UNICO National, the nation's largest Italian-American service non-profit organization, completed the first phase of its immediate fundraising for earthquake victims in the L'Aquila province of Italy with a $10,000 check presentation to Archbishop John J. Myers, the leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark on Friday in Newark.
r. to l. Archbishop John J. Myers, Plainfields UNICO President Robert Bengivenga, UNICO National Executive Administrator Salvatore Benvenuti, UNICO Past National President and UNICO Earthquake Relief Committee Coordinator Renato Biribin, UNICO Earthquake Committee Public Relations representative Sebastian D'Elia, who also serves as the Director of Public Relations for the County of Union.
UNICO is now in the second phase of Earthquake relief to residents of the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region.This phase of relief will help rebuild facilities and homes destroyed by the earthquake. It is estimated there are more than 46,000 left homeless by the earthquake, which killed nearly 300, and injured more than 1,500. Anyone who wishes to make a donation can go to the UNICO website at www.unico.org or call 973-808-0035.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
UNICO NATIONAL makes $10,000 contribution to the Roman Catholic Archidiocese of Newark for earthquake relief in L'Aquila
Monday, April 27, 2009
Italian Cruise Liner Repels Pirates Off Somalia Coast By Merely Shooting Back
Besides Swine Flu, is there a Stupid Virus also attacking the world???????
Rome - An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off Somalia when its private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits and drove them away.
The ship's commander told Italian state radio Sunday that six men in a small white speedboat approached the "MSC Melody" and opened fire "like crazy" Saturday night, but retreated after the security officers aboard the cruise ship returned fire with pistols.
"It felt like we were in war," the ship's captain, Cmdr. Ciro Pinto, said, adding that the pirates followed the ship for a bit before heading off.
None of the 1,000 passengers and 500 crew members were hurt, "Melody" owner MSC Cruises said in a statement.....
The attack occurred about 200 miles north of the Seychelles and about 500 miles east of Somalia, according to the anti-piracy flotilla headquarters of the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa.
U.S. Navy Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet, said that after an attack last fall on a Saudi tanker more than 400 nautical miles off Somalia there had been "a definite shift in [the pirates'] tactical capabilities."
"It's not unheard of to have attacks off the coast of the Seychelles. We've even had some in the past month," he said. "But at the same time, it is a sign that they are moving farther and farther off the Somali coast."
International military forces have battled pirates, with U.S. Navy snipers killing three men who were holding an American merchant marine captain hostage.
But Saturday's exchange of fire was one of the first reported between pirates and a nonmilitary ship. Civilian ships have generally avoided arming crewmen or hiring armed security for reasons of safety, liability and compliance with the rules of the different countries where they dock.
It was not the first attack on a cruise liner, however. Late last year, pirates opened fire on a U.S.-operated ship carrying hundreds of tourists on a month long luxury cruise from Rome to Singapore, but the cruise liner outran the pirates. In early April a yacht that had just dropped off its tourist passengers was hijacked by Somali pirates near the Seychelles.
The Melody is on a 22-day cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy.
Meatballs for Breakfast???
Preserving Italian culture in our generation, one meal at a time
The day my four year old son asked for meatballs for breakfast, I happily thought to myself, 'this boy's definitely got Italian blood running through his veins!' At this moment I realized the importance of passing on to my children the love of everything Italian.
When I was young my parents didn't have to work very hard to keep Italian traditions alive because it just came naturally - it was in their blood! As our grandparents and relatives pass, a little bit of the tradition sadly dies with them. Now the responsibility lies on our generation to keep it from being lost. No pressure, right?! But really, any true Italian-American knows that the culture (RAA: and the History) is far too beautiful to ever be truly forgotten, no matter how many generations go by.
Over the years, there have always been two things that Italians know best - family and food. So when it comes to my own family, food is usually the center of attention. My husband, Dominic, and I have three children, ages four, two, and one. And even at such young ages, food is already more than sustenance to them - it is a passion. Needless to say, every white t-shirt my children own has been ruined by marinara sauce. And I'm not sure if too many two year olds eat grated Romano cheese by the spoonful. So it looks like my children will undeniably follow the footsteps of their grandfather, who went to school with sopressata and leftover chicken parmigiana in his lunchbox. To them it might be embarrassing. To me it is fulfilling because I know that they too will grow up knowing that being Italian is special.
Growing up, we were always told we should be proud to be Italian, but looking back, no one really had to tell us. The examples from our parents and grandparents filled us with Italian pride. Italian families possess what is sadly lacking in today's culture - true love. The love of an Italian nonna is like nothing else. I remember visiting my grandma in New York and boarding the plane home with a thermos full of tortellini. The memory of making homemade bread and gnocchi with my father and grandmother will never leave me. My brother still reminds me of the times we'd wait for Mom's first batch of meatballs. After all, our 'taste - testing' is the only reason I know how to make meatballs today!
As we got older, family gatherings were even more unforgettable because we could stay up for the pasta at midnight. Usually the adults were always up late talking or playing cards. So at midnight, even if we just finished dessert, we would hand everyone an apron and make pasta! It became a tradition that all of us have continued with our own friends. But until my own children are old enough to stay up that late, we just try and make cooking (and eating) as much of a memory as possible. Even today when I make meatballs, they mysteriously disappear into three little mouths that wait by the stove just like I did. Let's just say I have learned through experience to double the recipe!
It is now our generation's responsibility to keep these valuable recipes in the family. So do what we did, and make a family cookbook while you still have access to the wealth of information that your nonnas and bisnonnas can give you. My aunt took all the family recipes from her childhood, and some new ones from each person in the family. Then she compiled a book of recipes and family photos and had it bound under the name "Cucina Di Rosa", after my grandma Rose. Today, a copy of the cookbook rests on the kitchen counter of every one in my family. It is our way of preserving those recipes that have meant so much in our lives. Every chance I get, I put on some Italian music and bring my kids in the kitchen to cook these meals and create the same tasty memories I had growing up.
Looking back in our lives, a picture, a song, a scent, or a special meal can bring you right back to a memory in an instant. That is what we need to create for our children, so that when they grow up and their own children want meatballs for breakfast, they will never forget where it came from. After all, our Italian roots and relatives were the building blocks of who we are today, and it is thanks to them that we have the privilege of passing on this beautiful culture. So hand your kids, your brothers, sisters, cousins, or neighbors an apron and get in the kitchen. Because food brings everyone together, and will help create the Italian traditions in your own family for generations to come.
Tiffany Renee Longo (Pusateri) was born into a loud, loving Italian-American family with strong values and deep traditions. As a freelance writer, Tiffany's articles appear in La Voce newspaper under the column, "Mamma Mia!" She also keeps up her blog regularly, www.unamammaitaliana.blogspot.
Tiffany grew up Italian, is married to an Italian, and is now raising three little Italians of her own. She currently lives with her husband Dominic, her son Dominic II, and her daughters Gabriella and Gianna. (Did we mention all the kids are 4 and under?) With her crazy and exciting life, there is bound to be something everyone can relate to!
Visit her site for more information. www.unamammaitaliana.blogspot.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
In Italy, the Non Kebab Wars
MILAN - ....It is likely that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Lombardy residents are running afoul of a regional law passed this week that regulates how fast-food restaurants and takeout shops may sell the food they produce.
The law, which also applies to ice cream parlors and pizza stands, bans establishments without restaurant or bar licenses from selling anything other than what they themselves produce on site, including drinks. Customers consuming outside the premises cannot sit down or use plastic utensils...
But what brought dozens of people to a so-called protest lunch outside a kebab shop on Thursday was concern that the law was aimed at fast-food restaurants run by immigrants. The measure was approved Tuesday by the center-right majority,... as a means to preserve the traditional identity of Italian cities. ...
In Italy,... there are pro-kebab and anti-kebab Facebook groups fiercely competing for members. Italian fans of foreign foods can also join a group calling itself the Couscous Clan, which promotes what it calls “gastronomic trans-contamination.” It was started 15 years ago in Turin and became a Facebook group this year after the Tuscan city of Lucca banned new ethnic and fast-food restaurants from opening in its historic center.
Supporters of the law say that it finally regulates a sector that had existed in a confused legislative status for years. Rather than restrict what takeouts sell, they say, the law legalizes what had been under-the-counter behavior, while protecting bars and restaurants from unfair competition on the part of fast-food businesses. "Bars and restaurants have to follow strict sanitary codes as well as numerous other laws that takeaways didn’t, and that wasn’t fair," said Lino Stoppani, president of the Italian Federation of Bars and Catering.
Violators of the new law, which also mandates closing hours for the establishments, are supposed to be fined about $195 to $1,300....
Friday, April 24, 2009
Italians Celebrate Liberation Day of WWII on April 25, 65 Years ago
The Nazi army’s departure from Italy 64 years ago remains a cause for celebration in the country. On Saturday, Italians will celebrate Liberation Day, what could be considered equivalent to the Fourth of July in the United States.
April 25 is the annual public holiday that celebrates the nation’s liberation from fascists and Nazis. It is marked by a military-based parade in Rome and community mayors laying wreaths at war memorials.
This year, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will observe the day in Onna, near the city of L’Aquila, which was devastated three weeks ago by an earthquake. His visit is symbolic, in that Onna, also hit hard by the quake that killed 40 of its residents, was the town in which Nazi forces massacred 16 people on June 11, 1944, — two days before the liberation of L’Aquila, according to news reports.
Italian Resistance movements against the Nazis and Mussolini-led fascists increased following the signing of the armistice in 1943. The "war of resistance," resistenza in Italian, led to the nation’s liberation from the oppressive forces. Laws used to mandate stores be closed for the holiday, but now it is up to business and shop owners to decide whether they will be open on April 25.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Belusconi Seeks to Move G-8 Summit From UpScale Sardinia Resort to L'Aquila - Quake-Hit City
Associated Press: By Areil David; April 23, 2009
ROME (AP) - Italy's government wants to move this summer's Group of Eight summit from Sardinia to earthquake-stricken L'Aquila — both to save money and to give the devastated central region an economic boost.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi told a news conference Thursday after a Cabinet meeting in L'Aquila that the cost of holding the July 8-10 summit on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena would be euro220 million ($285 million).
Berlusconi said that money would be better spent on reconstruction efforts in Italy's Abruzzo region. He gave no figure for how much it would cost to host the summit in L'Aquila, but maintained the move would save money.
The April 6 quake killed 295 people, drove some 50,000 from their homes and toppled or heavily damaged thousands of buildings around the mountain city of L'Aquila.
But with L'Aquila just a one-hour drive from Rome, Berlusconi insisted there were enough hotels and conference venues for delegates and journalists. And he said demonstrators might think twice before marching on the quake-devastated region, as opposed to a deluxe seaside resort in Sardinia.
Italian media had previously reported that the government was having trouble organizing the summit on La Maddalena and finding ships that were to host the delegations and journalists. But Italian organizers denied there were any such problems.
The island, selected by Berlusconi's predecessor Romano Prodi, had a U.S. Navy support base that was closed last year and was undergoing extensive construction to prepare for the summit.
Berlusconi said the summit could be hosted in the same venue as Thursday's Cabinet meeting, a military school that has been turned into the headquarters for the rescue and recovery operation. The sprawling complex, complete with barracks and a heliport, recently held a mass funeral for some 200 victims of the quake on its broad parade grounds.
The change of venue depends on the approval of other participating countries.
"The G-8 doesn't only concern Italy," said Infrastructure Minister Altero Matteoli. "The premier will have to consult all the heads of state."
The office of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, expressing "deep sympathy" for the Italian people after the quake, issued a statement saying the decision on the venue "rests with the Italian government. We look forward to engaging in a range of issues at the summit."
Berlusconi said he hoped other countries would "adopt" some of the dozens of churches, castles and other centuries-old treasures damaged in the quake, adding that G-8 leaders would be taken to tour the sites they offer to restore.
Moving the G-8 venue is "a symbolic gesture that would help keep attention focused on Abruzzo," said center-left opposition leader Dario Franceschini. "But I hope the government will keep in mind that this decision must not hinder the reconstruction."
During the Cabinet meeting, the government approved euro8 billion ($10.36 billion) in funding over three years to rebuild the area hit by the quake, Berlusconi said.
The premier said the plan would be funded without levying new taxes. He said an initial euro700 million ($914 million) was earmarked for temporary housing to be built before winter for the thousands left homeless.
Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said the homeless would receive direct government contributions to repair or rebuild their homes, financed by pre-existing Italian and EU funds as well as lotteries and betting games.
Rome had also asked EU authorities to allow the creation of a tax-exempt zone in the quake area, Tremonti said.
An initial government estimate had placed the reconstruction bill at euro12 billion ($15.5 billion), but Tremonti cautioned Thursday that the total costs had not been calculated yet.
Silvio Berlusconi Picks Starlets for European Elections
The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has included former showgirls, a Miss Italy contender and a Big Brother celebrity in his choice of candidates for the European Parliament elections.
London Telegraph, By Nick Squires in Rome, April 22, 2009
His weakness for glamorous starlets, which has landed him in trouble in the past with his wife, herself a former actress, now looks set to be exported to the grey world of MEPs in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Potential candidates were invited to the Rome headquarters of Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party for a briefing on the European elections, which are in June.
"I want young faces, new faces, to give People of Freedom a fresh image in Europe," said Mr Berlusconi, well known for his flirtatiousness and risque remarks.
Among the aspiring politicians hoping to be one of Italy's 72 MEPs is the Big Brother contestant Angela Sozio.
The flame-haired Miss Sozio is well known to the Italian public not just through her appearance on the reality television show, which in Italy is called Grande Fratello.
In 2007 she was photographed by paparazzi holding hands with Mr Berlusconi and carousing with the billionaire businessmen along with four other young women at his luxury Sardinian villa.
"Berlusconi's harem" was the front page headline on the weekly magazine Oggi.
None of the four candidates has any political experience. Eleonora Giaggioli is an actress, while Camilla Ferranti is a former presenter on a daytime chat show who has appeared in lingerie calendars.
Her talents were spotted by Mr Berlusconi, who put her name forward for a role in a soap opera produced by one of the television channels he owns.
Another potential candidate, Barbara Matera, was a hostess on a football show and a former contender for Miss Italy.
"For me it's a fantastic opportunity for personal and political growth," she said .
Mr Berlusconi's centre-Right government, elected last year, has several young female ministers, the most famous of whom is Mara Carfagna, 34, his equal opportunities minister who is an ex-model who made a career out of appearing in steamy photo shoots for men's magazines.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Curtis Sliwa Does "Mea Culpa" on Anti-Italian Broadcast - Why???
Sliwa did go to Staten Island and apologize for that commentary, he did so by going to Arrochar Friendship Club in South Beach, and allowed himself to be paddled by "Italian grandma",Mrs. Cammarata, who also playfully shoved soap in his mouth.
Later on March 30, Sliwa accepted an invitation to visit the Italian American Museum, after which he wrote a letter of Apology (see below)
Sliwas' parents, Chester and Francesca, he a Merchant mariner, she a Dental technician, are seldom referred to in his activities.
And then Sliwa's apologies became clear. Curtis Sliwa is not only an "attention whore", he is an aspiring politician, and had filed papers with the Republican Party in 2008 to run for New York 13th Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives ( Staten Island )
Sliwa Could Be Jewish Favorite In Race For Vito’s Seat From The NY Jewish Week, By Adam Dickter, May 29,2008
"Curtis Sliwa isn’t Jewish. But you’d be hard pressed to find a more passionate defender of Israel and just about any other Jewish cause. And he’s probably been the guest of honor at more Jewish institution dinners than many a Jewish politician"......
So the report today that Sliwa sent a letter to the Staten Island Republican chairman expressing interest in the race to succeed scandal-plagued Rep. Vito Fossella should generate some excitement in the borough’s growing Jewish community.......
....As of the 2002 Jewish Community Study, about 12 percent of the overall population of [Staten Island is Jewish]. That number has likely increased with an influx of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants, who tend to be conservative voters.
http://jewish-politics-ny.com/
Nevertheless, Staten Island (Richmond County) has a higher percentage of Italian-Americans than any other county in the US 37.7%
[RAA NOTE: Didn't we already decide that that honor went to Providence County in Rhode Island, with 43.%, or maybe that was referring to a district of Providence???]
Except, even the Republicans didn't consider Sliwa a serious candidate, and endorsed Frank Powers, but Powers died of a heart attack on June 22, 2009. Robert Straniere was selected to replace Powers, and ran and was trounced by Democrat Michael McMahon who had routed Steve Harrison in the Democratic primary.
April 5th, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Brown University to Consider Changing Name Due to Endowers Slave Biz
The Brown (University) Herald, By Lauren Fedor, Senior Staff Writer, Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The faculty's decision last week to rename Columbus Day "Fall Weekend" on the University calendar has garnered more attention both locally and nationally than the average code revision, with Providence mayor David Cicilline '83 and Rush Limbaugh, the high-profile conservative pundit, among those decrying the move.
Though the faculty's vote last Tuesday seemed to reflect student opinion " a recent Herald poll suggested that the majority of Brown students disapproved of continuing to call the holiday Columbus Day " the resolution has prompted a wave of criticism from city leaders, who said the move was hypocritical and disrespectful to Italian-Americans.
"Brown University made itself an example to the nation by carefully exploring its ties to the slave trade and using that process to promote greater understanding," Cicilline said in a press release Thursday. But the decision to "simply erase the celebration of an incredibly significant moment in world history and Italian-American culture for the sake of political correctness does just the opposite," he said.
Cicilline added that "as an Italian-American," he took "particular offense" to the decision. Cicilline's communications director, Rhoades Alderson, told The Herald Monday that the mayor believes the role of higher education is to "get at the truth" of "complicated parts of our nation's history."
Brown "set the standard for doing that" with its work exploring its historical ties to the slave trade, Alderson said, but Cicilline felt the Columbus Day decision was done "in the opposite spirit."
"It was just kind of deleting (the event) from history, rather than using it to promote understanding," Alderson said.
Cicilline was not the only one upset with the faculty's decision. Members of local Italian-American organizations expressed their dissatisfaction in a Providence Journal article last week. The Italian-American community has long regarded Columbus " an Italian explorer who made his first voyage to the Americas in 1492 " as an important historical figure and cultural icon.
"Columbus was the one that opened up this part of the world to Western civilization," Raymond Dettore, Jr., former president of the Italo-American Club in Providence, told the Journal.
Anthony Baratta, president of the Commission for Social Justice of the group Sons of Italy, told the Journal that Columbus Day is a "patriotic" holiday. "I don't know why the faculty would have chosen this route," he said.
Bob Kerr, a columnist for the Journal, said Monday that he thought the faculty's decision was "a little detached" from the local community, especially considering that a large number of Providence's residents are of Italian descent. Kerr wrote an opinion piece for the Journal on Friday, headlined "Different ways of looking at the same guy," mocking the measure.
"I didn?t think it was a great decision," he said yesterday. "I'm amazed that people at Brown wouldn't realize, "Whoa, wait a minute, this is going to make us look a little silly."
The story quickly reached the national media. On Thursday, two days after the faculty's vote, radio personality Rush Limbaugh attacked the decision.
Referring to Brown students who supported the faculty's decision as "spoiled, rotten little skulls full of mush with brains that represent the arid expanse of the Sahara Desert," Limbaugh said the change was "idiocy".
"Next they're going to come along and get rid of Halloween," he said.
The Associated Press and Fox News were among the national media organizations to pick up the story.
Meanwhile, most Brown students continued to support the faculty's move, despite the way it was received outside College Hill.
"I definitely support the decision," Avi Kenny '11 said. Columbus is "undeserving of a holiday," he said.
"What they teach us in elementary school is misleading "hero worshipping," said Josh Marcotte '11, calling the faculty's decision "a progressive step."
Araceli Mendez '12 said she too supported the change, but understood why some groups, such as Italian-Americans, might see it as offensive. "It's not that complicated of an issue, but I understand where they?re coming from," she said.
Michael Hogan '11 said he generally approved of the decision to rename Columbus Day, but expressed some concern about the precedent such a move might set. "Are we going to stop Presidents Day because Thomas Jefferson had slaves?" he asked.
The faculty vote was preceded by months of pressure from a small group of students who wanted the University to stop recognizing Columbus Day. The students had originally proposed that the University take a different day off, but the months of dialogue ended with the proposal to change only the name of the holiday, in part because some faculty and staff wanted the University's October holiday to coincide with that of local schools.
Columbus Day, observed on the second Monday in October, has been a federal holiday since 1971.
Italy's Sheltered Jews Repay WWII Aid - 65 Years Later
Villagers who sheltered Jews from Nazis get offers of help in recovering from the earthquake.
Philadelphia Inquirer, From Associated Press, By Ariel David, Tue, Apr. 14, 2009
A delegation of about 20 elderly Jews and their descendants made their way to makeshift camps around the mountain city of L'Aquila yesterday, peering into tents for their old rescuers.
They offered everything from gym shoes to summer camps for children.
"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for these people," said Alberto Di Consiglio, whose parents were sheltered in the hamlets of Fossa and Casentino during the war. "We have to help them."
More than 100 tent cities have risen around L'Aquila and the 26 towns affected by the 6.3-magnitude quake that struck central Italy on April 6.
The temblor killed 294 people and displaced 55,000, damaging or destroying up to 15,000 buildings.
In the chaos of the relief efforts, Jews who had been sheltered in the area during the war lost touch with villagers, many of whom are farmers without cell phones.
At least five Jewish families, about 30 people, took shelter in the mountainside villages of Fossa and Casentino in mid-1943, when German forces began to take direct control of central and northern Italy. They remained there until the arrival of the Allies a year later.
In October 1943, a few weeks after the families left their native Rome, Nazi troops swept in on the capital's Old Ghetto neighborhood and deported more than 2,000 Jews. Only a handful survived the death camps.
The Jews initially hid in Fossa, about 10 miles from L'Aquila, but fled to the nearby village of Casentino when warned the Germans had learned of their presence.
"We left at night; it was winter and the snow was up to here," Emma Di Segni said, gesturing to her waist. "We stayed in a ruined house until a woman took us in."
Although they had fake documents and posed as refugees fleeing Allied bombings, their hosts knew who they were and were aware they could be executed if caught sheltering Jews, Di Segni said.
"They knew what they risked," she said, "but they never said anything."
In one tent, Di Consiglio found Nello De Bernardinis, 74, the son of the couple who sheltered Di Consiglio's father and eight other relatives during the war.
"It's so painful that such righteous people should suffer like this and live in a tent," Di Consiglio said. He reminisced how his aunt was born in the barn of the De Bernardinis family and was baptized in the church to avoid suspicion from authorities.
"Those were difficult times, like today," De Bernardinis said. "The Germans were always looking for Jews, and we did what we could."
http://www.philly.com/
"Italian-American Reconciliation": NY Italian Men Deal with Love and Women
It's essentially the story of two Italian New Yorkers, best friends helping each other through the minefield of love, each trying to figure out what it means to be a man, particularly when it comes to women. Convincing and Compelling , Brash but Likeable
Greenville News, NC. By Amy Clarke; April 19, 2009
Veterans and journeymen of the Warehouse Theatre have pulled together a convincing and compelling performance of "Italian-American Reconciliation."
It's essentially the story of two Italian New Yorkers, best friends helping each other through the minefield of love, each trying to figure out what it means to be a man, particularly when it comes to women.
The frustration of the endless battle of the sexes is evident, particularly in the juxtaposition between Huey's pining lovesickness for his ex-wife and Aldo's jaded perspective. "I am sick from being a man,"Aldo says at one point.
The connection between the friends, Aldo and Huey, is at the heart of the play. The show's playbill recounts an interview with the playwright, John Patrick Shanley, in which he said, "My experience of Italian men is they bleed into each other's soup."
And while Andy Croston and Rick Connor adeptly portrayed the slightly manic Aldo and the edgy Huey, the connection between them wasn't all it could be.
The metaphorical (and stage) stars came out for Anne Tromsness, though, in her role as Janice, Huey's straight-talking, gun-toting ex-wife. From the cut of her eyes to the tenor of her voice, Tromsness nailed the role of the woman who is part loathsome, part loveable and all brass.
With lighthearted moments and pensive moments and downright startling moments,"Italian-American Reconciliation" is a delightful trip through a place where it's all new and all still eerily familiar.
The play continues Saturdays and Sundays through May 2. Call 235-6948.
"A Thread of Grace": Italians Saved 43,000 Jews During WWII
Coshocton Tribune; By Holly Richards, Staff Writer ; April 16, 2009
COSHOCTON - It was a tough subject to handle, but Lori McDonnell was full of praise for an author who captured her mind with a book about how Italians saved more than 40,000 Jews during World War II.
“I’m excited to hear her speak about it, her research, and which parts are truth and fiction," said the Pickerington resident. "I read the book and it was beautiful and moving. It was a difficult subject matter, but worth reading about."
McDonnell joined many other curious readers at Lake Park Pavilion tonight for "An Evening with Mary Doria Russell," the award-winning author of "A Thread of Grace".
The novel was chosen for the first One Book, One Community event, a community-wide reading and discussion program that encourages residents to read the same book at the same time to create a community-wide book club.
“We’ve wanted to do one of these for a long time with a series of programs," said Holli Rainwater, outreach coordinator with Coshocton Public Library. "I’ve read all of her (Doria Russell’s) books and have admired her for a while. I read ‘A Thread of Grace’ when it came out (in 2005), and thought that this was a book that would be appealing to people. It has a lot of layers to it that make for good discussions."
The One Book, One Community event kicked off with its integration into the library’s existing book discussion groups....
The introductory session in March...included a screening of the movie "Tea with Mussolini".
“I’m impressed with her set-up to this; she did a superb job," Doria Russell raved about Rainwater’s efforts.
Doria Russell’s historical fiction novel is set in Italy during World War II just after the Italians broke with Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. It follows the lives of various characters who depict the factual, little-known story of a network of Italians who saved the lives of 43,000 Jews during the end of the war.
“My strength is I make the characters feel real and compelling enough that you learn a lot from them without even knowing it," she said. "I need to care about the characters, and that pulls me through my research. From all my interviews with people, it took seven years of research. I didn’t feel like I was telling their story, but that I was entrusted with the story."
Doria Russell said she was eager to stand up in front of readers and enlighten them about the history and experiences related to the book. She was also on hand to mingle with guests and sign their book copies.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Brown U. Erases Columbus Day - Indignant William Ise Responds
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Fante at 100: UCLA Library Acquires His Archives
John Fante, author of the most heralded "Ask the Dust" is one of the true bad boys of 20th century American literature. Born in 1909 and raised in an Italian American ghetto in, of all places, Boulder, Colo., Fante fits into no particular niche. Many refer to him as the quintessential L.A. novelist -- Others have called him the big brother of the Beats and the voice of immigrant America.
John Fante's Great Gift to Los Angeles
Yes, and it is "Ask the Dust," the 1939 novel by the late John Fante, who was born 100 years ago Wednesday. For many, he is the patron saint of Los Angeles literature.
Nothing about Fante's birth in 1909 in the poor Italian quarter of North Denver, Colo., suggested future literary glory. His father was a bricklayer who worked and gambled as hard as he drank and brawled.
Eventually, the personal blow of his father's abandoning the family for another woman pushed Fante over the edge. He lost his faith and flunked out of the University of Colorado.
Soon, he fled to California to become a writer. Here, with the encouragement of a discerning Long Beach City College English teacher, his stories began to appear in H.L. Mencken's magazine The American Mercury.
Fante settled first in blue-collar Wilmington before moving to Bunker Hill in downtown L.A. He published a couple of novels, but quickly joined the stable of contract scenarists at Warner Bros., which included W.R. Burnett, Dalton Trumbo and William Faulkner.
For the rest of his writing life, Fante's loyalties would be split between his commitment to artful fiction and the studio paychecks he earned for typing "hokum."
He loved writing as much as he hated the movie business, but he never hesitated to contradict himself. Proclaiming a cynical pride in his status as a " Hollywood whore," he nurtured the "dream of writing the greatest novel ever written."
With a wife and four children to support, he cranked out treatments, screenplays and television scripts. Most proved forgettable and were never produced. For his efforts, he was accused of wasting his gifts.
Perhaps those who make such an accusation should be reminded that great novels are not made to order. Here is where the wonder deepens, for how are we to understand the unlikely convergences that, in late 1938 and early 1939, enabled Fante to write what many still consider the best novel ever written about Los Angeles, "Ask the Dust"?
Certainly his life lacked for no turmoil. Sixty years later, his wife Joyce would confide that when they weren't making love five times a day, they were often ready to kill each other.
The couple's domestic instability was reflected in their constant apartment-hopping, four different addresses in a matter of months.
And yet, despite the distractions, he attacked the writing of the novel like "a painful boil [that] had to be bled." Indeed, the line-by-line flow of the prose is like an intense fever dream.
In Fante's hands, the landscape of greater Los Angeles -- from Pershing Square to the Santa Monica beach to Long Beach to the San Fernando Valley to Central Avenue and finally to the Mojave -- became a three-dimensional character. Never before had the city been seen with such a penetrating, panoramic eye.
Fante's best friend and drinking crony Carey McWilliams had this in mind when he wrote in his book "Southern California Country" that the novel was one of the few that captured the realities of the region. It is impossible to imagine L.A. or its literature without the touchstone that is "Ask the Dust."
Unlike his more noirish contemporaries, Fante's view of Los Angeles is so clear-sighted that it comprehends not only the darkness but also laughter and the simple exhilaration of living.
Out for a walk not far past "the horrible frame houses reeking with murder stories," Fante's alter ego, Arturo Bandini, sings: "Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town."
Fante wrote many other excellent things, including dozens of stories and six more novels, three of them about Bandini -- all of which came close to vanishing.
For more than 40 years, "Ask the Dust" languished in out-of-print oblivion along with the rest of his works, and Fante grew into an aging, forgotten figure.
Thanks to Charles Bukowski, both the author and his work were brought back to our attention. Black Sparrow Press' 1980 rerelease of "Ask the Dust," with Bukowski's heartfelt preface, launched a revival Fante witnessed before his death from complications of diabetes in 1983.
That revival continues today thanks to the farsightedness of Fante's three surviving children. His files -- novels and short story manuscripts, screenplays, letters, photographs, contracts, baptisms, marriage certificates, a high school scrapbook, even an envelope labeled "John Fante's hair" -- will soon be accessible to researchers at the Department of Special Collections in the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA.
This is both a major acquisition and a gift to Los Angeles. It is a key not just to Fante's life and work, but also to the soul of the city that, more than 70 years ago, Fante set out to chronicle and to know.
Cooper is the author of "Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante" and a professor of English at Cal State Long Beach.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Mass State Funeral Held for Nearly 300 L'Aquila EarthQuake Victims
The Mass/Funeral was held in the open air (outside a hangar in Coppito, an adjacent town) to avoid the risk of injury from falling debris. Aftershocks continue to shake the region more than four days after the earthquake, and some were even felt during Friday's funeral.
Thousands Mourn Italian Quake Victims
- Italians have gathered to say farewell to nearly 300 earthquake victims
- Almost 20,000 have braved chilly nights in tents, about 11,000 others in hotels
- Toll from Monday morning's earthquake continues to rise: 287 now dead (Actually up to 289, and more possible)
L'AQUILA, Italy -- The youngest hadn't lived half a year. The oldest had lived nearly a hundred.
The official government list of victims from this week's earthquake in central Italy reached 287 on Friday, as Italians held a mass state funeral to lay the victims to rest.
They included Antonio Loavan Ghiroceanu, who was born December 11. He would have been 6 months old on Saturday.
The oldest-known victim of the quake was Evandro Testa, 96, who was born in 1913.
More than 200 caskets were lined up at the funeral, draped with flowers. At least one small white coffin belonging to a child sat atop a larger coffin, a baby's pastel outfit hanging off the side.
The funeral was being held outside a hangar in Coppito, a town adjacent to the earthquake's epicenter of L'Aquila.
Officials elected to hold the Mass in the open air to avoid the risk of injury from falling debris. Aftershocks continue to shake the region more than four days after the earthquake, and some were even felt during Friday's funeral.
All of the area's cardinals and bishops, along with 100 priests, attended the special funeral Mass. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was also there, greeting and embracing some of the thousands of mourners before the service.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone presided over the Mass as an envoy from Pope Benedict XVI, who plans to visit the region after Easter.
Bertone said the funeral was a "precious moment" to understand the meaning of life and death.
"Everything can stop in a second -- projects, plans -- everything finishes. All that remains is love," he said.
Mourners, who were transported to the funeral on buses, dabbed their eyes and noses. Some stared at the ground or held each other. Few appeared focused on anything but remembering the victims.
"I feel rebirth in the heart, because below that rubble there is a will to rebuild, to start again, to plan and to dream," Bertone said, offering a message of hope.
The towns of L'Aquila and the surrounding region, he said, "will come back stronger, will have more courage and give life to these places with that power and strength and dignity of the soul that distinguishes them."
As well as sending Bertone to deliver his message, the pope sent holy oils to L'Aquila and a chalice with which to take Communion.
Archbishop Giuseppe Molinari of L'Aquila also planned to deliver a message.
The 6.3-magnitude quake Monday morning left about 30,000 people without their homes. Almost 20,000 of them are braving chilly nights in tents while about 11,000 others are staying in hotels, said Agostino Miozzo, a spokesman for the Italian Civil Protection Agency.
Recovering from such losses and rebuilding the city of L'Aquila will take several years, according to Miozzo. The medieval city is about 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Rome.
Berlusconi has said rebuilding will cost several billion euros.
Aftershocks have heightened anxiety in the area -- including a moderate 5.6 magnitude tremor that struck the area Tuesday.
"The mood is a little bit afraid," said Marco Volponi of the Civil Protection agency. He was working in a tent camp, housing people whose homes were inhabitable.
In the nearby village of Onna, 40 people -- more than one out of every eight residents in the town of 300 -- were killed in the earthquake. On some streets, every single home was destroyed.
Anna Rita Difilice lost her son, Fabio, 20, to the quake -- the deadliest to strike Italy in decades and the first major quake in the country in seven years.
She said she doesn't know what comes next for her. Her village has become populated with tents, fold-up beds and feeding stations handing out food, water and other supplies for survivors.
But she said she knew one thing: she's not going anywhere.
"My son died here," she said. "There is no way I'm leaving this town -- not ever."
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The 5th Annual Italian Film Festival of St. Louis- April 10-25
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Berlusconi has "Bush Moment" with Earthquake Survivors?
Ultimately, the decision to ask Americans to sacrifice by shopping drove us off the cliff; asked to spend freely, people used their houses as ATM machines, urged on by the Bush Administration’s lax policies (DeRegulation and lax Regulation). And today, we’re reaping the benefits, if by "benefits" you mean "a Depression."
Belusconi told the Earthquake Survivors to "Head for the Beach", and responding to criticism, Berlusconi said that he did not want "an atmosphere of pessimism, negativity, disease and death" where survivors were being sheltered.
Silvio Berlusconi has told survivors of the Italian earthquake to lift their spirits by heading for the beach. He added that people forced from their wrecked homes should look on their tented accommodation as a spot of camping.
The Italian Prime Minister’s comments have enraged some of those living in tent villages, after a second fitful night that was rocked by aftershocks from the 6.3-magnitude earthquake, Italy’s worst for 30 years. The death toll rose to 250 yesterday.
Earlier there had been widespread praise for the emergency housing operation, mounted by the Civil Protection Department and the Red Cross with the aid of volunteers and charities, and Mr Berlusconi won plaudits for cancelling a trip to Russia and spending every day since Monday in the stricken region, encouraging and commending the rescue workers and vowing that “no one will be left alone”.
Mr Berlusconi insisted that his remarks had been misunderstood and that he was simply trying to encourage optimism. “Go by the seaside. It is only an hour away from here by bus and there are plenty of hotels at your disposal that are paid for by the State,” he said during his daily visit to the quake zone in Abruzzo.
The people living tent cities “have everything they need, they have medical care, hot food. Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping,” he said, according to the German N-TV channel. He told one homeless woman to put on suncream, drawing cheers from onlookers.
Mr Berlusconi — who lives in Palazzo Chigi, the Prime Minister’s residence, rents a frescoed Renaissance palace in Rome and owns a mansion in Milan and villas in Sardinia and Bermuda — insisted that there was nothing inappropriate in his remarks.
“I don’t think it’s out of place,” the Prime Minister told reporters. “I think children could use a smile, a little bit of optimism and playfulness.”
Mr Berlusconi said that he did not want “an atmosphere of pessimism, negativity, disease and death” where survivors were being sheltered. As many as 10,000 of the 17,000 people made homeless by the earthquake have taken his advice and left for the Adriatic resorts or elsewhere. But some of those left in the tent camps were appalled by his remarks.
“If Berlusconi thinks we are all on a camping holiday, I invite him to do a swap,” said Vincenzo Breglia, as he stood outside his tent on a sports field on the outskirts of L’Aquila. “He can come here to sleep and I will be prime minister. Let’s see how he likes spending the night in freezing temperatures with no hot water.”
Mr Breglia’s wife was also offended. “We may look as if we have made ourselves at home,” she said, as she kept her 12-month-old daughter amused with two budgies in a cage left by neighbours who had fled to Rome. “And some things are well organised — there is even a vet in the camp for those who brought pet animals with them. But if this is a camping holiday, it is an enforced one. We left home with the clothes we had to hand, and have not been allowed to go back to get our belongings because the house is in a dangerous state. I suspect this will go on for months and months. How are we supposed to cope?”
Giancarlo Fischione, a Ministry of Finance employee with a wife and three children, said that he did not even have a tent. “We have all been sleeping in the family cars since Monday,” he said bitterly. “There just aren’t enough tents and containers.” Mr Berlusconi’s remarks had left him speechless, he said.
At the Aquila San Salvatore regional hospital, where a field hospital has been erected to deal with the victims, questions are being asked about why a recently built hospital in an earthquake-prone zone was unable to withstand the tremors.The A&E department was abandoned yesterday. Beds on wheels lay empty. Blankets and used rubber gloves were strewn across the floor, which was stained with blood and iodine, spilled as staff rushed to move patients out when the shocks rattled the supposedly quake-proof building.
One nurse, who was working at the field hospital, set up as an emergency alternative beside the car park, said that the scenario was scandalous. “We expect a modern hospital in an area like this to be one of the secure places,” she said. “I was working the night it happened and couldn’t believe it. Suddenly, bits of concrete started falling down, and the walls shook. We were open-mouthed. We thought it was an anti-seismic building.”
As she spoke, medics dragged bags full of drugs to the tents, while the army and the Red Cross transported in-patients to hospitals elsewhere.
The Pope said at his weekly public audience that the relief operations were an example of how solidarity could help to overcome “even the most painful trials”. Addressing the survivors, he said: “As soon as possible I hope to visit you.” Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said the visit would not be until after the Easter holiday because the Pope did not want to interfere with relief operations.The first funerals were held yesterday and mass funerals are planned for tomorrow.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/L'Aquila Quake: MADONNA Donates $750,000 to Ancestors Home
(ANSA) - Rome, April 8, 2009
Pop queen Madonna has made a substantial donation to the quake-stricken central Italian city where her roots lie.
Madonna, 50, whose birth name is Madonna Louise Ciccone,, has given 500,000 pounds ($750,000) towards the relief and reconstruction of L`Aquila, British media reported Wednesday.
`I am happy to lend a helping hand to the town that my ancestors are from,`` Madonna said in a statement...
``My heart goes out to the families that have lost loved ones or their homes``.
The Ciccones, the hitmaker`s paternal grandparents, lived in the village of Pacentro (which is in the city of L'Aquila, near the earthquake's epicenter) L`Aquila until 1919.
Nearly 33,000 people were killed in the region in a devastating quake in 1915.
Monday`s quake killed at least 250 people and flattened much of L`Aquila and nearby towns
FOOTNOTE: L`Aquila, April 8 - Premier Silvio Berlusconi told reporters on Wednesday he had not slept a wink in 44 hours to deal with the emergency in the quake-stricken region of Abruzzo. ``I`ve beaten a personal endurance record: 44 hours without sleep,`` said the 72-year-old premier, who added: ``not bad for a a 35-year-old``.
Berlusconi, who is on his third visit to the stricken area, said he was ready to return every day if necessary.
Italian-Americans Mobilize to Help Earthquake Region
Newsday.com; April 7, 2009,
From Babylon to Little Italy, Italian-Americans with a connection to the Abruzzo region desperately reached out Tuesday to learn the fate of relatives after an earthquake devastated the village of L'Aquila.
Italy's government said it had not yet decided what help it needed, but in Italian and non-Italian neighborhoods across Long Island, would-be donors insisted they would move forward with or without the government's blessing.
"If they need professional engineers, then that's what we'll send," said Angie Markham, executive director of the Italian American Federation of Queens, a community service umbrella organization that covers Queens and Long Island. "If they just need money to help rebuild, then that's what we'll do."
The group will have a fundraising concert headlined by Giada Valenti, a popular Italian singer, she said.
For many Italian-Americans on Long Island, televised images of the quake and its aftershocks brought a sense of relief mingled with pain. Relief because no one among their families and friends had been killed, but unease because they were seeing reports of deaths and injuries in a place they love.
