Hi everyone
Sorry - don't have time this minute to post proper message - can I just ask you to post your diaries as comments to this entry! Please DON'T FORGET your diaries in these final, very important weeks!!
Francesca
Iscriviti a:
Commenti sul post (Atom)
Hello everybody!
RispondiEliminaUnfortunately my last but one Soliya session went by and it makes me feel really sad: only one session has left!
The topic we discussed during our session was about economics and how economics impacts our lives. Before starting to discuss about it, our co-facilitator pasted in the chat box some links concerning unemployment rates all over the world. These links are:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty
3.http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=6;ti=2007$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=194;dataMax=96846$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=23;dataMax=86$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=
The first two links contain statistical data about unemployment rates recorded in every single country, while the third link is an interactive graph which represents unemployment performance all over the world since 1800 till 2009. By looking at these graphs we had to reflect about our job prospects and to tell how global and local economic issues could influence our career aspirations. In my opinion, this a very interesting topic as I think about my future almost every day and for this reason my last Soliya session represented a really good moment to reflect about my future and also to learn about different future plans that girls in my group have. The girls mentioned business field, financial field and diplomacy field. Chama (from Morocco) and Danielle (from U.S.) would like to work in business and financial field and they think our plans will be affected by local and global economic issues and I agree with them. On the other side, me and Tala (from Jordan) we would like to work almost in the same field: diplomacy. In my opinion, it’s very important to notice how much similar are our dreams about our future: we are not so different as our media and governments would lead us to believe!
As I’ve just said, me and Tala we have “almost” the same plan because Tala would like to work in an embassy while I strongly desire to work in a non-governmental organization and my best dream is working with Amnesty International. I think that probaby economics won’t affect this field, but at the same time I’ve a pessimistic point of view toward italian government attitude towards non-govenmental organizations. My opinion is also confirmed by the last event in which was involved Emergency and I felt really disappointed when I heard a member of the italian government saying that people who are working with Emergency are all supporting left in politics. In my opinion, this is really dangerous because our government, by sending a message like this, would lead every citizen to believe that treating people or defending their rights means to support left in politics. But if we look at the history of politics or if we look at the european politics, we’ll find that right wing (I’m referring to the moderate wing and not to the extremists) doesn’t support human rights breach. But, unfortunately, we know very well about the anomaly italian politics characterized by populism and xenophobia on one side (right wing) and by apathy and lack of valid proposals on the other side (left wing)...
...Then we started reflecting about the way economic issues has affected our communities. This discussion really surprised me as I learnt that almost in every country is occurring the same situation in job field. In Morocco, high graduate people is having a lot of difficulties in finding a job with an appropriate income. In Jordan, people who had part-time job lost it. In U.S., retail industry is really suffering current economic situation. In Italy we’re living all these situations: high graduate people are compelled to go abroad to find a dignified job; people with precarious job has been fired; our retail industry is suffering this situation too, and our workers are forced to adopt some informal protests like going up to the roofs of factories to protest. I think that, in Italy, this situation is due to our government but it is really good in making an effective propaganda which makes worker class to blame for this only the global economy. At the same time I think that our government is behaving with propaganda because of the lack of proper policies and for making this as effective as possible it has divided our three labor union. Labor unions are the only effective defense means that worker class has got and if they are so divided, who will protect worker rights?
RispondiEliminaThen we talked about connections in job field and one of the girl coming from Jordan said that’s a problem spread only in the Arab countries but everyone of us told about connections spread all over the countries. I think we can find different rates of connection in finding a job and these rates are related to the widespread wealth level. For example, I think that a high use of connections is more spread in poorer countries than in richer countries and we can find more poor countries in the Arab world than in Europe. If we look at the Italian situation we can see that the use of connection is more spread in Southern Italy than in Northern Italy. I also think that we have to compare this situation to the distribution of power: if there is a high distribution of power (economic and political power), probably we’ll find a lower use of connections in job field and vice versa.
By looking at the statistical data, our co-facilitators asked us to find some connection between oil and unemplyment rates. In referring to this comparison I said I think that we can notice that countries in which oil is exctracting we can also find a high unemployment rate. To clarify my opinion I told everybody about my region (Basilicata): we have an oil deposit which is exploited but people in my region are still poor.
Finally our co-facilitator asked us to express our opinion about foreign aid that wealthy countries could give to poorer countries for economic development. I think that kind of aid is useful if it’s sent to a non corrupt government and if it’s sent by a treaty which doesn’t impose conditions. I’m referring to the bilateral treaties stipulated between a wealthy and a poor country: if we read this kind of treaty we’ll find that wealthy country imposes condition in using money (for example building particular infrastructures). But, above all, I think that money must be sent to specific U.N. agencies which will provide to carry out impartial projects for improving development.
Well, as you’ve read, my last Soliya session was really intense. I hope not to have been too boring.
See you next week!
Elvira.
This soliya’s session was the second-last and strangely some of us had still technical problem, so we had some difficulties to hear everybody. We tested our microphones describing our week and some of us have had a nice week, like me, some others have had a busy week. The two co-facilitators asked us to give a feedback on the discussion of the previous week. All the comments were positive, I really think that all the members of the group are satisfied by the arguments of the discussions and how we develop the discussion.
RispondiEliminaAfter that, our facilitator Jason gave us the choice for this session: what to do earlier between the second part of the pair activity or the video project. We voted for the pair activity, so as Al Hussein wasn’t there they gave me Rawya as partner.
