The Underpass, Winter 19-20

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Editors’ Note Dear reader,

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elcome to The Underpass! This is Latymer’s very own magazine and we are thrilled to be able to share the Winter term issue with you. The theme for this issue is ‘The Future’ with articles ranging from research surrounding the climate crisis to the development of synthetic blood. Find yourself entranced by Floss Morris’ captivating position on culture shock, Tiresias’ debate on boarding or day school or delve into Max Bray’s creative writing which offers a unique perspective on the future of travel in space.

We feel this theme of ‘the future’ is extremely relevant at the moment as the possibilities of what our future will look like are unpredictable and constantly changing. Recent developments in science, politics and global affairs have meant that headlines regarding subjects such as Brexit and climate change are especially prevalent topics of conversation. The Underpass gives students a brilliant opportunity to share their opinions on a vast range of fascinating topics with the Latymer community.

An immense amount of time and thought has gone into this issue and so we want to thank everyone who has contributed to the magazine in any way.

We are proud to showcase this collection of superb work and we hope that the issue effectively conveys the wide spectrum of opinions and the outstanding talent that our brilliant school has to offer.

Finally, huge thanks must go to Mr Copeman and Ms Barlien for their shared passion and commitment to this magazine as we could not have pieced this together without them. Special thanks go to Sofia Forni and the Art Department for the work that appears on the back cover. We would also like to thank Izzy Ben-Nathan for her breathtaking artwork on the front cover which references the ever-advancing field of artificial intelligence. Who knows, maybe one day Latymer could be run by robots…

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief Luc Mondon-Ballantyne and Constance Halliwell Science Clodagh Bottomley Fashion Tatyana Park Literature and the Arts Ariana Rubio Commentary Eloise Rodger Front cover artwork Izzy Ben-Nathan Back cover artwork Sofia Forni With thanks to Mr Andrew Copeman and Ms Andrea Barlien If you would like to write for us, please email: theunderpass@latymer-upper.org

Constance Halliwell & Luc Mondon-Ballantyne

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The Underpass -Welcome- 2019 - 2020

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hether in healthcare, energy, artificial intelligence, or anything else, the exciting developments taking place now will determine our future. But there will always be more, they will take time, and they need your help.

The Future is YOU

Clodagh Bottomley

A look into the future of…

Healthcare

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rom finding the right acne treatment, to the use of immunotherapy to treat cancer, it is impossible to ignore the introduction of Personalised Medicine (PM). PM involves a shift away from a ‘one-size fits all’ approach to treatment, and towards a broader understanding of patient history, lifestyle, and importantly genomics to identify the right drug for the right patient. Although the concept is not new, new technologies such as whole genome sequencing, wearable technologies, and the use of AI in data analysis are opening up countless possibilities. Take Warfarin, for example, a blood-thinning drug taken by over 20 million Americans.

Patients’ dosages differ forty-fold, but doctors only work this out with regular blood tests through a process of trial and error. Too high a dose, and the patient may bleed to death.

Too little, however, and they’re left with a fatal blood clot.

Studies have shown that the reason for the dose variation is largely genetic, making Warfarin dosing a prime target for the introduction of personalised medicine. Through the use of artificial intelligence and a more personalised, proactive approach to medicine, by the time we’re on daily blood thinners let’s hope they can get it right first time!

(Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan) this might not be enough to ‘finish the job’, as more and more new cases are ‘vaccinederived’. Guinea worm might be even closer, with only 28 cases in 2018, an impressive achievement especially considering the lack of any known medical treatment or vaccine. In the west, we have been lucky that these destructive diseases are not a cause of concern nowadays, but for the world as a whole the end of the threat would bring relief to millions, a significant achievement in the field of medicine.

Infectious diseases

In the game of infectious diseases, the ultimate aim is always eradication. But so far, we have only managed to achieve this for one human disease – Smallpox – despite several efforts to eradicate others. However, battles currently underway with two diseases are approaching the end goal of eradication in the next 20 years: Poliomyelitis, and Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm), a parasitic disease spread by contaminated water in low income African countries. Whilst previously scientists had expected measles would be the next disease defeated, the work of antivaxxers following Andrew Wakefield’s erroneous paper in The Lancet has stymied the progress, giving way for Polio and Guinea Worm to be the next in line. Just this week, the UK government has pledged an annual £400 million contribution for the next four years to help vaccinate more than 400 million children a year.

Although there are only three polio-endemic countries left

Food

As a global community, we face the challenge of a growing population, and therefore an ever-increasing demand for food. However, the looming threat of global warming is forcing us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The agricultural industry accounts for 24% of global emissions, making it the second highest-emitting sector following energy production. At the same time, global warming and climate change are making agricultural conditions more challenging, reducing crop yields. At this point, the UN’s zero hunger goal seems an impossible feat to achieve.

However, there are solutions. We must find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural industry,

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by switching to a majority plant-based diet, and other lowcarbon foods. But this won’t be possible without also finding ways to increase agricultural productivity.

store wind and solar energy and to ensure electricity demand can be met even when it’s dark and calm.

Already, over 10% of the world’s arable land is being used to grow Genetically Modified crops, but this is set to increase as more and more companies develop the technology. The use of GM allows more crops to grow in a smaller amount of land, in worse conditions and requiring fewer resources.

All in all, this allows more people to be fed, and less carbon to be released. Whilst certainly controversial, genetically modified plants are becoming are future in order to survive the challenges faced by our population.

Self-driving cars, Google maps, Grammarly, Alexa. Artificial Intelligence, the development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, is becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives. Its superpower is the ability to continually learn through pattern recognition, training, even using neural networks and improve the more it works. In a world where iPhones are programmed to selfdestruct, you can see the appeal in a system which gets better over time, rather than worse.

“AI is already well on its way to transforming healthcare” Energy

With an ever-increasing and urbanizing population, the demand for energy is skyrocketing. But how are we going to meet this growing demand alongside depleting resources and the current climate emergency?

In 2019, for the first time ever, renewables generated more energy for the UK than fossil fuels. This is enormous progress: in 2010, ten times more energy came from burning fossil fuels than from renewable energy. However, this is not enough if we want to be on track to meet the net zero target by 2050.

It seems likely that after the decarbonization of electricity, the next significant change will be the electrification of transport, including electric cars, buses and (more) trains.

In the UK, the transition away from gas-powered central heating towards more eco-friendly heat pumps has been highlighted as key – and even features in the Labour Party’s election manifesto. Whilst this is certainly not easy (or cheap), it will only get harder from there. Although we are not lacking in sources of renewable energy (offshore wind being one of the largest), a main concern is our inability to store them efficiently, which is why several companies are focusing on the development of new, very large, batteries to

Artificial Intelligence

The global market net worth of AI is expected to reach $54 billion by 2026. Some people predict that by 2020, more than 10 million self-driving vehicles will be on the road.

Self-driving cars, along with all AI developments carry risks – anything programmed can be hacked - and ethical considerations surrounding autonomy and employment. AI is the future of science, that much is inevitable, so we need to make sure its power is harnessed for good.

As an example, AI is already well on its way to transforming healthcare, with the market value predicted to reach $6.6 billion by 2021 according to a 2016 study

by Frost & Sullivan.

Its use in diagnostics could allow doctors, or even patients directly, to alert us to markers of disease far earlier, saving lives and time. There are several AI-powered apps available to help identify cancerous moles from smartphone pictures, just one example of the progress already made.

The Environment is Dying Matias Rubio

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he environment is dying, and we humans are killing it. Most people don’t know this but it would take 100 years to clean up just 1% of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is a problem that needs to be solved now. This school always tells us about how we should not use single-use plastic and that we should try to involve ourselves in the Plastic issue and they are most certainly right. However this school doesn’t allow us to recycle plastic, and in the vending machines, there are plastic water bottles, even though people could just drink water from the school fountain.

When we go on school trips we are given plastic water bottles, and yet most of us have reusable bottles that we could use.

This is something we should try to fix and when I tried to bring this up with Eco Society I was dismissed. We should try to eliminate this problem from all schools and eliminate Single-Use Plastic once and for all. The future of everybody at this school is not going to be nice at all unless we fix this. We have about 12 more years until this becomes irreversible, and every second we waste not doing anything, the problem gets larger and larger. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans, and approximately 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces are in the ocean. We need this to end right now. Some ways to reverse the effects are - Reduce, Reuse Recycle! Even though this may be a common catchphrase on the billboards and posters about these, it actually is very true. Even if you just cut out some simple things like plastic cups or plastic wrapping for an item, then it will benefit the dilemma tremendously. If you stop purchasing products with plastic packaging then eventually if the business runs down the product will stop being made, reducing the amount of plastic being made. We need to help. I am confident that we can stop this, and we just need to take this bit by bit. Another idea for you to muse about, to change the catastrophic effects is to refuse plastic straws. Companies like Starbucks usually always use plastic for their cups and it is very problematic. not only is it such a waste because nobody is going to recycle the cups but also most people use straws for their drinks.

My final idea is to volunteer! If you can help, then why not volunteer to clean up beaches. So much plastic is just thrown there, waiting to be washed out to sea, and every year 1 million sea animals are killed by plastic bags in the ocean. It breaks my heart to say, time is running out. We need to stand together in a union and finish what we started.

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The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

The Future for

Synthetic Blood Alex Duponcheele

If you were to ask a person what were the most vital components of the body, the brain or the heart might be mentioned. Yet the biggest killer for young people in the UK, following trauma, is blood loss.

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person with a heart and a brain but no blood to transport oxygen would be a very dead person indeed. With the modernisation of medicine as well as the pioneering of less invasive key-hole surgery, modern hospitals require less and less blood as little will be lost during these processes.

However, traumatic accidents and injuries will always occur, along with complications, therefore blood transfusion will always be required for these emergency scenarios.

The decrease in demand due to the aforementioned pioneering techniques and increases in blood-life longevity has led to the closure of many non-profit blood donation organisations, especially in the US. As a result, there has been a sudden surge in the need for blood transfusions as population (and therefore accidents) grows. Blood donations have their flaws: the HIV contaminated blood scandal in the 1980s, the rise of superbugs, the incompatibility and therefore inefficiency of the blood types, and the dangers of HES to name a few. While the rise of unkillable superbugs and infections from blood donors being passed onto patients needs little explanation, HES does.

HES (Hydroxy-Ethyl Starch) is a main component in certain types of blood separation, as it separates the blood into its various components (e.g. red blood cells, plasma) by providing a coating between the various layers for easier separation by centrifuge. While this is very useful for separating the blood components, HES is a sugar, and when it enters the blood from the blood separation or as a direct transfusion replacement, in rare cases it has been known to cause irreversible kidney damage and even death. In 2013 the E.U. ruled against the outright banning of HES, but to instead dilute it and gradually phase it out as other alternatives for blood donation separation and transfusion are considered.

Although blood is not universal in its type, specific types can be universal in their use. If a patient were to receive a donation of blood from an incompatible blood group , their immune system would reject the transfused blood cells and spend a lot of critical energy fighting the ‘infection’ rather than healing the body. However, this could be prevented if all blood types

could be converted to blood type O- for universal use.

And that is exactly what happened in 2015, when researchers developed an enzyme that was able to ‘cut’ specific antigens surrounding red blood cells. This opened up the possibility of treating vast quantities of blood from different blood groups to make a ‘one-size-fits-all’ blood type O-. Yet things are never as clear-cut as they seem. This process requires vast quantities of the enzyme, which has to be produced and cultured over a long time. What was intended to solve a problem in fact created more, and testing never continued onto human blood.

So if we do not have a viable option to modify blood donations, where does that leave us? An opportunity to make completely artificial blood from scratch.

The idea of synthetic blood is not new, as hospitals already have the options to use nutrient rich, haemoglobin or HES replacements for surrogate blood in extreme emergencies, when patients need the fluids to increase their low blood pressure and enable their heart to keep pumping for up to 48 hours until they can receive proper medical care.

However this is not a permanent transfusion, HES is already being phased out, and concentrated haemoglobin in the blood is also dangerous as it causes oxidative injury.

Therefore newer research has geared towards stem cell differentiation, with stem cells being cultured in growth factors stimulating their conversion into red blood cells.

Using this method, our universal O- red blood cells can be cultured to help anyone, without needing to be separated.

Human trials for synthetic blood began in 2017, and a final report on its viability is expected soon. However with Brexit and NHS funding being the elephant in the room, this could be delayed.

If successful, could this lead to the start of regular transfusions for those who do not need, but want additional blood transfusions to increase physical and athletic performance? How can we guarantee that the stem cells themselves will not develop detrimental genetic mutations?

And will people with deep religious convictions finally accept transfusions of blood grown in a Petri dish, which was never part of anybody’s soul? While all these questions have yet to gain relevance, I look forward to facing them in the near future.

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The future of Tackling

Cancer

Angelica Blotto

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ancer constitutes in modifications to the cellular genome, including gene mutations, copy number variations and structural changes, such as chromosomal translocations and deletions. The efficacy of traditional treatments for cancer, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, are often limited by the occurrence of severe toxicities, resulting in profound side effects. Nevertheless, now there are ongoing advances in cancer immunotherapy as it utilizes components of a patient’s immune system to selectively target and kill cancer cells.

Cancer biomarker discovery

The mutations which occur in cancer can often serve as valuable biomarkers for early diagnosis and for the development of individually tailored therapy. Mutations in several oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes are already being used as biomarkers to guide therapy to breast cancer and lung cancer among others. The discovery of cancer biomarkers has been facilitated and made possible by NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) analysis of circulating nucleic acids in the blood, saliva, urine pleural effusions and cerebrospinal fluid which can contain tumour-derived genetic information. NGS allows sequencing of entire genomes or mutations simultaneously in a cost effective manner. We gain molecular profiles from circulating tumour DNA and RNA, proteins and lipids within vesicles like exosome. Exosomes prove to be important in carrying messages between cancer cells and their environment; cancer cells secrete exosomes to recipient cells, which can lead to metastasis formation and therapeutic resistance. Tumors leave evidence of their presence in the human body by releasing circulating cancer cells (CTCs), tumor DNA (ctDNA) and ctRNA, as well as these vesicles called exosomes into the circulation. The notion of liquid biopsy for cancer diagnosis by detecting these tumorderived components is very promising.

This technique enables personalized cancer medicine and improves the efficacy of existing drugs. However, there have been a huge number of failures when predictions from preclinical data have been applied in the clinic. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve biomarker discovery strategies.

One of the most important roles of cancer biomarkers will be to utilize them in screening to ensure that asymptomatic individuals can be detected with disease at a very early stage. In recent years, an increasing number of markers have been discovered with the purpose to predict cancer outcome rather than to detect it early. This has arisen from the ability of new techniques in genomics and proteomics to discover genes and proteins associated with distinct cancer stages.

These biomarkers can distinguish between invasive and noninvasive tumors, between metastatic and nonmetastatic tumors and between indolent and life-threatening tumors.

Calcitonin, for example, has elevated levels in the serum of a thyroid medullary carcinoma patient and may, with the need of further clinical evaluations, be useful in screening for this cancer. Calcitonin is a hormone produced by parafollicular C cells in the thyroid gland that helps to regulate calcium levels

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in the blood. Levels of this hormone are higher in cancers of the parafollicular C cells. Since medullary carcinoma of the thyroid is often inherited, blood calcitonin can be measured to detect the cancer in its earliest stages in family members who are at a greater risk. Other cancers, particularly lung cancers, can produce calcitonin, but measurement of its level in the blood is not usually used to examine these cancers.

Recent advancements in biomarker development using gene arrays in addition to proteomic technologies, including twodimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry, have improved the discovery of a variety of new biomarkers.

Recently, a small number of new urine-based biomarkers have been approved including bladder tumor antigen (BTA) and nuclear matrix protein-22, as diagnostic markers for bladder cancer.

Single cancer cell analysis

Advances in NGS now make it possible to profile the genomes of single tumoral cells. This allows the documentation of cancer cells’ mutational DNA makeup and monitors the effect of anticancer therapies at a detailed single cell level. Even though this has proven to pose a challenge, the accurate taking and quantification of RNA transcript variations from single tumoral cells, would allow researchers to gain insights into tumour complexity and help in the development of tailored anti cancer therapy. In the past few years, new technologies have emerged in the areas of single-cell isolation, nucleic acid amplification and genomic/transcriptomic/proteomic profiling. These new methods significantly increased the scale and efficacy of single-cell analysis.

In its simplest form, RNA-seq involves the conversion of mRNA into a selection of amplified cDNA fragments, which are then sequenced and quantified to obtain an expression profile. Malignant cells can possess diverse physiological states resulting from stress (hypoxia, DNA damage, starvation), quiescence (dormancy), or cell cycle stage. To identify and describe these complex populations, requires the profiling of multiple cells of the same type in the same state.

Thus, substantial material is needed to comprehensively and clearly dissect the phenotypic structure of a tumor.

Techniques for single-cell isolation from cells in suspension include FACS (DNA- or RNA-seq), microfluidics (DNA- or RNA-seq), droplet-based capture (RNAseq), Laser Capture Microdissection (DNA- or RNA-seq) and manual selection (DNA- or RNA-seq).

