<nettime> Re: Heiko's hammer - ... to Battisti to Agamben and Pantani

[Martin Hardie <z3118338@student.unsw.edu.au>]

nettime's ping pong wrote:

>Table of Contents:
>  
>

without reproducing it all that was said in the ping pong digest 
I think Heiko has hit the nail on the head - amnesty like extradition is 
not a judicial question but a political question. It is a question of 
the exception - the archetypicial question of legal matters in these 
times in which we live. It is a question of law which is not Law but 
carries with it the force of Law.  This to me is the thing that Ben 
refuses to acknowledge - that we live in a time not of law but of 
exception where what is Law is not what is handed down to us by rational 
judges and tradition but what works in the society of the fear and 
spectacle (sorry for all these allusions to other texts but I think the 
shorthand makes the point).

Take the other great recent victim of Italian justice - Marco Pantani. 
His mother has said that for the three or so years he was  a dead man - 
from the time of his exclusion from the 2001 Giro de Italia up until his 
death/suicide/overdose (whichever the case maybe) earlier this year. See 
below from http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/may04/may21news2

Pantani was thrown out of the Giro - he never tested positive for 
anything ... he was prosecuted for sporting fraud and he died a living 
death. He was the great sacred tribute to the gods of commercialism and 
the spectacle - sport must be seen to be clean and Pantani was 
sacrificed on that altar. He was acquited of all charges but law here 
served its purpose - to send a message, not so much to sportspeople 
(don't use drugs for of course they do and must), but to sponsors (your 
investment is safe) and to the public (your dreams are safe and we will 
enforce them).

Here rational Italian justice played its role. Ballestrini is probably 
much more savvy than Pantani in his conception of how the wheels of 
justice "turn" but both cases are cases of the exception - both are 
political questions not legal ones. As is law in this day and age a 
poilitcal question and not a judicial/legal one.


      Tonina talks again: Pantani's mother speaks

In a frank, exclusive interview Thursday on RAI TV, reporter Alessandra 
DiStefano spoke to Tonina Pantani, the grieving mother of Marco Pantani.

*Alessandra DiStefano-RAI TV:* What happened to Marco (Pantani)?
*Tonina Pantani:* He lost the will to live...

*ADS:* When they sent Marco home in 1999 from Madonna di Campiglio?
*TP:* Yes...it knocked him for a loop. That's why he started taking 
(prescription anti-depressants) because (the doctors) told him it would 
make him feel better. But (Marco) then found himself in the 'tunnel' (of 
depression) and he couldn't get out of it. He wanted to go back, but he 
couldn't. And I also find cycling responsible, since every time I see a 
race on TV or (the media) talks about doping, they talk about Marco. 
These people are there, happy and blessed, with their work finished for 
the day, but no one ever found Marco doped. They treated him like a dog 
with all these inquests and prosecutors for four years. That's how he 
lost the will to live.

Above all, I want the dignity of my son back. My son won't bother anyone 
anymore.

*ADS:* Four people were just arrested in Marco's case.
*TP:* Those four people aren't the reason. Yes, they are important to 
catch other people (drug traffickers), but that's not the reason for 
Marco's death. Marco died in 1999 when they sent him home from the Giro, 
Marco was finished there. He came home, he closed himself up in his 
house and his girlfriend said "take this, it will help you feel better", 
his friends said "take this, it will help you forget", until he got 
hooked .

He spent four years closed up in the dark. I remember that I would go to 
his house in the middle of the night, at 3:30am, and I was startled. He 
would be sitting at the table in the dark and he was just looking out 
into space. That's how he passed the last four years, Marco.

Because people are mean, because people talk and they don't know. 
Because not even my daughter, who we told almost everything about Marco, 
knew how bad he was. Only my husband and I knew, and what we went 
through with Marco.

*ADS:* Some people even accused you and your husband...
*TP:* Certainly! The said we threw him out of our house but we didn't. 
It was his house anyway. We all wanted the best for Marco. And when we 
read in the newspapers that 'we didn't want to help Marco', it makes me 
feel even worse.

Marco loved his bicycle. He would bring it in his bedroom, even when he 
was a kid. How many times did he go on hard training rides? How many 
times did he come all wet from training in the rain? He would bring his 
wet bike in the house, clean it up and then bring it in his bedroom. He 
loved cycling.

*ADS:* What about the interviews with Cristina (Jonsson, Pantani's 
longtime girlfriend) about Marco?
*TP:* It killed me again to read what she said about Marco, because I'm 
ashamed that she lived in my house for eight years. I was looking at 
some of the notes yesterday that Marco left with Manuela (Ronchi, 
Pantani's manager) and that she wrote him, and I felt like bringing them 
to the authorities since (Cristina) was giving Marco (stuff).

Well, I say my son was wrong (to take drugs), but if it's really true as 
it was written in these notes... maybe these things should be published.

I miss Marco so much. I really, really miss him. Sometimes I go around 
his house and look for him. 'Marco, where are you?' But I can't even go 
in there anymore.

After what I've told you, what more can I say? I'm angry. I'm angry 
because I've realized that there are so many phony people around. In the 
last few days, I've had so many phone calls from people at the Giro. 
Everyone wishes him well... now.

*ADS:* Who really wished Marco well?
*TP:* His family, his mother, his father, his sisterdon'.




 

>   Re: <nettime> Negri with Ballestrini  to Battisti and on amnesty                
>     Benjamin Geer <ben@socialtools.net>                                             
>
>   Re: <nettime> Negri with Ballestrini  to Battisti and on amnesty                
>     Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>                                          
>
>   Re: <nettime> Negri with Ballestrini  to Battisti and on amnesty                
>     Benjamin Geer <ben@socialtools.net>                                             
>
>   Re: <nettime> Negri with Ballestrini  to Battisti and on amnesty                
>     Benjamin Geer <ben@socialtools.net>                                             
>
>   Re: <nettime> Negri with Ballestrini  to Battisti and on amnesty                
>     Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>                                          
>



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