The participants have described how the lack of tolerance affects people in different social aspects; shared real life stories related to tolerance and compassion and answered 3 questions:
1. How the attitude for different people or groups very in various countries?
2. Is the place of the person or group determined by the others or person himself?
3. How compassionate the society actually is?
Article 1
Comparison between
childhood and adult life
Nowadays, in the global level, we have a lot of things that we can
compare. There are a lot of things that are uncommon such as nationality,
physical appearance, wealth and lifestyle.
We can compare many things between child and adult and one of them is
responsibilities. It is clear to all that it cannot be equal. Children actually
have nothing to worry about, but the adults have to be responsible of that his
children will receive everything for fortune life. There’s also that kind of
people that will never grow up mentally and be able to take care even for
theirselves.
We can also divide by the judgment of physical appearance, for example,
children can be more judgmental of each other. We think younger people care
more about looks, than the older generation. For example many children are made
fun of because they have glasses, or just because they look different than an
average person, being fat, skinny or short. If you compare this to adults
appearance is not as important to them.
During childhood school grades are a important part of life. Depending
on the community children with different grades can be picked on. Mostly
children who have bad grades are mocked, but also those who are above average
can have a bad time at school.
Behavior is maybe the most important part of our personality. Behavior
plays a very big role in what people think of us. It stays the same from
childhood to being an adult. Although, society is more tolerant and calm
towards children.
Views in the family are also very important, we learn in our childhood
most from our families. It can be a lot of reasons for changing the attitude,
for example rich person became poor. That person was very rude, selfish and bad
at first, but then accidentally the parents of that person died, and he became
very poor, and then he started to understand the real situation at his life and
started to regret every bad word he said to others.
As time passes and people change in many aspects
but some stay the same.
Discussion of the
questions
1. How the attitude for different people or groups very in various
countries?
A: Immigrants
Latvia: Generally negative attitude, but it’s okay if there aren’t too
many
Italy: Two different views, tolerant attitude in the north part of the
country,
Turkey: There are very many immigrants, Cultural differences. People
more excepting In the Eastern part of country.
Hungary: Generally negative attitude towards immigrants.
B: Homeless people
Latvia : Most people think it’s their fault they are homeless.
Italy : They are taken care nicely , provided with food and shelter .
Bulgaria: Not many homeless. They are taken care nicely .
Turkey : Manny immigrants are homeless . Most people are compassionate
towards them
Hungary : Those who don’t except help or want to change are viewed
negatively lots of them are alcoholic.
C: Different sexual orientation
Most countries people don’t care or have negative view on it, In Italy
it is mostly because of the church. In Turkey religion is also against these
sorts of people.
2. Is the place of the person or group determined by the others or
person himself?
During our discussion we came to a conclusion that is depends very much
on the surroundings. Sometimes people make huge efforts but for reasons beyond
them they cannot be successful. For example if a child in Africa has no chance
to go to school at all , even if they make huge effort they can’t learn as much
as others with better backgrounds. Fatima’s told us a story about herself , she
comes from a poor family , but in order to get into university she went to work
to Austria to make enough money for the university.
3. How compassionate the society actually is?
In Turkey the religion makes people compassionate. In Bulgaria people
aren’t very compassionate.
There are two parts of social compassion. One is in everyday life, the
other is governmental policy ( for example taxes, and redistribution ) In most
European states there are welfare states, meaning the government takes care of
its citizens. For example Scandinavian countries have high taxes, but in
exchange people get a lot of help from the government. In the USA most people
are very compassionate in everyday life , but government policy isn’t at all (
health care for example)
Article 2
6 Faces of Tolerance
Six
Millenials from different parts of the world share how they deal with
intolerance through their lives.
Elitsa, 3-7 years old, Bulgaria
“ Imagine if nobody tells you
what’s right and what’s wrong? What could have been different for you today?
Personally, I believe I could have had a lifetime friend. I remember when I was
5 years old and I visited my grandparents every weekend. As usual I was
spending my time playing outside with other kids. We were bunch of kids living
in the buildings around the neighbourhood all coming from families with
different backgrounds and social status. We were growing up together so we knew
each other quite well. As kids we cared about being together and having fun and
it was as easy as just going outside of your house. One day I was going
shopping with my grandmother when we stumbled upon one of my dear friends
Yulia. I would have never forgotten what my grandmother told me after I greeted
Yulia - “You shouldn’t be talking to her — she is a gypsy!”. Back then, I
didn’t quite get it. She was my friend and I liked to spend time with her. And
yes, she was a gypsy but that fact did not have any effect on our friendship at
all. Of course, eventually I lost contact with Yulia. Partly because I wasn’t
living there all the time but also because of what I have been told it is right
to do. “
Evelīna, high school, Latvia
I must be lucky, because I’ve
never felt real discrimination around me. In elementary school my classmates
had some jokes about each other, but no one got offended. Also in high school
we managed to get along with each other. It feels like we were all brothers and
sisters. We didn’t compete about grades and our teacher treated us equally.
Maybe that is because we come from a little town where the social status there
doesn’t differ so vividly. We were all equal.
But in general children sometimes feel discriminated in schools. It is hard to
avoid the offensive jokes. Mostly about the appearance, because children don’t
get into someones’ character, they judge everything by the way something or
someone looks..
Eszti, Primary school, Hungary
You can always hear the
stories about the minorities, about how incorrect they are treated. Well,
my story is a little bit different, I want to show you an other side of this
conflict.
I went to primary school in a
little town, that kind of where everyone knows eachother, so if you just went
to the store, you could be sure you will run into someone who you wished not to
see. It was the same while growing up there- if you got drunk one night, next
day you could tell by their smiles- they know more than you about your night.
Primary school was the same-
you could not hide. My school was like 60 percent of gypsies, and if you
thought we banned them, you are wrong- they had a really strong community, so
they were in a position to ban everyone else they wanted to. My classmates and
I never did anything to make them feel bad, because we had no problems with
them, but because of the cultual diferences and the fear of being
discriminized, they automatically thought we have bad feelings or even hate
towards them, and we never had a chance to solve this conflicts, because after
a while- I guess because of their negative thoughts, they started to tease all
of us. Basically we made a really big thing out of something stupid-
stereotypes and being too proud to talk to eachother. I think education is the
key, because if we would have had sessions with our teachers and everyone of
the kids, I am sure we would have been able to make friends on the playground,
and not enemies.
Linda, 15-18 years old, Italy
In sport there is a lot of
competition, intolerance and discrimination, other times not.It happens
frequently if you-re in a wrong team or maybe because people are too mach
competitive to be discriminated if you-re not up to the level. From the
opposite side, It happens also to be hated because you are too special
for the team and others aren’t.
In this world, It can be
possible to encounter intollerant behaviors due to hate and it manifest itself
during mathes and tranings. But It also true that if you are in a good team and
you are appreciated the situation is differnt and it is amazing.
Not all is bad and if the
people are kind but also competitive you-ll have a good motivation to play
better.
I believe we must learn to be more tolerant with teammates that are eighter
more or less talented than we are for a sace of the most significant thing, the
sport.
Alessandro, high school, Italy
When i went in high school
wasn’t easy be one’s self, the discrimination of the people on you was so heavy
that after some time you didn’t be yourself, because you didn’t feel good. I
didn’t like my period spent with my class mate in high school because in five
years nobody was himself. I remember a lot of chase when some guy were discriminate
and judged for their social status, clothes and especially for their behavior.
Normally they didn’t be involve on the group activities with other people for
some features that them had.
After spend this time with
them I discovered that the discrimination depend of the type of school that you
attend, there are some high school for the people that want study and other
school for who don’t want study a lot and don’t continue to the university.
Normally the discrimination is often present in the low school for who want
start to work after that school. Anyway the problems for start from the
first meeting with the people, when they meet you on first time. The prejudice
that decide who are you normally are the style of Behaviors, clothes you wear.
In this age the tolerance isn’t accept a lot and the prejudice avoid you be
yourself.
Alinda, 2014, Turkey
One day I was walking through
the street and I saw a poor boy begging for money and I just pretended as I’m
not aware of him, but he told something that I couldn’t stop myself to get sad
and help. He told me that he was hungry a lot and couldn’t get food for long
time and he was really shaking because of the cold weather in a bad situation.
Normally, I was bringing some food or clothes to make them warmer in the cold
winter when I see Syrian kids that are collecting plastics, metals or some
stuff from rubbish. There were a lot of them around came to my city and my
country as refuges and they were all around in the streets without even shoes
or clothes that is going to make them warm during the winter. This time the
little boy was also suffering from cold weather and he was so hungry, asking
for some money to buy some food. I felt so sorry for him and tried to find some
coins to give him. Suddenly, a few kids are appeared just behind me all asking
for money. It happened so fast. I really felt uncomfortable because there were
six kids appeared suddenly and surrounding me. I get really scared because they
were trying to catch me while picking my clothes not to let me go! I tried to
get away because they became to be dangerous and I get more scared. Sometimes
those kids were drinking thinner and carrying sharp objects as blades to
threaten people on the street to take money from them.
