Iran: Who Do They Like?

A bit of prejudice here and huge generalisations, but today I was explaining to someone the situation with Iran. In the last 25 years they've developed a lot. Everyone remembers the 1980's, but that's not Iran today. All those old warmongers are retired or long since passed away. 

I explained it like this: Iran looks at its neighbours, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan can be an exercise in trying to get along at the best of times. Pakistan are OK but a bit of a problem too. Armenia shares very little in common, and Azerbaijan relations are frosty as Iran competes for the Caspian Sea against them. Turkey is distrusted, but Iran has grudging respect and needs them for stuff. Iraq is a cousin, maybe even a half-brother, the border is a colonial invention.

Of the major powers, China is a long way away and a source of nice food and cheap stuff, especially electronics. But they're too far away and too different to be fully trusted. Russians are not liked at all and deeply distrusted. Even more hated are the British, they are despised. How so? Look back at the Great Game played out throughout the 1800's. The two Great Powers competed for the region. Britain came out of it controlling Persia, now known as Iran (Afghanistan was found to be uncontrollable). In the early 20th Century, Britain formed the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and began stealing their oil. That company is today branded as BP - you may have heard of it.

But Americans, Iranians quite like them. They hate their government but they like their people. That's why Iranians when moving overseas head to Los Angeles. See Shahs of Sunset as a reality TV show looking at the phenomenon. It was hilarious, almost as good as the Kardashians.

Basically, Iran would like to be left alone, and then they'd start buying American stuff. That's because Americans tend to make stuff that works and it almost always turns up on time. Think Boeing and Caterpillar tractors. 

Long term, how do Iranians see themselves living? Deep down I believe they desire to be Italy, just not the religion. So, they'd end up living like Istanbul instead. 

Anyway, the better approach for the US is to bring Israel to heel and the US start doing business with Iran. 

Italy's Meloni Representing EU?

Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni is in Washington meeting with US President, Donald Trump. Hang on, is Meloni representing the EU here, or advancing Italy alone, or even her own agenda? It appears to be a lot of the latter, and less of the former.

All trade deals must go through Brussels. There's no flexibility on the issue, so perhaps Donald Trump is trying to divide and conquer.

Privately, I've been joking that Europe in six months time will have convinced itself that China is wrong, and the US is right. They'll go back to their abuser, all the while saying it will be different this time, they really do love us.

Meanwhile, in Asia they can see this play out and they'll be grouping together, they'll just deal with one another and cut off links with the US. It'll be interesting to see what Japan and South Korea do, but I feel fairly certain that the ASEAN countries will 'choose' China. They have to deal with China day-to-day on all sorts of issues, I cannot see them siding with the US or Europe.

Putin must be laughing his tits off about now. 

Italy's 1st Female Prime Minister - Giorgia Meloni

Italy has decided to fight back against the EU and its woke agenda. Here's a speech from the new Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

 

England Lose Euro 2021 Final

England overthink things when it comes to penalties. That's all I can say. They should have won the match in regulation time of course, they were up 1-0 at halftime and should have shut the game down in the second half, but failed to. Sterling should have got a penalty in the second half, but missed out. However, throughout the second half Italy looked the better team. England tried to play and came up short.

Then with penalties, England overwork it. The Rashford attempt had choke written all over it. The other two saves by the Italian goalkeeper were well done, but it was obvious from the body language of the penalty kickers which way they were sending the ball. That made things easier for the Italian goalie.

I should add, the competence of the England manager must be called into question. What was he thinking, choosing a young 19 year old player to take the final penalty kick. The player had come on as a replacement and looked overawed by the occasion. He had one or two touches but never really threatened. To then decide to put the same guy under immense pressure in front of a worldwide audience in the region of two billion, well, that's asking far too much. I doubt anyone could handle it at that age. This is coaching 101, when the chips are down and one last play is needed, you go to old heads with plenty of experience. 

England are still trying to end the drought, will this ever end? I'm a Chicago Cubs fan and know curses all too well. That took 71 years to erase and was only accomplished by having the curse transferred to another team due to one of that teams fans making a big mistake. So, England, this could go well beyond 55 years. Depressing I know.

