September 2007
Monthly Archive
Fri 28 Sep 2007
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Italy’s Historic Reputation
I attended some sessions of a scholarly conference on the topic of artistic links between early Tudor England and Florence under the Medicis. The most interesting fact I noted was that in Tudor England Italy was seen as the center of fashion and inventiveness. In 500 years little has changed.
A Villa in Tuscany
I spent a weekend with some American friends at a lovely villa they had rented south of Florence. It is interesting to see the modifications that are made in an old villa to accommodate it for American tourists. Many new bathrooms were installed. There was a swimming pool and also ADSL computer access to the internet. I told my friends that if one rents such a villa through an agency in the USA, usually when you leave, the owner will tell you to contact him or her directly if you ever want to rent it again. The price then is much cheaper because the owner does not have to pay the hefty rental fee to the agency.
Disappointment at the Restaurant
I went with the group from the USA to a very fine restaurant in Florence. On the menu was pigeon, either fried or grilled. Pigeons to me are the world’s most useless bird so I decided to discover if they in fact did have one good purpose, to be eaten. Unfortunately the restaurant was out of pigeon that day. I did not suggest the obvious to the waiter– got to the nearest piazza and grab one. I’ll have to wait to test the taste of pigeon.
Shock Advertisement
There is a shocking public service advertisement in Italy this week. It is against anorexia. In a nod to a famous book it uses the phrase No-li-ta. The ad features the nude photo of a 25 year old victim of anorexia. She looks like a survivor (on the edge of death) of the Nazi death camps. If you want to see the photo go to: 3818/campagna http://www.fashionblog.it/post/-choc-no-anorexia-nolita It certainly is eye catching. It surely shows the ugly face of this malady to the public. I don’t know, nevertheless, how effective it will be in that victims of this disease see themselves as too fat despite the obvious evidence to the contrary.
Roberto Benigni and Dante
The last few years the actor (famous in USA for his enthusiastic acceptance of the Oscar for “Life is Beautiful”) has been touring major Italian cities doing readings from Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” This week he did so at a prison. There is no author in the USA who has the same prominence in its culture that Dante has in Italy. Still “The Divine Comedy” is a complex poem written 700 years ago. Maybe the closest thing we have to Dante in the USA is Shakespeare even if he is English. Perhaps a major actor reading Shakespeare would be enthusiastically received in a prison in the USA, but my guess is that Italian prisoners (Of course there are many non Italians in the prisons here.) appreciate Dante more than their counterparts in the USA would care for any author.
Miss Italia 2007
As always I watch at least a little of this pageant which is on TV for five consecutive nights. How does one compare it to the Miss America Pageant? Although maybe it has changed in recent years, I always think of Miss America as promoting the wholesome, All American, and Ivory Snow type of woman. I recall the singer Dinah Shore from the 1940s and 1950s who in fact was a college campus beauty queen. She was the epitome of wholesome. Oscar Levant once said that he could not watch her on TV because he was a diabetic. The contestants in the Miss Italia contest certainly are not unwholesome. They are not femme fatales. Still their youthful vivacity has a sexual edge that is either non existent or suppressed (for purposes of the competition) in the Miss America contest.
Italian Politics and the Media
I think part of the problem of politics in Italy is a weak media. Let me give an example. About eight years ago in Pennsylvania a state legislator, Tom Druse, was found to be the driver in a hit and run accident in which a pedestrian was killed. Needless to say, this was a big story in the Pennsylvania newspapers, especially since Mr. Druse had voted for a bill to give mandatory jail sentences to hit and run drivers. As the case entered the legal process, the story disappeared from the front page. Still it was certain from day one that the press was closely following this case and that the media would report whatever legal actions were or were not taken. Mr. Druse ended up spending a few years in prison. He won’t be running for office again.
As I reported earlier, recently a member of the Italian Parliament was discovered in a little orgy with two prostitutes and drugs that ended up with one of the ladies taken to the hospital for a drug overdose. It certainly was page one news. Now this case too has entered the legal process. The difference is that in Italy the results of that process may never be reported in the media. Once something disappears from the news here, there seems to be very little follow up by the media. This makes it easier for politicians to be involved in all kind of shenanigans without ending their political careers.
