If you put together the worst, most right-wing and xenophobic aspects of the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Daily Express you might get an idea of what kind of newspaper the Berlusconi-owned Il Giornale is in Italy. Only you need to add a number of journalists that can barely make sense and write a grammatically correct sentence and you get the picture.
Il Giornale's editor Alessandro Sallusti today has written article that even by his low-standards can only be considered disgraceful. The title says it all, and really doesn't need much comment: Blame It On The Fat Ar**.
The article refers to the news published by the WSJ which claims that Angela Merkel has pushed Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to ouster the dwarf Silvi Berlusconi. Ms. Merkel is called Fat Ar** following a wiretapped phone call in which the dwarf Berlusconi referred to her as such.
The article is symptomatic of the normal behaviour of Berlusconi's owned media. If you are against him, every weapon to denigrate you is legitimated, nevermind if politicians should be judged by the size of their brain rather than the size of their butt.
Il Giornale made sure to chose a picture of Ms Merkel at her worst
So many things happened in 2011, it's hard to remember them all. The always helpful Google has posted the Zeitgeist 2011: Year In Review video, to remember all the bad (Japan Earthquacke, Brasil Floods, Various Deaths - Amy, Steve Jobs, Liz Taylor, etc.) and good (Southern Sudan Independence, Arab Spring, Occupy Movement, etc) things happened this year:
One thing is missing from this video, Berlusconi's resignation as Italian Prime Minister. Here's a video of that historical night:
Last week the Corruption Perception Index 2011 has been revealed. This is the definition from taken from the official website:
The CPI ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. It is a composite index, a combination of polls, drawing on corruption-related data collected by a variety of reputable institutions. The CPI reflects the views of observers from around the world, including experts living and working in the countries/territories evaluated.
Italy is pretty much half way through the index, at number 69, one of the lowest for European countries and the lowest among G8 countries, which is really not surprising considering that the former prime minister is one of the most corrupted politicians in modern history and the country is based on a system of cronyism.
I started this blog, mainly because I felt the need to report in English some news regarding Italy, and also because as an Italian living abroad I get the chance to see a different point of view on my country. But as a foreigner living in the UK for more than four years now, I have also learnt to observe this country, and hopefully understand a bit of its culture.
One thing that would impress most foreigners coming to the UK - at least somebody coming from a place like Italy, where the number of foreigners is relatively low - it's how cosmopolitan this country is. London and pretty much every medium/large UK city are a melting pot of differente ethnicities, nationalities and cultures that, at first sight, peacefully coexist together.
This was also one of the subjects of my masters dissertation. Through interviews with groups of foreigner students and British students, I wanted to see how differently the foreigners would see this society as opposed to the locals. What I found was that the newer people are to this country, the more they think racism is not an issue. The more you live here, the more you think racism is a pretty big issue. Most of the British students I interviewed came from non-white ethnicities and they all felt they experienced some kind of racism at some point in their life.
The reason I am talking about this, is an awful video that went viral on YouTube yesterday. Titled "My Tram Experience" the video shows a British woman (Emma West) with a baby on her lap, racially abusing people on the tram, ranting about her country been taken over by black and polish people.
The video is truly appealing and generated disgust among most people, but looking at a bit of stats, it has so fare gained nearly 3.8 million views on YouTube; 46,952 dislikes and 13,603 likes. Now I wonder, what all these likes mean? Do they mean that 22% of the people that expressed an opinion on the video, agree with the woman? The number seems a bit high, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it represented a realistic percentage of xenophobes in this country.
At times of recession, when day in day out the papers are talking about job losses and crisis, it's easy to blame the lack of jobs on the foreigners.
After studying in this country and finding a job, I remember been happy to have a job where my Italian and language skills in general were a requirement, in that way I didn't feel like I was taking one of those "British jobs for British people" that are often promoted by a certain type of media.
I think this country has come a long way in accepting minorities, and in that it's far more advanced than many other European countries (including Italy), but at the same time, I feel that behind the surface there is still lots of hate and intolerance.
If Mario Monti has been compared to Super Mario, the dwarf Silvio Berlusconi can easily be compared to Pinocchio.
I'm not just talking about the lies, but about that thing on his head his hair. Berlusconi seems to have been inspired by the famous puppet for his latest hairdo.
In the past few weeks different parts of Italy, from the north to the south and Sicily have been affected by extreme weather conditions. People have lost their houses, their possessions and even their lives. I guess it doesn't really make a big news, we are not at Tsunami levels, and people are busy thinking about the economic situation, the X-Factor or the Christmas shopping, but sometimes it's good to stop for a moment and think that everything we have now, could be gone tomorrow.