Rawya is a Palestinian girl and together we decided to start speaking about the situation in her country. She described me the present situation and I profited to ask questions, for example how important is the religion problem in the conflict and if it has a main role. Then she asked me about the Italian point of view on the conflict and I try to explain her both the common Italian point of view and my own opinion. Related to the conflict we discussed also about the suicide bomb-attack done by Palestinian and I was very interesting to know the point of view of a Palestinian directly involved. She said to me that she is favorable if the bomb-attack is against Israeli soldiers, on the contrary she disagree if the bomb-attack is against civil population and innocent people. After that our discussion moved on the religion topic and in particular on the relationship between men and women. We talked about her religion rules on this argument and if she agree and understand these rules.
Then we came back in the main room and we gave our feedback about pair activity to the others. For the second hour we had to watch some video projects and to give our own opinion on the video of our friends. We started with the video of Hadeel. All of us found her video very interesting and doing well but a little bit unequal, it shows only Palestinian side. The second video we watched was mine, I felt a little bit nervous and embarrassing!! They appreciated the video because I showed both the two point of view.
Before leaving we gave the final feedback about the session and all of us were very sad because next week are the last one!
Giacomo
Hello everybody,
RispondiEliminawe started our last session doing an “uniregional activity”: me & the other girl from the West (Cheryl) had a discussion in a private room, also with Amanda, the Western facilitator of my Soliya Group; in the other private room there were the Eastern guys of the group (Muhammad, Safaa) & the Eastern facilitator (Amany).
In this “uniregional activity” first of all we discussed about our Soliya experience in general (our impressions, feelings, interests, goals & etc. about this project), then we talked about “stereotypes”, specifically searching & choosing three kind of them: stereotypes about the Western World; stereotypes about my country; stereotypes about Cheryl’s country (the USA). We chose respectively: “the West exploits the East” (presenting a situation about “first world against third world”), “Italy=pizza, mandolin & mafia” (presenting Italians as lazy, corrupted and criminal people), “US=people who have a lot of money” (remarking the prosperity and opulence of the USA).
Then we came back to the main room and discusses with the other eastern guys about the meaning of the stereotypes and the causes of their birth; I said that the world is more and more complex, expecially in this very globalized era, so the humans use the stereotypes to simplify the reality to try to understand the reality; unfortunately, if you use an over-simplification of the reality you cannot understand the reality, so the stereotypes are extremely negative! Cheryl added that stereotypes are created principally by Media, so she confirmed that stereotypes are simply a manipulation and over-simplification of the reality and they don’t represent the reality.
The discussion proceeded talking about Safaa’s personal experience; Safaa, who is a Palestinian girl of my Soliya Group, showed us the situation of the Palestinians who live in Hebron like her: soldiers who live around them, not allowing to travel, permanent fight. We asked many questions to her: for example Muhammad asked what is the situation about food, safety and health care, what is the condition of the hospitals; Safaa tranquilized us saying that her family have no problem of safety, but the other Palestinians that are in Gaze have many problems; moreover she said that her uncles who lives in US cannot come in Palestine because of its conditions and she’s very sad about it because she doesn’t see them since 10 years. Then Muhammad asked what we can do to help them and I asked what the global governments can do: Safaa answered that we can pray for them and that the governments must send aid, because life conditions in Gaza are very difficult, while the situations for the Palestinians outside Gaza is better than inside it.
We closed the discussion talking about “who has the right” between Israel and Palestine and we agreed about one specific point of view: “there is right and wrong from both side but both side have the right to exist and the categorical imperative for the future is COOPERATION and not FIGHT.”
So, in this way we concluded this interesting Soliya session. Although it was only the penultimate session I already miss it… Next week it will be very difficult to say goodbye to my great group…
See you next time,
Emanuele
Stepping into the veil debate:that was the main theme of our session.
RispondiEliminaWhy does the veil or niqab(that covers all the body)bothers so much European communities,making against it laws and banning it in public?is that a good step or is it considered as an attack against Muslim people?
That was a very hard issue to discuss,and finding answers wasn't so easy:we were all convinced that people have to express freely their religion but for some the burka does not fit the integration of Muslims into the western society and therefore it doesn't permit the emancipation of Muslim women.Sharing this viewpoint needed first to examine how the Muslim community sees the niqab.That's why we asked our Muslim peers about this issue.They said that women are free to wear the veil and that it is not a requirement of the Koran and as long as it doesn't provoke any problem,why do governments have to ban it? Why all across Europe debates are raging, concerning this issue?
For some it was a security problem,the fear that behind such a cover some terroristic acts could take form,for others it was a clamorous declaration of one's religion and therefore it represent some social distance with the other community.
It's true that immigrants need to "respect the traditions, cultures and religions of nations they go to" but how the use of head coverings disrespects others in any way? That's why i think that making such laws,banning the veil in society displays intolerance and discrimination. I think that it's not the freedom of practicing religious and cultural traditions that create social distance but instead the state policies that prevent them. Cultural intolerance, which is disrespect towards another group does not belong to one state policy. I believe that intolerant ideologies are what create ethnic problems along with other negative racial issues. It's by manifesting them into state policy that we trigger social indifference.
That would be great if we believe in cultural relativism and don't think that the larger issue is with cultural and religious restrictions on personal freedom...Instead,i do believe that the greater wrong is what nations do to their citizens in the creation of national laws and policies.