By GiLar
Italy is a beautiful country, in its different forms in all its culture and what we live and above all we find in every place we visit, but Calabria is the most beautiful region there is, where if they were still alive, both Beckett and Ionesco would have created great “theatrical absurd” masterpieces. Where even the tragedies of Sophocles would be rose water and Calabrisella.
Ennio Flaiano was right, Flaiano is always right, “The situation is serious, but not serious”. This is the title of the “soap opera” entitled, “Will the Ionian-Tirreno Highway close or not?” and with a sequel more or less like this, “Who Framed Anas?”.
But were we joking and were we in the new season of “Seriously”? Otherwise the situation is truly worrying, but above all embarrassing and not only for Calabria and for those who govern it, where yesterday like French mannequins with badly programmed centrifuge hair and “zzumpafossi” trousers, they had rejoiced over the non-closure of the highway ” Jonio-Tirreno” and praised the president of the Calabria Region Roberto Occhiuto who lets us know in the press that, “almost certainly the Limina gallery will not close, we are optimistic”, to us that “we are optimistic” which worries us (sic!). And I believe that the genius of Leibniz would also have worried about the optimistic condition, but above all about the thought of “divine fate” or what will be the fate of the best possible combination among the infinite combinations, in simple words, “we are in Mary’s arms”.
But exactly, without anything to expect, what is there to celebrate in all this (similar) farce?
Let’s go in order, we talked about it several times and we’ll do it again.
In May, an emergency meeting was called in the Prefecture of Reggio Calabria and Anas communicated the criticality of the two tunnels (Torbido and Limina), announcing a closure for “extraordinary and urgent works” for over a month and a half starting from the 15th. May until July 27th. We know that summer comes from June, we were taught that in elementary school, right? There comes a halt from the Region and therefore politics which (as always) overcomes science, averting the closure and postponing it to September (like now), everyone is happy, the season is saved and Anas adapts with a statement that talks about ” provisional safety works” (?). But in the meantime the road, although in terrible structural conditions and clearly visible, remains (still and still) open. Calabrian politics with a regional councilor whose name is Calabrese and who comes from Locri (having been mayor), prevails over the science of the State and therefore of Anas.
You travel along that road with an open construction site and in the construction sites you always notice the writing “Entry prohibited for non-experts”, evidently motorists and holidaymakers have this concession in derogation.
Throughout the summer a sanding of fissures and swelling of cabbasisi with the safety of the “Jonio-Tirreno” which coincidentally, no one knows how, will be postponed to next January and for at least 20 months (sic!). But be careful, Anas in its statement following the declarations of the Calabrian councilor whose name is Calabrese had written, “In order to guarantee traffic safety, the road system will be guaranteed through the construction of temporary works”, and it is written also “important maintenance work” as well as “extraordinary maintenance”.
Perfect, so is there a problem or not?
After the beautiful trips to the seaside, the happy traders who arrive with holidaymakers from the Piana and who knows where to savor and enjoy the beauties of the Ionian side, a myriad of debates open before the key moment of closing. Mico di Prejtoni appears and doesn’t understand a thing about tunnels and infrastructural works, unlike the many specialized engineers including mayors, politicians, subordinates and corporals of the day, but he looks after his vegetable garden and some goat had said at the beginning of August that , “They don’t close the road, people can die, but they don’t close it.” Compare Mico was right! And so in these months of proposed solutions, projects, bypasses, burraco and five-way trumps, comes what we all knew, from that it was supposed to be closed in January for 20 months to that “the Limina gallery will almost certainly not close, and so no part of Calabria will remain isolated”, not the Calabrian councilor who goes by the name Calabrese to say it, but no less than (companion Mico would certainly have used another term), the president of the Calabria Region Roberto Occhiuto. And listen, listen, “The Region, with the general director Claudio Moroni, has put forward a proposal: to secure the tunnel by leaving it open to the transit of vehicles”, not pizzas and figs. However, “With this scheme there will only be limited night-time closures: ambulances, however, will always be able to pass.” While in a recent debate in an open Metropolitan Council it was stated “It has also been clarified that at the moment there is no danger of the tunnel collapsing”, but yes for the moment no, and then? Both day and night?
So, if an urgent meeting is called in May for structural risks in which Anas (i.e. the State) tells you that it must be closed, is the problem there and is it real as well as very important or not?
If a twenty-month closure was planned starting from January 2024 and now (we hope it will be maintained and we are for the closure once and for all to protect citizens and only allow the passage of emergency vehicles) it closes only at night, the months from 20 to how many tens of years will they reach? But why was the “bypass” solution proposed by several parties (even with engineering qualifications) not taken into account? Would it have been a more optimal safety condition or not? “We are optimistic” as Occhiuto says, but for how long? So there are two questions: either Anas was wrong in saying that the structural situation is serious (and should have been closed since May), or there is something that we don’t know since we should be optimistic and keep a road with clear signs danger risks for the structural condition of the tunnels.
Or, and this is really very, very worrying, has politics overtaken (for the umpteenth time) science? Or worse, before, were we on “jokes aside” or in some text of a so-called absurdist play in a scenography inspired by both Beckett and Ionesco?
