Category Archives: italy

New docs, old tricks

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Medical faculties in Italy held their admission exams today, to decide the fortunate few thousand who’ll be working in the country’s hospitals and surgeries five, ten, fifteen years from now, depending on how long it takes them to butter their … Continue reading →

Posted in corruption, italy, university | Leave a comment

Red alert

Posted on August 21, 2008 by Charles Lambert

The custody of a sixteen year old boy in Catania, Sicily, has been transferred – against the boy’s will – from his mother to his father. This is unusual in Italy, where mothers tend to be favoured over fathers, and … Continue reading →

Posted in family day, italy | Leave a comment

Italian finger politics

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Never one to miss a trick, Ryanair has recycled a photo of Northern League leader and Senator Umberto Bossi taken last weekend. His elegantly raised finger was directed then at the national anthem and the notion of Italian unity, something … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, italy, politics | 2 Comments

No country for young men

Posted on June 18, 2008 by Charles Lambert

If you read Italian and want to know more about the place, or just have an eye for a lively site with some great graphics, try this blog. It’s called Bamboccioni alla riscossa, roughly translatable as Mummies’ boys fight back … Continue reading →

Posted in italy, politics | 1 Comment

Ave Hitler

Posted on June 9, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Now that the catholic church has got a government prepared to present its belly to the clerical boot without any questions being asked, this photograph is a useful reminder of another epoch in which the interests of church and state … Continue reading →

Posted in carfagna, church, gay pride, human rights, italy, politics | 2 Comments

Quotas: footnote

Posted on May 17, 2008 by Charles Lambert

It looks like it’s all to do with numbers. How many people come in, how many people are forced to leave. Alemanno says he’s going to expel 20,000 illegal immigrants from Rome and I wonder how he arrived at this … Continue reading →

Posted in human rights, italy, politics, race | Leave a comment

Quotas

Posted on May 16, 2008 by Charles Lambert

We live in interesting times, as the Chinese curse has it. A few months ago, after reading about the treatment meted out to refugees in Britain and thinking about the mood of anti-refugee rage I encounter so often when I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, england, italy, mafia, politics, race | Leave a comment

Ministerium

Posted on May 11, 2008 by Charles Lambert

Mara Carfagna is Minister for Equal Opportunities in Berlusconi’s new cabinet. This poster comes from an earlier incarnation as calendar fodder and, oddly, wasn’t used to promote her campaign during the recent elections. Possibly because Italian voters aren’t actually allowed … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, carfagna, civil union, gay, italy, politics | Leave a comment

A variety of salad leaf

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Charles Lambert

This week’s Times Higher Education Supplement has a leader on the appalling treatment meted out to foreign language teachers by Italian universities. I wrote it. Here’s a taste: I became a lettore in 1982, in Rome. The building I worked … Continue reading →

Posted in italy, lettore, university | Leave a comment

Roman salute

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Charles Lambert

I don’t live in Rome any more and many of the years I did spend in the city it was ruled by a series of insipid Christian Democrats, their names forgotten, more interested in nest-feathering than the fate of Caput … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, binetti, italy, politics, rome, vatican | Leave a comment