Silvio Berlusconi: Roman Emporer for the 21st Century - Report Example

Silvio Berlusconi By Introduction To say that Berlusconi’s life has been a normal lifestyle would perhaps be a huge understatement. The man has an astounding character that might be difficult to comprehend from surface view 1. He simply is a master of his own life. Well, that is not considering the late happenings around his life. Apparently, some of his dirty deeds are having their way into the public scrutiny, and the scene is not pleasing. Matter of fact with the revelations of matters such as his mafia links greatly detriment the character that as assumed of him. Personally, I took Berlusconi for an enterprising politician who is good at everything he does. Only to my dismay that the individual is simply a manipulative, ambitious man who will stop at nothing to achieve what he wants. These revelations of his links to certain individuals who have helped him rise to power further shake down the notion that I had of his determined efforts. Although I do not blame him at all for the position where he is now, I strictly criticize the methods he utilized to gain power. Some of his deeds are crooked and selfish, contrary to what is expected of a man in his position. It is at this point I question my analytic skills. Surely, I should or at least somebody should have seen the signs when two of his wives divorced him on different occasions. Nonetheless, with the recent revelations in the media of his scrupulous means of acquiring the high status, I totally object his strategies and notions guiding his activities. From that perspective, this paper will launch a story on Silvio Berlusconi, highlighting those events that are significant for the theme of the rising and falling from power. Within that storyline, I will highlight those suspicious links that enable him build an economic empire and gain ground in the political scene. His deliberate attempts to live a normal life, despite having a complicated lifestyle will also be highlighted. Every important point will thus be discussed in a concise and unambiguous manner. From the point of birth in 1936 at Milan, Berlusconi portrayed a sense of power 2. Nonetheless, he assumed quite a normal childhood setting after growing in a family of five. His father used to work at a bank while his mother was a homemaker. Berlusconi was the first born in the family followed by two other siblings and, therefore, in a small unit; he was the leader. School was important to him as his father had big aspirations for his boy, so he attended school up to a degree level, where he pursues law and manages an honour. Something interesting though comes up during this setting of his youth. While at the age when each other youth joins the army for one year, somehow Berlusconi absconds the drive in a very suspicious way, it is not clear how he does this considering the initiative is a mandatory project. According to me, I take this as a symbol of a man that he will grow to become. Soon enough, Berlusconi is interested in advertising, and his intentions are real. He craves having the ability to market products through media for instance. It is even supported by his thesis paper while in campus where his study is about advertising 3. Another one of his interests that springs to our attention is his love for music. He used to play bass at the band. Again, he is involved in the creating of the A.C Milan anthem as well as that for Forza Italia. Furthermore, he has collaborations of as late as 2006 with a singer known as Mariano Apicella. With this, it is clear that his bond with music is difficult to break. He just loves music. His enterprising journey in building his empire started in the 1960s when he constructed an apartment in the East of Milan 4. Proceeds generated in the venture enable him establish a local cable network just within his neighbourhood by the name Telemilano. His fortunes grow gradually and in 1977, on the acquisition of two more channels, he relocates to the central Milan area from where he airs through the commercial airwaves. Berlusconi’s star continues to shine as in 1978; he established his first media group. The media group, Fininvest, has an extraordinary character that continues to shock attorneys investigating his case to date. Between its year of formation in 1978 and 1983, the company manages to yield 113 billion Italian lire. It is difficult to state the exact the actual sources of the funds due to a complicated way of holding companies. His ability of construing such information is also suspect thanks to his rich connects. With time, Fininvest collects enough money to expand its operations. Its boundaries are enlarged, and it becomes capable of serving a countrywide network. However, the numerous numbers of stations that are aired in the network happen to be the same, in which case I would be contravening a public broadcasting regulation, which comes to be abolished later. Following closely, is a series of acquisitions regarding Berlusconis ability to establish and run the only commercial TV Empire. In fact, accurate information states that his empire is the first in Italy. However, his accomplishments are not solely out of