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Feb. 22 - Feb. 29, 2004 |
Holding the key of Globalization
Chamber of Commerce of Toronto new president Nivo Angelone exemplifies multiculturalism
Originally Published: 2002-12-08
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Nivo Angelone
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With a delicate gesture of his fingertips, he softens his half cigar. When he lights up, a blue cloud of smoke, smelling of antiquity, pervades the studio. "Tuscan cigars," says Nivo Angelone, "are my daily dose of Italy." Then he passes the matches so this scribe can light his freshly loaded pipe.
This is how this interview with the new President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto begins. The house is empty; wife and children are away, working and studying. Outside, an unusually sunny morning shines over the still green gardens of York Mills.
Mr. President, tell us something about yourself.
"Where shall I begin?"
From what you deem your distinctiveness.
"Well then, I'll begin from my marriage and my family, which can help you understand who I am."
What is distinct about your marriage?
"The fact that Sara, my wife, is a Chinese from Hong Kong and has a Ceylonese heritage. Ours is an interracial and intercultural marriage. Our three children, Stefania, Elisa and Matteo, are Italian-Chinese-Canadian, but mostly they are citizens of the world. But we're not an exception in our family: my brother-in-law married an American woman and my brother a Polish one."
You would have made Pierre Trudeau happy, as he would see your family as an actual example of multiculturalism.
"Probably, because when we get together nobody cares about belonging to a specific ethnic group. We're here, we get along, we respect one another and we like one another for who we are. We never think of what we represent. The obsessive exaltation of cultural specificity, on the other hand, is hampering the concretization of multiculturalism."
Why do you say that?
"See, I always thought that multiculturalism should create a society of equals."
And...?
"On the other hand, nowadays each ethnic group, doggedly defending its own identity, ghettoizes itself. True, in Canada and especially in Toronto many different communities coexist, but if you look closely at them you see that each one is closed in its shell, they don't open their doors to one another."
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