The Matthew Online

JCU Gladiators forced to forfeit victory against rival AUR

By Maddie Sousa

ROME, Nov. 30 – In a disappointing twist, John Cabot University's soccer team, The Gladiators, were forced to forfeit the match they won against school rival American University of Rome on Monday night. The team was forced renounce their win after the league discovered that a player who was supposed to be disqualified from the game played anyway.

The American player, who asked not to be named, was disqualified because he received three yellow cards, which, he explained, according to league rules, required him to sit out the game against AUR. The school’s league rules state that three yellow cards are equal to one red card. One red card means the player cannot play in the next match.

The Gladiator players say that allowing the player to participate in the game was an oversight.

A comment from the Gladiator coaching staff was unavailable as of press time.

1,200 euros for a tiny, rundown flat? Rome has a better idea

By Maria D’Alessandro

ROME, Nov. 29 – 6,000 new apartments for Rome-based university students will be built by 2011 to ease a housing crunch known locally as emergenza casa. The agreement, signed by the Campidoglio and the union of construction workers (Acer) on November 21, is a response to the increasing housing demand.

The central government approved a €40 million grant to help fund the program, which includes the construction of an additional 20,000 apartments for social housing needs. The program involves a negotiation between private and public managers to keep rents low. 

The data behind the emergenza are shocking.

 

Rome's Pop Art exhibit explores inspiration, mockery

By Natalija Dimitriyevitch

Rome Nov. 29 - On Wednesday afternoon, the doors of Scuderie del Quirinale opened into a world of images, colors and sometimes even irony, emphasizing the return of Pop Art to the Eternal City.

Once inside, Martial Raysse's "Proposition to escape: Heart Garden" served as an appropriate introduction to this wild epoch.

Jazz orchestra lights up JCU's Aula Magna

By Coralie Mevs

ROME, Nov. 28 - For the past month, the Orchestra Nazionale Italiana del Jazz has been performing across Rome, holding concerts at schools, theaters, music clubs and institutional authorities. Last
night, the orchestra made a quick stop to John Cabot University's Aula Magna auditorium.

The orchestra was founded in 2003 by Enrico Castiglione, one of the most famous producers of theatrical musicals of his generation, and it is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Under the direction of composer, saxophonist and conductor, Angelo Schiavi, the band on Tuesday night performed a concert entitled ‘American Big Bands’, aiming to revive original compositions of some jazz masters such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Bill Holman, Neal Helti, Claus Ogerman, Quincy Jones, Thad Jones, Oliver Nelson, Gerry Mulligan, and Gil Evans.

 

A poke at MySpace; can Facebook prevail?

By Rubina S.

ROME, Nov. 28 -- There are many friends-based websites, but only two have emerged as the dominante forces in social networking: MySpace and Facebook. Myspace.com or Facebook.com are for students (and now, many adults) the preferred way to stay in contact with friends and associates online.

Is one better than the other? The Matthew Online investigates, and has this to say:

A Pop art renaissance in the Eternal City

By Lindsay Sullivan

ROME, Nov. 28 -  Sergio Lombardo’s Pop Art exhibit attracted quite a crowd at Claudio Marcantoni’s art gallery, HOFFICINAd’ARTE, this week. Locals admired the style that emerged from Britain in the 1950s and soon after spread to the United States. 

But in the Eternal City, renowned for its Renaissance and Baroque art, modern art stands out too as the success of recent Pop Art exhibits here can attest.

 

Shockwaves of Perugia student murder still being felt in Rome

By Chiara Travia

ROME,  Nov. 27 - When considering the move to study abroad, nobody would ever think, 'is this place I'm going to die'?

But following the murder earlier this month of 21-year-old English study-abroad student Meredith Kercher, at a university in Perugia, visiting students are beginning to reassess their safety. Two of the main suspects in her murder are Amanda Knox, 20, an American student from Seattle, who had the bedroom next to Miss Kercher, and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

A country without babies? Welcome to Italy

By Pauline Horwits

ROME, Nov 27 - 1,000 euros to start a family? Tax breaks like this is what Italian politicians have been dangling over the past few years to boost the country's stalled birth rate.

It doesn't appear to be working.

According to 2001 population statistics, Italy has a birth rate of 1.23-children-per-woman, one of the lowest rates in the Western world. That compares with 2.1 in the United States, and a worldwide average of 3.3.

JCU film fans explore the human side of the serial killer

 

By Laura Henry

ROME, 27 Nov. – Movies don’t necessarily need a plot, Italian film director Alex Infascelli told film fans on Monday night at John Cabot University’s ongoing film series, “La Meglio gioventù,” or “The Best of Youth.”

Infascelli’s first film "Almost Blue," which was released in 2000, was screened at last night’s event. Afterward, Infascelli commented on his movie.

“Films don’t have to make sense, not in a consequential way,” he said. “Nothing and no one makes sense in life.”

This approach to filmmaking was certainly apparent in his film adaptation of Carlo Lucarelli’s novel. Rather than a logical storyline, Infascelli presented a series of scenes and images that succeeds in shocking, terrifying, and stimulating his audience.

March on Rome addresses violence against women; but not all are welcome

By Sonia Malpeso

ROME, Nov 26- Despite the rain, an estimated 150,000 women marched on Rome Saturday afternoon to bring attention to violence against women, still a problem in Italy.

The “Violence against Women” march, leading from Rome's Piazza della Repubblica to Piazza Navona, was organized primarily via an an online petition by women's rights groups.

"The violence of men against women begins in the family and has no boundaries,” read the banner that led the march Saturday afternoon. Women's organizations from all over Italy attended the march, showing their support by holding colorful banners and chanting slogans.

Although, mostly a peaceful demonstration, tension arose shortly after the start of the march along Via Cavour when former Minister of Equal Opportunity Stefania Prestigiacomo, alongside Mara Cafagnia, marched with the crowd to show their support.