Paragraph of Note

An interesting new title by Petter Robb called Midnight in Sicily: On Art, Food, History, Travel and la Cosa Nostra.

"Every transaction in Naples, every social act, requires a complex and at times exhausting social trafficking, a subtle and insidious play whereby the socially weaker player contrives to ingratiate himself and at the same time take the piss out of the stronger, to catch the other wrong-footed, but delicately, imperceptibly, to introduce some subliminal sense of social unease that may then be used as leverage. To create if possible a sense of obligation, of gratitude, even dependency. There isn't necessarily any malice in this. It's an old art of creating strength out of weakness and Neapolitan amiability itself is part of it. In Naples it has always been a necessary art of survival. If respect is the crucial concept in social relations in Sicily, the Neapolitan counterpart is its opposite, disrespect."

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Border Problems? Global Warming Will Help

Global Warming lends a hand to cultural-political issues between Italy and Switzerland. Consider this:

"Global warming is dissolving the Alpine glaciers so rapidly that Italy and Switzerland have decided they must re-draw their national borders to take account of the new realities.

The border has been fixed since 1861, when Italy became a unified state. But for the past century the surface area of the “cryosphere”, the zone of glaciers, permanent snow cover and permafrost, has been shrinking steadily, with dramatic acceleration in the past five years. This is the area over which the national frontier passes and the two countries have now agreed to have their experts sit down together and hash out where it ought to run now. "
Read more here.

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