Hi there
I have enjoyed reading your diaries from last week, seeing more engagement amongst most of you with the dialogue sessions, and taking greater responsibility for leading the discussions to where you want them to go, like Diego for example, moving the debate to the economic issue which could be seen as one of the main drivers of conflicts and inequalities around the world! Well done!
There seems to have been a greater diversity of topics, partly due to the fact that the topics were chosen by the groups - so some groups talked about poverty, women's roles in society, music, or life stories - events which had an impact in shaping you and your political views. Great, keep up the good work! I'm also noticing more fluency in your writing, you seem to be writing more than at the beginning of the project, using a broader range of vocabulary.
Remember to be active in your language development too - make notes of new words and expresssions you hear, look them up in dictionaries or on google to see how they are used, try using them yourselves, read up on topics which interest you and listen to talks on these issue ... this is how you can improve your language!
And on the note of language, let me just clarify the use of one word, the use of which can lead to misunderstandings. If something 'impresses' you, it means it makes a good impression on you in English, it always has a positive connotation - so it's different from the Italian verb 'impressionare', which is perhaps more acurately translated in this case as 'to strike' - what struck me was ... or I was struck by how ...
Good. Keep up the good work, and get on with your final projects. I will set up a meeting for Thursday the 4th December, either at 10.30 or 15.30 - as you prefer.
Francesca
I have enjoyed reading your diaries from last week, seeing more engagement amongst most of you with the dialogue sessions, and taking greater responsibility for leading the discussions to where you want them to go, like Diego for example, moving the debate to the economic issue which could be seen as one of the main drivers of conflicts and inequalities around the world! Well done!
There seems to have been a greater diversity of topics, partly due to the fact that the topics were chosen by the groups - so some groups talked about poverty, women's roles in society, music, or life stories - events which had an impact in shaping you and your political views. Great, keep up the good work! I'm also noticing more fluency in your writing, you seem to be writing more than at the beginning of the project, using a broader range of vocabulary.
Remember to be active in your language development too - make notes of new words and expresssions you hear, look them up in dictionaries or on google to see how they are used, try using them yourselves, read up on topics which interest you and listen to talks on these issue ... this is how you can improve your language!
And on the note of language, let me just clarify the use of one word, the use of which can lead to misunderstandings. If something 'impresses' you, it means it makes a good impression on you in English, it always has a positive connotation - so it's different from the Italian verb 'impressionare', which is perhaps more acurately translated in this case as 'to strike' - what struck me was ... or I was struck by how ...
Good. Keep up the good work, and get on with your final projects. I will set up a meeting for Thursday the 4th December, either at 10.30 or 15.30 - as you prefer.
Francesca
Please ignore the links on the blog post - i have no idea how they appeared - there seems to be a bug on my computer!
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
RispondiElimina6th week. Wow. We are almost over with the project. Today, while I write, I am very tired. Yes, today’s session has definitely worn me out. I know that there are few things in my life that require a great part of my time, so it was not just about the meeting. But today I have also had technical problems: a lot of technical problems, actually. This caused me to lose some part of the conversation and almost to freak out because I was cut off the debate. Thankfully it improved.
Last week we told the others three events that we think have shaped our personality or influenced our lives, but two of us did not have the time to do it. Today we started with that topic and after a brief recap made by who had already done that, we were able to listen the remaining personal stories. Almost everyone mentioned, one way or another, going to university: after being rejected by one university, Zantasha signed up to another one, but that was a major event that taught her to deal with personal defeats. Hunter was the first in his family to go to university and I think it is some kind of responsibility, you have to bear some expectations. Me? I was so influenced, for good or bad, by the years spent attending university, especially by the people whom I met there.
I started to fight with the internet connection so I do not exactly remember how we ended up talking about freedom and safety. I have to say, and it came up in the last comments we shared at the end of the session, that it was probably the most interesting part of the meeting. I think it was related to one thing that Sara, from Egypt, told us: she experienced the revolution that has recently taken place in her country and she moved to another area because her father wanted to improve their social position. She was asked then how has revolution impacted her life and it was quite easy to end up discussing safety in streets. And then Zantasha asked if Sara gave higher value to freedom rather than safety. That is when the discussion became really interesting because we had pretty different points of view: Sara believed that freedom means safety. She told us that safety is now missing in her country, so I take that freedom, according to her logic, is missing. Hunter replied that he feels the two things, freedom and safety, contradict each other, which is quite the opposite of the previous statement. I think, and I told them, that safety does not necessarily imply freedom. I thought about totalitarian regimes, when you had safety only if you complied with the ideology of the regime, but if you did not, you were not safe. Where is the freedom in that? And governments are supposed to ensure the safety of people, allowing them to have their freedom.
We also briefly discussed the courage of people to unite and stand for their freedom: it was something that, we agreed, not so many countries witness today (and in some cases it is better this way, or we would have revolutions everywhere and it would be chaos). It was a feeling -the admiration for such courage- shared not only by me or by Hunter (western point of view then), but also from Zantasha (who’s from Pakistan).
I really wanted to know, speaking of freedom, about the meaning of the hijab (islamic veil) for Sara and Hala (Egypt and Jordan), because they wear it. Also Zantasha is muslim but she does not wear it, so she came up with a good answer (she is really interesting and participative, and we get along very well): they all told me that they do not feel it as restricting their freedom, but just as a traditional part of the muslim attire. Basically the huge debate about the value of hijab and the its weight in women’s righe is just exaggerated. I already saw it like that (thanks to previous courses I attended at university) but it was interesting to hear it directly from them, who wear it in countries where muslims are the majority of the population. In the end, it is their choice.
RispondiEliminaFinally we had a discussion about our final projects: since we were already not so many people, we did not engage in one on one discussion. We talked mostly about freedom of speech, because Zantasha is going to focus on that. I asked the others about the priorities in their lives: family over career? How do they see it? How do people in their countries see it? I have had some prompt for my paper and I will have to work on it. It was a pity that we’ve had some casualties during the last part of the meeting. Especially because I would have liked to have the point of view of muslim girls beside Zantasha, but both Sara and Hala disappeared too early. I will try to have more opinions next week or with an e-mail.
I am way to tired to go on. That’s all, folks.
RispondiEliminaGreat session yesterday!!!! I really enjoyed it and I hope we continue in this way for the next 2 weeks.
New people entered and the group became more dynamic and stimulating. We talked a lot and everybody participated actively. No more that boring silence there was the first time. In addition I chatted privately with some people ( the new ones) and I added them on Facebook and Skype in order to keep on contact :) I hope we will chat even after Soliya and why not?, even traveling to meet them!!!!
The session of yesterday was based on the issue we choose the last week; stereotypes.
