(Turin March 24) If you like classical music and dignified entertainment in Italy, you surely and regularly listen to Radio3.
     Each morning at 08:00 Radio3 opens its microphones to the public to call in and voice their concerns or ask questions, which a different journalist addresses every week.
     What follows is more or less what I told Federico Fubini, a particularly distinguished journalist working for Corriere della Sera, this morning (March 24):
     “My name is Marco. I now live in Turin after a life spent in logistics, before my retirement from FIATA, the international association that gives a voice to all logistics operators.”

Recognition For Logistics

     “On March 19th I wrote to our Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, asking him to note the indispensable role of logistics serving hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets, and all the frontline enterprises considered ‘essential’ in his decree, then adopted on Monday 23rd.
     “I was asking for recognition, nothing else. Logistics workers must feel that they are appreciated and supported.”

The China Card

     “In 2011, I was invited to listen to President Xi Jinping speaking on international trade at the Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
     “If memory holds, Pres. Xi cited logistics five times in half an hour, underlining its crucial importance for life and progress—something surprising for European ears.”

Logistics Delivers Hope To The World

     “Logistics operators work hard to allow for our lifestyle and well-being; logistics works silently, mostly unnoticed by politicians. In this colossal crisis caused by the pandemic, there are doctors and nurses who are trying to save our lives on the front line with great self-sacrifice: there are no words sufficient enough to describe the debt of gratitude we owe them.”

Modern Day Heroes

     “Alongside these modern-day heroes, there are women and men working in logistics, employed in essential production and services: women and men essential for our lives at all times and in particular in these dire moments.
     “They should be given their admiration by their industry and also be given the commendation of the community at large. Far from the spotlight, they nevertheless ensure our resilience and survival.”

Stand Up & Be Counted

     “This is the time for all of us to serve our common goal, confident that those who helped most at this time will not be forgotten when we have put this perilous time behind us.”

The Pandemic Today In Italy

     “Many of the readers know what Italy is going through and some look at our predicament with a mixture of fear and denial—the same fear and denial we ourselves displayed just one month ago.
     “We are not all dead, most of us here are fighting the virus and looking forward to helping those who will suffer after us in the future.
     “Yesterday Italy even managed to send an earthquake relief unit to Croatia and that is a sign we shall never give up, even in times of trouble.
     “This is a time when the world feels what it means to be one planet—the only one there is.”

No Holiday From Reality

     “Many compare today’s pandemic with the Spanish Flu of 1918 or the plague in the middle ages. Those pandemics were probably even worse, but they were not so vividly portrayed in front of everyone’s eyes as this one is. The question of whether the deluge of information we handle today is good or bad depends on how you look at it. As with everything else, it depends on what you want to do with it. If one is fascinated by disaster news and negative comments, as some of us are unfortunately disseminating, we should not forget that while you are busy spreading misinformation intentionally or unintentionally, the deaths still continue. The severe loss of life make you realize the extreme importance of the truth.”

Call To Arms Worldwide

     “If you work in logistics, in air, rail, road, or waterborne transport, please do all that you can to ensure that your fellow citizens manage to live as safe and sound as materially possible. When this problem is over, we shall rejoice together and throw those parties that today are forbidden or impossible.
     “If you have nothing essential or vital to do, please stay at home and help the nurses and doctors who desperately need your inaction to see those ruthless epidemic numbers go down.”
Marco Sorgetti—Turin, March 24th 2020