InQuire Issue 13.10

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InQuire The University of Kent’s student newspaper

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16 March 2018

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Issue 13.10

Meet the New Sabbs Oceanic Dieoff Stormzy vs. the in Kent Daily Mail Page 16

Culture Page 15

Opinion Page 7

Thompson Elected Kent Union President

By Bill Bowkett Website News Editor

A

aron Thompson is the new President-elect of Kent Union, following the results of the leadership elections in The Venue on Monday 12 March.

Thompson, incumbent VicePresident (Activities), defeated challenger Rowena Bicknell to become President for 201819 term; he will take over

from current President, Ruth Wilkinson.

In an interview for KTV, Mr Thompson said that he was “overwhelmed” by the amount of support he received throughout his election campaign, and that next year “will be a great year for Kent Union.”

He added: “I believe in students. I believe that we as a leadership don’t do enough to

represent students; we should give [representatives] the skills and the toolkit to do just that. I believe our current leadership roles are broken or not currently supported enough, like our part time officer who I want to support more and have their voices heard.”

The other full-time officer positions were won by: Stuart Lidbetter, Vice-President of Education; Sasha Langeveldt,

Vice-President of activities; Omolade Elizebeth Adedapo, Vice-President of Welfare; and Emily Window, Vice-President of Sport.

Elected as part-time officers: Davino Beckford, Black Space BME Officer; Kg Banjoko Open Space BME Officer;

Charlie Hindley, LGBT Officer Trans Place; Aarish Hyder, International Student Officer and Darwin Student Committee President; Christine Bishop, Mature Students Officer; Continued on page 2...

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2

News

2017/2018

Print and online editorial contacts: Editor-in-Chief Kiran Saggu

editor @inquiremedia.co.uk

Continued from the front page...

Newspaper Editor

Jasper Gilardi newspaper.editor @inquiremedia.co.uk

Website Editor

Sunny Singh

website.editor @inquiremedia.co.uk

News

Kent Union President and Vice -Presidents Announced

Grace Pocock

Newspaper News Editor

newspaper.news@inquiremedia.co.uk

Bill Bowkett

Website News Editor

website.news@inquiremedia.co.uk

Opinion

Jesse Bedayn

Newspaper Opinion Editor

newspaper.opinion@inqiremedia.co.uk

Maisie Keoun Lee

Tiffany OD, Environment Officer; Oluwatobiloba KolawoleOlutade, Ethics Officer; Silvana Marianou, RAG President; Pravena Jawahar Eliot Student Committee President; Robbie MacKinnon Undergraduate Humanities Faculty Officer; Ethan Basso Undergraduate Sciences Faculty Officer, Melissa Neave, Undergraduate Social Sciences Faculty Officer; Kate Docking, Postgraduate Research Humanities Faculty Officer and Student Trustees Lily Dedman and Alex Still.

The Union’s new sabbatical officer team will take office in June, and will work to represent all students and have a positive

Website Opinion Editor

website.opinion@inquiremedia.co.uk

Lifestyle

Isabelle Dray-Sharma

Newspaper Lifestyle Editor

newspaper.lifestyle@inquiremedia.co.uk

Victoria Rees

Website Lifestyle Editor

website.lifestyle@inquiremedia.co.uk

Entertainment

Connie Enzler

Newspaper Entertainment Editor

newspaper.entertainment @inquiremedia.co.uk

Georgia Dack

Aaron Thompson

Sasha Langeveldt

President

VP Activities

Omolade Elizebeth Adedapo VP Welfare

Emily Window

Stuart Lidbetter

VP Sport

VP Education

Website Entertainment Editor website.entertainment @inquiremedia.co.uk

Culture

Molly Hope

Newspaper Culture Editor

newspaper.culture@inquiremedia.co.uk

Sara Kilian

Website Culture Editor website.culture@inquiremedia.co.uk

Sport

James Bayliss

Newspaper Sport Editor

newspaper.sport@inquiremedia.co.uk

Caitlin Casey

Website Sports Editor

website.sport@inquiremedia.co.uk

Photography Alice Bezant

design@inquiremedia.co.uk

Events

Saga Rådh

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Distribution

Alicia Sanctuary

distribution@inquiremedia.co.uk @InQuireLive Facebook.com/InQuireMedia Instagram.com/Canterbury_Media Youtube.com/InQuireLive

impact on the student experience.

Writing on her Facebook page, Vice-President of Welfare-Elect Omolade Adedapo wrote: “[T] hank you to every single person who voted and believed in me.

This is only the beginning, and I am so excited to work with the new sabbatical officers next year to show the importance of representation and leadership to BAME students at Kent.”

New Vice-President (Activities) Sasha Langeveldt sent her “Congratulations to my new team.

I look forward to working with you all next year. There will be challenges, but that’s why there are five of us instead of one. We will be there to support each other and work just as hard to ensure UKC students get the representation they deserve.”

Emily Window, the Vice-President of Sport-Elect, sent a message to all students saying: “Whether

or not your preferred candidate won, thank you for getting your voice heard. I’m delighted, excited and completely honoured to be Kent Union’s next Sports VicePresident.”

This year’s elections saw a slight increase in the number of students voting; 3542 students took part, which was 166 more votes than last year’s KU election.

Results night was originally scheduled to go ahead on Friday 9 March, however results night was pushed back to the following Monday, due to the Medway School of Pharmacy being unable to cast their vote after data protection technical issues.

Go to the centrefold to find out more about your elected Full-Time Officers for next year.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

3

News

Lecturer Strikes: an Update

Staff and Students March in Solidarity

By Grace Pocock Newspaper News Editor

S

tudents and staff united in standing against the pension changes proposed by Universities UK (UUK) at a solidarity march across campus on Wednesday 7 March, at 12pm.

A group of over 100 students and staff met at Darwin College, wielding signs and posters illustrating their disappointment with the situation. They then marched across campus to the plaza, where both students and staff spoke on the situation. The crowd celebrated their words and chanted in agreement. The atmosphere was one of both annoyance and hope; it was clear that the recent strikes have been infuriating for students and staff alike. Kent Union were called upon to ‘pick a side’ in the debate, as they have been criticised for sitting on the fence in their self-proclaimed “not anti-strike, but not pro-strike” perspective.

The march was organised

by Douglas Carr, last year’s president of UKC Student Assembly Against Austerity, who was running for VicePresident for Activities at the time. Both presidential candidates were also present at the march, with Rowena Bicknell, who as president of the Kent Graduate Student Association (KGSA), has been very vocal in her support of the strikes, addressing the crowd.

Strikes Continue as UCU Rejects Proposals

By Grace Pocock Newspaper News Editor

U

niversity and College Union (UCU)’s Higher Education Committee met March 13 and rejected a proposed agreement to end the USS dispute, meaning that strikes are set to continue for the week of March 12-17.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt reported: “The union’s HE committee today agreed to reject the proposals that arose from UCU’s discussion with the

employers at ACAS. This followed a very well attended meeting of representatives from USS branches.

“The overwhelming view of branches was that while the proposal retained defined benefit it did so at too low a level (only the first £42,000 of salary) and that the proposed reduction in accrual rate was also unacceptable. Branches were also clear that the refusal of the employers to shift their position on taking more risk was disappointing.

“Today’s decision means that:

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•

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the union will not now attend the USS JNC tomorrow to endorse the ACAS proposal the strike action called for this week will continue and the union will now make detailed preparations for fourteen days of strikes in the assessment and exam season members who are external examiners at USS institutions will be asked to consider their position with a view to putting pressure upon the

assessment season the action short of a strike (ASOS) including the refusal to reschedule lectures or classes will remain in place.

“There is no doubt that your negotiators sincerely believed they had made sufficient progress at ACAS to put the proposed agreement to branches and members.

“Now, after our national meeting with branches, there is equally little doubt that the majority of members wish to reject the proposals as •

insufficient.

“UCU’s greatest strength is that we are run by and for our members. It is right that members always have the final say.

“The union will now resume strike action and continue to seek to persuade the employers to meet our demands for a decent, guaranteed pension and for a shift in the unfair way that the fund is valued.

“Thank you for your support.”

As of writing (March 14), an agreement is yet to be reached.

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News

Britain First Leaders Jailed for Hate Crimes Committed in Kent

By Grace Pocock Newspaper News Editor

T

he leaders of far-right group Britain First have been convicted following a campaign of abuse that targeted members

7 March 2018 at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court.

Fransen was found guilty of three counts of religiously aggravated harassment, and sentenced to nine months in prison. Golding was found

- On Friday 5 May 2017, Golding filmed Fransen attempting to enter a fast food restaurant and shouting abuse at the people inside, which included a man, a woman and

shouted abuse while a woman and her two young children were inside. A video of the incident was later posted online.

- On Wednesday 10 May a vulnerable Canterbury man

Photo by Britain First

of Kent’s Muslim community.

Jayda Fransen, 32, and Paul Golding, 36, both from southeast London, were arrested together on Wednesday 10 May 2017 following a number of incidents across Kent country, and were sentenced Wednesday

guilty of one count of religiously aggravated harassment, and sentenced to four-and-a-half months in prison.

The police issued a statement outlining the following incidents, which were connected to the trial:

two teenage girls. None of those targeted were involved in the trial or had committed any criminal offences.

Serious Crime Directorate.

He was charged with sexual assault on a female, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and committing an offence with the intention of committing a sexual offence.

Subsequent enquiries have now resulted in the Crown Prosecution Service authorising charges in connection with a separate incident in Ashford Road, Chartham on Wednesday, April 13, 2016.

A Kent Police spokesman said: “Mr Collier has been charged with the same three offences for each incident, which are

sexual assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and committing an offence (i.e. the assault) with the intention of committing a sexual offence.”

Collier has pleaded not guilty to all counts, and is set to face trial at Canterbury Crown Court on April 24.

He is currently detained in custody, awaiting trial.

- On the evening of Tuesday 9 May Fransen banged on the front door of a house and

learned that a video had been posted online in which his address was wrongly identified as the home of one of the men on trial. Leaflets entitled ‘Exposing Muslim Rapist’ had also been posted through his front door and those of his neighbours.

The man was forced to move as a result.

Detective Inspector Bill Thornton of Kent Police said: “The crimes committed by Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen were abhorrent and motivated by religious insensitivities.They claimed to be exposing the men who had been accused of rape when in reality they knew little about the case in question and could have put the trial at risk due to their reckless actions. It was the bravery of the female who was attacked and the tireless work of Kent Police detectives who ensured the men responsible are now serving a significant period of time behind bars, not because of any misguided attempt by Golding and Fransen to claim credit for their conviction by bringing religion into the equation. The fact that completely innocent members of the public were accused of being rapists, making them fear for their own safety, shows how little regard they have for the consequences of their actions. Kent Police simply will not tolerate any offences that are motivated by prejudice and hate, and will investigate all such incidents thoroughly in order to bring those responsible in front of the courts.”

Man Charged with Sexual Assault Near Campus to Face Court Again

By Grace Pocock Newspaper News Editor

A

man accused of sexually assaulting a woman near the University of Kent in June, has now had further charges brought against him.

The 30-year-old, Trevor Collier, is alleged to have carried out an attack on University Road, the road leading to campus, on June 2 last year.

Collier was arrested November 15, 2017, and charged November 17, 2017, following an investigation by detectives from the Kent and Essex

Photo by Google Maps

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

5

News

Kent Police Seek Man’s Identity Following Attempted Burglary

By Grace Pocock Newspaper News Editor

K

ent Police have launched an appeal for a man wanted in connection with an attempted burglary in February.

The attempted distraction burglary took place at a block of flats on Military Road, Monday 12 February. The suspect rang on the doorbell of a property and asked the resident if he could enter to check the water pressure, which he said had been low in the area.

The resident refused his entry, before asking for his identification, at which point the suspect fled on foot, followed by two other men.

The victim was unable to get

a good look at the two men accompanying the suspect, but described the man at the door as being white, with a very fair complexion, and rosy cheeks.

He was wearing a green, highvisibility jacket.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Mark Huttley said: “The victim quite rightly asked for ID, and this was obviously a problem for the man. Thankfully she did not let him into her property and as a result nothing was stolen. We are always urging people not to let strangers inside a house without checking credentials first. People should also make sure rear doors and windows are shut when they answer the front door too. Where possible

consider extra security, like fitting spy holes and door chains. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to turn people away like this woman did.”

Following the victim’s description, a computergenerated image of the suspect has been created, and police urge anyone who recognises the man to come forward.

They also ask that anyone with any other information regarding this attempted burglary, or who has had a similar experience in the area, to contact Kent Police on 01843 222289 quoting reference ZY/7581/18.

Alternatively call Kent Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

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Opinion

From England With Love An Open Letter To America About Gun Control

By Matt Nuttall Writer Dear America,

W

e have had enough.

Since 2000, we, in the rest of the world, have been forced to watch as hundreds of your children have been shot and killed in schools.

You have done virtually nothing. Firearms can still be purchased at supermarkets; gun owners are still trusted to store their weaponry without regulation; weapons can still be carried around in public; and, unsurprisingly, innocent people continue to be shot.

Why do you need a pistol in the inner city? There are no bears there that you need to defend yourself from, just other guys whose guns ought to have been taken away. Or at least, that’s what Washington D.C. seemed to think in 1975 when they happily took their own guns away. That was until, of course, you decided that wasn’t allowed, and forced them to re-arm in 2006. But that is neither here nor there; we have

come to accept your odd love of firearms. The issue here is that your simple refusal to implement even the most basic regulations.

No gun ownership regulation has passed in a quarter of a century. It was 1994 when Clinton signed a law that banned semi-automatic rifles that looked like assault weapons. That law expired in 2004. The last regulation on firearms that still remains a law is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, this requires basic background checks on the majority of firearm purchases.

Brady was passed back in 1993, and is the only check done on gun buyers outside of ensuring they are not felons or unregistered foreigners. Of course, there is also legislation outlawing firearms on school grounds. Leaving aside the fact that it took until 1990 to pass the school ban and there have been three proposals to repeal it since, that law is obviously not enough. Preventing a child from having a cookie means little if they can still reach the jar. Barring a deranged killer

Photo by Unknown | Wikimedia

from having a gun on campus does nothing to prevent mass shootings.

America, you have to change.

The statistics are horrific, and getting worse. From 20002010 there were 62 school shootings in your country.

Since 2010, there have already been another 146. The rate of mass shootings has been rising since 2007.

