The worst luxury one can delude oneself to feel in tough times, is the deceptive one, of self pity. You just can’t afford that emotion. It’s too taxing.
Today we learn from Italy, about how vital community is – and yet how bonds of community made up of family-based culture, can also be exploited by spoiled brats. (joking). However, this is italy’s story today, if you do the math.
Writes Stacy Meichtry for the Wall Street Journal, “On a recent Sunday in Rome, Daniela Varano and some friends lunched on eggplant parmesan whipped up by the 33-year-old publicist’s mother.
Mom, meanwhile, was 500 miles away in Bovalino, a small town in southern Italy. Despite the distance, [where items are transported overnight] she does what it takes to spoil her grown daughter with home-cooked fare.
“The umbilical cord was never cut,” says Ms. Varano’s 61-year-old mother, Lina.” Daniela maintains when she eats and shares her mother’s food with friends, “I’m maintaining an emotional link with my family.”
Stacey also notes, “Jobs for young Italians are scarce—particularly in Italy’s poorer south—forcing people to migrate north to big cities, leaving their mothers behind. In Calabria, on the toe of Italy’s boot, 52% of Italians between the ages of 15 to 64 were “inactive,” or not working or studying during most of 2010, according to Italy’s official statistics agency ISTAT. Authorities say Calabria is also home to the ‘ndrangheta mob, a drug trafficking syndicate that maintains a stranglehold on the region’s economy, starving the area of jobs.”
Rather humorously, the story of Italy’s doting mothers ends with this view of their independent kids, ‘A high-school teacher, Mr. Natale has been receiving Sunday deliveries [of food] for eight years. He deeply misses his mother, he said, but “there is no going back.”‘
Perhaps these mothers of Calabria, need to see ‘the world as their children’ and export vacuum packed products to China, America instead. I mean Calabria/ California… that has a good ring to it in this age of Jersey Shore culture taking the USA by storm. Now there’s a thought to really help their kids and grandchildren out as matriarchs of Italia grounded in reality too. For Stacey’s story, go here.
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.31.11~
CHINESE LAMBORGHINI OWNERS ARE THE LATEST TO DO “PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION NEWS” FOR THE WORLD
Alright, the biggest trend in world news is undeniably what I term “public demonstrations news.” It’s about countries turning out a public show on ANY issue, so that the media outlets of the world cover your news story.
I blame it on FACEBOOK culture. No, that was harsh. It’s just what everyone’s doing. Placards get media coverage, especially on ‘issues of democracy’ – that symbol of freedom and justice, journalists are always drawn to.
In China however, Lamborghini owners, feel as if they are being squeezed post the point of sale, to ongoing repair and maintenance of their low-in-fuel-costs vehicles.
The Sydney Morning Herald (I go to Australia to get my China news some days) looks at an irrate Lamborghini owner who held a public demonstration to vent his annoyance with the Italian brand by employing a team of sledgehammer-wielding men to destroy his car.
The Chinese businessman was reportedly upset his circa $650,000 Gallardo supercar still wasn’t up to scratch following a service at an authorised mechanic – so he decided to have it smashed to pieces in protest.”
I guess he’s calling out shark-like behavior. Fair enough.
To watch Chinese news with an Aussie accent click on video link below. If we put a ‘capitalist societies often display democracy’ lens on this –China sure is looking quite ‘democratric’ today with this public display based on consumer feedback of transport commodities, albeit luxury motor vehicles.
Sledge hammer beats placard today. Who would have thought?!
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.16.11~
Posted by horiwood on March 17, 2011 in Awesome Aussies, China, Italy, Pop Cultural Commentary, Public Demonstrations News