A young couple was there with their three year old boy.As is often the case, the boy was taking things that he liked off the shelves and bringing them to his parents to buy. He was not, however, crying or screaming that he wanted this or that. The parents finally bought him a roll to eat. After a couple of bites, this did not satisfy him.So next they bought him a small package of potato chips. This seems to solve the problem, but as I left I noted he was sucking on a lollipop. Even though he was not making a fuss, the parents’ strategy obviously was to give him whatever he wanted.Would you see the same strategy in the United States?Of course you would but far less often than in Italy where indulging the children is a national pastime.
By the way, the parents spent over $100 on groceries, an unusually large purchase at a small grocery store with high prices. I’ve never seen someone buy so much at this store before. When it came time to pay, I understood why. Some workers get lunch money coupons that can be redeemed at participating restaurants, bars, and grocery stores with ready made food. The wife paid for the groceries with these coupons. Either she or her husband, who gets these at work, eats lunch at home. I assume the coupons cannot be redeemed at the supermarket.
Big Convents, Few Occupants
I wrote recently about a convent with three nuns remaining that was closed because the nuns were fighting (physically) with each other. Last weekend I visited Orvieto and stayed overnight in a large convent that had first been converted to a girl’s high school and now was a retreat center.While there I visited another convent that is now used by an American university study abroad program. Both of these convents had almost no nuns left living in them. This is a common problem (in Italy and elsewhere) as enrollment in religious orders declines radically. A friend from Great Britain told me how one order there solved the problem. The few remaining nuns sold the large convent building and bought condominium apartments for themselves on Spain’s Costa del Sole.
By the way Orvieto’s Duomo (which is in Umbria) may have a more attractive exterior than any of the Cathedrals in Tuscany if not of all in Italy.Well worth a visit.
Sartorial Census
As I mentioned last week, I would have to throw out some clothes as I took my winter garments out and put my summer ones in storage.I filled two large green garbage bags with discarded items, but it did not make too big of a dent. I still have 35 winter sports coats and nine winter suits.I did not have the courage to count the shirts and pants. So I probably need to look for a 12-step program in Italy for Shoppers Anonymous.Meanwhile, I’ve begun to dress more like an elegant elderly Italian, wearing s sports coat every day.
The Scope of the Mafia in Italy
On the news was a story that the estimated value of Mafia activity in Italy equals 7% of the Gross National Product.Of course, this is just an estimate.Furthermore, there are illegal activities that are not Mafia related.There are goods produced using illegal labor and goods sold that somehow never show as taxable transactions.How much of the total Italy economy is “under the table” (or as they say here “the black economy”) is difficult to tell, but it is probably well over that 7% figure.
The only Italian government ever to put a dent in the Mafia was the Fascist one of Mussolini which essentially imprisoned suspected Mafia leaders without trial.A dictatorship can not tolerate another powerful extra-legal apparatus like the Mafia.As often is the case, a dictatorship can accomplish some worthy goals difficult to meet in a democratic context but at the cost of also doing many very bad things for which there is no democratic recourse.
National News Features (Important?)School Stories
A story on the national news told of a high school where the principal had banned within the school: cell phones, personal music listening devices, and baseball caps.Although Italian high schools are more rigorous than those in the USA, the control over student behavior and dress is much less here.So this kind of ban makes the national news.
Another story was about a fourth grade where the some kid (or kids) kept putting a towel in the toilet and stopping it up. Nobody would confess or indicate who the guilty party was.So the teachers said the whole class was responsible and picked one student by lot to clean up the mess.The “injustice” of this was a big news story.
Chestnuts (Dangerous)My first encounter with eating chestnuts came in the 1970s when I picked some off of the ground near a neighbor’s house and cooked them up.Only after I began to feel sick did I discover that these were non eatable horse chestnuts.We called the hospital poison center; they recommended getting a medicine that makes you throw up.I hate to throw up so I deferred.My wife used this episode as an example of my stubbornness, “he’d rather risk death than do something he doesn’t want to do.”When I moved to
Italy I discovered and enjoyed the eatable chestnuts that are common in Tuscany.Recently while walking through the Cascine
Park in Florence I saw many chestnuts on the ground with which I filled my pockets.A Florentine friend soon told me, however, that these were horse chestnuts, not the kind you eat.I should have noticed that they were larger than the usual ones. This time I got rid of the chestnuts before eating them and making another call to the poison center.At the Cinema
I belong to a film society that shows classic and avante guarde films. Sometimes these are by famous directors, but sometimes they are works by little known persons in whom the Italians (and perhaps film buffs elsewhere) have discovered a talent not generally recognized. Recently I saw The Crimson Kimono, a 1959 American film by the director Samuel Fuller. This was a B film shot in black and white on a small budget with unknown actors.I wonder if one could even find this film released on DVD or videotape in the USA.It was not a bad movie, but I doubt that I (in my ignorance) would ever nominate as something of particular merit.
