MEDITERRANEAN MIGRATION UPDATE - JUSTICE?

The stories about migration in the Mediterranean may have dropped out of the international headlines but that does not mean that the boats have stopped setting sail for the European "promised land" and, in particular, the shores of Malta and Sicily.

Following the tragedy of 3rd October, the Letta government launched Operazione Mare Nostrum on 18th October: this is a military humanitarian operation to try to stop similar tragedies occurring and to control the influx of migrants. Not everyone is happy about it, partly because of the costs and partly because of a fear that the availability of more immediate help for boats that get into trouble might actually encourage the people traffickers. [If they are caught at sea and helped to reach Italy, any penalty may be reduced.]

On Sunday, however, Defence Minister Mario Maura congratulated the Italian Navy upon a mission it carried out as part of the operation on Saturday: Having patrolled the Capo Passero area by submarine, naval officers were able to intercept a fishing vessel acting as a migrant  "mother ship" and arrest the 16 people traffickers on board. Of these, three were minors. All have declared themselves to be  Egyptian. The Navy also brought 176 Syrian migrants - 146 men, eleven women, three of whom are pregnant, and 19 children - to safety during the mission. The 13 adult scafisti are now in prison awaiting trial while the three minors are being housed in a migrant reception centre. Mr Mauro said the interception was timely as conditions at sea were rough and the migrant boat, which was already taking in water, would have capsized.

It is estimated that 3,374 migrants have been helped in 16 separate Operazione Mare Nostrum missions carried out between 18th October and yesterday.

Update:  Sicilian online newspapers are reporting tonight that 55 of the 176 rescued migrants have escaped during a transfer and that there are 61 unaccompanied minors among those who remain. Voluntary organisations immediately brought food and clothing for the young migrants and further transfers are now being effected.

LE FRITTELLE DI SAN MARTINO

When you have forgotten it is your favourite saint's feast day, walk into a bar and are offered a frittella in his honour, you remember why you love living in Sicily.

Frittelle are traditional for San Martino di Tours because in times gone by they could be made by rich and poor alike: They contain few ingredients, can be fried using the new oil of the season and also go very well with the vino novello which is opened on this day! In this post from 2007 I included some photos of frittelle being prepared.

According to legend, in the fourth century San Martino met a starving, freezing beggar at the gates of the city of Amiens. He cut his cloak in two with his sword and gave half to the man. For this reason, San Martino is a saint associated with the poor. It is also said that the sun came out at the very moment he tore his cloak and that is why an Indian summer here is known as an estate di san Martino.

San Martino is the protector of soldiers, innkeepers, hoteliers and beggars. He died in Candes, now Candes-Saint-Martin, in 397.

SABATO MUSICALE

The singer on the first Italian record [as we called them then] I ever bought was Emilio Pericoli, who died in April. I listened to Emilio a lot, though not as long ago as the picture on this clip would indicate! Enjoy this relaxed love song:

Emilio Pericoli - With You [Con te]

AUTUMNAL GELATO

Pomegranate and stracciatella

A BOOKLET

I am pleased to be able to tell you that students enrolling on courses at London Town - Centro Linguistico Internazionale, Modica will receive, free of charge, my booklet,
A-Z English Language Tips - come evitare gli errori più comuni nell'uso della lingua inglese.

GRATIS  per chi s'iscrive a un corso di inglese a London Town - Centro Linguistico Internazionale, Modica: il mio libretto,
A-Z English Language Tips - come evitare gli errori più comuni nell'uso della lingua inglese. 

Piace a tutti!

AUTUMN BLUE

Today, for Sicilians has been a day of brutto tempo [bad weather], there having been a bit of wind. But just look at the blue sky we had! Now all I need is some blue sky in my personal life - please.

PASTA AL FORNO CON ZUCCA

When I need comfort food, as I often do these days, pasta al forno is high on my list of possibilities. At the weekend, I decided I wanted to create a rather more seasonal pasta al forno, so I added pumpkin and a bit of orange zest. Here's the recipe:

Pasta al forno con zucca

First, discard the peel from about a quarter of a small pumpkin and slice the flesh. You'll need about 300 gr. Cook in salted water till the pieces are tender then drain and set aside.