To conclude my story, I have
to say that our stereotypes could sometimes be useful for us to protect
ourselves from bad events or from danger to happen- Because, it is not easy to
help everyone or get well with everybody and we don’t have to welcome whoever
we see. Sometimes we also need to protect ourselves and those stereotypes could
be helpful to see the events which are probable to happen in near future.
Article 3
Tolerance in virtual world
Do you remember your childhood? Obviously, you used
to play with real toys in the playground, that is why all the childhood
memories seem very real; it is possible to recall the smell, taste and sound of
things. Unfortunately nowadays toys have become digital. The evolvement of
technologies in the last decade has been unthinkable, and children are starting
to get to know virtual world even better than the real one. The virtual identity
becomes more important – compliments turn into likes, conversations into
shares, and, surely enough, today they seem like an essence of life for many of
us. On the internet likes and dislikes are also shown in more personal and
unpleasant way that make us questionate: is there actually any room left for
tolerance, when a person can simply have none or multiple identities at once?
Children – the most unprotected part of society –
have a tendency to form groups online just the way they do it offline. The social
grouping begins at this age; there will always be a leader and a geek, in order
form a simple hierarchy. At this point it is very important not to let kids out
of control simply for one reason: they are defining themselves, and the
bullying can actually destroy the self-esteem of a child. Almost every child
has an access to the internet connection. The effects of technology on children
are complicated, with both benefits and costs. Whether technology helps or
hurts in the development of children’s thinking depends on what specific
technology is used and how and what frequency it is used. Nevertheless real
life conflicts could evolve into virtual conflicts with surprising
consequences. For example, a bullied child has an account in some chatroom
where he/she is far away from any kind of control (the bullies/ parents etc.).
Online image and info shows a pretty and funny person searching for others
alike in order to make new… conflicts. That’s right! Simply the amount of
aggression that has been received daily is too much. In order to increase
self-esteem, the child actually has to feel the power. A basic need to fit in
some group is very important for people, no matter child or adult.
Compared to kids, who spend their time online
having fun or socializing, adults in daily life use the internet mostly for
work or information purposes. Adults have more developed self-awareness and if
they belong to a group, they tend to benefit from the
shared responsibility of decision-making process.
That is why the comments in forums or in private chats mainly appear as
remarks, containing not so much of personal insults than critics and
definitions of social roles. The virtual space provides the chance to have more
than one identity, so bad and good aspects can be expressed. From time to time
people choose not to create an account with detailed information, but prefer to
take part in a discussion, without creating any identity at all. Being
anonymous does not give the person freedom to lose common social skills or act
improperly, that is not the case for the most of the times, but once for a
while discussions with harsh and very personal comments appear. Though there is
no single person behind it, the conflict and lack of tolerance can seriously
damage the object of the insult.
But is there any way how to avoid from contrasting
virtual and real identity? First of all, parents are the ones who make rules
for child in the first years of his life. That is why parents should pay
attention how and with whom their child is spending free time. Tablets,
smartphones and PCs, of course, are helping to control the child, but when the
time comes, there will be no surprise that the device will have control over
child. Maybe some family time every now and then might be helpful. Simply take
the children out, make him see the beauty of the world, socializing and
actually playing with real children and toys. It is impossible to protect the
child from bad things, but it is possible to bring a real life experience and
see new horizons.
Tolerance in real world is different from the one
in virtual world because of the fact that every person has a single identity;
it is impossible to hide anywhere if you are the one who is being discriminated
because of some reason, while online world offers a tempting opportunity to
become whoever you want to be. Maybe it is time to think how contrasting your
real and virtual lives are, and time to improve your tolerance.
Questions:
1. There are always similar stereotypes and
conflict situations as well as opposite ones. How the conflict evolves and ends
depends on the cultural aspects.
2. Where the individual stands in a society very
often is determined by society, yet very bright personalities can always find a
way to shine.
3. The society has managed to become more
intolerant than before. There can be many causes for that: changing lifestyle,
economic/politic situation etc., yet it is an important problem that should be
solved as soon as possible.
