Listen to the absolute silence ... Grazie Lor-ZEN-zo!

Ragga: Our ever-faithful videographer and ever-energetic educator.

Finally came also my turn, I am Luigi, 26 years old from Genova, Italy but living since almost 3 years in Berlin, Germany. I am one of the so called “educators”. Actually we feel that this definition fits our role. It was not hard for us to planify the activities to propose our  young people crew, we simply took inspiration from the topics of the real G8 agenda: society (diversity and discrimination), environment (sustainability and global warming), economy (financial crisis and globalization). Then still something which well….you’re going to see. Being an educator in this project is a major challenge; e-ducare means in latin “extract”, “bring out” and this is exactly what we try to do. We are not teaching anything and not giving any lecture. We actually provoke the young people, inviting them to ask themselves questions, not to ignore the problems of the world, which the international community must finds answers to. I would like to mainly focus on the topic we went though yesterday, because I studied economics and I am very interested and active in this field. The activity has been structured as the following: after a short introduction video, which aimed to provoke about some incoherencies of the present model of consume, we asked them to try to define what does “economy” meant for them. I was amazed to see how many deep and smart points came out from the common brainstorming. Then in the afternoon we wanted to explain them what had happened with the financial crisis, which starting June 2008 is still affecting most of the countries this year. It was a big challenge for us to find a simple and funny way to go though this theme. So we thought of letting the young people meet 5 characters, which would give them  personal and different points of view of the crisis. Those characters though would answer the young people questions only if they could first go over some challenge (like singing a song, answering a quiz, solving riddles…). So Jennifer was playing as the business woman leading a company (Nave Italia Ltd) which does not receive credits anymore from banks, can not pay suppliers and does not receive payments from customer: her main characteristic was being worried. Ale was playing as the just married young man, who first obtained a mortgage but that after having lost his job could not pay back his debt: his character was showing frustration and pessimism. Then came Ragga, the investment banker, who explained how she managed to cheat on investors and make huge money, her character was showing cynism. Lorenzo was on the other hand the desperate one, crying and feeling completely lost: as investor he explained how after saving a whole life he had lost everything on share markets. Finally was my turn to play, as the “Monte Cristo State Prime-Minister”. I must admit that I had fun playing this role. Basically my character was pointing out the incoherency of having been a liberal, promoting privatization but due to the crisis having to nationalize banks, insurance companies and other businesses, by buying them with public funds (as it happened in USA, UK, Germany…). My character was then showing uncertainty and doubtfulness. This has been finally our proposal to the young people for our document: we felt we could not expect from them answers and suggestions about the world economy, as they have been sharply doing regarding the environment or other social topics. How can you pretend from the young generation an answer, when first those decision makers look like not having a clue on which direction to take? Therefore we proposed them to put in our document just questions they would like to address the G8 presidents in L’Aquila and they came up obviously with many interesting points. Will actually the G8 presidents try to answer, as not only our young people on board Nave Italia but the whole world expects? Luigi 

Lorenzo - the sad investor

I am 16 and my name is Stefano. I say hello to Ale who helps me and is nice too. I live in Aquila. Here my friends are: Antonio, Iacopo, and an Egyptian boy , Hazeem. To live in a boat and to put up the sails is fun. Today I saw the island of Montecristo, Ragga told us the fantastic story of a sailor and a treasure. It was like Jurassic park… I went sightseeing  it with my new friends, I went to a museum of wild life and plants.   I cleaned the boat with my new friends from many countries. The Captain let me clean my bathroom and also the bathroom of the main room. I also hovered the lower lounge.   I like to use the loud speaker of the boat to call “dinner is ready”, “breakfast is ready” , “lunch is ready” and the Captain says I am doing a good job. Pasta and chicken are good, I liked the spinaches too.  I learned how to make some mariner knots… I like this sail ship because it looks like the one of the Caribbean pirates. But I would like to go back home to have a long quiet shower, here I can't. At home I shower for two hours, even three. I put on shampoo and soap as much as I want. Pictured: Stefano with Comandante Tedeschini helping to translate.

Group on Monte Cristo Island

   Jenn enjoying a moment of utter silence.

Hello to everyone. My name is Antonio, I’m an Italian boy from Sicily and in a few minutes, by a simple application on the internet, I was catapulted into this beautiful experience of the Young People G8. Who could imagine that in such few days I would find myself in the middle of so many great friends from all over the world – and they are all so friendly.  Between all these great people is my new friend Florent, who only has the misfortune to be French!   Ah! This experience that I am living in these days is wonderful and will be unique in my life.  Here,  in this beautiful ship, the Nave Italia, we are all searching for all that is possible.  We are searching for solutions and hoping to give life to our ideas to change our world. The number of people in our group is 20 and they are from Europe, USA, Russia, Egypt etc. I think that this is the true spirit of collaboration which should help us construct a better world. Personally, I came to know of this beautiful experience through  the President of the Rotary Club of Trapani.  He knew of my desire to become a diplomat and when I received his email, I started my application that very night.  The possibilities that this experience can give me are so many fold. I can see the world when I visit the homes of my new friends and they can do the same. In these days we are having many activities, games and great discussions, etc. One activity that I liked very much was the apnea diving lesson.  In fact, I dove to 6 meters. This experience will be one that I will never forget.   

Antonio working on the blog.

Monte Cristo:  blue, clear sky,  sea – brilliant and crystalline, but above all- a silence that I’ve never heard before. It almost seems illogical to use the verb “to hear” when you speak of silence, but it is accurate.  By now our ears are used to continuous sounds from the frantic life of the city and for me to be able to listen to total silence, interrupted only by the crashing of the waves in the distance and the songs of the seagulls, was a unique and unforgettable experience… exactly what has been demonstrated during this entire voyage.  In fact, we don’t have technology or books  that can teach us about other cultures in the same way that we discovered them during this trip. Besides the happiness to have had the opportunity to be here to help make a concrete change in the world,  I have enriched myself culturally  as well as personally during this journey.  This voyage is more than a trip in a sailboat.  It represents something more profound:  a trip inside myself that makes me understand I don’t need a life of constant stimulation in order to find the little moments of happiness. Above all, I see that with hard work and a good feelings toward everyone – despite nationality or race - we can reach brilliant results as a group.  Perhaps it is this that we should write at the end of the document that we’ll share with the leaders of our society and to the world. 

Melissa (center) with George & Anna

Hi my name is George.  I am from the UK. Montecristo seems a long way from home, which to me is a city called St Albans, about half an hour north of London, but not so far away from the idyllic islands image captured in countless novels and movies. First impressions centred around the scenic base of the TV programme ‘Lost’ mixed with a spark of recognition from ‘Muppet Treasure island’. To step onto the untouched white sand was for the first, and likely the only time, cannot be summarised in words; pictures can’t absorb the extraordinary smells that flared through our nostrils as we walked to a peak above the villa once owned by the Savoy royal family. This upward journey, of supposedly half an hour, was prolonged by constant photography and for good reason. To call the natural and isolated beauty of Montecristo moving can in only a small way summarise my experience of the day. It felt almost surreal to paddle in the clear waters the island after a long game of ‘Schiacciasette’ (volleyball for us non Romans), in which I won some small victory for Britain amongst stiff competition from the Italians and appalling history in the sport. Perhaps tainting the image of the shore was rubbish (garbage for Americans) strewn across the beach which bringing an element of realism to discussions from earlier in the week. The issue of the environment as a whole, although vital, has never really impassioned me in the way it does many people. Some of my YPG8 colleagues feel this passion and through discussion it became readily apparent that some people’s views on the environment and in particular its relationship to the economy at large differed from mine. Being a neo-classicist and a free marketer it really challenged me to try to justify my staunchly held opinions when faced with the issues of climate change and waste. To bring morality into the pursuit of happiness and profit is something that is important in a global society and now more than ever in Britain. Compromise between capitalist economics and the environment combined with asserted morality is not an easy issue but one which we have begun to discuss. The different opinions and ideological standpoints brought together on the ship are so vast that I am sure this discussion is by no means finished, and I look forward to its proliferation in the next few days.

Hey everyone I am Hazem. I am 14 years old and I come from Egypt. Today we went to Monte Cristo island - as in mount of Christ. We started sailing with the ship yesterday after lunch but unfortunately we couldn’t sail because there wasn’t enough wind , so we arrived the next day, which was July 6th. We ate our breakfast and started cleaning the ship as usual . Finally, when everyone finished cleaning the ship we all got ready to go on to Monte Cristo. We took the rubber dingy 5 people at a time until we all reached the beach. There we met two guards which were actually the guides who led us through the day and told us about everything on the island. The crew of the Nave Italia prepared meals so we could actually take it with us to Monte Cristo. We finally all reached the shore and went to eat our meals. After that we played a game called schiatccasette which is originally an Italian game like soccer. Then we went to the beach where we cleaned the shore because it was pretty dirty. It wasn’t an order or anything but we were good people so we did it without asking. This trip to Monte Cristo was organized by Capitain Giovanni because this Island is not easy to go to its not like other islands but thankfully he managed to let us go to there and it was a great pleasure. I really enjoyed this trip and would like to live there forever or actually buy the Island if I could.

Hazeem on top of Monte Cristo

Hi I’m Jacopo, I’m 15 and I come from Rome. I’m here to represent all people who suffer of Phenylketonuria like me. If you have this condition you cannot eat any proteins coming from animals because they are very dangerous for your body. Almost 4 months ago the doctor who follows me in Rome told me about the Nave Italia and the wonderful project of the Young People G8 and for me it was such a hit I immediately submitted the application. Now I’m here on the largest brigantine in the world. Here I met new friends from different cultures and from different parts of the world, we are a great team now and we are working on the G8 stuff. Every day is so challenging, we just never stop because we are very busy, if you want to make a better world you have to work hard. We have done extremely cool activities like free diving in the crystal waters of Elba Island and step class on the main deck with the great Nostromo. The many team games our instructors are engaging us with are thought for a purpose, often it is a good start for a new discussion item. Once a day we face some issues are affecting the world. Today we discussed how the financial crisis is affecting the whole world and we tried to share thoughts and look for solutions. Finally, everyone was given the chance to write a question to address to the political representative of the nations at the G8. I also loved when we were divided in groups and we were representing coalitions of states in an environment summit called Climate Change Conference, we were actually divided in USA, UE, B.R.I.C, AOASIS and G77. Every one of us is full of commitment to the YPG8 goals and I think this is a unique experience that I’ll remember for all my life.