Paolo Fresu explodes on Facebook and invites the Department of Tourism of the Sardinia Region “to stop using my image and that of the Time in Jazz festival . Because the high-sounding slogan of a summer Sardinia to the sound of music (as the advertisement on the Department's website reads) does not coincide with the desire to support it ”.
Everything stems from the publication of the calls for the three-year period 2022-2024 . "The billboards of entertainment and cultural events - writes the famous trumpeter from Berchidda - are granted 400,000 euros per year compared to the already meager 700,000 euros of the now famous click day of 2020 for which, three appeals to the TAR and the Council have been won of State, everything is now in the hands of an ad acta commissioner appointed by the Prefect ”.
“Once the procedure considered illegal has been canceled - he continues - a State official will dictate the new rules for the allocation of loans. Meanwhile, last year, despite Covid and the applause for the events that were organized at the time of the pandemic with the difficulties we know of, there was no call and therefore no funding for culture and entertainment, creating a hole important in the budgets of those who preferred not to succumb by rolling up their sleeves with seriousness, consistency and courage ”, continues Fresu.
“But let's go back to today's announcement: 750,000 euros were granted to the billboard of experiential tourism events and 1,700,000 euros to the billboard of folkloristic and traditional ones. It is not up to us to discuss the value of the events or the tourist, economic and image impact inside and outside Sardinia. It would be a battle between the poor - underlines the jazzman - that would put us all in a position of conflict with ourselves and that a certain politics perhaps expects. If Sardinia is an island-continent (Marcello Serra wrote it in the early 1960s), this must tell all its cultural and historical richness which is made up of folklore and traditions as well as contemporary and innovative languages. Instead, we can discuss the insignificance of the amount allocated to cultural and entertainment events and the incomprehensible and unacceptable rules through which its value is established ”.
“If the click day was a legal battle, the choice of how to invest the money and the adoption of the criteria adopted is part of a strategic political choice that we imagine has been well considered and endorsed by the members of the Regional Council and its President. Since these are public investments, citizens will therefore evaluate whether the choices made are correct and respectful of what should be the requests and needs of our island ”. Hence the invitation to stop using his image.
“For the rest - he concludes - I hope that someone from the world of Sardinian culture will raise their shields in defense of their work, their rights and their history. I have already done so but, given the results of the battle and the decomposed reaction of many colleagues in my defense of collective interests, I leave the weapons to them. We will continue to do for the common good. Including that of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia which, fortunately, also knows another step and is still inhabited by dreamers and visionaries ” .
(Unioneonline / ss)
