Italy is in the middle of a huge economic crisis, it’s on the top of a 200+ billion euro national debt, it’s at the very bottom of all international economic charts when it comes to growth. To be all clear, we’re facing a major disaster here. A disaster that will not be limited by our borders since we’re still a pillar in the European Union and a key country in the economic world scene. Got the first picture?
We got an aging population, a lot of issues for integration with immigrants from the former Eastern Bloc, from a number of Asian countries, from the poorest lands of South America and from every African country you can think of. Our welfare is under budget cuts and it’s over-stressed by the requests made from the population. Public services are still good but the machine is falling apart, the more each year. Got the second picture?
Italy is home of three giant organized crime cartels, each and every one of them worldwide diffused. Mafia, Camorra and Ndrangheta are infamous names from the North Pole to the Antartica. A good third of our beloved country is under some form of control by them. The enormous mass of money they got from crime, crime related activities and other legitimate business (funded by illegal ones) is used to alterate and conquest more and more business. Once again, that’s happening inside and outside our borders. Got the third picture?
Italy’s GDP is about 800 billions Euro/Year. Corruption and tax evasion cost us about 100 billion Euro/Year, unofficial business, black markets and crime “produce” about 120 billion Euro/Year. Each and every year Italy got to pay about 70 billion Euro for debt interests. Inside our borders we got two other states, two examples of “grey zones” when it comes to tax evasion/elision and money laundering. Yes, those states are the Republic of San Marino and the Holy See. Got the fourth picture?
With this kind of family album to show, what do we need from politicians? Miracles? A sign from Heaven? No, what we need is courage and dignity, will to work and to respect our laws. We need to have real women and real men at the top of our country, just like in the ‘40s after the end of WWII.
What we got? Clowns. No more than clowns, straight from some low-budget ‘80s horror-movie. An old clown full of Viagra, devoted only to his own interests. A younger clown, a middle-aged ex-comedian turned political guru. Together they control about 53% of the italian parliament. Our only luck is that they hate each other. So it’s still vaudeville and not a freak show. Until next time…
Angelo Benuzzi 