Category: Opinions

Crave new adventures, now more than ever

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Keep on chasing down that rainbow

You’ll never know what you might find

Back in April 2018, while in Belgium, I was on the verge of signing with King’s College; at the very last moment, I received an email from Sciences Po and my life took the highway that brought me to France, first, and later to Shanghai.

In those five months in Asia I had the privilege to visit Japan and South Korea, two incredible countries in which I felt extraordinary emotions; and during the year in Paris I got to travel all around France, from Strasbourg to Lyon, from Normandie to Bourgogne.

Now I’m about to finish my double MA, the thesis is done, incredibly I have a UN internship in my pocket… and boom, global pandemic.

Will this be the pivotal public event in our life, like the world wars for our grandparents, that will shake everything? Nobody can say that, at this stage, but lots of hints point in this direction. The virus will change our way of socializing, travels around the world won’t be the same as last year, the economy will suffer as maybe never before.

But still…

I won’t stop dreaming about a better future. I won’t stop working hard to reach my goals. I won’t stop planning new, exciting trips to the four corners of the world.

We must not let the pandemic take the best part of our existence.

Perhaps the most important thing
Is that it’s blind to subject and king.
We’re all in this one, all together –
Truly birds of the same feather.
I’m hopeful that when we emerge
Compassion will see a lasting surge.

I.H.

short review of Coldplay’s new album – Everyday Life

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Coldplay aren’t back.

This new album doesn’t share much (I would say, anything) with their past productions.

There’s nothing in common with their holy triptych – Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, X&Y – and those melodies capable of attracting millions of fans. But that’s a good sign: never try to replicate such a success.

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friend was a first moment of experimentation for the band. Here in Everyday Life that tendency has been pushed even further, though I must admit I don’t feel the same balanced combinations of sounds, rhythms and themes. It’s not a bad thing per se, it’s just different, and possibly something to praise: courage should always be incentivized, especially when it leads to a good product as Everyday Life is.

I don’t wanna use too much space to discuss about the last three Coldplay’s albums – Mylo Xyloto, Ghost Stories, A Head Full of Dreams. In my opinion there’s been a steady decline in terms of quality across them: let’s say I’m just happy to hear that finally Chris Martin and co. succeded in recording something if not special, at least deserving everyone’s attention.

Syntethic score after a first full listening session: 7.

Coldplay aren’t back, and that’s good.

We are blind. and stupid.

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News from South America: the Amazon rainforest is burning at an incredible and terrifying pace. That’s particularly true in Brasil, the biggest country of the continent and home to the largest portions of rainforests in the world. As visible from the chart below, almost every state of the Amazon area has witnessed an increase in the number of fires during 2019:

I won’t go deep in the details, you can find them everywhere on the Web; let me show you just two more images and give you one humble opinion.

The first picture shows how bad the situation is in regards of the emission of CO (carbon monoxide) coming from the Amazon forest and spreading all across South America. CO is one of the deadliest gases in nature: having a large quantity of this toxic pollutant above millions of squared hectares could be the beginning of an health emergency of staggering proportions.

In the second chart I want to show that the fires problem isn’t exclusively a Brasilian issue. Keep it in mind when you’ll read or hear “it’s that bloody fascist of Bolsonaro!”: sure, he should be blamed for what’s happening in Brasil, but all over South America trees are burning and vanishing at a 3-digits percentage YoY.

Finally, a consideration.

Here in Italy we are promptly discussing about the government crisis; in the UK, Brexit is always on the top of every newscast; US and China have their trade war and tensions for global supremacy; Russia has, sadly, its own wildfires (both natural and nuclear ones)… There is a problem of priorities: why the global leaders are so sightless when talking about environment? The simple reason, I think, lies in the electoral cycle: climate change, the ice-cap melting, increase in Amazon fires (NB caused by arsonists as well as by natural causes) and desertification are all processes that aren’t immediately visible, they take place in 5-10-100 years. Why should a politician tackle these issues seriously instead of merely thinking to his personal re-election (and thus giving to his electorate more urgent needs)? The world needs a change of perspective: the Earth is our common home and should be protected, preserved and perpetuated to our posterity. I totally understand the Realpolitik game, but seriously: is there something more real than our nature crumbling down our own eyes, or even worse, than ourselves dismantling with our own hands our planet?