Important Announcement
On his paternal grandmother’s 66th birthday, Connor David Powers-Nordvall came into the world in Germany, son of Chris Nordvall and Ann Power-Nordvall. Mother and son are doing fine.
Giving Proper Credit
The long article I attached to last week’s newsletter about the problems of Italy today was a front page article from the New York Times.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica published a response to the Times article that said that a strong argument could be made that the United States is in a period of decline every bit as severe as that of Italy. Even if this is true, it is of little comfort to the Italians that while their nation slips farther and farther behind, the same thing is happening in the USA. Also the factors discussed in the analysis in the Times are things that Italians themselves are saying every day.
Cultural Misunderstanding ??
At the monthly thrift shop of my church in Florence the prices on used items are quite low — 1 Euro for s skirt, 1 Euro for a shirt, 3 Euro for a pair of shoes, etc. All proceeds go to charity. Nevertheless, some shoppers, especially Italians, want to bargain for even lower prices. Recently two Muslim women came to the check-out desk with bags of clothes and started to bargain. The volunteer at the desk said the prices were already quite low and would not be lowered. The two shoppers became indignant and eventually left their two bags on the floor, buying nothing. This indignation was unusual. My guess is that the two came from a country where at a used market bargaining is ordinary and expected. To refuse to bargain is not a matter about money but of disrespect for the other person in the transaction.
Making it to the End of the Month
When Italians run out of money before the end of the month (and their next paycheck), the phrase is that they have “trouble making it to the end of the month.” When economic times become difficult, the papers say that more and more families cannot “make it to the end of the month.” On TV a hostess showed a new calendar for 2008. On it the first three weeks of each month were printed in the ordinary way, but the final one was printed in very faint type. The lady said using this calendar it was easy finally to make it to the end of the month (which appears to be the end of the third week).
If It is Absolutely Essential …
It gets done on time in Italy. A new bookshop opened in Pistoia, one of a chain in Italy that is like Borders in the USA. The Grand Opening was on Saturday. I stopped in on Thursday to look around, and it appeared that there was no way it would be ready Saturday. Many things were unfinished and in disarray. I stopped in at 4 pm of Saturday (Opening was at 6 pm), and it still looked impossible that they would open on time. At 6 pm, however, it all looked fine. As I’ve noted the Italians can be efficient if the matter is important enough; few things, however, in Italy are deemed that important.
Student Art Projects
I went to a carol service that was in the church attached to a Catholic school in Bologna. On display in the hall of the school were crèche scenes made by students of various students primarily at the middle school level. Some had representational figures; others had abstract ones. The artistic inventiveness and quality of these were impressive. Once again, if it deals with art, the Italians are very talented.
The Many Meanings of “Made in Italy”
What does this label mean on a product? Let’s take a man’s designer label suit for example. It might say simply “styled in Italy.” In that case you can be sure that the manufacturing process took place elsewhere and there would be good chance that the fabric was not of Italian origin. Traditionally one might think that “made in Italy” means styled in Italy, of Italian cloth, and assembled in Italy by Italian workers. For some suits, however, the fabric (Italian or not) may be laser cut in Italy and shipped elsewhere for sewing. The label might still say “made in Italy.” What about items sew in Italy by Chinese workers laboring is sweat shop conditions? Certainly it is “made in Italy.” Are these workers, however, as skilled as their Italian counterparts? Are the suits inspected so that they meet rigorous Italian quality standards – regardless of who sewed them? Maybe yes; maybe no. The point is that “made in Italy” has many more connotations than it did 50 years ago. This is true too of “made in the USA,” but the phrase “made in Italy” has an implication of high quality that exists for few other countries.
An Interview with Oriana Fallaci
She was the best known Italian journalist of the late 20th century. In a documentary about her life, I was intrigued by her comments about Saddam Hussein. She said he was a liar, scoundrel, big mouth (and a few other similarly pejorative adjectives) “like Mussolini.” Mussolini is rarely seen by the Italians as a cruel, quintessentially evil, horrific dictator as were Hitler and Stalin. There are certainly some ways in which this less drastic judgment is true, but the suffering that Mussolini’s policies ultimately brought to the Italian people was terrible.
Parking and the Holiday Spirit
In my hometown of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Christmas Season parking is free at many of the locations with parking meters. Near my church in Florence there is a pay parking lot at which parking is free on Sundays, except the Sundays during the Christmas Season.
