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utomated nxieties
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2016
Venue’s art supplement
26th April 2016 Issue 325
concrete-online.co.uk @Concrete_UEA ConcreteNewspaper
UEA: you’re boring in bed Photo: Flickr, James Lee
Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor UEA students’ sex lives are becoming increasingly less adventurous, Concrete’s 2015-16 Sex Survey results reveal. The data collected from the annual survey, which analyses students’ attitudes towards and participation in sexual activity, indicates a trend towards shorter sexual encounters, fewer threesomes and less daily masturbation. Over the last four years of the survey, the most popular response to the question regarding the average length of a sexual encounter has been 15-30 minutes. This year, 38.6% of respondents selected this answer. This was the highest amount of people choosing this answer so far, with 38.3% of respondents in 2014-15 stating that sex, on average, lasted between 15-30 minutes, 38.35% in 2013-14 and 33.52% in 2012-13. This means that more of us are having shorter
sex, as the percentage of people whose sex, on average, lasted for more than an hour decreased from 2014-15’s 4.6% to 3.6% this year, which is down from 13.7% in 2012-13. Furthermore, this year 13.2% of people said they’d had sex with “more than one partner at once”. Compared to 2014-15’s 15.6%, and the previous year’s 9.7%, this isn’t a huge change, but compared to the result of 28.7% from 2012-13, an obvious general downward trend in this statistic is evident, with fewer of us having sex with more than one person at a time. It’s not only threesomes that are becoming less popular, infidelity is as well. UEA students consider it less acceptable to cheat on a partner, with only 6.7% of respondents to this year’s survey answering “Yes”, in comparison with last year’s 8.8% and 2014’s 9.1%. Both of these results, however, were a significant drop from 2013’s 26.3%, a year in which over a quarter of students considered cheating acceptable.
However, when it comes to solo activity, the same statistical decrease is also apparent. Four years ago, almost half (48.5%) of all students owned one or more sex toys, whereas this year the same question was answered positively by less than 40% (38.6%) of students. The results of the survey also highlight that students at UEA are masturbating less. Of survey respondents who said that they have had sex, the number who also admitted to masturbating daily was 13.1%. In 201415 this figure was 11.7%, and in 2013-14 it was as high as 21.5%. However, neither of these come close to the result of 2012-13, in which 39.3% of respondents stated that they masturbated daily. This was the most popular masturbation frequency that year, with results for often (multiple times a week) and occasionally (once or twice a week) trailing behind at 27.3% and 21.4% respectively. Interestingly, at first glance it appears that the one statistic to buck this trend of less
often and increasingly less adventurous sex is whether or not students have had sex at all. Including oral, anal and vaginal sex, 90.4% of students said they had experienced one or more of these in 2015-16. This is compared to 87.2% in 2014-15, 89.2% in 2013-14 and 77.0% in 2012-13. While a distinct, if slim, increase is noted in these numbers from 2013 onwards, the surprisingly low percentage of 77% in 2012-13 can be explained by the high (15.6%) percentage of people who stated that they were unsure whether they had experienced any of these three types of sex. On the whole, the data from this year’s survey demonstrates a decrease in sexual activity amongst UEA students. Whether this is indicative of an increasingly serious attitude among students towards their university experience or simply suggests a change in sexual behaviour amongst our generation, it is clear that the results from previous Concrete Sex Surveys are very much becoming a thing of the past.
26th April 2016
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Editorial Will Temple
COMMENTcartoon
The University of East Anglia’s independent student newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 26th April 2016 Issue 325
Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ 01603 593466 www.concrete-online.co.uk
Editors-in-Chief Dan. Falvey Joe Jameson concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor Peter Sheehan concrete.deputy@uea.ac.uk Online Administrators Rob Drury Tom Etheridge concrete.online@uea.ac.uk
Our year as Editors-in-Chief is over
We’re excited to see how Concrete develops in its 25th year
Global Caitlin Doherty concrete.global@uea.ac.uk
editors. These three have some fantastic ideas for the future of Concrete, and we couldn’t think of anyone better than them to take Concrete into it’s 25th year! We’re incredibly excited to see what they get up to, and we’re sure that for those of you here next year, will not be disappointed, so don’t miss the chance to get involved! We’re very proud of what our whole team has achieved this year, which couldn’t have been rounded off any better, than our success at the SPA awards at the beginning of April. Winning best publication is something which we couldn’t be more astounded by, and we’re
Features Olivia Minnock Alice Mortimer concrete.features@uea.ac.uk
Joe Jameson & Dan Falvey Editors-in-Chief
T
News Jessica Frank-Keyes concrete.news@uea.ac.uk
his is it, our final issue as Editors-inChief. As you can see from our front page, this week’s issue is t quite the bumper issue to round the year! As always, we’ve conducted Concrete’s annual sex survey, for which we’ve produced a supplement that we’re all particularly please with, so do give it a read, your fantasies always give cause for us to raise our eyebrows, so thank you for filling it in! We’ve also got some fantastic coverage of UEA’s triumphant performance at Derby Day last Wednesday, including match reports, final scores and some fantastic photography. Our live coverage of Derby Day faced a few trials and tribulations, namely when our website catastrophically failed at about 11 in the morning, but we had fun all the same. Finally, to round off this particularly busy issue, Venue have produced a fantastic art supplement, called Automated Anxieties. This has been a labour of love for a lot of the Venue team, and they’re all looking forward to the supporting exhibition which is being held in bookable room one in Union house on Saturday 30th April. Check out the supplement and our website for more information! We’ve gone from strength to strength this year, so it is so pleasing to know that we are handing over to Megan Baynes, who will take up the role of Editor-in-Chief in September, supported by Jessica Frank-Keyes and Caitlin Doherty who will support her as Deputy
“We are extremely privileged here at UEA to have a union which respects its societies and what they do” so grateful to everyone who has been in any way involved with Concrete throughout the year. Talking of Concrete turning 25 next year, this paper has certainly been through a good many changes in its history. If you have the time, I’d strongly recommend looking through our digital archive which goes back to day one. The headlines through the years are often very witty, but always relating to serious news which has affected students both here, in Norwich, and across the country. Whilst the media scene is changing, and it is becoming increasingly challenging for print media to stay relevant, we like to think that what we do is of some note, and the voice which we grant to all of our writers by being
proudly independent from both the university and the union is something which campus would be poorer for if it was absent. Meeting so many of our colleagues at the SPA awards (I promise this is the last time that I’ll bring it up!), we were surprised at the level of control which they have at different stages in their respective histories have had to relinquish in order to keep the issues coming out. We are extremely privileged here at UEA to have a union which respects its societies and what they do, and leave them to get on with it, only providing support and input when students come looking for it. So when we heard the news from Cambridge, that their union was threatening them with significant funding cuts to the extent that they would have to wind up their print edition, we were all extremely sad. This is of course devastating news for those involved with The Cambridge Student, but it also has negative repercussions for the rest of the student body at Cambridge who want to have a voice to express their opinions outside of a union controlled medium. Whilst this may sound like an incredibly niech problem, only affecting those who want to get involved with a publication whilst they are at university. However, if student media closes up, the national media will suffer, not only because it will become severed from a group of individuals who would have fed through to national positions, but also because of how it will deny the country some of the best debate and discussion available at the present time. We students do not mince our words, and it would be a tragedy should we be removed from the one thing which we are so proud of: our voice.
Comment Megan Bradbury concrete.comment@uea.ac.uk Science&Environment Jacob Beebe concrete.scienv@uea.ac.uk Travel Dahlia Al-Abdullah concrete.travel@uea.ac.uk Sport James Chesson Tom Gordon concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk Chief Copy Editor Tom Etheridge concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk Principle researcher Sam Naylor email TBC
Editorial inquiries concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk concrete.venue@uea.ac.uk Complaints & corrections concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk
Front page credits Top photo: supplied. Bottom, left: Niamh Jones. Bottom, right, far right: Wikimedia, Frank K No part of this newspaper may be reproduced by any means without the permission of the Editors-in-Chief, Dan Falvey and Joe Jameson. Published by the Union of UEA Students on behalf of Concrete. Concrete is a UUEAS society, but retains editorial independence as regards to content. Opinions expressed herin are those of individual writers, not of Concrete or its editorial team.
News 26th April 2016
3
East Anglian “Britain Stronger In” campaign launched at UEA with minister Liz Truss >> Page 4
NUS Conference round-up Creation of a full-time, paid Trans Officer role Motion 605 was passed almost unanimously on April 20th, at the NUS’ annual general meeting. This motion, as well as calling for a full-time Trans Officer, calls for the creation of an autonomous NUS Trans Liberation Campaign. The vote well exceeded the 2/3 majority required to pass and was met with an enthusiastic and emotional reaction by delegates at the conference. The motion was submitted by the NUS LGBT+ Committee in conjunction with several student’s unions. UEA’s NUS delegates voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
Motion to commemorate the Holocaust passed
Photo: Yinbo Yu UUEAS Activities and Opportunities Office Yinbo Yu, with NUS President-elect Malia Bouttia at the NUS National Conference
National Union of Students elects Malia Bouattia as its first black female president Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor Malia Bouattia was elected as the new president of the National Union of Students (NUS) last week, becoming the first black woman and first Muslim student to hold the position. At the NUS national conference in Brighton, Bouattia beat incumbent president Megan Dunn, as well as Adil Waraich, to win 51% of the vote in the first round. Dunn is the first NUS President to be defeated for re-election since 1979. Bouattia, the current Black Students’ Officer for the NUS, stated in her election address that she wanted to put liberation at the heart of the NUS’ work. She told the conference that “from cuts to maintenance grants, college closures, the black attainment gap and the Prevent agenda, the number of voices and groups being silenced by this government grows by days”. However some have criticised Bouattia. During the campaign; the heads of 50 Jewish Societies at universities across the UK wrote an open letter asking for clarification regarding comments made in the past by Bouattia which were allegedly anti-Semitic. In a 2011 article she described the University of Birmingham, which has a large Jewish society, as a Zionist outpost in British higher education. Responding to the letter, Bouattia said that she had taken issue with Zionist politics, and what she described as the influence of one pro-Israel think-tank, the Henry Jackson Society, but that “in no way did I or would I link these positions to Jewish people, but to a particular (non-Jewish) organisation”. “I celebrate the ability of people and students of all backgrounds to get together
and express their backgrounds and faith openly and positively, and will continue to do so”, she wrote. The NUS conference passed a motion this week pledging to do more to tackle anti-Semitism on campus, which was supported by Bouattia and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS). The UJS released a statement after the election, saying that they hoped the relationship with Bouattia would be positive. There will, however, still be many Jewish students who have not been satisfied with Bouattia’s response so far to the concerns raised by Jewish students over the last few weeks, they added. Commenting on the election of Bouattia, SU Campaigns and Democracy Officer Chris Jarvis said: “this year at the NUS Conference students made history, by electing Malia Bouattia as our first black woman President. The subsequent attacks on Malia in the media have been shameful, smearing her despite her support for a motion calling for greater efforts to tackle antisemitism on campus. She’s a hard working, inspiring activist with a track record of repeatedly standing up to racism and discrimination. Her election was one of the most electrifying, empowering and inspiring moments of all the activism I’ve been involved in”. UUEAS held its final Union Council the day after the NUS National conference and addressed calls for a referendum over UEA’s continued affiliation with the NUS. The union council rep for Conservative Future Jonathan Gillespie, proposed a procedural motion to take the continued affiliation of NUS to a referendum of all UEA students Speaking to Concrete Gillespie said “student groups up and down the country are
currently looking to disaffiliate from NUS after a shameful conference. The disgrace of the Holocaust Memorial Day debate, the excessive bureaucracy and its continued controversy has been the cause of scorn and embarrassment for students”. He added that “the election of Malia as the new President has brought worries to many students across the country who find it unacceptable that somebody who has called Birmingham University a Zionist outpost and has had the audacity to suggest that the media is controlled by some Zionist conspiracy. Her flagrant anti-Semitism is absolutely unacceptable to many on our campus”. He suggested that rather than addressing students concerns “the union has, instead, called people racist for daring to criticise her for her disgusting comments in the past. The irony is that the union will still proclaim its democratic mandate over students and yet will not give students any say over its continued membership of such a disgraceful organisation”. The procedural motion failed to pass. When asked about the debate on whether to hold a referendum on continued affiliation to NUS, Jarvis said: “the NUS delivers vital support and training to SU officers, campaigns on national student issues and through NUS’ purchasing consortium, the SU saves over £300k on the purchase of stuff for our bars and shops”. ”A referendum to pull out of the NUS proposed unsurprisingly by Conservative Future- would have been a costly waste of our time and resources at UEA when we should be focussing on campaigning to cut costs on campus and improve mental health services in DOS- both of which we are getting help from NUS on”.
Motion 404, Anti-Semitism on Campus, proposed by Oxford University Students Union passed, along with amendment A, calling for the NUS to organise in commemoration of the Holocaust. The amendment caused controversy on campus and was picked up by the media, as delegates debated whether it singled out the Holocaust and ignored other atrocities. The amendment was propsed by Birmingham University Guild of Students, while the motion itself suggested that the NUS had an ongoing history of antiSemitism which needed to be addressed. Three UEA delegates voted in favour of motion 404, with one abstention and one not present for the vote.
Student media allowed to report on elections Motion 314, on Media and Student Union Officer elections, was put forward by Bath University Student’s Union. The Motion suggested that the restrictions placed upon student media during student union elections are too restrictive and proposed that the NUS work with student media and organisations including the Student Publication Association (SPA), the National Student Television Association (NaSTA) and the Student Radio Association (SRA) in order to improve coverage. Jem Collins, the former chair of the Student Publication Association (SPA) described the news that “student media can now finally expect the right to fairly report on their own elections”, as something “they’ve been ludicrously denied for years at some institutions”.
Preventing Prevent Motion passed The NUS passed a motion to oppose the government’s anti-radicalisation legislation, Prevent. Motion 406 stated that the conference believes that “Islamophobia is massively on the rise across Europe, is state-sponsored and legitimised by the mainstream media”. The motion resolved to educate students on the “dangers of Prevent. The overall aim of the motion was to “stop Prevent from being a legal compliance” for higher education institutions to follow. All five of UEA’s NUS delegates voted in favour of the motion.
26th April 2016
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News
East Anglian “ Stronger In” campaign launched at UEA >> Cross party coalition begins to form as minister Lizz Trust and Lord Taverne vist UEA as part of East of England campaign >> Lizz Truss highlights threats to university funding in the case of Brexit
COMMENT Henry Newton argues the case for a British withdrawal from the EU
B
ritain joined the European Economic Community in 1973 and has been brought into continually-closer union ever since. Claims have been made that roughly 50% of our laws are made in Brussels, where the UK has just 73 seats out of a total of 751. This means that we, the British people, have less than a 10% influence on over half the laws that we live under. For proponents of democracy, this has little justification. Members of the ‘In’ campaign often cite that 53% of our trade, and hence jobs, rely upon European Markets, but there is little economic justification for suggesting that these would be at risk were we to leave. The truth is that we are net importers from the EU, so the greatest economic shock would be to the EU if all trade were to cease. The EU has other negative effects upon the UK. EU regulations have put financial pressures on UK manufacturing, our sea territories have been opened to foreign fishing, and tariffs have made it difficult for the UK to trade with Commonwealth Nations. The EU wants ever-closer union, and if we don’t leave it is likely to succeed. On the 23th of June the British people will have an opportunity to rid the country of this burden – it is a chance not to miss.
COMMENT Stephen Cole argues that staying in the EU is the best choice for students Photo: Jack Robinson Jess Frank-Keyes & Caitlin Doherty News editor and News reporter The “Britain Stronger In” campaign in the East of England was launched at UEA on 14th April, marking the start of the official regional effort for Britain to remain in the European Union, ahead of the referendum on EU membership on June the 23rd. Attending the event were Conservative MP for South West Norfolk and Minister for Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Liz Truss, and Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Taverne. They held a question and answer session for members of the student campaign group, UEA Students For Europe. Truss was keen to take the opportunity to reiterate the apparent benefits for young people that would come as a consequence of a Remain vote, particularly those concerning employment opportunities. “There are a myriad of reasons why remaining in the EU is particularly in the interests of young people…Europe is vitally important for our trade, which ultimately [equates to] more jobs and opportunities for young people”. Furthermore, the MP used UEA’s record on international student travel to promote the educational benefits of the Union. She said a leave vote would hinder “fantastic schemes like Erasmus which many students are part
of” as well as access to academic research. “UEA is a fantastic example of a university that shares research right across Europe... if we were to leave the EU then everybody would be spending their time rewriting laws that we’ve already got in place and not focusing on the important thing of attracting students” to UK universities. Despite a coalition forming between the Conservative and Labour leadership over June’s vote, with both Cameron and Corbyn advocating a vote to stay, tensions between the parties have arisen over the handing of issues directly related to EU membership, most significantly, the government’s handling of the Tata Steel crisis. When questioned on Corbyn’s criticism of the incident, Ms Truss remained optimistic on both inter-party relations, and the role of the EU in British industry. “Being part of the EU means that we’re able to take measures against China for example, and we’re able to make our steel industry more competitive, so I don’t accept that criticism at all. I think we’ve seen consistently good economic growth by being part of the European Union”. Deputy Vice Chancellor, Neil Ward, echoed Truss’ statements, as he made clear the university’s support for the Stronger In Europe campaign, in the wake of last month’s official declaration that the university would be backing a “Remain” vote. He voiced fears that leaving the European
Union could be detrimental to access to research funding. “There are big sources of research funding from the EU and it’s only if you’re a member of the European Union that you can help determine how that money is spent an have influence over the kinds of research that gets done”. Research by the Observer has suggested that it is young people who will tip the balance in this vote, implying that a low turnout of voters under the age of 30, as is common in general elections, would proportionally give the leave vote a win, however, a greater turnout by the young electorate could firmly secure a remain outcome. Consequently, Ward reiterated the importance of UEA students getting involved with EU votes, debates and news reports. “I would absolutely encourage students to engage in this debate, it’s the biggest political question that they are likely to face for decades and its likely to have a real, material impact on their economic prospects and the quality of life in the UK. It’s going to have huge implications for UK businesses and the employment market. I think that students should really pay careful attention to this debate”. Truss mentioned after the event’s question and answer session that “[I] just had a feeling” that “people in Britain don’t want to leave the EU”. She noted that the “critical thing” would be “getting turnout up to a General Election level” which in 2015 was 66%.
I
t is rather ironic that all of the ‘Stronger Together’ claims for the Scottish referendum, a mere 20 months ago have now disappeared. Whilst I can understand many peoples’ frustrations with the EU, I cannot see that the benefits of a Brexit would outweigh the advantages of remaining in. As students ourselves it is a no-brainer to vote to remain in the EU; it is expected that three million jobs will be effected if a Brexit were to occur in both the long and short term. Meanwhile, an estimated £40bn in cuts should Britain leave would be likely to cause considerable damage to our vital institutions such as universities and the NHS. There are many more benefits similarly striking to these. I have intentionally left out the benefits to large businesses and the wider economy. More focus in the “Stronger in” camp needs to be placed on the benefits that impact our everyday lives, particularly for us as students who are looking ahead to post-education. Yet claims from the Brexit camp such as that the EU damages Britain’s independence are absurd. The divide between ‘Leave.EU’ and ‘Vote Leave’ only further damages their already questionable credibility. Which has not been helped by Boris Johnson’s comments the other day about why Obama’s comments on what a potential Brexit might mean for the UK should be ignored. The answer is simple: vote remain.
26th April 2016
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News
Half of all university students are losing marks for incorrect referencing – Sutton Trust Isaac Scoulding News reporter Research conducted by the Sutton Trust indicates that half of the UK’s university students are losing marks for not referencing their work correctly. Just under 2,900 students were questioned by the website RefME, an app and website designed to help students use citations and reference their work correctly. Almost 80% of students surveyed said they were concerned about referencing, while 71% were worried that they would face disciplinary action for plagiarism. However, one in 10 of those who responded to the survey did not identify the hiring of a ‘ghostwriter’ to complete their work for them as constituting academic misconduct, while 7% did not realise that work copied and pasted from a website must be cited. The majority of universities run work submitted by students through anti-plagiarism tools such as Turnitin. RefME stated that referencing has “a great impact” on the success of students at university, but said “this widespread concern over facing disciplinary actions can be easily avoided by simply learning to reference correctly and accurately”. Almost half of those questioned said their
concerns were caused by the failure of their universities to give them enough information on the referencing requirements. The survey also shows that students are increasingly turning to online tools to help them, with just under half using a referencing tool and
81%
The percentage of students who are concerned about referencing
44% using a plagiarism checker prior to submitting their work. Tom Hatton, the founder of RefME, said the finding showed referencing is “a real problem that tools like RefME are trying to solve”. He continued: “We want students to do better research by knowing that they can use such tools to help them along their research journey.” The findings have emerged just months after the Times newspaper exposed a “plagiarism epidemic” among Britain’s universities, with almost 50,000 students being caught cheating in the last three years. The University of Kent had the highest number of cheating students, with almost 2,000 caught. This was followed by the University of Westminster with 1,933, and the University of East London with 1,282.
Photo: Concrete Photography
Government urges young people and students to register to vote in advance of EU referendum Isaac Scoulding News reporter
Photo: Jack Robinson
The Government has issued all colleges and universities a letter, urging them to encourage students to register to vote on June 23rd. The letter to Vice Chancellors of higher education institutions, written by Jo Johnson, requested that those in the higher education community “do everything [they] can to encourage those eligible to register to vote”. It also included the simple steps on how to register to vote, stating the process can “be done online on gov.uk in just a few minutes”. The letter invited principals to host an array of awareness events in the hope of encouraging young people to register to vote. The letters have been released just months after the House of Commons blocked a move by the House of Lords to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the EU referendum. Opinion polls have shown that about two thirds of voters under the age of 40 back staying in the EU, whilst pro-EU campaigners have faced the dilemma of encouraging young people to register to vote for some time. A political debate in Leeds revealed that
almost 100%of the student audience would vote to see the UK remain in the EU. Young people are widely seen as having fewer cultural concerns about immigration, and politicians have emphasized young people’s opportunity to work, study and travel on the continent. Students and young people will be some of the hardest hit if the UK does decide to
23rd June
The date of the upcoming referendum on Britain’s continued EU membership.
leave the EU on June 23rd, and are being urged to “take power” by voting. Nick Boles stated in the letter that “students have bright futures ahead of them, and they should have their say in this crucial decision. I want all of us in the further education and sixth form community to do everything we can to encourage those eligible to register to vote”. The letter also described the referendum as one of the biggest decisions of British citizens lives”. The deadline for registering to vote is midnight on June 7th. Young people are predicted to be the group of voters that have a deciding voice in the outcome of the referendum.
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News UEA moves down to 17th place in WhatUni Student Choice Awards Charlotte Gaines News reporter Last week, University comparison website WhatUni announced the results of its annual Student Choice Awards. 25,000 students nationwide rated 125 universities from one to five across a range of 10 categories, whose scores were then averaged out. The winner of 2016’s University of the Year Award was agricultural Harper Adams University, which also won the Job Prospects and Student Support categories. Last year’s University of the Year winner, Loughborough University, won the Student Union and Clubs and Societies awards. Swansea University won for best Courses and Lecturers and Nottingham Trent University won the International award. Leeds University was the highest ranking Russell Group University, at fifth place, whilst Oxford and Cambridge failed to reach the top of this year’s list, reaching positions 50 and 46 respectively. London universities ranked the lowest for overall student satisfaction and London was the only region not to achieve an average of at least 80%. For the second year running, overall student satisfaction has risen and now stands at 83%, up from 81% last year. However,
four categories saw significant decreases, including job prospects, clubs and societies, student unions and student support. Overall, the University of East Anglia dropped places in all categories from its 2015 results, though it still ranked higher than Essex in almost all categories. UEA achieved an overall rating of 4.36 this year, placing it in 17th place behind Glasgow and Kent. This is compared to ninth position in 2015 and Essex’s overall position of 42nd this year. UEA reached 28th place in the Job Prospects category, compared to 92nd place for the University of Essex. The university also achieved 26th place for Course and Lecturers, 65th for Accommodation and 37th for its Student Support services. UEA reached 23rd place for its University Facilities, 15th place for Clubs and Societies and 14th position in the ‘International’ category. This ranking comes after last month’s announcement that the University of East Anglia has the best university campus environment in the UK, according to the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey. UEA recieved a top ten ranking for the sixth year in a row, coming seventh in the league table. UEA came joint top in the UK for campus environment and topped the Eastern region ranking, beating the University of Cambridge.
Teaching applications fall by 6.5% in the last year Amanda Ng News reporter Teacher training applications have reduced by 6.5% compared to the last 12 months, but the percentage of people accepted into teaching training has simultaneously risen. The numbers were measured on University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) and in the Teacher Training End of Cycle figures included all applicants for both higher education and schools-based teacher training schemes. It was a drop from the 54,100 who had applied in 2014 to 47,200 applicants in 2015. Of these applicants 25,300 gained places, bringing the acceptance rate to almost 60% – a significant increase to 2014 where only 52% were successful. The National Audit Office said teacher shortages in England were growing with recruitment targets missed for four years. “As February’s National Audit Office report highlighted, teacher supply is becoming a critical issue in many schools”, said Nansi Ellis, Association of Teachers and Lecturers assistant general secretary. Many have speculated on the figures. Scottish providers of postgraduate teacher training decided to leave the UCAS Teacher Training scheme as they did not believe that
directly comparing figures gives accurate views of demand and that applications in England and Wales applications should be considered when comparing those accepted to the number who applied. As their applicants were the most successful as their rate of admissions increased to almost 7%. In England 25,300 applicants were placed in 2015 compared to 23,700 in 2014 and in Wales a higher proportion of applicants were accepted bringing their total number to 990. Overall, the number of applicants placed in England or Wales providers saw a rise of 1,700 acceptances (+6.5%) to 27,900, showing a successful increase in the ratio of those who accepted and those who gained a place out of the 128,700 received applications in England and 3,300 in Wales. A Department for Education spokesperson said many people still wanted to teach for the “chance to change lives on a daily basis…that’s why we’re investing hundreds of millions in teacher recruitment including increased bursaries and scholarships, worth up to £30,000... and backing schemes like Teach First and the National Teaching Service” “There are over 1,000 more graduates training to teach secondary subjects in the 2015-2016 academic year compared to last”.
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26th April 2016
7
News
Norwich airport to build £12m aviation academy in partnership with UEA Emily Hawkins News reporter
Photo: Wikimedia, Robert Waldren
Norwich Airport have announced that work will begin on building a new £12m aviation academy in January, with the first students to begin their training in September 2017. Ideas for a training academy in Norwich have been discussed since September 2013, but now the vision will finally be become a reality The academy will be the first to offer a teaching programme, with real aircraft, and it will include twenty classrooms, five engineering workshops and a live aircraft and helicopter emulation zone. It will be the UK’s first aviation academy which will not rely heavily on simulations and will create much needed jobs to the local community. The project is being seen as a 30-year investment Mike Birch, the managing director of the NPS Group who have funded a substantial amount of the project, said that the endeavour was less about commercialism and “more about the benefit to the local economy and the skills shortage in the area”. Simon Watts, founder and chief executive of Aviation Skills Partnership, told the Eastern Daily Press that “Norwich was once the go-to
place for aviation, and we want to make it like that again.” City College Norwich has endorsed the project, saying that the academy will be capable of teaching 200 to 300 students. The college will also eventually move the teaching of their engineering programmes for young students to the academy, giving students the opportunity to gain apprenticeships at the Academy. UEA has also taken a big role in the new project, as a founding partner and stating in a press release that the academy “will raise standards of learning within the aviation industry, while offering a broad education that will attract both local and international students”. In 2013, when the plans were first announced, Professor Phil Gilmartin, the Dean of UEA’s Science faculty, said that UEA specifically wanted to use their partnership with the academy to further improve the university’s engineering undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses. The total partners are the Norwich and Norfolk councils, Norwich International Airport, KLM UK Engineering, City College Norwich, the University of East Anglia, New Anglia LEP and the Aviation Skills Partnership.
