Stanley

I am most like Stanley because he gets acused for something he never did and has to pay the consequenses and thats happend to me plenty of times. His outcome is finding tresuars from his ansisters and thats really what you always learn. Theres always a lesson in the end. Stanley has curly hair and I did when I was a baby. He also has a dad who doesnt know when to stop but it works for him well!

strenghts and weeknesses

One of my strengths is that I can not tell people how I feel for my own reasons.
One of my weaknesses is that ill feel sick about it later.

One of my strengths is that I know when im acting up.
One of my weaknesses is that I can’t stop myself.

One of my strengths is that if there’s a problem im smart about how I deal with it... usually.
One of my weaknesses is that some times I let it get to me.

One of Catharine’s weaknesses is that she is insecure about her brother
One of her strengths is that she helps her brother any way

One of her weaknesses is that she thinks her mom has more attention for her brother
One of her strengths is that she doesn’t let it get to her

One of her weaknesses is that she thinks her brother ruins her friendships
One of her strengths is that she just looks for new ones

rules for david

1 dont eat chalk
2 put the seat down while you pee
3 dont asult people
4 dont yell at the police
5 dont hit people
6 say go away when strangers
7 stay away from mom when shes mad
8 dont smoke
9 dont drink
10 dont pee outside

game plan

G-goal ( I want to do charity work for the earth at my school)

A-Action My action to help the earth would be pick up garbage off of the side walk and grass, turning the sink and lights off in my classroom… ect.

M-Monitor To monitor myself I would make a daily chart recording what I did and/or have to do.

E-Evaluate

  GAME PLAN!

sience... it killz chu!

                           

la project

 Avgolemono - 'egg-lemon' soup: chicken, meat, vegetable, or fish broth thickened with eggs, lemon juice, and rice.

 Fakes - a bean soup defined in many cookery books as the traditional Greek dish. It is made of beans, tomatoes,      carrot, celery and a lot of olive oil.

  Magiritsa - a traditional Easter soup made with lamb offal and thickened with avgolemono.

  Psarosoupa - a 'fish soup'. It can be cooked with a variety of fish types, and several kinds of vegetables (carrots, parsley, celery, potatoes, onion), several varieties include the classic kakavia which is drizzled with olive oil.

  Souvlaki - Anything grilled on a skewer (lamb, chicken, pork, swordfish, shrimp). Most common is lamb, pork or chicken, often marinated in oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon.

  Briám - an oven-baked ratatouille of summer vegetables based on sliced potatoes and zucchini in olive oil. Usually includes eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and ample aromatic herbs and seasonings.

  Domatokeftedhes - tomato fritters with mint, fried in olive oil and typically served with fava (split pea paste). Mainly a Cycladic Island dish.

  Fasolakia freska - fresh green beans stewed with potatoes, zucchini and tomato sauce.
 
  Lachanodolmades - Cabbage rolls, stuffed with rice and sometimes meat, spiced with various herbs and served with avgolemono sauce or simmered in a light tomato broth.

  Spanakorizo - Spinach and rice stew cooked in lemon and olive oil sauce.

  Yemista - Baked stuffed vegetables. Usually tomatoes, peppers, or other vegetables hollowed out and baked with a rice and herb filling.

  Ameletita - a delicacy served in Greece and Cyprus made from grilled lamb's testicles.

  Bekri Meze - 'drunkard's snack', diced beef marinated in wine, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, olive oil and cooked slowly.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ desserts

  Galaktoboureko - custard between layers of phyllo. The name derives from the Greek "ghala", meaning milk, and from the Turkish börek, meaning filled, thus meaning "filled with milk."

  Bougatsa - pastry consisting of custard, cheese, or minced meat filling between layers of phyllo.

  Loukoumades - similar to donuts, loukoumades are essentially fried balls of dough drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
 
  Moustokouloura - cookies of flour kneaded with fresh grape must instead of water.

  Loukoumi - a confection made from starch and sugar, essentially similar to the Turkish delight.

  Tsoureki - a traditional Christmas and Easter sweet bread also known as 'Lambropsomo' (Easter bread), flavored with "mahlepi", the intensely aromatic extract of the stone of the St. Lucie Cherry.

  Vasilopita - Saint Basil's cake or King's cake, traditional for New Year's Day. Vasilopites are baked with a coin inside, and whoever gets the coin in their slice are considered blessed with good luck for the whole year.