personal effort. His success in establishing such a strong foundation for business is not without top-level connections that aid the favourable tuning of conditions in order for his companies to benefit. Notable individuals in his lists of connections are Bettino Craxi. This formidable ally was the then Prime minister of Italy and he possessed the seat of the secretary general of the Italian Socialist Party. At one time, this individual pushed the passing of an emergency decree, which allowed private networks right to transmit nationwide. A very high probability of the move was to favour Berlusconi’s television network, which was the only network at the time with that capability. That move evoked much political disturbance in Italy at the time and leading up to the revocation of the decree. This left Berlusconi’s TV stations in a mess, as they were not required to air news or even politics. Only until 1990 were they upgraded in status by the famous Mammi law. Later on in 1995, Berlusconi sold to the public some of his shares held in his media group and proceeded to form a partnership with a German company, Kirch. The partnership resulted in the birth of Epsilon Media Group. Around this time, his company Fininvest lost a legal dispute and was thus required to pay up an amount of almost 560 million Euros in the form of damages Links with the Mafia During his period of rising into power from the mid 1970’s, it is alleged that the Mafia aided a lot in his ascent 5. It is claimed that through his contact person Marcello Dell’Utri he was in negotiations with Cosa Nostra. In return, to political favours the sect used to be sent out on tasks as well as ensuring security of his interests. These allegations have been continuing to assert on him by members of the Sicilian sect. Berlusconi’s lawyers, on the other hand, have been insisting that the individuals making those allegations tend to be mere turncoats who intend to make most out of the judicial cases inform of judicial privileges. Nonetheless, the appointment of Vittorio Mangano by Berlusconi as his villa’s gardener caught the eyes of many. This is after the same individual was accused and charged of being associated to the criminal association. As was his trend, he denied those accusations and termed them as petty. His friend Marcello went ahead and claimed he did not know the Mafias existence. Unfortunately, for Berlusconi’s ally, he was found guilty of association the Sicilians and was sentenced to nine years in prison. A year later in 2005 during an appeal case, his tenure in prison was reduced to 7 years after admitting that Berlusconi indeed had a connection to the Mafia until 1992. Funny enough, the subject, Berlusconi failed to respond to those comments despite how provoking they would sound to an innocent person. Allegations on Berlusconi hit a dead end on the court declaring lack of sufficient evidence to charge him, despite there being a disclosed wiretapped conversation by the Mafia leader Giuseppe Guttadauro. The conversation had a statement in which the boss asserted that in order for Berlusconi to manage to solve his problems, he had to make amends with the Sicilian sect 6. Attempt to appeal normal people In his attempt to appease normal people, Berlusconi had a humorous way of doing it. Some of the comments he made in public usually had a huge impact when not tamed. His comments seemed rather rushed and had a high possibility of ruining a relationship. Probably he overestimated his persuasive skills or was too careless to rub it in the faces of his associates. In most cases, it required the intervention of another individual to quell the fire he had started unknowingly. One comment that might have caught the audience of a number of people is probably the incidence at the New York Stock Exchange in 2003. While giving his speech, he stated that one of the reasons people needed to invest in Italy was the fact that on comparing to other countries, it might have some of the most beautiful secretaries in the world. That remark evoked a big deal of uproar back home in Italy. In the parliament the next day, female Italian members conducted a cross party demonstration 7. Another interesting scenario is in 2008 when Berlusconi had a joint conference with the Russian president at the time Vladimir Putin. A newspaper journalist happened to ask Mr. Putin a question regarding his personal relationships and Berlusconi made a gesture towards the journalist illustrating a gunman shooting. The interpretation of such a gesture is as simple as it looks. The last example I want to delve in that entailed Berlusconi trying to make people laugh is when he shared comments on Barack Obama just after he won the 2008 general elections. Berlusconi stated that Mr. Obama was tall, dark and handsome. My opinion is that the statement was very inappropriate especially when coming from a person of his status. While normal people would joke in such a manner, I think people in his status would not be expected to carry themselves around like that. There ought to be a certain silent code governing the relationships of figureheads like him. Rather than have loose talk, serious matters should be of keen interest with reduced allowance for casual relations. But then again, possibly one would argue that his style of politics is friendlier and thus focused on establishing a casual common ground. Well, at this day and age, I feel that his gimmicks would be considered unthinkable and disrespectful. One would have predicted that Berlusconi entered politics to further his aspirations of exercising power and dominion. Far from it, Berlusconi’s main intention in joining politics is only clear on analyzing the whole story of his time. One thing is clear, the fact that Berlusconi values his wealth especially his companies more than anything else does. It would be correct to state that his main motivation for joining the politics arena was to protect himself from convictions, as well as salvage his company from imminent bankruptcy. I hold on to that idea supported by the factual evidence of his government’s deliberate moves, to change the laws regarding tax fraud. In simple terms, Berlusconi was ensuring that laws were made to solve his personal problems and safeguard his interests as noted by his successor. Media Among his many controversies, one major issue that kept being brought up was Berlusconi’s control over the media industry. Most analysts felt that the possession of such media control by an individual is very likely to construe freedom of speech. Reporters also had the belief that conflicts of interests brought about by Prime Minister Berlusconi’s huge media empire would continue to inhibit the diversity of information. Some members of parliament also continued to raise questions regarding the veto power that was employed regarding the rule of media stations. The individual felt that Berlusconi had a hand in the enacting of the regulation that seemed to be favouring his interests. He could not comprehend how one individual could control almost 90 % of the media coverage with the expectation of having freedom of expression. One clear proof of influencing the media thanks to his control was in November 2003. A comedian made a certain joke regarding Berlusconi’s media empire. That part was censored and what followed was legal action demanding around 20 million Euros as damages from the program conducting the show. This information was only accessible through another documentary that enlightened the public about the entire saga. For quite a length of time, such scenes were often with several journalists quitting the job as they felt information was undergoing so much doctoring 8. One disappointed news anchor can be remembered saying that the news production almost felt like an electoral campaign process. Worse to that, Berlusconi is said to have plotted the boycotting and interrupting of activities at other media companies. His way of reducing competition was rather primitive and portrayed a very low level of professionalism. Berlusconi’s portfolio in the media industry has been on a diminishing trend with some prominent members of the media industry referring to him as a predator to the freedom of the press 9. Ongoing trials Other than the controversies facing Berlusconi in the commercial media industry, the man has a series of court cases. The cases range from high-level criminal accusations to petty offences. The list below is of a number of the current ongoing trials as at late 2013: 1. Abuse of office- Berlusconi is accused of revealing highly sensitive information on government operations to one the media stations controlled by his brother. The information regarded an official at the Unipol and the then Governor of the bank of Italy. 2. Bribery- The politician was accused of bribing some officials so that he could facilitate the joining of a supported senator to his coalition. 3. Defamation-Berlusconi was accused to have aggressively defamed Antonio Di Pietrro during an election rally in 2008. The accused is said to have suggested that Antonio only achieved a degree by fulfilling certain secret tasks and not by the conventional way of passing exams. 4. Finally, the famous case of soliciting under-age girls for sex- This is the subject that many columnists have often expressed their disgust at Berlusconi for his bad behaviour especially with respect to young girls. On several cases, he has been accused of paying off young girls and using them for satisfying his sexual pleasures. For Berlusconi though, I feel that the convictions regarding tax offences committed by his company, Mediaset have had a far bigger blow to his success. The court has found the individual guilty on two different accounts: 1. He was indicted for falsification of accounts as well as embezzlement in an effort to create black accounts. 