Hi everyone
Sorry I'm late with my post this week, again!
I've really been enjoying reading your diaries, your reflections on the activities, your interactions and your peers. I'm sorry that for a few of you it wasn't quite as good as you'd hoped, but others seem to have progressed as a group and got discussions going deeper.
You now have just two weeks left of Soliya so please, take the opportunity in your next two sessions to push the discussions further, to ask questions about issues which you may not have felt comfortable enough yet to talk about with your group. The aim of the project is to get you 'out of your comfort zones' in terms of intercultural relations with others, so you address topics which norms of 'politeness' and 'political correctness' tend to make us avoid. However it is also important to respect others and not feel threatened, so if you have felt too uncomfortable about something, you can bring it up in your group dialogue or with your facilitators privately.
Please enjoy these last two weeks!
Francesca
Sorry I'm late with my post this week, again!
I've really been enjoying reading your diaries, your reflections on the activities, your interactions and your peers. I'm sorry that for a few of you it wasn't quite as good as you'd hoped, but others seem to have progressed as a group and got discussions going deeper.
You now have just two weeks left of Soliya so please, take the opportunity in your next two sessions to push the discussions further, to ask questions about issues which you may not have felt comfortable enough yet to talk about with your group. The aim of the project is to get you 'out of your comfort zones' in terms of intercultural relations with others, so you address topics which norms of 'politeness' and 'political correctness' tend to make us avoid. However it is also important to respect others and not feel threatened, so if you have felt too uncomfortable about something, you can bring it up in your group dialogue or with your facilitators privately.
Please enjoy these last two weeks!
Francesca
Hi everybody
RispondiEliminaEven this session is gone! And we only have one session again; the time flies so rapidly!!!
Yesterday was a very intimate session due some missing.The participants were few and we had only one facilitator.In fact since Carmen was sick we had only Kyle as facilitator, but he was very good in any case. Fortunately for him we were only 5 people and it was no so difficult to lead the conversation. In addition an American girl helped him to type what we said. In conclusion: very good job guys!!
As the other sessions we started with an activity to know better the other countries; in fact we chose a country different from own country and we told 5 facts about it. This stimulated some debated and exchange of information. For instance I read something about Pakistan and I discovered it is the only Muslim country with nuclear power. Unfortunately nobody chose Italy, thus I couldn't see what they would discover about our country :(
Then we passed to speak about terrorism and it was a very interesting discussion especially because we spited in two smaller group in order to share better our idea and opinions. When we came back in the main meeting room we joined together the different inputs. I'm sorry the american boy was absent because I'm sure he would enjoyed the discussion especially when I pointed that sometime government (like Israel) exploits the idea of terrorism to justify own violation against civilians. He always asked to know what we think about Israel and the only time when the topic has emerged he was missing :(
Another very "spicy" issue was the use of drones by US to combat Taliban, but we didn't discuss a lot because the time was finishing and Kyle turned to give us some good suggestions about the final project.
I have finished my video and in these days I try to understand how uploading it on the website ;)
I really enjoyed the session in particular because I chatted a lot with some guys, especially the american and the Egyptian. For instance I asked to the american girl what happened to that child killed by the police; I read something on the newspaper, but listen what she said is 100 times more interesting and useful!!!! ;) With the Egyptian girl we spoke about Italy and Egypt focusing on the current situation with Sisi. It's bad to listen that the situation is not better than before the revolution. She told me that there are some internal conflicts in the government and the situation is not stable at all. I hope for Egypt and Egyptian they can establish a democratic system in which everyone lives free and secure.
Now I'm waiting for the next and last session hoping that it will be interesting as all the others.
micaela
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaHere we are, at the 7th week. We were just me and Hager, the Egyptian girl, with LIsa, our facilitator. During these weeks I had the chance to have a constant debate with Hager, view that we were both presents to all the sessions, so that yesterday our conversation went even deeper than the last time; it is nice to open a window in the life of a person that is surrounded by a completely different environment than mine. We start talking about the last news regarding our countries, since that the Egyptian prime minister was in Italy, and I’ve also mentioned an article that I found on the bbc news some days ago about the problem that are facing interfaith couples (christian + muslim) in this period in Egypt. Hager lives in a region in Egypt were almost the 50% of the population is Coptic christians, so she could share with us a direct witness of the cohabitation of people of different religion, saying that traditionally there is a great respect between the different cultures in her city. She then describe for me a little bit her city, and the important monuments of the ancient city of Hermopolis there are nearby; we both found strange that I had the chance to visit the city of Luxor, while she has never been there, even if she dreams to. We then start talking about our families, and how different are the habits, for example regarding the number of children: in Egypt is common to be part of a numerous family, while right now in Italy is difficult to see families with more than 1-2 children. I also mentioned the situation of my parents, that are divorced, and Hager explained to me that in Egypt, even if is allowed, divorce is seen as a shame for the family, since the marriage is not considered as a private matter, but a family one, so that any trouble has to be avoid. Her community is still quite conservative regarding this issue, even if her father has always supported all the daughters to study at the university before creating a family. Since yesterday was also the international day for the elimination of the violence against women, we start to talk about this issue: I explained that in Italy the problem is, unfortunately, still common, but that in the last years at least the media and the politics seem to have taken into account the problem. Hager asked me what I would do if I was victim of violence, and I answered that for sure I would go the police station to denunce the person and ask for protection. In Egypt, instead, a violent husband is seen again as a private issue, apparently the police gives the advice to deal the problem directly inside the family, without giving any kind of support, sign that still something has to change in the mentality regarding this problem. We end the conversation about some considerations on the condition of women, the difficulties of being young girls, and the need to empower ourselves in order to be independent and free, that is a wish that both me and Hager share… it was nice to see my opinions “mirrored” in the one of Hager, even if in a different perspective, view that we face different challenges in our daily lives. Next time I hope that also Muhammad and Hannah will join us for the last session, in order to finish with the whole group the work we have done during the meetings!
Liliana
Dear diary
RispondiEliminaIn this session we talked about what we did during last week and the if we had special day. American people talked about their national holiday: Thanksgiving day. They explain us the importance of this day and they told us the tradition to eat turkey. Then I said that last week I celebrated my birthday with my family and at the same time I celebrated my wedding anniversary. People wanted to know some curiosities for example what kind of special cake, people prepare here in Italy, and if I ate pizza for my birthday, because everyone in the group like pizza!! So after this, the topic started to change toward the traditions in our country when we celebrate some holiday.
Then the facilitators bring us to another topic link with the first topic: it was the family. We had to draw our home together our relatives. I liked this exercise, but unfortunately both I and others aren't good painters, so the drawings were not very beautiful. They appeared as childhood drawings.
The discussion started to come more interesting when we had to describe the history of our house, and also we talked about nice memories united by that house. There are two good history that I remember: the first one was Nathalien's history. He told us that his house was bought by his great-grandpa when he worked in the West Virginia mines at the end of nineteen century. The second one was Kim's history. He told us that her house was bought when their parents arrived from Africa. Kim also spoke of an interesting thing! she lives in a big family because all relatives live in the same floor.
Also Salah who lives in Morocco, in her house there are her parents, siblings and her grandparents.
During the last topic of the day, I played another time the role of facilitators, because I didn't finish the topic of last time. The topic was "unveiling of Europe". I asked to group what influence the church has in their State. American people said that in American the relationship between church and State is separated, for this reason the veil is not banned. On the other hand in Europe the situation is completely different. The veil was banned for safety problems. Moreover Salah don't understand because the veil was avoid, when it doesn't create problems.
My last question was when we go in a foreign country we have to maintain our traditions or we have to change them? The most of the group said that we have to respect the rules and the traditions of the country in which we go.
Unfortunately this was my penultimate meeting. I was enjoy myself with these people, and I hope to keep me in touch with all members.
Stefania Nicoleta
This is my video project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1ebu23YJU
RispondiEliminaStefania Nicoleta
Part 1
RispondiEliminaHi everyone!
In our last session of Soliya program we started talking about our week end. Last week end I went to Rome and I told something about it, which, in my opinion, is the most beautiful city in the world.
We talked about our travels and the place that we reccomand to visit. I’m the only one who travelled out of my country of origin. I tought that I’m very lucky, because with my parents I traveled a lot, even when I was young.
Heni, Whabi and Houssem had problems with internet connection and we spent all the session in a “lady’s group”. We were just three girls with Erin and had a small group session.
Farah asked her question about Soliya project: she was wondering what do we think about the meaning of this program and the reason of the name “Soliya”.
Kalya sayed that the point of the program is to interact with people from different cultures and help yourself to learn english.
I told that I think Soliya is an important occassion to meet new people and to interact with persons from different cultures, like Kayla says, and to share ideas with people from different parts of the world and different cultures. I think the idea behind the program is the possibility to know different cultures and develop our knowledge.
I think that every student has to do some Soliya meeting because everyone should try to speak with people coming from different realities as I can speak with Farah from Jordan, and this is the first time I have the possibility to experience that. The same is true for Wahbi, Heni, Houssem from Tunisia and Kayla from the United States: I think in this way, you become more open-minded.
For Farah Soliya is a program where we can meet peole from different parts of the world and improve our English. It's important to talk with people who originally speak English to practice the language and learn more about their culture. So Soliya is a good place to share opinions and get in touch with the complexity of the world. She believes it's hard to find this thing in universities or in classes where everyone speaks in Arabic.
After this opinions about Soliya, Kayla wanted to know something about our holidays: She asked us when we are on holidays in our countries. We compared christians festivities like Christmas with muslims festivities and holidays.
At this point of discussion Whabi arrived in the group and we finished the session in four people.
Kayla was just curious about holidays because she knew that there, in USA, after Thanksgiving, everything goes into a mad Christmas stage during which peolple are in a sort of “vacation mood”. She wanted to understand if this behaviour was typical of other countries, too.
Then we posted in the chat box some links about the most beautiful places in our countries. I posted a link about Venice, and spoked a little about the particularities of it.
Erin noticed some simliarites between the locations people have recommended: they're all on the water! So we discuss about the advatages and disavantages of living floating on water. Everyone agreed on the fact that lining that way give a feeling of being relaxed and more confortable.
Part 2
RispondiEliminaThan Whabi asked his question about what's the role of the sports in our life, but he regretted it soon because, being the only man in the group, he didn’t find a lot of enthusiasm or passion in our answers.
I told that for me, sports hasn't a role in my life. But I like watching it on TV, like Farah sayed. I tihnk that I have to do more sport in my life: sometimes I say, "Marina you have to go run”, or "you have to go playing tennis” but I never do it.
After that, we spoke just a little bit about sport’s benefits.
At the end of the session Erin asked us to think about the three events in our life that have been the most important in making us the people we are today, including one event that has affected our political perspective of the world.
I started with the three events that affected my life deeply: the first one are the travels with my parents when I was young, because I started to discover the world.
The second one is when I started my studies in univeristy, because I started to understand the processes of the world's society, politics, and economic strategies.
The third one is the day when I met for the first time the people of the association in which I work now, because that day I started to understand really what I wanted to do in my life and with them I increased my knowledge about politics, especially about the Italian situation.
Than farah told us that there's nothing that has affected her political life, because she isn’t interested in politics. I asked her why, and she answered that i'ts not important for her, because in Jordan there are no matter about politics and peolple don’t worry a lot about the political life there.
This session was quite amazing. What a shame that we were only four during it!
Next week will be the last session. I’m very sorry because we are starting now to encircle the real soul of Soliya.
Now I’m going to work on my final project. I hope to understand what I have to do.
Se you the next, last, week.
Marina Molinari
https://www.wevideo.com/hub/#media/ci/275014532
RispondiEliminaMarta Perrone
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
I had my penultimate Soliya meeting. You know, time flies rapidly.
Maybe we have not done the best as a group until now, but we’re still working on.
This time there was the whole group…better late than ever. Tech issues as always, but Juhaina, Marioma and Alaa used chat box, so we had a kind of flowing discussion.
After a brief explanation of what Thanksgiving is, we discussed our role in the communication process. The question was even more specific: “How do you feel in this group?”. In this way the facilitators gave us the opportunity to bring up our feelings and concerns. I appreciated that, because the low attendance of the two last sessions was a great problem that deserved to be discussed. Christie, like me, highlighted the frustration when people didn’t show up and Dylan, on the other side, mentioned that tech issues prevent the non-western students from participating and for this reason conversations seem more westernized.
In order to improve our communication and to hear the perspectives from the eastern side of the world, I proposed the use of social media platforms, like Facebook or Google. I think that communication outside Soliya through these sites is a good way to know about each other in a more informal setting and to improve our English too. My proposal moved the discussion on the topic of social media. Juhaina said that social media are a double-edged sword and that sometimes they create a negative interaction and a waste of time. Although I don’t feel this type of conversation like a waste of time, I agreed with the guys that the basic purpose of social media is good, even if sometimes they are not used responsibly and they could be a tool to spread stereotypes. We continued talking about their role for social movements and with regard to this I asked Juhaina, Alaa and Marioma what they thought about the Arab spring. As they said, social media helped communication and mobilization of people.
We moved on to another cultural topic. I expressed my curiosity to know more about hijab, its meaning for women who wear it and how women who don’t wear it are considered by Muslims. In my opinion, it is not just related to Islamic faith. I see it as a way for women to express their personality and I’m against both to those who force it and those who forbid it. For Juhaina it means freedom. In fact I studied that in some cases (for example in the Algerian revolution) it was used like an instrument of emancipation against colonialism. I liked her answer because I also think that veil doesn’t represent women’s submission to men or to religion. Alaa said that hijab can also be used to refer to the seclusion of women from men in the public sphere or it may embody a metaphysical dimension. Hijab refers to "the veil which separates man or the world from God". So, despite personal freedom is returning to Muslim girls, Juhaina said that it’s better to wear it because it is part of the faith, even if there are a lot of other things that bring Muslims closer to God. Similarly, Marioma said that although Islam doesn’t force any person to do anything, God is more satisfied if women wear the veil.
to be continued..
Marta Perrone
RispondiEliminaI asked about burka too, saying that there isn’t a prohibition in Italy except local regulations. American constitution allows hijab, but Christie and Dylan said that burka creates problems of identification and security. Juhaina also asked what western people think about veiled women. I answered her privately, reiterating that it should be allowed everywhere, especially when it is the expression of religious freedom and of free choices of women. I had also a brief conversation with her about marriage in Italy (wedding dress, party, presents, etc.)
I had a real conversation with these girls, finally!!!! This made me very happy.
In the last 20 minutes we shared ideas for the final paper, but Juhaina, Alaa and Marioma went away. In any case, I had a good breakout conversation with Christie and Dylan (I’m emailing him too). We briefly talked about our past and current jobs. Then I jokingly asked about their boy/girlfriend. Dylan said that he is looking for a girl…good to know!!!
At the end, talking about what aspects of our cultures we are most proud of, I said “food” and all of them burst into laughter. Dylan quoted “I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free!”… Typical American thought!!! Christie referred to Catholic religion.
For our next last session, we decided to talk more about ourselves and daily lives (such as dating…poor me!!!) and not about other complex topics.
I can say just one thing: It isn’t’ over until it’s over.
Marta
Natascia Piasentini
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
Yesterday I had my seventh session of Solyia. There were just 3 of us. The Moroccan boy was sick. When I connected to the program, I was the first one. So I talked with facilitators about the weather. Amira, my facilitator said to me that last year there was snow in Egypt. I thought it was very strange because I imagined Egypt like a hot country with the sun every day because of its position in North Africa. Amira explained it was a surprise for most Egyptian people. I added that the snow was an unusual event also in Venice. The few times that it snowed in Italy, we had many problems with trains and buses because they were late and it was necessary to put salt on the street. I added that I liked snow because when I looked at its white colour, my sensation was peace and calm.
Anyway after 20 minutes, two Americans connected in Soliya and we started with an activity. We had to describe our ideal society with three values or ideals. Our facilitators left the main room for 15 minutes, in which the 2 Americans and I discussed our ideal society. I had to say the truth, this session was difficult for me because the American guys talked a lot, much more than in other sessions and it was very difficult to understand.
I thought that the American language was more difficult than English. My impression is that an English person pronounces every word, and I can distinguish each one while American is like a lullaby where I can’t distinguish the words.
Anyway when facilitators came back in the main room, we had explained our ideal society. The two American guys and I believed that an ideal society should be based on three values: honesty, education and equality. We thought that education was important to create relationships with other people; honesty was important not to have secrets among people and to avoid corruption; and equality was necessary in an ideal society because all people should have the same rights and opportunities. Than the facilitators asked how we could teach with values. We answered we could learn them in schools.
At the end of the session, we continued the discussion of the last time about the role of men and women in society and religion. The problem was that the Moroccan guy wasn’t there and he had a different point of view to us. The discussion between the west and the east would be more interesting if there was the Moroccan guy because he had a different culture and a different point of view about this subject.
In conclusion our opinion about this topic was the same, men and women in our countries had the same rights and opportunities.
See you next week for the last session!
Natascia Piasentini
Dear Diary
RispondiEliminaSo the penultimate session is gone talking about forced marriages and women rights.
This time the group was complete and it was a very packed and rich conversation, we touched a lot of topics and we shared our personal point of view without any fear, I felt also a great atmosphere among us; even if we expressed different and sometimes opposing ideas, we had keep an high level of discussion without falling in something stupid or shallow and damaging for our virtual relationship.
I’m telling that because the themes faced were very fragiles and easily misunderstanding.
We started talked about forced marriages but it was a random topic, that’s because Lisanne asked us to talk about our parents, if they are still married and for how long they are or they have been. The first to start was Saleh who told us about the love story of his parents (next month they're going to celebrate 40 years together), also Will the American guy said his parents are still married, then was the turn of Salima the Moroccan girl and she told us her parents are married since they was sixteen and even if they didn’t choose freely to get marry they are still together and they are in love with each other. So I asked if this practice of forced marriage is still in use in Morocco but she told us that there’s a law that don’t allow forced marriages but sometime in some small villages on the outskirts of the major cities this is a common practice even if it is outlaw. Salma, the other moroccan girl added that there’s a legal age limit for every marriage, you must have 18 years old to get marry. We made a comparison between us and we all have more or less the same age limit: 16 years old for American, 18 for Italian and Moroccan and 19 for Egyptian people. then we shared our opinion on forced or arranged marriage, we all agreed on the fact that is an horrible practice and a violation of fundamentals human rights because it can often provoke physicals and emotional traumas in young women that are forced to marry someone they don’t know (most of the time he is also much more older than the young girl). Fortunately in no one of our native States there’s this practice but we all know that in many part of Africa, Afghanistan, India and many other asiatic states this is a common usage that must be stopped.
Correlated to this topic was the question that Lisanne asked us trying to bring the conversation toward another direction. He asked us to share what is our opinion on the role that a woman must have in the society.
We had a round in order to give voice to everyone's opinion. I started with a little explicative framework on the deep change on the gender roles and in particular on the role of women in my society and then I shared my personal opinion about it. What I think is that the expectations surrounding gender roles are not typically based on natural gender differences but on gender stereotypes, now things are changing; women have much more ideological, political, economical power than yesterday but we are going to face many challenges in order to see a real equality between men and women roles in the society. Someone of us still believe that women must stay at home, dusting, cleaning, ironing and feeding children while the role of the man is to bring home money earned at a job and being the breadwinner of the situation . In this vision the only responsibility of a woman is grew up children, giving them the necessary cares and attentions while men go to work and earn a wage. Anyway there's no doubt that men and women's roles have become less defined, and many families have made the male and female roles more egalitarian, I shared also the example of my family where the situation is really turned upside-down: My mother is a full-time worker and my father who is unemployed work at home as a “House-husband”
Mari added that very often even if women and men do the same job there's a little difference on the salary 'cause women are payed a little bit less than men, I told her that even if the solution will be easy we have the same problem in Italy…Equal pay for equal work. It’s not so complicated!. Salma and Salima (Morocco) said to us that in their country women can do the job they want without any prejudice and men and women are equally payed. This is a demonstration that (in some cases) it's not the Middle East but the Western world who needs to wake up and face issues as gender equality or women rights.
RispondiEliminaI shared with the group also the problem of the “Glass Ceiling" that is a sociological theory which explain that there are still many artificial barriers that didn’t allow women to reach the highest position inside their jobs. The glass ceiling metaphor is used to describe invisible barriers through which women can see the desired positions but cannot reach them.
However we didn't agree on the same idea; the Egyptian boys but also Salma, the Maroccan girl expressed the opinion that women and men must have different duties in daily life caused they haven't the same physical strength and mental force, so we should have different jobs and different roles. It's true we usually are much more emphatic and emotional than men but this can't be an excuse to relegate women within the domesic sphere; that can be very exciting for someone of us but not for all, we all have incredible skills and potentialities and it's a shame don't use them only because we are still tied to stupid cultural stereotypes. In opposition to Saleh's view Will focused his intervention on the phenomenon of "women in the U.S. Army” saying that nowadays in America a lot of women join the army even if this was a typical male job.
I didn’t like this exemple; in my opinion there’s no reason why an army have to exist but this is another theme and I didn’t say anything about that.
