Radio România Internațional

Tag: emotion

  • The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schoolchildren

    The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schoolchildren

    We’ve had
    the COVID-19 pandemic for over year now. All sorts of restrictions are still in
    place, school went online, for its greater part, some of the classes were held
    with physical presence, but with a higher risk of contamination. All that has definitely
    affected the youngsters’ emotional well-being. This is also the outcome of an
    analysis carried by the Save the Children Association. As of late, Save the
    Children has offered free of charge psychological counselling to pupils in
    several cities around the country. The conclusions of a survey carried among
    those who resorted to such services have revealed that one child in three had
    to face states of anxiety and needed counselling and psychological and
    emotional support. And at that, a higher percentage was reported for
    adolescents, even reaching 50%. Also, 90% of the children who were in need of
    psychological therapy in the last year have had emotional problems related to
    the pandemic context. No exhaustive and official research on that has been
    conducted so far, unfortunately. However, in a separate move, there are nonetheless
    data about the manner in which school has informed pupils about the dangers of
    the pandemic, and about how sanitary safety measures have been implemented in
    classrooms. Such measures have obviously influenced children’s emotional
    well-being. It was also the Save the Children Association that carried a survey
    taking up on such topics, jointly with the National Council of Pupils. The survey
    was themed Feeling safe in your own school. Almost 22,000 pupils took
    the time to respond to it. As for the conclusions of the survey, here is the
    president of the National Council of Pupils, Silviu Morcan, with the details.

    Silviu Morcan:

    As for the information activities, we noticed that info on the
    prevention of disease transmission did live up to certain quality standards,
    for the greatest part of the educational units. More than 86% of the pupils stated
    they fully understood the information conveyed by the school staff. In much
    lower percentages respondents stated they would have needed many more clarifications
    on ways to contain the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus or they did not even get any
    info whatsoever related to the topic. The vaccination information campaign that
    should have been organized in schools reached fewer pupils. More than one third
    of respondents, around 36%, states such campaign
    were run in their schools. Under the circumstances, is school perceived as a safe
    environment from a sanitary point of view?

    Silviu Morcan:


    The feeling of safety school gives students was another topic we intended
    to tackle. And, despite the high frequency with which going online has been
    reported because of a classmate getting infected, we noticed the feeling of safety
    prevailed when they were at school the sample average standing at 3.53 points
    on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 standing for not at all safe and 5 for
    completely safe. More than half of the respondents pointed to a high level of
    that safety feeling. Otherwise, the answer to the open-ended questions we had
    in the final part of the survey are extremely diverse with opinion being
    equally divided between those who would like school to go online completely and
    those who stated that face to face schooling was their favourite and safest
    option. Equally divided were also opinions on prevention measures such as the ear-loop
    mask or the social distancing as part of the respondents wanted those measures
    to be more strictly implemented wanted to give up on such measures altogether.


    Notwithstanding,
    anxiety and the way it creeps into people’s hearts and mind are extremely insidious.
    Therefore, it is hard to say what exactly such a disorder is triggered by and
    how it manifests itself. Similarly, it is difficult to find out where school
    alone or the pandemic context in its entirety are the cause of the anxiety At
    any rate the authorities have admitted that as we speak there is no instrument
    by means of which data can be collected, regarding pupils’ psychological and
    emotional condition. However, there are nonetheless clues teachers can take
    into account, observe and try to sort out with the assistance of school
    psychologists.

    Education Minister Advisor Radu Szekely:


    As a result of the discussions we’ve had and with help provided by
    specialists, we reached a conclusion: anxiety exists among children and
    youngsters in schools. It’s just that it hasn’t been noticed long enough. Children
    do not put their anxiety into words. And, emotionally, it is signalled through
    gestures of fear, of panic expression, sometimes even through a lack of
    interest at cognitive level. Otherwise, children aske about certain things
    which, indirectly, signal the fact that their real concern lies elsewhere,
    whereas we, in the education system, more often than not come up with answers
    to the questions asked without taking the time to look into what lies behind
    them. But it is the role of the teacher and the parent and I am keeping my hope
    alive it will soon be the role of the school psychologist assigned to each and
    every school to notice the aforementioned signs, to identify them, their
    causes, and then try to solve such situations, all the more so as, when anxiety
    is high, some of the symptoms are likely to go physical with children and youngsters.


    Also, when
    at home, parents need to watch their children carefully and talk to them, even
    though we are a society that tends to suppress emotions and children do not
    have the opportunity to express their feelings, according to psychiatrist
    Carmen Trutescu.