Sat 22 Sep 2007
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Those False Designer Handbags
They are sold everywhere on the streets of Italy. In
Florence I saw a large display case in the middle of a major Piazza. In it were attractively displayed real designer handbags. It had, also, in each corner a glass column in which were stuffed a collection of counterfeit bags. Obviously the real bags, well displayed, looked better than those crammed into the glass columns, but if you looked briefly at the bags, it was hard to tell what the differences are between a real one and a fake one. A knowledgeable person, after examining a bag, can probably observe and explain the differences. If, however, a person walks by carrying a bag, I could never tell if it is a fake or the real thing.
People who buy a $10 counterfeit bag probably would never buy the $200 original. Similarly those who buy the $200 original would not be satisfied with the fake item. I suppose the harm to the bag companies arises when people are unwilling to buy a $200 original because there are already so many $10 copies in circulation.
Washing the Lipstick Off of the Collar is No Longer Good Enough
Perhaps inspired by the popular TV show imported from the
USA, CSI, a Tuscan woman recently took a pair of her husband’s underpants to a private lab for investigation and analysis. She was suspicious that he was having an affair. Sure enough, the underpants had on them traces of both male and female fluids.
Where is This Train Going?
Florence is in the center of
Italy. Trains from
Florence go both north toward
Milan and farther or south toward
Rome or farther. If you put me on an Intercity Train (the less expensive long distance train) in
Florence with a blindfold on and asked me to tell you if the train was going north or south, I could do so. The southern Italians on the train going south will be more animated and noisier than the passengers on a train going north.
Friendly Neighbors
In my mailbox was a flyer announcing a seminar sponsored by a local newspaper and some local organizations on the topic of dealing with conflicts among the residents of a condominium. Disputes between neighbors are much more common in Italy than in the
USA. The annual meeting of a condominium is a subject used by Italian comics to illustrate mass confusion. When I was a young boy, the neighbor lady began to plant some flowers and shrubs between her house and ours and eventually was encroaching on our property. My mother (of Italian extraction), got a surveyor out and then placed a chain link fence along the property line. The usual method for such a fence was that the smooth metal surface of the fence ran along the property line and the metal poles (to which the surface was attached) were placed inside of that surface. My mother thought the poles were a somewhat ugly feature and insisted that they be placed outside of the surface of the fence, facing the neighbor’s property. My mother was a true Italian.
Front Page News –
Pistoia vs.
Pennsylvania
On the front page of the Pistoia paper was a story with photo of a couple who hit a deer with their car in the nearby mountains. The car was somewhat damaged although not excessively for a collision with a deer. Not headline news in
Pennsylvania. To be perfectly accurate I should report that the couple claimed that the deer charged their car rather than simply being accidentally struck by it. I attribute this account to the Italian tendency to describe a situation as a little more sensational than it in fact was.
I Spoke Too Soon
I was at the local office where blood tests are administered. There was a large crowd, but the registering and the testing of the people seemed to proceed rapidly. I think I have noted before that this office seems quite efficient. I remarked to a friend I saw there that I had always found this office to function quite well. Upon entering you take a number. There are electronic signs which show you when your number is ready either to be registered or to give the blood sample. Below the electronic signs is a notice that says that the numbers are not always called in exact numerical order. (The Italians often get confused by this fact). I was number 67. So it did not bother me when after number 66, number 72 was next on the sign. When, however, numbers 85 and 86 were being called , 67 still had not yet come up (nor had 65). The system was malfunctioning, and several numbers between 60 and 70 were not being displayed. I had to enter one of the examination rooms and show them that my number had been skipped. The personnel at the office are still quite efficient, but apparently the electronic number system is 100% Italian.
Italian Politeness
I was looking at the Health insert of an Italian newspaper. The title of the cover article was “If he is fast.” That title, in itself, does not indicate the subject of the article. The cover photo made the subject clear, a young couple, half-dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed with dejected looks on their faces. Now Italians are not shy about discussing sexual issues in explicit terms, but rather than use a somewhat pejorative phrase, “premature ejaculation,” to describe the issue, the title presented it in neutral language; “fast” is not in itself a pejorative word. Certainly harsh and obscene language is used in Italy, but there nevertheless is a tendency to phrase sensitive matters in a more polite, indirect way.
Time for a Little Dose of Realism
I wrote last week about the so-called “anti-politics” movement being headed by comedian Beppi Grillo. This week Romano Prodi, the head of the government, added a needed bit of realism to the ongoing controversy. Italians love to see themselves as a hard-working, honest population who are governed by a lazy, dishonest group of politicians. Prodi pointed out that the vices of which the politicians are accused are vices that are common among the Italian people. This does not excuse the wrong doing of the politicians, but it does take note of the fact that the politicians are not a group totally separate and different from those they govern.
Prediction Sadly Coming True
When I noted earlier the new railroad cars being introduced, I predicted that they would not stay new and wonderful for long. The railroad simply does not maintain its rolling stock. Sure enough now some of the doors on the new cars don’t function, some toilets are broken, and the air conditioning does not work in every car. The new cars are more modern, but this makes problems more likely. For example the toilets have a complicated flushing system that washes the seat every time the toilet is flushed — much more likely to break down than the old system where the toilet flushed through a hole in the floor onto the roadbed. The doors open and close electronically – more likely to malfunction than the simple mechanical locks on older doors.
Sat 15 Sep 2007
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Death of Pavarotti
This was the number 1 story on the NPR radio news I get from the USA, but in Italy it was more than just the number 1 story. For example, the newspaper La Repubblica dedicated the first 11 pages of its edition to this story. I have a feeling that opera is less popular in Italy than it once was, but this was more a case of death of a national hero and Italy’s ambassador to the world. After this death the stories started that he was alienated from his second wife and had written a new will shortly before his death. Stay tuned for the battle over his estate.
A Trip to My Ancestral Village in Basilicata
I went to Calvello for the semi-yearly Festival of the Virgin of Saracino. This is sort of a “Homnecoming Weekend” for the town with people from all over Italy and even foreign countries returning. There were some new historical signs in town, and I discovered that the town has been destroyed or partially destroyed by earthquakes at least three times, the last one in 1980.
The Procession of the Virgin” on Sunday morning followed the church service. In Calvello folks still dress up for church. This is what one might call a “hick town” in the USA, but the clothes worn by the local folks were much more stylish that you would see in a small town in Nebraska. The men of Calvello will not be featured in GQ, but the suits they wore were of good syle and quality.
When I am asked what my ancestors did in Italy, I usually reply that they were probably horse theives who left a step ahead of the police. In fact, my ancestor Carlo Mazziotta was a leader and a hero in the Italian struggle for independence. He was executed by the French in 1822. His name is featured in the town’s new historical signs.
Calvello may show up in a film. Two American filmmakers were in Calvello to scout the area as a locale for a film one wants to produce. They would use the Festival of the Virgin as a scene in the film. It will be a romantic comedy about the life of the producer’s (His real name is Rocco Ancarola, but he is also an actor so he probably has a stage name) parents who were from Calvello. His father was a prisoner of war in South Africa during WWII, and after the war, the prisoners were offered the opportunity to remain in South Africa, which he did.
In the fall the Festival of the Virgin is centered on bringing the statue of the Virgin from the mountain church back to the town church. There is a procession six miles in length for this task. At the mountain church there is a nice pavilion area with toilets. There was no functioning toilet on the day of the event. One would think with only two VERY IMPORTANT days each year at this site, that the toilets would be working for these two times.
The Prostitution Problem
Until 1958, Italy had regulated legal houses of prostitution although there were also illegal streetwalkers. Now with so many illegal prostitutes (including many minors) along the streets, almost none of whom are Italians, the nation is again thinking about legalizing prostitution in order to better control it.
