Thursday, September 30, 2010

Upper Left Quadrant Pain

The Bordello State - By James Walston - translated into Italian

Abstract: The following article need to understand what I think Berlusconi of Italy and abroad. It 'taken from Foreign Policy, which is one of the major magazines each dedicated to political, economic and similar. It 's a magazine seguitissima from all political and economic elites. In short it is a rather important magazine in the world.

State Bordello
The decline of Italy under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Of James Walston, from FOREIGN POLICY a large storm, no woman of Provinces, but brothel!

quote Dante, I admit, is the last resort of a scoundrel, or at least one scribe indolent. But this quote from * Purgatory is too appropriate not to use it. Servile Italy is also the title of a book by Paolo Sylos Labini, published posthumously in 2006, Sylos Labini was not only one of the most prominent Italian economists, but also a man of absolute integrity who is very overtly and systematically refused to come to terms with the power (even with "p" is lower case). His latest work described, analyzed and criticized Italy for 5 years ago. "Why have we fallen so in basso?” chiedeva. “Esorto i miei concittadini ad un inflessibile esame critico della nostra coscienza civica se vogliamo risollevarci dall'abisso.” Il suo appello era più o meno la difesa, da parte di un economista, dell'economia di mercato e delle sue regole, che difendono la comunità dal potere politico ed economico privo di limitazioni. I massicci conflitti di interesse di Silvio Berlusconi, miliardario e primo ministro, hanno fatto di queste regole una beffa.
L'Italia di oggi è stata squassata anche da altre tempeste interne, e ovviamente da quelle economiche internazionali; da allora, le residenze del primo ministro sono diventate bordelli – e non solo metaforicamente. Soprattutto, la nave dello was on the verge of being rudderless. So I'm not the only one in Italy these days to quote Dante.
Since the end of July there was no clear leadership, but in the last two weeks, the lack of direction has become paroxysmal. For most of August Berlusconi has threatened to bring forward the elections to force Gianfranco Fini - ally in rebel July broke with the prime minister and formed his own party - and his supporters to obedience. Then, when polls showed that the only real winners in a vote would be premature and Umberto Bossi's Northern League - and, worse still, that was a good chance that Berlusconi did not obtain the majority in the Senate - has reversed itself. In recent days, his public actions still speak of "three more years to complete the Great Reforms." The immediate objective is to pass a motion in support of a five-point plan regarding the economy, the south, the fiscal federalism, justice, and security. The most controversial issue is justice, which means Berlusconi granted immunity in the process ("in order to continue the activities of government," according to him). The decentralization of economic power is crucial for the Northern League, but others in the center-right fear that the poorest regions of the nation will lose the support of state.
Berlusconi has continually that the foreign policy he has personally managed the envy of Europe, but it is counterproductive as well as its domestic policy. Last week took advantage of its presence at the Global Policy Forum organized by the Kremlin in Yaroslav, Russia, to launch an arrow Fini (without mention his name), saying that someone had created "
aziendine
policies" in Italy, then complained for the umpteenth time of the "common judge" to rule that prevents him and his allies, and finally, to crown his warm welcome to the dictator Muammar Gaddafi of Libya two weeks ago, arrived the remarkable statement that his guests, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, is a "God's gift to democracy" (The Economist

pity that he had already stolen a march on with a cartoon

that shows what Putin really loves democracy and the press). Even more embarrassing was the news that one of the boats donated by Italy to the Libyan coast guard ship was strafed by an Italian fishing.

Meanwhile, Berlusconi's troubles at home are increasing. The director of his
Il Giornale, Victor Felts, this week criticized the prime minister for his indecision and ineffective leadership. Worse, its level of personal satisfaction is at 37% (4.9% less than in June), and that of his People of Freedom is below 30% (compared to 33.2% in June and to 37.4 % of the 2008 election), according to a survey

in early September. At the end of the month, when the House of Representatives will discuss and vote on the five-point plan, we will know whether the proposal of the "3 more years," some hope. Meanwhile, it seems that the prime minister is giving to shopping, hoping to find independents to fill the void left by those who went to Fini - serve him 19 to get a solid majority. If anyone can succeed in this endeavor, it is Berlusconi. Given its financial resources and media, along with other forms of political patronage, there is little that can not offer. He is an expert in persuading parliamentarians to pass on his side, as shown by

recent revelations about the so-called P3. (The P3 is an alleged secret society whose members acted three years ago trying to promote public and private interests of Berlusconi and lawful means little). One of the charges states that by the end of 2007, during another period of policy purchase, the P3 has begun distributing money and favors in an attempt to cause the fall of the leftist government of Romano Prodi, whose coalition has been duly sfaldata nel gennaio 2008.) Ma le rivelazioni delle sue mosse per costringere Prodi alle dimissioni sono di per sé una prova dei cambiamenti occorsi da allora nella politica italiana. A differenza di altre occasioni simili, in cui i politici incriminati si dimostravano molto silenziosi, sembra che la maggior parte degli accusati stia cantando come se fosse alla Scala – il che fa pensare a dei ratti in fuga da una nave che affonda.

È un peccato che Berlusconi sia così preoccupato della propria sopravvivenza, perchè il suo paese è in un mare di guai. Il relativo declino dell'Italia è cominciato quasi 20 anni fa, quando si è visto chiaramente che l'economia non era in grado di affrontare le nuove sfide della globalizzazione, yet every year charts of production fall than in Europe, and of course from China and other emerging economies. Last week the OECD - the think tank

developed countries - has calculated that the nation's GDP will drop 0.3% in third quarter (making Italy the only G7 country with a negative growth rate ) and ascend to a paltry 0.1% in the fourth quarter. The World Economic Forum believes that a real recovery has not yet begun, and puts Italy in 48th place on the ranking of global competitiveness, under Lithuania and on to Montenegro. youth unemployment reached 29.2% this May, 4.7% more than in May last year. The minister for economic development of Berlusconi resigned four months ago and has not yet been replaced. And with the start of the school's teachers are putting on the warpath for budget cuts, just like the police. There are plenty of problems to be addressed, but Italy is a ship without a helmsman

. And so, Italy is once again serve , as Dante said 700 years ago? And it's still a brothel instead
woman
provinces? The new book by a Princeton University researcher strongly supports the hypothesis of the brothel. In Freedom servants, Maurizio Viroli writes that Italy has been successful "experiment to transform the political, without violence, a court in a democratic republic with a feudal lord in the center surrounded by a plethora of courtiers, admired and envied by a multitude of people from the spirit of bondage. "

In Verdi's Rigoletto the main character curses the courtiers with his wonderful aria" Courtiers, vile damned race! ", but today they are the courtiers to hold the reins. Even Fedele Confalonieri, probably the best friend and associate of Berlusconi in 2004 described him as "an enlightened despot Ceausescu ... a good, but definitely abnormal as political democracy. "Six years later, with a changed electoral system that makes all the MPs indebted to him and a new, larger party under his total control, the quote is even more appropriate. Last week, a center-right deputy in group Fini accused some of his parliamentary colleagues that he had prostituted themselves to get into parliament. He retired the phrase immediately (although a member of Berlusconi's party said he saw nothing untoward), but in any case Veronica Lario, Berlusconi's second wife, and the think tank of Fini, Farefuturo, had expressed same assumption in April last year. The real problem, however, is not that some women have entered the parliament through a bedroom, is that men and women, journalists and professionals, have surrendered their minds and their principles, rather than with their bodies. There is good reason here is often cited when Dante.
* The original version of this article reported the initial quote as if it were taken from '
Inferno of Dante. Translated by Bruno Levorato

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