by Jedidja van Boven The field of law seems to be dealing with some sort of image problem. It’s usually depicted as a stuffy, boring discipline where old people in ill-fitting blazers discuss fraud and tax evasion. Sometimes, however, exceptions pop up in the international news scene. There have been weird lawsuits all over the…
Pittsburgh and the Polish Sun
by Jedidja van Boven The American daily newspapers were still being flooded with stories on migrant caravans and Saudi journalists when a new report came in on 27 October: The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had been the site of a hate crime that cost 11 lives. Classified as the worst anti-Semitic attack…
Cold Cases: The Law of Winter and The 1974 Disappearances
by Jedidja van Boven The Bellingshausen station, a Russian outpost on King George Island, Antarctica, doesn’t exactly make headlines often. However, when researcher Sergey Savitsky, stationed at the isolated facility, was charged with attempted murder of a colleague last week, the media started paying attention to the most remote location where crime reports could possibly…
When Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian Collide
By Judith Brouwer I will admit that I am a sucker for bad reality TV. However, if I ever imagined an episode starring Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian, I would have thought that it would be a vastly different arrangement than them discussing prison reform in the Oval Office. Tracing back Trump’s road to the…
The Silent Crisis Across Indian Country: The Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women
By Roos Saat Disclaimer: First Nations is the official term used to refer to Indigenous people from Canada, while Native American refers to Indigenous people from the United States. The first time I noticed the small poster on a bathroom door at a gas station a few kilometers outside of Vancouver, I didn’t think much…
‘’Amoral and Idiotic’’: Republican Heroism or Strategic Ploy?
by Jedidja van Boven In the words of a former White House official: it’s open season on the president. A sudden op-ed letter, written by an anonymous senior administration official working for the Trump administration, was published by the New York Times last Wednesday in a frantic government-press clash that is “unprecedented’’, as stated by…
Feminism, Femininity, and Francization: the #BalanceTonPorc Controversy
by Jedidja van Boven When world-famous tennis player Serena Williams was forbidden to wear her black ‘catsuit’, designed to prevent blood clots after her pregnancy, to the French Open in 2019, online comments were quick to defend Williams against tennis federation president Bernard Giudicelli, who argued that “one must respect the game”. Some people were…
Do Aliens Even Matter in this Economy?
By Dana Zoutman This February, Elon Musk launched a super rocket to send a Tesla car into orbit around Mars. Bowie’s “Space Oddity” will be playing throughout its journey [1]. When someone on Twitter asked him why he was planning to undertake this seemingly useless mission, his response was simply that he loved “the thought…
Zondag met Lubach
Comedy, journalism, or social activism? By Heleen Heijungs Last Sunday night, Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach launched a campaign against Facebook, urging users to deactivate their accounts [1]. Over 29,000 Facebook users have said they will participate in the event, with another 73,000 indicating they are ‘interested’. In a similar call for action in October 2017,…
Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and UCR
What happened, and why should we care? By Tom van Leeuwen and Heleen Heijungs What is the link between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica? You have probably noticed the recent controversy surrounding Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and a series of alleged data breaches. But what exactly happened? What is Cambridge Analytica, and what is their relation…
A Good Time for Optimism about North Korea?
By Eric Zhang In late January, the world’s attention was drawn towards what was deemed by many as a possible turn of events in Korean politics. Mr. Kim Jong-un has for the first time addressed Moon Jae-in as the president of South Korea in his 2018 New Year speech, and proposed a senior-level talk about…
Everything you need to know about the meeting between Trump and Xi
By Eric Zhang On 6 November, Donald Trump went on the first state visit to China of his presidency, and it is considered the most important stop in both strategic and economic terms in his visit to five Asian countries. Let us take a look at what the most pressing and pertinent topics were in…
The Politics of Passion – the Catalonian Referendum
By Eric Zhang This October has not been a peaceful month for Catalonia and Spain. On October 1st, Catalonia held a referendum as to whether it should become an independent country. The majority of the vote supported independence, but the turnout rate for this referendum was only 43%. The Spanish king addressed the nation two…
AFD – Whiff from the Brown Past or Fresh Wind in a Stale Closet?
In her article “Did We Get Used to Nazis (Again)?”, Rebecca Fobbe lambasts the success of the Alternative für Deutschland party (Alternative for Germany, AFD) in the recent German federal elections, which gained almost 13% of votes and thus became the third-largest party nationally. Following Rebeccas article, it would be easy to assume that the…
Did We Get Used to Nazis (Again)?
By Rebecca Fobbe On Sunday the 24th of September, the last of a series of breath-holding European elections was carried out. After the Dutch and French votes for their new respective heads of states, both events closely monitored due to the great appearance of national right-wing parties (Front Nationale in France and PVV in the…
Powergames, History, and Identity – a Ukrainian Perspective on Crimea
By Eric Zhang and Maryna Parfenchuk Ukraine has always been a nation torn apart by different superpowers and identities. For centuries, Austro-Hungarian Empire and Poland had governed its west, whereas its east had been under the control of Russia. That Ukraine falls within Russia’s influence is of major strategic importance for Russia, since Ukraine provides…
The Grim Realism Underlying the Puzzle of North Korea
In recent weeks, the Hermit’s Kingdom – North Korea has raised the security concerns throughout the globe again. Following the belligerent verbal confrontation between Kim and Trump in August, North Korea’s KCNA just declared the country’s newest success in their hydrogen bomb test, posing new threats to the world’s security. However, the decade-long effort to…
Too Old Or Too Gay? – The Marginalisation of LGBTQ Elderly
What comes to mind when you think about LGBTQ issues? The gay pride in Amsterdam perhaps, the supreme court granting same-sex marriage to everyone in the US last year, or perhaps just a same-sex couple happily in love? But what about those who spent the greatest part of their lives fighting for same-sex marriage and…
Why We Need To Stop And Listen
The Dutch elections have been over for a couple of weeks, and many were relieved about the result. It seems that the populist tide from the United States did not carry over, in the sense that the PVV did not do as well as many had anticipated. But in some ways, this might not be…
The Flash Week 12: Takedowns, Missiles And Artificial Wombs
To be honest, the news has been the last thing on my mind – I can’t even remember what week number this article is supposed to be – and I am sure I am not the only one. Tabula Rasa is back to keep you informed so that you can keep on studying! Little Lamb…