The View from Bologna

The grey denominator

One thing that the worlds of entertainment and politics have in common in Italy is the fact that most of the key figures involved are past the normally accepted retirment age.

The political stage is dominated by figures like Silvio Berlusconi (age 72), Romano Prodi (age 67), not to mention the cabal which recently brought down the government in the senate - Giulio Andreotti (age 88) and Francesco Cossiga (age 78).

Entertainment on both the public and private TV channels is dominated by figures like Pippo Baudo (age 77), and Mike Buongiorno (age 83).

The staying power of these aged men is notable. Reading an interesting essay by Alessandro Portelli ("The centre cannot hold: music as political communication in post-war Italy")*, this monkey came across a wonderful quote from Umberto Eco. While it was written in the early '60s, in relation specifically to the then almost spritely TV presenter Buongiorno, it seems to speak volumes about both the political and media class that refuses to go gently into any good night:

"Worshipped by millions [Buongiorno], this man owes his success to the fact that from each and every action and word of his television persona there transpires such absolute mediocrity ... that no viewer, no matter how backward, is ever made to feel inferior"[pg 261]

*In the splendid The Art of Persuasion. Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s edited by Luciano Cheles and Lucio Sponza, Manchester University Press.

The price paid - Daniele Mastrogiacomo

Last week the release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo sparked off controversy left, right, and centre - outside Italy. Inside Italy, apart from some opportunistic jibes from Berlusconi*, virtually all political parties supported the government's efforts to release Mastrogiacomo, who had been held captive in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

Readers of the London Times fumed at the Italian government's action - "As usual, the Italian government have shown their real colours with this trade off.......spineless!"¹. A view perhaps shared by Italy's allies. Criticism came overtly from the Dutch government, whose troops are under fire in Afghanistan, while veiled messages came from the US state department threatening to spark off a diplomatic crisis.

The release of the five Taliban prisoners in exchange for Mastrogicomo, though, was only one part of a complex series of trade-offs. What critics of the Italian government's policy failed to highlight was the complicity of the Afghan and by implication US governments. The gift of release for the Taliban prisoners was not in the hands of the Italian government to offer. The release went ahead because the Italian government requested it, and the Afghan government granted it. And can one believe that the Afghan government would take such a decision without consulting the US? The US and Afghan governments, unwillingly perhaps, backed the policy. And why? Well, today the Italian government votes on re-financing their military mission in Afghanistan.

Given that a military offensive against the Taliban is on the cards, and that the US military have more pressing concerns in Iraq, and in all likelihood in Iran, both the US and Afghan governments were, it seems, prepared to pay the price to have Italian military support in Afghanistan.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo was blessed by his nationality and the timing of his kidnapping. His Afghan interpreter Adjmal Nashkbandi, and the Afghan credited with negotiating his release, Rahmatullah Hanefi are less fortunate. Those lobbying for their liberty have no geo-political trump to play. Both Afghans, it seems, are paying the price for Mastrogiacomo's release. Nashkbandi's whereabouts are uncertain. Hanefi, who works for Italian aid agency Emergency, and who was a go-between in the negotiations, seems to have been picked up by the Afghan secret police. According to reports received by Emergency Hanefi is being held and tortured by the Afghan government.

The Italian government obviously bargained hard for Mastrogiacomo, gambling on its troop presence in Afghanistan. Nothing indicates that they're willing to play the same game for Hanefi. Honour dictates that they should, though we know they won't.

Further Info:
Deep concern for Rahmatullah Hanefi and Adjmal Nashkbandi

*Berlusconi suggested that Prodi's government's handling of the crisis, by bowing down to the kidnappers' demands, had made Italy seem untrustworthy on the international stage. He didn't, though, clarify how his own government's payment of ransoms for various different hostages in Iraq differed. Admittedly in the Iraqi cases no prisoner swaps were reported, but the payment of millions of euro as ransom can't have hurt jihadist aspirations.

Nimby Housewives and the disco-dancing Kissinger

Gianni Di Michelis, former Italian Foreign Minister, and author of 'where shall we dance tonight? A guide to 250 of Italy's best discos', las night dismissed the women behind the campaign to block expansion of the American military base in Vicenza as 'Nimbys'*.

Our disco-dancing Kissinger is far from alone, at least in the political class, in holding this opinion. The story goes that local communities should not be allowed to have the final say in the decision to locate important structures, be they gas re-liquefication plants (one planned for Bari has long been held up by protests), high-speed rail lines (the subject of a bitter debate both for the previous and currently serving government), or an extended American army base.

The argument is not a specifically Italian one, hence the use of 'nimby'[Not in my backyard] by the fashion-conscious Di Michelis. The case of Vicenza, though, is a very local one. Italy's border role during the cold war has undergone a brief period of crisis, only to be gently rebranded as a border role for the war on terror - given both its geographical and cultural position. A peace-keeping mission's throw away from the middle east, and bordering the dangerously Islamic North Africa, there are plenty in the Italian political class (Left and Right) who see this re-branding as an important step for Italy. After all, there are tax-dollars to be gained, and allegations of anti-americanism turns off much of the electorate.

