Böcker av Rory Steele

This book examines the implementation and consequences of the Italian expatriate vote and representation introduced in 2001 in the external electoral colleges with special attention to the Electoral College known as Africa-Asia-Oceania-Antarctica. The Italian elections of 2006, 2008 and 2013 were important moments where the expatriate vote was expressed providing results which Italian lawmakers may have not anticipated. Moreover, the electoral expressions of the external colleges were not always in accord with Italians ones. This study examines how the stakeholders in the Africa-Asia-Oceania-Antarctica college understood and perceived this voting and representation facility after its implementation. What they thought in 2001 and what they think now. The study seeks the views of focus groups across numerous cities in Australia, interviews the protagonists and provides critical commentary on the future of this right and whether all this effort was worth it in providing Italians abroad with external voting and representation in elections and referendums.

In 1943 Felice Benuzzi broke out of a POW camp to scale the second highest mountain in Africa, with no maps and only hand-made gear, passing through a jungle up to the ice-capped top. Seventeen days later he broke back into the camp and reported to the astonished commandant. His life was extraordinary from start to finish. He lived through fascism, married a Berlin-born Jewess, served as a colonial administrator and was decorated for bravery in combat. Later as a diplomat he was consul in Berlin during the Cold War, ambassador to Uruguay and twice visited Antarctica. He was a colourful writer, a deep thinker and an attractive personality. Mountaineering was his passion. He began when some peaks were unnamed and many had never been climbed, and continued into the modern era when better access and equipment gave everyone the chance. He was a founder member of the environmental group Mountain Wilderness. This biography was written with full help from the Benuzzi family including access to their archives and thousands of letters written by Felice. Rory Steele lived in Liguria and Tuscany in 1954-55, taught in Naples in 1964-65 and was Australia's ambassador to Italy 1997-2001.