Every once in a while, you wake up to suddenly realize that you are indeed living in a Catholic country. Today was one of those days. The front page of every newspaper and the opening lines of every TV newscast announce Papa Ratzinger's decision to stay home. He had been invited to speak at the opening ceremonies of the academic year (in January?) at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" but a letter of protest signed by over 60 professors (out of a total of 4,500) and rising tension among students, led him to change his mind at the last minute citing security concerns.
The President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the President of the university are asking his forgiveness. One side cries out, "lack of tollerance" and "a closure to dialogue" while the other claims a legitimate concern over the Vatican's not only continuing but growing interference in Italian public life. In any case, Papa Benedetto XVI is also the Bishop of Rome and should be able to preside over the people of the city in this capacity.
It was an historic day, a dividing of the waters between believers and non, even between the State and the Church. It was also a sad day for open and civil exchanges between people of differing opinions that characterize democracies.
a domani,
E
January 16, 2008
January 15, 2008
Comparative happiness
A friend just sent me this link to an NPR (National Public Radio)interview with the author of a new book called, The Geography of Bliss. In this book, Eric Weiner seeks out places in the world where people are reportedly the happiest -- and looks for the reasons why. I was intrigued, especially after a recent Italian survey that revealed an 80% "happiness rate", despite a rather negative take on the economy, personal safety and politics (see this post).
One particularly happy country was Switzerland: things work well, the trains run on time, the streets are clean. But more importantly, they vote seven or eight times a year in public referendum, and they have a say in what happens in their life. He says that they also make an effort to hide their extraordinary wealth, so as not to provoke envy in others -- a great enemy of happiness.
On the other side of the world, he met a man in Bhutan who told him that, "you need to set aside a few minutes a day to think about death" in order to live a happy life. (On this note, I would suggest my book clubs recent selection, Everyman by Philip Roth)
What did he finally learn at the end of his travels in search of happiness? That, when all is said and done, happiness isn't personal, but relational. Exactly what our Italian survey discovered! Despite all the problems, woes, lack of faith in the system or the future, 80% of those interviewed said that they led basically happy lives....with close ties to their family and friends.
Thanks Gillian!
a domani,
E
One particularly happy country was Switzerland: things work well, the trains run on time, the streets are clean. But more importantly, they vote seven or eight times a year in public referendum, and they have a say in what happens in their life. He says that they also make an effort to hide their extraordinary wealth, so as not to provoke envy in others -- a great enemy of happiness.
On the other side of the world, he met a man in Bhutan who told him that, "you need to set aside a few minutes a day to think about death" in order to live a happy life. (On this note, I would suggest my book clubs recent selection, Everyman by Philip Roth)
What did he finally learn at the end of his travels in search of happiness? That, when all is said and done, happiness isn't personal, but relational. Exactly what our Italian survey discovered! Despite all the problems, woes, lack of faith in the system or the future, 80% of those interviewed said that they led basically happy lives....with close ties to their family and friends.
Thanks Gillian!
a domani,
E
January 12, 2008
Tribal considerations
My Google alert for "cross-cultural moments" delivered a small gift to my inbox today that I would like to share. Horace and Anne Tipton are missionaries serving the Anglican Church in Kenya. They moved to Nairobi, Kenya with their two children from Memphis, Tennessee in January 2005 and keep a blog called, Planting Faith. In this post, Anne talks about the current situation and a personal experience that led to a cross-cultural moment and subsequent new understanding. Here is a small piece:
......(the woman) was curious about him. One of the first statements she made was, “With that hair, what tribe could he be?”
At the time, it struck me as curious thing to say, but I did not give it a lot of thought. Her question was one of those cross-cultural moments that I guess I am supposed to “understand that I might not understand”, but it is, I think, relevant to the struggles here. It is important to the people of Kenya to know who they are dealing with and where they are from. And it is somehow less of a curiosity that I am here from another country than someone of another Kenyan ethnic group being around.
Click here for the very well-written and interesting post.
a domani,
E
......(the woman) was curious about him. One of the first statements she made was, “With that hair, what tribe could he be?”
At the time, it struck me as curious thing to say, but I did not give it a lot of thought. Her question was one of those cross-cultural moments that I guess I am supposed to “understand that I might not understand”, but it is, I think, relevant to the struggles here. It is important to the people of Kenya to know who they are dealing with and where they are from. And it is somehow less of a curiosity that I am here from another country than someone of another Kenyan ethnic group being around.
