Spring

Primula (Primrose), messenger of Spring. Courtesy: Stelvio Nat. Park

“ It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ”


~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from December 1860 to August 1861 (Chapter 54).

A Farewell to Knut, the Polar Bear Who Charmed the World

Knut, Berlin’s world-famous polar bear who died on Saturday, wasn't just a product of the age of celebrity, he had charisma, and will be very sorely missed. David Crossland in Spiegel Online International:

Knut was a special bear because he had real character. That spring and summer of 2007, he entertained as many as 15,000 visitors a day by biting Dörflein's backside, hiding under a green blankie and chasing after a ball.
Later on, as he grew, he would stand on his hind legs with his front paws up, seemingly waving to visitors. He would even play with them, grabbing his ball with his snout and tossing it over the moat for them to throw back. He would lay on a veritable Knut Show. It may seem banal, but he had a very friendly face, far too friendly for the lethal predator he was supposed to be. That was the essence of his charm.
[…]
What remains? Berlin Zoo has said it may have Knut stuffed, but his supporters find that idea unbearable.
There has never been an animal burial at Berlin Zoo, and simply incinerating him like any other animal would seem deeply inappropriate [...].
Whatever happens to Knut's remains, the city should put up a monument in his honor, large and prominent, to remind visitors for decades to come of the bittersweet tale of an innocent bear who enchanted millions.

A Rare Encore

A couple of quick updates to my previous post on the 150th Anniverary of Italy’s Unification.

1. Valerie, at 2 Baci in a Pinon Tree, has a good post and interesting links to other bloggers’ views—including my own (grazie!)—of the same event.
   
2. Rome Opera House. It is very rare that a conductor concedes an encore for an opera chorus, and even rarer is asking the audience to sing it, but this is exactly what Riccardo Muti did on March 17, 2011 with the famous “Va, pensiero” chorus sung in the third act of Verdi’s Nabucco. Here is the video (the quality is not that great but it gives you an idea):

Does Soccer Really Need Characters Like Balotelli?

"Super Mario" Balotelli at work 

It was Roberto Mancini who wanted the so-called Super Mario to join Manchester City, now he has finally figured out who the former Inter Milan striker really is, and not just who he wanted him to be.

Yet, it seems that there are still those who think otherwise, one of them is former Chelsea and Italy legend Gianfranco Zola, who insists Mario Balotelli “has the potential to become as good as he wants in football—if he learns some self-discipline.” Self-discipline? Really? And how many decades will it take before he even knows the meaning of that word? But then again, does soccer really need characters like Balotelli? And if so, with all due respect for Gianfranco Zola and those who think like him, is this still a sport?

Happy Birthday, Italy!

Italy is a long country—about 745 miles from the northern to the southern border—running from the mountainous north down to the sunny south “kissed by the Mediterranean,” and so on. Ok, it’s an old refrain, but, as Denis Mack Smith puts it, “it is with geography that any history of this country must begin” (Modern Italy. A Political History). Almost everybody knows that regional differences in per capita income are large in Italy: the north is as rich as central and northern Europe (if not richer), while the south is much poorer. Statistics—if ever were needed—showing the differences in mentality, living standards and lifestyles between the-prosperous-north and the-poor-south became available in the mid-19th century. Well, these differences persist to the present day. If in 1861 per capita incomes were about 15-20 percent higher in the north than in the south, by 1911 the north-south gap had widened to 50 percent. And this difference has persisted into the twenty-first century.

And yet, this strange country—perhaps a “non-nation,” under a certain point of view—not only industrialized, but also became the sixth industrial power in the world. And (would you ever believe it?) Italy has regularly been among the countries that have won the highest number of medals in the Olympic Games… Strange country! Perhaps it’s just because the Bel Paese, as again Mack Smith puts it (great book!), was a territorial unit many centuries before she became a national state—unlike the Netherlands which was politically a state before it was either a nation or a geographical entity. Or perhaps not. Who knows?

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Be it as it may, 150 years ago, Italy became a unique state (or, if one prefers, reunified), and it was a very good day. But don’t expect the Italians to celebrate too much, because their patriotism, as the Neapolitan historian Luigi Blanch wrote back in 1859 or so, “is like that of the ancient Greeks, and is love of a single town, not of a country; it is the feeling of a tribe, not of a nation. Only by foreign conquest have they ever been united. Leave them to themselves and they split into fragments.” And after all, we must admit that Italy is quite a recent invention. In fact, even in the times of ancient Rome, while enjoying political, linguistic, and cultural unity, it was more of a geographic than a political expression, since the boundaries of the Roman Empire (and Republic before it) stretched far beyond the Alps and across the Mediterranean. And therefore, Prince Metternich was not that wrong when he wrote in a letter to Austrian ambassador to France of April 1847, “The word ‘Italy’ is a geographical expression, a description which is useful shorthand, but has none of the political significance the efforts of the revolutionary ideologues try to put on it, and which is full of dangers for the very existence of the states which make up the peninsula.” But never ever think that because of this the Italians are not a people: they simply are united by what divides them—and divided by what unites them, but let’s not overreach here...

