RAVE: Forza Azzuri d'Italia

Che magnificenza!

What a victory it was last night as Italy surprised many (not me, by the way) by beating Germany 2-1 in the semi-finals of the Euro 2012 football championships.

It was a superlative performance by the Azzuri - superb defending, two excellent goals by Mario Bonatelli and, most intelligently of all, simply not allowing the dangerous and very able German simply not to play their game.

Buffon in goal was out of this world, Pirlo was peerless, and the rest of the team provided just the touch and just the commitment required. Even the penalty awarded to Germany in the 92nd minute seemed like an after thought.



Simple as that - unlike any other team that Germany encountered on their march to the semi-finals, Italy simply didn't allow them to get into their groove or to play their powerful, strident type of play.

Sometimes that's all it requires - intelligent, tactical thinking and not allowing your opponent to play the game their own way.

The fact that Italy, so downtrodden and 'bankrupt' in the face of the so-called 'euro crisis', was able to triumph against Germany, the arrogant, patronizing purveyors of the said monetary crisis in the EU, just made the victory even sweeter - oh, so very sweet. It was cosmic justice.

I've been telling people for days now whenever Italy came up in discussion about this Euro 2012:

"never underestimate Italy"

Simple as that.

So now the Azzuri face Spain in the final in Kiev on Sunday. Do Italy have a chance against the reigning world champions and the most fancied team since the tournament in Poland-Ukraine? Yes, I believe they do. Italy always start slow, and sometimes go nowhere, it is true. But sometimes they build momentum and, on a given day, can beat any team on the planet.

For now I am thrilled that Italy are in the Finals. They deserve it.



Forza Italia!

And, no, I am not referring to the centre-right, pathetic Italian political party that was Silvio Berlusconi's personal vehicle. Va bene? :-)

RANT: Bunga Bunga Berlusconi

Yesterday I heard a shocking statistic and revelation whilst watching the Keiser Report on Russia Today (RT). Nearly every time I watch the inimitable and brilliant Max and Stacy and guests on his show I hear things that amaze/ offend/ stun/ outrage me, but this was one worth blogging about, so outrageous it was.

Turns out that forensic auditing of Silvio Berlusconi's private accounts whilst Emperor, I mean Prime Minister, of Italy show that the man spent unbelievable amounts of public money on 'entertainment.'

His private secretary (a man, unbelievably) readily admits most of this fun and play money was to pay high-class female 'companions' (read: hookers) to live the high life (and entertain Berlusconi, of course) at various villas throughout Italy.

Berlusconi is known to have dubbed these sex parties 'Bunga Bunga' parties. Such wit.

This is hardly shocking given that Emperor Silvio is a known womaniser with an insatiable predilection for copious amounts of sex, especially with very young women. And, quite frankly, rather the Borgia antics of Italian and French leaders than all that tiresome puritanical holier-than-thou nonsense of Anglo-Saxon politicians. At least all that sex and mayhem is fun and far less hypocritical.

Some of the world's vilest leaders were also highly monogamous men faithful to their partners - Hitler, Hoxha and Ceausescu to name just a few.

No, what was shocking was the amount of money that Berlusconi splurged on these fair lasses. In just two years he squandered 20-million euros on these lovely ladies alone.


Cartoon courtesy of www.cartoonmovement.com


20-million euros!!!

Cartoon courtesy of www.caricaturez.blogspot.com

Jeepers creepers! Just how much screwing can any one man get up to? And I mean up to. I want whatever that man's having - I mean, where did he get all the energy?! Berlusconi makes the sex-addicted character played by Michael Fassbender in the film Shame look like a Trappist monk.

The fact that this mafioso billionaire Energizer bunny was squandering huge amounts of public money by banging away whilst Italy sank deeper and deeper into debt is of course beyond the pale. The total lack of any ethics by this most self-interested and diabolical little man is no surprise, but the numbers are still shocking.

The sheer mendacity of the super rich elites continues to be breathtaking.

The Borgias would indeed have been proud.

Do you get my point?

RANT: E Doppo...Italia

And next it's Italy, as my title in Italian says.



Forget Greece - at least for a nanosecond. Now all the talk on the Internet news wires is that it's increasingly looking like Italy may too enter into its own debt crisis. And Italy in trouble will make the debt crises of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium and even Spain look like a financial walk in the park.

