Stories and News

Stories and News No. 170 Tell me if this is not material for a comedy. I read in the newspapers that yesterday at Palazzo Grazioli Berlusconi met PDL coordinators Ignazio La Russa , Denis Verdini and Sandro Bondi - besides Altero Matteoli and Gianni Alemanno - to decide who today would have seen Gianfranco Fini . The chosen is Verdini. Silvio, why don’t you do it by yourself? But was not you the man with the balls ? The Story: In the elegant salon of Palazzo Grazioli there is a deafening silence. Bodied sweat drops bead the foreheads of the three PDL coordinators sitting at a table and each one of them differently faces its own tension. Minister La Russa, known for his incisors, is involuntarily biting his lips and is bleeding on the chin. These are shocking images, I tell you before. If you dare stop here, I'll understand. Minister Bondi eats his toenails after having brushed those on hands. Matteoli has already vomited twice, although he has other things to worry about. V...

Stories and News No. 169 I still think that my country is truly a world apart from Europe. Chronologically and geographically we are now here in May 2010, in the middle of the Mediterranean. However, watching TV and reading newspapers, it seems that here time and space are doing just their business. That their is always related to them , never us. So it happens that you wake up one morning of the second decade of the third millennium after Christ and discover that in Italian school Religion subject will count at the final vote, the bishops of the CEI want to contribute to reform the Italian State and Casini , the leader of Union of Christian Democrats and Centre Democrats , announced the creation of another son of the Christian Democratic Party: the Party of the Nation . Be afraid, because They live ... The Story: Here is the official hymn of the Party of the Nation: We are the Party of the Nation We are the political reconciliation We are the people of the meeting We are promote...

Stories and News No. 168 Mala tempora currunt , the Latins said. It means bad times are upon us . In my opinion, despite the black background of this blog, I am not a pessimist nor nostalgic. I don’t think we live in a so terrible period compared to the past and I know that the years before us have been marked by moments much more tragic, violent and inhuman than now. However, if there is one thing that distinguishes today is that regardless of the seriousness of what happens, we have the impression that nothing changes. Call it a kind of addiction; give it the name you prefer but this almost never being accountable for what directly concerns us is in my humble opinion a modern trademark. I don’t like it… The Story: This is my resignation letter. I resign. No ifs or buts. Because there are no excuses for what happened. There are no personal, family and psychological problems to justify that, there is no reason for such actions. Here we are not talking about a frustration foul over a...

Stories and News No. 167 The truth is that when Mario Monicelli will be no more here – with this I hope to extend his life as much as possible… - you will see a lot of pseudo-artists, writers and actors parading among the various tv shows to give their indispensable witness in memory of their teacher, telling us that they were friends of him and that they have learned everything from him. I want to celebrate him once again today, when he is still with us, and not as a director, but rather as a man, for his precious words, which in my humble opinion should be carved. Because we don’t often hear the truth… The Story: The trouble here is that there is no government… there is nothing here. The truth is that Italy… the Italians are not governed, there is no democracy, because there is certainly not a people's government, there is no monarchy, no aristocracy, nothing… There are people who only camped here, to defend their interests, earning money, to defend themselves from attack of ...

News stories and N. 166 The year 2010 start difficultly for Italian premier party. On February 10, Guido Bertolaso receives a notice of charges. For the prosecutors, the Berlusconi’s hero, along with many entrepreneurs and other members of Civil Protection, would have accepted sexual favors in exchange for contracts. On May 4, Claudio Scajola leaves his position as minister of economic development following the scandal of the house he purchased with the contribution of undeclared gifts. On May 5, Francesco Storace was sentenced to one year and six months imprisonment. According to the indictment, Storace - Health Minister at the time of the third Berlusconi government - had asked his engineers to enter illegally into files of the Rome Registry Office. Today, May 6, we have the news of ongoing investigations against Denis Verdini - national coordinator of the People of Freedom, accused of having been part of a business committee that would have handled illicit procurements in Sardinia....

Stories and News No. 165 Italian Minister Claudio Scajola resigned. Sometimes it happens. Often it would be the correct thing to do when you are in such embarrassing situations. The same doesn’t happen frequently, but this time yes. Someone hints that what drove Scajola - the only man in the world that has a house paid by people he doesn’t know - to abandon the ministry was the coolness with which Berlusconi met him on Thursday. As in occasion of the quarrel with Gianfranco Fini and the nuclear relationship with Putin , also today I have the great pleasure to host the famous American psychologist and sexologist Lisa Pointgee. The Story: A: Dear Lisa, what a pleasure to meet you here again. L: Lisa?! A: Excuse me... Dr. Pointgee! L: Well, that's better. However, the pleasure is mine. A: Listen, let's get straight to the point: Do not tell me that on the Scajola issue you see a sexual dynamic… L: It's obvious. A: Sorry, but you see Eros everywhere… L: But Eros is everyw...

Stories and News No. 164 Today in Greece a great 48 hours strike begins to protest against the austerity plan implemented by Papandreou government. Concurrently, here is a fact which I think is particularly symbolic: the communist trade union Pame, the All-Workers Militant Front - close to the Communist Party of Greece - has occupied the Acropolis and some protesters hoisted a banner which says: " Peoples of Europe rise up ." Oh, how I love this phrase. Do you know why? You could say that’s because of the rise up , because this verb stimulates my perennially boiling rebel mind. Maybe. But what I appreciate most is someone who speaks of the Peoples of Europe and not always States, Governments and especially Banks… The Story: Peoples of Europe rise up! Peoples of Europe shut the TV and rise up from those graves disguised as chairs… Because you are Europe. You are Italy, Greece, Germany, France and all the other countries. They are just those who have patented the name. T...