Article 4
Italian childhood (Italy Milan 2002)
Giorgio is a six year-old child, whose parents are
working in hospital, as doctors. Now he is attending the first class in primary
school, and getting to make new friends with others children in his class.
It’s a new situation for him, because he has had no
friends before. He didn’t expect that other children could be so friendly to
him. All of the children want to become his friends, and after two months he is
most popular in the school. But their friends are greedy, the only reason why
they make friends with him is that he looks very reach and has expensive toys.
Giorgio’s parents work in holidays as well, and they don’t have enough time to
take care about him, only the grandmother does. He is grown up by her.
His grandmother was the most important person in his life.
His life was the same even when he was teenager, we
can say, it was very boring for him: nothing changed, he should not have to
fight for anything, he got everything he just wanted. The only things, what he
did not get are a normal family life and true friends.
The first change happened when he reached the age
of 18: his grandmother died. The only person he loved and who loved him
too. This period was very hard to him, but he decided to go to university and
try to live a meaningful life.
African childhood (Ghana Accra
2002)
Chika is a nine year-old girl. She had a very hard
life until now, she lives in a large family, but her mother died when she was
three years old. So she had to grow up her two younger brother and two sisters
at the same time while she was attending missionary school. Her father worked a
lot and very hard, so he was home very rarely. Chika comes from where there no
enough food, no clean water. When she reached the age of six, her father forced
her to work on the fields for more money, but she would have prefered to go to
school.
At the age of 18 she was looking for a better place
without her father permission. So she left her country, Ghana, where she has
grown up, for an uncertain life in Italy.
AFTER A FEW YEARS…
Giorgio is 20 years old now and he is attending
interpreting faculty in university in Milan. Chika is 23 years old now
and after 5 years as an employer in a supermarket she has saved enough money to
start her studies in the university.
Giorgio and Chika saw each
other the first time when they was in the canteen of the school. Giorgio
just took a look at Chika, and after passed away, because he was a stereotypic
person, and he thought that all the immigrants are untidy and stealing jobs
from the italians.
But accidentally they
had a common course, where the professor gave them a task to solve
together. During working together they started started to tell about
their life and were getting to know each other better. Chika spoke a lot about
her childhood, explained how the European and Italian goverment helped her to
start a new life in a new country with completely difficult culture. At
the beginning Giorgio didn’t like her, because he believed that the Italian
goverment is too compationate toward immigrants, so italians are put aside of
work. But after a time Giorgio’s mind changed and he realized that the
girl was very lucky that she is still alive and and has a chance for studiing
in a university.
When they listened each other
they found out, that there is no difference between the people. They are living
ont he same Earth, just they were born in different place surrounded by
different environment, culture and chances. After the long talks, a kind of
connection started between them, and finally they fell in love.
While studiing at the
university, they got know the Erasmus+ projects by a local organisation They
started to take part in projects with different topics for youngsters. They
have had a chance to travel around Europe, and at the same time they discover
that the attitude between all the countries have changed a lot, each europian
country has its own behavior against different people. In fact, the important
things about the place of the person is determined. They traveled to several
countries and learned amount things about different cultures. They have already
learned a lot, got experiences and developed their skills in several topics
which helped them to become better persons and accept different people’s points
of view.
Article 5
From hopelessness to entrepreneur!
Some time ago, one child came in to the world. He
was very ill. He had an epilepsy in a heavy way. He was very disabled by having
this problem, so he couldn’t live normally. He was born in a poor family which
was a part of very small minority in Bulgaria, and that caused in judgment from
society at school he was going. He was very shy because of his disability, and
his classmates were laughing on him. He had bad grades at studies at school
because of attitude against him. Also he wasn’t one of the smartest children.
That made him feels bad and depressed. His parents though that he’s stupid and
didn’t even tried to help him out with this problem.
As it’s usually happening – he grew up. He got
married. After this everything changed. Until that he always wanted to become a
better person but he never had a reason. That time he had a nice opportunity
and for that time, he had become smart enough to take advantage. He had
innovative idea. That resulted in a wealthy living. After this he got a lot of
new friends, even those who was laughing on he. But he accepted this
friendship, because he was very good person. He was very tolerant and
responsive to everyone. He liked to give without a receiving back. Maybe that
resulted in end of his sickness.
His time has come and he passed away. He had achieved a lot from such poverty.
