Mario’s Family History & Profile

Mario was born 14 June 1968, in the middle of winter. He shares a birthday with a diverse range of characters including Burl Ives, Boy George and Karl Alzheimer (the discoverer of the disease no named after him). June 14 was also the day that Paris fell to the Nazi’s in 1940. It was on this same day – 14 June 1968 – that Salvatore Quasimodo died. He was the only Italian to win the Nobel Prize for literature!

One of his parent’s was born in Italy, and the other was born in Australia, from Irish extraction. Mario’s father grew up in Avezzano in Northern Italy, about two hours from Rome. His mother was born in Dapto, and one of her parents comes from Kangaroo Valley, and her mother was born in Bowral.

Mario’s maternal grandfather grew working on the rail network throughout NSW, laying tracks. He moved from Kangaroo Valley to Oak Flats after getting married, and was one of the original settlers in Oak Flats. His paternal grandfather worked on farms, experiencing country life in Italy. Mario’s father lost his mother during childbirth, when he was only 4 years old. So Mario’s grandfather was responsible for bringing up the children.

When Mario’s father migrated to Australia in 1960, his father (Mario’s grandfather) died five years later. When he came to Australia, he worked in labouring roles in the building industries.

Early in his life, Mario experienced a near drowning experience in the bath, when he was 2 or 3 years old. He is now deaf in one ear, probably as a result of this accident. He also experienced childhood epilepsy, also probably related to the accident in the bath.

When he was legally able to attend school, he had to go to the Para Meadows Special School in Wollongong, which was the only school on the area that had the facilities for children who had some forms of disability, such as epilepsy. Public schools at the time did not have the facilities to handle children with epilepsy or other severe disabilities. Nor were such facilities available in the private school sector.

Mario left school at the age of about 16 years, as soon as he was legally able to. At Para Meadows, the school did not have the same year divisions as is common in other schools. Nor did the school offer public examinations such as the School Certificate. Due to this limited educational opportunities, Mario’s literacy and numeracy levels were not up to scratch, or to the standard levels of the time.

About the same time as Mario left school, his mother’s father died of a massive heart attack, whilst coming home from a wedding. He had Diabetes and was going blind in one eye. If he had survived, he would now be totally blind. His Diabetes came late in life. He had most of his toes removed, and used to tell Mario that the Galah’s had taken them.

A couple of days before he died, Mario was visiting him in Oak Flats Home, and took a photo of him on a chair, and then he died a few days later. The day he died, Mario’s grandfather rang the family, excited about going to the wedding that night, and then he died that night.

When he left school, Mario was employed at Greenacres for less than 6 months, which was all he could stand. Then Mario began TAFE and other training. But it was not until he was 30 that he began to undertake a lot more education courses. Undertaking the TAFE courses improved Mario’s literacy and numeracy skills. The more training he completed, the better he became, and the more able to learn.

Mario has two younger brothers. The second youngest has one son who is now 19 years old, and his youngest brother has a daughter who is about 13. Mario does not have any kids of his own.

Mario’s mother has two sisters, one of whom died many years ago. The sister died from Cancer about a year before Mario’s grandfather. The grandfather took this badly and never really got over his daughter’s death, until he died about a year later.

Mario has gained qualifications in many areas, such as:
· Certificates 2, 3 & 4 in Tourism
· Diploma of Tourism Operation Management
· Certificate 4 in Assessment Workplace Training
· Certificate 4 in Business
· Certificates 2, 3 & 4 in Retail
· Certificate 2 & 3 in Information Technology
He is presently studying:
· Certificate 4 in Web Site Design
· Diploma of Management
· Diploma of Media & Communication
· Advanced Diploma in Tourism Operation Management
· Certificate 4 Hospitality
· BA Undergraduate Degree specialising in Journalism from CQU
Most of Mario’s study has been carried out by distance education, although he has attended some face to face courses. Most of his current study is carried out on-line.

He has been involved in a number of business ventures, in areas such as film production, model management, retail, etc. Mario is currently creating web sites for on-line businesses that he will be a part of.
Mario enjoys country music, having grown up with an interest in country music from his mother’s family. This passion for Country music is shared by his mother, as well as his grandmother and grandfather, and his uncle and aunty and their children.

He remembers his grandfather singing Slim Dusty’s classic “The Pub with No Beer”, and since that time, Slim Dusty remains one of Mario’s favourite singers. Mario has many of Slim’s Albums, CD’s, Posters and other memorabilia. Mario has also attended many of his concerts before Slim’s death in 2003 after a long battle with cancer.

At the time of his death, Slim was working on another concert. He had been sick for many years, but kept performing for his fans. When Mario learnt of his idol’s death, he was distraught, and was throwing things and uncontrollable in his anger and grief. On the day of the funeral, Mario attended the funeral at St Anthony’s church in Sydney, along with his mother. As a State funeral, only invited members of the public and guests were allowed to attend, and Mario had to ring the State Government to ensure that he and his mother could attend.

With regards to Mario’s studies, he is hoping to gain suitable qualifications to gain employment in his choice of industry, in Australia or abroad. Mario is a shy person, who has difficulty in mixing well with people, who describes himself as a loner, who doesn’t have many friends. This is part of the motivation in studying, to be able to mix with others. He also uses the internet to chat on-line in chat rooms, with MSN, Yahoo, Face Book and My Space.

He is also stressing out about his age, and is increasingly concerned about his own mortality and health. The most important concern for Mario now is that, with all his study and other achievements, he wants to “settle down”, with a career, wife and children, and a steady life. The older he gets, he feels his “clock” winding down as it ticks away.

Look Out The Circus Is In Town

Here we go again. Political Finger Pointing at its very best. Wayne Swan has come out with the budget and it is exactly what we all expected. We now owe so much money I expect Large Russian Men to come around and break my knees.

I recently heard Mr. Turnbull say something along the lines of "What did you expect, they're Labor, you voted for them." You see Malcolm Turnbull thinks that Labor are the ones to blame for the thickset Russian knocking at his door. He seems to be ignoring the fact that, unless K-Rudd is a super-villian the likes of which the world has never seen, Labor couldn't possibly be responsible for the GLOBAL Economic Crisis (which due to our overuse of acronyms is now the GEC). You may notice 'global' spelt in capitals. This isn't because I accidentally bumped Caps Lock. It's because everybody in the world owes money, everybody has Burly Russians chasing them around with baseball bats. But Malcolm doesn't want to accept that. If he does it means he can't use it as his platform to get elected to President (we all know it's coming, the Republic of Australia).

And need I point out that the seeds of the GEC were planted a long, long time ago. Long before Kevin '07, and possibly even before Kevin '97.
But what can you do? Malcolm will always point fingers because he is a smarmy, sleazeball rich kid who is used to either getting what he wants or fobbing off the blame to the man-servant.

I will go down on record saying this: "Kevin Rudd will lose the next election, just as we come OUT of recession, and the Liberals will claim it was them who saved us. Then, in a few years time, we will go INTO recession just as RoboRudd gets re-elected, and the liberals will blame poor management by labor."
And how do I know this? Do I have a crystal ball? Tarot cards? Tea Leaves?

Nope. Just a history book. And history, as the saying goes, always repeats itself.