The satellite event “Equality
and Freedom”, organised by the Italian association “Sulleregole” and in which
my class participated on 30 November, was extraordinarily inspiring. Gherardo
Colombo has been taking part in such meetings with high school students for years. He is a former
Italian magistrate who had a crucial role
in some of the most remarkable trials in the country, such as “Mani
Pulite”, a judicial investigation
into political
corruption in the 1990s, and the murder of Giorgio
Ambrosoli, a court-appointed lawyer who was liquidating
Sindona's crumbling banking empire. The event
was presented by the famous actor Pif, and Gherardo Colombo was flanked by the
journalist Sergio Rizzo. They both dealt with very serious topics, which are
generally underestimated by most people: not only freedom and equality, which
are doubtlessly the core values of every democratic society, but also the
correlation between the Internet and these two concepts. Thanks to his friendly
and even joking attitude, the magistrate managed to involve the students in an active discussion about the profound meaning of the word “equality”, which
is, I think, more and more misunderstood. Each of us is unique, but the
Constitution (and more specifically Article 3) guarantees the respect of the
differences and defines the conditions which allow people to have fair
opportunities. However, what Colombo helped us understand is that a society based
on equality is not necessarily characterized by freedom, too. So, the two
values must coexist in order to create a better society, in which everyone is
different, and equal: sex, race, personal and social conditions can’t be turned
into pretexts for discrimination and violence.
Besides, Sergio Rizzo,
Vice Director of “La Repubblica”, discussed the problems of the Internet related to the world of work and “artificial
intelligence”. It was probably quite tedious for some students, but I found it
extremely interesting, mainly because of the influence of technology on our lives, as it is becoming increasingly significant. Just think
of Amazon or Google which have an incredible decision-making power over international politics and economy.
What we can do is to strive to
keep the democratic values alive, even in front of such a changeable world.
Matteo Masi, 5^C Liceo Linguistico
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