The election

Although it was obviously no good thing that the government collapsed, I was nonetheless quite excited to be in Italy during the collapse and formation of a government. It does seem however that it would almost be impossible to spend a year in Italy without this happening, so frequently do the governments fall. After the actual collapse there was a sense of disappointment but predictability about it, this is what people have come to expect. People told me 'oh don't worry its normal, you get used to it' in fact some told me it was probably better than before... Of course, Silvio Berlusconi is the only man who has ever made a government last the full 5 years, which goes a long way to explaining his popularity, I think.


I know very little about the Italian political system but hopefully enough to write a little bit about it. Prodi suffered a vote of no confidence after he lost the majority in the the Senate, the 9 party coalition he held lost its majority after one Senator from a tiny party with only 3 Senators was forced to resign after he was implicated in a corruption scandal. He protested his innocence. When I was staying with a Turinese friend of my mums around this time I asked if she believed him to which she replied in her own idiomatic way 'He's as innocent as I am Japanese'.


At this point, it was up to the President (whose role is normally seen as purely ceromonial or at least with little power) to choose whether to hold new elections, or to appoint a government of 'Technocrats' to sort out the electoral process so that it did not collapse so often. The problem with the current system is that although the proportional representation system on which some of it works has many benefits, obviously including providing representation to the parties at the extremes of the political spectrum. However this also means that the coalitions relied heavily on small parties for support which, as the collapsed showed, was unsustainable. I think the President was keen to go for the Govt of technocrats option but Berlusconi and those on the right refused to agree to this so an election was duly called. I think this is a massive shame as there is little hope of real reforms taking place, the last ones took place under a Berlusconi government and it is clear from the recent collapse that they did nothing to improve things, the politicians just adjust the laws to their own benefits.


I find it strange, and quite antiquated that postal voting is only available to Italians living abroad (bearing in mind that in Sheffield last year you could vote on the internet). Students here have no such luxury, almost everyone I know who is from outside Bologna went home for the elections. I'm told you can get reduced travel on trains but I don't know if this was valid for two of my friends who flew back to Sicily. The University closed down for the day to allow students to go home to vote.


It was to absolutely noones surprise that Berlusconi won the election, but one thing which did shock a few people was the sudden rise in popularity of 'Lega Nord' (The Northern League) an extreme right party who believe, in a nutshell, that the Northerners pay their taxes purely to support the southeners. They suggest the North separates or at least gets autonomy and even have a name for this new country 'Padania' though I suspect rather a lot of people in 'Padania' would not be very happy about this new national identity which has been created for them. Aside from this particuliarity the Lega are an extreme right party like any other, anti-immigration, anti europe, anti-high taxation (which is obviously just going down south to subsidise the southerners...). Nationally, which in this case really means just in the North, they achieved 8.3% - almost double their taking in the election on 2006. Their racist posters for this election beggared belief.



Their rise reminds me a lot of that of the Front National in France. Like there, the Lega have risen in popularity mainly with working-class voters who are suffering the worst for the slow economy and rising living costs. Also like the FN they appear to provide quickfix answers to complicated questions. Struggling to find a job? Oh its those immigrants who took them. Similarly to France where main stream parties have entered into coalitions and campaigned with the FN, Berlusconi ran for parliament in this election with the Lega's support.



In the pub the night of the results we were drinking with two guys thoroughly upset about the result, one of them worked in the solar panel industry and was concerned that a Berlusconi win could cost him his job, as unlike Prodi, Berlusconi has no intention of putting money into the sector. Their reaction I think was fairly typical for Bologna where the results do not reflect the national count, in Emilia Romagna and particularly Bologna - famous for its left wing politics - the left won an outright victory with 49% - Berlusconi only got 28%. This is compared to the closer result nationally which was 47 to 37% in favour of Berlusconi in both the Senate and Chamber.



In contrast with those two guys however, at lunch on Tuesday two of my friends announced they had also Berlusconi and friend of theirs also there had voted Lega, when I asked him why he retorted 'Do you want to continue being able to walk the streets safely at night?' Well I'm not too worried about that to be honest, but I am worried about Italy under a Berlusconi/extreme right government.

Asta di Bici

There is a thriving black market for bikes in Bologna, mainly focused in the University District, particularly on Via Zamboni where any walk under the porticoes will be punctuated by thieves (and often so called ‘Punkabestia’ – punks with dogs on string) offering to sell stolen bikes by whispering or calling out ‘Bici Bici’. The police know that they are there but one would presume they know about the open drug dealing too and they do nothing about that, as a friend said to me recently ‘Law doesn’t really exist on Via Zamboni’.

For a long time this has been the only way to get a bike in Bologna, with such a thriving trade in stolen bikes it makes absolutely no sense to buy a new one as it will no doubt be stolen before long. Even a refurbished second hand bike in a shop costs at a minimum €70. The maximum price on the ‘mercato nero’ being €20…

When I came to Bologna I was keen not to buy into the vicious cycle which has developed. I got a leaflet listing all the bike shops and called each one asking if they had second-hand bikes for sale, very few did, but the two or so which did were again around the €80 mark and I couldn’t afford that, particularly knowing it would probably not last the month. I finally decided that I would have to get one from Zamboni when, as I sat calling all these bike shops in a sunny Piazza, a girl who had overheard me approached and asked what I was doing, ‘you need to be down on Zamboni’.

One thief offered me a bike but didn’t seem to have one to sell, he led me to a bike stand where he pointed to a still locked up bike, he was offering to steal it to order! Although I knew by this time that the bike I eventually bought would probably have been stolen this seemed like a step too far and I politely declined. The bike I ended up buying cost €20. I got ripped off even then, just as I was about to hand over the agreed €15 another ‘buyer’ came up and offered €20, I naively agreed to up match his bid only realising seconds afterwards that the they were working together. But it was the most BELLA red bici EVER and I was determined for it not to get stolen. I did well; it lasted until the day before I went home for Easter, unfortunately just 2 weeks after I bought a new very heavy-duty chain for €35.

After I bought my bike I discovered an initiative being used to try and combat the black market for bikes here. A couple of student groups, the ‘Comune de Bologna’ and the Quartiere San Vitale have been working together to set up an auction of used bikes to provide a legal and moral alternative to the black market trade. One of these auctions was held last week at the bottom of Zamboni, I think it’s a fantastic idea and very well organised. They explained at the beginning of the auction that the bikes being sold are provided by the rail network and are ones which have been left in an area where leaving bikes is not allowed. Any bike left in this area has a warning left on it for a week saying it will be taken away if not removed, if it is still there at the end of the week then they take it away leaving a note saying you have 3 months to claim it back. Any bikes left after this period has elapsed are then given to the bike auction. At the auction they have people from 'Piazza Grande' the italian Big Issue who will fix up the bike for a small fee.

This is not an auction in the traditional sense of the word, in order to provide a valid alternative to the thieves a maximum price is set on all the bikes of €15, therefore everyone is expected to bring some kind of identifying feature to mark them out, the more creative the better. The first person to win one was a man holding two pieces of paper, the first just saying ‘Unemployed’ and the second his CV ‘proving’ his unemployed status. The woman next to me got one, posing as a fish out of water…?! The person who decides who gets the bikes is the revered ‘Rita’ an Ann Robinson lookalike in her smart rail company uniform. I thought I would be granted out of pity as I wore the most embarrassing hat belonging to my housemate Corentin but it clearly wasn’t original enough as someone near me had the same one. There are never enough bikes to fill demand, this time they had 100 bikes and the compere estimated there were about 4-500 people. Nonetheless there was a great atmosphere and I will be along at the next one with a more original ‘identifier’ hoping to get lucky.

At the post office

ugh I feel sooo ill. Far too ill to work on my french essay, so I'm trying to do some less strenuous (and yet still constructive...) activities.

