140. The Guardian U.K. Takes Yet Another Swipe at Italy

 Local Village Fair: Can you see the "Shadow of Fascism" around here? 

Do look carefully.

It was thanks to the Italian Journalist Bruno Manfellotto on RAI Radio 3 who reading the headlines brought to my attention that The Guardian in the U.K. has taken yet another swipe at Italy with their editorial article yesterday entitled “Italy: Fascism’s Shadow” which for someone who knows Italy because they live here is a title that makes them laugh out loud instantly.

Just for the record I should like to remind those who think I’ve been “gratified” in one way or another by the Right Wing to write in their favour, (as if they need any help from me) that I am a free spirit in absolute, just like James Joyce- no chains: if anything I am a bit of a Partisan having been an active member of the Italian Socialist Party and the Labour Party in England- check it out.   

After having depicted the Italian Premier as he who has used Italian legislation to secure his media empire, being anti-gypsy, anti-immigrant and founding the present People of Freedom Party on Fascism, they had nothing much else to say about him, except that they fear they are unable to get rid of him... and that’s where it’s all at, the green eyed head of envy raises its ugly head. 

Of course, none of the above statements have much foundation since the media empire is not in Silvio Berlusconi’s name at all, the fact that immigrants have entered Italy more under this government than any other proves his anti racism doesn’t it?  And wanting to provide decent facilities and proper health and schooling for gypsies also shows this government is against gypsies, not to mention a real fascist streak emerging, true?  The bit about founding the new Party on fascism is yet the juiciest part.  Berlusconi founded his Party “Forza Italia” on a group of non-political people who had lost faith in all other parties, and was a social club for years before being consolidated into a political party, where are the fascist origins in that?  I’m not avoiding the issue that the 10% of Fini’s party that contribute to the make-up of the People of Freedom Party has its origins in “Movimento Sociale” which was a Right Wing party and perhaps ex fascists converged in it, but it certainly has nothing in the least to do with what that party had become namely “Alleanza Nazionale” and having merged into the new People of Freedom Party is no more.  I also suggest The Guardian should do the same and bury its hatchet and be no more.  After all, the Left Wing Party has its origin in Russian Stalin/Lenin Communism, as does the other Left Wing Parties in Europe, including those in Britain.  


Bringing up the past in such a way as to take a swipe at Italy is rather childish, dear Editor of The Guardian.

Just because there are hordes of people who are called Mussolini in Italy it means they are working in establishing an underground Gestapo Society for the re emergence of Fascism, is that what the Guardian is implying when it refers to Italy’s fascist legacy?  And because not so many are called Hitler in Germany, fascism has not resurfaced there?  Why didn’t The Guardian count the outbreaks of violence from skin heads, leather heads, blockheads and what have you with their Swastika flags and arm bands, in Austria, England and Germany before saying the shadow of Fascism lurks in the background in Italy?

Talking about names, it doesn’t in the least bit enter into The Guardian’s head to link Sofia Loren’s name with fascism though her niece Alessandra has been implied as being one, simply because she bears the name of Mussolini and to crown it all is in Berlusconi’s Government.  Being prejudiced just because someone is called Mussolini is not an example of democracy or fairness or in any way justified.  Tell Sofia Loren that next time you see her, she would appreciate such display of civility.

The Guardian, in its wisdom has made no mention why Italians have repeatedly voted for this Right Wing be it whatever shadow it hangs under, which is because Italian politics unlike that of other more “advanced” countries does not depend on internet clicks but on what has been done, what the Party has done, just like the old fashioned way of measuring the measure of a man.  


Naples was buried in rubbish due to organized crime that was allowed to freely breathe under a perennial Left Wing local government administration until Berlusconi not only went there himself with all his parliament but also brought the troops to clear up the mess that the Left Wing had paralyzed.  At the moment there is a similar situation in Venice run perennially by the Left Wing local government which allows it to bury itself underwater because it has paralyzed the erection of the Tide Barriers, waiting in the wings for half a century.  I’m not putting the blame for all the ills of Italy on the Left Wing, indeed there is organized crime which no party right, left or centre can ever overcome.  


The last case is that shown by a photo printed in “La Stampa” of Torino today showing children being sent to poke about in the bins of the wealthy sector instead of going to school.  The photo was taken in Palermo, capital of the Region of Sicily and the local government there is not Left Wing.       

  

There is really no need for this, no amount of poverty, which is not entirely the reason in this case, can justify not sending children to school.  Government is useless on these people as they are dominated by a greater force, I should like to see what shadows of horror The Guardian will place Berlusconi under if he went down to Palermo with the troops and took the children to school himself?  There are times when foreign newspapers can cause severe problems to normal people by meddling in things they only have a superficial knowledge about.

There is no shadow of Fascism lurking in the wings here in Italy but Italy does suffer from another tyranny, the tyranny where as in Spain all kinds of rubbish is being made legal in the name of Socialism.  Here in Italy thanks to the right wing intervention clause, doctors are not forced to kill a human being through euthanasia or ripping an unborn child from the womb.  It is the Right Wing in this country that defends certain rights and principles from tyranny, not as The Guardian would like the world to believe, the other way round.

Finally, The Guardian says “It is a day of shame for Italy,” I think the shame, after reading this article, will fall upon The Guardian, we’re a happy crowd over here, thanks to “Berlusca” and company.  Oh yes, another thing- as to the “shocking thought” of Berlusconi sitting at the London Economic Summit “who has now rebuilt his political base on foundations laid by fascists,” which as I have described earlier has the flavour of a fairy tale: rejoice, for among so many derelicts there is someone who knows how to be a winner!