tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35329622011-07-28T15:24:01.043+02:00Anna FDD's Blog<br> <br> Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comBlogger551100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1093792485207750322004-08-29T17:13:00.000+02:002004-08-29T17:14:45.206+02:00

Boingboing already posted a partial translation into English of this, but the Italian daily La Repubblica has a larger extract, and I thought I owed it to Enzo Baldoni to translate it, since that was what we both did. Translators are people who build bridges, so what better homage than translating this cheerful and lucid acceptance of death without bitterness. “Of course, I’m certainly immortal

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1091305497717712572004-07-31T22:23:00.000+02:002004-07-31T22:32:44.696+02:00

In the summer of 2003 I went to Clarion West. It was the best time of my life. In the winter of 2003 I had a severe depressive episode and went very close to taking my own life. In the spring of 2004 I began writing again. My bout of depression, for several reasons, was by far the most serious I’ve heard about - going into major depression is not usual after Clarion - but my predicament was not

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1085340336498653782004-05-23T21:21:00.000+02:002004-05-23T21:25:36.500+02:00

1. Unshakable beliefs The thing about America and torture and the whole bloody mess that Iraq has become, in Europe, is that nobody is surprised. A few die-hard americanophiles are hurt, but in general, the revelation that Americans have been torturing people out of need or pleasure isn't very shocking news to Europeans. Actually, what I have seen discussed with disquieting frequency on

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084452690823843982004-05-13T14:48:00.000+02:002004-05-13T14:51:30.823+02:00

One thing you can't say about Italians is that they lack style. This is the latest addition to the Highway Police car pool. Apparently Lamborghini made a present of the car to the police. One is none the less inclined to think of the state of research funding in Italy, but hey, we got style.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084435093520466752004-05-13T09:45:00.000+02:002004-05-13T09:58:13.520+02:00

I was reading the NYT and found this article which struck me for several reasons. The first is the cute way it lists the traditional means of torture, like pushing somebody's head under water and stopping short of drowning him, and then calls it "stopping short of torture". It does say that "defenders of the tecniques" are saying that, but it consistently uses "tecniques" throughout the article.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084306836563194692004-05-11T22:20:00.000+02:002004-05-11T22:20:36.563+02:00

I have finally - to the general relief of my two remaining readers no doubt - decided to change my template. I am afraid that to switch on the new Blogger service that lets me have comments and warns me via email when they come, I had to lose my old comments. That's bad, I know. But let's try to be forward thinking. Also, now I'll know when people comment on my blog.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084303995093289292004-05-11T21:32:00.000+02:002004-05-11T21:33:15.093+02:00

While I work I keep checking the news. Yesterday La Repubblica's website was "Amnesty [International] accuses: Blair knew". Oh-ho. Amnesty makes the headlines. That's new. That's new because in the few years I've been a member I've read press release after press release with facts and figures - some of them relating to Western countries - that completely overshadowed the things we've all seen

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1083790306339838382004-05-05T22:51:00.000+02:002004-05-12T09:39:53.863+02:00

Kathryn Cramer has a post about heroes: people who refused to torture or denounded or stopped torture once they knew about it. Which brought to my mind sections of Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People, by John Conroy, a book I wish everybody would read, especially these days. I googled a bit and found this piece by Conroy himself. It seems to incorporate a lot of the best material from the book.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1083619371084584692004-05-03T23:22:00.000+02:002004-05-11T21:53:45.833+02:00

Mostly, I don't know what to say. I think I said it all about a year ago, when I wrote my long post about torture. Back then, I was moved to outrage. I am not outraged now. I was in a state of continuos outrage all the time, because the news where there for people willing to listen to them. Do I believe it's just a few bad apples? LOL. A few bad apples don't take photos with great big smiles

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1082730361251349772004-04-23T16:25:00.000+02:002004-05-11T21:54:57.316+02:00

Last March, on the first day of spring, two things happened, one good and one bad. I got a phone call from Neile Graham, Clarion West administrator, to tell me that I was being invited to Clarion West 2003, and the war started. I have to admit that I became a coward. I needed a visa for the US to be able to attend Clarion, and I knew there was no way I could talk about the war and not say things

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-911904892003-03-22T20:34:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:10:02.750+02:00

