Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Denise RQ
I have a declaration to make.
I'm in love.
He's complex, he's corrupt, he has money problems
so he can't get a loan to buy a house or to begin a startup.
He's obsessed with bureaucracy,
people say he treats young people quite badly,
and he's a bit of a misogynist.
But ...
... he's beautiful;
he shows me a good time with very little money,
he's big on family, he loves food,
and he's got so much potential.
His name ...
... is Italy!
Sadly, most people seem to think he looks like this.
(Laughter)
The problem is I really do think he looks like this.
(Laughter)
Ladies and gentlemen,
love is blind, but it's also in the eyes of the beholder,
and no one ever said it was easy.
One of the first things people ask me when they meet me is,
"So, you grew up on a beautiful island in Greece,
you studied in the prosperous land that is the UK;
so why Italy?"
Let me just stress
that my perspective is based on personal experiences I've had
in Turin in particular, and in other cities in the UK.
I'm speaking as a university graduate in her 20s,
and I am aware that I do have the possibility to relocate
if things get really bad.
I'm not denying
that all the classical problems that everyone complains about,
such as high unemployment, confusing bureaucracy, crazy taxes
don't exist.
At best, that would be naive of me,
and at worst, you'd be telling me to get off the stage.
But as a foreigner,
perhaps I see some of the positive sides to Italy a little bit better
because I make a conscious choice to be here.
So after asking me why Italy,
the question I usually get after this is,
"Come on, who is he, the guy you came to Italy for?"
When I tell them actually I came here to work,
the response I get is usually a nice, little, polite smile,
and then they go,
"Houston, Houston, we've got a nutter on our hands, evacuate!"
(Laughter)
That has actually happened.
In the UK, many universities and schools
tend to be very CV-and-career focused.
So, my initial idea of coming to Italy
was to start myself in the deep end,
get my first work experience,
show employers that I was adaptable, and I had first-hand cultural knowledge.
Little did I know back in 2004 though, when I was choosing my languages,
that we were going to have this awful economic crisis on our hands.
So there I was in 2010, juggling these pigs around.
Portugal was out of the question because I don't speak Portuguese.
Greece - I didn't want to go to my own country:
I wanted to share my cultural differences.
Spain had awful unemployment.
So I went with my gut feeling, and I ask myself where I felt at home.
And for me, the natural answer was Italy.
It took me eight months to find a job here,
and during this time, people kept on telling me,
"It's not about what you know, it's about who you know.
So basically, you've got three options:
either you start doing this massive sucking up to people
or you start praying really hard;
but just do yourself a favor, go back to the UK!
I didn't listen to them:
I knew a lot of translators who had been successful here
and I thought
once I start making contacts I'll get more opportunities.
Networking is a skill, and Italy can teach me that;
which brings me on to a subject of rather a lot of controversy here,
and that is meritocracy.
Funny thing is people in and outside Italy
seem to think meritocracy is dead.
I checked its heartbeat recently, and I can confirm it is still living.
My job at "La Stampa," the local national newspaper:
I didn't get it through recommendations or through contacts,
but through a very fair interview and on the basis of my CV.
Although I later finally found out
that friends of friends actually had been interviewed.
But I'm not the only one:
I have two friends who got very important positions;
one of them as a regional officer for the Italian Internal Revenue Service,
and another was accepted as a PhD student at the Polytechnic University of Turin.
I can guarantee you - because I talked to them a lot -
they did not get in through recommendation,
but through a lot of hard work, tests, and with a lot of patience.
Meritocracy must not translate
into ignoring the importance of networking, I think, and contacts,
because often contacts know our worth a lot more than a cold test does.
For me, Italy is a land of opportunity.
Italy didn't just give me a job:
it gave me the chance to enter the world of journalism,
to learn about writing, dubbing, and interviewing.
I even got the chance to share a few of the great Massimo Gramellini's secrets
on his favorite birthday cake,
and I also shared the euphoria of millions of people around the world
when Francis was elected Pope.
But the most important thing for me is that I feel incredibly privileged
to be able to give Italy a voice in the English-speaking world.
When I told my friends
that I was going to be attending the TEDx talk today,
and I told them what the subject was going to be
and that I would be speaking about Italy,
the reaction I got was,
"Learn? Maybe.
Share? OK.
But innovate? Innovation? Italy? How does that go together?"
The more a country is lacking in something,
the more space there is for creativity.
Take queues for example: we hate them, I know, here in Italy in particular.
One Italian computer engineering student
invented the Qurami application,
- I don't know if anyone's heard of it -
basically, it helps you get an electronic ticket on your phone,
and it saves hours of your time in queues.
This is the kind of invention that's changing people's lifestyles.
So, Zuckerberg, I would watch this space if I were you.
For me, Turin is a great place
to explore one's talents and to develop them;
and it's also one of the few European cities
that's opened a cat cafe, Miagola café,
for anyone who may have heard of it.
The owners made such a success of it
that even the BBC wrote an article about it recently.
As one of my favorite Spanish authors, Cervantes, said,
"Hunger is the best sauce for innovation in the world."
For those of you who are thinking,
"OK, creativity is all well and good,
but give me a practical reason for living in Italy."
Well,
money actually, funnily enough.
We are living in an economic crisis,
I'm sure everyone's noticed that,
and my Italian lifestyle is helping me save money.
There're usually for things
that people my age pay attention to expense-wise,
and that's transport, food, going out, and rent.
From my experience, with an average wage of about 1,500 euros,
a young person in Turin can live to a far-higher--
at least, a higher level and standard of living
than a young person living in a British city
about the same size as Turin, population-wise,
on the average British wage.
Take rent, for example:
in Leeds, which is one of the city's I've lived in,
you'd be looking at paying about 790 to 800 euros.
In Turin, with 500 euros,
you can live in the center and have a place--
but going out and having fun is cheaper here;
most places are free to get into or at least to get a free drink,
which you don't really, back home.
It's not just about getting drunk here:
there are so many venues.
One of my favorites are the ARCI cultural centers,
where you can do far more than just drinking.
You can eat, you can dance, you can watch theater shows, dance shows.
And transport: forget the gym, get on your bike.
We've got wonderful weather here most of the time,
and if you have to get public transport,
it is far cheaper here and no less efficient.
Seem like a ridiculous reason to live in a country?
(Laughter)
Actually, it's not,
because health is related to eating,
and to whom is health not important?
One of the-- but it's not just--
it's also the cultural factor about food that's important,
not just health.
One of the things I like about Italy is that here you sit down at lunchtime,
you have a proper meal, and you talk to people.
In Britain, what I've seen often
is that people, at lunchtime, will sit in front of a computer, or the TV,
with a cappuccino, a chocolate bar, a sandwich, and a packet of crisps;
and that's their meal.
Which probably explains why they have the highest obesity rate in Europe,
and why Italy actually is below the OECD average.
Italy also has one of the highest life expectancies in the OECD,
I don't know about any of you guys,
but if I can find any way to live longer,
I'll take it.
Another thing I've noticed here is that small retailers have survived,
like grocers, butchers, bakers.
These have been completely wiped out,
or not completely, but greatly wiped out in the UK
because of the huge supermarket change
that now sell 97% of Britain's food.
But the important thing about these small retailers
is that they are a glue for the community,
they inspire important values
like loyalty, friendship, and communication.
Speaking of communication, Italy spaces inspire this.
The Piazza is like a second home for Italians, myself as well,
and it's a perfect symbol of sharing.
Here, you can dance and sing with people,
you can watch films with people,
you can share the excitement of a football victory,
and you can demonstrate.
I think Italians are a perfect example to us all
when it comes to family.
The family, sadly, in many Western parts of the world is dying.
People are more and more choosing to live on their own,
and they're losing access
to these vital support networks that the family offers.
Eurostat found that 83% of Italians,
when asked whether they knew someone they could turn to in a time of need,
said they knew someone.
Only 43.9% of Brits said the same thing.
The press bombards us
with negative cold statistics about Italy's economic situation,
but what it doesn't do
is talk about the amazing solidarity which I think this crisis has inspired.
Personally, I think, Italians could teach us northerners
a lesson or two about family and support network,
so then maybe we wouldn't have to go to psychologists so often.
Also, the relationships and social life we experience
influence our relationships, mental health, and our physical safety.
The lack of employment in Italy or the difficulty in finding employment
may cause high levels of depression and suicide,
but living in societies
that place too much of an emphasis on money and success
can be equally detrimental to people's health and relationships.
I have two personal experiences of people that are close to me.
Both of them had incredibly successful careers in the US:
one of them worked for Google and Goldman Sachs,
and he had a triple stroke, had to return to his country;
an Italian friend worked in the Silicon Valley for two years,
he suffered a mental stress, and he had to return home after a while.
But also, the drinking culture here;
for those of you who have been to the UK, probably have seen it:
is far healthier, I think, here in Italy.
In Britain, we have a huge drink-related and violence problem:
I was attacked about four times in the space of three years
when I was a student in Manchester.
Here in Turin, I've been here three years, and I haven't had any problems,
and I honestly feel safe
when I walk down the street at one or two in the morning, alone.
I talked about depression before.
But how can anyone get depressed in this city?
Seriously, look where we live.
In my opinion, Turin is one of the best situated,
if not the best situated city in Italy.
We're surrounded by 400 kilometers of mountains,
and in the center, we've got this beautiful historical architecture
which anyone can afford to live in.
Last but not least,
Italy has an incredibly vibrant international community,
and it's becoming increasingly multi-ethnic.
Here in Turin, we have international school languages, meet-ups
which gives Italians and foreigners
the chance to come together and share experiences.
Italy is far more open-minded than it was back in the 90s,
partly, I think, because of the second generation of immigrants
who are coming into Italian schools,
but also the third and fourth generations of Italians
who are coming back to their origins.
At "La Stampa" for example, we get a lot of groups of kids,
and you can see they're all mixed:
they are Africans, Asians, South Americans, Italians,
and they're all mixing together as friends.
In my opinion, this is what learning, sharing, and innovating is about.
I recently saw an advert for EXPO Milano 2015,
and it quoted three defects which Italians have:
it's said, they're quick tempered, disorganized, and lacking in composure.
Maybe disorganized:
but I can tell you, us Brits aren't perfect either.
We're not quiet and polite all the time;
just try jumping the queue or going on a night out there,
and I think you'll see what I mean.
Last November,
"The Economist" published an article titled, "Pigs can fly,"
which basically talked about how southern Europeans
often go to the UK to find work,
but they don't plan to stay there permanently
because the pull of family, the awful weather,
and the high day-to-day costs
are just too much; it pulls them back home.
I don't know any British person;
a friend of mine who would return to the UK
having made a conscious decision to be in Italy.
A place is what you make of it,
and here I would like to end with a quote
by the great American poet Jack Hirschman,
who I had the privilege of interviewing recently.
When I asked him what he thought about Italians and Italy,
what he said to me was,
"When I think of Italy,
a certain weeping comes to my eyes.
Not because I'm sad, but because I'm singing."
Thank you.
(Applause)