31 October MMXI
With my compliments...
Cordially...
ASJ
A Strategy to Stem the European Calamity
This essay is dedicated to three fun-loving youngsters,
Lucio, Fabiola & Fiamma,
with the wish that they, in their world,
will not suffer the brutal stupidity
all of us have been subjected to...
I harbor no delusions that what I am about to relate to you in this essay, my
dear reader, will be taken into any consideration—that it will even be read by
any one other than yourself. Notwithstanding, I am obliged to pen it for
“posterity.” If digested, it will be considered “Politically Incorrect” by
many. I relish that thought. The endeavor is divided into two parts: ( A ) a
scathing attack on the chicaneries I witness every day in Italy; and, ( B ) a
proposition that I hope will be thought of as an intelligent beginning towards
a partial solution to the self-destructive muddle Europe now finds itself
immersed in.
I find it de rigueur to flog The Boot—the European sovereignty I know best.
(Italy and Greece are not the only PIIGS [Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece &
Spain] falling apart at their seams in Europe—but we have to admit Italians and
Greeks do it best! N'est pas? In fact, Italy does it six times better than
Greece!) I regret this. But Italy needs a swift kick. This Mediterranean regime
is a child playing with fire. It thinks itself clever when, in fact, it is more
often than not ludicrous. Henry Kissinger stated that Italians were victims of
a unique, peculiar form of stupidity: their presumptuous furbizia (cunning,
shrewdness). An example of this would be the following: In Italian newspapers,
when Italian-Americans are honored in the DisUnited States, they will be cited
for their Italian heritage. But when Italian-Americans rob banks in the DUS,
they are referred to as Americans. Perhaps it was Schopenhauer who best hit the
nail on the Italian personality head: “The most demonstrable character trait of
the Italians is a perfect impudence. This consists in not feeling too unequal
for whatever task—from where comes their presumptuousness and gall; and, in not
feeling too superior for any cause—from where comes their meanness.” And nasty
Italians can be. Listen to what an Italian journalist has to say about his
compatriots: “I have learnt that in Italy you must speak well about everyone.
When you say something bad about a person, an uproar breaks out. The capacity
to multiply hate by those individuals whom have been spoken badly about is
infinite. I don't hate, and I don't want to be hated. I don't want to circulate
malevolence. I live in a nation of professional haters.”
Let us try to understand Italy—that enormous burden for the European Union and
its very self! It is the UE's third largest economy and its number one corrupt
bon ton (www.Transparency.org). The perverted Italian economy is a can of worms
that no one dares to open—for which no one wants to follow the trail to the can
opener. This wedge, this “brain power” is surely not anymore decent enough to
satisfy even the megalomaniac phantasies of Vatican, Inc, organized crime
someones, and the Italian oligarchic caste system, this triumvirate of old
farts, which has lead Italy deeper into The Black Hole of Greed, Corruption &
Stupidity. Ignorance is not always bliss, Your Excellency! (Please,
please...will someone enlighten me? How is it possible that Mario Draghi,
president of the Banca d'Italia [The Bank of Italy], the most corrupt and
mismanaged financial institution in Europe, has come to be the president of the
European Central Bank? Vatican, Inc funny business? God works in strange ways,
you say? Is it possible that no one else in Europe—they in the know—hankers to
be “prez” of the ECB because they ken that the euro is bound to go out of
business? That an Italian—the Italians and Greeks have been the least
supportive of the euro—will be left holding the empty euro bag? So appropriate,
I say!) Il Principe, Gianni Agnelli, himself proclaimed that Italy was worse
than a banana republic! Please read Alen Mattich's editorial in the Wall Street
Journal (11 October 2011) in which he accuses both Greece and Italy of
cheating, “cooking their books,” in order to qualify, in 1997, for entry into
the European Union. Sono tremendi!
Would I be being Politically Incorrect if I implied that Europe poses a terror
to the world more epochal than Iraq and Afghanistan combined? Would I be being
PI if I implied that European nations, at their throats for more than two
thousand years, out-doing themselves in the last century by slaughtering an
estimated two hundred million combatants and civilians, might not be primed to
assume an orientation of leadership congruent with the realness of this our
world? Would I be being PI if I implied that the European continent is a
hornet's nest, The Black Hole, par excellence, of Greed, Corruption &
Stupidity? Would I be being PI if I implied that the debased Greece and Italy
are blackmailing the rest of the members of the European Union knowing only too
well what the consequences would be if they both defaulted? Would I be being PI
if I implied that Europe is running out of economic and political zip, and has
been doing so for well-nigh thirty years? Would I be being PI if I implied that
Greece and Italy might have been brought to the precipice of nonpayment by
banksters to ensure the dissolution of the European Union? Would I be being PI
if I implied that there exists a probability that the north of Europe and the
south of Europe will be fragmented into two hostile groups of nations doomed to
bring about an overturn or usurpation in European political affairs? Are we on
the road to World War III? Not an explosion but an implosion?
