Italian President Napolitano and Premier Renzi creates new Era

      Frank  Oct. 14, 2014 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

      This article is inspired by a photo of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who personally clean up the red carpet. At Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Oct. 14, 2014, when waiting China's Premier Li Keqiang's official visit to Italy.

       Look, 39 years old Matteo Renzi has white hair already. As a man who is in rich of rational and full of responsible, the position of Prime Minister of a country is a painstaking task, rather than as that of many others wholeheartedly enjoy political privileges and political shows. The rational action of Matteo Renzi also shows that former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who recommended Renzi as Prime Minister, was also rational. So, I say that they two creates a new Era.

       Some band's musicians were smiling, were they appreciating, or scorning? 

      Italy is a great country of ancient civilization in Europe. According to Mandarin Encyclopedia - Baike. Baidu: Italy is the cradle of European culture, it bred Roman culture and Etruscan civilization with 48 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which are the largest in all of countries worldwidely, which demonstrate the smart and diligence of the Italian people.  

      In recent years, Italy's economy is badly weakened in serious hardships.

      Feb. 22, 2014, 39 years old Matteo Renzi was appointed as Italian Prime Minister with a difficult mission to revive the economy. He said that "China and Italy are both with a glorious history, but also, are both to have a common future and the vision of development." His first official visit was China.

      June 11, 2014, in China, he said with that: "Many people think efficiency (in Italy) is not so good and China has grown very fast, so we need to study from China."

      June 15, 2014, in the interview of China's CCTV talk show, the host asked him, you were auction the public cars that were using by government officials on eBay, in the future, you will be auction other public thing else, such as, that too much government computers? He answered, no. We are just auction the cars because it has become a symbol of excessive power. The auction was not for money, but, we want to release a signal to citizens, which is different concept. The auction of cars is to make officials feel that they must be more cautious.

     The Host asked that, you want to change many of the rules of the game in Italian government public administration, I worry that you can not shake the traditional model that was inherent in 30 years. He answered that, at the beginning, it really is difficult, people also wonder that whether I dare practice? When I met with Prime Minister Li Keqiang, he showed me the directory of China's 330 reform plans, and said that China will implement 80 reform plans every year. Well, Italy also do so, a country has a history, like a bicycle, it will be balanced only in running, if stopped, it will fall.

     In 50 minutes of talk show, his replies showed quick thinking, witty and full of wisdom. I appreciated him very much.

     In the afternoon of Oct. 14, 2014, at the invitation of Matteo Renzi, China's Premier Li Keqiang,  arrived at the Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome to start his official visit to Italy. Senior officials of the Italian government, China's Ambassador to Italy, and many others greeted Li Keqiang at the airport.

    At this time of greeting Li Keqiang, Matteo Renzi personally clean up the red carpet. 

    A reporter of China captured the photo and was surprised by the pragmatic action as a Prime Minister, then cited the photo in a report. The pragmatic behaviour of Matteo Renzi was widely appreciated and the photo was widely reproduced in the website of China. 

      The rational action of Matteo Renzi make me think of my Mar. 31 2013 article that Italian President initiates a New Era of political, which was written after read 30 March 2013 article Italy: Napolitano invites 'select group' on cabinet: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has named 10 selected "wise men" to work in two separate groups to offer a policy platform to end the impasse in forming a new government. His announcement ended speculation that he might resign - a day after political parties failed to agree a coalition government following February's inconclusive election.

      I once made a comment at the start of the article: I would like to make a PROPHECY today that: Italy has sounded the death knell for absurd partisan politics. 

      Today, after learnt that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi personally clean up the red carpet, I produce an idea that President Napolitano and Premier Renzi creates new Era for Italy. 

      People are advocating democratic system that based on the partisan battle. However, people seem to have ignored a vital problem, that is, parties or we may say that most of forms people grouping have been acting as garbage absorber to accumulate of irrational people who are brain defects, to help them gain social power and obtain the energy that cannot achieved as individuals, and even the power of State Apparatus to ruin this world.

     With the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union failed, especially the collapse of the Berlin Wall in Nov. 9, 1989, marks the practice of socialism that based on the communist ideology has basically failed.