Cancer genomics and epigenomics

Whole genome sequencing and targeted sequencing approaches, provide cancer researchers with a clear understanding of genomic alterations. Targeted approaches such as exome and panel sequencing help focus on specific regions and increase sensitivity in variant detection with regards to whole genome sequencing. Its purpose is to understand the genetic basis of tumour cell rapid increase and the evolution of the cancer genome under mutation and selection by the body environment, the immune system and therapeutic interventions. Sequencing the cancer exome

The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

provides useful information about the coding mutations that contribute to tumor progression. Because the exome represents less than 2% of the genome, cancer exome sequencing is a cost-effective alternative to whole-genome sequencing. Exome sequencing allows cancer researchers to assess only coding regions, as they are the most likely to contain mutations that affect tumor progression. In other situations, the content for cancer exome sequencing can also be expanded to untranslated regions and mRNA binding sites.

HLA typing

Epigenetic approaches look at describing cancer specific DNA binding proteins, histone modifications and DNA methylation make up of cancer cells. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is a highly polymorphic region composed of several genes involved in immune regulation. HLA typing is the characterisation of this set of genes and is a valuable mechanism to target recurrent mutations and hotspot sites involved in cancer pathogenesis. This method is also used to match donor and patient before organ or allogeneic stem cell transplants. NGS is the latest technology used to do this as it works with specificity and fidelity for a wide range of complex DNA templates.

Cancer immunotherapy

Traditional cancer treatments have very limited efficacy for patients with late stage disease. Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a promising approach for cancer patients with high specificity and little side effects. The key point of this technique is to use the patient’s own immune system to control and destroy cancer cells. Examples of this are: T cell therapy, the use of monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic molecules against cancer cells. A T cell is a type of white blood cell that is vital to the immune system and is at the core of adaptive immunity. T cells are genetically modified to either introduce a new T cell receptor (TCR) or a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). The process involves removing the patient’s own T cells, modifying them ex-vivo and then reinfusing them back into the same patients. Several companies worldwide are working in developing therapies that can be used from a single donor to treat thousands of patients (allogeneic approach).

Given the relative specificity of TCR antigen interactions, a high diversity of TCRs are required to recognise the variety of pathogenic agents one might encounter. A large repertoire of T cells with diverse TCRs sequences are key for the immune

system to recognise mutated proteins and neoantigens from tumoral cells.

Antibody therapeutics

The use of monoclonal antibodies for cancer therapy, has achieved success due to high specificity and the availability of strategies to successfully engineer antibodies into humanized forms. Antibodies are able to tell the immune system to attack cancer cells. Mechanisms of direct tumor cell killing by antibodies include antibody recognition of cell surface bound enzymes to neutralise enzyme activity and signaling antagonist activity leading to cellular apoptosis.

In another approach, they are being used to deliver drugs to cancer cells via antibody drug conjugates, ADC, causing cancer cell death. New advances in protein engineering technology have also generated multiple bispecific antibody formats capable of targeting multiple antigens as a single agent and directly targeting immune cells to tumours, thus reducing drug resistance and side effects.

CRISPR

Gene editing is a powerful method to edit genomes of many organisms. It was first discovered in bacteria as part of an adaptive immune system. It is used to activate or repress the expression of specific genes.The function of deleting or editing is taken on by a system called CRISPR/Cas9. CRISPR is short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. CRISPR consists of two components. The Cas9 protein that can cut DNA and a guide RNA that can recognise the sequence of DNA to be edited. To use CRISPR/Cas9 scientists first identify the sequence of the human genome that’s causing a health problem, then they create a specific guide RNA to recognise that particular stretch of A T C and G in the DNA. The guide RNA is attached to the DNA cutting enzyme Cas9 and then this complex is introduced to the target cells.

It locates the target letter sequence and cuts the DNA. At that point scientists can then edit the existing genome by either modifying the leading or inserting new sequences. It effectively makes CRISPR/Cas9 a cut and paste tool for DNA editing. In the future scientists hope to use CRISPR/Cas9 to develop critical advances in patient care.

In essence, the most significant action which should be taken to tackle cancer is staying one step ahead of it. As displayed, alongside biochemical mechanisms, the exploitation of the process of Darwinian evolution and natural selection, where a random mutation creates a single cancer cell that can survive the selective pressure of a drug, which then multiplies, is proving to be a rapidly increasing issue with drug resistance for cancer, thus it is the specificity of new treatment which should combat this.

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Bacteriophages:

A solution to the antibiotic crisis?

Max Reinstein

“The antibiotic crisis is costing health care systems around the globe a substantial amount.”

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t present, more than 70% of infections acquired during a hospital stay in the United States are from strains of bacteria which are resistant to at least one or more commonly used antibiotic. When 182 swabs were taken from commonly touched surfaces in London, it was found that 40.7% of these contained Staphylococcus bacteria resistant to more than one type of antibiotic. A study done by the UK government concluded that by the year 2050 there will be 10 million deaths every year as a result of multidrug resistant (MDR) infections, compared to only 8.2 million deaths due to cancer. It will only be a matter of time before someone close to you ends up in hospital as a result of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It is indisputable: we are amidst an antibiotic crisis and if we do not act quickly, we may be set back 100 years in time to when even a small cut could lead to an infection which killed you.

The antibiotic crisis is costing health care systems around the globe a substantial amount. In 2006, the U.S. healthcare system spent more than $8 billion on sepsis and pneumonia treatment which still claimed the lives of 50,000 Americans. Hospital stay duration for patients with antibiotic resistant infections has doubled in recent years, lowering the number of available beds in hospitals to treat other illnesses. It is now estimated that the global economic burden of the crisis is roughly $3 trillion each year. With an ageing population who are more susceptible to infection, more and more patients are being admitted every day for problems associated with AMR. Many people are in favour of developing new antibiotics to overcome this crisis and a lot of research is already underway.

However, regardless of whether or not we are able to produce new antibiotics every five years or so, we will still be constantly on the edge of losing the battle to bacterial infections as antibiotic resistance can develop within a species of bacteria just as quickly. We must move away from antibiotics as a means of treating bacterial infections and instead look into finding a treatment which will safely provide us with a way to fight infections for centuries to come. Luckily there is a possible solution and although it may be controversial, viruses may be our knight in shining armour.

dosing” it is possible that a single dose of phages can be given to a patient in order to cure them of disease entirely. Because phages do not have the capability of producing toxins, it is unlikely they will cause an immune response after being administered, unlike certain antibiotics which can be toxic to the body. The specificity of phages makes them even safer to use as, in most patients, an infection can be cured without affecting the normal gut flora or microbiome.

However, specificity can also lead to drawbacks. In order to administer the correct phage, it takes valuable time to first culture and identify the microbe responsible for the infection, during which the infection may have progressed too much to be treatable. With the current databases and stores of phages in hospitals around the globe, the array of usable phages is not wide enough to reliably treat infections, hence more phages must be identified and stocked so that hospitals can have quick access to them.

Ignoring the disadvantages of phage therapy, the main reason why it is not being used at the moment is that global funding for their research is not at the required level yet. Governments around the world still do not understand their potential and unfortunately, by the time they do, many lives will have been lost unnecessarily. Nonetheless, because of promising new trials and studies being authorised by health administrations world-wide, the future of phage therapy is looking positive.

With many new institutions and clinics being built around the world, it is expected that phage therapy will take off in the next ten years. All we can do now is to hope that we are not too late to solve this potentially catastrophic crisis.

Bacteriophage therapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages, a type of virus only capable of infecting bacteria, to treat bacterial infections without the need for antibiotics. After administering the virus to the patient, it is expected that the phages will infect and destroy all the targeted bacteria in the body.

Aside from the difficult process of preparing phages to be used in phage therapy, treating MDR infections with phages is in many ways better than using antibiotics. Known as “Auto

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The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

Air

Anastasia Proudnikova

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magine a future, they said, of plastic oceans and plastic lakes, of electronic wallpaper that will cover the nonexistent landscape, the trees, the flowers, the once blue sky, now a diseased bleak yellow, destroyed after years of pollution.

Imagine a future, we were told, of bottled air, handed out at ridiculous prices to the people, begging for oxygen, one precious gulp of non-toxic air that wouldn’t gnaw and rot the lungs, that would only be slightly contaminated with ash and dust and smoke.

Imagine a future with no animals, no fish, no plants; all nature replaced with the rotting, grey plastic, still there, still haunting with its presence, although promised to have decomposed after all those hundreds of years.

A future like this - only depicted in dystopian movies, horror films, disaster stories; only told to us in an attempt to awaken us, our ignorant people, our blindness to the calamity before us.

This nightmare, once a horrible future, an impossible tragedy - now a reality, one we live in, one we face, a monster too great to imagine.

Our future, now our present.

I turn into Green Park, stifling a laugh at the irony in its name. The only colour now is grey, grey debris and grey rubble, where, in a few hours, will appear fake, pale, electronic grass, flickering and glitching. Grey, grey, synthetic plastic trees, cleverly crafted with the plastic from the Dump, in a weak attempt to clear up the land. I take in the pathetic scenery, remembering how only yesterday we were fighting for the climate crisis, fighting for recycling, fighting for our grandchildren’s futures - when really, we were fighting for our own. How we thought we had time, how we thought it was alright for now, whilst we were flushing our lives, our futures down the drain. How quickly the time had passed. I remember the days when we imagined today as a faraway future. A distant, dystopian future. When really, it wasn’t a future. It was tomorrow. And we were too late.

It’s around a half-hour walk through the decaying park to get to Westminster Bridge, around a half-hour walk to get to Air. Dorkin is slouching, propped up against a dozen plastic containers in his usual position near the first wall. He seems to be sleeping, his cap pulled down over his face, so only the bottom of his mask is visible.

Chained to the wall of the bridge is the bulky metal trunk, inside of which is what keeps us alive - Air. “Dorkin.” He grunts, lifting his chin ever so slightly to me.

2.00 am. My eyes flicker open, squinting against the heavy dark smoke that billows above me like the essence of death.

There is no sun. There is never sun. But I still like to imagine there is.

2.00 am - time to move, time to get Air. Dorkin starts his trade early, under what’s left of Westminster Bridge at exactly 2 hours past midnight, selling Air for only seven metal pieces, or three glass. It’s a good bargain, better than what the Air Trade charges, but then again you always paid more for better quality.

I adjust the Air mask that keeps me alive, attach it to a new oxygen tank that I strap onto my back and leave quickly, gathering together the thirteen metal plates and one wooden block I managed to find in the Dump yesterday. Not bad. Not ideal, either. I’ll get two tanks out of it, if Dorkin is in a good mood.

It’s oddly satisfying to walk through London this early in the morning. It’s not fake yet - the wallpaper hasn’t been turned on yet, and the real sky is still visible, though barely, through the thick ash, bruised and stained, like someone has tipped a bucket of dirt over an old yellowing rug.

“Mornin’. What have ye got fer me today?” I rummage in my pockets for the precious materials that I show to him.

“Thirteen metal, one wood. Good deal. Reckon I can get two tanks?” He scratches the side of his nose, his eyes glinting in the darkness of the early morning.

“Supplies runnin’ low, kid. ‘fraid ye’ll have to do with one.” I scowl as he unlocks the box and hands over one oxygen tank.

There’s no use arguing with him. I strap it across my chest and with a nod, I turn to leave, climbing over the mountains of plastic that have long ago replaced the Thames.

“Oi!” I spin round to see Dorkin settling back onto his little bed of broken empty food containers.

“Appreciate what ye get. Who knows what’ll happen in the future.”

I turn back, my lips curving up slightly at the sound of it.

The future?

A funny word, really. One day a nightmare, the next - a reality.

Travel in the future Max Bray

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he future is near and it holds many exciting possibilities. It can warp our lives and change the way we live; it has the power to turn our world upside down. Yet one way the future will change is the way we travel. Space travel will become accessible to us and become a commodity like a summer holiday while the limits of our exploration will stretch from the jungles of Brazil to galaxies among the stars. New discoveries and explorations will be made and the universe will become our oyster. However, as we explore we may destroy what we already have. The Amazon may crumble into a charred desert, the paradisal islands of the Carribean receding into plastic wastelands. Future generations may be born on a dying planet and seek refuge among the stars, looking for a new rocky globe to call home.

A deafening roar filled the stuffy cabin. The small seatbelt sign blinked on and the passengers settled in their seats. The light chatter slowly drifted away as headphones were plugged in and movies began. Outside the small window people in metallic vests scurried around releasing clamps and loading bags ; they looked like silver ants from above in the shuttle. Other shuttles could be seen leaping into the sky dragging fiery trails behind them as the morning departures began. It was the beginning of summer, and everyone was eager to escape the dust storms and unbearable heat, preferring the tropical waters of the planets in solar system 9AD. The roar increased and a flight attendant announced something unheard over the speakers. Suddenly, the heavy door to the cabin clamped shut and the air became hot and stifling. The rows of seats slowly reclined back till they faced the sky, and the seatbelts squeezed even tighter. With a blinding explosion of light and sound the sleek rocket launched itself into the inky black abyss.

The rocket sliced through the atmosphere while rapidly escaping the clutches of gravity. The continents dwindled below it, becoming insignificant brown smudges through the steamy window. An air hostess floated up the aisle with a trolley by her side handing out tea and coffee in sealed plastic bags with a straw. The silvery sphere of the moon slowly slid out of view, the popular tourist attraction of the ancient moon landings barely visible amongst the grey craters. This flight was cheap compared to most, tickets sold en masse to the middle class offering package holidays to exciting, alien destinations hidden among the stars. The seatbelt sign flicked off as the shuttle cruised through the cold blackness; it was a shimmering bullet as the sun glanced off its polished hull. The wormhole had reopened since the accident last year, and flights were much quicker because of it, hopping between solar systems like fleas. Jupiter became an insignificant blob as the rocket slid into the wormhole’s swirling jaws, Earth a forgotten memory. With a burst of immense speed, the shuttle and its passengers flew away from the dying planet we once called home.

The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

9

The Case for Climate Change Skepticism Luke Gutman

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e’ve seen it far too often: a photoshopped polar bear standing on what appears to be a floating chunk of ice. We’ve heard that only 3% of scientists do not agree with the overwhelming consensus about climate change.

We’ve listened to all of the arguments in countless nature documentaries and speeches by officials and pleas by scientists. And in all of this dogmatic propagation it is easy to lose sight of the fact that there is another side to the argument; a side which is far too often brushed under the carpet and dismissed as illogical, unscientific and nonsensical.

This is far from the truth. Although the vast majority of scientists do believe in climate change, it would be extremely narrow minded to dismiss climate skepticism in the way that the liberal establishment has done. In this piece I will seek to demonstrate that the other side to this issue carries weight as well.

There are many strong arguments against the consensus on global warming, in this piece I will address two of them. The first argument concerns modelling (the use of human-made computer projections to predict future global warming).

There were two major periods of global warming during the 20th century. One occurred during the first half of the century which was not caused by Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions as there was not enough of these products in

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the atmosphere to cause warming; the second warming period occurred in the late 1980s and the 1990s and this warming period was caused by Greenhouse Gas emissions. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) uses models to predict future warming, and national governments base climate change regulation policies on these models. The 32 different models used by the IPCC all predict a global warming which, so far, has been on a trajectory different from that of reality. The reasons that all of these models predict something different to what has occurred is because they have been programmed to simulate the warming trend based on that of the early 20th century rather than basing it off the later warming period. This programming leaves the models overly sensitive to fluctuations of Greenhouse Gases and exaggerates the warming predicted considerably. Models such as these are the reasons that scientists say that there are twelve years until global warming is irreversible.

These models are also the reason ‘global warming’ was renamed ‘climate change’ when scientists discovered that the world really was not warming. This is not to say that the theory of global warming is wrong, just that the application of the theory has been exaggerated.

Climate Change could still be an issue but its impact has been overstated by models that do not extrapolate correctly. This then drives policy and regulatory expenditure. As

Climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels from the Cato Institute Think Tank said ‘for climate forecasts we should be using the Russian Model [the only simulation of the 32 models that follows reality] but we are not’.

As I stated in the previous paragraph, the general consensus on climate change is not wrong but it is overestimated. This then goes on to raise the question: ‘Will this, less catastrophic warming, be harmful or beneficial?’. Scientists have shown that the answer is that this will be beneficial. The global warming is much more sporadic as shown by the fact that the major warming period due to Greenhouse Gases died down after 15-20 years. We’ve all heard that plants ‘breathe’ Carbon Dioxide and excrete Oxygen. Due to the relative warming of our planet in the late 20th century vegetation has increased around the Tropics and therefore the agricultural industries have benefited.

As I have demonstrated, global warming, is much more mild than scientists have predicted and also it has and therefore we can assume it will be beneficial to the world.

This then raises the question of why our governments are regulating a predicted process completely and solely based on incorrect models.

This is one which is hard to answer and I will not do so here but the hyper politicization of science is something which will need to be addressed in the future.

The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

Global warming and its future

Dylan Price

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ost things in our modern, mad, fast evolving world cause global warming. This is all because of our life choices.

The beginning of global warming was when, in the middle of the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution began. The use of all of these machines started creating more gas and smoke than before. This slowly got caught in the earth’s atmosphere, and started to warm up the earth, by keeping all the heat, and infrared radiation from the sun inside the atmosphere. As we have evolved, we have become more dependent on machines, and slowly we have created more greenhouse (bad) gasses to pollute our atmosphere. In other words, we are basically killing ourselves with heat.

