The Mussolini syndrome
In his excellent book The Italians, Luigi Barzini relates how Mussolini was constantly shielded from anything negative by those around him so that he became the victim of make believe and illusion. The author gives amusing descriptions of the frenetic...
In his excellent book The Italians, Luigi Barzini relates how Mussolini was constantly shielded from anything negative by those around him so that he became the victim of make believe and illusion. The author gives amusing descriptions of the frenetic preparations that were always made in advance if he made an official visit to some place or other:
"The cities (Mussolini) visited had been carefully prepared a long time before his arrival: he was shown only the things and the people that would please and comfort him. Everything else was efficiently hidden... He did not know that some of the new buildings, public works or villages he opened were abandoned and began decaying the following day, that some of the aqueducts never carried water.
"The technique was so smooth that it even deceived Hitler. Preparations for his visit in 1938 went on for six months. All Italy was to show the German dictator a new face. Nothing was to be left that was 'nineteenth century, homely, familiar'.
"The country was as transformed. Streets where the parades were to pass were redesigned and reconstructed like film sets, houses were painted and decorated along the railway line from the Brenner to Rome."
Does that remind you of somewhere? Recently people driving into Valletta were held up by road works on the main entry road which to their utter amazement was being resurfaced. The odd thing is that the surface of this road was perfectly acceptable. No doubt the decision to resurface the road at this moment of time is pure coincidence. It has no connection with the fact that lots of important people are due to drive along this bit of road in expensive, brand new, well-sprung, expensive cars.
Those folks whose return journey back home from Valletta during these difficult times included driving up Rue D' Argens (for instance) had good reason to be doubly frustrated. It makes one weep to think of all the money wasted on resurfacing a perfectly good road when so many much-used roads continue to wreck their suspensions and tyres.
Do we really have to resort to such futile expenditure to impress our visitors? Is our government still so immature and insecure that it has to resort to such antics to create the illusion that we have wonderful roads, etc?
Are the citizens of our country so low in our government's estimation that cutting a good figure (the authentic Italian fare bella figura) is given such a high priority over what is really necessary?