thisweekinitaly.com

h3. American Student Drinking

It is a problem here just as it is in the USA. Recently there was a drunken
brawl in Rome between some American students and some Italians. There have been articles in Florence about the communitys desire to lessen problems of
drinking by American students. In cities where there are a lot of American
students, the students are able replicate American college social life.
There are bars that cater to these students. Often these students live with
each other rather than with Italian families. The result is a severe
degradation of what is supposed to be an enlightening cross cultural
experience.

h3. Food in Italy vs. Great Britain

I was talking to an Irishman who has lived in Great Britain and now in Italy
for many years about the food in the two nations. He said that in Great
Britain there are many TV shows about gardening whereas in Italy there are
many shows about cooking. The results are obvious.

h3. Trip to Ravenna

I went on an overnight trip to Ravenna on Italys eastern coast. This city
was once the capital of the Roman Empire and later was under the control of
the Byzantine Empire. It is famous for its mosaics. Parts of it are
actually under sea level. Over the years it has been sinking faster than
Venice. For one of the famous building we viewed, you now enter at ground
level at what originally was the fourth floor of the structure. The mosaics
are wonderful. Ironically the oldest mosaics, done in the later Roman
style, are more realistic than the later mosaics done in the stylized flat
Byzantine manner. Originally the Christians at Ravenna belonged to the
heretical Arian cult. The Christians were persecuted and killed by the
Romans until the Roman Empire accepted Christianity as its official religion
in the early 4th century. Then the Christians began almost immediately to
persecute and kill each other over the various heresies in the religion.

h3. Italian Justice

I have been very critical at times of the Italian judicial system. But
just to show that the judges in Italy sometimes get it right, I present
the account of a recent case.

Leaving wives at home ‘not breach of marital duties’ (ANSA) – Rome, November
17 – Husbands are entitled to leave their wives at home for nights out and
even holidays, Italy’s high court says .”Solo leisure activities are not a
breach of marital duties,” the court ruled, rejecting an appeal for alimony
from a woman who divorced her husband because he was away from home so
often.Vittorio S., a middle-aged professional from northern Italy, was
within his rights when he kept going out for nights with the boys and had
the occasional holiday on his own, the court said .Vittorio “shouldn’t be
blamed” for the end of his marriage to Annamaria C., the Cassation Court
said. It said the woman “could not have found his behavior intolerable”
since she kept on living with him and initially fought against their
separation. Vittorio’s desire for more personal space was an
“understandable” response to the deterioration of the relationship, and not
the cause of it, the judges said .”The cry for freedom was the expression of
a pre-existing malaise,” they ruled .Vittorio’s nights out enabled him to
have an affair for which Annamaria forgave him. When he left her she
developed an acute case of depression, the court was told .They had been
married for twenty years and have a university student son .

h3. Dinner at a Friends House

I had another opportunity (which I never miss) to have dinner at the house
of a wonderful cook. She announced that it was a simple rustic meal. The
menu included:

* Velvet pumpkin soup
* Veal cutlet
* Onions with sweet/sour sauce
* Rape (sort of like spinach) fried with sausage and fennel seed
* Mashed potatoes
* Tiramisu
* Fruit
* Wine
* Dessert Wine

h3. Thanksgiving Dinner

My friend Roseanne and I talked the American owner of a local restaurant
into putting on an American Thanksgiving dinner. It was Monday, Nov. 21,
because this is the day the restaurant is ordinarily closed. My friend
Ralph Cavaliere sent me some fresh cranberries from the USA that the cook
used to make the sauce. You can buy cranberry sauce in a jar here, but
fresh cranberries dont exist in Italy. You have to order a whole turkey as
a special item in Italy. It was a fine meal; there were 16 people among my
friends who attended.

h3. Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Not Welcome

Coca-Cola is an official drink of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin which is
causing a problem here for reasons stated below.

h3. Olympics and Coca-Cola Provoke Clash on Left

ROME The TV commercial that shows ordinary people caught up in the wave of
Olympic fellow feeling looks a little far-fetched now. The bearer of the
Coca-Cola Olympic torch is facing a series of no through road signs, and a
clash of opinions. At least two of Romes municipalities have refused access
to the sponsor because of alleged violations by Coke of workers’ rights in
Colombia. . Perhaps the Turin 2006 Olympics have already started for the
torch bearer may have to negotiate a number of hurdles on his way to
Piedmont.

