Stefania Pasquali
Elisa Snaidero
Cristina Robba
Stella Perchia
|
Hello all, here I will post what we do in class on Mondays and, therefore, what you will be expected to do online by Monday evening. |
|
Monday, 17 March
Discuss questionnaire answers to "politics" and "a good citizen is someone".
Discuss what you know about terrorism in
Brainstorm some questions about terrorism and politics in the States that you can ask your peers during Skype next week. Post your questions on the wiki homepage.
Monday, 31 March
Sorry guys, I got here late this time (too much to do with exams at Engineering!). Yesterday in class we compared the two Italian videos on the blog with the Obama Girl videos on YouTube. You could discuss them here on the wiki. I asked students to identify: - who is the target group of the videos? - what message are they trying to send? - what cultural symbols are used? - cultural references? Compare the three, come up with some conclusions and post your conclusions on the blog as a group. Read what your peers have written before you make a post so that you don't repeat what they've written.
Students were also supposed to write questions about contemporary politics to use for the skype exchanges. You can use a page your peers are developing (Elections08) for some information if you want.
|
TASK 2
Politics
The words that appear more often here are 'curruption' and 'complicated' by both Italians and Americans. These negative words show that all agree on the fact that politics in both countries is not as clear as one wishes it to be. 'Democracy' and 'freedom' as well as 'coinvolgimento' and 'speranza' appear only once; it may show that people don't believe anymore in politics as a mean to achieve these goals. Some described it even as 'evil' and most of the words show disappointment. Positve aspects are really few.
Community
The most frequent word by the Americans is 'family'; on the contrary none of the Italians mentioned this word. It is surprising to me as I believed that Italy was a family-oriented country. Italians mentioned more than once the words 'solidarietà' 'collaborazione' and 'aiuto' while the Americans mentioned the word 'helping other' only once. Another difference can be found in the word 'friends': Americans mentioned it many times while Italians only once. Maybe Americans firstly look for a community into their families and their circle of friends, while Italians seem to look for it within the society.
Italian lifestyle
The most common words by the Americans are definetly 'relaxed' and 'take it easy' which, I think, can have both positive and negative aspects. I noticed that Italians wrote many negative words about their own lifestyle as for example the words 'lento' 'bigotto' 'imbrogli'. Here we can find the word 'famiglia' mentioned more than once.
Mafia is...
''Wrongly seen as something "cool" in America while truly destroying lives and communities overseas'', this sentence really captured my attention. Is there somebody who thinks that Mafia is cool? Well, I think this is because of the film-industry. Have you ever watched the movie 'Scar face' , directed by Brian de Palma and starring a young Al Pacino playing the role of a 'mafioso' trying to make career? Well this film can be misunderstood and someone can think that is good being and acting like gangsters as Tony Montana.
A good job is...
Most of the words show that both Italians and Americans wish for themselves a job which makes them happy and well paid. This is, I think, the hope of anybody. The words 'onesto' and 'libero da raccomandazioni' ' particularly caught my attention. These words are mentioned only by the Italians and this shows that this problem doesn't regard the Americans or at least it is not so common there.
-Elisa Snaidero-
Italian lifestyle:
what shocked me is that almost all the Americans use words and expressions like relaxed, relaxing, take it easy, work less, slow, less stressed, no work, nap, all play…Is this the image we give!??! And aren’t the Spanish famous for their naps? I mean, la siesta? Anyway, to Americans our life style is very easy, but actually I don’t think that this is a very good image! We look like very lazy with almost nothing to do but relaxing and thinking about good food, wine and cheese, as one guy wrote.
American lifestyle:
they describe themselves in a completely opposite way. The words used are busy, a rush, hectic (which means something like chaotic), fast paced, hurry up; Americans have a fast life they can only have a fast food, they only think about work, they define themselves as work obsessed and stressful and that’s way they can’t have a food culture.
