Even Italy needs expatriate calabrese talent
TORONTO – Know yourself so that people can respect you for what you are. It is easier said than done. Think about the current (in some circles) Canadian political mantra, diversity is our strength.
Italy as a recognizable, geographic- economic “entity” has hosted peoples for more than 3,500 years of recorded history. Archeologists are “rediscovering” and validating the experiences of those indigenous peoples, their interactions with other peoples in the Mediterranean basin and beyond; the cultures they are discovering and traces of the influences of their partnerships are the stuff of oral and written myths and legends for Western Civilization- in its refinements of commercial, legal and literary transferability.
As case in point is Calabria, the Italian [continental] peninsula’s southernmost “region”. It has been both an “incubator and exporter” of the iconic identifiers of European civilization. To be associated by birth or by extended relation is to acknowledge the obvious: “you can take the individual Calabrian out of Calabria, but you can’t take Calabria out of the Calabrian”. Why would you? The extraction-eradication “process” has the makings of a counter-productive rather than collaborative setting of priorities.
Besides, as the Honourable Orlandino Greco, special representative from the Regional Government of Calabria for the Calabrian Diaspora, pointed out in a brief but dynamic address to his hosts at a reception, Thursday evening, in the chambers of ICS head office in southwest Etobicoke, there are only 1,900,000 inhabitants in Calabria, Italy (3.2% of the population); but, 7,000,000 Calabrians world-wide. One member of the audience quipped that an estimate 274,000 of them are in the Greater Toronto Area alone – 1.9% of Ontario’s population, 14% of the total who still live in Calabria. A word of caution: these are estimate, based on Census data, but they are still darned impressive figures.
Still, the Honourable Orlandino Greco had not accepted the invitation extended by Fausto Gaudio, President of ICS and a member/director of the Calabrian Benevolent Foundation just to quibble about those numbers. Rather, his message was a three-part exhortation to “carpe diem” what the land, the people and the changing political opportunity had to offer for investment in Calabria by the Diaspora. Calabria thirsts for the talent people in the room have developed since the great exodus they and their families experienced in the last century.
This was no idle, fatuous compliment. I recognized many individuals noted for their financial acumen, for administrative expertise in financial management and know-how, for their legal expertise; some visionaries in construction, investors in the food processing and distribution business, professors in secondary and post secondary learning, poets, medical practitioners and researchers, manufacturers, community services providers, the list goes on… expertise developed in a highly environment.
Mr. Greco underscored the financials now in place or being developed by the national government for entrepreneurs on approved projects: a 60% non-repayable loan, a further 15% at reduced rates of interest and 25% at market rates. What projects, you ask, aside from the bridge to connect Calabria to Sicily? To star, building the needed tourist accommodations to capitalize on the splendid beachfronts bordering the three seas that caress the Calabrian coasts; 5,000,100 Calabrian ex-pats could well choose Calabria over California, Florida, Mexico… and the food is better.
At a minimum, the cuisine Made in Italy can boast a world heritage designation; and it is all local. The natural nutrients in the terrain provide for a quality of downstream food products (like olive oil) that are enviable.
One is tempted to observe that, style aside, both l’onorevole Orlandino Greco at the regional level and the national Ministro Valentini the night before at lo Spazio had come with coordinated messages to strengthen ties between Canada and Italy. If so, it augurs well.
In the pics below, from the top: the Calabrian “stemma”, the Honourable Orlandino Greco; Fausto Gaudio and the Honourable Greco; some of the evening’s guests at the toast for the 50th anniversary of the Calabra Foundation; the Honourable Joe Volpe, Editor of the Corriere Canadese, on a Vespa 50 Special (photos: Corriere Canadese and Extra TV)
