Belgrade Schedule

This was my schedule in Belgrade, Serbia, March 23 to 28, 2007.

Serbia was part of the former Yugoslavia that broke up into 6 new countries in a civil war in the 1990s. This war was the first time that gang rape of women (Bosnians Muslims, mostly, but other women too, by Serbian Christians) were recognized as a tactic of war, and the massacre of Bosnians, Croatians, and other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia were recognized as genocide. Several war criminals, including Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadizic remain at large, and believed to still be in Serbia.

Serbia wants to join the European Union and become a modern state. A major challenge is locating and apprehending the war criminals and sending them to the Hague to stand trial. However, as we heard over and over again, 30% of the population are nationalists and don't want to join the EU and regard the war criminals as war heroes.

I travelled with Natasha Jones, Communications Manager for King County government: Jeff Merritt, Eastern Regional Director for Government and Public Affairs for KB Homes; Hussein Samatar, Executive Directorof African Development Center; and Michael Webber, Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and Professor at the University of Texas-Austin. We were joined part way by Todd Culpepper, Executive Director of the International Affairs Council.


March 23, Friday
Afternoon -- arrive in Belgrade from Rome. This process involved a layover in Vienna.
7:30pm to ? -- welcome dinner with Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund, and our local host

Back at the hotel room, I watched a CNN documentary about the Bosnian children of war. During the war, tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim women were abducted and held in concentration camps and gang raped by Serbian men. The systematic use of rape led to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to recognize ethnically motivated rape as a war crime, part of the Serbs’ campaign of ethnic cleansing.


The women who didn't die in the rape camps were held captive until birth. Many children were abandoned because the women could not face the constant reminder of their ordeal, or were killed. Others were adopted. Most do not know about their origin and are now old enough to ask where their mothers and/or fathers are. The show also profiled Bosnian women going to Belgrade to testify against their Serbian rapists. These women are so brave to go into enemy territory to do so.


At RWN, we work with refugees who are fleeing exactly this kind of persecution and do work with many Bosnian women. It just absolutely blows my mind that I was actually in Serbia and my first night there, to see this program.


March 23, Saturday
10:30 to 12pm -- meeting at Civic Initiatives, Citizen's Association for Democracy and Civic Education. This organization was founded in 1996 by activists in opposition to Milosovic. The purpose is to educate citizens to be active participants in building a democracy. We met the founders, Mr. Miljenko Dereta and Ms. Dubravka Velat. A longer post about democracy in Serbia will follow. Several of our meetings were with pro-democracy activists.

12:30 to 6:30pm -- visit to the US Steel mill in Smederevo. During the war in the 1990s, the steel mill was shut down. Recently it was bought by US Steel and the Serbs are very happy, as it is an indicator of economic stability that will allow more foreign investment.

We also learned that Serbs eat lunch at 3pm. We Americans were not used to it, and can now confirm that it is true that hunger deters learning.

The tour itself was fascinating and our guide said that watching molten metal turned into thin sheets of steel never got old for her.

8pm to ? -- dinner with civil society representatives:

Dragan Popovic, Youth Initiative for Human Rights

Jelena Rankovic and Srdjan Mitrovic, Hajde Da...

Miljenko Dereta and Dubravka Velat, Civic Initiatives

Miodrag Shrestha, Group 484

Daniel Sumter, Euro-Atlantic Initiative

March 25, Sunday

12 to 2:30pm -- tour of Belgrade, including the Kalamagdan park, the Military Museum, Sava Church, and Tito's grave. We also saw many buildings that were bombed by NATO during the war such as the Chinese embassy (an accident) and the headquarters of the secret police (not an accident). Amazingly, the buildings on either side of those buildings were untouched. Talk about precision bombing. Underneath the highway overpasses, we saw families living among trash dumps. The guide told us they were gypsies/Roma.



This tower was built by the Hungarians in the 1800s to mark Serbia as a part of the Hungarian empire. You can see a bit of the graffitti at the base. Our guide said that 14 ethnic minority groups live in Serbia, a legacy of centuries of being part of different empires, such as the Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ottoman empires.
Part of the exhibit at the Military Museum The tan waters of the Sava river meets the blue Danube river

evening -- dinner in, at the hotel, just by ourselves.

