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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Issue 181 October 26th 2005 www.concrete-online.com Free: Please Recycle

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!NDY 0OTT EXCOMMUNICATED BY NEW %XECUTIVE #OMMITTEE "Y 3!2!( %$7!2$%3 !.$ !..! 34%7!2$ The General Manager of the Union of UEA Students, Mr Andy Pott, will no longer attend Executive Committee meetings following a decision made by the Committee last week. The move to bar Mr Pott has been made in accordance with the Union Constitution, which allows student or staff representatives to be invited to attend meetings at the discretion of the Executive Committee. As General Manager of the UEA Student Union, Mr

Pott will continue to sit on the Management Committee, which conducts the day-to-day administration of Union policy, as ratiﬁed by Union Council. Although Mr Pott is not allowed to vote in Executive meetings, he has previously been able to offer an advisory role to the student ofﬁcers who make up the Committee. There is concern that his removal from meetings could mean that Executive Com- mittee decisions might be made without appropriate consultation with more experienced members of staff. Mr Pott has worked in the Un- ion for seven years and is respect-

ed for his understanding of the democratic procedures involved in running such an institution. Some students have expressed concern that the move will make the eleven members of the Executive less accountable within the Union. One student commented that they had tried to view the minutes of previous Executive Committee meetings – including the excom- munication of Mr Pott – on the Union’s website, but found that no agendas had been posted online. “I am worried that things are being done on our behalf that may not beneﬁt the student body over-

all. We can only hold the Executive to account if all their decisions are made public appropriately and not just given to Council,” he said. The Executive Committee con- sists of four full-time student ofﬁc- ers – Academic, Communications, Finance and Welfare – and seven part-time ofﬁcers. All members of the Committee are chosen by the student body during elections in the spring. The Exec is responsible for the administration and management of the Union’s affairs and the im- plementation of policies made by Union Council. Meetings of the Executive Committee are held on a weekly basis during semesters.

This year's Communications Officer, Andy Higson, told Con- crete: “Unions are democratic, student-led organizations and the Executive Officers are elected by students to run this Union. To have meetings with no one else there apart from students who are allowed to go to Exec meetings is a perfectly valid way to run the Union.” “Executive Officers are free, unless told otherwise by the students, to run the meetings of the Union in a way that they think best. If people have a problem with this Union they should use the democratic structures and hold the officers to account.”

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!N UNUSABLE COMPUTER IN THE 5%! LIBRARY "Y ,5#9 6%.. .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 The UEA library’s recent four million pound refurbishment should have brought the advantage of extended computer facilities and improved space for its twenty-four hour access area. However, students have been left angry and disappointed with the new IT suite as many computers are constantly left unusable and ‘awaiting repair’. Prior to the building of UEA’s new suite, there were 180 PCs in the library, yet now there are around thirty fewer. A technician told Concrete that the last time he had checked the stations, approximately thirty were not in working order. On entering the new two-sto- rey suite, computers on all sides can regularly be seen with blank

screens and a note – either typed by the ISD technicians or scrawled in biro by a student – stating that yet another computer is out of action. Unfortunately it is not a blan- ket problem that is affecting all the PCs that are out of order but individual faults, making the task of ﬁxing them increasingly chal- lenging. The computer facilities are especially important at this time of year when returning students may not yet have access to the internet in their new homes and freshers, without the luxury of a PC in their rooms, are eager to contact friends and family. The new IT suite is the only place in the library where students have access to their own network and can use email and the internet freely as well as applications for word-processing and printing. The question remains as to

what students are supposed to do when such a large number of library computers are not working, and as a result the remaining functioning stations are guarded ﬁercely by other students prowling the aisles. Assistant Librarian David Palmer, who is responsible for the IT and Library Helpdesks, told Concrete that at the start of term there were difﬁculties with the in- stallation of new PCs. The heavy load on the help desk and technicians meant there was less time to service the broken machines, resulting in a backlog of useless computers. According to Palmer “there is an ongoing problem with inten- tional disabling of the machines in addition to the usual technical faults”. Students have been deliberately immobilizing computers with the intention of reserving them as their own and this has ex-

acerbated the original problems. Students are asked to be vigilant in the ﬁght against this problem and report any tampering or suspicious behaviour. The library’s plan of action has been a thrice-weekly sweep, where a block of computers is cornered off for technicians to repair. In addition, last week there was a ‘blitz day’ where all the computers were subjected to a session of mass renovation. When Concrete enquired into the thinking behind the refurbishment of the library’s comput- ing facilities, they were told that money has been put into network- ing the university residences and installing laptop-docking stations, which has resulted in fewer PCs on general availability. While this may be part of a master plan, it seems unfortunate that students who live off campus and ﬁrst years without their own PCs have to suffer.

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3CHOOLS UNIFY DEADLINES AND PENALTIES FOR ESSAYS AT 5%! "Y *!.% $/5',!3 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 Penalties for late submission of coursework have been standardised across all schools. The amount of marks deducted per day was previously at each individual school’s discretion. This had sparked criticism from students who felt that variations in the severity of penalties between schools made the system unfair. In all schools at UEA, coursework is now due at 1500 hours on the day of submission. The penalties for late work now stand at: * Five marks deducted from work submitted after 1500 hours but before 1700 hours on the due date. * 10 marks deducted for work handed in the following day before 1700 hours. * 20 marks taken off for work given in on the 2nd or 3rd day after

the deadline (up to 1700 hours). * No marks will be awarded for work handed in on the 4th day or thereafter. Valid reasons for extensions include illness, injury, anxiety or depression unrelated to the work, bereavements or funerals, family crises, looking after sick parents and computer failure. Most expla- nations still require documented proof. Speculation has been rife within the student community that deadline days were moved from Friday to Thursday because of mass failure to meet deadlines after the old Thursday LCR. Some have described the changes as evidence of a breakdown in communication between Union events and University administration. However Dan Pearson, the Academic Ofﬁcer, stated: “The changes have been implemented purely to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.”

3TUDENTS EVACUATED AS BURST PIPE mOODS AN ENTIRE mOOR "Y ,%% !.. 2)#(!2$3 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 Students in Suffolk Terrace are preparing to move back into their rooms after a burst water pipe flooded an entire floor. The incident occurred at noon on Friday 14th October in Suffolk Terrace Block C, floor 02. The residents had difficulty turning on one of the pipes in a bathroom and when it was finally opened, it resulted in a massive water leak up to knee height. The water seeped through to the lights on the ground floor and students had to hurry to save their clothes, laptops and other personal belongings from being drenched. All their food had to be thrown away after the electricity was turned off. At 12.20pm all residents of Suffolk Terrace were evacuated to Nelson Court common room.

By 3pm the affected students were allocated rooms around the University. The residents were provided with food from Zest and any money back that they spent at the launderette. One eye witness claimed that “security were behaving really strange. Instead of concen- trating on turning the water off, they were looking for someone to blame. They were trying to claim that we were drunk and caused the accident but we were all sober and knew what was going on.” Suffolk Terrace is one of the many accommodations at the UEA that is being refurbished. The students were due to be moved to the newly built Paston House in a few months time. The move has now been brought forward as a result of the damage caused from the burst pipe. The University is to investigate what caused the burst water pipe.

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3TUDENTS CONTINUE TO DUMP LITTER IN 3QUARE #ALLS FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE RUBBISH ON CAMPUS "Y 3!-5%, #!$$)#+ .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4

There are fourteen litter bins in the Square at UEA. Go out and count them. Yet despite the fact there is a maximum of twenty steps to a litter bin from any point in the Square, students still manage to leave what can only be called hor- ribly impressive amounts of rubbish all over the place after a day of frolicking. The biggest problem faced by the University is that on hot days, although there are unlikely to be many of these for a while, and after gigs or events in the LCR, record numbers of students choose to socialise on the steps and fail to dispose of rubbish in the numerous bins surrounding them. There is really no excuse for the plastic cups, crisp packets, chocolate bar wrappers and the general debris that adorns the much-loved concrete plaza. In- deed, both the Union and the University are dedicated to main- taining the environment, but as Environment Ofﬁcer Jenny Gellatly points out: “We are a ‘throw away society’. The quantity of litter produced is alarming.” Currently the Union and the University recycle as much waste as possible, including plastic bottles, glass bottles, cans, paper and card. However, such articles must

be put into the recycling bins and the real challenge is simply getting students to use any bin at all, even just the non-recycling blue bins - and not dumping their litter on the floor. A new initiative that the Envi- ronment Officer has high hopes for is a composting scheme for the Hive and the Union Pub, which will be put into place very soon. Though the question remains: with so much effort being put into recycling and waste management at UEA, why do students still manage to make the Square look like a landfill site? Eddie Shields, Societies Of- ficer, agrees that a litter campaign could be the answer, but rightly points out that there are other equally worthy issues for the Un- ion’s attention. So it falls to the students to sort themselves out. After a night’s partying in the bar and the LCR, or a day’s sitting in the square contemplating the sky or the phone number of the person you met last night, put your litter in a bin. Not only does it make the place look nicer, it’s also free - and we love bargains, right? )NFORMATION ABOUT THE 5NI VERSITY %NVIRONMENTAL 7ORK ING 'ROUP S PLANS FOR IMPROV ING WASTE MANAGEMENT AT 5%! CAN BE FOUND AT HTTP EWG WEBAPP UEA AC UK PAGES HOME PHP

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0OLICE URGE VIGILANCE AGAINST THEFT 7ITNESS APPEAL 3ECURITY ADVICE ISSUED TO COMBAT BURGLARIES ON CAMPUS AFTER ROBBERIES Following an increase in robberies around Norwich in recent months, including a series of thefts around the Golden Triangle, police are sending out strong advice to students to be vigilant in securing their personal belongings. On Sunday 9th October a UEA student was the victim of an attempted robbery as he walked along The Avenues at around 1:30am, though he was able to escape unharmed. On Bluebell Road on Friday 7th October an elderly couple were subjected to an attempted ‘distraction robbery’. As one thief claimed he had come to investigate a water leak, another attempted to gain entrance through an open window. Police are appealing for witnesses in connection with both incidents. On Saturday 8th October another UEA student living in the Bowthorpe Road vicinity had his new bike stolen from a locking bar from the back of his property whilst he was in the house study- ing. Unaware that thieves had made off with his bike, the student was alerted by his returning house- mates. “We couldn’t believe what had happened. They had made off with my bike and then had the audacity to come back later when they thought we were in bed to try to get the others.” The MGT2 student, who prefers to remain anonymous,

was waiting on-guard when the perpetrators returned and was able to repel them. However, the premeditated nature of this crime suggests that this was a speciﬁcal- ly targeted robbery. It is likely that the criminals were aware that the house was a student lodging and perhaps an easy picking. Sgt. Ed Brown, a recent graduate of UEA, is fully aware of the tendency for students to be com- placent about home security. He told Concrete: “I’m all too familiar with the problems students can encounter.” He went on to offer the following advice: * When leaving the house make sure all doors and (if possible) windows are locked. * Don’t leave expensive-looking items in the window. * Don’t leave spare keys lying around as a TV is much easier to carry out of the door than out of a window. * Leave wheelie bins behind a locked gate in the event that a thief might try to use it to gain access through a window. Sgt Brown also pointed out that student rooms in halls are small and easy to empty quickly. Students often leave a door open for other people that look like students but once they are inside it is unlikely they will be reported, making life very easy for potential burglars. Don’t leave doors open and ask visitors who they are visiting. WWW GOOD BSECURE GOV UK

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0OLICE SEARCH FOR SUSPECTS AFTER DISTRACTION BURGLARS TARGET HOUSES ON THE !VENUES "Y !,%8 &,58 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 Police in Norwich are appealing for witnesses after two attempted robberies took place in close succession on the 7th and 9th of Oc- tober. The first attempt occurred at a house in Mulbarton, just outside Norwich, as three men turned up to an elderly couple’s home at around 10.30am claiming to be from the council. They asked to be let inside because of a recent water complaint. However, the couple became suspicious and demanded them to leave after the men refused to show any official identification cards. Nothing was stolen and the couple were left unhurt. However, the police are still looking for the men in order to stop them possibly succeeding in the future. All three men were white, and at least two were wearing black gloves. One offender was around 5ft 7ins, had short brown hair, and wore jeans and a shirt. Another wore a checkered shirt and was

around the same height. There is no detailed description of the third man. A similar incident happened where men posing as members of Norwich Council entered a house on the Avenues but escaped without any goods after the owners raised the alarm. The owner of the house later died of shock. An unrelated attack was made against a UEA student who was walking home from campus just before 2am on 9th October. The victim was approached by two white males who stopped and threatened to rob him. The man was able to escape without handing over any of his possessions and report the incident to the police. The attackers were both white, aged between 19 and 20 and around 6ft tall. One is said to have short blonde hair, a round, clean- shaven face and be of a stocky build. The other had brown hair and was of a thin build. The police urge anyone who might have any information about either attack to contact them on 0845 4564567, or call Crimestop- pers on 0800 555111.

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"Y #,!2% "5,, .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 Sixty-ﬁve UEA students from dis- advantaged backgrounds but who show ‘academic promise’ have received a scholarship from the Dangoor scholarship scheme. Naim Dangoor, a Jewish Iraqi, was forced to leave Iraq in the 1960s because of major anti Se- mitic acts and polices under the Baath party, which was later led by Saddam Hussein. Mr Dangoor left Iraq to study engineering in England and has since become a very successful businessman. Mr Dangoor said: ‘‘I promised myself that if I was ever able to help a British university student I would, to assist the Native people of a country that welcomed me. But I never dreamt I would be able to make such a big contribution.’’ There are 1000 scholarships of £1000 in total, sixty-ﬁve of which have been awarded to UEA. The scholarships have been divided between a group of six- teen leading research universities including, Bath, Birkbeck College,

London, Durham, Essex and Ex- eter among others. The award ceremony was held in the UEA council chamber on Friday 21st October and was attended by around forty of the chosen students. The new vice-chancellor of Mr Dangoor’s company the 1994 Group, Prof. David Eastwood, handed over the cheques to students. He said: “This is a hugely generous gesture. The university and a thousand students are deeply indebted to the Dangoor family.” Jack Sayers, 18, said his mother was struggling to put him through his philosophy and politics degree while she brought up three younger siblings on her own. “She scrimped and saved to put aside money for my books,” he said. “But next year she won’t have to as I will be putting this aside for then.” Mr Dangoor explained that he sympathised with UK students and the ﬁnancial barriers they face when starting university and hoped that this money will be of great assistance.

Permanent Secretary, said: “Pin- ter restored theatre to its basic elements - an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles.” Pinter recently decided to stop writing plays and concentrate more on other forms of writing, including poetry and prose. He was awarded the Wilfred Owen literary prize in 2004 for his poetry against the Iraq war and is a constant commentator on world affairs, drawing attention to the injustices of the American and English actions in Iraq, Afghani- stan and beyond. Pinter said;; “I’m using a lot of energy more speciﬁcally about political states of affairs which I think are very worrying as things stand”. At 75 this extraordinary and valuable writer still seems to have more and more energy to invest in literature and the world.

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5NDERGRADUATES COMPETE FOR SIXTY lVE SCHOLARSHIPS OF a

The Nobel prize for literature is one of the most prestigious literature prizes in the world. Win- ners include V.S Naipaul, Dario Fo, Seamus Heaney, Toni Morri- son, William Golding and Gabriel García Márquez. Among those names now stands a man who is closely afﬁliated with our very own University of East Anglia. Harold Pinter won the 2005 Nobel prize for Literature in early October. The 75 year old play- wright, actor, director and political activist was genuinely caught off guard when he heard that he had won the prize. Pinter is the writer of plays such as The Birthday Party, Be- trayal, and The Caretaker, which was performed last year in UEA’s Drama studio. Pinter himself opened the Drama studio in the

mid 1990s and is one of UEA’s honorary graduates, receiving an honorary doctorate of letters in 1974. The prize brings a win of £728,000 as he joins the archive of British winners including Rud- yard Kipling (1907) and Sir Win- ston Churchill (1953). Pinter has read several times at UEA, which was the ﬁrst university he ever gave a reading at. Since then he has returned numerous times even after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2002. Pinter is recovering from his cancer treatment, and his health issues did not stop him voicing his opinions against the Iraq war and joining with other artists in sending a letter to the government. His work over ﬁfty years has been exceptional, resulting in the term “Pinteresque”, which refers to his sparse style, often full of threatening silences. Horace Engfahl, the Nobel

4HE NEW NURSERY AT 5%! 5-3 "Y 2/" 7),,)!-3 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 An open day for the new UEA nursery is planned for 5th No- vember from 10am to 4pm. One of the major new features of the new University Medi- cal Services centre (UMS) is the nursery that has been transformed from a small porta cabin with a maximum capacity for 52 children into a purpose built centre to cater for over 100 children. Sue Martin, the Nursery Man-

ager, explained that the previous centre was constantly fully booked with a high demand for places. The centre accepts children from only six weeks old to five years old, effectively caring for them until school age while parents study for degrees. The nursery is well equipped to care for the children with over 30 staff members and a token goldfish. Several rooms in the centre are designed to cater for a specific age groups and also children with special needs. Meals are provided at the

nursery and are freshly prepared by staff on the premises. The menu is exclusively vegetarian with three meals a day, and drinks such as juice, milk or water are available to the children at all times. The nursery runs on the environmentally friendly scheme of other UEA buildings, with resources including a wind catcher to circulate fresh air through the building and sun pipes that are used to help light the rooms and save on electricity. The cost of the service provided is fee-based and there are a

range of options available for convenience. For those worried about the cost of care there are grants available at UEA that can reduce rates of care by up to 70%. Places at the nursery are usually reserved for registered students and staff as a result of the high demand for care. Currently 40 percent of places are taken up by staff and another 40 percent by students. -ORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE 5%! NURSERY WEBSITE AT WWW UEANURSERY CO UK

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%ARTHQUAKE APPEAL LAUNCHED .53 HOLDS DAY OF ACTION TO RAISE MONEY FOR AID IN 3OUTH %AST !SIA the requirements reported by the aid organisations responding to the crisis are on a massive scale. But compassion fatigue is an absolute oxymoron, and the student movement has a proud tradition of taking collective action to effect massive results, time and time again.” “On Thursday 27th October we will combine our consciences and energies once again in a massive nationwide fundraising effort. Over £10,000 was raised by students who took part in January’s events and activities for the NUS Tsunami Day of Action giving proof, if proof were needed, that university and college students are among the most globally-en- gaged, socially-committed members of the UK community. By organising events for the NUS Earthquake Day of Action - and supporting events organised by others - students collectively can make a tremendous contribution to the earthquake relief efforts of ActionAid, the charity working in the quake affected region to which 100% of proceeds from the Day of Action events will be donated”.

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Students across the UK will be taking part in an Earthquake Day of Action tomorrow (27th October), to fundraise for victims of the South East Asian earthquake. The event is organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) in association with Action- Aid. The day of action has also received support from further and higher education teaching unions NATFHE and the Association of University Teachers (AUT), public sector union UNISON and the Trades Union Congress. Up to 50,000 people are thought to have died in the earthquake hit-regions of Pakistan, In- dia and Afghanistan, and as much as half of this number is com- prised of children and students. Some four million people are currently without homes or adequate shelter. Many of the earthquake’s victims have families living in the UK. Thousands of students nationwide are expected to take part in fundraising activities to help ActionAid’s work addressing the urgent humanitarian needs. This will include street collections and nightclub events, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going directly

to support ActionAid’s humanitarian relief activities. In addition to the critical requirements for medicine, shelter

and warm weather gear, the quake hit region will experience a continuing massive need for disability and psychosocial care, as well as

help rebuilding its institutions and restoring livelihoods. NUS Black Students’ Ofﬁcer Pav Akhtar said: “When natural

disasters on the magnitude of the Asian Earthquake strike, many of us have at times experienced a sense of powerlessness. Certainly

&OR A FULL LISTING OF %ARTHQUAKE $AY OF !CTION EVENTS PLEASE VISIT THE .53 WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WWW NUSONLINE CO UK

-EDIA ACCUSED OF CENSORSHIP BY OMISSION *OURNALIST *OHN 0ILGER ATTACKS REPORTING OF )RAQ WAR IN LECTURE AT 5%! "Y 3!2!( %$7!2$%3 %$)4/2 Journalist John Pilger accused the British media of propagating a culture of “censorship by omission” in a speech given at UEA last week. Pilger, who made his name as a foreign correspondent for the Daily Mirror during the Vietnam War, criticised the media’s coverage of the Iraq conflict in a lecture entitled Propaganda and Silence in the War on Terror. He warned that the major news corporations, which control a significant proportion of the international media, are reporting official accounts of the conflict rather than sourcing independent information. During the lecture Pilger described the war on terror as a war by media, and accused the US and British governments of spreading state propaganda to support their roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. By failing to hold those in power responsible for their actions, he claimed, MPs had become accom- plices in the “state crimes” of the post-9/11 campaigns. Local MP and Home Secre-

tary Charles Clarke was criticised for his part in the suppression of public dissent following the Iraq war. Pilger cited the case of six students at Lancaster University, who were arrested during a dem- onstration against the commer- cialisation of university interests, as evidence of the government’s increasingly draconian attitude towards peaceful protest. He proposed that universities should be involved in the genera- tion of a sceptical public intelli- gence towards reported news, and should use their Media Studies and Journalism courses to ask dif- ﬁcult questions of the profession. Arguing that journalists should be “agents of people, not agents of power”, he praised Ha- rold Pinter - who recently received the Nobel Prize for Literature - for using his plays as a means of raising political issues. The lecture was organised by the Thomas Paine Society, a group founded in the memory of the political radical and author of Rights of Man. The biannual Thomas Paine Lecture aims to celebrate his work by provoking active debate about the freedoms of a democratic society.

*OHN 0ILGER SPOKE OUT ABOUT THE )RAQ WAR IN A FREE LECTURE AT 5%! LAST WEEK

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4ORY LEADERSHIP RACE GATHERS PACE 3IX WEEKS OF CAMPAIGNING REMAIN FOR #AMERON AND $AVIS TO PROVE THEIR CREDENTIALS AS FUTURE PARTY LEADERS "Y -!44 "52,!.$ .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 The Conservative Party leadership race is ﬁnally coming to a head some ﬁve months after current party leader Michael Howard decided to step down after losing the general election in May. The leadership race is now down to just two contenders after David Cameron and David Davis

topped Thursday’s ballot of MPs. Mr Cameron came first in the poll taking ninety of a possible 198 votes, while Mr Davis was second with fifty-seven. Rival Dr Liam Fox was eliminated after gaining only fifty-one votes. In the first poll on Tuesday the former Chancellor Ken Clarke was also knocked out as Sir Malcolm Rifkind pulled out of the race prior to Tuesday’s poll. David Cameron

and David Davis now face a hard and lengthy campaign to win a postal ballot of the Conservative Party’s 300,000 members to be the next leader. There will be eleven hustings across the UK and the contender with the most votes will become party leader. The ﬁnal result is expected on 6th December. Speaking shortly after the result, a smiling Mr Cameron

said he wanted to be a “voice for change, optimism and hope”. He expressed the desire to “lead a 21st-Century party that’s modern and understands the hopes and dreams of people”. Mr Davis, on the other hand, promised to “reach the parts of Britain that it [the party] hasn’t reached before”. He added that Mr Cameron’s support had “fallen a little short of their own fore-

casts” and that the real battle was just beginning. None of the three contest- ants who were knocked out during the week have yet to publicly back either of the candidates. Dr Fox congratulated his rivals but refused to endorse any individual contender. Dr Fox said he would “listen with great interest to their policy pronouncements.” Ken Clarke said on Tuesday

that the result sends a message that they are probably looking for a younger leader. It will now be around six weeks until the new Conservative Leader is announced and the future of the party is shaped. It looks likely, based on both the poll of MPs on Thursday and the bookmakers’ predictions, that David Cameron will be the next leader.

h)T CAN ONLY BE A POSITIVE THAT PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO LEAD THE COUNTRY SHOULD BE CLOSER TO THE AGE OF GRADUATES THAN THE AGE OF RETIREMENTv "Y -!4(%7 ./2-!. 0/,)4)#!, %$)4/2 For those with an interest in the future of British politics, this week has been extremely interesting. A relative unknown has gained so much momentum that it now seems as though he will be un- beatable, despite questions of drug use that persist to follow him wherever he goes. The subject in question is of

course the Conservative Party Leadership Contest. The man in question is David Cameron who at thirty-nine is very young and hun- gry for success;; a real shot in the arm of the party that he hoped to lead from 6th December and also a shot in the arm for the political process. It is only ten years since a young and relatively fresh faced Tony Blair took the leadership of Labour and transformed the party into one that has won an unprec-

edented three General Elections in a row. It can only be a positive a that people who are going to lead the country should be closer to the age of an average graduate than to the age of retirement. Although the Prime Minister has aged quite considerably since 1997, it will be beneﬁcial to have two men who are not in their sixties debating and shaping the future of this country. However, Dav- id Davis must not be discounted either as he clearly has more

'ERMANY S lRST FEMALE #HANCELLOR MAY HELP %5 (OPES FOR A STRONGER 'ERMAN ECONOMY AS !NGELA -ERKEL BECOMES #HANCELLOR

"Y -!44 "52,!.$ .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 Angela Merkel is to become Ger- many’s ﬁrst woman chancellor under a deal agreed between her Christian Democratic Union and Gerhard Schroder’s Social Demo- crats. Although it has now been three weeks since the German public went to the ballot box, a deal has been struck between the two rival parties to form a ‘Grand Coalition’ which will see the SPD

taking eight ministerial posts, against seven for the CDU. But does this affect us here at UEA? Indeed it does, since, no matter how opposed to it we may be, Britain is a part of the European Union and any change of government in any of the other member states will have an impact on Brit- ain. The initial result of the election was welcomed as Merkel’s CDU party polled 36.8% of the votes however Schroeder’s SDU party polled 36.2% leaving emo- tions somewhat mixed amongst the British press and politicians. For Britain, the important

thing was to have a stable German government who could bring back a strong economy to Germany and therefore to Europe as well. Merkel’s party seemed like the ideal winner, especially for Tony Blair, who hoped to bring her into the US-UK coalition in Iraq. Now such an idea seems absurd with the SDU getting the key post of Foreign Minister in the Cabinet. The question remains as to what Merkel will bring to Germa- ny. As long as she gets the support needed from her coalition partners, the view is that she will significantly improve a flagging German economy. For the past few years, unemployment has been rising steadily in Germany to a figure approaching five million. It is hoped that, unlike Schroeder, Merkel will be able to show strong leadership and introduce stern economic reforms in the face of public opposition to such measures. However, any reform hangs in the balance de- pending upon the cooperation she may or may not receive from the SDU. If such cooperation is forthcoming we can all expect vast improvements in the German economy with the woman that Michael Fuchs of the CDU described recently as “a new Mrs Thatcher, just with a smaller handbag.”

parliamentary experience than his rival and was also a government minister when the Tories were last in power. David Davis, at ﬁfty-six is perhaps at a more traditional age for a Prime Minister, though that does not necessarily count for much, Ken Clarke is well into his sixties and often comes across as being more in touch with the younth of Britian than David Davis or contender Dr Liam Fox. Recent press coverage has de-

bated whether it is too simplistic to categorise Davis as right wing and Cameron as left wing and it will be important to observe where the candidates position themselves with regard to issues of tax, public services and foreign policy. The Tories have never really got going since being in opposition and many believe that they have been stuck in neutral for too long. With a change of leader the party will ﬁnally have a chance to hit the accelerator and compete

on genuine, equal terms with La- bour for votes at the next election. Although Mr Cameron has been compared to a Conservative Tony Blair as a result of his con- ﬁdence and presence, there are surely worse things to be compared to;; the current incumbent of No. 10 has held the position for over eight years and may challenge the Iron Lady’s eleven year reign by the time he leaves ofﬁce. The future of politics looks bright for all.

/&84

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

"US CHANGES ANGER RESIDENTS "US SERVICE ROUTES THROUGH 5%! ARE ALTERED WITHOUT CONSULTATION "Y )3!"%, $93/. .%73 %$)4/2

As of October, First Bus services have altered routes that run through UEA. The number 25 route no longer runs to the Nor- folk and Norwich Hospital, causing outrage among locals who rely on bus services to reach the Hospital. The number 26 bus now runs the same route as the 27, cutting out the ring road and Fiveways area of Norwich and angering residents of the area who are dependent on buses to reach the city centre. Norwich council continually attempt to encourage city dwellers not to use cars and to take public transport, cycle or walk however, when public transport companies make changes to routes that cut out and hinder residents from easy access to public transport, these good intentions will become futile. At a recent Norwich City Coun- cil meeting, Green Party councillor, Adrian Ramsay expressed dissatis- faction with First Bus for introducing the changes without sufﬁcient consultation with local residents and bus users and proposed the motion to reinstate the original 25 and 26 routes. Adrian Ramsay also sug- gested that the Executive and Nor-

&IRST "US HAVE CHANGED THE MAJOR ROUTES THAT RUN THROUGH 5%!

&OR INFORMATION ON THE CHANGES TO THE BUS SCHEDULES VISIT WWW lRSTGROUP COM

0(/4/ 0(), "!.+3

$OHERTY GIG CANCELLED FOR THIRD AND lNAL TIME

wich County Council introduced a Quality Bus Contract for Norwich in order to impose more control over local services and to create greater democratic control over local routes. Bus services were de-regu- lated by the Conservative Gov- ernment in the 1980s and local councils do not have adequate power to stop inappropriate route changes. Ramsay said: “The Green Party would like the Government to re-regulate the buses, but in the meantime a Quality Bus Contract would be a step in the right direction that would at least mean some consultation before decisions on route changes are made.” Councillor Adrian Ramsay is a UEA politics graduate who now represents a ward in the Unthank Road area on the City Council. Ramsay said: “These route changes have taken away the local service for people living in and around the part of Earlham Road between the ring road and Five- ways. “The changes also mean that people living on the 25 bus route, no longer have a service going to the hospital. Many people have already signed our petitions to reinstate the previous routes of the 25 and 26.”

.O MORE RESCHEDULING FOR "ABYSHAMBLES AS THEIR TOUR IS CALLED OFF "Y !,%8 &,58 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4

Babyshambles failed to make an appearance at UEA for the third time running. The date had been rescheduled for a second time after the ﬁrst was cancelled on 31st July, and the second on 2nd Oc- tober when Pete Doherty was arrested on drugs charges. He was later released without charge. The gig on October 14th was cancelled on the day as Doherty complained of exhaustion and poor treatment by the media, and the band called off their entire tour. The decision has caused much frustration for both fans and people who were due to work at the event. The main problem for UEA was that the cancellation of the gig on the day left little time to organise anything in its place. The rescheduled line-up

originally took the place of two planned UEA society socials, RAG and CMS. The gig has now been cancelled completely with no proposed reschedule date. All ticket holders are entitled to full refunds from the Union Box Office. The successive cancellations could prove to be bad timing for the band with only a few weeks to the release of their debut album. The pressures upon Doherty are particularly clear. Despite his reputation as a heroin and crack addict and his notorious unpre- dictability, his relationship with Kate Moss has sparked a mass feeding frenzy in the media that continually follows him. Doherty is often portrayed as a figure of flawed genius with a su- permodel girlfriend. The national media perpetuate this image while disregarding his personal or professional responsibilities. The media attention has ar- guably played a disruptive part in the band’s career, which has been

apparent recently during the Kate Moss scandal. However, the media notoriety of a band who are yet to release an album cannot be all bad press. Livewire, the UEA radio station, has banned all Pete Do- herty-afﬁliated music. They claim that after the lack of an apology from the band and their failure to reschedule, the disappointment to thousands of fans is unaccept- able: “Live events are what music is about – something Doherty appears to have lost sight of by canceling numerous gigs at UEA.” A vote was put to all members of Livewire and the ﬁnal decision was unanimous. Whether fans and Union staff sympathise with Doherty and Ba- byshambles is a matter of mixed opinion but either way it appears that Doherty has had perhaps the largest hand in his own problems and that the media frenzy surrounding him is a product of the lifestyle he has chosen for himself.

"ABYSHAMBLES HAVE ANGERED FANS AND STAFF BY CANCELLING YET ANOTHER GIG

/&84

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

.ORWICH CELEBRATES #AMPAIGN FOR 4RADE "LACK (ISTORY -ONTH *USTICE AT 5%! 3ERIES OF EVENTS DURING /CTOBER MARK 3TUDENTS HEAD TO ,ONDON IN BID TO THIRD YEAR OF CAMPAIGN -AKE 0OVERTY (ISTORY "Y #,!2% "5,, .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 Throughout October there will be a series of events in Norfolk marking Black History Month. The idea behind the month is to promote knowledge of, and interest in, black history. Campaigners hope to increase awareness in Norfolk with one if its chief aims being to raise the conﬁdence and pride amongst black people of their cultural herit- age. Black History month began in America in 1926 when Carter G. Woodson decided that it was necessary to do something to promote the then largely unrecog- nised contribution by black people to American society. An example used to point

out the importance of the month by campaigners for Norfolk Black History is that of Mary Seacole. Seacole was a black nurse who worked in the Crimea at the same time as Florence Nightingale, yet relatively little was heard about her. There are many other pioneers that the month aims to draw attention to. In Norfolk the story of Allen Minns, Mayor of Thetford, the ﬁrst black Mayor in Britain is a particularly inspiring one. 2005 is the third year that Black History Month has been cel- ebrated in Norfolk. It is organised by a range of groups and is co-or- dinated by Norfolk Education and Action for Development, NEAD. Finbarr Carter for NEAD is very keen to get more students from UEA involved in the events and hopes that next year there will be a higher level of involvement from within the University.

There have been events throughout the month including a series of lectures on campus, music events and arts workshops. In the coming week there is an ex- hibition at the Bridewell museum celebrating black football players and on October 29th the finale for the month will take place at Nor- wich Arts Centre. It will feature, amongst others, a comedy act, a hip hop act and some well known reggae artists. Tickets for the finale are still available and can be purchased through the Norwich Arts Centre box office. &OR MORE INFORMATION ON "LACK (ISTORY -ONTH VISIT WWW NORFOLKBLACKHISTORY MONTH ORG UK OR THE .ORFOLK %DUCATION AND !CTION FOR $E VELOPMENT WEBSITE ON WWW NEAD ORG UK

"Y #,!)2% 3!2'%!.4 -!+% 0/6%249 ()34/29 On Wednesday 2 November 2005 students from the new Make Pov- erty History society will join thousands of people for a mass lobby of Parliament calling for trade justice, not free trade. 2005 is a crucial year in the struggle to make poverty history. A huge amount of pressure and publicity has already been built up across the world. 225,000 people gathered in Edinburgh for the G8 summit. Many millions more watched as the G8 leaders failed to deliver the changes needed on trade. Now is the time to ensure that world leaders take action to end extreme poverty in our gen- eration. Trade has the potential to lift millions out of poverty, but the

2!' PUCKERS UP FOR CHARITY h+ISSING "OOTHv RAISES a AT 3KOOL $AZE ,#2 "Y )-/'%. 4/0,)33 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 There was more kissing going on than usual at the Skool Daze LCR last Tuesday, and it was all in aid of Meningitis research. Raising and Giving (RAG) society was responsible. RAG already livened up the blue bar in the Union by hosting a limbo competition in week two, but this time they moved their attention to the LCR. The kissing booth raised approximately £200 which, added to the money already raised this term, makes £550. Events that also contributed to this total have been an ‘In the Pink’ party in the Hive last Friday and the bath of beans at Socmart. RAG has been a prominent society among universities nationwide for many years, offering students opportunities to do fun stuff for charity. UEA has been raising money

for Breast Cancer Research, Ac- tion Aid and Meningitis already this term and many more charities will be represented throughout the year. If you haven’t yet experienced any of the entertaining events put on by RAG, they promise to continue their fundraising throughout this term in conjunction with Livewire. These include a thirty-man game of giant Twister in the blue bar tomorrow (Thursday 27th) and some Halloween-inspired stalls during the LCR. A RAG magazine is also on its way which promises to be full of articles, cartoon strips and jokes. Next term a whole week will be dedicated to all things RAG. They will be taking over the Union, the Hive, the Square, and LCR as well as venturing into Norwich city centre. All this will be done to encourage students to put their hands in their pockets and get involved in “Charity with Hilarity because Raising is Amaz- ing.”