WINNERS Photo: Wikimedia, BillyH
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR COMPETITORS FOR WINNING DERBY DAY 2016
OH UEA!!! #DERBYDAY16
UEASTUDENT.COM/DERBYDAY
26th April 2016
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Global
Gender selection: a worldwide issue? Emily Hawkins Global Reporter The concept of pre-natal gender selection, where fetuses of an ‘unpreferred’ gender are aborted, is not a new one. The issue is commonly associated with China, when gender selective abortion started to become prevalent in the late 1970s after the one child law was introduced, and then spiked again towards the end of the century with developments in ultrasound technology. It is hard to know what the global situation is owing to significant taboo, but cases seem to be increasingly rapidly, particularly in China, India, Pakistan, the Caucasus, and South East Europe. However, in just the last 12 months, medical and journalistic investigations in both Canada and Australia have revealed these more developed nations are also witnessing a spike in abortive procedures influenced by gender. Generally prevalent in cultures with greater socioeconomic discrepancies between genders, parents generally favour a boy over a girl. In Canada medical researchers have found there to be a strong inconsistency between the sex ratio of Canadian-born mothers and Indian-born mothers. With mothers born in Canada, 105 boys were born to every 100 girls yet with Indian-born mothers the figures released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) state that “By the third birth, 138 boys were born to Indian-born mothers for every 100 girls, and by the fourth birth, 166 boys were born to every 100 girls”. Owing to a lack of data, it is hard to tell what the situation is like in the US, but a 2011 Gallup poll found that if American adults were only allowed to have one child, 40% of respondents said they would prefer a boy, while only 28% preferred a girl. The problem is also prevalent here in the UK. An investigation by the Independent contradicted the government’s inquiry into the issue which had found “no evidence” of women who had been born abroad preferentially aborting girls. Contrary to the government’s conclusion, the Independent noted that approximately 10% of 190,000 abortions which took place in England and Wales in 2011 were done after 13 weeks of pregnancy. Whilst it could be argued that for some women, pregnancy takes this long to become apparent, the paper makes a point of this as 13 weeks being the time when
Brazil in turmoil as Rousseff faces impeachment Caitlin Doherty Global Editor The Brazilian Congress has voted to impeach their own President amid rife corruption claims, just as the country heads towards what could be one of the most important events in its developmental timeline: the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. At a sitting of the House of Congress on 17th April, the 513 members of the House were each allowed 30 seconds to speak at the floor before casting their vote. It was clear that the final result was going against 68-year old President Rousseff from the beginning of the sitting; the floor of the
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Photo: Public Domain Pictures a fetus’s reproductive organs can be seen clearly on an ultrasound scan, and the gender of a baby can be predicted to an almost certain degree, thereby facilitating gender-selection. Why is this important? Sociologists have argued that gender-selective abortion has a negative impact on the ratio of women to men in a given age group, also called “the human sex ratio”. Academics believe that rates of pre-natal gender selection are evident from looking at demographics, and A United Nations report said that a natural birth sex ratio range is 103 to 107 males to females at birth. The UN also claims that if a nation has a birth sex ratio of 108 and above, or 102 and below, then it is likely that there is significant practice of gender selective abortion occurring within the country. Of course, some academics have doubted that these conclusions can be drawn from a simple assessment of statistical data, and have said that the ratio of men to women isn’t necessarily indicative of whether genderselective abortion is prevalent in an area – boys and girls aren’t necessarily naturally conceived to a 50/50 ratio. However, in parts of India and China that
favour male children, it is reported that there could be up to 120 to 140 boys for every 100 girls, a fact that many statisticians believe does show a significant practice of the abortion of female foetuses. These conclusions have been made all around the world, with Dr Anagnostopoulos from Imperial College London saying that the only feasible answer for as to why the UK has seen a drop of 1,400 to 4,700 female births from the 2011 census, is that gender-selective abortion “is taking place” across various British communities, igniting a phenomenon of the so-called “lost girls”. With gender-selective abortion being banned in many countries, even those like India and China where the practice is reportedly common practice, it seems that gendered cultural norms and discrepancies lie at the heart of this issue, and the solution is therefore social. Through scientific research, increased levels of education and changes to sexually discriminating legislation, it seems the only way to stop these girls becoming lost, is to ensure that they are considered as culturally valuable as their brothers.
lower House of the Brazilian Congress was awash with national flags and cheers, even before the Deputy Minister who cast the deciding vote against Rousseff was carried out of the Chamber by dozens of members. The vote will now go to the Senate in May, where a simple majority is needed in order to initiate official impeachment proceedings and the replacement of Rousseff by her Vice, Micehel Temer, will be introduced as acting President, pending trial. If Rousseff were found guilty of her impeachment charges, then Temer would serve out the remainder of her term until 2018. Mrs Rousseff is accused of having false accounting and making changes to documentation during her 2014 bid for re-election, in order to cover up national budget shortfalls. According to the Brazilian population, it is decisions such as these that have led to the failing of the national economy and left the left-wing government with less than a 10% national approval rating. Responding to the initial vote in Congress less than 24 hours after it was decided,
Rousseff remained defiant, claiming that she was “outraged” by the motion and would “continue to fight” for her political integrity and survival, believing there is no legal basis for an impeachment, and intended to travel to the United Nations in New York in an attempt to rally some international support for her cause ahead of the crucial Senate vote. However, Rousseff leaves her cabinet in a state of disarray as nine of her 31 ministers have resigned, leaving several important portfolios without leadership, including the Tourism and Sports ministries, both of which are supposed to be working closely with the International Olympics Committee in the final weeks and months before the games begin in August, prompting some international concern. “When Brazil was awarded the games in 2009, it was a very stable country, in the interim it has become destabilised” commented Cindy Boren of the Washington Post. Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described the attempt to unseat Rousseff as a “coup” The Senate will vote in two weeks.
he American election is well under way and with just ten primaries left to go, most of the country is holding its breath to see who will win the Republican and Democratic nomination. Established facts: Trump really wants to build a wall; Bernie hates the 1%; and Ben Carson should really stick with medicine, not politics. At the time of writing, Trump has 744 delegates to Cruz’s 559 and Kasich’s 144. With just 838 left, this does mean there is the possibility that Trump will be the candidate with the most delegates but may still not win the nomination, should he fail to achieve the 1,237 required. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Republican party wishes to distance itself from the Trump-mania frenzy. Should the party choose to back Cruz or Kasich (in the case of a failed outright majority) there is every possibility that Trump will end up walking out of the convention. He has already hinted that he will recant his pledge to support the Republican candidate, should he not be on the November ticket. But that is not necessarily cause for celebration. Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator for South Carolina, said that choosing between Ted Cruz and Donal Trump is like choosing “death by being shot or poisoning”. Ted Cruz is more conservative than Trump, and aligns more closely with Republican ideology. He is the clear alternative to the Republican frontrunner. However, recent online rumours name Ted Cruz as the Zodiac Killer, patently untrue, but a clear indication of his unpopularity amongst the younger electorate. On the 16th April, media outlets began reporting the possibility of Trump naming Cruz as his running mate, although Cruz quickly rebuffed this saying: “That ain’t gonna happen.” As for the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders has won seven contests in a row and, although it is unlikely, there is still the chance he may beat Hillary to the nomination. She maintains a considerable lead against Sanders, and is a strong 700 delegates ahead, at time of writing. 469 of those are pledged delegates. But, with 1,931 delegates still available there is a slim chance that Sanders may just clinch the nomination. There is a clear contrast in current relations between Clinton and Sanders, in comparison with their earlier, more amicable debates. The divide in rhetoric between the two candidates has become more defined and there have been increasingly heated arguments between them. Sanders has also met with Pope Francis. He is the only Jewish candidate against four self-proclaimed Christians. The irony that he was invited to the Vatican has not gone unnoticed by the American media. However, Pope Francis insists the meeting was “not political meddling”. Over the coming weeks the presidential candidates will be decided and it is arguable that, even at this point, there is no way of predicting how it will turn out. If we have learnt anything from Trump-mania, it is that the American electorate is nothing if not unpredictable. Megan Baynes
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Global Argentine music festival cancelled after multiple deaths on site Five people have died and five more remain in critical conditions in hospital after suspected drug overdoses at an Argentine festival. The Time Warp electronic music festival was being held for two days in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. Two people died at the event while the remaining three died in ambulances or in hospital. The victims were 21 to 25 years of age and are currently suspected of “acute poisoning”. Post-mortems will be carried out to determine the exact cause of their deaths. One festival-goer told local media that the private venue, in the Costa Salguero area, was so hot and cramped that he was unable to breathe in the crowds. Another described witnessing a young man convulsing for 15 minutes and calling for festival security, who then called the emergency services. Dr Alberto Crescenti, director of medical emergencies in the city, said: “They are all in very grave conditions” and “are not breathing on their own”. The festival’s organisers posted a statement of condolence to the families and friends of the victims on their website and cancelled the festival’s remaining events. Charlotte Gaines
Petrol explosion in Mexico kills dozens 24 people are confirmed dead, 130 have been injured and more than a dozen remain in a critical condition in hospital after a large explosion at a petro-chemical plant in Coatzacoalos, Mexico. As of yet, the cause of the explosion is
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unclear. Mexican President, Enrique Pena Nieto called the incident a “tragic accident” and offered his condolences to the affected families when he travelled to the site less than 24 hours after the blast on April 20th. The immediate impacts of the blast were wide-reaching: repercussions were felt more than ten kilometers away and thousands of people were told to keep their doors and windows shut for fears of toxins in the air. However, despite the wide blast area, there have been criticisms of the emergency response teams, who have apparently been slow in responding to the families of the victims and the missing, and there are concerns of information being withheld. Ancelma Cordero’s 21-year old brother is among the missing. She spoke to Reuters at the plant gates: “We are desperate because
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no one is coming out to show their face. They told us that we are breathing toxins and that we should leave. But…if we leave, they could make the bodies disappear”. Plant blasts in Mexico in 2012 and 2013 killed 33 and 37 people respectively. Caitlin Doherty
Norwegian mass murdered Anders Breivik wins human rights case Norwegian mass murderer, Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people on July 22nd in 2011, has won part of a human rights case against Norway. Brevik was convicted in August 2012 of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, after detonating a van bomb and killing 8 people, and terrorism, for the shooting of 69 young people at a summer camp. His solitary confinement, that has seen him kept alone in his cell for 22-23 hours every day, kept apart from all other inmates and forced to communicate with prison officers through a thick glass barrier has been judged to account to “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Should neither side appeal the judgement within four weeks, then the prison will be required to make Breivik’s routine more lenient and integrate him further with the prison community. The state has also been ordered to pay the Breivik’s legal fees, which amount to approximately £28,000. Emily Vause
Graphic: Wikimedia, US government Right: Flickr, Day Donaldson
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Features
26th April 2016
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The impact of social media on politics >>Page 13
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hakespeare week, which this year commemorated 400 years since the death of the bard, was a roaring success both on campus and across the country. UEA Drama Society hosted a week of events including a lecture and film screening, a Shakespeare-themed quiz and monologue slam. UEA Publishers also produced a zine to celebrate the occasion featuring interviews with students about what Shakespeare means to them. The week celebrated the extensive works of William Shakespeare, all of which have formed huge parts of school and university curriculums for generations. However, it also reflects the age-old problem of a predominately white male curriculum. Even in a progressive society, and at an even more progressive university, our curriculums are plagued with an inordinate number of so-called dead white European males (Dwems) and white Anglo-Saxon protestants (Wasps). It’s a problem that has been recognised and, particularly in the Arts, is being dealt with by attempting to introduce more women and ethnic minorities to modules and course profiles. However, many students still find their predominately white curriculums difficult to relate to. Many literature students feel that their course reading does not speak for the majority of people and find many classics racist and sexist. Although this reflects the society these works were produced in, the necessity of including such offensive, oppressive material is often called into question. Even more subtle differences like using the pronoun “he” as opposed to “they” in reference to an abstract person can come across as ignorant and presumptive for some. However, to study these historically within their context, most of this must be accepted. Indeed, to decide the likes of Shakespeare are no longer relevant or necessary is misguided – it is the nature of history that Dwens and Wasps will have had the opportunity to make more of an impact in their respective fields. From scientists to writers, the work of these people is essential to our learning and this cannot be denied. However, today more and more students are calling for their curriculum to represent and reflect the diversity of those studying it, including ethnicities and genders people feel they can identify with. It wasn’t until the 1980s that feminist history really took off, and now we know a lot more about women whose contributions might previously have gone unnoticed or unknown. Therefore, excuses for leaving such people out of syllabuses tends to comes across as either plain laziness, ignorance or deliberate prejudice.
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t UEA, many courses include a diverse range of options, but for some people these often feel “shoehorned” or forced. For example, entire modules are dedicated to women’s history, or queer literature, rather than integrating these into the course. Many modules will slip a female writer, or a writer from outside of Europe, in at the end of the semester as if this had to be done as a token. Perhaps a better solution would be to include a mix of women throughout the module and to give a natural feel to their inclusion. While an entire module for a minority might feel like obligation-fulfillment without actually integrating them into the wider course as a whole, it can also be said that dedicating an entire module might change people’s perceptions of the significance of minorities, and after years of ignorance, an entire semester is what these figures deserve. Even just changing locations and time periods studied would give an interesting change to a white-washed curriculum. The School of History, for example, offers a vast range of courses but the majority appear to
Photo: Wikimedia, The Washing
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My white male curriculum Olivia Minnock discusses predominately white male curriculums, and asks whether diversity can be achieved without losing sight of what’s important
focus on Europe or America beginning in the late medieval and early modern era. Kirsty McAlpine, second-year history student says: “I get really annoyed that history modules are basically all white male things. We rarely touch on Asia or South America, and God forbid we acknowledge Africa apart from the slave trade. [It’s] as though all other cultures and countries only began to exist when the white man arrived. Also, women are always a module or subject on their own, as though we were studying capitalism or horse farmers. Men are constantly interwoven with history and never need a discreet topic”. However unfortunate it may be, society has almost always been largely patriarchal and as a result some of the most important scientific discoveries have been made by men, and men have written a large proportion of
our most important literature – at least, that which was actually published at the time. We cannot ignore discoveries made by men in favour of “making room” for women, nor should we neglect Shakespeare because we’re sick of literature written by men. That said, the issue of relation is understandable: how might a female member of an ethnic minority relate to a play writtenover 400 years ago by an English man? Then again, how might any of us? Even white men who study Shakespeare might struggle to relate to an Elizabethan playwright, if not as much as the rest of the world. Striking someone from a curriculum to make room for a minority is certinly not the way forward if that person’s contribution to their field has been prolific and important, but neither is treating them as the only people who matter.
