Pots Calling Kettles Black
As you may imagine, Italy is suffering from a minor bout of election fever at the moment. The general elections are just around the corner and election posters are appearing right, left, and centre.
I’ve seen a couple of amusing ones, so far. First there was this lovely one from the Berlusco-Fini duo which, much as I have done, pointed out that the left wing politcos are trying to re-package themselves in an attempt to appear new.
This was a ripe observation coming from the Berlusco-Fini camp, seeing as neither are new to Italian politics either. And I do believe that more than a few potential voters realise this.
Anyway, there was another interesting election poster. This time it was promoting one Ignazio La Russa, again a sort of right winger like Berlusco and Fini, and this poster had black and white mug shots of Veltroni and Prodi next to one another. Again the point of this not so subtle electioneering exercise appeared to be that Veltroni was about as new as Prodi. And just for good measure, the photos of Veltroni and Prodi appeared to have been re-touched a wee bit to make Veltroni look as old as Prodi. If it weren’t so sad it would be quite amusing.
Oh, and Ignazio La Russa has been in Italian politics about as long as anyone can remember, so he’s also playing the kettle, if you catch my drift.
Yes, as you may have guessed, the theme behind the current election circus in Italy is that everyone is doing his level best to portray himself as being something new. Obviously they’ve all been reading Beppe Grillo’s blog.
I’ve heard it said that Italian politicians are masters of the art of re-invention, and I’m seeing evidence of just this springing up in the election posters all over Milan.
The truth of the matter is that nobody who is making a grab for power here in the Living Museum is at all new, up to and including the almost newest of the bunch, Mr Veltroni.
Trouble is, the poor old Italian voters really have no choice. Either they get someone who they had before, and who did not manage to sort things out, or they get someone else who they had before, and did not manage to sort things out. Quips he, repeating himself.
Still, I quite like the idea of this making out you are new thing. I think I shall have a go too. Maybe I could start by pretending that I have not met anyone before. I might get some funny looks, but you never know, they may well fall for it.
By the way, I’d like to welcome you to the new Blog from Italy. Oh, I know it’s not really new, but if I tell you it is, you might just believe me. Not.
Heck, I don’t know.
Milan’s Green Belt
I recently read an interesting article in Epolis Milano, one of Milan’s many freebie newspapers, and also one of the better ones, I might add.
This article was about the bods at City Hall who have dreamed up a scheme to cut down the smog levels under which Milan is drowning, despite the recent introduction of the Ecopass car charging system.
Now, you might think that the best way to cut down the pollution levels would be to simply ban all cars from the centre. Although this would be wonderful, it would, understandably, cause quite a few problems, and would not go down at all well with the car dependant Italians who inhabit this bustling city.
So, what can done? Well, apparently greenery and trees act as an effective filter and can help absorb many of the pollutants that are causing one person every 36 hours to head for hospital to have respiratory problems sorted out. So, some 500,000 trees are going to be planted.
Does this mean that Milan will become a forest? Possibly, I suppose. And , in addition to all the trees, the people at the top are planning to increase the proportion of green areas per head of the population to 19 square metres.
Whether these novel solutions will have any effect on reducing the still spiralling pollution levels remains to be seen, but a positive side-effect of the ‘forestation’ of the city will be the creation of a series of ‘green roads’ which will link each of the city’s larger park areas. This sounds very interesting, and, from looking at the illustrative photo in the newspaper, means that it may be possible to literally walk all the way round the city centre using these interconnected green ways.
It would also be nice if they installed cycle ways on the park-links too.
The deadline for this gush of greenery is 2015, which also just happens to be the year in which the Expo will be held in Milan.
Walking tours of Milan, anyone?
I hope this proposal does come to fruition, and actually works. It sounds like a jolly good pollution solution, if you ask me.
-
Photos from Flickr
-
Ads
-
-
