Even when no missiles fly, international conflicts and interests intertwine, amid timid attempts to outline a less uncertain and peaceful future. Great rivalries and daily tragedies are taking place between the Mediterranean and the Middle East, with masses of desperately ...
oppressed people at the mercy of unscrupulous exploiters and politicians. The ephemeral hopes raised by the Arab Springs have mostly been wrecked in uncertain, if not chaotic, scenarios. And yet we need to give voice to hopes and help create a less uncertain future for the peoples directly concerned and also for Italy and Europe. The walls have never solved problems and always, sooner or later, have fallen. Positive perspectives can only be achieved by promoting general development and by supporting that favours the reasons for civil coexistence and solidarity, besides fanaticism and ruthless nationalist claims.
From Iraq to Syria, from Libya to North Africa, restless scenarios feed wars, destruction, exodus of entire communities. The bill is high and the budgets are heavy already today, not just for the tormented peoples. The direct effects are evident in Italy, in Greece and in the states of frontier, but also for the "distant" Denmark or Sweden. Europe is experiencing the emergency of migrations of peoples, that recall the barbarian invasions at the sunset of ancient Rome to some.
Mediterranean Sea, the ancient “Mare Nostrum”, is a field of hopes and fears, of political contrasts and inhumane routes, of dreams for a better future and of restless plots of terrorism, often a cemetery without crosses and without memories.
What can we do? It is everyone's question, but the answers are different and often opposite. There are those who intervene daily to save the desperate ones and those who work for projects that overcome the emergency, there are politicians who elaborate strategies and the soldiers who fight on the battlefields, warlike proclamations and pacifist choices alternate, but it is not the ideologies or barroom dibate conditioned by the media that change the horizons, because no barbed wire can stop the wind and the anxiety of freedom or the dream of a better fate.
What can we do? While actions are being developed and solutions are outlined, it is necessary to work to create conditions that facilitate the overcoming of contrasts and foster an atmosphere of tolerance and the awareness that nobody can be saved alone. An important contribution can be given by culture and the good neighborly relations of the various peoples. In the era of globalization and of the “infinite travelling” in the words of Claudio Magris, what we need is to lay the foundations for a common development, both cultural and economic.
Europe has grown with civil conquests and its strength lies in freedom and solidarity, without which it ended in immense catastrophes. The Mediterranean can develop and grow by valuing the enormous resources it has and a millenary history whose countless positive contributions must be recovered. There are many reasons for dividing and this is the exactly why we need to rediscover the reasons for being together, for growing together. Europe is our homeland, it must overcome contrasts and small calculations to reach the realization of the United States of Europe. The Mediterranean is our future and also a great opportunity for Italy, a bridge between the western world, Africa and the East, where a tumultuous awakening of peoples is taking place. (F.d'A.)