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Features Olivia Minnock looks at the way we have dealt with grief in 2016, and whether social media brings out a selfish side in all of us
Social media Politics & celebrity
Georgina Hewison examines the extent to which social media allows us to decide the fate of politics
David Cameron: Wikimedia, Guillaume Paumier. Money: Pixabay, public domain
“W
ith respect, hope is not a strategy”. This was Edward Snowden’s response to Twitter’s recent pleads for David Cameron’s resignation following the Panama Papers leak. Although Snowden’s comment was intended to raise awareness for a protest taking place outside Downing Street, it also highlighted the recent trend of fighting political issues behind a computer screen, which raises the question: is expressing opinions on social media making a difference? The Panama Papers were 11.5 million files that contained years of confidential data from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonesca. They revealed an astounding number of worldwide leaders and politicians who take part in tax avoidance. In the days after what was the biggest data leak in history came a storm of UK social media reactions when Cameron’s involvement in the scandal came to light. The hashtag #ResignCameron and multiple others gained a total of over 300,000 tweets after the prime minister finally admitted that he had owned a share of his late father’s offshore investment. The significance of the information lies in the fact that not only the leader of our country, but six members of the House of Lords, three former MPs and several donors to British political parties have all profited from tax-free assets or low-tax arrangements. Meanwhile, the public has been in part paying for the elite’s avoided tax with benefit and funding
cuts put in place by these politicians. So, it is no surprise that such a number took to Twitter to express their outrage. In Iceland, 20,000 protesters to demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, and succeeded. So, when the UK took to social media and #ResignCameron soared over that number, why weren’t our voices heard as well? Social media is often viewed as an enabling force, fueling such democratic uprisings as the Arab Spring in 2011. Global use of Twitter both organised protests and raised awareness of the issues surrounding this movement. The monumental impact that citizens’ use of media made in Middle Eastern and North African politics has sparked a greater interest in new media research relating to political influence. Additionally, the distance between politicians and the public has decreased due to social media. Barack Obama used Reddit, a usergenerated content site, to allow the public to ask him questions during his second election campaign. He said in a post: “This is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run”. However, while some believe social media has enabled users to be their own powerful political force, others criticise it for solely being a platform for our ego. Something that comes with having a social media presence is the upkeep of our online identities, and it can be argued that this is driving us to share
issues we are passionate about. So, even when it comes to a social or political issue, the average user is commonly posting about the subject to tell their followers that they care, not necessarily that they are going to take further action. This habit of minimal-effort campaigning has recently been labelled clicktivism: a product of 140 word counts, one-click petition signing, and trending hashtags. A negative effect of this phenomenon is that real ongoing issues become little more than online trends. After the abduction of 276 school girls by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2013, the online community demanded the Nigerian government help #BringBackOurGirls. Over a million shares of the hashtag by both everyday users and celebrities such as Michelle Obama brought awareness of the tragedy to those who otherwise might not have known. While the campaign still lives on two years later, that original global momentum is gone, and it takes more and more energy for Nigerian campaigners to sustain the ever fleeting attention span of online users. Whether social media activism is successful in promoting change or is struggling to keep the attention span of selfcentred users is an ongoing debate in the media world. What we can take away from both sides, and the case of #ResignCameron, though, is that we find solidarity through these sites. There is in fact a great power that social media holds in shaping politics, and that is by
uniting the public for as many causes as they wish. It would be ignorant to think that each #ResignCameron tweet was made with the intention of Cameron stepping down in a day; instead it is a platform to vent frustration and even laugh at the absurdities that came out in the Panama Papers. And while some posts may not be deemed “serious” campaigning, they are what keep the public interested and attending actual protests such as that outside Downing Street two weeks ago. Thousands came to protest against Cameron’s decisions and as there was hardly any media coverage of the event, social media acted as its own reporter to update and remind others that action needs to be taken. It can be said that although social media may have had some negative impacts on traditional activism, it has still led to unprecedented effects on politics. It is a platform in which the public still has agency by deciding what is important to them, whether that be by making a serious comment or just a meme. And the fact that online activism can be done in the comfort of your home – or pretty much anywhere else – doesn’t mean that we aren’t putting any less effort into our articulated thoughts and rational debates than before the age of the internet. The important message to spread however is that you can’t expect change after something has trended on your feed. The benefit of collective agency in the online community will be stuck in that realm as long as you rely on it too much.
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016 has been a very difficult year in terms of bad news. An large number of the greatest and best-loved artists have passed away within just a few short months of one another. From actors and comedians such as Alan Rickman, Ronnie Corbett and Victoria Wood who brought endless joy to our screens, to musicians such as the inspirational David Bowie and most recently Prince, it’s understandable that the public has been saddened by the loss of so many artists in such a short space of time, a period which has given many the impression that 2016 might just be out to get us. Dealing with the loss of someone who has contributed a lot to our life but who we never actually knew can be a challenge, but there appears to have been a recent amplification of grief on social media which simply isn’t healthy. Justin Bieber, in classic Bieber fashion, caused offence by making a disrespectful comment on Twitter regarding the death of Prince. In response to a heartfelt tribute by guitarist Andrew Watt, who describing Prince as “the last of the greatest living performers,” Bieber reportedly responded in a comment which has since been removed: “Well not the greatest living performer” – presumably in reference to himself. While this sort of thing is no more than what we have all come to expect from the babyfaced Canadian, it reflects a worrying trend of a kind of attention-seeking culture around grief which seems to have developed over celebrity deaths. Whether it’s insensitive comments which appear to trivialise the death, drawing attention instead to the person who has caused offence, or posts which seem to make the sad event more about the fan posting it, it appears we are dealing with our grief in a way that might be considered more than a little selfish. It seems that everyone is anxious to post how celebrity deaths have affected them personally. Why do we take to social media to express our grief in the first place? Most of us do tend to live our lives online, using the web as a way to keep friends and family updated – whether they live on a different continent or are sitting next to us on the sofa – and expressing our feelings to a wide audience has somehow become the norm. This can be a beneficial outlet for some people, and for those in the public eye, it might be useful to write a message of tribute to a fellow artist who has passed away. There is, however, a huge difference between expressing a wish that said artist will rest in peace, offering thoughts or prayers to their loved ones and mentioning that their work will always be appreciated, and making it all about you. We're good at that: us tweeters and facebookers love to mention how things affect us personally, because our entire accounts, timelines and feeds are about us. We don't consider that perhaps the death of a celebrity isn't ours to react to, but belongs to their entire fanbase as well as, much more importantly, their friends and family. Unless you are Victoria Wood's daughter or Alan Rickman's wife, perhaps it might be best to tone things down a little rather than appropriating someone else's loss as your own and using choice words about your personal struggle to adorn your social media. If you need support or want to express genuine sadness over a loss on Facebook, this is pretty acceptable nowadays and people are welcome to do so, but we must be careful to be sensitive toward the families and fiends who have lost their mother, father or sibling rather than focusing on how we can gain some followers through our expressions of grief.
Photo: Wikimedia, Rob Bogaetrs. Below: Wikimedia, RevolutionBahrainM
Politicians with personalities: problematic for voters? Alice Mortimer asks whether the celebritisation of politicans is postive or negative for voters
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Photos, top to bottom: Flickr, Marie-Lan Nguyen; Wikimedia, RCA Records; Flickr, Mines Advisory Group; Flickr, Matt Patterson
emember that paparazzi shot of Ed Miliband clumsily eating a toastie? Of course you do. What policies he wanted to enact? Perhaps not. This may not apply to everyone, but among the average citizen, it is not an inaccurate assumption to say that politicians may be more widely known for certain characteristics they exhibit than the parties they represent and policies they stand for. Politics is show business; there’s an increasing importance placed on spectacle, as we see with Donald Trump’s ridiculously irrelevant rally cheerleaders, and a focus on the marketisation of politics, almost into brands. The focus for many politicians is on gaining appeal on non-rational levels, as it seems having your hair made into an internet sensation gets more attention than your politics (the fact you don’t know whether I’m talking about Trump or Boris here, makes the point rather nicely). Party elections broadcasts are not only about trying to influence voters on policies, but about being portrayed as a “person of the people” – likeable, and perhaps even as attractive. Margret Thatcher was the first politician to gain this kind of celebrity standing, and worked hard on her accent to gain positive “telegenicity”. Similarly, politicians such as Barack Obama tap into social contexts and experiences of citizens through emotional associations, such as being a family man, his children are often talked about or filmed for television. But how useful is all this for the electorate? Is spectacle and media presentation replacing debate and policy-related discourse? And are the skills needed to make a good leader being lost in favour of those related to popularity-gaining
performance? Are voters receiving the right sort of information in order to cast a well thought-out vote? Cue the development of voteforpolicies.org, a website that allows users to explore policies to make informed, unbiased decisions about where to cast their vote, without the direct policy-party labels. With the nature of mass media allowing for parties to be quickly branded, or leaders to be characterised as “racist”, “against the poor” or “pro-privatisation”, it can be difficult for voters to make decisions based the array of policies different parties in fact represent. The increasing development of different types of media mean that parties and politicians, more than ever, have a significant amount of platforms types at their disposal, social media in particular promoting celebrity culture. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn became the first party leader to have an account on Snapchat. Perhaps it is hard for some to get their head around a major political leader using an app initially designed for teenagers, but it can be argued that something as minor as an account on an app can in fact bring politics to those who otherwise would not be interested in engaging with it. Perhaps having charismatic personalities and social media users as politicians does take the focus a little bit more off the serious stuff, but to truly get everyone involved in democracy, perhaps it’s not a bad idea for politicians and leaders to adapt to our technological and celebrity-based culture by making the most of media platforms and reaching out to larger audiences than simply those who read the newspapers. Whether this just provides another platform for politicians to partake in tactics, I’m not too sure.
26th April 2016
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Features
Photo: Flickr, Senado Federal
Can Brazil shake off corruption in time for Rio 2016? Eddie Booth on the possible impeachment of D Dilma Rousseff, and what this could mean for ilma Rousseff lost a vote instigating impeachment proceedings against her in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress ten days ago. In a decisive defeat, 367 deputies voted to support her removal, clearing the twothirds threshold needed to pass the motion. If the Senate confirms the decision of the lower house, as it may do, Rousseff’s impeachment will be complete. What’s the context here? How has a leader, once the most popular in the world, a trial-blazer as Brazil’s first female leader and enjoying favourability figures above the 90% mark, been driven to the cliff edge, clinging on to her position by little more than fingertips? The reasons are as complex as you’d expect from a corruption scandal. It comes down to money laundering allegations involving the former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the state-owned oil company, Petrobras. But the scandal has engulfed the entire
the Olympics
political elite. To give a measure of scale, the figures implicated have been the leader of the opposition, the speaker of the lower house, the president of the senate, the vice president, Lula and Rousseff – who, for the record, was chair of the implicated Petrobras from 2003 through until 2010. Rousseff, after a request from Brazilian prosecutors to detain Lula, made her predecessor a cabinet minister. Why would this be? Because cabinet ministers enjoy political immunity from every policing
body with the exception of only the Supreme court. For their part, supporters of Lula have accused the opposition of attempting a coup and conspiring against the Workers Party that he and Rousseff are members of. All of this against the backdrop of a 3.7% contraction in the economy last year and the worst recession in a generation. A level of political controversy we cannot comprehend. So what’s the take away from this? Brazil is in the world’s eye for a number of reasons
Female fertility: left too late? Olivia Minnock discusses the impact of having a career first on starting a family
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he modern woman has it all figured out. While we are a long way from achieving true equality between the genders, we are a lot better off than we were a hundred years ago. We can have a career, a marriage and babies. The world is our oyster, or whatever we want it to be. However, today’s “career women” – a rather outdated term since it could pretty much pertain to most women – are encountering an issue not often foreseen. While the patterns and rituals of everyday life often seem to be a given – education, job and then starting a family – modern women are finding that it isn’t as simple as we first thought. “Having it all” is not always an option, but it is not unreasonable in modern
society to expect to be able to have a wellrounded life and successful career as well as having children, if one so chooses. However, it appears our body clocks are holding us back. In reference to what has been rather questionably described by the Daily Mail as “a fertility timebomb”, the NHS is advising women not to wait until the age of 30 to have children, but for most women in higher education, 30 seems a relativley young age considering the committments of holding down a job, scraping together a mortgage and perhaps buying a home. Futhermore, women at univeristy seem to spend so much time trying not to have babies: the idea of not being able to concieve if we actually wanted to
seems more than a little preposterous. The main concern of consultant gynacologist Geeta Nargund is the high cost on the NHS of providing IVF treatment to women in their 30s and 40s. While late 30s may not be an unreasonable age to want to start a family in modern society – and for men, this acceptable age can stretch much higher – it is apparent that we are costing the government money by choosing to delay having children until we might actually be able to afford them. Yet again, it appears the modern woman is stuck between a rock and a hard place. We think we are being responsible by preparing for years to be able to nurture our children properly, and for wanting to be successful women our sons and daughters can look up to, that it appears we may be totally missing our chance to have any. Complaining about the unfairness of the female body clock seems futile, but it is ironic that the NHS encourages
over the past few years, not least because it was expected to be emerging as a leading economy, rather than struggling so badly. The 2014 World Cup was hosted in the country, with much controversy, as money was spent on new stadiums rather than desperately needed local infrastructure. And now, in just four months’ time, the country is due to hold the largest sporting event on Earth. Three million people protested against Rousseff before the impeachment vote, rallying on the streets as Brazil continues to struggle with increasing wealth inequality and crippling poverty as their political elite are accused of taking kick-backs from oil companies. With the Rio Olympics just around the corner, there are serious concerns that Brazil has begun to disintegrate when it all looked so positive. As the Panama Papers begin to fade away from our front pages, Brazil reminds the western world of how to do a proper scandal.
us to have children earlier due to costs of IVF if necessary when training to become a GP takes around ten years. Should we be blamed or penalised for striving for stability? Many women are aware of this problem and are choosing to have their eggs frozen, but for some this can take away the joy of a natural conception, pregnancy and birth. Some women, however, do not have this foresight as they simply aren’t aware that 35 or 40 is an unreasonable age at which to concieve. The assumption is that unless menopause has started, getting a bun in the oven should be easy as pie, but fertility decreases in reality long before this. The NHS states that the earlier women begin attempts to conceive, the earlier any problems regarding fertility can be diagnosed and treated. This is a reality of life, but it sadly does not encourage a culture of educated, successful women. Most of us hope, if not expect, that we will have children in the future, but that “future” seems incredibly far away for university students. It is worrying that women might be discouraged from delaying conception by choosing to climb further up the ladder of higher education or specialist fields of work.
