EDITORIAL
T
his editorial was supposed to be devoted to spring in Puglia, with its colors and blossoms that can't be found the rest of the year: the green of wheat fields and the red of poppies, the peach trees in bloom, the magic of wild orchids.
But once again, only a few months after the tragic events in Paris, a brutal act of terrorism has shaken the heart of Europe. March 22 in Brussels, with the tragic explosions at Zavantem airport and Maalbeek subway station, will be inscribed on the black list of a war that is different from all those studied by our generations in history books, a war in which no place is safe and in which an impersonal place that we pass through without a second thought, like an airport or a subway station – a “non-place” according to Marc Augé's brilliant definition – can suddenly be transformed into a battle field where innocent, unwitting victims are executed.
Our spring, just begun, our Easter, the passion, the passage, the rite of rebirth for believers and non-believers, has been invaded by the pain and the horror of this new attack which reminds us that there is a world war underway, with hazy outlines, involving diverse countries, cultures and interests. No attempt to resolve this international impasse will be easy and lacking in consequences.
Mario Calabresi, in an article for La Repubblica, written in Brussels straight after the attacks, very close to the place of the explosions, observes that “nobody is thinking of running, there are no screams, and the European officials are entering their buildings as usual” and wonders “is it courage or resignation”?
The show must go on. We can express our solidarity with those who have been hit, shout our angry protest against the senseless, inhuman violence of terrorism, listen to the decisions made by politicians and decide whether these decisions deserve our support. After that, all we can do is to get on with living our lives, trying, inspired by the unbridled reawakening of nature, to be reborn yet again.
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