LONDON - The Republic Day is not generally a moving experience for the Italian citizens, but there are nearly four million of them who at least can look at it from a special perspective: they are emigrants. Angry, nostalgic, polemic or whatever, they tend to have far stronger feelings about the 2th of June than those who remained, especially if they are young. “Are you joking?” says Liuba Mazzanti, 32, a physician-researcher in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, when asked if she feels some pride. “The Platonic Idea of this Republic could work, but the intermediaries that put it into concrete form are awful and unsuitable” she adds. What she mean is that she is not exactly proud of Italians politicians, and she is not the only one: “Sometimes I feel even ashamed of being Italian,” says Lorenzo Colombo, 35, musician and composer in Sydney. “That's when I think that most of the responsibility for the problems of our country rely on those that for three times have deliberately chosen a ludicrous political system.” Gabriella Soldati, working in international commerce in Valencia, feels “absolutely not” proud on the Republic Day, saying that “the Italian situation is tragicomical, and seen from the outside is even worse.”

Est-ce que l’Italie sera prête à accueillir « Mes illusions donnent sur la cour », premier roman d’un jeune écrivain de 18 ans, Sacha Sperling, pseudonyme sous lequel se cache, sans trop de mystère, le fils des réalisateurs français Diane Kurys et Alexandre Arcady? Cette œuvre, pour laquelle Einaudi a déjà acheté les droits de publication, a fait beaucoup parler de soi et de son auteur dans les critiques littéraires et dans les blogs de ses jeunes lecteurs en automne 2009 en France. L’éditeur et romancier Frédéric Beigbeder y a vu même un énième “Bonjour tristesse” de Françoise Sagan, à cause du succès foudroyant et du thème y développé : le récit d’une jeunesse dorée et désabusée de tout.

THE OPERA HOUSE - In these days The Metropolitan Opera of New York - which celebrated last March its 125th anniversary season, is the setting of La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini. The temple of bel canto, now located at the heart of the Lincoln Center, had though a particularly tormented history. The Opera House, built in 1883 and originally located in Broadway, was gutted by a fire in 1892. After rebuilding, in 1966 it was surprisingly declared unfit for use and then razed. Since then it is housed in the Lincoln Center. The imposing building welcomes artists and operagoers from all over the world with two extraordinary murals by Chagall; it can hold as many as 4,000 spectators, on different levels. The MET, as it is commonly called in the Big Apple, has recently come to the limelight thanks to an interesting and praiseworthy initiative: since the 2007/08 season, its managers have decided to allow the events being live televised; in this way, sitting in a room in one of the 600 cultural associations which supported this initiative around the world, it is possible to listen to music masterpieces immersed in the atmosphere of the Metropolitan Opera.

Speak truth to power is more than the simple book which about 20,000 Italian high school students found on their desk this year. May you shortly describe this initiative and the relevant choice made by the Province of Milan?
The manual is an important didactic tool in order to awaken and stimulate young people through interviews and stories of symbolic personalities committed with the defence and promotion of human rights and of the respect of law. The book made of 90 pages includes an introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a definition, with a short historical survey, of these rights. In addition, it contains resources and guides to in-depth research, general plans and exercises for discussions in class. In order to present to students universally-known subjects having a main character who is locally recognizable, each right is explained through the account of the lives of those people who defend human rights and through the identification of local “heroes” who distinguished themselves for their actions in that particular place. It is therefore an important tool for the education and formation of young people’s minds and souls: it helps us to break boundaries, barriers which we have inside ourselves, in order to promote those small acts of courage which, in our daily lives, converging towards the same target, can destroy history’s oppressions and wrongs. In the light of the above reasons the Province of Milan did not hesitate to contribute to the choice of this publication among the set of books for high schools.

À propos de la “caste” (du titre d’un livre très célèbre sur les coûts de la politique) et de ses privilèges, pouvez-vous nous dire quel est le montant de votre indemnité?
Le montant brut de mon indemnité est d’à peu près 85.000 Euros par an. Ce montant est le résultat de la réduction d’à peu près 10% établi par la loi financière précédente. L’indemnité, contrairement à celle attribuée aux membres du Parlement, ne donne aucun droit à un viager ou à une intégration de retraite à la fin de mon mandat.

                                               Par Eric Klinenberg