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Fitzmayowa's Posts

Nairaland Forum › Fitzmayowa's Profile › Fitzmayowa's Posts

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Romance › Re: Describe The Person You Would Never Date by fitzmayowa: 9:01pm On May 04, 2013
Loading...
Dating And Meet-up Zone › Re: Please Nairalanders, Rate My Wife To Be (pic) by fitzmayowa: 9:03pm On May 02, 2013
What about asking us when to sleep with herhuh Na wa for some peeps on NL...
Politics › Re: Sullivan Chime Dies In India: Rumor? by fitzmayowa: 11:08am On May 02, 2013
This same rumor again
Education › Re: ASUP Begins Indefinite Strike by fitzmayowa: 10:38am On May 02, 2013
Not again
Celebrities › Re: PHOTO: Tuface And His Daughter by fitzmayowa: 10:37am On May 02, 2013
cute daughter
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) › Re: Loved At Chelsea And Hated In Spain: Is Mourinho Right? by fitzmayowa: 10:24am On May 02, 2013
following
Celebrities › Re: Shellie Bo-Talley Is 55 But Looks 29 (Pictures) by fitzmayowa: 10:23am On May 02, 2013
shocked
Politics › Re: 10,000MW Not Realisable By December - Nebo by fitzmayowa: 10:19am On May 02, 2013
lobatan
Politics › Re: Perpetrators Of Corruption Are Organised-Labour Members – Jonathan by fitzmayowa: 10:19am On May 02, 2013
hmmmm
Politics › Re: Nigeria Has No Reason To Be Poor — EU by fitzmayowa: 10:18am On May 02, 2013
they should tell that to our corrupt leaders
Politics › Re: Posters Of Lamido And Amaechi Flood Idah, Kogi State. by fitzmayowa: 10:17am On May 02, 2013
hmmmm
Politics › Re: Tattered National Flag At African First-Ladies’ Mission Office by fitzmayowa: 9:42am On May 02, 2013
na wa oooooooo
Foreign Affairs › Italy Appoints First Black Minister by fitzmayowa(op): 9:23am On May 02, 2013
It was hailed as a giant step forward for racial integration in a country that has long been ill at ease with its growing immigrant classes.

But Cecile Kyenge's appointment as Italy's first black Cabinet minister has instead exposed the nation's ugly race problem, a blight that flares regularly on the soccer pitch with racist taunts and in the diatribes of xenophobic politicians — but has now raised its head at the center of political life.

One politician from a party that not long ago ruled in a coalition derided what he called Italy's new ‘bonga bonga government.’ On Wednesday, amid increasing revulsion over the reaction, the government authorised an investigation into neo-fascist websites whose members called Kyenge "Congolese monkey" and other epithets.

Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children. She was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections.

Premier Enrico Letta tapped Kyenge to be minister of integration in his hybrid center-left and center-right government that won its second vote of confidence on Tuesday. In his introductory speech to Parliament, Letta touted Kyenge's appointment as a "new concept about the confines of barriers giving way to hope, of unsurpassable limits giving way to a bridge between diverse communities."

His praise and that of others has been almost drowned out by the racist slurs directed at Kyenge by politicians of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, an on-again, off-again ally of long-serving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, and members of neo-fascist Internet groups.

In addition to his "bonga bonga" slur, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian for the League, warned in an interview with Radio 24 that Kyenge would try to "impose tribal traditions" from her native Congo on Italy.

Kyenge on Tuesday responded to the insults, thanking those who had come to her defense and taking a veiled jab at the vulgarity of her critics. "I believe even criticism can inform if it's done with respect," she tweeted.

Unlike France, Germany or Britain, where second and third generations of immigrants have settled albeit uneasily, Italy is a relative newcomer to the phenomenon. France has several high-ranking government ministers with immigrant roots, and few French had a problem with the appointments: Former President Nicolas Sarkozy named a justice minister and urban policy minister, both born in France to North African parents, to his cabinet, while his minister for human rights was born in Senegal.

Francois Hollande's government spokeswoman was born in Morocco and raised in France, and his interior minister was born in Spain. He also has two black ministers from French overseas territories — one from Guyana and one from Guadeloupe.

Italy is another story. Once a country of emigration to North and South America at the turn of the last century, Italy saw the first waves of migrants from Eastern Europe and Africa coming to its shores only in the 1980s. In the last decade or two, their numbers have increased exponentially, and with them anti-immigrant sentiment: Surveys show Italians blame immigrants for crime and overtaxing the already burdened public health system. Foreigners made up about 2 per cent of Italy's population in 1990; currently the figure stands at 7.5 per cent, according to official statistics bureau Istat.

Some of the most blatant manifestations of racism occur in the realm of Italy's favorite sport, soccer — which for Italians and others has shown itself to be a perfect venue for displays of pent-up emotions. In the case of a handful of Italian teams, soccer is a way for right-wing fan clubs to vent.

Mario Balotelli, the AC Milan striker born in Palermo to Ghanaian immigrants and raised by an Italian adoptive family, knows all about it. Perhaps Italy's best player today, he has long been the subject of racist taunts on and off the field: Rival fans once hung a banner during a match saying "Black Italians don't exist" while the vice-president of his own club once called him the household's "little black boy."

Balotelli called Kyenge's nomination "another great step forward for an Italian society that is more civil, responsible and understanding of the need for better, definitive integration."
The race situation is almost schizophrenic in Italy. In the same week Kyenge was made a government minister and Balotelli was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, AC Milan's cross-town rival, Juventus, was fined 30,000 euro for fans' racist taunts during a game against Milan in which Balotelli wasn't even playing.

"There was no racism 40 years ago because there were no non-white Italians," said James Walston, a political science professor at American University of Rome. "You need the other in order to hate the other."

"It will take a long time — probably there will never be a completely racism-free society — but it will take a long time for Italy to reach the sort of acceptance, multi-cultural acceptance that the rest of Europe has and North America has," he said in an interview.
Kyenge got off to a rocky start with the Northern League when, on the day she was named minister, she said one of her top priorities would be to make it easier for children of immigrants born in Italy to obtain Italian citizenship. Currently, such children can only apply once they turn 18.

The issue has vexed Italy for years and previous center-left governments have failed to change the law even though most Italians — 72 per cent according to a 2012 Istat-aided study — favour it. It's not just a matter of a passport but has real impact on the ability of an immigrant family to integrate into Italian society: Children of non-European Union (EU) immigrants born in Italy, for example, can't take advantage of the EU citizen discounts at the Colosseum and other cultural treasures, having to pay full admission prices to get in to learn the heritage of the nation where they were born. If they were Italian citizens, they'd get in free until they were 18.

But raising an issue that so riles the Northern League — during an already tense political transition — was enough to set off Roberto Maroni, the interior minister in Berlusconi's last center-right government and a top League official. Maroni immediately demanded that his successor as interior minister make clear his position on the law.

Other members of Maroni's party were more blunt: Italian newspapers quoted the head of the League in Italy's northern Lombardy region Matteo Salvini as saying that Kyenge was a "symbol of a hypocritical and do-gooding left that wants to cancel out the crime of illegal immigration and thinks only about immigrants' rights and not their duties."

La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, meanwhile, cited the vile insults directed at her on fascist Internet groups such as www.ilduce.net. Repubblica said the antagonism was born from the League's basic opposition to a minister who tends to favour immigrant rights.

"But the racist origins had to explode. And here they are. True, they're consigned to the stupid transience of the Web, but they're a sign of the widespread climate of hatred" in the country, the paper wrote.

Coming to Kyenge's defence was Laura Boldrini, the president of parliament's lower chamber, who for years was the chief spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. refugee agency.

In that role she frequently defended the rights of immigrants — and squared off with Northern League leaders after they pushed through a controversial 2009 policy to send back would-be Libyan migrants without screening them first for asylum.

"It is indecent that in a civil society there can be a series of insults — on websites but not only there — that are being hurled against the neo-minister Cecile Kyenge," Boldrini said. "Like many people, watching her take her oath of office I felt that Italy was taking an important step forward, and not just for 'new Italians.'"

Also defending Kyenge was the other foreign-born minister in Letta's government, Josefa Idem, a German-born Italian who won five Olympic kayaking medals before retiring after the London Games.

Idem is Italy's new equal opportunities minister — one of seven women in Letta's government — and in that role authorised an investigation by Italy's national anti-discrimination office into the racist online slurs directed against Kyenge.
Italian news reports quoted Idem as saying she was doing so in her capacity as minister "but also as a woman."

Sociologist Michele Sorice at Rome's Luiss University said Italians have long harboured racist attitudes, stemming from the nation's colonial past in north Africa, but that they stayed hidden until the Northern League "legitimized" xenophobic political rhetoric after entering the government in the 1990s. The League denies it's xenophobic and says it is merely protecting the interests of Italians.

Italy has since become more sensitised to the issue, Sorice said, but it still lags behind its European and North American partners. Changing the law on citizenship, as Kyenge wants, "wouldn't do anything more than to bring Italy into line with the great European traditions," he said.

But he was doubtful that this particular government, made up of longtime political rivals, could pull it off when even previous center-left governments had failed to do so.

"It remains to be seen how this can be done on a practical level with a coalition government," he said.



http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/01/italys-racism-problem-exposed-with-first-black-cabinet-minister/

Nairaland General › Re: Happy New Month To All Nairalanders by fitzmayowa: 12:58pm On May 01, 2013
baynix: [size=20] I Cannot Categorically Wish U A Happy New Month Now, because I May Say It Now & My Oga At D Top Will Say It's WORKER'S DAY.
Anyway-- www. HappyNewMonth.. ... Datz All!
[/size]
this is suppose to be funny huh
Romance › Re: Exchanging Saliva During Kissing by fitzmayowa: 8:01pm On Apr 30, 2013
vizboy: She must be a learner. Try teaching her
She is a pre learner
Romance › Re: Am Finally In Love With A Nairalander!!!!!!! by fitzmayowa: 6:26pm On Apr 30, 2013
fruityjojo: Ehn ehnngrin. Wen wee my own nairaland yove come, wen wee I testify like dis cheesy cheesy.
Fruity sweery...your yove is here waiting for you...oya come let me taking you outti grin
Romance › Re: I Cheated On My Husband And I Plan To Continue by fitzmayowa: 6:19pm On Apr 30, 2013
This is indeed serious
Romance › Re: Man Proposes To His Girlfriend With a Drone by fitzmayowa: 4:53pm On Apr 29, 2013
#singing#

I will catch a grenade for you grin
Politics › Re: Mob Demolish PHCN Lagos Office Over Crazy Bill by fitzmayowa: 4:36pm On Apr 29, 2013
berem: Dem never see anything. yeye NEPA people. Thank God they have been banned from entering my estate until they finish constructing the feeder which have been left incomplete for over a decade. FOOLISH PEOPLE! AWON OLORIBURUKU OSHI! AWON OLEE! WOOO! tongue
Babe you dey vex ooo...oya come and take cold water make you use am cool temper grin
Fashion › Re: Oge Okoye & Princess Chineke On House Of Maliq May Front Cover by fitzmayowa: 4:33pm On Apr 29, 2013
Hmmm
Celebrities › Re: Oluchi Onweagba Orlandi Turns 31 Today by fitzmayowa: 4:30pm On Apr 29, 2013
Hbd
Jobs/Vacancies › Re: CV/Resume Tips To Get The Interview by fitzmayowa: 3:37pm On Apr 29, 2013
*following* mod abeg FP
Jobs/Vacancies › Re: Share Your Job Interview Experiences by fitzmayowa: 3:07pm On Apr 29, 2013
Interesting
Health › Re: Why Bowel Movement Is Very Important. by fitzmayowa: 2:38pm On Apr 29, 2013
Hmmm *following*
Romance › Re: How To Treat A Lady! by fitzmayowa: 1:28pm On Apr 29, 2013
Politics › Re: GEJ Is Playing Politics With Amaechi – Okupe by fitzmayowa: 1:23pm On Apr 29, 2013
[quote author=Okija_juju]I have a strong belief that Okupe is a sleeper agent of the CPC that has infilterated the Government of PDP and is slowly destroying the PDP from the inside..

GEJ should fire this Punk!!! angry

What kind of responses are those?! Even a Primary School class prefect would have handled those questions better.
[/quote]Why is he called retardeen, if not for him keeping the likes of okupe on his team...The guy is indeed a PUNK
Crime › Re: Husband Slaughters Wife In Lagos by fitzmayowa: 1:19pm On Apr 29, 2013
Instead of taking the woman's life why not just divorce her...what a wicked world
May God grant the family of the deceased the fortitude to bear the loss...SMH
Politics › Re: Home Of Former IGP, Hafiz-Ringim Bombed by fitzmayowa: 1:14pm On Apr 29, 2013
* I was just passing by *


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Celebrities › Re: Jim Iyke And Fiancee Kenturah Separated? by fitzmayowa: 1:07pm On Apr 29, 2013
*just passing by*


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TV/Movies › Re: Oluchi Hosts “Next Top Model” For Africa by fitzmayowa: 5:35pm On Apr 27, 2013
Larrey: ♏Ɣ frndy
Na lie na you be that...you fine small sha grin

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