Transylvania Insights - no. 3

TRANSYLVANIA Edition 3

Years of conflict: explained

INSIGHTS

Palestine and Israel's conflict explained at page 6

Ecaterina Teodoroiu: WW1 hero facts and history on page 14

Pinkwashing: Explained Facts and what you need to know on page 23

Hijab ban in France: Explained Is it oppression by the government or by religion find on page 24

White fragility: Book review

Fragile white ego of the fragile white men on page 34

We learn to serve...: Interview Interview with Miss Florentina on page 38

Cluj-Napoca, 2021

Transylvania Insights - Third Edition Monthly magazine

Team Octavian Ghişa - Chief Editor

Writers:

Radu Anghel Antoniu Bâlc Carina Bonica Luca Briciu Romana Coza Victoria Dicu Shaked Eckhaus Beatrice Isailă Atena Maioreanu Luca Mureşan Răzvan Mureşan Victor Pavel Ioan Pristavu Maria Victoria Rondolean Ariana Rotaru Sebastian Stoenoiu Ioana Stoleru Maria Stoleru Maria-Irina Şerdean Rareş Zăvăleanu Editorial Address and Contact: Str. Baisoara 2A, Cluj-Napoca, 400445 tel. 0264 418 990 t-insights@transylvania-college.ro Teacher Supervisor: Vlad Ciurdar ISSN 2784 – 1286 ISSN-L 2784 – 1286

ABOUT US It all started with a talk in a history lesson between three people that had the ambition to give the students the ability to express themselves and give a new perspective on various topics. This magazine focuses on International relations, politics, human rights, interviews, and book reviews. This magazine is entirely created by us, Transylvania College students, and it's something that we do with pleasure and with happiness.

Contents International relations 04 05 06 08 09

Otoman Empire 2.0?

The passport of Jerusalem Years of Conflict Explained Israel and Palestine: The creation of the ‘catastrophe’ How Covid 19 has affected international relations?

Politics Opperation Oddesa Queen Victoria Ecaterina Teodoroiu Coronavirus conspiracy US forgotten Heist Scotland Independence again(st)...?

Broken Imigration System Neourotechnology The psychology behind politics

Human rights 23 24 26 28 30

What is Pinkwashing?

Oppresion by relegiong or by the government?

How Covid 19 affected the environment?

Solitude and loneliness Lampedusa, the migrant’s gateway to Europe

10 12 14 15 16 18 19 20 22

Economics Covax the light at the end of the tunnel 31 The rush for a scruple of crypto 32 How crypto currency is affecting the world 33

Books reviews 34 White fragility 36 Vagina a re-education

Interviews From Root to Fruit:Florentina Ghisa 38

OTTOMAN EMPIRE 2.0?

by Octavian Ghișa

Turkey has a rich history. The Ottoman Empire conquered the whole of the Middle East and gained control over a large part of Europe. Its peak of territorial expansion came in 1683. But, that is not what I’m here to talk about.

Since 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne proclaimed Turkey a republic, they tried to become a democracy and transform a once powerful monarchy into a reliable presidential republic.

Everything began to change in March 2003 when Erdogan became prime minister following the lifting of his political ban by the Gul government.

Since then, Turkey started to step by step become an authoritarian regime again. Erdogan started well, gaining support as prime-minister by contributing to a rapid growth in economy and a development boom. He has an impressive military muscle which he uses to increase the Turkish sphere of influence around the area. He got involved in Syria and Libya. His external ambitions soon became in conflict with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan's agenda also includes untapped gas reserves in the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey’s gas exploration in Cyprus and around Cyprus brang tensions between Turkey and Cyprus, Greece. The EU soon acted by bringing sharp warnings on the table.

He supports Turkish nationalist leaders, which only shows how much he loves the rich history of Turkey and the ‘glory days of the Ottoman Empire”. He has been trying through propaganda and his ideologies to respark the light in the sleeping dragon that the once almighty Ottoman Empire is. Another step into Turkey’s path to a dictatorship is the gain of too much power by the president. In June 2018, Erdogan won a brand new 5 year deal.

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He was granted access to a bunch of new ‘capabilities’, in a controversial referendum in 2017. The change was close with 51% of the votes were ‘Yes’.

His powers included: ability to appoint public officials, including ministers and vice presidents; the power to intervene in the state's legal system and the power to impose a state of emergency.

Although it may sound drastic, all these ‘abilities’ sound very familiar. Ever heard of Article 48? This gave Hitler the tools, the same tools, to go on, become a dictator, a Fuhrer, and dominate Germany and Europe for a span of 5 years. Now Turkey is on a very dangerous path towards a new Ottoman Empire. The day of 29 May marked the 568th ‘anniversary’ of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinopol.

The celebrations were immense with a visual feast, a recitation of the 48th chapter of the Quran, Victory and Triumph, a sky-mapping of the Galata Tower, a symbol of conquest. Also, an image of Fatih Sultan Mehmed Han, who conquered Istanbul, was featured in the show. As a cultural show, everything is amazing. But, by putting this in context, it’s just plain propaganda. It just showcases the ‘past glory of the Empire’, how it was ‘better back then’. Everything around this show just basks the past grandeur.

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THE PASSPORT OF JERUSALEM

by Ioan Pristavu At one point in a person's life, the thoughts of identity, of belonging, of being part of a community dominate our minds. We, humans, go through days, weeks, even years trying to find answers to these questions that haunt us, that many times lead us into a mental state of pandemonium.

The same can be said about a population, be it united by nationality, ethnicity, beliefs or other factors, we all search to have a presence, an identity in this world.

A few weeks ago, tensions between the Jewish and Palestinian populations of Jerusalem manifested themselves through different acts of protest, resistance and retaliation, over age-old disputes on that have their origin more decades ago.

This article is not going to address the causes, who started it, who is to blame, and so on because we cannot comprehend the complexity of the situation in an article, nothing is black and white in it I have spent most of my life in between these two siblings, the descendants of Issac and Ismael, living through the wars, the conflicts and terror that plagues this great land and great people living on it, and I still cannot say that one side is right and the other is wrong, the problem lies in the middle. One could say that all our lives are one big lesson, trying to understand this world and ourselves.

Many come to the conclusion that this conflict, and most conflicts around the world come in a natural cause, in which two sides feud over divergent ideals, materialistic wants, or inner beliefs, but many ignore the fact that nowadays, most, if not all are magnified and fuelled artificially for the benefit of distinct factions, be them internal or external. We are currently experiencing this magnification today. The biggest drawback to Peace in the area isn’t the History of those lands, the beliefs of those who inhabit them or the socio-

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economic state of the region, but to the manipulation of its populations, using various pretexts, that appeal to emotions, and not to rationale. In other words, today's “new conflicts” are just age-old disputes that are being “updated” every new generation, created by yesteryear's leaders, and being inherited by today's leaders as their casus belli. One of the solutions is Education, and No, not the typical cliche that everyone claims that will save the world, but getting people to understand that real education isn’t about math or high grades, it’s about bettering one’s self, nurturing your intellectual curiosity, it’s about to be able to grasp the entirety of the situation without any contamination of wickedness. A part of understanding and solving this conflict is understanding the identity of both nations and of the land. Once both nations come to terms with their identity, we will be one step closer to Peace.

The beauty of mankind is that you would rarely find intentions of hate in the hearts of those people, as you will never hear teenagers, children, families that want war, death, destruction, the only fruits of hatred. The reality that most of the population from both sides is willing to come to terms with each other without the need of the politics that rule them. And they have, we are lucky that there still are good leaders among us, I don’t have to name names, they know themselves, and a good leader is obvious, you don’t need someone to tell you over and over that he or she is the real deal.

To the surprise of many, I believe I know there is hope for solving this crisis, I have seen it with my own eyes, and If you want to see it too, go to Jerusalem and find its essence. It will explain everything...

source:www.culturetrip.com

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YEARS OF

by Beatrice Isailă and

The Palestine and Israel conflict has been ongoing for years, having a long and complicated history, with multiple failed peace attempts and two Intifadas.

In spring 2021 the dispute started to worsen, and hundreds of lives were lost in the span of 11 days.

History After the events of Second World War (1948) all jews wanted the creation of a Jewish state. The English, who at the time had power in the middle east, allowed for the creation of the Jewish state on the mandate of Palestine.

Although the population of Palestine was almost double that of Israel, they received less than a quarter of their land.

Since the beginning there has always been conflict; the first of these sprouted just mere months after the merger of the two countries. With differences in religion and the Palestinians believing they should re-earn the land.

After 1967, Israel takes control of the whole of historic Palestine including the Gaza strip and west bank but also Syrian Golan heights and Sinai. Later on that same year however they were forced by the UN to withdraw from those territories. In 76 Israel once again ceases control of hectares of land from Palestinian citizens. Mass protests were organized in response. In 1993, Israeli officials and Palestinian leaders launched the Oslo peace process in the hopes of finding a reasonable solution to the conflict. Two accords were signed two years apart. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was recognised by Israel as a representative of Palestinians and the PLO renounced terrorism and acknowledged Israels right to live in peace. Also, both sides agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian Authority, which would assume governing responsibilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over five years. However, the Oslo Accords did

not establish a Palestinian state.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, as both Israelis and Palestinians opposed the accords. An Israeli who was allegedly against them even assassinated Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's prime minister at the time, in 1995. 5 years later, in 2000, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority attempted to negotiate a permanent agreement at Camp David in the United States, but the initiative was unsuccessful. The Palestinian uprising against Israel, known as the Second Intifada, began in the same year. The revolt was caused by the failure of the agreements and by Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, after which protests and riots erupted, put down by the Israeli authority with rubber bullets.

The Intifada ended in 2005.

What is happening now?

In 2021, the conflict started resurfacing again. But why now? In mid-April, at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on Israel’s Memorial Day violence between Israeli police and Palestinians broke out, as authorities prevented Muslims from gathering in East Jerusalem. Protests started to rise and peaked when Israeli police stormed the compound of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

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CONFLICT EXPLAINED Radu Anghel

On top of that, Palestinians have been threatened with forced evictions from a predominantly Arab neighbourhood in Jerusalem called Sheikh Jarrah and the law does not allow them to reclaim homes lost in other parts of the city.

Additionally, the annual parade, part of “Jerusalem day”, took place. This day celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem and the takeover of the Old City by Israel following the Six-Day War in June 1967.

For Palestinians, however, the day is viewed as a provocation, with Israeli nationalists parading through Muslim neighbourhoods. After that, the situation had already gotten out of hand. On May 10 Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, began firing rockets later that day. It provoked a military response from Israel. With the bombing back and forth, approximately 200 people from Palestine and ten people from Israel have been killed in the first week alone.

After 11 days, on May 21, 2021, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, in which both sides claimed victory.

International reactions International reactions on the topic have been mixed. The United States has supported the Israel authority for a long time. President Biden announced that there is "no shift in my commitment ... to the security of Israel. Period."

However, the White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Jerusalem "must be a place of coexistence."

British prime minister, Boris Johnson declared that "The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said the secretarygeneral was saddened by "the increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza."

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that "Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force. The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centres is unacceptable."

Conclusion Although this conflict has just surfaced into the media after going under the radar for many years it has been brewing up for decades. And no matter who’s side you take in this conflict, I think we can all agree that no war will ever bring anything good to this world and that it would be beneficial for both if they would be able to reach a peace treaty.

The European Union condemned Palestinian rocket assaults into Israel, finding them “very unacceptable and encouraged all parties to work toward a de-escalation".

Source 1: Wikimedia Commons Source 2: The Atlantic

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ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: THE CREATION OF THE CATASTROPHE

by Luca Briciu

Why are they fighting?

Whose land is it?

How are the children that live there dealing with it?

Palestine is a region in the Middle East, between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, this was the Jewish homeland. Over the time, this land has been inhabited by Arabs, who are Muslims. The Israeli people immigrated to this area before WW2 in an attempt to escape a regime that was persecuting them all over Europe. In 1948, the state of Israel was created and it included the West Bank and Gaza, which are the two areas of land which Palestinians and Israeli have been fighting for since then.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in what they call Al Nakba, or the “Catastrophe” when Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank. There was fighting which ended in a ceasefire the following year, but by then, Israel controlled most of the territory.

Jerusalem, which sits in the middle of the West Bank and it is considered a holy land by both Jews and Muslims, was divided between Israeli forces in the West and Jordanian forces in the East.

However, to this day they were not able to reach an agreement so they are still fighting.

Recently, another conflict between Israeli and Palestinians ended after more than 11 days. IDF (Israel Defence Forces) sent out an aerial bombing of Gaza, while the Palestinian Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel territory. Israel airstrikes took 232 Palestinian lives of which 65 children and in Israel 12 people died of which 2 were children.

The lives of the children that live there have been affected greatly. Can you imagine living in a place where you don’t feel safe going outside to play?

Can you imagine your life when there is bombing and death around you? A place where you are not free to travel safely? Whatever the outcome, this conflict needs to stop immediately and if the two sides cannot reach an agreement, then the United Nations should intervene and support peace negotiations as well as a long term agreement that would bring back the holiness to this holy place.

Because there was never a peace agreement, each side blamed the other.

There were more wars and fighting in the decades that followed.

Most Palestinians and Jews think that the best solution to end the conflict would be for the Palestinians to be allowed to have their own state of Palestine on the areas of land mentioned above. source: www.timesnewroman.com

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TRANSYLVANIA COLLEGE

HOW COVID-19 HAS AFFECTED INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS?

by Ioana Stoleru

WHAT IS HAPPENING: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected international relations and caused diplomatic tensions, as well as resulted in a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a global ceasefire. Some scholars have argued that the pandemic necessitates a significant rethinking of existing approaches to international relations, with a greater focus on issues such as health diplomacy, the politics of crisis and border politics.

OPINIONS: Others say that the epidemic will not result in significant changes to the world system. Tensions over the commerce and transportation of medicines, diagnostic tests, and medical equipment for coronavirus sickness 2019 have harmed diplomatic relations.

Some leaders have accused other countries of failing to effectively contain the disease, resulting in the unconstitutional situation.

EXAMPLE 1: The Chinese government has been criticized by the United States for its handling of the pandemic, which began in the Chinese province of Wuhan. In Brazil, the Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of President Jair Bolsonaro, caused a diplomatic dispute with China when he retweeted a message saying: “he blame for the global coronavirus pandemic has a name and surname: the Chinese Communist party”. Yang Wanming, China's top diplomat in Brazil, retweeted a message that said: “The Bolsonaro family is the great poison of this country”.

TRANSYLVANIA COLLEGE

EXAMPLE 2: Another example is in response to the dramatic drop in oil consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia attempted to orchestrate a worldwide decrease in oil production to keep prices at a moderate level. However, when Russia refused to reduce oil production, Saudi Arabia triggered an oil price war in March 2020. This economic conflict resulted in a sheer drop of oil price over the spring of 2020, with the price becoming negative on April 20 CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the pandemic has affected international relationships in a very big way and caused some tears in relationships that over the years might evolve into bigger disputes.

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OPERATION ODESSA:

WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED WHEN YOU THINK ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE?

by Victor Pavel

source: Daily Mail

This is the story of a mad Russian mobster nicknamed Tarzan, a car dealer called Juan F. Almeida, and a notorious drug trafficker named Nelson Yester.

What you are on the verge of reading is true, even though it sounds like it came straight out of a mafia movie. These Three Musketeers managed to concoct a scheme of such magnitudes that they were able to make a deal involving a Soviet submarine, the Colombian cartel and several high profile post soviets Generals.

Ludwig Fainberg (Tarzan): Crazy russian mobster with no concept of impossible.

Juan Almedia: A very capable businessman that could turn the situation in his favor no matter the circumstances. In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Juan saw an opportunity and

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Nelson Yester(Tony): A Drug smuggler that worked in direct collaboration with Pablo Escobar.

It all started when Tarzan opend his stript club in Miami, with the money he made during his years as an “employee” for the Gambino crime family. It didn't take long for the club to become a hotspot. Every Russian mobster that came to Florida paid at least a visit. He was viewed as the “go to guy” for anything. Once, Vanilla Ice came to sing at his club. Vanilla introduced Juan to Tarzan. Mr. Almeida was the type of guy that would sell his services to anyone, no matter their occupation.

They became good friends immediately. shared it with his collaborator. They wanted to buy a motorcycle. They flew to Moscow and rented two military helicopters, as a means of transportation, for only 500 dollars. Everything was for sale at a

fraction of the normal price. When they left the USA, they expected the Russian prices to be a lot higher than how they actually were. They ended up buying 250 thousands motorcycles. They made more than 5 million dollars in profit from that deal. Tony was introduced to Tarzan through Juan. The two got along very quickly and started working together. Tony was on the FBI most wanted list because he got caught with 41 passports. He was going to be the brain of the operation that will become the biggest threat to national security in the 90s.

The first big deal they made, that involved the Cartell, consisted of two

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military helicopters. Juan and Tarzan flew to Russia to make the deal. After the trade, Juan flew to the USA, while Tarzan stayed behind to make sure that everything was going according to plan. Before the plane took off, the Russian mafia showed up. They demanded payment. Tarzan, not having any money, told them that these helicopters were for Pablo Escobar and that he was his partner. The Russians were scepticalabout what he told them, so they wanted to meet Escobar face to face. Tarzan called Juan and told him to fly to Russia and pretend that he was Pablo, since the two looked almost the same. When Juan got to Russia, the mobsters fell for it. They ended up making a small but insignificant deal, in order to let the plane take off. Not long after the helicopter deal, the Cali Cartel contacted the three musketeers again. They wanted to buy a soviet Submarine. The Colombians thought they could use it to smuggle 40 tons of drugs in one go. At that time, 1t = 1 million dollars. When Tarzan heard about this deal, he wanted in on the action. Within two day of talking to the captain of the submarine, Tarzan got the deal. They settled on 35 million Dollars. During all this time, the FBI was tapping Juan’s and Tarzan’s phone.

