Mediart Blog

mother tongue: let's talk about it

22/2/2023

The mother tongue is very important for five different reasons:

Intellectual development
Many studies have shown that the intellectual development of people who have been educated in their mother tongue is relatively faster. But also their success rate in school is higher.
The transmission of culture
Language is not only a means of communication, it is also an excellent means of transmitting the parents' culture. The mother tongue helps the child to connect with his or her roots.

Learning a second language
In order to learn a second language properly, it is very important to master the basics of one's own language. The skills acquired in the mother tongue are then easily transferred to a second language.

Opportunities
More and more, we are coming back to favoring local business or business in the authentic language of the country. Think of all the opportunities that speaking the native language can bring you. Even if you are abroad, there are companies that need this knowledge. Don't forget that the language of business is always the language of the customer. If you want to break into a specific market, you need to know the local language.
Pride
Knowing your mother tongue should be a source of pride. It strengthens the child's self-confidence and creates a sense of belonging, of recognition of his identity.

However, despite all this, many languages are endangered, it is estimated that out of 6,000 languages spoken in the world, 3,000 are on the verge of extinction, 40% of education in the world is given in a language that children do not speak, and 76.9% of the languages spoken on the Internet are English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Malay/Indonesian, French, Japanese, Russian and German.

Nevertheless, there is progress in the field of multilingual education, with a growing awareness of its importance, especially for preschoolers, and more commitment to its development in public life. The Internet could also be a great help if it were accessible to all. Different communities could stay in touch and groups would retain and share their language. Thanks to this international day the mother tongue and its value is represented.

Margaux Colpaert

Margaux is a French volunteer involved in the International Mother Language Day.

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THE RADIO: WHY DOES IT DESERVE AN INTERNATIONAL DAY?

12/2/2023

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"Our blessed radio. It gives us eyes and ears into the world. We listen to the German station only for good music. And we listen to the BBC for hope" - This is what Anne Frank said in her quote about the radio. She hereby shows how radio could be life-saving which can also be applied to pleasure (when we listen to music) as well as for critical matters (like political debates or social issues). So, today, on the 13th of February 2023, is the worldwide Radio Day! In its 13th edition.

But, why does the radio deserve an International Day? According to the ONU, an international day gets proclaimed by different things, like for example: To sensitize or raise awareness of a situation or a problem, as a termometer of interest, to remember an event of a story and so on. In this case, the radio finally owes an International Day to awareness of their importance and to improve the cooperation between issuers on an international level.

To start, it was Nicola Tesla, the one who invented a system to transmit voice messages wireless in 1895. Later on, it evolved and ended in what we know about radio today. Its existence is so important worldly that in 2012 it was adopted as an International Day.

The major concern nowadays is derived from the fact that the vast majority of the population uses television more than radio. Because, using the radio for listening to the news or to political discussions, we only require the sense of hearing. Additionally, those senders which only consist of music, are listened to less frequently, because nowadays, music can be listened to in a large number of online applications like Spotify, Apple music, or Youtube Music.

In contrast, the psychological effect of listening to the radio for a long time has absolutely nothing to do with watching many hours of television. This is, among other reasons, due to the fact that the radio is the medium that adapts better to our daily rhythm. For example, listening while we are moving to a place is not possible with television. So, why is the radio more important than we think?:
Listening daily to the radio helps us to obtain a stronger general culture. We are entertained. It keeps us company, since it makes us feel as if we are among friends (especially in social gatherings). It awakens our imagination: Radio plays an important role from a cognitive and emotional point of view in a more natural way. For example, it tells us about places or situations which we cannot see and therefore we imagine them.
And finally, a point which puts the radio as a medium that should deserve more popularity, the radio reliable, ahead of television and the written press, making it the most credible media.

According to SER (a Spanish broadcaster), among the Europeans, the level of trust in the radio rises almost to 60%, ahead of the 47% in the written press, and the 51% in the television.

