In Search of Certainties

It is the season for seeking, finding, and building certainties. The world is on edge: Putin is trying to reclaim (even more after the “sham” reelection) the former Moscow satellite states, he already holds the richest countries in Africa for new raw materials, and the Near East is in a bad way. Will 2024 bring clarity? Perhaps. Meanwhile, Europe’s tranquility is full of cracks. Will there be a defense commissioner? For now, only polemics.

The Nile infested by bandits jeopardizes the flow of oil and raw materials. Certainties are still as distant as those of Israel and Palestine, two peoples, two states. For now, only escapes, bombs, hunger, and deaths. This is the view if you open the window to the world, but the landscape of fears does not change if you look at home.
Inflation, experts say, will decrease. Meanwhile, for now, it has increased by another 0.8 percent. And the prices inflated by wars, energy, and speculations are not falling at all. Wages are stagnant, and all signals confirm a very slow adjustment. Meanwhile, this is certain – electricity, gas, groceries, transport, school costs are rising significantly.

So, the recovery is also slower than expected: small shops are closing (we have seen the disaster in the suburbs and small towns, now also in the city centers), large factories are coming to a halt.

However, the time of restlessness, the time when problems cannot be clearly focused, will be long. The devastation of the pandemic and decades of linear cuts have filled healthcare with wounds: efforts are being made to address waiting lists, but there are still unacceptable cases. Hospitals are old, but the projects for new ones are advancing at a snail's pace or are very far off: from Cuneo to the city of health near the Pellerina area of Turin. Occasionally, flashes of the rearguard of the perfect storm that is passing reignite old difficulties, such as those of workplace safety, which continues to pile up innocent victims, and those at home, which are fueled by fraud and theft. And then there is the green transition struggling to make its way (at what cost?), while fine particles have filled the streets and lungs from Milan to Turin or Rome.

Geopolitical metamorphosis, societal transformation, shifts in industry, commerce, and agriculture. Finding granite rocks to cling to is truly difficult, arduous, rare. Yet there is only one way: not to stay on the sidelines, to get involved and be involved. The future of certainties, those that bring a smile, is realized this way, brick by brick in the world, in cities, in neighborhoods, at home. And with high attention because it is election time, there is the risk of many promises remaining just that. Let’s avoid it! Certainties will return. If we all get our hands dirty. If we are all back to the heavy grind from morning to night, between runs, trams, cars, schools, lunch boxes, sobriety and courage, meetings, and appeals, it means we can grow. Again!

Gian Mario Ricciardi
NP April 2024