At the moment, we are looking at records, and looking at what is causing global warming, and how to stop it. There are hundreds, if not thousands of scientists working on ways on how to stop this global insulator from getting stronger. Scientists are also studying the cycles the earth goes through, and are trying to see if one of these cycles is contributing to global warming, and if so, what can we do about it? As well as this, scientists are studying how greenhouse gasses work, and how they react to other chemicals. It is not just greenhouse gasses that are causing global warming, we are also causing global warming through the improper use of land.

We are cutting down more trees, therefore making sure that carbon dioxide is not being turned into oxygen as much as it used to.

Again, this is basically killing ourselves through suffocation: an act of self harm. To stop this, we must all play our part.

In the future, we will probably have many more options, such as nuclear fusion. Presently, instead of smashing elements together to make power, we rip them apart. This damages our environment in multiple ways. One, the chemicals used for nuclear fission (the ripping of elements to make energy) are dangerous chemicals, which if spilled will cause lots of damage to the local environment. Two, the chemicals have to be cooled with cold water. This water is then heated up, causing more global warming. Finally, the chemicals used are so dangerous, that if we are not careful an accident (like Chernobyl) might happen again. Like I have said already, we are basically killing ourselves with our stupidity.

As well as research into this topic, I also interviewed a student, who will remain anonymous, about how he felt about global warming.

My first question was on what he thought about global warming. In reply, he talked about how it is a threat to the world. He also said that he found that too many people are ignoring it, or thinking that it is like a big joke. I then moved on to asking him if he thinks it is a joke. He replied by telling me how he found this downhearting video on YouTube about how this country was slightly submerged.

This is a horrible fact, which I wish I did not have to report on the matter of global warming.

I next asked him if he thought that youtube was helping reveal the seriousness and problems of global warming. He responded by saying that he thought that YouTube was really helping reveal the effects of global warming. He told me that lots of people are posting videos on how we need to save our planet, and how we need to take action now. I moved on from this subject, by asking him about what changes we should make. He responded by saying that everyone should start paying attention to the increasing heat of the planet, caused by global warming. I agree that certain politicians do need to pay more attention to global warming, and that they need to be more proactive on how to stop it.

As we were coming to the end of the interview I asked, in my opinion, two of the most important questions. First, I asked him about what he thought would happen if global warming was not stopped. He answered me with comments on how we would live in a better world and how we would be breathing cleaner air; in other words, he was talking about how the world would be an excellent place.

To finish, I asked him what he thought was the best idea to stop global warming. He answered by simply saying that we should use electric cars, that are powered by either solar or wind energy. He also added that global warming should stop now: we are in a climate crisis.

Global warming started many centuries ago, but it still plagues our world today. Presently, scientists are working on ways to stop it but, unfortunately, their plans aren’t helping much at the present time. In the future, hopefully, we will live in a place run by electricity, which , I hope, is either powered by solar panels or nuclear fusion.

To round off, I would like to say two things: global warming needs to stop, and that we need inventive, willing scientists to stop global warming in its tracks. The future is determined by what happens to global warming.

The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

11

Biodegradable plastic Returning to a Bioworld Micol Catanese

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lastic, due to its infinite uses and ideal features, is an incredible material that can be found almost everywhere. Everything, however, comes with a cost. Unfortunately, excessive plastic is flooding oceans, killing marine life, poisoning oceans and freshwater (limiting clean water available even further) as well as releasing storms of toxic fumes in the air in the process to create plastic.

Though there are many types of plastic, in this article I’ll mainly be addressing single-use plastic. The main problem with plastic (single use) is not necessarily the manufacturing of the material itself but rather the careless plan of the plastic’s linear life. This means the plastic is designed solely for its purpose without taking into account the plastic’s life after its job has been fulfilled. If however, we managed to apply a circular economy theory and designed the plastic, taking into account its life after it is thrown away and somehow managed to return it to nature, in a short time the world would be a lot cleaner as no waste would have been created.

Manufacturers should consider the waste produced after the use of the plastic as being a defect and an error in production.

The Ellen McArthur foundation is based on creating a circular economy and with Ecovative they managed to create mushroom (polystyrene-like) packaging. The discarded parts of crops grown (which are therefore cheap) are then inoculated with mushroom tissue.

The mycelium organism present inside the mushroom tissue then digests the discarded food and takes the shape of its container in 5-7 days. Thanks to this, cup-shaped mushroom plastics have been created and due to naturally water-resistant properties, can hold water. After its use, the product can be safely discarded in the compost at home (in other words, is biodegradable.)

This means the single-use cup or often box packaging will automatically breakdown and find its way back to nature. Easy right?

Another biodegradable plastic is created from a mixture of potato starch and water. This product uses those “ugly potatoes” that are rejected by supermarkets, ensuring less food waste. Right now, this is the most popular alternative to single-use plastics; hopefully, in future, it’ll grow to be even more popular. This product was initially an idea to replace fast food

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plastics but is also what first news now uses to cover their newspapers.

Some critics would say that to create this solution more potatoes would have to be planted to cover the number of bags necessary and that this would require “ a lot of water ”. My response to that, however, is that, yes they will require water but in reality, a fully grown average potato only needs 5-7 cm of water to reach its full size. However, let me tell you that every single gram of your Sunday roast requires 112 litres of water to grow. As for the idea that more potatoes would have to be planted, this wouldn’t be the case because the existing 5p tax on single-use bags would remain and since this tax has led to a significant increase in number of people buying a reusable sturdy bag, the number of potato plastic bags produced wouldn’t be much different to now. Using those potatoes would be helping the world since “nearly half of all potatoes produced in the UK are thrown away each year” because of worms and “ugliness”. Also, since potatoes aren’t the only way to produce biodegradable single-use plastic there wouldn’t be too much of a rise in potato cultivations necessary because of other options including biodegradable plastics made out of milk, rice, mushroom, my personal favourite: the cassava option and more yet to be discovered with research.

Due to the “landfills and water bodies [that] continue to choke on plastic waste” in India, Coimbatore created bio-compostable bags that biodegrade naturally in less than a few months as well as turning to ash when burnt and dissolving in hot water without leaving any toxic residue! These bags can be kept on a shelf for a maximum of 3 months before they start decomposing and are made from tapioca, which is a starch extracted from cassava roots and is the same thing as those little popping balls you order at the bottom of your bubbleology. Unlike bioplastics which are also created using natural crops such as corn, the cassava overall takes less time to grow and does not require the polluting fertilisers so this is another strength.

Following on from edible plastics you may have also heard about edible rice straws and Milk protein plastics. In China and Japan, rice straws have become popular in the market seeing as they retain their shape despite immersion in water and are made of 100% natural ingredients, making them edible and non-toxic to drink. Being biodegradable, it also means the dolphins won’t be harmed even if this straw does end up in the middle of the ocean, as it’d be a natural treat and would probably biodegrade anyway before the dolphins found it. The protein present in milk called casein is not only 500 times better than everyday plastic at keeping out the oxygen (due to the tighter network of smaller pores) but is also biodegradable and edible.

This milk plastic is, therefore, more useful for foods that require the need to be shielded from a lot of oxygen for example foods kept in a vacuum.

For now, the easiest and probably most neglected way you and I can help to reduce plastic is to simply reuse and recycle. Statistics show that surprisingly only 9% of plastic worldwide is currently recycled.

Perhaps you could also ask your local shops to take more plastic than they give out. Creating a chain of reusable products and perhaps even discounts!

For example, if someone went to buy fresh cheese from the stand and were given a plastic container then the week after the person would get a discount on the cheese even just 10% if they brought their container or reused the same one. One of the only things the world and I ask of you is to remember is that the smallest things can change everything, and one piece fewer plastic in the ocean is one fewer cloud of acid raining on your crops. Remember: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover.

The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

Graphene

the material of the future Bea Altern

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raphene, a single layer of carbon arranged in a hexagonal lattice, is the world’s first two-dimensional material. The applications of graphene for improving existing technologies, and creating new ones, are vast and not fully realized yet.

Graphene’s versatility could not be overstated. It is thermally and electrically conductive and is much stronger than steel, whilst being transparent, lightweight and flexible. These properties open up endless fields where graphene could revolutionise current technology.

In electronics, a coating of graphene on touch screens, which are currently made of brittle Indium-tin oxide, would make screens less prone to breaking, and could even usher in a future of folding phones. As well as improving durability, graphene could also make devices and computers run faster. The smallest transistors are already made of graphene, meaning they are better in circuits. Due to the fact that graphene is a semiconductor and can conduct electricity at room temperature, it is likely to replace silicon in computer chips and can improve the safety of devices by preventing overheating.

Graphene batteries could have a much longer lifespan than standard lithium ion ones, so they’ll last longer and charge quicker. The batteries could also be lighter and more flexible, which, as an example, could aid soldiers who have to carry 7kg of batteries on their person. Graphene supercapacitors could be much more efficient, providing more power and using less energy than standard devices.

In addition, they are lighter, reducing the weight of cars and planes and therefore the environmental impact.

In planes, a graphene-based coating could reduce the damage of lightning strikes. There is also potential for it to be used to store of wind and solar energy.

In the biomedical sector, graphene, or graphenebased, materials have countless applications in delivery systems, sensors, tissue engineering and biological agents. Its 2D structure and large surface area means that nearly anything could be attached to it, unleashing the possibility of it changing the behaviour of cells. Outside the body, graphene could potentially also be used outside the body in wound healing or even as an alternative

cancer treatment to current options with debilitating side effects.

While graphene alone has endless uses, when mixed with other materials, endless more are opened up. When mixed with praseodymium, a metal alloy, graphene acts as a superconductor. This means an electric current can flow through it with no resistance, which in the future could provide us with unlimited energy, as current wouldn’t have to be reapplied. When mixed with paint, it can prevent rusting on ships and cars. The same technique could be used in housing to waterproof and package brick and stone for better protection against weather.

The waterproofing capabilities are also of benefit in construction, transport, aerospace and food packaging (by stopping water and oxygen traveling spoiling the food). A new tennis racket incorporating graphene has already been produced and graphene is likely to be seen soon in performance skiing, cycling and Formula 1.

When mixed with Oxygen, Graphene forms graphene oxide membranes, a near impenetrable barrier to fluids (even helium, the hardest material to block.) Being both hydrophobic and hydrophilic, they can also provide channels for water to travel through. With at least 900 children dying a day due to poor water sanitation and estimates than by 2025 14% of the world will face water scarcity, graphene oxide membranes could help make safe drinking water available to millions of people.

Environmentally, graphene oxide membranes could help with the removal of carbon dioxide from power stations, a process currently only done on a small scale.

When mixed with itself, two layers of graphene are impenetrable to even diamond, which could have many uses including making ultra light, thin, flexible body armour. However, there is a limit to its strength as extra layers actually reduce its strength.

The majority of these ideas are still early stages of research and design, and little is known on how exactly it will function. What is certain, however, is that in a rapidly changing world, there will undoubtedly be infinite more applications of graphene, the material of the future.

The Underpass -Science- 2019 - 2020

13

Fashion, Artificial intelligence

and GANs? Max Reinstein

‘Does this outfit look good?’ is a common question when you’re facing your reflection in a shop’s dressing room. Even though the mirror may not offer any answers or fashion tips, Artificial Intelligence might. This may seem absurd, as how could a series of code help determine your clothes, fashion and style, since it is primarily dictated by personal preference? Well, a computer science team at the Texan University of Austin are trying to rationalise fashion.

In partnership with researchers from Cornell Tech, Georgia Tech and Facebook AI research, the team has developed a form of Artificial Intelligence called Fashion++. Its purpose is to recognise outfits and clothes, then recommend helpful tips that aim to increase its stylishness. These insights usually involve adjusting your current attire, such as tucking a shirt in or wearing a belt. However, it does not create entirely new outfits or identify clothes that would complement your current items.

Fashion++ uses a ‘discriminative fashionability classifier’; a system formed by thousands of publicly available images on the internet that are deemed ‘fashionable’.

It utilises these images to recognise texture, colour and pattern in order to determine stylish garments. To develop an understanding of unfashionable style, the AI is programmed to compare ‘stylish’ garments with their least similar counterparts, defining these as unfashionable.

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Once the Intelligence has been trained on differentiating between fashionable and nonfashionable items, the system updates the user’s photo of their outfit, suggesting subtle changes. An alternative, more stylish look is created by an imagegeneration neural network, which is a type of GAN (generative adversarial network). The updated, virtual outfit is essentially a digitally created image designed to look realistic and is formed using three components: a discriminator, generator and a real image. A generator uses the initial image and a cumulation of synthetic images to build a final product, then a discriminator attempts to distinguish between the real and digitallymade image. This process is repeated, providing negative feedback when the discriminations are wrong, causing the recollection of previous results to improve the detection of fake images. When the discriminator mistakes a digitally generated image for the real one, this is positively recorded by the generator, improving the production of realistic images. Through this repetitive process, the artificial intelligence is continuously learning from itself in order to develop synthetic images with greater speed and accuracy.

Nonetheless, there are limitations to the software, primarily the fact that the AI can only determine style from the available data, therefore the software has a natural bias. For example, with fewer online images from less developed countries, the AI will predominantly consider the fashion of first world nations.

In addition, Fashion++ isn’t in commercial use yet, it’s still a research project and is constantly developing, however it’s an interesting glimpse into the possibilities of the future. Until then, only you can establish your style, it remains as an individual expression of identity, culture and comfort.

The Underpass -Style- 2019 - 2020

What on Earth is Fast Fashion?

Olivia Carrafiell

After recently undertaking a work experience placement at Eco-Age’s Headquarters in Hammersmith, I have learned a thing or two about Fast Fashion.

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oing in, I too was plagued with the mindset of ‘if you shop at Primark or H & M you are killing the planet’, as that is often how journalism and social media portray the issue, particularly to the younger generation.

However, this belief system is unsustainable and frankly unattainable for most people. Whilst it is often advised to only shop at ‘sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ clothing stores by the eco-warriors of Instagram - this is shedding light on the wrong side of this issue. Though it is a step forward that young pioneering businesses are supporting the cause by switching to sustainable materials, which is necessary to spread awareness on the issue and to ignite the flame by which sustainable fashion can spread and become commonplace, at this moment in time the infrastructure is not yet there to open these businesses up to the majority of the public, leaving most people feeling confused and alienated from the ‘fast fashion’ issue.

“the fashion industry was responsible for 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions” So what is ‘fast fashion’? Everyone has a different definition of this and the noun often means different things to different people - depending on what they have read online or in the news. But it can be defined with a real life example which is easy to understand. Picture someone who shops at Zara, for example, and after every season they throw away the previous season’s purchases and take another shopping excursion to fill

their now empty closet with new purchases. This is an extreme and very uncommon, particularly looking from an economic standpoint, example. However replace Zara with another high street shop like Primark, where you can get a top for about the price of a cup of coffee, and you can start to see the plausibility of this idea.

After being made aware of this issue it would be relevant for one to question why it matters. With the aim of simplification I will address the two main areas which ‘fast fashion’ concerns; ethics and climate change.

Within these areas there are two shocking examples which can be viewed when spreading concern and awareness on this topic. In 2015, the fashion industry was responsible for 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for 5% of the total manmade CO2 emissions that year and this number was set to grow in the following years. In terms of ethics, we can cast our mind back to the saddening loss of 1,132 factory workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza Building, housing five garment factories, collapsed due to poor maintenance in 2013. Infuriatingly, this is just one example of the countless tragedies which have occurred due to poor factory workers’ rights in the clothing manufacturing industry.

So what do pioneering eco enthusiasts of the time suggest? It is a simple, and economically pleasing, scenario - buy less. The most impactful message that can be passed onto the public at this time is to invest in pieces that you will wear at least 30 times. These pieces can be high street - just as long as they don’t end up in the bin after one wear. It must however be noted that, for the vast majority, high street brands are not known to abide by ethical fashion standards. Purchasing clothing with an ethical mindset is equally important - however by buying less you will be reducing the demand for fast fashion, therefore hopefully forcing unethical brands to become aware of the changing times and changing mindset of the population.

The Underpass -Style- 2019 - 2020

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The Future of Teaching Andrea Barlien

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t is easy to lament on the impact of technology on what we do every day. And teachers are no strangers to this type of lamentation.

As the school day becomes busier and the curriculum becomes more crowded, teachers look to technology and the future to make the work of teaching more manageable. But will teaching change drastically as more technology is introduced into schools and classrooms?

Nearly 2500 years ago Socrates summed up education as the “kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel” and that is still the same philosophy that sits at the heart of good education today. Dickens in Hard Times parodied an education system that churned out little automatons that regurgitated facts.

“Facts alone are [not] wanted in life” (9) nor are teachers “turned [out] at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs.” (14-15) . Neither are our students.

I started teaching in New Zealand on January 28, 2000. This was before every teacher and student had computers. There was no social media and cell phones had been invented, and I had one, but they were big, heavy and only used for speaking to people, even texting wasn’t a thing yet because too few people had phones.

