Disasters bring out the best in people.

The wave of sympathy that has followed the earthquake in Abruzzo, Central Italy has manifested itself in a spontaneous outpouring of shared grief and generosity towards those who have lost loved ones or whose homes have been reduced to rubble.

Italians have proved that they can confront such events in a pragmatic and dignified way.

It has to be said that even the odious figure of Silvio Berlusconi has shown rare signs of humanity on his daily visits to the region’s worst hit town of l’Aquila. He looked genuinely moved at the mass open air funeral and at a press conference he swore on the coffins of the victims that those left to pick up the pieces of their lives will not be forgotten. If this promise is maintained it will go against the trend of mismanaged cash and inadequate reconstruction programmes that have dogged previous Italian towns hit by natural disaster  (e.g. 1980 Irpinia, 2002 Molise).

Now the dead have been buried and the dust is beginning to settle, questions need to be asked over the less noble aspects of human nature. In particular, the selfish disregard for anti-seismic building codes must come under serious scrutiny. This, after all, is partly why the scale of the destruction in Abruzzo was so devastating. In such old towns the death toll would still have been great but the way the newer buildings crumbled so easily exposes the fact that  safety guidelines were recklessly ignored. A woman wrote to the newspaper to say that the tower block she lives in remained relatively intact while those nearby collapsed. She wryly asks whether the fact that the builder happens to be a resident of her block was a factor!

It seems plain that officials paid to check construction works received backhanders to turn a blind eye to this widespread malpractice. To my mind, this bending of the rules is something many Italians take too much for granted and is one of the main reasons why Berlusconi is so popular. He prides himself on being a man of the people and as a cheat and a liar he is regarded as being on the side of those who flout the law. But when the consequences are so grave, the financial gain from such brazen self interest comes at too high a price.

Actions speak louder than words and I hope that Berlusconi proves me wrong and demonstrates that the altruism that dominates the nation’s mood at present can be tapped into in a positive way. Given the man’s track record, however, I’m not holding my breath!