EGT: Italian News

 Until the final quarter of 2013, the Italian economy had shrunk for nine consecutive, and the economy is smaller than it was 14 years ago, and unemployment is near 13 percent. In the final quarter of 2013, the Italian economy grew by 0.3% and this was considered a great improvement, and the overall consumer confidence for the next year is the highest since 2002. There was a new consumer confidence survey given in April and 44.2% of the respondents expected the economy to be good a year from now. This is the highest level of optimism since 1996.

                  There is currently a government proposal to raise domestic demand and increase jobs. Prime Minster Matteo Renzi also wants to reduce income taxes while raising taxes on income from financial instruments. However, the main reason for this confidence, is that the euro zone crisis has seemed to ease, and the Italian stock market has gone up 25% in the last year.  The consumer confidence survey also shows that although the unemployment rate is high and the economic growth (GDP) is stagnant, both figures are expected rise within the next year, as well as a decrease in government borrowing costs.  

                  This article relates to our study of GDP. For example, the expectation of unemployment would increase the consumption aspect of GDP, because as more people are employed and have an income, they will be willing to spend more and buy items. This will increase consumption. In addition a decrease of government spending will also increase the GDP, by increasing the government aspect. If the government borrows less money, and if it makes more money from taxing financial instruments rather than normal income taxes, this will raise the government aspect (less borrowing), as well as the consumption aspect (the decrease on income taxes will lead to more consumption).

                 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/business/economy/optimism-grows-in-italy-defying-the-numbers.html?_r=0

EGT: Italian Transportation

Italy Transportation

1.   Although Italy is not bordered by ocean and has no major ocean ports, Italy is bordered by the Adriatic Sea to the East, the Ionian Sea to the Southeast, the Tyrrhenian Sea to the West, and the Mediterranean Sea to the South and Italy has major ports to all these bodies of water.

Italy has many major ports, most of which are in the Mediterranean Sea, while two others are in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Port of Livorno is a major Italian seaport on the Tyrrhenian Sea and has an annual traffic capacity of 30 million tons (cargo). This port has more than 15,000 employees who provide services to more than 7,000 ships annually. The Port of Cagliari is in the Mediterranean Sea basin, and has an annual traffic capacity of around 50 million tons (of cargo). This port employs nearly 3,000 people who provide services to more than 5,500 ships every year. The Port of Naples is one of the largest seaports in the Mediterranean Sea basin, and while it only has an annual traffic capacity of 25 million tons, the 4,800 employees here provide services to more than 64,000 ships a year. The largest port in Italy is the Port of Genoa in the Mediterranean Sea. This port has a trade volume of more than 52 million tons of cargo, and this port is busiest in terms of cargo, and the second busiest in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units after the Port of Gioia Tauro. The Port of Gioia Tauro is another one of the biggest ports in Italy. It is located on the Tyrrhenian coast and is one of the busiest maritime corridors in the world. In fact, in the early 2000’s more than one-third of Italian national traffic went through this seaport.

2.  Land transportation is very important in Italy, and the railway system plays an important role for both freight and passenger trains. Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. The Trenitalia cargo division transports about 28 billion tons, and it comprises of more than 30,000 freight cars. International traffic accounts for about half of this, and the cargo division operates in collaboration with other European train operators, or with the subsidiary TX Logistik AG, which operates in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and Hungary.  Trenitilia operates regional trains, long-distance trains, as well as international transport to Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland. There are two types of long-distance trains: the Frecce trains, and the Intercity trains. The Frecce trains are very high-speed trains, with special rails and connect major cities. These trains are currently replacing the older high-speed ES Eurostar trains. The Intercity trains are slower and cheaper, while serving more medium sized cities. Night trains (or sleeper trains) run mainly North and South through Italy and its neighboring countries. These are similar to Intercity level trains. Road transportation is very big in Italy, and it has one most vehicles per capita in the world (690 vehicles for 1000 people). Italy has a total of 487,700 km of roads, of which 6,700km are motorways. The speed limits also vary depending on the road, on the motorway it is 130km/h, in towns and cities it is 50km/h, and rarely the limit will drop to 30km/h in rural areas.