Juan Almeida: got convicted in 2017.

He faces 6 years for drug related charges.

source: The Wall Street Journal They got 15000 hours of voice calls.

Two weeks after the deal, Tony told the Colombians that they had to make the first payment. The deal said that the payment should be done in three phases: 10 million before the delivery, 10 million while the submarine was being delivered and 10 million after. They didn't know that Tony planned on taking the money and running away. They gave him 10 million dollars, which instead of taking them to Russia, he took the money and fled. Tarzan was arrested because of the evidence they gathered using the phones that the FBI had tapped, but they could not arrest

Juan because they had no evidence against him. After 18 months in prison, Tarzan testified against Juan for immunity and he was released from prison. Juan was sentenced to 40 years in prison on multiple counts of cocaine smuggling. After Tarzan got out he recanted his testimony and Juan's conviction was overruled. Tony was caught in 2020 and convicted. He faces 40 years for drug related charges.

Nelson Yester (Tony): was caught in 2020 and convicted. He faces 40 years for drug-related charges.

Ludwig Fainberg (Tarzan): is in prison since 2012. There was more to the story to tell but the Russians heard that he was talking to reporter and told him to stop.

source: The Daily Beast

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QUEEN VICTORIA, THE WOMAN WHO RULED A QUARTER OF THE WORLD

by Maria Victoria Rondolean

Alexandria Victoria was born to the Duchess of Kent on 20 June 1837 at Kensington Palace in London. Her father, Prince Edward, was the fourth son of George III, which meant that Victoria was fifth in line to the throne of Great Britain. Unfortunately, her father died when she was eight months old, and even though she had three elderly uncles ahead of her in the succession, her chances of becoming Queen were high. She was raised at Kensington Palace and educated by her governess Baroness Lehzen who taught her arithmetic, languages, music, and drawing. Because of her father’s death, Victoria’s mother became lonely and depended highly on John Conroy, who was a servant who had a lust for power.

With the death of her two uncles, Victoria became heir to her last uncle, from there her entire childhood was controlled by the system John Conroy designed to manipulate her to get more power and influence. She was forced to share a room with her mother and have no time alone. At the age of 13, her mother and Conroy took her on a tour of the Midlands so that they could show

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her off to the public. Victoria found the tour exhausting and became very stubborn.

Victoria became Queen on 20 June 1837, weeks after her 18th birthday, and she requested an hour alone, something she didn’t experience until then. Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838, but it was slightly chaotic because Dean Westminster was ill and couldn’t attend. The orb was handed at the wrong time and the Archbishop of Canterbury forced a ring on the wrong finger, which she then struggled for an hour to remove.

She moved to Buckingham Palace, which was now her official residence, and began taking control of her life by choosing her mother’s rooms as far away from hers as possible. John Conroy was forbidden to come near her apartments, because of his crucial impact on Victoria’s life. The young Queen was fascinated by Lord Melbourne, her prime minister, who was fatherly and admiring. Queen Victoria became the richest woman in the world receiving £385 000. In 1840

she married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She wore a large white dress at the wedding, which started a new tradition among brides. Not soon after her wedding she fell pregnant and gave birth to her daughter, Victoria. Queen Victoria hated childbirth and suffered postnatal depression, but even so, she had nine children with Albert. Victoria chaired hemophilia, a condition in which the ability of the blood to clot was diminished, causing the person who suffers from it to bleed rapidly from even a slight injury. This condition affected 10 of her male descendants, which includes the son and heir of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Prince Albert died at the age of 42 in 1861, which affected Victoria harshly. After her husband’s death, she retreated from political life but continued to give audiences to ministers and official visitors. She proclaimed that in honour of her late husband monuments should be built across the country and Empire.

She became very close to John Brown, a servant at Balmoral Castle, but her children resented him. In the press, Queen Victoria was called ‘Mrs. Brown’, but despite this, her friendship with Brown continued.

On 2 January 1877 Victoria became Empress of India, on the advice of her prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, to tie the monarchy and Empire close together. She approved of his imperialist views. And so, Britain became the most powerful nation in the world, and with that Victoria became a symbol of empire.

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By the end of her reign, Australia and Canada were dominions, the far East and Oceania were under British rule and South Africa was soon to become a united nation. Victoria also had a strong influence over Europe because she was related to nearly every ruling house on the continent, giving birth to the epithet ‘Grandmother of Europe’.

After weeks of ill health, Queen Victoria died leaving her legacy behind.

She summarized the values of the era and formed new roles for the monarchy.

She was close to her people and loved all her subjects and she was responsible for the expansion of the Empire and the industrial and social transformation of Britain.

Even though she ruled over an Empire that covered a quarter of the globe, she didn’t forget about the man who supported her and asked that his dressing gown and a plaster cast of his hand be placed inside her coffin. She also asked for a lock of John Brown’s hair and his picture to be put in her hand.

Victoria was a powerful woman who until the end of her life remained indomitable.

source: wikimedia.org TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

ECATERINA TEODOROIU FIRST WORLD WAR ROMANIAN HERO

by Maria-Irina Șerdean

Ecaterina Teodoroiu was born on 11 January 1894 in a Gorjean village, in Romania, in a big and modest family and she had three brothers. After finishing her primary classes, she went to a boarding school in Bucharest.

Ecaterina’s dream was to become a teacher, but her dream did not become reality because of the First World War. It all started in the summer of 1916, when Romanian joined the First World War, Ecaterina immediately enrolled as a volunteer scout, but not a long time after the war started her father had been captured by Germans and two of her brothers died on the front. From that moment, Ecaterina wanted to revenge her family by fighting along with the Romanian soldiers. On 6 October 1916 Ecaterina gets another tragic news, her last, third brother died. On the next day, 7 October 1916 the young woman decides to participate in the fights from Oltenia with the Romanian soldiers, which, at that time did not happen as only boys were allowed to fight.

Ecaterina was taken as a prisoner by Germans, from where she escaped, the young woman has been injured at her leg and thigh, but she never gave up.

With the Romanian army, she participated in the withdrawal in Moldova. Ecaterina’s courage has arrived to Queen Maria (the wife of Ferdinand I, the king of Romania at that time) that proposed the title of the second lieutenant to Ecaterina (that accepted) in the Romanian army. In the summer of the year, 1917 Queen Maria gave Ecaterina the “Military Virtue” medal. The title of the second lieutenant did not require Ecaterina to fight on the front but she still wanted to fight on the front for her country (Romania) and for revenge for her family, which makes

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source: Radio Romania Cultural

her a real hero. Because of always staying on the front, on the night of 22 August 1917 in the zone of Seculiu Hill, Ecaterina Teodoroiu was hurt by some enemy bullets, this was her tragic end. Her last words where “ Straight away boys!”. General Ernest Brosteanu noted in the operating log of the eleventh division “ We lost our heroine, the volunteer Ecaterina Teodoroiu”.

Immediately before she died Ecaterina was in a valley from the Vrancea county, after four years, in June 1921. Her dead body was paying tribute at Bucharest and then reburied at Targu Jiu. There are some details that a few people know, Ecaterina’s real name was Catalina Vasile Toderiu, but when she was in the primary school a teacher of hers changed her name to Catalina Toderiu. There is another detail that a few people know: When Catalina was still fighting some Romanian soldiers, probably jealous of Catalina's popularity, send anonymous letters to the command, demanding her removal, there were some inquiries and the truth

came out and Ecaterina remained with the Romanian soldiers (on the fronts) until the end of her life.

This is the story of Ecaterina Teodoroiu, the hero!

source: www.wikipedia.com

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WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT CORONAVIRUS?

by Victoria Al. Dicu

I often hear different opinions about Coronavirus. I think that it’s always best to fully understand all points of view before you draw a conclusion. So I’m going to start with the beginning.

How did CoronaVirus appear? I mean, maybe, an anteater ate a bat and got a completely new virus, then almost comically, that anteater was the one that was caught and sold, and all out of a sudden schools are closing, people are banned to get out of their house, shops are closed from 20:00. I mean, come on, does the virus develop the 20th leg after 8 pm? I’ll let scientists respond to that.

Other people find it logical. Everything is closed in the early evening so people won’t meet in clubs and spread the disease.

Earth is an amazing planet, with beautiful animals and stunning wildlife.

Is it just a coincidence that since the Coronavirus appeared waters have been cleaner than ever, and the carbon dioxide gas emissions have dropped unimaginably? And the question we have all been waiting for…. Are we too many on this planet? Kids, that’s why you have to attend your biology class, it clearly seems that some haven’t, and they are now overpopulating our planet.

