We're off!

Ladies and gentlemen,

Finally we've heard that Daniela will need to be at her desk in Buenos Aires on the 15th December, so we're flying out on the 16th November from Rome.

We've made a list of all the things that we need to do before we go and it was so long and complicated that we've got stressed before actually doing anything!

Oh well, we'll just have to take things one day at a time. At least it means that I'll be posting articles from South American in only three weeks!

Loads to do-must dash....

A Roman lawyer with a global outlook

My student of the month is Raffaele Torino, a commercial lawyer based in Rome, Italy.

Raffaele practises law from his elegant offices surrounding beautifully landscaped gardens situated a stone's throw from the President's residence, the Quirinale palace. Here Raffaele, as a partner, works long hours taking care of legal matters for some of Italy's most important companies. However, Raffaele's professional life also sees him work is a professore, or lecturer, specialising in international comparative law at the city's RomaTre university.

And indeed, this academic role is the main reason why Raffaele has to study English. " I have to give lectures in English, you see..." he explains sat in his office, surrounded by shelves containing dozens, no hundreds of law books "My university operates several academic exchange programmes, which involve other universities overseas. I must travel to these universities in order to deliver lectures to their students. Then their lecturers come over here and lecture for us. For example, in a few weeks I'll be travelling to Australia where I'll deliver a series of talks at different universities in Sydney and Adelaide about the Italian Legal system. Then I'm going to Argentina to do a similar seminar in Buenos Aires".

But delivering lectures isn't the only reason why Raffaele needs to study English. "I do a lot of research, both of books and using the internet, to inform and prepare my university lectures on comparative international law. If I want to understand legal developments in, let's say, the United Kingdom, then I need to be able to consult the original English language documents relating to these developments. The same applies to my work in other languages."

Studying comparative law and travelling so much, Raphaele has plenty of opportunities to compare Italy with other countries. "I was born in Rome, but both of my parents are from Naples. I spent every holiday down there until I was 13 years old. When I see the problems of Naples today, with the streets full of rubbish...well...let's just say that whilst I have a great sympathy for Naples and the Neapolitans, I'm also their strongest critic".

Raphaele has visited Britain many times and describes himself as something of an anglophile. But what specifically does he like about Britain? "I like your British way of life. Your freedom. You can breathe the freedom in the air in the UK. For example, once I went into a bank in London. I needed to change some money. The cashier was very helpful, and whilst he was counting the money to give me I noticed that his wrist was covered in tattoos. It sounds like nothing, but I realised that in Italy it would be impossible to get a job in a bank if your wrist was covered in such things. In Britain people don't place such importance on aesthetics".

Listening to Raffaele I'm very impressed by the fluency and accuracy of his English. I thought he must have focused his foreign language studies exclusively on English for many years. However, he had a surprise in store for me."I didn't study English at school-instead I learned French for eight years! My mother was an English teacher, and she decided that she was tired of teaching English all day, so she didn't want to teach her son as well when she got home. So she made sure that I learned French instead of English".

So where did Raphaele learn his very good English, then? "...I studied English at the LUISS University (a private university in Rome), and after graduating in 1993 I studied in England and have continued my English over the years". Had he suffered from not learning the language at school? "Not really. In Italy the state school system teachers aren't very good on the whole. So most people arrive at university speaking little English. To speak the language well you must continue to study independently, going to English speaking countries".

Raphaele's very modest about his English. When I compliment him, he says instead how he'd like to improve. "I want to learn all of the words that I possibly can", he says, "..but I realise that speaking more than one foreign language one doesn't always speak them so well, which isn't such a good thing. In the future I'm sure that the world will only speak more and more English, not less. In fact, for the first time, we're starting to plan legal courses at my university in Rome which will be taught exclusively in English".

Raphaele finds time to ask my opinion about another language which he's learning with a passion. "I'm learning German, to help me with my studies of international comparative law. Do you think I can continue to learn German and also English....?". The only answer that I have for Raphaele is 'Yes'. When someone's as talented and good at languages as he is, the sky really is the limit.

Happy Birthday Sophia

Happy happy birthday to our lovely little girl Sophia one year old!! Now I suppose she's officially a toddler instead of a little baby! She celebrated with her Mum and Dad and all of her little friends at the foreign ministry creche. She also amazed us by eating loads of cake!

Government Health Warning: Passive Driving Can Kill

In recent years it's been refreshing to see how many countries have passed legislation to outlaw smoking in public places. These laws have been motivated by countless pieces of research which have demonstrated beyond doubt that passive smoking, through which non-smokers are exposed to cigarette smoke in confined areas, has caused many, many deaths.

One hero of mine died this way. Allan Carr wrote books advising people on how to give up smoking. Without reading his book I'd have never been able to give up. Allan had a principle which he applied throughout his books and throughout his 'Give up smoking' workshops. It was a simple one. The smoker can continue smoking whilst he or she is reading the book or attending the workshop. He or she will only have to stop smoking when he or she reaches the end of the book or the end of the workshop.

The problem for Allan was that for years he gave workshops in smokey conference rooms in which nervous smokers, on the verge of giving up, were anxiously puffing away. Last year Allan died of lung cancer. Yes, ironically, the man who helped millions to kick the habit, almost certainly died of passive smoking twenty years after he himself had given up.

I've been impressed by the way in which laws prohibiting smoking in public places have been respected by the public. Everywhere in the developed world, we see bars, restaurants and offices where smokers huddle together outside the exits and fire escapes to smoke their cigarettes, leaving the non-smokers inside to enjoy cleaner air.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think any reasonable person would make an arguement against this legislation, especially if smokers are provided with areas inside buildings in which they can smoke in peace. I smoked for long enough to know that smokers see themselves as quite an oppressed group sometimes, who just want to be able to enjoy their simple pleasure. Nor would anyone argue against the government health warnings which tobacco companies are obliged to place on cigarette packets.

No, without doubt, here we have witnessed a development in enlighted legisation which should be applied to other areas of life.

For example, what about extending this treatment to vehicles which burn fossil fuels? The air in our towns and cities is full of poisons with levels regularly above the acceptable limits set by the World Health Organization. This pollution is largely due to the presence of vehicles which burn fossil fuels. For example, in Rome there is probably one of the highest percentages of vehicle ownership in the world, with about 75 vehicles per 100 residents. These vehicles make the air unbreatheable near the major roads and junctions. In a recent survey, it was found that an alarmingly high proportion of Roman traffic wardens, who spend their entire working lives in the middle of the traffic, have developed tumors of the lungs. The rates of asthma for children in the city is alarmingly high as well.

In a city like Rome, in which there is little manufacturing industry, the percentage of air pollution owing to vehicle use is probably higher than in other, more industrialized cities. Here I want to draw a link between this sad state of affairs and the passive smoking debate.

Sitting in his or her air-conditioned car, the driver is shielded from the exhaust emissions of their chosen activity. Pedestrians, cyclists and even motorcyclists breathe in the exhaust emissions. In this respect, the driver is even more selfish than the smoker in a restaurant, because at least the smoker also breathes in the foul smoke. In an air-conditioned car, the driver is totally protected from the air pollution that he or she produces whilst the children walking past on their way to school breathe in the foul air.

An exaggeration? Well, a few weeks ago, because of a public transport strike, I had to use my bicycle to navigate Rome's seven hills whilst visiting my students. I returned home that evening and my face was black with dirt from vehicle exhaust emissions.

The air surrounding major roads and junctions in our towns and cities is every bit as polluted as the air inside a bar or restaurant in which people are smoking, so I can't understand why legislators have intervened to reduce the risks of passive smoking for non-smokers, whilst not taking action to protect non-drivers from the risks of passive driving!

I'm not saying that car drivers are selfish, but I'm sure that car driving is a selfish activity. Now, at this point I must make an admission. I drive regularly and I love it. I realise that many people have no option but to drive, especially those who have limited mobility or live far from public transport networks. But the poor citizen who walks, uses a bicycle or public transport and in doing so is responsible for little or no pollution (and probably represents an example for the rest of us to follow in order to save the planet) suffers more than the vehicle driver the negative consequences of vehicle pollution. Is this fair?

It's a selfish activity. What's more, to underline how selfish an activity car driving is, what about airbags? The airbag is always positioned on the inside of the car, therefore being positioned so as to protect the person more often than not responsible for causing the accident. This is great. It saves lives. But what about the poor person being run over by the driver? The car manufacturer offers them no such protection! If car driving isn't a selfish activity, why aren't the airbags also fitted on the outside of the vehicle to protect the person mown over by the driver of the vehicle?

Then of course we need to add the thousands of cases every year in which pedistrians are killed while innocently crossing the road by drivers who lack attention or who have been drinking or taking drugs.

I haven't even mentioned the damage caused to the ozone layer and increased carbon levels resulting from driving vehicles that burn fossil fuels.

What can we do about this problem? Maybe we should insist that car manufacturers write in large letters on their vehicles "Government Health Warning: Passive Driving Can Kill" and send people to classes in which they are helped in their attempts to 'Give up driving'. After all, it's a filthy habit which makes the air dirty and kills thousands of people every year!!

Maybe Fiat or Ferrari could sponsor such classes here in Rome?

