From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2003 - 06:45:47 MST
Anders Sandberg:
>I vividly recall the confusion among senior neuroscientists and
>graduate students alike when we were trying to figure out the rules
>regulating our lunch coupons during a one-month neuroscience course
>in Trieste.
Trieste is almost not Italy ...
I'll bet you couldn't figure out what was "allowed" for your first
course, for your second course, for your third course, what was 'free',
and what you needed to pay for.... (CNR has lunch tickets, too)
There exists here a web of offerings that really do take care of an
individual that appears to be available to the individual at "no
cost". Unlike that moniker 'you get what you pay for', some of it is
quite good (for example, the food).
On the other hand, sometimes you cannot believe that things could
be run so badly or that they could treat someone so stupidly.
(science, by the way, is considered by those in Italy as a somewhat
trivial and not very useful activity, that's my impression,
so far. Salaries of scientists rival that of bus drivers.)
>Much of this trouble is because we do not understand the important
>subtexts. What laws can (and should) be ignored?
My impression is "Many".
There are 200,000 laws in this country. Quite impossible to follow and
know what are all of those laws, yet there is an enormous bureaucracy
(who feel uncomfortable with technology) who tries to manage that.
And you'll find that the further south you go, the less meaningful
are the laws to people. (I keep hearing stories of the people in
Napoli especially, who make a kind of game of defying laws.)
Unfortunately for me, because I'm a foreigner, if I don't treat
the laws more seriously than the average Italian, then I'm out
of here on my butt.
>When is the proper response a gift?
that's hard to know
>Italy strikes me as based on
>informal social relations
Totally. In the space sciences, where NASA email rules, Italian
astronomers are much more comfortable picking up the phone and
calling the others directly (or better, showing up at their door).
>managing a horrendously baroque formal
>system that would not work if people actually obeyed the letter of
>the rules.
exactly
>While in Sweden and Germany the rules are relatively sane
>and are intended to be followed;
(in Germany rules are more important than people, though)
>here informal relations are not welcome
>It is well worth considering that Italy has a higher cultural power
>distance (50 in Hofstede's study) than Germany (35) and Sweden (31)
>(USA: 40) and a higher uncertainty avoidance (Sweden 29, USA 46,
>Germany 65, Italy 75). At the same time individualism is higher
>(Germany 67, Sweden 71, Italy 76, USA 91). So following rules and
>authorities is very important, but one acts as an individual.
The most important 'unit' to the Italian is the family. Then the
local neighborhood, then the town, and that's where it stops. They
don't have strong feelings of 'unity' for the nation.
In the time that I have been here, two important figures to many
Italians died: 1) the 'father' of Fiat, and 2) the actor : Alberto Sordi.
Politicians don't have as large of an influence. In both instances,
it was major national news, it was very remarkable to have something
that had such a 'unifying' effect.
Sordi, in particular, seems to have reached deep into the
consciousness of these people for more than half a century. For
them, he showed how stupid they could be at the same time of
reassuring them that their stupid ways were OK and more, it was
appreciated. One evening a few days after Sordi died, I had dinner
with a man who started to cry when I asked him what was his
opinion was of Sordi. (that's how much this actor was loved)
Amara
===================================================================
Rome Crowds Cry, Cheer for Italy Comic Hero Sordi Thu February 27,
2003 10:11 AM ET
By Estelle Shirbon
ROME (Reuters) - Grieving for a silver screen legend who portrayed
their virtues and vices like no other, some 250,000 Italians gave
comic actor Alberto Sordi a rousing send-off on Thursday.
Massed on a square outside Rome's vast cathedral, the Basilica of
San Giovanni Laterano, the crowd cheered and clapped out of
respect as Sordi's coffin arrived for his funeral.
"It's like losing a member of the family," said Angelina Olivieri,
63, a tiny, soft-spoken woman in a prim red coat, choking back her
tears as she spoke.
A familiar and loved face to generations of Italians, Sordi
excelled at playing the ordinary man in slightly extraordinary
circumstances and squeezed every moment for its last drop of
comedy, tragi-comedy and absurdity.
He died on Tuesday aged 82, unleashing a wave of emotion not seen
in Italy for years.
As the great and the good piled into the Roman basilica to pay
their last respects on Thursday, thousands of ordinary people from
all walks of life waited outside, following the funeral service on
especially erected maxi-screens.
Millions more followed the ceremony as it was broadcast live on
state television.
"When a loved one dies, a mass of memories and emotions crowd the
minds of those who stay behind. Since Alberto Sordi has died, this
has happened to an entire city, an entire country," said Cardinal
Camillo Ruini in his funeral oration.
The crowd outside clapped and nodded as he spoke. One man in a
smart suit broke down in tears and knelt with his head bowed.
Overhead, a small plane crossed over the basilica trailing a
banner that read: "This time you've made us cry."
Ahead of the funeral, Sordi's coffin was displayed in Rome city
hall drawing some 200,000 mourners who filed past the open casket
night and day to say their last goodbye.
By contrast, when Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli died last month,
some 100,000 people saw his coffin and 10,000 attended his
funeral.
"All Romans and all Italians loved Sordi because he brought us
smiles and laughter, the greatest gift," said Valentina Dellana, a
student with hair dyed flaming red, crying under her blue-tinted
sunglasses as she made the sign of the cross.
When policemen acting as pallbearers carried Sordi's coffin out
after the service, they were met with wild applause and chants of
"Al-ber-to! Al-ber-to!" echoed around the square.
Many of the mourners wore the orange and red scarves of Rome's
number one soccer club, AS Roma.
"He was a real Roman and this came out in his acting. In turn
Romans have adopted many of his mannerisms so that we often sound
just like him," said Alfonso Maffei, a man in his 30s.
© Copyright Reuters 2002.
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Every exit is an entry somewhere else." --Tom Stoppard
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