Italy is falling  and I’m riding it upside down

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April 15th 2008. italy gurgles down the drain. my comment on the elections

afp_12728629_24220.jpg I can't say I am not surprised by the overbearing victory of our local criminal tycoon Silvio Berlusconi (ecstatic face in tiny picture). Honestly I thought he didn't even want to win. Besides I thought the center-left was more in control of the transition.
The fact remains that the center-left, kicked out of power after only one miserable year, with its ineptitude has paved the way to five more years of Berlusconi's invincible domain of criminal activities, peculations, embezzlements, conspiracy, collusion with Mafia, dumbing-down TV shows and all the rest.
Freed by the soberness of his former allies, such as Casini, now out of the games, and strengthened by the huge support given (as customary in time of disappointment toward politics) to the xenophobic party Northern League, Berlusconi will have no limits. Everyone is guessing it is going to be really tough on a country already crippled and falling like Italy, that still had to recover from the past five years of Berlusconi's governance (since the year of center-left governance in the middle basically served nothing and accomplished nothing.)

ALeqM5jQc5GV8A54EcdJdZ6SsfrCveEcrA.jpgI wonder if this defeat will finally make the idiotic arrogance of the leaders of the center-left (grinning face in tiny picture) go away. You would think that losing with almost the 10% to Berlusconi again should do it. But I have a hunch that not few of them are actually happy of the outcome.
First of all, with their moronic single party they racked the 33%, which within the italian left is quite enough power in few hands. lapr_12725318_28350.jpg But most importantly, with this election they managed to erase from the political scene the "extreme" left, the green party and communists (serious face in tiny picture), which for the first time in thirty years or so are going to be out of the parliament.
I think back at the Democratic Party they couldn't dream anything better than being left as the only left, even if they have nothing of the left except the desire to be in control and the arrogance of those who think they have a exemplary, romantic past.

Well, Italy is screwed anyway, economically but more importantly spiritually and morally. The majority hates to be italian, others who love to be italian do so for the worst reasons. Everyone seems ready to sell everything only to get out of debt and buy a new car, a new political season, a favor. The political oligarchy is disgusting from the first to the last man not only because they are so corrupted, because they are always the same faces, because they are not capable of doing anything good that lasts, because they are a burden to this country, dragging it backwards against happier forces of conservation and change (both badly needed by this country).
They are disgusting because they are a mirror inside which our worst face reflects itself. I am sick of looking at that mirror, actually.


 
 

 

9 Responses to “italy gurgles down the drain. my comment on the elections” :

Giorgio said

such type of posts is the reason why I love blogs

gazing... said

God this is still so incredible to me…not exactly shocking, but just incredible. What next???!?!

Moreover, from this side of the big swamp, I’ve been rather surprised at how little my peers know about this…ok fine, maybe it’s still a little fresh, but to have never heard of Berlusconi? now THAT is scary.

Andrew said

We in the USA had to endure, and are still enduring, eight painfully years of George the Moron Bush. Hopefully, Mr. Obama can reverse the trend of the world for electing bone heads as leaders. Berlusconi is a dangerous man in that his goal appears to be only power and more power and he will make alliances with the likes of George the Moron if it serves his purposes. And of course the other disaster is the idea that privitization of every government agency until the whole country is running the corporations and the stock market. People in Italy are fed up with government corruption and efficiency, but privitization is not the answer. You will be selling your country to foreign entities; mostly Germans and Americans who will come in to suck the life out of Italy. Take back your country Italiani.

mieze said

I know exactly what you mean. And your words about Italy are similar to my thoughts about the US. Morally and spiritually bankrupt, falling.
As for the upcoming elections there, well, it’s great there are some candidates inspiring hope, but the cynic in me says –Yeah, and what the fuck can they actually do in 4 years? It’s going to take decades to undo the damage.

At any rate, I won’t go on crying about it here. Just know that you’re not alone in your thoughts about your homeland. I really wanted to just say that it was good to see you on the DC blog yesterday, and wish you all kinds of well.

–Mieze

Linda said

Stated so well…

What a mess… I’m so glad I left when I did…

Keep up the good work!

Linda

corpodibacco said

Hey mieze, thanks for visiting here. Yes, I don’t believe there is going to be real change anywhere, only in a more horrible orwellian or catastrophic direction maybe, and I hate the way we are sort of prepared and waiting for this, hoping for dictatorship or war or whatever, because the nothing-happening, with all this horror on our backs, the guilt, is unbearable.

I haven’t been able to access your blog for a long time, not even the feeds, I wanted to read your posts… are you still blogging these days? I really hope so. All kinds of well to you, mieze. Much love.

mieze said

Yes, those blogs are open again. Nothing good there lately, but if you want to visit, you can.

