Canadian Thanksgiving 12 October

Auguri! Happy Thanksgiving to all. This is the long weekend of my favorite holiday of the year, I always enjoyed this holiday no matter where I am in the world. In Canada it is a harvest festival, a very ancient feast day, which goes back to antiquity. In Italy, we are into the season of olive tree harvesting and olive oil pressing which will continue until december. Chestnuts have also started to appear on the market and different varieties of apples. Thanksgiving or l'Action de Grace as it is called in French, is a time to reflect on what we have and how we should be thankful. Thankful for being the Citizen of a country which is govern by the rule of laws, by a Parliament and by a modern civil service dedicated to the public good. We may as Canadians complain often and feel we are hard done by and gripe but in the end if you take a good look and reflect on it, you come to understand that we have it good in terms of quality of life. Also in terms of family, friends and my spouse of almost 32 years, I have been blessed. So on this day I have a lot to be thankful for.

We had Sunday lunch, nice half turkey about 4.5Kg just enough for some left overs but nothing substantial. The stuffing was made with prosciutto sausages and a hard grain bread, very good. The bird was moist not one dry part in it. The bird came from southern Tuscany and they are left to roam around, so the meat is nice, plump and light. Nice apple pie for dessert with home made cinnamon gelato. We also had Will's famous Smokey pumpkin soup with smoked ham. This year he added to the soup Madeira wine instead of Marsala wine, it was much better and not so sweet.

Our friends in Italy came to lunch, we were 6 all together on a lovely day, the weather was sunny and around 22C with that blue sky we only get in Rome. Tomorrow we are going to visit the park of the ancient Aquaducts, those great elevated waterways which brought all the water to Rome and allowed the city to become one of the wonders of the ancient world, millions of gallons of water every hour to feed the fountains and the great bath houses, they were destroyed by the barbarians in 410 AD. It will be nice to enjoy the fresh air outside the city.

Enjoy the holiday!

The debate in the USA about Health care or not to care

I have been following the Health Care debate in the USA from Rome, I am surprised at the level of animosity. The hate in some comments is palpable, racism also plays its part. The ignorance of the commentators may they be private citizens or media personality is astounding. Comparing the Obama administration with Nazi Germany (1933-45) or Soviet Russia (1917-1989) is laughable, do any of these experts or commentators have any idea what life was like under the Nazis, if Obama was a Nazi, he would have physically eliminated all opposition by now, that is what you do, there would not be one Republican left alive and families would have been rounded up, shot or imprisoned. News media closed down, Fox News gone, its commentators would have met a horrible death. Same in Soviet Russia, no opposition allowed, obviously commentators use such example to create a sensation, but it is sad because it preys on the ignorant masses and stirs up hysteria. All the President really wants to do is to allow every citizen access regardless of financial resources to medical help and treatment if required. Any country in the world with a responsible government wants this basic minimum for its citizens.

You cannot have democracy only for the rich, the well connected or the special interest group, it does not work, it creates tensions and social unrest in any country. Socialize medicine works in many countries, Canada, the UK, France, Scandinavia, etc.. citizens of those countries have a better standard of living because of it. What is difficult to understand in the American debate, why all the fear.

An economic study today shows that Norway has the highest living standard in the world, Canada is at no. 4 and the USA at no. 13. Food for thought really. Another fact Cuba, that little island 90 miles south of Florida has better health care overall and lower infant mortality than the USA and it is all free. I would say this is pretty shocking when you think of it.

I am an outsider looking at the USA and I can only shake my head and wonder where is the Land of the Free going with this internal negative debate. President Obama should be praised for wanting to implement this health care policy, not put down. Let's hope that the voice of reason will be heard.

Prices Food, Rome

Helped out Will today with a survey of cost of living prices in Rome. We went to different stores to look at every day items of life and see how much they cost. Doing this in depth survey I realized how much more expensive life is here in Rome compared to back home. There is a huge difference, per example a 4 Kg IAMS bag of dog food is 24 Euros, cat food is double the price. Fruits and vegetables sell by the Kilo and there is nothing under 2.50 Euros, it seems to be the starting bottom price. Many other items like a bar of bath soap is around 4.50 euros, and the list goes on. I was really shocked. Now if you have food allergies to Gluten you need to buy bread or pasta that is gluten free then the cost really shoots up, ordinary wheat pasta a staple of life in Italy is very expensive. We have seen the cost of living in 24 months go up by 56% on everything. Given that the average salary is around 1100 euros per month you have to wonder how people manage. Rents are also expensive in the city and if you cannot afford it then a 3 hour commute in and out every day to work is your option. You can easily spend 70% of your monthly salary on rent, the rest goes to everything else. Electricity rates are so prohibitive that most people do not have air conditioning or clothes dryer or dish washers. People living in apartment blocs which is most everyone, will hang their clothes to dry on the small balcony or put them on a clothes rack in the dining room to dry. In the summer in 40c heat, you have to find ways to keep cool, in winter you keep only the room where you spend most of the day heated, the rest is kept cool at around 18C and you dress warmly.