I Wrote Too Soon
I wrote recently that the Italians did not have crippling strikes in major industries as occur in France. This week the truckers struck and closed off the superhighways with their parked trucks. It only lasted two or three days, but it was a major dislocation.
Real Estate Closing – Italian Style
In the USA at a real estate closing the money and the title pass simultaneously. Not so in Italy. In Italy, if the buyer has a mortgage, the bank will not pay the money immediately to the seller. Instead the bank requires 10-14 days to record its mortgage lien (In USA I assume this is done the same day). Only after this recording is done, does the buyer get the money.
Going from A to B Using Your Car’s Computer Navigation System
The article I read in the Italian newspaper concerned a problem in England, although I assume it could occur elsewhere. In determining the quickest way to get from A to B, the computer navigator obviously prefers a shorter distance. So some sleepy towns in England that are along the shortest possible route, let’s say from the superhighway to a major city, are suddenly flooded with cars even though they don’t have the road system or the traffic controls for their new found popularity. Some have asked the companies that manage to navigation systems to remove the town from their computer data bases.
Opera – Not Dead Yet
I wrote once that the salience of opera in Italy is less than I expected it to be and probably less than it once was. But Opening Night at La Scala is still a big deal. The President of Italy, leading politicians, and dignitaries from all over the world are there. There is extensive coverage on the national news. This year, because of a labor problem, the orchestra threatened to play in white shirts rather than tuxedos on the opening night, but somehow this all got solved before the event itself.
Industrial Accidents
Italy’s job safety record is bad. Recently some workers died in a steel mill fire. As always in such cases, there is then a discussion of whether the safety conditions at the mill were in compliance with the law. My guess is that the laws in Italy are adequate in this regard, but in the realm of worker safety, as in so many other realms, enforcement is poor. The first reaction is always a call for harsher penalties without the realization that if you cannot enforce the current laws, you are even less likely to enforce a harsher one. So the solution to the problem is not more laws, but a change in culture in which reasonable enforcement of the law is the norm. I think Italians (for the short time the story is in the news) tend to look at the specific facts of the case involved – what went wrong here — rather than understanding that this is a broader cultural issue – why does this keep happening over and over.
Social Census of Italy
This is a yearly report, based on surveys and statistics, about the “state of the nation.” The main findings for 2007: family income continues to rise more slowly than expenses, consumer debt is growing, jobs are ever more precarious, fear of crime is increasing, and people have no faith in government and politics. Not a lot to smile about.
Call from the Doctor
My family doctor called me personally two weeks ago (the doctor, not his secretary) to remind me that as a person over 65, I should come in for the anti-flu vaccination. It is hard for a layman to judge the competence of a doctor. He certainly seems very competent, and the service in his office is excellent.
The Good and the Bad –Two Sides of the Same Coin
As is often the case the virtues and vices of a nation (or a person) are often related. For example, in Italy there is a very strong esthetic sense. Many things are done in an artistically pleasing way. In politics, on the other hand, the Italians are often very impractical. One reason is that they look for an ideal solution to a problem and reject, as least in discussion, proposals marked by inelegant compromises. Politics and art are two different things; looking for “beautiful” political proposals is a waste of time. Yet if Italians were more practical in politics, would they be less esthetically precise in matters artistic? Who knows?
On the other hand there are inefficiencies in Italy that don’t seem to be the “downside” of a virtuous feature. When a parent (usually the mother) goes to school for teacher conference days, she does not have fixed appointment times to meet with the various teachers of her child. She goes and waits in line in front of the door of each teacher. She may have to take time off of work for three days in a row to finally have a conference with all the teachers.
Would You Believe…???
One problem with survey research, especially if done face to face, is that people are prone to give the socially acceptable response. For instance, if you asked people if it would make any difference in their voting preference if a candidate is Black, they will tend to say “no.” It is not considered “proper” to judge a candidate simply on the basis of skin color. But in fact many who answer “no” will make such a judgment. A recent survey in Tuscany showed that 22% of those surveyed went to church or another religious location at least once a week. This was the second lowest % of all the regions of Italy. You can best your life savings that the actual percentage in Tuscany is lower than the 22% in the survey.
George Clooney is Coming to Pistoia…
… to star in a film about an important political figure in 20th century Italy who was born in Pistoia. Allow me to say that this news item did stir the interest of a number of ladies I know who may not, in general, closely follow current events.
