Intercultural Dialogue: Italy, UR doing it wrong
This is a photo I took in August 2004 when I was doing a study abroad program in Italy. It’s the basilica of San Michele in Foro in Lucca, a small town in northern Tuscany.
I was upset to hear that, this week, Lucca banned any new foreign and “ethnic” food outlets within the city walls. Soon after, Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, adopted the ban. It’s intended to “to protect local specialties from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines,” namely Arab and Asian-influenced cuisine. In other words, it’s gastronomic racism.
In December, I wrote an assignment on Italy’s intercultural dialogue “strategy” for my Cultural Policy class. Obviously, I tried to be objective and scholarly and such, but there’s something I didn’t say in my paper that I’d like to express.
Italy! What the fuck? Stop being big giant racist douchebags, ditch Silvio Berlusconi, wake up and come to terms with the fact that, if you plan on existing in the 21st century and being a member of the EU, all those Arabs and Asians and Gypsies that you hate so much yet need to make up your workforce are here to stay so you might as well try to get along with them.
Italy, I understand that you are fairly new to immigration. But this ban on “foreign” foods? Fingerprinting Roma residents and appointing officials to monitor them? Creating separate classes for children of immigrants who can’t speak Italian? Electing this guy because he promises to tighten up border controls? If you need some help dealing with your new-found multiculturalism, for god’s sake just ask. Ask Canada, ask the UK, or—heck—even ask the USA. Anything would be better than your current lack of strategy to deal with cultural diversity.
January 31, 2009 7:06 pm
Matt S said:
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Wow, way to be super food-racist, Italy. Jamie Oliver was a little bit pissed at the Italians when he did his big Italian show, as he learned that a lot of Italians didn’t like any food that wasn’t from their specific village/city/region, so I can only guess that this is probably some weird extension of that.
The part that strikes me as the weirdest is the fact that they’re banning ethnic food places from importing ingredients. I’m pretty sure that these places buy most of their ingredients from Italy, just like every other restaurant. I wonder if these rules are meant to target ingredients coming from “oriental” (in the Said-est sense of the term) countries, or if things like tomatoes coming from California will be banned, too?
If Italy were to, say, subsidise the establishment of new Italian restaurants, this could be interpreted as some weird nationalist thing, but as it is this just makes me sick. Maybe I’ll just go make myself a donair meat panini.