Top 10 Greatest/Most Famous People

Here's my top 10 of the greatest and most famous people of all time. The criteria:

* No-one famous or great since 1900 - that's too recent
* Must have actually done stuff, not just talked about it
* Must have stood the test of time
* Must have instant name recognition
* Must have done something first, or started a trend, not simply followed on or built upon
* Ranked in order.

1. Julius Caesar

Pretty obvious I know, but truly great he is. You may argue that without William Shakespeare's play, he'd be far less known, maybe Pompey would be the one we'd all admire instead. However Caesar holds his own in any company. Today his place of cremation is a shrine attracting millions of people. What is it about him that pulls on so many heartstrings. He was betrayed, perhaps that's what it is. His accomplishments are many, and he had a capable team around him. But most importantly, his influence led to the founding of the Roman empire.

2. Marc Antony

Caesar's sidekick and one of few men Julius Caesar confided in. He wasn't as gifted as Caesar nor as lucky.

3. Cleopatra VII

Rounding out the top three, an argument could be made that Cleopatra VII deserves a higher place. However her kingdom was badly in decline by the time she came to power and her joining with Caesar and then Antony is simply clutching at straws. She was clever, no doubt about it, but doomed - sadly. Sidebar note: she was the mother of Cleopatra Selene II, wife of my personal hero Juba II, King of Numidia.

4. Alexander the Great

A warring tourist. He'd also jumped on the bandwagon started by his father.

5. Genghis Khan

He started something great, and established it, but the Mongols were based off a nomadic lifestyle that could not sustain expansion indefinitely. That's why the Mongol advance to Spain halted, the harvests back home had ceased, or were not as good, meaning families were having fewer children and so replacements were not arriving in sufficient numbers.

6. Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley)

'Old nosey' was the greatest defensive military commander of all time. Beat everyone up, never lost, started the Great in Britain, the world's biggest empire (and still is, suck on that). Then he became a statesman. He could be described as somewhat odd, and maybe a little daft. He used to say, when it was time to wake up, it was time to roll out. He meant it, sleeping in a small bed if he slept at all. In later life he'd give out little medals to the children who played on his estate. One girl he liked a lot and he told her he would arrange for a place at horse guards to be kept open for her. This either meant he didn't know she was a girl - horse guards were all men - or he was the first modern male. Maybe the latter as he was a loyal servant of Queen Victoria.

7. Giuseppe Garibaldi

Africa needs a Garibaldi. He unified Italy and had the sense to not place himself on the throne. Everywhere you go in Italy there is Garibaldi this and Garibaldi that. But he earns his place on my list because he was trans-continental, taking his ideas and 'freedom fighting' to Brazil and Uruguay. Special mention must be made of Anita Garibaldi, she makes makes my list of top women to follow.

8. King Henry VIII

Henry gets a bad press. He reformed institutions that led to the later rise of the British Empire, so a pretty significant figure then.

9. Aristotle

The father of western philosophy. You can't be logical without reference to Aristotle.

10. Leonardo da Vinci

A polymath, da Vinci was good at everything. He makes the list due to this sheer breadth of creative work.

*********

A few names missing then, so to explain: Machiavelli and Sun Tzu are lionised by Americans but don't make the cut. Marco Polo too is not on the list. No idea why? They're largely only talking about things. And note, no Americans on the list either, the US hasn't been around long enough, George Washington was just a small-time farmer and Abraham Lincoln a small town lawyer. They wouldn't even make a top 100. Get over it.

Special mention must go to two outstanding historical figures. The first is Xerxes I the ruler of Persia 486- 465 BC who withstood Greek aggression and took Athens. Forget all the Hollywood movies portraying him as a psycho, Xerxes was bringing enlightenment to Greece and all who took his side. Think about his major engineering, the pontoon bridge across the Hellespont and when the first attempt failed did he take it out on the men? No, he flogged the water. A reasonable man indeed. And both modern and ancient historians try to describe Xerxes invasion of Greece as unsuccessful or a defeat. That he burnt Athens. No on both counts; Athens burned because the inhabitants ran away, leaving their fires burning, which resulted in part of the city burning down. And when Xerxes got to Athens he found the place a shithole and cold. He went home. That's what happened. The 300? That was 300 Spartans plus thousands of others, they don't tell you in the movies about Sparta only sending a small force as it was harvest time. Hmm?? But Xerxes doesn't make the list as hardly anyone knows his name in the West, due to thousands of years of propaganda. The reality is everyone took his lead and wanted to be on his side as he was a most reasonable man.

Then we have Vlad III Dracula, otherwise known as Vlad the Just, Vlad the Freedom Fighter, Vlad the Most Wise, Vlad the Prosecutor of Corruption. His enemies unkindly call him Vlad the Impaler. He probably deserves making a list of the most maligned and misunderstood. Vlad failed though, betrayed and assassinated by so-called friends. But he gave Romania its identity, still evident today. 

Tourism: New Zealand needs good myths

It was the bridge of lies, err, bridge of sighs in Venice which got me thinking about this: Venice has woven an intricate set of myths around its romance. It's complete bollocks of course, often knowingly so (my wife thinks many locals actually now believe the lies, but I demur).

New Zealand has to get in on the act. Scenery alone doesn't cut it, there are a lot of places in the world that are stunningly beautiful (I'm committing heresy saying it). And when I say get in on the act, I mean relentlessly go on about it, rather like Australia promotes its better climate when in fact it is nothing of the sort, it's either burning, in drought, or a mosquito infested swamp.

The idea of running a 24 hours TV channel in Europe comes to mind. We noticed in Italy that countries in Africa even promote themselves this way in Europe. Nothing about NZ, why not?

Obesity Epidemic

I have mentioned several times that on my Italy trip I failed to see anyone obese. Three weeks walking kilometres every day and not a single obese person did I see. Then back living in New Zealand, I don't have to go far to find obesity, a simple trip to the supermarket and guess what, that's right, at least 25% of shoppers are obese. That's a problem.

I've been analysing this and one thing is for sure, the New Zealand diet is very bad but then a lot of what Italians eat is bad also. Italians have very sweet breakfasts, I find what they eat hard to consume at that time of day, and they love their soda drinks. They drink Coke all the time.

So what's up? How come Italians are in such better shape than Kiwis?

I think the following answers the question:

They don't consume as much in a day. That's right, the overall quantity of what goes into their stomachs is less. Italians eat a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Then their activity levels are higher. They joke that their involvement in sport is watching it on television but that doesn't quite address the point. Italians are doing things, not just sport related things. They're walking, shifting furniture, whatever.

And when it comes to the main meal, they eat less meat and a lot more vegetables. This is quite noticeable and is what stands out as the major difference with NZ (which is all meat and a few vegetables, and much larger quantities overall).

We are talking cultural factors. For NZ to solve its obesity epidemic means addressing the quantities being consumed and nutritional balance. That's a hard task given how entrenched habits have become. Small scale initiatives won't work, so forget school tuck shops and what they sell. A better approach would be to remove GST on certain foodstuffs, making healthier food more affordable, diverting consumers from less desirable foods.

Then get people moving, burning off the calories.

Italy vs New Zealand

Travelling through Italy, it became obvious to me that there are a lot of similarities between the Italian people and New Zealanders in general. Both are strongly community and family focussed and have a genuine affection for their land.

But maybe Italy have the edge on community engagement if one incident is anything to go by. In Rome I witnessed an example of Italians helping one another. It happened at an intersection, which you'd expect to be more haphazard than in fact they are. A car came across the intersection in front of a car sitting waiting at the lights, ready to go in the other direction. The driver waiting jumped out of his car shouting loudly and ran after the car that had just gone across in front of him. The passenger of the waiting car jumped out and went to the back of the car to ensure no-one came up their rear when they got the green light. 

I followed the guy running down the road screaming. Turned out the car he was yelling at was on fire and the guy driving had no idea. He stopped at some point, the flames beginning to envelope his car. Someone else from a nearby building ran out with a fire extinguisher and put the flames out, by now about 50 people had gathered. All in a days work for those living in Rome, I don't see those events unfolding as they did in New Zealand. Oh, and don't buy an Audi, just saying.

And something else comes to mind; Italians and New Zealanders are warm, resourceful, enterprising people, each ruled by completely incompetent governments. The people of each don't deserve the governments they're saddled with, I hope both are able to do something about it before they're left totally ruined.

Rome II

We sampled McDonald's in Italy while in Rome. It wasn't that good, bought from the McDonald's next to the central train station (not the outlet inside the station itself), must avoid McDonald's while in Italy in the future:

Yes we checked out the Coliseum in case I haven't mentioned that before, this pic shows how it sits alongside Constantine's arch:

Then a nice view of the Coliseum coming down from the hill Nero's golden home sits on:

Inside the structure, my daughter dryly noted the use of 2,000 year old scaffolding (not), oh and a modern concrete batching plant outside as well. In other words constant work is ongoing to keep the structure from falling down - suggestion: throw the cars out from the vicinity, that might help:

We checked out the place it is said Julius Caesar was cremated in the Forum, people place coins and other offerings there, no idea why they do that:

We took in other sights, such as the Trevi Fountain, and noted the large volume of souvenirs connecting the fountain with Audrey Hepburn's film, Roman Holiday. No surprises guessing the age of the visitors:

A short walk then to the Pantheon, the absolute highlight of our whole trip:

The famous ceiling:

And the drain holes in the floor to take away the water that falls through that hole at the top:

People seem to forget to walk around the outside of the building, just to see how old the structure is:

We then visited Vatican City, walking there from the Pantheon, and the next day for a second time by taking the hop on/hop off bus which commenced its journey right outside our hotel. By using the bus we had a lot of time to see the Vatican Museum:

Walking back from Vatican City we came upon the Largo di Torre Argentina and its Roman Republican temples. Many believe this is the location of the assassination of Julius Caesar. This is not well promoted by the Italians and the sign explaining the site is very poor:

Then heading in the general direction of the hotel, came up close and personal with the Circus Maximus:

Then on the next day we get off the hop on/hop off bus at their stop on the hill to the right, to get a view of the Circus Maximus from that vantage point and head to the Bocca della Verita or Mouth of Truth, as my daughter is obsessed with the thing. Initially we couldn't find it and that was because guide books put us badly wrong. The simple explanation to find this; from the hop on/hop off bus-stop at the Circus Maximus, head down the hill in the direction the traffic is travelling. Go over the first street, then keep going straight, the Mouth of Truth is on the next corner inside the building on the corner, the entrance just around the corner on your right shoulder.

That was fun, daughter didn't lose her hand. Then back on the bus and off to the Vatican Museum. Interesting, learnt that Raphael is much better than Michelangelo and that the Sistine Chapel ceiling is totally overrated. Another tourist trap. Though on one of the displays I did read that there is no proof at all that Christians were fed to the lions by the Romans. Thank you Vatican, I knew that, and finally comes confirmation from people with a vested interest in saying the opposite.

The Vatican Museum has a lot of really old stuff, such as Egyptian pieces 5,000 years BC:

5,000 BC are those little pieces in the middle of the pic. That's old. The Vatican Museum is better laid out but English did evaporate at times, though not as often as with Italian Museums. The museum can be beautiful:

But the exit staircase is treacherous, watch out:

Outside, the Vatican was having some festival for agriculture:

Rome

Our travels in Italy ended in Rome. I also give it top spot due to the layout of the streets which are logical and well signposted, and considering that most of the main sights are in Rome as well. My personal favourite place is Florence but I have to admit it is much smaller. If heading to Italy, you have to visit Rome.

We spent a week in Rome, the first few days just walking around, then another day using a hop on/hop off bus, then our last full day we devoted to shopping.

On our first walk around we stumbled upon the Coliseum:

It's an imposing structure and you can see how it was constructed, rather like an onion with the outer layers going higher and reaching over the lower inner layer.

But while impressive, it's still only a sports complex. For me the Forum and Palatine Hill are more interesting. The Italians get complicated with their ticketing, there is something called a Super Ticket which I'm not sure about as the place advertising it was not selling it. Italians are idiots like that. In the end we bought a ticket for the Coliseum and Palatine, which gave one entry to each, valid for two days. We visited both over one day, which was hard work, we wore our legs out.

Without needing a ticket you can get a good view of Constantine's arch,

and the gladiator school that sat right next to the Coliseum (gladiators went into the stadium underground):

Plus, aqueducts which brought in water are clearly visible as are what is left of 2,000 year old apartment blocks.

Using your ticket to gain entrance to the Palatine, you can get a good view of the Circus Maximus, still an impressive structure today. Do they still race horses on this track and if not, why not (look out Ben-Hur)?

At the other end of the Palatine you can get a good view of the Forum:

Tomorrow I'll continue describing our Rome experiences, including the awesome Pantheon which was the highlight of the whole trip. But before I go I'll leave you with a pic of the hop on/hop off bus we used.

The advantage this afforded was the ability to quickly get to the main things, but also in having the upper deck we got a really good idea of how things looked 2,000 years ago. Take out the cars, and it would have been stunning having Trajan's column at one end and Titus and Constantine's arch at the other, to one side the Palatine, and the other side the hill with Nero's golden house on it. The Coliseum standing between the two. You can get this from up top on the bus, but while walking around on the ground down below you can't see the layout all that well.

Florence

The day following the rugby game in Parma, we travelled to Florence. The train first took us to Bologna, then we changed trains and headed to Florence. We found ourselves now travelling through very pretty countryside.

Florence is my kind of place. That's probably because it's not too large but not too small either. I've studied its history and so know a bit and that probably helps too. Did we do the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo? I tried but don't have a head for heights, so gave up, the task was completed by my wife and daughter.

You need to buy a ticket to climb the steps and this same ticket gets you in to other things as well, such as the Duomo museum, baptistery, bell tower and crypt under the cathedral. All of these are well worth the price of the ticket, especially the museum and the area under the cathedral.

Some pics: you need to make an appointment for the 463 steps and the queuing spot is to the side of the building, not the main doors. By the way it's free to just enter the cathedral proper and to look around and many choose this option alone:

Queuing for the 463 steps:

Steps:

The ceiling from a viewing spot after 100 or so steps (I gave up after this):

The view from the top (thank you to the wife):

There are other sights as well, all within easy walking distance of one another:

And of course, the one thing everyone wants to see, the statue of David which sits in the Museo Accademia:

They've built a hall to show the statue off to maximum effect and they've done this well. I failed to take a photo of my favourite painting though (dang) which sits to the right of David as we look at it. The reason I liked it was the story behind its discovery, if I remember correctly it sat in a basement for years and the owner thought it may be worth something and had it valued. Worth nothing came the answer and so being so large it just sat in the basement some more. Then the owner had another go at getting it valued, this time the valuer recognised the hand and it turns out to be worth a lot. So now it sits alongside the greats. And yes I dream of a find like that. I'll call this work the painting of the Madonna with the big boobies for want of knowing its exact name.

This was breakfast the next day, downstairs from our apartment:

Italians put Nutella in everything:

This was the place, nice people and a place full of locals:

This was the view from our apartment, run by Anna Berti, she's on Booking.com and she thought of everything, her business is very well run:

We were in Florence for a week, the wife went to the opera and travelled to the Chianti region, while daughter and I went looking for the lost Medici fortune in the Medici park. All we found was some fallen trees.

We didn't get to Pisa and other places of note, we'll be back and 'do' those places later. Daughter says I've got a serious man crush on Cosimo de' Medici. Well yes, the man was a genius.

Parma

I like Parma, probably because they have their own fully professional rugby team and the city is on a scale I can identify with. I had to inform my wife that the road sign indicating in which direction a sports stadium lay, would not be a rugby ground. No doubt the place they play rugby would be in the opposite direction and I was right.

The train from Milan to Parma revealed more industry and so we were heading toward larger population centres clustered together. On the previous journey from Venice to Milan, we had seen shipbuilding near Venice (those large cruise ships, two under construction in fact), and then large quarries, one with large blocks of dimensional stone that had been cut recently, very impressive but for most of the time we saw only farmland and farm buildings.

