The Vatican is Anti-Berlusconi!

March 12, 2008 · Filed Under Funny · 4 Comments 

Yep, it’s official, well almost. There have been quite a number of news stories about the new 21st century sins that the dear old Vatican has come up with. And here they are, the sins, that is, in no particular order, at least I don’t believe so:

  1. Environmental pollution - Change you car - or burn in Hell.
  2. Genetic manipulation - Create Chimera and be damned.
  3. Accumulating excessive wealth - Go bankrupt and head for paradise.
  4. Inflicting poverty - Make people poor and end up beneath the floor.
  5. Drug trafficking and consumption - Doing and dealing drugs is bad for your soul.
  6. Morally debatable experiments - Experiment morally, or face the heat.
  7. Violation of fundamental rights of human nature - Act like a devil and meet the Devil personally.

As you can see, sin number three, accumulating excessive wealth, appears to indicate that the Holy See does not see eye to eye with wealth accumulating Mr Berlusconi.

The question is, what with the Italian general elections just round the corner, will the Italian people decide to vote in an excessively rich sinner in the country that is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church?

I can see the new election posters that will surely appear: ‘Don’t Vote for a Sinner’, ‘Do You Want a Sinner as a Leader?’, ‘Sin is Bad - don’t vote for Sinners’. or ‘A Sin A Day, Makes the Voters Go Away.’ ‘Rich People are Sinners, not Leaders.’ et al.

Oddly enough, the Italian media appears to have remained quite quiet about this. I wonder why….

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Pots Calling Kettles Black

March 5, 2008 · Filed Under Italian politics · 2 Comments 

As you may imagine, Italy is suffering from a minor bout of election fever at the moment. The general elections are just around the corner and election posters are appearing right, left, and centre.

I’ve seen a couple of amusing ones, so far. First there was this lovely one from the Berlusco-Fini duo which, much as I have done, pointed out that the left wing politcos are trying to re-package themselves in an attempt to appear new.

This was a ripe observation coming from the Berlusco-Fini camp, seeing as neither are new to Italian politics either. And I do believe that more than a few potential voters realise this.

Anyway, there was another interesting election poster. This time it was promoting one Ignazio La Russa, again a sort of right winger like Berlusco and Fini, and this poster had black and white mug shots of Veltroni and Prodi next to one another. Again the point of this not so subtle electioneering exercise appeared to be that Veltroni was about as new as Prodi. And just for good measure, the photos of Veltroni and Prodi appeared to have been re-touched a wee bit to make Veltroni look as old as Prodi. If it weren’t so sad it would be quite amusing.

Oh, and Ignazio La Russa has been in Italian politics about as long as anyone can remember, so he’s also playing the kettle, if you catch my drift.

Yes, as you may have guessed, the theme behind the current election circus in Italy is that everyone is doing his level best to portray himself as being something new. Obviously they’ve all been reading Beppe Grillo’s blog.

I’ve heard it said that Italian politicians are masters of the art of re-invention, and I’m seeing evidence of just this springing up in the election posters all over Milan.

The truth of the matter is that nobody who is making a grab for power here in the Living Museum is at all new, up to and including the almost newest of the bunch, Mr Veltroni.

Trouble is, the poor old Italian voters really have no choice. Either they get someone who they had before, and who did not manage to sort things out, or they get someone else who they had before, and did not manage to sort things out. Quips he, repeating himself.

Still, I quite like the idea of this making out you are new thing. I think I shall have a go too. Maybe I could start by pretending that I have not met anyone before. I might get some funny looks, but you never know, they may well fall for it.

By the way, I’d like to welcome you to the new Blog from Italy. Oh, I know it’s not really new, but if I tell you it is, you might just believe me. Not.

Heck, I don’t know.

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The Unkindest Cut

March 3, 2008 · Filed Under Our dog · 3 Comments 

Our peppy little Manchester Terrier puppy has been causing us a few problems recently. The other day he lunged at a child in a toy shop while I was looking at something with my son. I suspect that Atman, our dog, came within a hair’s breadth of biting the child. This was worrying. Then, on another occasion the pup escaped from our apartment and dashed upstairs where another dog lives.

The other dog’s owner saw our little terror and tried to grab him. Atman the nipper had a go at nipping her too.

Another slight problem, but pretty normal for a dog, is that he starts barking every time he hears someone passing our door, including in the depths of night.

In addition to these, er, behavioural problems, the little chap only has one testicle, and we are not sure if the other one is in there or does not exist. The vet has recommended that he be operated on to either find the missing ball, so to speak, or, chop the existing one off, citing the fact that single testicled dogs do not good fathers make. The emasculation of this little chap fair makes my eyes water. Poor little thing.

In fact this operation is worring me quite a bit. I don’t want the little fellows character to change too much, as I believe can happen after such surgery and I’m a little concerned that he is really only being subjected to this operation to calm him down a little and turn him into an animal more suited to city life. I know it’s not exactly a lobotomy, but in some ways it feels a little like it is.

The fateful day is almost upon us as he has been booked in for the op this coming Wednesday. And this surgical intervention does not come particularly cheap either at 400 Euros.

I think it may be fair to say that male Manchester Terriers are perhaps a little too lively for city life and would be much more at home in a house with a nice rambling garden, which we don’t have, alas.

Hopefully my most prolific commenter and fellow dog owner Gege’ Bau may have some advice to offer before the pup is subjected to his fate.

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