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the best dressed in all the seven kingdoms at damn good game of thrones will win a trip to the filming locations in ireland 3rd may / tickets:ueastudent.com
26th April 2016
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Comment
Do we hate the rich? Maybe, but that’s not the point of the Panama Papers scandal, argues Charlie Dwyer
T
he Tories have been making progress in their apparent quest to shed all outward appearances of being a grounded, relatable party, and seem to have transformed into a parody of themselves. In the wake of the Panama Papers leak, Sir Alan Duncan MP defended the Prime Minister’s involvement in the scandal by encouraging critics to “snap out of the[ir] synthetic indignation and admit that their real point is that they hate anyone who has got a hint of wealth about them”. He went on to describe, in terrifying detail, the danger that we may end up “seeing a House of Commons which is stuffed full of lowachievers who hate enterprise, hate people who look after their own family and know absolutely nothing about the outside world”. The PM, in response, said he was “very grateful” for Duncan’s support. Once we’ve all finished vomiting, the more thoughtful among us may start to wonder whether there might be a valid point buried somewhere beneath Duncan’s thinly veiled contempt. Could an instinctive, envy-fuelled hatred of those privileged or cunning enough to reap the rewards of a system so widely regarded as unjust help to explain the almost unanimous condemnation of the Panama conspirators? It seems worth considering; to reject even the possibility that jealousy fired at least some of the popular discontent, consciously or otherwise, would be to deny a basic human instinct. Yet even if we do concede this point, that doesn’t change the fact that Duncan’s comments are not only insulting, but tellingly misguided. Does Duncan truly believe that the outrage sparked by the revelations is solely due to a common loathing of all wealth, regardless of the manner in which it was accrued? If so, he has utterly missed the point, and in doing so, demonstrated just how far removed he and his colleagues are from those they govern. Whilst the average citizen may lack detailed knowledge of the UK’s tax laws, they are a far cry from the ignorant malcontents Duncan apparently believes them to be. It feels mildly ludicrous to elucidate this point, but when it was revealed how the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca had for decades been aiding the world’s most affluent individuals to stash their cash, our primary concern was not simply the fact that the rich were getting
Illustration: Dougie Dodds richer. The issue was, and remains so, that in avoiding taxes on such a grotesque scale, these people have deprived their respective nations of much-needed revenue. Moreover, they ostensibly did so with absolutely no regard for the fact that those without the means to perform such intricate legal and financial manoeuvres - the very people who could have been enjoying the benefits of deeper governmental coffers - would doubtless face heavy penalties for failing to disclose far smaller sums of money on their tax returns. We have no innate problem with the
wealthy. Feelings of jealousy may linger, but to prove these are rarely strong enough to account for our current disgust, you only need to look at the sometimes hysterical levels of devotion towards successful musicians, actors, sportspeople, authors, even other politicians and business leaders, figures like Bernie Sanders, Justin Trudeau, Bill and Melinda Gates spring to mind, who have convincingly demonstrated their humanity and desire to do good with their wealth. As a rule, our scorn is reserved for those who use their elevated position to help themselves at
the expense of others. Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the debacle was to comment on the fact that there seems to be “one rule for the super-rich and another for the rest”, and he is far from the only voice issuing this cry. In neglecting to acknowledge the real root of the public’s dissatisfaction, Duncan has slipped up, showing his disregard for the morally dubious nature of technically legal tax-avoidance programmes, and, in the process, providing us with yet more evidence to support the view that the super-rich feel exactly the same way.
Does our attitude towards paedophilia need a re-think? Thomas Gymer
I
t is difficult to think of a condition more reviled than paedophilia. Paedophiles are seen as the worst of criminals, ostracised and hated, often more so than murderers, but is this judgement a just one? Is our attitude towards paedophilia in need of an update? Firstly, it is important to recognise the distinction between paedophiles and child molesters. A paedophile is defined as someone who feels sexually attracted to children, specifically pre-pubescent children, or children below the age of 12. Child molesters, on the other hand, are people who sexually abuse children. Obviously, many child molesters are paedophiles, but this is not always the case; sometimes, they are just abusive, and children can make for an easy target. Similarly, not all paedophiles are child molesters; there are those who, whilst they may be attracted to young children, would never act on these feelings, and recognise them as wrong and harmful to the child. It’s not known how many non-offending paedophiles there are. It’s a topic which is, for obvious reasons, difficult to gather information
on. Few people are willing to admit to being sexually attracted to children. However, the figure is almost certainly higher than we might currently believe. Research has suggested as many as 18-20% of people could be considered to be paedophiles. Other studies have put the figure lower, at between 1% and 4%, but even 1% of a population amounts to a considerable number of people. According to a study in the UK, there may be around 250,000 male paedophiles in Britain. Clearly, this doesn’t tally with the number of paedophiles who go on to offend, so what is to be done about those who feel themselves to be attracted to children, but don’t want to act on it? The fact of the matter is, there are few support groups available for non-criminal paedophiles. Owing to the social stigma, there are few people willing to support such groups, and where they do exist, people are often too afraid to join. This is a ridiculous situation. All the evidence suggests that such support groups help to keep paedophiles from molesting children, which is surely what we want. Groups like Virtuous Paedophiles, who
oppose child molestation and help those who need it to deal with their urges, deserve our praise and funding, but instead, they are usually met with horror and derision. No doubt, it’s a difficult subject to discuss, but what needs to be reiterated is that these people haven’t done anything wrong. They have an attraction, which they resist; they have not harmed any children, and are only looking for help in maintaining their resistance. The German campaign Prevention Project Dunkelfeld, which provides support and treatment for paedophiles, is funded by the German government. We need more groups like this in the UK, because - and it bears repeating - they help to prevent child molestation. Furthermore, although research into paedophilia is currently lacking, MRI scans have indicated that the condition is caused by physical differences in the brain. Paedophiles do not choose to be attracted to children. It should be considered as a sexual orientation, which those affected by cannot change. I must emphasise, I am not under any circumstances suggesting paedophilia is acceptable, but it
should be treated, rather than punished. It’s child molestation which should be punished. As it currently stands, society has no idea how to deal with non-offending paedophiles, and it’s something we need to learn. One question which needs to be answered is how we deal with pseudo-child pornography. True child pornography is, for obvious reasons, illegal, as it involves actual child abuse, but should this stretch to digitally created images, which, whilst they may resemble a photograph, necessitated no involvement from any child? In the UK, this is currently the case, and there is some debate amongst psychologists as to whether simulated pornography provides an outlet for paedophiles, or if it encourages them. This is another area where a lack of research has prevented us from being certain either way. Many people appear to be happy to lock them up, yet no one wants to spend money working out how to actually help paedophiles, even though it would prevent child molestation. It’s time for us to get over our revulsion towards anything relating to paedophilia, to stop what is actually harmful about it.
26th April 2016
17
Comment
Young people So much for Ukip’s day in the sun, writes Alice Spencer who choose I not to go to university are being overlooked Emma Slaughter
T
he House of Lords social mobility committee has reported that young people who choose not to go to university are being “overlooked and left behind”, owing to a lack of alternative training options and an over-emphasis on higher education. It has also been suggested that the league table ranking of schools has led to a focus on the attainment of academic results, with “middle ability achievers” becoming sidelined, and thus reducing options for social mobility. For those of us from less affluent areas, this is hardly surprising. Those with promising grades were steered towards higher education, without being aware of the other options; but for the majority, it was as if gaining a place at university was simply another statistic the school could use to entice prospective students. This wasn’t the school’s fault, so much as the system that views success in such narrow terms. The committee’s research also showed that many students who could have
“The qualifications gained from vocational courses are often poorly understood by employers” chosen to go to university instead opted to go straight into work, in areas that have “no real prospect of progression”. From my own experience, this is entirely the case. Equally, the apprenticeships and training schemes which others chose to go into are, for the most part, disgustingly underpaid. What’s more, the report shows that only 6% of apprenticeships go to 16-18-year olds. According to Malcolm Trobe, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, “the intense academic focus of the existing curriculum is too narrow”. For many schools in my area, less traditionally academic subject such as textiles or sociology were being dropped from the A Level options. As a consequence, many students were put off. This dropping of alternative courses wouldn’t be as harmful if students inclined towards these areas of study were sufficiently provided for in other ways. Results from the report demonstrate there is a significant “culture of inequality” between vocational courses such as diplomas, and academic courses like A Levels or the International Baccalaureate. The qualifications gained from vocational courses are often “poorly understood by employers”; it is for this reason they are being overlooked and undervalued. Moreover, the results show that university students receive on average “about £6,000 more per year of public funding than a young person attending college”. If our education system is failing to provide a universally recognised qualification that extends to cover both traditional and nontraditional courses, then it is failing students whose interests lie outside the norm. It allows for a culture that values academic and monetary achievement above all else, severely limiting social mobility, and leaving behind those it does not support.
t’s likely David Cameron is already cursing the day he promised a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Think back to this time last year, to a pre-Panama and #piggate era, and you’ll find British politics in a sweat over another, even bigger threat: the fox in the Westminster henhouse, the UK Independence Party. Had Cameron known he’d walk last May’s election as easily as he did, it’s possible he would never have committed himself to the referendum. But he did, and now, one year on, we’re two months away from one of the biggest decisions on our political horizon. Despite winning a grand total of one parliamentary seat in the general election, the fox hasn’t faded into obscurity as we might have hoped, and the referendum has been keeping them alive and well. Indeed, the events of the past few months appear to have been playing right into Nigel Farage’s hands. The Brussels attack, the Tata steel crisis, the possibility of Turkey joining the EU; Ukip were ready to revel in it all. Then came the spanner in the works: the Vote Leave campaign, fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, was designated as the official leave campaign group, ahead of Ukip’s Grassroots Out. The EU referendum should’ve been Ukip’s day in the sun. Now, it’s been cast aside from a campaign which forms the basis of their entire party. Unfortunately, for those who despise Ukip and its repetitive EU-bashing, I don’t think we can expect Farage to totally disappear from the political scene yet. Indeed, Ukip donor Arron Banks, the millionaire behind the Grassroots Out campaign, has already accused the establishment of conspiring against his party, claiming the decision “smells of political corruption”. However, although they can continue to campaign for Brexit as a rival organisation, the decision does mean that Grassroots Out will have limited financial freedom; its spending will be capped at £700,000, compared to the £7m spending cap the designated organisations have been granted. This begs the question, how influential could Ukip have been without this restriction? In a poll conducted by Ipsos Mori, only 20% of participants said Farage would affect the decision they made; if you compare this to
Photo: Flickr, Gage Skidmore the 32% who cited Boris Johnson as being decisive in how they will vote, it becomes clear that Arron Banks’ comments are little more than a last-ditch attempt to cover Ukip’s back. The Electoral Commission has pledged its commitment to guaranteeing a fair chance for both the Leave and Remain campaigns, and ‘fair’, it increasingly seems, can only be achieved in this debate without Ukip being preset. Claire Bassett, head of the Electoral Commission, has suggested it was felt ‘Vote Leave’ would be better able to represent all possible Brexit supporters, the implication being that Ukip’s open anti-EU, anti-immigration policies may have been too isolating to win over the undecided voters, who will likely prove crucial in the vote. Frightened by voters’ potential disillusionment with Ukip’s far-right links, Vote Leave have said they will be focusing on the “real campaign, and the £350m we send to the EU every week”. However, this steer towards the economic argument may in turn have granted Britain
Stronger In Europe the greater advantage; immigration is, for many voters, the bigger issue in the debate, and the Leave camp have already demonstrated the uselessness of throwing hypothetical sums of money around, criticising the “bogeyman” tactics of the Remain team. I don’t know about corruption, but hypocrisy seems to be the eau-de-parfum of this debate. Ultimately, ordinary people don’t care about numbers. No matter how each side chooses to employ their figures, whether it’s the £350m paid to Brussels each week, or the revenue EU immigration brings to the economy, in the end, it all just sounds like little more than yet another political promise. Boris might believe he’s onto a winner with the £350m figure, but for most people, this is such an unfathomably large sum of money that it becomes almost meaningless. How much of this claim is actually true is another matter entirely, but one thing that is certain, is that it won’t be Ukip stealing the show this time.
Britain may have an obesity problem, but creating a guilt complex is not the solution Caitlin Doherty
A
new labelling system has been proposed for unhealthy food, which would include, alongside the usual traffic light arrangement of calories, fats and sugars, three demonstrations of how much exercise it would take to burn off the calories of said product. For example, if you have a fizzy drink, you will see, staring at you judgementally from the side of the can, the fact that it would take you 15 minutes of running, 23 minutes of cycling or 13 minutes of swimming to account for the calories you’ve consumed. This is clearly an attempt to conquer Great Britain’s growing waistline and soaring health bill. Yet, whilst it may encourage some people to think twice before heading to the corner shop, the impact of this move could turn out to be far more detrimental than anticpated for reasons that are, at the moment, widely ignored. At the age of eighteen, I lost an awful lot of weight. This was owing to a combination of my more regular gym attendance, as a way of letting off steam during my A Levels, and several upsetting incidents in my personal
life in quick succession, incurring not only increased adrenaline, but several skipped meals along the way. I wasn’t especially attempting to lose weight, but this sudden decrease resulted in my becoming acutely aware of my appearance, my body, and, by extension, what I was putting into it; I found myself starting to feel guilty when faced with eating things that weren’t entirely green, fibrous or otherwise good for me. Food became something with which my body was in competition. That guilty tendency is where the flaw in this new system ultimately lies. The implication of labelling food in this way seems to be that we should be burning off every single calorie of food we consume, ignoring the fact that the average women requires approximately 2,000 calories, and the average man, 2,500 , per day in order to maintain weight, digestive function, reproductive function, and general growth and existence. Without the regular consumption of calories, our body begins to shut down it’s unnecessary functions; eye sight and hearing can suffer, and fainting and blackouts become
increasingly likely, as our body focuses less on remaining conscious, in favour of using its depleted energy resources to keep our vital organs going. What’s more, with around 750,000 people currently living in the UK having been diagnosed with eating disorders. These illnesses thrive on an unspoken guilt complex surrounding food, and providing another excuse to make an enemy out of calorie intake can only be problematic for those who already struggle with their meals. This policy threatens to do more damage to the physical and mental welfare of the nation than good. Britain has an obesity problem, but we’re already aware of this issue; around 29m people, more than 50% of the population, admitted to dieting in 2013, including approximately two thirds of women; unsurprising statistics, given that more than six in ten UK inhabitants have been officially classed as overweight or obese. There are people who could do with some encouragement when it comes to losing weight, but nationalised guilt is not the way forward.
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26th April 2016
Science&Environment Genetics used in identification of new lemur species in Madagascar
greater detail in the near future. “To know the exact distribution area of individual species is necessary to identify functioning protected areas”, says Peter Kappeler, who has contributed his research in Madagascar for over 20 years. “Furthermore, this new information is an important element towards better understanding how biodiversity on Madagascar arose”. Ganzhorn’s mouse lemur was named after the ecologist Professor Jörg Ganzhorn,
24
Sophie Christian Sci&Env writer A discovery by scientists from the German Primate Centre, the University of Kentucky, the American Duke Lemur Centre and the Université d’Antananarivo has described three new species of mouse lemurs in Madagascar. 20 years ago, only two of these nocturnal primates were known, but now 24 have been recorded. Mouse lemurs are small primates that can only be located in Madagascar. To make life easy for scientists, these mammals all look distinctly similar with brown fur and big eyes, meaning they can only be distinguished by genetics. “By using new,objective methods to access genetic differences between individuals, we were able to find independent evidence that these three mouse lemurs represent new species”, says Peter Kappeler, head of the Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Unit at the German Primate Centre. Just three years ago, the same research groups described two new mouse lemur species. The 1993 discovery was the 30-gramme Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, which is currently the smallest primate on the planet. New and exciting discoveries can only be made possible by expeditions to remote and almost-inaccessible forests, so this varied species can be better examined in
who has been intrigued in research and protection of lemurs for decades. According to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 100 known species of lemurs could face extinction. Surely we do not want one of the most exotic mammals to vanish from the face of the Earth.