As if it wasn't enough all the bad things he has done to Italy, the dwarf Berlusconi, who once said he was only a part-time Prime Minister, is inflicting us a new CD of horrible songs with cheesy lyrics authored by him and sang by Mariano Apicella, the most untalented singer on earth.
If you are brave enough here's a small sample. Beware Michael Buble', Berlusconi is coming after you!
When I started writing this blog, just over a month ago, I had no idea how things would change so quickly. Not in my wildest dreams I thought that the dwarf Berlusconi would have resigned. It was so nice to see the Italians celebrating their joy and the whole world praising his exit. The question that night was "what's gonna happen now?" and the answer was "I don't know, but it can't been worse than what it has been for the past 17 years".
President Napolitano had a key role in setting up a new Government so quickly, and Mario Monti, a man that couldn't be more far away from Berlusconi's nasty image, seems to have the skills and knowledge to be a good Prime Minister. Italians are not entirely happy (we like to complain), because this Government has not been democratically elected, but look what we have done the last time we had the chance to elect someone?
A technocratic Government is Italy best bet in my opinion at the moment. The economy has been neglected for so long, the parliament has been filled with incompetent show biz people that know nothing on how to run a country, it is finally reassuring to see people that have academic knowledge and business experience to be in charge.
People are worried because the connection of Monti et al. with the banks, but then again, that's what runs the economy and at least they will have the inside knowledge necessary to lift Italy up.
After Mubarak and Gaddafi, 2011 has been a great year for democracy. The day I have been waiting for so long has finally come, the end of the era of the dwarf!
Some really shocking images from Naples. Following heavy rain and flooding, a small river carrying tons and tons of rubbish. Berlusconi claimed he had solved the rubbish crisis in Naples.
In all this seriousness and dispair regarding the Italian economy, thought I would share a video made by the incredible Sora Cesira on Berlusconi's resignation, based on a parody of Kate Bush's Babushka. It's in Ital-English, but shouldn't be too difficult to understand for the non Italian speakers.
Well, this time the title should be: Berlusconi resigning!
It's pretty much clear that the dwarf will resign in two weeks time. This time is different from before, I'm convinced that he will finally be out of the political scene. Even his allies want to be dissociated from him now.
The future is still very uncertain, elections too soon are not good, as the opposition is not ready yet. A government led by technocrats sounds like the best option to try to sort out the mess Italy is in at the moment.
Anyway, this is the start of a new era, his time is definitely up!
Tonight I will go to bed hoping that tomorrow will be the last day of the dwarf Berlusconi's Government.
What an historic day would it be? The rumours started in the morning, when Giuliano Ferrara, a journalist close to Berlusconi and one of his biggest a**-kissers supporters, announced that the prime minister was going to resign within hours. Berlusconi denied the rumours, but tomorrow confidence vote could force him to finally resign.
We have been there before, so I don't want to have my hopes too high, but what is certain now is that we are getting closer and closer to the end of the Berlusconi era in Italy.
Not that we needed any more proof that Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy and has no idea of what's going on around him, but here's an allarming quote from the G20 published by the Guardian:
Berlusconi, facing defections from his own party, insisted he had invited the IMF to offer advice. He said on Friday he had rejected an offer of IMF funds. "I don't think Italy needs that," he said, claiming his country was more solid than France or the UK. "Italian restaurants and vacation spots are always full. Nobody has the sense the country is in a crisis".
Nobody has the sense the country is in a crisi? NOBODY HAS THE SENSE THE COUNTRY IS IN A CRISIS? NOBODY HAS THE SENSE THE COUNTRY IS IN A CRISIS?
Seriously mr. dwarf Berlusconi, are your eyes covered with parma ham (as the Italians say)? You must be the only person who has no sense the country is in a crisis, because everyone else does! Ask the thousands of graduates that have no hope of finding a job and still live with their parents in their 30s, or the young people that go abroad cause they are fed up with the Italian system, or the pensioners that struggle to get to the end of the month, or the people that have been working on the black market (as they have no other option) and won't even get a pension when they are too old to work, or basically just ask everyone that is not one of the prostitutes and mercenaries that surrounds you, because everyone will tell you that the country is not just in a crisis, is in a bloody mess!
