The Truth About Italy

To put it simply, the recent article by James Walston, whose title I will avoid mentioning so as not to spread its vulgarity, is a clear example of faziosita' (factiousness). And Waltson's choice of Dante's quote may well be a Freudian slip, since Dante himself experienced the tragic and painful effects of the fight between fazioni in XIII Century Florence, being eventually banned from his native city and exiled.

Anyone has the right to express his own opinions, even when they are blatantly biased as in Walston's case. But I am very surprised that an important publication which is dedicated to foreign policy and bears on its front page the name of its illustrious founder, Samuel P. Huntington, chooses to host such an acrimonious and false story based on domestic gossip, with a lack of balance and seriousness one could expect at the lowest levels of tabloid sensationalism.

I am even more surprised since it's on foreign policy that, over the years and in particular under the current government led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has given more and more evidence of its worldwide credibility, strong commitment, and resolve, as is proper for a founding member of the European Union and a leading country within the G8.

For coming issues of Foreign Policy, I dare suggest a few stories about Italy that may be of some interest to your readers all over the world. For an Afghan audience you might run a story about the 4,000 Italian troops helping secure the country against the Taliban threat and strengthen local communities together with the United States and other Nato allies. Your readers in Lebanon, the Balkans and in Africa will most probably be happy to see some pictures of those 7,500 Italian peacekeepers they meet every day in their towns and villages and that make Italy top contributor to U.N. missions among G8 countries. As for those in the United States who are particularly worried about the well-known effects of unregulated financial markets, it could be useful to learn more about "Lecce Framework", a set of common principles and standards for propriety, integrity and transparency proposed during the Italian G8 presidency last year, or the proposals Italy has put forward on commodity speculation for the upcoming G20 Summit in Seoul (Speaking of the economy, Waltson might want to reconsider his figures about Italy's growth and take a look at more recent public data showing an annualized rate of 1.3 percent).

James Walston replies.

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GEPPY52

6:43 PM ET

September 17, 2010

The truth about Italy

La replica resa dall'Ambasciatore Italiano negli USA all'articolo di Mr.Walston nel mentre e' encomiabile per la passione con la quale e' stata difesa la nostra Nazione da quelle definite "false informazioni basate sul gossip", appare un grossolano e non riuscito tentativo, quasi sicuramente su pressioni provenienti dal Ministero degli Esteri, di occultare il tragico momento di antidemocraticita' che sta vivendo la nostra Nazione guidata da un primo ministro che non perde occasione di denigrare la nostra Carta Costituzionale, La Magistratura e persino il Presidente della Repubblica Italiana. Non appare credibile che una persona a cosi' alto livello di rappresentanza possa relegare a semplici dicerie e gossip dichiarazioni rese pubblicamente dal Premier e suoi collaboratori (sia in Italia che all'estero) avverso i piu' elementari e basilari principi che costiuiscono le fondamenta per una sana societa' civile, liberale e democratica. Posso comprendere il sussulto di orgoglio ma in certi casi forse e' meglio tacere piuttosto che tentare una goffa riparazione,con interventi, questi si irriverenti, tesi a screditare una analisi forse un po' greve nella espressione, ma assolutamente puntuale nei fatti. E chi sta scrivendo lo fa solo perche' come Lei, e come altri milioni di Italiani, ha a cuore il futuro della nostra amata Patria. God Bless Italy.-

CHIARADBR

3:43 AM ET

September 18, 2010

If this is all our government

If this is all our government can come up with in its own defense -- refusing to address the substance of the article, instead instructing us to avert our eyes and look to the supposedly more flattering aspects of Italy -- it is difficult not to give credence to the article in question. Che vergogna.

CHENG LEE

6:13 AM ET

Italy needs to improve itself

Italians are very lazy - they need to work harder. I think they are the laziest of all Europeans. I was quite surprised to see that whole of August is holiday in Italy.

Also, there is too much crime in Italy. Getting pickpocketed after you land in Italy is now part of the standard tourist experience.

Standard Italy vacation: Land in Rome - get cheated by cabbie going to hotel - get overcharged for tiny hotel room - go to see the Vatican - get pickpocketed - complain to lazy Italian police who sleep the whole afternoon - eat pizza - return home.

- Cheng

STEFANO74

12:30 PM ET

September 19, 2010

Which duly proves there are

Which duly proves there are racists of every skin color in every corner of the world. Plus the usual ignorance about the immense regional differences Italy shows, in development and civic values. Considering Italians as a whole in the category of colorful spaghetti-eaters used to pickpocket tourists is quite offensive, especially for us Northerners. The times of Sciuscià have long passed, except maybe in Naples and surroundings.

RUGGERO RICKETTS

12:56 PM ET

Mr. Lee

I am an American who has been living in Italy for over six years. Politics and bureaucracy aside, I love Italy. I have traveled alot in Italy, alone or with my son or/and wife and I have never experienced a crime problem personally. I feel safe in almost all parts of Italy, the people are friendly and the food delicious! When I visited Rome the police were very helpful for me to find where I needed to go and they spoke good English. The scenery and history is fantastic. Since I teach English to many business people in Italy I know they are hard working and serious. The August holiday period is not only an Italian tradition here in Europe. Mr. Lee, I strongly disagree with your sour characterization of Italians. Your experience was obviously based on an unfortunate holiday. Tip: check the internet before booking a room - for example, travel advisor, or lonely planet, to get a good hotel room at a good price, even in Rome! ciao.

LUCA BOCCIANTI

8:19 AM ET

September 20, 2010

holidays are not for the lazy

dear mr. Lee,

I don't understand if you were really pickpocketed or being told some stories. If you were, sorry for that.

About the holidays and the need to work harder, look, we also have such strange things minimum wages, no child labour and 8 hours working days. We also abolished slavery sometimes ago, say short after the fall of the Roman Empire. Maybe that's why we loose competitiveness with far east companies.

Jokes apart, I do not see the connections between holidays and lazyness. Do you think that holydays are less fatiguing than job? Don't you think it's right that a family can pass sometime together enjoying its country or someone else's? You came here for job or for vacation?

It may be strange that almost all businesses close in August, I concede it, expecially in tourist destinations as Rome, but this is not chosen by the workers. Indeed, workers are forced to take their vacation in expensive, high season august by their companies, when they'll probably prefer to spread their holidays in less expensive periods. And the companies close in august because every other company does.

On the other hand, a tourist coming in Rome in August can enjoy the city without its terrible traffic and confusion. Some shops, most of the bar and all the mseum are open, and there are special activities in the night (stands, expositions, concerts etc.) provided by the City Council.

Personally, as a roman, I always try to spent August in Rome. It's the best period, when the city is not overcrowded and is calm like it always should be.

9:10 AM ET

racism is a bad thing, Stefano74

expecially when you notherner can be mistaken for a southern "terrone"... :-)

EMAZZA

1:05 PM ET

Are you serious ? Italians

Are you serious ? Italians are not lazy, it's a general belief. So yes, you thought wrong.

Also, you think there's too much crime in Italy ? So you mean we should adopt US' model of "perfect" nation ?

Little suggestion: if you don't like Italy, nex time, stay at home, no one will cheat, no one will steal your pocket or overcharge you.

Emanuele

EMIGRANT_75

6:35 AM ET

Dear Mr. Ambassador

I do understand that it is part of your duties to try and defend the image our country.
However, the only thing that you are able to come up with is the number of italian soldiers that are participating to the international operations. This is true, but has nothing to do with the substance of the article that is pointing out in a crisp and realistic way the reality of our political system. Concerning the subtitle, "one of the Europe's most dynamic countries..." I would have appreciated some facts to prove the statement.
It is true that Italy WAS, one of the Europe most dynamic countries, but this was many years ago, more or less when the current prime minister was building his fortune with money that nobody knows where it was coming from.
Concerning the situation of the Italian economy, you can't ignore that Italy has never been so close to a total disaster from the end of the WW II, thanks also to one of the worst finance minister of its history whose prime goal is to put himself on the right spot to take over from Mr.Berlusconi with the support of the most estremist political leader, Bossi, that has a primary goal is to break-out Italy into a federal republic.
Italy is a young Nation: we are going to celebrate next year the 150th anniversary of the reunification and the Italian republic has less than 70 years and our prime minister is already criticizing the Constitution because it does not give him all the power that he would like.
Dear Mr. Ambassador, thanks for the try, but I'm afraid that your article has just demostrated once more that Walston's article was just right.

