Funky Berlin!

What a simply great and funky town Berlin is! We went there for about 4 days and really enjoyed it.

This was my 3^rd time to Germany actually (I’ll be going for a 4^th in June to again see AC/DC!). I always enjoy going there and perhaps after Greece, it’s my favourite country I Europe (okay, England isn’t all that bad either). And why pray tell? Well, as The Economist said many years ago, German tourists like going to Canada because it’s a CLEAN country! When you go to Germany (and for someone who also lived for 30 years in Canada), well, you kind of understand why Germans indeed like going to Canada (perhaps a little bit less Italy as it can be quite often FAR from being a clean country). Oh, and when it comes to Italy, local administrators who run Rome’s subway system can learn a LOT from the Germans: together with Munich’s subway, Berlin’s is spotlessly clean (including its trains)! On the one hand, hardly ANY graffiti can be seen, and I mean anywhere too. Rome’s on the other hand can quite often be simply disgusting, especially the Termini main subway line (dark, dingy, dirty, smelly and with rubber floor carpets that are usually torn-up!). Really odd for a country that has given the world the likes of Ferrari, Armani and the Sistine Chapel! Travelling you see the progress and importance that a capital/city gives to its country by (also) its transportation system! Not only that, but twice in the restaurant where we ate near the hotel not ONCE were we bothered by foreign hawkers, unlike what happened a few weeks ago in a pizzeria in the San Lorenzo area of Rome: we had about 10 different hawkers who came to our table trying to sell us the silliest products you’ve ever seen! Immigrant laws in Italy are evidently WAY more lax than in Germany…

Our neighbourhood, not terribly far away from the Reichstag, was pretty cool I must say: there was a Jewish synagogue not too far away from our hotel which had been a victim in 1938 of the infamous “Night of the Crystals” when Hitler’s men had gutted in Berlin alone some 100 synagogues (I think some 260 in the entire country). There were also other Jewish stores and what not in the same neighbourhood. Then not too far away was some odd music-art centre which no doubt also contained a rather high quantity of drugs. Add to all this the young “ladies” which frequented the area in the evenings (hookers), whom I had affectionately nicknamed “The Sisters” as they all seemed to have come out of the same wardrobe: same short skirts, same very high-heeled boots and even same hair colour! There was a small army of them lurking in our neighbourhood, waiting for business to come knocking at their doors. The neighbourhood definitely had the makings of one cool area of Berlin (it’s also not terribly far from Alexanderplatz either, another rather cool area of Berlin as you can see from the punkers who gave me the finger).

Getting around Berlin is rather easy and great as it has a terrific subway system, so great that you can go all the way to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (my 8^th so far) some 35 kms away from Berlin. This camp once held up to 200,000 prisoners and was built under orders by Himmler, right about the same time as the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was the first of its kind built in Prussia and, together with Dachau, served as a model for all other concentration camps. And like Dachau and Auschwitz, it too has the famous sign over its entrance: “Arbeit Macht Frei”.

And speaking of that period, as we walked back one day from the Reichstag, we came across a rather dark and ominous-looking building. I walked around it twice but couldn’t see any signs nor opening hours (it had several doors). I took pics of it but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. I then had an idea, but I wasn’t 100% sure, so we asked someone in a nearby store who asked us: “Do you know what a bunker is”? At which point we answered: “Hitler’s”? Sure enough, it was the old Fuhrer’s bunker, or whatever remained of it. They say that his Bergoff (his old alpine residence, otherwise known as the “Eagles’ Nest”) is watched by German secret service as they don’t obviously want the place to become some type of shrine for neo-Nazi groups who are still lurking out there. I presume the same applies to his bunker as I had the impression we were later followed for a short distance by German undercover police. I mean, someone who walks around the building and also takes pics, isn’t he a wee bit suspicious-looking? They even put down a large stone slab in front of one of the bunker’s doors, signifying perhaps that “Let’s finally put a lid on this thing called Nazism”?

The old Reichstag and the new Bundestag are without a doubt well worth the 1-2 hour line-up as you get to go to the top of Sir Norman Foster’s glass dome. You also get a very good panoramic view of the entire city (good idea to get the audio-guide too as you may otherwise miss out on certain interesting things).

And yes, we did also check out Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate (and the adjoining U.S. Embassy), what’s left of the Berlin Wall, Potsdam Platz and the truly magnificent Pergamonmuseum with an absolutely incredible Pergmanon altar. You can see from the pics some of the incredible statues there, including a beautiful exhibit on Islamic art.

Dining was also rather good as we went in a small bistro-like restaurant near our hotel (www.boetzow-privat.de).

The U.S. Embassy by the way is also right in front of the French one, which is around the corner from the British one, which isn’t too far away from the Russian one. I got the impression that during the Cold War period there was probably NO other city on the face of the planet like Berlin, perhaps not even Moscow under its old Soviet leaders, that had such an incredible amount of spies all in one town! You also get an idea from old film footages from movies and what not just how much the city had been destroyed during the final days of WWII and the immense suffering by the poor Berliners. Not too far away from the Reichstag is also a monument to some 2,000 Soviet soldiers who died fighting in the battle of Berlin.

And thanks to the Reichstag visit we also managed to catch the very interesting and very sad Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, which is right next to the U.S. Embassy. I had heard of this memorial as it was built between 2003 and 2005 by the architect Peter Eisenman. It is rather unique and also odd as it consists of 2,711 concrete slabs which can be walked through from all sides, leaving visitors to find their own way out. Underground the memorial is the museum which also has information on several Jewish families who had been deported to the concentration camps. According to the museum, if they were to read out the names and speak about the lives of the 6 million Jewish victims, it would take some 6 years, 7 months and 27 days

After Munich, Nuremburg, Cologne, Bonn (the former capital), Weimar, Baden-Baden, Heidelberg and Freiburg, Berlin is another great German city. The only negative note is that Germans unfortunately, at least those in bars and restaurants, DON’T know how to make a good cup of coffee, in the sense that they serve it to you at a kazillion degrees (like in North America)! For that I must admit that there’s probably NO country in the world that knows how to make a great cup of coffee as they do in Italy (all pics by M. Rimati)!

Oh Saint Silvio, where would we be without you?

On March 20^th, Rome once (again) saw another so-called massive demonstration at the historical Piazza San Giovanni, only about 400 metres from where I live in Rome, in favour of our “Great” Leader, Silvio Berlusconi, and his Freedom Party.

Seeing that it was a nice day, we decided to go for a walk as we had to also see an art exhibit in the heart of Rome on Via del Corso. As we went by the square, around 3.30 pm, we found it rather odd that there weren’t a lot of people. As we began heading towards the Colosseum, a human “wave” of his faithful followers—including many ministers of his current cabinet—began literally flocking towards the square! They had met at the Circus Maximus and with another large group that met on the other side of San Giovanni, eventually joined forces at 5:00 pm for the arrival of the “Great” Leader himself (who also stated rather arrogantly that his government intends to find a cure for cancer “within 3 years”!). People said that about 1 million people showed up when there were probably not more than 300,000 people. Rome was though quite chaotic as there was Silvio's demonstration, another pro-water demonstrantion the very same day, the Rome-Udinese soccer match that night and Rome's marathon on Sunday!

And yes, as one can see by the pics (all by M. Rimati), they came in all shapes and sizes and with a multitude of colourful signs as well. All that was pretty-well missing that day was a with long hair and a long white robe and carrying a cross in Silvio’s honour!

Way to go Canada!

As I told my friend Danielle in Vancouver, I must admit that this morning, March 1^st, as I was watching (and keeping my fingers crossed) BBC Sports at 9:45 am, I had a tear or two as the GREAT news had just trickled in that Canada had just won gold in no doubt a heart attack-style men’s final (been through a few of those with men’s World Cup soccer finals)!

I was actually going to stay up to watch it, but the match would have been aired on Italian tv at 1.30 am Monday morning, so I hit the sack. Indeed a mistake as no doubt I missed one helluva match! Nice to see also the sea of Canadian flags in Vancouver before and after the match (made my day here in Udine, that’s for sure!). And no doubt all those wonderful old and great players that I grew up with in Canada (Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull—who had even played in Winnipeg—Wayne Gretsky, etc.) must have been exceptionally proud of those fine young Crazy Canucks (Crosby’s only 22???).

