I'm sorry I've been a little behind with your diaries, but am catching up reading and I've really been enjoying reading your diaries, your reflections on the activities, your interactions and your peers.
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
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
Dear Diary,
RispondiEliminaPart I
Last Monday afternoon, I had my seventh Soliya's meeting and I'm sad because we have only one time left!
This time, unfortunately, we had many technical problems because first we couldn't see Bochra, then Michaela had troubles with her microphone and interferences and noises in the background made the audio bad.
Meryem, Najeh and Santasia didn't connect this time, so we were only four plus our facilitators. Anyway, Meryem sent an e-mail to our facilitators apoligizing herselves because she should be present because had an important exam at the University.
After initial greetings we started our activities and Manar explained the first game asking us to take a piece of paper because we needed to draw listening her istructions.
We were excited because it was the first time we made this kind of game together, so let's start playing!
She spoke in riddle saying that we had to draw an animal found largely in Africa with a long tubular nose, small eyes, large ears, long tail and its leg are thin in comparizon with the size of its body which is grey and brown. What was that animal?
Immediately we showed our draws to the other and most of us drew an elephant!
Our facilitators laughed enought because it was wrong and anyone guessed the right ones!
At that point, Manar added that it has thick claws that it can be used as digging tools and its nose is shaped like a tube.
This time Michaela guessed the misterious animal: it was an anteater!
Manar and Anee organized this activity to show us the way we should hear our internal voice without listening external influences. Only in this way, we could realize our own personal opinions.
After that, we started talking about topic's week and they were global inequalities and gender issues.
First, Manar and Anee asked us to explain the main what differences between man and woman are in our society and we shared our thoughts.
Paula said that a Professor of her University told her that gender roles are inacurate and she agreed with him because in her opinion's female sterotypic role is to marry and have children, instead the male sterotypic role is to be the financial provider.
Bochra said that the women role in Morocco has improved in the last years and Michaela added that there are jobs still not open to women like in the military in the USA.
Part II
RispondiEliminaNext questions were about trangender and homosexuality in general.
Bochra and Brian's opinions are against homosexuality because for they their sexuality is morally wrong and agaist human nature; besides they don't accept children adoption by gay's couples and transgender ones even if they respect their choise of life.
Brian added that for him is important the model of the traditional family, because every child needs to identificate his/her behaviuor with a men and a woman covering parent's role and not with two people having the same sex.
Subsequently, we moved to global inequalities's topic and we had a deep and respectful debate.
For all of us, global inequality means “injustice and discrimination” because there's the global idea of “privilaged” and “oppressive” people in our contemporary society.
We agreed that the differences between “rich” and “poor” countries is related to history and globalization and disadvantages's conditions are due to economical issues.
Other types of inequalities refer to education system and illiteracy then to the over exploitation of the environment specially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Poverty condition is the main cause of inequality but not the only one; social exclusion and marginalization have a central role.
We made an easy example to understand better this theory considering that all of us have the access to the essential and primary goods, instead more than 1 billion of people don't have sufficent access to clean water and many of them are unable even to write their name.
We sumarized poverty's condition of human communities saying that for economic reasons medical services are absent, people don't have money to buy or produce food to sustain their family and live without protection of the fundamental human rights.
Time passed fast and before final greetings, our facilitators reminded us the deadline for our Soliya's final project.
I was very proud to joined last Monday because we joked first, but also we had a deep and respectful conversation together.
I'm ready to learn something new with my Soliya's group next Monday!
Federica
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaLast Monday I had my second to last session of Soliya program. We were nearly all the group and I was very happy for that. I like so much when we are all the group because the discussion is very interesting. In the first part of the session I summarized last session because we were only three girls and Sushmita, the facilitator. In the sixth session we spoke about gender policies, role of women in society and differences between two genders; it was very sad not have boys connected because it would be interesting to understand their point of view.
