European Union College

14/06/2022

Toward combating COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has all the makings of a perfect storm for global malnutrition.
The crisis will damage the nutritional status of vulnerable groups through multiple mechanisms.
We can expect a dangerous decline in dietary quality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) stemming from the income losses related to government-mandated shutdowns and de-globalization, as well as from the freezing of food transfer schemes such as school feeding programs and the breakdown of food markets due to both demand shocks and supply constraints.
But malnutrition will also increase due to healthcare failures, as already strained healthcare systems are forced to divert resources from a range of nutritionally important functions including "antenatal care, immunization, micronutrient supplementation, and prevention and treatment of childhood diarrhea, infections, and acute malnutrition".

Research by:
Derek D. Headey
Marie T. Ruel

15/02/2021

On May 16, 2011, Professor of Physics Emeritus Walter Lewin returned to MIT lecture hall 26-100 for a physics talk and book signing, complete with some of his most famous physics demonstrations to celebrate the publication of his new book For The Love Of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics, written with

01/02/2021

http://euc.education/new/44

15/12/2020

The good education is your passport to the good future

08/12/2020

https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/elon-musk-net-worth-bezos-richest

Tesla CEO Elon Musk added $9.7 billion to his net worth on Monday, positioning him behind only Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the race to be the richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

08/12/2020

http://euc.education/new/43

20/11/2020

20/11/2020

Can you remember a time when somebody was kind to you? Perhaps a person allowed you to go in front of them in a queue. Maybe your sister phoned you to ask how your week was going. Or perhaps a stranger or a friend helped you in a much deeper way. There are a million ways to offer kindness. And at a time when the world seems to have so many problems, some people have started to take the issue of kindness very seriously indeed!

Why be kind?
Few people would disagree with the idea that a kind action is good for the soul. It is a win-win situation, leading to a sense of well-being both for the receiver of this kind gesture, as well as for the person who does the action. As a simple example, let’s imagine you have a workmate who always does a very good job. How about taking a moment to mention this to them, just in conversation or perhaps by email? The effects of this will probably be quite clear: your workmate will be happy to receive some praise and, in addition, you will probably feel good about yourself for having spread a little joy.

What are ‘random acts of kindness’?
Many organisations try to encourage people to do kind acts, wherever and whenever they can. The idea behind this is that it doesn’t take any major plan to be kind, just a little bit of effort. Perhaps the strongest supporters of this idea are the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Foundation, who work with schools and companies to teach people kindness skills. They operate under the beliefs that kindness can be taught and that it is contagious. Their activities range from suggesting kind acts to allowing their website-users to become ‘RAKtivists’ (people who officially register themselves as activists of kindness).

How can I be kind?
Apart from using your own common sense, the RAK website suggests some more imaginative ways to show kindness. Generally, these fall into three categories. The first is interpersonal kindness. Some examples are donating old clothes to charity or writing a positive online comment about a restaurant that you like. The second is environmental kindness, which could mean simply recycling or organizing a group event to clean a local park or beach. The third category is less obvious: personal kindness, which means treating yourself kindly. Some examples are taking a walk in nature or setting yourself an objective to complain less. The logic is that by being kind to yourself, you will automatically be kinder to the world around you.

What is World Kindness Day?
This is an annual celebration which takes place on 13 November each year. The day is marked in many countries, drawing attention to the amazing work of organizations and individuals in local communities. How do people celebrate this day? Well, by being kind … and having lots of fun. One typical event is to use ‘kindness cards’. These are small cards which you hand to somebody when you do a kind act for them – with the message that now it is the other person’s turn to ‘pass on’ the card by doing a kind act for another person.

Most experts on kindness agree that it has a sort of ripple effect. This means that one kind action tends to lead to more and more. So don’t wait for kindness to find you today, go and start a new ripple!

26/10/2020

Halloween
October 31 is Halloween and is now celebrated in many countries around the world, but do you know anything about the origins of this scary special day? Read the article and find out.
The origins of Halloween
If you think of Halloween, you probably think of scary carved pumpkins, all kinds of fancy dress and children asking for sweets. And if you think of a country that celebrates Halloween, you probably think of the United States first. Americans and Canadians have adopted Halloween in a big way, but Halloween traditions actually come from 16th-century Ireland, Scotland and England.
The tradition of Halloween on 31 October comes from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain was the Celtic New Year and they celebrated it on 1 November because that was the end of summer and harvest time (life) and the beginning of winter (death). It was also the time for ghosts to return to earth for a day. People lit a big fire, wore special clothes made of animal skin and hoped to be safe from the ghosts and the winter. In AD 609, the Catholic Church put the Christian celebration of All Saints Day on 1 November. In AD 1000, the church added All Souls Day on 2 November, and All Hallows Eve – or Halloween – moved to the night of the 31st.
Pumpkins
The Celts carved faces into vegetables like turnips, potatoes and squash (a pumpkin is a kind of squash) to scare the ghosts and other spirits and make them go away. It was sometimes called a jack-o’-lantern because of an Irish story about a man, Jack. He played a trick on the devil and then had to walk the earth for all time as a punishment. Irish people who came to live in the United States in the 1800s found pumpkins much easier to carve, and the tradition became the one we see today.
Fancy dress
The Celts were afraid of the ghosts that came on Samhain. If they went outside after dark, they covered their faces with masks. They hoped any ghosts they met would think they were ghosts too and would leave them alone. In early America, the Native Americans and the first Europeans celebrated the end of the harvest, but not Halloween. When Irish people arrived, the harvest festival started to look more like Halloween and it became popular across the country. In the late 19th century, people tried to make Halloween less about ghosts and religion and more about celebrating the season with a party for neighbours and family. That’s why Americans today wear all kinds of Halloween costumes and not just scary things like witches and ghosts like in other countries.
Trick or treat
This is another tradition that began in Europe, this time in England. When the church introduced All Souls Day, rich people gave poor people ‘soul cakes’, a small cake made with spices and raisins. It replaced the Celtic tradition of leaving food outside houses for the ghosts. ‘Going a-souling’ was popular in England for hundreds of years until about the 1930s. The Americans kept the tradition, but today children knock on people’s doors and ask for sweets. Going trick or treating is so popular that a quarter of the sweets for the year in the United States are sold for this one day.
The rest of the world
Halloween has become the United States’ second-biggest commercial festival after Christmas. Halloween is also celebrated in other countries, but it’s not as big as in the United States, even in the countries where the traditions began. Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead from 31 October to 2 November and some of its traditions, like giving gifts of sugar skulls, are starting to mix with Halloween. In this way, the celebration of Halloween continues to change as new traditions join the oldest of the Celtic ones.