March 26, Monday

10:30 to 11:30 -- individual meetings. I met with Ms. Maja Bobic of the European Movement in Serbia. We discussed their women in government project, as there are very few women in the decision-making positions in the government.

In 2006, they conducted a virtual campaign to create an all-women government slate. There are 2 executive posts and 18 ministry posts in the governement and therefore they published in the newspapers the profiles of 161 women already holding office and invited the public to text message which of the women they would vote for to hold each of the 20 posts. During the 21 day virtual campaign, they received 30,000 votes. There was significant media coverage and there was an increase in women holding office from 10% to 21%.

The women who won the virtual election have been meeting regularly and have created their own nonprofit organization to continue this work.

11:45 to 12:30pm -- individual meeting with Marcel Grogan, Balkan Trust for Democracy regarding philanthropy and support for nonprofit organizations / NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) in Serbia. Essentially all NGOs are funded by foreign sources, mostly governmental, such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID). There is no philanthropic infrastructure to support charities and NGOs.

12:30 to 1:30pm -- tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Stretching your mind in a totally different way. There was an exhibit of British art, called Breaking Step / U Raskoraku. The most memorable pieces were:

• M-path by Adam Chodzko -- shelves and shelves of shoes, arranged by size. Viewer are invited to borrow a pair and to literally walk in another person's shoes while in the museum. Hence the play on the word empathy. The shoes were donated by the residents of Belgrade and at the end of the show, will be donated to charity. This piece resonated with me, because in Serbia the alphabet is Cyrillic not Latin and I was rendered absolutely illiterate and dependent on our city coordinator in Belgrade. It reminded me of how difficult resettlement is for refugees and immigrants.
  
• Replica of a witness box at the Hague tribunal -- don't have the name of the piece or the artist, but it was relevant, given the issue of genocide and war criminals yet to be sent to the Hague.
  
• Translated letters -- again did not write down the name of the piece or the artist. The British artist had written a letter to a museum, proposing an art piece involving mindwaves and telepathy. The letter was only a few lines long. It was translated into French. The French letter was translated into Chinese, the Chinese letter into another language and so on, and back into English. The last letter bore no resemblence to the original English letter.

2 to 3pm -- Lunch with Obrad Savic, editor in chief of Belgrade Circle journal. He is also a professor of journalism and spoke about the need for a free media in a democracy. He is writing a book called Post-Secular Europe. Religion is re-emerging in post-communist, secular, small Eastern European countries which are also panicking about globalization. There is a need to find ways to balance religion and democracy. He spoke at length about the Turkey being Europe's change to build a bridge to Islam and for the European Union to come into the future.

4 to 5:30pm -- visit to CeSID, Center for Free Elections and Democracy. One of their major activities is election monitoring. They also monitor the monitors to ensure that they have not been "disappeared" by the nationalists. They also do public opinion polling, voting trends analysis, and get out the vote campaigns.

CeSID finds that there are 5.5 million registered voters (people are registered at birth) but half a million do not vote. Of the 5 million who do vote, about 1.4 million steadily support the right wing parties, and 2.5 million identify more with the democratic parties. There is a 30% of the population that are very traditional, looking to past, to 500 years ago (side note -- in the US, we barely have half that much history to look to.). They are nationalist, patriarchal, and anti-European. They are those who did not benefit when Yugoslavia fell apart, when communism ended, and so they are afraid, uncertain, and angry, so they vote conservatively.

Another universal truth.

8pm to ? -- dinner with media representatives:
Duska Anastasijevic, Vreme Magazine

Dejan Anastasijevic, Vreme Magazine

Slavica Vuceljic, TANJUG News Agency

Katarina Zivanovic, B92 Fund

Lidija Bartus-Vasiljevic, Studio B

Milica Mancic, BETA News Agency

Jeta Xharra, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network -- Kosovo

Krenar Gashi, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network -- Kosovo

It turns out that one of the journalists is a member of the Hapsburg royalty, but she didn't make a big deal out of it. It was more along the lines "Oh, my father is a Hapsburg count."

Later in the evening, two of us wanted to go dancing. Our city coordinator suggested a club managed by his cousin. In the end it was the city coordinator, another AMMF, and myself getting into a cab to go to the club. The club turned out to be a rave in an empty warehouse under a highway overpass.

We were not on the guest list and we waited at least 15 minutes as the city coordinator tried to call his cousin's cellphone and talk our way in. With each passing minute, the other AMMF and I began to get a bad feeling. I looked into the dark rave and considered that I didn't speak the language, couldn't read any signs, and if I were to go into the loud, dark rave with hundreds of dancers, it could end badly. I could be human trafficked and the other AMMF if he was with me, just killed. Eventually, he and I jumped into a cab and returned to the hotel.

March 27, Tuesday
10:15 to 12pm -- Kosovo Roundtable discussion with

• Chad Rogers, National Democratic Institute -- moderator
• Isak Vorgucic, Radio KIM
• Krenar Gashi, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
• Nenad Djurdjevic and Danijela Nenadic, Center for NonViolent Resistance
• Gyrogy Kakuk, United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
• Nenad Sebek, Center of Democracy and Reconciliation in South East Europe

This will be discussed in another post.

12:30 to 2:30pm -- visit to the European Union Integration Office. We met Tanja Miscevic, the executive director, and professor of political science. The EU Integration office is the department within the Serbian government that liaises with the EU and monitors and coordinates Serbia’s progress in meeting the criteria for joining the EU. This office also communicates with the general public about the process and the media has identified their office as the most transparent governmental agency. They are also designed to cover the western Balkans.

The biggest challenge Serbia faces in this process are:
Ø the fact that war criminals still have not been apprehended and sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, a body of the United Nations (UN) established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. It is located in the Hague in the Netherlands.
Ø At the time of our visit, Serbia had no government. Elections were held in January, but for some reason, the government had not formed. An interim government was running the country until a permanent government could be seated. (That occurred in May 2007.)
Ø 20% to 30% of the population that is very conservative, isolationist, and nationalistic and do not want to join the EU and consider the war criminals to be war heroes.
Ø Lack of communication with the general public of the EU states, who have a vote on whether or not Serbia will be allowed to join.
Serbia also thinks Turkey’s inclusion is necessary. If Turkey is shut out, there will a rise in Islamic fundamentalism. Given that Serbia’s history with Muslims, that could be problematic.

However, Serbia’s concerned more with the integrity of the EU process. If they (Serbia, Turkey, any other countries) meet the EU criteria, they should be included. There has to be faith that following the rules will result in EU membership. Serbia is also concerned that EU expansion fatigue will set in and Serbia, the Western Balkans, and Turkey will be shut out.

I found it interesting that Ms. Miscevic said that they want to join the EU even though there is no clarity on what the EU means and where it is going.

They are hoping Serbia, the Western Balkans, and Turkey will join the EU by June 28, 2014, the 100th anniversary of World War I. I knew WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However I did not know the killer was Serbian.

3 to 4pm – lunch with European Marshall Memorial Fund fellows and selection committee members:

Ø Lazar Mricevic, Center for Development of Serbia
Ø Dusan Vasiljevic, OSCE Head of Economic and Environmental Development
Ø Vera Didanovic, journalist and Balkan MMF fellow
Ø Senad Sabovic, International Crisis Group (Kosovo), and Balkan MMF fellow
Ø Lana Pavlovic, Coordinator of the Deputy Mayor Cabinet of the City of Belgrade and Balkan MMF fellow
Ø Aaron Presnall, Jefferson Institute
Ø Nenad Sebek, Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South East Europe

4:45 to 6pm – Tour of B92 Omnimedia studios. B92 began in 1989 as a youth radio station and has been active in opposing oppressive government and advocating for human rights. They have now grown to include a TV network, internet providing service, book publishing, audio recording label and a cultural center. The co-founder and chair of the board of directors, Sasha Mirkovic said that their visibility is their protection. They are so popular that if the government tried to silence them, the public would protest.

8pm to ? – farewell dinner with the staff of the Balkan Trust for Democracy at a riverside restaurant. There was a live band who performed three songs in English, including “Love Shack” and “New York, New York.”

March 28, Wednesday
8am – flight to Brussels, Belgium for the last stop on the fellowship trip.

Italy's Policy towards the poor and the immigrants -- the role of NGOs

On March 21, 2007, we spent the evening in the community of Trastevere, a neighborhood in Rome with many refugees and immigrants. We met with Claudio Betti, who works with English-speaking countries on behalf of the Romanic Church of Sant'Egidio, in Trastevere.

Ms. Betti showed us a building owned by the church that houses people with disabilities, a restaurant run by the church and staffed by people with disabilities, and we visited a soup kitchen for people who are homeless. The people cooking and serving were reflective of the clientele, that is Romans and international on both sides. Mr. Betti said that most people who are homeless in Italy were immigrants.

I was impressed that the church was able to attain a street address for the soup kitchen, so that the people who are homeless could have a mailing address, which is necessary when applying for jobs.

After the tour, we returned to the church to learn more about their grassroots programs. As we were walking down and down through stone doorways, I wondered if we were going all the way to the catacombs, but we did not.

The church is rooted in the gospel, but is not interested in trying to convert people. Rather, they believe in the three pillars of the gospel, serving the poor, and the importance of friendship, which motivates their grassroots work.

Mr. Betti spoke about the need to rediscover the belief in nonviolence, in total nonviolence, and to believe in the power of the people and the possibility of change. It was wonderful to hear a message and philosophy that is so positive and empowering, like RWN.

It is this attitude that allows the Community of Sant'Egidio to be heard by hardline Muslim extremists. On the other hand, he finds that American evangelicals are difficult to talk with because they believe they have arrived and don't need to hear other viewpoints.

There was, as in every country we visited, extensive discussion about Islam. Mr. Betti spoke about the need for engage Muslims, not isolate them, and to understand that there are moderate Muslims, that not all Muslims are terrorists. That only pushes them away and hardens them against those who call them terrorists. Yet the US invasion of Iraq creates more extremism because violence begets only more violence.

We also discussed the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Mr. Betti mentioned that Nancy Pelosi referred to it as genocide. Yet if you call it genocide, the mass murder to extinguish an entire group of people, then you are morally compelled to respond, to send troops on the ground to stop it. You can't just talk.

He asserted that the Sudanese government in Khartoum airlifts the janjaweed from area to area, flying right over the African Union troops on the ground. Therefore the solution is to bomb the airstrips. Not sure how that jibes with the principle of absolute nonviolence.

As we talked, at 6pm, the church bells rang. The bells ring every day to give people pause to think about the poor and the sick. In that church basement, there was absolute silence. There was a window and we could see the sky, but heard no birds singing, no street traffic. It was incredibly peaceful to sit and just think about others. We need more of that in our lives.

After a minute or so, we finished the discussion about the culture of violence that makes people think that war is the solution.

For dinner, we went to the restaurant that is run by the church and staffed by people with disabilities. Unfortunately I don't have the name of the place, but it is near the church of Sant'Egidio and has been favorably reviewed by Roman restaurant critics. What a great example of a social enterprise: a for-profit business that also lives up to a social justice principle. We need more of that too.

The evening ended by going to mass at the church. Mr. Betti provided the English translation via headsets. My headset didn't work, but it was nice and peaceful to listen to the Italian.

Religion can be such an incredibly divisive topic, but there were no objections from the non-Catholics among us to attend the mass. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Literally.

Telefono Rosa, hotline for women in Italy

On March 22, 2007 I visited the office of Telefono Rosa (TR), a national hotline for women in Italy, with offices or partners in Rome, Turino, Merona, and Montova.

I met with Luisa Rizzitelli, a volunteer who also runs a communications business. Ms. Rizzitelli has been selected as a European fellow and will be traveling to the US later in the year. I hope she comes to Atlanta, as I would like to reciprocate.

Telephono Rosa's mission to help women in trouble, be it economic, violence, etc. They have a call center with 4 phones, and the services are completely free. In addition to the hotline volunteers, they have 12volunteer lawyers, 12 psychologists, and 2 bankers who advise about personal finance and help women open bank accounts.

The executive director of TR is Ms. Gabriella Moscatelli, who was the first women to become a bank manager in Italy. That occurred some years ago, but Italy still has the glass ceiling that allows women to see the top positions, but prevents them from achieving it. Except Ms. Rizzitelli called it the crystal ceiling. Even the bad things in life sound good when spoken by Italians.

The gender situation in Italy is not very good. Only 15% of the parliment are women and 6 of the ministers in the administration are women. However, 4 of the 6 do not have a portfolio. That is, they have no funding for their responsibilities and have to rely of the prime minister for funding. In the business sector, many women are managers, but none are CEOs, CFOs, and other decision makers.

In contrast, they hold Spain as the best example of gender equity, where there is equal pay for equal work.

Ms. Rizzitelli was very proud that TR operates "like a business." I asked what that meant and she explained that the hotline is available 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Made me think that if this a great achievement, which is it, then they must been able to provide less services in the past.

TR makes a deliberate effort to serve the international population of Italy. They have offices in the embassies of Argentina, Equador, Ethiopia, and Peru and thus are able to help women from those countries. However, they are having difficulty reaching out to the Muslim community.

They have opened the International Home of Human Rights, in Rome, the only such kind in Italy. It is a shelter for women fleeing violence based on religious or cultural issues. Examples include women who have had acid thrown on their faces or fleeing female genital mutilation. They provide medical and health services, including therapy.

In additon to International Home of Human Rights, there are also domestic violence shelters in Italy. They are very interested in learning about laws to stop batterer and batterer intervention programs to stop abusers from abusing again. They found that 30% of batterers batter again.

Each year, TR receives 7000 calls and see 1000 women in person in the office.

As we spoke, a reporter from La Corriere della Sera newspaper arrived to work with Ms. Moscatelli on a domestic violence public awareness article. As in many parts of the world, violence against female family members are considered private concerns and not a legal or human rights issue.

They were very proud of the facts that the wife of the president of the Czech Republic visited their organization and that they were able to recruit 4 Olympic athletes to tape a public service announcement to say that domestic violence is unacceptable.

It's sad to see that violence against women, in their own homes by the people who are supposed to love and support them, is such a global problem. I know that for a fact, in my head and my heart, but it is still very sad to encounter it again.

On the other hand, it was very uplifting to see what TR has done to serve and support the women in Italy. The meeting ended much too soon, and I left feeling very inspired and thinking at RWN we must do more.

Economic Outline of Italy

On March 22, our first meeting of the day was at the Banca d'Italia. Roberto Torrini, (European MMF fellow) gave a presentation about the Italian economy. Usually, a powerpoint presentation on economics seems like it would make my eyes glaze over, but it was actually very interesting. Most of the statistics were taken from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, so I will mention only the highlights.

1. Until 2006, Italy did not have statistics on immigrants, because until 10 years ago, Italy didn't really have immigrants. After WWII, the Italians had their baby boom and Italians were still emigrating away from the country. Now that generation is retiring from the work force and the fertility rate has dropped below replacement levels. So they need immigrants now to work. Most of the immigrants are from Northern Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America. Of the Eastern Europeans, Mr. Torrini mentioned that Albanians and Romanians working in construction and manufacturing, and Ukrainian and Polish women working as domestic help.

2. Only 50.6% of women aged 15 to 65 are employed. They don't know why the rate is so low, but did mention that discrimination and cultural values may have something to do with it.