He had children. They decided to write one sentence on his gravestone: “No
matter what kind of an obstacles and circumstances we everybody have a chance
to achieve something in his life just put an effort on it.”
Article 1
Comparison between
childhood and adult life
Nowadays, in the global level, we have a lot of things that we can
compare. There are a lot of things that are uncommon such as nationality,
physical appearance, wealth and lifestyle.
We can compare many things between child and adult and one of them is
responsibilities. It is clear to all that it cannot be equal. Children actually
have nothing to worry about, but the adults have to be responsible of that his
children will receive everything for fortune life. There’s also that kind of
people that will never grow up mentally and be able to take care even for
theirselves.
We can also divide by the judgment of physical appearance, for example,
children can be more judgmental of each other. We think younger people care
more about looks, than the older generation. For example many children are made
fun of because they have glasses, or just because they look different than an
average person, being fat, skinny or short. If you compare this to adults
appearance is not as important to them.
During childhood school grades are a important part of life. Depending
on the community children with different grades can be picked on. Mostly
children who have bad grades are mocked, but also those who are above average
can have a bad time at school.
Behavior is maybe the most important part of our personality. Behavior
plays a very big role in what people think of us. It stays the same from
childhood to being an adult. Although, society is more tolerant and calm
towards children.
Views in the family are also very important, we learn in our childhood
most from our families. It can be a lot of reasons for changing the attitude,
for example rich person became poor. That person was very rude, selfish and bad
at first, but then accidentally the parents of that person died, and he became
very poor, and then he started to understand the real situation at his life and
started to regret every bad word he said to others.
As time passes and people change in many aspects
but some stay the same.
Discussion of the
questions
1. How the attitude for different people or groups very in various
countries?
A: Immigrants
Latvia: Generally negative attitude, but it’s okay if there aren’t too
many
Italy: Two different views, tolerant attitude in the north part of the
country,
Turkey: There are very many immigrants, Cultural differences. People
more excepting In the Eastern part of country.
Hungary: Generally negative attitude towards immigrants.
B: Homeless people
Latvia : Most people think it’s their fault they are homeless.
Italy : They are taken care nicely , provided with food and shelter .
Bulgaria: Not many homeless. They are taken care nicely .
Turkey : Manny immigrants are homeless . Most people are compassionate
towards them
Hungary : Those who don’t except help or want to change are viewed
negatively lots of them are alcoholic.
C: Different sexual orientation
Most countries people don’t care or have negative view on it, In Italy
it is mostly because of the church. In Turkey religion is also against these
sorts of people.
2. Is the place of the person or group determined by the others or
person himself?
During our discussion we came to a conclusion that is depends very much
on the surroundings. Sometimes people make huge efforts but for reasons beyond
them they cannot be successful. For example if a child in Africa has no chance
to go to school at all , even if they make huge effort they can’t learn as much
as others with better backgrounds. Fatima’s told us a story about herself , she
comes from a poor family , but in order to get into university she went to work
to Austria to make enough money for the university.
3. How compassionate the society actually is?
In Turkey the religion makes people compassionate. In Bulgaria people
aren’t very compassionate.
There are two parts of social compassion. One is in everyday life, the
other is governmental policy ( for example taxes, and redistribution ) In most
European states there are welfare states, meaning the government takes care of
its citizens. For example Scandinavian countries have high taxes, but in
exchange people get a lot of help from the government. In the USA most people
are very compassionate in everyday life , but government policy isn’t at all (
health care for example)
Article 2
6 Faces of Tolerance
Six
Millenials from different parts of the world share how they deal with
intolerance through their lives.
Elitsa, 3-7 years old, Bulgaria
“ Imagine if nobody tells you
what’s right and what’s wrong? What could have been different for you today?
Personally, I believe I could have had a lifetime friend. I remember when I was
5 years old and I visited my grandparents every weekend. As usual I was
spending my time playing outside with other kids. We were bunch of kids living
in the buildings around the neighbourhood all coming from families with
different backgrounds and social status. We were growing up together so we knew
each other quite well. As kids we cared about being together and having fun and
it was as easy as just going outside of your house. One day I was going
shopping with my grandmother when we stumbled upon one of my dear friends
Yulia. I would have never forgotten what my grandmother told me after I greeted
Yulia - “You shouldn’t be talking to her — she is a gypsy!”. Back then, I
didn’t quite get it. She was my friend and I liked to spend time with her. And
yes, she was a gypsy but that fact did not have any effect on our friendship at
all. Of course, eventually I lost contact with Yulia. Partly because I wasn’t
living there all the time but also because of what I have been told it is right
to do. “
Evelīna, high school, Latvia
I must be lucky, because I’ve
never felt real discrimination around me. In elementary school my classmates
had some jokes about each other, but no one got offended. Also in high school
we managed to get along with each other. It feels like we were all brothers and
sisters. We didn’t compete about grades and our teacher treated us equally.