Heat 4 tablsp olive oil in a large, wide pan and add 75 gr pancetta cubes [cubetti di pancetta dolce if you are in Italy]. Cook until browned, then add 1 chopped red onion and cook till the onion is soft. Add 500 gr mixed minced meat - I used a mixture of minced pork and beef but there is nothing to stop you using all beef if you want to. Cook, stirring, to lightly brown the meat.  Add 300 gr sliced mushrooms, the pumpkin pieces and the grated rind of 1 lovely Sicilian orange.  Add a dollop [or dessertspoon] of 'strattu, 200 gr passata and 200 ml water. Season, stir, turn the heat down and simmer for about 40 mins., coming back to stir from time to time. This is your ragù.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C.

Meanwhile, cook 400 gr rigatoni or tortiglioni for the time indicated on the pack. Drain the pasta and wait for the ragù.

Oil a large ceramic or Pyrex-style roasting dish and add a layer of pasta, a layer of ragù, a layer of 125 gr crumbled ricotta, another layer of pasta, another 125 gr ricotta and finish with a layer of ragù. Sprinkle a handful of fresh breadcrumbs [pane grattugiato] over the top, along with about 1 tablesp of grated Grana Padano, Parmesan or Ragusano cheese. Cook in the oven for 15 mins.

This turned out to be one of the nicest pasta al forno dishes I have ever made so buon appetito!

It will serve at least 4 people generously.

DONA NOBIS PACEM 2013

Without peace, there is no hope 

and no one can live without hope.

Posted as part of blog4peace 2013, with love and thanks to the indefatigable and wonderful Mimi Lennox, whose initiative this is.

SABATO MUSICALE

A clever song about how difficult it is to change things - especially ourselves - from Italy's favourite rocker, Vasco Rossi. This song is no. 1 in the Italian charts:

Vasco Rossi - Cambia - Menti

NO HANGING OUT THE LINEN, O

Lines of washing strung high up across ancient, narrow alleyways are one of the sights of Italy that has long delighted tourists. Such a view does not, however, delight the town councillors of Catania, who have just passed a new bylaw banning the hanging out of washing in the old centre - the area surrounding the Parco archeologico greco-romano. 

The aim of the law, say councillors, is to give the area more dignity and to allow everyone to enjoy its true beauty. Under the regulation, air conditioners and tubes that can be seen from the street are also banned from balconies.

Residents of the area, many of whom are elderly, are, unsurprisingly, not happy:  many of them have lived there all their lives and have hung their washing out in the open in the time-honoured way for as long as they can remember. The task is part of their daily interaction with others. And, if they can't hang the washing outside, how, they want to know, are they to dry it? They say their small houses get too humid to dry washing indoors and they also want to know how they are expected to cope with the summer heat if their air conditioners are to be banned.

What do you think? Do you like to see the cheerful lines of washing or are they an eyesore?

The story made me think of this English folk song:

DON'T BANK ON IT!

Today Italy has seen its first national banking strike in 13 years as bank employees protested against plans by the ABI [Italian Banking Association] to cancel their collective work contract a year before it officially ends. Banks here, as elsewhere, are under pressure to cut costs and that, their chief executives  have decided, means cutting jobs and changing contracts which offer workers a high degree of protection. The employees, naturally enough, want executives' high salaries to be cut instead and they want a guaranteed fair wage themselves.  Over 300,000 bank employees could be affected by the proposed contract change.

Nobody likes bankers much anywhere at the moment but I think most of us know that our problems are not the fault of the young bank clerk we usually see behind the counter. Just to make sure of that, though, demonstrating employees have been handing out flowers to the public in an effort to show that banks really do provide a public service.  Do we agree with that? I wouldn't bank on it!

I can't help feeling that the banking unions chose the date of their protest rather cleverly as tomorrow is a holiday [All Saints] and their members will get quite a nice little break.  There was no counter service on Tuesday afternoon due to union meetings either. But let us not be churlish -  who can blame anyone for wanting to extend a bank holiday?

PAUSA BISCOTTI

These were a welcome gift from my friends at the Museo della Memoria - Sicilia 1943 this morning and they've asked me to tell you that they are now on Trip Advisor.  That's chocolate salame you can see on the right.

MIGRATION UPDATE - A PROPOSAL AND A QUESTION

Darkness is falling earlier and it's the end of October but there seems no end in sight to the "boatloads of sorrow" arriving on Sicily's shores: on Sunday the Italian navy saved  408 migrants, including 80 children and 40 women, from a boat in trouble off Augusta [Siracusa] and yesterday a Coast Guard patrol rescued 41 migrants whose boat got into difficulty 70 miles off Lampedusa. Another naval vessel went to the aid of a boat carrying 97 migrants, among them ten children.

Yesterday was also the day when the Comitato 3 ottobre - formed after the migrant tragedy on that date this year - presented its proposal for a law making 3rd October a day of remembrance to groups in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.  Under the proposed law, the text of which, most unusually for an Italian bill, contains only two articles, 3rd October every year would become a day to remember all migrants who have died fleeing persecution, oppression, poverty and war together with all who have risked their lives trying to save them. Members of the Committee have asked for meetings with President Napolitano and the presidents of both houses.

Meanwhile yesterday a group of around 100 migrants blocked the road to San Vito Lo Capo [Trapani] in protest at shortages in the reception centre at Bonagia and at delays in the processing of documents which would allow them to remain in Italy.

I have a concern which no one, to my knowledge has yet raised and it is this:  if in Italy there are groups of migrants who are not being assisted and whose cases are not being heard urgently, they will surely become depressed, disillusioned and angry.  How will the experience change them and who is lying in wait to take advantage of their situation?

"THE LADY" IN ROME

Yesterday a heroine of mine and, I am sure, of many readers of this blog, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, arrived in Rome for a series of meetings as part of her European tour.  "The lady", as she is often called, is a heroine here, too and I would like to add my voice to the many that have welcomed her to Italy.

Aung San Suu Kyi first travelled to the Campidoglio where she received, 19 years late, the scroll that makes her an honorary citizen of Rome. This honour was awarded to her in 1994 but, as she was under house arrest at the time, she was unable to accept it in person. At last, yesterday, it was presented to her by Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino and one of his predecessors, Francesco Rutelli. In her acceptance speeech, Aung San Suu Kyi remembered visiting Rome as a student 40 years ago, when she had been very impressed by the friendliness of the people. She had enjoyed the gelato, too! Mr Marino told her that Rome would always be with her and that the world needs people like her. 

"The lady" also received the Rome Peace Prize and Roberto Baggio, who had accepted it on her behalf in 2007, was visibly moved.  He said that Aung San Suu Kyi's battles for freedom had not only changed the destiny of her own people, but also the everyday lives of others.

This morning Prime Minister Letta received Aung San Suu Kyi at the Palazzo Chigi and assured her of his full support in her work to advance Burma's transition to democracy, particularly with regard to the constitutional reforms that will be necessary.  Mr Letta thanked "the lady" for her tireless fight for democracy and freedom and invited her to Expo 2015 as food security, one of the themes of the festival, is of interest to her. She accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Later "the lady" discussed human rights and religious freedom in a private audience with Pope Francis and afterwards met President Napolitano, Foreign Minister Emma Bonino, President of the Senate Pietro Grasso and Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies.

The Eternal City loves you, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Please come again soon!

SABATO MUSICALE

Not a song destined to cheer up the lovelorn, but enjoyable. One of my favourite singers, Claudio Baglione, sings of a love that can never be to this tango-inspired tune:

Claudio Baglione - Come un eterno addio

PRINCE OF CHOCS

Image via RTM Radio Modica

His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge is not a baby likely to want for gifts but I hope he will be told one day of the very special one he received from the Consorzio di tutela di cioccolato artigianale of Modica on the occasion of his christening. I suppose that the footmen of St James's Palace are, like most royal servants, inscrutable but I'd like to know what the footman who took delivery of a package of 30 bars of Modican chocolate on Wednesday really thought.

The bars were made by chocolate master Ignazio Iacono, who followed an original recipe from 1746. They contain paste made of cocoa from Ecuador, Italian sugar, vanilla from Madagascar and cinnamon from Sri Lanka. [No dairy products are added to traditional Modican chocolate.] The bars have a commemorative wrapping which contains the message, "Sweet greetings".

In a thoughtful and generous gesture, the Consorzio is also offering commemorative bars to all British babies born on the same day as Prince George. 

Come on, Georgie - grow those teeth!

THE MINISTER ON THE MINISTER

Regular readers will know that I am following the political career of Italy's Integration Minister Cécile Kyenge, so I would like to point you all in the direction of what Foreign Minister Emma Bonino had to say about her in this clip from a hard-hitting interview with Zeinab Badawi today. The interview was part of the BBC's 100 Women Conference. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

A BOCCACCIO BOTCH UP

Giovanni Boccaccio by Morghen
Image: Wikimedia Commons

This is quite a year for anniversaries and although much has been made of the Verdi bicentenary outside Italy, there has been less coverage of the 700th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Boccaccio. There is still time, for although we know the year, 1313, no one knows the exact date of the writer's birth. The people of Certaldo believe it happened in their town and it was certainly there that Boccaccio died on 21st December 1375.

Celebrations of Boccaccio's life and work are taking place now in Tuscany and will continue until the end of this year. It was all going splendidly until, in September, some advertising posters which appeared in Certaldo, Florence and other Tuscan towns caused a storm, for they featured four young women striking suggestive poses in minimalist underwear. The result was rather more suggestive than if they had been wearing nothing at all. Anyone who has read the Decameron knows that it is not without a degree of bawdiness but the posters did not look to me as if they were trying to convey this. 

The Equal Opportunities Commission of the Province of Florence complained, saying that the posters were offensive to women and delegates to the women's conference of the Federazione Empolese Valdelse said that the Boccaccio septcentenary was not taking place in order to launch an underwear range but to celebrate the culture of a region.  The president of the cultural association which had overseen the production of the posters responded that they were not advertising posters but were urban art.  Hmmm - nice one, but it didn't work, for then the Quirinale, the President's office, got involved and the Prefect of Florence received a cordial but firm note offering town administrators the choice of removing the posters or removing the presidential seal of approval from the whole Boccaccio project. The Prefect promptly issued an "invitation" to the Mayor of Certaldo to supervise the removal of the posters, which was done.

Photos of the posters can be found online but I don't want to feature one on my blog, for the reasons given by the women's organisations mentioned above. This is another case of Italy shooting itself in the foot but this is a country where "Miss Italia" is prime-time viewing so I give up.

Incidentally, my favourite Decameron story is the tale of Madonna Oretta and my least favourite is the last, the tale of Patient Griselda [whom I had first encountered in Chaucer, where she also drove me mad]. If ever a woman was in need of a homily from the sisterhood, it was she.

To be fair, the Boccaccio celebrations include some fine initiatives. You can find out more about them here. 

AN UNCOOL DAY

"NOTHING!" I screamed when I saw the headline "What's in your fridge?" in the Guardian's online edition.  "Nothing, nothing, nothing!"  And thereby hangs a tale, reader:

My fridge-freezer has - or perhaps I should say "had"- a temperature display which lights up on the outside and this usually shows a stable 3°C. Not so on Sunday morning, however, when my heart froze [which is more than I can say for the contents of the machine] at the sight of 20°C on the display. Why? Everything was perfectly all right on Saturday and there had been no indication that it wasn't working properly. OK, my fridge-freezer is 13 years old and I brought it with me from the UK but isn't a major household appliance supposed to last 15 years?

During the afternoon the temperature went slowly down and by evening had reached the magic 3°C but as soon as I opened the fridge door, up it soared again and it stayed up.  At 7 am on Monday it had gone down to 4°C but an hour later it was back at 20°C. At that point I called a technician who promised to come in the evening.  He did and was a little taken aback, as all Italians are, by my numerous fridge magnets but, having recovered himself, announced that he would have to take the contraption away to examine it and would need to bring a colleague to help him, either today [Wednesday] or tomorrow. You guessed it - it's going to be tomorrow.  

It's been hell without a functioning fridge these last four days and I'm going bonkers without cold drinks. Yes, I know our grandmothers - and even my mother's generation, until the mid-1950s - managed with pantries and meat safes but our needs and expectations are relative. The fact that it didn't happen in summer is cold comfort, for, apart from the cold drinks issue, in Sicily you have to keep most fresh fruit and all dried fruit and nuts in the fridge if you want to avoid rapid deterioration and discourage unwelcome visitors in your store cupboard.

I spent Monday night going back and forward to the rubbish containers in the street with the contents of the freezer, which were beyond saving and even if they hadn't been I would have had nowhere to keep them safely. Then I took the fridge magnets off the cabinet, a task which made me cry as I remembered packing a lot of them away eight years ago to bring them to Sicily. [I've acquired a few more since then.] 

I'm pretty sure the fridge man thinks the machine is beyond repair and how I am going to replace it is a worry. I don't think it is generally understood that when you're on your own an event like this is not an inconvenience but a disaster and, having endured quite a few disasters this year, I'm feeling sorry for myself!

But, in the cold light of day, I've been thinking:  why do I need a big freezer anyway? It's a British habit, not an Italian one, to freeze large quantities of food. I do tend to cook the full quantity of a recipe and then freeze what I can't eat immediately in small portions and this is partly because I've read too many magazines which panic you into preparing for uninvited hordes. More sensibly, it is also so that I'll always have something to hand if I'm feeling ill and not up to cooking. If I'm honest, though, I do not entertain hordes, invited or uninvited and I'd have to be ill enough for hospital not to feel like cooking. Having long abandoned my efficient British habit of keeping an up-to-date freezer inventory on the side of the cabinet, I no longer knew what was in the freezer and was working up to clearing it out one fine day. So perhaps it's time for me to get an Italian-style fridge with only a small freezing compartment on top - if and when I can afford a replacement, that is.

The fridge man has said he will bring me an old fridge to use while he makes his diagnosis and as for a replacement - as soon as I can make some I'll put the decision on ice.

"TIME TO TEAR OFF THE MASK"

The state memorial service for the  migrants who died in the tragedies off Lampedusa of 3rd and 11th October was held in Agrigento this afternoon [Monday] in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, Integration Minister Cécile Kyenge, other Italian government representatives, civic dignitaries and, controversially, representatives of the government of Eritrea. As Eritrea was one of the countries that the migrants were fleeing,  many mourners thought it was inappropriate for these politicians to attend.

After the interfaith service Mr Alfano was heckled as he spoke to journalists and there were cries of "Murderers! Enough of the Bossi-Fini law!" The Bossi-Fini law, introduced in 2002, made illegal immigration, and aiding it, a crime. This may seem fair enough but no one could have predicted the numbers of people trying to escape oppressive régimes now and  it would clearly be outrageous to brand every migrant trying to reach Europe a "criminal". One of the unexpected effects of the law has been that fishing vessels sometimes do not go to help migrant boats in trouble because their crews fear being accused of aiding illegal immigration. The Italian government had suggested granting citizenship to the migrants who died and protesters today wanted to know what is going to happen to the survivors. Are they, for instance, all to be regarded as criminals? The irony is not lost on the survivors themselves, some of whom were pictured with notices saying "Sorry we didn't drown" last week.

Mr Alfano said that the deceased migrants had been accorded dignified burials and that the survivors would receive the assistance they needed. He also reminded journalists that the Italian police are still determined to find and arrest all the "merchants of death" - the people traffickers. 

Governor of Sicily Rosario Crocetta said that it would have been better to have held the service in the presence of the survivors - a reference to the fact that it was not held on Lampedusa - but that today was not the right time to argue about it. It would have been pretty hard not to be drawn into the discussion, however, as everybody had a criticism to make:  Mosé Zerai, a priest representing the Eritrean community in Italy, said that the service had been arranged late and hurriedly and many people, including the families of some of the victims, had been unable to make arrangements to attend. He was also unhappy about the presence of the Eritrean politicians. Michele Pagliaro, general secretary of the CGIL Union in Sicily, said the ceremony had been late and inadequate and vowed that his union would campaign for a change in immigration law as this would be the best way to honour the victims of the tragedies. Marco Zambuto, the Mayor of Agrigento, went further and called the event a "state farce".

Integration Minister Cécile Kyenge, however, said that today had been important because it was the first time that non- Italians had been honoured in a state funeral ceremony.

It was, though, Giusi Nicolini, the Mayor of Lampedusa, who painted the most vivid picture of the situation the migrants and the islanders face:  Unable to attend the ceremony because of a pre-scheduled meeting with President Napolitano, Giusi Nicolini spoke in the Senate. She said that migration policies reflect the type of society that a country has and impact upon the places where migrants land. Therefore, she said, Italy's migration policies are doubly unjust because they are unjust to the people of Lampedusa, too. Mayor Nicolini said that there was no need to follow the coffins to see the reality, which is that the current situation is the tip of the iceberg, with the Mediterranean becoming a cemetery. She said that immigration policy must change and that Italy must be clear about where the migrants will go after they land. "It is time", she summed up, "to tear off the mask and act." Giusi Nicolini is also asking for 3rd October every year to become a day of remembrance for migration victims.

So there you have it: a "state farce" with some probably unsuitable guests, a "catwalk for politicians" [Mr Zambuto's words again] or a compassionate if not always efficient country doing the best it can in difficult circumstances?  I tend to the latter opinion but I do agree with Mayor Nicolini that it is time to "tear off the mask."