Some people say that the virus was the perfect solution. The elders who are not healthy enough to survive will definitely bite the dust. The pollution will decrease dramatically, and those which are doing well, are going to be doing great soon.

These same people say that it's easier to believe everything that is said on TV, sources say social media and all this great stuff is mainly used for propaganda. They are using a childhood memory to explain it. Didn’t your mom tell you “Don’t believe everything from TV?”. Didn’t she tell you that she won’t buy you that candy because it is bad for your health? And then you told her that it is colourful and tasty and it's healthy?

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If in that Kinder commercial it would have told you that it increases the chances of a heart attack, would you buy it? We are all just some kids lost in the game of adults. In some decades, as we grow we are going to understand what this pandemic is really all about.

Truth always comes first, if not now, it will then, as it always has in history.

Other people believe that what is said on TV is true. Everything that is presented to the world must come from verified sources.

You can draw your own conclusion, as everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I just presented different sides in this controversial topic. It’s now up to you to decide which opinion you would like to support or what perspective you choose. What is making sense or not?

Source: Financial Times

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USA AGAINST FORGOTTEN HEIST

by Octavian Ghișa appreciation. They saw it as a long awaited acknowledgement of atrocities against their own people. This statement put an end on the ignorance of some people towards the Armenian Genocide.

Joe Biden’s words were seen as tribute to the victims of the massacre and it will be remembered by the Armenian community as a waypoint in their existence. That moment in history carries a lot of emotional baggage and tension. These declarations can spark the beginning of an international campaign of recognition and stronger preventions implemented against genocide.

Joe Biden has recently declared the massacre and deportation of over 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Army during World War I as genocide.

An action long overdue, but a huge stepping stone in the evolution of the world through history. I will look over what this statement means towards Armenians and Turkey plus how this action will affect the international community.

Background The Armenian Genocide took place between 1915 - 1923, and was a systematic cleansing and murder of the Armenian community by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey is refusing to recognise the killings as genocide, while 30 countries such as France and Germany have formally equated the Armenian Genocide to the horrors caused by the Holocaust. On the 24th of April, Biden stated: “We affirm history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.” This was the first time an American president officially came out and confounded the actions against the Armenian population.

Previous presidents such as Barack Obama or George W. Bush made an attempt to create a similar campaign of

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recognition, but it fell through before anything clear formed.

Turkish View This gave Turkey a blow in the stomach. Turkey’s foreign ministry stated that Biden’s statement “opened a wound” in Washington - Ankara relations. They consider that the killings do not meet the U.N definition of genocide. Article II of the Convention of Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that genocide has to meet any acts committed with the purpose to destroy an ethnical, religious or racial group. This covers killings, mental and/or physical harm, imposing inhumane living conditions, limiting births within the group or moving by force children of the community to another community. Turkey accused the Armenians of treasury after suffering a heavy defeat to the Russians in 1915.

This posed as their motive behind the genocide. Turkey has prosecuted journalists or any person that uses the term of “genocide”, for insulting “Turkishness”.

Why is this so important for the international stage?

Turkey is a key ally of the United States and the president's statement seemed to ‘worsen ties’ as Cavusoglu, Turkish politician, said. The USA depends on Turkish cooperation against ISIS in Syria. This might cause tensions and relations to break, something that Biden has to work on and avoid as much as possible. Turkey is a strong NATO member and has a crucial role in preserving some sort of control over the Middle East. These statements can cause a lot of ‘intense debating’ between multiple countries. Israel, for example, is standing by the Armenians while being in huge tensions with other Middle Eastern countries.

The International Stage must take note of this key turning point in the Armenian story and build a better understanding of it. People have to be aware of any kind of actions against humanity, against the human rights; Biden’s call can spark a light in the fight against inhumanity and any kind of genocide.

Armenian View On the other side, the Armenians welcomed this declaration with a lot of

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Conclusion Joe Biden’s statement has been proof that humanity can and will recognise events that changed the life of a group and that these sort of actions against humanity will not be forgotten. The US president now has to stand strong against tensions that might arise with Turkey and not back down from making people aware of the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide. The tale of the Armenians should not be ignored by any means, the fact that the US leader has got the courage to confront this is immense not only for his public image but also for the future of the UN and humanitarian institutions.

source 1: The Conversation source 2: from Britannica source 3: from BBC source 4: from Wall Street Journal

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SCOTLAND INDEPENDENCE AGAIN(ST)...?

by Ioana Stoleru

The Scottish National Party (SNP) won the election and is pressing for a Scottish independence referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Prime Minister, has advised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to reject the Scottish people's will.

The Scottish Parliament elections have significant ramifications for the United Kingdom's unity.

After the final results were released, the Scottish National Party gained 64 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament.

However, because it lacked a single mandate, the PNS was unable to secure an absolute majority.

The majority, however, can be achieved with the cooperation of the Greens, who have 8 seats and support separation.

The Scottish Conservatives gained 31 seats, and leader Douglas Ross praised himself for "blocking a PNS majority and an independence referendum."

Nicola Sturgeon told his followers, "The people of Scotland have decided to give the pro-independence parties a majority in the Scottish Parliament."

There is no democratic rationale for Boris Johnson to oppose the Scottish people's freedom to select their own destiny, according to the Prime Minister, because it is the will of the country.

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PRITI PATEL PROMISES TO FIX THE UK'S 'BROKEN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM'

by Atena Maioreanu

On May 23rd, news of the U.K.’s new ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) broke, bringing mixed reactions from the British press. Thom Brooks, from The Independent saying: “Priti Patel’s immigration reform is a confusing mess that will leave us worse off” So far, U.K. officials have said that the system should be up and running by 2024, receiving an estimated 30 million applications per year. ETAs will be required for all non-U.K.-and-Ireland citizens. There aren’t any details on what the costs for applications will be, but Home Secretary Patel said that the ETA system will “provide the ability to count people in, and count people out of the country.”

When talking about the future of immigration, Priti Patel, who labeled the current system as “broken”, said: “Hold-still reform of the system.

Anything short of that, would not be fair.”

The ETA is also said to help “Identify threats before they reach the border” and provide a new system that “Works for the law-abiding majority and against those who abuse our hospitality and generosity.” says Priti Patel.

Home Secretary Patel seems to have associated the notion of the fully electronic and more secure U.K. border with immigration reform. As to how the system will be reformed, we still do not know what the approach will be, or if the ETA system is one of the first steps to achieving it. No specifics have yet been given, as this system will make its debut three years from now, which leaves a lot of time for more plans to be made and more changes to be presented.

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source: gettyimages.com and India

However, the U.K. is not the first country to implement a system like this.

North American countries have been using this system for a little over a decade. The U.S.’ version of the ETA is called the ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) and has been officially up and running since 2009.

Not all countries are required to get an ESTA, since not all of them are eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (V.W.P), which would allow travelers to voyage to the U.S. without the need for a visa, provided that the ESTA is filed and answers all the questions required for the program.

has been extremely low, with no new information having yet surfaced.

One thing is for sure, the ETA will change the way non-U.K. citizens travel to, in, through and out the United Kingdom. The first step has already been decided, with the U.K. stopping the use of insecure I.D. cards for those entering the country, starting this year.

The rest of Europe has its own system underway, called the ETIAS which stands for European Travel and Authorization System. Plans for its installation have been in place since 2016 and the official commencement date is expected to be January 1st 2022 but will be completely mandatory only by the end of that year. The system will monitor travellers who have no need for a visa to enter and travel through the Schengen Zone.

It seems like the plans for many U.S.modeled systems have been put together, and will be debuting in the upcoming years, all with the promise to make travelling safer and reassure the public that all the measures in order for that to happen, are being applied.

That being said, with everything going on and all the political changes happening, the amount of news reported on the subject of the U.K.’s ETA system

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THE FUTURE THROUGH THE LENS OF NEUROTECHNOLOGY

by Răzvan Mureșan

Imagine a future where instead of using hands to control electronic devices, you could control them by simply thinking about it. A world where, instead of sending someone a message, you could send them a thought. While still very much in its infancy, the field of Neurotechnology will make this possible and dramatically change the way we interface with computers.

It has been defined as “the set of methods and instruments that allow a direct connection between technical devices and the nervous system” or any technology that directly interfaces with the brain. There are many uses, whether it's for cognitive enhancement, brain research, alleviating symptoms of illness, modulating pain, or even improvements to existing technologies, such as robotic prosthetics.

The History of Neurotechnology In 1924 Hans Berger, a German psychiatrist used electroencephalography or EEG to record human brain activity, it's a process that uses electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the brain. In the first test, there were inserted wires under the patient's scalp to make the recording. In 1973 that the term BCI was coined by UCLA Professor Jacques Fidel. In the 1977 experiment, he was able to use an EEG to control an object on a computer screen and move it around a maze. In the 1980s it was developed a robotic arm controlled by motor cortex neurons and was demonstrated with rhesus macaque monkeys. In the late 1990s Research at the University of California, Berkeley, were able to reproduce images seen by cats by deciphering their neuron activity. In the early 2000s, 16 patients received a second-generation visual cortex electrode implant to partially restore the ability to see shades of light.

Neurolink Neuralink Corporation is a neurotechnology company developing implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) and was founded by Elon Musk.

The idea behind Neurolink is to build a scalable implant to connect the human brain to a computer and teaching the machine to work as is the brain itself.

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It all starts with the Neurolink link, which is a sealed device about 23 millimeters in diameter, and 8 millimeters tall. Inside is a little computer that processes stimulates and transmits neural signals. extending from the coin-shaped link is a series of neural threads with multiple probes and electrodes, which are carefully threaded into the brain. This invasive approach can take a far more accurate reading of brain activity than a non-invasive approach. They also designed a robot that can complete the very delicate threading procedure and it consists of opening a small flap of your scalp, drilling a small hole through the skull, threading the electrodes, and inserting the link to fill the hole. After sealing the flap of skin, there's no sign that you've had the procedure done at all. “there's more complicating this, but it's a lot of ways it’s kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires.” - Elon Musk.

They have also managed to make a bionic monkey that can play video games on a computer with its mind.

The use of Neurotechnology The most prominent uses include seizure detection and pain management by using a technology called Deep Brain Stimulation. People who suffer from Parkinson's disease can opt to undergo surgery to be implanted with electrodes that stimulate the dopamineproducing areas of the brain. These devices help to mitigate the main symptom of Parkinson's, uncontrollable muscle tremors.

For people suffering from locked-in states (unable to move any part of the body) and until recently, they have relied solely on either eye blinks or eyetracking to communicate with the outside world. Now, with the advancement of more complex BCI systems, they're able to communicate much more quickly and clearly, either by using a brain-controlled thought keyboard, or invoking a yes no command by literally thinking yes or no. Neuro stimulation, the ability to directly send signals to the brain using electronics could be used to improve performance and human perception, learning, memory, attention, and decision making.

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Several studies have laid the groundwork for humans to someday possess superhuman cognitive abilities, and neurotechnology could be the key to unlocking this.

used to benefit humanity. And it's critically important that we address issues like this now, while technology is still in its infancy, regardless of how long it takes to implement.

Telepathy could be real, researchers were able to stimulate the hippocampus, which is the area of the brain that deals with memory and allows for the transfer of memory between two animals.

Security It's incredibly important to ask these questions now and discuss what could potentially go wrong to avoid future humanitarian issues. Questions like: Would it be possible to hack influence or control people's thoughts with neurotechnology? Perhaps the most important ethical question, especially with consumer brain-computer interfaces, is can we trust corporations with our minds? What ethical issues could arise if an implanted neurotechnology uses an advertisement model? Could they beam advertisements directly into your dreams? Could you be forced to experience an advertisement?

We must ensure that neurotechnology is properly

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THE PSHYCHOLOGY BEHIND POLITICS

by Shaked Eckhaus

Politicians have a certain way with words. They go up in front of an incredibly big crowd, and successfully persuade you that they are trustworthy and responsible enough for you to vote for them.

What we don’t always realise is that psychology is a huge factor in this. Politicians are intelligent people; they know what they are doing. Most politicians you know, use persuasive psychological manipulation in order to convince you. They will repeat what they are saying many times, ask rhetorical questions and use a huge amount of body language, in just a single speech. The thing is, we don’t always realise we are being manipulated. Our mind is too focused on listening to all the promises and facts that we receive.

Psychology almost always works on people, since it works with our mind, and sometimes even confuses it. When you want to persuade someone; you often talk fast, trying to state as many facts as you can, so that the other person is convinced. But why does psychology work so well on our minds? There are six principles for persuasion with psychology; reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. Reciprocity is giving something in order to get something in return; like a favor.

Commitment is about keeping your promises and showing you are trustworthy.

We always feel validated by what others are doing, and that is what social proof is all about.

Authority is about showing research and proof; making us feel safe. We tend to get persuaded by someone we like, and this is what liking is used for. Scarcity; we always want more of what we can’t have right? When it comes to politics, we want to vote for someone we trust.

We want to feel safe and see a clear plan of what is going to happen.

Psychology obviously helps with that, so why not use it?

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WHAT IS PINKWASHING

by Sebastian Stoenoiu

Once a year, in June (in most countries), people around the world celebrate pride month. Pride month, as the wikipedia definition is the “promotion of the selfaffirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trasgender people as a social group.”. Pride month is celebrating how far we came with fighting for equality and to acknowledge how much more we need to fight for achieving true equality. I find this wikipedia definition very good especially for the people that are constantly saying “why don't other people have pride?” or “why don't straight people have pride”. Let me ask you two questions: “are members from your community ever beaten in the streets, receiving death threats or actually dying?” and “are members from your community ever invalidated, fired from their jobs, don't receive healthcare or are considered having mental illnesses just because of a sexual orientation?”. If you are one of the people that has ever addressed this question to somebody or even to yourself, please consider asking yourself these questions. Let's get back to Pride month and Pinkwashing.

Pinkwashing is the combination of the words “pink” + “white washing”. One of the many annoying things here is that in our context “pink” refers to lgbtq+ which was attributed a long time ago when pink was considered to be a “weak person's favorite colour” and the word “white washing” is a metaphor that means to cover or hide some crimes or scandals in order to present yourself as a nice person. Now if you combine these two words you get the perfect way to make profit during pride season.

Companies often use this tactic to make them look good so people in the future

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source: www.pressrelations.com

will say “this company was very lgbtq+ friendly last year and that's why i will buy from them this shoes'' this is a very generic example, but this is been used so that on the long run it will bring, to these companies, profit and make them richer. The problem with this is that it exploits people who want to be heard and recognized in the community. There is no problem if you as a gay person want to buy something that “screams gay”, but think of the fact that the company is doing it only for money and to profit off other people struggle. It’s awesome that, in some more educated parts of the world, we have gay people that openly work in public workplaces.

The problem is that you can be opendly gay in these institutions as long as you dont question the authority which can only want opendly gay people so they look nice in front of the people. The problem is that this fixation on inclusion at all costs is, as some people might say, a Faustian pact or, in other words, a deal with the devil. Jasbir K. Puar invented the term homonationalism in gender studies in 2007 in her book ‘Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times’. She used the term to refer to a series of events that happened after 9/11 in the US, in which the lgbtq+ became a way for the West to demonstrate their civilization and humanity in contrast to the barbarism and homophobia of the Middle East. In activist circles this term came to be simplified by saying that whenever the far right is in need of more voters they will use the lgbtq+ community as a way

to gain their votes. For example this is how the far right political party in France, the National Front, did. They fermly stand on banning same-sex marriages and are against Muslims and imigrants. This party started to appeal to gay white people telling them about how treathening this people are and how they should vote forthe National Front.

A similar strategy was used in the US, by the Trump campaign to attract voters, using the slogan “Gays for Trump”. Pride Month is here, it should be about the LGBT+ community’s rights and raising awareness about the need for equality, not to be used for capitalist propaganda and spreading consumerism.

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OPPRESSION BY RELIGION OR BY THE GOVERNMENT?

by Carina Bonica

For those of you who didn’t already know, the French Government had added a new amendment to the ‘separatism bill’ that is the ban of the hijab on girls under 18. There have been disputes all over the country; some may say that it is just unfortunate that Muslim girls are caught between a political war (seeing as the elections are going to be here soon) and some may say it is just islamophobia.

What is the importance of the hijab? you may ask. First and foremost it is a religious commandment through which Muslim women show their faith and obedience to the Creator as it is also mentioned in the Quran, from their cultural point of view. Wearing the hijab provides a sense of security to women. In Islam, the hidjab isn’t just a dress code, it signifies something deeper; it allows a Muslim woman to have physical and spiritual peace and harmony.

Eleanor Beardsley is a journalist that follows what happens in France regarding politics, culture and gastronomy. In an interview with Ari Shapiro, she said ‘Well, Muslims feel stigmatized. […] And the government, they feel that the government, instead of bringing everyone together, has sort of singled them out. This law is being called the law to reinforce French values and principles.’ Now you interpret that as you like, but don’t forget that the French Government treats all religions the same from one point of view: in France, you are expected to act like the French. So why does the French government consider the hijab a form of oppression, but it doesn’t consider the veils or head coverings that other religions wear such as Christianity or Judaism?

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That was the question I was first inclined to ask but after digging a little deeper I came to the conclusion from above if you want to go to France you will be expected to live by the French rules.

This would not be the first time that an amendment that the French government has given be considered islamophobic by some. In 2010 the France government banned the niqab. And now, not only did they ban the wearing of the hijab in girls under 18, but they have also prohibited mothers that want to go on school trips from wearing it.

