Addio, addio

It has taken far too long for Italy to say goodbye to Silvio Berlusconi. It will take a bit longer while the Parliament approves the austerity plan and the former crooner tries to wriggle out of his promise to resign.

As it seems finally to be happening, I couldn’t resist posting this 1962 Claudio Villa entry in the Eurovision song contest:

Or maybe you prefer the operatic version from Rigoletto:

Apart from my own 10 years in Italy, I find this hard to connect to war and peace, the touchstones of www.peacefare.net But here is a try:

The Italians, who have participated in virtually every UN peacekeeping operation for decades (as well as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other operations), are going to be in rough financial shape for the better part of the next decade. They are not going to be able to carry as much international burden as they have in the past. Europe generally is going to be as hard up for funds as we are, if not worse.

The frugal superpower is going to have frugal allies.