The radio is reliable ahead of the written press principally because their broadcasters are not anonymous, unlike on the Internet, where any user can publish any news - fake or true.
In conclusion, the radio is a safe medium, with which you can spend seconds, minutes and hours listening to people talking about very interesting things, debates of any kind, songs you didn't know. You can learn new things and, above all, you can enjoy it in confidence because everything you hear here will be reliable and without any lies or deception.

Jose Juan Orero Tejadas

Jose Juan is a Spanish volunteer involved in the International Radio Day.

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Gender inequalities: Women and their place in science.

11/2/2023

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Today, February 11, 2023 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science but why was this day created in the first place?

The goal is to promote and increase the population of women and girls in the scientific fields whether at school or at work.

It is important to consider this day because even though the world is beginning to recognize more and more the value of women in this field, there are still inequalities that persists; for example according to UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) :

-Only 33% of researchers are women and tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers

-Women make up 70% of the health and social care workforce, but their salaries are 11% lower than their male counterparts.

-Only about 30% of all female students choose STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields in higher education.

And these are only examples among many other types of inequalities that women face in this area.

These inequalities are due to social constructions built through prejudices and biases that we may have with regard to women's abilities in the intellectual fields.

However, we need to stop doubting their abilities because it feeds the doubt that women may have about their own abilities and this phenomenon is called stereotype threat :

Stereotype threat is a difficult situation in which individuals risk or feel at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group. As for example here with women in the scientific field ; when a woman takes a test in mathematics, her score may be affected by the stereotype that women have lower mathematical abilities than men. This consequence of stereotype threat was demonstrated by the social psychologists Spencer, Steele and Quinn in 1999.

The goal would be to reduce this stereotype threat embedded in our society in order to create a more welcoming system for women in science and more generally, a more welcoming system for any individual.

To do so we can for example reassure by reminding the obligation of neutrality of the school (showing that boys have as much to gain as girls, that it is not a question of denying the differences but of giving the same rights to all).

Also, to back up my words it is undeniable that whether the past or today, there have been and still are very brilliant women in the scientific environment.

Rosalind Franklin is a perfect example, she was a physical chemist and she first formulated, in an unpublished report, the helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a discovery that was stolen by Watson and Crick who accessed her work.

This day allows us to honor this woman and so many others who have gone through and are still going through inequalities in the scientific field. That said, the changes look favorable, hoping that one day everyone will be equal in this passionate area.

Maxence Zakarian

Maxence is a french volunteer involved in the Day of Women and Girls in Science.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LANGUAGE THAT HAVE BIRTH TO THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

9/2/2023

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When Gus Portokalos said that every English word came from the Greek, in ‘My big fat Greek Wedding’ he was not mistaken.

Greek is not only one of the most ancient languages but also one of the most important languages belonging to our history on account of the cultural and scientific value of the ancient Greek scripts that are preserved till the present day.

On the 9th of February, we celebrate International Greek Language Day, formally stated in 2017.

“It is important to learn and love the Greek language, because of its virtues, but mainly because it has expressed a great culture” expressed the Greek Ministry of Education. The purpose and the meaning of dedicating a whole day to Greek is to give recognition to this language that contributes to Western civilization in so many possible and different ways throughout centuries. This aim encourages Greek people around the world — not only, furthermore to everyone else who is captivated and fascinated by the Greek language and culture — to get to know this most ancient language.

Academy (Ακαδημία), Air (Αέρας), Anatomy (Ανατομία), Bacterium (Βακτήριον), Bible (Βίβλος), Biology (Βιολογία), Cinema (Κινημα), Climate (Κλιμα / Κλιματικό), Democracy (Δημοκρατία), Diagram (Διάγραμμα), Ecology (Οικολογία), Economy (Οικονομία), Energy (Ενέργεια), Galaxy (Γαλαξίας), Genetic (Γενετικός), Geography (Γεωγραφία), Geometry (Γεωμετρία), History (Ιστορία), Idea (Ιδέα), Kilometer (Χιλιόμετρο), Logic (Λογικό), Logo (Λογο), Macro (Μακρο), Mega (Μεγα), Nectar (Νεκταρ), Ocean (Ωκεανός), Olympic = Ολυμπιακός (Olympiakos), Organism (Οργανισμός), Oxygen (Οχυγόνο). These are only just a few words that come from and take origin from Greek, just a small part of the more than 150,000 English words of English whose roots are from Greek words.
Infinite Greek words enrich and ameliorate other languages and cultures, helping us and being present in our daily life. A great example of it is international medical terminology. Approximately 80% of the science-based terms have a Greek root, as previously cited. Nevertheless, English is not the only language whose words proceed from Greek. As the world’s oldest noted living language, spoken in the same geographical region for around 4,000 years, Greek words have been taken into many other Indo-European languages, including French, Italian and Spanish among others. To be in possession of the facts, about 10% of Spanish words are adopted from Greek.

