Archive for April 3rd, 2005

About Religion (part II)

Published by ugo on April 3, 2005 in personal. 1 Comment

I wrote here about the first gripe I have with respect to the mourning for the Pope's death. Here's part two.

Yesterday night, when the Pope's death was announced to the people on St.Peter's Square, the cardinal reading the announcement asked that people “accompany with silence the first moments of the Holy Father's meeting with God” (quoting from memory).

What happened immediately is that many thousands people started applauding. Can't you shut up and show some respect, you dickheads! This is not a fucking show.

Pope John Paul II was a great man, much greater than his flock. I don't know about other countries, but in Italy most catholics are a bunch of ignorant hypocrites. I am an atheist but I know more about the Bible and the Gospels than 99% of self-proclaimed catholics. Applauding at funerals, as has become strangely customary here, is proof of this. It is a demonstration of ignorance, disrespect and lack of sensitivity. Doing it when you are explicitly asked for silence, is an insult. You disgust me.

About Religion (part I)

Published by ugo on April 3, 2005 in personal. 0 Comments

I don't usually write, or even care much, about religion, but the events of these days, and one particular blog post, prompted me to say something. Be warned, I have two or three gripes here, so this might raise a bit of controversy, but as Dave writes: “Too much footsie in the blogosphere. Enough. […] Make some new enemies for a change.”

First gripe: About the Pope's death. I felt quite sad for his illness. He was a great man, one of the most important men of the last century and he dedicated all his life to what he believed in. I didn't feel particularly sad for his death, rather relieved that his suffering was over.

Anyway, whatever my feelings are, all of Italy's institutions and media think that I should mourn. For three days, no less! So we have no movies on the TV, apart from whatever they can find about the Gospels or the life of some saint. No sports at all: No football matches and no showing of the F1 Grand Prix, which was held in Bahrain, a muslim country, otherwise they could have probably stopped that also. No news but endless showing of people in St.Peter's Square.

Notice that they didn't do this for 9/11. Three thousand innocent people die a horrible death, but the show must go on. One old man dies in his bed and everything stops. That's hypocrisy!

Well, if you're a member of that religious sect that is called “The Catholic Church”, you can mourn all you want. I'm not forcing you to watch my Sunday football match, so please do not force me to mourn your ex-chief. I have no desire to, thanks.
Besides football matches, which don't matter much, all of this reminds me that the purported separation of state and church is but a fairy tale, at least in this country.

Since this entry is already quite long, I will post my other two gripes later. Stay tuned, if you wish.

The Bamboo Forest

Published by ugo on April 3, 2005 in personal and photography. 1 Comment

Actually it's not a forest, but a small patch of land in the heart of the Po river's valley, in northern Italy. Onto this patch of land, a thick grove of bamboo trees, several meters high, has inexplicably grown. Inexplicably because bamboos are not typically found growing wildly in this part of the world.

Bamboo forest

Some might say that this is the effect of the tropicalization of our continental climate due to global warming, but in reality the grove has been there since many years ago. Probably some seeds were carried there by a flood of the nearby Ticino river and found an apt soil and climate. Being in the lowlands near the river, the place is quite humid.

Like invaders from an outer planet, the bamboos have colonized this patch by killing every other plant. Nothing grows between bamboos and, finding no limbs strong enough, birds don't nest there. Given enough time, they will maybe expand to the whole wood, up to the limits of the river on one side and the cultivated fields on the other one.

For your viewing pleasure, I've uploaded some photos to this Flickr photoset.