To help pass these long hours, I take walks whenever I can, even though they are proibite. This morning, under a softly veiled sky I snuck out, glancing furtively, like some Irish lover on the way to a tryst this St Patricks day, (although that’s forbidden too, including holding hands outdoors if you are not cohabiting) winding down through the stone alleys of the old town the back way, so as not to risk being stopped by the local police downtown. The choice was, go out the back way and tackle a very steep hill, which I usually avoid, or face having to present two affidavits, coming and going, even if I’m just going to the store. The hill won. The police are apparently being very nice right now, but this was just another anxiety I could avoid in this insidiously anxious moment.
On the back road, known as the Tiglio Road, tractors full of firewood, manure, and hay rumbled by, the farmers and woodsmen going about business as usual. People were in their gardens pruning vines and fruit and olive trees. They know it’s too early to plant their kitchen gardens, as April, and even May, as we experienced last year, can be too rainy and cold to grow effectively. There is an inviolable rule of thumb that you never plant tomatoes before May 15th in these mountains. These guidelines may be changing as our climate is noticeably warming, but it’s too soon for the people here to trust that and change their generations old tried and true methods.
Each person I passed, always pleasant, but often somewhat reticent in these hills, saluted me slightly more openly than usual. A woman, with whom I have crossed paths many times in the last 18 years, but never spoken to, stopped me and asked me if I was Gianni Messina’s mother. She told me she had been one of the teachers in his nursery school and said, although she wasn’t his teacher, she still remembered him fondly and would I please give him her regards.
Years ago I submitted this letter to the Editor referring to an article on another, long ago now, looming threat of fiscal crisis. It was a period in which Europe was accusing Italy, Spain and Greece of fiscal irresponsibility for not toeing the line on austerity measures, labeling them Lazy Southern Europeans. Those same austerity measures are a matter of great debate today as they substantially undermined the national infrastructure and health care systems which are struggling to respond to this crisis.
This letter is especially apt today. I’ll post something on a lighter note tomorrow.
Industrious southern Europeans
“Europe’s money trap” (Nov. 16) by Paul Krugman makes reference to the German public’s stereotyping of “lazy southern Europeans.” While I recognize that this article wasn’t about national character but about fiscal policy, nevertheless I’d like to convey my experience living in an Apennine mountain city of 10,000.
We reside in a community of family-oriented, church-going farmers, industrial workers, business people, hospital employees and shop owners of all ages. Every family has an extensive kitchen garden, fruit trees, and many have olive groves and vineyards. They are all cultivated, tended, harvested and processed by hand, in their spare time, before work, after work, on weekends, which in many cases are only Saturday afternoon and Sunday as many shop owners, manual workers and business people work five and a half days a week here. Like them our son leaves for school each day at 6:30 a.m., six days a week.
We live in a forested area, and in addition to their gardens people often spend several months of the winter, in their spare time, cutting, chopping, splitting and transporting firewood for their low-emission wood burning furnaces. Social events revolve around church and family. Neighbors help neighbors. Every one has a smile and a joke to tell. Layabouts are few and far between.
It is not paradise, and we have our share of problems. Youth unemployment is high, but the children live at home and often help out with chores, child care and transportation.
So while northern Europeans may be more productive, my experience with the southern Europeans is that they are industrious, more self- sufficient and grounded — and this may just see them through the crisis.
Kerry Bell, Barga, Italy
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/opinion/germany-france-and-trade.html 2/3
Germany, France and Trade - The New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment