons of waste without being able to do
anything and you are so directly related to the load of a problem
whose management had been deliberately excluded. In recent
years significant numbers of loans were committed to the solution
of the problem, and always has been undertaken in finance
companies and technicians. Yet in the city submerged by waste
of a few months ago there were five districts in which, through
the collection "door to door" was obtained for
collection from 60% to 90% of the total (well above the required
EU) and whose streets were clear of waste. That is a direct
action by citizens, although coordinated and directed, was
reduced in a macroscopic quantities of waste to take to the
landfill and are recycled to produce enormous amounts of
material. Lacking the ability to fully manage each of the
waste cycle (reduction, reuse, separation, recovery, recycling,
composting) in urban areas the population is squeezed from the
risk that the current widespread mechanisms of collection and
disposal, for the most part governed by profit and the lack of
social attention, and feeding the results may get stuck on
it. The only guarantee is to take part: be aware of what
happens, the chosen route of administration, be active in the
implementation of solutions, having the ability to self-manage at
least part of the cycle.
images
from contemporaneity
Vicoli,
bassi and ecosystems
In
the sixties many "right-thinking" of Naples who saw the
clothes hanging in the small shops that would expand the public
domain in the dense alleys of social relations, all the signs of
a cultural degradation, the signs of a lack of decorum that
inhibited the future of the
city. This setting, combined with the pursuit of a different
quality of buildings, in the seventies and eighties has started a
"clean" of those areas which although aimed at a shared
improvement of housing conditions, however, has led to the
construction of similar settlements, and some cases worse, than
those of all urbanized areas of the country. But you can take
photos on the following considerations: for drying clothes on
either side of the alley there was need for social relations
between people concerned and on which passersby often rain water
from clothes, to occupy the ground public interest (essential
given the limited space available in the shops) was necessary to
find an agreement with the inhabitants of the alley, trying to be
understanding and willing to understand. It appears from the
image complexity and depth of social relations as well as
function, perhaps not consciously sought, the clothes in the
summer air cooling. It outlines a system characterized by
social and environmental disorder and diversity: a system in
which everyone is able to use some of the energy not used by
others. Articulated system, mature, stable, organic. From this
observation the criticism of the sixties on the degradation of
the city and the practical solutions are moved by a desire for
order which would form the behavior: the order imposed by the
same buildings, the streets wide, standardized reports from, the
disregard in the design needs and habits of citizens. The same
order that led to the social vacuum of the suburbs that has
sometimes been replaced, facilitated by the vacuum created, the
order of the Camorra organizations. Maybe it was worth
preserving habits "unseemly" when they represented a
vitality and a capacity to make their lives economically and
operationally supporting those who worked and lived in that
system and take action to eliminate those who were the burdens
arising from a settlement as improved physically but socially
with which to understand and interact.
Trabocchi,
luntri
The
two images represent two fishing methods traditionally used in
the respective coasts of the middle Adriatic sea and in the
Strait of Messina. They are highly selective systems connected
to the type and availability of fish, such as the huge number of
other modes of fishing specialist, special, traditionally used in
the world. The majority of fishing is carried out
simultaneously with a small number of non-selective systems
(either species or size) in a short time but provide large
quantities of fish, a quantity that will undermine the natural
system and therefore the same productive activity. This is
similar to all industrial processes: disconnected from the
places, and the balances that characterize them, standardized,
high energy consumption, without temporal perspective, and unable
to preserve those resources where the renewability is precisely
the subject of levy.
To
live in the sites
Living
places involves an adjustment of the same needs and the pleasure
of those who live in them. This is a right of everyone, a right
that can be implemented with a direct action on the condition
that it is not a nuisance to anyone or in any manner directly or
indirectly. The photo is taken in Reggio Calabria, a few years
ago. The resident has organized a small vegetable garden in a
confined space from the sidewalk (perhaps a public space that the
inhabitant has fenced and cultivated there) is a believer and
characterizes the entrance of his home, located in a building
with a small shrine, he wants to chill out under the tree (which
is in the public road) and recovered a bench and two chairs (then
connected with the chain for safety). By these signs
understand the needs and pleasure sought: a vegetable garden, the
cool shadow, a "living room" open to talk with friends
and watch passers-by. These are the data on which to model a
city as a house. The answer that comes from building and
running from town to this question is developed through
standards, regulations, services and does not address the
specifics of this request. In a very simplified, this means that
either the request is considered to be of common interest and
then the planning instruments allow everyone a newsagent, two
white plastic chairs, a green bench and a small vegetable garden
or the request is not considered to be of common interest and
nobody would have anything or anyone is allowed to directly
targeting what you want. Instead we should give more attention
to each individual request as different and special, because each
of them has a great value as well as the common (provided they do
not bring harm to others and the environment) and through them we
structure the places and you can live pleasantly.
Adriano Paolella
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