The fear of Barbarians is what risks making us barbarians.

I find myself deeply connected to Tzvetan Todorovs words in this precise moment of
history and time. The citation is an allusion to the 20th century and the brutality of
national conflicts, but is a general reference to a worldly repetition of historic tragedy,
as well as universal in its reference to human behavior. I find myself particularly
confronted with barbaric acts, as I am surrounded by the causes and consequences
of the migration crisis in Europe. As an Italian citizen the situation has both intrigued
and worried me. I am fascinated by the convoluted aspects that make up the
European crisis, and at the same time apprehensions towards the indifferent attitude
of many individuals when confronted with the migrant crisis.
We have all been migrants in some way or form whether in our bloodline of
generations or in a metaphorical sense of abandoning our customs and having to fit
somewhere new.
My move to Tokyo, Japan when I was six years-old strongly shaped the
person that I am now. Even though I was very young and unaware of how strongly
this experience would mold my behavior and views, it made me immediately
understand that I was fascinated by different cultures, not only in terms of individual
behavior in society, but also the diverse and contorted system, different from my own
country. I am fascinated by the constant evolution of our society. We live in a rapidly
changing world supported by the technological advancement. I strongly value the
potential our world has and what it offers. Because I lived in Japan, as a young girl I
was constantly surprised by differences and new experiences allowing me to grow
and become a well-rounded person. When I came back to Rome, my home city, I had
to yet again adapt to a new setting, further strengthening my ability of adjusting to
new surroundings.
The return to my home city, in many ways, similarly to moving to Tokyo,
disoriented me. This disorientation was due to the strong difference from the
organized and systematic system that I had adapted into to the almost archaic, and
heavily confusing city of Rome. This toppling into a new world, however fed my
passion in il examining the roots not only of cultural behavior, but present economic
and political systems at the base of the difference in the organization of countries.
I have always been intrigued to compare Japan and Italy from both the social
and economic perspective.The two countries, even though completely different.
however have a lot in common historically. After the end of the Second World War,
which both countries had strongly felt, they needed to rebuild a society that detached
from their previous systems, In italy a dictatorship and in Japan a form of theocratic
rule of the Emperor. Both economic systems, however, were able to revive and form
innovative administrative systems as well as were able to distribute wellness and
welfare to the population ranking respectively third and sixth amongst the most
developed countries. Today, however, both countries seem to be facing familiar
problems , low birth rate, aging of the population , declining GDP and the increasing
of public debt to unsustainable levels. How are they going to solve these problems,
how will they face the opportunity/threat of immigration ? will Japan continue to be
closed to Asian migratory flows deciding for an unstoppable economic decline and
and substituting manpower with robotics? Will Italy continue to base its future
economic development supported by the immigrants support to its economy?
All these questions have been stimulated during my academic carreer.

The courses that I have taken, infact, very strongly molded my interest for
global differences as well as current events. In the IB Islamics course I delved into
the birth, development and growth of the Islamic religion. The approach that was
taken for this course regarded the analysis of events in order to understand their

greater historical process. This sophisticated approach matured my awareness of the

intricacy of social systems at the base of social constructs. The course fundamentally
also encouraged my attention towards current events at the front pages of
international and national newspapers, regarding extremist Islamists. The Islamic
course has incentivized me to read these events with a more conscientious and
open-mind. It is difficult to judge certain behavior with a western mind-set as their
political economic as well as social behavior goes back to a distinct history. This
brought to my realization of the similarity between historical processes. In the way
that Muhammad appealed to the marginalized individuals of society, giving them a
spiritual condition to aspire towards, similarly the Islamic State is appealing, in my
opinion, to those that are globally segregated from their society. Many times these
individuals happen to be immigrants of Western civilization. I think that this
phenomena occurs because in many cases second generation immigrants, therefore
born into a European city, have a hard time identifying with a single identity, and are
more easily susceptible to identify with fraternity groups, and thus, at times, leading
to violent rebellions.
In my High School dissertation, written in the area of knowledge of Visual
Arts, I chose to examine contemporary Chinese artist, Huang Yong Ping, who
combines issues of globalization in his works. For this final project I chose to
amalgamate my passion for Art History and Social sciences. The artist himself
immigrated to Paris after the Tienman Square massacre in 1989. His art is very much
a reflection of both the benefits and drawbacks of globalization