Matteo Renzi, 34, Has Italy's Left Found its Own Obama?

Matteo Renzi, the son of a Tuscan small business owner, at just 29, bested experienced rivals to win the post of President of the Florentine province, a somewhat less influential role that is, nevertheless, normally occupied by gray-haired men.

Renzi has focused his efforts on making the provincial government more efficient and delivering services. In particular, he's improved Florentine school facilities, expanded recycling and seems to have a solution to flooding along the Arno river.

Renzi at 34, beat out two establishment figures in the Democratic Party primary ahead of the race for mayor of Florence. Florence's mayoral election is in June and he is expected to easily win the left-leaning city. "If he becomes mayor of Florence, he becomes the hope".

Has Italy's Left Found its Own Obama?

Time

By Jeff Israely

Friday, Feb. 20, 2009

Italians are normally not good at waiting in line. During the weekly trip to the bank or post office it helps to have sharp elbows and a sense of entitlement. Getting on a bus or train can be more like packing down in a rugby scrum. But when those big moments in life arrive - the next step in your career, a business idea to launch, moving out of your parent's home - Italy is afflicted by a troubling surplus of patience.

Nowhere is that more true than in politics, where Italy's gerontocracy and unwritten party rules co-opt the young with the false promise that they should wait for a few years and their turn will come around. By the time they do finally step up, once aspiring (and inspiring) leaders have long since lost their mojo and forgotten the new ideas they once had.

What Italian politics desperately needs is a queue jumper, and it may have found just the man. On Feb. 16, Matteo Renzi, 34, beat out two establishment figures in the Democratic Party primary ahead of the race for mayor of Florence. This is the second time Renzi has pushed his way to the front of the line. Five years ago, at just 29, he bested experienced rivals to win the post of President of the Florentine province, a somewhat less influential role that is, nevertheless, normally occupied by gray-haired men.

Renzi's rise comes at a difficult time for the Democratic Party, the main center-left opposition to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition government. At the national level, the party is in utter disarray, mired in petty battles of personalities and unable to cast aside the remnants of bygone labels and ideologies. This week, Democratic party chief Walter Veltroni resigned after the party's sitting member in Sardinia was walloped in regional elections by Berlusconi's hand-picked candidate. After Veltroni's resignation, Berlusconi quipped that he is "getting used to not having an opposition."

Renzi is the Democratic Party's chance at change. Florence's mayoral election is in June and he is expected to easily win the left-leaning city. "If he becomes mayor of Florence, he becomes the hope," says one Rome-based opposition insider. "Then people start talking about the Italian Obama; start saying 'I've seen the future of Italian politics.'" (See pictures of the world reacting to Obama's win.)

The son of a Tuscan small business owner, Renzi has focused his efforts on making the provincial government more efficient and delivering services. In particular, he's improved Florentine school facilities, expanded recycling and seems to have a solution to flooding along the Arno river.

A practicing Catholic, Renzi says he won't let the Vatican guide his policy. In the primary, he ran a classic grass-roots campaign using the Internet, Facebook and other tactics drawn from Obama's successful presidential run. "I'm a politician," he says. "I don't perform miracles. I've just tried to make the administration of government work better, day in and day out."

Sometimes boisterous and, yes, still a bit baby-faced, Renzi was first featured in TIME three years ago when I profiled Italy's crippling generation gap ahead of the 2006 poll that pitted Romano Prodi against Berlusconi, two candidates then pushing 70. We caught up again last summer when Renzi was watching Barack Obama's unlikely story unfold and preparing to defy the party bosses in Florence and Rome with his bid for the mayoralty. "Everyone was telling me to stay put, that the smart move was to run for another term at the province," Renzi says. "I said 'no thank you. I'm running for mayor.'" One regional party boss in Tuscany even told him explicitly: "Respect the line, buddy, wait your turn. I said 'No, in fact, I'm cutting the line!'"

This weekend, in the wake of Veltroni's departure, Democratic leaders will gather in Rome to discuss the way ahead. The party has no real strategy to take on Berlusconi, and no real new ideas to fix Italy. Perhaps it's time to think the unthinkable and hope that Renzi cuts the line again.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1880979,00.html?iid=tsmodule

Finding Real Estate Deals in Italy?

Remember One Euro is worth US $1.29, while 1 USD = 0.7775 EURO, therefore a house in Basilicata, costing €141,430 costs more like $ 183,000 USD.

Finding the Real Estate Deals in Italy

International Herald Tribune

By Kevin Brass

February 24, 2009

Abruzzo may be the bargain region of Italy, according to a new study.

Italymag.co.uk’s review of its 11,000 listings found traditional country homes and villas—the type of properties often purchased by foreign buyers—cost an average of €837,268 in Tuscany, Italy’s most expensive region, compared to only €227,175 in Abruzzo.

The cheapest buys were in Basilicata, the small region in southern Italy, where farmhouses and rustic homes average €141,430. The most expensive home listed in Basilicata - an estate with four hectares, two country homes and a commercial building—is priced at €800,000, less than the average home in Tuscany, the site notes. The second least expensive region is Calabria, with an average price of €210,329, Italymag.co.uk’s study found.

The restored villas and medieval farmhouses of Le Marche are also a steal compared to Tuscany, with an average price of €332,199. Even Umbria looks cheap when matched against its better publicized northern neighbor, with average prices of €637,129, compared to the €837,268 in Tuscany.

After Tuscany, the most expensive regions were Veneto at €748,410, Lazio at €735,411 and Sicily, with an average price of €705,361.

http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/properties/roof/?p=651

Italy to Re-Introduce Nuclear Power Plants

Since Italy closed all its Nuclear Plants after Chernobyl accident in 1986, Italy has become the world's biggest net importer of electricity.

Currently there are 196 Nuclear Plants in Europe. France leads with 59, Russia with 31, and Britain with 19.

http://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-europe.htm

Berlusconi announced plans to build 8 to 10 European Pressurized Reactors (EPR), to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and gas, with the first plant ready by 2020, utilizing France's expertise and cooperation.

Italy and France pen nuclear deal

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have agreed that their countries will work together to revive nuclear power in Italy.

BBC NEWS: February 24 , 2009

The Italian power company, ENEL, and its French counterpart, EDF, agreed a deal to study the feasibility of building four power stations in Italy.

They would replace those closed in accordance with a referendum held after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

Since then Italy has become the world's biggest net importer of electricity.

Shortly after taking office in May, Mr Berlusconi's centre-right government announced plans to build nuclear power stations to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and gas.

Earlier this month, Sweden's government unveiled plans to overturn a nearly 30-year-old decision to gradually phase out nuclear power.

"We have to wake up from this sleep... and begin the construction of Italian nuclear power plants," Mr Berlusconi told reporters.

"France is making available its know-how and that will allow us to save several years and start the construction of nuclear plants in a limited amount of time," he added.

Mr Sarkozy said his country was proposing "an unlimited partnership" with Italy in the development of "clean energy".

He explained that they both wanted "nuclear power to become a European issue, because it represents the key for development".

"By 2020, nuclear plants will have to be massively developed, nobody can in any way veto that," he added.

The Italian government has said it needs eight to 10 European Pressurised Reactors (EPR), or improved third-generation plants, according to the Reuters news agency. ENEL said the first plant should be ready by 2020.

But analysts question the ability of the company to fund the construction programme, and foresee delays arising from wrangling over whether the power stations will be overseen by an independent regulator or a government agency.

The separate agreement signed on Tuesday by ENEL and EDF will see the firms study the feasibility of building four EPR plants in Italy.

It also provides for greater participation by ENEL in the French nuclear programme. The company already has a 12.5% stake in France's first EPR plant, which is being built in Flamanville in the north-west of France.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7908434.stm

Obit: Oreste Lionello 81, Entertainer and Film Dubber

Lionello was a star in Italy's movie dubbing business, and was Italy's "voice" of Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and other comic stars including Peter Sellers, Marty Feldman and Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator." Lionello on occasion answered his phone by saying, "I am the voice of Woody Allen." For those who had seen Allen's films only in Italian, hearing the real voice of Woody Allen could be jarring. Lionello's dubbing captured all of the neuroses and sarcastic tones in Allen's speech.

