Grandparents: support network or parental substitute?

Is wonder in observing the changes that have involved our society in last years. The stability objectives have become utopian velleity. Still remember your childhood? As children, the days were marked by play and study with the supervision of our parents. On Sundays or holidays we went by our grandparents, the darlings of the children, with silver hair and the spirit of a little child. Not often we could see them, but we adored them. It’s essential to weave a loving relationship with the parents of our parents. Then, they were retired, uncertain element for the new generations, and had time and serenity to spend with grandchildren.

Following the social mechanism is changed, the past has become a nuanced memory as a dream vision that fades away slowly. Inebriated by the idea that progress was the key to achieve a living standards equal or higher than that of our parents; deluded by the expectation that the world itself has triggered in all of us, we obeyed to the system with the secret hope to realize the unrealized dreams. We enrolled at the university, rather, we have invested in the education achieving medium–high levels. The immediate consequence concerned the personal ambitions of success that result by the active and stable insertion in the working world. The desire to make a career emerged almost immediately. Women’s employment has been more suffered the effects of social frictions, however were recorded vital signs. But this has caused further problems related to conciliation of roles assumed by the woman worker, housewife, wife and mother. Sometimes the challenges are unisex and look after the children, no longer conceived at a young age, it’s a serious challenge. In this emergency situation intervene the network of family support for excellence: the support provided by grandparents. Similar to the handyman they provide a free service, wide–ranging and flexible with the undisputed advantage of the trust relationship. They are available to look after their grandchildren, allowing to the married couple to overcome the assumption of a baby–sitter and save money for their children’s future. By the observation of the current reality I perceive a feeble alarm: grandparents are omnipresent in their grandchildren’s life to the point that they no longer constitutes a mere support, but a parental surrogate, the free from educational tool that only a father and a mother may be using. There’s a subversion from the past, now children spent Sunday with their parents, who are losing the best years of their children. 

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, October 14, 2013, p. 16. 

Italy excelled in the horror of the Holocaust

Our South (of Italy), the same one that is lagging behind the rest of the nation, during the Second World War took the leading position in the horror of Holocaust hosting a concentration camp. On Memorial Day, remino that. 

By reconstruction of the Calabrian doctor Spartacus Capogreco, in June of ’40 by order of the Ministry of the Interior was built a concentration camp in Ferramento di Tarsi, Cosenza. Here until the arrival of the Allies on 8-9-’43 two thousand people were interned. On 27-1-’45 the Auschwitz camp was liberated by Soviet troops. In Remembrance Day we remember the Holocaust, the Shoah, the catastrophe, the genocide of 6 million Jews, but also homosexuals, prostitutes, Gypsies, and any other person inferios than the Aryan race. The horror of the concentration camps (or extermination camps) was known only at the end of the war. We have visually knowledge of that, through the testimony of the few survivors of atrocities, but also through the “Nuremberg Trials that indicates two sets of trials of Nazis involved in WWII and the Holocaust. Were held in the German city from 20-11-’45 to 1-10-’46 in the Palace of Justice. The first was the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. The second was for war criminals, including the process and lower the Doctors” (I quote the book Theatrum mundi. Landing on the Moon, p. 99 note 6).

The victims were crossing the gate of Auschwitz surmounted by the inscription “Arbeit macht frei”, in German “Work makes you free”, but only death would set them free because there were several waiting for atrocities. The prisoners of the concentration camps were deprived of their identity, replaced by a number, and their dignity, an inalienable right. In addition to hard labor, common destiny were shooting and extermination in gas chambers, disguised as showers from which flowed the gas Zyklon B or prussic acid or cyanide, highly toxic and volatile liquid that is obtained by combining cyanide and sulfuric acid is highly corrosive. The deportees were also subjected to medical experiments that included the inoculation of infectious and deadly virus in order to experience the effects of germ warfare. Not to mention the crematorium useful to dispose of the amount of corpses reduced to a pile of bones. On January 27, we reflect on these shameful pages of history.

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, January 27, 2013, p. 16.

The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence

     The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, which they began to build in 1294 according to the plans of Arnolfo di Cambio, is the largest Franciscan church in the world. It was constructed with funding from the population and the Florentine Republic and built above the foundations of a small church which some monks had erected outside the walls of the city in 1252, just a few years after the death of Saint Francis.

     The remains of the original building weren’t identified until 1966, when, in the aftermath of the great flood that submerged the city, part of the paving belonging to the present Basilica gave way. From its beginning, the history of Santa Croce has been closely linked to the history of Florence itself. Since its foundation, it has been continually re-planned and re-designed throughout the course of those seven centuries without suffering significant interruptions, and therefore acquiring new symbolic connotations each time.

     From the original Franciscan church it evolved to become a religious “town hall” for the important families and corporations when Florence was ruled by the Medici family. From being a craftsmen’s laboratory and workshop – first Humanist and then Renaissance – it became a theological centre; and in the 19^th Century, it saw a change from being a pantheon of the nation’s glories to a place of reference fro the political history of Italy before and after its unification.

     In Florence, Santa Croce has always been a prestigious symbol and a gathering place for some of the greatest artists, theologians, religious figures, writers, humanists and politicians. It has similarly served the powerful families that throughout the centuries have determined, both for good and bad, the identity of Florence during the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Within its walls, it has hosted many famous people in the history of the church, such as Saint Bonaventure, Saint Antony of Padua, Saint Bernadino of Siena, Saint Ludovico d’Angiò and the bishop of Tolosa. It was also a resting and reception place for Pontiffs such as Sixtus IV, Eugene IV, Leo X and Clement XIV.

     With its impressive gothic architecture, marvellous frescoes, altar pieces, precious stained-glass windows and numerous sculptures, the Basilica represents one of the most important pages in the history of Florentine art from the thirteenth century onwards.

     Inside it houses works of art by Cimabue, Giotto, Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello, Giorgio Vasari, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Orcagna, Taddeo and Agnolo Gaddi, Della Robbia, Giovanni da Milano, Bronzino, Michelozzo, Domenico Veneziano, Maso di Banco, Giuliano da Sangallo, Benedetto da Maiano, Canova and many others.

     In particular, the presence of Giotto and his school of art makes Santa Croce and extraordinary complete testimony of Fourteenth Century Florentine art.

     The historical and political upheavals that have accompanied Santa Croce right up until today have always left a precise mark as much in the artistic-architectural works (such as the radical transformations imposed by Vasari around the middle of the sixteenth century; or the exuberant commitment during the nineteenth century to transforming Santa Croce into a huge mausoleum of Italian history), as in the testimonies guarded in its archives which hand down to us a daily reconstruction, through the course of the centuries, of a great project befitting its own creators, its own resources, its own objectives and difficulties.

     Santa Croce has been defined as “the Pantheon of the nation’s glories” because within its walls are the tombs of famous figures such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Gioacchino Rossini, Giorgio Vasari, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Vittorio Alfieri and Ugo Foscolo.

     The indisputable fascination that this place exerts, in an unequalled synthesis of art, spiritually and history, is confirmed by the influx of around one million visitors a year. 

     Source: Opera di Santa Croce, Italy. 

Discovering the city of Bari part 3

Discovering the city of Bari part 3

See Part 1                                              See Part 2

     The new city…From the old quarter, passing under the arches of Piazza Chiurlia, you can arrive in the Murat Quarter, the heart of the city with its shops, offices and fashionable restaurants. The streets of the Murat Quarter are on a grid pattern, but is very easy to orient oneself.

Via Sparano is worth mentioning: it’s famous for its shops of luxury goods, such as the wonderful Palazzo Mincuzzi.

     Corso Vittorio Emanuele is rich in restaurants, a large tree-lines road ideal for walking leisurely. Here you can find the Palace of the Prefecture near Piazza Massari, which is the terminal of many buses and taxi ranks.

     Opposite the Palace of the Prefecture stands the Town Hall and the Piccinni Theatre with its “Doric” arcade; the Palazzo Fizzarotti is farther on. This place is the remains of a Venetian work of art dating back to the XXth century and it’s a sign of the popularity of Venice that can be seen in many towns on the Adriatic Sea. Piazza Garibaldi stands at the end of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and divides it from the Libertà Quarter. Corso Cavour is one of the sides of the Murat Quarter, at the beginning of Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Here you can find the Margherita Theatre built on piles in the sea.

     Following the tree-lined boulevard of Corso Cavour, on the left we have: the buildings of the Bank of Italy, the Chamber of Commerce and the Petruzzelli Theatre. 

     On the right side of the theatre you have Via Cognetti with the Palazzo dell’Acquedotto Pugliese built in 1932. Inside the decorations of Duilio Cambellotti celebrate the important symbol of water and the Apulian waterworkd, which is the biggest in Europe.

     The modern airport of Bari-Palese, rebuilt in 2005 and dedicated to Karol Wojtyla, is the terminal of many airline companies, while the road links are guaranteed by buses and other public transport.

     The harbour of Bari is one of the most important ports of call of the Mediterranean Sea fro passengers and holiday cruisers. It has direct sea links with the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.

     Shopping

     The marked commercial ability of the city of Bari offers cheap and high quality shopping: from the top brands to the famous bookshops of the publishers Laterza or Feltrinelli. The centre of the town is rich in shops. We suggest you go shopping in Corso Cavour, Via Sparano or Via Manzoni, especially when the sales are on with good discounts. We also suggest you see the various products in ceramics and try the typical specialities such as the fine wines and olive oils or dairy products and foodstuffs (such as bread, sweets…).

     Gastronomy

     The gastronomic tradition is part of the culture of Bari: here you will eat very well. We suggest you taste the “orecchiette” woth turnip tops. The “braciole” (horsemeat, beef or veal), the raw sea urchins in delicate sauces, the raw anchovies served as a fine tartare, the sea food salads and green olives or fried olives, worth mentioning are the eating grapes and typical sweets made during the religious feasts.

     At Christmas you can taste the “cartellate” which are crisp fritters with a wine dressing made of grapes or figs. For the day of San Giuseppe “zeppole” (fried doughnuts) are usually made. 

     At Easter you can taste almond paste sweets, the “scarcelle”, loaves of shortcrust decorated with hard-boiled eggs. A particular speciality is the very thin pizza of many different flavoured types. The elegant restaurants in the centre of the city and the typical trattorias in the old quarter offer genuine products at very cheap prices compared to other big cities. 

     Source: Flash Tour, printed in Italy on 2007. 

See Part 1                                              See Part 2

Discovering the city of Bari part 2

Discovering the city of Bari part 2

See Part 1                                              See Part 3

     The old town preserves the history of the city. The old quarter was surrounded by a boundary wall of which only the side on the sea now remains, “la Muraglia” (the Wall), which was lapped by the sea until 1930.

