A comparison between the past and the present
 
 
How and which media we consume has changed significantly over the past 20 years.  In the past, newspapers, books and the like served as a source of information, today social media channels are developing into real Newsplaces.  How and when we gather information has also changed a lot:
 
In the past, many people read the latest newspaper at breakfast and focused on a single article in the newspaper. Nowadays, smartphones, smartwatches and Co. are constantly making you aware of the latest news and messages and you hardly ever focus on a single article.Furthermore new messages are always available and you do not wait until the evening for the news to find out what's new - in short: a lot has changed!
 
Media consumption adds up to 10 hours per day
 
 
Figures from 2018 show that television and radio with around 170 minutes a day are still very much in trend.  With 150 minutes, the medium Internet is listed as the third strongest medium. In contrast is the daily newspaper, which has to take clear losses. Although it is the fourth strongest medium, it is only used 40 minutes a day on average.
 
Streaming offers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Co. are becoming more popular.  The willingness to spend money on this medium is increasing among us Germans.
 
Personally, in terms of what media I am using the most is definitely social media. Beginning from the morning when I wake up to check my messages on the phone from WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram etc. Additionally social media is not only my medium to communicate with my family and friends but also my way to check the daily news. It is also my type of entertainment and distraction (sometimes in a good and sometimes in a bad way). To be honest, social media has become such an essential part of my daily routine that I can barely imagine a life without it. However, I am aware of the fact that social media is a curse and a blessing for us humans at the same time.
Let us agree on the fact that we have to enjoy social media with caution. 

Billions of people around the world live in extreme poverty. The extremely poor live without support, on the sidelines, watching economic growth and prosperity pass them by. They are shunned by the world economy. They live lives abundant in scarcity. Without enough food, access to clean water or proper sanitation. Without access to safe shelter, health care or education.

Even the environment attacks poor people. When nature strikes, the world’s poor suffer the most. Poverty and the environment are closely connected, and those living below the poverty line are deeply impacted by deforestation, lack of safe water and natural disasters.
Because a life of poverty means the poor carry a shade of poverty in their hearts and wear it etched on their faces. They become shells of unfulfilled potential and possibility.

Poverty shouldn’t snuff out life — unless we let it. Please don't let it and make a change. You can’t turn the whole world upside down from one day to another but you can leave your footprint everyday and influence your environment in a good way. A small step for you, a big one for the world.

This is a date that will be celebrate on 23 of October and the final intention is to stop the death of kids and their mothers. Africa is one of the continents that suffer more the death of people.

One of every five children lose their lives before turning 12 years old.
They use methods as lactation, water, nutritional supplements and other different ways to finish with the diarrhea and another kind of pain.
162 million of people suffer malnutrition in the world and almost 3 million die every year. Every day die almost 10.000 because of this reason, and India is the country with more problems.

In some parts of Europe there are localized pockets of poverty, and in the countries of the south this is more typical. In Spain the poverty is around the 27% from the total, similar situation happens in Greece or Italy. In Greece was of 40% according to UNICEF foundation.

The poverty in kids it is translated into bad living conditions, and also in the slavery on the majority of these children. In addition, most of these children are injured as a result of been attacked by the use of force that some people makes about them. Moreover, there are some risks factors that occur in a family context, some of them are related with a childhood abuse, or with a form of violence. One of the most usual problems that children have is the fear to explain other people that they are being attacked by others.

​Pol is a Spanish volunteer in Praxis organization writing about the International Day  for the survival kids.

​We always talk about poverty but what does really mean living in poverty?
Poor people are usually working in dangerous conditions, where they are most of the time exploited. They also have a limited access to the health care, because they live in unsafe housing and don’t take the time to take care about themselves mostly because they have to pay for it and obviously, they can’t afford it. Moreover, they have a really limited access to justice compared to richer people, they don’t feel comfortable with the judiciary system: they feel not listened and discriminated.
What make the poverty situation worse?
The climate change is one of the causes, indeed because of many intensifying natural disasters people can’t live in their country anymore. The drought and the rising water prevent the harvests. This is what’s happening in Madagascar right now, the lands are so dry, nothing can grow, the Malagasy people is living one of the most important hunger of the 21st century which could maybe have been avoided if WE have polluted less our beautiful planet.
So, how could we help to reduce the poverty and the climate change, on our own?
First, paying attention to what we consume, what we buy, because of course we want to buy everything for cheap, but have you ever thought about the consequences? Spending your money to Zara, Nike or Shein seem a nice idea because it’s not so expensive and the clothes are beautiful, but you should know that these firms are part of the 100 firms (or even more) who exploit their employees. Theirs employees are living and working in very bad conditions and of course they are more than underpaid. Moreover, the overproduction of clothes is very bad for the environment, take a moment to think about what the consequences are of buying clothes in these types of shop. Instead of going there you go to secondhand shops where clothes are much cheap and better for the environment.
So, now take the time to think about how could you contribute to the eradication of poverty? 

