Pietro

Krystin and Pietro

Some of this will be review from Krystin's but I will try to go into some of the specific globalization concerns a little more.

Basically Pietro is a University student in Firenze (Florence, Italy) who studies at St Thomas (In St Paul, MN) during the summer. He is a Political Science major and works in editing. His family seems to be middle to upper middle class (though there are rumors of more). He has one older brother (I think) who is married to a Serbian Woman and their marriage took place in Serbia.

Some of the stuff Krystin has covered: His Political background is mixed, he believes firmly in change to get things done, seems to lean left, has noticeable frustration with the right, but has voted for several parties, rarely if ever the popular choice. He seems to be more interested in regional, or even local city matters over state level. Currently isn't a big fan of either the Prime Minister of Italy, or President Bush and recognizes many of the positive and negatives of Italy joining the European Union (EU).

When I asked about immigrant populations he quickly prefaced the talk by saying that many of the reasons for people being singled out in Italy was due to frustration with the economy in Italy (past few years) and that like in all countries (US included) the prejudice usually comes from not having a proper understanding of the culture of the people, or the sociopolitical/economic situation in the first place. As a whole he seems to have concluded that people should be better educated on the subject.

The 4 groups he identified as being particularly noticed were: Chinese, Albanians (and other former Yugoslavians), Filipinos and North Africans. The Albanians and the North Africans are generally perceived as being involved with crime, but he took particular care to note that not only do these groups tend to make up the majority of "non wanted" jobs, but also work the factories which drive the industry of the country. He also noted that these two groups tend to mingle with Italians more and it is in many ways that interaction that causes the friction between the groups. Albanians and North Africans are often pushed into jobs where they have to serve the public and thus are the more noticeable minorities.

One more note, is that the political party on the right, tends to blame most of the problems of crime on these two populations, but the captains of industry who own the corporations and often vote Right, tend to be the same people employing and introducing them to the country.

The other group he spoke about were the Chinese, who like Krystin said, tend to not associate with Italians as much. Pietro described them as taking up entire neighborhoods and suburbs where they live and work amongst themselves. He notes that many do not learn Italian and do not teach their kids it. The problems associated with the Chinese are related to the influx of cheap "rip off" products that compete with Italian goods. These products are sold at all the market corner stands etc, and many feel this is slowly killing the economy.

In terms of all of this, it does not seem that these groups will come to dominate, despite concerns and prejudices. The market is so Western leaning that other Europeans and Americans have a far easier time establishing businesses or at least a cultural dominance.

(Krystin covered a lot of what he said about Americans coming in to Italian towns)

One interesting note he made, is that if you ask an Italian "What is American Culture?" they wont recognize a lot of the things they know and use because they associate it too closely to themselves. They may "know" McDonald's and Nike are American but to them it is not American Culture.

He also paid a nice tribute to the "American Dream" which he says helped many Italians both in the US and in Italy thrive, but notes that economic stratification has become very hard to break. Not a lot of social mobility between classes.

Lastly I think it is interesting that he and his family/friends vacation in Eastern Europe. They see it kind of the way people see Tijuana, Mexico in the US, as their playground, where anything goes and everything is cheap.

But in spite of that I think it has helped him personally to realize what he has and what others have to deal with. In the same way I think his perspective on the US and Americans is somewhat more valuable as he has often been to the US to see how people live etc. 

Maybe this isn't the place to share this, but as this is the more intellectual (school oriented) of my journals,

I was reading up for my Anthropology Methods class from last semester (which I still haven't finished) and read a book called The Professional Stranger by

Michael H. Agar (weird coincidence with the name) in which he talks about his realization and changing of a bias.

He starts talking about how he was supposed to do research with, or talk to people who had done research on drug support groups. Initially he decides that the study is too small, too non varied and that it doesn't make for good research that can be generalized or applied.  When he enters the room to present his research, rather than sharing his conclusion (at the time), he just asks how they felt about the research. The audience (of professionals) go on for an hour overwhelmed about how it changed their lives and was an amazing breakthrough.  He realizes he was wrong and that it was a good place to research if nothing else just to turn them on to the possibilities of more.

That's how I feel about the India trip. I expected more from it, so I came to the conclusion that it must be that way for everyone and now that I have heard how inspired some of the people on the trip felt, I feel somewhat ashamed about my presumptions.

What is more, from having the time to sit back, to hear some of their impressions I am realizing much more how much I enjoyed the trip and how good it was for me.

So that's smooth, anyway that was more personal. 

I think it might speak to things like how little interviews may seem like nothing, both to me at the time and to the person, but maybe later both parties will realize that the interaction was good.

Hopefully.

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Already falling behind

We spent a few days in Stirling where I finished the Chua book (World on Fire).
I thought it was interesting that before I even read it I had been commenting on the economic oppression of ethnic groups, but in a completely different way.

Stories from years ago.
I remember being in London a few years ago (Oct 2002) having a conversation with two Arab men who were drinking beer, making jokes about a christian who doesn't drink and Muslims who do.
We talked for hours about the state of the planet, politics, religion and such. The Iraq war hadn't begun yet but Afghanistan and 9-11 had. The man I talked to the most asked me how I felt about Muslims and I responded that I had no negative feelings and was quite interested in the religion. He felt he could give me a run down on the way of the world, and being younger and the non drunk one of the two of us I felt I could give him a few hours to give me a lecture. He sort of felt he was on a quest to find himself, and wound up drinking beer in a London Hostel talking to two German kids and later me the American boy.

The thing I remembered the most from his few hour long lecture, in which I halfheartedly nodded along, was his comments on Jewish people. I grew up in a town that use to be the MN equivalent of a Jewish Ghetto, 30% of my friends at school (as well as the city in general) were Jewish and I was very interested in his opinion. "The Jews are a clever people, God made them clever because he chose them." Was the most positive thing he could say. The rest was what Chua referred to about typical impressions of Muslims towards Israel and the Jews of the world.
"America has made them powerful, or else (motions of them being wiped away)... They use their cleverness to hurt people, they are greedy... They are secretive, they are ashamed, they are sneaky... They talk amongst themselves and plan things in their clever way... They are selfish... powerful... ...abusive... good with money... they talk in codes...they are planning something, they are sneaky... they don't let anyone know what they are talking about so they can steal from you... the Jews  were behind 9-11" etc etc etc
I objected to many of these statements and the man agreed that he was biased but asked how he could not be.

The next day or a few days later I took a bus to Edinburgh and watched two older Orthodox Jewish men be avoided on the 7 hour bus ride. They talked amongst themselves (certainly people are not all that open on long bus rides-most prefer to sleep). Anyway the two men did indeed talk in phrases that others could not understand, interjecting jokes and words in Hebrew and in Yiddish (despite having English accents -which was weird to me having only heard these words coming from American mouths). They looked through the business sections of newspapers and business magazines.

*I recorded all of this in my journal at the time which is why I remember it.

I remember being mad at them actually, for fulfilling so many of the stereotypes. These men, unlike my friends at home and such stood out, stood on their own and I could totally understand how men who grew up in a biased society would hold it against them, would assume they were plotting.
By the end of the bus ride though my feelings had changed, because I saw in them the bond of fraternity I guess, they reminded me of me and my best friends. Having spent years in close capacity we learned to speak in one liners that only we understood, we had our own interests and couldn't care less what others thought of our small group. These men had been friends for years and it showed. I felt really happy for them.

In that same year I met a hotel operator who very briefly asked me where I thought he was from. I was unaware that there even was a difference between Iraqi, Turk, Arab, etc at the time, (I'm usually aware of these things but the American media had me in the dark).
He was Kurdish. "Where is that?" I asked and that's when he decided he needed to give me his pre-wrapped political propaganda speech about needing a country.

"30 million of us and no country. Like the Jews before Israel, but the world steps in for them and not us? We are spread along the borders of many countries, oppressed, without freedom." 

Kurdistan (the land of the Kurds) is the ethnic and cultural area in which the Kurdish people live. It is within the political borders of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Later in my trip I visited one of those countries. Turkey was one of my favorite countries of the entire trip (and still is one of my favorite places in the world). On my first Day in Istanbul I met a man  who I initially pissed off -later he became a friend. He worked at a hostel in Istanbul, he was the manager of the restaurant upstairs and was incredibly nice and giving.
We had a conversation about Kurds in Turkey and he declared rather proudly that he was Kurdish. I asked him how he felt about Turkish/Kurdish rivalry (discrimination) and he said rather honestly he was sad to see his people being oppressed, treated as second class. He said how despite being able to be proud of his people in his restaurant, had he gone outside just a block down the street and yelled the same thing he might have been beat up. He was not joking and didn't seem to be exaggerating. Toward the end of my stay we discussed the upcoming war in Iraq, it was clear in Turkey well before here as the US was putting pressure on them to use military bases in the Eastern part of Turkey (Kurdistan). My Kurdish friend, along with many men of his age group, was being conscripted into the army.

