Giro di Padania

[rhubroma]

I had to laugh on the CN analysis, because it never stated that padiania, in fact, doesn't exist. Lombardy, yes, exists, Padania does not.

It is a modern and rather infantile myth propagated by an xenophobic and separatist political party, which, unfortunately, has kept the Berlusconi majority in power for nearly 20 years.

The very idea of such a race is an insult to the Italian nation. It should have not only been protested, but never allowed to take place.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I cannot believe you dont know how to open a thread in the appropriate forum.

This is the last one I will move for you. Any further will simply be deleted.

Susan

 

[el chava]

Yeah cycling has always had a connection to regional and national politics, but this race strikes me as something I didn't really want to se go on without atleast some protests from the riders/teams

 

[hrotha]

What does this have to do with CN? The race exists, it's approved by the UCI and the Italian Federation. The teams should stay away from the politics of it.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

What does this have to do with CN? The race exists, it's approved by the UCI and the Italian Federation. The teams should stay away from the politics of it.

I agree with you hrotha. Just a great time to stir up a revolt. Great that is what cycling needs .... wrapped up with politics.

 

[rhubroma]

What does this have to do with CN? The race exists, it's approved by the UCI and the Italian Federation. The teams should stay away from the politics of it.

For your information, its very name politicizes the event. Indeed the teams should have simply stayed away from it altogether, which also speaks of the mental state of many riders and the team managements. While the article itself was infamously politicized as I shall explain.

The so-called region is a fable made up by a racist political party, that claims to have been inhabited originally by Celtic and therefore non-Italic people in the Po Valley, and only exists in the wrapped and demented imagination of its membership. I mean it's the stuff of extreme race-based nationalism that's in truth not unlike the Arian myth of Nazi Germany, only without a Hitler as the party leader, just the rather deluded and pathetic Umberto Bossi: who has publicly refered to African immigrants as "bunga-bunga", homosexuals as "culatoni" ("big a$$-lovers") as well as denouncing all muslims as maliale "swine".

CN has, in my book, a moral responsibility to explain this to it's readers, especially when it made the point in letting it be known that "the Rifondazione Comunista party and the trade union CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labor)" interrupted the event. So if the website's journalists bother to mention this particular fact, then they should at least have the decency to state that this race gets its financial backing from the Lega del Nord ("Northern League") and then inform the unknowing public as to what the political movement actually represents, which is basically an effrontery to Italian dignity and not only.

Thus the article was already politicized, just in the vile and misguided way I'm now becoming quite used to observing in the Anglo-American journalism, which is a grotesque and naturally appalling.

Perhaps you don't mind omitting the necessary information, which is basically in this case to not explain a modern fascism (which also says something about the Italian federation from the north that recognized the race), however this merely demonstrates an intollerable ignorance on your part that indicates a lack of intelligence in your judgment.

 

[rhubroma]

I agree with you hrotha. Just a great time to stir up a revolt. Great that is what cycling needs .... wrapped up with politics.

That there's a lack of intelligence on your part I'm not at all surprised about, but such baseness should really Glenn be curtained within certain decorous limits.

 

[rhubroma]

I cannot believe you dont know how to open a thread in the appropriate forum.

This is the last one I will move for you. Any further will simply be deleted.

Susan

Susan, you really should relax. I mean how else am I to respond to such patronizing and threatening remarks, for something I simply don't know. You're becoming all tense and this can't be good for you.

 

[Fergoose]

I found the article fairly even handed to be honest. It mentions the LN's "close involvement in the organising of the race" and Visconti's quotes were pretty clearly aimed against the LN (although I'd respect him more if he protested rather than participated - deeds not words Signor Visconti!).

If in times of great economic austerity Italians want to continue to elect chumps who divert funds & time into organising bike races to publicise mythical territories, then fair enough. Its not a debate that Cycling News should really be wading into in my personal opinion.

 

[hrotha]

For your information, its very name politicizes the event. Indeed the teams should have simply stayed away from it altogether, which also speaks of the mental state of many riders and the team managements. While the article itself was infamously politicized as I shall explain.
(...)
Perhaps you don't mind omitting the necessary information, which is basically in this case to not explain a modern fascism (which also says something about the Italian federation from the north that recognized the race), however this merely demonstrates an intollerable ignorance on your part that indicates a lack of intelligence in your judgment.

First off, drop the insults, k?

Secondly, I know what Padania and Lega Nord are, thank you very much, and you shouldn't assume those who disagree with you simply don't know what they're talking about. The Giro di Padania is still an official 2.1 race, approved by the UCI and the Italian federation. The job of the teams and riders is to race, and that's what they should stick to. CN's article talks about the involvement of Lega Nord and about "Padania" not being a regional entity but a term coined by Lega Nord.

The Giro di Padania has attracted a considerable degree of controversy in Italy since it was launched at the beginning of the summer. “Padania” is not a regional entity, but rather a name coined by the Lega Nord to refer to a section of northern Italy, from the Po valley northwards, which it hopes will gain autonomy from the south of the country.

Lega Nord senator Michelino Davico is heavily involved in the organisation of the Giro di Padania, and the leader’s jersey is green, the colour of the Lega Nord party.

Seriously, what else do you want? Do you think CN should have said the race is a farce and Lega Nord should be banned? No, they should briefly mention the political background of the race as a means to explain the protests inasmuch as they affect the racing itself. This is not a political site. Still, CN's article had this:

Rifondazione Comunista secretary Paolo Ferrero, who was among the protesters at Mondovì on Tuesday, wrote to Italian president Giorgio Napolitano to call for the race’s cancellation last week. He noted that “Padania exists only in the propaganda and secessionist proposals of the Lega Nord” and decried the political overtones of the race.

Honestly, I don't see what the problem is. It's not the responsibility of CN, the teams or the riders to prevent the Giro di Padania from happening.

 

[rhubroma]

First off, drop the insults, k?

Secondly, I know what Padania and Lega Nord are, thank you very much, and you shouldn't assume those who disagree with you simply don't know what they're talking about. The Giro di Padania is still an official 2.1 race, approved by the UCI and the Italian federation. The job of the teams and riders is to race, and that's what they should stick to. CN's article talks about the involvement of Lega Nord and about "Padania" not being a regional entity but a term coined by Lega Nord.

Seriously, what else do you want? Do you think CN should have said the race is a farce and Lega Nord should be banned? No, they should briefly mention the political background of the race as a means to explain the protests inasmuch as they affect the racing itself. This is not a political site. Still, CN's article had this:

Honestly, I don't see what the problem is. It's not the responsibility of CN, the teams or the riders to prevent the Giro di Padania from happening.

Your admittance to not being ignorant of the circumstances only makes more appalling your line of thinking.

Yes such a race should not be put on, because it's politicized in the utmost and acts as propaganda for a racist and separatist political party that financed it. Which all speaks volumes of the political orientation of the Italian cycling federation up north and the teams and riders too, as well as that its all just about money for which even a modicum of decency and honorableness means absolutely zero. In any other European country, such an event would never take place, and there are many informed Italians who are aware of this sad fact and are quite horrified and indignant by it: such as the protesters, but not exclusively them.

"Qui la politica non c'entra, siamo venuti per correre." ("Here politics counts for nothing, we have only come to race.") So spoke Ivan Basso, the number one Italian cyclist and the most illustrious participant of the so called Giro di Padania. But as even any Italian child can understand, a manifestation that is called "Giro di Padania" and which has been financed and publicized by exponents of the Northern League is political in the purest state.

To be able to say "Qui la politica non c'entra" one needs a strong dose of hypocrisy, or else has to know nothing, absolutely nothing, about the country in which he lives. Ivan Basso will have to decide for himself in which category he prefers to belong: that of the hypocrites, or that of the imbeciles.

For Ivan Basso the Giro d'Italia and the Giro di Padania are evidently the exact same thing in terms of what the sport glorifies and promotes, even if one symbolically celebrates national unity and solidarity, the other racism and separation. Though for Basso it's only a question of pedaling your bike with bowed head without ever raising it to comprehend where one is going, and why.

No CN isn't here to stop such an event, but at the very least should not have been so generous with it.

 

[rhubroma]

I found the article fairly even handed to be honest. It mentions the LN's "close involvement in the organising of the race" and Visconti's quotes were pretty clearly aimed against the LN (although I'd respect him more if he protested rather than participated - deeds not words Signor Visconti!).

If in times of great economic austerity Italians want to continue to elect chumps who divert funds & time into organising bike races to publicise mythical territories, then fair enough. Its not a debate that Cycling News should really be wading into in my personal opinion.

I do not see the need to be even-handed to a racist and xenophobic political party, which actually has played a pretty key role in keeping Berlusconi in power for so long and hence the Italian tragedy we have been witnessing over the past 20 odd years.

When sport becomes political, and in this case it undoubtedly has, then simply reciting the circumstantial facts, without reporting the deeper implications, is lamentable when dealing with a movement such as the Northern League.

While I'm not of the opinion that whatever the Italians have decided (exclusively those Italians, however, from the north who made the decision) is merely their own business. And neither do millions of this country either, as was demonstrated also by the protesters.

It's about informing, not merely reciting the data.

 

[Benotti69]

I do not see the need to be even-handed to a racist and xenophobic political party, which actually has played a pretty key role in keeping Berlusconi in power for so long and hence the Italian tragedy we have been witnessing over the past 20 odd years.

When sport becomes political, and in this case it undoubtedly has, then simply reciting the circumstantial facts, without reporting the deeper implications, is lamentable when dealing with a movement such as the Northern League.

While I'm not of the opinion that whatever the Italians have decided (exclusively those Italians, however, from the north who made the decision) is merely their own business. And neither do millions of this country either, as was demonstrated also by the protesters.

It's about informing, not merely reciting the data.

I am afraid most websites that dont have a parent paper/magazine in the real world are about reciting, ie copy and paste with some small adjustments.

The race was a party political broadcast dressed up as 2.1 race and the UCI/Italian Federation fell for it hook line and sinker. LN are akin to nationalistic parties of the 30s across Europe that succeeded in taking power in Spain, Italy and Germany. Pity people cant grow some and call a spade a spade.