Against any kind of terrorism!!!

"CNN, April 24, 2006 -- Twenty-three people, including three foreigners, were killed and 62 others were wounded Monday in terrorist bombings in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Dahab, the Egyptian interior minister said.
Habib al-Adly said 42 of the wounded are Egyptian and three are members of the police.
In a written statement, he said the dead included 20 Egyptians and three foreigners -- a German child and two victims of unknown nationality.

The blasts took place about 7:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m. ET) at two cafeterias and a supermarket. Witnesses reported seeing smoke coming from a market in the Sinai Peninsula town.
Video of the site hours later showed damaged buildings, with sidewalks outside tourist shops and restaurants covered in blood and shattered glass.
President Hosni Mubarak called the explosions "a wicked terrorist attack."

We are again in front of a new act of violence in this world, a new attack to the right to live. I don't want to go back on this news, everyone can imagine what does it mean... as everyone could imagine how much it changed our way to live in the last years.

The truth is that in this world, someone think to have the right to decide for other people. For sure, there are some inequalities and.... the fact that at the moment...there are 22 wars in the world and more than 50 areas of crisis, it reflect exacly this situation.

We can discuss about interests, economy, religion...our global reality is presenting various challenges and...global problems requires global solution. I don't know if we will have soon some kind of institution that will take care about this kind of issues... but, I'm sure of one thing, any kind of terroristic attack is, and always will be, out of the logic of human being and it represent exacly the opposite of the respect between individuals.

I truly defend the right to live and everytime I will see some bad news like today, It will be always a motivation for me to react with the most powerful resource that we have: OUR LIFE AND THE GOOD EXAMPLE THAT WE CAN GIVE TO THE FUTURE GENERATION.

Against any kind of terrorism in the world.

Happy Easter to all of you...

Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Euromed: towards a liberalisation of services

This article is coming from "Europe Newsletter", an official initiative of European Union. Since the first time I read economical issues, I identified the European Union as a good opportunity for the development of Italy and in particular for the development of the South of the country.

The trip towards this development pass from the growth of the commerce and relationships in the Mediterranean area. Yes it's true, the political stability in this area is not the best one, but...I think this represent one of the key factor for development of the entire European Union, and for our country. I hope the new political government is coming soon in Italy, will keep more attention and will invest more on that direction.

Below you can find the article regarding some news in that field...that is going to reinvigorate the process we are talking about. Have you a nice reading...

"This is At the fifth Euro-Med Trade Conference wich took place in Marrakech on 24 March the European Union started negotiations with several Mediterranean countries on the liberalisation of services. According to Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, the launch of services negotiations with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia will benefit economic growth and stimulate investment."
"Launching these services negotiations is an important milestone on the road to a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area," he added.

The services sector is key to the economies of the Southern Mediterranean countries. Services account for about 50% of GDP in Egypt, Morocco and Syria and around 70% of GDP in Jordan and Lebanon, with Tunisia in-between at 60%. Nevertheless, services trade with the Mediterranean countries currently represents only 3.5% of the EU's total services trade. Services exports from the Mediterranean to the EU are for the moment focused heavily on tourism but there is real potential in a number of other sectors: financial services, telecommunication, distribution, energy, environmental services and transport.

Alongside the liberalisation of services, Ministers examined ways and means to reinforce south-south regional integration, strengthen regulatory convergence on industrial products, deepen agricultural liberalisation and improve the institutional and legal framework.
The aim is to create a Euro-Med Free Trade Area by 2010. Four months after the Barcelona Summit which marked the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona process, the Marrakech Ministerial comes at an important time. It aims to reinvigorate the Euro-Med process with an ambitious work programme in the trade area."

If you want to read more about Europa Newsletter, this is the website address: http://europa.eu.int/newsletter/index_en.htm

Take care

Global economy, global justice: the role of individual to create change

Saturday 25th March, it was my pleasure to join the initiative organized by EBBF members in New York and regarding the Young Professionals Business Ethics Forum. The intent of the forum is to involve people with different knowledge, engage guest speakers, discuss around world issues and think collaboratively about how to most effectively leverage our skills and experience to affect positive change throughout our carriers.

The event, named “Global Economy, global justice: the role of individual to create change”, was hosted at the United Nations headquarters. Let imagine the emotion to be inside this huge building in the room number 8, where all the representatives of the countries use to seat and discuss about the worldwide issue. And imagine to have in front of you one of the most important economist of the world, the Chief Economist of the World Economic Forum, Augusto Lopez-Claros.

It was an incredible experience. We talked about various issues regarding the state of the world. The main point that I found really interesting was the description of the “GAP between the society/economy growth and the global institutions role”. We are growing, our society is becoming global, the globalization is already part of our daily life. Some consequences of that represent the challenges of the future; think about the management of the population growth in the developing countries, or, the fact that in the next 15 years, in order to balance the population growth and the job opportunities, we need to create a number of job positions that are not realistic also for the best country economy present at the moment in the world. In our system there are some contradictions and, I think, like all the people presents in that room, that everyone, countries, governments, citizens etc etc.. everyone needs to include these considerations in their daily activities and decisions.

Institutions like United Nations, were not created to solve this kind of issues at that level. So , if we want to have some positive effects from their activities, we need to promote reforms and…share the country power in different way. And the reason of that is because the economy is growing, so we have more global issues to consider, but we always have the same international institutions, with the same structure and without decisional power. If we also think, that in the United Nations we have 5 countries with the veto power (one of them is not a democracy), we don’t have representatives from NGO and civil society but just representatives of the governments… we can truly understand why it’s so important discuss of this issue in our society.

We have so many discussions to build up, but I hope that everyone, in his society level and in his role, could create something of new for the future, considering that we have differences in our world, but we live in the same place. And our future generations will live with the resources that we will leave them. Long term expectations in our decision making process. Who’s doing that? For now, I will start with my first action, writing this article and saying thanks to Piero, Tannaz (and the Baby) and all the EBBF members, who introduced me in this initiative. See you soon my dear friends.

Thai food Mania...let's do it

Thai food... really nice to taste and to eat...and if you have Asean friends with you...it's all more easy..:-)

European Champions League...passion from all around the world

From the played soccer to the football match in tv. Passion and some beer is a good combination to enjoy the moment with the friends...




Forza Juventus... tomorrow is your day.... we need to overcome the 0-2 against Arsenal!!!

Bronx zoo, the world biggest zoo in the world greatest city

Bronx Zoo, it was my second time in this place. After 4 years, it was the time to go there with my classmates.
This place is soo huge and wonderful. A paradise of nature. If you want to learn more about it, just click on this website: www.bronxzoo.com.
Below you can find some pictures of this wonderful day, spent with my friends.

in the subway...


at the entrance...


in the zoo...



and after the flight together...the relax in the Brenardo's house!!!

Apollo Theatre and...San Patrick Day

Round trip in the Apollo Theatre in the San Patrick Day. What great exhibition that day!!! But don't forget the tradition before to start!!!

Round trip in Apollo Theatre

and before the exhibition..


Before each exhibition, all the partecipants use to touch this old three...it's good luck!!!

Each Wednesday Night is the Amateur Night, where each one of us could exhibit. The only judge is the audience "One mic, one stage, one chance"!!! Do you want to try?

San Patrick Day Parade...

This is the annual huge parade in New York...someone also call this day a "green beer day", but please, pay attention...don't be drunk if some girl is in front of you with the this sentence written on her face "I'm Irish, kiss me!"

Soccer time in New York City...

It's the time of soccer macth in New York... trying to anticipate the feeling of competition of the World Cup coming soon. One week ago we had the first match in Queens (you can see the picture) between Europe&South America vs Asian Countries After 80 minutes of hard match, 11 against 11, the final result was 5 to 3 for us. But, the next challenge is coming soon, next week we'll play again...so, keep in touch for the news. The world competition is just started!!!Below you can also find the official pictures of the two team... but, as you can see, it's just for the competition...the rest is simply friendships in this huge city, where it's possible to became friends following the passion for the soccer. And for my italian friends who are waiting for the AIESEC soccer transition match of June... I can tell them...I'm doing my job...now it's your turn..:-) go go go

Some personal thoughts…our dreams and MR BUT…

Today I had the chance to talk with some interesting persons, sharing my ideas and understanding their thoughts. Going back home by train, I started to think about the relationship between "personal dreams" and "real life".
Do you know when we would like to do something of really interesting, working in a wonderful place, trying to achieve our dreams but… we meet always some BUT???

We can call him MR BUT, always present in our life.
When we talk about "dreams", it seems that our sentence are not complete without MR BUT.

Did you never heard "I would like to go in Australia BUT I have no money to spend now" or "I would like to know more BUT the time was over"???
MR BUT is always present BUT…also for him it works the BUT RULE. So, we can make the example of "personal dreams" and the "necessity to earn money to live" and try to make him one of our best friend..;-)

"You cannot live just with your dreams, BUT you can dream your life"

So, as you can see, if MR BUT is one of your friends, you can appreciate his qualities. In our case… he helped us to understand that we need to work hard in our life and not just dream…. but we can also enjoy our life and all the opportunities we meet everyday with the same passion we live our dreams…
Did you never heard about "DREAMING WITH OPEN EYES"?.. It’s one of my favourite activities.. and everyday I can find something of special around me… :-)
If you don’t believe…just try…at least you will meet MR BUT and you can try to became one of his friends…;-)
Keep in touch for the next

Is this the end of corporate strategy?

Reading the Financial Times of Monday March 6 2006, I found this interesting article regarding the idea of Joseph Bower (Harvard Business School), about strategy in the company management. Below you can find some part of the entire text. Enjoy the reading.

