Posted by
InchDeep on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:16:09 PM
They need to lay off the Vino, if you know what I mean.
www.lifeinitaly.com
ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - One out of five Italians cannot
name an armed conflict which has taken place in the past five
years and an even higher percentage do not remember any major
natural disaster, according to a poll published by the
Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.
The poll, taken by the SWG group, was part of a report
on forgotten conflicts which the magazine compiled along with
the Catholic charity group Caritas.
Commenting on the fact that 20% of Italians cannot name
a recent conflict, Famiglia Cristiana wrote ''not even one!
Not Iraq, nor Afghanistan, not even the Middle East. This
percentage is even higher than a similar poll in 2004''.
Ignorance about current armed conflicts was even higher
among young people, 30%, despite an increase from 6% to 16%
in four years among those who claim to follow events on the
Internet.
And an even higher percentage of young people could not
remember any major natural disaster.
According to the SWG poll, 33% of Italians recall the
2004 tsunami, but most because of the number of Westerners
involved instead of the over 200,000 people who lost their
lives.
Only 23% of Italians knew about the recent earthquake in
China and even fewer recalled the Nargis cyclone which
devastated Myanmar.
''There is a lot of confusion and many people have
difficulties identifying on a map where these events take
place. Myanmar, for example, was mistaken for Tibet,''
Famiglia Cristiana reported.
According to the magazine, less than half of Italians,
but more than 50% of practicing Catholics, were aware that
the revolt in Tibet and the cyclone in Myanmar were in the
international spotlight this past year.
In regard to armed conflicts, 65% of Italians knew about
Iraq, mostly because of Italy's participation in the mission,
while only 9% knew about the drama in Somalia, Famiglia
Cristiana said.