WTI Magazine #20    2014 Mar, 7
Author : Francesca Papasergi      Translation by:

Paolo Sorrentino has just brought his Academy Award home and the city he filmed so fondly already has "The Great Beauty Tour" among its itineraries.

The whole country is living a deep crisis but Rome seems to concentrate every shade of the Italian pros and cons. In a nutshell, the capital ran out of money. The national government had to settle a new, urgent law to fix this issue. Otherwise, the mayor Ignazio Marino couldn't have paid any salary.

Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid: all the largest cities in Europe have a special status. Rome has it on the Constitution (Roma Capitale) but the actualization of those rules hasn't been put into effect yet. Usually, governments focus more resources on their capital cities, because of their role and consideration both in domestic and international affairs. This doesn't happen with Rome. Even if the Parliament, the Government, all the ministries and four different diplomatic missions for each and every country of the world are established in the Eternal City, not to mention its cultural and historical influence, Rome doesn't get any special treatment.

Many years of arguable administration, a widespread corruption and a nepotistic, abnormal recourse to public hiring reduced Rome on the edge of bankruptcy. Considering both the Municipality and the city-owned companies the city employs over 62.000 people, too many. Cities are not the only stakeholders of these public corporations, but the so called "municipalizzate" have always been politicians' hunting grounds. When they don't reach their political objective, many of them get their "consolation prize" with well-paid, managerial positions in these companies. In some cases, they were used to guarantee a job to family members, friends and acquaintances. This wicked cycle should have never started or, at least, shouldn't have lasted so long. Nowadays the city is paying the consequences with poor quality public services and higher local taxes on the way.

The glorious, marvelous city the world admires since forever deserves better. Romans deserve better, not only because calling them all corrupted would be incorrect but also because the funds the government allocated for the city bail-out come from the taxes that Romans paid. Romans have talent, beauty and greatness in their past; they are living a mediocre present. They only need to find better administrators and politicians for their future.

It's not easy, but the peculiarities of this search are the interesting and challenging part: beauty is never easy. You can imagine how difficult it is when it's great.