[extropy-chat] italian football victory

[Amara Graps]

spike:
>Amara or some of the Europeans, please help me understand something.

>In the world cup football matches of the last couple weeks, France and
>Italy did well, resulting in their reaching the finals.  I didn't follow
>it myself, but I was constantly reminded that Italy was winning, because
>many local businesses hung Italian flags.  But I didn't see any French
>flags.

I know alot of French people well, but I barely know French-Americans.
So comments of your observation, given what I know.

Are Italians patriotic? No. Only in football (soccer), and the rare
times that Italian solders or Italian comedians die.

If you were here, Spike, you would have noticed that all of the Italian
flags flying were/are NEW. Italians are refreshingly unpatriotic (family
and town and region are important, and in that order).

Are French patriotic? Yes, about many more things than Italians. I've
not known them to be the flag-waving people, however, but they do some
cool things with their blue hair during football/soccer games.

>It appears that Italian Americans are proud to be Italian, but French
>Americans are not proud to be French.

Well, after Sunday, the French were not proud when their lead player
lost his head and embarrassed himself.

The Italians, well.. it was a unusual moment, of which some have been
waiting 20 years.

And it was a bizzare win. I spent a full day with several
friends/colleagues bouncing like a rabbit in and out of the Norchia and
Tarquinia Etruscan tombs in northern Lazio, and could only tune into the
game about the time that the famous head butt occurred. Not the kind of
game that I was hoping to see. However given that the Italians are not
usually patriotic, seeing the emotional display of Italian flags and
their level of ecstasy about that particular endeavor was a rare
experience indeed. The sounds from the people in my neighborhood upon
that last shoot-out kick was deafening. Horns, firecrackers, fireworks,
enthusiastic yelling. All headed immediately to the center of town to
meet each other, whether in cars or by foot, all adorned with colors of
green white, and red. The fireworks over Rome as seen from my Frascati
terrace was a stochastic symphony. Everyone these days is smiling.

 From your embedded reporter in Roma/Frascati,

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Roma, ITALIA
Associate Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson