Hi there,
I was very glad to read your diaries from last week! Quite a few of you have made progress in your groups and some 'took the plunge' as it were, and addressed some sensitive topics. As I said when we met last week, it's important for you now, at this stage when you have got to know your group better and are in a 'safe space', to address some of the more difficult topics, express your opinions and perplexities and try to understand more from the others in your group. The aim is not to agree with one another, but to understand different opinions, explore some of the reasons which form these opinions. This week you will probably be discussing your video projects. Make sure you watch those from other group members, and look out for similarities and differences in the choices made by different people.
Finally - I hope you have all made arrangements for next week as the uni is closed most of the week. Make sure you contact tech support well before your sessions (ie this week) and do a test from wherever you will be connecting from.
It is a crucial moment in Soliya so it would be really great if you could make the effort to be there, even if it is a holiday!
Enjoy this week, and happy holidays!!
Francesca
I was very glad to read your diaries from last week! Quite a few of you have made progress in your groups and some 'took the plunge' as it were, and addressed some sensitive topics. As I said when we met last week, it's important for you now, at this stage when you have got to know your group better and are in a 'safe space', to address some of the more difficult topics, express your opinions and perplexities and try to understand more from the others in your group. The aim is not to agree with one another, but to understand different opinions, explore some of the reasons which form these opinions. This week you will probably be discussing your video projects. Make sure you watch those from other group members, and look out for similarities and differences in the choices made by different people.
Finally - I hope you have all made arrangements for next week as the uni is closed most of the week. Make sure you contact tech support well before your sessions (ie this week) and do a test from wherever you will be connecting from.
It is a crucial moment in Soliya so it would be really great if you could make the effort to be there, even if it is a holiday!
Enjoy this week, and happy holidays!!
Francesca
Andrea Gallo
RispondiEliminaHi to everybody. Yesterday i had my sixth session with Soliya and i am not very happy because i can feel the end of my experience so close. Yesterday i was glad because Sushmita, our facilitator, chose as the principal topic of discussion the women's role in our society which was the subject that i proposed the week before to due the fact that there are a lot of girls from the predominant muslim societies in my group so i wanted to know what they thought about such important topic. However at the beginning of our session we opened the dialogue with the concept of 'freedom' that everyone of us has; about this concept so important but at the same time abstract and so difficult to define in a few words, more or less everybody has explained that in the sense of being able to think and act freely respecting the law and the others, because in my opinion the concept of freedom nowdays can be defined only in relation to an individual's life inside a society.
Instead a lot of differences raised when we started the discussion about the women's role and the relation between men and women in our society. In fact the most significant thing that i discovered was that all the girls from the East think that there are not differences between men and women in their societies and all of them think that women from the West have not more freedom than them; when i asked: "do you think that women from the west have more freedom than you", they answered me "why? of course we don't think this, in our country we are able to do whatever we want respecting the Koran"; another interesting question was made by Wouter, the dutch boy, who asked if they feel okay and confortable to wear the hijab and for all of them wear the hijab is a moral and ethic principle and withouy any doubt they want to wear it (only the jordan girl doesn't wear it). All of us from the west said that there is not an equal position in our societies between men and women and in particular i said that for example in Italy men have higher positions ragarding in particular the job world and also i talked about the tradition/discrimination ragarding our surname taken only from our father.
After this significant debate we finished our session talking about lighter subject like love stories and dating:) ; but when Wouter asked some question about gay marriage of course the discussion went again inside delicate themes. When we opened the dialogue about gays and sex before the marriage there was a clear division about the opinions of the western guys who are more open and liberal and those from the East more closed and conservative but with shared our opinions freely and respectfully.
Finally next Tuesday we will talk about the video project.
In our sixth session we talked about the video project and other topics connected with this assignment.
RispondiEliminaIn my group only four students realized the project, the others who didn’t make it were absent.
I had some problem with the realization of my video. I hadn’t technical problem and I found Wevideo very easy to use (and I’m not a computer expert). When I watched for the first time the clips they were more then 70; I thought about the way in which create my project, I chose the clips but when I was ready to assemble my video a lot of clips were missing, and most of them were those I chose! I wrote to Solyia and they solved the problem. They explained to me that some students transferred the clips in their own folders; in this way other people weren’t able to watch them. Except for this little hitch, I really enjoyed this assignment and I’m happy to have learnt something new!
Claudia asked some questions. We looked at what opinion we were trying to represent, what clips we chose and why, and some editing choices such as having background music or not. We also discussed how it felt to be news producers and what it meant.
