Povera Patria
(3:41)

Italians!!! But no one answered. Very soon, in 2011 to be precise, we will see the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Italy. Oh, how the time has flown. The Italian was never born. On the other hand, the national soccer team has won four world cups and lost another two in the finals. A reasonably good track record, but not sufficiently so to justify the wars of independence (from whom?), the occupation of the South, the tens of thousands of Southern patriots exterminated like bandits, the Treasury of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies plundered by the Savoias, the birth of the mafia, the 'ndrangheta and the camorra, the famine in the Triveneto region that resulted in millions of emigrants, the wretched colonialism, the two World Wars, the Fascism, the loss of our national sovereignty with the American occupation of 1945, the meddling and supremacy of the Vatican over the State, the P2, the Government sponsored massacres, the thousands of people assassinated in the years after the War, from Ambrosoli through to Impastato and from Dalla Chiesa through to Pasolini, murdered by hidden powers and the deviant secret services. Sindona, Andreotti, Lima, Ciancimino, Riina, Craxi, Gelli, Provenzano, Dell'Utri, the devastated country and cities, the non-existent public services, the self-serving political parties that plunder public resources, Berlusconi, the worst opposition in the whole of Europe, the destruction of the sense of public duty, the elimination of information, one of the world’s highest public debt levels, a Parliament that is teeming with convicted criminals, an industrial system that lies in ruin, the uncontrolled immigration without any real assistance, the millions of unemployed people and the worst bureaucracy in the Western world. The King fleeing to Pescara, Craxi to Hammamet, Mussolini to “piazzale Loreto”, the psychodwarf with one foot on the helicopter’s footboard and the other in the bedroom at “palazzo Grazioli”. The Mafia-style Italian, with spaghetti, whores and mandolin. Italians!! But no one answered. Blushing bright red with shame, green with anger and white with dismay. Tricoleur emotions. Italy was born out of nothing and has proceeded to remain there. While 150 years may seem too few in which to build a Nation, even one more year like this could well seem unbearable. Central control and decision making in the Nation’s interest prove to be like empty boxes, useful only to the mafia infiltrators in the tender process for the Messina Straits Bridge, the High Speed Train or the nuclear power stations. Do we really want another one hundred and fifty years like these? Italians!!! But no one answered.