Reflections of the Fall
Author: Tushar SawantFebruary 28, 2021
2020 has been a tumultuous year. We are dealing with a quarantine instigated by a global pandemic and the quietude such isolation can provide us, in addition to the clamor of civil uprisings incited by a myriad of injustices. Whether we have experienced great tragedy or merely bore witness to the absurdity of our condition, the year up to now has been far from ordinary. The excitement and joy we [...]
The Digitalization of Society
Author: Julian ScottJanuary 3, 2021
During the lockdown, some of you may have come across a short story by E.M. Forster called The Machine Stops, which made it into the news due to its extraordinary prescience. Written in 1909, five years before the cataclysmic event of the First World War, the author describes a future world in which people ‘self-isolate’, communicate with each other via screens and can control the environment [...]
Our Many Different Realities
Author: Sabine LeitnerJune 21, 2020
One thing that never fails to amaze me is how one and the same cause can bring about so many completely different experiences and consequent ‘realities’. The current pandemic is a good example of this. As I look around my wide circle of friends and family (in various different countries), colleagues, neighbours and acquaintances, I can see how this unprecedented situation has had a wide range [...]
Fortitude in the Face of Difficulties
Author: Delia Steinberg GuzmánJune 13, 2020
When 2020 began, we did not yet know the extent of the difficult times we would have to face. A short time later came the spread of a pandemic, which affected most – if not all – countries in the world, showing that in such cases what we regard as differences do not exist. We are all human beings, we are all vulnerable to sickness and we are all affected by pain. Every day we see with [...]
Flu Pandemics
Author: Florimond KrinsAugust 22, 2016
We have all experienced the flu at least once in our life. And even if the "common" flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people every year around the world, the media still warn us about the danger of flu pandemics such as swine flu (H1N1), which in 2009 killed around 9,000 people. So what is the big deal? Is it just a trick played by the media and pharmaceutical companies to scare us and make [...]