Is the EU’s Establishment Trembling?

My latest on American Thinker.

Apart from the EU’s establishment and the international leftist community, no one should be worried about Italy’s next government.

The New York Times’ Jason Horowitz on Monday correctly stated that “Italy turned a page of European history on Sunday.” Unfortunately, he was wrong in adding that Italy elected “a hard-right coalition.” In fact, the winning coalition led by Giorgia Meloni is a center-right one. But this kind of misunderstanding perfectly reflects the way liberals -- and the mainstream media -- change the meaning of words to suit their own narrative and agenda. Meloni, for her part, describes herself and her Fratelli d’Italia party -- Brothers of Italy, a name that echoes the first line of the Italian national anthem -- as conservative. “There’s no doubt that our values are conservative ones,” she told the Washington Post. “The issue of individual freedom, private enterprise in economy, educational freedom, the centrality of family and its role in our society, the protection of borders from unchecked immigration, the defense of the Italian national identity -- these are the matters that we preoccupy ourselves with.” Of course, she’s very firm on her beliefs and principles. As she said at CPAC 2022: [...]  

Read more: Is The EU's Establishment Trembling?

Western Suicide

Gerardo Dottori, "Incendio sulla città" (1926, olio su tela)
Perugia, Museo Civico di Palazzo della Penna

My latest on American Thinker:

"On September 19, 2019, accepting the Defender of Western Civilization award from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute at the fourteenth annual Gala for Western Civilization, Sir Roger Scruton gave a splendid address, his last one before he left this world after battling cancer.  The core message of the speech was that if Western civilization is under attack, this is happening precisely because it's Western, and "the word Western has been taken to be a standard term of abuse by so many people in the world today."  Yet, he explained, Western civilization is not even close to what its detractors think it is — namely, some narrow, small-minded thing called Western.  It is instead "an inheritance, constantly expanding, constantly including new things.  It is something which has given us the knowledge of the human heart, which has enabled us to produce not just wonderful economies and the wonderful ways of living in the world that are ours, but also the great works of art, the religions, the systems of law and government, all the other things which make it actually possible for us to recognize that we live in this world, insofar as possible, successfully."  That's why "we shouldn't despair of Western civilization."  We're talking about, he concluded, "an open, generous, and creative thing called civilization."

Sir Roger's remarks came to my mind as soon as I read the first pages of Suicidio occidentale  (Western Suicide), the new book by Federico Rampini, a prominent Italian journalist who lives in the U.S. and holds Italian and American citizenship.  If an attack in the heart of Europe caught us unprepared, he argues with reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is because we were engaged in our own cultural disarmament and self-destruction.  The dominant ideology spread by elites in universities and in the media requires us to demolish self-esteem and blame ourselves for almost everything that goes wrong in the world.  According to this ideological dictatorship, he says, we Western countries no longer have values to offer the world and the new generations; we only have sins to expiate and lessons to learn.

This is the suicide of the West.  In many U.S. universities, Rampini notes, it is impossible for non-extremists on issues of sex and gender to have freedom of speech.  The New York Times in particular, says Rampini, bears heavy responsibility in this regard for playing a central role in the creation of Critical Race Theory.  Putin's aggression on Ukraine, backed by Xi Jinping, he concludes, is a consequence of the fact that the two major autocracies know we are sabotaging ourselves.

Well, that makes perfect sense, does it not?  After all, isn't it true that Putin wouldn't have dared to attack Ukraine if the 45th president had gotten a second term?  And this not only because of Trump's personal charisma, but also — if not mainly — because of his philosophy and anti–politically correct narrative.  From this point of view, too, the change at the White House was a disaster: Joe Biden's "woke" presidency is a luxury the West couldn't and can't afford. [...]"

