The Dalai Lama pays a visit to Italy

The writer Claudio Magris considers the Dalai Lama's visit to Italy scheduled in December. He notes how the authorities are seeking to please Beijing. "Paris is well worth a mass, as the French King Henri IV [1533-1610] said to justify his conversion to Catholicism in the name of the State. ... With all due allowance, the same problem arises in today's Italy with the welcome being prepared for the Dalai Lama: at the risk of dishonouring their illustrious guest, the authorities have taken precautions to give this welcome a tone and measure that should be of minimal offence for Beijing. ... The Italian authorities will nonetheless be accused of behaving like Henri IV, giving precedence to their political objectives and thinking of the economic needs of their country before acting according to a sense of moral."

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