‘Invisible sculpture’ by Italian artist sells for $18,300

 Earlier, he also exhibited another invisible sculpture titled Buddha in Contemplation, at the Piazza Della Scala in Milan, demarcated by a square of tape on a cobble-stoned walkaway.

Salvatore Garau, a 67-year-old Italian artist, auctioned an “immaterial sculpture” — as the artwork does not exist — for $18,300 (Rs 13,33,459.70).

Contemporary artist Salvatore Garau created 'invisible sculpture' titled Lo Sono. 

(Source: salvatore_garau/Instagram)

Titled Lo Sono (which translates to “I am”), the work finds significance in its nothingness, Garau told Spanish news outlet Diario AS. “The vacuum is nothing more than a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that nothing has a weight. Therefore, it has energy that is condensed and transformed into particles, that is, into us,” he was quoted as saying.

The artwork was put up for sale at the Italian auction house Art-Rite in May. The buyer, according to newsartnet.com, was given a certificate of authenticity along with the instruction that the work must be exhibited in a private house in roughly a five-by-five foot space free of obstruction.

“When I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that space will concentrate a certain amount and density of thoughts at a precise point, creating a sculpture that, from my title, will only take the most varied forms,” the artist further said.

Earlier, he also exhibited another invisible sculpture titled Buddha in Contemplation, at the Piazza Della Scala in Milan, demarcated by a square of tape on a cobble-stoned walkaway.

Source: The Indian Express)

Rare green puppy 'Pistachio' born in Italy

This year has been an unpredictable one, to say the least.

But things got even stranger for Italian farmer Cristian Mallocci when his dog, Spelacchia, gave birth to a puppy with green fur.

The tiny pooch was immediately named Pistachio.

Reuters

The puppy was part of a five-dog litter born at the farm on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Pistachio's brothers and sisters all had white fur, the same colour as their mother.

A dog born with green fur is very rare. It is believed to be a result of the puppy making contact with a green pigment called biliverdin while in the womb.

But - in what will come as sad news to many - Pistachio's colour has already started to fade, and will continue to do so.

Reuters

Mr Mallocci has decided to give away all the puppies, apart from Pistachio, who will help him herd sheep on the farm.

Green is a colour of hope and luck, he added - something many of us could do with a little bit more of in 2020.

(Source: BBC)

Italian village celebrates first birth in eight years

Morterone’s population rises to 29 after birth of baby Denis

People living in Italy’s smallest village are celebrating the arrival of a new inhabitant – the first baby born there in eight years.

The population in Morterone, a mountainous community in Lombardy, rose to 29 after the birth of a baby boy, named Denis, on Sunday.

“It truly is a celebration for the whole community,” Antonella Invernizzi, the mayor of Morterone, told Corriere della Sera.

Denis’s parents, Matteo and Sara, followed the Italian tradition of announcing the birth by placing a ribbon – blue for a boy and pink for a girl – on the door of their home. It is the first time such a ribbon has been seen in the village since 2012, when a baby girl was born.

Denis is the first baby to be born to parents in Morterone for eight years. His parents placed a ribbon on the door of their home to announce his arrival. Photograph: Facebook / Comune di Morterone

Denis was born in Alessandro Manzoni hospital in Lecco, weighing 2.6kg.

Sara spoke to Corriere about being pregnant during the coronavirus pandemic, which has severely affected the Lombardy region but spared Morterone.

“It wasn’t easy to be pregnant during a pandemic,” she said. “You were unable to go out or go and see loved ones.”

She said there would be a party once the family returns from the hospital. “We will welcome everyone with open arms … It’s exciting that my little one will be among the inhabitants of Morterone, and increasing, even if only slightly, the population.”

Denis’s birth comes a few weeks after data showed that Italy’s declining birth rate hit a record low in 2019, with 420,170 babies born – the lowest since records began in 1861.

Morterone is classified as Italy’s smallest municipality owing to the size of its population. The population had decreased only recently to 28 after the death of Invernizzi’s father.

“Now we have gone back up to 29,” Invernizzi said. “There are no other pregnancies in sight, at least that I know of … but certainly a newborn is always a joy for all of us.”

(Source: The Guardian)

10 of the best novels set in Italy – that will take you there

Elena Ferrante’s Naples, Umberto Eco’s medieval mysteries, EM Forster’s Tuscany … Italy comes alive through these great books 

Long before Covid-19, there were always bad things in the press about Italy: corruption, mafia, bureaucracy. But, whenever I went, life seemed to work out even so. People may be poor but they still sit in the sun, drink and chat; music and culture are a birthright; the right seems in the ascendant but on the ground it feels blessed with far-seeing idealists – it has almost four times as much land under organic cultivation as the UK, for example. For now, my remedy to the withdrawal symptoms I feel is to visit via the written word. Many writers have set books in Italy – I was sorry to leave out Martin Amis’s The Pregnant Widow (Calabria), and Ali Smith’s How to be Both (Ferrara) – but here are my top 10 romanze italiane.

Montalbano moment … Ragusa, Sicily. Photograph: Jan Wlodarczyk/Alamy

The Other End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri

I can’t leave out my beloved Sicily, and of course that has to mean Inspector Montalbano. The stories are known to many in the UK from the TV adaptations, with their soaring aerial shots of Ragusa and other delectable spots in the island’s south-east, so why not spend longer in that southern sunshine with one of Andrea Camilleri’s books? An eccentric cast of characters keep things light-hearted, and there’s joy also in the detective’s food obsession: you can almost taste the red wine and fried arancini. But this is Sicily, so darkness lurks: mafia, people trafficking, drugs, racism. It’s hard to pick one novel but this one, dealing with a boatful of refugees, has the distinction of having angered rightwing leader Matteo Salvini with its pro-migrant message.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

It’s been done on stage and TV, but Elena Ferrante’s tale (the first in her Neapolitan tetralogy) of poverty, amici and mafiosi in 20th-century Naples is still best savoured in book form (though I appear to be alone in finding Anne Goldstein’s translation clunky). Readers might picture Lenù and Lila growing up amid narrow streets picturesquely hung with laundry, but in fact the book’s unnamed “neighbourhood” is not the historic centre but Rione Luzzatti, a blocky Fascist-era suburb beyond the main railway station. From here, readers follow the heroines as they mount expeditions through the tunnel and along the stradone to the central Mercato district, wealthy Vomero and, fatefully, the beaches of beautiful Ischia.

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

The 2017 Oscar-winning film by Luca Guadagnino is a reasonably accurate rendering of this tender coming-of-age novel, but to keep costs down, the director filmed in locations close to his Lombardy home – and deprived fans of some gorgeous views. The book is set on the coast near the French border – and the shimmering Ligurian Sea is almost a character in its own right. You feel the sting of hot gravel on bare legs as the young protagonists (Elio and Oliver) cycle to sun-drenched sandy coves, the shock of an ice-cold drink in a shady garden. An important setting is “Monet’s Berm” – a secluded cliff ledge claimed by Elio to be the spot from which the impressionist painted his View of Bordighera (the postcard poignantly hanging in Oliver’s study decades later).

A Room with a View by EM Forster

Forster’s 1908 novel captures the joy of escaping chilly Blighty for exuberant Italy. Ingénue Lucy Honeychurch’s experiences in Florence are (speeding Fiats and noisy Vespas apart) little-changed: the impressive Duomo with its shadowy interior, the banks of the Arno where she strolls with George Emerson. And the views are at their most glorious from hillside Fiesole, where Lucy falls on to a terrace covered with violets and into the arms of her husband to be. After a second half set mostly in Surrey, the book happily whisks us back to Florence, where a honeymooning Lucy gazes out of Pension Bertolini’s window – at a certain view.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Head further back to the Florence of the Medicis with this absorbing story of spirited Alessandra making her way in a city becoming “locked down” by the zeal of fundamentalist cleric Girolamo Savonarola. Dunant details the rivalries, politics and drama inside the family palazzo – in a newly wealthy neighbourhood east of the Duomo whose inhabitants can run to “torches in great iron baskets to light latecomers home”. But in the pursuit of love and art, the heroine, unusually for a young woman, also gets to roam the city in all its splendour, cruelty, summer heat and … plague.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Trieste had barely appeared on Britons’ city-break radar before this millennium, but I lived there for a time as a student, and was delighted to find this novel mostly set in the limestone hills north of the city. The dramatic first-world-war tale of the love between an American ambulance driver and a British nurse takes us from Friuli to hospital in Milan, back to the front and on to an action-movie escape via the currents of the Tagliamento River near Udine, before an emotional finale in Switzerland. That the Mussolini regime banned the book is further recommendation.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

It sounds as appealing today as it did when this book was published in 1922: “To those who appreciate wistaria and sunshine. Small Italian medieval castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April.” The women tempted to shrug off wet and dreary Britain are older than Lucy Honeychurch, and struggling. “It would really be being unselfish to go away and be happy for a little,” says one, “because we would come back so much nicer.” Be carried along by the sensual descriptions of the castle, gardens and olive groves leading down to the sea: “The sun blazed on scarlet geraniums, bushes of them, and nasturtiums in great heaps, and marigolds so brilliant that they seemed to be burning … all outdoing each other in bright, fierce colour.”

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

If you’ve driven from Turin towards the western Alps, you may have spotted an imposing mountaintop complex, the Sacra di San Michele. This was the Benedictine monastery that inspired Umberto Eco’s first novel (published in 1980 and later filmed with Sean Connery and Christian Slater), though for me it also brings to mind famous Pomposa abbey near Ferrara and a hundred other medieval piles. The bestselling writer and academic brilliantly conveys carvings and frescoes through the way they blow the mind of young novice Adso. This mix of history and mystery is a readable way in to Eco’s writings on love, learning and the search for meaning, while also evoking the ancient worlds and dramatic scenery that Italy does so well.

Acqua Alta by Donna Leon

With bodies discovered in canals, piazzas and even La Fenice opera house, the Venice of Commissario Guido Brunetti has, a bit like Inspector Morse’s Oxford, an astonishingly high rate of intriguing murders. Donna Leon’s 29 detective novels are all set in, or near, the city she lived in for decades and have a passionate fan base everywhere except Italy (they have never been translated into Italian). Lovers of La Serenissima at its less-touristy will like this story that unfolds in grim February weather, with acqua alta (floods) in the city (as happened last autumn). With food even more important than life and death in Italy, the book opens evocatively with opera singer Flavia in her kitchen chopping onions, garlic, tomatoes and “two fat-bottomed aubergines”.

Ratking by Michael Dibdin

Umbria was being called the new Tuscany 20 years ago, but its arty, walled capital, Perugia, is still underrated, despite budget flights to San Francesco d’Assisi airport. Bestselling crime writer Dibdin transplanted himself to the city as a university English teacher in the 1980s and in this, his first Aurelio Zen novel, the Venetian detective is unexpectedly posted to the city known for “chocolates, Etruscans, that fat painter, radios and gramophones, the University for Foreigners, sportswear”. I could recommend all of Dibdin’s 11 complex, satirical and sometimes surreal Zen books, as each is set in a different part of Italy: Vendetta in wonderful Sardinia, say, or A Long Finish among the vineyards of Piedmont.

(Source: The Guardian)

Coronavirus: Italian village lets residents with autism and ADHD go to beaches

Staying indoors for a long time could be traumatic for people with conditions, authorities say

An Italian village has allowed people with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to go to the beach during the coronavirus lockdown.

The measure aims to help those who might particularly struggle with the order to stay indoors in Salve, southern Italy.

“Having to stay at home and only go outside for strictly necessary reasons is difficult for everyone, but especially for people with certain conditions,” the Comune di Salve said.

“For them, staying shut away in the house for a long time risks being a properly traumatic experience which could give rise to self-harming behaviours.”

People with these conditions can now go to a number of beaches in Puglia on the Ionian sea which are shut off to other members of the public during the nationwide lockdown over Covid-19.

Authorities have told people in Italy to stay at home unless it is essential – for example, to go to work or get groceries – in a bid to tackle the spread of the virus.

Those with autism and intellectual disabilities are able to go outside for health reasons as long as they stay near their house, according to the national rules.

However, Salve has decided to let people with these conditions move outside this area so they can go to the sea, as long as they are accompanied by a relative or helper.

The mayor, who has an autistic son himself, said “life has drastically changed” for families with autistic members in the lockdown, according to an Italian news agency.

“Now, at least my son can play in the place he loves, between the sand and the sea,” Francesco Villanova told ANSA.

Italy has been in lockdown for over a month as it battles the pandemic, with all public gatherings banned and restrictions placed on movement.

Nearly 190,000 people have been infected with the virus in the country to date.

The death toll for coronavirus patients stood at around 25,500 on Friday, according to official figures.

(Source: Independent)

Olive oil industry under increasing threat from 'olive leprosy'

Italian, Spanish and Greek farmers set to lose billions unless drastic action is taken to combat bacterium that has killed millions of trees

One of southern Europe’s most important staples, olive oil, is under pressure from a potentially deadly disease that new research shows could infect nearly all of the productive areas of Italy, Greece and Spain.

Economic losses could be as high as €5bn over the next 50 years for Italy, where at least 1m trees have already died, if nothing is done to halt the spread of the disease and olive groves are not replanted, the study found. In Spain, losses could total €17bn over the same period, and Greece could suffer to the tune of about €2bn.

Olive trees infected with Xylella fastidiosa are destroyed in Menton, southern France. Photograph: Yann Coatsaliou/AFP/Getty Images

Drastic action would be required to halt the spread, including felling seemingly healthy olive trees. However, if preventive measures are taken, and if orchards can be replanted with resistant strains of olive, the economic impact could be cut to as little as €10m a year in Italy, with proportionally similar benefits in Spain and Greece. The three countries represent 95% of European production.

About 17% of Italy’s olive producing areas are currently estimated to be infected with the disease, olive quick decline syndrome, which has become colloquially known as olive leprosy and has also struck in France, Spain and Portugal. There is no practical cure for the disease, though work to develop resistant varieties is under way.

The researchers analysed to what extent the climatic conditions in each of the three countries was suitable for the spread of Xylella fastidiosa, the bacterium that causes olive quick decline syndrome. 

The first cases of the disease, which is transmitted by insects and causes delayed growth, withering leaves, declining fruit and the eventual death of the tree, were found in Italy in 2013.

They found that most current olive production in all three countries falls within the range of climates in which the bacteria can be expected to flourish, with between 85% and 99% of all producing areas susceptible. The spread of the disease is currently 5km a year, but could be reduced to a little over 1km a year with appropriate measures.

Some of the measures likely to be needed to slow the spread of the disease, however, will cause hardship and will not be popular. They involve tree felling around areas where the disease has gained a foothold to create a cordon sanitaire, needed because many trees can be infected without showing outward symptoms of the disease. But the scientists noted that when these control measures were tried, they “resulted in great societal unrest in the affected region”.

Preparing for plant diseases, even of vital crops, is “a notoriously difficult problem”, said Kevin Schneider, of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, lead author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “There are clear guidelines and protocols enacted to prepare as much as possible against the introduction of harmful plant diseases. [But] some species can change ecosystems, some have economic impact, and some do not establish successfully at all and in turn do not cause impact.”

A stricken olive tree in a field belonging to the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute (CNR) in Apulia, Italy, used for research into the disease. Photograph: Charles Onians/AFP/Getty Images

He told the Guardian that farmers and governments in the affected regions should heed scientific advice. “Farmers need to stay vigilant and adhere to the imposed mitigation measures. Government interventions are warranted with regard to economic considerations, and government support for adaptation strategies, such as [developing and propagating] resistant varieties, is important.”

The losses are not just economic, he added: “We did not account for the cultural heritage value associated with these trees. Some of the European olive trees are hundreds of years old and there is currently no practical cure under field conditions for the disease. I think aiming at containing the pathogen and finding ways to adapt to the situation is certainly a good idea.”

It is unlikely to be possible to eradicate the disease altogether, the researchers concluded, owing to the size of the area infected, the problem of symptomless but infectious host plants, and the fact that the tight network of olive orchards in Apulia in Italy will serve as a reservoir.

In 2017, the production value of olives in Europe was about €2.4bn, and for olive oil €6.7bn.

(Source: The Guardian)

Mafia distributes food to Italy's struggling residents

Organised crime groups offer support to quarantined families who have run out of cash

As Italy struggles to pull its economy through the coronavirus crisis, the Mafia is gaining local support by distributing free food to poor families in quarantine who have run out of cash, authorities have warned.

In recent weeks, videos have surfaced of known Mafia gangs delivering essential goods to Italians hit hard by the coronavirus emergency across the poorest southern regions of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia, as tensions rise across the country.

“For over a month, shops, cafés, restaurants and pubs have been closed,” Nicola Gratteri, antimafia investigator and head of the prosecutor’s office in Catanzaro, told the Guardian. “Millions of people work in the grey economy, which means that they haven’t received any income in more than a month and have no idea when they might return to work. The government is issuing so-called shopping vouchers to support people. If the state doesn’t step in soon to help these families, the mafia will provide its services, imposing their control over people’s lives.”