We had a conversation about media and the role it plays in shaping the world we live in. Many of us agreed that when we cut a clip in a certain way, we can use it to say anything - we can basically manipulate the information we have to shape the views of the people we present it to. Zeinab, the Egyptian girl, asked what me and Kane (the American boy) think about Islam and why it is associated with terrorism. I answered that we watch on TV that terrorists kill people in the name of Allah. The Muslim girls in my group said this is not the true Islam. I know. I think media choose what people have to see and to know about the Muslim world; it is not a conspiracy against the Muslims, but I’m sure that if there are two demonstrations, one peaceful and the other violent in a Muslim country, we will watch on TV the violent one and not the pacific demonstration, because the media (not all, but most of them) have chosen to represent Islam in this bad way. We have the task of analyze what we see without prejudice and with the awareness that we are conditional on the society where we live. Taking part in Soliya program we are moving in the right direction.
I’m curious to see what will happen the next week: in our session we always talk about what the West thinks of the Muslim world and I guessed to reverse the situation: the Muslim students will have to say how they look at the West. It will be a very interesting session!
Dear diary
RispondiEliminaYesterday in my group there were a lot of people than the other week, so I was happy because we could create a good debate in order to heard different positions of the guy, who come all around the world. The first activity that we did it was to find some stereotypes that people in my country or especially abroad think about me. I identified three stereotypes: the correct stereotypes for me is to be a fashion men because I like for example to combine different clothes every day; perhaps I have in my blood the real “Italian fashion taste”. The second one is incorrect and it is party men. To be honest I like to enjoy my self during free time but of course not every time in my life, such as when I have to work I’m a serious person. At the end the third stereotypes, which is hurtful for me is to associated as a mama’s boy, because I don’t like to live whole my life with my family, but I would like to live alone with my independence. I think that stereotypes sometimes are positive but on the other hand a big role that they play, it is negative because foreign people could generalize these aspect for the whole population, who live in a country. If we think another Italian stereotype for example mafia, a lot of people that they live outside of Italy, they could think that all Italians are mafia. So the risk is, as I said before, to generalize the concept.
After that we moved into the second activity. In this part we talked about our video project. Unfortunately there were only Ece and mine. After we posted our link on the chat box, (here you can find my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxzWiNzdFmc&feature=youtube_gdata_player), we started to explain our work. About me, after a long reading of different articles on this topic, and after watching the videos in WeVideo.com, I started to make my reportage. In general it was easy to create with the Internet program. In the video I put more images of protests than interviews because I believe that one who look it, he hasn’t to bore himself. What I wanted to show with my work are the reactions, which followed after the published of the film “Innocence of Muslims”; reactions that they came from different part of our Western society for example by Hilary Clinton, Obama, and so on, who condemned this blasphemous film. I agree with the their positions, moreover I believe that it is possible to create a film about God’s life but the director has to respect the story and above all the religion. With this topic of the video, the facilitator connected it with the role of the media in the world, if they have a big role to influence us. For me of course they have a big power but at the same time we have to pay attention about what we read or we see in the different kind of media. On Internet you can find a lot of information and news but a big part of them are untrue as some news, which come from Wikipedia or social networks.
During this interesting discussion, some minutes before the end of the session, I had to interrupt it because yesterday it started for Catholics the Easter celebrations so I hailed all guys and as every Friday that I write you, I’m looking forward to next week.
Matteo
Hi guys here u can find my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxzWiNzdFmc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
RispondiEliminaENJOY THE VIDEO!!! :)
Hi everyone!
RispondiEliminaCan't believe that there are only 2 more weeks left! However, in the last two sessions we shared the links of our Facebook profiles, so we'll be able to keep in touch also after the end of the Soliya project! (sometimes Facebook can be really useful!!! ;D)
I was a bit worried because it was the first time I was connecting from home, but eventually everything went right!!! :) I connected 5 minutes late because the computer was really slow, but in the end there were no other problems.
Well, I guess you all have talked about the video project with your groups. Before the session I managed to watch all the videos made by my friends and then we almost talked about them all the time. We had to explain the reasons why we chose a particular video instead of another. I noticed that my video was very different from the others, so I've been asked lots of questions about it! Indeed, I decided to start with very strong and opposite ideas and then calm down to more neutral ideas. My friends chose only neutral videos instead. However, I don't think there were right choices and wrong ones! As soon as I explained my work, they whole understood. I tried to focus on my non-violent point of view. First of all, I believe that the video should have not been made. Secondly, as the video had actually been posted on the Internet, I believe that people should have not reacted with violence. Finally, I found a short interview of a Muslim woman really meaningful: she said that she doesn't care about the video because her faith is stronger. This was the last part of my video project, as it represents exactly what I think!