Hooray for “La Nazione”
It is a national newspaper. I have noted that in Italy newspaper stories do not start out by telling you who, what, when, where, and how. You often have to read the whole story to finally find out what it is about. Furthermore, for ongoing stories the daily article does not recapitulate prior developments. La Nazione now includes a box at the top of each major story with a 10 second summary of the major facts of the feature.
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This Article from New York Times was Front Page News in Italy
December 13, 2007
In a Funk, Italy Sings an Aria of Disappointment
By IAN FISHER
ROME — All the world loves Italy because it is old but still glamorous. Because it eats and drinks well but is rarely fat or drunk. Because it is the place in a hyper-regulated Europe where people still debate with perfect intelligence what, really, the red in a stoplight might mean.
But these days, for all the outside adoration and all of its innate strengths, Italy seems not to love itself. The word here is “malessere,” or “malaise”; it implies a collective funk — economic, political and social — summed up in a recent poll: Italians, despite their claim to have mastered the art of living, say they are the least happy people in Western Europe.
“It’s a country that has lost a little of its will for the future,” said Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome and a possible future center-left prime minister. “There is more fear than hope.”
The problems are, for the most part, not new — and that is the problem. They have simply caught up to Italy over many years, and no one seems clear on how change can come — or if it is possible anymore at all.
Italy has charted its own way of belonging to Europe, struggling as few other countries do with fractured politics, uneven growth, organized crime and a tenuous sense of nationhood.
But frustration is rising that these old weaknesses are still no better, and in some cases they are worse, as the world outside outpaces the country. In 1987, Italy celebrated its economic parity with Britain. Now Spain, which joined the European Union only a year earlier, may soon overtake it, and Italy has fallen behind Britain.
Italy’s low-tech way of life may enthrall tourists, but Internet use and commerce here are among the lowest in Europe, as are wages, foreign investment and growth. Pensions, public debt and the cost of government are among the highest.
The latest numbers show a nation older and poorer — to the point that Italy’s top bishop has proposed a major expansion of food packages for the poor.
Worse, worry is growing that Italy’s strengths are degrading into weaknesses. Small and medium-size businesses, long the nation’s family-run backbone, are struggling in a globalized economy, particularly with low-wage competition from China.
Doubt clouds the family itself: 70 percent of Italians between 20 and 30 still live at home, condemning the young to an extended and underproductive adolescence. Many of the brightest, like the poorest a century ago, leave Italy.
The stakes have risen so high that Ronald P. Spogli, the American ambassador and someone with 40 years of experience with Italy, warns that it risks a diminished international role and relationship with Washington. America’s best friends, he notes, are its business partners — and Italy, comparatively, is not high among them. Bureaucracy and unclear rules kept United States investment in Italy in 2004 to $16.9 billion. The figure for Spain was $49.3 billion.
“They need to sever the ivy that has grown up around this fantastic 2,500-year-old tree that is threatening to kill the tree,” Mr. Spogli said.
But interviews with possible prime ministers, businesspeople, academics, economists and other Italians suggest that the largest reason for this malaise seems to be the feeling that there is little hope that the ivy can be cut, and that is making Italians both sad and angry.
An Angry Message
“Basta! Basta! Basta!” Beppe Grillo, a 59-year-old comic and blogger with swooping gray hair, howled in an interview. The word means “enough,” and he repeated it to make his point to Italy’s political class clear.
In recent months, Mr. Grillo has become the defining personification of Italy’s foul mood. On Sept. 8, he gave that mood a loud voice when he called for a day of rage, to scream across Piazza Maggiore in Bologna an obscenity politely translated as “Take a hike!”
A few thousand people were expected. But 50,000 jammed into the piazza, and 250,000 signed a petition for changes like term limits and the direct election of lawmakers. (Voters now cast their ballots for parties, which then choose who serves in Parliament, without the voters’ consent.)
His message was enough inaction and excess (Italian lawmakers are the best paid in Europe, driven around by the Continent’s largest fleet of chauffeured cars), enough convicted criminals in Parliament (there are 24), enough of the same, tired old faces.
“The whole kettle of fish stinks to high heaven!” he yelled. “The stench rises from the sewers and swirls around and you can’t cope.”