Shoppers queue up in the rain in Sicily. Protestors in the region have criticised the government response. Photograph: Antonio Parrinello/Reuters

The ramifications of the lockdown in Italy are affecting the estimated 3.3 million people in Italy who work off the books. Of those, more than 1 million live in the south, according to the most recent figures from CGIA Mestre, a Venice-based small business association. There have been reports of small shop owners being pressured to give food for free, while police are patrolling supermarkets in some areas to stop thefts. Videos of people in Sicily protesting against the government’s stalled response, or people beating their fists outside banks in Bari for a €50 (£44) loan are going viral and throwing fuel on the crisis; a fire the mafia is more than willing to stoke.

From the first signals of mounting social unrest, the Italian minister of the interior, Luciana Lamorgese, said ‘‘the mafia could take advantage of the rising poverty, swooping in to recruit people to its organisation’’. Or simply stepping in to distribute free food parcels of pasta, water, flour and milk.

In recent days, the police in Naples have intensified their presence in the poorest quarters of the city, where men tied to the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, have organised home delivery of food parcels. Magistrates have already begun an investigation against a group of people who were questioned while distributing food to local residents.

In Palermo, according to La Repubblica, the brother of a Cosa Nostra boss allegedly distributed food to the poor in the Zen neighbourhood, an area with an established mafia presence. When the news broke, the man defended himself on Facebook, claiming that he was only doing charitable work and attacking the journalist who first reported the news.

“Mafias are not just criminal organisations,’’ Federico Varese, professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, said. “They are organisations that aspire to govern territories and markets. 

Commentators often focus on the financial aspect of mafias but they tend to forget that their strength comes from having a local base from which to operate.”

The question of distributing food parcels is a tactic as old as the mafia itself, where in the south of Italy bosses have customarily presented themselves to the people as benefactors and local power brokers, initially without asking for anything in return.

“Mafia bosses consider their cities as their own fiefdom,” Gratteri said. “The bosses know very well that in order to govern, they need to take care of the people in their territory. And they do it by exploiting the situation to their advantage. In the people’s eyes, a boss who knocks on the door offering free food is a hero. And the boss knows that he can then count on the support of these families when necessary, when, for example, the mafia sponsors a politician for election who will further their criminal interests.”

Dozens of investigations in the south have led to the arrests of politicians who have aided and abetted the mafia, and who were elected with the support of local Mafiosi who forced citizens to vote for them in exchange for services, such as a simple food parcel.

Varese said: “These handouts by the mafias are not gifts. The mafia does not do anything out of its kind heart. They are favours that everyone will have to pay back in some form or another, by aiding and abetting a fugitive, holding a gun, dealing drugs and the like.”

“Consider what happened to El Chapo, the Mexican narco,” said Gratteri. “He trafficked tons of cocaine and commissioned the murder of hundreds of people but in his hometown he was known for his benevolence, because people said that he provided medicines to families or built roads. The same thing happens here.”

This week, Itay’s antimafia prosecutor’s office said bosses would offer their virtually endless criminal capital to businesses in need, and then swallow them up. Then, they will use those businesses for money laundering profits from the criminal activities.

Varese said: “The mafias might be able to benefit in other ways from the current lockdown and especially from the future, when Italians will all be able to return to work, spend more money, and get the economy on its feet again. But surely the story exemplified by the handouts of food parcels in Palermo and Naples shows their true nature, and it tells why they are so dangerous.”

(Source: The Guardian)

Coronavirus: Why Italy?

Tracy Beanz, the Founder and Editor in Chief at UncoverDC, gives an excellent in-depth analysis into what’s happening in Italy and why Italy is going down with coronavirus. A chilling article. If you are interested in recent global happenings, it’s an eye opener. Difficult to believe, but fact remains the fact. Read on: 

Italy has been ravaged by the Wuhan Coronavirus, but the reasons why are linked more closely to globalism than the age of the infected.

• Hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants now live both legally and illegally in Italy, with 300K legally registered and many more illegal.
• Italy recently entered into a new economic partnership with China called “One belt, One road”
• China has revitalized northern Italian ports in order to transport goods more efficiently to the rest of Europe
• The mayor of Florence initiated a social media campaign called “Hug a Chinese” using Chinese produced video as an engine to dispel the “racism” against the Chinese in Italy

Thirty years ago, Italy saw the beginnings of what would become a serious issue with illegal immigration. What was surprising, was that the immigrants couldn’t just walk over a border to enter the country, they had to flock from China. It began with Italians hiring the Chinese off the books at cheap wages to work making garments in towns and villages renowned for their craftmanship, and morphed into Italians seeing the Chinese learn how to do it faster and cheaper; often times watching as their family owned businesses were shuttered because they were outbid. The Chinese took over the Italian craft and made it their own. What didn’t change was the coveted “Made in Italy” label. The NY Times began documenting the trend in 2010 writing:

Over the years, Italy learned the difficult lesson that it could no longer compete with China on price. And so, its business class dreamed, Italy would sell quality, not quantity. For centuries, this walled medieval city just outside of Florence has produced some of the world’s finest fabrics, becoming a powerhouse for “Made in Italy” chic.

And then, China came here.

Chinese laborers, first a few immigrants, then tens of thousands, began settling in Prato in the late 1980s. They transformed the textile hub into a low-end garment manufacturing capital, enriching many, stoking resentment and prompting recent crackdowns that in turn have brought cries of bigotry and hypocrisy.

The city is now home to the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe; some legal, many more not. Here in the heart of Tuscany, Chinese laborers work round the clock in some 3,200 businesses making low-end clothes, shoes and accessories, often with materials imported from China, for sale at midprice and low-end retailers worldwide.

The trend continued as whole villages in Italy became Chinese villages, with the Chinese displacing the Italians who lived there, creating their own neighborhoods, and pushing out decades of Italian family owned business. They weren’t known for following the rules. It caused much local consternation; the Italians were forced to pay their taxes and follow the employment guidelines, while the Chinese seemed to have built flourishing enterprises by skirting the rules, treating their people poorly, and engaging in rich human smuggling operations, to boot. There was little accountability for the Chinese, and much for the native Italians.

Outside of the typical problems one would see with such an influx of immigrants from a far-off land, were also other, more scandalous ones.

In 2017, the Bank of China agreed to pay a 600,000 euro fine to settle a money laundering case involving its Milan branch, court documents showed. The Florence court hearing the case gave four employees of the Milan branch of China’s fourth biggest bank a suspended two-year prison sentence for failing to report illicit money transfers. Florence prosecutors leading the so-called “River of Money” investigation alleged that more than 4.5 billion euros ($4.78 billion) was smuggled to China from Italy between 2006 and 2010 by Chinese people living mainly in Florence and nearby Prato. About half of the money was sent via BOC, the prosecutors said. The court also ordered BOC to pay back 980,000 euros which it said it had earned through the illegal operations. According to the prosecutors, the proceeds sent to China came from a series of illegal activities, including counterfeiting, embezzlement, exploitation of illegal labour and tax evasion. Bank of China said in a statement it had not committed any crime and was not admitting guilt by agreeing to pay the fine, which was a way of closing the case and saving time.

The wheel of corruption kept spinning, and the Italian people became more and more angry. Sometimes, this led to violence. It also led to a nationwide sentiment that something needed to change, and the populist uprising we have been seeing across the globe also began to take a foothold in Italy.

From 2018:

At a time when Europe is filled with anti-immigrant rhetoric, political extremists have pointed to the demographic shifts in Prato as proof that Italy is under siege. In February, Patrizio La Pietra, a right-wing senator, told a Prato newspaper that the city needed to confront “Chinese economic illegality,” and that the underground economy had “brought the district to its knees, eliminated thousands of jobs, and exposed countless families to hunger.” Such assertions have been effective: in Italy’s recent national elections, Tuscany, which since the end of the Second World War had consistently supported leftist parties, gave twice as many votes to right-wing and populist parties as it did to those on the left. Giovanni Donzelli, a member of the quasi-Fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, who last month was elected a national representative, told me, “The Chinese have their own restaurants and their own banks—even their own police force. You damage the economy twice.
Once, because you compete unfairly with the other businesses in the area, and the second time because the money doesn’t go back into the Tuscan economic fabric.”

In March of 2019, Italy entered into a new agreement with China, part of its “one belt, one road” initiative, a sweeping economic agreement with the country that saw the port of Triesta in northern Italy “revitalized” and managed by The PRC.

The project makes enormous infrastructure investments to move Chinese goods and resources. Italy became the first of the Group of 7 nations that once dominated the global economy to take part in China’s “One Belt One Road” throughout Asia, Africa and Europe.

