Scarica Reading Between the Lines riassunto e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! READING btw the LINES 1-FORGET MINDFULNESS, STOP TRYING TO FIND YOURSELF AND START FAKING IT Chinese philosophy is reported to be the most popular course at Harvard, this is because, differently from what we may think, Chinese philosophers were not rigid traditionalists nor advocates of harmoniously living in the nature, instead they tried to subvert the conventions of their societies by exploring and expanding human possibilities. As it happened in our society the mid-first millennium BC was a turbulent age, in which men asked themselves how to build an ethical society, but differently from eastern philosophers Chiese ones didn’t ask big questions but small ones (e.g. ‘How do you live your daily life?’). This is because they thought that change could only begin with the doable. Moreover one other big difference is that their approach was based on the theory that popular assumptions restrain our personality, for example we are taught that to find out who we truly are we must look inside ourselves, on the other hand Chinese philosophers suggest that human beings develop through the experiences they have and every encounter could change a little our personality. So here are some of the basic ideas we should follow: - Be inauthentic. In the sixth century BC Confucius stated that authenticity is not freeing, we tend to stay true to some labels that could have been right for ourselves in a particular period of our life, but if we recognize our complexity and work through self-cultivation we can change and flourish during time. We aren’t just who we think we are, we can work on becoming better people. - Do rituals. We usually think that expressing our true feelings is always the best option, but if we start faking reactions in order to be kinder rather than expressing destructive feelings, we may grow into becoming better people who let their behaviour lead their feelings and not the other way around. - See the world as capricious. As we often see ourselves as stable we tend to see the world as stable too, so we proceed under the assumption that we can predict the future. However Mencius, a Confucian, saw the word as fragmented and suggested not to make plans but rather to set courses in motion. - Stop deciding. If you have to make a big decision the best approach is to start from the small and doable, for example by trying out new related experiences to that big decision you are asked to make. - Be weak. Another popular assumption is that the powerful win out, but Laozi (who probably lived in the 4th century BC) advocated for the power of weakness. We should see the world as whole of connected phenomena, and by the understanding of those connections we could subtly manipulate situation in order to dominate preventing people to perceive it. - Don’t play to your strengths. Since a young age we are encouraged to discover our gifts and work on them, following this mentality we risk to concentrate so much on our gifts that we stop doing everything else. Chinese philosophers suggest not to focus only on what you are best at, but also to try concentrating on what you think you’re hopeless at because ruptures and failures are the ones that really change you over time. - Don’t be mindful. Mindful as it is nowadays popularly interpreted is promoted as a tool for productivity, but in reality the Confucian mindfulness, that is based on the attention of emotional responses, is about cultivating yourself through each encounter and interaction. - Rethink the traditional and the modern. The assumptions we hold true restrict our greatest possibilities. We cannot set out a perfect plan for our life, we need to recognize we are complex creatures and only through working on our interactions and experiences we can grow. Thanks to small everyday actions we change ourselves and the world in a better perspective. 2-GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE OLD CV Times have changed and the old actual A4 CV is not really useful anymore, nowadays what makes the difference are our social media pages. Maybe this change could be a relief for many people, as every section of the CV could contain information that could determine the failure of a job interview. On the other hand also social media risk to be very dangerous. As a matter of fact in LinkedIn the numbers of your connections are fundamental to understand if you lied about your networking skills, but the most insidious social medias are Facebook and Twitter, where employers can easily understand a lot about your personality and private life without particular efforts. Beyond candidates’ CVs also the sorting process have changed, maybe in a positive way. Indeed if before the computer era employers probably based their decisions on their personal di 1 13 READING btw the LINES preferences, now the first stage of sorting is carried out by a disinterested computer which probably is more impartial. One of the reasons why CVs are not so important as they once were, is because the new generations are not only interested in salary but mainly base their search on ethical and empowering employments. This can be done thanks to the internet through which candidates can find out almost every information they want about the companies they’re interested in. So in conclusion the big change in the employment world is that it is overall more transparent, people can rarely find surprises they didn’t expect. 