Italian Entertainer Oreste Lionello Dies

Film dubber voiced Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis

By Associated Press

Oreste Lionello, an entertainer and film dubber who was Italy's "voice" of Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and other comic stars, died Feb. 12 in Rome. He was 81.

Lionello was a star in Italy's movie dubbing business.

Italian actor and director Pier Francesco Pingitore, who did cabaret acts with Lionello, said the dubber died after a long illness.

Besides Allen and Lewis, other actors who were dubbed by Lionello included Peter Sellers,Marty FeldmanandCharlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator."

Lionello on occasion answered his phone by saying, "I am the voice of Woody Allen." For those who had seen Allen's films only in Italian, hearing the real voice of Woody Allen could be jarring. Lionello's dubbing captured all of the neuroses and sarcastic tones in Allen's speech.

Early in his career in entertainment, Lionello worked in theater as a comic actor and in cabaret, where he was noted for his imitations of veteran Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Lionello also worked successfully as an entertainer on Italian TV in the 1970s and 1980s.

But it was in dubbing that he earned his greatest fame.

Most of the hundreds of movies imported into Italy each year are dubbed, and some distributors hold that dubbing prevails because many people will not go to subtitled films.

US Speaker Pelosi leads Congressional Delegation to Italy

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the nation's highest ranking Italian-American in elective office - in a speech at the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome, referred to her deep roots in Italy: "My family's background is as diverse as the map of Italy, with grandparents and great-grandparents born in Abruzzo, Venice, Genoa, Campobasso and Sicily. My husband, Paul's father was born in Potenza and his mother in Tuscany."

Usually considered "junkets", Pelosi has had to pay a price, by having to defend "buy American" thought, and being lectured by the Pope on abortion rights. Excuse me...!!!!! With all the tremendous MISERY throughout the world, that's the best the Pope could think of??????

At least the Food is Good

USA Today; By: Jill Lawrence and Eugene Kiely; February 18, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the nation's highest ranking Italian-American in elective office -- is spending her congressional recess in Italy. Sounds nice, but . . .

So far on her trip, which began Sunday in Rome, Pelosi had to defend the "Buy American" provision in the stimulus bill and had what sounds like an uncomfortable meeting with Pope Benedict. USA TODAY's religion writer Cathy Lynn Grossman says the pope lectured the speaker on abortion rights.

So much for a little R&R away from the rough-and-tumble of Washington.

The speaker's roots in Italy are deep. In a speech at the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome, Pelosi described them this way: "My family's background is as diverse as the map of Italy, with grandparents and great-grandparents born in Abruzzi, Venice, Genoa, Campobasso and Sicily. My husband, Paul's, father was born in Potenza and his mother in Tuscany."

The rest of the congressional delegation: Reps. John Larson of Connecticut, George Miller of California, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, William Pascrell of New Jersey, Anna Eshoo of California, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Michael Capuano of Massachusetts.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2009/02/at-least-the-fo.html

Book: 'Dark Water', Flood of Florence in 1966 and Arno's Historic Anger

Seventeen inches of rain fell in central Italy one November day 43 years ago, and overnight, one of the world's greatest treasures, the historic center city of Florence, was 20 feet under water. Thirty-three people were killed.

But Florence has repeatedly been awash in the Arno's floodwaters and other catastrophes, centuries of earthquakes, war,and the quiet degradation of time.

Book review: 'Dark Water' covers Italy's historic flood

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Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN ; By Jay Furst; Mon, Feb 16, 2009

Seventeen inches of rain fell in central Italy one November day 43 years ago, and overnight, one of the world's greatest treasures, the historic center city of Florence, was 20 feet under water. Thirty-three people were killed.

That catastrophic night, when the Arno River rushed over its banks to flood historic museums, churches and homes, remains very much alive in the memory of Italians and art lovers everywhere. On Nov. 4, 1966, hundreds of immortal artworks by masters such as Cimabue and Giotto, Michelangelo and Ghiberti, were waterlogged, damaged or destroyed. Donatello's late masterpiece, the wooden sculpture of Mary Magdalene, was hip-deep in oil-stained water. Millions of rare books in the Italian national library and archives were submerged; many were lost and others are still being restored.

The Piazza Santa Croce, the plaza in front of the church where Michelangelo and Rossini are buried, was under 22 feet of water and 12 feet of mud, sludge and pollutants that ruined everything it touched. Inside the church, frescoes by Giotto were being lapped at by floodwaters.

"Dark Water," by Robert Clark, is a compelling history of that flood, but it's more than that. It's a deeply personal meditation on the idea of Florence, the importance of art and its transient, fragile place in our lives. Clark, a Seattle writer with strong ties to the Twin Cities, has written three novels (including one entitled "Love Among the Ruins"), and he brings a strong literary touch to this work.

It's miraculous that Florence remains intact at all, Clark says, after centuries of earthquakes, war, floods and the quiet degradation of time. It does so only because of heroic work by its residents and an international effort that provided money and manpower to dry it out and put it back together.

Though it's not a straightforward history, Clark tells much of what you need to know about the city's artistic heritage, beginning with the earliest days of the Renaissance, and how it has repeatedly been awash in the Arno's floodwaters and other catastrophes, including the Nazi occupation during World War II.

Along the way, he vividly describes the city's 20th century heroes, such as the American art historian Frederick Hartt, who served in the Army during World War II and assisted in the liberation of Florence and protecting the city's artistic heritage as the Nazis retreated; Ugo Procacci and Umberto Baldini, who directed efforts during the flood's early hours to protect the Uffizi museum and rescue countless art works throughout the city; and Life magazine photographer David Lees, who was among the first journalists on the scene in 1966.

Among the greatest artistic losses was the damage to the "Crucifixion," by Cimabue, a huge image of Christ painted on an almost life-sized crucifix that hung in the Sante Croce church. Cimabue was the great transitional artist between the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods, and as Clark relates, the paint was literally washed right off the wood and glittered on the surface of the floodwaters:

Unable to sleep, Procacci got to the (Santa Croce) refectory at six the next morning. By then the water inside had receded to ankle depth over the mud. Only a little light reflected off the water, casting waves and glints onto the walls and, as Procacci began to make out, onto the Crucifix. It was a shadowy, immense gangling form among still more shadows, but as the dawn light slowly unveiled it, he could begin to make out its details, or rather, all that was gone: half the face, much of the right side of the body and legs plus the chest and the abdomen. Perhaps three-quarters of the image was gone, stripped down to the gesso or to the canvas beneath it. Procacci could not be sure -- hearing the drip and slop of water everywhere, of things being sloughed off -- that it wasn't continuing, in the dim light, to disintegrate before his eyes.

The Crocifisso was salvaged, dried out over a period of many months and later -- controversially -- repainted in neutral ways to suggest what was lost. This artwork is the centerpiece of Clark's book and a metaphor for the entire experience of recovery and restoration....

At its best,, "Dark Water" is a meditation on the perishability of art. Of Cimabue, he writes that the artist's lofty reputation already was being eclipsed in the early 14th century -- even Dante notes in the "Divine Comedy" that Giotto's reputation was on the rise, overtaking Cimabue's. "Except for a handful of 'lesser' works, there would not be much left of Cimabue except his cross. But that, perhaps, was all there was anyway. Dante tried to tell Florence this: Reputation turns to ruin, wealth to poverty, pride to disgrace, inspiration to despair."

Fortunately, it's not as bleak as all that. Florence lives, as does Cimabue, thanks to people such as Clark who love it and cherish the art.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=31&a=385555

Obit: Louie ( Balassoni) Bellson, 84; Duke Ellington called him 'the World's Greatest Drummer'

Bellson was born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, on July 6, 1924, in Rock Falls, Ill. Drawn to percussion as early as age 3, he was urged by his father, who owned a music store, to study keyboards, harmony and theory.

After winning a Gene Krupa drum competition, he was offered a job in Ted Fio Rito's dance band. A few months later, still in his teens, he was hired by Benny Goodman. After serving in the Army for three years, Bellson returned to the Goodman band in 1946 for a year before moving on to play with Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Count Basie,and Duke Ellington who described Bellson as " "Not only the world's greatest drummer . . . he's the world's greatest musician!"

