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Rumble: Living in Italy - part 1: Italian Politics
2008-04-12 23:20:00
Since I moved here last year, people ask me "So how is it to live in Italy "? This prompts me to a series of blogs I want to start, to describe live in this Mediterranean country.First let me start with the disclaimer: I love the culture, the climate, its people, its food, and the country. I love Italy. Punto. But it is a country 'with an edge', which makes it fun at times, frustrating in other times. So I might come across as critical (or cynical at times), do bear in mind: I loooove Italy.As the Italian s will vote for parliament tomorrow, maybe we should start this blog series with Italian politics. I can summarize this topic in a oneliner: Italy had 61 governments since World War II. That is an average of about one government per year. That says it all.Critics say the current electoral law gives disproportionate power to small parties in Parliament, making stable government nearly impossible. Proof of the matter: the recent withdrawal of a tiny centrist party from the governing ...
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News: After "War on Terror" and "War for Oil" comes "War for Food"?
2008-04-12 17:41:00
In the past months, I have been posting regularly about the global food crisis:- Oil, Biofuel, World Hunger and Crimes Against Humanity.- The Global Food Crisis: A Perfect Storm- The Food Crisis: A Global OverviewThose of you who have been following this blog for a while know I work for a humanitarian agency, so automatically my view of news articles is biased: scanning news bulletins I am rather sensitive to possible lurking crisis, be it armed conflicts, natural disasters or plain economic issues that could cause humanitarian problems. Plus of course, this is our job, this is what we do for a living: trying to spot, mitigate and react to humanitarian crisis in the making or unfolding.On top of this, working for a food aid agency, the issue of raising food prices, the dilemma of biofuel production versus food production, changing weather patterns decreasing the food production are automatically issues which catch my eyes faster.So I have been asking myself the question: "Is the glo...
More About: News , War On Terror , Terror

News: Nelson Mandela (90) is still on US Terrorist List.
2008-04-12 01:27:00
The African National Congress (ANC) was designated as a terrorist organisation by South Africa's old apartheid regime. Since that time, things changed. Apartheid is not legal anymore, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and the ANC became the government.Other things have not changed: all ANC leaders, including Nelson Mandela , are still tagged as 'terrorists' in US security databases and need to get a special waiver to enter the US.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has now asked for the "embarrassing" travel restrictions to be lifted. Good. I am happy the US administration is keeping up with the fast moving pace of world politics. The ANC has been South Africa's governing party since 14 years. (Full)Soon, one embarrassment less. Some more challenges still to tackle, though. Like convincing US President Bush statements like "Mandela is dead" is not really OK. Not really.It might have something to do with the fact that Mandela has never been short of criticism on US polit...
More About: News , List , Terrorist

Rumble: Talks with a security guard
2008-04-11 23:25:00
A story from my friend Enrico, who works in Bor, South Sudan :I was leaving the UN compound heading to the office. The security guard who had just opened the gate for me, asked me for a lift into town since his shift was over. He hopped in.Even though the drive took just 10 minutes, but I felt obliged to keep a bit of a conversation going.Me: ?Have you received any security training??The guard: ?Yes!?Me: ?Can you give me an example??The guard: ?How to switch on the security lights??Me: ?What would you do if you saw a thief in our compound??The guard: It?s like when you hunt a wild animal: stalking and attacking?Me: ?What if he?s armed??The guard: ?I?m not allowed to use a gun myself, it?s against the rules, but I have the stick I use to kill the snakes at night!?Read more stories from Enrico about life in Sudan.Picture courtesy Ulrik Pedersen
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News: The Peace Symbol turns 50. Are we any closer to peace?
2008-04-09 20:08:00
Gerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from London, designed the peace symbol originally for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC), arguing their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The "Ban the Bomb" symbol was born.Holtom used the letters from the semaphore - or flag-signalling - alphabet, super-imposing N (uclear) on D (isarmament) and placing them within a circle symbolising Earth. Holtom later explained that the design was "to mean a human being in despair" with arms outstretched downwards.The symbol had its first public outing 50 years ago as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston. (Full)Current wars and armed conflicts are still abound today: Iraq, Afghanistan, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Palestine, Nepal, Kashmir, Kurdistan. I wonder if in 50 years of peace movement, we have ...
More About: News , Peace , Closer

Rumble: Tagged...
2008-04-09 18:31:00
Vagabondblogger, a fellow blogger and regular visitor to The Road, "tagged" me.. The task given is to tell 10 random things about myself.Ok, I will take the challenge... Trying to define 10 things about me that I might not have explicitly covered on my blog:1/ The most important things in my life: Tine, Lana and Hannah, my three girls at home. And my closest friends. The circle of love around me.2/ My aspiration in life: To be able to take my grandchildren on my knee and say two things: "I tried to make a difference for the better in life of others" and "I lived life fully." Related to that, my biggest joy in life is to make a positive difference in someone's life. Professionally or personally.3/ Things I like the most in people: truthfulness, honesty (also to themselves), frankness, openness.4/ Things I dislike the most in people: hidden agendas in all possible shapes and forms.5/ I am 47, but Tine would say: "mentally: 3!"6/ My biggest vice: I smoke.7/ My second biggest vice: I d...
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Rumble: How truthful are we?
2008-04-09 17:08:00
I have an issue. I have an issue with people who are not honest, to others or to themselves. People who are not forthcoming with their true opinion, their true intensions. I have an issue with hidden agendas and hypocrisy.But in the end, I trust that ?Good comes to those who do good, and bad comes to those who have mal-intensions?. Saw it too many times.Here is a story:We moved into our house in Belgium many years ago, just as the previous tenant was moving out. He worked as an assistant professor in the faculty of Biology, at a Belgian University. He was the second in command in the laboratory of Nature Conservation and Ecology. You would think he would give an example to others, being a nature conservist by profession.Less so. Before the guy moved out of the house, he dumped most of his waste and stuff he did not want to move, in the garden. He tried to burn some of it (it is difficult to burn pots, pans, shoes and bottles, I tell you) and half buried whole boxes of expired pharma...

Rumble: The Jar of Life
2008-04-08 14:30:00
A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."The Professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the space between the grains of sand."Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represent...
More About: Life

Rumble: Back on the road...
2008-04-06 13:04:00
Yesterday, we drove the 1000 km from South Tyrol back home. It took us 12 hours, instead of the usual 10. Loads of traffic but a scenery to be enjoyed. Even though it was pretty dark and gloomy, it gives a 'happy kick' driving through the mountains in the snow. It also gives me a knot in the throat driving through the Fernpass bordering Austria and Germany, knowing it will take one more year before you see the snow and the mountains of this part of the world again... And who knows what will happen in that year. This evening, I am flying back to Rome. Back to work.
More About: Road , On The Road , The Road

Rumble: Last ski pictures
2008-04-06 12:41:00
Two days ago, we went up to Cortina, one hours drive from our hotel. The scenery and ski slopes were great, but it was windy and bloody cold, as you can see from the pictures:The family:Tine and Lana on the lift:Hannah on the lift:Is there anything else but pride a father can feel when seeing his daughters growing up, and becoming independent, adventurous, happy? Here are our two girls trying to jump higher than dad... :-)
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News: USA: Rich Nation, Poor Nation...
2008-04-03 18:50:00
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."?Franklin D. RooseveltMeet Roberta. She lives in a mountain village with her six brothers and sisters and her mom. They have a trailer with no electricity and they draw their water from a muddy pond down the lane. They don't own a car and jobs are scarce, so Roberta and her family are always hungry, and dependent upon the kindness of others.Roberta is not from a third world country. She lives 100 miles of Nashville, Tennessee USA. (Source)35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children, live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents more than one in ten households in the United States (10.9 percent). (Source)According to the UN, 854 million people in the world do not have enough to eat (Source). This means 4.1% of the world's hungry live in the USA.In 2006, official census figures stat...
More About: News , Rich , Nation , Poor

News: Ethiopia's forgotten war
2008-04-02 22:56:00
Ridwan Hassan Sahid awoke under a pile of corpses to a pricking sensation on her face. Ants were biting her eyelids and the inside of her mouth. The pain, however, brought relief to the 17-year-old. "I thought, 'I'm alive,' " she thought as blood oozing from rope burns around her neck. Fearing that the Ethiopia n soldiers who had left her for dead in a roadside ditch would return, she brushed away the ants and shut her eyes, then slipped back into unconsciousness.The brutal assault and her escape mark a chilling story to emerge from an unfolding but hidden tragedy in eastern Ethiopia.Ever since exiting colonialists arbitrarily stuck a triangle-shaped wedge of land with 4 million ethnic Somalis inside Ethiopia's border, violence and suffering have plagued the region. Now, many of them have been caught up in a nasty war between the Ethiopian government and a separatist group known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which gets little media attention. (Full)Picture courtesy Cri...
More About: News , Somalia , Forgotten

News: Can Geeks Save the UN?
2008-04-02 19:13:00
Information is power. But in the UN, the information is so dispersed, so full of bureaucratic slang that its information is virtually inaccessible. We can sit, bitch and whine about it all, or we can do something about it.A small group, describing themselves as "civil hackers", decided to make a change. They have a track record of achieving their goal too: they helped 2 million people tracking their MPs' voting records via the site theyworkforyou.com and through farmsubsidy.org, got the EU to publish full subsidy data.They set up UNdemocracy.com, an attempt to shed light on the inner workings of the UN.How? The UN has for some time made copies of its resolutions and other information online at un.org, but like a lot of government initiatives the data published is hardly reusable in any meaningful way. URLs are not persistent, and data formats are not open. The group around Julian Todd, in Liverpool is laboriously scraping the data out of the site and republishing it with persistent...
More About: News , Internet , Geeks , Save

News: Indians want "more water, less Coca Cola!"
2008-04-02 00:27:00
For several years, Indians have been protesting against the presence of Coca Cola plants in their community. Yesterday 1500 villagers marched to the Coca-Cola company's bottling plant in Mehdiganj in Varanasi demanding that the bottling plant shut down immediately. They accuse the Coke Company of creating severe water shortages in the area and polluting the water and land.During a two-day conference on Right to Water a representative of the Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board admitted the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj did not have a current hazardous waste authorization required to operate.Worse is that data collected by the Ground Water Board confirms ground water levels have dropped up to 8 meters (26 feet) in the first seven years of Coca-Cola's operations, from 1999 to 2006, leaving wells and hand water pumps dried up.As local farmers rely on the ground water to meet their needs, and over 80% of the community in Mehdiganj engage in agriculture, "Do we need to s...
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Rumble: The Sellaronda
2008-04-01 23:44:00
Remember the local legend of King Laurin and his rose garden I posted last year? Well, today we went skiing very close to those mountains. We did a tour around the Sella mountain where connecting ski lifts and slopes form a circuit called the "Sellaronda". The weather was perfect, the skiing was just great. It took us just over five hours to finish the Sellaronda, including a one hour lunch.

News: Back to Soylent Green?
2008-04-01 23:26:00
While on holiday, I can not but read the news headlines. And get worried:March 28:Al Jazeera - Asian rice crisis starts to bite (Full)March 30:Reuters - Tensions rise as world faces short rations (Full)March 31:The Wall Street Journal - Rice Hoarding Pressures Supplies (Full)The Guardian - Farmers fall prey to rice rustlers as price of staple crop rockets (Full)International Herald Tribune - World food prices soar as Asia consumes more (Full)April 1:The Wall Street Journal - Fewer Acres of Corn Likely To Keep Prices High (Full)April 2 2022:The World Today - Soylent Green feeds half of the world....As a 13 year old, I got sleepless nights after watching "Soylent Green" a movie set in the year 2022, depicting a dark future:The water and soil have been poisoned and airborne pollution has produced a year-round heatwave from the greenhouse effect. Most housing is dilapidated and overcrowded, and impoverished homeless people fill the streets. Food as we know it today ?including fruit, veg...
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News: "Green card soldiers": Die in Iraq, US citizenship guaranteed.
2008-03-31 20:58:00
A young, ambitious immigrant from Guatemala who dreamed of becoming an architect. A Nigerian medic. A soldier from China who boasted he would one day become an American general. An Indian Sikh native. What do they have in common?They are among more than 100 foreign-born members of the U.S. military who earned American citizenship post-mortem, by dying in the Iraq war.Immigrants have always fought ? and died ? in America's wars. There are tens of thousands of foreign-born members in the US armed forces. Many have been naturalized, but more than 20,000 are not US citizens.Early in the Iraq war, Bush signed an executive order making the "Green card soldiers", as they are often called, eligible to apply for citizenship as soon as they enlist. Previously, legal residents in the military had to wait three years.Since Bush's order, nearly 37,000 soldiers have been naturalized. And 109 who lost their lives have been granted posthumous citizenship.Immigrant advocates have mixed feelings ab...
More About: News , Card