In 2015, more people were killed by a gun every day in the US than in an entire year in the UK, by a margin of thirtyfive. Of course, Britain has a far smaller population than the US, but when compared at

scale there are forty-one times the number of gun deaths in your country. Your homicide rate is seven times higher than the average in developed countries. Your addiction to unregulated guns is quite literally killing you.

What makes this quite frustrating is how simple the problem could be fixed. Your cousins in the north have a regulation that allows citizens’ to bear arms, but prevents weaponry from falling into the hands of dangerous people.

Canadian gun holders must pass a gun safety test to receive a gun license, and it must be

renewed every five years. This simple law drops their gun homicide rate from your 10.64 per 100,000 people to 2.22 per 100,000 people. But, it would be even lower if you would just do as Australia did and get rid of guns entirely. Thousands of people would be saved.

Hundreds of schoolchildren would be saved.

It is a small step for the world, but would be one giant leap for you, America. Do not let more of your people die.

With love, Matt Nuttall

Putin’s Speech and Phallic Simulations: Dissapointingly Flaccid

By Jesse Bedayn Writer

A

Photo by Getty

fter the Kremlin published a photo of a shirtless Vladimir Putin riding a horse the internet responded by superimposing him onto a grizzly bear. While the photoshoped meme brings tears to your eyes, and makes fun of the ridiculous nature of Russian propoganda, it also depicts Putin, however ridiculously, as a strong-man; it’s an image that he not only endorses, but propagates.

In Putin’s annual state of the nation address he held on Thursday, he emphasized his optimistic view of Russia’s growing economy, but the supportive rhetoric was

overshadowed by Putin’s new intercontinental ballistic missiles that were featured on three massive screens behind him: the Sarmat ballistic missile, the hypersonic Avangard, and the air-launched Kinzhal, along with another, yet to be named missile that can allegedly dodge nuclear tracking and defense systems.

A poorly-made animation played of 15 nuclear warheads falling on Florida. In front of the curiously penile simulations, Putin puffed out his chest with pride and observed that “Nobody wanted to listen to us. Well, listen to us now.” Former US president Teddy Roosevelt’s philosophy of “Speak softly, but carry a big stick” seems to be belligerent

Putin’s favorite maxim, though perhaps only the latter part. It is quite telling that the address, usually given in the Hall of St George in the Kremlin, was moved to the Manezh exhibition hall to make use of the enormous screens—he wanted to reveal his big stick in a big way. He intended for the world to cower and capitulate, but the US State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert’s response was a resounding “cheesy”. Instead of a strongman, he looked like deeply insecure authoritarian, and his speech seemed the equivalent of a poorly photoshoped dickpick; imagine Putin now, riding the bear and wielding a phallic missile while all his enemies die of laughter.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

7

Opinion

Stormzy Should Be Grateful?

By Emmanuel Omodeinde Writer

T

he Daily Mail doesn’t usually grab my attention, but almost every other week, without fail, a headline will pop up on my Twitter timeline. Not because I follow anyone who reads it, but instead because someone has tweeted a quote from a racist article. Grime artist, Stormzy, has been a frequent target of the Daily Mail’s racist attacks.

Since he has risen to prominence the Daily Mail has tried to slander his character in every way imaginable. Several weeks ago Stormzy won British Album of the Year at the 2018 Brit Awards.

It was a massive achievement for a grime artist to reach the number one spot on the official UK charts. The Daily Mail, however, couldn’t resist trying to tear him down.

The article in question was headlined “Platell’s People: Can’t you show a scintilla of gratitude, Stormzy?” It was written by Amanda Platell, an Australian journalist based in the UK.

The article is rife with hypocrisy, and double standards. Stormzy was born in South London and grew up in South London, he is British by default. The author, however, is not a British citizen, was born and grew up in Australia, and only moved to the UK when she was 28. How can she have the gall to demand gratitude from a born-and-bred Brit as an Australian immigrant without citizenship?

Platell uses Stormzy’s background to cover up her blatant racism. She mentions that his “mum emigrated from Ghana to Britain in the hope of giving herself and her family a better life. And she succeeded.” Platell writes that “whatever your background, this is a country that provides opportunities”. But what she fails to see is how she’s benefited from white privilege as a white woman from Australia.

She will be viewed as an expatriate because she’s coming from a majority white country whereas Stormzy’s mother, coming from Ghana as a black woman, will be viewed as an immigrant. Despite

Australia and Ghana both being commonwealth countries, migrants from Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada to the UK are viewed more favourably than migrants from African Commonwealth countries such as Ghana and Nigeria.

Platell’s has a bone to pick with Stormzy over what he said during his performance at the Brit Awards: “Yo, Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?

And you got the cheek to call us savages? You should do some jail time. We should burn your house down, and see if you can manage this.”

Personally, I was blown away by this performance, I thought it was incredibly powerful to see not only a Black British artist, but a grime artist, brave enough to challenge the prime minister and the conservative government on mainstream television.

Using acommon Daily Mail tactic, Platell brings up Stormzy’s past: “Stormzy got six A-stars at GCSE level and A-levels before he left school and entered a world of gangs, drug dealing and violence.”

Platell fails to understand the

lives of working-class Black British youth who grow up in low-quality council houses and with few job prospects.

Platell ended the article with “Is it asking too much that he show a scintilla of gratitude to the country that offered his mother and him so much?

Instead of trashing it.”

Well, Amanda, there’s this thing called colonialism, and at one point 90% of the world was colonised by Britain. It also sent its convicts to your home country. The devastating effects of Britain’s colonial project are still evident in most sub-Saharan African countries today. British history is Black history.

Britain, as we know it today, does not exist without the colonisation of Africa and its people. Just over a month ago news broke about DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton “Cheddar Man”, who lived about 10,000 years ago. It turns out he had “dark to black” skin.

Black British Twitter revelled in the glee that racist White Brits would be angered to find out that they may be related to people they hate. While I

found these tweets humorous, racial classification as we know it is a relatively recent Western European invention from the 18th century.

Last year’s BBC four-part mini-series Black and British: A Forgotten History looked back at thousands of years of Black British history. I think, however, we should avoid revisionism.

While there has been a presence of sub-Saharan Africans in Britain for thousands of years, real largescale migration began in 1948 with the arrival of SS Windrush which carried hundreds of West Indian migrants to Britain.

Most Black Brits today are descendants of West Indian and African migrants who arrived in the large numbers in the second half of the 20th century.

We don’t need to prove to White Brits that we belong here because many will never consider us fully British even if we were born here and grew up here. So Amanda Platell, Stormzy needn’t show gratitude—he accomplished his achievements in spite of Britain not because of it.

Photo by Bugzy Taylor | Flickr

8

Opinion

Where is Artificial Intelligence Going?

By Tiree Nivan Writer

T

ransnational corporations like Google are marking their territory as leaders of an innovative, maturing concept—Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is the focus of every technological firm in the world, and it is the driving force of an ultimately highly-competitive market regarding the evolution of the collective digital and physical consciousness. The extent of AI development will ultimately determine the future of all domestic, commercial, industrial, and space exploration sectors.

Intertwining real-life and digital communication brings to mind the possibility of human-machine hybrids: cyborgs, as some might call them. Yet the current issue with AI is that it is completely anti-visceral. There is no depth of emotion involved in AI systems, as of yet.

When considering the technological evolution of life itself, the question that arises is whether it would actually be beneficial for humans to close

the gap between the natural and artificial. It’s important that AI remains recognizable and distinguishable, rather than transcending the human perception, sense, and intellect.

Otherwise the rights of humans could be undermined. Already we are seeing Sophia, the first female robot being granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia, prompting questions over her rights in relation to Saudi Arabian women.

However, AI is still in its exploration phase, and so far it has positively benefitted and enriched our lives. For instance, AI eradicates human error in data processing, and it opens up new doors in videogame design; it’s a valuable asset to rising videogame hubs like Aberdeen.

However this could all change.

Already we are seeing house robots lose control, such as the case of the hair-eating Roomba vacuum-cleaning robot ‘attacking’ a woman while she slept on the floor. One could argue that there isn’t much tolerance for robots, but so far we are seeing the first signs of a slippery-sloped robotic

revolution.

However, it seems that people find them intriguing, and many are more than willing when it comes to communicating with robots. Robots can be designed to be better listeners than humans; they never get tired of our griping. People find it easier to ‘open up’ without fear of the robot losing interest—even revealing secrets quickly and without a second thought. The idea of building a relationship is made redundant; openness, acceptance, and reciprocity are qualities that all humans appreciate, even if it is with a robot incapable of genuine empathy.

If communicating with our robot friends is so easy—and it’s only going to get easier with the synthesis of cybernetic neurones that will eventually directly emulate those of in the human brain—then think of the marketing and policing powers that could result. Crime will be increasingly preventable.

Yet crime will also shift into a new digital age – there will be internet wars.

Already vulnerable people

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are attacked by criminal chatbots: bots that persuade online victims that they are fellow humans.

What truly fascinates me is AI’s potential for the destruction of the human race, in a completely theoretical sense. I can imagine a future of artificially intelligent digitised humans rendering human intelligence redundant, and the more I think about it the more I am engaged by the potential

Photo by Franck Veschi | UnSplash

of this technology. No doubt it’s a product of my childhood obsessions with time travel and Doctor Who. AI’s potential, or the potential we think it could have, is mindblowing. Our sense of reality is changing as we speak, and that is completely fascinating.

We can only leave it to our imagination and our ingenuity to contemplate what the frenzied future of AI, cyborgs, and robotics may hold.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

University Tuition Fees: Should we be Paying 9k?

By Lee Russell Writer

I

n an ideal world, tuition would be free, but, as it stands, providing free university tuition comes with its own problems—with fees of up to £9,250 and interest at 6.1%, the current system is the worst it has ever been.

The decision to implement tuition fees began with the 1998 Labour government, who proposed a cost of up to £1,000 per year for tuition.

Fast-forward to 2017 and we are seeing students burdened with huge debts that are rarely payed off.

The catastrophic problem with this system is the interest rate of student loans, with the average student facing a debt of £55,000 upon graduation.

Recently a higher interest rate was announced at 6.1%, so just as students begin their studies, so too does their debt start growing.

This trend cannot continue and with Labour promising the abolition of fees, there is certainly a strong case to be made for debt-free education.

Who can forget the Lib Dem’s policy back in 2012, however, when they promised to dispose of tuition. Of course, the promise was floundered, but the debate over the quality and cost of higher education has been brought up once more.

Fees should be completely abolished, but this should not compromise the quality of, or opportunity for, education.

Scotland’s free tuition, however, seems flawed as they are dependent upon

international students to make up their financial shortfalls— England should be careful not to replicate that same problem.

The cost to the taxpayer would be large and there could potentially be problems justifying this in the current political and economic climates, however, it’s not a debate that can be ignored.

Debt-free graduates, who have more money to live on and invest, not only strengthen the economy, but put more tax money in the bank for the future generations of university students.

Free tuition is certainly a justifiable policy. We no longer live in a society where a university degree defines your job prospects; with the sheer volume of graduates being turned out every year,

the competition in the jobs market is fierce and many graduates have found themselves in lower paid jobs before climbing the ladder.

While, in the meantime, their debt is growing exponentially.

Although an average university graduates earn more and thus pay more tax, the majority do not even pay off their student debt— confining their financial prospects and inhibiting their economic and tax potential.

9

Opinion

Photo by Tom | UnSplash

The Botched Italian Election

By Matt Nuttall Writer

E

arlier this month, Italians went to the polls for their parliamentary elections.

The Elections followed an embittered and angry campaign and ended in a hung parliament that left nobody happy.

The political atmosphere is changing in Italy: Euroscepticism is at an all-time high, new third parties are riding a wave of populist support, and there is widespread anger at the entire system. The diagnosis is clear: Italy is in a mess.

Italy wasn’t a democratic republic until 1946, after the fall of Benito Mussolini’s regime catalysed a referendum for national democracy. In the referendum, Republican Democracy won over National Monarchy by only 10% of the vote, though many monarchists claimed that there was voter fraud.

Since then, Italy’s government has been a mix of terrifying consistency and worrying extremism. For the first fortyeight years of the Italian

Republic only one party held power: the catholic, centrist Christian Democracy Party beat the opposing Communist Party year after year. Naturally, this domination led to immense corruption, which was finally brought to light in 1994.

At one point during the corruption revelations, more than half of Italy’s parliament was under indictment, with 5,000 politicians under suspicion.

After the investigation, all of Italy’s existing parties fell apart.

Into the fold stepped media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, who, in spite of legal troubles from the very beginning, attracted the shocked Italians with his populist message and savvy campaign.

Berlusconi, never far from scandal and controversy, led Italy without interruption for twelve years. Even when he was ousted in 2006, he never conceded defeat and fraud claims to this day cloud the results.

Since then the smoke has not cleared. A brief return for Berlusconi was finally ended in 2013, but since

then, Eurosceptic parties have been firmly on the rise.

Italy has never managed a real democracy, and the Italian people seem sick of the constant struggle. ‘Government’ has become a byword for corruption in the country, and those who have promised to solve the issue have repeatedly fallen foul of it themselves. It speaks volumes that the second biggest party in Italy is founded by a comedian.

So where is Italy going to go from here? Presumably, nowhere pleasant. In politics, nothing is certain. Parliament remains dissolved after the elections, with no party seizing enough of the vote to organise a government. It is anyone’s guess for who will take power.

Meanwhile on the streets, the tension is barely contained.

Last month, a former politician shot six African migrants in a drive-by, with an Italian flag on his shoulders and his arm in a fascist salute.

His justification was revenge for the killing and dismemberment of a Roman woman of which three immigrants are suspected. In

response, many locals came out in support of the drive-by. Anger and bitterness define the zeitgeist.

In the face of growing fear and anger, a return to populism is likely, and with it a good chance of an Italian exit from the EU—an Italeave, if you will. Prior experience, however, has shown that populism has fixed nothing in Italy, and I for one, am not hopeful.

The only hope for Italy is serious and widespread reform that will actually lower corruption and allow for a few precious years of prosperity and stability.

From the current position, however, that seems extremely far away.

Nearly 80% of Italians went to the polls this month to try and change anything about their situation. Depressingly, it seems that their effort has once again failed.

Photo by Donkey Hotey | Flickr

Editorial Sexual Assault On and Off Campus

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By Kiran Saggu Editor-in-Chief

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ith the recent struggle between women and sexual assault in pop culture fresh in our minds, today, it is urgently critical to uproot the foundations which have allowed men to brazenly abuse without consequence.

