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MEDIART

2023

The Holocaust : The Chronology of a human disaster

30/1/2023

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On the 27th of January 1945 one of the sadly famous concentration camps of the Holocaust was released: Auschwitz- Birkenau. 78 years later, we remember this day, the hate of one single man who drove people to death. 

In 1933, Germany struggled to recover from the first world war defeat. The country suffered from a difficult economic situation because of the Versaille treaty proclaimed in 1919, judging the German action during the World War. In this context of poverty, a small, dark and anti-semite man and creator of the nazis party : Hitler, promised to make Germany strong again and became chancellor.

His politics based on autocracy, anti semitism and terror, drove him to put his political opponents in work camps like Dachau – the very first concentration camp – and in this way, reach power. With propaganda, he enrolled German people in his ideas and became the only saviour. In 1935, the Nuremberg's laws prohibiting Jewish rights were put in place in Germany and this is how the darkest hour of our world history started. 

In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and signed the beginning of World War II. The fights raged and the Nazis were stronger than ever. Hitler continued his anti-semite and xenophobe politics, obligating Jewish people to wear a yellow star in order to recognize them and in order to discriminate against them, not only in Germany but also in France, Romania, Poland and several other countries occupied by the Nazis. 

In 1942, he asked governments for the massive arrest of Jewish people in Europe. Children, old and young people from all Europe are put in trains in the direction of concentration and extermination camps in Poland, Auschwitz- Birkenau and Treblinka. 

Some of them will be gazed in the gaze chamber at their arrival, the others will be forced to work by suffering from malnutrition. Bad treatment, blows, their lives hung by a thread in these camps. 

The 6th of June 1944, the Allied force landed in France and on the 27th January 1945, Auschwitz was finally released by the Soviets. 
Thousands of dead bodies lie on the floor or in the common grave. It’s a complete disaster, a horror scene, they are completely distraught faced with the mountains of hair, clothes, bones belonging to those dead people. The survivors are bones, lost and marked forever by what they lived in this camp. 

On the 27th of January 2005, the United Nation created the International Remembrance Day of the Holocaust in order for the entire world to never forget what happened, to condemn hate, violence, racism and anti-semistism. In total, 6 millions of Jewish people died during the Holocaust, this genocide marked our world history forever and reminds us to condamn all forms of discriminations. 
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“To forget a holocaust is to kill twice” - Ellie Wiesel 

#WeRemember
Julie Marpeau
Julie is a French volunteer involved in the International Holocaust Day.
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WOMEN LOCKED OUTSIDE CLASSROOMS

24/1/2023

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On International Education Day, we remember the Afghan women that saw themselves locked outside of universities last month.
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UNESCO is dedicating this year’s International Education Day celebrations, on the 24th of January, to afhgan girls and women that were stript of their right to attend secondary school and university.

Education is the key to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as a tool that changes lives, lifts communities up and brings people together. By shattering stereotypes and preconceptions, it’s the number one enemy of inequality. 

What happens when the basic right to education is forcibly stolen from thousands of people simply because of their gender.

“No country in the world should ban women and girls from receiving an education. Education is a universal human right that must be respected,” said Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.

On December 20, the world received the heartbreaking news that Taliban authorities in Afghanistan banned young women from universities “until further notice”. This followed an earlier directive prohibiting girls from attending secondary school. Afghanistan has now become the only country in the world where access to education has been suspended for women and girls.

Afghan universities were declared off-limits to women because female students were not following instructions including a proper dress code and interaction between students of different genders.

According to the numbers released by UNESCO, between 2001 and 2018, Afghanistan recorded an increase of enrollment in all education levels, from around one million to 10 million students. The number of girls in primary school increased from almost zero to 2.5 million. Women's presence in universities improved from 5,000 students in 2001 to over 100,000 two decades later.

Today, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls and women, 2.5 million, are out of school.  The order suspending university education for women affects more than 100,000 students attending public and private institutions.

