Italy, the land of Dante, declared war on officialese (官样文章) recently, vowing to simplify the way the state communicates with its citizens. (1)"This is a cultural revolution in our relationship with citizens," Civil Service Minister Franco Frattini told a news conference to unveil a Project to make bureaucratic language understandable. The project called "Chiaro!" (Clear!) ,aims to rid the language used in bureaucratic texts of complex clauses and confusing terms.(2)While Italians were keeping their fingers crossed it would succeed, Frattini acknowledged it would be an uphill struggle. (3)Many existing government texts would be changed into more language but the hardest part would be to teach old dogs new tricks. "It would be useless to translate the documents and not train personnel to stop using ancient, incomprehensible language, "he said.(4)Ministries would be encouraged to compete for a "Chiaro!" (Clear !) stamp, which could be awarded only to departments and ministries that wrote simply. Professor Alfredo Fioritto, who heads a task of legal experts and linguists, admitted it was going tough. "There are hundreds of years of tradition to today the government speaks like it did in the nineth century, "he said. (5)"Simplifying language is very difficult. It means you have to know what you are talking about."