Suddenly, colder than the wind that blows at 140 kilometers per hour on the Red House, the unexpected confession falls in your face, like a whiplash: «I have a blood problem, diagnosed for five decades now. I prepare for the worst. No problem. I laugh until the last. Life is too good. Fabulous with snow, which here exceeds 25 meters. Fantastic with the sun ». Robert Peroni, a hermit in Greenland for 40 years, was able to see him today from 10 to 15, but at Christmas the night fell on Tasiilaq after just four hours. He was 8 years old when he started climbing the mountains around Renon, where he was born. “I tied a rope to Günther, my older brother. If he had fallen, I would have smashed with him. ‘ Under the bed he hid a briefcase always ready for escape. Having reached the threshold of 77, he struggles to remember the infinite destinations of his solitary pilgrimage in search of an elsewhere: the Alpine peaks, the Sahara, the deserts of Dasht-e Naomid in Afghanistan and Dasht-e Kavir in Iran. In that of the Rub Al Khali, in Saudi Arabia, it was the only time he received a salary: «Two months. I was over there for a company. For the rest, never had any employers ».
Peroni attended Medicine and Psychology at the universities of Innsbruck, Verona and Padua for nine years, without ever graduating. “I didn’t care. I was just studying to learn what happens in the human body. I was also a mountain guide and ski instructor without a license. And I deepened my philosophy and anthropology: they are the forms of my life ». Then, in 1980, the meeting with the ìnuit: he stopped looking. Perhaps because the translation from the local idiom is “men”. On the rack behind him he holds 15 rifles lined up. “They are used to shoot high and scare polar bears. I don’t practice hunting. Even if an animal 15 years ago was sacrificed in my place ».
I don’t understand, explain yourself better.
“He was the guide dog of my 11 sledding Greenlanders, an incredible breed with a sixth sense. I, hospitalized in the Bolzano hospital, was about to die. Miki began to bark in a way never heard before. The ìnuit talked to him. And they concluded that his life was equal to my life. They killed him. I recovered in that precise moment ».
Do the ìnuit greet you with their nose?
“Yup. They rub it against mine and breathe in strongly to understand how I am. “
With Covid-19 around it seems crazy to me.
“The virus never arrived in Greenland. Since 12 March 2020 we have been living separate from the rest of the world ».
How is the pandemic explained?
«The Inuit call it ‘the white man’s disease’. The sailors who landed a century ago coughed. Ten natives died immediately. Today only one flight a week from Copenhagen lands in Nuuk with mail and medicines. Yes and no one local tourist arrives at the Red House a month ».
What do you live on?
“Everything I had, I invested here. Since October I have been receiving government aid for fixed costs, which are enormous: 1,500 euros per month for heating. Some friends, including Gianna Nannini, have launched a collection through Facebook. I was amazed: in three hours 400 donations from strangers were received, perhaps as little as 5 euros. The heart of the Italians is really immense ».
A hostel in an ocean of snow seven times the size of Italy. Wasn’t that a gamble?
“Yes, it was. The ìnuit asked me. Until 1981 there was no tourism, to land in Greenland you needed a permit. They insisted that I buy a 4 by 6 meter shack on this hill. I added five more, until I had 55 beds. I don’t regret it: from the windows I see 12 glaciers ».
He chose the largest island in the world.
“I didn’t want to go there. I arrived there in the summer as a guide of an international group and stayed for a month. I thought it was flat. Instead I found the Bianchi, Rosa and Cervini mountains galore ».
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He was the first to settle in the North Pole.
“In fact it is 2,700 kilometers away, against the almost 4,000 that separate me from Bolzano. I went there 20 years ago on an expedition that Mike Bongiorno was part of. There was also Aimone d’Aosta. We had to commemorate the feat of the Duke of Abruzzi, but more than anything else to allow Monsignor Liberio Andreatta to plant a cross blessed by John Paul II and celebrate mass on Easter day ».
How many degrees does it have at home?
“I think 18. It’s hot outside today.”
That is, what is the outside temperature?
“Nine below zero. It is usually minus 18. In crossings, even minus 43. The katabatic winds reach 250 kilometers per hour. In the 1960s, they wiped out half of Tasiilaq. Last night they blew at 100, another 2 meters of snow fell. It looked like heaven. “
Do you live with anyone in the Red House?
