Kajetan Maciuszko - blog

 Alabama has became the latest conservative US state to ban transgender girls from participating in female sports teams. Supporters of the bill say that transgender girl are typically bigger and faster , which may provide them with an unfair advantage in some sports. Opposers of this legislation say that it is nothing more then a politically motivated bill designed to discriminate transgender community. In my opinion, even though I don’t agree with this ban, I have to partially agree with the supporters of this bill, since transgender people are known to retain at least some of their sex’s traits from before the treatment, and these girls may actually have some form of unfair advantage, but definitely not as big as some people present it. Either way, I think that this whole ban is unnecessary, especially when we take into consideration other options, like actually testing the physical abilities of transgender girls when they try to be admitted into these sports teams. Link: ...

The Covid-19 lockdown has produced the quietest year for the world’s oceans in recent memory, according to a group of scientists working on a global map of underwater soundscapes. Noise pollution from ship engines, trawling activities, oil platforms. Subsea mining and other human sources declined significantly last spring. In my opinion, even though that the Covid-19 pandemic is overall bad for us as humans, it is really beneficial to some types of animals, especially sea animals. It is really good to hear that for the first time in many years, the noise pollution, even in water, has started to decrease, even if just temporarily. It will still allow animals to have at least a little bit more peace then previously, and maybe allow them to repopulate some of the previously abandoned by them areas due to the noise pollution. It’s just extremely good to hear some good news like this in these dire times. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/17/covid-pandemic-made-202...

On the most recent anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish Taoiseach Miche á l Martin said that political leaders must not allow Northern Ireland to “spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord”, after the region was marred by another night of disorder, and asked for “anyone who has any influence in the communities please use that influence to ensure young people do not get caught up in criminality and that they are kept safe and away from harm tonight”. Even though the Good Friday Agreement was signed 23 years ago, violence still happens with its each anniversary. This shows that that even many years of building trust and breaking political barriers is not enough to make up for centuries of division and mistrust. The fact that mostly young people are involved in these criminal activities isn’t surprising, since most of them don’t remember times before the Good Friday Agreement, when violence was happening on the streets every day, and terror...

Since the Brexit referendum, number of British citizens applying for Irish passports have rocketed. The data emerged as it was revealed that the celebrated British author John le Carr é died as an Irish citizen. Just over 422,000 passport applications were made in Great Britain in the last 4 years. The figures do not include citizens in Northern Ireland, who are entitled to dual British and Irish nationality since birth. It is widely known that at the time of the actual Brexit in 2019, less than 50% of the population supported it, but these numbers showcase just how many people are greatly disappointed with it. A lot of British citizens, including many famous ones, have started to express their dissatisfaction with Brexit and desire to retain their rights as an EU’s citizen via applying for other countries’ passports or citizenships, just as the aforementioned British author. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/03/brexit-vote-sparked-surge-in-irish-passports-issue...