I've long pictured Berlusconi as an authoritarian personality compromised with organised crime (the only question left open is whether his paranoid authoritarian personality is as a result of his compromission with such crime -you would want to control justice if you were that compromised- or whether it was what lead to his compromission). In fact, I long had an Italian heardresser, and I was the one explaining how far his links to the mafia went. He didn't seem to find him anywhere near as embarrassing as a head of State as I did.

I am afraid of the lack of reaction, though. Because France is making strides towards the same kind of things. Sarkozy is a huge stride in the wrong direction. And my sister in law is Italian, so that probably makes me more sensitive to the plight of the country. Just as I say that I am a political refugee away from Paris, she says she is one away from Rome ;-)

"Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"