On returning to Paris

Paris was the first city outside Colombia I had the chance to visit. It was at the end of July 2005. Paris was the first destination of a trip that also included Edinburgh and London. Some weeks ago I returned to Paris, and I couldn't avoid remembering that first visit, while comparing how my life was then and how it is now. This post covers some excerpts (the interesting ones, I hope) of that reflection.

As it occurs with the important events in my life, the first thing I remember is that it took me some time to assimilate the fact that I had to go to Europe to present a paper. Perhaps I only completely realized the consequences of that when I landed in Paris. It really felt like if up to that moment I had lived inside a capsule: seeing such a completely different world, very different people speaking all kinds of languages, felt like a strong yet gentle slap in my (innocent and skeptical) Colombian face. Indeed, only then I realized that a different reality ---a better one, from many points of view--- was truly possible for me. Only realizing that was illuminating.

Just as in the first trip, this time I stayed in a town outside Paris, in the south (Orsay). Since the airport (CDG) is located out in the north of Paris, you should take a train (called RER) that completely crosses Paris and connects it to neighboring towns. I remember my first RER trip by having a strange mix of surprise, jet-lag and eagerness to absorb as many things as possible. It was almost a childish feeling. This time, while in the RER, I tried to recall that feeling: I discovered that my eagerness prevented me from seeing things calmly. Put another way, I realized that being in Europe (well, Italy) for a while was useful to look beyond the childish novelty and surprise, and start appreciating some fine details. This also has to do with the different standpoints a tourist and a non-tourist have about the same place: where the former only sees possibilities for discovering attractive spots, the latter only sees an unsurprising (yet only partially understood) reality.

One of my motivations for my first trip to Paris was to find out whether doing a PhD in France, in some topic I was interested at that time, was possible. Back in 2005 I had some doubts and great expectation on the idea of doing a PhD. It's amazing to see how things have changed! While in 2005 doing a PhD in Italy was not in my plans at all, it is now my reality. Now I have great doubts and some expectations on the idea of finishing the PhD. It is curious (frightening could be a more suitable word) how the level of uncertainty regarding things has only increased: I have gone from a naive "will I find a nice place abroad to do a PhD?" to a more realistic "how will life be after the PhD? will i find a job?" While in 2005 I discovered that my wishes about to do a PhD in France were a bit difficult to do, now I don't discard France as a possible place to go after the PhD.

(Do not get me wrong: feel lost or frustrated is the normal status for a PhD student. After all, it's well known that with every PhD degree an extra degree on frustration management is awarded.)

To conclude, some words on my perception of French people. It hasn't changed too much in three years, although I admit it is less radical now. (In general, my opinions are more moderate now than, say, 5 years ago.) Few interactions with French people are enough to realize they're more distant than Colombians. In my first trip I learned that it's not they are mean by default (of course, there are some of them that are really mean) but it's also that we Colombians are too nice to each other. Even with people who they haven't seen in their lives. (People who know me know that I am not the warmest person in the world, but even I am warmer than an average European.) It is my impression that people in France (and apparently everywhere in the world but South America) is really individualist, and of course this has pros and cons. On the one hand, in our countries is perhaps easier to fit in: you get new friends very easily, for instance. On the other hand, the extremely individualist character people have in European countries endows societies a distant, cold atmosphere: you feel you have to hang around for a long while before fitting in. We should not forget that we're talking about societies that differ on a lot of aspects, especially in age. Societies in south american countries behave like young, immature teenagers, who have yet a lot to learn and go through. European societies are like those adults that are so self-confident that disregard younger friends, especially if they come from distant, unknown places. Young south american societies make stupid mistakes that the uptight European societies do not always manage to understand.

Apart from individualism, another thing I recognize in French people is how direct they can be. This is also a great contrast with the standard latin personality. In Colombia a critique is usually taken personally, and there's no way a big discussion doesn't end up in a real fight. In fact, before my first trip I thought I was a rather direct person. Being surrounded by people who are as or more direct than you is certainly an enriching experience. To illustrate this point (and to conclude the post), I take a story that occurred to my Colombian advisor in France. He and his wife went to some place to eat some fine cheese. They chose a cheese that had a smell that was so strong, that my advisor's wife had to complain to the waiter. He replied:

"madame, if you want to eat something with a nice smell, you should eat a soap."

A quickie

I have several new posts in mind or half written. They include issues as interesting and exciting as my view on French society (triggered by a recent visit to Paris) and some weird emails I have received. Now I want to do two quick remarks.

