Welcome to Brisbane

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzanoit story
and this post, welcome to Brisbane
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Welcome to Brisbane
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Brisbane city Hall in George Square with its clock that chimes every quarter of an hour, one could say that this is the Big Ben of Brisbane city. There is also the Story Bridge and many other things to see in Brisbane as well.










Welcome to Brisbane

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, next stop Sydney, and then we went to disembark in Brisbane. So, what we are going to write here next is about the first impression that I had about Brisbane city, when I disembarked in 1961, and the views that I found interesting, as seen through the eyes of an emigrant arriving in Brisbane by boat in the early sixties and other things about Brisbane city as well; we are also describing how I was welcomed to Brisbane by my relatives and friends.

Dear readers as we have said in our last hub, in this hub we are going to tell you about my first impression of Brisbane city, which are those impressions that we keep with us our entire life; so let us start from the docks where I have just arrived and disembarked; as soon as I disembarked in Brisbane I met with my brother and other friends, so, I let them guide me what to do next, after all they were here before me and they knew what we had to do and where we had to go, as we know all newcomers arriving from a foreign country have to go through custom to check all their belongings out, so, we did that and then we were free to go to our own destination, in Brisbane or any other place in Queensland, since this was the last stop that the ship made in Australia, so all the new comers coming to Australia disembarked 

Anyhow after the customs cleared us, we left the port in a car and they took me to one of our friends house not far from the port, here the lady of the house had prepared something to eat for everybody and while we were eating and everybody was trying to make me feel welcome, we were also talking about my native town Genzano di Lucania and the people that I had left behind in that town; you see all those relative or friends that came to pick me up, they were from the same town, and I had brought presents and news from their families. I should say here that in those times when transport and news travelled much slower that today, anybody that arrived from overseas and from where one had come from was very welcome, especially if one brought presents and news from their relative and friends, I thought it was a good thing and it also helped us new comers, because one did not feel that complete detachment from your country of origin that we had left behind, in my case a month earlier.

Here we guess that everybody that has migrated or moved away from home for a long period of time knows what being home sick is; therefore, this finding that there is a group of people from your own town and they are staying in touch with each other is helpful wherever one goes, because they make the new comer feel welcome. So, I was welcomed from this group of relative and friends, who soon made me understand among other things that I was welcomed to Brisbane the land of the kangaroos and this is how my relative and friends made me understand we would be labelled from now on. Anyhow it was a welcome in the best possible way that one could expect.

Now, I have to say that at first sights Brisbane did not look as good as Sydney, the port of Brisbane where I disembarked was an old timber dock, and we went through customs in an old and large timber building, but I thought anyhow Brisbane is still a city and our friends live here; so, we went to one of our fried home, it was a unit in a brick building, so that was not bad, after all one has to accept whatever there is available when one goes to a different place. But little did I know that I was going to have a surprise soon, because I was going to see that in Brisbane most houses were made of timber.

Later on, after having eaten and talked for a couple of hours with our friends, and given them those presents that I had brought, I was driven to my final destination a few kilometres away, where we had to go was on the other side of the river, we went across the Brisbane River on a bridge called the Story Bridge, which is a very important bridge in Brisbane, but perhaps not as important as Sydney Harbor Bridge. So, Brisbane has also its own unique land marks the Story Bridge and City Hall are the most important, there is also Parliament House and the city centre with tall modern tall buildings, these were the things that gave us migrants some hope, because to us migrants it meant that Brisbane city was a growing prosperous city.

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My final destination

Reaching my final destination

My final destination, was at my uncle home, where my brother and a few other friends and relatives were also staying. My uncle had been in Australia by now 9 years already and somehow very recently had been able to save enough money to put down a deposit to buy a house; the house was a large wooden house typical of the houses in Brisbane of those times. I will come back to talk about these wooden houses later.

Now, for us that were coming from a country where almost everything was masonry or built with bricks and mortar and cement, these houses in Brisbane city make us feel a bit strange at first; but, they were still houses and they still provided a roof on our heads; therefore, even knowing that they were made of timber, I was pleased to have been offered that accommodation. My brother knowing that I was coming had already bought a bed for me, so, I was already set up very well. You know it is a great help when you go to a new country and find that somebody has already prepared everything for you. I believe that for this reason I have been lucky and I have escaped some very real hardship. Otherwise it could have been a lot harder to start a new way of life away from your original home.

