As a Swiss Citizens, the European Union may look like a big intransparent political machine that decides from Brussel what European Citizens have to do and how strong a vacuum cleaner has to be. The different European institutions, such as…
Category: Topics
Science and Society
We like to think that in a liberal democracy, decisions should be based on well-informed arguments and debate results, not on someone’s popularity, status or gut feelings. To enforce this ideal, and for some practical reasons as well, people ‘invented’…
The Sliding Scale of Fascism and our Troubled Democracy
‘Hitler is finished, but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm roots in too many fanatical brains. It is easier to remove tyrants and destroy concentration camps than to kill the ideas that gave them birth and strength’.…
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One Step Forward And Five Backward: A New Indonesian Penal Code
Since the finalization of Indonesia’s new criminal bill, headlines like “Indonesia: Draft Criminal Code Disastrous for Rights”, “Indonesia protests over sex before marriage bill”, and “Indonesian couple fear pre-marital sex ban will make them criminals” have been the center of…
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Does Political Correctness Foster Tolerance?
Before I go on, I need to make something clear: I firmly believe that the biggest threat to liberal democracy, freedom of speech and tolerance of different ways of life, today, comes from nationalistic and alt-right reactionary movements. The fault…
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Riots in Chile: “ I feel safe, as long as I don’t go to social events”
230 people injured and 26 dead- this is the tragic reality after more than one months of protests in Chile. Since the 14th of October thousands of young people have been demonstrating in Santiago de Chile, the capital of the…
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The Morality of Chinese Foreign Direct Investments
The People’s Republic of China is the second largest single economy in the world. Not just its GDP is impressive, but also Chinese growth rates outnumber almost every other economy in the world. There are Chinese cities – most of…
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Brexit Update: The Election That Changed Everything
It was the Russian radical activist Emma Goldman who once said, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” – she could not have been more wrong. Britain’s vote to leave the EU on 23rd June 2016 changed everything. One…
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Why Foreigners Should be Allowed to Own Land in Ukraine
by Anastasia Vozovych and Dmytro Naumchuk Recently, in response to resistance to a new land reform bill, Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, proposed a referendum on the question of foreign ownership of Ukrainian land. While this issue is getting…
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Ida’s Blog #5: Brussels – Politics & Finnish Independence Parties
One of the things that I love the most about my internship is that it’s so flexible. The other week, when I was having a conversation with my boss, I told him that I’m really interested in the European Parliament…
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