NUTELLA STORY

THE FERRERO’S BRAND CREATOR IS DIED

Michele Ferrero (1925 – 2015) was one of the most important Italian businessmen, owner of the eponymous Ferrero Group.
Son of peasants, after the second big war, together his wife he opened a pastry shop in Alba (Cuneo). In 1946 Michele was the man behind the company’s development, creating many new products purchased today by millions of consumers around the world, opening factories and representation in Germany and France, and then exporting his articles  overseas, from Australia to Ecuador.
At that time the Italian giants brands were Motta and Alemagna that predicted: “Ferrero goes for broke, it will fail.”
Michele is the inventor of the most famous Ferrero products: Nutella (1964), Mon Cheri (1956), Tic Tac (1969), Ferrero Rocher (1982), up to the Kinder line that now represents about 50% of the Ferrero turnover.
Thanks to the continuous territorial expansion, and production lines, today Ferrero is one of the leading confectionery worldwide, with over 34,000 employees in 53 countries, 20 production facilities, 3 of which are operating in the field of social enterprises in Africa, and Asia and 9 farms.

By Michele Ferrero’s will,  in 1983 was born the Ferrero Foundation, based in Alba, which has the dual objective of taking care of ex-employees Ferrero and to promote cultural and artistic initiatives. Indeed,  in its logo appear the three verbs that characterize his phylosophy : “Work, Create, Donate”.
In 2005 he created the Social Enterprises, already active in India, South Africa and Cameroon, not only based on a purely Conception entrepreneurial, but acting with a “social” spirit, as they are aimed on the one hand to create jobs in disadvantaged areas emerging countries, and to also carry out projects and initiatives to promote children’s education and health in the areas where the establishments are located.

Perhaps the best-known product in most of the world is “Nutella”, trade name of an Italian hazelnut cream made from sugar and vegetable oils to flavor cocoa and hazelnuts. It was created in 1964 by the confectionery Ferrero in Alba, from a previous cream called Giandujot and then Supercrema. The name comes from the noun “nut,”  and the Italian suffix “ella” to get a catchy name.
Today Nutella is probably the most widespread “chocolate spread” in the world, whose main ingredient is the hazelnut, once taken from the local hazelnut plantation where he was born. Mr. Michele, as his collaborators always called him, had the idea of planting trees hazelnuts in the South, so that he could have at disposal fresh hazelnuts at any season. From that visionary project was born  8,000 hectares of crops in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia, where have been planted 6.6 million of trees. The latest reports claim that sales have been of 350 thousand tons produced each year.

Since the beginning Ferrero adopted reusable glass containers as a form of incentive to buy the product. Once emptied of its contents, the container can be used as a container. The glass jars were soon embellished with multi-color images and a characteristic shape.
During the feast of St. Peter and Paul, Michele had a habit of visiting his Ferrero Foundation in Alba. Here he greeted older workers and talked with other workers, and maybe tasted his products too, keeping the air conditioners to the maximum so that the chocolate did not “suffer” the heat “.
Frequently he went to various supermarket to buy its products and those of other brands to verify freshness and differences. In each factory Michele asked to put a statue of the Lady of Lourdes, but not to offend Muslims, the designers did not put it in the factory in Manisa, Turkey. Michele Ferrero did not like to waste money, except for his favorite cake that he commissioned for some event to a trusted confectioner, and then carried by a helicopter to Alba.   Dwelling in Monaco where he lived in recent years, next to the villas of his son John and Louise, and the widow of his son Peter (who died in 2011), his last joy was being with his five grandchildren ((Michele, Bernardo, Michael, Marie Elder e John). He wrote for them a affectionate letter, during the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Nutella, celebrated in May 2014.  He ideally passed the baton to the fourth Ferrero family’s generation.

PINO DANIELE

 

OUR NEAPOLITAN POET

I can not find the words, but perhaps there are no words for this event that has really taken aback.

A loss for the music but for Naples in particular.

