I don't know what's happened to Italy...

Today, like any other day, I opened the homepage of one of the leading Italian newspapers, La Repubblica. While scrolling down, an article on Genova comes up. Genova used to be my hometown, there I lived for almost 18 years. The article explained how despite the leading role the city had in Italian history, nowadays it is just a place where people without a future live in frustration.

I haven't been to Genova in at least a year,  but I have been in Italy now and then during these two last years. Every time I felt a sense of decadence, a decadence that I can't see in Belgium or UK, for example. When I get off the plane I see a country that doesn't resemble, even the slightest, the country in my memories. I see that people are disenchanted and disappointed because the government and the state have let them down. 

I still have many friends and relatives to whom I speak regularly. Something in their voices has changed. They seem to have lost the strength to feel indignant about the all situation.  The loss of jobs, the rise in unemployment, the deterioration of services and quality of life seems to have come to them gradually and gradually they have got used to it. Whenever I say it is wrong to be apathetic they just lift their arms (in true Italian style!)  and say: "Nothing can be changed!". I sense a general idea that it is deeply wrong to be angry or indignant, that anger is purposeless if nothing will ever change.

I believe that it is our inability to feel angry that has created this apparently unsolvable situation, though. Politicians and the ruling class in general assume that they don't need to be accountable, they can just do whatever they like because people will never show their anger, It is a democracy for the politicians and not for the citizens. I can understand this feeling of resignation for those, slightly older, who think they've seen it all but not for the younger generations. Being angry and wishing to change the world is a characteristic of youngsters. We all believe we have a unique power to make things better, but why Italian boys and girl don't feel that too?

For most of us, life has become so unbearable that we have all run away. Now Italians are among the Europeans that most migrate within the European Union, why is that? Because resignation and disillusionment has finally won us over and we believe that moving away is the only way to pursue our goals. I strongly believe that too, it is in every human's instinct to do everything that is possible to survive. So if a boat is sinking naturally we would try to swim away to the shore. One question, though, remains to those who decide to stay on the boat and save what it is possible to save, why aren't you doing everything that is in your power to save the boat?

It is not a matter of cowardness and braveness; it is a question of choices. When you decide to go you fight to achieve all your goals but if you decide to stay then you should do whatever it is possible to make your home a better place for you and future generations. No one wants to live in a country where there are no jobs and no promises, where services are unreliable, where education has collapsed and people have lost their ability to dream. If no one wants to live in a country like this, there is nothing wrong in being angry if this sentiment is a constructive anger that will take us to building a better nation and  a better country.

I would like to see again the country of my childhood, when people still believed change was possible and I am looking at you, Italians still in Italy. I don't belong to that reality anymore, I don't know what doesn't work and what needs to be changed but I know that you do. Italy's future is in your hands!

I am super excited! So excited that I can’t even sleep anymore. I have great news to share with you. Actually it took me a while before I was completely sure that I would have posted it on here. 

As you all know, a few weeks ago I sent my application to law school in Bristol. Well….. I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED, which means that from September 2014 I will be law student!

It is a great opportunity and a very useful degree. With a degree in law I will have more access to the jobs I want to do. 

The course is two years long altogether; the first year is focused on learning the basics and the second is mainly practice. At the end of the two years you can take the bar exam, a thing that I will certainly do. I don’t know if I want to practice yet but at least I will make sure that if I don’t manage to go into human rights I can always work in a law firm. Now I just have to decide whether I want to be a barrister or a solicitor. 

I have never thought I could have been a lawyer to be honest, but now, I feel like I could have never done anything else. I am a curious person who likes to study and investigate and appreciates reason and logics so I believe these are good qualities for a lawyer.

This is the last month of my internship and I am already trying to find something to do afterwards. My idea was to go back home and find a paid job so I can start saving money for tuition fees. In case I am able to save more money than I thought, during the summer I will try to find more internships in the women’s rights field.

Furthermore, and especially in order to gain more experience in what I am interested, I have found an organisation in Bristol that provides support and shelter to women who are victims of all sorts of abuses: from domestic violence to discrimination. They provide training for new volunteers. They seem pretty serious and I want to give it a try.




This is what is happening in the next few months more or less, in the more immediate time I am flying back to the UK for the holidays on Friday (can’t wait already!). I will stay in Bath till Sunday and then it is London Sunday and Monday yeahhhhhh! Rest of the holidays? Just relax and enjoy my life!!!!!! 

