When I went to my first self-defense class (shout-out to Silvano and his merciless pushup regime), I knew I had to take off my ring. Deliberately taking it off, putting it on my nightstand, and walking out the door to go to a public place was one of the strangest things I have done in…
What About Languages?
By Maryna Parfenchuk The 21st of February is International Mother Language Day as proclaimed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. If we go to the official UN website (http://www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/), we can see their small article on this holiday stating the following, “Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and…
Don’t Use This Fight For Your Agenda!
More reasons for why the aftermath of Cologne matters to German women By Becci Fobbe While the majority of people all over the world celebrated the beginning of the New Year, Cologne experienced an unsettling turn of the year on the 1st of January. Hundreds of women were sexually harassed, a few raped – most…
An Open Letter
To all my opposing candidates, At this moment, all of us are running for one of the most important position in RASA: the post of RASA Chair. I do believe that given the importance of this election, the voters deserve to be given the chance to make an informed decision. Being a student representative, the…
The Silent Night
by Calin Marginean On the 24-th of December I do not celebrate a god, a saviour, a tradition or a gift, I celebrate humanity itself for what it is but has forgotten. As some of you might already know, I am an atheist who is not afraid to be areligious in public. I criticise religion…
Getting Trashed At Festivals
The aftermath on the ‘Island of Freedom’ by Becci Fobbe IT is 8am, I am dragging my-self, my hiking backpack and my low motivation down a narrow path amongst hundreds of other young peo-ple who look as demotivated as me. For about two kilometers (that feel like a whole marathon) we walk past plastic cups,…
Should You Pop That Cherry?
Or maybe wait for the one… by Amir Pliev Do you know that feeling? That weird sensation in your gut? It turns up around 2 a.m. You know, around that time that you’re waiting to be let outside by the guy standing on the stairs in Elliott blocking the way and only letting 15 people…
Saving Ryan’s Privates
By Zelda Have you ever sent someone a nude picture of yourself? Perhaps to your significant other, a stranger online, or maybe a so-called ‘friend with benefits’? With the arrival of applications like Snapchat, where one can send and receive photos that can only be viewed for some seconds before being deleted, the practice of…
All must be known
By William Peterson “Okay. Now everything you had on your other phone and on your hard drive is accessible here on the tablet and on your new phone, but it’s also backed up in the cloud and on our servers. Your music, your photos, your messages, your data. It can never be lost. You lose…
On Fantasy and Marilyn Monroe’s lips
Hey there, My name is Ben, and I think there should be a course on love at UCR. There should also be courses on beauty and love and sex. With love as the biggest course. And I could be the teacher. I do not have much experience with love, but a good friend of mine…
Revolution?!
By Bas Oudenaarden In our quiet corner of the country it is hardly noticeable, but in the rest of the Netherlands a revolution is taking place in the Universities. The goal: A democratic university where quality education and research, not efficiency-oriented management, dictate policy. It all started in the morning of Friday the 13th of…
Semi-fictional
Hey there, I am Ben and I am your financial advisor. As a student, you are probably in constant need of money and I have decided to put myself in for your financial well-being. You do not have to pay me for the services rendered – though of course I expect an annual rate of…
An Insight into a Super Idiot’s Life
By Aimah Moiz Being an idiot is difficult. It is not easy to stand in public and do something so incredibly dreadful that everyone casts aside all of their business and turns around only to stare at you. Not everyone is capable of pulling off such a stunt. However, there are a certain few, like…
The inflation of political terms
The stock market for political terms is about to crash due to over-usage and inflation. By Calin Marginean In economics, the term inflation is used to describe the loss of the value of a currency when it is found in excessive quantities in the market. Throughout history there have been cases of severe inflation and…
Fortress Europe: Our New Ancestral Customs
By Peter Williamson Imagine you are living your life in one of the current conflict zones around the planet. Take your pick, there are dozens. You see people dying of preventable diseases; you can no longer live as a fisherman because European trawlers have driven fish populations in your area near to extinction. People being…
Excellence
Last week Wednesday, Her Royal Majesty the Queen, Máxima came to visit Middelburg. She was formally opening the center of teaching and learning; a new flagship promoting the excellence that is UCR. But that’s not all. It has become a weekly event that our dear University College is proud to announce that, yet another newspaper…
Islamic State now fighting in Ukraine!
By Peter Williamson That grabbed your attention, didn’t it? Fortunately it is an entirely fabricated headline. However, lately there has been a huge oversaturation in the media of two topics in particular, which I am sure you are quite familiar with by now. On the one hand, the attempt of the Islamist extremist Islamic State…
Reclaim Your Brain!
By Hanna van Leent Staff Writer I travel by train frequently, and therefore meet many screaming, crying and annoying children as I am fighting my way through yet another academic paper. During the last three years that I travelled between Rotterdam and Middelburg, I have seen an increasing number of parents glued to their phones,…
A Critical Stance on UCR’s Academic Policy
By Hanna van Leent Staff Writer As students of UCR, we have all chosen an education that teaches you to be critical; whether it’s through looking for academic sources, or looking at ways in which we can improve overall education. When you think of the academic policy here at UCR it is a good one…
My Biggest UCR Regret
By Willem van den Berg UCR Alumnus, Class of 2013 During a recent wintery sojourn to Middelburg I found myself stumbling through a Bagijnhof Christmas market, enjoying the company of some mulled wine and some dearly missed friends. As I surveyed the busy street the typical thoughts of an alumnus meandered through my cerebellum: this…