Hi everyone,
I hope you had a good weekend.
We are now running into week 3 of the project, time flies! I hope you have begun to get into serious but also informative and enjoyable discussions with your peers. I can see that some of you have from your diaries - but not all of you are sending these. Please remember that if you want to receive credit for your participation remember that as well as being present and punctual :-) you are expected to write a weekly diary.
As I said at the meeting, if you don't want to post your diaries to the blog no problem, but please send them to me by mail. You canNOT write your diaries at the end of the project - you have to write them reflecting on the project and your activities and send them to me as the project develops.
Punctuality
Please can you be on time for the sessions as it is disturbing for the facilitators and the group to have people arriving late as it slows things down..
Video project
Have you started watching the clips and working on your video projects?
Meeting
I wanted to have a meeting with you this week - how about Friday 28th at 11.30 in the department at via del Santo 77, upstairs on the 2nd floor in the meeting room. Can you send confirmation here by adding your name to the Doodle.
Enjoy the week!
Francesca
Finally today we were almost all (just one girl missed!) and, above all, we hadn't technical problems! It was a good session, sometimes the conversation was slow and there was a student that perhaps didn't understand and never spoke, but in general we talked a lot and we really began to know each other.
RispondiEliminaLast Tuesday Kane, the American boy, missed, so we explained to him the identity game and we began discussing about our choices.
To me the five words most important to tell who I am were: 1.Christian, I am a very religious person 2 Italian, it is my nationality, my culture, my history 3 Open mind, approaching the others without prejudice is my best characteristic 4 Nature, I was born and I live in a little town in the middle of the mountains and I can't imagine a world without nature 5 Human Rights, it is what I'm studying and I hope my commitment to human rights will be my future job. Then we had to cross out two words and I gave up Christian and Italian, because these elements make me part of a group but they don't tell explain my personality, they don't make me special.
Claudia asked us how we felt about this exercise, if it was difficult, especially the part in which we had to cross out two part of our identity; Marva proposed to choice just one word and to explain why. It was really interesting to understand which element is most important to us and to confront each other about what we think about our religion, nationality, character.
We had a little conversation about the readings we were asked to prepare last week, in particular we talked about “The coming clash of civilization” by Samuel Huntington. We talked about differences and everybody agreed we don't have to see to differences like something bad, but listening to the others, knowing different cultures could help us to be better people.
We were asked to think which topics we would like to discuss for the next meetings; a student proposed to talk about how much Religion is important in our lives, and most of us would like to talk about pop culture, books, music, films, to know better our countries and our cultures.
I proposed for the next time to show a picture of the town/place where we live and my suggestion was accepted! I'm very curious because say “I'm from Italy”, “I'm from Pakistan” is too general and these pictures could tell a part of us, of our lives.
I've never talked about Claudia, our facilitator; I want to say that she is a really nice person. She is very patience and I know sometimes my English is not so good, but she always understands what I want to say. When we are embarrassed she finds a way to broke the ice...what would we do without her?
It's the first time for me that I write in this blog. Hope my comment could be useful for the project! So, yesterday we had our meeting but without our friend from Latin America, however Vilma and Chelsea, our facilitator, proposed to us a sort of game. We had to draw an animal listening theirs suggestions. Obviously there is not a Michelangelo among us, but everyone draw during the description. None waited until the end to draw his imagine and this has been quite meaningful! Sometimes we create our mental representation without any confirm. Then Chelsea and Vilma proposed to indicate 3 particular adjectives regarding West and Muslim- Arabic worlds. Among all the point it appeared very often "religious", "open minded" but also " no religious" "no moral" relate to West. After that, I wanted to specify that the principle of " laity" in quite different from "no religious" and in a complex society state and government should not influenced by religious but a common sense and by the duty and right to live in a community in peace without discriminations. Of course that is quite difficult in Europe, especially in our country, but I think it's important to affirm this principle even if it's hard to understand. Secondly we started another debate on the mean of "morality" and obviously it was not easy to reduce in some point a so elaborate thought.. I found some difficulties to follow the debate on the chat box instead of talking " vis a vis" but I think it's quite normal writing rather speaking in this situation! At the end we talked about a video on which we are duscussing next time. It was a great meeting as always, very instructive and funny! Hope next Thursday could be the same or better!!