Anyway, Sushmita asked us to choose the topic of the week; at the beginning there was a bit of indecision because in last times we have spoken about a lot of issues but after two or three minutes Mohamed asked us what we thought about consumerism and its benefits. The question was: why I-phone market has more impact compared to blood sugar medicines market? Do people think that I-phone is more important? In my opinion people give importance only to what they need for themselves; if most of people need a new telephone and they don’t need medicines, trade gives them a lot of telephones. We are deeply influenced by mass media and subliminal advertising because they persuade us that we absolutely need the products marketed.
Ammar said that commercials are taking control of life than earlier; according to my opinion people are changing their aim of life. Money have become much more important than health and simple life. We agreed that it is going all over the world. We don’t know what is the cause but money has taken control over mind and life. People respect you when you have money unfortunately.
Nicholas asked if there is a way to change this situation but the answer is not so easy. The problem is inside the mind of people; we would change all the system.
In the second part of session the matter of dialogue has moved to the issue that people have become less spiritual.
Sushmita asked us if spirituality and religion are the same and this question opened another debate. There is an important difference between Islam and my religion, in fact Ammar said us that spiritual and religious mean the same in Islam; Muslims have the word "deen " which means “the way of life” or “the way of someone”. Otherwise, I think that in my culture we could define spiritual and religious words in two different ways; in my opinion religion is connected to the community life, is more practical and sharable. Spirituality is more personal and theoretical. Anyway, Sushmita’s question made me think a lot and we weren’t able to reach a common idea.
We decided to continue the debate in the next and last session. For me is so sad to think that Soliya program is going to finish but at the same time I’m very happy to have met a lot of new friends from all over the world.
See you in next time!
Veronica
Last Wednesday I had my seventh session of Soliya! Already the seventh, I seem yesterday that Soliya started! Unfortunately the last time we were only three students: Dom, Amani, and I; with our tireless Gena and Salma (the facilitators). After usual regards and the news of Final Project we spoke about gender: fortunately we are all woman! :-)
RispondiEliminaIt was very interesting know the differences about our countries, because we come from three continents: Asia, America and Europe. The cultures, the religions and the way of thinking are different too. So we discussed for two hours about it, we started with the question: what comes to your mind when you think about gender issues? We started with one general though to arrive at center of issue.
We are agree to said that the women are different: they are more emotional than men are more empathetic than the others. In my opinion these qualities aren’t negative for a job, they can hold a prestigious job, like managing director. Instead few people think that the woman cannot hold a job for the reason that are much more emotional than man and also they don’t work well because have the family, and are too busy.
All of us are agree to said the opposite and we said that the woman are really much more complete than men for her biological differences, but also for cultures differences because the history teach us that the woman had to battle for her rights. For this reason are more determined than man, and they have successful to control their emotion. I told us that I have a friend to which she didn’t renew her employment contract only because she was pregnant, and her boss said that for he is too expensive paid her the maternity. About it Amani said that in Jordan, woman can work immediately after the birth, if they want only after 2 month, so there isn’t reason to fire someone. Also Dom feel disconcerted to heard her story, and she said that is terrible, and asked me what I do for her and how she resolved her situation.
We talked also about the woman and the politics, and Amani said that Jordanian Parliament there are 25 woman of 100, so one quarter. I didn’t know it, and it is very interesting because is almost the same number that in Italy (without Italian pink quote). Finally we regards each others, we are all very happy about this interesting session! Looking forward the last session of Soliya! :-(
See you next Wednesday! Bye!
Lucia
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaI finished my seventh session at Soliya and I think it was great!
First, the facilitators asked us to find something in the room that represents ourselves and to show it to everybody; I found it was a good idea to break the ice and to make us to feel at ease.
Then, the facilitators asked us to think of our favorite song or the song that means the most of ourselves and to send everybody a mail with a link of the youtube track, so we could listen to the songs that each one of us chose. In my opinion it was very emotional, and I could learn something more about my fellow students and their cultures, such as the fact that the Moroccans guys often listen to Western music.
Then we began to discuss gender stereotypes as we decided last week. We agreed that traditional gender and stereotypes continue to have a strong influence on the division of roles between women and men, but, fortunately, they are decreasing and people are starting to realize they are untrue. I could note that we have the same stereotypes, even though we're from different countries, and I found it was very interesting!
The main gender stereotypes are:
Women stay at home while men go to work
Women are supposed to cook and do housework
Women are responsible for raising children; about this, I told my fellow students that in Italy there is a limited paternity leave compared to North Europe countries.
We agreed that children learn to categorize themselves by gender usually by tender age, so we could realize that gender stereotype is an educational issue.
We also spoke about stereotypes in Disney films; Disney films are famous all over the World and they are full of stereotypes, so they can influence young girls who learn to dream about marring Prince Charming and so on. However we agreed that the last Disney films featured strong female characters, such as Mulan.
Finally, we talked about gay marriage and we had different opinions: some of us believed that people should have the right to marry who ever they want; others felt that there is something that is not correct in this relationship.
I think this session was very interesting and enlightening, and I'm happy that we had less technical problems!
Omega
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminalast Wednesday I had my seventh session of Soliya. This time we were seven of us.
We started the discussion with life stories. We shared with the group three events that affected us and made us the persons we are today. Then we asked each other questions about what we shared in order to know more about us.
Going to University was the experience that changed the life of everybody of us because we were injected in a new educational system in an adult environment and, in the majority of the cases, far from our childhood houses. University gives a sense of responsibility and special motivation.
Other experiences which were reported included: a new job, speaking in public, etc...... even facial piercings and hair designs. The most interesting case was the experience of Yasser. He told us that when his sister was born he felt he had to change his lifestyle in order to give a good example as a brother. I thought it was great! On the other side, I couldn't understand how a facial piercing is an experience which can change your life! Mikya asked Janae what made her to decide for a facial piercing. Janae told us that the reason was just to try something new! Then Mikya, which holds a part time job, explained to us how her friends helped her in progressing at school. My experiences are different because I'm the eldest of the team. I told them about my father death, my past sickness and my partner. Jenae asked me about my partner job and where I met him.
Next we moved on to the one on one discussion. Me and Alex met in room number one and we spoke about my topic: freedom of speech. I asked him some questions about his ideas. He answered and then wanted to know something about Italy. After 20 minutes we moved back to the main room.
The discussion about our life experiences and the mini discussion for the final project filled all the session time so we postponed to the next session the scheduled discussion about human rights.
Next session will be the last one of the program.
See you soon.
Marina
Revised version
RispondiEliminaLast Wednesday I had my seventh session of Soliya! Already the seventh, it seems yesterday that Soliya started! Unfortunately the last time we were only three students: Dom, Amani, and I; with our tireless Gena and Salma (the facilitators).
After usual greetings and the updates of Final Project we spoke about gender: fortunately we were all woman! :-)
It was very interesting to know the differences about our Countries, because we come from three different continents: Asia, America and Europe. The cultures, the religions and the way of thinking are different too. So we discussed for two hours about it, we started with the question: what comes to your mind when you think about gender issues? We started with one general thought to arrive at the center of the issue.
We agreed to say that women are different: they are more emotional and more empathetic than men. In my opinion, these qualities aren’t negative for a job as they can take to a prestigious job, like managing director. On the contrary, few people think that women can not have a job because they are much more emotional than men and they are not capable to work well as they need to take care of the family and are too busy doing that.
All of us agreed on the opposite and we said that women are more complete than men for their biological differences, but also for cultures differences because the history teach us that women had to fight for their rights. For this reason women are more determined than men, and they are successful on controlling their emotions.
I told the group that I have a friend who had not her employment contract renewed only because she was pregnant, and her boss said that for him is too expensive to pay the maternity leave. About it Amani said that in Jordan, women have the possibility to work immediately after giving birth, if they want only after 2 months, so there are not any reason to fire someone. Also Dom felt upset to hear my friend's story, and she said that it was terrible, and asked me what I did for her and how she resolved her situation.
We talked also about women and politics, and Amani said that in the Jordanian Parliament there are 25 women on 100 total people, so one quarter is female. I didn’t know that, and it is very interesting because it is almost the same number of women that we have in the Italian Parliament which are called “the pink part”.