I was in the post office yesterday, enquiring about posting said essay to Birmingham next week. (incidentally the only service which *guarantees* my essay door to door costs 29 euros!) I asked if they had envelopes (there weren't any visible). She produced 5 envelopes but in order to give them to me had to hand complete an A4 size form which was my reciept, which, for reasons unbeknown to me, and seemingly her, required my name at the top of it. When I expressed my surprise that she might need my name for a 50 cent pack of envelopes she informed me that when she was in England in 1977 she noticed the post offices were already selling envelopes! In Italy however they only begun to be sold in Post offices 3 -4 years ago. 'We're a bit behind' she said...


Speaking of being behind the times... In the last few days posters have appeared on all the bins on every street corner in our area, with a picture of a baby's face, and the words 'Don't throw away my life, and yours.' So although Berlusconi announced that he did not intend to touch the Legge 194 which guarantees free and safe abortions, Ferrara is running as a candidate in the elections next month on a single issue anti-abortion ticket. And I'm told he thinks he will get 8% of the vote.

In other news, courses have started and I have some fascinating ones, I'm doing
Multiculturalism and Cultural relativism
Citizenship of Women in the Contemporary World
History of International Relations
and a masters course in Problems and Priorities in Political Development in Developing Countries.
Next 'half term' I'm doing an anthropology course about migration too.

There is a lot of overlap within the courses but I'm really feeling the effect - particularly in the masters course - of not having studied political science before. When I come back to England next week I'm going to be stocking up on 'Very short introduction to...' Nietzsche, Marx, Nussbaum etc. Unless anyone can recommend any good (short) books?

Eh, siamo in Italia

‘Eh, we’re in Italy’ is phrase I’ve been hearing a lot. More often than not with an intonation which implies ‘Come on, we’re in Italy here, you should know by now that this is how things work here, get used to it.’ A few examples

Me: ‘4 euros for some Paracetomol!’
Assistant in Pharmacy: ‘Eh, siamo in Italia’

Me to an Italian friend: ‘I had my purse stolen earlier’
Him: ‘Eh, siamo in Italia’

Me at police station after my purse got stolen: ‘Why do I have to sign all 4 copies of this form?’
Policewoman: ‘Eh, siamo in Italia’

Me, to the security guard of H&M (where I had my purse stolen) when I saw him at a bar a few hours after it got stolen: ‘Yeah I went to the police… they weren’t that nice…’
Security guard: ‘Eh, siamo in Italia’

And my flatmate Claire… with a slightly different meaning…

Me: ‘I can’t have ice cream again… I had it already this weekend’
Her: ‘Ma no, siamo in Italia!’

Pro-choice protest

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/14/italy.abortion.inquiry

Today, on a wander after a lecture, I chanced upon the Bologna Womens Network library and computer room. Outside, was a notice saying that the office would be closing early today due to a protest all the staff were attending.

I've attached above an article about the situation in Italy in English. Not only does it highlight a horrific incident which took place in Naples it is also about the attitude of Berlusconi towards this issue. A newspaper editor has called for the UN to declare a moratorium on abortions. And unbelievably, Berlsuconi yesterday declared his support.

I am one of those terrible highly opinionated people who will happily declare my support for protesters and applaud their actions but I am usually unwilling to actually go along and show my support. This was the first occasion I have been moved to go to a protest, apart from the enormous Iraq war protest which I only went to pathetically because my mum, brother and all my friends at Woodcraft were going.

The protest was held the Sant'Orsola hospital as this is the Hospital with the highest number of conscientious objectors to performing abortions in the country. As people at the protest said, this is shocking in Bologna, a reknowedly liberal city. In fact I just heard on the radio that 6/10 medics in Italy are objectors and in some areas it is practically impossible to get an abortion without an enormous wait.

Notable at the protest was the relative lack young people. One of my lecturers who was there told me she was scared at this ageing of the feminism in Italy as the people who had turned out were those who had been around during the original campaign to get the 'legge 194' which legalised abortion in 1974.

The protest went from the car park outside the hospital to the street outside, blocking the traffic, then all 500 or so people , and a few press, walked down from hospital one of the main streets into town and onto the main square. Ironically but perhaps intentionally, ending up outside the main Cathedral in Bologna. It was a fantastic 'presidio' - people turned out in force, all very good natured, singing and chanting witty slogans.

I walked the whole way with a diplomacy student, who asked me, 'Why would you leave a civilised country like the UK, to come to *this*?'. The chants of the protesters declared Berlusconi's stance a step back to medieval times. I hope desperately for all Italian women that Berlusconi isn't elected. As another chant went, 'il vero assasine, e l'aborto clandestine' - 'the real killer, is back street abortions'.

The Italian examination system

As an English person in Italy, I sometimes feel like I am living in the midst of chaos. There is an Italian word which sums it up entirely, a ‘casino’ translated in my dictionary as ‘Mess/Shambles/Balls-up/Brothel’. Rules often seem to be there to be broken, for example the smoking ban in England means just that… a ban; in Italy it seems to mean ‘Generally try not smoke smoke but if you’ve had a drink and you really want to smoke in a club well, that’s ok. I KNOW it’s an English stereotype but I find it difficult that queues are generally non existent, one of my lecturers told me ‘Have you seen? Civilisation has arrived in Italy in the shape of the ‘deli counter ticket dispenser’.’ Another thing; the roads. But nowhere, is this chaos better illustrated than in the university exam system.

Exams in Italy are traditionally oral but some are written or multiple-choice format. During an exam session there are generally 3 opportunities to take the exam. If you fail one you can take it again on the next ‘Appello’ (occasionally you have to skip one). This works with the Italian degree system as one is only awarded a degree after having done the right number of exams, regardless of how many years that takes. So people can delay taking an exam until they feel sure they will pass it.

Signing up for each exam is either done on the internet, or in the faculty office, or outside a tutor’s door. Very much at the discretion of whoever’s organising it.

The morning of my oral exam, all candidates are expected to turn up at 9 ‘o’ clock. In my exam there were almost a hundred people crammed into a tiny classroom. A register/the appello was taken. The lecturer’s assistants sat themselves next to each other at tables around the room. They proceeded to call people forward to do their exam. The words ‘exam conditions’ seem to have no significance here, with 6 tutors doing oral exams and everyone else waiting at the side the noise level for an exam room was incredible. My Swiss friend Chloé and I were completely bemused – Chloé even took a film on her camera! When it came to my turn (I was lucky, it came only two and a half hours after I arrived, the tutor announced when he arrived that they would be there until the evening) I could hardly hear his questions and was slightly put off by the students standing directly behind me listening to my broken Italian answers. The tutor answered his phone in the middle and instead of having a quick ‘I’m in an exam’ conversation proceeded to arrange a meeting for the next week. In between each exam the main tutor was recording the marks students had received from other tutors -‘verbalizzione’.

To me it seemed to obvious how to solve the problems of the exam, simple things like oooh make everyone else wait outside then at the very least they won’t hear what questions are being asked! Better still as everyone is required to sign up for the exam why not give them a time when they do so and avoid people turning up at 9 only to do the exam at 7. Why not get a member of admin staff to record the results instead of interrupting the lecturer?

The second big difference is what the system seems to be trying examine. I have always taken it as a given at British university that any form of assessment requires some form of analysis. I have always been required to write essays and exams generally last 2 hours at a minimum. In contrast many of the exams here seem to be more of a memory test. Oral exams last 15 minutes. The courses generally seem to function in this way; courses last a term or half a term, at the beginning of the course the lecturer outlines the course reading, in my experience generally 3 books. A student’s task is then to learn the books. You can attend the lectures but it’s not compulsory (it isn’t in England either of course but it is clear that if you do you are more likely to pass the course). The exams are merely for you to regurgitate facts.

