sabato 5 febbraio 2011 13

The pride of any citi-

zen lies noT only on

the National Anthem

of the country but also on the

flag.

This year we are celebrating

the anniversary of the union

of Italy as a single country

together with the choice of

the flag that represents the

country.

The ‘’Tricolore’’ came a

long way before becoming

definitively the national flag

of Italy, The Napoleonic

Wars witnessed the birth of

the flag, after which the

Savoy adopted it in the event

of the unification of Italy.

The Savoy charged the flag

with its shield right in the

middle and then it was the

emblem of the Kingdom of

Sardinia and later the Kin-

gdom of Italy in 1861. Ob-

viously the Royal Arms

were removed from the flag

when Italy became a repu-

blic in 1946. The unification

of Cispadane Republic and

the Transpadane Republc

becoming Cisalpine Repu-

blic was also a trace back to

the long ‘’journey’’ of the

‘’Tricolore’’ far back in

1797.

Lots of disputes and theories

on the meaning of the co-

lours; some say it was cho-

sen bearing in mind the

colours of military uniform

of that period of time, some

scholars said the green

means ‘’hope’’, the white

‘’faith’’ and the red ‘’cha-

rity’’ while some even went

more romantic and patriotic

saying that the green is for

the hills, the white is for the

mountains and the red for

the bloody wars of indepen-

dence. I will rather leave this

for the historians to clarify.

Yes, we are celebrating the

150th anniversary of the

unity of Italy and at the same

time none of us can really

say that this country is to-

tally united. This is a country

that runs on two rails: the

north and the south. The

‘’mezzogiorno’’ lacking be-

hind in just about every-

thing. Right from the quality

of life to the prices of com-

modities, a deep social di-

vide between the two

‘’Italies’’. The very clean

and glittering Verona com-

pared to the filthy and rub-

bish perfumed Napoli. The

beautiful infrastructures (air-

ports, railways etc) of the

north and the ‘’calabro lu-

marca’’ snail and sluggish

railway of the south. The

Freccia Rosa gets to Venice

in less than 4hours while it

will take you a whole night

to get from Rome to Sicily.

The smooth running and

comfortable high ways of

the north compared to the

never ending works on Sa-

lerno-Reggio Calabria . The

high concentration of the in-

tercontinental flights out of

the country mainly from Mi-

lano Malpensa, Verona and

Bologna airports against the

short haul flights of Bari Pa-

lese and Napoli Capodi-

chino. Talk less of the

‘’Islanders’’ who are totally

isolated from the rest of the

world.

The whole economy and fi-

nance of the country is based

in the north of the country.

When you tell your friends

and relatives abroad that you

live in the south they cork

their head in an angle and

look at you with a sense of

pity. ‘’Poor guy, he lives in

the south of Italy’’.

The northerners blame the

government officials and

politicians of the south for

fund mis-management. The

southerners blame the nor-

therners for exploitation of

the resources of the south in

excange for peanuts.The

truth is probably in the mid-

dle.

o, where is this unity of Italy

if some political parties have

built their success on the se-

cession of the country into

two. How can we fully talk

about unity when there is a

large difference in income of

people doing the same job in

north compared to their

counterpart in the south?

So the southerners are not

having the same services and

infrastructures their brothers

and sisters are enjoying in

the north. And when they do

migrate to the north they are

not usually able to adapt mo-

stly because they are not re-

ally welcome and sometimes

discriminated at. Just think

of the provocative proposal

made by a northern political

party asking for the people

from the south to take nor-

thern dialect test before get-

ting a job claiming that the

southerners should ‘’adapt’’

to their land.

But at the face of it all, not-

withstanding all these diffe-

rences between the south

and the north the national

government think that a fish

monger in the south earns as

much as his counterpart in

the in the north and thus

apply the same parameter of

minimum earnings to both.

And such is the regime of ta-

xations. The same gover-

nment admits that the south

is poorer and needs help and

so they always promise help

for ‘’mezzogiorno’’. If the

government admits that the

south is poorer then why use

the same parameter in mea-

suring their income? It is

simply ridiculous.

Who knows, may be out

great grand children will be

able to celebrate the ‘’Unità

d’Italia’’ in a proper way wi-

thout feeling any complex of

inferiority to the northerners

and living a balanced social,

economic and political life.

Until then……..Enjoy.

A cura del

professor

Larry Adeyanju

“Anglo-School”

Potenza

150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNITY OF ITALY

DISPONIBILE PRESSO LA SEDE DI VIA N: SAURO 90 IL NUOVO TARIFFARIO DI RIFERIMENTO PER L’ESECUZIONE DI OPERE

PUBBLICHE  EDIZIONE 2010 GRATUITO PER TUTTI I PROFESSIONISTI DEL SETTORE ISCRITTI AGLI ORDINI COMPETENTI