Playing with my site

A short time ago I had my main site englishisin.com moved over to a swish new server.  But, despite the new server, it seemed to load even more slowly than before.  This evening I have carried out a few modifications to the Joomla! backend in the hope of speeding it up a bit.  If you have spare moment maybe you could click here and then kindly let me know how long it takes before the site comes up on screen.  Thanks a bundle.

I hope it appears a little more quickly than recently, and I suspect that the culprits are Google Analytics, Platial Map and the rss feeds for pod casts.

The dangerous heart of Italy.

Italy can be quite a dangerous place. In fact there are various ways in which people can come to an untimely end in this country. In order of lethality these are driving, working, and stepping on toes.

Driving

Sorry, driving, is a little misleading, because pedestrians are also at risk from Italy’s gung-ho drivers. The figures seem to speak for themselves. According to an article on the Reuters website 8.47 pedestrians per 1000 inhabitants are killed or hurt in the eternal city. I’m assuming that this is an annual rate of carnage, but the site does not say. However, it does specify that in London 0.85 pedestrians are killed or injured per 1000 inhabitants, whereas in Paris, the figure is only 0.4. Something is not right in Italy.

The rising number of young Italians drinking too much and then driving has led to an increasing number of fatal incidents, and the checks carried out by Italian police, although increasing, as a result of their waking up to the problem, are limited. More numbers. Number of alcohol limit tests carried out this year so far in Italy: One million. In France last year, the number was 8 million checks. It has to be said that Italians are much more blasé about having a few drinks and then hopping in their cars and zooming off, than, say, English people who have learnt to avoid drinking and driving at just about all costs. High profile UK government advertising campaigns, severe punshments and sky high car insurance have all contributed towards reducing drink drive cases to a minimum in the UK. In Italy, the driver education process has yet to begin.

However, it is not just drinking that causes accidents in Italy. Many Italian drivers seem to be incapable of anticipating possible problems on the road ahead of them. Or at least this is the impression I get. Feet do seem to be glued to the accelerator and there is an uncanny reluctance to apply the brakes. Non-Italians have all heard stories of Italian drivers swerving round pedestrians while they cross the road. This is one hundred percent true and something I experience almost every day here in Milan. I’ve literally lost count of the number of times I have nearly been hit while crossing the road. And I’m not talking about crossing just any old where, I generally cross roads via crossings and at traffic lights. I’ve mentioned before that the little green man stays green for a few nanoseconds and you virtually have to run across the road. This is all while drivers are turning in front of you, or driving behind you, as you cross. For heavens sake NEVER, I repeat, never, ever, stop on an Italian pedestrian crossing. If you do, you will be run down. I’d almost bet money on this.

Talking of pedestrian crossings, if you do read the Reuters article, you will hear that the Italian president’s wife was recently run down on a crossing. This high profile incident seems to have started to wake Italy’s politcos up to the problem. There have also been a few other nasty incidents in the press recently involving mad motorists wiping out pedestrians. Ever heard of the film ‘Deathrace 2000′? Well, I fear the inspiration for this film came from Italy. Attempt to drive in Naples and you will know what I am talking about. I have to add I remember one incident clearly, and it was here in Milan. It scared the hell out of me. I was pushing my son across the road at a crossing in his push chair when some idiot cut right in front of me, narrowly missing both of us. If I had had a gun, I would have shot at the car. That’s how angry I was. Don’t these people think about their mothers or their own children? Obviously not.

Working

Anyway, assuming that you have actually managed to cross the road and, let’s say, arrive in one piece at work, you might feel safe. Er, not. Would you believe that it is actually safer to fight in Iraq than it is to work in Italy? No, probably not. Yet European figures show that over 5,200 people died in work related accidents in Italy from the start of 2003 to October 2006. Whereas in the same period in Iraq, just over 3,500 soldiers perished. The worrying thing is that the figure concerning deaths in Italy is probably inaccurate. You see, most of the people who are dying are unskilled, illegal immigrant workers, and you can bet that some never make it onto official records.

Reasons for this appalling situation? Three, in the eyes of this here blogger. First, Italian taxes and contributions are high, so cheap labour remains attractive. Then, there is the problem of sacking workers, which encourages the employment of illegal cheap labour. This is something that has been brought about, partially, by intransigent unions who have refused attempts to make Italian employment legislation more flexible, or rather, flexible enough. Although new employment contracts have rendered employment contracts more flexible, they are not yet flexible enough, as the figures above attest. And finally, there is the famous Italian disregard for regulations, which means that these illegal labourers are not provided with appropriate safety gear. By way of an example, from what I have noticed, building site workers never seem to bother putting safety helmets on. And this is despite there being official signs stating that helmets and other gear must be worn at all times.

Stepping on Toes

The final route to an untimely death in Italy, stepping on toes, can also be said to be work-related. If, for example, you ‘work’ for certain not so legal organisations and you do the wrong thing. Watch out for people on motorbikes. Then, if you happen to be one of the small but dedicated group of people who is trying to deal with the aforementioned organisations and you get too close (there are, regrettably, too many stories of this), you may get to meet your maker sooner than expected. Journalists who ‘get too close’, end up pushing up daisies or running chat shows. And, last but not least, there are those who act as consultants for the government. Provide certain advice, and you may well become the target of Italy’s best known terrorist organisation.

