Welcome to Berleghist Italy

*we deserve* it are my only words on this. after all, is he not the emblem of one every two average italian men?

i could have expected everything but Lega Nord ruling italy!

Thursday 13 - focus on china

13 things i learnt with astonishment from channel 4 programme, china's stolen children:

1. couples cannot get married until they are 20.

2. couples in china need to apply for a child permit before procreating.
3. under the *one child policy* chinese families cannot have more than one child.
4. if a second child, or a child without permit is born, is either sold or parents must pay a fine of 7/8000 CNY.^
5. although illegal, the sex of a child can be detected with ultrasounds on the fourth/fifth month of pregnancy, and if it is a girl, she is likely to be aborted as under the *one child policy* families prefer to have boys who can continue the family heritage.
6. because of the high rate of child abduction, the government forbids to post missing children's posters on the streets.
7. victims of child trafficking are not allowed to talk to western people as china is trying to hide this crisis.
8. a boy costs between 8/9000 CNY - if he is pretty even 11/12000 CNY.
9. a girl between 4/5000 CNY.
10. a new born is cheaper because requires more care.
11. a child over ten is not a good candidate because he may know his/her way home.
12. teenagers girls are kidnapped and sold to become wives because of the sex unbalance the *one child policy* and child trafficking have caused.
13. a trafficker usually gets 3 to 4% of commission on sales... and considers himself an *agent* between two parties in negotiation.

Next week, I'll look at some extravaganzas of the US of America purely based on the impressions from my first visit to the states and the following week we'll dwell on Italy's oddities and UK's eccentricities.

^ 1 British Pound = 15.34857 Chinese Yuan Renminbi.
1 Euro = 10.62352 Chinese Yuan Renminbi.
1 US Dollar = 7.52001 Chinese Yuan Renminbi.

holy shit

holy shit! this is horrific. now, american friends, as you know, in one month i'll be amongst you. so, please reassure me that this is an isolated, awful, deprecable event (in fact the fourth big incident in 41 years); that it is not completely true that in USA people can freely go around armed as shown in michael moore's documentary; and that it is not that easy to buy guns in the states. BBC timeline is not ressuring.

i am incredibly saddened: 1. because once again the target was innocent students, category for which i particularly symphatise (incidentally, moore is filming a documentary in US campus to investigate the birth of a new political generation); and 2. for the sheer size of the massacre.

OMG

my weather avatar doesn't show it, but it is snowing like crazy!

last week i could smell spring and was about to put away my winter jumpers and now we are having a snow tempest. bah...

"MARZO PAZZERELLO. ESCE IL SOLE, PRENDI L'OMBRELLO"
saggezza di nonna lina

suffrage or not suffrage

i was reflecting why women's day is little known in UK or USA, nowadays. none of my international friends, except my italian girlfriends, dad and boy-cousinm wished me happy *women's day*. the only reason i could think of, apart from rudeness, is that the suffragettes did a very good job at the beginning of the 20th century to secure the right to vote to women of all ages and backgrounds: in 1920 for america and 1928 for UK, reducing the need for modern women to claim one day (out of 365) to be recognised and worshipped.

in italy women day is also remembered for the 'triangle fire' in new york city which took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them italian and jewish immigrants, although i doubt that my mum yesterday night, while dining with other 20 sessi gentili and with a potential male stripteaser gravitating around them, were thinking of this sad event.

FYI, below is the timeline of women's suffrage per country, which i extracted from wikipedia:

1893- New Zealand (to vote)
1902- Commonwealth of Australia¹ (to vote and stand for election)
1906- Finland
1907- Norway (to stand for election) ¹
1913- Norway²
1915- Denmark, Iceland¹
1917- Canada* (to vote) ¹, Netherlands (to stand for election)
1918- Austria, Canada* (to vote) ¹, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland¹, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russian Federation, United Kingdom¹
1919- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium (to vote for municipal elections) ¹, Georgia, Luxembourg, Netherlands (to vote), New Zealand (to stand for election), Sweden¹, Ukraine
1920- Albania, Canada* (to stand for election) ¹, Czech Republic, Iceland², Slovakia, United States of America* (to vote)
1921- Belgium (to stand for election) ¹, Sweden²
1922- Irish Free State
1924- Kazakhstan*, Mongolia, Saint Lucia, Tajikistan
1927- Turkey
1928- United Kingdom²
1929- Ecuador¹, Romania¹
1930- South Africa* (Whites), Turkey (to vote), Greece (to vote for municipal elections)¹
1931- Chile¹, Portugal¹, Spain, Sri Lanka
1932- Thailand (with first constitutional monarchy), Brazil, Maldives, Uruguay
1934- Cuba, Portugal¹, Turkey (to stand for election)
1935- Myanmar (to vote)
1937- Philippines
1938- Bolivia¹, Uzbekistan
1939- El Salvador (to vote)
1941- Panama¹
1942- Dominican Republic
1944- Bulgaria, France, Jamaica
1945- Croatia, Guyana (to stand for election), Indonesia, Italy, Japan*, New Jersey, Slovenia, Togo
1946- Cameroon, D.P.R. of Korea, Djibouti (to vote), Guatemala, Liberia, Myanmar (to stand for election), Panama², Romania², The F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Serbia, Montenegro
1947- Argentina, Japan*, Malta, Mexico (to vote), Pakistan, Singapore
1948- Belgium², Israel (same year of independence), Niger, Republic of Korea, Seychelles, Suriname
1949- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile², China, Costa Rica, Syria (to vote) ¹
1950- Barbados, Canada* (to vote) ², Haiti, India
1951- Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Nepal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
1952- Bolivia², Côte d'Ivoire, Greece¹, Lebanon
1953- Bhutan, Guyana (to vote), Mexico (to stand for election), Syria²
1954- Colombia, Belize, Ghana
1955- Cambodia, Ethiopia (and Eritrea*, as then part of Ethiopia), Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Greece²
1956- Benin, Comoros, Egypt, Gabon, Mali, Mauritius, Somalia
1957- Malaysia, Zimbabwe (to vote) ²
1958- Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Lao P.D.R., Nigeria* (South)
1959- Madagascar, San Marino (to vote), Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania
1960- Canada* (Indian Canadians - to stand for election) ², Cyprus, Gambia, Tonga
1961- Bahamas¹, Burundi, El Salvador (to stand for election), Malawi, Mauritania, Paraguay, Rwanda, Sierra Leone
1962- Algeria, Australia² (aboriginals), Monaco, Uganda, Zambia
1963- Afghanistan, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Iran, Kenya, Morocco, Papua New Guinea (to stand for election)
1964- Bahamas², Libya, Papua New Guinea (to vote), Sudan
1965- Botswana, Lesotho
1967- Democratic Republic of the Congo (to vote), Ecuador², Kiribati, Tuvalu, Yemen* (D.P.R.)
1968- Nauru, Swaziland
1970- Andorra (to vote), Democratic Republic of the Congo (to stand for election), Yemen* (Arab Republic)
1971- Switzerland*
1972- Bangladesh
1973- Andorra (to stand for election), San Marino (to stand for election)
1974- Jordan, Solomon Islands
1975- Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Vanuatu*
1976- Portugal²
1977- Guinea Bissau
1978- Nigeria* (North), Republic of Moldova*, Zimbabwe (to stand for election)
1979- Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Fed. States), Palau
1980- Iraq, Vanuatu*[4]
1984- Liechtenstein, South Africa* (Coloureds + Indians)
1986- Central African Republic, Djibouti (to stand for election)
1989- Namibia
1990- Samoa, Switzerland*
1993- Kazakhstan*, Republic of Moldova*
1994- South Africa* (Blacks)
1997- Qatar¹, Eritrea* (stipulated by sovereign constitution)
2002- Bahrain
2003- Oman
2005- Kuwait
2006- United Arab Emirites¹
2007- Qatar*

italy comes at a shocking 70th position (in 1945)! but the most astonishing fact is that there are still places where the gentil sesso cannot still enjoy this right:

"Women's suffrage denied or conditioned:

Bhutan -- One vote per house. Although this applies to both men and women, in practice it currently prevents many more women from voting than men. If the new proposed constitution is voted & ratified, then no restrictions will apply by 2008. [1]
Lebanon -- Partial suffrage. Proof of elementary education required for women, not required for men. Voting compulsory for men, optional for women. [2]
Brunei -- No suffrage for women. This country is ruled by a monarchy. Neither men nor women have the right to vote or to stand for election (had it until 1962 when it was taken away).
Saudi Arabia -- No suffrage for women. The first local elections ever held in the country occurred in 2005. Women were not given the right to vote or to stand for election.
United Arab Emirates -- limited, but will be fully expanded by 2010 [3]
Vatican City -- No suffrage for women. The only elections ever held there are Papal conclaves, which involve only (male) Cardinals."

(c) wikipedia

tutta colpa dell'inflazione

i like spending my money, so you are free to call me “consumerist”, in every sense. in fact, i do not only consume money, i also consume all my purchases to the bones, fully experience any travel or cultural experience i buy and consume my, and sometimes other's, energies too. but for sure i do not spend money i do not have, by posing certain limits to my wallet. however, I am not sure how I am going to cope with this increasingly aggressive city/country because, whilst the economy is going up and up, my finances will go down and down. the enlightened minds remind me that “air travel is too cheap as it is, and is fucking up the environment” and that the rising inflation rate is a good sign of the fruitful times. but i, emotional thinker, wonder: is £10 more of taxes going to discourage travellers to use the plane when train fares in this country are prohibitive? and should not my salary increase accordingly, to catch up the running inflation? travelling by public transports in london has become more expensive than flying on a concorde. since I have been in London it has gone up of 250% (!): a single course on the tube is now £4. however, londoners do not express a word of dissent, they accept the boost, pay it, get into debts and keep going. yesterday i went to see billy elliott (exhilarant! review to follow), and the mining strike in the ‘80s is the only social protest I have (indirectly) witnessed in this country. unions here have no longer power. i want the revolution. but fidel, the last real revolutionary, is very ill. although he was strict, intollerant towards liberalism and a stubborn head, I will miss him.

a humanist thought

i was passing by the windows of electronic shops, when i read the breaking news of saddam's execution. the sky was metallic grey; it was rainy, windy and dark, despite being early afternoon.

he did not deserve to run a normal life, but his capital sentence, as any type of death penalty, was a barbaric act and it will not improve the desperate situation of iraq. i believe that being kept alive, under certain circumstances, is the ultimate punishment a man can receive...

London ~ where Russia meets USA

If you are bored of your provincial life, come to London ~ the city where everything can (and does) happen!!

This last three weeks we heard: 1. of a Bond-like sinister encounter (in one of my usual restaurants) followed by the homicide of an ex-spy in the usual Russian fashion (they keep calling it a mystery when I cannot trace any mystery in it); and 2. witnessed a US-style mini-tornado which hit our neighbouring district! All the radiations spread around London should give interesting clues and tracks to the investigators, but shall we ever know the official truth? ... Of course, more than this triggers my excitement in this damned city... right now, one of the two oldest (ever) friends of mine is currently landing at Stanstead Airport, and I am thrilled. It's her first (ever) visit, after all. It is going to be two very intense days & nights!!! More on Sunday ~ anti-climax and recovery day! UPDATE: I am still up waiting... and waiting... which is the least I can do in sign of gratitude for their visit just two (working days) after their long flight back from the earth paradise... From paradise to hell.