Take care of yourself…

Flora said

HI! i am writing from italy and i wish i was anywhere else in the world but here. In the last couple of days racism has erupted with an extraordinary force, and they started pogroms, setting fire to Roma (gypsy) camps in Naples….you can hardly believe what is happening down here. The new Home Officee minister is going to write new RACIAL LAWS after 70 years. I mean laws that target one specific racial (ethnic) group….Something unheard of since fascism….
Of course, fascist and post-fascist and a party who is openly xenophobic are running the country…..
Can anybody anywhere do something? I hope in the Eu….but i honestly think i must get out of here till i can…seek refuge somewhere else…..
any tips?
i post you some reference about what i wrote….from italian newspaper and websites

http://sucardrom.blogspot.com/

http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/MainPage.html

this is an article from the italian leftwing daily Liberazione, to give u a feel of whats going on:

E pronto un decreto che per la prima volta dopo il 1938 contiene il concetto di razza: nomina un «Commissario ai Rom»
Tornano le leggi razziali
Il governo ha preparato il piano sicurezza in cinque punti

Piero Sansonetti
Il governo ha preparato il piano sicurezza in cinque punti. Non è chiarissimo quali sono. Solo due o tre cose sono chiare. Prima, la condizione, drammatica, di clandestinità (cioè immigrazione irregolare) diventa un reato penale. Si va in prigione perché si è ladri, o assassini, o truffatori, o violentatori oppure perché si è stranieri. Secondo, i cosiddetti Cpt (centri di permanenza temporanea per persone extracomunitarie senza permesso di soggiorno) diventano centri di detenzione. Più o meno, campi di concentramento. Terzo - e questa è la novità storicamente più rilevante - a Milano (per ora) viene nominato dal ministro dell’Interno un commissario straordinario «all’emergenza rom». Perché diciamo che è storicamente rilevante? Perché per la prima volta dal 1938 entra, in un provvedimento ufficiale di un governo europeo, il concetto di razza, concetto che era stato bandito (e anche assai vituperato) dopo il nazismo e la persecuzione contro gli ebrei e - appunto - i rom. Nel 1938, in Italia, fu prima pubblicato il «manifesto della razza», compilato da un certo numero di scienziati non molto illustri né famosi, tutti assai fedeli al regime fascista, nel quale si rilanciava il concetto di «razza»; e successivamente furono varate le leggi speciali che negavano a ebrei e rom (e a chiunque non fosse di razza ariana) moltissimi diritti (compresi diritti di proprietà, di matrimonio di residenza e altro).
La nomina del commissario ai rom, naturalmente, non ha lo stesso valore persecutorio che ebbero le leggi del ‘38. Costituisce però la rottura di due tabù, che da allora nessuno più aveva osato infrangere: l’idea stessa di razza, e il principio che ogni persecuzione sia illegale.
Perché introduce il concetto di razza? I rom, come sapete, sono un popolo che non ha nazione, che non ha terra, è un gruppo che non è definibile per mestiere o età o città o altro. Definire i rom «una emergenza», di conseguenza, è un atto che indiscutibilmente si basa sul concetto di razza. Violando peraltro la dichiarazione sulle razze approvata dall’Unesco nel 1950 - a completamento della dichiarazione universale sui diritti della persona - nella quale si precisava che le razze non esistono. E dunque che non si possono fare leggi ad hoc, né nominare commissari ad hoc.
Naturalmente la natura razzista del provvedimento (razzista in senso tecnico, senza dare valore politico o morale a questo termine) assume un significato più grave perché va a colpire il popolo che - dopo gli ebrei - è quello che più di tutti gli altri fu devastato dallo sterminio razzista. E verso il quale, di conseguenza, le classi dirigenti europee dovrebbero avere un enorme debito morale e anche un discreto senso di colpa.
Il secondo tabu che viene rotto è quello della persecuzione. Nelle dichiarazioni di soddisfazione per la nomina del dottor Gian Valerio Lombardi, prefetto di Milano, a «commissario anti-Rom», si intuisce che l’obiettivo è quello di spianare tutti gli accampamenti dei rom intorno a Milano, che attualmente ospitano diverse decine di migliaia di persone. Raderli al suolo. E questo senza un piano per dare alloggio a queste persone, che dunque si troverebbero senza casa, senza servizi essenziali, anche - probabilmente - senza la possibilità di lavorare, e dunque, oggettivamente perseguitati.

Andy said

To be honest, the things happening here now are scarey. My partner, though English and with a full English passport, is black. After the Roma, then who? Looking around Milan, the number of black North Africans is much greater than before and not all of them are here legally. My partner is neither of North African descent nor here illegally, has a full-time job, etc. But it won’t stop people making assumptions based on the colour of skin, will it?

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