Posts by giovanni tiso

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  • Up Front: Any Port in a Storm,

    It seemed, from other comments and your response to them, like this was your story. Until that, I figured it was a work of fiction, and now it seems that initial feeling was correct.

    Dear Lord. Somebody write this man a diagram.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: Any Port in a Storm,

    WTF, dude?

    Yes, that was weird. Not least for the "you're still trying to escape from something" bit. Spectacular failure of understanding.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Speaker: What Diversity Dividend?,

    <perplexed> What, they changed the language while I was away too? </perplexed>

    Don't ask me, once I wrote kindy and was severaly frowned at.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Speaker: What Diversity Dividend?,

    from the kindy front-lines

    Oh noes! You wrote *kindy*!

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: Any Port in a Storm,

    (Also, what everyone else said: thank you so much for this, Emma.)

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: Any Port in a Storm,

    They - the volunteers - know these stories but of course they can't tell them

    But the victims themselves can, and the Refuge newsletter (which is terrific) regularly features them. The ones published to date are collected here.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Busytown: Cry me a river,

    Now, about those gondolas...

    I'm the last person you want to speak to about that, sorry. Milan used to be criss-crossed by rivers and canals, but they were all paved over save for a few that we don't seem to be planning to open to boats of any kind anyhow.

    My father lived and then worked in the same street all his life, and it was crossed in the middle by one of these canals, which was covered when he was still a wee nipper. Yet whenever he gave somebody directions he would tell them to, say, "turn left at the bridge", which for people of his generation still meant a certain traffic light halfway up the road, but puzzled everybody else.

    Then again, he did enjoy confusing people.

    Now that there is no longer any industry in Milan the aquifer and the rivers are all swelling, so the decision to get rid of a few of those roads might be made for us at some stage in the not so distant future. Urban redesign by way of cataclysm is really the only form of progress that Italy can hope for at present.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Busytown: Cry me a river,

    I’m optimistic, because the alternative is simply uncountenanceable, and I don’t even care whether that’s a real word or not. I refuse to countenance it, anyway.

    First thing my son (who had just turned seven) said after we parted with my mother last year: "I hope to see her again." I had to give him a big squeeze.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Speaker: What Diversity Dividend?,

    Italians. I don't trust Italians. And Catholics - which most Italians are. Nothing in the points system allows us to leave them out. We should have a national conversation about that.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Speaker: What Diversity Dividend?,

    For example, i think it is prudent to discuss how much - if any - Muslim migration we want here BEFORE we have a huge Muslim minority, not after.

    Although maybe we should reset the whole thing and let the Maori decide. What the heck, they might have second thoughts about having let in all those Europeans.

    Sheesh.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

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