Uptight Little Island

To the casual eye, the tiny (50-sq.-mi.) Italian island of Pantelleria has little to recommend it. Halfway between Sicily and North Africa, it has no beaches, no good harbors, no scenic little coves and no vegetation to speak of. Its one town looks like a slum-clearance project, and its 8,240 people are among the poorest in Italy. Volcanic springs, more like oversized tea kettles than proper Ve-suviuses, gurgle and smolder in the interior and, from shore to barren shore, there is not a drop of water fit to drink. Water, like almost all the island's food, must be brought from the mainland.

Vulgar Crowds. Despite its manifest disadvantages, Pantelleria has developed something of a tourist trade. Because it has been so ill-favored by nature, it has a tranquillity few other islands in the Mediterranean can boast. In the past several years, wealthy Italians eager to avoid the vulgar crowds at Capri or Amalfi have discovered it. So have moviemakers. Except for the untoward events of World War II, about the only thing of note that has happened in Pantelleria in the past 2,000 years or so was the shooting of a pornographic movie, Thank You, Mrs. P., two summers ago. Now, however, the islanders are worried about an even more serious threat to their serenity. They are convinced that they are about to be taken over by either NATO or oil-rich Libya--and perhaps by both.

The problem is that barren as it looks to most people, Pantelleria is a thing of beauty to military strategists. The island is the closest point in Europe to the North African mainland--it is only 44 miles from the coast of Tunisia --and is still honeycombed with military tunnels built by Mussolini during World War II. Though the Italian army now has only a 20-man weather team on the island, there are rumors that NATO would like to use it as a radar station to keep track of Arab air forces in North Africa. The rumors are unofficially confirmed by military sources in Rome, and some Pantellerians are disturbed. "Any NATO base, even a radar station, could make Pantelleria a target, and I would oppose it," says Pantelleria's mayor, Dr. Salvatore Remirez.

Most islanders are equally apprehensive about the intentions of Libya, which has bought 370 acres of lava rock near the island's east shore. Among the most militant of the Arabs, the Libyans boggled Pantellerian minds by announcing plans to build a 2,000-bed tourist center, complete with a heliport on the island. Some suspicious souls, both at home and on the Italian mainland, are afraid that Pantelleria may be invaded by Arab tourists carrying something more dangerous than cameras. A Social Democratic member of Parliament recently demanded that the government explain why Libya had purchased "the most strategic point on the island." With a look over both shoulders, three Communist senators asked "if it is true that [Libya's head of state Muammar Gaddafi] and NATO have divided the island for military purposes?"

More Libyans. Tired of both their poverty and their tranquillity, some Pantellerians are happy at the prospect of invasion and are set to welcome just about anyone. "For national reasons I suppose I should be protesting against Gaddafi," says Girolamo Sechi, a city councilman. "Instead, I say, 'Welcome,' and the more Libyans the better. They're going to bring 2,000 tourist beds, whereas now we have only 1,000." Adds Giuseppe Cornado, the island's postmaster, with a long sigh: "Gaddafi or NATO. I don't care who it is, just so they bring money to raise us to the level of the rest of Italy."

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