This year my dear ragazzi, I will not write words of mine to wish you nice and resting holidays , as I have been  touched by the episode that have shocked the community of a municipality in my country in Sicily, RAVANUSA. A gas explosion has destroyed 7 buildings , forming a giant crater where  9 persons have lost their lives. One of them  was Pietro Carmina, a retired philosophy school teacher much loved by his students.

I’d love to unite to his ragazzi and give a thought to him and to his contribution to the life of many many students , translating the letter he wrote to them when he retired 3 years ago, from Istituto Foscolo in Canicatti’.

Dear friends, in the world , there are so many Professor Carmina, so many dedicating their lives to reach the souls and the real feelings of many ragazzi in the classes, instilling passion, love, real and profound knowledge and experiences. Students who are not numbers , but hearts blossoming to life. I hope you’ll make this letter yours for any moment of despair, lost of sight and fatigue during your beautiful path of life.

Keep your dreams alive and the tiller handle straight, also in these difficult time of Pandemic, stay steadfast on your feet, there will always be someone willing to guide and support you.

Professor Carmina,  grace and grandness to you, you’ll be remembered.

Alessandra Gorini

“To my ragazzi, of yesterday, of today.

I just closed the school register. For the last time. While awaiting for the bell which will free them  and will let them swarm towards the holidays, I find myself looking at all of them, in front of me. And, as in an imaginative kaleidoscope, behind their faces I see others, many, hundreds, all those I have come across in these last 43 years of mines.

Of many I remember everything : even the smiles, the jokes, the gestures of disappointment, the way of justifying themselves, of confiding, of communicating joys and sorrows, of others, many in truth, only the face or the name. Friendly alive  relations persist with some, but the passage of time and distance have weakened or interrupted, alas, those with many others.

I have reached the end of the line and the most excruciating sadness is not so much in being enrolled by right in the club of the elderly, as in separating myself from these guys.

 I believe I have given everything I could to everyone, but I also believe that I have received more, much more. I’d love to embrace you all ; the ones I meet in the street , the ones who are friends on social media, and, through you, reaching all the others, embracing you all, wherever you are.

I’d like you to know that one of my happinesses is feeling remembered; one of my joys is knowing that you are affirmed in life; one of my satisfactions is the conscience and the awareness of having tried to teach you that life is not a « scratch and win »: life needs to be grabbed, biten off, conquered.

I learned something from each of you, and from each of you the joy of living, the vitality, the dynamism, the enthusiasm, the desire to fight. The years of high school, however beautiful, are not always happy or easy, especially when you have had to deal with a professor that some mornings reached sublime levels of surliness and harshness, in short…. he broke big. But he did it on purpose, in an attempt to pave the way, highlighting obstacles and difficulties.

I apologize if sometimes I haven’t listened properly, if I have not been able to establish the right empathy, if I have only judged appearances, if I have disappointed expectations, if I have given more value to results and neglected the path and progress , if, in a word, I have not lived up to your expectations and I have not been able to make you perceive that you have been and are important to me, because you have formed my second family.

One last recommendation, while my bus is stopping:

 use the words I taught you to defend yourself and to defend those who don’t have those words;

do not be spectators but protagonists of the history you live today: slip in , get your hands dirty, bite your life, do not “adapt”, commit yourself, never give up on pursuing your goals, even the most ambitious ones, put on your shoulders those who cannot handle: you are not the future, you are the present.

Please: never be cold-hearted, don’t be afraid to take risks so as not to make mistakes, don’t stay glued to messing around with your iPhone all day long. Read instead, travel, be curious (remember the rabbit in Sofia’s world?) I did, or rather, I tried to do my part, now it’s your turn.

Our paths diverge, but remember that you have been part of my experience, of my history and, therefore, of my life. For this reason, even now that you are grown up, for advice, for a disappointment, or simply for a laugh, a memory or a greeting, I am there and I will be there. You know where to find me.

Here you are. The bus has arrived. I stop here. To you, have a good trip ”.

PROFESSOR PIETRO CARMINA

Ravanusa

I was lucky enough not to be confronted by any terrible, catastrophic event throughout my life unlike the ones my parents and many other people around the world have experienced.

I was also lucky enough not to see any of the Y4PT Youth around the world suffer because of war since the beginning of our organization which was founded 16 years ago.

Unfortunately, I am devastated to say that I am no longer lucky. Four of my dearest Afghan friends, colleagues and volunteers who did so much for the world, are now stuck in Kabul, Afghanistan where the rules now is no rule. 