As a Western Civilization, we took over not only Greek words into our language, making it ours, but also the culture, tradition and political life in some way. The best example of it is democracy (which you can read more about it at: https://evs-mediart.weebly.com/blog/democracy-is-a-privilege#comments).

Adding to all of it, it’s significant to name the philosophical way of thinking. Greek philosophers shaped and contributed meaningfully to our world. Pythagoras and Socrates, are both present in our day to day. The first one, at school, taught his mathematical system and the second one, present mostly in modern-day law schools, but not only, studied for his teaching methods and for asking thought-provoking questions, known as the ‘Socratic maieutics’. As an alternative to sermons to his students, he asked them tough questions as a way to challenge their speculations, ideas and beliefs.

The Greeks with their elegant language, composed epic poems, such as the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ of Homer, still named and read up on in every school, Platonic dialogues, which questioned everything that human beings took for granted and, as well as the works of Aristotle.

“Teaching the Elementary and Intermediate Modern Greek classes has always been a great pleasure for me. I will agree with Ms. Dina Skias that at first, the students feel apprehensive and uneasy with the Greek language, but after the first couple of weeks, they are driven to use it and even quite well, in fact! …Primarily, survival Greek is the aim of the course so that students will feel comfortable and proud of themselves for being able to communicate and integrate within daily society. …At the end of these courses, the students are able to surprise themselves and often exclaim that ‘This is not all Greek to me anymore!’” declared the Greek language professor, Joanna Vasiliou.

As we see, the Greek language allows us to get to know more about our way of communication, culture, literature and the mindset of our country, giving therefore, relevant importance to this language itself, making this day important to celebrate.

María Eleonora Kieffer

Maria is a Spanish-Italian volunteer involved in the World GREEK LANGUAGE Day.

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Female Genital Mutilation: Cutting rights

5/2/2023

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“I was only 11 years old when my mother decided to circumcise me. I was to become the fifth wife to a 70-year-old man. I talked to my class teacher and she informed the police chief. Just two hours before the cutting ceremony, the police came and took me away,” she recalls. Oiyie was the first girl in her village to say no to FGM. But she’s not the only one to suffer the effects of this practice.

At least 200 million girls and women alive today have had their genitals mutilated. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately three million girls are at risk each year. At risk of suffering one of the most inhuman acts of gender-based violence in the world: female genital mutilation/cutting. This harmful practice intentionally causes injury to girls and women by removing the clitoris and labia of female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

Nowadays, women and girls continue to undergo this harmful practice, which is present in more than 90 countries worldwide. In Indonesia, more than half of FGM practices occur before a girl reaches 4 months old. In Somalia, over 90 percent or more of girls, have been subjected to female genital mutilation. In England, an estimated 137,000 women and girls have undergone FGM.

The customs and traditions that perpetuate FGM vary from community to community. In many cultures, FGM is considered a rite of passage to becoming a woman. Many practitioners believe that is necessary to ensure marriage because men refuse to marry intact women. It is
sometimes said that the purpose of the practice is to control women's sexuality. For these communities, intact women are considered dishonorable prostitutes. In addition, men claimed that female genitalia is ugly and dirty and must be removed to enhance beauty and cleanliness.

While no religion specifically requires female genital mutilation, patriarchal religions create the cultural scene that allows this practice to continue. Men have strong control over social norms. In these communities, FGM is considered a required religious and cultural practice that raises women’s status in society in order to make them desirable to men. Basically, female genital cutting is performed because it gives men power over women as a group.

