He was attacked on the night of Monday 6 July, Federico Quaranta, the radio and television host, from three very young boys for a watch. An Omega of his father who, in his opinion, was just “an excuse”. From the hospital bed where he was hospitalized he wrote a long post, a lucid and dramatic reflection on the situation facing the metropolis of Milan and our society.
Quaranta writes: «Tonight I understood something. They didn’t attack me for a watch. That old Omega of my father was just the pretext. Three very young boys did it. For a backpack. A suitcase. I reacted, they probably didn’t expect it, I took a big risk, it went well. Perhaps it would have been better to leave the loot behind. It could have been much worse. But on the way home I kept wondering one thing. What city are we building? ».
A reflection on the Lombard capital that bounces from one suburb to another and questions us at all levels. An increasingly ferocious and exclusive city, where if you can make it, otherwise… take a seat. And so the first to go are precisely the professions we need, those of care from nurses to teachers.
«Because Milan» continues Quaranta, «now looks more and more like a modern Comedy by Dante. Only we’ve reversed Hell. In the center are the golden fences. The armored windows. Homes that cost as much as a life. The neighborhoods where luxury is no longer a privilege: it is a defense system. Then, circle after circle, the metropolis changes its skin. The sidewalks wear out. The shutters lower. Services disappear. Schools are struggling. Opportunities are decreasing.”
Quaranta’s reflection continues with surgical clarity on the new Italian Dubai: «And the distance between those who have everything and those who think they no longer have anything becomes an abyss. Anthropology teaches us that every community needs to feel part of a common destiny. Sociology reminds us that when that destiny is broken, fragmentation arises. Neighborhood first. Then the band. Then the pack. Finally, the enemy: a man who returns home to his daughter, with a backpack full of experiences, a bag of clothes to wash and an old watch, a memory of his beloved father.”
And it continues with an impeccable examination of the violence that spreads among young people: «the enemy becomes three very young boys, plastered with brands, devoured by social anger and revenge. This is how the brand replaces the identity. The brand becomes belonging. Violence becomes language. Theft becomes ransom. But it’s not real. It’s just a defeat. As well as my reaction. Of everyone. Because the city stops being a community when its citizens no longer share the same space. Just the same fear. And a society is poor not when it produces many poor people. But when it generates more and more people convinced that the only way to exist is to take something away from someone else. That’s not crime. AND the failure of an idea of coexistence, which concerns all of us. No one should feel excluded.”
Thank you Federico, wishing you a speedy recovery, we hope that your words will enlighten those who are called to manage this city so that it returns to being the Milan col coeur in man that we all love so much.
