Sunday, April 05, 2009



Silvio does it again

My favourite head of government. I always look forward to his constant ignoring of political correctness. The man is a treasure.
"Italian newspapers have ribbed Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for startling Queen Elizabeth by shouting out to the US president after a group photo with G20 leaders. Television footage shows Berlusconi at the edge of the group calling out loudly "Mr Obama! It's Berlusconi"....

Mr Berlusconi, a 72-year-old media magnate in his third term in office with a high rating in opinion polls, has a history of diplomatic gaffes, twice recently referring to Mr Obama's skin colour - or "sun tan", as the Italian leader called it.

The press had a field day. Among the cartoons, one in La Stampa said Mr Berlusconi had an "unrivalled ability to make a fool of himself" which "we in Italy call charisma". Il Giornale, owned by Berlusconi's brother, also reported the event, but put a positive spin on it, saying the Italian premier had helped make a stiff occasion more relaxed.

Photographs of the G20 also showed Mr Berlusconi popping up behind Mr Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and clapping his hands on their shoulders to smile for the cameras.

Source

Italians shout. If you know anything about Italians, you know that. Not all do of course but they do shout much more than we Anglos do.

I grew up in a small Australian country town where the population was about half Italian. And in the waiting room of the local hospital, there was a large sign saying Silenzo (silence). It was the first Italian word I learnt. Where we Anglos tend to be hushed in the presence of illness, Italians tend to emote loudly. I sometimes think that their way is better but I don't have it in me personally. To anyone with the genes of England in them, emoting is always at least a bit embarrassing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would shout out for the Queen before I would shout out for Obama

The Times Observer said...

"I sometimes think that (the Italian's) way is better but I don't have it in me personally. To anyone with the genes of England in them, emoting is always at least a bit embarrassing."

See, that's my biggest personal conflict: I'm 3/4 Italian and 1/4 English. I'm overly loud but I'm polite about it. :-)

Bobby said...

I am so tired of the British monarchy always getting so much undeserved attention.

I'm not going to blame Obama for kissing her ass since Bush did the same thing and so has every other president, but it still bothers me that we treat those useless symbols with such regard.

The British should be ashamed of themselves with their queen worship. What kind of sick nation has "God save the Queen" as a national anthem?

Saudi Arabia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), and other nations have real Kings and Queens that rule the government. Those are the symbols of power the world should respect, not some stupid queen that lives in a castle and does nothing.

Anonymous said...

Queen Elizabeth is the head of state and should be accorded the same respect as a President (which is why US Presidents go to meet her when they are in the UK).
As head of state, she carries out the constitutional duties expected of her, including representing the UK abroad.
As for being a "real" monarch, it
took a civil war and political revolutions and a lot of effort to take real political power away from the monarch and put it in the hands of a Parliament whose members are elected by the people (ie. creating a representative democracy).
Queen Elizabeth is also head of state in some other countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and is head of the Commonwealth too, the largest grouping of countries outside the UN itself.
So she is more than just "some stupid queen that lives in a castle and does nothing"!

Anonymous said...

10:26 AM - those monarchs in the middle-east that you so admire inherited their kingdoms from the British empire headed by Queen Elizabeth's ancestors!!

Anonymous said...

If the King or Queen is a personification of the country as a whole, then to have a national anthem with the text "God Save the King/Queen", how is that different in principle from saying "God Bless America" ??