Álvaro Colom is the new president of Guatemala after elections that were clean but marked by absenteeism and an elevated number of intentionally null votes. The principal objectives of the new legislature are to overcome the criminality rate, lack of security, poverty and low levels of production. Right now the key lies in governability.
(From Guatemala City) ÁLVARO COLOM WAS ABLE TO ASCEND TO THE PRESIDENCY of Guatemala on his third try. He is confronted with a country that is suffering from a very high delinquency rate, an extreme lack of security, and one of the highest percentages of inequality in Latin America, along with an alarming unemployment rate. He has four years to attempt to remedy these structural problems, and he has challenged himself to obtain concrete results within 100 days.
After two electoral rounds that were exhausting for the candidates, the population, and the national and international electoral observers, Colom managed to become president of Guatemala. The elections have been clean, but improvements still need to be made. The man in charge of the European Union’s electoral observation mission, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, highlighted, among many other things, that the campaign and pre-campaign should be shorter and that there is a lack of efficient mechanisms to supervise and control the parties’ expenses in those activities.
REDUCE POVERTY, GENERATE EMPLOYMENT, END THE LACK OF SECURITY
Otto Pérez, a retired general and a harsh candidate, lost with a campaign that promoted punishment by example for the delinquents and managed to win over much of the population. Harsh Hand was its motto. If we take into account that five months ago nobody supported Peréz, and that he has now been nearly victorious, we can get an idea of the desperation that the Guatemalans live in with respect to the organized and unorganized crime that ravages the country. Those who voted for Pérez forgot the soldier’s performance during times of armed conflict, in which he was responsible for many deaths, causing various human rights groups to brand his actions as genocide while providing proof for this accusation. The daily pragmatism that defines current Guatemala, indigenous and mestizo, could give Pérez the victory within four years.
“Colom admires Rodríguez Zapatero and Michelle Bachelet, and he is characterized by using the words willingness, dialog, negotiation, and tolerance to the umpteenth power, which is still valued very little by the majority of the Guatemalan population”
This is the same four years that Colom has to reduce poverty, generate employment, end the lack of security and increase the productivity of his country. He calls himself a social democrat, but someone who hears this and is not familiar with Guatemala can get confused.
Ideology in Guatemalan political parties shines brightly because of its absence; it is possible to find politicians that have been in 4 or 5 parties without having any problems. There is even one who was with Colom in the first round of these elections, and with Pérez in the second one. Being a politician is simply another job in this marvelous Central American country.
Even so, Colom admires Rodríguez Zapatero and Michelle Bachelet, and he is characterized by using the words willingness, dialog, negotiation, and tolerance to the umpteenth power. Personally, I find it admirable along general lines, but it is still valued very little by the majority of the Guatemalan population. He has evidently won the elections, but we shouldn’t forget the very high level of abstention or the high number of intentionally null votes.
GOVERNABILITY, A KEY MATTER
If Colom implements an effective program that makes an impact within the first 100 days in office, he would earn needed credibility from internal and external politicians, economists, and social workers. The international community needs more to be able to invest in Guatemala. The Guatemalan population needs more to be able to believe in the new president.
“The problem is that the word hope has been diluted so many times in Guatemala that it frightens people to pronounce it in vain”
One of the key points will be the governability of the country; because without it nothing of what Colom might propose will be able to move forward, since his party does not hold the majority in Parliament. He will have to effectuate the agreements that he had been working on with the parties that have been left out of the second round. Without them his projects will not be able to achieve much. There has already been a positive response from various leaders, some of whom helped him win the second time around, like Álvaro Arzú, the ex-President of the country and current mayor of the capital.
Colom should be able to obtain support from the Great National Alliance (GANA in its Spanish initials), the Unionist Party, the Center of Social Action, and especially from the Meeting in Guatemala (Encuentro Por Guatemala). Above all, he should be able to gain support for his social projects from this last group. But the shadow of the turncoat, which in this case could be both a problem and a solution for governability, continues to have an influence on all of the Guatemalan parties. This is a problem because members of Colom’s party, the National Unity of Hope (UNE in its Spanish initials), might defect to other political groups, which would be an advantage because others might join the President Elect’s party and contribute votes.