3-MOKEN NOMADS The Moken are a seafaring tribe, they traditionally live on little boats made of tree wood. Their way of life-that is based on fishing in the open sea without any specific tools such as masks, fins and tanks-could be seriously threatened by the decrease of seafood abundance. Indeed 2004 tsunami has greatly damaged sea life and in addition to that international fishing boats are now wiping out all that’s left. Moken traditions are now in danger: the ones who have moved ashore are often obliged to perform dangerous jobs such as planting explosives in the seabed for which they can risk decompression sickness by swimming downwards too fast; instead those who decide to roam in the sea can be arrested for lacking the right permissions; others that come ashore after a long time at sea may find that their house has been substituted by a resort. The traditional Moken life may be perceived as too hard for the new generations that are increasingly trying to integrate into the Thai society by attending school and using mobile phones but also assimilating bad behaviours that were before unknown to the Moken society such as drugs. The village is trying to revive Moken traditions by offering classes in the traditional language to children and opening a museum, but the chief of the village explains that without the possibility of traveling freely the moken culture is dead. As a matter of fact there is a new generation of Mokens that has completely cut off their roots by deciding to attend a Thai school, and this may determine the cultural future (and possible end) of the moken culture. For example Kang, a young girl that graduated from college, will continue to live in the moken village with his brother that on the other hand has chosen to live the traditional way by making a living by fishing, however they will conduct completely different lives. 4-ADVENTURE JOB IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON Not many people believed in the project of Holly O’Donnell, a Scottish zoologist, however she was very determined to follow her passions and surprised a lot of misbelievers by living in the jungle for a year, working as a volunteer for an non-profit association called ‘Para la Tierra’. During this stay she discovered her passion for mammals. Back in the UK she started searching for a new internship and she stumbled casually into an online job application for a mammal coordinator, even if the closing date had already passed she decided to send her CV anyways, and after a few days she was already working in the Amazon. The zoologist conducts a Fauna mammal research and trains volunteers, they record animal sights and sounds walking for many kilometers at different times of the day, then they communicate their surveys to the Peruvian government to develop a sustainable management. It takes a two-day journey to reach the nearest city so nothing is taken for granted, she had to face many natural dangers (e.g. jaguars, pigs and insects) but the most difficult aspect from her point of view is to adapt to cultural differences, for example she really struggles to be taken seriously as a female scientist in a male-oriented society. She admits that volunteering can be very expensive sometimes, but she also adds that it is necessary to gain practical experience to understand what you’re passionate about, most importantly because learning things in class and actually experiencing them in the jungle is completely different. The key to the conservationist success, she says, is to show your passion and commitment. At the end of the passage O’Donnell explains her concern for the preservation of the amazonian biodiversity that has recently been threatened by the oil and gas exploitation, she hopes that the boom of the ecotourism can provide a better future for the locals. The zoologist always challenges herself and her latest goal is to promote conservation even between people who are not biologists by sharing her story in schools and through newspapers, trying also to encourage people who are already interested in this field to pursue a conservation career. di 2 13 READING btw the LINES During this travel he did things he never thought he would, for example bungee jumping (as he was overweight, always suffered from vertigo and was never keen to risk). Moreover he always found friendly people that were ready to help him but also met people who had moving stories and that made him reconsider his point of view in certain fields. He mainly stayed in hostels, cheap hotels or friend’s houses. However there were also some downsides, for example being robbed, getting sick, or being far away from his family for such a long time (but technology made this a little bit easier). At the end of the year he was more self-confident and he now feels to recommend to older people to take a gap year. His daily budget was roughly 50£. The only advise he gives is to pack light and bring a Swiss army knife. The disabled traveller (Tony Gilles, 40, backpacked three months around west Africa) Tony is totally blind and 80 % deaf in both years, but in 2017 he managed to travel around Africa with the help of a special organization. During these moths he learned to trust people as most of them simply wanted to help him. Most locals were surprised seeing a blind and deaf young man traveling all alone, but Tony explains how his experience is full thanks to his other senses: he visited Africa through its spicy tastes, by touching carved masks and by feeling the beats of typical music. He was hosted and guided by locals and moved thanks so buses. He lived different experiences in every country: he visited slave forts in Ghana, tried bucket showers in Burkina Faso and travelled by motorbike in Senegal. There were, however, some negative moments, for example movements from a city to another could take more than two days and that really stressed him. The only advise he feels to give is to organize visas in advance. His daily budget was around 20£. The career-breaker (Antonia Wilson, 30, traveller worldwide with her boyfriend for 10 months) After her brother told her about his amazing experience backpacking all around the world, Antonia and her boyfriend decided to take a gap year and have the same experience, even if they both had a career. They planned their journey for an entire year in order to explore the whole world. They remember memorable and nearly unreal moments: cycling in flip-flops through Vietnamese fields, camping on the Great Wall, seeing a giant turtle in the wild, standing