FRANCO FERRAll-OTT!
351
Montaigne, through the
Mornings in Florence
and
The Stones cifVenice
by John
Ruskin, not to mention
Old Calabria
by Norman Douglas, a trip to Italy
as a
Bildungsrornan
is almost a commonplace. What is new in Fernandez is
the attempt to capture the ambivalence of the Italian character that, in this
scene, seems to portray present-day European ambivalence: the charm of
the sunshine in Naples and, at the same time, the gloomy but productive
Hamburg that is filled with romantic pathos. I do not know whether the
"clear pleasure" of Southern European everyday life can be righdy repre–
sented by Giacomo Casanova, as Fernandez maintains--some sort of Don
Juan in Soren Kierkegaard's sense who stops short of reaching the ethical
level and seems quite satisfied with the purely aesthetic enjoyment of the
fleeting instant. With all due respect to the fear that a united Europe
exclusively concerned with balanced budgets and economic performance
might result in the prosaic kingdom of busy and narrow-minded store–
keepers, the Europe of tomorrow faces cultural problems that call for
political accomodation and go well beyond a purely pragmatic approach.
Sensitive and learned commentators are fully aware of the impact of
such issues. The transition from national currency to the euro might be
fairly easy for countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. But for
Germany it is another story, although the overall dominance of the
Bundesbank as the severe financial gatekeeper of Europe might induce
many people to think that the "euro" is just another name for the beloved
Deutschmark. The situation is more serious for France: the introduction of
a common European currency, writes Mary Blume in
The International
Herald Tribune
(April 4-5, 1998), "is a nightmare in a country where peo–
ple still talk in the old francs that ceased to exist in 1958, when much of
today's population had not even been born. How will they handle the grim
day,June 30,2002 at the latest, when the franc definitively disappears?"
However, perhaps even more serious problems are facing tomorrow's
united Europe. True: Europe will be one of the most prosperous world
markets with a population rating rather high in terms of average literacy
and general cultural background. But what about extra-community inte–
gration? This is bound to grow and Europe cannot fool herself by thinking
that she will be able to stand the siege indefinitely. For one thing, demog–
raphy is against Europe as it is against most developed countries. These
countries are economically and technically powerful but demographically
weak. They will need manpower to sustain their growth and continued
welfare. This means that they will be forced to give in to a certain quota
of extra-community immigration. But organizing a multicultural and
multi-ethnic society poses an ominous problem. So far, the only advanced
multi-ethnic society is the United States. From this point of view, Europe
lags behind. Italy is almost exclusively concerned with protecting its coast-
