Send ‘Em Back!

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Cultural representatives from twenty countries have been meeting in Cairo to discuss how to recover ancient artefacts which were stolen and taken abroad in the past.

Organised by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the conference discussed ‘the protection and restitution of cultural heritage’. Just as Egypt wants a return of many of its pharaonic items, countries like Greece, Italy, China and Peru seek a return of their looted ancient artefacts.

Greece wants the Elgin Marbles back, Egypt the Rosetta Stone and the bust of Queen Nefertiti, Peru its Inca treasures ... the list is endless.

These countries are right to demand the return of their antiquities, even though this would denude many museums around the world. The argument that some countries could make copies of certain artefacts to return, such as the Rosetta Stone for instance, doesn’t work for the originals could just as easily be returned and the copies kept.

The discussion will, alas, last for many years and is likely to be fruitless in my view, wrong though this is.
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Get A Room!

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A court in Bergamo in Italy has ordered a father to continue to pay his 32-year-old daughter's living expenses even though she left university eight years ago

The reports are unclear as to the legal background to this odd judgement, but it has so angered Italy's Minister for Public Administration that he is suggesting a new law to force grown-up children, known in Italy as bamboccioni or ‘big babies’, to leave the parental home when they reach eighteen.

It’s an interesting idea given that figures show that the average age of home-leavers in Italy is one of the highest in Europe. How he proposes to manage this little trick though is a mystery given that we are in the midst of a recession and that young people are finding it harder to fund places of their own.

However, the idea may please many parents if the bold minister can pull it off!
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