Last but not least we have talked about the tools and the actions that must been taken in order to change this situation and the proposal were various and smarts.
First of all we have mentioned the importance of dialogue and equal opportunities for all. Then we all agreed on the fact that we need an equal salary for the same job between man and woman and also an equal access to job offers.
Time was over, we said goodbye each other. I'm just a little bit sad that the next session will be the last one.
(Part 1)
RispondiEliminaDear Diary,
Last Thursday I had my 7th Soliya meeting. This time Rangineh has been replaced by another facilitator because she had vacation time in order to celebrate Thanksgiving. The new facilitator was Sigma a guy from Seattle with Asian features living in Iraq I don't know why or on what kind of business.
After his introduction he asked every group member where we were from, and also what was the most interesting thing we had learnt attending Soliya meeting up until that moment. Firstly I said that I've learnt a lot from other people's opinions/perspectives finding astonishing similarities with those of the guys from NY, and we share musical tastes as well with those coming from the Middle East and Europe. Then Elena said she appreciates learning about other religions particularly about the role of women in Islam. Mazen loves to learn about new perspectives and surprisingly he found how people do things for their own purposes not as part of a group or country. Danil learned to be more respectful towards different cultures. At the end closing this opinions lap about what interesting things we had learnt Mahira said she had learnt acceptance and tolerance.
(Part 2)
RispondiEliminaAfter this exchange of views Sigma moved the group focus toward a new activity. Firstly he defined the meaning of “trigger word/behavior” which is something that causes our reaction in an emotional/irrational way. Then he posted one by one a series of words and waited for everybody to write the first word that came to mind after reading each one of them. Almost the same activity as the one Rangineh had submitted us the week before. The words were: Arab, Israel, United States, United Nations and West. Every member had almost the same reaction writing words of similar meaning. Sigma found unbelievable that six people from all over the world could react so similarly to a word yet Mazen commented that since we know each other better now, we think more about what we should or not say in order to not hurt others' ideas synthesized the members thought about the happened.
Afterwards this funny episode Sigma introduced us to the day topic: “Effects of American Foreign Policy on Diplomacy”. Aiming to start the debate Danil asked the group what we thought about phone surveillance by the US on Angela Merkel. Elena said that maybe the US are trying to reach more control of Europe watching over the economically strongest country in Europe checking on its Premier’s phone. But I objected that phone surveillance and other spying tricks are often used within international diplomacy and surely Germany authorities knew their govern staff phones were spied. Mazen agreed with me on the fact that they already knew what was happening and Elena finally said that even though this is part of the diplomatic game and it is a normal strategy it doesn't mean it is a good thing.
All of a sudden a black-out occurred in the place where Sigma was at, and since he wasn’t logging back in the meeting we had to choose another facilitator within us in order to continue the debate and almost everyone appointed the brave candidate to be Rangi's friend Elena! With a such large appreciation Elena couldn't refuse the new role and she didn't. As she admitted on the Facebook page after the talking ended she had a very good time playing the facilitator role. “Rangi will be proud of you!” I told her jokingly. She seemed to write easily the guys opinion about the spying role in diplomacy and I have to confess she’s done it well.
After a while Sigma joined the meeting again and fearing a new black-out could cut his line again he rapidly launched the poll to choose what would be the broad topic up for debating next Thursday, which will be the final meeting. With 3 vows in favor the broad topic will be “globalism”.
The very end activity Sigma purposed us was a discussion to have with our team. As you know my team is composed by Elena and Mahira, so we entered the break room two aiming to discuss the video project we have to do. I had already completed the video so I gave suggestions to my team in order to improve theirs. Then we greeted each other cause the time was up.
I've really enjoyed this funny meeting where a lot of things happened. I'm looking forward to next Thursday for the final meeting of this exciting experience.
Nicola Berto
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminait has been a very hard week, I was a bit busy and I have to say that I felt the weariness to some degree in my last session. And thinking about it… wow. It was the seventh meeting and we have only one left. We are almost done with this project. Okay, I should stop complaining.
With lots of stuff on my mind, I am afraid memories of the last session are already fading.
Some of us were late. I think most of the times I found myself chatting randomly with Casper while waiting for the others and this time was not any different. While Timmy was having technical problems, I had the chance to talk a bit with Zantasha, who is one of my favorite people to talk to, I have to say. Last time referring to our final projects, Casper told us to send each other e-mails, if we needed to ask further questions. Well, apparently I was the only one to ask for some clarifications. And in the end I have not had any answer, how kind of them (sarcasm here). So I was allowed to speak some time with Zantasha and ask her about Pakistan, if scholarships are available, if the government encourage his students to travel, if they engage in different projects during their academic career. Truth to be told, I really needed some more inputs, especially from other people, since Zantasha was the one with whom I had already had the one-on-one conversation. But let’s not think about it.
And I found that our educational systems are quite similar in some aspects, for example the fact that we focus so much on theory and not on practice.
Last time, when asked at the end of the session, I suggested talking about minorities, trying to focus not only on religious ones. Well, since we all love democracy, Casper posted a survey, asking us which topic we would have preferred to discuss in our session. Among the given options, there was the minorities’ topic, but also the role of media, Israel/Palestine, 9/11… but in the end we chose to discuss minorities and immigration and it was a very living matter. Well, I had a lot to say about Italy being first a country of people who migrated in the US, or Canada, or Australia, and then I told them of the problems we face each day with immigrants from Africa, also mentioning the political debate on the FRONTEX mission, the money spent to help these people.