Even at the G20 we all know what he was
really thinking about
Silvio Berlusconi has a long and extensive CV which includes entries such as mafioso, prime minister of Italy, media mogul, president of AC Milan, singer/songwriter and, only recently, sex trafficker.
He was in fact mentioned in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2011 published by the U.S. Department of State for facilitating child prostitution, due to his involvement in the infamous Rubygate.
To be totally honest, Berlusconi is still under trial for underage prostitution, and therefore innocent until proven guilty, but his mention in the report is definitely a further embarrassment for the country. I believe that in every other democratic country he would have no choice but to resign, how in Italy he is still allowed to stay in power is beyond my understanding.
Just a few days ago I wrote an entry on how the Italian police is fundraising in order to buy petrol for their cars, following the Government spending cuts. Well, the cuts have obviously not affected the ministry of defence, which has recently acquired not one, but 19 new Maseratis.
The evil-looking Minister of Defence Ignazio La Russa, claimed that the cars were ordered a few years ago - silly excuse as Italy wasn't in a much better economic climate anyway.
Maurizio Caprino authored a very unbiased blog post for il Sole 24 Ore website, explaining that the cars might actually have been a good choice in terms of value for money, but still it seems that there was no good reason to justify such purchase.
Now, I know that this type of news can be easily blown out of proportion just to create scandal and that there might be a necessity for the ministry to owe such cars, but the point is that in Italy there is always a lack of transparency and politicians are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want with the tax-payers money. It is significant to point out that while the budget for the police was heavily reduced, the budget for the auto blu (cars used by politicians) has not been touched. These cars should only been used for work and official purposes, but they are notoriously used from pretty much everything, including going to football matches.
The thing I notice the most when I read Berlusconi-related news in the UK is that nobody takes him seriously anymore; they see him as a buffoon, but they seem to forget that he's the leader of one of the largest European economies and his poor management of the country can have effects on a global scale.
Tim Parks wrote a very good commentary for the Evening Standard. The title makes a very good point "Berlusconi's leering pantomime could hurt us all"...it is a pantomime, but one to be taken seriously. Mr. Parks also well describes the frustration of many italians (including myself):
"Why aren't Italians tearing their hair out in exasperation? Some are. But for the past decade and more, Berlusconi has enjoyed almost total control of the country's television, and the message has been that the economy is sound. An enormous number of people buy into that. Denial is always comfortable. Others comment with amused irony, as if all this were happening on another planet."
Well, my hope is that those Italians who are in exasperation are actually the majority of the country, and this exasperation will be reflected in a defeat for Berlusconi's party in the next elections. However, my worry is that we are still a minority, and the brainwashed ones his supporters will want to secure five more years of denial.
Rumours of a possible resignation of Silvio Berlusconi before Christmas have set the web on fire this morning. Nothing has been confirmed, and to be honest I don't want to set my hopes too high, but if confirmed, the news will definitely be welcomed by many.
My question is, given that polls show an all-time low in the popularity of the Italian Prime Minister, wouldn't this be political suicide? Knowing him, probably not.
The opposition in Italy is still not strong enough, they still haven't got a leader that could run for elections if called too early, and most of all, they do not have a political programme. I feel that the past campaigns of the left in Italy have been disastrous, it seems that all they can do is to argue against everything that Berlusconi says, rather than come up with something new. He does cast a big shadow, but the opposition's best bet would be, in my opinion, to simply try to forget about him. Someone said that all publicity is good publicity, and this is definitely true. If in Italy we can't have a political debate without mentioning him, then we won't be able to move on.
Thinking about elections next spring makes me excited, but am not sure if I should be more scared instead?
When asked whether they trusted Berlusconi and its commitment to reforms, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy simply looked at each other and laughed.
Berlusconi is clearly perceived as nothing more than a joke by his peers, but unfortunately his actions are not laughing matter and the whole Europe will be affected by his non-existent economic strategy.
I was just reading this article from the Guardian, on the Tunisian bloggers that have been so instrumental to the revolution that started an avalanche of revolutions in the Arab world and is eventually leading to the country's first free elections.
I wonder whether the Arab spring will finally infect Italy next spring, when we might have the chance of new elections? Also in Italy there is a lively online community of people against the system that share news outside the traditional media controlled by the dwarf Berlusconi.
It's very telling that even high profile journalists like Michele Santoro find the web as the only mean to keep expressing their opinions. Mr. Santoro is a left wing journalist and TV presenter that until last year presented Anno Zero, a programme on Rai 2 (RAI is the Italian public television but it's heavily controlled by the Government) which week, in week out received great ratings. RAI decided to stop the programme, a very odd decision as the programme was among the most successful for the broadcaster. The decision doesn't seem odd from a political perspective, as Santoro was alway very critical of the Berlusconi Government.
