European Visit April, 2006
Barbara and I left for Paris to meet our daughter, French son in law and 3 year old French American grand-son. I must say that the business class service on Air France was superb and the food was without equal. The flight itself was right on. Paris was calm and one thing that I noticed that appeared different from our last trip was the 19.6% tax levied on meals and other purchases. It seems that the taxes have gone up during the last 4 years. No one seemed too concerned about past riots and the threats by Muslims and students. France continues to dislike competition and free enterprise but is happy with the fact that a large % of the population prefers government jobs and security. The French government would like to loosen the labor strangulation over jobs and retirement benefits by the unions but just cannot convince the general population of the need to address that issue.
We flew from Paris to Naples, Italy and found warm weather and great food. I got to practice my Italian with our driver from Naples to Sorrento. I quickly found out that when he was talking on his cell phone that he was speaking Napolitana which is not only a dialect but more like a different language. If you think that studying a language makes you fluent, I have news for you. Unless the natives speak slowly and correctly to you, forget trying to understand what you hear. Italy is divided now after their election and it reminds me of our 2000 election where no-one knew for several days who might be president. Their economy is not that good but still their taxes are lower than in France and they do tend to have a free enterprise spirit.
Berlusconi controls about 70% of the media news that is not good. He really dropped the ball in getting Italy to a more privatization nation. Gas in France and Italy and probably in all of Europe is about $6.50 per equivalent gallon. I watched a program on CNN and heard a CNN commentator chastise the oil companies for the high price of gas in the USA. These media sources like CNN and the Herald Tribune are so biased in their reporting that it is not worth watching nor reading their so-called news. I preferred some British newspapers and the Wall Street Journal’s European edition. I did not hear much condemnation of who is responsible for high gas prices. I think that they know that prices are out of control due to policies of nations like Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria and others. Oil is a commodity traded daily and the price is determined by traders, speculators , hedge funds and others. The profit margin of Exxon is 10.2%, Chevron 7.10% and Conoco 7.20%. Numbers are for 2005. For comparison Bell South margin is 14.58%, Kimberly Clark 11.30% and Mylan Labs 14.50%. Senators like Shumer, Levin are economic illiterates that cannot read a supply demand graph. If supply is constant and demand goes up, the price goes up. We can thank the Democrats and their allies, the environmentalists in blocking any new refineries over the past 30 years and killing moves to develop ANWAR. If supply increases and demand stays constant, the price will decline. The problem is that now China and India are becoming large users of oil.
The trip was exhausting for me but I was able to see again my 85 year old cousin in Rome who is a retired judge. My family there is highly educated: One female cousin has a PHD in laser physics and her husband a PHD also in Physics. Their two daughters-both at a University-one majoring in statistics and other in art. Another cousin is an architect and her husband an engineer and their daughter is studying law in Milano. So much for my bragging rights. Rome to me is a fantastic city, culture of the past, yes, but it exudes spirituality to me with the history of Christianity and two great churches, one where St.Peter was martyred and another where St.Paul was martyred. There are many more Churches to see but the point is that whether Catholic or Protestant, the sacrifices and the labor that was done during the beginning years of our faith sometimes gets forgotten particularly when churches are started almost daily without any regard to those before who kept the Word going and paid with their lives.
Gary E. Marsella