THE FIRST STEP The issue arose from a decision by Romes eleventh
municipal authority, which claims that the Olympic sponsor is breaching
workers rights in Colombia, and will not allow the flame to pass through
its territory. The city of Bologna has also issued a boycott of Coca-Cola.

ADMINISTRATORS The issue now risks spreading beyond the boundaries of the
capital. I attended a meeting in Bari with three hundred local
administrators, mayors and councillors, said the chair of the eleventh
Roman municipality, Communist Refoundation member Massimiliano Smeriglio,
and our protest was unanimously approved. Its too soon to say whether
other cities will follow our lead, he smiled,

There are calls for a committee of inquiry to find out whether what
Colombian trade unionists say is true, in other words whether Coca-Cola is
breaching human rights. A court action is under way in Miami for the same
reason .

h3. Devolution

The Italian Parliament has passed a new law that transfers some major
powers from the central government to the regional governments. Sounds like
a big change, but first this law must survive a national referendum. Whereas
some national referendums require a 50% quorum of voters to be effective,
this one does not. The center-left (which opposes the new law) has been
winning most elections recently so the law may well be overturned in the
referendum. Even if the law survives the referendum, the schedule for
implementing it is over a 10 year period. Within 10 years there will be at
least two national elections in which those opposed to this law may prevail
and then repeal the law. In short, it looks like a major alteration, but it
is very questionable whether it will ever take place.

h3. Keeping up to Date with News from the USA

I dont get Fox News or CNN on my TV. I look each day briefly, on the
computer, at the headlines from the New York Times. But if something really
important happens in the USA, I can depend upon the Italian news to keep me
informed. For example this week on the same page of the newspaper there were
two separate stories from the USA, both with the same headline “Sex with
Student.” One involved a middle school teacher in Florida: the other was
about a high school teacher in New York. Both female teachers were pictured
and seem quite attractive more attractive than I remember my teachers
being. I am reassuring all my Italian friends that no teacher of mine (male
or female) ever tried to seduce me.

h3. Festival of Tuscany

This is name given to celebrations on November 30 which mark the anniversary
of the abolition of the death penalty in Tuscany on November 30, 1786.
Tuscany was the first political unit in the world to abolish capital
punishment. As one who worked in the anti-death penalty movement in the
USA, this is another big plus for Tuscany in my view
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The Economist Magazine’s Special Report on Italy

This prestigious British magazine has a special report on Italy in its
December 2 issue titled “Addio, Dolce Vita.” One has to subscribe to the
magazine to get the whole report off of its Web site but the introductory
section is available free and reproduced below. This is for those of you
with a deeper interest in Italy.

AT FIRST blush, life in Italy still seems sweet enough. The countryside is
stunning, the historic cities beautiful, the cultural treasures amazing, and
the food and wine more wonderful than ever. By most standards, Italians are
wealthy, they live for a long time and their families stick impressively
together. The boorish drunkenness that makes town centres in many other
countries unpleasant is mercifully rare in Italy. The traffic may be bad,
and places such as Venice and Florence are overrun by tourists, but if you
go off-seasonor merely off the beaten trackyou can have a more enjoyable
time in Italy than practically anywhere else.

Yet beneath this sweet surface, many things seem to have turned sour. The
economic miracle after the second world war, culminating in the famous 1987
sorpasso (when Italy officially announced that its GDP had overtaken
Britain’s), is well and truly over. Italy’s average economic growth over the
past 15 years has been the slowest in the European Union, lagging behind
even France’s and Germany’s (see chart 1). Its economy is now only about 80%
the size of Britain’s. Earlier this year Italy briefly tipped into
recession; for 2005 as a whole, its economy is likely to be the only one in
the EU to shrink. Growth next year is expected to be anaemic at best.

