Remembering Falcone

Twenty years ago a great man was killed, together with his wife and bodyguards, because he was trying to change Italy for the better. Let's not forget Giovanni Falcone.

Rossella Urru

Rossella Urru, a 29 years old Italian volunteer, was kidnapped by a commando on the night between 22 and 23 October in Southeast Algeria. In those lands devastated by war and misery, Rossella took care of food supplies for the Sahrawi refugee camp overflowing with Rabuni's women and children.

We don't have many news about Rossella, and unfortunately she's not big news either.

http://www.rossellaurru.it/

Capello resigns as England Manager

Even for an Italian like me - who doesn't really care much about football - this is a sad day.

It's a sad day because up until today an Italian was pretty much the most important person in the UK. More important than the Queen, more important than David Cameron, and even more important than Simon Cowell. This is because football in this country is more important than religion (and the Queen is head of the Anglican Church), way more important than the Government (and David Cameron is supposedly in charge of the Government) and just about more important than the X-Factor (and Simon Cowell is still the head of the X-Factor, despite being replaced by Gary Barlow this year, but very few people are less important than Gary Barlow).

With this resignation, Italy has lost the little influence that still had in this country and Mario Balotelli will be pretty much the most influential Italian in the UK. A sad day indeed.

Fabio Capello to the FA

Blame it on the "un****able fat ****"

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

2011 Review

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:

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all the visitors of this blog.

I hope 2012 will bring health, luck and hapiness to everyone, less crisis, more money, more jobs and less dwarfs.

Buon Natale e Buon 2012!

Santa after tonight

Corruption Perceptions Index 2011

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.