Rassegnata Stampa

what about a scratch card while waiting at the post office? if you'd ever go the post office in Milan's Baggio district that's what you can do to kill time. from about 5 years, in many post office you can find books, cd and other stuff (like pens, bloc notes and so on). now poste italiane welcomes this new "service" to the public. On the left side of this scratch cards self service (!) you can read: "Now also by us "Gratta e vinci" (scratch and win). Draw your win at the post shop!".

great! that's what you can choose (a book or a scratch card) in a completely isolated and lacking of services and shops: a 10 euro, but also 5, 2 or 1 (if you're not enough confident with gambling). so, if you can't read or hate books and magazines/newspapers, you still have an occasion to spend money while waiting.

thank you, poste italiane!

Labels: gratta e vinci, milan, post office, poste italiane, scratch card

IlSole24Ore, page 2 of today edition. The main article is about the 100th anniversary of Confindustria, the italian enterprises association, and the discourse of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

As the minister for Economic development, Claudio Scajola, resigned in the last weeks after the scandal of his house conveyance (supposed to be bought also with cheques from a real estate enterpreneur, Diego Anemone), Berlusconi is seeking a new man - or woman. And yesterday he tried to 'seduce' Emma Marcegaglia, head of Confidustria, again.

Maybe he tought that the 100th anniversary assembly of Confindustria could be the perfect place for a public investiture. As he was an entepreneur (and, actually, a tycoon, even though bussinesses are in his family's hands), maybe he is convinced that the main representative of industrialists can reinforce his lacking-confidence government.

But, sadly for him, facts proved him wrong. As he asked to the audience to raise hands in favor of Emma Marcegaglia as minister for Economic development, just some of the hundreds of people lifted their hands up. «Do you prefer her in Confindustria? Then you won't be able to accuse the government», was his reaction.

Even more sad were other considerations done during his speech, I think. He added: «In the next three years we will try to do much more, we would appreciate your help: you know the Palazzo Chigi (seat of government) address. The enterpreneurs who will give us their willingness won't be disappointed».

The last questionable assertion was that about the role of the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini. In Berlusconi's idea, he «can guarantee that the majority will be united and coherer with the government law proposals and will respect the mandate given by the electorate». As the head of the Chamber of Deputies acts as procedure warranter, how can he assure that the deputies will be loyal with the political line of their party?

p.s.: You just can't find the article «Emma ministro?» Gelo in sala in the today's Chamber of Deputies press review.

Labels: live from italy, politica

The latest law project presented by a MEP of Pdl, the Silvio Berlusconi's party which has majority in Italian Parliament, concerns (maybe) freedom of speech. Senator Raffaele Lauro proposes to jail from 3 to 12 years everyone instigates offences or crimes against people. If you spread offences through the web or by phone, punishment would be longer. In other words, Mr. Lauro wants to consider these kind of insults as condoning of a criminal act.

«After the aggression to prime minister Berlusconi - says Lauro, as written in Corriere della Sera online - there is the need to intervene against the phenomena of violence instigation spread through modern technologies, such as the web, because they can reach a significant relevance».

In the same law project, Lauro asks the Parliament to intervene about the «pathologic use» of mobile phones by youngsters. He presented a motion, which has been already signed by 50 senators, in order to investigate the effects of mobile phones "abuse" on familiar relations and school performances.

It seems quite clear that also in Parliament there are plenty of people who wants to rule on something they do not understand completely. How can you rule on communication habits? And, moreover, who will check if you have just committed a condoning of a criminal act? Will censorship prevent us to express?

I don't believe that a law like these could pass, it could hardly be unconstitutional. But, even though I don't accept that there could be groups on Facebook which incitate violence, it is quite alarming that you could be jailed up to 12 years for a couple of stupid words on Facebook or Twitter. What about offensive graffiti, then? If you mark a private object, as Italian penal code says, you must pay a fine up to 103 euros. If you slark, you can be jailed for up to a year (and must pay a fine up to 1,300 euros). There seems to be a (dis)proportion for offences spread through the web. But, how to say, on the web everyone could read them, on a street not...

Finally, the most unnerving aspect of the debate about condoning of a criminal act on the web is that the project of law gives to the Internal Affairs Minister the task to ask the ISP to stop the offenders' activity. So, after the bench signalling, he is the only one who decides. That seems to open the road to a political use of a potential kind of censorship.

Well, should I start to worry for using these words?

Labels: live from italy, politica, pro memoria

have you seen Videocracy? yesterday i decided to spend a night for a movie in a cinema. i was a bit excited, it had been a long time i haven't been seeing a film. so i chose Videocracy. this week there are only two cinemas, in milan, screening it.

i left the newspaper very early yesterday, as it was saturday and at finance desk there wasn't much to do. so i walked to the city centre, for about 4 or 5 km. it was very nice, i felt i was repossessing the city. milan on saturday does not run so fast as during working days. and these are the last days of the fashion week, so you see models, foreign visitors and elegant people even more frequently catwalking on the street.

by the way, i was alone and after having a little pizza and a beer i left for the cinema. there i spent less than 2 hours waiting for the screening. i had a copy of il sole 24 ore, where i am having my internship, a copy of the economist, my new target for next summer, and a book. i felt a bit unlucky, i mean, in comparison with people who where there for saturday hanging out. also because i wore comfortable trousers, a loose (but odd) maroon trench, and terse mocassin. just a bit of mascara and black pencil on my eyes, my severe blue, rayban glasses, and a layer of cherry lipstick.

have you seen Videocracy, then? i did not find it so biased, leftist or "against Berlusconi". he is just mentioned for his empire (who can deny he created an empire? he personally sad during a press conference no one in italy can be compared to himself for his success). other figures are simply outputs of the system. lele mora, something between a talent scout and a pimp, and his creature fabrizio corona, a gossip photographer who also created a photo agency. they are just outputs of the tv-screened image led society we live in.

i felt more and more unlucky at the end of the film. a few percentage of italians realize we are really living an odd situation. they live feeding their minds only with tv, newspapers are lossing sold copies. more and more people look for news on the web, sometimes looking for a more free and full coverage information. news and media system are really biased in this country. and many are starting (or still continuing) to think that media are controlled by leftist lobbies. how can that be, if there is not a serious political alternative?

and the thing made me sadder was that we, italians, look like an anthropological phenomena. erik gandini, director, is (half) italian. videocracy is a swedish tv production, and co-producer is the bbc. and, more, it received money from the media eu programme.

i just do not want to feel like an insect under a microscope, i just would like not to feel unlucky if i spend a night like yesterday, seeing a documentary. documentaries in italy are an endangered species, as the only tv programme which make enquiries and documentaries, on the third channel of public tv, has lost the legal coverture. so now journalists (who work for that as free lance...) risk more and more.

Labels: giornalisti, live from italy, pro memoria

cercare un lavoro oggi è come fare una coda davanti ai supermercati sovietici: non sai se troverai ancora patate, o scarpe, o carne, o quello che c'è in vendita e che per questo ha generato una coda di gente che dice "se c'è fila, val la pena farla".dice che... dice che l'anno prossimo in italia la disoccupazione arriverà a superare il 10%. dice che... quelli che ci rimetteranno saranno soprattutto i ggggiovani tra i 15 e i 24 anni, e quelli che sono nel mercato del lavoro con contratti flessibili (cioè i precari). insomma, per chi ha investito nella formazione e vuole entrare nel mercato del lavoro mi par di caprie che c'è veramente ben poco da sperare.è che io andrei anche a fare la commessa alla GS (potevo farlo prima di iniziare l'università, ed è stata una cosa presa in seria considerazione), ma adesso per lavorare al supermercato i padroni fanno la lotteria: primo premio, un contratto (suppongo, di formazione).

Labels: divagazioni, live from italy

and please, take a look at this, the video containing the phone call (and the images screend) Silvio Berlusconi did this morning to "Mattino 5" (Morning 5), Canale 5's programme. Is that journalism instead?

By Steve Scherer
Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said was compelled to sue newspapers which oppose him politically to defend freedom of the press.
Italian journalists and opposition parties are staging a protest “to defend freedom of information” in Rome on Sept. 19 after Berlusconi last week sued the country’s largest opposition-aligned newspapers for libel. Berlusconi said it was “a joke of this minority of communists and Catholic- communists” that Italian press freedom is under threat.
The opposition’s idea of press freedom “is the freedom to mystify, to insult, and to slander, and so I was forced to turn to the courts to defend the important principle of freedom of the press,” Berlusconi said today in an interview on Canale 5, one of the television channels he owns. “If there’s a danger” to freedom, he said, it’s from press “attacks on people’s private lives.”
Berlusconi, 72, is embroiled in a scandal involving a self- proclaimed call girl and is in the midst of his second divorce. He has been plagued by media coverage at home and abroad of his private life for the past three months. Berlusconi, while critical of the press, is the country’s single-largest media owner.
He owns Mediaset SpA, Italy’s largest private broadcaster, and influences the
state-owned RAI SpA network as premier. The prime minister’s brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owns a controlling stake in il Giornale newspaper and his wife Veronica Lario is the largest shareholder of il Foglio, a conservative editorial newspaper. Berlusconi’s Fininvest SpA holding company controls Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SpA, the country’s biggest magazine publisher.
Political Favor
Allegations of a sex scandal have been fueled by the claims of Patrizia D’Addario, who calls herself a prostitute. She said she spent the night with Berlusconi on Nov. 4 of last year, the evening of the U.S. election, and was promised a political favor in return. Berlusconi has denied paying for sex or holding “immoral” parties at his homes in Rome and Sardinia.
On July 22, after the scandal had been the subject of media coverage for more than a month, Berlusconi proclaimed: “I’m no saint.”

Labels: giornalisti, live from italy, politica, pro memoria

i wonder why the italian prime minister silvio berlusconi (i'd really love not to talk, write and think about him, but he is always on the crest of a wave) chose to start a legal action against el pais. he asked to block those pictures as 'body of evidence', so that in italy no media can't publish them. that's law, folks! if something is a body of evidence press can't spread it. but this is for italy. what if a foreign legal proceeding rule would be actual in italy? maybe the european court will be asked to analyse the issue and block or allow the proceeding against el pais.

on the formal and legal side of this story, it is true that mr. berlusconi's privacy has been violated. but there is a public interest to spread what it has been discovered by the photoreporter Antonello Zappuddu, especially because it has been proved that public flights have been used also by musicians and dancers hosted by the prime minister in his villa. and because he is the guide (political and in some ways moral) of italy.

after the announcement against el pais, mr. berlusconi decided to denounce the mildly left-sided la repubblica newspaper too because it published those famous pictures on its website and then on the newspaper. repubblica photo editors took screenshots of el pais photos, saving the 'el pais' headline. unfortunately, yesterday i could not see if the pictures published on the printed version of la repubblica had the el pais headline or not. as a colleague told me, they did not save el pais headline.

anyway, il corriere della sera made the same: on the online version of the milan-based (and most influential) newspaper website there where small screenshots of the seized (censored) photos. and the same did the il sole - 24 ore newspaper's website.

so, why mr. berlusconi announced that he will proceed against el pais and la repubblica but not against il corriere and il sole - 24 ore too, if they pasted the same screenshots? we will see if the proceedings will be validated or not. editor chiefs of both corriere della sera and il sole - 24 ore have been recently nominated and they (seem to) have assumed a not-so-strict position towards the prime minister. the newspapers they edit have always been balanced. but it sounds sad that they (till today) have a different treatment from the government.

on the other hand, on 5th june the italian prime minister spoke at the political programming on the public tv channel rai 3. unfortunatly i could watch that solo-match, but people who watched it told me (or wrote on their blog) about that. the chief editor asked the prime prime minister to compare the domestic voting rule to the one for european parliament elections, and then to show how to vote. as i was told, mr. berlusconi showed it on a specimen voting paper... crossing his party simbol.
at the end the 'journalist' said they have just a minute and a half more and when mr. berlusconi asked 'may i use it then?', she replied with simple, clear words: 'sure, you are the house master here'.

enrico mattei, the founder of italian public energy company, used to say: 'i use political parties as cabs'. it sounds terribly actual if you change 'political parties' with 'media' or 'journalists'.

Labels: live from italy