I’m not an Italian

Dave Winer: I’m not a liberal. Robert Scoble: I’m not an American.

I’m not an Italian because I do not believe “Every man to himself” is a viable political philosophy.

I’m not an Italian because I do not think our country needs a national airline.

I’m not an Italian because I still do care about tax evasion and still think it is the greatest problem in our country.

I’m not an Italian because I don’t think the euro was a bad thing for Italy: on the contrary, I think it was the best thing it could happen to us, taking away some of the power our crooked politicians had for far too long.

I’m not an Italian because I am not scared by immigrants, I do not think we have a nation-wide security problem, and although I have never been an immigrant I work abroad enough to know what it is like when you have to climb out of a sandpit before you can demonstrate your worth.

I’m not an Italian because I still care about a healthy checks & balances system, I believe in free press as an effective control tool over public powers, I believe in the power of free and independent information.

I’m not an Italian because I want to to pay for what I use; for example news; for example TV; for example my phone.

I’m not an Italian because I don’t like the unions way of thinking, throwing all their support and weight in favor of the old farts (like soon, yours truly) and none for kids who are supposed to support the system, and crediting a view of “employment for life” that mortifies entrepreneurship and a healthy assumption of responsibility by the worker.

I’m not an Italian because I refuse to glorify the business acumen of our fabled Small & Medium Enterprises who in far more cases excelled by cheating on taxes rather than by coming up with genius innovations: although luckily there are many examples of the latter, my personal experience is more of a mediocre management, shortsighted planning, seat-of-pants decision-making, questionable ethics.

I’m not an Italian because I think that, living in a small, overcrowded and beautiful country as I do, letting NIMBY politics on the loose means we can’t do shit; we have about the same population of France on about 20% of their flat land.

I’m not an Italian because I hope that we’ll stop arguing principles and start talking practicalities about, e.g. finding a place where to put the nuclear power generators that supposedly will save us from energy starvation. In an earthquake prone-area? in a volcanic one? Up a mountain? When I graduated (yes, I am a nuclear engineer) I was taught that the perfect spot for a nuclear power station has three things: plenty of water, flat stable soil, (as close as possible to) zero people living within 15 kilometers. You go look for that in Italy.

I’m not an Italian because although I have a very traditional view of the family and marriage and I thoroughly abide the views of te Catholic Church, I do not think these should be reflected in the (totally laical) laws of the State.

I’m not an Italian because I really, really, really find Facebook annoying.

Advertisements