underneath multiple rainbows… Tasting typical food was a major part of their experience. They had the chance both to meet again old friends and to make new friends. In the last part of their travel they decided to campervan: they drove through the east coast of Australia and the US west coast. Being away was not always easy because of occasional sickness or arguments, bur going back home was very rough, particularly from the professional point of view as it wasn’t easy to find a job, indeed they had to stay with their families for the first period. Their daily budget was around 50£ each. 11-BEHOLDING BEAUTY Scientists have researched for a long time the reasons for which we consider something or someone beautiful, but they still haven’t reached a solution. Beauty and the brain Studies have shown that there is a specific part of the brain that activates when we see or hear something that we perceive like beautiful, this activity is the same in every human brain. On the contrary some culture may have very different ideas of what beauty is, however it seems as the majority prefer symmetry. Beauty in the face Facial attractiveness is based on specific features based on biological factors. For example symmetrical faces and average-looking people tend to be considered as more attractive in every culture. This is because we come from the tradition for which the partner was chosen for passing down to the offspring good genes, so symmetry was seen as an indicator of good health. Some scientist have made the hypothesis that beauty could play an important role in friendship too, for example females usually have friends of the same level of attractiveness, but these studies do not have a really strong base. di 5 13 READING btw the LINES Beauty in yourself On a more personal level the importance we accord to external appearance depends on the importance our parents have given to it during our childhood (weather they praised us more for our beauty or for our success in tasks we were good at). Many times we compare how we believe we look to how other people look and this could have deep psychological consequences. Sometimes when it comes to beauty most people are their own critics, becoming focused on a particular part of the body, taken to the extreme level this could also turn into a disease called ‘body dysmorphic disorder’. Beauty as a power Some studies have highlighted how beauty can be important even in the professional life, for example attractive people are perceived as more competent and are reported to have higher salaries. There are also some sectors in which beauty is a mandatory requirement, models for example are asked to maintain unrealistic standards of beauty that could become unbearable in the long term. However everyone sooner or later has to face aging, a process for which our body changes and we no longer match with the vision of ourselves, if this could be frightening for the majority of people, it could also be a relief for others (for example former models that feel relieved for not having such a heavy responsibility as before) but also indifferent for other people, for example those engaged in a long-term relationship that do not feel the need to be beautiful to attract companions. 12-THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP It is a fact that nowadays the majority of people suffer from chronic sleep loss due to their full daily schedule and pressure coming from every field of life (from work to family), because of this sleeping problem people experience daytime sleepiness and fatigue. Doctor Knight explains that our sleep divides into 4 stages: the first three are the non-REM in which you fall into increasingly deeper sleep before entering the final stage that is the REM one, in which you are basically an active brain in a paralyzed body. These four phases alternate roughly once every 90 minutes. Even if we don’t precisely know the functions of sleep it is certain that it is essential to recharge our body after a full day and in preparation of another full day. More precisely sleep helps our brain to support our psychological processes, memory processing and learning. Scientists don’t provide us with a specific number of hours of sleep, but they recommend at least 7 to 9, however we al know that with our packed routine it is nearly impossible to sleep that much. If we can’t sleep so many hours at least we could try to make our little time more restful by adopting some techniques: getting a regular schedule, avoiding caffeine, turning off our phones, avoid watching TV in our bedroom. Although one of the most important piece of advise is to avoid sleeping medications, that are likely to lead you in a sort of dependency for which you will have serious difficulties in sleeping without their help. Furthermore another way to implement your sleep is through naps that not only help with your learning process by consolidating in your brain the information you are studying but also minimizes the risk of burnout. Nonetheless naps can be tricky as you can sometimes wake up more tired than before, this happens when you break the sleep cycle too soon. In conclusion sleep is a fundamental part of our daily life, even though its effects are not clearly understood, it has been proven that it is essential to our brain and its lack could result in ineffective physical and cognitive functions. 