After having painted something of a black picture of this sunny land in the final section of this post, you may be surprised to hear that I do not consider Italy to be a violent place, at least not at street level. The UK seems to be much more dangerous than Italy in terms of spontaneous and mindless violence. And the number of shootings back in Britain that I keep on hearing about, is worrying.

But in terms of driving and working, Italy is way more dangerous than the UK.

Another squirmy pavement day

Yet another sweltering day in Milan. I had to use the underground too, which is not good at the moment. The metro is one big oven at the moment, and you don’t travel so much as cook. Not a wonderful experience, I can tell you.

As far as I can tell, only about one train on the red line is air conditioned. If you are lucky you may end up on it. If not, prepare to be roasted. Rush hour, around 6, is a nightmare, and all those sweaty bodies dashing home add about 5 degrees to the temperature of the carriages.

Overground trasport is a bit better and some of the trams and buses actually have air conditioning. Although you never know which.

Right, got to pick my son up from school. Sweat is streaming off my forehead as I write, making it a little difficult to see the screen of my pocket pc.

Must mop my brow, before I melt.

Some interesting statistics.

Around 497 comments left since I went WordPress.  Almost 11,000 spamments left.  Mad or what?

When bad is good.

Vanna Marchi is a convicted swindler.  She conned people out of money, in a rather despicable fashion, and was convicted and actually sent to prison (Info about this lady is here, in Italian, alas).  Yet, this criminal has done her time and is now doing her very best to make a comeback as a TV personality, oh, and she has no regrets about her past actions.   Such a nice lady.  I’m sure her victims will be ever so happy to see her smiling face plastered all over the gogglebox here. Talk about rubbing salt into wounds (you’ll have to read the Wikipdia entry in Italian to understand this quip, sorry).

Yet, this is Italy, where any media opportunity is a good opportunity, and Marchi’s phoenix like re-birth is an example of just how low Italian media is prepared to go to up its audience share.

I, for one, was pretty disgusted to see this woman on telly again.  Talk about promoting responsibility and honesty.  Not.  So much for Italian TV being a vehicle for the betterment of Italian society.  By attaching itself to Marchi, it is screaming that bad is good.  Nice move, if ever there was one.  Great example for the younger generation, too.  Bit of as shame that the upholder of moral standards, the RC church, has kept all nice and quiet about this situation, don’t you think?

The line between good and bad has become somewhat blurry in the Living Museum.   Perhaps one could argue that seeing as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ both end in ‘d’s, then they must mean the same thing, only what it is that they actually mean, is a wee bit difficult to establish.  Or am I just being petty?

Law makers and law enforcers.

The continual state of antipathy which exists between Italy’s law makers, the policitians, and the law enforcers, judges and magistrates, in Italy, continues to amaze me.  The Justice Minister, who you would think might act as an interface between the law makers and law enforcers, should possibly be called ‘Justice Minister, with special responsibility for protecting the interests of politicians’.  This is what the current chap seems to be doing and his predecessor appeared to do the same.  It’s an odd situation, to say the least.

At present two senior ministers, D’Alema and Fassino, and a few other high ranking politicos, have been implicated in the Unipol case.  The source of the implications is the result of a phone-tapping exercise carried out by the law enforcers.  Indeed, a Milanese magistrate has stated that the roles of the policicians, as evidenced by the phone-tapping, appears to have been more than just that of providing a little friendly advice.  The magistrate is insinuating that the politicians were knowingly participating in illegal actions.  Of course those implicated have denied any wrongdoing, but they have also engaged the assistance of the current justice minister who appears to be attempting  to block the use of the phone-tapping in any proceedings.  This in my humble opinion, seems to call into question the impartiality and integrity of said justice minister, who appears to be forgetting the motto ‘All are equal in the eyes of the law’, which can be found in every Italian courtroom.

Indeed, the questionable involvement of policiticans in various cases, seems to explain why so many of them kept remarkably quiet while Berlusco was on his way towards being elected into power.  The pot calling the kettle black, is a phrase which comes to mind and which may explain the curious silence of those concerned.  And Berlusco, who is probably no innocent, knew very well that nobody was going to engage him in a mud slinging contest, because they knew that he had plenty of mud to sling back if necessary.

In any event, it seems just about impossible to unseat those who hold positions of political power in the Living Museum.   And even if some case or other does actually reach the courts, the time it takes to complete a trial here and the convenient time-barring system, ensures that prosecutions are few and far between.  Even when they, rarely, occur, the sentences metered out are so lenient as to be virtually farcical .

The bluntness of legal teeth in Italy, with regard to the rich and powerful,  is such that it is now wonder that so many are encouraged to walk on the wild side.  However, if you are a common man who attempts to walk on the wild side, the law’s jaws can bite remarkably hard.  Mr Grillo’s V-day is an attempt to overcome the apathy which exists here.  The only trouble is that so many Italians are bored by the continual stories of the antics of politicians that they really don’t believe that anything can be done.  Much that it pains me to admit it, I think they could well be right.

Making Italian politicians act with impartiality and integrity in Italy, is about as easy as telling Italians to stop eating pasta.