thisweekinitaly.com

Not All the Problems with Priests Are About Chasing Little Boys

 ANSA) – Arezzo, January 12 – A Tuscan priest has been forced to apologise for ranting against gypsies and praising Nazi Holocaust mastermind Heinrich Himmler following thefts from his church premises.

Father Virgilio Annetti vented his feelings in his parish newsletter in Arezzo after losing a camera and 300 euros in the third robbery in a week, pinning the blame on local Roma.

“I can’t take it any more. I’m reminded of that man who attempted true ethnic cleansing, in vain, in his time. He was called Himmler. He gave this order: add a wagon of gypsies to every convoy. God bless Himmler but why just one instead of two?” The tirade outraged several parishioners over the Christmas period and the local bishop ordered him to recant.

“I distance myself completely from the arguments used and the improper and offensive use of very sad historical events,” Father Annetti said in a statement.

“I am ashamed of what I wrote”.

 The New Clint Eastwood Film Hereafter

 I saw this film first in Italian and then in English.  This provided me with the opportunity to discover how much of the dialog I was missing when I view a film in Italian. I certainly did not get it all in Italian, but I did not miss any major points. As I have noted before it is easier for me to follow an American film dubbed into Italian than an original Italian film because I understand better the underlying patterns of English conversation which are carried over into the dubbed version.

 In  Hereafter, it was interesting to discover how the dialog is changed at times in moving from the original English to the dubbed Italian.  In one point in English the word “June” was used both to signify the month and a lady’s name. This won’t work in Italian where the word for June is not also a lady’s name.  So the Italian version substituted “Virginia” and used it to signify both a location and a lady’s name. At another point a man named Dennis was called “Dennis the Menace.”  This comic strip doesn’t exist in Italy so the significance of the nickname is lost.  Instead in Italian he was described as a person who barks but does not bite.

 In this film part of dialog is in French.  I assume in the USA, this is covered with English subtitles. The English version I saw in Italy had Italian subtitles and the subtitles were also in Italian for the French dialog in the film.  The person I went to the show with did not read Italian well enough to follow all these subtitles so I had to explain a few points after the film.

 Comments from Readers

 One reader wrote to tell me that the style of hanging paintings so they cover an entire wall is called “Salon Style.”  The most famous paintings are usually at eye level.  This style is not uncommon in showing the collection of an individual, but is also sometimes found in museums showing paintings from various sources.

 I wrote a while back about the down-style coats that are all the rage this year in Italy.  I noted that the bright orange winter coats of a few years ago have disappeared on the street. A friend in Florence told me she recently say two of these coats. I too have seen a few this year.  So the have not disappeared, but they are certainly not all over the place as they were a few years ago.

 A reader in Italy gave me a short history of Italian railroads in response to my observation that I did not believe that Mussolini made the trains run on time.  I am sure that Italy may have been more ordered under Mussolini — this is usually the case in a dictatorship.  Mussolini himself, however,  said that it is possibile to govern the Italians but also useless. Italy never was, is not now, and never will be a well ordered Little Germany. 

 Someone asked me to comment on how common guns are in Italy and the Italian viewpoint toward them.  Hunting is popular in Italy.  There is no Constitutional right in Italy, as in the USA, to own a gun.  Guns are less common.  There are strict rules on owning and using guns. Guns have a far smaller role in Italian culture than they do in the USA.  As is typical in Europe, Italians believe the easy availability of guns in the USA is a foolish social policy.

 Big News Items in Italy That May be Smaller Than They Seem

 The first is the legal/political struggle over a law passed by Parliament that gave Silvio Berlusconi (and perhaps a few other top government officials) immunity from criminal prosecution while they are serving in office.  Berlusconi is the subject of a number of criminal charges.  Even if the immunity law is ultimately overturned, by that time the charges against Berlusconi will be dismissed anyway because the cases did not come to a conclusion within the period stipulated under Italian law.

 I wrote in newsletter 398 about the “revolutionary” new labor contract for Fiat employees at main plant in Turin. One of the three unions at the plant refused to sign the pact.  Still a majority of the workers voted to accept the new contract.  So Fiat will go forward with the contract.  Although this is seen as a Big Change in Italian labor/management relations, the question remains if management can and/or will be able to successfully implement this contract in light of the opposition from the dissenting union.  In Italy things that are proclaimed to be major changes in principle often melt down to minor adjustments in reality.

