thisweekinitaly.com

This is a fashion note. I hope that all my woman readers who are using sandals are wearing salve sandals. Those are the rage in Italy. They are sandals with at least one strap around the upper ankle. I assume you could see them if you looked at a DVD of Spartacus.

Getting Rid of the Pests in My Apartment Building

I mentioned that I have not had any mosquitoes in my apartment all summer which I attribute to some measures taken by my condominium. I keep my bikes in a mud room off of one of the courtyards of the building. I often see rat scurrying around in this room when I go to take out a bike. I even see an occasional mouse. This week I saw a dead rat and a dead mouse. So I think the extermination efforts of the building management are not limited to mosquitoes.

I eventually figured out that nobody but I was going to throw out the two dead animals next to my bikes. By the time I got a plastic bag to accomplish this task, some other animal had eaten the mouse. Only the skin and bones were left. So I guess the poison, whatever it is, did not kill all the animals that frequent this room.

Lottery Fever

The lottery jackpot went up to 147 million Euro before there was a winner. Lottery fever gripped Italy. The German tabloid Der Bild sponsored a special flight to Italy for Germans to buy lottery tickets. The winner lives in a town of about 2,000 in Tuscany. Townspeople were not telling his nr her name to the press, but the whole town was celebrating. The prize is tax free. The mayor had a list of projects that he hoped the winner would pay for. Many townsfolk had wish lists too of personal items. It was hard to tell how much of this was “tongue in cheek;” (some had wish lists pretending they were the winner) but I had the definite impression that if the new multi-millionaire does not want to share his or her fortune with the town (and perhaps with some local friends too) it would be a good idea to move away as soon as possible.

An American (?) Citizen in Pistoia

I first met this guy in 2006. He is presently a street person living in a vaulted niche in one of the old city walls. I think he may do something mildly artistic to earn a little money. He says that his father was an American soldier who was killed in the war after leaving Pistoia. The story has some credibility because the guy is tall and fair for an Italian. Of course, his father might have been a German soldier; if given the choice the mother would have opted for paternity from an American instead of a German. The guy does not know the name of his father. During the war American soldiers were usually not in Italian cities for a long time as they moved north, but Pistoia was just south of the highly fortified German Gothic Line. So American soldiers might have been held up in and around Pistoia for a while. Of course, this guy could never prove his American citizenship, but there is a chance he is an American citizen.

British Newspapers Continue to Hound Berlusconi

Great Britain has a highly developed sensationalistic tabloid press, but the criticism of Berlusconi there is not limited to this sector of the media. The Times of London is ruthless in its coverage of Silvio. The British newspapers (including the Times) most recently reported that aides and family members of Berlusconi had recommended that he should check into a clinic that specializes in curing sexual addiction. Notice that this story breaks first in Great Britain and is then reported in the Italian press only as a story derived from English newspapers. Usually stories about a head of the government are first reported in that nation’s media.

I first heard of sexual addiction as a disease about 20 years ago when baseball player Wade Boggs was on the talk show circuit saying that he suffered from this malady. I said it was the only disease for which the doctor who finds the cure might have to go into hiding to save his life. (Don’t look for any Nobel Prize in medicine.)

Italian Medical System—Not Exactly National

Although it is funded at a national level, it is administered at a regional level. Nor surprisingly, the majority of serious problems with medical care arise in the south of Italy and Sicily. The most recent example was a girl in southern Italy who was rushed to the hospital after a serious auto accident. She was in need of immediate emergency surgery, but there were no doctors on duty in the operating room. She died. You have to remember, however, that this happened at end of August when all of Italy is on vacation. Don’t surgeons deserve a vacation too?

By the way, this incident of the empty operating room is not unique. This week in another part of southern Italy a group of 20 pregnant women held a sit-in at the local hospital. For four days there was no obstetrician on duty; all were on vacation.

“California Dreaming”

Remember the song with this title from the 1960s by the Mamas and the Papas. I’ve mentioned before that California holds a special appeal for Italians. This was illustrated the other day when I turned on a local talent show on TV that is titled “Dreaming of California.” I then switched channels and immediately came upon an extended advertisement for the California 3 diet plan. This is not the first diet plan I have seen on Italian TV with California or Hollywood in its title.

Impoverished Immigrants

In discussions of illegal immigration into Europe, the point is often made that people fleeing hunger, war, persecution, etc. are very hard to dissuade from coming. These people surely exist, but many immigrants are not starving or being persecuted at home. They come for a better life. Many of the street merchants/beggars in Pistoia are from Nigeria. Some have university degrees. Some come from families that are not totally impoverished. They tell me that the meager life they have in Italy is still better than the opportunities at home. I can’t tell for sure the extent to which the life they have now on the streets of Italy is better or the extent to which there is a hope that in Italy something better will eventually develop.

Meanwhile the Berlusconi government is caught between its new stricter anti-immigration policy that pleases the populist Northern League (a member of the governing coalition) and the ever harsher criticism of this policy by the Catholic Church (which is often allied to Berlusconi). When the new policy was passed, I noted that it would be hard to sustain in the face of the strong element in Italy sympathetic to the immigrants. The pressure against the policy is building now.

As I have mentioned before in Italy there are still trials of Nazi officers from WWII for war crimes committed in Italy. The defendants are not in Italy so their sentences are merely a formality. Last week, however, a German court sentenced one of these officers to life imprisonment. It was the first life sentence in Germany for a war crime. The defendant is 91 years old. If there is an appellate process in Germany, he will probably die before ever serving a day in prison.

Keeping Track of Expenses

In Italy, probably also in the USA, there is a service at some banks by which every time a purchase is made on your debit (I don’t know if it works on credit card too.) card, you receive a text message on your cell phone telling you that this has happened and the amount of the transaction. If a husband and wife have a joint card, and one is a bit of a spendthrift, this service provides a good way to monitor excessive expenses.

At the Doctor’s Office

I went to my doctor’s office to pick up some prescriptions. I arrived just before the office opened and was there as the doctor rode up to the door on his bicycle. I told him that in the USA doctors don’t arrive at the office on a bicycle; they come in their Cadillac. Of course, this is a vast overstatement, but it did give him a good laugh.

Freedom of Religion in Italy

It is guaranteed by the Italian constitution. The dominance of the Catholic Church in Italian life at times makes this guarantee problematic. In Italy the teachers have a conference at the end of a grading period to discuss the marks to be given to each student. (I have mentioned before that this is a silly practice; why should the teacher of English comment upon the proposed grade in mathematics?) A court ruled that the teachers of Catholic Religion (which is an optional subject) could not participate in these conferences. No grades are given in religion course and teachers of religion are not chosen by the usual academic procedures. The Church was very upset by the ruling and will seek to overturn it in Parliament. The usual argument of the Church (rather specious) is that the Catholic religion is so much a part of the culture and history of Italy that including it fully in the schools is not really a matter of religion itself. The bottom line is that it is hard to have true freedom of religion in a country where one relgion is so dominant.

The American Health Care Debate as Seen by Italians

The Italians are one of the most, if not the most, Pro-American people in Europe. In discussing differences between Italy and the USA, they see features that they prefer in Italy and features that they think are better in the USA. For example the Berlusconi government would like the regions in Italy to serve a role more like the states in the USA – a more federal system. People who are reasonable well off financially and live close to their family and friends in general do not emigrate elsewhere. So most Italians would not want to move to the USA as a practical matter.

If you ask the question abstractly “Would you like to live in the USA ? ” you are asking if it is a country in which you could be comfortable living (even though for multiple reasons you would not move there). When asked this question many Italians say they would not want to live in a country that has the death penalty and does not have free medical care for all citizens. They don’t see these items as a matter of simply different political choices (some like apples; other like oranges). Instead they see a country with these two “defects” as uncivilized. With this background, you can easily imagine the slant taken by Italian media in reporting the health care debate in the USA.

The Brain Drain in the News Again

A key discovery on stem cells and cancer was made by two Italian scientists doing research in the USA. They were interviewed on Italian TV. They complained that the Byzantine structure and procedures of Italian universities make it impossible for young scientist to get the positions and funding that they need. In Italy there are two problems. The first is that not much money is allocated for scientific research. The second is that the very complex selection process for university posts (that is supposed to avoid nepotism and lead to the hiring of the best people) does not function well and forces young scientists to go abroad. As one of the two stem cell researchers said on TV, in Italy you have to go through all kinds of competitions to get a post; in the USA you simple show them your résumé. If they like what they see, they hire you.

Italy is a country where “the personal” is much more important than “the impersonal.” The scientific enterprise is best ruled by canons of impersonal meritocracy. This goes against the grain of Italian culture. As a result, Italy will continue to produce some brilliant scientists, but will never have a well administered scientific establishment.

