thisweekinitaly.com

 Alcoholism in Italy

 It seems to be much less common than in the USA. In Pistoia there are a couple of town drunks, but you don’t see in general alcoholics begging for money for booze like you see in big cities in the USA. There is a lot of concern about growing drinking among young people, but I don’t hear about people whose personal or occupational problems were caused by a drinking problem.  I’m sure there are alcoholics in Italy; there are chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous. I don’t know the extent to which alcoholism actually occurs in Italy, but I can say it is much less evident.

 Announcement from a Proper Englishman

 On Italian trains some announcements are made both in Italian and English.  These are pre-recorded.  In one a guy with a very proper British accent announces that all passengers must have a valid ticket, or they will be subject to a penalty fine. Sounds good except “penalty” is pronounced “pen-al-i-ty,” four syllables instead to three. This is not a British pronunciation that varies from the American one. It is just wrong. A friend suggested that the announcements in English may in fact be generated by a computer program.

 English Language Films in Florence

 The last two I have seen in Florence, The American and Somewhere were in English with Italian subtitles. These were not the versions for Italian theaters; those would have dubbed Italian dialog.  The versions I saw were those shown at Italian film festivals.  Both films had some dialog in Italian since one took place in Italy and the other had a few scenes in Italy. In the film version with Italian subtitles the Italian dialog is not translated or subtitled. It is assumed the Italian audience can understand the parts in Italian.  This is ok for me, but for people in Florence who don’t speak Italian and came to the theater to see a film they could understand totally, this lack of translation poses a little problem.

 The film Somewhere won a big prize at the Venice film festival. This was controversial because one of the judges, Quentin Tarantino, was a former boyfriend of Sofia Coppola, the maker of the film.  Not having seen the other films entered in the competition, I cannot give an opinion as to whether Somewhere deserved the prize.  I can say that both The American to some extent and Somewhere to a greater extent are films more in the European minimalist tradition than the American entertainment tradition.  Regardless of the minimalism of the film, in Somewhere the scene of an Italian TV show, obviously satirical, is right on point.

 Gypsies

 Although the European Union is quite critical of France’s expulsion of gypsies, the Italian government is in France’s corner.  With gypsies you see on TV the unauthorized shantytowns in which they live, on the street you seem them begging, and in the newspaper you read about their criminal activities. All in all not a pretty picture. What I cannot determine is a more total picture. What % of the gypsies lives outside of the shantytowns? What % of the gypsies has ordinary jobs? What % of the gypsies receives government aid? What is the crime rate among gypsies compared to other groups?  In short to what extent is what you see and read about gypsies representative of the group as a whole?

 Giuseppe Gavazzi

 He may be the best known contemporary artist from Pistoia.  He is best known for his colorful sculptures of children, often with animals.  You can see some of these at http://www.giuseppegavazzi.it/opere.html  Just click on a decade for a slide show of works from that period.  I recently saw his works both in  in the Villa Bardini Gardens in Florence (http://www.gardens-of-tuscany.net/bardini-eng.htm) and at an exhibition at the Marino Marini museum in Pistoia.

Soccer Fans

 Florence’s soccer team is off to a bad start this season.  You read in the paper about the outrage, anguish, desperation, etc. of the fans versus the manager, the players, and the owners,   If the fans of my beloved Chicago Cubs had the same attitudes as Italian soccer fans, I am afraid that over the last 102 years (since the Cubs last won the World Series), there might have been some serious fan violence in Chicago.

 Unlike that of Florence, the soccer team of Pistoia is off to a brilliant start – five victories in a row with 14 goals scored against zero goals surrendered. Of course this triumph must be put in perspective. Two years ago the Pistoia team was demoted from the bottom level of the minor leagues to what I call the semipro level of competition. The team did quite well last year at this level, but for some reason (I did not follow it closely) it was not promoted up to the minor leagues again.  At the semipro level, the other teams all come from much smaller cities than Pistoia. At the end of this year, I look for Pistoia to rejoin the bottom of minor leagues, but this is still far below where the team was in its most successful years.

 Unrelated News Items?

 Below are two recent news items. Many, if not most, Italians would see these as unrelated items.  I think they both speak to the same underlying cultural problem in Italy.

 Rome – September 14, 2010 – A close ally of Silvio Berlusconi has provoked a furious debate on sexism in politics after stating that women who want to be elected to Italy’s parliament should use their bodies to get a head start in their careers.

Giorgio Stracquadanio, an Italian government MP, said it was “absolutely legitimate” for women to use their sex appeal and physical attributes in order to ensure success in their political careers.

“To develop a career, everyone uses what they have, even their bodies. It is absolutely legitimate. Everyone should use their body as they see fit. As long as there is consent, there is no violence and if there is no violence then there’s no problem,” Mr. Stracquadanio said.

 Rome – September 15, 2010 – Half of Italian women aged between 14 and 65 have suffered sexual harassment or sexual blackmail at work, national statistics bureau Istat said Wednesday.

The agency said its alarming study, conducted in collaboration with the Equal Opportunities Ministry, revealed that around 10.485 million women had experienced crimes of this nature at some time in their lives. Furthermore, the situation shows no signs of abating, with 3.864 million falling victim to them in the last three years alone.

It said the most widespread offences were verbal sexual abuse (26% of the total), followed by stalking (21.6%), flashing (20.4%) and physical abuse (19%).

Women aged 14 to 24 are most likely to suffer sexual abuse, Istat added, followed by the members of the 25-34 age range.

It said women were most at risk in big cities, where 64.9% have experienced harassment, and that rates were higher than average in north-western Italy, with Piedmont registering a rate of 58.9%.

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

I’ve mentioned before in other contexts when something unusually bad occurs, the Italian propensity is immediately to find out who is to blame. Here is another example. A woman died after giving birth to twin children via a Cesarean section at the hospital.

At this point one could take a number of different views: 1. Although death in childbirth is much rarer now than in the past, it still happens. It is not necessarily the fault of the doctors, but it may in fact be the result of malpractice. So the situation merits an investigation. 2. All deaths in childbirth at a hospital today are caused by some sort of malpractice. If doctors act correctly, no such deaths will occur. An investigation is needed to determine what the doctors did wrong. 3. It’s not mere negligence on the part of the doctors; they have “killed the woman.” An element of volition is imputed. Italians move very quickly to position number 2 above and the family of the deceased often takes position number 3.

The Mystery in Reading the News

This week there were two stories on the same page about a 20 year old woman whose child had been taken away from her by the court and was being put up for adoption. The first story was mainly about her lawyer’s plan to appeal this decision. In this story there was not one word about why the court took away the child. The second story was about organizations and people throughout Italy who have offered aid to the woman to help her with the child. Buried halfway through this story was a statement that the child had been taken away from her for economic reasons. No further explanation. I doubt if the judges hang around the hospital reading financial statements of women who give birth to determine if they have funds to raise the child. Obviously in this case the matter was brought to the attention of the court by somebody, a person or agency. For the newspaper this reason was unimportant. The emotional foundation of this story was “this poor woman has lost her child.” Anything that did not lend itself to this emotional issue was simply omitted.

Ancestral Update

I have one ancestor from Italy, Dr. Carlo Mazziotta, who was a leader among a small group of prominent citizens that in 1822 led a short lived insurrection against the Austrian authorities in southern Italy. For this he was executed. He was also a member of something called the “Council of Europe.” I don’t what that was, but it sounds important. I used to joke that my ancestors in Italy were all peasants or horse thieves, but some were a little better than that. One of my relatives told me that one of my great grandfathers was from a family that a long, long time ago migrated to Italy from Greece, first to Puglia, and then at least one branch to Basilicata. With my possible roots in Greece, will I suddenly be hit with the urge to open a restaurant?

 Stopping Illegal Immigration –Efficiency and Effectiveness

I heard on the radio from the USA about new courts in states along Mexican border that handle cases of illegal immigrants in mass hearings that take place within 10 days of the arrest of the border crossers. After conviction, they have a misdemeanor record that will make it harder for them to become regular if they return to the USA. After conviction, they also are immediately deported to Mexico.

The same day I read in newspaper in Italy about an illegal immigrant who has been detained by the police 26 times since 1980. Sometimes he was detained because he was not in the country legally. Sometimes he was detained for committing a crime. In the later case, he cannot be deported until the criminal proceedings end. Although ordered to leave many times, he never was deported. Of course deporting someone from Italy to Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria, or Romania is more difficult and costly than taking them by bus to the Mexican border.

Clearly the American system is more efficient, but is it more effective? When interviewed, some of those arrested and deported to Mexico said they would try again to enter the USA because they have to find work. If people are desperate enough economically, it is hard to deter them from coming. If Italy in fact deported people to Senegal, Nigeria, etc., they would be less likely to return because the cost of getting back to Italy is far more than walking across a border.  

The New Film The American

I saw this George Clooney thriller. It is reasonably entertaining, not Academy Award material. I would not rate it highly on realism. If you can find a priest and a prostitute in a small town in Abuzzo who both speak English well, you are a genius. Actually in such a town all the prostitutes would probably be foreign. Italian prostitutes are now primarily at the high end of the business (escort services) that is centered in large cities.

 Miss Italy Contest Changes

Whereas over the years the Miss American contest changed from a bathing beauty pageant (I think the bathing suit part has now been eliminated.) to an event that also emphasized talent, poise, ability to answer questions, etc, this is not the case in Italy. Here it is pretty much about being beautiful and sexy although there are other elements to the competition. This year, however, at the recently concluded contest, there were complaints from some about too much emphasis on talent. Is Italy moving toward a more rounded view of excellence and achievement among women? Not exactly. It turns out that talent-based TV reality shows have high ratings in Italy so the TV network wanted this new emphasis to gain more viewers.

 Berlusconi Off Balance

The revolt of some members of Berlusconi’s ruling coalition into a quasi independent group, led by Gianfranco Fini, has clearing knocked Silvio of his stride. He has been constantly changing his approach and his rhetoric to find a way to rein in the dissidents, but without success. I don’t think the Fini group will cause the Berlusconi government to fall, but Berlusconi is floundering now in a way I have not seen before.

 Nearby Prato in the News

Prato is a textile center city about 10 miles from Pistoia with a huge Chinese population. I think I have written about it before in this newsletter. A long feature article recently appeared in the New York Times about how the Chinese invasion has transformed Prato and its textile industry. The article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/world/europe/13prato.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1&emc=eta1

 Impressing the Right People

 We all like to make a good impression upon others and especially upon important people whose friendship can be beneficial to us. In Italy there is chain of 99 Cent stores. One is near my church. I stop by there about twice a month. There are different clerks who staff the cash register. There is also a manager who sometimes is present. Recently the manager was close to the cash register as I made a purchase. The manger said to the clerk in Italian “This man is from the United States. He moved here in 2002 when we first opened this store. He has decided to live in Italy.” Clearly he remembered me. Impressing the manager of a 99 Cent store is not exactly like becoming a friend of the mayor, but it is always nice to be remembered.

My Debut as a Singer in Italy

 At a little square near my house a town band was playing. This group performs in various outdoor locations around town. An old guy in the group sang the Paul Anka song “Diana” which was a bit ironic because Anka wrote it as a very young boy to his babysitter (“I’m so young and you’re so old…”). Soon followed the Doris Day 1944 hit “Sentimental Journey.” Yes she was a well know big band singer before all those sappy romantic comedy films. At this point I was singing along at a table with a Russian lady I know in Pistoia. I said jokingly that the band should hire me as the singer of American songs. Soon she was telling the director to bring me up front to sing. So I performed “Que Sera, Sera.” (a later Doris Day hit) which has a Spanish title that means the very same thing in Italian. I don’t have a great voice, but I also don’t have to struggle at all to pronounce the English words.

Dealing with Illegal Street Merchants

I’ve mentioned how Africans sell items on the street, often counterfeit designer handbags. The police and the sellers sometimes play a game of hide and seek, but the police are not taking effective action such as seizing the inventory. On the news recently, the police stopped a train often used by such merchants to reach one of their favorite cities for selling. The police detained about 100 immigrants and seized their goods. Now this is effective action. The only problem is that it most probably was a one time event to convince the public that the government is “doing something” about the problem. I don’t look for follow up by the police or a repetition of this kind of raid.

Italians Learning English – A Postscript

I should note that in Italian high schools there are part time mother tongue teachers who conduct conversation sessions with students. The main English classes are conducted by Italian teachers who, as noted before, usually do not speak fluent English. The main mode of instruction is so grammar oriented that by the time they get to the conversations sessions, the students are so paralyzed by trying to remember the grammatical rules that these students don’t succeed in making conversation.

Fake Gucci Watch

I bought a used one at a gift shop to use as a gag gift (A slight interruption here: my favorite bumper sticker of 2010 –Men, God’s Gag Gift to Women). It needed a new a battery. When I took it to a jeweler, she showed me a sign that it was against the law to repair (including inserting a battery) false designer watches. She asked if there was a similar law in the USA. I said that I doubted it although there is probably a law against selling watches with false names on them.

Is This Realism?

A newspaper headline described a talk by Italy’s Finance Minister in which he said “We should imitate the Germans from childhood on. I am a realist.” I did not read all the details about exactly in which ways the Italians in their economic life and practices should imitate the Germans, but I think somebody who proposes such a solution does not qualify as a “realist.” A German Solution is rarely a feasible answer in Italy.

A Trip to Basilicata

This year I went to Calvello, the town of my maternal ancestors with my son Chris from Germany. On the way we had a three hour layover between trains at Potenza. I checked a Potenza guidebook, and it recommended seeing the church of the Trinity. We arrived at the church to discover that it was closed , sequestered by judicial authorities (as may be done when a company goes bankrupt).I asked at a bar what the deal was. As soon as I was told, I remembered the story. In this church a month ago was found the body of a woman missing for 15 years. It was hidden under a remote corner of the church. When she disappeared, her boyfriend was questioned but not charged. He moved to England where he subsequently has been questioned about the disappearance of a woman there. He may be a good suspect, but the police found under the body a button that looks like it came from a priest’s cassock. All I know if that we never saw the inside of the church which had changed from a tourist attraction to a crime scene.

Chris and I walked the 10 mile procession from the church at the top of the mountain to the church in town. We still feel it. I warned Chris about this. I did not warn him about lunch at my relatives. It consisted of homemade pasta, chicken, liver and onions, zucchini cooked with eggs, potatoes, cheese, bread, wine, peaches, and grapes. The next day we decided to skip lunch there and get something light at a bar. By the time we were ready to eat, 2 pm, all the bars were closed. The only place serving food was the restaurant of the hotel where we were staying. For the special day of the Festival of the Virgin, this restaurant had a fixed menu five course meal as the only offering. Stuffed for a second time.

There was entertainment for two nights in the town square. The entertainers were not from the A Circuit of Italian show business. Still it was fun. One was an Adriano Celentano Tribute band. Adriano is a very well known singer. The singer in this band dressed and cut his hair like him. It was xtill better than an Elvis imitator concert.

Campus in a Box

Italian universities don’t have campuses and student services in the American sense, only academic buildings. There are few if any dormitories, no gyms, no career services office, no tutoring center, etc. Italian students who come to the USA are amazed at the facilities. (Of course, the Italian university is very inexpensive.) A company called Camplus has built facilities in Catania, Milano, and Turino. These have high class student rooms, tutoring service, career service help, a gym, etc. The company claims that students who live in thee facilities do better at the university.

At the Fair

I went to a major national fair exposition (where an organization I am involved with had a booth) in Rimini.  For cinema buffs, Rimini is the home town of Federico Fellini and the location of two of his famous autobiographical films, I Vitellone and Amacord. The exhibition facility was gigantic. The name of the Fair was Rimini Meeting 2010 and the theme was “That nature which pushes us to desire great things is the heart.”  This theme is hardly self-descriptive, but I am told the Fair is sponsored by Catholic lay groups.

There were many exhibits with a religious nature. Of course, as always at such events, there were folks selling candy, vacuum cleaners, cars, etc. The event is obviously a Big Deal in Italy because some top political leaders appeared there. Some major exhibitions were quite impressive, for example one of the patron saint of Hungary and one chronicling the history of the Solidarity movement in Poland.

I, however, was most impressed by the exhibit “Flannery O’Connor, The Infinite Measure of the Limit.”  It was put together by some graduate students from DC (not studying English) who are fans of her work I applaud their initiative.  Here is a writer, I don’t think particularly well known in Italy (although the Pistoia public library does have most of her books), whose milieu is far removed from the Italian experience. She was a Roman Catholic and religious sensibility and themes pervade her work and life, but these are far from typical Catholic teaching and homilies. The exhibit marvelously illustrated the intersection of her life and work.  Unfortunately this exhibit does not have its own web site, but here is a link to a description of it.

http://www.meetingrimini.org/eng/default.asp?id=846&item=4931

The interest and attention of the Italians to this exhibit illustrates a point I have made before.  Quite simply the level of artistic and cultural awareness in Italy is much higher than in the USA. This may come from the fact that Italy has a unique cultural and artistic heritage. This difference between Italy and the USA is most apparent in talking to Italians who have only a high school education. Sure Italian TV is terrible.  Some aspects of Italian popular culture are low at best. Certainly many Italians are uncultured, but the respect for art and culture is almost universal. In the USA there is at times a political argument about whether the government should fund projects through agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Such an argument would never occur in Italy; art and culture are essential parts of life that the government has an obligation to support.

Loving George

I’ve written often about the Italian love affair with George Clooney.  He has just completed a film, The American that was shot in Abruzzo, the location of the terrible earthquake a while back. His co-star is an Italian woman.  She was interviewed on TV about the most important part of the whole venture, in Italian eyes, making love with George Clooney in a scene in the film.

Wonderful Word Choice

I mentioned before how, during the summer, when little of importance happens in Italy, the politicians fill the air with proposals, charges, and schemes in order to stay in the headlines.  As I noted, a friend of mine calls this “summer talk.”  Berlusoni made the same point recently when he said that summer was over, and the time had come for an end of the useless jumble of talk. The Italian word he used to signify a useless pile of ideas and initiatives has a second meaning – a sexual orgy. I don’t know if he chose this word with the delicious irony in mind, given his reputation, but I found it an amusing choice.

A New Possibility for Me?

At times friends here have jokingly said to me, “Bob, you should run for Mayor of Pistoia.” That is impossible and doesn’t interest me anyway.  A possible opening in a newspaper headline did, however, catch my eye.  It said the city’s Bishop had died. I majored in Philosophy and Religion in College, and I am an old guy like other bigwigs in the Roman Catholic Church. Now I understand there are a few obstacles – not Catholic, not a priest, divorced, etc. Still in the 1600s the Church was naming as Cardinals 12 year olds from prominent families.  Exceptions to the rules are possible. Unfortunately I then discovered that the deceased Bishop was the retired Bishop of Pistoia who left office in 2006. So I’ll have to wait a little longer for my opportunity.

Why Italians Can’t Speak English –in a Nutshell

A Scottish friend of mine who teaches English in Italy got a frantic call from the mother of a 15 year old who is studying English at a commercial high school. He was having trouble understanding the two types of the passive voice in English. My friend said “Are there two types of the passive voice in English? I never heard of this distinction.” It turns out that the distinction is between sentences such as “Anna received a present from us” and “A present was received by Anna from us.” The second form does not exist in Italian.  Now we have a 15 year old, who I am sure at best would struggle to speak only a few sentences of English, agonizing over an esoteric grammatical distinction of minimal importance.  This emphasis on grammar over speaking is the major reason Italians cannot speak English after many years of study.

Welfare Expenses in Italy

The term Welfare in Europe does not mean what Welfare does in USA (payments to families without income). In Europe it encompasses all programs to help children, elderly, the disabled, the unemployed, etc. Italy spends, as a percentage of GNP, less than ½ the average of European nations for such purposes. A main reason –Italy spends much less to support children.  Here the grandchildren are often cared for by the grandparents.  Also in general in Italy the family rather than the state takes care of members without income.

The Not Perfect Italian Medical System –Dispute in the Delivery Room

I wrote last week about the high ranking Newsweek magazine gave to the Italian medical system. That system suffered a small black eye this week.  In Messina in Sicily a woman was in the delivery room. The two attending doctors disagreed as to whether a Caesarian section was called for.  They did not just disagree; they began a fight.  Finally 90 minutes later the procedure was done. The baby had difficulties upon birth and the mother too had complications.  Of course, the hospital head said that the medical problems of the mother and child were not caused by the battle in the delivery room.  As I’ve noted before, the medical system in Italy is administered by the regions and, like many other social services, is less adequate in the South.

This incident reinforces the stereotype of Italians as highly emotional, animated, and even hot-headed. Of course, as in any large nation, there are Italians of all different types of personalities, attitudes, levels of emotion, and levels of animation. They certainly are not all of one type. Still, that having been said, this unusual kind of incident may be a little more likely to occur in Italy than in most other European nations.

Goofy Gheddafi

Colonel Ghedaffi, the head of Libya, was in town (Rome) playing the clown.  He hires 100 beautiful girls from an Italian casting agency to be his escort. He lectures them on Islam (saying, among other things, that women are treated better in Libya than in Europe). He gives them all a Koran.  He announces that Europe should switch to Islam as its main religion because Islam is in fact the most recent of the three religions in the Judeo-Christian line. Berlusconi and other government leaders just grin and bear it.  Why? Italy is in bed with Libya. Libya agrees to provide energy resources to Italy. Italy in turn gets big contracts for public works in Italy.  Especially important is that Ghedaffi has closed off Libyan shores as a departure point for African immigrants trying to reach Italy illegally. Nobody wants to talk about the conditions in the camps in which these Africans are detained in Libya. So shall we say, regardless of principles, in this case “business is business:” (By the way, surrounding himself with 100 pretty girls, Ghedaffi becomes a delicious parody of Berlusconi – the same attitude toward women carried to a more ridiculous degree.)

Lest Americans might smile at this Ghedaffi show, think about the USA and China.  The USA grants some nations, including China “most favored nation” status as trading partners. One prerequisite to get this status is an adequate Human Rights record. China’s is hardly adequate, but China agrees to buy tons of US debt obligations in return for being able to sell tons of cheap goods in the USA. So the USA ignores China’s Human Rights abuses. Regardless of principles, in this case, “business is business.”

Getting into Medical School

In the USA, medical school is a graduate program for which students are selected on the basis of their university records (including activities as well as grades), scores of the national Medical College Admissions Test, and an interview.  In Italy one enters medical study immediately after high school.  There may be 10 applicants for every opening to study medicine.   Students (with proper courses from high school) are selected solely on the basis of their scores on a single national admission test that contains both scientific and general culture questions.  In Medicine, as in almost all occupations and businesses in Italy, children often follow their parents into the field.  Jobs are hard to get so if your parent is in a profession or business where he or she can give you a job, you take that opportunity.

But with admission being based on the score on a single test, how can a doctor get his child into medical study unless the child is one the lucky ones with a high test score? I posed this question and was told “well of course doctors get a copy of the test in advance for their children.” It was not that the person I asked KNOWS this fact; it simply is expected that this is true because of the way Italy operates. If I had asked some other Italian this question, he or she might have given me a different answer, but it would probably be an answer that hypothesized some other “back door” method by which children of doctors receive preference. Regardless of the actual level of institutional honesty in Italy, the perceived level by citizens is abysmally low.