Silvio Berlusconi - ANIMAL MY SOUL

Tag Archive: Silvio Berlusconi

BERLUSCONI SCREWS FOR MONEY

Filed under: Italy, Politics — 1 Comment

June 10, 2011

The cover of this week’s Economist is so good it’s worth framing. If you made a photoshop parody, you couldn’t improve on it.

Silvio Berlusconi’s grasp of English is on a par with his understanding of the economy so I can imagine him asking an adviser “Cosa significa questa parola ‘screws’? and upon getting a translation replying “Magari!” (I wish!) .

He will not be troubled by this headline – it’s the nature of the beast that he will probably even be flattered.

He has the same unrepentant (‘I yam what I yam’) spirit as George Best , who said he chose to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps because he saw an advert on the side of a London bus saying: ” Drink Canada Dry”.

Link:
The Berlusconi era will haunt Italy for years to come. (The Economist.Com)

Tags: drinking, George Best, screwing, Silvio Berlusconi, The Economist

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SEXIST ADVERTISING IN BERLUSCONI’S ITALY

Filed under: Gender, Italy, Politics — 2 Comments

March 1, 2011

Sexism in advertising is rife throughout the world but particularly blatant in Italy. Today, I took photos of the above three public advertisements which I’m pretty sure would spark outrage in Britain.

The first has a tanned woman in a silver bikini promoting a car battery centre – need your battery recharging sir? Come to the professionals.

The second advertises a car repair workshop with a leggy woman going down on a sports car (either that or she is the victim of a tragic accident!) .

The third announces the opening of a new cafe-bar and defines glamour in terms of a woman in a skimpy dress perched precariously on the edge of an oversized cup.

Large sections of the Italian public regard such gratuitous ‘sexy’ images as harmless fun and see nothing wrong in women’s bodies being used in this way. To me, this goes some way to explaining why Berlusconi can still count on a high level of support despite his morally and legally reprehensible behaviour.

The cultural climate is such that if women protest about such images they are likely to be labelled as prudes. I think it’s down to men to make it plain that far from being a turn-on, this type of publicity is actually a big turn-off.

A good place to start is to make a point of refusing to buy or use the services being promoted .

Tags: Sexist advertsiing, Silvio Berlusconi

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HOW SOON IS NOW?

Filed under: Gender, Italy, Politics — Leave a comment

February 9, 2011

Italian Simeone di Cagno Abbrescia checks the stock market.

Sexist images and attitudes are commonplace throughout the world but are particularly blatant in the Italian media and are effectively sanctioned by the country’s morally bankrupt politicians.

A welcome chance to protest against these trends will be presented on Sunday, Februray 13th when demonstrations are held across the whole of Italy (and in other parts of Europe) under the heading Se non ora, quando? (If not now, when?).

These are promoted and organised by women’s groups as a direct response to revelations about Berlusconi’s squalid private life but also as a more wide ranging protest at the degrading way in which women are represented in the press, on TV and in advertisements. Such images give credence to the belief that is it acceptable to buy and sell young women as if they were share options.

The protests are an opportunity for women to say ‘enough is enough’ and for men to officially disassociate themselves from the prevailing trend. If not now……when?

Silvio Berlusconi MP caught looking at escort website during debate (telegraph.co.uk)

Tags: Morally bankrupt politicians, Se non ora- quando, Silvio Berlusconi

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SEX, LIES AND BERLUSCONI

Filed under: Italy, Politics — Leave a comment

January 22, 2011

- Liars are the second-lowest form of human being on the planet.
- What's the first?
- Lawyers.
From Steven Soderbergh's 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' (1989)

Being a compulsive liar is what makes Berlusconi such a political survivor.

He continues to deny ALL the charges against him in the Rubygate scandal no matter how compelling the evidence.

The presence of under age prostitutes at Berlusconi’s ‘bunga bunga’ parties is beyond dispute and it beggars belief that he gave money to these women as gifts without getting sexual favours in return.

Yet he continues to deny ALL the accusations and even refuses to admit that he has ever paid for sex.

To protect himself from what he maintains is a biased legal system, he is seeking to change the law so that those in public office can never be prosecuted .

Far be it from me to run to the defence of lawyers and judges, but it now seems that the slender hope that this latest scandal will finally bring down Berlusconi rests on proof that the cynical view expressed in Soderbergh’s movie is not universally true and that the sign in all the Italian courts means what it says :La legge è uguale per tutti (‘The Law is the same for everyone’).