Our name is “Gift of God” gift of God that men are free to pray according to their beliefs and traditions. We are children of our fertile land, sons of the great river and the fresh salty breeze blowing on the lagoon, we are the daughters of the green hills and the silent desert: we are all sons and daughters of Greater Nigeria. We were born of love and we came to the world with the strength of the waves and the courage of free lions in the forest. Our desire and our right is to live and grow in peace, our youth and our ambitions are in the hands of our fathers, hands that we do not want stained with blood. Our future is the future of this country, as much as our past was the womb of our mothers and the pride of this nation. If we want a great free Africa we can not allow the men of this wonderful land to kill themselves by tribal rivalries, religious differences or absurd claims … we will not allow it! We ask the women and men of this country to live in peace, for their joy and our future and the future of our children and their children … until the great river flows. Romano Pisciotti
Red skies of Africa:
enchanted sunsets
as a prelude
to hunting nights
among the stars.
Songs of passion
from peoples who,
in the darkness,
watch over their dead.
Silent warriors
seek the pride lost
in the eddies of oil
and in the hatred
between brothers.
The great rivers
drag shame to the sea,
but they can not
wash consciences.
Romano Pisciotti
Cieli di Africa rossi di tramonti incantati, preludono a notti di caccia tra le stelle e canti di passione di popoli che vegliano nel buio i loro morti. Silenziosi guerrieri cercano l’orgoglio disperso nei gorghi di petrolio e nell’odio tra fratelli. I grandi fiumi trascinano al mare la vergogna, ma non possono lavare le coscienze.
A dare impeto all’uso di combustibili non convenzionali arriva la Seconda Guerra Mondiale che rende ancora più difficile il recupero di risorse energetiche e costringe al razionamento della benzina. Situazione che dà vita a soluzioni insolite, come il “gasogeno”, un ingombrante impianto costituito da una sorta di caldaia alimentata a legna o carbone e applicata sulla vettura per generare del gas in grado di fornire un po’ di energia per muovere le vetture.
LE PRIME APPLICAZIONE
A trovare soluzioni più pratiche sono piccoli artigiani che puntano sul metano. Tra questi, Aleandro Tartarini che vede nel nuovo combustibile un’ottima opportunità per sé e il Paese. “Ero convinto”, racconta, “della praticità della cosa. Pensai, allora, che se la guerra fosse continuata il costruire apparecchiature che permettessero lo sfruttamento del gas naturale sia a scopi domestici, sia per l’autotrazione, mi potesse assicurare il futuro. Era una fonte di energia tanto grande che mi sembrava un delitto non utilizzarla saggiamente“. L’intraprendente imprenditore crea così un piccola azienda in via dei Gandolfi a Bologna, la Officine Meccaniche Tartarini (OMT), offrendo lavoro, possibilità quanto mai preziosa in quei momenti terribili, a decine di operai. L’attività ha subito successo, tanto che Aleandro è costretto ad assumere altri dipendenti per cercare di soddisfare la domanda di bombole e riduttori. “Facevano”, ricorda Aleandro, “la fila fuori dalla piccola officina per avere un riduttore: lo avrebbero pagato a peso d’oro. Il nostro ritmo era febbrile, eppure non si faceva abbastanza…”
A METANO IL 5% DEL PARCO AUTO
A fare aumentare le richieste arriva un provvedimento del 1943 nel quale si comunica che “tutti i civili che possedevano una vettura ottenevano il foglio di circolazione esclusivamente se installavano il carburatore a metano”. In alcune aree, quindi, il kit di trasformazione diventa quasi obbligatorio tanto che i veicoli con le bombole con un “buffo cappuccio sopra la valvola” applicate sul tetto si diffondono rapidamente. In particolare, sulle Fiat 508, meglio note come “Balilla”, che a quell’epoca dominano le vendite. Con i veicoli a gas cresce il numero di “stazioni” di servizio che, diversamente da quanto avviene oggi, non sono pensate per fare il pieno ai serbatoio, ma a provvedere alla sostituzione delle bombole vuote con altre piene. Un sistema che ricorda il cambio dei cavalli dell’epoca delle carrozze e che garantisce un adeguato servizio su tutto il territorio, comprese le zone prive di pozzi e di metanodotti, e una maggiore diffusione dei veicoli a gas. Lo stesso Tartarini cerca nuovi clienti fuori dall’Emilia. Sotto il terrore delle bombe, i suoi operai viaggiano in treno o, più spesso, con un’ancora rudimentale forma di autostop portandosi appresso grossi pacchi con riduttori e attrezzi del mestiere per applicare i kit lontano dall’officina. Il risultato è che negli anni quaranta su 97.000 veicoli circolanti oltre 5.000 (più del 5%) sono alimentati a metano. Numero al quale si devono aggiungere 1.300 autocarri a gas naturale.