“I separated after 17 years of marriage. My wife often came to see me. So does our daughter, 50, married and mother, who lives in Mantua ».
Don’t have a local partner?
“No, I have one in Germany and one in Italy, but I never see them.”
Any other details about her lifestyle?
“What do you want to know? I get up at 6 in winter and 5 in summer, which in Greenland starts in late April, because we don’t have spring. I work until 11pm. I didn’t get rich, so I can’t spend 70,000 euros on a hairdresser, like Donald Trump. I cut my hair myself with scissors ».
What did you eat for breakfast today?
“A slice of bread. I do it at home and it lasts me a week ».
Just bread?
“Sprinkled with butter and honey. And a Pellini N. 9 coffee. It comes to me from Italy, I offer it to everyone, but the ìnuit don’t appreciate it ».
He’ll make up for lunch, I want to hope.
«I only eat once a day, between 5pm and 6pm. Rice or pasta. Nothing else”.
He will indulge in a glass of Lagrein.
“No. I want to show that I don’t drink. Ethylism is a plague among the Inuit. They are of Mongolian descent, in the liver they do not have the enzyme that neutralizes alcohol. They drink four glasses of beer and pass out. Except that the Italians sneak in, while they open the window wide and shout: “I’m drunk, what a beautiful life!” ».
How many parties do you have in Greenland?
«Ten or 12. The whole world is a country. But in 4,000 years of history there has never been a war here. A cook of mine was in politics. I asked him: what party are you from? He replied: “I don’t know. I talk to people ”. He listened and did his best ».
What climate change do you notice after 40 years living in Greenland?
“The ice is thinner. The polar current has decreased and this causes the waves of the Arctic ocean to enter the fjords. Some glaciers retreat, others do not. “
What do you attribute all this to?
“I do not know. I believe they are natural phenomena. I read about harmful gases, about ozone holes, but I’m not an expert, so I can’t judge ».
Forget global warming. Although no one has looked for those responsible for the little ice age that lasted from the mid-fourteenth century to the mid-nineteenth.
“Quite right. But NASA warned us that the cold will increase. In fact, summer has been much less hot for three years. From my window I see larger glaciers than when I used to go skiing there ».
Do polar bears really besiege you?
“Yes, they got aggressive. Not finding food in the North, they go down to the South. The first census, which took place three years ago on the east coast, where I live, showed that there are ten times more than what Greenpeace claims in its statistics ».
Yet the ìnuit are accused of slaughtering Arctic plantigrades, seals, whales.
(Laughs for a long time, unable to stop). «The ethics of hunting is everything to them. If they have to kill a white bear, after shooting it they apologize. They take him by the ears, look him in the eye and tell him: “You taught us to survive in the great cold. Today we were stronger and we were hungry. But we didn’t want to hurt you. Forgive us ”».
I interviewed Hans Ruesch, the patriarch of the antivivisectionists, shortly before he died at 94. He had studied the Inuit for a long time. He explained to me that they practiced demographic limitation by killing the elderly.
“That’s it. When I arrived in 1981, the hunters left by boat for a year-long expedition. The battered old people came aboard with them and let themselves be abandoned without food in the most remote places. They committed suicide like this. Not very Christian. But it was a form of archaic ethics: they sacrificed themselves to make way for young people ».
Fortunately, you are not an ìnuit elder.
«Sometimes they ask me:“ Robertì, how old are you? ”. And I answer: I will turn 127 on May 22nd. Some look at me perplexed, others believe it: none of them still work at 76 years old. Until 1990 the average age did not exceed 40. Today it reaches 55-60. A record ».
The oldest ìnuit you have known?
“Gudron, the last shaman. He was 82-83 when he died ».
Ruesch also told me that women breastfeed their children up to the age of 20: it was their method of contraception. They often strangled newborn females.
“Life in Greenland has never been easy. We are out of this world, in a country that is 99 percent uninhabited. The ìnuit do not know the word future ».
She is not afraid of solitude and silence.
“No. I speak to the wind. Gudron’s voice still brings me: “Did you hear it tonight? Someone needs help ”. It makes the walls of the house tremble, to me it looks like a horse that quivers to leave ».
Going to where?
«For the peaks. From there you go beyond the horizon ».
And what did he find beyond the horizon?
“Myself”.
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February 15, 2021 (change February 15, 2021 | 23:20)
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