    Carmen Trutescu:

    Any change in the daily routine or behaviour is an alarm signal. If a
    child used to sleep 10 to 12 hours daily and now, he sleeps 18, 20 hours, or he
    doesn’t sleep at all, if he changes his eating habits, if he is extremely irritable,
    as anxiety is hard to put into words yet his becoming irritable can be a sign, all
    that means there is something going on. We do not demand that the parent
    diagnoses his child, yet the parent can notice the change in his emotional
    condition. From that moment onwards, whether we speak about anxiety, about
    depression, or the adaptation disease, whether it’s bullying or a condition of
    a different kind, that’s for the specialist to say when he sees the child. It
    would be perfect if advise should be sought from the teacher, so that we can
    have a twofold perspective. So I would really love it if teachers could detect
    such patterns of behaviour that are atypical: the fact that a child doesn’t
    leave his desk, doesn’t talk to the others, he cries or he doesn’t eat
    during the break. A child who doesn’t speak in public, who does not speak when
    his classmates are around, maybe there is something peculiar about their development.


    A recent legislative
    initiative will create the opportunity for teachers and parents to cooperate to
    that effect. Psychologist’s offices will be set up in every educational unit, where
    children can be tested frequently and solutions can be found, for the remedy of
    the psychological and emotional disorders that have been thereby detected. However,
    for the time being, that legislative initiative is still subject to parliamentary
    debate.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • Romanians’ leisure moments and their favourite activities

    Romanians’ leisure moments and their favourite activities


    The
    Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped society dramatically. The lockdown, officially
    imposed worldwide, has ascribed our existence to a new paradigm. We became
    closer to one another thanks to the Internet, which literally melt away
    distances of any kind. As for governments worldwide, they globalized the
    protection mask. The downside of it all is isolation, but also the feeling of
    alienation. The good side, though, is the leisure time we have gained so far. We
    have discovered we are free to travel to work from our living rooms and
    therefore we can save no less than three hours a day. But that didn’t happen to
    all of us. According to a sociological survey, a mere 3 out of 10 Romanians
    believe they had more time on their hands than before the outbreak of the
    pandemic, while 4 out of 10 Romanians feel the need to sleep more. We will use
    the aforementioned survey to look at how such a crisis, which has been very
    serious so far, can influence the quality of our sleep. Apparently, the
    lockdown was long enough for us to sleep more, but that is not true. For most
    of us, quite a few problems we had been unaware of have resurfaced during the
    Covid-19 pandemic, at once generating atavistic behavior.




    The
    psychologist Daniela Ionescu:




    Man’s
    greatest fear is the fear of the unknown, and the pandemic has a great many
    unknown points. Information is scarce, often contradictory and menacing, the
    feeling of self-security has been seriously affected, fear and guilt crop up,
    as well as the fight-or-run behavioral patterns. A sneeze automatically
    triggers the question what if ..? in the mind of the person who sneezed, but also
    in the minds of those who happened to be around him. Our brains cannot stand
    uncertainty. The brain supplies the information itself, in the absence of real
    information, even distorting the objective reality, so that a coherent scenario
    can be created mb means of which it may take action in order to regain control.
    That is why, in circumstances pertaining to life’s natural progress, we’re
    often faced with misconstrued, exaggerated, abnormal reactions, since such
    circumstances are viewed in a context which is perceived as being dangerous.






    Now,
    consider such a tendency against the backdrop of the lockdown we had been going
    through this past spring. The outcome? The isolation and the measures imposed
    by the social distancing have tremendous repercussions on the human being,
    while a poor quality of sleep is the first symptom that something goes wrong.

    Sociologist
    Gelu Duminica.






    Sleep
    deprivation occurs in a multitude of contexts, according to specialists. Under
    pressure, in times of crisis, the human body reacts in many ways. It is highly
    likely that in a context of crisis, the tension you feel in your body may
    result in the fact that you cannot sleep any more. If your brain and your body
    did not have enough rest, that may also trigger a certain amount of over-tension
    in your body. It is like a vicious cycle: the tension is the cause of sleep
    deprivation, while sleep deprivation causes the tension. This period of Covid
    crisis has generated tension. Especially during its first part. Tension was
    also enhanced by all the messages we have been exposed to, in society, death is
    closer than you think, something could happen to you and to your nearest and
    dearest, also, tension was enhanced by the lockdown. And that, because lockdown
    was something we had not been familiar with, which wreaked havoc in our lives.
    And then man’s behavior, according to sociologists, greatly depends on
    background and circumstances. The circumstance we experienced was something we
    had not been used to. And then, logically speaking, the amount of tension ran
    high, also resulting in sleep deprivation.


