and the winner is…

Here I am after one week in bed with flu while everything in my country seems to be crashing down: Prodi government finally fell Thursday and the shaming images of Senator Barbato trying to spit and verbal insulting his colleague Cusumano really gave the world the impression of what Italy is today: a country facing a deep and dramatic crisis and no one able to solve it. Bruce Sterling wrote: What collapses faster than an Italian Government? That’s actually how it is: in Italy govs are always so instable and this is so hard to be understood by those who don’t know Italy history.

If I should explain this I would start by saying that my country is still in a difficult period after 2 important historical crisis: the collapse of the Soviet Union which also started the road to the conclusion of the experience of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) which was the most important in Europe (after that the Left hasn’t yet succeeded in finding a new political identity); and Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption started in the early 90s and that finally led to the demise of the so-called First Republic.

After those events a new and more stable system hasn’t formed yet and Italy is still struggling with the same and even got worse problems. Berlusconism sure hasn’t helped; in fact, it has fed political hatred spreading the concept that adversaries are to be treated as enemies. Beside this, cultural messages diffused by his media have increased feelings of antipolitic and vulgarity everywhere, making Italy a deeply divided country. Mr. Berlusconi is the only winner, of course, yet today. For instance, go check whether its patrimony has increased or not since he “entered the field” and see.

Knowledge needs neither fathers nor priests

“A Free Church in a Free State” was what Camillo Cavour (Piedmontese statesman who brought about the unification of Italy) considered to be the most suitable relationship between religion and politics and what it looks as an unifinished path yet today.

In this country, the Pope’s interference in political and civic issues is an habit. Not always limitlessly tolerated.

In these days a group of scholars, lecturers and students, at La Sapienza University in Rome, the biggest in Europe, is protesting against a planned visit by the Pope Joseph Ratzinger. They are actually asking the visit to be cancelled as they object to his position on the 1633 trial to Galileo. Actually, in 1990 Ratzinger still being a Cardinal, had commented on the 17th-Century Galileo trial saying it was “reasonable and just”. (Galileo had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun).

In Italy the Church opinion still leads and influences many persons and the greatest part of politicians. I believe the problem is not what one personally thinks and acts in its private life, as far as this regards its beliefs. The question is what is the sense of honouring the Pope (a State and Religious Leader) in a context such as the inauguration of the Academic Year of a lay institution.

Learnin’ the Berlusconism

One of the most widely discussed issues in Italy in these days is the Electoral Reform, considered by all political parties as a real urgency in order to make the Country more governable. The most authoritative interlocutors are still Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party, which is the first centre-left political party in Italy, and Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister, heading the biggest centre-right party.

Yesterday Berlusconi declared: “I will not sign reform agreement if the Gentiloni Draft on TV becomes a Law”, talking about the draft law approved by the Italian cabinet in October 2007, aimed at increasing competition in a television market dominated by Mediaset, the broadcaster owned by Berlusconi, and the state-owned RAI channels. In a few words, that would also mean: finally regulating the conflict of interest in Italy.

The question is if in a democracy, such as ours should be, the owner of 3 out of 6 of the most important TV channels, together with many important magazines and newspapers, can become a Prime Minister, as well.

Berlusconi says: “It would be an act of banditry, and this country would no longer be a democracy if politicians came to power with the intention of punishing their adversary through his companies and private property”. This is the Berlusconism: a general interest which becomes private and vice versa, a political leader to whom everything should be allowed because of his being the Man who only can save the Fatherland.

Crazy Drivers

One of the things I remember most vividly about my staying in the USA is the reputation of Italians as “crazy drivers”.

A well deserved reputation, of course, both for the Italian drivers’tendency to constantly break the Highway Code rules and for the definetely excessive speed we practise on our roads.

As an example, I remember my American friends yelling at me because I very nonchalantly seldom stopped at crossroads or because I ued to have the tendency to go over the frustrating 55 mph limit normally enforced on many highways. Beside all, the lack of discipline means thousands of dead and injured persons and that’s too high a price. In 2006, in Italy over 16 dead and 912 injured a day which means up to 5.700 cancelled lives in a year.

Recently, the Italian Minister of Transport Alessandro Bianchi made a revolutionary proposal: to install on cars a speed limit device also through law enforcement. As a matter of fact, it seems to have been demonstrated that in countries where the so called “Tutor” is in use the mortality rate has lowest up to 50%.

The question now is: will the Minister succeed in overtaking the obstacles he will sure find on this road?