Read more: Western Suicide

The Boy from Gluck Street

A song I’ve loved since I was a young boy, “Il ragazzo della via Gluck” (“The Boy from Gluck Street”) is not just a song, it’s a piece of pop music and cultural history. It was originally written and recorded by Italian pop music legend Adriano Celentano in 1966—the lyrics are by Luciano Beretta and Miki Del Prete—and soon became a world hit, translated and recorded in 18 languages by numerous artists, including American pop singer Verdelle Smith (“Tar and Cement”), French singer and songwriter Françoise Hardy (“La maison où j’ai grandi”) and Swedish singer Anna-Lena Löfgren (“Lyckliga gatan”), who also covered a German version of the song (“Immer am Sontag”).

Adriano Celentano’s vocation as a counter artist was evident since the very beginning of his artistic career. Italy’s best-loved singer and songwriter, and one of the greatest selling non-English language recording artists of all time, he characteristically performs his songs with a Brechtian detachment to the text and is the creator of a broken, syncopated language that he alternates with a crooner style. His whole career, not only as a singer & songwriter but also as an actor, director, producer, as well as a host of TV programs, bears witness to his intellectual integrity and his deep commitment to promoting values and principles such as fairness, friendship, kindness, and love for one another. All this, however, without indulging in sentimentalism or presenting a Manichean worldview, but always with strength and simplicity—and with a grain of folly: who could ever forget his legendary television monologues with his “lunatic” and Buster Keatonesque ecstatic pauses?

Prominent film directors such as Ermanno Olmi, Federico Fellini—who asked him to play himself in La dolce vita—and Pier Paolo Pasolini were fascinated by his free-thinking attitude and independent spirit, and saw in him a poetic and at the same time a down-to-earth representative of traditional values and aspirations in the face of a tumultuous period of huge social and economic change. Needless to say, as a result of the rapid modernization and industrialization of the country, a huge urban sprawl—which dramatically changed the face of Italy’s cities and towns—took place in the 1950s and the 1960s. Definitely against the tide and somewhat prophetically at the time, Adriano spoke out against the “cement tsunami” and the consequent loss of identity and traditional ways of life. The autobiographical “Il ragazzo della via Gluck” became his manifesto against “unsustainable development.”

The following is a literal translation from the original, which is quite different from the above mentioned “Tar and Cement” (by American songwriters Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance):

The Boy from Gluck Street

This is the story of one of us,
who was also born by chance in Gluck Street,
in a house outside the city,
quiet people, who worked.
Where there was grass there is now
a city, and that house
amid the green now,
where may it be?

This kid from Gluck Street,
enjoyed playing with me,
but one day he said,
“I’m going to the city,”
and he said while weeping,
I asked him, “Friend,
aren’t you glad?
You’re finally going to live in the city.
There you will find
the things that you didn’t have here,
you can wash at home without going
down in the yard! ”
“My dear friend,” he said,
“I was born here,
and in this street
now I’m leaving my heart.
But how can’t you understand,
it’s lucky for you who remain
barefoot to play in the fields,
while there downtown
I’ll breathe concrete.

But there will come a day
when I’ll come back
here and I will hear the friendly train
whistling like this – ua-ua ”
The years go by, but eight are long
But that kid has come a long way
But doesn’t forget his first home
Now with the money he can buy it
He comes back and doesn’t find
the friends he had
Only houses upon houses,
tar and concrete.
Where there was grass
there is now a city
And that house amid
the green now
where may it be?
I don’t know, I don’t know, why
they go on building houses
And don’t let the grass, don’t let the grass,
And don’t
let the grass, don’t let the grass,
And no, if we go on like this
I wonder how we will do,
who knows, who knows how we
will do.


All in all, besides being (by far) my favorite Italian singer, I’ve always had the utmost respect for Adriano Celentano as a person, and I’m pleased to pay tribute to him with this post. To conclude, this, in my opinion, is his core message in a nutshell, in his own words (and in his typically imaginative style):

What we are losing is the utopian dimension of life. Sometimes I say things that seem impossible to achieve, and yet there are many things that seemed impossible at one time but they are very real today. My concern is that if we lose our belief in utopia the world will get worse and worse. Today we live longer than in the past, the quality of life has improved, we have medicine that saves lives, but still the world is headed for disaster, because we have abandoned our past to climb higher and higher. But if you climb a very tall ladder and then cannot climb down again, you cannot save beautiful things. The lack of Beauty is a problem. The key to the future is Beauty. There are not only skyscrapers, we are a part of nature. There are helicopters, but there are no meadows. [Rockpolitik, (in Italian, translation mine) edited by M. Ciotta, Bompiani, 2006]

