DIRELAND

LETTER FROM ROME: BERLUSCONI'S LATEST SCANDAL

The following report was written late last week especially for DIRELAND by our old friend and Rome correspondent Judy Harris, a veteran ex-pat journalist--but I couldn't post it until now because of a nervous breakdown in my blogserver, Typepad. The piece below was written before the November 7 speech by Gianfranco Fini calling for Berlusconi's resignation, which has triggered a crisis in which his government's fall is expected soon. -- D.I.

DOES ONE SCANDAL TOO MANY SPELL THE END OF BERLUSCONI?

ROME – One day in Milan Italian Silvio Berlusconi was speaking, as he is wont to do, when a mentally disturbed youth flung a heavy souvenir model of the Milan cathedral, the Duomo, at the Premier. It hit Berlusconi in the mouth. We saw blood—plenty of it—on the six TV channels Berlusconi owns or controls.

            “Why the hell didn’t it hit him in the mouth?” grumbled a friend of mine. “Shut him up.”

            But he just can’t shut up. His latest today: “It’s a lot better to look at girls than to be a gay.” This is the man who commanded over half the Italian electorate two years ago, and who is proposing himself for president of Italy for a seven-year term that would keep him in power for a total of 20 years.

            Nor can anyone else shut up. Young Ruby the Moroccan Belly Dancer, who’d been entertaining herself and Silvio at his Milanese mansion in February and was briefly arrested for larceny in May, has finally turned eighteen, and so anti-Berlusconi TV (okay, there ain’t much, but everyone who’s anyone is watching the independent network La 7) is running wall-to-wall boobarama-lascivious photos of her. The talk show folk talk non-stop about bunga bunga, the word that has come to mean Berlusconi misbehavior. Even a few Roman Catholic Church figures are muttering.

            Another floozette has stepped forward saying she had sex with him twice for pay, each time E. 3,000 ($3,750).

            The press is dubbing all this Bunga bunga. This, it seems, is the word the paid escorts used to describe the hijinks at the  parties thrown by Mr. B at his homes in Rome, Sardinia and Milan. What is bunga bunga? Mr. B, something of a jokester, likes to tell a joke he politicizes by putting in the names of two leftist Italian politicians captured by an African tribe. The tribesmen ask, “Do you want bunga bunga or to be killed?” The first says, “I’ll take bunga bunga,” and is buggered. The second, supposedly the head of the Partito Democratico Pietro Bersani, says, “Death,” and is first bunga bungaed and then killed.

            Funny, huh?

            Problem is, it is confirmed that Berlusconi himself personally phoned the Milan police headquarters twice when Ruby, then 17, was detained for theft of around $4,000 and personal objects from two girls who’d kindly put her up overnight. As a minor she was to be placed under surveillance in a protected community or kept in jail—she could not be released by law, according to some magistrates.

            But Berlusconi, claiming she was the niece of Egypt’s President Mubarak  (she is neither his niece nor Egyptian), asked for her to be freed. A fiery woman magistrate in Milan who was conducting an official judicial inquiry into why and how the police caved in to Mr. B’s pressures to release an underaged girl charged with theft on Tuesday decided there had been no judiciary wrongdoing.

            Not everyone agrees with what some will see as a whitewash, and this did not placate some of the newspapers normally friendly to the premier. The right wing dailies Il Giornale and Il Foglio did not ask for Berlusconi's resignation, but they both said that he had gone too far, and that enough is enough.

            So is Mr. B bunga-bungaed by this, only the latest scandal? Not if he can help it. He piously says that he must show respect for the millions who voted for him two years ago by refusing to resign, as many here suggest. “If true, Berlusconi should resign,” said Gianfranco Fini, estranged rightist former government partner, a reformed Fascist.

            Problem is, who could replace Berlusconi? On the right even Fini wants Berlusconi to flop, but fears bringing down the government may bring new elections in which Berlusconi emerges stronger than ever.

            The left continues to suffer from a lack of inspirational figures, with  one exception: Nichi Vendola (RIGHT). The charming Vendola, a welcome younger generation from the Berlusconi era, emerged unexpectedly triumphant last year when he was elected president of the Southern Italian region of Puglia. Vendola commands a genuinely enthusiastic following among young people especially.

            But here too problems exist. Vendola, former member of the Italian Communist party, went on to join Rifondazione Comunista, a fairly hard-core left party that has lost so much clout that it has no members elected to Parliament. At the last elections it won only 3%. Vendola jumped ship, creating his own mini-party, the Left Ecology Freedom party, but how strong that is can only be guessed at this point. 

