Preface by FERNANDA CONTRI
CHAIRMAN OF THE TRUSTEES COMMITTEE
In my city of Genoa, I was recently asked
to assume responsibility for a Non-Governmental Organisation with a long
history of solidarity and concrete attention to the less fortunate, and for a more recent one
whose only human shortcoming was that of a group of administrators who had ended up
on trial. I am not surprised at or scandalised by human frailty; I am not surprised that
temptation has its victories, especially in a world like that of volunteering, solidarity, and
humanitarian aid where interest in others may also be an escape from oneself. But I do
get indignant about connivance, cover-ups, the claim that the world is always and only
ever grey, that virtues are necessarily sickly and weak behaviour, about those who claim
that there is a higher reason that justifies their error. I believe in one's word, given and
respected; I believe one can say "yes" or "no"; I believe it is possible to distinguish that
which is beautiful and true from that which is a lie and ugly; I believe it is possible to
express solidarity and aid honestly and effectively. I believe that the rules of civil life are
a heritage built up with infinite effort and suffering by previous generations to raise steam
against the discretionary powers of the powerful, in defence of the weak persons. As a
judge on the Constitutional Court, I have had the good fortune to be able to explore, study
and appreciate the civility of the fundamental laws of the Republic, written to point out a
worthy and peaceful way so that we can be a democratic people and country. Reached the
conviction that there are no "national" defects and vices, history's authorisations to con-
tent ourselves with a weak and tiresome co-existence, to exhausted expectations, to a
humanity satisfied only if it gives up dreaming and thinking big. For these reasons, I
agreed to take over the chair of a discredited NGO, with a history to be ransomed, which
however has around it men and women who are forcefully demanding that the immense
dignity of their motivations be restored to them. I received this call almost as if it were
compensation for this civil commitment, and I agreed, with great confidence and enthu-
siasm, to be part of the Trustees Committee for the humanitarian aid operations conduct-
ed in Sri Lanka by our Civil Protection Department thanks to the donations it received,
almost fifty million Euros. The Report which I have the honour to present, and which
offers a summary of what Civil Protection did in that country, not only justifies my initial
enthusiasm but allows me to call myself fortunate and sincerely proud of having been able
to take part, albeit only towards the end, in one of the finest, cleanest and most effective
operations for international peace and solidarity ever conducted by Italy using exclusive-
ly civil instruments. Last November the Trustees Committee approved the final report of
the General Programme undertaken by the Department beginning in January 2005, with
the participation of many Italian NGOs and other institutions. The summary is presented
in this volume in the form of a report to the millions of Italians who, when that human
tragedy occurred, participated with extraordinary generosity in the fund raising organised
by many different promoters on behalf of the tsunami victims. I have never encountered
so much seriousness and "punctiliousness" about transparency and the duty to report as
in the Civil Protection Department, which over these years has worked in Sri Lanka, bear-
ing the responsibility to do good, to act quickly, to bring to a successful conclusion a task
it received because of the trust Italians demonstrated in Guido Bertolaso and in the men
and women working with him. It is wonderful that in these times of political, institution-
al and social uncertainty a State agency like the Civil Protection Department demonstrates
by its actions its own ability to achieve, to overcome all kinds of difficulties, to work with
transparency and integrity, showing itself capable of involving so much of civil society in
one of the most ambitious aid programmes ever set up in our country, and being taken as
an example even by other countries. I hope that the report contained in these pages, laid
out in numbers, words and images, which together describe what Italy was able to accom-
plish in Sri Lanka, will be appreciated by many Italians for what it is: a civil act - all the
more civil because it is unfortunately rare - of homage to the sovereignty of citizens, of
respect for a mandate freely given and knowingly assumed as a task, of a sense of respon-
sibility for what is done in the name of our whole country.