It is not lost on me that this is an issue which prevails in every sector of society, but as it is the environment that I live in, my focus is sexual assault that happens at universities. Although power dynamics play a significant role in the persistence of sexual assault, our culture of woman-shaming and man-praising is to blame for incidences of rape when the victim and attacker are in egalitarian positions – hence why student-on-student assaults regularly happen. A 2015 study by the Telegraph found that 1 in 3 women are sexually assaulted or abused on university campuses, this includes sexual assault and unwanted advances

By Kiran Saggu Editor-in-Chief

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ranging from groping to rape. If I or a friend were a victim of sexual assault, I realised I would be completely ignorant to the process by which the University of Kent handles these cases. I sat down with Kent Union’s Vice-President of Welfare, Clara Lee, to talk about what to do if you’ve been a victim of sexual assault.

Clara Lee: “I would like to pre-empt these directions with a trigger warning as I will be speaking about the events of trauma. If you have just been raped, and you want to go to the police, first of all make sure that you are safe. I know this is horrible to say, but don’t go to the bathroom, don’t wash yourself – it’s vital that you preserve evidence, and it’s the best way to ensure that the perpetrator will be caught. Regardless of if the attack happened on campus, you can go up to campus security, and they should escort you to a safe place for your protection.

The University has Sexual Assault Responders (SARs) who are the first point of call out of hours, and they are avail-

able on the Canterbury and Medway campuses. They are trained to work with victims of sexual assault. They’ll guide you through the process; they’ll take any statements and make sure you’re happy with what they’ve written down.

Then you have the option to go to the police, or the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARCs). There are SARCs all over the UK, but our closest one is in Maidstone. The University will pay for you to get there and back, and you can go with a friend and/or a Sexual Assault Responder for support. I’ve visited the place myself, and they treat victims with extreme care, including providing them with shower facilities and a beauty pack that contains toiletries and makeup to give them some comforts after what would be an incredibly horrific ordeal.

They take all the relevant evidence for storage for up to 2 years, and then it’s up to you whether you want to go to the police or not.

If you’ve been assaulted in the past and you’re not sure what to do, your College Master is your first point of call, and you can find out which college you’re a part of on SDS. If the sexual assault happens during office hours, they are the people to turn to rather than Campus Security/SARs. The College Master will handle the reporting side of things.

They will take a statement, offer you the opportunity to contact the police, write a risk assessment, and support you with academic concessions if you need them.

If the perpetrator is another student they will launch an investigation, and this can lead to a disciplinary panel.

If there is a police investigation the university will wait for that investigation to conclude before they start with their own investigation.

When the issue with sexual assault

involves specific individuals, let the university know so they can handle it.

If the issue is to do with a society or sports club, go to Kent Union, but if the situation is severe we will pass on the case to the University. We are guided by the victim’s wishes on how they’d like to handle the situation.

Sometimes there is little evidence, but there is a wider issue in that we are in a culture where sexual harassment and assault is prevalent and often overlooked, and it is not dealt with sufficiently within the justice system. The University could do far more to support students. However, with or without incriminating evidence or a police investigation, the university will investigate and should follow through with any case. I think there is a problem with how the university deals with sexual assault, given that most college masters are white males: females might not feel comfortable approaching them. After a year of campaigning, the University is finally introducing a full-time wellbeing advisor that will deal with sexual harassment and assault cases. They will have an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) qualification, and will handle all sexual assault cases. We’ve received over 30 applications for the role, and I will be sitting on the interview panel.

So everything I’ve told you here is the current procedure for handling sexual assault, but hopefully it will be changing very, very soon.”

For more information on dealing with rape and sexual assault, visit https:// www.kent.ac.uk/studentsupport/sexual-assault.html - click on ‘Guidance’ on the right-hand column.

at fault for the inappropriate acts they commit, the misogynistic society we live in that normalises mistreatment of women is also to blame, despite being less tangibly culpable. We know that sexist culture is accountable for making sexual assault seem insignificant and trivial, but how can we stop this?

Solving the problem is no easy feat.; it requires a complete restructuring of the way we think about sex, but most importantly, it begins with an individual. If you know you’ve sexually assaulted someone or engaged in sexual misconduct, the first thing you need to do, as cliché as it may sound, is accept it.

Understand that you did something that made someone feel violated, without their consent, and made them feel less because of it. Next, you must stop mak-

ing excuses. We know we’re currently in a perpetual patriarchal vortex, and it’s possible you were egged-on or even commended by your friends, but take responsibility, and think about what you are going to do about it now that it’s happened. Assess the people around you. Are they the type to encourage sexual misbehaviour? Do they not see it as a problem? Try and let them know and fix it, otherwise, stop associating with toxic people. If your closest friends don’t respect women, how can you? Make amends however you can. Whether it’s apologising, accepting punishment, or using your newfound knowledge to make change for the better. Don’t expect forgiveness, and don’t expect to get away unscathed. You’ve hurt someone, and that may be difficult for them to

process immediately and leave behind.

Additionally, you must face the repercussions that are in place to prevent things like this from happening.

Bystanders must accept fault as an accomplice as well. If you continually witness to acts like these, then you are also in the wrong. It’s not enough to avoid actively taking part. Those who stay silent on sexual assault are guilty of preserving misogynistic culture. Report what you see happening to someone. If there is a specific individual that deserves to be punished, let someone with the authority to punish them know. If this behaviour is a product of your club or society, tell the student union so they can handle the situation as a whole, and end the encouragement of assault.

Being an Assaulter

omething that we can, and should, be decisive about, is that sexual assault is a toxic problem in our society that can affect anyone. In the aftermath of this kind of incident, the proper legal handling of both parties, whether the victim or the perpetrator, should be careful and considered. Similarly, the holistic care of victims should be thorough. And although I don’t want to encourage an assaulter-apologist attitude, one thing that isn’t considered as much is the holistic treatment of perpetrators. I understand this ideology sounds problematic, but what’s important to note, is that if we don’t make an effort to rightfully reprimand and rehabilitate those responsible for these acts, we may be failing to effectively prevent this kind of behaviour in the future. While perpetrators of sexual assault are entirely

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

What’s on...

Review: Call Me by Your Name

I, TONYA Fri 16th- Sun 18th 2018 WINCHESTER: THE HOUSE THAT GHOSTS BUILT (15) Fri 16th - Tues 20th Mar 2018 KTV FILM FESTIVAL 2018 Sat 17th Mar 2018 EARLY MAN Sun 18th – Sun 25th Mar 2018 THE 15:17 TO PARIS Sun 18th – Mon 19th Mar 2018 OSCAR WILDE SEASON LIVE: LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN Wed 21st Mar 2018 NT LIVE: JULIUS CEASAR Thurs 22nd Mar 2018 LADY BIRD Fri 23rd – Sun 25th Mar 2018 THE SHAPE OF WATER Fri 23rd – Thurs 29th Mar 2018 ROH: BERNSTEIN CENTENARY (LIVE) Tues 27th Mar 2018 TROLLS Sat 31st Mar 2018 DARK RIVER Sat 31st Mar – Tues 3rd Apr 2018 ROH: MACBETH (LIVE) Wed 4th Apr 2018

DARKEST HOUR Thurs 5th Apr Prices 2018 A FANTASTIC WOMAN Fri 6th – Sat 7th Apr 2018 THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSORI Fri 6th Apr 2018

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By Yuri Helal Writer

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f you’re a queer person, then you’ve probably been a confused teenager once. You’ve probably gone through the anguish of discovering who you are and coming to terms with it. Director Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call Me by Your Name’, based on the novel

by Andre Aciman, is one of the few films out there that perfectly explores the fragility and beauty of that discovery. The film debuted early last year at the Sundance Film Festival, and began showing in cinemas in November. Since then, it has been met with critical acclaim and a total of 202 award nominations. These include Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Song, and Best Adapted Screenplay, the last of which it won.

The film follows the story of Elio Perlman (Timothee Chalamet), a 17 year-old boy of a mixed European background, and Oliver (Armie Hammer), an American PhD student who works as Elios’ father’s assistant at their Italian vacation home in the summer.

The story’s strongest element is its subtlety: the patient build-up of Elio and Oliver’s romance.

It starts with Elio being annoyed at Oliver’s infringing on his personal space, and they often bicker and argue. But as the story progresses, an interesting dynamic grows between them. They become strange friends who tease each other, and have philosophical discussions - mainly about music and their shared Jewish faith - that greatly impact Elio’s growth. You can see the development of their feelings and the sexual tension between them, but in such a quiet and soft way that mirrors Elio’s slow realization.

There is a touching moment between Elio and his parents, where his mother reads a story about a prince who fell in love with his friend, and didn’t know whether to “speak or die”.

Elio’s parents are supportive, which

is rare in queer stories, especially ones set in the times of prevalent anti-gay sentiment. It leads to Elio finally giving in to his feelings, and indirectly confessing in one of the film’s most beautiful scenes. He’s tentative and scared, and never calls it what it is, but tells Oliver they must speak of ‘the things that matter.’ Their first kiss after this is both passionate and pained, and carries the rush and messiness of a controversial love like theirs.

Elio and Oliver continue their backand-forth for the rest of the film, switching between stolen moments and sneaking around the house, and Elio’s hidden

Photo by the Gulbenkian

exploration with Marzia, a local girl with a crush on him. His exploration of his sexuality is shown best by what’s been dubbed ‘the peach scene,’ a scene where Elio masturbates with a peach. It sounds weird, but the emotional response the scene inspires sells it. Elio breaks into tears when Oliver discovers what he’d done, and it’s then where all of his confusion, embarrassment, and internalized shame and homophobia come out. It’s a touching moment that forces the viewer to forget about the perversion of Elio’s exploration, and

focus on the pain and self-hatred he feels.

There are many other scenes worthy of mentioning, such as Oliver’s request for Elio to call him by his name, which finally explains the title.

Their romantic getaway towards the end of the film is filled with some equally carefree and painful moments as they get closer to their imminent separation. But it’s in the very last scene where all of the heartbreak implodes. It’s when Oliver calls to tell the family he’s engaged, and he and Elio call each other by one another’s names for the last time. It’s frustrating for the viewer, because you’ve been rooting for a happy ending, but the directions of their lives simply don’t allow it. Moreover, it’s the idea of their names endlessly reminding them of the other that really stings and leaves you thinking about the film after the closing credits.

Also worthy of mentioning is cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s incredible work on the scenery of the film. It’s such a vibrant picture that takes full advantage of the lush nature of Italy’s countryside. The soundtrack features a variety of classical pieces that Elio plays or transcribes, and those piano ballads often appear in emotionally charged scenes as an expression of Elio’s feelings. It also includes two original songs by Sufjan Stevens that perfectly summarize the love story.

Call Me by Your Name is fragile and soft, bold and groundbreaking. It shows a bittersweet side of first love, and crosses lines in its exploration of identity and sexuality. And it does all of this with impeccable storytelling, vibrant visuals, eye-catching cinematography, and a soundtrack so touching that it’s almost an extension of Elio himself.

It’s a film well worth watching and talking about. The film will be a source of comfort, validation, and reassurance for many LGBTQ+ kids who are experiencing the same struggles as Elio.

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Culture

By Annwen Adams Writer

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Arts

Ophelia. Treading Water

o celebrate LGBTQ History Month in Feburary, University of Kent’s School of English and Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Writing arranged for Stuart Crowther to perform his theatrical, spoken word piece ‘Ophelia. treading water’ on February 8 at Garage Coffee. Written and performed

by Crowther, a queer artist and actor, the immersive performance explored the practice of bugchasing, where individuals seek out HIV positive sexual partners, to willingly contract the virus. Dealing with such controversial issues, Crowther’s performance mirrors the subject matter and comes with a disclaimer for nudity and adult themes, which were present throughout.

Encouraging audience participation and featuring elements of method acting, spoken word and performance art, ‘Ophelia. treading water’ is an immersive, one-man performance.

Blurring the line between subject and spectator, Crowther plays with audience perceptions of homosexuality, HIV, fetishisation and abjection. It keept the

audience, including myself, transfixed.

Entering the private function room in Garage Coffee, we were given some vegan birthday cake to eat, while Crowther sat semi-nude, nursing a nosebleed, surrounded by the ruins of a birthday party. After several loops of Leslie Gore’s ‘It’s My Party’, the performance began. Crowther deliberately de-familiarises the audience by jarring the familiarity of the party setting with the unconventional eroticisation of infectious diseases.

Such de-familiarisation, combined with Crowther’s insistence on audience participation, allows the audience to question their attitudes surrounding infection, contact, and untouchability.

As such, Crowther addresses sociopolitical legislation enforced on the LGBTQ community, such as openly-gay males only being allowed to donate blood if they have abstained from sex for one year. Asking audience members to draw on and touch his body, while openly discussing HIV and AIDS, Crowther uses the physicality of his

body to challenge the social ideology surrounding queer bodies in a subtle and artistic fashion.

Opening discussions of sexually transmitted diseases, even those willingly transmitted, allows the deconstruction of sexual taboos surrounding sexuality and promiscuity.

These taboos are often counterproductive as many abstinence-only sex education states in the US facing outbreaks of STIs because students are not taught about proper protection.

As such Crowther’s work encourages a much-needed dialogue on issues of sexuality, sex and healthcare. However, with the UK enjoying access to free healthcare with the NHS, the practice of ‘bugchasing’ is one grounded in privilege. ‘Avert’, a source of information and education on HIV and AIDS, state that one-million people died worldwide from AIDS-related illnesses in 2016 alone. Those who died may have had to make difficult economic decisions to obtain the help they need, or have little or no access to the life-

The BFG in Pictures

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he BFG in Pictures’ allows book lovers from all ages to be able to come and experience Quentin Blake’s creation of one of his most beloved and friendly characters. The art exhibition runs from March 3 to May 20 at at the Beaney House of Art. It will provide people with the opportunity to view over 40 of Blake’s originals, which contributed to the creation of the iconic character of the BFG. The exhibition shows the creative process of how the man behind the pictures started out with a simple sketch, and eventually ends up creating what we recognise as the front cover of the Roald Dahl’s 1982 childhood-classic. Dahl dedicated the book to his late daughter, Olivia, who at the age of seven died of measles encephalitis. Dahl’s personal attributes and his own relationship with his family somewhat influenced Blake as an illustrator when he envisioned the BFG. The story is about a young orphan, Sophie, who one night sees an unusual figure wandering the streets. When the giant man, the BFG, see’s Sophie he picks her up and takes her back to his cave. The scenario might seem nightmarish, but the Big Friendly Giant is a vegetarian, and soon the two form a thoughtful and close friendship. From there, they go on many adventures; they even go to Buckingham Palace to visit The Queen. Because it is such a funfilled and adventurous book, Blake had the opportunity to bring these pages to life with spontaneous and exaggerated illustrations. This was just one of Dahl and Blake’s many collaborations; the

author and illustrator were able to create iconic, warming, and fantastical characters, which is why ‘The BFG’ remains a timeless classic and forever entertaining book.

