Un nigeriano arrivato in Irlanda appena 7 anni fa sta per diventare il primo sindaco nero nella dell'isola.
Fonte:
The Irish Time
Ireland's first black mayor set to be elected in Portlaoise
A Nigerian man who arrived here seven years ago seeking asylum is likely to create history by becoming Ireland's first black mayor today, Ronan McGreevy .
Cllr Rotimi Adebari (43) was elected to Portlaoise Town Council in 2004 and should take the chain of office when the members meet to elect a new mayor this afternoon.
He is likely to be elected under a mayoral pact which sees the position rotate among the Fine Gael/Sinn Féin/Independent members of the council.
Mr Adebari has scheduled a party for the new parish centre in Portlaoise tomorrow evening to celebrate his imminent mayoralty.
He said: "It will be a great honour to become the number one citizen of the town. The kudos, though, goes to the people of Portlaoise who elected me in 2004. They gave me this opportunity," he said.
"I would want to use my year to say to immigrants coming here that this is a land of opportunities and it is a country that is described as a place of a thousand welcomes.
"The people of Portlaoise have not only said that, but they have acted on it by electing me to the town council".
Mr Adebari arrived in Dublin with his wife and two children in 2000 fleeing religious persecution. After a few weeks the family settled in Portlaoise.
He struggled to find work in the first two years, but he got involved as a volunteer with the Abbeyleix Tennis Club and set up Supporting Unemployed in Laois (Suil).
He surprised many of his supporters by being elected to the town council as an Independent in 2004, polling 321 first-preference votes.
Since then he has set up "Optimum Point", a consultancy which trains companies and educational institutions in cross-cultural awareness and he has completed a Masters in Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University. He now works for Laois County Council co-ordinating an integration project for local immigrants.
"I got involved in the community and I volunteered. It gave me the opportunity to meet people first-hand and they got to know me. We all have to make an effort to reach out to one another," he believes.
"I want to encourage immigrants to be a force in their communities, to engage with their communities and people will get to know you. Their perception of you will change just like that and that's what happened to me."
© 2007 The Irish Times
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Good evening, there was already an injury, huh?
Giovanni Trapattoni, falling off his chair