Blogs posts written in English by and for our international community.
BY SARA KNAEPS. Media tells us that sitting is the new smoking, sitting kills or even this: chairs are murderers. But is this true? First of all, if it would be true, we would go to a future where we have to be 18 years or older to buy a chair, and a lovely little bench in the park will not be the same anymore with signs warning for the dangers of sitting. I am probably exaggerating, but if sitting would really be the new smoking, this is where we are going.
DOOR BRAM DE BOTSELIER. About 150 heads of state and government will come together in France’s capital for one of the biggest gatherings of world leaders ever. On the agenda, only one issue: the climate. But what exactly is the problem and why is it taking so long to come up with a solution?
BY EIKO FRIED. In response to the Germanwings crash, media and politicians have construed depression as cause for the tragedy, and depressed individuals as hidden danger we need to protect ourselves from. This stigmatization is inappropriate and harmful—what we really need is a better understanding of a severe and very common disease.
BY ERIK DUVAL. Apparently, today is World Cancer Day… I’m not sure about this concept of having days for specific topics. I mean: is there a World Ebola Day? A World Political Prisoners Day? A Let’s-get-rid-of-religious-and-other-bigotry Day? There are only 365 days in a year and so many worthy causes… Still, I was asked to reflect a bit on my experience over the last 10 months, and ended up thinking about how cancer is maybe a bit ‘different’ from other diseases…
BY HANNA PEACOCK. How many things are on your to-do list right now? And how many of those things are actually written on your to-do list? Do you have a plan for how you are going to tackle these things, or are you facing a list of vague and complex tasks? Are you procrastinating? Are you forgetting about something that is due soon? Are these questions making you a bit anxious?
BY BART BOETS. As summer fades away, the time is ripe to share some of my experiences as a postdoctoral researcher abroad in Cambridge, Boston, where I am a visiting Fulbright scholar at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research (MIT, Cambridge) and the Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Lab (Harvard, Boston). My wife and four children joined me for the summer months — we had a really nice time and a wonderful cultural experience around the MIT lab and Harvard hospital.
BY TIJS BESIEUX. Hong Kong’s revolt was not unexpected. In this blog I’ll explain why the Hong Kong revolt is long overdue, and why the government’s strategy to wait out protesters won’t lead to sustainable stability.
BY JOGCHUM VRIELINK. The ‘weird’ laws of many countries, including Belgium, are much more interesting than their urban myths. Much of what now seems incomprehensible goes back to things that legislators at the time cared deeply about. Rulers have been legislating for centuries and many laws that once made sense, now just seem astoundingly bizarre.
BY MATTHEW COUCKE. The motto of the 28-state bloc is ‘United in Diversity’. With this in mind, the Union should engage more in the protection of linguistic diversity. Huge communities of EU citizens who are living in another Member State or simply speak another language than the most widespread one, suffer from discrimination and isolation.
BY VALERIA PULIGNANO. The EU’s plan to fix the European job market by encouraging flexibility has not helped much in the revitalization of the labour market. Countries are now demanding a new strategy and focusing on the security of their employees first. Lees verder
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