I got some extremely good news on Tuesday. I had one day to enjoy and then... well, then. Wednesday night I slept with the TV on, because I was seized by anxiety whenever I tried switching it off. And so, even without waking up fully, I knew when it happened. The next day I went around with a strange feeling of relief. It was happened: it was out of our hands. Then my ingrained optimism kicked

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-908858982003-03-18T01:01:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:11:22.940+02:00

2003_03_01_markarkleiman_archive.html#90775005">One catch (out of, let's fondly hope, many out there): Mark A.R. Kleiman says excellently a lot of the things I've tried to say confusingly and in fear of being deluged by outrage: He rather callously adds, "It's a good bet that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has felt some pain. And if that's the best chance of making him talk, it's OK by me." No doubt it

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-908114012003-03-16T19:23:00.001+01:002004-05-11T22:14:43.336+02:00

I have never, not even indirectly, met with torture. Not only I was born in a time and place, and to a class, where the danger to meet it was minimal. I have also, despite several years as an active member of Amnesty International, never met anybody who has faced it, something for which I am somewhat grateful, because I am not sure I would have been able to look at them and see them, as they

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-904713712003-03-10T20:09:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:15:20.420+02:00

I don't read too many blogs because I'm afraid of stumbling on something so sick and so evil that it will physically hurt me. But when I do stumble upon it, I have to point it out. This is it. This is as evil and as sick as you can be: "I don't approve of ever torturing American citizens, who are of course protected by the Constitution. But so long as we're at war, I think there are limited

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-892077882003-02-17T00:37:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:15:57.636+02:00

People have sort of taken a liking to demonstrating. This is the second time three million people hit Rome. I particularly like Repubblica's photos, and in particular I love this.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-891954452003-02-16T19:50:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:16:32.446+02:00

They appeared slowly, tiptoeing into the urban landscape in days of luminous cold, one by one. One of the first ones was this. I don't remember when it was that I saw it first. Then two others blossomed together in my own street, tied to the omnipresent railings. I stopped and looked at them in something like recognition. Then it was its turn. From that day on I walked with my nose in the air,

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-851588822002-11-27T14:00:00.000+01:002002-11-29T00:02:49.000+01:00

Oh yes, Bjorn Lomborg. Bertramonline, which I've just added to my blogroll and not out of reciprocity either, has some things to report on Bjorn Lomborg, whose book The Skeptical Enviromentalist had me all enthusiastic in the short space of time that went between giving it a look and reading the Scientific American review. I was taken in by this guy? I'm embarrassed. And not a little pissed

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-850447042002-11-25T09:01:00.000+01:002002-11-25T09:01:27.280+01:00

Mount Etna I have been on the Etna several times, and once I went up to the summit too, but even if it is always more or less active, my visit have maddeningly always coincided with particularly quiet periods. It isn't such a quiet period now, and yesterday it seemed like Rifugio Sapienza, where all my visits had started, and even the cable car to the upslopes, would have to go. The lava has

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-848130182002-11-20T14:27:00.000+01:002002-11-20T14:27:13.330+01:00

Impunity for the powerful The Guardian has an impeccable article on Androtti's conviction. Besides being informative and correct (though I wonder if people can follow the dark convolutions of Italian history through its most terrible turns) it ends with the ominous note everybody has been pointing out to me these last few days: Paradoxically, the fate of a man who always emphasised his faith in

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-847062922002-11-18T15:25:00.000+01:002002-11-18T15:29:30.000+01:00

"To think badly is sinful... ... but you're often right" is probably the most famous of the celebrated witty utterances of Giulio Andreotti, sith times Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, affectionately known by friends and enemies together as "The Devil", sentenced yesterday to 24 years for commissioning a murder. I was driving towards a cinema yesterday (to see the absolutely crappy K-19

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-847059052002-11-18T15:09:00.000+01:002002-11-29T00:02:17.000+01:00

They came and got them The night before last, twenty people have been woken up by police and arrested. They were all involved in the "new-global" movement. One of them was Francesco Caruso, leader of the movement in Southern Italy, and such a far-out radical that other fringes of the movements left writings on the walls of Naples that said "Al prossimo G8 Caruso poliziotto", "At the next G8,

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-846221752002-11-16T16:03:00.000+01:002002-11-16T16:03:06.920+01:00

Some were communists This is by Giorgio Gaber, Italian singer, author, performer and, as this makes abundantly clear, ex-Communist. A lot of this is very Italian but I left it in because, well, because never mind if you don't get it. It explains a lot about Italy, really, including what Italians mean by "Communism". I do hope it falls under fair use. It's basically satire. I guess. Emilia is

