[Peace-discuss] I don't want to go to Milan

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

Well Carl between your "[Peace-discuss] Sous les pavés, la plage? " post and
this one, it would appear that optimists around the world have all kinds of
reasons to celebrate in a Candide-like fashion.  Apparently when times get
tough, the tough show their ugly faces and drop their masks to show all the
qualities of the human species that remind us that we are no better than any
of the other species and maybe worse.  If we add the environmental problems
to the mix, the future should be a return to our primitive past - be it the
world of tribal societies or the world of the Dark Ages.   We will all
become hunter-gatherers who distrust, banish, and kill those who are not
exactly like us in battles of the "we" against "them" under a cultural
mantel "Social Darwinism." 

Hobbes' primitive state was a literary fiction which he used to account for
the rise of society; but it looks as if the future will make the "war of all
against all where life is nasty, brutish, and short" a reality.  One has to
wonder at what point society will have reached the tipping point of no
return and all notions of reform, progressive advancement, or civility will
be feasible or viable. However, I do know that when we reach that tipping
point the optimists among us will proclaim that we are living in "the best
of all possible worlds" which offers us the chance of future improvement we
and a better world. Unfortunately, it may very well be in the hereafter, if
one believes in such a thing, and not here on earth.


-----Original Message-----
From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of C. G.
Estabrook
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 9:12 PM
To: peace-discuss
Subject: [Peace-discuss] I don't want to go to Milan


 From The Times
January 31, 2009
Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities

Richard Owen in Rome
The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China.

It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian
cities as 
it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the 
centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi.

The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and 
leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week,
where 
the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the
ancient 
city walls.

Yesterday it spread to Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, which is
also 
run by the centre Right. The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in
the 
restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of 
ethnic cuisines”.

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Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League
from 
the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking

down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our

culture,” he said.

Mr Zaia said that those ethnic restaurants allowed to operate “whether they 
serve kebabs, sushi or Chinese food” should “stop importing container loads
of 
meat and fish from who knows where” and use only Italian ingredients.

Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to

prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse
to 
eat pineapple.”

Mehmet Karatut, who owns one of four kebab shops in Lucca, said that he used

Italian meat only.

Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also
opposes 
the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop owners were 
prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.

“This is a new Lombard Crusade against the Saracens,” La Stampa, the daily 
newspaper, said. The centre-left opposition in Lucca said that the campaign
was 
discrimination and amounted to “culinary ethnic cleansing”.

Vittorio Castellani, a celebrity chef, said: “There is no dish on Earth that

does not come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that

have met and mingled over time.”

He said that many dishes thought of as Italian were, in fact, imported. The
San 
Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift from

Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. Even spaghetti, it is 
thought, was brought back from China by Marco Polo, and oranges and lemons
came 
from the Arab world.

Mr Castellani said that the ban reflected growing intolerance and xenophobia
in 
Italy. It was also a blow to immigrants who make a living by selling ethnic 
food, which is popular because of its low cost. There are 668 ethnic
restaurants 
in Milan, a rise of nearly 30 per cent in one year.

The centre Right won national elections in April last year partly because of

alarm about crime and immigration. This week there was a series of attacks
on 
immigrants in bars and shops after the arrest of six Romanians accused of 
gang-raping an Italian girl in the Rome suburb of Guidonia.

Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, said: “To accuse us of racism is 
outrageous. All we are doing is protecting the culinary patrimony of the
town.”

Massimo Di Grazia, the city spokesman, said that the ban was intended to
improve 
the image of the city and to protect Tuscan products. “It targets McDonald’s
as 
much as kebab restaurants,” he added.

There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said

that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about
Sicilian 
cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.
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