The exhibition begins with Blake’s original sketches from 1981, which have no particular facial details. They look like a rough draft: a mixture of black and white pen work and water-colours.

One of the sketches labelled as ‘Ch 18’ was a bit more abstract; the BFG’s facial features differ from image which has been etched into all of our heads. There was a gradual thought process behind Blake’s creativity and Dahl’s ideas about the characters, two clearly different interpretations.

The next few drawings were more key scenes from the book: when the BFG introduces Sophie to the ‘snozzcumbers’, and when they meet The Queen. Dahl’s exciting and lyrical language is beautifully reflected in the book’s illustrations, specifically in the colours, the proportions of characters, and the objects.

One of the four larger printed images is the original ‘1982 BFG in print’. The print’s caption tells visitors about the time when Blake went to visit Dahl at the Gypsy House at Great Missenden, a Buckinghamshire village in the Northwest of London. There they discussed what the BFG should wear, how his features should be altered, and the colour scheme that Blake would use. In a 2016 interview with the BBC, Blake explained that he had originally envisioned the BFG as “...a clown, with

saving medications they need. Despite this, Crowther’s performance addresses LGBTQ issues in a way that encourages the audience to reflect on, and discuss, these topics in a meaningful way.

Stuart Crowther is an accomplished actor and lecturer for the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Dealing with topical issues such as sexuality and suicide he has worked for the theatres All Things Considered, and Concrete Playground. More information on his work and performances can be found on his twitter, @stuARTcrowther. Garage Coffee has hosted many exciting events and serves a selection of food and drinks in a relaxed, open space, serving only fair-trade coffee and having several vegan options. They also host the Free Range festival which organises free film, art, and music events in Canterbury.

For more information visit www.freerange.co, www.garageroasted.co.uk or pop in for a coffee and a slice of cake.

By Maryah Chughtai Writer

a comic face”. But after seeing how Dahl interacted with his own family and grandchildren Blake decided to base the BFG’s image on Dahl’s personality.

Thus, the BFG is a tall man with big ears, and a mind full of exciting ideas and stories.

Blake’s use of watercolours adds a washed out effect to the painting. They look somewhat child-like, a bit messy, but unique, and always memorable.

You can see rubbed-out pencil marks, and even new faces drawn over his mistakes. However, as you make your way through the exhibition Blake’s work becomes more finished, and more detailed. There are also illustrations of scenes which are in the final adaptation of the book, but are not well recognised.

This suggests that there are different adaptations, and both the author and the illustrator altered their ideas about he characters over time.

Nearer to the end of the exhibition the illustrations that Blake drew for Dahl’s 100th birthday are on display. Similarly, they show the BFG’s 2012 30th anniversary commemorative stamps and postcards from the Royal Mail – both gestures which show the longevity of the book, and how it has continued to impact so many generations even after its initial publication.

They also have Blake’s step-by-step guide on ‘How to Draw A Portrait of the BFG’, which was published in The Times newspaper back in 2002. Although the guide is written by Blake himself, the BFG he describes does not look much like the one we are all familiar with.

There is also a framed image of his illustrations of other famous characters which he and Dahl brought to life, such as Matilda, and the Witches.

The exhibition comes to an end with a cosy workshop for children, where they can draw their own ‘dreams’ to take home with them. And for £1 you can pick up a trail sheet and follow the BFG trail around the museum, and if you find yourself lucky you might even win yourself a scrumdidilly treat.

For more information visit https:// canterburymuseums.co.uk/events/thebfg-in-pictures-2/

Photo by SLG Blog Network

Friday 16 March 2018

Books

Literary Guide to Canterbury

Culture

A Modern Take on a Classic: Matthew Lewis’s

By Rachel Claxton Writer

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f asked about Canterbury’s literary history, it is likely that the names that spring to mind would be Geoffrey Chaucer or Christopher Marlowe, whose legacies are still celebrated in the city today through The Canterbury Tales attraction and the Marlowe Theatre. There have, however, been a number of writers who have found inspiration from the city’s cobbled streets and stunning architecture, including many famous names.

Charles Dickens, one of the most celebrated novelists in literary history, is one writer for whom Canterbury was an inspiration.

Having spent the majority of his working life in Kent, Dickens chose to set part of his eighth novel, David Copperfield, here. The title character is sent to be educated at an academy bearing a strong resemblance to the famous King’s School. However, the school isn’t the only local location referenced in the book. The House of Agnes hotel in St. Dunstan’s was supposedly the inspiration for the house that David lodges in with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter Agnes, hence its name. In fact, whilst conducting research for their 1935 film adaption of the novel, director George Cukor and producer David O. Selznick actually visited the

Photo by wikimedia commons

By Shani Thomas Writer hotel, to ensure that their depiction was accurate.

Jane Austen became a frequent visitor to Kent when her brother went to live at – and later inherited Godmersham Park, an estate between Canterbury and Ashford. Her letters tell us that she occasionally visited Canterbury for shopping, for balls, and to visit a friend who lived in the Whitefriars area, now the location of the shopping centre.

Likewise, Austen’s fellow Romantic writer John Keats was also a visitor to Canterbury. After passing medical exams in London, Keats felt the need to escape the crowded city, travelling to Margate where he spent a productive summer. Having enjoyed his time in Kent so much, he visited Canterbury the following year.

He evidently hoped the wondrous sights of the Cathedral would be a source of inspiration, writing in a letter that he hoped “the Remembrance of Chaucer will set me forward like a Billiard Ball.”

Born in Poland, Joseph Conrad, author of ‘Heart of Darkness’, was granted British citizenship in 1886.

It was in Bishopsbourne, a village just outside of Canterbury, where he eventually died in 1924. He is buried in Canterbury Cemetery, his grave marked by a misspelled version of his Polish name, Joseph Teador Conrad Korzeniowski.

A final Kentish literary export is W. Somerset Maugham, a writer of the war years who lived here with his uncle, the Vicar of Whitstable.

His residence inspired him to write the semi-autobiographical novel ‘Of Human Bondage’, which details his experiences at the King’s School and features place names clearly inspired by the local area, such as ‘Tercanbury’ and ‘Blackstable’.

Whether or not you are inspired to follow in the footsteps of Dickens, Austen and Chaucer and write your own work about this wonderful city.

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Photo by wikimedia commons

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tephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’, or Lauren Kate’s ‘Fallen’, not to mention TV shows like ‘American Horror Story’ and ‘Penny Dreadful’ are part of a modern wave of gothic works. So why revisit a classic like ‘The Monk’? Well if you’re a fan of AHS’s ‘Promiscuous Nuns’ and ‘Corrupt Priest’, then it’s not a far-off bet that you’ll appreciate this book’s title character - a libertine monk - and the tyrannical nuns that surround him. These megalomaniacs that make up Capuchin Church nunnery unpick God’s word piece by piece in order to puzzle together their pseudo-satanic cult. Other subplots include a devil worshiper who masquerades as a pious Christian girl who, in turn, is pretending to be a trainee monk; a young count made fugitive by an ever-present female ghost; demons dressed as angels; a damsel trapped in a high tower; and a St Claire’s day that quickly turns into mob violence.

The central plotline follows the life of an orphan named Ambrosio who, as a result of his strict upbringing into a monastery, develops an unstable understanding of his own identity, and encounters many scruples with the pious one laid out for him.

His resilient dedication to the Christian faith garners an overwhelming admiration amongst his laity, in spite of the rapturous human desires he struggles with. Nonetheless, when Matilda enters the picture, he realises that his faith will never wholly

‘The Monk’ satisfy him. This great tale of triumph and failure is punctuated by a combination of Christian hymns, accents of folklore, and renaissance poetry.

Given the largely faith-based element of this book, I wouldn’t blame you for assuming ‘The Monk’ to be an outdated version of all the prudish humdrum teachings you were forced to sit through as a child. But to this I would recommend not judging a book by its cover, and instead assert the novel’s secular approach. This Georgian author sets his story in medieval Catholic Spain during a time when logical thought came second to belief, and figureheads of the church commanded blind loyalty.

In this world of repressed speech and the normalisation of moral and legal indiscretion there is no covenant of grace for one to find comfort in. Quite strikingly, God is given no earthly or divine presence in this novel. Demonic alchemy drives the transgressions, and so it is ultimately a demon that passes judgement on these unfortunate characters.

The magnificently nuanced use of horror manoeuvres this book away from generic fictions of good and evil. Lewis’s careful use of the supernatural to mimic the presence of religion in real life allows him to artfully negotiate between these polar opposites and produce valid observations about the dangers of the amalgamation of church and state, or more notably the public ignorance needed to power inequality.

Adding the lens of twenty-first century can only further enrich this book, especially in the midst of numerous allegations arising against the once great Harvey Weinstein and other Hollywood giants; the sexual misconduct perpetrated by Oxfam’s charity workers aboard; and the ongoing trials of Cardinal Bell, along with other clerics who use celibacy to mask themselves as sexual predators and dismiss suspicion.

‘The Monk’ begs us to treat all those who we trust with a duty of care with a reasonable amount of scepticism. Not dissimilar from the liberal web-based movements of today, Lewis calls for a ‘times up´ by drawing from the most-taboo types of human behaviour: torture, rape, sadism, murder, kidnap, exploitation, domestic abuse, infanticide and paedophilia, that constitute to the interworking of a society that permits immorality to flourish.

So pick this book up, and get lost in a labyrinth of gruesome storylines, gripping prose, and lovably hopeless characters. It will complicate all the things that you held to be definitive truths.

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Culture

Poetry

menstruating one of the biggest taboos in society the warm dark red blood that comes out of your uterus between your legs every month the one that advertisements paint it blue the most natural period for you was once treated like dark magic a mystery to all you are witches the romans would tell you to stand naked menstruating to prevent hailstorms lightings the mayans that it was your punishment after the moon goddess slept with the sun god the jewish told you to go into seclusion you were separated from society you had to have seven clean days undocumented you were medieval you had no options you used rags occasionally you bled into your clothes you were christian european you were shamed you had to hide the pain you had to hide away you carried bags of sweet smelling herbs around your body your natural odour needed to be hidden your smell bothers others you needed to suffer this pain to remind you of the original sin Eve’s sin finally someone came to a conclusion it was not healthy to bleed into the same clothes for seven days not you of course you were still just the housewife you weren’t allowed anywhere the sanitary belt was created you just insert it into your vagina with a pad you wash the pads every once in a while later in the 19th century you were introduced to disposable pads 20th century your tampons were created a man trying to help his girlfriend you weren’t allowed to buy them out in front of everyone you picked a package you put the money into a box store you clearly didn’t want people to know you were bleeding it’s not normal end of the century the adhesive strips were made your life made so much more simple more comfortable more practical you who have access to education clean safe products you are considered untouchable dirty impure you are still shamed

By Rafaela Scharrer

Cold is...

By Danielle Ureta-Spontak

Cold is

Cold is

wanting the cradle and a kiss, a caress while returning to young blissno touchno one to missnothing to witness.

absence of sex and silly sentences exchanged in sheets taken away by distances, space’s faceless ordinances.

Cold is

painstakingly precise pain taken in too much to gain by.

The brain deactivates from the overload of slipped lies sewn into freshly cut skin filling the bleeding slice.

Cold is The slowing of molecules missing energy to reverberate waves of heat, so instead they freeze and cease moving freely.

Cold is no experience, no interest, no emotion, no quotient of one’s times divided to amount to more than nonenot even a drip of a drop in the ocean.

Cold is a reply, a response that leaves a why for being unkind to a fellow pair of eyes.

Cold is not caring for touch, no embrace, nothing that may such hint at love.

Cold is illness of spirit, subdued by fear, isn’t it?

A sticky apathy clinging to neurons, necks, and fingertips.

Cold is bacteria and viruses seeping into lungs, nasal passages, and tongues to burn the throat, clog the nose, weigh the chest, and dampen the toes.

Cold is more adjectives for sadness, despair, and madness than any other passion.

Cold is

a first reading, a memorized speech, a hue of a blue room, a trail gone dead from a mislead.

Cold is impending feet before the wedding, a damp doubt and shaky desire for being free.

Cold is in blood when murder wears a mask of remorse, but the act never touched the core.

Cold is the boxer unconscious from a right hook jettisoned up to his jaw, his defenses broke.

Cold is a child getting farther and farther away searching frantically in this looksee game.

Cold is the numb.

Cold is the shake.

Cold is when you slip away.

Warmth is a lending hand, a hello kiss, a rolling in sunlit sand, knowing this is real and particles congeal together to connect, create heat to kill the wetin comes the flood of oceans bringing emotions, reactions, soft erosion of bars, walls, and gates, the feeling of freedom, health, and playmates.

Warmth is wanting again.

Giving again.

Loving again

Friday 16 March 2018

Science

15

Culture

Mass Starfish Deaths at Ramsgate Beach

By Emma Leach Science Correspondent

Y

ou could be forgiven for believing that much of the Kent coastline is lifeless, at least when compared to the lively coral reefs of the Caribbean. However, one of the least expected side effects in the aftermath of the Beast from the East was a reminder of just how much life resides beneath the waves of our seemingly unassuming coastline, albeit in a rather macabre fashion.

On the morning of March the 4th, residents and visitors to Ramsgate beach saw tens of thousands of starfish, crabs, lobsters, anenomes, mussels, various other invertebrates and even some fish washed ashore dead. Only the odd lobster survived. In some areas the beaches were ankle-deep with dead invertebrates. This was not a phenomenon unique to the beaches of Ramsgate, other events were reported along large swathes of the East coast; including beaches in Norfolk and the Holderness coast of Yorkshire.

Our coastal wildlife species are normally resilient to drops in temperature, however

the Beast from the East and Storm Emma brought rather extreme conditions with them. Frozen waves have been filmed washing up on the coast of Herne Bay, and strong waves caused an underwater storm of their own, disrupting the sheltering animals en masse. Bex Lynam, the North Sea Marine Advocacy Officer for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust released a statement explaining why these conditions caused such a massive die-off.