His songs will remain in our hearts.

Goodbye Pino,

and thank you for what you did and you left us !!

TV series

 

– CSI: Crime Scene Investigation –

 

Csi and its spin-off has long been the most watched TV series in the world, that premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000 for a total of 14 seasons till now.
All this thanks to the high professionalism of the production team and the skill of the actors, which I think should be quite stressed after having photographed – for such a long time –  hundreds of battered corpses and bagging their pieces.  In Csi an average of 4.8 people per episode die, so after 315 episodes and fourteen seasons, the series has on its shoulders 1512 murder victims. This seems impressive, but it’s nothing compared to 38 deaths per episode in the series “Walking Dead”. According to “New Scientist”, the care with which Csi is made, about the depiction of police technique and procedure, showed many useful information to underworld.
In recent years, during its broadcast the share has declined, for the arrival of new and most interesting TV series, probably more bloodier and impressive. We all know that sooner or later this American crime drama television series gotta end, and hope this will happen before the inexorable decline.

DISPERSION OF THE ITALIAN ARTISTIC HERITAGE

ITALIAN WORKS OF ART AROUND THE WORLD

The question of the Italian artistic heritage’s dispersion is very complex.
The reason why a so large number of Italian works of art is still in many foreign countries, is due to several factors.
Primarily, because of the misappropriation of the artworks due to foreigners regnant countries, that have made the history of Italy and that have succeeded over the centuries. Then, because of the phenomenon of collecting that has existed in a systematic way for over five centuries, and especially by the fact that from the unification of Italy onwards, the dispersion of the Italian artistic heritage came in succession thru hallucinating procedures and criteria, with the complicity of shrewd antique dealers, officials government, and by compliant and inappropriate laws and rules. Last but not least, the undue subtraction and thefts that constantly have been perpetrated against the Italian artistic heritage.

Rightly, the Napoleonic plunder and the failure in giving back so many masterpieces, is always remembered in this regard, but if such dispossession make us indignant, we must also ask ourselves why in Italy came many other works that were not part of that looting (excluding those that definitely were already out of Italy before the nineteenth century). For the uninitiated, the Napoleonic thefts refer to a number of subtractions of goods, in particular works of art, made during the military conquests of Napoleon Bonaparte. The subsequent peace treaties were the legal instrument used by Napoleon to legitimize these divestitures: between the clauses he considered the artworks as a tribute to war.
In 1799, in the Kingdom of Naples, the General Jean Etienne Championnet put into effect the same policy, as shown by a letter sent to the directorate in the windy year VII (25 February 1799):
« I announce you with pleasure that we have found riches that we thought to have lost. In addition to the arts in chalk of Herculaneum, there are two equestrian statues in marble by Nonius, father and son; Callipygian Venus will not go alone to Paris, because we found in the Porcelain Factory, the superb Agrippina awaiting death; the full-size marble statues of Caligula and Marcus Aurelius, a nice Mercury in bronze, and marble busts of the greatest value, including that of Homer. The convoy will leave in a few days. »

The works stolen by the Nazis and their allies before and during the Second World War, have been millions across Europe, including books and valuable documents. In this regard, we should remember the work done by Rodolfo Siviero, a non-commissioned Carabinieri’s officer, in charge of directing a diplomatic mission to the Allied Military Government in Germany, with the aim to establish the principle of restitution of stolen works to Italy. Since the fifties, and on behalf of the Italian Government, he has dealt systematically a search of all the works of art that were stolen and exported from Italy. This intense activity, which earned him the nickname “art’s 007”, lasts until his death in 1983. During this period Siviero often denounced the lack of attention that government institutions devoted to the problem of the recovery of our artistic heritage.
Berlin 1945-1946, the Second World War is over and the Red Army occupied the city. And here begins the odyssey of many masterpieces  which were secretly taken away by the Russians. According to the calculations of some German experts, the number of works of art disappeared from Germany, at the hands of the Russians, would be about one million of pieces. But we cannot know how many of them came from Italy occupied by the Germans, when Hermann Goering ordered the depredation.

