Strålende artikel i The New Yorker om Silvio Berlusconi og Italien. Journalisten Ariel Levy beskriver ikke bare den politiske situation i Italien, men undersøger også den kulturelle baggrund som Berlusconis mangeårige on/off styre har skabt – og udspringer af.
Som her, hvor Levy (en ung, smuk kvinde, forøvrigt) er til støttedemonstration for Il Presidente og møder den 70-årige Michele Lecce, en ældre velklædt herre:
Other Berlusconi enthusiasts in the tent were there not to protect democracy but to defend their vision of the male prerogative. An affable seventy-six-year-old named Michele Lecce, crisply dressed in a light-blue sweater under a navy blazer, explained, “If a woman comes with no clothes on, with her tits showing, you can’t say he has committed violence.” Lecce, a retired union leader, said he considers Berlusconi “a brilliant man,” adding, wistfully, “If only I had the money he has, I’d be on the top surrounded by beautiful girls. Maybe I’d drop, but it’d be a beautiful way to go!” He smiled sweetly and yelled across the street at the demonstrators, “You guys are all gay! We have the men who fuck!” Then he turned to me and said, “I see you are a girl—I want to kiss you!” He pinched my cheek and concluded happily, “This is nature.”
Italiensk machokultur summeret op i et enkelt afsnit. Skarpt og præcist. Og meget underholdende.
mycorporateblog by kristoffer holm pedersen 