Good evening everyone
my friends from the Institute
they reserved the task of giving thanks this evening for me.
We'll meet again later
a year to inaugurate the academic year of the Italian Institute for Studies
European Championships in Giugliano, a lot of time has passed since then, but when a project,
because then it was little more than a project turns into reality, above all
in a difficult province like ours, the emotion is great and we apologize
from now on if in thanking the people who helped us we will forget
someone.
The birth of the Institute is
mainly linked to the contribution of three organisations:
first of all toUqbar Association, to the dedication of
thirty young people who, taking up the words of the letter sent to the President
Ciampi wrote:
"we are certain of the great usefulness that the Institute
Italian for European Studies can have in this particular area of Italy and
of Europe. The South still experiences its marginality harshly as
geographical and historical condition, concrete but also intellectual. Here,
Europe is not even an idea yet. It is not rooted and therefore not convincing
this is a further reason for the delay for our lands compared to the rest
of Italy and Europe."
and again
"however, in this difficult situation, none of
have we ever thought of giving in to the defeatism that unites many young people who give
these lands preferred to flee to build their own history elsewhere.
We are all firmly convinced of our choice to remain in this
corner of the South, between the Camorra massacres and the distance from
Institutions. We decided to stay because we think it's right to work here
where there is greater need, rather than leaving in search of better places
for individual ambitions. We believe that things can be changed, with
patience, with courage, with dedication. We do not give in to forgetfulness
because we believe in a History built by men, a History of
will."
these are the main ones
motivations that pushed us to found the institute, and to these kids goes the
first thanks.
Then atItalian Institute for Philosophical Studies of
Naples, to prof. Gargano, to prof. Tonini, to Mrs. Antonella, to all the
others and of course, tolawyer
Marotta to whom we are now linked by a beautiful relationship.
A relationship that is
consolidated as well as in official meetings in many evenings spent
in his office where you can breathe a particular atmosphere, because it is the lawyer's home
Marotta, while stumbling among thousands of books that are placed everywhere, the
our ability to dream increases dramatically, we always return home with
a hundred thousand new, "crazy" ideas in the head, and there at the bottom of that
narrow street of via Calascione the world appears different, more malleable
according to our aspirations…
And to describe the
kindness with which the lawyer always hosted us, even when in
these weeks he has been sore in bed, I will use the words that J. Deridda,
one of the greatest European philosophers, expressed in the speech given at
Sorbonne on the occasion of the "honorary degree" awarded to
Marotta:
"Yes, everyone is their own guest, and if in their persons
he intends to receive thought, philosophy, knowledge, knowledge together
humanitates, writing, let's not forget that to welcome he knows how to give in
first the word, starting with his, and giving himself. He goes
always near his guests, he visits them, even when they are at home
his. He comes to listen to them, with supreme courtesy, as if he were their guest.
This is great art, an art that respects great laws
of hospitality."
And also with young people
university students like us your hospitality was always great, thank you
lawyer Marotta, thank you for everything.
If we are here today at
inaugurate the Institute, if the idea of the lawyer Marotta to establish it in a
ancient palace in the province of Naples a center of European studies that brought together
the South to Europe and whether its availability of resources and knowledge has
found the young people of the Uqbar Association ready to follow him, it is true that
but the whole project would perhaps have remained a beautiful dream if he hadn't found it
a particularly sensitive Administration, and for this we must
thank mainly the stubbornness of ours Mayor, Dr. Giacomo Gerlini, and our manager
culture sector, the Dr. Annamaria
Apulian.
Stubbornness because often
the doctor Gerlini found himself alone on this long road that led us
to the establishment of the Italian Institute for European Studies: his idea was
that of donating a permanent study and research center to the Municipality of Giugliano
and this was the idea that united us from the beginning; a turning point in
extemporaneous cultural policies typical of provincial administrations; the
birth of the Institute, the Giovan Battista Basile award, the summer of Liternum,
the construction of the new, albeit small, cinema is a precise sign of one
new cultural policy, represent a hope for success
with stable activities to offer future generations a better future.
In the work carried out
in recent years the relationship with Dr. Gerlini, who was initially a little wary
towards the Uqbar Association, they have become very trustworthy; of
rest those guys I met more than six years ago have become much more
large; we like to remember above all that he always treated us very well
hard a bit like those parents who
to children who return home with a good grade they always reply that they could have done
better, so we learned the laws, regulations, procedures,
in short, everything necessary to administer the Foundation, maturing
certainly a lot.
And the most beautiful thing, is it
I say especially to the young friends who are in the room, we had an experience
extraordinary because they let us do everything ourselves, no controls
political on the part of the Administration, no pressure, no requests,
none of what so many kids who walk away are terrified of
from the experience of the polis and their duty to be first and foremost
citizens.
Difficulties and enemies
clearly we found many along the way, but the most dangerous ones
we can say without any doubt that they are called Bureaucracy And "Normal
Administration".
The first enemy yes
he fights only with enormous patience and tireless will;
the second instead of us
precisely we called "Normal administration", meaning with
this expression is the mentality for which there are some in our countries
priorities that are punctually highlighted to us: like broken glass in the
schools, insufficient municipal employees, uncollected municipal waste, i
poor parking, potholes in the asphalt, etc.), as if happiness is
found in order and cleanliness, and as if the spirituality which is strength
of the man of the South fed on asphalt and concrete.
To this ideology - as we have written - of the normal
administration that can lead us, at best, to one
a situation that other municipalities have already achieved thirty years ago, leaving us
still in a profound backwardness of civilization, technology and, even worse,
of culture.
To this "politics" that doesn't let us accomplish the
a leap which is instead possible and necessary so that, in a few years,
reconnect democracy and modernity, without allowing them to live whole again
generations of young people, who now know other forms through the mass media
of existence, in the suffering of their dropped-out condition, cut off
out of the history of the century; while their American or French cousins, in
universities, in cinemas, in theatres, at expo and at concerts, they live their own
time, beyond the fact that it can be ugly or beautiful, happy or unhappy
as much as you want, but at least they live their History.
To this idea we respond that the logic of normal administration cuts us off,
with a vicious circle it stops us thirty years behind, without hope.
A vicious circle because the "best heads" of
these countries could become the future ruling class of the South and
accelerate its rebirth by exploiting a natural amplification phenomenon and
resonance.
Instead without intellectual stimulation, without availability of
resources for study and research, from here, from our tormented cities between
the countless everyday problems, young scholars are forced
to leave, also encouraged by the families who now, without any more pride and
desire for redemption, they project the disappointments of many years into their children
backwardness, fueling the diaspora
of Southern Italy.
This is the reason why the most recurring answer
the question asked to young people about their future is that of wanting to go
off in search of new horizons; sometimes it is an escape that underlies crisis
individual, often, we believe, it is instead the real lack of perspectives, and
this is a problem of general interest, and therefore, of interest of the
politics."
It is for this reason that
We say thank you, Mr. Mayor, because young people, and not only them, need
dreams and not of fast roads, of hopes and not of glass in schools: that
it is not doing politics but ordinary administration; and that's why Le
we asked to become President
honorarium in the pro-tempore role of our foundation,
in the essential hope that our city can always count on
representative personalities of undoubted civil value.
Also, thanks
particular goes to the Palumbo family today represented by the always available
senator Nello Palumbo who occupied these rooms until a few weeks
ago and, in particular, to the engineer Luigi Palumbo, owner of this part
of the building which immediately showed its availability and which accepted the
our proposal to restore the Party Hall with the rent money, which
we believe it represents a lot from a historical point of view for the whole city.
We thank you of course
all of you who spoke this evening, the citizens who have us several times
expressed their consent, the municipal councilors, the councilors, the
authorities present in the room, the honorable deputy Cananzi, the Mayors and Councillors
of the municipalities in the province of Naples that have been close to us in recent years,
the law enforcement agencies with whom we intend to collaborate in
next months together with the National Association of Magistrates on a project
courses for legality, the Vice President of the Regional Council, Nino Daniele,
in his particular capacity as Regional Councilor for European Policies to us
very close.
We thank the professor
Masullo that we strongly wanted for the inauguration this evening because
his words on Europe have a particular strength and intensity like
you'll see soon.
Finally, thanks
special to our parents who have supported us over the years and
endured: due to the timetables systematically not respected, we spent the
two last Christmas Eves at the lawyer's house preparing documents and...
plan initiatives, for often missed university exams, for
anger that sometimes gripped us when everything seemed more difficult, for theirs
tireless availability; thank you all!
To conclude we want
underline that every inauguration brings with it a double sensation: from a
on one side the joy for what we managed to do, on the other the fear because
we are only at the beginning, the road is still long and we are certain that only with
with everyone's collaboration we can move forward. Thank you.
Giugliano, Sunday 26 September 1999
(from Inauguration speech of the Italian Institute for European Studies foundation)
Armando Di Nardo