We started with a funny activities that clearly show how people understand a different scenario even with the same information. In fact the facilitator gave us some clues about an animal and we must to guess what animal is. With the same information we thought to different animals. For instance some guest for a lion and other for an elephant. ;)
Concerning with stereotypes we shared the stereotypes we have about the other countries and what was very interesting was listening the stereotypes people from Muslim countries have about "Western world" . In fact emerged that according to their "we" don't have the sense of the family, we are intolerant and we don't like spending time making ceremonies. These ideas don't correspond totally with the reality, as our stereotypes about women or religion in Muslim countries are based on misunderstanding. I think that some of the current problem of intolerance, racism and discrimination grow up due to these wrong stereotypes and I like programs like Soliya because the create contacts with different culture and this helps people to know the other. For instance in the issue of immigration my idea is that erecting walls and strengthening border is not the solution, but the source of tensions and racist attitudes. If people meet each other, if the speak sharing their values integration will be easier.
The issue of stereotype lead us to speak about the role of media. indeed medias provide us a lot of information thus they have a big role in creating or strengthening wrong ideas about the other and to influence our perception of the events. To explain this I just say that an Egyptian girl didn't know what ISIS is and a Pakistani girl told us that in some newspaper she read that ISIS is supported by US and Israel. It's completely the opposite scenario that we read on our newspaper. This is amazing!!!! ;)
We spent a lot of time speaking about this until when the facilitators preferred to give us some more indications about the final project. Unfortunately I'm the only one who has chose the video, so I cannot compare my project with another one. In fact I have already started working on the video, but actually I still have some doubts. Carmen, one of the facilitator, has done the video and she gave me some suggestions. Probably I watch the video of the last years shared on this blog in order to make me the idea clearer. ;)
For the next times the facilitators suggested us to think about some topics we want to share. Especially after the discussion of yesterday I'm really interested in going in depth of ISIS and Israel issue especially because I'm curios to listen the opinion of american guys. ;)
I expect a great session for the next Monday!!! :)
Marta Perrone
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
The sixth session is gone. I must admit I feel a bit stressed out because I’m studying a lot this week and my mind is full of thoughts. Anyway I arrived to this meeting with a lot of expectations and enthusiasm. We had to discuss complex topics, i.e. veil, terrorism/extremism, Israel-Palestine. But I think we didn’t take this our chance completely. Why? The answer is simple. Of course I can talk of these arguments with Christie (maybe I’m repetitive but I really like her) but I’m not sure that in this way I can satisfy my desire: i.e. to have an exchange of views. No doubt, it is my group’s fault. I was only with Christie for most of the time, waiting for the others who arrived late and in some cases for fool reasons. Delays and tech issues didn’t leave a lot of time for free-flowing discussion and I totally agree with Julieth: consistent lateness is a sign of disrespect. I still remember what my professor said about the importance of our attendance: it is valuable for this program to work. So, believing in the same thing, I try to be present every time. Physically and mentally, even if sometimes it isn’t easy, like this week. Besides these critical aspects, I had a great conversation with Christie. We started with an identity activity, choosing three things about ourselves (two true and one false) to know each other better. Then we recalled some of the topics of the last week (in particular the different styles and ways to become a democracy) and then we moved on the main topic: terrorism. I expected that when Marioma and Juhaina connected they said something more than the usual shallow statements. They just said that terrorism is due to people violent inside, without giving any other clarification or references to the role of religion or to what there is at the basis of terrorism; I asked them what reasons could explain it, clarifying that I see terrorism as a reaction to a feeling of being dominated. There was no reply. We discuss how we can define terrorism and Christie said something to chew on: “one man terrorist is another man freedom fighter”. The role of media in the creation of misunderstandings around terrorism and the importance to give a definition to it in order to address it were other causes for reflection. Answering to the question if terroristic attacks target only civilian populations, I remembered Nasiriya bombing to prove that there are also attacks to military target in response to a sense of being occupied, in my opinion. Sure terrorism is supported by governments sometimes, but usually we don’t consider a state acting against civilians as terrorist (like Israel seems to me instead). When we see someone who blows up killing hundreds of people we consider him insane and we have fear and anger (if the dead people are western….of course…). We start a war in the name of Good against Evil. But we don’t do anything when a state, in the exercise of its power and sovereignty upon people, kills its own citizens and other civilians. I see so much hypocrisy in this. At the end, because I wanted to satisfy my curiosity I asked to American guys what American people think about Muslims after the September 11th attacks. Both Dylan and Christie were too young, so they have few memories (I wonder how it is possible considering the media attention). For the first time the USA was under attack on its own territory and since it has always been a super power, the war against terrorism was a way to enforce dominance in the world. But, like Christie said, the government’s reaction was more an act of fear than a rational one.
The session ended in this way. There were other topics to discuss, but like I said we had lost a lot of time.
I hope we’ll talk about them the next week (I also proposed a discussion on Iran) without any kind of obstacle.
Anyway, thanks!!!
Marta
19/11/2014
RispondiEliminaDear diary
Yesterday I was so excited because I was the facilitator of the group and it was my first time. We started to discuss how our relatives or friends think about us. Everyone expressed his idea and after we had to explain it. For example my husband said that I'm a talkative person because at home and not only I talk a lot. Salah said that my personality is usual among women, after this all girls of the group told him that this is not a deficiency but a big quality.
The second topic of the day was the final project. Indeed we talked in separate rooms with our partner. We exchange our ideas about the final project. In my opinion this is interesting but I have to say that my partner wasn't very apprised, because she didn't see the videos.
When we came back to the main room, all people offered two topics to discuss during weeks 7 and 8. I offered cultural and religion topic with other two Americans. But after this the facilitators told us to go in the separate rooms and to start the discussion on the future topic. Americans asked me about the Italian and the Romanian culture. I didn't talk a lot about my original culture, but more about Italian one. I did this because I think that here in Italy there are more monument, art and so on than in Romania. At the same time I asked them some information about their culture because the first one come from West coast and the second one from the other side. I understood that there is a difference between two parts, but it was interesting to know it.
The last part, I suppose, it was more interesting for me, because I became the facilitator of the group. The topic that I chosen it was “The Unveiling of Europe”. The discussion was active and all people participated. Everyone said their ideas. In this discussion the main part was that the veil is not the mean of slavery for the women but it is a tradition of the Muslim countries and there are other bad rules which don't make a woman free. For them the veil has to respect by Western people. In conclusion it is necessary more comprehension between all people of the world.
Stefania Nicoleta
Natascia Piasentini
RispondiEliminaDear Diary,
Yesterday, I had my sixth session of Soliya. I have almost finished the project and I was a little sad because it was fun and interesting interacting with people from other countries. I was thinking that I will miss this project when it is finished.
Yesterday there were three of us. At the beginning we talked about the weather. I said that in Italy it was raining and the rain was causing many problems, especially, floods in some regions of Italy. The facilitators, who lived in Egypt, said that in their country it was sunny and it was warm.
