thisweekinitaly.com

A Few Facts on Finland
 
Although only 8% of Finns have Swedish as their mother tongue, both Swedish and Finnish are official language, and school children must learn them both.  There is even a third language spoken in Lapland, but it is not required learning in the whole country. My solution to the English vs. Spanish controversy in USA is that all children learn both languages.  It will never happen in the USA, but this solution has worked in Finland.  Notice too that Finland was once ruled by Sweden so that there have been historical conflicts between the two nations.
 
 
Speaking about Multiple Languages
 
On the bus for the city tour of Helsinki, one can choose to hear the tape in one of 10 different languages. The one that caught my eye was Latin. Who chooses it?  Maybe a few Catholic priests who have studied in Rome where Latin is (or at least was) the language of instruction?
 
St. Petersburg
 
Like Washington, DC the city was planned as a Capital.  Whereas Washington, however, originally had the few building needed to accommodate the small American federal government, St. Petersburg has many large buildings to accommodate the Russian bureaucracy.  Not only the number but the design of the buildings in St. Petersburg was much more impressive.  Many of the buildings, both for official and private use, were called “palaces” for good reason.
 
One of these is the Palace (actually a series of buildings) that houses The Hermitage museum.  I have been to the World’s greatest art museums: The Metropolitan in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, the National Gallery in London, etc.  One could argue about which one has the most impressive collection of works (the Hermitage would be a strong contender for first place) , but it is “no contest” as to which one is in itself the most impressive work of art –the Hermitage wins.  The rooms are gorgeous.  The furnishings, in addition to the art on the walls, are spectacular.  I’ve never seen anything like it.
 
Street Vendors
 
They are common in Russia.  While taking a tour in a van of St. Petersburg, I got out at a stop to take a few photos. When I returned, there was an artist standing next to the van doing a quick stretch of my traveling companion through the window.  I would not have recognized it as a portrait of my friend: it was of a woman 35 years younger. My friend too saw it and said “I don’t look like Catherine Deneuve.”  Surprisingly the artist talked to me in Italian as he tried to peddle his quick sketch, but it was no sale.
 
Languages in St. Petersburg
 
 I would say the  knowledge of English is a little less common here than in Western Europe, but I must note that when (in English) I told the bellhop (who was bringing the bags up to my room) that I live in Italy, he immediately began to talk to me in Italian.  At a restaurant, the bill was in Russian except for a single phrase at the bottom “Service is not included.” The waiter drew my attention to this phrase and repeated it for me in perfect English even if his English in other respects was less complete.

The Amber Room

At the summer palace of the Russian royal family near St. Petersburg there was a room in which the walls were covered with various colors of Baltic Amber.  The semi-precious jewels covering these walls were a present to Peter the Great from another European monarch.  At the start of WWII, the Germans overran the town where the Palace is located. The Russians had vacated the art works from the Palace, but they were afraid that the amber would crack if they tried to strip the walls of the Amber room.  So they covered the walls to hide the amber, but the Germans were not fooled. They did take the Amber Room apart and reassembled it in Kongsberg in Germany.  At the end of the war, the Russians sent a curator to Konigsberg to bring back the Amber Room, but it was gone.  Was it destroyed by Russian shelling? Did the Germans take the amber off the walls and hide it?  Nobody knows.  The search goes on.  There is a recent book ‘Amber Room” that attempts to solve the mystery.  

Meanwhile the Amber Room has been reconstructed in the summer palace. If the materials from the original Amber Room were found, I don’t know what would be done with them.  Have a second Amber Room?  I doubt that the reconstruction of the original Amber  Room would be undone.

This is the 65^th anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad (as St. Petersburg was then called) from the German Siege that lasted 900 days from 1941-44. The suffering of the people was terrible.  Stalin was in no hurry to relieve Leningrad. Maybe he did not like the city. Maybe the fact that German troops tied up in the siege of the city were not available to fight elsewhere made breaking the siege a low priority item.   

A More Informed Verdict on Russia

I noted recently my frustration in getting a visa to visit Russia.  Having arrived, I, of course, have met many friendly Russian people. Still the bureaucracy here is worse that in Italy and the respect for the law is not any better. The parking of cars on the street here makes Italy look orderly.  At the museums signs prohibiting taking of photos or wearing of spiked heels (the floors of the palaces are beautiful parquet) are simply ignored.   