Click here for the very well-written and interesting post.
a domani,
E
January 11, 2008
Bollo time
I paid the car "bollo" or tax today. At least that was the plan. Turns out that someone else had already paid it yesterday -- obviously a mistake. "So, what do I do?" I asked the woman behind the ACI desk. She didn't seem to know. We all assume that the person who inadvertently paid my car tax instead of his, will notice, eventually, maybe. Unless he happens to look at the receipt before filing it away at home, most likely this moment of awareness will come same time next year when he pays next year's tax, only to find this year's one unpaid and with a fine! Or he will receive a fine in the mail -- probably in five years time (says the woman at the bar to whom I told my story).
But what if he doesn't notice? What if it is a company car and in the midst of piles of accounts no one notices and just pays again.
My fellow cappuccino clients at the bar next door conferred and the general consensus was to wait and see....maybe I have won a kind of bureaucratic lottery -- "free car tax for one year, get your tickets here". No one said that I should do the right thing and pay so that my car would be covered twice over until the truth comes out. At worst, I will have to pay a modest fine for paying late.
Ah yes, the Italians do thrive in ambiguous situations, it gets their blood circulating, they come alive, full of ideas on how to beat the system. They loved the idea that I had done it, although by chance. I had made their day.
But it boils down to a question of "risk tolerance" and as I have seen on other occasions, I often fail this exam, pay up, park properly or whatever, just to reduce the anxiety of ambiguity.
a domani,
E
But what if he doesn't notice? What if it is a company car and in the midst of piles of accounts no one notices and just pays again.
My fellow cappuccino clients at the bar next door conferred and the general consensus was to wait and see....maybe I have won a kind of bureaucratic lottery -- "free car tax for one year, get your tickets here". No one said that I should do the right thing and pay so that my car would be covered twice over until the truth comes out. At worst, I will have to pay a modest fine for paying late.
Ah yes, the Italians do thrive in ambiguous situations, it gets their blood circulating, they come alive, full of ideas on how to beat the system. They loved the idea that I had done it, although by chance. I had made their day.
But it boils down to a question of "risk tolerance" and as I have seen on other occasions, I often fail this exam, pay up, park properly or whatever, just to reduce the anxiety of ambiguity.
a domani,
E
January 10, 2008
Reacting Italian style
I am going to be juggling two blogs for the year.
You can find the other blog on my "profile" listed as "Coaching Across Cultures". Yes, I have begun a course to become a fully certified professional coach, and I plan to integrate these skills to train, consult and coach thoughtful and curious people living, working and studying abroad.
The requirements include an online journal and I thought I would talk about my niche of coaching across cultures and comment on the classes and what I learn from this perspective.
I "sat" in on a teleclass yesterday on "reacting/responding" and since my cross-cultural observations may be of interest to my readers, I will leave you with this post for today. click here.
a domani,
E
You can find the other blog on my "profile" listed as "Coaching Across Cultures". Yes, I have begun a course to become a fully certified professional coach, and I plan to integrate these skills to train, consult and coach thoughtful and curious people living, working and studying abroad.
The requirements include an online journal and I thought I would talk about my niche of coaching across cultures and comment on the classes and what I learn from this perspective.
I "sat" in on a teleclass yesterday on "reacting/responding" and since my cross-cultural observations may be of interest to my readers, I will leave you with this post for today. click here.
a domani,
E
January 7, 2008
Your words or mine?
I had a wander on the "expats in Italy" website forum (under culture shock) and found this thread:
I work in IT, and spend my days getting to grip with abstract concepts - real brain stretching stuff.
My Italian is good enough that language is rarely a problem, but what I have noticed is that it's much easier to understand a new concept when someone American, British etc. explains it to me.
Is it merely a difference in the way we think, or are Italians bad at explaining things?
The discussion was lively and interesting.
Language is not just a string of words, there is a cultural director orchestrating their ensemble. People living in English-speaking cultures are generally direct in the way they communicate, and it shows in the language itself -- anyone who has ever translated will confirm. English-speaking cultures have low-context communication styles -- you get what you hear, no interpreting the pauses and guessing at the what was left unsaid. The Italians instead, love the show and emphasize the musical component. The overall emotional message takes the stage -- the detail of the words is left to the orchestra pit.
I attended a Professional Women's Association meeting a few months back to hear a speaker from Johnson & Johnson on global virtual teams. Among the women, there were three Italian men who sat in the third row, very poshly dressed, chatting among themselves until the German woman in front of me turned and loudly gave them a "SHHHHH". Anyway, I spoke with Mauro at the post-speaker aperativo and he gave me his card, "dirigente" it said, for the Centro di Formazione Studi. I looked at the Italian site and then clicked on the EU international site. You must do the same, because someone was doing his/her homework and translated not only the words, but the presentation format. Gotta love those bullet points and action verbs!
