The aces of info | The 2022 Soccer World Cup is the talk of the town

The Football (or Soccer) World Cup brings together more than 3.5 billion football fans every four years. The last edition was in Russia in 2018, and this year, Qatar will host the event, from November 20 to December 18, 2022.

However, Qatar has been talked about a lot since the start of the work, and not for the right reasons.

Details on the World Cup in Qatar

Qatar is an Arab country located on the western coast of the Persian Gulf, right next to Saudi Arabia.

Since work began in 2010, 6,500 workers have died. Originally from countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Nepal, these people were migrant workers, exploited, underpaid and sometimes even mistreated.

The working conditions there are extremely difficult and even dangerous. Many international organizations, such as Amnesty International, have denounced the slavery that was organized around this event.

A problem for the environment

In addition to being talked about for employee safety, the World Cup in Qatar also faced a lot of criticism on the environmental issue. Indeed, due to the high heat of the desert, all stadiums will be equipped with air conditioners. It’s a problem, when you learn the amount of greenhouse gases that all this will generate, especially since the stadiums are in the open!

The architect behind these works, however, claims that the air conditioners have been designed in an eco-responsible way, since they run on solar energy. However, if all stadium air conditioners were solar-powered, it would take about 1,000 km^⁠2 of panels, in other words, one tenth of the area of ​​Qatar. So illusion or reality, it remains to be seen…

A controversial World Cup

Finally, the World Cup in Qatar is the most expensive in the history of football: 220 billion dollars were spent in total for this event. This is 14 times more than the World Cup in Brazil, which was considered the most expensive in history until now, with 15 billion dollars spent for the occasion.

Thus, many criticisms have been leveled against this event: exploitation, non-respect of human rights, non-respect of the environment… so many comments that push many people and even entire nations to boycott the 2022 World Cup.

Recently, cities in France like Paris, Strasbourg, Renne, Bordeaux and even Marseille announced that they would not broadcast the World Cup in public places. On the networks, the #boycottqatar2022 are more and more numerous.

How to control the uncontrollable?

On October 6, a tragedy happened in Thailand, a country in Asia. A former policeman walked into a daycare center with a gun and killed children and adults. The criminal is dead and there is no more danger. We imagine that the people who lived through this tragedy have a lot of sadness and pain and that they will need enormous courage and time to recover.

This news made us think, in the Aces team. We were wondering if we should tell you about it. We decided to summarize it in a few sentences and instead put effort into helping you with the emotions that news like this can make you experience.

a million questions

With events of this kind, we are often assailed by a multitude of questions which it is difficult for us to answer. Why did this person commit this terrible act? Why did innocent people die? Why is the world so cruel?

However, even if we would like to know the answers to all these questions, we sometimes have to accept that they do not exist. But just because some things escape us doesn’t mean we can’t find a way to give them a place in our lives.

If we can’t find answers, we can choose to move the question instead. We can then ask ourselves: “What can I do when I don’t know how to react to an event, but I still want to talk about it? »

You’re not alone !

One thing that can help you in a difficult situation is to remember that you are not alone or alone in what you are going through. Many other people are probably in the same state of incomprehension as you and have no more answers.

This is why it is important, as a society, to learn to discuss together the difficult things that happen to us. Without understanding them, we can start by naming them. Dead. Attack. War. Violence.

It’s important to talk about this news that affects us, to put words to our emotions too. It’s normal to be sad, angry or scared.

To be informed, better than to ignore

One might think that the best strategy for not being affected by a disturbing event is to ignore it. However, several studies have shown the opposite! Understanding something would actually help us to better control it, in addition to preparing us to face similar events in the future.

When we don’t understand what happened, when we hear little bits of the story, we sometimes have very distressing ideas and sometimes worse than reality.

Making a move counts!

Finally, one last thing that can help you feel better is to get involved in what just happened.

If the event in question happened in another country, maybe you can draw a picture, write a letter or even organize a fundraiser with your family or your school. This way, the people affected by the event will know that you share the grief they feel and will greatly appreciate your little attention. And on your side, it can allow you to tell yourself that, even if you can’t erase what happened, you made a difference in your own way!

Small batteries, big danger

More and more devices use button batteries, small flat and round batteries. The problem with these is that they are easy for children to swallow. As you can imagine, eating a pile is far from a good idea. These batteries are ticking time bombs when activated by saliva in the esophagus, the tube that carries food to your stomach. We explain to you.

The danger of button batteries

At the Montreal Children’s Hospital, cases of children accidentally swallowing button batteries have tripled in recent years. You may have seen it in remote controls, flashlights, small toys, and even musical greeting cards. Young children are attracted to them because it is a shiny object.

Seemingly harmless, these batteries can become a real poison. It’s even more dangerous than swallowing a nail! Activated by saliva, the batteries rapidly emit heat to the point of burning and piercing the esophagus of some small patients. And if that happens, the bacteria in the saliva may infect the region between the two lungs, where there is, among other things, the heart. If the battery comes in contact with a blood vessel, it may cause severe hemorrhage, ie bleeding that does not stop. Needless to say, it can be deadly.

Doctors worried

Between March 2018 and February 2021, 609 children presented to the emergency room because they had swallowed an object. Button batteries were the second most commonly swallowed item.

In general, it is children of 6 years old or less who ingest this type of object. In many cases, they do this without anyone seeing them.

With this increase, doctors demand stricter rules governing the use of these batteries. The Canadian Pediatric Society has called on the federal government to require products that require button cell batteries to have a screw-on lid. It also required that battery packaging be childproof.

What to do if it happens?

If your little brother or sister swallows a button battery, he or she must be treated quickly in a hospital. Batteries can cause serious problems in the body in just two hours! It is also possible to take honey, because it protects the esophagus, a bit like a bandage.

Based on a text by Émilie Bilodeau, The Press