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Category: Phoebe Natanson | Main

Cat-Fight at Milan Fashion Week

January 20, 2009 1:20 PM

By PHOEBE NATANSON, Producer, ABC News Rome

If you have been distracted by wars, real battles and angry exchanges around the world, you can be excused for having missed the cat-fight going on in the wings of the Milan fashion shows.

Speaking to reporters last week before the presentation of the Fall-Winter 2009-2010 collections, Giorgio Armani, the Grand Emperor of Milanese Fashion, accused the young, Sicilian fashion-designing duo Dolce and Gabbana of copying a pair of quilted men's pants from his collection last year. "Today they copy, later they will learn," he prophesized.

That was it! The gloves were off.

''We certainly still have much to learn, but definitely not from him,'' retorted Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana while denying accusations in a statement released to the press yesterday. "The Armani style has never been a stylistic source of inspiration for us and we have not seen any of his fashion shows for years," they specified.

''We have made our fortune through a Dolce & Gabbana style, with roots in Sicily and its sartorial and other traditions and which is recognized the world over,'' they added tersely. And with one last flurry, they rounded off the fight with a snub: "As Picasso used to say, copying from others is inevitable, copying from oneself leads to sterility." Hiss.

Somber fashionistas who assisted a rather lack-luster fashion week and who know the industry faces a future of shrinking fashion sales due to the global economic crisis looked on aghast. Could these two fashion icons be fighting over a pair of pants?! Aren't there more important things to fight over, they pondered, and what's truly original in fashion anyway?

Some Italian fashion and gossip writers even went as far as to conjecture that maybe there was more to this pant spat. Could it perhaps have something to do with the Beckhams’ recent descent on Milan?

Soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria, the golden celebrity couple, recently took Milan by storm when he came to take up his new post as a three-month loan on the AC Milan football team. Could it be that Armani's just irritated by the couple's frequent forays to the D&G boutiques in Milan over the last few months? After all, the Beckhams are his chosen faces -- and bodies -- to promote Emporio Armani's new underwear ad campaign. Left reeling from giant billboards showing the scantily clad David Beckham, we will soon see his wife debut in the new Armani underwear campaign.

Thankfully Donatella Versace, another fashion icon who is never far from the spotlight, piped up with her thoughts: "To be copied is an honor!" she exclaimed.

Awaiting the next designer's salvos, La Repubblica's fashion reporter, Natalia Aspesi, commented on the tiff on the front page of the paper today: "In the tired days of the men's fashion shows in Milan, with little attention from the foreign press and few buyers, a politico-creative case is born over a pair of padded trousers." She went on to argue that all fashion is an eternal deja'-vu. Almost as much a deja vu as sparring designers.

Italy's Top Court OKs 'Young' Marijuana Plants

January 15, 2009 1:29 PM

By PHOEBE NATANSON, Producer, ABC News Rome

Italy's Supreme Court issued yet another perplexing sentence Wednesday relating to marijuana. It ruled that it is in fact OK to grow marijuana as long as the plants do not mature. The reason? The court believes that only mature plants can be considered drugs, as only mature plants contain the active ingredients that can produce euphoric effects.

The news must have delighted the 45-year-old man who had previously had his conviction confirmed by an appeals court in 2003 for growing 23 marijuana plants in his backyard. But it has left some Italians perplexed.

Politicians were the first to ridicule the verdict. Isabella Bertolini of the ruling People of Freedom party was quoted by Italian wire agency Ansa as saying, "The Supreme court judges really seem to be living on another planet. The next thing they'll do is have the police take gardening courses to be sure of intervening when the plant is getting dangerous.'' The same party's senator, Maurizio Gasparri said, ''They've got to be kidding. Who knows? Someday they might grow up themselves.''

The Supreme Court has issued a series of apparently contradictory decisions on marijuana-growing in recent years. A few months ago, the court ruled that "the cultivation of cannabis is always considered a crime even if only small plants of domestic production."