Maybe that is because we come from a little town where the social status there
doesn’t differ so vividly. We were all equal.
But in general children sometimes feel discriminated in schools. It is hard to
avoid the offensive jokes. Mostly about the appearance, because children don’t
get into someones’ character, they judge everything by the way something or
someone looks..
Eszti, Primary school, Hungary
You can always hear the
stories about the minorities, about how incorrect they are treated. Well,
my story is a little bit different, I want to show you an other side of this
conflict.
I went to primary school in a
little town, that kind of where everyone knows eachother, so if you just went
to the store, you could be sure you will run into someone who you wished not to
see. It was the same while growing up there- if you got drunk one night, next
day you could tell by their smiles- they know more than you about your night.
Primary school was the same-
you could not hide. My school was like 60 percent of gypsies, and if you
thought we banned them, you are wrong- they had a really strong community, so
they were in a position to ban everyone else they wanted to. My classmates and
I never did anything to make them feel bad, because we had no problems with
them, but because of the cultual diferences and the fear of being
discriminized, they automatically thought we have bad feelings or even hate
towards them, and we never had a chance to solve this conflicts, because after
a while- I guess because of their negative thoughts, they started to tease all
of us. Basically we made a really big thing out of something stupid-
stereotypes and being too proud to talk to eachother. I think education is the
key, because if we would have had sessions with our teachers and everyone of
the kids, I am sure we would have been able to make friends on the playground,
and not enemies.
Linda, 15-18 years old, Italy
In sport there is a lot of
competition, intolerance and discrimination, other times not.It happens
frequently if you-re in a wrong team or maybe because people are too mach
competitive to be discriminated if you-re not up to the level. From the
opposite side, It happens also to be hated because you are too special
for the team and others aren’t.
In this world, It can be
possible to encounter intollerant behaviors due to hate and it manifest itself
during mathes and tranings. But It also true that if you are in a good team and
you are appreciated the situation is differnt and it is amazing.
Not all is bad and if the
people are kind but also competitive you-ll have a good motivation to play
better.
I believe we must learn to be more tolerant with teammates that are eighter
more or less talented than we are for a sace of the most significant thing, the
sport.
Alessandro, high school, Italy
When i went in high school
wasn’t easy be one’s self, the discrimination of the people on you was so heavy
that after some time you didn’t be yourself, because you didn’t feel good. I
didn’t like my period spent with my class mate in high school because in five
years nobody was himself. I remember a lot of chase when some guy were discriminate
and judged for their social status, clothes and especially for their behavior.
Normally they didn’t be involve on the group activities with other people for
some features that them had.
After spend this time with
them I discovered that the discrimination depend of the type of school that you
attend, there are some high school for the people that want study and other
school for who don’t want study a lot and don’t continue to the university.
Normally the discrimination is often present in the low school for who want
start to work after that school. Anyway the problems for start from the
first meeting with the people, when they meet you on first time. The prejudice
that decide who are you normally are the style of Behaviors, clothes you wear.
In this age the tolerance isn’t accept a lot and the prejudice avoid you be
yourself.
Alinda, 2014, Turkey
One day I was walking through
the street and I saw a poor boy begging for money and I just pretended as I’m
not aware of him, but he told something that I couldn’t stop myself to get sad
and help. He told me that he was hungry a lot and couldn’t get food for long
time and he was really shaking because of the cold weather in a bad situation.
Normally, I was bringing some food or clothes to make them warmer in the cold
winter when I see Syrian kids that are collecting plastics, metals or some
stuff from rubbish. There were a lot of them around came to my city and my
country as refuges and they were all around in the streets without even shoes
or clothes that is going to make them warm during the winter. This time the
little boy was also suffering from cold weather and he was so hungry, asking
for some money to buy some food. I felt so sorry for him and tried to find some
coins to give him. Suddenly, a few kids are appeared just behind me all asking
for money. It happened so fast. I really felt uncomfortable because there were
six kids appeared suddenly and surrounding me. I get really scared because they
were trying to catch me while picking my clothes not to let me go! I tried to
get away because they became to be dangerous and I get more scared. Sometimes
those kids were drinking thinner and carrying sharp objects as blades to
threaten people on the street to take money from them.
To conclude my story, I have
to say that our stereotypes could sometimes be useful for us to protect
ourselves from bad events or from danger to happen- Because, it is not easy to
help everyone or get well with everybody and we don’t have to welcome whoever
we see. Sometimes we also need to protect ourselves and those stereotypes could
be helpful to see the events which are probable to happen in near future.
Article 3
Tolerance in virtual world
Do you remember your childhood? Obviously, you used
to play with real toys in the playground, that is why all the childhood
memories seem very real; it is possible to recall the smell, taste and sound of
things. Unfortunately nowadays toys have become digital. The evolvement of
technologies in the last decade has been unthinkable, and children are starting
to get to know virtual world even better than the real one. The virtual identity
becomes more important – compliments turn into likes, conversations into
shares, and, surely enough, today they seem like an essence of life for many of
us. On the internet likes and dislikes are also shown in more personal and
unpleasant way that make us questionate: is there actually any room left for
tolerance, when a person can simply have none or multiple identities at once?
Children – the most unprotected part of society –
have a tendency to form groups online just the way they do it offline. The social
grouping begins at this age; there will always be a leader and a geek, in order
form a simple hierarchy. At this point it is very important not to let kids out
of control simply for one reason: they are defining themselves, and the
bullying can actually destroy the self-esteem of a child. Almost every child
has an access to the internet connection. The effects of technology on children
are complicated, with both benefits and costs. Whether technology helps or
hurts in the development of children’s thinking depends on what specific
technology is used and how and what frequency it is used. Nevertheless real
life conflicts could evolve into virtual conflicts with surprising
consequences. For example, a bullied child has an account in some chatroom
where he/she is far away from any kind of control (the bullies/ parents etc.).
Online image and info shows a pretty and funny person searching for others
alike in order to make new… conflicts. That’s right! Simply the amount of
aggression that has been received daily is too much. In order to increase
self-esteem, the child actually has to feel the power. A basic need to fit in
some group is very important for people, no matter child or adult.
Compared to kids, who spend their time online
having fun or socializing, adults in daily life use the internet mostly for
work or information purposes. Adults have more developed self-awareness and if
they belong to a group, they tend to benefit from the
shared responsibility of decision-making process.
That is why the comments in forums or in private chats mainly appear as
remarks, containing not so much of personal insults than critics and
definitions of social roles. The virtual space provides the chance to have more
than one identity, so bad and good aspects can be expressed. From time to time
people choose not to create an account with detailed information, but prefer to
take part in a discussion, without creating any identity at all. Being
anonymous does not give the person freedom to lose common social skills or act
improperly, that is not the case for the most of the times, but once for a
while discussions with harsh and very personal comments appear. Though there is
no single person behind it, the conflict and lack of tolerance can seriously
damage the object of the insult.
But is there any way how to avoid from contrasting
virtual and real identity? First of all, parents are the ones who make rules
for child in the first years of his life. That is why parents should pay
attention how and with whom their child is spending free time. Tablets,
smartphones and PCs, of course, are helping to control the child, but when the
time comes, there will be no surprise that the device will have control over
child. Maybe some family time every now and then might be helpful. Simply take
the children out, make him see the beauty of the world, socializing and
actually playing with real children and toys. It is impossible to protect the
child from bad things, but it is possible to bring a real life experience and
see new horizons.
Tolerance in real world is different from the one
in virtual world because of the fact that every person has a single identity;
it is impossible to hide anywhere if you are the one who is being discriminated
because of some reason, while online world offers a tempting opportunity to
become whoever you want to be. Maybe it is time to think how contrasting your
real and virtual lives are, and time to improve your tolerance.
Questions:
1. There are always similar stereotypes and
conflict situations as well as opposite ones. How the conflict evolves and ends
depends on the cultural aspects.
2. Where the individual stands in a society very
often is determined by society, yet very bright personalities can always find a
way to shine.
3. The society has managed to become more
intolerant than before. There can be many causes for that: changing lifestyle,
economic/politic situation etc., yet it is an important problem that should be
solved as soon as possible.