What we also noticed is that contrary to what we would see back home where fruits and vegetables are graded in categories in the supermarket and you can pay a lot less for bruised or older fruits and vegetable, no such offer here, Italians look for freshness and quality when they shop and so merchants to not offer lower grades. We have also discovered that our Sri Lankan street vendor of fruits and vegetables is a lot more expensive than the supermarket but he does have nicer stuff. As for the butcher well you want to eat meat, may it be pork, beef, veal or sausages it is all very expensive. An example this weekend I wanted to make myself some chicken soup, so I went to see Armando our butcher, he is known by the nickname the Bulgari of Butchers in Rome, he is very expensive but all his meats are top no.1 quality, you never go wrong with him. So 2 chicken thighs and a piece of turkey meat 10 euros for basically a pound or half kilo. The soup was excellent by the way.

I also noticed that in Rome there are 3 types of shoppers based on the 3 times of day you might go out shopping. The first kind is the early morning shopper, 8:30 to 11:00 am, polite, courteous, mostly old ladies and gentlemen or people who are on vacation and have the time, it is a leisurely affair. The second kind, the 12:00 Noon to 13:30 just before lunch crowd is the aggressive get out of my way kind, rude, pushy, hey its lunch time, come on, get a move on. Not very pleasant. The final kind is the 16:00 to 19:30 end of day shoppers who are going home after work and forgot something, tired and bored, just want to get it done and go home, choice is not great and you take what is left. You also have the old lady who comes by around 5pm to talk with the owner of the little shop, just for a bit of conversation at the end of the afternoon, because it is a slow time of day and even if the merchants are busy with customers, they will chat, simply because it is the tradition. Of course the fresh goods markets and the fishmonger are only open until 13:30, in the late afternoon it is shops only who re-open after the lunch break at 16:00. On Saturday I usually try to go early, otherwise everyday a bit of shopping just before lunch or after work on the way home. But now that I am a regular custormer with the Butcher, I can place an order and pick it up later or the next day. Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up on 11 October so I will order turkey parts from Armando on Monday, the oven is not big enough for the whole bird.

Having said all this you have to remember that Italy is a member of the E.U. and NATO and one of the industrial powers, Italians do like other Europeans, they manage.

Exchange rate 1 euro = $1.55 Cdn.

This morning in Beijing Flag-raising Ceremony

On this October 1, I was thinking of my own memories of China since early childhood, around 1960 I was a little kid and China was a far away place where an Emperor lived and all I knew of China as a small child was stuff found in children's books about a mysterious country and people wearing traditional clothing. Then by 1967 I saw a French movie on television about the Temple of Heaven and the story was about kites flying in the great park surrounding the temple. The temple in this movie and the park was in a very sad shape, no trees and mostly dust all around, very different from today's park and the magnificently restored Temple of Heaven. When I first visited it in Beijing in 2004 it was not yet restored but it was magical because though the park now had trees everywhere as in Imperial times, there were lots of kites flying. Of course I also heard of the Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution but that for me was the stuff of fantasy again about this far away land called China. Chairman Mao was a great benevolent figure always smiling, I would discover later that he was not such a nice man. Then when Canada recognized China and established diplomatic relations around 1971, that was before Kissinger and Nixon, I was excited about it because it meant that Canada was again making diplomatic history. I was in Ottawa the day the first Ambassador of the PRC arrived all dressed up like Chairman Mao accompanied by mean looking Red Guards. I realized much later how much fantasy and propaganda we were fed about China and how it was evolving. When Zhou En Lai and then Mao died, China was still very distant in terms of the knowledge I had but I remember being shocked to hear that Mao's wife had been thrown in jail, how could this be I wondered. But my real knowledge or understanding of China came when I arrived in Beijing in July 2004, this was not how I imagined it at all, this city did not look like and imperial capital, more like a vast construction site, it did not look like a Chinese city more like any city in the world. I was disappointed and I was also frustrated with the fact that I could not have conversations with Chinese people because I knew so little Mandarin. I spent 3 years in China and learned quite a few things about the Chinese Han and the country and its politics.
In 60 years great progress has been made and that is a very positive thing for all living in China. However China as a super power and not a democratic one at that, raises some concerns. Because when you put aside all the propaganda of the Communist party in how it presents itself to the world, you know it does not sound true, there is only one point of view in China and it is dictated by the Party. Only time will tell what will happen.
For the moment it is all about celebration.

