The Pirelli and Telecom Italia Mafia Godfather
Scandal hit Italy is walloped by yet another expose. If this were a Hollywood blockbuster, then the cast would be veritably star studded.
Criminal Conspiracy
In italy, a charge which is often levelled at those allegedly involved in mafia type operations is ‘associazione per delinquere’ - ‘criminal conspiracy’ in English. Now it just so happens that one of Italy’s big industrialists, Marco Tronchetti Provera, appears to be on the verge of facing such charges.
As I mentioned in my ‘An Unhealthy Italian Brand‘ post on the subject of just how the mafia is viewed within Italian culture, mafias come in all shapes, sizes and forms. Mr Tronchetti Provera’s apparent contribution to the mafia genre, from the scandal that is emerging in Italy, was a highly convoluted conspiracy with tentacles which reached out in many directions, and entangled more than a few big names, and well known organisations. Tronchetti Provera, it appears, even added a dash of cyber crime, thus dispelling, to an extent seeing as the guy appears to have been caught, my recent assertion that Italians are not really that good at using the internet and technology. Read more
The Albano Law
Before anyone shouts, I know it’s really the ‘AlFano Law’! If you are Italian, you might appreciate the allusion to Albano, who is a sort of a has-been, and rather sad, Italian singer who now only manages to get invitations to appear on dodgy TV shows such as ‘Island of the Famous’ or rather, ‘Island of Those Who Once Were Quite Famous, and Would Like to Be Again’.
Italian kids quite liked this show, whereas when I ended up seeing it one night, I ended up wondering how on earth such crap can be made. And they actually paid people to do it! At least it kept a few souls of the streets, I suppose.
Sorry, I digress. The Alfano Law, is you are not to up on what is going down in the Living Museum, is a new law, sort of camouflaged as judicial reform, but that is basically designed to help Italy’s colourful prime minister, Berlusconi from being put on trial while still holding the position of Italy’s most powerful politician. Read more
Pope and Politician Baiting
In the tumultuous world that is Italian politics, the show goes rumbling on. Di Pietro has been pointing out that the current group running the Living Museum are, in the main, relics. Or rather the products of regurgitation, and, as many can imagine, regurgitated food tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
When Italians find themselves with something that is unpalatable, they tend to get together, hold hands, and form a sort of ‘ring of unity’ around the places where those who have irked them hang out.
One of these ‘rings of unity’ or ‘girotondi‘ in Italian (actually, ‘girotondi‘ is from the Italian equivalent of ‘ring a ring of roses’), took place yesterday, with Italy’s Di Pietro right in the thick of things. Lots of people turned out in Rome in support of Di Pietro, who is highlighting that nothing is really changing for the better in Italy. Read more
Silvio Must Be Fuming!
Mr B, Italy’s charismatic prime minister is probably not a very happy chappy. A recent article in Italian news magazine L’Espresso concerned, amongst other things, telephone conversations which took place between Italy’s current prime minister and a RAI TV executive last year.
Apparently, these conversations involve, it is alleged, Berlusconi, who wanted to help out some of his TV friends, and who, it is claimed, offered to support the business interests of one Agostino Saccà. Saccà, who is currently under suspension, is/was RAI’s head of fiction.
In another tapped conversation with one Giancarlo Innocenzi, a member of Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom), was overhead chatting with Berlusco about valuable contracts for certain Mediaset producers. As the Italian newspapers are pointing out, this would appear to indicate that Mr B has not, as he has himself claimed, taken a back seat with regard to the management of his very own Mediset TV empire.
Wait for fresh allegations of confilicts of linterest to be levelled at Italy’s current head of parliament.
Around 9,000 (yes, nine thousand) calls have been deposited with the authorities in Naples who are investigating further allegations of corruption against good old Silvio.
Despite Berlusco’s attempts to whizz through anti-telephone tapping legislation, he does not appear to have moved fast enough to have blocked the recent publication of transcripts. Berlusconi’s lawyer is also unhappy and making noises to the effect that this current episode clearly justifies the anti-telephone tapping legislation proposals.
One thing, OK, two things, are clear, either Berlusconi never bought one of these, or, he did, but they don’t work!
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