This week the BBC (Radio 4: Book of the Week slot ) is inviting people of Italy to write a letter to all of us in Ukania – ‘Dear Derek… (signed) B@’, and more of that kind of thing. It is being called Letter from Italy. Today it is the turn of a 27 year old man called Carlos Sebilia, who comes from Campagna, the area around Naples infamous for its vast waste landfill sites. Carlos carefully reads us the “Letter from Italy” which he has written, and as he reads his letter, he also talks about himself, sits at a café in Roma and is interrupted by other people, and apologises for his English which he says he hasn’t been speaking much recently, but actually he is very clear in everything he says. OK this is my letter, he begins. Being the Book of the Week one might think this is all fiction, but really I don’t think it is.
Carlos reads on. In his letter he reminds us in Ukania that Italy is famous for its pasta, and pizza and romantic music, and that the best known political movement known beyond its borders is – the Mafia. Speaking about his own life living around Naples he describes how he became focussed on the problem of waste and the enormous landfills which have built up there. It is not just about too many landfills in too small an area, he says, it is also the inertia and health problems and criminality which goes with dumping waste. He tried writing to his local mayor but never got a reply. So he decided to take things further.
Enough is enough, Carlos says in his letter. He is now a newly elected member of the Italian Parliament since 4 weeks ago, he says, and is now in Rome as a member of the ‘5 Star MoVement‘ party, which stands for:
Zero Waste Strategies
Zero Carbon Energy
Free Public Water
Free Public Transport
Free Connectivity
It is a brand new party and after the recent elections there are now 163 MPs – a third of the total. Imagine that happening in Ukania!
Carlos tells us that the MoVement 5 Star emerged out of the blog of comedian satirist Beppe Grillo. In his letter to us Carlos admits that it is a sad truth for Italian politics that the most reliable person in his country is a comedian. He is a visionary, somebody interrupts in Italian next to where Carlos is reading his letter. Carlos reads on from his letter that Beppe Grillo is not a party leader in the normal sense. Politics for Beppe Grillo and his followers isn’t a win or lose football match between professional politicians. Politics isn’t a job, Carlos says, it is a passion. Simple truths. It is about getting involved in a kind of politics which is aimed at bringing gladness and happiness into the world.
Carlos’s letter finally describes two special features of the 5 Star party. The first is that the whole Movimento 5 Stelle is internet based, and transcends national boundaries and old nineteenth century nation state thinking about politics, and, if you like, you can follow Beppe Grillo’s blog in English. So while it is about Italy and Italian politics, and it is also about human beings worldwide getting involved everywhere there is an internet connection.
The second special feature Carlos reads from his letter is that Beppe Grillo is a comedian who appears to know how to be serious while he is also being lighthearted and funny. How to act effectively in a tragi-comedy with moral irony: what Carlos tells us is that the MoVement knows how to be hopeful with a message that says normal people can engage in politics too.
Some words have been borrowed from Stranger to Nothing, Selected Poems by Philip Levine (b 1928 poet sometimes called “the voice of the voiceless”)