 Berlusconi’s Love Life (Chapter 2,468)

 The problem of Berlusconi’s love life will not go away.  When he called the Milan police last year (telling them a lie) to get them to release from questioning a young Moroccan showgirl (newsletter 389, November 6, 2010) , you did not have to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that he was afraid of what she would tell them. Soon her phone and that of other young women known to attend Berlusconi parties were tapped.  The embarrassing revelations just keep coming.

 As he defends himself from charges of  both encouraging prostitution and facilitating the prostitution of a minor, Silvio has come up with a new defense. He says that he has never frequented prostitutes and has no reason to do so now because he is involved in a stabile relationship with a woman who he does not name to protect her from the attention of the media.  The idea that if one is engaged, this precludes visiting prostitutes in a novel one.  Actually I am not certain that Silvio does in fact frequent prostitutes (although at least one of the minors involved says “yes”)  . What seems to be clear is that he throws parties for his friends to which are invited (for payment) beautiful young girls who are at the edge of prostitution if not over the line.   For Americans there is a simple way to understand Berlusconi’s attitude toward women – it is the same as Hugh Hefner’s.

 Medical Malpractice Litigation, Italian Style

 I‘ve mentioned before that cases of medical malpractice in Italy often have both a criminal and a civil aspect.  Large civil judgments exist, but are not in the news as often as in the USA.  Recently in Florence the family of an 11 year old girl who died from untreated appendicitis received € 3,000,000.  In addition the two doctors were sentenced to 20 months of incarceration.  Two items to note in this judgment.  First, the money damages do not all go to the parents – they are shared by the parents, a brother of the deceased, and the three grandparents.  Second, who knows whether this judgment will hold up in its present form throughout the long appeal process in Italy?   I might wager that the doctors will not spend any time in prison.

 Negligence Even in the Armed Forces

 In 2003 a large number of Italian soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing attack on an Italian base in Iraq. Now the families of the dead have been awarded damages by the government on the basis that the attack was successful because the military leader of the base had not instituted adequate security measures. 

 What Will 10 Euro ($13) Buy in Italy?

 A new set of rubber soles for my shoes at the shoe repair shop (a good price).  One roll of Duct Tape (very expensive by American standards).

 Love and Politics

 Silvio Berlusconi recently stated that he had never made love to a woman of the political left.  He is often surprisingly candid about his love life and view of women.  It may be that at times he has met a desirable woman but pulled back when he discovered their  conflicting political views.  I say “may be” because I am not sure as his libido surges, his intellect would hold him back.  Most certainly, if matters progressed with a lovely lady, and Silvio found himself in an intimate situation with her, he would not propose a political litmus test before continuing the liaison.

In response to his statement, the female leader of a right wing fringe party, who looks like she is former show girl, said that she too couldn’t make love with a man with whom she disagrees politically. She gave as an example, Vendola, who is a the regional President of Puglia and a leading figure in the center-left coalition.  He is an open homosexual.  So I don’t think their political differences would be the primary impediment to a romantic entanglement.

 Street Conditions

 The freezing and thawing of winter weather can be very destructive of street pavements.  Fortunately  in Tuscany freezes  are rare except in the mountains.  The condition of the streets and roads is often nevertheless very poor here.  This year there has been some rare quite cold weather.  As a result the streets have gone from bad to worse.   In general in Italy maintenance is a very low value in many sectors.

 Rewriting History for Political Advantage

 I’ve noted before that in Italy a politician can say one thing one day and something totally different a week later and nobody seems to notice. Similarly he (or she) can act one way and then change, and the voters don’t seem to mind.   My prime example was a few years ago when the Parliament, with large support from both ends of the political spectrum passed an Amnesty law which later proved to be quite unpopular.  At this point the opposition (who had voted for it along with the majority) treated the act as creature only of the majority.  I wondered if Italian voters suffered from serious memory loss.

 Now I see the same thing can happen in the USA. In 2008 and 2009, Congress approved a number of bailouts. At least the first two were under the Bush administration (and supported by both candidates McCain and Obama); there may have been  later ones under the Obama presidency.  Some legislators in both parties opposed these acts,  but they passed through Congress with bipartisan support.  Nobody really liked them; at best they were seen as a necessary evil.  I heard a Republican congressman, vying for the post of party chairman, list a number of issues that divide Republicans and Democrats.  He mentioned quite correctly the stimulus bill and health care reform act. He added, however, the bailout actions as if these too had been partisan actions of the Democrats. So voters in the USA too may have memory loss problems if a politician feels confident to make this claim.

