A summary of recent events concerning FIFA By Amir Pliev This year, on the 2nd of June 2015, Sepp Blatter resigned his position as president of FIFA. The resignation followed a series of events that drew a lot of attention from the worldwide media. Why the attention? Well, what happens to FIFA can have far…
‘Das Auto.’ or ‘Das Auto?’
Volkswagen’s betrayal of our eco-friendly diesel fairy tale by Corine Fontijn WHEN thinking about the Volkswagen group, thoughts used to go in many directions, to the reliable family car that one will own in 20 years or the classic hippie bus. Last month, that changed. Volkswagen has been manipulating tests measuring their diesel engine’s nitrogen…
Sweetening Up The Tax System
Why Jamie Oliver wants to impose a sugar tax By Indya Duivenbode It is commonly known that consuming extensive amounts of sugar is unhealthy. People become more and more aware of this and try to spread their knowledge, under which one finds British cook and television-star Jamie Oliver, who has been active promoting healthy nutrition…
Paris – its prequel, its aftermath and different opinions
This picture was taken at the march on 15th of November at Market Square which was organised by UCR students By Corine Fontijn & Rebecca Fobbe Friday night, Paris. Young and old are attacked and taken hostage while attending a concert at the Bataclan theatre. A second attack – a drive by shooting- on a…
We Still Want The Truth
by Ishany C. Balder and Aimah Moiz SINCE the 1980s, there have been an estimated 80,000 cases of en-forced disappearances in Sri Lanka. This is 0.4% of the current population, making Sri Lanka the country with the second highest number of disappeared people in the world after Iraq. Disap-pearances became the modus operandi during the…
Puerto Rico
The Black Sheep of America’s Family by Anton Moggré WHILE Europe’s news outlets mainly talk about the never-ending fi nancial crisis of Greece, in the United States a similar situation has arisen. The country in question here: Puerto Rico. The tropical island, located in the Caribbean and a commonwealth of the United States, is currently…
The Waters of Mars
by Sanne Tol LAST year NASA celebrated its 10-year anniversary of Mars explora-tions by Mars rovers Spirit and Oppor-tunity, that were sent to Mars to search its surfaces for evidence of past water. This month NASA could report that there is not only evidence for past wa-ter, but also for present water. Humans haven been…
The Rekindling of American Cuban Diplomatic Relations
by Eva Versteeg After a freeze of diplomatic relations that spanned for more than fifty years, the Cuban and American governments have finally reckindled. Last August, government officials from both countries gathered in Havana, Cuba for a ceremonial raising of the flag. The ceremony marked the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Cuba, which had…
Who is allowed to study?
Norwegian mass murderer A.B. Breivik now enrolled in University By Indya Duivenbode, currently on exchange in Bergen, Norway The 22nd of July 2011 proved to be a tragic day for Norway and its citizens. Anders Behring Breivik bombed the government headquarters in Oslo killing eight people. He continued his rampage on the island Utøya ,…
You can evict a building, but you cannot evict the movement: A report from the ground
By Anna Ziya Geerling Pictures are by Anna Ziya Geerling © In the weekend of 11 and 12 April, the New University movement (in Dutch ‘De Nieuwe Universiteit’/DNU) of Amsterdam had planned a ‘Festival of Science and Humanities.’ Many lectures by interesting speakers such as Ewald Engelen as well as workshops and discussion sessions made…
How safe it is to be a hero: Recent attacks on ICRC workers
By Becci Fobbe It all started in 1859 when a Swiss businessman decided to travel to Solferino, Italy to present a concept to Napoleon III who was fighting a battle in Northern Italy at that very moment. What he experienced on his way was more important to him and to the rest of the world:…
Three person babies
By Sanne van den Tol On the 3rd of February, the MPs of British parliament voted in favour of the bill on the creation of “three-person babies”, which allows scientist to create babies with the DNA of the parents, but with the mitochondrial DNA of another woman, in an IVF-similar style. Naturally, the sound of…
Abortions are for the weak
By Agate Rublovska Recently, the Latvian society was swept over by an ardent debate about suggested changes to the Latvian Law on Sexual and Reproductive Health. The introduction to the law states it is there to, “regulate the legal aspects of sexual behaviour and reproductive health in order to protect the life of the unborn…
The Economics of Human Trafficking in Europe
By Becci Fobbe It is the year 2015, and Europe is struggling with stagnating economic growth rates, a general decline in the game for global power balance, and with several crisis in regard to external affairs. However, there is one business that is booming, with no boundaries: the trade of human beings. The United Nations…
Aslan is not in Narnia. She is in Turkey, where she was murdered.
By Rosanna Baas When walking through Istiklal Street in Istanbul, it is rare not to stumble upon a protest. However, the protests that have been going on in the past couple of weeks are some of the biggest I have seen so far. The reason? The brutal murder of Özgegan Aslan. After an afternoon of…
ISIS: Erasing the Past, Controlling the Future
By Merlijn Veltman The ancient city of Nimrud was once the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, one of the great civilizations that once occupied part of the land of Mesopotamia, or modern day Iraq. For countless years the wealth and prestige of the Neo-Assyrian Empire were enormous, and it was, together with Egypt one of…
The Shadow Rise of the New Right in Europe
By Nicholas Rogers Since the beginning of the decade, it has been undeniable observed that political parties with more radical policies than the traditional conservative Right have emerged across Europe. The European Elections of 2014 entrenched this newfound popularity, with anti-European parties winning or making significant gains in Britain, France and Hungary amongst many others….
Revelations of an Ex-bodyguard : Venezuela is threatening to become a narco-state
By Anton Moggré January 24, 2015 was another destabilizing day for the Maduro regime in Venezuela. In addition to the severe economic and social problems Venezuela suffers from, the country has been dealt another massive blow to their standing in the international community. Diosdado Cabello is one of the most influential persons in Venezuela’s new…
Peace and PEGIDA: right-wing unrest in German society?
By Rebecca Fobbe Dresden, Germany, 2014. The people are on the streets again, marching through the city once a week. Similar to those Monday demonstrations in Leipzig in the GDR, nowadays demonstrations are not only held in a city in the east of Germany and at the same day as the historical movement that is…
On Net Neutrality
By Anita Bielicka This year marks some of the most intense discussion related to our favourite invention, the internet: First we were baffled at the gross violation of privacy committed by some parts of our very own governments, feared for our online accounts due to a major hacking attack around the world, and now also…