It seems like Italians and Americans are at two opposite poles, we are slow and relaxed and they are fast and stressed; to me both descriptions are quite bad, all the excess are bad because as Aristotle said “in medio stat virtus”. Anyway, I think that the results of this questionnaires presents just our stereotypes about an almost unknown culture and I am sure that during this moths of conversations with
Immigrants:
through the definitions given it is possible to see a different way of considering immigration. We do associate to immigrations words like inconvenient, diffidenza, disadattati, ghettizzati, povertà, delinquenza, disoccupati, problema da regolamentare, discriminazione, sospetto, pregiudizio, sfortunati and all those expressions reflect our attitude to this situations. It seems like it is a problem for us, and that immigrants once arrived here in
Also some Americans wrote about poverty, but they also wrote positive things like determined, American dreams, change, equality, important, let’em be, wants a better life style; they seem to consider why those people decided to emigrates and not just the problems they create once arrived in the new country and to me this is a very positive attitude.
As far as the Sentence Completion is concerned:
a good neighbour is someone who isn’t too nosy, can take care of your house when you’re gone.
Well, maybe it depends on where you live but in my experience neighbours are not supposed to take care of my house, not at all! I don’t know how it works outside the city, maybe in small towns or in some areas it may work like that, but where I live neighbours are almost unknown and a part from a “buon giorno” and “buona sera” out of politeness, there are no others relations. I guess it is a problem of culture, here in Italy we are very jealous of our house, we are kind of closed and we do not trust very much other people.
people from the south are farmers, “southern gentlemen and ladies” raised on good manners.
Wow! Well, maybe in the eighties!! I do not think that nowadays people from the South looks like that! Maybe in The United States it is still like that…We do come always at the same point: different kind of experiences and culture!
-Cristina Robba-
TASK 3
-
DISCUSS "POLITICS" AND "A GOOD CITIZENS IS SOMEONE WHO"
Politics:
Politics for the Americans seems to be something complex, complicated, inexplicable and corrupt…Isn’t the same for us?! Someone wrote even devil and headache, stupid and suck, lies and fights. Undoubtedly, this is not a positive description!
Just few of our peer wrote democracy, attempt for freedom, opinions and solutions…So maybe we are not all pessimists. Anyway, I think that a general idea about politics deals with badness.
What I mean is that politics aim should be democracy, freedom, improvement, but the means used by politicians to carry out their plans are often dirty and illegal; the personal improvement becomes often more important than the welfare of the entire community or nation. The result is that what we perceive about politics isn’t positive but inexplicable and corrupt.
A good citizen is:
All the sentence completions for this statement are on the same line: a good citizens gives back to the community respecting his country and the law, going voting and being moral, taking care about the environment and the other people.
Americans all agree about the fact that a good citizen is integrated in the society and thinks not egoistically about himself. The community is the reference and so, all the actions and decisions are supposed to improve the welfare of the society.
-
DISCUSS TERRORISM AND "GLI ANNI DI PIOMBO"
I have seen that you, my dear Americans friends, are studying “gli anni di piombo” and “il terrorismo” in Italia. I have to admit that I am not very fond of history, so I am quite ignorant of those facts. Anyway, this is such and important and sad part of Italian history that anyone, in some way, is aware of it. The 70s are known as “gli anni di piombo” because of the violence and the struggle which characterized this Italian period. Fights were engaged in order to subvert the politics and the national order and the clashes between the police and the organized groups (like the brigate rosse) were the agenda. The means by which those groups demonstrate their ideas, were terrorist attacks, fights in the streets, bombs in the train stations and illegal confinement of prominent political figures. If you go to
As far as the “movimento degli studenti” is concerned, I can say that during the 60s many students (left wing) create an organization in order to obtain a democratic reform of the school system to improve the school and the relationship between the state and the school. In 1968, this movement went beyond the boundaries of the school and entered into the politic sphere and the problem of the work become soon prominent. I guess that the film “Buongiorno, notte” deals with those facts but I haven’t seen it. I hope that some of you could tell me something about it!