During my very first lesson at Whakatane High School in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand I shared a piece of poetry with my Year 10

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class. I copied it onto a piece of acetate and projected it onto the board; we annotated it and then I photocopied the annotation and gave each student a copy of what we had collaboratively done with the poem. We do the same things now - we just use iPads, Visualisers, and programmes like OfficeLens to beam it through the data projector hanging from the ceiling of every classroom.

In English classrooms at Latymer we teach grammar through CenturyTech, a programme that uses algorithms to tailor lessons and assessments to students at the level and the pace that they need. In my first year of teaching this same task was done with early algorithm devising programmes using punch-cards and printers.

In my first year of teaching I remember an older teacher who was quite terrified of the computer, railing against them as they would kill teaching and put him out of a job.

That has clearly not been the case.

Classrooms here look very similar to the classrooms I started teaching in, and lessons have a similar flavour too. Things have changed, however.

Instead of wheeling in the big tv, I link to a YouTube clip on Google Classroom; instead of taking piles of books home to mark I check writing on classroom, through drive or via email. And, sometimes, I still take in piles of handwritten essays to mark.

be the teachers’ assistants. The role of AI, most likely, will be to help with formal assessment and with analysing data that shows student progress. Lucking and Holmes suggest that in twenty years’ time AI will have helped to end the cycle of assessment that can create stress for both teacher and student. Ongoing algorithm-based assessment, managed and monitored by AI, could mean that high stakes once a year testing is banished forever. AI could definitely eliminate the one size fits all approach to teaching and learning, opening up opportunities for teachers to engage with a number of topics in the classroom at the same time. Excellent teaching could be enhanced by AI unit and text preparation so that the teacher truly becomes the coach in the classroom as content could be delivered in multiple forms to suit each learner not just the majority of them.

Attendance, work completion and low-level recall assessment could be achieved by scanning workbooks and id cards - does it feel like Big Brother, yet? But that would free up the teacher and the students in the room to really focus on kindling the fire rather than collecting the facts.

And to be fair, that’s why many of your teachers entered the profession in the first place.

So, what might teaching, and the classroom, look like in another twenty years? If there are “robots” in the classroom, Rose Luckin and Wayne Holmes say that they will

The Underpass -Education- 2019 - 2020

The Science Behind Learning Andrew Copeman

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he idea that young people no longer need to be taught knowledge, because of the easy availability of information on the internet, is gaining traction.

This fallacy, often promoted in the press and, more worryingly, by teacher training institutions, displays a misunderstanding of neuroscience.

Denigrating knowledge is not just anti-intellectual but, damagingly, leads to unintended anti-egalitarian outcomes, widening the gulf between the highest and lowest achievers. Given a child’s vocabulary when they start school is the best predictor for their future success, the importance of instilling knowledge and building vocabulary must begin at an early age. Educational disadvantage starts early with some children coming from knowledge-rich home environments and others from culturally impoverished backgrounds. By focusing on knowledge and building cultural capital, schools close this gap, which, if not addressed, continues as children progress through the education system.

It is only with an extensive, varied and diverse vocabulary that children are able to progress, work independently and stay focused in class, without losing the thread of what they are being taught. Without this foundation, pupils struggle to build knowledge, leading to poor educational outcomes and feelings of low self-esteem and worthlessness.

What this reveals is that in order to gain knowledge, we need knowledge; to put that another way, the more we know, the easier it is to know more. This is where an awareness of neuroscience is particularly important.

The brain has a limited working memory which is only capable of holding around five new pieces of information simultaneously. For instance, if I were to ask you to make a connection between a zebra, a mule, the Masai Mara, a passenger jet, the Financial Times and Liechtenstein, you would quickly lose track as there are too many items to consider at the same time. The lack of space in our working memory acts as a barrier to human cognition.

This means that we need to rely on our long-term memory in order to free up capacity in our working memory when solving complex problems.

Every time we resort to the internet when trying to get our heads around a problem, we use up space in our working memory, meaning the ability to process new information becomes increasingly impaired. What this usually means in practice is that when we have finally worked out the first part of a problem, we end up having forgotten the second part because of our poor working memory. For example, let us suppose there are 24 articles in this magazine and it takes 7 minutes to read each one.

How long would it take to read the magazine? If you recall your 12 times table from long-term memory and then multiply your answer of 12 x 7 by two, using your working memory, you will arrive at the answer. If your times tables are not committed to long-term memory you would have had to work out your sums individually, giving rise to the likelihood of overloading your working memory.

Guarding against cognitive overload is important and it is only when able to automatically recall knowledge committed to long-term memory we free up capacity in our working memory.

Pupils who perform well in working memory tests, not surprisingly, score highly in reasoning tests, revealing those with greater working memory capacity are more able thinkers. It is therefore clear that if we want to empower young people we need to make their working memory capacity more efficient and this is best achieved through factual knowledge. Better still, if this information can be ingrained to long-term memory, mental processes become automatised, making room in working memory for other processes. Of course technology gives us information at our fingertips but it is only through the acquisition of accumulated knowledge that we are able to problem solve, research and assimilate new information effectively.

Further reading: Christodoulou, D (2014). Seven Myths of Education Routledge.

Willingham, D (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School?

Jossey-Bass.

The Underpass -Education- 2019 - 2020

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Boarding School versus Day School: what’s it all about?

Tiresias

W

hen I was 10, I was shipped off to a small suburban town in Oxford to attend a boarding school with 300 other boys and at 13, this number became 700. After seven years in the boarding system, I decided, aged 16, to move to Latymer Upper. I have had the privilege of seeing both sides of the debate, and today I hope to share some of my experiences of education away from home.

“Older boys were allowed to beat younger ones at my 15thcentury English boarding school, and every boy had to run a five-mile annual steeplechase through the sludge and rain of an October day, as horses do. We wrote poems in dead languages and recited the Lord’s Prayer in Latin every Sunday night” - Pico Iyer The above quotation refers to a little-known “public” school based in Windsor - Eton College. It was founded in 1440 as a charity school, providing a free education for local poor boys (just like Latymer Upper). As times have changed, Eton has become synonymous with the “Public” school system and is a trigger word for people who campaign to abolish private schools because they signify a “corrupt and privileged” set.

Setting this aside, what is it like to be at boarding school? Aged 13, I was studying at Radley College, an all-boys boarding school.

Apart from the beatings, which have been illegal for quite some time, the rest of the quotation applies. I did run the Steeplechase, write poems and recite the Lord’s Prayer (what’s more in Latin) … adhering to tradition is what boarding schools love. From uniforms of tails and waistcoats to weird sports with esoteric rules, boarding schools are full of codes.

One of the greatest differences between day school and boarding is the amount of free time. You will find at boarding school that any free time you get is incredibly valuable, as most of the day is booked up by games, lessons or other activities. The schools put massive emphasis sport; I had 4 or 5 sports sessions a week.

This vast range of activities allows for personal growth and is an opportunity to find what you truly are passionate about. Whether you like it or not, even your free time is timetabled!

But what about boarding - actually sleeping, eating and living at school? Once you get past the homesickness, living away from home for an extended period of time makes you to grow up fast. With the intense shared experience of living away, strong friendships are made. Some struggle: boarding schools are obliged to have sophisticated pastoral care. As you spend so much time there, it becomes your second home. Thus, the bonds you develop with teachers and peers are crucial.

Finally, atmosphere; In terms of the people, boarding schools are not filled with with English traditionalists with a “stiff upper lip”, but rather have a global appeal. If you think London day schools are diverse, the English boarding school education is equally multicultural (this is even reflected in the food!).

There is a strict hierarchy between the years, and so making friends outside your year, at the start, is difficult. The environment varies depending on boarding house, and especially on your housemaster, the teacher who runs your boarding house. My housemaster promoted a healthy competitive spirit, and my house strived to be number one, taking seriously all inter-house competitions. Competitiveness is a core value.

When I was given the opportunity to move to Latymer Upper, I grabbed it. I got to see people I had never seen before: girls … and my parents. This might be funny, but in reality learning to live with your parents full time is a pleasure and a challenge, felt by all.

The most striking change for me was how short the school day is. Going from days lasting twelve hours to days lasting only eight (not to mention lesson-free Saturdays), really opens things up...

The day school versus boarding school argument rumbles on and will continue to do so: both have their merits. For my part, I am grateful for both experiences for they have and will form my character.

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Is people’s data as safe as they may think?

Luc Mondon-Ballantyne

B

y definition data is ‘facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis’. However, from further research data is not just ‘facts’, ‘statistics’ and just the association it has to electronic scientific research, but there is actually a large spectrum of different types of data.

For example, transactional data (any data that is collected either from clicking on an advert or buying an item online), personal data (information related a person), financial data (information on a company’s health, performance and internal management) and most simply data for storage, like DVDs storing gigabytes of data on a disk. In 1946, data was defined as ‘transmissible and storable computer information’, and data only had relations to storage on computers, until 1954 when term ‘data processing’ was first being used. ‘Data processing’ is what most people think of when they hear ‘data ’mentioned, and this relates to when computers retrieve, process and manipulate data to produce information.

Data retrieval and processing is the relationship that people have conflicts with in the twentieth century, as it directly relates to their personal data and transactional data which is closest to them. As more of the world’s information moves online it means more people will be using the internet, meaning more data will be retrieved, processed and manipulated to find more about you and the world. This is the reason why data has surpassed oil in value as it is becoming more and more useful to companies and governments to find out more about their users and population. Every advert a person clicks on, every search a person makes, every programme a person watches on Netflix and every photo a person likes is gathered and processed to try and target you in the future. This targeting may not necessarily just be a bad thing, as companies like Netflix can cross-index users feedback and ‘watch history’ to give more recommendations on what to watch by analysing the information gained to better the users experience which creates more of an annual income for the company. On the other hand, people do not like the idea that all their data is then stored forever and can be used in the future.

Data is stored in cloud systems by the specific companies who the information relates to, most likely Google, Facebook and many more of the internet tech-giants. This gathered information is immortalized in their systems and is unlikely to be deleted or refreshed in this generation’s lifetime, but some of the companies like Google claim to allow you to delete some of your history ‘forever’. Furthermore, this data may be deleted by Google, however 48 governmental associations (in the UK) will still have access to it even if it is

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‘deleted’. Some of these include the Metropolitan Police, City of London Police, Department of Transport, Security Service and many more. So, this information may be ‘deleted’ by Google, but it will not be deleted ‘forever’ as these associations still keep control of it. Therefore, people’s data is no longer in the hands of Google, but arguably in the ‘safer’ hands of the government. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the data cannot be breached or stolen because it is controlled by the government; the government can still be hacked. Meaning, in theory that people’s data is not completely safe.

billions of dollars, but when the person is not getting any compensation for it, it could be seen as wrong. Some may argue that people who copyright, benefit from allowing people to use their creations for a period of time, so why should companies analysing your data be able to sell it on for their gain, and the owner not make any financial benefits themselves. Further, when your private data is at risk from breaching, which is out of the user’s control as the company controls the safeguarding, they should be allowed to have some rights over it, too.

A data breach is a confirmed incident when confidential, sensitive information has been disclosed in an unauthorised fashion. One of the Biggest data breaches of all time was the breach of Yahoo in 2014. The Yahoo ‘bcrypt algorithm’ was hacked and 1 billion users’ names, emails, passwords and phone numbers were breached, which caused $350 million to be knocked off its share price.

Another huge data breach which was nonaccidental was by Cambridge Analytica where 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested for information in the run up to Donald Trump’s election campaign (without the users’ consent and breached the Terms and Conditions of Facebook). They gathered enough data and information on each user to be able to target them with personalised political advertisements. Moreover, Cambridge Analytica is also said to have worked alongside the Vote Leave campaign, but were said to have been “utterly ridiculous claims” by Boris Johnson. However, money was channeled through another company who were directly linked to Cambridge Analytica. Finally, the Vote Leave campaign did actually work alongside Cambridge Analytica meaning that it was a potential breach of electoral law, making people question democracy within Britain. As all of these breaches have been used against people using these platforms, and this will change people’s opinions on how safe data really is.

People’s data is not as safe as they believe it is. There are data breaches everyday that the users do not find out about, and there have been 18 major data breaches in the last 8 years where up to 500 million accounts have been breached by just one of the companies. Furthermore, it leaves the question of whether data can be used as a weapon. If a company can withhold billions of accounts and a hacker manages to seize them, then it can easily be used as a weapon against the users and the company. That may be a large stretch of a theory, but it is still possible as technology is constantly ever-growing. Internet users can be safer by being more cautious, diligent, organized and alert over how they manage data, however, they can never be completely safe as the data is never completely ‘gone’.

Data is still growing in power and value as the evolution of technology is still driving on, which makes people question whether they should have rights over their data.

Will.i.am argues that, “Personal data needs to be regarded as a human right, just as access to water is a human right”. Personal data is being sold to different companies so they can advertise, sell and inform you of things you may be interested in for

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Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ / The future of mental health treatment Ariana Rubio

O

ne of the most iconic images in the history of Western art, ‘Starry Night’ is a 19th century oil-oncanvas painting by Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. That, at least, is the factual, practical, technical description most often parrotted. But what of the painting’s emotional, imaginative, sensory history?

What, indeed, of the artist’s own mental health?

For it is not unknown that Van Gogh suffered from mental illness. The eldest of six children, he was born in March 1853 to a Dutch Reformed family in a primarily Catholic province in the southern Netherlands. As a child, he enjoyed exploring the countryside that would later constitute much of his artistic subject matter. At sixteen, he became an apprentice to the art dealing company Goupil. Working in London and Paris, near-constant exposure to works art stimulated his artistic sensibility, although he disliked art dealing.

As a young man, Van Gogh worked as a teacher and lay preacher in England and, later, as a bookseller in his native land. Imbued with the desire to serve humanity, he studied theology in the hopes of becoming a minister.

While training as an evangelist in Brussels, he clashed with the doctrinal orthodoxy of church authorities. Van Gogh worked as a missionary in the impoverished region of Borinage, Belgium, where in 1870, he gave away all of his worldly goods, and was promptly denounced by religious authorities for his overly literal interpretation

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of scripture. ‘They think I’m a madman,’ he disconsolately remarked to an acquaintance, ‘because I wanted to be a true Christian.’

It was this disappointment, however, that led Van Gogh to discover his artistic vocation in 1880. In a letter to his brother Theo, he explained that ‘I want to give the wretched a brotherly message’, that ‘when I sign “Vincent”, it is as one of them.’ This intention to console humanity through his art restored his confidence following his humiliating treatment by the Church. While his artistic career spanned only from 1880-90, he studied at the Brussels Academy, the Antwerp Academy and with Dutch landscape artist Anton Mauve. As with his condemned act of generosity, paintings such as ‘The Potato Eaters’ demonstrate his concern for the down-trodden bottom ranks of society.

By 1888, the painter’s individualistic, yet distinctly Impressionist, style had come to fruition. Despite this unique approach, Van Gogh recognised that some tasks are beyond the ambitions of the individual. He rented a house in southern France with the intention of forming a coalition of Impressionist artists comprised of himself, Gauguin and others. Gaughin and Van Gogh worked together for two months, but their relationship quickly turned sour as their ideas and temperaments clashed.

The tension reached a climax on Christmas Eve. Following an argument, van Gogh allegedly chased Gauguin with a

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razor and cut off the lower half of his own left ear. The event was sensationalised, and rumours circulated that the deranged artist then visited a brothel and delivered the severed ear to a woman with the instruction to ‘Guard this object carefully’. Many art historians, however, have challenged this. It is likely that the truth will never be known and, regardless, Van Gogh assumed responsibility and was hospitalised. He produced the mirror-image ‘Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe’. Increasingly concerned with his own mental state, he asked to be committed to the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where, plagued by panic attacks and bipolar mood swings, he completed ‘Starry Night’.

Conveniently, Gadsby happened to have taken a degree in art history at the Australian National University.

She recounts how she informed the man that, in fact, Van Gogh both self-medicated and was treated by psychiatrists. In one of his portraits, his psychiatrist is holding not a sunflower, but a foxglove flower. Foxglove is one constituent of Van Gogh’s medication for epilepsy.

And, interestingly, if you receive an overdose of foxglove, you experience the colour yellow intensely. ‘So perhaps’, Gadsby emphatically concludes, ‘we have the sunflowers precisely because Van Gogh medicated!’. Indeed, in a letter to Theo, Van Gogh expressed the sentiment that his capacity to work as the only guarantee of his sanity.

Isolated from society, the divergence between ‘Starry Night’ and the earlier work ‘Starry Night Over the Rhône’ exemplifies Van Gogh’s departure from reality, tinged with sadness. The thick, bold brush strokes of ‘Starry Night’ generates a fantastic, hallucinatory effect in comparison to the more realistic style of ‘Starry Night Over the Rhône’.

The cypress tree, for example, is perhaps most abstractly expressed: a shadowy, undefined pointed structure of swirls. Painted in June 1889, ‘Starry Night’ depicts the view from the window of Van Gogh’s asylum room just before sunrise. The unrealistic style is concretely emphasised in the addition of an imagined village.

I won’t spoil Gadsby’s act, but, as well as sheer hilarity, a number of hard-hitting points about the comedy industry and culture of self-deprecation force the audience to pause and think about why they are laughing, about the consequences of their seemingly innocuous actions.