3.  In Europe, Italy has the fifth most number of passengers by air transport with about 148 million. The majority of these passengers are on international flights, while the majority of domestic flights are to major islands. There are a total of 130 airports in Italy. Major international airports in Italy include Fiumicino Airport in Rome (the largest airport in Italy), the City of Milan Airport in Milan (the 21^st largest airport in Europe), Venice Marco Polo Airport in Venice, and Naples International Airport).  Other regional airports include Caselle Airport (Turin) in the region Piedmont, Cristoforo Colombo Airport (Genoa) in the region Liguria, Orio al Serio Airport (Bergamo) in Lombardy, Valeria Catullo Airport (Veneto) in the region Veneto, and Gorizia Del Legionari Airport (Trieste) in the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. There are also many other regional airports in Italy.

EGT: Italy International Aspects

International

 is the world’s ninth-largest exporter, and it shipped $17.6 billion worth of products worldwide in 2013. There are five major export industries in Italy that account for the majority of Italian exports. These sectors are mechanical machinery and equipment, basic metals and metal products, transport equipment, chemical products and synthetic fibers, and electrical equipment and electronics.  Another growing export is the production of energy in the industry sector, and Italy is able to export 3.3431 billion kWh of electricity, 667,100 bbl/day of oil, and 210 cu/m of natural gas.  Since Italy is challenged by mountainous terrain, agriculture is challenged. Therefore Italian export trade depends on the manufacturing sector, particularly the production of automobiles and machinery. The two major export trade partners for Italy were Germany and France and these two countries alone received nearly 25% of all Italian exports. Therefore as these two countries recovery from the recession, Italy’s export sector increased. The U.S, Spain, and the U.K are also major export partners of Italy. The major imports of Italy are minerals, nonferrous metals, chemicals, and food and beverages. Italy does not have many oil or mineral deposits therefore they are the major import sectors. These are major imports because they are needed to produce manufactured goods. Italy’s major import trade partners are Germany, France, China, Netherlands, and Libya. These five countries combine for just over 40% of Italian imports.

                  Italy is one of the eighteen European Union member states to use the euro as the form of currency (the others are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain). The euro was introduced to the world financial market on January 1, 1999, to replace the ECU. When it was first introduced, 1 Euro was equal to $1.1743 USD, however within two years that value dropped and on October 26, 2000 the value was just $0.8252. Since then it has traded above the U.S dollar and on July 18, 2008 it peaked at $1.6038, and it’s value has continued to fluctuate of the years. Today the value of the euro is $1.38 USD.

                  Between 1876 and 1970, nearly 25 million Italians left Italy in search for work, and nearly 12 million of those, left Europe completely. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the U.S was the major emigration destination, and the majority of the migrants were from Southern Italy. However after World War II, the most popular destination for Italian migrants was France followed by West Germany and Switzerland.  During this period most of the migrants were males searching for work, and would occasionally return to Italy. After the oil embargo in 1973, nearly 850,000 Italians working in Italy were forced to return. 1972 was the first time that Italy registered more people immigrating to Italy instead of leaving. Most of the migrants came from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and until the mid 1980’s they dominated the migration to Italy, but it was difficult the asses the exact number. After the fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, many new migrants entered Italy from Poland, Romania, Albania, and the Yugoslav region, and they arrived on the Adriatic coast. In 2010 there were about 5 million foreigners in Italy, and the majority of which came from Eastern Europe. The European immigrants went to mostly the north and center of Italy, while African migrants dominated the South. As time has gone, Italy has gone from a place from which people emigrated from, to a destination to which they immigrate to.

                  Italy was on the wrong side of World War II when they were allies with Hitler’s Germany, and Japan and fought the against the Allied Powers (the U.S, England, France, Russia, etc.). After World War, Italy has not had allies and enemies the same way they used to.  However Italy is a member of both the E.U and NATO, therefore their “allies” are the other 26 members of NATO (U.S, U.K, France, Iceland, etc.), and the 27 member states of the E.U, which are most European countries, except Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, and Turkey. Italy is on neutral terms with both Norway and Switzerland. Although they do not have any major enemies, Italy has historically been on rocky terms with Libya, Ethiopia and a few other Eastern African countries. The main reason for these rocky relationships is due to a sour past stemming from Mussolini’s colonization effort in this area. However, after the Libyan Civil War and the overthrowing of Gaddafi, the relationship between the countries has become friendlier.

