Vota Antò Lo Puerc!!!

Cari miei, vista la situazione politica in Italia si suppone che prima o poi verremo chiamati di nuovo ad eleggere una mandria di idioti. A questo punto la soluzione é chiara: votate Antò Lo Puerc!! Nei prossimi giorni mi informerò se sia possibile eleggere un porco (vero, leggasi suino) in Parlamento: nel caso preparo la lista ufficiale e si inizia con la campagna elettorale. E con i contributi ci facciamo un festone per i senzatetto - almeno spendiamo i soldi pubblici per qualcosa di intelligente. Il gruppo su feisbuc è sempre lo stesso: diffondete il verbo!

ANTÒ LO PUERC: UN VOLTO, UNA GARANZIA.

back from Espain

miei cari, I have just finished reading Gaborno's blog, bloody hell when the guy starts writing noone can stop him. Bravo Gaborno!! As you might guess from the title of this post, this week I was in Espain, just came back. I practiced a bit of Spanish (I am baaaaaad) and enjoyed some proper food. Yesterday night we decided to go to my favorite place, Casa Josè: this place has a single menu, stuck on the wall, full of very interesting things. We ate like little whores (my dad's copyright): we started with snails, then navajas (kind of long seafood, ahhhhh they are good), gambas, more gambas, merluza, scampi, calamarcitos (fried and a la plancha), all sort of muscles and I can't remember what else. I loooove the place. The day before I had night shift so during the day I went shopping - wanted to buy shoes so I ended up with 1 skirt, 2 pull overs, 1 t-shirts with little white roses stuck on it and underwear. Then I bought a guide of the best Spanish wines of 2008, found 1 producer not too far from where I was and went there. I arrives to this little village, obviously noone was around and there were no signs. So I just waited until this car came, I approached the guy (who could only talk Catalan), I somehow explain to him that I wanted to buy some wine, the guy called the wine producer on the cell phone and told me to wait "there", pointing at a not better defined house in the village. So I just parked the car and waited. The wine producer eventually came, gave me a tour of the cellar, basically told me that I am sort of the first private person that comes to buy small quantities of wine (weird) so I ended up buying 4 bottles. Then today I asked the lady in the plant to give me some bubble wrap, sealed the bottles as best as I could in the parking lot (with the operators passing by and making jokes) and managed to ship the bottles - intact! - back to Germany. This together with 2 liters of olive oil and 3 pots of olive paste. I think a car tour of Spain is now required, so that I can ship back some proper quantities of wine. And I bought my first Spanish book, "en el nombre del cerdo", which means "in the name of the pig": when I saw the title I knew that it was the book for me :-) Now I'd better go to bed, I am a bit tired...

here I am

miei cari, after a long slience here I am. The last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic, but overall good. I have now a new ipod, the big chunky 80Gb one. I have transferred around 1/4 of my CDs and I nearly used 10 Gb already. Thanks God I didn't buy the small fancy one, otherwise it would be full by now. You might wonder: why the hell did you buy an ipod? First, because they look good - even though the idiots don't produce white ipods anymore, ipods should be white and not this freaking rainbow of options they give you - but I assume this is what they call customization. Second reason: I was utterly bored of having CDs flying around in my car, so during the Xmas holidays I changed the radio in my car so that I can plug the ipod in and carry that alone instead of the CDs. Third: the exchange rate is so good that I felt idiot not to buy it. I am not sure about buying a cover for it (because since it's not white but silver it will get awfully scratched). We'll see. Other news is that the Italian government fell, so now there is a huge mess. And why did it fall? Because the Minister of Justice was nearly arrested, together with half of his family, for corruption. This is just to prove once more the points I was making in my last post. So after his dimissions there was a huge turmoil and his party did not vote for the government anymore. It is still unclear what will happen. We have 2 options: 1) they make another government, with a different majority, and let's see how long it lasts 2) we go vote soon. In both ways we get screwed, because sooner or later we will have to vote and our friend Berlusconi will win again and make a mess as usual. Amen. Other news is that last weekend we had a lot of visitors: Preeti and Sameer from Antwerp, Petero, Tina and Ahoo from Geneva. It was good fun and it's great to see that they are all OK. Other news is that Gaborno eventually decided to start writing on his blog again (about time!) so that I am not left alone. And now I'd better go get a shower so that I eventually leave the flat and stop putting stuff on the ipod. Ciaociao

hmmmm

miei cari, I am at home and I decided that I have worked enough for tonight so screw the report I want to write on my blog.
In the last days I had a chance to think and talk about what is happening in Italy at the moment. It all started when I was driving back for the holidays: I was in a queue outside Milano and was listening to the radio, a pretty big one. They played this "Xmas" jingle, in which a speaker was basically saying that the state is shit, politicians are shit, people cannot make ends meet, and so on. At the beginning I thought it was some kind of political commercial, but then I figured that it was for real. I arrive home and listen to the news, with the "emergency" (which has been going on for years now) of the piles of rubbish in Campania (the region of Naples). Then I bought this book called "la casta", of which I had read a lot. Basically the 2 journalists that wrote it describe how Italian politicians became a caste (hence the name of the book), and that theit highest political goal is to steal money and go unpunished for it. This all over the country, North, South, East, West, all the same, without anyone even feeling slightly ashamed for what they do. You read it and you want to take your car and go straight back to Germany - by the way, not that I think that in Germany you don't have corruption, but it seems less spread and when people get caught at least they show some shame. Then I come back to the office and Giulia sends me this link to the phone call between Berlusconi, our previous prime minister, and Saccà, the president of RAI (the state TV). This phone call shows a level of corruption and ass-licking that is simply embarassing.
Now, it's not a big surprise that most of our politicians are a pile of stinking shit, they have always been - I remember jokes about politicians stealing money when I was a kid, so I don't see a big difference now. Still, in the past it seemed as if people were considering it as a nuisance to overcome in a way or another, without getting as angry as now. And it is not only about politicians: people are angry about foreign people (before it was Muslims, now it is Romanians, tomorrow who knows), about not having enough money, about not having a stable job that gives them sufficient money - to give you an example, a friend on mine, who is a vet, told me that if you want to practice as a vet there are some clinics where they will pay you between 7 and 11 euros/hour, which is less of what my mum gives to her cleaning lady. You read the newspaper and there are only bad news and naked girls. Now, the worst thing is that noone is proposing anything to get out of this situation. People wait for the new "emergency", they get upset like hell and it ends there. I've just finished reading this book, "the time of the rebels", about the youth movements in East Europe (Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, ...) and I found it very inspiring. Unfortunately I don't think any of it is applicable to Italy. First of all, all these movements were non violent and we cannot even handle some garbage or enjoy a football match without someone getting hurt. Second, the movements that already exist in Italy either are made by an ex tv comedian (Beppe Grillo, who is as old as my mum and I would say less honest) or are completely politically biased (if you can read Italian go to the Indymedia site and look at the difference in themes and wording between the Italian version and the other ones). What I fear is that this is the perfect situation for a "strong" guy to come and get hold of the country. If someone came and said "guys, give me 5 years and control of the police and the army and I get rid of foreigners, make out towns safe and give you all steady jobs" he would become prime minister with 70% of the votes (which, by the way, was the same thing that Berlusconi said and he won big time without even asking for more police power and with half of the country hating him because of his not-too-clear activities). Then we would really be screwed.
So the question is: why the fuck did I write all this thing if at the end of the day I am not able to propose anything? Good question. Let me think and if I come up with something intelligent perhaps next elections you can vote for me:-)

2007, 2008

miei cari, I am back in Frankfurt and to an internet connection. Holidays have been good, I eventually managed to sleep a lot , as needed. It's going to be funny tomorrow going back to work after getting used to go to bed at 2 and waking up at 12 or later. I read a lot, had fun and learnt some new recipes.
As for every year that ends, it's time for some little recap. 2007 has been a decent year. Some highligths: my friends, here and away, always there for me - you are great. The trip to India - fantastic. All the weddings I have been to - wow, that takes guts ;-)
I have been asked what are my resolutions for 2008: to be honest I have no clue, apart from a strong feeling that things will change. How, when and what exactly is still to be defined, but the feeling is there. For the past months I have been in this undefined mood, in which things were not good but at the same time they were not bad; in simple words I was just getting bored. And when I get bored I get frustrated and nasty, which happened already in the past and didn't lead to anything good. So, my friends, cope with me for some months until I figure out what I want to do and then the fun begins:-)
So, some minutes into the new year, with fireworks cracking in the sky, bottles of merlot on the table, I was jumping with my friends, hugging each other and being stupid, listening to some songs from Hair. As said, things will change.