Ostrogoto [en]

War Times

We live in war times. An undeclared, yet daily, war. A war that pursues a very precise aim: imposing rules and conditions decided by a few government leaders at the expense of the totality of the governed, force to passively submit to them. It is the deepest aspect of Democracy. The tangible sign of war, however, is the militarization of the territory, made of barracks, military bases, radar... Precisely like the installation in Gagliano del Capo (LE), Italy, which is being discussed these day, a project of the Financial Guard (the Italian financial police, a branch of the Italian military that operates under the Minister of Economy and Finance). A very sophisticated radar, whose use will for intercepting the rubber boats of the desperate who try to land on this patch of ground to escape from poverty, hunger and—above all at this time—war. It is obvious, then, that these war times involve everyone, even if in different ways.


A few voices of protest are raised against the installation of this radar, because, it's been said, there are health risks and it would deface “our” territory. The same discourse made against the project of the extension of the Otranto base, at Palascìa point. But reasoning in terms of a territory of “ours” to defend is the best way to favor the installation of these structures, which the media propaganda itself describes as functional to the defense, precisely, of the territory.

So there is an appeal to Democracy, this specter that would like citizens to be informed of  harmful projects that arise near them. The fact that the radar is produced in Israel, on of the top democracies in the world that holds the Palestinian population in vast concentration camp, should make very clear what to expect from this much praised form of government.

To believe that the matter is to be posed only in environmental terms or those of the beauty of the landscape means diminishing its content and its danger. The installation of a new radar—like the extension of a base—concerns everyone's freedom, because the installation of new military structures implies an automatic constriction, both in physical terms (off-limits zones, areas under surveillance, prohibited areas, etc.), and in terms of control, because if the radar serves “only” to control and repress the disinherited of the world in search a way of salvation, every military structure is functional to war to the highest degree, and where there is war, there can be no freedom, in the same way that every uniform is synonymous with social control.

And the events of these days are clarifying this all to us in an unequivocal way, telling us that, against those who seek freedom, war has been the answer. If one day, even here, moments of freedom were to advance, it would be much to easy to turn the radar around to the other side, onto terra ferma, once it is installed.