A little outside my purview, but too good to resist. To contextualize, just Google image search “Naples Trash”. From ANSA:
“I’ve seen many cities in my life and Naples doesn’t seem dirtier than New York,” affirms Georgina Bloomberg. The daughter of the Mayor of New York is in Naples to participate in the final horse race at Piazza del Plebiscito. “I was expecting a devastated city, like what the newspapers and some members of my entourage had told me. But I haven’t seen anything different from other cities like New York…”
Suck on that New Yorkers, your city is indistinguishable from one in which “mountains of rotting trash have piled up in the streets” for more than a year now.
Filed under: Italy | Tags: Bevande, Beverages, Coca Light, Diet Coke, Italia, Italy
There are a wide variety of reasons why Italy is far superior to the US, but I’ll give you one concrete example that has a direct impact on my daily life: the Diet Coke. Everything about it is better here. First of all the name. Over here it’s “Coca Light,” which sounds about a thousand times cooler than “Diet Coke.” Then there’s the taste – also a big step up from the American version. Diet Coke here actually tastes like its somehow related to the calorific original. It’s got the perfect level of sweetness: not as saccharine as regular Coke, but it doesn’t taste all chemically like American Diet Coke.
As if Italian Diet Coke had not already proven that it’s indisputable better than its American brethern, they went and designed a spiffy new can. It’s longer and thinner (damn Italians, always skinnier…) and generally much classier.
They’ve even added an awesome nationalistic, soccer-themed graphic to the back:
As soft drinks go, you don’t get much better than this!
Filed under: Italy | Tags: Berlusconi, Elections, Elezioni, Italia, Italy, Papa, Pope
Berlusconi wins, the Pope flees.
Just kidding, it’s not like I think Berlusconi is the Antichrist or anything…
You just keep coming back for more, don’t you, Italy?
Ah well, as if we didn’t all know this was going to happen. Google trends prediction record: 1 and 0.
Filed under: Italy | Tags: Anoressia, Anorexia, Eating Disorders, Gender, Genere, Italia, Italy, Sesso, Sex
Il Messaggero has a story about the new diversity of anorexics. Apparently, it’s not just for young girls anymore! They say the number of male anorexics has grown over the past 5-6 years and now males account for one in nine cases of anorexia. As for age, most cases of anorexics are between 15 and 28 years-old (shocker) but there are some incidents of early onset – kids as young as 7 or 8 with anorexia – and a few cases in the over-50 set. And here’s what they have to say about anorexia among immigrants:
With immigration, cases of anorexia in women who come from developing countries, where they have a different conception of food and the body, have become more frequent. These women find themselves in uncomfortable conditions in Italy and in Europe. “Many women from Maghreb or from the Indian subcontinent,” [Director of Health in Reggio Emilia] Umberto Nizzole concludes, “are more vulnerable because they do not have a relaxed relationship with food and the body. They are victims of the messages conveyed by mass media and try to imitate with do-it-yourself diets, which often create serious nueroendocrine problems.
Seems like they’re casting anorexia among immigrants as a side-effect of attempting to assimilate. It’s also interesting that they blame “mass media” – as if larger Italian society has nothing to do with it.
Also great is their recommendation, “according to experts” how to prevent anorexia: play a team sport. Given that anorexia (and eating disorders in general) is widely considered a female problem and that they focus a good deal on the increase of anorexia in guys, this reads like a not-so-subtle (‘man up and play a little soccer’) attempt to reinforce gender roles.
While on the subject, there’s something else “anorexic” about Italian men: their sex drive. ANSA’s got the story in English and there’s an Italian version on Il Messaggero – complete with porny picture and all. Basically, 40% of Italian couples are “anorexic” and aren’t having any sex at all. So much for the Italian Stallion myth:
”Comparing sex to eating habits, one could say that Italian couples fall into four basic categories: the anorexic, the bulemic, the satiated and those who are not hungry,” observed Chiara Simonelli, a sexologist at the University of Rome and Deputy Chairman of the European Federation of Sexology.
According to the report, 40% of ‘anorexic’ Italian couples are around 40 years of age, are in a solid or long-term relationship and often have children.
There is a growing trend, the report said, ”of men avoiding sex with their partners and preferring to go to a prostitute or, a sign of the times, engaging in virtual encounters on the Internet”.
The decline in the male sex drive, the study said, has tripled in the past ten years.
Only 30% of the Italian couples interviewed for the report said they were ’satiated’ and had sex with a frequency considered satisfactory to both partners.
So this is a weird story for a variety of reasons, but what’s most interesting to me is how they appropriate food terms to discuss sexual appetite. Are Italians really incapable of talking about anything without bringing food into the picture somehow? Is it some weird confluence of food and sex? I’m not sure, but it’s pretty amusing. Gives you something to laugh about while you’re not having sex, I guess.
Filed under: Italy, Rome | Tags: Cani, Dogs, Italia, Italy, Parchi, Parks, Poison, Roma, Rome, Villa Pamphili
Scary little story in Il Messaggero about the rat poisoning near the entrance of Villa Pamphili almost killing two dogs:
Risk of poisoning for children and dogs in Villa Pamphili. Monica Cirinna, ex-delegate of Animal Rights for the city of Rome recommends maximum attention after Friday morning when two dogs almost died after eating rat poisoning at the entrance of the park on via della Nocetta…
…The owner of the two animals realized what was happening in time and immediately took the dogs to the veterinarian. “It was a serious incident,” said Cirinna, “dangerous for children and for animals, I hope that the public will investigate…”
The Doria Pamphili, not as idyllic and innocent as you might think. Obviously this is pretty messed up. Not quiet as bad as Central Park at night, but still kind of frightening. Actually, my mother broke her shoulder while running in the Villa Pamphili, so I should have known it was a dangerous, bad-karma kind of place.