Hope you will have a great Christmas too!!!

Goodbye Madiba

On Thursday December 5th Nelson Mandela passed away. He was South Africa's first black President. He was the first President of a free and democratic South African state. I will always remember how I found out of his departure. I felt a sense of deep sadness, of incommensurable loss. I felt inconsolable. 

I am too young to remember his struggle, his great achievements and his presidency and yet it was like I had lost someone very close to me. People like Mandela have the power to influence our lives even when their actions don't directly affect us. Everyone has learnt something from the exemplary life of this great man and I am among those, surely.

Since I was a child, I have heard of his name, his role in ending apartheid in South Africa, of his Nobel Prize and all the great things he had accomplished, but the first time I realised the greatness of the man was, sadly, when I was watching Clint Eastwood's inspirational film 'Invictus'. The scene when Matt Damon playing Francois Pienaar goes to visit the cell where President Mandela spent almost 27 years of his life really struck me. I couldn't believe that a man, so gentle and kind, had found the strength to survive so many years of forced labour, detention, segregation and maltreatment and never lose hope. 

What astonishes me even more is his ability to forgive. He came out of prison and what he wished for his country was not black domination or vengeance but a 'rainbow nation' where no skin colour or race would dominate the others; a country where everyone is equally free and has equal opportunities. We always find forgiving very difficult. I think it is part of human nature not being able to forgive our enemies entirely and imagining a man who is subjugated  all his life to that type of discrimination would naturally learn only to hate, but instead Madiba learnt to love. That is an invaluable life lesson.

I am writing this post because I want to thank him, thank him because he never gave up and he taught to all of us the power of hope, ideas and moral strength. He taught us that we should never give up until we achieve what we believe in. He taught us that all men are equal and we are all brothers. He taught us to look for our good side because there is always something good in each of us. He taught to be guided by our hopes and not our fears because our strength exists in our power to overcome these fears. We are human but our greatness lies in our humanity, just like Mandela's moral stature lied in his humility.

One last teaching will always remain in my heart: his smile. Mandela went through life with that smile, with a positive attitude and an ironic approach to his sufferings, something only those who are sure of the power of their ideals are able to do.

So, today we say goodbye to Mandela the man and we greet his eternal legacy. 

Christmas is just around the corner...

So here we are, Christmas is around the corner and my working experience at Human Rights Watch is almost over. I have so many projects for the next ‘adventure’ but they all mainly involve reshaping my life focusing on education and some more personal aspects. I have learnt a lot from this experience in Brussels, mainly on the personal level, and this makes it a positive staying. Now I know who I am and what I want and I owe all this to these months here. Since I should probably leave this reflections for my last blog from Brussels, I will move onto something else.

It feels like I haven’t posted on the blog in a while and so I don’t really know where to start. I should probably begin with my friend’s visit from London two weeks ago. I had been looking forward to the weekend for a while, especially because the last time we had seen each other was right before I left for Belgium and for us it is quite a long time. When she used to live in Bath we would see each other at least once a week, I felt like I was always at her place and so I had really missed her. I don’t think Brussels is super exciting, especially if you come from London, but despite that we had a really good weekend. On Friday I went to meet her at the station and I treated her to a hypercaloric dinner involving mostly pancakes and Belgian chocolate. Saturday, we first went to have brunch near Grand Place so she could see the most beautiful bits of the city and then we just walked around. I took her to the European area, my office (now one of the highlights of Brussels) and the rest of the centre. The weather was very nice; cold but dry. In the evening we had dinner with a bunch of my colleague in Matonge, the African neighbourhood, in a very nice Senegalese restaurant. It was a very nice way for her of spending Saturday night in Brussels. If there is one thing that makes Brussels special is the mix of people from different African and Middle Eastern countries that add colour and life to the city. Matonge is definitely a good example of that. Then we moved to a bar when she could try the famous Belgian beer. That didn’t go down very well or better I think it was a bit of a shock for my friend, so I don’t think she will have another Belgian beer again. On Sunday we decided to take it very easy and so we just went to have lunch in a nice Ethiopian restaurant not far from my place and spent most of the day watching tv series, exchanging pieces of advice about any possible girly topic you can think of and making silly plans!

In conclusion, the weekend was lovely. It was so great spending time with her, chatting and catching up. I believe that you can tell someone is a good friend when you can have fun even without doing anything cool or crazy. The feeling coming from a good friendship is one of the most special.