  Diples - a Christmas and wedding delicacy, made of thin, sheet-like dough which is cut in large squares and dipped in a swirling fashion in a pot of hot olive oil for a few seconds. As the dough fries, it stiffens into a helical tube; it is then removed immediately and sprinkled with honey and crushed walnuts.

  Kourabiedes - Christmas cookies made by kneading flour, butter and crushed roasted almonds, then generously dusted with powdered sugar.

  Karidopita - a walnut cake.
 
  ------------------------------------------------------------------ drinks

  Greek frappé coffee - a foam-covered drink derived from spray-dried instant coffee that is consumed cold.

  Greek coffee - made by boiling finely ground coffee beans, and is served thick and strong, and often sweetened. It is always unfiltered, with the coffee sediment at the bottom of the cup.
 
  Wine - the most common drink in Greece. Legend claims that wine was invented on the island of Icaria.

   Beer - widely drunk; common brands include Vergina, Heineken, Amstel, Zeos, Mythos, Alfa Hellenic Lager, Fix,
Henninger, and Kaiser, all of which are produced locally, some under license.

  Mavrodafni - Sweet, liquor-style, red wine with higher alcohol percentage than normal.

  Metaxa - a brand of sweet brandy, 40% alcohol content.

  Ouzo - (an 80-proof clear alcoholic beverage that is flavored with anise; it turns milky white with water or ice; the best said to be produced on the island of Lesbos).

  Retsina - a white wine that has some pine resin added, originally as a preservative, but nowadays for the flavor; this is an Athens region specialty. It should not be aged.).

   Tentura - a cinnamon flavored liquor from Patras.

   Tsipouro - Mostly home-brewed, a clear drink similar to ouzo, often with higher alcohol content, and usually not flavored with herbs. The city of Volos at the centre of Greece is well-known for its Tsipouradika. In Thessaly tsipouro is always flavored with anise.


   References

   ^ Gigantes/Yiyantes (Greek Giant Baked Beans)
   ^ Diples (Thiples) (Honey Rolls) Greek Dessert

rock project

Soapstone
Soapstone is talc with some impurities in it.
It is called soapstone because it is slippery like soap.

Tigers eye
Tiger’s Eye is a quartz that contains fibers of crocidolite which has altered to a yellow color.
It is formed by the alteration of crocidolite and consists essentially of quartz colored by iron oxide.
The fibers give the specimen it’s distinctive glowing chatoyancy.
Tiger's eye is used mainly for jewelry-making and ornamentation.

Ironstone
This rock is a very distinct rock with its dark red & black banding.
The black layers are magnetite and the red layers are jasper/chert.


Wanapitei Breccia  from an area near Sudbury, Ontario  CANADA
the breccia from this area has a distinctive appearance and is known as Wanapitei Breccia as it was quarried in the Wanapitei Lake Quarry
it is also known under the trade name of "Aylmer antique"
this breccia is composed of layers of angular blocks, often outlined in black
the lighter pinkish - peach blocks are dolomite
the darker, tan blocks are made of a mixture of quartz and plagioclase
this stone takes a fine polish.





he Rock Cycle is a group of changes. Igneous rock can change into sedimentary rock or into metamorphic rock. Sedimentary rock can change into metamorphic rock or into igneous rock. Metamorphic rock can change into igneous or sedimentary rock.
Igneous rock forms when magma cools and makes crystals. Magma is a hot liquid made of melted minerals. The minerals can form crystals when they cool. Igneous rock can form underground, where the magma cools slowly. Or, igneous rock can form above ground, where the magma cools quickly.



When it pours out on Earth's surface, magma is called lava. Yes, the same liquid rock matter that you see coming out of volcanoes.

On Earth's surface, wind and water can break rock into pieces. They can also carry rock pieces to another place. Usually, the rock pieces, called sediments, drop from the wind or water to make a layer. The layer can be buried under other layers of sediments. After a long time the sediments can be cemented together to make sedimentary rock. In this way, igneous rock can become sedimentary rock.


