How Inefficient is Italy? Grossly.
Italy’s nightmarish bureaucracy and dysfunctional political system are legendary. Well, they do say there’s often more than a grain of truth in legends and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2014 – 2015 contains not one but several grains of truth. In terms of government efficiency and effectiveness, out of the 144 nation’s assessed by the World […]
Unconstitutional: Too Many Women in Italy’s Parliament
Italy’s parliament is debating electoral law reform but has hit a stumbling block: women. Yes, that’s right, members of the fairer sex are causing hiccups in Italy’s electoral reform process. Female Italian MPs say Italy’s parliament, like Italy’s population, should be made up of 50% women and 50% men. However, not only is the Berlusconi […]
Italy Returns to September Heat
While most of Italy has been languishing on the beach, the nations’ politicians spent the month of August bickering vociferously over the future of convict Silvio Berlusconi. Sparks have been flying and the battle to save Silvio is not over yet. Here’s a round-up of the situation surrounding Berlusconi and Italy in general. Nobody really […]
Italian Politics – An Overview of the Current Situation
Trying to understand just what is going on in the convoluted, confusing world of Italian politics is no easy task for the casual observer. Here’s an overview of the current situation along with some of the names of politicians coming up in Italy’s press, plus who they are and what they do. As you may […]
Italy Has a Super #Prism
After the UK Guardian opened the Prism can of worms, others have been asking themselves if their governments have also been covertly snooping on private communications between citizens. One such person is Italian lawyer and internet law specialist Fulvio Sarzana. In a recent entry on his blog, Sarzana claims that not only does Italy have a Prism equivalent, […]
Who Are Italy’s New Ministers? Mini-profiles here
Along with pithy profiles, here is a list of the ministers selected to serve as part of neo-prime minister Enrico Letta’s new multiple political spectrum coalition government for Italy. Agreeing who should be assigned what proved to be no mean feat according to various press reports, though despite this, Letta does seem to have cobbled […]
Turning Round La Brutta Figura
Italy is a very image conscious country – just wander down any Italian street and you will see beautiful shops and elegantly dressed passers by. The places and people are examples of ‘la bella figura’ – which means ‘creating the right impression’. The opposite of the ‘bella’ version is ‘la brutta figura’, which is similar […]
Rom or Romanian?
As I wrote a few days back, Italy has taken measures to extradite European Union citizens who have been involved in criminal activities here. The Italian law enforcement spotlight has been shining heavily on those from Romania, and the police have been rounding up Romanians by the dozen in preparation for having them sent back […]