Protests have been ongoing in the town of Vicenza, where, with little or no consulation, local authorities with the approval of the government have agreed to the building of a new American base (There is already an American military base in the town, which supplies a significant amount of employment). Protesters have been smeared by politicians like interior minister Amato - who, prior to a planned protest rally in the city, warned of subversive elements and hinted that the infamous 'black-block' would turn the event into an attack on law and order. In reality, though, the protesters are, for the main part, local citizens concerned at the prospect of an extended military base in their area.

Are they nimbys? Well, one crucial test that should be undertaken before smearing a group as nimbys should surely be a quick check as to whether the project objected to makes sense for the country as a whole. The gas reliquefication plant, for example, may prove a hazard for the locals of Bari, but would undoubtedly be of benefit to the country as a whole - removing, somewhat, the stranglehold that gas pipelines from the former Soviet Union have on Italy's energy supply.

So, an extension of an American military base. Does it make sense for the Italian nation as a whole? At a time when the current US military stands accused of violation of human rights and international law; at a time when the American people have voted against the foreign policy of the current US President; at a time when the Italian government is supposedly setting out an independent stall in foreign policy, the answer is surely no. The enlargement of the American military presence in Italy makes no sense on a national level, so it makes even less sense on a local level.

Rather than throwing out a casual smear, in a foreign language to boot, politicians like Di Michelis should explain why it makes sense both locally and nationally to aid and abett the US military at this time. Then again, that would be a particularly hard two-step to perform, even for someone as fly on his feet.

*The distaste with which Di Michelis uttered the word nimby is understandable. As a member of the Socialist party that was so utterly discredited in the 1990's during the tangentopoli bribery scandals, he would, no doubt, be more a member of the ypimby school of thought, where yp=yes please.

How do you get from Afghanistan to the Vatican

The day after Romano Prodi's government fell, the majority of left-wing and right-wing newspapers frothed around the two dissenting 'radical' left wing senators* Fernando Rossi and Franco Turigliatto, both of whom had refused to vote for their government in the senate, helping to cause the collapse of the government.

That so much attention should be paid to the two is hardly surprising. The narrative of Prodi's government, both present and past, reads best when dressed in bickering and betrayal. During the vote in the senate, various members of the government shouted abuse at the two senators. 'Shithead', Manuela Palermi (Comunisti Italiani) was apparently heard wailing at one of the two.

Less attention was paid to the fact that, had the two errant senators voted in favour of the government's motion, it would have made no difference. In fact, the government was brought down by a number of influential 'senators for life' - senators who are appointed, not voted in, in recognition of their service to the state.

In particular one Senator, Giulio Andreotti, had a decisive vote. Andreotti, several times Prime Minister, and devout catholic, had seemingly made signs to Prodi's government that he would support them, and then, slyly had withdrawn that support.

Interviewed the day after, Andreotti smiled and said that it was hardly the end of the world. And indeed, Andreotti would know, having orchestrated the rise and fall of many governments.

Some spoke of conspiracies - hardly surprising, given the list of characters and the country involved. Prodi's government was targetted by the Vatican and the US, for its support of homosexuals and pacifists the story went. Conspiracy, though, involves an element of secrecy. It was no secret that pro-Vatican politicos like Andreotti took a dim view on attempts, however feable, by Prodi's government to introduce legislation protecting the rights of co-habiting couples. It was no surprise that anything less than support for American bomber-command would have failed to win Senator Francesco Cossiga's vote of support.

No surprise.

The government fell on a motion of confidence on its foreign policy. The government resurrected itself with no major change in its foreign policy. The theme that brought it down has miraculously dissappeared While many on the 'radical' left dislike the pro-NATO line that the government is taking, they can't be seen to be involved in any move that might make way for a new Berlusconi government. Berlusconi and the opposition will fight tooth and nail with the government on any issue apart from financing 'peace-keeping' missions.

And so, the outcome of all this turmoil? Prodi's government wins a vote of confidence in both the senate and chamber with a new programme consisting of twelve points. Notably absent is DICO - the legislation that is being brought to extend various property and pension rights to cohabiting (and same-sex) couples. This had been a central theme in the government's election campaign, and something that according to opinion polls would be widely welcomed by the majority of Italians. Unfortunate then that Andreotti, and various neo christian democrats within the government disagreed.

So, a vote on Afghanistan, is really a vote on homosexual rights - and not surprisingly, the homosexuals lose (along with co-habiting hetrosexuals, and very probably the afghans). It's a political six-degrees of separation, on acid.

*It's interesting how journalists casually use the word radical to describe the left-wing of Prodi's government - taking a cue from umpteen press releases from Berlusconi's spin-doctors. The same word 'radical' was never used to describe right-wing and often xenophobic party the Lega Nord when it was in government with Berlusconi.

A question of life and death

During today's lunch time news, on the state-funded channel RAI1, we got the following news. "Praying is not a matter of choice. It's a question of life and death. Only those who pray will gain eternal life in paradise". The news report quoted, almost word for word, Ratzy's weekly wanderings from his balcony.

I waited for the 'news' element of the story. The punchline. I'm still waiting.

The licence fee, which funds this drivel, was due at the end of february...