Calling all existing and new members! Sign up now to join The Union's 2023-24 Staff.
New members: sign up to join as a staff member
Existing members: sign up to renew your interest in The Union, and apply for executive positions if you're interested
CLOSES OCTOBER 1, 2023 (Sunday)
The Union International is thrilled to announce the launch of UNITE – a special initiative aimed to raise the voices of young changemakers and accelerate change.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, and many more. All of these books have been written by the British author Roald Dahl, many of which you may have heard of or even read as a child. Born in 1916, he became famous for his children’s literature, before passing on the 23rd of November in 1990. However, recent changes made to these stories to make them more “acceptable” in the modern world have brought on a flood of conflicting complaints and support from critics, fans, readers, and writers alike.
Imagine working a 10-hour shift only to come home to a space the same size as your cubicle at work. While this may be hard to imagine for some, this is common in Hong Kong due to the exponentially increasing population and the limited space. To create a coffin home, flats were illegally subdivided into around 15 partitioned units, sharing a kitchen and bathroom. Each home is usually only large enough for a bunk bed which is surrounded by a metal cage. Not only does this bed have to hold one's basic necessities, it also has to function as sleeping quarters. Therefore, for many, these coffin homes only allow for the uncomfortable position of bending their legs in an almost fetal-like position while lying down.
2022 can be described as a year mired with exacerbations of supply chains, rapid inflation, and shrinking economic growth worldwide. In China, the notorious Zero-Covid policy severely restricted the movement of Chinese citizens, for millions, this led to forceful quarantine in fever camps or being confined in apartments for weeks on end.
Somewhere else in the world, families hastily leave their homes, forced to face a future filled with uncertainty because to stay could mean worse. Take a look at your own home now and your family. Do you have your belongings packed? Are you ready to flee to another country? You might have heard in the news of people having to flee to other countries, but we don’t see that happening in Thailand. However, as reassured as we may be that we will never be forced to leave our country, it is not out of the question. We only have to look at what has happened in Syria to see how a little rampage can lead to devastating civil wars.
Almost 123 years from today, on May 14, 1900, began the first Olympic event in which women were allowed to participate. Out of the 997 total contestants, 22 were women. Even if there were only 22, seeing women participating in a male-dominated area was a ginormous step towards gender equality and opened up athletic opportunities for more women around the world.
It’s a sight of pandemonium. Police in pitch-black riot gear wields shields and batons as loud shouting encompasses the scene. The parties shove against each other, and impassioned yells and raised fists demanding change are met with expressions of stony resolve and mechanical warnings. An officer abruptly brandishes a gun, its menacing barrel pointed directly toward the crowd. He fires, releasing a torrent of rubber bullets that cut through the thick mist of tear gas and sweat. Mass hysteria ensues as some protesters struggle to leave in a panic whilst others push on defiantly. Arrests are made as the crowd continues to thin out, leaving nothing but scattered debris and a tense atmosphere of resentful surrender that hangs in the air. There will be no more resistance today.
When hearing the word censorship, cartoons for children and TV series are probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Our brains immediately go to politics, human rights, journalist publications, freedom of speech, and many other historical and contemporary issues. No cartoon seems to carry sensible, political content that may become the target of censorship of any kind. But apparently, leaders and governments all around the world disagree on the matter, as the last 10 years have seen several kids' cartoons or programs of entertainment ending up partly or entirely banned. Winnie the Pooh and civil rights concern one another much more than one may think.
It is no secret that there is a correlation between mental health and suicide. The thing about suicide is, there are a variety of reasons and triggers that can cause one to take their own life. Many of these reasons however, relate to our mental wellbeing. As humans, we have all experienced some type of negative life event or feelings of frustration and despair. These negative emotions can heavily contribute to our mental health, raising the question: How do we focus on our mental health to prevent the risk of suicide?
