Italian politics and news
From the news I
had heard in England I already knew Italy was in hot waters. I had a deep-seated conviction that the
President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano and the Prime Minister,
Mario Monti had rescued Italy from the brink of a precipice. But I wasn’t aware of how deep the chasm was,
very deep indeed.
The new
government was repeatedly accused of lacking democracy because it had not been voted in by free elections. But Italy had desperately needed sweeping
reforms and new laws, to face the crisis with which the Berlusconi government
could not cope. And I am pretty sure
that if Italian people had been called to vote, the majority would have still
voted in the right wing that brought Italy to such disaster. Besides, what Giorgio Napolitano did was
within the rules of the Italian Constitution as he has to vouch for the
security of the Italian State in case of emergency, and the present government
was voted into office by Parliament itself.
Political
parties decided to not take part in the coalition because of this
manoeuvre. Cuts, pension reform and
property tax would be very unpopular and would lose votes to political parties.
But this was the only way to avoid ending up like Greece, or bankrupt.
Some examples: in this blog (Holiday Journal 2011, part 6) I said how cheap it was to dine at
the Senate restaurant. Not any
more. Prices have dramatically
risen. In the past senators paid only 13%
of the actual cost: now they pay almost full price. They could have dinner for a few euro in the
past: now they need to pay from twenty-five to forty-five euro. Half of the waiters and cooks have been
dismissed as the customers have been reduced by 50-70%.
Pensions will
be only contributory from now on, not at wage level or based on the last wage
received as it was in the past. No more
‘baby pensions’, when people could retire after having worked only twenty years
and get a pension from then on ( e.g. if they decided to retire when they were
forty they could do it and still get a pension). Just think how much the State is going to pay
for people who retired when they were forty or fifty, as now they will probably
live to eighty or ninety years old.
Berlusconi
abolished the tax on property (ICI), or Council Tax, in 2008. Part of this had already started in 1992 when
no-profit associations and churches were exempt from the tax. Things became confused when in 2005
Berlusconi stated that even if there was a commercial activity when it was
linked to charity, culture, religion or education, they were exempt from the
tax as well. The main source of charity, religion and religious education in
Italy is the Roman Catholic Church, and it is often linked to small but also
huge profits, depending on what kind of ‘commercial activity’ is going on. Needless to say, the Church owns large
properties, especially in Rome, sometimes palaces and villas or apartments
inherited from people they assisted, then hospitals, schools at different
levels, and so on. Now the new
government has reintroduced the tax on properties with a different name
(IMU); there is a fifty Euro discount
for each child under twenty-six who still lives at home, which is pretty common
I suppose. I wonder if the Church will
be affected by this tax or will still keep its benefits.
Tax evasion: a
big Italian thing. They are tackling it
in spite of avoidance and resistance. It is common in the people's mentality to
cheat a state to which they feel hostile, and all abet each other.
Mario Monti has
eighteen months before elections. After
the political, economic and moral crisis of the Berlusconi era new perspectives
and solutions are needed. Of paramount
importance is the reformation of politics and political parties, where an
ethical attitude and the aim to serve the country should be central. I also read about a proposal to give more
powers and funds to the European
Parliament, maybe because they don’t trust the Italian one. Exactly the
contrary of what the majority of British people think. I feel this is a traditional mistake made by
Italian people, to allow foreigners to rule for them because they are not able
to do it or don’t want the responsibility themselves. It is a shame.
A great Italian journalist, Giorgio Bocca, died on 25th
December, aged ninety-one. He had been a
partisan in WW II with Giustizia e
Libertà (Justice and Freedom); he reported and commented on all the main
Italian social and political events from the end of the war until now, mainly
from the pages of la Repubblica and L’Espresso.
He was quite a free thinker, a tough, open-minded man coming from the north west of Italy. He dreamed and believed in a different Italy,
and fought for it till the end.
Other news: ordinary shops were almost empty with a drop in
sales of 15-20%, but designers and luxury shops had people queuing
outside. It means that rich people are
still rich, while middle class and poor people are even poorer. Corriere della Sera reports that ten
thousand euro coats in via Condotti sold in the blink of an eye. How can you
pay ten thousand euro (£8,230) for a coat? I don’t even earn as much in a year.
Books still
sell though, maybe because they aren’t so expensive and are a good present
anyway, as well as high-tech items and CDs.
A reprint of a cooking book published in 1942 by Lunella De Seta about
cooking in war time had a great success.
It teaches how to avoid wasting food, and re-use leftovers and stale
bread.
And what do
some Italian people do when they can’t afford Christmas presents? They steal them. Several newspaper articles report ordinary
people caught red-handed with teddy bears, video games and dolls hidden in
their bags and under their coats. The credit crunch makes the thief.
There was even a 15% drop in the sales of Lotteria Italia
tickets, the annual popular lottery whose draw day is on 6th January.
The traditional Christmas film series, called Cinepanettone (panettone is the traditional Christmas cake) Vacanze di Natale a Cortina (Christmas holidays in Cortina) with
Christian De Sica, was a bit of a flop this time after twenty years of
popularity. The stories deal with rich, rude Italians always on holiday,
selfish, farting people chasing girls and money, with no morality and no
standards, except for a vague attachment to the family. But the world has changed and they don’t make
people laugh any more.
Maybe we are
finally less gullible, fed up of easy dreams.
And Christian De Sica looks like he really is: too old and outdated
under the suntan. Like Berlusconi.
At Termini
railway station a gigantic Christmas tree had hundreds of letters to Father
Christmas where people asked to have the opportunity to retire before dying or
enclosed the photocopy of their pay slip pleading for help.
Immigrants seem
to offer lower prices in this economic crisis. Greengrocers' shops run by north
Africans are everywhere. They have
cheaper prices and long opening hours.
In Chinese shops you can buy a watch, a toy or a jumper for a few Euros. Beautiful, fake fashionable bags are sold by
Africans in the city centre streets. And
are you fed up of queuing in public offices?
You can choose to employ an immigrant, whose job is to just pick up the
queue number and wait for the client who needs it. For a few euro he can even hand in your
documents if you are busy. He can save
your day.
There were more
tourists in Rome in 2011, an increase of 10% compared to 2010. I believe it: look at the weather!
We left England with our suitcases full of Christmas
presents. I usually organise most of my
presents in Lancaster because I haven’t got much time to go shopping when I am
in Rome. This year, I bought a lot of
different kinds of biscuits, which were very much appreciated, and I was mainly
inspired by my own handmade work for the presents. I made scarves, bags, pot holders, make- up
bags, all hand-decorated with fabric paints (you can see some examples on my
website www.carlascaranod.co.uk
section Carla painter, fabric painting).
Besides, my daughter had the idea of making ties for the boys and men of
the family and of course I gave a hand.
It was a lot of hard work, cutting and sewing till late at night, but we
finally managed to have everything finished
just two hours before leaving to catch the 6:30 am flight from
Manchester airport. Just in time! But it was rewarding. Everybody liked our gifts, or so they said,
and used them while we were there.
As for me, I
received mainly books as presents this year, mostly religious books. Do I inspire religious feelings? Or maybe it was a hint that I should improve
my knowledge in this field. Anyway, I
enjoyed the presents and I broke my personal record: I read all of them during
my stay.
My parents gave me two books by Don Andrea Gallo: Le preghiere di un utopista (prayers of
a utopian) and Il Vangelo di un utopista
(The Gospel of a utopian). From my
sister I received La speranza non è in
vendita (Hope is not on sale) by Don Luigi Ciotti. From two different friends I received a book
about the woman in the Jewish law by Haim F. Cipriani and Non giudicate e non sarete giudicati (don’t judge and you won’t be
judged) by Stefano Racheli. I dived straight in..