According to Reuters today:

"The main measure of Italy's borrowing costs broke above 6 percent for the first time in 14 years before easing back on Tuesday as the euro zone's third largest economy [my emphasis] was sucked into the bloc's debt crisis. Italian 10-year yields at one stage soared more than 30 basis points on the day to leap above 6 percent -- the highest since 1997 -- getting closer to the 7 percent level most market players see as being unsustainable for Italy's borrowing costs given its huge debt pile."

"Italy is by far the country with the greatest sensitivity to rising debt servicing costs and particularly in terms of rolling over debt. This is not a situation it can afford to have going on for any sustained period of time," said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities in London."

Yikes. That's bad, whichever way you slice it.

Reuters continues by adding that, "Italy has one of the world's highest levels of public debt. At around 120 percent of gross domestic product, it is second only to Greece in the euro zone. A total of 176 billion euros ($250 billion) in Italian government paper will come due by the end of the year."

There are signs that the Italian government has been able to steady today the creaking ship that is the Italian bond market - and one simply has to believe that one of the biggest economies in the world will be able to pull through this...

Surely, right?

However Italy is able to pull through this latest debt crisis, it no doubt shows that financial contagion is a speedy, scary and downright unpredictable bastard.

And do we need any more evidence that the euro project is, for all intents and purposes, a failed project?

Do you get my point?

RAVE: Berlusconi il Buffone

It's been over a month since I last wrote on this blog, even if I only today figured out that my last three posts written back in May were never published! That's way too much time, especially given how many momentous things have happened in the past few weeks - the ongoing debacle that is the 'freedom struggle' in Libya, the bona fide freedom struggle in Syria, the n-e-v-e-r-e-n-d-i-n-g disgrace that are the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the scary creepiness of the Japanese nuclear fallout, the latest rape of the Greek people by the financial terrorists of the world - the list goes on and on. Many of them reducing me, as usual, to a screaming, gesticluating Man Mad At The World - usually at a TV set, I hasten to add...

So what topic do I choose to do my first actual post in over a month? I found myself simply unable to resist a chance to have a good kick at Signor Berlusconi. This man, the very scourge of Italy and the very eiptome of all things italiano that are rancid and sick to the core, seems to have suffered a PRETTY BIG SMACK last week.

I, along with millions of Italian voters, told Il Diavolo Berlusconi just what we thought of him on not one but three different referenda issues, namely:

1. A resounding rejection of his desire to privatize water
2. A resounding rejection of his desire to bring nuclear power to Italy, and
3. A resounding rejection of his (deep, very deep) desire to have public officials immune from prosecution

I do think that the third issue on which he lost must have cut Il Diavolo/ Buffone/ Cretino Berlusconi the deepest and the harshest. After all, this is a man against whom charges of corruption and abuse of state and personal power run as long as his smile is shallow.

The man is contemptible beyond redemption - he is a corrupt, diabolical Macchiavelli and his success only further re-iterates the much-held belief that Italian politics is a joke unto itself and that Italian society is fundamentally warped to the core.

I detest Berlusconi and all that he stands for.

This triple whammy of defeats last Monday must surely have hurt him politically. Dare I say it - perhaps even mortally?

May my next rave for this hideous man be a rejoice of his having stepped down as Prime Minister of Italy - for the third time, may I add.

Where are the Red Brigades when you need them?

Do you get my point?

RAVE/ PREDICTIONS: World Cup Hopes

I will keep this one short and I shall keep it brief. It's all to do with which countries I would love to win the World Cup, the one country that I believe will actually win it and those I believe simply won't make it.

First off, sorry Bafana Bafana, you're just not going to make it. The South African guys availed themselves quite well against Mexico in the opening match of the tournament. But this is a team I simply cannot get excited about - their football is simply not world class.

For me, my two favourites have to be the two countries that comprise the majority of my (rather multi-national, rather crazy!) heritage: Italy and Portugal.

Portugal are notorious for being 'chokers' and this is not their strongest squad ever, but at least when they play exciting football, it's great to watch. And never, EVER discount Italia - as so many have been doing prior to this World Cup. Italy has 'no chance', many say. Oh yeah? And just how fancied were they before the 2006 World Cup which they went on to win? Not very much, I can assure you.