By the way, when you see the lavish palaces of the Russian royal family and various nobles, you realize that it did not take a political genius to stir up a revolution among the common folk in Russia.  I’ve never seen such extended opulence elsewhere in Europe.

  
Article on Pistoia in California Newspaper
 
Here is link for article.  http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_10577552   I provided background information to the author of the article (after she had visited Pistoia) , but I haven’t yet checked to see how much, if any, of it she used.

Would You Believe ??

Rome – January 12, 2008 – A crackdown on absenteeism among public sector workers has proven hugely successful and could raise Italy’s GDP by a percentage point, Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta said on Monday.

“Absenteeism has plunged by 45%,” Brunetta told a TV interviewer, stressing that “this means that we have some 100,000 more workers showing up every day”.

“You can see the difference in schools, in hospitals, in (public) offices….but this is still not enough”.

“I’m not taking a swipe at public workers. In fact, I would like them to take pride in their work, have them say: ‘as a public worker I’m playing a fundamental role”‘.

His comments came amid a flap over a remark made during the weekend that public workers were ashamed of their jobs, unlike workers at Ferrari.

“If someone is a teacher, a bureaucrat or clerk at the land registry office they’re ashamed to say what job they do. Instead, if he can tell his son ‘I’m a lathe turner at Ferrari, he does so with a smile, with pride and dignity”.

The comments sparked an uproar in the center-left opposition and Communist Refoundation Party leader Paolo Ferrero urged him to quit.

According to Brunetta, if productivity increases by 20-40%, GDP would grow by a percentage point and “do its bit to help Italy overcome the credit crisis”. The minister says his drive to increase the presence of staff in public offices means more service and a better quality of performance, with fewer queues and more offices open.

Brunetta’s campaign against the so-called ‘fannulloni’, or slackers, has made him one of the most popular ministers in the center-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi. His crackdown followed publicity over public sector workers who were taking unnecessary sick leave, getting colleagues to clock on and off for them, or arriving at the office to stamp their own cards before leaving again.

The minister has also announced plans to introduce a reward system which will be based on how effectively workers do their job as well as the number of days they turn up for work. He has also set up badge-swipe turnstiles at the premier’s office.

—————

My comments on this story.  First, who knows if the 46% figure is correct?  The boss wants better attendance figures, and , guess what, attendance figures improve.  Remember the phony body count figures in Viet Nam.  Second, even if the 46% figure is somewhat correct, how long will the improvement last?  You can be sure in Italy that this whole issue will be forgotten next year and the media will not follow up to see if the change is permanent. Finally, even if attendance is improving, the whole situation reminds of  the T shirt sometimes worn by students “They can make me go to College, but they can’t make me study.”

A Sad Story

I met a young American couple in St. Petersburg.  They were seeking to adopt a Russian child.  I asked them why they did not adopt within the USA. The wife said that in USA today almost all adoptions are private ones.  The adopting couple pays for the expenses of the pregnancy, but the mother of the child can, if she desires, keep the child even though she originally had agreed to an adoption. The couple did not want to suffer this possible heartbreak.

In Russia adoptions by foreigners are becoming more difficult because the Russian government is paying a bonus to Russian couples who adopt. I assume this is because the population of Russia is declining so there is a desire to keep Russian babies within the country.

Anyway the couple knew that the mother of the child they were to adopt had been a drug user. The child had spent a few months in the hospital after birth to be sure there was no ongoing drug addiction. They were told that the mother was not an alcoholic as is common in  Russia. When the arrived, they discovered that the child (now a year old) could not make eye contact with them and appeared to have symptoms of autism.

So they were returning home without a child.  Their fee to the Russian agency does allow them to come back later and possibly adopt a different child

A Bit of Italian Humor

There was an item in the paper that the computer system that connects the parts of the Italian court system throughout the nation had crashed for nine hours one day. A wag commented that, instead of taking the usual 15 years to come to a conclusion, a typical court case will require 15 years and nine hours to reach finality.

Best Example of Paralysis in Italian Politics

The Italian Parliament is well over twice as large in membership as the US Congress. Both sides of the political spectrum have in their programs a reduction of the size of Parliament. . I have never heard any politician defend the current bloated size of the Parliament. (Remember that Italian members of Parliament are the highest paid in Europe.) The only people who oppose a smaller Parliament (even if they would not say so publicly) are probably the persons who would lose their jobs, directly or indirectly, by such a change. The Berlusconi government has a large majority in Parliament so it could institute this reform even if the other side did not agree So if you ask Italians “will the Berlusconi government during its current term in office significantly reduce the size of Parliament?” the answer is always “no.” Similarly, Italians do not expect that the failure of both sides to keep the promise to shrink Parliament will be an issue in next election. The political caste takes care of itself first, and the Italian people simply tolerate it.

A Second Look at a Christmas Stamp

I wrote that I had never seen in Italy a stamp with a Christmas design on a letter or card – I had only seen a large denomination Christmas stamp for packages. A friend tells me that there is a Christmas stamp for letters but you need to go to the “Commemorative Window” at the Post Office to buy it. I don’t know what window this would be at Pistoia Post Office. Anyway, a Christmas stamp exists. We can say merely that it is not promoted by the Post Office or used much so that it is possible to live here and not know that it exists.

Even the Pope, with Direct Line to God, Can’t Figure Out Italian Laws

The world’s smallest state has decided to secede from the Italian legal system and no longer automatically adopt the laws of Italy.
 
The decision to divorce from the Italian legal system reflects the ‘exorbitant number’ of Italian laws passed by parliament as well as their ‘instability’ and their frequent clash with ‘the irreversible principles of the Church’, explained Jose Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Vatican Law.
 
Under the current statute, signed by Pope Pius XI in 1929, Italian laws are accepted by the Holy See except in cases that are ‘radically incompatible’ with the basic principles of canon law, Ruiz said. The new statute signed by Pope Benedict XVI stipulates that all new Italian laws be examined before they are adopted by the Vatican.
 
The Vatican has also decided to scrutinize international treaties before deciding whether or not to adhere to them. On the basis of its wording, the Vatican recently refused to approve a United Nations declaration decriminalising homosexuality.
 
Some legal experts opine that the Vatican is seeking increased legal autonomy to mark its stance on key ethical issues like euthanasia, stem cell research, divorce and civil unions.
 
Not Every Post Adolescent Italian Male Wants to Live with Mom
 

Palermo – January 5, 2009 – A jailbird released early with an electronic tag has begged to go back to jail because he can’t stand living with his parents.

Convicted thief Guido Beneventi, 30, had his sentence reduced on condition that he stayed at his parent’s home in Palermo, southern Italy.

But he said that his parents constantly lectured him about his life of crime and then began ordering him around “like a child” and telling him to clean his room.

After a string of rows, he broke his curfew to flee to police headquarters and demanded to be arrested.

“You are my saviors,” he told them as they sent him back to Ucciardone jail. “I just couldn’t take another day with them.

“They spent all their time telling me how useless he was and lecturing me about everything and ordering me to do housework. It was like being a child again. Prison was better.”

 
How to be a Popular American Woman in Italy
 
 
Since the item below refers to an internet survey, I assume it probably had younger respondents than a different type of survey.

 Amanda Knox, 21, was voted the most popular woman in the poll held by a television news program, beating US vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin and French first Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy.  The University of Washington student, who shared a cottage with Miss Kercher, 21, in the historic hill town of Perugia, came fourth in the internet poll, one place behind US President- elect Barack Obama. The internet poll was won overall by Roberto Saviano, the Italian investigative journalist who wrote a best-selling book, Gomorrah, about the Naples-based Camorra mafia, since turned into a film tipped to win an Oscar.

Knox and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, went on trial in a Perugia court on Jan 16, charged with stabbing Miss Kercher to death in what prosecutors claim was a group sex game turned violent. The mystery over who killed Miss Kercher and why has gripped Italy since the Leeds University student was found lying in a pool of her own blood in the whitewashed cottage in November 2007. Knox and Sollecito, with whom she had a brief relationship, have been behind bars ever since.

Miss Knox has appeared on the covers of Italian magazines and in countless newspaper stories, her blonde hair, fresh complexion and good looks earning her the name “angel-face” from the Italian media.

Hundreds of journalists from Italy, Britain and the US are expected to cover the trial, which is likely to last for months.

Knox and Sollecito both deny any involvement in the killing, with their lawyers arguing that they had no motive for murder and that DNA evidence against them is flawed and unreliable
 
A Confession
 
When I wrote about how my nice bathrobe disappeared over the summer while my apartment was rented, I said to myself “the bathrobe is going to turn up somewhere in the apartment quickly and your story will be false. It did not, however, show up quickly. It showed up slowly — finally appearing in an old cloth overnight bag in the back of my front hall closet.  
 
Welcome from Finland
 
I’m in Finland attending the European Figure Skating Championship in Helsinki. So far my biggest surprise in doing a little sight seeing is to discover how “new” Finland is as a nation.  A timeline in a museum of the cultural history of the country starts in 1550.  It was under Sweden for hundreds of years and then part of Russia. Finland only gained independence in 1917.  It cold, costly, and clean. The people are very nice.
 
A Note on Figure Skating Today
 
Figure skating is part ballet and part gymnastics. After a biased judging  scandal a few years back, the scoring system was changed to make it less subjective.  The result has been to place greater emphasis of the gymnastic elements of the sport and less on the ballet ones.  I assume that the system has reduced opportunities for bias, but I don’t have the knowledge to determine this.

I think the judging scandal in figure skating involved judges favoring skaters from their own country.  If I were a judge, I would not be so narrowly nationalistic.  On the other hand, I might not be totally fair. For example if Kiira Korpi ( see http://www.valio.fi/portal/page/portal/valiocom/Company_information/Marketing_Communications/sponsorship04082006101958/the_official_website_of_kiira_korpi29102007123456) took the ice she might get my vote no matter how she skated.
 
 

Getting the Visa to Visit Russia (continued)

Having struck out on my first visit to the Russian Consulate in Rome (Russian holiday), I made my second visit. I figured the consulate visa office might only be open in the morning which in Italy means until noon or 1 pm. My train from Pistoia to Florence broke down as it arrived in Pistoia. I had to take a later train and missed my connection to Rome. I still got to Russian Consulate before noon only to discover that the visa office closes at 11:30. The gate keeper at the Consulate speaks neither Italian nor English. He pointed me to a sign (in Russian) which said that office was open 8:30 to 1:30. I got a hotel room in Rome and arrived at 8:40 the next morning. There was nobody there to point one to the correct office or give out forms. I had one completed form already, but discovered when I entered the office to get a visa, that I needed to fill in two other ones. I did this. The second one was duplicate information from page two of first form. It was almost 11:30 when I reentered the visa office with all forms. I then found out that to get the visa the same day, I had to pay an extra fee of 81 Euro. (218 Euro instead of usual fee of 147 Euro) This was cheaper than going back to Pistoia and coming back another day. I could only pay in cash so I left the building to try to find a cash machine which was not easy in this part of Rome. Although I got back after 11:30, fortunately the cashier’s window was still open. So I paid and got the visa. I never saw anybody smile or say anything in a friendly manner at the Russian Consulate.

We heard a lot of bad things about the Soviet Union under Communism. Let me tell you that I would not give you $2 for Russia under Capitalism or whatever you want to call the system they have now.

Naples, Once Again the Poster Boy for the Worst of Italy

If Naples did not exist, the Italians would have to invent it so they could always feel “it is not as bad here as it is there.” Last week Naples was in the news again as a lady in a wheel chair exited from the post office with her pension check. A thief attacked her and took the check; she died of a heart attack. In defense of Naples, the Bay of Naples is beautiful. The archeological museum (one of many fine museums) is marvelous. The people there are very warm and friendly (other than those who steal from you).

Another of My Continuing Fashion Alerts –This Time for Men

The newspaper reports that in hard economic times the White Shirt comes back into vogue as the standard for male business dress. It indicates a sense of seriousness that is appropriate in this difficult period.

Licking Stamps

I mentioned a long time ago that the Italians use a glue stick to put on stamps that are not self-sticking rather than licking them even though there is glue on the back of stamps. I thought this was because the Italians thought it was not hygienic to lick the stamps. I don’t have such fears, but after licking some of these stamps before affixing them, I discover another reason for using external glue. The glue already on the stamps is so bad that they don’t stay on the envelope.

