Tip of the hat to an indignant letter writer – the Italian equivalent of ‘digusted, of Tunbridge Wells’- spurred into action to write to La Repubblica having viewed the ‘spectacle’ of Italian senators reacting to the vote of no-confidence in Romano Prodi’s government. For those of you who didn’t see the clips, attached below is […]
Last week the Justice minister Clemente Mastella gave a teary-eyed speech of resignation to the parliament, upon learning that he, his wife, and most of their political party – the UDEUR – were being formally put under investigation for political interference in public appointments (in particular within the health service). Mastella’s resignation, followed on Monday […]
You’ll be familiar with the ever-so-slightly desparate attempts by the movie and music industries to convince consumers that bootleg copies of films and music not only rob the industry of vitally needed funds, and provide poor audio visual quality, but also provide funds to organised crime. The ads where a man buys a cheap film […]
I stumbled across this fascinating article (thanks to a posting on Chet Raymo’s excellent Science Musings blog. It’s an old article, but was news to this monkey. I had always presumed that it was accepted fact that Primo Levi had committed suicide. Virtually every mention of the celebrated Italian chemist/author/holocaust survivor ends noting that Levi […]
You have to feel sorry for Silvio. While he was in government the European media went to town detailing his every infringement of the democratic norms (of which there were plenty). Since Romano Prodi has been in power scarcely a whimper – for example, how many people outside of Italy know that the current Prime […]
The disjuncture between what goes on and what is reported has rarely been so apparent. On Saturday, with little-to-no advance television publicity, an initiative got under way in Piazzas throughout Italy. The initiative was to collect signatures to propose a new law with three main clauses: 1) No-one fully convicted of a crime should be […]
Global 24hr news stations, well-resourced and able to bring us in-depth, live coverage of epoch defining moments. Italy, like many other countries, has had its news media shaken ever so slightly over the last couple of years with the introduction of 24hr news channels. Rai 24, the news flag-ship of state broadcaster specialises in developing […]
I stumbled upon an interesting dialogue on Bloggingheads.tv between Bruce Feiler and Reza Aslan, author of No God But God (and, apparently, the Brad Pitt of young Muslim commentators…). It’s a lengthy interview, throwing up some interesting points as the two talk about the Iranian community in America, and the political state of play in […]
An art exhibit, entitled the Madonna Cries Sperm, is causing political representatives on a local and national level to get hot under the collar. The exhibit, originally organised by the Yurta association as part of the S.Vitale neighbourhood summer festival, has been cancelled after various local and national politicians deemed it ‘unacceptable’ and ‘offensive’. It’s […]
Last night I managed to get around to seeing Le Rose nel Deserto, the latest film directed by Mario Monicelli. Monicelli’s career spans the history of Italian cinema, having made his first film back in 1934. Monicelli directed Le Rose nel Deserto, on location in the Libyan desert in 2005, an admirable feat in itself, […]
