Cronache

Tag: Italy

  • Functional illiteracy and war: a glimpse into reality

    OECD - The Survey of Adult Skills, functional illiteracy and wars, Italy and Israel, Gaza

    Yesterday we saw the OECD’s third edition of “The Survey of Adult Skills“. It is no surprise that Italy is well below the OECD’s average. The survey refers to the ability to read and understand written texts (cognitive domain of literacy), the ability to understand and use mathematical and numerical information (cognitive domain of numeracy), and the ability to achieve one’s goal in a dynamic situation in which the solution is not immediately available (cognitive domain of adaptive problem solving).

    In ten years of budget cuts to education – to talk of the last ten years, no matter who was ruling the country – we couldn’t imagine doing better, and Italy lies at the bottom of the ranking. No news: there must be a reason why we are ruled – election after election – by increasingly less competent rulers. The problem is double because it is a vicious circle: we are on average functional illiterates and so we do elect functional illiterates to ruling positions. And functional illiterates rulers can do what they can do: make worse the situation.


    What strikes me is that Italy is not (still) at the very bottom of the ranking: we are fourth from last. Behind us there is Israel and this makes me think about the relationship between functional illiteracy and war. And how you conduct a war and rule a Country. I’ll do everything I can to prevent Italy from catching up with Israel in this ranking.

    Take-sumi

  • Price and prejudice

    Unicredit Tower and Matteo Salvini

    Unicredit has made a big move in Italian banks’ “Risiko”, launching a bid to conquer Banco Bpm, and becoming the third bank in Europe by market capitalization. Unicredit is willing also to reach an agreement in Germany, where in September – with a blitzkrieg – became the second largest shareholder of Commerzbank and would like to go on, taking over it and promoting the merger. Andrea Orcel, CEO of Unicredit, is daring to fly high and his moves are well appreciated by the financial community, despite today the price proposed for Banco Bpm is being considered a little too ungenerous.
    On the political side, you could count on a negative reaction by the German government at the time of the blitz on Commerzbank, also because Unicredit has bought part of the shares put up for sale by the government itself without informing it until after the fact. But no one could imagine that a leader of the Italian government, Vice Premier Matteo Salvini, was so shocked today by the offer on Banco Bpm to declare – despite logic and truth – that “Unicredit has little or nothing Italian about it anymore: it is a foreign bank” and to attack Banca d’Italia (the Italian central bank) asking “What does it do? Does it exist? What does it say? Does it monitor? Since they are among the highest paid in Italy, as an Italian citizen I would like to know if everything is under control“.
    The well-paid Italian Vice Premier probably does not know what everyone else knows: Unicredit – like every big bank in Europe – is regulated and supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB). Ignorance and prejudice are well-stoned in Italian politics, but Salvini is entering the Guinness.

    Iroshizuku

  • Stamps’ resurrection

    Nowadays, very few people write letters, mailboxes are disappearing, and stamps seem obsolete. You might think that stamps will soon vanish as well: wrong conclusion. 
    Poste Italiane has set a new record by becoming the world’s first issuer of a philatelic NFT (Non-Fungible Token, NDR) product.  Purchasing one of the 400 box sets of physical stamps called “Posta Prioritaria Collezione Gialla“, you get free the “digital twin” allowing you to download it into your digital wallet. This is a modern attempt to revive something that feels old-fashioned and nearly useless. It also aims to create a niche market specifically for NFT stamps. If you’re a collector, this might be appealing. However, if you’re not one (assuming you can find a mailbox nearby), good luck sending a postcard to your friends with your NFT attached!

    Iroshizuku

  • To Renovate is…

    Beppe Sala, Milan Major

    …to build up a skyscraper upon an old garage.

    A new urban planning standard was set in Milan. It will be approved very soon by the Parliament, and so it will gently spread throughout Italy with the chrism of the law.

    Iroshizuku