Supercommissari per le tante spazzature del Sud
Tuesday January 8th, 2008 | 10:46 pm | Uncategorized
The scandal of garbage collecting in Naples shows the failure of the policies of the last decades in the South of Italy, where local politicians have received money and powers without being able to develop their territories and to defend the legal system. The South does not need only a “Supercommissioner” with special authority for the garbage of Naples: political powers should be given back to the central government in all activities infiltrated by the organized crime. But putting under tutorship the Regions of the South, while leaving autonomy to the other Regions, who have demonstrated that they can stand on their own, is impossible without a very strong political coalition.
2008: un po’ d’ottimismo, nonostante il degrado
Monday December 31st, 2007 | 12:17 pm | Uncategorized
A few thoughts at the end of the year after some optimistic (and surprising, for some people) articles by il Sole 24 Ore. Italy is condemned to an inevitable decay? No. It’s true that the country is losing ground (even if politicians often deny it), but I am with the people who think that we can still invert the trend. To do it we need some faith in our possibilities, a change of the political system, but also the willingness to modify some of our personal attitudes versus the public good.
Riflessioni ferroviarie, dopo l’articolo del NYT
Saturday December 15th, 2007 | 08:08 pm | Uncategorized
“Italy is in a funk”, wrote the New York Times. In my opinion, something worse is happening, because Italians do not believe any more that the political class, any political class, will be able to solve their problems. Even the small ones, like the dirty toilets in the trains. Incompetence, unefficient or corrupted administration, but also bad behaviour by some citizens combine in a tangle very difficult to solve.
Mi chiamo Speroni, mio nonno era mugnaio sull’Olona, però…
Sunday September 30th, 2007 | 07:41 am | Amarcord, Europa, Nord e Sud
About the risk of secession in Italy, my family name, the hurried way in which people read articles on the screen…
Se il Belgio si divide l’Italia esplode
Sunday September 23rd, 2007 | 02:05 pm | Uncategorized
Italy like Belgium? In a recent comment on the Belgian crisis, The Economist wrote: “Sometimes it is right for a country to recognize that a job is done”. States are changing all over Europe, and secessions are not necessarily traumatic as they used to be. See Czechoslovakia. In Italy the North and the South are more and more apart, so a “divorce” becomes possible, even if it’s frightening for most of the population.
Grillo apre la terza fase della comunicazione politica
Sunday September 16th, 2007 | 08:33 am | Uncategorized
There are four reasons behind Beppe Grillo’s V Day success, (“where V stands for a very rude Italian expletive”, explains the International Herald Tribune). Grillo is a very talented comedian; his proposals are very simple (probably too simple); people in Italy are really looking for an alternative to the actual political class; and he knows how to use the mix between virtual interactivity and real encounters of his fans. Probably thanks to him Italy is entering a new phase in the techniques of political communication, where controlling televisions or carrying busloads of people to demonstrate in Rome is not enough to have success.
I rivoluzionari del senso civico
Saturday August 25th, 2007 | 04:28 pm | Uncategorized
“Senso civico” means being concerned about the public good. It’s an attitude which in Italy is lacking, and this explains the weakness of our political system, in the left as in the right wing. From Michele Salvati to Beppe Grillo, columnists and bloggers discuss this point, without being able to find a solution. May be we should start froom the network of people who show “senso civico” in their everyday life. As “Una Città”, a not so well known monthly magazine published in Romagna, points out.
Dal declino al degrado
Thursday March 22nd, 2007 | 07:53 pm | Uncategorized
The Italian economy is in better shape and some analysts say that we don’t have to worry any more about the country’s decline. But Italy is now facing something worst: decay, because the stale of the political system makes it impossible to solve the most important problems: school, justice, criminality, political patronage.
