"Divorce Fair" Offers Italians Advice on Splitting Up

American culture proliferates in strange and unpredictable ways.

Sometimes that can be a good thing. Take Iran's so-dubbed Twitter Revolution, in which a highly tech-literate population used American-bred hacker and social-media technologies to raise their voices against Ahmadinejad's corrupt regime and stolen elections (and for American-style freedom of speech), always staying one step ahead of the government's attempts to e-silence them.

Sometimes, however, the spread of American mores can be...well, at best, perplexing. For example, is it a good or a bad thing that divorce in Italy is on the rise? Does it signal a loosening of the Vatican's medieval grip on Italian society, or a catastrophe for Italian family life and values?

The exhibitors at Italy's first ever divorce trade fair would most likely answer "neither." For them, it's an economic opportunity. Family lawyers, dating services, and real estate agents came together earlier this month to offer their services to Italian divorcées and future singles.

Although Italy's divorce and custody laws are loosening, the average divorce still takes up to five years, as compared with about a year for much of Europe. Just imagine the surveillance opportunities... Read the full article here.