"They want me to go and fight, you know who I'll be fighting? My brothers and sisters, my people the Kurdish people are in Iraq, and when they cross the borders they will want us to shoot them. They don't care about us, they don't give us a country, they use us to kill each other and we have to."

I didn't understand at the time, I mean how could one understand anything like that. But I have been pretty anti-war since the first gulf war so I knew I objected to his being used.
When men go to join the army in Turkey, their family and friends gather at the bus station next to the bus they will be sent away on. The families gather around them sing and pray, buses are delayed (sometimes for hours) due to this and its not questioned. I saw several of these events while heading out east to Cappadocia. The East of Turkey is very sparsely populated (or so they want you to believe) because its mostly Kurdish people. As I saw more and more of these gatherings, I realized he was right, Kurdish people were entering the army all over the country, the poor, the oppressed the ones without the right or the money to fight back.

Luckily the war didn't have as many people fleeing across the border and "ended" rather quickly. I would be interested to know how these men feel now, but I have no way to contact them. I would be interested to know if my friend is alive.

Turkish children doing a performance piece on War (Spring 2006).

India and Britain

I have not had time to read any of the books, I will probably start them in the next few days. Between the India trip and finishing up last semester I haven't been able to keep up on reading.

I was able however to incorporate a lot of what we were doing with the India trip into some interviews on a variety of topics related to Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and globalization. I took notes on a number of lectures and asked extra questions at the end relating to the topic, plus I was sometimes able to ask for opinions on the side. I was also able to have a number of small chat/interviews with people including a Canadian who has taught and worked in an orphanage in India for several years, an American university student who has been working with NGOs in India for ~ 5 months, an Indian University student in the process of getting his PHD and several Indian people who's lives seem to depend upon foreign investment (either directly or indirectly) including fishermen, mall salesmen and souvenir sellers. These conversations often ranged from 2 minutes depending on language barriers to 15-30 minutes.

In the next few days I will give some brief excerpts along with some case studies of NGO work in India, and hopefully start reading the books so that I can incorporate that into it.

Members of the NGO Rural Institute for Development (RIDE) at a rally.

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On a personal note, reverse culture shock hit me hard when I got to London: the language, climate and people all hit and depressed me. I spent a few hours waiting at a bus station considering the differences between the people and the commercial stores.

Besides skin color, there was also a general unfriendliness about the British people, most people didn't smile, looked tired or bored and didn't seem very eager for life.
Although several of these traits could be noted in India people at the airport, one also found a lot more hustle and bustle. In India there were always very eager sales-people trying to get you to buy things at their store or something similar.  The British store clerks had their heads in books and seemed uninterested in whether people bought from them or not. In India it was uncommon to see a store person sitting down when you entered, they saw you before you walked in, greeted and welcomed you, regardless of whether you got anything, they were glad you had been there.

I wonder if this is a strictly cultural difference or economics or what. I was treated similarly to the Indian style  in Turkey, Morocco and Tanzania but there are more similarities between India and Islamic cultures than Indian and European.

Food Court at the mall in Bangalore

Still evidence seems to point more to economics, in the rich stores of Bangalore, the salespeople didn't follow you around.
*Though one could make the argument that Bangalore as a whole has adapted to Western cultural habits.






What makes it really interesting though is that in Britain and much of Europe you find these same people working in many of the small corner stores, or the less wealthy markets. Indians, Pakistanis, Kurds in Britain, Turkish people in Germany, North Africans in France. So it makes it hard to tell whether culture or economics plays more of a role.

3 Weeks In...

This will be the place where I post reports related to my directed study.
I have already spent all the time I had in India, so it's Europe from now on. So far the plan is to do some traveling around Britain in the next few weeks and after, then head to the continent probably Southern France, Northern Italy, etc.


The next few days I will post some of the comments and perspectives on different topics from conversations in India as well as some of my personal thoughts on my trip there.




Right well, we are gonna go see the north sea and maybe the Firth of Forth. Peace.



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An update from later: We got no where near either of those destinations. As per usual my gross underestimation of distances on maps came into play. We did get lost, wound up at a cool mall and grocery store and found our way back eventually.