Monday, April 06, 2009
The Italian Earthquake
I just heard a geologist on the Today programme say Italy was 'splitting apart'. The words made me gasp. They said nothing extraordinary - we all now know about plate tectonics, the world is in constant motion, the summit of Everest is made of marine limestone etc.. And, if he had said Peru is splitting apart or even Germany, then I would not have batted an eyelid. But Italy splitting apart is, somehow, intolerable, as if beauty itself is threatened by this 'quake.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
It's been splitting apart ever since the Risorgimento. Most people north of Sienna think the 'mezzogiorno' is in Africa.
ReplyDeleteIt - the Risorgimento - was the worst thing that ever happened to the South. If it hadn't happened. If the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies had not been violently overthrown and all power drained away to Turin, then, you never know, Naples might have become the Sydney or San Francisco, or at least the Barcelona, of the Central Mediterranean. As it is, it has become a Camorra ridden hell hole constantly trying to work out ways of extracting protection money from a state that hates and despises it.
the BBC animated guide to earthquakes begins by telling me ''they are among the most destructive natural events'', but with Everest, you're telling me they're constructive events. will everyone just make up our minds for once!
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ReplyDeleteMy favorite coming disaster is half of Tenerife falling in the sea and sending a tsunami across the Atlantic flooding the entire east coast of the USA, now that's what i call box office.
ReplyDeleteVideo footage of the scene looked catastrophic to the people who live there.
ReplyDeleteMy heartfelt condolences and sympathy goes out to them.
Plus, the BBC lost its chance to use "literally" properly.
ReplyDeletecan you tell chronology or parameter earthquake in the italia such as focus/epicentrum earthquake or measures
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