Missing You - My Testimony on Marco Vianello Chiodo : Robert Savio

Marco Vianello Chiodo was born in what in Italy is called " a good family".But instead of taking lucrative jobs that his family connections offered hm in the private sector. he decided to become a diplomat, to serve the cause of better international relations. He had many important posts, Strasbourg, Vienna, ( where he met and married the love of his life, Angelica, Grenoble ( where his daughter Nathalie was born), Brussels Caracas, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Colombo, and then he come to Rome, to work in the new Department of International Cooperation. It was a golden moment for the Italian ODA. A campaign from the Italian Radical Party obtained a resolution from the Parliament, that obliged the government to rallocate 1% of the GNP. A new Department was created in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Marco joined that new branch. From all sides. the political parties, the private sector, ngos tried to get the money now available. Marco distinguished himself with his inborn strict sense of honesty, by keeping at bay many powerful pretenders. The ministry decided to move him in an international organisation, and he was able to join Unicef, he moved to Unicef, as deputy Direct General.There he found the world of his aspirations. He made a good working team with Jim Grant and Tarzi Vittachi, and he lived the golden years of Unicef, that Jim Grant transformed form a small philatropic and event organisation into a key actor of the United Nations family, and an important reference from countries form al over the world.

He was asked to join the Secretariate, and he become Under Secretary General in charge of the Department of Public Information. But he did not agree with the way Boutros Ghali approached the press, and in particular the American one.BBG, an egyptian aristocrat, whom was basically an academic of international law, considered the American attitude to the UN arrogant, and looking at the Un as some kind of dependance. Marco knew well that the was ethically right, but he thought that it would be convenient avoid unnecessary confrontations. He left therefore that position.

Marco was married with a german lady, Angelica, who also come from a good family. She was the daughter of the German Ambassador to Washington, and she was ne of the most beautiful models of her time. She died from a cancer just before the pandemia, and Marco suffered terribly, and become very lonely.Few weeks ago they discovered a very aggressive and rare cancer in his bile duct, and informed him that it was not operable, and had not much time left , even with a very demanding treatment. Marco , with hs integrity, decided that would make no sense to become a burden for the society, ad a go through a waning life, with no future. His very loved daughter, Natalie, was able to convince him to do not take the path of eutanasia. He then decided to stop taking medications and food, and he died peacefully in his bed in his house in Janes, Switzerland, during his sleep.

We did correspond and talked until his last days. I was not able to convince him to fight. He said that you fight when you can win, otherwise it makes no sense. And he said he had no enemies, that in his life he did the best he could, so he had a sense of peace.He was 91, but he kept until the last minute his sense of humour, his acute interest in international relations, and the hope for a world where peace and cooperation will become again the basis of international relations.