Italian companies, especially the small, family-owned firms that have been
the backbone of the economy, are under ever-increasing pressure. Costs have
risen, but productivity has remained flat or even declined. Membership of
the euro, Europe’s single currency, now rules out devaluation, which for
many years acted as a safety-valve for Italian business. Italy’s
competitiveness is deteriorating fast, and its shares of world exports and
foreign direct investment are very low. The World Economic Forum in its
annual competitiveness league table recently ranked the country a
humiliating 47th, just above Botswana. The economy has also proved highly
vulnerable to Asian competition, because so many small Italian firms
specialise in such areas as textiles, shoes, furniture and white goods,
which are taking the brunt of China’s export assault.

Down at heel
The effects of decline are starting to show. Increasing numbers of Italians
are finding their living standards stagnating or even falling. The cost of
living is widely believed to have risen sharply since euro notes and coins
replaced lire in January 2002. Property prices have certainly shot out of
reach for many first-time buyers in Rome, Milan and even Naples. Many
Italians are cutting back on their annual holidays, or even going without.
Others are putting off buying new cars or even new suits, a real deprivation
for such design-conscious people. Supermarkets report that spending now
falls in the fourth week of every month before the next pay cheque arrives,
a sure sign that families are struggling to make ends meet.

A lacklustre economy is causing broader problems too. Italy’s infrastructure
is creaking: roads, railways and airports are falling below the standards of
the rest of Europe, and public and private buildings are looking ever
shabbier. Educational standards have slipped: the country comes out badly in
the OECD’s PISA cross-national comparisons, and no Italian university now
makes it into the world’s top 90. Spending on research and development is
low by international standards.

Italy has also suffered more than its fair share of corporate scandals,
notably the bond default by Cirio and the collapse of Parmalat. And the
public finances are in a shambles. Respectable estimates put the underlying
budget deficit for next year, ignoring one-off measures, at 5% of GDP, way
above the 3% ceiling set by the euro area’s stability and growth pact. The
public debt stands at over 120% of GDP and is no longer falling.

Even Italy’s social fabric is coming under strain. The family remains strong
and divorce rates are relatively low. But the fact that 40% of Italians aged
30-34 are reportedly living with their parents is not just a happy sign of
family harmony or attachment to mamma’s cooking. Many young Italians stay at
home because they cannot find work or because they do not earn enough to
afford a place of their own.

Social trust, a concept that is admittedly hard to measure, seems unusually
low in Italyone reason, perhaps, why family firms have always played such a
big part in the economy. And respect for the rules, and even the law, never
high, appears to have fallen further in recent years. Both tax evasion and
illegal building, encouraged by repeated amnesties, seem to be on the rise.
Organised crime and corruption remain entrenched, especially in the south.

To cap it all, Italy’s demographics look terrible. The country has one of
the lowest birth rates in western Europe, at an average of 1.3 children per
woman, and the population is now shrinking; yet Italians are living ever
longer, so it is also ageing rapidly. The economic consequencestoo many
pensioners, not enough workers to maintain themare worrying enough on their
own. What makes them worse is Italians’ low rate of participation in work.
Only 57% of those in the 15-64 age range are in employment, the smallest
proportion in western Europe. Germany, by comparison, has an employment rate
of 66%, and Britain one of 73%. Although overall unemployment in Italy is
not too bad by west European standards, it is disturbingly high among the
young and in the south.

Berlusconi’s legacy
What has gone wrong with the Italian economy, and how can it be put right?
These are the main questions this survey will seek to answer. But it will do
so in the context of Italy’s unruly political scene. Silvio Berlusconi’s
centre-right government, elected in May 2001, seems likely to manage the
rare feat of staying in office for a full term (ending next spring)a first
for a post-war government in Italy. Mr Berlusconi is immensely proud of
this. But he has much less to be proud of when it comes to the economy. In
his 2001 election campaign, he promised to apply the business acumen that
had helped him to become Italy’s richest man to make all Italians richer.
This he has conspicuously failed to do.

The Economist’s view of Mr Berlusconi is well known. We declared in April
2001 that he was unfit to lead Italy, because of the morass of legal cases
brought against him at various stages of his business career and because of
the conflicts of interest inherent in his ownership of Italy’s three main
private television channels. Almost five years on, he still faces legal
problems (of which more later), and he has done little to resolve his
conflicts of interest: indeed, because the government owns RAI, the state
broadcaster, Mr Berlusconi now controls or influences some 90% of Italian
terrestrial television (which does not stop him complaining about his
critics on TV). Our verdict of April 2001 stands.

