Italy's favourite son, finally moving out - The Florentine

6
Thursday 7 September 2006 News
www.theflorentine.net
National NEWS
News in BRIEF
Left extends a humane
hand to Immigration
The broad outline of new immigration
legislation has emerged, designed to
reform laws introduced by the previous
centre-right government. The
measures approved by Silvio Berlusconi’s
administration in 2002 in a
bid to crack down on illegal immigration
have proved highly controversial,
drawing criticism from unions, immigrant
rights groups and the Catholic
Church. Even the centre left says the
tough legal limits put on numbers have
simply not worked. The United Nations
Refugee Agency and Amnesty International
has also expressed reservations
over provisions for refugees and
asylum-seekers.
According to Minister of the Interior
Giuliano Amato, Prodi’s administration
is currently considering new
immigration legislation that would
provide two main channels through
which workers from outside the EU
could enter Italy. The fi rst would
be reserved for qualifi ed personnel
from abroad, such as doctors or
engineers, who could be requested
specifi cally by Italian fi rms or institutions.
The second channel would
involve people who want to come to
Italy to work as domestic or manual
labourers. These people would apply
to Italian diplomatic missions abroad
and receive minimum training before
being able to enter Italy and look for
work. This idea contrasts with the key
provision of existing laws that insist
on an applicant having a job contract
before a residency permit is issued.
Can nuke power tread softly?
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo
D’Alema stated recently that Iran’s
desire to develop nuclear energy is
‘legitimate,’ provided the goal of the
program is for ‘peaceful purposes.’
‘We must work so that Iran does not
build a nuclear weapon,’ he said. The
comments by Italy’s top diplomat
came one day before a deadline set
by the UN Security Council for Iran to
halt its uranium enrichment work. If it
does not meet this deadline, Iran will
face possible sanctions. The group
of six major powers negotiating the
Iranian nuclear standoff – the United
States, France, Britain, Russia, China
and Germany – have made the suspension
of uranium enrichment work
a pre-condition for opening talks on
expanding cooperation with Iran.
When in Rome
The once majestic mausoleum of
Roman Emperor Augustus is to be
spruced up and opened to the public
in a bid to add a new ‘must-see’ to
the Eternal City’s tourist itinerary. The
burial site, one of the most sacred
monuments in ancient Rome, is the
biggest circular mausoleum known to
exist. Rome council offi cials say that
the area surrounding the mausoleum
must be revamped as well, with an
underpass removing car traffi c so that
visitors can walk through gardens to
a balcony overlooking the Tiber river.
An international competition for plans
to renovate the monument and its
surroundings is already under way.
The winner, who will oversee the
20-million-euro project, is due to be
announced in November.
Venice goes Hollywood
Film festival now has to outshine Roman stars
The world’s oldest
cinema festival
is well underway
in Venice. This
year it has dropped
its traditional ‘artsy’
cloak and brought
Hollywood hot-shots
into the main competition,
rather than
relegating them to
other sections or midnight
showings. Films
include Brian De Palma’s
Black Dahlia,
from the acclaimed
James Ellroy novel. It kicked off the
festival with a gala opening Wednesday
night graced by jury chief, Catherine
Deneuve and Dahlia star
Scarlet Johanssen, among others.
Murder, mystery, Hollywoodland,
about the suicide of 1950s Superman
star George Reeves (played by
Ben Affleck), will vie with Dahlia
for the Golden Lion award.
For the first time, all 21 of the
Lion-bidders are world premieres.
Gianni Amelio’s La Stella Che Non
C’è and Emanuele Crialese’s Nuovomondo
(‘The Golden Door’) are two
Italian films up against heavy hitters
like Oliver Stone’s World Trade
Center, Alain Resnais’s long-awaited
return, Private Fears in Public
Places, Alfonso Cuaron’s Children
of Men and Stephen Frears’s The
Queen. Venice has long seen itself
as a laidback alternative to highstrung
Cannes, pundits say, but it
has upped its game recently with
Rome’s fall festival breathing down
its neck. ‘We had 23
Oscar nominees last
year and we expect
to have many more
this time around,’ said
Venice festival director
Marco Mueller as
the curtain quivered
over 60 treats like
David Lynch’s Inland
Empire, Manoel de
Oliveira’s Belle Toujours
- an updating
of the Bunuel classic
Belle de Jour - and
Spike Lee’s When The
Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four
Acts.
