The International Herald Tribune carried the story yesterday of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's latest gaffe. In response to the recent seeming increase in rapes in and around Rome, Berlusconi proposed to deploy 300,000 soldiers in the streets to fight crime. But he qualified this solution by saying, "You can't consider deploying a force that would be sufficient to prevent the risk. We would have to have so many soldiers because our women are so beautiful."
Giovanna Melandri of the opposition Democratic Party said Berlusconi's comments were "profoundly offensive," saying the pain of rape could never be joked about in such a way.Berlusconi, in an effort to explain himself, said he was complimenting Italian women "because there are only about 100,000 people in law enforcement, while there are millions of beautiful women."
He stressed that rape was a serious and "disgraceful" crime. But he added that people should never forget a sense of "levity and good humor" whenever his comments are concerned.
This strange frivolous attitude is typical of the Prime Minister. Some feel it's because he thinks he's above the law and above the normal restraints people normally have to exercise in public life. He says whatever he wants. His background as one of the wealthiest businessmen in the world as a media mogul prior to entering politics might lend credence to this theory.
A few years ago he amazed the world and created an international incident when he said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could play a Nazi in the movies. His reluctance to apologize for these gaffes, I suppose, is based on the fact that they're made in jest and it's not his fault if people don't have a sense of humor.
After 9/11 he made comments about Islam that were much more serious, at least when taken out of context. One of his famous quotes is this:
"We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance."Immediately after these remarks the rest of Europe denounced him as imprudent and reckless, perhaps endangering our countries unnecessarily. One response was to compare Berlusconi to bin Laden.
"The billionaire [Osama] Bin Laden and the billionaire Berlusconi are cut from the same anti-communist cloth. They both represent fundamentalism - one of the markets, the other of religion."
What's your opinion? Do you think Berlusconi is like bin Laden? Do you think his making a joke at the expense of the German Chancellor was so wrong? Do you think his making light of rape is acceptable?
Please leave a comment. Thanks to Bob S. for the idea.
Unfortunately, in Italy, like France, there are a lot of citizens angry, embarrasssed and disgusted with their government, but there is no really strong opposition.
ReplyDeleteBerlusconi made one of his off the cuff fluff comments about Obama, complementing him on his "tan".
Berlusconi, as far as I can see, relies on his appeal to the "masses" and panders to their fears about immigration. He tries to be a media figure, a personality, a slick image cloaking the real fascist within.
France is ruled by a man who publically acknowleges his admiration for Berlusconi. The leader of Italy's Fascist Party wrote the forward for the Italian edition of Sarkozy's book, Testiment.
Both men are concerned with their grip on media. We have seen that here with Sarkozy grabbing control of the public television stations and now in a proposed bail out of the Newspapers friendly to him, he wants to give free subscriptions to 18 year olds!
His marriage to Carla Bruni-Tedesci is beyond just trying to make himself into the jet set glamorous media figure he imagines himself to be, but an attempt to legitimitize himself as "nobility" by allying himself to Italian Royalty...
I think the election of Barack Obama is the beginning of the reawakening in Europe of the power of the electorate. As long as the roots of power eminate from the ballot box, fascists have to live in fear.
Europeans have seen that America can radiacally change its leadership and the actions in the first hundred hours of the Obama Administration show that it is very possible.
I think Berlusconi is more than a little nervous. Sarkozy is said to be more than a little crazy about the Obama effect.
Both men, Berlusconi and Sarkozy try to demonstrate that they are international figures in their own press to embellish their national prestige, but time after time and more so for Sarko, he is being shown to be an ineffectual impotent blustering wind.
It should be interesting to see how the events in France later this week play out. What happens here will send shock waves into Italy, I am certain!
One of his famous quotes is this:
ReplyDelete"We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance."
So, what's inaccurate about that statement?
"Immediately after these remarks the rest of Europe denounced him as imprudent and reckless, perhaps endangering our countries unnecessarily."
How does that statement "endanger our countries"? What am I missing here?
One response was to compare Berlusconi to bin Laden.
"The billionaire [Osama] Bin Laden and the billionaire Berlusconi are cut from the same anti-communist cloth. They both represent fundamentalism - one of the markets, the other of religion."
So is calling someone an Anti-Communist a slap in Europe or something? I keep missing the point of this story.
Beyond him being accused of being insensitive to women, what is the point of all of this?
If they are trying to say he is bad then they need to try a little harder. I never herad of him before reading this article but if this is all I have to base an opinion on then I don't see that there is anything wrong with him. The only thing I get from this is that he is Anti-Communist and feels Islam is a threat to the Western way of life. Good, based on that he sounds like a good leader to have. We need more anti-communists.
So basically the line is support fascists because they hate commuunists...okay, next.
ReplyDeleteBy the way,FTM, in case you hadn't heard of him before, Berlusconi is the president of Italy.
The trouble with these guys, Sarko and Berlo is that they live in an insulated bubble of yes men who laugh when they remind them that they have made a joke...
So they believe that they are intelligent and urbane wits and as with sarko, he startts treating his speeches as if they are comedy routines, which works in front of a camera when there are a room full of his militant supperters, but when it is speech in front of the rest of the world, no one laughs, and he cannot figure out why!
The fact that Berlisconi bought into Bush's so-called Coalition of the Willing ought to define the man quite clearly.
ReplyDeleteouch! thats just an embarrasing statement..
ReplyDelete