As a last resolution Mr Santoro has launched the website Servizio Pubblico "Public Service", a tongue in cheek reference to the public service, which RAI is supposed to offer, but is no longer doing due to political pressure. He will also start a new TV programme that will air mainly online and on a series of local and digital channels.
This clearly shows that there are many people in Italy going against the establishment, but how many people still rely only on the traditional media, and are therefore unlikely to be exposed to any anti-Berlusconi or even factual news? Let's no forget that Italy has an ageing population. And Italians love TV. Which is bad news as the quality of the TV programmes in Italy is terrible.
With Berlusconi controlling Mediaset, the main private TV broadcaster, and his Government also controlling the public TV, it's clear that freedom of speech is no longer granted in Italy.
...in the specific, when a dictator that you've been a**-kissing until not long ago dies..
Silvio Berlusconi: "Sic transit gloria mundi" - a sentence normally used when someone great dies, not for a dictator...ok, we know that he thought you about Bunga Bunga parties, but still...
David Cameron:'People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future.' - democratic? Really...let's not talk about democracy when somebody is summarily executed like that, but it's good that you care about the oil democratic future of Libya, Mr Cameron.
To end this post, just a couple of pictures to remind us just what hypocrites our leaders are:
There's a lot of talk and criticism in the UK regarding the Government's spending cuts, but in Italy, as usual, we take things to another level.
The police has been deeply affected by the cuts and police unions have organised protests in many Italian cities today. But what is peculiar about these protests? The unions are also doing a fundraising, asking citizens to donate money to a fund for the purchase of petrol. The cuts are so bad that the police soon won't be able to afford petrol for their cars.
When I read this shocking news, a comment piece written by Naomi Klein following the London riots, came to mind:
"You can't cut police budgets at the same time as you cut everything else. Because when you rob people of what little they have, in order to protect the interests of those who have more than anyone deserves, you should expect resistance – whether organised protests or spontaneous looting. And that's not politics. It's physics."
Well, I think that what Naomi Klein said for London, applies perfectly to the riots in Rome that we witnessed only a few days ago.
On Friday 14 October, Berlusconi has survived another confidence vote in the parliament, thanks to a majority of one. The news has been widely reported by the media worldwide, but while the Italians are taking the web to discuss how Berlusconi managed to win this majority - BRIBING - nobody seems to mention it abroad.
Maybe journalists need to be safe and they fear reporting as news what might be perceived as gossip, but gossip is not.
Bribing doesn't necessarily involve cash (although it often does), and the Italian media is reporting on several cases of "favours" given right before the confidence vote. Like the wife of a MP, who is suddenly given an important new role. However, what everybody is wondering now is, how exactly Berlusconi bribed Marco Pannella, leader of the left wing Italian radical party, who suddenly decided to give his confidence vote to a government that he never supported.
There are many more stories to prove this bribing scandal, yet I don't think any of them has been picked up by the media outside of Italy.
Unfortunately, while Italy is in the middle of its worst economic crisis and at risk of default, our politicians think it’s more important to spend time passing undemocratic laws that will eventually limit freedom of speech, rather than take care of the economy. This is of course thanks to our Prime Minister, who has quite a few skeleton in the closet.
As a consequence of the Wiretapping Act, several websites and blogs will have no choice but to shut down, Wikipedia has already shut down its Italian page (at the moment just as a form of protest):
"This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.
Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge - the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website.
Hence, anyone who feels offended by any content published on a blog, an online newspaper and, most likely, even on Wikipedia would have the right for a statement ("correction") to be shown, unaltered, on the page, aimed to contradict and disprove the allegedly harmful contents,regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources."
That is why I decided to start writing this blog. If the parliament will pass the law, they will still have no power over what is published abroad, and also, I feel that there is a lack of information published in English regarding what's happening in Italy.
I was surprised how the Wikipedia news didn't resonate here in the UK, so I decided to contact John Hooper from The Guardian, who wrote a piece about the Wiretapping Act a few weeks ago. He was nice enough to reply, but unfortunately his editor didn't want to publish the story.
The news was eventually published by a few high-reach websites such as BBC News and Reuters, but still I am surprised how nobody is making a big fuss about it outside of Italy. This law clearly goes against the principle of freedom of speech, and every democratic country should stand for it.