CNH Industrial said an LNG-fueled Iveco truck completed what is believed to be the longest ever journey by road on a single fill.
Setting off from London, the vehicle was pulling a tri-axle box van trailer and running at a gross vehicle weight of 30 tonnes. After a short ferry crossing from Dover to Calais it completed the 1,728-km road journey without needing to refuel.
This exceeded the vehicle’s official range of 1,600 kilometers to set a new distance record, CNH Industrial said, adding that this equates to an LNG fuel cost saving of 40 percent compared to Diesel.
Iveco was using the journey to demonstrate that natural gas, including CNG, LNG and biomethane, are all alternatives to diesel, available from a growing network of fuel providers in the UK and across the continent.
Compared with an equivalent Euro VI diesel, a Stralis NP running on LNG emits around 90 percent less NO2 emissions, 99 percent less particulate matter, and up to 15 percent less CO2 – rising to 95 percent less CO2 when using biomethane, CNH Industrial noted.
Currently, more than 25,000 Iveco gas-powered vehicles have been delivered into service (2019)
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Rome Business School Nigeria is not only charged with the responsibility to provide support advises and helps for prospective MBA and Master degree students but also embedded with the capacity to carry out Short Executive Courses training peculiar to the Nigerian environment and targeted towards individuals, companies and the nation-building at large.
Romano Pisciotti:
Romano PisciottiRomano PisciottiRomano Pisciotti
It is without a doubt that every country has its uniqueness; specific environment, divergent economies, and different market penetration techniques, Rome Business School Nigeria was established to meet the Nigerian needs while taking into consideration global standards. This means that while Rome Business School Nigeria takes into consideration some factors which are undoubtedly peculiar and pertinent to the Nigerian business context, courses deliverable would not be stripped off of these peculiarities with its corresponding globally accepted standards.
I like to watch Nigerian girls and boys walking along the muddy streets of Lagos with colourful clothes or an immaculate white, at their feet the inevitable flip-flops: hopping between one bumpy relief and another. How they avoid car splashes or how they do not lose the whiteness of their shirts is a curious observation.
Many of them are dressed like the young people from all over the world: blue jeans and T-shirt. They throw an eye to where to put their feet and an eye to the chaotic and not very polite traffic of the street.
I find myself interpreting their thoughts…what do they think about their future, their studies or work?
Nigeria is a country that is very widespread and varied in nature, ethnicity, languages and religions … but it is a country where poverty is widespread: I know well that those kids do not have, at home, a rich wardrobe and many of them do not even have a house like us Europeans we are used to having.
Many of these children are students, but the level of schools and universities is still far from guaranteeing a serious preparation for the world of work and often these bodies are not able to guarantee a level of general education to put the children in conditions, to grab their dreams.
The economy of the country is growing, but it is still far from being able to guarantee, to the growing population, a quality of life that we could define as sufficient.
Even in my country, in Italy, the economy does not seem to be able to guarantee young people a better existence or similar to that of their parents … for the first time, after many decades, life has become less rich in opportunity, despite the rampant technology. The indiscriminate globalization, more financial than industrial, has turned out to be a scourge for the Italian economy and not only for Italy. Nigeria itself suffers because of the market-run world; we all suffer from the dark evils of the liquid world of finance that is drowning more than it has brought out.
We are losing sight of education and civil life in exchange for artificial well-being. Education seems to be worsening all over the world and a smartphone is replacing thought.
In any case, in my country, the situation is not as serious as in many African countries, where there are fewer smartphones, but fewer opportunities to increase personal knowledge … I wonder if those girls and boys I watch on the streets of Lagos, are more interested in an “iPhone” or their dreams are those already overcome by young Europeans or Americans…!?…Perhaps the young Nigerians dream of having a home, a car and fashionable shoes … everything “we “take for granted and no longer as a dream.
Unfortunately, many Nigerians have the illusion of finding their fortune trying to reach European countries, but they are, fortunately, a small part of them. These guys I’m watching, have energy and show a wonderful smile … their bright eyes, that know how to avoid puddles, know how to see a better future; their hearts know how to handle difficulties and they will build a better country: they are warriors of everyday life!
A few minutes and, between a hop and the other, the guys disappear from my sight … my car is crumbled by traffic, while they go fast.
My job here is also for a better country … I wish you all the best, lovely gazelles of the streets, the future is definitely yours.
50 years ago, mankind leapt towards the future: That same year, the Maserati Ghibli SS touched land with its powerful, sleek and contemporary features…a true rarity at the time.
50 anni fa, l’umanità balzò verso il futuro: nello stesso anno, la Maserati Ghibli SS toccò terra con le sue caratteristiche potenti, eleganti e contemporanee … una vera rarità all’epoca.
