Mamma mia!, the army in the streets

The government is already hailing it a success. Italians unlucky enough to spend August in the big cities, however, don't know whether to laugh or cry: 3,000 troops have been deployed in Milan, Rome and Naples' streets since last Monday, in order to crack down on petty crimes.
One could wonder what crimes you'd expect in ghost towns as those three cities are during the summer holidays, unless you plan to put a soldier in every block to defend empty flats from burglars. And whether Italy has seen a statistical rise in crime is open to debate: data are open to interpretation, the government and the opposition produce the ones that suit their theories best.
Anyway, the initiative is clearly part of the recent Italian obsession with "security", which usually goes with immigration-bashing. Some months before last April's election, the media agenda has been dominated by news related to immigrants - arriving in mass from Africa, getting stranded at sea, dying on our beaches, joyriding and killing innocents, raping. Every piece of news, every reported crime, kicks up a media frenzy if committed by foreigners. Berlusconi's goverment is playing into the people's fear that immigrants are taking Italy over: last week it even declared a state of emergency.
Being a nation with only a recent history of immigration, Italy could be forgiven for its inexperience to deal with the problem. But the government's populism and eagerness to subtly exploit the immigration card is, I would say, criminal itself. Instead of crafting policies to manage the problem, it sheds responsibility by declaring it insolvable, implying the use of force is the only way. The results: a hysteric country, scared citizens ready to take security into their hands because they don't trust the state, and ultimately a nation that feels besieged. And that, rather than opening itself to the world in the era of globalization, chooses to retract in its own carapace. And therefore, to decline.