Praise where praise is due

[fpb]

There is a montain region in northern Italy where they speak German (rather, Tyrolean dialect) and treat anything and everything Italian with contempt and derision. I could say a lot of things about them, but there is no space here; let me just say that I do not treat South Tyrolers as Italians, and, although a large number of them race under Italian colours, especially in winter sports, when any of them wins "for Italy" and there is the three-coloured flag flying and our national anthem playing, I, for some reason, forget to applaud.

However, there is one person for whom I will make an exception. Her name is Denise Karbon, and apart from being a champion skier in giant slalom, she is a member of one of the Italian police forces. This shows unusual commitment to the country for a South Tyroler, and therefore I am willing to consider her an honorary Italian.

Which is just as well. Because a couple of days ago, young Denise crowned a sequel of triumphant slalom races by winning her seventh of the season -

- with a broken hand.

Comments

[atallvlad.livejournal.com]

She certainly looks (in the face) as if she is a direct descendant of Ostrogoths. Wasn't a large portion of northern Italy in the German empire from the time of the Visigoths/ Ostrogoths until very recently? relatively speaking. The historical atlas I am using only goes from ad 300 to ad 1361 and the northern parts of italy are firmly german from ad 600- ad 1361

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Never mind the Germans, most of whom are brown-haired anyway. There are blondes in Italy all the way down to Sicily. Julius Caesar was fair-haired, and so was Garibaldi.

[superversive.livejournal.com]

Considering how the South Tyrol came to be Italian territory, I don’t altogether blame people there for being unenthusiastic about it. ‘National self-determination to the Czechs, the Poles, the South Slavs, the Irish, Magyars, Vlachs, Letts, Litvaks, and everyone else in Europe, but not for thee, South Tyrol. Hard cheese, old chaps!’

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Considering that the same wonderful region contributed more volunteers per head of population to the SS than any part of German-occupied Europe including the mother country, you can understand why Vienna is unenthusiastic about taking them over. The Austrian view is that they have all the Tyrolers they want, thank you very much. Some Viennese call them the South Prussians - geddit? And at any rate, the one Italian thing that these racists do not mind is money. They do very comfortably thank you at the expense of the Italian taxpayer, while they make life impossible for any Italian taxpayer silly enough to work or settle there.

[superversive.livejournal.com]

It’s often the way with minorities that perceive themselves as being on the wrong side of a border. Croatia was also fertile recruiting ground for the Nazis, thanks to a generation of professionally aggrieved Croats who wanted to get even for being made part of Greater Serbia (aka Yugoslavia). I believe the Magyars in Transylvania were unusually nationalistic when Hungary (briefly) took them back from Romania in 1940. Here in the New World, the French-speaking population of Quebec gets away with a habit of openly festering racism that would not be tolerated if they were not able to play the victim card. (Yes, they’re still up in arms about having been conquered by Britain in 1759. The fact that France didn’t want them back does nothing to sweeten their mood.)

This doesn’t constitute an excuse for anyone’s ill behaviour, by any means; but it does to some degree provide an explanation of the psychological phenomenon. People will do evil for revenge (against real or imagined wrongs) that they would never do for mere fun and profit.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The making of Yugoslavia was one of the worst results of the criminal imbecility of Wilson and the pacifist legions at the Treaty of Versailles. I will have to post about it some time.

As for the rest, yes, you are right. But it does not make me love my ST fellow citizens any more.