Saturday 5 July 2008

Mussolini is alive and well and running Italy

An Italian court has ruled that proactive prejudice on the basis of crude racial stereotypes is legally defensible.

Italy's highest appeal court has ruled that it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that they are thieves.
The judgment, made public yesterday, comes amid a nationwide clampdown on the Roma community by Silvio Berlusconi's government. Last week his interior minister, Roberto Maroni, announced plans to fingerprint all of Italy's Roma, including children.

So that got me thinking - it must now be fine to go to Italy and punch someone. 'Cos after all, I could get away with it seeing that all Italians are cowards. And it would be justified by the fact that they all attempt to misbehave with the womenfolk.

First they came for the Jews...

It doesn't matter whether you are Roma or not; this ruling brings shame on Italy for resurrecting some of the worst elements of fascism - legally enshrined racism and collective punishment on the basis of suspicion without evidence to name but two. When this happens, we all need to don the yellow star.

12 comments:

Gadjo Dilo said...

You're touching me here here, Gyppo. The Martin Niemöller poem should be a salutary reminder to us all - but especially to Italian politicians. Alessandra Mussolini is one these, and declared that all Romanians are criminals, so we don't like her much here. When I was in the Italian seaside town of Terracina last week I wandered into a bar that was a shrine to her Grandfather, Il Duce; I just couldn't believe it....imagine walking into a bar in Berlin and finding it bedecked with pictures of the Führer. It's not even clever: as well as being a failure as a human being, he also was a failure as a fascist, as his army was rubbish and the Germans had to continually help him out. As you can see this got me very het up, but I'll stop ranting now. Happy Sunday to everybody.

No Good Boyo said...

Will the European Commission that's so eager to interfere in the minutiae of our lives take Italy up on this one?

I'm reminded of Gen Znyshel Dyrku, Ruthenia's prewar dictator, who said "First we came for the Gypsies, and that kept us busy until the Germans turned up."

Mrs Pouncer said...

Gadjo, re "imagine walking into a bar in Berlin etc ...", you obviously haven't been to Berchtesgaden recently, or ever. (I had to accompany Mr Pouncer there 2 years ago for some tomfool ceremony; it was the las time I flew in an aeroplane, incidentally).

Gadjo Dilo said...

The sinisterly un-googleable Gen Znyshel Dyrku was clearly a man who knew his audience well. I suggested to somebody once that post-war there should've been a forced-inter-breeding programme between Germans and Gypsies - I think I was taken seriously.

What happens in Berchtesgaden these days, Mrs Pouncer? I could imagine a museum - set up for education purposes - but a bar (which is more for celebratory purposes)? Do tell more.

M C Ward said...

A disgrace. And then there was the beating of protestors in Genoa in 2001, where the arrested were manhandled by pathetic, swaggering Carabinieri singing Fascist-era anthems.

The world is an odd place. A German engineer was showing me some photos of his company/home town last year when the screen was suddenly filled with propaganda poster of Mr. Hitler - "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!" - which he quickly minimised.

It made for a rather frosty lunchtime, I can tell you.

Gadjo Dilo said...

Wow, frosty indeed! It's easy to knock foreign fascists - and I sometimes think we British do it too much to avoid admitting our own historical inadequacies - but, well, it's disgusting in any form.

When I was hitch-hiking in Germany I was picked up by a middle-aged German policeman who presumably thought I was a nice fair-haired lad who'd be sympathetic to his views. He was a little nervous when he found out I was English, but still went on to explain at length why Hitler wasn't such a bad chap. Being a person who can see every side of an argument fairly easily, I nodded that, yes, people did all have a job and did have more respect for the law during that period. I'm not proud, but it was raining very heavily outside.

Mrs Pouncer said...

Dear Gadjo, yes the museums are very enlightening, particularly the Dokumentation Obersalzburg, where everyone is very careful to call Herr Hitler a very bad man. However, in the town itself, which is very sweet, most of the stationers stock postcards showing Hitler, Goebbels, Boorman etc having various types of fascist fun (at rallies, drinking tea, dog-walking etc) and in a couple of the restaurants there are framed photographs of Old Berchtesgaden, showing the place swarming with Sturmabteilung. Some are actually captioned with one of those gigantic compound words meaning When Things Were More Orderly Around Here! It really is most remarkable. I saw a sickening snapshot of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at the Berghof and visiting the Jugendherberge, of all places! Oh dear, maybe it's just me, but I did feel a bit goosey, as my dear old Nanny would say, or goosesteppy in this case.

Gadjo Dilo said...

Uuurh, sickening indeed, Mrs Pouncer, I see what you mean now. At least we got rid of that cad Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) in timely fashion by planting that ghastly Wallis Simpson* on him.

(or "Agent Gromit" as she is still better known here in Eastern Europe).

Mrs Boyo said...

I believe the security services thought Mrs Simpson was an harlot who had learnt the dark arts of reducing powerful men to mottled jelly in Singapore. You are a man of the Orient, Gyppo, can you tell us more?

Mrs Pouncer said...

I can scarce believe I am writing this, but I am four Empire Sunsets down and feel sans souci.
I once overheard my dear old grandfather, a man of the world, refer to Mrs Simpson as a "cross cut". I have never forgotten it.

Gyppo Byard said...

Mrs Boyo - I believe that the specific art of which Mrs Simpson was an adept the famed (and possibly even apocryphal) 'Cleopatra grip'. This indicates either phenomenal control of the internal muscles on the part of Mrs Simpson (or to be more literal, on a part of the Duke of Windsor) or a somewhat fevered imagination on the part of the agent who wrote up the report...

No Good Boyo said...

Kleopatra Grypp. I have a new Ruthenian heroine! Thank you, Gyppo.