 USA Still Number 1

 I wrote last week about how the USA does not have a monopoly on strange lawsuits as I described the suit in Italy in which the gambling addict who lost all his money said that his addiction was caused by his taking a certain drug for Parkinson’s disease.  A friend from the USA wrote to tell me that he had read of a similar suit that already had taken place in the USA.  I don’t know if the claim is that this drug can cause different kinds of addictions or only one to gambling.  Pretty soon they may be slipping this medicine secretly into the coffee at the casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic city.

 The Shootings of the Congresswoman, Federal Judge, and Other s in Arizona

 I am no expert on American gun laws, but I believe one has to get a criminal record clearance in most states to buy a gun.  In Italy one also has to have a statement from a doctor that the buyer is of sound mind.  I doubt very much in Italy if one can buy a machine pistol since this type of firearm is used neither in hunting nor in target shooting.  Of course in all countries people may at times obtain guns illegally. The assassin in Arizona, in my opinion, could not have obtained a gun legally in Italy – certainly not the gun he in fact used.

 The Ultimate Kitchen Gadget

 I saw in a kitchen shop a special cooking timer to be sure the spaghetti  is al dente.  I thought to myself “why a special timer for this purpose;  just set a regular timer for however many minutes are necessary.”  Then I looked closer. The timer had three settings:  7, 9, or 11 minutes.  You pick the number and then put the timer in the boiling water with the pasta. It plays one of three famous arias from  Italian operas. When the aria ends, the pasta is ready.

 Postal Rates

 Probably in all nations postal rates rise over time. In the USA the cost of a first class stamp seems to go up a few cents every so often.  Italy just raised its rates on international mail  The price of a post card or letter to the USA went up from $1.10 (converted to US money) to  $2.08.  For larger items of various weights the increases are from $7.54 to $13.00, from  $11.31 to $18.20, and from $21.70 to $32.50. I often buy items in Italy at the weekly market at great prices and send them to USA.  With these rates the cost of mailing (including envelope) will be over three times the cost of the item sent.  My lucky gift recipients in the USA may be getting  fewer packages.  There was a small rise in domestic rates similar in amount to what is typical in the USA.

 Recovering Italian Art

 The Italian government has engaged in a campaign for many years to return to Italy art items that were exported in violation of Italian law.  Here is an account of a case brought against an American museum curator. http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/“Neither-condemned-nor-vindicated”/22163   Although this presents her side of the argument, her description of a case under Italian law seems plausible.  It appears that the purpose of the trial was not to punish her, but to send a message to others.  You might call it a sort of “show trial.” 

 A Visit to Rome

 I spent a day and a half with some American friends exploring Rome.  Having already seen the big ticket items on previous visits, we explored some of the lesser  known attractions of the city.  We went to some art museums that were in formerly private homes and displayed the collections of the families that once occupied these palaces  (Spada, Corsini, Doria Pamphili) . Of course the homes themselves are works of art.  The art was displayed usually filling each wall to the brim with pieces. This was, I assume, the typical way these rich patrons showed off their collections. In each of these museums there were a few paintings by the great masters.  The rest of the items, often quite lovely, were by less famous  artists. I was not sure the extent to which the palaces are still in the hands of the families who use the admission prices to maintain the building.  In one the family still lives in a part of the building.

 I saw two examples of a new painting subject in these museums.  There were in Renaissance times standard picture formats such as “The Holy Family” and “Sacred Conversation.”  The new one I saw was “Charity.”  This is the name given to a painting of a woman breast feeding  someone other than her child. One of these paintings had an old man nursing while a child (the woman’s ? ) stood nearby watching attentively.  I told my friends that although “Charity”  was the standard title for this scene, I preferred “Hey It’s My Turn!”

 “Skyrockets in Flight, Afternoon Delight”

 You may recall this song from 1976 describing the pleasures of a midday amorous engagement.  A couple in nearby Lucca took the song to heart.  At around one in the afternoon, they removed  their clothes, and began making love on a lawn directly in front of a section of the famous intact walls surrounding the city.  A bystander called the police thinking that a rape might be in progress.  As the police approached, the couple calmly got dressed.  It does not appear that the police issued a citation to the couple – “no harm, no foul.”  Their names were not in the paper, but their ages were estimated as “in their fifties.”

