Hermes International Consulting

14/11/2025

A maid opened Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel and found Nikola Tesla dead on the bed, alone, broke, and surrounded by untouched blueprints.
Tesla once powered the Chicago World’s Fair with his alternating current, flooding the city with light. While Thomas Edison chased patents and George Westinghouse built fortune, Tesla gave his work away. He tore up a royalties contract worth millions to save Westinghouse from bankruptcy, saying, “You’ve had enough pain. I’m not interested in money.”
He stayed decades ahead of his time — designing wireless power, radio transmission, neon lighting, and remote-controlled machines long before the world believed they were possible. Investors didn’t share his vision. When J.P. Morgan learned Tesla planned to provide free electricity to everyone through his Wardenclyffe Tower, he cut the funding. The tower was dismantled for scrap, and Tesla’s dream of a connected world died with it.
He lived his later years in hotels, feeding pigeons and writing equations on scraps of paper. He carried no wealth, only ideas the world wasn’t ready to build. “The present is theirs,” he said. “The future, for which I work, is mine.”
When he died, federal agents seized his trunks marked “Secret Projects,” fearing they contained weapon plans. They found only sketches fragments of a mind still inventing.
Nikola Tesla’s story isn’t one of failure, but of misfit genius. He proved that vision without greed can light the world even if the world never pays the bill.

14/11/2025

Ingerenze e colpi di stato: l’enorme ipocrisia celata da certe narrazioni

I governi degli Stati Uniti, senza distinzione di colore politico, a partire dal 1945 in avanti, hanno fomentato una lunga serie di colpi di stato e interventi (militari e/o di intelligence) in diversi paesi sparsi per il mondo. Non occorre scomodare la famosa Dottrina Monroe, peraltro ulteriormente sviluppata dal presidente Theodore Roosevelt (lontano parente di Franklin Delano, capo di stato dal 1933 al 1945), per spiegare questo approccio, che oltre a confliggere apertamente coi principi della carta delle Nazioni Unite (citiamo solo quello della non ingerenza negli affari interni e dell’autodeterminazione dei popoli), smentisce apertamente qualunque ideale sovranista, reale o presunto, compresi quelli che operano in contesti a noi vicini.

L’idea che queste azioni, più o meno sotterranee, possano essere giustificate ricorrendo a slogan come la difesa della libertà o della democrazia sono argomentazioni buone per la propaganda di Goebbels, e che dovrebbero essere risparmiate quando ci si rivolge a persone con un minimo di coscienza e senso critico.

Non intendiamo ripercorrere la storia dei singoli episodi – peraltro arcinota per chiunque abbia voglia di approfondire – quanto dimostrare l’ipocrisia delle narrazioni che ci vengono costantemente propinate. Solo per fare qualche esempio, pensiamo ai recenti propositi, sbandierati da certa stampa, di portare libertà e democrazia in Iran: si ipotizza il ritorno al regime autocratico e repressivo dello Scià, che pure qualcuno voleva sostenere, lo stesso che nel 1953 sostenne l’azione dei servizi segreti statunitense e britannico (cosiddetta Operazione Ajax) che rovesciò il primo ministro, democraticamente eletto, Mohammad Mossadeq, “colpevole” di aver nazionalizzato l’industria del petrolio, danneggiando così non l’ordine internazionale basato sulle regole (Dio solo stabilite da chi), ma gli interessi di ristrette élite? O vogliamo parlare, a distanza di circa un anno da quei fatti, dell’operazione condotta nel “cortile di casa”, rivolta contro il presidente del Guatemala Jacobo Árbenz, “responsabile” di aver promosso una riforma agraria che minacciava gli interessi della United Fruit Company, e che fu prontamente rimpiazzato con un feroce regime militare, responsabile di repressioni di ogni tipo, ma assai “condiscendente” verso gli interessi di cui sopra? Né più e ne meno, lo stesso copione che avremmo rivisto in Cile del 1973, col presidente Salvador Allende rovesciato da un golpe fomentato dagli Stati Uniti, che avrebbe spalancato le porte a una delle più feroci dittature militari del Sudamerica, come del resto sarebbe avvenuto qualche anno dopo nell’Argentina dei desaperecidos.

