Perth Voice Interactive

THE kids at the Italian Australian Child Care Centre are from countries as far flung as Norway, Canada, Japan, the US and of course…Italy.

And quite a few of the kids are second generation.

“Parents who were here as children are now bringing in their own children,” centre coordinator Assunta Martella says.

Child care is central, but a close second is learning Italian with fun “mat sessions” and language-based games and songs.

“It helps the English vocabulary because of its Latin roots…like fantastic and fantastico,” Martella says.

The child care centre was established in 1972 and offers a fully- accredited bilingual (Italian-English) service for children aged from eighteen months to six years old.

The kindergarten program is in line with the education department curriculum.

“We teach maths and science, about the environment, and handwriting,” Martella says.

A herb and vegetable garden makes lunch a learning experience too, with the affectionately-named cook Nonna Maria, gardening with the kids.

“I show them what we are going to eat today…which encourages more of them to eat,” she says.

Parents are stoked with the centre and the menu.

“Nonna Maria’s food is amazing and [my daughter] Lucia never stops talking about the pasta,” says mother of two students, Ms O’Toole.

“My family is Italian so the girls are learning Italian and this is an added bonus! Hearing them sing Ciao Buongiorno when they get home warms my heart!”

by JENNY D’ANGER

COMEDY and opera will mesh in ear-shattering harmony when DivaLicious perform at this year’s Italo-Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre ball.

The ball brings the week-long Italian festival to an end and Penny Shaw and Fiona Cooper Smyth from DivaLicious are looking forward to performing their James Bond spoof Licenced to Trill, an operatic cat fight where they try to out- sing each other.

With voices powerful enough to shatter chandeliers, they’ll be belting out a mix of opera and pop in a show that promises dressing-room gossip and Hollywood glamour.

But what does it have to do with the Italian festival?

“It’s opera, so everything we do has an Italian flair,” Shaw says.

The ball is on Sunday June 3 in the Golden Ballroom of the  Pan Pacific Perth Hotel. There’ll be great toe-tapping music to kick things off at 6.30pm with crowd favourites Scorpio.

by JENNY D’ANGER

DEMENTIA sufferer Biagio Pezzimenti has forgotten most of the English he learned after arriving in WA some 55 years ago, but he hasn’t forgotten the Italian card game from his youth.

The highlight of his day is playing briscola with the Sergio Gustinetti, an aged care worker at the Italo/Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre.

“He’s a good player and usually wins,” Gustinetti says.

Biagio’s wife Angelina struggled to care for her husband on her own and she found the home visits from the Italian-speaking aged care workers a perfect fit.

“They give him a shower and shave and take him for little walks,” she says.

“They keep him happy and entertained. If he’s happy, I’m happy.”

Mrs Pezzimenti arrived in Fremantle as a 17 year old, after travelling from her Italian village and enduring 22 days of sea sickness.

She only made it to the dining room on the boat once and pretty much ate dry bread and fruit the whole voyage.

Mr Pezzimenti trained as a tailor in Italy, but hated it and once in Australia worked for Main Roads.

His wife on the other hand loved sewing and with no formal training worked for a number of garment manufacturers around Perth.

“I took over and did all the sewing…for 23 years.”

Mr Pezzimenti’s carer, Gustinetti, has worked at the aged care centre for eight years. He’s knocked back opportunities to move up the corporate ladder because he loves the hands-on work with his elderly clients.

Hailing from northern Italy he’s had to learn the dialects of the south, and it was two years before he discovered that an affectionate nickname from one elderly lady actually meant donkey: “Or more correctly an ass,” he says with a laugh.

The centre’s ICare Community Aged Services was launched in 2005 to meet the increasing demand from elderly people in the Italian-Australian communities.

by JENNY D’ANGER

THE Italo-Australian Welfare & Cultural Centre was set up more than 60 years ago to help Italian migrants settle into their new home and maintain their cultural heritage.

These days the centre also has a social welfare program for women and youths that includes counselling, support services for people with diabetes, a child care centre and Italian language classes in schools.

Aimed at promoting Italian culture, the cultural centre’s annual festival kicks off on Saturday May 26 with a pasta and porchetta night at the Vasto Club Casa D’Abruzzo in Balcatta.

UWA’s Dr Carlo Peressini is going back to basics with a talk on “mechanical weeding in large scale cropping” at the centre’s headquarters on Fitzgerald Street on Sunday May 27.

The Italian smash-hit comedy L’Ora Legale (It’s the Law) is on at Cinema Paradiso on Monday May 28, and the Corsini Collection at the WA Art Gallery will form a glittering backdrop for a networking evening on Tuesday May 29.

