EUROPE/ITALY - “The Suitcase with a String”: Haven't we noticed how Africa is here among us, cultivating our lands? Haven't we all realized that our fields are no longer filled with our youth?

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - “When I hear someone with a big heart say 'now I want to give Africa an ambulance,' I think of the fact that beforehand, they would need streets, sewage systems, water purifiers, drinking water...Africa is a giant mine, of diamonds and gold, of unattainable minerals like coltan or uranium, oil, water and fertile lands, but then, for many Westerners it is just a place where everything is paid slowly, including safari photographs and sparkling oceans. Then, we don't realize that Africa is here among us, cultivating our lands for us and for our children. On our hills, one no longer sees colonial homes and ranches..but agricultural tourism and farmhouses turned into vacationing sites for city-dwellers. And when we see that Africa is here, we get scared. We say: 'They're coming to steal our jobs.' But, haven't we all realized that our fields are no longer filled with our youth? Hasn't everybody realized that the cheese that Rosa used to make no longer exists and instead, there are more and more Indians – those tall, curious-looking ones with a turban...ordering around the cows?” (Luca De Mata) (Anticipation for the television program “The Suitcase Tied with a String”: 4 episodes of a study on world immigration to be aired on the RAI beginning June 29) (Agenzia Fides 10/6/2009)