A
Authority is admired more in Italy than it is meted out expeditiously and
justly. That gap is excruciating for Italians. Italians are among the most
ignorant European citizens...The level of schooling amid those 25-64 years of
age is amongst the lowest in Europe...Only twenty-five percent of the Italian
population has an elementary school diploma...One of every five
fifteen-year-old boys or girls cannot read...Ten percent of the Italians have a
university degree...Five percent of the people between the ages of 16 and 65
are considered extremely unlettered...Sixty-six percent of the Italians are
labeled either high or medium illiterate...Only 38 persons out of 100 read at
least one book a year...Italy lacks public libraries...Italians have little
faith in others—mostly Italians themselves...Italian teachers are the lowest
paid...Italy is Europe's leader of individuals lacking functional literary
skills...Guess who spends the least on university education?...What country
believes more than any others in Europe that Science does more harm than
good?...Six of every ten young adults in Italy live with their parents because
they are unemployed or cannot afford to buy a home...What European body politic
spends a bit more than Greece on research and development?...What nation has
won, per capita, the least amount of Nobel prizes?...Who leads Europe in the
absolute poverty classification?...The Italians have one of the lowest mean
incomes...One of the lowest foreign-born populations...There are more guns per
capita in Rome than in New York...Greece and Italy have one very interesting
statistic to share: They evade taxes more than any other nation in
Europe...Italy's government leads in public ownership and involvement in
business operations...Its wages are amongst the lowest...It leads in fatal work
injuries...The Greeks and Italians work more than any other country in Europe
but produce less...The racist Italians are world leaders in stomach cancer
(slow food?) and diabetes...They top the high employment and meager work
opportunities' list (Why saturate Libya with bombs when unemployed Italians
could be dropped into this African nation possessing such an enormous
potential?)...With the highest number of police personnel...They are the least
courteous in Europe...In the anti-Semite Italy, you'll find the highest number
of car thefts...In 2011, there were 644 personal transport accidents in Italy
during which drivers, after killing 95 and maiming the others, escaped the
scene of the accident without offering aid to those individuals they had hit
and run over...Where are all those police?...Italians are the least
charitable...Champions of Hypocrisy (Gian Franco Funari)...Only the Greeks are
more corrupt than the Italians...Italy suffers the highest number of robbery
victims...They head the list in having the least amount of living space...The
Italians use pesticides with abandon...Mammals are threatened appreciably in
Italy...The Boot has more passenger cars than any other European
nation...Twenty percent of the Italian population is over 65 years of age...If
you see a Greek or Italian woman with tears in her eyes, ask her how many times
she was slugged by her boyfriend or husband last night...Women in Italy are
lowest in the database of their nation's leaders...Antepenultimate in the
number of members in their Parliament...Endmost in number in the work
force...After the couch potatoes in the DisUnited States and the DisUnited
Kingdom, Italians lead the world in watching television...Italians are drugged
on legal drugs, illegal drugs, television and their medieval history...They are
so obsessed with “Look,” they scan over the intrinsic values of life...Italians
are on the way to extinction...How is it possible that a nation with a
tradition of two thousand years, The Cradle of Western Civilization, could
arrive at the impasse it exists in now? Not even knowing how to regenerate its
own race?...Are we to seriously believe that this conglomeration of negative
factors—Italy holds the world record for negative achievements—is up to
competing with the vicious French and German economies, much less the global
community? Obviously not!
B
Europe might survive destitute of Greece. But a Greek plus Italian insolvency
is the dream of revanchists and Sun Tzu aficionados, and the demise of the two
would necessarily import an enormous financial asymmetry that would reap
unsought global repercussions. At face value, there exists no intelligent
motive to discard Greece and Italy. This European shame—this sixth and smallest
continent except Australia is not short on disgrace!—would make the European
community more of a laughing stock than it already is. Tens of millions of
Italians “console” themselves with the fact that many other European countries
suffer what they suffer. It is demonstrable that Greece and Italy must be towed
not only into line, they have to be channeled into a fail-safe harbor where
they might recuperate from their childish proliferation of degeneracy and
dissipation and commence to be sound of mind and body—once again a model for
the world and a source of pride for all members of the European Union.