Mr. Grillo leans to the political left, but he spares neither side in his sold-out shows and popular blog. The problem, he said, is the system itself.
There is a link between the nation’s errant political system and its worsening mood. Luisa Corrado, an Italian economist, led the research behind the study at the University of Cambridge that found Italians to be the least happy of 15 Western European nations. The researchers linked differences in reported happiness across countries with several socio-demographic and political factors, including trust in the world around them, not least in government.
In Denmark, the happiest nation, 64 percent trusted their Parliament. For Italians, the number was 36 percent. “Unfortunately we found this issue of social trust was a bit missing” in Italy, Ms. Corrado said.
Two popular books that set off months of debate capture the distrust of large powers that cannot be controlled. One, “The Caste,” sold a million copies (in a nation where sales of 20,000 make a best seller) by exposing the sins of Italy’s political class and how it became privileged and unaccountable. Even the presidency, once above the fray, was not spared; the book put the office’s annual cost at $328 million, four times as much as Buckingham Palace.
The other book, “Gomorrah,” which sold 750,000 copies, concerns the mob around Naples, the camorra. But politics, it argues, allows the camorra to flourish, keeping Italy’s lagging south poor, and organized crime, by a recent study, the economy’s largest sector.
These are Italy’s age-old problems, but Alexander Stille, a Columbia University professor and an expert on Italy, argues that this moment is different. While the economy expanded, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Italians would tolerate bad behavior from their leaders.
But growth has been slow for years, and the quality of life is declining. Statistics now show that 11 percent of Italian families live under the poverty line, and that 15 percent have trouble spreading their salary over the month.
“The level of anger is great because before you could slough it off,” Mr. Stille said. “Now life is harder.”
Italians rarely associate the current crop of aging leaders with a capacity to change. They are the same people who have traded terms in power for more than a decade. Last year, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s richest man who became prime minister for the first time in 1994, was voted out for not keeping his promises for American-style growth and opportunities based on merit. When he left office, economic growth was at zero.
But it became clear that getting rid of the center-right Mr. Berlusconi would be no magic cure. Romano Prodi, who had served as prime minister from 1996 to 1998, won, but he was saddled with a shaky coalition of nine warring parties.
He promised a clean slate, but his unwieldy center-left government disappointed with its first symbolic act: its cabinet had 102 ministers, a new record. He has pushed through two reform packages, and the economy is growing again. “Ours is not a happy situation, but it is better than before,” he said.
But the government has fallen once and threatens to fall again at every difficult vote. Small proposals bring protesters to the streets, one hurdle to making changes as protected interests seek to preserve themselves. Pharmacists shut their doors this year when the government threatened to allow supermarkets to sell aspirin. The cost for just 20 aspirin tablets at a pharmacy is $5.75.
The measure passed, but the government is largely paralyzed. Voters are fed up, and Mr. Prodi’s foes know it.
“I understand the bad humor, the malaise,” said Gianfranco Fini, leader of National Alliance, the second-largest opposition party. “People are starting to get strongly angry because you have a government that doesn’t do anything.”
The Generational Divide
“It’s a sadness that what could be isn’t — that we are not a normal country,” said Gianluca Gamboni, 36, a financial adviser in Rome, summing up how he feels about Italy, which he loves, but which drives him insane.
Unlike the older generation, he travels and sees how much better things work elsewhere. He does not spare himself: he still lives with his parents, not because he wants to, but because only now, after seven years at his job, can he afford Rome’s high rents. He is finally considering a place of his own.
Mr. Gamboni is on the younger side of Italy’s generational divide — a lens through which many of the country’s problems come into focus. It is one of several subterranean forces, easy to overlook at first, but that taken together make clear how much Italy has changed over the past several decades and how little that change has been digested.
Over a century, ending in the 1970s, 25 million Italians left for better lives elsewhere. Now, Italy is home to 3.7 million immigrants. The Roman Catholic Church’s position is diminishing, from a cultural pillar to a lobbying group.
Politically, Italy seems not to have adjusted to the death, in 1992, of the Christian Democrats, who governed for more than 40 years. Economically, it was once easy to solve problems by devaluing the currency, the lira. That is now impossible with the euro, which has also increased prices, particularly for housing.
Then there is the family. The divorce rate has risen. Large families are a thing of the past. Italy has one of Europe’s lowest birth rates, the fewest children under 15 and the greatest number of people over 85, apart from Sweden. Unemployment is low, at 6 percent. But 21 percent of the population between 15 and 24 did not work in 2006. And the old are not letting go.