​The social network Fare is an organization that fight in order to finish with the inequality. They
want to avoid the discrimination.
They want to put football in the center of everything as method of social inclusion. This
happen because football is the sport that most people play in the world.
In the force of network we can find inside the members who are taking part. We see ONGs,
amateur clubs, and another base clubs.
Fare works with some associations like Gente de Fútbol, that is the biggest initiative in the
world against the discrimination.

Fare uses the experience to avoid and help in the organization of creating events, international
conferences, producing educative materials, organizing different campaigns and following
important matches reporting discriminatory actions.
Promote the creation of the international exchange and giving the word to the people who is
fighting in order to finish with the discrimination.
Fare is working to achieve the inclusion of different marginalized groups. This association
works with activists of different countries like United States, South Africa, Brazil and Santa Lucia.
The campaign is visible in Afghanistan and in other countries.

A diagnosis can be a positive force in the life of a mentally ill person: she sees that there are other people who face the same struggles and can get the help she needs.
At the same time, labelling someone as mentally ill can be a form of exercising your power over another person and silencing the unusual.
 
This has been done over and over in history and is still present today.
For example, was being transgender still listed in the ICD (a list of all the possible diagnosis’) until 2018! Even though the facts show us that a transgender person - if she can express her gender as she wants to- has no greater risk of becoming mentally ill as a binary-cis person.
As society changed there were more and more protests against this external description as ill which led to a revision of this paragraph.
This shows us that these diagnosis’ are not only a mirror of the latest scientific insights but also a mirror of society and its latest values. And these are mainly influenced by those in power.
 
So, we should always look at diagnosis’ in the context of its time and check if they are really based on facts and not on opinions. Psychology is moving forward and getting rather objective criteria but a scientist can also be influenced by his values without himself even noticing and it is really hard to avoid this.
This is the reason why mentally ill people should always keep their basic rights like for example voting. Otherwise, a subjective diagnosis is just a too powerful weapon.

​After Highschool the plan I heard most from my friends was that they wanted to travel.
The reason for this dream was mainly as I heard over and over again that they wanted to find themselves.
I myself am no exception. I mean I am literary living so many miles away from home right now.
However, I am more and more bored by the phrases I myself used so much while talking about wanting to travel: get to know myself better, achieve independence, creativity and so on…
And I am feeling almost a bit disgusted because travelling is so often treated as a way to buy self-development. A thing that you can write in your CV to say: Hey look. I am independent and good with cultures and such things.
I think travelling has gotten so popular because we have so many choices and the pressure to choose right -but please as fast as possible. The truth is that many people who just finished Highschool have no idea what they want in life and if they are going to be happy with the choices they make. But society and especially social media suggest that you need to find your passion and yourself: That you actually should have accomplished this already.
So, it seems tempting to speed up this process by travelling and run away from your bad habits to evolve at a different place. But that is not how it works.
What self-development needs more than anything else is time. It is true that it helps to leave your comfort zone but first you need to be in a place where you can truly say yes to this experience and really process it.
 
Otherwise, it can happen that the negative experiences that are surely going to happen change you but not in a good way. It is for example possible that as a person from a rather rich country you experience situational racism when you travel in a poor country such as people charging you higher than locals. If you cannot put this experience into perspective, you may start hating the locals or the whole culture of this country.
 
So, before you start your ERASMUS, your volunteering or work and travel-year think about why you are doing this and if you are really ready for this.
Travelling can be very enriching
if it happens at the right time in your life.