You Should Have Guessed This
I wrote last week about the admissions test given to the crush of students who wanted to be admitted to the study of medicine in Italy. This week the story arrived about cheating on the test. Some are said to have paid up to € 30,000 for the answers in advance. The Medical College Admissions Test in the USA is primarily a test of science knowledge and academic skills. The test in Italy, given at the end of high school, includes general knowledge questions. Here are two such questions, one from test for Medicine the other for test to enter study of Architecture. Since they are about American history, they should be simple for American citrizens.
1. The “New Deal” of Franklin Delano Roosevelt involved
a. an increase in public expenditures of the federal government
b. a decrease in public expenditures of the federal government
c. a reduction of the intervention of the state in the economy
d. the elimination of the freedom of unions to organize
e. the elimination of controls on the banking and credit system
2. Which one of the following men of politics did not participate in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence of the USA in 1776
a. Robert Livingston
b. Roger Sherman
c. John Adams
d. George Washington
e. Thomas Jefferson
(Answers at end of newsletter)
The Power of the Catholic Church in Italy
Even if the ordinary citizens pay little attention to the Church, the politicians do. Italy, for example, has no law authorizing Living Wills and does not teach sex education in its public schools.
Olive Oil ????
A friend told me about the article in the August 13 issue of The New Yorker titled “Slippery Business.” A good summary of the article would be that when you buy a bottle of extra-virgin Italian olive oil there is a good chance that it is not: extra-virgin, from Italy, and totally olive oil. This article about deceit in the olive oil business highlights a conflict between two important factors in Italian life, the strong concern for pure and genuine food products and the constant tendency to make money through illegal means. It is not surprising which of the two wins in this conflict.
Unfortunately, Children Tell the Truth
When I speak Italian, Italians are surprised to hear an American do so and sometimes their surprise causes them to exaggerate and reply, “You speak Italian well.” Recently when I talked to a 4-year-old girl, the truth came out as she said, “you speak ugly.”
The European Union, An Economic or a Social/Political Entity?
The European Union started out as a group of nations agreeing on certain policies of economic cooperation. Over time it developed into an entity prescribing social and political policies for its members, I wonder if it will eventually have to return to a more limited economic sphere. Here is an example. To belong to the Union a nation cannot have the death penalty. So when the EU decided to declare a Day Against the Death Penalty, one would think that all the nations would agree. Poland, however, deferred, wanting to add Abortion and Euthanasia to the list of practices opposed on that Day. With the addition of many Eastern European countries to the Union it is clear to me that the consensus on social and political issues (never easy to reach even with the smaller membership) will become ever more difficult.
Comedian Beppe Grillo
In an earlier newsletter, I wrote about him and about his move from comedy to the world of politics (another form of comedy). Below is an article about his most recent activity. His popularity reflects the frustration of Italians with their political system, but the system is set up in such a way that I don’t think Beppe is going to be able to achieve his goals
———————————–
ROME (Reuters) – An Italian comedian’s campaign using a rude word to tell off politicians has won the support of more than 300,000 Italians who signed petitions to sweep away a generation of lawmakers they say are corrupt and ineffective.
Popular comic Beppe Grillo has sent shock waves through the political system with the level of support for his campaign which, if successful, would bar convicted felons from parliament and would limit politicians’ careers to two terms in office.
An estimated 40,000 people attended Grillo’s rally in Bologna on Saturday and many more went to hundreds of similar ‘Vaffanculo-day’ protests around the country. The word is the Italian equivalent of the ‘f’-word in English.
Gaining grassroots support via his website, one of Italy’s most popular blogs, the 57-year-old comic said Italy needed a radical break from what he said was the political mismanagement of Italy since the end of fascism and World War Two.
‘Nothing has changed since 1943. Then the king fled a nation in disarray, today politicians barricade themselves in palaces immersed in ‘cultural’ issues,’ said Grillo who, by the end of the protest in the early hours of Sunday claimed at least 300,000 signatures to his petition.
The manifesto contains three points: no one with criminal records should be allowed in parliament; a maximum of two terms for any parliamentarian; and lawmakers should be elected directly, not by the current party list system.
