How has the pandemic affected our mental health?

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Author: Luka Račič

#NewsroomEurope

On 31th of December 2019, World Health Organisation was informed of many cases of an unknown cause in Wuhan City, China. Chinese authorities have on 7th of January 2020 identified the cause that was temporarily named 2019-nCoV.

 The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest crisis of our time, claiming more than 2 million lives and causing the biggest shock to the global economy since World War II. It has unquestionably affected people across the whole globe. The disease itself or the stress, and fear have touched most people in one way or another.

 The pandemic has had a very real and very personal impact on people’s lives. Whether an individual was sick, lost someone they loved to COVID-19, lost their job, or struggled with isolating at home. Each of us was affected differently.

Estimates from a recent study of Global Burden of Disease show that the pandemic has affected the mental health of young people the most and that they are disproportionately exposed to suicidal and self-injurious behavior. It also shows that women were more affected than men and that people with pre-existing physical health problems such as asthma, cancer and heart diseases are more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders.

As of today, too many people are still unable to get the care and support they need for both pre-existing and emerging mental health conditions. Because they were unable to access direct care, many people sought online support, indicating the urgent need to provide reliable and efficient digital tools that are available and easily accessible.

 Fear, worry, and stress are normal responses to perceived or real threats and moments when we face uncertainty or the unknown. It is therefore normal and understandable that people experience fear cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 In addition to the fear of contracting a virus in a pandemic like COVID-19, changes in our daily lives are important, as our movements were limited in support of efforts to contain and slow the spread of the virus. Faced with the new realities of working from home, temporary unemployment, schooling children at home and lack of physical contact with other family members, friends and co-workers, it is important to take care of our mental as well as our physical health.

Viri

  1. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_3
  2. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-has-the-pandemic-changed-our-behavior
  3. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide
  4. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/stress-coping/cope-with-stress/index.html

 

Disclaimer

The supporting organizations for the production of these articles do not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the supporting organizations cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

Digitalization of EU comes at a price

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Digitalization of EU comes at a price

Author: Marko Kaluža

#NewsroomEurope

 

As we all know, the European Union wants a strong and integrated Europe that works with green, clean energy and technologies that do not exploit Mother Nature. That’s why digitization is being fast-tracked in all EU countries to get rid of all the technologies of the past that exploit nature.

All this digitalization comes at a price, because countries do not have enough money to even implement digitalization, not to mention that the EU would have to fund programs that promote the use of digital technology from smartphones to computers. Of course, we all know that the younger generation does not need this because they were born with it, but on the other hand, we have an older generation of people who do not even know how to turn on a computer.

That’s why Slovenia, for example, has announced that it will promote digitalization on highways with a digital vignette, which was implemented this year, and it has even announced that it will distribute digital vouchers for children in elementary schools (they must be in 7th, 8th or 9th grade), high school students, faculty students and people over 55. With these vouchers, people can take a computer course and learn how to use computers, or they can buy keyboards, headsets, laptops, monitors, printers, computer tablets and so on in technology stores.

In this way, the countries of the European Union are trying to promote digitalization in every possible way to make life easy for everyone in every EU country.

I believe that in the near future, digitalization will come everywhere and life will become a bit easier because people who live far away from an urban area will benefit from it, and if we look at the current situation with Covid-19, we will be able to process “papers” from home, so we do not need to be in contact with people anymore. And on the other hand, people can save money on their car, or more precisely, they can save money on gas or electricity.

But we must not forget to mention how digitalization will affect our health. I will have a debate about that.

 

Marko Kaluža

Sources:

https://slovenia.representation.ec.europa.eu/novice-dogodki/dogodki/slovenija-na-poti-v-digitalizacijo-nacrt-za-okrevanje-odpornost-druge-financne-spodbude-primeri_sl

https://www.dars.si/Sporocila_za_javnost/1/Splosne_novice/1960/Kaj_je_dobro_vedeti_pred_uvedbo_e-vinjete

https://www.gov.si/zbirke/storitve/digitalni-bon/

 

 

 

Disclaimer

The supporting organizations for the production of these articles do not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the supporting organizations cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

What does it mean to be a European?

Young people who participated in the youth exchange Newsroom Europa 1.2 say: “This means freedom, the possibility of unlimited movement, the enjoyment of diverse, healthy food, dealing with diverse activities and sports, socializing with friends, enjoying the nature and exploring historical places which people might not have a chance to visit if they live outside Europe.” This video was created during the exchange in Portugal, which we carried out with exceptional support from our partner organization FAJUB – Federação das Associações Juvenis do Distrito de Braga.

Posters Portugal

Power, change, future 

All though we sometimes feel powerless we forget that we are the future and the change we want in this world. Every individual has power but when we all step together towards a greater cause we are unstoppable. In order to make changes we need to let our voices be heard and when the time comes vote for what we feel will help creating the world we want

Humen rights, democracy and rule of law

All though we sometimes feel powerless we forget that we are the future and the change we want in this world. Every individual has power but when we all step together towards a greater cause we are unstoppable. In order to make changes we need to let our voices be heard and when the time comes vote for what we feel will help creating the world we want

Peace security freedom

Peace is the primary freedom from which all others flow. When there is no peace, basic human rights are denied. Security, freedom and peace should always go hand in hand, the line between them is thin. But the question for individuals to answer is what do we value most freedom and peace or security.

Green deal, zero pollution and recycling 

Taking care of our planet should be one of the main priorities. After all we do only have one planet. The main aim of green deal that was announced by European Union in 2019 was to transform the European Union into the first climate neutral. In order to achieve that we have to step together and work as unity.