When all the members of the group were connected to Soliya, the facilitators launched an activity. We prepared a short presentation about one of the cultures that were present in my group. We could choose between American culture, Italian culture and Moroccan culture. Nicole chose my country, Abdul and I chose the Unites States’ culture. Nicole would like to visit Italy next year. She was curious about the taste of Italian pizza and pasta. She would like to go to Rome, Florence and Venice because she saw photos and she thought it was a beautiful country. I obviously approved because Italy is full of history, there are many monuments and I thought Italian food was the best. Then, the Moroccan guy gave a presentation of the United States and he said the Unites States was the only western country where a woman could wear a veil and she could practice Islam. I didn’t like what he said because it seemed he was saying in all other countries the veil was forbidden. So I explained to him that in my country, Italian people respected other religions. Muslim people could do Ramadan during work, and they could pray on Friday and women could wear the veil (I said that I was not sure whether the veil where women are completely covered is forbidden or not but I was sure that women could wear headscarves). When it was my turn to give a presentation, I explained that I had never been to the United States and I had some knowledge about it thanks to American movies, books and newspapers. I talked about American food, I said I thought it was greasy and horrible compared to Italian food. In fact, in American movies I can see hamburgers and French fries everywhere! Then I mentioned the beautiful American colleges and the proms that are frequently in the movies.
None of us chose Morocco so I asked Abdul about his country. He looked very satisfied about my interest in his country and he answered me with pride! He started talking about Moroccan foods, in particular a special Moroccan dish called couscous. He explained it was made with flour and you could mix it with vegetables. He added that the majority of people in Morocco ate couscous on Friday. I asked him why on Friday. I wanted to know if for them it was a day off or not. He explained that Friday was a special day for Muslim countries. They called it “a celebration”, but it wasn't a holiday.
RispondiEliminaWhile he was talking about his country, Abdul said something about women in Muslim society. He offered an example. He said that in his country when a father died, and he left, say, two daughters and one son. Say, for example, that the father had two cars, he didn’t leave an inheritance of two cars shared equally among his children but the two sisters got one car and the boy the other one. It wasn’t a fair system for women because sons got a double share of any inheritance compared to daughters. I didn’t agree with this, especially because I am a woman, but I thought that these were the rules of moroccan people and it was their country so I must respect their customs.
I was curious about marriage. I asked him how many women you could marry. The answer was four… did you know that? 4 women for a man? I joked with him telling he was lucky to be a man… it was an advantage to born a man in that country, wasn’t it? You could marry four women; you could have more than one woman ?. The most incredible thing was he was very convinced about this unequal system and I thought he was proud, but this was my impression. He said that he will marry just one woman but not because he thought it was right a relation one-to-one but because of economic reasons. He said it was difficult to sustain four women. The Facilitators asked how many men we could marry in our country. Nicole said one, but my answer was one at a time!!! AH AH!!
See you next week
Natascia Piasentini
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaAlso the sixth meeting is done! I can’t believe there are just two other meetings planned. This week we have started our conversation with two questions proposed by our facilitator, Lisa: “Is education necessary to peace?” and “is peace necessary to education?”. She asked us which one, in our point of view, was the most relevant one globally, and to give some examples. Actually it was very interesting to notice that me and Hannah, from USA, choose to talk about the issue of the “education necessary to peace”, and how through this tool is possible to build a conscience free of prejudices and open to dialogue; while Hager (Egypt) and Muhammad (Pakistan) underlined the importance of having peace first, a necessary step in order to assure the access to education to the population. Hager mentioned the problem of safety that occur when there are conflicts going on in a country, for example also her own family has forbidden her to go to university when there are tensions because of the revolution in Egypt. I pointed out that probably the different views on this issue among our group where shaped by our different experiences and where we can from, since both me and Hannah are from countries in which there aren’t wars in their territories at the moment, while both in Egypt and in Pakistan there are tensions and conflicts going on in the last years. Unfortunately Muhammad had serious connection problem, and soon had to leave due to them, while Hannah showed up quite late, so we spent some time to recap her what we were doing in order to involve her in the conversation. In any case, me and Hager started to have a conversation about the revolution in Egypt, and the position of young people on that: she told me that a lot of young people have decided to leave the university to join the movements of protest, but she is afraid that sometimes they are creating more problems instead of solving them. The other threat, in her point of view, is that the Islamic system could substitute the law system of the country, giving space to the use of religion for mere political aims. She then asked me the religious profile of Italy, and I said that even if the large majority of the population declares that it is christian catholic, in fact a lot of people are not observants, and she wanted to know my personal position on that. She has then shared her experience, saying that it’s more than 10 years that she doesn’t go often to the mosque and she pray mainly at home, not for her choice but for safety reasons. The general perception around her is that, even if there is a floor dedicated to women in the mosque, it’s a place more attended by men, and she feels uncomfortable to go alone, she just goes sometimes with the brother. Starting from this topic, I asked her how does it work in her university with the islamic rule to pray five times per day, if they stopped the lessons, or make any specific breaks. She told me that that if there is a lecture going on when there is the call for the pray, they finish the work first and then they have some time to pray, and she usually does that alone. I mentioned the constant struggles that are made especially in Italy to assure a public education completely secular, even if there is a strange system concerning the teaching of religion at school and, of course, there are the private high schools and universities that are funded by the church and religious movements, so are inspired by religious values.
Hager, instead, told me that there are a lot of students that collect money in order to build mosques at the universities, and young christians do the same for churches, and she assures me that they are completely spontaneous movements. Hannah also joined the conversation explaining the huge different choices regarding this issue in the USA, seen it is full of private religious schools together with the public ones. Hager also shared with us a little research she made about the different school systems in Italy, Pakistan, Egypt and USA, and we start to talked a little bit about the difficult relationship science/faith, that sometimes effects also the way some subjects are treated at school, for example in Pakistan (but also in the USA!) in can happen that some professors do not accept the evolution theory is not accepted and put it into question. Then Lisa left us some time to continue to discuss for our final projects. We ended up choosing to discuss next week about some current news, like on conflicts that are going on in this period in the world, and especially how children are affected by this issues.
RispondiEliminaLiliana Demartini
Dear Diary,
RispondiEliminaalso the sixth meeting is gone, it’s incredible how time can flies so quickly,
This time Mari, the american girl was missing, because of a strong cold. I felt her missing because she is one of the most talkative girl and we agree on many things, but it doesn’t matter, I’ll se her next time.
I have to be honest, this meeting didn’t catch me as the others, maybe I was in a bad mood or the arguments weren’t so exiting.
However,we opened this meeting talking about typical foods, every one of us shared is favorite food explaining why and sometime what is it just because not everyone of us know the typical plates of other countries.
Every one of us expressed different preferences for exemple: I said Pizza and Chocolate that’s because when I was younger my mother always used to take me a piece of chocolate when se picked me up from school so for me chocolate is something special. The American guy (Will) said Hamburgher and french fries, both the girls said that they like so much couscous and Alva shebakia. I know and I love cous cous but I’ve never heard before about the second plates named which is a dessert, I’m so curious to taste this speciality, they told us that is something delicious!.
