situation in which the life of another
person depends directly on that
that you answer the phone
Well it happened to me some happened
years ago while he was going
at the university the saronno station e
at some point I ‘m on the phone from
an unknown number and on the other side
there is a very kind young lady who me
says that contrary to all
statistics and at all odds I have
also passed the second test and then
they are compatible and to donate the marrow
bone and asks me what I want to do
if I really feel like moving on
and become a donor or if instead
I want to pull back without any
result
and without anyone knowing it
Well you understand that at that moment I
I went in a minute
from the real head of the lesson I was
to do at the university to have in
hand the life of this other person well
I then decided to go that day
ahead and then four weeks later
more or less I underwent the
donation procedure
so I found myself with a ball
of rubber in hand to tighten and for
about five and a half hours attached to
this machine that has filtered three
times all my blood looking
of hematopoietic stem cells that
then they were transplanted into the body
of the other person and of that day me
I remember the warmth of the nurses
I remember the noise of the cars and the
feeling of always having to pee
because the blood reintroduced
slightly colder than what
is picked up well when I tell it
this story invariably then
I look at two things the first is that me
they ask how it went to end
and that is if the other person then has it
made it was saved for me too
I always answer the same thing ie
that I do not know I do not know I can not
know why marrow donation
it is always anonymous and this is for
prevent blackmail or
of economic transactions between the two
parts and then I do not know donor e
who receives the donation
they do not know each other and will not know each other
never will never know fate
other
well if you want this it makes the act of
decide to donate the marrow like many others
other things an almost purely act
altruistic it is done to help someone
other but without really expecting it
something in return and without even
be sure in order to have been
useful and this brings the second thing e
that is, that often when we hear stories
of this type
Well, we all generate one in all of us
understandable feeling of admiration
for these altruistic choices of the
choices that seem in some sense
maybe a little extraordinary a little heroes that
made for the other well I can
but ensure that from the point of view
whose choice was found at
do it but it’s the prospect actually
very different because if you think of
receive that call to receive it
you in which it is said that you have
only you can decide to do the
difference for the life of another
person and that the only thing you will have
to endure to try to succeed is
to endure some exams
blood routine a few weeks of
exhaustion because of the drugs that
you have to take and then one day of
submit to a procedure that is big
similar to the dialysis that make it
every day tens of thousands of
people without too much trouble
well if this is the scenario then
when you find yourself getting that
call from the question you ask yourself not
it’s if you’re ready to become a hero
for someone else but it’s how I do it
say no but how do you say no
when the good you can do for
another person is so big is the
price you are asked to pay is
so small how can you say no
my experience as a donor then at the end
perhaps the most important lesson that I
I have drawn is that altruism is wide
part a question of perspective well
because an account is to judge this
altruistic choice when you like
feel the story is an account instead
be
the protagonists of this story here of
be you to receive the call of
having to decide how you want
to behave towards the life of
this other person well, years later
experience
I have found a similar in my life
radical revolution again of mine
perspective towards altruism
and this happened when I am
unbeaten for the first time in the idea
which I will talk about that today
the idea of effective altruism or
from English effective other months
well today effective altruism is known
still little in our country but in
reality is a movement that is going on
expanding globally is a
movement whose first goal is
to bring all of us to rethink
what we thought we knew
about altruism and that is to that
that we can do for others and
to improve the world now this
movement was born about ten years ago
mainly academic field e
in fact, it’s no wonder today
still today two of the exponents
main ones derive from the academy here
you see 21 is peter singer which is the
most famous and bioethicist living today
a famous moral philosopher
next to his book on the theme that yes
call the most viewed the weekend e
the other younger one is a young man
associate professor of oxford that yes
he calls William and helmets he helped
various associations linked to tourism
effective to take a step alongside the
his latest book which is called 2 indrit
deda here in minutes I have left I
I will try to take some ideas
examples from these authors and these texts
to try to explain why
effective altruism is truly one
of the most revolutionary ideas of xxi
century
and because the idea of effective altruism
can also help change the
your perspective respect
altruism that is what you
you can do for others by putting yourself
literally in the condition of
save dozens of human lives
each of you to do it I will use between ideas
the first is this
doing good is not enough
doing good is not enough because
our resources are always limited and
so we have to pretend to spend it
good in things that are really
effective and to show you what
means look at this chart and
this example we imagine taking
a problem that is that for example
of the school years that lose them
little girls in the poor areas of the world for
example in uganda and in kenya this is
a problem linked to a double thread with the
theme of inclusion because the girls
who lose so many school days then
they will be the ones that will make the most effort
to free himself from the condition of
poverty in which they are living
and so will the communities in which
these little girls live
imagine we have a thousand dollars a
our disposition and wanting to try
different strategies to contribute to
solve this problem
Well, one thing we can do is that
to give money directly to
little girls who go to school and this
it works does a little good adds
0.2 years of schooling every 1,000
dollars that we invest another
strategy is to give the bags
of merit and they work a little better
in fact because for a thousand dollars
we add three years of schooling
or we can try to try to
understand why sometimes these children
they do not go to school is a hypothesis is that
being so poor that they have only one
uniform
so when the uniform gets dirty or yes
breaks
then they are ashamed and no longer go to