    The
    lockdown was not much of a protection for us, since to all that, the social
    animal the human being is has reacted through depression and anxiety, which
    weaken the immunity system.




    Psychologist
    Daniela Ionescu:




    We’re
    genetically programmed to live in communities. We build our psychological
    balance in, and we progress through interaction, so social distancing is out of
    the question. The stronger you are connected to the others, physically,
    socially and psychologically, the better your physical and psychological
    condition is. Isolation can only engender chronic fatigue. You can experience
    panic attacks, sadness, helplessness, suicidal ideas may occur more often than
    not, overdrinking and drug-taking may also occur. Physical distancing does not
    provide much psychological balance either. We need to get close to somebody, we
    need the physical touch. For us, these are sources of confidence and security.
    It is the first language we learn as soon as we’ve come into this world. The
    most direct and the most complete language, which cannot be replaced by any
    other type of verbal or written communication. Fast and minutely, the touch
    conveys a much wider range of feelings and emotions than, for instance, our
    facial expression or our gestures. Any kind of distancing causes a greater
    amount of aggressiveness, of infliction or self-infliction. It triggers
    abnormal types of behavior, it causes depression, while a weakened immunity
    system is its aftermath, among other things. Or rather, distancing is meant to
    help us better understand the measure of human relationships, it will help us
    praise the presence of the other to a greater extent, their touches, their
    embraces, it will help us develop empathy, compassion, selflessness,
    self-awareness and the awareness of the world around us.




    In the sociological survey, 53 % of respondents admitted that going
    out, to a restaurant, a bar or beer garden are the activities they most missed
    during the lockdown. 42 % of them mentioned going to a concert or to the cinema
    were they activities they have missed. By way of comparison, a mere15%
    responded that doing their hobbies is what they missed most.




    Daniela
    Ionescu:




    Man
    is a social animal. One of its fundamental needs is the sense of belonging, and
    achieving something like that means relating to someone. Self-esteem and
    self-confidence are being built through interaction-based experiences.
    Likewise, compassion, empathy, selflessness, socializing, all that also has its
    crucial contribution to our cognitive and affective development, but also to
    the creation od the mechanisms by means of which we adapt to the world and to
    life, they help us manage stress and anxiety. Social isolation may cause
    illnesses but also our losing the sense of reality. It even causes death,
    sometimes. On the other hand, the exaggerated need to socialize may often
    conceal psychological problems the individual can only contain provided they
    focus on the interaction with the others. Socializing in the presence and
    through food, like the one you have in a restaurant, is based on the memory of
    having received affection, comfort, education, way back when you were
    breastfed. Food is a language through which we convey our intensions, our
    emotions, our ability of relating to the others. Eating in the company of
    others is a type of energy exchange, an act of togetherness, of intimacy. Food
    provides physical nourishing for us; similarly, relationships feed us
    emotionally, and satisfaction is complete when we have both types of food.

  • L’activisme féminin

    L’activisme féminin

    Toujours plus présentes dans la vie économique et politique de la Roumanie d’aujourd’hui, les femmes ne sont en effet pas en reste pour ce qui est de l’implication civique. Un progrès que le marché du livre ne saurait ignorer, la preuve en étant un projet éditorial, lancé déjà en 2011. Il s’agit de trois volumes publiés aux éditions Polirom et coordonnés par l’économiste et femme politique Andreea Paul-Vass, de trois recueils d’histoires de femmes qui ont rencontré le succès en politique, économie ou action citoyenne.

    Le dernier volume en date, intitulé « La force civique des femmes » et lancé cette année, montre la présence majoritaire des femmes dans le secteur non-gouvernemental. Pour en savoir un peu plus, nous sommes allés à la rencontre d’Andreea Paul-Vass: « C’est qu’en 2011 paraissait notre premier volume, « La force politique des femmes », avec des portraits de femmes issues de toutes les familles politiques du moment. En 2016, on remettait le couvert, avec le deuxième volume, « La force économique des femmes », auquel ont contribué des entrepreneures tout à fait exceptionnelles. Et puis, en 2018, il était impératif de mettre en exergue l’esprit civique des femmes, et c’est ainsi qu’est né le troisième volume. De fait, chaque parution est liée à mon propre parcours, car j’ai été, tour à tour, femme politique, femme d’affaires, et puis activiste. Et j’ai été très sensible aux histoires des autres dames qui avaient eu la même folie qui les avait poussées à se lancer dans ce type d’action. Je crois que nous, les femmes, on a un don de rééquilibrer les choses, d’embellir la société, de réparer les injustices. Dans la société civile, les femmes sont très présentes. Si on regarde la carte des innovateurs sociaux, les femmes contribuent à hauteur de 53% à la création et au management des organisations non gouvernementales. Dans l’entrepreneuriat, les choses vont moins bien, mais elles s’améliorent. Quant à la force économique des femmes, aujourd’hui, un sur trois entrepreneurs est une femme. C’est bien de le savoir. Le pire, c’est en politique. Lorsque le premier volume de cette trilogie est paru, en 2011, le parlement roumain ne comptait que 10 ou 11% de femmes. Moins d’une décennie plus tard, on compte le double de parlementaires féminins. »

