Josep Carreras: New feature: the Key Facts

Josep Carreras, in his own words

There is something in life, in my life, that was able to overcome this extraordinary passion I have for singing, and especially lyrical singing. Whenever the Foundation succeed in finding a compatible donor for patients awaiting a transplant, or every time we make progress in scientific research thanks to one of our scholarships, or when leukaemia patients are treated in transplant units or clinics that we have helped to finance, I feel enormously happy. Thanks to my profession, I am privileged to help or, at least, try to help people in need. In 1987, I became ill with leukaemia. During my illness I was lucky enough to have a family who supported me throughout, to have an extraordinary medical team, in addition to the spontaneous support and sympathy of the general public. This allowed me to maintain my morale and it gave me the necessary energy and determination to fight leukaemia. On July 14th 1988, with the support of my family, eminent scientists and business people, I had the opportunity to create the International Foundation for the Fight Against Leukaemia. Our Foundation focuses on four main areas: supporting scientific research, providing infrastructures for healthcare centres and hospitals, and searching for bone marrow and stem cell donors. All this in addition to offering social services for leukaemia patients and their families. The main mission of the Foundation is to support scientific research. The Josep Carreras Foundation for the Fight Against Leukaemia was born to help make Leukaemia a completely curable disease for everyone and in all cases. Our work will not stop until our goal becomes a reality.

Thank you Maria and Pippa for the English translation.

mercoledì 11 gennaio 2012

New feature: the Key Facts

Solo una piccola informazione di servizio, di carattere pratico per informarvi di una delle novità che ho pensato di introdurre nel blog.

*Key facts: for a short summary in english, please go to the end of the post.

Il 2011 ha collezionato 130 post per il blog: che sia un numero considerevole o esiguo, non saprei. Sono sempre più dell'anno precedente, e questo non è male. Quello che mi preme, però, non è la quantità, bensì la qualità. Il fatto che il testo dei miei post sia in lingua in italiana può essere visto come una caratteristica del blog, ma per molti soprattutto uno svantaggio. Al momento non posso garantirvi una rivoluzione totale in merito alla lingua impiegata nei miei post, per ovvi motivi di carattere logistico, soprattutto in termini di tempo. Le Breaking News sulle nuove date sono in inglese, ma come ben sapete si tratta solo di brevi annunci, e anche tutta l'informazione su facebook e twitter, ma scrivere lunghi post in un'altra lingua comporterebbe una trasformazione in blogger a tempo pieno.

Già impiego molto tempo a scrivere in italiano, visto che ogni post prevede un notevole background di informazione esauriente abbastanza da non divulgare informazioni inesatte. Figuratevi quindi se, di sana pianta, scrivessi in un'altra lingua. I tempi si moltiplicherebbero.

Ma è proprio lo sforzo necessario ogni volta che mi trovo a decifrare articoli in idiomi a me sconosciuti con il solo ausilio di google translator, talvolta invano, che mi hanno spinta a fare un passo in aiuto di chi mi legge e non conosce l'italiano. Nascono così i Key Facts, i fatti chiave: si tratta di un breve riassunto per punti del post a riguardo, ma contiene tutta l'informazione fondamentale. Spero che questo vi aiuti a capire meglio i contenuti di ogni singolo post!!

KEY FACTS:

● Just a short, practical information to introduce you a new feature I've thought to add to the blog. 130 posts last year, but not quantity, QUALITY matters. The fact that this blog is in italian for lots of people is not an advantage, but at the moment a sudden, total change the language employed here would mean that I should become a full time blogger. As you know, I can't.

● The Breaking News about new dates are in english, but they are just short announcements. Also informations on the profile and page on facebook, and twitter are in english. Anyway, writing long posts in another language would require really much more time.

● The effort I make when I try to translate and understand articles (in order to spread reliable informations) in a language unknown to me, only with a little help from google, sometimes in vain, has brought me to do something in order to help those of you who don't understand italian. The Key Facts are just a short summary, the main points of the post, and contain all the foundamental informations. Just hope it can help you for a better understanding of the contents of each post.