so Prodi's government just fell on the intention to prolong the mission to Afghanistan which the government defended. Incredible although was probable although possibly staged although will end in a mess anyway. One way or another, it's probably the end for Prodi. It's the second time in his political life that he fails this way, stabbed in the back by less than five votes of the same stock of communist and christian senators, and you can't survive that twice.
Anyway, it is so obvious that it's not fault of the mission to Afghanistan, nor of the small pack of lousy senators who betrayed: I happen to know in fact that the fault is all of the new logo that the government presented yesterday: the logo that was supposedly meant to relaunch the italian "system" of tourism, localisms, heritage and governance.
It is known how ugly design can be fatal for pretty much anything, but this particular logo is so ugly and meaningless (almost bad as the design of the mascot for the world championship 1990, "Italia '90", whoever remembers that) that it had to be bad luck: a old-fashioned "i" next to a green blob out of proportion? c'mon! They can say it's a "t" to make a "it", but it's either a smeared blot or as airos says a zucchini. I'd say it's an eggplant. But anyway: It's such a classic case of wrong design... only a stupid slogan could make it worse.
Well, of course there's also a stupid slogan. "L'Italia lascia il segno", "Italy leaves the mark", which seems more a mafia threat than a anything else (maybe marks left on faces cut with Sicilian knives?)
But it's true, it's true. Italy does leave the mark on you. When you fall it does.