Sowing friendships
In this column I reflect on cultivating friendships throughout life. I prefer to visit friends rather than do conventional tourism, practicing hospitality and maintaining ties with people from different stages and countries. I highlight a talk about my late tutor, Bruno Touschek, in a school titled to his memory, rekindling meaningful memories and connections.
Lourdes
Lourdes is much more than the 72 miracles certified in 167 years since the apparitions of the Virgin to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
Lourdes, an important Christian destination, is characterized by its purifying water, its spiritual climate of peace and ceremonies such as the torchlight procession.
In addition to physical healings, the author experienced personal “other miracles”: a reunion with a Bolivian friend in Paris, an unexpected seat at a packed Mass with cancer survivors like himself, and the miraculous recovery of a lost hearing aid. A prayer for the healing of Bolivia from populism could not be missing, trusting in a change with the new government.
State holdings
This week I’m breaking a 25-year-old tradition of fortnightly columns, so I don’t let the topic of Public Enterprises (PE) introduced in my previous installment cool down. The basic concept for answering what to do with PEs is “State Participation”, i.e., the way in which the State intervenes directly in the economy. In a country […]
Holiday curiosities
I read that the winter holidays have been extended by another week, as usual. Good news for teachers and students, but not so good news for working parents who will have to invent activities to prevent their children from getting bored or addicted to video games. In my childhood, summer holidays were lived as a […]
Birthdays
Not all birthdays are the same. The form of the celebration varies according to the age and culture in which one is educated. For example, in all my childhood and youth I did not celebrate my birthday, the date of which, actually, almost no one knew or remembered. It is said that the best way […]
Other anecdotes of an Italian in Bolivia
At the request of the “respectable public”, I integrate my column of 15 days ago with other anecdotes related to my “being Italian” in Bolivia, trying, this time, to make some teachings more explicit. If pain is the spice of life, anecdotes, especially funny ones, are the honey of existence. For today’s article, I have […]
A reunion without memories
With Adalberto I shared in Italy the preparation for volunteering (learning the Spanish language and some of the history and problems of Latin America) and, now in Bolivia – the country that we both chose to carry out our civil service on behalf of the Italian government -, we lived together in El High, for […]