Once again we could see rugby pitches as well as soccer and handball plus a few athletic tracks but not many of the latter. Then arriving in Parma we discovered not to trust Google directions too much. Turns out the hotel we wanted to find was directly over the road from the station main entrance, but Google had us going in the opposite direction and turning several corners to arrive at a place clearly visible....oh it's over there. This sort of thing happened a lot and I concluded that Google can be used as a general indication and is no better than that. For instance in Venice it put the dot on the wrong building completely.

Anyway did I say there is a lot to like about Parma? We grabbed a quick snack from a local shop that was very cheap and frequented by the locals:

Wandered the streets:

Checked out some culture:

Then on the day of the game we saw a marching band playing during some religious festival. Good to see this as New Zealand bands are just about extinct now:

Then we walked to the game between the Zebre and Cheetahs in the Pro14. The Zebre represent the local region and are the bottom team in Conference A, while the Cheetahs are from South Africa and sit just above them. So this wasn't going to be a display of outstanding skill but we enjoyed the day nonetheless.

The stadium the Zebre play at is called Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, it's small with a capacity of about 5,000 but it's quite a nice place, well laid out and sits nicely to the sun. Why oh why has New Zealand gone to night games to keep the TV audience happy, in winter mid afternoon rugby games on a Sunday are the ideal times to play. The sun is almost always out. This day was no exception.

Without the help of Google, we found the place all right. Tickets weren't expensive but they didn't sell game day programmes. Ouch, we were told that's a Kiwi thing. Well yes, I need to know who the players are in each position. Therefore I was left guessing who each player was. Programmes are also a useful fundraiser and allow local businesses to promote themselves.

We were seated in the sunny stand and watched the warm-ups, which to us looked more like practise. The South Africans got their playing shorts muddy doing this, and when the game started all they'd done is change their shirts, they started the game with those same muddy shorts. What? Warm-ups are warm-ups, when do you guys practise and do you have no self-respect? Starting a game at kick-off muddy from the warm-up is naff if you ask me.

The result doesn't tell the whole story. The score was Cheetahs 27, Zebre 12. In fact the score should have been more in the Cheetahs favour as they completely dominated the second half. What kept the game close is the annoying pursuit of bonus points. The Cheetahs were going for tries and did not attempt penalty kicks which would have made the game safe. This is meant to be entertaining but I find it tiresome.

Then the pitch itself has a slight grade toward the right hand side as we look at it in the pictures which follow. Most points were scored at that end and all play tended to go in that direction. They really need to address this, the roll of the ball is biased to the administration end.

Then finally, the role of imported players needs addressing. With 15 men on the field imports cannot have as much impact as they do with basketball. New Zealand-born forward Jimmy Tuivaiti (North Harbour) was playing for the Zebre but he also played in the centres and at fullback. He was all over the place and is your basic highly skilled New Zealand player (he currently makes himself available for Italy). Italy have got to develop their own players to this level. My guess is they struggle to do that as other sports, notably soccer, get first look at anyone showing athletic potential. They've got the facilities, now they have to find ways of keeping the players.

Anyhoo, the game was like this in pics, the teams run on, Cheetahs in white are first out:

Followed by the Zebre in black:

The game gets started:

There are lineouts (most play heads to this side of the field and to the right as this is the slope - note):

Cheetahs score and convert against the slope of the ground:

There are more lineouts and such (spot the ball in this image):

And Jimmy Tuivaiti is everywhere for the Zebre, he's the guy in black with number 8 on his back, foreground and to the right:

The Zebre have enthusiastic supporters who cheer every effort, about 2,000 at the game, along with annoying drummers which reminded us of the Warriors in Auckland (League team, different code):

And then we had gelato on the way back to the hotel. An enjoyable day:

Why did the Zebre lose? Well, they had structure but not a vast wealth of individual talent. They're good players but the South Africans had the extra edge. Also, I noticed during the game that the Zebre backs started to argue amongst one another. That's not a good sign. The South Africans kept their discipline.