            Vendola has also been an activist in the gay liberation movement in Italy. Popular as he is with many of us, can he be a viable candidate for Premier, as many hope? Just as code words indicate racism in the case of Obama, here the code words are: “You know he wears an earring.”

            A sign of his strength: translated, Mr. B’s boast of liking girls instead of boys is sayin, You may like Vendola, but he’s gay and I’m a real man. No bunga bunga for Mr. B. Bully for him.

            So what does this say of Italy? To cite Le Monde Nov. 1, “The repetition of judiciary and sexual scandals raises a question of the dignity of the President of the Council of Minister. But Italy’s own image has been damaged. With this slump into the decadence of Empre the end of Berlusconism does no honor to the Italian peninsula.” -- JUDY HARRIS

 

  DIRELAND's Rome correspondent, Judy Harris (left), is a veteran ex-pat journalist who used to write from Italy for TIME magazine and the Wall Street Journal, and now writes for ArtNews. She's the author of the recently-published book, Pompeii Awakened: A Story of Rediscovery. You can visit her website by clicking here.

 Read some of Judy's previous dispatches for DIRELAND: "Prodi's Contradictions," February 26, 2007; "Rome's Anti-Gay Family Day," May 12, 2007; "An Agenda for Bush's Italian Visit," June 8, 2007; "Rome's Gay Kiss-in Protests Arrests," August 3, 2007; "Italy's New Left Party, Old Divisions," October 23, 2007; "Pope Charged With Heresy by Rome University," January 17, 2008; "The Ghosts That Haunt Italy's Elections," March 16, 2008; "Aldo Moro, the Ouija Board, and Romano Prodi: New Revelations About Italy's Most Significant Political Assassination," March 26, 2008

 

NEW CONCERNS FOR SAFETY OF NIKOLAI ALEXEYEV

UPDATE: NIKOLAI SURFACES, SAYS "I WAS NOT IN MINSK, I DID NOT SEND ANY SMS" --READ THE UK GAY NEWS REPORT OF HIS FIRST TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION AT

http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/10/Sep/1702.htm

 

A dispatch published a few hours ago by Interfax Belarus, the Belarussian branch of the Russian-based news agency, raises real questions about whether leading Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev -- who was arrested Wednesday night, disappeared from view for two days while Russian authorities denied having him in custody, than resurfaced in Minsk in Belarus, where he'd been deported -- is in fact truly free of his movements and speech.

The Interfax Belarus dispatch claims that Nikolai has asked for "political asylum" in Belarus and is withdrawing his case before the European Court of Human Rights challenging the ban on Moscow Gay Pride -- a case which was set to be decided in the next weeks. We know from earlier text messages received by Nikolai's boyfriend and Moscow associates that the goal of Nikolai's arrest and of the intense pressure, quite possibly physical, put on him while he was in detention was designed to get him to withdraw the case before the ECHR.

   This new Interfax dispatch from today is highly suspect -- knowing Nikolai, it is inconceivable to me that Nikolai would request political asylum in  Belarus, a homophobic dictatorship ruled since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko, who is "elected" in sham elections described by the OECD as such. This smells a lot like a manipulation of some sort by the FSB (Russia's successor to the KGB, of which you'll remember Vladimir Putin was a top officer).

     Furthermore, nobody has actually spoken to Nikolai by telephone, including his boyfriend--only text messages have been received purporting to be from him, but they could have been written by anybody.

     UPDATE: My friend Andy Harley of UK Gay News, with whom I've been cooperatively working this story, now reports that none of the gay activists in Minsk have heard from Nikolai, which, if he is truly at liberty, is quite surprising--Nikolai knows them well personally, having co-organized Slavic Pride with them and visted Minsk previously on several occasions.

     I am once again very concerned about Nikolai's safety, all the moreso as efforts to reach his boyfriend by telephone today have been unavailing so far.  We will try to have more and accurate news as soon as possible (thanks to Andy Harley of UK Gay News for the tip about the Interfax article today -- the direct link to the article in Belarusian is http://www.interfax.by/news/belarus/79193 ... and the link for a Google translation to English is http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interfax.by%2Fnews%2Fbelarus%2F79193&sl=be&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

   WHAT THIS MEANS is that worldwide continued expressions of concerns to Russia's foreign ministry and embassies by governments,  organizations and especially by journalists must not let up -- only if Putin and his agents, and indeed the Lukashenko dictatorship in Belarus, know the whole world is watching can we help Nikolai in his hour of travail. There is the serious possibility that Nikolai is today the victim of collusion between Lukashenko's political police and Putin's.

     For background on the reasons for Nikolai's arrest last Wednesday at Moscow Airport, see this article retransmitted from gayrussia.ru (the website, founded by Nikolai, was simultaneously attacked by hackers, presumably from Putin's government, the day after Nikolai's arrest and is not available or updateable) by UK Gay News: http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/10/Sep/1601.htm

 -- Doug Ireland, International Affairs Editor

                           Gay City News (New York City)

SARAH SCHULMAN CONFRONTS THE PALESTINIAN DILEMMA

I wrote the following report for Gay City News, New York City's largest queer newspaper:

The impressively prolific Sarah Schulman — the avant-garde novelist and playwright, as well as a historian, essayist, scenarist, and radical activist who for more than two decades has been one of the queer world’s most admirable cultural adornments and public intellectuals — recently journeyed to Palestine and Israel to meet with LGBT activists.

Now, inspired by that trip, she has organized a US speaking tour by Palestinian queer activists that will include an appearance on February 10, 2011, at the CUNY Graduate Center in Midtown Manhattan.

Schulman (right) spoke with Gay City News about the Palestinian queers’ tour and her trip to the region from Yaddo, the prestigious writers’ colony in Saratoga Springs, where she is in residence based on the recommendation of a panel of her peers. (Since its founding in 1900, Yaddo residents have received a total of 64 Pulitzer Prizes, 61 National Book Awards, 27 MacArthur Fellowships, and a Nobel Prize for Literature.)

During her Yaddo residence, Schulman is putting the finishing touches on “The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination,” a reflection on the impact of the AIDS epidemic to be published by the University of California Press. She is also writing a book-length report and meditation about her Palestine trip.

Last fall, Schulman published two new books: “Ties that Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences,” which Gay City News hailed as “one of the most exciting gay liberation texts to appear in years” (see “It Has to Be Said,” November 12-25, 2009.). At the same time, she also published her ninth novel, “The Mere Future” (Arsenal), a futuristic dystopia about a New York City in which the only remaining career option is marketing.

Schulman approached her Middle East visit with some trepidation.

“In November 2009, I received an invitation to keynote the tenth annual Lesbian & Gay Studies and Queer Theory Conference at Tel Aviv University,” Schulman told this reporter, and then referring to protests aimed at the Israeli occupation of Palestine, she explained, “At the time, I was barely aware of the sanctions movement. I was honored to be invited and fully intended to accept the invitation, but a number of friends suggested that I educate myself first. This began a two-month intensive learning process, in which I spoke to a large number of people. I learned that Palestinians, a profoundly oppressed people, were trying the non-violent strategy of developing international sanctions on Israeli institutions that are state-sponsored in order to create change.”

Schulman added, “I also learned that there is a movement of Israeli academics called ‘Boycott Me,’ who are asking for international support of these sanctions in order to ‘save Israel from itself.’ I discovered that both of these positions were very compelling. To my surprise, I came to realize that I had to decline the invitation. However, rather than stay home and do nothing, I decided to go on a solidarity visit, and in March and April of 2010 I spoke to anti-occupation audiences in Israel and Palestine.”

Schulman explained how John Greyson — the openly gay director whose films include the 1996 “Lilies” and the 2009 documentary “Fig Trees,” about South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat, which won the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival — helped her in her learning efforts.

“When I decided to decline the Israeli invitation, I was very concerned about turning my back on an LGBT event,” she said. “I talked at length with John Greyson, the filmmaker. Greyson had previously withdrawn from the Tel Aviv LGBT film festival after the Gaza invasion. He was very patient, kind, and supportive with me and my long process.”

Schulman explained that “given earlier uncritical support many leftists had given to queer-hostile elements in Nicaragua and Cuba,” she was “concerned about the Israeli boycott organizers’ level of acknowledgement both of queer support for the boycott and of Palestinian queers. It’s a long complex story that I can’t summarize, but I really believe that this relationship is in motion in a positive direction. Certainly there are theater producers in America who are more hostile to lesbians than some of the people at PACBI,” the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

In her travels, Schulman said she “became aware of two queer Palestinian communities. There is Aswat, which is a lesbian organization based in Haifa, and Al Qaws, founded in 2007, which is LGBT Palestinians and has chapters in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are, of course, both Muslim and Christian Palestinians, and the groups reflect this mixing as well.”