ANTI-POLITICS
The campaign is another embarrassment for Italy’s political class which for years has been characterised by back-biting, cronyism and sleaze. A book on politicians’ excessive perks and lavish expenses has become this year’s surprise best-seller and fuelled a growing disaffection among Italians that the media have dubbed ‘anti-politics’.
The impact of the V-day campaign is likely to be felt most strongly by Prime Minister Romano Prodi who is struggling to hold together a divided centre-left coalition and needs to re-write a universally criticised electoral system.
At the rally in Bologna — Prodi’s hometown, with a staunchly left-wing electorate — Grillo mocked Prodi’s docile manner, calling him ‘Valium’.
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Quiz Answers
a and d
Fri 7 Sep 2007
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I may not have access to Internet this weekend, so I am sending newsletter a day early
Solving the Problem of AIDS among Prison Inmates, Italian Style
Italian law prevents anyone with overt AIDS from being held in prison custody. The definition of ‘overt AIDS’ is clinically established as a patient whose number of T/CD4+ lymphocytes are equal to or lower than 100/mmc. To determine this, the prisoner is administered two consecutive tests, 15 days apart. Alternatives for such prisoners are that prisoners with AIDS be released from prison but held under house arrest, admitted to a public health institution, or that the sentence be remitted indefinitely.
Italy is not the only country to take AIDS infected prisoners out of prison. These persons raise particular problems within the prison setting. Still it is hard to imagine the Italian solution being adopted in the
USA.
Another Way to Make a Hamburger
I was having a friend over for lunch and wanted to make hamburgers and fruit salad. I went to the piazza where fruits and vegetables are sold at an outside market; there are many shops around the piazza including meat shops, but none of the regular butchers had ground beef. So I went to the horsemeat butcher and got some ground horsemeat. In the late 1940s in
Illinois there was a “horsemeat” scandal in which it was reported that regular hamburger was being adulterated with less costly horsemeat. The joke at the time was “Did you hear about the guy who choked to death at a restaurant?
He was eating a hamburger and someone yelled ‘whoa.’”
The horsemeat, although more red in color, did not taste a lot different.
In telling some people this story, I did discover that people from the
USA and
Great Britain have an aversion to eating horsemeat that is not shared by Italians.
A Little More on the Ban on Human Windshield Washers in
Florence
The ban on people who appear at stoplights and want to wash your windshield for a fee is part of a larger effort in
Florence to combat crime on all levels.
Florence is adopting the “broken windows” theory which
New York used in its anti-crime efforts. This theory suggests that minor criminal acts, e.g. public drunkenness, breaking windows, or graffiti, if ignored, give criminals a signal that the area is ripe for more serious crimes. So a “zero tolerance” is adopted toward these minor acts which in the past had often been ignored. Now this theory requires, as it says, zero (or at least very little) tolerance of such acts plus consistent and efficient enforcement. Italians are very tolerant. Consistency and efficiency are not Italian virtues. So the “broken windows” approach is sure not to last long in
Florence or elsewhere in
Italy. In fact, a few days after the crackdown was announced,
Florence was already modifying it with plans to permit some of these window washers to operate.
Trip to Cortona
This is the town that became well known in the
USA through Frances Mayes’ book “Under the Tuscan Sun.” I made a one-day visit.
It is not a large place but has a lovely setting on top of a hill. There are two small, nice museums, a large fortress, and some pleasant churches.
The real attraction, however, is the town itself.
It is not highly modernized so you have a medieval cityscape. It is the kind of place where you don’t take so many photos of individual structures; instead you take photos of the view looking up or down a particular street.
Idaho Senator Craig Should Move to
Italy
In
Italy a politician caught in the situation that Senator Craig was would probably not resign.
The Italian politician caught with two prostitutes and illegal drugs resigned from his political party but not from his seat in Parliament. A story like Senator Craig’s would certainly make the news in
Italy, but it would be viewed more as a personal matter. Italians would not welcome the idea of undercover police operating a “sting” operation in public bathrooms. To them the Senator’s offense would be sort of a “no harm, no foul” instance.
Lost and Lost Department
I left a package with nothing important in it on the train when I went to
Florence.
Nevertheless, the next time I was at the station I inquired about the Lost and Found department to see if I could retrieve my package.
I was told there is no such department.
Apparently stuff left on train is either kept by the train employees (if of value or use) or thrown out.
Purity for Miss
Italy
A contestant was required to withdraw from the Miss Italy competition because she had posed bare-chested in a magazine a few years ago. In the 1980s Vanessa Williams was forced to vacate her Miss America crown when some revealing photographs surfaced. (Ironically she went on to have one of the most successful show business careers for a Miss America winner.) The disqualification in
Italy is a little surprising because the Miss Italy contest is not so focused on the “wholesome image” as is the Miss America contest.
Becoming a Doctor in
Italy
At one point in Michael Moore’s film, “Sicko,” a report is shown on screen that rates the health services in all the nations of the world. I don’t recall the source of the report nor do I vouch for its accuracy. In this report
Italy is rated second in the world behind
France. One thing is sure, despite all the internal complaints in
Italy about the health system, there is no shortage of students wanting to become doctors. The competition to get into medical school may be more severe than in the
USA. In Italy (as in the rest of Europe) you begin medical studies after high school, not after completing first an undergraduate degree. To be admitted to medical school in the
USA you have to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT); the score on this test is an important part of your application. In
Italy when there are more applicants for a field of study than there are places, there is an admissions test administered by the university. I think the score on this test is not merely important; it is determinative of your admittance. Doctors in
Italy are not as well paid as in the
USA, but compared to the average salary in
Italy; the income of a doctor is still a good one.
Chinese Clones, More Than Toothpaste
I wrote recently about the Chinese counterfeit Colgate toothpaste. Now
China is beginning to produce clones of European cars at, of course, a lower cost.
European car makers are gearing up to campaign to exclude these cars from the European market.
I assume the same issue will arise in the
United States, if it hasn’t already.
Paying Off the Mafia
The word in Italian for the bribes businesses pay to the Mafia (protection money) is “pizzo.” The major organization of businesses in
Italy has announced that members who pay the “pizzo” are no longer eligible to belong to the organization. It is, of course, a symbolic act.
There is no published list of who pays the “pizzo,” and those who do are hardly eager to announce this fact to the world. There are many reasons why attempts to foster development in the south of
Italy have failed, but a major one is that businesses do not want to have to deal with the Mafia there.
Sat 1 Sep 2007
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Terrorist Captured , Lesson from Italian Criminal Justice System
Marina Petrella, an Italian terrorist from the 1970s, (when there was a wave of terrorism in Italy from both the far left and far right) was apprehended in a routine traffic stop in France. She was convicted in the early 1990s of murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment. When I read the article, I thought at first that she had escaped from prison after her conviction, but nothing is so simple in
Italy.
In the USA, if you are arrested for a crime you must be brought to trial within a certain period. A person cannot be arrested and held in jail indefinitely awaiting trial. If you are not brought to trial within the prescribed period, you are set free.
Italy apparently (The newspapers here are very poor at presenting the facts.) has a rule that you can only be imprisoned for a certain period before the time when your conviction is final : your last appeal has been decided. Marina was convicted in 1992 and the conviction confirmed by the appellate court in 1993, but before the appellate court decision, the maximum period of imprisonment (before the finality of a conviction) had expired. She was let free. By the time her conviction was confirmed, she was gone.
Imagine in the USA such a “high profile” criminal getting out of prison because the justice system worked so slowly that she could not be kept in prison any longer. Imagine that a prosecutor failed to bring her to trial in time, and she had to be released. Mistakes occur in all systems, but with such a notorious criminal in the
USA this type of error is unlikely to occur.
Now you might imagine that France will extradite her to
Italy. The plot thickens. Starting with Premier Mitterand,
France has had a practice of not retuning terrorists to other nations if the terrorist would foreswear the use of violence. I don’t know if this applies to El Kaida types or only to European terrorists. Anyway the current French
government may or may not continue to follow this policy, but the policy gives you a little hint of why the French are probably the least liked people in
Europe. Comparing Appliances
I have a friend who brought all her American appliances with her when she moved to Italy from the
USA and runs them here using electric current converters. I think she is wise. Since moving here I have had to replace a refrigerator, stove top, and washing machine and the hot water boiler has been repaired twice. From what I can tell the typical Italian appliance is smaller, less expensive, and less reliable than its American counterpart. Of course there may well be “top of the line” appliances in Italy that are of very high quality, but the average Italian washing machine, dryer, refrigerator, etc. is inferior to what is typical in the USA.
Taking It to the Streets
Recently I came upon a street demonstration in Florence whose immediate theme was not clear. I was handed a flyer that indicated the group’s purpose was to avoid in
Italy what is common in the
USA : the giving of drugs (e.g. Ritalin) to children to modify their behavior. But some of the signs of the demonstrators showed an antipathy to psychiatry in general, claiming that many diagnoses of mental illness are bogus. What was the precise purpose of this march? There was no indication that some law is being proposed that the group opposed or that the group proposed some law that should be adopted. Was the purpose simply consciousness raising? Quite possibly the purpose could be summarized in the phrase “I love a parade.” Always Stick Up for the Underdog
I’ve mentioned this Italian tendency. Here is another example. In Italian cities, as in the USA, there are people who come up to cars stopped at traffic lights and try to wash the windshield for a small fee. In
Florence some of these impromptu windshield washers became too aggressive, especially with women and older citizens. There is also a claim that many washers are in fact controlled by criminal gangs. So
Florence banned the practice, and police started seizing the buckets and squeegees from the washers. This ignited a national debate. It was the number one story on the news one night. A national government official said it was the wrong way to address the problem; social mediation was the right way. Imagine if
Chicago in the
USA did the same thing that
Florence did. Would it be the number one story in the national news? I don’t think so.
Famous Fellini Films
A while back I noted that I had seen Federico’s Fellini’s delightful film “Amacord” (made in the 1970s) which was a memory of his life as a teenager in the late 1930s. In the 1950s his first commercial success was “I Vitelloni” which is a recollection of his life as a young man in his home town of Rimini. The title characters are a group of unemployed young men who hang out together and are supported by their families. Some things haven’t changed much since the 1950s in
Italy. His films are highly individualistic, but they also are a perceptive window on major themes in Italian life. Family Values and Politics, Some Interesting Parallels
Whereas in the USA the Republican Party has sought to assume the mantle of “family values” in
Italy it is the Center-Right coalition that does so, primarily through its close ties to the Catholic Church. Depending upon how you define the “leading contenders” for the Republican nomination for President in 2008, Mitch Romney is the only or one of the few candidates still on his first wife. Personally I find this ironic but essentially irrelevant as to whether one should vote for or against a candidate. In
Italy, depending upon how you define the “top leaders of the Center-Right” all or almost all are divorced or getting divorced. This is in a country where the divorce rate is much lower than in the
USA. So the irony of the situation is even stronger in
Italy.
Learning English the Italian Way
Italian newspapers and TV are full of ads for books and CDs to learn English. On TV I saw an ad in which a young man says to two obviously American girls visiting Italy “Can I help you”? They reply “Oh, are you an American”? He says “No, I’m an Italian”? All well and good except the young man speaks with such an obvious Italian accent that no American would mistake him for a native speaker.
Finding the Felons of Forest Fires?
In the USA forest fires that don’t start naturally are attributed to pyromaniacs or careless campers. Southern and Central
Italy have been hit with massive forest fires. The newspapers use the word “pyromaniac”, but Italians in fact don’t attribute these blazes to such persons. The culprits are said to be: (1) shepherds burning forests to get more grazing space for their sheep (two shepherds have been arrested), (2) real estate speculators burning land to clear it for development (even though there is a law in Italy –apparently sometimes ignored – forbidding construction on burned over land for 30 years), and (3) temporary, part time, firefighters who start the fires to be sure that there is employment for them. I guess even Smokey the Bear would have trouble dissuading these three groups.