In the past, other artistic commissioners were instructed to “negotiate” the return of looted works but, among compensation, sales and prescriptions, many are no longer returned in Italy. Despite everything, I am consoled by the thought that Italian art would not enjoy such a universal reputation, if its works were not present in some of the greatest museums in the world. Louvre, British Museum, National Gallery in Washington, Metropolitan in New York, Hermitage in Petersburg, Alte Pinakotheke in Monaco of Bavaria, Prado in Madrid and the Kunst Historisches Museum in Vienna, which are visited each year by millions of people from every continent. And in each of those museums the visitor finds ‘Italy’. This “mutual advantage” is perhaps the only reason that heals our consciences.

As mentioned at the beginning, there is no country in the world that has no  Italian historical relic or masterwork on display in their museums, and albeit the largest number can be found in French and English museums, America is no exception.
Although the United States have not their own art history (being officially founded only in 1776), following an optimal and targeted plan of purchase, persisted over the centuries, they hold great examples of classical art, medieval and modern, kept in so egregious way in their museums; the legitimacy of the housing is obviously questionable, despite the sensitivity of the issue: just think of one in all,  to the Chariot of Monteleone di Spoleto now in the Metropolitan museum, illegally transported in New York from the Umbrian city  in 1902, in the same years in which Italy was formulating a law to protect the assets belonging to its National Artistic Heritage.

For Americans who read me, I would like to give a complete listing of all our works that are scattered on their territory, but a systematic and comprehensive research is impossible, and  it will give back an endless list.

I can tell you that about Michelangelo you can see the “Young Archer,” a marble sculpture of 1491, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and “The Torment of Saint Anthony” a tempera of 1487, at Fort Worth in Texas.
About Caravaggio you can see, “Marta e Maria Maddalena “, olio su tela  del 1598 all’ Institute of Arts a Detroit. “Sacrificio di Isacco”, olio su tela del 1603 al Princeton,  Barbara Piasecka-Johnson Collection. “San Giovanni Battista”, olio su tela del 1604 al  Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,  Kansas. “Crocifissione di Sant’Andrea”, olio su tela del 1607 a  Cleveland Museum of Art. “Negazione di San Pietro”, olio su tela del 1609 al Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York e il “San Francesco in Estasi”, al Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art di Hartford.

The Wadsworth Atheneum has other wonderful works of Italian medieval and modern art: sifting in the section relating to his collection on the official website, it is apparent the presence of historically important paintings by Italian artists, such as Ritrovamento di Vulcano, painted  by Piero di Cosimo in 1505; the Ritratto di un uomo in armatura,  1512 by Sebastiano del Piombo; Giuditta e la serva con la testa di Oloferne, 1624, by Orazio Gentileschi; the  Veduta di Piazza San Marco, 1750 by Canaletto;  the Trojan Horse, 1773 painting by Giandomenico Tiepolo.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.,  has one of the finest art collections in the world.
The strongest collection is the Italian Renaissance collection, which includes two panels from Duccio’s Maesta, the great tondo of the Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, a Botticelli on the same subject, Giorgione’s Allendale Nativity, Giovanni Bellini’s The Feast of the Gods, the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas, Ginevra de’ Benci; and significant groups of works by Titian and Raphael.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art you can admire works of Francesco Bartolozzi, Stefano della Bella,  Bartolommeo Bonghi , Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri),  Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco M. Mazzola), Francesco Piranesi,  Giovanni Battista Piranesi,  Marcantonio Raimondi,  Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio Santi), Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi,  Antonio Tempesta,  Enea Vico, Francesco Allegrini, Piedmontese, Giuseppe Galli Bibiena,  Giovanni Battista Foggini,  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo,  The Triumph of Fame; (reverse) Impresa of the Medici Family and Arms of the Medici and Tornabuoni Families, Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi (called Scheggia),  San Giovanni Valdarno, Alessandro Longhi (Italian, Venice 1733–1813 Venice).
Also, you can see, The Adoration of the Shepherds by Andrea Mantegna, The Birth of the Virgin, Fra Carnevale, Bartolomeo di Giovanni Corradini,  Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement, Fra Filippo Lippi, Saints Peter, Martha, Mary Magdalen, and Leonard, Correggio, Madonna and Child with Angels by Pietro di Domenico da Montepulciano, Madonna and Child with Saints by Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia,  The Entombment and Christ in the Wilderness by Moretto da Brescia, Saint Andrew by Simone, Paradise by Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia, The Adoration of the Magi by Giotto di Bondone, Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Pietro Lorenzetti, The Agony in the Garden and  Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints by Raffaello Sanzio, Christ Crowned with Thorns by Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Young Man by Cosimo di Domenico di Bonaventura, Madonna and Child by Vincenzo Foppa, The Flight into Egypt by Cosmè Tura, The Journey of the Magi by Stefano di Giovanni, Portrait of a Young Woman by Lorenzo di Credi, The Resurrection by Perugino, and many others anonymous Italian masterworks.

