Italian Pérez

While looking for information on vandalism acts on the Portuguese internet infrastructures, Google pointed me to an interesting website on the origin, story, and roots of Italian last names. The site is cool because it gives you an idea of the geographical region in which last names were originated. For instance, if your last name is "Montagner" (just to give a random example), then most likely you were born in the Veneto region. Oddly enough, there is an entry for "Pérez" (and Peres). It reads:

Peres ha un ceppo nell'udinese che dovrebbe derivare da una versione dialettale del nome Pero derivato da Piero che è una modificazione del nome Pietro, ha ceppi nel napoletano, nel foggiano ed in Sicilia. Perez ha vari ceppi in Sicilia, nel napoletano e nel brindisino, di chiara origine spagnola dovrebbe trattarsi di un patronimico dal nome spagnolo Pero (Pietro) con l'aggiunta del suffisso -ez per figlio di, o di una sua modificazione.

What the above text suggests is that there might be Italians with last name Pérez (well, probably without the accent) all around Italy: in Udine (north), but mostly in the south: Foggia, Naples, Sicily, Brindisi. This came as a surprise to me, even if I was aware of the strong connections between Spain and what nowadays corresponds to southern Italy (see here for further information).

Summer owls

The main attractions of Jesolo, Italy are its proximity to Venice (40km, more or less) and its very long beach (the longest of Italy, about 15km). The town of Jesolo is actually two towns: the center (Jesolo paese) and the beach (Jesolo lido).  While the two are not far from each other, their character is so different that you think they're two distant places. While Jesolo paese does not appear to have a proper central square, the most remarkable thing in Jesolo lido is a seemingly infinite street in which everything happens; it has several squares along it and ends with a lighthouse.

Jesolo lido, however, only exists from May to September.  The rest of the year, the vibrant town along the beach disappears, and becomes an abandoned place next to the sea. It seems that no one lives there during the rest of the year: those who work in the hotels, restaurants, and many shops of Jesolo lido come and leave with the tourists. They are some sort of summer owls:  they work hard while most people are on vacation;  when tourists get back to their cities, they take vacations and start preparing the new season. Life manifests itself as a splendid duality.

Jesolo is not really a big town and summer owls know each other rather well. They have been doing the same for years, perhaps not always selling the same products or offering the same food, but always doing their life during the summer.  So it is common for them to take vacations together, and to complain about tourists together. While many of the tourists who come to Jesolo come from northern Italy, a large proportion of them come from Austria, Germany, Denmark. It is then not a surprise to see business with signs in German and English. The love-hate relation between locals and the tourists is a marriage of convenience that makes part of the character of the town.

As in the rest of Italy, the most important day of the summer for Jesolani is Ferragosto. At this point, the summer owls are already tired of the season, and can reasonably predict how it will conclude. By then, they already know what went fine, and what they should do better next year. Together, tourists and locals share the traditional fireworks of Ferragosto, which mark the beginning of the end of another summer season. The same event triggers different emotions, though: while as tourists we realize how fast time passes on the beach, for the summer owls of Jesolo the fireworks evoke the hard work done, and the hope of some rewarding vacations far, far away.

Padres e Hijos (and Berlusconi)

Padres e Hijos (P&H - spanish for Parents and Children) was a very popular daytime series in Colombia. As you may guess from the title, the series was centered around the members of a family (the Franco family) and their everyday events. It was broadcasted during 15 long years from Monday to Friday, after lunch. It is quite fair to say that, for very different reasons, a whole generation grew up watching P&H. In fact, it always had very high ratings and most people were more or less aware of the current status of the story, which was often surreal and with very strange turns of events.

In spite of its high ratings and popularity, it is also fair to say that most people watching P&H had very strong feelings against P&H. In fact, apart from the absurd stories, the quality of the production was quite low, with awful performances everyday. In particular, I doubt there is a single Colombian who doesn't have feelings against Daniela Franco, one of the characters in the series. Daniela was one of the daughters of the family, and along the years most of the plot concerned her adventures. This way, for instance, when Daniela was a teenager, she belonged to a gang and shoplifted for a while; some years after that, she was kidnapped by the guerilla (P&H was a very Colombian series); some years later, she got married twice and went insane. The hate against Daniela Franco was automatically transferred to Ana Victoria Beltrán, the actress portraying Daniela. In fact, after such a long time playing Daniela, Beltrán was unable to find a different role in Colombian TV and had to retire. (She recently participated in a reality show, with scarce success.)

You may then be wondering: if everyone hated P&H, how come it had such high ratings and acceptation? Well, there are several theories. One of them says that for a substantial amount of people it became a habit to have lunch while keeping an eye on P&H. Some people would enjoy digesting their lunch by watching the lame performances in P&H. It was a masochist exercise, yes, but it could be really funny. However, my favorite theory is that people would watch P&H to feel better about their own lives. In fact, the absurd/sad/surreal stories of the Franco family (involving, for instance, multiple betrayals, miscarriages, tragic losses) would help many people to accept and perhaps appreciate their own existence, as they could say: "well, my family may have problems, but at least is not fucked up as the Franco family!". 

Oddly enough, the ironic nature of P&H came to my mind earlier this week, after hearing about the most recent scandals of Berlusconi in Italy. There is, indeed, a strong relationship between P&H and Italy. Let me elaborate. By now it is more or less certain that no matter what Berlusconi does, nothing will change in Italy. We have seen it multiple times: with every new scandal he surpasses the limits he had surpassed before, and with the same consequences. That is, none. The latest prostitution scandal is particularly embarrassing though. I am not sure if Italians realize how depressing this looks from outside. Most likely they don't, because otherwise they would do something concrete to remove Berlusconi from power. 