Pistoia’s Soccer Woes (contd.)

First a review of the situation. Pistoia’s team did so badly this year that it was demoted from the C-1 to the C-2 level for next year. In Italy level A is the Major Leagues (in American terms) and below are minor leagues at levels B, C, and D. The team could not raise the financing to participate in level C-2 next year. Next, for financial reasons or otherwise, I am not sure, it was denied an opportunity to move down to level D for next year. Yes, there will be a team next year. It will play at the level of Excellenza which apparently is some type of semi-pro category.

Pistoia has a large soccer stadium. It goes back to the days when Pistoia’s team was at level B. To ever get to B again, Pistoia will have to work its way up, with highly successful seasons through levels D, C-2, and C-1. That is a long, hard road. I guess the new team will play at the city stadium. Imagine an amateur county baseball league in which each of the small towns in the county has a town team. They play on baseball fields with a few bleachers. Now imagine one of these teams playing in a stadium with 10,000 seats. You get the picture of the Pistoia squad next year.

A Bit of Summer News that the Major Media May Have Missed in the USA

Although trivial news stories are never absent in the Italian press, as I have mentioned, they are more common in summer. Here is one that may have made the supermarket tabloids in the USA, but perhaps not the major news outlets. An ex girlfriend of George Clooney reported that he is a dud in bed. Of course it could be the sour grapes of a jilted lover, but if it is true, it raises a major problem. How are millions of women going to replace George as there number 1 Fantasy Lover?

There is even more. A story in the Italian press reported a statement of Brad Pitt concerning a conversation with George could be construed to imply that George is bi-sexual.

Following Political News from USA in Italian Press

I saw an item in an Italian newspaper that DNA tests had confirmed that John Edwards is the father of the daughter of his mistress. I was surprised to read this because I remembered that the mother was adamant that she would not allow her daughter to have a DNA test to establish paternity. So I did a little research on the internet. It turns out that some of the supermarket tabloid papers were reporting the news that DNA tests proved Edwards was the father. The mainstream press, however, still reported that the mother has not allowed such a test. I guess the Italian newspapers may not have very high standards on verifying stories from the USA.

DNA test or not, it really doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out who the father is in this case.

Utopia for Germans

Germans love to vacation in Italy to taste the good weather and la dolce vita. Some are moved to buy a house in Italy, but then they discover the frustrations of day to day life in Italy that are not noticeable to a tourist. A friend of mine saw the solution to this problem. He visited some acquaintances who live in a reconstructed Italian village in rural Tuscany. About 20 years ago an Italian architect bought the deserted village and carefully modernized it while maintaining all its rustic charm. There were 22 housing units in the village after the renovations. They were organized as a condominium. Almost all the units were purchased by Germans who then control the condominium. The yearly condominium fees are 7000 Euro, but everything is efficiently maintained in the village. Utopia for a German – Italian beauty and charm but no Italian management.

Guitar Crusher

He is an old southern blues singer (www.guitarcrusher.com) whom I met a few years ago when he was visiting a friend’s house in Pistoia. I had lunch with him and his wife once when I was in Berlin which is where they live. He tours Italy from time to time and performed this year at the Pistoia Blues Festival. Last week he sang at an outdoor bar near by house. When he sang the Ray Charles number “What I’d Say,” I was suddenly back in college, it was Friday afternoon after classes ended, and Bob Berner (who was one of the few with a stereo with big speakers) would blast this number out the front window of the fraternity house. Crusher ended his concert by playing my request for the Tommy Tucker hit from the late 1950s, “High Heel Sneakers.” The 45 rpm record of this is hiding somewhere in a box among my possessions in Gettysburg. You can hear on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8RVamiwAqU

A lot of the blues lyrics were surely incomprehensible to the Italians present, even those who know English. How do you translate into Italian the title “Since My Baby Hit the Numbers”?

Concern about Crime

I mentioned out last week that crime remains a big political issue even thought the crime rate went down this year. In fact the crime rate has been fairly level for the last seven years while stopping crime seemed to grow as a national concern. It turns out that while crime remained steady, the number of stories about crime increased greatly in the TV news. So it seemed to the pubic that Italy was in the grasp of a national crime wave which simply was not true.