Omnisexuality

 

_CUDDLE PUDDLE_
Sexual Freedom

 

Reading a few articles around, I noticed that some psychologist or educator is concerned about the “new” sexual orientation of some today’s youth.
Beyond the tendencies poles apart (heterosexuality and homosexuality,) in the middle there are others that are often defined by the term Pansexuality.
Omnisexuality or pansexuality is sexual attraction, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity. Young people who self-identify as pansexual assert that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be sexually attracted to others.
For many, this “post-gay” trend is related to the use-abuse of stimulants and antidepressants, a sexual utopia that would hide the discomfort of the “Cuddle Puddle’s proponents.” Insecure teens or heavily marked by the failure of other relationships…. maybe!

For some “pundits” of these days the search for identity begins  among school’s desks, where our teenagers, between a class and another, engage in sexual relations with peers – and this would seem fine to them – and according to their opinion, the trouble would start when teenagers do not make any difference in dealing with male or female.  What? Why?
Perhaps in some cases it is a challenge in themselves, but as always we cannot be so generalist.
Honestly, I cannot understand why, like many other things, sexuality has to be identified, labelled, categorized, and criticized unless it complies with what society presumes must be its “appropriate” course.
Who of us established or decides what is the correct sexuality for human beings?
Unluckily, whatever is human is uncertain and not absolute, including some rules. For certain complicated things, like sexuality, who are we to judge and criticize?
Like other mental affairs, sexuality is a very complicated issue that can’t be governed, beyond not being in some cases a choice.

Pansexuality rejects the gender binary, the “notion of two genders and indeed of specific sexual orientations”, as pansexual people are open to relationships with people who do not identify as strictly men or women. We can assume that it is an evolution of bisexuality prevalent among young people in the late 60’s and that until recently was considered cutting-edge and quite common among aristocrats.
Camille Paglia promoted bisexuality as an ideal. Harvard Shakespeare professor Marjorie Garber made an academic case for bisexuality with her 1995 book “Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life,” arguing that most people would be bisexual if not for repression and other factors such as lack of sexual opportunity. In “Scientific American Mind”, scientist Emily V. Driscoll stated that homosexual and bisexual behavior is quite common in several species and that it fosters bonding: “The more homosexuality, the more peaceful the species”. The article also stated: “Unlike most humans, however, individual animals generally cannot be classified as gay or straight: an animal that engages in a same-sex flirtation or partnership does not necessarily shun heterosexual encounters. Rather, many species seem to have ingrained homosexual tendencies that are a regular part of their society. That is, there are probably no strictly gay critters, just bisexual ones. Animals don’t do sexual identity. They just do sex:  a normal thing.
Well, apart from this scientific considerations or studies, shouldn’t  the equal rights and freedom involve our sexual tendencies too?!