Italy is not only made up of coward captains
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Italy is not only made up of coward captains
After the sinking of the Costa Concordia, the images of this episode of Italian marine tragedy are now broadcast everywhere in the world.
However, the figure of Francesco Schettino, who showed fear and selfishness in abandoning its vessel, is sharply in contrast with that of another face of Italy: the resolute captain De Falco.
This episode has again exacerbated heavy criticism of Italians. Today, they are again regarded as irresponsible, unable to organize and take initiative. Luckily, we can say thanks to Captain De Falco who showed our other side. He became the spokesman of the Italians who are brave, those who want to solve problems and don't give up. Foreign people should know that Captain Schettino is not representative of the whole lot of us.
Two contrasting images of Italian citizens are now flooding the medias. Italy is not only made up by "captain cowards" but also by those who are at the helm and do it efficiently.
It is true that De Falco can't be idealized, but we can consider him as the emblem of Italy's positive face. In fact, De Falco doesn't consider himself a hero, but simply a person who did his duty: Macchè eroe, dovevo salvarli tutti! (I am definitely not a hero, I should have saved them all!). Captain De Falco is part of that group of Italians who find Schettino's behaviour atypical and not "Italian" at all. He declared: "Ora dimenticatevi di me. Ho bisogno di silenzio per capire se c'è ancora una sola possibilità di trovare qualcuno vivo. Perché il mio mestiere è questo, soccorrere" (Now, forget about me. I need some quietness to understand if there is still at least one chance to find someone alive because rescuing is my job.)
De Falco is not a hero, but he showed to the world that there are other Italians, beside the Schettinos: those who work efficiently, firmly and are always in charge and fully aware of the situation.
In the past weeks, the tragedy has been exploited to print t-shirts or other gadgets with the slogan "Captain coward", and the famous "Vada a bordo, cazzo", the order uttered by De Falco to captain Schettino, emblazons t-shirts all of the country. However, the order issued by De Falco is not a slogan or a motto, but a symbol of all those Italians who do their duty and never throw in the towel. They are not heroes, but they are most certainly no Schettinos: these Italians, would never abandon their ship.
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