This has started a trending hashtag #pastoucheamonhijab #handsoffmyhijab through which Muslim girls and women wearing a hijab show that they stand united through this political hazard. ‘It's part of my identity. To force me to remove it would be a humiliation, I cannot understand why they would want to pass a law that discriminates.’ said Chourak. In the same interview that Beardsley took, Rim Sarah Alouan who is a researcher on religious freedom and civil liberties said ‘It's a battle for the next election, really. And what we are witnessing is what I called the weaponization of secularism. And with the election coming, of course, it's who is going to pander the most to the farright.’

The prohibition only says that ‘conspicuous religious’ clothing that signifies a lower status for women in relation to men, and while in Islam the Hijab doesn’t represent that, the Muslims in France could feel as if the government doesn’t understand the basics of their religion. The Islam community in France clearly is not happy with the whole situation as they feel like they are being unintegrated.

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Influencers in France have also expressed their opinions. @maryam_Jidayi who has 28,5K followers on Twitter said ‘It seems freedom of choice is only acceptable when it is used to break away from decency and moral uprightness. You are free to parade the streets in a bikini but not in a hijab? There will be no real freedom unless we respect each other’s faith.’ @rawdis with 135K followers on Instagram also expressed her opinion in a few paragraphs such as ‘I strongly believe the only antidote of hate crime is activism. Many governments have been on the wrong side of liberation and equality before. It is our duty as the people stand up and fight for each other ´s rights. The Hijab ban is hateful rhetoric coming from the highest level of government and will go down as an enormous failure of religious values and equality. ‘

source 1: World Hijab Day source 2&3: Harper's Bazaar Arabia source 4: Jaktim News source 5: Stylist

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HOW HAS COVID-19 AFFECTED THE ENVIRONMENT?

by Carina Bonica I think all of us have realized at some point during the pandemic that the changes that took place over the last year and a half also left their impact on the environment. But did you ever think that the pandemic hasn’t had only positive side effects on the environment but also negative side effects? By reducing fuel consumption, traveling, waste disposal, and industrial activities we reduced the greenhouse gasses emission, water, and noise pollution, improve the air quality and we also helped with ecological restoration. Those are the good things that COVID-19 has done for the environment so far, but let’s not forget that in order to protect ourselves so we can help the environment even further we have to wear masks and use hand sanitizer which leads to increased medical waste, plastic waste, soil, water, and air pollution.

To put things in perspective let me give you some percentages and numbers. Firstly, for the positive impact COVID-19 has had on the environment. Last year in New York the GHG (greenhouse gasses) emission dropped by 50% and it was estimated that there was a 50% reduction of N20 and CO in China due to the shutdown of heavy industries. This helps with combating global climate change. The reduction of water pollution is common in developing countries such as India or Bangladesh. But that is not the only place it takes place, it also takes place in the import-export business because of merchant ships transporting products and it also happens in the textile sector.

Noise pollution happens when the noise is above normal level (e.g. construction work or vehicles) this can affect the physiological health of a person greatly, not only does it provoke cardiovascular disorders and hypertension, but it also makes around 360 million people prone to hearing loss. In Germany, car traffic has dropped by more than 50% which has greatly influenced

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noise pollution. Over the past few years, tourism has grown because of the advancements in transport networks and tourism can affect the local fauna and flora. Due to the travelling restrictions, there has been ecological restoration all around the globe. There were no more tourists throwing trash or damaging the natural environment of local wildlife so it had the opportunity to thrive.

Now I will guide you through the negative effects that the pandemic has had on the environment. There has been an incre3ase in medical waste since the start of the pandemic, for instance, Wuhan in China produced 240 metric tons of waste every day during the outbreak. In India, in the city of Ahmedabad, there has been a medical waste of 550-600 kg a day in the first stage of the lockdown. The mask production in China has been increased to 14.8 million masks a day since February 2020 and because most of us dump these masks in household wastes we also clog waterways and worsen environmental pollution. Because we had to stay at home for a long period of time we started shopping online which led to municipal solid waste generation. We started ordering products online and of course, they came in a nice package that we later on disposed of and we created more waste. Moreover, the disinfectant used during the pandemic may kill some species and cause an ecological imbalance.

Every coin has two sides, but in this case, it matters what we do with the said coin, so I say we use it wisely and we use it to our advantage.

An article from Heliyon provided with the help of Elsevier came up with a few ways we can protect the environment after the short term positive impacts from this pandemic vanish into thin air. We should aim to achieve sustainable industrialization by switching to less energyintensive industries. We should also use green and public transport and also make use of renewable energy. To control water pollution it is suggested that wastewater is treated before discharge. It comes as no surprise that we are advised to recycle and reuse and to change our daily behaviour. Also, tourist spots should be shut down periodically in order for wildlife to come back to its natural form. And last but not least, none of the changes mentioned above would be possible without international cooperation.

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Loneliness

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Emotions are recurrent, the way different people feel them, however, is not. If we were to choose one very special thing about loneliness, it would be that only we can say about ourselves whether we feel lonely or not. There are millions of people that are surrounded by love, affection and appreciation, and they still feel lonely.

Last year’s quarantine, which one could argue could be easily associated with loneliness, made me think about the story of Henry David Thoreau, an American philosopher from the 19th century.

In March 1845, Thoreau started building a small, 13 meter square pine hut on the Walden river banks in Massachusetts. And in the heat of July, on Independence Day, he moved in.

Even though the hut was planned in such a way as to be as far as possible from any kind of human activity, the nearest house is only about two kilometers away. So the question is, why does he need this social distance?

Solitude

by Rareș Zăvăleanu He lived in that small hut for two years, two months and two days and wrote Walden, Life in the woods, a book that truly left a mark on American literature and that will even create a new genre: Nature writing.

source 1: waldenlabs.com source 2: faz.net source 3: hive.blog TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

Walden is a place in which Thoreau could focus once more on what he saw as essential: a place in which he could gather his thoughts and avoid any kind of disturbances. He took advantage of his retreat to expand his knowledge and focus on demanding tasks such as writing a book. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: “The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.”, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to face only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”.

It is fascinating because we all see something courageous and glorious in this solitude, while the painful loneliness of a child at school who interests nobody is generally seen as a bit sad. The last phrase marks the difference between the loneliness you want and the loneliness you suffer. The word “loneliness” represents the sadness of being alone, while the world “solitude” represents a more spiritual and personal decision. But we need to be lonely as human beings. It is necessary for self analysis, it’s an opportunity for us to contemplate our actions and develop our conscience.

This declaration originates from the work of another philosopher, Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). She was a Jewish German migrant who ran away from Nazism and moved to the USA. Even though she didn’t consider herself a philosopher, but more of a political specialist, her studies made a huge impact on the world of sociology and psychology, which are correlated with philosophy.

She spent her life working on the relationship between individuals and society, with a notable focus on totalitarianism.

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She also worked on solitude and wrote the following: “To be a judge with yourself is consistent with its activity of thinking, and every activity of thinking is an activity during which I am talking to myself about what affects me. The essence of what is in this silent dialogue is what I call solitude. Therefore, solitude represents being more than the other activities, especially isolation and being forsaken, and it is different from them. Solitude implies that, even alone, I am with somebody, in other words myself, it means that I am two- in-one”.

This reflection upon solitude and what it means is really important in our modern hyperconnected world in which we are no longer really lonely, at least from a synthetical and practical point of view.

It is essential to remember that “good” solitude doesn’t necessarily imply “bad” loneliness. It’s not because we are thinking that we self-isolate. Enjoying this solitude is a thing that we don’t only do for ourselves, but for others as well. Why? Because before being with others, we have to be with ourselves.

Hannah Arendt highlighted the importance of solitude, not for yourself, but for society. In 1961, she’s charged by the New Yorker to cover Eichmann’s trial, an SS officer who took part in the Holocaust orchestration. She was asking herself; how is it possible to do something as horrible? Her only hypothes was that only a mad psychopat can take part in a genocide. She ended up surprised, realizing that even if his acts were monstrous, Eichmann, the human being, the individual, was at last quite ordinary, he wasn’t demoniac in any way. She attributed his immorality and his capacity to commit these crimes to his “thoughtlessness” (lack of thoughts).

According to her, Eichmann’s incapacity to stop and reflect transformed him into a monster.

This demonstrates that if we lose our capacity to be alone with ourselves, we lose our capacity to think, and we end up getting taken away, especially by “the crowd”.This idea of crowd has been largely discussed, especially by the philosopher Seneca, who states, in his book The Happy Life, that the path towards the crowd is not the right one:

“For it is dangerous to attach oneself to the crowd in front and as long as each one of us is more willing to trust another than to judge for himself, we never show any judgement in the matter of living, but always a blind trust, and a mistake that has been passed on from hand to hand finally involves us and works our destruction, let us merely separate ourselves from the crowd, and we shall be made whole.”Thus, one might argue that solitude is not only useful to self development, but to the improvement of society as well. But there’s a contrast that is simply incredible; Thoreau wasn’t a pacifist. He supported incredibly violent groups and movements, promoting abolitionists.

