Similar Worlds

One wonders how countries can be very different when political duplicity is the same around the world. An Italian friend referred to coalition governments particularly those that brought together parties whose ideologies never mixed when each one had a strong following.  In the late eighties got the socialist party together with the communist one for a bit  but communism fell out of favour and the socialists had to look for other support. In Italy Craxi got to power but then the public discovered he knew how to spend taxpayer money to pay for a villa in Hammamet on the other side of the Mediterranean. Berluscini took advantage of the fiasco and got into the seat of power.

Rumor had it that there was a conflict of interest because of his holdings in the Rai network. Was this going to be a political leader who was not bought out by company funds, or was this a truly representative leader? People wanted to know how clean politician hands were and so their arose a movement called ‘mani puliti’ headed by di Pietro who has now entered politics. I could never figure out  how the inquiry about money mismanagement or the ‘gifts’ that politicians received came to an end. The public had heard of the judge Borsolino whose life had been taken while he was about to hold inquiries.

Here Martin was connected with Canadian Steamship and the prime minister had his ships dock in the Caribbean so he would not have to pay taxes, One might say that was his prerogative but at the same time there was a conflict of interest too. Martin was later involved in financial scandal regarding tax money and that money could not be accounted for.

Mulroony was linked to a German business man over money that he had apparently accepted. Mulrooney kept millions of dollars in a safety deposit box and took years to declare it on his tax return. The ex-prime minister denied any financial assistance from this foreign businessman but hearings are still occurring on how he got the money. In other words  the case is still before the courts and their have been denials about the government borrowing.

I am skeptical that both Canadian and foreign powers like Italy are free of certain special business deals between government officials and businessmen. I am also skeptical about how politicians can still be onus free after so many years of being involved in moneyt deals that they should have declared.