       1992, the political scientist Francis Fukuyama published the book The End of History and the Last Man. In the book, Fukuyama argues the great ideological battles between east and west were over, and that western liberal democracy had triumphed. With anti-communist protests sweeping across the former Soviet Union, that the advent of Western liberal democracy may signal the endpoint of humanity's sociocultural evolution and the final form of human government.

      20 years later, in Foreign Affairs of September/October 2014 issue, Francis Fukuyama published article with exactly the opposite point of view - America in Decay - the Sources of Political Dysfunction. In book, he completely negated their own conclusions about democracy and desperately said that the U.S. political system has decayed and has NO WAY OUT:

       ”The U.S. political system has decayed over time because its traditional system of checks and balances has deepened and become increasingly rigid. In an environment of sharp political polarization, this decentralized system is less and less able to represent majority interests and gives excessive representation to the views of interest groups and activist organizations that collectively do not add up to a sovereign American people.”

      Disappointment for American democracy, Fukuyama was not the only person with the same point of view.

      Oct. 4, 2009, the 2008 Nobel laureate in economics, Paul Krugman, the professor of the Department of Economics at Princeton University, who published article The Politics of Spite in the New York Times, said that:  

    "The guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they're against it — whether or not it's good for America." 

      "It's an ugly picture. But it's the truth. And it's a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America's real problems has to understand."  

      Prof. Paul Krugman has pointed out the absurd and irrational reality in the government of the United States. If we look back to the past, and take a look at present, it has the universal significance in the democratic government worldwide. The difference is only the matter of more or less.  

      Oct 16, 2013, I once write an article It is high time to end the partisan politics to try exploring the reason that world is increasingly chaotic.

      "MRI - Magnetic resonance imaging dynamic scans of the human brain have shown that human behavior is determined by the brain's working state. Because that human brain development varies greatly, so, people's behaviors are also a great difference. Those psychosis sufferers, depression sufferers, antisocial violence attackers, their brains all have partial atrophy from innate or latter acquired, and therefore, their brains cannot exercise properly, so that, they cannot do something rationally." For example:

     Apr. 01, 2011, the report Scans reveal differences in brain structure of antisocial teens said with that: 

     "The neuroscientists used magnetic resonance imaging to measure the size of particular regions in the brains of 65 teenage boys with conduct disorder compared with 27 teenage boys who did not display symptoms of behavioural disorder. Their findings revealed that the amygdala and insula – regions of the brain that contribute to emotion perception, empathy and recognising were strikingly smaller in teenagers with antisocial behaviour. ”

      "Even if people no significant behavioral problem as above mentioned, but, the character of each individual is also a big difference. Some people can do any thing rationally; some people are impulse and radical. Those are also due to the differences in brain development." 
      "In view of this, we must choose those people who are healthy in brain development to make decisions for the future of mankind."
      "As a simple way, the national and international decision-making bodies should be formed by those people who have obtained high rank academic qualifications, such as, the professional experts, professors, and the Nobel Prize winners, and so on." 

      "There is a teaching class is widely welcomed by young people, no matter in North America, in Europe, in China, or even in Japan, it is the Harvard course Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning. The Lecturers isMichael J. Sandel, the American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University."

      "In the article <If I ruled the world: Michael Sandel> he said that 'If I ruled the world, I would rewrite the economics textbooks. This may seem a small ambition, unworthy of my sovereign office. But it would actually be a big step toward a better civic life.' "

      Clearly，the philosopher Michael J. Sandel is surely able to think carefully and thoughtfully, and he surely is rich in compassionate, and he can surely rule the world rationally. 

      It Is Time to Kick Out Brain-Defective Politicians by MRI Scan.

      Italy is one of the earlier countries that have friendly exchanges with China.

      In 1291, the Italian Marco Polo who arrived China. Later, according to his dictation of travel experiences,Rustichello da Pisa who wrote the book of The The Travels of Marco Polo to have helped many Europeans to learn the Central Asia and China.

      In 1715, another Italian Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) who arrived China as a missionary and there he took the name Lang Shining. His skill as an artist was appreciated by the Emperor Qianlong and was invited as a painter works for the Royal Court. In 1766, the 51 years later, Castiglione who died in China, Emperor Qianlong specially issued his death edict, and gave him a special title for his enjoying the funeralas the Royal Officials. His body was buried in Beijing's foreign missionaries cemetery until today.

