in 2008 Italy sent équipes of highly-specialized surgeons & first responders to the Chinese region of Sichuan, in order to help with the devastating effects of an earthquake that killed more than 80k people and injured hundreds of thousands of civilians. today, march 2020, China’s sending some of its top doctors from one the best hospital of the country, situated in Sichuan, to help us face an epidemic that they’ve come to know how to fight.
italy had faced the 1976 Friuli earthquake, and although that may seem relatively small when compared to the absolutely monstrous numbers of what happened in Sichuan, it was one of the worst climate-related tragedies our country’s ever had to deal with. that we rushed to help China when it was facing something like that, but bigger and more devastating, and that - twelve years down the line - they’re choosing to do something about us suffering for something they’ve already had to fight against… means a lot.
knowing that as much as you suffer, if you act on that pain and prevent others from going through that as much as possible, it might actually make a difference. I hope we can keep this event close to our hearts for a long time. we need all the good fuel we can get.
stay strong China, stay strong Italy.
even better news: in 1988 the Italian government helped China pro bono to establish Sichuan’s largest emergency medical service centre. over the next 30 years that medical service centre was of great help to medical services in Sichuan. turns out that the help we’re receiving from China had been literal decades in the making. :’)
waves from the same sea, flowers from the same garden.