Dino De Laurentiis

He is the Italian film producer (not director) who recently turned 90. In Italy he made classic films such as Bitter Rice, and La Strada. I just watched one of his masterpieces, La Grande Guerra (The Great War) about two Italian soldiers in WWI. After his famous films in Italy, he moved to the USA where he made films such as Serpico and Silence of the Lambs. In the newspaper was a photo of Dino and his wife whom he married in 1990. Looking at her, in 1990 she must have been just old enough to get married. His birthday got a lot of coverage in Italy; perhaps in the USA too.

Dealing with the Disabled

Accessibility in Italy to buildings and transportation for people with disabilities is poor. The lack of accessibility is offset by the willingness of Italians to help. There was a letter in the newspaper praising the train system (You can imagine how rare such letters are.). The writer talked about how train personnel help his disabled mother to get on and off the trains and to negotiate her way through the stations. This kind of help and concern is typical in Italy.

Helicopter/Airplane Collision in New York

Very soon after it occurred, there was a story direct from New York on the evening news in Italy. Little was known at that point except that a collision had happened. I was not surprised that the incident was covered in the news although I thought the coverage might be a little excessive for such a small crash. My thought turned out to be ironic because, of course, the next day this was the number one story in Italy with five Italian tourists dead.

Two Things You Can be Sure of in Italy

A new law was passed that changed the traffic code, and among other things is provided for a fine and loss of points on driver’s license for a bicyclist who violated traffic rules. A man was fined and assessed points for going through a red light on his bike. It made the front page of the paper. This is the typical Italian strategy of having someone fined or arrested immediately when a new law goes into effect. This is to serve as notice that the Police are serious about this new law. First thing you can be sure of: after a month at the most there will be few if any bicyclists fined in Italy for violating traffic rules.

After four months of being held hostage, Italian crew members of a boat captured by Somali pirates were released unharmed by the pirates. The Italian foreign minister said it was a triumph of diplomacy; no ransom was paid. The pirates say a ransom was paid. Second thing you can be sure of: 99.9% of Italians believe a ransom was paid.

Italian Labor Relations

In one city in Italy a company is closing a factory and the workers are protesting. The owners want to haul away the machines inside the factory; the workers want them left there in case a new company is willing to take over the factory. Three workers climbed up on a high crane and said they would not come down until some kind of settlement was reached. Perhaps they also threatened to jump off the crane. Now this was obviously a publicity stunt. Still it is interesting to see how seriously it is taken in Italy. In most places it would just be laughable because it is not credible.

Meanwhile in Rome the trains are all dirty. Why? The railroad system contracted with a company to clean the trains. This company proved to be unsatisfactory. Not only did it do a poor job, it did not pay its employees. So the railroad system contracted with a second company. When the employees from this company arrived to clean the trains, the workers from the first company intimidated them so they could not perform their tasks. The workers from the first company won’t go away until they are paid. Calls to the first company by the news media are unanswered. The trains remain more and more dirty.

Current Scandals in Italy

Friends from the USA have written me about media reports there on the personal activities of Berlusconi. Below is an article I have written and submitted for publication in the English language newspaper of Florence that will finish its summer break from publication in September. The article gives my overview of how someone from USA can possibly make sense of the Italians’ view of Silvio’s antics.

Peccadilloes of Politicians: Italy versus the Anglo-Saxon World

Talking about one of the latest instances of sexual misbehaviour by a leading American politician, the caller on a talk radio show from the USA asked “How can I trust him if his own wife can’t trust him”? In Italy this query would be transformed to “Nobody can trust a politician; why would his wife”?

In Italy politicians change positions, parties, and facts without anyone caring, if they even notice. The personal life of politicians may spill at times into the press, but it is seen as irrelevant in evaluating the performance of the office holder.

Why this great difference? One could argue that historically the personal life of politicians has often been incongruent with their public performance so you can’t judge one by the other. Some leaders with less that perfect personal morality nevertheless performed admirably in their official roles. Others, who were paragons of virtue at home, botched up public policy badly. This is a realistic, logical explanation—so you know it the wrong one for understanding and comparing the Italian perspective on this question.

As mentioned above, Italians have low expectations of their political leaders. This is confirmed in comparative surveys with other western nations. If you expect little, then you are thankful if they don’t do too much harm when in office. If that minor goal can be met, who cares about their personal life?

Others, however, cite the Catholic emphasis on forgiveness of sins that are confessed. If a Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky situation somehow arose in Italy, and if denial did not work, the leader would confess all and ask for forgiveness. The story would quickly disappear from the media. Nobody probably gave this advice to President Clinton. President Clinton did finally confess but only after the damage was done and in a form (with his wife present) that in Italy would have a brutta figura.

In the United States, in contrast, there is a strongly moralistic (Italians use the work “puritanical”) segment of the population who are not so quick to forgive and forget. Nevertheless, in some recent cases in the USA, a politician has confessed to past sins well in advance of an election, hoping that this “pre-emptive strike” will get the issue out of the media before he has to run again. At all costs you have to avoid a scandal breaking just before the election time.

Another problem particular to the USA is that some politicians there have made a practice of posing political issues in terms of personal morality. . Not surprisingly among the politicians for whom scandals have emerged, a disproportion share is from this moralistic wing. So the term “hypocrite” is easily applied to them

In Italy the symbolic head of the state (the President of the nation) is separate from the political head (The President of the Council). So the political head of the country is not necessarily seen as a role model for the nation as in the USA. In Great Britain, however, the symbolic head (The Queen) and the political leader (the Prime Minister) also are separate, but the Prime Minister and his subordinates are held to high personal standards of behaviour – ironically higher than the standards that recently have been applied to the Royal Family.

The press in Italy is not particularly aggressive in discovering personal transgressions. (This attitude was once also prevalent in the United States.) You could say that the press believes that Italians are not interested in such news. On the other hand, some say that the media in Italy function by seeking the approval and patronage of political leaders in order to gain access to them. So the timidity of the news gatherers is self-serving.

In the area of sexual shortcomings, slight press coverage may also reflect the continuing masculine bias in Italian life. Foreign journalists are amazed at the tawdry use of sex in Italian advertising and on TV. Sure it exists elsewhere, but there is much more of it here. To use another example, regardless of the laws concerning sexual harassment, in Italy it still is often viewed as a perquisite of high positions. In short, what is seen as misconduct elsewhere is seen as a normal part of life in Italy.

The British press has been particularly severe in its criticism of Silvio Berlusconi. One can explain this by noting that every month (if not more frequently) Berlusconi, says something, does something, or is accused of something, any of which would end his career in public life in Great Britain. Compared to Great Britain, Italy is not another country; it is another planet.

Should Italians hold their politicians to higher standards of personal behaviour? Not a high priority in my opinion. They would do better by requiring elected officials to take responsibility for their public statements and actions. One could even envision a utopian future in which politicians were faithful to their duties (if not their spouses), and the people responded by paying their taxes.

Dr. Jeykyll/Mr Hyde

I used to think that rapists were sort of a sui generic criminal type, but when I studied criminal justice, I discovered that many garden variety criminals had a rape conviction on their record among other crimes.  In Rome recently a unique serial rapist was arrested. He worked as a successful engineer during the day.  DNA evidence implicated him. He asked to have the DNA test redone. They were, and the result was the same.  This type of criminal makes a more interesting story for the media.

Italian Court System

It is a disgrace.  Nobody denies this.  Yet when you talk to knowledgeable people about it they will often note that the code of laws and rights is well developed in Italy and quite fair.  The problem they say is that the system of applying these laws in badly organized.  It is the “esthetic” element again in Italy. It looks beautiful on paper and this compensates at least in part for the fact that in functions poorly in practice. Maybe in the USA practical aspects of life are overly valued, but in Italy surely the theoretical is overly valued versus the practical.

Improving My Italian Vocabulary

I saw a word in the local newspaper headlines that somehow never made it into the vocabulary lists in my Italian language textbooks. The word is “viado” which comes from the Portuguese “viados.” It means a South American transsexual or transvestite who works as streetwalking prostitute. It was in the paper because one of these guys (gals?) in nearby Prato was HIV infected and this naturally has raised fear among the clients of these specialized “sex workers.”

Der Spiegel Looks at Italy

Someone sent me on line a series of articles about Italy from the English language site of the German magazine Der Spiegel (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,639042,00.html) .They were little vignettes about life in different parts of Italy. They were certainly not consistent in their viewpoint.

This got me to thinking about what kind of metaphor could best describe Italy.  Before Italy could enter the group of nations that use the Euro, it had to get its public finances in better shape. Romano Prodi was head of the government then, and he managed to get the finances in acceptable shape for the other Euro nations. At the time someone said that the result was that Italy’s finances were like a slightly expanding middle-aged lady who had managed (just barely!) to stuff herself into her bikini from 20 years earlier.  It was done, but how long would it last?

Not a bad general metaphor for how Italy confronts its problems.  A solution is found that is far from ideal.  It’s obvious that the solution, adequate for now, will not be effective in the future.  There are always predictions that a disaster is imminent when, one might say, the lady bursts out of the suit.  Still another bikini is found into which she stuffs herself again. She never looks good, but somehow she is never naked in public.

Mosquitoes

There have been no mosquitoes in my apartment this summer (for the first time in seven years) although they certainly are not absent from Pistoia. This indicates to me that my condominium must have taken some anti-mosquito measures.  I don’t want to know what chemical they sprayed with. I’m sure it is dangerous and/or non ecological. I am also sure it works.

Cell Phone vs. Computer

Italians are the number one users of cell phones in Europe, but lag far behind in the use of the computer. Why?  One friend suggested it was because the costs of access to the Internet are higher in Italy than elsewhere and Wi-Fi is rarely seen. This could well be part of the reason.  Cell phone costs, however, are also generally higher in Italy than in the rest of Europe. So I have an alternate theory.  Italians love to talk. This is a country also where personal modes of communication are more primary than impersonal ones. On the cell phone one talks (although there are also text messages) and the interaction is more personal than on the computer.  Another friend came up with a third theory that may explain the phenomenon more than any other: the incredibly high frequency of intra-family communication in Italy, most of which is by phone.

The News in Summer

Things slow down generally in the summer in Italy and are reduced to a crawl in August. For television news there is not enough “real news” to fill a half hour. So up to one-third of the news show is about entertainment, animals, vacation destinations, etc.  These are stories that would appear in the Entertainment or Travel sections of a newspaper.  The newspapers too make alterations for summer. The local one has a section that is titled Summer and is filled with these light stories.

Crime in Italy

Despite all the outcry about immigrants and crime, the crime rate in Italy is going down.  Naples remains the poster child for criminal activity although in fact it does not have the highest crime rate for at least some of the major crimes. There is discussion in the media of the indifference toward crime in Naples, and a non criminal incident of this indifference made the news last week.  A man drowned at the beach in Naples. His body was hauled ashore and put under a large beach umbrella where it remained for a long time while nobody paid attention or called the authorities. I remember reading in the USA that in large cities when there was a murder in a bar in one of the less civilized parts of town, the police would arrive and find a body on the floor while the patrons continued to drink and dance, paying no attention to the corpse. (Of course, everyone in the bar was in the washroom when the killing occurred.)  As I’ve noted before, no matter how bad Naples may be, its crime rate does not even come close to that of some major US cities.

Even if the crime rate is falling, Italian prisons have more occupants than any time in last 60 years.  There is a serious overcrowding problem. Half of those in prison are awaiting trial. The usual solution to the problem in Italy is a partial amnesty of incarcerated criminals that then leads to a big controversy as some of those released early (as is totally predictable) immediately commit new crimes. Still in the USA 1 person in 100 is in prison. In Italy this is less than 1 in 800.

France and Italy from the Air

Every year I watch on TV the Giro d’Italia bike race in May and the Tour de France in July.

One thing is very noticeable, the little towns and cities through which these races pass look absolutely charming from the air. Of course, they may look a little grittier at ground level. In the USA some towns might be quite picturesque from the air, such as those in rural New England, but I think the typical rural town in France or Italy simply looks prettier than those in the USA.

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

In countries like Italy, where the government is in the hands of a political coalition not a single party, there are often stresses and strains among coalition members. The largest party in Italy (that of Berlusconi) is the PDL which is strong throughout the nation and is especially dominant in Sicily and some areas of Southern Italy. The other major party in the ruling coalition is the Northern League whose strength is primarily in the North. The Northern League has many positions, but it is most famous for its suggestion that Italy should be divided into two because the South is an unproductive area into which the country pours money with no appreciable results. In this view Southerners are seen as ne’r-do-wells who live off of government handouts. The members of Parliament from the South in the ruling coalition, of course, don’t share this view. They think that the national government should spend more money to develop the South. The potential for conflict within the coalition is obvious, and now some Southerners are calling for a Party of the South while the government is preparing a special plan for the South to mollify them (while, of course, not alienating the Northern League at the same time).