We have all heard about Afghanistan, Iraq, and many horrible wars and violent actions all over the world; we have all heard the news many times distantly during our lives, sympathizing with the poor populations who were going through hell. We have also, at times, met refugees and have heard stories from families and people close to us. We were moved for a little while, at that little glance of despair but then we all went back to our regular lives.

However, today is the day that you must not abandon their cries for help, because that one friend, that one youth, that one smile, that one collaboration is part of your world. You cannot turn your eyes away and you must not want to turn your eyes away because they need us now more than ever.

Day by day, moment by moment, through time, through the lack of intelligence of our societies, the craziness of our divisions, you are the missing puzzle piece that gives us hope about how much we are all united. Each of us have different life experiences and unfortunately, some of us are not privileged enough to have peaceful life experiences but we must unite in order to make sure they do. With all the atrocities , separations, deaths , scissures and deathly wounds happening as a result of war, we must not stay silent and accept them.

This is why we are calling upon you to pick the side of those who yearn to seek protection and peace. They need us to give them hope with a capital H , the right to live a proper, serene life without war and calamities.

My dear Afghan friends are living a life of hell right now; whilst you, me and many others are laughing, eating , sleeping , loving,  working and moving around without any interference. 

They are fearing for their lives, with no proper income, a safe place to sleep and are terrified of making the wrong move. Their chance for a proper life lies in the hands of any person who is willing to provide them with documentation, visa and a plane ticket to live a safe life abroad. Their only misfortune is being born in a place that will never allow them to lead a normal and safe life full of prosperities and that is just unacceptable.

Will you make the impossible possible? Will you give them life? 

They were all studying to learn more, to have that chance of illuminating other paths, other lives, to help their country, to help  their people and nation grow.

Now,  because of the cruelty of the people who created this war and the deadly games played, they are separated from their spouses and away from each other with a tiny red thread binding them that can break any moment. 

Project yourself in that hell, project your children in that hell; what will you do for your children, what will you do for your parents? You’ll do  EVERYTHING to make the impossible possible

I’m asking you to help us make the impossible possible, through; 

Searching for chances, contacts , possibilities and if not possible help with a donation; so they’ll have to cross that frontier to another country to save their lives. They will then need to wait for days and maybe months for securing a visa which is still dependent on somebody willing to make that effort to bring them out.

I still remember when I met them, their smiles , their respectful and demure attitude, a sign of great humbleness and dignity.  Will we all give them a chance to live? 

So far, we have heard  loads of useless words on social media from politicians in different countries.

So far, bureaucracy and long listing priorities are threatening their lives. 

So far, my Afghan friends are counting on us in this world  of ours, where legality and respect for the weaker are constantly at risk.

Will you make the impossible possible?

This is a heartfelt appeal to all  and each of you to use all your abilities and possibilities and to make that move , jump higher and help them with us.

If you cannot find any chance of contact, please do support their escape , as banks are not open in Kabul and they will need to be accommodated somehow, somewhere maybe for long. 

You can send your support to our Y4PT Bank Account with the mention:

Afghani Support 

Y4PT BNP PARIBAS

BE82 0016 9153 1668

They will thank you from the bottom of their heart

With love,

Alessandra

AFGHANISTAN AND ITS HISTORY

If you want to have a first reading about Afghanistan and its rich variety of population from the Prehistoric Era , you can just start with Wikipedia to become more friendly with this important population and country.

Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, and the country’s strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. The land has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviets, and in 2001 by the United States with NATO-allied countries. It has been called “unconquerable” and nicknamed the “graveyard of empires“,though it has been occupied during several different periods of its history. The land also served as the source from which the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khaljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, and others have risen to form major empires.

Read more on Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan#Demographics

Written by

Co-Founder of Y4PT Foundation

I just want to take this time, really briefly, to share some thoughts with you after this wonderful experience.

Y4PT is like one of those big, numerous families we used to see in the past, the bigger it gets, the more diverse it gets, and in fact that’s one of our main assets: our diversity.

All people involved in Y4PT have a particular story behind to tell, and throughout all these years we have shared different perspectives of life, how we understand reality, and why those personal realities differ from one geography to another.

We have learned not to live in our own bubbles anymore, ignoring what it is happening out there, beyond our social circles, the cities we grew up in, the countries we were born in. We are now more empathic for other people’s problems and aware of our interconnected way of living.

We are all humans, right? In the end we have all the same needs and desires. Everyone is on the quest of pursuing happiness, isn’t it?

For some people it might sound obvious, but for other not.

For instance breathing in fresh, clean air should be the same in Norway, in India, and elsewhere, but unfortunately is not. Having equal access to education should be the same in Switzerland, in Nigeria, and elsewhere, but is not. Riding on a quality public transport system should be the same in London (UK), in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and elsewhere, but is not. Being a woman and walking safely on the street should be the same in Iceland, in Mexico, and elsewhere, but is not.

