yes, yes, yes, yes we can

When I was getting ready to move to Italy last year, my friends' common refrain was: "Are you sure you want to come back to this vile, degrading place?"


For everyone I know was completely demoralized after two decades of corrupt, soul-crushing rule by a man I call the vampire, Nanni Moretti calls the cayman, and José Saramago dubbed the thing.


"Look," I said. "I'm in the mood to do something for my country... just call me Steffy the Vampire Slayer... by any democratic means necessary."


"We've all been there, done that," my friends answered sadly. "And we can't get rid of him. You'll see."


And yet... two weeks ago, shocking themselves, each other, and the world, for the first time in over a decade, Italian voters kicked Berlusconi's minions out of Milan, Naples and other key cities. 


And that's not all. This weekend, amid a media blackout, and with the government advising people to "just go to the beach," Italians turned out massively to abolish nuclear power, keep water public, and force the cayman to attend  his trial hearings.


So things are no longer looking rosy for our prime minister, who is indicted in four separate trials for fraud, corruption and having sex with an underage prostitute.


But best of all, we the people discovered the vampire has not, after all, sucked us dry of our ethical lifeblood. We found out we're still human, still green, still democratic, still hopeful, still in charge.


The rallying cry for this weekend's referendum was "Vote YES To Say NO" to the four questions on the ballot... and yes, yes, yes, yes we did.


So thank you greenpeace - thank you wwf - thank you to all the grassroots organizations: left and right and center, lay and catholic, young and old, who worked around the clock for months and months to make today possible:

source: la repubblica