31 January 2005

Risquer

Rire, c'est risquer de paraître idiot.
Pleurer, c'est risquer de paraître sentimental.
Aller vers quelqu'un, c'est risquer de s'engager.
Exposer ses sentiments, c'est risquer d'exposer son moi profond.
Présenter ses idées, ses rêves à la foule, c'est risquer de les perdre.
Aimer, c'est risquer de ne pas être aimé en retour.

Vivre, c'est risquer de mourir.
Espérer, c'est risquer de désespérer.
Essayer, c'est risquer d'échouer.

Mais il faut prendre des risques car le plus grand danger de la vie, c'est de ne rien risquer du tout.

Celui qui ne risque rien, ne fait rien, n'est rien ! Il peut éviter la souffrance et la tristesse, mais il n'apprend rien, ne ressent rien, ne peut ni changer, ni se développer, ne peut aimer, ni vivre. Enchaîné par sa certitude, il devient esclave, il abandonne la liberté.

Seuls ceux qui risquent sont libres.

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J'ai reçu cette poème de Annick, la mère de Brigitte de Clercq, fondatrice du Cercle des Voyageurs à Bruxelles, et décédée il y a quelques jours en Afrique.

05 January 2005

Book Review: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, by Richard Clarke, *****

Synopsis
Few political memoirs have made such a dramatic entrance as that by Richard A. Clarke. During the week of the initial publication of Against All Enemies, Clarke was featured on 60 Minutes, testified before the 9/11 commission, and touched off a raging controversy over how the presidential administration handled the threat of terrorism and the post-9/11 geopolitical landscape. Clarke, a veteran Washington insider who had advised presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, dissects each man's approach to terrorism but levels the harshest criticism at the latter Bush and his advisors who, Clarke asserts, failed to take terrorism and Al-Qaeda seriously. Clarke details how, in light of mounting intelligence of the danger Al-Qaeda presented, his urgent requests to move terrorism up the list of priorities in the early days of the administration were met with apathy and procrastination and how, after the attacks took place, Bush and key figures such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney turned their attention almost immediately to Iraq, a nation not involved in the attacks. Against All Enemies takes the reader inside the Beltway beginning with the Reagan administration, who failed to retaliate against the 1982 Beirut bombings, fueling the perception around the world that the United States was vulnerable to such attacks. Terrorism becomes a growing but largely ignored threat under the first President Bush, whom Clarke cites for his failure to eliminate Saddam Hussein, thereby necessitating a continued American presence in Saudi Arabia that further inflamed anti-American sentiment. Clinton, according to Clarke, understood the gravity of the situation and became increasingly obsessed with stopping Al-Qaeda. He had developed workable plans but was hamstrung by political infighting and the sex scandal that led to his impeachment. But Bush and his advisers, Clarke says, didn't get it before 9/11 and they didn't get it after, taking a unilateral approach that seemed destined to lead to more attacks on Americans and American interests around the world. Clarke's inside accounts of what happens in the corridors of power are fascinating and the book, written in a compelling, highly readable style, at times almost seems like a fiction thriller. But the threat of terrorism and the consequences of Bush's approach to it feel very sobering and very real. --John Moe for Amazon.com

04 January 2005

Discorso di fine anno del presidente Ciampi

Lettera inviata a Sergio Romano e pubblicata dal Corriere della Sera il 4 Gennaio 2005.

Sono un italiano che vive da anni all'estero e pur essendo disgustato dalla nostra politica interna ogni 31 dicembre ascolto il discorso del presidente della Repubblica, il mio presidente, per sentire il polso della situazione del mio Paese.

Sono rimasto deluso quest'anno nell'ascoltare il presidente Ciampi augurare buon anno prima di tutto con grande enfasi al Papa e solo dopo agli italiani. Mi ha irritato essere messo in secondo piano, dal capo del mio Stato, per dare la precedenza a un capo di Stato straniero, per quanto autorevole.

Ma allora, come disse il titolo di un bel libro di Giordano Bruno Guerri, gli italiani sono sempre sotto la Chiesa?

Compra il libro su Amazon: