life – Page 2 – Romano Pisciotti Industrial & Business Management

COP26 – DRAGHI: “…I soldi ci sono…”

…BENE, MA QUANTI SOLDI?…PERCHE’ NE OCCORRONO VERAMENTE TANTI!

USCITA DAL FOSSILE

Prendendo ad esempio la Nigeria: quinto produttore mondiale di grezzo. Produce con bassa efficienza, al punto di non arrivare alle quote OPEC, ma brucia tonnellate di gas ogni giorno….i bagliori delle torce dei pozzi sono diventati i colori dei tramonti nel Rivers State. (ben poco gas viene riutilizzo, bruciando anche milioni di dollari).

Il Paese ha molti pozzi offshore, quasi tutti gestiti da società straniere, dotati anche di navi storage. Con la normativa del Local Content, da anni è cominciata la “nigerianizzazione” di alcuni marginal field e in tutte le società straniere il personale è quasi tutto nigeriano (ad ogni livello); gli stipendi vengono imposti dal Governo allo stesso livello degli espatriati, questa pratica ha creato una frattura enorme tra gli stipendi di dipendenti oil e lavoratori di altri settori, ma ha contribuito alla formazione della classe media nigeriana. I sindacati del settore petrolifero sono una forza para-politica ed estende il suo potere in qualsiasi settore economico sinergico con quello petrolifero.

Gli automezzi pesanti circolanti non supera la normativa EURO 3, il travaso dall’Europa di veicoli più recenti dal mercato “usati” è massiccio, ma in diminuzione a causa dell’elettronica utilizzata nei moderni veicoli e dallo “spazio libero” sotto la cabina, vantaggioso per i consumi, ma di difficile impiego sulle strade nigeriane. Il prezzo di veicoli nuovi è proibitivo, se non per i veicoli cinesi assemblati localmente e dotati di meccanica semplice a normativa EURO 3.

Prima di pensare ad un miglioramento, dal punto di vista dei consumi e dell’inquinamento, occorrerebbe costruire una rete viaria compatibile con veicoli meno antiquati. Il trasporto su gomma copre l’80% del settore logistico, affiancato dal trasporto fluviale (dove possibile) e da una piccola percentuale su rotaia (la rete ferroviaria è limitata e inefficiente, nonostante i recenti investimenti).

Nonostante la produzione petrolifera, gasolio e benzina sono importati a causa della vetustà e inefficienza delle poche raffinerie funzionanti. Una nuova raffineria è prossima all’inaugurazione nella periferia di Lagos.

La distribuzione dell’energia elettrica è veramente precaria, il paese è “alimentato” da un numero incredibile (milioni) di generatori di tutte le “taglie.”

Alcune centrali idroelettriche esistenti non sono collegate efficientemente con la rete interna, al punto che parte della produzione è destinata ai paesi limitrofi.

La Nigeria è il paese più popoloso e vanta il PIL più alto tra i paesi africani…che con la crescita demografica, la bassa industrializzazione, la bassa scolarità, la bassa organizzazione dal punto d vista igienico-sanitario e la corruzione diffusa, si sta candidando a essere uno dei Paesi più inquinanti e poveri al mondo.

Altri paesi africani sono in condizioni peggiori della Nigeria e alcuni sono governati solo da bande, o tribù, armate; altri sono in condizioni migliori dal punto di vista industriale, ma con sacche di povertà ed enormi deficienze sociali.

Le risorse minerari dell’Africa sono enormi, ma le strutture e le tecniche estrattive sono spesso arretrate e fonte di un nuovo schiavismo, oltre ad alimentare l’inquinamento delle acque e dei terreni.

L’agricoltura, nonostante i recenti investimenti da parte di molti paesi, è frammentata e soffre anche delle problematiche legate alla conservazione e al trasporto dei prodotti.

