April Editorial

And now let’s start again: to dream, to make plans and above all to think positively because we are facing an epochal phase of our life. After a year of immobility and suffering we have the unique opportunity to change our lives for the better, but only if everyone, without exception, will work to do so: we are faced with an extraordinary opportunity to rebuild a different future for us and for our children without making the mistakes of the past anymore. How? Here are some examples. We forgot we were so vulnerable and instead pandemics happen, but the fight against Covid has created a network of knowledge that has led science to make progress in every field: a vaccine obtained in a few months, the collaboration of doctors from all over the world, the sharing of discoveries and the certainty of being globally connected. Research will heal us: do we want to invest more funds and aid so that we will never be caught unprepared again?

Always connected but isolated, closed in on themselves almost invisible and often depressed: adolescents have lost a piece of their youth, pouring their frailties onto their parents. But the difficulties in distance learning led to a revolution in education which, properly supported by technology, will allow for more personal relationships when you meet professors in the presence, with the aim of achieving tailor-made training for each one, but above all with the hope, this is the challenge, of being able to keep our graduates in Italy by offering them well-paid jobs instead of forcing them to go abroad to seek their fortune.

Another not indifferent challenge concerns women: the most penalized during the pandemic but also the toughest, those who all over the world – according to the data – have managed to start a new career thanks to the possibilities offered by the digital world: the number of companies born on the web has increased enormously and companies run by women have a better chance of success especially in online sales. Wouldn’t it be time to help women no longer have to choose between career children and not be humiliated by lower salaries, while still holding the same position as a man?

The pandemic is teaching us to live differently and has made it clear to us definitively that our well-being cannot be separated from that of our planet. Everyone, without exception, must adapt to this issue as the best professionals in many fields of the economy are doing, giving us an example, despite the difficulties they have had to endure: let’s think of restaurateurs and the challenge of the future in the kitchen, which is to demonstrate that you can eat well while respecting the environment and people. Or let’s think about the world of architecture and home and design: the goal from now on will be to create spaces and objects that last over time and to repair things to make them look as good as new. Creating products that have a long life and are recyclable is the way to sustainability.

Even fashion can be reborn and start again only if it is able to understand and combine the real needs of people and the environment. Today the big brands take the field to help the vaccination campaign by offering the availability of their spaces to doctors and nurses. Starting with Giorgio Armani who first declared exactly a year ago, we stop the fashion shows, we slow down the collections, we are producing too much and too quickly. Today he reaffirms with great wisdom that fashion must rediscover the heart, so it must do fewer things and do them better, to respect both the environment and the consumer who has become responsible and demanding. Never forget to read the labels inside the clothes you buy, this is the only way to find out what materials are used and how the garments are produced.

And you can choose consciously. For us at Crida, since the beginning of our adventure, which began shortly before the pandemic, this has always been an essential commitment: to use natural fabrics, to produce in Italy, to respect the environment and people. No economic activity today can fail in this commitment. Just as no company can ignore corporate social responsibility and must invest a small part of its profits in charitable activities.

Beauty will save us is not a cliché, it is instead a truth deeply linked to the special place where we are lucky enough to live, Italy. Our country bases its identity on art, culture and the extraordinary beauty of its landscape. This is our gold, our oil, the unique heritage we possess and on which we must focus in order to be reborn. We must protect it, preserve it and enhance it in order to return to our country, when the tourists finally return, the role of the cradle of art, history, archeology, but also of cinema and theater.

Let’s defend our rights and let’s do it with the tools that travel fast today, social networks. They saved us from the boredom of the many months closed at home, allowing us to stay connected and to dialogue with the world but we know that they can do much more and become very important tools to launch battles against inequalities and in favor of the weakest, but also to give young people opportunities to show their talents and to create free and correct information.

So what does it take to win the challenge of change? Commitment first of all, no one can be called out, the union will certainly be the push for a new future, but two other ingredients are also needed that are independent of the field of professional competence and concern the nature of each of us: industriousness and solidarity. These are the characteristics that I found and admired in the people of my city, Bergamo, the place in the world that was most affected by Covid (yes … more than Wuhan in China where it all started) and which produced the fundamental turning point. Never give up and be disheartened even in the face of the worst calamities, roll up your sleeves and move on. And help each other. Only in this way Bergamo, after having mourned its 6,000 dead, today has already laid the foundations for its rebirth, looking to the future, so much so that in 2023 it was proclaimed capital of culture together with Brescia. I am sure that Italy can do the same.

He has all the potential and above all, I’m sure, he has a big heart.