Freedom of Information

I thought I'd spend sometime talking about Berlusconi's new pearls of wisdom. Although I am also aware that it is somehow a waste of time to discuss about someone who is sooooo out of space.

I feel like doing it for the sake of freedom of information. Italy is getting closer to a Level 0 Democracy, dictator-based, banana republic. I resume and link to some of his latest moments of endless knowledge:

1. During a speech in Cagliari, he happens to mention the sad and unforgettable past of the Argentinian desaparecidos. So far, so good. If it was not because his comment - summarized - seems to have sounded like "how good were those times when they would just open the doors of the flying airplane and let them out, in the middle of the sea"... Very nice, that was the reaction of the international diplomacy, so far.

2. During his meeting with Mr. Brown (UK), he experienced an illuminating rush of free thinking. His creative thought-flow led to a genius idea, immediately aborted as too close to a non-capitalistic model... "Maybe we should nationalize banks...". Now, there wouldn't be anything wrong in brainstorming with your economic team, in private. But that's so not Berlusconi's style. He enjoys improvisation, as we all know, and we love him for that. Go Silvio Go freestyle.

3. And what about Mills (his bribed UK lawyer)?

Yes, what about it. AlJazeera reported the news on Feb. 17, along with BBC, The International Herald Tribune, The Australian and The Financial Times. International TVs and media joined together to report on our Prime Minister, both defendant and corruptor in this almost surreal story. Ok, so what about Italian TVs and other media? Italy's most popular "TV living room" Porta a Porta must have had a special night, devoted to this shameful and yet true piece of news. Right? Right??? Nooo, why bother? RAI, Italian public television, didn't even bother going to the trial... What, are you surprised? Berlusconi's involvement in bribery cases is no news for us.

Even The Economist talked about it but still, maybe RAI is right and this isn't anything Italians need to hear about.

But if we give a closer look at the whole Old Boot status, things are not going so bad for our friend The Prime Minister. In fact, the so-called opposition just faced the resignation of Mr. Veltroni, its impotent and 100% failed leader.

All in all, to make things even, no matter how bad Berlusconi behaves - and he is as bad as we can possibly imagine him to be - the rest of Italy floats in chaos with a 0% growth index and a 0 effective opposition.

Maybe we shouldn't even be calling it a dictatorship as he has no rivals to face... Actually, it's most likely to be the contrary as our dearest Mr. Veltroni proved during his 14 months of presidency of the opposition. He struggled hard, put all his best efforts, didn't sleep at night to find a way to GET CLOSER to Berlusconi. He wanted the Bananas Dictator to LIKE HIM, to work with him, to cooperate with him... Maybe even to hug him. And what did Chavez... Oh no, sorry, Berlusconi did? Nothing. He didn't even call Willy Veltroni to give him a proper Adios, goodbye farewell. Nope.

Ok. I am not angry. I am not. I am not even disappointed. Not anymore. Not even close to rebel. Not my style.

I am simply, deeply, purely scared by the regime Italy is becoming, by his power and possessions, by the non-reaction mood that Italians are carrying on with, handling every new drop of madness with a impassible look: "we are not surprised anymore, we've seen this whole story before..."

So what are we going to do? Just passively look at this man, this creepy tiny and overly powerful creature taking over everything we are left. The actual beauty and enormous potential of a country rich in history, culture, brains and ideas. It is - almost - all gone. And we will need more than just a few bananas to find energy to put this back together, when our close-to-75 years old Prime Minister is going to - miraculously - leave this Planet and set us free.

Amen.

P.S. I am not an activist, I am not left nor right wing, I don't reside in Italy, I don't have anything personal against any journalist/press resource. But I wonder, where did integrity go? Where has the willingness to provide The News gone? How can journalists and media go to bed at peace every night, knowing that they are deliberately not providing their service to the community through a fair level of information? And, most of all, why am I informed of every single bit of news (and past stories) of our sparkling political scene? Isn't sometimes worth it to click here and there and try to see beyond the veil?

Freedom of Information. That is all I am talking about but apparently it's not a real fashionable concept nowadays...