On the other hand the executive order of President Obama on illegal migrants in the US is very recent, so Timmy could give us his opinion on what is happening there. It is not only about paying taxes to have citizenship, he said. Illegal immigrants most of the time do not pay taxes (and I contradicted that we will never manage to tackle illegal immigration but probably doing something is better than not doing anything at all, and he quite agreed with me, saying that the system should be reformed). The whole story also involves Obama ‘slapping the congress on their face’, I think Timmy said, so it was also about political balances and power division.
A completely different perspective was given by Zantasha: in Pakistan it seems they do not see migration as a problem. As a matter of fact, it seems there are not so many immigrants there, nor are there many tourists. However the control over the borders is not really strict, compared to the EU or the US. Which surprised me a bit, because Pakistan borders with Afghanistan and that border is open and I thought, on the other hand, that it would be strictly controlled.
[Part 2]
RispondiEliminaI was glad to tell them of a short video I had seen a few days before, on people here (I think near Rome) starting a fight with immigrants. It gave the perfect sense of common beliefs on immigrants who steal us money and jobs. I am afraid these are the times I get even too critical on Italy and Italians. And I cannot stop myself from being too sarcastic. I introduced another factor in the conversation, which was the economic crisis. It was pretty interesting how Timmy agreed with me that minorities and immigrants are discriminated or viewed with criticism for the economic factor, more often than for religious differences, while in Pakistan Zantasha told us Christians are usually discriminated. It was harder for me or Timmy to find a specific religious group which is particularly discriminated, so we agreed that for us it is more of a socio-economic issue, rather than religious.
Besides discussing the issue of migrants and minorities in our countries, we shared our own perspectives about them. I was pretty sure that everyone of us would have been pretty open minded concerning such topics. I was really happy that I could share some things I had studied for an exam: I mentioned the slaughtering of animals for religious reasons, which is practiced in both Islam and Judaism but people criticize only Muslims for that.
It was easy then to discuss media: how they are perceived, how we use them. Again, I was pretty critical about them, together with Timmy. While Zantasha told us they are seen as positive, since they are a relatively new phenomenon in Pakistan, so they really help to be informed. Plus, while we take the internet for granted and we are allowed to complain about TV and radio, it is not like that there: some people still do not have any internet connection and are not able to keep themselves updated. And she told us of youtube being banned, that is quite weird and undemocratic for us. It has been banned because of a video that degraded Islam. Social media, conversely, are not banned, and people who have access to the internet use them usually to discuss politics.
At the end of the session, I was pretty exhausted. To be honest, also very happy. There where technical problems, people coming and going, not being able to hear each other. And I was tired due to other things. But I really love how I have grown close with some of us and how we try to know more about each other.
So now there is still the last meeting left and I am willing to enjoy it at most.
Federica
[Short update: I almost forgot to post this, I wrote it on thursday... wow, university is driving me crazy...]
part 1
RispondiEliminaDear diary, the program is almost complete and now I begin to see its impact, its power and the nostalgia it’ll surely let in my memories. I’m usually slow in exciting for something, according to my age, but Soliya – as predicted by the teacher – is a surprising experience and it’s difficult, or impossible, to be indifferent in front of a true international debate between common people, simple students who demonstrate to believe in great values.
Last Thursday we continued the conversation around personal stories; it’s always interesting to know how people talk about themselves, despite in our little group sometimes a ligtly awkward silence occurs between us.
The following discussion was, as usual, wide and deep at the same time. Facilitators now introduce hard issues directly; I think they know that we can productively deal with challenging themes. We talked about power dynamics, the influence of using English as common language, the way in which programs like Soliya modify our point of view and our feelings about power, and, at the end, globalization.
The discussion was free and involving; Florian, who is a great element of the group, focused on the aggressivity of French politics (particularly within the period of Sarkozy) against immigrants since they constituted a ministry for immigration.
I argued my ideas about globalisation, that is it could be a very positive thing, if it would be a connection between people to build a larger community; unfortunately now the connection is between financial capitals much more than between common people, so globalisation is destroying local cultures, local economies, local products. It's not a globalisation of ideas and values, it's a globalisation of finance only.
I’m not going to describe precisely what we said during session, I never did it and I think that almost all groups finally arrive at the same depth and all discussions are equally interesting.
I’d like to remember the atmosphere that I feel every time I enter in the Soliya chatroom: I can hear the youth’s breath around awesome ideals, and the sadness for the hopeless future of many young people, the anger for the impossibility to change the future and delete injustice.
part 2
RispondiEliminaAfter the session I finished to assembly my video project – just some details of the captions - and I released it; I chose a fast rhythm, underlined by an appropriate soundtrack, with short scenes showing contrast about lifestyle in different countries.
At a certain point there’s a footage of Hillary Clinton speaking at a meeting and I used it ironically, because she seems to say to be disgusted by my video.
I was very proud of my work, although after rendering and publishing the captions were modified and almost unreadable because of the short time they appear. I worked a long time to refine this project and before publishing the preview was perfect, but probably the theme (it is the style that WeVideo allows to apply to the project) wasn’t correctly displayed.
Anyway this wasn’t the only trouble; last night Matt, our facilitator, send us an e-mail to remember the deadline of 30 November to deliver the project and attached a document about issues to talk about (and other features, like suggested path to develop discussion with partners in private room, the scenario we should imagine, etc.).