Watch out: your blog can be confiscated.
In Italy a lot of weird things occur. It seems things actually get weirder as you go down south. Through the Beppe Grillo blog, I learned that if you're in Italy and use your blog to say things that someone can find uncomfortable, you take the risk of losing your website. Yes, the police can confiscate your website. Amazing.

This occurred to a young journalist in Calabria, who published some informations about corruption acts of someone important. To read more about this, click here. To see what a confiscated web site looks like, click here.

Cristina Dona'.
Sterte recently introduced me a great Italian singer, Cristina Dona'. Her music is a bit difficult to describe, given that she has gone through several musical phases during her 12-year career. She's a rocker, essentially. Last Saturday, Sterte took me to a free concert of her in Ferrara. It was great. She's really talented: she has a very versatile voice, and her supporting band is awesome. Even if she sings in Italian, her music is worth listening anyway. (She released an album in English, I think, but I haven't heard it yet.)

Here are some of my favorite songs of Cristina:

Universo (Universe)


Nel mio giardino (In my garden)


L'eclisse (The eclipse)


Thanks once again to Sterte for showing me there's Italian music beyond Pausini, Bocelli and Ramazzotti.

An Italian Dream

I have the theory that one is never the extreme in anything. One is never the richest or the poorest; the smartest or the stupidest; the luckiest or the unluckiest. I find this theory (which I will develop in this blog sometime) most useful when I think I have problems. When I think "life sucks", I almost always end up realizing there are people with similar problems but with worst circumstances. When I have thought my life in Italy has been difficult or annoying for some reason, I end up thinking in the case of a friend of mine who had a way tougher experience.

I met her back in Colombia during some Italian lessons we both attended. Even if both of us had full-time jobs (a very good excuse to skip lessons or to forget a homework) she was always on time, with all homeworks done. It was pretty evident she had been a brilliant student during university, where she got a degree on management, I think.

In a country like Colombia, when you take language lessons it's because you want to leave for another country. Rarely it's something people do for the sake of knowledge. It is thus very interesting to see all kinds of different ambitions when one starts to study a language. I had the experience of French lessons, where the 95% of my fellow students wanted to go to Quebec in Canada. There was a lot of people as Canada it's an appealing choice for changing life. Instead, in the Italian lessons we were only a handful of students, no more than 5. We all wanted to come to Italy for study reasons. We all had an Italian dream.

In particular, my friend's dream was to leave her management degree behind and to obtain a degree in Biology in Italy. I don't know which was her precise motivation about Biology and Italy, but that won't ruin the story I want to tell you. (Also, you don't need a precise motivation to want to leave Colombia.) Unlike me, who had already a pretty good idea of what to do in Italy, she was still considering options about the city and the university. I managed to know her a bit better because at some point we had to give a standardized exam on Italian language, and we were the only two that needed the diploma. We did all the bureaucracy together and we did great in the exam.

I came to Italy first, and we kept on touch. Once I was in Italy she told me she had chosen Bologna to study. I described the situation as I perceived and she seemed enthusiastic about it. After graduating, she had worked for several years and saved some money. Her plan was to use such savings to come and to survive for the initial months; then, she expected to get a job and to work and study at the same time. Apart from her savings and some support from her family, she had no financial support. She arrived with her dreams in August 2007. The initial months were OK: she was happy with the courses and she managed to get a very nice residence to live. Unfortunately, the job quest wasn't offering many results and the procedures for getting the Italian stay permit for foreigners (permesso di soggiorno) were extremely slow: by arriving in August, her appointment for the permit was scheduled in April 2008(!)

At some point early this year it occurred what it had to occur: she ran out of money, and she needed to pay the enrollment fees for the university. She tried harder to get a job but without success. Situation then became critical. She looked for support in the university but either there were no possibilities or the deadlines for applying for support had already expired. She then considered the option of changing to another city, one with better work perspectives. She managed to find a job in Rome. The job was flexible enough to work and study at the same time, and all the exams she had taken in Bologna could be automatically transferred to the Rome program.

When everything was ready to change Bologna for Rome, she learned that her employer needed her stay permit. The temporary piece of paper certifying she had already applied for it is not enough to get a legal job. Her dream was officially broken. She then decided to use her family support to buy a return ticket to Colombia. She returned in March.

I contacted her recently to know how she was doing. I was a bit afraid of doing so, because perhaps all the things related to Italy (me included) could represent a trauma for her. I was afraid of bringing unpleasant memories back. Compared to her situation, I was in a great position, given that I have a scholarship and hence no worries as she had all the time. Luckily, she's got a great job in a nice place. Most importantly, she seems happy. When I think about her, I cannot but really admire her courage to pursue a dream, fight hard for it, and to accept the consequences with dignity. We know that not all dreams come true, but not everyone overcomes such a dramatic situation as she did.