Slow Italian Justice
In 2001 protestors of the No Global variety staged demonstrations, in part violent, against the meeting of the G8 nations in Genoa.One protestor, Carlo, was shot by the police, and his death became a cause celebre in Italy.Now a group of protestors is finally coming to trial in Italy and the prosecutor has asked for sentences of from 10-25 years.The appropriateness of such long sentences is being debated, but this is really “much ado about nothing.”By the time the trials and appeals have ended, even if the protestors are found guilty, the peculiar Italian version of the statue of limitations will prevent them from going to prison.The Italian justice system costs more than those, for example, in France and Great Britain and functions far worse
Since there are two political parties in the US and over 15 in Italy, the political scene is inevitably different.Allow me to explain the Italian dilemma in an American context. Let’s assume that within the Congress of the USA there is a group known as the Agricultural Republicans.There are similar groups called the Environmental Republicans and the Defense Republicans.Each of these groups is especially interested in the issue for which it is named.Now assume further that the Secretary of Agriculture in President’s Bush’s cabinet is in fact the leader of the Agricultural Republicans and this is true also for the Secretaries of Interior and Defense.These three cabinet secretaries often disagree with each other (and sometimes President Bush) in public. Now assume further that if the Secretary of Agriculture doesn’t like the provisions for agriculture in the President’s budget, he tells his group to vote against the budget.The same could be true for Secretaries of Interior and Defense.Suddenly President Bush cannot get his budget passed because of opposition within his own party that is stimulated by members of his own cabinet. It doesn’t stop there.The Defense Republicans are so upset with the budget that they call for large scale demonstrations throughout the land to protest the inadequate funds for Defense. Who will be at the head of the line in the biggest protest march?It will be a Defense Republican and perhaps even Secretary of Defense himself. Is it any wonder that governments don’t function well in Italy?
Promotional Prize at Supermarket
While I was shopping at the supermarket, a lady at the meat counter was doing a promotion. She told me that if I bought two packages of a particular brand of meat, I received a gift, two plates.Dishes are a typical item used in supermarkets in the USA as a promotion.Although I don’t need more dishes, I bought the meat anyway.When I got home, I opened the box with the two plates. They are two large, lovely, quite attractive painted dishes.No “Made in China” stamped on the back. I should have guessed that a promotional offer in Italy would yield something nicer than one gets in the USA. If I had needed more plates, I would have returned to the supermarket and bought some more meat.
Children’s’ Health Care
President Bush’s veto of Children’s Health Care bill is presented in Italy as if he simply doesn’t care about children’s health.You can imagine how the typical Italian responds. Of course, this is a simplification.In all need-based public programs there is the problem of identifying exactly who is eligible to receive government help.It is impossible to draw the rules and regulations for the program to identify exactly those who should be aided and none others. You will always make one of two errors in some cases (1) giving aid to people who don’t need it – if the eligibility rules are quite flexible or (2) refusing aid to people who do need it– if the eligibility rules are quite strict.President Bush is concerned with avoiding error number 1.In fact, however, if one explained this dilemma to the average Italian and asked his opinion, he would opt for avoiding error number 2 even at the cost of committing error number 1. In short, Bush’s argument in this controversy would not play well in Italy even if it were fully presented.
Customer Service vs. Customer Fraud
Some stores in the USA have quite liberal rules about returning merchandise for a refund or credit even after you have used the items. These stores figure that the good will among customers engendered by such a return policy generates more profits than the money that is lost through people returning goods (for a full refund or credit)that are perfectly satisfactory after these customers no longer want to use the items. In Italy such a return policy is unknown.Here the stores figure that the money lost through the returns of satisfactory goods would far outweigh any advantages caused by the good will created by the policy. It really boils down to the level of trust that Americans compared to Italians have in their fellow citizens.
Dress for Success, Italian Style
Business dress for women now is often a suit with a jacket (something like a man’s suit jacket) and matching pants or a matching skirt. I saw recently an Italian variant of this mode. The woman had on a black tailored jacket and black pants but the pants were short, short “hot pants.” She was wearing black fishnet stockings and spiked heel black shoes.She was well past her teenage years.
