A. Daniel Weygandt New Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General Milan

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
A. Daniel Weygandt assumed his role as Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General Milan in September 2007. As Consul General, he is the chief representative of the U.S. government in the consular district of Northern Italy. Prior to this he was Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at U.S. Embassy Baghdad. From 2004 to 2006, he served as Director of the Office of Austrian, German, and Swiss Affairs in the Bureau of European Affairs in the State Department. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Weygandt was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Vienna.
Mr. Weygandt has been a member of the United States Foreign Service since 1979, and served as Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs and First Secretary of the Economic Section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow; as Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Hamburg; as First Secretary and Civil Air Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn; and as Vice Consul to the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul. In addition, Mr. Weygandt served as a senior economist in the Office of Central European Affairs at the Department of State in Washington, DC; as Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organizations in Rome; and as international affairs officer at the Bureau of United Nations Affairs in Washington.
He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Weygandt speaks French, Turkish, Italian, German and Russian.

BIOGRAFIA
A. Daniel Weygandt è stato nominato Console Generale di Milano nel settembre 2007. Prima di assumere questo incarico Mr. Weygandt ha prestato servizio come Ministro Consigliere della Sezione Affari Economici dell’Ambasciata Americana di Baghdad.
Dal 2004 al 2006 ha operato come direttore dell’ufficio degli affari di Svizzera, Austria e Germania nella Sezione Affari Europei del Dipartimento di Stato.
Dal 2001 al 2004 A. Daniel Weygandt è stato Vice Capo Missione all’Ambasciata degli Stati Uniti a Vienna.
A. Daniel Weygandt ha iniziato la carriera diplomatica nel 1979, e ha operato come Ministro Consigliere per la Sezione Affari Economici e Primo Segretario della Sezione Economica ad Amburgo; come Primo Segretario e Addetto all’Aeronautica Civile all’Ambasciata Americana di Bonn; e come Vice Console del Consolato Generale di Istanbul. Inoltre, Mr. Weygandt ha lavorato come economista senior presso l’ufficio degli Affari Centrali Europei al Dipartimento di Stato di Washington, DC; come Vice Rappresentante Permanente della Missione degli Stati Uniti presso la FAO e l’ONU a Roma; e come ufficiale addetto agli affari internazionali presso le Nazioni Unite a Washington.
Si è laureato all’università di Chicago e ha conseguito un Master in Relazioni Internazionali all’università del Minnesota. Il Console Weygandt parla italiano, francese, turco, tedesco e russo.

Caserma Ederle, Vicenza: Contract Awarded for New School Complex

CASERMA EDERLE, Vicenza Italy – Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) announced the award for a new school complex Sept. 25. The contract was awarded to construction company CMC di Ravenna, from Ravenna, Italy. The amount of the award is $50 million (€45 Million). The construction will include the building of a new Child Development Center (CDC), Elementary and Middle Schools. The school complex will be built on Villagio della Pace and will provide capacity for approximately 350 CDC students, 1,000 elementary students, 300 middle school students, music and art classrooms, a gymnasium and special education areas. The facilities will replace the aging buildings on Caserma Ederle with modern, environmentally responsible structures and sports fields in the American housing area. About 100 of the older row houses will be demolished to provide space for the campus. Later projects will include a new high school at the same site. The projects will ultimately lead to more green space on both Villaggio della Pace and on Caserma Ederle. Construction is to begin this winter and is scheduled to be complete summer 2010.

Inauguration of the American Corner / Paolo Bearz Library

In qualità di Console per la stampa e la cultura del Consolato Generale degli Stati Uniti a Milano sono molto orgoglioso di essere qui oggi a inaugurare il primo American Corner che il Governo degli Stati Uniti ha deciso di aprire in Italia con un finanziamento di quasi 40,000 dollari in materiali, libri, cd-rom e dvd.
Lo scopo degli American Corner è di far conoscere la storia degli Stati Uniti in tutto il mondo, contrastando i preconcetti negativi, mantenendo aperto il dialogo e lavorando per la comprensione reciproca. Le risorse a disposizione di chi frequenta gli American Corner hanno la funzione di rafforzare la conoscenza dei valori americani e di rappresentare un’opportunità di crescita culturale.
Attualmente nel mondo ci sono 302 American Corner, dei quali 119 in Europa ed Eurasia. Si tratta di collezioni di libri, riviste, musica, database che provengono dagli Stati Uniti e che degli Stati Uniti parlano. In un American Corner è possibile consultare testi sulla vita negli States, ascoltare musica americana, vedere un video sulla storia del jazz, iscriversi a un college negli Stati Uniti o mandare un e-mail a un amico, che so, in Minnesota.
Quando abbiamo cominciato a pensare di aprire un American Corner nel nostro distretto consolare la scelta è caduta su Trieste in modo direi naturale. Trieste è infatti un importante centro internazionale per le scienze e la commercializzazione della ricerca con una altissima presenza di ricercatori, un’università attiva, istituzioni coinvolte nel processo di modernizzazione ed una lunga tradizione di convivenza e multi-etnicità.
Gli American Corner si appoggiano di solito ad un’organizzazione locale e la presenza a Trieste dell’Associazione Italo Americana del Friuli Venezia Giulia ha contribuito a concretizzare la scelta del Governo Americano. L’Associazione è una presenza molto attiva in città ed è parte dell’eredità di Paolo Bearz, che è stato a lungo il nostro Agente Consolare a Trieste. Paolo ci ha lasciato nel febbraio del 2006 e oggi cogliamo l’occasione per dedicare a lui e al suo impegno di una vita la biblioteca dell’Associazione Italo Americana del Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Oggi si parla molto di transformational diplomacy. Un diplomatico transformational è una persona che guarda al di là del contingente, che riesce a vedere il mondo che risulterà dalle proposte politiche di oggi e fa di quella visione il proprio scopo. I diplomatici con una grande visione e la capacità di portarla avanti sono sempre stati rari e preziosi. E sono orgoglioso di poter dire che Paolo Bearz è stato il prototipo del “transformational diplomat”.
Paolo aveva inziato la propria carriera diplomatica nel 1955, alla riapertura del Consolato degli Stati Uniti a Trieste. È stato specialista politico ed economico durante l’amministrazione di Eisenhower quando Trieste era l’ultima città al di qua della Cortina di ferro. Durante la Guerra Fredda, per più di dodici anni Paolo è stato il nostro Addetto Stampa e ha spiegato la politica degli Stati Uniti e dei loro alleati al pubblico italiano. Durante i primi anni della presidenza Reagan, Paolo è stato specialista politico mantenendo questo incarico per cinque anni. Nel 1986, quando il governo americano ha deciso di chiudere il Consolato di Trieste, Paolo Bearz è diventato il nostro Agente Consolare per la città e la regione.
Durante la sua straordinaria carriera, Paolo è stato testimone di grandi cambiamenti caratterizzati dal diffondersi della libertà al di là dei confini dell’Italia e dalla nascita di nuovi stati indipendenti mentre Trieste diventava la capitale di una comunità di nazioni affacciate sull’Adriatico. Oggi Trieste è un importante polo scientifico, ha una significativa comunità americana, una scuola internazionale a guida americana e un importante programma di studi americani presso l’Università. Come molti di voi, Paolo è stato artefice silenzioso di questi cambiamenti e si è speso perché Trieste restasse nel cuore del mio paese.
Per coloro che hanno avuto l’onore di lavorare con lui, Paolo Bearz è stato una fonte di ispirazione. L’entusiasmo per il suo lavoro, i suoi contatti con amici e colleghi della regione e il suo alto senso etico hanno rafforzato i legami tra gli Stati Uniti, Trieste e questa regione. La nascita, nel 1961, dell’Associazione Italo Americana del Friuli Venezia Giulia è stata un altro esempio della natura collegiale di Paolo e della sua fede contagiosa nell’importanza delle relazioni bilaterali. Nel corso degli anni, l’Associazione ha acquisito la biblioteca dell’USIS, ha organizzato corsi d’inglese, serate di cinema, dibattiti su temi di attualità ed è diventata per Trieste il simbolo di un’organizzazione culturale bilaterale. Ancora vitalissima oggi, l’Associazione è impegnata a onorare la memoria di Paolo attraverso il proprio lavoro. Se i bambini che frequentano la biblioteca vi chiederanno a chi è dedicata spero che ricorderete le mie parole di oggi e gli racconterete che Paolo ha contribuito a creare il mondo in cui vivono.
Ho conosciuto Paolo alla fine degli anni Ottanta. Eravamo tutti e due abbastanza giovani ed io ricordo la sua gentilezza, la sua carica e la sua forte identificazione con la città e la regione che rappresentava. Sono grato dei due giorni passati insieme a lui quando ho visitato Trieste nel 2004: Paolo mi ha ricordato i valori che mi aveva trasmesso vent’anni prima. Paolo ha ispirato la creazione di questo American Corner che il Consolato Americano si è impegnato a mantenere insieme all’Associazione. Così facendo vogliamo dimostrare che non potremo mai lasciare la città in cui abbiamo creato un consolato ai tempi di George Washington e dei fondatori della nostra democrazia, e che rimanendo vogliamo mantenere viva la visione di Paolo dei legami tra Trieste e gli Stati Uniti. Grazie. 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - “The greatest enhancement of our national security and the greatest threat to it really is in how we treat education.”

SECRETARY RICE:  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  First, I’m delighted to be here for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Cornerstone Schools of Washington, D.C.  We’re very grateful to our wonderful hosts the Castellanetas.  Thank you very much for having us here.  You may not know, but Gianni and I have actually been colleagues and friends now for some time.  He was the Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Berlusconi when I was the National Security Advisor to President Bush and it’s a rather small club.  The other night we had a chance to say farewell to David Manning, who was Foreign Policy Advisor at the same time.  It seems that Foreign Policy Advisors and National Security Advisors do all right after those jobs.  But Gianni, I want you to know that not only do I value your friendship and that of your wife, but also the United States of America values the friendship of Italy, which has been a dear friend.  Thank you.  (Applause.) 
I’m also very pleased to share the podium tonight with Paul Gigot, an outstanding journalist, a great member of the fourth estate, as Mr. Jefferson would have called it.  And Paul, thank you for your dedication to education.  I know you were here five years ago.  Thank you very much for being here and for being our Master of Ceremonies.  (Applause.) 
Well, ladies and gentlemen, as I was reading about the Cornerstone Schools and the emphasis on academic excellence, the emphasis on parental involvement, the emphasis on spiritual development, it occurred to me that I feel very strongly that I share something very much in common with the Cornerstone Schools and that is that if you put this in rather shorthand, I think the Cornerstone Schools are devoted to faith, family and education.  And indeed, I’ve been fortunate in my own life to come from a family and from a community in which those pillars — faith, family and education — were intertwined and all valued greatly. 
Indeed, they come together perhaps best in a little story about my grandfather, my paternal grandfather, John Wesley Rice, Sr., who was a sharecropper’s son in Eutaw — that’s E-w-t-a-h — Alabama.  (Laughter.)  And there in Ewtah, Alabama, he decided for some reason when he was a young man in his very early twenties that he wanted to get “book learning.”  Now, why this sharecropper’s son would want to get “book learning,” I don’t know, but I do know that he succeeded because he would ask people as they would come by this small town, “How could a colored man,” as they called people — black people in those days — “how could a colored man go to college?”  And they said, “Well, you see, there’s this little Presbyterian college down the road about sixty miles in Tuscaloosa, it’s called Stillman College, and you could probably go there.”
So my grandfather saved up his cotton.  He took his cotton, sold it, and went off to Stillman College and he paid his first year through college.  Then came the second year.  And they said, “All right.  You have to pay now for a second year.”  And he said, “But I’m out of cotton.  I don’t have anymore money.”  They said, “Well, then you’ll have to leave.”  And he said, “Well, how are those boys going to college,” pointing at some other kids.  And they said, “Well, you see, they have what’s called a scholarship.  And if you wanted to be a Presbyterian minister then you could have a scholarship too.”  (Laughter.)  My grandfather said, “You know, that’s exactly what I had in mind.”  (Laughter.)  And ever since, my family has been both Presbyterian and college educated.  (Laughter.) 

