Hi everyone,
Well, as we move on to week 5 I can see from your comments that the discussions for most of the groups have begun to get deeper, you're beginning to address more sensitive topics and also getting to know some of your group members better. A lot of you went to the 'break out' rooms, which allow you to have a discussion in smaller groups to get to know each other better. You'll carry on this process of getting to know each other better through some activities this week. Please carry on pushing the discussion, take ownership and contribute to the group by perhaps asking questions of the quieter group members, seek their opinions and reflections on issues, don't be afraid!
Can I also remind you that your video assignments should be finished and uploaded by Wednesday. If you have any trouble remember to write to vp@soliya.net.
Enjoy this week!
Francesca
Well, as we move on to week 5 I can see from your comments that the discussions for most of the groups have begun to get deeper, you're beginning to address more sensitive topics and also getting to know some of your group members better. A lot of you went to the 'break out' rooms, which allow you to have a discussion in smaller groups to get to know each other better. You'll carry on this process of getting to know each other better through some activities this week. Please carry on pushing the discussion, take ownership and contribute to the group by perhaps asking questions of the quieter group members, seek their opinions and reflections on issues, don't be afraid!
Can I also remind you that your video assignments should be finished and uploaded by Wednesday. If you have any trouble remember to write to vp@soliya.net.
Enjoy this week!
Francesca
Hello everyone.
RispondiEliminaI have just finished my fifth session. It was a really hard one though because it all started with a lesson in the library lab so I had to run home and try to connect throw my mobile, whose connection is really bad, but I did manage to do my session.
Today we had to talk about three important events of our life and we were split in two groups to talk about it.
I really enjoyed it because me and a few girls shared the same thoughts about going to university and learning somethings from new friends and experiences. One of the boys shared with us a poem he wrote in Arabic and it was quite interesting because I understood nothing, but I did manage to understand the feeling behind it. Later one of the girls explained me the meaning of it and I was right, more or less.
I hope you guys will have a nice session too.
Have a nice week,
Francesca Fontana
Week 5
RispondiEliminaThis week's session was pretty intresting. Well actually all the sessions are in their respective. But this week was unique because for the first half an hour I wasn't really able and willing to interact. Earlier today I was at the dentist's, so the left side of my face was still a bit numb and slowly started to get better. I was also with a headache and it was really cold in my room, so I was a bit grumpy, tired and not really motivated.
But then somebody said someting, the whole group started laughing and as I saw all the smiling faces starring at me, I suddeny was really eager to interact and engage in the discussion.
One of today's topics was same-sex marriage. I took a course called „Homosexual Families“ before, so I had a good background in regards so historical, legal, social, cultural, and religious issues of/with Homosexuals from Ancient Greek up until to today. It was great to approach this topic with a background and to be able to answer some questions others had. We had a really good exchange of opinions on gay marriage, whether we think it should be allowed or not and on the rights of Homosexuals. It was good to hear the different standpoints with their cultural and religious background, while my opinion was really influenced by the fact that I studied the subject for a couple of months and got to dig deeper into rights/laws/obbligations/punishments etc. We not only shared our opinions on gay marriage but also analysed why we have that opinion and related it to our backgrounds.
Unfortunately 3 people were missing today, and it's a real pity because 2 of them don't really engage when they are online, so they missed out on another opportunity to integrate themselves more into our discussions. By now I had the chance to get to know 5 of my group members and I continue to discover more and more about them and their points of view, cultures, countries, plans for the future.... and I get the feeling that the others are left out of that process as they are not online or don't engage.
Today for the first time we split into smaller groups, so I had the chance to talk alone with Adam from Tunesia for about half an hour. We had a great discussion and we didn't realize at all that time passed, so eventually Nahid (f) came to our room and asked us to come back to the main room when we were finished. Adam and me touched many topis, were able to pose each other questions and exchanged our opinions. We settled on the topic of human rights and went into detaill about refugees int he MENA region. We talked about Italy in general, government measures, what the Italiens think about refugees and about Lampedusa in specific. We talked about the island, the facilities, the people living there and the living conditions of the refugees. I told Adam about the infamous italian laws e.g. Bossi-Fini and certain contracts made with the Lybian Government to send the refugees back on their arrival.