Then was the moment of the Egyptian boys; Saleh was not very humble at first and he said that Egyptian cuisine is the best in the whole world and he use to eat kushari which is a vegetarian plate and him favourite food (I hope to write down the names of these plates in the right way!!) and others typical food but I don’t remember exactly what they are. Egyptian the best cuisine in the world? I asked him: “Did you never heard about Italian plates like Lasagne alla Bolognese, Spaghetti, Pizza and so on?”, he laughed a lot than said that he tasted it but he’s still sure that Egyptian is better; Hassan the other Egyptian didn’t agree with Saleh and he affirmed that Lebanon is the best cuisine in the world, anyway I don’t think that Saleh tasted the real homemade Lasagne alla Bolognese ‘cause in that case he has to be completed enamoured of it but despite myself I have to admit that Lebanese food is fantastic!
After this little joking debate on which is the best cuisine in the world Salima interrupted us saying “to each is own” that’s to say that our tastes are influenced by our own culture and tradition and we cannot deeply understand the culture of someone else if we don’t get in touch with the traditional food of this culture, maybe it will be possible that we don’t like different foods but we have to try before say “No I don’t like!”.
I was completely agree, it’s true, when you talk about food, tradition, religion, values there’s no something better and something worse, these things are simply different and this is a wonderful thing!. After all variety is the spice of life!
For the next discussion we had to choose one topic between the three suggested that were: Values, Culture and Tradition and Taboos, I was the only one who expressed preference for the Taboos theme, all the others participants said Culture and Tradition and I was a little bit disappointed, we always talk about Culture and Values and now I really would like to talk about something different, maybe much more interesting and stimulating for our debates but no, nothing doing, culture and tradition was the choice, again.
Fortunately we have talked much more about tradition than culture so we made a confrontation between our festivity; what we do, where we go, with whom etc..
RispondiEliminaWe discovered that every one of us use to share, at least one day a week, a meal with all own relatives! In Italy we usually do this on Sunday while in Morocco and Egypt they do this Friday, so we reflected also on the fact that these are days strictly linked to our religious tradition!
In the end we had twenty minutes to talk about our final project with our teammates. I did it with Salma and Saleh but this last private meeting between us was not very fruitful, I gave an input asking them what they think about limitation of freedom of speech in order to respect religious freedom and Saleh started talking about Islam and his Prophet Muhammad for more or less fifteen minutes and he never gave up the microphone! It was crazy it was a lesson on the roots of Islam and its beliefs, after that I ironically thanked him for the preach and then I expressed my personal point of view about the main theme of our debate: freedom of speech and religious freedom; I said than I'm a freedom of speech's defender but there's no freedom without respect. If you don't respect other people's beliefs, other feelings you will be mistaken and freedom of speech is not freedom to offend others. Salma agreed with me and then Saleh asked me again why I'm not religious and he covered me with moral questions such us:"who do you think you are?, what is the reason why you are here on this earth? What is your purpose in your life" and so on. I was petrify, really, I didn't know what to say, especially I don't like that someone that I saw for more or less six times in my life ask me these kind of questions. I've a very private and personal conception of faith and I don't expect that anyone should understand this vision but if someone insist to tell me that Islam is the real only way, that Islam is the most ancient religion, father and mother of all the other religions and we were born to believe in the words of Allah who is the only God well I start to get nervous and a little bit vexed. I answered him and I told him that I’m not religious but I believe in the existence of something so I’m spiritual, I still can see the damages that faith can made if it’s linked to politic power and the biggest religions of the world hold also a big political power. After this affirmation Saleh started to tell me that I’m wrong, because I have to believe in the only God etc… So my though was: if you don't want hear something different from your expectation simply don't ask!!! I don't want to be negative or cruel I listened all the things he said with attention but within all his words I have perceived a sort of individualism and the will to persuade me. Anyway in a while we joined all the rest of the group for the last greetings and all my bad feelings went by.
That’s all I think, Now let’s see what will happen next meeting.
Sara
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminait’s difficult to find the time to write, but I must do it not to allow days delete the fresh, friendly memories of Soliya meeting.
Last yesterday we were four – we’re always four, lately – but this is almost an advantage: we go deep in the debate, we can explain fully our positions and specify them, returning on our statements.
The lack is in the plurality of views, since the discussion is often hold by me and Florian, a French student (but with Algerian origins) very sharp, cultured and resolute on the world’s situation.
Sometimes we’re on contrasting positions and we friendly “fight” to explain and explore our statements. It happened about the control over the net, the role of social network and, at the broadest level, the technological imbalance between westerners and Arabs.
The issue was initially posed by Matt, our Lebanese facilitator: at the beginning of the program he seemed to me quite far, very professional as moderator, but cold; now I feel his discrete friendship (he compliments me via private chat and probably he does the same with the others) and his ability. He knows the right moment to play his cards, letting us free to conduct the following play.
The discussion was … how can I say? … circular, because our typical issues are all related and one calls another: the control of information leads to talk about conflicts, about countries spying with one another, and this consequentially introduces the power of social network in firing riots and revolutions (as happened in Egypt); and this matter is finally related to the fight for the power which allows to conquest resources, wealth and so on.
I stated my conviction, that is the control and the influence on our economic behavior and beliefs is not so far from the control on political ones; targeted advertising we already receive on the net are the first step of a massive influence on our life. Our virtual life is the door for a wide exposition to many constraints, made by specific news popping up and selected results when we search on Google.
Who can do this? Surely not poor countries or citizen associations; the technology to do it isn’t cheap and only giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. could pay teams of psychologists, computer scientists and other specialists for tuning such powerful tools (like algorithms to drain the enormous quantity of written and spoken words daily flowing by wires and satellites).
I know that I probably seem to hate the supremacy of Americans on internet, but this isn’t exact: I fear the incumbency of big financial groups, few economic subjects who’re concentrating richness sufficient to force entire nations, to escape taxation, to finance wars; and rich and powerful subjects (persons and groups) haven’t only one homeland.
Religion and culture are only a cover, while the true war is conceived.
Anyway, I don’t want to end with these dramatic visions. During the session, after about half an hour from the beginning, a boy appeared on the screen. He was Casey, an American student who never attended the program; we only saw him for seconds in the first session, just an image without voice: he looked to us and after he disappeared.
I greeted him, but after a moment I understood that Matt and Sarah weren’t happy of this irruption, indeed they said nothing. Casey seemed very at ease: he begun to speak answering the question just posed by Sarah (the three most important events in shaping our personality), naturally as he had been participant from a long time.
The singular conclusion arrived after few minutes, when he said: “I’ve many things to do, I have to go. Bye”; then he switched off the camera and disappeared like that time.
