Italy

for the second time in two days i find myself having a meal with an italian man desperately trying to explain to me that he is not the "typical italian." i have been sent to Italy for work, yet everyone i interview seems to want to make the same point: the country is filled with useless Berlusconi loving louts, but I am different. So what is this "typical Italian" i find myself asking everyone. there is no one answer, but rather a series of negative characteristics. "They" create the impossible layers of bureaucracy. "They" make the job market so tight there is no movement and no one can ever get anywhere or achieve anything. "They" are corrupt. "They" hold meetings and talk forever about nothing. "They" refuse to take responsibility. i talk to several people who fill my ears with their desire to escape. several people tell me they want to go to Britain for work. one guy in his 20s asks if it is true that in England people can be easily sacked from their jobs, when i confirm that it is indeed very possible, his eyes positively light up with pleasure and he pleads with me to tell him how to get a job...but when i suggest he just show up in London and give it a try, he looks horrified- he cant just move to another country without something lined up, after all.
we go through different business models aimed at contrasting how things are done in italy versus England, but they are all useless, even as points of reference, the rules are just too totally different to allow such comparisons, the entire system seems to be set up with laws aimed at encouraging competition that are paradoxically so protectionist that they stifle it. analysing them makes my head spin. every meeting lasts 3 hours and ends in no resolution, and with the person i was speaking to complaining about the dilapidated state of things. based on what people tell me, it is truly amazing the country still exists. at any given moment, everything is on the verge of collapse. when my return flight gets cancelled (then cancelled again), this is held up as evidence that nothing is working, although the cancellation had nothing to do with Italy at all, but rather was caused by the heavy snow in Britain. no matter- it still shows the end is nigh. on the first day of being stranded, i decide to go for a walk, just to get some fresh air, and accidentally wander into a riot, as angry students are lighting off flares and burning things. i grab a cab, we get stuck in traffic for ages, the driver moans that the end is clearly here. he blames Berlusconi, as does everyone else i speak to. when i point out that he was elected, not once but several times, i am assured that the votes were simply bought (they coast 20 euros in the south, i am told).
yet whilst professionally, my whole trip is a disaster, i couldnt be having a better time: it is below zero and snowy in England, and i get stranded in the 18 degrees sunny weather of Rome, the food is incredible and at no point is there any reason to get stressed. i find the whole experience extremely pleasant. but the people i work with feel they are suffering...different standards maybe? or maybe italy is simply a better place to be stranded in for some days rather than for a lifetime.....