But in what manner? The answer is uncomplicated. So much so that all reading
this essay will chime in saying “Why didn't I think of that before?” (I know
why!). Europe has to bolt away from itself, from its essence. Which is? The
heart and soul of Europe is an incongruous compounding of violence and
treachery and exaltation and righteousness. No will deny, apart from Europeans
themselves, that the pro-con scales of justice and good sense are considerably
weighed against these profiteers of history and culture. They have done just
too much to prove that their instincts are very often contrary to their
self-professed ideals so much recorded in the Old World's literature,
philosophy and religious doctrine. To escape from this eternal brainwashing
will be both liberating and fun loving. But first...
What occludes the European continent from bettering itself and what is crucial
to the letting-go of horribly rigid holds on itself, is the notion of
nationalism—that naughty word that brings immediately to mind the Past of
Europe, so frequently deliberately neglected, so often tossed casually into the
bin of forgetfulness with expectation of elimination. The History of Europe is
a bloodbath intermingled with scarce moments of heartsease before the next
carnage. Each European nation possesses an impression of itself which is
determined by its relation to another European country often defined in terms
of superiority (physical and mental) or inferiority (corporeal and
intellectual). When members of the European Union congregate, whether for
business or pleasure, they view each other not in a spirit of concord, but with
the observation, often suspicious, of what their relationships together were in
the Past. In this ambiance of historical fragmentation and political and
economic incoherence, it is exceedingly problematic to join hands not only in a
spirit of sodality, it is still further sticky to hone ideas, profitable
resolutions which would tender to the European Union the metier and integrity
it requires—not just the mere semblance of it being so.
A coalescence, in real terms, of European nations is not longer an option. To
live on Europeans have no choice but to unify and do so in every sense of the
word. Monetary abidance is not sufficient. Political and social cooperation
must forge progressively, radically altering the mire of slothful bureaucracies
that impede a successful amalgamation of all European Union members—citizens
who, at this date, care to remain fixed at home having no real intention to
dislocate across their boundaries to live in harmony with other European
nationals.
To encourage this movement of individuals from one country to another within
the confines of the EU, a very serious inventory, a stocktaking of each
nation's qualities and shortcomings must be tabulated. Honest assessments of a
member country's true intellectual and commercial value must be grouped and
then contrasted with the other associate commonwealths. If one sovereignty is
lacking one quality, another could tender an offer to help. If the Italian
railway system is deficient, the Germans or French could step up to aid Italy.
Italy, on the other hand, might provide the expertise needed by the Germans or
French in a field the Italian people are competent. So on and so forth... This
sharing would invigorate people to go beyond their own borders to seek
employment in another part of the EU. With a valid employment opportunity
available and waiting for a worker, the motive to apply would obviously be a
great deal more captivating. The process would “mix the minestrone” of European
peoples, and solidify the integrity of the EU making it more competitive and
dynamic.
If the European Union fails to commingle, there are two trends—already in
motion—which might lead to very dire consequences:
1
Europe might become the economic playground of China as so predicted
by Professor Martin Jacques in his thought-provoking
When China Rules the World:
The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and
the End of the Western World,
(Allen Lane: An imprint of Penguin Books; London, 2009)
or,
2
Europe might risk a disintegration of itself into regions ruled by
organized crime consortia and vagabonding gangs as so prognosticated
by Alain Minc in his piquant
Le Nouveau Moyen Âge,
(Êditions Gallimard; Paris, 1993)
Have a nice nightmare,
Western Civilization I
(Europe)
&
Western Civilization II!!!
(The DisUnited States of Northamerica)
*
Authored by Anthony St. John
Calenzano, Italy
October, MMXI
www.scribd.com/thewordwarrior
The author wishes to express his deepest appreciation to City, an Italian
complimentary daily handout, the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, and,
above all, to Professor Peter Baldwin, professor of History,
University of California, Los Angeles, and author of
The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America & Europe Are Alike
An Essay in Numbers
(Oxford University Press; London & New York, 2009)
without whose exhaustive statistical information on Italy
this essay would have proved to be the less persuasive.
It is hoped that Professor Baldwin will not wake up one morning
in his Californian home and find the head of a dead horse in his bed; or,
if he is visiting Tuscany, it is trusted he will not find the caput of a wild
boar.
* * *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony St. John
Casella Postale 38
50041 CALENZANO FI
Italia
Voice & Fax: 0558873228
Cellphone: 3356047381
Blog: www.scribd.com/thewordwarrior
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