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Mar 26,2006 - Apr 2,2006 |
19 - Italy on the Other Side of the World
Italian ethnic media maintains cultural connection between Australia and Italy
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-12-01
The census of 1996 clearly indicates where Italians settled after arriving in Australia between the Fifties and the Seventies: mostly in the state of Victoria, then in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. Their children and grandchildren are everywhere. They are considered a priceless patrimony both there and in Italy. But what can Italy do today for those Italians who went there, on the far side of the world?
Giancarlo Martini Piovano, director of the Comitato di Assistenza agli Italiani ("Committee for Assistance to Italians", Coasit), digs in his library and comes up with 20 pages of the latest annual report prepared by the Continental Commission for Extra-European Anglophone Countries of Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all'Estero ("General Council of Italians Abroad", CGIE). "It's all in here," he says. Do you think someone in Rome read it? "I sure hope so," he replies. And what are the priorities? "This is hard to say, as all these proposals are absolute priorities."
No way to make him choose. But by browsing the report, technical proposals aside (pensions, tax exemptions and reimbursements, bursaries and professional training), what jumps out is the need not to be forgotten. This can be understood from the proposal to reopen the terms for reacquiring Italian citizenship, "in consideration of the decision by the Federal government allowing us to keep the Australian citizenship as well." This means that a double passport can now be carried. The growing demand of Italy comes out when the report tackles the problem of TV information and underscores the inadequacy of RAI International, which can only be received via satellite.
"That's not enough. This must be an instrument of international cultural penetration," says Martini Piovano, "through which RAI should produce global information and broadcast the image of Italy. I do not mean to enter the controversies that this subject arises all over the world. For Australia, the proposals advanced seem reasonable to me."
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