In the past years I've been living in a country situated in what we "superdeveloped, globalized western people" usually call "the south of the world", or "the third world". Thus, every time I mentioned that I am from Italy, local people used to open their mouth and their eyes wide, then to praise the beauty of my country, to claim how culturally close we are, and finally they used to tell me: "how I wish I could move to Italy and live all my life there!".
Just because my country is situated a little bit more northern, some people used to feel "under" in every aspect. That is something that could have influenced friendhsip, love, food shopping, sharing the sit on the train. That' why, every time, I had to crush their expectations, explaining that in my country there is no real democracy, that my grandfather used to work in the countryside, that my mother doesn't allow me to sleep in my bedroom with a guy, that streets are dirty and crowded. I managed to convince them so well that in the end they believed that I was born in Shubra or Imbaba. (the most local and overcrowded areas in Cairo).
This time I took the opposite direction. Norway, the further North. Every time I say I am from Italy and Napoli, local people start to laugh. The first thing they ask me is if Gomorra is a fantasy movie. When I tell them that it is a documentary, they reply: "I feel so sorry for you". They know about the garbage problem, Berlusconi's escorts, that Cicciolina was a porno actress and is now member of the Parliament, that the typical Italian man stays with his mother until his late thirties. They usually say: "I can't understand how Italy is so messed up and people still go on normally" or "You have a beautiful history but a miserable present" or "It must be a beautiful country but I would never live there.". I feel so embarassed, as if I'm carrying all the shit produced by my government. I have to say something to defend my country, so I tell them about the sun, the food, the beaches, the museums. I manage to convince them so well that in the end they say: "Yes, I might go to Rome for a couple of days in the summer."
One more example: today I took part to a critical mass in Oslo. (mass protest on the bike). In my home town we used to do it to protest against the local governement, the school reform, the unemployment. That was for global warming. Global, and I say global, warming.
Conclusion: The more northern you go, the more you feel low-down.
Teresa, thank god we have Pupo... they have Burzum. Stay proud, italy may be worse than norway, but you aren't worse than norvegians at all. They just dropped in a good place when they were born. You struggled to be where you are and despite gomorra, cicciolina, silviuccio and the waste down in via cucci, you are there. Could they have achieved the same starting from italy? :)
ReplyDeleteI liked it.. that's a good way of capturing the stereotypes of north-south mutual images.
ReplyDeleteThere is a fictional book I love called "the Season of Northern Immigration" by the Sudanese writer El-Tayb Saleh. It depicts parts of the illusions we people of south have about Europe.
In my first encounter with the west, I felt that I have no single true idea about that part of the world. Many ideas changed and new ideas established that tells the imagined north of the southern people is not better than the illusive South the northern people created.
it seems this will remain for ever. ciao