As is more than evident from the above quoted passage, Celentano’s “utopianism” is one of its own kind, and his utopia is a back-to-the-future one rather than a traditional one. After all, unlike most of his fellow Italian artists, he has never been sympathetic to leftists, nor has he never hidden his deep Christian faith and beliefs. In other words, he is a true contrarian—and I thank him for that!

Along the River Sile

I must confess that I didn't know about this before… I've just come across a very beautiful video about Treviso—the town where I live—and its river Sile (among the longest resurgence rivers in Europe). Subtitled in English and narrated by Red Canzian, a popular Italian musician in a band named The Pooh, the video is titled “Sile, oasi d’acque e di sapori” (Sile, oasis of waters and tastes). Hope you'll enjoy it!

PS: Check out some of the following links to learn more about the river Sile:

1. Park of the River Sile
2. Treviso–Mestre. From the River Sile to the Lagoon
3. Along the River Sile in Treviso
4. Ancient trades on the banks of the Sile
5. Along the Sile River by Bike

A Chance Encounter

This morning I had a chance encounter with an old priest—an 80-something-year-old man—whom I had known when I was in my twenties. At the time, he was a teacher at the Seminary of the Diocese of Treviso, but he also served as vice-parish priest in my then parish church in Treviso. I remember him as a very cultured, good-natured and amiable person. That’s also why I was really pleased to meet him after all this time. But the main reason why I was so happy about the chance encounter was that all these years I have always remembered something he told me once about how to read publicly the Word of God with effectiveness. Even then I was appalled by the sloppiness of so many lectors (and priests), so I asked him for some guidance on that matter. And he gave me what I asked for, and it was actually a great lesson. “The Word of God,” he told me, “is to be neither ‘recited,’ nor merely ‘read.’ It is to be ‘proclaimed.’” Proclaimed, with all that this implies (which is a lot of things, as you can easily figure out).

I told don Andrea (for such is his name) about this memory of mine, and he seemed to be pleased with that.

Sometimes it’s incredible how a simple sentence can become a sort of personal brand, to the extent that, in the mind of another person, a man perfectly coincides with a sentence he uttered decades ago. That’s also why we should be always very careful about what we say.. You never can tell what might become “your brand” in someone else’s imagination and memories!

Blessed Are the Contrarians

All right, that’s it, I’m done with this job. My new book is out just in time for Christmas. Here is the Preface to Blessed Are the Contrarians: Diary of a Journey Through Interesting Times.

I wish you all 

a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PREFACE

Blessed are the contrarians, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But they must be very, very careful in these “Interesting Times,” in the Chinese sense. Unless you think that “May you live in interesting times” after all is a blessing and not a curse, or better still the first of three curses of increasing degrees of severity, the other two being “May the government be aware of you,” and “May you find what you are looking for.” But in this case you had better not read this book—and you can’t say I didn’t warn you!

Let’s start from the beginning, which can only be the title of this book, with the first question: Who or what is a contrarian? Well, that is not an easy question to answer. The fact is that there are many kinds of contrarians. Way too many to come up with a description that fits them all.

Broadly speaking, however, contrarians are those who go against the current (as the dictionary states), who take opposing stands from the majority: in the stock markets they buy when others sell and vice-versa; in religious matters, if they are Christians, they continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, in spite of the Zeitgeist, and if they are not they have the utmost respect for what Christianity is all about and for its contribution to civilization. In matters of culture, education and lifestyles, they are “old-fashioned” while the rest of the world seems to be hell bent on transmuting order into chaos.

Philosophically speaking, there are two main types of contrarians: thinkers who are marginal and unconventional during their own life time, but posthumously become very popular and trendy, and those who “thought different” in their lifetime, to quote Steve Jobs, and their works still continue to go against the mainstream in the present time. Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, belongs to the first category, whilst Montaigne belongs to the second—that of the truest and the most representative contrarians, in my own personal (and perhaps questionable) opinion. And that’s where I shall start from, as you will see.

This book is a kind of diary of a journey through our time—politics, culture, lifestyles, worldviews, etc.—and back home again, where “home” stands for a sense of belonging to something stronger than the spirit of our times. In other words what this book represents is a sort of explanation—though not a systematic one—of why I disagree with certain mainstream views in several domains. And this from a conservative and Christian point of view, that is to say the perspectives that come under severe attack from secular and progressive ideologies, the over-influential schools of thought of our time.

I have selected for this volume some of the articles posted on my blog over the last few years, those most suitable for this traditional mode of communication. The “diary” entries are not arranged in any chronological order, but in accordance to subject pertinence. This was done to make it easier for the reader to surf through the book. After all, as Albert Einstein once said, time is only an illusion—though sometimes an interesting one!

Torcello: The True Pearl of the Lagoon

Torcello (Venice), Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral

You don’t need to be a globe-trotter, or at least a passionate lover of Venice and its surrounding lagoon islands, to know or have heard about Torcello. You just need to have read Ernest Hemingway’s Across the River and Through the Trees, which he wrote during his stay there—at the famous Locanda Cipriani, which after that became a literary legend along with the island of Torcello itself, to which the great American writer devoted whole pages of his novel. Yet, if you want to learn more about the true pearl of the lagoon you need a more in-depth description…, so hence the post below, a guest post from Silvia, a 25-year-old young woman from the Venice area. She is graduated in Conservation of Cultural Assets and has a great passion for her field. I welcome her aboard and wish her all the best for the future. Have a good read! (Rob)


Torcello: Discovering the Fascinating Past of the Cradle of Venice
by Silvia Bressani

Located in the northern section of the Venice lagoon, the island of Torcello is an oasis of peace and tranquility where one can spend a day dedicated to art, mystery and nature, away from the crowds of tourists who descend on Venice every day.

This mystical and highly spiritual place is alluring and mysterious, imbued with breathtaking views surrounded by lush vegetation and permeated by an atmosphere laden with history, art and ancient traditions. Nowadays it is almost completely abandoned, yet Torcello still proudly displays the signs of its glorious and doomed history: after being a reference point for the entire Venice lagoon it unwittingly became the victim of Venice’s expansion.

The origins of the island were, for a long time, subject to speculation and only in recent times it has been possible to date the first settlements back to Roman times. The numerous archaeological excavations have in fact unearthed a Roman settlement, in which remains of fishermen shacks have been found next to some suburban mansions for the noblemen on the mainland.

Between the 5th and 6th century A.D. Torcello became one of the main destinations for the inhabitants of Altino, a flourishing diocese on the mainland abandoned following the Longboard invasions, who transferred numerous spiritual items and treasures to Altino, amongst them the remains of the first bishop in Altino—St Eliodoro.

According to tradition, the name Torcello derives from of one of the ancient dwellings of Altino, probably a gate or a guard tower, which was used by the inhabitants of the unlucky city to remember their homeland.

A famous inscription—housed inside the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta—can also be dated to this period. It contains a reference to the naming of the Torcello Cathedral in the 7th century, and is therefore testimony of the inclusion of Torcello under the influence of the Byzantine empire.

Thanks to the development of metallurgical, hand-crating and commercial activities, the island and some neighboring settlements became in a short time the main centre of the Venice lagoon. The period of highest splendor occurred between the 10th and 11th century, both from an economic and artistic point of view, with the construction of the bell tower and the rebuilding of the cathedral with the architectural structure which can still be admired.

From the 15th century, a serious of concomitant factors started to unsettle the thriving life in Torcello—these being the first signs of an unstoppable decline. In a few decades diseases and expanding swamps, combined with a rising sense of apathy towards the maintenance of the city - due to the allure of Venice that was seen as the future—turned Torcello into an inhospitable and insalubrious place. A slow and excruciating decadence ensued in Torcello, increasingly affected by flooding and houses being demolished to provide stones for the construction of Venice.

