We’re publishing a new Postcard today by Roger Watson, a Professor of Nursing at the University of Hull. He’s just back from a teaching stint at the University of Genoa and did not have a happy time. Here is an extract:
If anyone who is unvaccinated is considering visiting Italy soon, I would strongly advise against it. Britain seems very civilised in comparison, despite having a run in with a BA official who questioned me about my lack of a mask on leaving the first class lounge in Heathrow, seemingly unaware that we were still on British soil. But, as reported in a Postcard from Istanbul, once the curtain was drawn behind us in BA Club Class, the masks were off and not donned again until arrival in Milan. From Milan I took the train to Genoa to work at the University of Genoa, where I teach regularly, for a week. It is worth noting that I completed the European Passenger Location Form using details from my British passport but, to avoid the queue at the border, I used my Irish passport to enter Italy. I expected to be questioned about the lack of congruence between this passport and the one used to complete the online form which, I assumed, would have to match at immigration. I was through like the proverbial dose of pesto thus indicating, beyond reasonable doubt, that the completion and submission of passenger location forms is a complete waste of time.
You may enter Italy unvaccinated after the requisite Covid tests and then a period of quarantine. But, thereafter, freedom does not beckon as, wherever you step out of quarantine, you will remain… indefinitely. No form of public transport such as trains, buses and internal flights is permitted without displaying a euphemistically named ‘Green Pass’ (Italy’s vaccine passport). If anyone from the U.K. wants to see what the introduction of vaccine passports will be like, then Italy is already there. Mask wearing is strongly enforced on public transport with repeated ‘mascherina’ messages over the PA system.
Social distancing is requested too but the one exception was taxis where, ironically, you can be squeezed into very close proximity with your fellow passengers without the benefit of any social distancing. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that passengers are not allowed to travel in the front of the taxi beside the driver, so it was common for three people to be arse cheek by jowl in the back. On one journey I was asked to mask up in a taxi that had no functioning seat belt.
Worth reading in full.
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Actually, life is just a bowl of All Bran, to quote the song.
Indeed. What’s so offensive about asking whether a person is from Africa?
What could be more racist than thinking that coming from Africa is insulting?
I’m half British and have spent my adult life here. I identify as British, as least in part. I don’t care much for the character traits of the people with which I share my other nationality.
I’ve had people say I don’t have an accent, but sometimes at least I must do, as I occassionally do get asked where I am from. This does annoy me, as I feel it casts me as an outsider.
Also, it hurts my pride a bit, as I like to think my upper crust accent is near perfect.
I do realise that people think it is polite to show an interest, which to a point it is. What I would say is that this Lady whatshername should have realised that when the black lady with the African clothes said she was from Hackney, that was a massive hint to move on to the next conversation topic.
That would have been the right response IF the woman in question wasn’t wearing African Fancy Dress and was clearly signalling her ethnic origins and therefore inviting a question about her origins.
It was a set-up.
I was shopping in Wells market a couple of weeks ago and a chap running a stall spoke English with a strong accent so I asked him where he came from. I was interested in his background – I wanted to learn something. He seemed happy to chat and it turned out he was Romanian. I asked him about Bucherest and how I’d get from there to Transylvania to “Dracula’s castle.” He gave me some advice.
It was a perfectly civilised, interesting conversation. I wasn’t rude and neither was he. I bought something from him.
The British-born woman who chose to wear African Fancy Dress to the Palace was on a mission to “make a point and be offended” and unfortunately, Lady Hussey didn’t understand that so walked into the trap.
Charlie-boy and William’s reaction was disgraceful.
I have also read that the “African” lady has parents from Barbados and a birth name to match.
Fair enough, but wouldn’t that make her guilty of “Cultural Misappropriation”, at least as bad as some youth wearing a sombrero in a Mexican restaurant?
And strange that she and her chum managed to have the event on film?
A shame a curious 83 year old should have 62 years of service to the Crown vaporised, by the King and her Godson Prince. They should (but won’t be) thoroughly ashamed.