Non sempre i piani sono riusciti, e questo è stato reso possibile dalla resistenza popolare, prima ancora che da quella dei presunti tiranni, definiti tali non certo perché non rispettosi dei principi democratici e dei diritti umani (Gaza e Cisgiordania docet), ma semplicemente perché non disposti a svendere i proprio paesi (e cittadini) a interessi economici stranieri; i casi di Cuba o del Vietnam sono emblematici, fornendo un interessante paradigma, al di là di quello che si possa pensare del regime politico: il contrasto alle indebite ingerenze è possibile, ma richiede coraggio e sacrificio, quello che fa difetto a molte società (e classi dirigenti), a iniziare da molte di quelle occidentali.

Naturalmente potremmo ancora parlarvi di Libia, Iraq, Siria, Ucraina, Panama, Moldavia, Georgia, ma l’elenco sarebbe troppo lungo, e finiremmo per ripetere cose dette mille volte, e note a tutte, fuorché ai cantori di regime. Un dato, però, merita di essere citato, il costo umano di tali ingerenze: tra guerre e colpi di stato, stando ad alcune stime, la strategia targata USA è costata, dal 1945 ad oggi, tra i tra i 20 e i 30 milioni di morti, naturalmente senza considerare dolori e sofferenze di ogni tipo che hanno causato enormi sacrifici a un numero ancora maggiore di persone.

Per ripercorrere questa lunga scia di sangue e morte possiamo consigliarvi la lettura del saggio Le guerre illegali della NATO (leggi USA, NdA), dello storico svizzero Daniele Ganser, ma quel che più ci preme sottolineare, a costo di essere monotoni, è l’enorme ipocrisia di coloro che ancora oggi – pensiamo allo scenario ucraino, a quello mediorientale o a quel che sta avvenendo (e potrebbe accadere) in Sudamerica – cercano di celare biechi interessi strategici o economici con lotte per la libertà e la democrazia (o magari al narcotraffico).

Qui delle due l’una. O accettiamo un mondo basato sulle sfere d’influenza del quale ha parlato tante volte il professor Jeffrey Sachs, o semplicemente la smettiamo di raccontarci panzane. In tal senso, si possono muovere infinite critiche al presidente Donald Trump, ma forse ce n’è una che egli non merita: l’ipocrisia che ha contraddistinto molti dei suoi (pure blasonati) predecessori. Quell’ipocrisia, condita da finto perbenismo, che contraddistingue diversi storici, analisti o giornalisti (o presunti tali), che insistono nel difendere narrazioni, prive di ogni fondamento, col malcelato obiettivo di conservare l’obolo, fatto di piccoli privilegi o posizioni di favore, che il sistema garantisce ai servi più solerti.

Inutile aggiungere che lo stesso discorso, solo elevato all’ennesima potenza, potrebbe farsi per la politica. Magari precisando che, ammesso e non concesso che esista una “terribile e pericolosa propaganda russa”, cruccio e delizia di diversi personaggi, noi viviamo in un contesto nel quale è di gran lunga più pervasiva un’altra propaganda, ed è quella che arriva dall’altra parte dell’Oceano (e da oltre Manica), che gode di mezzi e appoggi assai più importanti, che ne garantiscono la diffusione e il radicamento nelle menti degli ignari (magari in buona fede) destinatari.

Post-scriptum: messaggio rivolto a tutti coloro che suggeriscono costantemente ai critici di trasferirsi in altri lidi. Il suggerimento sarebbe quello di adoperarsi per migliorare la realtà nella quale viviamo, piuttosto che ergersi a difensori di narrazioni che presentano diverse (e inquietanti) similitudini con quelle oggetto dei loro strali. In tal senso, provare (goffamente) a tacitare chi glielo fa notare può essere solo frutto di servilismo e cecità, per non dire sintomatico di scarso acume e lungimiranza.

di Paolo Arigotti



Fonte: https://www.lafionda.org/2025/11/11/ingerenze-e-colpi-di-stato-lenorme-ipocrisia-celata-da-certe-narrazioni/

13/11/2025

When a Belgian priest told Albert Einstein the universe had a beginning, Einstein called the idea “abominable.” But the priest, Georges Lemaître, was armed with math that would eventually force the world's greatest scientist to admit he was wrong. This is the true story of the Big Bang theory.

18/10/2025

With the silence of the guns, hope grows that Israel's genocide in Gaza may have come to an end. Hostages and prisoners from both sides have already been exchanged, and Israeli forces have begun to withdraw to the first ceasefire line in the enclave.

Much-needed aid supplies are once again reaching the humanitarian disaster zone, where an artificially created famine is raging, via the border crossings.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, representatives of the US, European countries, Arab states, and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority have been discussing the next phases of the ceasefire.

At the same time, survivors and those who have been displaced multiple times are returning to where they once lived—to the apocalyptic ruins of their homeland.

Among them is Gaza resident Fidaa Haraz. Like many others, she is now wandering around Gaza City, against a backdrop that resembles destroyed Berlin after World War II: “I’m walking in the street, but I do not know where to go, due to the extent of the destruction. I swear I don’t know where the crossroads is or where my home is. I know that my home was leveled, but where is it? Where is it? I cannot find it. What is this? What do we do with our lives? Where should we live? Where should we stay?”

At least 92 percent of Gaza's infrastructure has been destroyed or severely damaged by Israel, over 61 million tons of rubble are piling up in the coastal strip, including hospitals, schools, and mosques, heavily contaminated and turned into hazardous material by unexploded ordnance.

It will take many years, probably generations, to dispose of it and rebuild. It is the miserable and long aftermath of genocide.

US President Donald Trump is being credited with ending Israel's more than two-year massacre of the Gaza population. He pressured Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas to accept his “deal.” In fact, Hamas had already agreed to similar conditions for a ceasefire over a year ago. But Israel prevented the agreement and killed Hamas leader and negotiator Ismail Haniyya, while the US under Biden and then Trump continued to supply weapons for the genocide and blocked a ceasefire in the UN Security Council with its veto.

What has changed in recent months is that, while the Palestinians could not be persuaded to “voluntarily leave” their homeland and Hamas was by no means defeated militarily, the Netanyahu government has increasingly become a burden for Trump due to its various regional escalations.

Due to the bombing of the ceasefire talks in Qatar, a close ally of the US, and pressure from his own MAGA movement, Trump felt increasingly compelled to rein in Tel Aviv.

The accusation from conservative and right-wing circles in the US, prominently articulated by Tucker Carlson or US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, is that Israel is drawing far too much attention to itself and damaging US interests (i.e., those of the American business class) with its bombing of Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, while the Trump administration has more important things to do, such as fighting for an authoritarian-fascist social order and declaring economic war on the rest of the world. They demand: “America First.”

The growing protests in Western industrialized countries, with hundreds of thousands, even millions on the streets—from Great Britain to Italy and Spain to the Netherlands and Germany, forcing their governments to make concessions— the opposition of large parts of the so-called Global South to the Gaza massacre and the associated isolation of Israel have caused costs to rise for the US as well as for Netanyahu.

However, we should not be under any illusions: the possible end of genocide, starvation, and humanitarian destruction does not mean that peace will ensue. For peace is more than the absence of constant military bombardment, marauding ground troops, and kill zones.

The great war may be coming to an end, but the violence of occupation, apartheid, and territorial expansion is not. For example, settlement projects in the West Bank continued at an accelerated pace during the Gaza war.

We should also remember what the status quo was before October 7, 2023, when the Hamas attack occurred, which Trump's peace plan not only renews but actually exacerbates. Because now it means Israeli occupation plus military-backed foreign administration for an indefinite period. Later, according to the plan, the corrupt Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which is hated by many Palestinians, will be handed control of Gaza by Trump and Co.

The occupation will therefore continue, with all its consequences.

In 2023 alone, until the Hamas attack, an average of one Palestinian per day was killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied territories, including many children.

A total of over 200 victims in the first seven months of that year.

The Western media has become accustomed to turning a blind eye to Israel's ongoing human rights violations, the many minors held in torture prisons without charge, and the violent occupation regime, which the International Court of Justice has ruled to be a violation of international law.

When journalists report on the crimes in the occupied territories, they become targets of the “most moral army in the world.”

Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen well known in the Arab world, was killed in 2022 by Israeli soldiers who shot her in the head while she was reporting, even though she was clearly wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet marked “Press.” Israel denied the case, and the US swept it under the rug.

All of this will continue. Nor will future Israeli military actions in Gaza be prevented by ceasefires.

In total, before the Hamas attack, there were five Gaza wars, which are in reality massacres of an enclosed population, with thousands of civilians killed: 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021. You can literally set your watch by it. Afterwards, a ceasefire was always agreed upon until Israel again deemed it necessary to “mow the lawn,” as the regular decimation of resistance in Gaza against the occupation is referred to in Israeli security circles.

