Quantcast
Channel: Italy – Coffee House
Viewing all 63 articles
Browse latest View live

The bleak calculation made by the passengers on the Ezadeen

0
0

Well, thank God they made it. The Ezadeen, formerly a livestock carrier and now adapted for its human cargo of 360 people, has arrived today at Corigliano Calabro near Lecce. The Italian coastguard, which brought the vessel into port, has been conspicuously humane in its treatment of the refugees. The newborns are to have the best of care; the other migrants – abandoned, it would seem, by the crew at some point in the voyage from Turkey – have been given a courteous reception, rather than treated as criminals.

Yet these 360 Syrians follow the 796 individuals, many also from Syria and from Eritrea, abandoned by the crew of their ship earlier this week. And that is in turn part of a larger picture whereby 150,000 migrants arrived in Italy in just this last year; in Europe as a whole it was 230,000. God knows what bleak circumstances forced them to put themselves in the hands of the traffickers but I’m not sure that readers of this magazine, in the same circumstances, would not have at least contemplated doing exactly the same.

But we should bear a couple of things in mind about this grisly traffic. The Syrians now arrived in Italy paid between $4,000 and $6,000 for their passage. Many of those on deck were young and seem relatively fit. We are not talking here about the huddled masses, the human debris of the Lebanese or Jordanian refugee camps, but the more prosperous of those displaced by the conflicts in Syria and Eritrea.

If we, Europe, were to take the neediest refugees it might not be these. And if their efforts are rewarded with permanent residency in Europe, ultimately with citizenship, and in the case of those who get to Sweden, with the right to bring their families with them, then the gamble will have paid off. They have jumped the queue ahead of those perhaps more deserving of refuge abroad. They made a rational calculation about the terrible risks of going to sea with criminal traffickers and, more fortunate than those who died during the year crossing the Mediterranean (an estimated 3,500), they got lucky.

There isn’t any mystery about the demand side of this calculation but we can alter the balance of risk and reward for others making the same decision. And rather than encouraging other unfortunates from these hellholes to risk their lives, to benefit Tunisian and Libyan criminals, we should make it clear that there are limits to the rewards to be gained by making the crossing. There must be a time limit during which we will keep the refugees; at present we’re actually reasonably good at taking people in but rubbish at returning them home, once the immediate risk to their lives is past.

For those from Syria, it is until the war is at an end. For those simply fleeing the turbulence and economic stagnation of African states, trying simply to better themselves, they should be returned home now. Europeans have actually been humane in their reception of migrants but they are entitled to resist the insistence of the UN agencies that they must take in hundreds of thousands more, in response to these conflicts. And they, we, must be far more effective in returning refugees to their countries of origin. Otherwise, far more Syrians will make the same calculation as the unfortunate passengers on the Ezadeen, and may not be so lucky.

And if ever there were an argument for throwing every diplomatic resource we have at the war in Syria – right down to doing business with Iran and Russia – I can’t think of a better one than the pitiful spectacle of those passengers, abandoned at sea.

The post The bleak calculation made by the passengers on the Ezadeen appeared first on Coffee House.


Greece may soon face a humanitarian crisis of its own

0
0

Normally, the phrase ‘continent in crisis’ is hyperbole. But it seems appropriate today as we contemplate the situation Europe, and more specifically the EU, finds itself in. In the next few days, Greece could default, triggering its exit from the single currency and financial disruption across the Eurozone. Meanwhile, Rome is on the verge of unilaterally issuing Mediterranean migrants travel documents enabling them to travel anywhere in the Schengen area because—as Nicholas Farrell reports in the magazine this week—Italy simply cannot cope with many more arrivals.

Those involved in the British government’s preparations for a Greek exit put the chances of it at 50:50. If Greece did leave, which would be in its medium term interests, it would trigger a period of chaos that would be so bad, I’m told, that there would need to be humanitarian aid sent to the country.

