Among the streets of Faenza, Yuki Tsunoda teaches us all a lesson
To those who from their homes complain about climate change, about the lack of competence of the government, the regions, the municipalities. To those who from their couches say ''every year the same story'' and those who (including a Red Bull mechanic at the centre of controversy in these hours) underestimate the gravity of this tragedy. To everyone, including us, Yuki Tsunoda's is a lesson not to be forgotten.
We like blame, rebuke, complain. For every tragedy, every disaster and every drama we like to find someone to shift the blame onto, halving the anguish and increasing the anger. That's how it has always been and that's how it is again this time, while the heart of Italy still struggles to re-emerge from the high water it has been swept away by. Emilia Romagna and its people roll up their sleeves and dig, swim, look for impossible solutions, mourn for the dead, the missing, the injured. Houses that no longer exist, memories lost inside flooded cupboards, floors covered in mud.
They interview them, those who manage to speak, and the strength of these people is disarming, made of a dough that should leave everyone speechless. One father explains that he has a four-month-old son, almost apologising, because ''unfortunately we were not prepared, we lacked milk and nappies''. The sun of a finally clear Thursday, however, is enough to get them back on their feet, with the straight backs of those who respond to pain with work. In Cesena, along the streets covered in mud, the inhabitants sing ''Romagna mia'' while with rubber boots and brooms they are already thinking about cleaning up their city.
This is the spirit of those who could really allow themselves the right to weep today, to blame someone else, to feel only anger, to spit poison after losing so much, too much. But no. In Emilia Romagna people are working, they are already thinking about how to move forward.
And so, in the streets of Faenza, one of the communities most affected by the floods of the last few days, a young Japanese man who doesn't have much in his veins to do with Emilia, is there to help the locals. The spirit, however, is definitely the right one. Yuki Tsunoda, Formula 1 driver, personally experienced the drama in Faenza: he saw it, he was there. And by seeing it, he couldn't help but feel it as his own. He witnessed the destruction of a city, the headquarters of his team Alpha Tauri, the cancellation of a Grand Prix, the shifting of everyone's priorities, including his own.
Whether it was the experience of these days, or the Japanese culture of great altruism from which he comes, Yuki in Faenza stayed. Even on Thursday, the day he could have safely left Imola and the surrounding area like the others, the driver chose to stay. Along with the men of his team he went out on the street, cleaned, worked, did something very different than he would have thought to do on a Thursday otherwise reserved for track interviews.
Romagna spirit for a big Japanese heart, a life lesson, respect and commitment that should serve us all. To those who from their homes - with the heating still on - complain about the climate change that would have caused this disaster, about the lack of competence of the government, the regions, the municipalities that wouldn't have managed the cleaning of the rivers well, or the start of the emergency. To those who, from their couches, say ''every year it's the same story'', ''every time it rains it ends like this''. To those who underestimate the seriousness of this tragedy, including a 27-year-old Red Bull mechanic now at the centre of controversy for posting a video on social media in which he downplayed the region's disaster.
To him, and to all those who prefer to blame someone else instead of finding solutions, to complain instead of help, the photograph of Yuki in Faenza should be shown. Of him who took care of a people and a land not his own, with kindness, love and his feet in the mud.
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