The Economic Crisis and Italy

Italy does not face an economic crisis of the same dimensions as the USA. Whereas the USA is going from a boom to a bust economy, in Italy the economy has been level or in slight decline for many years. Because of the restrictions in the European Union on national debt, Italy can not adopt an economic stimulus package such as that proposed for the United States. Furthermore, I doubt that many think that such a package would work in Italy anyway. Things may well get worse in Italy as elsewhere, but the Italians have a unique ability to muddle through hard times. Books are often written in Italy, with impressive research and statistics, showing that the nation is heading for a meltdown, but the meltdown doesn’t come. Italy doesn’t really solve its problems, it just finds a way to defer them or work around them until another day. Maybe as the world economy becomes more intertwined, Italy will be overwhelmed by economic shocks initiated elsewhere, and the country will no longer be able to avoid an impending disaster. So far, at least, the Italians ability to work through a crisis has held up.

Could There be a Bernard Madoff Type Scandal in Italy?

Not exactly. A big part of the newsworthy aspect of the Madoff scandal in the USA is that he, unlike the typical financial crook, had a reputation for honesty, integrity, and financial sagacity that made people put unique trust in him. Nobody in the world of finance in Italy would have this exalted of a reputation. Far more than is the case in the USA, the average Italian seeks the world of finance as manipulated, not honest, and corrupt. So even someone at the very apex of that world in Italy would not be seen as thoroughly trustworthy.

Keeping up in Italy with News from the USA

My main source of American news is National Public Radio from the USA that I get via satellite radio. I also look at the New York Times briefly on the internet each day. Even if I did not have these two sources, I would be fairly well informed about happenings in the USA because, as I have noted before, there is extensive coverage of American news in the Italian media. In one day when I read a single Italian newspaper and watched one 30 minute TV news broadcast, I got the following major items: (1) a two page feature article on the opening by the Cuban government of the archive of Hemingway papers left to it in 1961 by Hemingway’s widow, (2) a one page feature article on Oprah Winfrey’s giving up dieting, (3) a TV feature story on the 50^th anniversary of Motown Records, and (4) substantial coverage of President Bush’s final press conference. There were also some minor stories or clips about less important events in USA.

A Tale of Three Timepieces

I was with a friend in Florence when she dropped off her Rolex watch to be adjusted. The watch had recently been adjusted, but still did not keep totally accurate time. Further work was required. It costs about $500 to get a Rolex repaired. After we left the shop, my friend noted how she felt a bit naked without a watch which she always likes to wear. I stopped and bought her a 5 Euro watch from a Chinese stand on the street. A week later she got back her Rolex. I noted that she could now use the 5 Euro Chinese watch to test the accuracy of the Rolex after the second adjustment.

Two weeks later I was at the same Chinese street stand in Florence. My 5 Euro back-up Chinese watch had stopped working after three years so it was time to buy another. In Italy whenever a sale is made of any kind (even a cup of coffee), the buyer is to get a receipt so there is a formal record of the sale for tax purposes. At stores receipts are almost universal. At the semi-weekly traveling market they are common but far less than universal. I’ve never received one from a street vendor. I should say, never before, because I got one when I bought the new 5 Euro watch. I quickly realized that 10 seconds before I had noted an Italian policeman standing on this street.

Praising Puccini

The year 2008 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Italian opera composer Puccini. There were events throughout Italy commemorating this occasion. Puccini was from Lucca which is a 50 minute train ride from Pistoia. In Lucca his home is a museum dedicated to his memory. Throughout 2008 (and who knows how for how much longer) the museum has been closed for renovations. You can bet your family fortune, without much risk, that this renovation project was meant to be completed before 2008 to have the museum open for this special year.

January Sales

January sales are a big deal in Italy, so much so that they are regulated by agreements reached by the merchants’ associations and the cities. It is announced in the media on which specific days in January the sales begin in various major cities. Why this is not left to the individual stores themselves to decide is beyond me. One rationale I heard was that by setting a fixed date in each city, no merchant can get an advantage over its competitors by starting its sales sooner. Of course, in Italy, as in the USA, there were discounts taking place before Christmas to boost a weak retail season. In Italy if you call it a “discount”, rather than a “sale”, you can lower the price without violating the rules about when a “sale” can begin.

