There were quite a few people wearing V for Vendetta masks in the streets of Rome yesterday night as Berlusconi finally resigned among shouts of “buffoon” and “go to jail”, putting a final end (is this really really final? We do hope so...) to a destructive and shameful political period in Italian history.
Undemocratic, definitely not based on meritocracy and producing the lowest economic growth rates in years, Berlusconi's government will be remembered as the government of the rich and wealthy that achieved very little or almost nothing, a government gifted with only one thing, the flip side of the Midas touch.
Yet the same V for Vendetta masks donned in the streets of Rome yesterday appeared in the last few months at other protests all over the world and they are often seen at the anti-capitalist Occupy the London Stock Exchange camp at St Paul's Cathedral.
Criticised for its disparate agenda (I do think that some of their workshops should be strengthened content and language-wise...), endorsed by Vivienne Westwood (on the lookout for inspirations? We will have to wait the A/W runways to see if Occupy London had any influence on her creative mind, but you can bet that some of the slogans seen at the camp will reappear at some point in her collection...) and by her sons Ben Westwood and Joseph Corré who often turned up there, in a way the tent protest could be seen as the embodiment of the same malaise that invaded Italy in the last few years, that is the financial success of very few people (who didn't deserve it...) and the exasperation of a large number of others (who also didn't deserve it...).
With economies barely growing, unemployment rates constantly rising and other problems such as the housing crisis I really wonder what will happen next. I guess we'd better forget the Christmas shopping lists and seriously start taking care of the real problems surrounding us.
Occupy London will hold a peace evening entitled ‘We Dare to Dream of a World at Peace’ tonight at 7pm for the Remembrance Day celebrations.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments