hmmmm
miei cari, I am at home and I decided that I have worked enough for tonight so screw the report I want to write on my blog.
In the last days I had a chance to think and talk about what is happening in Italy at the moment. It all started when I was driving back for the holidays: I was in a queue outside Milano and was listening to the radio, a pretty big one. They played this "Xmas" jingle, in which a speaker was basically saying that the state is shit, politicians are shit, people cannot make ends meet, and so on. At the beginning I thought it was some kind of political commercial, but then I figured that it was for real. I arrive home and listen to the news, with the "emergency" (which has been going on for years now) of the piles of rubbish in Campania (the region of Naples). Then I bought this book called "la casta", of which I had read a lot. Basically the 2 journalists that wrote it describe how Italian politicians became a caste (hence the name of the book), and that theit highest political goal is to steal money and go unpunished for it. This all over the country, North, South, East, West, all the same, without anyone even feeling slightly ashamed for what they do. You read it and you want to take your car and go straight back to Germany - by the way, not that I think that in Germany you don't have corruption, but it seems less spread and when people get caught at least they show some shame. Then I come back to the office and Giulia sends me this link to the phone call between Berlusconi, our previous prime minister, and Saccà, the president of RAI (the state TV). This phone call shows a level of corruption and ass-licking that is simply embarassing.
Now, it's not a big surprise that most of our politicians are a pile of stinking shit, they have always been - I remember jokes about politicians stealing money when I was a kid, so I don't see a big difference now. Still, in the past it seemed as if people were considering it as a nuisance to overcome in a way or another, without getting as angry as now. And it is not only about politicians: people are angry about foreign people (before it was Muslims, now it is Romanians, tomorrow who knows), about not having enough money, about not having a stable job that gives them sufficient money - to give you an example, a friend on mine, who is a vet, told me that if you want to practice as a vet there are some clinics where they will pay you between 7 and 11 euros/hour, which is less of what my mum gives to her cleaning lady. You read the newspaper and there are only bad news and naked girls. Now, the worst thing is that noone is proposing anything to get out of this situation. People wait for the new "emergency", they get upset like hell and it ends there. I've just finished reading this book, "the time of the rebels", about the youth movements in East Europe (Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, ...) and I found it very inspiring. Unfortunately I don't think any of it is applicable to Italy. First of all, all these movements were non violent and we cannot even handle some garbage or enjoy a football match without someone getting hurt. Second, the movements that already exist in Italy either are made by an ex tv comedian (Beppe Grillo, who is as old as my mum and I would say less honest) or are completely politically biased (if you can read Italian go to the Indymedia site and look at the difference in themes and wording between the Italian version and the other ones). What I fear is that this is the perfect situation for a "strong" guy to come and get hold of the country. If someone came and said "guys, give me 5 years and control of the police and the army and I get rid of foreigners, make out towns safe and give you all steady jobs" he would become prime minister with 70% of the votes (which, by the way, was the same thing that Berlusconi said and he won big time without even asking for more police power and with half of the country hating him because of his not-too-clear activities). Then we would really be screwed.
So the question is: why the fuck did I write all this thing if at the end of the day I am not able to propose anything? Good question. Let me think and if I come up with something intelligent perhaps next elections you can vote for me:-)
In the last days I had a chance to think and talk about what is happening in Italy at the moment. It all started when I was driving back for the holidays: I was in a queue outside Milano and was listening to the radio, a pretty big one. They played this "Xmas" jingle, in which a speaker was basically saying that the state is shit, politicians are shit, people cannot make ends meet, and so on. At the beginning I thought it was some kind of political commercial, but then I figured that it was for real. I arrive home and listen to the news, with the "emergency" (which has been going on for years now) of the piles of rubbish in Campania (the region of Naples). Then I bought this book called "la casta", of which I had read a lot. Basically the 2 journalists that wrote it describe how Italian politicians became a caste (hence the name of the book), and that theit highest political goal is to steal money and go unpunished for it. This all over the country, North, South, East, West, all the same, without anyone even feeling slightly ashamed for what they do. You read it and you want to take your car and go straight back to Germany - by the way, not that I think that in Germany you don't have corruption, but it seems less spread and when people get caught at least they show some shame. Then I come back to the office and Giulia sends me this link to the phone call between Berlusconi, our previous prime minister, and Saccà, the president of RAI (the state TV). This phone call shows a level of corruption and ass-licking that is simply embarassing.
Now, it's not a big surprise that most of our politicians are a pile of stinking shit, they have always been - I remember jokes about politicians stealing money when I was a kid, so I don't see a big difference now. Still, in the past it seemed as if people were considering it as a nuisance to overcome in a way or another, without getting as angry as now. And it is not only about politicians: people are angry about foreign people (before it was Muslims, now it is Romanians, tomorrow who knows), about not having enough money, about not having a stable job that gives them sufficient money - to give you an example, a friend on mine, who is a vet, told me that if you want to practice as a vet there are some clinics where they will pay you between 7 and 11 euros/hour, which is less of what my mum gives to her cleaning lady. You read the newspaper and there are only bad news and naked girls. Now, the worst thing is that noone is proposing anything to get out of this situation. People wait for the new "emergency", they get upset like hell and it ends there. I've just finished reading this book, "the time of the rebels", about the youth movements in East Europe (Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, ...) and I found it very inspiring. Unfortunately I don't think any of it is applicable to Italy. First of all, all these movements were non violent and we cannot even handle some garbage or enjoy a football match without someone getting hurt. Second, the movements that already exist in Italy either are made by an ex tv comedian (Beppe Grillo, who is as old as my mum and I would say less honest) or are completely politically biased (if you can read Italian go to the Indymedia site and look at the difference in themes and wording between the Italian version and the other ones). What I fear is that this is the perfect situation for a "strong" guy to come and get hold of the country. If someone came and said "guys, give me 5 years and control of the police and the army and I get rid of foreigners, make out towns safe and give you all steady jobs" he would become prime minister with 70% of the votes (which, by the way, was the same thing that Berlusconi said and he won big time without even asking for more police power and with half of the country hating him because of his not-too-clear activities). Then we would really be screwed.
So the question is: why the fuck did I write all this thing if at the end of the day I am not able to propose anything? Good question. Let me think and if I come up with something intelligent perhaps next elections you can vote for me:-)
posted by alba at
9:38 PM
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