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-846190082002-11-16T13:36:00.000+01:002002-11-16T13:36:42.716+01:00

The good American I really wanted to write about something else today, and I may yet do, but this is something that I have to point people at - even if after such a long hiatus (hangs head in shame) I don't know who may notice at all. When I'm about to give up the USA and everybody in it - and last elections were such an occasion - reasoning that the people I trust and admire there are such a

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-820402862002-09-24T13:57:00.000+02:002002-09-24T13:57:12.843+02:00

We're not in it for the oil, oh no. Peter Maas's blog points to an article that clarifies what's in store for the disruptive Europeans that dare oppose the Imperial orders: As The Washington Post helpfully explains, countries that support the invasion will find their oil companies rewarded with reconstruction and exploration contracts. Governments that drag their heels or oppose the U.S. will

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-820124832002-09-23T23:46:00.000+02:002002-09-23T23:48:37.000+02:00

Socialism And while I'm on the subject of Usenet, the huge advantage it has is that somebody will say the things you know you think and spare you the effort of articulating them, and in some cases of, er, researching them too. I've long wanted to say something about Socialism, and lo and behold a thread sprang up on rasff about it, and these posts, uh, had bouncing me up and down on the chair.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-820120902002-09-23T23:37:00.000+02:002002-09-23T23:37:09.630+02:00

Whine, whinge, grumble Avedon Carol, whose blog I follow religiously, has posted a bit about adding links to other blogs. While I was nodding along, I started up an internal whine: nobody ever links me, wee, wee. I'm in but a few blogrolls. Poor derelict me. And then the familiar switch to the Guilt Trip (tm): it's my fault, I don't post often enough, I don't write about the right things, I

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-818149092002-09-19T11:48:00.000+02:002002-09-19T11:51:11.000+02:00

All right . My address doesn't seem to want to show up in the template. I guess sooner or later Blogger will fix this annoyance, in the meanwhile it's this: adaldan@despammed.com. Yes, that is a valid address. I fixed the comments too.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-818146182002-09-19T11:33:00.000+02:002002-09-19T11:52:39.000+02:00

Comments Seems like comments don't work today. I'm not sure why, but while I try to work it out, you can use my email, which I just added to the template and will hopefully show up soon. Yes, that is a valid address. I managed to access my comments on the yaccs page and saw that Gary Farber was disappointed that I never responded to a comment he made. Well, yes, I try to check comments

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-816906542002-09-16T23:36:00.000+02:002002-09-19T19:51:16.000+02:00

Tearing down the house They're tearing down a house near my place.To be honest, it wasn't a particularly pretty house, one can even go so far as to say that it was unreedemably ugly. It sits on a T intersection and the side looking out on the main street is a drab two-stories oblong body, neither old nor new, of a depressing maroon color. On the side, coming out from the narrow street I live in,

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-815265172002-09-13T00:47:00.000+02:002002-09-13T00:47:36.223+02:00

I've been trying to express what I've been musing on these past few days, but it proved more difficult than I anticipated. Meanwhile (through Avedon's SideShow), this seemes to sum it up at least partly.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-805130312002-08-21T09:28:00.000+02:002002-08-21T09:28:23.806+02:00

I would do it again Sunday afternood, about 5 pm, the fishing ship Chico from Porto Palo in Sicily was at the end of its third and last day at sea. Its crew had caught 49 swordfish. They saw a ship with 151 aspiring immigrants on board, in serious difficulty. They called the Capitaneria di Porto in Augusta and were placed into contact with the one in Rome. Scared, and worried of the approaching

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-798444632002-08-05T15:55:00.000+02:002002-08-05T16:01:33.000+02:00

La mattina del cinque di agosto Today the news on TV is unanimous in remembering the anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death. It took me a while to realize that "the fifth of August" tugged a very different memory in me. And finally I got it: it's the fist line of one of the most famous, and notorious, war songs in Italian history. It has been officially collected in Novara, by a folk song

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-798044032002-08-04T14:37:00.000+02:002002-08-04T14:44:58.000+02:00

How not to get people killed Martin Wisse (here I am, Martin!) has written about the huge demonstration that took place in Genoa in the first anniversary of the death of Carlo Giuliani during the G8 riots (let's call them like that) last year. What's been remarkable is that this time, despite the danger of terrorist attacks having, if anything, grown, despite a death laying between protesters