 My Latest Article From the On Line Newspaper in Italian That is Aimed at the Italian American Community in the USA  (English Version)

 Italian Trains

 Let’s start with the famous statement that under Mussolini the trains ran on time.  I’ve never researched the veracity of this claim, but I am wiling to wager it is a mixture of Fascist propaganda and a stretching of the train schedules so it was hard not to be on time.  The idea that Italy was a well-ordered nation under Mussolini is just a myth.

 Previously in Italy, as in most of Europe, the trains were run directly by the government.   At that time in a debate in Parliament about how to balance the budget of the train system, politician Giulio Andreotti made his famous statement that someone who seriously talked about balancing the budget for trains belongs in an insane asylum. Now the train system is a semi-private corporation that nevertheless receives governmental subsidies.

 The axiom “you get what you pay for” is particular applicable to trains in Italy. Italian trains are noticeable less expensive than those  in the rest of Europe where I have traveled.  The service is also lower in quality than in most other countries in Europe. I don’t include AMTRAK in this comparison.  Even Italian trains are superior to AMTRAK. 

 Italian trains are not always late.  The vast majority arrive within 10 minutes of the schedule. When they are late, however, they may be really late.  You can never depend upon the train being on time. If you must, for example, be at an airport at a certain time, you take a much earlier train that the last train that should get you there in time.  Now whenever a train is late, the amount of the lateness is announced when it arrives at a station and a recorded voice says “Train Italia apologizes for the inconvenience.”  This is a very insincere apology.  Both the train employees and the public accept delays as the normal course of events.

 In general Italian trains are dirty and poorly maintained.  It is sometimes hard to find a toilet that functions on a train. Actually the old style train toilets, emptying into a hole in the floor, function the best.  New trains, however, have sophisticated flush toilets that  often are broken.  Doors that are inoperable are common on trains.

 Something good about the trains. The ticketing system works well. There are ticket windows, ticket machines, internet purchasing, and even tickets via cell phone.  You can also get tickets at news stands near the station; these are denominated according to the distance traveled rather than by destination.

 Italy has new high speed trains. Originally on these trains passengers received a partial refund if the train was over 30 minutes late arriving at its destination.  Now this has been increased to 60 minutes late. Remember the total journey is rarely over three hours.  Once a newspaper had the story of a high speed train three hours late from Milan to Rome. Such a delay is highly unusual. On the train non Italians were very upset at the delay and lack of information about its reason.  Italian passengers, while not happy, were far less agitated.  In general in Italy, many services are not particularly good; Italians accept this as part of life, and as a result there is little incentive to improve the services.

 As high speed trains have increased in number,  there has been a reduction of slower, less costly regional trains going on the same routes. The goal is to shift traffic to the higher cost trains.

 On a slow news day in Italy, the newspapers can run an often  repeated story “ Commuters in Revolt over Train Service.”   Still all in all I would rate the trains in Italy as about what one would expect given the general level  of efficiency in Italy.  I think that the desire to keep down fares limits the possibilities for improved train service.   Increased fares would not please the commuters either. All in all I think on the trains you do get decent service in relation to the cost of tickets – at least on the non high speed regional trains.

Certified Occupations

 I think in Italy certification by a state or professional agency may be required more often than in the USA to pursue an occupation. (In general there are more “legal controls” on life here, even if they often are poorly enforced) . Here is a new one. A 16 year old girl was arrested after being caught in the act of stealing a necklace from a jewelry shop. As the police arrested her she pulled out her medical certification that she suffers from kleptomania and said “you can’t do anything to me, I’m sick.” I guess at most she can be sent for psychiatric treatment, not to jail. Probably nothing will be done. What other country has certified thieves?

 Love Story Update

 I wrote in newsletter 385 (October 8, 2010) about the police official and a female police employee in a nearby town who had been spending part of their workdays together in a hotel room rather than on the job. The man is 62 and simply retired when the matter was discovered. He was given 10 months of house arrest and she seven months. Together they paid a 10,000 Euro fine to reimburse the community for the hours they should have been working but in fact were playing. She is 54 and still has her job with the police. Even after the judicial findings in the case, I doubt that she will be fired. I don’t know if legally she can be fired.