“The international community has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of Afghan girls and women are restored without delay. The war against women must stop,” highlights Audrey Azoulay.

The decision of the Taliban government's Ministry of Higher Education sparked international condemnation and despair among young people in the country. In the following days, students went to the streets in public demonstrations, where they screamed: “All or none. Don’t be afraid. We are together”. However, these are quickly shut down by Taliban officials. “They also brought military women with them, whipping the girls. We ran away, some girls were arrested. I don’t know what will happen,” a young student describes.

Taliban continues to take radical measures to silence and eliminate women from society. In Afghanistan the hope for a future for women dies a little bit more everyday. With the closure of university campuses, also a door is closed on their human rights.
Sara Alexandra Sousa
Sara is a Portuguese volunteer involved in the International Education Day.
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Controlling Logic and Emotions: Our Brain

14/1/2023

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The brain is the most important and complex organ in our body. The role it plays ranges from our emotions to the logical behavioural structures.
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As the control centre of our actions and being, our brain manages both our emotional decisions and our logical behaviour. Both of these sides are always crucial for our everyday life. How exactly do they communicate and cooperate in the brain?

The largest part of the brain and closest to the surface is the Cortex. This is often divided into lobes: the Frontal lobe, the Occipital lobe, the Parietal lobe, and the Temporal lobe. The Frontal lobe is located at the front of the head and is in charge of organisation, planning, reasoning and controlling emotions. It is also called the the "rational brain" or the "upper brain".

At the centre of the brain we find the Amygdala, a group of cells that interprets the emotional meaning of everything that happens to us. When it perceives something as threatening, it sends messages to another structure, the Hypothalamus, which controls the release of hormones in the body to prime the body for a response. The fight-or-flight response occurs when our body tenses up, becomes more alert, and is ready to act to either flee or defend itself. Another structure, the Hippocampus, organises memories so the Amygdala can interpret an event. These three structures are part of what we call the "emotional brain" or "lower brain". This part of the brain can sometimes overreact and then needs the help of the frontal lobe, the rational brain, to calm down.

But how do these parts interact with each other?

The lower brain  is the part of our brain that lets us act without thinking. In a life-threatening situation, there is no time to sit down and think about a plan of action. This part of the brain is well developed at birth and forms more connections earlier than the upper brain because it is responsible for important tasks such as meeting our needs, feeling strong emotions, using our instincts to keep us safe, and controlling bodily functions.

The rational upper brain is structurally complete, but its connections develop much more slowly. This part of the brain is highly developed and responsible for problem solving, rational thinking, logic, planning, decision making, organisation and self control. All of these things are learned through repeated experience. During puberty, the top level of the brain is rebuilt, which takes a few more years. So the upper brain is not fully mature until the mid-twenties.

Despite the different development of the parts, there are strong connections between the upper and lower parts of the brain through which information is exchanged. In our brain, these connections are not obvious, but they work in a productive way. We need the lower emotional brain to inform the upper rational brain with instincts and reflexes, feelings and information about our bodily functions such as breathing, temperature and so on. But we also need upper brain messages to moderate and understand the information coming from below.

"The human brain is an incredible pattern-matching machine."
– Jeff Bezos

Most kids function primarily with the emotional, reactive lower brain – throwing a tantrum over being given the wrong colour plate and being afraid to put their face under water in swim class. Their rational, self-controlling brain has yet to learn how to deal with such situations, and the connections between the upper and lower parts are blocked by the emotional overload, allowing very little problem-solving and effective decision-making.

When we, as parents, know that there are parts of our children's brains that are underdeveloped, we can respond to their feelings and behaviour in ways that support them and help them build connections in their brains based on positive experiences, instead of punishing and shutting them down.

This means that the communications in the brain are not only crucial for our own everyday decisions, but also important for dealing with children.

And yet our own brain is only fully developed in our mid-twenties.
Alma Deten
Alma is a German volunteer involved in the World Logic Day.
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