Evidence of Italy’s age is everywhere. In parks, clutches of old ladies coo at a single toddler. On television, stars are craggy. (The median age for the presenters of this year’s Miss Italia contest was 70. The winner, Silvia Battisti, was 18.) In the political sphere, Mr. Prodi is 68, Mr. Berlusconi 71.
“The generational problem is the Italian problem,” said Mario Adinolfi, 36, a blogger and an aspiring lawmaker. “In every country young people hope. Here in Italy there is no hope anymore. Your mom keeps you home nice and softly, and you stay there and you don’t fight. And if you don’t fight, it is impossible to take power from anybody.”
“We don’t have a Google,” he added. “We can’t imagine in Italy that a 30-year-old opens a business in a garage.”
Selling a Notion of Italy
In September, word spread through a house of young Romans, over beer and pasta, that Luciano Pavarotti, the tenor and arguably the world’s most famous Italian, had died. “Damn it!” yelled Federico Boden, 28, a student. “Now all we have is pasta and pizza!”
Italy does not seem to rank as it once did for greatness. There is no new Fellini, Rossellini or Loren. Its cinema, television, art, literature and music are rarely considered on the cutting edge.
But it does have Ferrari, Ducati, Vespa, Armani, Gucci, Piano, Illy, Barolo — all symbols of style and prestige. What Italy has is itself, and many believe that the future rests in trademarking mystique into “Made in Italy.”
Italian wine was an early test. Producers moved with success from quantity swill to quality. Illy, the coffee house, has flourished by combining quality and uniformity with innovation in methods and style in presentation.
“This is where Italians are winners,” said Andrea Illy, the company’s president. “Use your particular strengths, which are beauty and culture.”
But Italian industry depended on low wages, making it vulnerable to competition from China as labor costs rose. Alarms began ringing years ago, with fears that many of Italy’s traditional businesses — textiles, shoes, clothes — could not compete. Many could not. In Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a chair-making capital, the number of chair companies has shrunk to about 800 from 1,200.
“At first they thought this phase would just pass,” said Massimo Martino, director of Maxdesign, a furniture company. “But in reality, many businesses ended up closing because fundamentally the market didn’t need them anymore. They didn’t want to change.”
Some companies took up the challenge. Wood was the primary material there, but Mr. Martino began to create chairs, mostly of molded plastic, well designed but inexpensive. Others decided that competing against China on price was impossible. Instead, the aim would be quality and Italy’s uniqueness, something China could not match.
Pietro Costantini, who runs a third-generation furniture company, said he began focusing not just on the upper end — he makes extra-large furniture for big Americans — but also on creating lines that would sell the Italian lifestyle itself. Customers are returning.
But entrepreneurs complain that they are alone. Politicians offered little help making Italy competitive, and this remains a major impediment to making their gains grow. Businesses want less bureaucracy, more flexible labor laws and large investments in infrastructure to make moving goods around easier.
“Now it’s time to change,” said Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the chairman of Fiat and the president of Ferrari and the influential business group Confindustria. “If not, why are we going down in every classification of competition in the country? The reason is that in the best of cases we are stopped.”
It is not clear that this “Made in Italy” strategy will be enough. Skeptics argue that foreign investment, research and development funds and money invested by venture capitalists remain too low, as does Italy’s competitiveness.
But the nation’s entrepreneurs are a bright spot in a landscape with few others. Some argue that the younger generation is another key, if not now then when those in power die. They are educated, they are well traveled and, as Beppe Grillo does when he is attracting his masses, they use the Internet.
Two center-left parties merged to produce the Democratic Party, aimed at overcoming the system’s crippling fragmentation. All sides finally agreed that a new electoral law must be redone to give more breathing room to the winner of the next elections — crucial for pushing through any major changes.
But understanding the problems is the smallest step. Many worry in the meantime that Italy may share the same fate as the Republic of Venice, based in what many say is the most beautiful of cities, but whose domination of trade with the Near East died with no culminating event. Napoleon’s conquest in 1797 only made it official.
Now it is essentially an exquisite corpse, trampled over by millions of tourists. If Italy does not shed its comforts for change, many say, a similar fate awaits it: blocked by past greatness, with aging tourists the questionable source of life, the Florida of Europe.