It could be a dramatic example of rudeness, but it seemed like a comedy; so I’ve got a title for this session: strange people in Soliya.
(Part 1 Intro)
RispondiEliminaDear Diary,
Last Thursday I had my 6th Soliya meeting. Waiting for every person to join the session Rangineh asked the members already there who would we be if we could be a famous person (regardless of whether alive or not) and what would we do with our newly found fame. As usual the first question was a random one aimed to break the ice. At that time only three people - including myself - were already logged in so for once I bravely answered first. I said that I'd like to be an Italian Napoleon who ruled the world collecting art pictures and statues made by Italian artists and are in museums around the World. Then Elena said she would be a singer (not sure which one) spreading the method of peace with her words and music. Ian would like to be his favorite soccer player or would have the Freddie Mercury talent. Finally Nihel, who had been delayed by an unexpected happening, said she'd like to be Leonardo Da Vinci.
(Part 2)
RispondiEliminaAs we reached the number of four people Rangineh started meaning business and wrote down the day's Agenda. The first point was “Group Guideline Reminder” and Rangineh knowing I got a file where those are stored, invited me to pass them around in the chat box. I accomplished the task obviously. Then Rangineh introduced us to the second Agenda point so called “Pre-Discussion Activity” which despite the generical name led to a rich debate. The activity consisted in writing in the chat box the first word we'd think reading the sentence Rangineh had posted. The sentences Rangineh posted were:
1) “US Foreign Policy in Arab countries and predominantly Muslim”;
2) “Foreign Policy of European countries in Arab countries and predominantly Muslim countries”;
3) “Foreign Policy of Arab countries towards the US & Europe”;
4) “Foreign Policy of predominantly Muslim countries towards the US & Europe.
She didn't post them all at the same time but one by one waiting everybody writing the word they thought. Finally Rangineh requested us to to scroll back up the chat box looking at the answers people shared for each of the four ideas and think of a question in order to have clarifications about the answer given by someone. Elena started asking Nihel about the word “Racism” she had written following the sentence number two. Nihel put the case of France where people of Arab ethnicity/culture are discriminated. She told us the former France president Sarkozy accused the Arabs living in France to be badly influencing the French people, especially from a religious perspective. Anyway Elena -having lived in France as exchange student- said she noted the Muslim in France are well integrated without any discrimination. Then I asked Nihel to tell us why she thought the word “Oppression” following the post number four and she pointed out that oppression is not necessarily physical and she had chosen “oppression” because she thought that in recent history, terrorism has too often been related to Arabs and specially to Muslims and whenever a terrorist attack happens, US and Europe always relate it to Islam and claim that Muslims have extremist tendencies. I don't agree with this point of view and I object that if this feeling is spreading throughout western opinion it is because the attacks led by extremists groups really happened. I agreed with her that not all Muslims are terrorists yet I asked her and other Muslim guys in the group why the Muslim World didn't protest against these extremist team which is using their religion to justify their actions. Nihel answered that they protest yet don't have the support of the govern. Hers wasn't an answer that convinced me at all, yet Mazen, the other Muslim guy gave an interesting answer confirming the stereotypes the Muslim world brings with itself. He said that him who is considered a terrorist by the Western countries is a freedom fighter who is not just a terrorist but his behavior is generated by a circle of violence - if you kill someone, someone else will try to have revenge for that person- and the way these Arab people protest are the violent terrorist attacks and the application of the Sharia in order to rule their country.
Obviously Mazen's wasn't the answer I wanted to hear, but I still appreciated his honesty and his being politically incorrect. After such a long and interesting debate we said our goodbyes because time was up. Rangineh also told us that even though we hadn't developed the day's schedule she was very happy with the way the debate had gone, which is the most important thing.
I really enjoyed this meeting and I can't wait for next Thursday to come to get back with the guys.
Nicola Berto
Part 1
RispondiEliminaI have just finished my Soliya Meeting, as every time I am satisfied.
Casper began this meeting , as always, with simple questions about our last days, and we had to speak about us.
After this little nice moment, Casper asked us to write up a list of the stereotypes that we think others have about us. We had to mark our list stating which element is most incorrect, which element is most correct, and which element is most hurtful.
This is very interesting for my final paper, in fact up to this moment, I have only chosen the theme and how to set the style of my document.
Kadie was the first to speak. She explained us that Americans are considered lazy, very intolerant of other cultures, materialistic, people who think about guns and violence and they give a negative image of the military forces. She said that the most incorrect is to consider Americans as lazy because most people are really hardworking. Another wrong aspect is that to the most part people are tolerant but this depends on their experiences. Americans can indeed be kind of materialistic. Often people assume that if you are an American you don’t like Islam. Kadie knows she is tolerant, so she hates being stereotyped because of events that happened.
When Jeanne began to speak, she told us that the most incorrect stereotype is they eat healthy food and have good cooks, indeed they eat unhealthy like everywhere in the world; the most correct idea is that the French are stubborn, they "go on strike". This fact for Jeanne isn't negative, because it is a way of saying that you disagree.
Finally the most hurtful stereotype for Jeanne is when people say that the French are unwelcoming. This it is untrue, certainly people don’t answer to questions on the street but, as everywhere in the world, people like to be confronted with strangers and Jeanne and her friends are willing to interact with foreign people, as well as students want to go abroad and meet students from other places.
Chiraz answered to Jeanne: she doesn't think that the French are unwelcoming, she met some of them, some French have family living in the same country of Chiraz, French are very friendly and welcoming.
Then it was the turn of Chiraz. She said that the most incorrect aspects are that they are not educated; on the contrary they are well educated, they have good level of universities. Some people take advantage of tourists, they take extra money from them, especially when Arabs or Tunisians come, but this is happening in other places as well. Chiraz said that the most hurtful aspect is to believe that the Arabs are terrorists, especially it is sad how the media promotes it.
When the media promotes the idea that there are a lot of terrorists in those countries you might think that all westerners think this way but that is not true.
I wanted to say to Chiraz that in Italy, in my working environment, Moroccan are considered as dirty and bad. In Police Local we are afraid when we meet a non-EU who comes from Morocco , because during the last clash with judiciary police, a Moroccan has sent into hospital three colleagues of mine, but I am sure that it is not true for all Moroccan, these are stereotypes.
When it was my turn, I began to speak about my opinion: Italians are seen as Mafiosi, lazy, racists, dreamers, lovers and corrupted. When I say “racists” and “corrupted” I am thinking about affirmation of Salvini who wants to stop immigration, or about Berlusconi and his parties with minors, or about recently facts as Mose, or bribes taken by politicians. What hurts me is the term “Mafiosi”: I think that this adjective are true but not for all Italians.
Part 2
RispondiEliminaAnother big problem we have in Italy is corruption, we are at the 32 place after some other countries in the world for corruption. Our government had emanated laws about this argument as public tenders, open competitive exams, public service without having any results. When Jeanne asked me “There is still corruption in the current Italian government?” I said that there is yet corruption in my Government.
