Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Facebook, Silvio Berlusconi and me

I like two things about Facebook, which I have recently started using, just out of curiosity:

1. Contact. Having read that “young” (i.e. under 40) people don’t do email any more, I “friended” a few of my actual “young”  friends and send and receive messages that way. It works!

2. Prurience. Karima El Mahroug (see previous post) is now 18 and legal as a prostitute if indeed she is one, though that may not save Mr Berlusconi because she wasn’t 18 and legal when they “friended”: Italian law can be murky but it is very clear on this. Ms El Mahroug mostly goes by the name Ruby Rubacuori (in English, “Ruby Heartstealer”) and she is on Facebook, where I learn that she is now friends with Fistagency Milano. I have no idea who or what that is, and I am certainly not going to look but – call me old-fashioned – I do not like the sound of it.

The Berlusconi story is of marginal interest in New Zealand (the Herald’s latest report is here) but anyone who has been to Italy for longer than five minutes loves it and would wish to see it better governed. A good source for in-depth reporting and long-view analysis on this is the Economist, which has been detailing Berlusconi’s personal and business corruption for years.

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