Adam talked abou the Arab Spring, how he and his country experienced the revolution. I was also very curious to hear about how Tunesia welcomed/reacted to refugees from other North African countries as the revolutions spread across boarders. It was great to exchange our opinions and how our thoughts on our societies and governments tackling this problem (or not). It was great to get to know more about Tunesia, it's people, culture and society through Adams insight.
We also talked about whether we plan to contribute to our country and society when we are older or whether we wanna live abroad. I then brought this question to the main room and I was very curious to hear how actually every single one planned to study abroad, therefore get a better education in another country, and then come back to their own country to contribute to the development of the country and be an active part of their society. To help build the future of their country.
Back with the others we shared the topics of our discussions and eventually had some pauses were nobody took the microphone. So I asked some other questions like which was the most important/inspiring person in their lifes and what was their relationsip with their siblings.
EliminaIt was great to discover that also for others their grandma played a very special role in their lives and it was good to hear the various personal stories. Also talking about our siblings, how many we had, how good we knew them, our relationship to them, whether they are younger/older and actually behave like younger/older sibling or if we have a totally different relationship with them. I was happy that my group took my rather personal questions and answerd them, it made me relate to them even more and we shared great laughts about being a younger/older sibling and our „roles“ in our families.
So as I started off being rather lazy and inactive I ended up asking my group mates many questions to overcome our moments of silence. I was a bit worried to take too much space in the discussion, but it also felt weird to have these pauses. I shared my thoughts with Nahid our facilitator and I was happy to hear that she didn't think I took to much space and was actually happy that I interrupted the silence and that she didn't had to help us moving on. I enjoyed to get to know better my group members and to to see that they liked my questions. I guess I went through a big development, considering the beginning and the end of this week's session. It also made me realize how all of us at „the beginning“ behaved and how we developed until now, how we are able to ask more personal questions, how much we already know about each other and how much is left to learn. We definitely developed as a group, but a little bit as a group within the group (I mentioned earlier that 2 people are often absend and when they are present they keep disapearing or don't engage in our debates), so that's a positive and negative point at the same time.
I'm looking forward to the videos of my group members, of disussing them and doing and exercise called „life stories“ which we planed to do today, but at the end lacked time to do so.
Week5
RispondiEliminaThis week's session was pretty interesting.
Today Cameron our facilitator asked as to think of the three events in our life that made our person to be what we are now.
I heard interesting and different opinions and stories. Also we had to share what are our daily activities?
Most of us studying a lot , well I add that when I don’t study I like to cook , it’s relaxing me especially if I had a ‘’grey’’ day all the bad energies falls away and suddenly I appreciate the restorative powers of chocolate .
Sometimes I participate in doing flea markets , I read a lot and few days ago I started to translate a book so I keep myself preety busy .
I also said that I am not interested in politics probably because when I was 6 years old in my country started a Revolution , I remember chaos,panic,desperation.People , children died.
I remember that we had the most sadness Christmas , and after a month when school reopened I was afraid to go to it alone. I kept this fear for many years. I think that when something is not going properly in a country is because the government,politicians are not doing their job . I am tired to hear :’’ we don’t progress because of the Americans or Russians or any other nation who constantly meddling in our country affairs’’.
I believe that every country should take its responsabillities and to try to do the best for it.
Well.. Unfortunately this time I'm not fully satisfied with this week's meeting.
RispondiEliminaOur facilitator usually send us an email a couple of hours before the meeting time, to briefly explain us what we are going to do, and when I read that email I was really looking forward to start!
While we were waiting for everybody to enter the meeting room, the facilitator asked us to show something we liked and had in hour room that could represent us (this activity came out since they saw that on the wall behind me there was a Kurt Cobain's poster). It was funny and interesting at the same time, since we could find out something more about each other's lives.
Then they asked us to vote for the topic we wanted to talk about: the majority voted for “illegal immigration”. I have also voted for it, since I thought I could have had many things to say and I also thought that everybody knew what is happening in Europe and in Italy, and so they were probably interested in knowing more about it. But unfortunately, as usual, Middle East students started to ask question to the Americans... And I had a chance to speak only when a facilitator asked me my opinion about the topic, and asked me if I had something to say form European point of view. It was almost impossible for me to join the conversation before this, because they were talking about specific American events and laws. Anyway, even when I explained what is going on in Italy, nobody was interested and only a girl asked me something. Than it was over. I felt frustrated and lonely since I am the only one who comes from Europe, and since everybody is more interested in what happens in America.