Chiraz said me that Italians are known for pizza and spaghetti. “It is true - I said – I am a good cook and if You come in Italy, in my home, you will be my host, so you can taste my pizza”. I like very much Chiraz, she awakes my maternal instinct. I would be happy if she comes into my family.
At this point, Gerell, who hitherto entered and exited from the chat, gave us his apologies but he had to leave us soon because he Monday had a bad car accident and he needed to go back to the hospital, his head was pounding, he had just got a small concussion and needed to get more medicine. We all were very sorry for him.
Then it was the turn of Wafa who told us that the most incorrect aspect of what people think about Moroccan is that they live in the desert: people think that they all live in Sahara and live in tents with camels but indeed, they have normal cities.
The most correct aspect is that the people of Rabat are untrustworthy, they don’t give you the right directions, always send you the wrong way; the most hurtful fact is that Moroccan men like fat women . For Wafa it isn't true, she thinks it is hurtful and disrespectful, they like normal women. She doesn’t know why they have this idea, its abnormal.
Zakaria told us that for him the most hurtful belief is that Muslims are terrorist and they encourage violence.
At the end Casper asked us if there is anything that struck us about the stereotypes which we spoken about?
So I discovered that Chiraz was surprised for the Mafiosi given to Italians: she thought it only existed in the movies; I thought that the Americans were all good and hardworking; Casper was surprised for fat women Wafa talked about, he was shocked because he never heard about this, he also thinks it is very sad that Muslims are stereotyped as violent.
But above all I discovered that Zakaria was surprised when Kadie said that American people are not mad. He thinks that Americans are so mad because they like to do anything without caring for what happens next.
We all didn’t agree with Zakaria, Kadie explained us that Americans do what all people do. She said this is a stereotype and she is sure that Americans worry a lot.
I don’t always understand the answers of my Soliya friends, I only know that stereotypes are influencing my life and my work.
I feel more inferior than English, Americans or French, because they are more advanced, democratic and honest than Italians.
I think stereotypes come from history and past, in fact Italy made history with Mussolini or Al Capone. But stereotypes come also from current times, how we are now. They aren’t necessarily negative things, it depends on the stereotype. When it is about Italians being good cooks, it's good, but when all Muslims are terrorist it is negative.
I think everybody have its own view.
At the end we talked about our final project. I am working at my final paper so I didn’t want to speak about it, but I gladly listened the projects of my Soliya friends: Jeanne is working on themes as education, while Zakaria wants to talk about his experience in this program but he is not sure; as concerns Chiraz, she is still searching for an interesting topic that she can cover with almost everything we spoke about.
Francesca Aufiero
Hi everybody,
RispondiEliminaFirst of all I present my apology to all of you for my delay in posting this on the blog. The last two weeks were quite busy and demanding for me.
On Tuesday there was the third to last Soliya meeting. While we were waiting for everybody to join us in the room, we started to talk about our favourite movies, tv series and songs…
I suggested everyone to watch Interstellar, the new masterpiece by Christopher Nolan and then I spoke about my favorite movies from childhood: Back to the future and Indiana Jones.
We noticed that either books and movies titles can have totally different meanings in different countries and we tried to figure out the reason for this.
After this first discussion, we started with the Q&A session. Last week, in fact, Erin told us to prepare some questions about topics we wanted to discuss in Soliya.
Houssem started with questions about science and technology. He asked us: Can humans live without technology? Does technology have advantages or disadvantages in our daily life?
Farah answered that she does not imagine her life without technology and we all agreed with her, this because in the globalized world is very difficult live without technology.
Now with Facebook and social networks, you can talk with people around the world, and be in touch with friends who live far from you. Technology evolve very fast, and sometimes it's very difficult to understand how you can do with technology really.
We discussed about how technologies improve the quality of life… According to Houssem technology can, in principle, have a negative impact on our daily lifes…He took an example: when we use cars, we tend to mot walk much and this affects our fitness and in turn our health.
I’m the only one in the group who live in a city in which you can move around easily without a car. We discussed about the public transports and the infrastructures in our cities. It was very interesting to discover our routines. Than we returned to discuss about the role of social networks in our lives and how they affect our real social relations.
I realized that I couldn't last more than one hour without my smartphone. For my job, I need to send daily a lot of emails. I think my life without a smartphone or computer would be very difficult.
Then it was the round for my questions. I wanted to know what happens during Ramadan in the countries of my colleagues. More precisely, I asked them how would them feel if they were to go to a non-islamic country during the Ramadam.
Farah tied to explain to me what Ramadan is and how is articulated. We discussed about the “issues” of people living in the Northern parts of Scandinavia where the sun doesn't go down except for a couple of hours, so the fasting is very long, even 20-22 hours. They explained me that there are exceptions for which you can eat or drink if the fasting period is extremely long because you live somewhere where the sun doesn't set for a really long period of time or when you are working hard.
Farah told me that during Ramadan time you can eat or drink if you travel for more than 81 kilometers. I asked why 81 kilometers but she didn’t know. She told me that for the next week she will search an explanation for this… I am very curious because I have never heard about this number (81) and I imagine there must a peculiar reason.
After this discussion we spent some time with our final project partners in the break out rooms.
I discussed with Farah about the video. We watched some videos and we tried to figure out how to make our final project.
This session was very interesting. Next week we will discuss the questions of Kayla, Whabi, Farah and Heni on their favorite topics. I’m looking forward to engage new stimulating discussions.
See you after the next session.
Marina Molinari
Carolina Olivi - 1st PART
RispondiEliminaDear Diary,
I was sick during my last Soliya session, so I could not enjoy it like the other times. However, I tried to take part in the discussion actively, as usual.
We started with talking about taboos in our societies. I think that, at first, we did not get the idea exactly. As a matter of fact, the first example of taboo Kaely shared with us, after some moments of silence, was “covering the nose while sneezing”. We found out that it is a common rule in all our countries, but we agreed it cannot be considered a real “taboo”. I was afraid that, at this point, Kaely felt bored because she left the session without giving notice. Now I know it is not like this, luckily. She wrote on our Facebook group to tell us her opinion on the topics we discussed later, which she missed: so I think she is interested in giving her contribution too. Maybe she could not go on anymore, because it was very early in the morning in USA and she had a terrible sore throat.
We continued talking about taboos and I tried with “drugs” as an example. It is illegal in all our countries (except for some States in America), even if it is not a taboo for all people. There is someone that takes drugs anyway. Generally it is seen as something prohibited and bad, however.