3TUDENTS DRESS UP FOR 3KOOL $AZE AT THE ,#2

rules that currently govern international trade are rigged. World trade rules rob poor countries of £1.3 billion a day – fourteen times what they get in aid. Make Poverty History will now increase the pressure on the UK Government to take the lead at the forthcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong this December by helping to rewrite world trade rules to beneﬁt poor countries and the environment. The UK lobby will follow Prime Minister’s Question Time and takes place alongside lob- bies being held across Europe and around the world. The day will include the creation of a giant white band round parliament and a chance to ask your MP to take speciﬁc actions for trade justice. The Trade Justice Move- ment is a coalition of more than 70 UK organisations, including

campaign groups, trade unions, faith groups, environmental and development organisations, with a combined membership of over nine million people. It is part of Make Poverty His- tory, an unprecedented coalition of more than 500 organisations calling for trade justice, drop the debt and more and better aid. The Trade Justice Movement Mass Lobby of Parliament in June 2002 was the largest ever parliamentary lobby. It was followed by the biggest lobby of MPs in their constituencies ahead of the last World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in 2003. In April 2005 over 25,000 people ﬁlled Whitehall at an all-night vigil. &OR INFORMATION CONTACT #LAIRE 3ARGEANT ON OR C SARGEANT UEA AC UK

10 /&84

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

!RE WE SUFFERING FROM hAID FATIGUEv 4HE DRIVE FOR HUMANITARIAN AID IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE +ASHMIR EARTHQUAKE HAS TURNED ATTENTION AWAY FROM PREVENTABLE DISASTERS SUCH AS THE FOOD CRISIS IN .IGER "Y 4/- ,!7 .%73 #/22%30/.$%.4 ‘Why this is no time for aid fatigue’ ran 5IF *OEFQFOEFOU headline after the extent of the Kashmir earth quake became apparent. There is no doubt that the last twelve months will be remem- bered as the year that mother nature turned against its more reckless and destructive depend- ents. But why are we ‘fatigued’ by continually being asked to part with our spare change to help our fellow man? Maybe it is a question 5IF *O EFQFOEFOU and the rest of the mass media should be putting to themselves and not the general public. The quest for ratings and newspaper sales is what drives the modern media - not a vision of altruism and humanitarianism. Aid agencies rely on their Public Relations departments to keep the funds ﬂowing and apparently if this means increasingly porno- graphic images of poverty then so be it. Surely it is our own sensa- tionalist, populist media that has to carry some of the blame for this. The western world was still digesting its Christmas dinner and nursing its hangover when the Tsunami hit the coasts of South- east Asia. Our annual ritual of ex-

cess and consumerism was rudely interrupted and society was forced to look on as 225,000 people were washed into the sea. What followed was at first a genuine gesture of humanitarianism but soon became a theatre for opportunism as celebrity after celebrity lined up to have their picture on the front of The Daily Mail pledging their hard-earned money. While the world was still caught up in Tsunami fever the UN and NGOs in the West African state of Niger were warning of a food crisis that had been develop- ing since 2004. Unfortunately the slow progress of desertification, drought, a bad harvest, high food prices and government denial do not make as dramatic reading as 20 metre high waves crashing into exposed fishing communities. Six months later it took a BBC camera crew to go to Niger and send back the all too familiar pictures of children dying of mal- nourishment for the international community to act. Suddenly the rich world’s media and Aid Agen- cy PR machines went through the well oiled motions of looking for the very worst stories and images to raise funds as well to justify their own existence and let’s not forget, sell papers. Only after this public embar- rassment did the US, UK and the UN’s other major donors start

reaching into their pockets. When the President of Niger criticised some aid agencies for exaggerating his country’s food crisis for their own gain the western media could hardly contain its disbelief. Despite the self serving nature of his comments experts agree that he had a point. “NGOs and rich country media do have an incentive to paint too simplistic and bleak a picture, as was the case in Niger’s food crisis,” says Professor William Easterly of New York University. And what about Darfur? What- ever happened to the infamous Janjaweed militia raping and pil- laging in western Sudan? At the time it was the perfect antidote for the war in Iraq when CNN and the BBC had us glued to the ongoing “insurgency” against, as 5IF 4VO so objectively puts it, “our boys”. The Bush administration and Blair’s cronies suddenly had something else to sing about. CNN was able to balance the ag- grieved Iraqi Muslims ﬁghting George Bush’s “crusade” against Arab Muslim nomads killing Black Muslim farmers in Sudan. After spending the last year in Sudan it is painfully obvious that the Bush administration was serving its own objectives. “As long as elections are going on and as long as both parties are competing for the votes of the African-Americans you should not

expect a neutral or fair position to the situation in Darfur,” said Su- dan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail before the 2004 US elections. Indeed a US ofﬁcial who has since retired has admitted that the government of Sudan’s role in the suffering and atroci- ties in Darfur was given the highly stigmatised label of “genocide” as part of the administration’s effort to win the hearts and minds of the American electorate. So what of Darfur now, a year on from when the media coverage peaked? Hardly a ripple has been made over the fact that the UN and Aid Agencies are contemplating leaving the region after an increase in violence in September during which AID workers and Af- rican Union peace keepers have been killed and kidnapped. The Darfuris themselves are no better off than they were. An- cient ways of life ruined, ethnic groups still targeting each other, women still living in fear of abuse, no crops planted, 200,000 dead and two million displaced people mostly living in huge camps becoming steadily more dependent on aid. While running his media development company he told a visiting journalist that Darfur was “the World’s worst humanitarian crisis”. The rest is history, and so is Darfur in the eyes of most foreign news decks.

)N A MEDIA DOMINATED BY STORIES OF DISTATER HAS COVERAGE OF THE 3UDAN CRISIS BEEN TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

4637&:

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

4HE #ONCRETE $RUGS 3URVEY .EXT ISSUE WILL FEATURE A SPECIAL REPORT ANALYSING THE STATISTICS SURROUNDING THE CONSUMPTION OF DRUGS WITHIN THE STUDENT BODY (ELP US BY lLLING IN THIS QUESTIONNAIRE AND HANDING IT IN TO THE #ONCRETE OFlCE Age: Academic Year: Sex:

Male

Female

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5JDL UIF CPYFT NBSLJOH UIF ESVHT UIBU ZPV IBWF UBLFO Cannabis Heroin

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)BWF ZPV CPVHIU PS CFFO PGGFSFE ESVHT JO BOZ /PSXJDI DMVCT

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Yes

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Poppers

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Magic mushrooms Others

)BWF ZPV FWFS IBE ZPVS ESJOL TQJLFE XIJMTU BU 6&" XIFSF

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Yes

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Yes

No )PX NVDI EP ZPV QBZ GPS BO PG DBOOBCJT

)BWF ZPV FWFS CFFO PGGFSFE ESVHT BU 6&" Yes

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0LEASE RETURN THIS PAGE TO THE #ONCRETE OFlCE 4HANK YOU

12 '&"563&4

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

4HE ETHICAL EATERY "Y PURCHASING A SANDWICH FROM 3!33!& YOU CAN SLAKE YOUR HUNGER AND HELP BUILD SCHOOLS FOR THE CHILDREN OF 3OUTHERN !FRICA AS 6ICTORIA ,EGGETT EXPLAINS

ver heard of SASSAF? No? You’re not alone. Despite having been around for 37 years, SASSAF is still a foreign word to many UEA students. SASSAF is the sandwich bar that’s upstairs in the Hive. In fact it is a registered charity unique to the UEA which donates all of the profit made from selling sandwiches, snacks and drinks to organisations helping people in Southern Africa. In a world where information is thrust upon people at every turn, it is difficult to get the SASSAF message through to UEA students. Many of SASSAF’s customers are regulars, keen to do their bit for South- ern Africa;; they then tell their friends and, eventually, SASSAF becomes a little more well-known. Word of mouth is the most effective way to get SASSAF noticed, but as students leave the university, so do the workers and customers and it is necessary to start all over again. SASSAF is staffed entirely by student volunteers who sign up each year to give some of their time to help provide essential funding in Africa. Each year one or two students take on the role of ‘Lead Volunteer’. They are in charge of ensuring the rotas are filled so that SASSAF can open each day, as well as dealing with the suppliers and the banking, and making sure SASSAF meets all health and safety standards. It is up to the Lead Volunteer(s) to encourage people to sign up at SocMart, or get in touch some other way, to volunteer to man the shop. This year there are around 20 volunteers, each working on a weekly or fortnightly basis. This year’s lead volunteer, Jacqui Blick, explains “volunteering for SASSAF means giving us only two hours of your time each week…or even each fortnight. We’re open Monday to Friday, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. which means we need plenty of people to help us out. We’re always keen for more people to get in touch to volunteer, and the more people we have working here, the easier it is to keep it going.” In addition to the volunteers, there are trustees. Whilst they take ul- timate responsibility, the running of SASSAF is very much a joint project between volunteers and trus-

tees. John Cameron, a DEV faculty member, says the main job of the trustees is to bring some continuity to the project. The volunteers change year on year and, in order to make sure SASSAF makes a smooth tran- sition between each academic year, regular contacts are needed to help new volunteers settle in. SASSAF has changed significantly over the years. 37 years ago, volunteers had to make sandwiches by hand each day. Now they are bought from a company who provides non-GM products for food outlets. The beneficiaries of the profits have also changed. SASSAF was first founded in the Anti-Apartheid era. Because of this, the recipients of the funds often had a political link. But now that the emphasis has moved away from the Apartheid to the lack of education and the ever-growing AIDS epidemic, SASSAF has also changed its focus to more medical and social issues. So where exactly does the money go? The specific projects that SASSAF donates to change from year to year, spanning an area from Tanzania and Zam- bia right down to South Africa. Last years donations contributed to two projects: one funded by the charity TanzEd and another by the Canon Collins Educational Trust for South Africa. Each received £1000, raised entirely by students who buy their lunch from SAS- SAF. The money received by the Canon Collins Educa- tional Trust for South Africa (CCETSA) went towards the Phelophepa Health Train. Also known as ‘The Miracle Train’, it travels around providing essential healthcare to those in rural South Africa. It transports dentists, community nurses, opticians, counsellors and pharmacists, along with South African students and has so far reached over 2 million people in need of affordable healthcare. Crucially, the Phelophepa Health Train also educates. At each of their 36 stops they teach a group of volunteers the basics of primary healthcare and hygiene. Particular emphasis is given to the knowledge needed to prevent HIV and AIDS spreading any further, and how to care for those already affected by it. The money received by TanzEd was used to fund a learning centre in an existing Prima- ry School in Kidodi, Tanzania. As well as im-

proving the literacy of the pupils who use the centre, encouraging learning, supporting their studies and increasing their knowledge of the world, the centre aims to provide much needed access to information on HIV/AIDS. By educating people about how to prevent contracting these diseases it is hoped they will be able to use this knowledge to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Money donated by SASSAF will help to make this learning centre a stimulating and motivat- ing environment, and to support teachers and pupils as they use the centre.

he trustees are determined not to take any money away from the charities they help and because of this they have never had the opportunity to see ﬁrst-hand where the money is used. Instead, they rely on proposals and progress reports from the charities to keep them updated and to ensure the money is being used in the most effective ways. However, ex-student volunteers who have travelled to Southern Africa have been able to see for themselves how much their hard work can help. Louise Cornell has done exactly that. Two years ago she was the Lead Volunteer of SAS- SAF, experiencing the lulls in business and the struggle to recruit volunteers, but after she visited Dema Primary School in Eastern Malawi, which had been renovated with the help of SASSAF funding, Louise returned with lasting memories of all the good work being done. “In August 2003 I travelled to Malawi in

order to get my hands dirty and ensure SASSAF funds were put to good use….General renovation works were undertaken, classrooms painted, blackboards renovated, roofs and desks repaired etc., but further classrooms and a toilet block were also built.” In a school which had around 1500 pupils and yet only 4 classrooms, these seemingly basic renovations were absolutely vital to the school. £1000 pounds was donated to the school which John Cameron says would be the equivalent of £20,000 in Britain. This shows how big a difference SASSAF can make. Those involved in SASSAF agree it is a worthwhile thing to do. Aside from the feel-good factor associated with helping charities, Louise Cornell says “I met some fantastic people and learnt a lot about running a small business. I would recommend it to anyone.” Buying a sandwich from a hatch, or volunteering to work there for a couple of hours a week may not seem like a huge contribution, but when you consider that £500 raised at the UEA is enough to build a nursery in Southern Africa, it is clear what a huge impact SASSAF can have on the lives of people in Zambia or Malawi. SASSAF is often one of the most signiﬁcant supporters of whichever charity they donate to, helping to provide immense resources in an area overrun with AIDS and held back by a lack of education. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING FOR 3!33!& EMAIL *ACQUELINE "LICK ON JACQUELINE BLICK UEA AC UK

! DAY IN THE LIFE THE #AMPUS #LEANER )N THE lRST IN THE SERIES OF FEATURES CELEBRATING THE UNDER APPRECIATED WORKERS OF 5%! 6ICTORIA (OLMAN SPEAKS TO (ELEN 2AMSBOTTOM A CLEANER IN 6ICTORY (OUSE

hether you’re a total recluse or a wild socialite you’re bound to see one woman every day, whether it’s on that grumpy morning trip to the loo or when her face appears over your bed asking for your bin. The room cleaners at UEA are absolutely vital to its general running, being practically the only barrier stopping a pile-of-trash-related dysentery infection. Helen Rambottom is cleaner of Victory House and Concrete cornered her (very early in the morning) to give you the highs and lows of working in halls. Helen’s been working here for ﬁve years and she had some pretty mean stories to tell. The worst thing she’s ever had to clear out of the sinks is human ex- crement, as well as the more frequent presence of sick, but the cleaners are all use to it by now. In a university at which approximately 3,000 students live on campus, it is a highly surprised and grateful cleaner who manages to get through a whole day without cleaning up a pile of puke. They’ve learnt

there’s a seasonal effect on how much sick will appear: high predictions are forecasted for the end of term and on LCR Tuesdays. NAME? Helen Ramsbottom

know who you are... EVEN AFTER DEALING WITH ALL THIS MESS, DO YOU ENJOY YOUR JOB? Most of the time - especially once you get to know the students. You miss them when they’re gone.

LOCAL GIRL? Lives in Norwich by the Village HOW MANY HOURS A WEEK? 21

FINALLY, THE DIME OF ALL QUESTIONS: DO YOU HAVE FAIRY SOFT HANDS? Only sometimes. The gloves irritate the skin.

TIME ON ALARM CLOCK? 5.30-6am WHICH HALLS DO YOU WORK IN? Victory House, but also a bit of overtime in Waverney Terrace. WHAT’S THE FUNNIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN IN HALLS?People sleeping in the corridors because they didn’t quite make it to their doors! HAVE YOU EVER WALKED IN ON ANYTHING SUS- PICIOUS? Sex? All the time! What can I say? You

So that’s it, a look into the life of cleaner Helen Ramsbottom. You can see the pitfalls: early starts, sick in the sink and a slim to rare chance of getting fairy soft hands, but it’s you guys out there who make it all worthwhile. Do you know your cleaner? Next time you see their friendly face in the corridor, salute them, because they’ve earned it. Make it so that when she exits your halls she’s singing the Cheers theme-tune!

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4HE #HEAPEST /F 4HRILLS

ver considered learning to fly? Well who hasn’t, but what if you could achieve this in a mere twenty lessons? Would an easy, simple, cost effective and (for all those environmentalists out there) clean method tickle your fancy? Well if it would, then consider gliding. Concrete went along for a day to see what the UEA Gliding club gets up to on a Saturday, and was most impressed with the result. It is easy to see why gliding would not appeal to many people. After all, its hardly the same as learning to fly an F-16 fighter jet at three times the speed of sound, skimming tree tops and such like. The difference is, of course, that the closest any of us is going to get to an F-16 is by watching Top Gun (again!). Even learning to fly in a propeller driven bi-plane is going to set you back several thousand pounds for the lessons, and the experience you require before being able to fly solo is measured in years. None of these things are true of gliding. Norfolk Gliding Club is situated just outside the City at Tibenham Airfield. This is a mere twenty minute drive from the UEA, and the trip is part of the service for Glide Club members. You can of course drive there yourself if you own a car. The President of the UEA Gliding Club is one Tim Davies, who is a fully qualified instructor. Every Saturday he runs students from Sportspark down to Tibenham so they can marvel in the delights of un-powered flight. What- ever degree of ability you have, the Gliding Club can take care of you. Concrete was a Gliding virgin, so to speak, but this did not matter in the slightest. After a safety brief- ing, we were simply ushered towards the glider and in a matter of minutes were being fired from zero to fifty-five kilometres per hour in the space of about a second, a feat that would put a Ferrari to shame. The sensation was vaguely similar to the slingshot feeling one gets at take-off when travelling on an overseas flight. However, it was hugely more exhilarating. For one thing, you are not strapped into a comfy, if a little cramped armchair, being served luke-warm coffee by a stewardess – a glider cockpit is more closely related to that of a Formula One racing car. Some people may be intrigued as to how a plane with no engine can get off the ground, this being a fairly integral part of flying. There are two ways in which this is possible: 1) a power winch, which essentially just pulls the glider on a rope until it reaches

the right speed, or 2) a plane launch, which involves being tied to the back of a propeller driven aeroplane until about 1500 feet in the air, then dropped and allowed to descend at your own pace. The latter does cost slightly more, but the launch you use is fairly de- pendant on the weather conditions on the day. On a bright summer day in Norfolk, a simple winch launch could give you up to an hours flight time. Gliders work on a similar basis to birds, particularly the larger varieties. The way the air flows over the wings provides the lift, and keeps it in the sky once airborne. If there is no air activity, or ‘thermals’ then you simply descend at an incredibly gradual rate until landing. If you find a thermal however, you can gain significant amounts of height which obviously allow you to stay aloft for longer periods. So what is it like when you release the winch rope? Well, serene would be a fitting description. Af- ter the initial adrenaline burst of take-off, the moment you actually start gliding is something to behold. You simply float on air. The instructor, seated directly behind you will control the plane at first, just for the purposes of levelling it out and making sure that any crosswinds have not blown the glider miles from the club. After this, the inevitable “you have control” comes through, at which point you are hit with the knowledge that the only thing protecting you from a date with the ground is the power of physics. It really is a strange sensation, a bit like fear, but mixed up with shards of excitement and sheer awe. The controls are very sensitive, something which caused Concrete to stall in its first outing, a feeling that won’t be forgotten as it resembles going over a severely humped bridge at ridiculous speeds. The stomach ends up somewhere in the vicinity of the throat, and your heart misses a beat. It is just as well that the gliding club has several fully qualified instruc- tors who are used to dealing with such eventualities. They try and allow you as much freedom and time at the controls as possible, as this is the best way to teach someone to glide. It is all about feel for the controls, and knowing when to pull out of a turn or at what point a dive becomes dangerous.

lthough rather shaky at ﬁrst, it is relatively easy to get to grips with gliding. Af- ter only two periods in the sky, Concrete could ﬂy in a straight line and maintain a steady and level course. While this will not impress any thrill seekers out there, it is in fact the best way to view the ground, which looks aston-

ishing from this viewpoint. With a little more practice however, you will be able to turn, and eventually land the plane. In as little as twenty lessons, you could be solo gliding, enjoying the sensations and the freedom that this sport provides. There is no better place to watch the world go by than in a glider. The peace and serenity of simply ﬂoating on air probably resembles the ‘inner peace’ sought by Buddhists, as you feel entirely at ease when soaring through the sky. The fact that it is not an engine that allows you to do this, but a specially designed piece of ﬁbreglass adds to the mystique. The whole day is a highly enjoyable experience. You don’t even need to bring a packed lunch, as Café Les et Rachel, the on-site greasy spoon will cover all your nutritional needs. The other club members, who not being students have to fork out £440 a year for their membership, are all friendly and quite willing to offer any advice that their mass of experience can provide. Some even possess their own gliders. So does this all sound good so far? As students

it seems like a fun activity, but one that could cost a small fortune to keep up. However, this could not be further from the truth. As a member of the UEA Gliding Club, you pay a mere £30 for membership of the Norfolk Gliding Club, and £5 to the UEA Gliding Society. Once you are a member, which is as simple as filling in a form with your name and address on it, you are ready to fly. Each time you soar into the air will cost only £3.50 (or £7 if you get up late and do not arrive at Tibenham till after 11am). Regardless, this is an absolute bargain and any budding pilots out there should think twice before passing-up an opportunity that will not present itself again. Gliding is a sport of grace, finesse and skill. It is not about horsepower or revs per minute, but a highly peaceable and exhilarating way of enjoying flight in what can only be described as its purest form. It is beyond belief that such a cheap and easy thrill is available at UEA for virtually no expense, and therefore anyone who is in the least bit interested in flying should give Gliding a chance. You won’t regret it.

&ACTS AND &IGURES .ORFOLK 'LIDING #LUB 4IBENHAM !IRlELD .ORFOLK .2 .4 5%! 'LIDING #LUB #ONTACT 4IM $AVIES UEA GLIDERRACING CO UK 4O JOIN &LIGHTS )N THE RIGHT CONDITIONS YOU CAN GLIDE TO UNI AND PARK OUTSIDE .ELSON #OURT

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)T S JUST AS WELL KIDS ARE STUPID #ARTOONS ARE HARMLESS INNOCENT FUN RIGHT .OT ACCORDING TO THE BELIEVERS IN SUBLIMINAL IMAGERY 2EBECCA (UNT AND 3ARAH 3WALHEIM EXPLORE THE INNUENDO AND HIDDEN MEANINGS IN SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE CARTOONS

hat would you do if you found that you were being subjected to hidden and subliminal messages in seemingly innocent forms of the media? Urban legend proposes that we are ceaselessly being influenced subconsciously by music, cartoons, films and television programmes. Yet is there really any truth behind the ru- mours, or are they just the work of American conspiracy theorists who have a bit too much time on their hands? There has been much controversy surrounding Dis- ney’s apparent use of sexual images in its films. For instance at one point in The Lion King Simba sits down and a cloud of dust rises above him, as the dust begins to float away the letters SEX seem to become apparent in the sky. Additionally, on promotional posters for The Little Mermaid a phallus-shaped object can be seen on one of the castle spires. Disney has always refuted such claims, stating that they promote wholesome family films. It does all seem rather odd: what would Disney have to gain from promoting sexual images in films aimed at young children? Some claim that Disney is merely jumping on the ‘sex sells’ bandwagon in an effort to push sales, while conspiracy theorists delve deeper and accuse the company of attempting to promote promiscuity and thus per- vert the minds of young individuals. It is not just the visual media that has been accused of hiding messages within its text. Critics of popular music and certain Christian groups claim that rock music contains backward messages about sex, drugs, death and religion. This theory was made famous by the Led Zep- pelin song Stairway to Heaven, which played backwards could be interpreted as giving Satanic messages. Another example is that the title of the Queen hit Another One Bites the Dust, when played backwards, sounds vaguely like “it’s fun to smoke marijuana”. Even the nursery

rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star does not escape criticism, as apparently by playing certain parts of the song backwards you can hear the declaration “I wish there was no Allah”. However it seems improbable that any of these messages could actually penetrate into our conscious- ness: after all, how many people do you know who get an uncontrollable desire to get high as soon as they hear the beginning chords of Another One Bites the Dust? Perhaps more worrying is the actual content of the songs when they are played forwards, with Britney Spears singing “I’m a slave for you. I cannot hold it, I cannot control it”. The double meaning is hardly subtle. With a huge fan following of young girls it could be claimed that Britney is tempting her audience into adult realms of promiscuity and candid sexuality in a far more overt fash- ion than simply using backwards messages (although in Hit Me Baby One More Time it has been asserted that the backwards message of “sleep with me, I’m not too young” can be heard). The debate continues as to whether subliminal messages are used in advertising. There were widespread reports in 1957 suggesting that customers in a cinema in New Jersey had been influenced by subliminal messages to consume more popcorn and Coca-Cola. However, such claims were never proven. The popular theory of these messages usually suggests that subliminal commands can be inserted into a sequence at the rate of perhaps one frame per second, with a duration of about 1/25 of a second. The hidden command in a single frame will flash across the screen so quickly that it is not consciously per- ceived, but the command will supposedly appeal to the subconscious mind of the viewer, and thus have some measurable effect in terms of behaviour. The current consensus among marketing professionals is that subliminal advertising is ineffective and many are wary about using it in marketing campaigns for ethical reasons. Yet this does not stop film and television producers from using product placement, the method of subtly planting

3EX

he issue of sexuality in cartoons occurrred as early as the 1930s, when animation was still in its early stages. It was in this decade when the cartoon character Betty Boop was first created. Grim Natwick was the first animator to draw her, and he took inspiration from a song sheet of Helen Kane called the “Boop Oop a Doop Girl”. Betty Boop started out being designed as a human-like dog, her black button nose and floppy ears hinting at her canine nature. As for her famous garter, Betty started out with two. Later on her appearance was changed, earrings were added and she became completely human. The original Betty was a sexy character, with long legs and big eyes. However, in 1934 a Production Code was introduced, which forced a change in the appearance of the

0OLITICS Betty Boop character. Although she could not compare to the sauciness of Jessica Rabbit, her sexy teases were too much under the new rules, and she had to be toned down. Her new appearance was far more covered up;; her hem was lowered to reveal only her calves and her strapless dress was given a top and short sleeves. She also became paired with cute animals and children, perhaps in an attempt to capitalise on the Disney idea. However this Betty was doomed to fail. Thankfully our censors today are not as strict, and Betty Boop has been returned to her original self. She is even more popular today then she was then, her familar image decorating anything from t-shirts and shower curtains, to personalized checks and nail polish. It is the hidden sexual messages in seemingly innocent cartoons that cause uproar today.

$RUGS here appear to be many references to drugs in Lewis Carroll’s novel, and later animation, Alice in Wonderland. Chapter Five tells how “the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice”. A hookah is a large water bong designed by the Persians for the purpose of smoking any number of drugs, but in Victorian England, the hookah was a symbol for Eastern Wisdom and was associated heavily with non-Christian religious wisdom. Therefore it could be portraying the Caterpillar as a kind of Wise Man or Shaman, and not necessarily linking him to drugs. However, there is also an instance when Alice eats mushrooms, growing taller and shorter. There have been suggestions that Alice’s trip to Wonderland

$ISNEY

merchandise within their programmes. Such a method is used in an effort to make the audience subconsciously associate said product with the glamorous world of film and television, thus automatically making the product more desirable. Yet it is difficult to distinguish the moral line between subliminal, hidden anad insinuated messages. Is it unethical to insert branded merchandise into films and TV to boost sales? And is it fair to produce adverts for men’s deodorant that patently suggests that if you use the fragrance you will literally become a magnet for women, a thesis that could never be achieved? Delving deeper, it could be said that programmes such as The Simpsons have the potential to unfairly influence people’s judgement. On one hand it would appear that The Simpsons is merely a cartoon comedy show, yet on the other it could also be proposed that it acts as a fierce critique of post-modern American society and it’s attitude towards religion, the family, work ethic and consumerism. Maybe when we are watching such programmes a part of us takes on board the ethics of the creators. It seems unlikely that we will ever find out for certain whether we are being warped by hidden and subliminal messages. Yet we do know that out of the millions of people who have watched Disney films, listened to rock music and been exposed to other accused media texts only a small percentage of them have become Satan wor- shipping promiscuous individuals, and even this does not prove the effectiveness of the messages. It is therefore apparent that most of the stories and allegations can be put down to urban legend. Maybe we should instead draw our attention towards more concerning forms of media corruption such as licentious songs aimed at young girls, adverts promising unattainable results from products, and influential television shows. The difference between these forms of communication and subliminal messages is that these are perfectly legal.

is just that, a ‘trip’. The surreal events she encounters, and her continuous experiences of falling or ﬂoating, support this. There have been many allegations that Carroll was actually on drugs when he wrote this, although he has always denied this. The children’s song Puff the Magic Dragon has also been linked to drugs. Many believe that the lyrics are about smoking marijuana, although the writer Peter Yarrow denies this. He claims it was based on a poem and is about the loss of innocence. However, the song was banned in Singapore and Hong Kong because they thought it contained drug references. It doesn’t help that the ﬁlm Meet The Parents contains a debate over its meaning!

intin is an example of a cartoon that offers an insight into the time and place it was written. Tintin and Snowy made their first appearance in 1929 in the newspaper Le Petit Vingtième in Belgium. A year later the first Tintin books were published. Their creator, Hergé, later described the first two Tintin novels as a “sin of youth” and said “I am not trying to excuse myself. I admit that my early books were typical of the Belgian bourgeois mentality of the time.” His criticism needn’t be as severe as this, for he did manage to capture the places and the people around him. There was even a debate in the French Parliament of the time about the politics of Tintin, with both the left and the right trying to claim him for their own! In 1940 Belguim was invaded by the Nazis, and Le Petit Vingtième disappeared. Hergé was criticized for continuing to draw cartoons for the remaining

s time has gone on, cartoons have been more open about commenting on and criticizing current affairs. The Simpsons, ﬁrst made into a series in 1989, does this frequently. In one episode a Model UN Club meeting is being held at Springﬁeld Elementary. When the childrens’ discussion gets chaotic, Principal Skinner cries: “Do you kids wanna be like the real UN, or do you just wanna squabble and waste time?” This can be seen as clevely highlighting America’s negative opinion of the UN as nothing more than a talking-shop. Another Simpsons episode includes the following interaction: Bill Clinton: Lisa, you’ve taught kids a valuable lesson:

newspaper, Le Soir, which was controlled by the Nazis during World War II. It has been said that he changed his subject matter to suit the Nazi agenda, and that his cartoons helped to encourage people to buy the newspapers. However, Hergé himself was not a Nazi sympathizer, and hated fascism. He simply wanted to continue his work, and thank goodness he did. It was also questioned whether Tin-Tin was a capi- talist, for his ﬁrst adventure in the Soviet Union was an attack on Bolshevism. However, Hergé wanted to follow it with with an adventure in New York and an even more savage attack on American Capitalism, but his editor did not allow it. The editor wanted the next adventure to be in the Congo, reportedly to inspire young Belgians to join the Congo. How much the innocent cartoon Tintin was able to inﬂuence this, or Nazism, is debatable. But it is undoubtedly a work of art, and one of the best cartoons ever created.

ince 1923, when Walt and his brother Roy launched the Disney Brothers Studio, Dis- ney has been producing wholesome family cartoons. Their popularity has grown and grown, and Disney animation is now recognised and enjoyed the world over. It is a multi- million dollar establishment with an amazing reputation. Therefore it is very surprising that, more than once, Disney has been criticized of including ques- tionable audio or images into its movies. Aladdin can reportedly be heard uttering the words “teenagers, take off your clothes” under his breath when he and Jasmine are about to take off on their carpet ride. Disney responded to this claim by saying that the script read, “C’mon . . . good tiger. Take off and go,” and that the closed captioning had him uttering, “Good tiger. Take off”. It is difficult to know who was right, as once a rumour has started, people start hearing what they want to hear. Other Disney films have been criticized for their content. The video cover of The Little Mermaid shows a phallic-shaped tower, and in the film itself the priest who marries Ariel and Eric appears to have an erec- tion. On the video of The Rescuers, a poster of a top- less model could be seen in the background. If this was not enough, Disney was pulled up yet again. In the video of The Lion King, an image of the word SEX could be seen in the sky above Simba. Some tried to deny it, and claim that the letters in-fact spelled SFX, and were linked to the animation studio, but this seems unlikely. All this criticism against Disney did not go nowhere. In fact in 1996 a lawsuit was brought against Disney regarding just this. Three Texans accused Disney of slipping subliminal sexual messages into the content or packaging the videos The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King, and demanded that every purchaser in Texas be awarded $250. Dis- ney did not comment on the lawsuit, but denied including hidden sexual messages. Although it is strange that these images should appear in family-fun Disney films, a lawsuit seems a bit far. It is unlikely that such quick images could affect our subconscious in a serious way, and children, in their innocence, would not understand anyway.

#ARTOON &ACTS ,ONGEST RUNNING CARTOON SERIES - Popeye First aired on television in 1956. Between 1933 and 1957, Popeye the Sailor Man was made as 233 one-reelers and a single two-reeler. Between 1960 and 1962 there followed a further 220 Popeye cartoons (for television) and then 192 cartoons All New Popeye between 1978 and 1983.

,ONGEST RUNNING COMIC - Comic Cuts First published 1890 in London and ran until 1953 (63 years).

,ONGEST RUNNING COMIC STRIP STILL SYNDICATED - The Katzenjammer Kids Created by Rudolph Dirks (USA), ﬁrst published 1897 and still in syndication (to 50 newspapers). Now drawn by cartoonist Hy Eisman (USA).

-OST #OMIC 2EADERS - Japan In Japan manga means comic - manga sales in the 1990’s averaged 600 billion Yen per year (approx. £GBP 3.83 billion, USD 5.5 billion). Initially written for children (one example with worldwide success is Pokémon), about half of all manga material is now aimed at adults. Manga culture is very important in today’s Japanese society.

,ONGEST CARTOON STRIP - Spain Measuring: 53.5m x 1.5m (175ft 6in x 4ft 11in), drawn by 26 cartoonists in 1999 during a cartoon festival held by the University of Alcala, Spain.

#ARTOON FAN MAIL - Mickey Mouse In 1933 Mickey Mouse is believed to have received 800,000 fan letters.

-OST VALUABLE COLOUR ANIMATION CELL - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs A single colour animation cell from the 1937 Walt Disney classic sold in 1991 for £115,000

if something doesn’t go your way, just keep complain- ing until it does. Marge: That’s a pretty lousy lesson. Bill Clinton: I’m a pretty lousy President. This opinion is even more openly expressed than that of the UN, and no effort has been made to hide its meaning. Nowadays, cartoonists have an increasing amount of freedom, and thus an increasing amount of influence. Many cartoons have been critisized for having hidden messages implanted into their seemingly innocent sequences, but perhaps this is worse. The sexual images that have cropped up in Disney films have caused uproar, but how much influence could these fleeting images actually have? It is more likely that a humourous line in the Simpsons could change our opinions: by laughing we secretly agree.

-OST PLASTICINE USED IN AN ANIMATED MOVIE - Chicken Run Made in 2000, the animators used 2,380 kg (5,247 lb) of plasticine.

,ARGEST CARTOON MUSEUM - Florida, USA The International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Florida - over 160,000 original, animated drawings from 50 countries including books, cartoons, interviews and documen- taries.

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4O BE OR NOT TO BE 0RIYA 3HAH ASSESSES THE IMPLICATION THAT A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP CAN HAVE ON AN ALREADY STRESSFUL UNIVERSITY LIFE

here must be many people who come to University with a partner at another university or back at home. There is much skepticism and uncertainty surrounding long distance relationships. The benefits of being a part of one at first seem rather pathetic. You don’t see each other as much as you like, you miss each other like crazy and no one remotely compares to the love you left behind at home. Going to university can be such a daunting experience. You are leaving behind your friends and family, and if you are leaving your partner as well it can become rather stressful. Although not everyone leaves behind a partner, the numbers have been increasing in recent years. The long distance relationship receives so much bad publicity, but it is un- clear as to where this skepticism derives. When you get to university you are warned that you will never make it and that it is clearly destined to fail. In hind- sight what hope do they have in lasting? In this modern world that we all live in, people are traveling and working abroad relentlessly. This in turn illustrates long distance relationships are a task faced by many. That hardly gives a cynic the right to ridicule it. Each couple’s circumstances are unique, but each share similar concerns: Is the relationship worth the distance? How can we keep the love alive? The first problem is whether the two of you actually want to make the relationship work. Certainly, at the start of a relationship, if you don’t live close to each other it’s tough but not an insurmountable problem. However, speaking from experience you meet new people at university and the love you leave behind seems so far away from the life you are leading now. Nevertheless, you cannot argue with the ro- mance that derives from a long distance relationship. This involves the long love letters, the small presents, the sexy text messages every night until you see your lover again and finally, taking the train home to see them. In the case of young University students you can understand why having such a courtship can be part of a romantic notion. It even makes others jealous of your situation. No wonder everyone is always putting down long distance relationships –they all secretly wish they had the same situation! Who wouldn’t want a great life at university, but also a fantastic love affair in their lives? It is a challenge but it is not an impossible one as is assumed by people generally at first. Long distance relationships share some of the same features as a normal relationship in many ways. Firstly, it involves two people who love and care about each other and want their relationship to progress and have a deep

desire to be with one another. However, both partners have to remain monogamous and although a long distance relationship keeps you apart, it can produce spectacular ﬁreworks every time you are reunited again. Some people can do it while others can’t. If you’re willing to try to make it work, here are some ideas that may help you…

irst and foremost, you need to establish trust in your relationship. Trust is important in any relationship. It’s especially important in a long distance relationship because there’s often a lingering fear that your significant other might fall into the arms of another person. The main thing is to constantly keep committed to your relationship. Try never to break any engagements such as talking online with each other, talking on the phone or meeting each other again. If both of you maintain this level of commitment you will find that trust comes hand in hand with the commitment and there will not be any need for doubts as the trust will be secured. The second thing is being thoughtful while sepa- rately going through your individual lives. The trick is to remember that variety is the spice of life. The cute little love note you leave in his pocket, or the small but sentimental present you give your girlfriend before she heads back to university are prime examples of being attentive to your lover. By remaining consid- erate, it reinforces the reasons you are still together. Sometimes it can be hard to feel like you’re in a real relationship when you’re in a long distance relationship because you don’t get to see your partner often, so you need to find ways to show each other how much you care. Finally, I would suggest that making time for each other is vital if this relationship is ever going to work. You have to make your other half feel as though he or she is part of the life that you live at university. This can be difficult, but taking it in turns to visit each other every fortnight helps this. When your other half comes to university they can be part of the life you lead there and the friends you have –thus you are not leading completely separate lives. University is about working hard and playing hard. Just because you have a long term relationship with a partner at home, do not forget why you are at university in the first place. You should make the most of your time at university and take with a pinch of salt the friends who warn you that it will not last. At the end of the day you should follow your heart and it really is possible to have the best of both worlds - just like anything else you do in life, you have to work at it.

,AUREN (UDSON DESCRIBES THE TRAUMA OF HER LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP Attending university whilst in a relationship leads to the naïve notion that nothing will essentially change. Whilst this may be the case for some, many find their relationship withering away within a matter of weeks. Unfortunatly this leads to tears and missed lectures and the inevitable phone call home to tell your parents they were right and love cannot conquer all. The worst part is hearing that they were right and reinforcing the fact I am at university to learn. On a personal level, I ended my 14 month relationship this week and have not stopped sobbing since. Although I still love my now ex-boyfriend, I cannot handle the distance separating us. I feel continuing in this situation would lead to a university experience that is hampered by my continual longing to be with him. Whilst still mourning for my now fictional future with him I have discovered my flatmates are incredible potential friends. The girls gave me much needed chocolate and hugs, and the guys were actually kind and one even gave me a sausage he had spent ages burning! I have begun to realise things are not as bad as they seemed anymore. Having met countless people who have ended their relationships during the first few weeks I understand my feelings were not that unusual and I can see that one day recovery is a possibility. To everyone feeling that their world has just caved in, I empathise with you, and to those who have the strength to continue their relationships I admire you, I only wish I could have been as strong. University is an incredible, life altering experience and while many begin their uni lives with initial pain, hopefully it will fade making way for fantastic friendships and opportunities, and with any luck you may get a degree!

*ASON #ENWAY EXPLAINS WHY MEN lND LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS DIFlCULT I tried to make a long distance relationship work in my first year, but in the end it just wasn’t worth it. University life is just so in your face from the day you start, so it’s impossible to commit to anyone who isn’t right there with you. I was always told that phone sex is so cool. One of my mates pulled a girl from Spain while on holiday and for a month he used to stay at home having dirty conversations over the wire. I tried it and it was rubbish. You know, she’d be telling me what she was wearing and all that, but at the same time I could see all those fit and free freshers going by window on the way to the LCR. So first I just didn’t tell her. I’d speak to her on the phone a few times a week and tell I love her and stuff – girls like to hear that sort of thing – and I even let her come up and visit me once. But every week I was pulling some of the girls here in Norwich. Some of them said that they had boyfriends back home too, so it was alright. And I did miss my girl a lot. I think that’s probably why I was with other girls so much, especially since one time I imagined I was shagging my girlfriend instead. Anyway, this year one of my girl’s best mates started at UEA, so I had to dump her or she would have found out and had a right go at me. I wouldn’t recommend a long term relationship, unless your girlfriend is really fit and everyone on your floor is ugly. You can always have your own fun and not let her find out, but that’s more effort than you think. Basically, there are always other girls, so why bother. I have the outlook that I’m still young and want my fun. However, if I had a really fit girlfriend and lived abroad I guess I would have to have a long distance relationship because let’s face it guys want the fittest girl they can possibly get.

%LIZABETH *OY SPEAKS ABOUT HER SUCCESSFUL LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP I am a third year PSI student and have been with my boyfriend Jamie who is currently at Portsmouth University, for two and a half years. We entered a long distance relationship because the alternative of not being together was unthinkable in our position. Although that sounds really cheesy I cannot imagine my life without him and if this is the way it has to be then it is a small sacrifice in return for still being with the love of my life. The entirety of our relationship has been spent apart at University. It has been very difficult to sustain a relationship as sometimes three weeks go by without us being able to arrange either him coming here or me there. We have many arguments mostly about petty things such as not being able to talk for very long, but it is totally worth it because when you do get to see each other it makes it so special. The holidays are a precious time for us as we get to spend each day together which is wonderful. I would say that there are some benefits of having a long distance relationship. For instance I am able to concentrate on my studies and get to spend time with my mates. Many of my friends at Uni with boyfriends often have the problem of spending too much time together at the expense of their friends. I enjoy my independence, safe in the knowledge that when I am at the LCR I feel no need for a desperate groping in the toilets and can just go home and ring my boyfriend. One of the downsides of long distance relationships is mounting phone bills and travel costs. On the upside though when it is done we will (hopefully) see it was totally worth it and we made it. I would not recommend long distance relationships if it can be helped as they are stressful, but they are a true test of a couple and I would not change my situation for anything.

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hocking judges, artists and students alike, UEA has been entered for this year’s Turn- er Prize. In what has been termed by many as “some sort of sick joke” it appears that the University of East An- glia is not an academic insti- tute after all, but is actually a piece of modern art. Conceived over fifty years ago in a Norfolk pub by an out of work art teacher, the project was funded by a local trust grant and was finally unveiled today. Speaking exclusively to The Enquirer, the artist described some of the processes involved. “The hardest part was convincing couples to procreate simply in order to populate the campus”, explained Stacey Eminson. “People were wary at first, but I ask you, what better reason to have children than for art’s sake?” The underlying concept was to transform a golf course into a University, pre- tend to educate a bunch of specially bred students, and then transform the whole site back into a golf course in November this year. As The Enquirer took a tour of this year’ latest exhibit we found some students who were still caught up in disbelief. Alan Smith, a third year literature student, was spotted drunkenly whimpering into a half empty pint of beer. “So all my life, my whole education and all the decisions I have ever made were all orchestrated for this, this… What is this?” Of course some students were a lot more ac- cepting. “Actually,” admitted one business management student, “this explains quite a lot. I mean my lectures were always a joke, and what would an ac-

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tual ‘Modern Centre of Research Excellence’ be doing in the middle of Norfolk anyway?” The winner of this year’s Turner Prize won’t be announced until December 5th, but early reports indicate that the judges have been impressed with the University, with one reﬂecting on the amus- ing number of cranes dotted around with the words “very evocative, poignant.” “It’s too surreal,” another judge commented. “It’s a dumb concept, designed to shock and it’s been carried out crudely. It’s distasteful, a large waste of resources and doesn’t really com- 4HE 5NIVERSITY ON DISPLAY AT THE 4ATE -ODERN municate anything. It’s perfect. It’s bound to win.” The rest of the art world all seem equally before. Everyone remembers her work entitled ‘The impressed, as fellow Turner short-listers have been Turning of the Atlantic Tide’, where she started with overheard whispering “the cunning cow, I wish I’d a British Colony, turned it into an independent state thought of it”. and then turned Britain into one of its colonies. It Tina Cirey has produced similar pieces over the was her second piece that brought Cirey her biggest years, many of which have hit national headlines acclaim though. The transformation of a Louisianan

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farm yard animal into a teen pop star and back again is believed by many to be the greatest piece of modern art to date. Her latest piece, “Norfolk- ing Talent”, is testament to her enduring career and fully deserving of humanity’s greatest honor, the glorious Turner Prize.

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he university has responded to criti- cisms over the lack of cheap accommodation by bringing in the king of cheap housing plans. The ‘Right Honorable’ John Prescott has left his position in Blair’s Cabinet to become UEA’s new head of Build- ings and Estates. Cracking straight on with the job Johnny has launched his plans for ‘sustainable’ and ‘affordable’ accommodation to be built across the lake. The En- quirer was allowed a sneak peek at the blueprints and can reveal that the new student houses will be located right on the flooded quarry, complete with stilts. Students will of course be encouraged to swim to their lectures and paddle their way to the Union bar each evening. Concerns have been raised over the return journey, and the prospect of dozens of drunken students making their way to their home over 50 feet of water has worried some of the more uptight members of the university. The Enquirer approached Mr Prescott for some answers, but unfortunately one of our reporters suffered a short sharp punch to the nose. It is believed that accommodation for 300 new students will be built at first, with more to follow if all goes well. Eventually a launderette, café and post office will be constructed just under the surface of the

lake, with scuba gear available for hire. All the new residences will be self catered, with en suite rooms costing £3.75 a week and the shared facilities option going for £3.25. In a further interview with Prescott he told us to “bugger off” before punching one of our reporters in the gut. The Deputy Prime Minister was not the only member of government to join UEA. Charles Clarke has been hired to crack down on troublesome students with a three month prison charge for missed essay deadlines. The Enquirer was keen to hear what Prescott thought about meeting his cabinet col- league in a new setting, but unfortunately none of our reporters were willing to question the man.

The new magistrate - 4HE lRST FEW HOUSES BUILT in his full caucasian splender

18 -*'&USBWFM

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

! PATCHWORK QUILT OF CULTURE 0RIYA 3HAH PROVIDES SOME USEFUL TIPS FOR ANYONE WANTING TO TRAVEL THROUGH %ASTERN %UROPE A HAVEN FOR CULTURE EXCITEMENT AND PLENTY OF LAUGHTER

he European Union has recently expanded to include countries from Central and East- ern Europe, some of which existed under the auspices of the iron curtain as little as ﬁfteen years ago. Those that did not gain membership in May 2004 are currently waiting in the wings for forthcoming acceptance. For example, Bulgaria and Romania will be members in 2007, and there is still much controversy regarding the entry of

DO: Go to the places where the locals hang out - Lithuanians are incredibly friendly people DON’T: Be blasphemous

Croatia and Turkey at the present time. This means that citizens of the United Kingdom can travel freely between borders without the visa re- strictions that are to be found in other parts of the world. Although now allowed to join the previously exclusive ’Western European club’, the countries of Eastern Europe are in a world of their own. They are full of mysticism and the remains of communism and a gold mines for a bargain trip.

With more and more people discovering the joys and beneﬁts of this region it is extremely accessible to travel there. Ryan Air are currently offering ﬂights to Riga at 0.29p (excluding taxes), Bratislava £4.99 and many other European destinations at value prices which make a return trip to Europe possible for approximately £30. Once in Eastern Europe the living costs are dirt cheap and the nights out make opening your mind

DO: Go to Club Hollywood on a Wednes- day - its Ladies Night! DON’T: Underestimate how cold it can get here, even in summer

to other cultures a fabulous process, as each country has an its own distinct way of life to appreciate. Bearing this in mind Concrete has composed a backpacking tour of Eastern Europe, with advice for each of the countries you may go to. Essentially, its a guide to ‘what’s hot’ and ‘what’s not’ in each state of Eastern Europe. Hope you enjoy it and take the chance in reading week to experience some cheap but thrilling times for yourselves.

DO: Spend time in Riga - its the cultural centre of the Baltics DON’T: Drink Latvian real ale - it tastes like HP fruity sauce

DO: Go to the Charles Bridge - it’s Prague’s Covent Garden DON’T: Be afraid to engage with the locals -they’re nice really

DO: Take a trip to Auschwitz - its a surreal but sombre experience DON’T: Bother with Warsaw;; Krakow is a more buzzing place

DO: Venture to Buda instead of Pest - its more scenic DON’T: Trust local traders - you might get ripped-off

DO: Go to Bratislava its the only place worth visiting DON’T: Get on any trains. Slovakians could teach Ronnie Biggs a thing or two.

DO: Take a trip to Bled - its an unknown jewel nestled in the Alps DON’T: Forget your camera - this is one of the most beautiful and pictruesque countries in Europe

DO: Visit Transylvania - its a spooky place DON’T: Go to Bucharest - its a deplorable hell-hole worth missing

DO: Explore the South - Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik for excellent tanning opportunities DON’T: Waste time in Zagreb

DO: Try the local cuisine - it will remind you of home DON’T: Rely on the locals speaking Eng- lish

DO: Go skiing on Mount Jahorina, site of the 1984 Olympics DON’T: Explore empty villages - they are to be left alone

DO: Be wary - Serbia is still a very dangerous place DON’T: Let that scare you - it has some wonderful attractions

DO: Accept an invitation to an Albanian’s house if you are lucky enough to recieve one DON’T: Fall down a man-hole - the covers got nicked in the 1997 riots

"ACKPACKER 4IP /F 4HE &ORTNIGHT .O

!LWAYS TAKE PROTECTION WITH YOU WHEN TRAVELLING ABROAD %ASTERN %UROPEAN ONES ARE A LITTLE BIT LIKE SIEVES

DO: Go to Lake Ohrid - its spectacular DON’T: Mistake this place for Greece, which doesn’t recognise Macedonia’s existence

!SSISTANCE WITH PAGE PROVIDED BY 3IMON 3HERIDAN AND 4HOMAS @&RENCHY -ORGAN

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

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&IGHTING THE FEAR (ALLOWEEN IS TRADITIONALLY A TIME FOR SCARES BUT WHAT EFFECT DOES BEING FRIGHTENED HAVE ON OUR BODIES #LARE !ITCHISON LOOKS INTO THE PHYSICAL REPERCUSSIONS OF FEAR

t’s Halloween, that day of the year when ghosts and ghoulies wander the earth scar- ing the living daylights out of mere mortals like ourselves. Even if you don’t believe in all that, there’s plenty to be sacred of at this time of year: horror films, fright nights at the LCR, and local youths dressed as Fred- dy Krueger knocking on your door demanding sweets. Even the most rock-hard of you will have been scared at some point in your lives, so you all know what it feels like. Your heart races, your palms get sweaty, your mouth dries up and you desperately need the toilet. Sometimes you can feel so scared that you feel sick to your stomach. Everybody gets more or less the same symptoms when they are scared. But why does this happen? What is going on in our bodies when we are frightened and what is the point of it all? Well, think back to when you were just another species of ape, grazing the savannahs of Africa. Obvi- ously not you personally, you’re far too young (yes, even you in the grad bar), but your ancestors, around two million years ago. Life was more simple then, with no overdrafts and “relationship issues”, and emo- tions probably boiled down to being contented or being scared. Being scared would have always been for a reason, such as encountering a sabre-toothed tiger at you local watering hole, and in this situation you had a choice: either fight or run like hell. You have probably heard of the “fight or flight response”, and this is where it comes from. Fear prepares us for either fighting or fleeing. When we are scared, our brain tells glands in our body to release adrenaline. Adrenaline then circulates around the body working its magic. It acts on the bits of the heart which control your pulse rate, making it beat faster and causing your blood pressure to go up, getting more blood around your body. It also tells your lungs to breathe more deeply, so that the blood you are pumping round the body has more oxygen in it. All this means that more oxygen and food is getting to your brain, making you more alert, and to your muscles, giving you more energy either to punch the tiger on the nose or probably – more sensibly – leg it. Adrenaline also makes you sweat more, so that you can keep cool and don’t overheat while you are doing either of these things. At this moment you really don’t need to be digesting your food, so blood is diverted away from your stomach to more useful areas. This means that your lunch is not absorbed properly, causing you to get diarrhoea – a symptom I’m sure many of you will

7HAT SCARES YOU NOW APART FROM SCARY MOVIES AND LOCAL YOUTHS WITH BASEBALL BATS be familiar with the night before an exam. It also isn’t a great idea to have a full bladder when engaging in vigorous exercise, so adrenaline causes the muscles around your bladder to tighten, and the muscle which normally keeps your bladder shut to open, getting rid of any urine before you start to fight. At the end of it all, when you have either finished running or fighting, and assuming you are still alive, all the adrenaline has been burnt off by the exercise. Now you can relax again until the next tiger comes along. Although life on the savannah two million years ago was hard, our bodies became adapted to this way of life. Fear was a useful response which saved our lives on many occasions and so, due to evolutionary principles, this response was passed down the gen- erations to us. What scares you now, apart from scary movies and local youths with baseball bats? Exams? Money? Family? Relationships? All of these things can be stressful at times, and yet they are not usually things we can run away from. They will always be there, like a sabre-toothed tiger, lurking just around the corner. When we think about them we still get the same fear response;; racing heart, sick feeling, sweating, and this is because adrenaline is being produced in re-

sponse to the fear. But the problem is, as we never ﬁght or run, the adrenaline doesn’t get burnt off, and as the thing that scares us doesn’t go away it is constantly being released, leaving us in a perpetual state of anxiety. This constant low level of stress puts strain on our hearts, it raises our blood pressure, and it stops us from digesting our food properly. In short it is extremely bad for our health. Research has shown that

/N THE SAVANNAHS BEING SCARED WOULD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN FOR A REASON SUCH AS ENCOUNTERING A SABRE TOOTHED TIGER AT YOUR LOCAL WATERING HOLE high levels of stress have a direct effect on life expect- ancy. Heart attacks are more likely in the stressed individual, and they are more likely to be lethal. Re- search done at Warwick university showed that in the over 65s, people with a higher than average stress level were 40% more likely to die in the next seven years than those with normal levels of stress. In reality, most adults experience the same stressful circumstances as each other. Everyone has trouble with money, work and relationships at some point, but some people just deal with it better than others. How do these people seem to cope with stress and take it in their stride, while others completely collapse under pressure?

here are essentially two ways to deal with stress. One is to face the problem and do something about it – we can call that fight. The other is to get rid of the adrenaline that is doing all this damage to our bodies – we can call that flight. To fight the problem means being able to identify what is making you stressed and then change it. Next time you get that sick feeling, or you notice that your heart is racing, write down what you think it was that started those feelings off. Before long you should have a list of the things which are making you stressed and you can begin to fight them one by one. If you are getting anxious over an assignment that is due in, sit down, finish it and hand it in: then it is not there to stress you out any more. If you are in a relationship that is causing you stress, then end the relationship. It may sound harsh, but if you remove the trigger for your stress you will feel much better. For our flight response we need to burn off the adrenaline which is doing us so much damage. Sign up for the gym, go for a run or start a kick-boxing class. Exercise is an extremely good outlet for any feelings of aggression we may have towards the trigger of our stress, and of course it has countless other benefits. One extremely effective (and popular) form of exercise is sex. As long as your partner is not the cause of the stress in the first place, few people are more relaxed than when in a post-coital glow. Fight- ing and fleeing both have their place, and the people who seem the least stressed are the people who have learned to use a combination of these strategies. Stress is not necessarily a bad thing, and there are times when we really need it. If you see a small child walk out in front of your car, the adrenaline kicks in making you swerve to avoid them before you have even registered what has happened. Many people work extremely well under short-term pressure, being able to achieve things they never thought possible in a very limited time. The problems start when the stress is constant and we have no way of dealing with it. So enjoy Halloween, watch Scream with your mates and hide behind your popcorn. Be grateful to the fight or flight response when menacing chavs ring the doorbell demanding money – if you are scared you may be able to bring them down with a Buffy-style karate kick (although this is not really recommended). When the night is over, and you still have that essay looming over you, remember this advice today – do the essay and then get yourself to the gym.

&IGHT OR mIGHT IN ACTION EXERCISE IS ONE OF THE BEST CURES FOR STRESS

-*'&GPPE

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

4HIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MARKET ,OCAL PRODUCE CAN BE BOTH ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE AS *OANNA ,AMBERT FOUND OUT WHEN SHE VISITED THE FORTNIGHTLY FARMERS MARKET AT .ORWICH &ORUM

majority of students would certainly claim that there isn’t much going on in Norwich at 9.30 on a Sunday morning - but they would be mistaken. Once a fortnight you will find that there’s quite a com- motion going on in and around the Forum, and it’s something a little more appetising than the remnants of Saturday night still trying to find their way home. If, like a lot of students, you have just begun to settle into a new city or perhaps you’ve been here for a while already and haven’t yet realised that it’s any different from where you used to live, you definitely need to visit the Farmers’ Market. It’s just so Norfolk. Farmers, bakers, a bee-keeper, and even a chilli expert all congregate at the Forum to provide the city with a true regional treasure - the Norwich Farmers’ market. It’s not a hugely publicised event, so you’re justly ex- cused if you have never been. The first place visitors are recommended to in- stantly make a bee-line for is the wonderful cake stall - it’s impossible to miss. You are drawn to it. Always situated on the left hand side of the Forum hall, it is apparently a favourite of student visitors. Graham is owner and baker of these glorious cakes. You can always guarantee that by the afternoon he’s got an empty stand - but don’t let that deter you;; it just means you’ll have to get there sooner. Trust me, it’s worth it. Graham is still awake at 2 am on a Sunday morning baking and icing these delectable treats. And it is obvious just by looking at how perfectly formed each cake, cupcake and gingerbread-man (or woman, of course) is that they are a hundred times better than any treat you could get from anywhere else. And believe me, they’re a thousand times tastier too. With prices beginning at 40p, it’s not your budget you’ll be stretching. Alongside a huge range of stalls inside the im- posing glass-fronted Forum you cannot leave without having a peep at Leeora’s Gourmet Kitchen - primari- ly because the wafting smell is too tempting to resist. Leeora’s products are all vegetarian, and range from pates to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern delica- cies and specialities, ready meals and sauces. Leeora always has something cooking, and can tell her customers exactly what is in everything she sells - which is extremely useful for those affected by allergic reactions. She adds no sugar, no GM in-

gredients, no artiﬁcial colours and no preservatives. This is wonderful considering that a pot of pâté or dip ranges in price from only £1.39 to £1.99. From delicious home-made houmous and carrot and chive pâté to gluten-free wraps, Leeora’s kitchen is the place to pick up a quick, hot, healthy snack on a Sun- day afternoon.

%VERY !PRIL -R 4HURLOW TAKES HIS BEES ON HOLIDAY TO +ENT TO POLLINATE THE FRUIT TREES THERE Most of the time there are a few stalls lined up outside the Forum too, and these shouldn’t be forgotten. Even if the Forum is a lot warmer, they’re deﬁ- nitely worth a visit. For one, you’d miss the Absolute Chilli Company.

This vibrant company is owned by Jeremy Green (he’s the one wearing the dazzling chilli-patterned trousers) and he knows his chillies. The company ethos is “fragrance over ﬁre”, which I quite like the sound of - because I don’t actually like extremely hot food. And, Jeremy informed me, this is exactly the wrong image consumers have of chilli peppers. The company likes to control the amount of “ﬁre” that comes with chillies - which is caused by a compound called capsaicin, don’t you know. The Absolute Chilli Company (or Facing Heaven Chilli Co. as they are otherwise known) is very successful,.Not only does it do a range of sauces and salsas made from home-grown chillies, but it was crowned champion at a Chilli cook-off in Brighton earlier this year. Also located outside is the only full-time bee keeper in Norfolk: Mike Thurlow. Mr Thurlow knows all there is to know about honey. To be perfectly hon- est my bee and honey knowledge was thin to say the least, but after talking to Mr Thurlow for ten minutes I would now think of myself as a bit of an expert. Per-

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nless you haven’t noticed, it’s autumn. And one thing that reminds everyone of this glorious time of year is the pumpkin. Perhaps it’s because of their beautiful Autumn-leaf like colour, their Jack-o-lantern tendencies or maybe you’re American and love a good pumpkin pie. Let’s imagine that you’ve got the innards of a pumpkin spare, Jane and Gavin Lane (they sell pumpkins at the Farm- ers’ Market for £3 - £4) have an idea. It takes 15 minutes to make, 30 minutes to cook and the recipe serves 4. 1/3 cup chopped onion 1 tsp. crushed garlic 1 tsp. curry powder 2 tbsp. butter or margarine 1 cup pureed pumpkin (or about ½ can of pumpkin) ¼ tsp. nutmeg 1/8 tsp. sugar 2 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth) 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrow root or tapioca powder (use as thickening agent) A bay leaf 1½ cups milk 2 tbsp heavy cream (optional) Chopped chives (decorational) In a large pan cook onion, garlic, and curry in the butter or margarine for a few minutes until onion is tender. Add pumpkin, nutmeg, sugar and the bay leaf. Stir in the broth and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. Take out the bay leaf. Stir in one cup of the milk and cook over low heat for a few minutes. In another bowl, stir together the remaining milk and the cornstarch until dissolved, then add it to the pan. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook for a few more minutes. This can also be frozen after it cools. In the freezer it will be good for up to three months.

he main benefit of eating at Frankie and Benny’s is its location. It is situated in the middle of Riverside’s bars, clubs and cinema and is in easy walking distance of Prince of Wales Road and the Waterfront. Frankie and Benny’s is a ‘New York Italian Restaurant and Bar’. This means the menu is dominated by pizza and pasta: other options are rather limited. Having dined here before and always headed for pizza (beware of the American Hot, really nice but its title doesn’t lie) I decided to try pasta for a change. The lasagne was lovely;; al forno which means it’s piping hot, although the tomato sauce was a little over- powering. The garlic pizza bread can be a little greasy, and the very thin Italian-style pizzas can be too. Friends who have tried the steak sandwich say it’s a little fatty, but my burger loving friend very much recommends the burgers here. We were too stuffed to try the deserts, although the descriptions alone leave your mouth watering. Prices are fairly reasonable, around seven or eight pounds for a basic main course, but alas, no student discount! This is unless you can still find a discount book floating around campus, where there are vouch- ers for 25% off a meal for four. But be warned: this is not a restaurant to visit in a hurry. Service can be excruciatingly slow. It is bad enough at quiet times;; I hate to think how they’d cope on a busy night. As long as you are a fan of pizza and pasta I would recommend this restaurant, but don’t expect anything fancy, or quick. And if you fancy learning Italian, just pop to the toilets, they have a ‘learn to speak Italian’ tape playing. Altogether now: ‘Mi chiamo..’

haps it was just my ignorance, but I really didn’t know that you could buy different flavours of honey. Maybe this is because I’d only ever seen it in supermarkets where you can only buy homogenous jars of this mol- ten gold. At the moment his bees are busy with the last crop of Ivy honey, which the bees are very excited about, apparently. After tasting it, it is definitely the most pungent in his collection. He also allowed me to try his blossom honey and I now have a little jar for my toast every morning. How do you get the different flavours? Well, Mr Thurlow looks at the pollen the bees have been collecting under a microscope and deciphers which flow- ers the bees have been working on. Clever, isn’t it? He also takes his bees on holiday! Every April he takes 60 hives to Kent, to pollinate the fruit trees there. I’m quite sure that Mr Thurlow’s bees are the best kept bees you’ll ever have heard of, and their honey is the most scrumptious you’ll taste. Throughout the Farmers’ Market there can also be found quite a few different fruit and vegetable stalls. The Market ethos is that all produce on sale is being sold by the person who actually grew or made it. So when you can buy a bag of spinach for £1.00, you cannot deny that you are getting a very good deal. And the spinach really is first-class;; it tastes great thrown into your normal pasta sauce and is extremely good for you too. Alongside this you can buy a bag of courgettes for £1.00 and the biggest cabbages I’ve ever seen for 75p. The Farmers’ Market is not just a place to buy food;; it’s an experience too. All the stall holders know one another, which creates a laid back and welcoming atmosphere. Not only can you buy things here that you can’t buy in many supermarkets but you can buy new things, things you’ve never tried before. Even if the Market does not become part of your regular food shop, it will certainly compliment it. Rita Holland, organiser of the Norwich Farmers’ Market, is trying to arrange a market on campus just for students. Rita knows as well as we do that we really don’t have much choice on and around campus. Whether the Union will allow the Farmers’ Market to visit us is as yet unknown. But any support will undoubtedly be welcome, whether this means asking Union representatives to support it too or even just popping down to the next market on 6th November and buying a bag of spinach and a little fluffy cake. WWW NORWICHFARMERSMARKET CO UK

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

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$O WE REALLY NEED TWO MALLS

s the environmental and development section of Concrete, Turf has the role of reporting

on every green or ethical issue that faces UEA. But our role does not stop at simply raising awareness. Neither should the role of a student be one that involves reading without acting. We therefore offer this col- umn as a fortnightly guide to better environmental practice. We hope that regular readers of Turf will be encouraged to join some of the many campaigns and organisations we report on. But failing that, we should all be following these tips, whether active environmentalists or not.

Improve your household recycling. If you have space in your garden then try home composting: www.trycomposting.com/norfolk/

'REEN 0ARTY MEMBERS PROTESTING OUTSIDE THE ENTRANCE OF THE NEW MALL

-ARK (IRONS REPORTS ON A POTENTIAL NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR .ORWICH

fter three years of building works the long awaited opening of the Chapelﬁeld Mall has now been and gone, but the debate continues. The 11.6 acre re-developed brownﬁeld site opened on the 21st of September. Previously a Nestlé factory, the site now boasts 90 stores and 15 cafes and restaurants and boosts Norwich well into

'REENING UP 5%!

For a short-hand guide to Norwich’s recycling schemes visit: http://www.norwich.gov.uk/webapps/ atoz/service_page.asp?id=1134

If you are interested in what actually happens to you rubbish once it is recycled have a look at: http://www.recycledproducts.org.uk/ UEA ENVIRONMENT WEEK NOVEMBER 14 – 18. A week of events organised by the Student Union and CRed. Our precious environment in which we live and work is changing. Most clima- tologists agree that climate change is here and could have a dramatic effect on our every day existence. If sea levels rise, what will happen to the Yare Valley, its wildlife and UEA? As oil prices rise, does this herald the beginning of the end of oil and what will it mean for you? Will you get on your bike? Between the 14th and 18th of Novem- ber there will a series of day events and seminars aimed at letting you know what the issues are, what they could mean to you and what you can do to help. UEA ENVIRONMENT WEEK. BE PART OF IT.

the top ten most popular shopping destinations in the UK. The development represents a £350 million investment in the city and the creation of 2000 permanent jobs in the city, but its not all champagne and roses, there was one party not everyone would have expected… a wake. The “wake for local businesses” was jointly organised by the Green Party and Friends of the Earth. They fear that the development will drag the heart of the city in its direction to the detriment of local businesses and retailers. They argue that Chapelﬁeld will impact negatively on both local economy and the environment, as Green Party Councillor Adrian Ramsay states: “Local and independent businesses are much better for our economy.” He argues that there is greater stability in locally based economies and they have a lesser impact on the environment. He urges

residents “not to neglect our city’s independent and local businesses in favour of the Chapelfield shopping development, or our wake for the local economy could become a reality and Norwich will turn into a clone town.” Not everyone in Norwich is as skeptical. The opening line of the City Council’s impact statement reads: ‘The opening of Chapelfield is significant for Norwich and Norfolk.’ There has been growing concern, however, regarding the brownfield sites in the city. Before development, the area was reportedly becoming increasingly subject to decay and vandal- ism, which was then spreading into adjacent areas. The development of the site has led to some other projects, including the development of low-cost housing, maintenance of children’s play areas, and tree planting schemes among others. There have also been some generous financial contributions towards highway works in the city. There is no doubt that it is most environmentally friendly to develop brownfield sites rather than spreading into the city’s “greenbelt”, but another mall bringing another 1000 or so car park spaces into the city is far from the optimum scenario. As debate around economical impacts swings to and fro, the aesthetic features are often overlooked. Inspired by surrounding architecture it is hoped that Chapelfield will break the ASBO appeal of generic malls and integrate retail into the wider cultural scene in Norwich. The maze of streets and alleys full of independent retailers is the reason why Norwich is already such a popular retail destination. Some people are positive that the grouping of chain-stores together in the malls will eventually lead to the streets returning to local independent traders. But they have to come from somewhere, and as Councillor Adrian Ramsay suggests they would probably move traders from market towns in Norfolk to the city, depriving those towns of their facilities. Is there any pride in being a popular retail destination if it is at the expense of the city’s identity?

3TUDENTS CALL FOR 5%! TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF AS THE UNIVERSITY S @'O 'REEN CAMPAIGN IS LAUNCHED %URI 6IDAL REPORTS

eople and Planet, the UK student organisation, has at last arrived at UEA to launch its university- focused campaign, Go Green. The People and Planet initiative has arisen due to the “massive environmental impact of the 169 universities and colleges of Higher Education in the UK”. According to People and Plan- et’s report, this impact is reﬂected in facts such as that universities in this country own 9% of all ofﬁce space, they spend £3 billion annually on goods and services and consume the equivalent of £200 million in energy annually. To tackle these environment issues, the Go Green campaign aims for all universities in the UK to achieve the following four points: the active, public support of university senior management;; full time staff dedicated to environment management;; a com- prehensive review to investigate all the environmental impacts of the institution and a written, publicly available environmental policy so that everyone has access to it and can complain or applaud its conclu- sions. Although People and Planet recognise there is no such thing as a national assessment that ranks universities according to environmental performance, the fact is that UEA does not yet qualify for any of the requirements mentioned in the report and the university is currently considered to have a low environmental performance and management strategies. This fact seems somewhat shocking when you think that UEA is meant to have the best Environmental Sciences Department in the country and one of the best climate research programmes in the world. It seems as if the University’s recycling scheme or

5%! S )NFAMOUS "OILER (OUSE its environmentally friendly Travel Plan are not quite up to the standards of the People and Planet crew. Jenny Gellatly, the Union’s Environmental Officer, said the problem here at UEA is that despite continuing efforts for UEA to become more environmentally responsible there is still a lot to be done, such as “more bike parking spaces on campus”, to cope with this year’s – fantastic – increase of bike users. Arjan Verschoor, lecturer in Economics, con- fessed not to be aware of UEA’s environmental policy. It would be an important step for UEA to make its permanent staff aware of such policies. Mr Verschoor applauded UEA’s efficient use of energy on campus buildings, but added that most energy should be obtained from a renewable source. Esteve Corbera, who was environmental management officer in the University of Barcelona before he came to UEA to do a PhD in Development Studies, believes that UEA should invest more in environmental management, for example ‘green’ purchasing in cites, including “the need to de-centralise energy use so that unnecessary lights can be switched off at night. Heating in rooms and offices can be adjusted according to indi-

vidual needs to reduce energy consumption, or wear sweaters instead”. Both Mr Verschoor and Mr Cor- bera highlight the fact that UEA, as a leading university in environmental research, should be consistent with this and do a lot more to become increasingly environmentally conscious. Regardless of the name of the campaign or who launches it, the Go Green initiative is about bringing the long term and lasting changes we need to see if we don’t want the Norfolk broads to become a sedi- mented sea-bed in some years time. The UN wrote in Article 10 of its famous declaration on the environment and development of Rio in 1992 that “environmental issues are best handled with the participa- tion of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level.” If citizens leave all environmental concerns to governments, environmental policies won’t work. We don’t have a warden at UEA to check whether or not we are recycling correctly and biking into university, and like most things, change starts from personal decisions. We as students and free citizens have the extraordinary opportunity to choose consciously and responsibly to bring about these changes.

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

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7ASTEFUL -ANAGEMENT

orwich currently recycles 14% of its waste but this figure needs to rise to 18% by 2006 to meet proposed targets. For those of you in Halls it is fairly easy to recycle your rubbish in those big black bins collected every week, but when you move into student digs in the city it just isn’t quite the same. The move into the city shocked many of us this year as the amount you can recycle at the same convenience is severely reduced. In 2001, households in East Anglia produced 2.7 million tonnes of rubbish. Your household probably contributed about 1.2 tonnes of rubbish, equivalent to 150 refuse sacks. 84% of this rubbish is buried in the ground in landfill sites. But these sites are filling up and new ones are very hard to find. As the number of households in East Anglia continues to rise so does the volume of rubbish. 43,000 households in Norwich have the green box door-to-door scheme available to them, but there are areas not yet included. The City Council has committed to having all households integrated in the green box collection within the new year. The scheme itself is a fairly limited one as up until recently only cardboard and glass could be recycled, this is clearly wasteful as there is scope for plastic bottle, plastic bag and metal recycling. Currently sections of the city are having tin introduced to their door-to-door schemes, this is an ongoing process as when the vehicles were originally purchased by the Council they brought the cheapest ones which were not fitted with compacting units, so only light weight material i.e. card and glass could be recycled, these vehicles are in the process of being fitted with the compacting facility. It is difficult to adapt to plastic as many recycling companies will not touch material if there is a chance of broken glass being mixed in, so for the moment Norwich’s efforts are concentrated in introducing more plastic banks. This financial year (running until March 2006) the council will have all households on the green box recycling scheme with the inclusion of tin, it has already begun in some areas. It has also been agreed amongst the parties standing on the council that the larger blocks of council flats in the city will have recycling banks in the new year. There has been a consensus that recycling should be present in the city centre and shopping districts, so we will be seeing an introduction of 6 to 10 sets of on-street recycling bins in the city centre recycling glass and cardboard. No individual party controls the city council as it requires 20 seats to do so and although the majority party the Liberal Democrats only hold 18, Labour have 15, the Green Party 5 and the Conservatives 1. This year is the first year that the Green Party has had an influence over how the budget is spent. This year there has been an emphasis on waste and recycling. Before this only approximately half the houses in Norwich had green recycling boxes, the improvements will modify Norwich’s recycling scheme to have greater scope for materials and more households included. Homes in Norwich currently throw away enough waste every year to cover the Carrow Road football pitch to a depth of 5 metres. This rubbish is taken to landfill sites at Costessy and Attlebridge by the Coun- cil’s contractors CityCare. A household can have as many green boxes as it needs and for many one tiny box is not enough, if this applies to you the number to call is CityCare on: 0845 650 2045 to get another free box. Recently there has been the introduction of Nor- wich’s first two plastic recycling banks at Sainsbury’s on Queen’s Road and Waitrose in Eaton. Green Party Councillor Adrian Ramsay assures “We will continue to lobby for money to fund enough banks to ensure good coverage across the city. We would like to see plastics included in the doorstep collection service. However, at least there is now a facility for plastic bottle recycling in the City Council area.” As only 2 banks could be negotiated from a proposed 10 it was logical to locate them at supermarkets to get the most use. Numbers were limited as the LibDem budget proposals did not include any money for plastic bottle recycling. One plastic recycling bank costs £1,700 to buy and £8,000 annual cost to empty each week, only a minor fraction of the Council’s annual budget. Instead of funding 10 recycling banks, the

35--%$ 50 The odds of Spain winning the world cup = The energy consumed by a car compared to the energy needed to power a bicycle the same distance = The ratio between the amount of foreign investment poured into China compared to India in 2004 =

TO The number of Conservative Party members now set to choose a David to lead them = 4HE GREEN BOX ONLY OF WASTE IN .ORWICH IS RECYCLED Council decided to donate £3,000,000 to the Theatre Royal for its refurbishments.

here have also been some further proposed improvements by the Green Party- yet to be accepted by the overall council- to introduce a fortnightly collection of garden waste door-to-door. The bin could be purchased for £30, if one household didn’t feel they produce enough kitchen and garden waste in a fortnight then they bin can be shared between neighbours. Al- though it is not as good as a home composting bin for some houses that is not possible so it is better to

“The Lib Dem budget proposals did not include any money for plastic bottle recycling.” recycle some of the green waste despite the fuel us- age than to condemn it all to landfill. The council have to meet landfill targets, but they can do this in three ways: 1. Reduce Reuse Recycle;; this would work if central government implemented tax on packaging. 2. Recycling 3. Incineration Incineration is a devastating alternative that pollutes through combustion emissions, transport emission, toxic waste. In their nature incinerators require large catchments areas meaning that waste has to travel further, the disadvantages do not stop there as one third of the weight of the original waste remains as toxic ash and there is only one landfill site in the UK that can take this kind of waste so the incin- erated waste then has to transported there at further cost to the environment. However, the major problem is that in the found- ing of such an incinerator, which is a privatised business-thank you Maggie Thatcher- the contract requires a guaranteed volume of waste per year which is hardly and incentive for Councils paying the costs to reduce their quantities of waste. The Green Party have been actively working on introducing plastic to Norwich’;;s recycling scheme since the General elections of June 2004. Adrian Ramsay, Green Councillor for Nelson stated, “The system needed improvements and we are making a positive start.” When you recycle you are directly helping to prevent more of our landscape being mined and improv- ing our management of natural resources. * The glass you recycle is crushed and heated

to 1500(degrees) C and made into new glass bottles and jars. About 30 gallons of oil is saved making glass containers from recycled glass and glass can be recycled indefinitely. * Cans are separated, melted down and the metal reused to make more cans. This saves mining the tin and aluminium, processing the metal ore and transporting it from abroad * Paper left out for recycling is treated and made into paper for newspapers. It takes 17 mature trees to make 1 tonne of paper and in Britain we consume over 7,000,000 tonnes of paper annually. Some of the main problems with the system remain political;; it is the City Council who are responsible for the collection of Norwich’s waste, but the Norfolk County Council who are responsible for its disposal. This would seem to be one of the main faults in a two-tier local government system as the LibDems have the most seats on the City Council and the Conservatives hold the majority in the county, so a disputed conflict of interest continues. The green Party are determined to get what they are campaigning for, Councillor Ramsay has high hopes for Norwich’s future in waste management “We will expand the Council’s recycling scheme further with a fortnightly collection of garden waste, extra plastic banks-at least 10, more on-street bins if the new ones are successful, the extension of the green box scheme, the introduction of banks to all flats regardless of whether council owned and the general increase in numbers of banks.” For such little effort as putting a used tin in a green box we can make a global difference.

The size of Brazil’s armed forces = The number Brits who keep poul- try outdoors, worrying the health service as they prepare for a possible bird ﬂu epidemic =

Percentage of Norwich waste that is recycled = Percentage of US soldiers that admit to killing an Iraqi civilian (reported on Anitwar.com) = Percentage of world’s greenhouse gas emissions produced by the 25 EU member states =

24 $0..&/5

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

"EWARE THE LURGY "Y -!44 3(/%3-)4( Bird Flu: it’s the next big thing. It’s the new SARS, the new Ebola virus, mad cow disease, and foot and mouth all rolled into one daunting winged nemesis. Chickens cluck uneasily around the farmyards of Eu- rope as they await their inevitably slow, painful, and well-publicised death. Migratory birds cower at the army of accusing fingers that are pointed at them as they arrive for the winter. And, most eerily of all, government officials, journalists and doctors come out in force to label anyone who is concerned about the threat of Avian Flu as a big girl’s blouse. Phrases like “scare mongering” dominate press releases the world over and politicians unite in a re- sounding chorus of “it’ll never happen”. We’re all made to feel pretty daft for believing that anything dangerous could ever penetrate the defences of for- tress Britain. But is it really so naive to purchase a couple of ounces of scare from your local monger? The thought of an invisible killer that spreads across the very air we breathe is one that ought to make us all feel a little uneasy. Each graceful dip and glide of our foreign, feathered friends could bring a devastating disease to the shores of merry old England. Sure enough, it’s unlikely to produce the complete destruction of life as we know it;; chances are we’ll all be fine. Indeed, unless the coffee tables of paradise are stocked with the latest edition of Concrete, no one reading this article is dead yet, despite an endless list of threatening lurgies from parts unknown. It is, therefore, somewhat melodramatic to raise the alarm as if the grim spectre of death is looming dark and grey over the horizon, or to cite sparrows as the bringers of death, starvation and an inescapable sense of the macabre. After all, they’re pretty cute really. But that does not mean that a certain amount of concern, or even fear, is completely unwarranted. Bird Flu is scary. That’s the truth. It’s even scarier considering the apparently short supply of vaccines, and the fact that the great minds of western medicine are still in the dark as to the exact structure of the human form of the disease. But what can the responsible Avian Flu fearer do? Put off the purchase of a loveable pet chicken? Don an attractive anti-bacterial shell-suit? Perhaps, but chances are that even those actions will make no difference to whether or not you end up chirruping your last chirp in the coming months. There is no way that any of us can prevent the onset of Avian Flu, should it arrive, and it is exactly this uncertainty that makes this threat so potent. We are all equally likely to be struck by it, and we are all equally powerless to stop it. However, before panic sets in, let’s take stock. There have been so many warnings of this nature in recent years that there is cause to take notice of those who call for calm. Emergency procedures have been prepared, and vaccines are steadily stockpiling in the event of a serious outbreak. The authorities are on the lookout for any suspicious bird deaths, and the countries in which the disease has already taken hold are taking the necessary precautions to prevent it from spreading. In the meantime, the best anyone can do is to keep one eye on the news, and to maintain a levelheaded view that “it’s very unlikely”. In short, be afraid, but not too afraid.

7ILL )$ CARDS BE ,ABOUR S ,EGACY "Y -!24). */00

Unthinkable as it may currently be, our Labour government will not last forever. The Conservatives are in the process of rejuvenating themselves and getting back on their feet, and the Liberal Democrats maintain their slow (but steady) increase in electoral success. In twenty years, what will people remember of this government? It seems unlikely that it will be investment in the NHS or education. Not even the war in Iraq will be the ﬁrst thing we will think of, because by then we can be relatively sure things will have set- tled down in the country. But in the ID card legisla- tion recently passed through parliament, there is the potential for a legacy that will outlive both Tony Blair and our very own MP, Charles Clarke.

Unlike the Iraq war, we will be reminded of this policy every day. It will be there every time we open our wallet – our face staring up at us, our most personal details stored within. The fact that we have to divulge such information to the government may in itself worry some people;; others will accept this and get on with their lives. The thing that will affect everyone is the cost and practical arrangements for the creation of these cards. Will people still be as apathetic about ID cards when they realise that this piece of plastic will cost us £30. This is only the latest figure. What is more we will have to buy a new one every time we change address. So yes, students will have to pay £30 every time we change residences. The London School of Economics has said that the cards will cost £300 each to produce. While this figure has been disputed by the Home Office, if the card costs any more than their £30 quote, the funds will have to be made available through taxes, or through skimming money from

other policy areas. This will mean either an increase in national insurance (again!) or the taking of money from the NHS or the education departments. People will be even less happy when they realise that as an anti-terrorist measure, these cards are completely ineffective. Charles Clarke announced after the London bombings that ID cards could not have pre- vented the attack. It seems as if the government is hiding behind the shroud of terrorism to increase its ability to monitor every single one of us. If you refuse to apply for an ID card, you will ﬁnd such trivial mat- ters as getting a bank account, or registering to vote becoming much more difﬁcult, if not impossible. If there is a good practical reason for introducing ID cards then MI5 is keeping it very well under wraps. The money could be much better spent on in- creased border control and increasing the size of our police force. The Union of UEA Students is opposed to ID cards: we need to campaign strongly on issues like this, issues that could cost us so dearly.

#HAVS ) BLAME THE PARENTS "Y "%#+9 -!9(%7

Everyone hates chavs. And why shouldn’t they? A multitude of spotty youths sporting the latest trends in market-wear approach you in the street, and en masse hurls barely coherent and unprovoked abuse at you, while you try to continue your journey to get some milk, fervently praying for that sweet little spar- row hopping about on the grass to transmogrify into a huge wolf and rip these chavs to shreds with its razor-sharp teeth. Give any respectable person in this country their way, and chavs would be slowly gassed to death in enormous Argos warehouses. However. I have recently gained the tiniest insight into the world of chavs, and it really is, as much as I hate to say it, a sad and rather sympathy-inducing tale. I was sitting at a bus stop on Colman Road last Friday night, patiently waiting for one of the wonder- fully regular and astoundingly punctual buses that this fine city boasts, and after about twenty minutes of quiet solitude, a young chav bounces out in front of me and inquires when the next bus is due. I reply that I have no idea, but hazard a guess that we might be on our way by December. The young chav shuffles about a bit, and says, in dulcet Norwich tones, “I fink you’re well fine, can I have your number?” I smile in-

wardly and ask his age. “Six’een,” he replies. I inform him I am a little too old for him, and then suddenly another, much younger chav skulks up and sits next to me. I look down with interest and faint amusement at this apparent twelve year old who stinks of alcohol, is almost drowning in his Adidas jacket, and is smirk- ing up at me with a cocky smile that can’t quite dis- guise his shyness. I ask his age, and am told he is 13. Out of interest, and because I’m alarmed by the quite astonishing stench of alcohol that these two children are exuding, I ask what they’re up to tonight. 16 year old chav replies, whilst hanging from the roof of the bus shelter, “I’m going to get f***ed, ‘cos my Mum’s abandoned me again.” I am somewhat taken aback by this, and ask why his Mum has done that. “Oh, she’s always doing that, f***ing off and abandoning me. You don’t need this when you six’een, seven’een, do you?” I reply that no, I suppose you don’t, becoming more and more fascinated by the suppressed but unmistakable anger and bitterness in his voice. I would press further, but at that point an un- speakably drunk middle-aged man stumbles across the road with a plastic bag full of beer cans and an enormous joint between his ﬁngers. He and the 16 year old exchange a well-acquainted touch of the knuckles, and the man leers over us and mumbles to the boys: “Do you want to come and smoke a joint and get wankered with me?” And these two children reply excitedly that yes, they want to go and smoke a

joint and get wankered with this man, and they bid me farewell and disappear into the blackness. I hate chavs as much as the next person, but this encounter revealed to me what, deep down, everyone knows — that there’s a reason these little shits are little shits — but to have it stated to me in black and white did, to use a pathetic phrase, open my eyes. If a 16 year old’s mother walks out on him at 9pm on a Friday night (‘again’) apparently without a hint of concern as to what her son may get up to, indiffer- ent to the fact that he will, in all probability, be wan- dering the streets and getting pissed with old men, then the mother is a disgrace and should be blamed for whatever monster her child becomes. To see the hardened, bitter faces of these two young boys was very disconcerting. They have the rest of their lives to go out and get pissed and smoke joints on Friday nights, why should they have to do it at 16 and 13? Can we really blame these kids for lurking on street corners at night, when the alternative is sitting in an empty house waiting for their parents to come back and give them some attention? I’m not asking you to embrace the next chav who chucks a log at your head, or whisper ‘I forgive you’ and touch their shoulder tenderly, but there is a reason that these kids are the way they are. True, their parents may never have actually taught them to throw logs at strangers’ heads, but they did teach them that there’s nothing for them to go home to.

-&55&34 &%*503*"-

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

,%44%23 !)$ &!4)'5% It has been difﬁcult to open a newspaper in recent weeks without being confronted with images of destruction and distress from across the world. While the natural disasters of Hur- ricane Katrina and the Kashmir earthquake were impossible to forsee, questions are now being asked - as Tom Law observes in his article in this issue of Concrete - about our role in averting preventable disasters such as the food crisis in Sudan. Many will complain that with so many people urgently needing our help, making the right decision about who to give money to is almost impossible. Even as we give to those causes that make the headlines, we must remain aware of the people whose stories are not given the prominence of the press: aid cannot end on the front pages. Already this term, UEA students have proved themselves to be a charitable bunch, with RAG raising money for Action Aid and the hockey team playing to raise funds for the Meningitis Trust. This week, the NUS launches a national campaign to send more aid to areas hit by the earthquake in South East Asia. So give as much as you can afford, to as many causes as you can afford. Look beyond the headlines to those who may not have the media on their side. A pound a week for charity means half a pint less to drink at the bar: not a big sacriﬁce to make, even on a student budget.

#/523%7/2+ $%!$,).%3 34!.$!2$)3%$ The news that coursework deadlines have been standardised must be welcomed by students across campus. Alongside previous campaigns for the anonymous marking of coursework, this is another move towards a fair and equal practice being employed in the assessment of essays at UEA. Before the changes, deadlines varied according to which school you attended, with some refusing to accept essays after the submission date, and others consenting to the most tenuous of hangover-based excuses. The new system brings a much needed clarity to the procedures for handing in work, and will reduce the confusion that has previously arisen over minor policy differences within the larger schools.

4(% #/.#2%4% $25'3 3526%9 Next issue sees the return of a Concrete institution: the Drugs Survey. This year we will be collecting information from students across UEA on who’s taken what and when, and finding out whether attitudes towards illegal substances have changed over the years since we started the survey. Do you think cannabis should be legalised? Are legal drugs such as alcohol more destructive than illegal ones? Has drug-taking become a rite of passage for many people, and should the penalties for possession be harsher? These questions and more will be considered when the results are collated and published in Issue 182. All we ask is for you to get involved. A blank questionnaire can be found on page 11 of this issue, so when you have finished reading your sparkling new copy of Concrete, just fill in your answers and return the completed survey to our office. We can be found upstairs in Union House, just along the corridor from Room 1.28. Find out what, if anything, your fellow students have been ingesting in a fortnight’s time.

0LEASE SEND LETTERS FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE %DITOR 3ARAH %DWARDES TO #ONCRETE 0/ "/8 .ORWICH ./2&/,+ .2 4* OR SEND AN EMAIL TO CONCRETE EDITORIAL UEA C UK

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%DITOR

CONCRETE EDITOR UEA AC UK 3ARAH %DWARDES

$EPUTY %DITOR

Dear Concrete,

CONCRETE EDITORIAL UEA AC UK *AMES #ONWAY

#HIEF #OPY %DITOR 3ARAH -ABLEY

I am becoming increasingly alarmed by the direction of Rabbit, the Student Union’s weekly newsletter. In recent weeks it has heavily fea- tured the campaign against ID cards, and this week it actually dedicated the entire front page to the issue. As many Concrete readers will know, Rabbit is written by the Union Communications Officer Andy Higson – an active member of Norwich’s Liberal Democrats. He even stood for election to the County Council for the party in May this year. With that in mind, it seems rather a strange coincidence that a Union policy which happens to precisely reflect the Lib Dem agenda has been given such massive prominence in the newsletter of a Union which is supposedly not attached to any party. The issue here is not whether or not the Union is right to support the campaign against ID cards – indeed, there are strong arguments to be made both for and against the proposals. The issue is whether there is a conflict of interests between Andy Higson’s political activities and the job we elected him to carry out at the Student Union. Is the ID cards campaign really so much more important than all the other issues affecting UEA students that it warrants the entire front page of our Union’s newsletter? And if the Un- ion Council decided on a campaign that reflect- ed the policies of Labour or the Tories, would that campaign be given an entire front page of Andy Higson’s Rabbit? Sincerely, Richard Bailey UG2 LAW

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41035

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

vÌiÀÊ>ÊviÜÊ Ã >«ÃÊ / iÊ"« iÊ i\Ê ivÌÊ `wi `ÊÃ ÕÌ ¶ } > `Ê > iÊ ÌÊÌ Ê iÀ > ÞÊÊ "Y 3#/44 "/$)% 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 When the 2006 World Cup qualifying groups were drawn, most England fans breathed a sigh of relief. For once England had managed to avoid the recognised major European football nations, such as Italy and Germany, who they had met in the past. Qualiﬁcation this time should have been easy. England got off to a sluggish start, drawing with Aus- tria. Although things did pick up as England started grinding out results, beating Azerbaijan 1-0 was hardly awe-inspiring. Sven Goran Eriksson simply claimed the score didn’t matter as long as England won, but surely a team who were at the time ranked in the top ten of the world can do better? Still failing to impress, England captured a lucky 1-0 win against Wales in September before an embarrassing defeat to Northern Ireland - although Eriksson did at least manage to apologise to fans this time. When the recent games against Austria and Poland came around it was no surprise that the nation were not overly optimistic about England’s chances. Outside the embarrassing defeat to Northern Ireland was an equally humiliating 4-1 friendly defeat to Denmark, which compounded the misery. England’s recent performance against Aus- tria did not inspire too many plaudits either, even though England won after yet another lacklustre performance. It was only thanks to a dubious penalty decision, which led to Frank Lampard adding to his international tally. After the game, Michael Owen claimed that England will go to the World cup with a squad which “apart from Brazil… is not bettered”.

Sven Goran Eriksson also stated that “there are far more positives than negatives” to be taken from the game. Although it is undoubtedly true that England do have a very talented squad, on the basis of that performance Sven Goran Eriksson could be accused of being deluded. There was an enforced tactical change against Poland, with England having to drop Steven Gerrard and David Beckham from a midfield system that was clearly not working. After the change, the England midfielders seemed much more comfortable in their roles, leading to a better performance all round. In the end, although England may have seemed lucky to score so late on in the game, the result was undoubtedly deserved. With such a positive performance, and high pro- file changes to the team, we will now have to see if Eriksson keeps the changes he originally enforced. The easiest route for Eriksson would be to simply put Gerrard and Beckham straight back into their usual positions. However, as the Poland performance perhaps demonstrated, that may not be best for the team. It’s a tough decision for Eriksson with Beckham and Gerrard both recently being short listed for World Player of the Year, alongside Frank Lamp- ard and Wayne Rooney. However, with the World Cup fast approaching Eriksson needs to make decisions soon. There is no doubt that England do have a very talented squad but they need motivation and leadership, otherwise this team will simply continue being underachievers. As for the long-term future, England have just been given a top seed in qualifying groups for the European 2008 competition. Another easy qualifying campaign dawns?

"Y -!2#53 */.%3 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 It is June 2006. A German football stadium is hosting a World Cup Quarter Final which, in a cruel twist of fate, has seen England and Brazil thrust together once more. England are trailing 1-0 in the 87th minute when the ball breaks to Joe Cole on the left touchline. Cafu, having bombed forward in the preceding Brazil attack, is caught out of position. Meanwhile, Peter Crouch is lolloping towards the penalty box and a well ﬂighted ball now could revive English hopes. Cole scurries towards the by-line and as all of England holds its breath…….he cuts back onto his right foot, Cafu makes up the lost yards to win the tackle. The move is dead. England are out of the World Cup. Over the past year, Joe Cole has been branded as the solution to England’s left sided problem. Howev- er, this troublesome equation will never truly balance "Y ,/5)3 (/,$).' 0!23/.3 30/243 %$)4/2

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Despite his talents, it seems Joe Cole will never please anyone. His critics point to the fact that he can’t use his left foot and consistently checks back onto his right to cross, but France managed to win the World Cup in 1998 without any left sided attacking midfielder, so why can’t we? I do not believe that Joe Cole is the worst player to have played in the left midfield position for England, indeed in my opinion he has been the best player we have had so far. What many don’t realise is that Joe Cole’s lack of a left foot is an asset when you have Ashley Cole galloping up behind you. As a naturally right-footed player Joe Cole will come infield, pulling the right- back out of position, which releases Ashley Cole into the free space to cross, something which he excels at. If one were to use either Middlesbrough’s young talent Stuart Downing or the Wayne Bridge/Ashley Cole combination, they would all be one-dimension-

until a truly left footed player occupies that position. The attributes that Cole brings to the role, when bal- anced against his tendency to over elaborate, attempt unnecessary tricks and rarely kick the ball with his left foot, mean that he should not be the man charged with patrolling the left wing. Instead of the arrogant Chelsea player, I would implore Sven Goran-Eriksson to utilise Stewart Downing when he regains full fitness. His wand of a left foot would be far more likely to find the head of an onrushing Peter Crouch in the dying moments of a crucial World Cup match. Another preferable situation would be advancing Ashley Cole up the field (a decision with which he would be perfectly comfortable) and playing Jamie Carragher, a fit Wayne Bridge or even Paul Konchesky at left back. Joe Cole has indeed made marked improvements as a player under the stewardship of Jose Mourinho, but a man who uses his left foot as infrequently as a solar eclipse, is surely not the answer for England on the left side of midfield. al, with none of them coming in-field but all staying out wide getting to the by-line to put in a cross. This may sound good, but would not use Ashley Cole’s talents to the full. I therefore believe that of the above mentioned, all of which are the leading candidates for the position, none have the attacking flair and talent matched up with the experience that Joe Cole has, especially as the Wayne Bridge/Ashley Cole combination has never proven to be a match winner - even if on paper it seems a good idea. As for Stuart Downing, 2006 may be too early for him, as he is unproven at both both Champions League (which Sven-Goran Ericksson regards as very important) and international level. Finally, Joe Cole has rarely been caught out-of-position, something which is of the utmost importance when playing some of the better teams at international level. He may be renowned for his attacking qualities and tricks on the ball, but he is a good tackler and has a strong work ethic, making him far more than just a ball of tricks.

7 À `Ê8 Êvii Ê Ã iÃÊivviVÌ "Y 345!24 (!22)3/. 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 On the 17th October, Australia completed a series whitewash, taking the one-off Test Match against the World XI by 210 runs. Having previously won three one-day internationals by similarly convincing mar- gins (93, 55, and 156 runs), Australia put their Ashes defeat behind them with a thoroughly clinical and professional performance, dispatching the World XI with consummate ease. The World XI only once managed to bat for 50 overs, being unable to effectively combat the precision of Glenn McGrath and the guile and variety of Shane Warne and the oft-overlooked Stuart MacGill. It cannot be said that technical deﬁciency is to blame for the failure of the World XI’s batsmen. While the likes of the rookie Ian Bell may have struggled against Warne in the summer, renowned batsmen such as Brian Lara and Rahul Dravid have the all- round game to cope with any attack. While Australia performed admirably – reminding everyone just why

they are still the number one team in world cricket – it was clear that there was something inherently wrong with the World XI’s batting. The bowling did not disappoint, with Flintoff and Harmison evoking memories of England’s Ashes victory with an incisive and aggressive spell of fast bowling, taking 3 wickets apiece to restrict Australia to 199 in their second in- nings, but it seemed that when put under pressure, the World XI batsmen were simply not up for the ﬁght. In much the same way as England’s footballers often under-perform in friendly matches but have only lost once in World Cup qualiﬁers, the World XI batsmen, when freed from the demands of securing a result for their country, forgot about the concentra- tion and determination required for a long stay at the crease, and were consequently found wanting. Contrast their efforts to those of England’s batsmen throughout the Ashes and it seems clear that the added pressure of playing for one’s country brings with it an extra focus and resolve. In truth, the result of this series never really mattered, but it was barely a contest.

41035 27

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

Ýi`ÊÀiÃÕ ÌÃÊv ÀÊ1 Êv ÌL> iÀÃ "Y -!2#53 */.%3 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 De Monfort University (Leicester) made the fairly substantial journey to UEA for the first Men’s football BUSA fixture of the season. It may well have been a journey that they were sorry to have made as a 3-0 score line merely hints at the domination enjoyed by UEA. It conspired that the first notable action of the match would also be the most controversial. A pleas- ing passing move by UEA resulted in a cross by Jon Ri- chardson being converted by Nick Gaskell via means of a spectacular overhead kick. It was a super goal that Frank Lampard would have been proud to have claimed for his own. Yet Gaskell himself was not even granted that privilege. The referee’s fairly incoherent response for disallowing it, was that he could not be 100% certain that the ball had in fact struck the back of the net and had not just gone over the bar. Fuelled by this sense of injustice UEA began to ensure that De Montfort were made abundantly aware that they were involved in a serious game of football, as numerous players made use of the wet conditions to demonstrate the art of a good slide tackle – take the ball and just a little bit of the man as well for good measure. One De Montfort player failed to take any of the ball with one of his tackles and thus handed a free kick to UEA on the left corner of the penalty box. With everyone expecting the high ball, Rob Evans cleverly slid his shot along the floor defeating strikers, defend- ers and goalkeeper alike, to nestle the ball in the bottom right hand corner. Evans then turned provider, swinging in a deli-

cious corner which was met firmly by the head of Jason Lincoln who opened his UEA scoring account over a year after his debut. Perhaps as a result of securing a 2-0 lead, UEA started the second half poorly, defending too deep and resorting to hopeful punts up-field. Having said that, De Montfort still failed to muster a shot on target and in fact, from one of the long balls, Dave Yeo- mans hounded down one of the opposition defend- ers to win possession, but his shot was well saved by the De Montfort keeper. The high standard of the Leicester goalkeeper did come as somewhat of a shock considering he was sporting the tracksuit bottom look which, ever since the days of Dimitri Kharine, has always been an appearance to mistrust in men between the sticks. It did appear as if UEA might end making life somewhat difficult for themselves, as chances slid just wide for Paolo Cerroni and Rob Evans and another was just plain squandered by Marcus Jones. It therefore fell to Captain Gaskell to ease any nerves by converting a cross from six yards out. From there UEA saw the remaining time out for the 3-0 victory, which was impressive in the main part due to the outstanding tackling and total commitment of all team members. This meant that De Montfort not only left with defeat on their minds, but also pain in their limbs. The 1st XI faced a difficult game in the form of Loughborough 2nd’s and despite a strong performance from a relatively new team they ended up being defeated 5-1. Nicki Young continued his impressive start to life in a UEA shirt with the solitary strike for UEA;; it was his seventh in only three starts since joining in September.

7 }Ê-Ì>ÀÌÊÌ Ê 1- Ê i>}ÕiÊ v ÀÊ1 Ê >` iÃÊ iÌL> ÊÌi> Ã "Y +!4)% '2%%. 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 Wednesday saw the start of the BUSA league for women’s UEA 1st and 2nd netball teams. UEA 1sts faced Cambridge 2nds and after holding the lead for most

of the game with a particularly solid and determined defence UEA won, with a well deserved 36-28. UEA 2nds faced University College Northampton 2nds. Having never played together before UEA displayed confident, fluent play, resulting in an emphatic 52-14 victory. Both results secure the teams an all important first 3 points in the BUSA tables.

ÕÀ iÃÊ> `Ê« ÀÊv À Ê > ÌÊ ÀÜ V Ê ÌÞÊ«À }ÀiÃÃ "Y 7),, !,&/2$ 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 Norwich City’s promotion hopes have been dealt a severe blow over the last couple of weeks. While it seems the ﬁrst international break did them the world of good, the last one has stopped any kind of momentum the club had. The last two games have not been up to the high standard that this club sets itself and have left the Ca- naries lagging in 15th place in the Championship. The injuries to key players such as Safri have not helped. There were high hopes that the home game against Millwall would provide three points and a necessary boost up the table. However, it was never going to be this easy against a battling Millwall side struggling at the foot of the table. The away side took an early lead when Ade Williams headed the ball in off the upright. City looked much brighter in the second half though and thoroughly deserved their equaliser. Ashton, who has been struggling with injuries and form, silenced any critics as he hooked in the equaliser in the 52nd minute. There was hope yet amongst the Carrow Road faithful that Norwich would push on and get a winner. It seemed like this would be the case as in the last ten minutes City were awarded a penalty. There was quite a gap to the spot kick being taken as the Millwall players protested. Barry Hayles got sent off as a con- sequence. Huckerby eventually stepped up and it was

saved by Andy Marshall. Of course this was deeply ironic as Marshall has become a hate figure amongst many of the Norwich faithful because of his antics at bitter rivals Ipswich. If the inability to take three points against Mill- wall was frustrating, Norwich did not even get close to a point against high-flying Luton. The home side started brilliantly and did not look back. They took the lead in the 15th minute as Feeney stabbed the ball in from close range. This triggered an avalanche of goals for Luton, the second came from a horrendous error from Green. Edwards launched a hopeful ball into the box and keeper seemed to have it covered, but he slipped at the vital moment. Hopefully this won’t harm his England credentials. Things went from bad to worse for Norwich as goals form Holmes and Howard put Luton 4-0 up at half time. Norwich were much better in the second half and created a number of chances. They got two goals back from top scorer Ashton and sub Jarvis. However it was a case of too little too late as the defence had already collapsed in the first half. This now leaves Norwich four points off the play- off places in what is increasingly becoming a compact and competitive league. It seems that no team are un- beatable, although Sheffield United are the exceptions and have raced away to a four point lead. Fortunately, Norwich have not lost too much ground in the last two games, but with injuries hopefully coming back soon it is now time to make a real push to the top part of the table.

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1 Ê i ½ÃÊ£ÃÌÊ8 Ê V iÞÊÊÊÊÊ V Ì ÕiÊÕ Li>Ìi ÊÀÕ Ê> `ÊÊÊÊÊÊ >` iÃÊV Ì ÕiÊÃÌÀ }ÊÃÌ>ÀÌ "Y $2%7 6%2-%5,%. Saturday’s 7-0 win over Ely City allowed UEA Men’s 1st XI to continue their unbeaten run this season. In the opening minutes of the game captain Matt Watson took the initiative and opened the scoring. A power- ful strike from the top of the ‘D’ left the goalkeeper standing as the ball firmly struck the back-board. A short spell of play ensued until a penalty corner given away by Ely. This allowed Graham Medland to con- vert a well worked short corner routine. With UEA’s continuous pressure on a dejected Ely defence, it wasn’t long until a sequence of sharp passes resulted in Bruce Kingma finding himself free in the ‘D’. Despite having a clear path to goal, Kingma selflessly played the ball in to Drew Vermeulen who was standing free on the post. He cleanly slotted UEA’s third goal in under the diving keeper. Watson concluded the first-half with a clean strike from a short corner to ensure UEA went into the break with a commanding 4-0 lead over their op- ponents. As the whistle was blown to start the second half, the crowd watched as the UEA team began to increase the game’s tempo. The comfortable lead al-

"Y (!..!( -!8%9 UEA ladies 1st XI travelled to Bury St Edmunds this week and, after last weeks result, began the game with conﬁdence. The ﬁrst half began well with UEA putting pressure on the Bury team, and narrowly missing several goal scoring opportunities in open play. Bury soaked up the pressure however and broke away several times, only to be met by a solid UEA defence. The second half saw more opportunities for UEA to score, but unfortunately the short corners gained were not converted. Despite all the hard work put in by both teams the score remained 0-0. The recent winning streak of the UEA 2nd XI was maintained this week with an exceptional performance

lowed them to dictate the game and Watson took full advantage of a difficult opportunity at the top of the ‘D’. A clinical strike into the goal’s bottom corner was the last finish of his game hat-trick. With quarter of an hour left of play UEA’s Andy Clements made a strong challenge on one of the Ely attackers. The umpire called dangerous play and awarded a yellow card to Clements who left ten players on the pitch, as he walked over to the ‘sin-bin’ at the side of the field. However UEA managed to maintain their com- posure and the mid-fielder Vermeulen netted himself two more goals in short succession. The final whistle was blown and the goal tally was 7-0. After such an emphatic victory, UEA were under- standably euphoric. Watson summed up the performance with the words, “We really played for each other today and were constantly working as a unit. It is a real pleasure playing with a team that you know you can rely on.” UEA’s unbeaten run sees them second in the league on goal difference. With a well drilled and co- hesive side, the 1st XI are looking to build on their current success and are aiming at promotion this season. Next Saturday sees UEA travel away for a tough game against Bury St Edmunds. by the squad. At half time visitors Old Buckingham found themselves 4-0 down with Stephanie Simpson and Angela Fletcher scoring the four goals between them, Simpson scoring three of the four. The second half saw Old Buckingham working hard to get into the game but two further goals were scored by player of the match Jenny Bromley and Amy Hammick. UEA showing great promise for the season ahead. The 3rd XI coped well playing on the unfamil- iar surface of grass this week. Despite an aggressive opposition UEA scored early in the game, with Charlie Cuncliffe scoring her first goal for the UEA team. The opposition continued to increase the pressure throughout the second half, but the UEA defence held, until finally the Harriers broke through and lev- elled the score with a late second half goal. Final score: 1-1.

41035

$PODSFUF Wednesday October 26 2005

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-ALE AND FEMALE RACE WINNERS !NDY 7HETSTONE AND %MMA #OOMBS "Y *%--! 4(!+% 30/243 #/22%30/.$%.4 The UEA Athletics team have had an outstanding start to their cross country season. A team of 15 ath- letes travelled to Bacton Woods last Wednesday to compete in

the East Anglian Cross Country League. On a wet and miserable day there were shining performances from fresher Andy Whet- stone and fourth year Emma Coombs who won their respective races in some style. The men com-

peted over a course of 10km while the women contested the 5km. Andy and Emma were backed up by good runs from team-mates Jemma Thake and Glen Watts who ﬁnished in second and third places. Cross Country Captain Calum

Concrete Prize Crossword #70 ACROSS DOWN 1. A process that does not seek a consensus of the majority (12) 1. Not plausible enough to accept 7. The jewelry of rap artists (5) (12) 8. Entrails and internal organs of a 2. Using chemicals to change the butchered animal (5) colour of a fabric (5) 9. Specialists in microchips, 3. Having enchanted properties information gathered (abbr) (5) (7) 10. Reasoned thinking (5) 4. Winter clothing, an animals 11. Of the country of Van the Man, fur (4) Paisely and Joyce (5) 5. Do away with (7) 12. Taken from the Australians 6. Categorised by letter (12) thanks to Vaughn and co (5) 14. To succeed and outshine in a task 13. Infirmary (8) or job (5) 15. A bobby on the other side of 16. Worn to catch fallen food (3) the Atlantic (3) 17. Domesticated donkey (3) 16. Virus working its way from the 18. Plentiful (5) east (4,3) 20. Scared by heat (5) 19. Upright (5) 21. Unfastened (5) 20. Your Noggin (5) 22. To smuggle people or drugs through borders (7) 23. To be fluent in more than one tongue (12)

Nicol was pleased with the results and described the day as “an excellent start for UEA. I’m really looking forward to our next ﬁxture where I hope we can build on these performances”. He put in a solid run to ﬁnish in sixth place. Other notable performances

came from Anna Yosin (10th), Francesca Lee (11th), Mario Sanchez (18th), Rob Green (19th) and a much improved Paul Smart (20th). The efforts of the team were rewarded with free hot food and drinks at the ﬁnish, which made

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up for the mud and bad weather. The league series sees UEA Ath- letics Club up against local teams such as RAF Coltishall, St Edmund Pacers and the Suffolk Police. The next ﬁxture takes place on the 2nd of November at RAF Wat- tisham in Suffolk.

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