Levi-Prodi blog gaggers extraordinaire

October 29, 2007 · Filed Under Italian politics · Comment

Yes, I was a bit slow on the uptake re the Levi Prodi attempts to censor bloggers attempts to tell it how it is with regard to the situation in Italy. But I am not all that surprised that there was something of a time lag between the information getting out and ending up in my view. Incidentally, I found out about this ‘gag the bloggers’ law proposal via the pocket pc version of Google news, which presents news items about Italy in English.

Why am I not all that surprised? Well, I had not visited Grillo’s blog for a few days and I had not seem anything on Italian TV news. Surprise, surprise. It is no surprise, however, how Prodi and co tried to use the ’stealth’ approach with regard to this new law. They knew full well that the reaction would be negative.

Thank heavens for people like Grillo. Without his continual monitoring of what those at the top are getting up to, nobody would no anything until it was way too late. Can’t beat a little open transparent democracy, that’s what I say, only Prodi and co did their level best to be as undemocratic as possible. Freedom of the press was first to go in this granddad state, now freedom of speech is being knocked on the head. Good old Mussolini is probably rubbing his hands in glee, knowing that fascist-type manipulation of information is being so widely implemented in a so-called non fascist state such as modern Italy. The late Mr M is probably quietly chuckling too that the so-called Italian communist party is in on the act too. What a fine situation.

Modern Italy a democracy? My foot! True democracies do not stifle the freedom of the press or the freedom of speech. The European Union needs to step in and put a stop to these peoples’ antics. After all, what democratic government in its right mind attempts to declare war on its own people? Boy, how these people detest critisicm, but boy how they find it so difficult to comprehend that they continually leave themselves wide open to negative publicity.

Prodi’s attempt at government will probably soon crumble, which is, on paper, no necessarily a bad thing. The only trouble is that what is lying in the wings is not all that palatable either. Talk about wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are every which way you look.

I pity the Italian people who will have to vote in forthcoming elections. Voting options: Devil and deep blue sea.

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Tags: bad, blog, democracy, freedom of speech, gag, Google, Grillo, Information, Italia, Italian, Italy, law, Levi, low, men, People, pocket pc, press freedom, Prodi, situation, stifle, TV, vote

Just another manic Monday

October 29, 2007 · Filed Under My son · Comment

Today was a little hectic. We had to get up early and head off to a hospital on one side of town so our son could have some blood samples taken. The doctors want to know why his level of anti-corpuscles is falling slightly and this means they want to carry out series of tests at one hospital followed by another test at another. A consequence of this wish was that yours truly had to fly across Milan to the San Raffaele hospital complex with a small phial of my son’s blood.

I only just managed to get to the San Raffaele in time - the section which I needed to take the sample to closes at 11 o clock in the morning. Still, mission accomplished. What I don’t really understand is why the hospitals could not have had the sample transferred internally - but then this is Italy, and one has to expect these little things.

The lowish level of anti-corpuscles floating around in my son’s body does not come as a great shock to me - after all, he has been on antibiotics for around three years and although I’m not sure whether this would have had an effect, I would not be overly surprised to find out that it had. Italian doctors, however, maintain that there is no correlation between extended use of antibiotics and reduced levels of anti-corpuscles.

A family friend, who just happens to be a retired doctor, was a little surprised to hear that my son had been kept on antibiotics for so long, and in his opinion, it is probable that the antibiotics are no longer performing any useful purpose. I don’t really know - I’m not a doctor, and in Italy antibiotics seems seem to be used almost as widely as aspirin. Italians demand the things after only a few days of what might be bronchitis or what is more likely to have been not much more than a bad cold.

I think it would be fair to say that the Italian medical profession has a different attitude towards the use of antibiotics, especially when compared to the accepted use of the things in the UK, for example.

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Tags: anti-corpuscles, antibiotics, differences, Different, doctors, Italia, Italian, Italian doctors, Italians, Italy, low, Milan, My son, opinion, UK doctors

My feet

October 29, 2007 · Filed Under Italian politics · Comment

I think it may be true to say that my feet have quite a lot in common with Italy’s current bunch of politicos.

For a start I have one left foot and a right one, but when I cross my legs the left foot becomes my right foot and vice versa; much in the same way as Italian politicians flick from the left to right, and vice versa, of the political spectrum.

My feet are also rather close to one another, despite one being on the left and one on the right, again in much the same way as Italian politicians who tend to form rather unholy mixed left and right alliances. And when my feet are next to one another, such as when I am standing, they could be said to be on the centre left and the centre right, which is where most Italian politicians find themselves, when they are not in the crossed legs phase, that is.

If I don’t wash my feet, they become rather smelly - in much the same way as Italian politicians who tend to smell a bit iffy as a result of the continual investigations into activities which are not generally in the best interests of the Italian people.

Tickle my feet and they will try to escape. Beppe Grillo has been tickling Italian politicians rather a lot of late, and the politicos are doing their level best to escape his attention. If you really irritate me, I may use one of my feet to give you a kick. Levi plus the much tickled Prodi have been trying to kick bloggers into touch with their senseless anti-blogging legislation.

Alas, my feet are unable to use the Internet, and they do not really know, nor want to know, what the www is. And one may understand from Prodi’s recent assault on bloggers that, much like my feet, he probably has no idea what the Internet really is all about, and does not want to go to the trouble of finding out.

Of course, my feet, although being apparently separate, are controlled by a much larger interest, which in my case is my old brain. And indeed, the further you dig into the convoluted world of Italian politics, the more likely it is that you will come across one single large interest that leans neither to the left nor the right, but that manages to guide their every movement, in the same way as my grey matter influences the actions of my feet. Indeed, it probably would not be all that untrue to say that the actions of many Italian politicians, whether left or right, are governed by ‘connections’, almost in the same way as my brain connects to my feet and commands them to act.

Finally, the combined age of my feet is around that of the average age of most major Italian politicians. Well, I will admit that they are a little bit older than Mr P and Mr B, but not much younger than the Italian president, Mr Napolitano.

Yes, my two feet have rather too much in common with the stars of Italian politics. But at least my feet cannot speak, and, you will be pleased to hear, they will never be elected into power. At least the living museum is safe from my feet, and their ‘connections’.

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