“There was a three degree drop in sea temperature last week which will have caused animals to hunker down and reduce their activity levels. This makes them vulnerable to rough seas – they became dislodged by large waves and washed ashore when the rough weather kicked in. Larger animals such as dolphins are more mobile and can save themselves by swimming away when this sort of thing happens. Lobsters are one of the few species still alive – that’s why we’re saving them with local fisherman.

This area is very important for shellfish

and we work alongside fisherman to promote sustainable fisheries and protect reproductive stocks. It’s worth saving them so that they can be put back into the sea and continue to breed.”

Should we be concerned about the future of these species that were washed up in their masses? Most likely not. Mass deaths are not unheard of after natural disasters and winter storms in particular, and populations tend to bounce back and recover. This event was a particularly extreme example, possibly the biggest mass stranding in the UK. However, you have to wonder if these mass deaths may become a little more common in the future. If the trend of more extreme weather events continues these species could be vulnerable.

Photo by wikimedia commons

New Penguin Super-Colony Discovered

By Emma Leach Science Correspondent

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he Danger islands are an inhospitable archipelago of nine islands just off the Antarctic Peninsula.

These islands were so named because the expedition leader James Clark Ross, who discovered them in 1842, nearly died discovering them. The main landmas is concealed by towering fragments of islands, making it difficult to safely navigate ships.

It is on this group of islands, that a rather massive discovery has been made. It was revealed that 751,527 pairs of Adélie penguins were living on the islands undiscovered.

How do 1.5 million penguins (the largest population in the Antarctic Peninsula) go undetected for such a long period of time? It is most likely the danger that the islands are named after that has kept them secret for so long.

The thick pack ice that caused James Clark Ross bother in 1842 is common throughout the year and that combined with currents from the Weddell Sea make the islands incredibly difficult to access.

It was back in 2014 when the first hints of this super-colony became apparent. Heather Lynch, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution

at Stony Brook University, teamed up with Matthew Schwaller of NASA to publish an algorithm which used satellite images of Antarctica from the Landsat satellite to identify areas that were covered in guano (penguin poo).

The Danger islands were flagged up as a hot spot. This potential discovery led to a team of penguinologists from Stony Brook University, Oxford University, Louisiana State, Northeastern University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to mount an expedition there in 2015 to investigate how many penguins may be present.

On arriving they used drone technology to count the size of the super-colony, coming up with a total of 1.5 million penguins new to science.

This discovery means that the estimated number

of known breeding pairs of Adélie penguins in Antarctica has increased to 4 million pairs. The good news is that the population appears to be stable, if not growing modestly; satellite imagery from the 1950s gives supporting evidence for their existence in the area at similar levels. Adélie penguins in other areas have seen a population decline in recent years, so this is good news for the species. Questions are now being raised about what it is about this area of the Antarctic Peninsula which allows the penguins to thrive.

The discovery has also raised the possibility of the area being afforded greater protections. The area falls between two planned marine-protected

areas but wasn’t previously considered as an area that afforded high priority for protection. This new discovery has led the international Commission for the Conservation of the Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to consider a proposal to recognise the Danger Islands as part of these marine protected areas. This would not only be good news for the Adélie penguins, safe guarding the oceans in which they feed, but it would also protect the Gentoo penguins and Chinstrap penguins in the area as well.

The journal reporting the discovery “Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot” was published in Scientific Reports on the 2nd March and is open access for all to read.

Photo by wikimedia commons

16

InQuire

Meet Your 2018/19

Aaron Thompson: President “Last year you elected me as your Vice-President (Activities) and this year I’m asking you once again to elect me as your new Union President,” wrote newly-elected President Aaron Thompson in his election manifesto. Since becoming VicePresident (Activities), Thompson has secured sponsorship for the activities department, and has helped work on the Kent Africa Summit project.

However, Mr Thompson said “now I want to do more,” and pledged to be a “bold, inclusive, and supportive leader.” His manifesto focused on four key areas; student experience, equality and inclusivity, and more support for Medway students. Some of his key policies include having zerotolerance licensing across Canterbury and Medway venues, creating the role for a full-time postgraduate officer, and reviewing the college system.

Stuart Lidbetter: Vice-President (Education)

Sasha Langeveld (Activities)

Stuart Lidbetter was re-elected as VicePresident of Education, after battling stiff competition from James Burns, and Becky Bailey. Since coming into office, Lidbetter has obtained funding for a new study hub in Turing College, secured new postgraduate study and social spaces on campus from next year and helped implement the first year of lecture capture. Re-elected for a second term in office, Lidbetter wants to continue of what he called his “long term plan” for university education.

He would like to implement a financial reward system for student reps, begin more high quality social and study spaces on campus and establishing a policy whereby students are not taught for a period of longer than four hours without a break.

Despite running ag candidates, Sasha L on top as the clear become Vice-Presi Ms Langeveldt will the Aaron Thomps former Parkwood C Langeveldt’s camp based on “commun change,” and her w make university as as it has been for m campaign promise the process of getti to society events, p for smaller underfu having more event online and on socia the presence of wh campus.

Sabbatical Officers

dt: Vice-President

Omolade Elizebeth Adedapo: VicePresident (Welfare)

Emily Window: Vice-President (Sport)

gainst five other Langeveldt came out victor in the race to ident of Activities. l take over from son this summer. A Campaigns Officer, paign was primarily nity, culture and wish if elected was “to s enjoyable for others me.” Several of her es included simplifying ing public speakers providing funding unded societies, and ts and societies posted al media to increase hat is happening on

Omolade Elizabeth Adedapo’s Union experience as BME Officer, her strong campaign presence and dedicated election team led to her remarkable success in becoming the new VicePresident of Welfare. On the night of her election, Adedapo wrote on social media that she wanted to “show students the importance of representation and leadership to BAME students” and for all students to stay #AllthewaywithOmolade. Adedapo wants to review procedures for sexual harassment and hate crimes on campus, diversify the curriculum taught at Kent, have free and accessible tampons and sanitary products on campus, and introduce better illuminated streets across Canterbury.

A previous member and publicity secretary of the Trampolining team, as well as a member of other societies such as Kent Dance and Music society, Emily Window’s wish to become the next Vice-President of Sport has become a reality. After winning against rivals Nadia McMillan and Erin-Fitt Boyland.

Ms Window ran for the role because, as she states in her manifesto, “I am truly passionate about making sports at Kent the best they can be, and I want to ensure that our clubs are accessible and welcoming to all.” She wants to implement physiotherapy discounts for sports club members, online banking for sports teams, qualified medics at contact sport matches, and committee training focused around team-building, problem solving and communication.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

17

18

Lifestyle

Life

Excape From Social Media to Arrive at a Real Connection

By Isabelle Dray-Sharma Newspaper Lifestyle Editor

I

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

It’s Time to Turn the Tide on Plastic

By Amber Bytheway Writer

H

ave we now discovered the true horror and devastation plastic has caused towards our once idyllic environments?

Since its creation in 1907, plastic became so commercially successful and cheap to produce. So much so that it quickly established itself as a ubiquitous product that can be used to create everyday household solutions and provide functional thermal and electrical insulation properties.

However, the popularity of this seemingly useful material has backfired big time, with polluting chemicals left in the environment for hundreds of years, that are unable to biodegrade.

Our obsession with plastic has gone too far.

It is saddening that the horror has only just surfaced as a serious issue in light of David Attenborough’s rallying words on the subject showcased alongside disturbing footage in Blue Planet II. The Marine Conservation Society have been levying the UK government to take action on plastic for years, after discovering that plastic consumption had increased by over 180% since 1994, with more than eightmillion tonnes of plastic entering our oceans every year.

For a country that is supposed to be putting environmental concerns towards the top of the national agenda, we are currently reacting at a snail’s pace. In the UK, we introduced the single-use plastic bag charge from 2015. However, France banned them outright in July of 2016. Furthermore, France was also the first country in the world to make the bold move of banning disposable cups, plates, and cutlery with a law that will come into effect in 2020.

We need to work together more than ever to sign petitions, share content, and wise up about the problems plastic is causing. If we do not change our plastic consumption habits, experts believe that by 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will exceed the amount of fish in the ocean.

For now, there are plenty of easy ways to reduce your own personal plastic consumption that do not even take much thought. Be alert and make the change!

REFUSE THE STRAW.

We only use straws for a matter of minutes, so our unnecessary plastic consumption here sucks. Say no when you are offered a straw! Student favourite chains such as Wetherspoons and Wagamama have recently committed to ditching the plastic straws.

AVOID FOOD WITH EXCESSIVE PACKAGING.

We know that this is not the consumers fault. However, when buying certain selections of food such as fruits and vegetables, choosing loose items without the plastic packaging is perfectly possible.

Alternatively, bring your own containers and bags; the same can be done when buying meat at a local butchers or grocery store.

STOP USING DISPOSABLE CUTLERY. Consider bringing your own fork or spoon to lunch. In places where disposable cutlery is handed out to customers, always suggest the idea of biodegradable disposable cutlery options.

CARRY YOUR OWN REUSABLE BAGS.

This is not a ground-breaking idea and thankfully since the introduction of the plastic carrier bag charge, over 83% less bags have been used in since 2014.

RESUABLE WATER BOTTLE.

Reduce your disposable plastic bottle consumption by bringing your own reusable water bottle. On campus, there are plenty of water refill fountains, especially in Templeman Library.

n today’s world, social media can sometimes seem like an essential tool to remain connected, both socially and professionally. Recently, the BBC reported on a study published in the journal ‘Computers and Human Behaviour’ which found that ‘people who report using seven or more social media platforms were more than three times as likely as people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general anxiety symptoms’.

This increasing awareness around the negative effects of social media on mental health has lead some people to leave it altogether. However, with the modern world’s reliance on social platforms, can such a thing really be possible? I discussed this with friend of mine, Iwan, who left social media a few years ago. He explained to me that ‘you find ways around its absence and in fact not having it actually makes life easier and more rewarding as you are forced to connect with people on a more human level’.

But if you don’t want to commit to a totally offline existence, here are a few tips to reduce the hold social media may have over your daily life.

constantly checking your phone, how can you enjoy quality downtime and fully commit to the moment? Try putting your phone in a different room or leaving it turned off on Sundays.

Turn off notifications on your phone

We all know the feeling. You sit down with all the intention to get work done, and suddenly, your phone buzzes. The notification symbol flashes up, teasing your self-control, until to cave and spend the next half hour scrolling through Facebook. The best way to combat this is to simply turn off all notifications while you work. If you prefer something a bit more creative, try the app Forest, which allows you to plant a seed and see it grow into a virtual tree as time goes by it will gradually grow into a virtual tree. If at any point, you leave the app to check social media, the tree dies. This seemingly simple concept promotes screen-free time and can help you stop procrastinating.

Buy an alarm clock

When your alarm is also your phone, it can be all too easy to start your day off scrolling half asleep through Instagram before realising you are wasting valuable time.

An easy solution to this is to buy an physical alarm clock and leave your phone on the other side on the room to avoid temptation.

While is may seem easy in theory to step away from social media, in practice the challenge it presents may surprise you. If you’re finding it increasingly difficult to step Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash away, it may be worth talking to someone at Student Support and Wellbeing. You may find that Screen-free Sundays living independently from social Weekends are supposed to be media will free not only your time for relaxation. And yet, if you are but also your mind.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

Style

19

Lifestyle

By Katinka Pim Writer

W

hen looking at today’s fashion trends it is undeniable that the majority are recycled, and modernised with a twenty-first century kick. Trousers alone - we have the mom jeans from the 90s, flares from the 70s, and vinyls from the 80s. It seems those decades in particular have had a distinct effect on today’s fashion.

The 90s

Photo by Wikipedia

Throwback Fashion

‘Friends’, ‘The Breakfast Club’, and most iconically, ‘Clueless’, are all textbook examples of some of the trends in the 90s, and are a perfect place to take inspiration from for today.

The Chequered Skirt: Everyone knows chequered skirts are in, and how could they not be after seeing ‘Cher’ rock it out in ‘Clueless’. Pair a coloured plaid with a pair of knee high socks and some cute trainers, with a cropped slogan top or jumper and you’ve got the look. Add a denim jacket and you could seamlessly slip right into ‘Saved by the Bell’.

Mom Jeans: With a cute crop top and some over the ankle socks and trainers, this is a classic 90s look. Or throw on some ankle boots, a bralette and leather jacket, add some fishnet tights and you’ve got the grungy, twenty first century twist.

Dungarees: Again, a classic for the 90s.

Either with a cute vest top and trainers for the summer, or add a colourful jumper underneath and bam, an

adorable autumn outfit.

The 80s

Although the 80s may be an era I’m sure is universally recognised as overconfident and cringeworthy, there are more elements than you may realise which don’t have to be left behind, as neon leg warmers and tutus have been…

Thigh-High: Whether this is body suits or swimwear - they are definitely in. A bodysuit featuring the retro look of ‘highleg’ holes each side and a pair of low rise jeans is always effortlessly sexy Vinyl: A trend which has exploded in both runway and high street looks, vinyl can be used for just about everything.

Vinyl trousers, boots, bodysuits, I’ve even seen a vinyl bikini–although I don’t know if I’d manage to wear that myself. Vinyl clothing can instantly dress any outfit up, whether it’s on shoes or trousers.

Bold Patterns: Perhaps one of the most classic trends in the 80s, prominently seen today in ‘The Fresh Prince of BelAir’. While the show does continue on into the 90s, it maintains a fierce relationship with 80s style classics. Large, bold, colourful (and often clashing) patterns were big at the time, and can definitely still be seen today . This can particularly be seen in the current trend of animal prints, evident in the latest edition of Vogue.

The 70s

Finally making a comeback in more recent years, the 70s was a decade of strong statement pieces, power-dressing and making a change.

Flares: Whether its bell-bottom jeans or flute sleeves, the flare is thriving everywhere, and I don’t think it’s ever looked so good. Pair a flute sleeved top or jumper with any pair of jeans or skirt and it will liven any outfit up. To flares, add a cropped fitted jumper for winter or a halter neck top for summer and bam, a statement look already. Want to be subtler? Lessen the flare. The larger the flare the larger the impact.

Platform heels: Again, a classic.

Although they may look daunting, they aren’t as terrifying as they seem. Whether its platform boots or sandals, they can make any outfit ready for a night out and give you that same hit of confidence as a shot of vodka.