                           Giuseppe Castiglione   

                               Emperor Qianlong 

            Giuseppe Castiglione       http://baike.baidu.com/view/31621.htm

           Emperor Qianlong           http://baike.baidu.com/picture/119805/

              --- Frank  Oct. 14, 2014 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 

    Italian President initiates a New Era of political 

           Frank  Mar. 31 2013  in Waterloo, On. Ca.

     http://frank-waterloo.blog.163.com/blog/static/20523902920133161836368/

     I would like to make a PROPHECY today that: Italy has sounded the death knell for absurd partisan political.

                      --- Frank  Mar. 31 2013  in Waterloo, On. Ca. 

    30 March 2013, the article <Italy: Napolitano invites 'select group' on cabinet> reproted that:

    Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has named 10 selected "wise men" to work in two separate groups to offer a policy platform to end the impasse in forming a new government.

    His announcement ended speculation that he might resign - a day after political parties failed to agree a coalition government following February's inconclusive election.

     Oct. 4, 2009, the 2008 Nobel laureate in economics, Paul Krugman, the professor of the Department of Economics at Princeton University, who published article <The Politics of Spite> in the New York Times, said that:  

     "The guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they're against it — whether or not it's good for America." 

     "It's an ugly picture. But it's the truth. And it's a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America's real problems has to understand."  

     Prof. Paul Krugman has pointed out the absurd and irrational reality in the government of the United States. If we look back to the past, and take a look at present, it has the universal significance in the democratic government worldwide. The difference is only the matter of more or less.  

     Perhaps, it was that the autocratic monarchy, or one-party dictatorship, has caused too much harm to humans, people eagerly advocate democracy; some countries even actively plant multi-party democratic government everywhere by force. However, the facts are that, besides killing of the innocents and creating of chaos, they did not bring any good to our world. 
     In the world today, in concerning about the democratic government, the number of them that is worthy of appreciation is too small. As my perspective, in comparatively speaking, the government of Germany is the most rational, followed by the government of Canada. I am so sorry for that I only cited two countries, I really can not cite the good example of more. 

    Talking about the parties, Soviet writer and journalist Vasily Grossman who had incisive comment in his book <Life and Fate>:

    "Human groupings have one main purpose: to assert everyone’s right to be different, to be special, to think, feel and live in his or her own way. People join together in order to win or defend this right. But this is where a terrible, fateful error is born: the belief that these groupings in the name of a race, a God, a party or a State are the very purpose of life and not simply a means to an end. No! The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and in his right to these peculiarities."

    I appreciate the views on the parties of Vasily Grossman. In most of cases, in some of extents, parties are the tools that were wrongly used by irrational people to harm human society. Please seriously think about that, if there is no support from the partisan forces, as any separate individual would not have the ability to endanger our society.

     .......

Italy, China sign 8 billion euros in deals

  By COLLEEN BARRY 23 hours agote>

http://news.yahoo.com/italy-china-sign-8-billion-euros-deals-190148134--finance.html 

    MILAN (AP) — Italian and Chinese companies signed deals worth 8 billion euros ($10 billion) Tuesday, including an order for 50 helicopters from Italian defense giant Finmeccanica and a Chinese line of credit to Italian energy company Enel.

    The deals were the "'concrete results" of intensifying economic and cultural ties between the two countries, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told a news conference on his first day of a visit to Italy. He added that China does not want to run a trade surplus with Italy and would like to import more Italian products, citing Italian craftsmanship and technology.

    "Since Italy and China are both kingdoms of excellent food, we can strengthen exchanges: Chinese dumplings and noodles for Italian spaghetti and pizza," he quipped.

    At the signing ceremony, Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland signed a 400 million euro deal to provide helicopters to the Chinese industrial group BAIC, while the Italian investment fund FSI and the China Investment Corporation signed an agreement to co-invest up to 500 million euros each in companies promoting economic cooperation between the countries. Enel's line of credit from the Bank of China Ltd can be used for projects in and out of China.

    China is Italy's second-largest trading partner outside of Europe, with 33 billion euros in trade during the first six months of the year.

    Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has been actively seeking Chinese investment in Italy to help relaunch the moribund economy. China's state bank holds stakes in Italian carmaker Fiat, now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Telecom Italia, and the energy company Eni, among others.

    Li will attend a summit of Asian and European leaders in Milan later this week.    

