The morbid jelly of Italian country: vile corruption, ethics-annihilating viruses and the shining paradigm of the classic greek-roman Titans

First posted: 24  february 2010

Today some people said me that I tend to despise Italian culture and to sign the praises of the foreign one. They also try to point how, instead of the outlanders, we have got a direct descent of the great Roman empire.

Probably when I speak I can give the wrong idea that I’ve got this “forma mentis” but, if I have to be honest, what I despise is the present Italian society, certanly not the ancient, quite another thing.

My answer to this appointment, therefore, was: “I’ve got nothing against ancient cultures, neither Latin nor Greek, which I love, but, in Italy, we don’t know them well and, very often, people abroad is more interested in a specific way about them and they’re able to drain from and actualize the teachings including them in their society. Do you want to talk, I don’t know, for example, about Seneca, Petronius or Cicero or any other Latin author?”.

Currently the grammar high school is scorned and offended because it’s judged like an environment where people study the “dead languades”, or with a terminal illness. I wonder, then, why, for example, Nietzsche or Heiddeger have taken inspiration by the Greek language and culture if it was so senseless as it seems to italian people.

Perhaps it is the study in our schools based purely on learning mnemonic versions of the translations done in classes (or clearly copied/pasted from the Internet) and, later, attached to the tests without an explanation about the text (I would say the exegesis or contextualizing but they’re teminologies unknown by the teachers themselves)?

It looks like that we don’t understand what exactly the ancient cultures offer, and continue to teach, showing how to live in an ideal way, and I’m not surprised that this point is completely misunderstood by Italian people.

I have noticed that some people get really annoyed while hearing around (in people talking) about how our country, considered as a formal “society” (what a significant word… how many euphemisms i am using here! I wonder why…), is going to fall into complete ruination (such as being corrupted by an  infectious disease orby the typical “bacillus” currupting and spoiling books pages…) and about how we are currently deeply criticized by foreign countries, blaming the collapse of our ethics, for example: we give up realizing (and getting aware of) where we are gradually directing our steps (in a sort of no mans lands, where “licet” and not “licet” are the same, where there is no difference between morality and immoral acts, between ethics or illicit behaviours), and we are unable to realize that just because we ourselves are made of “debris and ignorance” (please try to feel the sound of the spelling in my original language, italian, “we are made of “macerie e ignoranza”, translated into italian… isn’t it like the sound of ruination itself?).

Fed up by television programs (just like chickens being stuffed) and sparkles, fragments  taken from italian news (daily “chronicles” contained in the most common and sold newspapers), we tend to miss all the real facts happening around the world, being news from the outer world something “missing” in our major newspapares and tv programs (there is an italian journalist, who has written a very significant and important boom about that, entitled “La scomparsa dei fatti”, “The vanishing of the news and facts”, translated by me; this journalist’s name is Marco Travaglio, a master of true journalism). We happen (sometimes) to hear or read about the news and facts coming from all over the world, but those news are reported manipulated or filtered by the “Big Brother” of our news agencies, so most of the news are altered and reported with no accuracy or precision.

Coming back to an old problem, already discussed by me (forgive my self-quoting hypertrophy), I am wondering about how many persons really know english language here in Italy… and I am wondering whether people educated in english, here in Italy, are used to reading english newspapers (or listening to their tv news broadcasting) or not.

Some days ago I bumped into an article reporting that Beppe Grillo (an italian famous comedian and a blogger whose mission is to divulge the most important facts and news without altering or censoring them) has been invited to Oxford university to “lecture” in comunication, diffusion of culture, the media, the italian problems and contradictions, about the “humus” surrounding our country. Apart from the fact that the italian embassy tried to diffuse some information against the reputation of this person (who is honest, sincere and guided by common sense), trying to make him appear less reliable and authoritative, they also quoted some of the comedian-blogger most famous opinions and words, blaming him for being a “dangerous” paradigm of an “anti-politicians” provocative troubles maker (accusing him of being a sort of professional “provocateur”). Some sentecnes and words of this famous comedian-blogger talk about how many italians, while living in foreign countries, are sure that they don’t want to come back to Italy, looking things from another point of view, from another alternative perspective, conscious of the faults and problems stuck and attached to the social/political pattern of our society and country. According to Beppe Grillo’s recurrent critical opinion, some italian, living in foreign countries, feel like “exiled” human beings, clinged to the “kindness of strangers” while being welcomed by foreign countries. Many italians cannot stand anymore the endemic state of corruption of our country, often hurt and “slaved” by criminal organizations (mafia, camorra, ’ndrangheta, etc.) and by illegals acts committed by the political bureau. (I think you all can recall the so-called “Tangentopoli”- the crisis of italian political/social system due to the curruptions and financial crimes, called  polis, city, of the bribes-that culminated into a series of trials directed by the famous Milano’s pool, whose members were for example Francesco Saverio Borrelli, Antonio Di Pietro, Davigo, Colombo, etc.

So after the eclipse of common sense,of rational thinking,of critical toughts many italians are sinking into the aberration of the nonsense, symbolized by the gossip news, by the lacking of true informations, by the meaningless and pathetic reference to our latin (greek) roots and traditions, as if italian people were all fond of learning about our cultural origins, as if our cultural traditions (the greek-roman source of knowledge) could be learned by osmosis or treasured into ourselves just like a sort of genetic “acquisition”.

2009: a railways Odyssey with Trenitalia

First posted: 24 december 2009

I don’t know why but whenever I travel by Trenitalia (the railway major company of Italy) something strange happens to me and, then, I need to write a short article about this “wondefull” company.
I’ve spent Seventy minutes waiting for “Frecciarossa” (the highest speed train here), in december, and this long waiting time in Bologna station (the city where i live at present) couldn’t even be compared with my arrival (by train) at Milan’s.

Obviously, I lost the coincidence (another quick train) to go to Genoa (my final destination). By chance there were two other train types (an intercity and a regional one): I started running, in a rush, (and I’d better inform you that the station itself was so crowded that sometimes I had the impression of a “procession” being the only one way to walk around through the hectic and nervous persons, move and reach the first available train) to take the first of them but it was blocked on the railways with 45 minutes late. The hilarious excuse, invented by the staff, was: “We couldn’t find the engine” … I suppose maybe someone had taken it putting it in his pocket and bringing it at home by mistake: after all, it’s so little that losing it is a normal event.
Before “throwing” myself into a regional train, which stopped in Genoa Principe (only 10 minutes late), I tried to ask the staff how to redeem the amount of money difference I lost (regarsing my original ticket) due to the huge delay forcing me to take another type of train, much cheaper than the previous one (thus wanting to receive a refund as soon as possible, after all the issues and problems I had to face during my travel, a sort of improvised odyssey through the italian disfunctional railways system). I asked it a group of five people about it; who they were chatting in front of the train that i was going to take: they looked at me without answering.
Then I found a guard who, to get rid of me, told me: “It’s better for you to take the regional train because we had to cancel the intercity departure, I don’t know anything about your ticket”.

When I arrived in Genoa Principe, I asked the information staff how to get refunded. Now I shall tell you something: here in Italy ordinary staff (in offices, customers services, public places, etc.) is often unkind, superficial, lazy… This time i met the so called “Kindness of strangers” (in this case, the behaviour of the staff lady), apart from the fact that there was no kindness at all. This time, the staff (“embodied” by that lady) was even worse than other times; she was totally distant, cold and For example, that predictable and boring lady kept repeating me (in a sort of hypnotic lullaby, as if she could use just two/three words to explain such a complicated and difficult situation where customers were totally disappointed by the italian railways system and paid services had been a failure without any apparent reasonable excuse) random sentences, involving the fact that extraordinary events (is winter snowing an extraordinary event in a civilized western country?) had caused all the problems and I couldn’t even hope for a refund.

I had paid and bought the tickets through on-line services and payment options so that “smart and professional” lady told me that for on-line services there are particular options making the refund really complicated to achieve. Well, in this contemporary era of new techs her lacking of professional skills and partial knowledge sounded really incredible and awful to me. She tried to persuade me that on-line services are considered to be an alternative way of payments so I had to apply for a special procedure to get my refund. Well, I tought, hasn’t the railways system and company received my REAL money through online payment? Are online billings and services virtual and holographic? Isn’t real money sent through those types of payments? I was furious and also very tired… so I gave up for the moment.
Later I checked, just to know, if I could do it (the procedure to get the refund) but it was impossible: the company site requires the ticket’s PNR (the code of the on-line tickets) but its program is automatic (it’s a browser page ruled by internal hidden codes of selection about who deserve or not the refund).

The apotheosis came when I had to take a train to come back to Milan (to take a “coincidence” to Venice) and Trenitalia guaranteed that all their trains during the afternoon were on time and regularly scheduled  but, “magically”, they cancelled the train for Milan of the 16.10.
I decided to travel back the day after, in the morning and, obviously, the information staff said to me again to ask for the refund with the on-line procedures, so I did it immediately.

But, surprise! The internet site didn’t accept the refund request about the cancelled train and, of course, it retains 20% out of the other ticket price amount (like the legal contract of the company said but in that case, because of the snow problems, the CEO of Trenitalia communicated (while being interviewed at a prime time news tv broadcasting) that the company was planning to refund all the customers.
So, I decided to write a letter to the complaints: they replied me assuring and confirming that they would refund that all the tickets without the deduction in my credit card but I haven’t got any money til now.

A final advice to all the users who buy tickets on-line through Trenitalia: If you are not sure that you can leave or you already know that there will be problems related to delays and connections you’d better opt for the for the traditional regular ticket (bought by the station offices).

Lolita's paradigm

First posted: 25 september 2009 

It’s really shocking to know that prostitution exists in our schools and that all are surprised (as if they lived in Wonderland’s reality or Narnia’s realms) to hear or read the daily news.

In nowdays living, the teens often ask for money for sexual favors but the difference between the present and the past is that now they don’t hide this unusual “transaction”, because they think it could be cool or trendy to prove their ability in earning easy money.

When our journalists started to talk about this situation, italian people got upset because they usually like to avoid the problem, close their eyes. They prefer not to listen people who talk about the “performances” of their little “babies” (used to advertising their sexual skills), but, in my opinion, they have to consider that.

Teenagers usually start to offer sexual favours at 11-12 years old (medium average registred statistics), so, they can buy something more, compared to their usual amount of usable money and (unbelievable but true) they’re not ashamed of this because it’s a completely normal thing for them.

For young teens, moms and daddies are not supposed to notice that (as if they were blind, or totally indifferent to the state of things), so, even if they discover the unconvenient truth, they never happen to discuss the problem or face the misbehaviour of their loved “kids”; in most of the cases parents (after knowing this unbearable truth) pretend to neglect it, convincing themselves that their little “angels” could never committ those uneducated, immoral, vulgar acts. So the relationship between crazy chicks and their parents usually is surrounded by a useless veil of conformism, conventions and unsaid reprovals.

Then, a bizarre and idiot thing (recurrent in Italy) is that the media, the public opinion, etc criticize and blame customs, habits, social routines of other foreign countries (for example attacking nations such as the States, taken as the main reference of a country whose model and paradigm spread and diffuse bad habits, trends etc); this is the common way to skip the truth of the real facts and to create a sort of general catharsis by naming a public enemy (symbolized by foreign countries habits and customs) to defeat in order to preserve the integrity of our own country moral and ethical principles. 

Today in Italy (that is the specular product of the so-called “Berlusconi’s “age”, that promotes a sort of self made Italic prototype of ideal citizen, moulded by the gods of consumerism, money addiction, simulacra of power, greed, superficial appearence and self regulated market operations, homemade and irrational, directionless) sex is still a taboo: in the familiar context it’s very difficult to talk about it, according to parents opinion, it’s an ashamed topic, at school sexual education is ridiculous because, like at home, teachers aren’t prepared to have a mature speak with their students. Another very bad thing is that many guys don’t want, absolutely, have a virgin girl because, in their opinion, she requires too much affection and care, and, so, girls now aren’t interested about who to sleep with (they just do the thing by  removing their rational control and their moral principles, in a sort of self imposed consciousness’ blackout), then if they’re paid them it’s obvious that they should feel smart because they had a monetary income.

We also have to consider how our society is currently set on the competition basis, whether sexual oriented or not is largely irrelevant: the girls start to compete with their shool mates or close friends to see who can be the winner in the cycle of exchanging favours for money, and they can also have fun while gaining some coins, so why not to try that? They know the risks of their behaviours, but they believe and pretend to be older than their age as the majority of children/adolescents aim to prove.

Now, let’s concentrate on the “money factor”: we live in consumistic era where, for example, our parents try to spend more than  they can afford in order to be able to buy expensive stuff (that would show their economic prosperity as a status symbol of success).

Many families suggest to their kids to attend at universities that tutor and educate students in scientific fields, such as medical business, engineering, economy, marketing etc. This prejudice (about first choice universities and unimportant and underestimated ones) affect humanistics in general, considered to be losers’ universities, due to the fact that the future, eventual jobs obtained through humanistics backgrounds and curricula usually (in my country, Italy) are less paid.

So, they have in mind a sort of equation like:

Scientific Universities = Solid work plus Moneys => Living without worries plus Don’t work much = Ideal Life

I wonder why, in Italy, the number of registered students is quickly decreasing. I also wonder why the guys tend to give this big importance to money, thinking that prostitution (that teens prefer to call “not for free” dating) is one of the easiest, quickest and smartest way to obtain “money spending” customers.

In the end my personal conclusion could be summarized like that: Lolita (not the literary little nymph described and invented by Nabokov) was an “heroine” that played a significant role in the middle class crisis (and the main tragic character in the fall of the intellectual aura of the erudite, academic researchers) and we can say that Lolitas nowadays still exist, with the evident difference that they belong to the the dangerous process of degradation and moral collapse which are submerging the intimate patterns of our society.

The dark side of spiritual teachings

First posted: 17 september 2009

After I wrote the previous post, in Italy, the discussion about religion in our tv programs was hot.

Some days after that, in Friuli Venezia Giulia (a region in North-East of Italy) an eighteen years old girl, of Muslism origins, was killed by her own father. So, you can image how the italian journalists (I don’t know how they can be considered reporters because they very often don’t speak well in their own language and they seem to be “employees” paid by the political and institutional systems, so they’re not free to write what they really think) developed news on this event.

The attorney of Pordenone (the city where this has happened), listening to the declarations of family and her friends, that it was a religious issue and problem that caused the happening of this crime, as well as the age difference, in her relationship with a thirty-one Catholic male (hurt by her father trying to save her from father’s fury).

This isn’t the first case, and surely it will not be the last, in which religion played a very important role in pushing a human being to committ murders

In particular, the Muslim religion, currently, is the first to suffer blaming words due to the fact that some of its followers are somtimes fanatics (that alter the spirit of true and pure spiritual faith): stuffed like turkeys with informations shaped by some religious groups with the  purpose to build a society suitable to their conventional and dogmatic conceptions and strict principles, unable to understand that these informations are completely misunderstood and absent in their sacred text, that is the sacred Koran.

The problem that we should understand is that the Muslims people, like Catholics, often don’t know their religion in a  clear way and they are blinded by misleading interpretations.

All this, including also a tendency, typically Italian, of not acceptance of a different culture, foments and nurtures a kind of racism and hysteria, dangerous, inclined to “attacking” anyone because judged a Moslem, and so, a priori, a fundamentalist.

It’s well known how the media and individual persons often happen and tend to judge and consider a particular type of crime against the law just by referring the crime itself to the religious beliefs and also to the national origins of a persons,as if, for example, a muslim should be always tought to be a fanatic or a lunatic persons because he/she respects the principles and spiritual teachings of the islamic sacred texts and traditions. And here in Italy nowadays arabian persons are blamed for being bad muslims, as if every muslim had to be born in Saudi Arabia or something like that and this fact could imply that he/she is inclined to commit crimes just inspired by his/her beliefs and spiritual, religious faith.

If the same act is committed by an Italian, by nature, is examined regardless of religious faith, recognized as a clinically deviance of a sick person, without connecting the nature of the crime to the dictates of the biblical book of Leviticus or another one.