Wednesday, July 02, 2008

English Collegues Scoff at Marco Niada's " The New London, Capital of the 21st Century "

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Romans founded  London  on marshy gravel islands at the lowest crossing point of the Thames after the conquest in AD43.

From zero population to 60,000, it was sacked by Boudicca (AD60-61), restored, but later reduced to barely 3,000 after Rome's regions withdrew in 415, leaving the Brits to fend (badly) for themselves. "London was created by Romans, destroyed by the locals,"

It took until the 1300s to get the population back to 60,000 locals, by which time they were under Norman management.

 

Marco Niada, an Italian correspondent long resident here is the author of " The New London, Capital of the 21st Century "

Interestingly his English colleagues scoff at him, and suggest that title will surely go to Shanghai, Mumbai or even Dubai.

 

Niada in engaging in perhaps some hyperbole, tries to make the point that England does better when London takes a Global interest

I wouldn't want to ask the international natives what they thought of those colonialistic and imperialistic ideas.:)

 

London is home to 100,000 Italians, many of whom  commute to their office on a smart Italian Vespa 250cc. On their journey they like to count the other Vespas and to analyse the stylish clothes which their riders are wearing. It seems to be a particularly Italian trait !!! :) :)   

 

London - Capital of the 21st century?

 

A new book says London has a bright future because it has been able to put itself at the centre of world transactions. But what about Shanghai, Mumbai or even Dubai?

 

London Guardian

Michael White

July 1, 2008

"The strength of this town is the foreigners." Which town? London. Who says? Marco Niada, an Italian correspondent long resident here. He has just written a book to coincide with his return home and delivered a promotion speech which I listened to at the ambassador's residence the other evening.

Outsiders' perspectives are usually worth hearing, so I started taking notes. Niada's assertion was that London has always been "a big head on a small body", disproportionately larger than the country in which it sits in a way that is not true of France or Italy - the "country of 100 cities".

Italians feel slightly proprietorial about London because they can claim to have founded it on marshy gravel islands at the lowest crossing point of the Thames after the conquest in AD43.

From zero population to 60,000, it was sacked by Boudicca (AD60-61), restored, but later reduced to barely 3,000 after Rome's regions withdrew in 415, leaving the Brits to fend (badly) for themselves.

"London was created by Romans, destroyed by the locals," the author explained. It took until the 1300s to get the population back to 60,000 locals, by which time they were under Norman management.

If that sounds unflattering, it isn't. Niada's book is called The New London, Capital of the 21st Century (it's all in Italian, by the way, including the title) and his argument is that the city's fortunes have waxed and waned over 2,000 years, but that it always works best when it is outward-looking, connected to the wider world.

It makes better sense of its disproportionate domestic size: "It needed the outer world to sustain its size," as our visiting foreigner put it.

All this is probably familiar to geographers, but not to me. I vaguely knew that London was the largest city north of the Alps in the age of Imperial Rome, substantial in a way that Lutetia - Paris - was not; also that the Roman road network was the best we had until the late 18th century (there is always an upside to empires) when improvements resumed. Plumbing? Let's not even think about comparisons, at least not before those Poles arrived.

Anyway Marco's thesis (I've known him for years. He is very kind, and with his wife raised funds to build a school in Afghanistan) is that London started opening up to become a big city again under Elizabeth I, took off in the 17th century, became a world-trading hub in the 18th century and industrially dominant in the 19th century - until the Germans and Americans got cracking.

It reached 1 million inhabitants by 1800, 7 million by 1900 and then declined to the point where a quarter of its inhabitants were telling pollsters they wanted to leave by 1990, the same year Mrs Thatcher did.

Since when globalisation - and the luck of language and time zones which allow traders to deal with both New York and Asian markets every day - have again restored its fortunes: "flooded by foreigners again because it was again able to put itself at the centre of world transactions."

Niada seems to believe that what he calls "London's ruling class" opened itself up to competition - so that entrepreneurs, bankers, executive types poured it. I'm not sure if they see it that way.

But poor and middling people have come too, including Italians. In 1800 they were political refugees, later craftsmen, then poor people - until Italy got rich in the 1970s.

In the latest surge entrepreneurs as well as Venetian waiters (coincidentally I was served by one in a London pub the other night) have returned. There are 300 languages spoken here now, 100,000 Italians and 300,000 French - "one of France's great cities" as Sarko put it when he came looking for votes.

Marco says Italian influence is felt in the language - zucchini instead of courgette? - and via the better coffee. They have also helped make us more relaxed.

Hmm. Not sure about that either. There is a downside to huge numbers of incomers, especially among poorer locals who compete for jobs and resources, those who do compete.

I also am aware that London talk annoys many non-Londoners. "Can we hear more about this fascinating and under-reported part of the country?" a Guardian letter-writer once sarcastically demanded.

In any case Niada's flattering account was promptly deflated by a local, James Blitz, a former Rome correspondent of the FT.

Capital of the 21st century? You must be joking. That title will surely go to Shanghai, Mumbai or even Dubai, an FT colleague had told him. London, said Blitz, is the Wimbledon of finance - better at organising the event than actually doing it.

But he also revealed that Niada, who works for the financial daily 24 Ore, commutes to his office on a smart Italian Vespa 250cc. On his journey he likes to count the other Vespas and to analyse the stylish clothes which their riders are wearing.

"Only an Italian would do that."

 

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