Il generale Pietro Tornabene, addetto militare presso l'Ambasciata italiana, ha tenuto una letcure al Rotary Club of Washington sulle origini della bandiera italiana. Il RC di Washington si riunisce ogni mercoledi' dalle 12:30 alle 1:30. In un'ora vengono sbrigati, con tipico pragmatismo americano, i lavori dei singoli dipartimenti del club dando poi spazio all'ospite di turno che parla per non piu' di dodici minuti . Pietro Tornabene, grazie al suo stile pieno di humour, ha 'sforato' rispetto ai tempi tradizionali, divertendo i 150 rotariani con l'esposizione, a tratti ironica, delle vicende di storia italiana.
Qui sotto ospitiamo il testo in inglese del suo intervento e alcune slides che lo hanno corredato.
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150 Years of
Italian History
On 17 March 1861 the Italian
Parliament convened after the defeat of the last independent reign of Southern
Italy, proclaimed the former king of the reign of Sardinia, Victor Emanuel II,
King of the “Reign of Italy”. With this act a new nation was born, and Italy ceased to
be simply a geographical expression and took its place on the political
European scene.
In 1861 the Italy of today was not
yet complete. The path toward complete unity would take another 59 years with
the acquisition of Trieste
from the defeated Austrian Empire at the end of the First World War.
Four wars were needed to reach this
unity: three wars of independence and one World War.
We owe a debt of gratitude to France: our flag was born reflected in the pattern
of the French Tri-colored Flag, symbolizing the principles of fraternity,
equality and freedom whereas the Italian flag adopted green in place of the French
blue.
The Italian flag was born in
Bologna in November 1794 as a rosette brought by two students wishing to rebel against
the Pope`s rule. These two martirs of the Italian liberty are worth to be
remembered and paid with their lives the ardent love for our beloved country.
Their names were Luigi Zamboni
and Giovanni Battista de Rolandis, two youths in their twenties, who dreamed of
an Italian State free from the privileged classes
of nobles, priests and foreigners.
These two men chose to combine
the red-and-white colors of Bologna with the green: the color of spring and symbol
of hope for a better future as well as the beauty of the Italian countryside.
When Napoleon came to Italy in
1796, red, white and green were the colors of Italian independence and this
fact was reinforced on the 7th of January 1797 in Reggio Emilia: the
Cispadana Republic adopted the red, white and green flag as its own. The flag
had horizontal stripes, but the stripes were changed to vertical when in July
1797 the Cisalpina Republic emerged from the ashes of the Cispadana Republic.
The Italian Republic of the
1802-1805 and the Napoleonic reign of Italy 1805-1815 retained the three colors
even if in a different format that today represent the flag of the Italian
President.
The Italy dream by Dante, Machiavelli,
Pietro Bembo, and other intellectuals took political shape with the Napoleon
adventure and did not die when Napoleon fell at the battleground of Waterloo in 1815.
The old dynasties which returned to
power in an Italy - still a geographic expression of more than 7 different
States on the peninsula - failed miserably in
destroying the vision of a unified Italy and ruthlessly killed arrays
of patriot harbingers of the future.
In 1820, 1821, 1831 insurrections
were squashed and tri-colored flags burned, but the momentum of history was
against these reactionaries and the idea of an independent Italy, fueled by the
ardor of young patriots and military and by the political intentions of
Mazzini, won over the idea of independence at the very beginning of modern
Italy in 1848 when Milan raised up against the Austrians, “The Five Days of Milano”
(le Cinque Giornate di Milano) from 18 through 22 march 1848.
The insurrection of Milan sparked
the First war of independence when, on the 23rd of March, the king of Sardinia,
Carlo Alberto, declared war against Austria and ordered the Sardinian troops to
adopt the Italian tri-colored flag, the “Tricolore”, in its present form, as
the flag of the Army and of the State.
The war was a disaster: the Reign
of Sardinia was defeated on 23 March 1849, but nevertheless the “Tricolore”
remained the flag of the State as a reminder that the hopes of a unified Italy had not
been destroyed.
