24 gennaio 2008

Please don't read this if you love Italy




Some of my readers love - or at least like - Italy. If you are seriously thinking to move here don't read this post because I don't want to be responsible of ruining your Italian dream.

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I won't bother you with a post on Italian politics because I don't follow it so much. I think our Parliament is very colorful: there are a lot of politicians that use methaphors, quotes, etc. At party's events they also make artifacts to denigrate the opposite parties. For example I recall a manifestation of the right wing with a giant mortadella (something between a ham and a salami) because the leader of the left wing is from BOlogna, the city of mortadella and therefore he is called "mortadella" by them.

A part that this is the most unfunny thing I have ever seen....those are politicians and should be serious people. Indeed, they act like children.

The latter govern was very unstable. After election, the right wing asked for the votes to be counted all over because they couldn't accept they lost.
There was no re-count, and the left wing leaded the govern only by name.
Everytime that there was something to vote, the left wing won for just a few votes.

Italian politicians are very polemic, Italians in general like to animate their chat with silly provocations and that the other party puntually takes on account. It's like an endless soap-opera, just applied to the most important business on the State.

So, this week they were voting on something and happened what should not happened. Half of the parliament voted "yes" to the left proposal, and the other half voted "no".
In this case the leader of the govern should resign and the govern "falls" (il governo cade) and we have to vote again.

But this happened in a really sick way. After the first half's "yes", everybody was waiting to hear the other half of the Parliament. Unfortunately, in the other half of the Parliament the left wing was very very short on votes (around 5 more then the right parties) and on this particular subject there were some opposition even from the "central" parties. So there was a lot of expectations on the votes of this half of the parliament.

Before voting, a senator from the central party (which is determinant to win) declared that he wanted to give his vote to the left, while his party was decided to don't vote. Then it happened:
1) another senator on the same party accused him to be a betrayer and tried to assault him, but the two of the were too far. So the accuser kept yelling at him with very strong words I don't really know how they should be translated. Let say something that means "traitor/betrayer" but in a vulgar way. And then added something like "son of a bithc" and spit at him.
2) another senator of the right party yelled at him he was a "crappy faggot".
3) the senator passed out

After the vote the left party lost and the govern fell. The right party then opened bottles in the parliament and acted like the won the Formula one Sunday race.

What really disgusts me is that they condemn kids that bullies other kids by calling them names, and then they say the same things to colleagues. Where else you can call that your colleague and not get fired?!

And what about acting like if they were at the pub instead of being serious professionals?

I'm so sick of it

10 commenti:

  1. Paola, would you mind if I linked to this on my blog? I want to write a little something about what's going on and I'd love to link to an Italian's perspective (that I agree with).

    I love the connection you draw between bullying and the behavior in Parliament. Spot on.

    RispondiElimina
  2. Thanks for the run-down Paola. It really is sad for someone who has moved to Italy and loves it here to see this kind of stuff happen in the government. It's hard to explain some of this to people who don't kive here because it's hard to believe. I like hearing your perspective of it too and, like Sognatrice said, the connection between bullying and their behavior was right on.

    RispondiElimina
  3. Paola, for what it's worth... it doesn't affect my love of Italy a bit because I already knew the government was a bit of a casino. I do hope that a new electoral law helps things a bit, but I can tell you from experience that two big parties (rather than a lot of little ones) don't guarantee anything but more efficient corruption...

    Thank you for such a good summary!

    RispondiElimina
  4. Thanks to you all for tyour commentss. Feel free to link this post. I am sorry for my English but I am not really good with political issues.

    RispondiElimina
  5. Paola, your English is quite good, this is subtle stuff.

    As far as I know, you translated Barbato's insults very well ;-) What a jerk. I wonder if Cusumano really fainted or faccia finta...

    RispondiElimina
  6. Ok. Let's imagine the entire parliament is replaced and 930 new politicians enter in the legislative chamber.

    What is going to change? Nothing.

    It's not that politicans are bad or stupid people: they're expression of a country which is....

    In order to change Italy you should change politics, this requiring to change Italians way of thinking, this requiring to invest on education. My generation is gone, your is gone, we should take care of 5yrs old babies.

    RispondiElimina
  7. I agree with you Pola and also with Ale. No way to change this politicians, I'll bet that the main characters of this "grand guignol" will take even more votes in the next election round!

    RispondiElimina
  8. It's been a long time since I've commented, and to hear about this... wow. It's not really anything new, though, I don't think. It happens here in the US, too. Even now, as we're going through the process of each party choosing their candidates for the upcoming Presidential election.

    By the way, you might want to take a gander at my latest post. I'm sure it'll interest you. :D

    RispondiElimina
  9. Anyway I can turn off this annoying music on your blog? I am just trying to read a post while playing iTunes, and I am accosted with some crappy soundtrack.

    RispondiElimina
  10. I still want to think of Italy as the beautiful country we all hoped for. Heh-my cousins back in 1974 wanted out of Italy and tried to get citizenship in the states. The US would not accept them-so about a year later they moved to Canada (although I had the privilege of the family staying with us until they were ready to move to Canada.

    Take care,
    Love,
    Terri

    RispondiElimina

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