The winners of the annual sweets and wine competitions will be revealed on Wednesday May 30 at the Italian Club, and learn how to make pasta like nonna at the North Perth Town Hall on Friday June 1.

The week’s events come to a glittering close with the Italian National Gala Ball on Sunday June 3.

But before the party, the Messa Della Repubblica–an Italian mass celebrating the foundation of the Italian Republic in 1946 will be held at St Kieran Catholic Church in Tuart Hill at 10.15am.

MOST people choose burial or cremation as part of their funeral arrangements, but a little more left-field approach offered by an Australian foundation is to have your brain removed and cryogenically frozen.

For nearly a decade the Neural Archive Foundation has been offering Aussies the deep-freeze option in the hope that one day scientists will be able to upload their memories, or even their entire consciousness, into a computer or artificial being so they can exist in virtual reality.

For a $35,000 “donation” the foundation will store your grey matter indefinitely, although the website flags other fees such as funeral directors for the rest of the body; it wasn’t clear if you’d have to pay for your own surgeon to remove the brain.

So far at least 10 Australians have their brain stored in “high-quality, medical grade, cryogenic storage” facilities across the country courtesy of NAF.

“For security and privacy reasons we do not identify which tissues are stored with which organisations but reports from the independent organisation that audits us are available on request,” says NAF’s website.

According to the foundation’s charter, experiments on the brain are prohibited, while Australian law prohibits trade in human tissue.

NAF executive director Philip Rhoades, 66, is a former biomedical researcher and has been working part-time on a PhD on population genetics for several years.

He froze his parents’ brains after they died within 10 days of each other in 2016 and says they will provide a “time capsule” for their descendants and historical posterity.

If waking up as a virtual simulation makes you a bit squeamish, full-body cryonics might be more your style, though it will entail a trip to the US. You’ll also need some spare cash on hand; it costs $35,000 to prepare a cadaver for shipping and a one-off payment of up to $200,000 to be placed on ice.

Most people pay for the service via an insurance policy, with US organisations Cryonics Institute and Alcor the main destinations.

Mr Rhoades is also an executive officer of the the Cryonics Association of Australasia, a non-profit organisation helping Australasians navigate the logistics of getting their dead body to a US cryonics facility.

He knows of at least eight Aussies who have been shipped to the US to be stored. Eventually the CAA wants to act as a self-regulatory authority for any cryonics facilities in Australia.

That may become a reality, with Southern Cryonics planning to open a facility in Holbrook in NSW.

However in September last year the company said it was reviewing its options and “considering scaling back the requirements, obtaining more funds, or both” after quotes tendered to built the facility were higher than expected.

“We can’t be sure how long the changes will take, though, so we don’t currently have an expected opening date,” the company said
in a release.

The Voice contacted Southern Cryonics for an update, but no one got back to us.

Many scientists are adamant cryogenics is a waste of money, arguing it’s impossible to bring someone back to life.

But where there’s a glimmer of hope, people will continue to look for that elusive elixir for immortality.

Receiving a diagnosis of dementia is not something people plan for, and it can be an overwhelming experience. It’s important to know there are services and support available.

After a diagnosis, some people don‘t know where to turn. They may not have access to the right information, feel isolated and alone, or feel unsure how to access supports and services that may benefit them.

Alzheimer’s WA recognises how difficult this time can be and is here to guide people diagnosed with dementia, and their families, through the wide range of services that are available. Accessing support as early as possible can help improve symptoms and slow down progression of the disease. It can also help the person and their family accept the diagnosis and prepare for the journey ahead.

No one should face dementia alone. With support, it is possible to live well with dementia.

If you are concerned about dementia, contact Alzheimer’s WA on 1300 66 77 88
or visit alzheimerswa.org.au

Did you know that there’s a quick and easy test to determine your risk of heart attack? A coronary calcium score scan can detect coronary artery disease long before it becomes symptomatic. It’s completed in little longer than one breath hold. It uses a very low dose CT scan and doesn’t need any injection of contrast material associated with other more complex CT investigations. It is a quick, easy, safe, accessible and inexpensive test to check for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). It is ideally suited to patients with no symptoms, who have been identified as having some risk of CVD.

The target groups for coronary calcium score typically include the following individuals: Low risk on risk calculation with a family history, Intermediate risk on risk calculation and Low risk women.

A zero calcium score is associated with a very low risk for an event (0.11% annual event rate) whereas a high calcium score (>400) puts the patient at high risk. If you think you might benefit from this investigation discuss it with your doctor at your next visit.

Perth Radiological Clinic offers the coronary calcium scan at the following clinics in your area – Subiaco, Nollamara and Morley.

Visit www.perthradclinic.com.au for more information.