Italian Economic Competitiveness, a Matter of Cleverness
I was talking to a man who has a fabric business in nearby Prato, a center of the textile industry in Italy. A few years ago the newspapers were full of articles about the crisis in Prato caused by low cost Chinese competition. The man told me that things were better now for the Italian companies there. They had made adjustments that lowered costs and improved quality at the same time. This conversation reminded me of another I had with an American friend whose company had manufacturing plants throughout Europe.Most of these were being closed down because of high costs, but my friend said that somehow the Italians managed to find ways to meet the competition from nations with lower labor costs.Cleverness and the ability, if necessary, to “muddle through” are two Italian strengths.
The Retro Trend Continues
I’ve written about the new version of the Fiat 500 (the original model was made in late 1950s and 1960s) that is made in Poland.I’ve noted that Vespa is coming out with a new 1950s style motor scooter (made where?).Now Lambretta too is making a new 1950s type of motor scooter—made in China.
Nepotism, a Cross Cultural Comparison
I heard an interview on NPR from the USA (which I receive via satellite radio) with a woman who writes for Harvard Business On Line.She had posted an article on nepotism in the workplace that received a lot of comments from readers.This discussion illustrated a major difference between Italy and the USA. A discussion of nepotism in Italy would concern this phenomenon as a major fact of life here and assess its effect (negatively) upon the functioning of the Italian economy.In the segment on NPR nepotism was seen as an unfortunate practice that sometimes occurs but not as a major economic factor.The emphasis was not on “how do we get rid of nepotism in the USA” but rather on “in your personal career how do you cope with a situation in which you have to deal with the boss’s son as a fellow employee who may be incompetent or unfairly promoted above you.”
A Sardinian Boyfriend?Not Thanks
In Germany an Italian from Sardinia raped his ex fiancé. (Although I am not sure of the details, I think she probably had left him for another man.) He was found guilty in court, but the judge reduced the sentence somewhat because the crime was in part mitigated by the imprint of Sardinian culture on the defendant.
The Seduction of Softness
Soon I’ll have to take out my winter clothes and put away the summer ones. I’ll also have to get rid of many items.Why; because I am constantly buying new things even though I don’t need them.When you see a sports coat at the local market that would cost $300 in the USA or a pair of pants that would cost $150 in America and the price for either one is $7 or $15 or even $25, the temptation becomes irresistible. The soft quality of the Italian cloth is something seldom seen in a men’s shop in the USA.
In the USA the label in a garment has to tell the nation in which it was made.The rules are a little different in Italy.You may get a label that indicates the nation of origin, especially if it is Italy. You may also see a label that says “made in the European Union.” Even more general is the label that says “imported product.” “Made in the European Union” probably means made in one of the Eastern European counties that have recently joined the Union. “Imported product” is unclear. I don’t think it always means (although sometimes it does) made in China or a low cost third world nation.
The issue of drunk driving is often in the news here. About 20 years ago the parents of a close friend of mine in the USA were struck by a speeding drunk driver in Harrisburg who had run a red light. The father was killed and the mother seriously injured. The driver was prosecuted and received a sentence of six years in prison which he served. At that time six years was the maximum penalty for vehicular homicide in Pennsylvania. Now it is 10 years.
In Italy a drunk driver hit a car and killed four persons.He received last week the maximum penalty for this in Italy – six years imprisonment. Only one small difference; he is being allowed to serve his penalty under “house arrest.” Although drunk driving is not a common crime among gypsies, he is a gypsy. If he decides he doesn’t want to spend six years, even under house arrest, at his home, you can be sure he will flee and never be found again.
