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The Sustainable University: Concept and Conception
“Sustainable University” is a kind of phrase to emanate a semantic scent with connotations – traced back to an ages-old polarity, yet always at great fashion in social affairs – seemingly both conservative and progressive. Really? Can we so frivolously mix polarities, opposites, antinomies? Well, let’s see. We are talking about conservatism because university and sustainability are involved in activating if not an “instinct”, at least a “rationale” for preserving/perpetuating the knowledge within people and the resources needed to make it work. As we are also talking about progressivism because both try to do it not in ankylosis, but in advancing such knowledge (i.e., in economics, on the allocation of scarce resources) across generations, and the society learns to evolve through each and every member, who is educated to evaluate. Conservation and progress can work together. More
Cold War Ballet Battles
From 1959 through 1962, a series of ballet exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union led to mutual admiration for the arts as well as some miscommunication. Both the public and the dance critics from the US and USSR (both being highly distrustful of each other’s actions) were undecided if what they were seeing deserved a series of standing ovations and curtain calls, or maybe no reaction at all.The early years of the Cold War brought with them a new diplomatic tool that appeared to be harmless, simply a means of educating and introducing people on the subject of ballet – this theatrical, gentle and graceful art form. Little did the public know that the use of these cultural exchanges was to undermine the enemy and spread propaganda and ideas meant to influence their views and make them question what they believed: the Americans were supposed to switch from seeing Russians as uncultured, rigid and shut out from the world, while the Russians were supposed to gain further confirmation that their lifestyle was the norm and that the western world is not one they would like to live in. More
Three Paradoxes of the Territorial Distributions of Contaminations with COVID-19
A month ago, in the first episode regarding the pandemic, we identified the fact that the structural distribution of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus throughout the countries and autonomous territories of the world fulfils all the standards of the nodal analysis. The single difference from similar distributions in the case of world’s gross domestic product is the higher degree of concentration in the case of the pandemic. 13 countries, i.e., 6.19% of the number of countries and autonomous territories, cover 80% of the total number of infections. More
The Woodstock Days of Peace and Music
The 60s and 70s in the United States of America were eras whose counter-cultures were defined by war, racial tensions, and a population of youth defying their government. Held in Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 18, 1969, The Woodstock Festival was a cultural playground of drugs and rock’n’roll that symbolized America’s political and social climate.Like many prestigious music events, Woodstock is a one-off. Yet the impact of the 1969 festival has been felt for decades, changing the live music industry and inspiring millions of people, many of whom weren’t even born then. Woodstock was preceded by the 1967 Summer of Love, the Monterey International Pop Festival and the Atlantic City Pop Festival. But it would overshadow them all. Why? Woodstock was the culmination of a decade of turmoil, marking the awakening of American youth. The 1960s were marked by the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War controversy, riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and several high-profile assassination attempts. The second half of the decade in particular was marked by a value war and a surge of anti-establishment sentiment among the country’s young citizens. Woodstock showed that the counterculture was alive and thriving, and that its members were more conscious than ever. More
Twelve Countries Cumulate 80% of the Pandemic Deaths
The “parallel world” of the pandemic has two main coordinates: contagion cases and deaths, accompanied by the very important indicator of fatality rate relative to contagion cases (Rc/d).In our previous interventions – see here and here –, we demonstrated that the distribution of contagion cases has fully met the standards of nodal analysis. The comparative analysis by continents has identified three very important paradoxes: the United States, Asia and Africa. More
“Comfort Woman” and an Uncomfortable History
More than 200,000 girls and women from Korea and other parts of Asia were kidnapped from their homes, trafficked, and held captive at front-line brothels by the Japanese army during World War II. These women and girls were given the euphemistic name “comfort women”. They were sexual slaves who endured rape, cruelty, and inhumane living conditions.Only after Kim Hak-sun, a comfort woman victim, gave her first-ever testimony about her ordeal as a Korean comfort woman in 1991 did these crimes receive widespread notice. Due to this testimony, the topic gained international attention. More
European (Dis)Integration During Pandemics
The big aspirations of “Unity in diversity” within European speeches seem to fade, as the supranational gathering around connection and cooperation is now, in the context of the pandemic, an ideal with less commitment than before. The necessity of intra-European Union coaction during this crisis has a significant impact on the current situation of EU integration and enlargement policy overall. The degree of polarisation has grown during the coronavirus pandemic as countries are isolating themselves and maintaining a continuous international “quarantine”. The question the present social and economic crises raise is whether the Union will be able to move towards greater cohesion, or rather decline irreversibly. Can the EU be considered a selfish association existing only for occasional national interests? Is the reaction to the pandemic a proof that the decrease of national sovereignty in the EU is an illusion? Is this a more devastating crisis than the ones the EU have faced before (the 2008/9 recession, the refugee crisis, Brexit)? More
On Sustainability Today
The current period characterised at global level by the action of economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological crises is leading to the transformation of production and consumption systems, making it necessary to accept for a moment some compromises in the distribution of natural and human wealth in order to eliminate the economic and social inequalities that have appeared in our societies. The unequal distribution of prosperity is a factor that is currently generating growing political and social tensions. More
More than a Fifth of Romanians Are Employed by Multinationals
Germany (16.6%), France (12.4%) and Italy (9.2%) are the countries that hold the largest share in the Romanian economy by the number of employees operating in 80,591 groups of enterprises, according to the data processed and published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) for 2018. Together with the USA (8.3%) and the Netherlands (7.6%), they control most of the existing enterprise groups in Romania. More
A Drive with the Devil
World War 2… When you think of it, you think of all the pain and destruction that it has caused from 1939 until 1945. Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, Soviet Russia and the United States have been some of the most important participants in this worldwide conflict, but sometimes we need to look way beyond the battlefields and the bunkers in order to see how some of the biggest companies of the world have also fueled the war. One of the firms that drove the conflict forward was actually the famous Ford Motor Company. More
Reading Between the Lines
The macroeconomic situation of Romania is a subject of considerable debate inside the country. The important development of the country is, nevertheless, marred by imbalances and underwhelming reforms, constantly raising the specter of outsized impact of crises both internal and external. What follows is a selection of quotes from the Council Recommendation on the 2020 National Reform Programme of Romania and delivering a Council opinion on the 2020 Convergence Programme of Romania. The document was published on May 20th in 2020 and contains interesting tidbits, despite the Brussels language that may lead to readers’ eyes glazing over. More
Is Neutrality the Answer?
Ever since before the establishment of the first settlements, people engaged in wars for various reasons, at first for survival and territorial expansion and then out of economic, political, religious and ideological reasons. When talking about war, one would automatically think of its destructive repercussions in terms of the human, cultural and economic losses suffered by the belligerent states and less to their supposed gains. Thus, in the light of the negative consequences brought by armed conflicts over the course of history, it is only natural that some countries decide to avoid war, step aside and choose neutrality. More