Basalt is a very common igneous rock. In fact it is the most common rock in the Earth's crust. Almost all oceanic crust is made of basalt and basalt is a common extrusion from many volcanic regions around the world. It forms from the melting of the upper mantle and its chemistry closely resembles the upper mantle's composition. It is generally silica poor and iron and magnesium rich. Basalt originates from "hot spot" volcanoes, massive basalt flows and mid oceanic ridges.

Chalk is a sedimentary rock of biochemical origin. It is soft, white and porous. It formed in the deep ocean far from land via the gradual accumulation of the calcite shells of coccolithophores. Layers of chalk are known that are hundreds of feet thick, indicating extremely long periods of accumulation.

Note that many products called chalk are not calcite. Gypsum is a common replacement (for example the "chalks" used on blackboards), as is talc. True chalk, however, is always composed of minute crystals of calcite.

Gypsum is an evaporative sedimentary rock composed primarily of the mineral gypsum. Gypsum beds can be huge, although since it is somewhat water soluble it is unstable at the surface except in very arid regions.

Gneiss is a metamorphic rock characterized by distinct banding and relatively little mica and chlorite minerals. Gneiss resembles schist in composition and texture, but schist does not show layering or banding.

Granite is possibly the most common igneous rock type known to the general public. Granite, which is named for its "granular" or phaneritic texture, has crystals that tend to be easily seen, although they are generally small.  It is a rock that has been used for centuries for many different purposes such as building material. Granite was used with limestone as a building material for the pyramids of Egypt. Its durability, beauty and abundance make it a preferred choice of stone over most others.  Granite is also a source of many mineral specimens. Unfortunately, most of the crystals in a granite form anhedral crystals or crystals that lack their outward crystal shape. This is due to the way that the crystals grow into each other to form interlocking crystal frameworks. Although this gives granite its great durability, it limits its desirability as a source of mineral specimens. Occasionally there are pockets within a granite where crystals can form very nice specimens.

Soapstone is a metamorphic rock formed at tectonic subduction zones. Soapstone is primarily composed of the mineral talc whose softness results in the soapy feel of the rock (hence the name). Soapstone has been used as a carving material for thousands of years.

Slate is a low grade metamorphic rock with a fine grain. Slate often has a gray color and may be split into parallel layers. The precursor rock is generally a shale or siltstone. Slate is used as roofing, as the flat beds of billiard tables, and historically had many other uses since replaced (such as school blackboards).

rules ;)

                                 Rules

1)      trust little and obey no one at all

2)      stay close to whom that trust you

3)      when you see food, ask and if they no take it any way

4)      don’t fall in love, or let yourself think that you are

5)      stay focused on only what YOU want to do and go to any lengths though get it

valentines day stories

The Valentine Box

Roger had planned to send a great many valentines to the girls and boys he knew. There were beautiful valentines in the toy shop window, red satin hearts in little heart-shaped boxes, painted post card valentines, and little card-board figures holding baskets of flowers.

Roger had been saving his allowance for four weeks and he was quite sure that he had enough money to buy a valentine for the little girl next door, and one for the little girl across the street, and one for the boy on the next block, and one for the boy who lived upstairs.

So, quite early the day before Saint Valentine's Day, Roger decided to go out and buy his valentines.

Just as he was about to start, though, he heard a sound from the playroom. Peep, peep, peep. Oh, it was Roger's pet canary who was calling to him, "Wait a moment, little master! You have forgotten to feed me."

Roger knew that he must not buy valentines if his pet bird was hungry. He found that it needed fresh water to drink, and the cage needed cleaning too. When he had done all this and filled the seed box, his mother called him.

"I want two yards more of lace like this for the baby's dress, Roger. Will you please go down to the store and buy it for me?"

"Oh, yes!" Roger said, for he thought that he should be able to go on down to the toy store and buy his valentines at the same time. But just as he was going out of the door his mother spoke again. "Come right home, Roger, just as quickly as you can. I want to finish the baby's dress so that she can wear it this afternoon when I take her over to Aunt Lucy's."

Roger got the lace and hurried home with it, but he couldn't get the valentines then. He had to amuse the baby while his mother sewed on the lace.

"I can go for the valentines this afternoon," Roger thought. But right after luncheon mother dressed the baby and started out for Aunt Lucy's house.

"I may not be back until five o'clock, Roger," his mother said as she kissed him good-bye. "You won't leave dear grandmother alone a minute, will you?"

"No, mother," Roger said, but he could have cried, for he knew now that he could not buy his valentines at all.