China Party (1949-2009)

Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China's Proclamation as New China by Mao Tse Tung from Tian An Men gate in Beijing. As a country China has come a long way and we can only marvel at their success. However much of this development would not have been possible in a democracy. When I lived in Beijing prior to the Olympics, I saw the city transformed, amazed at how decrees would be implemented in the name of the greater good and things got done.
China today still has problems of poverty and unemployment but no more famine, no more strife and by large a society which is more prosperous. Unfortunate that the Party decided to concentrate on military display instead of people but this has to do largely with communist ideology. It this little clip from Central Television channel 9 in Beijing you can see the similarity with the old Soviet model. Though in Chinese fashion it is colorful. I also like the part where President Hu Jin Tao is fashioned as the New Emperor, like Mao, old symbols die hard.

Alicia de Larrocha, Adios!

On Friday 25 September the great Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha died in Barcelona. She is one of two pianists I have always loved, Claudio Arrau of Chile is the other one. Both were great and wonderful pianists, the had a fluid touch on the ivory and were true masters of the classical genre. Alicia de Larrocha had the talent to make anyone appreciate the piano pieces she played. She made it accessible to all. It was just beautiful and you could enjoy it for the sheer pleasure of it. She was a great master, someone who understands music and knows how to communicate all those notes and harmony to an audience, simply and easily.

Gracias, Alicia, por tantos años de música genial, de pasión y de sinceridad !!.

Firenze

We were in Florence last weekend for a few days. Wonderful food, the specialty since antiquity is Tuscan Beef, great steaks, very good restaurants, thanks to our Gambero Rosso guide book (the Italian Michelin). The hotel was fine but the internet was not, you can never tell in Italy with the internet, it is very spotty in most cases and hotels do not seems to understand this new technology, they can either offer it for free or charge upwards of 22 Euros a day for the service, which will still be poor or non existent. You see the internet interfere with good old fashion socializing according to the Italians.

Florence has an incredible array of museums and art collections thanks to the Medici Family who as Grand Dukes of Tuscany and Lorraine had the power and the influence to set the tone for centuries in the art world. The family died out in 1743 but by that time their work was done and they were related by marriage to the Hapsburg of Austria, so their legacy lives on. We visited some churches and cloisters and the Pitti Palace built by Luca Pitti and bought by the Medici as their seat of government for their Duchy. They had other palaces and villas everywhere including here in Rome, the famous Villa of Cardinal Medici at the top of the Spanish steps also known as the seat of the French Academy in Rome. Many famous people lived in Florence, Dante the great Italian Poet has his house near the Duomo, Dostoyevsky wrote L'idiot in Florence, Elizabeth Browning is buried in Florence, and of course Niccolo Machiavelli who wrote the celebrated book The Prince around 1500, worked in Florence. The list of the famous artists and noteworthy persons goes on and on.

We did not try to enter the Uffizi or the Academy of Fine Arts because the lines and waiting time was far too long, 3 days in some cases, far too many tourists in town. Will and I were saying there is just so many classical paintings you can see in one's life time, we will wait for February when no one is around and return to Florence, it is only 90 minutes away from Rome. So we can go for lunch if we want.

As part of the Pitti Palace, the Boboli gardens which is the hill behind the palace is beautiful and has breathtaking views of the city. One exhibit which sort of freaked me out in the Pitti Palace, was fashions and costumes for the last 500 years, all very interesting until the last room, in it was displayed the burial clothing of Cosimo the First Medici, his wife Eleonora di Toledo and their son.

At first I did not understand what it meant or what I was looking at, I read the information sheet and it explained that in 1947 for purely ethnological reasons, the tomb of the Prince was opened, the researchers wanted to know if he and his wife and son had been buried in clothing designed for a burial or if it was simply everyday clothing of the Medici Court. What I was looking at was the clothing they wore in their mausoleum for 450 years. The clothing was removed from the corpses and is now on display or what is left of it, it is all a bit ghoulish, though it shows that it was not special clothing for the occasion of their death. The Medici family are buried in a sumptuous mausoleum of colored marbles and semi-precious stones by the Church of San Lorenzo in the center of the city. I liked the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent by Michaelangelo Buonaroti, beautiful, simple and un-finished, the artist left for Rome never to return to work on other projects like St-Peter's Basilica.