In these circumstance, it is perhaps unsurprising that David Cameron setting out the UK’s renegotiation demands won’t dominate Thursday’s EU summit. But there is actually a danger that the whole process is moving too quickly. For the events in Greece could end up reshaping how both the EU and the Eurozone work, providing Cameron with the opportunity to secure far more radical changes to the terms of Britain’s EU membership. It would be foolish for Cameron to strike any deal before we have seen how the Greek crisis resolves itself.

The post Greece may soon face a humanitarian crisis of its own appeared first on Coffee House.

Does anybody still believe that the EU is a benign institution?

0
0

Ever since Margaret Thatcher U-turned in the dying days of her premiership, there has been a kind of agreement between Left and Right on what the European Union is. Most Conservatives followed the late-vintage Thatcher. They stopped regarding the EU as a free market that British business must be a part of, and started to see it as an unaccountable socialist menace that could impose left-wing labour and environmental policies on a right-wing government.

As many critics have said, the Tory version of British nationalism that followed had many hypocrisies. It did not want foreigners infringing national sovereignty when they were bureaucrats in Brussels but did not seem to mind them when they were generals at Nato or economists at the WTO.

Tory nationalism, however, did succeed in provoking a reaction. Leftists decided to approve of the EU for the same reasons conservatives denounced it. Generally, we are against nationalism, because it incites groundless prejudice. We are in favour of minimum protections for workers and trying to limit global warming. If our government does not enforce them, we do not care overmuch if a super-national institution takes on the job. Better a solution of dubious democratic legitimacy than no solution at all.

Overwhelmingly you found people who understood the idealism that drove the European Union on the British centre-left. Most people in Britain do not because Hitler and Stalin did not occupy Britain. We never experienced communism or fascism as every country in Europe did with the exception of Switzerland and Sweden. British nationalism feels more plausible than its continental counterparts do because our state never collapsed before an invading army. Nor are we trying to escape a discredited past as the Greeks are trying to escape the memory of the Colonels, or Spain is trying to escape the memory of Franco, or Ireland is trying to escape the memory of British colonialism or Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe the memory of Soviet imperialism.

There’s a second reason for British exceptionalism that hardly anyone points out. Not because of a special virtue in the British, but because we have an independent civil service, corruption is rare here. In Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and Greece, the spoils system guarantees bad government. As the Spanish political scientist Víctor Lapuente Giné argued, in a mid-sized Spanish city, the party that wins local elections can give senior posts to hundreds of people. Their clients need to get rich quick, in case they lose their jobs at the next election, and a new set of thieves from a rival party move in. In these circumstances, government from distant Brussels can appear more honest than government by the crooks down the road .

Europe brings peace, then. Europe brings a break from a totalitarian past. Europe brings compassionate environmental and labour policies. Europe brings relatively uncorrupted government. No wonder the centre-left admires it.

The Euro crisis is breaking down old certainties. Looked at from an economic perspective, the Euro is such an insanely right-wing project it is a wonder British Tories aren’t endorsing it. It locks incompatible countries into the single currency. They cannot devalue to give their industries a chance of competing against Germany and the rest of northern Europe. Indeed their membership of the Euro drags down the export costs of their northern European competitors. In addition, their central banks cannot deal with unsustainable debts by inflating them away. All they can do is go along with EU demands for austerity and more austerity and see the welfare states and labour protections the Left has struggled for a century to build destroyed in the process.

If Greece were still an independent country, the International Monetary Fund would never have allowed it to fall into its great depression. It would have told it to renounce most of its debts, devalue the drachma and then impose austerity so it did not fritter away the benefits of its newly competitive position. Instead, Greece and the rest of southern Europe has had austerity and only austerity without purpose, without end, without hope.

As the cruelty of a 25 per cent cut in GDP and a 50 per cent youth unemployment rate drags on, as the absurdity of expecting a country to repay debts that no country could repay continues, the old, vague leftish assumption that the EU is a benign institution is dying.