Yasmine, the Lebanese girl, said something interesting then. She told us that in her country people of different religions cannot get married. Well, she said that sometimes it happens, but it is a taboo. The other girls from Arabic countries think that it is not forbidden, because they know someone who did it. But they said something even more interesting: only a boy can choose to marry a girl from a different religion. A girl has not the same possibility. I do not think they are aware that this is a sort of discrimination. They are deeply convinced that it is the man that has the power in marriage and relationships, and I felt they see it as the right way of things to be. They said that they do not want to use the world “control”, but that in facts wives end up being persuaded by their men, in their opinion.
I think also that the Arabic girls were a bit embarrassed when the discussion was about sex and homosexuality (the facilitator suggested these topics since they are common taboos). They are not used to talk about their sexuality with friends or at school like us, because they see sex as something which must be kept between husband and wife. Furthermore, in their countries sex before marriage is totally forbidden (for both sexes!). Here in Italy we do not have a real school subject for sex education, but it happens that we get involved, as students, in informative meetings about it. It is the same thing in France, and maybe that is one of the reasons why we grow up with a different mind. The French girl (Coline) and I see it as a natural thing. The Arabic girls have just their mum that once in a lifetime, before their marriage, gives them a good talking about it. Then it remains a subject they do not share with friends like us, for example. In addition to this, I should not forget that they are all younger than me (I think they are all still teenagers!).
2nd PART
RispondiEliminaHomosexuality is unacceptable in Islamic religion. Maybe this could explain why they do not feel the need to fight for gays rights, even if they described a really hard situation for them. Gays and lesbians can get killed in their countries. I appreciated a lot the fact that they listened respectfully to the opinion of Coline and I, although they see homosexuality as something unnatural. I think it is strange for them to put into question their beliefs: above all, since they have no gay friends.
I was happy to read Kaely’s story on Facebook. She has grown up in a very Christian family and she rejected gay love once. But then she met some special people (such as her gay professor at the university) that changed her mind. She became a supporter of gays rights, in order to create an equal and safe world for everybody. Coline and I were impressed about her change, but we agreed it should be more difficult for Arabic girls to happen.
I remained alone with the Egyptian girl for the last part of the session. I was a bit bored because I cannot see her, she has trouble in hearing me, and our conversation was quite elementary. After that, we all returned in the same room and chose the next topic which will be about personal life stories. I cannot wait for the next session to come!
P.S. After the formal session, I stayed a bit alone with Coline and the facilitator. Coline was not able to enter in the WeVideo website and we tried to help her. In the end, we found out she did not make the request in time. So I am going to be the only one that makes the video for the Final Project, unfortunately!
Carolina Olivi
WEEK 6
RispondiEliminaOur sixth Soliya’s session was the less participated of all. As a matter of fact we were just three: two Italian students and one American facilitator. Well, during the last part one of the American guys, Clay, came out of the blue, since he had had technical problems that kept him from participating from the beginning (he was absent on last session and he won’t be there on the next one due to Thanksgiving celebrations with his family, so he has missed half of the programme and the most interesting discussions).
Anyway the conversation has been interesting: starting with the Norwegian massacre of 2011 we talked about death penalty, giving our opinion that once again were very similar, the two of us being against it. We also stated that there’s a tendency in Europe to be against death penalty, while in the US the majority of the population is in favour of it (despite the existence of lots of activists who fight for its abolition and of a number of States in which it is not allowed). For example, when the Clay showed up we reprised this conversation and he stood up for the rightness of death penalty even if not applied in West Virginia, the State he comes from.
About the Norwegian case we discussed of the appropriateness of twenty-one years condemn to the killer Anders Breivik, since life imprisonment isn’t allowed anymore in Norway (twenty-one years is the maximum years of penalty one can be condemned to in Norway). Apparently he will be revaluated in twenty-one years and the condemn could be prolonged, that is what it’s probably going to happen.
Our facilitator, not being able to express her opinion explicitly, numbered a series of pros and cons about this issue, making us consider the opposite opinions to our point of view. We examined the subject by every perspective, in philosophical, ethical and even practical way. The opinion that affected me the most was about death penalty seen as a way to avoid the costs of imprisonment, sustained by Clay; I couldn’t stop myself from telling him what a cynical point of view it seems to me, since I really felt outraged.
We even talked about Islamic terrorism and the responses given to it by Westerners country, in particular the killing of Osama Bin Laden and its outcomes on the already fragile relationships between West and East.
Then we started discussing some international issues, in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: we didn’t have the time to talk about it properly, so we will resume it on next session because it is a really complicated topic and we had just about a quarter left.
I was satisfied enough by this session, both because of the topics we discussed and of the fact we got to talk a lot and we have been able to express what we think. Also, despite the fact we were just three, there haven’t been deadlocks, the conversation has been fluid and we didn’t need a constant guide like we did during the first sessions. Obviously the facilitator intervened often enough, but more as a contribution to the discussion.
Laura D'Onghia
Part 1
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
Try and guess how many people we were last session. Just three!!! Monica, Laura and I! I’m used to this and I don’t want to become boring talking about this problem every time; and actually Clay appeared as a miracle for the last twenty minutes, but he already warned us that he won’t be joining us on next session because of Thanksgiving. I don’t care, I prefer to see the better things: in this new discussion we were involved in a deep confrontation on the topics which I contributed to suggest last week and I’m pleased about this. During the days before I was less busy than usual, so I had enough time to read the news and watch documentaries (proposed by Monica in our Facebook group, as usual, but not only those), developing a stronger position on the issues we would have discussed, and getting ready as best as I could for the session.
Initially we discussed the dramatic terroristic attack that took place in Oslo and Utoya, where seventy-seven people were murdered by Anders Breivik. In particular we reasoned on the meaning of the punishment he received, the Norwegian maximum sentence, that is 21 years. Monica explained us the public debate which emerged in those days in Norway: someone wanted the introduction of death penalty for terroristic cases like that; some other people believed instead in the possibility of rehabilitation of Breivik since they felt a kind of joint responsibility because such a harsh fact happened in their society. This second choice was the one made by the judges, who sustained that Norwegian system couldn’t be changed and that the law must be implemented as it is. So there is a possibility of rehabilitation for Breivik, and I believe in it too. I don’t consider him an insane person (like the 72% of Norwegian people), as I answered when Monica asked me; I’m afraid that he was conscious about what he did because he carefully planned every detail and he wanted to be captured alive to show his design of a Christian European Reign to the Norwegians, against the multi-cultural society promoted by the Labour Party. Anyway my interlocutors and I were all against death penalty, not in this case nor ever; we also considered 21 years to be too short of a time for a person who killed so coldly lots of young people. Anyway, as Laura said, the justice system shouldn’t exist just as a punishment or a kind of revenge, but also (or better, mainly) for the rehabilitation of the criminals. And if we analysed the recidivism in Norway compared with the rest of the World, we would actually realise that even if they have this singular justice system, where prisoners are encourage to participate to a very different range of activities and are detained in “deluxe” jails in contrast with ours, they have the lower rates of recidivism.