     The view you can have from Via Venezia towards Piazza del Ferrarese is very enchanting.

     Following the boundary wall, on the left, you can see one of the best views of Bari: the small harbour, palm trees, the Trajan colonnade, the Margherita Theatre, and farther away the Barion Boat Club, the illuminated seafront. Then you arrive at the Fortino of S. Antonio Abate, a tower of the 14^th century with a wonderful panorama from the top and an exhibition area at ground level. Inside the Fort, there was a chapel dedicated to the Patron Saint of the animals, S. Antonio, who, according to tradition, are blessed on 17^th January.

     Proceeding along the Wall which overlooks the Basilica of S. Nicola and its Corte del Catapano, as far as the Monastero di Santa Scolastica, you can take in the waterfront at a glance.

     Finally, you can go down in the heart of the old quarter, in a maze of alleys and small squares, walking on black and white lava stones (“chianche”). The architecture has preserved the various styles, which are the remains of ancient civilizations: every corner is a pleasant discovery.

     The old town may be considered as an independent town within Bari, lively, with its symbols and traditions such as S. John’s Night (on 23^rd June). On this day the women of the old quarter make the “orecchiette” by hand (a typical Apulian pasta) and offer them as a good omen and sign of hospitality. This is a typical traditions in the city of S. Nicola, the thaumaturgist and Patron Saint of children. The wonderful Basilica was built for his cult, a great Romanesque church which hosts in the crypt the bones of S. Nicola stolen from Mira by 62 seamen of Bari. There are two feasts that celebrate the Patron Saint: the first from 7^th to 10^th May, which attracts pilgrims from all over the world. It’s celebrated with an extraordinary historic parade where the statue of the Saint is carried out the sea on a fishing boat. The other is held on 6^th December, in which the inhabitants of Bari take part with their folk customs, such as the pilgrimage of girls looking for husband. As often occurred in many seaside towns, our adverturer seamen chose S. Nicola to protect their trade, which attracted people from all the Mediterranean Sea.

     Leaving the Basilica of S. Nicola, through via del Carmine, you can reach the Cathedral of San Sabino with its monastery. The old quarter is rich in convents, cloisters and sacred shrines, all vestiges of ancient communities: for example, the Venetians founded the Church of S. Marco, the orthodox church has the Church of S. Giovanni Crisostomo. History has it that the nearby Arco delle Meraviglie was built by a Lombard family during the night, so that two lovers could meet. The Arabs left their marks too: the “Capa dù Turk” (Turk’s head), a bas-relief of the head of a Moor who was decapitated because he ventured out during a witch’s night when it was better not to go for a walk…

     Near the ancient Cathedral of San Sabino, a remarkable example of the Apulian Romanesque style, you can find the Norman-Swabian Castle built outside the old quarter and protected by a moat. The castle is surrounded by two orders of walls, the taller and narrower are those inside built by the Normans (to defend themselves from attacks), the lower and larger those of the exterior built by the Aragonese (to resist cannonades). The interior of the castle is worth visiting: arches, gateway, halls, courts which remind you of ancient times. The castle hosts also exhibitions and cultural events. The old quarter is rich in patrician residences like the Palazzi Alberotanza, Starita or Tanzi, and the places of the authorities like those of the Dogana and Sedile which give onto Piazza Mercantile. In a corner of the square you can find the “infamous column”, where the insolvent inhabitants were pilloried.

     The old quarter is lively with its restaurants and cafes at night. It’s rich also in cultural activities in the Murat Hall and in the church of the Vallisa which is now an auditorium; but the atmosphere is so quiet in the old quarter in the mornings, that you can go shopping leisurely among old workshops and little shops.

     It’s not so easy to describe the old town: there’s a lot of history to tell and many things to discover. 

     Source: Flash Tour, printed in Italy on 2007. 

See Part 1                                              See Part 3

Discovering the city of Bari part 1

Discovering the city of Bari part 1

See Part 2                                           See Part 3

     Apulia has had many invaders from different civilizations. They arrived from the sea to a land full of light, scents and hospitable people. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Swabians and Aragonese: people and cultures which have left their marks in these lands. Times and travellers are different nowadays, but in our land, rich in charm and culture, new ideas and ancient traditions live in harmony. Everyone arriving in Apulia finds something familiar so that he feels at home.

     Bari is a seaside town and the old town overlooks the sea front which is the longest in Italy. Proceeding along the seafront, we suggest you to go southwards where you can discover the splendid buildings built in the reign of Umberto Ist, such as the Kuursaal Santalucia Theatre in Liberty style. Following the seafront you come to the Palace of the Provincial Council with its Picture Gallery, and the monumental palaces built during the Fascist epoch such as the Albergo delle Nazioni.

     Along the sea stretch two of the city’s Quarters: Madonnella and Japigia. The road south along the sea leads to Torre a Mare, a small fishing town, whose name comes from an ancient Angevin watch – tower, like many others along all the Apulian coast.

     Following the seafront northwards, you can find the Fiera del Levante. This is the seat of important trade exhibitions such as the trade fair (in September), Orolevante, Modalevante and Expolevante.

     Following the S.S. 16 you reach Palese and Santo Spirito, two pleasant small villages with small harbours and many places where you can spend pleasant evenings. They are worth visiting because they have preserved their own identity, so picturesque and different from that of the main city.

     The new part of Bari was founded by Joachim Murat in 1813, who laid the first stone just at the intersection between Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Cavour, which are the first two sides of the Murat Quarter. Its boundary is marked by Via Quintino Sella that divides it from the Libertà Quarter, whereas the railway in the boundary southwards. Beyond the station are the working-class neighbourhoods of S. Pasquale, Picone and Carrassi, in the Carrassi Quarter you can find the Russian Orthodox Church with its green domes, dedicated to S. Nicola, and the Park of Largo 2 Giugno. The modern quarter of Poggiofranco is just behind the park. A large ring road, that runs from south to north, links it to the two quarters of S. Paolo and Stanic. 

     Source: Flash Tour, printed in Italy on 2007. 

See Part 2                                              See Part 3

My last will in favour of Bari

My legacy to the City hall of Bari 

     The undersigned Silvana Calabrese, born in Bari on 11.01.1987, here resident and here graduated in full possession of her mental faculties appoints the City hall of Bari her sole heir. In this way should start a last will, provided always has not looked too much movies. As in this, we jumped back with the subtitle "A few months before". I tried to do something for which the environmentalists would be grateful to me: make my trips by bus. So I committed to not touch the car keys, among other things, a free loan because it belongs to another member of my household and therefore excluded from my last will. So I immersed myself in the fascinating world of "public transport" early by learning the lingo: "is overflowing", "missed the race", "lags", "rose early", "has a fault". I purchase a ticket but do not use it because I can’t ever take the bus.

     I’m not a psychic, but I know that when my grandmother out of the house and take the public transportation, I will come her phone call and not because I’m her favourite grandchild, but because the bus has failed or miss two or more races. I came to the conclusion that it is much easier to get on a tank (at the Levante Fiera – fair, exhibition – was possible a few years ago).

     Many baresians tried to reduce polluting emissions of their cars taking public transportation: some buy simple tickets for € 0.80, while others find easier to subscribe the season ticket; and others take a fine of € 50 which is positively because it should be added to the funds for bus maintenance. Yet the efficiency almost always low levels and during peak hours the number of Amtab bus on the road doesn’t increase, forcing passengers to compress.

     I remember that when the mayor Emiliano appeared on the political scene was attributed him a major advantage: to have practiced the profession of magistrate that had made him closer to the problems of their fellow citizens, but to be truly such, the mayor should try at least once public transport and not for a walk, but for errands.

     [How I ventured to promise isn’t an isolated case: in 1933 in California was built Coit Tower, a memorial tower as a result of the bequest by Lillie Hitchcock Coit to beautify San Francisco, the city to which Lillie bequeathed the third part of her assets "that were spent in an appropriate manner in order to increase the splendor of the city which I have always loved"].

     Now tell me if what I have written, legally speaking, counts as a last will or should I go to a notary. 

     Source “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, October 18, 2010, p. 18.

I no longer believe in this society

     My name is Silvana Calabrese, graduated student in Communication Sciences at the University of Bari, writing to express my deep disappointment about different topics.

     What prompts me to write to you is the deep anxiety that loom me recently. It concerns my future career on which hangs the darkest darkness. But reflecting on it I came to the conclusion that unemployment is the lesser of evils in our society. Any initiative healthy and constructive comes to mind of a young person inevitably encounters some insurmountable obstacles. And there is no greater outrage that the nature of these obstacles. I have little more than twenty-two years ago and I think I’m too young to have already lost faith and hope, and I not only speak of faith in God, who blame him for having given us free will, the more unhappy decision that could take because no man is able to manage themselves. I no longer believe in the society in which I live.

     I’ll do some example from my own life. I am the author of a book, a scientific paper in which writing I thought a lot. But to take off my work has been a hell. Publishers to whom I turned really appreciated the content, the problem was my lack of notoriety. During the heated discussions with them it has been pulled out a name: Franzoni. It was explained to me that the company would prefer to read her book because of the attraction provoked by bloody crime events even if linked to the brutal murder of a child.

     On the tastes we shouldn’t discuss but there is a limit to everything. Over the years have been lost some of the values ​​that made us human, but now we have retained only the human form. At the same moment when I felt frustrated for my book I was struck by a news: "He invested four boys: now he’s a star. € 50 thousand to write the book. Is how he should collect Marco Ahmetovic, the twenty-two years old Rumanian sentenced to six years a half in the first instance for the massacre of Appignano del Tronto, where died, hit by the van drunk nomadic, four young of the small town near Ascoli Piceno".

     I don’t think is necessary to comment the news. We have dismounted. Every action has its consequences, the worst is yet to come, but we are still on time for a turnaround. It’s not the society changing, but individuals who compose it.

     I highly doubt that I received a response, people don’t ever deny. 

     Source "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno", an italian newspaper, June 25, 2009, p. 24.

Time is a tyrant, don’t waste it!

Exactly two minutes before the official start, Mario Monti recites the opening speech of the 76th edition of the Fiera del Levante. The peculiarity of the ceremony leads us to reflect.

Have you ever wished you could exercise control over the time? Think about it, it’s possible and we already do it. And I’m not referring to the photograph or the cinema that allow us to travel back and forward in time evoking memories and scenarios of other times. I point the finger at the way we deal with everyday situations. When I ask for five minutes of time, will never occur a contraction, but an expansion of the same time that will diverge from what is required. Let’s think now to public offices: lethal, for employees, would be if they opened with a slight advance in order to dispose a row more than compact, it’s more likely that the office doors drawing an arc, opening, but always late. Let’s Teleport with the imagination at a conference. Start at 9.00 am on the poster, real start at 10.00 am, the time zone of another European city. The plot twist is in the middle of the conference, after the speakers were widely complained about the delay, because at some point we need a little break to reinvigorate the attention. It’s propose 10 minutes and will spend 30. The listeners, in the waves of public, notice of the time warp, but they don’t emit a breath. The deadline was set for 13.00, when by now people don’t think of anything else except the dish at the table, but it’s here that, using technical jargon, we go out of time.

Einstein argued that time ran in a subjective manner, meaning that it’s our perception of the passage of time that varies depending if the activity is more or less pleasant. In the archipelago of “Arturo’s Island” seems almost as if time has stood still for the meticulousness of details used by Elsa Morante in the descriptions. One of the sonnets of Petrarch’s Canzoniere opens with “Life runs and doesn’t stop an hour”. Life and time are equated. Life and time flows inexorably, for this is in that fleeting moment that we should strive to embed the joys of life. I propose Horatius Flaccus for the grand finale: “As we speak, the envious time will be escaped. Carpe diem (seize the moment), and of tomorrow trust as little as possible” (Odes, I, 11). Let’s meditate on these words that to the flow of time tyrant have resisted and let’s employ our energies in an exercise: to make sure that never a minute of our daily lives go to waste. It’s a matter of lancets. 

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, September 17, 2012, p. 18.

Don’t smile, now you can say it

Slutty attitude, becoming spinster (male or female)...

Don’t smile, now you can say it

The greek philosopher Heraclitus, who lived before the year zero, realized that everything flows, everything is in flux. He formulated the famous maxim, “You can’t step twice into the same river”. It was an amazing intuition since, by comparing the life of the fifth century BC and the life of the twenty–first century AD, the first would be steeped by rallenty effect. There’s nothing that can be static. Not even the language. It represents a communication system in which manifests the language, the set of cognitive processes common to all peoples. Language is a social product, the result of conventions of which word is the concrete linguistic execution that differs from country to country and even within it, as there are linguistic diversity: the dialects (vernacular languages). If the society is in constant evolution, the language reflects the inexorable flow too. There are extinct or death languages, have come to the terminus. They can be a subject of study, but no one talks using its words. However, to understand the etymology of a lemma, we go back to the old language in which every modern word has its roots.

Every year we wait it like a mystical event. This is the Zanichelli press release that announces the new Zingarelli edition with peculiar new words.

As society changes with dizzying pace, Zingarelli 2014 includes new words. Some of them make us smile, as “slutty attitude” and “becoming spinster (male and female)”, while others have the aura of a patent, as “hashtag” or “self publishing”. The vocabulary of the Italian language is enriched by neologisms, some acquired by Anglo–Saxon matrix. As in a quiz game we can have fun trying to guess the correct definition of “scrap dealer”: who propose to replace an executive team considered outdated. Enter the field also linguistic inventions such as “spread”, “feminicide”, “spending review”, “esodato (a worker without job and retirement)”. If you meet a person aged between 20 and 30 years old, he/she isn’t a young adult, but an “adultescent”. Because today’s society has made him/her a late teenager with precarious life and work conditions and with a perpetual student condition. Pathological gambling and compulsive is widespread? Let’s appeal to the “gambling addiction”. The human soul is always more prone to corruption and unscrupulous? We need an “ethicist”. Are you lost? Don’t panic, there’s the “geolocation”. Microsoft Word is underlining all the new words, will have to learn that can’t listen twice the same language. 

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, Novembre 1, 2013, p. 24. 

The exhausting hustle of being a woman

On the flap of the first book I reviewed there was an inscription: «Being a woman is a great mystery». That won me over immediately, but to my amazement I had to precede the professional need to understand the deep meaning to do reviewal justice to a text that propose to give voice to many of those women prey of cultural backwardness of their country. The feminine condition includes the mystery of life with the magic of pregnancy. Woman is a guarantee of reproduction and continuity in a world that has never given them a place of honor on the social convoy. With a quick and concise digression I’m trying to draft the stages experienced in the historic itinerary  stained with pink.

In the past the woman was subjugate by men (father, brother, husband) and too often abused. With the evolution of society, the fair sex has found itself immersed in a context that condemns it. Like a tightrope walker the modern woman, always busy, achieves high levels of study; pursues the ambition of being a worker, with her eyes fixed on her biological clock, finds a presumed life partner and gives birth to the offspring; sees reduced the time available for her, but she can’t count on the collaboration of her husband (is rare). The Italian society doesn’t grant services that permit the reconciliation of the many areas of her life because Italy is the tail–end in Europe in terms of family policies. For example is very small the number of business nurseries, real circles reserved for few elected. In addition, the qualifications obtained with sacrifices, not yet allow her to occupy important job positions, a clear sign of androcracy.

Recently, it has outlined a new phenomenon that seems not destined to end. This is the feminicide. It’s unclear if we can speak of a degeneration of sexism that pragmatically demonstrated the physical superiority of men over women. However, it’s a gender violence, domestic and otherwise, perpetrated against women which is/was connected. Statistics have now developed macabre bulletins, in newscasts never fails the news that we wouldn’t want to hear. What’s happening? Often the woman has agreed to stand as an object of desire with the help of the media system, but there’s an insurmountable barrier that every mother should tell to their son: respect towards women. On this you mustn’t discuss, ever. 