Rumble: Lana on the slopes
2008-03-31 17:46:00
Meet Lana, 13, our oldest. A picture from this morning on the slopes of the Kronplatz, in the North of Italy.The girls enjoy the adventure of jumping, going off the main ski piste, in between the trees...Nuts as their dad.

Rumble: Hannah on the slopes
2008-03-30 23:10:00
This is Hannah , 10, our youngest. A picture taken this morning, on the slopes of the Kronplatz, here in South Tyrol. Hannah learned to ski when she was two and a half. The first day she went skiing, I will never forget. We picked her up from the ski school in the afternoon, where we found her (and her ski instructor), covered with blood. She had just ran into a wooden barn on the slope, and pierced her lip. We had to rush her down the mountain, into the car, and onto the operating table of the nearest hospital where they sewed her lip under full anesthesia. Two days later, she was back on her skis. Nuts like her dad, she is.

News: Airport security: "Nipple piercing? Here are pliers!"
2008-03-30 22:56:00
Mandi Hamlin from Texas was about to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.The handheld detector beeped when passed in front of Hamlin's chest. Hamlin told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent said she would have to remove the jewelry.Asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent, the answer was "No, you can not board until the jewelry is out".She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second and was handed a pair of pliers.TSA officials said they are investigating to see whether its policies were followed. "Our security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a high level of security," the agency said in a statement. (Full)Pictu...
More About: News , Airport , Piercing

News: Google went dark on Earth Hour
2008-03-30 17:46:00
Not only Dubai switched off its lights (well some of them) during Earth Hour , also the US version of the Google search page made an environmental gesture. They switched to a black background for an hour.Picture courtesy News .com
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News: Earth Hour switches Dubai's lights off.
2008-03-29 23:51:00
Dubai was the first Arab city to declare its public support for Earth Hour , a worldwide environmental movement backed by the World Wildlife Fund.Millions of people around the world participated yesterday by switching off non-essential lights as a signal they care about global warming.In Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, said to be the world's only six-star hotel, switched off its external lighting, as residents held a walkathon on Jumeirah Road. (Full)Picture courtesy Atiq-Ur-Rehman (Gulf News )
More About: Dubai , Lights

Rumble: The Brunico Padlock Mystery
2008-03-29 23:02:00
In Brunico, a town nearby, there is a bridge over the Rienza river with hundreds of padlocks on its railing. We thought these had a romantic meaning: love pledges or "lost loves locked into ones heart".The guy at the gas station had the answer: Up 2004, there was a military camp in Brunico where youngsters came for their military service. After finishing their tour of duty, it was a tradition to hook the padlock of their trunk to the railing, and throw the key into the river.Delving a bit deeper into the "Italian padlock mysteries", revealed different connotations and other traditions:Originally, the Italian men drawn into military service, took a lock from their home and hooked it onto a monument or a structure, as a public vow to return back home. Some say, it was a vow to return safely back to their loved one..There is also the Roman legend that lovers will spend their lives together if they write their names on a padlock, place it on the Ponte Milvio's third lamp post and throw...
More About: Rome , Florence , Mystery , Padlock

Rumble: Snowfun - Rodeln
2008-03-29 21:52:00
First day of snow fun: "Rodeln":The family:Hannah, our snow bunny:Lana, our second snow bunny:Figuring out how things work:

Rumble: On the Road Again.
2008-03-29 00:51:00
Enough of the world problems, holiday time! Today we drove from Belgium to North Italy for our skiing holiday.Travelling is always adventure, no matter how much we travel, would you not agree? There are probably few who travel more than I do, being home for less than one month per year. And still I enjoy every moment of it. And still I get the butterflies in my stomach each time I close the door behind me, and take a step... A step on the Road to the Horizon.Our home for the next week:View Larger Map
More About: On The Road , The Road