Madagascar, off the sout h east coast of Africa
Photo: Flickr, Mark Robinson
Dinosaurs were in trouble long before meterorite collision
which had already been around, dominating terrestrial ecosystems for 150 million years, somehow lost the ability to speciate fast enough. This was likely to have contributed to their inability to recover from the environmental crisis caused by the impact”. This crisis refers was caused by the millions of tonnes of dust, thrown up by the meteorite impact, that blotted out the sun as a result of the meteorite impact. It is believed
160m
Jacob Beebe Sci&Env editor It is widely acknowledged that the age of the dinosaurs met an abrupt end with an apocalyptic asteroid strike on the Earth 66 million years ago. However, recently uncovered evidence now suggests that the demise of the dinosaurs was, in fact, a long time in the coming, even before the meteorite collision that finally eradicated them. The research combined an examination of the fossil record with statistical approaches to analyse fossils dating back to the first recorded emergence of dinosaurs through to their extinction. This research, carried out by the Universities of Bristol and Reading, found that species of dinosaur were becoming extinct faster than new species of dinosaur were evolving. In evolutionary terms the dinosaurs were becoming “past their prime” up to 50 million years before their ultimate demise, according to Dr Manabu Sakamoto, the leader of the research. Whilst the dinosaurs had
The number of nocturnal lemurs that are now known to exist on the island of Madagascar.
Photo: Wikimedia, Drow male once flourished, and new species had evolved rapidly, this began to level off 160 million years ago, before entering a period of sharp decline some 40 million years later. Closer analysis looked at individual groups of dinosaurs. Although an overall decline was observed, a variation between different dinosaur types was found, with some declining faster than others. An
example of those in steep decline were longnecked giant sauropods, such as Diplodocus and Argentinasaurus genera. Whilst those that appeared to fair much better include theropods, such as Tyrannosaurus and Spinosaurus genera. One of the study’s co-author, Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol, said: “All the evidence shows that the dinosaurs,
The number of years ago that the decline of the once-ubiquitous dinosaurs began.
this led to ecological mayhem, with loss of plant life and the resultant loss of herbivores and their predators. It has been suggested that their decline prior to this was perhaps due to the division of continents, volcanic activity or any number of other factors – including climate and sea level shifts. As a result of this work, it has now been theorised that the decline in dinosaur influence on Earth may have provided a degree of wiggle room for mammals before the impact – effectively priming the subsequent mammalian takeover as the dominant animal class on Earth. This research is important, as it lends insights into extinction patterns that can be linked to modern-day biology, especially with the pressure that the human race exerts on the surrounding biodiversity. Perhaps there is more to be learnt from the past in order to address and model the pressing ecological issues of today.
26th April 2016
19
Science&Environment
Exploration of Jupiter moon proposed What’s new in science Louise Fitzgerald Sci&Env writer Scientists met in Paris last week to discuss plans to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa. The moon, which was discovered by Galileo in 1610 and is the sixth biggest moon in the solar system is almost entirely covered in ice. Underneath the surface there is a deep liquid ocean and combined with the fact that the atmosphere contains oxygen it is thought that Europa could sustain life. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy moon Explorer, which is set to explore Ganymede, another of Jupiter’s moons, is due to launch in 2022 and will include two flybys of Europa. Nasa has plans to send probes to Europa in the 2020s and have invited the European Space Agency to collaborate on the project. Whilst the first mission is likely to be a probe, a soft-landing mission may follow. The scientists who met at the Observatoire de Paris discussed five main proposals which ranged from the feasible – such as remote sensing instruments and satellites – to the rather more unlikely – such as a proposal to fire sensors into the surface of the moon. Airbus previously tested the feasibility of firing steel missiles into a block of ice at 700 miles per hour and found that the missiles
burrowed deep into the ice. If successful the proposal could mean that instruments such as seismometers to study the interior or Europa or chemical laboratories to check for signs of life will give us the first evidence as to whether life exists on Europa. There are, however, potential problems with how the instruments will stay functional after the initial impact. Michel Blanc from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse said “We are very enthusiastic about proposing something, and proposing for that mission which will land on Europa for the first time in the space age. It’s going to be a big event, and I am sure it is going to be a big priority for the world community”. All of the proposals have now been sent for external evaluation before the European Space Agency make the decision at the end of the month.
Studies show “dirty” mice are better than lab-raised mice for studying human disease.
A group of MPs has argued that being a member of the EU has benefited environmental protection and pollution reduction in the UK, and that boosts to biodiversity have happened “much faster”.
Photographs of golden snub-nosed monkeys in China show individuals helping out and acting as midwives within the group.
A new map shows how abnormally warm waters have damaged the iconic Barrier Reef. A whopping 93% of the reef has suffered.
UEA has launched a four-year study using huge databases of medical data to determine life expectancy and longterm illness.
RSPB have found the longtailed tit, one of Britain’s most beloved birds is making a comeback thanks to the mild winter.
Researchers have found that the anti-diabetic drug pioglitazone raises the risk of bladder cancer by 63%
A study has shown that a daily dose of aspirin boosts survival in cancer patients.
Scientists have, for the first time, shown that it is possible to control insects, making them walk and even fly on demand. Scientists have developed a new method to create 3D human heart tissue from stem cells.
Top: Flickr, Airwolfhound Bottom: Flickr, Jason Wharam
Top Sci&Env editor to edit his final issue of Concrete this week. Students are believed to be incredibly saddened by news.
Photo: Wikimedia, Nasa
A mathematical model has been built by scientists which explain the secrets of the chameleon’s extraordinary tongue.
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26th April 2016
20
Travel
The pros and cons of travelling with friends Dahlia Al-Abdullah Travel editor You’re excited for your trip. It’s the first time you’re going away with a friend and the idea of freedom from university and family, coupled with the excitement of a new environment is intoxicating. The first day is full of that apprehensive buzz. But slowly, throughout the holiday, you find that the both of you are continuously disagreeing with each other and things are getting a little uncomfortable. It’s not what you expected, and you don’t want to fall out with your friend, because normally you get on incredibly well. It’s only now that you’ve travelled with them that you realise you perhaps don’t work well in this particular environment. What do you do? I’m sure many of us are familiar with this experience, and it can be a really upsetting one. You can begin to doubt the relationship you have with your friend: whether you truly know each other in under normal circumstances, or whether this is something to remember, though, is that a new environment causes everyone to react differently. The way a person chooses to travel – that is, their pace, their interests, their priorities and so on – is not an indication of their personality or character. It is simply how they enjoy travelling. Although these factors
are incredibly important in making sure that the trip goes smoothly, disagreeing on them is not the be all and end all. The true test of character is how you deal with the obstacles that confront you and the differences between you. I have experienced this while travelling with a friend – and it can really throw you off. People are different, and usually you will not discover nuances in other people’s personalities until situations arise. Generally you can get a vague idea of what someone’s priorities might be on holiday; for example, your friend may be the type who would rather visit a museum than do some watersports, or who prefers lounging around in cafés people-watching to ticking off all the sights. However, you cannot possibly imagine every scenario that may come up, and discuss what they would do in such a situation, it’s simply impossible, and part of the risk you take in travel. The essential thing you must pay attention to though, when choosing someone to travel with, is whether you get along in terms of discussion. If you are both the sort of people who will happily agree to disagree, taking nothing personally and moving on, then chances are things will run much more smoothly than with someone who gets moody if you don’t do things their way. When you know that the person you are travelling
with does not problem-solve in the same way as you, then that is an early warning that you should perhaps not partner together on a trip. Travelling is a multitude of problems, or put more optimistically, new experiences, and it is so crucial to make sure that the person you are travelling with is the someone you know you can work with so that each of you can get the best out of the trip. On the most basic level, how you come to solutions and how you compromise is the most essential point you need to consider before you decide to travel with them, as this will mould the experiences you have, and thus your entire trip. Remember, though, that a big part of this is how you are as well. We may criticise someone we are travelling with for doing things a certain, or being difficult, but be honest with yourself and identify if you are part of the problem. We all need to make sure we are accommodating towards other people, and that we are treating them in the same way we are asking to be treated. It sounds a little like an Aesop fable, but it’s so true when it comes to travelling. Oftentimes we expect people to do things just as we wish, or feel confused and upset when things aren’t going “as they should”, but on closer inspection it just comes down to us asking too much. Once you are on a trip, granted, you do not want to spend your entire time working through problems. That would be irritating
in itself, but this is why the questions and discussions before travelling come in. Make sure that the person you are looking to potentially travel with can have an open discussion with you on what their priorities are for the journey. If they keep mentioning how they would really appreciate eating in all the budget restaurants, yet you had an idea of trying the best food that the city has to offer, then alarm bells should start to ring. It sounds like a minor point, but take my word for it, these things can cost people their friendships. The over-arching idea then, in planning to travel with someone, is to have good knowledge of their character and to communicate amply beforehand. Knowing how they react in difficult situations, how they debate, etc. is incredibly useful in giving you an idea of whether they are the kind of person who is open to compromise. Once you are certain of that, you can make sure you are on the same page with goals out of the trip. Always make sure that you have had the discussion on travel priorities, on what pace they like to travel at, even on the problems that worry you and whether they are helpful and understanding. This is essential to the success of travelling with a friend, and will ensure you do not come back ready to block them on all your social media accounts… Trust me, I’ve seen it happen before.
Photo: Wikimedia, Welcome to Yorkshire person could indulge in, and so there is The rural areas of a country can offer so might have in a city. Some may argue that a city The joys of rural travel agenerally more to do, and thus, say you have much to the idle traveller. Life in the smaller has more to offer in activities, but recognising done. Generally that is why a lot of us find it villages is most probably one of the purest the depth of culture, and thus lived experience, impressive when others talk about the cities ways you can see the culture of a place, as of a group of people is so prominent in these – and the treasures they have visited, but it’s important to note the it will be untouched from the hands of the settings. If a tourist came to Britain, and simply beauty of other places. tourist industry. Although you may come visited Cornwall, York, or Pembrokeshire, you might find In it’s own right, rural travel is incredibly across excursions to see these places on a tour then they would have a completely different Tori Brown Travel writer Rural travel is underrated. Often, talking about visiting a city in a new country sounds so much more impressive than saying you’ve stayed in a countryside location in exactly the same country. Naturally, it’s because cities appear to have a wealth of experiences that
special. It can introduce you to aspects of a country that you would never have come across otherwise, and new ways to see one single country. I have heard many Brits say before how frustrating it is when tourists see Britain as just London, and wish that they explored what else this tiny island has to offer. We must always, then, keep this in mind regarding other places, and remember that there is more to see in one place than what we know of.
and then returning to the city, staying there can really deepen your understanding of the culture you are looking in to. It’s so exciting, even, to think that in a world where tourism is such a huge business in itself and you can almost go virtually anywhere and still find an “Irish Pub” and some British tourists, that there are still places that remain pure and as they have always been. The kind of experiences you have in a rural setting, granted, will differ from those you
experience in each and every place. At the core of at all is the very important idea that it does not matter what is “more impressive” to say. Virtually everyone has the capability to travel anywhere these days, and recognising that is so important to yourself as a traveller. Go where you really would love to go, but keep in mind how special it could be to explore a little further in to the country, and find new levels of depth in culture and understanding.
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Sport Derby Day Special Report Archery University of Essex Seniors University of Essex Novices
2097-1986 1641-1551
Basketball University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
99-56 94-62
Cheerleading University of Essex
1-1
University of East Anglia
Climbing University of Essex
2-1
University of East Anglia
Cricket University of Essex
132/5- 64/19.4
University of East Anglia
Cycling University of Essex
0-2
University of East Anglia
Dance University of Essex
3-3
University of East Anglia
Fencing University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
89-125 178-47
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Football University of Essex Mens 1st University of Essex Mens 2nds University of Essex Womens
2-3 4-2 3-6
University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 2nd University of East Anglia Womens
Futsal University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
8-1 2-4
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Golf University of Essex
3-3
University of East Anglia
Hockey University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
0-6 1-3
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Uni. of East Anglia Seniors Uni. of East Anglia Novices University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Korfball University of Essex
7-11
University of East Anglia
Lacrosse University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
3-12 6-14
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Netball University of Essex 1st University of Essex 2nd
32-30 22-31
University of East Anglia 1st University of East Anglia 2nd
Pole Fitness University of Essex
2-1
Pool University of Essex Mens 1st University of Essex Mens 2nds University of Essex Womens
19-17 19-12 2-2
University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 2nds University of East Anglia Womens
Rugby Union University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
19-25 0-89
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Squash University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
0-2 2-3
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Swim University of Essex
44-66
Water Polo University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
4-5 0-7
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Table Tennis University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
7-59 1-3
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
Ultimate Frisbee University of Essex
11-8
University of East Anglia
Volleyball University of Essex Mens University of Essex Womens
0-2 0-2
University of East Anglia Mens University of East Anglia Womens
University of East Anglia
Hockey stick it to Essex with double victory Jessica Frank-Keyes Sport writer After taking their warm-up very seriously – for a side that haven’t lost to Essex in four years – UEA Men’s Hockey took to the pitch. The spectators, with Essex and UEA equal offenders, kicked off the match with chants and insults, both aware that just over halfway through the day’s events, there was still all to play for. The first short corner of the match went to UEA, who missed, but soon got the game underway with Dave Gilbert scoring the first goal, quickly followed by Jack Hallworth. The team went into halftime with the score 0-2 to UEA. Back on the pitch, and while keeper Josh Thody had very little to do in the early stages match, UEA got the second half off to a strong start with a short corner and a second goal from Gilbert, and then a third. With the score now 0-4 to UEA, Essex were starting to get worried. It didn’t get better for them after they missed their first short corner of the game, Essex Hockey Club’s Twitter referred to the impressive save of a drag flip by Thody as a “lucky block”. The crowd of UEA supporters were still in a great mood and cheering on their team. Essex then took the long corner and after some more good defence from Thody, striker Dylan Mitchard scored the fifth goal of the match. UEA’s top goal scorer this year later said: “it was a real pleasure to score my 40th goal of the season, and I would like to thank my mentor and the team. UEA Hockey Club will stay with me forever.” The Essex men could not seem to get their heads around UEA’s 5-point lead, and were still reporting on social media a score of 0-4. There was excitement in the crowd as an Essex fan attempted to steal a UEA banner. Luckily by this point the girls team had
University of East Anglia
Photo: supplied
Photo: supplied arrived and soon put a stop to this, rescuing the banner just in time for the final goal of the match, scored by Josh Glass. The final whistle blew, leaving the score 0-6 to a triumphant UEA side, who wasted no time in getting the celebrations started. Bucs team captain, Luke Corden, spoke to Concrete after the match: “I’m really proud of the way the whole team played, it was a complete performance. Six goals and a clean sheet”. He added that he “couldn’t have asked the boys for anything more. Magic”. The women’s match got off to a similarly good start, in warm conditions. The score was 0-1 to UEA within the first few minutes, after Rachel Millar, incoming Ladies 1s
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Photo: supplied
UEA volleyball overpower Essex storming to 25-13 win The UEA women led from the start at the Derby Day volleyball match, taking a relatively quick victory over Essex in straight sets and in under 40 minutes. The first team to reach 25 points, regardless of the other team’s score, wins the set. The straight set scores of 16-25 and 13-25 do justice to the advantage that the UEA girls had over the Blades throughout. The match was initially a little late to begin, however, this proved to be an advantage for the away team, as by the halfway point of the first set, a large number of the UEA Men’s Football team had made it to the Sports Hall to support the girls after having received their own winning medals in the square. Chants of support were rallied for both teams; however, regular renditions of “UEA is wonderful”
helped the girls to an early 6-12 lead in the first set. The UEA point rate dropped a little as a member of the team took quite a dramatic fall to the floor on to her face and stomach. However, after these incidents, the UEA team continued to pull ahead, eventually taking the set by 25 points to 16, without ever allowing the Blades into the lead. The home team ran a closer game in the second set, taking the score at one point to a tight 8-12, but, just as in the first set, at no point did UEA allow Essex to take the lead. They stormed ahead to a victory from this point in, eventually taking the set with a massive 12-point advantage, 13-25. UEA Vice Chancellor, David Richardson, was pre’ssent at the match and was more than happy to sing UEA’s praises as the match came to an end. “I’m so pleased to see that UEA are in the lead…it’s great to see the excitement from both teams”.
even admitted that it was an “emergency” sabre team. But Essex Women did not hold back, winning the second bout 45 - 16 . At that point, it was impossible for the UEA girls to pull it back, and so a crucial overall point went to Essex immediately. Bone would later tell me that in the Women’s team “90% started this year, fencing very well against a team of more experienced fencers”. Bone’s troubles weren’t over. The boys team finished the round 35 to Essex’s 45, losing a large part of the lead they’d made in the prior round. It was Saberio “wot won it”: forcing an emergency substituition for UEA, which actually made things worse, as frustration made way for mistakes. A draw was still possible, and with key player Nathan Gull behind them, the UEA boys made back a 25 point lead in the Foil round - the deciding bout. Tension was high after Essex Girls dominated the UEA team in the last round, but the UEA boys pulled through, with their 33 to Essex’s 11 ensuring their win in that round: and an overall point for UEA on Derby Day 2016. Both teams seemed satisfied, having both won a crucial point to boost morale going into the final sports. Borowsky admitted Foil was something to work on for next time, as Saberio had dominated the entire men’s sabre bout. Bone expressed relief that his main man had pulled through, calling the sensational Nathan Gull an “exceptional leadership figure, exceptional in all three weapons”. Then came a post-match ritual: each team lined up against opposite walls in a line, facing each other with an intense stare. Each team unleashed a mighty roar in support of the other team’s performance, meeting in the middle in a happy, tired hug.
Photo: supplied
Caitlin Doherty Sport writer
captain, scored the first goal of the match. UEA picked up speed and the score was soon 1-3 to the visitors after the current Ladies captains, Lucy Jeffrey and Grace Julier, got one each past the Essex keeper. Jeffrey said after the game: “we were carried by the amazing support from our fellow UEA hockey players, and thanks to everyone else who was cheering, we drowned Essex out with no problem!” The second half of the game was more equally matched, with no goals scored on either side. After some great defence from UEA, the game ended with UEA ahead by two points, 1-3. A fantastic result for both of the visiting teams.
UEA fencing a thorn in Essex’s side Sean Harbottle Sport writer At 12.30, hidden away in Sub-Zero, Essex’s campus nightclub, the Men and Women’s fencing competion was getting underway, in what would turn out to be one of the most exciting events of Derby Day. The UEA Women lost the first round, however, incoming UEA President for Fencing, Ben Bone, seemed unphased arguing that UEA had “confident teams in each weapon”; each match in fencing is made up of three different swords. Bone’s equivalent president, Jessica Borowsky for Essex, hit back saying they were relying on their team captains Megan and Owen as well as Saberio, their Italian exchange superstar. The UEA Men pulled through to win the Epee bout with a substantial lead, even more impressive considering only two of their three man epee team were properly prepared for that weapon. However, temporary success could only mask bigger problems for a while, as the Women began heavily trailing in the second round using the Sabre. Bone
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Three wins each as dance competition ends in draw Tom Gordon Sport editor At 17:00, as Derby Day began to draw to a close, the Esx dance theatre was begining to fill up as supporters from both Essex and UEA ralied behind their teams for the event which could potentially win Derby Day for UEA. When the event began UEA needed just four points to clinch a victory. There were inklings of just how raucous an event this would turn out to be when a lone voice screamed out “ESSEX!!” somewhere from the back of the room. This of course elicited huge cheers from the home audience, who constituted about two thirds of the crowd. Eventually, as the buzz in the room increased and the excitement became more and more palpable, our compere entered the stage. The Essex contingent were the first to strut their stuff, with a very unconventional routine set to Little Mix’s ‘Salute’, which went down a treat with the audience. However, it was the UEA cohort who were the real stars of this match up. The natural grace and poise from the UEA ballet girls blew Essex out the water. Considering how hard it is to win over a hostile crowd, many of whom are not dance fans,should give you some idea of how impressive the reception UEA ballet received was. Next up, Contemporary. In keeping with the alternating order it was UEA who took the stage first, dancing to a medley of “Run Boy Run” by Woodkid and Lorde’s cover of
Essex’s performance matched UEA. Photo: Facebook, University of Essex Students’ Union
Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. The performance was replete with the sort of energy, stamina and skill that entirely justifies Dance’s place at Derby Day. The performance was vindicated when an enthusiastic and knowledgeable Essex dance fan conceded “I’m gonna have to clap for that. That was good”. It was pretty much an impossible act to for the home side to follow. An Essex student, perhaps a little influenced by the higherthan-average alcohol blood levels that are par for the course on Derby Day, shouted, “This is shit!” The unsuspecting Essex fan realised that he was in fact watching Essex and not UEA, and after a few apoplectic head turns in the surrounding area, he quickly backtracked and shouted “Come on Essex!” An act of improvisation very much in the spirit of dance. Up next was Jazz, and out first here was once again UEA. This superb routine was another crowd pleaser, and although there were of course the requisite scattered Essex boos for every UEA dance group, it seemed like Dance was the event that transcended Derby Day rivalry. One Essex supporter was certainly bowled over, rapturously declaring UEA’s jazz routine to be “the best thing [he’d] ever seen”, and started to quietly chant “UEA, UEA”, much to the chagrin of his peers. Next up was UEA’s tap group, who classed up the joint a little after the suitably salacious Essex jazz number. It was a delectable routine by our ladies, who were tap-tap-tapping along to Justin Bieber. A delight to watch, their well drilled performance was a great tonic for the soul. The crowd was baying for Essex tap, who rewarded their audience’s support with another fantastic dance. It was time for the Street division next, and it’s safe to say that a lot of people had been anticipating this one. The theatre was filled to breaking point, with the audience spilling out onto both sets of stairs. Essex’s group were first and the produced a phenominal performance. The atmosphere was incredible, with whooping and hollering punctuating every flick of a wrist. Screaming, shouting and even dancing in the aisles were the wholly appropriate bi-products of this wonderful blend of aggression, swagger and flamboyance. Not surprisingly, a standing ovation followed from the Essex sectors of the crowd. It would be an understatement to say that UEA street had a tough act to follow. But it would be even more of an understatement to say they didn’t do anything less than totally smash it. All clad in black, UEA were supremely confident from the moment they stepped out onto the stage. How this huge troupe of bombastic dancers and wonderfully choreographed action didn’t descend into chaos is a testament to the skill of these dancers. They were amazing; it was amazing. The competition finished up with the wildcard round, and the lovely Latin/Ballroom medley from UEA was a welcome way to soothe the nerves after the previous sets. Essex’s wildcard really went for the jugular, busting out the twerking to a soundtrack of Rihanna and enraptured whooping. After that the event broke for 15 minutes, as the three judges made their deliberations. In the spirit of an event that seemed more about artistic excellence, physical grace, and
Photo: Instagram, UEA_SU stamina, it ended up being three a piece. Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary went to UEA, and Tap, Street and Wildcard were awarded to Essex. One judge gave a welcome special mention to all the UEA dancers whom he said had grown so much in the last two years since he had seen them last he could hardly believe it. All three judges showered plaudits on the choreographers of UEA’s jazz routine, a performance they were genuinely dumbstruck by. The routine was capped off with a flip/kick/somersault hybrid by dancer Isabella Pike. This led one of the other judges
to enact an actual mic drop at the end of the awards process. Happy to shirk any instinct for self-censorship he declared the feat “fucking amazing”. It was indeed an evening that no set of expletives, adjectives or narratives could really do justice to. The amount of energy and talent on display was simply mind-boggling. However, with UEA winning just three points out of the six the away team could not claim victory quite yet; UEA still needed to pick up one point from another event before they could celebrate retaining the Derby Day cup.
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The teams’ viewpoint The men and women who were members of UEA’s teams down at Essex on the day give their verdict on how their teams played.
“I’m really proud of the girls. They did really well, even though they’re quite different squads to compare” -Georgia Holmes, UEA Dance Cheerleading coach “Fantastic swimming from the team today, Essex worked hard but were no match! Great team spirit, they've worked hard all year and this was a great way to finish it off” -Joe Zilch, UEA Swiming captain “Disappointed... our experienced team relied too heavily on two key archers: one was not able to make it today” -Jess Kovacs, President of UEA Archery. “This year we’ve been focused on a more enjoyable experience at Archery rather than a competitive side. That’s someone [sic] we’ll be working next year” -Nickil Shah, UEA Archery’s Kit secretary "Winning on derby day is a great experience, was a tough game but we pulled together as a team and got the Win" - Kolade Owobowale, Men’ rugby hat-trick try scorer
Photo: supplied
Mixed results for UEA netball stalwarts Tom Gordon Sport editor Netball was one of the first events of the day. Both UEA 1sts and 2nds had to do all they could to help give the away side an early advantage in the overall scoring for the day. However, despite exciting performances from both teams, only one was able to secure victory. First up was the 2nds. The first quarter saw frantic attacking from both teams, a netballing mainstay. The second quarter was replete with fantastic counter attacks from UEA’s 2nds. These swift turnovers in play were an absolute joy to watch, with each player moving so fluidly and nimbly into space that trying to keep track of all seven of them was almost as frustrating as it must have been to mark them. The third quarter seemed like the death knell for Essex. With UEA up at 13-20 the two worst clarion cries in the lexicon of crowds came from the Essex end: “Heads up!” and “Don’t give up!” It seemed like the twilight hour had come for the Essex 2s. By the end of the third quarter it was 14-22, and it hardly seemed like Essex were about to mount a comeback. However, at the beginning of the
fourth quarter, UEA were guilty of a little complacency, as Essex bagged two goals in quick succession, closing the gap to six at 1622. However, UEA couldn’t have killed this comeback more instantly than they did. In space of about five minutes it was 16-29 to UEA, with Essex barely being able to get a hand to the ball. Although Essex got a few consolation points, the final whistle blew at 22-31 in favour of UEA. As the 1sts took to the court it seemed like it was going to be very much a repeat performance. Essex were absolutely nowhere, and UEA were pummelling them. Very quickly the score had risen to 2-7. Essex soon found their feet, and pulled the score back to first a gap of three, at 4-7, and then of only two at 6-8. By the second quarter, with UEA at 14 to Essex’s 10, there was at least a little breathing space for UEA to have as a backstop. The third quarter was the first in which it became starkly clear this was not going to be anywhere near the kind of walkover the seconds had. It was very much a tit-for-tat affair, with seemingly every UEA goal finding an Essex rejoinder. It became such a tense affair that the UEA goal keeper managed to lose the wire of her bra, although she
was typically unruffled by this unwelcome distraction. Indeed, Essex managed to pull back UEA for the first time in the game, with the score held at 18 all at one point. UEA afforded themselves a two goal cushion, with the third quarter ending 18-20 in UEA’s favour. The fourth quarter was an absolute thriller. It seemed that UEA were in control, and ready to shepherd their victory home. They had opened up a five-point lead, and at 20-25, 2126 and 22-27 it seemed that, despite the best efforts of Essex, this would be unassailable. But this was not to be, as Essex hit their stride in fine fashion, and UEA began to seem a little less than invincible. That 22-27 soon became 27 all, and every time UEA managed to pull ahead by a point Essex would peg them back. This was until the score sat at 29 a piece, and the game very much in the balance. Almost inexorably, Essex pulled ahead for the first time, and at 31-29 to Essex the noise level went through the roof. UEA managed to get a goal back, and with Essex only one ahead at 31-30 it seemed like UEA could stage a last minute comeback of their own. But it was not to be. Essex got another, and soon after the final whistle sounded out across the court. Essex were jubilant, and UEA a little gobsmacked.
“Proud of everyone; but the man of the hour is Nathan Gull, former team captain, who is an exceptional leadership figure and has bee exceptional in all three weapons” -Ben Bone, UEA Fencing President “The emotion of the day proved too much for some freshmen, who cried themselves to an early night” - Ryan O’Grady, UEA Lacrosse President “The adrenaline was so high in the team we probably had enough energy to light up the Ziggurats.” Emma Catt, UEA Women’s Football President “I’m so proud of all the girls who competed, especially my beginners girls who smashed it” Lola Hyndley, UEA Pole Fitness President “I’m really proud of the way the whole team played, it was a complete performance. Six goals and a clean sheet, [I] couldn’t have asked the boys for anything more. Magic”. -Luke Cohen, Hockey Bucs captain.
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Twitter timeline...
Throughout the day plenty of people kept those stuck in Norwich up to date with the days events on Twitter. Here’s how it all unfolded...
Derby Day, Derby Day What can I say? Tomorrow we go Tomorrow we play Watch out for UEA Our winning streak will stay @team_zilch - April 19th, 17:48 News in that @ueafutsal ladies have got the day off to a winning start! Go on the girls - men to follow shortly #ohUEA @UEAHockey - April 20th, 10:06 Essex chanting “UEA is full of **** but we’re still leading #DerbyDay16 @nooravalto - April 20th, 10:33 Love that I just saw @Asha_Williams️ score a goal at netball through @UEATV. Still in Norwich but buzzzziiiinnggg! #DerbyDay16 @TiwaAD - April 20th, 11:56 UEA nearly half way to 32.5 points needed for overall victory, with more score updates expected shortly #DerbyDay16 @DerbyDay2016 - April 20th, 14:50 Women’s hockey: Essex security have just turned down the UEA supporters’ music. The spectators are not happy. #derbyday16 @Concrete_UEA - April 20th, 16:04 It’s no understatement when I say that #DerbyDay16 is one of my favourite days of the years #EssexAreRubbish @LPTyrell - April 20th, 16:50 I had no idea a dance competition could be so aggressive... Oh my days though... Can our #UEA babies dance #DerbyDay16 #ohUEA @ueasu_ops @SallyMaryosh - April 20th, 18:46 No idea what is happening at the Frisbee but we’re talking to a drunk man who says he’s George Osbourne #DerbyDay16 @DerbyDay2016 @ThePackham - April 20th, 18:51 UEA need to win one more point to win Derby Day... #DerbyDay16 @Concrete_UEA - April 20th, 19:24 OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION: UEA win fourth consecutive victory at #DerbyDay16 @Concrete_UEA - April 20th, 20:23
Photo: supplied
UEA win tense table tennis 9-7 James Chesson Sports editor UEA won table tennis 9-7 in a tense and evenly balanced contest, with Tom Lo clinching the victory in the final game. Two games were played simultaneously throughout the fixtues and the score stayed close for much of the event. The officiating was done by the players who were not in action at the time, with flip card scoreboards that left no one in any doubt as to the scores. Each of the four UEA players won at least one game, in a strong showing of collective ability. Essex, on the other hand, owed their spirited performance to Sam Cowan who individually contributed four points to the score, having been the only participant to have won all four of his matches. UEA got off to a rocky start, losing the opening two games. This was immediately rectified in the following two, as Songlu Bai and Tom Lo managed straight set victories to equalise at 2-2. Essex regained the next point to briefly lead 3-2, when Tom Faulkner fell to defeat at the hands of the in-form Cowan. UEA stormed back to edge their way in front for the first time, with Bai levelling the scores, before Lo powered his team to a 4-3 advantage. Lo’s game featured the comic moment of the morning, as a hapless Essex player attempted to serve and completely missed the table. The momentum was clearly swinging UEA’s way as Aaron Durrant secured his first win of the day to make it 5-3. However, UEA’s
winning streak was curtailed when Bai met Cowan in what promised to be an intriguing battle. Bai ran the Essex man very close, but ultimately lost in straight sets, a score line which flattered Cowan. Essex promptly restored parity at 5-5. Bai returned to winning ways with a comprehensive victory, but a tight game narrowly won by Essex with two sets to one took the score to a delicately poised 6-6. Lo became the final victim of the unstoppable Cowan and can be proud of coming closer than anyone to troubling him. Essex had a 7-6 lead at this point, while Durrant was engaged in the closest and longest game of the day. Cowan could be overheard discussing the ramifications with his team, and spoke the immortal words “this could be the first time we’ve beaten them in ages”. Little did he know that Essex would fail to win any of the remaining games. Durrant’s tight game went all the way to a deciding fifth set, which was on a knife edge at two sets and seven points each in the final round. Durrant showed great composure to win that set 11-8 to rack up another UEA victory. The score reached 7-7 after a game
Photo: supplied
that proved to be the turning point for the entire event. Faulkner grabbed his first win with a commanding 3-1 victory, giving UEA a one-point lead once more at 8-7. The final game saw Tom Lo in action once more, with a record of two wins and one defeat so far. Lo went into it knowing that a win would seal the Table Tennis point for UEA, and a loss would mean a draw and a mere half point. The result of the final game was never in doubt and Lo showed no sign of nerves as he raced his way to a comprehensive straight sets victory, including an 11-1 in the second set. The win meant the final score was 7-9 to UEA. Essex’s Cowan kicked out at a chair in frustration at the result, clearly feeling let down by his team mates who managed only three points between them. His individual brilliance was undone by an overall lack of quality from the rest of the team, and exceptional performances when required from all of the UEA players. UEA’s celebrations were muted, out of respect for the visibly disappointed Essex player. One marquee player was not enough for Essex, as the collective talent of the UEA team proved decisive.
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Sport Derby Day Special Report
Heated tie sees UEA men’s football first team triumph 3-2 Tom Gordon Sports editor After Essex were bested 1-3 away from home in the tie last year the return to their native climbs was as much a battle for the pride of Essex as it was for victory. UEA’s away support was superb, taking up one quarter of the sidelines, and separated from the Essex fans by a very diplomatically minded copse of trees. Spirits were high, sobriety was low, and all was set for a superb game of football. Sadly the game got off to an inauspicious start. Although both sides were making occasional forays into the other half, complimented by a few bombing runs from UEA’s fullbacks, it seemed to be a game that no one really wanted to get stuck into and win. UEA found themselves frustrated by mistiming several attacking runs and getting caught offside. The only real highlight of the first 15 minutes was one of the more dicey moments of the entire game for UEA. A peach of a lobbed ball was put in by Essex that entirely bypassed the UEA defence, and found its way with delicious precision to the feet of the Essex no. 8. But there was one unknown element that could not be bypassed: UEA’s no. 1 Aristo Jackson, who was complete with constant screaming and cap (as any goalkeeper worth their salt should be). He sprinted off his line and bore down like a marauding giant on Essex’s no. 8, managing to slide tackle and clear the ball in one fell swoop. The fieriest highlight of the first half was the breakout of a fight. As with most of these instances of handbags at dawn it was hard to see what caused tempers to instantly flare so high, and whatever the genesis of this bout was it happened off the ball. Say what you want about the commensurate difference in quality between Derby Day and the Premier League, but they certainly know how to have a proper clash. None of this forehead to forehead and crumple to the ground nonsense. After pugilism made its first (and only) incursion into the game UEA’s no. 6 and 3 were both shown yellow cards for their troubles, as did the Essex no. 7. Although one could certainly accuse the referee of a degree of leniency it seemed a smart bit of officiating: it’d be like sin binning gladiators for poking at each other with swords. It may not quite have been the infamous 26 man brawl in last year’s rugby, but it certainly kept the game bubbling over. After Essex put their first ball into the box since what seemed like the last days of the GDR, UEA finally gave the crowd something to scream about. UEA’s number 12 stole, burgled and otherwise embezzled the ball from the Essex midfield, leaving Essex overcommitted and trussed up for the taking. He slotted a perfect ball through the now stretched defence, and before you knew it UEA’s Nathan Russell had slotted the ball obligingly into the bottom right corner. 0-1 UEA. UEA had their tails up, and were making more and more runs deep into the Essex half, finding the necessary holes in the previously watertight Essex midfield. They were assured on and off the ball, able to shut down Essex attacks as soon as they began. However, a sustained bout of Essex pressure soon saw all but one of UEA’s players behind the ball, and Essex curled in a lovely shot from outside the box that just skipped wide of the far post. It was the nearest the Blades had come all game. It was just not their day. A long UEA throw-in from next door to the corner flag was headed out by the Essex defence, but was not quite the convincing
clearance the fans had hoped for. UEA captain, Joel Potter’s, foot seemed like a magnet, as he volleyed the ball right back into the top left hand corner of goal, and in off the underside of the bar. Soon after the half time whistle blew, and UEA were looking comfortable at 0-2. Essex began the second half looking far more dangerous than they had ended the first, and after several dangerous balls into the box it became clear that the Yellows needed to regain control and slow down the game. The consequences of failing to do so became starkly clear when Essex finally got their foot in the door, when their no. 9 picked up the ball in box and smashed it beyond Aristo Jackson. It was all a little too easy, and that 1-2 scoreline looked precipitously fragile. Several bouts of cramp saw UEA’s no.8 and Essex’s no. 11 subbed off, and following a hefty but fair challenge, UEA’s Owen Betts ,had to come off injured. This didn’t augur well, and soon enough Essex had pegged UEA back to two a piece. After a fairly indignifying and scrappy few moments of the ball bouncing hither and thither in the UEA box, the keeper was dragged out of position, and it was an easy tap in for Essex. Soon after this, one of the more unexpected moments of the game occurred. A flare came out of nowhere. Essex’s security team were quickly on it, removing the item from the field of play. It wasn’t quite BesiktasGalatasary, but along with the earlier fight it did help drum up a superbly testy atmosphere in the game. After the second Essex goal, UEA seemed distinctly under the kosh. They certainly didn’t look like bagging another goal, and with Essex continuing to make a habit of setting up shop outside the UEA box, it seemed they were in danger of conceding another. But just as it looked like everything was about to go pear shaped it wasn’t Essex that put themselves 3-2 up, but the Yellows, with Nathan Russell chalking up another fantastic goal. He was put in by a sumptuous chipped ball, and then seemed to ghost his way through the Essex defence before blasting it into the back of the net as if the Essex no. 1 wasn’t even there. Cue the entire men’s second team sprinting onto the pitch to celebrate with their on-field counterparts, and a beer soaked huddle that almost brought a tear to this jaded reporter’s eye. It was a portrait that ran the gamut of emotion, as foregrounded on the byline against the jubilant UEA celebrations was Essex’s supine no. 14, sighing that the third goal was “too easy”. With the score 2-3 in UEA’s favour, besides another lonely flare being lit the rest of the game proceeded in an orderly fashion, and was more of a gradual winding down than anything else. The final whistle blew, and the requisite Derby Day bedlam occurred as nigh on every UEA fan worth their salt sprinted onto the pitch to celebrate with the well-deserved victors. Special mention has to go to both team’s keepers, for they both endured their own personal battles of patience. UEA’s Aristo Jackson was blessed enough to find himself with the most boisterous members of the Essex contingent behind the goal in the second half, and found himself the butt of a new and more demeaning chant every fresh minute that ticked by. Essex’s no. 1 found himself with his own personal retinue of UEA men’s second XI fanning out on both sides of his goal, and following his every step to the right, and every step back to the left. After this closely fought game, Concrete ask UEA men’s football president, Jonathon Stevento, to sum up his view of the clash. He merely exclaimed that he had “no idea” how to do so, and was “lost for words”.
Photo: supplied
UEA fall to heavy 99-56 defeat in Men’s Basketball Sean Harbottle Sport writer At last year’s Derby Day, the Men’s Basketball game truly came down to the wire. A three pointer right in the dying stages of the macth clinched it, victory for Essex with a the final scoreboard reading Essex 66, UEA 64. One year later, playing in Essex, there was a real buzz and sense of optimism that UEA would make amends for the home loss. However, all expectations were promptly dashed by a lacklustre performance. UEA got the first three points, a strong start despite players tussling on the ground only one minute in. Essex swiftly adapted their approach, and capitalized on an unusually weak UEA defence to bring it up to 10-3 in Essex’s favour. It wasn’t looking good for UEA, even at this early stage. An injury taking one of the UEA players off opened the floodgates for Essex to run riot - scoring a quick succession of three-pointers to bring the score to 28–11 to Essex by the end of the first quarter. Things got no better towards the end of the second quarter, with
UEA infighting and a lack of coordination bringing it to 56-29 in Essex’s favour. The UEA Panthers carried some momentum into the second half, things looking up as UEA brought it to 63-40. The Blades cut back quickly, and their players pace ensured that by the end of the match, the Blades making it to triple figures actually looked likely. A late, desperate surge from UEA ensured Essex gained no such bragging rights, the match ending 99-56 to Essex. Leaving the match was a tough one. The home crowd were overjoyed of course, but the UEA supporters seemed unusually deflated. The match had been scrappy on both accounts, and there was no late adrenaline boost as with last year. Essex had evidently come to win, having a home advantage and a strong coaching staff giving support courtside, but there wasn’t even any “wailing or gnashing of teeth”. The victory seemed assured, and UEA faded away rather than burning out - the only reaction sparked by the set-up was one of flickering hope crushed by all-consuming frustration.
Sport 26th April 2016 Issue 325
UEA Hockey take Essex by storm >P23
Men’s Football first team beat Essex 3-2 in tense away tie >P25
Victorious
Photos: supplied. Right: Twitter, @team_zilch
UEA lift Derby Day trophy for the fourth year in a row James Chesson Sports editor Last week, UEA won Derby Day for a record fourth time in a row with a hard fought 34-30 victory at the University of Essex’s Colchester campus. The result was far narrower than UEA’s 42.5-19.5 triumph last year on home turf, but despite being a much improved side, Essex still could not close the gap far enough. UEA went into Derby Day with a 2-0 lead, earned by both the male and female rowing competitions. Early wins in women’s futsal, a 4-0 win, and netball, 31-22, stretched the away advantage to 4-1. Successes by 3-1 in women’s table tennis, 14-6 in women’s lacrosse, 25-19 in a fierce rugby union encounter and victory in both the
men’s and women’s cycling races helped UEA on to an overall win. There was never a time when Essex were even level on the overall scoreboard, let alone coming close to taking a lead of their own. At one stage UEA held a 12-point lead over their rivals at 28-16. Further highlights of the day included an annihilation in women’s rugby, where UEA triumphed 89-0. Swimming also proved to be a comprehensive 66-44 win, as did women’s water polo, a 7-0 UEA triumph. Some of Derby Day 2016’s quirkier moments included the women’s team goalkeeper Georgie Sutton playing for the men’s Lacrosse team (after a late illness) and performing exceptionally well in their 12-3 win. Chants of “Oh UEA is wonderful” greeted anyone who ventured over to the AstroTurf,
as the strong contingent of UEA sport team members cheered their colleagues on towards further glory in hockey. A lack of co-ordination complicated the matter of proclaiming exactly when UEA won. As it turned out, the victory had been confirmed far earlier than anyone thought. A win in Badminton, which took place miles away from the campus, making live reporting difficult, had taken UEA ahead of the magic total of 32.5 points. Essex staged an extraordinary showing in many of the late events to bridge the gap significantly, and made the UEA margin of victory much narrower than it appeared to be heading towards for most of the day. Women’s tennis was a draw, giving half a point to each side. Three potentially very exciting events were cancelled, American football, cheerleading stunt and boxing.
American football was the most frustrating of these cancellations, with the match being cancelled on Monday 18th April (just two day before Derby Day). This was due to a referee not being provided for the game, which UEA have dealt with before in BUCS fixtures with official approval, but Essex refused to participate in those circumstances. Overall Derby Day 2016 was a resounding success for UEA, and a bitterly disappointing experience for Essex. A fourth win in a row demonstrated the clear superiority that UEA holds in this fierce rivalry. It too early to start envisaging a fifth consecutive win, there are certainly some people who are already begining to hope. UEA showed no signs of slowing down and will no doubt continue their imperious form for many years to come.