Chinese buying up assets in recession-torn Italy

Website connects Italian business owners to local Chinese buyers, while Italy's bigger firms seek direct investment from mainland after PM visit

 14 October, 2014,

 http://www.scmp.com/business/economy/article/1615944/chinese-buying-assets-recession-torn-italy

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi flew to China in June with a delegation of dozens of Italian companies to help broker deals.

    Clotilde Narzisi and Luca Soliman have run the Caffe Orefici, 60 metres from Milan's iconic Duomo Cathedral, for 10 years. Forced to sell their business because of high taxes, they say their only hope now is to leave it in Chinese hands.

    "They are the only ones who are buying," said 43-year-old Narzisi during a break after the lunch-time rush of businessmen and shoppers in the heart of Italy's financial capital. "We want to sell, taxes are too high; we work eight hours a day for the state and one hour for us."

    Caffe Orefici is among the 18,000 advertisements from businesses and individuals that have been published since February last year on Vendereaicinesi.it - sell to the Chinese - a website that helps Italians, stricken by the third recession in six years, attract bids for properties, products and services from Chinese suitors.

    While Italian stores turn to the local Chinese community, the country's largest companies are seeking investments directly from the Asian giant. Italy has been China's biggest target in Europe after Britain this year, with cross-border acquisitions for US$3.43 billion.

    "We realised that an online tool to link Italians and Chinese was missing," said Simone Toppino, 35, who co-founded with his brother Alberto and Alessandro Zhou the website that has a mirror Chinese-language site Maimaiouzhou.com Bankruptcies have reached a record high in Italy this year, with more than 8,000 companies going bust in the first half in Italy, Cerved Group data shows.

    The 321,000 Chinese living in the country are better positioned as they can count on family networks rather than banks for financing, said Toppino, who is from the northwestern town of Alba.

    Prime Minister Matteo Renzi flew to China in June with a delegation of dozens of Italian companies to help broker deals. A few weeks later, Italy's state lender announced the sale of a stake in energy grids holding company CDP Reti to State Grid Corp of China for ?2.1 billion (HK$20.4 billion).

    The People's Bank of China in July disclosed stakes in some of Italy's biggest companies, Fiat, Telecom Italia and Assicurazioni Generali, adding to investments in Eni and Enel in March for a total of ?3.04 billion. Chinese global cross-border acquisitions topped US$54.3 billion this year, up 35 per cent.

    "We registered an increase in clients interested in investments in Italy last year and the trend has continued in 2014, with a growth of almost 50 per cent," said Sara Marchetta, resident partner of law firm Chiomenti in Beijing, which advised State Grid in the biggest deal in Europe for a Chinese firm this year.

    More than 90 mainland Chinese groups had a stake in Italian firms at the end of 2013, up almost 20 per cent, according to the Milan-based Italy-China Foundation, which promotes business among the two countries.

    "Confidence has returned and investing in the country is convenient because prices are very low right now and there are jewels being sold for peanuts," said Antimo Cappuccio, a Shanghai-based partner of law firm Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati.

    Direct Chinese investments in the euro zone have almost quadrupled between 2006 and 2012, the latest year for which data is available, while portfolio investments rose 60 per cent, according to data from the European Central Bank.

    The Chinese "are buying pretty much everything so I tried to put an ad as well," said Marina Cerrato, who in July last year sold her amusement arcade in Alba in less than 40 days to a Chinese family from Bologna through the Vendereaicinesi.it website. "I didn't give it away, I sold at the price I intended."

    This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Chinese buying assets in recession-torn Italy

 Putin's trip to Rome underscores Russia's special relationship with Italy 

The Russian president, who has been treated as a pariah on the world stage, is likely to receive a warmer welcome in Italy than he would elsewhere in the EU

Vladimir Putin, who is travelling to Italy on Wednesday. The Russian president’s affinity for the country and his friendship with billionaire Silvio Berlusconi are well known. Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/Itar-Tass/Corbis

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

Wednesday 10 June 2015 06.00 BST Last modified on Wednesday 10 June 2015 07.34 BST

Vladimir Putin might not have been welcome at the G7 meeting of world leaders in Germany this week, but when he touches down in Milan on Wednesday, the Russian president is likely to receive a far warmer welcome than he would in any of the other large EU countries.

