A Quantum Diaries Survivor

On. Gustavo Selva is an elderly politician of right area who recently joined Berlusconi’s new party-company, il Partito delle Liberta’. He once was a journalist, and was called “la Belva” (the beast) for the fierce attacks he used to launch on politicians of left area.

Now Gustavo Belva can be rightly scoffed for a disgusting fraud he made last June, when he found himself blocked in a big traffic jam in Rome as he was trying to reach the television studio of TV7, about to record a program which featured him as one of the guests.

What did Belva do ? He feigned a sudden collapse. An ambulance arrived to pick him up, and he soon “recovered”, and then convinced the driver to bring him to the TV studio in time for the recording. Ambulances were nearly the only vehicles that could move in the traffic in Rome that day, with George Bush visiting the city and causing a congestion due to the security measures.

Quite artful, quite italian. He even boasted about the fact later, during the recording, saying it was an ”old trick” he had learned during his career as a journalist. But even in Italy these things can raise brows. He got processed for abuse, and news today report that he has been convicted to six months (of which, of course, he will spend none in prison), plus a ridiculous fine of 200 euros. 200 ? Twenty thousand would have been more appropriate.

I wonder whether such very italian behavior will fruit him more votes at the forthcoming elections, or whether his potential voters will rather stop and think at what they can expect from such scum.