The situation is so critic, that in my view by now Italy is the P&H of the countries of the world. Indeed, a Colombian could say "well, my president is a despicable human being, but he doesn't sleep with underage prostitutes". A Portuguese could say "well, the crisis is so tough and the new taxes unbearable, but at least the head of state is not using our money to defend himself from mafia accusations." As a matter of fact, it is enough to pay attention to the latest scandal in Italy to somehow feel better about our own country. Just as we felt better about ourselves by watching P&H everyday after lunch.

Capsule of Absurdity No. 5

It's been a while since the last "Capsule of Absurdity". I knew that I couldn't leave Italy without a last absurd event. In fact, the last thing I did before coming to Portugal was sending a little box with books to my new department in Lisbon. So I went to the Italian post office, and asked about the expedition fees. The lady who was at the counter looked at her computer and asked me the basic information:

- What is the final destination of the box?

- Portugal, I replied.

Then she asked the absurd question:

- Is Portugal in the European Union?

- Of course!! ---I replied, probably with a very surprised face. (In Italian I said "Ma certo!", I wonder if that has to do with the lady's reaction.)

Then the lady looked at me in a terrible way, really really bad, like for 5 seconds. Then she looked again at the computer, and said to me:

- Non è detto...

which is a bit hard to translate, but in this context it could be interpreted as "you never know" or, better, as "you cannot take it for granted". In either case, I found it so incredibly absurd that an average person is not aware of the countries that are part of the European Union. I would have expected everyone to have some sort of "primitive geographical knowledge" such as "Rome is the capital of Italy", "Milan is north, Naples is south", or stuff like that. And then we are talking about an employee of the Italian post, someone a bit above the average (but not too much), in the sense that has a job that requires a bit of geographical knowledge (after all, you spend your days sending things around).

Finally, there is the thought that, from a very extreme point of view, I was the one who wasn't supposed to know that Portugal is indeed in the European Union (after all, I was the "foreigner"). In fact, a more realistic scenario would have been me asking that question and she replying "Ma certo!". Her terrible look at me would have been more than justified.

The Spanish connection

I find it amazing how fast (bad) news fly from Italy from Colombia (and, presumably, to the rest of Southamerica). We are of course talking about the kind of news related to Berlusconi, his scandals, ridiculous statements, and all the things in between. I am sure Italians will be surprised/ashamed to know that the average Colombian knows very well who SB is, is well-acquainted with his doings, and that media here is eager to inform about SB's absurd remarks and corruption scandals.

The obvious question is then: how come Berlusconi manages to receive so much press around here? The short answer is: Spain. For some reason I fail to understand, Spanish press has something against Berlusconi. Why is that? My conjecture is that SB's enemies are unable to attack him in Italy, given his strong influence on Italian media. So, anyone willing to attack SB should appeal to foreign newspapers such as El Pais to do the dirty work for them (i.e. to expose his scandals). El Pais is indeed a very good place to be updated about bad things in Italy. Whenever I don't follow some political event in Italy, I go there: they usually explain very well the historical background of each scandal and manage to put things in context. Hence, there is a strong link between Italy and Spain, in such a way that information about bad news in Italy flows easily to Spain.

The link between Spain and Southamerica is more explicit and easier to explain. In the last years we have witnessed an unfortunate invasion of Spanish media groups in Colombia. The two most important newspapers in Colombia (El Tiempo and El Espectador) either belong to Spanish media groups or have strong informative alliances with Spanish newspapers. As a consequence, in newspapers here it is very easy to find content targeted for Spanish audiences; such a content is reproduced here essentially because no translation is needed and copy-and-paste is cheap and quick. This way, if you read something in El Pais on a Sunday, it is very likely that it will appear in El Espectador (my favorite Colombian newspaper) the week after. Several times it has occurred that SB says something stupid/pseudofunny and that such declarations are not covered by, say, La Repubblica, but appear quickly in El Pais (and hence, in El Espectador).

Research, TV ads, and Unacknowledgements

On Commercials. These days there is some relative controversy among Italian researchers because of a TV commercial. You can watch the commercial here. As it is quite likely that the commercial will be erased in the next few days, here's a rough description.

The advertised product is a bank; the commercial shows Claudio, 33, an Italian researcher at a laboratory in the US. We are told that he has an Italian laurea and an american PhD, and that he decided to remain at Los Angeles after finishing his studies. The commercial suggests that Claudio is very successful at what he does. In fact, he appears doing fancy stuff in a very modern laboratory. It is not clear what exactly Claudio's research is, though. Unfortunately, Claudio is not entirely happy and so, one day at the beach, he decides to return to Italy. Claudio has a girlfriend/coworker called Kate; she doesn't like Claudio's decision.

The next thing we see is Claudio resigning to his position at the American laboratory. Right after that, we see Claudio at what appears to be a very modern laboratory, but in Italy. At the Italian lab ---which is very similar to the American lab we saw before--- a colleague says to Claudio: "it feels as if we were in the US". Claudio replies: "and even better". We are told that it is not known if Claudio will fulfill his dreams. Then we see Kate appearing out of nothing, speaking a crappy Italian. Claudio and Kate get on a motorcycle and take a ride. The commercial closes; it reads: "There is an Italy that fights for its own dreams. We stand next to that Italy."

