Given that we are convinced supporters of education (understood in its most “classic” version of school) and that we firmly believe that it should be everyone’s right, we are equally convinced that thinking that you learn only at school is limiting. In the sense that, in addition to the more canonical subjects for which the institutional approach is necessary, it is very important to continue to spread culture and knowledge even outside the educational institutions.

The expression “lifelong learning” embodies an educational concept that goes beyond school age or specialist studies; what should be promoted is informal learning, even though it is not in compliance with the most classic educational approaches, but may be very useful for instilling awareness to create a world populated by citizens who are aware of “matters” such as empathy, integration, environmental sustainability, human rights, etc.

Daily time should be dedicated to the personal and continuing promotion of civic education, so as not to make adults lose sight of those values that we learned when we were children. As we grow up, we are always more, overburdened with obligations and duties, and tend to forget some elementary aspects of good coexistence with other beings, be they animals, humans, or plants.

The carrying out of good actions, participation, and contribution to a renewed and more sensitive community is a set of simple but effective practices that help us learn from the people around us.

We often hear about NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training): they are young, perhaps a little bewildered by scenarios that are not too encouraging. Boys and girls are not living in a particularly flourishing historical period; nevertheless, it is from the shadiest historical moments that projects, perspectives, and new horizons are born… But these destabilizing moments must be first overcome!

The youngest generations are often criticized for not being engaged in studies, employment or training as if it were (necessarily) a fault – or a choice.
Looking at our country, it is on the agenda, in this last period, to hear entrepreneurs complaining about the lack of personnel despite the proposals for interesting and worthy salaries, but is that really so?

We come from a generation that has reasoned with its head down and worked hard at all costs, a generation that today, in many cases, is at the head of small companies that have asked young generations to accept any working condition, because work ennobles, according to them. But does this expression still make sense? Are young generations really lazy or are they unwilling to accept non-existent contracts, ridiculous wages, non-existent rest periods, as well as many other rights that have been taken away from us without any opposition?

One thing is certain for us: these young people are looking to a future that some adults no longer look to. We want to listen to these “lazy” people, play in their team, and help them build a life path, which leads them somewhere. They have the right to lead a pleasant life and to fulfill their wishes, not just at those of a society bent on duty at any cost.

How much do we like to travel? Packing our suitcases or backpacks, taking a train, a flight, a bus, or a caravan, and exploring new worlds is something everyone loves. The travel experience is fundamental for the human being, who is born nomad and periodically returns in search of this condition. Whether it is to switch off and rest or to venture into an experience, it is undeniable that traveling offers very strong emotions.

Some people, however, unfortunately, seem not to have this right or find themselves forced to travel, to survive, or to make their family survive because they no longer have a welcoming “home”.

The two-year period 2020-2022 (should have) taught us that being able to move from our home or our country is a right that we all felt denied. Now we want to propose a little reflection: why, when travel turns into migration, ergo necessity (and not pleasure), is considered something wrong and hardly acceptable? We tend to judge this kind of traveler negatively, without thinking about the reasons for his choice, defining him as a profiteer, forgetting that the purposes of traveling can be several.

Even more so, those who pack a suitcase to seek “luck” or simply the dignity of a healthy life, must be respected and protected even more than those who, like all of us, travel whenever they have the occasion. Since the travel experience enriches everyone, it must be considered a right and not a luxury. A right to be protected even for those who travel not by choice, but by survival.

How much has the global pandemic affected human relations? We are not just talking about pleasant meetings and dinners with friends or the lack of social opportunities in which to live and cultivate friendships, a prospect that fortunately seems to be getting better and better. We are now going to talk about the living conditions of the weakest population groups in the early post-pandemic era: those groups include people who live on the margins of society, migrants with precarious jobs, or young men and women looking for a job; if until recently they were shunned for a sort of public and social modesty, in these two years they were also pointed out as responsible and carriers of diseases.

