2009: A year worth remembering

What a year! It has been so full of events and surprises. Some of them have been a first in history. Here is a list of what I consider worth remembering, what has affected me the most, and what I think has marked most of us.

President Barack Obama: The first African American president, the 44th president of the USA, the fifth youngest president of the United States. He’s the living proof of making The American Dream a reality.

Hillary Clinton: After graciously, losing the presidency to Barack, she was nominated Secretary of State. What a victory! What an inspiration to women world-wide!

The economy crashes world wide, the stock market collapses from NYC to London, and even Dubai! The crisis affected us all in way or the other.

The Celebrities’ “Massacre”: I don’t ever remember so many celebrities disappearing in one year! Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Jett Travolta, Natasha Richardson, Billy Mays, David Carradine, and Brittany Murphy.

The Kennedy Dynasty ends: To join the sad news, also Ted Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Italy is shocked by the politicians’ scandals who involve drugs, sex and trannies!!!

The scare of the Swine Flue: the world is terrified by a virus!

The Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi is attacked by a random young man who throws a Milan souvenir at his face. This causes national chaos and shows more and more the unhappy phase we are crossing.

On Christmas Eve the US Health Plan passes! It was about time!

Also on Christmas Eve the Pope Benidict XVI is attacked by a young girl who wants to hug him and makes him fall in the crowd!

China keeps on growing despite the crisis: they announce to have launched the fastest train in the world, it can reach up to 394 Km/Hr!!!

This is not a joke: An American, a Russian and a Japanese Astronauts safely land together on the International Space Station.

These are the news that I have most marked in my memory. There are many more, especially with all the wars and nuclear threats that are planted on the planet. But the ones I mentioned above are in my opinion what made 2009 so unique, whether they were positive or negative. We live in a world of progress that is already obsolete as a new discovery is revealed, we are ruled by speed and globalization, and we rarely really stop to contemplate on what is happening around us. What we are destroying in the process of building, we forget to discover who we really are inside, and we just don’t give a damn!

In the end I would like to say once more, 2009 was an historic year!

Pork recommendations???

This a list of reasons why I don’t belong to this forgotten in time piece of land in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The level of ignorance is overwhelming. I feel like a complete alien, not in the sense of a foreigner from another country, but like a creature from another planet. The whole place (just like a vast part of Italy as well), is ruled by male chauvinists’ rules, all centered on the idea of discrimination, mafia, unethical and immoral sources. I have been job hunting for the past two months. Never before in my life have I had such a problem finding employment. Certainly, it’s not the best time with the economic crisis that the world is suffering, yet the problem is not such in my case. Most of the adds I find they all state and require the following: “Good looking, age in between 20 and 26, attach photograph”… Are you in your 30s of 40s? Well too bad, you are obviously too old, and are not good for anything other than cooking dinner for your lazy and bold husband…. What? You are single! Even worse, divorced! You then are obviously a useless whore! Why would anyone hire you? Yes, you do also need to include in your job application if you are married, single or divorced. I was watching a show on TV, they were talking about how many brilliant scientists, inventors and researchers the fabulous country of Italy gives birth to, and how unfortunate it is that they always end up moving to other countries, they call it “la fuga dei cervelli”… “the escape of the brains”. But of course, why would anyone with a higher than average IQ level remain in this embarrassing nation? A nation that loves to label you, to drain you into a nothing if you are not connected or related to some rude politician who makes a fool out of himself on the news world-wide. Then one of the funniest thing happened to me, I heard of people who thank their doctors for being cured or visited by giving them whole dead piglets for roasting! (I’m sorry, don’t we have socialized medicine here? It’s not a favor… it’s their job as doctors!). A whole piglet? I have seen it with my eyes, people going to the hospitals with dead entire piglets in plastic bags, and doctors all happy and proud running through the parking lots and rushing home to bring the dead beast to be safely kept in their “icy-safes” (freezers). What is this place? What am I doing here? This is grotesque and archaic.

Dear Santa...

… am I too old to write you? I think this year I long for that feeling of magic and surprise. I urge for a miracle maybe. This is why I decided to write this letter. My whole life I have always calculated and planned everything… and lately I feel like my existence has taken a wild turn and I’m unable to tame it. No, not the kind of wild that finds you back in the morning with make-up smeared all over you face and a killer headache! I’m talking about that feeling of impotence towards life in general, when days go by and you feel like you have accomplished nothing. I feel useless.
Dear Santa, I don’t want to bore you any further with my long preface to my wish list:
1) Can you please reward me with a great job that will guide me through a sparkling career?
2) Can you change that part of my brain that always makes me think and care about others first rather than myself?
3) Can you send me a brilliant man that shares my passions and sense of adventure, has a good sense of humor, is handsome, is successful yet humble, and is also honest and loyal? And sober!
4) Can you also make my skin look like it used to be when I was 16? (Yes, I used to be one of those lucky teenagers with flawless skin!)
I think this should do it for at least this coming year. Did I ask for too much? In order of priority I would be happy if you at least granted wish number 1.

I hope it will make it to the North Pole before Christmas Eve... or maybe I could just deliver it myself to you if you allow me to stay over for a couple of nights... I have yet to visit your land.

Thank you & Merry Christmas!

PS: I've got you some Panettone.

That sense of freedom... a must at least once in your life.

I have been unemployed since October 1st, I'm not even sure what day is today! This feeling of not having a commitment of having to be in an establishment at a particular time, to have to follow rules, and tolerate certain circumstances is inebriating! I don't think I have ever experienced it before. I'm sure I will start stressing in about 3 weeks, when I will be all moved back to Sardegna. However now I'm in such a happy and peaceful place that I would not trade it for anything in the world. This holiday has turned into a gypsy tour, and I love every second. I never knew that visiting the USA would have felt so comfortable and safe... after all I have grown up here and it truly is my second home (even though often feels like my first home!).

Back to freedom mode. Have you ever woke up everyday whenever your body naturally awakens? Eat whenever you feel like it? Do anything whenever you feel like it? I love this so much, that I'm having a hard time even trying to imaging myself back at work. I shall find a job that I truly love and not consider as a duty. In fact my job should consist of travelling, exploring famous and/or unknown sites, and eating. If anybody has any links for such a job, please let me know.

Do I realize that I have absolute no plans? As irresponsible as it may seem, I'm in love with this sensation. Maybe this is something I should have experienced in my twenties, but as a good friend of mine says "it's never too late"! Maybe I just never really had a real long vacation. I now promise myself never to deprive myself from this selfish and delicious state of mind.

Now I must go back to do nothing. Maybe I will have breakfast and watch the geese who love to torment me.

Blood, revenge, dark humor and a kick ass blonde chick? Tarantino is back!

Anyone who knows me well should be aware of how strongly I feel about WWII, how much I hate the Nazi, and how proud I am to be part Jewish. I believe that all my closest friends have seen my show in LA where I clearly talked about it, and expressed my feelings. Watching Inglorious Basterds for me was simply glorious.

I often watch movies. Theatre, films, scripts, and acting has been fascinating me since a young age. Tonight I finally saw I movie worth watching. Quentin Tarantino has confirmed to me be once again to be a genius. From the very beginning to the end I was fully entertained, the tension was on a constant build up, and my favorite part was the unpredictability! I absolutely am annoyed when I can predict the end of a movie during the first five minutes. It surely didn’t happen tonight. I sat on the edge of my seat, I furiously ate my pop-corn while following this intriguing tale full of tension.

The film is divided into chapters describing the stories of different people who at some point will all become the part of a big puzzle. Tarantino has done a wonderful job mixing as usual kick ass action, irony, dark humor, a brilliant cast, and as his signature a hot blonde girl who is afraid of nothing. His attention to detail is one of the ingredients I admire the most in his films. At the very beginning of this flick, during the Chapter I, there is a scene where the French farmer is being interviewed by a Nazi Investigator. He lights up his pipe, and throws the match in an ashtray right next to the Nazi hat with a big swastika on it. That detail was so clever. I found it to be very symbolic. All the characters are incredibly well designed, from Brad Pitt playing the American redneck Lieutenant, Christoph Waltz the Nazi Col. Hans Landa, to the wonderful Mélanie Laurent playing the Jewish Shosanna Dreyfus .

I don’t want to give away the story nor the plot. I do highly suggest to go watch it. However be ready for a lot blood! Another thing I absolutely loved is that a good 75% of the film is with subtitles, it’s like watching a foreign movie, I have always thought that it would be so brilliant to make an American movie played with foreign actors and in native languages to really give it a sense of reality. Tarantino really made this come true.

I applaud Quentin Tarantino (how many times have I typed his name by now?), the whole cast, the story, the choreography and the beautiful ending!

The Clintons... an irresistible source of gossip.

Why does the media love to pick on certain political figures over and over? Don't they get tired?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to the Republic of Congo, was asked "We've all heard about the Chinese contracts in this country. The interference is from the World Bank against this contract. What does Mr Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs Clinton and what does Mr Mutombo think on this situation? Thank you very much." Mrs Clinton rightfully replied "You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the Secretary of State, I am. You ask my opinion. I will tell you my opinion; I'm not going to channel my husband."

I'm sorry, maybe is because I'm a feminist at heart, but the student should have asked what SHE thought about it? It was later said it was a pure mistake and that the student meant to ask what Mr Obama thought about it. Now this story is all over the news here in the UK! Maybe she did slightly over react, but she had every right to do so. She is the Secretary of State! I think she is doing a great job, and I'm a big fan of hers.

This doesn't mean I don't feel as animated about her husband Bill. They tried to say he is overshadowing her visit to Africa with his trip to Pyongyang; where he was able to secure the release of two American journalists. My point is, why can't the media just accept that the Clintons are doing a great job individually. Why do they to keep on bringing up the past events and scandals? They just love to trash public figures even when they don't deserve it.

My last thoughts? I think Hillary is performing wonderfully, and I'm proud of Bill's involvement in the world by fighting for human rights. As much as I love the news, I love having my own brain and deciding for my own on what I think is right or wrong!

Release Aung San Suu Kyi!

If you're not familiar with Aung San Suu Kyi (you should be ashamed!), she is a Peace Nobel laureate, she has been fighting pro-democracy, and human rights. She has been under arrest for the majority of the past two decades. Why? Because of the monstrous male/military dominated country she lives in. She is now the opposition candidate leader, for next year's election. She is now being accused of allowing an America man in her home, although he arrived uninvited and intruded her residence. She is being sentenced an extra 18 months under house arrest!

This will wipe her out of next year's elections!This is a dirty game that the whole world needs to be aware of! The whole deal is fully supported by China, who claims this is a private matter and no foreign countries should be either involved nor concerned! How convenient!! Without mentioning that there is rumor that they are approving of North Korea nuclear plans! Obviously getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi is a very sneaky political move, it's cover to keep on doing their business the way they want to. Her presence is unwanted by the strong military body.

These type of news really get to me, the fact that this type of injustice outrages me. I feel lucky for been the citizen of two free countries, yet it saddens me that the world is still so polluted by unfairness. A beautiful, smart, courageous woman is been punished for having a beautiful brain!

SET HER FREE! LET IT BE JUSTICE NOW!