17/10/2020

October 5 is World Teachers' Day. Find out which famous people want to say thank you to their school teachers for their success.

Who shapes the person you are the most? Parents or other family members are probably at the top of the list for many people. But a close second place is very likely to go to a teacher. Some of the most influential and successful people in the world have a teacher in their childhood to thank for their success.

The teachers behind famous people

Can you imagine life without the personal computer? Well, without two of Bill Gates's high school teachers, that could be our world today. Gates's maths teacher, Fred Wright, asked him to push himself just a little bit harder. Maybe that's why the founder of Microsoft sometimes slept under his desk in the office instead of going home to relax after work. And his drama teacher, Anne Stephens, helped him discover a love of the spotlight when she made the sometimes withdrawn schoolboy the star of the school play. Gates thanked his teachers, saying, 'There's no way there would be a Microsoft without them doing what they did.'

And he's not the only one. Oprah Winfrey, talk show host, actress and TV producer, was inspired by her fourth grade (age 9–10) teacher, Mrs Duncan. Because of her, Oprah says, 'I felt I could take on the world. You did exactly what teachers are supposed to do. They create a spark for learning that lives with you from then on. It's why I have a talk show today.'

An adult you can trust

For some children, teachers are the only positively influential people in their lives. Antwone Fisher, a best-selling writer, grew up in foster homes, and didn't have many adults that he could trust. But a primary school teacher, Mrs Profitt, was the first adult he ever trusted. 'She spoke to all of us the same way – with respect. No one spoke to me that way before. I think that being with her for three years made all the difference.'

Celebrate teachers
There are thousands more stories like this, from famous people and ordinary people all across the world. That's why UNESCO celebrates teachers on 5 October every year. UNESCO wants us to remember that education is a basic human right and every child should have free education. UNESCO hopes to train 69 million new teachers by 2030 so that everyone can go to school, because, sadly, 264 million children in the world today are not in school because there aren't enough teachers. Those children are often in places where life is already very difficult because they live in poor areas or far away from cities and towns, or they are escaping war in their own countries.

A day to say 'Thank you'

So, if you have a teacher, you're one of the lucky ones. One day, you'll probably look back at your life, your successes, the dreams you've made come true or the difficult things you've survived. The chances are high that you'll find a teacher's words have helped you achieve these things. Perhaps you already know who that teacher will be. Why not find them and say thank you today on World Teachers' Day?

01/10/2020

Have you ever driven somewhere and realised when you arrived that you couldn’t really remember anything about the journey? Or have you ever eaten a whole packet of biscuits when you were planning to only have one? Or have you stayed up much later than you planned, or even all night, watching ‘just one more’ episode of a TV series? All of these are examples of mindlessness. When we live this way, we are not fully awake and not fully living our lives.

What exactly is mindfulness?
When we are mindful, we are more conscious of our thoughts, our actions and what is happening around us. We might notice a beautiful sunset or really listen carefully to what a friend is saying, rather than planning what we’re going to say next. We are also more aware of our own feelings and our thoughts. Jon Kabat Zinn, who has done a lot to make mindfulness popular, says mindfulness is: ‘Paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and without judging.’

So we are consciously deciding what to pay attention to, we are not worrying about the past or planning for the future and we are not trying to control or stop our thoughts or feelings – we’re just noticing them.

Why is mindfulness so popular now?
For most people life is getting busier and busier. Technology means that we always have something to do and there isn’t much opportunity to just ‘be’. People are often doing two or three things at the same time: texting while watching TV, or even looking at their phone while walking along the pavement. People are working longer hours and bringing work home. All this can make us stressed, and mindfulness can be a way of reducing this stress.

What are the benefits of mindfulness?
Research shows that mindfulness reduces stress and depression. It can help you to concentrate, have a better memory and to think more clearly. It can also help people to manage pain better and to improve their sleep, and it can even help you lose weight because you won’t eat that whole packet of biscuits without thinking!

How to become more mindful
Mindfulness Day is celebrated on 12 September, so maybe that would be a good day to try a few mindfulness techniques and see if they make a difference. But, of course, you can try these on any day of the year.

A very simple technique that you could try right now is to close your eyes for a couple of minutes and count how many sounds you can hear. This will help to focus you on what is happening right now.

Another technique is to focus on a piece of food, typically a raisin. Instead of eating it without thinking, slow down. Look carefully at it and notice how it feels in your fingers. Smell it. Then put it on your tongue and taste it. Only then start to eat it slowly, noticing how it feels and how it tastes.

Both of these techniques force you to slow down and focus on the present moment, and there are plenty of other ideas you can find online if you want to try mindfulness for yourself.