Now it’s time to celebrate. But if you want to read something more detailed and elaborate about the subject, I suggest you to have a look at this article by Tony Barber. It’s worth your time. Happy Birthday, Italy!

The Obama Doctrine

Notable Presidential Rhetoric (c) Jack Ohman

“The problem with Obama’s Middle East policy is that there is no policy...” Victor Davis Hanson at The Corner (National Review). Thanks: Sandra Kennedy Schimmelpfennig.

WikiLeaks: Japan Was Warned by the International Atomic Energy Agency

 Photo: AP 

It’s sad to say it, and this for several (and quite obvious) reasons, but the news cannot be ignored or simply swept under the carpet: WikiLeaks reveals that Japan was warned more than two years ago by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes. Read the full story in the Telegraph here.

O'Reilly Factor - Is The Nuclear Threat Growing In Japan?

Is the worldwide media hyping the nuke situation in Japan a bit too much? The truth is no one knows how bad things are.

Nero Has Nothing on This Guy

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

The Middle East is in chaos. Libyan dictator Khadafy is murdering his people. An American female reporter is beaten and ganged raped by Egyptian thugs. Saudi’s are moving into Bahrain. Lebanese again clashing with their oppressors the Syrians. Pirates are capturing ships and killing American citizens.  Obama mouths empty platitudes and does nothing.

Japan is in serious serious trouble. Obama mouths empty platitudes and does nothing.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are getting murdered in Mexico. They travel there unarmed. This time he doesn't  mouth empty platitudes, he sends 20 more unarmed ICE agents to Mexico. (It’s against Mexican law for foreign law officers to have guns.)

Mexican drug cartels control huge swaths of the US\Mexican border. Signs are put up warning US citizens to stay out of those areas. US citizens along the border are being beaten, murdered, raped and their property is being stolen and destroyed. Obama mouths empty platitudes and does nothing, other than sue Arizona for enforcing Federal immigration laws he refuses to.

Union and Democrat Party thugs are sent to Wisconsin to protest what the Governor is doing to balance the state budget. Obama’s campaign organization, “Organizing for America” is sent there to bully and intimate. People get hurt, there’s vile foul language, the State Capitol Building is invaded by these people Obama supports. He’s spoken in favor of their behavior. Democrat elected officials flee the state to avoid voting on the budget, and Obama approves.  The protesters, when they left after nearly four weeks, left behind $7.6 million worth of damage and trash cleanup and repair.

Obama’s Black Attorney General refuses to prosecute Blacks and focuses prosecutions on Whites. People have quit the Justice Department in protest. 

Obama took an oath to uphold the laws of the land, and abide by the Constitution. He has instructed his racist attorney general to not support the "Defense of Marriage Act", which is federal law. It states marriage is between a man and a woman. 

Obama has stopped oil production in the Gulf since the oil explosion last year. Leases have not been renewed; no new leases have been made. Oil production has plummeted. Then he says about off shore oil production, “So any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn’t match up with reality. We are encouraging offshore exploration and production.”  Federal judges rule the moratorium is unconstitutional. He forges ahead. Gas prices are skyrocketing.

His healthcare program has been ruled unconstitutional because the commerce clause doesn’t include forcing citizens to buy a private sector product, in this case insurance, and he ignores the ruling. He said health care prices will be reduced by his program; heathcare costs are skyrocketing.

His economic plan has added $trillions to our national debt. He continues to borrow and print money. The “stimulus” money that was supposed to go to the private business sector went mostly to state and local governments, whose employees are union members and got paid with that money. Then the union dues where deducted, and the unions sent the money back to the Democrat Party. Federally funded money laundering. The balance of the "stimulus" money went to Wall Street fat cats and their bankers.

Unemployment hovers around 10%. That’s the official number. People that have used up their unemployment benefits are no longer counted. People with low paying part time jobs that used to have well paying full time jobs, are not counted. The real number of unemployed is between 17% and 20%.

These are the most glaring examples of his uncaring incompetence. Most of the time regular citizens don’t pay much attention to politics and policy in off election years, but this year citizens are beginning to take notice.

He has played more rounds of golf than any other president. He hosts weekly parties at the White House. Today he took time to fill in his NCAA Basketball playoff predictions and will be on television tomorrow with them.

Even members of his own political party are starting to grumble the he needs to show some leadership. He’s nowhere to be found during the current budget negotiations.   

From a Rasmussen poll: His approval rating is going in the tank.

