L'Italo-Americano
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2020
www.italoamericano.org
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Cin Cin to 2020: what Italy needs
from the New Year
W
e've been
living in a
new decade
for almost
two weeks,
and so many things have already
happened. Yet, the month of
January is, more often than not, a
time when we look back at what
we did and set up standards for
what we'd like to do.
The same is true for countries.
And so, we wonder, what does
Italy want from the new year?
2019 wasn't simple for the
Belpaese: the government fell
and reformed, leaving one of the
country's most controversial par-
ties at the opposition and a great
deal of instability and confusion.
Rome is filthy and apparently the
city council cannot do a thing
about it. Young people have no
jobs and keep fleeing the coun-
try, in search of better opportuni-
ties which, often, they find
across the ocean, in the US.
Towards the end of the year,
Venezia risked to drawn under
the waters of its lagoon, Matera
found itself under the deluge and
regions like Liguria faced a
series of environmental cata-
strophes worthy of the apocaly-
pse.
Bad year, then, you must
think. Well, let's not say that so
quickly.
It's amazing how we remem-
ber off the top of our heads only
the negative but we have to go
online or check out the newspa-
pers to make a list of what's
good, as I have just demonstrated
to myself, by writing the first
paragraph of this piece without
opening one single window on
my browser, but having to
check out an article or two to
make a list of the "good stuff"
Italy did in 2019.
And you know what, there
was quite a lot of it.
For instance, Milan and
Cortina were chosen to host the
2026 Winter Olympics, an event
that will not only bring funding
and jobs to Lombardia, but will
also offer a great opportunity to
the country to showcase once
again its beauty to the world.
Speaking of economy, our
export rose of a good 3.4% since
2018 and it should rise even
more this year, in spite of the
economic crisis, and Trump's
tariffs. And, even if many people
lost their jobs last year —but this
doesn't only happen in Italy,
unfortunately — due to the
ongoing difficulties to keep busi-
nesses afloat, Italy was also
Milan and Cortina will host the 2026 Winter Olympics: a great Italian achievement of 2019 (Copyright: Dreamstime)
Italy has long been seen as one of the countries worst hit by an academic brain drain (Copyright: Dreamstime)
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