Category Archives: the italian left

Berlusca tonight

Why he's really mad at Naples

Second: Berlusconi spoke in Parco Sempione tonight.  I’ve been jogging past the set-up (or rather, altering my route so I can manage to have a run through the set-up) for the past week, and I’ve been noting the contrast of the massive police buildup — not only your standard Guardia di Finanza, Carabinieri, Polizia dello Stato, but also the Corpo Forestale (as if the foliage is that dense) — to the lack of people other than joggers in the park nightly, so it’s not like I didn’t know about it.  But a deadline clashed and I wasn’t able to make it at 4 pm tonight, regrettably.  Corriere has a video up; I can say that I’m glad I wasn’t on hand to hear yet more complaining about the judiciary, but watching his histrionics as he excitedly pinned the blame for every problem the South has on the left and the Naples garbage crisis on that city’s leftist mayor might’ve been worth the trip out. “I said it and I’ll repeat it, loud and clear — the Naples trash crisis has a name and it’s name is Rosa Russo Iervolino!”

His comments on his absolution of Bossi on worth it, too.  (-1.33).  I’ll leave you with the video and a pledge to make my deadlines better.

Class is in session

Meanwhile, the first week of school last week meant tons of education reform excitement in Italy (as well as less posted from your chronicler).  Yes — a subject that usually makes most Americans huddle and cry while as vaguely-defined horrors like state-mandated testing and No Child Left Behind is actually exciting in Italy. This year, Minister Gelmini has halved the number of teaching positions. Official state-certification bodies at all major universities continued to pump out teachers in droves till just a few years ago. The intelligent reader sees where this leads — lots of teachers sitting at home, waiting for a substitution assignment.  I should point out for the unaware that Europe’s university system, far more specialized than America’s liberal arts-organized model, is less tolerant of job-switching.  (Doubtlessly there’s something cultural to this as well.)  The upshot is that in the last couple of years, the level of opprobrium directed at Minister Gelmini — who is, incidentally, a lawyer and not a teacher by training — has moved from the graffiti-laden walls near student quarters to the headlines.  In her somewhat feeble defense, I usually say that this is to avoid the sort of public sector glut that crippled Greece.  But there’s no question that it could’ve been handled better — like by closing the certification schools a few years earlier, or at least limiting enrollment.

Alpine Sun in front of Adro's Il Polo scolastico Gianfranco Miglio

Last week’s other interested drama was a private school in Adro, in nearby Brescia that festooned its entryway with the “Alpine Sun.”  There’s a particularly prominent one at the entryway to the school.

Apparently it’s just a ‘cultural symbol.’ Of course this doesn’t take into account that the school is named after a prominent member of — guess what party?  One that just coincidentally happens to use the Alpine Sun as the main symbol of their made-up country.  Let’s compare.

Obviously a coincidence.

Adro’s mayor, Oscar Lancini, has been at the center of this debate.  Not entirely surprisingly, he is also a leghista.  Gelmini has come out and told him to order to have the symbols removed from the school.  He’s saying today it will cost 30 thousand euros.  The whole idea of branding teenagers with your political party’s symbol would just seem pathetic if, as I try to highlight on this blog, immigration in Europe were not such a pressing issue.  I’ll keep you posted on how it plays out.   Gelmini, linked to Berlusconi, is playing a risky game by coming down hard on Bossi, of course, lest he go the way of Fini, but I’d like to think it’s inconceivable that she not endorse this move.

As a side note, the left, in their predictably opportunistic fashion, is trying to make educational spending an issue, without really saying much other than ‘time to roll up out sleeves.’

Ok, money for education is shrinking, you're out of patience, you're rolling up your sleeves, and -- what next?