Solidarity with Don Albino Bizzotto: fasting for the environment.
03.09.13
The founder of the Blessed Peacebuilders launched - on August 16 - an indefinite hunger strike to protest against the environmental devastation of his Veneto, destroyed by the Great Works, and to protest with project financing ('project financing'): “This initiative has freed the discomfort and suffering that There are so many people living, who get busy but can't find a way to interrupt it,” explains to Ae At half past nine in the morning, the voice of Don Albino Bizzotto, is calm and serene.
The founder of the association Blessed the Builders of Peace asks me, however, to call him back after two hours: “This morning I have two jobs. The first is the usual one, of listening to people. The second is fasting. And the two things intersect.” Since August 16, Don Albino has refused food, and - as explained in the letter-manifesto published on beati.org - he will do so “indefinitely, due to the environmental emergency” in Veneto, the region where he lives, operates and where the association is based. He's not going to stop, at least until his doctor tells him.
“It's been eight days, and I think what's happening is very interesting. I'm getting a lot of feedback, from people who come here, and via email. It seems to me that this initiative has freed many people from the discomfort and suffering of a generalized devastation of the territory, and faced with the impossibility of finding ways to interrupt it.
I feel like I have lit up a match: what people express is not, only, solidarity and affection for me, but a sharing. They have perfectly understood what the discomfort is, linked -in particular- to interventions provided for by the Objective law and to the project financing mechanism.”
Among the important meetings of these days, Don Albino cites the visit of Piera Moro, mayor of Marano Vicentino, who heads an administration that is trying to block a special waste landfill that insists on the aquifer -as we wrote in Ae 150 -. “He decided to start an extended fast, for ten days, to be done together with the entire City Council: it is a proposal that I 'circulated', through a letter, because I believe that if someone 'does something' in the most environmentally critical places this will force everyone else to take a stand.”
You don't need a map, Don Albino, to trace the geography of these environmental emergencies (many of which we have described on Ae in recent years, and now also in the pages of “Save the Landscape!” ): “It's a chain that never ends: I can start from the MoSE, go through the construction sites of the Venetian foothills, continue to Verona with the Torricelle tunnel, in the Vicenza area with the North Valdastico and the South Valdastico. There is Valsugana, with the tunnel under Mount Grappa. Then there are also the Nogara-mare and the Mestre-Orte, and the continuation of the A28 beyond Cortina.
Throughout Veneto there are 15 road and highway projects, under project financing. As if that were not enough, there are also 4 or 5 new hospital centers, in the lead the one in Padua, a brand-new project worth almost one billion euros.
And the new offshore port for Venice, Veneto City, Tessera City, the doubling of Venice airport. Is that enough for you?” , he jokes.
“My slightly extreme gesture, I know, I haven't eaten for eight days, but fasting has two advantages - he explains: the first is that I don't make anyone pay for my choice, the second is that starting from a situation of weakness and not of strength, I turn to others not with pretensions or orders, but only asking for reception and help.”
Don Albino's action illuminates “a suffering, the will to see that in practice it is possible to change things.”
“We are faced with a great contradiction - he explains -: right now, the topic 'work' pulls, it is a key to solving the crisis. Unfortunately, it seems that we do not know any other economic model. While the need to secure and protect the environment could lead to the invention of more widespread, more concrete work models.”
This, however, “cannot happen in a society founded on great works and not on social services, on the amount of money available.”
In August 2009, Don Albino had already fasted, against the construction of the Dal Molin in Vicenza: “The demonstration on July 4 had not gone well, the movement and the committees were a bit discouraged. I wanted to make my own contribution, a little confidence: to show that choices must be made, even if you lose. There was great enthusiasm, my person was' flooded 'with participation. This - explains Don Albino - has also served to recompact the movement. And Vicenza is very active, both in the debate and in taking action.” On September 7, there will be the event “Vicenza free from military servitude”, which concludes the two weeks of the “No Dal Molin” festival, which begins on August 23. (Source: www.altreconomia.it)
To follow the story day by day, connect to the site of the Blessed the Builders of Peace: www.beati.org
The founder of the association Blessed the Builders of Peace asks me, however, to call him back after two hours: “This morning I have two jobs. The first is the usual one, of listening to people. The second is fasting. And the two things intersect.” Since August 16, Don Albino has refused food, and - as explained in the letter-manifesto published on beati.org - he will do so “indefinitely, due to the environmental emergency” in Veneto, the region where he lives, operates and where the association is based. He's not going to stop, at least until his doctor tells him.
“It's been eight days, and I think what's happening is very interesting. I'm getting a lot of feedback, from people who come here, and via email. It seems to me that this initiative has freed many people from the discomfort and suffering of a generalized devastation of the territory, and faced with the impossibility of finding ways to interrupt it.
I feel like I have lit up a match: what people express is not, only, solidarity and affection for me, but a sharing. They have perfectly understood what the discomfort is, linked -in particular- to interventions provided for by the Objective law and to the project financing mechanism.”
Among the important meetings of these days, Don Albino cites the visit of Piera Moro, mayor of Marano Vicentino, who heads an administration that is trying to block a special waste landfill that insists on the aquifer -as we wrote in Ae 150 -. “He decided to start an extended fast, for ten days, to be done together with the entire City Council: it is a proposal that I 'circulated', through a letter, because I believe that if someone 'does something' in the most environmentally critical places this will force everyone else to take a stand.”
You don't need a map, Don Albino, to trace the geography of these environmental emergencies (many of which we have described on Ae in recent years, and now also in the pages of “Save the Landscape!” ): “It's a chain that never ends: I can start from the MoSE, go through the construction sites of the Venetian foothills, continue to Verona with the Torricelle tunnel, in the Vicenza area with the North Valdastico and the South Valdastico. There is Valsugana, with the tunnel under Mount Grappa. Then there are also the Nogara-mare and the Mestre-Orte, and the continuation of the A28 beyond Cortina.
Throughout Veneto there are 15 road and highway projects, under project financing. As if that were not enough, there are also 4 or 5 new hospital centers, in the lead the one in Padua, a brand-new project worth almost one billion euros.
And the new offshore port for Venice, Veneto City, Tessera City, the doubling of Venice airport. Is that enough for you?” , he jokes.
“My slightly extreme gesture, I know, I haven't eaten for eight days, but fasting has two advantages - he explains: the first is that I don't make anyone pay for my choice, the second is that starting from a situation of weakness and not of strength, I turn to others not with pretensions or orders, but only asking for reception and help.”
Don Albino's action illuminates “a suffering, the will to see that in practice it is possible to change things.”
“We are faced with a great contradiction - he explains -: right now, the topic 'work' pulls, it is a key to solving the crisis. Unfortunately, it seems that we do not know any other economic model. While the need to secure and protect the environment could lead to the invention of more widespread, more concrete work models.”
This, however, “cannot happen in a society founded on great works and not on social services, on the amount of money available.”
In August 2009, Don Albino had already fasted, against the construction of the Dal Molin in Vicenza: “The demonstration on July 4 had not gone well, the movement and the committees were a bit discouraged. I wanted to make my own contribution, a little confidence: to show that choices must be made, even if you lose. There was great enthusiasm, my person was' flooded 'with participation. This - explains Don Albino - has also served to recompact the movement. And Vicenza is very active, both in the debate and in taking action.” On September 7, there will be the event “Vicenza free from military servitude”, which concludes the two weeks of the “No Dal Molin” festival, which begins on August 23. (Source: www.altreconomia.it)
To follow the story day by day, connect to the site of the Blessed the Builders of Peace: www.beati.org
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