[extropy-chat] Famous author self destructs in public! Filmateleven.
Amara Graps
amara at amara.com
Tue Jun 7 08:14:31 UTC 2005
Stuart:
>Well I guess statistics are such that I would sooner
>or later meet someone like you.
Statistics? I think you have not met many women.
>With all the strong
>emotion flying back and forth about this most touchy
>of subjects, I am not sure whether I should give you
>my condolences or congratulations.
Neither.
>Aside from your simple
>narrative of what happened, I am somewhat curious how
>you felt about it?
Given that I was 17, and that I never had general anesthesia
before, being 'put to sleep' was a scary experience.
I remember that my boyfriend bought me a delicious milkshake
afterwards. (I had dry-heaved my empty stomach on the ketamine and
was dehydrated and very disoriented.) And because I was in the clinic
for longer than I expected, I was late for my appointment of
baby-sitting my little sister that evening, and my parents were
angry at me when I arrived home. (I told them 10 years later why
I was late.)
>And do you feel differently about it now then you did then?
No. But there is a new issue, which is that I am 25 years older. When
I was in my 20s and 30s, egg-freezing was not a viable option like it
is now. Women of my age are basically screwed if they want to develop
their potential in all of the ways that Nature gives them.
I worked so hard during the last 25 years to make the best decisions
for my life, and to prepare myself for caring well for myself and for
a family, that it is probably too late now for a family. That makes
me upset. The last 2.5 years was not the best use of my time.
(sent to the Italian version of the Scientific American: "Le Scienze"
yesterday. I hope that they publish it.)
Amara
=====================================================================
{Redazione di Le Scienze e Claudia Di Giorgio]
Experiences of a Foreign Scientist in Italy
As a foreigner (U.S, Latvia citizenships) living and working in the
planetary sciences in Italy for the last 2.5 years, when I see
advertisements for the recruitment of scientists for new institutes
in Italy, I don't know if I want to laugh or cry. No sane person
would go for a scientific job in Italy, if they knew what is
embedded in the process of trying to make a scientific career in
Italy. In addition, I don't think that Italian science employers are
aware of the amount of attention that their foreign hiree needs in
order to solve the issues involved in living and working in their
country. I'm the first example in my Institute of a foreign /
extracommunitari scientist choosing to make a career (more than a
visit) there. When I moved, I was already living in Germany for five
years, therefore, I had some previous experience living and
performing scientific work in Europe.
The procedure and paperwork for my entering Italy included visiting
Italian embassies scattered in southern Germany (each embassy had a
different function, no known opening hours), a visa procedure that
was changing every month, translations of my 'documents' (but no
one could say _which_ documents) by 'approved translators' only. At
the end I received my three-month, one-entry-only visa, barely
before I arrived in the country. The pre-move and moving expenses
are the responsibility of the hiree.
Once I arrived, a longer set of requirements and documents for my
CNR job and then the permesso di soggiorno.
According to the Questura's own rules, the permesso di sorggiorno
processing will take three weeks, but I received mine in five
months. During this time, I was not permitted to travel out. I
renewed my permesso one month before it expired, and since November
2003 (at the time of this writing in June 2005) I'm still waiting.
Two letters from my institute saying my permesso is necessary for
performing my job and my fifty visits (totalling about a week of my
time) to the Questura accomplished nothing.
For the job, the salary doesn't cover basic living costs in my area
(Rome). I am alone, I don't own property, I don't have family
living in the area, I pay rent like any normal newcomer, which
absorbs 2/3 of my salary immediately. I took a second job teaching
astronomy at night, in order to pay for living expenses, but I
learned too late that Italian taxes absorb so much, that the only
the important aspect that I gained was the experience.
For my business travel, I discovered that Italian scientists place
their business travel on their personal credit cards and are
reimbursed (sometimes many) months later by their Institutes. I
didn't have European credit cards, I had only one U.S. bank credit
card because I proudly paid off all my debt in the years before I
moved to Italy. Since my Italian bank associated with my institute
job did not know how to transfer money to U.S. banks, I needed to
get a new Italian credit card for my business travel, which took
one year: the first Italian banks rejected me because I was new in
Italy and they automatically put black marks on my financial record
because they rejected me.
My business travel potentially put me in the same U.S. state as my
family, yet I could not legally spend more than three days with
them (travelling to them on my own vacation time and with my own
money), due to CNR rules for business travel. Regardless, my
institute has had little/no money to allow business travel in the
last year.
I used my own personal computer (6 years old) for most of my
institute work and when it finally broke, my institute had no money
for a replacement, therefore I bought a new-used computer from
e-bay. However I didn't see my computer purchase until two months
later because it was lost in US Postal mail, Poste Italiano mail,
and in the Italian customs (the customs in Milano never notified me
that they had my computer).
I don't think that my situation is unusual for any foreign
scientist beginning a career in Italy at this time. In my
experiences living and working in Italy, I didn't face a culture
shock, but instead, I faced (and I continue to face) a daily
"how to live?" shock.
Amara Graps, PhD
amara.graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it
www.amara.com
***********************************************************
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, CNR - ARTOV,
Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, I-00133 Roma, ITALIA
***********************************************************
More information about the extropy-chat
mailing list