Alitalia
Published September 19, 2008
I wonder if they really think they can save it?
Guys, it’s over. Deal with it.
The more you drag it, the more ashamed you make Italy appear in the eyes of the international media.
You have been running this company Italian-style for the last 60 years, enjoying ridiculously high salaries and absurd benefits.
Guess what? The fairy-tale is now over.
Good luck to all the pilots and crew assistants with their new jobs, with flight companies that actually know how to run a business.
The Pirate Bay blocked in Italy
Published August 11, 2008
Today’s news is: fascism is officially back in Italy, and a popular Bit Torrent tracker, The Pirate Bay, has been blocked by our government.
Now, I understand that is possible to download copyright protected material from Bit Torrent trackers, but blocking them is like shutting down stores that sell photocopiers and DVD recorders because they could POTENTIALLY be used to illegally copy stuff.
Anyway, our road to become like China is still long, but I am sure Silvio & Co will do their best to ruin what good is left of our country in no time.
Im the meantime, I am packing my bags.
From TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay’s IPs and the domain name are inaccessible, as they are blocked by ISPs all over the country. Whether these blocks will be very effective, however, is doubtful, since The Pirate Bay has already announced several countermeasures. An insider working at an Internet provider in Italy told TorrentFreak that all the relevant large access ISPs in Italy have complied with the request to block the popular BitTorrent tracker, which was sent out yesterday. Italy is taking a stand against BitTorrent sites, so it seems. Two weeks ago, the largest Italian torrent site, Columbo-BT, was shut down by the same prosecutor who is responsible for the Pirate Bay block.
As you see, The Pirate Bay team has switched IPs to bypass the block, but if anyone is still experiencing problems I suggest giving up your ISP’s DNS and switch to OpenDNS.
Enough.
Published July 7, 2008
I curse the day I decided to move back to Italy. I really do.
It is interesting to realize how, after a few years of being separated from something, you only remember the good moments and experiences, and absolutely nothing bad.
I guess this is what made me decide to pack my bags and go back, the old good memories.
But truth is, the good memories are just memories, and living in the past just doesn’t work and doesn’t feel right.
What I really think inside me at the moment, is that this country sucks.
The burocracy sucks.
The government sucks.
Nothing EVER works the way it should.
I am getting a level of malcontent and stress here that I never ever experienced while staying in the United Kingdom.
Fancy some examples? No problem:
The iPhone launch
I was really excited about the iPhone launch in Italy, until the two mobile phone operators distributing it decided to opt for packages that do not include unlimited internet traffic. 600mb/month for a phone that is MEANT to be online 24/7. Bunch of retards. Go learn from the rest of Europe, where even the cheap tariff plans include unmetered net.
ATM machines
I needed to get cash this morning. Yes, because while in England i think i used cash maybe twice in a year (even the fruit stores get cash cards there) in Italy we just LOVE to go around with our wallets full of notes and coins. The bad thing is, 50% of ATM machines is broken / not working properly, so I had to visit FOUR today before i got one that managed to give me some bills.
Salaries
lol.
Government
Berlusconi, our Prime Minister, is trying to get approval on a new law that will void 100.000 criminal trials, because he is involved in one of them. No, it’s not a joke. It’s real.
Miscellaneous
I still dont have ADSL at home. Yes, there are areas of ROME (Rome … you know, the capital) that are not yet covered by broadband because Telecom Italia doesn’t think they can make enough money from expanding the network there. Thank God for www.air2bite.net or I’d still be surfing using a 56k modem.
Calciopoli. Vallettopoli. Whatever-opoli, every year we get a new one. Whenever in italy you hear the term “Something-opoli”, it means there is a massive scandal going on that is being covered in the news and involves many well known people.
Calciopoli = our recent football scandal, where they figured out most of the matches from 2 football seasons were fixed.
Vallettopoli = another massive scandal involving several TV stars, guilty of using heavy drugs, organizing prostitution rackets and promoting girls on television in exchange for sex.
I could go on for ages, but I think I’ll stop here. (for the moment)
A friendly advice, to all of you Italian buddies out there that like me are having enough of this crap: if you feel like going somewhere else, if you feel like wanting to pack your bags and leave but you are scared to do so … don’t listen to your fears.
Just Go.
And live your life, the way it is meant to be lived.
The Roman Church: Unable to have sex? You can’t marry.
Published June 9, 2008
I admit, I didn’t know about this. And I was pretty shocked to read that a young Italian couple from Viterbo, was prevented from getting married after the man was victim of a bad car accident and was forced on a wheelchair for the rest of his life. So, basically, according to the Roman Church, that should promote unconditioned love, one of the prerequisites to marry the woman you love is being able to have an erection. Amazing stuff. The guy pictured on the right is bishop Lorenzo Chiarinelli, who refused to meet the young couple and was the one responsible for denying the wedding. You can read the original article here. (in italian)
Congratulations Lorenzo, I’m not even sure why I posted your face on my blog wasting kilobytes of precious bandwidth, but I guess I want people to look in the face the guy that denied two persons truly in love with each other to have their marriage.
The couple was of course still able to get married by civil ceremony, because the Italian laws, strangely enough, do not require penis erections in order to be able to marry young couples.
Why is Erich Priebke still around?
Published May 10, 2008
Why is this man still around?
I had almost forgot about him. Almost.
But now I am reading on Repubblica.it that he has been asked to partecipate at a “beauty contest” as a member of the jury? Are we serious?
I don’t care that he is 95.
There is no forgiving. There is no peace.
There is no “forget the past and move on”.
This man is a mass murderer, a ruthless assassin, a NAZI.
This man led the killing of 335 innocent civilians, one after another.
He even shot two himself, just for the sake of it.
Every day I am working my ass off and I am contributing to the taxes that will also pay the rent of his apartment in Rome where he is held “prisoner” because he is “too old to be kept in a standard prison”. Oh really? Poor boy. Let’s give him cake every day as well then, shall we?
Erich, I really hope to not see your face ever again, on the web, news, newspapers, anywhere.
I am reaching my limit.
Note:
I thought it would be useful for the internet community to report the address of this NAZI, so that you can write him your letters of “encouragement” and “support”.
Here goes:
Erich Priebke
Via Cardinal Sanfelice 5
scala C, int. 12, piano 3°
00167 Roma (RM)