This monkey just managed to get his hands on a copy of NaziRock, the new documentary by film-maker Claudio Lazzaro. The film takes a look at the neo-nazi scene in Italy, focussing in particular on a number of bands that produce ‘rock identitario’ or ‘identity rock’ the hallmark of which appears to be angry slogans, […]
Three years ago I wrote anarticle on the European Constitution, or to be more precise, the treaty to establish a Constitution for Europe. When the editor asked me to revisit the subject on the occasion of the Lisbon referendum in Ireland I was immediately encouraged by the words of former Taoiseach or Ireland, Bertie Ahern: […]
Underneath the mountains of rubbish that litter the streets of Napoli and surrounding towns lies a complex, profitable, and extremely dangerous system run by the Camorra. In essence, for years this organised crime outfit has taken toxic industrial waste from Northern Italy, at bargain prices, and dispersed it throughout the Campania region – profiting from […]
One of the first moves of Berlusconi’s new government was for the Finance minister Giulio Tremonti to announce that an agreement had been reached with the Italian banking association (ABI) to allow for cash-strapped mortgage-holders to renegotiate their variable-rate loans into fixed-rate ones. It looks set to be a highly popular move, alongside the abolition […]
In a straight news article it can sometimes be difficult to figure out where the reporter’s sympathies lie but for the careful observer there are a few clues. Take the article in today’s Dziennik about the decision to fund private third level colleges from public funds. The headline reads “Government to finance private colleges” (“Rząd […]
It was, in a sense, a political exorcism. At least Fabrizio Cicchitto, a leading member of Berlusconi’s Popolo della Libertà would have had us believe. On the 14th of may, at the first sitting of the newly elected parliament, Cicchitto (who in 1981 admitted to being a member of the Masonic Lodge P2), speaking for […]
After the years of whinging about lack of recognition, low status and how people think that anyone who knows two languages can translate translators – at least in Poland – are finally gaining some ground on their mortal enemies: original artists. Today’s Gazeta Wyborcza reports how a translator, Hanna Szczerkowska, forced (by use of the […]
By chance this week, this monkeys saw an episode of the truly terrible Francesco’s Italy (worth watching, if you turn the sound down), where host Count Francesco Da Mosta pulled his alfa-romeo spider into Verona. In keeping with the rest of the series, Da Mosta gave us a keen insight into the city’s history and […]
By chance this week, this monkeys saw an episode of the truly terrible Francesco’s Italy (worth watching, if you turn the sound down), where host Count Francesco Da Mosta pulled his alfa-romeo spider into Verona. In keeping with the rest of the series, Da Mosta gave us a keen insight into the city’s history and […]