Monday, December 27, 2010 NEWCASTLE HERALD 9
OPINION&ANALYSIS
Bolognarecipesmaysuit local ingredients
PhillipO’Neill
CLEVER CENTRE: Bologna thrives with a skilled population, quality employers and sustainable city. –
Professor Phillip O’Neill is directorof the Urban Research Centre,University of Western Sydney.
CHRISTMAS smiles on many, butnot all. I am one of the fortunateones. We are enjoying Christmas andNew Year in Bologna, Italy. And wehave our family with us. Whichmakes us luckier still.
Bologna is a delightful city. Oneobvious reason is that it escaped theattentions of 20th-century architectsand planners.
Damage from WorldWar IIbombing, bythe Allies, isvisible hereand there.But the repairswere donewith sympathy forthis medieval,human-scaled city.And, fortunately,Bologna was sparedthe concretecivic nonsenseand motorwaybrutality thatpermanently scarheavily-bombed Britishand Germancities like Birminghamand Dresden.
Bolognaisacityinwhichyouwalkorcatchabus,becausecarsarebannedfromitsinnerparts.Butevenifyoucoulddriveyouwouldwalk, justsoyoucouldbepartoftheparadealongthewideporticoesthatlineeverythoroughfare,andsoyoucanwanderupnarrowlanesandacrosscobbledplazasfrontingornaterenaissancechurchesandproudcivicbuildings,oneafteranother,pastperfect,afunctioningpresent,acertainfuture.
You walk too because you need toshed the calories from every meal,for Bologna is renowned as Italy’sbest eating city. Shops and officesclose every day at 1pm so workerscan eat and rest. By 4pm city streetsrefill. Being out in the evening, mid-week and all, cold or hot, shopping,eating, walking, watching, talking,smoking, is normal, expected even.
Across town you bump intostudents walking and cycling as well,for this is the world’s oldestuniversity town, older than Oxfordor Cambridge in England, andbigger. Bologna University houses 23faculties and 93 libraries, and hosts100,000 students from all over theworld. As you’d guess, the studentsover-fill the city with energy andpurpose, and buying power and fun.
Not accidentally, for this is aclever city, Bologna is home to greatindustrial designers like DinoGavina, leader of Italy’s reputation
for stylish furniture, and for aremarkable succession of elitemotoring companies: Maserati,Lamborghini and Ducati.
No prizes forguessing, then, thatBologna is regardedwidely as Italy’smost liveablecity and capitalof oneof Europe’s mostsuccessful regionaleconomies. Its unemploymentrate islow. Its incomes are high. It ischarmingly authentic,human-scaled,productive, sustainableand clever.
As such it is a lesson tothe Westernworld aswe start thesecond decadeof the21st century. Tenyears ago,amid frothand fireworks, weset forthconfidently into anew millennium.By September 2008, the globaleconomy was incrisis. Accounts ofthe eviction ofmortgage defaultersand picturesof rows ofempty newly-built houses becamenightly news.The folly ofrunning economies oneasy finance wasexposed. Greedybanks andinvestment fundsrequired expensivegovernmentbailouts. Stalledeconomies requiredexpensive governmentrescuepackages.
The US economy remains fragile.
Once proud industrial cities are inpermanent decline. Here in Europefinancial crisis threatens the dreamof unity and a shared prosperousfuture. Ireland, Greece and Spainwill struggle for years to pay downpublic debt and find a way to buildcompetitive economies. Newmillennium optimism has beenreplaced by the age of austerity.
Australia, though, is lucky. Goodfortune – rich minerals, our nearby-Asia location, our separation fromEurope and North America – hassmiled on us.
But in a new decade we will needmore. Fortunately, the recipe foreconomic success has never beenclearer, so long as we learn from theexperiences of the past decade andresist the temptations of get-richquick schemes peddled by thepurveyors of snake-oil, the whiteshoe wearers, offering cheapfinance, easy gains, get it now, get inquick, off the plan, a guaranteedinvestment, blah, blah, blah.
The decade nowgone teaches us,as history alwaysdoes, that long-term, shared prosperitycomes from
genuine productivity increases, notfrom speculativeinvestments. Inturn, the recipefor buildingproductivity isn’t difficult to find orfollow. Productivitycomes frominvestment in educationand skilling,from harmoniouslabour relations,and from equippingcities andregions with theinfrastructure thatmakes themgood places tolive andgood places torun businesses. Thethree go together:skilled people,quality employers, sustainable cities.
This combination was pretty muchthe recipe for economic successduring the Hawke-Keating years,and for the good years that followed.
Like Bologna, but not a lot of otherplaces, Australia enters the newdecade well placed. Sharedprosperity awaits us, if we are cleverenough to assemble it. For now, fromItaly, Buon Natale, e un Felice AnnoNuovo.