6:41 AM ET

To Cheng

I'm an Italian living abroad for business reasons and I went back to Rome about a month ago for a week vacation. You summary is right!
However, do not believe that this is Italy. This is just the way the current Governement is managing the country.
Come back in a few years, after the Berlusconi "regime" will be forgotten, and I'm sure that you will enjoy your next vacation as it should be!

SDFWEW

9:40 AM ET

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SILVIA84

11:13 AM ET

a lame attempt by the ambassador...

what a shame! for sure the poor ambassador had a really tough job: discredit the article published by Walston as ''Factiousness'' is a ridicolous attempt from the start, but I will give him some credit, at least he tried!

However Italy IS in a terrible situation and what Walston described is what is really happening in Italy nowadays. And I believe that is the very core of a magazine such as FP to let its readers know about what happens in different countries (even when the problems discussed start internally). To state the contrary would be like saying that we should not read about what is the internal situation of Iraq or Burma...just plain silly!
Foreign Policy is about confrontation of what happens in different countries.

And yes I have to agree with Cheng: Italians are the laziest people in Europe, however they are not just lazy : they completly still and relaxed about what is happening. And that is not simply funny, it is deeply scary to see that a whole nation doesn't care about the fact that is incresingly becoming less and less of a democracy....

Good Luck Italy

2:09 PM ET

Is my ambassador paid to reply with such jokes?

Dear Mr. Ambassador Terzi,

I am an italian citizen living in Rome.

I can understand you had to put up a quick reply to mr. Walston's article. It was an "atto dovuto", a due act: a sort of knee-jerk bureaucratical reaction, so to say, to defend our country whatever the accusation may come from a "foreigner" (that seems to know Italy better than many italians, anyway).

Then again, I asked myself, why didn't you try a reply to late, most italian and most illustrious economical academic prof. Paolo Sylos Labini's observations quoted in the article? Why didn't you try a reply to the Italian Republic third senior charge, Deputy Chamber speaker mr. Fini on his considerations on justice?

Or, could you really subscribe mr. Berlusconi (your boss, so to say) rants about being persecuted by "communist" judges? And now even by "communist" referee acting against Milan soccer team owned by the same mr. Berlusconi?

You talked about personal successes of Berlusconi foreign policy. Why you couldn't spent a word for our (mine and yours) Foreign Affairs minister mr. Frattini (who is best known for having been Berlusconi's family sky instructor than for anything else)?

And leave apart that these "successes" basically mean prostration in front of such champion of democracy as Putin and Khadafi (the last one being painfully ridicule), or praising of belarusian tyrant Lukashenko as a "true democratic leader beloved by his people".

Or can you really cite poliitical acts of some relevance (expecially in the crisis our nation is experiencing) by any other of the characters mr. Berlusconi choosed to surround himself as ministers, whose past c.v.'s are not more brilliant than mr. Frattini's? What about our minister for Federal Reform, who claim to use italian flag as toilet paper? And the minister for Bureaucratical Simplification, how much is our bureaucracy simpler now? Where did our minister for Public Instruction pass her state exams to become attorney? How many countries can claim to have as minister for Equal Opportunities someone who has almost nothing else in her career but having been a tv soubrette and topless model? In which country the minister of Defense, acting as a bouncer, shout and phisically attacks a person who in a press conference asked a tough question to his prime minister (mr. Berlusconi)? Where in the world the Treasury minister affirms that safety measures on labor negatively affect the global competitiveness of national companies?

In these time of crisis, what about our minister for Economic Development?

Oh, but it's about five months we don't have one! The charge was abandoned in shame by mr. Scajola (precedetly Interior minister), after it was revealed that more than half the price of his luxurious new house in front of the Coliseum (more than 2 million US$) was paid by a company that was awarded public contracts from various ministries including his own. And to add ridicule, mr. Scajola declared he was unaware about the payment, who made it and why! We have a guy who claim he didn't realized he paid a luxurious house less than half its market value – and he was the minister for Economic Development! How competent.