school and therefore the solution can be
give free uniforms to these
little girls and this works much better
in fact, because it adds a thousand
dollars invested in programs of this
about seven years, however, there is one
which works a lot better than all
these are that to none of us that
we live here in this country would never come
in mind this something and give some
pills that cost 20 cents per
prevent those that are parasites
gastrointestinal that is a problem
endemic of the poorest areas of the
world
and think about that for every $ 1,000 that
we invest the interventions of this type
we do not add 7
I’m ten years old, let’s add 139 this is
the difference we have to make and this
it is the reason to do good
not enough all these things make of the
good bad they do so tremendously
different we can not be content with
make a difference but we must
claim to do in the life of the gods
others
the biggest difference we can
making the second idea is that same
same money different value because
obviously the value of money depends
how many days we have and where there is
we find
look at this chart maybe some of
you already know him is the chart that
shows the distribution of wealth
global
today we are more or less 7 in the world
billions and 500 million and this chart
it tells us roughly a quarter of
these people a billion 700 million
more or less alive
nothing another 25 percent lives with
little or nothing the bulk of wealth
focuses on the other side of the
curve in the other 50 percent
a clarification the chart is not a
business suit
the chart is not complete because today
one percent is so rich in respect
to all others that to include it in
a big graph so we would need it
of a screen as tall as a palace anymore
of 300 floors but the interesting thing
understand where you are where we are in
this chart and it’s hard to say
because there are no indices of
income and when asked to
many people tend to place themselves more
or less between the third and fourth quarter
and therefore among those who are not
too poor and not too rich but if
we add the indexes things change
dramatically because anyone
here in this room or among us earns
more than 46,000 euros is in fact in the
one percent richer than the
one percent global population
it is us and anyone who earns more than
26 thousand euros and in fact 5%
richer than the population at the level
global
what this tells us tells us it is
obvious that the same money make one
different difference depending on where
they are spent because for us that
we live in a relatively large place
rich 5 euros make the difference between
to have an aperitif and not to do
creative but 5 euros for those who live
on the other side of the chart do the
literally difference between life and
the death
by combining these two ideas we arrive
to the third idea that is really that
important
we can all make the difference
because because we have so much
compared to others that is also
we sacrifice very little of what
we can do a lot for it
many other people especially if
we invest them in causes that are
maximally effective and there is no way
better to show you what to do with you
see this test you find it at
this site of an organization of al
effective tourism called giving
what we can
the test is called how rich we are and
I allowed myself to do it for you
we consider a person who lives in
Italy alone
twelve months and earns 1,300 euros
per month
the work is a more specialized worker
less know that the average salary
Italian is more or less 1,500 euros each
month this person decides to donate the
10 percent in truly effective homes
if it does it would still be 8.6 per
one hundred richest globally e
however, after the donation would have one
pay that is 13 times the average level
global
most important, however, with those
money each year could pay 1384 to
treatments against pests
gastrointestinal I have told you about
before
or the equivalent of 270 networks per
prevent malaria infections that
still the first cause of death in the
contexts where poverty is endemic in
both cases this is equivalent to one
crucial thing and that is every year a
save a life
there is a person who also has one
salary below the average but that decides
to donate systematically to causes
really effective
every year can save another life
human and this means that in the course
of our working life
each of us more or less 40 years can
get to save by donating 40 to the
3d to bad
which means that if I continued to
do what I’m already doing
first three or four rows of this hall
they are the consideration of people who
you can help save if others 27
people among you decided to do
the same choice
together we can save at the end
many more human lives than it has
save oskar schindler during the
World War II and think about it
let’s multiply this for all those
that I’m here in this room or for everyone
those who are in this city or
simply for all those who
they live and are lucky enough to live in
10 percent richer in the world
what the other effective tells us is there
he says this tells us that if we are
so lucky to have a salary
monthly and we are so lucky to
live in 10 percent richer than the
planet today
well as if we all were now
receiving a call a call
analogous is perhaps even more powerful than
the one I received and I have you
spoken at the beginning you do not even have to
see the doctors in this case is
what’s at stake is not just a life
but potentially many more watched
I have studied philosophy and in life
so, alas, I still have a lot of today
few certainties but some things
Well I think I know one of these
that if I look back and come back to
that day where I decided to go
forward and become a donor of
bone marrow
even if that person then I do not have it
never known and I do not even know how it is
gone to end
today I know that that day I did it
right choice
and I also know that in the life of all of us
in the end these moments arrive
that is, there are moments in which there
we look in the mirror we look at each other
back and let’s try to determine that
sense has had our existence
what kind of people we have been and what
kind of world we really have
helped to build through the
our choices and through our actions
Well I believe that if you are today
willing to change yours
perspective on the other ismea
what you can do for others
if you are willing to come in today
be part of the conversation that
we are trying to launch us too
in our country concerns the themes
of altruism and effective tourism
and above all if you decide today
maybe here and now to answer yes to
this call and become gods
other effective methods and donors
Seriously I believe that when that
moment of your life
rivera maybe tomorrow, maybe in
twenty years maybe the last day of the
your life
well when that time comes then
you will be able to relate to decisions that
you took today knowing you too of
to have done a right thing
thank you
[Applause]
”
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