Beginning a column on Politics and current affairs in this period, how can we avoid talking about it? We've tried resisting, almost self-imposing a silence about the whole affair, but it's impossible. Once again we have a government with Berlusconi and the Lega (Northern League). We’ll soon find ourselves, quietly eating an ice-cream in a bar, and the television will be showing pictures of our premier, the man who will be representing us abroad for the next five years: Silvio Berlusconi. And we'll be there, dumbfounded, letting the ice-cream drip between our fingers, thinking that it isn’t, can't, be true.
Those who, like us, dedicate their work to spreading knowledge of the Italian language and culture, often encounter prejudices and stereotypes in the image people abroad have of the typical Italian citizen.
The first, almost immediate stereotype represents us as vulgar people, (cheerful beyond good taste; without regard; coarse in our manner of speaking or behaving), who by the way of waving our hands, by the volume of our voices and by the noise we make when speaking can us immediately be recognised throughout the world. And us saying in the classes at Koinè: no, you're wrong, Italians are often shy, introverted, silent. Just think of Giacomo Leopardi. Then along he comes, Silvio, and makes a V-sign in the group photograph of European ministers or shoots at a Russian journalist, mimicking a machine-gun, beside his friend Putin.
The second is of the short Italian. Everyone still sees us as the Sicilian immigrant at the turn of the century, the children of generations of hungry families, maximum height around one metre sixty-five or like “little Caesar”, the Italo-American mafia criminal, always sitting on a higher seat than his fellow-diners. And us in the classes saying, no, you're wrong- Italians now descend from generations of overeating, we've grown in height, we're among the best basketball players in the world and in any case height is no longer seen as a problem. And what does he do ? Wears shoes with false insteps, won’t have his picture taken beside his taller colleagues and always has himself filmed by his television channels with the lens pointing upwards, stands on his tiptoes when he comes off the plane and tries to show everyone that he's a politician of “high standing”.
The third is of the Italian who doesn't speak any foreign languages. There's us in the classes speaking English, French, German, showing figures on how the new generations know at least two foreign languages. Then he appears before Bush and talks like Totò in “miss mia cara miss”, congratulating himself on the pathetic compliments received from his American counterpart.
The fourth is of the Italian who has no sense of civic duty and avoids paying taxes. We spend rivers of words convincing our foreign students that the situation has changed radically. Italians now have a well-developed sense of civic duty, a different and more positive concept of the State. They understand the importance of paying and making people pay taxes in a modern state. Then he goes and declares in a press conference that in Italy people pay too much tax and that it's understandable if a citizen tries to corrupt a tax official to try and pay less.
The fifth is of the Italian as a Mafioso. Our teachers explain with pride and enthusiasm that Italians have changed their attitude towards the Mafia that they no longer try to hide it, justify it and defend it. Then he declares, right in the middle of an election campaign, that one of his previous employees, convicted to three life sentences for various murders and Mafia crimes, should be considered a hero.
But we're getting too serious and taking the opposite direction to what this column was intended as. So, let's ask ourselves and you some questions: who's got the wrong idea of us Italians, us or Berlusconi ? How far does he represent us ? What is the current image of the Italian abroad ?