So, ex lege, now the duties of the ministry for Economic Development are in the hand of mr. Berlusconi. Among the duties of this ministry is to assign frequencies for private and public tv stations. And mr. Berluconi, as anyone knows, owns and controls almost all the major national tv stations in Italy, which are almost the only source of information for the italian citizens.

It means (and this is just one of many examples) that: a) the owner of most important tv stations controls the public assignment of frequencies for tv stations, and b) the owner of other very important financial businesses is the subject that can decide on financial aids to troubled businesses and companies. Is this even conceivable in the country where you are paid with my taxes to live in and speak from?

What if mr. Obama was also owner of Cnn and Fox and Washington Post and the New York Yankees and some banks and maybe is a shareholder on some car company and could also control the public-private energy and petrol company?

And don't even start recalling how laws and Constitution were bended to permit him building his tv business.

And while the whole nation was claiming for a true Economic Development minister, what about the sad story of the "minister of Nothing" mr. Brancher, a former Berlusconi high rank employee, that was granted an unspecified ministry just so he can claim immunity (thanks to a specific law promoted by Berlusconi Justice minister mr. Alfano) from the penal charges he accumulated during years? Luckily, he was forced to resignation short after.

As another reader already wrote, I must also observe that you were able to only cite the foreign military mission as merits for the current government. Mr. Ambassador, be serious: we are (thanks God) an ally of the United States and a member of Nato alliance. We go were they send us. We sent some thousands of soldiers here and there, and this always happened with any government of any political orientation. Even former "communist" prime minister D'Alema sent troops with Nato missions, and centre-left mr. Prodi governments always refinanced such missions.

You may want to praise "our boys", and that's fine: but it also has nothing to do with answering to mr. Walston article.

If I had not an high esteem for the italian diplomacy skills, I'd call it a rhetorical diversive manoeuvre (also typical of mr. Berlusconi communication style) from the main points of mr. Walston article, that you simply don't, and can't, reply to.

I would also saved english readers from hazardous ethymological consideration about the word "faziosità" and Dante's personal history, but this another matter.

Maybe it could be interesting that the government who sent some platoons of soldiers far away so its ambassadors may have something to say, is the same government who don't finance police at all in the struggle against small organized crimes, that is the first cause of underdevelopment of the southern regions of Italy. Many police stations simply don't have petrols for the cars, the few cars that are not broken down for lack of maintenance, while tribunals lack pennies for stationery purchases.

In the while southern mafia cartels are just palinly and legally buying rich north's businesses. How relieved I am that 4000 soldiers are patrolling some remote peak in Afghanistan while whole regions of Italy are simply out of control from the public authorities and in the hands of various mafia cartels.

You also seem to pass proposals made at G8 under italian presidency as they were completely italian merits. Ambassador, let's do ourselves a favour, as we say in Italy, and let's be serious: Italy just hosted the event because that year it was its turn. Italy was one of the eight participants, nothing more. Belgium, for instance, has no higher merits in the European Union just because European Parliament is located in Brussels.

You also cite some 1.3% recent data for economic growth. Apart the lack of meaning of some digits thrown there without contest, from where these figures come from? From the same institutions mr. Berlusconi uses for his popularity polls? Or from the national Statistic institute whose top directors were suddenly demoted sometimes ago because they didn't say the economy was going so happily and unemployment was disappearing as mr. Berlusconi ordered, and substituted with people more close to him and his wishful thinking?

In conclusion, I'm not an expert but I think that the best answer an italian diplomat could have give to mr. Walston article (an article that personally I entirely subscribe) could have been a prudent silence. At last one may have remained dubious about the truth.

With your misaimed reply, you just confirmed that there are no valid answers and no excuses to mr. Walston remarks.

Best regards and better luck with the difficult job of defending our image abroad.

ANDY IN ROME

6:57 AM ET

WOW! Complimenti, Sig.

WOW! Complimenti, Sig. Boccianti. I couldn't have expressed it better - Well, to be honest, I could. But only for very minor questions of grammar :-)

An excellent and cogent rebuttal; I am in total agreement with you.

9:32 AM ET

sorry for the errors

Thanks Andy and sorry for the errors, unfortunately I can't write english very well. I spotted some of them too as I re-read the message, but then it was too late... Among the many of them, I'd like just to rephrase this: "...is the same government who don't finance police at all in the struggle against BOTH small AND organized crimes...". I hope I didn't add errors to errors with this message too!

1:26 PM ET

Writing in English

Luca, there's no need at all to apologise; indeed it is I who should excuse myself for making such a cheap quip. If I could write Italian as well as you write English I would feel that my 25 years in Rome hadn't been entirely wasted.

REBOCORRADO

12:48 AM ET

ambassador's gossip

Dear Ambassador, superficial script which doesn't touch Italy's present chaos, but I suspect you have to play your part.
Soldiers apart, Italy and Berlusconi's "worldwide credibility" can be judged by watching Berlusconi's cartoons on Russian television and the parody of the Presidente on other TV (Uruguay, Spain...). The stressed concept of "...biased opinions...false story based on domestic gossip..." reminds me of other recent noted refusals to believe the evidence. The ex-Vatican Secretary of State Card. Sodano, expressing indignation that the Church is being singled out as a corrupt institution (10,000 sex abuse claims) referred to the global sexual scandal involving priests as "chiacchiericcio", i.e. gossip.

RENATOROSSI01

5:22 AM ET

bordello state

I'm italian and proud to be. But it is a shame that our ambassador does not feel himself the shame to declare what he said. Unfortunately in Italy we do not have enough media and newspaper freedom to uncover the unbelievable political and social situation. We have a premier involved into the worst cases of mafia and corruption, and he is daily trying to set-up some laws to pay debts he has contracted with mafia to enter the business and expand. You may know he himself and his dear friend Dell'Utri are suspected to be behind Florence and Rome massacres. Would you please insist publishing such articles about my bordello state: at least you can send a"message in a bottle" just in case we will drop down in more difficult environment.
Thanks a lot, rgrds.

10:12 AM ET

don't jump to conclusion too easily

dear Renato, while I think all the worst about Berlusconi as a politician and as a businessman, I can not believe he or sen. Dell'Utri may have explicitely ordered or requested or even desired some mafia military operation.

They may have had and still may have links with white collar mafia, then these white collars may have know someone other who know someone else etc. who thought it would have been a good idea to put some bombs here and there because they thought this would push toward a political change in favor of mr. Berlusconi's rightwing rassemblement (bombs? people asks for more order! a strong man who can clear it up! etc.).

Plainly stating that Berlusconi and/or Dell'Utri ordered or directly inspired violent actions is as fantasious and naive as mr. Berlusconi's rants about some plot of some "communist" judges to overthrow him.

To subscribe to the hypothesis that Berlusconi actually asked mafia to do something make Berlusconi's opposers as fanatical and unreliable as the ones who really believe to Berlusconi's stories, and we don't want to pass for fanatics: reality is bad enough.

WAITING_FOR

1:43 PM ET

Italy deserves better ambassadors.

This silly article just sounds like the lies daily spread by mr.Berlusconi's newspapers, TVs, attorneys, deputies, followers, Berlusconi himself and so on. What a pitiful, desperate attempt to keep Italy's reputation safe. Our diplomats should spend some more time in their homeland, watching our democracy falling apart under the blows of a government busy 24/7 in saving our premier from his trials.

VINCE83IT

5:58 AM ET

in exchange of favours, i

in exchange of favours, i will quote Shakespeare:
"the lady doth protest too much, methinks".
I found the article in question as brilliant as objective, made up with data and not with personal impressions.
Unfortunately, it's not offensive. Truth is never offensive.
Our ambassador replies strictly in line with the Berlusconi defense style: "i am offended, you're insulting me, you are communist". Perhaps mr Terzi can't have the power for the 2nd pillar of that defense, i.e. changing rules after the event, and for example he cant pass an emendment stating that quoting Dante is illegal.
Whatever, i am not offended. I also accept that berlusconi has illegal and immoral behaviours.
i am offended,
instead, if members of parliament could have been (s)elected by a bedroom "interview". In substance, they are paid with italian taxes, i pay taxes, i pay wh*res for berlusconi's sake.
I am offended
if he spends his leadership making laws for dodging a judgement (and, if you permit, anyone who is not guilty will suppress critics facing it, the only who escape are the thieves)
Moreover, the Terzi reply is a proof of truth in the former article, since he had the possibility to reply for inexact data, that means he knows they are true.

