“Ancona never changes, but living there is fine”. Ancona is becoming a metaphor for Europe.

“Vedutina” di Ancona

Written by a native of Ancona, who now lives abroad, the second affirmation may seem parochial-minded. But it is justified by the first, which was said by another native of Ancona living abroad, the eminent doctor Giovanni Capannelli, who is special advisor to the dean of think-tank Asian Development Bank Institute.
These two expat Ancona natives met, demonstrating the Small Worlds Theory, at the Business & Investment Summit held in Phnom Penh alongside the Asean Summit (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
In a certain sense, the business summit turned out to be more interesting than the political one. Mainly because it provided an understanding and analysis of the megatrends that are shifting the centre of the world towards the east. In the interview he gave me after his speech, Capannelli defined these trends as “inexorable”, outlining an extremely complex scenario that was at times hard to grasp. As he spoke, I tried to follow his analysis yet could not help recognising my own regional accent, and he was quick to point out, as most Ancona natives are, that he was “from Ancona”. It was then that Ancona was suggested as a metaphor for Europe in the global scenario, and the Asian scenario in particular. While the old continent may currently be going through a period of static development, it can still be upheld as a cultural model. You only need to have the awareness and the ability to declare it. Thanks to that example, it was much easier for me to understand the dynamics and the possibilities of the near future. Which, in the end, thanks to Ancona, does not seem so dark.
It can also be said that Italy at the Asean Summit was well represented by an Ancona native. Not myself of course, but there were two of us.

You know how it is there early in the morning in Bangkok, with the soup sellers serving breakfast? Well, I crossed the river and took a mototaxi to Silom Road, one of the city’s main streets. I got off at a crossroads opposite a pagoda-style gateway in a long grey wall. Beyond the gateway was a hut and a canopy furnished with a bed, a stove, a TV and a fan. An old man was smoking next to the fan. On the bed a woman breastfed her baby while watching TV. They both smiled and waved.
Beyond that little house and courtyard was a broad open space dotted with graves. It’s an old abandoned Chinese cemetery. They say the bodies have been moved elsewhere. But the graves don’t seem to have been opened, even though they are overgrown with weeds and scattered with bags of trash and crumbling gravestones. Some still have the leftovers of offerings, flowers or fruit just wilting or rotting, as though people had left them there quite recently.
An India-rubber tree stands over the last few graves and its roots hanging down from the branches form a kind of curtain. Beyond that natural curtain is a metal sheet and mesh construction. This is the Fighting Spirit Gym, where the traditional Thai martial art Muay Thai is taught and practiced.

It’s a clean, well-lighted place, open-sided so cool, and populated with animals: seven dogs, cats, a squirrel, a parrot, two iguanas. You will always find a curled-up dog or the parrot perched somewhere. Sometimes they even follow you into the ring. The instructors are all former professionals, and some are still fighting. They have a lot of fun watching the farang, the foreigners like me, try to put power into a kick. But they are kind. “Not bad for an old man”. Strangely, they are not afraid of the phi, the spirits or ghosts, that may be haunting the place. “The energy is good here,” says the Australian who opened the gym, a tattoo-covered character seemingly taken straight from an action movie, with a calm smile.

So, this is a fragment of a morning in Bangkok. It would have pleased Hemingway, a few of whose words I have quoted here. It also made me think of To Have and Have Not.

Back home after training, I continued writing one of the many stories that I observe and write for various newspapers. Often I don’t even know what they are about, or whether they will be published. I do it anyway: if nothing else they can feature on this blog. Besides, I’m no good at anything else, not even a good kick.