A passport to protest

Brigitte Bardot threatens to follow Gérard Depardieu and ask for a Russian passport. Not to avoid French tax hikes like her counterpart but to protest against the treatment of 2 sick elephants in the Lyon zoo. The old French movie star says she does not want to live in a country that has become a cemetery for animals. Besides the uselessness of the cause, it seems even the wealthy protest, for convincing reasons and with original methods. Among common mortals there are those who protest by chaining themselves to a church door, those who go on hunger strikes, those who climb onto the roof of a factory, those who go down a mine, and those who burn an armored car. Among the jet set though, instead of protesting, one asks for a Russian passport. But changing your passport is a gesture that, if carried through with, is not trivial. It means a change of identity, language and homeland. You should at least be able to read your own passport.

Cioran wrote: “One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland –and no other.” Are Depardieu and Bardot ready for their new homeland Russia? Will they be required to take a course of Russianization similar to those imposed on immigrants in many European countries? We can’t let this new form of emigration escape the attention of sociologist. And it is only the beginning. (It is only the beginning and the battle continues!) Soon it will be necessary to prepare refugee camps for escaping celebrities. This case confirms what is right in front of our eyes: the internationalization of workers cannot exist because among the poor one will slit your throat to steal work. Fiat closes here and opens there. Instead the oppressed rich prosper. Tax evaders of the world unite…. Well then we want to ask for a passport to protest too. Just to be obnoxious we will all go to the Nauru embassy and fill out forms to request citizenship. Delightful island of the Pacific (see picture), not even a population of 10,000, exact time for the change of date, when here it is yesterday and in Nauru it is already tomorrow: the future is always guaranteed. The language, which is in the Austronesian family, is not too difficult, older and bigger than the Indo European language. It is characterized by duplication, for example by repeating the noun, such as in Italian: tran tran, via via, lecca lecca. Therefore, if you didn’t understand the first time, there is always a second time. The only drawback to the island: it was a German colony. They left very little, only the word “Gott”, meaning God. “Tarawong”, on the other hand, is how you say hello. Viva Naura!

 Diego Marani