Italian version of "chi siamo"
English version, "about us".
Tell me what you think.
a domani,
E
I work in IT, and spend my days getting to grip with abstract concepts - real brain stretching stuff.
My Italian is good enough that language is rarely a problem, but what I have noticed is that it's much easier to understand a new concept when someone American, British etc. explains it to me.
Is it merely a difference in the way we think, or are Italians bad at explaining things?
The discussion was lively and interesting.
Language is not just a string of words, there is a cultural director orchestrating their ensemble. People living in English-speaking cultures are generally direct in the way they communicate, and it shows in the language itself -- anyone who has ever translated will confirm. English-speaking cultures have low-context communication styles -- you get what you hear, no interpreting the pauses and guessing at the what was left unsaid. The Italians instead, love the show and emphasize the musical component. The overall emotional message takes the stage -- the detail of the words is left to the orchestra pit.
I attended a Professional Women's Association meeting a few months back to hear a speaker from Johnson & Johnson on global virtual teams. Among the women, there were three Italian men who sat in the third row, very poshly dressed, chatting among themselves until the German woman in front of me turned and loudly gave them a "SHHHHH". Anyway, I spoke with Mauro at the post-speaker aperativo and he gave me his card, "dirigente" it said, for the Centro di Formazione Studi. I looked at the Italian site and then clicked on the EU international site. You must do the same, because someone was doing his/her homework and translated not only the words, but the presentation format. Gotta love those bullet points and action verbs!
Italian version of "chi siamo"
English version, "about us".
Tell me what you think.
a domani,
E
January 6, 2008
More on trash
A small, insignicant cog in the wheel of the Napolitan trash machine wrote a letter to the newspaper about his role in today's piles of mess.
He is an expert, not a politician, a trash-master and engineer who has written articles for foreign journals on tecnical aspects of trash management. A representative of an American-based global company that is a leader in the field, contacted him while in Naples, for his expertise. After presenting concrete and feasible solutions to the Naples trash question using modern equipment and techniques, the representative asked our Man in Naples to present a proposal through the appropriate channels, which he did. No response. Need we wonder why?
Unfortunately the American global company did not understand how to get a proposal examined, Neapolitan style. Certainly not with a practical, rational, technical approach. No one with decision making power would ever read a proposal sent up from the ranks, it would have to fall on his/her desk from above, with an "note of encouragement" attached.
Too bad for Naples. Too bad for the American company. Too bad for the technical expert.
a domani,
E
He is an expert, not a politician, a trash-master and engineer who has written articles for foreign journals on tecnical aspects of trash management. A representative of an American-based global company that is a leader in the field, contacted him while in Naples, for his expertise. After presenting concrete and feasible solutions to the Naples trash question using modern equipment and techniques, the representative asked our Man in Naples to present a proposal through the appropriate channels, which he did. No response. Need we wonder why?
Unfortunately the American global company did not understand how to get a proposal examined, Neapolitan style. Certainly not with a practical, rational, technical approach. No one with decision making power would ever read a proposal sent up from the ranks, it would have to fall on his/her desk from above, with an "note of encouragement" attached.
Too bad for Naples. Too bad for the American company. Too bad for the technical expert.
a domani,
E
January 4, 2008
Up in smoke
I spent the morning between the doctor and the post office -- the first to liberate my (rather gruesome looking) thumb from its bandage (no cost) and the second to sign for a damaged Christmas package from a sister (items intact, just the envelope side ripped). Between one wait and another I read the newspaper where I found an analysis of Naples' current "garbage hell". Once again, Naples has managed to distinguish itself from the rest of Italy and the title reads, "Democracy Killed by Trash". Journalist Francesco Merlo expresses what many feel, that Naples is not capable of governing itself and that the State must intervene, even sending in the army, to confront the crisis. He says that we must finally do away with the idea that there is a soft way to govern and administrate the South, "The illusion that the whole county is like Tuscany has been trashed". Naples is controlled by organized crime and local politicians can't do much about it, even if they should want to. Money pours in and disappears. The problems remain and every so often go up in smoke as enormous mounds of trash alight.
Are Italians angry enough to actually do what one reader suggests? Eliminate all local political power and place Naples in the hands of the State. Maybe they are. A new level of indignation is in the air.
a domani,
E
Are Italians angry enough to actually do what one reader suggests? Eliminate all local political power and place Naples in the hands of the State. Maybe they are. A new level of indignation is in the air.
a domani,
E
January 3, 2008
Hope for 2008
Between December 17 and 19, La Repubblica newspaper engaged the Demos-Eurisko company to organize and conduct a survey of 1000 Italians representative of the adult population on the state of their lives. It turns out that Italians define themselves as "angry" (as has been discussed quite a bit these past few months among local expat bloggers following Bebbe Grillo's "VaFa" day). But beyond this anger and although Italians are unsatisfied with the economy, worried about personal safety and unhappy about politics, over 80% declared themselves to be happy with their lives.
