"Inglaterra sta molto, molto male !!"

Adapted from: Dalrymple, Theodore. Our Culture, What's Left of It, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.

"The Uses of Corruption"

page 197.

"When I worked in East Africa, I saw an instructive contrast between an Italian and a British construction project within a few miles of each other.

"The British construction workers were drunken, violent, debauched, and dirty, without shame or dignity.

"Utterly egotistical, yet without much individuality, they wrecked hugely expensive machinery when drunk, without a moment's regret, and responded with outrage when reprimanded.

"They intimidated their managers, who made little attempt to control them.

"They were truly representative of a population that has lost any pride in itself or in what it does, and that somehow contrives to be frivolous without gaiety.

"By contrast the Italians were hardworking, disciplined, and clean, and could enjoy themselves in a civilized way even in the African bush, drinking without drunkeness or that complete loss of selfc- control characteristic of today's British.

"Unlike the British they never became a nuisance to the local population, and everyone saw them as people who had come to do a job of work.

"At once more social and more self - reliant than their British counterparts, they were men whose dignity had not been destroyed by a culture of dependence."