I read my
parents' books first. I liked the
picture of Don Andrea Gallo on the covers, the priest with white collar, straw
hat, glasses and a stump of cigar between his lips. He is eighty-three now and years ago he founded
a community on Genoa dockside to help people in need. Most of them are homeless, drug addicted,
alcoholic or disabled. He considers
himself a type of anarchist, walking with the least regarded. He can be seen as one of the so called left
wing or ‘communist’ priests, like Don Primo Mazzolari, Don Lorenzo Milani, don
Luigi Ciotti, and even St Francis. They share their lives with people regarded
as outcasts (the disabled, those sexually discriminated against, immigrants)
and with the poor because this is what they think the Good News of Jesus Christ
is about.
What Don Gallo
writes is astonishing considering the official position of the Vatican. In one of his books the first prayer is a
long list of exploited and persecuted people, such as mentally disabled people,
African prostitutes, transsexuals, Romany gypsies, homosexuals and street
children. He feels they are God’s
favourites. There are no uses of birth
control, abortions, sexual proclivities or ethnic differences that can stop
him: nothing should be enforced and everything should be tolerated. His favourite song is Bella Ciao, a WW II
partisan song. One of his favourite
prayers is the Constitution of the Italian Republic, where a lot of good,
egalitarian things are said, like no discrimination, solidarity, work for all,
etc., similar to all democratic countries' constitutions, but difficult to
apply. His favourite Pope is Angelo
Giuseppe Roncalli (Pope John XXIII). His
picture is the only picture of a Pope he keeps.
His final
appeal is a poem:
My Lord remember the servants who
didn’t observe
the herd rules,
don’t forget their faces,
after so much veering
fortune should help them,
like a slip
like an abnormality
like an inattention
like a duty.
He believes the
Gospel is still relevant and an ideal at the same time, but in a positive
way. According to him utopia is a way in
which to walk, to improve again and again.
You never attain it completely but you can achieve on the way. A pretty different point of view from the
powerful, rich, secular and conservative Vatican, which always lurks behind the
church and has the final say.
Don Luigi
Ciotti’s book says similar things but in a more structured, documented
way. Another ‘communist’ priest.
Once I watched
a series of TV programs about Christian religious groups. One of them was about a group in the Far East
dedicated to working hard and making money.
They said richness is allowed by the Gospel. I am not so sure about it (just think about
the camel and the eye of the needle thing) and anyway in the Scriptures the
stress is always on sharing with the poor and the needy and not on exploiting
and using others, which is rather hard to avoid when big money is at stake.
The book about
‘don’t judge and you won’t be judged’ sounded intriguing. The author is a magistrate who in his career
faced sad, hopeless stories of young people who ended their lives in drugs,
prostitution or beaten to death.
Impossible to judge them, so little is their personal responsibility for
the actual facts or in their offences.
They happened to be there and most of the time they had no alternative
and no help. It was their world. Who can judge them? But I judge the people who didn’t help when
they could, the people who exploited them and used them.
Unfortunately
the most interesting parts of the book – the stories of the abused children and
young people – are always quickly summarized, while I would have liked to know
much more about them. Most of the pages
are filled with clever learned quotations from the Bible, classics,
philosophers and ancient authors, which honestly doesn’t help to understand any
better why all this happens and what can be done to stop such a massacre. The author is without doubt a good Christian:
he always has a good word for these youngsters, sometimes a little gift, and he
shows mercy. But good little deeds
aren’t enough when they go back to their usual life, to their crooked world.
The book about
the woman in Jewish law is an attempt to find, in the Scriptures and Torah,
some text that supports a greater participation of women in spiritual life
without their being considered inferior or unworthy. Not an easy task, because after a supposed
initial equality between man and woman in Genesis, someone filled the Jewish
law with highly discriminating and offending rules against women, hardly
acceptable today. Hopefully there is a
way out of the dilemma, according to some interpretations, and it just need to
be found.
During our
endless Christmas dinners at my parents’ house we had pleasant discussions
about the Italian political situation and about religion – considering the
presents they gave me – with my parents, my sister and my brother-in-law. My parents had been shocked and ashamed by
the Berlusconi government and welcomed Mario Monti in spite of the fact they
have to pay more taxes. About religion
we concluded that though it is ‘the opium of people’, we may need a bit of draw
from time to time.
