Reflective blogging (week 6)...

I have to say that we really managed to get the most of our last Skype Exchange.

This time we had to focus on the issues of both the American and the Italian platforms. The first thing we noticed about the two American platforms was the fact that they were so extreme, compared to the two Italian political programs. Brian told me that it has really become hard to choose between the two main parties and that no intermediate positions are available. If you take the issue of the war in Iraq, for instance, it is easy to see where the two main candidates stand so that the decision WAR or NO WAR can deeply affect your choice.

Then we discuss about the issue of the environment that represents a very pressing concern in the next political elections! Brian explained to me that many countries in America are nowadays really trying to take the right steps in order to solve the problem of global warming, to reduce gas emissions and to find alternative energy resources. Here in Italy, environmental concerns are pressing too, but maybe we are not taking the right steps. I explained to him that some big cities such as Milano, Padua, Turin and Rome periodically organize “giornate a piedi” but that they are so rare and unsystematic that they won’t bring us very far.

Moreover, Lisa mentioned the Kyoto Protocol and asked why the United States didn’t want to take part to it. Brian was not able to explain that...maybe it was because of the restrictions that such a Treaty could impose to the huge number of natural resources they have.
Later we discuss Italy’s main concerns, the economic recession and the problem of temporary jobs in particular. Brian told me that in the last few years, America had gone through a sort of recession too and that they had lots of jobs lost. So, all the three candidates are offering in their campaigns to take the right steps to get their economy back in line (to cut off taxes, for instance). Nevertheless, lots of Americans are convinced that these are just promises and that they won’t be fully maintained.

Reflective blogging...

Even though we didn’t have a lot of time at our disposal (because of some technical problems), last Wednesday’s chatting with my American peer was really interesting and fruitful. First of all, he asked me about my spring break but I had to admit that I stayed at home all the time in order to prepare for an exam (anthropology)! Anyway, he hadn’t done anything special either, so at least I was not the only one!

As both our countries are now facing the general political elections, we inevitably ended up talking about politics. He told me that in America the candidates of both wings put nowadays a lot of emphasis on environmental concerns (gas emission/the preserve of forests in California and so on)…apparently this is a good way to get votes nowadays. ;-)

Then, he told me that last Monday they watched “Il Caimano” by Nanni Moretti at Dickinson and that some of them had been pretty shocked by it. Some of them heard (for the first time) that our former president (I cannot tell the name, we are in “par condicio ;-)) had faced a trial but that he was then discharged of all accusations. To him, the fact that he was finally discharged and that he was allowed to continue in his political career sounded really weird …Well, it IS actually weird but unfortunately here in Italy it is the norm: the morality of both left and right political candidates is not always immaculate and I’m afraid we have to cope with it.

To cut a long story short, I think that our conversation helped me, once again, to have an idea of how the Italian system is perceived abroad : sometimes we are “accustomed” to its negative aspects but maybe we don’t even ask ourselves if things really have to be that way.

(photo taken from Flickr)

...reflective blogging...

Last week, I could not skype so I decided to write a reflective post about my experience with the forums so far. First of all, I have to say that I really like our forums because I consider them very useful means not only to know our peers at Dickinson College better, but also to help us coming to terms with the American culture as a whole. Moreover, I’m sure they enable our American peers to have an insight on our own world as well!


This week, I’ve felt particularly involved in the ones concerning death penalty and “pentitismo”, which originated from questions posed by some Dickinson students. Actually, the image of Italy that came out from the discussion was not a very comfortable one: criminals does not seem to be punished here and “mafiosi” are usually set free in turn of a little collaboration. Well, I admit that there are lots of defects in the way in which the Italian system of justice is organized and this is nothing to be proud of. Anyway, we should not generalize. And this is the case also with America. If some American movies and serials (actually, l watch them…but this is another story…;-))are populated with blondes only concerned with their physical beauty, this does not mean that all Americans are concerned with appearances (by the way, that was the topic of another forum).


All in all, I think that the questions in the forums also contributed to give us an idea of how our country is perceived abroad and to foster a reflection on the way our system is organized. Our culture is of course constantly under our own eyes, so we may not be able to analyze it in a neutral way. Paradoxically enough, we are sometimes aware of some of the most negative aspects of our own culture only when someone from outside “notices” them. And, at the same time, we may not be able to retrieve the positive aspects of our own culture for which other countries know us and which distinguish us from them.

(photo taken from flickr)