OBITUARIES

Louie Bellson dies at 84; Duke Ellington called him 'the World's Greatest Drummer'

Los Angeles Times

By Don Heckman
February 17, 2009

Louie Bellson, a jazz drummer and bandleader who combined remarkable instrumental virtuosity with far-ranging compositional skills, has died. He was 84.

According to his wife, Francine, Bellson died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications of Parkinson's disease following a broken hip in November.

Bellson's long, productive career stretched from his teens -- when, in competition with 40,000 other young players, he won the Slingerland National Gene Krupa drumming contest -- to the tours and seminars he continued until 2008.

Best known as a superlative big band drummer as a result of his work in the 1940s and '50s with Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Duke Ellington and others, Bellson was also an adept small group player. His more than 200 recorded appearances as leader and sideman encompass sessions with Jazz at the Philharmonic, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, James Brown and dozens of others, including Ellington's Big Four alongside guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Ray Brown.

"What makes Bellson so special," former Times jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote in 1991, "is his overall musicianship. A gifted composer and arranger who has written everything from jazz instrumentals to ballets, he can incorporate his role logically instead of banging away without regard to the dynamic or melodic structure of the work in progress."

Bellson often said that he regarded his tenure with Ellington as one of the significant points in his career. Performing with the orchestra in the early '50s triggered a forward leap in his development as an instrumentalist and his confidence as a composer.

A pair of his best-known big band works, "The Hawk Talks" and "Skin Deep" became popular staples of the Ellington repertoire -- but not without some initial reservations from Bellson.

In a 2006 interview he said he had written "The Hawk Talks" with Harry James in mind.

"Harry was called 'The Hawk,' " Bellson recalled. "But I wrote it when I was with Duke, and it took a lot of coaxing from [trombonist] Juan Tizol to make me bring it to Duke. I told Juan, 'Are you crazy? You want me to bring music in to a place with Duke and Billy Strayhorn? Geniuses like that? No way.' I brought it in anyhow and lo and behold, Duke recorded it right away.

"But it was Duke who taught me how to write. How to be original. How to know what to do with the rhythm section, with the horns."

Ellington returned Bellson's high regard, noting, "Not only is Louie Bellson the world's greatest drummer . . . he's the world's greatest musician!"

Other artists concurred. Oscar Peterson described Bellson as "the epitome of musical talent. . . . I consider him one of the musical giants of our age."

Bobby Colomby, former drummer for Blood, Sweat & Tears, pointed to Bellson's pioneering work with the difficult technique of employing two bass drums, saying, "Louie had awesome, jaw-dropping technique. And I really don't think he was ever fully appreciated for what an amazing drummer he really was."

Bellson was born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, on July 6, 1924, in Rock Falls, Ill. Drawn to percussion as early as age 3, he was urged by his father, who owned a music store, to study keyboards, harmony and theory.

After winning the Krupa drum competition, he was offered a job in Ted Fio Rito's dance band at Los Angeles' Florentine Gardens. A few months later, still in his teens, he was hired by Goodman.

After serving in the Army for three years, Bellson returned to the Goodman band in 1946 for a year before moving on to play with Dorsey and James. The arrival of bebop, however, shifted the jazz world's orientation toward smaller groups and a different style of rhythm playing. He was an instrumentalist and percussionist, more than simply a drummer, and immediately sought ways to adapt his own technique to the newly emerging styles.

"I was used to driving a big band -- four solid beats on the bass drum," he explained to the JazzTimes. "Coming from that to bebop, I still liked to drop bombs now and then. Then Lester Young came to me once and said, 'Lou, just play titty-bop, titty-bop and don't drop no bombs.' That's when I got it, putting all that energy up into the right hand, playing on the cymbal. And I loved it. The left hand was syncopated, and the bass drum could be syncopated also, because a good bass player playing four beats to the bar took care of that basic beat."

While performing with Ellington from 1951 to 1953, Bellson met and married singer Pearl Bailey. Their interracial marriage, rare for the early '50s, coincided with Bellson's presence as the only white member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

He spent the next few decades alternating between leading his own small groups and big bands, serving as Bailey's music director and occasionally returning to work as a stellar sideman. A stint with Basie in 1961 was followed by a return to Ellington, performing the Concert of Sacred Music that Ellington described as "the most important thing I've ever done."

After Bailey's death in 1990, Bellson continued his growing activities as a jazz educator while leading various-sized ensembles, including a pair of on-call big bands available for performances on both coasts. His most recent recordings include "The Sacred Music of Louie Bellson and the Jazz Ballet" and "The Louie and Clark Expedition 2" with trumpeter Clark Terry.

Bellson wrote more than 1,000 compositions and arrangements, including ballet music, sacred music, "The London Suite," the "Concerto for Jazz Drummer and Full Orchestra" and a Broadway musical, "Portofino," in addition to his numerous big band charts and small ensemble pieces. He wrote more than a dozen books and booklets on drums and percussion.

He received a Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994; a Living Jazz Legends Award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2007; a Jazz Living Legend Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; and an American Drummers Achievement Award from the Avedis Zildjian Co.

He is survived by his wife of 16 years, Francine; daughters Dee Dee Bellson and Debra Hughes; two grandchildren; two brothers and two sisters. A Los Angeles-area service is being planned, followed by a funeral and burial in Moline, Ill.

news.obits@latimes.com

Madoff Scandal Arouses Jew Usurious Money Lender Stereotype - The Italian Connection

The Jews of the Roman Imperial Diaspora occurred as early as 200 BC, and were agriculturalists, artisans, and mercenaries.

It was in the seventh- and eighth-century Islamic conquests of much of the Mediterranean world that established the precondition for Jews to serve as intermediaries and long-distance traders,for the Islamic, eventually affording them skills as money changers and access to liquid capital with which to provide banking services. Especially in Spain Jews were allies of the Muslims and were their Administrators, Tax Collectors and Money Lenders.

Thus when the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492, likewise were the Jews, some of who fled to Western Europe, along with Jews in Italy who had partially come under Spain's Domination.

Western Europe Jews then became firmly ensconced in Banking with Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin; Lazard Brothers Banks of Paris; Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy; and the Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam.

That spawned in the US, Lehman Brothers of NY; Kuhn, Loeb Bank of NY (Now Shearson American Express); Goldman, Sachs of NY ; National Bank of Commerce NY; Morgan Guaranty Trust (J. P. Morgan Bank - Equitable Life - Levi P. Morton are principal shareholders); Hanover Trust of NY (William and David Rockefeller & Chase National Bank NY are principal shareholders).

These 9 banks are the largest shareholders of the US Federal Reserve Bank, with the Rothschilds of London holding 57% of the stock which is not available for public trading. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System , particularly the Criticism of the System,2/3 down, especially the comments by Pres. Woodrow Wilson, Pres. Thomas Jefferson, President Abraham Lincoln., Alexander Hamilton, President Harry Truman, Anselm Rothschild, Rothschilds Bros. of London, among others.

Jews, Commerce and Controversy

History News Network By Jonathan Karp February 9, 2009

As the story of Bernie Madoff ‘s massive fraud began to circulate following his December 11 arrest, many Jews experienced a profound sense of unease - and not just in their pocketbooks. Even prior to the Madoff debacle, September’s tales of financial market breakdown seemed packed with references to Jewish brokers and bankers whose complex machinations were implicated in if not held responsible for the mayhem.... Jews knew that anti-Semites..seek to exploit the crisis. As commentator Bradley Burston put it in a December 21 column for the Israeli newspaper Ha-Aretz, " for the true Anti-Semite Christmas came early this year."

The reaction of many Jews - and the overreaction of some - is not difficult to understand. The image of Jews as financial crooks has been part of the anti-Semitic arsenal for centuries. It is a venerable and variegated one with countless incarnations: the Jewish usurer of the Christian middle ages, the ghetto sharper of early modern Italy; the suspicious peddler wandering the back country roads of eighteenth-century Germany; the pawnbroker fencing stolen goods in Victorian London; the fin de si?cle banking dynasty reaping windfall profits through political manipulation; and of course the fraudulent speculator pocketing his gains as markets crash around him. These are some of the stock anti-Semitic representations associated with Jews and money, and their poisonous potency is incontrovertible.

... Are they rank fabrications or do they possess some grain of historical truth, distorted but not entirely concocted by anti-Semites. Even broaching these questions makes many Jews nervous. A recent article by Staci Burling in the Sunday business section of the Philadelphia Inquirer underscores the point. Drawing attention to an upcoming series of lectures sponsored by the Wharton Business School on the topic of Jews and commerce (I am delivering the first of these) sparked a firestorm of criticism from donors and alumni who feared that such publicity would only serve to legitimize stereotypes at a moment of severe economic hardship....

Jews’ squeamishness about investigating their economic history is nothing new. When academic Jewish scholars began doggedly researching Jewish history in the mid nineteenth century, they consistently downplayed the economic dimension. It was only in the first decades of the twentieth century that a field of Jewish economic history came into being, first, in reaction to the sensational 1912 book by the German sociologist Werner Sombart, The Jews in Modern Capitalism, and second, inspired by the penetration of Marxism and other socialist creeds into the worldviews of Jewish historians in Eastern Europe. These leftist scholars sought to shift the historical emphasis from the lofty doctrines of rabbis and philosophers to the "everyday life" of Jewish laborers. As one of the leaders of the effort, Ignacy Schipper, put it, "we know about the Sabbath Jew and his extra Sabbath soul. But it is time we got to know the history of the weekday Jew and his weekday thoughts, ... the history of Jewish working life."

Schipper could make this pronouncement because a significant Jewish working class existed in Poland and Russia, in contrast to central and western Europe. Yet Marxism proved ill-suited to the task of elucidating Jewish economic life. Even in the East, the Jewish population remained essentially skewed toward commercial and middleman occupations. The socialist Jewish historians who wished to lay bear the story of the Jewish "common man" constantly ran up against the ambiguous character of the Jewish population, which straddled the economic ladder between middle and bottom, commercial and proletarian.

In fact, despite their unique qualities, East European Jews resembled their Western co-religionists in important ways. In the middle of the nineteenth century both groups continued to speak Yiddish or had only recently abandoned it as the mother tongue; both possessed experience as sojourners in the countryside who provided commercial and financial services to rural non-Jewish populations; and both were now striving to reconstitute their livelihoods in a world undergoing revolutionary changes in industry and transportation. In meeting this challenge, the more Westernized Jews could even offer their poor cousins a boost...

These are the factors that best explain the modern Jewish "success" story. Jews were better equipped than most to adapt to capitalism because they had inherited a body of commercial experience derived from centuries of serving as commercial and financial specialists in European life. Jews’ very existence in Christendom as a tolerated religious minority, however at times miserable and precarious, had been unique. The Jews of the late Roman imperial diaspora were agriculturalists, artisans, mercenaries, but not prominently merchants. Yet in a process still little understood by historians, small groups of Italian and Mediterranean Jews migrated to northern Europe during the early middle ages, where they were granted privileges in return for performing commercial services. Very likely it was the seventh- and eighth-century Islamic conquests of much of the Mediterranean world that established the precondition for Jews to serve as intermediaries and long-distance traders, eventually affording them skills as money changers and access to liquid capital with which to provide banking services. These skills were transportable, so that when local conditions became inhospitable, Jews could move on. As the German economic historian Wilhelm Roscher observed in a seminal 1875 article, the persecution of Jews often coincided with growing competition from Christian merchants. But as Roscher explained Jews could always relocate to still underdeveloped regions and new frontiers to begin the process anew.

The seventeenth-century Italian rabbi, Simone Luzzatto, once observed that Jews had been educated in the school of harsh necessity to seek out and exploit new economic niches. With the onset of modernity, this habituation to scraping and scrambling enabled Jews eventually to stake out a prominent position within an economic order now defined by market relations. By the late nineteenth century Jews had come to constitute a kind of "impoverished bourgeoisie," devastated by discrimination yet possessing the "cultural capital" to rapidly climb back up the ladder as capitalism advanced. The phenomenon was more cultural than economic. The Jews’ essentially middle class orientation ensured that business would be only one among several important avenues to their rise (others included professions, such as teaching, union officialdom, accountancy, and at the higher levels, law and medicine). This Jewish "overrepresentation" (disproportionate participation in certain occupations relative to their percentage in the population) ensures that they will be prominent as not just Madoffs but also as Brandeises and Franfurters.

It is no wonder that the legacy of commerce makes many Jews nervous. And yet that legacy is as much a tale of heroism and survival as of villainy and scandal. Even in difficult times like our own, it is an inheritance that Jews should proudly embrace.

Mr. Karp is an Associate Professor in the Judaic Studies and History Departments at Binghamton University, SUNY. His most recent book is The Politics of Jewish Commerce: Economic Thought and Emancipation in Europe, 1638-1848, published by Cambridge University Press.

http://www.hnn.us/articles/60059.html

Italian Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni Calls for Rapists to be Castrated

The proportion of immigrants accused of crimes of sexual violence has risen from 9 per cent of the total ten years to 40 per cent today.

Communities are creating groups of "concerned citizens" (neighbourhood watch groups), and is not the same as condoning vigilante patrols, known as ronde.

Last month Mr Berlusconi vowed to increase tenfold the number of soldiers helping police to patrol city streets, taking the total to 30,000. But he also said that to guarantee public safety, "we would have to have as many soldiers as beautiful women, and I don't think that would be possible".

Italian Minister calls for Rapists to be Castrated

London Times Online; Richard Owen in Rome; February 16, 2009

An Italian Cabinet minister called today for rapists to be chemically castrated, amid a growing row over vigilante attacks on immigrants that have followed a series of rapes blamed on foreigners.

Roberto Maroni, the Interior Minister, urged Italians not to take the law into their own hands after masked youths armed with wooden clubs smashed up a kebab bar near the scene of a rape at Caffarella Park on the Appian Way in Rome at the weekend...

The attack followed an incident on St Valentine's Day in which a 14-year-old girl was raped and her 16-year-old boyfriend beaten up in the park, which is used by courting couples.

Also at the weekend a 21-year-old Bolivian girl was raped in Milan by a man described as North African, while in Bologna a Tunisian who had just been released from prison after being held on drugs offences was re-arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old local girl.

Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League, who is Minister for Simplification of Laws in the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, said that chemical castration was "the only answer" when teenage girls were being attacked. "Talk of rehabilitation is not enough," he told La Stampa. "Society must defend itself".

Mr Maroni said that the Government would push through an emergency decree this week speeding up legislation aimed at creating "groups of unnamed citizens" to "assist the police by bringing to their attention events which might be damaging to urban security". The decree will also ban magistrates from releasing into house arrest those accused of crimes involving sexual violence.

Mr Maroni said that creating groups of "concerned citizens" was not the same as condoning vigilante patrols, known as ronde. However Pierferdinando Casini, of the Christian Democratic UDC, said that the Government was "flailing around" after coming to power on a promise to resolve the crime and immigration problem nearly a year ago. "What we need are more police," he said.

Marco Minniti, the shadow interior minister, said that there was "a very fine line" between vigilantes and neighbourhood watch groups. Enzo Letizia, head of the police trades union, said that because of public spending cuts by the Berlusconi government the police were so badly underfunded that there was no money to maintain the country's 25,000 police patrol cars, 500 of which were currently out of commission.

Gianni Alemanno, the rightwing mayor of Rome, who visited the Cafferella Park area at the weekend to meet angry residents, said that police patrols should be stepped up in isolated areas where the suburbs merged into the countryside. Rapists must know they face "a definitive sentence", the mayor said...

The number of Romanians arrested for rape annually has risen from 170 five years ago to nearly 500, followed by Moroccans (300), Albanians (150) and Tunisians (120), according to official crime figures. The proportion of immigrants accused of crimes of sexual violence has risen from 9 per cent of the total ten years to 40 per cent today. A taskforce of 25 Romanian police officers arrived in Rome today to help the Italian authorities investigate the recent spate of rapes.