Then we went to
church on Christmas Eve, my parents-in-law’s parish church. An Italian priest was celebrating: strangely
there had been only Indian and Philippine priests in the past few years, as the
previous Italian priests were womanizers or gamblers who had run away with the
church funds. I hope this priest
lasts. We enjoyed the songs and found
that the most popular one this year was Happy
Xmas (war is over), the popular hit by John Lennon. It was not only sung in church, we heard it
everywhere: on television, in shopping centres, sung by buskers in the
street. Is it time to think where we are?
Finally some
unusual ideas for presents I found in shops, good tips for next Christmas:
·
a hand espresso, a battery-run
espresso machine to make coffee while travelling, €99
·
a picnic trolley, no bigger than a
dictionary and much lighter, with plates, cutlery, etc., €79
·
a canvas stool with pockets for tools
(including gardening tools) all around €34
·
Guan fountain, a few inches tall, €99
·
Zen garden, a few inches wide, €39.50
·
plates,
vases, place mats, all made with magazine paper,
·
a wallet made with one tyvek sheet (a
waterproof synthetic material), €18
·
a gecko toy to massage your hand, €9
Plenty of time
till next December.
Sightseeing and
getting busy
The weather was
fine this year so we could go sightseeing or just walk in the centre: Piazza
Venezia, Via del Corso, Piazza Navona.
Crowds of people had the same
idea, apparently, at all times of the day and night. I am sure some of them were tourists, like
us.
Piazza Navona is always my favourite with its Christmas
market, large and small Befanas hanging everywhere (this is a good witch who
according to tradition brings sweets to
the children on 6th January), buskers performing their gigs and
painters selling their work.
Some pedlars
sold an odd kind of jelly ball with eyes.
They threw it onto a board, where it lay squashed for a few seconds but
then regained its shape. At night in
Piazza di Pietra were sold small wheels which lit up when thrown up in the
air. They created such an atmosphere in
the dark square with the ruins of the columns of the Hadrian temple on one
side, now part of a building.
We also went up to the Capitol and from there to the terrace
of the Altare della Patria (a bulky, ugly, white monument built in honour of
the unification of Italy at the end of 19th Century), from which you can see
a breathtaking view of
Rome. There is also a lift for the very
brave, taking you right to the top of the building. It was a bright, warm day and even the
unappealing bronze quadrigae looked impressive against the clear blue sky.
All along via
del Corso there was a long strip of green, white and red lights on the top to
celebrate thee hundred and fifty years' anniversary of the unification of
Italy. It was full of atmosphere,
especially at night.
We didn’t visit
museums this time but attended an exhibition: Georgia O’Keeffe’s fantastic work
was on display at Palazzo Cipolla. It
was a remarkable exhibition where you could follow the major stages of her life
and inspiration from room to room. There
were two videos as well, explaining her artistic development and showing the
house where she lived in New Mexico.
Part of the exhibition recreated the atmosphere of the landscape of New
Mexico, so you could understand and better relate to the influence of the
environment on her paintings and how her creativity developed. My favourite were the flowers, detailed,
skilled paintings where the artist gives a vision, her interpretation of the
subject and shows a masterly grasp of painting in oils. All this makes her work vibrant and
unique. Some of the landscapes were also
striking, again the contrasts of colours, her visions, and the way she used oil
make the difference. Art critics of her
time particularly stressed a sensual interpretation in her pictures, which is
probably true, but it is not only this.
I think her breadth of view is all-encompassing. She knew her subjects so well, she could work
out her personal, original insights from them.
Her exploration is constant and astonishing for its depth and sincere
passion. Her paintings are always full
of life: they transmit the untameable spirit of the artist.
My daughter and
I also went to see my sister in the little town near Rome where she lives. There is a big market there every Friday
morning, which I had never seen before.
We saw heaps of fashionable, not-so-expensive clothes but unfortunately
we couldn’t buy much because I already assumed we didn’t have space left in the
luggage. However, we made a vow: next
year at Christmas we would go to the market in the first place and buy whatever
we liked.
