Former Italian Prime Minister gave Princeton lecture

On November 19, Romano
Prodi, two-time Italian Prime
Minister and former Goldman
Sachs economist, gave a well attended
public lecture at Princeton
University.

Most of Dr. Prodi's lecture
was focused on the development
of the European Union
and its importance to European
cohesion, saying the EU is "a
union of minorities".

Dr. Prodi's experience
as the head of two Italian governments
and President of the
European Commission, the executive
body of the EU, lends
credibility to his view of the
role of Europe in a multilateral
world, the lecture's topic.

"Twentieth century
Europe has been the most important
political laboratory in
the whole world," he said, adding
later that unless the African
Union becomes more like the
EU, "the continent is lost."

The audience members,
roughly 100 people, was
an amalgamation of Princeton
University Italian Department
faculty and students, local
Italian-Americans and other
individuals, including Mercer
student Shawn Scott, a 19-year old
Political Science major who,
when asked to comment on
Dr. Prodi's lecture said, "as far
as the quality of information,
it was something that could be
expected from a political figure
in terms of ambiguity and addressing
legitimate issues."

When asked if the EU
would take the lead in curbing
global climate change, Dr.
Prodi said "well, there need to
be global standards. Without
global standards, there is nothing."

Janis Ikeda, a 23-yearold
Lehigh University graduate,
said she was interested in both
the topic and Dr. Prodi, citing
his stature as a draw. This was
her first Public Lecture Series
lecture and she said she would
consider attending another,
depending on the lecturer. Ms.
Ikeda, a Plainsboro resident
who attended the lecture with
a friend, said in a phone interview,
"as international relations
majors [the lecture] was really
broad, and didn't go into the
depth we'd hoped."

However, Dr. Prodi
was unequivocal when an unidentified
Princeton University
student asked him about an incident
involving a kidnapping
and a Ouija board in 1978. At
the time, Dr. Prodi was a Professor
of Industrial Organization
and Industrial Policy at the
University of Bologna. When
Aldo Moro, himself a two-time
Italian Prime Minister, was
kidnapped on March 18, 1978
by the Red Brigade, a militant
Marxist group linked to the
KGB, Dr. Prodi and some colleagues
held a seance which
revealed Moro's location, as he
and his colleagues testified to
the Moro Commission in 1980.
The Ouija lacked the requisite
specificity, and despite the efforts
of law enforcement, Aldo
Moro was shot and killed by his
captors 54 days after his kidnapping.

The student, whom Dr.
Prodi misheard and he subsequently
invited on stage, asked
if Dr. Prodi still stood by his
sworn testimony that he had
gleaned information about Mr.
Moro's whereabouts from the
spirit of Giorgio La Pira, a prominent
Italian politician who died
in November 1977, to which Dr.
Prodi said only "Yes." The audience
laughed and applauded at
the brief interaction.

The auditorium, Mc-
Cosh 50, had a problem with
the podium's microphones,
forcing Dr. Prodi to use a hand
held one throughout the lecture.
Attendees could be overheard
saying that Princeton is
wealthy enough that everything
should work properly.