A brilliant, thought-provoking piece of comedy — and tragedy.

Despite the fact that the painting is a nocturne, it was completed by day, meaning that many elements were subject to Van Gogh’s creativity. This is particularly true of the star placement, which astrologists point out did not occur in June 1889. Indeed, while Van Gogh described his rapture with the ‘morning star’, the brightest star to the spectator’s right of the cypress tree, this was actually Venus. Furthermore, Van Gogh embellished the gibbous moon to a crescent moon.

The meaning of Van Gogh’s masterpiece? The artist himself said little about the painting, only referring to it as a ‘night study’ in a letter to his brother Theo. By all accounts, he did not think much of it, classifying it as one of his many works that ‘says nothing to me’ and later referred to it as a ‘failure’. Yet there is some mysterious element that has enchanted popular consciousness. I won’t impress my own interpretation, except to say that the blue swirls manage to capture both the chaos and coherence of existence. The artist creates the visual stimulus for the spectator’s discernment of meaning.

While he left the asylum for a Parisian suburb, Van Gogh’s mental health never recovered, and, disillusioned by his lack of success, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest in July 1890. He was aged only thirtyseven. His brother Theo reported that his last words were ‘The sadness will last forever’. Many psychologists have retrospectively diagnosed Van Gogh with episodic conditions such as bipolar disorder, porphyria, temporal lobe epilepsy and depression. Regardless of his specific mental illnesses, his condition was exacerbated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and alcoholism.

A consequence of the time, he did not receive the right treatment. It is easy to suppose, as Hannah Gadsby notes in her stand-up comedy Nanette, that this mental turmoil was necessary for his artistic flourishment. That, as so many have suggested, suffering is an intrinsic part of artistry. She describes how, after a show in which she had spoken about taking anti-depressant medication, a man approached her. He told her that, as an artist, she has to feel and should not take medication. ‘If Vincent van Gogh had taken medication,’ he told her, ‘we wouldn’t have the sunflowers!’.

While it may seem like the prevalence of mental illness is a modern development, it is only now, when emotional outspokenness is more socially acceptable, do people feel comfortable enough to come forward and admit that they are struggling. Approximately 25% of people in the UK will experience a mental health problem annually, and almost 8% of the population suffers from depression or anxiety. Even with the positive developments of recent times — recognising that mental illness is as blameless as physical illness, that emotional issues should be talked about instead of remaining closeted — society remains vastly inadequate in its treatment of mental illness.

This is particularly true of men with mental health issues. Over 75% of suicides are by men, and suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under thirty-five. Our culture of toxic masculinity, with phrases like ‘man up’ and ‘boys don’t cry’, inhibits male expression of emotion. If we want to build a stronger society, and begin to tackle mental health problems accurately, we have to destroy the cultural stereotype that men must be strong, stoic emotional pillars.

That is not to say that vast progress has not been made in recent years. Inspired by Van Gogh’s work, particularly ‘Starry Night’, American singer-songwriter Don McLean wrote his 1970 song ‘Vincent’ in memory of the artist. Having read a biography of Van Gogh, he describes how he ‘suddenly’ knew that he ‘had to write a song arguing that he wasn’t crazy’, that he ‘had an illness’. As the chorus concludes, society ‘would not listen, they did not know how’, but ‘perhaps they’ll listen now’.

Brexit Dialogue Ozan Erder and Erwin Luzac

Is Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal better than Theresa May’s?

Ozan: In a word, no. Most of the deal is identical to Theresa May’s, and the changes that Johnson made have turned an already bad deal into a slightly worse one. The key difference is the removal of the Irish backstop, which was a mechanism to ensure there was no hard border in Ireland under any circumstances.

This is gone, and in its place is a “full stop”, which imposes a regulatory and customs border within the United Kingdom, in the Irish Sea. When Johnson set out to replace the backstop, many thought it was an impossible task. But he managed to get a deal, as fellow Tory MPs have been eager to point out, even if it meant agreeing to something that Theresa May believed “no British prime minister would ever agree to”. That thing is a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Another key change is that Northern Ireland’s Assembly will be able to vote on retaining this procedure every four years, adding an element of democracy to the deal but also one of perpetual uncertainty. There are a few other technical changes but other aspects remain broadly similar.

What does Johnson’s deal mean in real terms?

Economically speaking, the consensus is that Britain will be worse off under it than Theresa May’s deal. Estimates vary, but the UK’s economy could be around 2% smaller under Johnson’s deal. On the other hand, the elephant in the room (particularly for Labour) remains the gaping hole with regards to citizens’ and workers’ rights, and environmental protections. Despite attempts to allay these fears, many – myself included – remain unimpressed by the potential for the UK to backslide on these issues once it has left the EU. The Prime Minister’s consistent inability to hold to his word will not serve as a reassurance.

Erwin: Boris Johnson’s deal is not perfect but is substantially better than Theresa May’s deal. Despite being largely the same, Johnson’s deal has got rid of the awful Northern Irish backstop.

The backstop essentially meant that, in order to prevent a border on the island of Ireland, the entire U.K. would have to remain inside the Customs Union until another solution to this complex problem could be found. We would not be able to leave the Customs Union without permission from the EU, which give them the power to lock the U.K. into the backstop forever.

This would give the EU no incentive to find an alternative arrangement and would most likely result in the U.K. being kept in the Customs Union indefinitely against our will. Johnson’s deal removes the backstop and replaces it with an alternative solution to the border issue. Northern Ireland will leave the Single Market and Customs Union with the rest of the U.K. but will retain regulatory alignment with the Republic of Ireland. This means that Northern Ireland will share many of the Republic’s regulations on agricultural standards and so forth. This will put a regulatory barrier in the Irish Sea, which is intolerable for the DUP and which I personally find uncomfortable. However, the border issue is so complicated that no solution could satisfy all sides and I believe that this is a vast improvement on the backstop. I am deeply unhappy with other aspects of the deal, such as the arbitrary £39 billion “bill” we have to pay to leave.

However, this deal is now the only plausible way to leave the EU and deliver on the referendum result.

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Do we need to have an election now?

Erwin: Yes, the election was absolutely necessary. Whilst I would have preferred Parliament to pass the deal, its decision to vote against the timetabling motion signalled an intent to delay the bill and add wrecking amendments (amendments that would cause the Government to throw out the bill) that would have made the passage of the bill impossible. All of this would have resulted in Parliament voting for extensions to Article 50 until the EU refused to grant any more. This situation is unsustainable.

An election is the only way to allow people to express their opinion on the country’s direction and will unblock the gridlock in Parliament. A strong Conservative majority will result in the deal being passed and the U.K. exiting the EU in January. A hung Parliament would likely result in the opposition parties accepting a Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister in return for a second referendum on Brexit. Either situation is preferable to endless extensions to Article 50 and indecision in Westminster.

Ozan: For some months it has been clear that Parliament has been deadlocked over Brexit. The much-anticipated series of ‘indicative votes’ that took place in March resulted in MPs failing to support any one of nine possible options. A second referendum on EU membership, where the people may choose between a specific Brexit deal and Remain, is a much better idea and the only way through which the Brexit issue may be laid to rest (for a time at least). Unfortunately, it has repeatedly been proven that there is no majority for this in the Commons; a large amount of blame rests with Labour and Jeremy Corbyn’s fence-post Brexit policy, which has led to him being unwilling to commit to a second vote despite the wishes of party members. Once the Conservatives were deprived of their majority in September it became a matter of if, not when, we would have an election. Once an extension was secured and the Lib Dems looked like they would crack, other parties had no choice but to pile on board.

An election is unlikely to solve the current crisis, but given the dire state of affairs reached by mid-October it remained the only credible way forward.

What will happen if no party wins a majority?

Ozan: At the moment, no one knows. The conundrum for the Conservatives, who are likely to be the largest party even if they don’t win a majority, is that no other party will be willing to prop them up. Even the DUP, who had previously supported Theresa May’s government, have publicly ruled out supporting another Conservative minority government after Johnson threw them under the bus when negotiating his Brexit deal, by agreeing to a border in the Irish Sea. Labour may also find it difficult to conjure up a working majority. The Lib Dems have ruled out supporting a Corbyn government (although they said the same about Cameron in 2010 and look what happened there…). It’s possible that the SNP would support Labour if a second Scottish independence referendum was guaranteed, but given its pro-union position it is uncertain whether Labour would agree to this. The other smaller parties (Plaid Cymru, Greens, and Northern Ireland’s SDLP and Alliance parties) have said they are open to possible confidence and supply arrangements with Labour. However, because of the stark differences in certain areas between opposition parties, it doesn’t look like any stable coalitions will be formed. The most likely outcome of a hung parliament, in my view, is the formation of a short term ‘grand coalition’ government of opposition parties

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with the sole purpose of delivering a second referendum on EU membership, followed by another general election based on this outcome. A referendum got us into this mess, and a referendum (with credible proposals for both outcomes) is the only thing that will get us out.

Erwin: If there is a hung Parliament, the Conservatives are in deep trouble. They have alienated the DUP, the only party that will possibly work with them. On the other hand, Labour has a plethora of left-wing opposition parties that are willing to work with them in some form or another. The SNP would undoubtedly back Corbyn as Prime Minister, perhaps in return for a second Scottish independence referendum. The Liberal Democrats may say that they won’t prop up a Corbyn government but when push comes to shove I doubt they will want to allow Brexiteer Boris back into office. They would likely hold their noses and abstain in any confidence votes. I predict that a hung Parliament would result in a Corbyn led government, which would bring a second referendum. Due to the number of parties involved in such a coalition, I doubt the government would last two years before another election is called. As there is no chance of the Conservatives cobbling together a coalition, the only alternative would be an immediate repeat election. This is possible but unlikely, given the fact that it would probably deliver a similar result to the December election. The fear of another election will focus the minds of MPs on forming a government and sorting out the issue of Brexit.

What are the biggest challenges facing the main parties during the election campaign?

Erwin: The early days of the campaign have showed that all the main parties have significant challenges that will need to be overcome to win the election. The main issue for the Conservatives is the Brexit Party. While it is uncertain as to who the Brexit Party is taking votes from, they are likely taking more votes from the Conservatives than Labour. A split in the vote for leave parties may allow Labour to win target seats, despite winning fewer votes than the other two parties combined. Many Conservative target seats are in the North, Midlands and Wales.

Voters in these areas have traditionally voted for a Labour and many have a deep cultural hatred towards the Conservative brand. The presence of a non-Conservative Brexit Party may tempt many of them who would otherwise have held their noses and voted Conservative.

Labour has many problems of its own. The main problem for the party is its lack of a position on Brexit. Political scientists’ best guess is that a Labour Government would negotiate a “better” deal with the EU and then campaign against their own deal in a subsequent referendum. This bizarre strategy has pleased no one and has heralded an exodus of remain voters to the Liberal Democrats and, to a lesser extent, leave voters to the Conservatives or Brexit Party. If this election becomes centred around Brexit, the party is in serious trouble indeed.

The persistent allegations of institutional anti-semitism have caused many Jewish supporters to desert the party and have done serious damage to the party’s image with other voters. Key target seats in areas with high Jewish populations are potentially now out of reach. The Liberal Democrats have capitalised on this issue by gaining the support of many left-wing remain voters as a result.

The resurgent Liberal Democrats appear to have no major problems but on the other side of the Brexit divide the Brexit Party is down at around 11% in opinion polls. Compared to the 30% they scored at the EU election in May, this would be a disappointing result for the party. The reason for this decline is the fact that the Conservatives now have a leader who is genuinely committed to delivering Brexit and has a deal to do so. Twenty of their prospective candidates have withdrawn, many due to fears that they will split the leave vote and hand Corbyn the keys to 10 Downing Street. I doubt that the situation will improve for them and as polling day approaches, their vote may well be squeezed further by growing fears of a Corbyn led government amongst their supporters.

Ozan: Both main parties will be facing threats from several different angles. Perhaps the greatest challenge for Labour is, unsurprisingly, its Brexit policy. The time may soon be upon us when Jeremy Corbyn finds out that sitting on the fence about one of the most significant constitutional issues of our time will leave you with no friends on either side and a fence post stuck up your arse. I am being slightly harsh on Labour – its policy of attempting to appeal to both sides and bridge the chasm that has emerged amongst voters is a commendable one and worked well in 2017.

Unfortunately Brexit was still a relatively distant prospect back then, and Corbyn was able to successfully divert attention to domestic issues. He was, and is, a brilliant campaigner and got lucky – Theresa May was an awful campaigner as many will remember. This time round, Brexit is much more imminent with the UK scheduled to leave on January 31st 2020. On top of this, Boris Johnson is a more effective campaigner and has finally deduced the location of the elusive Magic Money Tree, which allows him to ditch the unpopular austerity policies that had been key for Cameron and May.

The biggest conundrum for the Tories may actually be the threat coming from their own side, in the form of Nigel “Man of the People” Farage and his Brexit Party. Because of the UK’s First Past the Post voting system, there is a very real risk of vote-splitting amongst parties. This risk is not exclusive to the Tories – many predict that the three and sometimes four way splitting of the centre-left Remain vote will give Johnson a boost. However, there are two reasons why the Tories’ prospects could be harmed. Firstly, most polling experts predict that the Brexit Party’s decision to field candidates in every seat (except for NI) risks splitting the Conservative vote much more than the Labour vote – partly because many Labour Leave voters already jumped ship in 2017. Secondly, the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru have successfully formed a Remain alliance for 60 seats across the country, although the effectiveness of this remains to be seen. The Tories have rejected such a pact with the Brexit Party. An additional risk is that their pro-Brexit message, and Johnson’s personal unpopularity, may prove very damaging in key areas such as Scotland and London (as both voted heavily to remain).

All things considered, this election is a huge gamble for everyone and will be the most unpredictable in recent British political history. So far both sides have had their share of blunders and humiliation, and the result will rest on a knife edge. This article may well be shredder-worthy by 7am on the 13th of December.

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42 Alex Miller

S

aul Bellow wrote a book called Herzog. Moses Herzog, the protagonist, is a slightly mad old Jewish intellectual who pours out his bitterness in a series of letters to various prominent intellectuals. His life is intellectual, rich. He engages with all sorts of ideas. The ideal philosopher? No, says Bellow. Wickedly and with great irony, he skewers this way of approaching life.

Herzog sits on a train, and instead of anticipating the journey, or looking forward to the family he’s about to meet again. He’s composing a screed in his head to Nietzsche , arguing one point or another of philosophy with the dead German. Herzog’s life has no meaning. He cuts himself away from the world to get to meaning, but he can’t get there. Herzog is very, deeply, sad.

Why do I bring up Herzog? Simple. Herzog is the paradigmatic example of the conflict inside us that meaning overcomes.

Without meaning, we are all Herzog.

The conclusions of theology in this arena will be relevant to secular thinkers because they can function, and indeed do function, as an analogy for our most deep-seated psychological conceptions of ourselves. Where the theologian sees the creation of the first aspect of man as a spiritual act, the psychologist sees instead that part of man which, driven by evolution, seeks to survive and procreate, necessitating mastering its environment.

This is what Richard Dawkins thinks man is. A “gene lifeboat”, just struggling to survive and carry on.

Man as a uniquely human being performs the Kierkegaardian “mysterious floating” in the great depths from which God is called forth in the expression of the Psalmist. What’s that supposed to mean? Simply that Adam throws himself into the potential abyss of lack of truth to reach truth. He renounces evidence and turns to the unknown for the authority to back up what he truly believes. He performs the infinite movements of faith and resignation which Kierkegaard wrote odes to and reaches for God. But in the height of Adam’s success in becoming that which he has strived to become for so long he reaches the depths of theological despair.

He realises that he has become a silent watcher. He has separated himself from his environment as noted above, but he has no companion with which to communicate. He conceives of himself in this state as nothing other than a Sartrean “nothing” at the heart of his being. He is a being of pure philosophy, just ideas and the void. Hegel’s man.

And therein lies the root of man’s search for meaning, and also the most fundamental clue that this theological approach lends us as to what the results are of a lack of meaning. Man’s yearning to be understood manifests itself in a craving for a companionship with whom he may communicate and thereby alleviate this ontological insecurity. We want a friend. A “you”.

The second part of man is analogous to the more sensitive parts of man. The bits that set us aside from animals, as the Enlightenment thinkers (tried to) argue. These bits are the bits that seek meaning. Our reasonable, rational parts. Political liberals tend to be really keen on these bits.

With meaning, the individual conceives of his life as worth living and his actions as worth undertaking. Camus said that the meaning of life is what is stopping you from killing yourself right now. That’s the meaning of life -- you think that it’s worth living your life.

The transcendental is analogous to the infinite, and the teleological is analogous to the religious mission. Scary sentence, but all it really means is that God = the stuff we don’t yet understand, or that we can’t talk about properly. Teleological just means what we think our purpose is. If I talk about something in the “teleological sphere” I’m talking about stuff that it is my purpose to do. Similarly, the ways I think about my purpose are the ways that I’ll think about religious missions.

Whether God exists or not, man’s human nature drives him to seek axiological security. We may call this meaning. Man’s teleology rests on finding a solution to this problem at the core of his being. When man became rational, became fully selfconscious of his uniqueness and the exclusivity intrinsic to him, no longer able to find simple refuge in materialistic triumphs.