I’m very grateful that I had grandparents and then parents who understood the value of education.  And so I’m grateful on behalf of the wonderful students, the great choir that we just saw and the many students like them attending the Cornerstone Schools, that there are parents and teachers who value education for them.  Because without adults who care that children are educated, that children have opportunity, it most certainly will not happen.  And so to the students I would say thank you for that great performance.  It shows that they are not afraid of hard work and they’re not afraid of doing something hard.  It’s hard to sing in front of a group like this.  To parents who are giving their children an opportunity and who are working in the classrooms, that’s terrific, and to teachers who perhaps have no idea how really influential they are.  I’m certain that each and every one of us remembers some very influential teacher from our past who got us on the right way, maybe as early as elementary school, maybe in high school, maybe in college.  But most certainly somewhere along the way, there were teachers.  There’s no greater profession, no greater gift than to be a great teacher. 

Why is education so important?  Well, we often talk about education as the key to a better life, the key to a better job.  We all know the statistics that it’s really not possible in today’s modern society to have a well-paying, sustaining job without the value of education.  And indeed, we know that the better educated you are, the better you are likely to do in terms of economic progression and in terms of economic well-being.  We know, too, that it is the foundation for better things in life to be well-educated. 

But I would suggest to you that I’d like to spend just a moment setting aside this rather instrumental view of education and why it’s important.  Of course, we want our kids to be able to get a good job and to have families and to provide for them, but don’t we want more for them?  Don’t we want them to be able to take advantage of the truly transformative nature of education?  Education isn’t just a way to a job, education is a way to remake yourself.  Education is a way to have no limits on your horizons.  Education is a way, in a sense, to be born anew.  Education is a way to completely and totally become who you should be, who you want to be, who you ought to be.  It opens the mind.  It opens the heart.  It opens the horizons.  A quality education, then, is at the core of what it is to become fully and completely a human being able to reach full potential. 

Again, I think that perhaps when I think back on my grandfather’s story, maybe that’s what he understood.  Maybe that’s why he wanted to get “book learning.”  Not because he thought, somehow, that it was going to make him better at farming or richer at farming, but because he knew that somehow it was going to open up new horizons to him.  And because he did that, and because he insisted that his children have those same opportunities, and because they insisted, then, that their children have those same opportunities, I stand before you today.  I stand before you today as somebody who understands one other important thing about education and that is that if it does not limit your horizons, it opens up horizons that you might never have seen. 

My own story is perhaps instructive in that way.  You see, when I was three, I learned to play the piano because my grandmother taught piano lessons and I was going to be a concert pianist.  There was absolutely no doubt about it.  And so I studied and I practiced.  And then in my sophomore year in college I went off to the Aspen Music School, where a lot of prodigies went to school.  And I heard them play and I thought, “that eleven-year-old is better at this than I will ever be.”  And I thought I could end up playing piano bar.  I might end up playing at Nordstrom’s. (Laughter.) But I’m not going to end up playing Carnegie Hall.  Therefore, I have to have to find something else to do with my life.  And I went back to college and I had that uncomfortable conversation with my parents:  “Mom and Dad, I’m changing my major.”
“To what are you changing your major?”
“I don’t know.  I’m just changing it.”
My father: “You’re going to end up a waitress at Howard Johnson’s because you don’t know what you want to be.”
“I would rather be a waitress at Howard Johnson’s than teach piano.  After all, it’s my life.”
“Yes, but after all, it’s our money.  Find a major.”
(Laughter.)

