The latest issue of the bimonthly Outlook of Confindustria di Modena (re)talks about the earthquake in Emilia, which struck the Modena area with particular violence. The death that caught entrepreneurs and workers together in the factory will remain in the memory of all of us as one of the indelible signs of what happened and, at the same time, a painful but authentic testimony of what our land is. A place which is certainly worth between 1 and 2 percent of the wealth produced in Italy and which is a veritable export machine (Modena with over ten billion in 2011 contends with Bologna for primacy in the region, and there are not a few of our districts that export more than half of their turnover).
But it is much more than this. It is also a place, ours, where the ability to cooperate between the various "worlds" (local administrations, voluntary organizations, businesses, associations, workers, trade unions, schools, universities, banks, and the list is certainly incomplete) it is very high; Where mutual trust, with a view to pursuing common goals, reaches the highest levels in the country. In the language of initiates these characteristics go under the name of "social capital". It is at least since the famous trip to Italy, at the beginning of the 90s of the last century, by the American sociologist Robert Putnam that the civic virtues of a region like Emilia-Romagna are recognized by all.
However, after what they experienced firsthand, especially with the two tremors of Tuesday 29 May, we cannot tell our children this way. It is advisable to resort to the old, but still valid, adage that «unity is strength»; or, for those of my generation, pulling out of the suitcase of memories that extraordinary TV series "Father Tobia's Boys" where "whoever finds a friend, finds a treasure". Perhaps, taking a little license with respect to the rigorous theories of the international literature mentioned above, we could call it the "capital of friendship". In all probability, pass the expression, it is a capital which in the short term yields less than the devilry invented by creative finance in the last decade, but yields, indeed, in the medium and long term: it is the hand extended in moments of difficulty; it is the ability to do things together.
Never before has a long look been needed to restore strength to an evolved economy such as that of Modena. The desire to start again was and is great, as the events of recent months following the earthquake demonstrate. The works of the Confindustria Modena assembly, held at the beginning of June and to which ample space is dedicated in this issue, tell this story. All those who have brought their testimony tell us, from their respective perspectives, of a trust and hope that must never fail.
Of course, rebuilding will not be an easy or short task. There are destroyed houses, closed historic centers (the dramatic "red zone"), the wounded historical and artistic heritage. And there are warehouses and factories to be permanently secured and the production chains, now broken, to be reassembled. Yup, much of this earthquake has to do with the sphere of production. Unfortunately, it often happens that we remember the privilege we have of living in one of the most developed and prosperous areas of all of Europe only when a little of our well-being is slipping away. Here we must be supported by the awareness that the economy is not the thing that has been staged, in recent years, on the fashionable international financial markets. Here the industry continued. In such a place, then, we must cultivate the ambition to rediscover the great humanistic tradition of the economy, which Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi illustrates with these beautiful words: "It is the law that governs the house of the world".
