More newspaper articles

Alemanno won political elections for Rome mayor. Here is how the news has been commented by international newspaper:

• CNN+
• The Guardian

I'm really worried; I fear for our future. Italy...WHERE ARE YOU GOING?! If you want, leave your comments.

Martina

Italy from the world's point of view

[Photo from Google Images]

April, 13-14th , 2008. Political elections...Mr Berlusconi won for the third time. He has the power again. I'm not happy about that because I really don't like him. But this post is not about my political preferences.

I just want to yell out my bitterness. I'm really mistrustful and disappointed with Italian politics and above all with Italian people. There's so much arrogance, which goes arm in arm with a great ignorance. During this election campaign, I spoke with many people -both adults and young people- about politics. What struck me at most was not the personal political choice for one party or another, but rather the great lack of arguments to support that choice. Many use long-winded words, their reason are commonplaces and you understand that they just absorbed passively what the television told them. For example, do you remember what I said in my post about immigration? Well, I asked that question to a boy who voted for Lega Nord. I asked him:"Well, why did you vote for Lega?". Answer:"Because there're too many immigrants. They have to come back to their countries. In Italy there should be only Italian people". I couldn't resist asking him who is an immigrant and he obviously said that an immigrant is a Moldavian or a Rumanian man. "Well, and what about Spanish or American people living here?". He looked at me astonished and answered: "What? They're not immigrants at all!". Is it necessary to comment on this? I don't think so. I really fear for our future if Italian people think in this way.

I definitely believe that a person needs to be aware of the world he/she lives in. One should consider many points of view about a topic and then he can make his/her choice. This means being responsible citizens. This is the reason why I pray you all, my peers, to do that. We're the future of this country: we have to change this old-fashion, corrupted and lost country.

After the elections, I didn't read Italian newspapers deliberately. I read on-line international journals. Their point of view is uninvolved and objective: they're more reliable. So, do you want to know what the world think about us? Then read these interesting articles and start thinking consciously about our future:
The Financial Times
The Economist
El Mundo
The Times (the first Berlusconi's gaffe)
The Times (Berlusconi's profile)
The Times (Berlusconi's anatomy)

I'd like you let me know what you think about that! I'm looking forward to read your comments...

Martina

Final project and Skype exchange

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The semester is about to finish...time flies! Now it's time to think about our final project. We're organized in new groups and I'm not going to skype with Marigny anymore. My new American peer is Kelsey, who studies English Literature at Dickinson. I spoke with her yesterday, during the Skype exchange... She's a very nice girl! Anyway, yesterday I chatted with Marigny as well...We want to keep in touch, I'm very happy about that! :-)

Well, in my new group there're 5 people: Alberto, our secretary ;-) , Serena, Alice, Kelsey and me. Yesterday, at the beginning of our Skype exchange, there was a bit of confusion... It's really hard speaking in 5! Anyway, we managed doing it and, at the end, Kelsey said that it's fine if we skype all together. I think it's the best thing to do, even because we have to work all together on the wiki page.

Our final project consists in writing a wiki page about a cultural topic, comparing American and Italian culture. Yesterday we spent almost one hour and a half deciding our topic! I had no idea it could be so difficult. To tell the truth, we decided the fist topic quickly at first. We thought that the American dream could be an interesting topic. But in fact it was not! We should compare a cultural aspect that both Italy and America have, but the American dream seems to be only American. So...We eliminated this idea. We discuss a lot about other possible topics but no one seemed to be good: music, health system, education, immigration...In the end, we decided to speak about university life, comparing the differences between America and Italy. I know it's quite banal, but I think it will be amusing. As Sarah suggested us, we'd like to focus on particular aspects of university life here in Italy. For example, the particular way in which we celebrate our degree (papiro, terrible jokes, the tunnel, the "dottore-dottore" song). I really like this idea, don't you?

See you!

Martina

Immigration in Italy

[Photo from Google Images]

Next week we're going to speak about immigration with our American peers. It's a quite ticklish question in our country. Countries like America and England have been experienced immigration for many and many years...On the contrary, here in Italy it's a relatively new phenomenon. According many Italians, it seems to be a sort of calamity!

Studying foreign languages, I learned to be open-minded and not to reject people who are different. I definitely think that the difference is a quality and everybody can learn a lot from someone else. The comparison and relationship with a person with a different culture is a way to understand who we are and what we really believe in. All relationships enriches you and all cultures are as important as the Italian one.

I think that in Italy there's a lot of confusion about the issue. Too many Italians judge on the basis of stereotypes and don't look beyond their nose. If you ask people who an immigrant is, they immediately say that an immigrant is a Moldavian or a Rumanian or a black man. And what about Spanish or American or English or French people in Italy? Are not they immigrants? I'm quite sure that many Italians would answer that a Spanish man in Italy isn't an immigrant. That's why I say that there's too much confusion and that too many people speak without being well informed about the issue.