Molti terreni sono già drammaticamente inariditi e la piaga delle cavallette e di parassiti mantiene ad un livello precario la produzione agricola. Nell’area tropicale e sub-tropicale il terreno fertile non supera i pochi centimetri di profondità e mal si adatta all’agricoltura intensiva (necessaria per sfamare la popolazione in crescita incontrollata), questo ha portato ad un uso indiscriminato di fertilizzanti altamente inquinanti, molti dei quali banditi in quasi tutto il mondo. La Nigeria, ad esempio, ha investito massicciamente nella produzione di riso, ma è ancora lontana dal coprire il fabbisogno interno, obbiettivo sempre più difficile da raggiungere con il continuo aumento della popolazione.

L’allevamento, nonostante la crescita di fattorie a produzione intensiva, è ben lontano dal fornire il livello di proteine minimo alle popolazioni…naturalmente con forti variazioni nelle varie classi sociali. Il consumo di latte è mediamente al disotto delle raccomandazioni minime FAO. In genere l’allevamento è basato su piccole comunità, spesso in conflitto tra di loro e con le comunità dedite all’agricoltura. Il livello igienico-sanitario, sia durante la fase di allevamento che di macellazione, è molto precario. In alcune aree la scarsità d’acqua salubre e la promiscuità tra animali e umani, favorisce la diffusione di malattie ed epidemie. Ovviamente, manca un numero adeguato di veterinari.

VACCINI PER L’AFRICA:

Con i vaccini (milioni di dosi), in molti paesi d’Africa, dovranno arrivare: frigoriferi, veicoli per il trasporto, medici e infermieri…ovviamente energia elettrica e strade per raggiungere molte città.

ALTRI CONTINENTI

Lo stesso Primo Ministro indiano, nel suo intervento al COP26, ha spiegato a chiare lettere che per una possibile de-carbonizzazione del suo enorme paese (…e fortemente inquinante) ci vorranno decenni! (…è una questione di economia: soldi!)

La Cina, pur dando una certa disponibilità (…per il futuro), non potrà cambiare rapidamente l’intero sistema industriale basato sui bassi costi produttivi e sulla globalizzazione dei mercati.

Altri paesi con economie legate al “fossile” non hanno mostrato interesse alle problematiche sollevate al COP26 e alle farneticanti proteste dei Gretini.

ALTRE PROBLEMATICHE… E ALTRI SOLDI

Le tecnologie attuali non permettono di sostituire il fossile nella copertura del fabbisogno industriale e sociale di un’umanità in crescita demografica. Forse il vero problema del pianeta è l’incontrollabile crescita demografica!

Nei paesi industrializzati lo sviluppo di fonti rinnovabili (pale eoliche, fotovoltaico, ecc.) vive per l’effetto di sovvenzioni statali; le auto elettriche godono di altrettante sovvenzioni, oltre a non aver ancora risolto il problema dell’autonomia e del riciclaggio delle batterie.

Forse assisteremo ad un revaival delle centrali atomiche?

MI FERMO QUI, ANCHE SE CI SAREBBE MOLTO ALTRO DA DIRE (…magari sull’effetto naturale dei cicli climatici e sul reale impatto delle attività umane…)

….E RIPETO LA DOMANDA: “QUANTI SOLDI CI SONO?”…sicuramente manca anche una reale volontà, ma i soldi potrebbero fare miracoli, anche se il primo miracolo sarebbe quello di avere una finanza meno fantasiosa e più legata alle reali necessità del pianeta.

Naturalmente, il processo per eventuali investimenti, non inquinanti, porterà ad un picco d’inquinamento e al rapido consumo delle materie prime!…Ma sarà per una buona causa?!

Romano Pisciotti

NEAR FUTURE FOR OIL

There has been much discussion on the volatility of the price of crude oil: the market rule based on supply and demand, in addition to being subject to the seasonality of consumption and industrial trends, is strongly linked to environmental and social factors that affect the availability of extraction and transportation. Security in some areas of extraction or sea routes is challenged by conflicts or acts of piracy or sabotage, just to name a few well-known issues.

One of the lesser-told factors of the energy crisis that is causing bill costs all over Europe, is the fact that this summer less wind has blown. Especially in the north of the continent, in 2021 the strength of the currents was between 10 and 15% lower than the expected average…slowing down the wind turbines that were supposed to guarantee energy.

In fact, it could be said that climate change has already impacted the solutions available to combat climate change!

Even if the human impact on global warming is minimal compared to natural cycles, we must certainly act on the part that depends on us.

Unfortunately, regardless of the will of the various countries to break away from the servitude of fossil fuels, it must be admitted that the renewable sources available are not yet capable of guaranteeing a real ecological transition. Perhaps this is the real reason for the unenthusiastic approach to “changes” of many Rulers … if not for the generic statements that commit the distant future more than the present and more for coal alone.

Except for the young people who follow Greta, animated by youthful dreams and impulses, everyone can understand that forcing the industry with too rapid change could mean a stalemate or the destruction of the economies of many countries, if not the whole world. After all, no one – not even most young dreamers – is willing to make a drastic life change.

Economic collapse is as dangerous as the effects of climate change.

We could easily have a large amount of energy from hydroelectric and nuclear sources, but there is already an endless discussion about the safety and disposal of nuclear waste or other environmental discussions related to large dams.

The political and industrial commitment must be in the search for real alternatives rather than in the fluctuating popular consensus or the immediate profit on what is available; perhaps the concrete ecological alternatives are still to be invented or lie in the still theoretical solutions: we must not be under the illusion that eternal batteries or the availability of hydrogen in large volumes are already industrial-grade.

It is very likely that oil and gas will not leave us anytime soon, beyond the thunderous announcements of politicians looking for some quick response to public opinion.

Perhaps the real immediate solution is the reduction of energy consumption, this should not be difficult, if environmental consciences do not lie, even if paradoxically, the ecological transition will need a large amount of fossil fuels (wind turbines, or other solutions, are not made with the magic wand)

The industry has provided us with vehicles that consume and pollute less than previous models; we can give up a bit of travel and a bit of heat in our homes … but it is certainly strange that the same man, who became excessively rich by promoting electric cars and supertrains, also promotes useless and energy-intensive space travel; it is strange that the man who delivers the fruits of globalization home to us only cares about finding a faster way to expand his business, at the expense of more sustainable businesses; it is strange that no one wants to give up chatter, dispersed in millions of useless messages, ignoring the immense absorption of energy for the functioning of algorithms that already claim to be vital.

Perhaps there is, in part already there, a sustainable way to extract oil and gas (certainly abandoning the absurd practice of extraction with destructive methods such as the fragmentation of rock shales). There could be consumption, just as sustainable (intelligent), until science offers us a real alternative.

Surely we could decrease, more rapidly than any other solution, the suffocation of the seas with plastic or the deforestation of the lands: this would give a sure hand to the ecological rebalancing of the Planet.

Leaping through hoops to get out of the fossils too quickly could have worse consequences

Romano Pisciotti

HELLO MILANO: The wooden leg//El Gamba de legn

El Gamba de Legn’: ‘the wooden leg’ is an unusual name for a means of transport. It was the nickname that the people of Milan gave to the first steam-powered tram which started running on 9 September 1878, connecting Milan and Magenta over a distance of about 23 kilometres. They applied the same name to all the other lines that were later built between Milan and the surrounding towns.

Why wooden leg? Apparently the tram, running slowly along the tracks on Milan’s cobbled streets, made a syncopated To-Toc To-Toc sound, like a person walking with a wooden leg.

The 17 trams had from 10 to 12 carriages, without doors or heating, and there were wooden benches for the passengers who got very cold in winter. But even so, in those days the Gamba de Legn’ was advanced technology, far more efficient than the horse-drawn trams that could carry only a dozen people and that operated from Milan to Monza right up until 1900.

The 17 locomotives were manufactured by Lokomotivenfabrik Krauß in Munich, and they had a structure totally different from railway locos. For safety, the boiler and engine were completely enclosed by a steel screening structure, and the driver’s cabin was at the front for better visibility.

