A.’s war and the bombs

Yes, for a series on the Camorra.

Then it must be so. I’m sorry, I don’t see those things. I don’t like violence. Then I think that series did not arrive in my country.

I don’t know, it has been distributed in many countries around the world ….

Whatever. I wouldn’t have seen her anyway. She laughs, then looks out the window. Nice houses, right?

Much. Do you know these areas well ?.

I work in Switzerland six months a year. With the money I earn I live with my family in Latvia for the other months. There are very wealthy people here. I have served for important industrialists, politicians … they all have homes here.

There is something that makes me uncomfortable in his way of doing.

Latvia borders Russia, right ?.

Also with Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus.

That self-righteous air of yours gets on my nerves. Perhaps because she reminds me of the way in which we street kids in Naples addressed foreign tourists. Behind our smile there was the certainty of being the smartest, of dealing with people who were more comfortable and therefore more stupid, deserving of contempt. Chickens to pluck if necessary. My urchin pride put to the test by A.

How are you experiencing the Ukrainian crisis in your country? I ask, hoping to put him in trouble.

We? he replies amazed. We are members of the European Union…. Again that smug smile. But we know a lot more about this war than you do, he adds. My irritation increases. We read both the Russian and Western press….

And what do the Russian newspapers say? I provoke him.

What you say. Equal laughs. You say that Putin is a mad imperialist, the Russians say that Biden is a stoned Nazi. You say you want to protect and liberate Ukraine, they say they want to protect and liberate the Donbass. The war the same on all sides, it sucks the same. The only difference is which side of the fence you are on. This time A.’s bitterness displaces me.

And you? What idea have you made of this war?

The? he asks me amazed. Do you really care ?.

A. remains silent. Some work in progress force us to make a detour. We leave the main road to climb even steeper but well-maintained internal roads. On the sides of the windows flow very luxurious private houses. We cross a typical Swiss village. There are few people on the street. The clear sky suspends that fairytale landscape of wood and stone buildings, sloping roofs, endless meadows, grazing animals. For an instant I forget the conversation I had undertaken with A., the reason for that trip, the war in Europe. I lose myself in the surreal beauty and serenity of those places, as if suddenly I had fallen to another planet.

Look…. A. shows me an imposing structure surrounded by very high walls. In the center you can see a tower on which the flags of Switzerland stand next to the American, Chinese and European Union flags. That’s a very exclusive college. You must be the son of powerful people to enter there. In the morning, the children are escorted to school in armored cars, with the escort. They told me that the son of the president of North Korea and that of an American senator study side by side in that college. They play together. Chinese, Russian, French, English, Italian children. All. There is no war behind those walls. Only for us who are on this other side there. The bombs only kill the people who live outside those walls, the poor, the same ones they send to shoot and kill themselves. Do you want to know my idea of ​​the war? A. smiles again in a sarcastic way, but this time I understand that the only distrust of him. They told him that I am a famous person in my country. For me this war does not exist because I am a billionaire! he laughs, then suddenly becomes serious. I work for the ones who never die in war, so I won’t die either. My mother, my father, my wife and my children instead s. I am in Latvia. our country is poor. I send them money every week but it won’t be enough to build walls like the college ones. They will die under American and Russian bombs while I say yes sir to those who release them.

This time I’m smiling at him. I don’t live in a house with walls like that either.

He looks at me amazed. Well, then tonight you and I are going to toast with vodka and beer.