14 febbraio 2013 Auf wiedersehen pope

14 febbraio 2013 Auf wiedersehen pope

There are a number of failings that can be made when applying for jobs - I see a lot of CVs in my job and the old adage of making a snap decision after a couple of seconds is true. I am a true secca merde (sh1t drier in Italian i.e. one who is pernickety and detail intensive) and will throw CVs out for bad spelling, typos, classic errors like that. Of course, there are more famous examples of how not to apply for jobs. Possibly the most famous is that of Aleksey Vayner who made a video CV that really caught the world's imagination. "Impossible is nothing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Is_Nothing_(video_résumé)) showed him playing tennis, bench pressing more than 200 kg and ball room dancing. Douche bag is the term that was used, and I couldn't agree more.
http://www.focus.de/finanzen/karriere/bewerbung/bewerbung-impossible-is-nothing_vid_971.html
However, the sad news is that he died recently (http://gawker.com/5978638/aleksey-vayner-the-yale-grad-with-the-infamous-video-resume-reportedly-dead) - it seems that the Yale Graduate never got the job he wanted at UBS and after multiple legal cases he overdosed the other day.

In a reversal of fortunes, the pope announced that he was to resign. This has sent shockwaves through the church. The pope has come out and said that he is too frail to carry on with the demands of the modern church (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9863747/Pope-Benedict-XVI-resigns-pontiff-too-frail-in-mind-and-body-to-carry-on.html). The pope is foreign, and if the papers are to be believed a notorious junior nazi. There have been very few foreign popes, and very few have abdicated. Doubtless he is super old, and cannot cope with the duties expected of him, in such an age - especially when the church is rapped with paedophile claims.

Corriere della Sera had some apt phrases - << Non ho più le forze, perdonatemi...lo faccio per il bene della Chiesa>>

In Italy noone ever really respected him. The people I know have a great deal of fondness for his predecessor Pope John Paul II (also a foreigner - Polish) but he is the real pope for most of the youngsters that I know and Pope Benedikt has never got close to the kind of respect and love afforded to him.

In reaction to this news, the heavens above have reacted in an appropriate way. Amazingly, lightning hit the Vatican on the day he announced his resignation and a photographer managed to snap it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-21427713 Amazing. And funny.

The selection of a new pope is racked with odd rituals - a boy to put his hand and grab the balls of the pope through a chair with a hole to indicate that it is not a woman, some funny smoke when the pope is chosen, and the whole shenanigans racked in the biggest secrecy - appropriate for the catholic church.

Certainly the old geezer was old. Pictures of him and il presidente Georgio Napolitano showed two very old and frail looking buggers.

And this is in a society of Italy where age is respected above all, and certainly above and beyond ability. Shame that Berlusconi is showing no signs of weakening with age yet.

Looking through the list of popes there are some classic names: Leone, Innocenzo, Urbano, Dionisio (I thought that was god of wine making and raucousness).

The other papa that is significant in Siena is that of the bank - Monte dei Paschi di Siena (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_dei_Paschi_di_Siena). This is the oldest bank in the world, being established in 1472 and a major force in Italian banking. I'd never heard of it before I moved there of course. And people in Siena do really call it "Papa di Siena" - the bank has been so so rich that it has single handedly financed much of what has happened in Siena in the past years. Not only does it finance the football team (Serie A, but not so good) and the basketball team (one of the best in Europe, and having won the league in Italy for ever, and basketball, surprisingly, is a big sport here), but also it finances EVERYTHING. Primarily the Palio, which is everything for the senese, but also everything else. Drio, drip, drip and flood, flood, flood - the money of Papa di Siena kept Siena strong, independent and kept out modernisation - both Siena's unique charm and it's fatal flaw.

However, in recent times, like a lot of banks, and like the pope, it looks like these times are at an end. From the same Corriere della Sera <>. What can I say? The national bank is repeatdely bailing out MPS and there are huge question marks over it's future. I see it as good and bad, like I said the way it conducts itself - still as a mediaeval town is it's USP and it's fatal flaw. We shall see what happens.

Adieu.

JJ