International Women’s Day: Mimosa this!

I don’t know how much attention is paid elsewhere to International Women’s Day, but in Venice it’s “let a thousand mimosas bloom” day.  The usual illegal street vendors are everywhere, there are sprigs and bouquets in the supermarkets and bars, little yellow balls all over the place, even on the tops of voluptuous chocolate cakes in the pastry shop down the street.  It’s as if the entire world woke up and said “MUST. HAVE. MIMOSA.”

But this year some women’s groups in 70 Italian cities decided that flowers and even voluptuous chocolate once a year weren’t enough to draw attention to the plight of women.  And plights there are, everywhere you look.  Ironically, though, these advocates added a honking big plight yesterday to their sisters’ everyday burdens by calling a general 24-hour transit strike.  On the mainland this inconvenience would be bad enough; in Venice it’s madness.  A woman who had to get to work, or to her university classes, or to the hospital for some reason, was compelled to re-shape her day in drastic and, possibly, financially negative ways.  As in, “I can’t get to work today.”  Or at least “I’m coming in early,” or “late,” or “half a day,” or something inconvenient.

Their objective was to focus the world’s attention on women’s rights (lack of) and violence against women (super-abundance of). Right there with you; I just don’t see how slicing and dicing the day of hundreds of women is going to help.

For the record, I note that buses and vaporettos were scheduled to operate in the usual “protected phases” of 6:00 – 8:59 AM and 4:30 – 7:29 PM.  This sounds good, but these numbers need to be decoded.  The “until” time indicates when the vaporetto will be back at home base, which is usually pretty far from wherever you’re standing.  That makes sense, of course — the pilot isn’t going to stop his vehicle at 8:59 in the middle of the Grand Canal and put everybody ashore.

Take the 5.1 as an example: If you’re at the train station heading toward the Lido, in order to be at the Lido before 8:59 means your last chance to board is at 8:04.  Same with the return; the afternoon run begins at 4:30 at the Lido, so if you’re at Rialto trying to get to Piazzale Roma (A) you should just walk it, for heaven’s sake, you can make it in 20 minutes, or (B) take the #1 which leaves the Lido at 4:32 and reaches Rialto at 5:15 PM and Ple. Roma at 5:37.  I suppose transit strikes work this way everywhere, but if you have the option of taking a taxi or an Uber or a friend with a car or a bike, you don’t have to make these calculations the way we have to do in Venice.  While you’re waiting, are you thinking about violence against women?  Possibly not.

As for mimosa nosegays, some illegal vendors acquire the blossoms by stripping the trees in private gardens, or wherever a tree may be found that isn’t guarded by armed vigilantes.  Some people woke up to discover their mimosa trees standing there naked.

What is my conclusion?  I have none, except to suggest that everyone try not to make women’s lives any more complicated or even perilous than they already are.  That would be a start.  You can do it even without a placard.