I fell from the clouds and realized that I was off topic, although not completely. I never read those instructions, but my video was already published and by now I can’t modify it, so I wrote a reflection and submitted it to the organisation.
This is the problem of my lack of time to study; I can’t follow activities or I must do it late in the night, when I’m so tired that I misunderstand what I read.
I hope that Soliya (and my teacher) will have mercy of this old student and his mistakes.
Actually this isn’t very important to me: I believe in the message I send through my video and I had fun in showing an idea through images.
Soliya time is going to finish and I’ll never forget these evenings with my international mates, so friendly and so unknown at the same time; lately I capture some screen shots during sessions and I save them in the document where I copy the text of the chat.
One day I’ll watch those pictures, to remember what the youth’s breath is.
I arrived at the seventh meeting with my Soliya friends. This time we talked about the role of the mass media in society.
RispondiEliminaChiraz explained us that in her country there are two television channels where each of the candidates are presented as if they were angels. This is very similar to what happens in Italy, where the various televisions presenti candidates in different ways depending on their political views.
I was very impressed by the testimony of Wafa and Chiraz and by what they said that in Morocco you cannot say anything against the king because the government controls everything what comes out.
I think to compare the country where you live with others countries, such as that of Chiraz Zakaria where they can not express their opinions, makes you feel lucky to live in a free and democratic country.
In Italy I do not perceive this closure, we are free to say what we think in the negative, exactly as it happens in America, the land of Kadie.
We talked about Israel, Chiraz is sure it has a total control even in the information coming out.
Casper asked us to say how the media influence our perception of the other. We gave a unanimous judgment, the media make us see and say what they want to be believed.
A journalist can say only a part of the truth or even completely changes, in this way media influence the perception of the East or the West, especially when a person is uneducated or cannot have a personal vision of what happens. Everything is worsens in countries such as Morocco where communication is controlled. One way to protect yourself from the danger of being affected is to think by yourself, discuss, investigate the information.
We also spoke of the role that social networks like Facebook or Twitter, have in the world of communication.
We agreed saying that they give the opportunity to have direct information, without the mediation of any political belonging , which is why there is more truth in the news given by these means.
When Casper asked us if in our country there is freedom, Kadie, Jeanne and I said that in our country this is true, while Zakaria has candidly said that in Morocco there is freedom of speech but if they say something bad about the king they go directly to prison. The question now is: what kind of freedom was Zakaria talking about? How can you say that you have freedom of speech if then you have to be careful not to express negative opinions because of the risk of going to jail?
Zakaria and Wafa had divergent ideas about this because Wafa defends her countries, while Zakaria was perhaps more objective and realistic.
See how they live in other countries, what the role of the media is and how people are induced to judge their importance and challenge. The result is that when the chat ends and you return completely in your country, everything seems different and better and you feel you value the importance of words like democracy, freedom, free of choice, tolerance.
Francesca
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaI just finished my second last session, there were several guys, e Farah, Ahmed e Lilah have gone before.
In the first half hour was just me, Ahmed and Amanda and we talked about our studies.
After which Amanda showed us a text written with the various steps by which evolves a discussion group. There were three phases substantially, I said that we were in the second step because in the last there was described a group of friends laughing and joking. In our group, almost all expressing their own ideas, but there is no true confrontation. Ahmed claimed that is why we all agree, I think quite a falsehood. I told him that I myself are almost never agree with anyone; then it's my fault because I express myself badly or because the others, like me hear so precarious because of the connection, is another thing.
Lilah said that we saw important emotions, I do not know where. The moderator agreed with her and they asked us for advice on various ways of asking questions.. To me they seemed quite trivial speeches (Yes/No questions; Cross-examination; Points of clarification; Open-ended questions) and I preferred to keep quiet.
When I was asked explicitly for an answer, I said that when I ask a question, if I are capable answer, otherwise not. I not feel particular emotions and I do not feel particularly embarrassed if I don’t know what to say. Amanda asked me if I wanted to talk about it, I said: «no!» They laughed all.
The discussion continued with the vision of two documents that spoke of human rights. They were two organizations and had to make observations. Ahmed noted that the first seemed like political statement. I gave him reason but then I was asked an example, then I mentioned that the UN should enforce human rights but the Security Council blocks it because of the economic interests of the US, China and Russia.
Then the discussion continued but only between me and the moderators, meanwhile Farah Lilah and Ahmed have gone on.
In the last part was just me, Carter and Myriam. We talked a little of climate change, but usual Carter had nothing to say apart from that we have to do all our part. Meryem said that in his country people don't care, but they care about the change of weather. I said that Italy considers most troubling other themes in this period, especially the work. I then said that we all know what must be done to reduce pollution, but it is not cost-effective solutions no one does. I added that at least Italy is the only country in the Western that has no nuclear power plants.
The moderator then asked have our opinions about the session, which were all positive, and they greeted us. Given that the next is the last session, I hope that we will be all, so at least I salute all!
Segat Alex
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaLast Wednesday we had our penultimate session. As usual, there were just Laura, the two facilitators and me. We spent all the time talking around one single topic, so we could entitle this session: “Dialogues on Racism”.
We debated the theme starting from two cases: the case of Ferguson (Missouri) and the racism in European arenas. We were free to express our thoughts for the whole two hours, also considering any solutions to fight racism, asking ourselves where we should begin from, without forgetting which role the media have been playing and if they could have one in the future contributing to destroy it.