3. The Italian government have invested heavily in the elderly and not the youth. Pensions for retired people account for 15% of the gross domestic product (GDP). In Italy, people can retire after working for only 17 years! So people retire in their 50s. (In the States, I'll be lucky if I can retire when I'm 70.) There's no big disincentive to work because there's not a big government funded safety net. Young people (aged 15 to 24) live longer and longer at home because they can't find jobs, can't afford to live on their own, and so live at home and rely on their parents' pensions.

4. Like most of Western Europe, the gap bettwen GDP per capita and productivity is widening and the Italian economy is in decline.

5. Only 15% of Italians have a college education, compared to almost 40% in the US, 50+% in Japan, and 50+% in Canada. 6. 25% of Italians are entrepreneurs, compared to 7% in the US. That's because Italy has regulations in place that restrict chain stores from setting up in Italy. And entrepreneurs use their savings, pensions, or their parents' pensions for start-up capital.

Meeting at the Italian Parliament

On March 21, 2007, we went to the Italian Parliament to get a tour and to meet Mr. Umberto Ranieri, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies (similar to the US House of Representatives).

He discussed Italy's foreign policy priorities, which were to strengthen the European Union, and expand it to include the Balkans and Turkey, to create stability, and the Middle East. He said that last year, in the war between Lebanon and Hezbollah, Italy sent more than 2000 soldiers to support Israel. Supporting Israel was a priority and he thinks it's a mistake for Israel to ignore the new unified government of Palestine.

He also said that the war in Iraq is a big mistake. Stabilizing Afghanistan was the way to fight terror, not to open another theater of war. And military might is not the only way to deal with Afghanistan. We need to create a functioning economy in Afghanistan so it will stabilize and people will have less incentive to turn to force and the Taliban.

I asked about the rest of the world. I mentioned that China is investing heavily in Africa, and gaining influence in Africa. Africa is geographically closer to Italy than it is to China, what's Italy's stand on all this? He said that they are increasing international cultural cooperation with South America, Africa, and Asia, but that Italy's focus in on the European Union and the Middle East.

Regarding Turkey, he said it was important to encourage Turkey's inclusion in the European Union. It will be a 10 to 15 year process, but very important. He said "If we shut the door, it will be full of risk regarding Islamic extremists. Must keept the door open and the relationship open." I'm paraphrasing here, and was glad to hear the relationship-building language and pro-Turkey language.

He had to leave to vote to authorize a budget to continue funding their troops in Afghanistan. When he returned he asked us what we thought about the Italian journalist hostage exchange.

We were very quiet. This was a very unexpected question. Walking into the meeting, none of us quite knew who he was and what the meeting was going to be about (we talked about this among ourselves afterwards). And so to be asked about, literally, a life or death question was a surprise.

Fortunately, one of the other American fellows has military experience and serves as a judge advocate general (JAG, attorney), so he stepped up to answer. He said that the US would not have made the exchange such a blatant quid pro quo, but get the hostage first, then wait a few days, and then release the Taliban prisoners. Didn't seem like much of a difference to me, but then, I'm not a diplomat or military person. Maybe the protocols are different in those situations.

After this meeting, we took a tour of the Italian Parliament. Lovely, lots of wood paneling, marble, red velvet drapes. There was a hall with portraits of the Italian equivalent of speaker of the house. Not surprisingly, the vast majority were men, but there were one or two women. One of our hosts, former European MMF fellows, said something about women comprising a growing percentage of the parliament. I mentioned that women still comprise 50% of the population, so there was some ways to go. Just as there is the US.

At some point, the conversation turned to returning antiquities. Throughout the years, colonizers and conquers have taken artifacts and monuments from one country to another. One of our guides mentioned that recently Italy did a "very stupid thing" returning an obelisk to Ethiopia. I raised an eyebrow, and Hussein asked for clarification. Italy colonized Ethiopia, Somalia's neighbor, and took an obelisk. Last year or so, the Ethiopian government asked for it back and so Italy spent 4 million Euros ($5.3 million US) to send it back.

The Italian fellow thought it was a very foolish use of money that could have been better used for food aid. However, Hussein and I said, if Italy took it from Ethiopia, and Ethiopia asks for it back, then Italy should give it back. They shouldn't have taken it in the first place!