It was not uncommon to hear phrases about restrictions and the impossibility of organizing moments of conviviality and dinners with friends, accompanied by comments regarding migratory flows and entries, according to some, unregulated and uncontrolled, as if the migrants were not victims as much as we are (if not even more than us, since they don’t even have a house in which to isolate themselves) and were more disease-carriers than us.

Despite a growing desire for aggregation and human relationships to cultivate has appeared, a feeling of distrust has increased at the same time. This common feeling is addressed to the usual people who, as if they had faults or responsibilities, must face another kind of isolation, not within the house walls, but within a society that seems increasingly frightened by the wrong “monsters”.
We sincerely hope that this sad period, also accompanied by a new, useless war, comes quickly to an end, maybe replaced by the arrival of a good general dose of empathy, the cure for the greatest evils.

Here’s our Glossary of Covid-19

Do you believe that the possibility of building and developing architecture and technology according to the canons of nature and animals already exists? Now you have to believe it, it is called biomimicry and is exactly the union of biology, architecture and new technologies. The goal is to develop engineering works, both giant and tiny, inspired by the logic of the evolution of various living organisms. Forms, structures, materials and functions are plagiarized from Mother Nature to try, finally, to imitate the more intelligent life. A life that develops on ecosystems by geological growth and evolution and not, as expected, devoted to the violent consumption of resources and planned obsolescence which are not based on the respect for nature and living beings.

Biomimicry is the answer to some of our problems, a set of solutions, that some attentive and far-sighted human beings have found by observing those organisms which are part of nature and that we consider different from us.

Biomimicry exploits the interdependence between the elements: solar energy, hydrophobia, resistance to atmospheric agents, environmental exposure and a whole series of behaviors common to nature, where “waste” is not contemplated.

In short, a giant leap forward, looking at the simpler things that still have engineering lessons to give us.

We at Glocal Factory are happily involved in a project that deals with the dissemination of this new approach and we are learning more and more about this new topic thanks to the whole partnership and, above all, to the scientific contribution of the Biomimetic Science Institute.

These are sad times in which the word “war” has unfortunately returned as the protagonist of the news. With these episodes, terms like “welcome”, “brotherhood” and “inclusion” have also found ample space. We at Glocal Factory firmly believe that it is appropriate to always remember these three words and have them well engraved in our minds and hearts. These are not words that should be limited to riding a media wave. Unfortunately, there are many wars and, of course, none excludes others, but it is good to remember that the people who experience these tragedies are in constant search of happiness, well-being and tranquility, like all of us, after all.

Inclusion, the real one, provides for paths that allow these people to be able to get involved, to re-build a life that is worthy of being defined as such and not of feeling a burden for other people. This pushes us every day to create training courses and projects aimed at doing justice and offering new opportunities to anyone.

For inclusion to work, it is important to create the right circumstances and to provide the means for collaboration and the establishment of new collective projects or the placement of people in already existing realities.

Let us not forget that behind certain collective names there are people and life stories, dreams, desires, and needs.

Last December we visited a refugee camp, one of those places that we hear from the daily news but it is hard to give them an identity: what is shown leads us to consider those places as anonymous.

But those sites are called “home” by many people (even though it is hard to define them as such). Sure, associating the word “home” to such places is a paradox, their real home is different! We thought it before visiting the camp and now we believe it even more: seeing with our own eyes can surely contribute to shaping our ideas and thoughts.

Unfortunately, we are constantly bombarded with definitions, names, numbers and information. We perceive a substitute for information that is passive and words like migrants, refugees or refugee camps slide down into our stomachs in between bites, just before the football championship news.

Sure, we are convinced that it is neither easy nor possible for everyone to visit those sites to form a personal idea about the matter. But what we are sure about is that such experiences could at least serve as a deterrent in order not to launch completely unfounded reasoning or debates and to remind us that “refugee camp” are not two words, we are referring to people who, like us, open their eyes every morning and are looking for, if not happiness, at least that wellness from which we all should draw.

Choosing to reject passivity is good both for us and for the others