Two political comments

1. Elections in Britain are a more subtle and eloquent event than in the US. Strangely, I have had the chance to observe election campaigns only in countries where I do not have the right to vote. This allowed for a detached and cool-headed observation that is in a way more interesting. In the UK I was struck by the fact that citizens of the Commonwealth residents in the UK can vote for general elections. I was also struck by the smooth rhetoric style of most candidates, in clear contrast with what we see in more populist/orchestrated campaigns like in America, or by the more simpleton approach of the southern Mediterranean politicians. UK is also unique in that a major policy making for the Labour party is an aristocratic lord. The contradictions of an Empire are very much present also today, when Northern Ireland becomes a crucial factor in determining the composition of the Westminster Parliament.

2. Talking of empire, I ran into a shocking and startling series made by the BBC entitled 'Fascist Legacy'. Based on historical research and well-documented, this series exposes the atrocities committed by the Italian fascist empire. Although many have already accepted the fact that the Italians have deviated significantly from their international reputation of harmless, inapt and lazy people, the scale of the Italian war crimes overseas is appalling. It is ironic that Marshall Badoglio, condemned by the exiled Ethiopian as a war criminal, was later the leader of the anti-fascist republican government under American auspices. Evidently, some acts of imperial warfare that were completely legitimate in 1820 were not so in 1935. The silence of the League of Nations at the colonization of its member by another, proved that some atrocities could be tolerated if far enough from Geneva. The following years were a sufficient proof the impossibility of keeping the silenced, well known colonial atrocities from slowly and terribly leaking into Europe. To that the BBC series remains a constant reminder.

The Ethiopian Emperor Selassie in Jerusalem, on his way to exile in London, 1935