The Venice Syndrome, sad, sad, sad.

We went to the Bytowne Cinema today on Rideau Street, the last movie house in the centre of Ottawa.

We saw The Venice Syndrome, released in mid-July, it is a 90 minute documentary on Venice. The City is dying and its not the water rising that is killing the city but the 20 million tourists who visit each year. There are only 50,000 inhabitants left in Venice today, it was a City of 200,000 just 12 years ago.

The port of Venice can accommodate cruise ships a 1000 feet long disgorging hundreds of tourists each day more than the Port of New York City. Not to mention the cavalcade of day trippers who come by train or air. The Post Office has closed and the building was sold to Benetton to make a shopping mall. The hospital was moved to the mainland in Mestre. Other services are being shifted to the mainland.

I was aware that the city known as La Serinissima was changing, I noticed how few locals were left and how grocery stores and other shops had vanished. All replaced by cheap restaurants catering to tourists on a budget with their micro-wave food and day old sandwiches and pizzas. On the other hand you also have to wealthy tourists who stay around San Marco in their $500 dollar a day suites and eat burgers at $45 dollars.

The movie shows you the throngs of tourists and interviews several Venetians about their city and the changes, the characters are all old time Venetians whose family have lived for generation in the city.
A Countess, an old gondolier, a real estate agent, a mover, a tourist guide, they all talk about their lives and how the rising cost of renting an apartment is pushing them out. Some own their condo but for those who don't the only solution is to move to the mainland. The blame according to them rest with the City Council who prefers the money of the big corporation to the interests of the Citizens.

Most of the money spent by tourists in Venice on any given day goes to big corporations not City Coffers. The real estate market is on fire despite buildings crumbling due to poor maintenance or shoddy workmanship. Still one square meter sell for 12,000 Euros. so bit by bit every apartment in town or building is being bought out by foreigners who come for a few days a year. It is true that Venice has always been a city of trade and business, this is what made it a powerful city in the days of the Venetian Republic but those days are long gone and now globalization is killing the city. It is estimated that by 2030 no Venetian will be left living in the city. All that remains are hotels, restaurants, bars and sights.

I am only happy to say that I knew the city and visited when it was still a charming city and not an amusement park. I feel great sadness at what is happening and at the lost of a beautiful and lovely city.

I predict...

Since April 20, the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has been leaking millions of barrels of oil. At first the press and BP where playing down the incident, words such as ''could'', ''may'', ''appears to be'' were used to play down this catastrophe. We were told that dispersant were used, they still are and are highly toxic and dangerous to man and wildlife. BP CEO said It is a big area and this is not so serious, it can be contained. BP had originally said that they had the technology to deal with any disaster, they now admit they do not and never had any plans. BP does not know what to do, they are trying different ideas. One using an atomic weapon to seal the leak, brilliant! There is expectation that the White House and the President should deal with this crisis. They are not chemical engineer and what they can do, they have done, investigate and bring criminal charges against BP and its incompetent management. Of course all this could have been avoided had ideas like deregulation of industries and risk management never taken hold of society. It all started with a B movie actor who understood little of governance and probably knew more about chimpanzees, good ole Ronald Reagan, nice guy but not the right guy for the job and then the 2 Bushes and all the neo-conservative claptrap and white fundamentalist Christians values. What a horror show this has been.

On top of the current cover-up BP has engineered to minimize impact, per example hiding the true damage to the Gulf of Mexico and to its wildlife, already all kinds of species of fish, dolphin, turtles and birds are washing up dead on beaches. BP is doing all it can to keep the press at bay as far away as possible, while showing off robotics under water.

I predict that from this disaster BP will be bankrupted and disappear as a company, it has already lost one third of its value as a company in just a few days. BP will cover part of the expense of the clean-up but in the end will not be able to pay it all and given it will take years, BP will beg off claiming insufficient funds, etc.. BP management will quit and get huge cash bonuses which will anger the public but then so is life. In the end despite criminal investigations no one will be held responsible and the tax payer will cover the cost of it all financial and otherwise. The disaster will soil and ruin all of the Gulf of Mexico and wildlife will die and disappear, it will be the first major environmental disaster on such a terrible scale that we will be unable to cope with it. Livelihoods of all who live near the coast in the so many States and Mexico will be changed forever. Gone seafood, gone property values, gone jobs and communities, all gone. The clean-up if one is ever possible will take decades and the wildlife will not come back since it is dying at this very moment, that too is gone. It is not over yet, so there is much more horror to come from this disaster, stay tune. I am just waiting for the oil to arrive in the Florida Keys and really spoil the area.

All this for oil so we can drive a car and use it as a vanity item, humans are truly foolish.