| Biswo |
Posted
on 15-Nov-00 03:33 AM
ROME: Be it Bush or Gore, whoever turns out the winner of the ongoing US presidential election will find a letter from one Fernanda Alessandrini, a resident of Rome, Italy, awaiting him on his first day at the White
House. Signora Alessandrini may be 86, but she is more than willing to fight
for what she claims is rightfully hers - a piece of the moon.
As far back as September, the Rome resident dispatched details of her claim to
the outgoing US President, Bill Clinton, as well as UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.
Thirty years ago, in July 1969, when the crew
of the first manned space mission touched
down and Neil Armstrong proudly planted the
stars and stripes on earth's nearest neighbour,
piano teacher Alessandrini was among the
millions around the world captivated by the
event. A romantic at heart and with the cold
war showing no signs of abating, her dreams
were of castles not in the air, but on the moon.
When she later came across the American
firm Celestial Garden, a Florida-based
operation flogging real estate marked on a
NASA map of the lunar surface, Alessandrini
leaped at the chance and bought a couple of
plots for her two sons, Giancarlo and Vittorio.
However, in 1997 she awoke from her dream
with a start when, reading through an
American magazine, she by chance discovered
that one Dennis Hope was doing a roaring
trade selling more lunar land and that Jimmy
Carter and Tom Cruise had already bought
themselves a place among the stars. Hope's
entrepreneurial ingenuity knew no bounds
he had even gone so far as to establish a lunar
embassy.
On further inquiry, Alessandrini was surprise
to find that Hope's portfolio of products
stretched to include the very same plots she
had bought so long ago and had registered
them with the ''universal lunar land
developments register''. Not only is the
original customer now suing for fraud, but her
sons believe they smell big business in moon
real estate.
Dennis hope, on the hand, insists he is the sole
owner of the whole of the lunar surface,
having laid claim to it under the terms of the
Homestead Act of 1862 some 20 years ago.
Fernanda Alessandrini's lawyers have already
demanded Hope's company drop its claim and
have sent copies of their correspondence to the
US President and the UN Secretaray General,
leaving the next American president with the
weighty task of a making a final ruling. Who
owns the moon? Fernanda Allessandrini
waits her answer in Rome.(DPA)
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