When it comes to ignorant irrationality, it looks like the Italians beat even the Maltese
Italians – not in some God-forsaken mountain village, but in Rome, if you please – have succumbed to hysteria about an earthquake they have been told will devastate Rome today.
This earthquake is supposed to have been – hold your breath – predicted in 1979 by a self-taught seismologist who is now dead.
The Italian government has gone into overdrive to let people know that you can’t predict an earthquake, let alone 32 years ahead. But its efforts aren’t working. People must think it’s a conspiracy to keep them there, a giant plot to get them to stay and die so that Berlusconi can cut down his unemployment figures.
I despair.
And there we were, thinking that the Italian education system is so good and that even Italian children seem to know so much about everything. I guess they’re just bluffing 90% of the time, like their parents.
timesofmalta.com, this evening
Italy tries to halt earthquake panic
Italy has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to dismiss an urban legend predicting a devastating earthquake in Rome today.
The Civil Protection Department has posted masses of information on its website stressing that quakes cannot be predicted and that the city is not particularly at risk.
Toll-free numbers have been set aside at city hall to field questions.
The national geophysics institute opened its doors to the public to inform the curious and the concerned about seismology.
The effort is all designed to disprove a purported prediction of a major Roman quake on May 11, 2011, attributed to self-taught seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979. The only problem is Bendandi never made the prediction, says Paola Lagorio, president of the association in charge of Bendandi’s documentation.
Mr Lagorio insists that there is no evidence in Bendandi’s papers of any such precise a prediction and blames unidentified forces who want to “frighten people and create this situation of panic that is attributed to a prediction Bendandi never made.”
Despite her denials and the concerted effort by seismologists to calm nerves, some Romans are taking precautionary measures. Italian agriculture lobby Coldiretti said that a survey of farm-hotels around the capital indicated many Romans were leaving town for the day.
“One cannot speak of an exodus, but there are cases of entire families that have decided to leave the city for the country,” it said.
Officials have blamed the media and viral rumour-mongering on the internet for fuelling fears.
The Rome newspaper La Repubblica headlined its Rome section “Holiday and exodus, earthquake psychosis,” reporting both official denials of a quake alongside predictions that many offices would be empty Wednesday.
Consumer group Codacons lodged a formal complaint with Rome prosecutors denouncing media that added to the alarm.
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Seems like even Libya has lost its appeal in terms of news in the Mediterreanean. Italy is worrying about earthquakes, and Malta about divorce. Even Gaddafi has gone to sleep it seems, as he hasn’t been seen since the attack on the compound of his son. It’s a sign that summer is coming…
Well, we had KMB’s assurance that it is safe to go back to Libya, so I guess there’s no more news to be gleaned there.
…. and Karmenu thinks Maltese can go back to work in Libya!
Issa jonqos il-Eurovision ukoll biex tkompli taghqad.
Well they don’t beat ALL Maltese – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110510/local/Mifsud-Bonnici-urges-Maltese-workers-to-return-to-Libya.364597
Maybe the seismologist was a friend of Tonio and had direct access to Our Lady who predicted the earthquake.
Mhux ħa tgħidilna x’taħseb fuq Kate Gonzi u l-astinenza?
U s-segretarju ta’ Tonio l-Qaddis?
Such ignorance of the masses is being exploited by both sides in the Yes – No to Divorce debate. The arguments by the two opposing clans are so puerile and childish that it makes me want to throw away my vote, although I do have a strong opinion on the subject (and I am keeping my opinion to myself, if you don’t mind).
What one can notice also is that the dividing line between the two camps is slowly approaching to a parallel with the political dividing line. Just because Joseph Muscat expressed that he will vote in favour, while concurrently Lawrence Gonzi (aided by Eddie Fenech Adami) declares that he is steadfast against divorce in any way, the message seems to be filtering down to the great unwashed is that if you are a PL supporter, you are expected to vote YES while at the same time, if you are a PN supporter, you have no choice but to vote NO.
This comes out also of the survey published last weekend on the voting preferences of the Maltese electorate – and this is a total abherration. The issue of divorce is, and should never have been made one, a political issue. You can rest assured that whichever side wins the debate, it will interpret this as a political victory – which is a great pity. I despair.
Unfortunately, a large earthquake has struck in Spain and undoubtedly it will be held up as proof by people who thrive off these things.
Maybe the same earthquake that JOSEPH MUSCAT predicted will happen today.
It’s even worse, Daph. Bendani DIED in 1979, and his fans say he NEVER predicted the earthquake.
This reminds me of a day in the 1970s – possibly 10th March 1979 – which was supposedly predicted to be the end of the world. I was one of the only two children in my class who turned up at school that day, the parents of the rest obviously having succumbed to the mass hysteria.
Latins will be latins.
Hi Daphne. It was business as usual in Rome today. Hectic and crowded as any other day. People mostly joked about the “prediction” and went on with their normal routines. There are bound to be some gullible individuals in a city with a population of 3 million but there really was no sign of hysteria around.
An obvious generalisation on Italians and another attempt at “Italy bashing”. Most Romans did not flee Rome.
Besides one cannot predict but neither exclude that an earthquake happens today or tomorrow or on another day. In fact in Malta a tremor was felt today besides the earthquake in Spain.
X’ ghandhom komuni il-Labour ta’ Joe Muscat u Ruma?
It-terrimot imbassar baqa ma wasalx.
Italy is probably the only country in Europe that gives Malta a run for its money when it comes to stupidity and irrationality.
Italians are great at finding faults.
He wasn’t all that far out, was he? Earthquake in Spain, slight tremor in Malta, Etna erupts.
You have this misconception that having a large percentage of stupid people in the general population is unique to Maltese people alone. Everywhere else is the same.
Reffaele Bendandi was a few miles out – the earthquake happened in Spain.
Seems strange but an earthquake did happen a few hundred miles away yesterday. I hate these coincidences!
[Daphne – We are in an earthquake zone, that’s why. There are earthquakes round here literally every day.]
Perhaps Daphne has been too quick to ‘despair’. It is just another numbers game. The population of Rome is about 2.5 million-ish and greater Rome i.e. including the closest suburbs is home to about 4 million people.
If 90% of Romans retain basic mental functions and only 10% are, um, one grissino short of a picnic, then one can expect 400,000 people or about 130,000 families to panic and leave. This is roughly equivalent to the whole of Malta’s population. But it only means that the vast majority of Romans have not actually lost their minds. Yet.
Did Angelik know about the prediction?
Don’t you know that it is not nice to try and ridicule somebody just because he happens to have more faith than you? I think we should respect the convictions of others and hope they pray for us.
The Italians need a Daphne to kick them into their senses.
The Romans found a good excuse to spend a day away from work, in the countryside.
I find the Romans’ thinking logical though, unlike that of the Maltese.
When Bendandi predicted an earthquake in Rome, there was an exodus of Romans. When Joseph Muscat predicted an earthquake in Labour, all the dinosours that survived the Earth’s collision with the comets rushed to the party headquarters.