13-IS INSTAGRAM CHANGING THE WAY WE DESIGN THE WORLD? Nowadays one of the most important criteria to judge a restaurant has become its degree of instagrammability, as a matter of fact traditional restaurants that have been there for centuries can have negative reviews on social media for their basic ambience even though they serve good food. Indeed dishes are now judged not only for their taste but also for their presentation, through this art many chefs try to attract influencers who will bring followers to their restaurant. Also the furniture plays an important role: different textures and hanging plants are a must! The writer then describes Shoreditch, the part of London he used to live in, where everything is designed to be photographed and posted from the murals to the famous flower market. And even King’s Cross where tourists can crash into the famous platform 9 3/4. Some experts say that in the future every area of cities will be insta-friendly, at the moment a research has shown that New York, Moscow and London are the most posted cities. di 6 13 READING btw the LINES An instagrammer claims that in her opinion interior design in a restaurant is as important as food, they must be good-looking when photographed together. However it is not the first time in our history when restaurants use their external appearance to attract clients, for example in the 50s giant food shapes were put on the roofs of cafés to capture consumer’s attention through the traffic, the big difference is that nowadays instagram can also encourage people to come from far away only to get a photo in a stylish place they have seen on a post. This phenomenon is not restricted to restaurants, it involves also public buildings and museums, for example the Louvre has organized a special visit that goes through the places in which Jay-Z and Beyoncé have recorded the video of one of their songs. An important downside of our digital dependance is that our memory starts to get worse, so the places we visit try to help us by selling gadgets that will fix our experiences in our brain, spaces start to blur in our mind also because they abandon their traditions to adapt to instagram trends. 14-LOGGED OFF In the last years researches have proven that increasingly more members of the Gen Z (people born after 1995) are quitting social media. Teenagers state that their peers started not to talk to each other anymore, they would rather chat than have a real conversation; others claim that the no-turning back point was online bullying. These young people never really had to learn how to use social media because they were born along with them, however some have grown tired of them because of the social pressure they put on users: you are tempted to give an untrue image of yourself and to deal only with the best part of other users’ lives even if you are having a bad day, for these reasons these platforms can become very competitive and sometimes even depressing. Some teenagers also say that they feel the anxiety of being judged because of their profile, for example the number of followers can be seen as an indicator of your popularity and the number of likes as a means of approval. Nevertheless quitting social media is not easy at all: firstly these apps are designed to be addictive so you have to be very motivated to delete them, secondly you can feel isolated from the rest of the world and not up to date, thirdly you can looked at as ‘weird’ if you don’t use social media. Nearly half of teenagers who were interviewed to understand why they had quitted or would like to quit social media have answered that the reason was to save time. 15-MUSIC AND CULTURE The most clear and widespread way to learn music is to follow a formal exam journey, and even though this method has been proved as valuable it can constrain children who don’t feel free to fully express themselves. As a matter of fact progression in the music field can be provided also through alternative ways for example by singing in a choir or playing in a band. A report has shown that many children are probably missing out on their musical education because it presents economic and social barriers and it is not well organized as music organizations do not coordinate and tend to be active only at a local level. Many associations acknowledge that the key to creativity and understanding is learning and participation while the key of lifelong engagement is enjoyment. The writer believes that the English system gives too much importance to finding what is the best method for children to learn music while it obviously should give importance to music fundamentals as singing, reading music and learning to play instruments but most of all children should be free to engage in whatever type of music they like and also enjoy the communities that music and its related activities give to life. The real challenge would be to create a system in which every child has the same possibilities to exploit their full potential, a solution could be to create a national online music education map to help users find the nearest centre or a network of musical experts that have all sorts of background. 16-TO BEAT PAIN, FIND THE RIGHT BEAT It has been proved that listening to music can help reduce suffering ad speed recovery. Scientists have carried on a lot of studies concerning the link between music and medicine: - listening to soothing music can reduce chronic pain and depression di 7 13 READING btw the LINES At the end of this adventure he can affirm that if before money were the most secure thing he had in life he now understands the value of true friendships. 21-THE SECOND MIND Scientists have studied humans’ rapid decision-making system through a simple experiment: there are four decks of cards on a table, two red and two blue, each cards either makes you win or lose a sum of money. What the gambler doesn’t know is that the red decks make you win a large amount but just after they make you lose more, while with the blue ones you gain in a slower but more effective way. The research has showed that after roughly fifty cards most of the gamblers prefer to turn over the blue ones even though they still haven’t fully understood why. After having acquired the experience, around the eightieth card we finally develop a theory that is pretty accurate. During the game scientist had hooked the players up to a machine that detects the activity of our sweat glands placed in our palms which react to stress, this showed that people started to sweat after only 10 cards and their behaviour started to unconsciously change preferring the blue decks. In conclusion this experiment proved that when we find ourselves in a situation in which we have to decide quickly and we feel responsible for that there are two different strategies that work in our minds: - one is more logical and safe as it is conscious, based on experience and thinking, but it is very slow - the other one is unconscious, but much quicker, we figure out the best strategy before we can even realize we understood the mechanism of the situation. 