Thank you Silvio

I am not being sarcastic here. I really mean it: thank you, Silvio Berlusconi. Now I remember why I like you, and why I am still proud to be Italian.

"Young, beautiful and suntanned" was not a racist joke, unless by racist we mean anything said by a white man to a black man. If that's the case, and for many people it is the case, please let's just admit that and forget once and for all about freedom of speech and equality rights.

What Berlusconi said was a compliment. After all, would you feel angry if someone had called you young? Or beautiful? Or... suntanned?

Now, the Politically Correct brigade was outraged by that word, "suntanned". For them it was a reminder of Obama's different colour of skin. Really? Oh, but dear Politically Correct hypocrites, it's been months that you are moaning a black man should be in the White House! or White Americans are too racist to vote for a black man... It's been months you were talking about race, so why Berlusconi can not make a simple joke then?

And apart from that, the word suntanned is indeed a compliment in Italy. Italians get fake tan in winter as much as they can, and in summer, if you are not suntanned you are either a vampire or an Englishman.

The most outraged people in this story were politicians from the Italian Left (still pissed off to have lost the election) and silly Italians abroad scared to be judged as racists by the so called more advanced countries regarding immigration but... not Obama! He didn't make a fuss about what Berlusconi had said because he has more brains than all those idiots who were feeling sorry for him. More brains than the media too, insisting that Berlusconi had made a gaffe and should be apologizing.

Berlusconi has all my admiration for not apologizing to the media or to Obama. I am sure that the day the two will meet, they will have a laugh about it.