London Student V.32 Issue 3 by London Student

www.london-student.net VOLUME 32 ISSUE 03 FREE

COMMENT

FEATURES

...and other polemical opinions in our Comment section - pages 9-14

Protests and protestors are increasingly making headlines; we take a look at the different forms they’re now taking pages 18 & 19

“Let’s admit that clubbing can be hell on earth”

COMMUNITY

SPORT

As well as science, entrepreneurship and academia news, our Community editor looks back on the life of Steve Jobs - page 22

Women’s hockey, questions of race in sport, the KCLA games and the close of the Rugby World Cup - pages 29-32

The life of Steve Jobs

The changing face of protest

Encouraging signs for ULU women’s hockey

24 PAGE CULTURE PULL OUT

London Film Festival

Play brings you all the latest reviews, interviews and previews.

Grant: claims of extremism on British university campuses are “over-hyped”

. .

UCL Provost criticises Government’s latest report into extremism on campus Mixed response to Provost’s claims

Writer Hattie Williams News Editor

A lot to think about: Malcolm Grant moved to calm fears over extremism on campus. Photo by Flickr user lamthuyvo

Question Time sparks protests at QMUL

Writer Cathryn Parkes Sub-editor

On Wednesday October 12 an NHS bill, which is strongly opposed by many GPs and healthcare professionals, cleared a crucial hurdle as the House of Lords rejected a bid to delay the proposals for further scrutiny. Furthermore, on Thursday October 13, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) played host to BBC’s ﬂagship politics programme Question Time (QT). Presented by David Dimbleby, his guests in-

UCL Provost Malcolm Grant has said new Government proposals for how universities should look out for extremism on campus are “just stupid”, according to the Evening Standard. Grant was responding to the recent update of Prevent’s latest strategy to counter terrorism at universities, which was unveiled earlier this year. The Home Office describe Prevent as “the strand of the counter-terrorism workstream that aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism”. However, in his interview with the Evening Standard, Grant questioned the strategy’s logic, saying: “It was stupid to say that of those convicted of terrorism offences, more than 30 per cent had been to university, and to suggest that there was a link. “It is simply a reflection of the fact that a large proportion of the population have been to university. There seems to be no evidence of a causal cluded the health secretary Andrew Lansley, Ken Livingstone, Sarah Sands, Dr Phil Hammond, and Mark Li7lewood. As a result of the health secretary’s presence on campus, and in the wake of the delayproposal being rejected, a protest was called. In spite of only 24 hours’ notice being given, approximately 150 people turned up to protest outside of the Queen’s building at 6pm. As most lectures were done for the day

connection between a7endance at university and engagement in religiously inspired violence.” Professor Grant, who chaired the recent UK Universities investigation into extremism and hate speakers, added that the possibility of the alleged ‘underpants bomber’, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, gathering extremist ideas from university is an “over-hyped” issue. “Talk to our Muslim and Jewish students and they will tell you that it is a non-issue: it just doesn't exist,” he added. Whilst generally well-received, Grant’s comments were not welcomed by all organisations. Hasan Afzal, Director of StandforPeace, said: “It’s extraordinary that Malcolm Grant is oblivious to the extremism that germinates right under his nose. Grant has a duty of care to his students, and by failing to recognise the hate preachers on his campus it is clear that Malcolm Grant is failing to protect students from extremism.” “It’s darkly funny,” he continued, “that Grant claims extremism in his university is some sort of ‘made-up’ NHS “Andrew Lansley get protesters out, we know what

you’re all about; cuts, job losses, money for the bosses.”

the campus was quiet and the protest numbers were bolstered by professionals who joined students for the protest. The protest was led by a man who was described by Jonathan Dim-

concept. Let us not forget that the Islamic Society was home to the failed bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab, who was President of the society.” However, an independent inquiry concluded in September 2010 that Abdulmatallab was not radicalised whilst at University. The report found: “There is no evidence to suggest either that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was radicalised while a student at UCL or that conditions at UCL during that time or subsequently are conducive to the radicalisation of students." Similar investigations by MI5 and Scotland Yard also appeared to indicate that Abdulmutallab only became engaged in terrorist activity a6er leaving leaving UCL and coming under the inﬂuence of Anwar alAwlaki. Awlaki was killed in a US strike in Yemen in September. On October 12, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all charges before a US court, including terrorism and a7empted murder. He is currently awaiting sentencing. Continued on p. 5

bleby as ‘ominously’ holding a clipboard and speaking with conviction. Many of the placards read ‘NHS Not for Sale’ and the speakers all compared the idea of ‘competition’ and ‘privatisation’ to the American system, describing many a provocative images of US citizens who could not aﬀord the health care, suffering. Continued on p. 3

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

A message from the editor: launching the London Student Collective

Hello and welcome to the third issue of London Student. I hope that each of you will ﬁnd something informative and entertaining in these pages. An important structural change has also been eﬀected with the publication of this issue: the launch of the London Student Collective operation.

The Collective is a democratic substructure of London Student designed to promote democracy and transparency within the paper and increase the accountability of the editorial board. It will meet regularly, create a discursive space for its members, and have the power to vote on certain issues.

With a similar and successful model in place at The Beaver, the newspaper of the LSE’s Students’ Union, this initiative was initiated by the former London Student editor, Joe Rennison, and carried through by myself. It will ultimately lead to an unprecedented degree of democratisation within London Student and allow all those involved with it to have greater input into its overall direction without inhibiting the editorial independence of the paper or its elected editor.

From this issue onwards, all those who contribute - either through writing, photography, design, editorially or administratively – to the production of 3 issues or more of the paper will automatically become members of the Collective.

The first meeting of the London Student Collective will be held at the end of the present academic year, when a substantial Collective membership has been established. As an interim measure, London Student will hold an Open Assembly at least once per term until then to fulfil the role of the Collective. I hope these measures go some way towards reflecting our commitment to the democratisation of London Student and our ethos of diverse involvement.

Hesham Zakai

twitter.com/london-student

Come along to London Student's Welcome Day to ﬁnd out more about the paper and how you can get involved. When: Friday 28 October, 6pm Where: Malet Suite, ULU Building, Malet Street, London, WC1E Who: Anyone is welcome to a,end, and it’ll be an excellent opportunity to meet the editorial board and socialise with new people. More info: Just email join@londonstudent.net

London Student, Europe’s largest independent student newspaper Editorial team

LONDON STUDENT Malet Street ULU WC1E 7HY 02076 642054 www.london-student.net facebook.com/london-student

London Student Welcome Day

Editor Hesham Zakai editor@london-student.net --

News Editors Hattie Williams Toby Thomas Bassam Gergi news@london-student.net

Comment Editors Rosa Wild Tom Chambers Abubakr Al-shamahi comment@london-student.net Features Editors Amy Bowles Ingrida Kerusauskaite features@london-student.net

Community Editor Victoria Yates community@london-student.net

Science Editors Harriet Jarlett Rachel Mundy science@london-student.net

Academia Editor Valeriya Nefyodova academia@london-student.net Entrepreneurship Editor

Ahmad Bakhiet entrepreneur@london-student.net

Guest reader

London Loves Jessica Broadbent love@london-student.net

Sub Editors Katie Lathan Niki Micklem Ayala Maurer Cathryn Parkes Jonathan Brunton chief.sub@london-student.net --

Art Director Rahim Hakimi design@london-student.net Designer Nathan Clutterbuck

Broadcast Editor Freya Pascall broadcast@london-student.net Libel Checker Caz Parra

Sean Rillo Racza, ULU Vice-President, with his copy of London Student in his office.

Guest Tweeter

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

St. Paul’s under seige as protesters ‘Occupy London’

NHS protesters crash Question Time at QMUL Continued from p. 1

Writers Marienna Pope-Weidemann Bassam Gergi News Editor

The protests hung in the balance for the first 24 hours. A5er the initial surge outside St. Paul’s, last Saturday, the protesters were blocked by columns of police reinforced with horses. In order to resist being dispersed, they quickly dug themselves in on the Cathedral steps. Later that evening, the police attempted to break up the few hundred steadfasts who decided to stay overnight. One London student who asked to remain anonymous told of watching police hit a woman on the first night, and the confiscation of two flag poles which the authorities claimed were clubs. The anxiety of that night seems to have se6led down though as the protests and the protesters enter their second week. Ryan Hickey, a Masters student at the LSE, has camped outside of St. Pauls since Saturday and he shows no sign of giving up. When asked about the possibility of an eventual withdrawal he said, “If the police try to evict us we will fight back, we are not willing to sit back and accept things as they are.” Hickey’s comments reflect a common theme that has manifested in the protesters’ placards, “The IMF is our global Mubarak”, “We are the 99%”, “We can’t feed the poor, but we can fund war?” Clare Solomon of the Coalition of Resistance Steering Commi6ee and ex-ULU President said, “It’s not about what class we’re from, it’s which class we’re fighting for.” Despite the claims of a unified purpose, talking to protesters at the scene, one realizes that each is there for their very own set of reasons. Ben Doran of the London Trinity

Ryan Hickey

“If the police try to evict us we will fight back, we are not willing to sit back and accept things as they are.”

College of Music said that he has been “waiting for something like this for four years.” When asked what it is that has arrived, he said,

“a new world – a world based on love.” The brief appearance of wiki-leaks founder Julian Assange galvanised the crowd, although there were those who did not ﬁnd his presence entirely positive. Standing on the steps of the Cathedral he said, “What is happening here today is a culmination of dreams that many people all over the world have worked towards from Tahrir to London... this is not about the destruction of law. It’s about the construction of law.”

London Unis move up league tables Writers Rae Boocock

UCL and Imperial are among the top 20 universities in the world, according to the latest league tables from Times Higher Education. Imperial clinched 8th position in the annual rankings, up from 9th place last year, while UCL rose ﬁve places to be named the 17th best university globally. Other London universities also made the top 200: LSE (47th), KCL

(56th), Royal Holloway (107th), Queen Mary (127th) and Birbeck (149th). Worldwide, the California Institute of Technology has pipped Harvard to the top spot for the ﬁrst time in eight years. This Pasadena-based specialist science centre – known as ‘Caltech’ – is a relatively small institution with about 2000 mostly graduate students and 500 staﬀ. Oxford, the highest in the UK, has meanwhile overtaken Cambridge coming 4th and 6th respectively.

Each year sees many diverse university rankings, yet none are ‘oﬃcial’ in the way that school league tables based on exam results - are. University indexes vary widely depending on criteria used. Times Higher Education have taken into account factors such as; academic reputation, research, teaching, the mix of subjects, international activity, PhDs awarded and the staﬀ-to-student ratio. Although such rankings have o5en been regarded with suspicion by uni-

Photo by Marienna Pope-Weidemann

Sebastian Brown, from the University of London South Bank, has been working at the protesters’ kitchen tent for the past week and he has watched “hundreds, if not thousands of people pass through.” “People,” he said, “are sick of capitalism, sick of government controlling people. This is the beginning of a new tomorrow in politics.” For now, the occupation seems se6led into the nook of St. Paul’s and if the protesters are to be believed, the Cathedral may have many continued residents for the foreseeable future. versity leaders, they, and particularly the THE, are increasingly important for recruiting students and academics, a6racting research partners and guiding university management while serving as a tool for governments to set national policy. David Wille6s, the UK minister for universities and science said: “Only the US boasts more institutions than us in the top 200. Indeed, relative to our size and smaller per capita resources, we have... the world’s best-performing higher education sector.” Andrew Hamilton, Oxford vice-chancellor, has warned that a lack of fund-

Some of the speakers were local Tower Hamlet GPs, one who was retired, stating how he cannot believe the levels of stress and workload it would bring his new colleagues. Doctors and nurses, wearing their scrubs, were there with their children. I saw one young boy, wearing a David Cameron mask with the word ‘Tosser’ wri6en on the forehead. It was this boy’s birthday. There were the usual chants of ‘I shout Tory, you shout scum: Tory’ ‘Scum’ ‘Tory’ ‘Scum’ as well as a rather inventive ‘Andrew Lansley get out, we know what you’re all about, cuts, job losses, money for the bosses’. The protest moved from in front of the Queens building to Mucci’s the holding area for the audience prior to the show, with speakers asking the audience to ask the health secretary what on earth he was doing. There were roars when one speaker exclaimed, ‘we overturned the Poll Tax so we can overturn this’. One of the audience members on QT described the ‘passion’ of the people outside protesting and dismissed the idea that they’d always protest on an a6ack against the NHS. The protest then again moved to the back of the Queens building, in the hope that Lansley would be there and would hear them. I asked QMUL Security Services whether or not they found the protest disruptive considering we were on a university campus. Their general response was that they thought it was great; that although they themselves may not agree with everything being said, they thought it was a good thing that the people could demonstrate in the way they were. Nonetheless, the security and the police presence on campus was felt as a precaution. Aside from the NHS protest there were other strands of discontent felt. Following last week’s announcements of a national demonstration the chant: ‘Students, and workers, unite and ﬁght’ was heard. Apt when you consider many professionals were protesting on a university campus. ing will leave the UK’s universities struggling to compete for the best students in the “global market for talent.” UK institutions lay claim to 32 places in the top 200. This is an increase on last year, although the number of UK institutions has fallen in the top 100.

London Rankings in THE Global 8th - Imperial College

17th - University College London 47th - LSE

56th - King’s College, London 107th - Royal Holloway 127th - Queen Mary

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

‘Censorship’ accusations grate at UCL

Insuﬃcient accomodation for ﬁrst-years

Writer Bassam Gergi News Editor The UCL Union has taken steps to remove articles from the website of one of its own publications, The Cheese Grater, following a harassment complaint by a UCL student, who at the time the articles were first published was also a UCLU election candidate and columnist in rival UCLU publication Pi Magazine. The most recent complaint was issued in April 2010 and alleged that the content of the articles amounted to defamation. An inquiry by UCLU Communication and Services Officer Grace Barne7 in 2010 had previously rejected the defamation complaint, writing that there were “no grounds for the article[s] to be pulled by the Union”. However the ma7er has now been escalated to the Dean of Students for Welfare, Ruth Siddall, a6er the offended student made a formal complaint. The articles which the UCLU is demanding be removed were wri7en following reports that the offended student had leveled homophobic abuse against a speaker at a UCLU Debating Society event, and they continue to be available on the magazine’s website. The current demands by the UCLU to retract the articles follow an earlier demand to remove the entire website from the online domain. At the heart of the conflict over the articles is a broader debate over whether the steps taken by the administration pose a serious threat to the independence of student media

Writer Katharine Mullings

John Bell “The freedom of

speech is not properly supported on campus, and that UCLU in particular has an unprincipled approach to its defence.”

at UCL. John Bell, the Editor of The Cheese Grater, says, “My opinion is that freedom of speech is not properly supported on campus, and that UCLU in particular has an unprincipled approach to its defence.” Bell had previously reported that the student concerned had threatened to sue his magazine and that he has been called a “fag” and “clinically insane” by him. Going on to justify the content of the oﬀending articles,

Photo by Flickr User: Harry Wood

he says “I believe that when reporting on issues such as racial insensitivity and homophobia on campus by an individual running for an elected Union position it is quite ﬁtting to use "sharp" language.” Tim Rees Jones, Finance and Services Oﬃcer at UCLU, seems to echo Bell’s comments, saying that “there is not a strong commitment to student media in general.” Though his foremost concern is the wellbeing of the student in question he is personally “opposed to forcibly removing the articles, it is against our social values.” It would seem however that other members of the UCLU sabbatical team disagree, although none would speak to the London Student despite repeated inquiries. The Cheese Grater has focused much of their criticism at Democracy

and Communications Officer, James Skuse, who pledged in his election manifesto that he would “prevent censorship of the media.”, particularly in their most recent article on their website on the issue. Skuse was among those who declined to comment but did provide one line by email, writing, “UCLU are commi7ed to freedom of expression, but we also have a duty to protect staff and students from harassment and bullying.” The Cheese Grater is the winner of the UCLU Publication of the Year award for five of the last six years. It is currently awaiting the results of an investigation by the Dean of Students into the ma7er and thus far has resisted a7empts to remove the articles.

identity theft,” he continued. “The worrying part is that this figure was generated from a limited amount of reports, suggesting the amount lost to ID theft would be much higher if more people were reporting.” University fresher events have welcomed officers, who joined forces with local Safer Neighbourhood Teams, in handing out ID fraud prevention advice. DCI Nick Downing said: "Last week was a great opportunity to not only engage with the general public but to also highlight the numerous ways that fraudsters will use stolen or false IDs to commit other more serious crimes. The MPS are dedicated to tackling the ever changing threat of ID fraud, whether that be online, through postal scams, or over the phone."

7 per cent of the UK population have been victims of identity fraud, equating to more than 4 million people. With 2,493415 students in the UK, 4% of the population, and a high majority now in possession of personal computer devices such as laptops and iPads, the number of sophisticated attacks through internet ‘starter kits’ has increased dramatically. Simon Ellson, Norton by Symantec’s internet security expert, said: “This year the internet and its ever-evolving nature has continued to inspire criminals who commit ID fraud. Just as technology evolves, so too do the methods of cybercriminals.” He added that the number of ‘opportunistic’ crimes has ‘increased over the last twelve months.”

London Students: the ‘target audience’ in National Identity Fraud Protection Week Writer Hattie Williams News Editor

London students joined professional workers in a conference last week to raise awareness of credit card and online fraud as part of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week (NIDFPW). NIDFPW has issued a stark warning to students whose lifestyle, including regular changes of address and frequent social networking, can increase the risk of identity fraud. Students are advised to redirect post for at least six months when moving house and limit the amount of information shared when using social networking sites as Facebook and Twitter.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), who are partnering with NIDPW, also encouraged students to shred all documents pertaining to sensitive information, regularly check bank statements for unfamiliar transactions, carry out regular personal credit report checks and look into mail that goes missing. Operation Sterling - the fraud prevention unit of the MPS - is leading the Met’s response to the 2011 NIDFPW campaign. Jamey Johnson, head of Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting and advice centre, stressed the importance of reporting a loss to Action Fraud. “Personal details are as valuable as cash to a fraudster,” he said. “Last month alone (September 2011) Action Fraud saw over £245,000 worth of loss due to

British Universities have struggled to provide accommodation for all the students who wish to live in halls this year, and London is no exception. The University of Lincoln received widespread media a7ention due to housing 200 first year students in portable cabins. It has been reported that the students may have to live in the portable cabins until Christmas. Aberystwyth University asked foreign students in August if they would be prepared to defer their studies for a year due to the lack of available accommodation and Falmouth University College has resorted to pu7ing bunk beds in rooms to ensure that there is sufficient space for students. The London Student reported on the issue of insufficient housing for students in university accommodation last year and the problem has arisen yet again. Ben Whi7aker, the NUS Vice President for Welfare stated “Whilst we appreciate the pressures placed on universities at a time when funding is being cut and student numbers are rising, it is unacceptable for them not to ensure there is adequate housing for their students either in university halls or local private accommodation.” The University of London Housing Services (ULHS) assists approximately 40,000 of the University of London’s 130,000 students in finding private accommodation. The ULHS are fairly confident that the vast majority of students will have some form of accommodation, in the private sector if not the university halls of residence. There is sufficient accommodation in London for students in the private sector although it is not always possible for students to live within walking distance of their university. As a result students may have to use public transport to travel to university if they live in different part of London which is an unwanted additional expense. Living in halls during the first year is one of the best places to meet new people, make new friends and consequently ensure that students fully experience and enjoy student life, so renting in the private sector may mean that some students feel detached and isolated from their fellow students. University of London Housing Services

Website: http://housing.london.ac.uk Phone: 020 7862 8880 Email: housing@lon.ac.uk

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

Professor Grant preferred candidate to chair NHS Commisioning Board Writer Lizzy Turner

Professor Malcolm Grant, UCL President and Provost, has been named as the preferred candidate to chair the NHS Commissioning Board. If chosen, New Zealand-born Grant will take up the post at the end October and will retain his role as UCL President and Provost. The Board – a major part of the Government’s plan to modernise the NHS – is an independent body designed to drive continuous improvements in quality in the NHS. The role of Chair is expected to involve a time commitment of up to two days a week. In his new position, Grant could be in control of £60bn of taxpayers' money. The Commissioning Board will have the power to allocate – and account for – NHS resources. It will also bear the responsibility of directly commissioning certain services including primary medical care. As Chair, Grant would have to promote patient choice and develop ways of reducing inequalities in access to healthcare. Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary, said that he was “delighted” to name Grant the best candidate:

given, and continues to give, to UCL. As Chair of UCL Council, I think his appointment is good for the university. As a citizen, I think it is good news for all of us.” Grant stated that he was “honoured” to be considered, saying: “I am passionate about the NHS and see the Commissioning Board as playing a key part in delivering a service which meets the future needs of patients and of the nation. We need to build on the very best NHS qualities of dedicated public service, professionalism and

“Professor Grant has distinction and authority, is outstandingly capable and has excellent leadership skills, demonstrated by his success at UCL. He has a strong track record of delivery in complex public sector organisations, and shares the public sector ethos and values of the NHS.” Professor Grant has also received full support from colleague Sir Stephen Wall, Chair of UCL Council, who added that Grant will: “bring to this important task the leadership, judgement and commitment that he has

Photo by Flickr user: emanueletudisco

pride, and seize the opportunity to create long-term stability and focus on ge.ing constant improvement in quality and openness to innovation. The NHS Commissioning Board’s central role is to drive improvement in results for patients, ensuring a fair and comprehensive service across the country”. Professor Grant will ﬁnd out whether he is successful a-er his appearance in front of the Health Select Committee in a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing on Tuesday October 18.

“Extremism” on campus Continued from p. 1

Interfaith activists at StandforPeace reacted angrily to Grant’s comments, condemning UCL Medical School Islamic Society’s decision to invite Shaykh Zahir Mahmood to their annual charity dinner on October 28. However, the Islamic website, AsSuffa Institute, has described Shaykh Zahir Mahmood’s efforts as an “endeavour to reach out to the youth both locally and nationally by travelling throughout the country delivering talks and lectures in order to motivate the Muslim masses to become the best of people.” The annual charity dinner is the culmination of Charity Week, a week dedicated to raising money for orphans and needy children. The initiative has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity since its inception in 2004. According to a UCL spokesperson, the university had updated its procedures regarding external speakers on campus. The University had no specific response to the criticism but assured that, "If any students have concerns, we would encourage them to get in touch with the dean of students or UCL Union.”

Universities given two weeks to reconsider fee levels Writer Bassam Gergi News Editor The National Union of Students (NUS) warned last week that tens of thousands of university applicants face two weeks of uncertainty as the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) made an emergency announcement that it would allow universities to renegotiate their access agreements. As a result, reports indicate that nearly 30 universities in England – around a fifth of the total – are now considering dropping fees to below £7,500 a year in order to qualify for some of the 20,000 places held back by ministers in June. Toni Pearce, NUS Vice President said: "The Government's incoherent changes to higher education funding continue to wreak havoc and chaos on students and universities as Ministers realise that they failed to do their sums properly. Tens of thousands of applicants now face an anxious wait at an already stressful time." Those students who have already applied to university have been told that they will be able to resubmit their appli-

Toni Pearce

“The Government's incoherent changes to higher education funding continue to wreak havoc and chaos on students and universities.”

cation if the university's offer changed. Universities face a race against time as they must deal with OFFA’s deadline in addition to the January Universities and

Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) deadline. This latest attempt to redraw access plans is designed to minimize the effect of the tripling of tuition fees which comes into effect next year. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, was opposed to the move, saying, “The government's fees policy has been a messy disaster from the start." "Originally we were told fees over £6,000 would be the exception rather than the norm. The government

budgeted for an average fee of £7,500 when the actual figure was almost £8,400 and now it has moved the goalposts in a desperate attempt to drive down costs.” So far, eight universities have made an application to do change their “access agreement” with many others expected to follow. Some analysts predict that almost a quarter of higher education institutions in England could make last-minute cuts to fee levels.

Photo by Flickr user: Selena Sheridan

Those most likely to be affected will be applicants to middle-ranking universities, with elite institutions like Oxford and Cambridge still planning on charging the maximum fee level of £9,000. Research had indicated that many universities stood to lose up to 8 per cent of their places. OFFA was created by Labour to regulate access to higher education in the UK. The revised deadline means that institutions will now have until November 4 to submit their fee plans for 2012.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

World Briefing Writer Bassam Gergi

Illustrator Nathan Clutterbuck

Demand for gas falls amid price drop

USA

Despite the fact that the average price for gas dropped last week, US retail gasoline demand fell as well. Demand dropped 2.7 percent compared with the same week in 2010, according to a report by Mastercard Advisors. The four-week moving average for gasoline demand is down 2.8 percent compared with year-earlier levels, and it fell for the 32nd week in a row. The estimates are based on aggregate sales in the MasterCard payments system.

Gas output rises 5 percent

BRAZIL

The amount of oil produced by Brazil in September is up 5.1 percent on the same month in 2010, according to ANP the country’s oil regulator. Natural-gas output reached 65 million cubic meters a day in the month, 2.1 percent higher than a year earlier. More than 90 percent of Brazil's oil and gas production comes from fields operated by state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro. There include Brazil's biggest-producing oil field Roncador right offshore of Rio de Janeiro. Yet of Brazil’s 20 largest producing fields, foreign companies operate three of them. Output from Brazil's pre-salt fields under the seabed in the Atlantic Ocean accounted for 113.1 million barrels per day of oil, an increase of 1.4 percent over the previous month. Commercial production at Brazil's presalt fields started only the last year.

3) Electricity

demand slumps SPAIN

Spain, which is a major gas importer, saw a 3.7 percent drop in demand for electricity in October. The news paralleled data put out by Spain’s central bank that said domestic demand across broad sectors was lower. As a result, economists are now predicting that the economy may enter a recession during the final three months of the year. For January through August, Spain’s power demands had grown, although at a slowing rate. Renewable energy accounting for one third of all electricity generated. Coal though is providing more electricity that gas during October, only the second month it has done so since 2007. Spain is the world's eighthlargest importer of natural gas and the fourth-largest of liquefied natural gas. Yet cheap coal has led to a significant drop in demand for both.

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

7) Fracking

quakes

AUSTRALIA

Australia is in the midst of a fracking boom, particularly in New South Wales and Queensland. Yet controversy over the process is set to reignite a6er a British report found the contentious mining tactic was likely to have caused seismic activity earlier this year. A team of European seismic experts have concluded it was ''highly probable'' that two tremors and series of a6ershocks that hit the British town of Blackpool earlier this year were caused by nearby fracking. Fracking is the method of extracting gas from deep underground and it has concerned environmentalists due to its potential to contaminate water sources. The fracking of deeply buried shale beds for gas is in its infancy in Australia, but it is integral to the $50 billion coal seam gas industry being developed in Queensland.. APPEA's chief operating oﬃcer for Eastern Australia, Rick Wilkinson said; "Our view that fracking is a well-understood and heavily regulated technology in Australia is unchanged".

4) Indian

company set for 75 percent production jump INDIA

Oil and Natural Gas Corp, which is owned by the state of India, is projected to see a 75 per cent jump in natural gas production in the next five years when it will bring its Krishna Godavara basin gas into the market. The output is projected to nearly double by 2016-17, according to the gas supply projections made by the Oil Ministry. Overall, the nation's gas production would rise by 50 percent in the same period. This represents a compounded annual growth rate of 7.5 percent. Most of the current production goes into the Indian power sector while fertiliser plants consume a significant second. The remaining is used by city gas projects, refineries, petrochemical plants and sponge iron units.

5) Ukraine

set to finalize deal

UKRAINE

Ukraine is in the process of completing negotiations with Russia on the revision of the current gas contracts in November. Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Klyuyev was quoted s saying: "In our opinion, the talks will be over this month, in November. We'll be aware of the price we'll have to pay for the Russian gas in 2012." Due to the uncertainty about the price for the Russian gas, the government has not yet approved the amount, which are supposed to cover the difference in gas tariffs for the consumers. Ukraine is seeking a review of gas deals with Russia, claiming the 2009 contract's gas price formula is unfair. Moscow has tied the price for gas to the international spot price for oil, which rose strongly after a year of instability in the Middle East.

triggers

6)South Korea eyes alternative energy KOREA

Korea’s government has outlined plans to transform about 10 percent of the country’s gas stations into “alternative” vendors to supply petroleum products as part of its ﬁght against rising fuel prices. The government has devised measures that include multiplying non-franchise and self-service stations. The ministry aims to boost the envisioned stores for 10 percent of the country’s entire network by 2015. Currently, SK Innovation, GS Caltex, S-Oil and Hyundai Oilbank control Korea’s petrol supplies. With Nonghyup, their combined stake reaches 94 percent in the domestic market. Operators of local gas stations were furious in August a6er reports that the government is mulling importing petroleum products from Japan. They claimed their business has been reeling in the face of cu7hroat competition and the temporary price cuts.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

First Queen Mary Students’ Union General Meeting was marred by controversy Writer Caz Parra Queen Mary Students’ Union’s (QMSU) first General Meeting of the year was a controversial affair. It passed motions fundamentally altering the way the Union is governed, but has been branded illegitimate by some students. The meeting, held on October 10th, was attended by 337 students, the highest ever for Queen Mary. The meeting abolished two sabbatical positions and split another into two, reformed Student Council, passed Articles of Association to replace the Union’s Constitution and passed media regulations. However, the meeting has been criticized for the unrepresentative nature of the audience. Despite the fact that the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry only accounts for 19 percent students studying at Queen Mary, they made up 76 percent of the UGM attendees. This disproportionately high turnout can be attributed to the motion looking to reform QMSU Student Council. In the current system, BLSA enjoy 50 percent representation. However, the proposals would have reduced the number of positions guaranteed for BLSA to seven, compared to nine for the Mile End campus and then a further eight cross campus positions. While those proposing the motion said this would improve representation for everyone, some students at BLSA argued that they needed to “defend” their voice as the experience of a medical and dental student is very different from that of a student from any other faculty and thus needs separate representation. In line with this, George Ryan, QMSU Vice-President Association, who is the Sabbatical Officer elected to specifically represent medical and dental students, proposed an amendment that reinstated 50 percent representation for BLSA. Despite extended debate, the sheer number of BLSA students present meant the amendment, and then the motion, passed easily. Dominic Bell, QMSU Vice-President

Students fast in solidarity LSE

The Palestine Society at the LSE held a one-day fast last Thursday in order to raise awareness of the ongoing plight of Palestinian political prisoners. The fast was intended as a form of solidarity with the thousands of prisoners who they claim were imprisoned for resisting against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.” The society collected over 70 signatures in the one day and they are planning a lecture on political prisoners, particularly children prisoners.

Largest graduation ceremony Imperial College

Sam “We’ve never before Creighton had anything

codifying what the media is for; this has been a long running and grave mistake.”

Activities, branded the decision as “farcical” and “undermining democracy.” The UGM also adopted Articles of Association to replace the QMSU constitution. The Charities Act 2006 made it compulsory for Students’ Unions to register as charities and it’s beneficial financially to be an incorporated charity. However, to incorporate unions must adopt Articles of Association. The Charity Commission and the NUS co-drafted a template document and it was an amended version of this that was proposed to the UGM by QMSU Vice-President Education and Welfare, Oscar Williamson. An amendment was voted through, removing the clause allowing trustees to

Photo by Flickr User: Daniel Gill

overturn student decisions if they were not deemed to be “in the best interests of the union.” A second amendment was then accepted which took away from students the power to remove trustees by referendum. It is now uncertain as to whether the document will be accepted by the Charity Commission. Williamson commented: “The problem with documents like this is that they are co-produced by competing groups of lawyers who all have different priorities that don’t align with ours which crushes difference and individuality in small groups like Students’ Unions.” The UGM also passed a motion abolishing the positions of Vice-President Activities and split the role of Vice-President Education and Welfare into two portfolios. Not all students present were happy with the mortions put forward, with amendments being proposed to vote on the positions separately, to retain VP Communications and

to retain VP Activities. However, all three were voted down and the motion passed unaltered by a large margin. The meeting also adopted a new set of media regulations proposed by VicePresident Communications, Sam Creighton. The regulations codified the editorial independence of the QMessenger Media Group and also introduced a contract that all editors must sign laying out both their responsibilities and what support they can expect. The regulations also improve accountability by establishing The Collective, a group of students who ensure the media remains student focused and student led. Creighton commented: “We’ve never before had anything codifying what the media is for; this has been a long running and grave mistake. The fact these regulations have passed just proves how important a strong, independent and representative media is to this campus.”

biomedical research in Europe. The planned institute, named after the British co-discoverer of DNA, will focus on research concerning the prevention and treatment of cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and other, often lethal, conditions. According to a press release sent out by King’s College, the broader purpose of the centre “is to understand how living things work and to use that knowledge for the benefit of humanity.” The pioneering laboratories will bring together

scientists from an array of backgrounds and focus on maintaining the UK’s competitiveness in science and healthcare. Professor Sir Richard Trainor, Principal of King’s College London said: “King’s is delighted to have reached this milestone in negotiating its participation in UKCMRI. Having such a strong pool of experts working collaboratively under one roof in this world-leading facility for medical research and innovation has the potential to deliver real advances in science and health research. This very

Imperial’s largest ever Commemoration Day took place last Wednesday as 2,200 undergraduates received their degrees. The ceremonies were watched by around 6,000 friends and family members at the Royal Albert Hall. The former Director-General of the Security Service, Baroness Manningham-Buller, said: “Commemoration Day is a fantastic event, as it marks the achievements of so many people at Imperial. It will be a particular pleasure for me to see the pride on the faces of the students’ family and friends.”

New centre for identity research Goldsmiths College

A new centre in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London is set to be launched on October 5th. The Centre for Identities and Social Justice will kickoﬀ with the event 'The Prevent Agenda: What are its unintended and intended consequences?'. The Centre aims to be at the forefront of interdisciplinary research on identity drawing from diﬀerent disciplines. Professor Rosalyn George, Head of the Centre, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to bring together experts across a range of disciplines to produce research of the highest quality.”

KCL fuses with UCL to fund Francis Crick Institute Writer Filip Rambousek King’s College is the second University of London college to pledge funds to the Francis Crick Instutute, a ‘new scientific powerhouse’ as it has been dubbed by KCL. KCL is now the 6th investor, having contributed £40 million, the same amount as previous university investors, Imperial College and UCL.

With constant talk of the economic crisis just behind us, and nervous suggestions about a “new and improved” wave of recession possibly coming up, it might not seem like the right time for multi-million pound investments. This may be even more surprising when the investors are three English universities. However, the Francis Crick Institute may well prove to be of long-term value. With an annual budget of £100 million and staff of 1500, of which 1250 will be scientists, it will be the largest centre for

much chimes with King’s mission of serving society on a global level.” The investors, according to the Institute, are ‘the UK's most successful scientific and academic organisations’, comprising, aside from the three universities, the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and the Welcome Trust, contributing £300 million, £160 million and £120 million, respectively. The British Government also contributed with £200 million.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Dale Farm eviction reflects a much older division in society

Our cleaners deserve better than a poverty wage

Ibrahim Adaci - page 14

Juan Ignacio Dorrego - page 11

Malcolm Grant is betraying students by taking NHS job Millie Darling - page 13

Let’s admit that clubbing can be hell on earth

Occupy Wall Street - A new generation of protest?

Amelia Tait - page 10

Gilad Isaacs and Tom Chambers - page 12

Last year’s national demonstration led to infamous scenes at Millbank. Photo by Tom Chambers, Comment Editor

Rosa Wild Comment Editor

“The real nastiness of Tory

education policy is being slipped in now, when our backs are turned. We need to reopen the debate.”

We need November 9th to restart the debate on education

At this point, a1er nearly a year of frenzied debates, protests, flyering, occupations, posters, banners, articles, Students’ Unions motions and talks, you've made your mind up. You're a student. You'd have had to be living in the darkest, dustiest corner of the most remote library not to have some idea of what you think. Maybe you hate tuition fees; maybe you think the ‘marketisation’ of education is the best thing since marmite on bananas; maybe you cheered as the windows of Millbank fell in, or moaned as masked teenagers smashed the treasury. Maybe you shared the exhausting, exhilerating and surreal experience of an occupation, or emerged shaking from the bizarre dystopia that was the ke2le on Westminster Bridge, or maybe you stood bemused and begged your fellow students to see sense. Or maybe you were abroad and watched it unfold on YouTube and Twi2er. Either way, you were there. So what's the point of arguing that you should get involved again? If you know about the education protest on November 9th, marching from ULU to the City for a rethink of

education policies, then you already know whether you support it or not. Why am I writing this at all? The answer is that this time we have even more to lose. And that we have a much, much better chance of winning. This time, the government knows they're failing. The white paper released this summer tried to paint itself as a grand vision for the reconstruction of the British university system, but it's not fooling anyone: it's a hodgepodge a2empt to recover from the debacle that was the policies passed last year. It will create a bastard child of the American university, seesawing between lip service to social equality and the free market without maintaining the good qualities of either. Ge2ing employers to sponsor kids through university? Great, instead of being indebted to the government, we'll be bound to a company we may not even want to work for a1er four years in which our ambitions and abilities might have changed entirely. And what's to say companies will want to do that, when there's already a pool of talented graduates begging for work?

Opening the higher education system up to private providers not bound by tuition fee caps? What's that going to do except encourage our best public universities to go private, shoot up their fees and lock the door to the majority of applicants, while cheapdegrees light on actual knowledge proliferate? Rising fees will mean more given out in loans, and more loans means a higher defecit, at least in the short-term. Changing rules on student numbers to encourage universities to compete for the highest achieving students with grades over AAB? Sounds great if you believe the market drives up quality. Problem is, most universities aren’t reacting to this by asking how they can improve in quality. They’re asking “how much more do we need to divert from teaching to improve our marketing strategies?” Increasing interest on student loans? Brilliant. Not what every student looking at the current graduate employment record wants to hear. Definitely what certain banks, which are investing in student loans, want to hear. It's not just moaning students who are totally thrown by these policies.

Even Universities UK, the university lobbying body which came out in favour of £9000 tuition fees, has stated that this is going too far. The only people who support it, it seems, are the US-based education firms that higher education minister David Wille2s is extremely cosy with. And there's been so li2le scrutiny of these policies. There's been no public debate. The university issue is closed: tuition fees were voted in, and we were ke2led until the will to fight was sapped out of us. End of story, media storm moves on. But the real nastiness of Tory education policy is being slipped in now, when our backs are turned. So that's why we need the march on November 9th: we need to reopen the debate, and fast. Last winter we put tuition fees high on the public agenda, and turned a policy considered inevitable into one that barely slipped through the House of Commons. This winter, we face a bill with much more radical demands and much less support. This winter we face a fight which we not only can win, but have to.

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

Agree? Disagree?Your views: comment@london-student.net Amelia Tait

“I am one of a select few stu-

dents who dislike clubbing. Or should I say, perhaps, I am one of a select few students who admit they dislike clubbing.”

Anna MacIvor

“More practical application of language learning should be

geared towards up and coming countries, with the incentive of success in a professional field”

More of us should admit it: clubbing can be hell on earth There is no oxygen in here, only sweat molecules masquerading as air. There is music, apparently. Hundreds of people jump and bustle and dance…or, like me, are they simply moving around to stop their li5le toes being trodden to oblivion? I take a few photos, they will lie for me to say I had a good time. I have taken oﬀ my shoes and smile. I wish I was at home playing Scrabble as ferociously as they play this music. I cannot hear what you’re saying to me, NO that doesn’t mean I want your booze-stained breath ba5ering around my ears. Did I really pay for this? Ah, thankfully, now there is one song I know, I can dance and sing, maybe even enjoy myself. Every lyric becomes a mumbled shout until every third word I know in the chorus can be belted out with joyous victory. Wait, isn’t this song over yet? This is my confession. I am one of a select few students who dislike clubbing. Or should I say, perhaps, I am one of a select few students who admit they dislike clubbing. Perhaps, like early Christians, we

should go around drawing special symbols in the sand (on the Strand?) to identify one another. That way, we could avoid persecution. I am, in fact, a convert. I spent most of last year stumbling around the clubs of London, drunk out of my mind; having what I thought was the time of my life. But with a sink full of vomit and a head full of regrets the next morning, something inside of me clicked. Clubbing makes me hungry. It makes me tired. It makes me sticky and dirty (no rude thoughts please). It makes me poor. And to have a good time and forget all of these things, I have to be drunk. Being drunk is simply a more expensive way to make me look and act like more of an idiot than I do already in everyday life. And being drunk makes me hungry. It makes me tired. It makes me sticky and dirty (seriously, now). It makes me poor. A4er twenty minutes in a queue, twenty drinks spilt down me, twenty sweaty men trying to dance with me, and twenty

pounds mysteriously disappeared, I wonder- what am I ge5ing out of this? Sometimes (I ﬁnd myself admi5ing now) I went just to say that I had. Then, a4er twenty years on a bus, twenty thousand calories consumed at McDonalds, twenty bruises on my body from being elbowed and shoved, I return home, at an hour much, much too far past my bedtime. My feet are bleeding. And so is my heart. I’m a second year now. And like the three year old me moving onto the ‘Big Girl’s Toilet’, I have reached a hugely transformational stage in my life. I am, like totally, grown up. So whilst yes, I might still enjoy ge5ing a tad drunk, I’ll be doing it in my friend’s living rooms, or in cosy pubs furnished with stuﬀed geese and paisley carpets like the ones native to my distant land of North Yorkshire. And I’m out, I admit it, I’m lame. But at least I’ll no longer be pondering killing myself on the N13 at 4am as a 50 year old Egyptian man pulls on my beer, sweat and tear soaked dress and asks to buy me.

