Too late to pull back. On 2 July prime minister Silvio Berlusconi spent seven hours in L’Aquila inspecting the facilities for his G8 summit guests. At the end of the day, tired but proud, he announced: “We are ready for the G8!” He thanked his man in Abruzzo, Guido Bertolaso, for all the work he had done and added that he trusted Bertolaso so much that he signed the documents presented to him for his signature without even bothering to read them.

Inaugurations. Berlusconi inaugurated the new “Aeroporto dei Parchi” at Preturo at what was once only an air club; in just a few weeks the runaway has been extended and a paved road has been constructed to allow world leaders and their staff to land in their helicopters, Falcons or Atr 42s only a few kilometres from the summit building in Coppito. A large number of foreign workers, especially Romanians, have taken part in the preparations; when asked if they knew what the G8 was about, they did not have a clue.

Hospital. Berlusconi also inspected a 51-bed mobile hospital complete with operating theatre which had been diverted from La Maddalena to L’Aquila for the summit.

The Capestrano warrior. The “Guerriero di Capestrano”, the famous statue made of a single piece of beautiful pink Capestrano stone dating to the sixth century BC, has been insured for €20 million and moved from the archaeological museum of Chieti, where over 23,000 people visit it every year. It will be on display in the main conference hall at the G8 alongside photographs of the ruins of L’Aquila.

Security plan. L’Aquila is surrounded for 30 km by 13,000-15,000 security personnel: police officers, soldiers, special units and of course anti-terrorism teams. 78 commercial activities from bakeries to shops and supermarkets have the sign “Closed for the G8” displayed on their doors. They were told only a few hours ago that they had to close for security reasons as they were located in strategic areas. Inhabitants of the area have all been registered.

Earthquake risk. The risk of earthquakes continues in L’Aquila. There were four tremors during the night of 2 July, one at around 11.00 on 3 July and then another, measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, at 13.00. I was writing at the time in Capestrano, 45 km from L’Aquila, when suddenly the room shook for what seemed like minutes.

It was the longest earthquake since 6 April. The people of L’Aquila were terrified; employees, workers, housewives, who only recently had been told to return to their homes or offices, ran out into the street. It was chaos: people were crying or howling with fright. The epicentre was only one kilometre away from Coppito. The alarms of the cars parked at the Finance Guards School went off and the people preparing for the G8 ran away, although it has been said that the structure can withstand stronger earthquakes than the one that reduced L’Aquila to rubble.

Berlusconi put his hysterical optimism aside and started thinking of a Plan B, namely to hold the summit in Rome.

Where are the benefits? The Aquilani are exhausted and they have had to tolerate the inconveniences and palaver leading up to the summit. Concerning the decision to move the G8 from La Maddalena to L’Aquila in solidarity with the victims, many have said that they would have preferred more concrete facts to do with the reconstruction of the city and less emphasis on their tragedy. Bertolaso keeps repeating that the G8 will bring great opportunity and enormous future advantages to the area. However, the medium and long-term benefits are difficult to see. Once the lights have been switched off and everyone has gone back to their comfortable homes L’Aquila will be left with:

A small airport. The city does now have a larger airport but only for small planes. I cannot see the Aquilani taking advantage of this and boarding a plane to some exotic destination. A team of technical experts will be managing the airport over the three days of the summit. Once the leaders have flown home they also will be heading for theirs.

The mobile hospital. This should be useful as the damage to L’Aquila’s main hospital has caused queues of patients in other local hospitals.

Berlusconi has promised that 2,000 tent people will be transferred to the delegations’ quarters after the summit. Furthermore, the luxury furniture ordered for the leaders will be put on auction and the funds will go to Abruzzo.

Berlusconi’s supporters in L’Aquila are counting on him to persuade world leaders to commit to restoring a few of the hundreds of monuments and artworks which were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake. The German chancellor Angela Merkel will head to Onna with Berlusconi where the German embassy has already said it will help restore the local church. US president Barack Obama should be taken by Berlusconi to the church of S. Maria Paganica and then through the destroyed historical centre.

Vanity parade. Is it really necessary to have the world’s most powerful leaders parading a few hundred meters away from people still surviving in tents and trying to overcome their daily difficulties? Many have probably achieved much more in their small environment then the leaders of the world have in theirs. The latter have not exactly achieved great results concerning the green economy, the environment, global finance. They have not resolved the widening gap between rich and poor or global hunger or the continued dependence on fossil fuels. We will hear once again their repeated declarations before they say goodbye and return to where they came from. However, there a chance that the new entry Barack Obama can get better results from this get-together.

Let them talk. There is an old Russian proverb that says “It is better to meet once than to have to write seven times”. So let’s wait and see the results of this meeting of those who manage the world and our day-to-day life.

Fabrizio G. Scalabrino

5 July 2009