The North and the South in Italy and the USA

In both nations the South traditionally has been poorer. In both nations in the twentieth century there was a large migration from South to North; in the USA this was especially true among Blacks. In the USA however, after World War II, there was a counter migration from North to South. With air conditioning the South became more bearable in the summer. Many moved south for the milder climate. Many businesses and industries moved south for lower costs. As a result, the differences between the two sections lessened. This has not happened in Italy; the gap between the two regions remains the same. In general businesses like to move to areas with lower wages, but some say that in the South the work force is less reliable (although the economic expansion in the North in 1960s used many migrants from the South); others say that the control of the Mafia in the South makes it difficult to do business there. In any case, attempts to move major industrial facilities to the South have been a failure.

A Little Example of How Things Work (?) in the South

In Sicily there is a large modern hospital that took 20 years to build (from the beginning of the project to its completion) and was finished about 10 years ago at a very high cost. Now it is being evacuated because it has been discovered that the cement used in the construction had too much sand; the building is not structurally sound. You can bet that the guys who built it (if you can find them) aren’t going to redo it. There will be new contracts to retrofit the edifice. God only knows what the total cost will be after this reconstruction takes place.

Spanish versus Italian Beaches

I wrote last week how Spain, unlike Italy, had built its predominant tourism business on sun and beaches. A friend from Spain wrote to remind me of three things I already knew but that are worth noting. In Spain almost al beaches are free; in Italy almost none are. Spanish beaches are very clean. In Spain swimming suit tops for women are optional.

Tattoos

I should start by noting that I grew up at a time when men with tattoos were either sailors or roughnecks and for women with tattoos (unless they were in the circus) there probably was no description sufficiently negative. The description of a tattoo as a “permanent reminder of a temporary emotion” is something I can understand.

Times change, however. Now tattoos are common both in the USA and Italy. They vary on two dimensions: the extent to which they are in a visible location and how extensive they are. My unscientific opinion is that in Italy one sees more often than in the USA large tattoos in visible locations. I also think you see tattoos and body piercing in Italy more often on people who are not young. I find that in Italy people who are no longer young are more prone to follow youthful trends in fashion and style, often inappropriately.

Why Things Go Slowly in Italy

The first thing to note is that when you go to the bank, a post office, or a government office, you might receive quick and efficient service. You simply cannot count on this happening. Why? Here are the factors I can determine:

1. Transactions tend to be more complex. You have to sign more places, the clerk has to stamp whatever you sign, etc. There is obviously a large premium on “control” instead of “efficiency.”

2. The social is more important than the commercial. If the clerk knows the person he is serving, a pleasant social conversation may ensue while others wait in line.

3. (Related to number 2) The idea that “time is money” may be prominent in Milan (the most businesslike Italian city), but it is not pervasive in Tuscany, and I doubt if you see much of it at all in the South.

4. Service is always focuses solely on the person in front of you. If he has a very complex transaction which may able to be facilitated by offloading it to another person or having the customer step aside and organize his papers better before they are processed, few clerks would think of doing so.

5. A job in Italy is something you have not something you do. By that I mean Italians are less likely to be invested in doing a job well. Once you have the job, job security is very high. You aren’t going to get any more money by doing the job better, and as long as you meet minimum standards, you won’t be fired. This attitude doesn’t lead to a “customer service” mentality.

In short, when the service you get is not good, there is no single cause. It is part of a cultural matrix. Italians are accustomed to waiting and don’t seem to complain much about it.

Local Church Controversy

The big local news in Pistoia area was a controversy that broke out in a Catholic Church near the city. As is typical in Italy, it is hard to figure out exactly what is involved from the convoluted media reports. Here is my attempt (with a little help from an Italian friend). Adjacent to the church on church property was a Circolo (a type of social gathering place) and a soccer field, both of which were used by parishioners. In fact local parishioners paid to construct these, not the church, but they were on church property. At one time these facilities were operated by volunteers, but later the law required that the Circolo meet the rules and regulations applied to all bars. Paid management was hired, and a dispute arose between the managers and the priest that eventually ended up in court. The period of the lease from the church to those who operated these facilities came to an end. The priest put a lock on the fence around the soccer field and Circolo.

At this point, some of the parishioners went ballistic. Animal manure was spread in front of the priest’s house in one of the more emphatic acts of protest. Some parishioners, on the other hand, supported the priest. The priest resigned, and last week a substitute priest took his place.

Of course, unhappy parishioners could go to a different Catholic church, but this is not easy when there is one church in a town and all your neighbors go to it. Unlike, the USA, there is not a variety of non Catholic churches to which a disaffected Catholic might turn.