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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (67058)	8/6/2005 9:55:50 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

I was riding the train, from Lausanne to Geneve, once when suddenly a huge commotion broke out among the passengers. I asked a man next to me what the problem was. He pointed to his watch and said, "already one minute late!" While that's a bit extreme for me, I probably share the same preferences toward organization and punctuality. Two nations I have spent time in which I do not understand are Italy and Mexico. They are both surprisingly similar. I cannot imagine how it could be possible to run a business in either place. Time schedules for buses or trains are mere suggestions, and even the route may be changed on the driver's whim or a passenger's suggestion. Telephone contact with certain sectors of the country are periodically lost, sometimes for months. Mail may be delivered, eventually. Petty functionaries enforce meaningless rules and even make up their own. Machine gun toting policemen are apparantly needed to keep order. They are Federales in Mexico and Carabinieri in Italy, but apart for the difference in names, they are identical. Here is the webpage for the Carabinieri, which in true Italian fashion does not work currently. carabinieri.it I have always been particularly intrigued by formal business Spanish, where verbs occur without direct objects. Decisions were made, apologies are extended, none of these actions are ever done by anyone in particular, nor is anyone actually responsible for them. One story about Italy will suffice. I drove from Lugano Switzerland toward Milan in a small car with Swiss plates. When I came up to the Italian border, the toll booth sign indicated that I owed some immense amount of Lira which was somewhat less than ten Swiss Francs. I offered the toll collector a Ten Franc coin which he examined with great interest. Toll-officer: This is Swiss money. Me: Yes, could have my change please. Toll-officer: This is Italy, you need Italian money. Me: Where can I get Italian money? Toll-taker: At the bank. Me: Where is, the bank? Toll-taker: She is right over there, but this is Sunday and she is closed. Me: Well then, I will have to come back tomorrow when I have Italian money. I'll go back to Switzerland (a mere 100 feet behind me). Toll-taker: No, this is not possible. You have already run over the sensor, so you have to pay the toll. Me: I understand. I will wait here and read until Monday. I put the seat back, put my feet up in the dash and proceeded to read a book. The toll-taker became irate, yelling and sputtering as cars lined up behind me. He finally called the office. A man in an official military style uniform came out to ask what was going on, first of the toll-taker, then myself. When I repeated the conversation he threw his hands in the air and said, "They are supposed to take all types of currency, but I can't make them do it - they just refuse." He brought me to his office where he changed enough Swiss currency into Lira to pay for the entire route to Milan. A very nice man, living in a culture I can't begin to comprehend. .