Everyone has a friend who hates Christmas. Guess what? I’m that friend. The first time I told a friend of mine that I dislike Christmas, I could see pure confusion in her eyes. She started asking me why, what happened, and if I had any trauma. At first, I thought that not liking it was wrong. I mean, how can someone not like the most wonderful time of the year? Then, I came to a conclusion: it’s because of society. Have you ever noticed what happens after Thanksgiving?
We’ve all watched the movie, and we’ve all agreed on the same story: he’s the buzzkill, the bad guy trying to ruin Christmas. But what if the Grinch was actually just depressed?
I know you might think it’s a bit far-fetched, so let me give you some facts that’ll prove my point. First, he’s cooped up in a bleak cave. Also, self-loathing and hateful speech are the only languages he knows, and social interaction makes his skin crawl. Add a grain of traumatic experiences to the mix, and there you have a perfect recipe for depression.
It must be difficult to see the mean, grumpy villain in a different light and sympathize with him, so let’s try to find out where it all comes from.
Writing about Christmas is not an easy task. It seems it’s all been said before. And yet, students in our “Blogability” seminar have found diverse ways of approaching this unwieldy topic. Stay tuned – it all starts tomorrow.
Merry Christmas from the Blog Editors!
Looking out for feasible, effective, and easy ways to stop climate change has become an important goal in our daily lives. As one of the least contemplated measures – believe it or not – surfing on the internet could contribute greatly to a more sustainable environment.
Women representation on corporate boards remains a problem in many countries around the world. Yet the introduction of quotas to address this issue has caused debates among current and future leaders.
Norway was the first country to introduce binding quotas for women on corporate boards back in 2003, and the initiative has been successful. But the recent passage of a law to enforce the women’s quota in Germany, after earlier efforts didn’t seem to lead to the intended consequences, has reignited debate about the pros and cons of quotas for women in the U.S. and Europe alike. “When women are not represented at the leadership table, then it’s hard for women to be represented as consumers of your brands,” says Robin Vogel, 56, vice president of global strategic sourcing at the American candy company Mars, Inc. Having majored in engineering at college, Vogel knows first-hand how underrepresented women are in certain fields. But throughout her career, she just pushed on. “Walking into a meeting room where the majority of the attendees are men may have impacts on a number of women,” she admits. “Frankly, I got used to it.”
A virtual what? asked the perplexed high-school principal on the other end of the line. I was halfway through my one-minute pitch of the BEST Virtual Newsroom, a new cross-cultural media-literacy program for German and American teens. Apparently in a hurry, he huffed and quickly passed me on to a teacher of English at the Hamburg school. To my relief, she was more enthusiastic about the opportunity. She promised to distribute the call for applications.
I made that first cold-call in spring 2021. The Amerikazentrum Hamburg, a binational cultural institute, had approached me a few weeks earlier with the germ of an idea. Why not develop a virtual program to teach teens in Hamburg and its U.S. sister city Chicago the basics of journalism? A firm believer that media literacy is needed now more than ever, I loved the idea. I threw myself into the planning right away.
