culture confrontations

1. american foreign policy is all over the television. the telegiornali this last week have been packed with news and commentary about the G8 summit in germany and the preparations for president bush's arrival in rome friday afternoon. on the one hand, the commitment that came out of the summit were encouraging: we americans have finally pulled our heads out of the sand, noticed that 'it's getting hot in here' (here being the atmosphere), and agreed that yes, climate change is a reality. also, the 7 most industrialized nations in the world plus russia renewed and expanded their commitment to fighting AIDS in africa, which is fantastic.

on the other hand, all the posturing is just so disappointing. leaving aside the issue of planetary destabilization - a term that david orr prefers to 'climate change' - i'm offended that all these decisions are being made by 8 people, all white and very well fed. i know that all of the leaders have consulted extensively with people 'on the ground' and of course this money will do worlds of good, but at the very least on the symbolic level there is no room at the table for africa.

2. last night i went with my host-brother filippo to a birthday party for his friend sara. there were about 15 people up at a little house in the countryside near to arezzo, and we spent a wonderful evening eating and talking. granted, filippo and his friends are all in their late twenties, but i was so impressed by how an italian party works even for young people. everyone rolled in around 8:30 and we sang happy birthday to sara and did a toast. that brought us to 9pm. from 9 until 1:30, we ate, drank, talked and sang without ceasing. throughout the evening a soccer ball would appear and all the males would be drawn to it by a distinctively european magnetic force. but i was most struck by another magnetism that animated the evening. it's as much a comment on the college party or american bar scenes as it is on filippo's friends, but there was a strong sense that last night we were in it together. of course smaller conversations were always breaking out and breaking up, but everyone was there for the long haul. eating and drinking were means for time together, not means unto themselves. while even i was aware of some small dramas unfolding over the course of the evening, no one was positioning themselves to go home with someone else and no one retreated into the privacy of drunkenness.

the conversation was immediately interrupted so i didn't have to answer, but late in the evening someone asked me what the differences were between italian and american culture. so i thought only to myself: 'tonight is the difference.' in italy, even among a group of 15 young friends, the family at table together remains the most important social model. for better and worse, the dominant american ideal seems best expressed by the most recent barrage of military recruitment advertisements on television: an 'army of one.'