{"id":414,"date":"2010-06-15T10:56:35","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T10:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=414"},"modified":"2010-06-15T10:56:35","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T10:56:35","slug":"fidarsi-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/fidarsi-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Fidarsi – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently <\/font>wrote a couple of articles about Italian detti<\/strong> (‘sayings’. See: ‘Una Mela al Giorno’). Here is another well known ‘detto’ that perhaps reflects one of the negative sides of the Italian character: ‘Fidarsi \u00e8 bene, non fidarsi \u00e8 meglio’ <\/strong>(‘to trust is good, not to trust is better’). I have never particularly liked this saying, and was really pleased to find an interesting article in the Italian rivista <\/strong>(magazine) ‘Focus’ <\/strong>entitled "Fidarsi \u00e8 rischioso, non fidarsi \u00e8 peggio"<\/strong> ("To trust is risky, not to trust is worse"). The article examines the concept of trust, and the important role that it plays in all our social interactions, in fact "\u00e8 la fiducia che ci permette di vivere in gruppo: ci spinge a comportarci bene, con benefici per tutti"<\/strong> (‘it is trust that permits us to live in a group: it makes us behave well, benefitting everyone’). <\/font><\/p>\n

However, it’s not always easy to trust certain elements of our society. The following data, taken from Rapporto Eurispes Italia 2010<\/strong>, demonstrates <\/strong>the level of trust which we Italians have in public institutions:<\/font><\/p>\n

75.3% per i Carabinieri <\/strong>(for the Carabinieri, even though we make a lot of jokes about them);<\/font><\/p>\n

67.2% per la polizia <\/strong>(for the police);<\/font><\/p>\n

70% per il Presidente della Repubblica <\/strong>(The president of the Republic, who at the moment is Giorgio Napolitano. The ‘Presidente della Repubblica’ represents the country, not the government. He\/she has limited powers similar to those of Queen Elizabeth in England, and is elected every 7 years by the Parliament).<\/font><\/p>\n

Meno di 20% per i partiti <\/strong>(Less than 20% for political parties). In other words, 80% of the population have little or no trust in politicians. <\/font><\/p>\n

A shocking indictment of Italian politics which to me, however, comes as no great surprise. I cittadini italiani <\/strong>(The Italian citizens) have been constantly betrayed by politicians for many years now, and i<\/font>n fact many of us feel ourselves to be the political laughing stock of Europe. Unfortunately, with such poor examples of buon comportamento <\/strong>(good behavior) amongst our so called ‘leaders’ the mentality of furbizia<\/strong> has taken hold in a big way. <\/font><\/p>\n

‘Fare il furbo’<\/strong> means ‘to be cunning’, i.e. to find ways of getting around rules and regulations in order to satisfy our own interests, and if our leaders do it why shouldn’t we? Hence we end up with a culture of sfiducia<\/strong> (distrust).<\/font><\/p>\n

"Dovremmo recuperare il valore della fiducia a partire da se stessi" <\/strong>(we should regain the value of trust, beginning on a personal level) concludes the article in ‘Focus’, continuing: "gli onesti che si fidano e rispettano le regole continuano ad esistere e su di loro si fonda la societ\u00e0: una comunit\u00e0 di ‘furbi’ non potrebbe sopravvivere" <\/strong>(the honest ones who trust and respect the rules still exist, and society is founded upon them: a community of sly, crafty people couldn’t survive).<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently wrote a couple of articles about Italian detti (‘sayings’. See: ‘Una Mela al Giorno’). Here is another well known ‘detto’ that perhaps reflects one of the negative sides of the Italian character: ‘Fidarsi \u00e8 bene, non fidarsi \u00e8 meglio’ (‘to trust is good, not to trust is better’). I have never particularly liked…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9463,9462,9464,9465],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-fare-il-furbo","tag-fidarsi","tag-fiducia","tag-rapporto-eurispes-italia-2010"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t