Then we moved on the “life stories” activity: each of us had to think about 3 event that influenced his/her life, one of these should have influenced also his/her political point of view. Two Americans (out of 3) talked about 9/11, many from the Middle East talked about political murders and riots. I found this activity really interesting!
Anyway, I hope the next meeting will go better!
I'm a little bit anxious because we have to watch each other's videos (we'll focus our next meeting on them) and I really hope my mates will appreciate my work!
Francesca B.
Last session with Soliya has been very intense and meaningful. Indeed, I’ve been thinking about this discussion since Tuesday. The topic was the Israel-Palestine conflict.
RispondiEliminaIn order to find a way to begin with such a hard issue, our facilitators asked us to answer a few questions. First of all we had to say which is the US position in the conflict. Almost all of us answered that the US is pro Israel due to both the current situation and the past events. David was the only one who answered that the US are neutral because he sees also some stances towards Palestinians. The same kind of responses came out when we were asked which is the EU position in the conflict. The group began to have different point of view when we discussed about which should be the US position in this war. Basically, some of us thought they should just stay out from this because they may only cause more harm, while the Palestinian girls hoped for them to be mediators and to stand by their side. At this point of the conversation the discussion began to be fluent without the help of the facilitators. Tyler and I said that the only possible solution for this harmful situation cannot be the supremacy of one of the two populations because it would be followed by the rebellion of the other one. So, the solution would be in the middle, maybe a division of the lands. Yura, one of the Palestinian girls, firmly replied that Palestine is only for Palestinians and that we have no idea of what they are living right now, what it feels like to see your land taken away with violence. Indeed, I was really shocked. I had no idea that even girls of my same age were suffering and missing their land so much. I felt ashamed for having ignored all this until now. Of course I’ve kept myself updated through the news but this never gave me the idea of the amount of sorrow felt by Palestinians. What made me really sad was the fact that according to the Palestinian girls Israel has no right to exist, which I believe profoundly cruel. I mean, I’m aware of the violence and the arrogance of Israel but every single person has the right to live. Yet, when the session was over I felt richer, since we all managed to share our point of view (without technical problems!); they were all different but we were really looking for positive and constructive contrasts. In the end, the conversation resulted –generally speaking- a set of questions to the Palestinian girls from the rest of the group but I think that this is fine. We all wanted to know their feelings and it seemed to me that they felt better too.
Week 5 was the best one I've had so far. Following the line of the past session we went very personal and I enjoyed that a lot.
RispondiEliminaUnfortunately I had some tech issues, so I joined the group half hour late and was mute. When I jumped in they were almost done playing a game: we were to type in three statements about ourselves, one of which had to be false, and the others had to guess which one it was. I only got to guess the monitors', but it was a lot of fun and allowed me to know more about them. As for my turn, only one person could guess I never took part in a beauty pageant, while everybody else thought I had never eaten a scorpion. I enjoyed a lot the surprise on their faces when I told them about my trip to Peking and the delicacies I had the chance to taste - only too bad I had to type it all cause my mic wasn't working.
Next we had to tell three things/events that influenced us, one of which in our political ideas. This activity got everybody very involved: it was interesting to hear about the others' stories, and everybody had many questions to ask. In fact we were running out of time and had go very fast through the last three people. I think everybody - like me - wished we had more time to discuss about those experiences we shared. One of the American boys talked about the lack of trust he has in current national politics, a feeling that I definitely share and surprised my coming from somebody living in the country of democracy and equality. On the other hand the muslim girls took the chance to question him about the American tendency to interfere with other countries policies (especially bringing up the case of Egypt) - I felt very sorry for him because being an ambassador is not role he had called for, but had to somehow defend his nation!
Many also talked about how meeting people of other religions influenced them. It was very nice to hear that they could change their mind about thing and become more open by talking to different people, but it also made me think that probably the majority of their fellow citizens didn't get the same chance, and that is where misunderstanding and hostility grow.
I was flattered that people were very interested in my experience as an exchange student in Hong Kong. I love talking about it because it brings up a lot of great memories and because I want to inspire people to do the same, see the world and not be afraid of taking risks.
Also I hope that during the next sessions I will be able to learn more and talk about some of the topics that came up during this sessions. The facilitators have been doing a great job in understanding our interests and adjusting the discussion topics accordingly, so I think we will.
