Italy seems to have a knack for plunging into spectacular messes. It’s not the only European country to face problems lately – quite the reverse, it seems to be a popular pastime at the moment. When things go wrong below the Alps, though, they produce perfect images for the world’s front pages. First Naples’ piles of smoking rubbish, then Silvio Berlusconi’s scores of pouting girls. And now the awesome pictures of a huge, white cruise-ship, beached like a whale off Tuscany’s charming Isola del Giglio.
The sinking of Costa Concordia has been a tragedy – more than 30 people are dead or missing – and an embarrassment. The heroism of most of the crew does not cancel the fact that rescue operations were tardy and chaotic. A passenger list has not yet been produced. The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, disembarked early, leaving hundreds of people behind (he is now under house arrest). His taped conversation with Captain Gregorio De Falco at Livorno Port Authority – who shouted “You . . . get back on board!” – has gone viral. The exact Italian wording is now available on T-shirts.
The temptation to grab for lazy monetary metaphors about “sinking Italy” is obvious but it must be resisted. Yet something can be gleaned about Italy from the Costa Concordia disaster; it just needs a little introduction.