At the age of sixteen I stated during my GCSE French oral that I wanted to be a French teacher in the future. It was a half truth, but admi5edly something of a strategy to woo the examiner on the other end of the tape recorder. Nevertheless, my teacher waited until we had stopped recording (so as not to digress from my militarily scripted responses of course) and advised me to rethink my career options. From personal experience, she informed me, if a student isn’t interested in learning a language, there is no real justification in making them do so. I guess that’s what the Education Secretary Michael Gove meant, with a li5le less bi5erness and a little more Tory spin, when he outlined his plans to teach foreign languages in English schools from the age of five. Though admi5edly a well meaning endeavour, I find it sadly misguided. With proof that some young people are still leaving school without basic reading and writing skills in English, how can they be expected to get to grips with the grammar of a second language without sufficient understanding of their own? ‘It is literally the case’ he insists, ‘that learning languages makes you smarter’. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t learning maths

make you smarter too? Not to mention the skill and perspective acquired through the study of a certain historical period for example, or the practical knowledge children can gain whilst carrying out experiments in science class. Gove is neglecting the fact that quality teaching in all of these areas is falling by the wayside in a bid to promote a cause based solely upon pride. Other European countries have certainly shown us up in the domain of learning languages, but let’s face it; it is through necessity that they put such emphasis on speaking English as a second language. I do not say this to ﬂa5er the British Isles but to acknowledge the simple fact that America remains a dominant force in today’s world, making the English language a powerful currency in terms of global business and interaction. That said it may not remain so singularly powerful for long. China’s inﬂuence is gaining, not to mention the ever increasing links that British business has with countries such as Japan, India and the Gulf states. Gove is selling us short by not taking a more worldwide perspective when considering a second language. It would surely be impressive to holiday in our neighbouring European countries with the ease of

knowing the local language, but more practical application of language learning should be geared towards up and coming countries, with the incentive of success in a professional ﬁeld, such as marketing or trading. The success of TEFL courses means that people all over the world obtain an impressive grasp of English. Why not invert the model and a5ract native speakers of languages such as Mandarin to Britain in order to teach young people here, with the added incentive of improving their English in the process? Gaining ﬂuency in any foreign language is extremely relevant in today’s world, and if nothing else, it is hugely satisfying as a hobby or academic endeavour. As a languages student myself, there will always be those of us who choose to study a modern European language simply for the love of it. However, if we are to impose rigid language teaching in schools, the government must at least run with the times and look at the issue on a more global scale rather than waste money on reciting un, deux, trois to a generation of uninterested youngsters.

Facing up to the future of languages

Diary of a Fresher: tubes, iPod disputes and fear of the cleaning lady Karan Katoch

The cleaning lady terrifies me. I’m just going to put it out there. Perhaps it’s how she opens my door with the force of a police drug raid. Or maybe it’s because there’s no discernable pa5ern for when she may arrive. But something about her Kubrick stare, suspicious lack of blinking and complete absence of cleaning equipment displaces my very soul. Naturally, I decided to get out more, instead of spending hours under my bed in a perpetual state of fear. As it happens, this also minimised the chance of her walking in on me naked (again). That aside – being a fresher in London is an overwhelming experience. It hits me a4er a night out in Elephant and Castle, Boris-biking it home. Weaving back over Waterloo Bridge, with its view of Westminster (and bus drivers that will skim past you) is always exhilarating. Yet certain aspects of London still perplex me. Like how some people can stand unsupported on the Underground, absorbing the shocks while casually reading a paper. The last time I attempted this, I discovered my centre of gravity was like that of a flamingo being hit by an earthquake. While grabbing the bar for dear life (and dignity) I decided not to try that again. One month in and I’ve also learnt never to play my iPod on full while using the Underground. If it’s loud enough to enjoy, it’s loud enough to make you miss your stop and send you dangerously close to Clapham South. Also, you may have a rare encounter with somebody disagreeing with your music taste. I say rare, because a4er using the tube for several minutes it’s clear that any interaction with strangers is a strong taboo. In fact, etique5e dictates that everybody should adopt a stoic expression, especially when somebody’s crotch is hovering inches from your face. Social norms, for some inexplicable reason, are infinitely more sensitive on the underground than on the surface of London. To put it simply, prolonged eye contact is the equivalent of stroking somebody’s face with one hand, whilst unbu5oning your shirt with the other. This is why I was sent into a spiral of self-doubt and temporary paralysis when a lady closed her Sudoku, tapped on my shoulder and told me to turn my music down. Such was the level of confusion that my only logical responses seemed to include the emergency stop lever or self-immolation. Fortunately, the driver pulled into the next stop and within moments she was gone. A4er a few minutes of hyper-ventilation to recover from the ordeal, I turned off my iPod to realise the joke was on me. I had arrived in Clapham.

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

Juan Ignacio Dorrega Viera SOAS

“Many of the workers feel

as though the University of London treats them as animals rather than humans, as slaves rather than employees.”

Kaamila Baiden

“Creating such a drama sur-

rounding a person’s sexuality is

deeming it as something that is not normal, when it needs most to be accepted as ordinary.”

Our cleaners deserve be er - a wage they can actually live on

Maria , a middle-aged South American woman, had to take a couple months leave from her cleaning job for health reasons. As she was only entitled to statutory minimum sick pay of £89 per week she spent most of this time traveling to various government agencies applying for ﬁnancial assistance and stressing about how to survive. Another cleaner, Gloria, worked overtime hours at her cleaning job for eight months before she was paid. Jose, a porter, was given 24 hours notice of eviction by his landlord a5er having missed his rent because he was not paid on time. Susana, while paid on time, sweats from 9 to 12 every morning cleaning bedrooms and toilets for £6.68 per hour. A5er having saved up enough money for a plane ticket home she was told she be6er make it a quick visit as she was denied unpaid leave. These people do not work in multinational hotel chains nor do they work in sweatshops in South America, but rather in the Halls of Residence and the main academic buildings of the University of London. Rather than a poverty wage of £6.68, these workers believe that they deserve, at a minimum, the wage that the conservative mayor of London deems necessary for mere survival:

£8.30. Rather than having to choose between coming in to work sick and forgoing a day’s wages, the workers believe that they should have the same sick pay as direct employees of the University of London. These beliefs are coming together todrive the current London Living Wage and Sick Pay Campaign. On September 1, a large number of cleaners and porters went on unoﬃcial strike, risking the loss of their jobs, in order to demand that their overdue wages be paid immediately. £6 000 in overdue wages were paid within two days of the strike. This was followed by two protests on September 14 and October 3. The University of London has responded gradually, moving from an initial position of no interest whatsoever in the Living Wage, to oﬀering to pay the Living Wage in 2013, then 2012, then a phased introduction of the Living Wage, starting in October with the cleaners moving from their previous poverty wage of £6.15 per hour to their current poverty wage of £6.68 per hour. While pay increases are always welcome, the University of London has completely ignored the issue of sick pay, will not pay the full Living Wage until July 2012 in order (in their own words) to save money. They refuse, despite repeated re-

quests, to meet with a single representative of the cleaners, porters, security guards, caterers, and other outsourced workers who are directly aﬀected by these changes. This combination of policies has led many of the workers to feel as though the University of London treats them as animals rather than human beings, as slaves rather than employees and as cheap labour rather than members of our academic community. The London Living Wage needs to be paid now. Everyone who works at the University of London and Halls of Residence needs a decent sick pay policy. These basic issues of dignity cannot be postponed or negotiated any longer. If management wants to treat the University of London as a brand to be marketed, chooses to run the University like a corporation, pays their Vice-Chancellor like a banker, and cares more about a budget surplus than social values, then it is time for the students to play the University’s own game against them and as the “customers” and “clients” who give this University its budget in the ﬁrst place, demand an end to these absurdities and moral repugnancies.

Soap operas are meant to provide a natural, unglamorous representation of everyday life- that’s why millions tune in weekly. But because of those millions of viewers, they also hold a position of power and influence in society. Now Eastenders has shown teenager Ben coming to terms with his sexuality, has Eastenders got it right? Surely it’s best than them not covering the subject at all? For anyone coming out it is difficult, and the aim of soaps is to represent real life. But why must Eastenders always take it to the extreme? A5er keeping his sexuality under wraps, Ben snogs boxing buddy Duncan. The ever-ingenious Eastenders writers, instead of playing it straight, have created a whole web of drama around it, with windows being smashed, threats being made and the scary brute, Phil Mitchell, throwing his weight around the square. All due respect to Eastenders for upholding their social responsibility and including story lines which reflect modern society. But aren’t they slightly over doing it? If I were a young man, who wanted to come out as gay, the

whole Eastenders storyline would make me absolutely terriﬁed to come out. To be told I would be faced with a torrent of abuse would make me scared to admit my sexuality even to those closest to me. In reality, there need not be any drama in simply coming out and saying, ‘I’m gay’. Of course Eastenders need to create a drama- it is a soap opera a5er all, and that’s what people tune in for. But why all the trials and tribulations? Although the intentions of the Eastenders’ writers were good, they haven’t thought of the negative effects this could have. Creating such a drama surrounding a person’s sexuality is deeming it as something that is not normal, when it needs most to be accepted as ordinary. Communities are more welcoming than the storyline makes out- it’s not the revolutionary shock it is depicted as. It is almost as if Eastenders writers thought: let’s do something with homosexuality again, and present it in the most extremist fashion. What is that saying about the state of homosexual rights in the UK? Soaps need to exaggerate but Eastenders have

never had a ‘coming out’ storyline without complications. Previously with Christian and Syeed it was religion, this time it is a crazed meathead father- I wonder what trick they will use next? They also like to sensationalise the exact moment when the person makes the open declaration: ‘I’m gay’. If you have a parent that is like Phill Mitchell, they will act crazy regardless. But if soap operas are going to hold their position as a social influence, surely there would then be no need to have to come out and say “I’m gay’- you don’t go home and say, ‘I’m straight’, you would just say here’s my boyfriend/girlfriend. If soap operas really were set being truly influential and moving society’s thinking about homosexual people forward, a big deal wouldn’t be made out of it. Eastenders- shown on the publically funded BBC - should do more to influence the mindset of society, and by doing an over sensationalised, over dramatized and downright unrealistic storyline, they are merely continuing to perpetuate the ideas we are trying to move on from.

Coming out is hard enough without soap operas telling us it will end in drama and violence

Activism beyond the campus Jonathan Grant

Not so long ago, people thought students were apathetic. Who could say that now? The renewed spirit of activism in universities up and down the country is to be applauded. With higher education under threat of commercialisation, students have shown that they are more than willing to stand up and make themselves heard. But while cuts and fees should absolutely be challenged, they are not the only issues deserving of our attention. We are still the world’s 6th largest economy, but according to the charity Fareshare, more and more British families are in need of food donations. The Royal College of Nursing warns that staff cuts will increase pressure on wards, severely affecting the standard of NHS care. Over the last year, homelessness rose by 17% according to official figures. These are the frontline effects not only of the global economic crisis, but also of the Coalition government’s response. Elsewhere, the picture looks no brighter. In the United States, still the world’s richest nation, 49 million people are without health insurance. The execution of Troy Davis will be recorded as one American history’s most outrageous miscarriages of justice. Meanwhile, Congress has frozen $200 million (£130 million) of aid to Palestine, a move that will serve only to inflame the Middle Eastern conflict at a critical time. Amnesty reports that expatriate Syrian demonstrators have faced persecution as they protest at Syrian embassies around the world. The campaign group All Out has highlighted repression suffered by LGBT people in Cameroon. Human Rights Watch has expressed concern over the representation of women in the new Egypt. In Afghanistan too, it is feared that women’s rights will be traded away in talks with the Taliban. And, appallingly, 750,000 lives are in danger as famine grips Somalia. Tens of thousands across East Africa have already died of starvation. In an interconnected world that faces no shortage of food, this level of suffering is as incredible as it is unacceptable. So again, let us praise the new crop of activists. It’s wonderful to see such passion for education, for equality, for social justice. The world needs people who are not afraid to speak out, and we should admire the energy with which they have campaigned so far. But let’s not focus that energy on a single issue. Let’s look beyond the campus, indeed beyond our borders, and take this newfound spirit to a higher level.

THE GREAT DEBATE

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Agree? Disagree?Your views: comment@london-student.net

Occupy Wall Street: a new generation of protest? The US’ widespread protests against the power of the ﬁnancial industry have ﬁnally spread to the UK, and are growing. Is this the beginning of a popular anti-capitalist movement?

YES

Gilad Isaacs

SOAS On October 15th cries of “we are the 99 percent” reverberated across the Atlantic Ocean. This has become the rallying cry for tens of thousands across the United States that have taken to the streets dozens of cities over the past month beginning with the Occupy Wall Street campaign. The call for a global day of action spread across social networks from Rome to Hong Kong, Toronto to Reuinon Island. In London, thousands protested in St Paul’s square, and hundreds defied police to set up a permanent protest camp in the shadow of the Cathedral. It has taken almost three years for what appears to be an obvious reaction to have emerged. The weeks and months following the financial crisis seemed ripe for global collective action. Instead what we saw was varying and fragmented responses across the industrialized world, the most disturbing taking place in the United States where the far right Tea Party managed to mobilise popular anger while the le/ flailed. This new slogan “we are the 99 percent” is simple. Tired of growing inequality, corporate influence over the political process, the concentration of power in the hands of a small elite, and growing austerity measures hurting the most vulnerable hardest, these protesters wish to assert their own power as the 99% of the population who are not a part of the financial and political elite. The media in the US has a0acked the demands of this new wave of protesters as confused, ill-informed, and incoherent. Many of these criticisms, like highlighting peoples misunderstanding of the economics of the bailout, entirely miss the point. It is the existence of the bailouts – in the context of not only an absence of a similar “bailout” for ordinary people, but the imposition of the costs of the crisis onto the majority – that has produced such anger. Some of the demands are sca0ered, but considering the speed with

which this nascent movement has grown and its decentralized nature, that is hardly surprising. There is also popular sentiment that is misguided. The bailouts were necessary; the u0er collapse of the financial system would have hurt ordinary people too. This growing movement is posed at an interesting juncture. It has succeeded in bringing together students and largely middle-class activists with trade unions. The same can be said for strikes planned for November 30th in the UK. Much hinges on the success of groups such as UK Uncut – which appear to have a white middle-class bias – to build real partnerships with working class organizations and communities, and their ability to transform the frustration of the most dispossessed into constructive political action. A vital function of this movement is reclaiming a space for the debate of financial and monetary policy. In the last thirty or so years corporate and financial elites, policy makers, and academics have managed to impose an orthodoxy that rejects popular debate. Part of this has to do with the perceived complexity of monetary policy. Everyone understands the difference between allocating government spending to the military or to healthcare. Fewer understand the impact on ordinary people caused by changes in interest rates, or the deregulation of particular financial services. Naturally, this has allowed for great manipulation of financial policy. The success of this budding movement rests in part on the ability of a segment of these activists to articulate a systemic economic position. It is justified but not enough to be angry at bankers. The crisis we observed and the consequences we are living through are manifestations of an economic system that has inequality as part of its inherent makeup. We need a generation of activists that is not only brave enough to stand up and be heard, but that is serious enough to tackle such questions in a rigorous, nuanced and non-polemical fashion. Hopefully the seeds of that have been sown.