EGT A Fez of the Heart

Prologue to A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat by Jeremy Seal.

a. Choose one passage from the reading that you found particularly interesting.  Why was this interesting?

1. One passage that I found interesting was pages 11 and 12 when talking about fezzes and how people’s view on them have changed. I found it interesting that something that was once a cultural symbol and iconic of Turkish culture, had been frowned upon and discouraged to the point where it was forbidden for the people to wear them in daily life. I think that it was especially interesting that it was “bidden” for the fezzes to be worn to attract tourists, but not in normal life. I found it interesting that the emergence of tourism and Western culture, not only brought new ideas and culture, but that it discouraged traditional values and items. For example, when the author buys a fez the storeowner seems disappointed and disgusted in his product. When he says “ I think you are not modern”, it shows that the Turkish people have lost the value of their culture and their happiness, but are now focused on fitting in, making a profit, and are embarrassed of their traditional culture.

b. Use examples from this reading to illustrate the interaction between economics and culture.

2. The example of fezzes also showed an unfortunate interaction between economics and culture. A conversation the narrator has with a store employee tells the full story of what has become of the culture. Seal writes “My boss like me to wear it,’ he replied in English. ‘He think to bring tourists.’ From his disgruntlement, it was apparent that he was an unwilling fez wearer” (Seal pg 13). This conversation shows that although it is not values in society anymore and they do not care for it, the employee’s boss was ready to exploit the former culture, regardless of his opinion on it, as long as he could a make a cheap dollar off it. Another disturbing interaction I found was how easily the tourists cities abandoned their ideals and beliefs as long as they could make money. For example, bikinis were once greatly frowned upon and women were once stoned for wearing them in towns and cities, because it went against the culture of Pomegranate. However, as more and more tourists came and were willing to pay higher prices, the citizens stopped caring because they were making money and it helped their economy. In fact, the citizens soon turned completely against their beliefs and started advertising the bikinis and put signs by picture of bikinis saying “No Problem In Turkey”, by doing this they abandoned their culture in order to make money. This related well to Seal’s point about how life their was no longer fun, but now was just about business.

c. Beyond the specific example of this town in Turkey, what connections or conflicts do you see between tourism and economics or tourism and culture?

Outside of this example, I believe there are many connections between tourism and economics or culture. In India the environment and culture in the tourist cities and near tourist sites is very different than the culture in other areas of India. These areas are more developed and while they do focus on the traditional culture and Indian values, they do so while still incorporating many Western and modern values as well. For example in these areas English is a much more prominent language than it is elsewhere, and many people from tour guides, to waiters, to employee at shops must be fluent in English to provided for the needs of the tourists. In this case there is no negative effect of tourism on the culture, in fact the traditional monument and culture drive the tourism and economy in these parts.

EGT Tourism in Italy

Tourism in Italy

1.     Tourism is very important to the Italian economy and contributes nearly 10 percent to the economic sector. In 2012 nearly 46.4 million tourists visited Italy. The majority of these tourists came from other European countries and America.

2.     The most important and popular tourist attractions are, the canals in Venice, the Colosseum in Rome, Santa Maria del Flore, Lake Como, the Leaning tower of Pisa, the Roman Forum, and the Vatican (and Vatican museums).

3.     Some national parks and nature preserves in Italy include Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, Parco della Majella Abruzzo (they are both in Abruzzo), Parco Nazionale del Arcipelago Toscano in Tuscany, Parco Nazionale della Cinque Terra in Liguria, and Parco Regionale della Maddalena in Sardinia. Some important wildlife in Italy is the Corsican Hare, the Apennine Shrew, the Sicilian Wall Lizard, as well as many different species of butterflies and freshwater fish.

4.     Some important Italian museums are the Vatican museum in the Vatican City, the Egyptian Museum of Turin in the city of Turin, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, and the National Etruscan Museum in Rome.