Grandmother lost her spectacles several times, and dropped her knitting ball several more times, and wanted Roger to take her for a walk, so he was very busy all the afternoon. He was glad to be busy for he felt very badly indeed about having no valentines to send. All the children to whom he had planned to send valentines had sent valentines to him the year before. The children were his loved playmates and he knew that Saint Valentine's Day was the holiday for telling one's love.

He did not let his dear grandmother know how sorry he was, though, and after a while it was five o'clock, and his mother came home.

"Has Roger been a good boy?" she asked his grandmother.

"As good as gold," grandmother said. "He has just warmed my heart all the afternoon."

"Well, I thought he would," his mother said. "Oh, I almost forgot something, Roger. I have a surprise for you up in the attic."

She went up to the attic and came back with a box in her hand.

"I meant to give these to you this morning, Roger," she said. "I found them in an old trunk when I was cleaning the attic last week. They are just as good as new and much prettier than the ones in the shops now, I think. They are the valentines that I had when I was a little girl."

Oh, such beautiful valentines as filled the valentine box! There were enough so that Roger could take one to every child in the neighborhood on the morning of Saint Valentine's Day.

His mother had been right about these pretty, old-fashioned valentines. They were nicer than any in the toy shop. Roger spread them all out on the library table, and looked at them. Suddenly he found out something queer about the valentines; they made him feel as if he had been playing Saint Valentine all day.

Some of the valentines had cunning little paper windows that pulled out and showed tiny gold birds inside. They made Roger think of his pet canary that he had fed that morning.

Some of the valentines were bordered and trimmed with gilt, and silver, and white paper lace. It made Roger think of the lace he had bought for his mother.

A great many of the valentines were in the shape of hearts, or there were hearts hung from them, or hearts on them that could be pulled out and would stand alone. They made Roger think of what his dear grandmother had said,

"Roger has warmed my heart all the afternoon."
"Hurrah for the valentine box!" Roger said as he began putting valentines in envelopes. He felt most unusually happy.

social studies Canada history book

                                                                        Canada 4

Canadians have two mane sports they play and watch. they are fishing and hockey. Canada has limited the amount of fish because they are becoming extinct. but How ever hockey is still very popular and limitless of the sport in Canada. 

            

                                                                     Canada 5

weather in Canada is like the further north you go the cold it gets as it is near to the north pole. In the South the weather is very much like the US, which the weather changes every season.

                                                                      

bud

so far i can see that bud has moved alot and has alot of depression because hes in foster care. i can see that bud is a good kid its just hard for him to show it. hes full of emptyness and hurt!

skool project transfer 2

                                                mount rushmore n crazy horse
A sight to see! open to the public for small amount and what a great adventure it would be to tell  
others that you came and saw mount rushmore and crazy horse...in key stone, south dakota, 
united states an adventure awaits you! An American sculptor named Gutzon Borglum 
(1867-1941) carved Mount Rushmore between the years of 1927 to his death on March 6, 1941. 
Following his death, the final drilling was completed under the direction of Gutzon's son, Lincoln 
Borglum, on October 31st, 1941. Upon its completion in October 1941, a formal dedication was 
never held because Gutzon Borglum had died earlierin the year, and by December, the United 
States was involved in World War II. However, on August 10, 1927, President Calvin Coolidge 
dedicated the not yet started Mount Rushmore. It is said that his speech here was the finest of 
his career, as he was not known for his public eloquence. Coolidge said, "This memorial will 
crown the height of land between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic seaboard, where coming 
generations may view it for all time.....On this towering wall...is to be inscribed a memorial which
will represent some of the outstanding events of American History..."Despite its size, the Crazy 
Horse Memorial is one of the lesser-known memorials in the United States. Even in its location, 
the Black Hills of South Dakota, it is overshadowed by the popularity of Mount Rushmore. Part 
of the reason that the memorial is not more popular is because it is not yet finished. It has been 
a work in progress for several decades already, and it looks as if it will take several decades more 
to complete it. Just check out what this woman said about her visit... Mount Rushmore National 
Memorial, located 23 miles southwest of Rapid City, is something you don't want to miss. It's the 
greatest FREE Attraction in the US! Crazy Horse Memorial, home of the world’s largest mountain 
sculpture in progress, is in the Black Hills of South Dakota on U.S. Highway 16/385 just 17 miles 
southwest of Mount Rushmore. Effective May 1, 2007 Regular family admission fees for Crazy Horse 
$10 - Adults - Under 6-years of age - FREE $25 - Carload (whichever is better for you)So come on 
down to south dakota and see what americas past has in stores for you in the present!