“In the last thirty or so

years corporate and ﬁnancial elites, policy makers, and academics have managed to impose an orthodoxy that rejects popular debate.”

“The average person

will simply be turned oﬀ by the lack of a speciﬁc message they can get to grips with, and be inspired by.”

Tom Chambers Comment Editor

The protest camp currently outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London is rightfully angry, but confused and incoherent. Many people in the UK will share some of the sentiment of those who are camping out, indeed it would be a challenge to pick someone off the street who didn’t believe that there is a problem with the underregulated financial industry and corporate greed. The problem however, is that despite the broad consensus that there definitely is something wrong, nobody can quite agree on what that might be. Some will argue that this plurality is its greatest strength, that it’s lack of a specific message is what makes it an experiment in true democracy. While this might give everyone involved a nice warm feeling inside, this is what will ultimately mean that the Occupy movements around the world will fail to draw widespread support and have an influence on the way we live our lives. I visited the camp last Wednesday in order to get an idea of the intentions of the protesters, and if any influence might emerge from it. I talked to a number of people, including the roaming identity-seeking protester, looking to be part of something, the impassioned but vague idealistic young men and the one I got the most out of, the sensible network engineer, expressing broad solidarity, but without concrete beliefs. One criticism that has been levelled at protesters is that they are jobless layabouts, whinging instead of working for a living, a claim which I found to be virtually universally untrue. The majority of the people there had either taken time off, or had come here to camp, returning to work in the morning. There are some people with interesting opinions and ideas at the camp, but the continuum is too wide to present a clear message to the media or the

passing general public. Many of the protesters I spoke to simply do not have the articulacy to present anything beyond vague beliefs of human goodness and black and white portrayals of morality. We all want a be0er world, nobody is going to oppose the protest on the basis that they’d rather that there were less jobs and everyone was a bit worse off. The average person will simply be turned off by the lack of a specific message they can get to grips with, and be inspired by. Currently there is li0le to a0ach yourself to at the protest except the great outdoors, which while a noble pursuit, is unlikely to have much of an effect on global capitalism. Another issue is that there is very little creative coming out of the camp. Most of their efforts seem to be selfsustaining, focusing on simply being there, rather than being the being the foundation for the society that they’d like to see, which would be fine if there was a clear aim to their presence, but there is not. The human microphone (passing a message through a crowd by repeated shouts) and the silent clapping to avoid interruption of the speaker (essentially jazz hands) are cute gimmicks, but they are not translatable to our everyday lives. What I was hoping to see were discussions about alternative societies and experiments in living, what I saw was a drawn out argument about the arrival of the portaloos. If the movement is to have lasting change, it must become popular and convince people if not to pitch up themselves, to support it and echo this demand for a specific change. If the movement pushes in as many different directions as it is at the moment, it will go nowhere, and peoples lives will continue to be trampled upon by the system that the Occupy movement seeks to challenge.

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

Agree? Disagree?Your views: comment@london-student.net Millie Darling UCL

“As the provost of UCL,

can he really continue to do this job suﬃciently and take up this new job heading the commissioning board?”

Jaskiran Chohan

“Chile shows us that we are

not alone in our ﬁght to save education and create equal opportunity.”

Will UCL provost be the new face of a decimated, proﬁt-driven health service?

Last week in the wake of the quietly terrifying Health and Social Care Bill, Malcolm Grant, UCL provost, was named head of the new NHS commissioning board by Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary. Suddenly, the face of our college is stepping from running a university to taking responsibility for the running of the entire health service. The Health and Social Care bill will effectively privatise the NHS. The changes that the bill proposes were in neither the Tories’ nor the Liberal Democrats’ manifestos and have been widely criticised and protested against by healthcare professionals and the public alike The bill will bring in private healthcare companies to compete for services within the NHS, shi4ing the focus from away from patients to profit. The NHS is an institution which has affected all of our lives - we all know someone whose life has been saved by their free healthcare, or have turned to them our-

selves. It is imperfect, but under the new system we will lose the altruistic nature on which the NHS was founded and start on the slippery slope to a healthcare system similar to that in the USA. So why is the provost of my university ge5ing involved? Malcolm Grant has no experience in healthcare or the commissioning of clinical services. He is a lawyer by training. The fact that the government have chosen a man with a reputation as an innovative businessman to head the health service, rather than someone experienced in medicine, speaks volumes about how they picture the future of the NHS. As the provost of UCL, can he really continue to do this job suﬃciently and take up this new job heading the commissioning board? The two jobs do come with certain amounts of responsibility – unless they’re just ﬁgurehead roles, in which case perhaps their enormous salaries

should be rethought. What will happen if the two roles conflict? Will it be UCL’s students who lose out, or the people who need NHS care ? It’s baffling - is the elite in this country really so small that he has to do both jobs at the same time? Malcolm Grant last year led vice chancellors in lobbying for the tripling of university tuition fees. He has been championed by some for his beliefs in the protection of free speech, but he had no problem victimising his own students and taking them to court when they peacefully occupied university buildings in protests against cuts and fees. In 2010 he earne-d a salary of £365,131, yet claims that UCL does not have the money to pay workers the basic London Living Wage to its cleaners and support staff. And this is the man who will be in charge of budgets for an institution which employs thousands in London alone. In February 2011, Malcolm Grant

went on a tour around the Middle East with David Cameron, accompanied by representatives from British arms companies – a vastly controversial tour at the height of the repression of the Arab Spring. His actions have made him seem to be a careerist, considering his own interests ﬁrst. If he must be a representative of the institution and community of UCL, he must consider the way his behaviour reﬂects on his students - and many of us feel enormously betrayed.We do not trust his ability to run the NHS in the same generous spirit in which it was founded.

With protest on the rise globally against a declining neo-capitalist system commi5ed to slashing public sector services, Chile’s own story of dissent has all too easily been ignored. Marches, innovative flash mobs, intense debate and discussion are but some features of an everincreasing movement in strong favour of education reform. Privatised profit-run universities and stark inequality dictate a system that has largelyremained unchanged since the Pinochet regime. Its students are finally turning against it and demanding change Chile’s tertiary system is mainly comprised of private universities that charge extortionate fees in exchange for asub-standard education- sound familiar? The government boasts one of the lowset spending records in the world on higher education, a situation only worsened by the absence of a system of student grants and subsidised loans, leaving students no options but to a5end private institutions and end up with large amounts ofdebt. Discontent is not limited to university pupils alone though. High school students have more than supported the efforts of

their older counterparts, holding occupations, joining rallies and even hunger striking at the poor quality of secondary education. Pinchot’s policies live on: with no national system, high schools are governed under municipal jurisdictions, directly linking be5er schools to more affluent areas where funding is more readily available. The leader of what is o4en seen as the most stable country on the continent, Chile’s president Sebastian Piñera faces unprecedented pressure to grant the students the free education they are lobbying for so strongly. Some reform and a cabinet reshuffle have taken place but much to the credit and strength of the Confederation of Chilean Student Federations (CONFECH) this has been labeled as insufficient. What is more, with protests and general strikes going way past the hundred thousand mark, the student movement does not threaten to fade out any day soon. Its longevity is as much due to determination as to its placement within a wider national and even global advance towards reform of neo-liberal policies and poli-

tics. They have united with the teachers’ union, supporting the strikes of the copper miners and the better representation of Mapuche indigenous students in universities. CONFECH has eﬀectively mobilized the greater public, workers and brought together secondary and tertiary level students behind the slogan of reform. In Chile the students do not face a lone ﬁght, but are part of a struggle that has now widened and is being fought on several fronts. Our own NUS should look to emulate the resolve shown by CONFECH before government pressures and with courage represent the genuine needs and desires of the student body. Despite last year’s lack of strong union representation, at least positive steps were and are being taken by other groups such as the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), who have called for a NUS-supported protest 9th November, have supported UCU strikes and are currentlybacking the November30th strike called by the country’s biggest trade unions. Linking the defense of education

to the government’s general political agenda of public sector destruction is key to gaining any future successes. At least in Chile, wide worker-student coalitions and unity have won some concessions, menial and short falling though they may be. The occupation of high schools as well as universities and the boyco5ing of classes and lectures during strikes must be seen as the next key strategies for the UK student body. Chile shows us that we are not alone in our ﬁght to save education and create equal opportunity. The global nature of our struggle should provide us with renewed belief and inspiration in what will be a long winter of discontent.

We have much to learn from Chile’s student movement - their ba le is a lot like ours

Nazneen Jivraj SOAS

“It remains a curious fact

that violence by Iranian-backed Syria is condemned by the West, yet what can only be described as an informal Saudi occupation is justifiable in Bahrain.”

Ibrahim Adaci SOAS

“Nomads may have traded

their ca"le and sheep for caravans and trailer parks but we still have no time for their lifestyle.”

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Agree? Disagree?Your views: comment@london-student.net

Let’s abandon our double standards on Bahrain Over the past few months, we’ve seen the situation in Bahrain progress from what William Hague would call ‘mere concern’ to harrowing outbreaks of violence and bogus military trials. In the wake of £53m of US arms being sold to the Bahraini Kingdom, my heart sinks to know that one day, these goods will most likely be used to the detriment of mankind. Why have self-interests prevailed where the value of freedom has died in the hands of dictators and greedy Sheikhs? It’s ironic to think that western adulation for the principle of democracy exists alongside their endorsement of tyranny in Bahrain. The phrase ‘liberté, egalité, fraternité’ echoes through revolutions old and new freedom is the foundation for equality as well as a community devoid of conﬂict and opposed to egoism. So when the people of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia pleaded for help to be released from the claws of their despots, the West dropped it’s ageold relations and denounced the use of government force. But when Saudi Arabia sent their army to the Bahraini borders to monitor and (possibly) quash the developing protests, where was democracy then? Are these people not entitled to the same legitimate aspirations of social freedom and independence?

Instead of protecting its own fickle relationship with Saudi Arabia and its masses of oil, the West must drop the double standards and start giving a voice to Bahrain and it’s people. Slightly north, the ruling Alawite regime in Syria has come heavily under criticism for quelling protests by the largely disillusioned Sunni majority; Hilary Clinton has gone as far as to call all countries to boyco3 Assad and his antics. It remains a curious fact that violence by Iranian-backed Syria is condemned by the West, yet what can only be described as an informal Saudi occupation is justifiable in Bahrain. With doctors being subjected to ignominious military trials for supposedly manipulating protests for their own political agenda, the West stands by to watch the sham that is Khalifa and his Kingdom. And of course, we cannot forget that timeworn Sunni - Shiite issue. Drawing parallels to Syria, it is wholly unfair that an elitist minority should govern a majority; this type of undisputed rule and power only serves to exacerbate sectarian divides. The West should no longer be allowed to manipulate the religion card. If ignored, this silent but explosive issue could lead to a deadly religious conflict, claiming the lives of thousands

as we’ve witnessed in Iraq. To state the obvious, it has become more than apparent that Bahrain has surpassed the check-point of mere ‘public disruption’. Now more than ever, the West should cut their loose and meaningless nature of criticism and choose harsher words - and deeds. But this is not to say that they should interfere with direct action. As a long standing tradition, Western powers rush to send their planes and missiles into foreign lands to establish to the world that they are true icons of liberalism. Their scepticism in the power of public condemnation on an international platform does li3le to aid the oppressed, but their voice has the potential to kindle revolutions like we’ve seen across the globe - where the oppressed learn to shape their future and value their freedoms. So what next? Why can the fervor of the Arab Spring not be breathed into Bahrain? As ever, the youth must stand united to denounce the lack of Western judgement. They must forget their backgrounds, their religions and revoke Khalifa’s licence to kill their spirit, their freedom and their voice - because a drop of blood is always worth more than a drop of oil.

Right or wrong, the Dale Farm eviction demonstrates an ancient division in society

Much has been wri3en in many circles on the controversial legal ba3le and now physical ba3le over the Dale Farm Irish traveller site. With virtually no knowledge of the details of what has taken place at the site, I won’t waste the reader’s time with an opinion piece on the morality of what is occurring or pass judgement on either side. As a historian however I will instead bore you with another story. Because despite not knowing very much about the happenings at the site, all I had to hear was the word traveller and of a local council legal issue to know that this was another chapter in the ancient ba3le we call the steppe vs the sown. This ba3le is the oldest one in human history and arguably the most fundamental. The disdain and mutual animosity between the nomadic and se3led populations of the world have existed since time immemorial and will not end at Dale Farm. All conﬂicts are born out of our differences and the diﬀerence in question is as fundamental as they get. We are the ‘civilised’ se3led peoples with culture, they are the ‘backwards’ and ‘barbarian’ people who enjoy nothing more than to pillage and ruin all we hold dear. For the nomadic peoples they are the real

men whereas we are the dustscratchers who spend our time digging our nails into the soil. Of course in the modern era our prejudices have moved on somewhat, but we still have no time for the other way of life. You only need to look at how acceptable it is to use derogatory terms such as ‘pikey’ for evidence of how deep-rooted prejudice is. And aside from Dale Farm this conflict is still raging across the UK in several different councils where the nomadic way of life is being cracked down on with many a3empts to close unauthorised traveller sites. Across Europe as well gypsy communities are living in increasingly intolerant environments. The story has been the same all over the world throughout history. In the east in China the main enemy was always the northern barbarians, this conflict was fully realised when the Mongol tribes were united and exploded out of the north. This story is also the same in the Middle East, with the nomadic Arab tribes being despised by the se3led civilisations to their north. And again this model is also repeated in East Africa where the Somali nomadic pastoralists had their way of life destroyed systematically by Kenyan authorities.

I could go on and on. It is just the way of the world. Nomads may have traded their ca3le and sheep for caravans and trailer parks but we still have no time for their lifestyle and they still have a dislike for settled life. This is not like racism where we realise one day that we aren’t so different. For some reason, whether someone lives somewhere permanently or is always on the move seems to be a difference we can’t get beyond. So while the knowledge of how this conflict originates will not exactly bring comfort to those travellers being evicted from their homes or convince the council to let them stay, it is still useful to know just what this ba3le is. There is no special aggravated dispute between the English and the Irish travellers in the UK. No, this is simply the oldest and arguably the most natural conflict in the world. Sadly it doesn’t seem like it will end any time soon either.

Gaddaffi’s death is a sign that fear no longer rules the Middle East Abubakr Al-Shamahi Comment editor

Ben Ali in exile. Mubarak in jail. Gaddafi dead. Assad and Saleh on the edge, clinging on for their dear lives (literally). Who’d have thought that 2011 would bring the beginning of the end of the Arab dictator? These are the leaders whose faces were plastered all over public buildings, creating the fake admiration that the regimes so desperately needed. Underneath that veneer lay their real power base - the terror they inspired in their people. And then the fear barrier broke. In fact, the fear has now been reversed. The people are no longer afraid of the ruler; it is the opposite. They are so afraid that in Syria they arrest and torture school-children. In Bahrain they try nurses and doctors. In Yemen they shell protest camps. The sight of Gaddafi being taken by his captors will have shaken the remaining despots to their core. It probably would have been be3er to have seen Gaddafi on trial, to see him squirm, to hear the secrets. But didn’t the Italians kill Mussolini? Didn’t the French Resistance execute the Nazi collaborators? Didn’t the Americans send Bin Laden to his watery grave? Many of those asking why Gaddafi has been summarily executed weren’t paying a3ention when he ordered the deaths of political prisoners at Abu Salim. Or the students hanged live on state television. Or those who died when he invaded neighbouring Chad. There is an unfortunate focus by well-meaning people on the actions of the West, rather than the actions of the home-grown dictators the people of the ‘East’ are trying to overthrow. The internal oppressor for the people of Libya was far worse than any external oppressor in the form of Nato. The Libyan people know the oppression they have faced; they have lived it. They don’t need those who only took an interest this year to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Study abroad: Banking

The Lyric Pic

We continue our focus on London study abroad focus and take a closer look at the difficulties of banking in the Eurozone - page 15

Our photographic centrespread feature which we open up to students every issue - page 16 & 17

Strasbourg, France WRITER

Katarzyna Lasinska

Possibly the most horrifying encounter with the French that I have experienced since my arrival in the cosy city of Strasbourg was the long and dreadful process of se7ing up a bank account. “Birth certificate?” I asked, slightly confused. “Birth certificate?” “C’est la procedure.” The procedure. Of course. In all my 20 years I wouldn’t have thought you’d need a birth certificate for anything other than to certify birth, and since I was physically present, carrying some form of ID or another and an uncontrolled open-mouthed expression of bewilderment, I thought a birth certificate to be highly unnecessary. I wondered if dancing around in front of the clerk in a sombrero and matching goggles would help the cause of proving my physical existence (a6er all, being born is one of life’s great accomplishments – millions and trillions of particles once came together to form nothing other than you – congratulations), but a6er a few seconds dismissed it and thought no more of the ma7er. A6er what seemed like long hours of incomprehensible conversation back and forth with the clerk, I started to rummage in my purse out of both exasperation and a hope for nothing short of a miracle. How else was I to open this bank account? I started pulling things out with the secret hope that they would do some good, or at least distract the annoyed banker: hand sanitizer, a half-eaten croissant, gum, tissues, something unidentifiable, and finally something rectangular and burgundy looking. Alas, my passport. “Ça suffit.” Was the instant and crisp remark of the clerk. “Wha?” I started to ask, but didn’t get to finish as I watched my passport being whisked away from my grasp and swi6ly opened to the photograph page. I stood there, the uncontrolled open-mouthed expression of bewilderment still glued on my face, and stared as the clerk began filling in my personal data. This continued for some hours, of course, as

The changing face of protest

Protests and protestors are increasingly making headlines; we take a look at the different forms they’re now taking page 18 & 19

Should London adopt a zero-tolerance policy to graffiti?

Amanpreet Paul explores London’s street art and, particularly, the work of Banksy - page 20

Society Spotlight: Harry Potter

London Student brings you a magical preview of the growing Harry Potter Society - page 20

Study Abroad stories: Banking

the French are rather slow when it comes to administrative issues, but finally, a6er more time than is required for a round trip around the world twice – the clerk said with an air of satisfaction: “C’est parfait.” Perfect. Yes, if only someone would have told me that avoiding the whole enchilada with the birth certificate and the exasperated hours that came with it was as simple as presenting my ba7y old passport, we would have had a whole different story. But alas, with the French, it’s never simple. Their ideal is to present some information, reverse it, reverse it again except for points 12a and 146J-D, discs C-E, sub-drives C and F and expect everyone to follow (a bit like American tax forms, I hasten to add). When coming to France, it is crucial to accept the French ways, however complicated and inconvenient they may be. Failure to do so may result in headaches, vomiting, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances, or all of the above. There is really no use in spending hours analysing why this is so: The French are, well, French – and will be forevermore. C’est la vie.

Madrid, Spain

WRITER

Taym Saleh

On arriving in a rather colourful city with substantiallywarmerclimesthanhome,naturally one approaches things with the holidaymentality.ParticularlygiventheSpanish laxity with regards to socialising in the evening, and, it seems at first, to life in general, it is easy to fall into that mindset, even with the organisational niggles of finding somewheretolive,andregisteringattheuniversity. Soon a6er arriving, though, the tedious home discomforts, such as buying a newmobilephoneSIMcardonlessthanextortionate terms, or opening a bank account, assertthemselves. Neverhavingdoneanyof these things outside England, there are the obviousdifficulties,languagebarrieraside,of ge7ing to know how systems work, and in whatdirectiontoproceed.Obstaclesthenare ofcoursetobeexpected.ButIwentontodiscoversomethingratheroddaboutSpain.The firstthingis,inawaythatconformsali7leto the Latin stereotype, that organisational rigourisnotaparticularlyhighlyprizedqual-

ity.Butatthesametime,thereisacertainthoroughgoing officiousness. In other words, in Spaintheyliketowritecomplicatedrules,but they are not very bothered about following them. The first contact I had with weird, winding, rickety rules was in my first week, when I joined a queue to enter a restaurant. There is in Spain a very large – almost ubiquitous – chain of department stores called El CorteInglés.Onthetopfloorofeachbranch thereisarestaurantandcafé.Now,asfarasI know,ineveryeateryintheworld,oneeither finds a table independently, or waits for a table to become available and has a waiter oversee the process and guide them to it. When I came to said restaurant’s entrance, however,Ifoundasmallticketdispenser,that spatoutali7lepieceofpaperwithanumber onit.Althoughperhapsafi6hofallthetables were unoccupied, I had to wait until my number appeared on a screen above us, as one would at the fish counter at Sainsbury’s, meaning I had to wait not only for those in front of me to find a place, but also for the waiter to find the time and the inclination to pressthebu7ontochangethenumberonthe screen every time a customer was a7ended to.WhenIeventuallysatdown,ordered,and atetheiroverpricedpasta,Ispentperhapsan hourtryingtoworkoutwhatbenefitanyone gets from such a system. This sort of thing is

Caixa Catalunya: a large bank in Spain. Photo: Flickr user papalars

notnecessarilythenorm,butitisindicativeof how a country acts, as, for example, is its insistencethatonepresentsphotographicidentification when trying to make a purchase with a debit card. The biggest bureaucratic hassle,though,wasopeningabankaccount. OnedayIwalkedintoSantander,thebiggest bank in Spain, and had the following conversation: “Gooda6ernoon,howmayIhelp you?”“Hello,Iwouldliketoopenabankaccount.Iamaninternationalstudentstayingin Madrid for a year and I would like somewhere safe to put my money, and be able to accessitwithoutpayingcommission.” “Well, we’llseeaboutthat.Areyouanofficiallycertified resident in Spain?” “Erm…” “No, you’renot.AsanEUcitizen,youcanregister as a resident at one specific police station in allMadrid,youwillreceivearesidencynumberandwiththatyoucanfulfilallyourcommission-free dreams!” “And if I don’t register?” “Well, in that case, you will be charged 40 Euros pa for holding a bank account,20forhavingadebitcard,andcertain other unspecified charges.” “Gosh.” “Indeed.” Ultimately, I did not heed his advice, and found a Santander branch on my campus that told me that the above information was four years out of date, and the real processactuallysuspiciouslypainless.Those wholabouredundertheliesrecountedabove wenttothespecialpolicestation,foundthatit wasclosedfortherestofthedayat2.30pm,returned on the next day, were given a phone numbertoobtaintheresidencynumber,tried thenumber,foundoutitdidnotwork,went to Santander again, were referred to a Santander International branch, went there, and werereferredinsteadtoaSantanderInternationalDeluxebranch.Heretheygaveup,and eventually learnt of the more favourable terms. Beneath all the paper thickets there is stillacertainrelaxednessaboutaffairshere.A coursemate of mine, both at King’s and in Madrid, is not an EU citizen, and therefore needs a student visa. While in London she madeenquiriesintothema7er,butdidn’tget veryfar.Attheairport,shewantedtoaskthe officials who check passports, but they seemedmoreinterestedinsaying“hello”and moving her along. When she visited the International Students’ Office on campus, whosejob,insofarastheyhaveone,istodeal with problems like this, simply said: “Well, youhaveatouristvisa,don’tyou?You’rehere legally, aren’t you? And you’re not causing any problems for anyone? Not breaking the law, or anything like that? Well, then, what’s the problem?” And I suppose “what’s the problem?” rather sums up the Spanish a7itudetosuchobstacles.

THE LYRIC PIC

Every issue, we open up our centre spread to submissions from photographers in a new competition called ‘The Lyric Pic’.

The idea is to shoot an image that you associate with one of your favourite lyrics. For example, you may choose to take a pastoral picture of forests to accompany Bob Dylan’s ‘upon four-legged forest clouds the cowboy angel rides’ lyric. Send your submissions to: photo@london-student.net

The best submissions will feature in the paper throughout the year.

NAME:INGRIDAKERUSAUSKAITE INSTITUTION: SOAS

CAMERA SETTINGS: Canon 550D LYRIC: Wave your flag K’Naan

LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER: I took this photo in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, while I was interning at UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and was updating the profiles of all the refugee camps in the country. I had to visit schools, hospitals and social service centres run by UNRWA, interview the people working there and take some photos. I remember making the driver stop in the middle of our route so that I could take a photo of these boys lined up just outside their school singing national and traditional Palestinian songs.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

The Changing Face of Protest Writer Stanley Wilfrid Merttens Photographer Tom Nicholson

February 2003. I am 18. A million people surge through London, defiant that the government cannot go to war with Iraq a6er such a manifestation of popular feeling. Radical, moderate, young, old, religious, and otherwise, all march together, full of a peaceful insolence that echoes those iconic marches on Washington during Vietnam. Everyone is aware of the accepted ways of acting: you shout your guts out, you chant slogans, you don’t push, you wave placards. The protest was praised for the absence of violence and the mere handful of arrests: 20 people had sat down in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and brought traffic to a standstill. It was made clear in all reports that those arrested represented a small minority of protesters. The message was obvious: peaceful protest is a commendable activity for a conscientious citizen of a democracy, yet over-step the mark, and you break a taboo and bring shame on your cause. In the years following, I watched the Stop the War coalition slowly loose the momentum that had peaked on that bright winter day. I myself fell from activism, as did many of my friends who had been radicalized by the actions of western governments post 9-11. We had felt great that day; we exorcised our youthful frustration, we were closer to our neighbors, to people of differThe ent classes, politidifference cal persuasions, between and cultural Freedom backgrounds. We Fighter and Insurgent went home feelcan mean ing like we had war, just as done something. the It is 9 years down difference the line and more between Protest and than 100,000 Iraqi Riot, can civilians are mean that a dead. police So what had we officer or done? An answer activist can be found in looses or keeps their the theories of freedom. anthropologist Victor Turner. Studying the vibrant ritual life of the Ndembu in what is now Zambia, he suggested that rituals express social tensions then affirm unity in spite of them. They do this by providing periods where normal social rules are suspended and tensions dramatized. Instead of resorting to fisticuffs or mutiny against the elders, the tribe worked out resentments through ritualized forms of dance and humor. These events created feelings of solidarity and hope for

the future, and also let off enough steam for their lives to continue as normal. To me it is clear that the social process that Turner described easing the political tensions among the Ndembu, are active on a larger scale in protests such as Don’t A7ack Iraq; everyone exorcises some frustration and the next day it is business as usual. But this is changing. The last year has seen a series of events that have stimulated an impassioned debate over acceptable forms of dissent. Since the mainly student-led occupation of Tory HQ Milb a n k Really what was Tower last threatening at winter, Milbank was less conservathe actions of tive interindividual ests in students (which society NUS president have tried Liam Burns to reassert recently pointed the tradiout would tional cerreceive only a emonies caution on a of peacenormal Saturday ful protest, night) but the whilst very fact that the many radprotest had so unpredictably icals have spilled from its used Milritual bank to boundaries. try to secure new territory for what is considered legitimate demonstration. In such a tussle both camps a7empt to redefine then monopolize powerful concepts and values; in this case Democracy, The Law, and Protest. Reports from either side present the behavior of the other as an a7ack upon these values, and by implication identify themselves as the defenders of their purity. For instance the Daily Mail reported on Milbank “A large number of middleclass students… travelled to Central London to take part peacefully in their first demonstration.” Here clearly we see a position staked on Protest in general: innocent middle-class kids go on them (perhaps as a rite-of-passage) and they are generally condonable. However, they come into contact with “Hardcore leaders of student mob” such as the “masked Tanzil Chowdhury”, or Clare Solomon who “has served on a commi7ee for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities” and elements such as these corrupt what was a healthy demonstration of Democracy into a Riot. On the other side of the fence we find top human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield, who came out of retirement to defend Milbank protester Alfie Meadows. Mansfield paints a picture of a government that uses legal action and police brutality (Meadows required brain surgery a6er being hit re-

peatedly in the head by police) to scare its citizens into obedience. This is a very common interpretation of events in counter-culture circles: the Powers That Be pollute pure Democracy by impinging on people’s Right to Protest, and misusing The Law. I am not trying to show that either camp is factually wrong or right, just how they both seek to redefine and rearrange these sacred concepts, then appeal to the general public to have them purged of the threat posed by the other side. This may take the form of a prison sentence for an activist or an investigation into the police, but the real victory is to have the other side’s definitions debunked in the collective consciousness. This tug-of-war over words is enacted by large numbers of people all the time, rather than a conspiracy of a few politicians and radicals. It is words that regulate our social spaces and the rites which we enact in them. Ultimately “the people” in the broadest sense are the ones who accept or reject definitions of words, and thus the boundaries that words control. The difference between Freedom Fighter and Insurgent can mean war, just as the difference between Protest and Riot, can mean that a police officer or activist looses or keeps their freedom. Frank Fernie is just such an activist. He is a 20 year old student-to-be from York. He was arrested a6er the media released images of him throwing two sticks at police lines at the TUC/UK Uncut March for the Alternative in the spring. The projectiles hit nobody, and Frank pleaded guilty, but still received a harsh sentence of 12 months with the

justiﬁcation that an example had to be made. More students arrested in the last year are being tried this week, most of them are pleading guilty. The problem that the legal establishment faces is that they are under pressure to send a clear message because of the feeling that the protests overstepped the limits of what is a reasonable, but then there have been very few serious breaches of the law. This leads prosecutors to push minor oﬀenses to charges carrying higher maximum sentences. In the case of those who were arrested for the occupation of boutique supermarket Fortnum and Mason, also in the spring, ‘trespass’ has become ‘aggravated trespass’. Despite the absence of any damage to property the prosecution does have a case considering the politically aggravated nature of the occupation. However, the decision to only charge 30 persons out of the 100 detained, on the grounds that more “is not in the public interest”, has led to many of the remainder using their right to revive a criminal prosecution and demanding to be tried in “I am Spartacus” like solidarity with those facing jail time. Of course if they are found not guilty it throws huge doubt on the 30 who are in the dock for the same crime with the same evidence. Bryan Simpson, who was arrested in a dawn raid to his Glasgow address a few weeks a6er Milbank, faces the second most serious public order charge, ‘violent disorder’, when his crimes would probably usually be seen as ‘affray’. Even Robert Short, prosecuting,