AP.S. on Sizes of Women’s Clothes
I wrote last week about the Italian clothing brand that has a separate sizing system for larger sizes.This ambiguity of sizes, of course, is not a particularly Italian phenomenon. I’ve been told that in the USA more expensive garments also are larger so that a woman who wears a size 16 in a $40 dress might wear a size 12 or 14 in a $300 dress. Furthermore, the sizes themselves are not uniform over the years.A size 12 dress of 1945 would be a size 10 dress today. A reader who has a resale shop wrote to tell me that it is wise sometimes to remove the size label from a garment.A woman will look at a blouse that she likes and that is just the right size for her but refuse to buy it because “I never wear a size 16!” As far as I can tell, men’s clothes, on the contrary, are generally consistent in their sizing over the years and regardless of price
Making Political Changes in Italy
I’ve mentioned that former political head of the nation. Silvio Berlusconi, had a comfortable majority in Parliament, but seemed to do little. His supporters say that his desired changes were blocked by the left that mounted strikes and massive demonstrations to oppose some of his initiatives.To me this is rubbish.There are always strikes and demonstrations in Italy.Despite large scale opposition, Berlusconi’s government did pass two controversial laws, one on federalism among the regions and one regulating assisted fertility practices, for which the opposition was able to require (through petitions) national referendums.The federalism reform was defeated, but the law on assisted fertility was upheld. In general, however, the Berlusconi government made few meaningful changes.
I think Berlusconi had and has a subtle understanding of the Italian psyche.When you propose a change, your supporters applaud you, and the opposition fights you.If the change is approved, then it must be implemented. After it is implemented (1) things never go as well as you promised they would and (2) the negative side of the change (which is always present even if the overall effect is beneficial) becomes apparent. In this country, the short term detriments of any change always outweigh the long term benefits. At this point your supporters begin to waiver in their approval.Instead of becoming more popular for “keeping your promises,” you become less popular.Berlusconi in my opinion understood it is best to make promises, don’t keep them, and blame your failure to do so on the obstructionism of your opponents. After five years of what could best be called mediocre performance, he was almost reelected and still is the major politician of the center-right.
Popularity of the Cinque Terra
Last week I wondered how these obscure villages suddenly became so very popular. One reader pointed out that they were featured many years ago on the cover of a major travel magazine.Two others noted that they have been promoted by travel writer and TV host Rick Steve. I guess the question is: did outsiders simply discover and promote these delightful towns, or did the tourist agencies in Liguria or the towns themselves mount a campaign to bring them to the attention of the travel industry? Sort of a “chicken or the egg” issue.
McDonald’s Advertising in USA and Italy
Unless it has changed since I moved from the USA, the advertising for McDonalds inAmerica is aimed at children and not very bright adults and emphasizes low price, taste of the food, and the prizes that come with a Happy Meal. In Italy I saw a McDonald’s ad that spoke of the freshness, quality, and genuineness of the ingredients used in their food. This approach is much more common in advertisements for food in Italy than it is in the USA.
A Noble, Nobel Story
Nobel Prize winner Mario Capecchi was born in Italy.Unlike most top foreign born scientists in the USA, he did not immigrate to America for the better research opportunities. His story is much more complex. He was from a prominent family.His father was killed early in WWII, and his mother, an anti-fascist, was sent by the Germans to Dachau in 1941. Before she left, she sold everything she could and gave the boy and the money to some peasants.In 1942 the money ran out and the peasant family abandoned him at age 5.For almost four years he lived on the street with a gang of young ruffians. Suffering from fever and malnutrition, he eventually landed in a Catholic hospital, but there was so little food that he did not recover from his illnesses. His mother miraculously survived the war and, after a search of one year, found him at the hospital. Soon they sailed to live with relatives in a Quaker community near Philadelphia. At age 9 he entered the third grade in the USA never having been in school for one day in his life and speaking no English.
Conflict in the Convent (Where is that Bible Passage about Turning the Other Cheek?)
Rome – September 30 – A convent in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows, reporters said Sunday. Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista, reportedly upset about their mother superior’s authoritarian ways, scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in an incident in July that was kept quiet until now. Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri tried to reconcile the nuns but finally decided in late August that they had “clearly lost their religious vocation” and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent. Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista moved to another convent, but Sister Liliana barricaded herself inside, refusing to leave, the reports said, adding that she suspected Battista Pichierri of planning to cede the convent to another community. Liliana has been at the convent since its founding in 1963.
Helping Italian Families
The government is providing some financial relief to families. One of the government ministers said this should help the families finally rid themselves of the adult children who continue to live at home, often without a job. His comments caused some controversy.Ryanair, the major low cost airline in Europe, saw the comments as an opportunity. They published ads (showing the minister making his remarks) with the headline Leave Home.Below were listed low cost flights to various major cities in Europe.
Sick Leave, Italian Style
A woman presented her employer with a doctor’s note that she needed two weeks of sick leave. When the employer discovered that the woman was spending the two weeks on a
Caribbean island, he filed a complaint against her. She produced records from a clinic on the island that she was taking the medicine prescribed by her doctor. The judge ruled in favor of the woman. I don’t have the statistics (although I once saw the figures for public employees in Italy), but I would bet my life savings that the amount of sick leave taken each year by the average Italian worker is much more than in the USA.