Nowadays Torcello still enshrines traces of its epic past, thanks to a few monuments that have stood through the centuries and are now the main destinations of visitors: the Devil’s Bridge, the Attila’s Throne, the Santa Fosca Church, the bell tower, the Civic Museum of Torcello and the ancient Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.

Dating from the 12the century, the Devils’ Bridge is one of the few remaining Venetian bridges retaining the original feature of not being equipped with parapets. The origin of the bridge’s name is still unknown, perhaps deriving from a local family or born out of ancient legends.

The so-called Attila’s throne, possibly the seat of magistrates of justice or the bishop, is located in the square surrounded by the most important buildings of the island: the church of Santa Fosca, rebuilt in the 12th century to house the remains of the martyrs Fosca and Maura; the high bell tower, dating from the 11th century; the Civic Museum of Torcello, housed in the rooms of the Council and the Archives, with a vast collection on the history of the island, the lagoon and the origins of Venice itself; and finally the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.

Built following the orders from the Ravenna Exarch after the transferal of the episcopal seat from Altino to Torcello—and rebuilt in the 11th century to the present day appearance—the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a place of profound spirituality and a building with deep artistic and religious significance which houses one of the most important mosaics in Northern Italy.

A significant example of Venetian and Byzantine style, with a a basilica plan divided into three naves, the cathedral is a true art masterpiece and contains splendid marble columns topped by beautifully decorated capitals, intricate floor drawings with multi-coloured segments, architectural decorations and sacred ornaments. The most suggestive elements of the cathedral are represented by the extraordinary mosaic with a gold backdrop in the main apse, depicting the Virgin Mary with child and the Last Judgement mosaic entirely covering the counter façade.

To visit this extraordinary cathedral and truly understand its fascinating atmosphere balanced between art and faith, Veneto Inside offers a tour of the Torcello Basilica and its secret itineraries which includes a visit to two areas only recently opened to the public: the crypt and sacristy. Inside the crypt it is possible to admire the ancient brickwork of the mediaeval basilica, whilst the sacristy enshrines several stone elements dating back to the 9th century and a mysterious roman sarcophagus, which is believed to have housed the body of Mark the Evangelist before the famous Venice Cathedral—dedicated to his name—was completed.

Tornado in Venice (Yes, You Read It Right!)

Wow, I wish I were there—well, er, I never got to see one “in the flesh”…

Venice, June 12 - A dramatic funnel cloud swept over Venice on Tuesday and narrowly missed the center of town, striking instead the outskirts and uprooting trees and overturning dozens of boats.

Read the full Ansa report here. Eyewitness report by Cat Bauer at Venetian Cat - Venice Blog.

Here Are the Gates of Paradise!

Lorenzo Ghiberti’s “Adam and Eve” (The Gates of Paradise,  detail)
Photo courtesy Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

It took Lorenzo Ghiberti 27 years—from 1425 to 1452—to complete the 10 gilded bronze reliefs that decorate the doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, and it took restorers as many years to complete the restoration of the work. I’m talking about one of the treasures of the early Renaissance, the 17-foot-high doors that Michelangelo dubbed “the Gates of Paradise.” The restored originals will go on display (see also here) in the city’s Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in September in a temperature controlled environment (copies have stood in their place on the Baptistery since 1990). Three of the ten panels, however, were already shown in 2007 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

A detail from “Adam and Eve”
(Librado Romero/ The New York Times)

Needless to say the doors are an absolute masterpiece. They had a lasting influence on Ghiberti’s successors. Not by chance, in fact, to carry out his work he set up a large workshop in which many artists trained, including Donatello, Masolino da Panicale, Michelozzo, Paolo Uccello, and Antonio Pollaiuolo. As it was not enough he had re-invented the lost-wax casting of bronze-casting—his St. John the Baptist is the first application of that technique—as it was used by the ancient Romans, which made his workshop special to young artists. In other words, in him native genius was aided by reflection and theory. After all, Ghiberti was also a collector of classical artifacts, a historian and an intellectual who was actively involved in the spreading of humanist ideas. His unfinished Commentarii are a valuable source of information about Renaissance art and contain an autobiography, the first of an artist. Last but not least, Ghiberti’s sense of the beautiful stamps him as the precursor of Raphael.

