Photos by Guido Fuà, National Geographic Italia.
words by Katia Amore and Silvia Donati
What is the future of Italy?
This question seems to be the subject of many newspaper editorials lately, including one by Italian journalist Beppe Severgnini, published on The New York Times, titled “Italy: The Nation That Crushes Its Young.”
Since the future of a country depends on its younger generations, Severgnini wonders what will happen to Italy in the next decades. In his editorial he points the finger at his generation, Italy's post-war generation, who refuses to step aside to let the young get to work. “I’ve taken to calling us the Generazione Pitone, the Python Generation,” Severgnini writes. “We refuse to give ground, and instead slither forward and ingest everything in our path. We have stamina. We are selfish. […] And now that we’re getting old and retiring, we cost plenty.”
Many political analists and financial experts, before Severgnini, have been debating about the way Italy's current gerontocracy is locking the young out of the country's economy and politcs, pointing out that the country's intergenerational conflict might strongly determine its future.
And even National Geographic magazine (October issue - Italian edition) looks at Italy's youth. But while the current political debate in Italy focuses on the possibility to grant citizenship to children born in Italy of immigrant parents, they publish an article on the increasing number of mixed couples in Italy and their children, to some 'different looking' Italians.
According to the report, births of mixed-coupled children have increased 22% in the last few years and are expected to keep rising. There are currently 600,000 mixed couples living in Italy, while 20 years ago, in 1991, there were just 65,000.
We talked to freelance war journalist, Barbara Schiavulli, author of the National Geographic's article, and asked her what surprised her the most while researching this story: “What stuns me every time is when I listen to people, above all teenagers who still have problems with racism. How people can still attack someone for the color of their skin or their religion is out of my comprehension. I blame Italy for not being able to open a real discussion about racism. Indifference is worse than ignorance.”
She also shared her personal experience, her papà is from Udine and her mamma from Trinidad and Tobago, and talked about growing up in Italy as a mixed child in the '80s: “It was a challenge. You can choose what side you belong. Or you can decide to be both. To fuse yourself with the cultures that make you the person that you are. I 've never thought to be half Italian and half Caribbean, I've always felt I had two worlds inside of me and I was proud of it."
At ITALY Magazine, we think that Italy's strength is its strong cultural heritage that Italians carry with them wherever they go, no matter what they look like, no matter where they live, no matter where their parents come from, so we wish old and young generations of Italians to find a way to lead the country into the future with the same creative and adventurous spirit that belongs to them.
Click here to see photos from the National Geographic article: http://www.nationalgeographic.it/dal-giornale/2013/10/29/foto/il_volto_dell_italia_che_cambia-1838056/1/#media
