WTI Magazine #30    2014 May, 15
Author : Francesca Papasergi      Translation by:

Twenty-two years after the scandal that killed the "First Republic" and subverted the old political order, the Italian situation looks worse. The issues that brought businessmen, politicians and wheeler-dealers to conviction seems to be just the peak of the investigation held by Milan's court magistrates about the forthcoming international event.

Expo 2015 was supposed to be a great opportunity as much as a great risk since the beginning. Its public contracts are too rich and attractive not to concentrate organized crime's attention on it, and untrustworthy politicians and entrepreneurs came right after delinquency to collect as much as they could.

Corruption is considered endemic in Italian system and, paradoxically, many citizens simply got used to it. Although they are honest people and they are filled with indignation about those indecent behaviors, they don't think they will ever have the opportunity to change the situation. The most common comment about this kind of investigations is "This is Italy, and so it goes here".

Today, this quote sounds as true as it's never been before. The people that made the news during Tangentopoli are the same that are making the news now. And this is depressing, because it helps us to see the Italian side of the crises for what it really is: a relentless decline.

If individuals - politicians, businessmen, whatsoever - don't find a good reason in working on their country's behalf honestly, Italy doesnt't have a future. It has a deadline. Quoting Allen Ginsberg partially, I see the best mind of my generation destroyed by unemployment, lack of money and shattered dreams.

Will youngsters do better than their parents and grandparents? They can, if they let them try. They have to. Will it be with Matteo Renzi's, Beppe Grillo's or - gosh - Berlusconi's help? We'll discover it only by living, an old song foresees. Italy need to break free from the clichés it created for itself. The potential is underlying beneath Tangentopoli 1 and 2.