The restoration was carried out by Florence’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure, which is widely considered the world’s leading laboratory for the restoration of Renaissance sculpture.

Happy Republic Day!

(Photo courtesy  Corriere della Sera)

Troubles Never Come Alone

A man walks in front of a collapsed church in Mirandola (AP Photo/Marco Vasini)

Troubles never come alone. As if an economy on life support (in many respects) was not bad enough, 9 days after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit northern Italy, another powerful earthquake (magnitude 5.8) killed at least 15 people and left 200 injured this morning in the same area.

Factories, warehouses and churches collapsed, dealing a second blow to a region where thousands are still homeless from another temblor just nine days ago.
The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless in the Emilia Romagna region north of Bologna, one of Italy's most agriculturally and industrially productive areas.
It was felt from Piedmont in northwestern Italy to Venice in the northeast and as far north as Austria. Dozens of aftershocks hit the area, some registering more than 5.0 in magnitude.

Continue reading for further detailed information. May God protect the people of Emilia and keep them safe from further disasters.

Switching to English

News like this are exactly what makes me hope for the best for the future of Italy: one of the country’s leading universities, the Politecnico di Milano, has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses—including all its graduate courses—will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian. “Universities are in a more competitive world, if you want to stay with the other global universities—you have no other choice,” says the university’s rector, Giovanni Azzone. Read the full BBC article.

After all, let’s not forget that the idea of a “global language” is older than English itself, and Italy has more than something to do with it; this for the simple reason that Latin was the world’s first recorded global language, or lingua franca. So, to some extent, this could be described as a case of going back to the future—or at least the present!

A Journey of Malavasie

A map of the island fortress of Monemvasia in the 17th century

Malvasia, have you ever heard this before? If so, not many words are needed, if not take the time to check Wikipedia, where the history of this family of wines is told. But if you are in Venice these days—for the America’s Cup World Series or any other reason—take the time to pay a visit to “A Journey of Malavasie, the Wine of Kings, From Karst to Sicily” (Il Viaggio delle Malvasie, Vino dei Re, dal Carso alla Sicilia). Stories, exhibitions, 100 wines from 30 producers, and traditional Venetian food await you next Monday. I’ll do my best to join the… party!

May 14, 2012, from 11:00AM to 7:00PM, Venice, Giardini (the city’s park which usually hosts the Venice Biennale Art Festival).

The event is organized by the Associazione dei Ristoranti della Buona Accoglienza.
Via Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog.

Beppe Grillo? Lost in Translation...

Beppe Grillo

Beppe Grillo emerged as the big winner from yesterday’s local elections in Italy. The list of articles below should help you get an idea about what is going on. If anyone is interested in my opinion, I’d say that’s okay, I’m not worried about that. On the contrary, I think this might turn out to be a good thing. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about here. There’s something a bit more curious—and less binding…

I’ve always thought that Italian politics is often “lost in translation,” I mean, it’s difficult enough, for us Italian speaking people, to understand it, I can imagine how abstruse it may be to non-Italian speaking readers and commentators, who don’t have access, so to speak, to “first-hand referrals.” There’s an old Italian saying that goes “Traduttore, traditore” (the translator is a traitor), but this is perhaps not the biggest problem, except in the case of today’s Il Sole 24 ORE article titled “A Clear Message to the Political Forces” (see below), in which the translator/traitor felt like adding sua sponte an “explanation” to the term “Grillini,” which the author of the original Italian version, Stefano Folli, had used in his article. The translator added (into brackets) that Grillini means “the followers of gay rights activist Franco Grillini.” Unfortunately though, Grillini is the nickname to the members of Movimento5 Stelle, leaded by Beppe Grillo, who has nothing to do with journalist and cofounder of the gay rights movement Arcigay Franco Grillini ... Poor Stefano Folli (a very good man), and poor Sole 24 ORE!


