The Italian Job

Over the past few days, together with the boss, I visited several Italian corporations in Rome, Florence and Pistoia, many of them linked to a giant conglomerate in the country. Now, this is a mega-huge entity we are talking about, producing anything from helicopters, radar systems to trains. And of course, it is a government-linked company. It's not a very accurate comparison, but the size of that said parent company is like Malaysia's Gamuda, Maybank, YTL and Sime Darby put together. Ok, you get the picture.

Now, when you are that huge and well-connected in Godfatherland, that is a huge advantage - for the businessmen as well as the politicians or even the country. Picture this: a leader of a third-world country, say Zimbabwe, goes up to the Italian government asking for more landing rights for its national-carrier.

And the Italian official responds, (imagine using Marlo Brando's tone in Godfather): "Yes, we are interested to grant you the rights. But we also have top-of-the-class Italian helicopters you can use to weed out rebels in your own country. We can also do some technology transfer on your rail infrastructure."

Never mind the "technology" is 20 years old by Italian standards as long as the Africans find it to be state-of-the-art. Never mind the poor Africans will be paying through their noses for decades to come on equipment and infrastructure which may be decades old. Never mind the companies (and therefore, the country) rake in sinful amount of profits, some of it channeled into certain individuals' campaign funds.

Now, I am not saying that the Italian companies that I visited resort to such tactics. In fact, the conglomerate is rather respectable. I have not heard of anything of that sort. Neither am I accusing the Italian government of being underhanded. Italy has a vibrant democracy.

I am just saying that the politics-businesses nexus is a very powerful one. It's really a jungle out there where it is common to scratch each others' backs. It's brutal, unforgiving and downright dirty.

On the micro level, yes, similar things are happening in the country. Yes, it is not right. Yes, we are not alone. And yes again, such things are even taking place on a global level.

Caio!