South of the South we must not give up
“A sud del Sud” by Giuseppe Smorto (publisher Zolfo) read by Tullio Fazzolari
The surprise is that, at least for once, there is talk of Calabria and not only of 'Ndrangheta. This is the first spontaneous observation that comes from reading “A sud del Sud” by Giuseppe Smorto ( publisher Zolfo, 176 pages, 16 euros ). Unlike most of the journalists, essayists, sociologists and magistrates who deal with this region with commitment and courage, Smorto did not allow himself to be infected by the "reductio ad unum" syndrome which is certainly an effective way to denounce the scourge of organized crime but sometimes it risks having an undesirable discouraging effect because, if in Calabria there is only the 'Ndrangheta, then the war is already lost and it is no longer worth fighting. Which, on the other hand, can not only be done but is more than ever indispensable and “South of the South” proves it convincingly.
It is not cheap optimism. Far from it. In Smorto's book the overwhelming weight of the 'Ndrangheta is neither ignored nor underestimated. However, there is the awareness that one cannot resign oneself to an unacceptable reality. And that the solution is not necessarily to emigrate to seek work and fortune elsewhere. Even if staying is not easy. But the more than twenty Calabrian stories that “South of the South” tells show that it is possible. They are all examples of courage and determination, of cultural sensitivity and entrepreneurial talent. But who could have fooled themselves that it was easy to organize a festival in an arena in Amantea that had been closed for decades or to create a company in Catanzaro that supplies bread to Rome and Milan? Yet some Calabrians have done it and have done it in recent years. Without and despite the 'Ndrangheta.
In the end, the feeling is that each of these stories is a victory in the struggle to restore Calabria the dignity it deserves. Perhaps they are not enough but they are not even few and the most strategically serious mistake would have been to ignore them. “South of the South” has the merit of avoiding this risk by giving a signal of hope without emphasis. In this way it adds something to the literature on Calabria. Beautiful and unmissable books such as "Africo" or the more recent "Statale 106" have made us fully understand the gravity of the situation. Smorto's indicates that we must resist and not give up. Without having too many illusions and keeping in mind the reality that emerges from the last eight pages of "Al sud del Sud" that should not be read but studied. They are statistics on the quality of life, on the health system, on all economic indicators. The disaster is such that we realize that the 'Ndrangheta is not the only enemy but there are decades of clientelist policies, of bad administration. To change it takes another war (or maybe it is the same one …) that cannot be avoided.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/a-sud-del-sud/ on Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:18:02 +0000.