Tg Esteri, edition of 8 May 2024

We talk about Brazil, Afro-Italian cinema and Myanmar

BRAZIL. 150 YEARS AGO, WHEN ITALIAN MIGRANTS ‘MADE A COUNTRY’

“The Italian community in Brazil has always been fundamental to the formation of culture and society, but also to its industrialization and entrepreneurship”. Speaking is Renato Mosca, Brazilian ambassador to Italy, during the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the phenomenon, promoted in Rome by the International Italian-Latin American Organization. Starting in 1874, Italian emigration to Brazil to escape war, disease and poverty has taken root and continues to be a fundamental presence today. From a country of emigrants, today Italy is a country of immigrants. “The government should respond with inclusion” is the appeal made by Fabio Porta, deputy of the Foreign Affairs Commission, in the Iila headquarters.

CINEMA. AN ITALIAN-GIBUTIAN NEOREALISM AGAINST THE WAR BETWEEN THE POOR

A few weeks before the European elections, an Italian director originally from Djibouti is invited to the African country to the first edition of a festival dedicated to the visual arts. Kassim Yassin Saleh will bring with him ‘War among the poor’, a short film produced with Rai Cinema, already presented at the Cannes Film Festival. The protagonist is the clash between Italians and foreigners (or presumed foreigners) in the suburbs. “In those 15 minutes of film I convey a concern that I had then as today” says Saleh: “The far right is growing throughout the West. In the evening if I can I stay at home. And it’s not just a problem in Italy: many my friends in Sweden, France or other European countries have been threatened or beaten. These things don’t happen in Africa: there is more humanity.”

MATTEI PLAN. LOPES: LEARNING FROM CABRAL, IT WAS AN ITALY-AFRICA BRIDGE

The Mattei Plan does not ignore historical teachings and experiences, starting from that of Amilcar Cabral, “bridge between Italy and Africa”: this is the appeal of Filomeno Lopes, journalist and author originally from Guinea Bissau like the independence leader , assassinated in 1973. The occasion for reflection was the Second Forum on Religious Freedom, hosted at Palazzo Chigi. According to Lopes, Cabral in the 1960s and 1970s was “the first” to build a bridge between Europe and Africa starting from Rome. Lopes then refers to the Mattei Plan, the Italian government’s initiative: “Today there is a lot of talk about it; however, it is good that we return to history, realizing that there is already something from which to start to improve the future”.

MYANMAR. SOLDIERS NEEDED, WORK PERMITS ABROAD BLOCKED

Stop work permits abroad for men of military age: this was decided by the military junta in power in Myanmar, a few weeks after the publication of an ordinance for enlistments. The context is marked by the intensification of the conflict between the army that responds to the authorities in Naypyidaw and armed groups rooted in regions that do not have a Burmese majority or where minority communities are present at a national level. Myanmar traditionally has communities of emigrants who work in neighboring Asian countries.