Europe brings peace. Is that so? It is becoming obvious that you cannot have the economics of the Great Depression without having the politics of the Great Depression. Tsipras’s Greek Marxists and Marine le Pen’s French ‘post-fascists’ may seem moderate when set against the men and women who will come after them if this crisis does not end. Far from quelling nationalism, meanwhile, the Euro has incited it. People who were rubbing along perfectly well in the early 1990s, now look on each other with an emotion close to hatred. Greeks, Italians and Spaniards wonder why Germans, Finns and the Dutch insist that they must suffer. The Germans, Finns and Dutch wonder why southern Europeans expect to live off their taxes.

Europe brings a break from a totalitarian past. Really? It has created a currency system, which offers no democratic means of escape. Europe brings compassionate and sensible politics. Spare me, please. Nothing I believe has been more shocking to left-wing opinion that the failure of the EU’s leaders to stop and say: ‘We are good Europeans who believe in solidarity and common decency. The levels of misery our policies are inflicting on southern Europe are intolerable. We cannot carry on like this.’

I suppose the best you can say is that Draghi’s European Central Bank and Merkel’s Christian Democrats are not noticeably corrupt. But I would rather have a corpulent Catholic mayor, his pockets stuffed with petty bribes for services rendered, than an unbending Calvinist prig, who would drive millions to ruin to placate his merciless god. And I suspect many others would too.

The growing awareness on the Left that the EU is turning everything we thought was true about it on its head will have political consequences. In Britain’s case, the change in perspective will make it is more than likely that there will be significant left-wing support for a ‘No’ vote in the European referendum.

Meanwhile here and everywhere else in Europe the moral superiority, which accompanied the European project, will be attacked from the left as well as the right. The EU, which was once seen as an institution which pointed a way to a better future, will be denounced with the same venom as the United States was denounced under the Bush presidency.

As Europeans’ hopes of escape from a terrible past are replaced by fears of an unconscionable present, the EU will be portrayed, with some truth, as a cruel, fanatical and stupid institution. Unless, that is, it changes and changes fast.

The post Does anybody still believe that the EU is a benign institution? appeared first on Coffee House.

Frexit and Italexit? Support for the EU dwindles in France and Italy

0
0

Various freak political events—the unexpected Tory election victory, the rise of Ukip—have conspired to allow Britain to hold its referendum on the EU this week. But if the rest of Europe were asked, what would they say? The Berlin-based Bertelsmann Foundation commissioned a study of 11,000 people in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland to find out their attitudes towards Brexit and to the EU.

Just 41 per cent of French and 54 per cent of Germans want us to stay. The Spanish are most keen for Britain to Remain, with 64 per cent opposing Brexit, followed by Poland with 61 per cent.

But the survey also revealed that French and Italian referendums on EU membership would lead to very slim majorities in favour of remaining: 52 per cent and 54 per cent respectively are in favour of their country staying in.

A few weeks ago, a poll suggested that Sweden would follow Britain out of the EU. With the UK opinion polls in the balance, Jean-Claude Juncker will perhaps be wishing he had given David Cameron something resembling a decent deal. If Britain leaves, there really is no telling what would happen next.

The post Frexit and Italexit? Support for the EU dwindles in France and Italy appeared first on Coffee House.

Spare a thought for the proud Brits denied tomorrow’s vote

0
0

I live in Italy at the heart of the European Union and have witnessed first hand how the euro has destroyed La Dolce Vita and reduced the Italian economy to basket case status. But even though I am a British citizen and probably better equipped than most to see just how awful the EU is, I am not allowed to vote in the referendum tomorrow. Why? Because I have not been registered to vote in the UK within the past 15 years.

I may live abroad but I remain proudly British. I fly a Union Jack – bought in a ship’s chandlers in the port of Ravenna where the exiled poet Dante died in 1321 – from the aerial of my Land Rover Defender. It’s the vehicle I use to ferry my six young Anglo-Italian children around the mosquito-infested Italian countryside on the Adriatic coast where we live and in which every now and again I sing ‘Rule Britannia’. They find it hilarious. The Union Jack, let’s face it, is the most beautiful flag in the world and the very sight of it irritates the Italians, which is an added bonus.

So to be denied the vote by my country – Great Britain – on the most important decision we have been asked to make since the Second World War is quite frankly a scandal. Other serious democracies – such as America for example – do not deny their citizens who live abroad the right to vote. Ever. Not even Italy does.

But if it is scandalous that I am denied the vote, then it is sure as heck even more scandalous that something like half a million Irish citizens who just happen to live in Britain can vote in this referendum. And what about the Commonwealth citizens resident in Britain, such as Cypriots, Maltese and even Nigerians and Pakistanis, who also have the vote. And so, too – without even setting foot in Britain – do the 30,000 citizens of tiny Gibraltar, just a stone’s throw from Africa. Why should all these foreigners (they total about 3.5 million) have the vote in this British referendum when I do not?

And I am not alone. What about the entire bloc of disenfranchised British expats? There are an estimated 4.5 million British citizens living abroad (of whom 1.3 million are in the EU), according to the United Nations, and under that 15-year rule, as many as two million of them like me are denied a vote in the referendum. The British electorate totals 46 million, and so our expat vote might well have decided the matter, especially in the event of a low turn-out.

Last month, an attempt by two expats to overturn the 15-year rule failed when Britain’s Supreme Court rejected their application for reasons which remain, at least to me, extremely unclear.

On my passport, these days – a tedious mauve instead of the rather fine navy blue of old – are written the words ‘European Union’ above ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’. So what am I? A European, or an Englishman? In case you were wondering, I was born in London and educated at King’s Canterbury and Gonville & Caius College Cambridge. How British is that?

What the Supreme Court ruled – if I understand it correctly – is this: yes, inside the EU there is free movement of people, but there is not free movement of votes, so if you exercise your right to free movement, you forfeit your right to vote. But what kind of a ‘country’ or ‘democracy’ does that make the European Union?

One of the appellants to the court, Harry Shindler, 94, lives just down the Adriatic coast from me. He was a private with the 8th Army as it fought its way up the Italian peninsula to liberate Italy and Europe from the Nazis between 1943 and 1945. In 2014, Shindler received the MBE for his tireless work helping the families of British soldiers who died in the Italian Campaign locate where their relatives had died.

Thanks to the arbitrary 15-year rule, this old soldier who fought to free Europe from dictatorship cannot now vote in what David Cameron defines as a ‘once in a generation decision’, and which I would define as the most important political decision of the 21st century.

I could become an Italian citizen (anyone can after ten years) if I filled in a load of forms and waited another ten years or so for the Italian state to get round to rubber stamping them. After all, I have an Italian wife and we have six small children, who I insist are British even though they cannot speak much English. I could then – if still compos mentis – vote in Italian general elections till the cows come home. But who in their right mind would want to become an Italian? Certainly not me.

I love Europe, the Mediterranean in particular, and came to live in Italy in the nineties to make a living as an author and journalist. But I have come to despise the EU, because of the economic and cultural devastation it has caused to the Mediterranean in the name of its Holy Grail of ever-closer political union. The EU is quite literally destroying entire nations, which should actually not shock us because that is, as a matter of fact, its raison d’etre.

I have lived here for 20 years and the writing was on the wall as soon as the euro arrived: the price of everything that matters in life such as booze, fags and coffee doubled overnight (wages did not go up of course). Every time I see one of those dreary blue EU flags on a public building in Italy, I just want to tear it down. The faceless unelected Euro-elite cannot even create a decent flag, so what hope do they have of creating a harmonious United States of Europe? It would be a recipe for even more disaster. Their only hope now is to impose it by force, and that is terrifying.

No citizen of any European country, I am willing to bet, defines themselves as a European, or ever will. The peoples of the EU do not even speak the same languages. Having sleep-walked into the euro, everyone in Italy at least now seems to understand that without political union, a single currency cannot and will not survive unless the Germans pay off the monstrous debts of the Mediterranean Eurozone countries, which they won’t. Meanwhile, these countries are condemned to permanent economic crisis because they no longer have their own currency and are therefore powerless to do anything meaningful to alleviate their misery.

