Monocle non e' un rivista politica, ma e' una rivista di riferimento per trendsetters e urbaniti di mezzo mondo; nello specifico questo articolo e' frutto di un ricercatore della Stamford University.
Credo che le considerazioni siano ancora più rilevanti e... preoccupanti: vale la pena di spendere 5 min e leggerlo tutto.
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"[Italy] has the most UNESCO-protected sites in the world and it's home to the finest textile, footwear and furniture makers, but [the country] is still in the dark ages where business is concerned, says a leading writer on the Italian state."
"There can be little doubt that Italy has now become the sick man of Europe. The dolce vita of the postwar years has turned sour and barely a day goes by without reports confirming that the country is in a very serious crisis. It was symbolised this spring by the sight of thousands of tonnes of rubbish in the streets of Naples. For complicated reasons (not least mafia control of lucrative refuse contracts but also some pronounced nimbysm) rubbish went uncollected for months on end. Children walked to school with handkerchiefs held to their faces. Arsionists set light to the rubbish, sending toxic fumes across the city. The images were seen around the world and Italy appeared, not for the first time, to be struggling to remain part of the developed world."
"One of the reasons for the country's implosion of self-confidence is its financial situation. [...] The country's GDP per capita fell behind Spain's in 2006 and Greece is fast catching up. Prices are soaring and wages are stagnant. The tax burden is a crippling 42 percent of GDP (It's 37.4 per cent in the UK and 29.6 per cent in the US). All the traditionally strong sectors of the country's economy - textiles, footwear, furniture, electronics - are facing fiere competition from cheaper Far Eastern countries"
"The situation is epitomised by the fate of the national airline Alitalia. Notoriously unreliable, the company is currently losing 1 million euros per day. [...] For all his talks of economic liberalism, Berlusconi, like most Italian politicians, is avowedly protectionist, trying to insulate failing companies against the chill winds of globalization and competition. The result, of course, is that companies remain inefficient dinosaurs and tourist decide to spend their cash in other countries where things work better and cost less"
Some of the country's difficulties could be alleviated by foreign investment, but Italy sees a fraction of the investments of other G8 countries because it suffers from an enduring, and justified, reputation for corruption.[...] Berlusconi, with all his bespoke legislation to avoid standing trial in corruption cases, certainly does not improve that reputation. And it can't help that his government has decided to close the country's anti-corruption body to "cut costs".
"There are other problems that are more cultural or anthropological. The country rarely appears meritocratic. The paternalistic structure means that people are promoted on a basis of favours, or familiarity, rather than excellence. This country appears like a gerontocracy where only old men hold positions of power. In universities, for example, 70 per cent of all lecturers are ore 45. If you look at television, or business, or politics, old men are in charge. As such the exuberant creativity of the country goes untapped and young, ambitious job-seekers are forced abroad if they want to enjoy satisfying careers. In 2005, for example, over 297,000 graduated left Italy. The result is a braindrain that the country can ill afford"
"As you might expect, the country has begun to seek scapegoats for its predicament and readily finds them among the immigrant community. Although Italy is usually distinguished by its warm hospitality to foreigners, recent years have seen a rise in open racism. One mayor called for separate train carriages for immigrants. [..] All of which makes Italy feel less apart of the confident, multicultural western world, and appears more like a country caught in a downward spiral of resentment, fingerpointing and rampant inflation."
"And Italians love talking and reading about how terrible their country is. [...] Bemoaning the state of the nation is a national pastime, and every day dozens of newspapers columns will reveal new reasons for pessimism" (Tobias Jones, Monocle, September 2008, pages 58-59)
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