- (Aug 4) Italian Academia: A Family Business? It is apparently worse as you move south in Italy. It's pretty bad in Naples and really bad in Palermo. "It" is the unusually high clustering of last names within Italian academic institutions and disciplines indicating widespread nepotism in the country's schools. This comes from an article by Stefano Allesina, "Measuring Nepotism through Shared Last Names: The Case of Italian Academia" in PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (8): e21160 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021160, reported on-line in Science Daily. "In recent years," says the article, "several scandals have hit Italian academia over the hiring of close family members to prominent faculty positions at public universities [including the case of]...the chancellor of Sapienza University in Rome...investigated by an Italian news program after the hiring of his wife, son, and daughter to medical faculty positions." The article looked at the geographic distribution of nepotism across Italy and discovered a north-to-south gradient, with the probability of nepotism increasing as one looked south, peaking on the island of Sicily, "mirroring similar negative statistics such as infant mortality, organized crime, and suicide rate that are higher in southern Italy compared to northern regions...For an Italian, this is not that surprising," said the author. "It is a narrative of two separate countries, where in the public sector we have more problems in the south."
(Aug 13) Totò statue removed!
Alassio is a town of about 11,000 inhabitants waaaaay up north
in the region of Liguria on the last stretch of the
Italian Riviera before you pass over into France. The
Italian daily, il
Mattino, ran a letter this morning from Marco
Melgrati, mayor of Alassio from 2001 to 2010. In the
letter, the ex-mayor apologized profusely to Liliana
De Curtis, daughter of Neapolitan Antonio De Curtis,
known to generations of Italians as Totò, the best-loved Italian
film comic ever. (As the Romans said, ubi maior minor cessat—roughly:
He's in first place and no one is in second and fading
fast.) During the Melgrati's tenure, he had a small
statue of the great comic erected in Alassio as well
as causing a square to be named for him. It seems now
that the new mayor, Roberto Avogadro, has had the
statue removed and the name of the square changed
back. Melgrati says he is quite sure that not even all
of the 36% plurality of the voters who put Avogadro in
office were for removing Totò, a move that made
national news. The new mayor's justification was that
Totò was not from Alassio. The old mayor says that it
is more about where Totò was from than about where he was not from and that
Avogadro is such a rabid anti-southerner that even his
friends in the Northern
League distance themselves from him.
- (Aug 13) The Fontanelle cemetery has reopened for visitors.
- (Aug 13) Cave-in in Casalnuovo. The Undergound Portal has a number of items on the problems of trying to live on top of the many caves and quarries of Naples.(This item is a good intro to the topic.) There has just been another one in the area of Casalnuovo, an area a short distance to the NE of the Capodichino airport. It was huge and literally swallowed a garbage truck, unfortunately claiming the life of the driver. Finger-pointing has been typical: no one answered the constant complaints about the presence of water moving beneath the street; general road maintenance has been poor; and even worse, there does not seem to be a reliable chart of underground conduits in the area, such as sewer and gas lines.
- (Aug 13) The San Ferdinando Theater is a few blocks in on the south side of via Foria, not far from the Botanical Gardens. It started life in the late 1700s and wound up in the late 1940s in the hands of famed Neapolitan playwright, Eduardo De Filippo, who turned it into a home for his troupe and a treasure store of dialect theater. As recently as 2007, they had a good season. Renovations and roadwork in the area have now caused the theater to be closed. The square in front of the theater is totally degraded, and sloppy workmen actually carted out and put in the street a number of volumes of Eduardo's papers. They were saved only by a caretaker (who had to take valuable time off from keeping kids from breaking the few remaining intact lights on the facade). (main entry here)
(Aug 13) The world's
ugliest mega-yacht
has just left Naples. It might also be the world's
coolest Bond-villain yacht, if you have such
aspirations. It looks like a warship and belongs to
Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. "It" is the
good ship "A" (that's right, just "A" for Andrey and,
maybe, Alexandra, the skipper's Serbian-born wife and
glamorous model). Vital stats (on the boat,silly!):
length-390 feet (119 meters); price tag- $300 million;
launched in 2008; builder-Blohm & Voss, Germany.
(Vital stats on Alexandra: I have no idea.) The "A"
carries a crew of 42, has three swimming pools, a
helipad and three 30-foot speedboats. The ship was
designed by French product designer Phillipe Stark and
is totally enclosed; you don't go topside and
sunbathe. Russian billionaires and their Serbian
girlfriends are notoriously paranoid.
In the time it was here, the "A" was
anchored near one of the other "strangest" boats in the
world (photo, right): The Maltese Falcon, a
so-called "Dynaship", the automatic sailing ship of the
future, with carbon-fiber masts and self-furling sails
stored within the masts. The vessel is 88 m (289 ft.)
long. I was waiting for them to square off and have at
it. Forget Alien vs.
Predator; this was going to be the real deal!
Laser rays of death shooting out from the evil alien,
Malnichenko, while poor Greek Godzillionairess, Elena
Ambrosiadou (who paid only a measly 165 million for that
raft of hers) fires back with her eco-friendly
dyna-balls. Alas, no deal. The Russkie weighed anchor
and went off to Capri this morning. Marx, Lenin &
Stalin are turning over in their kayaks.- (Aug 18) America's Cup (or something). This is much too complicated for me:
| "In September 2010 GGYC and BMW Oracle Racing announced that...the 'America's Cup World Series' would be run in various world venues in 2011, 2012, and 2013 before the challenger selection series, defender selection series, and America's Cup Match in the summer or fall of 2013. The 2013 America's Cup match will be held in San Francisco." |
I remember that in 2003 Naples failed in its bid for the 2007 America's Cup. I now see that the city is jockeying to get the waters of the Bay of Pozzuoli selected as the site of one of the run-up "world venues" in 2012 or 2013. It is a much less ambitious project than the one eight years ago (which entailed building a new boat harbor in Bagnoli), yet this one would be a shot-in-the-arm for the local economy and would dovetail nicely with other grand plans to rejuvenate the area, such as the World Cultures Forum.