No wonder, after nearly a decade of economic slump in Italy since the big crash of 2007/8, the Italians are the second most Eurosceptic EU nation after the British, and 48pc of them – according to the most recent poll – would vote to leave the EU if they were granted a referendum.

I would, too, if only I were allowed to vote. I may live in continental Europe, but I am a Brexiteeer born and bred because I care more about democracy and liberty than money. The cost to my identity as an Englishman and what that means is far too high a price to pay for a fistful of euros.Yes, of course, as a Briton abroad there are economic risks to me if Britain leaves the EU, in terms of my pension and health-care rights, for example. But so what? What’s the point of all that jazz if there’s no democracy, no liberty and no work?

Britain may not be in the eurozone, but if the nation votes to Remain, we will still be yoking ourselves to this vast anti-democratic disaster zone teetering on the brink of economic and political chaos.  They have taken away my vote but they cannot take way the Union Jack on the radio antenna of my Land Rover Defender. Evviva Boris! Evviva Brexit! And dare I add from the mosquito infested swamps of Ravenna where the poet Dante died in exile: ‘Rule Britannia!’

 

The post Spare a thought for the proud Brits denied tomorrow’s vote appeared first on Coffee House.

Austria and Italian voters could plunge the EU into crisis

Renzi concedes defeat in Italian referendum and resigns as PM; the Eurozone is heading for a fresh crisis

0
0
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi reacts during a joint press conference with the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance at Palazzo Chigi in Rome on November 28, 2016. European stock markets retreated on November 28, 2016, dragged down by falling banking stocks ahead of a crucial Italian referendum at the end of week. Tensions between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the EU have reached a boiling point ahead of the referendum on constitutional reform on December 4, 2016. / AFP / Andreas SOLARO (Photo credit should read ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)

Beppe Grillo says he’s ready to govern after Renzi resigns


Italy is in desperate need of a saviour

Italy will soon be haunted by its inability to reform

A Eurosceptic union is forming across Europe

What the papers say: Is time up for the EU?

Italy’s own banking crisis may be about to begin

Anis Amri’s unchecked passage across Europe is nothing short of a scandal

Berlusconi is back – and his eurozone idea isn’t completely barmy


From Italy to Sweden, Europe is dying

0
0
TOPSHOT - A Libyan coast guardsman stands on a boat during the rescue of 147 illegal immigrants attempting to reach Europe off the coastal town of Zawiyah, 45 kilometres west of the capital Tripoli, on June 27, 2017. More than 8,000 migrants have been rescued in waters off Libya during the past 48 hours in difficult weather conditions, Italy's coastguard said on June 27, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Taha JAWASHI (Photo credit should read TAHA JAWASHI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Spectator Podcast: Madness in the Med

0
0
MEDITERRANEAN SEA--NOV. 22, 2016--Members of three rescue teams, including Save the Children, work to transport 411 migrants from a smugglers boat to safe ships on Nov. 22, 2016 off the coast of Northern Libya. The migrants, of multiple nationalities, were then transported to Sicily by Save the Children. In the background is the rescue ship Minden. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Italy’s patience with the migrant charities is wearing thin

0
0
What to do about the charities who send boats to bring asylum seekers to the Italian coast? Save the Children…

Expect the Eurozone to go bananas over Italy’s election

0
0
ROME, ITALY - MARCH 04: A polling station official puts votes for the Italian General Election into a box on March 4, 2018 in Rome, Italy. The economy and immigration are key factors in the 2018 Italian General Election after parliament was dissolved in December 2017. Campaigning the right are Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia teaming up with Matteo Salvini of the Eurosceptic Lega. While on the centre-left is Mario Renzi, leader of the Democratic Party. Challenging both camps is the leader of the Five Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Italy’s Five Star Movement and the triumph of digital populism

0
0
A couple of years back, while writing my book Radicals, I secured an interview with Beppe Grillo, leader of the…
Viewing all 63 articles
Browse latest View live


Latest Images