Vaffanculo (Fuck You) Day in Italy – Part 1

I remembered when I was in Philly, I came across several protests or public speakings regarding politics anywhere and everywhere in centre city. They can screw the government, bush, and anyone but the police cannot do anything to them. US is truly a free country with real freedom of speech.

It is the same in Italy.

Recently, my labmates told me about Vaffanculo Day on Saturday 8th September 2007. Vaffanculo literally translates to Fuck You. It is organised by this guy called Beppe Grillo, the top blogger in Italy according to my labmates. There is an interview (in italian though) on why he organised this event. Vanffaculo Day is a pretty big event, judging from the meetup points all over Italy. So what is Vaffanculo Day all about? Its actually a kind of protest towards the government e.g. fuck the government for their policies they make, fuck the screwed up politcians for not listening to their citizens etc etc… Basically, this V-day was organised for the Italians to voice out and show their unhappiness towards their government (FREELY). Check out all the various forms of marketing and advertising there are!!!

1. Promoting V-day on mainstream news channels

Heres a google news link with all individual newspaper sublinks.

2. A preset sms for people to send to all their friends and family!

“Saturday 8 September I will be in the square for the V-day that Beppe Grillo has organised to sign the request for a popular law www.vaffanculoday.it. Tell the others!” 

3. A html tags/buttons for bloggers to show their support for V-Day!

   

4. A flyer for print to distribute! (Its amazing that they even have this in English)

5. A google map with all the meetup locations, even outside Italy! (Milano has 5 locations)

6. Online video clips (search the tag vaffa-day on youtube for more clips)

7. Online photostreams (search the tag vaffa-day on flickr for more photos)

Anyhow, I was seriously quite amazed about this whole V-day thingy and I shared how our own Sg gahmen is like to my labmates.

Me: So you know that such protest is ILLEGAL in Singapore? In fact, Singapore Law states that the assembly or procession of 5 or more persons in any public road, public place or place of public resort is considered an illegal gathering. Moreover, protest against the government is even more serious! If caught, you will probably go to jail for years (17 in the case of Zahari) without trial or you will be sued till bankruptcy and eventually to jail also (like Chee Soon Chuan).

They: What?!? I thought Singapore is a democratic and free country?

Me: Hmmm… Ya… Apparently…

They: Ok. Then what about your opposition parties?

Me: Oh… If I remember correctly, I think there are only 2 or 3 members from the opposition party in the parliament. But I am 100% sure our ruling party PAP consitute more than 90% of the seats in parliament.

They: What?!? Why don’t you guys vote for opposition then?

Me: Because of our uniquely singapore GRC system, some of us don’t get to vote. Also, some might not be willing to vote for the opposition party because your area will not get upraded if you are not under the ruling party’s ward. (I try to keep this short as it is really quite hard to explain to them)

They: Then don’t the opposition hold any campaigns against the ruling party?

Me: Yes, they try to… But they were prohibited from even organising some of their own private cycling event in public (also listen to this mrbrown show on why political party mass cycling is prohibited). Apparently the opposition party needs to apply some official permit from our ruling party first. Moreover, I heard when they brought up such issues in parliamentary debates, they were subjected to personal insults/attacks on their disabilities (another mrbrown show on sarcastic parliament). But the interesting thing is that the ruling party can organise any public event they like without any permit e.g. the young PAP cycling event!

They: Oh, this is interesting. Sorry I need to go work already (too much for them to swallow I suppose). But anyhow, welcome to our free country (Italy)!

Seriously, Sg is like kinda fake democratic country. Interestingly, I heard that in Sg on 8th Sept 2007 (same day as V-day), Sgers are having this “wear a black tee shirt” protest at centrepoint mall (check tomorrow.sg too). In PubEd words, I wonder how many Kiasi NATOs Sgers will actually turn up, probably less than 10 I guess.

P/S – I will continue this post when I join in the Vaffanculo Day this Saturday… Till then…