[Italian Politics Updates - 4]

1. PDL and League Routed as Grillo Movement Advances in Administrative Elections | Corriere della Sera
2. A Vacuum in the Moderate Voting Bloc | Il Sole 24 ORE
3. A Clear Message to the Political Forces | Il Sole 24 ORE
4. Italy's political outsiders have their day in the absence of Berlusconi | The Guardian
5. Left-wing, grassroots candidates lead local Italian vote | Ansa
   
6. Italy local election sees gains for left and grassroots | BBC
7. Napolitano calls on parties to reflect after local elections | Ansa
   

The Way They Do It in Washington?

“[S]ometimes there are two ways of doing things: the right way, and the way they do it in Washington.”

~ Ronald Reagan (Cenikor Foundation - Houston, Texas, April 29, 1983)



When “the Great Communicator” uttered that famous sentence, he probably made a mistake—he should have said, the way they do it in Rome. The first link of the list provides an illuminating example of this.

[Italian Politics Updates - 3]

1. The Complicated Toils of the Most Despised Tax (The new “municipal” property tax gives revenue to the central government and is hard to calculate) | Il Sole-24 Ore
2. Markets accept Italian fiscal slippage | Reuters
   
3. Monti’s 2012 Italy Budget in Line With EU Forecast, Bailly Says | Bloomberg
4. Three million Italians have given up job hunt | ANSA
5. Italy shifts priority from austerity to growth | Reuters
6. Labor union calls for major protest May 10 | ANSA

Italian Politics Updates - 2

Cold winds blew through Italy this week, and clouds obscured the unseasonably blue skies under which the country had long been basking.... 

Hey, this is not me—I’m not a poet (I wish I were)—this is the Economist. See below if you don't believe me.

1. Italian politics: Jittery Italy | The Economist
2. EU employment chief hails Italy labor reforms | ANSA.it 
3. Spain and Italy Show Europe’s Problems Aren’t Over | NYTimes.com 
4. Analysis: Italy's Monti loses his shine | Reuters 
5. Economic crisis spikes suicide rate in Italy | PRESSTV

Mantua: A Cultural City Guide

Do you remember Virgil, the ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period who wrote the Bucolics, the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid? Well, if so perhaps you remember where he was born and the verse inscription—supposedly composed by the poet himself—at his tomb in Posillipo, near Naples: “Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces” (“Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians took me, now Naples holds me; I sang of pastures, country and leaders”). Okay, why do I say that? Simply because in today’s Telegraph Helen Pickles offers an essential cultural guide to Mantua, the “overlooked Renaissance gem,” a mini-Florence, rich with art, intrigue and infidelities that is wrapped in water, where the Mincio broadens into three lakes… Unmissable—both the guide and the city, ça va sans dire.

Italian Politics Updates - 1

This is the first of a series of semi-weekly updates on Italian politics—no much to be said, just read and get an idea, freedom of opinion is a right, not a privilege … ;-)

1. Main parties agree to funding transparency measures - ANSA
2. India: Italian released by Maoist rebels - Adnkronos CultureAndMedia
3. Threatened mayor retracts resignation - ANSA
4. Plan to slash MP numbers approved (ansa.it)
5. Monti to Tackle Italy Corruption as Scandals Topple Politicians - Bloomberg
6. Euro Zone: Italy 3-Year Yields Seen Jumping at Auction - Business News - CNBC
7. European stocks stage tentative recovery (ft.com)
   

Italian Politics: Latest News

Elsa Fornero, Mario Monti, Emma Marcegaglia

They say sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, and that’s definitely right. As for me, I don’t like it, but when the topic is politics, here in Italy, it’s often almost impossible to escape it. Take this news—related to the president of the leading organization representing the manufacturing and service industries in Italy—for example:

(AGI) Confindustria’s president Emma Marcegaglia, whose mandate expires in May, has said she is extremely happy to be returning to company business and that politics are not contemplated in her future. “Politics?” she said, “Absolutely not! I am delighted to be returning to run the company,” she explained while attending a meeting in Rovigo.