“The malaise is: ‘I can see all that, but there is nothing I can do to change it,’” said Beppe Severnigni, a columnist for Corriere della Sera.
But, he said, “to change your ways means changing your individual ways: refusing certain compromises, to start paying your taxes, don’t ask for favors when you are looking for a job, not to cheat when your child is trying to reach admission to university.”
“That’s the tricky part,” he said. “We have reached a point where hoping for some kind of white knight coming in saying, ‘We’ll sort you out,’ is over.”
“We Italians have our destiny in our hands more than ever before,” he said.
Peter Kiefer contributed reporting from Rome and Trieste, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.
Peter Kiefer contributed reporting from Rome and Trieste, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.
Opening Nights
While taking an evening walk around Sciacca in Sicily, my friends and I happened both upon an art exhibition opening and the opening of new store. In Italy, one (or at least I) does not pass by such events because there are always light refreshments. In Sicily there are cookies and pastries which are better in Sicily than in Tuscany. I quickly consumed some wonderful almond cookies and a rum soaked pastry.
Lillo Sutera
Here is what I wrote about him earlier in This Week in Italy number 217 “He is another Sicilian artist (among other things) whom I have met. Unfortunately he too has no Web site. After retiring two years ago, he began to collect small pieces of flat rocks that are common on and near his property. With a few cleverly placed paint strokes he turns these into faces of animals or humans and other forms. This art work of recycled stones is consistent with a general pattern of his life. He is what we might call a tinkerer and one who recycles objects. The house (which he designed) is decorated with ‘found’ objects, mostly things discarded by others. The hand painted ceramic tile floor from a destroyed church was saved by him and used in various locations as a decorative highlight in the home. He has a ‘museum’ of old farm and home tools and instruments. Much of the food he and his wife eat is grown on their small plot. He has his own special recipes for curing the olives from their trees-they are delicious.” I visited his house again this week. The special treat for me was to eat the fruit of the Fejoia tree which is a subtropical tree he grows on his property. Drawing on his collection of old farm tools, he now hosts groups of school children at his house and starting with stalks of wheat, using the traditional tools, he has them go through all the processes of turning the wheat into flour and then into pasta or bread.I have sent some photos of his art work to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore because it is the type of art that is displayed there. The letter I received from them said that it takes one year for them to make a decision about such submittals; we will see what happens.
Teenagers, the Same the World Over
In Sciacca I get on a bus downtown to take me back to the home where I am staying. This bus remains at the downtown stop about 25 minutes before departing. It fills up with school kids. After it departs, almost all of them get off at stops that are the most a 15 minute walk from the downtown stop. I guess they want to share each other’s company until the last possible moment.
A Morning in Town
I get a paper and quickly look at the national political news in first few pages. As I am sure I have made clear in the past, as bad as American politicians may be, most look like Major Statesmen compared to their Italian counterparts. (In fairness to Italian politicians I should note that the structure of the Italian governmental system does make effective political action difficult.) The rest of the newspaper, however, had excellent coverage of world affairs, the arts, cinema, fashion, literature, etc. I get up and stop in a church to watch a marriage ceremony. The bride and groom are probably from ordinary, not rich, families, but the floral bouquets at the back of the church are as beautiful as any I have ever seen. As I walk along the street, I notice a number of shops selling art works. Despite the morass of Italian politics and the frustrations of everyday life, you realize that in many ways Italy is a very civilized country.
Italian Bureaucracy – Stories Number 2486 and 2487 A Chinese business in Italy was selling items with Disney characters on them without the permission of the Disney Corp. So Disney’s Italian lawyers brought a suit to stop this. Whereas in the USA, the lawyers for each side determine who will be the witnesses in the case, in Italy the judge too can require certain witnesses to testify. So Disney’s lawyers got a document from the court listing witnesses they had to produce in the case including Paperino, Topolino, and Titti (better known in the USA as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Daisy Duck). I was buying a train ticket. A lady in front of me was buying a commuter ticket for the entire year of 2008. This process took over 20 minutes. The clerk issuing the ticket was not slow. He was constantly in motion, filling out forms, stamping forms, making photocopies, processing her payment etc. By the way in Italy duplicate forms are still often done with carbon paper rather than precarboned forms. After a while, watching this show, you just start laughing. Death Notices
I looked at some death notices posted along the walls in Sciacca. The ages of the deceased were 65, 80, 91, 96 and 97. Two of them (not obviously related) died in Norristown, NJ but there are services in Sciacca. Often immigrants from a particular place in Italy settled in the same city in the USA. For Sciacca Norristown perhaps was such a city.