Putin is travelling to Italy to visit the Russian pavilion at the expo in Milan on Russia day (the Russian Federation’s national holiday) and will then head to Rome. His itinerary includes meetings with Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, and Pope Francis, whom Putin will meet at the apostolic palace in Vatican City in late afternoon. It will be their first meeting since 2013, when Francis and the Russian leader met in St Petersburg at a G20 meeting hosted by Russia.

The presidential visit underscores Russia’s cosy relationship with Italy at a time when Putin is otherwise being treated as a pariah on the world stage. Barack Obama, the US president, warned at the G7 summit this weekthat world leaders were prepared to tighten sanctions against Russia if the conflict in Ukraine escalated.

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Putin’s affinity for Italy and his friendship with billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian premier, are so well known that the biggest news out of a critical summit in Milan last October – which included a meeting between Putin and Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine – was the late-night rendezvous between Putin and Berlusconi at the former premier’s villa that lasted until 3am.

In March, Renzi became the first European leader to be hosted in a bilateral meeting in Moscow since Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year – a meeting that was met with displeasure by the US, according to an American official at the time.

The meeting with Renzi came only days after Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition politician, was murdered near the Kremlin as he was walking home. Another Italian politician, Matteo Salvini, who heads the anti-euro anti-immigrant Northern League party, has been an outspoken critic against sanctions against Russia. The Northern League has even shepherded a movement to create a parliamentary group called Friends of Putin, which has praised the Russian leader as an essential counterweight to the Obama administration.

No Italians were included in the list of 89 EU citizens who were banned from entering Russia by Russian authorities, according to a list that was published by Finnish state broadcaster YLE earlier this month. It appeared to be another sign of the countries’ close ties.

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Giancarlo Aragona, a former Italian ambassador to Russia who heads the Italian Institute for International Political Studies thinktank, told the Guardian that Italy had maintained a dialogue with Russia but that did not contradict the fact that Italy was “fully committed” to the European policy in relation to Russia, including the implementation of sanctions and decisions related to the crisis in Ukraine.

Aragona acknowledged there was a perception that Italy was somehow “more sympathetic” to Russia than other European countries. But he added: “I think that is not really a fair representation of the situation. I think the real issue is that [the Italian government] consider the Ukrainian issue a cause of very serious tension but also a symptom of a European order, [or] European architecture, which has not found its stability at the end of the cold war.”

Aragona then added: “We see the European evolution probably more clearly and objectively than some of our European partners.”

In his interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Putin emphasised the strong trade relationship between Italy and Russia, noting that it had increased elevenfold in recent years from $4.2bn to nearly $49bn, as well as mutual interests in the energy sector and hi-tech.

While the meeting with Renzi will be closely watched, the talks between Putin and Pope Francis are sure to have Rome riveted. The Argentinian pontiff caused controversy last month when he met with Mahmoud Abbas – an encounter in which he might or might not have referred to the Palestinian president as an “angel of peace”, according to conflicting news reports. His meeting with Putin will be followed just as closely.

A report in Crux, an online news site that closely follows the Vatican, noted that Francis and Putin were something of an “odd geopolitical couple” who had formed an “improbably strong partnership”. It began after the Pope sent a letter to Putin in 2013 – before the G20 meeting in Moscow – urging leaders to find a non-military solution to the conflict in Syria. In his talk with other world leaders, Putin reportedly quoted from the pope’s letter, saying: “We might listen to the Pope.” No military action was taken.

Putin has also spoken out about the “dire” situation facing Christians in the Middle East who are being persecuted and killed – a topic that is frequently also mentioned by the pope. The pontiff has chided world leaders for seeking to diminish anti-Christian violence and the topic is likely to be raised on Wednesday.

Pope Francis has also sought to strengthen ties with the Russian Orthodox church as part of a broader aim to promote Christian unity. But he is not expected to ignore the biggest source of criticism against Putin internationally: the crisis in Ukraine. In February, the pontiff referred to the bloodshed in the ongoing war as “fratricidal”, a comment seen as controversial in Ukraine, where the violence is viewed as a direct consequence of Russian aggression.

Anatolij Babynskyj, editor of a prominent Greek Catholic journal, told Crux: “It shows the ignorance of the pope about the situation in Ukraine.”

Asked what the pope and Putin were likely to discuss at their meeting on Wednesday, the Vatican told the Guardian: “You can only speculate on the topics of the discussions.”