How to use a scale

Fist picture of Michael Phelps

This super trooper image is taken from the blog of the CEO of a Boston hospital.

Things I like about Britain - 2

Saturday evening in London, mid August.

Music 'n picnic in the Park.

Diana Krall.

And rain... What a marvellous British experience!!!

Amazon-less living

Some things enter your sphere of contiousness only when you get to know the opposite.

I am a huge internet fan. I started emailing heeps after moving abroad, shopping online food and wine when I realised that it saves me the carrying, buying books and DVDs online when I realised how quickly I can do it without the trip to the shops. Not to mention the cheap flights and the online banking, the organic veggie box and buying gig tickets.

In London people use the internet a lot more than in other countries. Here I started using Amazon. Yeah, I did know it - but Italy doesn't have its own regional page. As matter of fact Italy is not the only Amazon-less country (see bottom of their site). But don't wory - Italians can buy books online. There are actually two Italian sites to do that.

So is it really so crazy not to have your regional Amazon? Well, I never missed it. I don't miss brands if something else gives me the same service for the same price. Why then are people so surprised to hear Italy doesn't have its own Amazon? Again, it's the brand thing. A word understood all over the world, even if you don't speak the same language. It makes people fell less vulnerable.

Watch out for the little gremlin...

... he's keeping an eye on everyone who enters our home... ;-)

Italy's (new) way to fight Mafia

We all know mafia, right? The Godfather and all that. Although this film series is somewhat fictionalised, it has nailed it rather well. Mafia, like all kind of criminality, survives by taking control of people's lives, where they live and where they work. Mafia not only controls all sorts of illigal activity but also people's everyday lives, e.g. by imposing a "fee" in order to be protected by dangers. Mafiosi are grouped into "clans", their families (just like the Godfather's family), which to them represent the core of society, and all that matters to them is the well being of the family itself.

So how do you fight mafia? This week end the Financial Times has reported on it. In Italy mafiosi have been criminalised - but they've gone into hiding. They have been put into prison - but they have retained their power through a well organised and wide spread network. So a couple of decades ago the Italian government has started confiscating their properties and turn them into schools, vineyards, parks, farms, music halls etc. In other words they confiscated illigal assets and gave them to people to produce stuff, to employ at-risk young people, to increase the well being of all Italians.

If you want to fight something, hit them where they are weak. As in all families, properties are where all family activities are based. Without a "base" it is difficult for them to live. And although it is neither fast nor cheap, it looks like mafiosi are scared of this new approach: in a recorded phone call one mafioso told another one that "there is nothing worse than getting your assets confiscated."

Italian press does not report much on this (which doesn't surprise me; see: Why learning English could save Italians), and if it does it fails to point out how useful this is to fight mafia. So here's the full article on the Financial Times online: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72fff132-2d17-11dd-88c6-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

New York City: a place to visit

What a marvellous trip!! Many places we have seen, nice people at the Van Halen concert with us, great weather all along, and the food.... yummy!! I'm trying hard but I cannot decide what I liked most. MoMA, Empire State Building, the fire escapes, the subway steam in the streets, the Village, the boat tour... I guess it's the whole thing. It really was like I had always seen it films - just different!

Wyh Brits are good business people and Germans produce reliable goods

We've just spent a few days in Germany celebrating Oliver's dad's 60th birthday. The weather was glorious, the parties grand and the people lovely. I had the chance to meet a lot of his family and friends I hadn't met before and chatted about all sorts. A few times I have been asked if my boss had allowed my these days off - and a few times I have been surprised by the question. As it is, when I plan a holiday first of all I check it doesn't clash with the others in the office, then I ask my boss and book. And sometimes I actually ask my boss last... ;-)You see, I know my holiday entitlement and I know my boss wouldn't object me taking time off. And because in the UK there is an understanding that you're a resource, you're valuable despite your job's got to be done. It goes to the extent that here companies compete in being an "Investor in People": "Everyone agrees that people are an organisation's greatest asset", so the investor in people website. Because of the Commonwealth and the English language the UK gets a lot more (young) people come, stay for a few years and then go. They have learnt they've got to be flexible and turned it to their advantage. Their are business people.
In Germany, however, it seems life is more regulated, people kind of like their routines and securities, they are better protected by laws and trade unions, employment rules like holidays and working times are less flexible and undergo the strict scrutiny of the boss. You are more an employee rather than a flexible resource. This doesn't mean people are mistreated in Germany - it's much rather about the approach to work. And life.

Things I like about Britain - 1

There is an endless list of things I love about this country, this green island with occasional good weather where different cultures mix daily under the vigilant eye of the Queen.

On this day, 1st of May, I am spending my lunch break thinking of my friends and family on the continent who are off and enjoying their free day. Yes, I'm talking about labour day. It would be wrong to say Britain does not celebrate stuff like this, they've simply taken all religious and political reference out and called these festivities 'bank holiday'. Why this name I really don't know since on bank holidays everybody if off, not only bankers...
There are only two exceptions: Christmas and Easter. Good for the travel industry!

They've been clever though: all bank holidays are on a Monday. This means that 1) you always get a long week end, 2) of the two days next to the week end you get off the one where you probably work more (Friday after work drinks can start very very early....) and 3) if such a festivity is on a week end - you don't lose it since it is moved to a Monday anyway!

Pity is that you have to take holiday leave when you want to spend this day with others from the continent - but I guess I can live with that! :-)

Happy Vaffanculo Day 2!!

Oh, thank goodness for Beppe Grillo!

Not only he organised the first Vaffanculo Day last year (see video below) but he's done it again!! Yes, today has been V-Day2: all over Italy fed up Italians have gathered and shouted out lout against the monopoly of information, the Italian and European funding of that same monopolistic information, the mafia among parlamentarians.... Today signatures have been collected for three referenda: the abolition of the Order of Journalists (which doesn't exist anywhere else), the abolition of public financing of a billion Euro a year to the publishing industry (Berlusconi gets a large chunck of this money), the abolition of the Gasparri law and the duopoly Parties-Mediaset (i.e. media businessman should not have direct control of government media).

Is this asking too much in a democratic, developed country part of the EU, the G7, the NATO etc.?

Needless to say, most Italian and international newspapers and tvs have ignored this event.

The New York Times on Beppe Grillo's VDay in 2007:

International Women's Day

I must admit I have mixed feelings about International Women's Day (which is supported by the UN): information on how it came to be varies enormously, clearly putting its current commercial value in front of its historical one, which concerns the development of women rights and gender equality.

And, talking of gender equality, International Men's Day (again supported by the UN) was started in 1999 but is celebrated merely in a bunch of far away countries and on different days of the year.

The 1911 fire of the the Triangle Shirts Factory in NYC killing 140 women, although some claim it was the 1909 fire in the Cotton factory in Chicago burning to death 129 women workers, about a century later has turned into a global commercial activity and in Italy into a huge sale of Silver Wattle. Why Silver Wattle, I do not know. What I do know is that on 8th March women tend to be "celebrated" a lot more in those countries where gender equality still has a long way to go. I'll call it a compromise.

So do we really need a day to celebrate women? Yes. And we also need a day to celebrate men. However we do not need flowers, dinners out and what not - just leave equality and respect for both genders.

Did you know...?

Women win the right to vote:
- 1893: New Zealand
- 1902: Australia
- 1920: USA, Austria
- 1929: UK
- 1930: Turkey
- 1946: Italy
- 1971: Switzerland (1990: kanton Appenzell Innerhorden)
- 1984: Liechtenstein
- 2003: Afghanistan


Divorce becomes legal:
- under Henry VIII: England (only if initiated by husbands)
- late 17th cent.: USA (after English laws)
- 1875: Germany (for civil marriages)
- 1954: India
- 1970: Italy (against the Vatican's will)
- 1977: Austria
- 2003/2004: Chile
- not permitted: Malta, Philippines (annulment is permitted), Jordan (men are permitted to divorce their wives)

Does the world need another blog?

Having just celebrated yet another birthday (and allowed time for my hungover to ease) I finally decided to materialise an idea I've had in my mind for some time. Telling the world what I think. Well, maybe not the whole world will read this blog. In fact it would be rather unlikely and presumptious of me to think so, but I like to think that my words will inspire you.

And yes, I'm excited!