Eventually we said goodbye to each other’s and we were all very happy about this interesting session!
Looking forward the last session of Soliya! :-(
See you next Wednesday! Bye!
Lucia
Diary: Tuesday, 21 april 2015
RispondiEliminaThis week I have done my seventh session of Soliya programme and it was very interesting: it made me see things on a new perspective.
After greeting, Daijahej informed us that it was her 23rd birthday; in the evening she would have a party with friends.
Kevin proposed us to see a video where there were two teams of four boys playing with a ball. Our goal was to count the total number of rebounds. During the game a boy crossed the playing field with a bear costume. The video ended with a quotation: “It’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for”.
Kevin asked us if we had seen the bear but we hadn’t seen it because our focus was on the game.
A boy, Feenix, explained what he thought about this video: for him it was clear that many people often try things on a superficial level, but if they dig deeper than they wanted and can get many things lost.
In my opinion, the meaning was different because the attention was on the game: teamwork is important to achieve the goal, overcoming the difficulties: if made together, things are easier.
After this, Assel invited us to do a very interesting and funny activity to explore something about ourselves, that will hopefully be enlightening. We were very curious.
We made an horizontal line in the middle of the paper; then Assel asked us to listen and draw a downward pointing arrow on the paper if the statement, that she was reading was applicable to our life.
She read a list of thirteen ways to feel discriminate: the desire of changing our way of being in order to feel accepted, for not to be judged as different, to take precautions for not getting into dangerous situations. After this she read a list of thirteen ways to feel privileged: when we can travel out of our country, to attend a private school, the possibility not to worry about our physical safety, to be free to choose who to marry and when to do it.
I was sure we would all have a variety of both up and down arrows; two boys told us some experiences from which we understood the importance of the relationship with our family, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and how we could consider ourselves very lucky now.
Then the facilitators explained how to use the last twenty minutes; they had divided us into couples to tell our mate the topic for the final project; I was with Feenix; I explained my choice, the subject of immigration, and I asked some his opinion; then he reasoned on the chosen his for the final project, the topic of religious discrimination.
The end of the session came soon. I hope next week I will hear also the choices of the other guys.
See you next last week.
Dear diary,
RispondiEliminaThis is the penultimate meeting in Soliya. The topic to be discussed this week are "international organizations". The session began with a song. The Moroccan girl has made a song in his own language.
The song was really beautiful. In my opinion is a feeling of well-being and tranquility.
At this penultimate meeting not attended by many of my classmates. The session began with a discussion of the issue agreed the first time.
Despite the topic chosen, there was a lot of confusion, because many of us did not know specifically what to talk about. It was not clear to many of us treat such organizations.
I think because we have not decided in particular to which organization to speak!
Despite everything, Shawn was the first to speak. Shawn says that these are mainly economic actors. Making money was the main issue, often using several pretexts media such as human rights, or world hunger.
I was of the same opinion. I consider the World Bank and others associated with it, such as machines for making money. It is an “elite”, or groups of persons that have economic purposes.
The Moroccan girl says, that the World Bank have the main objective to balance the gap between rich and poor countries. This does not happen, because the rich countries get richer, the poor get poorer.
It is not the same thought Jamal (the boy of Pakistan). According to him, the World Bank, the World Health Organization have helped his country. They have given development funds.
I told Jamal that these organizations are not interested in changing the world. Their is only a pretext. The other boys were my own conviction.
The second issue was how they were, and if these states had to give back the money. In this "question" none of us is able to give an answer. The third issue was whether these organizations had to have limits, even to this question none of us was able to give an answer. The fourth theme was: these international organizations have a "moral"? Obviously the answer is "no".
The time available was almost finished, we were divided into groups to talk about the final project. Shawn for work had left the group, I was alone with Jamal. We agreed the last things and we came back in the "chat" main. We agreed the tempatica last week: instability in the world. The time it was finished, I said goodbye to my teammates, with the hope of meeting them in the last match.
shqiprim.