Chinese Merchants in Italy
At the local market, stands will often have a sign “everything made in Italy.” Italians definitely think Italian goods are better than imported ones, especially those from China. Still in Italy shops selling Chinese goods (marked by two red paper Chinese lanterns outside the door) are common. Italians also realize that for low cost goods the Chinese have a much greater selection at reasonable prices. As I have mentioned before the Chinese, unlike some other immigrant groups, are not involved in criminal activity against Italians (You never read about a Chinese thief or armed robber.) and do not beg on the streets. Still, especially near the Chinatown of Milan, there are anti-Chinese protests. These concern the streets crowded with pushcarts, double-parked trucks unloading goods, etc. The neighborhood ambience changes from Italian to Chinese.
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“A Noble Radiance”This is the title of a mystery novel I read recently by Diane Leon, one of a group of writers whose mysteries are set in Italy. Here is a brief description of some of the members of this group.
Contemporary Mystery Series Set in Italy WHAT DO:Guido Brunetti, Salvo Montalbano, Aurelio Zen, Piero Trotti, Salvatore Guarnaccia, Achille Peroni, Flavia de Stefano, Urbino Macintyre, Inspector Anders, Nic Costa, Grazia Negro HAVE IN COMMON?Answer: They are the protagonists in our favorite English-language mystery series set in contemporary Italy. The authors of these series have been prolific. Between them they have published 71 wonderful novels set in Italy in the last twenty-five years. Most of these authors are still cranking out sequels at a rate of one every 1-5 years. Donna Leon leads the pack with a new Commissario Brunetti mystery every 12 months. (See our exclusive interview with Donna Leon.) It appeared that Michael Dibdin had retired his Aurelio Zen in 1999, but fortunately, he was resurrected early 2002. The first series were by Timothy Holme (1980) and Magdalen Nabb (1981). The most insightful author is Timothy Williams with his series staring Commissario Trotti. Williams does the best job of portraying the subtle and complex political and social character of modern day Italy. His 5th book was published in 1996 and he informs us that he has completed a 6th Trotti mystery called Second Day of the Renaissance; however, it is still unpublished. The Inspector Salvo Montalbano mystery series, by the famous Italian writer Andrea Camilleri, is now being published in English translation with five books in the series translated to date.Two of the series have a female protagonist. The Art Theft/Forgery series by Iain Pears featuring Flavia de Stefano and the relatively new series by Carlo Lucarelli featuring Ispettore Grazia Negro. Edward Sklepowich casts an American, Urbino Macintyre, as his main character. Marshall Browne has published two mysteries in the relatively new series featuring Inspector Anders and is supposedly working on a third. The newest entry in this field is David Hewson with his Rome-based detective Nic Costa series.
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Extraditing Criminals from Italy to the USA
In Florence an American was captured who was wanted for
Extraditing a Criminal from Italy to USA
An American criminal was apprehended in Florence who was wanted for many types of fraud in the USA. Now if a person is wanted for a crime that in the USA can carry the death penalty (not true in this case), Italy and other European countries will require that the USA waive the death penalty before extraditing the criminal. In this case, however, because in the USA you can theoretically get a separate sentence for each count of the indictment, the criminal in theory faces imprisonment of up to 486 years. So the court in Italy was not willing to allow extradition, until it was satisfied that the criminal would not face in the USA an absurdly severe (in the eyes of the Italians) penalty for the crimes committed.
Recycling Post Cards and Advertising Flyers
Often I will get a post card advertising an event or an advertising flyer in a post card format. Many times, I cover the back of such items with plain paper and reuse them as regular post cards. Why? Because they are so attractive that I want to give them a second use. These are another example of the way that things are done in Italy in a more esthetically pleasing way.
Headline of the Week
Some words in Italian are words directly carried from English; other times there are words spelledsaw a headline that said “Local Bishop Will Seek Advice form the Faithful in Choosing a New Vice Bishop.” But the final two words in Italian were not “vice vescovo” (vice bishop) but simply “il vice.” (the vice). So reading the headline as a mixture of Italian and English (as they sometimes are), I had visions of the Bishop seeking advice from his parishioners as to whether to smoke, drink, run after women, etc.
Don’t Miss Final Two Items Below
Greetings from Sicily
I am in Sicily this week visiting the family there that I coach with their English. The weather has been warm and sunny.
Reminder
Last week I had some problems distributing this newsletter via e mail. If you don’t get a copy or it comes in garbled form, remember that you can view it at www.bob.it.tt or www.thisweekinitaly.com . You might want to bookmark (or put in your Preferences list) these two website addresses.
Sardinia vs. Sicily
I talked to an Italian couple who had lived both in Sardinia and Sicily. Although both are islands, they said that Sardinians look inward and Sicilians outward. Sardinians traditionally were shepherds, not fishermen. Their cuisine is one of meat rather than fish. Sicilians on the other hand were fishermen and looked outward to the Mediterranean.
Expelling Troublesome Foreigners
I mentioned in a recent newsletter about some new laws passed in Italy to accelerate the expulsion of foreigners who cause trouble. These laws were aimed especially at immigrants from Romania. In Florence, however, they were used last week to give the heave-ho to some American college students who got drunk and caused a lot of destruction.
The Italians’ View of the United States
When I am in the USA, I am often asked if Italians are anti-American. I saw a recent poll in which people in various nations throughout the world were asked if they approved or disapproved of American foreign policy. Of the major nations in western Europe. Italians had the lowest disapproval rate. This is not a country where you sense a lot of anti-Americanism.
Germans Vacationing in Italy
Germans love to visit Italy. An Italian was telling me about her friend who owns an “agriturismo”, farm holiday place, in Italy. When Germans come to stay for the first day or two everything is in order. Meals are a a set time, and the children are in bed by 9. Soon, however, things fall apart. People are lounging around in their pajamas in the middle of the day, meals happen when they happen, and the kids are running wild at midnight.
Fake Charitable Organizations
The government has begun a crackdown on fake charitable organizations. Some of these are frauds that raise money from the public that never gets to charity. Others are non charitable groups that register as a charity to avoid paying taxes. I saw a chart of the ones that have been uncovered according to region. The great majority were in the south of Italy. The problem of “the south” is not simply the Mafia and similar organizations; it also is a widespread disrespect for the law.
Meredith, Amanda and Friends
The murder in Perugia is big news in Italy, massive news in Meredith’s home country of Great Britain, and I assume at least some news in the USA. It stays on page 1 because there are constant new revelations and as of yet no definitive account of what in fact happened. Perugia is the site of the Italian University that specializes in hosting students from abroad, but Perugia is not a place with many study abroad programs of American Universities. Few Americans study at the University of Perugia. A good friend of mine teaches at an American program in Perugia. This program is waiting to see the effect of the murder upon enrollment. I would recommend Perugia over Rome and Florence as a place for American students (because there are not so many of them to form an “American student culture”).
My Apartment for Rent at Very Reasonable Price, Summer 2008
I’ve received a number of responses to the announcement below. Before I begin to set up a schedule of rentals. I am putting the announcement in one more time.
I would like to spend the months of June-October 2008 in the USA. While I am gone from Pistoia, I would like to sublet my apartment. It has a large living room/dining room/kitchen, a bedroom with king sized bed, study, and full bath. There is an airbed which can be used to sleep one or two additional people. Comes with two TVs (stations in Italian), stereo system, and satellite radio which gets programs from USA. There is a washing machine and dishwasher and place to hang out clothes. It is in a modern building with elevator. Pistoia is centrally located along the rail line for easy access to all major cities in Tuscany with connections through Florence (20 miles away) to all of Italy and beyond. Everyone who has visited me in Pistoia has been surprised at how lovely this little known city is.My goal in subletting the apartment is not to make money but to recoup my rent, utility, and condominium costs. Rents (in Euro) are as follows: 1 week – 250, 2 weeks – 475, 3 weeks – 675, and 4 weeks – 800. (Currently one Euro equals about $ 1.50.) I think the rent compares quite favorably to prices for apartments rented through tourist agencies.
Interested: contact me at bobnordvall@hotmail.com
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Apartment Available Rome
Charming studio apartment available in Rome from mid-December to mid January. Very bright, centrally located, large terrace, superb view of the rooftops of Rome. Ideal for short term stay. If interested contact archdarch@gmail.com. |