Vocal Voices

ROME, Dec 16 (Reuters) - President Giorgio Napolitano warned on Monday that Italy could be plunged into violent social unrest unless the government swiftly introduced reforms to help struggling citizens, following a week of protests in cities across the country.

With the highest debt burden in the euro zone after Greece, Italy - mired in its longest post-war recession - is closely watched by financial markets and European partners as a flashpoint for instability in the bloc.

Thousands of Italians have marched over the last week in protests fuelled by falling incomes, unemployment above 12 percent and over 40 percent among people below 25, and graft and scandals among politicians widely seen as serving their own rather than the country's interests.

I have heard not one word of this in the news. Italy is one of the major country's (and economies) in Europe, and there has been a total TV news blackout.

Ah, a recurring theme of mine - real news buried under twonk and twaddle.

Go have a look for information about this, but do not bother with BBC, Sky or ITN. The best BBC Italian story is about the Mafia operating a Christmas poinsettia scam - honestly.

Then again, the unintelligent OK!, Closer, Take a Break, TwitFace generation are not interested, so why cover it?

Thousands of Italians have marched over the last week in protests fuelled by falling incomes, unemployment above 12 percent and over 40 percent among people below 25, and graft and scandals among politicians widely seen as serving their own rather than the country's interests.

Lack of publicity for this story? Could be that the powers that be don't want thousands of Brits to get similar ideas .....

Sounds about right Ost

Another bit of news that has been considerably under-reported.


"Turkey signed a long-awaited deal with the European Union on Monday to send back people who enter the bloc illegally from its territory in exchange for talks on visa-free travel for its citizens.

The move, hailed as a "milestone" in EU-Turkish relations, comes six weeks after Ankara resumed talks to join the bloc, ending a 40-month freeze.

The EU has committed to ensuring visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in 2017 at the earliest in return for Turkey signing the agreement."

Full story here.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/turkey-signs-e ... =e#UxezgZk

So essentially the EU is committing to visa-free travel for Turks in the EU. Maybe as early as 2017 (in just over 3 years), maybe later.
So whether Turkey becomes an EU member of not, they will still have freedom of movement in the Eurozone. Freedom to come here, for example...

and not one mention of it in the mainstream news.

Ye Gods.

Same as Malta selling citizenship (and EU travel rights) for around £550,000.

So if we don't get the Turks, we get the Russian mafia .....

That flew in well under the radar..... still is.
So, eventually, we will get a new member of the EU that is mostly in Asia, is overwhelmingly Moslem and has its own little civil war going on - Turks v Kurds.
Madness!

Os, now that is interesting about Malta - I didn't know that.
Because I have read that Cyprus is essentially doing the same thing; anyone who buys a 300,000 euro house gets to be a citizen.
This is not only interesting the Russians and their notoriously dodgy money, but the Chinese as well.

I mentioned the business of countries selling citizenships a few weeks ago........

The UK is the biggest culprit - 177,600 such sales in 2011, or 22.7% of the EU total

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24940012

Oh, that's just ridiculous.
"it doesn't matter what sort of person you are, just drop a suitcase full of fivers at customs and you're in".
Disgraceful.