 

Gender, Race and Religion

We all have the right to be treated equally, regardless of our race, ethnicity, nationality, class, caste, religion, belief, sex, Gender language, sexual orientation, Gender identity, age, health or other status. Everyone should peotect Everyone, get to know laws and policies that pomote inclusion and diversity in all aspects of society, get rid of prejudices and stereotipes. 

Nationalism

Author: Jan

Nationalism – Nationalism is the belief that your own country is better than all others and it means that someone identifies with one’s own nation and supports it for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

Nationalism as a concept was firmly established in the late 19th century and reached its peak with the rise of Hitler to the position of Chancellor of Germany in the beginning of 1933. With his party, National Socialist German Worker’s Party, Hitler started to exclude all the people who were not considered as the “Aryan master race” and he sought to strengthen the Germanic people through racial purity and eugenics. His idea was to exterminate Jews, Roma people, Poles, and other Slavs, along with the physically and mentally disabled. The Nazis segregated homosexuals, black people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, political opponents, and many other groups. Between 1933 and 1945 around 6 million Jews and millions of other targeted victims were executed in a horrible way, known as Holocaust.

Did humanity learn it’s lesson from the crime Nazis did? In a way, yes. At least we could say that for western countries, we could say that for Europe. After the II. world war it became evident that countries, which were completely in ruins, needed to find a way to unite economically and politically to secure lasting peace – in 1950 the first coalition was established, the European Coal and Steel Community, which involved six European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Slowly, over the decades that coalition of the countries grow, with the treaties name of the coalition changed until on the 1st of November 1993, when the Maastricht treaty came into force and the countries in the coalition became known as European Union. Since then, several other European countries joined EU, and people in all these countries became Citizens of EU. Nationalities, such as Germans, Swedes, Portuguese, Greeks, Latvians …

We still declare ourselves as the nationals of our own countries before we say we are citizens of EU. But we still forget that no matter in which country in the EU we live, that in all the EU countries there are minorities, ethnical groups who also became part of big EU family when our countries joined the Union. We still treat our minorities differently as we treat majority of one’s country. Is it possible to involve every ethnicity into one’s country? We have written so many laws to prevent segregation, to prevent exclusion. Constitution of every of 27 EU member countries says that all the citizens of the country are to be treated equally. In the last few years, especially after the economic crisis in 2008, nationalism is on the rise again. In many of the EU countries the nationalists are pushing their agenda in a subtle way, but there are some countries, such as Poland, Hungary, and lately also Slovenia, who have the governments, that have extremely strong propaganda which promotes their nationalistic ideas. In Slovenia, for example, the law about migrants to the country changed and now everyone who wants to live and work in the country must have basic knowledge of Slovenian language before they can move to the country. If the foreigner, who works and lives in Slovenia, wants to bring his family (usually wife and children) with him, he must prove that he can support the family without asking the government for social welfare and child allowance to which Slovenians are entitled to. In a lot of places, women who marry Roma men, are considered less Slovenian; people that come from ex-Yugoslav countries are many times considered inferior and usually have lower paid jobs; if they have problems with the language, they are often told to go back where they came from. Also, if you are Slovenian in Slovenia and you do not support the current government, you should move abroad. Even prime minister said in May 2021, that if Slovenians do not like the place where they live, they can move to Venezuela. Since the current prime minister took over the government in Slovenia, the country faces protests every week and even respectable people from academic and scientific environment signed the open letter in which they stated their concerns regarding the political climate in Slovenia. 

But it is not only Slovenia, Hungary and Poland that face increased nationalism in their countries. There are other EU countries as well. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Croatia … 

In Czech Republic, majority of population in a way discriminates Roma people, who represent 2,5% of all the population in the country. Also, migrants that came into the country illegally and tried (try) to apply for the status of refugee, are not welcomed. In the other words, we could say, that there are many Czechs that are on some level nationalists. A lot of people also votes for the parties who are against migrations to Czech Republic. 

In Spain, the north and the east of country has different culture as the rest of Spain, which created many problems in the past that still exist. There are tendencies, especially in Catalonia and Basque country, the two regions that want to gain independence. There is an ideological war between people that are against independence and people who want freedom from the Spanish government.

In Romania, since 1867, when Transylvania was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, there are issues with Hungarians that live there. They think that Romanians are responsible for their loss of authority and that they lost the connection with their homeland. For these reasons they treat Romanians badly and Romanians try to ignore the hate that comes from Hungarian population in Romania. 

In some of the countries mentioned the rise of nationalism is not so apparent as in Slovenia, Hungary, and Poland, but it does exist, and it is increasing. What does that mean for citizens of the countries in the EU? What does it mean for future generations? And what will the consequences be if nationalism and right-wing parties become even stronger in the European countries? 

In the EU, you can move freely. There are no borders, if we erase the fact that there are barb-wired fences in Hungary and in Slovenia that are “protecting” illegal immigrants from entering. And like those barb-wired fences “protect” them to enter, prejudices and stereotypes “protect” the nationals of the countries in EU (and elsewhere around the world) to accept the fact that no matter what the nationality of someone is, we are all born equal, we all have the same rights, we are all people. Religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality… they should not matter. And when they won’t, then and only then we will be able to live in free and safe world. 

And yes, it is ok to be patriotic. Being a patriot is a virtue, being a nationalist is a poison. Poison to one’s mind and to their relationships with the loved ones, local community and wider. We all should be proud of our roots, our country but we should also respect other people’s roots and their countries. Nationality does not define us but on the other hand our beliefs do.