I wish we could all meet up face-to-face, it feels more and more like talking through a computer is not enough...
Margherita
WEEK 5
RispondiEliminaOn Monday I had my fifth session, so there are only 3 sessions missing. This session was great, but in my opinion not as great as the other. There was less discussion and interaction between the students and also the topics we talked about were less interesting. We started a bit late because we had to do a survey before connecting to the room, we had to answer some questions about the Soliya Project and this took us some minutes. We were supposed to connect 5-10 minutes before to do the survey and to be able to start the session on time, but not anyone did it. The session was a bit different from the others, we didn’t discuss about some articles or some videos, but some students: Ali, Mona, Haneen and Nour facilitated a part of the class. So Steve and Erin didn’t do so much, and in my opinion this was not so good, because they know how to stimulate us, they know the right question to make. The students did a good lob, nothing to say, but it was more a monologue, they talked about a topic and sometimes they asked us “What do you think?”, “Do you agree?”, but nothing more. In the first part of the class Ali facilitated the lesson and he talked about a book:” The Dispensable Nation: US Foreign Policy in Retreat”. He presented his perspective on this book’s argument and then he discuss a bit about the policy of America and especially about the American policy in Pakistan, the country he lives in, but the topic was a bit difficult in my opinion, and not only for me. Nobody has read the book so it was a bit difficult for us to interact, to make questions, to discuss about the topic, we just listened to try to understand something about the issue. We didn’t speak very much, and we agreed on the fact we didn’t know fast anything about the topic, so it was not easy to express our opinion. Mirza and Sarah, who live in America, were in difficulty too..fortunately Steve and Erin, the facilitators, noticed this thing and they try to make us simple questions, but we were not so much interested and involved in the discussion. So we changed topic, we passed to the second part of the class: Mona, Haneen and Nour, all girls coming from the Muslim World, presented us the conflict between the Palestine and Israeli. This topic was much more interesting, it’s a conflict everyone knows something about, I think everyone of us had studied this conflict at school or at the university, so it was easier for us to make questions, to have a conversation and to discuss. They presented us their perspectives and we were enthusiastic to discuss about the topic, but it was not as I expected it to be. The three girls were very committed of their views, they didn’t accept critiques or views different from the others, so it was a bit difficult to have a conversation, they didn’t try to understand other perspectives and this is not a good thing in my opinion. In our group there is a Jew girl, so she was very interested in the topic, but of course she had a different opinion on the conflict.
Muslim girls were committed that country is their country so they have the right to fight to be able to return to their country, while all other students, including me, were committed that we must find a solution to a conflict which is going on from years and years. And maybe the solution could be to share the country, but the disagreed. In their opinion that country is theirs and they must resist, they must fight, they justify the violence and the dead people because they make a difference between violence and resistance. We discuss a lot about this topic, in fact Steve and Erin told us this is often one of the most passionate topic Soliya has found.
RispondiEliminaAt the end of this discussion we did not find a solution, of course, the problem is too difficult to solve. People from Palestine, on one hand, are committed that country is theirs and they have the right to return to the country, people from Israeli, on the other hand, fight because they’re committed they have the right to have a country. This discussion was very passionate, and I think it was one of the few things which went well during this session, but there was a harsh climate and this was not a good thing, it’s not easy to discuss and to share opinions with people who do not accept perspectives and views different from what they think. At the end they said they respect our opinions, but I didn’t have this impression during the debate.
Anyway, I hope next session will be better and I hope the topics, we are going to talk about, will be more interesting.
This week we were supposed to complete our video projects, and we have to watch the video of our mates because we will discuss about them in next sessions.
I’m not sure we will focus on them next session, maybe in the seventh one, because next session we planned to do an activity called “life story”. Anyway I’m a bit anxious about the video, I hope the students in my group will appreciate my video.
MARTA
Dear Diary,
RispondiEliminaon Monday session we talked about stereotypes and gender problems. At the very beginning the facilitators asked us what we were proud of and what we have to improve about ourselves. We spent a lot of times telling each other several stereotypes of our cultures and of others countries. This time I was very happy because we had the opportunity to talk about women and LGBT rights. The last topic was very challenging because there were different thoughts, maybe influenced by religion and politics. Anyway I was surprised to find out that even we belong to different society and we had different religions we did agree with the fact that every human being should have the same rights. I am particularly interested in this topic because I know a lot of gay people and I know how they feel when the society rejects them.
