Lo Sciopero

There was a huge student protest/parade on my street this afternoon. I wish I was more aware of what's going on politically here, but I think it had something to do the professors at the University not getting paid enough.  And maybe something about scholarships, judging by one of their slogans: "O La Borsa! O La Vita!"  (Click to check out my nifty new way of providing English translations).  Lots of chanting, marching, and a bunch of people in white masks adding even more graffiti to the porticoes.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, but I didn't stay and watch for long anyway...I saw a police van drive by followed by a bunch of cops with batons and riot helmets and decided it would be best to hide out in my room for awhile.

Actually, I'm not going to change the last paragraph and pretend I'm not ignorant, but I just checked out the Italian news and learned that it was a leftist protest against the Gelmini reform.  Over to Wikipedia, which tells me Gelmini is Berlusconi's minister of education, whose center-right politics aren't working out in education's favor.  Apparently his education reforms = a lot of funding cuts for the public education system = professors not getting paid enough.  Just like I said. 

It turns out there were over a hundred of these protests today throughout the country.  Gelmini countered that the protesters were against change.  Not exactly what I'd expect to hear said about the left... I'm going to try to remember this stuff/learn how to discuss it in Italian so that next time I have dinner at Rita's and she and her husband start talking politics I can (maybe) throw in my two cents.

Lots of photos here

Two thousand of my classmates