But yet, yet, in Walden, you won’t find anything else than serenity, calm and peace.

The essence of this article lies in this contrast, in this fantastic example of what impact solitude can have on us.

“I have never felt lonesome, or in the least oppressed by a sense of solitude, but once, and that was a few weeks after I came to the woods, when, for an hour, I doubted If the near neighborhood of man, was not essential to a serene and healthy life.” ~Thoreau This last quote leaves us with a simple question: are we ever certain of what we feel?

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LAMPEDUSA, THE MIGRANT’S GATEWAY TO EUROPE

by Rareș Zăvăleanu

source: DW

More than 2,000 people arrived on Lampedusa in less than 24 hours on May 9th, when people traffickers took advantage of calm seas to launch at least 20 boats, putting the tiny Italian island's reception center to the limit.

After the center's capacity was quickly exceeded, hundreds of migrants, mostly from Pakistan and Syria, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa, were forced to sleep on the dock. Hundreds more were being quarantined until they could be tested for Covid-19 on an underused passenger boat off the coast. To accommodate additional passengers, another commercial passenger ship was deployed to Lampedusa.

So far this year, about 13,000 people have arrived in Italy, which is three times higher than the same period in 2020. More than 500 people have died, which is a four-year high.

"This is a matter of responsibility of the European Union," says Marta Bernardini from the NGO Mediterranean Hope.

Following a conversation with Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, the EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, declared: “Faced with

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this huge amount of (migrants) arriving in very little time, we need solidarity toward Italy and I urge other member states to support resettlements. I know it is harder to manage migrant flows during the pandemic, but it is possible to do so, and it is time to show solidarity to Italy.”

The Italian government has requested support from its EU allies, with the interior minister calling for "structural adjustments" in the bloc's migration administration.

For the time being, it's falling on deaf ears; Austria has already said it won't take any of the recent Lampedusa migrants.

Lampedusa as “literally explosive” in a statement that noted that about 2,150 migrants had stepped ashore on the island since before dawn on Sunday.

“If we have another day like yesterday, with an incessant succession of disembarking, it won’t be possible to manage public and health safety,” he said.

The migrant camp on the island, which was supposed to contain less than 300 people, is now again full. There are now five times as many people inside, with dozens more outside on the sandy road.

Salvatore Martello, the mayor of Lampedusa, has appealed to the Italian government for aid after launching a large effort to vaccinate all residents of the tiny island against Covid ahead of the summer vacation season.

A police union official, Domenico Pianese, described the situation on

TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

COVAX: THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL FOR LOW INCOME COUNTRIES

by Patricia Gîrbovan

Source: www.nature.com

These days, the world is facing a pandemic. For more than a year, specialists tried to find a solution to it.

After the vaccine was invented, highincome countries had no problem buying and administer it.

Unfortunately, low-income countries did not obtain them so easily. Over 30% of the 1.26 billion people living in highincome countries worldwide, had received at least one dose of the vaccine and in contrast, just 0.35% of people in low-income countries and 5.75 %in lower-middle-income countries have received a shot so far. COVAX, a vaccine-sharing scheme co-led by The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to donate and deliver 2 billion doses of the vaccine to low and middleincome countries before the end of the year. The idea behind the program is that COVAX would pre-purchase huge quantities of vaccines from major manufacturers. Then as they come off the production line, dole them out globally in a way that every country gets an equitable share based on the size of their population. Until now, only France and Sweden started to donate shots for this project. You may ask yourself if other countries’ vaccines will be donated to poor countries, will they have enough? Well, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the general director of WHO, proposed to rich

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countries to reconsider planning to vaccinate kids between 12 and 15 years old and instead, donate the shots to the COVAX scheme that shares them with poorer nations. He said “In low and middle-income countries, Covid-19 vaccine supply has not been enough to even immunize healthcare workers, and hospitals are being inundated with people that need lifesaving care urgently; "Only 0.3% of vaccine supply has so far gone to low-income countries with, as of May 12, some 60 million doses of vaccines delivered through COVAX." Everything is nice and clear, but there are two problems. Firstly, the problem is not getting vaccines out of COVAX, it is getting them in. Some countries and companies plan to donate only to the countries that they have bilateral agreements with and these increase the risk of fanning the flames of vaccine inequity. The second problem is the lack of supply, like the goods that go into the vaccine. Highincome countries have bought up huge portions of the global vaccine. For example, the Serum Institute of India, which was going to be the primary supplier of doses to COVAX, hasn't delivered any shipments to the program since March. It has been diverting all its production to address the unfolding COVID crisis inside India and may not resume exports until the end of the year.

I think that the decision of delaying the children's vaccination is wise because the doctors and the older people are more exposed and affected by the virus than the kids are. They should be the first ones to get two doses of the shot.

We have to be aware because COVID19 has already cost more than 3.3 million lives and we're on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first !

source: Financial Times

T R A N S Y L V A N I A I N S I G H3T2S

THE RUSH FOR A SCRUPULE OF CRYPTO

In order to understand how the crypto coins work, first of all, we should know what a crypto coin is.

The crypto coins are a type of virtual currency used for online payments, such as Bitcoin, Etherum, Dogecoin, Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP). This name “Crypto” comes from the fact that these coins are only in online format and cannot be found in everyday life.

The cryptocurrencies are not just simple virtual currencies, they are a kind of stock. The stocks represent small parts of certain companies. For example, you can buy a share from Tesla for 1000$ and in a shorter or a longer period of time it will reach a much higher value.

Of course, the win is not guaranteed.

Many people consider these stocks on the stock exchange to be a business and that in any business you can win or you can lose. So are cryptocurrencies, you can buy coins at some prices, and their price may increase or decrease. The gain from crypto and stocks is not a random or a lucky win as the strangers would say. Before making such an investment you need to analyze some things. For example, in order to know if a crypto coin is rising or falling in price, you should analyze the evolution of the coin on some graphs and you have to know the project behind the coin. The more businesses that accept that coin, the more potential it has to grow.

By Luca Anton Mureşan

These coins are stored in so-called “digital wallets”. After you have bought the coins, they will appear in your virtual wallet where you can manage them.

In general, the crypto coins are bought, but they can also be created. This process of creating coins is called “mining”.This operation is very difficult to perform alone. That is why several groups of miners appeared, called “mining pools”. Coin mining is considered a business, but that depends on the area you belong to because the profit of such a business is calculated according to the law of each country and the cost of electricity used in this mining process.

Every crypto platform’s crypto wallet is very well protected and it represents a minor risk of being robbed.

In conclusion, I consider these coins to be a good investment and i also think that they have a great potential for future transactions, because everything is going to be digitalized.

source: pymnts.com

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TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

HOW CRYPTOCURRENCY IS AFFECTING THE WORLD?

by Radu Anghel

When anyone thinks of cryptocurrency the first topic that comes to mind is the economy. Yet crypto has had an astronomical impact on the world as a whole, not only on its economy. The first ever cryptocurrency to ever be created was bitcoin which came to life in 2009. With the purpose of creating a new and revolutionary way of payment that could be used internationally, decentralized and without having any financial institution behind it. But what drove Satoshi Nakamoto to create bitcoin? The answer to that question is the Great Recession of 2009 which affected the lives of millions of citizens and future generations to come. The creator of bitcoin stated “The reason for creating this digital cash system is to remove the third party intermediaries that are traditionally required to conduct digital monetary transfers. Third parties incur significant costs for conducting these services; these costs are then passed on to end users and can restrict transactions below a certain size.”

Thanks to its creation bitcoin has made millionaires and has helped revolutionize the way people look at banking and the future of these institutions. Firstly I would like to point out the biggest problem with cryptocurrency and the main reason for which it has still not replaced standard currencies. They are currently almost useless, only a very limited number of companies that accept crypto currencies as a form of payment making them far inferior to standard currency that are interchangeable all over the world and can be used to purchase anything. And yet even if crypto currencies were to be better integrated into the economy in order to allow

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for people to use them at every market, they would have to be stabilized. At the moment crypto can be extremely volatile, a tweet from a powerful figure like Elon Musk or law changes in large countries can instantly influence the value of crypto. We have just all been witnesses to how a single law change in China, the biggest miner of bitcoin was able to destabilize the market in a matter of hours. For it to function in a similar way to standard currency it must first stabilize. The perfect way to stabilize such a currency is to start treating it like those we already use everyday, people would earn cryptocurrency for the work they put in everyday after which they would be used to buy products or services just like every currency currently used.

Another essential step would be the creation of an institution that would regulate the price of the products bought with crypto and the, in this way that would stabilize the value of the currency by no longer equating its worth just to numbers but also to products. Another often asked question about crypto currency is, where does its value come from. We have all seen the astronomical numbers associated with some of these virtual coins, yet the question still stands where does this worth come from. With any standard currency you are getting paid for the time and knowledge you put into something yet where does the value of cryptocurrency come from. Well the answer to that question is relatively simple from the trust and power that the community puts into it. When we truly think about it, the values in our credit cards are just numbers in a database, the value of a coin is nowhere near the value of its raw

materials. One of the greatest benefits of cryptocurrency is that it is way safer than any other form of payment that is available at the moment.

