AAA - looking for new nationality

After reading this story yesterday, which reports that the Italian government is asking the EU to relax the rules that bind it to meet certain environmental targets, I was reflecting on how as a nation we consistently seem to do two things:

1. not achieve any target that is set for us, whatever its nature, and
2. try to cheat our way out of the troubles we find ourselves in as a consequence.

We have been doing this for decades in business and politics, and as a result we are economically as healthy as Zimbawe (nothing against them, I am just to pick a random third world country). Now we are attempting this with the environment too.

In the end of the day, my sad conclusion was that I am ashamed of being an Italian.

Having lived in an international context for quite a few years now, I often find myself downplaying my italian-ness. For example, when people ask me 'where are you from', I find myself answering 'from Italy' and then quickly adding 'but I lived and worked in the UK for the past five years'.

The point is that being Italian does nothing to add to one's credibility. As a nation we are building a reputation for ourselves as those 'unreliable cheating insignificant people who cook nice food and have a joke of a prime minister'.

Today, coincidence, I found this post from Gianni, which elaborates a bit on this sentiment. I couldn't agree more with it.

We are in Amsterdam

All three of us. (24 weeks)

Italy: first we screw up, then we cheat our way out

I hardly ever post about politics, but today I really feel I should express my dissent and anger at what is happening in my country.

As business week reports, along with many other sources today, the Italian government found a solution to the troubles of Alitalia, our troubled flagship airline, after it has been loosing money for decades. The plan involves breaking antitrust law, amending bankruptcy law, screwing consumers and a huge bill for the taxpayer. The winners, as far as I understand, are the allmighty unions and Mr Berlusconi's government. Classic!

This victory by 'changing the rules' feels particularly disheartening and it is in my opinion very representative of how badly the country is run. The Italian press today reports the news but it is extraordinarily dry of criticism. The opposition doesn't seem to disagree much either. Guess I won't be going back soon. Luckily on Friday I'll go dutch!

Corporate moving

is relaxing