Thank you Mr
Mayor, good evening everyone and thank you for attending.
First of all, President Bassolino, I offer you the
welcome and greetings on behalf of our Institute and of all the young people in the
other rooms are watching us via video conference.
In our brief
greeting message we would like to explain the reasons that led us to
organize a conference on the Regional Operational Program of Campania,
motivations definitely linked to the birth and objectives of the Institute
Italian for European Studies.
In these months
we carried out a very extensive investigation in the schools of Giugliano
interesting, but with unfortunately predictable outcomes; we have in fact found
that the young people of our province have dreamed of since adolescence
abandon these places, living the present feebly and emptying the
our cities of hopes;
the intention of
break this circle vicious that impoverishes a land already
poor he convinced us, eight years ago when we were little more than high school students, first
with the Uqbar Association now with the Italian Institute for European Studies,
of the need to constitute a stable place of attraction, a place that
managed to stop the diaspora of intelligences and therefore form a basis
new the new ruling class.
There were two then,
and they still remain, the guiding ideas that we have kept in front of us, both linked
to Europe:
1. the first that of amplifying trust in the big
resource opportunities deriving from the European integration process, starting
from the reconstruction of the now shattered memory of these cities, which have
instead represented with Magna Graecia, as we all know, for a moment
unmatched harmony and balance between culture and politics;
2. the other guiding idea lies in the awareness that training and
culture represents the privileged way to combat the issues
unresolved issues of this symbolic province of the South with all its problems
cultural, economic, urban planning and criminal activities that form such an interweaving
complex that can only be achieved by acting simultaneously on the different causes
provide a real opportunity for development.
And then together
tolawyer Marotta, President
of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, who never gave up
to the oblivion of the South, and that with its ability to "frequent the future"
gave us the strength of this idea,
and together
to the Municipal Administration of Giugliano, and in particular to Mayor Gerlini that with
determination and stubbornness has supported our project from the beginning
when it was little more than a dream, and than to the inaction of the usual suspicious ones
he preferred the energy of the scenarios we presented to him, and which he always has
left complete autonomy to our Board of Directors, marking a turning point in the
trust in politics, of a large group of young people,
with the support of
people we will certainly never forget, we said, we gave life to
to the Italian Institute for European Studies, an autonomous foundation
completely entrusted to young people among
eighteen and thirty years old.
In little more than a
year we made the headquarters operational and created an already recognized library
by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and a multimedia room open to the public
(unique in the South) to combat rampant computer illiteracy and
to make the potential of the Internet truly accessible to everyone;
thanks to your commitment
of the owner, Professor Palumbo whom we thank, we have restored the
canvas of the ceiling of this room;
we also have
awarded more than one hundred scholarships to scholars from across the region,
activated three foreign language courses with the British Council, dozens of schools
of high education in as many municipalities in the Province of Naples and Caserta,
initiated some research projects, as well as cultural diffusion courses
European in high schools;
and right in
these days there is a large project underway entitled "Philosophy, science
and technology: a renewed alliance" which brought scientists to Giugliano
from all over Italy and received praise from many universities.
Maybe this is one
of the most beautiful experiences: the professors arrive here with great distrust,
mainly due to the bad reputation of our places: but then the enthusiasm
and the seriousness with which they are welcomed, the beauty of Palazzo Palumbo and
of the splendid Piazza Matteotti, leave a positive and lasting mark.
They return to their cities with a very different idea: an idea of hope in a
new South, in cities that are changing, in young people up to the task
next challenges.
All of these
initiatives are currently carried out with the sole financial contribution of the Municipality
of Giugliano and a large group of young people, scholars and
professionals who volunteer their time.
The project
at the beginning he was accused of being too vague and ambitious, today we believe
shows obvious consistency, and that's why we thought of
develop the entire initiative trying to exploit the opportunity offered by European Structural Funds, and from here it is
the idea of this evening's conference was also born.
We have indeed
started studying Agenda 2000 and the POR CAMPANIA, we went to Rome, al
Ministry of the Treasury and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the idea of
build a project on Internationalization, an item explicitly foreseen
in the measures 6.4 and 6.5 of the Program
Regional Operational on which we are still working.
A project aimed at internationalization
of the Provinces of the Campania Region we believe it can represent for everyone
a unique opportunity to accelerate the development process because it would exploit,
among other things, a driving force of expectations that is difficult to repeat.
