Michael (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ikilled007) wrote,@ 2008-05-03 16:46:00 |
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Sicily, Some Thoughts At Two Months
Well, I've been living here in Sicily for about two months now, and while some of you consider me to be a tourist, I assure you I expect this to be my home until the good Lord sees fit to call me back. I have complaints about life here, of course, and if I didn't have certain advantages which other immigrants don't, I likely would have many more. While I won't delve into too much detail, those include a very cush job, an ability to understand the language, wealth, and being connected. I wouldn't recommend this move for most of you. Sicily is a nice place to visit, but you don't want to move here without knowing people. Case in point:
Now I know this doesn't sound like some Libertopia or Ancapistan, and to be sure, it isn't. But it's also not Bezerkeley or Taxachusetts. Families run the show here, not governments, and so one form of tyrrany has been replaced by another. Yet...
The tyranny here is more tolerable because it's unobtrusive. No one is in your shit. You are left alone as long as you don't rock the boat. There's plenty of room for progress, and not all of it is managed. But what there is no room for is crime and decay. You will show honor and respect to your fellow citizen or you will be outcast or worse. But like all tyrannies, even more tolerable ones, there are significant downsides.
In Sicily, things move slowly when they move at all. If you want to build a house, it might take 18 months to 2 years. Want to get internet? 3 weeks to a month. Want to meet with people to discuss business? Domani (tomorrow). Everything is domani here. Domani domani domani. You need to get up and get started at 8am if you have shit to do, because everything shuts down around noon and doesn't reopen until 4ish if it reopens at all. You do NOT want to go to the bank. Transactions that take 30 seconds in the US take 2 days here. Cashing a check? Come in at 8am, grab a number, leave, go run errands, come back at 4:30pm and hope you get seen. I am quite certain the Louisiana DMV based its operations on the Sicilian banking industry. Of course, this kind of stuff is predicated on not being connected. If you have friends in high places whose parents were friends with the parents of people you need to meet with and so forth, then you get shit done at a pace similar to the pace in the US.
And then there are the half-built structures all over the island. Many people mistakenly assume that mafia funds-siphoning is responsible for this, but I have it on good authority that building permits expire before construction gets finished in many cases which causes construction to cease pending another permit.
Some things work better, some worse, but the quality of life is definitely better than the US. For one thing, there is no crime. No robberies. No rapes. No carjackings. No muggings. No nothing. What there are are infrequent but targeted murders between rival families; these flair up and then cease, flair up and cease. Bystanders don't fear these "wars", but they are dangerous for the participants, obviously.
Point being, if you're raising a child and have a hot model significant other and want to live in a safe, secure, self-sufficient family-oriented environment with great food and a relaxed lifestyle and beautiful landscapes and stunning beaches, Sicily is the place to do it. But it ain't perfect. But nothing is.
More later.
Well, I've been living here in Sicily for about two months now, and while some of you consider me to be a tourist, I assure you I expect this to be my home until the good Lord sees fit to call me back. I have complaints about life here, of course, and if I didn't have certain advantages which other immigrants don't, I likely would have many more. While I won't delve into too much detail, those include a very cush job, an ability to understand the language, wealth, and being connected. I wouldn't recommend this move for most of you. Sicily is a nice place to visit, but you don't want to move here without knowing people. Case in point:
We were at dinner a few weeks back at one of our favorite restaurants, Ramona's, and a young man (early 30s) dressed in a coat and tie sitting near us overheard Crys and I speaking in English. He politely interrupted us and told us he was an American who visits Sicily every year for a couple of months and that he and his sister were trying to start a television station in Brolo or someplace nearby. He works in television production and his sister works in movie production and he figured there was a demand for programming here and so on. He lamented to us that he had never seen such bureaucracy as he has since encountered. Waiting for hours to talk to people whom he isn't convinced even exist. Trying to get licensed. Told to va a Roma (go to Rome) with his complaints. We listened and feigned sympathy, but we had heard how things work here from Crystal's manager who told us that Americans come to Sicily thinking they have a great idea but they run into stiff resistance. In this case, we surmised that one of the families in Brolo probably owned and operated a television station and didn't want competition, so they likely invented a licensing procedure out of thin air and started running this guy around until he gave up. Which he did, by the way. It was great seeing the application of the principle with our own eyes.
Now I know this doesn't sound like some Libertopia or Ancapistan, and to be sure, it isn't. But it's also not Bezerkeley or Taxachusetts. Families run the show here, not governments, and so one form of tyrrany has been replaced by another. Yet...
The tyranny here is more tolerable because it's unobtrusive. No one is in your shit. You are left alone as long as you don't rock the boat. There's plenty of room for progress, and not all of it is managed. But what there is no room for is crime and decay. You will show honor and respect to your fellow citizen or you will be outcast or worse. But like all tyrannies, even more tolerable ones, there are significant downsides.
In Sicily, things move slowly when they move at all. If you want to build a house, it might take 18 months to 2 years. Want to get internet? 3 weeks to a month. Want to meet with people to discuss business? Domani (tomorrow). Everything is domani here. Domani domani domani. You need to get up and get started at 8am if you have shit to do, because everything shuts down around noon and doesn't reopen until 4ish if it reopens at all. You do NOT want to go to the bank. Transactions that take 30 seconds in the US take 2 days here. Cashing a check? Come in at 8am, grab a number, leave, go run errands, come back at 4:30pm and hope you get seen. I am quite certain the Louisiana DMV based its operations on the Sicilian banking industry. Of course, this kind of stuff is predicated on not being connected. If you have friends in high places whose parents were friends with the parents of people you need to meet with and so forth, then you get shit done at a pace similar to the pace in the US.
And then there are the half-built structures all over the island. Many people mistakenly assume that mafia funds-siphoning is responsible for this, but I have it on good authority that building permits expire before construction gets finished in many cases which causes construction to cease pending another permit.
Some things work better, some worse, but the quality of life is definitely better than the US. For one thing, there is no crime. No robberies. No rapes. No carjackings. No muggings. No nothing. What there are are infrequent but targeted murders between rival families; these flair up and then cease, flair up and cease. Bystanders don't fear these "wars", but they are dangerous for the participants, obviously.
Point being, if you're raising a child and have a hot model significant other and want to live in a safe, secure, self-sufficient family-oriented environment with great food and a relaxed lifestyle and beautiful landscapes and stunning beaches, Sicily is the place to do it. But it ain't perfect. But nothing is.
More later.