The first time I saw Sri Lanka on the pages of my school atlas, it made me think of a pearl,
hanging by invisible threads over the calm blue seas of the maps. Geography deceived me,
that time; the history of that tormented island opened my eyes, suggesting less poetic and
romantic images; Civil Protection has brought me back to that first image, to the close con-
nection between Sri Lanka and something truly precious, of handshakes, of smiles of
friendship and solidarity destined to last.
In my city of Genoa, I was recently asked
to assume responsibility for a Non-Governmental Organisation with a long
history of solidarity and concrete attention to the less fortunate, and for a more recent one
whose only human shortcoming was that of a group of administrators who had ended up
on trial. I am not surprised at or scandalised by human frailty; I am not surprised that
temptation has its victories, especially in a world like that of volunteering, solidarity, and
humanitarian aid where interest in others may also be an escape from oneself. But I do
get indignant about connivance, cover-ups, the claim that the world is always and only
ever grey, that virtues are necessarily sickly and weak behaviour, about those who claim
that there is a higher reason that justifies their error. I believe in one's word, given and
respected; I believe one can say "yes" or "no"; I believe it is possible to distinguish that
which is beautiful and true from that which is a lie and ugly; I believe it is possible to
express solidarity and aid honestly and effectively. I believe that the rules of civil life are
a heritage built up with infinite effort and suffering by previous generations to raise steam
against the discretionary powers of the powerful, in defence of the weak persons. As a
judge on the Constitutional Court, I have had the good fortune to be able to explore, study
and appreciate the civility of the fundamental laws of the Republic, written to point out a
worthy and peaceful way so that we can be a democratic people and country. Reached the
conviction that there are no "national" defects and vices, history's authorisations to con-
tent ourselves with a weak and tiresome co-existence, to exhausted expectations, to a
humanity satisfied only if it gives up dreaming and thinking big. For these reasons, I
agreed to take over the chair of a discredited NGO, with a history to be ransomed, which
however has around it men and women who are forcefully demanding that the immense
dignity of their motivations be restored to them. I received this call almost as if it were
compensation for this civil commitment, and I agreed, with great confidence and enthu-
siasm, to be part of the Trustees Committee for the humanitarian aid operations conduct-
ed in Sri Lanka by our Civil Protection Department thanks to the donations it received,
almost fifty million Euros. The Report which I have the honour to present, and which
offers a summary of what Civil Protection did in that country, not only justifies my initial
enthusiasm but allows me to call myself fortunate and sincerely proud of having been able
to take part, albeit only towards the end, in one of the finest, cleanest and most effective
operations for international peace and solidarity ever conducted by Italy using exclusive-
ly civil instruments. Last November the Trustees Committee approved the final report of
the General Programme undertaken by the Department beginning in January 2005, with
the participation of many Italian NGOs and other institutions. The summary is presented
in this volume in the form of a report to the millions of Italians who, when that human
tragedy occurred, participated with extraordinary generosity in the fund raising organised
by many different promoters on behalf of the tsunami victims. I have never encountered
so much seriousness and "punctiliousness" about transparency and the duty to report as
in the Civil Protection Department, which over these years has worked in Sri Lanka, bear-
ing the responsibility to do good, to act quickly, to bring to a successful conclusion a task
it received because of the trust Italians demonstrated in Guido Bertolaso and in the men
and women working with him. It is wonderful that in these times of political, institution-
al and social uncertainty a State agency like the Civil Protection Department demonstrates
by its actions its own ability to achieve, to overcome all kinds of difficulties, to work with
transparency and integrity, showing itself capable of involving so much of civil society in
one of the most ambitious aid programmes ever set up in our country, and being taken as
an example even by other countries. I hope that the report contained in these pages, laid
out in numbers, words and images, which together describe what Italy was able to accom-
plish in Sri Lanka, will be appreciated by many Italians for what it is: a civil act - all the
more civil because it is unfortunately rare - of homage to the sovereignty of citizens, of
respect for a mandate freely given and knowingly assumed as a task, of a sense of respon-
sibility for what is done in the name of our whole country.
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