The Trump administration, which tried and failed to stop the deal, focused in the days leading up to Mr. Xi’s visit on blocking any Italian use of 5G wireless networks developed by the Chinese electronics giant Huawei, which Washington warned could be used by Beijing to spy on communications networks.

Italy, which is saddled with crushing debt, hopes to lift its lagging economy by exporting goods to China and inviting more Chinese investment.

But opponents of the project in the Trump administration and in the European Union worry that Italy has turned itself into a Trojan Horse, allowing China’s economic — and potentially military and political — expansion to reach into the heart of Europe.

The detailed reporting on this slow takeover is expansive, and we could continue here for many paragraphs, but let us fast forward to early 2020. As China withheld information about the seriousness and spread of Wuhan corona-virus, many of these immigrants were returning- and arriving – from China. Once news of the virus became mainstream and China felt increasing backlash over the handling of the crisis, they turned to one of their major economic hubs for some help.

It wasn’t chance. It wasn’t age. It wasn’t overall health, and it wasn’t the good-hearted nature of the Italian people that caused the virus to ravage their nation. It was a leadership who are now under the thumb of the Chinese government.

On February 1, 2020, the mayor of Florence initiated something called “Hug a Chinese” day.

The mayor of Florence, Italy, @DarioNardella initiated "hug a Chinese" on Twitter on Feb 1, opposing anger toward China amid the #nCoV2019 outbreak, and calling for "Unity in this common battle!" Many Italian netizens responded by posting photos of themselves with Chinese. pic.twitter.com/LutXfPyXc7

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 4, 2020

This video was released on February 4, and was produced by the Chinese government. Under the guise of being “woke”, the Italian government prodded their citizens to erase the stigma surrounding the virus, and hug one of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who had been living, recently returned, or recently arrived in Italy. Italy had become dependent on China, and their capital is a large percentage of the Italian economy. When “One Belt One Road” began early in 2019, the Italians made clear they were willing to partner with China in their quest for global dominance, and sadly it appears in their attempt to please the purse strings, they put a large percentage of their citizens in harms way.

This may also explain the enormous amount of aid and assistance flowing into Italy now by way of China. Far from being compassionate, the Chinese are likely looking to protect their investment.

So when folks ask, “Why Italy?” the reasons are clear. Along with an ageing population who may not be the healthiest, there is also a government now beholden to China, who acting at their behest, took extreme measures to the opposite of social distancing. For an in depth look at the cluster history inside Italy, please see here.

China’s global dominance has become clear even to the average observer in recent months, as Americans have become aware of the supply line dependence on China for even our most vital commodity; medicine. UncoverDC columnist Carol King detailed some of those issues in a piece that you can read here. We have even witnessed the legacy media seemingly hold water for the communist nation, choosing to parrot the claim of “racism” against China because our President has chosen to correctly name the virus what it is, the Chinese virus – rather than bow to the propaganda of a foreign nation hell bent on our destruction.

If one positive thing can come of the Wuhan corona-virus, maybe it will be that the world will finally open its eyes to just how sinister China has been over the past few decades, slithering in to our households, seemingly unbeknownst to us, and co-opting even our most basic necessities. Time will tell, but one thing is clear- it appears that “Why Italy?” is more nefarious than anyone could have initially thought. 

Tracy Beanz is the Founder and Editor in Chief at UncoverDC. You can follow her on Twitter @TracyBeanz

(Source: UncoverDC)

Coronavirus: How Covid-19 is denying dignity to the dead in Italy

Italy has banned funerals because of the coronavirus crisis. For many, the virus is now robbing families of the chance to say a final goodbye.

"This pandemic kills twice," says Andrea Cerato, who works in a funeral home in Milan. "First, it isolates you from your loved ones right before you die. Then, it doesn't allow anyone to get closure."

"Families are devastated and find it hard to accept."

"We put the clothes the family gives us on top of the corpse, as if they were dressed"

'They have no choice but to trust us'

In Italy, many victims of Covid-19 are dying in hospital isolation without any family or friends. Visits are banned because the risk of contagion is too high.

While health authorities say the virus cannot be transmitted posthumously, it can still survive on clothes for a few hours. This means corpses are being sealed away immediately.

"So many families ask us if they can see the body one last time. But it's forbidden," says Massimo Mancastroppa, an undertaker in Cremona.