Italy are like Germany. You never, ever discount them at this level of football championships.

There are some very fancied teams that many are saying have a very good chance of winning it this time around, all of which I actually disagree with: Netherlands (huge chokers, just like the Portuguese - the Dutch will not win); England (always overrated, just never have what it takes to win in the end, and this year will be no different for the Limeys) and, to a lesser extent, those perennial under-performers, Spain.

This time around, I do think there is a (very) outside chance the Spanish could just go all the way. But for me it's such an outside chance it's not even worth placing a proper bet on. The Spanish just don't convince me, much as I do enjoy their football and style.

Of course, as ever, Brazil have to be one of the favourites and they, just like Italy and Germany, can never ever be discounted. Yes, they could win it. I would be a fool to discount that much raw talent and pedigree of heritage.

This is not the time for an African country to do it. Nor do I foresee any huge shocks like a USA or a Serbia or one of those other 'really dark horses' to make it all the way and win it. It's just not going to happen, methinks.

So who do I actually think is going to win the 2010 World Cup?

ARGENTINA

Yes, Argentina are my bet. I've been saying it for months leading up this World Cup, and I will stand by it: this is the country that has the talent and the oomph to make it all the way and win it.

And I really hope that they do. They play great football (if a bit dirty times, it be said). It has the world's most exciting player at present - Lionel Messi. It's a great country deserving of a triumph like this. I want it for Argentina for what it stands for in Latin America, for the culture it has given the world, for its troubled past, for what it went through with that disgusting bunch of international finance Mafia in 2002, the IMF, and for everything that Argentina is.

Not to mention that there are more of my family name in the telephone book of Buenos Aires than in Italy!

FUERZA ARGENTINA!!!

FORZA ITALIA!!!

FORCA PORTUGAL!!! 

RANT: Cuidado Portugal y España, Careful Ireland

My rant for today is essentially three words: Portugal, Ireland, Spain.

It's very simple - if the European Union saw fit to literally throw Greece to the proverbial wolves (i.e. the detestable IMF), then what is stopping it happening to these three countries?

The cartoon here by the brilliant Brazilian Latuff says it all...

The plates to be broken here are those of Portugal, Spain and Italy. However, although Italy was cited as being 'in trouble' a few weeks back, to my understanding it really is Ireland that is the actual 'I' in 'PIGS'...at least for now.

'PIGS' is the frankly disgusting acronym given to these four Eurozone countries, all in apparent trouble with their so-called 'sovereign debt'. Greece was in the worst trouble, hence it being sold down the river last week. But the public coffers in Portugal look pretty bad too, as is the case for Ireland. And Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the Eurozone, is said to be in very bad shape too.

So, will the EU allow three more countries to go the way of Greece? Certainly, Portugal and Ireland look quite expendable, for want of a better word. Portugal never seemed to ride very well on the EU bandwagon (must be that 'Club Med-southern European thing', methinks). But it's quite ironic that Ireland is in the 'PIGS club' given that it was a shining beacon of free market, neo-liberal economics until just recently. Ireland was the place to be in the EU, a true 'success story' it seemed - especially for those in IT, direct marketing, business or anyone with a bit of cash or an entrepreneurial streak.

How the tables have turned. Now Ireland is just another basket case. Hmmmm, yet another strike for neo-liberal Friedmanite economics.

And what of Spain? Can the EU really afford to let a country of that size and importance falter and possibly even be in danger of defaulting on its debt obligations? What then? And what will be of the Euro?

How much longer can this madness go on? Are Germany and France going to snub these countries too? Will the IMF simply become the de facto bank for the Eurozone?

For now, I am very worried for these three countries - not to mention all of the European Union.

I am half-Portuguese, a heritage of which I am proud, and I lived in Lisbon for a few years, a city in which I finished my schooling and which I visited every opportunity I had during my university vacations, it being a city I love and know so well. I do not want to see that beautiful country thrown to the dogs.

When will this European club ever finally come together and be united and there for all its members?

After all, is the second word in the letters 'EU' not union? Where is the union in this band of misfits?

Do you get my point?

RANT: The Scam that is 'Sovereign Debt'

'Sovereign debt.' The latest chapter in the mess that is the ongoing financial and economic crisis hitting most of the Western world, and many other countries aside. In short, sovereign debt is supposedly what a country's treasury (i.e. government coffers) has in terms of debt.