MAINZ

6:00 AM ET

Bravo Ambassador, good job!

The reply of Mr. Terzi reflects 100% the attitude of the B. government: it avoids to give clarifications on specific points.

The reply is amateurial, but the quest, I have to admit, is one of the hardest ever: how can the ambasador justify the acts of a guy that is bringing shame to all Italians, in Italy and abroad?

ciao,
mainz

F1FAN

9:15 AM ET

Italy deserves praise, not petty insults.

Hahahahaha! No it doesn't. Seriously. Next.

JC333

3:51 PM ET

Italy

I'm from the U.S. and I've been to Italy a few times. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience each time. Now I must say that I've only been to the north (Milan, Florence, Verona, Pisa) so I cant really comment on the south of Italy. Italy is amazing, absolutely wonderful food. I tried anchovies for the first time there(they were the white ones) and was pleasantly surprised.

The art of Italy is obviously breathtaking, anyone who has been to Florence can attest to this. I was actually very lucky, when I went to Milan someone canceled their ticket to see The Last Supper, so I got to go in without a reservation.

The architecture and history is amazing. The people are patient if you have a small command of the language, I got around perfectly fine on my own.

ALDEVIS LONDON

5:23 PM ET

September 21, 2010

dear jc333

As an Italian emigrant, I am fully aware of the beauty of Italy. An the food, of course. That is why I have even more bitter feeling about my country. At the moment Italy is only good to go there, eat well, and try to see some art from the past. I am feeling robbed every time I have to get a train or have to deal wit bureaucracy.

And about the Last Supper... try to google "Berlusconi Last Supper", and you will find out that in Italy, if you are the prime minister, you are even allowed to break the "no photo rule" in front of such a beautiful and delicate masterpiece.

KINDOFALIVE

7:17 AM ET

Wow

I expected something, er...a little more convincing reply, but the ambassadors text was quite imcompetent when considering the level he acts in. My granny would have written a better reply by uttering something about the Italian way or just by attacking James Walston's persona and questioned his professionalism.

KLIMT.EASTWOOD

1:21 PM ET

September 22, 2010

Italian politics and organized crime

Pity the Ambassador's comments come the day before Berlusconi's government championed turning down judges' request to investigate Nicola Cosentino, who has reported links with the camorra clan of the Casalesi. [http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2010/09/22/dirette/cosentino_il_voto_alla_camera-7306833/?ref=HRER1-1]

Pity the Ambassador's comments come just as Berlusconi himself is being investigated for a suspected part in the bombings which killed Italy's best anti-mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. [http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2010/08/03/inchiesta-sulle-bombe-del-93-berlusconi-e-dellutri-indagati-per-strage/47165/]

HAMDU

2:00 PM ET

October 10, 2010

Last Supper, so I got to go in

in exchange of favours, i will quote Shakespeare:
"the lady doth protest too much, methinks".
I found the article in question as becertubebrilliant as objective, made up with data and not with personal impressions.
Unfortunately, it's not offensive. Truth is never offensive.
Our ambassador replies strictly gztlrin line with the Berlusconi defense style: "i am offended, you're insulting me, you are communist". Perhaps mr Terzi can't 7rahave the power for the 2nd pillar of that defense, i.e. changingucakbiletitc rules after the event, and for example he cant pass an emendment stating that quoting Dante is illegal.
Whatever, i am not offended. I also accept that berlusconi has illegal and immoral behaviours.
i am offended,
instead, if members of parliament could have been (s)elected by a bedroom "interview". In substance, they 31cilerare paid with italian taxes, i pay taxes, i pay wh*res for berlusconi's sake.
I am offended
if he spends his leadership making laws for dodging a judgement (and, if you permit, anyone who is not guilty will sinemasuppress critics facing it, the only who escape are the thieves)
Moreover, the Terzi reply is a proof of truth in the former article, since he had the possibility to reply for inexact data, that means he knows they are true.

Foreign Policy Magazine

One of Europe's most dynamic countries deserves praise, not petty insults.

BY GIULIO TERZI | SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

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