In this case one could say her dream was broken by the recently implemented Italian system for handling foreigners status. The system is humiliating and inefficient. I have suffered it, and I will write about it soon. Because of this system, I am sure many similar cases occur everyday, perhaps with worst consequences. Is it fair that a system breaks people's dreams? Certainly not, but unfortunately we can't do anything about it, specially when the direct responsible of the system (the Italian society) is not willing to do anything. When I think Colombian society is seriously ill, I compare it with the Italian situation and use my "no extremes" theory. Doubts then arise immediately: when it comes to ill societies, perhaps Colombia is not the extreme case.

Any given Friday

To come to the CS department I should walk around 10 minutes from my place. Usually I do it while hearing some music. That's the usual routine. This morning something different occurred. While walking on Via San Donato I saw a guy running very fast in the opposite direction I was walking. I also managed to see some other guys that were chasing him. The running guy passed along my side and I saw his face; he had something in his hands. The first thing I thought was "in Colombia this running guy would be a thief for sure; these guys must be fooling around, perhaps some stupid Laurea celebration."

Some seconds after that I realized the running guys were actually cops and that the guy that passed by my side was indeed a thief. I then looked back and the thief was stopped by some persons that, unlike me, were clever enough to recognize the situation and to do something about it.

Given my TV corrupted mind, the next things I thought were related to Spiderman and Seinfeld. As you might recall, in Spiderman there's a scene in which Peter lets a thief to run away, disappointed by the fact he didn't receive some money he gained in a fight. The running thief would end up killing uncle Ben. Also, in a Seinfeld episode, the four main characters end up in jail because they did nothing when a fat guy was being attacked and robbed. They were arrested because they didn't obey the "Good Samaritan law". The trial derived from this offense is part of the end of the ninth (and last) season.

Then I thought about my indifference. I have always believed that as Colombians we're endowed with a dose of indifference with respect others that's way higher than for other people. We immune to the other's suffer, so to speak. Everyday lots of Colombians lose their legs, liberty or lives and no one reacts. We keep thinking everything is OK, until something occurs in our home. We usually do nothing (when we could do a lot) and try to find excuses to not feel bad. For instance, when someone is assassinated, the most common reaction is "oh, too bad, but I am sure he deserved it somehow".

Since I am now in a society that's a bit more aware in this kind of situations (but not too much), I expected some sort of spontaneous reaction against me, given that I had all the chances to stop the guy and I did absolutely nothing. I don't know, I expected perhaps some old guy yelling at me in dialect, or some cute yet not so young lady looking at me like crap, with a disappointed expression (as it occurred to Peter in Spiderman). More seriously, I was afraid of some reaction from those cops that were running at a more slower pace and that could see me doing nothing to stop the thief (something like in Seinfeld). Yes, I felt guilty indeed, and did the two things anyone (?) would have done: (i) I walked faster so to abandon the "crime scene" as soon as possible (to reduce the chance of spontaneous reactions), and (ii) started to invent things to justify my indifference: "I was distracted", "I am a PhD student, I worked till late and was hardly awake", "I am a foreigner", and stuff like that.

Some questions to conclude: Would the fact that I did nothing play against me in an eventual future, as it occurred to Peter Parker? And more importantly, is indifference towards the others something one can overcome by living in a different environment, or is it something that's just coded in my Colombian genes?

The Italian PhD scholarship is going to be increased

Earlier this week, the Italian minister of university and research has announced that the monthly scholarship every PhD student in Italy receives will be increased. This are great news, given that the current amount (807 Euro) has been untouched for almost eight years now. The natural reaction to this announcement is of skepticism: first, because one should never trust politicians, and second, because we're in Italy and here things take a while to actually occur.

Let me tell you what I know of this process. At some point, the Prodi administration presented a law to improve the financial conditions of people doing research, mainly PhD students (with and without scholarships ---yes, there are PhD students without scholarships) and untenured researchers (here known as assegnisti di ricerca). Surprisingly enough, the law was successful in the Parliament and was ready to be signed by the minister early this year. For unknown reasons, the guy never signed the law, even if the most difficult part ---the money--- was ready. In those moments of uncertainty, the Prodi goverment fell and everything entered in a stand-by phase. As a result, we had to wait the elections and the designation of a new minister in order to have some progress on the issue. The initiative of getting a raise in the scholarship ---defended by the Italian association of PhD students--- was then thought to be a lost cause until this week.

