Once again the italian cookie-cutter uber-cynical tag line for handling fatalities: “Earthquakes cannot be forecasted properly, so there’s nothing to discuss”.

You just insert the first word, dear politician/local bureaucrat/journalist, we know the story. We’ve heard before other versions of it. “Hydrogeological disaster -”. “Factory explosion -”. “Workers poisoning -”. “Dioxine leak -”. “Dam collapse -”.

Now, once more after a rich track record, it’s “earthquake”.

Fatality cannot be forecasted. Yet there is a difference between fatality and disaster. It is preparedness. You can call it risk management too. It has something to do with statistics, information, prevention, simulation, evacuation plans, training, building permits and anti-seismic regulations.

My father was not happy when he got the hefty bill for the anti-seismic refurbishing of the family house in Friuli, North-Eastern Italy, but he appreciates that the Region obliges everybody to respect the regulations, so that not only his house, but also the neighbours’ house must comply with the post-1976 earthquake regulations.

I was terrified during the 2004 Tokyo earthquake but no matter how wide was the swing and how loud the noise of the steel bones and joints of the skyscraper, I felt I had to trust the engineers who built it and refrain from doing silly things. And I had noticed in the previous days that the heavy pieces of furniture were nailed to the floor and would not collapse over my bed. That each hotel room had a leaflet explaining what if’s.

Preparedness cannot avoid victims but can reduce drastically the death toll. It does have a cost. It’s called investment. Long-term thinking. Enforcement. Controls.  But that’s boring stuff. In Italy we are specialist of  single-handed “tragedia” management.

I am sitting here, and I am not digging in the ruins. Alpini, protezione civile and many civilians are working now to save lives, not me.

But I’m a tax payer, and when I hear the same busy-body politicians doing declarations on Abruzzo, I can only remember San Giuliano di Puglia and its school of cards . These people not only waste our hard-earned money and the environment, they play with our lives on the roulette of fatality. Tragedies go by, they never collapse, never pay for their bad management. Our chaotic building regulations are nicknamed “spontaneous”.

No wonder why Friulani stick to “fasin di besoi” (we take care of ourselves, we don’t want you around).

Vajont and 1976 were enough. The track record of this State is one of impossible trust, it is logical that then you only trust people who share with you the risk, not those who cut the ribbons at ceremonies.