The latest ruling will only add to the confusion over the current law regarding drug use in Italy. Over the years, the law has been modified a number of times depending on which political party is in power. It used to be OK to grow or have marijuana if it was for "personal use," but no longer. In attempting to find ways to curb the upsurge of drug use in Italy over the years, legislators have flip-flopped from what were considered very liberal to rather draconian measures. However, as is the case with a number of laws in Italy, actual enforcement is inconsistent.

Recent statistics show that a third of teenagers in Italy have smoked marijuana at least once, and 10 percent of adults are said to smoke it regularly. The stronger part of the marijuana plant, known as hashish, is more commonly smoked in Italy.

Earlier this year, Berlusconi's center-right government approved a law that increased sanctions against people found using marijuana, putting the drug on par with cocaine and heroin. Dealing or trafficking in drugs, with no distinction made among marijuana, heroin and cocaine, can now be punished by between six to 20 years in prison plus a fine of up to 260,000 euros. Anyone found in possession of cannabis also risks having his or her passport and their driver's license suspended.

Italian state television did not help clarify the news today either: when it announced the Supreme Court ruling, its report was accompanied by file footage of carabinieri uprooting marijuana plants that were very mature indeed -- all much taller than they were.

Italians Fall on Tough Economic Times

December 03, 2008 10:06 AM

By PHOEBE NATANSON, ABC News Rome

Italians are hunkering down to a gloomy holiday season in the midst of news of crashing stocks, Alitalia's bankruptcy, plummeting house prices and soaring consumer costs. Papers are filled with ads desperately offering low-cost event listings; travel agencies are temptingly advertising discount vacations; and supermarkets have introduced weekly cut-price foodstuffs. One megastore has even introduced occasional "shopping races” to incite sluggish shoppers: all you can pile into your shopping cart in a minute for free with the lucky contestants tearing down the aisles choosing the priciest items.

Hard times are even striking at the heart of traditional centuries-old rituals here.

More than 40 percent of Italians have cut their daily stops at the bar for their beloved espressos and cappuccino breakfasts. About 15 million Italians still go to the bar at least once a day in Italy but "fully a third are getting their coffee elsewhere and only dropping into the bar two or three times a week," said Lino Stoppani, head of the national bar-owners association. Bars in Rome quickly responded by promising a price freeze on espresso and offering "special breakfast" prices to lure tourists. The association is also encouraging bars to bring the price of the smallest ice cream cones back down to $1.25. Well, that should make the tourists happy at least: Most Italians don't eat ice cream during the winter.

Italy was already on the brink of recession before the latest global financial crisis hit. Everyone here knows that Italians are growing older and poorer as Italy's economy quietly slips behind that of other European countries.

In October, the Catholic charity Caritas announced that 7.5 million Italians – 13 percent of the population - are living below the poverty line on less than $476 a month. If you count the Italians who are living above the poverty line with an extra $7-$39 per month - a total of 15 million people - one in four Italians is facing rough times.

And it is becoming apparent. More and more Italians are visiting soup kitchens or lining up in front of charities for food ration handouts. Increasing numbers of Italians are waiting outside a Milan charity for the doors to open at 8 each morning to receive free bread, milk, fruit and vegetables each day. Just a year ago there were only about 85 Italians among the immigrants waiting but this year the number has risen steadily to about 350 each day.

Most in line admit that they never expected they'd have to resort to this. "I have a pension of 400 Euros ($506) and an unemployed son of 40 to feed too. I just can't make it though the month," said a sad pensioner interviewed on Italian state TV. The reporter went on to interview elderly Italian couples painstakingly studying prices and special offers in a starkly empty supermarket. They rarely buy meat now and always only choose seasonal discounted vegetables and fruit, they said.

The cost of pasta is almost 25 percent more than its cost last year and bread is up 8.6 percent, enough to depress any Italian just at the thought!

Italy’s conservative government led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - one of the richest men in Italy - has responded to this dire situation with a mix of upbeat advice, reassuring news and emergency financial decrees.

Just last week the Italian government announced an experimental program to come to the rescue of about 1.3 million needy Italians, especially the elderly and low-income families with small children. The neediest - those with annual incomes of $5,000 or less - will receive a new "social card" by Dec. 31. The card, which looks like a credit card, will grant discounts in certain chain stores and be “credited” monthly with 40 Euros ($56) at the post office. The cards will arrive credited with 120 Euros ($152) for the last three months. Many old people said they would be ashamed to use the card in public and said it reminded them of hard times during WWII.

The majority of Italians reacted to the news with scoffs and shoulder shrugs seeing more layoffs and small-business closures ahead. On Friday the government unveiled further emergency financial measures that were met with skepticism by economists. "This is not even an aspirin, it’s not even half an aspirin!" said Tito Boeri, professor of economics at Milan's Bocconi University. The new measures include a temporary freeze on energy prices and road tolls, help for mortgage holders, tax breaks for poorer families and some easing of direct and indirect business taxes.

Berlusconi believes one way of fighting consumer gloom is by thinking positive. "There is nothing better to resolve deep crisis than an atmosphere of optimism," he said speaking at a business conference last week. "Citizens must not give up their habits and purchases, it’s all up to them. … If people are swept up by pessimism, that creates a negative spiral."

A disgruntled Italian housewife on the TV news was not buying it. "The more he tells us all is fine and we just need to go out and shop the more I am terrified," she said.

Vatican Opposes Gay Decriminalization

December 02, 2008 1:35 PM

By Phoebe Natanson, ABC News Rome

Italian center-left opposition and gay groups are up in arms about the Vatican's intention to vote against a French U.N. proposal to decriminalize homosexuality in the world. France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency until the end of 2008, will present the proposal at the UN General Assembly later this month as part of a wider campaign to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In an interview Monday, the Vatican's representative to the United Nations, Monsignor Celestino Migliore, said the church was against the French proposal and has always been against any move that would single out homosexuals and thus cause further discrimination. According to Migliore, this sort of political declaration would just add homosexuality to the list of categories already monitored by international bodies and “would create new and implacable discriminations…for instance, nations that do not recognize same-sex marriages would be shamed and be subjected to pressure.''

The Vatican's stance caused a barrage of political reaction in Italy. Center and left-wing MPs said the Vatican stance was "unacceptable" and "false," pointing out that if the church is against discrimination it should back the French proposal. "Decriminalising homosexuality means preventing some nations from sentencing homosexuals to death or imprisonment,'' said Democratic Party MP Paola Concia.

The Italian foreign minister has said that Italy, along with all 26 of the other EU countries, has singed the proposal.

There was loud reaction from the Italian gay associations too. The leader of the gay rights association, Aurelio Mancuso, said that ''thanks to the particular status the medieval Vatican state enjoys at the U.N., and by allying itself with dictatorial regimes including Islamic ones, the clerical lobby is putting pressure on nations so that civil rights and liberties are not acknowledged." According to Mancuso, at least 91 countries ban gays and many others approve torture and imprisonment of homosexuals, including 10 Islamic-led nations that punish it with the death penalty. Gay rights associations are planning to publicly protest the Vatican's position.

According to the Catholic Church, homosexuality is not a sin but homosexual acts are. Last night the Vatican's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, made a statement to the Italian wire agency Ansa saying that Monsignor's Migliore's replies had to be read in full. Obviously "the Vatican does not want to defend the death penalty as some would like to make people think,” said Lombardi. Citing the catechism of the Catholic Church, he said that "the church is opposed to the death penalty as it is to any criminal and violent legislation regarding homosexuals." However, he insisted that this proposal was political and would single out homosexuality and lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage. Lombardi also pointed out that "fewer than 50 countries have signed the U.N. proposal; 150 have not. The Holy See is not alone in disapproving it. "

U.N.: Don't Leave Poor Countries in the Cold

October 15, 2008 7:51 AM

BY PHOEBE NATANSON, ABC News Rome

“The global financial crisis should not make us forget the food crisis,” said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, as he strongly urged governments not to reduce aid to developing countries or introduce protectionist trade measures.

Diouf spoke today in Rome to mark the 34th session of the FAO's Committee on World Food Security. He cautioned that any measures to cut aid would only increase the risk of another food crisis occurring next year in these hard-hit countries.

"The great uncertainty now enveloping international markets and the threat of global recession may tempt countries towards protectionism and towards reassessing their commitments to international development aid," he said, adding, “it would be unfortunate if this were to be the case and the recently mobilized political will towards enhanced international support for developing country agriculture were to evaporate."

According to an FAO report, notwithstanding a record cereal harvest expected in 2008, about 36 countries around the world are still in need of external assistance as a result of crop failures, conflict or insecurity, or continuing local high prices. Any change in governments’ aid to developing countries, as a result of the global crises, could bring about another food crisis next year.

"Agriculture needs urgent and sustained attention too to make hunger and rural poverty part of history," he said.

Soaring food prices meant that an additional 75 million people were declared hungry and poor in 2007 alone, the recent financial crisis is expected to further increase the burden on the poor in developing countries. "Last year it was the pan...next year could be the fire," Diouf said.

Some commodity prices seemed to be dropping presently, mainly with the expectation of a favorable future crop but also because of a slowing world economy. This could bring about a cutback in plantings that could then result in reduced harvests in major exporting countries. This outcome of low grain stocks could result in another cycle of record food prices next year, which would be disastrous for millions who by then would be without credit and penniless.

Developing countries may also feel the financial crisis at the macro level. "Borrowing, bank lending, official development aid, foreign direct investment and workers' remittances -- all may be compromised by a deepening financial crisis," he said.

Diouf reminded his audience that governments and world leaders had agreed in June that "the international community needs to take urgent and coordinated action to combat the negative impacts of soaring food prices on the world's most vulnerable countries and populations." At the G8 summit in Japan a month later, world leaders resolved to address global food security as a top priority and showed a growing political will to reduce global hunger.

Diouf said today, "It is vital that this momentum be maintained. Unless political will and donor pledges are turned into real and immediate action, millions more may fall into deeper poverty and chronic hunger."

October 15, 2008 in Phoebe Natanson | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (3)

Was the Pope Once an Organ Donor?

September 09, 2008 2:49 PM

By PHOEBE NATANSON, ABC News Rome

Long-involved in the heated debate of what is life and when does it start, some Catholic thinkers now believe it is time to open up the discussion to what should be considered death -- the end of life -- too.

Last week, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official paper, printed a provocative article at the top of its front page, questioning whether brain death -- the clinically accepted definition of death -- can be considered true death.

Though a Vatican spokesman quickly noted that it did not reflect an official church position, the article sparked angry reactions from doctors, scientists and health care officials who were concerned that questioning the acceptance of brain death could cause a backlash against organ donation -- the removal of organs from brain-dead patients whose bodies continue to function.

As damage control, the Italian association for organ donors, AIDO, quickly posted an old interview from 1999 on its Web site in which the then-head of the Vatican's Doctrine of the Faith office, Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- told the reporter that he had been a member of an unspecified organ donor association for years and that he always carried his organ donor card with him. He was quoted as saying that donating an organ to "someone who needs it is an act of love."

“I was a bit concerned when I read the article, as it was inexact and dated," AIDO President Vicenzo Passarelli told ABC News in an interview. “I decided to post that article to remind people and stop the confusion."

Perhaps surprisingly, AIDO saw no damaging backlash from the L'Osservatore Romano article; instead, 96 callers contacted the association asking to join, and five families donated their relatives’ organs in the two days following the appearance of the article, according to Passarelli.

So far, however, the association has found no proof that Ratzinger belonged to their association.

"We are currently computerizing our lists,” Passarelli said. “We have inserted a million names and have 500,000 to go, but so far have not found his name."

Passarelli knows, however, that any organ donor card with Ratzinger's name on it is purely symbolic at this point, as Popes’ bodies are interred intact.

On the same day the L'Osservatore Romano article was printed, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi made a statement to distance the Church from the article, saying it reflected the author's point of view and was not part of church teaching.

Officially, the church is in favor of transplants and agrees with international scientific thinking that brain death is "the true criterion for death.” Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have publicly expressed their support for this medical practice.

September 9, 2008 in Phoebe Natanson | Permalink | User Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)