Intrecci TV 2005-2006

One hundred million people in the world do not have access to bank loans because they are considered economically high risk by traditional bankers. For the most part they are people who live in developing countries. Micro-credit applies to them, it enables them a small loan, given to them without any guaranties, to open new businesses. Yunus the founder of the Gramee Bank, explains how initialy micro - credit was directed to the poor women of Bangladesh, and then it grew to other areas of the world, reaching Europe. The United Nations, supports this type of initiative as a development motor - illustrating concrete examples in Africa and India - and they have proclaimed 2005 to be the year of "international micro - credit". Video
Last Autumn the first world conference on "Science's future" was held at the Fondazione Cini in Venice. Scientists, researchers, philosophers, religious and political representatives participated in the conference - promoted by Professor Umberto Veronesi - debating themes such as "science and ethics", "science and daily life" and "science and power". A special attention was given to energy sources and their relation with environment, also in consideration of the recent devastating climate phenomena which had similarly hit the Northern countries and the Southern ones, whose dramatic problems have worsened because of this. Video
As every year at San Rossore's estate, close to Pisa, a meeting has been arranged by the Regione Toscana in order to discuss the huge problems of the millennium. Planet's health has been faced both from its environmental aspects and its influence on the everyday life, either positive or negative, from Italian, African, Asian and American rapporteurs. The few fundamental improvements in food availability and in life expectations have not been followed by a correspondent progress of the access' right to health and food quality. This is due mainly to the economic contrasting concerns and to the persistent heavy differences between the more and less developed countries: the comparison between the different realities has produced suggestions and proposals in view of a better future for all. Video
One hundred years ago Italy - and also Modena district, now one of the richest in the world - suffered from a heavy situation of poverty. About one hundred families of the Modenese Apennines decided to emigrate towards the virgin lands of Southern Chile: a suffered departure, and one hundred years spent among thousands of difficulties in the Capitan Pastene settlement - from the name of the first Genoese Admiral of the Pacific Ocean, in service of the Spanish Monarchy. Today the 2,000 descendants of those emigrants - who still keep names and a few food customs of their native country, recall with emotion and passion, with a carts procession hauled by oxen, the historical vicissitudes of their ancestors. Video
Pollution, together with climate changes' consequences - such as drought, desertification, storms, floods, water resources impoverishment - affects the fragile balance of our planet's health. It is important to create a new awareness both from the information and the education viewpoint. The third world Conference on environment education, held in Turin, has been the occasion to compare opinions on this matter through actual examples in various countries of the North and South of the world, with special witnesses gathered among indigenous people, who have always taken care of natural environment preservation, their unique life source. Video
The first one to realize that Cristoforo Colombo had not got to the Indies but had "discovered" a new world was not the Genoese navigator himself, but another Italian, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera. And from the name of another Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, comes the word America. But many other navigators and travellers, in service of the Spanish, English and French monarchies, explored and described the continent. Among them Gerolamo Benzoni, who first described - in his "Historia del Mondo Nuovo", published in 1565 - the terrible consequences of the Spanish conquest, now revised from Massimo Livi Bacci from the demographic viewpoint. Three hundred years later many other Italians - subject of a recent meeting held in Genoa - reached America looking for freedom, still a mirage in their native land. Antonio Raimondi, for instance, gave an important contribution the the knowledge and valorisation of the modern Peru and was the symbol of the relationship between the two worlds. Video
The video begins and ends with an interview with the Nobel Prize in Economics Amartya Sen, who emphasizes the importance of a democratic information system in order to fight against poverty and social inequalities. Other interviews follow with African and Italian reporters about the weight of a free press - not a "catastrophist" information - and the collaboration among North and South of the world's journalists, with a view to foster the mutual knowledge between different and more and more interdependent realities. From the press to the radio, as a fundamental and cheap instrument of democratic communication, both for producers and users: with interviews and examples from Brazil to Rwanda, to an international meeting promoted by Radio Popolare, one of the first free broadcasting stations of Italy. All this with a view to building up an alliance between North and South of the world's media, in order to fill in the information gap which still divides them. Video
In the world there are millions of refugees who need assistance and support. Humanitarian organization "Medici senza frontiere" (Doctors without borders) has recently tried to call our attention to this huge tragedy of our times by making a reconstruction of refugees' daily life in the heart of Italian cities, through the initiative "Un campo in città" (A camp in the city). Different examples, from Somalia to Angola, show the condition of people who depend, for their survival, on the international aids of U.N.O. agencies or NGOs. At the beginning, camp life seems to be a temporary one, since all of them hope to return to their country and to the relatives they have left in order to escape wars, persecution, famine or natural disasters. But sometimes years elapse before this happens. And in the meantime, things that seem "normal" to us - t.i. water, food, home, health... - must be conquered with difficulty day by day. Video
Even this year there is at San Rossore, near Pisa, the usual appointment on the theme of globalization, organized by the Tuscan Region. Energy is the topic. From the many guests, one of exception, Beppe Grillo, who in a long interview touches the theme he cares about the most: alternative energy, fight against waste; incinerators, internet and its extraordinary possibilities, information, pollution and politics. Video
The traditional Summer rendez-vous at San Rossore, promoted by the Regione Toscana, has been dedicated this year to the energy problem. Experts, researchers and scientists from different countries have debated on renewable energy as a possible way to get out of oil and the other fossil fuels dependence. Its use, in fact, is one of the causes of the terrestrial globe overheating and of the catastrophic climate changes. The intention is to get over the energy crisis through a saving-aimed policy, mostly in the rich countries, who consume 85% of the global resources, while the poorest ones, such as Africa, do not practically have access to the energy market. To find alternative sources of energy, clean and renewable - such as sun, wind and hydrogen: this is the challenge that mankind has to face in the next few years for a sustainable future. Video