Tomorrow I go to Austria. Sultan Tunc and his band will play at "Linz Fest" on sunday evening. I will play the contrabass. It's the first concert of the new band and we start right strong, we will do our best. Ali is still in Cyprus and has not been able to leave, so we play without him.
This May is about to end. A May of hard work and encouraging answers. Head down and work hard without asking many questions about the future. A fast pace kept me away more than usual from the website. Now it is to keep this pace until the end of July but at the same time continue the work of the story-telling of this effort and this time in Istanbul.
A few days ago I received an e-mail that struck me, I was delighted but also made me sad. Caterina wrote me, an Italian girl from Sicily, studying in Bologna, who spent a semester of study within the Erasmus project in Istanbul. And in recent months we have met. One evening last December we had a dinner at home with some friends and a home screening of "Isti'mariyah".
These are the main passages of the e-mail (in Italian in original).
<<My beloved Tunisian teacher of Arabic language was dismissed because the university no longer had funds to pay her salary (already heard story).
So sad to have go, she has sent an e-mail to all students of Arabic inviting us to the screening of a documentary movie of which has not even specified the name.
In 3 seconds I could not believe my eyes: it was "Ist'imariyah"!
This May is about to end. A May of hard work and encouraging answers. Head down and work hard without asking many questions about the future. A fast pace kept me away more than usual from the website. Now it is to keep this pace until the end of July but at the same time continue the work of the story-telling of this effort and this time in Istanbul.
A few days ago I received an e-mail that struck me, I was delighted but also made me sad. Caterina wrote me, an Italian girl from Sicily, studying in Bologna, who spent a semester of study within the Erasmus project in Istanbul. And in recent months we have met. One evening last December we had a dinner at home with some friends and a home screening of "Isti'mariyah".
These are the main passages of the e-mail (in Italian in original).
<<My beloved Tunisian teacher of Arabic language was dismissed because the university no longer had funds to pay her salary (already heard story).
So sad to have go, she has sent an e-mail to all students of Arabic inviting us to the screening of a documentary movie of which has not even specified the name.
In 3 seconds I could not believe my eyes: it was "Ist'imariyah"!
(...)
My fellow students have all enjoyed, so followed a long debate, even if didn't miss those absurd remarks of whom had not understood anything.
(...)
Poor H. was dismissed because the University had not enough funds to pay all, here is the effect of the famous cuts to teaching!
Obviously the first to be fired are Readers of different languages, that not hold the chair, the weakest category (almost all employed on temporary contracts and paid just a little) but essential for the teaching of languages. It seems the University of Bologna has preferred to take another Reader in sharing with the university of Venice, thus sharing the costs, household reason... The merit of a teacher has nothing to do with these accounts>>.
I think everything is second script, I am not surprised. My works run clandestine in Universities (sometimes even in unofficial versions) without finding an official distribution in Italy. This happens for years. And this news does not surprise me, although the coincidence (but it is a coincidence?) with Caterina is funny.
But there is also another aspect of the story. That part of the University world sensitive to my works is subjected to attempted marginalization and sometimes exclusion. It is not a trivial consequence of the cuts at the University of the Italian Government. In a country whose premier has recently stated that "Italy will never be multiethnic" these cuts are politically oriented. Because put the Universities in terms of having to make cuts in those courses that have only few students, doesn't mean economize. It means condemn a country not to evolve, to stagnate, to be always old. It means to condemn a country not to be able to imagine something different, try other ways, experiment with new models, follow new needs. First discuss, analyze, metabolize these new models and finally transfer them in common society. This is the job and the duty of Universities.
The Italy that I had in mind is a smaller and smaller country and increasingly marginalized, windward once more. For this reason to feel still Italian, I came to Istanbul.
My fellow students have all enjoyed, so followed a long debate, even if didn't miss those absurd remarks of whom had not understood anything.
(...)
Poor H. was dismissed because the University had not enough funds to pay all, here is the effect of the famous cuts to teaching!
Obviously the first to be fired are Readers of different languages, that not hold the chair, the weakest category (almost all employed on temporary contracts and paid just a little) but essential for the teaching of languages. It seems the University of Bologna has preferred to take another Reader in sharing with the university of Venice, thus sharing the costs, household reason... The merit of a teacher has nothing to do with these accounts>>.
I think everything is second script, I am not surprised. My works run clandestine in Universities (sometimes even in unofficial versions) without finding an official distribution in Italy. This happens for years. And this news does not surprise me, although the coincidence (but it is a coincidence?) with Caterina is funny.
But there is also another aspect of the story. That part of the University world sensitive to my works is subjected to attempted marginalization and sometimes exclusion. It is not a trivial consequence of the cuts at the University of the Italian Government. In a country whose premier has recently stated that "Italy will never be multiethnic" these cuts are politically oriented. Because put the Universities in terms of having to make cuts in those courses that have only few students, doesn't mean economize. It means condemn a country not to evolve, to stagnate, to be always old. It means to condemn a country not to be able to imagine something different, try other ways, experiment with new models, follow new needs. First discuss, analyze, metabolize these new models and finally transfer them in common society. This is the job and the duty of Universities.
The Italy that I had in mind is a smaller and smaller country and increasingly marginalized, windward once more. For this reason to feel still Italian, I came to Istanbul.