Anyway, something is changing in Italy. When so many foreign people arrive, the social balance changes. And as always, changes create panic in people. But I think that it's only a transitional phase and that with some clever immigration laws Italy could find its feet in this multiethnic society. At least, I hope so.

Martina

Against death penalty

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Hi!

This week I couldn't attend the lesson, so I didn't Skype. I had a look at the American forum, I read the comments to the topics and I answered to that about death penalty.

Well, I'd like to spent two words about the subject. First of all, I was surprised when I read the American guys' question...They wanted to know if in Italy death penalty exists and what we think about it. There were 22 comments to this question but I decided to answer anyway, because I'm very sensitive to this issue and because I wanted to add something more.

My peers and I are all against death penalty. In my opinion, death penalty is a sentence which belongs to the Middle Ages and it's simply unacceptable in our modern world. We're supposed to live in a civilized society but sometimes I have the terrible impression that the human being is even worse than the animals.

The person who is guilty of atrocious crimes MUST BE PUNISHED but death penalty isn't the right solution. Let's take an example: a murderer is usually punished with the death. I mean, a man kills a man because he had not to kill another man. Does it not sound like a paradox?! It's absurd, isn't it? What's more, in this way the criminal doesn't pay for his crimes. He just dies and he gets it done!

I really believe that death penalty should be replaced by LIFE SENTENCE. Freedom is one of man's fundamental rights. If a man is guilty of terrible crimes which prejudice one's freedom, he MUST BE deprived of his freedom and therefore he MUST BE condemned to life imprisonment. That's the right sentence!

Martina

Final paper...Sorry! :-(

Hi, everybody!

First of all, I'm really sorry...I was supposed to publish this post on monday but, as you can see, I'm late! :-( As I wrote in my previous post, in this period I have simply too many things to do for my courses and 24 hours are not enough to complete all my tasks! Last week I had to prepare a paper on Mexico for the Spanish course and yesterday I had its exposition in class...That's why I couldn't write here in time.

Anyway, let's speak about my final paper. In these days, I thought about a cultural aspect I would explore further...Well, I know it could sound quite banal, but I would be interested in the differences in education. I'd like to explore how the different systems can infuence the personality and the future of the Italian and American guys. Education plays a very important role in our growth and I thing it influences our personality and mind. What's more, it prepares you for work...During my Skype exchange last week, I asked Marigny if it was hard to find a job in America and she said no. I admit I was quite surprised. I'd like to find out if an Italian guy has the same possibilities of an American one.

Anyway, it's just an idea at the moment! We'll see...:-)

Martina

3dr Skype Xchange: political elections :-(

[Photo from Google Images]

Hi, guys!

How are you? I must admit I'm quite tired in these days and my best expression when I wake up is something similar to the dog's one! :-( We're right in the middle of the semester and my language courses are very very VERY demanding. Both in Spanish and English course, we're supposed to do papers, projects, exercises, translations, compositions...I have to respect too many deadlines! It's terrible! I'd like to prepare an exam by the end of April but it's quite impossible because I haven't time enough to study! I feel soooo frustrated! :-(((

Well, let's speak about something different. This afternoon we had our third Skype exchange. Since I was very tired, I had to gather together to concentrate and to speak English as correctly as possible. I spoke only with Marigny at first but then a peer of mine added to our discussion, so we created a conference. At the beginning, speaking in three was an hard task. You know, speaking at the telephone is always hard, because it isn't a face-to-face conversation. Try to image how difficult could it be when you speak in a foreign language! However, after few minutes of confusion, we started a very interesting discussion about politics and politicians. I liked speaking in three very much because in this way the discussion turned out to be more lively.

As I said, we spoke about politics and politicians. I sent to Marigny the links to watch some interesting videos, like Obama girl and the ones about Berlusconi and Veltroni. We discussed about them, about our impressions...Personally, I'm still shocked about the official video of PDL's campaign...At the end of it, there're some young guys singing all together. In the background, there's the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, which is in Rome. It was built during Mussolini's regime and it represents the fascism for the world! :-O I mean, Rome is full of beautiful monuments...I'm sure that's a planned choice. I begin to fear for our future!

Anyway, I don't want to express my opinions about Italian politics here...Let's go back to the exchange. Well, we not only spoke about politics but also about our future. Marigny wanted to know which kind of job would we like to do in our future. So we explained her what a mediatore linguistico is supposed to be and we spoke about the difficulties we'll have to find a job...It was a very interesting discussion!

I'm getting more and more involved in this Skype exchange...Marigny and I are in contact also by email and by Facebook! ;-)

See you next week,

Martina