The Looking Glass

Rupert's Article won the WBGS Witold Pilecki History Essay competition in the KS3 category, in response to the question   “‘ Victory in war always goes to the side with the better leadership.’ To what extent do you agree with this claim? ” RUPERT ZABIHI The great military strategist Sun Tzu stated that the art of war is “governed by five constant factors to be taken into account ” , with ‘The Commander’ as one of these points to consider. This view is believed to have emerged between 475 and 221 B.C. - a time known as the Warring States period, an epoch where heavy conflict was witnessed between states that would later form China. Still, to this day, the quality of leadership of any side has had the capability to bolster a side’s chances of winning, proving the significance of a fine leader and proving Sun Tzu’s statement to be correct. However, it has only ever served as an advantage: not a means of definite success. This essay will argue three notions supporting th...

As COVID-19 finally seems to be disappearing in this country, and as we reflect on the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon and look forward to the World Cup i n Qatar, let's take a look into the archives with one of the 2021 Fuller Research prize entries, and see how much of it proved accurate... KAYAAN CHANDER   Covid-19 has imposed a significant impact on everything we have done in the past year, and still continues to do so. While the situation seems to be improving with immunisations and mass testing, the effect on football will be unforgettable: something that may never happen again. This leads us to the following question: "How did Covid-19 affect English football, both as shown on TV and behind the scenes?" The first time coronavirus stunned the world was in February 2020, when global cases started to rise, leading to the first UK national lockdown in March. However, football was affected prior to the lockdown. The first occasion was in the Europa League when Arsenal...

JUSTIN LI For decades now, the gender pay gap has always been a sensitive and significant topic. That society will ever reach true gender equality is a critical research question at the current moment, with the actual overall gender pay gap at an average of 9.53% in the UK, and 11.23% in the US, which is significantly high. More women are pursuing higher education in the UK, with 59.6% of graduates being female and 60% of essential workers, such as NHS workers, being women. So why aren't women being paid an equal amount compared to men?  The "#MeToo" movement highlighted the significant gender inequality in society, and people decided to protest for change against sexual harassment towards women. However, among the protests, the gender pay gap also started to be highlighted. A reason for why this pay gap exists is because of the stereotypes and assumptions made by firms, that women are more likely to enter the caring, leisure, secretarial or administrative jobs, and be pa...

This is the third instalment in Haroun's essay series on the impact of technology on human civilisation; you can find the previous essay here:  https://wbgslookingglass.blogspot.com/2022/01/on-modern-day-pandoras-box-1-voyage.html HAROUN DUGSIE The Greek Genesis Well, we can turn the metaphorical clock back to when the Greeks had just settled into their Bronze Age, at the turn of 2000 BCE, during the Minoan era. This ‘Minoan Greece’ is mysterious in its unknown tales and stories as we aren’t sure what an average life was like then (we only have an idea of what the average Greek life would be like when we skip forwards to Archaic Greece, but we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves). Scholars and academics are in fact debating if the infamous tales of the Minotaur of the Greek Mythology actually came from that mysterious Minoan period. The later Mycenaean (widely pronounced as ‘My-can-ean’ or ‘Mice-a-Neeyan’) Period around 1750 to 1100 BCE holds a similar period of mystery and...