Second Skype Meeting

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war and yesterday Alessia, Ann and I talked about terrorism and politics in Italy and America. We started making some questions to Ann about how she feels about terrorism and what has changed in the United States after 9/11. She told us that security measures have generally increased everywhere, above all in the airports. She went back home for the spring break and she had to arrive at the airport three hours early because of all security controls. Another consequence of this situation is represented by the creation of bad stereotypes regarding muslim people and Arabian in general. This happens not only in America but also here in Italy and in Europe in general, I think, because we know that religious extremists of the Middle East hate the western part of the world for various reasons. Then she asked us if we knew other types of terrorism existing in Europe and we told her about the "anni di piombo" in Italy during the seventies and about ETA in Spain.

Then we started talking about elections and politics in general and we expressed our feelings about the present situation. Many politicians here are corrupted and sentenced to prison but they keep their positions thanks to their privileges and this is not fair. Some time ago the governor of New York Elliot Spitzer was caught in a sex scandal and he resigned. Ann told that he was always talking about morality and family but his actions prove that he was not who people tought he was; we vote for people we trust but most times they leave us disappointed.

This skype meeting was more useful to me than the last because I could speak more in English; Ann was very nice and in spite of our topic of conversation we laughed a lot. She had some difficulties with Italian language but I hope she could understand most of the things Alessia and I said. This exchange is becoming more and more interesting and I think I will have learnt lots of thing from my American peers by the end of this academic year.