Friday, September 25, 2009

The Leviathan of Libido

The sexual scandals of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are bordering on bizarre, say Sutanu Guru & Saurabh Kumar Shahi

During an electoral rally in 2006:

“I will try to meet your expectations and I promise from now on, two and half months of absolute sexual abstinence until Election Day on April 9”

During a meeting with New York Stock Exchange officials and investors in 2003:

“Italy is now a great country to invest in…today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one…Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries…superb girls”

While denying in June, 2009 that he paid an ‘escort’ money to spend the night with him:

“I have never paid a woman…I have never understood what satisfaction there is if the pleasure of conquest is absent”

You have guessed wrong. These outrageous statements have not been made by a Hollywood star or a punk brat who has made waves in the world of rap music. Nor is he a Richard Branson style flamboyant entrepreneur who loves to flaunt ‘beautiful’ women even as he makes billions. Nor is he the promoter of a soft porn Empire a la Hugh Heffner.

He happens to be Silvio Berlusconi, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Italy, arguably the most economically prosperous and successful country of Europe in recent times. And yes, God knows how many males across the world who seek salvation and resurrection of a different kind through Viagra will be flaming red with envy when they get to know that Berlusconi is almost 75-years-old.

As life expectancy grows around the world, Berlusconi is living proof that carnal expectations seem to be inextricably linked. This media tycoon turned right-wing politician has a knack of getting away with virtually anything. He flirts flagrantly with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He casually and contemptuously insults leaders of other countries and claims he was just joking. And he wins elections. It seems that voters in Italy have consistently chosen to overlook the vaudeville escapades of their leader; perhaps just as American citizens rewarded Bill Clinton with unprecedented approval ratings after he was almost impeached for his White House dalliances with the intern Monica Lewinsky.

But this theatre of the absurd might just be beginning to unravel for Berlusconi. In May, 2009, his long suffering second wife Veronica Lario publicly announced that she was filing for divorce. The last straw apparently was Berlusconi attending the birthday party of 18-year-old Noemi Letizia, a ‘bombshell’ who loves to call him papa and loves even more to spend time with him. Letizia is sure that ‘Papa’ will sponsor her career either as a showgirl or a politician (Berlusconi created a storm this year when he nominated young and attractive girls to contest elections for the European Parliament. He has gone on record to say that right-wing women politicians are “more beautiful and that the Left has no taste even when it comes to women”).

Berlusconi's wife lamented that the Prime Minister of Italy had not even bothered to attend the 18th birthday bash of his own son and claimed she “cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors… and is not well”. Since then, newspapers and other media outlets have unleashed a frenzy of stories of the escapades of Berlusconi. The Man has retaliated by suing many of them but has failed to stop the growing tide of titillating stories about his adventures. And finally, it does appear that voters in Italy might just be getting tired of all this theatre.

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative