Friday, October 30

Sex, Lies and Dvds

History has just been made: An Italian politician just went down for his sexual picadillos, in what is a very first for this country. I mean, we’re talking about the place that gave us Caligula, Popes with 17 kids, Caesar & Cleopatra and then Marc Antony & Cleopatra, and Emperors gifting sumptuous villas for their mistresses. It was the Italians who remarked upon seeing photos of Gary Hart on the ‘Monkey Business’ with a pretty blonde (who was not his wife), that he most likely would have lost his candidacy if he’d been on the Monkey Business and not tried something. And so, catching Marazzo, the Governor of Rome’s great Lazio region with his pants down and taking the fall? This is nothing short of monumental.

Has Italy suddenly become prudish? Not if you count the numbers of men (and women) who back Berlusconi’s affairs as a sign of his ‘virility’. No, with all the drama of an Italian tragic opera, it wasn’t one of your plain vanilla puritan American affairs; getting caught sleeping around, or paying for escorts, or getting blown in the oval office, or even chasing pages (these transgressions don’t even cause blips on the radar screen). He was caught – on tape – shacking up with transvestites. But that’s only the QuickRead version of the story. It grows more complex by the minute.

What started out as his ‘personal weakness’ for the likes of Natalí and Brenda, later involved four Carabinieri policemen who filmed him in the act (for whom?, one might ask). He tried offering them hush money. The film supposedly ends up, however, in the hands of one of the huge media outlets – who warns him about it, rather than publishing it. That person is also the one running the country, Berlusconi. Speaking of Prime Ministers, the building is the same one in which Aldo Moro was famously held prisoner before being murdered. The same neighborhood where Italy's Secret Service purportedly own 22 other apartments (begging the question...did they murder Moro?). Or, did the Carabinieri have ties to Rome's local mafia, the Casalesi, and is it true, they have other hot videos (involving other ex-Ministers)?
As the climax of Marazzo’s personal and professional life is spent as fast as a man after well, climax, he's taken a leave of absence from his job. Unfortunately, just when Berlusconi’s men are maintaining a public campaign to halt absenteeism for false maladies – Marazzo goes home and gets a note from the doctor. The opposition cries foul, and presses for new elections – surely to win.
And, speaking of Berlusconi, the spotlight's now off the uncannily quiet Berlusca and his escorts, and shining brightly on the left, where the dirt is so murky, his own affairs pale by comparison. Hmmmmm...those accusations now seem like fun foreplay when set against the after-glow of Marazzo's transvestite trysts.

Shakespeare set his plays in Italy, for all the intrigue and fascination the place obviously held even back in his day. But Shakespeare, if he were alive today, could never have predicted such a convoluted unfolding of events.
As for me, since the days of seeing Gary Hart's Presidential campaign go impotent, up to John Edwards' premature ejection from public life, I still can’t figure out for the life of me, why public figures don’t keep their privates private – at least for the time they’re occupying a public office.

p.s. You can read an update here:
In a great show of support, opposition politician and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi has stated that the video will not go published on any of his media outlets. Yet another genius move by the great Chess player.
Birds of a feather...

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is indeed a bit beyond Shakespeare...

Anonymous said...

Very funny! Well done!

Dave514 said...

Hey! Francesca, was that your Halloween trick?

You have not just your Italian Chaos but spliced in with it your Circus Maximus.


Davide

bimbotto21 said...

Berlusconi non è il capo dello Stato, bensì il Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri, ossia il capo del Governo.

Dave514 said...

Bimbotto21:
Berlusconi non e capo dello Stato bensi Il Duce.

He's about the same height and arrogance as Benito. A pity he'll not receive the same end. It was so apt.


Davide

bimbotto21 said...

Il capo dello Stato è il Presidente della Repubblica, ossia Giorgio Napolitano

Irreverent Italy said...

Grazie - corrego!!!
(Anche se devo ammettere, il Presidente e' piuttosto una figura decorativa - per fortuna non sempre - un mo' da Regina Elisabetta...)
Chi gestisce il paese e' un altro.

bimbotto21 said...

Francesca, il Presidente della Repubblica non è una figura decorativa, bensì istituzionale. In Italia, vi è una Repubblica Parlamentare e quindi un bilanciamento dei poteri.

Anonymous said...

hey bimb821: "un bilanciamento dei poteri" - ma in questo momento vi é un sbilanciamento dei poteri. Sei d'accordo su questo punto di vista?

bimbotto21 said...

scusa Anymous, io, ho semplicemente scritto quanto riportato nella Costituzione e in ciò che i Costituenti, le migliori menti italiane dell'immediato dopoguerra vollero scrivervi.

bimbotto21 said...

scusa Francesca, io, consiglerei, relativamente a quanto da te scritto su Aldo Moro, di sostituire il termine prigione con tenuto in prigionia. Il significato è completamente differente. Scusa la precisazione

Dave514 said...

Francesca:
What! You've awakened a sleeping giant albeit in Italian.! Eleven responses...unheard of...OOOORAH!

Giorgio from Naples is a figurehead as is QE II. Though her strength is in advising through her knowledge and longevity no matter who's in power.

I called the psycho-dwarf, Il Duce because he controls much of the so-called free press and huge chunks of the economy. He might as well control the military. He wears an invisible black shirt. He is a rude, vulgar, arrogant little twerp. Francesca, so translate, "twerp" into Italian---"stupido" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Saturday night was Halloween, of Scottish origin. The kids would say this little rhyme," The sun is bright, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween." They only had Treats no Tricks.

Hope all had a great weekend.

Davide

bimbotto21 said...

Separazione dei poteri Principio basilare dei moderni stati di diritto, in base al quale i loro poteri fondamentali – il potere legislativo, il potere esecutivo e il potere giurisdizionale – non possono e non devono essere cumulati nella stessa persona né nello stesso organo. Nelle moderne democrazie, quindi, di norma il potere legislativo è di competenza di un’assemblea elettiva (in Italia del Parlamento, suddiviso in Camera dei deputati e in Senato della repubblica) che agisce in nome del popolo sovrano; quello esecutivo è esercitato da un governo che risponde a tale assemblea; e quello giurisdizionale è amministrato dalla magistratura, indipendente dagli altri due e autogovernantesi (in Italia tramite il Consiglio superiore della magistratura).

Nel XVIII secolo Charles-Louis de Montesquieu individuò nella separazione dei poteri il fondamento che rendeva la monarchia costituzionale inglese un esempio di ordinamento da imitare, formulando così per la prima volta in modo limpido un'idea che già era latente nel dibattito politico-filosofico-giuridico fin dal Medioevo

Irreverent Italy said...

Caro Bimbotto, ma che ne pensi di Marazzo??? Povera vittima? oppure, un mo' dalle parti fuori certi legge di cui conosci tanto??

bimbotto21 said...

Non mi sembra giusto entrare nella vita privata di chicchesia. E' la vita pubblica che va valutata, non mi piace la scuola di pensiero che ritiene che bisogna violare la privacy di una persona pubblica, perchè se no diventa cabaret e si perde la serietà

Irreverent Italy said...

Io sono perfettamente daccordo e in questo sono dalla parte di Berlusconi, Clinton, Edwards e tutti i politici e stelle del cinema, ecc. ecc.
MA - quando si tratta di Associazione a Delinquere, uso di (illegali) stupefacenti, e quant'altro...non vedo perchè chi ci deve creare le leggi sono al di sopra...
Mi dispiace.
Andremo in prigione per gli stessi atti...e loro sono 'vittime'??

bimbotto21 said...

Ad oggi, in questa vicenda non vi è nessun reato. Utilizzare stupefacenti per persoanle consumo, non è reato.

Irreverent Italy said...

Really? Paying for prostitutes isn't a crime? So, why are they going after Berlusconi in Bari?
Buying cocaine isn't either? Great! So, when is Italy going to start seeing some tax euros coming in?

In the meantime, I stand corrected: This is the first politican who went down - in more ways than one (but only because the prostitute died):


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2169777.ece