Filed under: Italy | Tags: Berlusconi, Elections, Elezioni, Google, Italia, Italy, Veltroni
Leading in the polls, the number of news references and the search volume, looks like it’s going to be a win for Silvio, unfortunately.
I don’t have much insight to add to what’s already been said about the elections Here’s the Times’ piece on it, and here’s what the International Herald Tribune has to say. Basically, no matter who wins, the structure of the Italian government makes it very unlikely that much will change, except if (and when) Berlusconi wins we can expect a return to unabashed cheating and corruption. Ah well.
The best part of it may be the campaign videos, via At Home In Rome. They may not know how to govern over in Italy, but boy do they make a good music video!
Here’s Veltroni’s, in case you ever wondered what YMCA would sound like in Italian and politically charged:
Filed under: Italy, Rome | Tags: Ambulanti, Immigration, Immigrazione, Italia, Italy, Racism, Razzismo, Roma, Rome, Street Vendors, Vatican, Vaticano
Over on La Repubblica, there’s a very alarmist rant about the problem of street vendors near the Vatican. The gist of it is that there are too many immigrant street vendors and too little police presence.
Alright, sure. There are a lot of street vendors in the center of the city, especially near Castel Sant’Angelo. And yes, the police do a pretty pathetic job of enforcing laws about street vending. But is this really a problem? I don’t think so.
I kind of like street vendors. You can never have too many pairs of 2 Euro earrings that fall apart after a few weeks. And who doesn’t love an imitation Gucci purse? Street vending wouldn’t survive if there wasn’t a market for it. Plus, I think it’s kind of weird to expect such a tourist destination not to have a robust souvenir market.
Most of the frustration seems to be not about what’s being sold – though they do mention the shoddy quality of the wares every chance they get – but about who’s selling it. You’ve got to respect Italian’s who go through the torturous process of legally establishing a business and dutifully pay their taxes and it’s natural for them to be bitter about people who are illegally co-opting their market. But I think the problem of street vendors is symptomatic of a larger issue: Italy’s unwillingness to accept immigrants and integrate them into society.
Italy’s immigration laws are extremely strict and for many immigrating legally is essentially impossible. Without legal status, there are few opportunities open to them and street vending is one of the most appealing.
Throughout the article, it’s easy to pick up on why these immigrants have a hard time finding a place in Italian society. The article talks about the Chinese, the Africans and the Indians as laying “siege” on the Vatican, claiming their territory and praying on innocent tourists. They are, in short, depicted as malignant parasites. Gee, wonder why they don’t feel welcome?
Basically, Rome’s street vendor “problem” won’t go away until Italians confront their own prejudices and immigration policies.
Filed under: Italy, Rome | Tags: Bus, Crime, Criminalita, Frottage, Italia, Italy, Roma, Rome, Transportation
American student molested on the bus, 76-year-old man arrested from Il Messaggero:
A 76 year-old, from the province of Perugia, was arrested by the Roman police with the accusation of sexual assault. While traveling on a 64 bus, the old man repeatedly touched the intimate parts of an American student. Two anti-mugging agents assisted at the scene and immediately intervened, handcuffing him. The man was taken the the Regina Coeli jail.
First of all: gross. Secondly: 76 and still fondling? That’s almost impressively pathetic. Shows a certain amount of determination, I guess, since we all know frottage isn’t all fun and games.
There are a few other weird things about this story. For one, it happened on the 64, a line notorious for overcrowding, pickpockets and general skeeviness. I wonder how much of this kind of stuff goes unreported, and if it’s significant that the victim (who reported the incident) was American. Are Americans more aware of this kind of stuff? I think with all the sexual discrimination training and sensitivity seminars we have to attend, it’s certainly possible.
This reminds me of an article in the Times a few months back, about single-sex buses. My impression is that single-sex transportation is that it probably creates more problems (separate-but-equal situations, scheduling issues, etc) than it solves, but it’s certainly a creative solution.
Filed under: Italy, Rome | Tags: Contraccettivi, Contraception, Italia, Italy, Laws, Legge, Morning-After Pill, Pillola Del Giorno Dopo, Roma, Rome, Sesso, Sex
Just found the Messaggero article on it, so here’s a little more on the morning-after pill case. The most ridiculous stuff is in bold:
The prosecutor, after finding out [that the case had been delayed until June 5th], requested a filing of the positions of the three doctors because you cannot exclude “at least a putative level” the possibility that the day after pill could be an abortifacient and not a contraceptive, as the defense argues based on the consultancy of Silvio Viale, a gynecologist from Turin. The prosecutor has consulted the physician’s Rules of Order and the Pharmaceutical Association of Italy. Also, the prosecutor has asked for the filings because it is not proved that the accused doctors individually refused the woman the pill.
“My client,” explains the lawyer Gerardi, “wasn’t even registered upon her arrival at either hospital and both times she was seen not by a gynecologist but by a nurse who cut her off, saying that in those hospitals there were only doctors who objected to the pill and there for no one would administer it to her. In one case, one of the the nurses made a joke in poor-taste, saying ‘Let’s hope that your boyfriend’s sperm aren’t fertile so you won’t get pregnant.’”
Nice to see that the Italian health care system treats women so well.