The maximum speed of the steam tram was specified by Milan’s provincial administration: 15 kilometres per hour in the countryside, along roads lined by mulberries used for silkworm raising, and 10 km/h in the city. When it was foggy, speed was reduced to 5 km/h. In this case, at every village and in Milan, an employee wrapped in a cloak and equipped with a lantern, bell and whistle waited for the tram and then walked in front of it to warn pedestrians of the oncoming danger. Before the First War, the tram ran five times a day. During the Second World War, many people were forced to live outside the city because of air-raid damage, and so all the goods trucks available were pressed into service, and even so, many passengers were forced to ride on the roofs of the normal carriages.

After the War, things returned to normal, and the last tram every day left Milan at 0.40 a.m., taking people back home after their evening out at the cinema or theatre.

The Gamba de Leg’ ran until 1954, and even though the residents of the villages and towns through which the slow and shuddering tram ran would have preferred to have kept the steam-powered version rather than the new electric trams, it finally went out of service in 1957. The last journey of the Gamba de Legn’ was accompanied by huge crowds of people, who put flowers on the locomotive.

https://www.hellomilano.it/hm/

Presented by Romano Pisciotti

The bat is served….unsafe proteins!

Five million tons of bushmeat is consumed annually in Central Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, a million prey are captured and killed, while in Ghana over 100,000 bats are cooked. In large regions of the continent, the population sees the forest as the most convenient place to get food. For those who live in poor and isolated villages, game is the only source of protein; for some, hunting and selling meat serves to supplement their meager earnings.

In African metropolises, eating habits have not changed much and the demand for bushmeat, bushmeat, is growing, in parallel with the demographic boom. On the outskirts of Nairobi, Kampala or Abidjan the streets are teeming with street vendors selling roasted antelope legs or monkeys. For the new middle class, buying crocodile or hippo meat is a status symbol. In Kinshasa and Lagos there is no shortage of markets specialized in the sale of game. Even in Western cities like London and New York, the demand for African game is on the rise. There are even restaurants that have made the “wild menu” the key to their success: in refined locations they serve steamed snakes, anteater stews, roast chimpanzees, caterpillar skewers and birds.

The game trade has become a multi-million dollar business that worries scientists and conservationists. The reasons are well known: researchers have now ascertained that African game is a powerful vehicle for the transmission of deadly viruses (Ebola, for example) to humans. It is no coincidence that hunters and their families are the first victims of the epidemics that periodically break out in the middle of the forest.

Then there is an environmental emergency: man is literally emptying the forests

Romano Pisciotti:“The problem of providing protein to the ever-growing population in developing countries is obvious!We have to look for the solution in animal husbandry … in hygienically controlled environments, with healthy food.

Helping developing countries to increase the volumes of meat and milk produced by farms makes the entire planet safer, without forgetting to fight against fairy tales and stupid traditions (even in rich countries) that are counterproductive to development.

John Elkann, Cavaliere del Lavoro

…forse un cavalierato alla memoria per quello che fu la FIAT:

Romano Pisciotti

Countries without words (English and Italian version)

A country that does not know the words of the mother tongue will not have peace: good leaders, jobs and growth will be lacking. If ignorance wins, poverty wins.

Rich and technologically advanced countries are losing the beauty of dialogue and writing: the world of work seeks dumb workers and increasingly specialized engineers like horses with blinders; the school is a pool of students who study less and less … and words are lost! Developing countries are moving fast towards industrial and financial goals, while the study of history, art and grammar seems to have become an option.

The thesis of many, silenced by most, highlights the impoverishment of the world’s cultural baggage, followed by the decrease in intelligence. We are listening to great speeches, increasingly devoid of content, but with flirtatious objectives created to attract the consent of the masses: more than on the importance of words, the focus is on the ease and repetitiveness of the same as in an advertisement.

The students press the keys of the cell phone, which suggests the words; slowly the logic of the expression will be guided by smartphones; we will soon confuse every expression of thought with pre-installed catalogs and dictionaries. Quick acronyms will replace the words, tone and colors of the dialogue, slowly extinguishing human consciousness and intelligence.

A cave language will unite peoples: men will be equal, globalized and… slaves!