The next thing I am looking forward to would be Christmas, now. Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I love when the weather gets colder and all you are craving for is a good cup of tea, a blanket and a lit fireplace. I love the magic of Christmas and the preparations. I always feel so excited and full of hope. Just before Christmas I am going to London to visit a friend (yeah the friend who just visited) and then mom is joining me for a last minute Christmas shopping. I feel like we haven't done this, a day out in London just the two of us, in a while. I am so excited that I am already thinking of the many places we can go to: a new exhibition, a nice lunch, a look at some shops we don't have in Bath and maybe a nice afternoon tea to get into the Christmas spirit. I always overplan this things without taking into consideration that I have just a few hours in London not an entire week!!

Apart from my excitement over Christmas, everything is going pretty well. Because of the coming-up holidays the workload has decreased dramatically (I am writing the entry from the office!) but it is still interesting. Thanks to the fact that we work for an international organisation we have the opportunity to go to meetings and talks at the European Parliament. Those are always interesting and mind-opening and then because of the office location, many researchers come here and they kindly take some time to talk to us interns and give insights into their work. It is very useful for someone who is just starting his/her career and is still looking around for opportunities and possibilities.

Belgium still looks like a crazy and disorganised country to me. It is very difficult to explain as I think you need to come here and see it for yourself. A couple of days ago I was walking home from the metro station. It was early, probably around 6 or so. Soon I realised that the streets were pretty busy and while I was trying to determine the reason, I noticed that everyone was drunk!!! What the hell they were doing at 6pm completely wasted all dotted along my way home? That I couldn't find out but once I reached my street there were also many policemen who were trying to deal with all these drunkards. Now, there is no police on earth that looks less harmless than the Belgian police. They are all very short and small with this blue uniform that looks more like the one a technician from your local gas company would wear, and they just stand around in groups chatting all the time. I know Belgium is very quiet and safe but I don’t know how that is even possible with this kind of police force. One would probably argue that the Italian Carabinieri carry machine guns most of the time and if you go to Naples you definitely don’t feel secure! But I mean Italian have to deal with Mafia, of course things sometimes get out of their control! But Belgian? Maybe they just walk around thinking: “Our Italian colleagues deal with horrible stuff everyday. We don’t need to worry so I just act cool!”

The metro and train stations still don’t make any sense to me and I feel like everyday something new and a bit insane could happen. Last week we had problems with the metro. What would happen for five days in a row always at rush hour was that the train frequency was reduced for some mysterious reason. As you can probably imagined things got out of control pretty quickly. All the people that are trying to go to work in the morning and back home in the afternoon are ready to fight their way onto the train and by reducing the train frequency you might get three times the amount of people on just one carriage! I had my moments too: I pushed, stepped on other people’s feet and fought as well but also I was just an inch to give up and walk home so many times!

Nevertheless, I think Brussels is a easy city to live in. You can literally walk anywhere and if you need to use public transport you wouldn't travel more than 30 minutes. It is very quiet and it has some cool places but they mainly involve food and beer. Even though it is ok in general, you can get tired of it pretty easily too. If that happens you are still nicely located in the middle of Europe with convenient connections to Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, London and other major European cities. The Flemish countryside is lovely too and it has some nice villages and little towns not more than an hour away from the city. When you get tired, it is easy to escape!!!

Last weekend I decided to take it very easy. As you all know I just like to spend some time on my own now and then, it’s good to recharge. I made big plans about all the things I would have finally got done but none of it happened really. Instead, I baked cookies, had long reading mornings in bed with a nice cup of tea and draw. On Sunday I went to Ghent just for the day. I enjoyed it more this time. I think winter just makes everything pretty, it was just missing the Christmas atmosphere a bit. We had a tour of the castle and enjoyed the stunning with from the top of the tower. We also had a look at the disturbing torture museum that just made even more sure that sometimes man is worse than animals; animals don’t invent horrific devices to torture one another! Then, to end the day we stopped for hot chocolate and a waffle, so good!!!

This week all of us colleagues are going to see the Christmas market that just opened last weekend and then we have scheduled a tasting trip to a Moroccan restaurant that is very good, according to my flatmate. I have also had a look at their website and the place looks like something out of a postcard from Marrakech (Lately I have been having this crush on Morocco!).

I realise this is quite a long post and I am sorry but I felt I owe to the people waiting for news!

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for next time!