Well, she can’t imagine how delighted we are to hear that—though I wouldn’t bet on her workers’ happiness (but that’s another story). And yet that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is much, much more to be said, too much for a poor guy like me. That’s why I thought that the best thing to do is to provide a series of links to help you make an idea about what the state of the art is in this rather complicated field. Well, enjoy, and come back safely…

1. EURO GOVT-Bund yields hit 6-mth lows; Spain, Italy pressure
   
2. IKEA replaces some Asian suppliers with Italians
   
3. European stock markets rocked by panic selling as debt crisis reignites
   
4. Stock and bond markets rocked by fears of Italian and Spanish debt spirals
   
5. Italy Fights Spain for Investors as ECB Boost Fades
6. Son of founder of Italy’s Northern League resigns over party finance scandal
7. Italy needs red tape bonfire before labour reform starts
8. Ben Chu: It's not Spain nor Italy spooking the markets, but punishing austerity
9. Italian politician accuses government of plot
10. Politician's fall rocks Italy
11. Marcegaglia was 'irresponsible' says Fornero 
12. Italy's Northern League: Bossi booted 
13. Bossi Quits as Head of Italy’s Northern League 
14. Italy Northern League leader Bossi resigns amid scandal 
15. Bossi Quits as Head of Italy’s Northern League
    
16. Employers attack Italy’s labour reforms
    
17. Italy labor market reform: more costs for companies, but flexibility and opportunity for young
    
18. Italy Budget Shows Austerity's Risks
    
19. Europe has overcome crisis, says Monti
    

Lathe Biōsas - Live Secretly

Ernesto Galli della Loggia
Photo: Silvia Crupano

“ Italy’s elite has lost the noble taste for that disdain which is the reverse of affectation, a taking pleasure in, and appreciating the elegance of, sobriety. The celebrated apple that President Einaudi once asked if anyone wanted to share with him at an official dinner is perhaps no longer even on the Quirinale Palace menu. Nor does Einaudi’s famously snobbish, and more than a tad stingy, publisher son have many emulators nowadays of his treks to find delicious (in his opinion) food at out-of-the-way hostelries.
Fashion holds up a mirror to this debacle. Once upon a time, young people from Lombardy’s upper classes would sport loden topcoats and high Vibram shoes. The old English tweeds that bourgeois ladies from Naples so nonchalantly donned have given way to the fashion-driven elegance of today’s up and coming thirty and forty-somethings, accoutred strictly in black, like so many bodyguards or undertakers.
Today’s vast, eagerly seized opportunities to show off superfluous high-bling luxury say a lot about Italy’s elite in their sheer lack of restraint. ”


~ Ernesto Galli Della Loggia, Corriere della Sera, March 19, 2012
   [Read the full article here]

It’s Saturday, a great day for several reasons, one of which, for us blog writers, is that most readers are “off-duty.” Well, of course, I’m not saying that I don’t like blog readers. No, quite the contrary! In my view they are by far the most interesting of all readers. What I mean is that sometimes one can want to write without wanting to be read by too many people. And this because you don’t want to be misunderstood… In my case I don’t want to be associated with any kind of bigotry. Yet, there is a limit to everything; there are things I cannot stand. One of them is the above described “way of life” of the Italian elite.

Raphael, School of Athens (detail): Epicurus
Vatican Museums

That’s the kind of bad habits that may lead many people, especially young people (the most virtuous and ethical ones), to keep away from politics and to stop striving for higher levels of achievement in every field of study and in every area of life.

Perhaps that’s also part of what led the great Epicurus to utter the famous quote λάθε βιῶσας (lathe biōsas), “live secretly,” “get through life without drawing attention to yourself.” Consequently, unlike the Stoics, Epicurus and his disciples showed little interest in participating in the politics of the day. But then again, in the days of Epicurus Greece had already lost its independence. Does this have anything to teach us today?