After having discuss the video project, we talked about freedom of speech and our experiences about being offended by other people and offending other people. We found out that that we almost have the same ideas. Some people shared their experience about being victim of strong offences and that was a really touching moment. We think that people are free to say what they want as long as they are sure they won't offend other people. On the other hand, we said that we always try not to offend other people, but if we do we always apologise.
This week the girls from Jordan were missing so next time we'll also listen to them talking about their video.
Looking forward for the 7th session next Thursday!
Bye bye :)
Federica Tognotti
SIXTH SOLIYA MEETING
RispondiEliminaTime is running out!!! It's incredible how this experience is almost arrived at the end. Last meeting has began very slowly; most of all were very tired for university commitments or because were sick. The latter is my case. It has been a difficult session for me, I have not been able to participate as i wanted inasmuch I had fever, I had almost 38.5 degrees, probably I had flu. So many times during the session my only desire has been to go in my bed. I’m sorry for this.
Nevertheless, this meeting has been interesting. First of all, we have talked about our Soliya's videos. Unfortunately, nobody of us had seen all other videos. So the topic has been moved about the production of the clip. In particular, the facilitator asked us: 1) "how did you decide which footage was the most important?" 2) "were you trying to focus on one opinion of topic and then get a cross section of views for that one dimension, or did you try to cover different opinions of the topic?" 3) "what was the hardest choice you had to make in putting together your video? Why was it difficult?". According to me, the most difficult part has been the technological one, I haven't a lot of experience with this "strange" instruments, so this is the hardest part for me, even because I have chosen to add my voice over to the whole video, because in my opinion is more complete and clear. Personally, I haven't had specific difficulties in the choice of the footage or how to set the video. I had a clear idea in my mind and I knew what I would have made. The focus of my work is the dialogue between two different worlds and between different cultures in general. I’ve tried to talk about moderation and the research of a compromise as the best way, definitely better of whatever form of violence. For the next time, me and all the others of my Soliya group have promised to see all the videos, so we could debate about them during the meeting. However, the common thing emerged is the will of everyone to resolve difficult situations or hard contrasts around the world in a pacific way. Then, we have spoken of the role of the media around the world, in particular about the diffusion of the news and if possible for the media to be unbiased. Almost each of us has talked about the big role that the government plays in this area. I have brought the example of Silvio Berlusconi and his information's empire, but unusually for me, nobody has made strange expressions or strange sniggers during my explanation. This has been very strange for me, because usually when I speak with somebody of foreign about Berlusconi, immediately explodes in him a sentiment of derision about Italian politics and politicians. From this discussion emerged a negative note, because for everybody of us is impossible for the media to be unbiased, because they always have own agenda. But above all, in many countries they are controlled by the government. Later, we have talked about the role of social networks on the information. Here emerged a double vision: social media are more honest than traditional media but sometimes there are some opposite opinions which aren’t objective.
Finally, we have talked about critical thinking. For many of us is a problem in our countries. I mean, as Monia said, the professors are more focused on giving large quantities of information to the students, but they don't show them how to use their mind to focus on topics or criticize opinions. From the debate emerged two threads: in US they let university students to think critically but outside the university world this isn't applied. While among us, not American students of Soliya group, we pointed out the lack of this in our universities. Here, I perfectly agreed with Monia; she said that lack of critical thinking and reliance on information leads people to easily believe what they see. This for me has been a very interesting and hard meeting, where again everybody of us has been very polite and moderate with each other, maybe too much. My question is why we are all so moderate just in debates or speaking while in the real life the things change?
RispondiEliminaSee you sooooooon
Matteo Lasen
Hello!
RispondiEliminaHere we almost are at the end of the program. This week we were supposed to watch to each other’s video project and give a comment on them during the meeting. I noticed that not everybody uploaded the video, but there were 5 videos to watch. It was interesting and, at the same time, a little bit surprising: watching the videos, I found out that all people just showed one point of view, the point of view of Islam. Why just Islam? Why they are not interested to make a comparison between cultures? They didn’t answer. I personally tried, on my video project, to show both the perspectives of what it means being a Muslim and a western person, I showed that there are not only violent protests, but also pacific ones; I tried to know more about Muslim culture. I was shocked, and I still don’t understand why some people didn’t even try to know more, show or compare something about a different culture, a western culture.
Then, we talked about media, and we were supposed to discuss about it by answering some questions: What events are you interested in? where are you getting your info from? Do you read about it, or watch it on TV? And a lot of us said that it is better getting the information from the internet because the TV is so misleading, it shows only one perspective, most of times connected with the political point of view of one party, and it is wrong. It is not the right way to communicate news; on the contrary, the internet is a source in which we can find all information we want, from all perspectives and point of view we want!
At the very end of the meeting, we discuss about freedom of speech connected to the video project and we talked a lot about people showing just one religious point of view.
For this week that’s all,
IV