The comune has in hand a proposal from a Spanish alternative energy consortium to receive large sums of money each year in return for permitting the placing of some 29 wind turbines on the hill crest above Gello Biscardo and (just the last 2) La Castellina. They are not visible from Castellina because of an intervening crest, nor are they visible from the village house because of an intervening village, particularly palazzo Cassi.
They are visible from just about every other viewpoint between Florence and Rome (perhaps Incisa and Chiusi, but still.)
It is becoming plain that the suspicion that negotiations are more advanced and distribution of benefits more personal than the comune has vouchsafed is well founded.
At a meeting attended by Library representatives the ecological folly of all this was demonstrated. It emerged also from a sororal visit by one of the councillors of Foiano, that the comune here has entered as well into negotiation for the siting of a rubbish dump for highly toxic materials from all over Italy and, possibly, all over the European Union.
The extreme reluctance to release information, papers, and high levels of irritation in the comune at their plans being discovered raises fears for the worst possible behaviour by this utterly corrupt and rotten borough. But private and social steps have been taken to protect ourselves. As well, a dangerous rift in attitudes and tactics by the council opposition has been averted and the importance of maintaining a social and cultural opposition to these devastations of our environment, rather than embroiling ourselves in a political fight asserted.
The preset numbers of days for all kinds of legal steps have not run out and all appropriate papers have been lodged (many thanx to the legal and administrative Library team.)
Alliances among the local landowners are being built; the next step might be to make aware local property owners of the devastating drop in their house values if either of these projects goes through. Many people here have mortgages past their ears and nothing but their monthly wages, yet they have little idea what the downgrading of the zone to 'contaminated' will do to them economically.
Any Library user with suggestions, comments etc., should put them forward on this thread, which the Librarian will regularly check; accounts of similar struggles against pseudo-ecological tax harvesting ploys would be welcome particularly.
Showing posts with label communal licence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communal licence. Show all posts
06/04/2007
02/02/2007
carnival
The whole village is being closed and I've just moved the landrover into the vicolo to look fierce in front of the garden gate.
The Committee turned up yesterday evening with the flags to hang from the windows (not enough, so I'll put them on the first floor). They're banners really, rather than flags I suppose, it's the same word in Italian.
It is really quite an ancient festivity; there are records from the 13th century of men dressing as women, women as men and swaggering about giving orders, free drink and vast pails of pasta being offered by the local landowners, cooked in vessels borrowed from the local madhouse.
Mad house it became after a few days of that; it got out of hand year after year - total licentiousness only supressed by the start of Lent. And sometimes Lent was not enough and soldiers had to be sent from Arezzo.
Eventually it was suppressed - more soldiers for little outbursts of carnivalism for a few years, but down it went around the late 1400s.
The Church was pleased as there was mock religiosity as well; the arrival of the king, inflammatory speeches about enjoyment and choice, then a mock funeral at his death with open coffin carried through the village and the revellers as the mourners.
Its revival has the local priest in a sulk, refusing to ring the bells (for which relief....) but some remarkably fine costumes; over 190 figures walk now, the women are men, and the men are women; there is free wine and pasta again too, though the mad house is no more. I could not say about the other carnival practices. All the figures are masked. And Lewes itself would be jealous of the burning of the king.
The Committee turned up yesterday evening with the flags to hang from the windows (not enough, so I'll put them on the first floor). They're banners really, rather than flags I suppose, it's the same word in Italian.
It is really quite an ancient festivity; there are records from the 13th century of men dressing as women, women as men and swaggering about giving orders, free drink and vast pails of pasta being offered by the local landowners, cooked in vessels borrowed from the local madhouse.
Mad house it became after a few days of that; it got out of hand year after year - total licentiousness only supressed by the start of Lent. And sometimes Lent was not enough and soldiers had to be sent from Arezzo.
Eventually it was suppressed - more soldiers for little outbursts of carnivalism for a few years, but down it went around the late 1400s.
The Church was pleased as there was mock religiosity as well; the arrival of the king, inflammatory speeches about enjoyment and choice, then a mock funeral at his death with open coffin carried through the village and the revellers as the mourners.
Its revival has the local priest in a sulk, refusing to ring the bells (for which relief....) but some remarkably fine costumes; over 190 figures walk now, the women are men, and the men are women; there is free wine and pasta again too, though the mad house is no more. I could not say about the other carnival practices. All the figures are masked. And Lewes itself would be jealous of the burning of the king.
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