The commercial is offensive in that it Claudio's history is extremely unrelated to reality. It's almost science fiction. There are many highly skilled Italians doing research abroad. This is a very notorious phenomena nowadays, which can be perceived at basically every area of science and arts. Given the way in which the Italian research system expels its most talented individuals, the story of Claudio ---who willingly returns to Italy, with the same research conditions he had in the US--- appears simply laughable. And then it is not clear to me why a bank would like to produce such a commercial. The Italian system is infamous for the ever decreasing funds assigned to education and research, not to mention the unclear, old-fashion procedures it uses to distribute such funds and hire new young researchers. Sadly, the mere fact that the bank dared to produce such a commercial reveals that the Italian society at large is not aware of the huge problem brain drain represents for the country.

On

Unacknowledgements. As you probably know, it is common to add an "acknowledgments" section at the end of a scientific paper. There you thank people who helped you or gave you ideas for developing it, and/or mention the projects/institutions that funded your research. It is not mandatory to write such a section, of course. Well, today I saw something interesting that might impose a trend. In a very recent paper, the authors ---three researchers from Sapienza University of Rome--- include something else. As usual they have an acknowledgments section:

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous referees for their useful suggestions.

The novelty is the mention they added right after that:

Unacknowledgements

This work is ostensibly supported by the the Italian

Ministry of University and Research under the FIRB

program, project RBIN047MH9-000.

The Ministry

however has not paid its dues and it is not known

whether it will ever do.

You can take a look to the paper here. (For those of you in the CS world: the paper was accepted at SODA 2010, the ACM-SIAM symposium on discrete algorithms, a top conference on algorithmics.)

I suspect this indeed will initiate a trend, as I am sure there are many researchers in Italy in the same situation. Whether this is an appropriate way of acting or not is a matter of discussion. I was surprised by the originality of the protest. It is worth observing that generally completing a (good) paper represents a great effort, and hence arriving to a point where you write an acknowledgments section for a work of yours is supposed to be satisfying. Therefore, it is very sad to see people who arrived there and recorded their frustration in such a way. It is a matter of desperation, I suppose.

Changes

In a recent flight Paris CDG - Bogota, the guy sitting next to me in the plane was a member of the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra, who was returning from a tour in Asia and Europe. He stopped for a few days in Paris, where he had studied music more than 20 years ago. I was curious about his impressions about returning to Paris after such a long time. He replied: "Returning to Paris is strange. The city itself hasn't changed much. Then a nostalgic realization strikes you: it is you who has changed. And that's weird to assimilate."

His answer was both illuminating and unexpected. He managed to put into words some of my feelings about leaving Bologna. As Paris, Bologna is one of those cities that hardly changes. My impression is that noticeable changes in Bologna (and perhaps in Italy at large) only occur at a slow pace. A very slow one. Then, in addition to those nostalgic feelings of leaving a place that has grown in you, you have an extra burden: an unsolicited desire of confronting yourself so as to realize the way you have changed.

Cities in Colombia do not come with that burden. From a certain perspective, here you find different things everywhere: many new buildings, business, and streets are enough to offer you a different landscape. The pace for changes here is certainly faster than in Europe. Now I see many new small shopping centers and gas stations standing on what I used to remember as empty spaces. Businesses grow, buildings change their appearance. My home university has a brand new building every time I return. (I usually return here more or less once a year, so it is relatively easy to appreciate changes.) In Colombia your environment is constantly changing, and perhaps that helps you to avoid reflecting about your own changes. I wonder if that's good or bad.

However, from a different perspective, your environment here is always the same. I am thinking here about the weather: in Colombian cities you have more or less the same season during the year. It is amazing to realize the tremendous effect that the presence/absence of defined weather seasons has on how people behave. You dress up the same the whole year. Your have the same food habits all the year long, with very small variations. More in general, you care less about the future, you make less short/medium-term plans. You don't have the urgency of going out and enjoying the day because most likely the sun will be there again for the rest of the year. You don't need to plan your vacation with weeks or months in advance. You can always go out. Again, I wonder if that's good or bad.

A day like today, three years ago

Curiously the most vivid memory I have of that Tuesday is the temperature shock I got as soon as I got off of the plane. A little gap between the plane and those tunnels that connect it with the airport was enough to hit me. It was the European cold in Barajas hitting me and welcoming me at the same time; a cruel but necessary slap in the face. After that shock nothing was the same. It was pretty much like waking up after a comfortable dream, just that the "dream" was actually a part of myself that I had just left behind at the other side of the ocean. Perhaps it was only then, after that shock, that I realized that I had indeed started a new period in my life. You know, I have always had difficulties digesting significant moments or news, both positive and negative. I am a slow guy: at first I remain notoriously unaffected; when I realize the actual meaning of things a lot of time might have passed.

It was a slap in the face indeed: once trying to find my connection to Bologna my reactions were completely clumsy. Of course, I was tired: I had woken up very early the day before, and had waited in Caracas for about six hours. Then, the intermittent sleeping time till Madrid. So, now that I think about it, the clumsiness it was somehow justified. After going out a very gently passport check, I went through the security check in sleeping mode. I was such a zombie that I forgot the plastic bag I was carrying with me. Usually I am not forgetful in airports, and this is another evidence of my bad shape. I realized my mistake I don't know how many kilometers after the security check. I still recall an extremely kind Argentinian girl, working for the airport, who confirmed me that I had left the bag at the security check. I remember running in the airport like a desperate kid; after that experience running in airports only means anguish to me.

I was very calmed once I reached the gate for my connecting flight. I used my time (and a few euros) to buy souvenirs from Real Madrid, possibly the only thing I really like from Spain. I got a keyring (a little RM tshirt, with the number 4, that of Sergio Ramos) which was useful during the first year of my PhD. Once in the plane I felt differently, like a mix of nostalgia with hangover. I read the latest developments in Marca ---one of the sport newspapers I follow online--- and that relieved me a bit (in those days it was announced that David Beckham's contract was not renewed, and that he had decided to go to the US because of problems with coach Fabio Capello). I kept with me that copy of Marca till a few days ago.

Once in Bologna's airport I remember being happy about the fact that my luggage arrived all together without a problem. The other thing I remember is Davide waiting for me, with a piece of paper that read 'Perez' with a handwriting of a 5-year old kid; later I would discover that it was indeed his handwriting. He took me in his car to my student residence in the center; I remember him teaching me what a 'tangenziale' is, and getting lost inside Bologna. Upon arrival we had lunch, and I installed myself in my new room. I remember sleeping that afternoon till the following day, when I would finally recover of the temperature shock in Madrid.

Two Sentences (A Quick Capsule of Absurdity)

These are difficult days for Silvio Berlusconi because of judicial decisions. Earlier this week a court declared that he has to pay over 750 million euros to the media group that owns Repubblica, the main opposition newspaper. And during these days, a court is deciding whether the law he made to protect himself from being prosecuted (the Lodo Alfano) is constitutional or not. I don't know how things will end up. However, I want to remark two absurd sentences I have heard these days:

1. Umberto Bossi (who is Berlusconi buddy in the government coalition) , when asked about Berlusconi's problems with law said something like: "Well, we made very strong laws against mafia; justice going after Berlusconi was really a matter of time."
2. Berlusconi's attorneys in the constitutional court claim something like: "Law does not apply to everyone equally; since Berlusconi was elected by the people he's above all the others."

In case you were wondering: the main opposition party in Italy seems to be too busy to say something; they are currently fighting to each other so as to determine who will be the head of the party. It could happen that Berlusconi resigns and they are still fighting. Sigh.

Once again, poor Italy. But also once again: this is all Italians' fault, who complain a lot and do nothing.

The Battle of the Regions

For some reason reality shows haven't had a huge impact in Colombian TV. This is remarkable, given the situation in USA and some European countries (notably, UK and Italy) were this kind of crappy TV is the rule. For instance, in Colombia only one season of Big Brother was produced, and although it had decent ratings, these weren't enough to produce a second season. Colombian TV channels have tried adaptations of many realities, but none of them has had a real impact in audiences. While some people could say that this means that Colombian TV audiences are somehow "smart", a quick look to most successful TV shows nowadays (soap operas based on the drug dealing culture) would quickly prove them wrong.

There is, however, a kind of reality show that has had more impact in Colombia than the others. It's the kind of reality show that involves people living in a beach (or an island), in harsh conditions, away from the world. They compete for better conditions in the beach and, at the end, for a lot of money. The first versions were the local adaptation of things like Survivor in the US (which in turn is derived from a Swedish show called Expedition Robinson). They did two or three seasons following the original format (that is, the way participants are divided into teams, the way of eliminating contestants, the games and proofs, etc.) But, at some point, Colombian producers refused to continue paying the original franchise and decided to create their own format.

And that was a brilliant decision. With complete liberty, Colombian producers experimented with the way of selecting participants and dividing them into teams. An initial experiment consisted in creating three teams: celebrities, participants from former seasons of the show, and regular people. Then, they went further and divided participants according to their social status: rich, middle class, and poor. I liked that one very much. In a subsequent season, the criterion for teams was age: young, not-so-young, and old people competed in the show. Unfortunately I couldn't follow that one, as I was in Italy already.

The most recent format they are using these days is one that would impact anyone in Colombia: a reality in which teams represent the three or four most representative regions of the country. (Here "region" is to be understood in a cultural sense; a region might comprise people from several "states" in which the country is divided.) I don't know if this is really an original idea, but in Colombia it was perfect to create controversy and increase ratings. As in many other countries, in Colombia regions have an heterogeneous structure and culture, an several rivalries among regions are very well-known. So the show ---called "The Battle of the Regions"--- targeted precisely that. As expected the selected participants represent the most stereotypical behaviors of each region, so confrontations (which is the thing we all love to see) are guaranteed. Now that I am abroad I can't follow this reality, which is a real pity.

This year the novelty in the reality was the addition of a team representing "Colombians abroad". I wonder how they behave; more precisely, in wonder the thing(s) that Colombian producers might regard as "stereotypical" in Colombians abroad. I also wonder what such a reality would look like in a country such as Italy, in which regions are so different from each other. Perhaps only two teams ("North" and "South") would be enough, or perhaps people would demand a team for each of the 20 regions (or 21, so as to include the "Italians abroad"). It is possible that such a TV experiment would reveal the rather weak identity of Italy as a whole.

The magic revolution

I can't sleep in long flights. I simply can't: the position I use to sleep is a bit particular, so I can't simply sit and close my eyes. I wish it was like that. Really. In long flights I spend the time watching the tv/movies and walking around the plane, sometimes engaging into conversation with some other wanderer.

This was the case in the flight Kuala Lumpur - Amsterdam I recently took (a post on my trip to Malaysia is in preparation). I was clever enough to choose an aisle seat, in the last row of the Boeing 777-200ER. The seat in the aisle is good for me because I wasn't trapped by the sleeping passengers, and I could easily access the two bathrooms and the little bar in which one can grab free biscuits and ice cream.

During the flight I met this young Italian guy who was returning from Adelaide, Australia, where he completed the thesis work for his first laurea degree in Anthropology. I found it funny that in the middle of the night he was trying to look down through the windows of one of the side back doors of the plane. He said he was trying to look at Ukraine which, according to him (and to the GPS), we were flying over at that moment.

There is an invariant property that you observe when talking to Italians, especially Italians abroad: the 98% of the times, after some minutes of chatting, you end up discussing about Berlusconi. It is something you could bet on. It is interesting to see how the opinion of people about their own country changes (or evolves) once they're abroad. In the case of Italians, this often includes some form of embarrassment.

Indeed, it was with embarrassment that this guy was telling me (and to the other Italians who joined the conversation once they heard us speaking in Italian) that the Berlusconi government has/had plans to close the Italian consulate in Adelaide. Many have protested against this decision, including the own Australian government. Indeed, many Italians (and Australians with Italian roots) are served by that consular office; closing it would have a dramatic impact in them, as they would have to travel very long distances for any kind of bureaucratic issue.

After a quick catharsis in which all the other Italians in the conversation mentioned/complained about some of Berlusconi's recent scandals, the young guy I first met concluded saying something like

"I know a revolution that removes Berlusconi from power will come soon. And I look forward to witnessing that."

That got me thinking. I was quite surprised to hear that an educated young man, very well aware of the problems of his country, could have such a childish perception of the Italian crisis. He was indeed waiting for some magical revolution that, out of the nothing, would come and fix everything. A revolution that could benefit him, but hopefully one not requiring any commitment from him. A comfortable revolution, you can say.

Then I realized that this kind of childish ideals must permeate the minds of most people in the world. They simply do not understand what democracy means, and reduce the act of voting to the act of delegating some responsibility. As such, people expect the others they chose to fix things; external, easy solutions to their problems.

This is in the case in which people do vote; my impression is that only few people actually vote. This seems to be the case in Italy; one usually hears that voting does not change anything. And that's why Italy is quite fucked up these days, I think: corrupt and cynical politicians are in power and only a few benefit from that. The problem is of course what the rest of the people do (or don't do). Often they do not vote, and their political implication limits to following newspapers, loudly complaining about (bad) news during lunch, following the blogs of journalists who denounce corruption, or joining one of those facebook groups that make sense only temporarily.

Even if they won't admit it, they are also waiting for the magical revolution to come.

The fantastic four

I had ready a post on the absurd circumstances of the death of Pepe the hippo, and a sort of reflection on the stupidity some "noble" causes inadvertently convey. Yes, the post was boring. But then I found something funnier to write about. Consider the University of Bologna, a respectable institution, founded in 1088, or as WikiPedia would say, "the oldest continually operating degree-granting university in the world." Now consider the picture below, part of the latest publicity campaign the University released so as to attract students to the campuses of Rimini, Cesena, Ravenna, and Forli:

I always liked Ravenna and Rimini :-)

I really don't know what was the purpose of this publicity, entitled "the fantastic four." And it's not difficult to imagine the controversy (and embarrassment) it caused in Bologna and in Italy at large. Naturally, the ads didn't last long, but the damage was already done. I could write many posts on how critical the situation in Italy is, at every level. I choose not to do it. When one of the most respected Universities in the world chooses to attract students in this way, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you want to read more about this, click here (in Italian).

On leaving Italy

The other day, as part of one of those insightful quizzes that only Facebook can offer to us, I publicly declared that Colombia and Italy are number one and two in my personal ranking of "best countries in the world". Some people could say that those choices are just another failed attempt of being funny through irony. No: I honestly think that the two only countries in which I have lived are among the best places in the world to live. 

To my surprise, two Italians reacted to the presence of Italy in my ranking. They wonder "why Italy?" This post is intended to answer that question. It also coincides with the fact that I am leaving Italy later this week, thus closing a very interesting period of my life. I am supposed to return for a few, busy weeks at the end of the year, so any concluding remarks about my life in Italy should be better stated now. 

Italy and Colombia share the fact that they are wonderful countries for everyone but their own citizens. I think it's human nature not to apprecciate what you have had for free for so long; to have a lot and still to complain about some missing part.  Consider the Italian case: the weather is excellent for the European context, people are suprisingly open and friendly, and the culture and food are outstanding. Italy has serious problems, of course, as every country in the world does.  Italy is well known for its corrupted public administration, infested of greedy, cynical politicians; a disease which has grown out of the indifference of ordinary citizens, who reject the situation but that unconciously promote it by doing nothing to change it. It is the Italian system which is wrong and needs urgent reforms, not the country at large, with all the good things it might have. 

There is then a subtle distinction between a country and the system that underlies it. It is common to confuse the two things and to misjudge the latter because of the shortcomings of the former. Such shortcomings seem as impossible to deal with, especially if you have never seen other systems, other visions of the world. Then you realize that a change is possible, that things can be done. By living in Italy I have been able to compare the only system I knew of with a different one. This was most useful to apprecciate the many good things in my own country, and to give its many shortcomings a right proportion. 

Everyone should have the experience of living abroad. (Notice that some vacation doesn't count as "living," in my opinion.) You become more tolerant, and learn to apprecciate new facets of life. I can tell that change in myself, as I can certainly perceive it in the Colombians living in other parts of Europe, as well as in my those Italian friends who have had the chance of living abroad. It's hard to explain, but they're different. For the Italians the effect of living abroad might be more significant: unlike other countries, in Italy you can live your whole life in the small town where you were born. The risk is that your perception of the world is very narrow; the feeling of being a foreigner can be unvaluable to open your perspectives. 

Now I am looking forward to experiencing the French society. I am in particular curious about how the fact of having lived in Italy might change my perception of it. And how my third-world mentality can accommodate to understand, assimilate, and apprecciate a new system. Stay tuned.

The European tour

This week Colombian president Alvaro Uribe is visiting Europe, in what it's been called "the European tour". This "tour" actually only comprises two countries, Spain and Italy. Yes, it's kinda crappy a tour. That's what happens when you are a president and you do very little about the human rights violations in your country: nobody wants you as a visitor.

So, you might be wondering: how come Uribe is going to be a guest of honor in Spain? Spain is an obvious choice given that Spanish groups own pretty much what is worthy in Colombia: communications, banks, natural resources. President Uribe will be hosted by President Zapatero and the Kings of Spain. But those gatherings are only a formality. The important meeting will be next Wednesday, in a breakfast with all the CEOs of managerial groups in Spain which own (or are planning to own) a piece of Colombia.

The choice of Italy seems less obvious. The diplomatic relationships between the countries are practically inexistent. There are no big Italian companies in Colombia and unlike other southamerican countries, Colombia did not have a large mass of Italian immigration. I see two reasons for Uribe's visit to Italy: the Vatican and Berlusconi. Indeed, Uribe will spend most of his two days in Italy visiting Vatican city and the Colombian priests who happen to be influential there. Not a surprise, given his ultraconservative profile.

Uribe and Berlusconi share so many things that the topic well deserves a series of posts. I don't know what it's worse: a Southamerican president that reminds us of the most incompetent European leader, or an European president that behaves as the most populist third-world president. Both are right-wing guys, extremely popular and populist. They have little respect for the courts and judges in charge of the corruption cases related to them. In fact, an ideal scenario for them would be a world without courts. Both Uribe and Berlusconi were disappointed when Obama got into office.

This is Uribe proudly showing the latest achievement of Colombian diplomacy: Barack Obama's autograph. (Not a joke, really.)

I think Urbe's visit will be largely ignored in Italy, a country in which news from Southamerica are scarce and uninteresting. Here only Chávez appears into main headlines. Perhaps Italian media will only comment on President Uribe's weird habit of giving away Colombian citizenship certificates as he travels around the world. (Yes, Uribe has a very strange definition of 'souvenir') As of next Friday, I will share citizenship with Letizia Moratti, mayor of Milan. How about that?

Dubbed Films in Italy

It is well-known that in European countries having dubbed TV shows and movies is customary. It can be quite difficult to find cinemas with movies in the original language. There are social and cultural reasons for that. In the case of Italy, however, there is a disturbing widespread misconception regarding dubbed films. The misconception is complex and comprises several factors:

• The loss of details associated to every dubbing process is largely underestimated. So for instance, not only losing the chance of understanding a subtle joke in the original language is disregarded, but it is believed that the dubbing faithfully captures such jokes.
  
• Some people think that watching dubbed films is actually the right thing to do. They seem to think, for instance, that in that way they won't get lost with local jokes/slang. (They ignore they might be laughing about very different jokes than the intended in the film.) Moreover, there are actors who are popular for dubbing particular Hollywood actors. So, when thinking of, say, Woody Allen, they immediately remember the actor who does his voice in Italian. (This guy, called Oreste Lionello, recently passed away. I guess that there are some who think that Woody Allen died with him).
• To complete this (already dramatic) misconception, many people in Italy think that the concept of "high quality dubbing" exists. So, it has happened that when I complain about the fact that most movies are available only dubbed, people reply to me: "but we have outstanding dubbing artists, and the overall quality of the dubbing is quite good".

As for the third item, it is convenient to state, in the strongest possible terms, the following. Similarly as concepts such as "5 minute naps", "honest politicians", "punctual Italian trains", the concept of "high quality dubbed movies" only resides in the human imagination. It must be understood that every dubbed movie comes with an irreparable loss of what one could term as "original language content". This of course varies from movie to movie, and there could be some of them in which the loss is negligible. (This is the case of, I think, animated movies and TV shows.)

This loss also applies, naturally, to the subtitles they add so to avoid dubbed movies. In the case of subtitles, however, you still can perceive the original tone and intention of the actor. That is, a significant part of the actual acting is preserved. Some can complain about the concurrent action of watching a movie and reading some subtitle. I can admit that this can be annoying if you're not used to it, but I think the effort it's worth doing.

There is also the fact that movie theaters in Colombia most of the movies come with Spanish subtitles (some of them crappy ones). So I am very much used to it. This (and the fact that I've found watching films and TV in English quite useful for my language skills) could explain my aversion to dubbed films.

Now you, my dear Italian reader, would like to comment on this, and create controversy, if possible?

On Earthquakes

As you probably know, last week an earthquake destroyed a significant number of towns in Abruzzo, in the center of Italy. Around 300 died and thousands were affected in different ways.

The earthquake brought out several issues that I find interesting. I will only comment on two of them. First, even if Italy is a country known to be prone to earthquakes, the concept of earthquake engineering is not widely used. Not even modern constructions are built considering the possibility of an earthquake. Truly unbelievable. Coming from Colombia, where most buildings have been built or adapted so as to resist earthquakes, I found that very intriguing.

The second thing that surprised me was that the public reaction to a natural disaster was exactly like in Colombia. Not only: there is a widespread tendency to donate money. But, does a "first-world" country such as Italy really need money to overcome this?

One would expect an European country to be financially prepared to face unexpected events, including (and especially) natural disasters. Not only regular people pay taxes for that (money that funds civil associations such as the fireman and the Red Cross) but also insurance companies should take care of the bulk of the reconstruction costs. Perhaps the state should inject some fresh money and activate suitable logistics to ensure a timely reaction, but that should be a fraction of the entire reconstruction costs. Not even donating stuff makes sense: that should be covered by any reasonable emergency plan. The only thing worth donating in these cases is blood.

I am afraid that donating money is only useful for the donor: some sort of personal satisfaction by means of an SMS, I suppose. The (rather ephemeral) satisfaction of doing something. So perhaps the only benefited from those donations is the corrupt political system that rules Italy. The same political system that should have enforced strict policies for earthquake-resistant buildings. The same system that has publicly stated that reconstruction will take "many years".

Poor Italy. (I was tempted to conclude with "poor Italians" but, as they say, each country has the government it deserves.)

Umarells and Sdauras

In my neighborhood in Bologna I live surrounded by old people. I often feel like living in a retirement place, one without boundaries or nurses. I don't think there's something special about my neighborhood; it is simply a bit outside of the city center, so I guess other places in Italy and Europe also have a similar proportion of old people. I find it both overwhelming and weird. Very weird. When I leave my building in the morning, I found them everywhere, wandering around in the streets, without an evident purpose.

In the dialect of Bologna, old guys are called umarells and old ladies are called sdauras. Not too many in Bologna know and use these words; it seems it's an old, unused dialect. Umarells in my neighborhood spend their days getting drunk at one of the several bars next to the main entrance of my building. One of such bars is ironically called Bar dei Ragazzi. At night, the combination of umarells and alcohol makes the street in front of my building an unpleasant place for women to pass by. As for sdauras, you can easily find lots of them at the supermarket on Saturdays. They usually dress up very elegantly, even to go to the supermarket or to simply walk around the neighborhood. I appreciate that demonstration of dignity and self-respect; too bad sometimes their make up and clothes are too evident in revealing the decade in which they were young.

All of this is in sharp contrast with Colombia, a place full of youth and kids --perhaps too many kids. Seeing a baby or a kid in my neighborhood it's quite an unusual event. There's something in old Italians that's very different from old Colombians. It's hard to explain: somehow old Italians look more active and alert; I wonder if seeing a war and living the postwar gave them a different sense of appreciation of life. In Colombia, when people arrive to retirement age, most of them enter into a 'hibernation mode' and become way less active, and more dependent of others, or at least that's my impression. Here old people seem more active and responsible and independent than most youngsters; it's so cool to see them riding their bikes all around. Their dignity is both evident and admirable. In these times of crisis and unemployment, I am sure their low ---but guaranteed--- incomes are essential to support and lead their families.

[You might like to have a look at the (photo) blog devoted to Umarells in Bologna (in Italian).]

Skype and futureless countries

I was just reading that, once again, it has been discovered that the Colombian Intelligence Agency (DAS) has been illegally intercepting communications of key opposition members, journalists who do not praise the current right-wing administration, main members of courts in charge of processes against the government, and many others. The DAS also kindly offers its interception services (which use advanced equipments sold by the US) to drug cartels, left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary armies. The services --which include phone and email interception-- may cost from 30000 to 50000 euro, depending on who and for how long you want to follow someone.

First I felt kind of frustrated about the political use of this agency. Then I thought of what those so-needed, dissonant voices in the Colombian political spectrum could do to keep doing their opposition job. And I remembered a story that appeared in an Italian newspaper some weeks ago. It turns out that the part of the Italian police that is after big mafia bosses is highly discouraged by the fact they're increasingly using Skype to avoid intelligence spies on them. The technology Skype uses to cleverly distribute the data packages that represent voice makes it impossible to intercept communications. Skype conversations leave no trace whatsoever on computers, thus making any interception attempt futile. Needless to say, since Skype is based in Luxembourg, it is not covered by Italian laws and is not obliged to cooperate with the Italian police. (Read the full story, in Italian, here.)

I think this is a very interesting --but ironic-- consequence of technology. The same communication technologies that are allowing mafia bosses to run their business in the futureless republic of Italy could be the only option for those defending (what is left of) democracy in the futureless republic of Colombia.

You might like to follow the links

Today the sun shines again. I want to express that I am very glad to see how fine things are these days in Italy. Let's see: there's a popular government composed of capable and innovative leaders; there's a strong party system which supports an active and united opposition; the judiciary system works like a charm --it handles the rare cases of corruption completely and efficiently; the state-owned companies and public services have reached levels of quality rarely seen in the past. All of this you can perceive this in the people's spirit: even with the crisis, ordinary people find alternatives for living, and the percentage of employed ones with temporary contracts is rapidly decreasing. For young people, studying and doing research is truly a life option. The immigrant population has been gradually embraced by the state and its protection. It is touching to see how citizens are enthusiastically taking this issue on their own hands, as evidenced by multiple everyday episodes. Some of them even organize warm welcome events to immigrants in some cities' neighborhoods (they call these events ronde notturne, or night rounds). Finally, a recent episode has reminded us how remarkable the relationship between state and church in Italy is, and has seen prevail the elemental principles of tolerance and respect towards non-Catholics and non-believers.

No wonder why Italy is a modern, first-world country.

Capsule of Absurdity No. 2

Many of my readers and fans have asked me to write something concerning Alitalia and its recent crisis. So here's the second installment of 'capsules of absurdity', the successful series started here.

As most Italian public services, the circumstances of Alitalia are full of absurd events and developments, not only in the relation with the customer but in the very essence of its life as a company. I won't enter into the details of the corruption and bankruptcy in Alitalia nor describe the recent tricks to keep it alive; they're so absurd that I would bore you unnecessarily. Instead, here I shall describe some events related to my recent trip Bologna - Warsaw with Alitalia.

I had never flown with Alitalia. I had heard that the service was terrible, but the same I had heard of other companies, such as Lufthansa. (It is worth pointing out that I don't travel a lot, and that I mainly use AirFrance. I have used BA and Iberia.) So, back at the end of June, flying with Alitalia for the first time didn't seem like a stupid thing. Of course I had heard that it had problems, but (i) the whole sector was/is in trouble because of oil prices, (ii) I was somehow confident in Silvio B's promises of an "Italian Alitalia" (Alitalia owned by Italian shareholders), and (iii) I had heard that they had money to work normally till December this year. Based on all the above, and in the fact that I found the cheapest fare (250 Euro), I bought my ticket to Warsaw with Alitalia, doing Bologna-Rome-Warsaw.

Problems began the weekend before my trip. The newspapers announced that the group of entrepreneurs ready to save Alitalia and the unions weren't able to reach an agreement. As a consequence, the existence of the company was in serious risk. Many rumors indicated that the situation was really critic, as the company had problems ensuring provisions of fuel.

Immediately, I entered into panic mode and looked for my ticket's rules for cancellation. They weren't with the things I had been given, and I forgot to ask them explicitly. I went to the travel agency, where I was informed that in case I wanted to cancel my ticket I would only receive 100 Euros back and that a different ticket with another company would cost more than 400 Euro. They also critizied me for following the "alarmism of media", claiming that Alitalia had been in crisis for 3 years and that nothing had happened. Moreover, the owner of the agency, who was overhearing my case, quickly pointed out that she had herself Alitalia tickets for her vacation and that she wouldn't cancel them for some "silly rumors."

The following week I spent/wasted a significant amount of time following the developments in media, quickly discovering that getting informed in this country is simply impossible. I decided not to change the ticket, essentially because the price difference was huge. My hope was that the final collapse of Alitalia would occur just after my flights.

Real panic returned to me the afternoon before my flight, scheduled to depart at 11am from Bologna. I was trying to print a copy of my online itinerary and then I got the following message:

We can't display your itinerary, as your flights have changed. Please consult your travel agency.

I ran to the agency to find out what was going out. The answer was really absurd. I was told:

Your flight has been canceled for logistic reasons. There's an earlier flight at 9am, would you like to take it?

Of course I took the earlier flight. Even if the whole idea of having a flight canceled without getting any notification is outrageous, the fact that the only possibility for me was an earlier flight was simply beyond any limit of absurdity. What if I don't check the online thing and arrive to the airport to take the 11am flight? There were no other flights to Rome so that I could connect to Warsaw, and I would have wasted a lot of energy, time and mental sanity in the process.

The reservation was corrected and I printed the online itinerary. The night before I couldn't sleep and decided to check again the itinerary. I got the same error I got in the afternoon. Complete panic. Then I decided to contact Alitalia's call center. My conversation with the Alitalia operator (AZ) was amusing:

(Me): I would like to confirm my flights for tomorrow, please.
(AZ): All flights are confirmed.

(Me): Wait a second, I haven't given you my flight information...
(AZ): Mmm, OK. What's your last name?

After giving my information, they confirmed all the data of the corrected booking and I felt relieved. I still want to think that the "all flights are confirmed" greeting was due to the fact that operators are allowed to feel tired every once in a while. Since stupidity has universally prevailed in history, I am afraid it's not difficult to imagine the following hypothetical conversation, between a stupid customer (SC) and the same call center:

(SC): Hello, I would like to confirm my flights for tomorrow, please.
(AZ): All flights are confirmed.

(SC): Oh, good to hear, thank you very much.
(AZ): You're welcome. Thanks for choosing Alitalia.

Luckily, the two flights to Warsaw were OK. You could tell how all the employees were stressed with the whole situation. It must have been really hard for them, the ones who actually work, to answer the challenge while the government and the union leaders played their stupid political games. The situation was kind of solved last Thursday, so I didn't worry about the returning flights. Those were also OK. In fact, they corresponded to the infamous motto given to Alitalia: "Always Late In Take-off Always Late In Arrival." But that didn't matter: I managed to go and return from Warsaw without significant problems (the huge delays that I had to suffer were no surprise).