As a result of the law, the monthly payment should increase in 240 Euro, effective from January 2008, and valid till 2010. This way, one should receive around 1000 Euros each month. Here the uncertainties start: does the recently signed law contain the same terms as the law everyone has in mind? In particular, will amount of the raise and its retroactivity be respected? When will we see the actual raise?

The minister said the raise should be effective "immediately" (actually, in Italian she said "subito", which is one of such Italian words which convey a great deal of uncertainty. Another such words is "mezzoretta", which is strictly translated as "a little half an hour", but actually could mean anything.) As a result, people expect the raise to start in August. Let's see how things evolve. An extremely positive (almost naive) view is to expect an extra payment of around 1700 Euro (the retroactive raise) also in that month. Even if that would be great, I prefer to be skeptical and not to wonder around false expectations. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable to think what to do with that extra money, now that I know a little better the art of surviving in Bologna with 800 Euros. Perhaps I would be able to buy some sound isolating earphones, to buy a new external hard drive or even to get some fancy sunglasses. Of course, a very stupid thing to do in this case ---apart from daydreaming about things to buy with some eventual money--- would be to spend the raise now, trusting in the word of some minister appointed by Berlusconi.

Update (20/06/2008): Reading the official law, the yearly amount has been increased to € 13.638,47 (it was € 10.561,55). It then seems that the raise will be of 240 Euro, after some small deductions. Thanks to Flavio for the link.

James Bond-like Rock

I hate very long posts in blogs. It was my hidden objective to try to write succinct installments, so that my readers from all around the world would not get bored.

This time I am gonna write something about music. This 2008 should bring nice new records. In the English side, we expect new releases from The Verve (who reunited last year and are now touring), Coldplay (whose album I got today, and I am currenyly analyzing) and, if I am not wrong, PJ Harvey should release something soon. In the Spanish side, Babasonicos have released a fine album (not very original, though); in his tradition, Spinetta should also release a very dense yet beautiful piece later this month. Finally, Los Bunkers (my favorite band from Chile) should publish their new record in September. I am sure I am forgetting an artist or two in this list.

The above are the expected albums. My real intention is discuss a bit about an unexpected album. Discovering new music is a difficult but rewarding process. Changing the usual stuff you hear is sometimes necessary, and finding great stuff during those experiments is something I enjoy a lot. This is the case of The Last Shadow Puppets, who released a terrific album. The best thing I have heard in months.

I got to know these guys in the most unlikely of the ways I discover music: watching youtube videos. I had read about some controversy related to the solo project of The Artic Monkeys' leader. The controversy was because the first single of the album (called 'The age of the understatement', just like the album) was suspiciously similar to Muse's Knights of Cydonia. I proceeded to compare the songs by watching the videos. The entrances are indeed similar, but nothing more. A publicity trick, I am sure, that worked smoothly with me.

I have to say that the video simply captivated me from the very beginning; the song was meant to be assimilated in a more slowly way. The video is placed in Russia and it's simply great. I love the concept of military tanks and choirs; the way the camera moves in the square is splendid:




After seeing the video, I was very curious about the band, and read a bit more. These are two guys (Alex Turner from The Arctic Monkeys & Miles Kane from The Rascals) who are doing some sort of break from their respective bands by recording an album together. In the real life Alex and Miles are friends.

After this bit of information you could have read in wikipedia, let me try to describe their music. In a nutshell, they do James Bond inspired rock. I would dare to say that several of the great moments of the album would fit perfectly in the glamour and sophistication that James Bond transmits in his movies. The songs have a lot of energy, but nothing out of control. Everything seems perfectly planned; guitars and drums are strong and play a prominent role. They're shaken, not stirred, you could say. In these times of stupidity, I am happy to report the lyrics are very decent, although their quality varies a lot (given that these are two kids in their early 20s, I think we shouldn't ask more.) Songs are like capsules, none of them lasts more than 4 minutes: they have something to say, they play the thing passionately and that's it. I love that concept.

As in every album, not every single song is great. I think all songs are very good, but some of them are one level below. My favorite songs are the James Bond-like: "Standing next to me", "Calm like you", "Only the truth", "In my room". Last but not least, the best song of the album: "My mistakes were made for you". This is the performance in Jools Holland's show:



(You might also enjoy hearing/seeing this acoustic version.)

To conclude, I can say two things. First, the Last Shadow Puppets is a great record, full of sophistication and carefully added energy. I really recommend it. Second, I am unable to write short posts. Now it's worst, as I make things longer by embedding youtube videos.