ISSUES THAT CAN’T BE AVOIDED
Coinciding with the Guatemalan voters’ pragmatism, there should be demands for what can be accomplished. The country is not going to enjoy a radical transformation during the next four years, but Álvaro Colom has the obligation to work on some of these points without any hesitation.
The reduction of assassinations in general, but those of women in particular, given that they are turning into a historical curse for the country. They are indiscriminate, cowardly and reactionary; in the majority of cases they kill them simply for being women. All of the State’s strength should be concentrated on this. In the process the security forces, which for the moment, at best, look the other way, should be purged of what needs to be purged.
Raising the employment rate; making agreements with economic and social forces with which there has already been rapprochement.
The task is immense, but in order for Colom to pass the first exam that he himself has imposed for his first 100 days, he needs to start truly acting from somewhere. Of course, looking at the situation carefully, improving the way that things are now is not a very complicated thing. The”problem is that the word hope has been diluted so many times in Guatemala that it frightens people to pronounce it in vain.
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PORCASI GAETANO
date: 22 | 06 | 2008
time: 6:40 pm
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THE WORKS RACCONTANO HISTORY FROM 1943 TO 2007 http://WWW.GAETANOPORCASI.IT Written by: PORCASI GAETANO | March 25, 2008 at 00:52 The commitment in word sociale.La legality was so used to cause in public, when you feel a sense of fastidio.Applicare the legality and affirm respect the law of the state should be the first step that every citizen should do as observe its duties, then ask to have guaranteed its diritti.L art as well as the legality sebrano two abstract entity but has not always been cosi.Sono banquet that art is not just aesthetic, but when it reflect on social problems and of humanity becomes a tool to awaken consciences, So the artist is sensitive to social issues can not fail to denounce with the tool that has the discrepancies in society and it lobbies of potere.Il Indeed power does not like being criticized, whatever ideology and proclamations of any color dress. The power loves maintain and preserve itself and can influence and direct politics, society. In my work I tried to point out and highlight the role of devastating power politics, environment, money persone.Il close ally of power while to develop tends to trample human dignity and beauty of nature and often health ciascuno.Per same as this I thought my works as an instrument of denunciation sociale.E when I pointed out the pollution of which we are ourselves victims every day on time came the reaction with the complaint, with ostracismi, and with indifference to my works that were sometimes dele provocations, just to demonstrate how the general statements of legalitàa are worthless when it says it wants to do one thing and then realized the exact opposto.Recentemente with friends, journalists, politicians of good will are trying to put in a laboratory culture that has trasversare wing basic honesty, observance of human values, respect for the diversity ipegno to preserve for future generations a planet and a viable environment done by people in solidarity fatti.Per why we thought having accerttare comparison with men of good volontà.E in this spirit that I decided to establish this recognition that comes from those who want intestarsi a draft of good governance that can improve the quality of life of our terra.E a la challenge that we run to you and we are doing to us stessi.Pittore Antimafia Gaetano Porcasi.www.gaetanoporcasi.it
Published by:
PORCASI GAETANO
date: 03 | 08 | 2008
time: 10:57 pm
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Gaetano Porcasi was was born in Partinico, a small town near Palermo, in 1965.In 1986 he attended the School of Art and Mosaic in Monreale where he discovered his inborn artistic qualities and took his degree. In 1991 he graduated at Palermo’s High School of Fine Arts . Here some of his schoolmates were famous national and international painters such as Provino, Modica, Di Raco. In the 90s he lived in Sardinia where he taught at the School of Art in Sassari and Alghero and at the Art Lycee atTempio Pausania (SS). Today he teaches History of Art and Drawing in some Sicilian schools.
He has exhibited his own paintings in several Sicilian and Italian towns such as Palermo, Bagheria, Partinico,Cattolica Eraclea, Sassari, Olbia, Roma and Milano. All his exhibitions have always been very successful and his paintings have been bought both by private collectors and by public institutions and associations in Italy and abroad ( The U.S.A , Africa). His artistic talent and his social and political commitment have been praised by many art critics, historians and politicians who have published reviews about Gaetano Porcasi and his works of art in several papers and magazines such as Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, Gente, Oggi, Arte Moderna, Panorama etc.
Gaetano Porcasi has been called “ The painter who paints History” and his paintings are considered “unique” not only for their social and political message and denunciation but also for the artist’s technique and choice of his typical Mediterranean colours from which a strong and deep “Sicilitudine” (Sicilian mood) emerges.