​​JULIA FÉAUX DE LACROIX

There exist many ways to do tourism, visiting your own country or another country, by car, by bike, plane, bus… Tourism mean go to visit someplace you don’t know. The more time goes by, the more there are tourists who are the source of income of many countries.  For that, these countries try to attract more and more people by building shops, restaurants, bars, amusement parks everywhere what I can call mass tourism.
Mass tourism is everywhere, the more time goes by, the less we have real natural places left in touristic areas. For example, last august I have been to the national park Krka in Croatia, where there were very beautiful waterfalls and trees ruined by too many shops and too many people. This is obviously a sad consequence of mass tourism. Because of it, flights are very cheap and enable people to travel to another country for less than 50 euros. I’m part of these persons who travel a lot, cheap, so I can’t forbid to take advantage of the cheap prices. But if trains would be less expensive than flights, people would travel more by train and for sure pollute less.  Since, as we all know, flights contribute a lot to climate change, we have to reduce it!
Besides of the environmental aspects, social medias are very important for most tourists. Some people travel to a place just in order to take some photos to post on Instagram and don’t really enjoy the place. At every place you go, there are people taking photos of themselves all the time. For example, last summer I went to the louvres museum in Paris and there was a crowd of people just taking photos of the popular Mona Lisa painting, but almost no one read the description. In other words, most tourists don’t care about the history of the place. They are just there because it’s a fancy city, to take some nice pictures to post on Instagram.
Influencers can be a source of mass tourism. When they go to a place, they post photos tagging the place without thinking about the consequence:  A lot of people, mostly young people, go there to do the same as influencers and deteriorate the place. Social medias can help to promote a place but what use is this if people who go there only go there to post on social medias?
People should be more aware about the damages they are causing while they are travelling. They should also think more about the reality they are living than living it through social medias which overwhelm the entire world.

We are working hard in order to afford going on holidays. As soon as we are on holidays it is like
an escape from our daily life, isn't it? For a period of time we say goodbye to our hometown,
change our surroundings and get to know a different lifestyle.
We learn new things about another culture, taste new food, take pictures of beautiful moments,
make beautiful moments, moments which will last forever.
I want to add a quote I once heard: „Traveling is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer“
I think that is very well said. In the end of the day material things last for a certain period of time,
but spending money on traveling, automatically comes with a lifelong memory.
First of all, lets talk about Mass tourism is about a mass of people visiting one destination.
Therefore, it is not uncommon, that during the high season you are going to find more tourists
than local people. Lets take as an example Venice
Venice hosts more than 33 Million!! tourists yearly.
Firstly, I want to clarify that mass tourism may also have positive effects. Surely the government
as well as the local people earn money from the tourists, and from the jobs the tourism sector
creates. However, beyond that, mass tourism also has numerous downside:
-Increasing CO2 emissions from environmentally harmful transports:
One of the main problems of mass tourism is the choice of a environmentally harmful means of
transport, such as airplanes or cruise ships. They generate a high proportion of CO2, which drives
climate change
-Insufficient sewage and garbage disposal: The infrastructure of many tourist places are not
designed for such a large number of people. This can lead to excess garbage or sewage being
discharged into the sea and then this way widespread pollution of the worlds oceans is caused.
-Rent increases and the lack of living space in metropolitan areas:
The existing hotels and holiday homes cannot cope with the excessive tourist crowds. That is
why more and more holiday-makers are also booking accommodations that are actually intended
for the locals. This means that, on the one hand, living space is becoming scarce and, on the
other hand, rents are rising rapidly.
Destruction of landscapes and habitats for animals and plants:
The expansion of the infrastructure necessary for mass tourism not only destroys natural areas,
but also the habitats of animals and plants and thus contributes to the extinction of species.
Now the essential question is what we can do in order to prevent mass tourism: Sustainable
Tourism!
Here are my top four tricks for your next vacation:
N° 1 Travel in the low season if possible:
Especially during high season, families with children and teachers fill the areas. Therefore it is not
only more affordable but also more sustainable, because you avoid the big streams of tourists.
N° 2 Vacation nearby:
You don't have to go far to go on great adventures. Sometimes it is the smaller and initially
inconspicuous places that surprise you in particular.
N° 3 Support local providers:
Often the locals suffer primarily from mass tourism. If you go to eat in local restaurants or buy in
regional shops, you support the locals and relieve them financially.
N° 4 Look for more sustainable means of transport:
Traveling by plane, cruise ship or your own car cause extremely high CO2 emissions, which has a
negative impact on climate change. You can counteract this by taking public transport, such as
the train or bus, on vacation.
N° 5 Do not forget your water bottle:
A reusable drinking bottle, for example made of glass or stainless steel, should definitely not be
missing on your packing list. So you can save a lot of plastic waste in the form of 0.5 liter plastic
bottles on site. In countries with drinking water quality, you can fill the water directly from the tap
Maybe after reading the tips, it sometimes feels like sustainable tourism was created to reduce
the fun of traveling. However the list of tips for sustainable travel is just an inspiration on how you
can make your vacation more environmentally conscious, eventful and sustainable with little
things. Use the tips for your next hopefully sustainable trip and reconsider each of your trips
before you book them.