Agony and the Ecstasy
Jacopo Barigazzi, Barbie Nadeau and Christopher Dickey, NEWSWEEK, Feb 25, 2008, p19-22
As recently as the early 1980s,Italy looked set to be a driving force, if not quite in the driver's seat, of a newly united Europe. But those days are long gone. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the chairman of Fiat and president of Ferrari, likens Italian government to "a car so heavy, so expensive, so difficult to steer, so old, that whoever the driver may be, you don't win." At this point, government is not just dysfunctional, but nonfunctioning. The same faces have been trading places in Rome for almost 15 years as the economy has stalled.
Wherever Italians look, it seems, there are signs of rot both figurative and literal. The streets of Naplesthere have been piles of garbage for months with no solution in sight. And while Naples is stinking, Venice is sinking. Grand plans have been proposed to save the city, but the 10-year multibillion-euro project put forth by Berlusconi was shelved by Prodi. Tourists overwhelm Florence, but instead of improving infrastructure, the city council is thinking of moving Michelangelo's "David" out of town to lessen the congestion. Then there's Alitalia laboring under enormous debts that are emblematic of Italy's can't-do economy. In 2004 and 2005 the country's economy did not expand at all, and throughout the decade it has lagged at or near the very bottom of Europe's growth rates.
Yet for all this, many Italians feel that the country still has the potentialto make a magnificent comeback if only … what? No one knows. The '80s were the years of great missed opportunities. Unlike France—which saw the dangers of energy shortages and built a nuclear power grid that now provides 80 percent of its electricity—Italy completely shut down what had been a technologically advanced nuclear industry. Now it is utterly dependent on the world market for high-cost energy. Then, Italy's public debt soared as bills for the social programs it instituted in the 1970s started to come due. Political parties padded out the bureaucracy with patronage jobs, and there's huge corruption. Arrests and prosecutions exposed corruption in the old established parties that had traded governments back and forth for generations. They were swept out of power, their leaders prosecuted, even forced into exile—but narrow-minded venality and criminality stayed. Berlusconi has been the object of numerous investigations, and only escaped convictions on some charges because the laws were changed when he was in power.In Parliament, 24 have been convicted of various crimes, an additional 57 who have had public legal problems, plus those who've never been caught.
A big part of Italy's problem is that it relied on outside forces too often in the past to save it from internal problems nobody dared address. It's a society so full of bureaucratic impediments and social fractures that "there is freedom only as long as you don't rock the boat," says Andrea Mandel-Mantello, chief executive of an investment bank. Although Italians are famous as entrepreneurs, it's extremely difficult to start an enterprise, or to grow from a midsize business to a big one capable of competing globally. "It's like Rollerblading on cobblestones," says Mandel-Mantello. Structural reforms are promised repeatedly, then forgotten in a system where opposition political parties, even if they are minuscule, can and do veto any major government initiative.
Yet with all the frustrations, there endures in Italy what might be called the dolce vita factor. People still think life is sweet. Most Italians (74 percent, according to a Eurobarometer poll last month) say they are worried about the economy. A majority (52 percent) say they think Italy is "moving in the wrong direction." But a full 71 percent of Italians say they are satisfied with their own lives when it comes to family, work and their personal future. While an utter lack of civic conscience makes the country extremely difficult to govern, the strength of the family is what allows the society to function when, as so often happens, government fails. Family values are what keep Italy afloat. But at the same time, the loyalty to family has helped to keep Italy a fractured nation with little sense of collective identity and little respect for the laws of the state. People see themselves as belonging to the towns or provinces where their families come from rather than as part of the nation-state. The book “Why There's No Mafia in Sardinia," is about the ultimate expression of a family-centric society: the Sardinian culture of vendetta, in which clans mete out their own justice with no deference to any state or to any organization, including the Sicilian mafia. The mafia has tried and failed to "colonize" Sardinia. One of the most interesting trends in Italy over the last year, and one of the most hopeful, is the extent to which families and businesses in Sicily itself have been turning against the mafia and refusing to pay protection money. Whether the state will resist the gangsters' influence as well remains an open question. But the record is not a good one and Italy has yet to find a way to move on.
1. Which subtitle would suit the article?
A) Italy on the verge of an uprising
B) Italy moving on to the next decade
C) Italy barely functions yet its people are happy
D) Italy in the driver’s seat
2. Finish the sentences based on the information in the article.
In the 1980s, Italy…
Italy’s biggest problem is that…
Berlusconi got away because…
It’s difficult to govern the country because..
Despite the worrying economy people…
Loyalty to family helped both…
The only positive trend is…
3. What does the author mean by…
…political parties padded out the bureaucracy with patronage jobs
…Italy looked set to be a driving force if not quite in the driver’s seat
…the project was shelved
…there are signs of rot both figurative and literal
…narrow-minded venality stayed
…there’s freedom as long as you don’t rock the boat
4. Make expressions.
address / against the mafiaescape / an enterprise
force someone / a problem
make / a criminal
prosecute / an arrest
put / conviction
refuse / forth a plan
start / into exile
turn / to pay
5. There is a mistake in each sentence. Find it.
Those days are gone long.
The same people trade spaces in the government.
Naples is sinking, Venice is stinking.
Those were the years of high missed opportunities.
There is no solution out of sight.
Leaders were forced and prosecuted into exile.
The strength of the society allows the family to function.
6. Make expressions.
energy / gridpower / values
family / reforms
bureaucratic / duty
structural / globally
compete / shortages
utter / impediments
civic / under debt
lag / lack of
labour / at the bottom
7. Describe the economic situation IN SPEAKING in Italy with the help of the following expressions. Use up all the expressions.
labouring under debt, no solution in sight, far slower than the euro zone, huge corruption, nobody dares to address, internal problems, difficult to start an enterprise, structural reforms, promise repeatedly, veto any government initiative, opposition political parties
8. Discuss. To what extent do you think these statements apply to the Hungarian economic situation or government? Why? Why not?
“a car so heavy, so expensive, so difficult to steer, so old, that whoever the driver may be, you don’t win”
“opposition political parties veto any major government initiative”
“extremely difficult to grow from midsize business to a big one capable of competing globally”
9. Write an editorial about the similarities to the Hungarian economic situation. Use as many expressions from the article as you can.
Key
1. C
2. looked set to be a driving force of Europe; it relied on outside forces to save it from internal problems nobody dared address/nobody dared to address internal problems; the laws were changed when he was in power/he changed the laws when he was in power; of an utter lack of civic conscience; are still happy/think life is sweet/satisfied with their own lives when it comes to family, work and their personal future; to keep Italy a fractured nation and to keep the country afloat; that families and businesses have been turning against the mafia and refusing to pay protection money.
3. political parties gave people important jobs in return for their support; Italy was one of the most successful states and almost the most successful; they stopped carrying the project out; literally it’s the garbage rotting in the streets of Naples and in figurative sense it’s the problems with the economy and corrupt politicians; politicians are still use power and influence in a dishonest way in return for money; you’re free to do anything but bring about radical changes
4. address a problem, escape conviction, force someone into exile, make an arrest, prosecute a criminal, put forth a plan, refuse to pay, start an enterprise, turn against the mafia
5. Those days are long gone. The same people trade places in the government. Naples is stinking, Venice is sinking. Those were the years of great missed opportunities. There is no solution in sight. Leaders were prosecuted and forced into exile. The strength of the family allows the society to function.
6. energy shortages, power grid, family values, bureaucratic impediments, structural reforms, compete globally, utter lack of, civic duty, labour under debt, lag at the bottom
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