Un Paese che non conosce le parole della madrelingua non avrà pace: mancheranno buoni dirigenti, lavoro e crescita. Se vince l’ignoranza, vince la povertà. Paesi ricchi e tecnologicamente avanzati stanno perdendo la bellezza del dialogo e della scrittura: il mondo del lavoro cerca operai muti e ingegneri sempre più specializzati come cavalli con i paraocchi; la scuola è un bacino di studenti che studiano sempre meno… e le parole si perdono! I paesi in via di sviluppo si stanno muovendo velocemente verso obiettivi industriali e finanziari, mentre lo studio della storia, dell’arte e della grammatica sembra essere diventato un’opzione. La tesi di molti, messa a tacere dai più, mette in luce l’impoverimento del bagaglio culturale mondiale, seguito dalla diminuzione dell’intelligenza. Stiamo ascoltando grandi discorsi, sempre più privi di contenuti, ma con obiettivi civettuoli creati per attirare il consenso delle masse: più che sull’importanza delle parole, l’attenzione è posta sulla facilità e ripetitività delle stesse come in uno spot pubblicitario. Gli studenti premono i tasti del cellulare, che suggerisce le parole; piano piano la logica dell’espressione sarà guidata dagli smartphone; confonderemo presto ogni espressione di pensiero con cataloghi e dizionari preinstallati. Acronimi veloci sostituiranno le parole, il tono e i colori del dialogo, spegnendo lentamente la coscienza e l’intelligenza umana. Una lingua cavernicola unirà i popoli: gli uomini saranno uguali, globalizzati e… schiavi!

by Romano Pisciotti

Teaching history is a loaded weapon

Teaching history is a loaded weapon: the influence that the teacher can give on the social and political development of students could be the beginning of a revolution or the civil path of social development.

Knowing the past, without judging it with today’s canons, and framing it well in its time and environmental situation, serves to understand the current geopolitics; perhaps many students will never delve into the meaning of geopolitics, but everyone will be able to have a clearer thought about modern events… this, too often, scares politicians and the industrial world itself.

One thing we know for sure is the influence that the ideas pre-chewed by politics have on the sheep people or on the ignorant people (ignorance, indifference and servility are not always present simultaneously).

First of all, it is necessary to know the historical facts well, then they must be framed in their context and, subsequently, get an idea of them. The teacher must not indulge in biased comments influenced by his own political ideas or religion, but can bring life experiences and testimonies drawn from writings, making sure to refer to documentation from heterogeneous sources, without creating a single account of the facts. and their historical consequences. Therefore, a difficult task and subject to partisan criticism and varied interests.

The celebration of heroes is always readable in two senses: the same character can be a hero or delinquent from different points of view … it is very likely that historical impartiality becomes impossible, after all we are not talking about physics or mathematics, but It is important to offer correct and neutral teaching and to leave the related celebrations to politics and memory.

The historian investigates the past without prosecution! The fallout of history and future projections of facts and events are the tasks of geopolitics, while the instrumental use of history is the habit of politics.

Some fools have already thought of thinking about teaching history as a useless exercise …. this way of thinking is not just a loaded weapon, but a fatal blow to the civil development of a country.

By Romano Pisciotti

Nigeria – FDI: foreign direct investment

We all know that Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, and with a population of 200 million people, one with huge potential for growth. It is therefore a country of the significant potential for foreign direct investment and foreign investors. But, for several reasons including a weak macroeconomic environment, policy inconsistency and the absence of a well-defined strategy for FDI as a component of economic growth strategy, FDI into Nigeria has declined markedly in the past several years.

Nigeria’s strategy for FDI
1. First, have a strategy: the priority sectors for the governments at federal and state levels need to be clear. The quality of investment, the quality of the government structure that handles FDI and formulates investment policy, and measurable, long term objectives regarding FDI and performance management regarding the contribution of FDI to economic development, are essential. These should be woven into a single thread that becomes the basis for execution, communication and engagement with potential investors.