The rest of the visit went smoothly and we caused no international incident.

Roman Schedule

This was my schedule in Rome. I traveled with Cal Cunningham, lawyer from North Carolina; Chad Evans, VP of the Council on Competitiveness; Ellen Kackmann, associate with Wachovia Bank; Hussein Samatar, executive director of the African Development Center. We were also joined by Corinna Horst, Deputy Director of the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund, sponsor of the fellowship.

March 19, 2007
Afternoon -- fly from Copenhagen to Rome
6:30pm -- program overview with city coordinator
8pm to ? -- Welcome dinner hosted by The Council for the United States and Italy. Six Italian MMF fellows attended. It was very interesting to hear about their experiences traveling around the US on their fellowship. More on that later.

March 20, 2007
9:30 - 11:15am -- Art as an Economic Asset, held at the Scuderie del Quirinal museum.
12 - 2pm -- individual appointment with the Emigrant Somali Women's Association. This was not set up for me, but for Hussein Samatar, another MMF fellow. He is a refugee from Somalia and he was very happy for the opportunity to meet other Somalis. Somalia is a former colony of Italy and so there is a significant Somali population in Italy. I sat in for about 15 minutes and met the ladies. Their English was limited and I didn't speak Italian or Somali. Executive Director, Ms. Zeinab Ahmed Barahow, did speak very good English.

The Emigrant Somali Women's Association was established in 2003 and there are 18 members, all volunteers. Four of the women have opened their own businesses, such as selling Somali clothing, operating a call center, and interpretation. I was so happy to hear about refugee and immigrant women as leaders and entrepreneurs!

They estimate that there are 3,000 Somalis in Italy, but they have started leaving for other parts of Italy because of lack of jobs. Many women work as house cleaners to earn a living. They were a great example of a mutual assistance association trying to help one another the best they can. One thing they try to do is raise funds so people who pass away can be sent back to Somalia for burial or to celebrate holidays. That's something all ethnic groups the world over do.

Ms. Barahow is the second from the right.













2:30pm -- meet in lobby to take bus to next appointment
3:30 to 5:15pm -- The media and press in Italy, held at La Repubblica newspaper. It was very timely because the day before, a reporter for La Repubblica was released by the Taliban in Afghanistan and everyone in Italy was very happy to have him safely back home. In exchange for his release, 5 Taliban prisoners were released. There is still debate whether that was the proper thing to do. Sadly, the Italian journalist's driver and interpreter, both Afghanis, were killed.
These are the American fellows, with Ms. Raffaella Menichini, third from left. Ms. Menichini is the foreign desk journalist for La Repubblica and an European MMF fellow. On our tour of the newspaper, we stopped by an editors' meeting. No women were editors.







8:30pm to 12am -- home dinners with European MMF alumni. The dinners are held in people's homes and they're very informal. Only 2 or 3 American MMF fellows attend each, to avoid overwhelming the host. There were at least 2 other Italian MMF fellows at the dinner.

One fellow (who was a woman. We need a better, gender neutral term other than fellow!) did not have good things to say about the American health care system. She started in Washington DC, then went to Raleigh, North Carolina. While there she went hiking with her host family (apparently European fellows sometimes have host families. We American fellows did not.) in the woods. Then she went on to Dallas, Texas. While there, she found a tick buried in her skin. Her only option for getting health care to remove the bloodsucker was to go to the emergency room. But she didn't want to go and "sit there with all the immigrants." So after a few more days, she went on to San Francisco, California. Finally, her host family called a doctor friend who came over after hours to remove the tick. She was incredulous that it was so difficult to get health care! Join the club.

March 21, 2007
9:30 to 11:15am -- Italian Institutions and their relationships with the European Union, held at the Italian Parliament. This will be discussed in another post.
Lunch -- at our leisure. I think I took a nap.
4:15pm -- meet in hotel lobby to take the train to the Community of Sant'Egidio.
5 to 6pm -- Italy's policy toward the poor and the immigrants. To be a longer post.
7 to 8:30pm -- dinner with Claudio Betti, of the Community of Sant'Egidio.
8:3o to 9pm -- Catholic mass with the Community of Sant'Egidio. It was held in Italian, with translation head sets. Mr. Betti provided the simultaneous translation into English. The mass is said every night by lay volunteers.

