The "young" Italy 150 years after the unification we have reached the 150th anniversary of ' national unity. There has been much discussed this event in recent weeks, some have even said that there would be no need to celebrate, others were more likely to pay homage to our country red marking this day on the calendar.
I have no intention to enter into controversy about the March 17, 2011, especially after what happened five days ago throughout Italy. For your (and also for my) luck, I will not go into talks of this type. Today I would rather express a concept ...
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| Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League. |
L ' Italy is a young state it is a country that has become politically that just 150 years ago, before that was a patchwork of small states more or less independent nation-states and neighbors such as France, Germany ol ' England, had become such for some centuries. say "politically" because I am convinced that in many ways that identity has not been completed on the social or, in other words, I am convinced that the ' Italy has been a , but that has not become a nation all effects: c ' is still a little something to put in place on that plane. Not else can you explain why even today, in 2011, some minority of ignorant feel insults fly as specific and tailored "Southerner" to the inhabitants of southern Italy, or why there is such a thing as the Northern League one of the main policy objectives are explicitly stated, is federalism (in the face of ' units!). Things like these show that we have the ' identity as a people is not quite 100% complete, and this is understandable, because as I said, we are a young nation, we must give us time.
Furthermore, our particular unit was compared with that of other European countries: in many of those cases ' national identity was formed first of that policy, which came first then the people and the political state. Take the case of France, just to give you an example: not so much by the dynasties Carolingian, but certainly from the Hundred Years War against ' England (and we are in the Middle Ages) the French people have had good reasons to uncover "united" . In that case, the glue that held together the "subjects" was the common enemy to fight, which had prompted the French to work side by side, to put aside differences, as well c 'were , and to discover close to each other. After that 'secular episode, after much blood and many wars, it was obvious that the French still feel more French ... Revolution up to the eighteenth century, whose motto was, indeed, " Liberté, égalité, fraternité " , ie " Liberty, equality, fraternity " . The French state was born because there ' was already a people who felt the French nation.
In our case, however, things were different. We preferred to remain independent: in ' age of the municipalities (in the late Middle Ages) c ' were the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic Florence, the Kingdom of Naples ... and everyone was keen to remain independent from the power of ' Germanic Empire and, indeed, often many of these small states were organized in real leagues where one of them tried to expand too much on its own domain: any attempt to unite under a common banner various social identities were repressed, as a pathogen that is attacked by antibodies of a body just takes a chance to spread a ' infection. This way of conceiving social life has remained strong for many centuries and, for heaven's sake, I do not blame him, because after the fall of 'd Roman Empire' s West ' Italy was left completely at the mercy of itself, had to start from scratch and it is obvious that if there was no strong central government and this people will be held in closed cores.
But in all this fragmentation of the Italian socio-cultural aspects are also positive, and I mean all ' huge (and enviable) rich cultural identity of the various regional dialects, the dishes Typically, the festivities of this or that city, the traditions and folk songs, the artistic and architectural heritage ... This no doubt makes ' Italy an' explosion of microculture which, incidentally, has always attracted millions of foreigners every day is something very charming and a great pride.
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| Cenotaph of Dante Alighieri. Florence, Basilica of Santa Croce . On the left, with turreted crown, Italy presents the Great Poet to the public and to the right bent on empty coffin, mourning the death poetry of the poet, who stands at the top bare-chested. |
Positives and negatives, so. And yet we must admit one thing, and here I come to the point: that while it is true that we are a young nation because we had a different history from other states and nations if it is true that young people need time to acquire a complete national identity, then we have to start somewhere! I do not mean that we must become a people locked and contemptuous of other cultures, absolutely not! I am not a chauvinist, I do not like the excess of patriotism that flows in contempt of foreign cultures, in fact, I consider myself very cosmopolitan in that sense because I like to open myself (and in fact I am interested) also what the rest of the world made beautiful. But you understand that I can not help but be proud of my country and what it was: yes, I think right. Do not exalt me \u200b\u200bwhen I can not turn my attention to everything that our country has given birth and still reverberates around the world, from the right (the ' invented by the Romans), all ' art (we have the highest percentage of world's art), literature (one name for all: Dante Alighieri) ... and we could go on for very long in this list!
I am very proud of my country, I am very proud of what did my ancestors, I am so happy to be a child of this and always will be. Therefore, since we are in a process of maturation and national as we have good reasons, then I think it was right to pay particular attention to this day, because I consider it a step further towards that ' goal. That's why I'm not getting maudlin turn my congratulations to the Italians, good and bad, right and left, north and south, the ' wish for that past that we boast beautiful, but also ' hope that in future we can people become more faithful in the sense of the word.
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| "The flag of the Republic is the Italian flag: green, white and red, in three vertical bands of equal size." ( Constitution, Article 12) |
