Dear Prime Minister
Firstly I would like to thank you and everybody involved for being there for everybody during the crisis. And I would also like to apologize immediately if my command of the Italian language is not perfect.
I am writing today because I have something heavy on my shoulders and in my heart. Over the last few months I have read and witnessed the tremendous strain on all country leaders and governments. I have noticed the immense criticism, slander and judgement of media and communities. I have cried because millions do not see their own faults and all they wanted, and still want, is that life they had before. We all know it can never be like before, but people are oblivious to the fact of what a great threat and heartbreak a pandemic can cause. I cried when I watched the immages of convoys with coffins. I prayed for everybody, day and night.
You see Mister Conte, people forgot what it is like to live humbly and with respect. Life is supposed to be healthy, happy and successful. Love for each other should be foremost, but that is something too many people refuse. People got too comfortable in their ways without having respect and a will to survive. Instead they demand what they think is their right. A lot of people don't know what it is like to fight to survive, to live with the bare minimum, to have freedom and clean air.
Yes, I am an immigrant in Italy. I own 50% of our property. I searched and subscribed myself to INAIL and to INPS. I do not get any benefits whatsoever from anybody. I arrived in Italy 8 years ago. 6 Years ago I got married to a wonderful man. In 2016 I applied for citizenship. I thought my life was perfect, but that was an illusion. A start of the long line of insults, judgements, slander, ridicule, and finally the start of chronic asthma. Yes, Italy, or more specific northen Italy, is the cause of my asthma. Nobody wanted to do anything about it. The more I made enquiries, the more I was blocked by the system, the more I got insulted and judged. I started living more and more away from our home and from my husband because I could not breathe properly any longer. Everytime I returned back home, I would get worse. I had to live with oxygen concentrators, air purifiers, humidifiers, without heating and without using gas. Everything started affecting my health. Until 2017, when my doctor in South Africa told me to move to the sea and very soon before the pollution kills me. So that was my last move away from the home I knew in Milano. We bought a property and my husband got a transfer from his work. In 2018 our residency were transfered from Milano to Livorno, and so my application was transfered also. Needless to say, before the transfer, I phoned the prefettura in Milano to enquire about my application. I was told very bluntly and extremely rudely to go back to the country where I came from.
After that episode my file was transfered. I was sent an email to notify me of this. The end of 2019 the prefettura in Livorno contacted me to make an appointment to go see them. Finally I thought we made progress, but that was also an illusion. When we arrived, I was told there was a note on my file for another person to speak to me first. This lady was arrogant and glared at me like I was a piece of rubbish (for use of a better word). They are demanding a police clearance certificate from my country of origin, which I had when I first applied. I have no problem with police clearances. My problem is that I cannot travel to Milano or Rome because of asthma, and the major problem is that the system in South Africa has changed and will take almost 2 years for a certificate to reach me, if I am lucky. I have also found out that it is possible to get a clearance directly from the prefettura as I am residing in Italy and not in South Africa. I was not even given a chance to tell the prefettura that. I was never treated in such a disgusting manner like I have been by the people in Italy. But I will keep on fighting as this is my home. I cancelled my application for citizenship and will carry on living with my permission to stay, which is unlimited. When my passport expires, I will not be able to renew it. I will not be able to travel outside Italy with my Identity Card as it states that I cannot use it for travel purposes. I cannot vote and will remain a stateless person.
I am telling you all of this as the words of Mister Gualtieri, "We leave nobody behind" hit the core of my being. How can these words be spoken when people like me are left behind, ignored by the system, slandered by people, judged like a criminal? Where do people like me go from here? My life is a lifelong LOCKDOWN. A life where I can only stay at home and in my garden. What happens to people like me down road to recovery from a pandemic but have to live with medications for the rest of my life, and never again will know the luxury of going to a beach without coughing or attacks, shopping is nearly impossible, restaurants and other activities are out of the question. You see Mister Conte, I am in lifelong lockdown.
I am not prepared to go for more and more tests just to satisfy a system because the doctors want to try new medications on me. I am not a laboratory rat. I have suffered enough in my life. It is a miracle I am alive. God alone is to thank for curing me from cancer when everybody thought I was dying. I came to Italy cured, to be struck by asthma from the poisonous air in Italy. And then thrown out by a system that is nothing more than racist in the worst possible way I have experienced in my life.
I think I have spoken my bit here. Again I want to thank you for your kind personality, your empathy towards an ungrateful nation. You are a true leader Mister Conte. I greatly respect you for all of that.
I wish you and everybody else a pleasant evening. God bless.
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