Italy: Current Issues
Italy is a country of Europe that has an extensive ancient history, being home to the ancient Romans, but its modern history and current issues are as interesting as the events that occurred thousands of years ago. Located in Southern Europe, this country has a Mediterranean climate that makes it a tourist destination for many. Italy’s territories include Sicily and Sardinia. Although multiple positive things are associated with this country, like every nation, there are certain aspects of Italy that are less than pleasant. The problems that currently afflict Italy are corruption within the government from perhaps Italy’s most famous group; the Mafia and Women’s issues within the state. Since Italy is a part of the Eurozone, joining the Coal and Steel Community in 1952 then the European Economic Community in 1957 (Book 258), the country also faces the same issues that multiple countries throughout the Eurozone face, such as unemployment and inflation.
Since Italy is a part of the Eurozone and faces these similar problems, making note of these social problems that affect Italy allows these lesser known problems to be brought into the light. The first of these problems consist of corruption in the government, which was extremely prevalent and continues to be to this day. In the 1900’s, Sicilian Mafiosi were illegally immigrating to the United States, which in turn created an Organized Crime problem in the states. However, the Mafia had existed within Italy and Sicily since the 1800’s but became known as “La Cosa Nostra” (“Italian Organized Crime”) when the tradition came to the United States. La Cosa Nostra roughly translates to “this thing of ours”. It is important to distinguish that there exist different divisions of the Mafia. Each of the major cities of Italy has their own Mafia. As mentioned before, there is a Sicilian Mafia, the Neapolitan Mafia based in Naples, and the Calabrian Mafia based in Calabria (“Italian…”).
Though the...