    L’empathie que les femmes sont naturellement plus enclines à manifester pour les êtres qui les entourent pourrait constituer l’un des facteurs favorisant leur implication dans des initiatives d’entraide sociale, ou de sensibilisation à des causes médicales ou écologiques. Selon la journaliste Daniela Palade Teodorescu, rédactrice en chef du magazine « Carrières », il y aurait là encore une cause, plus spécifique au contexte roumain. Ecoutons-la. « Par leur action quotidienne, ces femmes démontrent, de fait, la force civique dont elles sont animées. J’ai rencontré des femmes, des mères notamment, qui ont arrêté de se plaindre que l’Etat ne fait rien pour leurs enfants ou parents malades, pour leurs enfants handicapés. Elles ont pris le taureau par les cornes et s’est sont tout simplement dit : « C’est moi le changement. Je n’attends plus rien du système, je n’attends plus que le changement vienne d’en haut. C’est moi qui va militer pour que les droits de mes enfants, de mes parents, de ceux qui souffrent, soient respectés ». Ce livre parle de ce que j’appellerais « le pouvoir des vulnérables ». Car, l’on rencontre assez souvent des femmes qui se sont retrouvées dans une situation limite, et qui ont trouvé la force et les ressources de la dépasser, et puis elles se sont dit : maintenant, je vais faire la même chose pour d’autres comme moi. Souvent, il s’agit d’héroïnes anonymes, qui n’ont pas cherché les lumières de la rampe. Elles s’étonnent même qu’on veuille en parler. Pourtant, en parler, c’est important, ça les motive. C’est une confirmation qui les aide à continuer dans leur démarche».

    Les histoires des cent femmes, recueillies dans le volume « La force civique des femmes », met aussi en lumière les avantages de la solidarité féminine. « La valeur d’une femme est mesurée dans le nombre des autres femmes qu’elle a pu aider, qu’elle a aidées à se remettre debout », dit l’une des protagonistes. Daniela Palade Teodorescu: « Lorsque ton enfant est trisomique et que l’on te promène d’une clinique à une autre, d’un médecin à un autre, d’un hôpital à un autre, lorsqu’on reçoit des diagnostiques erronés, arrive un moment quand tu te dis : « Il faut que j’agisse. A un moment donné, moi je disparaîtrais, et qui prendra soin de lui ? Comment vivra-t-il sans moi de manière autonome ? ». A partir de là, et grâce aux réseaux sociaux, des communautés se construisent, pour adresser un problème particulier, similaire ou apparenté. »

    Le secteur associatif semble prendre son essor en Roumanie et certains experts y voient la preuve de la démission ou de l’impotence de l’Etat dans certains domaines. L’Etat s’intéresse très peu aux problématiques qui suscitent le plus grand intérêt de la société et les financements en sont conséquents, considère la militante féministe Mihaela Miroiu, professeure des universités à l’Ecole nationale d’études politiques et administratives: « Un autre processus présent en Roumanie et que ce livre a le mérite de mettre en évidence c’est la professionnalisation d’une ONG, au fil du temps. Cela signifie que les gens qui y travaillent deviennent de véritables experts dans leur domaine d’activité. C’est tout le contraire de ce qui se passe en politique, où l’amateurisme, l’imposture et le dilettantisme augmentent de manière exponentielle. Et l’on observe ainsi une véritable fracture sociale : un monde de décideurs amateurs d’un côté, des professionnels non gouvernementaux de l’autre. La bonne nouvelle c’est qu’une partie au moins de la société fonctionne correctement : l’entrepreneuriat civique. »

    L’édition 2017 de l’étude de la Fondation pour le développement de la société civile, la FDSC, fait état de 42 mille associations actives, sur les 88 mille recensées. (Trad. Ionut Jugureanu)