-Cristina Robba-
Politics
I believe that both aswers to 'politics' by Italians and Americans should make us reflect. I mean, in both countries politicians are now launching their political campaign, but people seem to not believe in any change anymore. The answers show that between politics and corruption there is a tight correlation, maybe an indissoluble link.
A good citizen is someone who
The answers show that the word 'respect' is the most mentioned. A good citizen is someone who respects other people, enviroment and obeys the law. I think that since we all live in a society we have to be respectful and we can't simply do what we want to do. It seems like a reduction of our freedom, but it is not. If we want to live in a community we have to accept the rules that the community has, otherwise it is a complete chaos.
Terrorism in Italy and 'anni di piombo'
The Italian terrorism began in Decembre 1969 after a bomb blast in Piazza Fontana in Milan, where 16 people were killed and many injured. In 1974 in Piazza della Loggia, Brescia, other two attempts. In 1980, at the train station in Bologna another slaughter, 80 people were killed. These are only few examples of the bloodbath that caracterized Italy during those years.
The atmosphere was very tense: everybody was under suspicion. A curfew was imposed, by 8 pm people were not allowed to go out, if they did , they were arrested. People became afraid of going outside because they didn't know if they would come back. During the day, going to school, going to work, or simply doing the shopping was very difficult because of the many demonstrations, fights with the police, assassination attempts, bomb blasts and gunfights, which happened very often. Especially in Milan, many people were the target of the 'Brigate rosse'. When in 1978 Aldo Moro was found dead, Italy paralyzed: political parties and common people couldn't believe it happened for real. The movie you will watch,' Buongiorno, notte' deals with this terrible event. I didn't watch the movie but I know that the director was ispired for the title by a poem written by Emily Dickinson 'Good mornig- Midnight- I'm coming home'. I think that I'll watch this movie soon.
-Elisa Snaidero
Hi Stefania and Elisa!
How are you?
I think that as the deadline for this activity is tomorrow morning, I am a little bit in late…But the point is that I am quite confused about what we are supposed to do on this wiki page! Let’s see if you can help me! Sarah wrote what we have to do at the beginning of the page, and so far so good. But what about what’s written on our course blog?? I mean do we have to do also these activities? I am kind of lost!! The task 3 on bloggingenglish says that we have to come up, as a group, with a question for the Americans, and to do it we have to discuss on this wiki page…So, what are you curious about?? What would you like to ask to our friends?? Any idea?? Personally, I would like to know more about the difference they perceive between the people from the North and those from the South. Here in
-Cristina Robba-
Hi Cristina,
I think that we have to do both activities. Since we cannot attend class on monday we are expected to carry out online the discussions the others did in class. Each week, after monday lesson, Sarah will post on our wiki page (this one) what the discussion was about and then we have a week to discuss online. Beside that, we are expected to do also the tasks posted on our course-blog.
Personally, I was a bit confused as well and I didn't know how we could come up, as a group, with one question. I wrote a comment on the blog and I want to say sorry for having written the question without any previous discussion with you. Next time I'll write my ideas and read yours on this page.
I think we should do the same with the questions about terrorism and politics.
Elisa
Hi Elisa!
Here you are!Finally we met!
I have seen your comment in the course blog and I summed up the 2 question of our (small) group so it may be clearer to Sarah.
See you soon!
-Cristina-
TASK 4
VIDEOS DISCUSSION:
As soon as I watched the two Italian videos on the blog I thought it was a joke made by someone who was trying to be ironical. Unfourtunately this was not the case. Last Sunday I was having a walk in the centre of Padoa (Piazza dei Signori) and I saw two tends, one belonging to the political supporters of Berlusconi and the second one to Veltroni. Yes, par condicio. Anyway, there was also a pickup with a big slogan on the doors: 'Meno male che Silvio c'è'. The first thing that came up into my mind was to quantify the amount of money that these political compaigns use for silly purposes. I think it is a real waste!
As far as the slogan of Berlusconi is concerned, I think it sounds like a liturgy, a curch song. Is he trying to convey a pure idea of himself? According to me, its melody is very similar to that of his other hymn: 'Forza Italia, è tempo di credere[...]. Forza Italia con noi', only to show that he is not new to this kind of things. In the video joung people, workers and students appear very often, I think they are the target group of his hymn. One of the most frequent sentences is 'believe in this dream', usually young people have a dream. But I'm asking myself: which dream have we Italian chosen to believe in? If there's one, is it a dream that our politician can realize? I doubt, or better, I'm convinced not.
In the video of Veltroni, similar situations of everyday life are also shown, but here we can see some old people and many women, too. Everybody seem to be happy, they seem to feel confident in a possible change, a new era in the Italian politics. The melody is more joyous than the video of his contender. I think the message he is trying to send is that a change with him is still possible, even though he mentiones the word stability, too, which in my opinion contrasts with the former.
What can I say about the videos of the Obama girl? They give different messages than the two Italian videos, they convey an idea of appereance, sexuality, beauty, nothing to do with politics. However, I don't think that these videos are an idea of Obama or his political party at all. That's the difference!
Questions for the skype exchange:
1. How much do you think a well organized campaign can influence the result of the elections?
2. The role of the media in politics. Is information in your country free or not?
To Cristina, Stella and Stefania: these are my ideas, I wait to see yours so then we can compare them.
-Elisa Snaidero
Hi Elisa!
First of all sorry if I am a little bit in late! I have watched the 3 videos and I do actually agree with you when you say that there is a big difference between the Italian ones and the American one. But I have a doubt, the Obama girls’ songs may sound silly to the Americans as the Veltroni and Berlusconi’s ones sound to us? Don’t you think so? I mean, it could be possible I think!! I’ll ask to my American peer next time!
I think we can make a generalization as far as the target of all this videos is concerned; as a matter of fact, here doesn’t matter the distance or the different politics ideas, the aim of all this songs is to convince the electors about the honesty of a political party. As you said, in the video of Berlusconi, there are a lot of ordinary and young people doing ordinary things like having an ice cream, cooking, building houses, running in the gym. It seems like a portrait of our society, a happy community which in which everyone is singing “Meno male che Silvio c’è”. Should we all thanks him? Berlusconi wants to convey a very positive image of himself, as a president able to stay close to his Nation and thus to the Italians. The message is that Berlusconi, as a president, will be among us, sharing daily values, experiences and ideas with us…Or something like that. I don’t like this song at all and as you said, it sound like a church song! Lol!
And what about Veltroni’s one?? Well, at least the melody is better! J! As you also underlined, those two videos plays with the same symbols which are the closeness of the president with his nation and the idea that the president is one of us.
Even thought the purpose of Obama girls video is almost the same of Veltroni and Berlusconi’s ones, we can find some differences between the American and the Italian songs. First of all, speaking on a very superficial level, the melody is much more funny! The songs about Obama seem to be real songs! Moreover Obama’s songs are very and satirical. The videos is not only celebrating Obama as a president, but compares Obama with his “enemies” Clinton and Mac Cain in a mocking way. Isn’t it?
-Cristina-
PS: Hope to see Stefania and Stella comments too!
TASK 6
Hi Cristina Elisa and Stefania,
here I am finally!!!:) I 've just read task n 6 and I have some topics to suggest to you!
I find very intersting knowing more about women human rights in Usa. I would like to focus me on the aspect linked about women pregnant conditions at work: Are there any kind of low or benefits especially conceived for pregnant women at work? and if so, which are these benefits that allows a pregnant women to keep working without renouncing to take care about her child etc...
The second topic we can explore further is the one about American lifestyle.Is the image we get from medias the real image of America? I mean University life is so busy and peopele participate so actively in every activities the University organizes for them,and colleges are really so well equipped and homely like we gather from tv series?How is organized University life( I mean what about classes, exams, and so on..)These and more other topics are, in my opinion, very intersting to know about Usa. What do you think about my two topics? let me know, see you soon!!!
STELLA
Hi Stella,
I think the topics you suggested are very interesting. I would also like to know more about the condition of pregnant women in America, in respect with that of Italian women. Everybody knows that if you want to get a job here in Italy you don't have to tell your employer that you would like to have children, even though you specify that you want it to happen in the future. I think we as women are in a very humble situation. As a result, it is very difficult to settle carreer and family and most of times we have to make a choise.
I like the second topic as well. We discussed with our Skype partner about University life and I would like to know more about this topic. Living on a campus surrounded by other students and partecipating to variuos activities sounds so attractive to me!
I definetely like your proposals.
-Elisa Snaidero-
Hi girls!
Here we are, finally, taking about our final project! I saw that Sarah made the groups and wrote the instructions to follow in order to develop this project! We, Elisa, Stella and me, are going to be a group and Corina, which is the American girl I usually talk to during the skype exchanges, is our peer. So, know everything it’s up us and we have to decide a topic! I like very much the topic suggested by you, Stella, which is the condition of pregnant women at work. This is definitely a very concrete argument. But to tell the truth, I’ll prefer to discuss about something that is closer to my experience and so I think that the University life can be more interesting. I do agree with you, Elisa, when you say that it would be motivating to see the difference between America and Italy
So…let’s choose one topic girls!
-Cristina-
Hi girls! I think that so far we have chosen the topic for our group. Based on what Sarah wrote on the course blog, we are supposed to:
1) create a list of the possible topics
2) then choose one as a group.
Since we can't attend on monday, do we simply write on the wiki page the topic we chose here? I mean, we don't have to write a list of topics but only the topic about University life.
Is it correct?
I wonder if, instead, we have to write a list of topics (in this case both topics we discussed here) and then later choose only one as a group.
If you know the aswer please let me know, see you soon,
-Elisa-
Hi Elisa!
Actually, I don't know exactly what we have to do...what a mess! Anyway, I saw on the wiki page that we are supposed to brainstorm some idea about our final project "Please list below the topic you have thought of for your final project with a brief explanation. This is just a brainstorming. Together you will then choose just one. You don't have to put your name if you don't want to". So, I think that we have to write all the topics we tought about on the let's say community wiki page, and than choose one here in our private page! Is it good? I mean, let's say that each of us will write her topic on the other wiki page!
-Cristina-
TASK 7
Hi girls! For our final project 'Pregnant women's rights at workplace' I found something that could be interesting for our research. I'll list below what I found:
WHAT THE LAW SAYS
Federal and State laws make sure that Americans are able to have children without losing their jobs. Discrimination against you because you are pregnant violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Under this law, employers who have at least 15 workers are not allowed to:
o Refuse to hire a woman because of pregnancy
o Fire or force a worker to leave because she is pregnant
o Take away credit for previous years, accrued retirement benefits,or seniority because of maternity leave
o Fire or refuse to hire a woman because she has an abortion
o Make arule about how long you must stay out of work before and after childbirth
o transfer you to another job ‘out of sight’ because you’re pregnant — unless you willingly agree to the transfer
o not give you the same or a similar job when you return from maternity leave. Generally, if you’ve been working regularly for 12 months with the same employer, you have the right to take maternity leave and return
to your job afterwards
You must be allowed to:
o Keep working as long as you are able to do your job.
o be given easier duties if your pregnancy stops you from being able todo your job
o to get up to 12 weeks off without pay if your doctor says you are sick and unable to work during your pregnancy (Family and Medical Leave Act, August 5 , 1993). You then have the right to do the same job
with equal pay when you come back to work.
Many States have equal employment opportunity laws that protect against pregnancy discrimination. In addition, the States of California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, and PuertoRico also pay partial wages during time off from work for medical problems, including those of pregnancy. This law is called "temporary disability insurance."
If you are discriminated agaist you can:
1) Talk to your union representative. Union rules often allow you to file a grievance. If you don't have a union, call a women's or civil rights group for help.
2) You have a right to file a charge. The law has a very short time limit on how long you can wait to file a charge against your company. You can file a charge even if you do not work for your employeranymore. You can file a charge with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) at 1-800-669-EEOC. Most states and local governments also have a Human Rights or Civil Rights officethat can help.
I took the information from http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/adb/ll_adb.nsf/pages/adb_pregnancy ; http://www.lectlaw.com/files/emp31.htm
Maybe it would be also interesting to see the subject from an historical point of view.
- Elisa Snaidero -
Hi girls!
I want to tell you that I wrote the name of the topic of our final project in the tables with the groups that Sarah put on the wiki!!
Good job Elisa, I'm still serching some info...I'll write what I have found as soon as possible!
-Cristina-
Hi girls,
me too I found some interesting things about our topic..most of them are just a repetition of what Elisa already said, but there are some ather concepts more..
I found from the Health and safety Executive web site that there is a new guidance to help pregnant women at work. This guide highlights the importance of health professionals' role in helping to protect these women. Employeers have a legal responsibility to protect their female employees from hazards and risks in the workplace and to asses possible risks to new and expectant mothers. If risks are identified then the new or expectant mother is entitled to change in working conditions, be offered suitable alternative work. Being pregnant or a new mother does not prevent women from working and developing their career.Every year around 350,000 women continue to work during their pregnancy and of these 69% return to work soon after giving birth.
Equal opporunities commission( EOC)legal journal, shows that the employers increasingly have to pay higher awards in sex discrimination cases and the average compensation payout for a case involving dismissal due to pregnancy is £9,871.However there is no limit to how much companies could be ordered to pay in compensation.
I think that this aspect is very interesting since in Italy we are far to image a real compensation in cases like these ones... I hope it could be helpful.see you
P.S since I cannot be at lesson on wednsday, please let me know what are you going to do for next week so that I can work on it from here as well.BYEEEE
STELLA
Hi girls!
Here is what I have found which are, mainly 2 Acts: The family and Medical Leave Act and the the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
The family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 promulgated by U.S Department of Labour grant family and temporary medical leave under certain circumstances. This acts is the result of an attentive analysis of the American society from which follows that there is a lack of employment policies to accommodate working parents which can force individuals to choose between job security and parenting. Moreover, due to the nature of the roles of men and women in USA society, the primary responsibility for family caretaking often falls on women, and such responsibility affects the working lives of women more than it affects the working lives of men and what’s more, employment standards that apply to one gender only have serious potential for encouraging employers to discriminate against employees and applicants for employment who are of that gender.
So, being this the situation, the aims of this act is to accomplish the purposes consistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which is to minimize the potential for employment discrimination on the basis of sex by ensuring generally that leave is available for eligible medical reasons including maternity-related disability and for compelling family reasons, on a gender-neutral basis. The Department wants to promote the goal of equal employment opportunity for women and men.
According to this Act, workers affected by temporary disabilities, and also pregnant women have the rights to obtain a reduced leave schedule. The term "reduced leave schedule" means a leave schedule that reduces the usual number of hours per workweek, or hours per workday, of an employee. When end the period of reduced leave, the worker has to be restored by the employer to the position of employment held by the employee when the leave commenced or at least to be restored to an equivalent position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.
As far as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which is an amendment to Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, the employees temporarily and medically disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions be treated in a like manner to employees temporarily and medically disabled by other non-work related. Moreover employees cannot be forced to begin or return from a maternity leave at predetermined times. It is the opinion of the woman’s doctor that controls the beginning and end of the maternity leave. An employer cannot treat a pregnant employee differently than employees with other temporary medical disabilities for purposes of hiring, transfer, or accumulation of benefits while on leave.
-Cristina-
Make a comparison between
Page Information
|
Wiki Information |
Recent PBwiki Blog Posts |
Create your own educational wiki!