For what concerns the video project it was amazing, funny but motivating too. I thought how the mass medias influenced public opinion.
That's all for this week,
Bye
Clarissa
Soliya week 5 diary
RispondiEliminaOn Wednesday was my fifth session. One of the facilitator was sick so we had just one. The session was stressful, with the other facilitator the session was not so dynamic, less transcript that usual and also some tech problems from my side. It was my birthday the same day of the session, I received two calls from my family in Spain during the session, I could not answer and talked with them but anyway was nice like this. As always my group is very nice and I think is perfect for the way I am. It was curious when one of the girl from Egypt , just at the begining of the session, before we started any topic she wrote that question in the chat box and nobody answered her. The facilitator in the other hand asked everybody about the video and our opinion with this experience, all of us were happy about that. The question this girl asked was: Are you agree with this video? Refer to the video Innocence of Muslims. She repeated her question again in the chat box after 10 minutes and again none answered her. Personally, I did not answer her because I considered a provocation to the group and no a constructive question for know better our opinion. She is very kind but she is the only one in our group that everytime it is possible for her talks about her religion or the prophet. I do care so much but sometimes I think why she talks about religion in some moments where religion or God is not related at all, for me they need to talk about religion so often…. Too much. Dialog and debates sometimes are cloud with religion.
During the session we went throught two main topics: stereotypes and media. I found difficult follow the discussion when main topics are not transcript in the chat box and unfortunately with just one facilitator it did not happen so much. The problem is not just don’t follow the conversation because became boring be there trying to understand. Of course I wrote and I said but after two, three, four times I think is enough. I’ll try to write a private message to the facilitator to ask more transcript, even if they do already mainly with information and less with debates and I would like more transcript during our dialogues. Maybe I feel insecure to understand everything but I consider important and deep topics.
Then, we talked about important event in our lives that made the person we are right now but to be honest I did not understand clearly what the other members said. I had also little tech problem so it was sad do not understand what they said but I did not insist. Again Mass Media was the favourite topic in my group, this topic come out every week. For me it is not so important even if I recognize the power to influence people but I also I have some instruments to search different resources and create my own idea comparing different prospectives. I prefer to talk about Mass Media instead of religion. I can live without any religion and probably muslim people as far as I understood don’t and there are not enough curiosity to interact about this little point. They are more interesting to talk about why people think we (muslims) are terrorrists or who was the responsible of September 11th attack?. American people do not ask similar question to them......Let’s we see what happen next.
Week 5
EliminaI have to recognize that this session is one of the most interesting session.
Soliya helped me to grow up in some ways: Now i speak more, i also ask many questions to the others without feeling embarrassed and surely I feel more open minded than before. My English speech is a little bit more fluent now and every session, my crew tells me that and the members support me every session.
I feel very pleased of my group and also of my facilitator Ginney.She has got a lot of patience with us and she helps us every time.
Well, this session first we spoke about how we usually deal with emotions. It was a simply question but just because of this, I never asked that one me before. It was a surprise, and through the answer, I could notice/know/focus my attention on some little parts of me that I ignored before.
And I also discovered that I was not the only one. It was a funny activity.
But the most interesting activity we ever done during Soliya’s program was the next one.
First we had to think about three events that affected us so deeply in our life. And then we talked to the others. I had the possibility to discover that each of us has a different but strong history in the family.
For example there was a Pakistan girl who had to live some years (about 6) in Australia with her family. They had to move there because they were afraid of extremists. Her grandfather was a big spokesman of that point of view. Terrorists shot her grandfather 11 times in front of their home, and he died. For this reason her father decided they should leave the country for safety. In the beginning it was hard to adjust to Australia but she had accommodation. And when the killers were put in the jail, they came back to Pakistan. And still now she has some problems of a cultural point of view, it is difficult to be a perfect muslim when you lived for some years in a country without Islam.
There is another girl in our group who had a similar history. She lived in Dubai for about 20 years and now she lives in Jordan, because it is a peaceful country she said.
We had a conversation also about the 09/11 in NY. That event affected the point of view of two American girls we have in the group. It was terrible because at the beginning media and people in general said they were muslims who wanted to dominate the world. But through time, they discovered they were extremists and now they are ready to be more open minded with people of another religions.
It was a fluent conversation but we didn’t finish it. The next session, surely we’ll do it.
Cristina Leonte