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It's all over all sorts of EU media, I think in no small part fueled by 'remind me why we're giving Italy 222 BILLION euros in Covid recovery money when they sp

by roel_v 5y ago

It's all over all sorts of EU media, I think in no small part fueled by 'remind me why we're giving Italy 222 BILLION euros in Covid recovery money when they spend it like this?' thinking. Which on the one hand is fair enough; on the other, articles like this coming out shows that you're trying to improve things. The general idea in the rest of Europe is that this sort of thing is rampant in the South, I don't know to what extent that is correct. Anecdotes online suggest that it's not a completely isolated incident, at the least.

mxxc 5y ago
not sure if you're italian but to add insult to injury italians themselves complain about EU fund usage in the south :) it is true however that between arrest and initial prosecution the justice system in italy is very trigger happy (whether people stay in jail is a different story) and it makes a good story for the press. there are examples elsewhere where law enforcement is a lot more magnanimous. not defending this case at all but in general this might partially explain why italy is more on the spotlight than other places.
andoli 5y ago
Ah! Thanks for pointing this out, i didn't know the news was under such attention on EU media. Corruption and criminal infiltration is indeed very common expecially in southern regions. the worries of mafia getting hands on those money are very real unfortunately...
- toyg 5y ago
  I thought the last decades had shown that “especially” is not really true anymore. In the South it’s just more officially acknowledged, but these problems are similarly present in the North.
jrochkind1 5y ago
Different countries have different ways of wasting money, but glass houses. In the USA, wasted money mostly goes to execs and shareholders rather than workers, but I doubt the scale is less. From today's news... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/us/politics/emergent-johnson-johnson-covid-vaccine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/us/politics/emergent-john... > Federal Inspectors Fear More Vaccines Were Exposed to Contamination > Last month, up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine had to be discarded at Emergent’s factory in Baltimore. A new report says problems were not fully investigated and other doses may be compromised. > …Though the government gave Emergent a $163 million contract in 2012 to ready the Baltimore plant for mass production in a pandemic, the site remained largely untested, and the company did not meet a requirement for demonstrating its rapid-response capabilities… Nonetheless, the government went on to award Emergent a $628 million contract last June… >… In another finding, the F.D.A. regulators wrote that the Bayview building “is not maintained in a clean and sanitary condition.” Nor is it “of suitable size, design and location to facilitate cleaning, maintenance and proper operations,” they said. > …Throughout 2020, its founder and chairman, Fuad El-Hibri, cashed in shares and options worth over $42 million, and the company’s chief executive, Robert Kramer, was recently awarded a $1.2 million cash bonus.
miohtama 5y ago
Reminds me of the Greek island of blind where 10% of population claimed blindness benefits https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0430/Greek-island-of-the-blind-More-like-island-of-welfare-cheats https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0430/Greek-islan...

by roel_v 5y ago

mxxc 5y ago

not sure if you're italian but to add insult to injury italians themselves complain about EU fund usage in the south :) it is true however that between arrest and initial prosecution the justice system in italy is very trigger happy (whether people stay in jail is a different story) and it makes a good story for the press. there are examples elsewhere where law enforcement is a lot more magnanimous. not defending this case at all but in general this might partially explain why italy is more on the spotlight than other places.

andoli 5y ago

Ah! Thanks for pointing this out, i didn't know the news was under such attention on EU media. Corruption and criminal infiltration is indeed very common expecially in southern regions. the worries of mafia getting hands on those money are very real unfortunately...

toyg 5y ago
I thought the last decades had shown that “especially” is not really true anymore. In the South it’s just more officially acknowledged, but these problems are similarly present in the North.

jrochkind1 5y ago

Different countries have different ways of wasting money, but glass houses. In the USA, wasted money mostly goes to execs and shareholders rather than workers, but I doubt the scale is less. From today's news... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/us/politics/emergent-johnson-johnson-covid-vaccine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/us/politics/emergent-john... > Federal Inspectors Fear More Vaccines Were Exposed to Contamination > Last month, up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine had to be discarded at Emergent’s factory in Baltimore. A new report says problems were not fully investigated and other doses may be compromised. > …Though the government gave Emergent a $163 million contract in 2012 to ready the Baltimore plant for mass production in a pandemic, the site remained largely untested, and the company did not meet a requirement for demonstrating its rapid-response capabilities… Nonetheless, the government went on to award Emergent a $628 million contract last June… >… In another finding, the F.D.A. regulators wrote that the Bayview building “is not maintained in a clean and sanitary condition.” Nor is it “of suitable size, design and location to facilitate cleaning, maintenance and proper operations,” they said. > …Throughout 2020, its founder and chairman, Fuad El-Hibri, cashed in shares and options worth over $42 million, and the company’s chief executive, Robert Kramer, was recently awarded a $1.2 million cash bonus.

miohtama 5y ago

Reminds me of the Greek island of blind where 10% of population claimed blindness benefits https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0430/Greek-island-of-the-blind-More-like-island-of-welfare-cheats https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0430/Greek-islan...