# Italia Joe The Making of Italia Joe and his continuing relevance in the 21st Century - Site: https://italiajoe.com/ ## Ideological Drivers of Geopolitical Conflicts - Link: https://italiajoe.com/ideological-drivers-of-geopolitical-conflicts/ - Published: 2025-01-28T23:56:31+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti The prevailing circumstances post-WWI included the rise of Communism, Fascism and National Socialism. These remain the cornerstone ideologies that continue to impact Western Politics, particularly the relationship between the three adversaries and democracies. Joshua Philipp, an award-winning investigative reporter, provides an excellent personal dissertation in an essay. In that essay he points out that Nazism, Fascism, and Socialism are all rooted in Communism. I have purposely sought opinions reflecting my views of the communist ideology and other wide-ranging political propositions. Furthermore, I have intentionally taken positions where these contradict my beliefs. In the main, these oppose many left- leaning movements prevalent in the early 21st century. They have become prevalent in the early decades of the 21st Century. This trend shapes my critique. The following is an abridged version of Joshua’s essay: _The concept of a ‘far left’ that is opposed to a ‘far right’ is false. The systems placed on the two ends of that spectrum, including socialism, fascism, and Nazism, are all rooted in communism. All of these movements share core communist beliefs, including state collectivism, planned economies, and class struggle. They were simply different interpretations of Marxism and played major roles in politics after World War I. Marx’s ideas failed to materialise, and communists regroup._ _….Socialism was described in Marx’s theory of the five stages of civilisation. After he helped frame the concept of “capitalism” as a society in which people are able to trade freely, he proposed that after capitalism would come the stage of “ socialism,” followed by “communism.”  Socialism was the stage that Vladimir Lenin described as the “state-capitalist monopoly,” in which a dictatorship has seized control of all means of production.  The idea was that a communist regime would use the absolute power of the socialist “dictatorship of the proletariat” to destroy all values, all religion, all institutions, and all traditions—which would theoretically lead to the communist “utopia.”  **In other words, socialism is the political system, and communism is the ideological goal.** **This is why followers of communism argue that “true communism” has never been achieved**. The system has thus far failed to utterly destroy human morals and beliefs, although it has taken the lives of more than 100 million people over the last 100 years._ **_“Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ were synonyms,”_** Bryan Caplan_, associate professor of economics at George Mason University, states in the chapter on communism in “_The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.” _“Both referred to economic systems in which the government owns the means of production,”_ Caplan_ states: “The two terms diverged in meaning largely as a result of the political theory and practice of Vladimir Lenin.”_ _Of course, **the failings of Marx’s predictions are also what gave rise to the many interpretations of communism that emerged following World War I.**** These included Leninism, fascism, and Nazism.**_ _As the world boiled in the turmoil that led to World War I between 1914 and 1918, many communists looked to the words of Marx, who in the 1848 “Communist Manifesto” said, “Workers of the world, unite.” **Yet, the workers of the world did not unite**— at least not how Marx envisioned. Instead of rallying behind communism, they largely rallied behind their respective kings and countries. In addition, **the livelihood of workers became better under capitalism, **as opposed to Marx’s predictions that it would become worse. **Then, when the communist revolution did happen, it did not happen in the “late-stage capitalist” societies, which at the time were Britain and Germany, but instead in Russia. And instead of the Bolshevik Revolution being the “proletariat” against the “bourgeoisie,” as Marx predicted, it was the military and intelligentsia against the feudal Russian tsarist system.**_ _…**After Lenin, the next communist revisionist to take the world stage was Benito Mussolini, who took from World War I the lesson that nationalism was more uniting than the idea of a worker’s revolution.** **He thus revised Marxism into his new system of fascism,** using the collectivist principle of “fasci,” which refers to a bundle of sticks reinforcing the handle of an axe. _Mussolini_ explained his concept in his _1928 autobiography_, in which he states, _ _“The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity.”_ _According to _“Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime”_ by _Richard Pipes_: “No prominent European socialist before World War I resembled Lenin more closely than Benito Mussolini. __ Like Lenin, he headed the antirevisionist wing of the country’s Socialist Party; like him, he believed **that the worker was not by nature a revolutionary and had to be prodded to radical action by an intellectual elite.”**_ _Then, soon after, **Adolph Hitler emerged with his re-branded socialist system under the banner of “national socialism.”** Taking advantage of the fact that the German people had been divided by new national borders established by the armistice,** Hitler used identity politics to rally his followers.** __The policies of the Nazi Party followed the communist model, _Dinesh D’Souza_ in his book ‘_The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left.’_ Notes:_ _…. the 25-point program included universal free health care and education, nationalisation of large corporations and trusts, government control of banking and credit, the splitting of large landholdings into smaller units, and similar policies. __In addition_, D’Souza states_ Mussolini and Hitler both identified socialism as the core of the fascist and Nazi Weltanschauung [way of life].__ Mussolini was the leading figure of Italian revolutionary socialism and never relinquished his allegiance to it. Hitler’s party defined itself as championing ‘national socialism.’_ _Like all other communist ideologues, Hitler was also viciously opposed to the traditional capitalist system. Just as Lenin blamed wealthy farmers, and Mao Zedong blamed landlords, Hitler transferred blame to a single group of people—the Jews. As D’Souza states,“ Nazi anti-Semitism grew out of Hitler’s hatred for capitalism. **Hitler draws a crucial distinction between productive capitalism, which he can abide, and finance capitalism, which he associates with the Jews.”**_ _The conflict that later took place between the various systems during World War II was not a battle of opposite ideologies but, instead, a fight over which interpretation of communism would prevail. According to _“The Road to Serfdom” by F.A. Hayek_, “ The conflict between the fascist or national-socialist and the older socialist parties must indeed very largely be regarded as the kind of **conflict which is bound to arise between rival socialist factions.”**_ _We can thank historical revisionism and plenty of mental gymnastics for the current narrative that socialism is somehow separate from Nazism and fascism and, even more so, the belief that these concepts are somehow divorced from their communist origins. _D’Souza _attributes this narrative shift to what _Sigmund Freud_ called “transference,” based on his idea that **people who commit terrible acts often transfer blame onto others, accusing others, including their victims, of being what they, themselves, are.**_ The Nazis initiated propaganda to extricate National Socialism from previous binding agendas with Soviet Russia and were now carelessly dismissive of communism as a credible opponent. Hitler underestimated Stalin’s resolve, which was to be underwritten by a murderous sacrificial intent of his people. ## What is a Woman? - Link: https://italiajoe.com/what-is-a-woman/ - Published: 2024-10-01T01:45:32+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti There has been a nagging hypothetical that has bugged me since I watched a few citizen journos that hit the streets to ask any passersby “What is a Woman”. Admittedly that was in the USA scene, but still, I felt internal fidgeting. What would I say if I was confronted with that very question? Someone politely asking on the fly, “What is a woman?” is a simple enough question. Surely, it cannot be that hard to answer. Superficiality, however, can condemn one to irrelevance, I would not want that. As I started making notes it became apparent that there was a possibility of formulating gibberish. And I would not want my input to be thought to be ‘politically charged log jams’ either. Thinking through the tricky bits and being prepared to answer coherently without stumbling seemed like a plan. Therefore, the path for me is to relate to the experiences that have shaped my logic of things female, a “Baby Boomer’s” perspective. It is of value to consider why such a question is necessary. Maybe it all started with Germain Greer, who began to muddy the waters at the beginning of the ‘70s. The title of her treatise is the highly charged “The Female Eunuch”. Other feminists took up the cause. Soon the slogan became “Burn the bras”, for whatever reason? Why would it be so that they discard a symbol of femininity? I was not happy about that. Gender has become a political hot potato in this contemporary time. It is said to have something to do with the need for ‘equality of outcomes’. The alphabet credentials being bandied around In the media effectively swamp the scientific facts of “XX” and “XY.” There are only two genders, and anybody with a “Y” in the combos (XXY) is an aberration, one of the numerous artifacts of genetic transcription errors that occur in nature. Let’s leave this tin can and not kick it any further now. In the book series “Where Were We”, I write of my affection for the first woman I have known, my mother. Mothers nurture both male and female children to make a family unit. Next came the awareness that girl children were different. It was most worthy to expend the effort to try and impress them with one’s masculinity. That was a long time ago in Francavilla, Calabria. Those processes of having a mother and a social entourage were unfortunately for me, cut short. But no matter, schools in Australia offered wonderments in what I would affectionately call “Les petit femmes”. These would become the women of my transitioning to an Australian with Italian characteristics. There was nothing to question here, a girl-to-woman was a continuum. The natural attraction to females was innate in that boy from long ago; the “XX” and “XY” chromosomes configuration worked well for him. Moving on from a girl to a woman is a wonderment of nature. Males and females are born with eyes, peepholes into our very souls. Eyes “flash’ and express the intent of the moods swirling inside us. But wait, a girl begins to show bumps in the upper torso. That must be it, girls become women in the natural life cycle. A woman is differentiated by gaining another‘ set of eyes’ that stand ardently, screaming “I am a woman, take note, we are the womb of humanity; stop fiddling at the edges.” The “woman” tag does not mean a one-dimensional stereotype. The mould is much more than even three-dimensional. Where would one start with female personality traits? Possibly the _biochems_ that modulate us all. Historical standouts such as the evil Jezebel or the warrior prophet Deborah may be considered. Or what about Esther, Ruth, Cleopatra and Boudicca? The list goes on and on. My pick for the positive role model is the women who fought for emancipation into the political systems of Western Democracies without attempting to dismantle the evolving structures for governance. Greer’s hypothesis for a ‘woman’ being equal to a ‘man’ is unfortunate; arithmetic equations can cut both ways, men wanting to identify as a ‘woman’. Not at all tenable. I have written elsewhere about the need for incremental liberalism, however, the wholesale approach to accommodate minorities seems to be coming at the expense of women’s rights. In this case, I would return the focus to the simplicity of the “ XX” and “XY” chromosomes. If there is a “Y” anywhere in the configuration the ‘technical’ male should not be allowed anywhere near a woman’s private space at public facilities. The “Y” is for life and no amount of hormonal manipulation will change that. An ”XX” makes a woman and gives each the right to compete against other “XX’ers” in all sports. On the topic of sports, I will say that I’m not in favour of women competing in contact sports. I can’t get my head around those wonderful mammary glands becoming fricasseed by punches, kicks, tackles and footballs. But that’s all I shall say about that. A woman can choose to do self-harm without a “Y’er” making sure the play is foul. Ahh! Yes, the young woman has billboard real estate that makes a simple T-shirt bloom messages with or without slogans. Poets and lyricists continue to conjure words to express the chemistry of “le joie de vivre” when a girl is about to become a woman, immortalised in “The Girl from Ipanema”. Visual artists agonise over the female shape to capture “the look” that sells stuff. Women continue to be the cornerstone of the advertising industry. Jean Shrimpton fulfilled fashion designers’ dreams when she wore the mini skirt to the 1965 Melbourne Cup. It became an instant “must-have” for young women. A woman sets materialism on fire and keeps the economy ticking along. In the life continuum, a woman storms through hormonal avalanches best articulated by the lyrics of “Bitch” by Shelly Peiken and Meredith Brooks. Something that I admit to having first-hand experience in. Such are the dynamics where the catalysts created by mothers and fathers nurturing children while trying to achieve financial sustainability. The pheromone chemistry surfaces intermittently to dissipate the effects of the “ catalysts”. Sonya McMahon reminds us of the power of womanly legs seen through a slit in a full-length dress. A mature woman sets the amorous tempo for her man. Back to the idea of the family unit. The creation of ‘Dolly” the sheep, broke the model for the procreation of mammals. It is my preference that rampant liberalism stop interfering with the traditional family. In this, there is a male role model and a nurturing mother to underwrite the social needs for cohesive and moral societies. Unfortunately, hetero Society has descended into an amorality that is being emulated by the growing trend of “Pride March” exhibitionism. I’m mindful of the decent homosexuals who do not flaunt their inclinations in public and maintain a sustainable moral code. Still, I’m not in favour of laws that allow them to have children by surrogate or of enabling them to adopt from the available pool. The “Man and Woman thing” has evolved alongside the troubles afflicting humanity for millennia. It continues to be a workable model, not to be discarded. In conclusion, the pernicious social theorists who propose the subversion of the purity of the “XX-Woman” and “XY-Man” principles are pointing the way to the slippery slope to the destruction of Western Society. This ideological iceberg must be stopped. ## IL GLOBO Italia Joe Feature 8 August 2024 - Link: https://italiajoe.com/il-globo-italia-joe-feature-8-august-2024/ - Published: 2024-08-21T01:14:09+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti **Written by: Barbara Mancini** _Translation[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/il-globo-italia-joe-feature-8-august-2024/#_ftn1) from Original written in Italian _ **Ten years of study and research have served Joseph Simonetti for a story that tells the events of the Twentieth Century.** **Six volumes to not forget the journey of his family** Melbourne: Giuseppe (Joseph) Simonetti arrived Down Under with his father Michele in 1956, at eight years of age. For the five years that followed, together with his father and his uncle, he moved between the sugar cane crops of North Queensland and the orchards of the Murray Valley. Despite starting his studies late, Simonetti has shown a great academic aptitude not only in high school, graduating in Pharmaceutical Sciences and embarking on a career in marketing and sales of highly technological instruments for research and development in the pharmaceutical and scientific fields, before opening a successful company in this field. The passage of time has allowed Simonetti to ask himself questions, to the answer which he has found refuge in the reading of the classics and the study of Italian and European history, starting from the Crusades, in 1095. An in-depth study that he felt necessary, after realising that in Australia he had been exposed only to the historical events of the country and its intertwining with those of the United Kingdom. “After reading for 10 years, from 60 to 70, I began to write,” he said. Simonetti has transformed his personal experience and that of his family into six volumes that tell of three generations whose events are inevitably intertwined with the historical and social context in which they have grown up. Through a series of research and conversations with his grandmother, in 1988 Simonetti began to collect material to reconstruct the family tree of his family, while since 2003 he has been writing down conversations with his father, with the aim of understanding and reporting the circumstances he experienced during his detention as a prisoner of war. Continuous research has led Simonetti to complete, over five years, six books that narrate the succession of the main European historical events, from the rise of fascism to the Second World War and the post-war period, a period in which a large migratory flow from the Old Continent began to Australia, as well as the United States. Even the author’s parents, with the aim of saving enough money to buy more land in their town of Francavilla, in Calabria, decide to split up for a few years, and the father, together with Joseph, embark for Australia. An enormous work of historical and archival research, study and writing, and therefore culminated in the six books that Simonetti would now like to publish. For those interested in learning more, you can visit the website [www.italiajoe.com](http://www.italiajoe.com) [[1]](https://italiajoe.com/il-globo-italia-joe-feature-8-august-2024/#_ftnref1) Original may be found at: [https://ilglobonewspaper.com.au/publications/10/issue/1870/](https://ilglobonewspaper.com.au/publications/10/issue/1870/) ![](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/21-1957_MicheleSimonetti_CavallaroFarm- 300x201.jpg) 1957 Michele Simonetti Cavallaro Farm ## Political Wilderness - Link: https://italiajoe.com/political-wilderness/ - Published: 2024-08-01T03:18:37+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti Have you ever wondered how we organise ourselves to follow a strand of political ideology? No; I hear you say. I didn’t think so but it is a question that needs to be considered. Looking back at my development, I have been negligent in giving the matter adequate thought. I guess that ever since I accompanied Father to a political rally in Francavilla, circa 1954 I never explored the principles of politics. After that, the disparate itinerant lifestyle prevented me from looking past the disjointed family’s needs. I relate to the contradiction of the belief that Mao Zedong was worthy of accolades based on senseless acceptance of schoolyard hearsay. Unfortunately, the minting of new political learning was to take a tortuous path through oblivious populist paradigms such as the “It’s Time” campaign that swept Gough Whitlam into power in 1972. The appeal of an emerging acceptance of populist ideology meant suffering the indignant emptiness of “The Dismissal.” I would continue to cling to the belief that Jim Cairns was a victimised angel and Juni Morosi meant well to stand by him. And Tirath Khemlani should have been more prudent in making things happen with the loan attempt. What was wrong with him? Malcolm Frazer was an ugly opportunist. Politics driving my interest was a simple matter of personalities, these were immutable, and there wasn’t room for reflection, of right and wrong. Frazer got what he deserved for engineering the demise of Gough Whitlam. But then I did not like Bob Hawke, partly, for not giving Hayden a run. I had settled on the perception of his duplicitous involvement in settling the Morwell coal dispute. Hawkie got his just deserves at the hands of the predatory Keating, the ‘greatest treasurer’ that never was. Even though I had settled into voting for the Liberal-Nationals Coalition I did not like Johnny Howard, I had been partial to Andrew Peacock and John Hewson. I was dismal at picking winners. But still, I persevered with judging “books by their covers”. Overall, for want of a coherent political viewpoint Edward C Banfield[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/political-wilderness/#_ftn1) would have classified me as an ‘amoral familyist.’ The choice I made was that I wanted to nurture a family without the encumbrances. Front of mind were the limitations that had been a feature of being immigrants. By then, I had accumulated a ‘street smartness’ quotient and directed this energy to create wealth. I wanted a family and together with my wife, Monika, we valued our independence from the need for social services support. After the birth of Michael, Monika was a stay-at-home mum for the next ten years. We made do with my allocating my leave entitlements to work on the Simonetti orchard in Cobram. This enabled us to pay off the home mortgage and concentrate our endeavours on Michael’s, Adam’s and Damien’s education. Family cohesion was not to be a smooth ride; something about the differences between a man and a woman. I was to find out the hard way that Henry Higgins[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/political-wilderness/#_ftn2) was right. It will take the input of the eccentric Dr Martin Vogel, “Mentor Extraordinaire” and a little marriage counselling to stabilise Catholic beliefs buried in the promise“ till death do us part.” Politics was not a matter of external social choices. The pressing needs relating to nurturing, and the money supply fuelled the fires of discontent. We succeeded in the end. If that was phase one it represented my status in political limbo. We had built on some successes. These allowed greater freedoms to look beyond the fray of everyday life. The political landscape bubbled about on how to balance the budget and divi up the GDP. The Liberals and Labourites were being challenged by evolving political ideologies. The Australian Democrats would try “to keep the bastards honest.” The bloody-mindedness of the Greens would not be satisfied unless economic activity regressed to pre-industrialisation. My repertoire for news consumption was reasonably wide including The Age, ABC, SBS and later subscriptions to the newly installed cable service from Fox-Telstra. It came to pass that I noted an aberration in news distribution. Why was it, that the luminaries at the ABC enquire of the Greens about the Conservative policies? Strange indeed, I thought. Sarah Hanson-Young would be a regular critic on all political matters on the ABC. I concluded that the Greens’ platform was to depopulate the world to achieve their insane agenda. I never watched The ABC ever again. The 1987 share market collapse put a dent in the aforesaid ‘street smartness’. I paid off my mistaken belief in invincibility by working at a second job, stacking supermarket shelves between 9.00 pm and 2.00 am. The effect was to refocus the mindset, I studied economics and was able to avoid the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Business interests gave me a reasonable perspective as to how to moderate my logic for economic matters. I knew of the demise of the clothing and footwear industries in the ‘80s and was tortured by the discussions about the subsidies to the car industry and that to pharma, known as the ‘Button Plan’. Geopolitical events were being dominated by Iran’s sabre rattling, Russia’s forays in Africa, China’s entry into the WTO and its use of North Korea as a surrogate to destabilise the West. Were we being railroaded into another world war? If so what will be the catalyst? Ukraine sets the nuclear trigger option. Islam’s stealth in manipulating Democracy seems as crazy as China’s use of mercantilist techniques to engulf the Occident in the ‘scorched earth’ of their industries. By that time, I had taken the position that “Free Trade” was unsustainable. The West could not survive if its industries were dismantled. Conceptually ‘Globalisation’ was entering the economic lexicon. I did not believe that “the invisible hand of the free market” would serve the best interests of blue-collar workers. Another term entered the lexicon: ‘rust belts’ to describe the effect on the industrial capabilities of Western Economies. The 2016 US Presidential Elections surfaced amid otherwise past ambivalence of the four-year occurrence. My position was based on the need to avoid political dynasties becoming de facto monarchs. Case in point, the election of the Bush father-son progression. Hillary seemed OK but it also smacked of a dynasty after the “Bill ‘N Monica Lewinsky soap opera. But I secretly put my hope on Donald Trump. All I wanted was to have the US sort out Russia, Iran, China and its troublesome offspring. It wasn’t to be. In the ensuing four years, In late 2018 I began my epic journey to discover my persona in the scheme of things on a global scale. Discoveries have a way of shaving away long-held beliefs. The effect is to make one feel irksome about accepting the inevitable conclusion that “a little knowledge is dangerous.” Gone is the idea of the USA’s unfettered benevolence. Gone is the idea that Capitalism is solely a force for good. Gone is the idea, that one’s side is perfect and the fault lies with the other side, or so it goes. Clinging to Churchill’s resolution about Democracy is not aging well. The concentration of wealth through central banking manipulations has eroded the simple principle of, “one vote one value” which underwrites Democracy. Legislative power usually based on less than 50% of the votes is herding the silent majority to unpalatable outcomes. Laws being enacted are making Democracy look more like Communism. It would be so simple if we accept that we are created equal. We are not. Humans shall never be equal. Human commonality is an inherent conscience to lend a hand to those in need for the short term. What to do about the insanity requires that we, the silent majority representing the middle class become much more active. Our combined accumulated wealth must find a voice to push back on the unelected Globalist Oligarchs’ agendas. We must avoid the creation of scarcity which is driving social engineering. We must be more informed about what happens when the proverbial “cane toads” are introduced to solve perceived social ills. [[1]](https://italiajoe.com/political-wilderness/#_ftnref1) The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, 1958, [[2]](https://italiajoe.com/political-wilderness/#_ftnref2) 1964 Film: My Fair Lady ## Horror Unleashed October 7 - Link: https://italiajoe.com/october-7/ - Published: 2024-07-09T03:08:22+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti [Me] What was your reaction when you heard on the news that Hamas had attacked Jews on the other side of the fence separating The West Bank and Israel? [Guest] That’s a stretch, old news now, what about you? [Me] Well, I do not watch mainstream news media generally. It’s just noise to keep the masses gasping. To capture and manipulate its audience from one disaster to another, the media spins the misfortune of others. I prefer to search independent sources. At first, what struck me was the swiftness of social media posts casting about that Mossad, Israel’s Secret Service, would have known. The implication is that Israel let it happen. I like conspiracy theories and take them in my stride. Yeah why, didn’t the all-knowing Mossad prevent the slaughter of civilians? Anyhow, I’ll work on conspiracy theories at another time. I’ve looked into many; Epstein did not kill himself, ha-ha! For now, I prefer to concentrate on the atmospherics of our times. My concern remains to be what happens to the common folk caught up in the melee created by the “Eletocracy.” [[1]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn1) How could it be that such hatreds still permeate our civilised world? It’s worth noting that the Romans destroyed[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn2) The Second Temple in Jerusalem as revenge. That butterfly is still winging through history. The Crusades unleashed by Pope Urban II gave the butterfly new air for the massacre of Jews[[3]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn3). [Guest] OK, let’s hear what you’ve got. [Me] The internet lit up with the horrifying images streamed live by Palestinians gorging on the fear created by “the quality of mercy” which was purposely strained by a savage culture. I deliberately limited my watching the content. I understand how exposure to horror affects my inner frailty; it tends to regurgitate in one’s inner sanctum. Images disturb the balance needed to remain at peace within oneself. [Guest] I did hear that gruesome stuff hit cyberspace I also opted out from watching. [Me] Whilst researching the ‘Where Were Book series,’ I wanted to get a better understanding of the role that Fascist Italia played in the Holocaust, ‘the Shoa’ as it was referred to. Have a read this extract from Book 2, ‘When Italia Pained’. It’s a quote from ‘The Last Offensive’ wherein Charles B Macdonald details the discovery in the Harz Mountains. [Guest reads silently]: _On 11 April, the 11th Army swept into Nordhausen to become witnesses to another ghastly concentration of human deprivation. Such was the cruelty that paralleled anything written about the medieval torture chambers, retold in horror stories. A sergeant, from the 329th Medical Battalion, was an eyewitness, his notes serving as a record of what he saw are much too graphic to quote here. [**[4]**](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn4)_ [Me] I think it’s time to confront those fears, to somehow acclimatise to archaic horror. This is what I had left out. _“On the 11th the armor swept into Nordhausen, uncovering more grisly, almost unbelievable evidence of Nazi bestiality in another concentration camp. Here is how a sergeant [**[5]**](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn5) from the 329th Medical Battalion saw it:_ _“Rows upon rows of skin-covered skeletons met our eyes. Men lay as they had starved, discolored, and lying in indescribable human filth. Their striped coats and prison numbers hung to their frames as a last token or symbol of those who enslaved and killed them . . . One girl in particular I noticed; I would say she was about seventeen years old. She lay there where she had thoughts I choked up—couldn’t quite understand how and why war could do these things . . _.”[[6]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn6) [Guest] Sends shudders down one’s spine. [Me] In the aftermath of the Hamas attack, that haunting image of the seventeen- year-old girl came to mind when I viewed a clip of a girl of a similar age being moved from the back of a small personnel carrier. Her track pants, from the lower abdomen, front and back; soaked in blood, blotted by desert dust. That pretty life, bleeding out after rape and beatings. Her vivaciousness of youth was drained by brute force. Savagery did not end with the Nazi’s attempt at extermination. [Guest] Wow, that’s tough to swallow; but why are the Palestinians and the Arabs in general taking over where the Nazis left off? [Me] Christopher Hitchens has “a little” to say about that in his encounter with Talk Show Host Bill Maher. It’s worth you getting a grounding in the Quran and its impact on adherents. I’ll send you the link.[[7]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftn7) Literal interpretations are the foundations upon which apparent rights are imbued in cultural ideological foundations to be spread by the sword if necessary. Historian Tom Holland has made progress in detailing the evolution of Islam in the Middle East. Robert Bruce Spencer, Dr Jay Smith and Dr Bill Warner provide an insider understanding of the meanings of the Quran Hadiths’. The void created by the Ottoman defeat of the Eastern Roman Empire spread Islam westward to the very gates of Vienna. An Empire that lasted some six hundred years. I discuss the topic in chapters ‘Bosphorus Phosphorus Parts 1 & 2’. The Ottomans were not squeamish about their belief in the tenets of the Quran. The remnants of the Ottoman Empire backed the Germans in WW1. There was a division of the Waffen SS made up entirely of Muslims. [Guest] OK you’ve convinced me, I’ll look up Hitchens to see what he has to say, sounds like a smart guy. [Me] The saga continues to this day. The Arabs are on a mission using the shadowy‘ Islamic Brotherhood to foment Islamic revolution throughout the West to take over where the Ottomans left off. Arabs and the theocrats in Iran still believe that a Caliphate Governance is preferable to a Constitutional Democracy. Pushback is feeble, so ‘watch this space’ as the saying goes. [Guest] You mean that the happenings in the Middle East …Gaza, …the West is in big trouble then? [Me] We, the silent majority remain so because of apathy fuelled by middle-classer comfort. We need to heed the urgency of social realism undermining the West. Those desert sand foundations, underpinning the hatred for Judaeo-Christian morality need to be cast to the four winds. Clear a space on your dresser for the symbolic‘ Doomsday Clock’, it’s not just about nuclear war, cultural immiscibility is also apocalyptic. We’re in it together now. [[[[[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref1) [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Elitocracy](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Elitocracy) [[[[[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref2) AD 70 [[[[[[3]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref3) A History of the Crusades, Steven Runciman, (vol. I – The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; vol. II – The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187; vol III. [[4]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref4) Where Were We, When Italia Pained Page 124 [[[[[[5]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref5) Sgt. Ragene Farris, as quoted in Hoegh and Doyle, Timberwolf Tracks, pp. 330–31. [[6]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref6) The Last Offensive Page 391 [[[[[[7]](https://italiajoe.com/october-7/#_ftnref7) _: _[_https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3zz-GSlNFc_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3zz-GSlNFc) ## Italia’s Bubble Burst - Link: https://italiajoe.com/where-were-we/ - Published: 2024-06-03T00:45:06+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti BOOK 1 [Cronologia-Fascismo](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cronologia-Fascismo.pdf) [Cronologia-Nazismo](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cronologia-Nazismo.pdf) [Generational Dilution](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Generational-Dilution.pdf) [Hansard Churchill_Abyssinia](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Hansard-Churchill_Abyssinia.pdf) [Yale University_Demystifying German Armaments](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Yale-University_Demystifying-German-Armaments.pdf) [Alexis Mehtidis_Italian Invasion Greece](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Alexis-Mehtidis_Italian-Invasion-Greece.pdf) [Christopher Duggan_Concise History of Italy_ExecSummary](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Christopher-Duggan_Concise-History-of-Italy_ExecSummary.pdf) [Cronologia_WW2](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cronologia_WW2.pdf) Book 2 IMI Research ![](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1928_Junkers-Werke_DessauFields- 300x161.jpg) ADN-ZB-Archiv Deutschland 1928 Junkers-Werke in Dessau und Porträt des Begründers der Werke, Prof. Junkers. 22393-28 [Scherl Bilderdienst] [Ivo Cardini_IMI-Memoir](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ivo-Cardini_IMI-Memoir.pdf): [Mattoia Vallerin_Storie e Memorie di IMI](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mattoia-Vallerin_Storie-e-Memorie-di-IMI.pdf): [IMIs_Pistoia](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMIs_Pistoia.pdf): [Ilio Muraca_La Strage Nazista di Schlkow_Poland : ](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ilio-Muraca_La-Strage-Nazista-di-Schlkow_Poland.pdf) [German Compensation Law for ForcedLabour WW2](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/German-Compensation-Law-for-ForcedLabour-WW2.pdf): [Ercole Ongaro_DIARIO-PRIGIONIA-R Maraschi](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ercole-Ongaro_DIARIO-PRIGIONIA-R-Maraschi.pdf): [Emilio Bottale_Breve Racconto Vita Prigionia ](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Emilio-Bottale_Breve-Racconto-Vita-Prigionia.pdf): [Emanuele Caffiero_Quaderni9-IMI Memoir_English](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Emanuele-Caffiero_Quaderni9-IMI-Memoir_English.pdf): [Claudio Sommaruga_L’Altra Risistanza_Original](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Claudio-Sommaruga_LAltra-Risistanza_Original.pdf): [Claudio Sommaruga_L’Altra Risistanza_EnglishWorkNotes : ](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Claudio-Sommaruga_LAltra-Risistanza_EnglishWorkNotes.pdf) [CIA-RDP82-00457R014500020002-1](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CIA-RDP82-00457R014500020002-1.pdf): [CIA-RDP81-01028R000100140002-3](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CIA-RDP81-01028R000100140002-3.pdf): [ CIA RPT CONCENTRATION CAMPS :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CIA-RPT-CONCENTRATION-CAMPS.pdf) [Baratter & Rasera_Censimento-fonti-IMI di Trento](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Baratter-Rasera_Censimento-fonti-IMI-di-Trento.pdf): [Amadeo Usai_IMI Memoir1999_English :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Amadeo-Usai_IMI-Memoir1999_English.pdf) [Alberto Campello_PhDThesis_LA FERMA DECISIONE È NÒ”](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Alberto-Campello_PhDThesis_LA-FERMA-DECISIONE-E-NO.pdf): 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L’nternamento-IMI-1](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Quaderni-Deportazione-e-Lnternamento-IMI-1.pdf) [Orlanducci-Zani-Carini__Internimento dei MI nei Lager](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Orlanducci-Zani-Carini__Internimento-dei-MI-nei-Lager.pdf): [Michela Cimbalo_Gli IMIs_English](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Michela-Cimbalo_Gli-IMIs_English.pdf): [Michela Cimbalo_Gli IMIs](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Michela-Cimbalo_Gli-IMIs.pdf): [Memorie di guerra e di prigionia_Toscana](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Memorie-di-guerra-e-di-prigionia_Toscana.pdf) Book 2 Other [Michela Ponzani_Il Pesso del Passato_LKlinkhammer](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Michela-Ponzani_Il-Pesso-del-Passato_LKlinkhammer.pdf): [Morna Gilbert_Charlie Gilbert Service WWII](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Morna-Gilbert_Charlie-Gilbert-Service-WWII.pdf): [Resistenza-Mostra_Pannelli](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Resistenza-Mostra_Pannelli.pdf): [Roberto Spazzali_Il Secondo Resorgimento](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Roberto-Spazzali_Il-Secondo-Resorgimento.pdf): [Roberto Spazzali_Il Secondo Resorgimento_English](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Roberto-Spazzali_Il-Secondo-Resorgimento_English.pdf): [The Last Offensive_CBMacdonald_CMH_Pub_7-9-1 :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Last-Offensive_CBMacdonald_CMH_Pub_7-9-1.pdf) [Supreme Command_European Theater of Operation1](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Supreme-Command_European-Theater-of-Operation1.pdf): [The Halt on the Elbe](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Halt-on-the-Elbe.pdf) [US Army_German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans (1941-1944) : CMH_Pub_104-18](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/US-Army_German-Antiguerrilla-Operations-in-the-Balkans-1941-1944-CMH_Pub_104-18.pdf): [US Army_Soviet Partisan_CMH_Pub_104-19](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/US-Army_Soviet-Partisan_CMH_Pub_104-19.pdf): [Bernd G Ulbrich_Zwangsarbeiter Dessau](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Bernd-G-Ulbrich_Zwangsarbeiter-Dessau.pdf): [Bernd G Ulbrich_Zwangsarbeiter Dessau_English](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Bernd-G-Ulbrich_Zwangsarbeiter-Dessau_English.pdf): [Bianchi-Giorcelli_Role of the Marshalll Plan Italian Post-WWII Recovery](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Bianchi-Giorcelli_Role-of-the-Marshalll-Plan-Italian-Post-WWII-Recovery.pdf): [Danube Swabian Ass_Genocide of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia 1944-1948](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danube-Swabian-Ass_Genocide-of-the-Ethnic-Germans-in-Yugoslavia-1944-1948.pdf): [Fracesco Venuti_Memorie di Guerra di Prigionia](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Fracesco-Venuti_Memorie-di-Guerra-di-Prigionia.pdf): [Francesco Lamendola_La Resitstenza come Secondo Risorgimento](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Francesco-Lamendola_La-Resitstenza-come-Secondo-Risorgimento.pdf): [Genocide of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia Post War](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Genocide-of-Ethnic-Germans-in-Yugoslavia-Post-War.pdf): [Gli MI Chronology](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Gli-MI-Chronology.pdf): [ Hansard Churchill_Democracy](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Hansard-Churchill_Democracy.pdf): [IL «SECONDO RISORGIMENTO» ITALIANO :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IL-SECONDO-RISORGIMENTO-ITALIANO.pdf) [IL «SECONDO RISORGIMENTO» ITALIANO_Translated](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IL-SECONDO-RISORGIMENTO-ITALIANO_Translated.pdf) [: IMI_Didattica](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMI_Didattica.pdf): [Ivan Crkvenci_Croatia_Expulsions postWW2](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ivan-Crkvenci_Croatia_Expulsions-postWW2.pdf) Book 3 [Italian Historical Society_2002 :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Italian-Historical-Society_2002.pdf) [Italian Peasant_Edward CBanfield_The Moral Basis of a Backward Society](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Italian-Peasant_Edward-CBanfield_The-Moral-Basis-of-a-Backward-Society.pdf): [Italian Peasant_Emanuele Ferragina](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Italian-Peasant_Emanuele-Ferragina.pdf): [Italian Peasant_Frank Cancian](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Italian-Peasant_Frank-Cancian.pdf): [Italian Peasant_SemanticScholar](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Italian-Peasant_SemanticScholar.pdf): [Italian Peasant_Thomas McCorkle](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Italian-Peasant_Thomas-McCorkle.pdf): [Joanna Wills_Remembering the Cane_1955](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Joanna-Wills_Remembering-the-Cane_1955.pdf): [Kieran Fairbrother_Aust Imm Policy Following the second WW](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Kieran-Fairbrother_Aust-Imm-Policy-Following-the-second-WW.pdf): [Ruggero Limardi_Dialetto Francavillese](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ruggero-Limardi_Dialetto-Francavillese.pdf): [SD’Urso_Luciana : D’Urso My Mother](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SDUrso_Luciana-DUrso-My-Mother.pdf) [AustGovt_Dept of Immigration History](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AustGovt_Dept-of-Immigration-History.pdf): [Don Dignan_Italians (Qld)](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Don-Dignan_Italians-Qld.pdf): [Essay_Childhood Memoirs](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Essay_Childhood-Memoirs.pdf): [Essay_Contadino Context](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Essay_Contadino-Context.pdf): [Fabio Baggio_Italians of Brisbane 2](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Fabio-Baggio_Italians-of-Brisbane-2.pdf): [Helen Andreoni_Olive or White-The Colour of Italians in Australia](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Helen-Andreoni_Olive-or-White-The-Colour-of-Italians-in-Australia.pdf) Book 4 No References Here Book 5 [Joseph Simonetti_Canto Sanifidesta_English](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Joseph-Simonetti_Canto-Sanifidesta_English.pdf): [Latham-Werbos_Medieval Foundations Theory of Sovereignty](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Latham-Werbos_Medieval-Foundations-Theory-of-Sovereignty.pdf): [Lorenzo Malta_Historia Fragmenta_English :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Lorenzo-Malta_Historia-Fragmenta_English.pdf) [Plato_The Republic](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Plato_The-Republic.pdf): [Robert Lacey_English Monarchy Chart](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Robert-Lacey_English-Monarchy-Chart.pdf): [The Famous Martyr Foca](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Famous-Martyr-Foca.pdf) [:](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1830-1848-TwoSicilies_PhDThesis_Buttiglione.pdf) [ [1830-1848-TwoSicilies_PhDThesis_Buttiglione : ](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1830-1848-TwoSicilies_PhDThesis_Buttiglione.pdf) [1848_EuropeanRevolution-_UMAS](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1848_EuropeanRevolution-_UMAS.pdf) : [ 1861_Unification of Italy_StudyNotes](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1861_Unification-of-Italy_StudyNotes.pdf) : [ 1861-70_Il Dilemma della Scelta_Giulia Gobbi](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1861-70_Il-Dilemma-della-Scelta_Giulia-Gobbi.pdf) : [ Adolfo Dominguez_Greeks in Sicily](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Adolfo-Dominguez_Greeks-in-Sicily.pdf) : [ Benedetto Musolino_La Rivoluzione Del 1848 Nelle Calabrie](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Benedetto-Musolino_La-Rivoluzione-Del-1848-Nelle-Calabrie.pdf) : [ EarthQ-Messina_Barbano etal](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/EarthQ-Messina_Barbano-etal.pdf) : [ Garibaldi_Benedetto Musolino_II1848](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Garibaldi_Benedetto-Musolino_II1848.pdf) : [ Garibaldi_Sarti on Riall 2014-01-22](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Garibaldi_Sarti-on-Riall-2014-01-22.pdf) : [ Garibaldi_Sarti-Riall](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Garibaldi_Sarti-Riall.pdf) : [ Garibaldi_Silvana Patriarca-Unmaking the Nation :](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Garibaldi_Silvana-Patriarca-Unmaking-the-Nation.pdf) [Giuseppe Berti_Garibaldi_Musolino](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Giuseppe-Berti_Garibaldi_Musolino.pdf) Book 6 [PicaLawPaper_SSRN-id3040639](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PicaLawPaper_SSRN-id3040639.pdf): [Stefano Cecini_Construction Road Network Itlaian East Africa](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Stefano-Cecini_Construction-Road-Network-Itlaian-East-Africa.pdf): [Stefano Cecini_Construction Road Network Itlaian East Africa_English](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Stefano-Cecini_Construction-Road-Network-Itlaian-East-Africa_English.pdf): [Giuseppe Ressa_Il_Sud_e_l_unita_illustrato](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Giuseppe-Ressa_Il_Sud_e_l_unita_illustrato.pdf): [Giuseppe Ressa_Il_Sud_unità-mille_1](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Giuseppe-Ressa_Il_Sud_unita-mille_1.pdf) [Mattia Bertazzini_Roads HornAFrica 1935-2000](https://italiajoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mattia-Bertazzini_Roads-HornAFrica-1935-2000.pdf) ## Via Nova 1961 ‘Straliani - Link: https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/ - Published: 2024-05-31T00:13:23+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti BOOK 6 [Via Nova 1961 ‘Straliani](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/) * [Giuseppe Garibaldi: Be Or Not Be Hero](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869764) * From Columbus’s connections with Spain to Giuseppe Garibaldi ceding his victories to King Vittorio Emanuele II at Teano. * Garibaldi’s position in history as part of the South American wars of independence explored. Brief Bio by Frank J. Coppa. **Factual narrative citations**: John Foot[^([1])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn1) and Tim Parkes’s [^([2])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn2) opinion editorials, Garibaldi’s autobiography translated into French by Alexandre Dumas; Dumas also wrote the introduction to the autobiography. * The meaning of _‘liberal’ _in the Italian context put up against the _‘Whig Party’_ of England. * **Factual narrative citations**: Lucy Riall’s[^([3])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn3) book _‘Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero’ _held up against other commentators such as Alfonso Scirocco and his book _‘Garibaldi: Citizen of the World ’_on the subject. Roland Sarti’s[^([4])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn4) analysis of Riall’s book and whether she attempts an interpretation of _‘cancel culture.’_ forms part of the discourse. In contemporary times, the Italian right-wing Northern League fires up the discourse of Garibaldi against its antithetical leftist nemesis_‘ Associazione Liber Piemont (ALP)’._ * Pope Pius IX sided against Garibaldi because of his anti-clerical leanings and support for Democracy, but then the church was against Protestants, Evangelists and Freemasons being the root of the _‘Risorgimento’._ Maurice Wilkinson’s _‘ The Myth of Garibaldi’_ [^([5])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn5) gives a Catholicon perspective of Garibaldi. [Butterflies Swarm Across The 1860 Decade](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869765) * Political storms sweeping across Europe have characteristics of Chaos Theory. * Calabrian patriots were dealt with severely by the Bourbon restoration. The Garibaldi phenomenon provided reparations of sorts. Adversary General Stocco regrouped to assist Garibaldi’s arrival at Reggio Calabria. Francavilla’s connection is worked into folklore associated with the prominent Monnacio family; _Vincenzo Simonetti son of Foca’_ is mentioned in historical documents. * **Factual narrative citations**: Christopher Duggan’s opinion that civil war brought about unification. * Conflict of personalities between Garibaldi and Cavour surfaces. * Contemporary opinion pining for the Bourbon status quo for City States is aired by Sicilian Filippo Spadafora[^([6])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn6) * Whether Winston Churchill and Camillo Benso, known as Cavour, were similar is proposed and discussed. John Churchill’s role in British history is brought into the discourse. **Factual narrative citations**: historian Robert Lacey, Sir Robert Menzies, the Duke of Wellington faces off with Napoleon at Waterloo. * Italy’s fate remains embedded with Catholicism, Britain makes a clean break with the Papacy but still finds a way to back the Bourbon Monarch for its political purposes. * **Factual narrative citations**: Winston Churchill’s thoughts on Benjamin Disraeli, disparities between North and South influenced by geography. Josip Broz commonly known as _‘Tito’_ makes part of a case study for the understanding of the Italian North-South dilemma. * Looking back nostalgically and procrastination explored via Andrew Marvel’s poem_‘ To His Coy Mistress’__, _the _‘Canto dei Sanfedisti’ _and_ ‘Italiella.’[^(**[7]**)](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)_ [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn7) * Plato’s ‘_The__ Republic’, and _Thomas More’s _‘Utopia’_ books are analysed to get a feel for the need for social equality to take root in Europe. Thomas Hood( 1799–1845) in his poem _‘A Plain Direction’ _reports o_n _the slowness of the progress made. * Oligarchs were born of dystopic governance and billionaires in the West ready to subvert Democracy. * The Popes play up merry hell, the _‘Reformation and Counter Reformations’_ quandary has Henry VIII of England and Thomas More at odds, More lost his head. Catholic Mary and Protestant Elizabeth slug it out. * The meaning of spirituality is a powder keg waiting to explode. **Factual narrative citations**: Arius, Presbyter of Alexandria, Leo Tolstoy, John Milton and John Julius Norwich. * Own opinion editorial of systemic corruption**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Egyptology, Pareto Principle, Aldous Huxley, Winston Churchill’s Defence of Democracy. * Against all odds, Italy became united. * [ Italy Is United; But Pour More Oil](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869766) * Italy is politically and socially in troubled waters. [PICA Law](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869767) * Tutorial based on a Research Paper _‘Law enforcement and political participation: Italy, 1861-65’_ by Antonio Accetturo, Matteo Bugamelli and Andrea Lamorgese. * Law enforcement war of attrition pits the army against brigands, peasants unfairly burdened. Electoral suffrage through the ballot box is far from assured, protest is the only means of being heard, and ‘mafia’ becomes synonymous with banditry. * Garibaldi has regrets about his handing over to the King. His connections to the American Civil War are explored. His son Ricciotti takes on the mantle to make Italy a Republic, the setting is Filadelfia, up the road from Francavilla. [1870-1900: Rome Cedes, Liberal State Fledges, Socialism 101](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869768) * Wars elsewhere in Europe dictated events in Italy. * Papal power dislodged with Rome forced into the united Italy under a Monarch. * The South pines with Bourbon romanticism; danger looms from those trained militarily, mix in credos for the making of _‘black market’_ governance otherwise known as _Mafia’_ in Sicily, ‘_Cosa Nostra, Ndrangheta and Camorrra’_ in Calabria. * Italy’s economy languishes, the only bright spot is silk production but underpinned by child labour. Attempts were made to improve education to ward off the influence of socialism and clericalism. * **Factual narrative citations**: Carlo Collodi (Pinocchio fame) focussed his fable on the sloth and dishonesty of the ruling classes. [1876-1900 Trial and Error Sequences for Governance](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869769) * The plight of the poor, founded on food shortages, stokes political unrest, * PM Crispi concocts a plan to promote patriotism by initiating wars,_ Massawa/ Eritrea and Dogali/Ethiopia and _later_ Adua (Adwa)_. * Socialists enter Sicilian politics forcing consideration for land reforms, strongly opposed by wealthy landowners; violence erupts. * [ Vogels Join Volksdeuchen Balkan Migration](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869770) * Oral history account of migration to the Balkans. * Discourse relates to the spread and later the contraction of the Ottoman Empire. * The rise of the Hapsburg Empire into South-eastern Europe. * **Factual narrative citations**: Helga Horiak Harriman,[^([8])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn8) Danube Swabians (Donauschwaben). * Issues arise with religious disparity between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. * [ All Political Off-Ramps Lead to Conflict](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869771) [Nonno Giuseppe, Idealistic Shadows and Economic Flickering](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869772) * Francesco Crispi considers options for a new governance model. Marxism headlining in the universities kept up political pressure. * An improvement in the economy provides a breather and thought is given by Giovanni Giolitti to enhance materialism to maintain economic momentum, new brands Fiat; Lancia and Alfa Romeo are born but limited to the North. * In the South cheap transatlantic fares gave the poor an out to go and make money in America. * **Factual narrative citations**: Benedetto Croce wants to abandon consumerism to promote greater depth in employment opportunities and diversify away from civil jobs. * The _Futurism Movement _eventually became _fascism _after 1918_._ * Known oral history of our Simonetti ancestors blended into the documented historical narrative of the times. * Limited research of the origins of ‘Simonetti’, the effect of genetic dilution put into perspective. * Simonetti landholdings: farming & house lots in Francavilla, Nonno’s death a blow to family’s welfare [Giolitti’s Liberal Experiment](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869773) * Socialism remains in Giolitti’s crosshairs, even though the possibility of revolution was ever so slight, given the lack of industrialisation. * The _‘Nationalists’ _provided wiggle room for the strain between Gilliotti and the Industrialists whilst the war was sparked by the Balkan crisis. Gilliotti makes overtures to the Catholic Church, by then realising that secular governance was inevitable. [Italy and WWI Made for Each Other](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869774) * Contradictions in its socialist ideology did not prove a hindrance to Benito Mussolini joining the Futurists and Nationalists advocating for war. * **Factual narrative citations**: Sir Samuel Hoare[^([9])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn9) Britain’s MI5 spy in Rome has Mussolini play up the need for Italy to remain in the war. Ernest Hemingway in his book _‘A Farewell to Arms’_. * Italy wanted to redeem historical territories South Tyrol and Istria from Austria. * Italy does have an aircraft industry. [The Liberal State Becomes a Casualty](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869775) * Northern Italy’s proximity to Croatia and cross-border settlements goes back centuries. The Vogel connection to immigration is made. * Italy shares modestly in the spoils of war with the gain of Trent, South Tyrol and Istria, but missed out on Dalmatia and Italian Italian-speaking port of Fiume( Rijeka). Discontent led to a coup led by D’Annunzio. * Benito Mussolini soul searches and decides to ditch his left-leaning sympathies to sure up popular support. In effect, the move makes him the same as the Nationalists. * **Factual narrative citations**: The _‘Anarchists’_ (university graduates) led by _Antonio Gramsci_. * Mussolini was duplicitous in the control of the _Squadristi _for incremental gain for political power. * [ Fascism Made to Order](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869776) * Mayhem, courtesy of the _Squadristi, _needed to be rewarded but critically the Fascist movement had to avoid being destroyed in the process. Mussolini showed creativity in such a task to prevent the implosion of his party. * Mussolini fell in with the landowners by his stopping further land transfers to peasants. He also reconciled with the church by allowing religious symbols in public and beginning a program to repair war-damaged churches. [Stains of Feudal Persistence](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869777) * Family oral history encompassing ambient economic conditions facing members and how they worked to overcome them. Simonetti’s are farmers, Cannatelli’s in commodities trade and leather tanning. * **Factual narrative citations**: Edward C Banfield, Gerocarne terrain appears to be like that of _‘__Montegrano’_, the scourge of Pellagra (vitamin deficiency). * Business survival secrets in poverty point to _‘good, bad and ugly’_ [Nonno Giuseppe Attisani](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869778) * Known oral history of our Attisani ancestors blended into the documented historical narrative of the times. * **Factual narrative citations**: Research Paper: _The construction of the road network in Italian East Africa (1936-41) by Stefano Cecini[^(**[10]**)](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn10)._ * Nonno Giuseppe Attisani went to North Africa to work for Construction _‘Ditta’( Company) Puricella.’_ Conditions captured by Cecini’s Paper are presented as a synopsis. The contracts that the men signed up to make them participate in a kind of _‘living hell’_ reminiscent of what may happen after _Mephistopheles [^(**[11]**)](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn11)_ takes one’s soul to that place. * Family photos of our mother and grandfather provide valued insight into our past in Francavilla. Nonno’s appearance is compared to _Clarke Gable_ (Movie: Gone with the Wind). * Family disruption cause dysfunctional norms to arise made even more distasteful by cultural demands of the time. Evidence that it became a learnt experience is explored with opinions. * Characters’ relationship to later events in Australia are introduced: Nicola Gattuso married Maria Rosa Geroloma Orsida; my high school friend’s father Cristiano Spiller immigrates from Northern Italy. [The Fascist Nation Packaged](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869779) * The everyday fascists were being moulded into a nation around the cult figure known as _‘il Duce’._ * The struggle between the Church and Mussolini was based on their competing for the ideology for the spirit of the people. [Sir Winston Churchill](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869796) [Brief Bio](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869797) * So that we get to know that he was privileged but not born perfect or led a perfect existence pre-WWII. * Churchill was afflicted by _‘bipolar’_ disorder**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Prof Nassir Ghaemi, Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Tufts University. [Pitfalls in the Political Wilderness](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869798) * Snapshot of his political career. * His involvement in Saudi Arabia’s development. **Factual narrative citations**: Synopsis based on Robert Lacey’s book _‘The Kingdom._ * Introductions to Roosevelt (FDR) and the inimitable Harry St John Philby who was Kim’s father. Kim would later become one of the five spies recruited by the Soviets. * Churchill at first sees positives in Fascism. Mine own need to hypothetically understand what Fascism meant if I had to choose between destitution and promise out of the drudgery of poverty. * Churchill and the Russia post the Communist ascendency. * Churchill stumbles with the _‘Gold Standard’_. * Churchill implies his shortcomings in paying homage to Neville Chamberlain. * [ WW2 Bookend to WW1](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_Toc127869795) * Review of Italy’s hegemonic position or lack thereof in European power struggles, is explored. Ottoman power sliding. * Contemporary commentators studied for their opinions about Britain declaring war against Germany in what became known as the ‘Great War’. **Factual narrative citations**: Eric Metaxas[^([12])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn12), historian Robert Lacey, _‘Intelligence Squared’, _with eminent panellists’ debate_“ Britain Should Not Have Fought in the First World War”._ * Tutorial of WWI to ensure an understating of what occurred at a time when the Russian Revolution ushered in Karl Marx’s Communist ideology as a formal means of governance. Professor Victor Davis-Hansen[^([13])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn13) labelled Marx, Engels including Gramsci and other adherents as _‘pernicious thinkers_; he added Sigmund Freud into the mix. * Personal observations shared of _‘God’ _and _‘Conscious Human Brain’._ **Factual narrative citations:** Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535), Francis Bacon[^([14])](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftn14)( 1561-1626) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). * My Catholic upbringing, the need to go to heaven rather than hell, is analysed. The personal viewpoint leads to a basis for understanding the human propensity continually to throw up outlier _‘anti-Christs’_ which preclude us from peacefully coexist. * The conceptual ‘_Original Sin’_ is analysed to explain resident evil or malice in all of us. **Factual narrative citations**: Luc Ferry quotes Rousseau, Old Testament Bible incites ethnic cleansing. * The relative difficulty for Democracy to be instituted compared to Communism and theocracies which can be bludgeoned into existence by authority**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Stephen Kotkin, Professor of History at Princeton University. * Gentlemen Prime Ministers of Britain Chamberlain and Baldwin were pushovers for the likes of Hitler and Stalin; Churchill was more of the ‘_head-kicker’_ needed to take them on. * Once We Departed Italia There Was Strife: 1968-1973 * We become distanced from Italia’s politics. * I marry Monika and my family makes steady progress. * Italy universities produce an oversupply of graduates who are duped into militantism * In 1970 a regional government system was instituted, and left-wingers benefited. * Air of superiority surfaces in the North, fragmentation. New liberal laws are enacted; divorce is among these. Terrorists & Recession Woes:1973 – 1982 * Democracy on the nose; due to activism in the North and Mafia in the South. * Graft fuels _political clientelism._ In the South Public works are a cash cow to organised crime; unemployment finds career paths in crime. * In the North the middle class finds relief in Marxist ideology against public servants. * Unnatural political alliances between CD and PCI lead to even more corruption Italia 2.0 – La Prima República Finisce, Inizia Italia 3.0 – La Seconda República * Recession ends in 1984, business flourishes but government squanders the advantage, public debt rises substantially * EC’s need to rein in debt for the common currency impedes business. North blames the South for ‘cash burn’ leads to calls for a ‘federation’ and ditching the ‘ republic’ policies leading to the collapse of the 1^(st) * Neo Fascists _Alleanza Nazionale_ makes a run but Berluscone’s new party is victorious with their backing plus that of the ‘Northern League’. * Italia Enters the 21st Century * Northern League puts the boots into the South * Berlusconi rehashes Italy’s Fascist past and questions the ‘Resistance’ and alliances do the merry-go-round * Democracy In The 21st Century * Has its challenges   [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref1) Professor of Modern Italian History, Department of Italian, University College London, London, England. Author of Milan Since the Miracle: City, Culture, and Identity and others. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref2) Published in the ‘New Yorker’ Magazine, 9 July 2007. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[3]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref3) Irish Historian, studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[4]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref4) Professor Emeritus, Department of History, UMass Amherst, A specialist on Italian and European social history, author of Fascism and the Industrial Leadership in Italy, 1919-1940 (1971). [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[5]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref5) Wilkinson, Maurice. “The Myth of Garibaldi.” The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 13, no. 4, 1928, pp. 630–645. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25012482. Accessed 10 Mar. 2021. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[6]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref6) ‘Giuseppe Garibaldi – Man and Myth’, Best of Sicily Magazine. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[7]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref7) Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare’ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[8]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref8) Doctoral Thesis ‘The German Minority in Yugoslavia 1941 – 1945’ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[9]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref9) Sparticus-Education.com; John Simkin Blog 1997, quotes historian Peter Martland, credited with uncovering the deal. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[10]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref10) Original in Italian: [http://dprs.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/16.html](http://dprs.uniroma1.it/sites/ default/files/16.html) [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[11]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref11) Assuming Mephistopheles must have been credited with some wins of those souls which he bargained for. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[12]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref12) YouTube Channel “Socrates in the City” [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[13]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref13) A professor emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno, the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in classics and military history at the conservative Hoover Institution [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[14]](https://italiajoe.com/after-italia-1-02-03-0/#_ftnref14) Book: The New Atlantis ## Via Nova 1961 ‘Straliani - Link: https://italiajoe.com/440-2/ - Published: 2024-05-30T03:11:27+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti **§ Giuseppe Garibaldi: Be Or Not Be Hero** * From Columbus’s connections with Spain to Giuseppe Garibaldi ceding his victories to King Vittorio Emanuele II at Teano. * Garibaldi’s position in history as part of the South American wars of independence explored. Brief Bio by Frank J. Coppa. **Factual narrative citations**: John Foot[^([1])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn1) and Tim Parkes’s[^([2])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn2) opinion editorials, Garibaldi’s autobiography translated into French by Alexandre Dumas; Dumas also wrote the introduction to the autobiography. * The meaning of _‘liberal’ _in the Italian context put up against the _‘Whig Party’_ of England. * **Factual narrative citations**: Lucy Riall’s[^([3])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn3) book _‘Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero’ _held up against other commentators such as Alfonso Scirocco and his book _‘Garibaldi: Citizen of the World ’_on the subject. Roland Sarti’s[^([4])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn4) analysis of Riall’s book and whether she attempts an interpretation of _‘cancel culture.’_ forms part of the discourse. In contemporary times, the Italian right-wing Northern League fires up the discourse of Garibaldi against its antithetical leftist nemesis_‘ Associazione Liber Piemont (ALP)’._ * Pope Pius IX sided against Garibaldi because of his anti-clerical leanings and support for Democracy, but then the church was against Protestants, Evangelists and Freemasons being the root of the _‘Risorgimento’._ Maurice Wilkinson’s _‘ The Myth of Garibaldi’_ [^([5])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn5) gives a Catholicon perspective of Garibaldi. Butterflies Swarm Across The 1860 Decade * Political storms sweeping across Europe have characteristics of Chaos Theory. * Calabrian patriots were dealt with severely by the Bourbon restoration. The Garibaldi phenomenon provided reparations of sorts. Adversary General Stocco regrouped to assist Garibaldi’s arrival at Reggio Calabria. Francavilla’s connection is worked into folklore associated with the prominent Monnacio family; _Vincenzo Simonetti son of Foca’_ is mentioned in historical documents. * **Factual narrative citations**: Christopher Duggan’s opinion that civil war brought about unification. * Conflict of personalities between Garibaldi and Cavour surfaces. * Contemporary opinion pining for the Bourbon status quo for City States is aired by Sicilian Filippo Spadafora[^([6])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn6) * Whether Winston Churchill and Camillo Benso, known as Cavour, were similar is proposed and discussed. John Churchill’s role in British history is brought into the discourse. **Factual narrative citations**: historian Robert Lacey, Sir Robert Menzies, the Duke of Wellington faces off with Napoleon at Waterloo. * Italy’s fate remains embedded with Catholicism, Britain makes a clean break with the Papacy but still finds a way to back the Bourbon Monarch for its political purposes. * **Factual narrative citations**: Winston Churchill’s thoughts on Benjamin Disraeli, disparities between North and South influenced by geography. Josip Broz commonly known as _‘Tito’_ makes part of a case study for the understanding of the Italian North-South dilemma. * Looking back nostalgically and procrastination explored via Andrew Marvel’s poem_‘ To His Coy Mistress’__, _the _‘Canto dei Sanfedisti’ _and_ ‘Italiella.’[^(**[7]**)](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)_ [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7) [](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn7) * Plato’s ‘_The__ Republic’, and _Thomas More’s _‘Utopia’_ books are analysed to get a feel for the need for social equality to take root in Europe. Thomas Hood( 1799–1845) in his poem _‘A Plain Direction’ _reports o_n _the slowness of the progress made. * Oligarchs were born of dystopic governance and billionaires in the West ready to subvert Democracy. * The Popes play up merry hell, the _‘Reformation and Counter Reformations’_ quandary has Henry VIII of England and Thomas More at odds, More lost his head. Catholic Mary and Protestant Elizabeth slug it out. * The meaning of spirituality is a powder keg waiting to explode. **Factual narrative citations**: Arius, Presbyter of Alexandria, Leo Tolstoy, John Milton and John Julius Norwich. * Own opinion editorial of systemic corruption**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Egyptology, Pareto Principle, Aldous Huxley, Winston Churchill’s Defence of Democracy. * Against all odds, Italy became united. ** § Italy Is United; But Pour More Oil** * Italy is politically and socially in troubled waters. PICA Law * Tutorial based on a Research Paper _‘Law enforcement and political participation: Italy, 1861-65’_ by Antonio Accetturo, Matteo Bugamelli and Andrea Lamorgese. * Law enforcement war of attrition pits the army against brigands, peasants unfairly burdened. Electoral suffrage through the ballot box is far from assured, protest is the only means of being heard, and ‘mafia’ becomes synonymous with banditry. * Garibaldi has regrets about his handing over to the King. His connections to the American Civil War are explored. His son Ricciotti takes on the mantle to make Italy a Republic, the setting is Filadelfia, up the road from Francavilla. 1870-1900: Rome Cedes, Liberal State Fledges, Socialism 101 * Wars elsewhere in Europe dictated events in Italy. * Papal power dislodged with Rome forced into the united Italy under a Monarch. * The South pines with Bourbon romanticism; danger looms from those trained militarily, mix in credos for the making of _‘black market’_ governance otherwise known as _Mafia’_ in Sicily, ‘_Cosa Nostra, Ndrangheta and Camorrra’_ in Calabria. * Italy’s economy languishes, the only bright spot is silk production but underpinned by child labour. Attempts were made to improve education to ward off the influence of socialism and clericalism. * **Factual narrative citations**: Carlo Collodi (Pinocchio fame) focussed his fable on the sloth and dishonesty of the ruling classes. 1876-1900 Trial and Error Sequences for Governance * The plight of the poor, founded on food shortages, stokes political unrest, * PM Crispi concocts a plan to promote patriotism by initiating wars,_ Massawa/ Eritrea and Dogali/Ethiopia and _later_ Adua (Adwa)_. * Socialists enter Sicilian politics forcing consideration for land reforms, strongly opposed by wealthy landowners; violence erupts. Vogels Join Volksdeuchen Balkan Migration * Oral history account of migration to the Balkans. * Discourse relates to the spread and later the contraction of the Ottoman Empire. * The rise of the Hapsburg Empire into South-eastern Europe. * **Factual narrative citations**: Helga Horiak Harriman,[^([8])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn8) Danube Swabians (Donauschwaben). * Issues arise with religious disparity between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. § All Political Off-Ramps Lead to Conflict Nonno Giuseppe, Idealistic Shadows and Economic Flickering * Francesco Crispi considers options for a new governance model. Marxism headlining in the universities kept up political pressure. * An improvement in the economy provides a breather and thought is given by Giovanni Giolitti to enhance materialism to maintain economic momentum, new brands Fiat; Lancia and Alfa Romeo are born but limited to the North. * In the South cheap transatlantic fares gave the poor an out to go and make money in America. * **Factual narrative citations**: Benedetto Croce wants to abandon consumerism to promote greater depth in employment opportunities and diversify away from civil jobs. * The _Futurism Movement _eventually became _fascism _after 1918_._ * Known oral history of our Simonetti ancestors blended into the documented historical narrative of the times. * Limited research of the origins of ‘Simonetti’, the effect of genetic dilution put into perspective. * Simonetti landholdings: farming & house lots in Francavilla, Nonno’s death a blow to family’s welfare Giolitti’s Liberal Experiment * Socialism remains in Giolitti’s crosshairs, even though the possibility of revolution was ever so slight, given the lack of industrialisation. * The _‘Nationalists’ _provided wiggle room for the strain between Gilliotti and the Industrialists whilst the war was sparked by the Balkan crisis. Gilliotti makes overtures to the Catholic Church, by then realising that secular governance was inevitable. Italy and WWI Made for Each Other * Contradictions in its socialist ideology did not prove a hindrance to Benito Mussolini joining the Futurists and Nationalists advocating for war. * **Factual narrative citations**: Sir Samuel Hoare[^([9])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn9) Britain’s MI5 spy in Rome has Mussolini play up the need for Italy to remain in the war. Ernest Hemingway in his book _‘A Farewell to Arms’_. * Italy wanted to redeem historical territories South Tyrol and Istria from Austria. * Italy does have an aircraft industry. The Liberal State Becomes a Casualty * Northern Italy’s proximity to Croatia and cross-border settlements goes back centuries. The Vogel connection to immigration is made. * Italy shares modestly in the spoils of war with the gain of Trent, South Tyrol and Istria, but missed out on Dalmatia and Italian Italian-speaking port of Fiume( Rijeka). Discontent led to a coup led by D’Annunzio. * Benito Mussolini soul searches and decides to ditch his left-leaning sympathies to sure up popular support. In effect, the move makes him the same as the Nationalists. * **Factual narrative citations**: The _‘Anarchists’_ (university graduates) led by _Antonio Gramsci_. * Mussolini was duplicitous in the control of the _Squadristi _for incremental gain for political power. ** § Fascism Made to Order** * Mayhem, courtesy of the _Squadristi, _needed to be rewarded but critically the Fascist movement had to avoid being destroyed in the process. Mussolini showed creativity in such a task to prevent the implosion of his party. * Mussolini fell in with the landowners by his stopping further land transfers to peasants. He also reconciled with the church by allowing religious symbols in public and beginning a program to repair war-damaged churches. Stains of Feudal Persistence * Family oral history encompassing ambient economic conditions facing members and how they worked to overcome them. Simonetti’s are farmers, Cannatelli’s in commodities trade and leather tanning. * **Factual narrative citations**: Edward C Banfield, Gerocarne terrain appears to be like that of _‘__Montegrano’_, the scourge of Pellagra (vitamin deficiency). * Business survival secrets in poverty point to _‘good, bad and ugly’_ Nonno Giuseppe Attisani * Known oral history of our Attisani ancestors blended into the documented historical narrative of the times. * **Factual narrative citations**: Research Paper: _The construction of the road network in Italian East Africa (1936-41) by Stefano Cecini[^(**[10]**)](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn10)._ * Nonno Giuseppe Attisani went to North Africa to work for Construction _‘Ditta’( Company) Puricella.’_ Conditions captured by Cecini’s Paper are presented as a synopsis. The contracts that the men signed up to make them participate in a kind of _‘living hell’_ reminiscent of what may happen after _Mephistopheles [^(**[11]**)](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn11)_ takes one’s soul to that place. * Family photos of our mother and grandfather provide valued insight into our past in Francavilla. Nonno’s appearance is compared to _Clarke Gable_ (Movie: Gone with the Wind). * Family disruption cause dysfunctional norms to arise made even more distasteful by cultural demands of the time. Evidence that it became a learnt experience is explored with opinions. * Characters’ relationship to later events in Australia are introduced: Nicola Gattuso married Maria Rosa Geroloma Orsida; my high school friend’s father Cristiano Spiller immigrates from Northern Italy. The Fascist Nation Packaged * The everyday fascists were being moulded into a nation around the cult figure known as _‘il Duce’._ * The struggle between the Church and Mussolini was based on their competing for the ideology for the spirit of the people. Sir Winston Churchill Brief Bio * So that we get to know that he was privileged but not born perfect or led a perfect existence pre-WWII. * Churchill was afflicted by _‘bipolar’_ disorder**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Prof Nassir Ghaemi, Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Tufts University. Pitfalls in the Political Wilderness * Snapshot of his political career. * His involvement in Saudi Arabia’s development. **Factual narrative citations**: Synopsis based on Robert Lacey’s book _‘The Kingdom._ * Introductions to Roosevelt (FDR) and the inimitable Harry St John Philby who was Kim’s father. Kim would later become one of the five spies recruited by the Soviets. * Churchill at first sees positives in Fascism. Mine own need to hypothetically understand what Fascism meant if I had to choose between destitution and promise out of the drudgery of poverty. * Churchill and the Russia post the Communist ascendency. * Churchill stumbles with the _‘Gold Standard’_. * Churchill implies his shortcomings in paying homage to Neville Chamberlain. **§  WW2 Bookend to WW1** * Review of Italy’s hegemonic position or lack thereof in European power struggles, is explored. Ottoman power sliding. * Contemporary commentators studied for their opinions about Britain declaring war against Germany in what became known as the ‘Great War’. **Factual narrative citations**: Eric Metaxas[^([12])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn12), historian Robert Lacey, _‘Intelligence Squared’, _with eminent panellists’ debate _“Britain Should Not Have Fought in the First World War”._ * Tutorial of WWI to ensure an understating of what occurred at a time when the Russian Revolution ushered in Karl Marx’s Communist ideology as a formal means of governance. Professor Victor Davis-Hansen[^([13])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn13) labelled Marx, Engels including Gramsci and other adherents as _‘pernicious thinkers_; he added Sigmund Freud into the mix. * Personal observations shared of _‘God’ _and _‘Conscious Human Brain’._ **Factual narrative citations:** Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535), Francis Bacon[^([14])](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftn14)( 1561-1626) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). * My Catholic upbringing, the need to go to heaven rather than hell, is analysed. The personal viewpoint leads to a basis for understanding the human propensity continually to throw up outlier _‘anti-Christs’_ which preclude us from peacefully coexist. * The conceptual ‘_Original Sin’_ is analysed to explain resident evil or malice in all of us. **Factual narrative citations**: Luc Ferry quotes Rousseau, Old Testament Bible incites ethnic cleansing. * The relative difficulty for Democracy to be instituted compared to Communism and theocracies which can be bludgeoned into existence by authority**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Stephen Kotkin, Professor of History at Princeton University. * Gentlemen Prime Ministers of Britain Chamberlain and Baldwin were pushovers for the likes of Hitler and Stalin; Churchill was more of the ‘_head-kicker’_ needed to take them on. **§ Once We Departed Italia** There Was Strife: 1968-1973 * We become distanced from Italia’s politics. * I marry Monika and my family makes steady progress. * Italy universities produce an oversupply of graduates who are duped into militantism * In 1970 a regional government system was instituted, and left-wingers benefited. * Air of superiority surfaces in the North, fragmentation. New liberal laws are enacted; divorce is among these. Terrorists & Recession Woes:1973 – 1982 * Democracy on the nose; due to activism in the North and Mafia in the South. * Graft fuels _political clientelism._ In the South Public works are a cash cow to organised crime; unemployment finds career paths in crime. * In the North the middle class finds relief in Marxist ideology against public servants. * Unnatural political alliances between CD and PCI lead to even more corruption Italia 2.0 – La Prima República Finisce, Inizia Italia 3.0 – La Seconda República * Recession ends in 1984, business flourishes but government squanders the advantage, public debt rises substantially * EC’s need to rein in debt for the common currency impedes business. North blames the South for ‘cash burn’ leads to calls for a ‘federation’ and ditching the ‘ republic’ policies leading to the collapse of the 1^(st) * Neo Fascists _Alleanza Nazionale_ makes a run but Berluscone’s new party is victorious with their backing plus that of the ‘Northern League’. **§ Italia Enters the 21st Century** * Northern League puts the boots into the South * Berlusconi rehashes Italy’s Fascist past and questions the ‘Resistance’ and alliances do the merry-go-round **§ Democracy in he 21st Century** * Has its challenges --- [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref1) Professor of Modern Italian History, Department of Italian, University College London, London, England. Author of Milan Since the Miracle: City, Culture, and Identity and others. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref2) Published in the ‘New Yorker’ Magazine, 9 July 2007. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[3]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref3) Irish Historian, studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[4]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref4) Professor Emeritus, Department of History, UMass Amherst, A specialist on Italian and European social history, author of Fascism and the Industrial Leadership in Italy, 1919-1940( 1971). [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[5]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref5) Wilkinson, Maurice. “The Myth of Garibaldi.” The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 13, no. 4, 1928, pp. 630–645. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25012482. Accessed 10 Mar. 2021. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[6]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref6) ‘Giuseppe Garibaldi – Man and Myth’, Best of Sicily Magazine. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[7]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref7) Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare’ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[8]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref8) Doctoral Thesis ‘The German Minority in Yugoslavia 1941 – 1945’ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[9]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref9) Sparticus-Education.com; John Simkin Blog 1997, quotes historian Peter Martland, credited with uncovering the deal. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[10]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref10) Original in Italian: [http://dprs.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/16.html](http://dprs.uniroma1. it/sites/default/files/16.html) [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[11]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref11) Assuming Mephistopheles must have been credited with some wins of those souls which he bargained for. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[12]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref12) YouTube Channel “Socrates in the City” [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[13]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref13) A professor emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno, the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in classics and military history at the conservative Hoover Institution [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[14]](https://italiajoe.com/440-2/#_ftnref14) Book: The New Atlantis ## Via Nova 1861 ‘Taliani - Link: https://italiajoe.com/433-2/ - Published: 2024-05-30T03:02:29+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti **§ The Peninsula of City States** * Greek Settlements around Calabria and Sicily, dramatized by Virgil’s _‘The Aeneid’._ * Roman connections to Vibo Valentia in Calabria. * Summary of the peninsula’s foreign occupations through history. Fast-Forward Historical Ready-Mix * Brief tutorial on the Italian Peninsula’s geographical and biblical historical connections. * Contextual discourse based on Dr Eric Cline’s lectures: Bronze Age, Anatolia, Sea People, Philistines, Etruscans, Canaan, Mycenean culture, Cyprus name derived from _‘Cuprum’, _Lattin name for Copper, tin trade routes, the Exodus. * Chaos Theory effect on Civilizations, Homer’s ‘Troy, Simcha Jacobovici’s interpretation of Exodus, and Noah’s flood have similarities with the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. * Agricultural know-how exchange between East, West and North Africa. * Beginnings of social and religious structures of communities. The Peninsula mountain terrain is the cause of communal fragmentation. Tincture of Oblivious Bliss * Augustinian friar Johan Mendel discovers genetics, too late for the rulers to overturn their incestuous clinging to power, beginning with the Pharaohs. * The gods of Egypt include the monotheistic beliefs of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Incest resulting in Tutankhamun’s frail physical condition. Other factual narrative citations: Ptolemaic Dynasty and Cleopatra * Contrary to the teachings of the Old Testament Bible, in its attempts to rectify the events following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, incestuous marriages became the norm in the Roman Empire and later, Christian Europe. * The Hapsburg Dynasty was genetically corroded by an inbred gene pool. Hapsburg’s insane control over the Italian Peninsular. The last Hapsburg King of Spain was Charles II, which culminated in the _War of the Spanish Succession._ * Kaiser Wilhelm II, the British Monarchy and WWI and later Charles Edward’s force into the Nazi camp during WWII. ** § Only a Millenia To The Renaissance** Getting Dark Ages out of the Way 400-1000 * Roman Empire dislodged by the Islamic, Ottoman Empire * Parlous state of governance of the peninsula. **Factual narrative citations**: Dante Alighieri, Niccolò Machiavelli, Historian Christopher Duggan * Lombards invade from the North, and Byzantium holds together in the South. * The Prophet Mohammad, stirred things up with Christianity setting up the Crusades, leading to the Ottoman’s invading across the Balkans, eventually halted by Charles Martel’s son, who became known as Charlemagne. * Frankish administration over the North * The beginning of Papal ascendency Feudalism Locked and Loaded * Brief tutorial on the Feudal system of governance. * The ‘peasant’ of the British class structure, in the Italian context defines the downtrodden lowest class as _‘contadini’_. The term is evaluated from a contemporary viewpoint. * Introduction to Edward C Banfield’s confronting research ‘_The__ Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1958)’_. The reach of the term _‘contadini’_ into 20^( th) Century Simonetti’s. * Britain sets the pace for reform for labour rights. * Pope Urban sets the course for the Crusades. **Factual narrative citations**: Steven Runciman’s books of the Crusades. Communities Sprout 11th to 14th Century * Trade goes hand in hand with the Crusades. * The differentiation between North and South surfaces. * Enter the Normans. * Enter the German, Hohenstaufen Dynasty * German influence and intrigues over the Papacy. **Factual narrative citations**: Germany’s Henry III was succeeded by Henry IV, the last German Pope, Victor II( 1055-7), Abbey of Monte Casino, WWII connections. * **Factual narrative citations**: Richard I, the Lion-Heart of England, Angevin Empire, King John, _‘Magna Carta’_. * The ‘_Sicilian Vespers’_ rebellion against the French, Simonetti folklore interpretation. * End of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty. Francavilla Angitola: Town from Antiquity * The human soul, driver to form communes? * Introduction to the work by Lorenzo Malta. Research into the origins of my homey commune and whether it had Greek connections. **Factual narrative citations**: Virgil’s hero Aeneas, Lycophron’s poem _‘Cassandra’, _Paris, the son of Priam and Hecuba of Troy. * Eastern Saints in Calabria; The Patron Saint of Francavilla is ‘_San Foca Martire_’ with connections to the hieromartyr[^([1])](https://italiajoe.com/433-2/#_ftn1) from _‘Sinópe nel Ponto’_, in today’s Turkey. * Saint Gregory’s (Bishop of Tours)[^([2])](https://italiajoe.com/433-2/#_ftn2), recorded Latin writing of ‘_San Foca Martire_’, is translated into a quote to explain the connections with snakes. **Factual narrative citations**: _‘Menologion of Basil II’_ manuscript depicting Phocas-(Foca) at the point of execution. Simonetti folklore interpretation of the Saint. * 9^(th) and 10^(th) Centuries Saracen’s attacks on the Calabrian coasts. **Factual narrative citations**: pushback by Byzantine leader, Nikephoros Phokas; his bio is narrated. Cross-fertilised folklore of the two men named ‘Phokas’ circulates. * The Simonetti-Attisani family makes up the descriptive historical narration. ** Factual narrative citations**: Norman Kings Roger I & II, Arab Muslim geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi, writings by Ilario Tranquillo confirmation of the commune at the turn of the millennia. The Washout (Renaissance Italy 1300-1494) * In the North, _Ghibelline and Guelf factions _were a complex web of ineffective alliances. **Factual narrative citations**: Dante Alighieri’s _‘Devine Comedy’._ * Governance evolution in the City States, Financial Systems make the elites of Bankers: Bardi, Peruzzi and Medici. **Factual narrative citations**: loans to Edward III, England for the ‘_Hundred Years’ War’_, break the bankers. * In the South, the Feudal Kingdom was ruled by Angevins until 1442. Geography is a hindrance to governance. Francavilla’s social and commercial development is reviewed. **Factual narrative citations**: writer Leandro Alberti, Alfonso of Aragon Duke of Calabria (later king of Naples). Writers Lorenzo Giustiniani and Antonio F Parisi have opposing views of the Roman provenance of the locale _Ad Turres._ * **Factual narrative citations**: Black Death in 1348, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the _‘Decameron’ _about that period. Enrico degli Scrovegni, the son of Money Lender, Reginaldo degli Scrovegni, commissioned Giotto to adorn the Arena Chapel, but still earned a place in Dante’s hell. * Calabria remains in the backwaters of feudalism whilst changes at the top continued with the support of the Papacy: Angevine’s to oust the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, war between Angevines and Aragonese followed. * Francavilla was bought and sold during the takeover by the Aragon Dynasty. Large numbers of Spanish settled in Calabria. * Niccolò Machiavelli uses the revenge taken by Ferrante in his book ’The Prince’. Writer Peter Robb and historian Christopher Duggan weigh in on that discourse about revenge. Bosphorus Phosphorus: Part 1 * This is a lead into events which will occur in the 20^(th) * Elemental phosphorous forms a critical molecular component that enables all living cells to utilise the fuel for the maintenance of life. Discourse engages in the other facets of phosphorous, its incendiary properties used as a metaphor for the clash of civilizations, Christian Europe and Muslim East across the Bosphorus Straights. All were made even more complex by the _‘Great Schism’_ which split Christianity into Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. * Human propensity for heinous behaviour explored. * The nature of God presiding over human consciousness presented through **factual narrative citations**:_ Documentary Hypothesis or Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis’ _in the development of the Old Testament Bible. * Theme encompassing the destruction of humankind exists in various cultures. ** Factual narrative citations**: Epic Mythological Poem about Gilgamesh king of Uruk, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Pandora from Greek mythology and Noah. In contemporary times the existential struggle continues amongst ‘_Communism’,_ _‘Socialism’_ and the _‘Religions’_ seen as the antithesis of _‘Democracy’_. Governing structures vacillate through principles of _‘liberalism’_. The _‘Doomsday Clock’_ ticks on. * **Factual narrative citations**: Luc Ferry, Ovid, John Milton’s ‘_Paradise Lost’_, Evolutionist Charles Darwin and his protagonists Intelligent Design advocates, Stephen Meyer, James Tour and Creationist, Michael Cremo. Dante’s _‘Inferno’_ could not adequately deliver damnation for the _‘anti-Christ’_ Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong. * Satirical light humour to lighten the mood infused with references made to _‘ Monty Python’ _crew and _The Firm’ _stringing together in a song about the adventures of the _‘Starship Enterprise’._ * The spread of Islam alarms the West to unite adequately to mount a defence of Christendom, however _‘Sharia Law’_ prevailed over territories captured when of process of proselytising was enforced. ** § Nature Echoes Across Applied Social & Economic Veneers: 1494-1789** Markers to the 16th and 17th Centuries * Wealth created by the banking dynasties became economically unproductive due to investments made in works of art and villas. * Charles VIII of France in 1494 initiated war in the North enriching some of the locals. * By 1527 Spain controlled Sicily, Naples and Lombardy * War between France and Spain mitigated by lack of cash. * Galileo Galilei made his pronunciation for a heliocentric universe (concerning the earth) for which he will fall foul of the Catholic Church * Attempts at social reform were being tried in England with the _‘Poor Law of 1601’_ delivering mixed results. * The Italian economy improves after the plague of the earlier century. Public works included land reclamations in the North. * Catholic Spain’s antagonistic stance against Protestant England fuelled the attempt to invade the British Isles by the Spanish Armada. * In the South brigandage begins to assert itself due to unemployment and food shortages. * Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes wreak devastation. A review of Francavilla’s plight makes for a sombre reflection. * Origins of the ‘Simonetti’ name and possible connections with Spain explored. Earthquakes Mix It With 18th Century Enlightenment Reforms * Spain’s power waning, Charles II, the last of the Spanish Hapsburgs dies leading to the ‘_War of the Spanish Succession’._ * Makings of the First King of an Italian city-state emerged after Victor Amadeus( 1666-1732) switched his allegiance from France to Austrian Hapsburgs. But there were troubles in that Regency, the Spanish came back to reclaim Sardinia and then Sicily. The Savoy Kingdom was brokered by the _Quadruple Alliance_ (Britain, France, Hapsburg, Emperor Charles VI and the Dutch Republic), * Calabria’s lot was to continue in a parlous state made worse by new seismic activity.** Factual narrative citations**: Historian, General Pietro Colletta chronicles the effects of the earthquakes. * Novel interpretation from own experience of the scientific nature of energy as the source of destructive power. **Factual narrative citations**: Deborah appears in the Book of Judges, Hillel I Millgram’s analysis of _‘Song of Deborah’._ Scientist Marcus Reiner assigns the improbability of mountains flowing to the sea a _‘Deborah number (De)’._ * Francavilla folklore develops around possible occurrences of _‘Tsunami’, _childhood memories explored. The township was devastated in 1783, a rebuild was to be made elsewhere. Stories of survival and despair abound. ** § Sear With Wars, Add Nationalism, Then Stir: 1789-1849** Bosphorus Phosphorus: Part 2 * Introduction of the Vogels along with German–Austrian–Croatian ancestral connections. * _‘The Gates of Vienna about to fall’_ actual meaning is explored. * Kara Mustafa Pasha is driven by hubris to initiate an attack on Vienna. The siege and strategies are explored. The European States come together to counter the existential threat. An unlikely hero emerges from the ranks of the French–Italian nobility, Prince Eugene of Savoy. **Factual narrative citations**: Louis XIV’s mother was Anne of Austria, the sister of the King of Spain Philip IV (1605 – 1665). Two centuries later Winston Churchill will compare Louis XIV to Hitler’s delusionary expansionary policies. * Eugene’s military career was made at the siege of Vienna, in support of the coalition forces led by King Jan III Sobieski of Poland; _‘The Treaty of Utrecht’_ * Thread through history leads to descendants of Victor Amedeo, the first, post- Roman Empire King becoming embroiled with Benito Mussolini. * Circa 1889, Austrians are encouraged to migrate to Bosnia. * Croatia and Serbia’s histories are summarised. **Factual narrative citations**: Helga Horiak Harriman’s Doctoral Thesis ‘_The German Minority in Yugoslavia 1941– 1945’._ The Vogel family migrated and settled in Lukavaç to become part of the ethnic ‘Volksdeuchen’. First the Pyramids; Then The French Revolution Happened * A tongue-in-cheek exposé of the enlightenment movements spawning in France**.**** Factual narrative citations**: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the _Illuminati_, persecution of the Freemasons _(Liberi Muratori)_ in Italy. * Napoleon Bonaparte ousts the Austrians from the Northern Italian States and tries to reform Italy. * The Kingdom of Naples becomes pivotal in the geopolitical machinations swirling about the peninsular. **Factual narrative citations**: Maria Carolina daughter of the Empress of Austria, Maria Theresa, King Ferdinand as _‘Re Lazzarone’, _Horatio Nelson’s part in the intrigues which evolved following Napoleon’s takeover of Naples. * The Italian Republic movement culminates into the brief ‘_Parthenopean Republic’ __._ **Factual narrative citations**: Historian General Pietro Colletta, Cardinal Ruffo, French General Championnet, * Mine own memoirs’ logic and reasons for taking sides on issues that arise. * **Factual narrative citations**: historian Robert Lacey explains the troubled relationship between France and England, the two nations collaborated in the _‘ Crimean War’._ * The rise of brigands facilitated by geopolitics. The Papacy insisted on picking winners and relegating the losers, the Bourbonists were preferable to a home- grown Republic. _‘Canto dei Sanfedisti’_ was analysed in light of Pietro Colletta’s historical writings. * Francavilla’s role in the war to restore the Bourbon King. The carnage wreaked on Crotone by the ‘_Sanfedista Army’_. The town hosted a large contingent of French soldiers after the second coming of Napoleon. * Son of a Scotsman, Étienne MacDonald leads to a discourse about the British Crown.** Factual narrative citations**: the Jacobites versus the Protestant line of successions. * French governance reform for the peninsular is the beginning of the _‘Risorgimento’, _but still, it does not auger well for Calabria’s development. * My memoirs introduced to analyse the stagnation occurring in Calabria. The basis for the discourse is the epic film _‘Gone with the Wind’ _based on the book by Margaret Mitchell. * Francavilla became involved in the battle of Maida, which brought brigands into the fray against the French on the side British – Bourbanist alliance. * **Factual narrative citations**: Joachim Murat’s role in the post-French occupation. * Brigandage becomes a scourge on society; their barbarism is explored via one of these, _‘Il Bizzarro._ The politico of the French versus the British-Bourbon Alliance fuelled brigand excesses. * Mine own oral history memoirs of grownups talking about later-day outlaws as the stuff of folklore, are narrated. Restoration Panacea Causes Heartburn 1815-1849 * Secret Societies formed to oppose the French but were unable to rally the population to revolt. * Introduction to our ancestors which enter the discourse after 1845. * Secret Societies initiate activism against the Austrian-backed establishment. The economic backdrop is bleak. * The Sardinian Monarchy consolidates in Turin, conceptual Italy becoming a nation is still- a long way off. Discontent by the populace forces some concessions by the Monarchs in the South; the second French Revolution became a watershed moment forcing the King in the North to begrudgingly acquiesce to a people’s _‘ Statuto’._ * The Bourbon Restoration in Naples was backed by Austria; Generals imprisoned including Pietro Colletta. **Factual narrative citations**: revolts by lieutenants Michele Morelli and Giuseppe Silvati eventually failed. * Calabrian peasants’ revolt against the Bourbons. Simonetti and Attisani’s ancestors are mentioned in the context of the events. **Factual narrative citations**: Lorenzo Malta’s account of the battle between revolutionary General Francesco Stocco and Bourbon Gen. Nunziante’s army near Francavilla. Place Your Bets * Finding a political baseline from amongst the social headwinds is trial and error exercise for the fledgling Monarchy. * Political power plays arise by the establishment of a parliament in Turin. ** Factual narrative citations**: The rise of _Count Camillo Benzo di Cavour, _the Crimean War, the 1856 Paris Peace Congress, Napoleon III, Rome and the Papal States impediment to a future unification of the peninsular. --- [[[[[[[[[[[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/433-2/#_ftnref1) In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, a hieromartyr is a martyr (one who dies for his beliefs) who was a bishop or priest. [[[[[[[[[[[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/433-2/#_ftnref2) Les livres des miracles et autres opuscules de Georges Florent Grégoire, évêque de Tours, Volume 3, Page 270, Ch XCIX ## Chaos Pins Cobram - Link: https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/ - Published: 2024-05-30T02:53:08+00:00 - Author: Joseph Simonetti **§ Adapting to Home-Made Chaos** * Explanation of ‘chaos theory’ in the scheme of things to be in the future. The example is given from personal experiences. * Father and Zio make life decisions without proper consideration of the effects on their families. * Discourse expanded to the Gattuso immigration experience as a means to introduce the range of social issues that evolved for men, separated from their wives. * Gattuso family history adds a knowledge base to the pre-war immigration. The war almost makes separation permanent. An illegitimate child is born of those events providing intrigue for us entering their sphere of farming influence. * Geroloma, the Gattuso wife left behind in Italy, gave birth after her husband had left. Another child is adopted and eventually makes for a complex family get-together in Cobram. * Our sister, Caterina fills in the gaps of the life being lived in Francavilla. Childminding included ad hoc stays at the beach near the _‘Pontana’_ * Aberrations appear in the child Caterina, in the form of separation anxiety; circumstances force the need to have her stay at a summer camp. Work on the farms needed to go on. Mother’s frugality, possibly overdone, monies being remitted from Australia could have been better used for family comforts. Our comfort in Australia was not any better. * Doing time on the Cavallaro farm required distractions. Commanding an army of chickens would make George Orwell smirk. But what’s ‘Time’ for a child? Was it something like Einstein’s _‘Theory of Relativity’_ and implemented in Dr Who’s_‘ Tardis’_[^([1])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn1)_?_ * End of the 1957 school year party background to the iconic photo opportunity of my being in Gypsy costume. Then it was back to the fruit farm in Cobram. * Simonetti expand into share farming supplying tomatoes to the _‘Kia-Ora’_ food products brand. The venture leads into a humorous horsey story of Zio, Father, me and the draft horse. * Our living conditions are comparable to Mack and the boys of “Cannery Row”.[^([2])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn2) * Shopping for food staples opens opportunities to use the loose change to buy comics and small toys. Also, a lead into a descriptor of the town layout. * The pub sessions indulgences by the grownups, become the bane of my having to do the shopping. * I’m taught to prep the pasta sauce for the evening meals using a kerosene camp stove. Transitional Social Patterns * A brief ‘Who’s Who’ of Anglo Cobram is extracted from Harold G Martindale’s book_“ The Plains Turn Green”._ These people would form part of the Simonetti social mix in the future. One of these, Patrick Duffy will sell his sheep farm to Father and two other Italians. * Nicola Gattuso’s immigrant settler status in Cobram provides a glimpse of the progress being made to better oneself. * The town’s father-to-son doctoring history forms part of the Vogel’s story. Another town doctor with possible historical connections, by the name of “_Schubert” _will in future years provide medical support services for the birth of our sons Adam and Damien. * Early Cobram orchardists include the Quick family. I will compete with its progeny for the affections of two girls, one of whom I married. * R J Cornish’s main orchard was on Cottons Road up the road where we lived on the Gattuso farm. His son Geoff becomes a pivotal character in my grade 5 and 6 school years. * The layout of the Gattuso farms sets the scene for the ongoing narratives of our communal involvement. * Personalities that make up the social mix with whom we become involved are introduced. * A walk-through descriptor narrative of the fateful enrolment at the Catholic School for the 1958 school year and how I decided against it. * Crunch time at the State School came to assess my competency in basic literacy. By age, I should have been in grade four, but I ended up suitably in grade three. * The status of Cristiano Spiller, the pre-war immigrant from the earlier discourse is updated to include his family with whom I shall interact. * During my after-school days and weekends, I became a roustabout in the packing shed. The _‘devil made me do it’_ scenario of my toying with the flywheel of the fruit grader unleashes contempt for my pitiful existence. * Father is deemed a _‘gun picker’_ making him extraordinary amongst his peers and bosses. * Share farming sees me needing to pitch in with tomato picking. It was to be the beginning of my becoming a contributor to the family’s economic welfare. * Pre-descriptor narrative of the tomato industrial complex and its demeaning effect on the human psyche but unavoidable to building the cash stake. * Introduction made to the Raco complicated family structure for the upcoming narrative to my being billeted in its care, when Father goes to the asparagus harvest. * Hazards of swimming in irrigation channels are a feature of rural living. * The need to describe our homes as a class exercise makes for a rounding off on the living conditions in the shack. The consciousness of social standing is awakened within me. * Father decides not to return to Mossman for the cane season. We remain in that inhospitable shack for the winter. The upside was that I got a raincoat and gumboots. * Building the new farm dunny involves crossing paths with the Vogels. * Father’s status in the Italian community gets a boost from his skills in grafting trees, but with minimal financial reward. * Winter on the farm makes for a wonderland of frosty scenes and uncomfortable nights in a shack without insulation or heating. * Making my toys from the top of a paint tin, and another from the steel ring insert forming the seal between the lid and the 44-gallon drum. * Father sets trends in pruning techniques from his experience in Italy. * The gathering at the other farm hut of earlier discourse, in which the intellectual discussion of brigands and other esoteric mutterings by the grownups, is put into the timeline. * Zio Pietro returns from Mossman with news that the Galati family was planning to relocate to the Gattuso orchard. * The plastic toy truck chance find, floods my existence with troubled waters. * My firsthand experience with the traditional methods used to make the irrigation channels. **Factual narrative citation**: Harold Martindale[^([3])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3) [](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3)[](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3) [](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3)[](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3) [](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3)[](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn3) * Oral history provided by our sister-in-law Glenys Vogel (né McKinley) of her parent’s role in the construction of the main irrigation channels in the 1930s. Ernie McKinley was an Irish immigrant caught up in the Great Depression and one of many sent to the Cobram district to earn _‘susso pay’._[^([4])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn4) * Henry Lawson’s poem ‘Faces In The Street’ of the city folk doing it tough in Australia is quoted. His interest in revolution is compared to Italian Communist Palmiro Togliatti a generation later. * Anglo-Australian’s xenophobic tendencies towards Italians put into perspective. Australia’s growth in GDP ameliorates Lawson’s call to arms; the growth is attributed in part to the growing population, of which Italian immigrants featured prominently. * Ernie’s death in a car crash in town leads to other deaths experienced by migrant families. The tragic death of a mother and four children close to Cobram provides an opening to introduce the notion of organised crime existing alongside law- abiding Italian immigrants. * Simonetti’s become aware of Josef and Veronica Vogel at Gattuso Orchard No 2. Granddaughter Erica Vogel provides an oral history of the discord underlying that event. * Simonetti’s begin to interact socially with other Italians. * John Steinbeck’s characters Mr and Mrs Sam Molloy’s[^([5])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn5) entrepreneurship is compared to the Galati family arriving at the Gattuso orchard and being accommodated in the newly built chemicals storage shed, * A class photograph of the St Joseph’s grade 4, has the three girls Monika Vogel, Mary Galati and Maria Kraljik all smiling, oblivious as to how they will be influencers through my teens. * Another share tomato crop fails to get a supply contract and is abandoned. * The Galati family moved into the purpose-built home on the orchard. Simonetti’s upgrade to the hut which has electricity connected. * The tragedy of my being causal to damaging Zio’s mandolin. * Headaches and migraines begin to affect my health. I would need to take analgesics. Anecdote of a migraine attack at school causing unbearable pain. There was no remedy and Father could not be contacted. Geoffrey Cornish looks out for me on the school bus to make it back to the hut. * The 1959 season ends, Father is to head off to Gundagai for the asparagus harvest; I’m billeted out to the Giuseppe and Margarita Raco’s care. I hustle Father for worldly goods. * Tommaso Galati provides an oral history background to Giuseppe Raco and his 1930s pickup truck. * Background to the soldier settlement established with the POW huts being repurposed for homes on the farms, brings up interesting coincidences. I lived with the Raco Family in one of these. **Factual narrative citation**: The story of Cobram– A Social History. * Memoires of the experience elucidate aspects of my time with the Raco family. I became shy and self-conscious of the social difference. Sisters whom I would catch the school bus surprised me with their kindness, they gave me a small bag of cherries. Life Stuff – That’s Serious * The topic of sexuality, generally taboo is introduced through my recollections as far back as school days in Francavilla. Girls’ difference from boys leads to the childish scenario of _“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” _which never happened. Such innocence led to my reporting back to family at mealtime that in exhibition of bravado, joined in the idle chit chat with my announcing that that I had, had sex with a girl after school. It did not end well, lessons learnt are explored. * Introspective of my playing with friendly Anglo children for a brief afternoon in Mossman becomes a reason to miss Mother and siblings left in Italy. * Tendency to become attached to a ‘pretty’ girl at school leads to the introduction of ‘puppy love’ affections for Julie Davies, Mary Galati and Christine Manser. * High school offers continued scope to cast eyes over girls, Maria Kraljik stands out in my mind’s eye. * If my emotional needs, those of a child, needed attention, then how were the young men in their prime of life handling their privation? To find an answer, without having an intention for a full study, the circumstances of several persons in our social sphere are explored. * Why the men leave their families, whether for wars or immigration and including celibacy is headlined for the discourse at hand. Nicola Gattuso’s story leading to a child being born from a relationship with Jean Goodwin is explored. * Giuseppe Raco’s three-way family including a de facto Margarita and a wife in Italy is pieced together from oral history notes. There is an unravelling when the Italian wife eventually comes to Australia. * Father and Zio were on their own for months at a time. I was left alone in the shack only once. * Mother and Zia Barbara left in Italy with young children struggling to keep the farms productive and maintain discipline and security for the children left in their care. Father and Zio should have come to grips with the separations but procrastinated. * Our experience is held up against other close families with whom we interacted, planning more effectively. America was still an option if Father and I had returned to Italy. * Mother makes the call to end the original plan, it was not working. ** § Steps Back To A Normality** ‘Rithmatic Flint Sparks Catalytic Social Synthesis * Narrative picks up events from the 1959 grade 4 school year onwards, at a time when my English skills had improved. Zio returns from Mossman. I’m prepared to go in front of the class to show my skills in arithmetic. * Update on the Galati family’s whereabouts on the farms. Simonetti’s routine resumes for the coming fruit season. * School classes for grades 5 and 6 are located at the _‘Old School’._ An exercise to write a story of what we did on the weekend indicates that there is still some way to go to fit in socially. Anecdote of the attempt to express coherent sentences by resorting to phonetics and _‘Italglishisms’_. Still excelled in arithmetic. * Methods for mental fortitude begin to be developed to assist with coping with the anguish being caused by the quite evident social differences. * New girls and boys, child characters, who would become my peers are introduced, angels and devils amongst them. The Francis brothers had a definite beginning as ‘devil’ tormentors; a solution was found. * Jump forward to 2012, Leane Baker lays out the girl’s take on the desirable boys of early high school, quite ego-boosting stuff had I known that in the ‘60s, but then again, I think I knew that something was at play; anecdotes of Pam Cornish and Kathleen Mathews narrated. * Fisticuffs near the toilet block between Kenny Graham and newly arrived immigrant Svetislav * Father heads for Gundagai leaving me in the care of the Galati family, I continue at the State School and the Galati siblings go to the Catholic school. Another cohort of influential characters is introduced. These children will have influence, leading to childhood friendships, competitiveness amongst boys and in my future, the ‘first kiss’. * Geoffrey Cornish and I established ‘best friends’ status even though there was a tattered appearance around me, heralded by the awful sandshoes I wore day in, day out. A Place to Call Home * Father buys a house in town. The dwelling was built from leftover material from other jobs during a downturn in the industry. It was in part built by the Vogel brothers, then working for Lou Walker. * Descriptor of the home and the need to have it furnished, is a lead-in to describe the township and the who’s who of our neighbours including a town shire councillor. We had inadvertently stepped into the realms of the middle class. * John Vogel owns the block next door and interacts with Father. * Father takes in boarders, fellow travellers in need of somewhere to live. * Zio wins a transistor radio at the Cobram Show. I need to get home to listen to the next _‘Lone Ranger’ _ * The International Community of Europe stirring into action will spell trouble for Australian farmers. * Father gets his driver’s licence and eventually buys a second-hand 1958 Holden FC Special Sedan. * Geoffrey Cornish comes-a-visiting whilst Father is at work. I offer him a sip of _‘Marsala All ‘Uovo’_. * There was something different about Scottish, Kenneth Sweeny, character portrayal. His imported bicycle and demeanour sets him apart. * Boys talk ‘cars’ but I have my heart set on getting an air-powered slug gun. ‘ Sparrows beware’ narrative diverges into Mao Zedong’s _‘Great Leap Forward’ _ * Ken Sweeney facilitates my getting an after-school job at Lou Walker’s Hardware store, then managed by Franz Vogel Jr. * The after-school job eventually clashes with my need to work with the family’s share farming tomato crops. **§ Mother does not come with a User Guide** * Mother and siblings were ready to come to Australia, we needed to refresh our recognition of my sister. Father gets it wrong; he shows me a photo of our cousin. * Father’s Catholic morally based ambitions compared with those of Joe Kennedy, whose bootlegging was used to buy the Presidency for his son. Father thought it a good idea to have his son learn to play a piano accordion. * Need for firewood provides for a timeline introduction to Cristiano Spiller and family. * We head for Melbourne to reunite with Mother, Caterina and Aurelio, arriving by ship from Italy. * Antonio Prestigiacomo, who worked with Father’s cane-cutting gang in Queensland, had by then an extended family structure in Melbourne. His brother Giacinto and his wife Bettina extend hospitality to our need to have a place to stay for a few days. * Descriptor narrative of our taking the tram to Station Pier, the atmospherics of the ship at port, anticipation to get the first glimpse of the Mother existing only in memory. Talking to a sister and brother for whom the recognition factor had faded. * Social ambience of friendships extending back to Italy and the present reuniting in our host terraced home Brunswick just north of the city of Melbourne. Other related friendships were brought into the fore to give an expansive view of the network forming in Australia and America. * The Gattuso family lends its assistance to facilitate the transfer, of the reunited Simonetti family, to Cobram. * Mother had lost her child and got a teenager who had experienced for good and bad, supervision freedom. * The new plan was to mean that all that was left behind in Italy was, to be in practical terms ‘written off’, these could not be used to support applications for a bank loan. * Anticipation grows for goodies from Italy filling the trunks accompanying the family entourage. The luggage arrives separately as freight to the Cobram Train Station. * Mother’s fine crockery and haberdashery accommodated amongst the Laminex and other ‘Australiana’ home furnishings. * Introduction to Caterina’s and Aurelio’s schooling and friendships left behind, and sacrificed. Caterina will have to carry the suffocating bourdon of Calabrian cultural etiquette. * Siblings positioned at the Catholic School against the backdrop of notable children with whom we shall interact in the future. * Caterina is disadvantaged by her leaving a caring school structure in Francavilla. She unwittingly comes into contact with the petit ladies of my child’s past and adolescent future. * Mother has a take ‘no prisoners’ mentality to Caterina interacting with boys from the street. Her oral history rings of sadness from such Calabrian intolerance. * Caterina’s friendships with neighbours Stella and Mimma Oliva make for exploratory opportunities for Aurelio and me. We naively set out to find out, at separate interludes, how the ‘birds and bees’ narrative may work. * Time was up for Caterina; she did not return to school in 1965 and began to work at a greengrocer, a mixed business. * That Mother liked to haggle goes back to my recollections at market day in Filadelfia. Her antics came to haunt me as the anointed English speaker to translate on shopping days. * My becoming a musician had been written in the stars once the piano accordion arrived, and was surely the making of a comedy skit. Reality hit home that an ad hoc approach to learning was not going to cut it. The need to work on the tomato crop won out in the end. * Creating wealth was all-encompassing, fortunately, underwritten by Mother’s and Father’s good health and propensity to be efficient at the work which faced them. There was no alternative to my needing to work alongside them, whether it was the tomato crop, or picking oranges during school holidays. * It is inevitable that family social opinions would be challenged by our exposure to the wider community. There was a legacy effect from my independence which Mother and I needed to reckon with. * Reflection on my youth and how the quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde that “_Youth is wasted on the young”_ applied to my circumstances. **§ Rebrand Rendering Work In Progress** * The backdrop of my teen years between 1961 and 1965 is narrated by the pressing need to create wealth through shared farming ventures at various locations. Memoirs of my working alongside Father and Mother. * Father and I become a job lot for becoming Australian Citizens. * Zio Pietro takes steps to have his family join him, but things fall apart when the Australian immigration system fumbles with the documentary procedure. * Zio Pietro’s and Zia Barbara’s family structure suffer from isolation the same as our family; perhaps a case of Robert Burns: _“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…”_, Discourse leads into similarities with John Steinbeck’s _‘Of Mice and Men’ _and Henry Lawson’s writings providing an Australian context about people facing extreme circumstances. Zio’s mental health over the nine years of separation is contextually explored. * Father and Mother used their farming know-how to begin share farming on various farms, the first of which was on the outskirts of Cobram, on fallow land. * Historical Cobram blended in with current events becoming part of the tomato crop enterprises. The Spiller family bridges pre-war and post-war Italians settling in the district. * Descriptor narrative of the irrigation techniques for the tomato crop. * The labouring schedules at the ‘coal face’ have breaks for straying to a Coca- Cola vending machine across the highway, located at the VW dealership. * The tomato plant physiology is a curse for those picking its fruit. Cultivation by hoe just adds to the miserable experience. * Picking and transport of the tomato crop. * Fear of Pellagra leads to making acquaintance with Matteo Orsida when Father pays for a course of vitamin injections to be administered by the farmer’s wife. * My migraines are put through the superstition mill and I am subjected to _‘mal’occhio’_ exorcism for the first and last time. * The after-school job, working with Frank Vogel was the making of riches for a short while. I’m exposed to people other than farmers and gaining a level of street smartness. * Frank Vogel provides an oral history of his moonlighting as a loader of tomato crates during harvest. * The Orsida share farming experience adds new characters Giuseppe Caridi and his wife Brigida to the Simonetti social network. * The debilitating effects of migraines are explained in terms of the Hubble telescope’s blurred images. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem _“Alone”_ is an illustration of the dilemma I faced when left alone and suffering from a migraine. The poem is analysed in retrospect, using the skills accumulated in a life lived thus far. Why drink alcohol, a known trigger of migraine attacks? Human frailty at its best! * Father’s bush carpentry skills are put to the test when building a makeshift lunchtime shelter to provide shade for the scorching summer sun. * My fledgling ego is nearly derailed by Matto Orsida’s offer to school me in replacing an implement to the back of the Ferguson tractor. * Why I hate early morning callouts goes back to the need to protect tomato plants from fungal black spot disease. The dusting needed to be performed in the moonlight from around 3 AM onwards. * What’s worse picking or cultivating a tomato crop? The narration gives light- hearted explanations based on scaled relativities. The weeds win every time. * Something goes bang at the packing shed. A visitor with a shotgun lets loose on the peppercorn tree teeming with noisy sparrows. * We casually meet the Spiller family at the Orsida packing shed, soon after the mother dies. * The summer of ’63 –’64 came to an end, leasing the Jack Gattuso orchard based on Zio Pietro remaining in Cobram rather than returning to Mossman for the cane season. * It was the same farm worked by the Galati family and had spent time there. Character introductions university students Roy and Fred Gattuso. The Tallotta family visiting make our acquaintance, their son Alfonse a worthy play friend. * Orchard husbandry is different to tomato cropping but more prestigious. Hazards posed by agri-chems are disregarded and begin the slow deterioration of Mother’s health. * Boys making bows and arrows. * Early callouts ‘take two’; need to set alight oil cans to ward off the frost from the apricot paddock. * Christmas is synonymous with apricot harvest. Preparing for both entails allowing time to slaughter and pluck the chickens. Mother and Caterina work in the kitchen to prepare the traditional dishes and bake biscuits. * It’s all in the taste test. Fruits from Italy are compared to similar varieties grown commercially in Australia and how genetics play a role. * The fresh fruits sales cycle and the processing for the canning industry at a time of oversupply leads to conflict between the farm owner and lessees. * Father uses what cash the family has to participate in a three-way plan to buy the Patrick Duffy sheep farm. * The reason why the plan hits a snag relates to earlier decisions to buy land in Italy, now considered worthless as collateral for a bank loan. Banks have an eye to events unfolding in the setting up of the European Common Market, it would have been beneficial to the Simonetti’s had they regrouped in Italy. * Father’s solution was to borrow some of the money needed from his sister’s family. The resulting unprecedented family politico: how it put our Aunt in a difficult situation is explored. **§ Dance Me to the Edge** * The backdrop of my teen years between 1961 and 1965 is narrated from the need to lead a fulfilling life. Leonard Cohen’s lyrics of the 1984 song _“Dance Me to the End of Love”_, form a retrospective ‘life markers’ list of expectations. * Need to move on to somewhere, having more promise than the bleak existence of the five years before Mother, Caterina and Aurelio joined us. * Cobram High School’s beginnings were only marginally better than Henry Lawson’s‘ _The Old Bark School.’[^(**[6]**)](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn6)_ Both school and ‘me’ the pupil lacking any educational provenance. * Curriculum offers an opportunity to excel, inadvertently drawing teacher attention. * Cobram-born Harold G Martindale’s bio has him at Melbourne High School; in the due course of time, our eldest son Michael will also attend. * Headmaster seeks out Father for a quiet word about his son. The episode became the seminal follow-up to my fateful decision to renege on my Catholic School enrolment. * Descriptor narrative of the rural town setting and its historical makings. * Monika Vogel becomes embedded into Cobram mesh as a marching girl, photos of her putting the Vogels into the timeline. * The Cobram pubs, parks and sale yards and their locations form part of the town’s history. * The Murray River and its beaches made Cobram different. Steamers were the backbone of Cobram’s economy. * Neighbours: John Vogel’s vacant block of land is purchased by the empty nesters, the Thompsons. On the other side, another empty nester couple were the Fry’s. These together with the Rice family make for basic social integration of the Simonetti’s with Anglo-Australians. * The World Wars and what these meant, once the Simonetti’s had to relate to patria Italia and patria Australia. **Factual narrative citation**: quotes from C J Dennis’ “_The Moods of Ginger Mick”_. Recall made to the misadventures of Giolitti, Mussolini and the discourse of errors made by the British. * Darryl Rice’s grandfather enlisted in both wars. * Fill-in character depiction of Darryl Rice, he is the boy with whom I attend the sermons by the visiting missionary to Cobram. * Friendships made with Scot, Ken Sweeny and German, Uffa Reinecker who lived with their families in Housing Commission Estate, explore our teenage escapades in the townscape still crisscrossed with irrigation channels. * The troubles caused by using slingshots to fire at grandads’ collection of radio vacuum valves, as targets. * ‘Heaven awaits’ sermon by the preacher from _‘Sant’Antonio di Padova’_ of earlier discourse put into the timeline. * Railyard, wheat storage sheds and the sheep shearing shed, next to the Bottom Pub were stamping grounds for Darryl and me to use up playtime. References were made to the sites’ relative histories to the town’s development. * School scorecard facilitates a friendship with Kenny Graham _‘leader of the pack’_ at the _‘Old School’._ * Mother’s social circle enables me to become friends with Frank Iudica. * Snakes pose danger in the bush of the Murray River flood plain doubling up as playgrounds. * Fank Iudica and I practice being little men doing men’s work, shovelling and axing in our backyards. Muscle building on the cheap using a cobbler anvil and a punching bag filled with corn cobbs amuses little brother Aurelio. * Additional character profiling of Kenny Graham to bring his skills in sport. Our friendship was strengthened by our being invited to Margo Lundie’s ’63 summer party at the family home. We go to the Orisida’s vineyard for Ken to get his fill of grapes, a bit tricky given that I had not cleared the idea with Father. * Talking with Frank Iudica about girls and the testosterone-fuelled growing pains needing to find relief. * In the left field were Julie Davies and Christine Manser whilst ’63 Maria Kraljick made an entry from the right field, what to do? Ken Sweeny is willing to cause mischief. * The day of reckoning was the school dance where Darryl and I were ignorantly offbeat, taking, truly an empty plate, as specified in the circular. * ’62 and ’63 Speech Nights settings reinforced the possibility of my continuing school to Year 12. * Margo Lundie and I are invited to the Rotary Club’s Annual Dinner. Additional character profiling of Margo’s sport, academic abilities and her family’s connections in the Cobram community. * The Rotary Dinner was held at the _‘Bottom Pub’_, Margo and I formally spoke after dinner. * It’s not all a sugar and spice existence, immaturity causes regretful fumbles fuelled by alcohol irrespective of knowing the consequences being migraine attacks. * Toying with explosive powders was an exercise in crass attention-grabbing. Robert Banks-Smith’s and my fascination compared to Robert Jordan[^([7])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn7) and Francesco Crispi’s exploits with explosives. * Frank Vogel was reintroduced to the narrative via our playing in a basketball competition. His employment with the Walker Hardware business comes to an end when the business closes. He is influential in the Denson brothers extending their hardware business. * Nazzareno (Tom) Bisogni makes a dramatic entry into my existence but unclear as to what ends, other than an after-school job at the hardware warehouse associated with his building interests. * The who’s who, of the Vogel family network picks up the thread of that family’s settling into Cobram. * A light-hearted review of getting into the pictures and antics Cobram Agricultural Show. Ken Graham spars sexual innuendos with Fay Kirby. We’re attracted to the girls gyrating their wares in the ‘_dance off the seven veils’ _adults-only tent. Daryl comes good with centrefolds from Playboy magazines. * Margo Lundie’s family move into town and have a second teenager party. The same girls from primary school looked and acted differently making for wow moments with walks along the path meandering through scrub behind the house. * Ken Sweeny’s hyperactivity, a sign that his character had a tragic component that sat at the end of the spectrum compared to others, me included. * Academic pursuit was much more difficult than it looked. There was a need to take heed of the components observed to be deficient, compared to those pupils, my peers, who were truly talented. Our family resources were lacking. * What is ‘intelligence’ is explored. By finding out where I’m positioned on that scale. **Factual narrative citation**: Research by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon; Jordan Peterson.[^([8])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn8) * Character and personal description of Steven Gilbert and reasons for tipping my hat to his extraordinary intelligence. The realisation that I needed assistance to improve my knowledge base led me to ask for Steve’s and Leigh Astbury’s input on how to get started. * For purposes of objectivity my progress slips into a ‘third person’ narration of how progress was made in personal development. **Factual narrative citations**: John Lennon, Luc Ferry, Andrew Marvel and Lucius Annaeus Seneca. * Remedial catchup projects, undertaken in the late ‘60s, later formed the base to build on the street sense, gained from extensive business international travel. * Individuals’ physical and mental attributes provide each of us with advantages; peers are inclusively reviewed, adding character points of interest. * The Astbury family arrives in Cobram for the 1965 school year, the father Barny, was to be the Headmaster and the mother, Neta was to teach English. * In an after-class discussion Neta strays into the economics of ‘good looks and athleticism’. Joseph revisits that chance discourse via his study of economics.** Factual narrative citations**: N Gregory Mankiw[^([9])](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn9), Daniel S. Hamermesh and Jeff E Biddle.[[10]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftn10) * A run-through of anecdotal memories of Cobram High School; the way it was, a mix of the ‘good’: excursions the ‘bad’ teachers living on school grounds let their hair down. Then there were those raunchy exchanges between teacher and pupil! * Margo for Kenny or Joseph; a light-hearted opinionated, recall of the walk home from the beach. * Rounding off the competitors in the sweetheart stakes and where all the sweethearts go! * Adieu Kenny Graham for now, we did some silly things. * Joseph and Caterina duo, do the baptism circuit for Italian families, thus extending family connections in the platonic ‘Godfather’ way. * Aurelio covets the pouch knife which Joseph acquires with the help of Frank Vogel. * The Beatles and The Rolling Stones sweep across the ‘60s youth psyche The tempo manifested by boy-girl yearnings, harmonised by the Beatles and the ‘_Stones’, _capturing the raw sexual emotions driven by cultural liberalism. --- [[[[[[[[[[[[[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref1) Time and Relative Dimension in Space [[[[[[[[[[[[[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref2) Short Story by John Steinbeck [[[[[[[[[[[[[[3]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref3) The Plains Turn Green Page 15 [[[[[[[[[[[[[[4]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref4) Australian slang for ‘sustenance or welfare payments [[[[[[[[[[[[[[5]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref5) Cannery Row Chapter VI [[[[[[[[[[[[[[6]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref6) Poem by Henry Lawson, 1897 [[[[[[[[[[[[[[7]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref7)  Book: For Whom the Bell Tolls [[[[[[[[[[[[[[8]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref8) Jordan Bernt Peterson is a Canadian media personality, clinical psychologist, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto [[[[[[[[[[[[[[9]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref9) Principles of Economics, 1998, Pages 405 -6 [[[[[[[[[[[[[[10]](https://italiajoe.com/when-chaos-simmered/#_ftnref10) Research Paper- “Beauty and the Labour Market”.