Prince Harry

January 14, 2005 · Filed Under England · Comment

Well, blogs can be used for anything, but so far I have not really done the common blog thing of commenting on happenings in the world, but I feel moved to do just that by the rather unthinking actions of one of the members of the british (the small ‘b’ is not a typing error) royal family. Jewish people and Germans are quite rightly incensed by Harry’s daftness. The Germans seem to feel that this an example of the british still thinking that Germany is full of Nazi’s, and while I tend to disagree with this, I for one do not consider Germans and Nazi’s to be synonymous.

Harry obviously does not fully appreciate the position he holds. The poor lad is in the spotlight and cannot, even though he would like to, act like a normal everyday person. His choice of costume was just plain daft, an act of ignorance and immaturity more than anything else. One hopes that there was no sinister reason behind his choice and, having once been his age, I imagine that he just thought it would be funny for an English Prince to dress up like a Nazi soldier, maybe he thought it was an outrageous contrast or something like that. Anyway, whatever he was up to has backfired on him. Let’s hope he has learnt, another, lesson. One may observe that if Harry had been a little more closely supervised by his parent and family, then maybe he would have been alerted to the potential error of his ways. Alas this was not the case. Royal brains have never been renown for being particularly sophisticated instruments, a many in UK already know.

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The people

January 14, 2005 · Filed Under Culture · Comment

Italians are good people by and large. They have their faults, but then doesn’t everyone. I work with a local business school and I have to say that the staff there are absolutely wonderful. Helpful, courteous, considerate and friendly. This certainly makes life a lot easier. They treat me with respect, which I like. This makes you feel like a valued human being, and feeling like this does make day to day life easier. Problems can be overcome more effectively and things go well in general. I like Italians in general, there is something about them, which is a little difficult to describe. A sort of warmness which makes you feel comfortable. They stand closer to you in conversations, touch you and accept you for what you are. The standing closer to you thing was a it disconcerting for me at first. I suppose this may be down to good old English reserve and even now I find myself taking a step back on occasion. However, once you are used to it, you find that the closeness is nothing more than the way the people are. It’s a sort of intimacy, but without and other connotations. As you may know, men kiss men here. Now, I don’t mean kisses on the lips or anything sexual, just a sort of peck on the cheek. This I found really unusual at first coming from the UK, where men do not kiss men because it is not considered ‘manly’. English people would think you are gay or something. Here in Italy, it does not even raise an eyelid. The touching thing is similar. Women will often touch your knee in conversation, but it does not mean anything, it’s just a sign of genuine friendliness, nothing more. Although, many English men may well get the wrong impression, or at the very least become confused. I really could get myself into awful trouble by adopting Italian habits when I’m back in the UK!

There are other personal touches that I like, which seem to have all but disappeared in the UK. For example, I frequent several bars where I often have my ‘cafè lungo’ and I often I don’t even have to say anything and after a few moments a cup of coffee appears in front of me. This I like. It may take a little time for people to get to know you, but once they do, they treat you very well. There are still an awful lot of small businesses, often run by a family here in Italy and they survive by developing a good relationship with their customers, who in turn repay the compliment by returning again and again and of course keeping the business going. Another example of Italian courteousness is that of the three men who run a small garage where I park my car. Now, I as think I have said elsewhere in this blog, I do not use my car very often and on a couple of occasions or so, I’ve turned the ignition key and nothing happens. Flat battery. So, I wonder into the garage looking a little forlorn and explain what has happened. The owner smiles to himself a little and asks another chap to give me a hand. Car starts and off I go. I do offer to pay for their help, but they won’t accept anything. I know this is a small thing, but it’s nice and makes you feel better about the quality of life. Sometimes I make the mistake of not appreciating all the good things and viewing life with a little too much negativity, but when I think about it, which I should do more often, I realise that being negative can be damaging, not only for me but also for those around me. There are lots of good things to focus on, but, I guess this is human nature, we do seem to let the bad things dominate. The news on the TV does not help much. Unfortunately, bad news seems to make much better news than good news, but then most of you knew that already, I’m sure. OK, I’ve digressed as usual, moving away from the subject and pontificating. Now, there’s a good word to use when in Italy - pontificating - seeing as Italy is the home of the ‘pontiff’ himself, the Pope. Which brings me to Catholicism, I suppose. It was my impression that Italians were deeply religious people, this being of course the home of the Pope. However, as with most stereotypically based views, I was wrong. Some people do go to church, most are indeed catholic, but many, many people have little or no involvement with the church. Not too different from the UK in this respect, or so I would say.

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