Comforting Words from the Pope in Time of Crisis (probably not reported on financial pages of USA newspapers)
Vatican City – October 6, 2008 – The international cash crisis has shown where the pursuit of money can lead, Pope Benedict XVI said Monday.
Taking his cue from a famous Bible parable on false prophets, the pope said: “He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money, he builds the house of his life on sand”.
“We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing,” the pope said at a televised Bible reading.
“All these things that appear to be real are in fact secondary. Only God’s words are a solid reality”.
Msgr Claudia Maria Celli, head of the Vatican’s culture department, told reporters the Catholic Church doesn’t have solutions to the crisis because they would be outside its remit. He said the Church’s reflection on financial crises “has just started”. But he stressed the significance of the pope’s words, saying “the economy is a penultimate reality, however important it is”.
Italy and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania –So Far and So Near
Although parts of Adams County, Pennsylvania are as lovely as Italy, still the two areas seem worlds apart. Not always. Recently, I again visited the new winery close to Gettysburg. One of the owners gave me a tour of the wine making facilities. I noted that the equipment probably came from abroad which the owner confirmed. Suddenly I discovered a stainless steel vat made in Buggiano, a small town about 10 miles southwest of Pistoia.
Big Deal on Madonna Street
This is a 1958 Italian comedy film that was also popular in the USA. Early in the film a crook tries to steal a car but is frustrated when the car’s security alarm goes off. One of the characters complains that it now is hard to steal cars because so many have alarms on them. This is 1958!! How many car security alarms were there in the USA in 1958? This is just another example of the Italian preoccupation with locks and security that I have mentioned before.
Saving Venice (not simply from sinking)
Venice – October 1, 2008 – A proposal to turn the lagoon city of Venice into a Disney-style theme park has won a prize from a famed Venetian academy, even though it rejected the idea.
The venerable Istituto Veneto described the scheme by British economist John Kay as a thought-provoking critique of the Italian city’s unwieldy tourist economy. Kay won 5,000 euros ($6,700) from the nearly 200-year-old institute for writing that Venice would be better off as a theme park, complete with a 50 euro entrance fee.
“Only one man can save Venice: Mickey Mouse,” read the headline for his article explaining the concept, published in March in a British paper. “The city is already a theme park and should be handed over to Disney. They would do a better job of running it.”
Its population long dwindling, Venice’s remaining 70,000 residents are far outnumbered by the millions of tourists who flock to the city every year creating an artificial economy that cheats tourists and sends locals packing, Kay wrote.
“If the first thing visitors to Venice remember is the magnificence of the setting, the second is the frequency with which they were ripped off,” he wrote.
“Disney wants its guests to have a good time because it cares whether they come back. Most residents of Venice would rather that visitors didn’t come back.”
The academy’s decision to give Kay an award for the article outraged Venice’s mayor, who the Briton said should be substituted by a theme park manager.
Mayor Massimo Cacciari said he found it “simply comic” that a Venetian cultural institution should reward “the most kitsch images about Venice and its future.”
By the way, official figures for population of Venice are far higher than 70,000 stated above, but the 70,000 is a more accurate figure. Pistoia where I live has more residents than Venice.
Clothes for My American Friends
One of my friends in USA to whom I occasionally send garments from Italy is Ralph Cavaliere. Ralph recently obtained his Italian citizenship, but he is not a true Italian because he refuses to wear some of the more “cutting edge” clothes that I send to him.
Recently Ralph was shopping at Nordstrom’s, a high end U.S. department store. He saw a rack of shirts on sale at $199 each. The brand was Hugo Boss. He said to the saleslady that they were attractive, but he did not know if he would want to buy such an expensive shirt, even if the sale price was a bargain. She replied that he was already wearing a Hugo Boss shirt. When they looked at the label of his shirt, it was Hugo Boss – one I bought for him for $7 at the market in Pistoia!
A Tale of Two Italian Fathers
First the cruel father
Rome – September 25, 2008 – Parents must start paying for the upkeep of their children again when they quit jobs that have helped them fly the nest, Italy’s highest court ruled Thursday.
The Cassation Court, whose sentences set precedents, turned down an appeal from a Modena man who said he shouldn’t be obliged to pick up the tab for his adult son if he decided to leave a good job.
The court ruled that parents were obliged to support their children “as long as their aspirations were in line with their aptitudes”.
David, 20, walked away from a slaughterhouse job de-boning pigs to pursue his dream of becoming a hairdresser.
The father, Salvatore, was ordered to pay 300 euros towards the upkeep of his son until he can pay his own way again.
Second, the loving, understanding father
Monza – September 19, 2008 – An Italian man arrested for possession of marijuana told police he was growing it for his son who couldn’t afford the habit.
“He smokes so much he was continually broke,” the 52-year-old factory worker reportedly told police who found four newly picked plants drying out in the man’s garage.
“I decided to grow some for him to help him out”.
The 21-year-old son, who lives with his father, was under police surveillance on suspicion of drugs possession. Both men were taken into custody.
If You Want to Remain on My List of Friends
You need to be sure (if you have not already done so) to go to website http://mastersofhumility.com/ and click on video for Baby Palin. If you get a Funny or Die screen at end, click on Funny. The star is my granddaughter Zoe.