Today I am a bit ashamed-Italian statues MERGED

[laPapessaGiovanna]

I know that there are more pressing problems in the world, we are living in difficult times. My country is at the forefront of the migrants/refugees crisis, we aren't recovering from the economic crisis, unemployment rates are sky high, politicians seem to be even dumber than usual and the list goes on. Usually though I am quite proud of our country cultural heritage,  our tradition and how we try to take care and preserve what our ancestors made and keep all this as a gift for the whole humankind. Today though I am ashamed,  we have shown exactly how  much we value our culture and how far we can go forgetting who we are to beg for money and trade allegiances. All this was absolutely ridiculous,  uncalled for and totally unnecessary. 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italy-covers-up-naked-statues-iran-president-hassan-rouhani-visit-nude-a6834836.html 

[Anny Nym]

I did read that in the newspaper here this morning, this is very.....  irritating . A awkward kotau in front of Big Money.

Say, how popular in general is Matteo Renzi in Italy from your perspective?

[sparkles]

I saw that this morning and my eyes rolled so far back in my head I practically needed surgery to get  'em back where they belong. Ridiculous.

[bashfulpixie]

That is so stupid.  This is why people think they can force others to their cultural norms- because we do it.  Who cares if he takes issue.  Don't look.  That simple.

I swear, we're moving backwards.  I just don't get it.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

1 hour ago, Anny Nym said:

I did read that in the newspaper here this morning, this is very.....  irritating . A awkward kotau in front of Big Money.

Say, how popular in general is Matteo Renzi in Italy from your perspective?

It's not easy to say because from an Italian pov the worst government is always the current one,  whatever the colour (we even have a say "piove, governo ladro" that loosely means: it rains, it's the government's fault), bitching about politics is our national sport. Something changed in the last decade though. If you look at the poll rates you will see that less and less people take the trouble to go to vote, it's significant seen our traditional high rates (usually more than 80% , at  the last regional elections 57% iirc). I think it's a very bad symptom of impotence and disillusionment. Renzi's policies are perceived as weak, not-nearly-enough, half assed attempts to address our major problems. He wasn't voted as PM, he was the mayor of Florence till two years ago, but he also was the head of his party (since a few months) when the PM Letta resigned and the President of the Republic Napolitano instead of organizing new elections asked Renzi to step up and form a new government. Most Italians I know lived this as an insult to their intelligence and to democracy. Anyway,  if there were elections in this very moment I don't know what would happen,  probably Italians would choose to not go to vote. Renzi isn't well liked but the general perception is that there's no viable alternative. Most parties are a joke, lost in petty contradictions between themselves and out of touch with reality and medias behave as if we are all stupid. Anyway I don't think we will have the opportunity to vote soon, probably not before 2018, the scenario is too confused and our politicians love their seats too much to risk them with the unknown. I don't know if I managed to answer your question,  I rambled a tad bit too much, sorry.  

As for the matter at hand, what I hate the most is that no one stepped up to say: yes I ordered to censor the naked statues, I did it for this and this reasons and accept full responsibility for it. Obviously Renzi said he didn't know a thing.  Yeah we know.

[MamaJunebug]

I did not make that up. It was part of a news headline crawl on AWE (A Wealth of Entertainment) cable channel yesterday. 

Now I need to go to bed and just forget to wake up. 

Honestly? Is that true??

[SpoonfulOSugar]

2 minutes ago, MamaJunebug said:

I did not make that up. It was part of a news headline crawl on AWE (A Wealth of Entertainment) cable channel yesterday. 

Now I need to go to bed and just forget to wake up. 

Honestly? Is that true??

@laPapessaGiovanna has started a thread about this in Quiver Full of Politics.  

I've asked that the threads be merged.

[Imagine20]

I don't know much about Shias, but was this even requested by Iran?  Art is culture. I remember seeing a niqabi and her husband in the Uffizi Gallery a few years ago. 

Just because things are one way in Iran doesn't mean they expect the entire world to be sanitized to conform to modesty standards. 

Iran is just happy sanctions are gone. 

[MamaJunebug]

Thank you!

[Arete]

 In Greece the term for this is "douloprepia", or "the manners of slaves".  It refers to anyone who debases themselves to curry favor with someone perceived as more powerful, but is especially used against politicians who display demeaning behavior toward foreign powers.  Someone needs to go down for this.  You can bet that whatever the Iranians may have asked for, they are going home with a big political victory in getting the Italian government to debase its heritage in that way, without them having to do a thing.

The fascists are also going to make political hay out of this.

 

Apologies for the italics.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

7 hours ago, Imagine20 said:

I don't know much about Shias, but was this even requested by Iran?  Art is culture. I remember seeing a niqabi and her husband in the Uffizi Gallery a few years ago. 

Just because things are one way in Iran doesn't mean they expect the entire world to be sanitized to conform to modesty standards. 

Iran is just happy sanctions are gone. 

I don't think Iran required it. Sometimes that particular leftist flavour that's prevalent in the government's coalition tends to do political correctness way too extremely. Anyway we will never know for sure. Also the stupidity is great,  there are plenty of museums in Rome, if they wanted they could make him visit something without naked women's statues. From what I gathered they not only covered the Venere Capitolina and another one,  but also they closed the hall of the Ratto delle Sabine (kidnapping of the Sabine), too many naked women. 

6 hours ago, AreteJo said:

 In Greece the term for this is "douloprepia", or "the manners of slaves".  It refers to anyone who debases themselves to curry favor with someone perceived as more powerful, but is especially used against politicians who display demeaning behavior toward foreign powers.  Someone needs to go down for this.  You can bet that whatever the Iranians may have asked for, they are going home with a big political victory in getting the Italian government to debase its heritage in that way, without them having to do a thing.

The fascists are also going to make political hay out of this.

 

Apologies for the italics.

We say "cultural prostitution". I like your version a lot.