As Italy struggles to accept massive flows of refugees from the Arab Spring, one hopes that the G7 country has learned something in last 20 years. As Berlusconi’s channel report that the refugees are complaining about the quality of food and as leghista Roberto Maroni makes doom-laden statements about a biblical exodus, I urge contemporary …
Tag Archives: italy
In Need of a Beer Summit
My impression is that, despite every news media outlet on earth coming out and saying that that Italy really had nothing to celebrate, most non-leghisti Italians actually did feel like celebrating, and Turin’s packed squares, riverbank, and streets were a testament to this last week. On via Po, someone hang the above banner, addressing leading …
Human Rights Watch Condemns Italy
Human Rights Watch released a report on the state of racism and xenophobia in Italy yesterday. The results are not cheerful reading. I wrote about this two years ago for the American, and it’s not heartening to see that things have been in a continued downward spiral. As usual, the Italian press reacts with typical …
Foot on Qaddafi’s Footie
John Foot, a professor at University College in London and sometimes-Milanese, has a good piece up in today’s New York Times exploring the links between Qaddafi, Italian football (notably Juventus) and investments. Worth your time.
Friday AM briefs
There’s way too much news this week, from the Libya to the milleproroghe, from Macedonia’s electoral crisis to the role of social media in the events that have shaken the Arab world. Fini’s proclamation that the PM was not ‘anointed by the lord’ may hint at the beginning of the end on this side of …
I thought it was the USA…
…or just another country? I’m not sure what’s more depressing — the amount of ‘worst’ categories that my adopted country is in, or the amount of ‘worst of the worst’ categories that my native country is in. But something about the data seems off to me — was this chart assembled by the paper of …
Lelemore Lelemore
If you find recent write-ups on the doings at Arcore too much to bear lately, then get your day started right with this hilarious Grease parody. Warning: not only do you have to follow the news and Italian, you have to know have Italians interpret/hear English. There’s enough code-switching in this for a linguist’s wet …
Post-Holiday Post
Happy Epiphany everyone. I’m just in from an utterly exhausting holiday trip to Rovigo, Louisville and Washington DC, and after yesterday’s 24-hour trip home, I’m too spent to do much other than post this ridiculous 1951 Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Charlie the Dog. Ah, crude stereotypes of Italians and Ed Butz-like linguistic appropriations! Still, I …
Knab S’tel!
I’m not entirely sure what to say about this at the Banco di Sardegna near Corso Sempione, but I walk by it every night and it seems like the most peculiar deterrence to me: positioned inside the entryway to the bank, behind the barred gate that’s pulled down every night. Just inside is a video …
Genoa
Why is Genoa always a place for spectacular violence? There is much to be said about the violence of Serbian football fans in Genoa yesterday, but alas, I have to be away from the computer all day today. Mainly what I want to say is that Vuk Jeremic can apologize in the media all he …