Schulman explained, “Palestinian queers are active in Israel and in the occupied territories. I’m no expert and don’t want to make mistakes here, but the folks I met were great — both socially and politically motivated, interested in Palestinian politics and queer politics, and in bringing the two together into an organic whole. What I felt was that the global LGBT movement is a vibrant force in worldwide realpolitik and intersecting with national issues everywhere. The particular intersection of the two in Israel and Palestine is very important and exciting.”

On the Israeli leg of her trip, Schulman said, “Aswat and an Israeli feminist organization called Eisha L’Eisha [woman to woman] meet at the Haifa Women’s Center, and I met with them there. I would say there were about 40 people. We had a great deal in common, and my talk was on nuts and bolts of organizing. Of course, Israeli queers are divided along nationalist lines, but queers are also visibly over-represented in the anti-occupation movement in Israel.”

Schulman underlined how “anti-occupation Israelis are in a very tough spot and need our support, especially the queers who are doubly marginalized. I think that community is amazing. Saying ‘Boycott Me’ is so difficult to do. As Americans we know what it is like to have a government that commits war crimes.”

The question of familial homophobia that Schulman addressed in “Ties That Bind” is, she said, a serious problem for both Palestinian and Israeli queers.

“I gave presentations on the book in Tel Aviv and in Ramallah, and the responses were identical, as they have been everywhere that I have presented this material,” she recalled. “I just spoke on it in Paris last month, to a room of nodding heads.”

In fact, Schulman noted, “Familial homophobia seems to be the common experience, on a continuum of specificities, everywhere. Despite all the different cultural constructions of queerness, one thing that is consistent in every culture and country is the delusion by straight people that their sexuality is neutral, natural, objective, and value-free. And this has negative consequences on queers in every condition.”

Given her long activist career — that she finds time for it while producing such a valuable quantity of writing is astonishing — it is not surprising that Schulman’s reaction to her trip was to organize an American speaking tour for Palestinian queer activists.

To list just a few of her activist credentials, she co-founded the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, now called MIX and in its 24th year; joined ACT UP in 1987 and spent five years organizing its direct action protests, with numerous arrests to her credit, including one for the occupation of Grand Central Station during the First Gulf War in a protest dubbed “Money for AIDS and Not for War”; co-created the ACT UP Oral History Project with Jim Hubbard, with whom she is now producing a feature documentary, “United In Anger: The History of ACT UP”; co-founded the direct action group Lesbian Avengers in 1992 and toured the South organizing chapters; co-founded the militant AIDS service organization Housing Works; and was arrested five times as an organizer of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization’s attempts to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

“It is obvious that there is no human face for Palestine in the US LGBT community, and the fact that there are lesbian and LGBT organizations of Palestinians is exciting,” she explained. “People are looking forward to hearing about these Palestinians’ lives and meeting them. The tour is not finalized, but I am expecting it to start in Minneapolis on February 5, and then go to Chicago’s University of Illinois campus on February 6, to the Harvard Kennedy School on February 8, to the CUNY City Graduate Center on February 10, the University of Pennsylvania on February 11, and the Arab Resource Center in the Bay Area on Valentine’s Day, February 14. We also are very hopeful that the Palestinians will be given a chance to speak at the [National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s] Creating Change conference.”

Schulman said she can be contacted via her Facebook page for more information on the Palestinian queers’ tour of the US. Roughly a quarter of the funds needed for the tour have been raised, she said, and donations will gratefully be accepted.

Asked what were the most valuable things she learned from her trip to Palestine and Israel and Schulman responded: “That it is okay to be afraid, but fear should not control my actions. That I need to always think things through for myself and beware of received wisdom. That feeling afraid doesn’t mean that I am in danger. Finally, that doubt, contradiction, and nuance is where one has to live sometimes to make moral choices.”

The English-language website of ASWAT, the Palestinian queer women’s group, is aswatgroup.org/English/. The English-language web site of Al Qaws, the Palestinian LGBT group, is alqaws.org/q/content/community-building. The website of Lesbian Avengers, co-founded by Schulman, is lesbianavengers.com/. The ACT UP Oral History Project, also co-founded by Schulman, is at actuporalhistory.org.