Events

In the photo, gardens at the ‘Università Bocconi’ of Milan, where ‘NEXT Milan Forum’ 2024 helded on last March 18 and 19.[1]

Flash on a recent, complex and rightly ambitious event, intended to involve young people in citizenship, as a privileged area for the implementation of favourable and enriching projects : AI and business, sustainability and the reconstruction of prosperity beyond the Crises, disabilities and wounds from wars, cooperation and security were the topics touched on, starting from thinking over Europe. Analyses, reports, interventions presented by world-class speakers and not only from Europe, have identified the indispensable crossroads - and perceived first and foremost individually - between cost and investment : to develop a progressive awareness of this crossroads and the possible initiatives allows us to empower humans, discouraging deviant manipulations.

Who would then guess that two young athletes, with their very personal unexpected recovery, represented perhaps the most convincing goal of an event designed for Universities ?

Be aware of an experience that you would like to remove, but that leads inextinguishable marks on your body and mind : what could be more difficult, more provocative, more challenging in the life ? The absence of friends, that’s what there is : it is the response of those who - very young - only formally accept the category of ‘Paralympic Athlete’.

Mourning is allowed but not melancholy, is it ever possible ? In a strong experience of pain you have focused on someone who knew how to make himself, or herself, reliable[2] : it certainly wasn’t immediately possible but it is unreliability that constitutes a truly destabilizing trauma with unpredictable consequences.

How much courage does it take to say ‘mutilation’ about your own body?[3] Until another courage – rare indeed – which is that of recognizing as destabilizing your lying that you no longer love life, your wounded, damaged, violated body.

And pain also attracts social and generic empathy, pain can make you malleable to external surrogates, provided you betray the original alliance with your body : accustomed as they are to training over time and with work, these young athletes were not satisfied.

Furthermore, reconstruction is an investment to which resources - perhaps already committed - can be allocated with foresight, but whose effects are a safe, individual and social                   surplus, therefore very precious and crucial for the crossroads they entail between cost and investment.

The novelty of a, of any strong restart, opts first of all to discard the word ‘resilience’, as this doesn't concern one's own thinking, and instead collect everything that takes on a specific weight in the new life : there is no longer your solid reference group[4] and many fall, their image fades but those who are confirmed present come in to team up, even time suddenly and definitely takes on a conspicuous specific weight. Therefore ‘recovery’ is truly available to everyone but it’s not for everyone to 'team up’ rather than to ‘do group’ where no recovery lasts long.

How do you prepare yourself to for a critical spirit, when even University often doesn’t help ? This question, came from the audience, seemed destined to remain suspended but the answer came from an unexpected elsewhere – those athletes who, who knows why, climbed onto an ambitious University stage : an answer so subtle and light that it could even have been missed by those who were already moving away without cathartic resolution, and yet waiting after hours of patient listening.

Too ‘easy’ – another word that should be banned in any recovery - is waiting for an artificial intelligence able to replace us : decisions that are made more and more quickly may prove formally correct in the short term, but risk causing that delicate balances, such as political ones -  interconnected, global and therefore very close to us - then collapse.[5]

‘Emergency’ will perhaps regain the original sense of something-that-emerges because it wasn’t there before and now it is there[6], without arrogance and without pretension : something that needs to be studied – without academicism and also appointing new places – because ‘I care of it’, then out of budget.

Baton therefore offered to those who know team up.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – May 10, 2024

[1] ‘NEXT Milan Forum’ 2024 - Empowering Future Leaders’ included an integration of different sections : the section ‘Get inspired’, in which world-class speakers provided insights and  analysis to grow awareness and positive change; the section ‘Make your voice heard’ in which the audience expressed its views and dialogued with the invited speakers; the section ‘Idea slam’ proposing a competition among the future selected leaders (20-35 years old) for new ideas to be shared with G7 leaders on key global challenges. (The event was organized under the patronage of ‘Regione Lombardia’ and the Municipality of Milan; co-hosts : ISPI ‘Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale’, ‘Università Bocconi’-Milano, OECD 'Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development', Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG Italia, Fondazione Cariplo).

[2] From the speech given by Martina Caironi, paralympic athlete.

[3] From the speech given by Simone Barlaam, paralympic athlete.

[4] Again from the speech given by Simone Barlaam, paralympic athlete.

[5] From the speech given by Peter Maurer president of the Board, Basel Institute on Governance; former president, International Committee of the Red Cross.

[6] From the speech given by Bo Viktor Nylund director, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight

Conversation with… Tiziano Olgiati.

“I think that investing the elements in common with one’s mother tongue, or with the languages you already know, promotes the learning of a foreign language, to have a basis on which to fasten the memory of what you learn.”

Tiziano Olgiati graduated in 2019 in ‘Mathematics’ at the ‘Università degli Studi’ of Milan, then in 2021 also in ‘Linguistics’ at the University of Pavia (Italy).

Today he is 27 years old and teaches ‘Mathematics and Physics’ high school : between 2019 and 2022 he worked as an academic tutor at the University of Pavia for the Courses of ‘General Linguistics’ and ‘Glottology’, within the graduate courses of both ‘Literature’ and ‘Foreign Languages and Cultures’. He is fond of teaching to the point that he enrolled, again at the University of Pavia, in the Master’s degree of ‘Mathematics’ in order to be able to enter the Competition for tenured teachers.

“I often go to work with a smile : teaching students allows me to revisit subjects I love, mathematics precisely, and students really involve themselves, I receive their stories and I recognize myself as part of their lives.” 

‘Which part did memory play in your professional biography ?’

“Since I was a child I collected foreign languages in my head, and the respective dictionaries on my desk : I’m drawn by how each language expresses the same concept in a different way, and by how every language very well succeeds in this aim, according to its own and often unique strategies. Auditory memory helped me in the languages learning process and, as a consequence, in the writing language process, or in that of translating when it comes to an ancient language.”

‘So do you also appreciate ancient languages ?’

“Among the ancient languages, considered as languages no longer spoken, I had the opportunity to study, in addition to Latin, also ancient Greek and classical Armenian : these last two infact, not being subjects of study in high school, I studied in depth, following extracurricular courses. Latin remains perhaps the ancient language I appreciated the most, it is concise : each sentence has the right number of words, not one more nor one less, allows you to get straight to the point, but also to express complex reasoning in perfectly pigeonholed sentences one after the other, as in ancient Cicerone’ masterful speeches…” 

‘Is there a relationship, in your opinion, between auditory memory, and writing as graphic memory?’

“When I was a student in high school, I wanted to get better at translating Seneca : the teacher proposed me a sentence with a particularly difficult construction, then she suggested I repeat it out loud, several times. I realized that repeating a sentence, with awareness of the meaning of each word, allowed me to memorize the grammatical construction : then I also realized I could recognize the same pattern in other different sentences too, and I must say that, as well as objectively improving in translations, since that day I apply the method every time I find myself studying a difficult grammatical element in a new language, and it has always worked.

I think that one of the reasons that hinder learning a language is the attempt to translate word for word what is said in one’s native language, but there is rarely a one-to-one correspondence between sentences, in different languages : instead, it is better to try to understand how those sentences are structured, or perhaps the words themselves in a certain language, and then try to use them, combining them together.” 

‘Using one’s memory, in short, a bit like a laboratory ? Was this how your passion for mathematics was born ?’

“I was always attracted by numbers and by the concepts that arise from them, I wanted to discover more and more. A teacher of mine in the two-year period of high school said : ‘Mathematics is made of bricks. Each concept leads to another that builds on the previous one.’ Well, I like mathematics because develops coherently, and can expand continuously as new theorems are discovered.”

‘Then you discovered that Linguistics exists, even as an university subject…’

“Yes, it is a bit difficult to explain… We all encounter mathematics since elementary school, but the same cannot be said for Linguistics which is an university subject for both the Faculties of ‘Literature’ and ‘Foreign Languages’ : ‘linguistics’ generally means ‘the scientific study of language’, and I have some familiarity with languages. I always like to discover how languages come to express concepts, and then also what are the peculiarities of the cultures that use them. Shortly before my scientific high school exam I discovered that Linguistics existed, as a general science which allows us to abstract the properties of languages and to understand its role in society : I realized that it was exactly what I liked.” 

‘In your opinion a good memory is a defense for children, and why  ?’

“Certainly a good memory allows a child to have better defense mechanisms. Learning from your mistakes allows you to know the consequences of your actions, and to adjust your behaviour accordingly when you find yourself in situations similar to past experiences. Remembering experiences, or events including historical ones, and different situations, allows you to act consciously. Plus, having memory of what you have learned gives you a possibility : the one of having access to one’s own knowledge, to be able to face situations with new solutions, and therefore further learn, and progress.” 

At care of Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – April 4, 2024

In the photo, a detail from : ‘Sony World Photography Awards 2023’, Milan - ‘Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini’.[1]

Our memory is not a storage at all, in fact a working laboratory which selects processes and produces reality, that is what most identifies each of us : and if it isn’t in order, the fantasies that emerge do not help or defend. Difficult is to correct one’s naivety which we struggle to recognize, for example the compulsion for revenge, an issue that is unfortunately still current and recurring, even in today’s Civilization.

The 16th Competition, established by regional law in 2008 in Lombardia (Italy) ‘for the affirmation of the values’ of the Exodus from Istria region[2], kept the students busy for this 2024 edition about ‘How the exiles faced the challenge of rebuilding their existence in Lombardia and in the world’[3] : unsuspected names as the chemist Fulvio Bracco, founder of the Company ‘Bracco Spa’ and Ottavio Missoni in the fashion industry, the songwriter Sergio Endrigo as well as others in their normal  professions, involved a work of investigation and discovery from students ranging in age from thirteen and seventeen years old, and their commendable teachers. Up to the peculiar testimony of a former child girl who in 1949 was six years old and ‘hadn’t had the time to learn to read yet’ : today a delightful eighty one year old lady, Marisa Brugna[4] conducted a short and well-attended speech on her own ‘refugeance’ together with the hundreds of thousands of families which, starting from 1945, left Istria and their own homes but – not to irritate the new occupants who settled there after the Armistice of 1943 – few at a time, as if it were a holiday from which they would come back, and so it was not. Because they had to start from scratch, very far from their homelands, after long and painful stays of luck in the various ‘Refugee Collection Centres’ scattered across Italy, often facing distrust even from Italians themselves.

Who will be your partner and who will be instead your boss ? That was the question in the minds of adults who suddenly became ‘refugees’ in that Exodus : a question immediately collected now by the awarded young people present last February 14, because the experience of one’s naivety is as burning as life’s worst wounds, often it doesn’t even make it to the news, resolved in a hostile ‘face to face’. The defense against naivety appears impervious, even obscure, above all surrounded by uncontainable and overwhelming emotions : listening to yourself talking is a work, and it makes school.

Marina Bilotta Membretti, Cernusco sul Naviglio 19 febbraio 2024

[1] ‘Sony World Photography Awards 2023’ is one of the most prestigious competitions in the world for contemporary photography (Milan, ‘Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini’ July 3 – September 3, 2023). The free contest allows photographers from all the world to find support for their talent : in the four competitions of 2023 edition - Professional, Open, Student, Youth – more than 415.000 images participated from over 200 countries and territories.

[2] Before the Armistice of 1943 Istria was in Italy, but after the Armistice it became territory of the Federal Republic of Marshal Tito, now Croatia and Slovenia.

[3] Activity of ‘Regione Lombardia’, the 16th Edition of the Competition school year 2023-2024 “Le Foibe, la strage di Vergarolla ed il conseguente Esodo giuliano, fiumano e dalmata : come gli esuli hanno affrontato la sfida di ricostruire la propria esistenza in Lombardia e nel mondo”, rewarded on last February 14, into the ‘Sala Consiliare’ of Palazzo Pirelli in Milan, the selected works of the 145 students participating : I.T.E.P. ’Galileo Galilei’ - Laveno Mombello (VA) (novel); Liceo ‘Primo Levi’ - San Donato Milanese (MI) (video); Istituto Comprensivo ‘Alessandro Manzoni’ - Cologno Monzese (MI) (audiobook); Liceo Artistico ‘Giacomo e Pio Manzù’ - Bergamo (three videos awarded); Istituto comprensivo ‘San Paolo d’Argon’ - Cenate Sotto (BG) Scuola Secondaria I Grado ‘Enea Salmeggia’ (booklet : special mention in the competition); Liceo Statale ‘Novello’ - Codogno (LO) Scuola Secondaria II Grado (comic : special mention out of competition).

