{"id":5666,"date":"2009-06-16T18:54:05","date_gmt":"2009-06-16T23:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=5666"},"modified":"2009-06-16T18:54:05","modified_gmt":"2009-06-16T23:54:05","slug":"berlusconi-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/06\/berlusconi-in-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlusconi in the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"_45915796_obama_berlusconi_ap466\"I am\u00a0an Italian citizen (and very proud of it), so I read the Italian news every day.\u00a0 This is not really\u00a0“legally relevant,” but\u00a0 the BBC has a very funny article on the current Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Belusconi,\u00a0visiting President Obama: “Oh no, Silvio! Will Italian PM avoid offending anyone on US visit?”<\/a>\u00a0 So far, Silvio Berlusconi has embarrassed the whole country multiple times with his gaffes (more or less intentional), such as the now-famous description of President Obama as “young, handsome, and sun tanned.” \u00a0Still, maybe Berlusconi will spare us this time.<\/p>\n

To quote part of the article,<\/p>\n

Beppe Severgnini, columnist for Corriere della Sera<\/em> and author of La Bella Figura – A Field Guide to the Italian Mind<\/em>, thinks the risk of a PR disaster in Washington is low.\u00a0He points out that Mr. Berlusconi does not speak English, Mr. Obama does not speak Italian, and they will only meet for one hour to discuss preparations for the G8 summit, which Italy is hosting next month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, as Mr. Palandri, a professor at University College London,\u00a0 puts it, “Even if he does badly he won’t be in an embarrassing position — because we could not be in a more embarrassing position than we are now.”\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Yet, as the article indicates, Italian public opinion is totally polarized against and in favor of “Silvio.”\u00a0\u00a0In fact, many find\u00a0him very funny.<\/p>\n

I think President Berlusconi could in reality be\u00a0the actor of a sort of comedy (a “cabarettista,” as a good friend uses to define him),\u00a0that typical (even if somewhat tragic)\u00a0Italian comedy that will never be accepted in any “serious” countries, but that makes millions laugh in Italy every year.\u00a0 Still,\u00a0this does not justify insensitivity or just saying whatever is in your mind at\u00a0any given moment, and a head of state should know better.<\/p>\n

As Dante was making Ulysses saying to his followers in the\u00a0Inferno\u00a0just before crossing Gibraltar\u00a0to\u00a0adventure in the unknown, “fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza” (“you were not made to live like beasts, but to pursue strength and knowledge”). Unfortunately, the “bestiality” part of man shows up as bad humor in many Italians including “Silvio,” but, even if this is not justifiable,\u00a0considering what other heads of state are also doing in this world (even if they are less gaffe-prone for sure) I am really not\u00a0ready to say that Silvio Berlusconi is\u00a0so much worse than many others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am\u00a0an Italian citizen (and very proud of it), so I read the Italian news every day.\u00a0 This is not really\u00a0“legally relevant,” but\u00a0 the BBC has a very funny article on the current Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Belusconi,\u00a0visiting President Obama: “Oh no, Silvio! Will Italian PM avoid offending anyone on US visit?”\u00a0 So far, Silvio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}