Italy, the country where the old people "wanna it all".

"I wanna it all, I wanna it all, I wanna it all, I wanna it now". Do you remember the old song of the Queens, the unforgettable song used to show the strong desire of the young people to live the life?


Well this song could be the symbol of the 80-year old people of Italy, the ones that dominate that country. Why is that? How is that possible? you are asking yourself my dear reader.

Welcome to Italy, the country where the old people are in power, where the society is frozen, where the young people are old and the old people run the show.
Everywhere. Always. Especially the 80-year old people.
They wanna it all, just like the Queen's song. And they have it. This is why the country goes nowhere. A beautiful country, the best in the world to eat.

And one of the best ones to live. Or not?


Well the difference between living and being old seems subtle but in fact it is not.

Let's take an example. I am nearly half the age of those 80-year old people who run the country. But I lived more, far more than them. If I were to die tomorrow I have very few regrets in my life.
The old people don't. They did not live. That is why they "wanna it all".
You don't understand my reader? I am going to explain it again.

In my life I had nearly everything. Power, money, women, but above all love. I gave it a lot and I received it. Above all with my kids. Everyday in my life was and still is full of emotions.
I rarely got bored. My wife tells me that: "it is not me going after the adventure, it is the adventure who goes after me". I always have it. Especially in Brazil. I was close to die several times, I was loved and loved many times. I had and have an adventerous life.

A life where I was not going after money or power. They came in my life and went away. But I never looked for them. That was not the aim of my life. The real aim was to give people something, love.
I think I did it. Nobody is perfect. But I did it as much as I could.

Sometimes I feel as I lived several lives. But I am always happy in my life. I get up and smile at my kids. Every day is a new day. I always feel the thrill of life.

The old Italian people are just the opposite. They live a lot. Many of them are 80-year old. But they did not life it at all. What does that mean?

It means that, in their lives, the old Italian people were always after one thing, a material thing: money, career, power. Just that. But that way their lives became dry,very dry.

They did not live. They do not know what life is. This is why they "wanna it all". This is why they do not give up. That is why they run the country. This is why they run companies, families, everything the same way as they did it in the past.

Italy had for long time the oldest President of Republic in the world, mr. Napolitano. Companies are run by old people until they die and that happens very late.

My close friend, a 80-year old journalist tells me that he is so busy he cannot keep up with his commitments. He is overwhelmed by work.
My landlord 81-year old man, tells me that he has to go in the streets looking for clients. He has several flats and is a millionaire.
I met a director of a Italian industry federation, an 80-year old man. He was getting off a plane running to get another one. Full of commitments.

A man living close to me is fighting to keep his flat from repossession. Is that because he does not have money? Quite the opposite, But he likes the fight. His life is empty and that thing fills it.

And that is the real point. These old people never lived. They feel the life is going away. And they want it to live until the last minute. Because, inside themselves, they know they did the worst thing anybody could do in his/her life. What? Like in the dream of Papillon in the unforgettable movie of Steve McQueen "They wasted their lives, the worst crime somebody could do".

The 80-year old Italian people know it. The end is coming. That is why they do not give up. But what do they do? They keep on doing what they did in their lives. They keep on wasting their lives. They keep on being selfish, getting it all. Giving nothing to nobody. The older they get the worse they become.

Ironically one of the best man Italy had in recent times is a capuchin friar Frei Damiao, who went to help the poor in Brazil Frei Damiao lived nearly 70 years in Brazil helping the poor people.
He died when he was nearly 100-year old.

But during all his life Fei Damiao gave love to the poor people.
He is an example of what an old person show do.
Help the people.Especially the young people.teaching them the way forward. Just like Socrates did in the ancient Greece.
With the maieutic approach. Helping the young people grow up in a safe and sound way.
But that is exactly the opposite of what the old people do in Italy.
With their behaviors the old people teach the youngsters the be selfish.

The kids seem already old in Italy. Mentally they are already bored and boring. They rarely smile. And the older they get the worst they become.
It is not their faults. That is the way they are tought to grow up.

In Brazil for instance people grow up smiling all the time. In Italy it is the opposite.
In Brazil you die young. If you make it beyond 60 years you are lucky. But life is intense. Full.

In Italy life is empty even if you get to 80 or 90-year old. That is why you want more. Because you did not have it at all.

Well what else for Italy?

I myself would say "Smile, life is wonderful". And forget about yourself and selfishness. Do good thing. Maybe that way you will feel better.