2. Develop factor endowment: with skilled human capital as a priority need, strategies for FDI must focus on this frequently neglected objective. The presence or absence of productive knowledge in a society is the most important foundation for economic transformation, which remains necessary for a country such as ours with an economy still in need of diversification.

3. Align FDI with a transformational paradigm shift, for example away from extractive industries or towards value-added derivatives of such industries.

4. Improve national coordination of FDI activities between national and sub-national units.

5. Offer strong investor protections: Legal regimes in Nigeria must be adapted to facilitate increased flows of high-quality investment, in particular in light of regional trade realities such as ECOWAS, and now the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Beyond this, Nigerian authorities – and foreign investors- should incorporate political risk guarantees into major FDI agreements. This includes making use of guarantees offered by the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) for losses relating to currency inconvertibility and transfer restrictions, expropriation, terrorism, war and civil disturbances, breaches of contract, and failure to honour sovereign financial obligations.

6. Partial Risk Guarantees offered by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the arm of the Bank that leads to low income and lower-middle-income developing countries, cover an even more extensive range of situations than MIGA products. They can support participants in private projects such as Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and concession projects, public-private partnerships (PPP), and privatizations.

7. Improve the quality of governance and institutions: Assessments of governance and institutional capacity to create a sustainable investment environment play an important role in attracting quality investment.
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has done a good job in recent years despite a difficult macroeconomic environment, including in terms of revenues it has generated for the Federal Government from foreign investments into Nigeria. I know from personal experience that, despite the early stages of the security challenges from terrorism, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s far-reaching reforms in the banking and financial sector which stabilized the sector after the global financial crisis of 2008, contributed to marked increases in FDI into Nigeria from 2009-2014. These reforms led to improved ratings of Nigerian by agencies such as Standard and Poor’s, Fitch, as well as the inclusion of Nigeria in the JP Morgan Africa Emerging Market Bond base Index alongside South Africa, which was previously the only sub-Saharan African country on the index.

Address by Professor Moghalu, President & CEO, Sogato Strategies LLC, Former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria at the United States-Nigeria Investment Summit held in New York City, recently.

Presented By Romano Pisciotti

RAIN SEASON

Rain season

The sky of Lagos

open to the ocean

and imprisoned

between buildings

higher above the greyness

stagnant in the city.

Gloomy sky

heavy with rain

and swirls of sadness

that bathe hopes

of simple souls.

People wait

the better future

and sunny days

to dry their bones

the bricks of walls

and maybe

even warm the hearts.

Romano Pisciotti

(… An Italian man, stuttering in English, but in love with this country)

Hello to all friends of slow smoking

…ending the day with a good Toscano (Tuscan) cigar is a very pleasant habit!

Toscano is the trade name of a type of bitroncoconic cigar produced in Italy originally by the Italian tobacco monopoly with untreated but naturally fermented Kentucky tobacco. TOSCANO® is a registered trademark of Manifatture

FACTORY IN LUCCA

For almost 130 years, beginning in 1818, cigar manufacturing took place mainly in Florence. But in the years following the postwar period the ‘stortignaccolo’ or ‘crooked cigar’ left the Tuscan capital for good and transferred its production to factories in Lucca and Cava de’ Tirreni.

Starting from around 1853 until June 2004 the main Lucca factory was based in a former convent for Dominican nuns. Since then, production has been moved to a more modern and functional building in Mugnano, on the outskirts of Lucca.

garibaldi 162x300 Hello to all friends of slow smoking Romano Pisciotti

FACTORY IN CAVA DE’ TIRRENI

Tradition has it that the first tobacco plantations, in Campania, were introduced by Joachim Murat during the Realm of Naples. Ever since antiquity it was considered a very precious plant. The calamities that befell the Realm of Naples did not stop tobacco production, which from then on became a source of income for the population of Cava de’ Tirreni.

From 1912 Cava de’ Tirreni is one of the main productions sites of the famous Italian cigar.

toscanello 225x300 Hello to all friends of slow smoking Romano Pisciotti

https://www.manifatturesigarotoscano.it/en/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/47470620736

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