Spring has arrived and everything is blooming. I did something sightly dangerous yesterday to get some fresh flowers for the house. I ventured on a sliding a slippery slope along the canal that runs along the garden wall. There was a forsythia and some other tree with nice pink flowers, and emerged like the Botticelli Venus covered in petals, hahaha, with t-shirt and leggings though.
Yes and the swimming pool will open on 25 April. Water will be cold but I will be swimming hurray! These things fill me with joy, and, looking back, that was the normality last year.
We really need to start thinking what is the new normal, how things will be and should be when we get out of here. I was talking with two dear American friends last night. The discussion went on schools and universities, on how quickly the switch to e-learning is happening. Basically like with online shopping, it was never a matter of if but a matter of when. I was fortunate enough to spend many years in the European country that was the first to embrace all things starting with e-. My children’s homes have few books and no cds or dvds. They belong to the streaming generation. I moved onto streaming in the second half of my life and still like to surround me with the physical possession of objects that give me pleasure (and no, it aint vibrators). But apart from that I buy so much from Amazon that I was recently offered a small business account.
I can see a future where most learning will be carried out online. The virus is simply accelerating a structural change that was bound to happen sooner or later. Maybe we don’t like the idea now, but it will make our lives much easier. I know, I know, social contact, networking, bla bla bla. But let’s think for a moment. The people I talk to most right now are a bunch of twitter friends. They will never know me as well as my best friends, but still you can get most of what you need in terms of networking through online channels. Yesterday I even had aperitivo with my brother (it was his name day), mother ad sister in law through whatsapp video call. It was a very good thing. It totally felt as if we were in the same room.
My greatest concern is that we do not have the clarity of vision in my country that will allow for the change to occur speedily and without hiccups. This is a game of first come first served. Amazon is Amazon because Bezos had the vision, and was the first, the road opener. The real stakes will no longer be in trade deals. Globalisation. Climate change. So yesterday. Change is the name of the game and not planning for it, not having the vision for how things to come need to be shaped will make this a thirld world country.
Jotting down ideas. A friend with the virus was just venting on twitter that she is very worried, not for her health or for being locked in her home for an extended time, but because she does’t know what she will find out there once the lockdown will be over. She is worried that the structure of the country will not withstand the shock. Ok, she is not very seriously ill, but in her family there is currently three members infected, and she is worried about the country. That should tell us something. Need to change fast and adapt. But we have a country in which there are people in power who think that GDP grows during hot weather because if we turn the AC on, consume more energy and therefore, magic, more GDP. Dire straits.
On a different topic. I am sure you know this is the era of what we in Italy call the tuttologi: those who become experts in a new subject as soon as a new problem appears. Like the novel engineers when the Genova bridge collapsed, the drug experts when the debate about cannabis surfaced, economists when the spread widened, virologists during the anti-vax movement, and so on. People used to go down to the bar (dayime occupation unlike with going to the pubs or wine bars which is mostly an evening thing) and vent their theories, now they go on twitter and Facebook from the comfort of their couch and debate like there is no tomorrow. Right now we have a plethora of virologists and statisticians dominating the social media. I call them the necrophiles because every day they discuss the shape of the curve of deaths with gusto. (Mind you today’s 627 paints a pretty scary picture even without a curve)
As if this weren’t enough we also have the fake news. I am sure you are all aware. Let me tell you the funniest before going to have my dinner. A couple of days ago the plumber visited to fix a broken tap. All face mask and hygienising gel, while he was doing his job he asked me if it were true that we are being invaded by the Amricans, and told me it would be a terrible thing, what terrible times we are living and that he and his family were scared. I couldn’t decide if this was a joke (and I was waiting for the follow up) or a serious question. As there was no follow up, I asked on which information he based this fear. He told me that there were NATO movements in Italy and that meant we were being invaded. I kept my cool and told him that NATO is us so we can’t invade ourselves. I thought of telling him that the US right now is a reluctant NATO member, but then I decided against as I thought it too complex to explain to the plumber. So I promised I would find some information to dispel his doubts… and I did. Boy, what one needs to do to get good service around here!
Going to have dinner now. Bye everybody and thank you for reading me.