Whenever we met
our family we had plenty of free time after the big dinners, playing tombola or
cards and watching old videos where I was younger and thinner, and the children
were adorable, plump little kids. My
daughter wanted to learn crocheting and as my mother had been my teacher, I
suggested she ask her grandmother. She
not only taught her crochet but also came up with four books dating back to
1964 full of stitches at all levels and several models for jumpers, dresses,
skirts, cardigans, stockings, hats and scarves.
My daughter fell in love with them and made my mother promise to leave
her the books in her will. She took
pictures of most of them and made me copy some of the instructions. I also had to make a few samples so we could
see the patterns when we looked at them.
She said she would make all these wonderful things by herself, then she
looked at me. Did she expect me to make
her something one of these days? I am
too busy at the moment but maybe in summer time. I remember my mother used to knit or crochet
jumpers for me up to my university days.
The problem is that now it is cheaper to buy a readymade jumper in a
shop than buy the wool or the cotton and make it.
Another pastime
we found was collecting vintage clothes.
My mother, mother-in-law and sister all responded enthusiastically to
our appeal to offer (or get rid of) clothes they don’t wear any more, most of
them dating back to twenty years ago (or even older) and all in good
condition. My daughter was flooded with
new jackets, coats, dresses: a gold mine.
They also added some artificial
jewels and scarves. We managed to fit
almost everything in the luggage eventually, but when we left my daughter was
wearing two jumpers, a jacket and two coats.
And it wasn’t even cold, but quite warm inside the airport to be honest.
We love
clothes. And they don’t need to be new,
just smart, stylish, and something different from the usual stuff.
Window shopping
and New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s
Eve we walked round the city centre again, before dropping our children to
their different parties. We only
window-shopped, I’m afraid, in the most elegant and expensive streets in the
centre, near Via del Corso. We were
curious about what was on show: we didn’t even look at the prices. We couldn’t afford anything anyway, except
for my daughter who managed to spot a glove shop where the cheapest gloves were
nineteen euro, green leather gloves with brown, red and yellow stripes at the
sides of each finger. She looked as if she had frog hands. I took a lot of pictures though, to feel busy
in some way.
The newspapers
announced that 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, according to the Chinese
calendar. It should bring luck, strength
and good health, ideal for having children (no, thank you, four are
enough). Maybe it is intended for the
Chinese people only, whose economy is going up and up. I wonder if the credit crunch, pay cuts and
rises in taxes can be considered positive.
It always depends on the way you look at things. Upside down could be a good way for 2012.
On this theme, in Naples they made a special cracker for the
new year, called o’ spread (the
spread). It seemed to be terribly noisy
and rather dangerous. It was forbidden
by the police.
But it is not
so bad as it seems: we just need to get busy, to move on. Things can’t get worse. And we have the Olympic Games to look forward
to.
In the evening
we were at my parents-in-law’s house. I
particularly liked the speech by the Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano,
this year. It was simple and very
clear. He started thanking Italian
people for the way they welcomed him in all the celebrations for the
unification of Italy. Then he made an
appeal to trust in the future, in the Italian and European politics and be
aware of the economic crisis at the same time.
It is time to roll up sleeves but also to be sure that sacrifices will
be rewarded. He spoke against corruption
and speculation that stop Italy getting out of the crisis. A new coherent commitment of honest working
people can save the country and make Italy more stable and achieve European
standards. He stated that the reforms
the present government is providing are absolutely necessary, and ended by
asking for joint efforts from political parties, community associations and all
Italian people for a better 2012.
At night the
moon looked like a segment of orange.
The fireworks we could see in the distance from my parents-in-law’s
balcony reminded me of Guy Fawkes night.
We felt it was
time to go home, back to our life and customs.
Valentina, my autistic daughter, had been signing ‘home’ for several
days, though she would rather drive instead of flying. Also the other children were looking forward
to going back to England, especially my third one, who never wants to leave
Lancaster.
We knew the
weather we would find in England couldn’t be as gorgeous as that we had
experienced in Rome, but we were so happy to finally arrive in Manchester that
we didn’t mind the sky being grey.
Driving up the M6 a splendid purple sunset welcomed us.
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