First of all, we started with the main issue that was happening in USA during those days, that is the rage of the whole country after the Grand Jury’s sentence that substantially judged the white policeman, who killed with a gun a black young guy two months ago, innocent. Many black people made violent demonstrations in the streets for at least two days, fighting for their rights against racial discriminations in the US. Monica in particular asked us about our reactions and if we considered that fact as a racist one (unfortunately Clay wasn’t there because of Thanksgiving’s celebrations, I guess we could have had a row on this topic with him again). We just could acknowledge that in the US it’s easier that policemen (and citizens as well) use weapons than in Europe, so it’s something that still surprises European people like us. Of course, we have our problems with violence, but it’s quite different. We agreed on the fact that the Obama Presidency, which represented an historical event because for the first time the American people elected an Afro-American person as their President, has not been able to radically change the people’s mind on racism, if facts like the Ferguson case still happen.
Than Taghreed insisted on making us watch a video about racism in the European football arenas. At the beginning I was a bit surprised because the video showed scenes that I had already seen. So I started to ask them to express their positions after this view. Even if I had always professed myself anti-racist in every kind of manifestation of it, I never debated on this topic from this perspective. I didn’t expect that I could see on their faces such a disagreement, also on my friend Laura’s face. They supported and justified the football players who decided (in the video) to stop playing when they were object of racial discriminations. I disagreed with them: in my opinion when a black person demonstrates to be nervous and decides to stop playing, he plays into the hands of the ignorant supporters. I could be sympathetic with the black players object of racial discriminations, but I definitely prefer the behavior of the one (Daniel Alves, a Barcellona FC’s football player, of whom I showed them the video) that this summer decided to eat a banana that someone threw at him. I said that this is the best message against racism amongst a thousand of others, because it made the person who threw it at him ridiculous.
Actually, in that moment I got a bigger consciousness than usual about the ignorance in our football arenas (probably it is just more evident in an international confrontation). I explained that I worked in the Milan stadium and I’m a supporter as well, so I know that people can become crazy for football and I’m used to hear violent words in those contexts. I stated that in my opinion racism in the arenas is not something related to the far right parties or racist organized groups (not always at least), but it’s something related to ignorance in general: the supporters scream against players of the other team not just for the colour of their skin or racial reasons, but also for many other (stupid) reasons that, mixed together, become a perfect “manifest of ignorance”!
RispondiEliminaBut actually, since I’m an open-minded person, I was not so sure on my positions anymore. Or better, in that moment I was sure that my opinion was a bit corrupt by my experiences as a supporter in the stadiums, so I’m used to justify these behaviors even if I’ve never adjusted with them. I guess that racism in the stadiums is connected to the mass’ behavior, but it comes from a generalized and quite accepted racism in each level of our societies; for example, I explained to them the story of the person who became the President of the Italian football federation even if during his campaign he said something like “Africans who play in our season were used to eat bananas before coming here”. Everyone said it was a scandal and he justified himself saying that he didn’t want to say something racist, he was just tired after a long speech and he wasn’t able to explain his opinions better… Anyway, that didn’t stop his ambition to become the new leader of Italian football as he actually is now.
So from this discussion I matured a new position: probably if we want to fight racism, we should start from our way of speaking: I said that we are used to say words or say expressions which are connect to racism, even if we don’t want to and we profess ourselves against racism. If we really want to contrast racism, we probably should start from our way of speaking. I also suggested to start working against racism with the education of children, both in the schools and in the football clubs. But I disagreed with whomever proposed, during the session, sanctions for racist supporters: I don’t believe it’s the right way. Monica said that it was a good point and asked us which role could have media in this transition.
Laura said that media have some responsibilities in the proliferation of racism (like for example the news on a murder which really highlight on the nationality of the murderer). I agree with her but I also considered that the media could be a powerful weapon against racism. That’s why I support all the activities against racism powered by FIFA through the media, for example, because they can have a huge audience.
This session permitted me to have more elements on racism which I’m going to write my final paper on, so I will have more time to develop my thoughts in a deeper text.
Gabriele Chiarello
WEEK 7
RispondiEliminaLast Wednesday we had our second to last session.
The main topic we discussed was racism. We talked a lot about racism in the US as well, and in particular about Ferguson case, which is a quite good example of what is going on every day in a lot of US realities. Despite the fact that immigration is a much older situation integration seems to be very far to be reached, and even if episodes like that are not ordinary it is scary to think how mentality has changed so little so far.
Then we discussed racism in arenas, which is a topic that is very close to us in Italy. In particular our facilitators made us watch a couple of videos about players who have been offended by soccer fans in a racist way. I had a very strong opinion about that, and I said that I would rather stop the game or forbid the access to public, and also that I would make provisions for fans who don’t respect the rules (meaning who don’t act reasonably). As a matter of fact some insults were so outraging that some players threatened to leave the match. I can totally relate to their feelings, and I don’t think I would have kept on playing if I were in their place.
The facilitators asked us about our reality in Italy, and we explained to them how immigration has got very diffused, and yet integration hasn’t come, nor at people level nor at a political level, so racism still exists and it is widespread.
It’s been a very interesting discussion even though we were just four. So now we are preparing for our last session, in which we will eventually discuss the dynamics between Palestine and Israel. I hope it will be a good way to conclude this good experience.
Laura D'Onghia