The world is catching fire. Obama sits. The US is on the brink of economic, social and political meltdown. I'm nervous for the world. I'm nervous for my country. 

Italy’s top 15 cultural exports

Petrarch, by Andrea del Castagno
(Uffizi Gallery, Florence)

I must confess that debating on what is typically English or French or Italian, etc., is something I like less and less as time goes by and I get older. And this for the simple reason that I like to think of the West (or “Western Civilization”) more as a whole, as a single and, somehow, complete entity, than as the sum of its parts. This, of course, without smoothing down or denying the peculiarities of each nation and its peoples.

But perhaps it’s me who is missing something here. The fact is, in my view, that one cannot think of Shakespeare, to make an example, without thinking of the ancient Rome and the Italian cities of Venice and Verona. Or, to make another example, one cannot think of the American Revolution without thinking of the marquis de Lafayette and the French Revolution, and vice versa. And even the American exceptionalism, which, besides being at the heart of American conservatism, is also real and true per se, would be inconceivable without referring to, say, its Puritan roots, that is, its deep English roots. It was one Puritan leader, John Winthrop, who first expressed the idea that the Puritan community of New England should serve as a model community—the “City upon a Hill”—for the rest of the world!

But the above said is only a preamble for the real issue of this post, that is, what the Independent says about Italy and its contribution to the world. It’s a list of fifteen Italian cultural typicalities (“Italy’s top 15 cultural exports”), including Dante and Leonardo da Vinci, the sonnet, and, why not, beautiful women, great soccer players, and fast cars. The choices are questionable in some cases, but nonetheless arguable. In any case, it’s a loving tribute to Italy from a British newspaper, or, as I would prefer to say, a gracious homage to an Italian speaking Western country from an English speaking Western newspaper. In other words, a tribute to the West itself, and a must read piece.

As for the sonnet, however, more precise information is necessary. The article says that “the 14-line, strictly rhyming poem so loved by Shakespeare derives from a 14th-century scholar called Francesco Petrarca, aka Petrarch.” Well, I’m bound to say that it is Giacomo da Lentini (1210 circa – 1260 circa), head of the Sicilian School under Frederick II, who is traditionally credited with the invention of the sonnet. Moreover, other Italian poets, including Dante and Guido Cavalcanti, wrote sonnets some decades before Petrarch (1304-1374). But then again, it was Petrarch who polished and perfected the sonnet form (the vast majority of his 366 poems collected in the Canzoniere were sonnets). Not by chance the Petrarchan sonnet still bears his name...

Pope Benedict's New Book

Benedict XVI’s new book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection—published in English by Ignatius Press—is the sequel volume to Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, the highly acclaimed work which attracted praise from Catholic and non-Catholic Christians alike. The part II of this fascinating interweaving of history and theology draws the reader deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Jesus’ mission, life, death, and resurrection.

In his new book, Benedict XVI clarifies five disputed questions on the life of Christ that still spark heated debates among theologians and others, said Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, presenting the Pope’s book in the Vatican press office last Thursday.

According to the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, the five questions the book clarifies are the following:

1. the historical foundation of Christianity
2. Jesus’ messianism
3. redemption and the place that the expiation of sins occupies in it
4. Christ’s priesthood
5. the Resurrection

Three excerpts from the book (“The mistery of the betrayer,” “The dating of the Last Supper,” “Jesus before Pilate”) can be read here. They are presented at length, entire sections lifted from the chapters of the full book.

And below is the book trailer for Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week.

That's Where I Am Now

Fonte Avellana Hermitage
Provinces of Pesaro and Urbino, Marche region (Italy)

Meanwhile, Lebanon Is Already Lost

Hezbollah

Do you remember the famous quote by Titus Livius, “Dum Romae consulitur, Saguntum expugnatur” (Ab Urbe Condita, XXI, 7)? This could be translated in a much updated version as While Washington (and Rome, London, Paris, etc.) debates what to do with Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, Lebanon falls. Hezbollah has won there, with the support of Iran and Syria. In brief, this is a must read article.

Venice: It's Carnival Time!

Photo courtesy of www.carnevale.venezia.it

Though not a huge fan of Carnival at large and the Carnival of Venice in particular (I hate crowded places where you're always bumping into people…), I certainly love Venice—how could it be otherwise?—and beautiful pictures. That’s why I recommend you to drop by at Mirino’s blog, where you’ll find both the flavor of Venice and the magic of photography.

Gaddafi Between History and Chronicle

Oriana Fallaci interviewing Gaddafi

It’s always difficult to find wide-ranging, truthful and reliable information on the major issues of today’s world. Generally speaking, the information provided by mainstream media is almost always inaccurate and incomplete. That’s what so often makes reading newspapers and magazines a frustrating experience. Or at least that’s my experience. But this doesn’t apply—and I am glad to acknowledge it—to a report by the German magazine Der Spiegel that I came across yesterday (available in English version here). It’s about Muammar Gaddafi and what’s going on in Libya, but it also provides “an overview of a changed world,” with a special emphasis on countries with revolutionary potential. It’s rather a long piece, but believe me, it’s worth the time you’ll spend reading it.