In Y4PT we have learned not only to address problems from a local perspective, but to make them globally known and to find solutions in a collective way.

During all these years, especially when we evolved to our current hackathon format, we noticed how diversity became important to create a more completed, more agreed knowledge, one that is built up on consensus and based on facts.

But creating consensus requires leadership. When you guys have the opportunity to steer a team, guide them, let everyone to have a say, build up agreement in a constructive way in order for all of them to feel part of the solution, and to create a sense of belonging, of identity.

Stay also curious, do not take all for granted and do not allow others think, decide for you. Over the past years information is getting more open for everyone, so please read as much as you can, confront sources and establish your own criteria. But keep yourselves alert, not all information circulating is fact-proved. Stay humble but also responsive, attentive. Knowledge is so vast that sometimes it is hard to pretend to own the truth.

Time is changing, not all shall remain the same forever. So guys adapt to new paradigms. We know that altering our comfort zone is tough, but we humans are made for becoming accustomed to new realities, to a new normal like the one we are striving for setting up on these days.

And this is what you have done all here guys, team members of each project. Despite virtuality, you were open to come out with ideas, collaborating one each other, and integrating the perspective of your home countries into a global problem-solving process, to create solutions that are scalable, because of in the end we are now facing a more palpable, common issue, that is impacting to all of us at this right moment, like the current COVID-19 pandemic.

No matter what the final results were, we encourage you guys, from each team, not to live at the moment, but to keep up your motivation, always willing to contribute to a change.

Keep a sense of purpose in every single thing you do in life, now and after. We hope that in one-year time, in Melbourne, all these projects have reached an advanced level of progress to prove yourselves and to show to the world how far you are capable to go.

Be aware that developing a working solution as the ones you put forward during our virtual hackathon, you might be saving lives and that’s the noble side of your endeavors. So hands up for that!

Last but not least and on behalf of Y4PT we want to thank the people who were there, on a daily basis, making this event possible and because of timing limitations we could not hear from them during the finale and they were there connected, from the beginning to the end. Thank you mentors, thanks to Alessandra from Italy, Alfredo from Mexico, Laura from UK, Rafael from Colombia, Nabeel from India, Tristan from Germany, Alvaro from Spain, Dario from Italy, Victoria from Uruguay, Juan Diego from Ecuador and Daniel from Colombia.

We hope then that we can keep enabling this kind of spaces, along with the valuable support of the UITP, under the visionary leadership of Mohamed, the president of Y4PT, who is proving to us now that no matter what leadership position is holding, he finds the way to listen to everyone for having a say.

That’s all what I wanted to say.

Thank you so much to all and good luck for the new chapter we just started!

See you soon in Australia 2021.

Cheers!

RELATED LINKS

• Call, Web Page – Hack COVID–19 And Reshape Societies! (http://www.y4pt.org/projects/covid19/)
• Article – Hack COVID–19 And Reshape Societies: Building A New Normal All Together! (http://www.y4pt.org/hack-covid-19-and-reshape-societies-building-a-new-normal-all-together/)
• Article – Be A Hero, Stay At Home! (http://www.y4pt.org/be-a-hero-stay-at-home/)
• Video – Y4PT in time of COVID-19 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO-czVvItg4)

Please translate in your own language and post to your profile, you can help humanity