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-798043252002-08-04T14:31:00.000+02:002002-08-04T14:31:04.613+02:00

Malefic fluid The former President of the Italian Republic Francesco Cossiga is in Ireland, on vacation. He has just issued a press release in which he says that he is ill with a "constipation" whose origin leaves his doctors baffled, but not him: he knows it is the "malefic fluid" promanating from one of the advisors of the newly elected Chief of Superior Council of the Judiciary, the governing

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-794278382002-07-26T08:35:00.000+02:002002-08-04T14:39:35.000+02:00

I'm not dead and neither is this blog The fact is that I work as a translator. This means that I alternate between periods of bleary, frenzied overwork followed by burnout and periods of terrified anguished worrying that I'll never work again. I've been in the first phase since last Christmas and the burnout has caught up with me, I'm afraid. With a bit of luck, by the end of next week I'll be

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-778969932002-06-18T19:42:00.000+02:002002-06-18T19:42:58.373+02:00

1966, again Allright - now that everything is over and the Italian soccer team is holed up in the shower room weeping over each other's shoulder, I can own up to it. I rooted for them. Not that very much, and for a whole lot of strange reasons, but during the last ten minutes of overtime I was buried under a pillow and moaning. Partly it was because of the surrounding ambient of friends and

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-775366902002-06-09T22:35:00.001+02:002002-06-09T22:57:38.000+02:00

...But the sky gets bluer and bluer In the one sunny day of this wretched end of the spring in the North-East, Padua stopped to let the Gay Pride Parade go by, and rushed up to look, with an uncertain smirk, and occasionally cheer. Two years ago I had been to the 2000 parade, pointedly re-named "World Pride", and stubbornly held in Rome during the Jubilee on the face of ever-increasing shrilly

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-775366732002-06-09T22:35:00.000+02:002002-06-09T22:35:15.960+02:00

Once upon a time there was the war against the Mafia Giuseppe Riina, son of Toto' Riina, possibly the most important mafia boss of modern times, has just been arrested on charges of extortion and "criminal association" (associazione a delinquere). His brother Giovanni is serving life for some murders done in their native town of Corleone. Corleone has had for the last eight years a centre-left

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-774121532002-06-06T11:04:00.000+02:002002-06-06T11:04:57.760+02:00

Avedon Carol in her blog talks about Bush's visit to Italy. Among other refreshingly entertainig things she says: So Bush went to Europe and insulted national leaders, was downright nasty to a reporter (who had committed the terrible crime of addressing the French head of state as "Monsieur le President Chirac"), announced policies that scared the pants off of nearly everyone, and then decided

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-772264372002-06-01T21:22:00.000+02:002002-06-01T21:22:26.746+02:00

Charlie Stross says lots of sensible things about socialism and in particular what socialism really is in Europe. Just about every Socialist I know thinks that, far from the Soviet Union's fall proving that Marxism is a total crock, the collapse of the USSR is the best thing that's happened to socialism for nearly a century. The entire ghastly Leninist experiment can now be laid at the

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-770754182002-05-28T22:12:00.000+02:002002-05-28T22:12:19.233+02:00

Oh, the burden! Martin has some links on an issue that is crucial to me in a very personal sense - Chile. There used to be a lot of Chilean refugees in Italy post 1973, and they shaped my ethics, and my politics, and my sense of music too. So I'm mirroring his link. He also sets very high standards for his blogroll - and includes me. Gosh. I'm a bit humbled - I guess I'll have to live up to it

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-770573612002-05-28T11:40:00.000+02:002002-05-28T11:40:21.150+02:00

Revamped Anthem Apparently, I had overlooked the fact that the national Anthem has, in fact, been sort of shook up a little to get the baroque and martial accretions gained over the ages fall off from the score. We have gone back, they assure us earnestly, to the orginal, "be it good or bad", as even our President Ciampi had to admit while talking to the National Socced Team. Anyway, you can

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-770399882002-05-28T01:12:00.000+02:002002-05-28T01:12:21.550+02:00

Oh, well... not too depressing after all...

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-770295682002-05-27T19:41:00.000+02:002002-05-27T19:41:44.916+02:00

Election day Local elections in Italy this past weekend. The results are coming in. 's fucking depressing, is what it is. 'nuff said. I wasn't expecting anything different, really. But it's fucking depressing anyway. I need a beer.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769981242002-05-26T22:40:00.000+02:002002-05-26T22:45:12.000+02:00

Singing the Anthem While freedom of expression in this country takes unexpected turns (apparently, one of the points is that it's up to the Cavalier Berlusconi and his hench, er, collaborators to decide what is true criticism of him and his ways and what is "aggression", "partiality" and "violence") and if a journalist doesn't contradict the claim that the private TV is freer than the public one

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769870162002-05-26T14:25:00.000+02:002002-05-26T14:25:42.023+02:00

The Berlusconi disease can spread throughout Europe It's a bit annoying when somebody (Martin Woollacott, in the Guardian) comes along and in one essay sums up pretty much everything you want to say and the reason you want to say it, "All that part of Italy that was instinctively entrepreneurial and individualistic, modern but vaguely Catholic, which had struggled ... to found the material

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769665642002-05-25T21:48:00.000+02:002002-05-25T21:51:30.000+02:00

More on Santoro Yesterday, since Santoro wanted to tackle the difficulties he and Biagi have been having, he decided it would have been better for somebody else to play host to his talk show. He therefore called Maurizio Costanzo, his long time friend and a pillar of the once rival privately held Canale 5. The RAI management told him no. He had a contract, he was supposed to be the presenter, he

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769557602002-05-25T12:21:00.000+02:002002-05-25T12:32:49.000+02:00

Department of Pet Peeves: Dulce et Decorum This was the received wisdom of the ancients, according to sites I just googled in search of the right quote, and it was the Old Lie, according to Wilfred Owen. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: It is sweet and decorous to die for one's country. No, I'm not going to talk about war. It's not forgotten but I have to confess that I'm using Owen's

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769322082002-05-24T20:22:00.000+02:002002-05-24T20:22:53.886+02:00

Biagi, Santoro, Luttazzi This is long, boring, and political, but I must tell it because it is a key story, in many senses. It's significant, and it's important, and it's, well, impressive. It's part of why I'm keeping this blog. First a bit of background. Italy is one of the least literate countries in Europe. The vast majority of the population is made up of non-readers, and this means

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769302552002-05-24T19:23:00.000+02:002002-05-24T19:23:57.466+02:00

Just heard "Everything is all right, and that frigging Communist journalist has been dealt with". These words have, reportedly, been pronounced by the head of Italian Intelligence, SISMI, after the killing in Somalia in 1994 of Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi, a reporter for TG3 (the news service for RAI 3, one of the three public Italian network), who was investigating arms deals in Somalia.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769198632002-05-24T13:42:00.000+02:002002-05-24T15:46:40.000+02:00

I won't be linking much from this blog. Partly because I'm terminally lazy and not much of a surfer anyway - but mostly because it's a bit futile to link, say, to a page of an Italian newspaper. Besides, I don't like cross-referentiality much. I try to provide content... maybe not very interesting, but mine. I've thought about this. I'm going to comment on things you folks out there have few

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769003832002-05-24T00:51:00.000+02:002002-05-24T01:44:19.000+02:00

This is actually an old post, from March 28 2002, before I had managed to work out how to keep a blog. Today I went in search of things to bake a pastiera with. A pastiera is a cottage cheese cake that's traditionally prepared in Naples for Easter, and therefore not exactly something I can claim blood affinity with. My friend Paola, who is from Naples (well, actually from the vicinity of Amalfi

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-769001402002-05-24T00:44:00.000+02:002002-05-24T01:43:19.000+02:00

Today - well, technically it's just past midnight, so yesterday - it was ten years since they killed Falcone. The prevailing mood among friends and family is bitterness, and despair, and defeat. Ah well - but he's gonna end up on a stamp, so I guess it's all right.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-768990182002-05-24T00:08:00.000+02:002002-05-24T00:08:29.300+02:00

Oh - and I'm just getting to know this blogging stuff. I hope I'll get better at it, eventually, and add, er, features.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-768989172002-05-24T00:05:00.000+02:002002-05-24T01:41:36.000+02:00

I don't know if this is such a good idea. I have long been meaning to keep a blog about what's happening in Italy. Or maybe to Italy. I have just realized that this may, just possibly, come back to haunt me, that it can hurt my career, my chances, and generally myself. Yes, I do so believe. I'm not telling you that I know it will... but it's not good news when you are afraid to talk about

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com0