Joseph and Gianni Villella, brothers who live in Glen Cove, Tuesday watched scenes from their parents' homeland. On Monday, they had called a cousin with a sense of dread.
"My cousin Lina said she was fine, and I was so happy - but then she said my cousin Angelo was hurt," said Gianni, 35.
Angelo had to leap from a balcony at a college in L'Aquila and broke his leg, Gianni said. The cousin was discharged from a hospital with a cast on his leg, the brothers learned.
For Angelo and Palmina Sarra of Bethpage, emigrants from the Abruzzo region, news of the earthquake also struck home.
The couple has a nephew attending a school in L'Aquila as well as family in the region that felt the tremors from the earthquake.
Palmina's sister in Italy was frantically trying to get in touch with her son, Valerio Di Tollo, 22. Finally, hours after the quake, she received a text message that he had escaped safely and had fled on foot - walking about 15 miles with friends.
"He escaped, thank God, we were all worried about it," said Angelo Sarra, 62. "He left everything. He ain't got nothing anymore."
Di Tollo's mother picked him up and apparently he was anxious. "He stood outside with friends; they didn't want to even sleep in the house," said Angelo Sarra. "They had some bad shock. You can imagine, a kid."
Sarra, who immigrated to the United States in 1967, said every year he visits the region and his hometown of Musellaro, about 20 miles from L'Aquila.
"Ninety-nine fountains and 99 churches," he said of L'Aquila. "A beautiful town, with mountains all around."
The motto of people from the Abruzzo region is "strong and gentle," he added.
He plans to send money. "We are the type of people who are going to rebuild. Forte. Strong."
Tuesday, phone calls flooded the Italian-American Museum in Manhattan's Little Italy, which is collecting funds to rebuild homes destroyed in the quake.
"Every penny we raise will go directly to the families in rebuilding their homes," Joseph Scelsa, president and founder of the museum on Mulberry Street, said at a news conference.
Scelsa said 5,000 people with connections to the Abruzzo region live in New York City, with 2,000 of them living in Astoria, Queens, where many of the immigrants settled after World War II.
Tuesday, people walked into the museum to make donations, with some putting $20 bills into a clear box located at the reception desk.
newsday.com/news/nationworld/
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
L'Aquila, Italy Hit by 6.3 "Killer" Earthquake
Italy Earthquake Leaves 150 Dead and Scores more Trapped under Rubble
• Rescue effort hampered by debris blocking roads
• Up to 15,000 buildings destroyed by quake
Rescuers in central Italy continued working through the night to free hundreds of people feared trapped under rubble, after the deadliest earthquake to strike the country in three decades caused widespread destruction across the mountainous region of Abruzzo.
Twice after midnight, workers were forced to briefly stop their rescue efforts when aftershocks dislodged more rubble.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, declared a state of emergency and cancelled a trip to Russia to travel to the epicentre of Monday morning's quake, close to the medieval city of L'Aquila, 60 miles north-east of Rome. He said that in some cases rescuers were digging with their bare hands.
Having climbed steadily all day yesterday, the official total last night stood at more than 150 dead and more than 1,500 injured. However unconfirmed reports quoting hospital sources last night put the total at more than 200.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 buildings had collapsed in the quake, an official at the local civil protection agency said, and at least 50,000 people are homeless.
Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said some small towns had been "virtually destroyed in their entirety". Early rescue efforts were hampered by rubble strewn across roads and the collapse of several bridges.
"We will work for the next 48 hours without any stop, because we have to save lives," Francesco Rocca, the head of Italy's Red Cross, told BBC television. "We estimate that hundreds of people could still be alive under the buildings."
The quake, measured at 6.3 on the Richter scale by the US Geological Survey, struck at 3.32am local time and lasted for "20 interminable seconds", said the mayor of L'Aquila, Massimo Cialente, who described its effects as "terrible, really terrible".
Streets in the city were carpeted with thick dust yesterday, as helicopters hovered overhead and sirens screamed. Part of a university residence and a hotel were destroyed, and the quake brought down the bell tower of a church in the centre of the city. One local man, standing next to a head-high pile of rubble, said: "This building was four storeys high."
Scores of people lined up with suitcases on the roads leading out of the city, waiting to be evacuated from the area. Others, dazed, huddled in blankets close to the ruins of their homes, or assisted the well-organised rescue effort in a desperate hunt for missing relatives. Frequent aftershocks struck the town throughout the day, provoking cries of alarm.
"I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb," said L'Aquila resident Angela Palumbo, 87. "We managed to escape with things falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I don't remember ever seeing anything like this in my life."
"Our house was destroyed but we got out," said Marion Cadman, a teacher at the English school of L'Aquila. "Now we're in limbo and just glad to have a tent.
"There was a first tremor around a quarter to 11 and we considered going out, but we didn't as we had become so used to them. Then the top floor fell down on the lower one and the corridor was smashed. Our 18-year-old daughter got under the bed as she had been trained to do and we got out before the next big one. We will spend the night in someone's garden. I don't think I will be sleeping between four walls for some time."
Graziella Fantasia, also a teacher in the city, said her family had lost two houses, one in the suburbs of L'Aquila and one in a nearby village. "We have no homes. Now we are waiting because the earth is still moving. We will spend the night in the village where it is better, but it's not safe to stay in houses. A lot of people are in tents. Wherever there is open space there are people and lots of tents."
Dozens of remote villages in the area were also affected, with at least 10 reported killed in the village of Onna. "Almost all the old village is destroyed, 99% of it," a man in Tempera, a few miles to the east of L'Aquila, told the Guardian. "We have already found 10 bodies."
Berlusconi said that 4,000 hotel rooms had been requisitioned along the Adriatic coast and that 20,000 beds in tents were being provided, while stadiums were also being prepared. No one would be allowed to stay in damaged buildings because of the risk of further quakes, he said. Field hospitals were set up after part of L'Aquila's hospital was deemed unsafe and had to be evacuated. More than 5,000 emergency workers were involved in the rescue effort, the prime minister said, adding: "I want to say something important: no one will be abandoned to their fate."
The EU offered immediate assistance, as did Russia and Israel, but an Italian government spokesman said the situation was under control at present. The foreign secretary, David Miliband, said Britain stood "ready to do what we can".
Berlusconi said he would finalise his funding plans last night, but indicated that he planned to seek assistance from an EU fund for disaster relief.
A number of British aid agencies said they had received no requests for aid, but were monitoring the situation and were ready to respond. Pete Garratt, relief operations manager with the British Red Cross, said its Italian counterpart had "significant resources in emergency response".
The earthquake is the worst to hit Italy since 1980, when 2,735 died in a quake measuring 6.5 that struck close to Salerno in southern Italy, and caused widespread damage in nearby Naples. That disaster prompted the introduction of new regulations designed to strengthen constructions in the event of an earthquake. Many of the buildings destroyed in yesterday's tremor appeared to have been earlier, dating from the 1960s and 1970s or, in remote villages, to be medieval structures.
There were questions yesterday about how so many buildings could have been destroyed. Gian Michele Calvi, an earthquake expert at the University of Pavia, said that Italy was in the habit of forgetting lessons. "This country is reminded of the risk of earthquakes only when it finds itself under the rubble," he told Corriere della Sera. "The fact that two of three operating rooms at L'Aquila hospital are no longer usable is something not worthy of a civilised country."
Monday, April 6, 2009
Italian scientist says they ignored his warnings of an earthquake
Gianpaolo Giuliani, an Italian scientist who claims to have predicted a major earthquake around L'Aquila weeks before the town was reduced to rubble today accused public health chiefs of ignoring his warnings and is demanding an apology from authorities and saying that he was forced to take his warnings off the Internet.
Scientist: My quake prediction was ignored
L'AQUILA, Italy (CNN) -- A researcher says he predicted Monday's devastating earthquake that killed dozens of people and left tens of thousands homeless in central Italy, but authorities dismissed him as a scaremonger.Gianpaolo Giuliani, an employee at a physics institute at Gran Sasso, near the badly-hit city of L'Aquila, has demanded an official apology for what he says was an unforgivable failure to act on his predictions.
"There are people who must apologize to me, and they must have the weight of what occurred on their conscience," Giuliani said after the quake hit, according to local news site Ilcapoluogo.com.
Last month, vans with loudspeakers drove around the area broadcasting Giuliani's warning after he claimed his method of predicting seismic events by radon gas emissions had forecast an imminent quake.
The scientist was reported to police for spreading false alarms and was made to remove his findings from the Internet. "They called me an imbecile," he said.
According IlCapoluogo, Giuliani gave an interview as recently as March 24 in which he repeated his claims.
Local authorities have insisted Monday's 6.3-magnitude event was part of a sequence of tremors in a quake-prone area and neither the size nor the timing was possible to predict.
Giuliani said he was monitoring radon concentrations ahead of Monday's quake, but knew the authorities would press charges against him if he repeated his warning.
"last night I did not know who to talk to. I could see the situation was deteriorating and there was nothing I could do," he said, according to IlCapoluogo.http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/06/italy.quake.prediction/?iref=hpmostpop
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Vatican keeping quite on 'Angels and Demons'
But while U.S. groups such as the Catholic League are already making a public case against the pic, Rome's Holy See seems to be backing off from the boycott tack it took on "Da Vinci." "Let's be careful not to play their game," warned Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the Vatican's economic minister, as rumblings about "Angels" surfaced in official Vatican daily Avvenire. "By dramatizing the issue we will involuntarily be giving the film free publicity," the prelate said. That doesn't mean the Vatican has been accommodating to Sony and "Angels," which De Paolis calls "a manipulation in anti-Christian key of people, events, and history." The Holy See last year banned "Angels" from shooting in Rome churches. And last month the Vatican forced Sony to remove a giant publicity poster -- one depicting a menacing winged creature towering over a deserted St. Peter's covered by threatening clouds -- from the scaffolding of a church undergoing restoration in Rome's central Piazza del Popolo. Officials deemed the poster "offensive." Now it will be interesting to see how well the Vatican will weather the press corps at St. Peter's doorstep for the world preem. "Angels and Demons" opens in Italy and some European territories May 13 before bowing May 15 Stateside and worldwide.The previous movie, the Da Vinci Code caused a stir in the Vatican but now they seem to be more open toward the prequel, Angels and Demons.
Vatican mum on 'Angels and Demons'
Archbishop cautious about high-profile boycott
Friday, April 3, 2009
Italian Nun, Former 20 year Lap Dancer
Like a prayer: The Italian Nun who spent 20 years as a Lapdancer
ANSA, By Nick Pisa, April 3, 2009
An Italian nun has revealed how she renounced 20 years as a lapdancer to join a convent.
Anna Nobili, 38, spent two decades dancing for men in seedy clubs but then decided she wanted more from life and joined the Sister Workers of the Holy House of Nazareth order.
And now she is putting her past life as a dancer to use as a 'ballerina for God' in a show for cardinals and bishops called Holy Dance dedicated to episodes from the Bible.
Dancer for God: Anna Nobili (pictured now) spent 20 years as a lapdancer
Sister Nobili, who is originally from Milan, turned to a life of spirituality after being 'inspired' during a visit to the shrine of St Francis at Assisi, Italy.
She said:'I was throwing away my life dancing for men. I was throwing away my life in clubs.
'There was sex without love and there was drugs, I was being used as a drug by people who wanted to see me dance.
'But now my life has changed , I have been reborn, I still dance, I have never given up dancing but now I dance for God.
'All my steps and moves, all my choreography is dedicated to Him - I am like St Paul who was converted on the road to Damascus.
'Now I use dance as a form of prayer - through dance I enter into harmony with the Word of God.'
She added: 'I really liked my old life - I was at the centre of looks but then I realised I was throwing my life, my body and my sexuality away.
'The nights were dark they were filled with evil, with sex and with drugs.
Anna now puts on shows for cardinals and bishops called Holy Dance which is inspired by stories from the Bible
'I would dance nonstop in another disco. I would even go to places outside Milan, for example, Amsterdam, where I would stay for four or five days.
'Then one day I went to Assisi and I was struck by how beautiful the sky was.
'I saw something fluorescent within the clouds, a cascade of coloour and I felt the presence of God, the Creator.
'I started dancing and people were looking at me - I got on the train back to Milan and I felt as if God was in me.
'It was such an emotional moment - when I looked at myself in the train toilet mirror I didn't recognise myself.
'It was a transfiguration - I danced in the club one more night and the men were just looking at me, trying to take me to bed and I knew that was my goodbye.
'I called my boss and I said to him I found a new clean treasure and it was God.'
Sister Anna is due to dance on Tuesday at the Holy Cross in Jerusalem Basilica in Rome on Tuesday where among the guests will be archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican's Cultural Department.
The dance programme is called La Bibbia Giorno e Notte (The Bible Night and Day)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Swiss, Italians to Change Border Due to Melting Ice
The last time the border line was drawn between Italy and Switzerland was in the year of 1861. The Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) was established in that year in order to create one country within the entire Italian Penisula.
However, over the past one hundred years or so, warmer conditions have prompted the ice and snow (within glaciers, permafrost) in and around the 4,478-meter (14,692-foot) tall Matterhorn, what is called “Cervino” in Italian, to slowly melt.
In the past twenty years or so glaciers are melting even more quickly.
According to the March 24, 2009 The Independent article Melting snow prompts border change between Switzerland and Italy, “... the border is moving because of the warmer climate,” as stated by Daniel Gutknecht, from the Federal Office of Topography in Switzerland."
The article further states, “The frontier will have to be shifted between a few metres and a hundred metres, but there will be no impact on border communities as the frontier, which is more than 4,000 metres above sea level, is well above any human habitation.”
The Federal Office of Topography, in Switzerland, and the Military Geographic Institute, in Italy, will together decide the final border in the Pennine Alps, which includes The Matterhorn
The Pennine Alps, a mountain range in the western part of the Alps, are located between Switzerland and Italy..........
Page two discusses possible other locations in the world where border changes may need to be made in the future, and where less-than-peaceful conditions already exist.
