By Anna Szczełkun Moria, the biggest refugee camp in Europe located on the Greek island of Lesbos, was destroyed in a fire almost two weeks ago. Even though it was designed for 3000 people, there were up to 13 000 people living there before the fire. The camp was so severely overcrowded, that the inhabitants often…
Vaccines May Soon Be Ready, but Are We?
By Anna Szczełkun As the number of worldwide coronavirus cases surpasses 25 million and most of the European countries experience sharp infection increases, more hope is directed towards developing a successful vaccine. With the disease spreading so uncontrollably, vaccination may be the only way for us to return to our normal lives. Currently, over 160 different…
Learn more about the Black Lives Matter movement and Racism
By Anmol Rajpar, Katherine To-Hauser, and Maud Smulders If you are interested in learning more about the BLM movement or racism in general, we have gathered some recommendations for Tv-shows, movies, petitions, places to donate, and black-owned businesses. TV Shows/ Movies: ⁃ Dear White People “As college radio host Samantha White leads the outcry over a…
Still on Fire; The Battle for Attention in the News Between the Corona and Climate Crises.
By Luna Erica “Our planet is on fire.” Just a few months ago, the notion that climate change was a force to be reckoned with firmly bore its spot in the news. Now those colorful protest signs, latest recycling methods, and vivid images of the Australian bushfires have given up their prominence in the news…
The Four Freedoms are coming to Middelburg: Meet Leoluca Orlando and Religions for Peace
In this series of articles, we are discussing the laureates of the 2020 Four Freedom Awards which will be held April 14 in Middelburg.This week’s laureates are: Leoluca Orlando (Freedom from Fear) and Religions for Peace (Freedom of Religion). By Elise Renkema Leoluca Orlando Leoluca Orlando will receive the price for Freedom from Fear as…
The Four Freedoms are coming to Middelburg: Meet Sander de Kramer and Maria Ressa
This article is a part of a series of articles on the laureates of the Four Freedom Awards, which will be held in Middelburg on April 14. Want to be present and ask questions at the public meet up after the ceremony? The sign up is: https://www.fourfreedoms.nl/en/meet-up.htm – Elise Renkema, section editor Current Affairs 2019-2020…
The Four Freedoms are Coming to Middelburg: Meet the United Nations
This article is a part of a series of articles on the laureates of the Four Freedom Awards, which will be held in Middelburg on April 14. Want to be present and ask questions at the public meet up after the ceremony? We will keep you posted about sign ups! – Elise Renkema, section editor Current…
Let’s Talk About Periods
By Elise Renkema As you are reading this right now, around 800 million people are on their periods. With so many people experiencing this on a monthly basis, one would expect it to be normalised by now. Yet, there still seem to be taboos surrounding menstruating. This taboo and shame surrounding menstruation has, among other…
The Bubble of Personalised News Feeds and the Politicisation of Facts
By Elise Renkema Twitter CEO Jack Dorsley recently announced that Twitter will be banning political ads on its platform. The ban is not only for individual candidates, but also for advertisements on politicised issues. In practice, this means that political candidates can still tweet, but that these tweets cannot be promoted through advertisements. This…
Dutch-led Climate Change Denial Coalition on the Offense
By Joost Gerretschen While UCR students were learning how to contribute to the energy transition and the mitigation of the ongoing climate breakdown, a denial campaign led by a Dutch foundation leaked. DeSmogBlog, a UK NGO that reports on fossil fuel public relations efforts, came upon on a self-proclaimed “European Declaration” which will feature three…
Shell vs. Milieudefensie: How To Sue an Oil Giant
by Liam McClain and Jedidja van Boven As climate change becomes a more and more common topic in everyday news, its presence in the legal sphere is also growing. With climate litigation quickly on the rise, certain routes that have never been taken before in courtrooms across the world are being considered. The Netherlands in…
Anti-Vaxxers, Autism, and Social Media
by Mathilde Eon As the daughter of an anesthetist, I grew up with my vaccines being done by my dad, after dinner, in the kitchen (it was totally sanitary, don’t worry). Most of you probably went to the doctor’s practice and got a nice bandage with your favorite cartoon character on it once the injection…
Do You Want to Earn Money for Participating in Democracy?
by Margje Camps I am not going to lie to you, this slogan sounds very appealing and more than a bit deceiving at the same time. Yet I must ensure you, this job advertisement could very well exist. In the last few weeks, a central theme in newspapers, television programmes, and on the internet has…
The Hanoi Summit
by Jedidja van Boven On the 27thand 28thof February, the DPRK–USA Hanoi Summit Vietnam took place in the Vietnamese capital. Commonly known as the Hanoi Summit, the thoroughly documented meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump marks the second meeting in which the denuclearization of North Korea was on the agenda. Whereas the 2018 meeting…
Drag Queen Fairytales: A Media Phenomenon
by Jedidja van Boven Promoting reading through story time hour and introducing more inclusive programming in American public schools- how to combine the two? The answer is the phenomenon known as Drag Queen Story Hour, an initiative launched in San Francisco in 2015. It invites drag performers to read children’s books in local libraries and…
Navigating the Brexit-fog: An Insider’s Experience
by Jedidja van Boven & Charlotte Daemen Now that British Prime Minister Theresa May is working on a revised deal while attempting to make last-minute changes, Brexit has faded slightly from the spotlight in current world news. A new deal on various Brexit options needs to be finished by the end of the month as…
#Pelosiclap: White-clad Women and the Shutdown
By Jedidja van Boven A Polar Vortex bringing a cold so extreme that it has claimed 21 lives, the crumbling of the benchmark INF treaty on missiles with Russia, and new aspiring presidential candidates left and right… With all these dramatic headlines coming our way from the United States, it’s easy to brush over the…
The Brainless Soldier
By Amée Zoutberg Looking back on 2018, I feel that one of my greatest lessons learnt came about a month after receiving my UCR diploma. Which was great. Really. I painfully discovered that in three years of sacrifice and voluntary enslavement to the academic system (for that sweet, sweet 3.5 GPA), I had in no way…
Ikumen: Normalizing Stay-at-Home Dads
by Jedidja van Boven Because the last two weeks of the semester are upon us, I was wasting some hours on YouTube, as you do. I stumbled across this video titled ‘’How To Put a Baby To Sleep’’, and despite the fact that I am in no way responsible enough to have a child, I…
California: Camp Fire and Cannery Row
by Jedidja van Boven The end of 2018 is fast approaching, and it feels like every year gets more intense, with crazier headlines, angrier politicians, and biggerhashtags. 2018, too, was already a record year in many ways- and not always in the good sense of the word. For example: a record total surface area burnt…