March 22, 2007
10 to 11:30am -- an Economic Outline of Italy, held at the Banca d'Italia, the equivalent of the Federal Reserve. The European Union is essentially an economic and trade body and so we had a power point presentation about how it worked. Fortunately, I had already read "The United States of Europe" by T. R. Reid. Very easy to read, made European economic policy interesting. I had to leave this meeting early to make it to my individual meeting with:
12 to 1pm -- Telefono Rosa, a national hotline to help women in distress. To be a separate post

2 to 3pm -- bus trip to farm

3 to 5pm -- visit Azienda Agricola Castel di Guido, a farm managed by the city of Rome. They raise longhorn cattle, dairy cows, olive grove, and make their own cheese, bread, wine and spirits. We had the opportunity to sample the organic food products and rode a tractor pulled wagon through the country side. We even had to Roman cowboys ride along side.
These are maremmana cattle, protected by the European Union and in danger of extinction. They're born reddish and turn grey as they age.

You will have to imagine for yourself the rest of the hilly vista, with the top of St. Peter's Basilica of the Vatican off in the distance in one direction, and the sea in the other direction. I was busy trying to stay on the wagon. There were no guardrails and nothing really to hold onto.

Between the farm and Rome lay a forest where our guide said 2000 immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, were living in shanties. The authorities had gone into the forest to tear down the shanties, but found no people. No one knew where they had gone or how they knew the authorities were coming. Even in this idyllic setting, the global economic reality was present.

6pm to ? -- Goodbye dinner with fellows, Ms. Horst, and Ms. Liberati, the city coordinator.


Next up: Belgrade, Serbia!

The Value of Cultural Brokers

In Rome, the opening dinner was hosted by the Council for the United States and Italy, and featured a talk by Dennis Redmont, the Head of Communications, Media, and Develoment. Mr. Redmond is an American who has lived and worked in Italy for a long time.

That was very significant. As an American, he knows that we, the Americans, get most of our information about Italians from TV and movies and the stereotypes of Italian-Americans. I may be oversimplifying, but the point is that he is bicultural, shares our cultural background and perspective, and was best able to explain Italy to us in terms that we Americans would understand.

Sometimes, in our meetings, the Italian presenter would talk in depth about European history that I had learned once but forgotten a long time ago. They assumed we knew more about them than we did.

They would say "As you know, in year..... this thing happened and then ......." and I would think "Actually, I don't know anything about that thing in that year. We didn't learn that in world history. And I'm an international relations major! But in the US, if it didn't impact America, generally we didn't learn it." I needed a bicultural broker.

That resonated with me because that's what we do at Refugee Women's Network. We are very deliberate in working with refugee and immigrant women to become the bridge between new arrivals and the larger American society. For example, when new Somali refugees and immigrants need to figure out something about American culture and society, they will ask other Somalis for advice because they share a cultural affinity. That's why ethnic self-help groups and ethnic enclaves are crucial in helping new Americans become integrated.

Just pronouncing names and places in an American accent was helpful. Our Italian city coordinator was Flavia Liberati, an Italian born and raised. She would say "We're going to the Scuderie del Quirinale museum."

What I heard was "We're going to the scuderiedelquirinalemuseum." It was one long unintelligible word to me because she said it in Italian. Mr. Redmont would say "We're going to the Skooderry del Kwerinall museum." He said it in American and then I understood.

By the way, the Scuderie del Quirinale used to be the stables for the pope's horses. It had a huge staircase with shallow steps so the horses could walk up to the next floor. It now is an art museum. We had a presentation about art as an economic asset for the city. Then we had a guided tour of their Albrecht Durer exhibit. He was a German printmaker, painter, and sculpter who studied in Italy over the years.