Thanks to blockchain technology backing cryptocurrency is inherently the most secure form of payment out there thanks to it being decentralized with an intricate encryption process every transaction undergoes.

To sum everything up, what has been the impact of cryptocurrency on the world?

The creation of crypto has undoubtedly changed the world forever, from it turning normal people into millionaires, to it now looking more and more viable as a replacement for the traditional banking system. Although it may not yet be a perfect replacement for what is already very well put in place, many do believe that it soon will be. The market for cryptocurrency is rapidly growing with more and more companies and institutions looking for ways to integrate crypto into their systems.

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WHITE FRAGILITY: WHY IS PEOPLE TO TALK

by Beatrice Isailă

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TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

IT SO HARD FOR WHITE ABOUT RACISM?

a and Carina Bonica

White fragility: why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism? is a complex, thought-provoking book that will make you see the world from a different perspective and that will shine some light on the problems in today’s society. The author manages to touch on sensible subjects while she also gives us personal experiences as examples so we might realise that the topic this book discusses is a very real and current problem.

In the introduction, Robin DiAngelo states that she does not attempt to provide the antidote to racism or even to prove that racism exists, she only wants to ‘make visible how one aspect of white sensibility continues to hold racism in place: white fragility.’ Then we are met with a more educational part of the book in which we are provided with explanations for basic concepts such as the difference between discrimination, prejudice and racism, why race is a social construct and white supremacy. It also covers a bit of the history of racism in the United States, while also clarifying how it is ‘deeply embedded in the fabric of our society. It is not limited to a single act or person.’

The author continues by slowly approaching the topic of white fragility, starting off with how racism influences white people’s lives, even if they don't realize or acknowledge it. The book also covers the topic of white solidarity and explains why it is difficult for white people to point out others' racism. This slowly transitions into the good/ bad binary, the thought that only bad people can be racist, and how ‘the good/bad binary makes it nearly impossible to talk to white people about racism. Later in the book the subject of white fragility is discussed, identifying its manifestation: the feelings, behaviours and claims of white people regarding racism and white fragility’s functions in our society.

Where do we go from here? is chapter 12 and the last chapter of the book that gives us solutions and ideas for what we might do to change the reality we live in. And while this book talks about heavy topics, it is also short so with a bit of perseverance, you can surely reach the end. And last but not least, don’t let the fact that the author is white stop you from giving the book a chance because Robin DiAngelo herself said ‘This usage might be jarring to white readers because we are so rarely asked to think about ourselves or fellow whites in racial terms. But rather than retreat in the face of that discomfort, we can practice building stamina for the critical examination of white identity - a necessary antidote to white fragility.’

This skillfully written book will definitely open your eyes and make you see how deeply rooted racism in today’s society actually is. It is a must-read for everyone who wants to learn the basics of racial inequality. Let us not forget to also mention that the book is a short read and even though the book might seem hard to read, I can assure you that if you just push through to the end you won’t regret it.

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BOOK REVIEW

By Carina Bonica and Maria Victoria Rondolean

This mythbusting book will enlighten and educate you.’

- Red ‘A genuinely empowering book’ - Irish times

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TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

VAGINA A RE-EDUCATION

BY LYNN ENRIGHT

Vagina a re-education is a controversial, myth-shattering book that opens a discussion about the stigma around the feminine sexual organs and the misleading information that young girls are taught. This book gives girls and women the right knowledge they need about their own bodies and discusses taboos, abortion, miscarriage, infertility, and other still controversial subjects.

pleasure is brought up and how women are denied it and that when talking about sex, pleasure is most of the time focused on men. There is this assumption that girls and women are not interested in sex if they are not in a committed relationship, but is wrong to assume that.

‘Girls and woman simply don’t want bad or unsatisfying sex’, which is probably ‘the type of sex they will get in a casual setting’.

The author, Lynn Enright, talks about her own experience, which makes the book even more captivating, providing us with actual facts and how to overcome certain problems every female can face. She tells us about how at a young age she was taught to be ashamed of her vulva, but through doing her own research she discovered that there was nothing to be ashamed of because in the end knowing more about a certain topic makes it easier to talk about, and therefore you are no longer afraid, or in this case ashamed about it.

In the chapter ‘Periods, and what makes them so awful’, it is discussed how girls that start menstruating face a lot of oppression, they are shamed, and in some cultures, they are even considered ‘impure’. Some blame them for the infertility of the soil or the destruction of the crops. Lynn Enright also discusses ‘pain as it applies to women’ and gives us some examples from her personal life, which will make the experience of reading that chapter even more raw and even more real.

The first part of the book covers more anatomical facts and covers the basics.

In the first chapter, Lynn tells us that sex education in schools is almost every time overlooked and even dismissed, but that is a huge problem because it can affect the way we think in our adulthood. Later on, the topic of

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The author also touches on the subject of fertility and getting pregnant. After pages of explaining the biological concept she moves on to how it affects our society and compares female infertility to male infertility which, she boldly states, is ‘too powerful to question’. And last but not least she even touches on the topic of LGBTQ+, more

specifically trans women. The subject being delicate in its nature is presented to us with such compassion that you won’t even feel its whole weight when reading through the last pages of this wonderful book.

Vagina a re-education will walk you through all you need to know starting from the basics of female biology to periods and infertility and even the curiosity that surrounds trans genitalia.

It will make you cry and it will break your heart, but it will most certainly also open your eyes so wide you will never want to close them again.

When you first see the book, you might be inclined to think that it is only about biology and having basic knowledge, but in the end, you will discover (that is of course if you stick until the end) that this book is so much more than that.

This book skillfully manages to talk about delicate subjects and about women’s rights. This book opens your eyes to problems you might not even know existed such as female genital mutilation. This book takes well-known myths and shatters them until there is nothing left but ash.

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WE LEARN TO SERVE, WE SERVE TO LEARN

by Victor Pavel Interview with Florentina Maria Ghisa (teacher & service learning mentor)

1.How did you decide to participate in the From Root to Fruit project?

In 2016, I had the pleasure to participate in an international conference organized

by CLAYSS - the Latin American Center for Service-Learning.In Vienna The theme of the conference was Service-learning, a holistic pedagogy Building bridges between the Latin American and the (Eastern ) European.

There were small working sessions on Service and Introduction to Service Learning in which each participant shared the experience of his institution: What does Service mean ?, What are the projects of community involvement ?, What are the challenges among students and teachers ? Our school has a history of initiating community projects, partnerships with various NGOs in order to empower our students (from kindergarten to high school) and make them share in the changes for the better around them, and from our community.

Thus, this experience was the foundation, the basis on which we then built Service Learning projects in our school starting from 3 basic principles: the project to be initiated / led by a group of students, to implement the knowledge learned at school and to work together and for the community.

We started with the Chess the Community project and then developed a part of the Baisoara Service project led by high school students - Revive the Nature Related Traditions. This project won the GSL (Global Social Leaders) competition organized by the .

TRANSYLVANIA INSIGHTS

In the period 2018-2019, the Student Service Learning team managed to multiply the leadership principles developed through the activities proposed in the project in 4 locations in Cluj County: Suatu, Sânnicoara, Mărișel and Aschileu. Like last year, we had the support of parents, our partners, teachers and the administrative team, the entire Transylvania College community.

2.How do you define a "good leader"?

I would link this answer to a simple definition of the concept of Service Learning: we learn to serve, we serve to learn. I think it defines both an adult leader and a child, a student.

3.Do you think it takes leadership in a society to function?

I think we need people with visions, people who build on a solid foundation and who continue the work of those who have proven that they can make a difference for the better around them.

I think that you need discipline and organization in any activity, a lot of reflection on the stages proposed at the beginning and a lot of confidence in what you propose.

I believe that Leadership implies a responsibility that involves first analyzing the positive parts of a

situation, states, and then finding proposals and solutions for improvement closely related to these parts. I believe that leadership is needed to bring harmony to the community in both the short and long term.

4.Since you have become a parent, do you think you have become a better leader?

I have longed to have three children since I was a child. It seemed to me since then that the number 3 represents a balance in many areas. That's how I felt then and I think so now :). I have had the privilege of fulfilling this wish and I am grateful for my children every day. In their growth I was guided by specialists - I was lucky to have a very good pediatrician whom I thank whenever I have the opportunity. It is a principle that I learned from my mother and that helped me over the years.

Respect the opinion of specialists, listen more and then make the right decision for you.

And because a good leader first listens and then analyzes, yes, I think he helped me in my work. I believe that trust and leadership is gained in the family for the first time, because it is a “project” that you work on all your life and leaders are all involved.

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