Thanks to the outstanding political
skills and efforts of Cavour, the reign of Sardinia, in 1859 with the help of
another Napoleon, Napoleon the III, declared war on Austria resulting in the 2nd
war of Italian independence. After the bloodshed of the battles of San Martino
and Solferino, Austria was finally defeated and the regions of Lombardy and Central
Northern Italy became part of the Reign of Sardinia under the Italian “Tricolore”.
In 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi, a
former ardent follower of Mazzini, under the secret direction of Cavour, together
with 1089 men succeeded in defeating the Southern Italian Reign of the two
Sicilies.
In order to avoid a civil war, Garibaldi
in Teano (Campania, 26th October 1860), with a gesture of generosity
unique in all of history, put his love of Italy above his own interest, decided
to hand over the newly conquered Reign of the South to the king of Sardinia,
Victor Emanuel II. Garibaldi then went into self-imposed exile on a small island
off the coast of Sardinia, Caprera.
With this act Italy as a
political entity was born! And the first Italian parliament convened in Turin (then the capital of Italy) on 18 February to
proclaim that on the 17th of March 1861 the new nation of Italy would
be born: the Reign of Italy
under Victor Emanuel II.
At this time, Rome, Venice and Trieste
were under foreign rule: Rome was under that rule of a stubborn Pope who, unable
to understand the spirit of the time and backed by France was unwilling to
relinquish power; Venice and Trieste were under the rule of the much despised
Austrians.
Venice become part of Italy after
the 3rd war of independence in 1866 when Austria
was defeated by an Italian and Prussian coalition.
Rome was
taken on the 20 September 1870 after France
was defeated on the battleground of Sedan
by the Prussian (2 September 1870).
Trieste became part of Italy at the end
of the bloodcurdling First World War.
Finally in 1918 the long path
toward unity and independence had been completed, and our founding fathers gave
us the invaluable gift of the Italian Nation that we enjoy nowadays.
However, the path towards unity,
even though it seems complete today, remains unfinished. Every generation needs
to regain the values of its own identity while avoiding to lose that which was gained
with enormous sacrifice.
Today Italians are a people under
a unified country with a single national language. We are no longer the
downtrodden and derided people under foreign rule that we were in the 1800s. It
is important for us to continue to acknowledge the great difficulties others overcame
to attain our unity. It is important for us to remind the new generations of
the need to understand our history and not take for granted the “Normality” we
enjoy every day.
Nothing is forever, and we need
to celebrate in order to remember, we need to pay respect to the symbols of our
unity in order to grow in strength and reaffirm the values of our unity.
Liberty, Equality, Freedom are
not forever but are rich fruits that need to be cultivated and maintained throughout
the generations.
We as military, as people that
have chosen an ethical profession and vocation, stand firm in our desire to
celebrate and honor the sacrifices of such personages as Zamboni, De Rolandis,
Ciro Menotti, the Flag brothers (i fratelli Bandiera), Pisacane, Goffredo
Mameli, Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi as well as all the countless, unnamed people
that with their love, sacrifice and humility built the wonderful country that is
Italy.
Thanks for joining me in
remembering the Italian History.
Viva l`Italia, Viva il Tricolore!
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Risponde Oscar:
Una volta tanto che parliamo bene della nostra Italia e non la infanghiamo coi comportamenti di una certa parte politica, ci sta bene una parentesi celebrativa. Soprattutto pensando a quelle migliaia di giovani italiani che hanno perduto la loro vita per farci vivere in una nazione che ancora oggi suscita ammirazione per la sua cultura, la sua gente, la sua tradizione culinaria. E siccome gli americani (che non sono dei coglioni come siamo portati a credere) si sentono uniti, nonostante le differenti pelli e culture, proprio dalla loro bandiera, la lecture tenuta dal Generale Tornabene li ha particolarmente interessati.
Comunque: "tot capita, tot sententiae".
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Ciao Oscar,
un po' celebrativo, ma va bene per gli amici americani.
Cordialità
Lorenzo Cafaro
____________________________________________________Risponde Oscar:
Una volta tanto che parliamo bene della nostra Italia e non la infanghiamo coi comportamenti di una certa parte politica, ci sta bene una parentesi celebrativa. Soprattutto pensando a quelle migliaia di giovani italiani che hanno perduto la loro vita per farci vivere in una nazione che ancora oggi suscita ammirazione per la sua cultura, la sua gente, la sua tradizione culinaria. E siccome gli americani (che non sono dei coglioni come siamo portati a credere) si sentono uniti, nonostante le differenti pelli e culture, proprio dalla loro bandiera, la lecture tenuta dal Generale Tornabene li ha particolarmente interessati.
Comunque: "tot capita, tot sententiae".
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Finalmente
un alto ufficiale italiano col senso dell'umorismo. Un caro saluto.
Maurizio. (Torino)
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Egregio Oscar,
I wish you had also expressed your opinion about
General Tornabene's conclusions.
I disagree that today " We are no longer the downtrodden and
derided people under foreign rule that we were in the 1800s" .
Today
the nation economy is almost entirely owned by foreign corporations, mainly
American, British, French, German, Dutch and Chinese.
The
globalization spirit in Italy is in one direction only, very few Italian
corporations have merged or acquired interests in foreign countries.
Italians
are now used to buy products from companies like Carrefours, Auchan, Decathlon
Lidl, that have invaded Italian territory from north to south. Italian brands
like La Perla, Polenghi, Locatelli, Peroni and so on and so on keep the italian
name but share their profits in foreign lands.
Even
the renown Pasta di Fissan has been taken over.
We
depend on our energy almost totally from France nuclear power, while United
States consider our country as one of their flag stars.
With
the difference that they don't have to bother to finance it, they just use
their military bases from Aviano to Sigonella free of charge.
In
our so called "Free and unite country", everyday Fedex unloads in
Aviano whatever type of missiles . Italians are not even informed about nuclear
heads carried by such missiles.
The Pentagon smiles at the easiness of having an additional
state on their flag, without the financial burden of intervening in natural
calamities or providing public security and utilities.
Most of the italian strategic points of entry such as the marine
ports are controlled by China.
Almost everyday, long established italian companies are taken
over by foreigners.
Just last week the Cova confectionery chain and the luxury
textile Loro Piana by the french Lvmh, Pernigotti by the Turkish Toksoz. Not to
mention about the sensational sale by Berlusconi of Standa, "la casa degli
italiani" to the AustroGerman Billa.
Alitalia and Esa (european space agency) have their headquarters
in Paris.
Most of italian chain of Hotels have been taken over by American
corporations.
Carlo Emanuele III of Sardinia used to say that Italy is like an
artichoke, that must be eaten slowly leaf by leaf....or as Indro Montanelli
said that Italy is " the spezzatino of Europe", anybody can do
"scarpetta" in its stew.
In conclusion my opinion is that today the italian
peninsula is much more under foreign rule than it was under Napoleon.
After having realized that the italian peninsula is too
difficult to be governed, the same foreign powers of centuries ago, have
decided to buy it....leaf by leaf......
All the best
giancarlo belluso
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Risponde Oscar
Caro Giancarlo,
La ringrazio per il suo articolato commento che si inserisce in una cultura un po' troppo domestica. Se gli altri ci comprano e' perche' noi non abbiamo piu' la capacita', voglia e senso del rischio di comprare gli altri. Oggi viviamo in un mondo caratterizzato dalla competizione globale. A questo proposito ricordo a Lei ed a coloro che si lamentano perche' molte nostre industrie sono cadute in mani straniere che il "Mondo e' piatto" come scrive nel suo famoso libro Thomas Friedman.
Sarebbe bello se fossimo noi a comprare gli altri. FIAT ci sta provando con successo. Anche se facciamo di tutto per farla andar via dall'Italia.
Molti cari saluti.
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Egregio Oscar,
non voglio polemizzare con chi ha molta piu' ampia visione
internazionale, ma mi consenta di dissentire sull'oggetto FIAT.
Il governo americano era giunto al punto di non poter piu'
usare fondi del comune taxpayer per salvare l'industria automobilistica ridotta
al collasso.
I pensionati della Chrysler si stavano rassegnando a non
ricevere piu' l'assegno mensile.
Il debito della Chrysler con gli istituti finanziari era
contratto ad interessi spropositati.
Cosa si sono inventati gli gnomi della finanza
americana?
Hanno girato il mappamondo e si son chiesti quale fosse la
nazione piu' naive, per usare un eufemismo, in Europa e, dopo aver scartato i
francesi, tedeschi ed inglesi, si son fermati sulla penisola nostrana.
In accordo col governo canadese han deciso di
"prestare" a un manager di comodo, canadese di nascita e fedele alla
bandiera americana, certo Marchionne i fondi necessari ad acquisire l'industria
fallimentare della Chrysler e ad assorbirsene l'ingente debito..
Risultato: oggi i pensionati della Chrysler hanno ripreso a
sorridere, il debito si e' ridimensionato ed il bilancio ha cominciato a
restituire profitti ai propri azionisti.
Le FIAT nostrane sono diventate delle Chrysler mascherate
con abile cosmesi, eccezion fatta per la 500 che sta pero' costando un
patrimonio in marketing ma che serve a dare fumo negli occhi all'italiota cui
si fa credere di conquistare le strade americane.
Non bisogna chiamarsi Nostradamus per immaginare in un
prossimo futuro la sede della FIAT a Detroit, luogo dove oggi si puo'
acquistare un intero quartiere residenziale e capannoni industriali a
quattro dollari.
Lo sfacelo che le superstiti comunita' umane, principalmente
ispaniche e afroamericane hanno compiuto, devastandone gli edifici abbandonati
e facendone crollare il valore immobiliare fa quasi dubitare che si tratti di
un evento naturale e non di una manovra pilotata.
Non mi stupirei che la FIAT nel frattempo abbia gia'
cominciato ad acquisire terreni , quartieri residenziali e capannoni.
Come innumerevoli attivita' nostrane che hanno mantenuto
dell'italianita' la sola ragione sociale, anche la FIAT dividera' i suoi
profitti all'estero lasciandone pero' gran parte agli azionisti Chrysler.
Agli operai FIAT in cassa integrazione verranno fatti
notevoli sconti su viaggi guidati a Detroit nella futura nuova sede e gli
verranno regalate Tshirts con la foto di Marchionne stampata sopra a
girocollo.
Come al solito nelle sue risposte si cela sempre una
sentenza chiave : "Se gli altri ci comprano e' perche' noi non
abbiamo piu' la capacita', voglia e senso del rischio di comprare gli
altri."
Concordo principalmente sulla sua prima riflessione, "Se
gli altri ci comprano e' perche' noi non ne abbiamo la capacita'".
Ha ragione l'acuto Thomas Friedman a scrivere che oggi il
mondo e' piatto, purtroppo gli altri corrono ad alta velocita' verso la
nostra penisola e quando sembra che anche noi lo si stia facendo in direzione
opposta, cadiamo in intricate e bizantiniane trappole straniere.
Devo ancora vedere una acquisizione chiara e netta nostrana
di una qualsivoglia solida industria o corporation affermata all'estero.
Rassegnamoci a diventare la Las Vegas o la Disneyland
dell'Europa, apriamo le porte a cinesi e giapponesi che difendano il nostro
patrimonio artistico e paesaggistico di cui siamo divenuti degli ignobili
custodi, e andiamo servilmente a lavorare come caddies nei golf resorts,
camerieri o al massimo maitre d'Hotel, bagnini, direttori di Spa, terme e
stabilimenti balneari, stazioni sciistiche, croupiers di casino liberalizzati
ovunque, o continuare a impersonare il gladiatore di turno al Colosseo.
Libereremmo cosi' migliaia di uffici statali e potremmo aprire
un fantastico resort al Quirinale con tanto di roller coaster e tavoli da
gioco.
cordiali saluti
Giancarlo Belluso
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Risponde Oscar
Ce la faremo, caro Giancarlo. Ce la faremo!