One of my modules this term was Political Science. Anyone who has spoken to me recently will know how stressed I was about passing this exam. The exam format was 30 questions: 30 minutes. Answers were either multiple choice or short answer format. Having never failed an exam in my life I was mortified to fail, the first time round… and the second… but I was also furious. The exam was nothing more than a pub quiz with not even any pretence of analysis. Sample questions:

Name the President and Prime Minister of the first French Cohabitation.
What country uses the Single Transferable Vote system? (the answer being Ireland – not one of the 5 main countries we had to study)
Give an example of a deviant case. (Yup, just that)
What is the primary function of Parliament?
Is the Italian bicameral system an example of?
A) ‘Perfect’ (ha!) bicameralism. B) Symmetrical bicameralism. C) Asymmetrical bicameralism.
How does election to the German Bundersrat work?
Give three markers of an authoritarian state.

From what I can tell the same is true elsewhere too, I’ve heard of people having to learn the years and names of hundreds of paintings and the films. For what? Will it make them into more critical thinkers? Help them analyse problems and allow them to problem solve as they will no doubt be required to do in work and in life?

After the second attempt I went to see the tutor who told me that of the 90 people who had just taken it, only 33 passed. Thankfully on the 3rd attempt I managed to pass it, almost doubling my score to 23/30 Not quite as good as the 28 I managed for Antropologia but respectable in the circumstance. In effect, although I did know my stuff a lot more on the 3rd attempt, part of the reason I finally passed it was because I had finally learnt what was required of me and what would be tested. The teacher had refused to provide a syllabus or a past paper apart from for 5 minutes during his office hours to be glanced at quickly under his supervision.

I’m currently in the process of looking for courses for next term, I have found an interesting course which has a more analytical approach. It’s a masters course but I’d rather do that than go back to the pub quiz format exams. After this, I’ll never complain about Birmingham exams again.

I have been meaning to set up a blog ever since arriving in Italy. I was finally inspired to get around to it today after witnessing a student demonstration in the town centre. A lot of people talk about how apathetic students in British Universities are and I have to say that since moving to Birmingham I would have to agree, despite being involved in debating where many people are very politically interested.. this does not necessarily translate into political activity. Since moving to Italy it is very noticable that the situation here is somewhat different. It is impossible to walk down Via Zamboni where my and a couple of other big faculties are based without being handed leaflets for the communist movement or the 'socialist and democratic' party.

This may be because I chose to come to Bologna on my year abroad, the cities epithets are 'The red one, the fat one and the learned one' which respectively refer to the red buildings and politics of the city (which has only had one centre right mayor/administration since the second world war), the food and the home of the oldest university in Europe.

The protest on Bologna's main street today came as a complete surprise, no advertisements were put up and yet it attracted a crowd of a good few hundred people which grew as it proceeded. They were protesting about an attack by neo nazis last friday on some students who had been holding a sit in at a school injuring a few people. The protest had a friendly atmosphere with music blaring out and very few police - only two police cars at the front with a few policemen leading the march diverting the traffic for the protesters. The fact that this was a protest organised by students themselves, not necessarily united by a group or political organisation but by a shared sense of disgust at what had happened impressed me immensly.

I'm not saying it is perfect here by any stretch of the imagination, just a few weeks ago I saw a protest from a right wing political party called Lega Nord. They were protesting against the building of a mosque in Bologna and their propoganda included a photo of the main cathedral in Bologna with an image of thousands of muslims praying superimposed over it to make it look like they were praying at the cathedrals door.

However, I think it is a fact that students here are generally much less apathetic. It is a fact I admire about this country and wish it was true at home as well.

On a similar theme I went for coffee with a Polish friend this afternoon and he mentioned that he and three Polish friends (including one who is only visiting Bologna for 4 days) are travelling to Milan this Sunday (a 4 hour round trip) to vote as they feel so strongly that the current fraternal power duo need to go. I'm ashamed to say I didn't even vote in the last British local election and that was just a walk round the corner... I think I will make the effort next time, after what I've seen today.

I will no doubt post again with more observations, in the mean time I would love to hear peoples comments, be they in agreement or otherwise.