2. He was indicted of Tax fraud summing up to a little over 120 billion Liras. In both cases, Berlusconi was found to have been running a scheme in which he sold movie rights to foreign companies existing in tax haven countries. Consequently, Mediaset experienced a huge amount of losses as the transactions had so many underlying conditions adverse for the company financially. Lucky enough for him though, some of the counts in the above-mentioned indictments were greatly trimmed. The trimming was because of the statute limitations. Late in 2012, Berlusconi was found guilty of tax evasion by attempting to purchase film rights at exaggerated rates from foreign offshore countries. Thus, he was sentenced to four years behind bars but then he was favoured by the plan to reduce the prison population, which resulted in his years reduced to one. However, he was expected to pay around 10 million Euros as fine coupled with a ban from holding public office. The ban on holding public office was a contentious issue for some time, and the judges were keen at ruling the correct judgment. Following intensive discussions, Berlusconi was barred from holding public office for a period of up to six years 10. Nonetheless, thanks to some laws that were in place at the time, he was still capable of running his party. This would seem like a big boost only that it also was in theory. Application of the rule would still hinder him from even contesting as a candidate in any elections. This explains the scenario in the 2013 general elections where he led his political party to the elections while he could not run for any office. Fortunately, for Berlusconi again, his high age helped him avoid direct jail term; instead options were availed to him. He was expected to either serve a house arrest of one year, or offer community service for the same period. Another predicament that faced his convictions was his hold over a public office at the time of sentencing. It could not be ruled whether the ban against a position at a public office meant he was to be demoted or that the ban could only be enforced once his current tenure was over. The president acted by enacting a committee that was to deliberate on the issue before passing their resolutions to the senate for further discussions. It was amidst threats from Berlusconi’s party, which claimed it would withdraw support from the government in the case that their party leader was ousted from senatorial seat. Again, in a move that can be seen as a time wasting manoeuvre Berlusconi stated that he intended to appeal in the European Court of Human Rights. In my opinion, delay tactics employed by Berlusconi are last kicks of his battle against justice. Conclusion If u ask me, Silvio Berlusconi has both a positive and negative impact to scholars, especially those oriented in History. While he has greatly undermined the growth and development of Italy, some of his virtues can be borrowed and practiced. Adding to that, his story is a perfect tale that may be used as the lesson. As inappropriate as it sounds, I feel Berlusconi is the most manipulative political leader in our lifetime. The fact that he is a learned lawyer further makes him difficult to tame. His selfish ambitions by far outweigh his qualifications. I am only left wondering the leader he would have been less of his selfishness. The mere fact that he does not run out of options at any given time acts to prove that he is indeed a leader. His keen attention to detail as revealed in the ability to notice loopholes in the judicial structure works to show what a perfectionist he would have been. Now, that his long road from a relatively humble begin success and finally to problems is almost confirmed. We can only learn from his exemplary determination as well as his optimism. Well, we could laugh at his jokes once awhile but his disrespect for others will not be forgotten. Berlusconi’s abusive sarcasm will not be admired as well as his unthinkable comments. We will learn to value the opinions of others especially on matters of public interest, as well as treasuring patriotism. With this, elements of un-patriotism such as abuse of power and tax evasion will be highly discouraged. In replacement harmony and hard work will be motivated. The resultant of this will be a growing economy, immense business opportunities coupled with reducing levels of un-employment. Healthy foreign relations will be established fostering the greater good. References Berlo plans comeback as PM in 2013 . (2012, July 12). The Times of India, p. 1. Berlusconi Counts Costs of Legal Battles . (2008, June 25). Reuters, 1, 1. Berlusconi vows to stay in politics as ban approaches . (2013, September 18). Reuters, 1, 3. Carlin, J. (2004, April 19). Silvio Berlusconi: Roman Emporer for the 21st century. The Observer, pp. 4-7. Davies, L. (2013, June 24). Silvio Berlusconi found guilty of paying for sex. The Gurdian, p. 1. Donadio, R. (2008, May 29). Prime Ministers Escapades Finally Rise Eyebrows. New York Times, pp. 1-2. Italian Election, The Prelude. (2012, September 14). The American, pp. 1-2. Italian court bans Berlusconi from Public office for two years. (2013, October 19). Reuters, 1, 1. Nir, S. (2012, September 20). Italians Rejoice in the streets after Berlusconi Resigns. The New York Times, p. 1. Owen, R. (2012, September 20). The Irresponsible Berlusconi. The New York Times, p. 1. Parks, T. (2013). Holding Italy Hostage. The New York Review of Books, 1(1), 1-4. Popham, P. (2006, September 5). Prodi braces fight to curb Berlusconis media empire . The Independent, pp. 4-8. Silvio Berlusconi & Family. (2012, April 18). Forbes, 1, 1. Vogt, A. (2013, January 7). Silvio Berlusconi will not run for Italian Prime Minister. Daily Telegraph, pp. 6-8. Read More