My Epiphany on "La Crisi"

This last weekend (January 6th) Italy celebrated the last Christmas holiday: La Epiphania, or Epiphany. This come from the Bible where the three kings brought gifts to Jesus. In Italy, children also receive gifts on this day, but not from the 3 Kings  (like is celebrated in Spain and Latin America) but from a witch, La Befana (derived from Epiphania). La Befana is very old lady, bent over, with a scarf tied around her head, thick glasses and warts on her nose. She rides her broom from home to home where she enters, eats a snack left on the table, and leaves gifts in stockings. If the kids were bad and not good, they get coal. Here, la Befana stopped and left a few goodies.

Gondolers (men) in Venice's annual "Befana race"

La Befana: a sweet witch that brings goodies or coal to kids on January 6th

But more than anything, we enjoyed his 3 day weekend with mostly a good time followed by some drama by the cats. On a side note: pets are wonderful to have, they lower blood pressure, make us smile more and lower the risk of stroke. But when they have issues it is hard to know what to do. My cats have somehow made it their mission to have issues on Holidays. I can remember a UTI on Easter, Fatty going on a hunger strike on Christmas 2008 (going down to 4 pounds) and now Bentley is having something like seizures (he is getting old).

"We are so cute. Will you keep us? If so, where's dinner?"

Buddies sticking together since they annoyed and worried me

Anyway, for the weekend of Epiphania I made Stracotto, or Tuscan Beef Stew. (I blogged the recipe on that link). It takes about 2 days to prepare but is totally worth it. One day it marinates and the second day it slow cooks. This time, ours was a little drunk thanks to marinating in wine a day in a half (while I was walking to the hospital), but the alcohol evaporated once I cooked it.

We also went to discover a castle close to us in Manerba that I hadn't seen yet, and then to Verona.

Castello di Manerba

People still live in homes built inside the castle walls

Check out the TV antenas on the top!

The ice rink infront of Verona's Arena

Here, I heard the term "Christmas of Crisis" tossed around liberally on the news. I pondered the term for a while, took some pictures to document this Crisis.

During these little trips I wondered; "Where is the crisis?". I saw women everywhere wearing fur coats, people cramming in shops to buy things that are now on sale, children well dressed, cups of frothy hot chocolate being sipped, and people with plump rosy colored skin walking up and down the streets of Verona.

Amore in Verona. Where is the crisis?

Video games getting sold...and the crisis?

Popa Smurf, do you know where the real crisis is?

Maybe if I get a smart apple shaped TV I will understand the crisis.

Hot chocolate = crisis?

My question remains, where is the crisis? "La Crisi" in Italian. A crisis is if there are no jobs, no food, and people are in desperate conditions. Ok, the job situation in Italy isn't good as you need to know someone important to get a good job but that has always been the case here. (something I learned when an 18 year old with no education got the job that so many people with a college degree applied for, including me) Taxes are increasing on houses. People still go out to eat. Pensions are going to be given out later in life. People still buy pizza. Young people can't get good paying jobs. They never did and little dogs still wear little sweaters. What crisis?

I worked for a while as a 401(k) specialist for T. Rowe Price, and while I don't know everything about the stock market, I have a good idea of what happened. Some big wigs got greedy in most companies and sold out. In my company, I got the instinct to look for another job when the top bosses were selling out their company stock that had equal company matching vested at 100% instantly. (you got to keep everything instantly that the company gave to you.) Does that indicate a crisis? I don't think so. I think this crisis is a word adequately used to cover up for the financial mistakes of companies. It is not a real crisis. Everyone that had their daily bread and slept safely still does. Everyone that starved and was cold either died or are still impoverished. Those are the real people in crisis.

Times are tough

Christmas of Crisis

The New Year looks grim!

She only has the fur collar, must be the crisis!

Poverty at the max

Puppy, watch out! Once her coat runs bare, she is going to skin you for her next coat!

Ah, La Crisi....

Another thing, then I will get off my soapbox and go clean the garage, is that I think people (here at least) use the "crisi" to judge each other, use each other, and charge more to those they don't know (in shops). Not wearing a high fashion label? That girl must be a victim of the crisis. Fennel costs 5 euros each? The crisis affects veggies too, you know. Didn't get the job when you were the best candidate? Darn crisis fault. Let's all go to church now in our furs. Going to church to make an appearance is just that, what happened to the parts in the Bible that command us to be kind to each other, love the neighbor like yourself, and it being better to give than to receive?

It makes me sad but perhaps sheds some light on my expectations on human kindness and decency that exist in parts of US and only there, whereas the rest of humanity fights for everything they have. The "youth" per say, of America grants it a certain innocence as a country, like that of a child who doesn't know of responsibilites, bitterness and suffering.  Here, you can taste the the ancient mentalities like compairing the "old world" to an older person but in this sence one who has tasted for centuries fears of fighting, wars (hence walled castle cities that protected people but the citizens were treated like property by their protectors), and being repressed by anyone in a social position above them. Getting ahead in live has been impossible here, unless you were born in the right class, with ancestors who passed down good connections. Tastes of feudalism that still linger on. If you wear something of great quality you are closer to the king. Better connected to the king? People will want to be friends with you so you can offer protection (handing them a stable job). And I see this behavior apparent today but with the excuse of the crisis. If you have something, here, hold onto it because it will be hard to replace is the message. I have found that true with my  jeans and warm flannel PJs that I brought with me, here they cost 4 times as much and are hard to find, (there are no malls, just private shops like boutiques). I think this experience has made me realize that America is perhaps one of the only countries that sees things in a friendlier way due to the short known history, and struggles of the immigrants that did arrive there. Knowing that makes me that much prouder of the immigrants from every country that sailed over to America in terrible conditions, sick and scared to start a better country where their decendants could have an opportunity only having to have determination of mind, not connections, to achieve something close to their dreams. In conclusion, there is no crisis, but only the crisis of human nature.