Let us just imagine you reach your destination, as I did when I reached Brisbane city. Now let us say that you don’t have much money to pay for accommodation, you don’t know where to go or what to do next; you don’t know even how to speak the local language, you might end up in deep trouble you know. Therefore, I think that I have been lucky somehow when I found that I was welcomed. I believe that when we see some new arrivals we should try to understand that they have left their own country in the hope of finding a better way of living, or perhaps they were forced to leave their country for safety reasons. So, I suppose that if we could make feel welcome, it is a good humanitarian gesture.  

Australian Travel Videos

Anyhow, above I have pasted some links about Brisbane and Australia, if you are interested to view them.

I believe that I have said enough in this post, so, see you in my next post called, at my new Brisbane address.

See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Welcome to Brisbane
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, my Brisbane address
------------------------------ 

Next stop Sydney

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano iy story
and this post, next stop Sydney
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Next stop Sydney
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The Harbour Bridge Sydney, and a ship docked nearby, very much the same picture when I arrived in Sydney by ship.
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Next stop Sydney

My next stop of this first journey to Australia is at Sydney

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, first positive impression. Now, before I tell you my life story about what happened when I reached Sydney, I want to tell you my impressions of Sydney. Because I believe that Sydney is one of the few towns in the whole world, or perhaps the only town in the world that make people feel welcomed at once, because this has also happened to me. Anyhow, now let me tell you my life story.

We docked in Sydney a short walking distance from the harbor bridge, and soon we were aware that some people were already there on the dock waiting for us, so, I went to look to see if my family friends were there also to greet me and collect their presents; and sure enough they were there on the dock waving at me and I knew then that I could take their present to them. But what should I do to do that, because in Australia everything that comes in has got to go through the custom to be checked out? This procedure was something new to me, although I had heard people talk about it on the ship. Anyhow I got their large parcel and took it down the ship under the direction of some people that directed all people carrying anything to a large building on the dock, and here I learned for the first time that the custom can look at everything you bring in Australia and if they find anything forbidden you can get in trouble. Anyhow there was nothing forbidden to enter Australia, as the people that had made the parcel knew what would be allowed in. After that I delivered the parcel to my waiting friends.

In Sydney I had good time with my family friends and exchanged all the news that we had, besides going to a restaurant to eat and then went to see Sydney Harbor Bridge together, as it worked out, they had to leave early because they came to meet me from another town, so I was left on my own in Sydney looking at the tall building around the harbor and walking around, where I saw the site of the future Sydney Opera House, at that time construction had stopped and there was plenty of steel bars stacked on the site, so, I guessed that this was going to be some large and important building, I also visited a garden nearby, and by the time we left, I knew that those sights of Sydney harbor and everything else around could even last a lifetime, they are very impressive to anyone that is lucky enough to see them.

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Journey ends at Brisbane

My journey to Australia ends at Brisbane

We left Sydney and next stop would be Brisbane my port of destination; I was looking forward for this journey to end, because to stay on a ship for a month is a very long time for anybody that has never been to sea or gone on a boat before. And to tell you the truth I really wanted to see my relatives and see how they were doing, so that I could have a better idea if my coming to Australia was a good thing for me. You see, one can never be sure what it is going to be like and whether your decision was the right decision until you are there and see it for yourself. Of course what I had seen already in Australia seemed very well, but that does not really mean much until one finds out what sort of living an unqualified manual worker can earn and other things. Of course I knew that whatever job I had to do I was going to work hard, because that is the only way to earn your living for yourself and whoever was going to give you a job. These were the thoughts that most times would come to my mind during the journey and more so towards the end of it. On reflection I have to say now that to migrate to a country that you have never been is a very hard thing to do, so, lucky are those people that during their lives do not need to migrate anywhere. Anyhow I will come back to these discussions later on, because now I want to tell you about the end of my journey at Brisbane.

We reached Brisbane early in the morning and our ship was slowly navigating at the entrance of Brisbane River when some sailors told us to look in the river for a rare sight, because this event was too rare to miss as it happens rarely so far south of the equator, we looked and we saw hundreds and hundreds of jelly fish that early morning, for us that had never seen them before we thought that the jelly fish are strange creatures they look like a large mushroom or a very small umbrella, they have tentacles attached at the edges and swim slowly by pulsating their entire body, what a sight it was indeed that early morning in March, at the mouth of Brisbane River.

Finally, we docked at Brisbane at this merchants dock to disembark, thanks God I had reached Brisbane my destination and was eager to see my brother and other relative and friends.

We disembarked and I went through customs with all my belongings and presents that I was bringing to my relative and friends. And here is when I got caught and learned something that all travelers should know; anyone of us that goes to a different country should make sure that what they take into that country is allowed; anyhow I was caught just because I had bought a small toy at Port Said that toy could contain some forbidden substance and it had to be treated to enter Australia, so it cost me a fair amount of money. The demijohn of wine and all other stuff that I had with me was all right; after all I had dumped my wild anions in the Indian Ocean, when I found that they were not allowed. After going through customs, I was free to go with my brother and friends. The friends of course were there not only to welcome me to Australia, but also to collect their presents that their families had sent them and to hear news of their families and their native town. I believe that I have said enough in this post. So, see you soon in my next post where I am going to talk about my first impressions of Brisbane Australia.

See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Next stop Sydney
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, first impression of Brisbane
------------------------------ 

First positive impressions

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, first positive impressions
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First positive impressions

Map of the port of Fremantle and some of the town, the first port that we stopped when we came to Australia, it gave me a good impression. I new then that I had made the right choice.

First positive impressions

Dear readers, lately we have written a few posts about today Italian situation, the earthquake, the refugees, their politics and a few other things, that we were somehow concerned. Having done that, now we would like to go back to tell you our life story, so here-under are written my first impression when I came to Australia.

The first positive impressions when I came to Australia

The first impression that I had of Australia was positive, as I could see from what we saw near Port Fremantle. I have to say that it was not much what I saw, but it was enough to make a good impression on me. Strange as it may seem the very first time that I set foot in Australia I saw an emu, I don’t why or how but somebody took us to this place where there was this emu and another animal that I don’t recall what it was. Anyhow because we stopped in Fremantle for a while I was able to go down twice, and the second time guess what I saw, I saw that here in Australia they build single houses on a block of land, and they grow a nice green lawn around the houses by watering the lawn with the town water, in fact these little houses look so pretty that they seem like dolls houses. No bad for a country that is supposed to be the driest continent on earth, and it was also great as my first impression. And also seeing that they water the lawns with town water my fear of water restriction disappeared.

But anyhow Fremantle was only the first port in Australia, but I had to disembark in Brisbane, so there were a couple more ports to go past and another week on this ship before the end of my first journey. Anyhow we left Port Fremantle to cross the Great Australian Bight, which took us a few days to navigate, during this crossing I could not help thinking, how vast is this country of Australia was compared to the European countries since it takes days to navigate from one port to the next? I suppose these thoughts came also because I was starting to be tried of this long journey as it was taking too long, and we the passengers all longed to reach our final destination; anyhow next stop would be Melbourne, in port Melbourne there wasn’t much to see or say as I had already seen Port Fremantle and Melbourne was very much the same, the only thing was that by now most of the people that I had become friendly on the journey were disembarking in Melbourne. Anyhow we left Melbourne and next stop would be Sydney, where I was going to meet some people that I was bringing some presents from their families, so, I knew already that Sydney was a very important city of Australia and therefore I was eager to see what it was like.

I am going to make this post short, since we are changing from todays’ happenings to my old life story, I believe it is better this way, so that the people can follow us better.

So, see you in our next post, next stop Sydney

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Genzano it story
Rirst posirive impessions
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, next stop Sydney
------------------------------  

What is happening in Italy now

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, what is happening in Italy now
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Paolo Gentiloni is the new Italian prime minister, we are sure that he has got to work hard to solve the problems that exist in Italy today. The Italian politics is always complicated, today is even harder than usual, there are many things to fix.

What is happening in Italy now?

Dear readers, I am writing this article about what is happening in Italy now, because even though I am far away from Italy, I would like to say how we Italians see all these political things that are happening over there. Perhaps I could have ignored them, since personally they could not affect me very much, but I want to write something about that because we are following what is happening there, so, I have formed my own point of view and we would like our readers to know that. So, I am going to write this last article about how I see what is happening there, then we will have a break about these Italian politics that never seem to end, because, as soon as they fix something, something else seems to go wrong.

Anyhow, as we have already said in our last article, this election about the Italian constitution has taken place and the result has been negative, therefore, there will not be any change to the constitution. But what other change this election may trigger.  Some of us would be concerned about what could happen next.

Perhaps, now they have to form a new government, since the prime minister is going to resign, therefore, there could be many other changes as well. Now if that is going to be the case, with a new government in charge, one may ask; what about all those promises that this present government has given to the Italian refugees, that now are homeless, because of the earthquake, we wonder if those promises are still going to be kept?

Anyhow, today while I am writing this article, we know that the Italian premier ‘Mateo Renzi’ has resigned and after a few days later a new premier has been elected. So, now it is the turn of this new premier, ‘Paolo Gentiloni’. This new PM seems a calmer person compared to Mateo Renzi, now because the Italian politics today are a bit ruff, we wonder if his calm personality is going to help him, or disadvantage him. I suppose only time will tell, because these are very difficult times that we have in Italy these days.

What is happening now

Now that Paolo Gentiloni has become PM, it seems that Italy has solved the first obstacle by electing a new premier, but there are lots of problems over there, because of the overseas refugees, the earthquake refugees and finally the terrorist. You see, the terrorist that carried out the Berlin attack has ended up in Italy, now even though he has been killed by the Italian police, while he was trying to kill two policemen with his gun, this matter might not end there. Anyhow he got killed and that is the end of him. But there is a question to be asked, why he has gone to Italy after he killed 12 people and wounded many others in Berlin?

One cannot help to think that he might have some friends in Italy that could have helped him by hiding him somewhere. There is also the possibility that his friends may try to carry out some violent acts against the Italians. You see, these people don’t have any respect for humanity, they only think about themselves and how to punish others.  If we want to look for a real reason why they carry out these violent acts, we see only a mixed way of many things that don’t make sense to us of the western world. You see, we of the western world help them when they are down, we take them in our own country and feed them, we go to help them and pull them out of the sea before they down on humanitarian grounds, and what we get from them for our help completely nothing. But that is not all, because after all the benefit that they have received from us, they turn around and kill us.

Here I would like to make my own personal comparison of what I think they are like. To me they seem to live in the past, they behave like mediaeval people as far as I can see, because what is happening now in the Middle East that would be the only thing that would make sense to me. This also makes me think that they behave like the people of a thousand years ago, when they would arm themselves and try to conquest anything in their ways. They don’t want to see that we are living in the third millennium of this present era that started with the coming of our lord Jesus Christ, because it is not convenient to them. Anyhow, we better stop talking about them, because it very likely would not help much.

Let us look at what could be done

Now let us look at the problems that they have in Italy after the new PM has been elected. In our opinion it is very likely that everything remains the same as it was before and the priority remain the same, in the hope that these existing problems may be solved as soon as possible. You see the government over there needs to give better temporary shelter to the earthquake victims, because it is very hard to live is substandard accommodation when it is very cold, and in winter times it can be very cold over there, after the temporary accommodations and other things they need to restart rebuilding all the houses and other building that have been damaged and this may take even years to fix everything, but let us hope that they can do it in a reasonable time.

Then they have the overseas refugees that they should provide also, not only feed them but also give them some accommodations, now, this may arise a conflict of interest, because there are a lot of Italians that don’t have a house, so, how can the Italian government give some houses to the overseas refugees, when there are Italians that don’t have one?

All this becomes more complicated when we think of the terrorist attacks. You see how a government could help these refugees, when they turn around and kill you? It would be completely out of place to help those ungrateful refugees, even if some of them might deserve help, I don’t see how it is going to happen.

Now that we have gone over the main problems that the Italian government needs to address, let us hope that prime minister Paolo Gentiloni would be able to guide them in such a way that most of these problems would be solved.

Anyhow, I believe that we have talked enough about the Italian problems, just because I am an Italian and still worry about my native country, even though it does not affect me personally today. So, I am going to put an end to this talks, because there are other important things that affect me in Australia and I am going to talk about that in our next article. Which will be about the pension cut to some pensioners.

See you soon.  

