Page 81 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

areas of the planet and the impoverishment of millions of people.

True freedom

Second paradox: the label “Liberalism” given to such a doctrine takes its
strength from the word liberty, freedom. However, it is a freedom downgraded
to an arbitrary act, to the indifference for the common good, and disdain for
shared rules.

True freedom is something else. It’s the most precious of all goods but,
at the same time, the most demanding responsibility. One is free together with
the others not against the others and at the cost of their dignity. And the first
task life assigns us is to use our freedom to free those who have no freedom.
Those who are poor are not free. Those who are victims of mafia or of cor-
ruption are not free.

Those who are victims of extortion, of exploitation, of threat are
not free. Those who are forced to leave their home, their loved ones, and
their homeland are not free. Poor are not free as they are forced to tighten
their belt, and are deprived of the basic conditions to conduct a respecta-
ble life.

Poor and illiterate

This is an issue which affects us all. According to the most recent report
from the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) poverty and inequalities in Italy
have reached alarming levels. There are four million citizens living in absolute
poverty; nine millions living in relative poverty, more than double if compared
to the figures of 2008. In addition, the report calculates that 28% of the popu-
lation is at risk of poverty or of social exclusion.

In addition to this we must consider education poverty, because, despite
some recent provisions, our country is one of the first in Europe for early scho-
ol leaving. We have more than six million illiterate individuals following early
school leaving: in other words, people who can’t read and who struggle to write
according to basic syntax rules.

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