Yet, as we acknowledged at the time, in 2001 there was nevertheless a case
to be made for electing Mr Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition. Italy badly
needed a dose of pro-market reforms, liberalisation, privatisation,
deregulation and a shake-up of the public administration, all of which Mr
Berlusconi had promised. He even pledged to cut taxes. A majority of Italian
voters, backed by much of Italian business, were willing to overlook both
his legal entanglements and his conflicts of interest and give him a chance
to reform the country. But as the next election approaches, very little of
what he promised has been delivered, so many of his erstwhile supporters are
feeling disillusioned.

Even the apparent political stability that Mr Berlusconi has fostered is
deceptive. His six-party centre-right coalition has come close to collapse
more than once, usually thanks to squabbling between Umberto Bossi’s
Northern League and Gianfranco Fini’s National Alliance. Last April a row
with a smaller ally, the Union of Centre and Christian Democrats, forced Mr
Berlusconi to resign and form a new government.

On current form the centre-left opposition under Romano Prodi looks the
likeliest victor in the election planned for April 9th 2006. But even if he
manages to win, Mr Prodi will find it hard to introduce reformsnot least
because his coalition embraces no fewer than nine parties, several of which
will obstruct change. It was an ally of Mr Prodi’s, Fausto Bertinotti, and
his unreconstructed Communists that pushed him out of office in 1998. In
truth, neither of the two main groupings in Italian politics offers much
hope to those who believe that the country needs radical (and painful)
reform.

Yet Italy is approaching a crunch. Rather like Venice in the 18th century,
it has coasted for too long on the back of its past success. Again like
Venice, it has lost many of the economic advantages which underpinned that
success. For Venice, it was a near-monopoly on trade with the East that paid
for the creation of its beautiful palaces and churches; today’s Italy has
benefited hugely from a combination of low-cost labour and a switch of
workers away from low-productivity farming (and the south) into
manufacturing (mostly in the north). But such good things invariably come to
an end.

That is what happened to La Serenissima at the end of the 18th century.
Venice was contemptuously swept away by Napoleon, and the last doge voted
himself out of office. The serene republic is now little more than a tourist
attraction, however beguiling. Could this become the fate of Italy as a
whole?

h3. Bi-Lingual Toy

There is a talking toy for young children advertised on TV that speaks both
in Italian and English. A friend who teaches English tells me that young
children are the new large market for English teaching schools in Italy.

h3. News Story You Wont See in an American Newspaper

A motorcyclist was stopped by the traffic police and began to hit and kick
the officers. Eventually he was subdued, handcuffed, and arrested. Two of
the officers went to the hospital for injuries. There was not a scratch on
the cyclist when he arrived at the station. In American the cyclist would
certainly have received some bruises perhaps after he was handcuffed.
There is a very strong norm against police using violence in Italy even if
every type of policeman is armed. This may go back to the fact that in
Fascist times the police were a violent arm of an oppressive state.

h3. Wait for the American Edition of This Book

Valentino Rossi is the worlds champion motorcycle racer. He is an a
vivacious, engaging young man of 24 years. You see his photo often in
magazines. In smaller countries like Italy, a citizen who is a World
Champion in a sport gets a lot more attention than in the USA. Now his
Autobiography is in the book stores. I cant imagine that it is a very
thick book. Other than his racing accomplishments, I know that he was a
poor student in school.

h3. Olympic Torch

Publicity for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Turin is now on the TV. The
Olympic Torch will pass throughout the country before lighting the flame
that starts the games. Of course, it is not just an ordinary torch it is
one created by famous Italian designer Pinin Farina for this event.

h3. Mussolini in the News Again

A prominent Italian politician made front page news by saying that Mussolini
should not have been executed by the Partisans in 1945 instead he should
have been tried by a court. My immediate response Who cares? Why is this
big news? The legacy of WWII lives on in Italy, but it really is not the
legacy of the war between the Allies and the Axis powers. It is the legacy
of the Civil War in Italy from 1943-45 in which Germans and Italian Fascists
on one side fought Italian Partisans on the other. Italian casualties were
35,000 dead and 21,000 injured more than I think Italy lost in the war of
1940-43 against the Allies. If one thinks that it is time to forget this
Civil War, it is good to remember that the legacy of the Civil War in
America lasted a long time. Not until 100 years after the American Civil War
was the Republican party a viable party in the South.
Furthermore, whereas the rivalries that survived the American Civil War were
sectional, in Italy the Civil War was not one of sections. So after the war
people lived next door to each other who had fought against each other.