And I went back to college and I tried a little bit of everything.  I was really expanding my horizons.  English literature — I hated it.  State and local government — I hated it.  And then in my junior year — the spring semester of my junior year — with the registrar one step behind me saying, “if you don’t declare a major you won’t be able to register again,” I took a course in international politics taught by a Soviet specialist, a man named Josef Korbel, who incidentally is Madeleine Albright’s father.
And Josef Korbel opened a world to me that I would never have known.  Suddenly, I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to study Russia.  Now someone, perhaps my parents, might have asked, “Why would a nice black girl from Birmingham, Alabama want to study Russia?  As far as we can tell, you don’t have any Russian genes.”  (Laughter.)  But you know, it didn’t matter.  It was a little bit like love; you can’t quite explain it.  I wanted to study Russia.
And so I did change my major and I went through graduate school and I ended up teaching at Stanford University and a few years later, I went to work for George H.W. Bush as his Soviet specialist in the White House.  And there was one day when President Gorbachev had been here in Washington and President Bush asked me to accompany him back out to California and we were taking off from the South Lawn in Marine One, the helicopter, taking Gorbachev — just Gorbachev, his wife, and me — out to Andrews Air Force Base to go to California.  And it hit me; I’m really glad I changed my major.  (Laughter.)
So you see, you never know where education is going to lead, and that’s the wonderful thing about education.  And that’s why the kids who are experiencing a great education at the Cornerstone schools have so much to be thankful for in parents and teachers and friends and community that care.  But you know, it’s not just critical to them.  It’s critical to our country, too.  In many ways, the greatest investment that we can make in our well-being, in our national security, is in education.
Now I very often say that the greatest enhancement of our national security and the greatest threat to it really is in how we treat education.  Now you might find the Secretary of State saying that to be a little odd, but let me tell you for a moment what I mean.  If Americans are well educated, if they are capable of acquiring the skills and the talents and expanding those talents for the future, then we are not going to be a fearful country about our place in the world.  We’re going to be able to trade freely, we’re going to be able to open our markets, we’re going to be able to compete, we’re going to know that whatever else those countries do, they’re never going to make it impossible for Americans to compete and to win because we’re going to be confident in our skills and confident in the skills that we’re giving to our children to compete in that world.
What is more, we’re going to continue to be a place of creativity, a place that’s risk-taking, a place that’s not afraid to take a chance, a place that’s not afraid to start a company in a garage in Northern California, have that one fail and start over again, because we’re going to have a foundation, a foundation of knowledge and skills development and a foundation that will let us know that yes, our creativity and our leadership and our technological edge is always going to be there for us.  And by the way, if our kids aren’t educated, then we will be fearful and we won’t be creative and we won’t be certain and ultimately we won’t lead.
But there is one other way in which education is so critical to us as a nation.  It’s because it’s at the core of who we are.  We’re a great multiethnic democracy.  A great multiethnic democracy has to be a place in which it doesn’t matter where you came from; it matters where you are going.  There’s a simple bargain at the core of what it is to be American and that bargain is that if you work hard and you’re not afraid to take chances and you’re not afraid to put yourself on the line, if you’re willing to be guaranteed only opportunity, not outcome, if you’re willing to take the hard work and put it forward, then you’re going to have a good chance to succeed.
It’s a kind of bargain between the citizen and the society, the citizen and the government.  It’s an opportunity to succeed, not a guarantee, and it’s a knowledge that there are no easy roads.  I noticed the emphasis on academic excellence and I thought, “no easy roads.”  You know, I’ll tell you that one of the first things that I was attracted to then-Governor Bush for was actually his views on education, because he had a phrase about education that really captured it for me.  He talked about not giving in to “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Too often, if children don’t come from privilege, too often, if they are of another color, our expectations are that maybe they’re not quite up to it, maybe they can’t quite take that tough curriculum, maybe we have to coddle them a little bit and give them self-esteem based on telling them that they’ve succeeded even if they haven’t.  Well, you know, it’s going to backfire because somewhere along the way, they’re going to realize that actually, maybe they haven’t quite learned what they should have learned, maybe they’re not quite as good as what they’ve been told. 
Of course, people and children need to be encouraged in their education.  Of course, they need to be told that they can do it.  But then they have to do it, and that means being as demanding of each and every child as we would be of our own children.  That commitment to excellence, that commitment to hard work is supposed to be rewarded with opportunity and with the ability to move forward.  And you know, that bargain is more than a bargain with individuals; it’s a bargain that we as a society make to each other.  It is the source of our optimism.  It is the source of our cohesion.  It is our source of always believing that tomorrow is another day and maybe, therefore, it’s a better day.
It is what has sustained Americans, whether the pioneers who managed to come over the continental divide in ways that I do not understand, or my ancestors who managed to go from three-fifths of a man in the Constitution to equal citizenship, to a point at which one of their descendants stands before you as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States.  It’s that faith, that optimism, that belief that is at the core of who we are.
Thank you for believing in the vital role of education in who we are.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

L'inchiesta

A4 l’incubo comincia in autostrada

Commissario cioé, non peserebbero di un solo euro né all’amministrazione regionale né a quella statale”. Malgrado Galan abbia potuto constatare “il clima di cordiale e fattiva operatività che da tempo contraddistinguono i rapporti tra Regione del Veneto e Ministro Di Pietro”, l’allerta sull’A4, anche a causa dei ripetuti incidenti stradali, non si abbassa.

