skype exchange

The second skype exchange was last wednsday but I couldn't do it. Anyway I can notice from the online forum that the main topic discussed during this exchange ( and during my first exchange as well) was about "meritocrazia" and " raccomandati".
American students asked us to clarify the meaning of these two concepts and how is the real situation in Italy.
The common reaction from Americans after knowing the meaning of these concepts was that they couldn't believe their eyes: In America such things don't exist, so they were quite shocked of the fact that Italian government allows an illegal behaviour like this to get something.
Another quite interesting thing that Americans found out about Italian culture is that " meritocrazia " doesn't mean that who is really good in the life then he gets a good job.Here this fair concept doesn't exist because in Italia persons who go on are just those ones who know someone who can help them in finding a good job without having any kind of diploma or any kind of experience and competence in a particular job.
Strange I know, but it's like this.
Another interesting thing i got from the online forum is that women in America are politically well taken in consideration, I mean they can participate more often in political elections( as Hilary Clinton for example) .These are the so-called equal opportunities.