h3. Apology

Last week I included in my newsletter a link to a photo of the bare bottomed
woman that caused a stir in the magazine Catholic Family. Unfortunately this
link was dead by the time my newsletter arrived. So my male friends looking
for a cheap thrill were disappointed.

h3. Ivy League Pants Return

When I started high school in 1954, the pants in style had what was called
an Ivy League Belt in the back. This style passed away by the end of the
1950s, but I now see such pants in stores in Italy. ( Has this style revived
in the USA too?) If any of my friends still have a pair of these old pants
in wearable condition in the back of the closet, it is time to bring them
out. I only have one or two friends, however, who can still get into a pair
of pants they wore in the 1950s!!

h3. Two Party System

Italy is famous for its wide array of political parties. As I have noted,
there are, however, two grand coalitions of parties in Italy. So the system
is closer to a two party system than it appears to be. A recent survey
showed that 60% of Italians would prefer to have a simple two party system.

h3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I saw this play in Italian recently. In 1953 I saw the original Broadway
production with Ben Gazzara, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Burl Ives. My parents
did not realize how adult this play was, and in 1953 I was the only young
boy in the theatre. In the Italian production Brick changes from a an
American football player to a soccer star. I did not hear Big Daddy tell
his famous joke about the elephant at the Zoo. Also they apparently could
not find a real fat Italian actor to play Big Daddy. Still all in all it
was an enjoyable production.

My Article in the November 17 Edition of the Florentine Newspaper

(The article published in newspaper was a little shorter, but the readers of
this newsletter deserve the Full Monty)

h3. Italian Politics for Dummies

An Irreverent Glance into Government

For those of us coming from countries with a two-party (maybe 2 ) system,
Italian politics seems a hopeless confusion. You can try diligently to learn
all the names, principles, symbols, and faces of the endless parade of
political parties, or you can aspire to a quick and dirty understanding
that tells you enough to function as a foreigner in Italy. Here it is.

First, the older, distinguished, short guy you see representing Italy at
ceremonial functions is the President of Italy, Carlo Ciampi. He is a
little like a modern king above politics with lots of pomp and little
power. He often delivers wise advice about the needs and values of Italy to
which the politicians pay little attention.

Second, Forget learning the names of parties. There are two grand
coalitions, the center-right (CDL) led by Silvio Berlusconi, which currently
is the majority, and the center-left (l Unione) led, at least for a while
after his recent coronation in a national primary, by Romano Prodi. You do
need to learn these two faces. If you look closely, you may see Silvios
face change over time as he undergoes face lifts and hair transplants.
Silvio is called the Cavaliere; Romano is called the Professor. When Silvio
talks about his opponents he calls them all Communists even though the
Communist party is only a small player in the center-left coalition. Romano
is a little more polite in his vocabulary, but when center-left folks get
upset, they call the other side Fascists, even though the successor to the
fascist party is only one and not the largest party in Silvios coalition.
In fact the guy who heads the neo-Fascist party seems to be one of the most
leftist of those in the center-right coalition. Go figure!

On the news at night all the various party leaders and some union leaders
get their mugs shown, but in a 30 minute broadcast, there is not enough time
to let them all talk and talk and talk. So we hear Silvio, Romano, and
maybe one or two others (If you are ambitious, you can learn their names
too.) say a few words. Then we see a tape of each of the others yakking
into a microphone, but we only hear the announcers summary of what they
said. You dont have to pay attention to the guys (few women at the top of
Italian politics) whose views are delivered second hand.

There are two kinds of political battles among the parties. The first ones
are between the center-right and center-left coalitions who never agree on
anything. The result is that politics are paralyzed, and little meaningful
change takes place. The second type of struggle is among the parties within
each coalition whose leaders dont like the fact that they are playing
second fiddle to the head of the coalition who gets to speak in his own
voice on the evening news. The result of these fights is that the
coalitions seem to be (but are not) in constant danger of immediate
dissolution.