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, March 22, 2014 , p. 24.

Let's say (it) to Calvino, in fact let's not say it

     Writing you is Silvana Calabrese, twenty-three years old, with a degree in Communication Sciences at the University of Bari. Few people remember that in 1984, Italo Calvino was invited by Cambridge Harvard University, in Massachusetts, to deliver a series of six lectures on free subject that took the name of American Lessons. He chose to illustrate some literature values which he should save: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity and consistency or coherence. He called them Six memos for the next millennium. The author argued that the mastery of their own language was a moral and social deep value, because it’s the only weapon capable of opposing the loss of form that has infected the world, making senseless and shapeless people life, and the only tool that’s able to make so clear and crisp the nuances of thought and imagination.

     Calvino called the precision which would follow the confidence, the ability to process complex and articulated speech without running into contradictions. Extolled the value of the accuracy, as opposed to the tendency to approximation that characterizes contemporary society.

     At the end of the series of conferences, emerged the idea of the writer’s work as a challenge to the degradation of society with the specific weapons of the language.

     This assumption, while going back to 1984, is revealed present, indeed futuristic, because it seems that Calvino has predicted the linguistic immaturity of youth, so linked to linguistic bad habits "we say" and "pratically" that spread like the plague, and exactly how the plague, they don’t discriminate by class or education level. By television journalists to physicists at Geneva CERN, many souls are affected by this virus.

     The "say" is sociable: it goes to "pratically" to "roughly", the "whatever other" and "i.e.", occurring as a nightmare.

     What Calvino could "we say" of this expression/pleonasm, sign of linguistic weakness that laps every day new people and don’t leave them never and never.

     And then, "we say" it forever, but we know it?

     At first, it’s presumptuous to use the plural if the speaker isn’t the spokesperson for a group and then, it’s a clear sign of loss of control over their own language.

     But the worst phenomenon which I happened to attend is contagion: learners make large use of  it and the lights follow their example.

     So... don’t say (it) to Calvino. 

     Source “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, June 25, 2010, p. 22.

South Est Railways: the real troubles come after road accidents

     The driving school manuals recommend to drive appropriately to the characteristics of the vehicles and the road conditions and traffic by taking the precautions dictated by common sense and showing strong civic sense. But sometimes the inevitable happens. 

     Off the car, it sets in motion a perverse mechanism known and inevitable. The involved people in the mildest sinister leave the scene, but they finance any act, and enter in the field new characters, insurers, loss adjusters and body shop mechanics. As defenders, midfielders and attackers, they pass the ball themselves, indeed the numeric digits with a lightness that doesn’t suit to the sum of monies. Numbers are inflated and there is no stop to this habit. Often it seems that the expert/loss adjuster who, having read the vehicle, estimated the damage is in possession of the same price lists of bodywork mechanics with astronomical prices for repair abrasions, and not deep scrapes or dents (it spoke in a service of the italian show "Le Iene/The Hyenas"). Insurers provide compensation for damages, within the maximum, and then inflict their deadly blow in the policy rates. From body shop mechanic, more and more like a goldsmith, went few people. When accidents cause only property damages, you can take advantage of the form of an accident and friendly report prepared by the two drivers involved in order to make a complaint to the insurance. The module expected to be realized sketch illustrating the dynamic impact. There is always in some left any left individual who seeks to take advantage by declaring dynamics and attributions of blame that deviate from reality. This is the case of collisions occurred against the blue bus of the South Est Railways. Stay away from them because if your car were to collide with one of them, in spite of the accident and friendly report and the consolidated involvement liability (Article 2054, clause 2 of the Italian Civil Code), they declare that thay has received damages greater extent than those actually caused. The abrasions become dents. In addition they award sole responsibility for what happened to the small drivers. The compensation claim that they send will be accompanied by descriptions that don’t respect the logic of the trajectories and the mechanic principles, branch of physics that studies the movement. South Est Railways, let’s make sure that the blue Pacific, like the ocean, recalls the beauty of the waters and not the depth able to swallow the human honesty. 

     Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, Friday, May 18, 2012, p. 24.

2012: the world ends or doesn’t end? The new Hamlet doubt

     A couple of years ago was often heard on television advertising of some Tv programs, including Voyager, and we could see how they were based on impact phrases (words meant for effect) such as: "2012: the end of the world?".

     While inserting the question mark, the sentence contains an intrinsic affirmation candidate to take root in the minds of viewers.

     May be in few are really interested in the Maya civilization, but today they have gained the most fame thanks to the powerful message that media has carried.

     The alleged end of the world has not generated a collective psychosis, but a sense of power by individuals. Humanity has shown, in the historical ages, its desire about a topic: being able to establish the exact date or year in which the life on planet Earth will cease. Our presumption will never end!

     However, we believed in the words of TV hosts, verbal words full of significance and relevance that the media resonance has given them. But we are also ran in the bookstore to buy one or more copies of those books that promised to exhaust the entire repertoire about the infamous 2012.

     Television has a hypnotic power... even when it’s going to deny that a message had been established.

     If Giacobbo has continued to talk about the end of the world and if then it that wasn’t turned up for the appointment, the entire credibility of the host would have collapsed much faster than the Berlin Wall. Now in his transmission he portrayed the topic and prepares us for the event will not happens.

     It a luck that written thing on paper and appropriately dated resist to the passing of time, because I really have a quote for you: «Someone observing some Maya bas-reliefs, wanted to see spaceships. Some argue that the same Maya were aliens. In support of this claim, they report the fact that the facial features of Maya are too far removed from those of the native Mesoamericans. The Mayan calendar bring back two forward-looking statements: the first concerned the Spanish conquest; the second refers to a date, December 21, 2012, the day on which, according to prophecy, will end a cosmic cycle. This prediction of the future, shouldn’t be seen as the end of the world, but it indicates the end of a galactic year. It’s assumed that Maya had discovered not only that the Earth revolves around the Sun, but also that the solar system performs a rotational motion around the galaxy. A galactic year, indicating the complete tour, takes about 25,626 years». 

     Quote from: S. CALABRESE, All the mysteries aresolved, Rome, 2009, pages 98-162.
     And: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an Italian newspaper, Jan 7, 2012, p. 16.  

The revolt of the universities and the right to study

     What is known as "agitation" by researchers is a disorder caused by the University Reform, which was continuing its passage through Parliament until the halt by Minister of Economy and Finance Tremonti. I haven’t the intention of making an apology to the Gelmini decree and not to move against it criticism. I will remain neutral, but eager to tell how much discomfort is felt by the students as the teachers abstention by teaching is concerning them as if they were accomplices of the Decree.

     It started the 2010-2011 academic year in the Faculty of Education of Bari and a few weeks before had been published the schedule of lessons with a surprise: in many courses are completely or partially absent the names of professors which would have given lessons. All this not comes from a typing mistake, but is the greatest effect of researchers agitation. Consequently, subjects whose exams are for the first half slip to the second half of semester without a specific day. No lessons, no programs, no books, no tests/exams, farewell be in order, where is the right to study guaranteed by article 34 of the Italian Constitution?

     The students are trying to develop strategies, searching for the lawfulness of course, in order to implement an exchange of lessons learned and thus save the semester, but the time is despotic towards them because November is started; the semester ends in January and requires a precise number of days to devote to lesson hours.

     Freshman and preparing for a degree continue to cultivate their hopes and dreams for their future, but not all are so phlegmatic. From the rank of the revolutionaries was raised a "voice" and it is possible that is "white": there is a module called “renunciation of the studies”; if it was duly completed and delivered by the students, by now sick and tired of the lack of interest shown towards them, it would the death certificate of many courses. 

     Source: "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno", an italian newspaper, November 27, 2010, p. 20.

Bossi has demonstrated the effectiveness of policies … for the family

     A recent event such as the news of Umberto Bossi resignation from Northern League will invoke a remote one as the controversial phrase uttered in a diplomatic memorandum on August 2, 1847 by Klemens von Metternich: "Italy is a geographical expression". The historical context proves to be enlightening, in fact the years that were flowed into 1848 coincide with the national revolutions. The Restoration period began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna aims to establish a social and political order based on that existing before the French Revolution. The Austrian statesman Metternich watched a divided Italy on which would be easier to exercise the Austrian influence. Who read between the lines of "The Battle", dictionary of the Italian language, can see how that phrase is used to describe a nation that hasn’t yet achieved political unity. But now Italy what is it? Has become of expression of what? And how long we don’t hear more news that could be called political rather than relating to the politicians private lives? Bossi hoped for fiscal federalism in the country and to get the popular support has leveraged on the area in which we are weaker, Italian language, proposing the idea that each school is teaching the regional dialect. While he entertained us and mesmerized us was dedicated to the unification of money within a file with the heading "The Family". It seems almost a mitigating factor because his operations were aimed at the welfare of the fundamental cell of society, the family, his family. We disclaim, so the claim that Italy invests little on family policies because Bossi isn’t the first to "borrow" some money for the final exams of his son Renzo, jumped to the headlines in 2008, or however, to guarantee his family a decent standard of living. It’s almost creepy the sequence of images aimed at documenting the professional climb of Umberto Bossi, but under those lights and flash there were already gray areas that have become increasingly bleak and we can’t really say that the social top was been reached with sacrifices. Only some Italians have close encounters of the third kind with the concept of sacrifice and pay for the vices of the arrogant and powerful. I conclude with a new maximum, emblem of the period of the cuts even on syllables: Italy is a peninsula, but a pain. 

     Source: "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno", an italian newspaper, April 8, 2012, p. 20.

University of Bari in danger. Close or pull weeds?

The ANVUR report is strict in the assessment of the quality of research in the South of Italy. The University of Bari is placed at the bottom of the ranking. The benchmark are publications. The President of Abruzzo, Gianni Chiodi, shouts against the University of Bari judging it a factory of illusions that should be closed. Great situation! What is the cause? 

