Discussion topics

Rare and neglected diseases remain a serious problem in our modern world, despite advances in science and technology. Big pharmaceutical companies don't fund research and development into treatments for these diseases because they aren't profitable. The drugs end up costing much more to make than they'll earn back, so they remain un- or underfunded.

Each rare disease affects relatively few people, so the market is too small to make a profit on treatments. Neglected diseases affect about 1 billion people, but most are in underdeveloped, tropical countries. So, although the market is big, treatments are a poor return on investment because the countries can't afford to pay for them.

An article published in the Sustainability journal in 2019 recommends that we change our perspective to see healthcare as a sustainability issue, rather than an economic one. What if, instead of evaluating a drug in terms of the market, we look at its effect on society and the environment? The authors suggest that pharmaceutical companies be key players in this change of perspective. Companies would lead the way in seeing these drugs as opportunities, not problems. Funding the development of drugs to treat rare and neglected diseases is a chance for the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to the sustainability of our world, especially where the need is most urgent.

Bones found in Ireland show that humans have taken care of each other since ancient times. The bones, buried 5,500 years ago, belonged to a child with Down Syndrome. The baby lived to be about 6 months old and was breastfed. When it died, it was buried in a monumental tomb with other adults and children. 

In 2007, at an archaeological site in Vietnam, the bones of a man with a crippling disease were uncovered in a Stone Age grave. His bones indicate that he had a painful condition that would have left him paralyzed for the last several years of his life. Clearly, he was carried by others and given food and other resources that were always scarce in those days. 

Archaeologist Lorna Tilley has collected evidence from as far back as 45,000 years ago that disabled people were as valued as the rest of the community. She accepts these relationships as the fundamental reality of human behavior, rather than rare, atypical incidents. Humans are innately compassionate. The principle of the "survival of the fittest" is untrue—we have carried the unfit with us since the dawn of humanity.

Wars have many impacts not only on the countries involved but also on regions and even the whole world. In our globalized world, countries rely on each other for imports and exports. The global supply and demand chain has many steps in it. Disruptions in even one of these steps can lead to severe consequences, such as increased production and transportation costs and a lack of products. It can lead regions to economic crisis, food insecurity and famine. 

Please, look at these two graphs and discuss them with your teacher.

To prosper in the digital age, companies must undergo two types of digital transformation. Firstly, they need to become digitized. Secondly, they have to become digital.

Though both transformations depend on new technologies, they require different strategies and rules to implement. Digitization requires companies to update their operational backbones. In the past, core operations, such as delivering goods and services, maintaining accounts, and completing back-office processes, were handled by people. These days, however, they can be enabled by software-as-a-service. In addition to digitizing themselves, companies also need to become digital, which means creating a digital platform for the company’s digital offerings. Not only does this facilitate business development and connection with partners and customers, it also allows companies to better target revenue growth.

To conduct both transformations, leaders have to be comfortable using different sets of rules for people overseeing the operational backbone of a company and people working on the company's digital platform. In particular, they need to change their leadership styles according to the group they are working with as well as understand its cultural and operational needs.

Tatsuya Tanaka creates miniature scenes with everyday objects and tiny figurines he has collected over the years. In 2011, he began posting an artwork a day on what he calls the "Miniature Calendar". That means that by 2021, he had created 3,650 miniature scenes.

It all started when his wife gave him a set of miniature plastic cows designed for train sets. Tanaka says, "When I was young, I didn't have enough toys, so I played around with everyday things." He believes that we all have the feeling that "broccoli and parsley might sometimes look like a forest, or the tree leaves floating on the surface of the water might sometimes look like little boats." So he set the cows up with mahjong tiles and numbered blocks and took photos of them.

It takes an average of 2 hours to create each piece. Over the years, Tanaka has collected enough boxes of figurines and objects to cover every wall in his studio. He also creates figurines of himself with a 3D printer to place in some scenes.

When Tanaka posted his first simple cow scenes on Instagram, they were an immediate success. Someone suggested he post something every day, and the Miniature Calendar was born. Tanaka now has more than 3.5 million followers on Instagram, his main platform. Hundreds of thousands of admirers also follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He has published books of his works and had shows in major galleries. And it all began with tiny cows.