The dead cannot be buried in their finest and favourite clothes. Instead, it is the grim anonymity of a hospital gown.

But Massimo is doing what he can.

"We put the clothes the family gives us on top of the corpse, as if they were dressed," he says. "A shirt on top, a skirt below."

In this unprecedented situation undertakers are suddenly finding themselves acting as replacement families, replacement friends, even replacement priests.

People close to those who die from the virus will often be in quarantine themselves.

"We take on all responsibility for them," says Andrea. "We send the loved ones a photo of the coffin that will be used, we then pick up the corpse from the hospital and we bury it or cremate it. They have no choice but to trust us."

The hardest thing for Andrea is not being able to ease the suffering of the bereaved. Instead of telling families all the things he can do, he is now forced to list everything he is no longer allowed to do.

"We can't dress them up, we can't brush their hair, we can't put make up on them. We can't make them look nice and peaceful. It is very sad."

"We can't make them look nice and peaceful. It is very sad."

Andrea has been an undertaker for 30 years, just like his father before him. He says small things are usually important for the bereaved.

"Caressing their cheek one last time, holding their hand, and seeing them look dignified. Not being able to do that is so traumatic."

In this time of virus, undertakers are often forced to meet grieving families either side of a closed door.

Relatives still try to pass on handwritten notes, family heirlooms, drawings and poems in the hope they will buried alongside their mother or father, brother or sister, son or daughter.

But not one of these things will be put in the coffins.

Burying personal items is now illegal. A drastic measure but one designed to stop the spread of the disease.

If someone dies at home, undertakers are still allowed inside - but they have to come in wearing full protective gear: glasses, masks, gloves, coats. It is a deeply distressing sight for someone who's just seen a loved one die.

But many undertakers are now in quarantine themselves. Some have had to close their business. A big worry is that those who handle the dead don't have sufficient masks or gloves.

"We have enough protective gear to keep us going for another week," says Andrea.

"But when we run out, we will not be able to operate. And we are one of the biggest funeral homes in the country. I can't even imagine how the rest are coping."

The deaths have overwhelmed Italy's funeral industry. Getty Images

An emergency national law has now banned funeral services in Italy to prevent the spread of the virus. 

This is unprecedented for a country with such strong Roman Catholic values.

At least once a day, Andrea buries a body and not even one person shows up to say goodbye - because everyone is in quarantine.

"One or two people are allowed to be there during burial, but that's all," Massimo says. "No-one feels able to say a few words, and so it is just silence."

Whenever he can, he tries to avoid that. So he drives to a church with the coffin in the car, opens the boot, and asks a priest to perform a blessing there and then.

It is often done in seconds. And then the next person awaits.

A country inundated with coffins

Italy's mortuary industry is overwhelmed and the number of dead keeps rising. Almost 7,000 people have been killed by the virus so far (24 March) - more than any other country in the world.

"There's a queue outside our funeral home in Cremona," says Andrea. "It's almost like a supermarket."

Funeral services have been banned in Italy as an emergency measure. Getty Images

Hospital morgues in northern Italy are inundated.

"The chapel at the hospital in Cremona looks more like a warehouse," says Massimo.

Caskets are piling up in churches. In Bergamo, which has the highest number of cases in Italy, the military has had to step in because the city's cemeteries are now full.

One night last week, locals watched in silence as a convoy of army trucks slowly drove more than 70 coffins through the streets.

Each one contained the body of a friend or neighbour being taken to a nearby city to be cremated. Few images have been more shocking or poignant since the outbreak began.

The Italian army was called in to help transport the dead. Reuters

Doctors and nurses across the country have been hailed as heroes, saviours in Italy's darkest hour. But funeral directors have not received recognition for what they too are doing.

"Many people see us as merely transporters of souls," Massimo sighs.

He says many Italians look at their work in the way they view that of Charon, the sinister mythological ferryman of the underworld who carries the souls of the newly deceased across a river dividing the world of the living from the world of the dead.

A thankless and unthinking task in the eyes of many.

"But I can assure you that all we want is to give dignity to the dead."

#Andratuttobene - "everything is going to be ok" - is a hashtag that has been trending in Italy since the crisis erupted. It's accompanied with a rainbow emoji.

But at the moment there is no sunshine in sight. And although all pray for it, no-one knows exactly when everything will indeed be ok once again.

*Illustrations by Jilla Dastmalchi

(Source: BBC)