Italy - From Bad, to Much Worse
It’s been an eventful but tragic week in Italy, but it looks as though things here are going to go from bad to worse, much worse.
Work Related Deaths
Quite a number of people have, alas, lost their lives at work this week. First, there was an incident in Sicily which led to the death of six workers. Then, near Milan, two illegal immigrant Egyptian building workers died when the scaffolding they were on collapsed under them, causing them to fall around 20 metres. Finally, two other unfortunate individuals died in work related accidents in Sardinia and Sicily.
Technically, it is safer to go on a tour of duty in Iraq then it is to work in Italy. Italy’s politicians are humming and aahing as usual, but have not decided what, if anything, to do about this poor state of affairs.
Corruption a Go Go
Berlusconi is pushing through his anti-phone tapping measures, and in doing so, will make Italy an even easier place in which to pursue corrupt practices.
The new anti-phone tapping legislation is very much old school Berlusconi, in that the new law is really designed to keep all his friends immune from just about any form of prosecution based on accusations of corruption. Italian law enforcement agencies, and the magistrates whom Berlusco detests, will now find it just about impossible to gather enough evidence to bring people to justice.
Even Less to be Spent on Road Accident Prevention
The changes to the ICI property tax, meaning that less income will be generated local authorities, will lead to even less being spent on preventative road safety measures in Italy, which already suffers from some of the highest fatal road accident levels in Europe.
Apparently, Switzerland spends 25 Euros per capita on road safety, France 23 Euros, Belgium 10 Euros, and the UK 5 Euros per head.
Italy, on the other hand spends around 1 Euro per head, which will fall to 70 Eurocents, after the revisions to the ICI system are implemented.
Naples
The out of control refuse mismanagement situation down in Naples continues to smoulder away. And the unhappy state of affairs really is starting to trash the reputation of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand.
The reawakening of Fascism?
Last, but by no means least, in a fun move by Italy’s intelligentsia, the government has decided to use to the Italian army to enforce law and order at street level.
Around 2,500 troops in full battle dress (possibly a slight exaggeration…), are to be used to patrol the streets of Italy’s major towns and cities in order to combat increasing levels of crime.
The expression ‘martial law’ springs to mind.
Gordon Bennet, if this is what a strong government in Italy gets up to, bring back the lesser of two evils, good old weak unstable Italian government. I nearly fell over when I read about this.
Talk about extreme overreaction.
Berlusconi the Wizard
The Italian daily, Il Corriere della Sera, ran a lovely little cartoon on its front page yesterday.
Anyway, until that happens, a little description will have to suffice.
Picture 1
Berlusconi, dressed as a wizard, approaches a pile of rubbish.
Picture 2
Berlusconi the wizard waves his magic wand over the pile of rubbish.
Picture 3
Whoof! Berlusconi smiles as the pile of rubbish disappears before his very eyes. Only behind the great wizard appears the very same pile of rubbish, which has doubled in size!
If I manage to hunt this cartoon down on the www, I’ll put it here. It certainly caught my little eye.
Actually in real life, said wizard has begun his rubbish elimination illusion down in crazy Naples. Don’t know who his footing his €4000 an night hotel bill though. Not to mention the cost of the serious security measures that have been implemented to protect the magically tanned one from evil spells and the like.
Italy’s Trashy Trouble Worsens
The out of control rubbish situation down in Naples, which has been smouldering away since 1994, has finally landed Italy in a spot of trouble.
I first wrote about this troublesome issue in my Naples and Rubbish post back in May 2007, then I mentioned it once more in January this year in my Naples is Burning again post. Just for good measure, I suggested something that Prodi might do to deal with the mess in a post entitled Want to Sort Out the Neopolitan Trash Problem Mr Prodi?, in which I suggested that the Italian army should be sent in to attack the problem.
Indeed, I was pretty surprised to learn the next day that Prodi had sent in the troops! Dutifully, I wrote yet another post - Was I Writing Rubbish? to announce the coincidence.
Well, this issue has not yet gone away, instead it has piled up into a whole heap of trouble for Italy. The European Union has finally tired of Italy’s procrastination over the trash topic and taken the Living Museum to court. All this despite Berlusconian promises to get on down there and sort this embarassing issue out.
Will this buring matter finally be resolved? Well, the ball’s now in the European court, so to speak.
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