The View from Bologna

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve celebrations across Italy are being hastily changed, from traditional noisy and riotous affairs to quiet vigil like ceremonies, to show respect for the victims of the South East Asia Tsunami disaster. Here in Bologna, for example, the city council have cancelled all fireworks and are urging the public to follow suit.

The scale of the disaster is starting to hit home, and for once this column has a good word to say about Berlusconi, who has urged for an extraordinary meeting of the G8 to discuss ways that the world's richest economies can help. Swift, decisive, and unified action is needed to confront the disaster. Hopefully Berlusconi, Blair and co. will back up grand gestures with concrete action, and financial support.

Fourteen Italians have to date been identified, while at least 700 remain missing. Figures have been bandied around in the press of up to 5,000 Italian holiday makers in the region, but as of yet official figures are as confused as those of the death toll in general.

Just as there remains confusion over the scale of the disaster, it seems there is no clear central international fund to direct donations to. In Italy, where we're constantly bombarded by competing mobile phone network advertising, a fund has been set up in unison by the competing networks whereby you can send an sms donating a euro to a central Italian fund, without any administration costs being taken out of that euro. It seems emminently sensible, making it easy and cheap to donate to the disaster relief. For our part, we offer links below to a number of organisations working on aiding the victims of the disaster.

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CONCERN

THE INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE

Mama, the Turks! European integration and the burden of history.

On the day that the European Parliament debated the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey, parliamentary party members of the Lega Nord unfurled a banner in the Italian parliament which read "no to Turkey in Europe".

Berlusconi has been one of Turkey's biggest allies in its attempts to receive the green light for accession talks. Strange, some might think, considering his famous remarks suggesting that Islamic culture, the predominant culture in Turkey, was inferior to the west, but never underestimate the politics of personality as championed by Silvio - he counts himself as a personal friend of Turkish PM Recep T. Erdogan. There are various other strategic/financial concerns that might explain Berlusconi's championing of Turkey, but it's not the scope of this entry to dwell upon that. Rather, we note that one of his main coalition partners is beligerently opposed to this support - going so far as to disturb parliamentary proceedings and have a number of members temporarily banned from the chamber.

Notwithstanding the fact that, normally, the Lega's support of an issue is enough to make this Monkey knee jerkingly take the opposing view, the issue of Turkey's accession is far from simple, particularly from an Italian viewpoint. The Lega are not necessarily disrepresentative on this issue, as any casual glance at common day expressions used in Italian demonstrates.

A toilet that is little more than a hole in the ground, as feared by Northern European tourists en masse, is referred to as 'un bagno alla turca', or toilet turkish style. Someone who smokes excessively is known to 'smoke like a turk' (Fuma come un turco). When strange things happen one can say 'succedono cose turche', which literally translates as 'Turkish things are happening'. Then there's the delightful 'bestemmiare come un turco' (to blaspheme like a Turk)), or 'parlare turco'(to talk turkish - when you can't be understood, akin to 'it's all greek to me').

Perhaps the most infamous phrase though, and one much used by headline writers (the Monkeys included), is 'Mamma li Turchi!', or 'Mamma the Turks are coming', to suggest imminent danger. The phrases reflect the historical conflict between Italy, and Western Christendom, with the Ottoman empire in the Mediterranean.

This isn't to suggest that Turkey should not be allowed to join the EU, nor is it to suggest that the majority of Italians are opposed to the entry - after all, similar expressions in English date back to conflict between Holland and Britain (Dutch courage, speaking double-dutch). It does however highlight that historically, in Italy, Turkey has been seen as 'the other', and it's not easy to change these attitudes easily, particularly when newspapers such as La Padania, the paper associated with Lega print headlines such as 'The Re-play of Lepanto'[decisive naval battle in 1571 where the Christian League defeated the Ottomans], or where one of the best selling authors currently is Orianna Fallaci who has struck a particular chord warning against the growth of 'Eurabia' in a trilogy of books written post 9/11.

It should be noted that various organisations, including Human Rights Watch have suggested that fulfilling entry requirements to the EU by Turkey will have a beneficial effect on human rights in the country.

One of the interesting aspects about the coverage of the whole issue is the relative absence of attitudes from the Turkish side. Whether Turkey has the right to enter the EU is debated, but it seems, according to the general media coverage, that the value of entry into the EU is a given. It's obvious that the majority of Turkish people want to enter the EU - or is it? Orhan Pamuk, who's destined to be one of the most quoted writers of next year, has crafted a complex political novel in Snow that suggests there are a myriad of opinions as to the value of moving towards Europe.

It's a rare occasion when this Monkey admits that he doesn't have a firm opinion on an issue. Is it the case that Turkey should be encouraged to join the EU, as a gesture to moderate Islam, as suggested by William Dalrymple, or to bolster reforms by the Turkish government, as suggested by Dr. John O'Brennan? Or should it be argued that Turkey's joining of the EU changes the scope of the European project, as it is neither geographically or culturally a full part of Europe? And what of Cyprus?

The debate is a wide and important one, but let's not fall into the trap of believing that it is somehow the replaying of old battles, as some would have us believe.

Light fingered civil disobedience - the anarchists go to lunch leaving NATO to pay the bill.

The restaurant owner in Treviso took a booking for what he thought was a baptismal celebration. Around 50 people dined in his exclusive restaurant, running up a bill of around €2,000 , and then left without paying the bill (though they did leave an €80 tip for the waiter). Left behind on the table was a doll effigy of 'San Precario', the new patron saint of civil disobedience in Italy. The restaurant was chosen, explained a note attached to San Precario, because last month it had hosted a gala dinner for the participants in the NATO convention.

Earlier in November a similar group had drunk the night away in the world famous Harry's Bar in Venice, running up €1,000 bar bill (at the prices one would expect in Harry's Bar, one can only surmise that these activists are moderate in their consumption). They left the bar saying that NATO or the Governor of the Veneto Giancarlo Galan would pay. The owner of the Bar, Arrigo Cipriani, immediately said that he expected the waiter responsible for serving them to pay, despite Galan's offer to pay.

This was only one of a series of incidents through November where Disobedienti turned the pressure up on both the government and the opposition, protesting against rising prices, and the increase of 'labour flexibility' (meaning, by Italian standards, no job security).

In Rome at the start of the month a crowd of activists descended upon a large supermarket and 'negotiated' an automatic discount for all shoppers of 70%. Later the same afternoon they descended upon a bookstore in central Rome and pulled off a similar stunt.

Here in Bologna, only a couple of days ago, this Monkey stumbled upon an act of "Proletarian Shopping", as it's labelled, when a group of scruffy looking protesters (one imagines that these wouldn't make it past the door of Harry's Bar, let alone run up a bar bill!) went into the Mel bookstore and again arranged a discount with the manager. They agreed to a 30% discount on new titles, and 60% on used books. Nearby, a group of Carabinieri hung around, unable to do anything. The manager of the shop was quoted as saying "in the end it's only a symbolic demonstration, these kids are trying to overcome real problems... they explained to me that they didn't want to cause problems or create tension, and then I said to myself, why not? At the end of the day, the auto-reduction of prices, done like this, in a civil way, might have sense. The problem, excessive prices for books, and everything else, is real"[1]. He went on to say that he hoped, by presenting the receipts to publishers, that they'd help him out on his loss (God love him).

While political figures across the board have come out strongly against the 'shopping', including the socialist mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, and Fausto Bertinotti the leader of Rifondazione Comunista (in the past one of the more militant leaders of the left), who said that the action was "a mistake and counterproductive"[2], the main reaction from people this Monkey has spoken to has been one of amusement, and understanding. I for one tip my hat to the audacity and inventiveness of the activists, probably because I don't own a shop that could be targeted (Strangely, Berlusconi's chain of Mondadori shops haven't been touched).

The interior minister, Pisanu of Forza Italia, said after the incidents in Rome that, while a lenient attitude had initially been taken with the activists, to avoid creating further public disorder or panic, any further actions would result in arrests.[3]

Yesterday, Forza Italia and their coalition partners passed an extensive bill reforming the Judiciary. The reforms have been widely criticised, and were described in an interview with Three Monkeys Online by David Lane, business and finance correspondent in Italy for the Economist, as "a vindictive campaign against the Judiciary". Amongst the reforms was a controversial amendment, tabled by Berlusconi's party, which would reduce sentences for a number of offences (just as they did with false accounting), and, in the case of people convicted aged 70 years or over, would suspend any prison sentence. This has been labelled the "save Previti" clause, because one of Berlusconi's closest associates, former lawyer, and co-accused in a number of corruption cases Cesare Previti, aged 70 this very year. In addition, through new regulations approved by this clause, the statute of limitations has been changed for certain offences, applying to Mr Previti, to ten years. It's a mere coincidence of course that Mr Previti's crimes date to 1994, ten years ago.

You don't have to be a legal expert to work out that 50 anarchists on a 'proletarian shopping' spree don't pose the greatest risk to Italian society. At least they paid something...

[1]"In fondo, e' solo una dimostrazione simbolica, questi ragazzi sollevano un problema reale...mi hanno spiegato che non volevano causare problemi, che non avevano intenzione di creare tensione. E allora mi sono detto: perche' no?.. In fondo l'autoriduzione, fatta cosi, in modo civile, puo` avere un senso. Il problema del costo eccessivo dei libri, come di tutto il resto, e` reale." La Repubblica 1st December.
[1]"Quella di sabato e' stata una azione sbagliata e controproducente, un atto incomprensibile ai piu' " -Italy Global Nation
[2]"Sono state impartite precise disposizioni ai questori affinché i responsabili vengano perseguiti con fermezza e denunciati all´autorità giudiziaria operando anche, ove possibile, arresti in flagranza di reato" -La Repubblica 8 November