“Unfortunately, women's bodies have always been a battlefield. It's always about men's control over women's bodies” -- MEP Maria Noichl

Female genital mutilation is the culmination form of violence against women and girls. An extreme form of torture and discrimination, established in harmful gender norms. The continuation of FGM carries massive gender inequalities in practicing societies. FGM limits opportunities for women and girls to realize their full rights and potential.

The procedure is painful and traumatic, and there are no health benefits, only harm. All forms of cutting put at risk woman’s health. Pain, bleeding, fever, and swelling are the most common immediate consequences of the practice. Moreover, shock, hemorrhage, infections... FGM may also cause death, disability, miscarriage, problems during urination and menstruation, infertility, and risk of newborn death. Above all, FGM includes chronic and psychological suffering: pain for the rest of their lives.

Practicing female genital mutilation violates a series of human rights principles. Including the principles of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex, the right to life, the right to freedom from torture and cruelty, and the rights of the child. Female genital cutting is a massive way of cutting rights.

Fortunately, eliminating female genital mutilation is finally in the spotlight of the international policy agenda. It is part of the United Nations' sustainable development goal 5 (achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). The UN sustainable agenda has the target to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation” by 2030.

Sara Díez

Sara is a Spanish volunteer involved in the International Female Genital Mutilation Day.

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Wetland restoration: a step in the right direction

2/2/2023

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This year's theme for World Wetlands Day is "Revive and restore degraded wetlands." But why does this theme make so much sense?

The 52nd World Wetlands Day will be observed on February 2, 2023, and its significance has only grown over time. Since climate change is progressing, the debate around it is gathering more interest, leading to more people talking about our human-made footprint on the environment.

When thinking about the loss of ecosystems, our society primarily talks about forests, not wetlands. That is why nearly everyone is familiar with the image of 48 football fields of forest being lost every minute. It is already a step in the right direction, but wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests, and sadly, few people are aware of this. We need to focus not only on wetlands' protection but also on restoring them so that we can benefit from their anti-climate change effects.

Human activities such as agriculture and urban construction drain wetlands with too many minerals and lead to water pollution as well as eutrophication. Eutrophication is a term that describes the excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, which causes a dense growth of plant life. This huge amount of plant life indirectly provides more food for animal species. Therefore, more oxygen is being used, and with more individuals living, more individuals die, which the oxygen-using composers cannot decompose correctly. As a result, toxic substances are being released, and the biodiversity and species of wetlands suffer.

Wetlands may seem small, covering only 6 percent of land surface, yet 40 percent of all animal species depend on them due to their habitats or breeding space. Besides the support of biodiversity, another reason for wetland restoration is that wetlands naturally filter water and therefore boost the local water supply. In a time of water scarcity, this should be reason enough because the wetlands include major water sources like groundwater aquifers or springs. A wetland's water can also come from a nearby river or lake, which is another argument for saving seas from eutrophication.

Specific types of wetlands, especially peatlands and mangroves, are efficient carbon sinks, which means that they absorb more carbon than they release. Clearly, wetlands can be a weapon against climate change with their ability to reduce carbon in our atmosphere.

In general, more than a billion people depend on wetlands for their livelihood. no matter if by self-sufficient fishing, aquaculture, or tourism.

Wetland restoration is a step in the right direction, especially regarding climate change and the sustainability triangle, which includes the ecology, economy, and society.

Not restoring wetlands is not acceptable; it means taking a step in the wrong direction by leaving all the species and people behind that rely on them every day. Furthermore, eutrophied wetlands even worsen the state of climate change by emitting enormous amounts of methane.

So act locally and think globally by saving wetlands.

Joana Khalo

Joana is a German volunteer involved in the International World Wetlands Day.

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MEDIART

mother tongue: let's talk about it

THE RADIO: WHY DOES IT DESERVE AN INTERNATIONAL DAY?

Gender inequalities: Women and their place in science.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LANGUAGE THAT HAVE BIRTH TO THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

Female Genital Mutilation: Cutting rights

Wetland restoration: a step in the right direction

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