ITALY: ‘I’M NO SAINT’, SAID BERLUSCONI

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI SAYS
"I’M NO SAINT" IN RESPONSE TO TAPES WITH ESCORT

ROME - (Bloomberg) - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (72) said he’s “no saint” after an Italian magazine released more tapes of what it said were conversations between Italy’s leader and a high-priced call girl. L’Espresso news magazine yesterday published for a second day tapes purporting to show Berlusconi talking with Patrizia D’Addario, who claims to have been paid to attend parties with the premier. The tapes appear to describe details of her spending the night with Berlusconi at his Rome residence.

L’Espresso and newspaper la Repubblica, opposition publications that belong to the same media group, have linked Berlusconi to paid escorts since his wife Veronica Lario asked for a divorce in May and accused him of frequenting “underage females.” Much of the material regarding Berlusconi’s alleged activities is part of a criminal probe into prostitution and corruption in the southern city of Bari. Berlusconi himself is not being investigated. Later Berlusconi spoke to a meeting of the executive of his People of Freedom Party and said that the attacks on him “don’t touch me”.

The scandals are starting to take a toll on the prime minister’s popularity. After La Repubblica published a new poll showing that Mr Berlusconi’s popularity had fallen below 50 per cent for the first time since he was re-elected a year ago. Berlusconi’s approval rating fell to 49 percent from 53 percent the previous month, according to an IPR Marketing poll released yesterday. That’s the lowest since he returned to power for a third time in May 2008.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

A man sleeps very soundly when he is greatly fatigued, and when a rich man is greatly fatigued he goes to his garden house with many female friends and there enters the water and enjoys their company. Such is the tendency of the living entity within this material world. A living entity is never satisfied with a woman unless he is trained in the system of brahmacarya. Generally a man's tendency is to enjoy many women, and even at the very end of life the sex impulse is so strong that even though one is very old he still wants to enjoy the company of young girls. Thus because of the strong sex impulse the living entity becomes more and more involved in this material world.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 4 - Chapter 12 - Verse 26"