Dean Christakos« Deep into southern Italy: Lecce | Main | Today in Interesting Numbers »
March 22, 2006
Your Papers Please!
One is asked this in Italy (Prego, sua documenti), every time you want to use the internet at a public café. Through the wonder of Berlosconi-era "anti-terrorism" laws, every internet access point needs to ask for an record your ID. As a consequence, hostels that used to have public terminals in their lounge areas have shut them down, and at every internet café you can see a stack of photocopied ID cards of previous customers.
Though I'm sure that some helpful government official will point out that "57% of all Italians want the government to monitor al-Qaeda's internet access!"
I feel so much safer now.
Posted by Dean at March 22, 2006 5:03 AM