...lordy how much b.s. .....
…that raised middle finger remains one of my preferred ‘fuck you’ gestures. Giorgio Napolitano, one of two famous, powerful Italians who died this past weekend, had accepted another short term as president of italy - a direct violation of the Italian customary law. But laws nowadays are only inflicted on the powerless whereas merely interpreted for the powerful. Societally powerful, I mean, of course. Genetically…well, let’s leave that for some other day.
If you look at Wiki - institutional propaganda are us - pedia, you’ll find a lot of glory describing that born-rich, privileged, Neapolitan opportunistic cunt. With sweeps of editorial nods his family wealth and fascist beginnings become ‘actually a cover for an anti-fascist cove,’ his clean black shirt becomes life-threatened resistance red (real Italian communist resistance fighters fought and died against fascists, and real non associated Neoplitans even risked their lives to combat de facto occupying German troops. You know, real people who had to work for a living. Giorgio of course never actually worked as such. Heavens, no. His hands remained smooth and clean - or a kind of clean. A certain smell, I suppose, pervaded - from birth to death.) Anyway.
Given his objectively disgustingly anti-democratic behavior as pres. and the Italian custom prohibiting any president accepting a second term, I was thinking there’d have been at least some sort of protest at his swearing in of that 2nd term. You know: one or two signs; some whistles, maybe an egg or two. But, nah, there was nothing of the kind. I was living nearby at the time, had even walked about in the mistakenly - I, to, at the time thought it was a cause of celebration - when Giorgio, with the help of a few US and European banks, organized Berlusconi’s ouster. A festive eve that was, with all the whistles and happy cheers as Silvio’s car brushed by. We all thought Mario Monti was to bring Italy back on a proper path. Instead… his tenure was the true full beginning of Italy’s end as a productive, socialist nation.
I placed myself among the crowd strategically, it was a sunny afternoon, opposite the open square where Napolitano’s auto was parked facing the via del corso, Rome’s sort of Broadway running down the middle of downtown, and me. I must have looked something of a usual upper middle class fool given my dress, tan, fitness and iphone given that a young guy with long hair and a tee shirt, maybe a high school junior, sitting on a ledge in back looked at me and shook his head in a mocking smile of disapproval. When the pres. Finally strode out into the waiting car and pulled slowly across the square toward Corso and me, I made my way to the front, straightened my austro-bavarian shoulders, lifted my hand and flipped up the finger, apparently the only protesting person there. The innocuous finger, for whatever reason, provoked a few loud-ish disapproving grunts and one nice girl’s ‘oh, God!’ For F’s sake, it’s fricken finger. Where are the eggs? Give me a rotten egg….
The car(s) made their pomp and circumstantial slow roll, I’m rather sure they and the pres at least saw and noted my finger, then turned right - not left, a bit surprising - onto the Corso. I turned about to plop for a coffee and was greeted by a delightful admirative stare from the kid. That eve, Napolitano mentioned in an interview the importance of ‘‘la gente’, the plebeian masses, to respect political institutions. Eventually they would pass a law obliging it - today, my finger could cost me a hefty fine or worse if directed at someone… powerful. Indeed, when 7 stadium audiences for soccer in response to an announced minute of silence of respect for the dead president, they whistled and howled, the 7 home teams were each fined. By the way, in Italy the people do not vote for president. The senate-congress-lifetime senators (in Italy there are i think now 6 ‘life’ senators) and a couple representatives from each region , do. So the crowd, who didn't even vote for the hypocritical thief, isn't even allowed to show their disagreement. Not for someone who should have defended the constitution and the people, but for Giorgio Napolitano, who did the opposite. May he freeze in hell.
Comments
Post a Comment