Where would you rather be ill?

Why are the countries which achieve a high ranking in the World Health Organisation's (WHO) scale of performance in healthcare mainly found in Europe?

Healthcare services differ substantially around the globe and looking at the WHO reviews present quite a few surprises. For instance, Italy, ranked second best, has one of the most comprehensive and efficient healthcare systems on the planet. Russia, on the other hand, falls short of the performance results achieved in Pakistan, Albania and Bangladesh which have a far less developed economies.

II.

Little by little the darkness recedes,

Giving its way to the dawn’s early light,

Rising the song of the birds in the trees,

Making again the world coloured and bright.

Awoken are beasts from their night’s slumber,

Arisen are men to work through the day.

And anew bustles all the world under,

Touched and adorned by the sun’s golden rays.

See now the monk upon the high hills,

Singing the song which for ages was sung.

And on his aged words the world round him stills,

Heard is his prayer to life-giver sun.

by the Dionysian

"Brussels is a graveyard of living beings"

Belgium shut down all schools on the 23rd of November. The decision was made by our Prime Minister, Charles Michel. I was happy about it at first because it meant I didn't have to finish my math homework, but then, I realised it wasn't right at all.

The numerous measures taken over the past few days have made fear grow in our hearts. We often hear Charles Michel saying that the threat is "imminent". The threat of what, terrorism? The fact is that we have no idea of what is going on in this country. Belgian police authorities say it’s for our own safety that we don’t know anything yet, but is it really if we are too scared to leave our house?

The terrorists attacked Paris, aiming to destroy our culture and our way of life. They haven't attacked Brussels yet but we are doing the job for them anyway: we are destroying our lifestyle right now by shutting everything down.

The problem is that the government is doing this because they don’t know what else to do. Yesterday on the Belgian talk show "C'est pas tous les jours dimanche", the president and spokesman of the Free Union of the Public and Police Function, Vincent Gilles, admitted that they don’t know what the security level 4/4 means. This is because the government created the different levels of security without saying which necessary measures had to be taken, and where. 
I agree with the fact that we are “better safe than sorry”, but only to certain extent; we shouldn't just be safe, we should also feel safe and yet all these measures to the continuous “imminent threat” just make us feel scared.

by Sarah Mignot

Interview with Mr. Park

On Monday 19^th October, Professor Jinwhan Park from the Gyeongsang National University South Korea came to eeb2. Mr. Park is the president of “Philosophy with Children and Youth Network” in Asia and the Pacific (PCYNAP), he came to our school to explain this philosophical and ethical idea and I had the pleasure of interviewing him.

When you think of philosophy, you think of the academic one, the one we study, also known as the study of  nature and  its causes, of the principles of reality, of knowledge and our values, all based on logical reasoning. Mr Park's intention is not to teach academic philosophy to children. What he wants to do is teach them more about practical philosophy. By doing that, he teaches children how to be able to make an ethical and logical judgement in a particular situation. "It is crucial that younger students learn how to make a good judgement because some of them might be the future leaders of democratic societies so the sooner they are able to do it the better", he says. 

I.

There is no sin in killing,

So the poet Virgil sang,

The only crime in slaying,

Is to kill a guiltless man.

When battle shouts are ringing,

And death the warrior sows,

The victim’s life is fleeing,

But the sower’s glory grows.

The vengeful spirit’s storming,

When offenders meet the blade,

And then the storms are stilling,

For justice has been made.

There is no sin in killing,

So this poet Virgil sang,

The only crime in slaying,

Is to kill a guiltless man.

by the Dionysian

Humans but No Humanity

At least 120 people dead, 352 wounded, 99 of them severely. Six attacks shook Paris last night on Friday, 13^th November. 

17 people killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad, Irak, on Friday at a memorial service for a militia fighter killed in batttle against the ISIS.

Suicide bombings in southern Beirut, Lebanon on Thursday 12^th, kiling 43 people and at least 239 wounded victims. 

What do all of these attacks have in common? They were all sanctioned by ISIS.

Close-mindedness and intolerance are our biggest enemies these days. ISIS is chasing after innocent people for the belief that they are right and have for “mission” to kill anyone who does not follow their radical ideals, forcing thousands of people to seek refuge in other countries and causing nations to live in fear.

A bed of Autumn leaves

I get scared when I lay down in bed,

When all my thoughts run through my head,

That is the time when they aren't  confined,

When I am a slave of my own mind.

Anarchism

With the current theme being "Freedom" at the Woluwe Independent, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at one of the most misunderstood and unknown political beliefs in the history of the Universe: Anarchism.

Anarchism is a political philosophy that believes societies should be self governed, and that no rules should exist that could limit one's personal freedom. As it is put by Noam Chomsky, a notable linguistic and political philosopher and activist, Anarchism is a "tendency in human development that seeks to identify structures of authority that constrain human development" and then subject them to a challenge: to justify themselves, and demonstrate they are legitimate, or otherwise accept "dismantling and reconstruction".

Windy Day

by Mélusine Gardey

The Economic Freedom of Today - (and the henceforth lack of one)

On March 9th 1776, Adam Smith officially published his Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations, or The Wealth of Nations for short. In this work, he examined how a nation’s wealth increased, decreased and behaved according to various social and political events and decisions. It is then that he first defined the term invisible hand from an economic point of view. Along with it he introduced the notion of a free market and supported the idea of having a free market. Almost 250 years on, does this notion of free market apply in today’s world?

The Maori Dynasty

Many people know of the British royalty, the Japanese royalty or the Belgian royalty. However, not many people know that the Maori, living in New Zealand, have their own royalty too, despite having been a British colony! It is time for their history and lineage to be revealed!

 

First of all, who are the Maori? The Maori are the indigenous polynesian people of New Zealand. They were the first settlers on these islands, after having gotten there by the means of canoes from the polynesian islands. They lived there in isolation for more than seven hundred years, during which their culture and social customs, the basics coming from the polynesian customs, flourished.

They created tribes, a horticulture and later also a strong warrior culture.

The European colonists, mostly of Great Britain, started arriving on New Zealand in the 17th century; An arrival that changed the way of life of the Maori drastically. The Maori tribes, also called “iwi”, started to adopt many aspects of European society and culture.