[4] Marisa Brugna, who today lives at Alghero (Sardinia) where she also has her family, testified her own ‘refugeance’ in the book ‘Memoria negata’ – Edizioni Condaghes Srl (2013) of which she is the author.

‘Perlasca’[1], by and with Alessandro Albertin.

In the photo: the Alps near Barcelonnette (Provence, FR) on the border with Italy.

Endless winter is the sleep of removal, always by threat, of losing love, or freedom, or even one’s life : a thinking which first and foremost censors, as it is in the arrogance of every despotism, terrible without mitigating circumstances.

Alessandro Albertin is author of the work which, with trained fluency and a special ability to arouse curiosity, is bringing to the scene in recent months. The story is not his, it is Someone else’s who was able, as a matter of facts, to question him to this extent, Someone else who was, precariously balanced, in Budapest in the years 1944 – 1945, at the crossroads never erased that the proclamation of the Armistice of 1943 made a difference for Italy : on the one hand the euphoria for the end of the Second World War, on the other the beginning of a severe persecution and extreme civil war by a defeated and utterly enraged Nazism. In short, something that is not taken into sufficient account when faced to victory – and serious responsibility of all rulers in neglecting – and something cruel at the same time, as every coming back of removal really is in life.

Giorgio Perlasca has just come out of his own war experience, volunteer fighter in Spain[2], at Budapest he is talentedly starting a meat business : but an Armistice is an Armistice, enough with the enemies now ! And he finds himself wanted, just like everyone that Gestapo goes to track down one by one in their houses, elderly and children, women and men, Jews first and foremost but not only : the fury of those who are defeated has no equal. An endless winter, no more seasons. Perlasca has family in Italy, to save himself he retrieves a letter of introduction, written and signed by the general Francisco Franco with which he can ask the Spain Embassy for any help, even at Budapest : and it is here that, together with his own salvation, Jorge – no longer Giorgio – Perlasca finds himself facing the injustice of the Case for which many in Budapest are rounded up, killed or deported in the nearby concentration camp of Auschwitz. Jorge remains at the Embassy, and precisely with that safe conduct, whose power he skillfully manages to strengthen and expand, he recovers the lives of thousands of persecuted people - Spanish Jews first and foremost, but not only - thus disobeying the Law of Hungary. When he will come again in Italy, no one will hear anything from him, Perlasca will resume the life he interrupted and invent a job, getting by in that very difficult post-war period which however the short 1960s would even go so far as to forget.

Doesn’t feel like remembering ? Anyone interested in listening to him ? Recognize the privilege of merit in others ? Perhaps.

Knowing you have saved someone is the certainty of a partnership, so real that it does not seek extras – even if one gets it sometimes. So incredible is one’s psychic occurrence indeed, it doesn’t appear and has thousands and thousands of forms, and even in the winter of life.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – February 10, 2024

[1] ‘Perlasca. Il coraggio di dire no’, by and with Alessandro Albertin, directed by Michela Ottolini, produced by ‘Teatro de Gli Incamminati’, Milan. Alessandro Albertin has been received last January 27 at the ‘Quirinale’ by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of ‘Remembrance Day’ : here he read a piece from ‘Perlasca. Il coraggio di dire no’ and also introduced the testimony by Cesare Rimini, ‘Una carta in più’. Graduated from the ‘Scuola d’Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi’ of Milan, Alessandro Albertin (Padua, Italy - 1972) already brought to the stage ‘Lo Sbarco in Normandia, i segreti di una vittoria’, ‘Marco Pantani, il campione fuori norma’, ‘Prometeo incatenato’ by Aeschilous for the ‘Greek Theatre’ of Siracusa (2023) : he worked with Virginio Gazzolo, Gianrico Tedeschi, Andrée Ruth Shammah, Gigi Proietti, Ugo Pagliai and others.

[2] Known as the ‘Spanish War’, was the long and terrible civil war which broke out following the military coup (July 17, 1936) that brought the general Francisco Franco to power in March 1939, and installed a fascist dictatorship which remained in government until around 1975.