How do they do it?
Family and friends. While Rome burns, Italians huddle up at home with their family or hang out in the piazza with their friends. That's all it takes to achieve a modest degree of happiness, and they even figured it out without resorting to endless shelves of self-help books -- the upside of a relationship-based society. The word Italians chose to best describe their feelings toward the future was "hope" (speranza). Where does that come from if not from their personal lives, as they are pretty negative about everything else.
If family and friends don't quite fill the gap, there is always hope to be found in sports -- nearly 75% of Italians surveyed believe that the Ferrari will win the Formula-1 championship, 66% are sure that the Italian national soccer team will win the European championship and 62% have faith that Valentino Rossi will win the world motorcycle racing title.
When asked, "What does Italy need to improve itself in the next year?" the number one response was, "More young people in places of power" with "Improve the schools and university" close behind.
So, despite the Italian "malessere" amply described in a recent New York Times article, there is room for hope and maybe this new sense of anger will set in motion change for the future.
a domani,
E
How do they do it?
Family and friends. While Rome burns, Italians huddle up at home with their family or hang out in the piazza with their friends. That's all it takes to achieve a modest degree of happiness, and they even figured it out without resorting to endless shelves of self-help books -- the upside of a relationship-based society. The word Italians chose to best describe their feelings toward the future was "hope" (speranza). Where does that come from if not from their personal lives, as they are pretty negative about everything else.
If family and friends don't quite fill the gap, there is always hope to be found in sports -- nearly 75% of Italians surveyed believe that the Ferrari will win the Formula-1 championship, 66% are sure that the Italian national soccer team will win the European championship and 62% have faith that Valentino Rossi will win the world motorcycle racing title.
When asked, "What does Italy need to improve itself in the next year?" the number one response was, "More young people in places of power" with "Improve the schools and university" close behind.
So, despite the Italian "malessere" amply described in a recent New York Times article, there is room for hope and maybe this new sense of anger will set in motion change for the future.
a domani,
E
January 2, 2008
New Years resolutions
Only one more festivity to go -- La Befana on January 6 -- before we can close the holiday parenthesis and get on our way into 2008.
New Year resolutions:
Lose those 3 kili that have been creeping up over the last few years and keep up with my routine of regular exercise (sounds familiar, see this entry from the same time last year).
Gather together my various writing, training, speaking/presenting activities; add coaching skills; package it up into a "cross-cultural moments" business and take it on the road, with my blog in the passenger seat as a navigator and friend (I am starting a professional coach certificate program next week).
Support my children through their bi-cultural development to becoming who they are.
Be thoughtful and correct in my dealings with others, carry through on promises and perform small acts of friendship.
Leave space every day to be curious and creative while fine tuning critical sense (I like this definition of critical sense: "the ability to distinguish between those things that are commonplace and meaningless and those that are elegant and special").
Listen to others with the intention to understand.
and, read lots of good books.
Sounds like a good year to me, and yours?
a domani,
E
Here is a link to an acticle I wrote for The Roman Forum magazine last October on "Cross-Cultural Driving Lessons", and here is a rebuttal written by another TFR contributor, "Driving in Rome?: A second opinion". The contrast is fun to read.
Anyone out there follow professional volleyball? Here is an article on the M.Roma A-series team.
New Year resolutions:
Lose those 3 kili that have been creeping up over the last few years and keep up with my routine of regular exercise (sounds familiar, see this entry from the same time last year).
Gather together my various writing, training, speaking/presenting activities; add coaching skills; package it up into a "cross-cultural moments" business and take it on the road, with my blog in the passenger seat as a navigator and friend (I am starting a professional coach certificate program next week).
Support my children through their bi-cultural development to becoming who they are.
Be thoughtful and correct in my dealings with others, carry through on promises and perform small acts of friendship.
Leave space every day to be curious and creative while fine tuning critical sense (I like this definition of critical sense: "the ability to distinguish between those things that are commonplace and meaningless and those that are elegant and special").
Listen to others with the intention to understand.
and, read lots of good books.
Sounds like a good year to me, and yours?
a domani,
E
Here is a link to an acticle I wrote for The Roman Forum magazine last October on "Cross-Cultural Driving Lessons", and here is a rebuttal written by another TFR contributor, "Driving in Rome?: A second opinion". The contrast is fun to read.
Anyone out there follow professional volleyball? Here is an article on the M.Roma A-series team.
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