My trip to Italy was a very new surprise, as we experienced the social changes which have occurred in Italy and Europe in the last ten years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Le Ferrovie dello Stato (Railways of the State) have been privatized and this private and huge monopolistic business has been renamed "Ferrovie dello Stato S.p.A." that is "Railways of the State, Inc." Now I challenge anybody to make some sense of this manufactured business name "Railways of the State, Inc."!

The privatization push has been the dominant public policy of the European Union and I know that the Italian postal service has been privatized as well. This privatization push of public utilities has caused an immediate appearance of creation of wealth, but the seeds for social unrest have been planted and so the regressive need for "Law and Order" kind of governments.

I have watched Italian TV channels and they all portrait a permissive society, a telemarketing opportunity and a societal gambling casino. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is a crook who is driving Italy to further become a police state. We have mentioned in the past how this media magnate and politician Berlusconi has been working to change Italian laws to bypass his own criminal charges, and now he is working along with President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the three Bs of the Free Market, to set privatized regimes around the world and declare private wars against terrorism.

I have watched Italian TV channels and they all portrait a permissive society, a telemarketing opportunity and a societal gambling casino. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is a crook who is driving Italy to further become a police state. We have mentioned in the past how this media magnate and politician Berlusconi has been working to change Italian laws to bypass his own criminal charges, and now he is working along with President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the three Bs of the Free Market, to set privatized regimes around the world and declare private wars against terrorism.

Today, the Italian government is breaking down the right of citizens to work as per lo 'Statuto dei Lavoratori' (articolo 18) and is pursuing a new labour legislation which facilitates the private abuse to fire employees and which weakens the right of citizens to work. There is no doubt that governments are abusing their power as they forget the meaning of public interest and as they continue to privatize everything in the interest of the rich and famous.

The private interest has definitely a fundamental role in our daily living, but so is the public interest of justice and fairness.

References

Ferrovie dello Stato S.p.A. http://www.fs-on-line.it/gruppo/soc/index.htm

"L'Iraq non ha armi devastanti"Berlusconi afferma e si smentisce. La Repubblica, 16 ottobre 2002 http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/italiairaqdue/premier/premier.html

IL CONTESTO (Articolo 18) Legge e Giustizia http://www.legge-e-giustizia.it/2002%20IL%20CONTESTO/03%20mar/articolo%2018%20St%20Lav.htm

For Richer by Paul Krugman, The New York Times, October 20, 2002. An interesting article on the American concentration of wealth. http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/ForRicher.html Upstairs/Downstairs, by Arianna Huffington, October 17, 2002. Another interesting article on the corruption of Corporate America. http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/101702.html