Other European countries have a much stronger sense of a social collective and the rule of law. Italy is still familial and tribal in many ways, and there is a good deal of admiration for those who 'get away with it'--hence the admiration for longstanding corrupt political figures. Unfortunately it will probably take a long time for real modernisation.
Difficult discussion. First of all I would say that crime, in the sense shown above, is not everywhere in Italy. Bitstream was correct: only a few regions (4 to be precise) suffer a heavy criminal influence (among those, the one I come from ). That doesn't mean that the rest of Italy is free from crime (although some places probably are, basically), but it just means that the crime is "normal". That said, I can simply tell that the problem is mainly cultural. Criminality is not the main issue, it's just the symptom of something bigger, coming from many years of history. Now, what I think is that it's a slow process, but i do have the feeling that there is a kind of evolution.
That I don't know....but even if he is completely honest, there are just too many scoundrels around him. Some of them quite powerful.
It can't be him, can it? The quality of the video is not very good. Come on, if it was him that would be widely known by now. And there are some comments saying it's not him. That would be too much, even for him. I hope. Oh man.
Well, given the other evidence we have of his sense of humor, it seems all to likely to be him. You can even make out the typical grin on his face afterward. But probably a doctored clip, else as you say we would have heard of it. btw andread, my 'name' comes partly from the place (beautiful area, though like most of the places mentioned here, not somewhere I'd want to live full-time), but also from Aeneas' pilot, who supposedly washed up there after being washed overboard: 'For counting Overmuch on a calm world, Palinurus, You must lie naked on some unknown shore." Seemed like a good thing for a trader to keep in mind....