‘Serene’ referendum: Italian region votes on restoration of Venetian Republic

[BlueStateSaint]

The Crimea isn't the only region of that area of the world voting today, on leaving their country.



‘Serene’ referendum: Italian region votes on restoration of Venetian Republic

Published time: March 16, 2014 10:32
Edited time: March 16, 2014 12:10



As Crimeans make their way to the polls this Sunday, another region further in the heart of Europe is also deciding its fate in a referendum: the Italian region of Veneto, which is voting on whether to break with Rome.

The independence movement insists the industrial northern region’s wealth is being drain by Rome’s mismanagement of the financial crisis.

Following in the footsteps of Scotland and Catalonia, Venice – the capital of the Italian region of Veneto – will be holding a referendum to form an independent republic. About 3.8 million people in the region are eligible to vote in the referendum, which runs through Friday.

Leaders of the independence movement say they are not going to wait for Rome’s approval, and if the population votes in favor they will begin the separation process. The latest polls carried out by the independence movement show that over 60 percent of the population is in favor of becoming independent.

"If there is a majority yes vote, we have scholars drawing up a declaration of independence and there are businesses in the region who say they will begin paying taxes to local authorities instead of to Rome," Lodovico Pizzati, the spokesman for the independence movement, told the Telegraph newspaper.



Interesting.  In a good way, I would think.

http://rt.com/news/venice-independence-referendum-italy-154/

[NHSparky]

Problem is, Italy (and a good portion of Europe) have centuries of history as an assortment of feudal city-states.

We haven't. And the one time secession was tried, it ended very badly.

[Mr Mannn]

Jimmy Carter isn't there...so it is likely to be a fair vote.

[JohnnyReb]

Jimmy Carter isn't there...so it is likely to be a fair vote.

Is he building outhouses in Mexico?

[Eupher]

Is he building outhouses in Mexico?

He's too old to handle a hammer, so he's counting turds. It's what he's good at.

[Lacarnut]

He's too old to handle a hammer, so he's counting turds. It's what he's good at.

Speaking of turds, I have not heard Obummer stick his nose in this referendum

[thundley4]

The independence movement insists the industrial northern region’s wealth is being drain by Rome’s mismanagement of the financial crisis.

It sounds like the makers are getting sick and tire of supporting the takers.

[zeitgeist]

Today finds the DUmmies discussing 'state's rights' regarding the Venetian blind issue.  Not quite up to classic DUmpster material but certainly worth a little bandwidth wasting.


http://upload.democraticunderground.com/1014762296
The op itself is un spectacular.   Some comments are worth a chuckle.

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 01:06 PM

dotymed (5,164 posts)

1. Who woulda thunk...
 
A Christian nation tired of spending their money helping the poor...
"We should keep those billion$"
 

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Response to dotymed (Reply #1)

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 01:34 PM

Igel (19,663 posts)

13. I could quote lots of people here in their defense.
 
They have their own problems they should be focusing on. Why worry about those far away when there are local issues that need their attention.

The funds aren't being spent effectively or efficiently. The funds are being spent on the right issues and problems. The funds are being spent using the wrong economic model, one that emphasizes the wrong kind of control or helps the wrong people in the wrong way. There should be local control when the central government doesn't do with your money what you want--"not in my name"!

Self-determination is a fundamental human right. No government should hold a population captive. Territorial integrity is a recent development based on borders established under duress or long ago (and things have changed).

Etc., etc., etc.
I personally think that Venice would do better staying in Italy for all sorts of reasons. But I'm not going to lecture my equals on what their interests should be from my utterly-outside vantage point north of Houston. Don't know the language well enough to easily read it (I'm occupied with my rusty, gappy Ukrainian, which I already think of as the Italian of the Slavic language family because of its geminates) and haven't spent enough time with Italians or "in Italian" to even start to "get inside their mindset."
 

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Response to Igel (Reply #13)

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 02:46 PM

bvar22 (33,829 posts)

32. You say:
 
"No government should hold a population captive."

What is the minimum amount of people necessary to qualify as a "population"?
If I get together with my neighbor and decide that we don't want to pay taxes,
is that a big enough population to qualify?

Did the Union hold The South "captive" in the 1860s?


This is a complex problem.
 

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Response to Igel (Reply #13)

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 04:17 PM

dotymed (5,164 posts)

46. I cannot imagine to know the intricacies involved.
 
Yes, we ALL need to have a say in how our taxes are spent. We (worldwide) need to UNITE and implement self determination.
Sadly, we aren't there.
It does sound callous that the elites desperately want to stop financing their poor cousins and are willing to divorce themselves completely and begin a new state.
With their assets it seems like they could influence how their tax dollars are spent.
IDK, this is my surface armchair quarterbacking.
There IS a reason that this other population is impoverished. Did the separatists help to put them in that cage and build their fortunes off of them? I know that in Amerika, that IS usually the case, IMO.

MADem (98,703 posts)

15. The problem is corruption and skimming. The money is not being spent in the south to "help the
poor." It's going to the mafia in Sicilia, and the camorra in Napoli. It's going to the politicians in Roma.

It's all about a shitty, corrupt government over there. If the money was properly spent, Italy could be a PARADISE. It should be way better than it is.
 

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Response to MADem (Reply #15)

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 02:04 PM

LuvNewcastle (6,258 posts)

25. I think that's true of most of the world's governments.

Corruption is rampant all over the world, and it is making our lives a lot more difficult than they have to be. A lot of people could be fed, clothed, housed, and educated if it weren't for all of the corruption. I think corruption is the USA's biggest problem, too. People give up on governments that hurt people more than they help them.
 

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Response to LuvNewcastle (Reply #25)

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 02:34 PM

MADem (98,703 posts)

29. I think it's worse in Italy than, say, France.

I had a landlord who was so wired into the camorra it wasn't funny. He wasn't a "thug," but he was most certainly a "businessman who was part of the network." On the plus (and selfish) side, the neighborhood was safe (no thanks to the police) but on the minus side, the corruption was pervasive and the skimming was beyond the pale. Some of the insane, shitty construction that happened in Napoli and environs was a consequence of pure bribery and greed--nasty, substandard crap.
 

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Response to MADem (Reply #29)

Sat Mar 22, 2014, 03:15 PM

LuvNewcastle (6,258 posts)

35. Yeah, I've heard a lot of stories about Italy.
 
Their government might be the worst in Europe, as far as corruption goes. It would be nearly impossible to significantly change the system over there since the corruption is so ingrained, and if they did change things, it would be one of the most significant events in their history because it's been going on for so long. People can't shake their history and culture without a drastic upheaval. 

Yup, the best and brightest.