Silent Night in the trenchespartof wonderPeace can be ours atChristmas, writesBruce Robertson.
Bruce Robertson is the seniorminister at Globe Church, Newcastleand Eastlakes. This article issubmitted by the Churches MediaAssociation – cmahunter.com.au
THIS year I celebrated my 50thChristmas on the planet. Friends saythey are amazed at how quickly thisyear has passed, but I’ve beenthinking how quickly 50 years havepassed. I distinctly remember myfourth Christmas; since every giftstruck a chord with me and I wasfilled with wonder . . . and pudding.
NoteveryChristmaswaswonderful.ThefirstChristmasaftermyparentsseparatedwasawkward.TwoyearslaterwhenIwas13,myfatherhaddiedandwewereleftemptyandisolated.
In my teenage years it seemed tome that Christmas in Australiabecame cynically commercial andreligiously ‘‘Santafied’’, and I
treated it with mercenary contempt.You could say that I becameClaustrophobic.
Attheageof21somethingtransformedmycynicismaboutChristmasandrestoredthewonderofchildlikefaithtomysoul.IdiscoveredinaseriesofpersonalencounterstheloveofGodexpressedintheIncarnation; thehumanityofJesusChrist.AndthisisneverseenmoreclearlythanintheBirthofJesusasourSaviourinBethlehem.
CanonJ. JohnsaysthatatChristmas ‘‘theInvisibleGodbecamevisible.TheIntangibleGodbecametangible.TheUnknowableGodbecameknowable.GodbecameaMan’’.
Since becoming a Christian, I havenever lost that sense of wonder andjoy and the peace of Christmas.There had always been a restlesshunger for something more.
At the birth of Jesus the angels
sang about the promise of peace onEarth, but actually Jesus was borninto a land invaded by a cruelconqueror. In becoming human, Godreturned to us the power of peace . . .the power to choose to forgive andbe reconciled. Perhaps the bestillustration of this took place some96 years ago on Christmas Eve, amidthe trench warfare of World War I.
One writer records that: ‘‘On afrosty Christmas Eve, the Germansmounted trees on their parapets andlit candles and lanterns. Thousandsof British watched in fascination asthe wondrous sight was joined bythe distant haunting sound of mensinging Stille Nacht (Silent Night) . . .Scottish soldiers . . . spottedGermans clambering into the openwith no sign of hostile intent. Theywere on the Western Front, nearLille. Baffled, they held their firebut the Germans came right up tothe trench and offered cigars. It was
1914 and the near-mythicalChristmas truce had begun, whenmen laid down their weapons, shookhands and embraced the season’smessage of peace on Earth.’’
So peace is really ours for thetaking, and we take it by decidingnot to spend our lives at war witheach other. As Dwight Thompsonsays: ‘‘You can spend your life anyway you want to, but you can onlyspend it once.’’
It seems to me now that peace onEarth can be ours at Christmaswhen we lay down our hurt andfrustration and remember to forgive,just as we have been forgiven.
Topics today
Today’s fact
Global defence spending isseven times greater thaneducation spending.
Today’s word
Ululate: howl, wail; make ahooting cry.
It happened today
From our files – 1932: Aconsiderable quantity of rockand earth crashed down from theside of the cliff yesterday belowthe lookout at the southern endof the King Edward Park drive.
Today in history
1831: Naturalist Charles Darwinsets out on a voyage to the Pacificaboard HMS Beagle. Hisdiscoveries during the voyagehelped form the basis of histheories of evolution.1932: Radio City Music Hallopens in New York City.1945: The World Bank is createdwith an agreement signed by 28nations.1949: The Netherlands transferssovereignty to Indonesia aftermore than 300 years of Dutch rule.1972: Australia halts military aidto South Vietnam, ending itsinvolvement in the Vietnam War.1979: The Soviet Union takescontrol of Afghanistan.1996: Rwanda’s first genocidetrial opens for the 1994 slaughterof 800,000 Tutsis.2001: President Bushpermanently normalises traderelations with China; the USannounces plans to hold Talibanand al-Qaeda prisoners atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba.2007: Pakistan opposition leaderBenazir Bhutto, 54, is killed by anattacker.
Born today
Louis Pasteur, French scientist(1822-1895);Louis Bromfield,US novelist(1896-1956);MarleneDietrich,German actress(1901-1992);GerardDepardieu,pictured,French actor (1948-); T. S. Monk,jazz drummer/vocalist (1949-).
Odd spot
A US thief with a long-termconscience sent $45.25 to aPennsylvania tool company topay for a hammer stolen decadesago. It was accompanied by ananonymous letter that said:‘‘Enclosed is $45 to cover thehammer plus a little extra forinterest. I’m sorry I stole it, buthave changed my ways.’’
Today’s text
And Jesus grew and becamestrong; he was filled withwisdom, and the grace of Godwas upon him. Luke 2:40