22-HUMANOID ROBOTS IN LIBRARIES Westport library has announced that it will soon include in its staff Vincent and Nancy, two humanoid computers with the aim to improve user’s computing skills. They were acquired from a French firm that is selling more and more of these devices mostly to museums and schools. Since a new manager took responsibility, Westport library has been one of the most innovative ones, for example it has an area completely dedicated to 3D printers that users are free to use. So they decided to implement their technology with innovative robots that are equipped with cameras, microphones and motion sensors that make them able to understand if a person is talking to them and to localize them in space. Moreover they have a ‘fall manager’ a system that helps them to get up after a fall imitating possible human reactions, they can also touch and feel thanks to sensors. These robots have innumerable skills, just to mention one they are able to talk 19 languages and the community of creators is continuously working to improve them. They are also used for basic tasks as putting back books in their places and welcoming schoolchildren that come to the library. The managers are already planning challenges for which players have to make their robots sing and dance in order to encourage people to explore this new technology. This community is a little example that destroys the opinion of many people who believed that the internet would make libraries useless, on the contrary researches proved that most users describe libraries as irreplaceable. 23-RIVERS HAVE THE SAME LEGAL STATUS AS PEOPLE Recently more and more nations are moving towards the recognition of rights to natural elements, for example both India and New Zealand have guaranteed the legal standing of a person to their main rivers (respectively the Ganges and the Whanganui). The Indian population has considered the Ganges as sacred for a long time, while the indigenous population of New Zealand has identified itself with the river, however this didn’t stop humans to pollute and exploit them. In recognizing their rights there are hopes to create deeper and more respectful relationship between humankind and nature in general, for example activities that have proven to be detrimental for rivers as hydroelectrical energy, have been banished. If in New Zealand the protectors of the rivers are the Iwi population that always cared about the river, in India the government should be the protector of the Gange, but that poses an important problem because the government itself is trying to make laws in order to take the best economical advantages from the Gange. di 10 13 READING btw the LINES Furthermore the Indian river is in danger because it represents Hinduism, but in an always more variegated religious community people are afraid that court’s decisions will be influenced by other religious forces. However these two recent decisions were not the only one to have been made with regards to nature, since 2006 various states in the USA have been approving nature’s rights and securing them, furthermore in 2009 United Nations proclaimed the 22 April the International Mother Earth Day. These laws, even if al first sight could seem as strange and exaggerate, they are only a step towards a more respectful relationship between humans and the environment, even if it is a little sad that there must be laws for us to respect the Planet we live on. 24-VOLUNTEERING HOLIDAY OPPORTUNITIES There are many associations that offer en experience in volunteering that could change your point of view on life: • Rainforest Protector, Peru: It is an ecotourism project which goal is to restore biodiversity by replanting and working on sustainable farming. Volunteers are asked to monitor wildlife and help the communities of gardeners. • Marine conservation, Madagascar: Ranobe Bay is protected by one of the biggest coral reefs around the world, but the continuous search of new “houses” by nomadic fish community damages the reef itself causing the consequent drop in fish and turtle populations. The project involves ‘Reef Doctors’ who try to restore reef life and volunteers that scuba dive in order to monitor the underwater situation. • Orangutans, Borneo: Channel 4’s Jungle School Series follows the lives of animals and staff in the centre of orangutan Survival Foundation, indeed this species is fighting for survival as more than 150 thousand orangutans have disappeared in the last 15 years because of hunters or habitat damage. The centre has launched a volunteer program. • Sea Turtles, Greece: The Sea Turtle Project in Greece relies on volunteers in the nesting period during summer, they are required to watch over nests at dawn and night, but also raise public awareness. • Rescued elephants, Laos: An organization in Laos rescues and takes care of elephants in dangerous situations, volunteers are asked to maintain the centre in good conditions and recycle elephant dung. • Scottish estate retreat: the Chisholme Institute offers self-discovery retreats of different periods of time and involves volunteers also in running the centre, but they are also offered meditation and study sessions • Volunteer teacher in Ethiopia: this opportunity is open to people who are graduated in medicine, education and engineering, volunteers are given an accommodation a basic wage but they also have some free weeks to explore the territory. • Help Refugees: the Charity Help Refugee sustains projects all around Europe and Middle East that help refugees, both skilled and unskilled volunteers are accepted. • Eco-farm work: A worldwide