 Job security is a totally different thing in Italy. The Italian Constitution says that it is a nation “based on labor.” Some read this to say there is a constitutional right to a job. If someone loses their job in Italy, it is very difficult to find another one. So being fired is worse than in the USA. Also in Italy there is the strong idea that if you apologize for something and make amends, you are forgiven. So in the case of the police employee, people would say “she apologized, made restitution, and was punished; to take away her job is too severe.”

 Patriotic (?) Film

 This year is the 150^th anniversary of Italian independence. A film, “We Believed” came out late last year. It is a story based on the life of three men involved in the struggle for independence. I went to see it expecting something quite unusual in Italy – a patriotic film that celebrated the brave struggle against foreign domination. I should have known better. It presented instead a rather dark picture of the conflicts within the groups seeking independence and the betrayal of the aspects of the revolution that sought not simply to free Italy, but to reform the society. This, of course, is not the only possible interpretation of these historic events.

 It may be, for example, that Sam Huston and Davy Crockett were in fact scoundrels and perhaps would have sold out their fellow patriots for the right price, but even if this were true, you would never see it in the USA in a film about The Alamo. As I’ve noted before, however, patriotism is a very muted value in Italy.

 Terrorist Fugitives

 Brazil so far has refused to return to Italy a Italian terrorist from the 1970s who was convicted of four murders. Other terrorists from this era who fled Italy (either before or after conviction) are in France Spain, and a few other nations. Very often these nations refuse to extradite these fugitives to Italy. I don’t think these refusals are acts of principle. Political leaders in these other nations decide whether it is politically best for them to send back the accused terrorist or let him stay. If they decide to let the person stay, it is not a worrisome problem because Italy will not do anything of any importance in retaliation. In such a situation the Israelis would go get the guy and the Americans would out a lot of pressure on the government refusing to extradite. Italy is not a strong enough or important enough nation to be able to put a lot of pressure on other countries. Italy like to think of itself as one of the world’s major nations, but this situation illustrates that it simply isn’t so.

 Fiat and the Future of Auto Production in Italy

 I wrote in newsletters 375 (July 30, 2010) and 388 (October 29, 2010) about the possible shift by Fiat of more production to Serbia, one of three foreign nations where it has factories. I suggested that the threat of such a shift might be a ploy by Fiat to get concessions from the government. It turns out that the key desire of Fiat is to get major concessions from the unions such as the auto makers in the USA have done. Fiat says it will invest in updating facilities in Italy, but only if unions accept its proposed contract. Fiat has three major unions, two of which are willing to sign but the third of which is not. Fiat may go ahead and just apply the contract to the non signing union. In Italy this whole scenario is seen as a major change of the rules of union/management relations. I don’t think the unions in Italy can sustain their current position in the face of the challenges of globalization.

 Pregnant Teenager

 Pages 2 and 3 of the local newspaper were dedicated to the case of a 14 year old girl in another city who got pregnant by her 16 year old boyfriend and decided, with her family’s help, to have the baby. Probably because of her young age the newspaper headline was a bit euphemistic “Fourteen year old pregnant; flirted with a 16 year old.” Beyond her age, it was not particularly a newsworthy event. Abortion is not uncommon in Italy, but the presence of the Roman Catholic church has led to more restrictive laws governing abortion and to a significant part of the population for whom it is not an acceptable alternative.

 Sales, Sales, Sales

 As I have noted before, January is one of the two big sales’ months in Italy. In fact there are rules determining the exact dates when the sales can start in each of the regions of the country. In the USA, if you go to a department store, a good deal of the merchandise will be on sale almost every day of the year. Not so in Italy. Of course in months other than the sales’ months there are promotions with goods marked down, but at these times the great majority of the merchandise is not on sale.

 Cheap Jewelry

 There is a little shop in my neighborhood that has small antique items, sometimes from the USA. It now hosts a little exhibit of American costume jewelry from the 1920s through the 1950s. In talking to the owner, I learned that Italy did not have such a vibrant costume jewelry sector. There are collectors in Italy of these items. I looked at a bracelet and earnings that now cost $60. Originally they cost perhaps $6, but actually, with the inflation rate of money, $60 today is no more than the value of $6 when the items were produced.

 Lawsuit of the Week

 Strange lawsuits are not an American monopoly. This week there was the case of an Italian senior citizen who was taking medicine for Parkinson’s disease. He claims that the medicine turned him into a gambling addict, and he lost all his lifetime saving (about $400,000) in two years of frenetic gambling. He is suing the company that made the drug on the grounds that the warning pamphlet with the medicine did not list this possible side effect.