[extropy-chat] unevolved Italians

[Alfio Puglisi]

On Mon, 6 Sep 2004, Amara Graps wrote:

>present. There is no money to buy computers. A printer might be down
>for a month because toner cartridge orders take that long to find the
>money and order.

Red tape slowing everything down is common

>Toilet paper is no longer given in the restrooms as
>a cost-saving measure, the institutes are closed for a week in August
>to save money too.
>
>[This means no electricity to the running computers, including the
>computers holding web pages for conference registrations like the one
>that I was obligated to depend on as local organizing committee for
>next month's Cassini workshop.

That sounds unbelievable to me. Even if cost savings are everywhere, I
never saw missing toiled paper (!!) or computers shut off to save on
electricity. If the situation is so bad in Rome, I can only guess what
must be in Naples or such (as you may have noticed, most things in Italy
change relative to the Y axis - the latitude coordinate).

>Alfio, I'll make a deal with you. I have not met any Italians yet that
>approve of the Bush Administration: people here seem to be universally
>negative about that government, and Bush's policies affect my life in
>large ways here, as well. Since I cannot vote in Italian elections,
>but I can vote (and I am registered this time) in US elections, then
>please, do your best to vote Berlusconi out of office, and I will do
>my best to vote Bush out of office.

I already did my part at the last elections, but it wasn't enough :-(
What's bad is that the next election is still two years away, so the huge
malcontent for the government regarding the Iraq war will be a bit
forgotten.

Alfio