E’ prioritario e assolutamente urgente – hanno tuonato qualche giorno fa  gli assessori alle infrastrutture del Veneto Renato Chisso e del Friuli Venezia Giulia Lodovico Sonego, incontratisi a Portogruaro – realizzare la terza corsia autostradale dell’autostrada A4. (continua…)

Itinerario Newyorkese

Il mito di Levi Stauss

L’indumento più indossato da persone di tutte le età e di ogni Paese. Stiamo parlando dei Jeans, da oltre 150 anni protagonisti della vita di intere generazioni. Una lunga storia, iniziata nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento ad opera di Levi Strauss. Nato nel 1830 in Germania, l’inventore del pantalone a cinque tasche di tessuto, più famoso della storia, emigrò in America con la famiglia all’età di 14 anni. (continua…)

Dossier

Il Museo Storico Navale di Venezia

Nel 1977 il Museo Storico Navale si arricchiva di un nuovo prestigioso spazio espositivo: il Padiglione delle Navi. Oltre 2000 mq, lungo la fondamenta della Madonna, coperti da grandi spioventi che proteggevano, un tempo, le officine dei “remeri”.
In questi grandi padiglioni cinquecenteschi si riunirono anche, nel 1577, i componenti del Maggior Consiglio, temporaneamente sfrattati da Palazzo Ducale per effetto del grande incendio di quell’anno. Fondato nel 1919, dopo la Prima Guerra Mondiale, in un edificio del XV sec. presso l’ingresso dell’Arsenale, il Museo ha la sede attuale in uno degli antichi “Granai” della Repubblica di Venezia, in campo “S. Biagio”. E fu proprio l’Arsenale, “il più insigne monumento storico navale che esiste in Italia”, a dar vita, sul finire del Seicento, a quella che a buona ragione si può ritenere l’antenata dell’attuale Museo: “La Casa dei Modelli”. (continua…)

Discorso dell’Ambasciatore Spogli in occasione della commemorazione dell’11 settembre

A nome del popolo americano voglio ringraziare ancora una volta il Sindaco, la Citta’ di Roma, le autorita’ italiane e il popolo italiano per tutte le manifestazioni di solidarieta’ e di affetto.

Sono sicuro che per voi, come per me, i sentimenti di perdita e di dolore sono rimasti immutati nel tempo. Questo ci aiuta forse a capire con maggiore chiarezza, con il passare del tempo, il significato del nostro ritrovarci insieme qui oggi.

Il significato e’ che tutte le vittime della lotta contro il Terrore hanno un valore in quanto individui. Questo principio si estende a tutti i civili e agli assistenti umanitari che sono stati fatti bersaglio o colpiti per errore durante i conflitti armati in Iraq, Afghanistan o altrove.

Tuttavia, le vittime intenzionali di Al Qaeda, in particolare quelle tre mila, provenienti da tante nazioni compresa l’Italia, e appartenenti a fedi diverse compreso l’Islam, occupano un posto speciale nei nostri pensieri. Durante quell’11 settembre io mi trovavo a New York. I terroristi ritenevano che coloro che furono inghiottiti dalle fiamme e dal fumo, o che precipitarono nel vuoto, fossero solo dei tasselli di un grande disegno da loro ideato allo scopo di soggiogare noi tutti con il terrore. Loro speravano di poterci intimidire facendoci credere che ognuno di noi avrebbe potuto – o potrebbe – diventare una vittima insignificante e anonima. Secondo questa logica mostruosa, non ha alcuna importanza chi siamo, né chi fossero le vittime di quel tragico giorno. L’indifferenza per il valore dell’individuo, che permette di agire cosi’ spietatamente contro bambini innocenti, e’ una costante del terrorismo. Ma e’ anche il suo punto debole. Il proposito di rinnegare il valore della vita è ciò che più di ogni altra cosa isola i terroristi da noi.

