1. 70%
Because ordinary Italian life is on stage, Italian theatre often looks as if it is overacted-it has to be, to differentiate it from the high drama of real life. The Italians are great actors and their lives often appear to be one big act.
Most of Italian life is spent in public, on show, and Italians know the importance of bella figura(cutting fine figure). Whether they are shopping in the supermarket or modelling clothes, working in the office or directing the traffic, serving in a restaurant or going to see the doctor, the Italians know how important it is to act the part, and look the part as well. They learn how to act when they are children and go on acting throughout their lives.
You Are What You Wear
Italians always take great care to wear the right clothes on the right occasion. This is never casual choice it is important to wear the proper clothes for the role you are playing. The station master must look like a station master. He must act the part too since he is on stage in the great film set of life. This is where style is so important. The taxi-driver, the teacher, the doctor, the lawyer and the engineer must all dress, act and behave like taxi-drivers, teachers, doctors, lawyers and engineers.
Taking life easy and being seen to take things easy, whether you are at the beach, in the disco or even at work, is part of bella figura, which explains why Italians are often happy to work in jobs that might seem very boring, such as lifeguards or security guards. There they can be on show all the time and be seen to be looking good and taking it easy-on the beach or hanging around the bank looking important dressed up as a gunslinger. It doesn't matter that the job is not so pleasant in winter, nor whether the guard is actually able or even allowed to use the gun, as long as he looks the part.
Nowhere can this be seen better than in the world of sport. It makes no difference if you can't swim very well, but for the subaqua course you must have the right clothes and gear and style and you must look and act like a subaqua diver. This is why the latest fashion is important, for it makes your performance more convincing. Many Italian lofts are full of sportswear and gear, bought at great expense, but abandoned because they are out of date or their owner has taken up another activity.
Sports are often taken up just for the look. Cross-country skiing enjoyed boom when skintight Lycra ski-suits were invented. It was worth braving the freezing cold and the physical agony of this tiring sport for a couple of hours in order to be able to show off in the bar afterwards, and it might even have been good for your health, too.
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2. 30%
Financial crime and money laundering is increasingly becoming global phenomenon and this is not only a threat to the global banking sector, but it has the potential to become a threat to the civil and political spheres.
The financial sector, in particular the banking sector, more than any sectors, needs to operate in a crime and money laundering free environments. Banks deal with other people's money and therefore rely heavily on reputation for probity and integrity. Without the public confidence from the law abiding citizenry it would be difficult for banks to conduct business in the form they do now. In instances where banks may condone and are active parties to money laundering, the end result is that legitimate business would avoid such banks. It is also conceivable that money laundering if perpetrated on a high scale would complicate the ability of banks to manage their operations and risks. This is so because banks will not be able to predict the movement of laundered money.
Banks have also to be aware of the consequences of doing business with money launders or for unwittingly and fraudulently being used as conduits for money laundering. In jurisdictions where national anti-money laundering laws have been promulgated, non- complying banks and institutions have been subjected to hefty fines and in some instances the banking licenses have been known to have been withdrawn.
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