It’s the year of [tag]Italy[/tag] in [tag]China[/tag], actually also the year of Russia and the Year of the British Poems in the [tag]Shanghai[/tag] subway, but I digress.
There are [tag]pasta[/tag] exchanges (the jury is still out on who invented the long pieces of dough), and other cultural feats.
From the [tag]Year of Italy in China[/tag] website:
“Our two countries share an affinity that has been passed on from generation to generation and is still growing stronger.”
Emperor Berlusconi (aka the premier of Italy) has added a very special insight to this that I am sure will be appreciated.
“I have been accused many times of saying communists eat babies,” Mr [tag]Berlusconi[/tag] told a rally of his [tag]Forza Italia[/tag] party.
“Go and read the black book on communism and you’ll find that under [tag]Mao[/tag]’s China they didn’t eat babies but they boiled them to fertilise the fields.”
Source: Herald Sun
In fact Berlusconi was not far from the truth. Cannibalism due to state enforced famine was and unfortunately IS common in communist states.
Comment by Chelman — March 28, 2006 @ 11:45 am
As far as I know (I don’t know much though) there have been some incidental cases where this happened during the great leap forward. I am talking incidental which is a bit more subtle than proclaiming what Berlusconi does. Also it doesn’t really help and is not relevant to current China.
Comment by Administrator — March 29, 2006 @ 4:03 am