When there is a situation that something has to be done lack of action is
totally unacceptablethere will be reports of a stalemate that is impossible
to resolve. A national crisis is imminent. At the 11th hour (never sooner)
a compromise will be forged that is inadequate to resolve the problem but
which will delay the crisis until a later date. Often the issue is
government finances (too little income; too many expenses) because in Italy
anyone who pays all his taxes voluntarily is at risk of commitment to a
mental institution.

For the center-left the next best thing to a day at the beach is a mass
demonstration in the streets. For the center-right such rallies are
equivalent to a soccer riot.

Many Italians are passionate about politics and can discuss the issues in a
sophisticated, if endless, fashion. It turns out, however, that few
Italians think that the party they support can really achieve much good.
Instead, the best that is hoped for is that their party will prevent the
other parties from doing bad things. Italians see themselves as a nation of
honest (forget about the paying taxes problem), decent folks ruled by
dishonest politicians who are interested only in power and filling their own
pockets. The maxim People get the kind of politics they deserve. has no
currency in Italy.

As in other nations, the strength of the various parties differs in Italy by
region. Tuscany leans to the left so be sure to make a bad face whenever
Berlusconis name is mentioned. Its too much trouble to learn the
political inclinations of other regions. When not in Tuscany, stay totally
neutral.

h3. Bare Bottom Brouhaha

The Catholic Magazine, Christian Family, published an advertisement that
showed the bare bottom of a woman seen through a steamy glass shower door.
Hardly racy stuff (especially in Italy), but it was big news in the press.
The editor of the magazine had to make a public apology. He said that the
magazine had not abandoned its dedication to modesty and chastity. For the
prurient minded, the photo may be seen at

http://www.ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-11-03_1869813.html

h3. Youth Mobilized Against the Mafia

In Calabria a major public official was gunned down Mafia style when he went
to vote in the recent primary elections. This led to large anti-Mafia
demonstrations in the streets, primarily of the youth of Calabria. The
President of the nation complemented the youth in their initiative. Veteran
anti-Mafia crusaders noted that these demonstrations showed the right
values, but were unlikely to be of much effect in the battle against the
Mafia.

h3. High Speed Trains

Italy does not have high speed trains like the TGV in France. The European
Union is sponsoring a high speed line from Lyon, France to Turin, Italy.
Although Italy and France are paying part of the costs, the European Union
is paying most of them. There are mass protests in a part of Italy over
this project. The claim is that the mountains through which tunnels must be
dug have a lot of asbestos in them so that the construction of the tunnels
will endanger the health of people living nearby. I am no expert about
asbestos. I understand that people who worked in factories where asbestos
was converted into construction products were exposed to dangerous asbestos
dust. I was always suspicious that the asbestos insulation around pipes in
schools was not particularly dangerous, and the removal of this insulation
was a bit of a boondoggle for construction firms. I wonder too how
dangerous (other than to the workers digging the tunnels) the asbestos dust
from the construction of tunnels will be when it is widely dispersed over a
broad area. Maybe it is more dangerous than I think. But if you rounded up
1000 experts on this matter who swore on the graves of their grandparents
that the construction of the tunnels is not dangerous, it would make no
difference to the protestors in Italy.

h3. A Tale of Two Gypsies

The other morning I was in a shop when a gypsy beggar came in to exchange
her coins for bills. She had 25 Euro in coins. I asked the shop owner how
long it had taken her to accumulate this amount; he said this was the amount
from the first hour of the morning. Im sure she doesnt get 25 Euro each
hour of the day. Im sure also she pays no taxes on this money. Twenty-five
Euro in an hour is more than most Italians make. If a person making 12 Euro
per hour feels good giving a gypsy a Euro, and she feels good getting it, I
guess it is a win-win transaction for the parties involved. To me it is
on the same level as giving money to television evangelists like Jim Baker
and Jimmy Swaggert.