Buffs are also slavering over Kenneth
Branagh’s The Magic Flute,
Ethan Hawke’s The Hottest Stage
and Douglas McGrath’s star-studded
Truman Capote biopic Infamous
(starring Sigourney Weaver,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini,
Daniel Craig, Sandra Bullock
and Peter Bogdanovich .
Mueller viewed more than 1,400
films in all - 300 more than last
year - before settling on 60 picks
from 27 countries, including Thailand
and Chad, in competition for
the first time. Film industry experts
think the Venice festival, which runs
from August 30 to September 10,
has turned up the wattage in a bid
to outshine the first edition of the
Rome event, which will feature 80
films - its focus on the paying public
- and three premieres. (ANSA)
For name’s sake
New battles for feminist law-makers
Women parliamentarians have recently presented 13 different
bills—ten to the House and three to the Senate—to change a law
that blocks children from taking their mother’s name unless the father
is unknown. Parliament is slated to discuss the issue when it opens
after the summer recess. The bills feature a wide range of possible
ways of breaking with hundreds of years of tradition. Some propose
that parents choose which family name to give their child at birth, as
in Britain. Others suggest a dual-surname system be adopted, with
children taking one surname from both parents, as in Spain.
Female lawmakers are confident that enough bipartisan support
can be garnered to overcome conservative opposition, which has
blocked change in the past, especially since the April elections won
by the centre left saw the number of women in parliament increase
sharply. Italy’s parliament now contains a record 148 female senators
and deputies, up from 95 in the last legislature.
Italy’s Supreme Court and Constitutional Court have both criticized
the current system and called on parliament for reform. In February,
the Constitutional Court described it as a ‘dated legacy of a
patriarchal concept of the family that is no longer consistent with the
constitutional principle of equality between men and women.’ It also
pointed out that the current legislation goes against several international
conventions and recommendations by the European Council.
The Constitutional Court made its call for reform after deciding that
the law left a no scope to overrule Milan city council’s refusal to allow
a couple to give their daughter her mother’s surname.
TROOPS BACKED
BY BOTH SIDES
Italians lead UN
mission in Lebanon
Romano Prodi
An advance contingent of
some 1,000 Italian soldiers
has left for Lebanon to take part
in a United Nations peacekeeping
mission which the government
said will be among the
most diffi cult since the end of
the Second World War. The
fl agship of the Italian fl eet and
four other Navy ships arrived in
Lebanon last week after a farewell
ceremony off the southern
port of Brindisi also attended by
Premier Romano Prodi. ‘This mission
has helped create a moment
of profound unity in the country,’
said the premier, stressing that
‘all political parties, without distinction,
the majority as well as
the opposition’ supported Italian
participation in the multinational
force.
The Italian contingent has
been deployed to cover an area
measuring 15 by 20 kilometres
between the Litani river on the
north and the western coasts.
The peacekeeping force will enter
southern Lebanon under UN
Resolution 1701, which requires
the militant group Hezbollah and
Israel to end their military operations
and obliges Israel to withdraw
its troops as soon as the
UN troops arrive. UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan recently told
a meeting of European Union foreign
ministers, called to decide
on European participation, that
France will lead the multinational
force until February 2007, after
which command will pass to Italy.
Italy has offered to deploy up to
3,000 soldiers, while France has
promised to bring the number of
its troops up to 2,000. The Italian
government has earmarked 186.8
million euros for the mission until
the end of the year, with 30 million
euros allotted to humanitarian aid
and reconstruction efforts.