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Genzano it story
What is happening in Italy now
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, since next post is not about Italy, we will go back to tell you our life story
------------------------------ 

Some other useful links

http://frankmenchise.com

http://diybrickwork.com

http://rentalsbrisbane.net

http://manneedsgod.co.uk

Other people concerns

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, other people concerns
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The Italian republic has two houses, their role is that they both have to approve new laws. Most time what they are doing seems endless, because they don't agree on some grounds. So, whatever they have to approve move back and forward. 

Other people concerns

In our last post, we have talked about some of the concerns that the Italian people are facing these days. It seems to me that there are several things that need to be done, but who is going to do it we don’t know yet. We had these promises from the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi that the Italian government would do anything possible to fix the houses that the earthquake has destroyed, as soon as possible. Well that was when the earthquake struck, but as we all know the world of politics is never still, because things can change very rapidly.    So, who is going to say that the victims will receive what he has promised, now that he has resigned.  

Anyhow we are following what is happening over there and we think it is worth mentioning, so that our readers could be informed. Therefore, today we are going to write about the Italian elections that have been held the last Sunday. The election was about some changes to the Italian constitution. Anyhow, this election about the Italian constitution has taken place and the result have been negative, therefore, there will not be any changes to the constitution. But what other changes this election might trigger, we don’t know yet. Therefore, some of us would be concerned about what could happen next.

Because the world of politics is hard to predict, one could only speculate what is going to happen. The most likely outcome would be that after the prime minister Matteo Renzi has resigned, and therefore they should form a new government with a new prime minister, or could be even worse, we really don’t know, since there can be other changes as well. Now if that is going to be the case and a new government is formed; with a new government in charge one may ask; what about all those promises that this present government has given to the Italian refugees that now are homeless, because of the earthquake. Are those promises still going to be kept?

What could happen next

Anyhow there is a big question mark, about what is going to happen next.

Today while I am writing this article in Italy they are trying to find who is going to try to be prime minister next, there are several names that come up, but there is also this malcontent of most politicians, who believe that a new election should be kept as soon as possible, so that a government elected by the people could be sworn in.

Whatever they do it is going to take time, because in Italy politics are very complex, since there are too many parties to choose from, so, it is not easy to have a majority government from any election. Now, while all this politics stuff is happening with no end in sight, one starts to wonder what is going to happen to those people that need directions from the government, because there will be always new problems that come up. I believe that they are having a hard time over there, but they should form a new government, so, we hope that they can do that quickly enough.

Now, let us leave behind the political scene and think about the existing problems that the people of Italy are facing today, which again take us back to the earthquake refugees and the overseas refugees, because they seem to be the most urgent things that need the attention of the authorities. Okay we can say that the onsite authorities know already what they should do, because they have been instructed from the previous government, so they can carry on doing what they know, but it may soon come a time that they need new directions. Now, if there is no new government formed soon, who is going to say what needs to be done, one may ask? So, there are many things that the Italian people should be concerned about today. But let us look back at the refugees’ situation.

Today refugees’ situation

Since the election of the Italian referendum that have been negative, in the news the refugees’ problems are not reported much, they don’t seem very important today, so, they have moved in second place, as far as news are concerned. But really those people that need a roof over their heads, they still need a roof over their heads, those overseas refugees that come by boats and end up in the Mediterranean Sea and need to be rescued continue to arrive uninvited, so, there is really a need for a good government to give the right directions, but there is no real government as we can see, so, how are they going to solve this problem?

We believe that we all should be concerned about all these things that are happening today, but at the same time we should not despair, because the world has always been a bit like this, it goes up and down and there are always problems to be solved. Sometimes these problems are solved fast and sometimes we need to wait a bit longer. But I believe that we all should have our say, sometimes one of us can express a different idea that might turn to be helpful.

I believe that we have said a few things in this article and there is a lot more that could be said, but what is at the top of my mind are the refugees that need help. Now the earthquake refugees need a roof over their head now, because it is cold over there in winter and then they need their houses rebuilt, as promised from the Italian government, when the earthquake struck; I believe that this has partly been achieved the rest remain to be seen.

The overseas refugees also need to be looked after, even though they are not Italian, all this is done on humanitarian grounds, but one starts to wonder, whether some of these refugees are really people that need to leave their native countries to live their lives. Or if there could be a way to keep them in their own country of origin. I believe that this is what the world should be looking at, since they create problems to the countries that accept them, in the future they may even create more unseen problems, because of the massive concentration of people, that will be living on a small part of the world, this should be one of our concerns. Just let us think about that?

I would like to keep these articles short, So, I think that I have said enough already, see you soon, when I think of something else to talk about, perhaps about what could be done to slow down the refugees from Africa, that don’t seem real refugees, as they are all well fed and dressed, you see, real refugees are people that have been starving for a long time, they are skinny and badly dressed, because they are poor. So, I will try to talk about this in our next article. Hoping that I could be able to suggest something that could help.   

Let us explain how Italy is run

Dear readers, because to explain how Italy is run is very complex, I am going to paste here how it is explained by the expert, so that people that don’t know can easily learn about it.

 Politics of Italy is conducted through a constitutional republic with a multi-party system. Italy has been a democratic republic since 2 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum and a constituent assembly was elected to draft a constitution, which was promulgated on 1 January 1948.

The executive power is exercised collectively by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the Prime Minister, officially referred to as President of the Council ("Presidente del Consiglio"). Legislative power is vested in the two houses of parliament primarily, and secondarily on the Council of Ministers, which can introduce bills and holds the majority in the parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislative branches. It is headed by the High Council of the Judiciary. The president is the head of state, though his position is separate from all branches. The current President is Sergio Mattarella and the current Prime Minister of Italy is Matteo Renzi.

Now that I have pasted one of the Wikipedia explanation, I hope that hub pages will not find it as duplicate content. Anyhow I am going to try what happens, I can always delete it if necessary.

See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Other people concerns
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, what is happening in Italy now
------------------------------ 

Some other useful links

http://frankmenchise.com

http://diybrickwork.com

http://rentalsbrisbane.net

http://manneedsgod.co.uk

Concerned about the mafia

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, concerned about the mafia
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Concerned about the mafia
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Today the mafia is different from their beginning they are mostly criminals, here is one colourful mafia person, Al Capone, a very colourful American criminal of the thirties. Today all the mafia people are criminals. Since they don't play any part in helping others 
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Concerned about the mafia

About the refugees and the mafia

Dear readers, even though I have called this post, concerned about the mafia, I have to say that it should have been called, we should be concerned about the refugees and the mafia. Anyhow, in the last two articles we have been talking about, the earthquake in central Italy that has destroyed many houses, for this reason, the people affected have nowhere to live and they have become refugees, in their own country. So, they are very much like the illegal emigrants, which are also refugees, even though they are coming from outside Italy. Anyhow, we have talked about these two sorts of refugees, because they both concern the Italian economy, as they both need money and other things to solve them. We could say that these are two negative issues, which need to be talked about, if we want to solve these problems the best way we can. Today these problems exist in Italy and in other parts of the world as well, even though they might need a different approach to solve them. But let us see what we think it could be done to minimize the negative outcome.

We know already that the Italian government has promised to rebuild all the buildings’ that have been damaged from the earthquake. So, that is already something positive to start with. Now under normal circumstance and given time, with the knowledge that we have nowadays, these problems could be solved properly, but it might not be that easy because of the existing mafia in Italy. 

In my personal views and I am sure that I am not alone in understanding this issue of the mafia; the way I understand it is this; whenever in Italy there are large sums of money to be spent, soon enough the Italian mafia wants a share of this money, which is an act so low and disgusting and as an Italian, I start feeling ashamed of being one, because of this low moral that the mafia has now. I know that today the Italian mafia are only criminals and they want only to grab as much money as they can; but the mafia has not been like that all the time, in fact, even today the word mafia to the Sicilians and other regions near Sicily the word mafia means a person or a group of people that are fearless and are not letting anybody take them for fools, they are also a bit of an authority, as we are going to explain hereunder in this article.

But before we do that, let us mention also that Italy has this other problem of the illegal refugees, so, we are going to say something about this issue also, we hope that we can write a few things down, which would highlight the problems they can cause, hoping that during our discussions we could suggest something that would be useful. We will write about this in this article as well, since this is the reason why I have been writing our last few articles and if necessary, we will write even more articles.

Talking about the mafia

Now, let us talk first about the mafia, because this could be a real concern in Italy. The mafia of today is different from the original mafia, that is the reasons why some old people see the mafia a bit different from being just plain criminals. The mafia origin is very old, just like the history of Sicily is very old where the mafia organization began. To understand the mafia origins, one needs to go back in history and try to understand the way of life that the people in Sicily had to live with. Because Sicily is an island right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea it has been invaded many times, so, every new ruler imposed their own way of dictatorship, which most times made the Sicilians people suffer. But the Sicilians are strong willed people and proud to be Sicilian, so they would always try to have also their own rules, like another government within the ruling government. They were sometimes doing this together with the ruling government of the day, at other times they were sort of rebels that would help the people that were suffering from the government rules.

There were times in the past, when we could say that the old mafia has played a part and has been a sort of Sicilian government for the people of Sicily, which had its own rules, and most times they would oppose those foreign rules that would hurt the Sicilian people. Well that is the good part of the mafia in the old days, of course there were also bad things done, but that is a different story, today we want only to compare the old good mafia with today criminal mafia, which does completely nothing positive for the Sicilian people, or any other community that they happen to be in.

But let us go back to the reason why we are talking about the mafia in this article. We are talking about it, because we are afraid that the criminal mafia of today, does not do anything at all to help the native people, in fact they are so selfish that instead of helping those people that need help, they rob them of the help the government or other institutions provide for these people. So, in my opinion they should be ashamed of themselves, because they do not provide any service to the community that need help, like they might have done in the past. Therefore, today to look at the mafia as an organization that the people might accept is impossible, they should be seen only as criminal, because this is as low as the mafia of today has become, they are just plain criminals.

It is a well-known fact that wherever is money to be spent, the mafia pretends a share of it, they do not provide any services or any help at all, as they did or pretended to do in the past, they only tell the people to give them a share of it, or you will be killed. What sort of people are these, that rob the poor people that want to do the right things and those that need help? We hope that the Italian authorities can catch them soon enough and neutralize them by throwing them in jail or something else. So, that the people that should work to rebuild the buildings damaged from the earthquake are left in peace and can do a good job, without worrying about the mafia people.

We could say a lot more about the mafia and the problems that concerns the people that have lost their houses, and they have become refugees in their own country, and how we see the problem that the Italian government is facing to fix their houses, including the control of the mafia. Anyhow, we want to keep this article brief, so we should move on. Because we would also like to say something about the other refugees that come from overseas, as this is also a problem that Italy is facing today and we need to be concerned about it too.

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Concerns about the overseas refugees

We would like to say something about the refugees that come from overseas, because we think that they could cause many problems in Italy in the future, so we would like to point out what we see coming. So, let us start from the ways they are coming, which is not right, because most of them are not real refugees, they are just people that want to find a better life, just because they believe that there is a better lifer to be found. 

What is usually happening is that they want to go to Europe because they have learned from their friends that have already moved there that in Europe the standard of life is a lot better than in their own native land, so, whether they are real refugees that have been displaced from catastrophic events, like wars or another natural event, or they are just wanting to try this new life anyhow, they move in large numbers from many countries. The worrying part is that they are moving in very large numbers, so, it is hard for the countries that takes them in to cope with all these illegal emigrants, so, they are causing already and they are likely going to cause lots of problems, not only when they arrive, but also in the future.

Some people still think that it might be okay to take them in and help them; well we should say that on humanitarian grounds we should really take them in and help them. But at the same time, we should also look if in the long run, they would cause unforeseen problems to the countries that they have moved in, which we believe that there are going to be many problems, so, we wish that this illegal emigration should be stopped if possible, or at least discouraged, but some people don’t see it this way, so, instead of discouraging them they write articles that would encourage them to go to Europe, like an article that I found on the internet, which I am going to quote some of it here-under.

Here are some benefits of living within the European Union:

Easy relocation to another country within the EU without the need to emigrate. In some countries, you may need to register and you may have to have an income or a job, but that is all about it.

Then, he goes on telling other things and the freedom you could have, if you live in Europe to visit many countries and makes a list of them. The twenty member countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom until it moves out in 2018.

Then this writer continues to explore the benefits for the people that live in the European Union, and the choice that they have, so for me that I see problems ahead is somehow upsetting and I wish he did not write that.

Anyhow, I could say a lot more about my own views, but I believe that this article is becoming too long, so I will write about these issues that are worrying me in our next article.

See you soon.

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 Genzano it story
Concerns about the mafia
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, other people concerns
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