Our human nature, in other words, pokes through the gauze that our animal nature lays over our insecurities. We become powerful and strong within utilitarian communities, but in the midst of all this togetherness our human nature craves the deep ontological comfort which communication with another being who truly understands it. Once we are human, we cannot go back. Being-for-itself is a one-way street.

The two Adams conceive of community in wholly different manners. Man as animal considers community a tool, a means to an end. Uncaring nature forces him to undertake many tasks which he cannot do by himself, and so he creates fellowship with his “functional partners” to specialise in work, to organise societies and to construct great edifices.

The second Adam, the uniquely human Adam, conceives of community in a substantially different manner. Because man as rational being is teleologically inclined toward seeking a redeemed life, rather than simply a dignified one, he seeks a mode of being rather than simply the dominion over nature that the first Adam seeks. He wants to live a certain way, not just do a certain thing.

The Jewish thinker Joseph Soloveitchik pointed out that “redemption is experienced in...one’s in-depth personality” - that it creates a feeling of “axiological security”. We want to be told that we matter. That we’re doing the right thing. That we have some purpose. As opposed to what? As opposed to the ontological anguish that results from teleological insecurity. If we’re not sure what our purpose is, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We’re seeking a kind of way of living, but we don’t know what that way of living is!

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One more thing. Conceiving of oneself as “I” - the Cartesian cogito - intrinsically forces oneself into an existence which partakes of the “second Adam” - the human part of oneself. The question that our human parts ask the cosmos - “Why?” - has at its core this ontological anguish. We yearn for the transcendental, in short. We are trying to find objectivity in a world where we just can’t get to it.

The religious man will tell you that we yearn to be closer to God. But God is dead, says Nietzsche. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist. That means that we’ve exiled him from the world.

Kierkegaard was uncomfortably close to this, and with Nietzsche and modernity, Adam as animal has set aside the problem of immanence and transcendence. The assertions of the mystics that God is to be found in the tumbling leaves of the field doesn’t work anymore.

We don’t need God. Well, we might. What we really need is what God represents for us, which is axiological security. We want

The Underpass -Philosophy- 2019 - 2020

something to assure us that we’re thinking along the right lines.

If God exists, great! Problem solved. But if He doesn’t, there’s a pretty big problem.

We have already established that this transcendental yearning (as I will term it) is a function of Adam the second’s influence upon man’s personality. The tugging at our shirt-tails that says that we want something more out of life. But when we seek out that meaning in a life where we have eroded away the absolutist pillars of that metaphysical action we forfeit all of the redemptive properties of embracing the transcendental within community.

Hegel’s man cannot get the world back. Kierkegaard can, because he’s still in the world. But Hegel’s man is too far gone. The movement of recoil isn’t possible. There’s no ground left.

When we “relativize” our meaning-oriented action in this manner, we sink back into the pit of lonely “I”-ness. No tether in the waters where we hope to find God, and no way back to dry land. Our ontological loneliness creates a world within which Adam the second, trapped in his ontological loneliness with no recourse, despairs and turns away from the world as a means of finding metaphysical fellowship. Adam the first takes over, and we begin engaging in community as a means of nothing other than conquering the skies. We build spaceships and soar into space. But when he is soaring amongst the stars man still cannot subjugate the urges of that peculiar part of himself that still asks the awkward question “Why?”. Camus is back. Why do I do this?

More importantly, though, am I doing the right thing? Is it right of me to soar into the stars when below on the ground people are hurting?

To answer that question, man abstracts his thought beyond the point where “the relation that abstraction still continually

has to that from which it abstracts.” Adam 1 tries to get back to philosophy to solve his problems. All of the knowledge he thinks he derives from these abstractions reduces itself to philosophizing and wherever man believes he has a hold on the truth it slips away from under him, cut away by another clever sophistry or semantic quibble. That is the real character of the conflict. To ignore the conflict, we make our thought ever more abstract. Clever synthesis, antithesis, and so on swirl around our head, but - oops! - we lost sight of what really mattered.

Axiological security.

The ontological question (“Who am I?”) has an answer that lies in Kierkegaard’s question. “Who am I?” is the question that we answer in our quest to be an individual. When I know who I am, I have become an individual. Kierkegaard is vindicated. My life has had a purpose. I have become a real human.

But the science-minded facet of our being can’t answer this question. It won’t. Instead, it hides it away behind philosophizing and Hegelian tricks. A search for meaning in a world where we have cut our only means of obtaining it away from ourselves leads nowhere but despair. Not just despair, but eternal despair.

Kierkegaard said that this despair was such that we were forever chained to our conflict in despair. Not in heaven or in hell, but that we are eternally within our own minds stuck in a conflict that philosophy just doesn’t solve.

We become shut up in the loneliness our separation from animals placed us within, like Saul Bellow’s Moses Herzog, scribbling missives to the metaphysical companions we will never reach.

Why you shouldn’t be scared of War and Peace Ha-Anh Le (Year 7)

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olstoy said War and Peace is “not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle.” Nevertheless, most people have heard of War and Peace, and know it’s reputation as a repulsively long, repulsively difficult, Russian novel.

War The book has two main topics, the French invasion of Russia in Napolean’s era (War) and the aristocratic society of counts and countesses and their love lives (Peace). In the chapters that focus on the first topic, Tolstoy tends to describe the battles (Austerlitz, Borodino) in meticulous detail and the characters of Napoleon and Kutuzov (the Russian army leader) play very important roles, with the lesser leaders (Bagration, de Tolli, Davoux) also getting enough attention to build a complete and interesting story. In my opinion, Tolstoy is a historian, an author, and a philosopher all at the same time. This is proved by his accurate knowledge of the Crimean War, and the chapters he spends wondering about life and why bees exist. and Peace The second topic was much more extravagant. I have never before read any book that developed its characters so well although, at first all the names were beyond confusing. Pierre could be known as Pyotr, Natasha’s mother is called Natalya and there about 3 Nikolays. Or maybe 2. No, there were 3. However, once you have mastered the names (there is a rather helpful character list near the end of the book) you grow to love them. The world is seen through their eyes. If I were asked which character I liked best I probably wouldn’t be able to decide. In Russian, the book’s name is “Voina i mir”, which may mean “War and peace” but may also mean “War and society”, since “peace” and “society” are homonyms in Russian. There are differences of opinion as to which Tolstoy actually meant when he titled the book. Personally, I firmly believe that the “War and society” title is more correct. Tolstoy places a lot of emphasis on society in the book.

Why people are afraid Tolstoy has an irritating habit of droning on in ridiculous detail about something. For example, when Pierre sees Natasha again. ‘’Pierre glanced at the pale, thin face of her companion, with its black eyes and strange mouth. Something very dear to him, long forgotten and more than just pleasant gazed at him out of those carefully watching eyes.

‘No, it’s not possible,’ he thought, ‘That grim-looking face, all thin and pale and so much older than it was. It can’t be her. It’s somebody who reminds me of her,’ But at that moment Princess Marya said,’Natasha!’ And painfully, with all the strain of a rusty door opening, that carefully watching face smiled at him and as the door opened, Pierre was suddenly overwhelmed by a heady sensation of happiness, long forgotten. His head swam as the feeling enveloped his whole being. That smile of hers had left him in no doubt. It was Natasha and he loved her.’’

Oh, thank God, FINALLY!!!

This is why people tense up at the thought of reading this novel. Don’t worry - you will learn to appreciate the details.

Overall, War and Peace was a brilliant read, and I recommend it to anyone with patience. It took me two whole months to finish but was definitely worthwhile. Good luck finishing it if you are reading it now!

The Underpass -Literature- 2019 - 2020

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The Dangers of the Male Gaze

Ariana Rubio

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ritish feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey (1941present) coined the term ‘male gaze theory’ in her 1975 essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’.

Currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London, her essay helped create a psychoanalytic framework of film theory, drawing heavily on the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, with severe implications for the ethics of filmmaking.

In a nutshell, male gaze theory is the idea that, in visual arts and literature, women are depicted solely as sexual objects for the gratification of a heterosexual male audience. In film, this manifests itself in three distinct perspectives: that of the director, that of the male characters and that of the spectator. The theory is related to the acts of voyeurism (scopophilia in Freudian terminology) and narcissism. Such phallocentrism results in the denial of female agency and identity, dehumanising women to objects valued solely on the basis of sex appeal.

Indeed, the dichotomy between the act of looking (which is active) and the status of being looked at (which is passive) reinforces harmful gender stereotypes, perpetuating the very ideology which permits female objectification.

Due to the pervasive nature of male gaze theory, most everyone is familiar with the classic literary and cinematic tropes, perhaps the most notorious of which is the ‘damsel in distress’. This archetypal character has been featured since antiquity: take, for example, the ancient Greek figure Andromeda. More recent examples include Buttercup from the Princess Bride, Snow White, Princess Leia (think the iconic gold bikini scene from ‘Return of the Jedi’) and Bella from Twilight.

Mulvey posits sexual inequality as cause of such asymmetrical representation of the sexes. As of 2018, women comprise fewer than 20% of all directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers of the top 250 domestic grossing films. This inequality is consequently reflected in casting: while only 35% of films featured ten or more female characters with speaking roles, 82% had ten or more male characters with speaking roles. If women were afforded the same opportunities as men, if, as feminist writer Virginia Woolf wrote in her 1929 seminal essay ‘A Room of One’s Own’, the world confronted women not with downright ‘hostility’ but mere ‘indifference’ as it does men, perhaps this inequality would be erased.

Indeed, Mulvey goes so far as to suggest that the male gaze is nothing more than a social construct derived from the patriarchal ideology that permeates Western culture.

To look at a specific case study, male gaze theory is particularly pertinent to the 2013 French film ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’. Film critic Justin Chang wrote that the film contains ‘the most explosively graphic lesbian sex scenes in recent memory.’ Following the film’s release, it was leaked that one six minute sex scene took six hours to film. Indeed, actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and

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Léa Seydoux subsequently spoke out against director Abdellatif Kechiche’s techniques, saying that they felt like ‘prostitutes’. Author Julie Maroh, on whose graphic novel of the same name the film was based, was among the harshest critics, saying ‘It appears to me this was what was missing on the set: lesbians.’ That is to say, even in an explicitly LGBT+ film catered to a queer audience, the pressures of male gaze theory seeped through. Equally interesting to note, perhaps, is that the film was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival by the almost exclusively male official jury, presided over by Stephen Spielberg.

In addition to the obvious degrading effects on actresses, literature and films that cater to the male gaze propagate damaging gender stereotypes, create warped perceptions of sex and relationships and make young girls believe that their only value is sexual. First and foremost, it results in fundamentally unrealistic body expectations that are both unhealthy and, thanks to visual editing, simply unattainable. This can lead to eating disorders, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, it has led to the hypersexualisation of young girls. While it is important for women to express their own sexuality should they so desire, societal pressures on young girls to be sexually appealing be revoked simply because they promote objectification. Representation is so important, and when female role models serve solely as sexual side plots, it dissuades young women from potentially pursuing their (traditionally) gender non-conforming interests.

From this, it is clear that the film industry is in dire need of change: the only way forward is education. Boys must be taught that they are not at a licence to sexually objectify women; girls must be taught that they do not exist solely for male pleasure and can pursue precisely the same careers as their male counterparts. Then, and only then, when women have equal access and opportunity to assume positions of power, will the world see muchneeded accurate, inoffensive representation of the sexes.

That said, it isn’t all gloomy: some films have adapted to reflect the growing societal cognisance of the detriments of the male gaze. Daphne from Scooby Doo is fondly remembered as a spunky feminist heroine. Her gem of a line ’I’ve had it with this damsel in distress thing!’ is especially relevant. Moana, the Disney heroine, deliberately did not have a romantic interest. With regards to literature, second wave feminist Angela Carter subverted traditional gender stereotypes in her 1971 collection of short stories ‘The Bloody Chamber’. Through employing a first-person female narrative as opposed to the traditional omniscient narrative of fairy tales that presents a patriarchal viewpoint as objective fact, Carter deliberately combatted the male gaze. While such achievements must be celebrated, the fact remains that the majority of filmmakers cater to a heteronormative, androcentric population. And that needs to change.

The Underpass -Commentary- 2019 - 2020

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allagher has also released a spine tingling, foot stomping album called ‘Why Me Why Not?’, and also has just had a collaboration with Adidas Spezial. The British people either love or hate him, but his current image is slowly turning heads through his unquestionable charisma, quick wit, award winning music and his warm heart, which you get an insight into in this new film.

Neither of my parents were huge Oasis fans in the 90s but from seeing him at the Isle of Wight festival in the summer of 2018, he had their heads spinning. My dad got into the music and my mum was sick of it blasting through our speakers everyday. However, after watching ‘As it Was’ my mum has a new found obsession with the parka wearing, ‘God Like Genius’ and cannot stop listening to ‘Bold’ from his first solo album.

Although ‘Supersonic’, a documentary released in 2016 with unseen clips and a look at the birth and life of Oasis was released, ‘As It Was’ mostly skips over the Oasis story and throws you into the deep end of the creation of Beady Eye. Beady Eye was a band formed by Gallagher with other Oasis members (of course not Noel), and saw the likes of Gem Archer and Bonehead (Paul Arthurs). In my opinion, and in many other fans’ opinions Beady Eye was a great band, but sadly they did not manage to take off to the size that Liam currently is . As the documentary states, it may have been too soon after Oasis and people needed a break from the rock and roll stars.

Throughout the film we hear accounts from different people close to Liam and it takes us through his life away from the cameras, which gives the viewer a new outlook on him as a person.

Further, Liam describes the lows, vulnerability of mental health problems from being away from the music and going through a tough divorce which makes him a great role model to other men to be open about this as a wider issue. Furthermore, Liam shows himself to be a great husband to his wife Debbie Gwyther, and a close and loving father to his three children: Mollie, Lennon and Gene. However, some tabloids and broadsheets did not seem to find the documentary all that good… It was described as a ‘shallow PR exercise for his super fans only’ – The Telegraph, and ‘Yawn’ – The Observer. But, in Gallagher style he shrugs them off and said in a recent interview, “apparently all the posh folk are up in arms about it and they’re having none of it… But thank god they’re not having it, it just means that I’m doing something wrong if they’re having it.”

As It Was Between a GCSE Geography and Maths Exam

Luc Mondon-Ballantyne

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he wayward, tantalizing ex-Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher (LG) which you either love or hate has just released his documentary film called ‘As It Was’, mirroring the name of his first solo album ‘As You Were’ and his famous catchphrase ‘LG, As you were x’. Having just sat my GCSE maths exam and waiting for my final exam, I went to watch this smashing documentary film with my parents, and it took my mind off all the stresses… so hats off to Liam.

Moreover, it shows Liam in and out of the studio recording his first solo album where he seems high on life (unlike his highs in the early 90s…) and fully in control of what is going on, unlike how it once was with Noel Gallagher when he ran the operation in Oasis. Liam then went onto perform at Glastonbury in 2017 not as a headliner, but as an afternoon slot. To Liam’s surprise the reception was absolutely huge! The crowd stretched back as far the eye could see, with people aged from 13 to 60. Further, Liam moved into the headliner position at Glastonbury this summer with an even better reception than 2017. This proves that Liam’s multigenerational music is unlike other artists and spreads out through many different generations making him such a huge, loveable character.

In recent weeks Gallagher has done a ‘73 Questions with Vogue’, been a warm up act on tour for the rock band The Who in the US and has been on many talk shows such as Jimmy Fallon, Jools Holland and has refused to do a ‘Carpool Karaoke’ with James Corden as he believes that James is a “stupid kno****d”. In recent days of writing this he has won the MTV award for ‘Rock Icon’, and in Liam’s brilliant fashion accepted the award by saying “I want to congratulate MTV for recognising by brilliance”. Finally, another recommendation is his MTV Unplugged performance of his new album accompanied by many Oasis hits and songs from As You Were. Everything from this performance is clearly so well choreographed from the lights, orchestra, choir singers, stage presence, his lead guitarists who worryingly look alot like Noel and much more.

When walking out of the documentary with my shoulder’s leant back, feat slightly open, arms swinging by my side in Gallagher’s fashion my love grew for Liam even more. Despite what the papers say this documentary sent shivers down my spine and I look forward to seeing how much more this God like genius, rock and roll star can grow. The documentary also proves to the viewer that this comeback is absolutely biblical. If you have not listened to Oasis or Liam Gallagher, I would definitely recommend it as a taste breaker. So, keep your eyes peeled on his amusing Twitter, Instagram and upcoming gigs and hopefully his popularity breakthrough in the US.

Mister Speaker: The Strange Beauty of Debating “Mister Speaker,” I began. The year was 2012. The venue was the main hall of Latymer Upper School. And I, at the tender age of 9, was standing behind a podium which was far too tall for me, atop a chair. efore me were a few sheets of paper upon which I had B scribbled illegibly. There were about 100 people in the hall. Most of them I didn’t know. But I did know the

person who was sitting on a bench behind me — my best friend. And I felt that I was about to know the six other people who were also on the stage.