Befana

On the night of Epiphany, January 6, the witch Befana comes to each home and gives either candy (good child) or coal (bad child) to the kids there. In Pistoia there is a big event in which Befana descends (on a wire) from the bell tower. This year there were 10,000 people jammed into town square for the descent. Forty years ago Epiphany was the only day during the Christmas season of gifts to children; there was no tradition of Santa Claus on the night before Christmas. At that time, if you were lucky, Befana left more than candy. Now the Italian children are double dippers, getting gifts both from Santa and Befana. As I mentioned once before, there is a special candy made for this occasion that looks like coal.

Button, Button, Who Has the Button?

I bought an attractive woman’s sweater at the local traveling bi-weekly market. When I got home, I noticed that one button was broken. The buttons were not typical plastic ones; this was a cloth covered metal button. I went to the button and sewing shop in my neighborhood. The lady had buttons to which you attach cloth, and she had the cloth to match that on the button I needed. She even put the cloth on the button for me. There are several such shops in Pistoia. In addition, the traveling market has one or two stands that deal in buttons and other sewing accessories. The problem of matching an obscure type of button is much more easily solved in Pistoia than in a city of similar size in the USA.

Job Change –Italian (at least Neapolitan) Style

There is a bus driver in Pistoia who originally is from Naples. He would prefer to drive a bus in Naples where the hours of the shift are shorter and the pay is better. Of course, any time a job such as bus driver is vacant, there is a flood of applicants. He cannot transfer from Pistoia to Naples because each has its own independent bus system. He has found a possible way to get the job in Naples. A driver is retiring in Naples, and he will pass this job along to the man from Pistoia. How can an employee who is retiring select his own replacement? Well first there is the payment of 10,000 Euro. Of this 5,000 goes to the retiring driver and 5,000 to the bus drivers’ union in Naples which then tells the company whom it has to hire for the opening. Who knows whether this latter 5,000 is also split between some guy in the union and some guy in the hiring office at the bus company?

An Empty Excursion to the Eternal City

I need a visa for a trip to St. Petersburg at end of January (where I am going after first viewing the European Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki). There is no Russian consulate in Florence; I had to go to Rome to get the visa. For some reason the only Web site I could find for the Russian Embassy and Consulate in Rome was an unofficial one. It has an e mail address from which I got no reply and a phone number that did not work. So I went down to Rome with only the street address. When I arrived at the Russian Embassy, I discovered it was a Russian Holiday and it was not open. If employees there get both Russian and Italian holidays off, they probably work very few days.

University Reform (continued)

I wrote before about protests over the proposed reforms of the government for the operation of the university system. Despite the protests, the reforms became law this week. They seem to be reasonable reforms to me, but I could not tell if they in fact address the most central problems of the university system or if they have (as opponents claim) a “hidden agenda” of simply lowering the funds allocated to universities. In fact, the wisdom or intention of these reforms may be of little importance. In Italy, the Parliament can pass laws, but getting these laws implemented at the organizational level is totally another matter. Let me give another example from the universities. A few years ago, the government passed a measure to limit the number of years a student could remain as a student at the university. The law set standards as to progress that had to be maintained toward graduation. When I asked a university student about these standards, he just shrugged and said that maybe at some universities these rules were followed (He did not know.) but not at his.

Christmas Dinners

I ended up eating two large meals on Christmas Day. The first a 1 pm was at my American church in Florence. It consisted of pasta, ham, turkey, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower casserole, salad, and carrot cake along with appropriate beverages. The second was at the home of an Italian family. Ib began with appetizers of crostini with salmon and lemons, and a rolled bread with spinach, ham, cheese, and egg. Next followed home made pasta with a meat sauce. Then there was roasted chicken and pork done with herbs. Vegetables included French fried potatoes, a compote of marinated onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and a salad. Dessert was a chocolate cake or an Italian Christmas panetone cake with a tiramisu frosting. Of course there was also white and red wine, natural or sparking mineral water, and coffee.

Distribution of “This Week in Italy”

At present I distribute this letter both through personal e mail lists and through an email function attached to my web site www.thisweekinitaly.com As a result most subscribers receive two copies, but not all do. For some reason, unknown to me, some of you only receive your copy through one of these two channels. As a result, I prefer to keep using both channels of distribution. I hope that receiving two copies each week is not a great inconvenience to anyone. Thank you.

