سلام العرر

Whoa.



Blog's gettin hits from all over. What up Iraq?

It's back on!

Yes! Italian citizenship is still within my grasp!!!

Thanks to Sognatrice's advice, I did find out that it is possible to apply for Italian citizenship even though my grandfather became a citizen before my father's birth. Unfortunately, I have to live in Italy for three years (oh woe is me!!!!) and go through a whole bureaucratic rigmarole. However, I build a house, married and divorced in the People's Republic of Hawai'i, so bureaucracy doesn't scare me.

From the Italian embassy:

HOW TO APPLY

1. Declaration of desire to become a citizen;

If the foreigner is of Italian descent (up to the 2nd degree) he/she can obtain citizenship in any of the following cases:

- by serving in the Italian armed forces;

- by becoming a subordinate employee of the Italian State, even abroad;

- by residing legally in Italy for at least two years after reaching legal age.

If the foreigner was born in Italian territory he/she can obtain citizenship by residing legally and uninterruptedly in Italy from birth up to legal age.

I will not be stopped!!!!!

the "1948 rule"

I almost gave up my dream of dual citizenship after finding out my grandfather had become a citizen before my father was born. Then, my relatives came through with a bunch of new information about my grandmother, and it suddenly looked like I could get jure sanguinis citizenship through her. More and more, the evidence seemed to point to her having never become a citizen, and so I allowed myself to believe it was really going to happen.

Then, reality came crashing in.

a grandmother born before 01/01/1948 can claim Italian citizenship only from her father and can transfer it only to children born after 01/01/1948

FUCK!!

Ah well, Sognatrice gave me some hints about applying for citizenship in Italy, even when the line has been broken... who knows.

Northern Italy on foot

I keep trying and trying to write something on this for my Italian class, but I'm still recovering from the flu, and my head feels like it is filled with cotton. Maybe I'll write something in Italian in a bit...

I can't find any news in English on this, so if you don't read Italian you may be surprised to know that tomorrow (25 feb), no cars will be allowed in all (or mostly all) of the cities in Italy's industrialised north. Air quality in all of Italy's cities is notoriously bad, and PM₁₀ concentrations are higher than EU regulations in many Northern cities. Italian cities were built for foot and horse traffic, and so are perfectly suited for pedestrians and bicyclists. There has been a growing trend to have "car-free Sundays" in the cities, with free or reduced rate entry to museums and historic sites.

Of course, we could never do this in our car-dependent U.S... aside from the cultural antipathy to walking, there simply isn't the infrastructure. Even the layout of our cities militates against self-propulsion, and public transportation is, in most places, minimal to non-existent.

That's about all I have brain power for right now... more - in one language or another - soon.

The rape of Sabrine

This could be the beginning of the end.

Sabrine al-Janabi was abducted from her home and raped by Iraqi security forces. This is, of course, horrifyingly common in the "new Iraq."

What is not common is for the woman to come forward and publicly talk about it, in her own name, on television. Sabrine spoke on al-Jazeera to a horrified Iraq... and it didn't take al-Maliki long to try to discredit her story.

"It has been shown after medical examinations that the woman had not been subjected to any sexual attack whatsoever and that there are three outstanding arrest warrants against her issued by security agencies," the government statement said. It added: "The prime minister has ordered that the officers accused be rewarded."

I kind of thought I didn't have any outrage left. I guess I was wrong...