...Last month four Romanian immigrants were arrested at Guidonia, near Rome, for allegedly gang-raping an Italian woman. The day after the attack, Albanians and Romanians were beaten up by a mob and Romanian-owned shops were fire-bombed.

A Bill currently going through Parliament includes a provision calling for a census of homeless people to be entered into a database held by the Interior Ministry. Doctors would be allowed to report illegal immigrants to the authorities, something which has been banned on privacy grounds since 1998.

Last month Mr Berlusconi vowed to increase tenfold the number of soldiers helping police to patrol city streets, taking the total to 30,000. But in a characteristic gaffe he said that to guarantee public safety, "we would have to have as many soldiers as beautiful women, and I don't think that would be possible".

The recent attacks echo the rape and murder of a woman in Rome in October 2007 for which a Romanian man has been convicted. That attack helped to make crime and immigration one of the main campaign issues in last year's elections.

Thousands of illegal immigrants continue to arrive at the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, off the North African coast, where there have been riots at the overcrowded detention centre.

Last November, four youths beat up and set alight a homeless Italian man sleeping on a park bench in Padova....

Italy Surviving Global Recession better than Euro Partners; Britain, Germany, France, and Ireland

It wasn't supposed to be like this. As Britain and America suffered the inevitable consequences of falling house prices, frozen credit and massive consumer debt, the former plodders in the eurozone, with their preference for safe banking and greater reliance on manufacturing rather than services, would emerge relatively unscathed, said policymakers in France and Germany - at least until recently.

Referring to the "meltdown" of Iceland, London is being called "Reykjavik-on-Thames". Germany is being called Reykjavik-on-the-Rhine and Ireland Reykjavik-on-Liffey. The joke goes that Ireland, whose property bubble has spectacularly burst, differs from Iceland only by one letter and six months.

The Mediterranean countries - Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain -...are also dealing with their slumping economies and high public debt.

Recession Crashes on to the Continent

The eurozone thought it would escape the worst of the slump. It was wrong,

The London Guardian ; Ashley Seager; Sunday 15 February 2009

It wasn't supposed to be like this. As Britain and America suffered the inevitable consequences of falling house prices, frozen credit and massive consumer debt, the former plodders in the eurozone, with their preference for safe banking and greater reliance on manufacturing rather than services, would emerge relatively unscathed, said policymakers in France and Germany - at least until recently.

For the big surprise of recent months has not been that Britain and the US have plunged into deep recessions, but that most countries of the 16-member euro bloc have entered recession at the same time, and are looking every bit as sick, if not sicker, than the Anglo-Saxon economies.

Britain saw its economy, for example, slump by 1.5% in the fourth quarter of the year, the biggest fall since the early 1980s recession. But Germany, despite not having had a property boom or consumer debt binge, saw its economy contract even faster. The eurozone's biggest economy shrank by 2.1% in the three months to December, but was run a close second by Italy, which suffered a 1.8% drop in GDP. The French economy contracted by 1.2%, Spain by 1% and the eurozone as a whole by 1.5%.

Europe's manufacturers are being hurt by the severity of the global recession. Car sales have crashed and the Chinese have ceased buying Germany's machine tools. "Germany's problems are that we are export world champions and exports have slumped," says Professor Dennis Snower, head of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. "And our Mittelstand [small and medium-sized businesses] are being crippled by a lack of credit."...

Industrial production figures in the eurozone are grim. They fell by 2.6% in December alone and are down 12% from a year earlier, the biggest fall in the bloc's short history. Germany's fell a staggering 5% on the month as its exporters struggled with falling demand and a strong euro. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Germany's GDP will fall even more this year than France's, Italy's or Spain's. The IMF thinks the eurozone will see a contraction of 2% in 2009 and flat growth in 2010, but many think that could prove highly optimistic.

Attention among economists has now moved from whether London is "Reykjavik-on-Thames" to whether the epithet of "the next Iceland" is more applicable to other countries. Germany is being called Reykjavik-on-the-Rhine and Ireland Reykjavik-on-Liffey. The joke goes that Ireland, whose property bubble has spectacularly burst, differs from Iceland only by one letter and six months.

The Mediterranean countries - Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain -...are also dealing with their slumping economies and high public debt.

Spain is suffering an economic collapse in spite of not allowing its banks to take excessive risks. Its tumbling house prices have dragged the construction sector into a huge recession and unemployment is surging.

Italy has the problem that, with public debt at 108% of GDP, it cannot embark on any meaningful fiscal stimulus for fear of pushing its debt higher still. With its economy having failed to adapt to the strictures of a single currency zone, it is hopelessly uncompetitive.

Part of the problem is the European Central Bank. It has been very slow in recognising the problem the bloc faces and has dragged its feet cutting interest rates, to the extent that it now looks way behind the curve with its key rate at 2%. The Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan are effectively at zero, while the Bank of England has cut rates to 1%.

ECB vice-president Lucas Papademos was in London last week and gave a hint the bank might cut rates again next month, but was still talking the language of "anchoring price expectations" at around 2%, even though inflation in the bloc is about to turn negative.

Some countries - Germany and France in particular - have belatedly launched economic stimulus packages in a bid to prevent unemployment, now on the rise everywhere, from rising too far. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has mocked Britain's VAT cut, preferring to encourage people to buy new, greener cars. But quite why people would want to buy a car if they have just lost their job, or fear they might do so, is not clear.

All the stresses and strains are showing up in the widening gap between yields on bonds issued by Germany (considered the safest bet) and those issued by, among others, Greece, Italy and Ireland, as markets fear that the danger of a sovereign default is growing.

Critics say this could all result in the break-up of the eurozone, or, at least, a country like Italy having to leave it. For now, that seems highly unlikely. But in this crisis, things that seem unlikely one month become the norm the next one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/15/europe-recession-euro

Valentine Speak - Italian Style

Italians are in love with Love and Romance, and no one speaks it better. Here is a Primer for Valentine's Day

Romantic and Sexy Italian Phrases for Your Special Valentine

Examiner.com

By Serenella Leoni

February 5, 2009

You can take inspiration from the 'country of romance' by learning some sexy Italian phrases to say to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. This will cost you nothing but a bit of time and effort and will sound sexy as all get out when whispered into your sweetie’s ear.

Italians are in love with love and romance. They revel in the news of any engagement, marriage or birth of a baby. As you stroll through any town in Italy, you will see lovers intertwined and oblivious to anything going on around them. Romance and passion are a necessity for Italians.

This has always been true in Italy: think of Romeo and Juliet, Casanova, Marcello Mastroianni, and Sofia Loren or Raoul Bova and Diane Lane in "Under the Tuscan Sun ". Consider the songs of Andrea Bocelli; while the music is beautiful, so much of the emotion has to do with the passionate words he is emoting. What of the many romantic movies filmed in Italy such as Room With a View, Under The Tuscan Sun, Respiro, Summertime and many, many more? You can be as romantic as any Italian by using a few simple phrases listed below.

What lover would not appreciate hearing romantic phrases expressed with love and passion? This gift is priceless!

Phrases for romance, Italian-style:

Ti amo (tee ah moe): I love you
Ti adoro (tee ah door oh): I adore you
Mi manchi (me mahn kee): I miss you
Ti penso sempre (tee pen so sehm pray): I always think about you
Sei sempre nel mio cuore (say sehm pray nell me oh kwo ray): You are always in my heart
Voglio baciarti (volley oh bah char tee): I want to kiss you
Baciami! (bah cha me): Kiss me!
Sei molto bella/bello (say mohl toe bell ah/oh): You are very beautiful/handsome
Voglio restare sempre con te (volley oh rest ah ray sehm pray con tay): I want to be with you always
Mi manchi come l’aria che respiro (me mahn kee ko may la ree ah kay res pier oh): I miss you like the air that I breathe
Io ti appartengo e tu mi appartieni (Ee oh tee ah par ten go eh too me ah par tee en ee): I belong to you and you belong to me

The phrases above can be preceded by calling your love romantic names such as:

Amore: Love
Amore mio: my love
Tesoro: (literally) ‘treasure’
Tesoruccio: little treasure
Cara/Caro: Dear
Anima Mia: My soul

Buona Fortuna (Good Luck)!

http://www.examiner.com/x-854-Italian-Living-Examiner~y2009m2d5-Romantic-and-sexy-Italian-phrases-for-your-special-Valentine

Italy: Where God Vacations

Jerry Springer, Talk Show host, and Ex Mayor of Cincinnati, has visited Italy every year for 20 years, and describes it as "Where God probably vacations and "So beautiful, it's obscene."

CELEBRITY TRAVELER: Jerry Springer

'Where God Vacations,' Italy Never Gets Old

Chicago Tribune By Anne Stein February 8, 2009

The son of German refugees Jerry Springer was born in England during the bombing of London and moved with his family to New York City at age 5. Though best known for hosting the self-titled TV show featuring Americans down on their luck and willing to fight about it, there's much more to Springer than that. The former mayor of Cincinnati is heavily involved in Democratic fundraising and gave frequent speeches during the last presidential campaign. Springer has been a journalist, a lawyer, was a campaign aide to Robert F. Kennedy and was a host on the British political show "Have I Got News for You."

Springer basically lives his life on airplanes; besides his show filmed in Chicago, he flies to audition sites for his other show, "America's Got Talent," which is filmed in Los Angeles. Married to Micki, the 65-year-old father and grandfather splits his time between Chicago and Sarasota, Fla. "What I most enjoy is that I get to do so many different things," said the remarkably unassuming Springer.

Question: What's your favorite vacation spot?

Answer: Every summer we go to Italy. We love the Tuscany area, Capri, Portofino, the Amalfi Coast... We've been to Italy maybe 20 times. It's probably where God vacations -the people, the scenery, the food, the opera- to go and see Italian opera in Italy outdoors is really nice.

Q What do you like to do on vacation?

A Because I'm such a public person normally, I just like to eat, read, go boating, sit by the pool or by the sea. The problem is the show is everywhere; it's been on for 18 years, so there aren't that many places where I'm not familiar. If you're at a certain hotel, people respect your privacy. When you're out on the streets it's different, but everyone's always nice.

Q What is your favorite hotel and why?

A When we're in Florence, we go to Villa San Michele. It's really high end; you have dinner out on this terrace, where the food is exquisite, and you're looking out over the hills of Tuscany and the city of Florence. It's just beautiful. It's obscene it's so nice.

In Capri we go to Casa Morgano. Morgano is more modest, but again, it's the view. You're looking at the sea, and it's just beautiful.,,,

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0208-celeb-springerfeb08,0,3946079.story

Italy Offers Euro 1,500 to New Car Buyers To Rescue Auto Industry

The Italian government approved euro 1,500 ($1,900) payments (not merely Tax Credits) to new car buyers who trade in older, polluting models, becoming the latest nation to try to boost the auto industry.

Italy joins Britain, France and Germany in helping out car makers as sales tumble. Germany is paying consumers euro 2,500 ($3,200) to junk old cars for greener models.

Italy Offers Euro 1,500 to New Car Buyers

Associated Press February 6, 2009

MILAN (AP) — The Italian government on Friday approved euro1,500 ($1,900) payments to new car buyers who trade in older, polluting models, becoming the latest nation to try to boost the auto industry hard hit by the global economic slowdown.

Automaking is one of Italy's most important sectors, and the Fiat Group SpA, Italy's leading automaker, also is the country's biggest employer and industrial concern.

Italy has seen new car registrations plummet by a third in January, compared to a year earlier. Like other European automakers, Fiat has enacted a series of temporary layoffs to cope with the crisis.

Industry Minister Claudio Scajola detailed the measures after a Cabinet meeting in Rome that approved the package.

Fiat shares were up by 5.6 percent to euro4.5 ($5.76) in trading on the Milan Stock Exchange.

Italy joins Britain, France and Germany in helping out car makers as sales tumble.

Germany is paying consumers euro2,500 ($3,200) to junk old cars for greener models. EU leaders will talk in March about joint efforts to speed up car sales across the 27-nation bloc.

Eluana Englaro - Berlusconi Defies Supreme Court in Italy's Terry Schiavo case

Eluana Englaro, 38, has been in a vegetative state since a car crash in 1992. Her case has looked much like that of Schiavo, the American who spent 15 years in a vegetative state and was allowed to die in 2005 after a long court battle.

Italy's top appeals court had ruled the feeding tubes could be removed, but Berlusconi ordered doctors not to act, similar to what George Bush did in the US Terry Schiavo case.

In a rather bizarre side issue, Bloomberg News reports Belusconi said " Englaro “is someone who could in theory even have a child”. Intercourse or being Fertilized requires CONSENT. How could someone in a coma give legal consent????????

Would any of you choose to live in a vegetative state for ANY period of time, choosing length of life over quality of life, while bankrupting your estate, and or relatives, or burdening the taxpayer?????

Italy’s “Terry Schiavo case” even more like its U.S. Precedent

Reuters

Tom Heneghan

February 6th, 2009

What’s been called “Italy’s Terry Schiavo case” is starting to resemble its U.S. precedent in more ways than one. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ordered doctors on Friday not to disconnect the feeding tubes that the country’s top appeals court had ruled could be removed. Doctors had began withdrawing them on Friday before the order came from Rome.

Eluana Englaro, 38, has been in a vegetative state since a car crash in 1992. Her case has looked much like that of Schiavo, the American who spent 15 years in a vegetative state and was allowed to die in 2005 after a long court battle.

(Photo:Eluana Englaro in an undated family photo)

“Until we have a law about end-of-life issues, nutrition and hydration, because they are a form of vital life sustenance, cannot be suspended under any circumstances by those who are care-givers of people who are not self-sufficient,” Berlusconi said after making the case resemble the Schiavo drama even more by intervening to stop Englaro’s tubes from being removed. In the Schiavo case, President George Bush also stepped in at a late stage to try to block a court decision to disconnect her.

The cabinet acted in defiance of Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano, who was opposed to dealing with the issue through a decree and has the power to block it. But Berlusconi said that if that happened he would call an emergency session of parliament, where he has a comfortable majority, to enact a law.

Catholic politicians, mostly in the centre right, have said that not feeding Englaro amounts to euthanasia, which is illegal in Italy, and had urged the government to intervene.

As in the Schiavo case, the Milan court that ruled on Englaro back in November said it was convinced that her condition was irreversible and that she would prefer to die rather than be kept alive artificially. Do you think those criteria are enough to allow doctors to remove the nutrition and hydration tubes?

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2009/02/06/italys-terry-schiavo-case-even-more-like-its-us-precedent/

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aePaiAgB.WHM&refer=europe

Embarrassed Brits Call Off Strike Vs Italians

After the British Strikers were reminded that 1.5 MILLION Brits work in EU countries, the 400 Italian workers hired to work on a new sub contract job seemed PETTY, the Brits called off the Strike.

Meet the Britons with Foreign Jobs

BBC News

February 4, 2009

British workers are protesting against jobs going to Italians at the Lindsey Oil Refinery. However, what about the 1.5m Britons working in the EU? Are they experiencing such hostility? BBC Radio 5 live's Victoria Derbyshire show asked four of them.

David Crackett, Italy

Accountant David has lived in Italy for 34 years and is president of the British Chambers of Commerce for Italy.

"Italians are a bit surprised about the situation in the UK because they see the English as being a very liberal country where protectionism doesn't exist.

"I'm not worried, though. Italians are not particularly xenophobic. But I couldn't exclude it if something similar took place in Italy during the current economic climate that there wouldn't be a similar reaction.

"When I came 34 years ago, it was easier to move around the EU: not because of laws or different regulations but because of the economic climate. It's much more complicated now but I think that's the same for Italians coming to the UK."

Simon Westgarth, Slovenia

Simon runs a kayaking business called Gene17 Kayaking in Slovenia and France.

"There is some local protectionism. Some places you have to go and register locally with the police, and in France, for example, you wouldn't have to do that.

"In Slovenia last year, there was an accident on the river with a government official and there was kneejerk legislation. Everybody suddenly needed a localised safety qualification. Everyone from outside Slovenia didn't have it.