And, oh boy, are many countries now on the verge of sovereign debt default, i.e. the inability to pay national debt, whether it to be foreign creditors, pay for social programs at home, raise sufficient capital through treasury bonds issuance, etc. The effect on local economies, not to mention the global economy, if countries start to default on their own national debt, could be quite catastrophic.

Greece is first up.

Greece is on the verge of defaulting on its debt payments. The European Union is freaking out. The Eurozone is freaking out. I mean, countries in Europe don't default on their payments, do they? That's something the likes of Brazil and Argentina and Nigeria did back in the 1980s. Not an EU and euro-based country. Right? Well...no. Greece is on the verge of default. That is fact.

The Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, has blamed his country's economic crisis on international speculators (i.e. the likes of Goldman Sachs and their fellow blood-sucking brethren in the international financial world) with their buying up of Greek treasury bonds and, now, dumping of them. Some pooh-pooh that notion (always international financiers or Wall Street apologists, by the way), but don't get analysts like my man, Max Keiser, started on that notion. For him, and many others, the imminent collapse of Greece is entirely the fault of international speculators that are playing havoc with entire national economies.

I, for one, totally believe what Papandreou accuses Wall Street of doing to Greece.

And there are others too who may almost be on the verge of national debt default...

Spain





Ireland





Italy - beautiful land of my ancestors...





Portugal - the other land of my ancestors and a beautiful country I know so well...what a shame...




And don't let's forget about a country that has already defaulted on it's so-called 'debt'...

Yes, Iceland




The land of geysers and volcanoes, the fabled Blue Lagoon, green energy - and, now, the highest debt per capita load on the planet...

Poor Iceland. A canary in the coalmine of what is fundamentally sick - nay, perverted and twisted - about the current global uber-capitalist model.

Sovereign debt is a scam because how can national treasuries be in control of their economies when they are at the mercy of international financial and currency speculators? There's nothing sovereign about this debt any more, hence the total and utter scam thereof.

It's a farce and just the latest chapter, writ HUGE, that demonstrates just how fundamentally flawed, corrupt and outrageously amoral the current neo-liberal, profit-at-all-costs, unregulated financial markets a la Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys that is world capitalism. It's sick to the core. Adam Smith and Maynard Keynes must be turning in their graves with just how sick the system has become.

Yet, national governments in Europe must also take the blame (not to mention that of the United States, now in debt to the tune of 14 TRILLION dollars, although that endless warmongering is hardly cheap, now is it?). This is what you get when you bail out banks and financial institutions that were reckless and perverse in how they played the stock markets and economies of the world.

Using public money (i.e. the money of citizens) to bail out, to the tune of billions and billions of dollars and euros, the very crooks and scheisters that got us into the mess, was not only madness, but MORALLY BANKRUPT of all those politicians who allowed this to happen. You bloody bastards, all of you.

So what would I like to see? I would like to see the likes of Greece, Spain, Portgal and Ireland DEFAULT on their so-called sovereign debts. And, better still, give the IMF the biggest middle finger ever seen in financial history by saying 'NO! We will not take your loans!' Because these countries should know these IMF 'loans' will come laden with Friedmanite and Chicagoesque preconditions to 'liberalize' economies, slash public spending, 'open up markets even more', and all the other Friedmanite bullshit that got us into this horrific and amoral mess in the first place.

But, of course, I have better chances of seeing pink elephants having a full-scale Grand Prix in the sky than I do of those countries having the courage and the foresight to do just that.

THIS is the perfect time for a complete review and even overhaul of capitalism as we know it. It has never been more perfect - or more needed. I'm certainly not advocating communism or any other 'ism' for that matter. What I am advocating is that we stop this madness where 0.01% of the richest people in the richest economies can hold entire countries to ransom. And, in the process, destroy the very fabric and social and human rights within those countries. I don't want to see European countries like Greece, Ireland and Spain collapse or relegated to economic basketcase status. I'm funny that way.

Stop this obsession with Friedmanite uber-capitalism and the 'Stock Market is King' economic mentality, like some demented mantra. It is NOT working.

Enough is enough. Basta!

Do you get my point?