Frank Fernie is an activist. He is a 20 year old studentto-be from York. He was arrested after the media released images of him throwing two sticks at police lines at the TUC/UK uncut March for the Alternative in the spring. The projectiles hit nobody, and Frank pleaded guilty, but still received a harsh sentence of 12 months with the justification that an example had to be made.

said that Mr. Simpson was "seen to be hostile towards police oﬃcers but not violent". Really what was threatening at Milbank was less the actions of individual students (which NUS resident Liam Burns recently pointed out would receive only a caution on a normal Saturday night) but the very fact that the protest had so unpredictably spilled from its ritual boundaries. Tenuous charges severely problematize the courts claim to stand for justice as they frankly admit to their sentences being about social engineering rather than unbiased judgments on the crimes commi7ed. Equally, the activist’s constant refrain of Right to Protest and Peaceful Demonstration is undermined by outbursts of emotive, unplanned assaults on property, the police, or Camilla Parker-Bowls. Such contradictions on both sides have created considerable confusion. I see the events of the summer as following on directly from this confusion.

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

In the student troubles slogans turned to screams of primal anger and exaltation as the ceremony of protest was thrown oﬀ in favor of tentative new action. Once the police had used ke4ling, or injured someone, then actually the more damage the protesters did the more reasonable police tactics would appear at the end of the day. This created escalating circumstances that lead to the creation of those thrilling pockets of disobedience in which people swung from ﬂagpoles and brandished police helmets. The spontaneity of these actions makes them joyful or boisterous, and many read that to mean that they are just for fun and not really political, because we associate politics with the solemnity of a ritual action like a march or a strike. But this joy comes from the unbounded freedom that lies behind the social regulations that inhibit our behavior. As all power in the end is founded upon such internalized rules, the breaking of them is inherently political. Turner posits that rituals work because they allow us to change, suspend or break these rules safe in the knowledge that once the game is over normal conduct will be resumed. Behavior that is uninhibited, public, and non-ritualized (e.g. stealing a policeman’s hat in the street) reveals the fundamental weakness of the symbols of authority. Those with a lot invested in society may want to violently reassert normality in the wake of such a performance, but those at the bo4om become aware of the potential to release their pent-up communal grievances and repressed desires. People are not stopped from acting on these sentiments by fear of the police (who are a ubiquitous presence in many of the rioters’ lives anyway) but by powerful social mores. What happened in the

summer is that those people with no reason not to riot found cracks in the invisible barrier that has stopped them so far. So while I have no time for formulaic demonstrations that Westminster condones, licenses, then ignores, I also recognize that if the boundaries of demonstration are continually transgressed, then the severe disgruntlement and dislocation of many in our sociTenuous ety will be recharges leased in the severely form of an uncerproblematize the courts emonious period claim to of unrestrained stand for anarchy. If any justice as movement manthey frankly ages to ritualize admit to their and thus focus sentences being about the expression social the acute but engineering ephemeral antirather than establishmentarunbiased ian sentiment in judgments on the the young today, crimes then they will committed. harness a weapon of unspeakable power. There are those of us who relish that prospect, and those who dread it. What I hope we all can agree on however, is that the harsh sentences meted out to young people over the last year, along with the insistence that their actions indicate nothing but “pure criminality”, are a4empts to further repress contradictions that patently exist. By revolution or reform, we need to clinically address the exasperation that has led young people to completely abandon any procedure in their engagement with the nation.

Saving New Cross Library Writer William Bloomfield

Earlier this year, The Leopard reported that the New Cross Library was closing down indefinitely. But take a wonder down New Cross Road and you won’t find closed shutters. Indeed you may even find Gill Hart, who is, as her name would suggest, a lady with a wonderfully nurturing smile. “We don’t know about the future yet”, Gill explains as she describes the struggles of the last two months with victorious panache. She continues to tell how her and a dedicated group of volunteers have fought to keep the library open, eventually being granted a temporary license to operate by Lewisham Council. “The Council took sixty percent of the books; all the good ones basically.” However, that didn’t deter the campaigners: “This has become more than just a library; this is an exchange of ideas for people living in a multicultural society. We have all kinds of clubs; knitting clubs, poetry workshops, reading programs for local schools, baby bounce” - she pauses, “oh, it’s wonderful!” Gill hopes to use the library to improve the prospects of local children, some of whom “don’t have the opportunities we did growing up, most of them don’t have computers or books at home, and we

provide that whilst keeping them off the streets”. Only a few meters away sits 8 year old Leah from the local St James Hatchem School. She is using one of the library’s seven computers. “The staff are very nice here – I did one of the workshops and learnt that poetry is not just about rhyming, it’s about how you feel.” Leah’s school brings her to the library twice a week, and she often comes in to use the computers for homework. In the toddler’s section, Joseph plays with educational books and toys. His mother Lisa Power is worried about the potential closure of the library, for a second time this year. She says it’s vital that it stays open as there isn’t anything else nearby. “Books are expensive to buy; it’s not the kind of thing people can afford to keep at home around here.” The Council claims the library needs an anchor organisation to contribute financially, at which they estimate the costs to be in the line of £25,000 per year in addition to the £60,000 they have already committed to the project. The New Cross library team are in talks with various charitable organisations in an attempt to secure the funding, though at the moment the future remains unclear. Before it was re-opened the library received an estimated 4000 visitors a month, and now receives over 5000 monthly and growing, claims Gill. “We're currently looking for people to run workshops and other activities that can teach vital community skills”. The library is accepting donations via its website at www.nxpl.org.uk.

Block the Bridge Update Writer Matthew Adams

Protests were held on Westminster Bridge by around 3000 people to ﬁght the Health and Social Care bill proposed by the government. The sit-down demonstration was organised by UK Uncut, a group who protests against government ﬁnancial cuts. Many that a4ended are currently working for the NHS. The Bridge, one of London's busiest, was closed until 16:30BST to allow the organised protest.

The protest had a relaxed feel in Westminster, with protesters staging a peaceful protest to make their point heard. Demonstrators held banners saying “Save our NHS” amongst others. Several people had dressed in doctors uniforms with fake blood and injuries. A more daring group of protesters took to ‘playing dead’ in front of the 30 strong police barricade, dressed in t-shirts stating “Privatise this”. However, one arrest was made as violence broke a3er the largely peaceful protests.

A man was taken into police custody a3er a group of around 70 protesters marched to Lambeth Bridge once the original demonstration ended.

Around 40 police officers and 5 riot vans were used to cut off the tearaway protesters once they continued their march along the Thames. Traffic was stopped for almost an hour as the group was 'ke4led' by the police on the North side of the bridge.

A police oﬃcer stated “The protesters were ﬁltered out once the breach of the peace was deemed to have been removed”.

Aggression was caused when protesters were asked to remove any face masks, with police having to use physical force to remove them in some cases. However, any threat was quickly removed by the Metropolitan Police as protesters quickly se4led down a3er the initial unrest.

Students ‘playing dead’ Photos: Tom Nicholson

The Health and Social Care bill that was being opposed is set to be debated in the House of Lords.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Should London adopt a zerotolerance policy to graﬃti? WRITER

Amanpreet Paul

London: one of world’s most thriving capitals, a place that encourages individuality and diversity. Street art aims to reflect and question our society whilst greeting those that daily wander the streets of London. If freedom of expression is what we admire, then should we not allow this in the form of graffiti and street art?

Street art was once regarded as an urban grassroots movement but with the introduction of new technology such as cameras and the internet it has generated a huge following. Anonymous, yet, notorious street artist Banksy suggests, “People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that’s only if it’s done properly.” Although humorous, Banksy seems to contradict himself as his satirical work has been suggested to reflect his politics. Banksy critically questions serious issues such as, social and economic inequality, oppression and resistance against structures in hierarchical societies. Perhaps this is exactly why the government have

labelled his work as ‘vandalism’. Why then, is Banksy still admired by many? Maybe people realise through street art Banksy is making a statement on mankind. Well, if that isn’t noticed then at least his comical art will bring a smile to your face. Why would we want to eliminate such talent from our streets?

Of course, there are always those who use graffiti as a way to rebel, tainting its reputation. Who’s to say that if London were to adopt a zero-tolerance policy it would dissuade vandals? Many graffiti artists admit that the thrill of risking being caught red handed is all part of the art's charm.

Some may exploit the ‘freedom of expression’ that London promotes: particularly when using graffiti to vandalise private property. Does this mean that we eliminate the voice of the talented that have revolutionised our idea of art? Those who have taken it out of exhibitions, to the streets, and proven that graffiti and street art can be just as effective, if not more, when influencing our ideas of the world. Get rid of it? I think not.

Society Spotlight: Harry Po.er WRITER

Carolyn Shearman

Last week there was a terrible communication breakdown, a delayed text message meant no one present at the Harry Potter Society meeting knew I was turning up, not for the first time this Muggle wanted to apparate out of an awkward scenario. Discovering the magic that keeps drawing members to dedicate their hours to a Society is rarely simple, especially to an outsider. Trust me, the ULU Harry Potter Society is utterly brilliant. After the initial confusion had faded, the meeting marched straight into registering the Houses, a notable lack of Ravenclaws in attendance, with an excellent show by Slytherins. Then onto the main meetings activity; Harry Potter Debating. Despite my original plan of

merely observing, I was immediately drawn into the debate, years of books and film knowledge were dislodged from the recesses of my mind, as I passionately argued against the necessity of Sirius' death and did a Psychoanalyst on the character of Snape.... Geeky? Certainly. Enjoyable? Absolutely. It was passionate but without malice that arguments were bantered between the Members.

Debating is only one of the many activities that the Harry Potter Society offers on a weekly basis, from films nights, dramatic parodies, pub quizzes, wizard shows and of course the much loved Quidditch. For those that are unaware of the rules adapted from the books, it is remarkably simple, think of a hybrid between netball and rugby with a room. In existence there is an International Quidditch Association, based in America and has

become a major sport which University students have pioneered and regularly train for. Britain has its own Inter-University League which ULU is hoping to participate in, for the moment the weekends are spent playing it for fun.

Earlier in the week, I stood with Harry Potter President, Harriet Phillipson in the upper levels of ULU with the Sorting Hat placed jauntily on my head. She was explaining the different levels of knowledge between the members, there is no elitist attitude or 'Hermione Crown' for those that are considered bigger fans, some members have just seen the films! For me, many things became clear as the meeting progressed, Harry Potter may have brought these people together but it is the fun, excitement and open friendliness of the members that made my night enjoyable. As the final credits of the last

Harry Potter film roll off our screens, I am sure there was an internationally united thought, what now? Fear not, as the members of the Harry Potter Society assure me, it is far from over. The initial driving force of the books and films may be gone, but fans are not ready to forget a world which has consumed a generation and set imaginations alight. By the way, I’m a Slytherin...

London graffiti Photos by Amanpreet Paul

Harry Potter Society President Harriet Phillipson wearing the famous Sorting Hat

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

COMMUNITY

The social media issue includes Community’s tribute to the technology legend Steve Jobs - page 22

Victoria Yates

COMMUNITY EDITOR

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Martin Poschenrieder’s story of championship races, five star hotels and a passion for entrepreneurial risk - page 23

Ahmad Bakhiet

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDITOR

SCIENCE

Is your glass half-full? Science considers recent findings which may hold the key to your optimistic outlook - page 25

Rachel Mundy Harriet Jarle.