The 2003 itinerant exhibition about” Portella della Ginestra Massacre” is a good example of Porcasi’s social and historical denunciation , of his high level pictorial research and experimentation and of the up-to-dateness of his paintings.In 1947 a lot of Sicilian farmers were fired and killed by the outlaw Salvatore Giuliano and his men at Portella. They were sent by the local Mafiosi and great landowners to stop their attempts at occupying and growing the uncultivated lands of that area. Those victims can be compared to today’s Brazilian campesinos who are killed by the vigilantes sent by the local great landowners to drive them out of their uncultivated lands.
In the fixity of a canvas Gaetano Porcasi succeeds in conveying the pathos of dramatic events and of oppressed people,in giving voice to his moral strain and in stirring up very strong emotions.
His historical paintings which denounce the violence and oppression of the Mafia, find their counterpart in his paintings which depict Sicilian sunny landscapes rich in lemon,orange, olive trees, in prickly pear, agave, broom plants. They show the wealth of a land that has been kissed by God but downtrodden by man. In painting the sky of his Sicily , Porcasi uses several , different hues of blue and it’s from this sky that his pictorial journey starts.
In his paintings the history of Sicily, which has always been marked by its farmers’ sweat and blood and by their struggles for freedom and democracy, finds its pictorial expression in the fusion of the red flags of the workers with the Italian flag in a sort of Italian and Mediterranean “epopea” .The red flags and the Italian flag stand out against the blue sky that changes its hues according to the events, the seasons the deeds the moods that are painted on the canvas.
The luxuriant nature of Sicily with its beautiful, sunny , Mediterranean landscapes seems to remain the silent, unchangeable and unchanged witness of the events and the passing of time. Here people are only “accidenti” , they aren’t makers of their own life. Thus Gaetano Porcasi makes a clear-cut metaphysical distinction between a benigne, merciful nature who is devoted to good and to the respect of all its unchangeable laws and Man who breaks this natural harmony to satisfy his wild, unbridled ambition and selfishness and who becomes the perpetrator of violence and crime. Moreover, Gaetano Porcasi is an environmentalist and his commitment against any form of pollution has already cost him a lot of attacks and complaints from the Authorities.
Porcasi’s paintings share with Guttuso’s the same typical “Sicilitudine” and the same chromatic realism: his bitter orange trees with their bright-green leaves ,thorny branches and red-coloured fruits ,which are painted by the artist in rare hues, testify a complex, deep, psychological research. The juicy fruits and the prickles that spring from the branches of his orange trees are symbols of Man’s life: he is the protagonist of human history both in good and in evil. The “Sicilitudine” in Porcasi’s paintings becomes a metaphor of human life and a pretext to tell Mediterranean stories whose meaning is universal.Besides he uses a simple pictorial language, he paints with all his heart.
Some critics and amateurs are often surprised by the young age of this painter since his works imply such maturity which is rare in young people.
Porcasi’s artistic future will be something extraordinarily important and successful and this “pure” Sicilian painter will make his own mark in the world of Art.
ARTE SOCIALE, SOLE E Sicilia nelle tele di Porcasi
La pittura di Gaetano Porcasi è stato Tema principale della trasmissione “ Giro di Taglia” di Sky condotta dal Critico d’Arte Donat Conenna giornalista della sede Milanese della Tv satellitare. Lla Sicilia e le opere pittoriche d’impegno sociale e storico dell’atista siciliano saranno inserite nel Museo della Legalità che sarà allocato nella casa di Via Colletti confiscata a Bernardo Provenzano. Dopo la morte di Renato Guttuso ha sottolineato Conenna non viè stata più pittura d’impegno sociale. Porcasi con le sue tele riprende la pittura sociale e la rilancia con cromaismi e modalità personali.
La giornalista francese Gaiane ha sottolineato che la pittura dell’artista si può definire di tipo Marsigliese e quindi rivoluzionaria ed unica nel suo genere. La tela di Portella delle Ginistre è paragonabile al “quarto Stato” di Pellizza da Volpedo. Dello stesso avviso Mariella Testori di Mediapolis. Porcasi evoca anche i temi relativi all’unità nazonale ed ai principi comuni che sono alla base dell’unità nazionale.
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