Turtle neck: Although many may not automatically associate the turtle neck with the 70s, looking back they are recognisably a prominent trend of the time. Adding a bright coloured turtleneck can make an outfit look chic – and just that much warmer!

Neal’s Yard: Environmental Exfoliation

By Alicia Santuray Writer

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n a world growing more and more concerned with environmentalism and individual impact, we are increasingly starting to think about how we can reduce our use of plastic.

The skincare industry needs to adapt to this ever-growing awareness. Neal’s Yard Remedies is a company with environmentally friendly standards, and produces sustainable products by avoiding plastic, and using organic ingredients to make their products.

Neal’s Yard Remedies proudly use the Soil Association mark on their skincare products as a symbol of their sustainability, and they also use cruelty free, fair trade, and fair wild production practices.

Microbeads are a material commonly used in skincare products, and according to Greenpeace they are ‘tiny pieces of plastic that are added to everyday cosmetic products face wash, toothpaste, abrasive cleaners and lots more. They are most frequently made of polyethylene but can be of

other petrochemical plastics such as polypropylene and polystyrene.’

Microbeads have a serious negative impact on sea life as they often end up in the stomachs of fish and even birds.

Eventually the cycle comes back to humans through the seafood industry Neal’s Yard Remedies is one of the companies which refrain from using microbeads in their products. They have instead turned to natural and biodegradable ingredients: rosehip seeds, rice powder, seed oils from jojoba, hemp seed oil, and other plant seeds. The three microbeadfree products I will be reviewing are the Honey and Orange Facial Scrub, Rehydrating Rose Facial Polish and the Pumice Foot Scrub.

The Honey and Orange Facial scrub is really great for those days you spend largely outside and your skin is exposed to the elements. For example, I used the scrub after a day out in London where I was surrounded by pollution and my face felt the effect of the questionable

London air. This scrub uses rice powder flakes to lift the dirt out of your pores and is classed as ‘deeply cleansing’ as it tends to feel fairly rough on the skin - which is great if you’re looking for an intense clean, but should maybe be avoided by those with very sensate skin.

Remember to mix this scrub with water as the sweetness of the honey will bind itself together if not mixed.

The Rehydrating Rose Facial Polish is softer on the face, and is perfect for regular use (Neal’s Yard Recommend once or twice a week). The exfoliation coming from the rosehip seeds offers a gentle cleanse and produces a sweet aroma which leaves your face feeling refreshed. Water is not needed to mix with this polish, but the directions suggest that you have a damp face before applying as this will ensure you don’t cause any redness.

Finally, the Pumice Foot Scrub is for those nights you want to wear strappy

shoes, but need to make your heels look like they haven’t been treading in snow boots for weeks. This foot scrub is amazing for exfoliating the tougher on your feet. Neal’s Yard use peach seeds combined with ginger, and mint, which left my feet feeling softer, cleaner, and refreshed. If you have a pumice stone (volcanic rock) this will enhance the effect of the scrub by buffing away hard skin and ingrained dirt.

So, if you are looking to be environmentally friendly whilst taking care of your skin, Neal’s Yard may be the way to go. If you do get the chance to visit one of the Neal’s Yard stores, speak to the staff about your preferences as they will often make up samples for you to try at home.

20

Lifestyle

A Weekend:

By Robyn Grant Writer

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he architecture, the food, and the history behind Rome is what makes it one of the most popular cities to explore in Europe. Filled with winding cobbled streets, and picture-perfect views around every corner, the city is arguably one of the most beautiful. This beauty only grows with time; as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

At almost 3000 years old, Rome is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Despite thousands of tourists who fill the streets with cameras in one hand and maps in the other, the city is also a place people have made their home. Amongst the historic monuments and crumbling ruins people go about their day as if it is not a world spectacle.

Rome has everything to offer; it provides tourists with the opportunity to eat, shop, educate themselves, and lose themselves in the city’s tattered orange walls.

Being the capital of Italy it has a culinary reputation to live up to. No matter how hard you try you won’t be able to resist the pasta or pizza on every corner: the thin crust, flavourful sauce, melted cheese, and any topping you could want. Of course you wouldn’t be able to leave Rome without trying some of the best gelato money can buy.

Despite every gelato stand claiming to be the best in Rome, from personal experience, and many brain-freezes, I can confirm the best is Giolitti’s. Hidden

Rome

down a little pathway, it is one of the oldest gelato shops in the city. Along with every flavour your heart could desire, you’re also treated to a dollop of cream with every purchase. It is truly anyone with a sweet tooth’s dream.

It’s a city built on ruins that entices toursits with its beauty, and its historical significance. The Colosseum is one of the most famous attractions Rome has to offer since its creation in 80 AD, and it is arguably the most iconic symbol of the city. Despite the fact that the Colosseum once seated

50,000 people, if you’re wanting to explore its interior you’ll have to be up early, as the queue begins at 9am.

The old city is quite small, but there is always a new attraction around every corner. From the Colosseum to the Roman Forum, an excavated area full of Roman temples, is only a five minute stroll. As you explore the depths of the city you’ll come across the Pantheon, St Peter’s Basilica, and the iconic Trevi Fountain. Thousands of tourists come every day to close their eyes, make a wish and throw a coin into the fountain in hope

Travel

their dreams will come true. Each of these beautiful sites combine to make Rome one of the most gorgeous and fascinating cities to explore. There’s a certain magic behind the history of this city, which could make anyone fall in love. You don’t need much money to enjoy it, just some gelato in one hand, a camera in another. You could wander endlessly taking in the architecture, or merely just people watching on the Spanish Steps. As Lizzie Maguire once said, Rome really is a city which dreams are made of.

Photo by Fine Art America

Living and Learning Abroad

By Connie Enzler Newspaper Entertainment Editor

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Photo by Rehany Mooy on Unsplash

oing to outer space, becoming a millionaire, living in another country for a year, these are just some of the distant dreams you may have.

Good news is, one of these is more achievable than the others.

Having grown up in multiple countries myself, I can attest living abroad for at least a full year is something that you can, and should, do before you die.

Perhaps the most practical perk of living in another country is the language. There’s a reason why people go on a year abroad in a country that speaks the language they’re trying to learn. Being forced to at least

attempt to use it on a daily basis will automatically lead to you learning it a lot faster than repeating ‘Dónde está la biblioteca?’ once a week in Spanish class.

We are all products of our environments. This means that the people the people in the area you grew up in likely shaped your worldview. Spending a significant amount of time around people in another country will expose you to ways of thinking, senses of humour, and social norms that will help open your mind, and perhaps teach you a thing or two you wouldn’t otherwise have contemplated.

Have you ever considered taking up mountain-climbing, or surfing, or wine-tasting? Not exactly activities the UK is known

for. The Mentawai Islands of Indonesia, on the other hand, are one of the most renown surfing destinations in the world, and the vineyards of Montepulciano in Italy produce some of the most exquisite wine known to mankind.

And, in general, aren’t you curious as to whether you’re up to the challenge? It’s not easy moving to a new place, especially by yourself, and I can guarantee that doing so will test your ability to find your way around, adapt to another culture, and connect with different kinds of people.

Every experience shapes us into who we are, and I can tell you that if I had only lived in France my whole life, I would’ve been a very different person today.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

Food

Lifestyle

Review: Café du Soleil

Top 10 Tips for New Vegans

By Heather Guthrie Writer

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hether you’re going vegan for ethical reasons, health reasons, or just thinking about making the change, veganism can be overwhelming. From one new vegan to another, here are my Top 10 tips on going vegan in a way that’s healthy.

1) Simple is your friend.

Making a rice or pasta dish will make the change seem less drastic, and help you avoid stress in the kitchen with overcomplicated dishes.

2) No convenience food.

Vegan pre-packaged food is extortionate, and is mostly packed with artificial colours and flavourings. Remember to stay simple.

3) Vegan Cheese.

Now if you love cheese, as I did, Vegan cheese is probably not for you. Many people like violife – but it tastes nothing like cheese.

4) Eat your vegetables.

Broccoli actually has more protein by weight than steak, in fact almost twice as much: 11.1% and 6.2%. Don’t just eat pasta and

21

By Tiree Niven Writer bread because you can, remember to eat your five a day and balance your protein, carbs, and veg to do this the healthy way.

5) Oreos, Oreos, Oreos.

They’re vegan. Enough said.

6) Meal Plan.

Planning out your days can help reduce time spent in the kitchen wondering what to cook.

It reduces the amount you spend on your shop, because you’re not buying unnecessary ingredients.

Ultimately it will also streamline your week

7) Be creative.

Tofu can be scrambled and made into eggs, chickpeas can be blended and made into falafel. Veganism isn’t about restricting your diet; it’s about reinventing conventional food.

8) Eat out.

Even McDonalds serve a veggie patty. Ask for it without mayonnaise and boom, drunk food for every vegan.

9) Take care of yourself.

Don’t be disheartened by what feels like a mass change, and don’t cut things out of your diet without replacing them with something else. First and foremost, you should respect your body and it’s needs, the rest will fall into place.

10) Making mistakes.

You can check the ingredients as many times as you like but the odd egg, milk, and butter, will slip through.

It happens to everyone. Move past it, knowing you won’t make the same mistake twice.

Veganism is a massive change, one that is viewed in society as fringe and a bit kooky. Remember to stay positive, this movement, if you choose to be part of it, can be very rewarding.

“Veganism is a massive change, one that is viewed in society as fringe, and a bit kooky.”

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

T

he chilly winter sun cascaded down on us as we approached the steel bridge that lead us over the Great Stour. Appearing silent and serene, we wondered if anyone was actually inside. The old brick walls, housing what would once have been a wool store, welcomed us with their warm glow and slightly-weathered masonry finish.

On entering, we were greeted by tasteful décor of the cosiest kind, which worked well to retain the eatery’s sophistication and restaurant ‘vibe’. A pillar candle on every table, and a sparkling Christmas tree smiling at us on entry, I quickly felt at home. Friendly waiters led us to our table, situated in the centre of the convivial atmosphere; to our side a tropical plant’s leaves imitated the flames of the roaring pizza oven at the far end of the room, which had a curvilinear shape, reminding me of the most subtly interpretive handcrafted pottery.

The staff were particularly attentive and just as charming as the architecture itself.

The food prices are more suited to a special event; the perfect place for a birthday lunch, especially if your family comes to visit for a day and treats you.

From 12pm to 6.30pm daily, a set menu of two courses for just under £15 is an affordable option.

The quality of the food itself was sublime, especially if you have been living off self-afflicted rations and Essentials popcorn for weeks. On top of that, the menu incorporates a mixture of cultures, and is always seasonal. Whether you prefer moules frites, wood-fired margarita pizza, or a ribeye steak, all palettes and tastes are accounted for.

My starter, the crispy calamari salad, was a leaning tower of squid veiled in a piquant chili vinaigrette, and could be considered big enough to be a light lunch in itself. Followed by the tender duck confit with red wine sauce, it made for an above-average lunch, bursting with flavour and iron.

If you are looking for a restaurant to celebrate a birthday or celebration, I could not recommend this one more. Most impressive was the staff’s discreet approach to that of the cake-parade. No singing, no unnecessary attention, and no cringe-worthy rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’, just a cake laid in front of you graciously with uniform candles placed on top. The dancing, wavering candle lights did all the singing.

All-in-all, the friendly atmosphere was the most noticeable and unique feature of the restaurant, and elevated the afternoon from a ‘lunch-out’ to a heartwarmingly comfortable experience.

22

Entertainment

A Recap of the 2018 Oscars

By Megan Warwick Writer

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scars. The event that makes film lovers stay up until the early hours of the morning and wait in anticipation to see if they’re going to announce the wrong picture, again.

This year though, the Oscar results were predictable, and the ceremony ran smoothly.If you want to see the moment those incredible wins were announced and references to last year’s chaos of a ceremony – the first one came in the first ten seconds of Kimmel’s opening monologue – then definitely give it a watch.

The ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, which was somewhat underwhelming compared with previous presenters. To his credit, his address to the Oscar statue was humorous and entertaining. As usual, many digs were made about the film industry being predominately ‘too white’, a reference to Moonlight winning best picture last year and a jokey suggestion that perhaps the film industry is now becoming ‘too black’.

As expected, Frances McDormand won the award for Best Actress for her performance in ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’. Her

FILM

acceptance speech was an absolute inspiration; she asked every woman to stand up, and after sensing hesitation, beckoned to the leading lady, “Meryl if you do it, everyone will”. Gary Oldman finally won an Oscar for his performance as Winston Churchill in ‘Darkest Hour’, beating three-time winner Daniel Day Lewis.

‘Coco’ won Best Animated Film, some critics arguing that it was better than ‘Toy Story’. Perhaps the most unexpected award went to Best Supporting Actress, Allison Janney, for her role in ‘I, Tonya’ as Tanya’s mother. Best supporting actor was given to Sam Rockwell for his performance in ‘Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, giving the film two acting wins.

Best film went to critic-favourite ‘The Shape of Water’, the story of a deaf, oppressed, woman who falls in love with a fish-like man. The win was notable as no other film like it has ever won the award. The film’s director Del Toro also won the award for Best Director award, which many expected to go to ‘Ladybird’ director Greta Gerwig.

The number of awards received by

each Best Picture nominated film was fairly even: ‘Shape of Water’ won four, ‘Dunkirk’ won three, ‘Three Billboards’ and ‘Darkest Hour’ won two each, ‘Phantom Thread’ won one, ‘Get Out’ and ‘Call Me

By Your Name’ both won one each (for screenplay) and sadly, five-time nominee ‘Lady Bird’ left empty handed as did two-time nominee ‘The Post’.

A theme ran through the Oscar-nominated films this year. Equality. Whether it be gender, race, class, sexuality or age, each of these inequalities were represented within a film, and the Oscars seem to be making a forceful push towards more equality being represented on-screen.

Regardless of what critics say about the Oscars trying to please the public, the fact that an academy with so much influence on common culture is actively supporting diversity is a positive step forward for equality.

‘Black Panther’ Review

By Dammy Opara Writer

M

arvel’s ‘Black Panther’ was released on the 12 February, and so far has made $704 million at the Box Office. Directed by Ryan Coogler and produced by Kevin Feige and David J Grant, it’s an excellent superhero origin story. Marvel made a great effort to produce a central narrative around the minority rather than creating yet another film from a white point of view. The one token white character, Agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), is included in the story but does not directly affect it. The story follows T’challa (Chadwick Boseman) and his journey to the throne. The main

characters come from the mystical land of Wakanda, a small technologically advanced hidden nation in Africa completely un-affected by colonisation and the World Wars – an African Utopia where science has improved the lives of the natives and can teach the Western World a few things. Wakanda has an unlimited amount of Vibranium, the same material used in Captain America’s star-spangled shield.

The film’s casting was inspired, all of the actors amply becoming their characters and bringing the narrative to life. Okoye (Danai Gurira) and M’Baku (Winston Duke) making the most commendable effort to fully

Photos by Marvel

embody Wakandan warriors, passionate and adept with weaponry and fighting skills. The villain Killmonger is a

three-dimensional character with an emotional backstory which unravels as the story progresses. His character is compelling and Michael B. Jordan really becomes menacing, vengeful and malevolent, everything needed to be a convincing Marvel villain.

Killmonger’s character lived up to the old African proverb “A child that has been rejected by his village will burn it down just to feel it’s warmth”. Though the characterisation was near flawless, some of the characters seemed to adopt a Quasi-African accent, and others sounded South African and Nigerian, which was a little confusing at times.

The visual backdrop presented a rich tapestry of culture and all the decadence that you would expect from a technologically advanced safe-haven in Africa. The level of detail used to create the inner-city streets of Wakanda, the Vibranium transportation system and the futuristic tech we got a peek at in Shuri’s (Leticia Wright) lab sets an example and a standard for what we can hope to see in Infinity War. ‘Black Panther’ showed us what was possible and gave a glimpse of the true and (sometimes hidden) beauty of Africa from a non-western point of view.

The use of what looked like a Kenyan

Photo by Oscars

Safari as an ancestral heaven worked especially well, showing the former kings in a timeless natural space.

The costume design was impeccable, and every detail tied in together really well. Costume designer Ruth E Carter did a brilliant job of creating clothing worthy of technologically advanced Africans, allowing it be futuristic, but still have a heavily cultural feel by adding real elements of various African cultures. The Wakandans represented different elements of Africa. The ritual for kingship of T’challa may have drawn inspiration from a Congolese tribe called the Azande, and the the film depicts red clay braids that the Ova Himba tribeswomen of Angola and Namibia adorn their heads with.

The best way to watch ‘Black Panther’ is in a full cinema screening with Marvel fans to experience the best atmosphere, allowing the comic relief to land, the tension to build, and the story arcs to be more prevalent. I went to see it at the Odeon the first week it was out and was both surprised and delighted by the queues– some people even dressed up for the occasion. I highly recommend watching before it leaves cinemas, and make sure you stick around for the post credit scenes.

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire 23

Entertainment

TV

‘Lovesick’?

Why ‘Buffy’ Still Slays

By Jasmina Coric Writer

By Jasper Gilardi Newspaper Editor

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was recently told by a friend, who has never seen the entirety of the show, that every episode of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is the same. Big evil, Giles reads something, Willow casts a spell, ensue Buffy’s badassery, case closed. Well, Connie, consider these to be all the reasons you’re wrong!

The Monsters Yes, the makeup and the production are dated. But that doesn’t mean that the monsters aren’t terrifying. Enter The Gentleman, who don’t speak, steal the voices of the entire town, then cut their victims’ hearts outs. It’s Charming. Or we have Der Kindestod, whose name translates to ‘child death’.

He lurked around hospitals preying on sick kids, who were the only ones able to see him.

Metaphors The monsters aren’t just scary because of face value. Most of the demons are a metaphor for or embodiment of anxieties or real problems faced by Buffy and her friends. Take Willow’s addiction to magic being akin to drug addiction, or the mayor’s ascension mirroring Buffy’s maturation on her graduation day. ‘Buffy’ is also chockfull of references to more serious issues.

‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ focuses on bullying, when a girl goes invisible after being alienated en masse by her classmates. There’s also a lot of antidemon feelings, alluding to racism and bigotry in the show. ‘Reptile Boy’ is an extended allegory for sexual assault cases on university campuses, ‘Earshot’ for school shootings, and ‘After Life’ for severe depression. If you think each monster is an ends unto itself, think again.

Bechdel Test ‘Buffy’ isn’t considered a ground-breaking work of feminist entertainment for nothing. Unlike many films and television shows nowadays, it actually passes the Bechdel Test, the premise that works

Scrotal Recall’, or ‘Lovesick’, as it’s now called, is a Netflix original that fulfills only some of its potential three seasons in. It follows Dylan, a twenty some yearold running into walls in his endless quest to find love, and whoever gave him chlamydia. Dylan has been diagnosed with Photo by Buffy Wikia the disease, and because of his moral compass feels of fiction should have at least two lead that it is his responsibility to females who talk to each other about tell all of his past sexual partners to something other than men. The Scooby get tested; but an email or text simply Gang is not only lead by resident badwon’t do for Dylan. The show also ass Buffy, but Wicca Willow, Anya the follows Dylan’s friends Luke, the meme thousand-year-old capitalist ex-demon of a single brain cell player, and Evie, with rabbit phobia, and Cordelia the ‘mean girl’ with a heart. Also, the whole premise of the show is that girls are destined by fate to be ass-kicking vampire slayers so that’s got to count for something.

The Script ‘Buffy’ is a multi-genre fiend, and no aspect of the show better encapsulates that than the writing. Topical, funny and heart-wrenching, the dialogue constantly transcends the more dated aspects of the show. The story arcs are flawlessly planned to allow for narrative and character development, the believability of which grounds the fantastical elements of the show.

Everyday Drama Photo by Netflix From high-school drama to university, to working, Buffy’s everyday life can be just as treacherous as her slayer duties. But perhaps best of all is a photographer struggling financially, Buffy’s relationship with her oblivious but with the common sense to make mother, Joyce. Constantly battling it better life choices than her two male out over what Buffy is expected to be, friends. the duo’s authentic single motherEach episode tells the story of daughter dynamic is one of the most how Dylan’s met one of his genuine aspects of the show. And that past sexual exploits. The doesn’t even begin to cover their more storyline unfolds in much heart wrenching moments. the same way as Pulp Endless Puns Fiction, moving back “If I was at full slayer power, I’d be and forth variably punning right about now.” in time, touching, Well thank goodness Buffy is at full each episode, on how power most of the time, because she Dylan met one of slays the pun game. And it’s not just his sexual partners Queen B. ‘Tabula Rasa’ features the while developing the fantastic demon loan shark, a man with broader storyline, the the head of a shark, to whom Spike love interest between is indebted. So if you thought ‘Buffy’ Evie and Dylan. The back was all pop-culture jokes and vampire and forth timeline is genius. mythology, you were myth-taken.

Each episode starts in the present day, and then flashes

Photo by Netflix

back, sometimes to a year before, sometimes several. It’s similar to ‘How I Met Your Mother’ in that respect, but better. It takes the viewer to the points in Dylan’s life that are significant to the broader storyline: a party in the highlands, a pub quiz, a night in or the wedding of a close friend. Each episode is its own comedic story; it allows the writers to drop the characters into whatever hilarious setting they’d like.

The writing, dialogue, and humor more than make up for the one-dimensionality of the characters, the predictable storyline, and the unconvincing love interest. The recently released third season has unfortunately swerved from the original premise: Dylan could only have so many sexual partners. This has left the show with little to stand on, and the humor has become repetitive. The original premise ran its course by the end of the second season, if it hopes to keep us entertained it will have to adapt.

Photo by Netflix

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Entertainment

Music

Justing Timberlake: Not Prince of Pop, but ‘Man of the Woods’

By Alex Hanna Writer

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he cover alone of Justin Timberlake’s new album, ‘Man of the Woods’ speaks volumes about its content. Severed into two, the thirtyseven year-old appears dressed in a stylish black and white suit on top juxtaposed with a rugged look of jeans and a flannel shirt on the bottom.

Half traditional pop funk-soul, half adventurous spirit and folk, ‘Man of The Woods’ brings Justin segmented, creating contrasting results therein.

Justin Timberlake has, without a doubt, an enviable career. Something of a renaissance man across modern art, he has acquired praise for his work both on screen and in his musical ventures. It is safe to say that his new album was among the most anticipated in the industry as soon it was announced, it was his first since the 2013 album ‘20/20 Experience’.

Do not be fooled by those who call this work experimental, ‘Man of the Woods’ goes way beyond that. ‘Filthy’, the first single released, is the song that comes closest to deserving the term, mixing elements of hard rock, R&B and electronic music into a strange yet tasty composition; it sounds almost like a tribute to Prince. The album is well attached to already established musical structures, and clear inspirations of Timberlake’s resonate throughout.

‘Midnight Summer Jam’ and ‘Say Something’, with the participation of the great Chris Stapleton, feature a timid country/folk influence, but don’t truly fulfil the potential that working with Stapleton deserved.

Pharrell Williams also strongly inserted his brand into the production, doubtless reminding listeners of his previous dancehall pop in tracks like ‘Higher Higher’, which exudes the retro-modern funk of Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’, as in the excellent and friendly double of Montana and ‘Breeze Off s The Pond’.

Timberlake also displays some of his worst qualities throughout the record. ‘Flannel’ turns out to be insipidly and dully displaying the quintessence of mediocrity, a frightening breach in this production. Likewise, Timberlake closes the album in such a generic and characterless way without ever truly

leaving his indelible mark – a truly frustrating shortcoming especially when his self-proclaimed personality on the album is taken into account, having said “this album was influenced by where I came from. It’s a personal album”.

He plays it safe by sticking with his tried and trusted anodyne

Photo by Justin Timberlake

pop that secured him commercial success with ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ by creating the poor and forgettable arrangement ‘Man Of The Woods’. The eponymous tune of the album does not seem to convey anything of the much talked about “personal side” of the album, simply acting as an addition to Justin’s evergrowing catalogue of weak lyrics and cheap aesthetic. The music market has been producing unnecessarily lengthy pop albums in recent years and this is yet another example. Of the sixteen tracks, Timberlake could easily remove ten to form a lean and cohesive album. The same goes for the duration of the songs, which are often longer than necessary (almost every track lasts more than four minutes), leading to an exhaustive repetition of notso-refined choruses that will only be grabbing for so many minutes. Overall, Justin Timberlake’s new album is satisfactory, but rather inconsistent, and falls short of being a reinvention.

It fails in its attempt to be conceptual and sounds too shallow for a work said to encompass folk music and act as a paragon for the pop singer’s personality, especially for someone once responsible for redefining the face of R&B.

By Brad Grey Writer

T

Superorganism: Cohesive Chaos

hey’ve been described as “the band for the internet age” and it’s easy to see why. Seventeen-yearold lead vocalist Orono Noguchi met four members of what would become Superorganism online. From there, two extra vocalists from New Zealand and a backing vocalist from Australia joined, all thanks to internet correspondence.

Now, seven of the eight members all live together in a terraced house in London, which doubles as a live-in studio.

Prior to January 2017, the band mostly existed as a conceptual group based on a few demos.

Now, they have a sold-out UK tour, a major label released debut album, a song in the FIFA 18 Soundtrack, and an large loyal fan base.

The music itself is an eclectic supply of electronic pop interspersed with a smorgasbord of samples which range from the unmistakeable loud bite of an apple in ‘Something For Your M.I.N.D’ to the subtle growls put behind laser bursts in ‘SPRORGNSM’. The music shouldn’t work. It should sound like a hectic mix-match of noises, but the melodies are so pronounced that they drive the entire song forward with a direction set from the start, even if along the way the song picks up a droning spoken word vocal, multiple splashing waves and screams.

The songs aren’t afraid to take breaks either. In almost every song on the album there are fractions of a second where everything stops and you get a chance to breathe, before being immediately plunged back into the madness. Too many electronic bands forget to use silence as a weapon in their arsenal. Superorganism knows

they’re crazy. They know listening to them with headphones is like inviting yourself into a football stadium full of noise all directed towards you. They give you that respite to cleanse your palette only to crack down on you once again.

As a whole, the album rarely disappoints. Opening with the loud choruses of ‘It’s All Good’ which if you’re unprepared can make you a bit tearful just through shock, and punching at the world with the apathetic lyrics of the aptly titled ‘Nobody Cares’ with the lyrics“sweet relief when you grow up and see for yourself, nobody cares.” The madness doesn’t stop until the lowkey ‘Reflections on a Screen.’

The highlight of the album for sure has to be ‘SPRORGNSM’, which explains the ethos of togetherness and co-operation behind the whole project through an brilliant hook, and beats that can’t be matched anywhere else on the album. To have a debut album that is this complete and confident is impressive for a band that has only been together for a year.

Superorganism’s live show is very reflective of their music. Each member is brought out in different coloured raincoats to bring even more colour to a stage dominated by arcadeesque visuals and bright flashing lights. Orono does a great job of singing as nonchalantly as her vocals indicate on the album, but is full of energy when interacting with the crowd. At one point she grabs a phone off someone in the front row and runs around filming the band performing. The whole stage show just reeks of a band having a brilliant time at the beginning of their career. If you want to feel that energy, jump on board now, and give them a listen.

Photo by Brad Grey

Games

F

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire 25

Entertainment

‘Kingdom Come Deliverance’ Review

By Alejandro Javierre Writer

ollowing a highly successful Kickstarter program, and a yearlong beta release, ‘Kingdom Come Deliverance’ was finally released on 13 February. The game was developed as an ultra-realistic medieval life simulator set in the land of Bohemia, a province of modern day Czechoslovakia. The moderately sized Czech development team behind the game, Warhorse Studios, had been developing the game for the best part of seven years,the sole franchise of the studio since its creation in 2011. The story centres around Henry, a peasant turned soldier under the fealty of his local Lord.

The game has received controversy about the lack of diversity represented throughout. However, the game was made under direct consultation of historians and academics as to the social structure of Medieval society. It isn’t known whether there were black minority ethnic groups in Bohemia around that time, and the game is particularly harsh on the minorities that aren’t present in the game, such as the “Cumans” who are treated with distain and hate as outsiders. Women are also often side-lined as characters in the story, and will often be damsels in

distress that need to be saved. But, the same can be said for an overwhelming majority of male characters, including the main character himself on several occasions. And some strong female characters are presented in certain parts of the story. Warhorse Studios have confirmed that a female playable

be denied that the game’s unique fighting elements and mechanics creates some thoroughly enjoyable moments that will make you feel like a sword-wielding master; it’s the closest you will probably get to real-life sword combat in a game. But, it too suffers from drawbacks due to highly artificial

Photo by Flickr

character will be coming in a free DLC, but the date for this release has yet to be confirmed.

