Letters to the Editor from Italians

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Arab Times will be publishing a series of letters sent by Italian nationals from Gulf countries

Letters to
Sattam Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief 
The Arab Times and Al-Seyassah Online Media

February 19, 2020
…imagine  to  travel for a short holiday to Italy, and suddenly in no time and so  quickly you find yourself  in the middle of a world health crisis! You leave  your home, your cat, your job, your friends, the country that has  welcomed you for many years, you leave your life for a short time and  everything vanishes. You want to come back but you can’t, as all flights  are suspended,  you want to work but you can’t, as most offices are  closed, you can only think, think, think about how best to use your  time, which unexpectedly has expanded indefinitely.

Your beautiful  Italy is wounded by an invisible monster is tearing  apart an unarmed Italy leaving many to suffer and many to die,  Incredulous you find yourself thinking that you  have been more fortunate than other compatriots who have been blocked  by circumstances in neighboring countries, such as Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain  or UK, or they are safe in Kuwait but far from their families.

BY ANTONELLA FANELLI

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Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I am thinking it  was just a bad nightmare. Then unfortunately, I realize this is  happening for real.  My family and I are stuck in Kuwait,  at home for weeks,  kids  school  are closed until September  2020, I am lucky to be here and to be in good health. The  rhythms of our family daily life completely changed in less than 1  month.  When we wake up in the morning, we do some physical activities and  homework with the kids, then we remotely do office work, and it is  already lunch time which we enjoy to prepare all together,  afternoon and  evening are very busy as well with families and friends calls.  Every  day is the same, there is no Friday or Monday. Every day is a “hope day”  for ourselves, for our friends, for our relatives that someone will find  soon a cure or vaccine for this terrible virus.

In Italy  the situation is extremely difficult. Thousands of cases, hundreds of  dead, entire population locked in their house praying to survive. It  seems to experience a scenario of terrible war.

My  sister and my mother are living 200 meters far from each other and they  can not meet each other  since 2 months. Two weeks ago, my sister’s son  got high temperature, they immediately called the emergency and an  ambulance arrived after 5 minutes, luckily it was just a normal flue. We  have to pray and hope that he’ll recover soon.

This virus  is democratic, it affects rich, poor, old, young, grandparents and  children, any religion, any nationality, men and women, we all could be  affected, nobody is safe. The only safe thing to do is to stay home to  avoid spreading and pray.

We have friends stuck for 1  month already in Dubai, another one in the UK,  their house and work are  here, in Kuwait, unfortunately they were out of the country when the  blockage happened. So they had to rent a flat or hotel room waiting,  without knowing when they could come back and enter again in their house  in Kuwait.

The Kuwait Italian Business Council board  (namely Maria Capello, Herminio Passalacqua, Simona Cipollina, David  Malamuth, Giovanni DeGennaro, Carlo Pellico , Roberta Colaiacovo and  myself Alberto Bitossi)  normally is busy in organizing networking  events but, considering this emergency , immediately started a  Fund-Raising Campaign to help Italy, collecting money to donate to the  “Italian Protezione Civile” (the Civil Protection Department who is  dealing with the emergency). We need  help from everyone, please support  ITALY in this emergency.

Please donate  at  https://gogetfunding.com/italian-emergency-for-coronavirus

More than ever we feel that we have to fight all together this invisible enemy who can destroy a life in no time!
I  am sure that when we will fight and win this virus all over the world  will think and act differently giving to life an importance that  deserve.
Italians are thankful to the country is hosting  us, for precautionary measures and the professionally dedicated to  preserve our health.  

BY ALBERTO BITOSSI for Kuwait Italian business council

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