Perciò è giusto che oggi ci ritroviamo qui accanto a questa lapide posta dalla Città di Roma. Perché le vittime non possono essere cancellate. Il sito web a loro dedicato (www.september11victims.com) le elenca una per una e le descrive con una impressionante ricchezza di particolari. Coloro che li amavano continuano a pubblicarvi le loro memorie, cosi’ come tante altre persone estranee da tutto il mondo ancora aggiungono i loro pensieri. Ci sono anche tanti messaggi italiani. Ci sono tanti cognomi italiani nella lista, da Angiletta a Zampieri, e molti di loro erano vigili del fuoco. L’anno scorso un italiano ha scritto un messaggio per Salvatore Calabrò in inglese e in italiano: “Americani, non dimenticate i vostri eroi, mai!”

Non li abbiamo dimenticati, e non li dimenticheremo.

Itinerario Veneziano

Venezia e l’islam 828-1797

Venezia storica porta sull’Oriente. Ricca di atmosfere bizantine che rifulgono nell’architettura e nelle contaminazioni culturali, la città lagunare si prepara ad ospitare fino al 25 novembre una delle più importanti mostre dell’anno. In un’epoca in cui lo scontro di civiltà diventa un pretesto per non aprire un dialogo costante con l’Islam, il viaggio nella storia delle relazioni tra Occidente e Oriente diventa l’occasione per riscoprire un legame che per secoli ha legato le due estremità del mondo. (continua…)

Mayor Bloomberg announces Launch of new 9/11 Health Website

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the launch of a new World Trade Center health website, the creation of which was a key recommendation of the Mayor’s Addressing the Health Impacts of 9/11 report. The comprehensive website, accessible at www.nyc.gov, offers one-stop shopping for 9/11 health-related issues. It consolidates the latest information about scientific research and services, including where those affected can go for free treatment and medicine. The website also includes easily accessible research findings and treatment options for the different groups of affected people: rescue and recovery workers, residents, children, city employees and others. The new site provides, for the first time, a single source for information about the health effects of 9/11. In February, the Mayor adopted all of the 15 recommendations in Addressing the Health Impacts of 9/11.  The report’s authors, led by Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, represented all of the City agencies dealing with the health impacts of the attacks on the World Trade Center. They were charged with identifying the steps needed to serve those with 9/11-related conditions.
“The 9/11 is a day for us to reflect on those we lost and to recommit ourselves—as a city and as a nation—to all those whose health has been affected by 9/11. I’m pleased to announce that we’re completing another key initiative of my 9/11 health panel with the launch of a new website that consolidates the latest information about 9/11-related health issues—including where to go for free treatment and medication. We want people to know more about the potential health effects of 9/11 so that they can reach out for assessment and services.”
“There is much we still don’t know about World Trade Center health effects,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City Health Commissioner. “But we do know that some rescue and recovery workers, City employees, and residents have experienced health problems. Some have experienced respiratory illnesses, such as asthma, or mental health issues such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The new website is a great way for people to get timely, reliable information about health effects and learn where they can get help.”
The site’s key features include:
• Health information targeted to each affected group (workers, residents, etc.)
• Detailed information on where to get evaluation and treatment, including the three WTC Centers of Excellence
• A compilation of all scientific literature and information about ongoing research
• Links to financial assistance providers, social-service and environmental groups, and other groups working on issues related to 9/11
• Resources for health care professionals
In addition to the new website, the City has completed other core recommendations of Addressing the Health Impacts of 9/11. The Mayor has also appointed the WTC Medical Working Group, a group of scientists and medical experts who review the latest science and its applicability to different populations. The Mayor also appointed the World Trade Center Health Coordinator to organize this information and help convey it to the public. The City’s financial commitment to 9/11 health through the year 2011 exceeds $100 million.
The largest and most comprehensive tracking effort—the World Trade Center Health Registry—continues to monitor the long-term health of people who were exposed to the World Trade Center disaster. They now reside in all 50 states. Two weeks ago, the Registry released critical findings about rescue and recovery workers, some of whom were suffering from asthma and post-traumatic disorder as a result of the disaster. The Health Department is now re-surveying all 71,000 registrants to learn more about their current health status. So far, nearly 60% of registrants have responded. This survey will help answer critical questions about the health consequences of 9/11.