Is strategy back? It has not been fashionable recently for chief executives to offer grand strategic vision. Growth and profitability are the market’s immediate priorities, driven by demands of impatient hedge funds and institutions. Who has time for strategy when "execution" is all that really matters?
Last week, though, Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone, was criticised for failing to deliver a convincing plan for the struggling mobile phone operator, even though he had been presented on his appointment in 2003 as a cool strategic thinker. Shareholders are running out of patience with businesses that seem to be floundering in a time of rapid change.
Sometimes companies fail to adapt to change quickly enough because they lack alternative options. "Thinking outside the box" is beyond many managers because they are rooted so firmly inside their divisional box that they cannot or dare not look beyond it.
This is one of the insights offered by Joseph Bower, the Donald Kirk David professor and chair of the General Manager Programme at Harvard Business School.
Prof Bower has been studying and writing about corporate strategy for four decades and last year published with faculty colleague Clark Gilbert, From Resource Allocation to Strategy, a collection of academic writing in the field.[….]
Prof Bower says: "most of us, when you ask us to do something, we do what we know how to do. Think about musicians. What will they play? They play the instruments they know, from repertoire they know. They are no different from managers. Managers give you options based on what they know to do, and their repertoire." […]
"We design boxes precisely so that people will be in them. That’s the whole idea. And if you are looking at the problem that requires a different skill set you are probably going to have to get some different people. Or find it elsewhere within the organisation." […]
Organization are hard to change because processes, once established, are persistent. And whatever head office may want to see happening, managers on the ground are taking decisions every day based on the evidence in front of them.
Strategy often emerges gradually and can be seen clearly only in retrospect. One of the most urgent challenges for corporate leaders, Prof Bower believes, is to make it possible for this bottom-up process of strategy development to emerge. […]
Prof Bower says: "when we talk about strategy we love to talk about abstractions. But what we need are brilliant ideas that exploit concrete things. If you are building a plant it has to be the right one in the right place." […]
The biggest difference between strategy formulation these days and when Prof Bower began his research in the 1960s is the factor of time. The postwar world, up until the oil crisis of 1973, was benign for business. Competition was less intense and corporations had time and space to change. […]
Prof Bower has had a personal insight into how things have speeded up in recent years. "A good friend of mine runs a company in Europe. He became CEO, and in his first news conference and analyst meeting he had to announce flat earnings. He wasn’t smooth about it. And the hedge funds just clobbered his stock.
"He couldn’t believe it. He lost almost 20 per cent of the value of the firm, for telling the truth, albeit in a awkward way. Afterwards he learnt how to tell the truth smoothly, or in an upbeat way. Fortunately he also had the results to back that up. But it’s really tough out there now."
Decisions do have to be taken fast but that does not spell the end of the strategy. Companies need to adapt and change quicker, and have an approach that makes such changes easier. But the lead for that has to come from the top. The truth is, strategy back – and it never really went away.

New Friendships in New York

Good morning and.. enjoy all the week end is coming on(english). It's the time to share with you my news regarding friendships in New York. After the beginning of my school of english, I had the opportunity to know a lot of new people, coming from different countries...It's like a Global Village in New York and everyday it's amazing how much you can learn from other people.
Below you can find some pictures of the time we are spending together... living this city...that never sleep...above all if there are people coming from Italy, French, Spain, Japan, Korea singing song all the night.....

Snow in New York...going back to the reality

It`s snowing...(english) this is one of the wonderful esclamation that any childrens always enjoy so much... So, it`s time to play with the snow, going back home full of water inside your shoes...and with your red cold face.
That`s a beautiful story, right?

...but not if your house, your car are completely under the snow.. And you have also problem in order to open the door.
Anyway, everyone can survive if it snow just for one day..It was exacly what happened in New York during this week end.
And going back to the reality, monday morning New York city started again its quick-moving life. At the end, it remains just a lot of snow in the cross-walk and a great story to tell in the future: «I remember that february 2006.. I never seen in my life so much snow in the city as in that time...and... If I don`t make a mistake... Was just the week end after that Pittsburgh Steelers wons a superbowl».
So, winter is not at the end... Keep in touch and enjoy the snow... Maybe will be some other surprise from Mother Nature.

Emotion from Winter Olympic Game in Torino

What could be the feeling (english) of an italian person watching the opening cerimony of winter olympic games held in his native country?

GREAT emotion

If this person is also living abroad... This emotion will be twice. I was really proud of my country at the end of the cerimony.. when all the athlets were on the ground listening «Vinceró» from the voice of Pavarotti.
In that moment all the feelings of everyone who love competition, friendships, sport, cultural diversity..became one single thing.. Winter Olympic Games 2006 in Torino.
Proud to be a people who loves sport.. Proud to be a citizen coming from the hosting country of olimpic games..
And yesterday I enjoyed the dance skating gold medal of people representing Russia. For them, no end better than this I could image after the accident that happened some years ago in the same competition. Congratulations guys.