(Aug 18) The
English Cemetery was disgracefully vandalized
yesterday! This is the final insult to long-lasting
injury, a period of five years of absolute neglect
since I put the original entry up in 2006, at which
time the premises were still a restored "historical
jewel" in the city. (This is where I make my usual
complaint about the local approach to urban
maintenance, which seems to be, "OK, we built
(restored) it; now Jesus will take care of it." My
original complaint, from March 2003, is here.) The cemetery had
become inaccessible, anyway, and visitors to Naples
were aware of that fact (in spite of "must-see"
little notes of outdated cheer in their guide
books). The severity of the vandalism has led some
voices in City Hall to say that it was obviously the
work of "the mob" since everyone knows the camorra wants
to open a nearby gambling establishment. I don't
know how mobsters or people in City Hall think, but
I guess if you make the area as ugly and undesirable
as possible, more people will want to come and
gamble.- BUT! there is a much
later update (Feb.
2021) here. Good news.
- (Aug 30) Calling all ghostbusters! One way to get tourists into your museum is to take a picture of some exhibit or other and have a cute little ghost show up in it and then post it on the internet. That happened in mid-August at the National Museum, and for a while the place was crawling with seekers after the paranormal. The head of the National Library down at the Royal Palace says bemusedly that the cuddly bit of ectoplasm in the photo really belongs to the library! The library itself goes back to 1804 when it was first housed in the very building that now holds the museum. The library was moved in 1927 to the Royal Palace and the poor ghost somehow never made the move. Moving through walls and other dimensions is one thing, says the library director, but getting across town in Naples traffic is something else entirely. Kill-joy unbeliever geeks have noted the availability of an Apple apparition app that might be responsible.
| Silver bust of S.
Gennaro donated by Charles II of Anjou in
1305, in the Naples
cathedral.
|
-
(Sept
6) San Gennaro
is now in the B-League! (That term is from Italian
soccer; the A-League is the one that counts; the
B-League is for teams that aren't good enough for the
A-League.) That's how Neapolitans feel about the
Italian Senate's decision to turn the feast day of the
patron saint of Naples into a "floating holiday."
Instead of being on September 19 every year, it will
now be on the following Sunday. This, of course, gives
Neapolitans one day off less a year! The senate went
through the calendar of holidays and saved political
ones such as May 1 (Labor Day), April 25 (Liberation
Day), and June 2 (Day of the Republic), but regional
religious holidays such as the one for San Gennaro
shall now migrate to the next Sunday, all except, of
course, June 29, the feast day for Saints Peter and
Paul, the patron saints of Rome! HAH!, more
condescension from the overlords in the capital, say
Neapolitans! This year, September 19 falls on a
Monday, which would be a great excuse for another
infamous long weekend, appropriately called a "bridge"
in Italian. Thus you'd get Sunday and Monday off (and
if you swing it right, you can get Saturday and then
check to see if anyone famous was born on Tuesday,
maybe your cousin). It may ultimately depend on what
San Gennaro has to say about this. Cardinale Sepe says
he will hold the usual mass for San Gennaro on the
19th. If the miracolo happens,
then the senate in Rome is going to have some
explaining to do. Stay tuned.
[update, below]
(Sept
7) Speaking of San Gennaro, the city's latest
addition to the artistic array of representations of
the saint is a 4-meter-high bronze bust installed in
front of the Basilica dell'
Incoronata del Buon Consiglio, also
near the entrance to the Catacombs
of San Gennaro on the road up to Capodimonte. It
is the largest such work ever dedicated to the patron
saint of Naples and is the work of Lello Esposito. It
was installed in April of this year.
The work is realist and a bit stern due to the penetrating gaze of the deep-set eyes. The bust is, in fact, entitled Gli Occhi di San Gennaro –The Eyes of San Gennaro. Espositio, himself, says of his work, "There is a lot of symbolism. The head is set in a position as if guarding the catacombs, the deepest part of the city, the bowels of the city, but it is also set outside on one of the highest parts of the city. Gennaro is looking at us—and over us—the way a father does with his children. He is watching us and taking care of us."
Lello Esposito was born in 1957 in the Anticaglia section of Naples, in the heart of the historic center. He has been a sculptor and painter for 30 years and has exhibited internationally since 1990. He focuses on the symbols of Naples—Pulcinella, the egg (from the Egg Castle), the skull (as in the memento mori), Vesuvius, the curved horn, etc. Of his devotion to such symbols, he says, "The city is inside of me —the streets, the language, the music and traditions have made me what I am. I am just trying to pay homage as best I can."
- (Sept 19) It
wasn't even a cliff-hanger. At 09:56 this
morning, cardinal Crescenzio Sepe announced to a
jam-packed cathedral that the miraculous liquefaction
of the blood contained in the vial had transpired
before he even got the vial out of the safe. Somebody
upstairs is not paying attention to the Italian
senate! (See second item above this one). That may
require some interpretation way above my pay grade.
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