Promote
Internationalization can mean freeing these cities from asphyxiation
myopia of recent centuries; perhaps it also means solving the painful puzzle
that binds, without solution ignorance,
poverty And underworld.
We live in a time in which the very idea of distance has collapsed,
of distance; this is therefore precisely the moment to try to overwhelm the
condition and habit of these provinces to marginality.
Internationalization
can, together with the many other possibilities offered by the Structural Funds,
seek a rebalance between history and modernity that follows the paths of
exchange and knowledge, which have always been peculiar to our realities.
To do this is
However, a cultural and political revolution is necessary: that is, to start thinking
without a radiating and often devouring center;
to use
a now well-known image, that of the Internet, we think of many centers, for example
a network of more or less specialized nodes, but whose strength lies in number
of connections; and then Giugliano, Villaricca, Melito, Aversa, and the many others
municipalities represented here tonight, no longer considered suburbs of Naples
large international city, but as places of a large European Region, headquarters
of primary services but also of hopes and lived
for its citizens, how
Proust would write, to try to find lost time;
perspective that
You too, Mr President, have expressed your hope several times.
The need for
connection and support structures between students, professionals,
administrators and cultural and scientific institutions on the one hand and institutions
community and international on the other is a fact that has been found in
all opportunities for meeting and debate.
And that's right
this space of “composition of
distances" that our Institute intends to employ to promote and help
the desired development process, to encourage the formation of that tissue
cultural and social fundamental for the political and economic growth of
Midday.
Objectives
they therefore become main the
formation of a European conscience, And the
establishment of a center that can be of support to all those –
first of all local administrations – show the need for help
for the development of the territory which lacks research and analysis
socio-economic.
Becoming a city
Europeans also means starting to study and learn in detail the
territory before planning changes, to quote Col philosopher Popper: that politicians and administrators transform themselves into social engineers!
The POR CAMPANIA therefore offers great possibilities that
they must be addressed with a more European mentality, far from logic
welfare: and in this we hope for fervor and freshness of ideas, ed
more courage in taking risks,
naturally respecting the great values of freedom and equality
of Enlightenment Europe.
We ultimately decided to collect the
challenge of making Europe resemble the idea that the greats have constructed of it
pro-Europeans, a Europe in which, using the words of Mitterrand “… our students, our researchers,
our creative people are aware that they have universities in common, i
laboratories, libraries, concert halls, museums; they know everything
what is offered to them must be preserved, vivified, so as not to die.
The
our culture should never know borders...".
We hope to be
managed to describe the reasons for this conference, dictated above all by
feeling that local administrations, entrepreneurs but sometimes also the
universities retain great distrust regarding funding possibilities
and that there remains general misinformation on the relevant methods
participation.
This is why the idea was born together with the
Mayor Gerlini and Councilor Granata, whom we thank for their trust and confidence
collaboration that has always led towards us, the idea was born,
we were saying, to organize a conference aimed in particular at the representatives
of the institutions and categories of the area north of Naples involved in the
topic of the European Structural Funds and therefore on the Regional Operational Programme
2000 | 2006 which the President of the will talk to us about this evening
Regional council, who immediately showed themselves available for the meeting.
Finally before
give the floor, we wanted to take this opportunity to tell the President
Bassolino that our Institute has great confidence in the goals that it has achieved
Region is preparing to achieve in the coming years, and that we belong to
generation of young people who for years, in all locations, institutional,
policies, schools was encouraged to take part in the development of
Country in an active and participatory form:
we chose
this essentially uninhabited place located in the space between the institutions
and politics on the one hand, and citizens and young people on the other, to bring
forward to a future of dialogue and collaboration:
the rooms
of the Institute are crowded every day with young people with different ideas
policies that study together and discuss the great challenges that await us
in the coming years, such as globalization, the information revolution and that
genetics... challenges that we will only be able to face and overcome by working together
together, next to each other, without prejudice…
yet President,
as you know well, enemies are wherever you try to make a point
of dialogue and free and disinterested education, we hope to be able to
gain your trust and be able to always have you by our side, together
to the many illustrious guests this evening, why interrupt this journey
it would truly be a wasted opportunity.
Thank you Mr
President and thank you all for your attention.
Giugliano in Campania, February 9th
2001 Armando Di Nardo