31 January 2008

Giovedi

Just watched the BBC's Newsnight from a couple of nights ago. The theme tune reminds me of my childhood. When that came on I knew I was up too late. Anyway, there was a damning piece on it about Italian politics. It showed pretty pictures of Naples but with rubbish heaps in the foreground. Shame on the government.

The program also spoke of a book called "La Casta - How Italian politicians became untouchable". Sounds like an interesting read. Anyone read it?

Facts from the book include:

- Rome's Presidential Palace costs four times as much to run as Buckingham Palace.

- Italian members of Parliament are paid almost twice as much as their British counterparts.

- Of the 630 Italian MPs, 16 have previous criminal convictions

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The state of things is really depressing! I was shocked to hear the palace costs more than Buckingham?! WTF?
And by the way, my hair cutter totally messed up my hair!!! By joking around I jinxed myself :( Now I have to pay the big bucks to go somewhere fancy and have it fixed.

Delina said...

Oh dear. Time to get those hats out. As Mum says, there's only a few weeks between a good hair cut and a bad hair cut. That's more for people with short hair really, but it might make you feel a bit better. Hope you get it sorted.

Roam2Rome said...

4 times more than Buckingham Palace?!! but... *sigh*... wordless here...

Gil said...

The garbage situation and the condition of the hospitals is a total disgrace considering what the politicians spend on themselves. I just saw another picture of the piles of garbage on Ansa. This one was from Pozzuoli and the people walking around were wearing masks like they wear in China. Very sad!

Cherrye said...

That is very sad...Not surprising, but sad...

Emmina said...

That's good to know - the next time one of my Italian friends stresses me about the Royal Family and what a waste of money it is (which happens a lot), I will be ready to throw those stats back at them!!

joe@italyville.com said...

It seems they are all the same.... doesn't matter where you go. Hoping for some positive change here and in Italy. PLEASE!!

Jeff Gromen said...

Delina,
I'm looking for that book in english as I don't think my Italian is up for it.
I'm reading "The Dark Heart of Italy" by Tobias jones which I recommend from what I've read so far.

Jeff