The British invasions of Rio De La Plata, 1806-1807

Yes, here are two battles that we Brits lost! At the time, Argentina was a Spanish colony and Britain was fighting against France and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. It made sense for the Brits to try and conquer a Spanish colony, also because Britain had been looking to grab itself some prime south american land for quite some time. The area around the Mar De La Plata, at 220kms wide the broadest river in the world and site of modern-day Buenos Aires, was considered ideal.

The Brits arrived first of all in 1806 and were beaten by an hastily organised armed group of locals who'd been abandoned to their fate by their Spanish colonial masters. Then in 1807 the Brits returned again in more numbers, before once again being repelled by a local army.

These events spelled the end of Britain's attempts to incorporate mainland Argentina into its formal empire and also had other significant consequences for the country.

First of all, during the battles the locals discovered a new sense of unity and pride and sought increasing independence from Spain, which had essentially left them at the mercy of the Brits. This sense of independence would lead them to proclaim their independence from Spain within a decade.

Secondly, many of the British and Irish prisoners of war captured by the Argentinians were later freed and became some of the first settlers from the British isles in Argentina, founding communities which survive until this day.

Thirdly, during the period of the attempted invasions the first wealthy British merchants started moving to Argentina. These people would become one of the dominant social groups in Argentina during the 19th century, bringing games like polo, rugby, football and the tradition of afternoon tea with them.

Things they never taught us at school...

Recently I was helping a bright young Italian student of mine with her homework. She was studying the Second World War and Italy's role in it. Now in the UK we often make cruel jokes about the Italians based on this period of the country's history, calling Italians cowards and turncoats, but to fully understand this terrible period of Italy's history it must be remembered that a civil war was being waged between the fascisti, supporting Mussolini and the pact with Nazi Germany, and the partigiani, partisan resistance fighters who supported the allied nations.

Now back to my student. She's an exremely bright girl, with a photographic memory. She studies morning, noon and night to obtain excellent marks at her school in Rome. She was relating to me an account of the end of the war which she'd previously memorised off by heart, a learning strategy somewhat out of fashion in the UK but still widely-used over here. Suddenly she said something that instantly caught my attention. "Italy was liberated from the Germans" she proudly stated "in 1944, by the Partisans with the help of the Americans".

What? By the partisans with the help of the Americans? Wasn't it the other way around? The Americans came in their tens of thousands, with fighter planes, bombers, a naval blockade, army regiments with tanks and heavy artilliary. The partisans were a group of extremely brave Italian men and women, of that there's no doubt. They used adopted guerilla tactics, blowing up bridges and interupting communications behind German lines in support of the allies. To say that they liberated Italy with the help of the Americans, well it's a bit rich. The opposite was probably true.

My student showed me her Italian school text books, which confirmed what she'd told me. Italian historical creativity at its best! Now a whole generation of young Italians were learning that their grandparents had liberated themselves from those nasty fascists, with just a little bit of help from those nice Americans. Incidentally, all of those British,Canadians, French, Australians, New Zealanders and soldiers from many other countries who'd died in the allied push from Sicily to northern Italy had been wiped out of the history books. The fighting at Anzio, near Rome during the 'Operation Shingle' allied landings was said to be some of the worst seen in any theatre throughout the entire second world war. There's even an allied cemetery there to remember the thousands of dead.

This experience reminded me how selective our historical learning is. I am amazed about the detail in which young Italians are taught about ancient Roman and Greek history, language, art and science, learnings which add support to their claims to be the original centre of western civilisation. Ironically, whilst they learn about events from 2,000 years ago in great detail their studies of events which happened only 60 years ago here in Italy contain many gaps, omissions and errors.

The same is true for our historical knowledge in the UK where I went to school. We study the Napoleonic wars, we know that Nelson won the Battle of Waterloo, don't we? But do we also know that the British lost two battles in Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807 in a planned invasion of the Rio del la Plata, modern day Argentina? Of course we don't because we lost!

Dreaming of meeting Maradona

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a dream!

I want to find Diego Armando Maradona in B.A., go up to him and tell him how much I hated him back in 1986 when he scored that 'Hand of God' goal and then the 'Goal of the Century' five minutes later...and I want to tell him that in spite of what he did to my beloved England, he is quite simply the greatest footballer I've ever seen. What a star! As a sportsman, perhaps only Mohammed Ali has been as charismatic and truly inspirational over the past fifty years.

So ladies and gentlemen, this is my plan. I'm going to find Diego, plant myself outside of his home morning, noon and night and not leave until he poses for a photo with me and maybe an interview too. I'll have to do the interview in Italian, which fortunately he speaks well after his years in Naples. Neither his English nor my Spanish will be up much!

Needless to say the photos will appear first of all here on this blog! 'When Rick met Diego Maradona.....'