In the United States if things collapse in a company, people will organize a hunt in search of the bad apple, i.e. the rotten apple that must be separated from the others not to infect those. In Bari the fungal formation, whitish and greenish with particular smell (mold) that has affected the social system, we can identify it in what is public. Isn’t necessary to dig deep into professors’ lives because their curricula studiorum are public and visible within the Faculty websites. From those documents will be clear a study path anything but modest, boasting stays in prestigious institutions across the Alps. Money allows unthinkable opportunities. But then is in their country that they try to climb the social ladder. They win the chair, but not honor that. Their professional career should give rise to scientific publications numerous and constant over time. But the results are scarce. Yet they not have to finance their own books. Yet those high–level courses should have resulted in an explosion in the academic production. But no. If the work of these bad apples were by piece, they couldn’t reach the end of the month. Such situations give rise to the usual suspects with a novelty: we cross a gap, and we float in mid–air with few words: relative–town, recommendations, references. Relative–town means that the University is like a family–owned company. That the ex girlfriends remain on good terms with the professors, they could integrate into the University. A recommendation may be lawful or unlawful. In the first case it takes the name of reference. But has a professor parent the clarity needed to provide references on their own child? Be sons of art or want to follow in the footsteps of father and mother isn’t wrong, it is to ignore their real abilities. But there is something genetic and hereditary. Comparing the curricula of two professors related we can see the same chromosome set: macro credits and micro publications. Is in their hands that we place the education of our children. Too few people are able to infuse professional passion. The solution, however, isn’t close University, causing a cultural regression of the South, but pull weeds that living quiet shade of a permanent contract. 

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, August 21, 2013, p. 16. 

Sing me, o Goddess, a University without students

     Let’s try to imagine a university without students... Now read the letter and you will understand why the students were stricken by an acute form of demotivation.

     "Sing me, o Goddess, the wrath of Peleus Achilles...". This opens the Iliad, one of the greatest poems of humanity, written by Homer. This is the traditional invocation to the Muse Calliope, who presided over the heroic poetry and is considered a source of inspiration. I made a change, "Sing me, o Goddess, the wrath of inaupicious student", to tell you the story of a shipwreck that can’t happens. But if we transposed the whole story in an imaginary world, it could take the tone of a joke. Once upon a time there were three teaching islands at the University of Bari, probably the largest of the academic archipelago. With the multimedia stations, each equipped with PC, they represented a safe haven for the "wolves of the Web", aims to research, write term papers or theses, write the Almalaurea form or fill out the applications for registration and enrollment. Students felt calm, they observed the rules, and in case of problems were assisted by a coach or a mentor. Then something changed, possibly due to a telluric disruption (forgive the irony, my faithful companion) and the islands have disappeared, or rather, one has been terminated (plexus of Beata Elia Street), another has no Internet connection and has been even lacking the printer (plexus of Q. Sella Road), the last one appears and disappears, a bit like the volcanic origin islands that are submerged and then re-emerge from the waters (Ateneo Palace, third floor, side Crisanzio Street).

     I’ve always been of the opinion that the student body represents the bottom of the food chain, but the status quo isn’t the best. In the moment you could glimpse the silhouette of the last island, the last possible landing, there was found only at the mercy of the current, time dragged by it, now rejected by the undertow, but always surrounded by many acres of opened ocean.

     To make shipwreck would at least an island, even the most deserted or infested with giant lizards, for not being pretentious, just a rock in the middle of the sea.

     As you can see, we have the resources at homeland, but we leave them in a state of neglect, in fact now the didactic islands are very similar to the sequestration locals. And the thing has been running for already two years.

     The undersigned, in full possession of her mental faculties as well as sarcastic, has granted the desire of those who wanted that I extract the pen from its sheath to know the sad reality of the students. Appertain to me a desire too: I don’t want that this become a poem to be handed down through the centuries, I prefer solutions rather than a diachronic fame.

     It spent time, but today goes missing only the island of Beata Elia Street. 

     Source: "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno", an italian newspaper, August 3, 2010, p. 20.

Costa Concordia: a holiday you'll never forget

      The practice of bowing or of the tilt?

     Costa slogan should be changed from "The holiday you miss" to "a holiday you'll never forget". The fleet has grown over time, with Costa Classic, Cheerful, Romantic, Victoria, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Luck, Magic, Serene, Pacific, but I remember very well the day when announced the entry into service of the new flagship Concordia. It was Sunday, 9.7.2006 and the media conveyed the majesty expressed in meters and number of Jacuzzi. The watchwords spoken were luxury and opulence combined with a ship transformed from a means of making a trip to a place of sailing holiday. It’s redundant to recover the parallel with the Titanic, the liner considered unsinkable and that collided with an iceberg during its own maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 14/04/1912.

     On 13.1.2012 a disaster struck the Concordia. Who was on board? Young people facing with the tranquillity of a vacation? Elderly who are sailing trim towards the avenue of cold marble? O young married couples who saw the tomb of love in marriage? The story of the sinking is incredible and it follows that in the XXI century we like to make huge projects, but full of holes! A list of passengers remained on board; the staff that fails to help the passengers; the abandon of ship by the captain Schettino; the environmental hazard caused by the tanks filled with naphtha and gas oil. Aren’t clear rules on evacuation as had not yet been carried out of the tutorials.

     Err is human, but circumstances combined to navigation along the coast of Giglio island are a gamble. Viewing of images gives the same impression of a new toy given to a child: it get him/her euphoria, but soon we’ll find that toy broken, tilted on its side and beached in a corner of the apartment. The order issued by the investigating magistrate of Grosseto explains that Schettino stood on the cliff of Giglio and watched the ship sink. Perhaps the selection parameter in the workplace are too mild and hasty and not aimed at understanding the inclination of the candidates. I played a little with the words, forgive me. I wanted to approach the edge of the Italian language, I don’t get beached.

     Source “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”,  an italian newspaper, January 24, 2012, p. 24.