You see, I was about to debate whether or not boxing should be banned in the United Kingdom. I was in the final of the DebateMate junior competition. The only problem was that I knew nothing about boxing. I also knew very little about debating. I had picked the hobby up the previous year — and like all 9 year olds, I thought I was superb at it. By virtue of slamming the table and shouting loudly about Hitler and authoritarianism I had managed to fluke my way through the competition thus far.

But there I was, ready to give a five minute speech about boxing to a hall full of more people than I had ever spoken in front of in my entire life.

The first speech in a debate is called the Prime Minister’s speech. If you are speaking from that position, your goal is to set out the debate as a whole. I was the Prime Minister here. I had allowed myself the brief conceit that the debate would be dictated by me and on my terms. My task was to define terms of the topic, and explain how my side’s arguments were going to solve a problem.

You have 15 minutes of preparation time. From the second the motion is revealed on a large projector screen to the second the Prime Minister says “Mister Speaker”. And you think “Surely that’s not possible?”. But it is. And you do it.

A world champion debater once described debating as an event where you give up your Saturdays and Sundays to go to a university which you won’t attend to shout at top speed at people you don’t know about a subject you know nothing about. I concur wholeheartedly. And yet, we still do it. We still practice motion after motion after school, listening to lectures on analysis and juries and feminism and national security. Why? I see my 9 year old self now, standing behind that podium. I can see him falter for a few seconds, while he tries to decipher the hieroglyphics that he’s scrawled. And then the hieroglyphics turn into thoughts, words, sentences. “Bnxmn -> vlnmce cltere” resolves itself into a strong first point about the normalisation of violence. “Today I will make two points. First,” he continues with a rapidly spreading grin. And he’s off.

I didn’t win that competition. I came second. It was perhaps the bitterest disappointment of my young life so far. Therein, though, lies the reason why we debate. The adrenaline rush of thinking fast, of speaking fast and of arguing fast is perhaps the purest intellectual pleasure that exists. Even if you don’t win.

There is something in competitive debate called a “Point of Information”. You may at certain times during the speech of another stand up and announce that you wish to perform an interlocution upon their speech. They are free to accept or

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Alex Miller

reject you as they please. The very first time you are giving a speech and somebody else shouts over you it is shocking. The five hundredth time it is simply routine. Dismissing them with an imperious wave of the hand has become a matter of course — and a secret source of pleasure.

This is true of all things, of course — you become better at them over time. But not in the same way that you get better at debate.

You see, the best debaters in the world don’t think of genius new points. Nobody is going to solve climate change or racism in fifteen minutes of prep time. They just take the simplest points, the most obvious points, the most intuitively powerful points, and they explain them very well and very clearly. So becoming better at debating does involve to some extent being able to take into account the foibles and quirks of “the game”. But it also involves being analytically rigorous. Alex Wright, the current debate captain, compares making a debate speech to speaking an essay out loud. In some ways, this is exactly true.

And so when you become a better debater you also become a better student. For every analytic link you rip apart in rebuttal, you pick up an extra mark on that History essay. For every mechanism you analyse properly, the lock of Politics exams is picked. Every time you stand up and start with an analogy, Economics becomes just a little easier. But debate doesn’t feel like study, because it isn’t. What it is is a clash of the fastest wits in the country over a multitude of topics. And because we do it so much, we are really quite good at it. And we get good at it fast.

When I look at the current Year 9s on the squad, I am terrified.

Terrified because if I had been that good in Year 9 then I would be much better now.

At Latymer Upper, debating has been overlooked for a while. We used to have a very strong team – even a few Team GB debaters.

But over the years it shrunk and shrunk, until when I was in year 10 debating consisted of what felt like furtive meetings in the languages building once a week. Last year, though, something changed. We had an inertia shift. We went from single digits to double digit attendance. Practice was now twice a week, with two coaches – one of them a champion. And we are all the richer for it.

Debating at Latymer has a very real chance of becoming as good as St. Paul’s Girls, or Eton, or Westminster, or Dulwich. We already regularly beat teams from those vaunted institutions in competition. Latymer could become one of those teams that people groan when they are drawn against. But we need people to help. You see, the lifeblood of any debate team is the younger ones. Latymer is, as I write this, the champion of the London Junior Debating league for some six years running. So if you attend Junior Freston or Middle Freston, or if you’re even vaguely interested in debating, come along.

I can guarantee that you will certainly become a better debater for it, and most likely a better student. Because being a debater will make you better at argument. You don’t have to be a genius, or good at public speaking, or even particularly confident. All you have to be is curious and willing to learn.

As I write this, I am preparing for what will be the last competition of my school year. By the time you read this, it will have already happened. But I can tell you now what will happen in each and every round of that tournament. I will stand up in front of the dispatch box in the Oxford Union’s debating chamber, now 16, then 9, and say proudly, with a grin on my face – “Mister Speaker.”

The Underpass -School Life- 2019 - 2020

The Search for the Necessary Marko Trandafilovski We all constantly search for the ‘way’ whereby we ought to live our lives, whether or not we realise it.

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ur conceptions of it may be inconsequential, as with a devotion to kindness, manifested (perchance) in helping the elderly to cross roads, or they may profoundly affect multitudinous others, as with Adolf Hitler, whose actions cut a lasting scar into Europe’s face.

The literary artist, who through the creation of deeply personal and reflective works inadvertently or intentionally advises his reader on how to live, also has his conception. And it is the search for that abiding principle, that essential thing, which is often what gives a work its lasting power. Charles Dickens very deliberately provides such advice in Hard Times (1854), hoping to indelibly convince his reader of the ineluctable importance of imagination. Other authors also dramatise the quest for the way one should live, two of whom we shall discuss below.

James Joyce’s Modernist bildungsroman, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), is the embodiment of this quest.

Joyce’s second book of fiction follows the life of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, from a tender age to young adulthood, when he banishes himself to the Continent from his home city of Dublin. As Stephen matures, his search for ‘the way’ begins in earnest. Joyce employs free indirect style to depict Stephen’s mental development as he ages, starting with a child’s isolated ideas and the quick, broken progression between them, as if each thought is a will o’the wisp, and his prose matures as the novel proceeds; as Stephen ages, he experiences varying conceptions of ‘the way’. The first is hedonism, punctuated with frequent visits to brothels; this, however, results in a ‘cold lucid indifference’ in Stephen, his term for an aimless and unfulfilling existence. A lecture, given by the jesuit Father Arnall, and bursting with hyperbolic descriptions of the abject terror to which the damned are subjected to (the assertion that, in hell, ‘“‘the blood seethes and boils in the veins, the brains are boiling in the skull”’ frightens Stephen greatly, having been raised by figures such as the Roman Catholic nurse ‘Dante’), gives him the initiative to begin his quest anew; to find a new ‘way’ — zealous piety. ‘His daily life was laid out in devotional areas’, Joyce writes, and, ‘on each of the seven days

he further prayed that one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost might descend upon his soul.’ Alas, not even Grace is sufficient for Stephen to escape the sense that something eludes him. When asked to join the priestly order, he sees only ‘a mirthless mask reflecting...sunken day’: his emptiness — the ‘mask’ he wears —cannot be excoriated with holy fire. Stephen ultimately chooses literary enlightenment as his ‘way’, becoming a poet, and rises above the clamour of other magnets of devotion (such as Irish nationalism) which attempt to seduce him.

The novel’s ultimate moral, however, is paradoxical: that the artist has no applied way, no constraint to any direction of action. Stephen feels that ‘his destiny was to be elusive of social or religious orders’.

He thus does not write for the same reasons as, for instance, a charity worker helps others: the latter forces himself to do as he does as he believes it good to help others. But Stephen does not push himself in any direction: his own creativity guides itself. In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Oscar Wilde proposes that the form that any creative manifestation takes is merely incidental; it is the joy in forging it which makes it truly great.

The thread of ‘feeling’ (originality, earnestness, absorption in creation) runs through every masterpiece, and as such, ‘every portrait painted...is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter’.

Lyric poetry may also reach such conclusions, but in a fittingly paradoxical way, for universal epiphanies are attained through mundane means.

Whilst The Kraken (1830), by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, does not approach the search for the ‘way’ directly, a shift is discernible from one conception of it to another if one ‘reads between the lines’.. Tennyson wrote at a time of great advancement in the Natural Sciences: the century of The Kraken’s publication saw the release of On the Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin, and, in closer proximity to Tennyson’s early compositions, the simplification of the revolutionary works of James Hutton by Charles Lyell, popularising the theory of uniformitarianism. Tennyson, brought up in a traditionally Christian household, would have held according beliefs — these new scientific principles, which were so subversive of them, may well have brought about a shift in his own conception of the way: not away from religion entirely, but rather toward a more abstruse understanding of God (a ‘“Pantheism of a sort”’, stemming from

Spinoza and Bruno).

The Kraken seems almost crafted to confuse the reader, inducing a profound sense of the alien. The deliberate syntactic inversion, placing the verb last in the sentence and the object first, as in ‘His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep/the Kraken sleepeth…’ , as well as Tennyson’s use of inconceivably gargantuan proportions, as illustrated by his stretching of the sonnet’s fourteen lines to fifteen, and use of negative space to emphasise the indescribability of the Kraken’s girth (he never once delineates its proportions; only those, for instance, of the ‘unnumbered and enormous polypi’ that ‘winnow’ it), both contribute to the reader’s unearthly impression. The beast’s strangest trait, however, must be its æonic torpour — it awakes only to die during the Last Judgement — which seems incongruous when juxtaposed with its unmatchable girth. Such an unnatural thing sends shivers up one’s spine.

Perhaps this is all merely in the spirit of artistic accomplishment, but could one not ascribe the Kraken’s inversive nature (a massive beast which ceases sleep only to die) to the metamorphosis of Tennyson’s own beliefs? This poem, then, is a manifestation of his own uncertainty in an era of change — and for him, a change of his conception of the ‘way’.

There are many other instances of the all-important quest in literature.

Their abundance cannot be surprising.

The question of the reason for existence — our purpose in life — is not merely artistic, but fundamental to all humanity. Its answering is an individual experience; it can, though, be tremendously enlightening to read the works of those pondering the process.

Ultimately, however, there is no one cause to which one should devote one’s life; as Stephen says himself of life in Ireland, ‘When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.’ Giving one’s life away for the fulfilment of external causes — the ‘nets’ of which Joyce speaks — is foolish if doing so will prevent one from internal fulfilment, from finding one’s own path or vocation. Keats spoke of it in his definition of ‘negative capability’: the works of the truly great ‘Man of Achievement’ are not clouded or obstructed by any attempt to adhere to an accepted principle, or to draw attention to something one perceives to be unjust.

Thus, an artist must let his creative spirit guide him whithersoever it will: write for no reason other than his own infinite bliss in doing so.

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The Art of Hayao Miyazaki’s Films Sasha Kolobov

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or Japanese animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, each movie he creates is a work of surreal art; an entry into a new fantastic world with eccentric, unconventional characters that render Miyazaki’s films as some of the greatest anime masterpieces to have graced the film industry. His eleven feature films, including worldwide hits My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, have redefined animation and brought Japanese anime to mainstream audiences globally; with each film evoking a powerful emotive response within audiences.

The fascinating aspect of Miyazaki’s works is that instead of animation’s standard cardboard villains and knights in shining armour, his works feature complex lead characters - in Spirited Away, the heroine, Chihiro, starts out as a sullen frightened child, while its monster No-Face evolves from a timid, needy spirit.

This complexity of the human condition was not common in the industry when Miyazaki first started out in the 1960s and to this day, the tradition of this genre, especially in the West, is to talk down to its young audience and simplify themes to the point where a story becomes a black-and-white lesson of good vs evil morality. However, the underscore of several of Miyazaki’s films is a quest to transform people and the self, motivated by his own empowering belief that people can change. Hence, his protagonists and heroes have major moral flaws and his antagonists, major virtues enabling audiences to associate to characters regardless of which “side” they’re on. Thus this promotes an environment where empathy can flourish, teaching his audiences that compassion and love have the ability to change people and the world.

Miyazaki’s out-of-this-world characters like the goldfish-whoturned-into-a-girl who loves to eat ham (Ponyo, 2008), the Great Forest Spirit (from Princess Mononoke), or No-Face (from Spirited Away) are also what gives his films such a refreshing, charming appeal. Bizarre at first encounter, Miyazaki shines humanity on his characters that makes it simple for viewers to relate to. Despite the often fantastical settings his characters find themselves in, they encounter life the way we all do - we perform tedious jobs (Chihiro scrubbing the baths in Spirited Away), we wait (Mei and Satsuki waiting for the bus with Totoro in My Neighbor Totoro), and we diligently make meals (Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle).

The key to his realism, however, is not in the actions displayed on screen, but the way in which they are depicted, complete with attention to detail and human idiosyncrasies. It makes his characters complex, unique, particular - human. Not only does Miyazaki produce strong protagonists, but viewers also get delight from the strange quirkiness of amusing things that happen in the background - the soot sprites in Spirited Away and the strange ghostly spirits in Princess Mononoke, to name a few examples.

Moreover, it is not just the complexity of his eccentric characters he is known for, but also for his powerful female lead characters, partially inspired by the close relationship with his late mother.

While young heroines known as shoujo are common in Japanese animation, unlike others, his girls are neither infantilised nor sexualised. His films are a testament to women’s strength and action: as Miyazaki puts it: “Many of my movies have strong female leads, brave, selfsufficient girls that don’t think twice about fighting for what they believe in with all their heart. They’ll need a friend or a

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supporter, but never a saviour. Any woman is just as capable of being a hero as a man”.

This representation of women as strong and able from a country that recently banned women from wearing glasses at work to avoid looking “cold” and “unfeminine” makes Miyazaki’s characters like Son from Princess Mononoke (a fierce warrior raised by giant wolves) a great role model for young children growing up.

In addition to this, if you noticed, every film by Miyazaki is distinct from each other and yet they all have something in common - his brilliantly exquisite imagined worlds. Miyazaki never fails to lead his viewers to a world no one would have thought existed. They are surreal yet precise, fully developed, and captivating. Entering one of his worlds (like the floating island, Laputa, in Castle in the Sky), makes the audience yearn for more.

As a child, Miyazaki had to escape his town of Utsunomiya between the firebomb raids of World War II. Growing up in postwar Japan, he observed firsthand its accelerated modernisation and urban rise. These experiences made a lasting response on Miyazaki who pushed anti-war and pro-environmental messages in his films, which were rare when he first began in the industry. Despite the fact that Miyazaki’s films are profoundly fictional, these recurring themes establish real-life hardships and experiences that affect all ages. For example, in Howl’s Moving Castle, Howl learned how to be selfless and ended up sacrificing himself for others. While Sophie, on the other hand, was transformed into an old woman in order for her to overcome her negative self-image. These examples shine as an example of Miyazaki’s exceptional, peculiar and unusual works of art.

Finally, Miyazaki is truly an artist in terms of his attention to detail and realism. He is a scholar of human emotion, observing small details, and making bodies and movement look natural.

Kids have round bellies, girls aren’t always proper, beauty isn’t everything, some people run oddly and grandmas aren’t boring.

This refreshing originality and realism takes Miyazaki’s films to the next level. His unique, original style and incredible talent have changed the game for animation by proving that “cartoons” aren’t just for children - they can be timeless and memorable treasures. Hence, his marriage of animation and genuine themes to create his own, beautifully individual world prove him a master of the craft.

Not to mention, Miyazaki champions the labouring handdrawn school of animation, setting standards for artistic quality in today’s film industry. He rarely resorts to computer graphic imagery and in fact, personally draws up to 70 per cent of the individual frames in his movies. Alongside composer Mamoru Fujisawa, a.k.a Joe Hisaishi (a man who deserves an article of his own), his films allow the audience to fully soak up in a moment, to take the time to feel the emotion of a particular scene - thus, he’ll have a character wait at a bus stop, travel on a train or take a moment to reflect by a crackling fire, because even though nothing is happening physically, there’s a lot developing emotionally, and that’s one of the most beautiful aspects of Miyazaki’s films.

If you have 10 minutes to spare I would advise you to watch “Hayao Miyazaki and the Art of Ambivalence | Big Joel” on Youtube, that beautifully encaptures the art of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, or play yourself one of his movies tonight and allow yourself to be soaked up in a moment and enjoy his works of art.

The Underpass -Commentary- 2019 - 2020

Internal Shock Floss Morris

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n 2018, I travelled 10,000 kilometres to Cambodia on a volunteering expedition. As extraordinary as it was, I felt more culture shock on my sponsored cycle ride from Bristol to Lands End to raise money to pay for the trip than I did chopping wood in a Cambodian jungle village. Why is it that I felt more socially disconnected a mere 4 hours from my doorstep than I did halfway across the globe? How did such disparity across Britain come to be, and, most importantly, how can we combat it? This essay will explore some answers to questions I had never previously asked myself, and, at the crux of it, search for reason within the political and social polarisation of Britain that I experienced when cycling through rural England.

Before this bike ride, I would have considered myself quite a well travelled person. Within Britain alone, I had visited the majority of the big cities, camped annually in the southern part of Cornwall and stayed in a house in the Lake District for 16 consecutive years, so when planning the bike route there was never really a moment where I slowed down and researched each individual town. To me it was all just one fluid journey, gradually fading from city to country as the ride progressed. I had no concept of how or why Holsworthy in Devon would differ from Bodmin in Cornwall - it all seemed much of a muchness.

Despite my visits, I had never really experienced Britain outside London. Wherever we went, London would follow us. Every year with the same friends from London, we would go to the same place, bringing fragments of London with us and building an environment in which to live through the London lens until returning to London. Until the cycle ride, I was subconsciously a prisoner of my own home.

In between the long and arduous hours of cycling through the Mendips, over Exmoor, and down the rugged length of Cornwall to the sea, we would stay in a B&B each night in different towns.

Out of all the places we stayed in, Holsworthy stood out most to me as a place furthest from what I knew - what I had previously perceived Britain to be. The first thing I noticed when wheeling my bike through the windswept streets was the array of St. George’s flags hanging limply from each building - a half-hearted reminder of one’s identity. The roads were empty, other than the odd man milling in and out of the pub, and the houses were blank - spare and bare, no signs of life.

In melting-pot West London, there’s no need to hang flags as a reminder of one’s

‘Englishness’ because fortunate Londoners have the power and presence to change the term whenever we like. ‘England, Land of Hope and Glory’: if you are surrounded by prosperity and liberty in a big city, the English Dream resonates - you can live it, breathe it. However, for those dealing with poverty and unemployment, carrying the English flag is a way of getting closer to that definition. But even with the surprising amount of flags, there didn’t seem to be a unified goal between the inhabitants of Holsworthy. Many shops were closing down, buildings stood desolate, scraps of cardboard packaging lay in piles on the sides of the pavement. There was a Tesco and that was it - no chocolate box organic-only farm shops that you associate with prosperous Devon, and I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. My rose-tinted perspective of rural England failed to deliver, and I was left feeling uneasy. Even as the odd one out, it was still confusing to work out which was the alien culture in the equation: Holsworthy or my London background?

Yet the question still remains: why did I feel more culturally accepted a 15 hour plane journey away? The simple answer is that subconsciously I knew Cambodia. Sure, I didn’t prepare for wading chest-deep through the jungle, the ache of leech scars, the dehydration and mosquito bites, but I definitely expected it, mainly because it was labelled a ‘life-changing volunteering trip’. Travel is no longer a measure of movement from one place to another; it’s a merit badge one can wear and own: we live off that adrenaline rush. If you can afford to travel, why would you choose to camp for a week in Bodmin over a beach holiday in Tenerife? In my case, my ability to travel abroad actually prevented me from knowing anything about my home country, and as a middle-class teenager living in London, the reality of poverty across Britain had never infiltrated my life.

This, in light of my findings on the cycle trip, is a sharp reminder for me of what the Brexit issue is about - more than anything, Brexit is a fight against being forgotten. At the same time as being a hub of social mobility and a fusion of hundreds of different ways of life, London is a bubble: a fantastically diverse, crazy bubble. It fails consistently not only to embrace, but to acknowledge the rest of England, which is why it was completely necessary for me to get my head out of the sand. 17 years of London life has indeed enriched my cultural appreciation and understanding, however anywhere can be a bubble if you spend enough time in it: I’m sure that teenagers living on the outskirts of Holsworthy feel similarly trapped in their communal mindset, unaware of what or how others outside think. Yes, culture shock is a very specific and personal reaction, and it may feel as if it is nothing more than a reflex against a new situation, but when one really confronts it, it can tell us so much more about our own society and the way we should combat our problems. After all, without culture shock, we learn nothing from one another and society remains stagnant. Give me culture shock over cultural inertia any day.

The Underpass -Commentary- 2019 - 2020

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The Underpass -School Life- 2019 - 2020

South Africa Netball Tour 2019 Dora Pascoe

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aybe it was the feeling of missing Founder’s Day, or the fact that we were about to travel to South Africa for a fortnight of sport, sun and safari, but right from that first day each one of us knew that this tour would be one of our most valuable Latymer experiences yet.

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n the 16th October at 2.30pm, 35 of us slipped out of lessons and, speakers blasting, we hurried to Heathrow. Although the flight was delayed, to most it just meant more browsing in duty free, and later that evening we were finally on our way to Cape Town.

Fresh from our 13 hours of flying (still with speakers blasting) we arrived at the beach and waddled across the sand in our wetsuits, ready for the first activity; surfing. Crashing into the year below proved a great bonding experience, and I’m sure they felt the same. When we left that beach for dinner, it was clear that this group was going to get along.

Our first full day was spent travelling up Table Mountain, with an intense pro coaching session and a competitive match - but only after we’d exhausted the complimentary breakfast buffet.

When we arrived at the top the view was unlike any of us imagined (a few selfies were taken) and suddenly many decided that this was a place where they wanted to live one day. A training session was next on the itinerary, preparing us well for our first match against Wynberg Girls School. Although Latymer won overall, the scores didn’t matter, and after the game, as with all of our matches, we socialised with the opposing teams, hearing all about their schools and their lives. At this match, after an insane rendition of ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ by ‘Bisexual Bernie’ (as she called herself), we traded hoodies with some and instagrams with others in the hope of keeping in touch.

The next day we experienced Langa Township. Small children gazed at, or ran alongside, our coach, that suddenly felt very big and expensive, as we passed through the township. Just a few steps off the bus and already a young girl, dressed all in pink, clasped onto someone’s shoulders, smiling, pointing and somehow putting tears in most of our eyes. She ran round the group picking who she’d jump on next, and steadily more children gathered until we were walking along, each one of us with a friend on our shoulders and a laughing child swinging our hands. After we were shown their township we experienced the most memorable lunch of the trip at Lindsey’s Cafe. After a speech by Lindsey herself (that we agreed should have been a TED talk) and a dance with the local band, we played our next fixture against girls from the township, and left with the day on replay in our heads.

On Sunday, after a quick Cape Peninsula tour from Boulder’s beach to Chapman’s Peak, and after the purchase of several bucket hats, we had officially completed our tourist duties. We

were now ready for our next adventure at the Goedgedacht Trust. Early the next day we arrived at their farm a few hours away from Cape Town. The team told us of their work with rural communities, and their programmes to help children out of poverty and onto the “path to prosperity”. A visit to the preschool allowed us to meet the children whom our donations were hopefully making a difference to, and later through netball fixtures we met some of the teenagers and adults whom they had helped. The mountainous view from the side of the court was a refreshing contrast to the walls of the sports hall and the A4 that we were used to. We bonded with them through ‘attempted’ obstacle courses and dances that they had taught us (it was the consensus that we should stick to netball). In return we taught them some of our ‘typical’ songs and dances (although the mosh pit to ‘Ladbroke Grove’ confused some of them).

We woke early the next morning, said goodbye to our new friends and set off to Stellenbosch University for our next procoaching session. After 2 hours of intense training, some sweat (and some tears), our play was significantly improved and team members seemed closer than ever before. This was made clear at our next fixtures against Paulus Joubert School and again the next day against Rhenish Girls School. The day was heightened with a tour around Robben Island, and, guided by an ex prisoner, we were shown Nelson Mendela’s cell and the prison where they had been held.

Over the next few days there was vertigo-tinged excitement as we completed zip lines over waterfalls, spotted whales and dolphins from the beach and saw 4 of the ‘Big 5’ on our safari at Aquila Game Reserve. Our final match was against Paarl Girls School - the pressure was on after we realised our match would be live-streamed, with commentary and even retweeted by Mr Goodhew. Although it was the 1st team’s only loss, the fact that there was only a few goals difference when playing national champions was seen as a victory. Each team left the fixture emotional but fulfilled, with the realisation of how far everyone had come since the start of the tour, and how much each team has bonded. After speeches and prizes on the final night, and a last attempt to get the Harveys to rap, it dawned on the group that our South Africa netball tour was almost over. Who knows how it compared to Rugby’s trip to Canada or Hockey’s to Amsterdam, but we knew that this was a special tour that could not have been missed. On the 28th October we arrived back at Heathrow, exhausted, but with more experiences, new friends, new bucket hats and just a bit more of a tan (or sunburn) than we had had before.

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Taiwan Exchange Trip, October 2019 Nathan Frew

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andarin is the world’s most spoken language with approximately 917 million speakers across the world.

There are multiple opportunities for students to enhance their knowledge of the language. There are clubs, speaking competitions and (the most popular option) exchange trips.

This year, Ms Wong, Ms Wu, Mr Palmer, myself and 23 other students were sent on a 13 hour flight to the heart of Asia, Taiwan. The 12 day trip involved a lot of tourism, time spent with our exchange partners and free time in which we were allowed to roam villages individually.

Our trip began in Gatwick Airport, South Terminal at about 9pm. After a 13 hour flight we landed in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 6pm the next day local time. We then took a coach to our hotel in which we would be staying in for the next two nights. That night, we walked around the area for about 30 minutes, gazing at the skyscrapers. It was then that we realised the extreme difference in temperature from England to Taiwan. At about 8 in the evening it was extremely humid with temperatures of about 22 degrees.

The next day we went to the Yehliu Geopark in New Taipei City where we saw honeycomb and mushroom rocks.

On Monday, for the first time ever, Latymerians met with students from Zhongzheng Senior High School. Throughout the school week, we stayed with our exchange partners. In the mornings, we would have lessons with them and in the afternoons we toured around the city, going to museums, villages and night markets. In the evenings, when we returned to our exchange partners’ house, we used our Mandarin skills to communicate with the families who spoke little english. This experience helped us improve our Mandarin as we had to use what we had learnt to make requests or have a conversation with the family.

On Friday, we gave our thanks to the school and began a 3 hour coach ride to the western city of Taichung. In the morning, we went to a paper mill where we were taught by professionals how to make paper in the traditional manner.

Using the paper we made, we then created traditional Chinese artwork. After lunch, we to QingJing Skywalk. The view was amazing. High in the clouds, we were surrounded by mountains.

I think that everyone would agree that Sunday was by far the best day of the entire trip. The day began by a coach journey to an ancient Aboriginal Taiwanese village. This particular village, however, was also a theme park. After the tour of the village, we were allowed to go around the theme park for 4 hours in which we proceeded in riding every roller-coaster in the park. By night time, we were all exhausted (or queasy) from all the rides. On the last Monday, we went on a relaxing boat ride to a small island. That evening we stayed in a very unique village. Xitou Monster Village is located in the mountains and is filled with lots of Japanese origin monsters. The following day, our last, was spent in the Marble Soda Factory where we learnt how to make marble soda ourselves. After that, we left our hotel, packed our luggage, preparing to wake up the next day at 4:40 in the morning.

The experience of the exchange trip is one that will remain with us forever. Not only were we able to improve our Mandarin Vocabulary but we had an opportunity of a lifetime to delve into a new culture. From going to the top of Taiwan’s highest skyscraper (Taipei 101) to venturing through ShiLin Night Market, the experience was one that could never be replaced.

India

Ellie Bell

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uring our half-term, a 31-strong group of motley Latymer students, wrangled into cohesion by Miss Harris, Mr Maxted and Ms Kendall, accompanied by Flooglebinder’s Brad and Bonnie, embarked on a 12-day adventure along India’s golden triangle. Post-nine hour flight sustained with free mini magnums, we arrived tired yet full of excitement at our hotel in New Delhi at 2.45am. Our first day was jam packed with the culture of India, featuring bumpy rickshaw rides, aromatic spice markets and the beautiful architecture of the Qutub Minar Complex. Tired, but amazed by all the new sights and wonders we’d seen, we returned to the hotel for a lovely evening swim lit up by fairy lights.

The next day, after some relaxing 6.30am yoga we set off towards Jaipur, where we would spend the next few days working with students at the I-India school. Jaipur is known as the ‘Pink City’ named fittingly for its pink-red sandstone buildings. Much to Mr Maxted’s delight, we learnt it is also the host of the world’s largest Literature festival. Our first morning in Jaipur featured a visit to the gorgeous Amer Palace, with stunning views over the hills of Jaipur. That evening we visited an I-India project called the Ladli project, where we fawned over necklaces and clothing handmade by the women of the charity, and failed miserably in hula hoop competitions with the children. The next three days were encompassing by teaching, dancing, block-printing, and painting as we spent time at the I-India School. Highlights included a particularly impressive rendition of the Cha cha slide, fortune-teller origami and the whole trip team (including Miss Harris and Miss Kendall at the forefront!) performing a dance to ‘Uptown Funk.’

At the school we were welcomed with an overwhelming warmth and openness. The I-India campaign has spent twenty-seven years working tirelessly to give these children the education

they deserve. It was an honour to be able to spend time with the children and teachers, and certainly an experience we will never forget. One of the main ambassadors of the I-India company, bestowed on us these words ‘The hardest thing to do in this world is to love. To love openly and with the whole of your heart. But once you can do that, that is the most important thing.’

Once we had left the school, an exciting adventure lay ahead of us. The next two days would be spent in Ranthambore National Park, where our hotel was a literal palace, adorned with lights and white marble corridors. The call to get ready for Safari was at 5.30am, but anticipation overtook our sleepiness. On the course of one day we were lucky enough to take two safaris, admiring the amazing nature of the National park from open-top jeeps.

We may not have glimpsed a tiger that day, but we did manage to visit a centre working with Save the Tigers, and the home of DhonkCraft. Here, they explained the issue of the poachers and the dangers that communities take into their own hands.

Through working with these locals, educating them and offering jobs to help fund their livelihoods, locals are realising that they should not be killing these incredible animals.

From here we ventured to Agra and spent the morning’s sunrise in the company of the Taj Mahal. Having explored the majestic temple and Mosques that were built for Mumtaz Mahal, the Mughal emperor’s Shah Jahan’s favourite wife, we headed to the Wildlife SOS Sloth Bear and Elephant Sanctuaries. Here we learnt of the terrible torure endured by these animals for entertainment purposes, but also the wonderful things the charity is doing to help save them and work towards eradicating their use within the Indian tourism industry. Finally we had one last journey back to Dehli where we celebrated Dewali and our last evening together.

The Stranger

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Anastasia Proudnikova, Creative Writing Competition Winner

he sun had not yet risen and the only thing illuminating Havingsham Street was the dreary, dim glow of the lamp post.

It stood in the centre of the village square, scattering its feeble rays across the desolate streets. It was a quiet early morning, only the crisp, parched leaves of that fall betraying the silence of the street; swaying slightly with the whispering breeze, dancing down the cobblestone pavements. The forlorn hoot of an owl from somewhere in the distance, and silence.

Ellie Hawkins shivered as the piercing chill crawled over her skin. She had been feeling uneasy that whole evening, the constant, unwanted dread that something was looming over the village, waiting for the right moment to slither into their lives, had been haunting her.

She wrapped her nightrobe tighter around her trembling body and shuffled over to the window, her teeth shattering like a thousand frozen castanets. The world outside her window was deserted, almost dead to life, completely silent. And yet that eerie feeling remained. She couldn’t quite understand it.

Only that it sent her stomach swirling down the side of a mountain that had no end.

A shadow had appeared at the edge of the pavement. It was the shadow of a tall, thin man - a bowler hat perched upon his head, a long, seemingly worn out trench coat over his shoulders and a single, small suitcase clutched in his hand. The stranger had

arrived with the sunrise - the swirls of rose and lavender had already started splattering like paint across the canvas of the indigo sky.

The stranger walked towards the lamp post, his hand reached out, tracing the Victorian carvings like he was greeting an old friend.

A familiar blur peeked out from behind the clouds, spraying copper hues across the windows of the houses. A shimmering ray of sunlight spilled across the street, drawing the shadows of the houses and shops in the square against the now bright golden ground.

She squinted as a streak of crimson seeped through her window. There was a stranger standing in the middle of the village square and she couldn’t quite understand why. There had never been a stranger in Rickensham before… not after the incident. Ellie frowned as the stranger hugged his suitcase to his chest. This wasn’t right. She could tell something was wrong as soon as his shadow had appeared over the edge of the pavement.

Not once taking her mind off the stranger, she slipped into her shoes and, careful not to make much noise, slid outside.

“Good morning.” Ellie let a polite smile linger over her lips for a moment as the man slowly turned to face her.

“Hello.” A scar ran from above his left eyebrow to the right side of his bottom lip.

His cold grey eyes pierced like daggers as a confusing look glinted through them, a look that was angry, hurt, relieved, and strangely frightened. She managed to swallow the rock

that had at some point become lodged in her throat.

“I… uh, I haven’t seen you here… before, and well, I… I don’t mean to sound rude but… well, you see, we don’t get visitors in Rickensham-” “I don’t intend on staying here.”

“Sorry?”

“I’ll be gone soon. But I must stay until then. When the right time comes, that is.” A sheepish laugh escaped from her lips.

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure you understand.”

“Of-course I understand. I understand more than you think I do.” She shook her head, still smiling ever so slightly.

“No. You can’t stay here.”

“Of-course I can. I have things to do here.

Things to uncover.”

Ellie buried her hands deep in the pockets of her nightrobe.

“Who are you looking for, sir?”

“Ellie Hawkins.”

A mysterious smile spread across her lips as she shook her head.

“I’m afraid she’s dead, sir.” His eyes blazed with a flash of confusion, of shock, as he staggered backwards, his mouth open in disbelief.

Ellie turned to walk back, the houses lined up in ordered yet uncomfortably distorted grey, empty rows.

“We all are,” she whispered.