Stories and News

Stories and News No. 1198   Once upon a time there was earth, which luckily still is. Think for a moment, afflicted and limited by the lockdown, of escaping from yourself more than your home. Let's imagine that we are something else, something immensely larger and certainly more welcoming. I am referring to our planet, often underestimated and mistreated. I try myself: a little acting method, I close my eyes and... bam! Here I am, speaking as the earth from now on. First, I say it immediately to avoid misunderstandings and complaints: there is nothing personal in what I will say. I am your planet, but not only yours. Every now and then it doesn't hurt to remember that, even to myself. Nonetheless, I am perfectly aware of the hard times that many are facing, with more or less tragic tones, mainly because of conditions before the spread of this virus. Covid-19 has led to the death of more than 220,000 people to date and the tragic consequences for the standard of l...

Men at work

Stories and News No. 1196    A little fairy tale from the future waiting for the return to normality... Once upon a time there was an earth, a different one, I admit it. I hope to live there, and then I write about it. Because telling stories helps me have faith in a better ending. I will tell about this planet of a distant but possible future, using past tenses. It is much easier to me. Or, maybe, it helps me to convince myself that I have experienced this story firsthand. However, the earth was no longer just a planet. Like none of us is only a single human being. In fact, as in a science fiction story that finally becomes a chapter of contemporary history, the world that hosted us was an active, aware and therefore dreamy part of something much bigger: the wonderful and undervalued universe. “There is life out there”, stellar storytellers shouted long before. “We are not alone”, confirmed the investigators of still nameless galaxies, known as scientists. Well,...

Stories and News No. 1195   I just read that one hundred doctors died of Covid-19 in Italy, so far. Doctors. A generic word, which indicates a profession, a role inside the society, but also an image common to everybody: the guy with the white dress, the woman with the stethoscope, the man who control your blood pressure, the girl who signs your prescription; but also, above all, those you look for when you're ill. Like a sort of friends by duty, obliged to say “I’m here” in times of need. Well, when there is a pandemic out there, the times of need is every second of their time, more than ours. Because while we are waiting outside, maybe complaining about the queue or the ticket, as well as for the ailment itself, there is someone beyond that door; the person who, when the aforementioned fateful moment arrives, will take care of us. A hundred have gone away in Italy, among doctors, but also nurses have lost their lives for the virus; lives who were part of the so-calle...

Stories and News No. 1194   The video call’s time. Who could believe that it would become a regular, unmissable and fundamental event during our every day. It is for those who continue “to be” school, despite the necessary full-time curfew; for those who work remotely, if the job carried out up to the day before the so-called lockdown allows this chance; for people who intend to feel close to the loved ones, maybe living alone; and also for those who just want to have a good chat. The video call’s time is a precious, useful and rewarding one. However, things don't always go as smoothly as we would like. For instance, maybe the streaming with the professor's lesson becomes slow and the image lags, or arrives late. So, instead of providing IT advice, I invite students to remember that according to UNICEF data dating back to April last year, more than 175 million children - which correspond to half of the preschool population in the world - they are not even enrolled i...