From Bro. Gulitti in the Big Apple

30 Mar 2020 18:24:43 GMT — Almost every construction job in NYC is now closed down, except for critical infrastructure work work, i.e. roads and bridges, the electrical and water grid and only those jobs required to keep existing systems up and running. Hopefully when this blows over the contractors will amp up the manpower to make up for lost time, also things were supposed to get back to busy around now anyway so the two factors together should be to our benefit. Stay safe!

Sat, 4 Apr 2020 02:07:28 GMT / 10:07 p.m. EDT 4-3, 7:07 p.m. PDT 4-3-2020 — Just reported on NY 1: 300 Died of COVID-19 in NYC Today. It's now over 550 for the entire state with NYC's numbers being included therein.

Italian lockdown extended

BARBWIRE BY LUIGI BARBANO

Tuesday, 24 Mar 2020 01:11:06 +0100 GMT, 5:11 p.m. PDT

Ciao, Andrew:

I didn’t take pictures, but I can try to take some tomorrow morning while I’ll buy the groceries.

I’m in Boves, near Cuneo, one hour south of Turin. You can check it on google maps. A small 10,000 souls city.

Here is not too bad, there is no much panic in the stores, we just cannot find any surgery mask, alcohol and some sanitizers.

I was thinking today to put on eBay as a joke a roll of TP for $15k with free shipping to the USA :D

I was thinking tomorrow to do a live on youtube where people can ask questions directly, do you think can be a good idea?

If you want to know more we can have a Skype chat tomorrow so you can ask me questions. With the time zone I think morning for you and afternoon for me could work.

The serious problem here is the stupidity of our government. Yesterday they made some stricter rules for movement and so they changed for the third time the form we have to bring with us and now we can go out of the municipality only for emergencies or some specific jobs, but they also took out of the form the close that said “go back home” because that was used by people that went to their second homes in other cities… so basically the form will allow to go in another municipality for special reason but there is no more the option to get back home. Pretty sure some stupid law enforcer will not have the brain to take responsibility and will force someone to not get home after work.

Every day there is a new press conference by our prime minister, usually at 9 pm, and every day a new rule that nobody knows how to apply and interpret.

Today news is the use of drones to monitor the movement of the population.

What is scary is the rage of people toward scapegoats. Now is hate to anybody going out for a simple walk also if the person is alone and far from anybody else. All this hate is pushed by the media, so the real responsible of this crises (our politicians who screwed the healthcare system and other things) will not receive the hate themselves.

Personally I think all this is a great social experiment. We are like guinea pigs. With the possibility to analyze the comments and reaction on social media is very easy to test the limit to the people when freedoms are taken away.

I keep it short for now, time to sleep here.

If you want to talk and have more info just let me know and we can arrange something.

Ciao,

Luigi

UPDATE from REUTERS 4-4-2020 — Italy’s national lockdown to try to contain the spread of coronavirus will probably continue beyond the start of May, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said. This week the government extended the lockdown — which imposes severe restrictions on movement and shutters all services and firms not deemed essential to Italy’s supply chain — until April 13. (Courtesy, Steven Gulitti, New York, NY)