                                                                                                             By,
                                                                                                               Valarie Mayou

skool project transfer

The Venice Boardwalk is full of all kinds of people in all sorts of outfits and the atmosphere is very festive with many live street performances taking place, especially on weekends. This sculpture is an accommodation or resolution of opposites in one. Not only does this image bring the male and female together into one figure, but also, two opposite types of performers are represented: the formal classical ballet dancer and the traditional street performer. Of course, this public sculpture might push the envelope in ‘taste’, but if you have ever walked the Venice Boardwalk on a Sunday afternoon, you might understand why this figure is right at home.

One of the main reasons behind the charm of Venice, is the fact that is seems to be floating upon the waters of the lagoon. However the dark truth is that the city is actually sinking and has been for centuries. Venice has always lived on borrowed time, it is a city that should not exist - a whimsical maze of heavy marble palazzi and churches built upon ancient wooden piling sunk into a salt marsh. It is a wonder that Venice survived to the present day to face a threat that may finally end the life of this faded beauty: rising sea levels due to global climate change.

Facts about Venice: figures

In Venice there are about 7000 chimneys, of over 10 different types and shapes.

170 bell towers stand over the former queen of the Mediterranean. In the past, besides serving as a call for church services, they were also used as lighthouses or as observatories to control fires, mostly the San Marco bell tower, the tallest in the town.

The San Marco bell tower - or campanile - is the Italy's fifth tallest bell tower, measuring 98,6mt/275ft. 

Built in the 12th century, it collapsed un-expectantly in 1902. The only victim was the poor cat of the caretaker. The tower was afterwards rebuilt exactly the same.

Venice is made up of 118 islands, 416 bridges, 177 canals, 127 campi (squares).

The biggest and longest canal is the S-shaped Grand Canal, splitting the town in two.

There are 3 ancient bridges over the Grand Canal: Rialto bridge, Accademia, Scalzi (Ferrovia).

There is a fourth one, the recent Calatrava bridge, close to the Scalzi bridge, near Piazzale Roma. It is only 4 years old, but I was recently told that it already begins to show signs of decay, unlike the centuries old ones...

6 sestieri, (Venetian quarters) make up Venice: San Marco, San Polo, Santa Croce, Dorsoduro, Cannaregio, Castello.

There are about 350 gondolas and 400 gondolieri.

The Veneto town is visited by 18 millions tourists a year, on average 50,000 a day.

Facts about Venice: its problems

Depopulation is a serious issue for the lagoon town: Venetians living in the historic center were 121,000 in 1966, decreased to about 60,000 today.

At this rate, some experts expect that in 2030 Venice may be a ghost town, populated only with tourists, coming in at morning until evening, like in a big theme park. Very sad.

The main causes of the Venice depopulation are:

the first great escape was during the 1966 flood (the same rainy year when Florence was hardly hit as well). On that occasion 16.000 Venetian ground-floor apartements were abandoned.

The progressive sinking of the town, with more frequent acqua alta (high water) phenomenons.

The increasing maintenance costs of its houses, old, often in bad conditions and constantly under attack by damp.

The increasing costs of houses and rentals: the real estate market is now dominated more and more by very wealthy people or corporations, Italians and foreigners, making the prices prohibitive for ordinary mortals.

This is both a cause and a consequence of depopulation: many small business, mom and pop stores, like handicraft stores, bakeries, small businesses, etc., are little by little closing down, swept away by big unpersonal chains established just for the huge tourism stream, or by stores filled with junk souvenirs or fake Venetian masks...

It is a catch 22, because due to high prices, most tourists prefer to sleep in Mestre, and even bring with them their box lunch when visiting Venice during daytime. It is understandable, but that way Venice often ends up to get more drawbacks than benefits from tourism.

Top ten animals in Venice Italy:

1. Pigeons

Piazza San Marco wouldn’t be the same without them, but their droppings play havoc with the stonework.

2. Lions

Symbol of Venice and St Mark, abundant statuary and paintings of lions in varying forms fill the city.

3. Cats

The city’s feline population is pampered and fed by affectionate Venetians.

4. Rats

Rare, thanks to imported Syrian cats in the past, replaced by an effective council eradication campaign.

5. Horses

Once ridden around town by the Venetian nobility, even up the Campanile via a ramp.

6. Dogs

By law dogs in Venice must be muzzled, kept on a leash and cleaned up after at all times.

7. Seagulls

Self-appointed garbage collectors, they do an admirable job around the markets.

8. Cormorants

Hundreds of elegant jet-black waterfowl inhabit the lagoon, to the chagrin of the fishermen.

9. Rhinoceroses

One of the many exotic circus animals portrayed on canvas by 18th-century artist Pietro Longhi.

10. Elephants

Incredibly, a runaway elephant from an 1819 circus took refuge in a church, and cannon fire was needed to dispatch it.

news in venice italy:

Italy, rich in art, cuisine and ancient history, went from being the “sick man of Europe’' to its third largest economy, only to see its future imperiled by stagnant growth, political paralysis and investor fears over the mountain of debt it has piled up over the years.

In a sense its economic troubles date back to the late 1990s, when the country’s manufacturing was overtaken by competitors in Asia. Its patronage-based politics and rule-bound labor practices changed little, but a flood of cheap money that followed the introduction of the euro helped keep the system going.

Then came the global financial crisis in 2007, which shrank Italy’s economy by more than 6 percent. Growth resumed in 2010, but was snuffed out in 2011 by the rising debt crisis, and the International Monetary Fund predicts “another decade of stagnation.”

At roughly 120 percent of G.D.P., its growth-hobbling government debt is second only to Greece’s among euro zone members. Although it has run a budget surplus, minus debt costs, for several years, the Italian government now spends 16 percent of that budget on interest payments — a bill that began to rise in the summer of 2011 as investors and creditors began to fear that Italy cannot escape Europe’s debt crisis.

As a result, the country has increasingly taken center stage on the debt crisis, as the amount of Italy’s debt held by foreigners — nearly 800 billon euros — is more than that of Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined. The debt problem is being compounded by the country’s economic slowdown — in December, the government’s minister for economic development proclaimed that Italy had already entered a recession. 

The crisis did what Italy’s liberal parties could not — end the reign of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose government had moved too slowly to implement fiscal reforms to assuage either the markets or France and Germany, the heavyweights of the euro zone rescue efforts.

Mr. Berlusconi stepped down on Nov. 12 after a $75 billion package of deficit reduction measures were adopted, ending an era in the country’s history. His successor was a former European Commissioner, Mario Monti, who was asked to lead a cabinet of technocrats until the economic situation is stabilized and new elections are held.

In December, Mr. Monti unveiled a radical and ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases, including deeply unpopular moves like raising the country’s retirement age. The measures are meant to slash the cost of government, combat tax evasion and step up economic growth, so the country can eliminate its budget deficit by 2013.

He won a vote of confidence on the package in the Assembly on Dec. 16, but only after it had been weakened in response to complaints from the right and the left. It was passed by the Senate the next week, but Mr. Monti felt the need to make it a vote of confidence, to fend off scores of modifications proposed by the Northern League, once a pillar of Mr. Berlusconi’s center-right coalition and now the loudest opposition party.

After days of political wrangling in Parliament, the Monti government bowed to pressure from the right — most notably from the party Mr. Berlusconi — and dropped some elements of the $40 billion package of spending cuts and revenue increases, including a wealth tax and the speedy liberalization of closed professions like taxi drivers and pharmacists, a plan that drew protests from their powerful guilds. It also scaled back a newly reinstated property tax on primary residences.

After protests from the left and labor unions, some counting more pensioners than workers among their members, Mr. Monti reinstated inflation increases on low-level pensions that he said would make the measures more equitable.

Mr. Monti has said he wants to make Italy more equitable — especially for young people and women, whom he has called a “wasted resource” — and to help the economy grow. But even as he pledged to address labor reform and other structural changes in the coming weeks, he has run up against a wall of vested interests.

For the most part, the new austerity package is based on tax increases. It would reinstate a property tax on first homes, which Mr. Berlusconi had eliminated as an election promise in 2008. It would also impose a 1.5 percent tax on revenues brought into Italy under an earlier tax amnesty, and add taxes on cigarettes and gas, which is close to 1.70 euros per liter, or more than $8 a gallon.

The governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, said last week that the measures would increase Italy’s tax burden to 45 percent, a level that businesses say is unsustainable.

On the day of the vote of confidence, the minister for economic development, Corrado Passera, said the Italian economy was already in recession, and Confindustria, the industrialists’ organization, said it expected the Italian economy to contract 1.6 percent in 2012, rather than grow .2 percent as it had previously expected.

Mr. Monti has told Italians in no uncertain terms that such changes are essential for Italy to bolster its anemic growth, stave off recession and pay down its staggering public debt, which is $1.9 trillion, or 120 percent of gross domestic product, in order to stabilize the Italian economy and protect the euro.

The following week, Italy’s short-term borrowing costs were halved at an auction of government bills, reflecting a huge infusion of low-cost, long-term liquidity into euro zone banks by the European Central Bank. But its long-term borrowing costs remained just under 7 percent, a level regarded by most economists as unsustainable.

Behind Low Growth

Before the global economic crisis of 2008, Italy had been paying down its sizable government debt for close to a decade, and was running a budget surplus if those interest costs were excluded. But the debt crisis that arrived in 2011 focused new attention on impediments to growth.

Italy’s entrenched political and patronage system, overly generous pensions and job protections, along with an excessive web of competition-killing red tape, are often cited as the primary culprits in a dismal economic record that is seem as the root cause of Italy’s troubles.

According to forecasts from the European Commission, Italy’s gross domestic product will grow only 0.1% in 2012, down from an earlier projection of 1.3%, and will expand only 0.7% in 2013. Economists have long argued that Italy needs to carry out serious structural reforms to stay competitive.

The measures that Parliament is expected to approve include a mixture of spending cuts and tax hikes, the sell-off of some state real estate, including farmland, and the privatization of municipal public utilities. They would also loosen the grip of Italy’s powerful professional guilds and make it easier to transfer public servants, leading to their possible dismissal if they refuse a transfer away from home.

They also spell out tax breaks for employers who hire young people and women, and a move towards streamlining Italy’s cumbersome judicial process, in certain cases. But they fall short of addressing serious pension or labor reform.

The Berlusconi Factor

Since 1994, Italy’s political life has been dominated by Silvio Berlusconi, the idiosyncratic billionaire and three-time prime minister. But Mr. Berlusconi’s power has been steadily leaking away as the nation seems to have finally tired of his well-publicized dalliances. Politically, he appears to have lost his touch.

In December 2010, he avoided the collapse of his government when he barely survived a vote of confidence. Although his mandate is set to end in 2013, the razor-thin majority shown in the vote meant that Mr. Berlusconi no longer has the margin to govern.

Mr. Berlusconi, who has emerged largely unscathed from a dizzying number of trials, is facing further legal troubles. In February 2011, Milan prosecutors filed a request to try him on criminal charges related to prostitution and abuse of office; he is accused of paying for sex with an under-age woman, nicknamed Ruby Heart-Stealer, and then abusing his office to help release her after she was arrested on a theft charge.

By July 2011, tensions had emerged between Berlusconi, and the finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, who has been praised for maintaining control of the budget deficit, and investors reacted by driving up rates on government borrowing. Soon after, Parliament rushed to pass an austerity bill that aims to reduce the country’s budget deficit to 2.3 percent by 2014 from the current 4.6 percent through a combination of income and corporate tax hikes, cuts to local and regional governments, an increase in fees for public health care, cuts to some high-level pensions and an increase in the retirement age.

Background

Encyclopedia Britannica describes Italy as “less a single nation than a collection of culturally related points in an uncommonly pleasing setting.” However concise, this description provides a good starting point for the difficult job of defining Italy, a complex nation wrapped in as much myth and romance as its own long-documented history. The uncommonly pleasant setting is clear: the territory on a boot-shaped peninsula in the Mediterranean, both mountainous and blessed with 4,600 miles of coast. The culturally related points include many of the fountains of Western culture: the Roman Empire, the Catholic church, the Renaissance (not to mention pasta and pizza).

But Italy, united fully only in 1870, has long struggled not so much with its identity as with the concept of itself as a single unit working toward common goals. It has been central to the formation of the European Union, and after the destruction of World War II, built itself with uncommon energy to regain a place in the global economy. But distrustful of authority after centuries of decentralized and often arbitrary rule, Italians tend to feel loyalty locally: to region or town or, most commonly, to the family itself.

The fragmentation has revealed itself in politics. Since World War II, more than 60 governments have risen and fallen, and politicians have had little success in winning agreement on structural changes to make government work better and keep a once-robust economy growing.

Amid a marked economic slowdown in recent years, many Italians have described their frustration at the lack of change with no clear model in sight as a malaise. Still, Italy’s 58 million people enjoy one of the world’s highest standards of living, and the nation remains a gold standard for fashion, high-end cars and motorcycles, furniture, tourism, design and food.

Italy is also home to the Vatican city-state, the center of the Roman Catholic church for nearly 2,000 years. In 2005, after the death of the popular and long-serving Pope John Paul II, the German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Stagnant Economy

Since the economic crisis began, Italy has regularly turned up on the informal list of Nations That Worry Europe. While its finances are not as precarious as those of Greece, Portugal or Ireland, because it is far larger — the Italian economy is the seventh largest in the world — its troubles are more frightening. As a recent report by UniCredit, a European banking group, put it, Italy is “the swing factor” in the crisis, “the largest of the vulnerable countries, and most vulnerable of the large.”

Public sector debt amounts to roughly 119 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product, nearly identical to Greece. And like Greece, Italy is trying to ease fears in the euro zone and elsewhere with an austerity package, one intended to cut the deficit in half, to 2.7 percent of G.D.P., by 2012.

But there are differences. The Italians, unlike the Greeks, are born savers, and much of the Italian debt is owned by the Italians. That means that unlike Greece, which will be sending a sizable percentage of its G.D.P. to foreign creditors for a generation to come, Italy is basically in hock to its own citizens.

To understand why so much of Italy, is stagnant or worse, requires a bit of geopolitical history and a look at the highly idiosyncratic Italian business culture. It is defined, to a large degree, by deep-seated mistrust — not just of the government, but of anyone who isn’t part of the immediate family — as well as a widespread aversion to risk and to growth that to American eyes looks almost quaint.

It has economists worried not about a looming fiasco so much as a gradual, grinding decline of Italy’s economy.

Economists see a country with a service sector dominated by innumerable guilds, which don’t just overcharge but also raise the barriers to entry for the millions in ill-fated manufacturing jobs who might otherwise find work as, for instance, taxi drivers. They see a timid entrepreneur class. They see a political system in the thrall of the older voters who want to keep what they have, even if it dooms the nation to years of stasis.

They see a society whose best and brightest are leaving and not being replaced by immigrants, because Italy has so little upward mobility to offer.

The Debt Crisis

Italy’s borrowing costs rose in late July 2011 almost a full percentage point from a month before at an auction of 10-year bonds, to the highest rate in more than a decade, in another troubling sign that the latest rescue package for the euro zone had not eased investors’ concerns.

The country appeared to be headed toward a vicious cycle — if the interest rates it paid rose too high, its debt would become unaffordable, a prospect that was leading the market to push up interest rates. In response, on Aug. 7, the European Central Bank said it would “actively implement” its bond-buying program to address “dysfunctional market segments,” a statement interpreted as a sign that it will intervene to prevent borrowing costs for Italy and Spain from growing unsustainable.

Scrambling to fend off a crisis, the Italian government on Aug. 12 approved $65 billion in additional emergency austerity measures over the next two years, including tax increases and cuts to local government in an effort to balance the budget by 2013. But that plan began to unravel at the beginning of September, when it was subject to so much backtracking and political wrangling that European leaders raised the pressure on Italy to deliver as promised.

The Italian Senate delivered on Sept. 7, passing a package that would trim 54 billion euros ($76 billion) to balance the budget by 2013, according to the Finance Ministry. To ensure passage after weeks of bitter political fights, the center-right government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resorted to a confidence vote in the Senate, meaning that a majority “no” vote would have not only scuttled the bill, but also brought down the government. The measures passed 165 to 141.

On Sept. 14, Italy’s lower house gave final approval to a $74 billion austerity plan, giving a boost to the weak government, which won a confidence vote on the plan earlier in the day.