Worldwide, democracy and global freedom have been declining since 2006. The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse, with many leaders choosing to use authoritarian measures to contain the virus. It was difficult for the opposition to protest the measures because they weren't allowed to gather in groups.

But the trend towards dictatorship began long before the pandemic. The decline is not just happening in nations with authoritarian governments, but even long-standing democracies have suffered. In 2020, nearly 75% of the world’s population lived in a country where democracy deteriorated. The United States, which has long stood as an icon of democratic values, is becoming so divided that the government can barely function. The 2020 election results were challenged, ending up in an attack on the Capitol building itself.

Look at this graph from Freedom House showing the democracy gap since 2005. Interpret and discuss it with your teacher.

[Image from FreedomHouse.org]

The whole world has been shocked by the recent events in Europe. Russia waged war against Ukraine—a dramatic escalation of 8 year long tensions between the countries. 

The conflict started in 2014 during the Ukrainian revolution when Russia annexed Crimea and the Donbas region claimed its independence from Ukraine. However, the international community and Ukraine did not agree to recognize these territories as parts of Russia. One of the reasons is that The Russian Federation has been sponsoring anti-Ukrainian groups in the Donbas region, making it difficult for people there to express what they actually wanted. 

Since the beginning of 2021, Russia has been gathering forces on the Ukrainian borders. On 24 February 2022, Russian armies attacked. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, claimed that his nation could not be "safe, develop and exist" next to modern Ukraine and announced his goal of "demilitarization and de-Nazification" of Ukraine. 

There are many questions to Mr Putin’s words. Political tensions aside, the situation has become a catastrophe for ordinary people in the region. People in Ukraine have been living in a state of war, many trying to escape the country. Many countries announced sanctions against Russia and have sent military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. A lot of them, especially the neighboring countries, have also opened their borders to Ukrainian refugees. However, Belarus, a Ukrainian neighbor, hasn’t done so. There has been evidence that Belarus has been siding with Russia. This situation escalates the political situation in Belarus and Russia. People in these countries protested against the war, and many were arrested for doing that. 

The situation continues to unfold. It is the biggest conflict in Europe since the Second World War in terms of the size of the involved countries, with many people worrying about where it could lead to. 

Andrea Love uses wool to "paint" pictures, make felt figures, and create animated films. She works as a freelancer in Washington state, from her basement studio. Clients often come to her for commercials and short documentary films. One of her projects was a 4½-minute documentary for the Northwest Straits Initiative. The organization is dedicated to preserving the waters and beaches of the northwest corner of the U.S. For the film, Love created water, waves, boats, birds, a seal and fully dressed human figures—all out of wool fibers and felt.

Love is a master of stop-motion animation. She cooks tiny felted meals in felt kitchens and has characters play felt violins. Wool fibers become steam from a felt coffee cup, filled with felt coffee. She even makes a tiny felt vase on a felt pottery wheel. It seems that nothing can't be made from wool fibers in Love's hands.

Recently, Love and children's book author/illustrator Phoebe Wahl created a short feature film, Tulip. The story is an updated version of the classic fairy tale, "Thumbelina". The 9-minute film took over a year to make. It has won a number of awards at film festivals and is now available to rent or buy from Vimeo. Love and Wahl plan to continue their collaboration on future projects.

It is easy to see that someone in a wheelchair has a disability, and workplaces are becoming much better at making accommodations for them. But what about people whose disability doesn't show? Chronic illnesses like heart disease, lupus, or diabetes aren't visible to others. Neither are mental illnesses like depression or anxiety. Because of this, it's much more difficult for these workers to get the support they need.

According to a study by the Center for Talent Innovation in 2017, 30% of white-collar professionals had a disability. Some 62% were invisible disabilities. Only 3% of those surveyed told their employers and colleagues about their condition. The other 97% feared discrimination due to their condition, and they were right to be afraid. Discrimination in hiring is commonplace. In France, a study showed that only 2% of those who disclosed a disability on a job application were hired, and in the U.K., 17% reported having a job offer withdrawn. If a person is actually hired, they're much less likely to be promoted as quickly as their colleagues without disabilities.

Globally, about 1 billion people have a disability of some sort. That's 1 in 7 people on the planet. New developments in digital technology are opening up the world of work to those with a variety of challenges. There's a huge market of under-used workers just waiting to be tapped.