"Like everything in tourism, if you bring people from outside you're very welcome. However, if your business starts getting a bit successful, if the local customers start coming to you, it's different. In France, my friend who runs a rafting company got lent on by the French authorities."

Barry Kearnan, Austria

Barry followed his girlfriend to Austria. He says there is some discrimination against foreign workers there.

"It affects small businesses, which make up the bulk of the Austrian economy. There are requirements, qualifications that are only available if you've studied here in order to get these business licences.

"When I first came here, I thought there would be no problem starting a small photography business. I came up against a brick wall. You had to have seven years' Austrian qualification and you had to do aural tests in German - just in order to be a photographer."

Rob Jenkins, Spain

Rob works for an IT company in Madrid.

"I don't think I'm denying a Spanish person a job. When I got this job four years ago, they were encouraging immigrants to come because of labour shortages. At the moment, they've got 15% unemployment but it isn't really hitting my sector.

"I wouldn't be too surprised if some resentment did come because it could come in any country when unemployment got very high."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/7869796.stm

Brit Workers Strike Vs Italians

While Brits, French and Germany are so often so quick to criticize Italy for trying to hold the line vs the torrent of illegal immigrants from North and Sub Sahara Africa (the most convenient entry), the Brits are Not Only COMPLAINING about Fellow EU member Italians working in Britain, BUT are STRIKING vs Italians hired for a new Sub contractor job, NOT as Replacement workers!!!!!!!

The WSJ does not state one word about ITALIAN workers, only an ITALY based company. But Italian Commentators aware of the 400 Italian workers involved accused the British strikers of Anti Italian Xenophobia. La Repubblica went further in an editorial and stated that the British workers once again see the Italians as "Ugly, dirty and mean, like in some old films on Italian Immigration, in order to send us away, they strike".

It makes me sorry that Julius Caesar conquered Britain and Civilized them, and then later the Italian Renaissance pulled Britain out of the Middle (Medieval) Ages, and these Brits have the audacity to think that Western Civilization started with them and Shakespeare.

Workers Resume Strikes in U.K.

Wall Street Journal

By Lananh Nguyen

February 2, 2009,

LONDON -- Hundreds of workers resumed strikes across the U.K. to protest the use of foreign labor, and talks opened to try to resolve the dispute that sparked the actions.French oil company Total SA entered mediated talks Monday to end a strike by contract workers that began last week at its Lindsey oil refinery in eastern England.

In a rare example of backlash in a country that has prided itself on its economic openness, the Lindsey workers are protesting Total's decision to award a construction subcontract to Italy-based Irem SpA, which intends to bring in its own staff from abroad rather than use local workers. The strike has inspired actions at more than 10 other refineries, power plants and energy facilities....

Prime Minister Gordon Brown... is balancing the demands of an electorate suffering in the recession and his own antiprotectionist views. A comeback in the opinion polls for Mr. Brown, who has to call an election by May 2010, has faltered as the government's banking bailout and other measures have so far done little to improve conditions.

Over the weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Brown spoke out against a slide into protectionism. But as unemployment rises and the economy contracts, more Britons could begin to question the benefits of globalization.

Workers at the Lindsey oil refinery were protesting a decision by owner Total of France to award a $280 million construction contract to an Italian firm that planned to use foreign workers.

In addressing the strikes, Mr. Brown's hands are also tied by European Union laws, which state that subcontracts can be put out to tender for companies in all its member states. ..

"We are now seeing the backlash as the recession bites," said Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite. "The government must ensure that employers do not raise barriers to U.K.-based labor applying for work."...

Total said it didn't anticipate job losses as a result of the Irem contract, and added that Irem staff will be paid at nationally agreed levels for the engineering and construction industry. "We recognize the concerns of contractors, but we must stress that it has never been, and never will be, the policy of Total to discriminate against British companies or British workers," the company said in a statement.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123360965409240743.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Italian Mystery Writer Andrea Camilleri Keeps Montalbano on the Case

Americans have Philip Marlowe and Raymond Chandler. Britons have Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle. And Italians have Salvo Montalbano and Andrea Camilleri.

Camilleri, a bespectacled, gravel-voiced 83-year-old, has become a national character as beloved as his Montalbano, a shrewd, resolutely Sicilian police commander who solves crimes in the fictional town of Vigata.

Remarkably, Camilleri's career didn't take off until he was nearly 70, when he retired as a playwright and screenwriter. Since then, he has published an astonishing 40-plus books and sold 20 million copies internationally.

Italian Mystery Writer Andrea Camilleri Keeps Montalbano on the Case

At 83, the retired playwright provides a steady stream of suspense with the Sicilian police commander series. The author's historical novels round out his passions.

Los Angeles Times By Sebastian Rotella
February 3, 2009

Reporting from Rome -- Americans have Philip Marlowe and Raymond Chandler. Britons have Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle. And Italians have Salvo Montalbano and Andrea Camilleri.

Camilleri, a bespectacled, gravel-voiced 83-year-old, has become a national character as beloved as his Montalbano, a shrewd, resolutely Sicilian police commander who solves crimes in the fictional town of Vigata.

Remarkably, Camilleri's career didn't take off until he was nearly 70, when he retired as a playwright and screenwriter. Since then, he has published an astonishing 40-plus books and sold 20 million copies internationally, inspiring a series of made-for-TV movies and, in Sicily, guided tours and a statue of his sleuth.

It's not unusual for Camilleri to have two or three titles atop European bestseller lists at once. In addition to the Montalbano mysteries, he writes works of historical fiction full of humor and a virtuoso command of dialect.

At an age when most people tend to focus on scheduling medical visits, he gets up every day at 6 a.m. in his comfortable apartment here, showers, dresses and gets to work. And enjoys himself enormously.

"I spent 30 years in television, theater, where you must have great physical energy," he says in a study decorated by images of comic-strip hoodlums. "In theater it's a 24-hour day. . . . I am accustomed to this kind of rhythm. In fact, writing relaxes me."

Craggy features, a bald dome and a longish fringe of white hair give the author the look of an ancient eagle. His speech and movements are jovial and deliberate. He's a chain-smoker, a habit he describes as "imbecilic."

"On the other hand, I have made it to 83," he says. "Maybe if I quit cigarettes today, I would drop dead."

Camilleri, the son of a coast guard officer, was born in Porto Empedocle in southwestern Sicily, near the ruins of the Greek temples of Agrigento.

Sicily's legacy

Despite stereotypes of the island, more than half of the best Italian writers of the last 120 years have been Sicilian, says Stephen Sartarelli, an American poet who is Camilleri's translator. They have included Nobel laureate Luigi Pirandello, a playwright, and Leonardo Sciascia, a cerebral, politically engaged novelist.

This is the result of a cultivated intellectual class, a folk-tale tradition and a dark reality that, as in Latin America or Russia, lend themselves to fiction, Sartarelli says.

"When you live in more violent surroundings, you have more moral decisions to make," he says. "The Russians lived that in the 19th century. Moral dilemmas create the most interesting literature."

But a sense of humor comes with the territory as well. Camilleri has a playwright's ear for the language of subcultures, regions and historical periods. He delights in the "verbal inventiveness" of early Italian immigrants in the United States who said "backahouse" for outhouse and "robbachoos" for galoshes.

His approach does not seem a prototype for mainstream success. He writes not in standard Italian but a pastiche of Sicilian dialects, a language of his own concoction.

"It's a difficult kind of Italian because it's very much my own language," he says. "And it's even sometimes not very comprehensible for my own Sicilian countrymen. . . . I confess there are also invented words."

Only half in jest, Camilleri says the stardom of his sleuth mystifies him. The middle-aged Montalbano is no action hero. Resentful of authority but slow to violence, gruff but sentimental, he commands a station-house ensemble featuring Catarella, an endearingly bumbling front-desk officer, and Mimi Augello, a skirt-chasing deputy commander.

Rather than cop-show realism, Camilleri lingers on details of place, personality and meals, which are near-religious experiences for Montalbano.

