The jade seal of a Chinese emperor

Ruyi Shen (UWC AC’11-’13)

Victor Hugo wrote a letter to a lieutenant named Bartlette, condemning the invasion of China in 1860: “…one brigand named France and the other named Great Britain…Against both I protest…” He also suggested: “France…quite naively … thinks herself the rightful owner of the property…I can only hope that…France…will cleanse herself of the crime by returning to China all the spoils taken from the Winter Palace. ” All these can be related to a recent auction of a Chinese seal.

CRISIS

 Ioannis Alexiou (Greece) (UWC-AC ’12-’14)

CRISIS: comes from the Greek word κρίνω (verb)(judge) -> κρίσις (noun)(crisis) –> crisis (Latin) –> crisis (English) –> crises (French) –> Krise (German)

Any crisis in the world economical, social, political and any other form of crisis is creating problems in everyone’s life. In the past few years we can easily see all around the world political, economical and social crises, sometimes even together.

In 2008 we saw the crisis in the U.S.A. with the bank system collapsing on its own dept and many people becoming homeless.

By the end of 2009 we saw a similar type of crisis appearing, in Greece, which forced Greece to enter the IMF in 2010.

In the beginning, with the entrance of Greece in the IMF, the whole EU had serious reasons to believe that Greece was a huge drawback in the whole EU’s economy. After Greece there were many countries entering the IMF, like Ireland and Portugal, and simultaneously there were many countries which were about to enter the IMF and go into the deep waters of an economic crisis.

Syrian Turkey Conflict – Is War Most Likely to Happen?

Aineen Ilmi Husna Nazrei (Malaysia)(UWCAC ’12-’14)

October 3^rd marks the beginning of the horrendous conflict between Turkey and Syria that lasts until this moment. It is inaugurated by the death of five members of a family when a shell landed in their yard.  Following the bloodshed in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, Turkish fighter jets have carried out multiple strikes on Syrian targets, including a military camp belonging to President Bashar Assad. Numerous Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed.

Dive deeply into the pool called Cambodia (Part II)

Back from the dark history, in a quite black mood, I am amazed by Cambodia people. I only mentioned the material lives of Cambodian people at the beginning, because I am saving the description of their spirit lives to here. They are very different from people who just experienced unbearable disasters which can be called genocides. Kids were laughing all the time. They always blinked their big bright eyes which are like black pearls. I was teaching music there. Even young toddlers came to my lessons. They were sharing the same carefree joys with kids from different backgrounds all over the world. There was no exact difference between these kids and the ones from families in peaceful developed countries. I felt and was moved by this special linkage between them and the world although they are almost separated from the outside. And the adults there were the most trustworthy and believable people I have met. They had no ideas of how to lie and being bad to people. It was funny that these adults were even more shy than kid when talking to us.

Dive deeply into the pool called Cambodia (Part I)

Ruyi Shen, UWC Atlantic College(11-13)

If anyone asked me what I would do for summer holiday in 2012 a few years ago, I would never imagine that I could be in the poorest part in Cambodia, deep in the jungle.

On the way to a village in a jungle, a massive obvious cleared empty field jumped out in front of me. The head of the project, Chris (a retired British teacher who is an AC alumnus) pointed at it, joking that it is Chinese company’s main contributions along with Japanese’ and American’s. Yes, these are logging fields. Woods here are cut everywhere. People who buy the lands to cut trees can get a proportional small extra land for free. The worst part of the whole thing is that these land owners are robbed the lands without the chance to complain. I feel like these cleared fields are like dishonorable scars of the land. I wonder how long it is going to take for the land to recover from it. To develop, or to sacrifice the lands and woods, it is always like a dilemma

Crossroad of Politics and Renewable Energy in Morocco

Mohammed Amine Belarbi ( Morocco, 10-12, RCN)

Why Morocco should invest in Solar Power is not a mere question of energy sufficiency but is a deep political statement those who are familiar with the Western Sahara conflict will grasp. Morocco in most of its geography is a sometimes rocky mountain plateau and other times plain fields in the North, while most of the South including the disputed Sahara is a vast desert stretching over kilometers and kilometers. With such a geographic blessing, not only wind power can flourish in the North, but half the country’s area can be covered with Solar panels.

 

Going back to Poland

Almog Zoosman (Israel, UWC AC, 2010-2012)

Going back to Poland was a strong and powerful experience for me; it was like coming back to my cultural roots. My grandma, Lila, was born in Warsaw, Poland. During the war she and her sister, Hana, fled through Europe and Asia, eventually arriving in Israel. Regardless of the personal connection this land holds with my family, I must admit that I simply could not believe some of the landmarks of history that we saw. Walking on the roads which were the sites of the last walks of people 70 years ago was a highly emotional feeling of shame, pride, fear and curiosity, which made me speechless.

New energy sectors for a New World Order

Mohammed Amine Belarbi ( Morocco, 10-12, RCN)

Energy has long been in the heart of discussions spanning from the corridors in the white house to the modest coffee shops whose owners curse day and night the recurrent cuts in electrical supply during the height of the classic game played in front of a vast crowd of customers. Yet the actual turning point in the energy revolution started a couple of years ago when serious leaps forward were made to bring these talks to life and implement what has long been kept in archives and technical plans. What made this green revolution in the last decade spur and offshoot in the world affairs is not an ethical or considerate incentive towards mother Earth and the future generations, but rather a profit and benefit driven agenda which amounted to the most critical items in the national security concerns. These incentives, which I will try to explore and shed light on, are not any new emerging factors, but are incentives know to societies and governments since the early Babylon and the paranoid empires which made our history class much more enjoyable!