On account of its State and Church-sponsored publishing, Italy finds itself in sixty-ninth place out of all the countries in the world with regard to free thought.

The writers of this mentally castrated country, who should have been its torch and driving force, and who, with a few exceptions, have contacts in the right places and access to subsidized publishing houses, are unable to produce anything innovative and original.

Recently the editor Bompiani suggested that film director and actor Carlo Verdone should write his biography, adding that they would provide a ghost writer to help him. In other words the biography would not be written by the film director (in fact it has already been published by the above-mentioned editor) but would largely be written by the ghost writer. Verdone quite frankly admitted this on Fabio Fazio’s programme, Che tempo che fa on Rai3 on Sunday 26 February 2012.

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Today I am in possession of three diplomas, two from universities and one from a college: one I obtained in Australia, at the Holmes College of Melbourne, one in Spain, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and one in Italy from the Università per Stranieri di Perugia. I have no idea what they are worth. Perhaps nothing, perhaps they are just pieces of paper and nothing more. But I have never been interested in qualifications. Whenever I took an exam the challenge was always with myself. I wasn’t desperate to get a diploma, I was desperate for knowledge; it wasn’t for the professors that I racked my brains, but because I needed to satisfy my hunger for knowledge. I wanted to understand the world, I wanted to know languages, to understand peoples, life, everything. My motto was and still is: I don’t know, therefore I suffer.

At any rate, and without wishing to offend educational institutions, I regard myself as self-taught. I did not meet the writers and people who transformed me, formed me, opened my eyes and revolutionized my existence in schools or universities but in real life and in the course of my reading. The books that I have read and the experiences that I have had have been my teachers; they are what have given meaning to my life, illuminated it.

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So do I, Joanna. I too support the greek people. Adriano Celentano, among lots on nonsense that he said at Sanremo’s Festival, he said also something good and I am glad for this. I agree with him about the fact that Germany and France obliged the greek rules, indifferent of the fact that the people are dying of hunger, to buy their weapons, and the world of course knows it. But the greek problem, in my opinion, is not only that. The greek problem is first of all a political problem and this Celentano couldn’t see. The greek politicians are corrupted and unable to rule in a dignified way the greek people, the same could be said about the italian politicians.

We can’t breath in our culture without breathing the wisdom and the philosophy of classical Greece, and yet even there things weren’t perfect. It’s enough to mention the return of Ulysses at home and the death of Socrates. Personally, in certain circumstances, I prefer to remember the words of the wise swineherd in the book of Homer when he says something like that: “We farmers work hard to grow the pigs so the others can eat ad enjoy them”. What has changed since then?

The greek people, not their rules, are the descendants of the swineherd in Homer’s Odysseus and they are good, honest and hard working people. Surely they deserve better leaders. I am totally on theri side.

Our, not only in Greece and in Italy, but all over the world, is a political problem: the basis of our institutions are discriminatory and rotten. Only a radical change of our society could save mankind, the rest are temporary panacea.

With love, francis

 

Great Italy! Rarely contradicts itself. During the International day against the Aids, came out with the idea that no one should pronounce the word “preservativo” (condom).

Here is a chattering among foreign and not foreign people in the streets of Milan.

Tu hablar el mio idioma?

Not a bit. What do you want?

Io essere invitato to a fiesta. Bunga bunga party, intiendes? This noche yo bunga bunga. Before going to bunga bunga, entonces, must comprare muchos preservativos y non sapere come dire in italian preservativos y adonde acheter preservativos. Tu sabes?

Do you mean schützend, capote anglaise, präservativ, bevarende, I mean condom?

No, yo entiendo preservativos. Io tenere much miedo fuckare, hacer l’amor, sex con una mujer, frau, woman, donna, femme, kvinde en este sitio, bunga bunga sitio, sin preservativo, molto peligroso, forstå?

Pas du tout. Nichts. Don’t understand. Adios, bye.

Entschuldigen, do you tale mis idioma? Parlare español?

Cosa vuoi?

Quiero comprare preservativos, do you know where?

Vuoi dire preservativi, pre-se-rva-ti-vi, condoms?

Claro, preservativos, ya. Adonde?

Lì, in farmacia, puoi comprare tutti i cazzi di capotes anglaises che vuoi.

Gracias.

Vaffanculo!

Que dices?

Vaffanculo! Fuck you!

Lo mismo a ti. The same go you!

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