At age 50+ the memory is still good as this victory brought me back to that drafting class at Grant Park High School in Winnipeg. It was only 38 years ago when we all had our ears glued to the radios as we listened to Paul Henderson’s famous goal against the Russkies in the Canada Cup final! No doubt Crosby’s goal is right up there with Henderson in the minds of Canadians everywhere, and not only in Canada.

What unfortunately started off as a small disaster with the Georgian’s death and the poor weather conditions ended at least on a positive note. Nice to see that my fellow high schoolmate, Neil Young, bid adieu to the closing ceremonies (I say fellow schoolmate because we both attended in Winnipeg Kelvin High School, me albeit a few years later)!

There is though unquestionably one man out there who would certainly like to beat his you-know-what out of sheer desperation (or beat the you-know-what of several athletes)! America’s goalkeeper? No, Gianni Petrucci, the president of Italy’s National Olympic Committee. Just the other day he said that he was “anguished” because of Italy’s VERY dismal performance at these Games, so dismal that Italy managed only 1 gold medal out of a total of a mere 5 medals won (the others being 1 silver and 3 bronze).

Overall, Italy placed 16^th in the medal standings, right behind Poland and ahead of that other world powerhouse (!!) of international sports, Belarus!

Petrucci’s final grade for the Italian expedition? A mere 5.5 out of 10 (actually, the man’s been too generous)!

In all of this, as a soccer aficionado, especially of the women’s game (I will probably head to Germany next year for the Women’s World Cup), I’m hoping that Italy’s Carolina Morace (the most famous female soccer player in Italy), former head coach of the Italian national women’s team and currently Canada’s national head coach, not only took in the Games but that some of the organization ($117 million dollars spent over 5 years for the “Own The Podium” programme?), enthusiasm and Canadian gung-ho-style when it comes at least to hockey (both the female and male versions), has in some way brushed off on her in a positive way, seeing that her performance, at least in 5 years at the helm of Italy’s women’s national team, was deemed a small “disaster” by Italian sports journalists. I’ve been told that as a FIFA Ambassador for the women’s game, Canada is hoping that Morace will not only win the World Cup but will also convince the powers-that-be over at FIFA to grant Canada the women’s event in 2015. The ball is now, figuratively-speaking, in Carolina’s court…

Our only consolation here in Italy in all of this is in about 4 months’ time when the country will come to a standstill with the men’s World Cup in South Africa. Will head coach Marcello Lippi be able to equal former head coach Vittorio Pozzo who in the 1930s managed to win back-to-back titles for Italy (1934 in Italy and 1938 in France)? Tough competition indeed with Italy’s great, great Fabio Capello at the helm of the English squad. Stay tuned for South Africa 2010!

Cda vs. Italy

BBC World’s “Clic” programme (it deals with high-tech stuff) reported on February 18^th that someone had “tweeted” an employee of the Toronto’s Transit Commission (TTC), a ticket collector, who was sleeping on the job. Apparently, Torontonians, who had just had their fares raised according to Clic, were somewhat p.offed that the guy was sleeping, instead of working. Some TTC folks, apparently taken aback by the commotion of the “tweet”, tried justifying the fellow’s temporary “absence” from this world by stating that he perhaps could have been ill, or who knows, perhaps even dead.

That was obviously not the case as the poor old chap, a 30-year veteran of the TTC, was in fact caught sleeping.

I chuckled when I read this because this for me signified the basic, and I say basic, difference between Canada and Italy. Some 15 years ago, when I used to take the subway in Rome to go to and from work (6 subway stops actually), on several occasions I caught the ticket collectors, and at 8 am in the morning during rush-hour, sleeping (they were far from being dead too!). Not only were they sleeping in their small and air-less booths, but seeing that I’m only 1m90 tall, one day I pass by, peered inside and saw one collector in a rather pensive mood. I figured he must have been thinking about something related to his job. Au contraire! Guess what he was doing? He was trying to figure out the results to that weekend’s soccer lottery! Yes, would his beloved Roma win, tie or lose against mighty Milan? And on yet other occasions, the collectors who were supposed to be in the booth were either on the public payphone right next to the booth or totally absent. And NOT for 5 minutes either! Some would disappear for more than 30 minutes.

So, what did this all mean? Did it mean a wave of human protests from subway travellers as in Toronto’s case? Of course not (I still recall that I sent the local dailies an e-mail protesting these episodes, but I certainly must have been the only” fool” to do so, but that was because I came from another culture)! It meant that in a land, Italy, where “furfantismo” (being coy and ripping off the system) and dishonesty reign SUPREME and is an integral part of an Italian’s DNA, no-one checking a traveller’s ticket meant what? That you got to travel for free (which I did on COUNTLESS occasions, something that I could NEVER get away with when I used to take the metro to go to work in downtown Montréal. Had I tried I would have probably ended up being whizzed off to a Guantanamo-type of Canadian prison), what else!

That, essentially, is the difference between the two countries: that pure lawlessness in Canada is NOT tolerated whereas it is in Italy (a friend in the Toronto area sent me the news that many Canadian politicians in Ottawa have been arrested, I say arrested, for a variety of crimes. We have sitting in the Italian parliament former terrorists, and they calmly govern some 58 million Italians, and they’re certainly NOT in any Italian jail!).

I conclude my analysis with what happened to me, always some 15 years ago in Rome. I “mysteriously” had my car stolen (the thieves apparently used a tow-truck on the street adjacent to my apartment to take it away, probably for used parts as it was a 10 year-old Citroen). We went a few metres from our place to report the theft to the Carabinieri, Italy’s equivalent of the RCMP. The wife, saddened obviously that we were now without wheels (the car was mine by the way), said to the young officer: “But can’t you do something about all these car thefts (n.b. Only 135 per day are stolen in Rome!)”? He looked at us and told us the entertaining story of how one day a young chap was caught shoplifting in Rome in the equivalent of Canada’s The Bay. The cops arrived and he was promptly arrested. It turned out that the kid was the son of some powerful political minister. Was the cop who arrested him rewarded for his outstanding work and contribution to maintaining law and order in Rome? Of course not! The poor sod was shipped some 3 years in the outback of the island of Sardinia as a “reward”. And no doubt the poor guy was probably demoted too.

The young officer looked at my wife as he was typing the report, as though to say: “Hey lady, you want ME to arrest a car thief, and then maybe end up like my colleague? No thanks”! As taxpayers, that’s certainly NOT the response we wanted to hear. And I doubt that the average Canadian taxpayer in Canada would want to hear the same thing from Toronto’s finest.

The funny, or sad, thing is that I shall never forget that in exactly the same period Jack Straw’s son (Straw 15 years ago was Blair’s Foreign Secretary) was caught smoking a few harmless joints. And what did the British public opinion demand? The head of Straw Sr. (as though our parents are ALWAYS responsible for what we do as kids)! That back then, like the TTC case, said it all: the main difference between a society which is NOT awash with corruption (like the British one) and one like Italy’s which together with Poland is by far one of THE most corrupt societies in all of Europe!

On a very final note, 20 years ago I’d take the subway to go to work in downtown Montréal (I lived in that fine city 3 years). I’d either show the ticket controller my monthly pass or I’d slip my ticket into the electronic reader (the same system I noticed was in Paris’s subway system, back in 1993 when I went there for a short visit. Funny too that many of the trains were identical to the ones used in Montréal, seeing that they were manufactured by Canada’s Bombardier company, the same makers of the Canadair if I’m not mistaken). If the ticket was expired, the turnstile wouldn’t open, and I’d get one mean look from the ticket controller, as though to say: “Not trying to rip-off the system, are ya”? Well, when did they FINALLY get the same system up and running in Rome’s subway? Only about 2-3 years ago, which means that practically since the birth of the Rome subway (commenced I believe under Mussolini himself), you could practically travel with the same (used) ticket all day, and hardly any ticket controller would ever stop you. “When in Rome…”, as they say!