The mail boxes in Pistoia now have posted on them, in both Italian and English, a notice about the time of the last collection each day at that box.Previously this was in Italian only. The new notices say in Italian that the final collection is at 12:00 (which is noon) and in English that it is at 12 a.m. (which is midnight).
Major New Book on Italian Campaign in WWII
“The Day of Battle” is Rick Atkinson’s sequel to his Pulitzer Prize wining account of the North African Campaign, “An Army at Dawn.” In reading the review of it in the New York Times, I was interested to note that historians of WWII, including Mr. Atkinson, find it hard to decide of the campaign in Italy was worth the cost. I had raised this same issue myself in earlier musings about
Italy and WWII. The Italian invasion relieved the pressure on the Russians on the eastern front, caused many German casualties, and provided useful lessons on staging amphibious landings and joint operations.The Allies, however, took staggering losses and the war ultimately was decided elsewhere, on the eastern and western fronts.Two days after the Americans entered Rome, D-Day occurred, and Italy was forgotten.I guess I should read the book.
The Cinque Terra
As most Americans now know, this is the name of five fishing villages nestled along the coast of
Liguria. One can walk along trails that connect the five. There is also train service among them.The views are lovely. I went there again last week for a day.Recently I met an American couple who spent their honeymoon there 25 years ago.At that time some of the trails were so little used that they were difficult to follow. Today the area is extremely popular with tourists. Even though it was the end of September, in one of the villages it was so crowded that it was almost impossible to walk in the streets.It would be an interesting study to find out exactly how a remote area, once little known to tourists, became a tourist Mecca.
I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, in relation to immigrants from Albania, that traditionally the immigrants from the poorest nations provide more than their share of criminals when they first come to a new land.The poorest nation in the European Union is probably Romania. Now Romanians can come to Italy without any border control because they are citizens of the EU. The high rate of criminality among Romanians is being noted in Italian newspapers.The problem is exasperated by the fact that Romania has far more gypsies than any European nation.Gypsies have a rich culture and tradition. They have been subject to discrimination. Hitler sent them to the death camps. Not all of them are beggars and petty criminals, but the fact remains that a visible portion of the gypsies are beggars (by occupation not by circumstance) and petty thieves. Regardless of their role in the past, quite simply, this group does not serve a useful function in a modern society.There is always the hope that immigrants will become acculturated to their new home, rise in society, and decrease their criminality; for gypsies there is the fear that they will always remain a group apart.
Unique Clothing Sizes
There is a woman’s clothing brand in the USA that uses its own size system (1,2,3 etc.) rather that the standard system of 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. In Italy a chain that sells clothes for larger women (not necessarily really large women, the sizes start at a USA 12 and go up) also has its own unique size system. Although they don’t announce the reason for doing so, I’ve been told that this system allows awomen to buy larger sizes without having to say (in USA terms), for example, “I wear a size 18.”
Another Terrorist Controversy
I wrote recently about the Italian terrorist form the 1970s captured in
France. She had been released from jail in Italy many years ago before her murder conviction was finally confirmed. This week a former terrorist from the 1980s was charged with armed robbery.He had been convicted of six murders and sentenced to life in prison, but he was released from prison after 12 years.In Italy it is judges who decide whether to release a prisoner, not a parole board.As I once wrote, because of the experience ofItaly under Fascism (where the independence of judiciary was subverted), there is very little control over judges in Italy. They are not elected. They are not appointed by the executive branch.Instead they are civil servants who cannot be dismissed except for some egregious breath of their duties.
Studying Art in Florence
I went to an art opening of a friend who goes to my church. (You can see her web site at www.tishlowe.com). She does realistic paintings such as portraits and still lives. I’ve discovered that among the art schools in Florence there are some that emphasize traditional academic realistic paintings. There is modern art too in Florence, but the modern art scene is somewhat inhibited by the great amount of classic realistic painting to be seen here.At the Florence Post OfficeI went to mail some large envelopes with gifts inside. These envelopes have self sealing flaps, but I usually also seal the flaps with Scotch tape. As I was about to ask the clerk at the post office to attach a little Scotch tape, on her own initiative, she got some wide sealing tape and secured the flaps. Then she sealed them again with staples. As I’ve mentioned before, customer service is not an Italian strong point, but every so often you get exceptional service.