organization links organic farmers with volunteers that will be asked to perform basic jobs and in return will be given accommodation and food, also families can apply if farmers give the possibility to. 25-THE RISE OF APOCALYPTIC NOVELS It has been proven that during the last period of lockdown due to the pandemic crisis more and more readers have become interested in ‘cli-fi’ (short form for ‘climate-fiction’) the genre descends from science-fiction and its main characteristics are environmental disasters that put protagonists into apocalyptic situations. In the last two decades this type of books became very popular and many famous writers as well as emerging ones wrote bestsellers tackling these themes. The fact that the boom of the ‘cli-fi’ genre has arrived in a so difficult time for our planet is not random, indeed these story offer to readers ways to face present or future difficulties. In the last part of the article we can find a zoom into a book titled ‘Leave the World Behind’, published in 2018 by Rumaan Alam in which there are six people trapped into their house reflecting on their relationship with nature, it is clear that during the covid lockdown many people could easily mirror into this plot feeling trapped inside their own home and uncertain about their future. Alam’s book is different from the others because the sense of uncertainty is never fully resolved. Moreover the writer adds that the best thing about writing novels, in his opinion, is that nothing has to be true, he himself can invent whatever he likes, however characters are very di 11 13 READING btw the LINES important in such a book and given that the only source is his mind they become a mirror of his own personality. He concludes by saying that his novel doesn’t have the goal to raise awareness about the planet situation but he wants to make the readers reconsider their self-esteem, but also show everyone that nobody is alone. 26-ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI EXHIBITION After its postponement due to the covid situation London’s National Gallery has finally announced the inauguration of an exhibition completely dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi, defined as ‘the Beyonce of art history’. In 2018 the National Gallery had acquired one of her self portraits, being the first of her works to enter a public collection and only the 21st work by a woman entering the museum’s collection; she’s not well-known nowadays but she was very appreciated at her time. Gentileschi had a real interesting story: born in Rome in 1593, daughter of a court painter who recognized her talent since a very young age, she was the first woman to join Florence’s Academy of Design. But when she was only 18 one of her mentors raped her, from that moment on brutal trials began that ended with a brief period of exile for the man, that he however ignored. The subjects of her works are very different but they all share deep expressiveness, for example one of her most notorious paintings is the famous episode of Judith Beheading Holofernes, many critics assert that the scene mirrors her personal experience as the viewers that admire the heroine can feel a visceral rage. Artemisia was a woman we should all take inspiration from: living in a male-dominated world she managed to become an accomplished artist thanks to her talent but also to her clever connections. 27-THE USES OF POETRY The article poses the question of the usefulness of studying poetry. Different people obviously value poetry differently: some say that this art helps human beings express their experiences better and understanding them on a deeper level, some others believe that it could be a way to reconcile with the world. The writer however is trying also to find practical motives to teach poetry at school. Unfortunately poetry is usually underestimated in primary and secondary school, it is generally mixed with other types of literary forms so it risks losing its place, this would be a pity because not only it is important for self and society understanding, but it is also fundamental for language and literacy skills improvement. So from this point of view poetry can be seen as a tool for helping students study features of the language such as phonemes but also rhymes and other figures of speech. It has also been proven that poetry can have important results also in the therapeutic field, used as a tool to alleviate the symptoms of dementia, depression and schizophrenia. A recent experiment has also given positive results in prisons: reading a poem out loud to a group of female prisoners made them open up and be honest about their feelings, permitted them to take a moment to reflect on their lives. 28-MUSIC CAN CHANGE THE WORLD Music has always had the power to move people and change the society, even if today’s popular genres are not so full of sentiments and on the contrary only brag about money and success, there are still some artists that believe in the power of music. The Sigauque Project for example is a mozambiquan band who tries to make a change through its music, indeed their songs are not only rhythmically very interesting, but they tackle also important subjects as HIV, women’s rights and xenophobia. Their works are produced thanks to a production company that sustains projects that long for social change, with their songs the band hopes to raise awareness on problems that people tend not to think about, for example the continuous discriminations African people have to face. As a matter of fact listening to music we learn the lyrics and that gives us the possibility to reflect on themes that we wouldn’t otherwise have noticed and consequently talk about them with friends. One component of the band indeed states that music is a means to convey important messages but it is effective only when it is heard by a big number of people. In a continent like Africa, in which in many countries people are still not free, it can be a possibility to protest against the government. di 12 13