Article 4
Italian childhood (Italy Milan 2002)
Giorgio is a six year-old child, whose parents are
working in hospital, as doctors. Now he is attending the first class in primary
school, and getting to make new friends with others children in his class.
It’s a new situation for him, because he has had no
friends before. He didn’t expect that other children could be so friendly to
him. All of the children want to become his friends, and after two months he is
most popular in the school. But their friends are greedy, the only reason why
they make friends with him is that he looks very reach and has expensive toys.
Giorgio’s parents work in holidays as well, and they don’t have enough time to
take care about him, only the grandmother does. He is grown up by her.
His grandmother was the most important person in his life.
His life was the same even when he was teenager, we
can say, it was very boring for him: nothing changed, he should not have to
fight for anything, he got everything he just wanted. The only things, what he
did not get are a normal family life and true friends.
The first change happened when he reached the age
of 18: his grandmother died. The only person he loved and who loved him
too. This period was very hard to him, but he decided to go to university and
try to live a meaningful life.
African childhood (Ghana Accra
2002)
Chika is a nine year-old girl. She had a very hard
life until now, she lives in a large family, but her mother died when she was
three years old. So she had to grow up her two younger brother and two sisters
at the same time while she was attending missionary school. Her father worked a
lot and very hard, so he was home very rarely. Chika comes from where there no
enough food, no clean water. When she reached the age of six, her father forced
her to work on the fields for more money, but she would have prefered to go to
school.
At the age of 18 she was looking for a better place
without her father permission. So she left her country, Ghana, where she has
grown up, for an uncertain life in Italy.
AFTER A FEW YEARS…
Giorgio is 20 years old now and he is attending
interpreting faculty in university in Milan. Chika is 23 years old now
and after 5 years as an employer in a supermarket she has saved enough money to
start her studies in the university.
Giorgio and Chika saw each
other the first time when they was in the canteen of the school. Giorgio
just took a look at Chika, and after passed away, because he was a stereotypic
person, and he thought that all the immigrants are untidy and stealing jobs
from the italians.
But accidentally they
had a common course, where the professor gave them a task to solve
together. During working together they started started to tell about
their life and were getting to know each other better. Chika spoke a lot about
her childhood, explained how the European and Italian goverment helped her to
start a new life in a new country with completely difficult culture. At
the beginning Giorgio didn’t like her, because he believed that the Italian
goverment is too compationate toward immigrants, so italians are put aside of
work. But after a time Giorgio’s mind changed and he realized that the
girl was very lucky that she is still alive and and has a chance for studiing
in a university.
When they listened each other
they found out, that there is no difference between the people. They are living
ont he same Earth, just they were born in different place surrounded by
different environment, culture and chances. After the long talks, a kind of
connection started between them, and finally they fell in love.
While studiing at the
university, they got know the Erasmus+ projects by a local organisation They
started to take part in projects with different topics for youngsters. They
have had a chance to travel around Europe, and at the same time they discover
that the attitude between all the countries have changed a lot, each europian
country has its own behavior against different people. In fact, the important
things about the place of the person is determined. They traveled to several
countries and learned amount things about different cultures. They have already
learned a lot, got experiences and developed their skills in several topics
which helped them to become better persons and accept different people’s points
of view.
Article 5
From hopelessness to entrepreneur!
Some time ago, one child came in to the world. He
was very ill. He had an epilepsy in a heavy way. He was very disabled by having
this problem, so he couldn’t live normally. He was born in a poor family which
was a part of very small minority in Bulgaria, and that caused in judgment from
society at school he was going. He was very shy because of his disability, and
his classmates were laughing on him. He had bad grades at studies at school
because of attitude against him. Also he wasn’t one of the smartest children.
That made him feels bad and depressed. His parents though that he’s stupid and
didn’t even tried to help him out with this problem.
As it’s usually happening – he grew up. He got
married. After this everything changed. Until that he always wanted to become a
better person but he never had a reason. That time he had a nice opportunity
and for that time, he had become smart enough to take advantage. He had
innovative idea. That resulted in a wealthy living. After this he got a lot of
new friends, even those who was laughing on he. But he accepted this
friendship, because he was very good person. He was very tolerant and
responsive to everyone. He liked to give without a receiving back. Maybe that
resulted in end of his sickness.
His time has come and he passed away. He had achieved a lot from such poverty.
He had children. They decided to write one sentence on his gravestone: “No
matter what kind of an obstacles and circumstances we everybody have a chance
to achieve something in his life just put an effort on it.”