#Istayathome
#jerestechezmoi
#yomequedoencasa
#iorestoacasa
#ichbleibezuhause

i Stay Home Covid 19 Corona… by Transport on Scribd

So there, we, all Humans of this Century, we are living History now: Live.
We are living something that will be remembered in our future School books.
It is not a Fiction Movie, is not a Netflix series, it is happening, NOW.
It is something that is taking us by surprise, like the Pompeiians when they have been hit by the Vesuvius’s eruption.
Natural and artificial catastrophes very many often they do not let us react at a normal pace. They just strike.
And when they start, they hit hard. Sometimes for just minutes like Earthquakes; or hours, like hurricanes, or days, like storms, depending on season and geography. Same has been going on for Epidemics and Pandemics in History of Humankind. Now we are hit by this new Virus. An unknown one.
In the past, the only thing that has being saving Animals and Living Beings on this Planet, from the immediacy of those events has been especially their capacity of response and reaction, their ability to adapt and to adapt fast, and for Humans, to have a vision on the long run, to be brave enough for hard decisions in a very short amount of time.
Like the ancient Ships and Vessels’ Captains, like the ancient Warlords, like the Leaders of all communities and ancient population, Egyptians, Romans, Mesopotamians, Aztecs and Maya to name a few. And particularly, like the Heroes of any time.
This abilities to adapt, unfortunately is reduced in each community, when a state of wellbeing is reached.
Our Human Western Societies, Democracies, they have reached a level of recklessness that is impeding the ability of a fast reaction. Bureaucracy, complexity, high economic interests are making all our western leaders blind and almighty.
Alike, and for the same reasons a huge number of other country in the world, if not a Dictatorship fast as the Chinese one, will lose precious moments of TIME, to react in moments of calamities.
We are experiencing another historical course and appeal ( remember Giambattista Vico, an Italian political philosopher and rhetorician, historian and jurist, of the Age of Enlightenment… ).
And here we go again, in the History of catastrophic events.
As a first, we are experiencing our Leaders’ disorganization, separation in taking decisions, internal fights. Then, we are witnessing the indifference of the population, used to depend on leaders, or used not to follow leaders and science advices. (sounds familiar, the cicada and the ant?)
Then all of a sudden, as a population, we see that nobody else from the external world is able to protect us, and we start panicking. A few are able to reorganize themselves, the wiser ones. The unconcerned and blind, will continue their run, as sheep in a herd, their obvious usual and unchangeable life.
The real problem is, that during these phases of History, there are loss. Loss of many lives. Loss of stories of people. Of families broken and divided. Of smiles, of human abilities and creativities. Of feelings. Of realities. They are not numbers, they are persons.
So NOW, is here to you:
you can have a direct, fundamental strong and unprecedented impact
Each thoughtless move, each action you will undertake from now on will make History with the big H; will make the numbers rise low, or rise high. Is on you. On us. On each of US.
More than ever, you and we all, can mark and transform the territory where you are playing. Leave an indelible mark.
The butterfly effect, TODAY AND WHEREVER YOU ARE, will have an extraordinary impact, making a real difference between life and death. During this enormous challenge we are living which is uniting for the good and the bad, all human beings on this Planet.
So I’m asking you,
Are you willing to take the Leadership of your life and the one of many others?
Are you willing to start protect yourself, your family and the people around you?
Then you have to wash your face with cold water and wake up.
Each of you in any country of the world can make a huge difference in saving its family, friends, neighbours, elderly, youth, disable people, people at risk, strangers.
Each of you can generate a cascade effect, from here to Australia, from Canada to Japan and Patagonia until the last remote island of the Pacific.
For this reason, #stayathome before them even tell you. Do not await the obligation. Be responsible. Be respectful. Be a Hero.
Be a worldwide hero, viruses they do not care If you are white, yellow, black or purple, if you are thin or fat, small or tall, gay, bisexual, straight or rich or poor, Orthodox, Christian or Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist. It only look at you as a complex amount of cell that it can get in.
And basically, this is what we are.
This is a big lesson to learn and do not forget. We are not supernatural. We are part of Nature. And as such, no Structure, no Tinsel, no City, no Government, no Politic, no Religion can protect us.
Just humbleness and science recognition.

What a virus is:

A virus is an infectious agent that can only replicate within a host organism. Viruses can infect a variety of living organisms, including bacteria, plants, and animals. Viruses are so small that a microscope is necessary to visualize them, and they have a very simple structure.
Viruses can only exert influence by invading a cell, because they’re not cellular structures. They lack the ability to replicate on their own, so viruses are merely tiny packets of DNA or RNA genes enfolded in a protein coating, on the hunt for a cell they can dominate.
A virus lodged in a cell replicates and reproduces as much as possible; with each new replication, the host cell produces more viral material than it does normal genetic material. Left unchecked, the virus will cause the death of the host cell. Viruses will also spread to nearby cells and begin the process again.
The human body does have some natural defenses against a virus. A cell can initiate RNA interference when it detects viral infection, which works by decreasing the influence of the virus’s genetic material in relation to the cell’s usual material. The immune system also kicks into gear when it identifies a virus by producing antibodies that bind to the virus and render it unable to replicate. The immune system also releases T-cells, which work to kill the virus. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, though vaccinations will provide immunity.
Unfortunately for humans, some viral infections outpace the immune system. Viruses can evolve much more quickly than the immune system can, which gives them a leg up in uninterrupted reproduction.

RELATED LINKS

• Call, Web Page – Hack COVID–19 And Reshape Societies! (http://www.y4pt.org/projects/covid19/)
• Article – Hack COVID–19 And Reshape Societies: Building A New Normal All Together! (http://www.y4pt.org/hack-covid-19-and-reshape-societies-building-a-new-normal-all-together/)
• Article – Be A Hero, Stay At Home! (http://www.y4pt.org/be-a-hero-stay-at-home/)
• Video – Y4PT in time of COVID-19 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO-czVvItg4)