The
ANNOTICO Report
Don't get
me wrong, Some of my best friends are English. :)
But, the
English seem to be still stuck with attitudes of
"superiority" misbegotten from the heartless years of Imperialism and
Colonialism. They rarely have a Kind Word for
For
instance why would the London Times describe Italian Elections as a "bizarre
circuses".
Do they
know anything about Israeli or US elections?
And since
they have a "stiff upper lip" from head to toe, anyone who doesn't
behave like a walking cadaver is "not proper"
Therefore Burlusconi who certainly loves the spotlight, like any
entertainer, which he once was, is unfathomable to the English.
This
Article discusses
that
came out in the middle of the Italian elections, and caused deep anxiety
among Berlusconi supporters.
It tells
the story of a failing B-movie producer who is persuaded to make a film about
While
Berlusconi has insisted that he has no intention of seeing the
film, but instead of taking umbrage he seems to be taking a perverse
delight in the latest evidence of his fame. At a recent rally, the Prime
Minister leapt on the stage and told his cheering supporters: “Ladies and
gentlemen, 'The Alligator' is here!” No one in Italian politics knows
better how to convert adversity and notoriety into fame and power, and few politicians
have more adeptly fashioned their own mythology.
Thanks to
Nicola Linza
SHED NO TEARS FOR THE ALLIGATOR
... or
for the panda, come to that. It's another of those bizarre circuses they call
an Italian election
SILVIO
BERLUSCONI’S LIFE was always the stuff of soap opera, a gaudy, glitzy
one-man show that could have been scripted for one of his tackiest television
channels. Here was the self-made media mogul from nowhere, who served guests
with monogrammed rolls at his private lair hacked out of the Sardinian
coastline, sported a permanent tan of electric orange, insulted everybody and
charged ebulliently across the Italian political landscape, one step ahead of
the law. You couldn’t make it up; but Silvio
Berlusconi did, and the whole of
Berlusconi is the star
actor, director and producer of his own epic. (He is also the most enraptured
member of the audience.) So when a hostile film about the Italian Prime
Minister by
|
Moretti’s Il Caimano
(The Alligator) is a most unflattering portrait. It tells the story of a
failing B-movie producer who is persuaded to make! a
film about
Berlusconi has insisted
that he has no intention of seeing the film, but instead of taking umbrage he
seems to be taking a perverse delight in the latest evidence of his fame. At a
recent rally, the Prime Minister leapt on the stage and told his cheering
supporters: “Ladies and gentlemen, the Alligator is here!” No one
in Italian politics knows better how to convert adversity and notoriety into
fame and power, and few politicians have more adeptly fashioned their own
mythology.
The Alligator is not the
only fictional creature to cast a shadow over the Italian elections. The
Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, remains one of greatest novels, a masterful
exploration of the Italian political mind. First published in 1958, and adapted
into a sumptuous film by Luchino Visconti,
it depicts a grand Sicilian aristocrat facing a tempest of change. It is May
1860. Garibaldi, the revolutionary unifier, is about to land; the old order is
crumbling into the baking Sicilian dust. The feudal Prince of Salina reflects
back to the future and gazes forward into history and utters the single most
famous paradox in Italian politics: “Everything must change so that
everything can stay the same.”
That maxim remains as
relevant as ever to an
Berlusconi swept to power
five years ago, promising “a new Italian miracle”. After so many
grey, dowdy, fragile Italian governments (59 since the war), here was a blast
of colour, strength and light. Yet
The
The polls suggest that the
Italian electorate has now had enough of the Alligator with the thick hide and
the carnivorous smile — although anyone who thinks that Berlusconi is
incapable of a stunning comeback in the final reel has not been paying
attention to the script. But it is hard to see the genial, familiar Romano Prodi, the centre-left candidate and widely discredited
former President of the European Commission, as the man to drag
With the economy stalled,
the Italian electorate is deeply disillusioned: there is little love remaining
for Berlusconi, and little enthusiasm for Prodi.
Italian voters are notoriously unwilling to switch allegiance from Left to
Right. Most will vote as they have always voted, demanding change while
sticking to tradition.
The
leopard is unlikely to change its spots, and nor, for that matter, will the
Alligator or Panda. The election this Sunday and Monday will change everything,
and everything will stay the same.
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