Tuesday 22 May 2012

svegliarsi

The latest earthquake that has devastated the northern Italian regions of Emilia and Romagna is a spiraling nightmare for the people of that area, whose realizations, the rugged landscape of disaster are quick to manifest after the initial shock and immediate loss. Not only are families dealing with bodily injury, lost lives and being displaced from their homes, they are also facing the loss of their livelihoods moment by moment as factories remain closed—so too shops, hotels and resorts, and the damage done to many historic landmarks is not just a blow potentially for the tourism industry but these fortresses and churches are a font of community, pride and character. Local producers might see a huge batch of ripening cheeses go to waste, unable to reach the aging rooms. As residents survey the rubble and struggle to get their immediate affairs in order, there are the sombre declarations that there is no money to rebuild. Cushion-less financial rigour is easily buckled by nature’s unreckoned discipline, and one cannot hope to promote recovery and growth by allowing any one community to wither. I hope these towns and villages are able to recuperate and save their historic and cultural treasures and not suffer alone, and as a result, that governments on all levels not connive to come up with exit or ejection strategies, assigning blame, but rather, in response to this tragedy, come up with ways to assist, which is really the meaning of union.