Wednesday, 14 September 2016

Embroidery in Oliena

I wasn't actually in Oliena for the Cortas Apertas there last weekend but I was very struck by the video below which appeared on my Facebook timeline. It was filmed by photographer Gabriele Doppiu and I was so taken by it that I'd like to offer some thoughts of my own about the sort of hope that Sardinia could offer to the rest of the us. Sometimes I think the island has such a good balance between preserving the very best of its old traditions, and being very clued into the tools of modern technology, that it could be a blueprint for a better Europe and a better world. It's such a shame that there's a huge problem with unemployment among young people here, forcing many to leave. The world will be much poorer should traditional crafts, like the one featured in this short video, be allowed to die out. The quality of attention required for such work is probably far more important for our survival as a species than most of us realise.