‘’ Bunga bunga is a phrase of uncertain meaning that dates from 1910 if not earlier. By 2010 the phrase had gained popularity in Italy and the international press as well, when it was used by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to refer to his alleged sex parties, which caused a major political scandal in Italy. ‘’
A caricature of Berlusconi related to his alleges sex parties
Maybe we can be thankful to Mr. Berlusconi that he brough clarity to that term, but I know that many Italians are not happy with their prime minister, nor with his numerous scandals, that would normally put any other normal guy to prison for good.
I see my Italian friends making fun of this situation. Once I was in a bus with some Italians, and they were entertaining themselves, acting as if they have a call from Berlusconi, the boy taking off his shoe and putting it next to his ear like a phone, saying something like that:
‘ Silvio, how are you? What, bunga bunga tonight? Ok, we are coming. Are you looking for girls? ‘
Then he starts pointing to girls in the bus asking ‘ How old are you? ‘
After all the ages he hears are above 18, he ‘ says ‘ to Berlusconi ‘ sorry Silvio, these are too old. ‘
Even though it is funny at that moment and I appreciate that they laugh at a situation which is really awful in fact, when you look at it, it is a shame that the ‘ leader ‘ of a very influential, strong country with big historical importance is mocked like that, which is completely his fault, by all his actions and decisions.
What is even more sad that, he completely creates this stereotype against Italian politics and politicians, which every one mocks, from the average citizen to a lobbyist in Brussels. This is really sad, while Italy gave birth to many prominent political figures, from Spinelli to Prodi, from Napolitano to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi…
"I've never paid a woman. I never understood where the satisfaction is when you're missing the pleasure of conquest".
I will not comment on Berlusconi’s political achievements or failures, while I am not fully competent in his history and I believe achievements and failures can be relative. But what I know is, even though he might have achieved some things, his personal ( thus reflecting his professional ) choices and scandals eclipsed all of them.
May you ask: ‘ Why Italian people still vote for him, if he is that bad?’
An italian colleague said this:
‘ There is no counter-figure to him, so we are obliged to vote for him. ‘
As a politician of a prominent country, he did not manage to do the biggest sacrifice; to keep people’s interests in front of his own. As a visible figure, he showed a bad example towards all the world, and created extremely strong negative stereotypes about Italy, which is to loss of Italian politics, politicans and most sadly, to its people.
While history will remember many politicians with his achivements, he will be remembered with his ‘ bunga bunga ‘ parties.
So one can ask to ‘ Silvio ‘, if all the fun was worth it?
November 7, 2011 at 6:16 pm |
Good article, litmus paper of a European common sense which I deeply share. Nonetheless, as an ITALIAN, I should point out that the final questions should be reversed into: “So one should ask the ITALIANS, sure there was no counter-figure? Was all the fun worth it?
November 7, 2011 at 8:14 pm |
Sorry for the bad English
The problem unfortunately is very complex, Berlusconi is a cancer throughout our country for nearly 20 years. Besides going to see who was the leader in 1994 and who is the leader now …
A stay so long has had and continues to have terrible repercussions on the mentality of many Italians and gave birth to a political class among the worst in history. In a normal country the politicians resign for much much less, here it is impossible to see, never, for whatever they are accused, or worse, condemned
It’s a very long long speech, the article is good, let me just say one thing about this phrase:
“May you ask: ‘Why Italian people still vote for HIM, if he is that bad?’
An Italian colleague said this:
‘There is no counter-figure to Him, I know we are obliged to vote for HIM. ‘”
This is only partly true, it is true that our opposition was pretty funny, but always the alternative is VERY VERY MUCH BETTER THAN HIM.
Why the Italians vote? Probably because they can manipulate public information: he has 3 television (+ the 3 status), journals, newspapers… I think this is the main reason for its popularity.
The only Opposition enormous guilt that I never forgive, is to not have been made a law on “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” when it was in government.
Remove to Berlusconi his MEDIA EMPIRE and remove the power to him.