I'm reading a very interesting book at the moment, 'The Dark Heart of Italy', which promises to enlighten my own ignorance of the tortuous pathways of Italian politics.
Italy is outwardly seductive - the beautiful landscape, history, art, food, wine and language. But learning - or trying to learn! - that language has made me more aware of the duality here. Just the word for icing sugar for example. In English it implies decoration, enrichment, as in 'the icing on the cake', but in Italy it is a 'veil' concealing what is underneath. This is a country where the word for cunning, 'furbo', also means cleverness and is used admiringly.
It's a country where the rich declare less than 50,000 euros a year in earnings and drive around in Ferraris and Lamborghinis. It's a country where most attempts to bring corrupt politicians and officials to justice usually founders in a maze of judicial bureaucracy. It's called the 'muro di gomma' - the rubber wall everything bounces off.
While I'm on my terrace admiring the view, northern Italy is experiencing violent unrest - to watch the news you'd think half Italy was burning. The 'No Tav' movement has blocked an autostrada and the railway lines to protest against a proposed fast rail link from Turin to Lyon. There are burning barricades and violent clashes.
Elsewhere there are demonstrations against austerity measures. One in three Italian youths doesn't have a job. The fact that you have to know someone to get a job makes things doubly hard. PM Monti has pledged to reform the labour market and create a meritocracy, but will it happen? or are the practices too deep rooted? Like Japanese Knotweed in Britain, Nepotism is wild and out of control here. You need a lot of 'furbo' to get anywhere.
Italy is outwardly seductive - the beautiful landscape, history, art, food, wine and language. But learning - or trying to learn! - that language has made me more aware of the duality here. Just the word for icing sugar for example. In English it implies decoration, enrichment, as in 'the icing on the cake', but in Italy it is a 'veil' concealing what is underneath. This is a country where the word for cunning, 'furbo', also means cleverness and is used admiringly.
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| Two Faces of Italy - Catastrophe in an Idyllic Location - will Schettino ever face justice? |
While I'm on my terrace admiring the view, northern Italy is experiencing violent unrest - to watch the news you'd think half Italy was burning. The 'No Tav' movement has blocked an autostrada and the railway lines to protest against a proposed fast rail link from Turin to Lyon. There are burning barricades and violent clashes.
Elsewhere there are demonstrations against austerity measures. One in three Italian youths doesn't have a job. The fact that you have to know someone to get a job makes things doubly hard. PM Monti has pledged to reform the labour market and create a meritocracy, but will it happen? or are the practices too deep rooted? Like Japanese Knotweed in Britain, Nepotism is wild and out of control here. You need a lot of 'furbo' to get anywhere.
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