All go in Little Italy

Yes, it really is all go in Little Italy with only three more days to go to go! …. If you haven’t been keeping up with the rollercoaster of political twists and turns let me fill you in.

Many cities, including the big 4, Turin, Milan, Naples and Bologna, voted for their new mayor two weeks ago. In Italy the mayor is a 'Very Important Person' who plays a decisive role in local politics, and it’s the first major election to take place here since the bunga bunga ‘scandals’ broke out. It’s the first real test for Berlusconi and he has put himself heart and soul into the election campaign… Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture with what finesse and aplomb he has gone about it!

This particular election has two turns. If you win with 50.1% you’re in first time, if not the two top candidates fight it out two weeks later in the ballotaggio. Both Turin and Bologna voted their candidates in at the first round (Berlu lost but as they are both traditional left wing cities, the outcome was predictable) leaving Milan and Naples to try again.

‘So what??’ you might rightly ask. If you’ve ever been to Milan you can’t have helped noticing how chic and rich it is compared to other cities,  and how terribly ‘milanese’ the people are… it’s a bit like walking the wrong way up a catwalk in fashion week. You bump into the rich, the famous and the beautiful and hurriedly find yourself checking your watch to see what time the next train to Genova is.  

Milan is Berlusconi’s creation, his baby, his life’s project. There is a zone of the city called Milano due. Milan2, which he paid for and built (lots of debate raging still as to where a young tyke like him got the money to do it at such a young age… but that’s another story!!) Berlusconi is Milan and vice versa… so when the left wing candidate got to 48% and his own barely scraped 42% his whole world must have come crashing down. For Berlusconi to lose in Milan is unthinkable, even for those of us who have got the champagne in the fridge just in case.

Nobody (at least that I know) would have complained if B were forced to resign over his sordid life style and corrupt dealings but how much sweeter the victory if it were political and not ethical. Because, as you know, the problem is not so much Berluska as the Italians who vote him. Has he not, after all, achieved what any hot blooded male would love to achieve: extreme money, extreme power, and lots and lots of girls? They vote for him because they want to be him or want a man as rich and as powerful as he is to love them. He represents the Italian dream… the complete lack of dignity, the corruption and the bribery are just by products only to be expected.

So, (and we’ve finally arrived at the crux of the matter) if he loses the election in Milan on Monday it means that even his own people are turning against him. It means that the Berluska style has run its course and that Italy may be heading for a change or heart.

Watch out for the results!

Weird???

For a start I bet no one will read this because there aren't pics of seminudechicks on the link!

Anyway, I' back in the harem after a long Easter break in the UK with Eve.

Difficult to know what Berluska's been up to in our absence due to a series of ‘world events’ that have left all our bunga bunga excitement decidedly in the shade… e se non fosse per Mentana non si capirebbe niente. GRAZIE Chicco!! (Mentana is one of the few TV journalists who tells it like it is).

Can’t help thinking that something weird is going on, however.

On Friday most of Britain was gripped by mass hysteria and swept along on a wave of partyism/ patriotism that apparently hasn’t been seen for a long time. It felt a bit like being in a world cup final and knowing that you were going to win whatever happened. Fair enough. I’m not at all into all that stuff myself and there are lots (and lots) of arguments against it all… but, having lived in a democratically more evolved republic for the past twenty years I can’t say that it gives me a greater sense of  anything much! (And lots to say on that too. Save it for another time). In any case, whatever your point of view people from all around the globe seemed to be celebrating the royal couple or the party or the ‘being there’ even though it had nothing to do with them really, 2 billion people globally watched it on TV and even an old left-wing activist like me found the trees in the abbey beautiful and was moved at the sense of history.

I was back in the harem just in time to see (metaphorically speaking) Pope JPII being ‘beatificato’ (How do you say that in English?? Half way up the career ladder to sainthood???) Another event that did absolutely nothing for me personally but again which saw the streets of a capital city full of people celebrating. More than 1 million Catholics from around the world gathered in St Peter’s and around Rome to take part. Fair enough!

And just as we thought the busy weekend was over BL apparently goes and gets killed in Pakistan. More cities filled with cheering crowds celebrating. Fair enough (?)

Don’t you think it’s weird that three ‘big events’ (as they call them in Italy) happened in the space of three days and none of them by chance? Why did W&K choose the end of April (very unpredictable month weather wise) to get married in? Why on earth did the Vatican want to cause all the problems it did by mixing the Beatification (?) celebrations with the traditional 1^st May celebrations which already cause chaos in Rome each year? Why did Obama decide that it had to be now? They must have had Bin under observation for quite a long time (if of course they did ‘kill him’)

Is there anything in the stars? Is the fact that half the globe is ‘celebrating’ something or other written down in an ancient prophecy of someone or other? Should we expect more? My husband thinks it means that his football team will avoid relegation. I think that is unlikely. Hey, who knows? But when it happens, remember I told you!! I said it was weird.