A Successful Family

The grandmother of the family with whom I ate on Christmas had died within the last few years. She was a wonderful woman whose professed greatest accomplishment was to have a family, all of whose members got along well together. In Italy families are closer than in the USA, but if a family quarrel breaks out in Italy, it is also likely to be more severe than in the USA. So in Italy there are probably, for example, more brothers who talk to each other every day and more brothers who have not spoken to each other in years and refuse to do so.

News Coverage from Abroad

One would expect that in any country, the coverage of national news within that country is more complete than the national news from that country reported in the foreign media. The foreign media would be expected to highlight only the most important national news from other lands.

So here is a test of the proposition. On Italian news the following story was featured on the main nightly national news shows. In fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the US needs to get intelligence information from local leaders. This information can be bought with money or arms, but a sudden influx of these items to a leader might tip off the Taliban that he was talking to the US intelligence agents. The USA has found a new item with which to pay for information –Viagra for some of the tribal leaders, many of whom have a number of young wives.

Did this get feature story coverage in the USA?

Feminine Fashion Alert

For those of you who have a little of the Carrie character (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) from “Sex and the City” in you, here is a note based on looking at latest shoe fashions. Those pointy, pointy, toes are on the way out. They are being replaced by rounded toes and even some with open toes at bottom. The shoes have a strong slope so that with this slope and the rounded (sometimes open) toes they resemble the shoes worn by Betty Grable and Lana Turner in the 1940s. Maybe it is time to raid Grandma’s shoe closet.

New Year’s Eve Theatre Experience

I went on New Year’s Eve to a theatre comedy presentation in Florence with some friends, either native Italians or foreigners who had lived here longer than I have. It was difficult for me to follow a lot of the dialog, and I was feeling discouraged about my lack of ability in Italian. I thought that maybe my hearing is starting to fail, making it even harder for me to understand Italian. After it was over, I discovered that my friends too had not understood it all. A lot of it was in the dialect of Florence (Italian is in fact based on the Florentine dialect of Dante’s time, but apparently Florence also has a modern dialect that varies from standard Italian.) I’ve mentioned before that all Italians today, with universal schooling and mass communications, can understand the national Italian language, but some still speak local dialects.

Cultural Report

I attended a small art exhibit of the works of Antonio Ligabue who died in 1965. He was a socially marginal person who also spent time in mental institutions. In the USA we might call him a primitive or outsider artist. His main subject was animals, often portrayed in violent scenes. His recognition as an important artist came after his death. There are sites showing his works on the internet but the only one I could quickly find that has biographical information in English, as well as some images, is at www.csaligabue.it/presentazione_inglese.html. The biography is at bottom of the page.

The Wrong Man for the Right Job

In the newspaper this week was a story about the end of a case of eminent domain for which the government had to pay private owners for land taken for public use. The case had been going on for 26 years. This is example 1001 of how Italian judicial system works poorly. The Berlusconi government is proposing a widespread reform of the judicial system. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the reform scheme is a good one. The problem is that for years Berlusconi has been claiming that left wing judges have been bringing cases against him as a political vendetta. Opponents of Berlusconi claim that the reason he entered politics was to get laws changed so he could stay out of jail. So obviously any discussion of judicial reform will be framed by a lot of extraneous political discussion of the problems and motivation of Berlusconi. This is a shame, because what is really needed is a discussion focused on the problems of the system and the best solutions for them.

Adventures of Ahmed

Ahmed is my Palestinian friend who has lived in Italy for six years, but never had success finding stable employment here. Recently he decided to visit his family in the Gaza Strip and also to see if he could find employment in Israel when many Palestinians do work. He flew to Tel Aviv. Ahmed now has Italian citizenship; he planed to enter Gaza using his Italian passport. The Israeli authorities, however, said to them he was still a Palestinian citizen unless he renounced his Palestinian citizenship. As a Palestinian he could not enter Gaza. He offered to get back on a plane and return to Italy, but the Israelis held him for two days before sending him back. Needless to say, he was upset, but it turns out that, unintentionally, the Israelis did him a favor. He would have entered Gaza just before the new hostilities began and been trapped there during the fighting.