Learning from each other

Learning from each other

We must give full marks to that great Italian crusader, Piero
Ronci, for his dogged determination to, at every opportunity,
expose his anti-British sentiment, whether it is denouncing all
footballers who ever kicked a ball on UK turf, berating
commentators who dare to use English when waxing poetically about
the great game of soccer, conducting a single handed campaign to
protect Indonesians from the "corrupting influence" of the
English language. And now, the latest, highly predictable input
from him in attempting to further demean anything remotely
British is his gross oversimplification of the mad cow crisis.

Other worthier commentators have taken him to task about his
arrant nonsense about football, and his ratings about the English
language, and I have no doubt that at this moment someone is
preparing to demolish his provocative comments about BSE (mad cow
disease).

My point in writing is, at this moment, not to engage in an
unseemly comparison of the merits of his home country versus my
home country, as to do so would crassly insult the hundreds of
Italian expatriates who live here, some of them friends of mine,
and who somehow manage to live in harmony in this cosmopolitan
community. No, my point, is to invite him to come clean over why
he feels qualified to speak for the Indonesian people on such an
astonishing range of topics. Tell us, Piero, who are you? What
are you?

Let us know through the medium of these letters so that, who
knows, we may learn to respect your opinions as someone who has
special skills, knowledge and experience. It is indeed incredible
that Italy, that country of infinite beauty, an earlier cradle of
civilization, and birthplace of so many painters, musicians,
architects and so on, bringing civilization to the world, can a
generation or two later spew out such a contradiction as
yourself.

BILL GUERIN

Jakarta