RispondiElimina(Part 1)
RispondiEliminaAfter three sessions the group has settled to a number of 4 participants. The fact that half of the group never showed up made me think of a failure. However after yesterday's session I realized that lots of participants doesn't necessarily mean success. In fact less people means more available time to talk for every participant.
Finally yesterday we started talking about serious topics. Democratically we chose to talk about immigration and religion two important topics to better understand the two different points of view, that is the Arab-Muslim and the Western one.
Starting from religion I was interest to know why is so hard for the Muslim World to understand the lay mentality of the West. Afrah answered saying that religion in the Muslim world is considered to be fundamental for Muslim societies. However, she said, not every Muslim country is the same. During Ben Ali's 21 year dictatorship, for instance, separation State-Religion was quite substantial in Tunisia. She sustained this by explaining that the position of women in Tunisia is the most progressive among Arab countries, polygamy in fact is illegal, wearing a scarf is not mandatory, and women can move freely without having to be accompanied by a male as it happens in Saudi Arabia. Things have changed after the revolution and there has been some tension with the new religious parties that won the elections afterwards. She said she is aware that much more can be done in regards to State-Religion separation.
This led to my second (western) question, that is, how come after the revolution the extremists took over the power? I wanted to know to what degree the free expression of religion wasn't guaranteed by the former regime in Tunisia. Afrah said that the main issue regarding freedom of religion in Tunisia was related to the way the government dealt with the modernization of the country, She said drastic lay measures were imposed in order to eradicate what was considered old and regressive. By implementing such policies women weren't allowed to wear hijabs in public offices or universities.
With my third question I was interested to understand the logic behind the politics of Morsi in Egypt. I wanted to understand why would a group such as Muslim Brotherhood decide to impose a Constitution which excluded the non Muslim population. I was interested on understanding why did a prosecuted group turned into e potential prosecutor itself. Samira (the girl from Egypt) answered saying that this happened because "political orders depend on Islamic rules" Unfortunately her Internet connection was once again bad, and she couldn't explain this as thoroughly as I hoped.
I asked Shan about the connections between the Taliban and the Pakistani politics. He said that such connections tend to be stronger in villages, at least for now.
(Part 2)
RispondiEliminaAfter this it was my turn to answer. Afrah wanted to know about the religious differences between Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church and Protestant Church. As you know my dear Diary, it's not that simple to talk about 2000 years of Christianity but somehow my explanation was satisfying. After this we continued our conversation with regards to religion and immigration. Kholoud's and Afrah's interest was concentrated within the anti immigration parties across Europe, particularly the French and the Dutch ones. They wanted to understand the main reasons lying with their political agendas. I said that Gertt Wilders' anti-Islamic party became especially popular after the killing of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Violent reactions from some Muslims have offered to the Westerns a negative prespective of Islam. I sustained that immigrants who decide to live in Europe do not take into consideration the fact that Europeans have homogeneous populations with a specific, deep rooted culture. Moving to a new country causes many hardships, but adapting to the mentality of the country they chose as their home, turns to be the main one they endure. Often this turns into frustration and finally into isolation, creating cultural barriers often leading to cultural conflicts.
Kholoud wanted to understand why was hard for the Westerners to accept the conversion of a person to Islam. She told us about a French girl who made such decision and the hard time she's been experiencing ever since. From my point of view, I said, religious conversion is tricky because whoever makes such decision, changes his/her life radically. Relationships tend to not be the same anymore, because the converted has to abide by the new religious rules, thus, in many cases, isolating himself/herself from family and friends. I told her about a lady I know, whose daughter converted to Judaism and given the rigidity of the rules she and her family must follow, has brought her and her family to a self-isolation. Such decision has affected negatively her relationship with her mother and the rest of her original family.
We had a really nice conversation, but the time was up and we had to go.
As always we'll meet next week. Have a nice weekend everyone!
Dear diary
RispondiEliminaYesterday, Wednesday 27th March, I did my third session with Soliya and I have to confess you that the time is quickly fling. First of all we were just three students plus two facilitators in the group because Salina had a doctor appointment and nobody knew why the Arabian girl there wasn’t.
Before to continue our discussion about the video “What are the sources of conflict between Western World and Islam?” and the article “Some Muslims Don’t Get It: Freedom of Speech and the Legitimacy of Muslim Protests” about the differences between Western and East side of the world, Aleksandra proposed us an activity. We had to write three words that in that moment they were in our mind to describe the Western and East society. In my head I had these vocabularies: money, freedom and individualism for the West because I think that in our society people are more freer to express their thought, opinions and so on; with money I wanted to underline the aspect of capitalism which nowadays is an aspect very ingrained but at the same time we are flood of individualism, so it’s for this reason that I had in my mind this third word.
About East, the words that I said, they were religion because for example a lot of things as policy are connected with it. The second one was tradition and the last word was women. When you think to Middle East it emerges in our mind the few respect of human right especially toward women.
After that Mohammed started to talk with us and he introduced us into the argument about the sources of conflict between the two parts of the world based on the video. Essentially I expressed my position the same of the last time. My opinion is that United States want to impose democracy in the countries in which there are conflicts, but Western States can’t impose this factor because just the people who live in the hot lands have to desire democracy. Maybe US could help to achieve it and to respect the culture and society of the east and the citizens of the east should respect western culture as well. Obviously in this topic we touched the aspect of religion. Sara said: “religion is not the main cause”, for me it is the opposite. Many people in the Middle East fight in the name of Allah; I believe that adults must teach to future generation that in the world there are different religions and all people must respect all of these.
Another aspect was the Arab spring and the impact that created toward Europe and United States. I’m really happy that young people and other parts of the North Africa’s society overthrown the dictatorships, but before to have a trade relations or others with them, it is important that they started to build a strong and democratic structures. On the other hands some ambient reacted negatively, maybe because they were afraid that the Arab spring could give to Arabic people more power. At the end of the session, we concluded with a particular activity or game, as you prefer, in which we had to explain the words that they were inside an iceberg and what it was their mean.
I think that I’ll bring with me a lot of things after this experience and after all I’m in a beautiful group.
Matteo
Third Soliya Meeting
RispondiEliminaOn Tuesday, at the third meeting, I have seen all the faces of my classmates. Even if, two of them have connected themselves only halfway of the session. At the beginning, we talked about our last week and facts of the world. In particular, the focus was on Crimea's news. But also this time, as every time, the connection's problems bothered us a lot. In short, only me and an other girl, on nine guys, could speak. Everybody had the microphone broken. So, after a little time, the facilitators decided to divide us into three smaller groups. I was with an Egyptian girl, Gehad Yousry, and a Jordan girl, Toqa Omar. Unfortunately, their microphones were broken, nevertheless we have chatted so much. We had to talk about our family, our city, our country and fundamentally of all that we want to know of the others. From this discussion have come to light two considerations. First, the importance of the family in the Arabian and North Africa countries. In these places they still give prominence to the family, differently from Western countries according to me. Above all, in one question, Gehad asked me why here in Europe we have so few children. Family and bonds with it are very influential and substantial for them, in a different way than us Europeans, just interested in go-getting and reaching social success. For them the word family, is a complex word, and a numerous and solid family is the base above which could build the future. And where sons are a wealth and not a weight.
Secondly, I asked them how is the situation in their countries, especially in Egypt. Gehad said me that there isn't a good situation there. And asked me what we think about Egypt and what we have heard about them.
After this we came back in the main room. Here, the facilitators asked us what we think about this kind of making discussion. According to me, it has been a positive experience, because in this way we can know us better, and personally I was more at ease. And I also think that with these little groups it is possible to focus on specific arguments and talk about them in depth and direct way. The most part of the group was agree with me, even if somebody noted that in a large session there are more input and more ideas in the debate. But I think that this target could be reached if there is more confidence between the members; little groups could be helpful in this. Especially now that we are still at the beginning.
Finally, the facilitators have reminded us to check well our microphones before the next session, because the discussion is a fundamental part of Soliya program but without the right technological support is not completely possible.
See you next week
Matteo Lasen
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaThis week, the meeting was very challenging, funny… and also a little bit bad!
We are all knowing each other in a better way and so there is no more embarrass or fear between us. Indeed, I feel free to say whatever I want without feeling judged, but also respecting other people’s ideas and opinions.
In the first activity, we had to share a story of a time we were and we didn’t know the language; it was very funny, also because I listened to a lot of curious stories about misunderstanding between languages which could lead, sometimes, to real problems! I talked about when I went in Paris: even if I studied the language at school, I found the direct contact extremely difficult. In fact, I didn’t know what to say, I had a huge lack of vocabulary and sometimes I felt isolated but I made a lot of gestures and everybody understood me!
Then, we started discussing about the two articles we had to read for the previous week and we talked a lot about ‘clash of civilization’: everybody said what was the meaning, for him/her and then we discuss a little bit about them. But we suddenly change topic and we started talking about ‘freedom of speech’, ‘religion’ and ‘media’ and we all agree with each other’s opinions about such delicate topics. In fact, we all think that medias, both in the west and in the middle east, try to influence people’s mind in order to create a sort of “hate attitude” towards the other, and someone could not feel free to say whatever they want, because they could deal with retaliations, sometimes.
Last but not least, we did an activity in which we had to ask questions about ‘traditions’ and ‘free time activities’ and I don’t know how, but we suddenly start talking about tattoos and piercing… OMG!!!
Actually, I have full respect of other people’s opinions, but I think someone has to think before talking, because saying that a pierced or a tattooed person is stupid and could never get a job because of his stupidity, is wrong. It may be ugly, it may be not so professional (IF someone has his/her face or hands tattooed or has plenty of piercing all over the face, for example). So, I discuss a lot with a girl saying those kind of things and I feel that is not her fault, but the culture in which she lives give those kind of ideas to people.
Apart from that, all went well :)
IV
Hi everybody!
RispondiElimina...also our third week has gone! Amazing how time flies!!! This week Jaber from Tunisia joined our group. Even though, it was his first meeting, he was really active in the conversation! The first thing we did was introducing ourselves again to him. Then Chris, one of the two American guys, came up with an important (and quite strong) question: “Do you find the involvement of the US with Pakistan, Iraq and other Middle East countries necessary?”. This became the main topic of our third session. Almost everyone was really active in the conversation and I was the one who talked less in this session. I think that this happened because all the others felt much more involved than me in this issue. However, I listened to them very carefully and I found it interesting to see how such young people can actually deal with topics like this with a high level of maturity. However, in the end I was really surprised because the girls from Jordan and the guy from Egypt felt like they “couldn't stand” the situation any more: indeed, both the girls from Jordan said they were feeling really bad because of the touching topic. Therefore, we changed it and we talked about our dreams. I liked this part of the session because all the members revealed their “secret” dream and some of them really impresses me. I can say that we really are a well-mixed group: Jaber wants to develop software programs for large companies, Austin wants to become a professional wrestler, Christian wants to run for congress to push for education reform etc. I must say that they all have very big and ambitious dreams!!! This week again we didn't manage to discuss the required readings and the facilitator didn't give us any activities to do in order to “break the ice”. I think this can be considered a good thing because it means that we ourselves can find our own topics to discuss. Now three of the members of my group added me on Facebook. I was really happy because it means they might be interested in keeping in touch after the end of the program. :)
Looking forward too seeing them all tomorrow!!!
Federica Tognotti