50 Cent – the price of behaving sustainably

Returning from Milano with Trenitalia, listening to

Joseph Stiglitz:
Restoring Growth and Stability in a World of Crisis and Contagion

Somebody passes, and puts a leaflet on every table a leaflet: itinerRe per le Frecce

EasyFood – comodamente al tuo posto

Tutti i menu a solo 1 €

On top of it: one is encouraged to pay by credit card. The young woman walks back and passes a short time later with the little “mobile bar”. I ask for a coffee but she makes me now again of the special offer which I refuse to buy – finally I just want a coffee.

Certo, 1.50

I stick to my decision, pay, take my coffee

No, grazie; senza zucchero.

take the headphones again and go on listening to the Stiglitz, presenting his ideas about how we get back on the growth path of the economy, increasing the GDP.

Still, I hear as well the words of non-understanding the lady says to the person sitting somewhere nearby:

I offered him this special menu, but he wanted just a coffee ….

both shaking their head.

… Restoring Growth …

As one can listen to Stiglitz without watching I look at the gentleman, enjoying his 1€-EasyFood-menu – he decided for

• Caffè
• Succo
• Croissant
• Biscotti

all taken out of the paper bag. At least he takes the sugar for his coffee which not everybody would do.

I am a bit torn, experiencing this ambiguity: I failed, did not properly contribute to growth which surely would in some way do good to the Italian economy; I just did not take up on the offer, throwing away

• Succo
• Croissant
• Biscotti
• Zucchero
• the bag
• the little “spoon”
• the napkin
• …

Sure, something good I see later: the leaflets are collected towards the end of the journey, and I hope it is for reusing them.

I do not feel too bad, I paid 50 cent, the additional charge for contributing a little bit to protecting the environment, which surely does in every day good to the Italian economy.

Two background noises that come to my mind on this occasion – do not say they do not belong here.

The first one

The other day I picked up the METRO. Il quotidiano gratuito.

The headline on page two:

Salvini balla da solo e punta a Palazzo Chigi

It is about the Lega Nord attempting to move south.

The headline on page three:

Medico e architetto ambulanti per forza

It is an article about a young couple, well educated and starting their career in precarity.

The second one

We all know about the recent success, La Repubblica writing about it under the hedaline

Cuba, la caduta del Mura

We talked about it more or less extensively with Soraya, Hugo, Orietta, José … many other colleagues and comrades from Bolivia, Cuba …. It had been the ever present matter – one that employed the mind. Sure, it is also allowing growth which surely would in some way do good also to the Cuban economy. But …, well, there is a but right?

PS: There is another point on Cuba, the the vulture capitalists already lowering the height of their flight.