One more suggestion (whether you were a fan of the late, great Oriana Fallaci or not): A few days ago the Corriere della Sera published a summary of Oriana Fallaci’s interview with Colonel Gaddafi (in English), which appeared in the same newspaper (and in the Times Magazione) on December 2, 1979. Almost a historical document and a great piece of journalism. The text comes from the second part of their conversation, in which Gaddafi talks about his policies and replies to charges of supporting terrorism that were being leveled at him.

In the meantime the Libyan air force is bombing the oil refinery and port town of Marsa El Brega as battles between forces loyal and against Gaddafi—who vows to fight to the “last man and woman”—raged in several towns across the country. The story is not yet ended.

Poland Über Alles

Twenty years ago, the deeply Catholic Poland was a backward agricultural and provincial country. Yet, since then, it has experienced an almost nonstop boom. Even during the 2009 recession, which we’re still recovering from, Poland’s economy grew by 1.7 percent. And thanks to its accession to the EU in 2004, unemployment fell from more than 20 percent to about 8 percent today. No surprise that Poles are among Europe’s most optimistic people… Read the article at Spiegel Online International.

English Identity: A New Report

An interesting new report (“Fear and HOPE”), commissioned by Searchlight Educational Trust, explores the issues of English identity, faith and race. With 5,054 respondents and 91 questions, it is one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys into attitude, identity and extremism in the UK to date.

“This report paints a disturbing picture of our attitudes towards each another and the unknown,” says Nick Lowles, Chief Executive of Searchlight. While highlighting the dangers that lie ahead if the issues explored in the research are not addressed, Fear and HOPE also “shakes the confidence of those who believe that all is well in Britain’s multiracial society.”

The full report will be available here from Monday, February 28, 2011 at 9.00pm (Greenwich Mean Time). In the meantime, you can read the executive summary here. Via Harry's Place.

The Rubicon is a River in Wisconsin

Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post:

The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment. The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.
[...]
We have heard everyone - from Obama's own debt commission to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - call the looming debt a mortal threat to the nation. We have watched Greece self-immolate. We can see the future. The only question has been: When will the country finally rouse itself?
Amazingly, the answer is: now. Led by famously progressive Wisconsin - Scott Walker at the state level and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan at the congressional level - a new generation of Republicans has looked at the debt and is crossing the Rubicon. Recklessly principled, they are putting the question to the nation: Are we a serious people?

An Afghanistan in the Mediterranean?

Two scenarios of the Arab revolution. That of Egypt, with an unprecedented alliance between Christians and Muslims. And that of Libya, where the collapse of the regime paves the way for radical Islamism. Take a look at the analysis of Khaled Fouad Allam, as expounded in an article by Sandro Magister.

The picture that emerges […] is that of a Muslim world that is much more fragile and disorganized than is usually imagined. Much more varied. Much more exposed to secularization and to the languages of global communication, universal but still uncertain in meaning.

Yet, this doesn’t apply to all of the Arab countries in revolt today. In fact, there is one exception. That exception is Libya:

Libya has never been a homogeneous nation. It is a tangle of Arab, Berber, and African tribes, for each of which group loyalty matters more than anything else. At the outbreak of the revolt, entire cities and regions were quickly made autonomous.

In Libya there are no real and proper state institutions, no parliament, no army that could assume power, as happened in Egypt, and ensure a smooth transition.

For Gaddafi, the "revolution" was the state, and the state was him. His was an "Islamic Maoism" purified of the prophetic tradition, the Sunna, which made him foreign and distasteful to the bulk of the Sunni Muslim world itself.

Paradoxically, the tyranny of Gaddafi guaranteed the Catholic Church levels of freedom greater than in any other Muslim country of the region.

The downfall of Gadaffi may therefore coincide with the total collapse of Libya. Which could become – Allam warns – "an Afghanistan in the Mediterranean."

An Algerian with Italian citizenship, Khaled Fouad Allam is professor of Sociology of the Muslim world and History and Institutions of the Islamic countries at the Universites of Trieste, Urbino and at the Stanford University of Florence.

When the Privileged are Angry

James Taranto’s piece in the WSJ’s Opinion Journal is well worth a careful read. He addresses the Wisconsin thing, the main issues at stake—including the differences between public and private sector unions and between Tea Party and union protests—and their political, economic, and “cultural” implications. He also shows how “almost every lie the left ever told about the Tea Party has turned out to be true of the government unionists in Wisconsin and their supporters.” Via Bookworm Room.