Happy New Year (and a sixth wish)

A very happy new year it is, with the first of my wishes (see my earlier post) having already come true!

Yes, this is not a dream. Exactly 12 hours after I posted my wish for Fazio's resignation in this blog, the magic happened, and for once Italy got back a part of its dignity.

Why only a part? in order to answer, you should know the background of this story, here is a good summary.

Let me try to explain the basics to you if you still think you are not familiar enough. Warning: what follows (in italics) is a complex and boring attempt of an explanation for an extremely complex financial operation. The story is also typically representative of what happens in Italy with this sort of stuff, so skip if if you have stomach problems.

A foreign bank wants to buy an Italian bank and makes a hostile buyout offer. It practically offers a certain amount of money to all the shareholders in exchange for their stock, and if the majority of them accept it will take the bank over regardless of the bank's administration council's will (hence the term "hostile").

The two banks in question are ABN AMRO, the Netherlands' biggest bank group and one of the largest in Europe, and Antonveneta, which is facing difficult times due to its overpaid and inept management structure.

Now what happens just a bit later is that a much smaller Italian bank (called BPI), led by a suspicious chap with loads of friends sitting at strategic places in government buildings, makes the same kind of offer. Everyone is surprised by this, since BPI is really small, and people with a grain of salt in the brain are starting to ask where they may be getting the monies for such a big buyout.

Now, surprise surprise, it turns out that Mr. Fiorani was allegedly getting monies by cheating ordinary people who had simply trusted his bank. In the meantime, Fazio was passing him confidential info during the obligatory bid assessment that the Bank of Italy has to carry out.

Ok, the thing is much more complex than that, but anyway Fazio had two basic choices:
- if he was aware of what was going on, he should have resigned (since he was basicaly participating in a crime);
- if he was not aware what was going on, he should have resigned (since he should have known about these facts).

Now this should have happened half a year earlier, not after judges issue an investigation warrant against him. So only part of Italy's dignity was recovered. But better late than never.

So my first wish has come true before Christmas. This entitles me to a sixth wish to add to the list of five. This is a big one, so I'm aware that it's going to stay in the wish list. But I'm an optimistic person, so I'll put it out.

6) See Italy lead an international alliance for the reconciliation of Israel and Palestine.

This means active reconciliation, in terms of common development projects, investments, infrastructure development for basic freedom of movement and an airport for the Gaza strip and West Bank that is co-financed by Europe and Israel. It also means sharing intelligence targeted to the final defeat of Hamas and all other similar organizations who criminally exploit poor and uneducated people in in order to carry out terrorist attacks against a democratic country in the name of religion.

And what is your wish? Let me hear that in the comments section!

Happy new year!