Left for Dead
Plus, Renaissance cartography and Italy’s biggest new trap star
First, some horrific news: last week a 31-year old man named Satnam Singh died when he was abandoned by his employer after being mutilated by farm equipment. The incident happened as Singh was packing strawberries in the area of Latina, not far from Rome. During his shift he got his arm trapped inside a plastic roller wrapping machine — it was sliced-off by the blades. Instead of stepping-in to assist, the man’s boss dumped him outside his house, leaving his severed arm in a fruit box. Singh’s family rushed him to the a&e but it was too late. He died from a haemorrhage two days later. This is a grim story, I know. But it’s sadly unsurprising. Singh, as you might have deduced, had no legal contract. He was employed, like many thousands of others, in nero. His boss, afraid of being busted, took the gamble that Singh would survive without medical aid. He did not. The man is dead and the business is now under investigation for manslaughter. Politicians, for what it’s worth, are saying all the right things. Mattarella has spoken of the need to “end illegal and cruel work.” Meloni has talked of “harsh punishments.” What matters, of course, is concrete action. In the short-term Labour Minister Marina Calderone has pledged to double the number of inspections on farms – but this, frankly, seems a bare minimum. Trade unions and human rights groups are instead pushing for more robust measures, most notably reforms to the permesso di soggiorno system to make it easier for migrants to gain access to employment protections. Annalisa Camilli has has written up the story admirably for Internazionale here so do check that out if you read Italian.
Sometimes I fear this newsletter is turning into a grim documentation of this government’s slow-burn dismantling of democracy — but these, alas, are the times we live in. This week I’ve got another one for the list. Over the weekend, the centre left opposition obtained some impressive results in second round local elections in major cities, winning control, as expected, of the vast majority of seats in Bari, Perugia, and Florence (where — as I reported a few weeks ago – Sara Funaro was also elected as first female mayor). This is all good news for the PD and friends, then. Over at Fratelli d’Italia, however, the mood is rather glum. So glum, in fact, that President of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, has just put forward a proposal to abolish the ballottaggio [second round vote] entirely in cases where the overall vote share is above 40%. Looking at the latest results, even this would not have saved the right-wing coalitions; but it would, going ahead, give them space to consolidate several rural bases where they lead by just a few percentage points. In any case, make no mistake. La Russa is framing his proposal in terms of electoral efficiency and “tackling abstention”, but his motivations are without doubt those of party interest. Time and time again, when this government loses ground it proposes to change the system as a whole. Hence the ongoing threat to democracy. In the words of Elly Schlein: “it's not as if when you lose, you can just abolish elections. It doesn't work like that. I find it inappropriate — in fact very serious — that the second highest office of the State, in the first minutes after a defeat, talks about changing the rules: there’s no sense of institutional responsibility here.” Indeed.
The summer’s got off to a turbulent start in Italy this year with intense mini heatwaves in the north interrupted by fairly violent tropical-like storms. It’s constantly humid, unpredictable and – basically – very sticky. While sunbathers on the Riviera are complaining about erratic jumps from 40 degrees to 20 degrees, (sometimes in the same day) the situation is far worse in the south. Across the mezzogiorno the annual drought is already well underway. In Capri, one of Italy’s biggest summer travel destinations, the local administration was forced to temporarily ban tourists last week due to problems with the local water supply, which dwindled to just 11%. In Sicily, similarly, over 50 comuni are currently operating under ration conditions and many crops, especially grapes, are on the verge of collapse in the island’s central provinces. All of this and it’s only June. Long term forecasts suggest the next two months will be 2-3 degrees above average, and with the annual fire season coming up there is a real risk of some particularly violent blazes in the weeks ahead. So do stay safe out there.
Arts & Culture: Heresies
The Italian journalist Andrea di Robilant has got a new book out this week exploring the little known story of how Giovambattista Ramusio (1485-1577), a Venetian born cartographer, defied the repressive politics and religious dogma of his times to create the foundations of modern geography. This Earthly Globe: A Venetian Geographer and the Quest to Map the World is a mix of scholarly study and popular history. On the one hand the book documents the collective research that went into Ramusio’s masterpiece manuscript Delle navigationi et viaggi (1550) (a work which developed previous surveys by Arab geographers to create a ‘world map’, complete with proto-anthropological observations). At the same time, this is a fascinating and at times witty biography of Ramusio himself and the obstacles he faced in maintaining the good will of his patrons, avoiding imprisonment and ensuring he was paid on time (!) Ultimately, the author makes the compelling case that Ramusio was a kind of Galileo figure, a hero of the modern era who has been unjustly overlooked by Renaissance historians. Find out more about the book here if you’re interested.
20-year old Italian musician ANNA has been right up there on my Spotify playlist for a couple of years now. She is, without doubt, the most talented, fun and downright swag protagonist of a new generation of female pop-rap-trap stars working today. So far ANNA has mainly released singles and short EP's, including an impressive string of collaborations with Italy’s best known pop and rap artists (think Guè Pequeno, Sfera Ebbasta, Emis Killa etc). Tonight, at midnight, her first album VERA BADDIE is due to drop and while I’m 100% sure this is not going to be up everyone’s street, you should give it a listen anyway to get a sense of the direction Italian pop is moving in. Beat-wise we’re talking about a mix of deep house and R&B fused with some influences from UK bass and grime in particular. Italian critics have labelled this “Gen-Z music” because… ANNA is quite young?! I think that’s nonsense. These are fun party tunes, poolside tunes, driving tunes e basta! I for one am loving the singles and am hyped for this first full length release. Here’s the link to the album.
Recipe of the Week: Tagliarini with raw green and yellow courgette, brown shrimp, chilli and lemon
This is a traditional north Italian summer dish that you’re likely to find along the coasts of the Ligurian riviera all through the spring and summer when the zucchini are plentiful. I’m a big fan of Tim Siadatan’s slightly cheffy high cuisine riff on the classic preparation which makes use of freshly made egg pasta, two colours of vegetable and tiny brown shrimp. If you’re an experienced pasta maker and have a good mediterranean fishmonger near you then do go all in here and splash out: it’s totally worth it. What’s nice about this recipe, though, is that it’s adaptable. Can’t be faffed with egg pasta? Don’t like the supermarket stuff? Go ahead and use some dried linguine. Can’t find brown shrimp? Just go with regular prawns. Whatever you do just make sure to balance the dish with a good — and I mean a good — squeeze of lemon. This is a particularly elegant primo piatto which makes an excellent entree to a baked white fish. It’s also a fine meal in its own right for a date night or dinner party. So here’s the link.
I’m Jamie Mackay, a UK-born, Italy-based writer, working at the interfaces of journalism, criticism, poetry, fiction, philosophy, travelogue and cultural-history. I set up ‘The Week in Italy’ to make a space to share a regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds, to explore politics, current affairs, books, arts and food. If you’re a regular reader, and you enjoy these updates, I hope you’ll consider becoming a supporter for EUR 5.00 per month. I like to think of it as a weekly catch-up chat over an espresso. Alternatively, if you’d like to send a one-off something, you can do so via PayPal using this link. Grazie!