Originally Posted by Perche

This gets into hot territory. I don't know when the first palm trees arrived to the Duomo in Milan, but I know that they were not there when Mussolini took over. He planted palm trees in front of the Duomo, of course not native to Northern Italy, as a symbol of how fascists conquered palm tree covered North African countries. They came down after that nightmare ended.

In order to get extremely coveted store front place in front of the Duomo in Milan, a competition was held a few years ago, and Starbucks won. There were over 300 stores that competed and Starbucks won by promising to plant not only palm trees, but also banana trees. This set off a cultural storm.

The world knows that there is an immigration crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Northern Africa in scanty, over-crowded boats. As in the USA, in Italy there is a lot of talk about immigration. I am definitely staying apolitical on this. I'm just reporting. What I'm hearing is that Starbucks won the competition for the spot on the Duomo by promising to plant non-native North African palm and banana trees to make immigrants feel wanted, as if they were still home. The opposition party responded with the slogan, "What will they do next? Bring camels and monkeys to the Duomo?" Again, I'm just reporting. I can't tell you how many times I've been confronted about politics in the USA since I've been here. I'm just saying, similar debates are going on over here.