In Florence a woman claimed that she emerged from a shop to see two gypsies
trying to take her child out of its stroller. She went to some traffic
policemen, who did not help her. They later claimed that she did not make
clear what her problem was. There were some carabinieri nearby; she hailed
them and they arrested a gypsy lady. In Italy there are four types of
police on the street (traffic police, carabinieri, polizia, and municipal
police). I am suspicious that the traffic police she first alerted did not
respond because this was not their job.

h3. Riots in France

As would be expected, the riots in France have raised concerns in Italy and
throughout Europe that there could be a revolt of the immigrants in other
countries too. To allay these fears, some commentators note the specific
situation in France that is not necessarily duplicated in other nations.
Others, however, see the problem as more general. I think a key element in
France is that you now have second and third generation immigrants who are
not advancing in society. When immigrants first come to a new nation, I
think they assume they will be on the bottom. They expect, however, that
things will be better for their children and grandchildren. When this does
not happen, the situation can become explosive.

h3. Male Vanity

I note on TV that an advertisement for anti-wrinkle cream now shows the
husband using his wifes cream. Maybe this is a precursor to an
anti-wrinkle cream in a bottle especially for men.

h3. Another Interesting Article from The Florentine Newspaper

h3. Married to the Italian:
A Time and Place for Everything By Fred Birkhimer

I need that special place, but…nothing in the center (too many tourists);
nothing on the other side of town (thats not our neighborhood); nothing out
in the country(its too far for a weeknight);nothing affordable (not special
enough for the occasion); nothing new (what if its no good?) etcThere are
no restaurants in Florence. You heard correctly: Florence, a world-famous
culinary capital, a city in which it is impossible to walk down the street
without bumping into someone inspecting a menu, has no restaurants. That is,
no restaurants that are acceptable if your wife is Florentine, and it
happens to be your anniversary. I survive the process of choosing a
restaurant. Once there, some pasta and a good bottle of wine and our special
night out is a success? Hardly, our adventure has just begun! At the
restaurant, many things await me that are far more diabolical than
better-known challenges such as double parking or the constant white noise
of cell phones ringing.

The Italian tendency to compensate for chaos in some spheres of life with a
maniacal sense of order in others, when brought to one of the rare areas in
which national pride flourishes (food), can cause many a cultural-culinary
disaster. A simple example is the tourists habit of ordering that
quintessentially Italian beverage, a cappuccino, after a big meal;
unfortunately for them, a cappuccino is of course a breakfast thing, or at
the very most a warm me up drink on a cold afternoon thing, and as such is
clearly out of place after a few plates of pasta and a big bloody steak.
More than once at the end of a feast of Homeric proportions Ive
eavesdropped on some variation of the following scene: Culturally Unaware
Tourist: Ill have a cappuccino, please. Condescending Waiter: No, sorry,
were all out of doughnuts.

But many dont know that, much more than the time of day, its the time of
year that influences what you can order safely. Italians are still a
half-generation or so away from having their food senses dulled by
supermarkets. And they know what season it is. The quaint, folksy,
close-to-the earth side of this heightened seasonal awareness is that you
can ask the average Italian what fruit
or vegetable is in season, and hell give you an annotated list, including
recipes. The downside is that you run the risk of ordering a food when its
not the right week, thus appearing extremely uncool. (What? You want ham
and melon?! Cant you see that its late summer??) The fact that this item
is still clearly printed on the menu rarely provides salvation. For those of
you who didnt grow up on a farm and would like to be in the loop, here are
a few tips to get you started: no tomatoes in winter (forget that insalata
caprese); no artichokes in spring; no broccoli in summer; no salad in the
fall. And its not just fruits and vegetables: generally speaking, risotto
is a winter thing too, so try to avoid it in August. Imagine strict rules
governing the months in which you can order a cheeseburger to have some idea
of what Im talking about.

Wrong season is not the only danger, though; there is also wrong occasion.
There are a whole series of things (lasagna, for example) that I cant order
because these are things your grandma makes for you. Whose grandmother,
Id like to know; certainly not mine. The worst offence would, however, be
ordering something too healthy on occasions that call for serious eating. A
grilled chicken breast belongs to the worst category, things you eat in the
hospital.

Finally, the last stumbling block: ordering. A dangerous moment one false
move and my accent will give me away, one word and I will be transformed
from a paying customer (to be addressed respectfully with the lei) into a
schmuck (who is barely worthy of a tu). As a foreigner, I will be someone to
ignore or, even worse, humiliate. Not even a jacket and tie could save me
then. What to do? Tell my wife what I want and have her do the talking? Try
to rehearse carefully what Im going to say to the waiter in the hope that I
can pass as Italian? Try to mumble and just point at something on the
menu? Here comes the waiter.
Buon appetito.

h3. Immigration in Florence

In a Florence newspaper I saw the headline One in 10 is an Immigrant. I
assume this refers to Florence and not to all of Italy. More and more
sections of Florence are now becoming inhabited primarily by immigrants.

h3. Family and Personal Happiness

One of the negative effects of the Italian strong emphasis on the family, is
that the happiness of parents is strongly tied to the happiness of their
children. One of my friend’s mother has two children (of four) who are
separated or divorced. Her response to this fact is that My life is
ruined. Obviously parents everywhere want their children to be happy and
are sad when this is not true. But this kind of sadness is much more
forceful in Italy.

h3. Number 1 News Story on Italian News

One night the number 1 story on the nightly news was the indictment and
then resignation of White House Aide, Libby. It is hard for me to imagine
how such a story could be of great importance to the average Italian. I am
constantly surprised by the attention given here to events in the USA.

h3. Spaghetti Hold the Meatballs

In Tuscany you never see spaghetti with meatballs on a menu. Recently I saw
meatballs themselves (not a particularly common item) offered as a main
dish. I ordered them. If I had been nostalgic for the USA, I could have
ordered pasta too and asked to have both pasta and meatballs delivered to
the table at the same time. Then, when the disapproving eye of the waiter
was absent, I could have mixed the two together.

h3. Berlusconi Visits the USA

Silvio Berlusconi visited President Bush last week. While in the USA,
Silvio first said that he had tried to talk Bush out of going to war in
Iraq. This was to assuage anti-war feelings in Italy. The underlying
message I tried to tell George not to do it; if he had listened to me he
would not be in the mess that he is in now. Then Berlusconi said that Bush
indicated that he (Bush) feared a victory by Berlusconis opponents in the
2006 Italian national elections. Even if Bush said this (You can never be
certain when Silvio talks.), Bush obviously does not want to be quoted
publicly as taking a stand in the upcoming Italian election. By the time
Berlusconi left, I am sure Bush was thinking With friends like this guy,
who needs enemies..

h3. Xmas arrives in Italy

During the last week in October, the first Christmas merchandise arrived in
the grocery store in my neighborhood. As Ive mentioned before, without the
intervening holiday of Thanksgiving, the Italians are ahead of the Americans
in the early commercialization of the Christmas holiday.

h3. Halloween Shooting

In one city in Italy, some kids were carrying on in the streets on Halloween
night. Among other things, they were shooting off firecrackers. An older
gentlemen hollered at them to get away from his house. Later, as they were
cavorting on the wall across from his house, he came to the door with his
shotgun and fired into the air. Two of the kids were hit; one may lose an
eye. This is the kind of event, when it happens in the USA, that provokes
in the Italian press articles about the gun and violence culture of the
United States.

h3. Ad Promoting Italian Shoes

In response to my item last week about the ad promoting Italian shoes (as
better than those made elsewhere), I got the following note from my friend
John Hare:

In the late 90’s I went to Brazil several times for a medical education
project.
I got to know a lot of Brazilian docs, and it was all pretty much a fun
exercise. One of them, who lives in Porto Alegre, told me his son was a
devotee
of Church’s English shoes and always asked him to buy a pair when in
England.
After one trip my friend noted the pair of Church’s English shoes he bought
in London
were made in Brazil !

h3. Italian Wine in USA

A big item in the news was that Italy is the number 1 supplier of wine in
the United States. I am not sure if this is number 1 supplier overall or
number 1 supplier from another country.

h3. Business Protest Italian Style

A local businessman in Pistoia is upset because a proposed change in traffic
patterns will, he believes, make it less convenient for customers to reach
his store. So he went on a hunger strike in front of city hall. A national
news program sent a reported to talk to him. So far the proposed change has
not been rescinded.

h3. Best News of Week

After a hiatus of about two months (during which I had only warm water), I
again have hot water in my apartment. My water heater from time to time
over last two years has stopped supplying hot water. I was able (by playing
with controls of the heater) to get it hot again in the past, but this time,
no. This time my landlord had to call the plumber.