The gameplay, namely the fighting itself is the main selling point of ‘Kingdom Come Deliverance’. It cannot

progression system. When you begin the game,you will be understandably terrible at combat, and any weapon you use will have the force and precision of a wet baguette. The game attempts to improve your skills over time with an

organic progression system where you level up skills as you perform them.

Another huge hurdle affects the gameplay: the bugs. Bugs are to be expected from any studio attempting such an ambitious game, ‘Kingdom Come Deliverance’ trounces Bethesda in its levels of bug frequency. Entire missions in the game can be rendered impossible to complete due to a myriad of bugs. One mission in the game, called baptism of fire, and been colloquially referred to by the game community as the Bugtism of Fire. While some of these bugs can be hilarious, most are extremely frustrating when coupled with the lack of adequate saving mechanics that can mean you lose hours of gameplay for something completely out of your own control.

Despite its issues, the scope of the game itself as a debut title from such a small development team without, for the most part, any backing from large-scale publishers is commendable.

Moreover, there will be moments traversing the game-world and interacting with the land of Bohemia that will genuinely immerse any fan of the medieval world.

Entertainment

Across: 1 Boo, 3 Hopscotch, 8 Get-up, 9 Telling, 10 Imam, 11/2/22A Straight Outta Compton, 14/23 Public Enemy, 16 Ashram, 18 Rotation, 19 Lava, 24 Generator, 25 Ear. Down: 1 Big Dipper, 3 Hope, 4 Potato, 5 Collapse, 6 Trigger, 7 Hug, 12 Tom Sawyer, 13 Dictator, 15 Batsman, 17 Sonnet, 20 Adele, 21 Pear, 22 Cog.

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Across 1. Jameela ___, British TV presenter and actress whose TV series include The Good Place (2016-) (5) 4. The capital of the Republic of Ireland (6) 8. British ska band who had a UK No. 1 single with ‘House of Fun’ in 1982 (7) 9. A red or reddish-orange pigment used for skin decoration (5) 10. 2010 action thriller film starring Angelina Jolie and Chiwetel Ejiofor (4) 11. Conversation between two or more people (8) 14. A Greek island in the southeastern Aegean Sea off of the Anatolian coast of Turkey (3) 15. See 1 Down 16. The name of several conifers, resinous

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trees valuable for their timber (3) 17. A 2006 UK No. 1 single for Justin Timberlake (8) 18. Captain ___, a character in Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick (4) 21. A resort city and former Portuguese colony returned to China in December 1999 (5) 23. Disco ___, a 1978 UK Top 20 single for The Trammps (7) 24. Be Kind ___, a 2008 comedy film starring Jack Black and Mos Def (6) 25. In physics, a quantity of heat (formerly) used in the UK as the statutory unit of gas supplied (5) Down 1/15. 19th-20thC Irish writer whose works

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include Finnegans Wake (1939) (5,5) 2. A historic county of England mostly incorporated into Greater London in 1965 (9) 3. Sediment that forms during fermentation of an alcoholic liquor (4) 4. US music group whose members included LeToya Luckett and Beyonce Knowles (8,5) 5. Beauty is in the eye of the ___, proverb (8) 6. Jamaica ___, a 1936 Daphne du Maurier novel (3) 7. One’s profession or occupation (6) 12. Look a ___ ___ in the mouth, to find fault with a present (4,5) 13. A country in northeastern Africa on the Somali peninsula (8) 14. A 1998 UK Top 5 single for Sixpence

Puzzles by Matthew Sapsed None The Richer (4,2) 19. The surname of Leopold and Molly in 1 Down 15’s novel Ulysses (5) 20. A trademarked form of identikit (1-3) 22. In psychology, a stimulus that produces a response (3)

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Societies

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Sport

InQuire Zumba

By Molly Hope and Kiran Swaggu Newspaper Culture Editor amd Editor-in-Chief

Exercises I

Intensity Fun level Quality of Instruction Post-workout soreness Uniqueness InQuire approval

aving attended many yoga classes before, we walked into Hatha Yoga expecting to find much of the same stretching and poses as any other yoga class. However, the experience turned out to be less of a fitness class and more of a led meditation. The class is described as ‘slow-paced’ and ‘suitable for all abilities’ with a focus on ‘breathing exercises and slow stretches improve your flexibility and encourage relaxation’. It really forces yourself to move your body without any vigour or

rushing, which is a lot more challenging than you’d expect.

We spent the majority of the 45 minute class lying down on the mat, gently moving our arms and legs and focussing on our breathing. Admittedly, it was a little hard to get into it at first. For this class to be most beneficial to you, you must ignore your surroundings and focus on your body and its movements. If you’re too caught up on the soundtrack of Asian music with soft jungle noises playing in the background, this class won’t

live up to its full potential.

We both left feeling extremely relaxed in both body and mind.

It was just the wind-down we needed after a busy week. So, don’t go to this class looking for a stretching and toning yoga session, or something that will get you even mildly sweaty. But, if you’re looking for a calming and mindful class that leaves you feeling ready to take on another busy week of Uni then this is could be a really beneficial class for you.

keep up with all the seasoned Zumba ladies. However, the energetic and slightly insane instructor Emma instantly put us at ease and brought our inner Latina. The class started off with Jax Jones’s ‘Instruction’ immediately giving us flashbacks to Vensday and getting us in the mood to groove (hopefully with more coordination). To anyone worried about their lack of dance ability we can assure that, in a class of full of spirited women energetically dancing to ‘Gasolina’, you stop caring about looking like an

Intensity Fun level Quality of Instruction Post-workout soreness Uniqueness InQuire approval

idiot and just get into it. Whilst, the bangin’ playlist made the class seem more like fun than exercise we were still sweating profusely by the second ‘warm up’. Overall it was a great time and We agree that this class may not be the one to go for if you’re looking for something quick and effective to get you those summer abs. However, if you’re looking for a fun, high energy class to do with a friend and fit some good old cardio into your day then we would highly recommend Zumba.

Hatha Yoga

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f you’re into health and fitness in any way you’ve probably heard of Zumba.

It may have a reputation for being a mom class, even our newspaper editor told us it wasn’t really a workout.

Well, went to test that. It’s description says it ‘fuses hypnotic Latin rhythms with easy to follow moves. The dance routines feature interval training sessions combining fast and slow rhythms that burn fat and tone your body.’

As a couple of Zumba virgins, we were sceptical if our skill level was up to scratch to

InQuire Talks to Kent Polo

By Sierra Stillwater Writer

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had the opportunity to speak with Kiia Huttunen, a member of the Kent Polo team here at UKC. Kiia has been horseback riding since the age of 5, and wanted to continue pursuing a sport with horses when attending university. At her previous university, polo was the only option available, and she decided to give it a try. Kiia loves the sport, often referred to as the “sport of kings,” as it combines the aggression of rugby, the skill of hockey, the speed of racing, and the adrenaline of skydiving.

Regarding their training regime, the players are able to

sign up for training three times a week, but because they train in Harlow Essex at the MHF Polo Club, it is difficult to make each session. A typical day of training lasts about an hour; the first half is spent on practicing skills, and at the end of the lesson, they have practice matches, which are called chukkas. These give the players a chance to use their skills in actual gameplay, which is essential when preparing for matches.

A match for one team consists of four chukkas, each lasting 7 minutes. Often tournaments can last for a few days. The aim is to score goals, and the team that scores the most goals wins.

One of the main rules of polo is

that you cannot ride directly in front of someone who has the ball, as it isn’t safe. All of the rules associated with this sport are to ensure the safety of the horses and players.

The polo team has had a good season thus far, and despite not having trained together as a team, they were able to compete at the winter nationals for the second time. The progress the team has made from day one has been amazing, and she is excited for what is in store as the season progresses. Their next match is an Easter tournament sponsored by the FIXR on the 31st of March, and these girls are training intensely to prepare for the event.

Photo by Pixabay

Friday 16 March 2018 InQuire

31

Sport

An Interview with Canterbury City Lacrosse Club

By Caitlin Casey Website Sport Editor

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en’s Lacrosse is a sport fuelled with high impact, contact games. This year, the Canterbury City Lacrosse Club was formed and runs in town every Monday. By merging the Maidstone, University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church Lacrosse teams, the club was formed by Joey Burnett (Maidstone), Giorgio Michael (Christ Church) and Kieran Garvey (Kent) who came together to create the club based in Canterbury. Open to all ages from sixteen-year-olds and mature players, the club runs training sessions and league games every week.

InQuire Sports sat down with Kent students Kieran Garvey (City Co-vice Chairman and current Kent First Team Captain) and Charles Thomson (City Second Team Captain and Kent Stags player) to talk about why the club was set up and how it works.

GIVE US A RUN-DOWN OF YOUR TRAININGS AND WHAT GOES ON AT CITY CANTERBURY LACROSSE. Charles: The Kent boys come down from campus at half 7 on a Monday night and meet with the City guys at the Polo Farm Sports Club at 8pm. Trainings are 8-9.30pm.

Kieran: We alternate every week by going between Kent Stags training on campus and City where the Christ Church ground is. And that changes every Monday. We assemble drive-over and herd them all

back in. Every Monday, and games happen every Saturday, giving students an opportunity to play on Saturday if they can’t make Wednesdays (BUCS Wednesdays is when University Sports Teams play). Extra game time.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR TRAININGS? K: We have some qualified coaches there as well as our team. Sometimes we collaborate.

C: If Charlie is there – Charlie is our normal Kent Stags coach – he’ll take sessions if people are missing or late, or if he’s running something very specific for a position or play.

K: We have two dedicated coaches over at Canterbury City and they have a specific structured plan ready for our arrival. We usually arrive cutting it fine, but it’s slightly shorter than our normal Kent Monday sessions, we do an hour and a half at City but at Kent we do a two-hour session on our own.

There’s pros and cons to both training sessions. At City we get to practice with lots of levels of players, but at our home ground we get to develop our chemistry as our own team.

SO, WHO RUNS THE CLUB, WHO MADE THE DECISION TO PUT IT TOGETHER? K: The club was an idea. The idea has been thrown out for years but never put together. I got in touch with the chairman of Maidstone Lacrosse club which used to have three

competing teams and then they started losing numbers and students losing interest due to distance – a 45-minute drive.

So, I made a proposition to the chairman of Maidstone and the chairman of Christ Church to work out a team, but we needed a whole new club name, a new kit, a training ground. Most of the training grounds were down to Joey who’s chairman of Maidstone. Getting the cooperation and getting the club materialised was down to me, Joey and Giorgio. I noticed the problem with Maidstone and I said their club was going to fold due to numbers. The sacrifice they had to make was moving their ground, so they had two competing teams instead of the one.

C: It’s also given us a much higher level of play, an interest in freshers. We bring freshers in every year to the Kent club, and now they’ve got an extra session a week and a higher level which they normally wouldn’t have.

Because it’s not far away, it’s a far more welcoming experience to go there. There’s other freshers from the Christ Church team to interact with and train with.

K: The youngest is 15 and the oldest is in their 60s, and these are people who haven’t played before to people who have played to a national level standard and you always learn something new every week.

It’s a bit more unpredictable on a Saturday game. You don’t really know who you’re playing, whereas you can do as much research for university teams because you know them on a weekly basis.

DO YOU THINK IN GENERAL LACROSSE IS EASY TO ACCESS? C: It really really depends where you live.

K: In the UK the further up north you go the more accessible it is because there’s more clubs.

You have it taught in schools too. Down in the south you only really see it in boarding and private girls’ schools, you don’t really see it much, well at least not on any social media or news, any boys playing before uni unless you’re up north and there’s local teams that get you involved.

C: As of now, Canterbury City, the only men’s Lacrosse team in Kent. A whole county, one team, whereas in east or west midlands there’s seven or eight teams to a county.

DO

YOU

PREFER

UNIVERSITY LACROSSE?

OR

CITY

C: City is on the pitch and somewhat off the pitch it’s a much more mature environment regardless of the players age. At university it is a lot of lad culture. People get into it a lot on the pitch. People blame other players for things that probably wasn’t their fault.

But it’s because they’ve probably not had that experience where its better for the whole team to talk about this rationally than assigning the blame.

K: It’s very testosterone fuelled at university.

C: At city, yeah, we have younger players, but they start to learn very quickly that even if it is your fault, if you blame other people you’re not going to be an appreciated player and it’s not going to go down well for you.

K: You do feel very valued in the Canterbury City team.

I think that’s the good aspect that I appreciate. I think with the university culture, even if you have good performance it doesn’t matter, you can still be roasted. It’s more mature at city. You have a wider variety of levels which makes it more exciting, it makes it more fun in the games. In university, it’s all similar levels and you can predict how the teams can form and all the stats for the other teams are more accessible and readily available.

Find the full interview at inquirelive.co.uk.

Photo by Canterbury City Lacrosse Club

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Photo by Millie Knight | Facebook

Knight Claims 2nd Silver Medal

By Caitlin Casey Website Sport Editor

N

ineteen-year-old Millie Knight won her second silver for Team GB at the Winter Paralympics this year at Pyeongchang last Sunday.

The Canterbury-based athlete who once attended The Kings School locally, competed in

both the Women’s Downhill and Women’s Super-G in the Visually Impared category over the weekend, and won both silver medals alongside her guide Bret Wild.

Winning the first medal for Team GB this year at the winter Paralympics, Knight and Wild finished 0.86 seconds behind the Slovakia pair who won the Women’s Downhill. They then went on to win their second

silver just two days later in the Super-G. Attending the Sochi Paralympics back in 2014, Knight came fifth in both the Slalom and Giant Slalom at only fifteen-years-old. She moved up to train for the Pyeongchang this winter. Unlike Knight, this is Wild’s first Paralympics as a guide.

Registered blind, Knight has only 5% vision and is competing

in over double the amount of events than in Sochi 2014, where she competed in only two events. This year Knight competes in eight Paralympic sports.

The pair communicate through a technological headset as well as Wild wearing a highvis orange jacket for Millie to be able to see him throughout the races.

Millie Knight will be competing

in the Super Combined Super G and Slalom this Tuesday (13th), the Giant Slaloms on Wednesday (14th), also finalising her performance on the Thursday Slaloms (15th).

Catch Millie in her three chances of finishing with gold over the week via the BBC Sport website, on Channel 4 TV or on Radio 5 live.