Italian Earthquake

It’s almost one week after the last Earthquake in Italy. No doubt we are all moved by the sad images of people who lost everything. But more than pity, it is rage that grows in me.

Rage because of the Italian right wing Politicians, starting from the Prime Minister Berlusconi, who have used the event as a window to show off in view of the elections due in two months. They were all there, some with unbelievable excuses, just to be seen on TV. The worst of all, after Berlusconi who may have good reasons to be there, is Luca Zaia, Minister of Agriculture (try to find out why he went to visit the refugees !) who, jumping out from the helicopter (that could have been used better for recsue purposes) run in front of the cameras without even looking at the disaster. Vultures they are nothing less nor more.

Rage because of the main reasons for the disaster, the poor quality of the building material. But this should be no surprise: mafia and corrupt politicians have been accomplices in speculating on building materials, with poor quality concrete especially, to earn more money. And the State has been ignoring this (let us not forget that Berlusconi became rich thanks to the construction industry….), a crime now when we see how the buildings collapsed because below any standard. Just recently I was talking to a top level engineer of a world renown construction material firm. He was telling me that his firm withdrew from Italy after 10years since it found it impossible to do serious business due to Mafia and political pressures. He told me that while in most countries you have a few cement companies, for example, in Italy you have thousands with poor quality control.

Rage at Berlusconi who, with one of his (in)famous jokes, told a German newspaper that refugees would enjoy a week end “camping” (fact reported by French TV France 24 English edition on 8 April)

Rage at the Pope who is going to visit the earthquake area and repeatedly talked about this drama while he ignores much more dramatic and more frequent events in poor countries.

Rage at Italian journalists, especially TV and radio ones, who instead of reporting facts, spend time with uninteresting details aiming at moving the public, competing with each other to get the most “moving” reportage hiding the reality and the scandal of the main reason for the drama, the poor quality of building materials.

Recently, a doctor who is treating me, told me “but will you ever explain to me why you decided to come back to Italy ?” . He is right, I wonder it myself. And just two days ago, with an old friend who I met abroad and is also back to Italy, we were saying how sad is the resilience of Italians to the state of affairs. We, who lived abroad, appear to be much more sensitive than those who always lived among such corruption and lack of ethics. A sad situation and the earthquake drama is only the tip of the iceberg of the progressive destruction and dissolution of a modern state. Sadly, more and more, Italy is like a Banana Republic. But this is not Berlusconi’s fault. He takes advantage of it and contributes to worsening the situation. It is the responsibility of dozens of years of political corruption, with the blessing of the Church…..

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