"I wanted a character who one could invite tranquilly to dinner knowing that he would not talk about a case unless you asked him about it," he said. "A person you can trust, who respects his word in friendship. With his private troubles, but nothing exceptional. Maybe it was this lack of the exceptional that struck a chord in Italy."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-andrea-camilleri3-2009feb03,0,2345679.story

Italians Moelgg and Rocca are Top Two Men's Skiers in the World Cup Slalom

Manfred Moelgg and Giorgio Rocca surprised the field, fans, and defied the odds by giving Italians the two top spots in the Men's World Cup Slalom Sunday in Germany.

Italy's Moelgg Edges Countryman for Ski Win

CBS News

February 1, 2009

Italians Manfred Moelgg and Giorgio Rocca were the top two men's skiers in the World Cup slalom Sunday in Germany.

Moelgg, last year's World Cup winner in the discipline, won his first race of the season. He finished the course at Garmisch-Partenkirchenin in a two-run time of one minute, 46.77 seconds....

Rocca's combined time of 1:47.06 put him second, slipping past Herbst who finished third. Manfred Pranger of Austria and Jean-Baptiste Grange of France were tied for fourth....

Last year's overall World Cup champion, Bode Miller of the United States, was sixth, with American Ted Ligety 16th.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia finished a disappointing 24th, but still leads the overall World Cup standings, 36 points ahead of Grange. Austria's Benjamin Raich - who was 13th in Sunday's race - is in third place.

In the slalom standings, the order is Grange, Kostelic and Herbst....

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/alpineskiing/story/2009/02/01/alpine-men.html

If Salami is the Blog of Cured Meats, Then Prosciutto is the Great Novel.

Prosciutto has been made on the Italian peninsula since the time of Caesar. A salami requires anywhere from 20 to 120 days to cure, making it popular with chefs who want to put their house-made stamp on a rustic appetizer. But the best prosciutto requires 8 to 24 months to transform the salt-covered hind leg of a pig into a $35-per-pound luxury, a rosy meat that, when thinly sliced, is a complex, faintly salty delicacy that dissolves into richness on the tongue. It is nothing short of a miracle.

Careful attention is paid not only to the breed and weight of the pig but also to the way the leg is boned and trimmed, the type and amount of salt applied and the aging, cleaning and sealing processes, all of which must be undertaken at just the right time, under favorable temperatures and humidity. It takes skill to ensure the meat doesn’t rot; texture and flavor require artistry. Today in Parma, Italy, there are schools and trade groups dedicated to the science of the ham.

Nine years ago, Herb Eckhouse, then a 50-year-old Des Moines seed-company executive who’d been based in Parma, got a glimmer of what he’d like to do with his early retirement. A ham-shaped light bulb went off, Eckhouse recalled.In 2001, the family, started La Quercia (“oak” in Italian), and considering Iowa have more pigs than people, and combined with corn and soybeans, the state’s biggest crops, and are the best feed for pigs, it sounded like an ideal start. Herb spent four years studying prosciutto-making. Their results have received critical acclaim.

Aging Gracefully

New York Times

By Christine Muhkle

February 1, 2009

If salami is the blog of cured meats, then prosciutto is the great novel. A salami requires anywhere from 20 to 120 days to cure, making it popular with chefs who want to put their house-made stamp on a rustic appetizer. But the best prosciutto requires 8 to 24 months to transform the salt-covered hind leg of a pig into a $35-per-pound luxury, a rosy meat that, when thinly sliced, is a complex, faintly salty delicacy that dissolves into richness on the tongue. It is nothing short of a miracle.

“It’s a leap of faith,” Paul Bertolli, the expert behind Fra’ Mani salumi, acknowledged with a laugh. Known for his artisanal cured meats, he has yet to make the leap to prosciutto. Space, time and, as he put it, “all that money hanging up in the air” are daunting barriers.

Prosciutto has been made on the Italian peninsula since the time of Caesar. Traditionally the legs are hung after the November slaughter and left to mature throughout the seasons. Careful attention is paid not only to the breed and weight of the pig but also to the way the leg is boned and trimmed, the type and amount of salt applied and the aging, cleaning and sealing processes, all of which must be undertaken at just the right time, under favorable temperatures and humidity. It takes skill to ensure the meat doesn’t rot; texture and flavor require artistry. Today in Parma, Italy, there are schools and trade groups dedicated to the science of the ham. Knowledge aside, you still have to wait an awfully long time before you can taste if what you’ve made is any good.

Nine years ago, Herb Eckhouse, then a 50-year-old Des Moines seed-company executive who’d been based in Parma, got a glimmer of what he’d like to do with his early retirement. He was eating prosciutto in Parma with a friend who said, “You know, if you make something this good, you’re going to make a lot of people happy.” A ham-shaped light bulb went off, Eckhouse recalled.

For years, he imagined making good food in Iowa. “It was clear that we had this incredible bounty around us, but we weren’t known for creating great stuff to eat,” he told me, stretching his rangy frame at his dining room table. (Clearly things have changed: his wife, Kathy, was serving us apple pie whose heartbreaking crust was made with lard rendered from acorn-fed organic Berkshire pigs, their latest project.) “At the beginning of the 20th century, Iowa fed people. And here we are in the 21st century, and we’re feeding machines. It’s just a priori wrong.” He continued: “People were saying, ‘Iowa’s dying, and there’s no value added here.’ At that point I was thinking, Gosh, I wonder if we can make prosciutto in Iowa.”

In 2001, La Quercia (“oak” in Italian) was born. Eckhouse, a Harvard social-studies major in the ’60s, spent four years studying prosciutto-making. The couple would move their Volvo wagon out of the garage to weigh and salt legs, then age them in their guest bedroom. The first official prosciutto was shipped from their state-of-the-art plant near Des Moines in September 2005. Early on, the food writer Jeffrey Steingarten declared it the best prosciutto — domestic or foreign — he had tasted.

The Eckhouses are determined to not make an Italian facsimile. They might be advised by a consultant in Parma, but they call their product prosciutto Americano. (Technically it is closest to a prosciutto addobbo: “It’s the culaccia plus the fiocco without the stinco,” Eckhouse clarified in his warm, intelligent manner, explaining that the smaller size requires less aging time.) Their pork is sourced and slaughtered within 200 miles of their plant, and their cutting and curing techniques have been developed through much trial and error.

“One of the things in the U.S. is we don’t have the thousands of years of tradition of making prosciutto — or of making anything,” Eckhouse said. “But we have a much broader perspective. I feel like for the guys in Parma, they’re somewhat limited in what they can do to make the product better.”

Without those restrictions, the cured meats sold by La Quercia can represent the Eckhouses’ sense of Midwestern terroir. “We have more pigs than people in Iowa,” said Kathy, who handles the company’s bookkeeping and some sales, helps salt the 730 hams that arrive weekly and draws upon her food-savvy upbringing in Berkeley, Calif., and Europe in her role as chief culinary officer. Herb pointed out that corn and soybeans, the state’s biggest crops, are the best feed for pigs, according to Parma scientists. La Quercia also reflects the couple’s political values: they require that the pigs be humanely raised and free of subtherapeutic antibiotics. “You see that the quality of the meat comes from the quality of life of the animal and the quality of the feed,” Herb said. One result is that perhaps only 2 percent of the pigs killed in Iowa are candidates for La Quercia: “We’re this little fringe.”

But they’re gaining an influential following. The silken-textured, nutty-sweet prosciutto is named on menus from A16 in San Francisco to Blackbird in Chicago, from Otto in Manhattan to Central Michel Richard in Washington, D.C. The La Quercia range, sold in Whole Foods, has expanded to include organic and heirloom prosciuttos, as well as lardo, pancetta, speck, coppa, guanciale and an annual Acorn Edition, in which subscribers pay $3,000 to receive all the parts of the prized acorn-fed organic Berkshire meat during the year, from fresh to cured. (Paul Bertolli raved about the Acorn Edition meat, saying, “I’ve never had anything that good in Italy.”) The plant recently expanded, too, to allow for longer aging.

Someday, Eckhouse would love to sell prosciutto in Italy: “Not because I think we’re better, but because we have ours, too.” Iowa, it seems, now has something to bring to the global table.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/magazine/01food-t-000.html?_r=1