I really appreciated this discussion because I could explore in my own continent such a different kind of justice system and an interesting cultural and historical framework behind it, which makes Norway a very modern country where human rights are actually protected.
Talking about terrorism we touched upon the Islamic terrorism and the approaches to fight it, but we will probably continue this discussion in more detail next time. I highlighted what in my opinion could represent one of the causes of this violence. I said that as Westerners we shouldn’t continually interfere with the Middle East, breaking the weak political balance just to follow economical interests. As an example, I said that if Westerners didn’t kill Osama Bin Laden, they surely would have given to the world an important message, claiming that they don’t answer to violence with violence: “we are different from the terrorists, we really support human rights, freedom and peace”. We would have demonstrated coherence with these our typical mottos. But that was in my opinion a wasted opportunity in terms of dialogue with the Arabic countries and, even if it’s not the only reason, nevertheless we can’t complain, or worse, we can’t fall from the sky about ISIS phenomenon.
Part 2
RispondiEliminaThen we talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was difficult to sum up this very extended issue in few minutes and within three people who actually know about these issues and probably have the same views. So we watched a video which highlighted on the words used by the American medias when speaking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No one of them referred to it as an “occupation” when they talk about what Israel makes with its forces inside the Palestinian’s borders defined in the 1967 UN’s Resolution. It was such an interesting topic but, as I said, I already knew these shameful things.
Our conversations were interrupted when Clay joined us and unexpectedly the situation burst! We brought him up to date about what we had discussed so far, and when he heard that we had also spoken about death penalty, he was really interested in knowing our opinions. It was actually what I was looking for: talking about this issue not with a friend of mine, but with a person who lives in a country where this punishment is permitted. And he said what I actually expected him to say: he stood up for death penalty. He sustained it’s a pity that they don’t have death penalty since the 1940s in West Virginia, because there are people who must die if they do something terrible in the society; he also framed the topic in terms of costs: prisoners in jails are very bad (as his brother, who saw them, said it to him) and they are economically supported by taxation, so there is a waste of money and it’s preferable to kill them. At this point I felt my blood run cold, and I reacted like he had challenged me; but actually I sometimes prefer this kind of challenging environment because it’s too easy just talking with someone who thinks your own way. Anyway I was just able to ask him how he could accept that even just one person who is innocent dies for a wrong sentence. He answered me that it was an hard point. I said a bit angry that instead it’s the point that makes the solution easy: death penalty is something inhuman, we are no one to decide if someone else must die, mainly considering that there is a possibility of making a mistake. And, if he really needs to satisfy this sense of revenge, I suggested him to think about whether, in his opinion, it is worse dying or spending the rest of your life in a little cell.
Unfortunately the time finished in that moment and I don’t know if I will ever have an answer. I hope he will reason on the points that Laura and I exposed to him, because we won’t definitely change our mind on anybody’s right to live. We also suggested him to keep into consideration other justice systems, such as the Scandinavian ones, which work better than the American one. Monica also posted some articles in the Facebook group concerning the death penalty to enrich next session, both treated by groups who stand up for it and by others which are against it.
I would like to conclude making a short consideration: I’ve just read my thoughts on the first sessions, and I’m surprised because I see an improvement in my English skills, both in writing and in listening! It’s funny if I remember how much I was worried at the beginning of the Soliya project, while now I’m happy and calm because I see that I’ve been reaching one of my goals (improving spoken, written and listened English) despite the small group which I’ve ended up in.
Gabriele Chiarello
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaI just finished my sixth session, this time there were two people, including my partner.
The session began with a quarter of an hour late due to technical problems. When all were there, Amanda showed photos of our families, or better, only 4 of us sent them. In turn we have described. My showing my parents were in Rome when I went on vacation, the photo of Meryem shows her nephew anniversary, that of Ahmed was the photos of his my family at my sister's wedding, she was the first in my family to get married. Lilah instead brought only the picture of the mother because it is grown alone with her. Looks a lot like her mother! I wrote in the chat, and I think she smiled.
Later we watched two videos on youtube: the first showed that only 4% of the American media talking about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and says that the territories in which fights are illegally occupied by Israel (I let you imagine the amazement of the American kids to learn this mystical revelation); the second was a sleazy video of Israeli propaganda in which the poor children victims of Palestinian terrorism told their drama. I have turned off before the end because it was shameful, and I wrote my disgust in chat, do not use innocent children to cover the misdeeds of the Israeli government! I then asked if the palestinian children do not live the same dramas.
Farah said she agreed with me, adding that he had no sympathy for the Israeli children have seen their fathers killed Palestinian children. He added that they have to go from their land. I found it aggressive in his tone of voice, I think she is Palestinian. Ahmed spoke occupation as a series of plots International. Muhammad this time it was in a position of neutrality, saying a series of platitudes like: assaults are never justified, the issue is important for both… but what the fuck does that mean? If you do not have anything to say, he could do as Nathan and Carter who explicitly said they did not know the topic well to talk about it.
Marielle asked me then to explain my words, as I have always attempted a serious talk based on facts and data. Of course we are all silenced (in Italian we say: “perle ai porci”), then Amanda has changed the discourse asked Farah because he was so angry, she has answer that she’s Palestinian. I was right!
PART 1
PART 2
RispondiEliminaMuhammad intervened asked how can one think to remove Israel from the land. I said that the Israelis have to go back in the territories assigned by the UN Resolution 181, should not be deleted. I then added that if a stranger occupies my land is obvious that I will fight, then if you want to call this “terrorism” is another matter. Muhammad replied that although it is a Muslim has no problem with Jews, but it does not justify the bombing of Gaza. But what does religion? I never talked about religion! Is it really true that the religion is the refuge of fools. I reminded that each session Muhammad spoke of US invasion of Afghanistan and who considered wrong, then why not also condemns the occupation of the Palestinian territories?
Muhammad responded by saying other nonsense like that Arabs can not think to drive the Israelis and that the state of Israel provides stability to the area. I wanted to write that it's just an idiot, too easy to get angry against those who make war closer to your home, and to pretend nothing if not your concern.
Lilah asked if general feeling in the Middle East is that Israel should stop occupying the palestinians or that they should give back the whole of the Israeli State. Muhammad always said that you can not Israelis in a corner.. true!! Palestinians instead you can and they did in fact. The egoist he added that there is anti-Semitism among Muslims. After this bullshit I started laughing and I have not heard. I believed that Muhammad was much more educated and intelligent.
The moderators then have tried to call in Nathan and Carter, but Nathan reiterated that does not know the topic. Carter instead he made a brilliant observation: «There are many people involved in this argument, including the United States, It's probably why the issue has been going on for so long». Wonderful!!! I wanted to give him a high five if I could!
Finally we were divided into groups to talk about the project, I did not have a partner and then I had to go with others. When going from the main room but I was wrong to click and I came out from the site, since there were only five minutes are not returned. We hope that the next time there's my partner!
Segat Alex