News: Explosion in Dubai's industrial area
2008-03-28 00:55:00
When I worked in Dubai , traffic accidents were the things I was the most scared off. Fire was next on the hazards list.We knew that with the drought, heat, an almost constant wind and fire rescue services often taking a long time to shuffle through the traffic jams, there would be little chance of saving our houses or offices if a fire would break out.Two days ago a fire works factory exploded in the Al Quoz industrial area, and 83 warehouses were gutted in the blaze. This was the area we used to have our offices. (Full report)Here is a video of the actual blast:The fire spread to neighbouring warehouses.
More About: News , Middle East , Industrial , Explosion

News: Poor Billionaires
2008-03-28 00:06:00
Zimbabwe's 100,000 percent inflation rate is the world's highest. While officially, one U.S dollar is worth about 30,000 Zimbabwean dollars. As of last week the real price on the black market was about 35 million dollars, or 1,166 times the official rate.The average wage for a farm worker is 30 million dollars per month. A domestic worker makes about five times that amount, and a laborer in one of Zimbabwe's decrepit factories can expect to earn as much as 300 million per month.It sounds good until you consider how much things cost. Four Coca-Colas cost about 20 million. A one-way bus ticket around town will set you back one of those 10 million dollar notes (and that price may go up even as you're on the bus). Ten kilograms (22 pounds) of corn meal, which might last a family of four two or three days, goes for 45 million. It's 7 million for less than a quarter pound of low-grade beef. A loaf of bread is 10 million.If you're a government worker you'll earn a monthly pension of...
More About: News , Billionaires , Poor

News: The Empire Strikes Back: Jaguar and Land Rover are now Indian.
2008-03-27 01:47:00
US car giant Ford has sold its luxury UK-based car brands Jaguar and Land Rover to the Indian company Tata for US$2.3bn (£1.15bn), about half the price Ford paid for it originally.Although Land Rover remains profitable, Ford has never managed to make money from its investment in Jaguar.In January, Tata launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, priced at US$2,500 (£1,250). The starting price for Jaguar's latest sports car is more than US$64,000 (£32,000). (Full)I wonder if now is the right time to up the issue I had with The Ugly Duckling, my old Land Rover in Uganda I just could not get repaired? Or should I wait until Tata bought Mercedes and BMW?Picture courtesy Ben Stansall (theage.com.au)
More About: News , Back , Empire

News: Where do children sell themselves ten times a day for one loaf of bre
2008-03-27 01:10:00
Zimbabwe goes to the polls on March 29th. Will it be more of the same, or is something really going to change?The horror stories keep on coming up from a country that used to be the breadbasket of the region:The Aids crisis, and the creaking health system it has overwhelmed, has left hundreds of thousands of children orphans, struggling to fend for themselves. As once-prime farmland fell back into bush, thousands picked up their few belongings and headed for the cities in search of a better life.Lina, then 14, had no money for her fare, so the driver took her virginity as payment. Princess, then 13, sold hers for a loaf of bread after the police stole the peanuts she was selling and chased her off the streets. Precious, at 14, followed the others into prostitution, selling herself to strangers on the streets of Harare merely to survive.The money Princess got for her first client could buy her a loaf of bread. Now it can barely do that. Sex with one of Mbare's street girls costs Z$1...
More About: News , Children , Times , Sell

News: Top 50 most stable and prosperous countries.
2008-03-26 21:10:00
A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane's Information Services resulted in a list of the most (and least) stable and prosperous countries.The scoring is based on the sort of threats existing in the country, the economic pressures, each nation’s political structures, social and economic trends, military and security risks and external relations. (Full)Here is the Top 10 (in order): Vatican, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein, UK, Netherlands, Ireland.Rank 11-20: New Zealand, Denmark, Austria, Andorra, Germany, Iceland, Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, Norway.Rank 21-30: Malta, France, Canada, USA, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Japan, Finland, Czech Rep.Rank 31-40: Samoa, Falkland Islands, Singapore, Guam, Slovakia, Anguilla, Cyprus, Qatar, Montserrat, Costa Rica.Rank 41-50: Greece, St Pierre and Miquelon, UAE, Cayman Islands, American Samoa, Virgin Islands (UK), Poland, St Lucia, Oman, Northern Mariana Islands.At the bottom we find as...
More About: News , Countries