Since Israel's Six-Day War in June 1967 and the conquest of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, US-Israeli peace plans have also been adopted at regular intervals.

Virtually every US president, with the exception of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, has produced one. None of them have come to anything. Trump's 20-point plan is the most substance-free of them all, as political analyst Norman Finkelstein said on Al-Jazeera.

The other plans at least referred to international documents such as UN Security Council Resolution 242 after the Six-Day War, which calls on Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories and to recognize the sovereignty, political independence, and right of every state “to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” Or they referred to the territorial borderline (“green line”) as the basis for a two-state solution in sync with the international community.

None of this is included in the Trump plan.

It is simply 20 short points, without any references or coherence. There is not even any mention of whether Israel will continue to occupy the Gaza Strip by controlling its land, sea, and air borders. It simply assumes that this “norm” will not change.

The rights of Palestinians are absent from the plan, except for a vague formulation at the end: if the residents of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority behave properly (“Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform programme is faithfully carried out”) — which, of course, will be judged by the US and Israel — then “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

Such meaningless statements are not worth the paper they are written on.

Israel has repeatedly rejected a Palestinian state within internationally recognized borders, like they are implicit in UN Resolution 242.

For 50 years, this peace has been offered by the Arab states and the Palestinian side. Israel has blocked the solution also in the rare cases of bilateral negotiations by at most presenting unviable cantons. Meanwhile, over the decades, illegal settlements and walls have created facts on the ground, and fertile land in the West Bank and around Jerusalem has been unlawfully appropriated.

At the same time, the US regularly uses its veto when the solution is put to a vote in the UN Security Council, while the Netanyahu government, with the support of the Knesset—and also in line with an increasingly rejectionist population in Israel—has now openly declared that it will no longer allow a Palestinian state. Israel and the US are completely isolated internationally on this issue. Hence, in order to appease the Western liberal public in particular, vague talk of Palestinian statehood is again used: a rhetorical facade with no political value, pretending “goodwill” where there is none.

There will be no peace without justice. As long as the root cause of the crisis in the Middle East—an end to occupation and apartheid, a viable state for the Palestinians within internationally recognized borders—is not seriously addressed, there will continue to be violence and, at best, a peace of the graveyard.

To this day, we do not know how many people in Gaza have actually been killed, how many more will die as a result of the famine and genocide (some estimates put the final death toll at hundreds of thousands), and how many will be scarred for life by mutilation.

However, it is obvious that there is no willingness to hold those responsible for the genocide and their accomplices in Washington, London, Paris, or Berlin accountable, or even those in the executive suites of companies that profit from Israel's violence—because who would enforce this internationally? The states that support Israel essentially rule the world and all have blood on their hands. This is nothing new, see the “war on terror” or the Indochina wars of the US.

What is now to be decided and implemented is good if it ends the mass deaths in Gaza. But it remains a peace of the perpetrators and a genocide without accountability, with which the survivors have to live.

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David Goessmann is a journalist and author based in Berlin, Germany. He has worked for several media outlets including Spiegel Online, ARD, and ZDF. His articles appeared on Truthout, Common Dreams, The Progressive or Progressive International. In his books he analyzes climate policies, global justice, and media bias.

Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

17/10/2025

Powerful earthquake strikes Indonesia

17/10/2025

ICCS Executive Director Caterina Brentari is leading the Southeast Asia delegation of professionals in the hospitality industry to attend the 44th edition of HostMilano, that will take place in Milan from the 17th to the 21st of October 2025.

HostMilano is the international exhibition dedicated to the world of food service and hospitality.
Taking place every two years, it offers everything needed to build a successful business, from raw materials to semi-finished products, from machinery to equipment, from furnishings to tableware, with one eye firmly focused on trends, technologies and innovation.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore has collaborated with Fiera Milano in selecting buyers to participate and visit HOSTMILANO 2025.

17/10/2025

17/10/2025

17/10/2025

17/10/2025

The Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" interviewed Gionata Bosco, the President of The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.

By 2025 there will be 437,000 millionaires in the city-state, a 67% surge compared to 2020. That represents a massive opportunity for the “Made in Italy” products.

The Chamber is strongly committed to support innovation and business growth and promote bilateral business relations between Singapore and Italy.


(✏️ Ilenia Litturi) Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore