'In the 21st century, the home will be made of people and words'
The nation of foreigners is getting bigger and bigger and also includes those who, politically and morally, do not feel at home in their own country. Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran has written an exciting book that addresses them (us)
by Lara Ricci
'The foreigner is not the exception but a central and symbolic figure of our time'. After writing How to Break a Country in Seven Moves. The road from populism to dictatorship (2019) and Trust and Dignity. Ten Urgent Choices for a Better Present (2021), Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran has printed a very different one, full of energy and hope: Strangers Like You. La nazione degli esclusi nel nuovo millennio (translated by Giulia Boringhieri and published by Bollati Boringhieri, like the other two). It is an imaginary epistolary collection of letters addressed to a foreigner, a nation of people who, like the author, in exile for ten years, have lost their home, materially or symbolically.
Turkey used to be a model democracy, what happened?
It is happening everywhere, but Italia and Turkey can understand each other well because of Berlusconi, because of what happened in the 1980s. What has happened in the world is that neo-liberalism has swallowed, chewed and spit out democracy. The fundamental promise of democracy, which is equality, has been erased by neo-liberalism. Big business does not need democracy. I talked about this inHow to Break a Country in Seven Moves. Then I wrote Strangers Like You because I think we are all in the situation, we all feel alone, because of fascisms, because of wars, because of the climate crisis. We feel like foreigners in this time, in this place, we don't recognise our country, we don't feel at home any more, that's how it is for many people. The consequence of this political reality is also a sense of loneliness.
So the word home, in this situation, what does it mean to you?
Space is shrinking: wars are creeping into Europe, the climate crisis is making some territories uninhabitable, fascisms are conquering more and more countries. We need to redefine what home is for us. It may be that what we call home is no longer connected to a place. The experience of refugees, exiles, migrants, of all people who have had to leave their homes and rebuild them can teach us how to make a home when there is no more space: home is people. In the 21st century, home could be made of people and words.