Wielding some Klout

SCIENCE EDITORS

Undertaking a social media experiment

Writer Victoria Yates Community Editor

Modern day media is a world where the journalist should be a Swiss army knife of self-starter skills of the electronic variety. Today’s hacks are expected to be masters of the digital arts in all manner of mediums from blogging to the pithy 140 word-liner. From their cradle of power in the shiny chrome recesses of Silicon Valley, the formerly pitiable high-school nerds and the lost generation of Ivy League deserters are dictating the habits of generations. The latest vogue concept oscillates from the paciﬁc coast into the contemporary psyche like a public broadcast, updating the norms of discourse with an overnight update. What is most striking about this revolution is that it isn’t pivoted around the teenage fad-hunters; the What is most striking about this revolution is that it isn’t pivoted around the teenage fad-hunters; the older demographic isn’t just using new media, they’re dominating it

older demographic isn’t just using new media, they’re dominating it. From Stephen Fry’s Twi8er shaped throne a featured website link will rain down 3,000-500,000 users onto the poor site’s server within an hour, while Barack Obama can boast over G8 canapés that more than 10 million people will be following his Twitpic japery. And here, we come to my experiment. I have always been a retiring social media user. While my Dad forges ahead with his trendy, pretrendy, and no-one-else-has-heardof-it-its that cool new media exploits, I have received the email invites with genuine interest and minimal actualization. I simply didn’t have it in me to really try and game the system; I was aﬄicted with what a friend of

mine referred to as ‘social media self esteem issues’, an aching insistence that you Social media don’t have anyis, for all the thing of worth to gleam and share at this gloss and meglamorous and chanical dehuexciting dinner manisation, party. But now, sort of like reCommunity is turning to aiming to join high school, the new millenonly inversed nium, and we’re going to need your help. For the next three issues I am embarking on what I refer to (with its infinitely clever nuisance) as ‘the Klout experiment’. For those of you who haven’t heard of Klout it is a social media influence tracker which looks at what you do, and gives you a precise and brutal breakdown of your impact on the digital world (presently along the lines of you chat, its kind of wi8y sometimes). Within its pre-ascribed categories, and with the help of those more adept at gaming this new world order than I, we aim to launch Community onto the world and clamber up the Klout square like a social climbing WAG. Week 1- Fraternise and Prosper The advice for becoming a successful Klout user reads like your mother’s last words before she pushed you out of the mini-wagon at kindergarten and into the hordes of distinctly less coddling individuals you would come to refer to as your peers. Li8le gems along the lines of ‘be yourself’ and ‘interact with people’ li8er the road to the digital social media self-help section. Alas, what these uninventive li8le titbits lack in originality based flair they make up for in their sheer, inarguable common sense. Social media is, for all the gleam and gloss and mechanical dehumanisation, sort of like returning to high school, only inversed. The popularity contest may have switched mediums, a8ractiveness is harder to implement as a so-

cial gauge in a world where the image of you comes pre-set as a fattened out stickman, but its still there. In this new order, the nerds win, the class clowns rule, and the AV kids thrive. As such, as with school, paying a8ention to your crowd weighs heavily on your prospects. Virtual relationships must be garnered, fostered, and sustained if you hope to have any sense of a discipleship. Such groundwork covered, the tentative initial steps can be concisely captured in the first two commandments of social media gospel: 1 / A niche is a vital first component to forming an online identity. All the guides echo the lifelong mantra ‘you can’t be good at everything’, and so we specialise. Topics of choice: London, and Media 2 / Nestling myself into the midst of a digital community where my interest areas will be fostered with a sympathetic ear (and hopefully an eager retweet finger) is vitally to realising topical influence. As abides the social decorum of Twi8er, and its stalkerish overtones, I follow and in turn am hopefully followed. Aims: Turn my 19 followers into 29

Get the Mac out. flickr/Goobimama

ACADEMIA

Revisiting the education cuts, does the government care about academia? - page 26

Valeriya Nefyodova ACADEMIA EDITOR

PSYCHOLOGY

Find yourself the wall flower in social situations? See Saul’s advice on conquering your anxiety - page 27

Saul Hillman

PSYCHOLOGIST IN RESIDENCE

The Green Column

The canary in the coal mine: Considering climate loans Writer Ben Parfitt UCL

depressing issue of environmental injustice and inequality,” she acknowledges with the somber face of a woman in the path of a looming “The World Bank,” the woman next apocalypse. “But it is important to to me mu8ered, “they’re just up to meet people where they are. It is imno good. No good at all.” She’d portant to tell a human story. When sniffed a conspiracy; a conspiracy in we go to bed we don’t think about which the World Bank seeks to furNigerians and Bangladeshis. We ther elevate the rich and plunge the think about ourselves, our own selfpoor deeper still into the pit of ish lifestyles.” poverty. Maria vividly describes the global Climate loans were the brunt of her environmental order in which the disgruntlement. It was argued that poorest are the first to be suffer as a the World Bank climate loans lack leresult of climate change. 22 out of the gitimacy and transparency. She tells 28 countries most at risk of climate me that the world’s poorest countries change are African, for example. It is are cornered into accepting loans, the poor who are the first to test the rather than grants, to deal with isconsequences. They are canaries in sues that they coalmines. did not cause. But through This injustice these stories of forms the thrust dread and of the World shame, we get D e ve l o p m e n t no closer to a Movement workable solu(WDM) ‘Africa tion. Lidy Demands CliNacpil of Jumate Justice’ bilee South, an campaign international which last week campaigning visited ULU to network, prospread the mesposes reparasage. tions according The UK govto the principle ernment, one of that every the Bank’s most human being is powerful mementitled to an bers, is said to equal space in be a key supthe world. “This porter of cliis not just about mate loans. an excess of “The UK is Africa in our Hands. greenhouse pushing climate Rose Fyson- Oxfam International gases but about loans on occupying the Bangladesh, space other have a right to,” she says. and other already indebted counLidy works in the Phillipines where tries, via the undemocratic World whole swathes of land are at risk of Bank,” explains Ahmed Swapan, a rising sea levels – whole communiBangladeshi ‘ally’ of WDM. ties are helpless to submersion. “These loans will only increase our “Those that deprive others owe a already huge debt burden, and redebt for the problems they have paying them will take money away caused. Climate debt has to be paid from other vital areas, like health and back – radically, immediately!” education… The UK government “But the space is more important will not only increase poverty and inthan the debt. The bad times will justice, but will also risk undermincome and we will lose even more ising international negotiations on lands. It is now a question of just climate change.” how bad things will get.” So is there a way out? Activist, Visit www.wdm.org.uk to join the Maria Adebowale, suggests there campaign. may well be – we just need to wake Follow Ben on @bparf up and find it. “Climate change is a

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE3

Someone to aspire to: LS_Arts on the ﬁckle love aﬀair with social media

1/5 Siri

[ENTREPREUNERSHIP]

Siri is one of the main new features of iOS 5 and is being touted as "the future of artificial intelligence." The software takes verbal commands and questions, and responds with computer-generated speech and actions. London Student has been putting it through its paces and can safely *say* it’s a landmark application that even Steve would be proud of. Not least of all because Siri has also been recognised as having a great sense of humour in response to a variety of ridiculous questions users are asking it. Available for: iphone 4s

Writer Travis Riley Arts Editor

My relationship with Klout can be compared to that of a troubled marriage. I see Klout every day, and it very much forms the basis of my Twi8er self-esteem, but when inevitably my Klout disappoints me, plummeting as it will from time to If you can find time, we don’t your way into exactly see eye to the right cireye. There cercles, to talk tainly is an unabout the fairness inherent things you in the Klout alknow about, to gorithm. the people One day withwho will be inout retweets terested to leaves my Klout know, then suspended, as if your Klout will looking down at be just fine the next day’s inevitable sheer drop. As a rule this will be followed by a slow incline as I work my Klout back up to it’s previous standpoint, leaving my chart looking more like a big dipper than a social media forecast. Frustrating though this is, I don’t think people should be so

quick to judge Klout on what is undeniably a reflection of the workings of the social media world. What is trending one minute will soon be the distant past, and you who felt so popular might find yourself very quickly out of favour. There is a dark side to Klout, and it can cause a person to be particularly disengenous. I have friends who have tweeted incessantly at Klout heavyweights like Marcus Du Sautoy and Ben Goldacre, fishing for that all elusive retweet or @mention, but the thrill is all too short lived. As fast as they climb up the ladder they will come crashing down from their social media high in a beautiful flight of karmic retribution. As a newspaper editor, I have the ultimate Klout weapon in my arsenal, the good review. Used well, this has found me climbing well above

“Stay hungry, stay foolish” Requiem to a fallen giant

Writer Victoria Yates Community Editor

You would be hard pressed not to have heard of Steve Jobs’ passing on the 6th of October. In the litany of eulogies heralded from all echelons of the media world, the blogosphere, and the world’s masses, how you frame such a ﬁgure as Jobs has been shown to be a divisive issue. Upon the death of such an historic individual it can be easy to sing their praises into a heroic chorus which levels their life with a magnitude that, in its profoundly human nature, it did not reach. And indeed, there are some who throw their voices into the wind to decry Jobs in all manner of insults, denouncing him as a brutally cunning salesman whose ability to exploit our inner cultish drives

stephen Fry 6.10.11 stephenfry.com

made the naïve world roll over and lap up yet another unremarkable product. Some of you may agree, the diehards on the other side of the advert screen who propound the PC, or who throw alo7 their Blackberry, Android, or Samsung, are welcome to their heroes, but I will have mine. For me Jobs will forever be a true titan of the age. He wasn’t just another CEO who built an empire and a healthy bank balance on the back of clever marketing and an infamously pedantic eye for detail. Jobs represented something greater than a business case study. How many companies have ridden the waves of a media event that proclaimed their loyal fans to be acolytes of a quasi-religion; whose products and identity have inspired the same mental reaction as God has on the minds of his faithful?

“Henry Ford didn’t invent the motor car, Rockefeller didn’t discover how to crack crude oil into petrol, Disney didn’t invent animation, the Macdonald brothers didn’t invent the hamburger, Martin Luther King didn’t invent oratory, neither Jane Austen, Tolstoy nor Flaubert invented the novel and D. W. Griffith, the Warner Brothers, Irving Thalberg and Steven Spielberg didn’t invent film-making. Steve Jobs didn’t invent computers and he didn’t invent packet switching or the mouse. But he saw that there were no limits to the power that creative combinations of technology and design could accomplish.”

my Klout weight on occasion. Galleries, a7er all, can’t help but retweet the praise the paper has given them. The main thrust of my Klout status however, has simply been a good use of Twi8er. If you can find your way into the right circles, to talk about the things you know about, to the people who will be interested to know, then your Klout will be just fine. As a final piece of guidance, if you look to the “Klout Style” Celebrity box you will find it says “You’re probably famous in real life”. There is something very telling about this. This is the box to be in, it is as far from Observer as a Klout user can come, and surely represents those who have truly made it on social media, and yet, what we learn, is -real social media popularity is garnered by those who don’t just sit around and tweet all day. In an intricate web of tangible and coincidental ways Jobs has reconfigured the terms of modernity. His products have, in an irony of cyclical cause-and-effect, afforded the tools by which the Internet was formed before redefining the way that we use it. He changed the manner of personal communication, and brought into our outstretched palms the incarnations of science fiction fancy. I only wish we could all see what he would have done next. Of course, he did none of t h e s e t h i n g s alone. His was a team of disciples whose unique and exorbitant talents were not always given society’s praise, and whose skills

Siri shows off its sense of humour. Michael Arrington

Follow the ba&le on Twi&er @LS_Arts and @LS_CommunityEd and dedication were the platform from which Jobs and his company launched themselves onto history. Their continued mark into the unchartered waters of the post-Jobs era has a great chance of prolonging a remarkable legacy. We followed Jobs along an unchartered path, believing faithfully in his innovations and his dreams of the future making them our own. If you need any greater proof of his impact you only had to turn on a computer, or a television to see the world heave a collective sob of grief. His was a mind which deﬁned a generation, and he won’t soon be forgotten.

In memory of Jobs and his remarkable legacy we have selected our favourite apps for you to go and explore. From oranisational tools to inspirational discussions, the breadth of these alone show how widespread and profound changes which Jobs and Apple helped implement have been on our modern world.

2/5 TED

[COMMUNITY]

This app is one of the best I’ve come across. Not only does it give you round the clock access to the brilliant catalogue of TED talks but the clever developers have added such features as the ‘inspire me’ section where you can search for a talk by its effect; be it something courageous, funny, beautiful, ingenious, or informative, you need look no further. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and with this app, all the tools you need are right in your pocket. Available for: iphone and ipad

3/5

Evernote

[ACADEMIA]

Save your meetings/conference/lecture notes and up-load documents which you might need on-the-go, together with notesharing across computers and devices. Store links, audio files, images and even passwords ( as it supports encryption at the file level) and enjoy the "to-do" function, full-text search and nested notebook. Our verdict: as if created for academia! Available for: iphone and ipad

4/5

Remember the Milk [PSYCHOLOGY]

A key part of keeping on top of all your work, as Saul sagely expounded last issue, is keeping track of your tasks and creating a concise and clear organizational system. Remember the Milk is an easy to use (and syncable) planning app which allows you to create mixed lists by category, or by date, with such useful added features as priority markings, or –and beware not to overuse this one- the ‘postpone task’ button. A must-have for tracking the ins and outs of your busy life. Available for: iphone and ipad

5/5

Get all the science [SCIENCE &TECH]

Flickr user: COG LOG LAB

The most indispensable app for a science student HAS to be 'Get all the science'. This free app collects science news from several newsworthy sites and presents it in easy-todigest chunks. By collecting it all in one place you can stay on top of recent discoveries, as well as learning all sorts of cool things to share with friends in the pub!

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Martin Poschenrieder’s story of championship races, five star hotels and a passion for entrepreneurial risk Writer Ahmad Bakhiet Entrepreneurship Editor

Entrepreneurs are a curious type of people. At times they are pushed into the world of start-ups as a necessity; at other times they are drawn to it by a greater calling. Enter Martin Poschenrieder: a man who gave up following several pursuits many others dream for the world of entrepreneurship. Excelling in everything he does has been part of Martin’s philosophy since childhood; he was racing in the German championship between ages ten and seventeen, where he raced against Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg while running his own start-up at high school, a web design company that grew up to 10 people. Upon maturing Martin was unsure of the steps to take to attain his ultimate goals - all he knew was he needed more work experience in the corporate world – so he joined Accenture, a global management consulting company, knowing he could work in different industries and a highly versatile environment. He had the opportunity to work on major projects with BMW, Deutsche Telekom, Commerzbank and the European Space Agency in Rome, staying in luxury hotels all over Europe and driving high quality rental cars. Of course it was a dream job for many, yet it wasn’t the road Martin wanted to take for the rest of his life. Instead he remembered how much he enjoyed starting his first start-up during high school. “My days at Accenture were great. However, I was afraid of getting used to an opulent lifestyle and higher salary from one promotion to another, “Contentment and not being was not an able to escape option. I from my comfort wanted bigger zone. Contentrisk.” ment was not an option. I wanted bigger risk. Therefore, I decided to leave and pursue my main passion in life”, Martin stated. Martin decided to apply for and was successfully accepted onto the prestigious M.Sc in Technology Entrepreneurship at University College London. From staying in an ocean-view hotel in south of Spain, he arrived in London in a 12 sq. student residence, sharing a kitchen and bathroom with 15 other people - but nonetheless loved his new life. Martin added, “It was a different world but I knew I made the right decision and I knew London was a per-

fect place to pursue my entrepreneurship endeavours. I believe that as an entrepreneur, it’s vital to have a wide array of supportive and like-minded people, and UCL has such.” Deciding to immerse himself in the world of entrepreneurship he additionally applied for the role of President at the UCL Enterprise Society while simultaneously beginning his M.Sc. studies. In the months after, Martin entered the London Entrepreneurs Challenge,

the customer gets a discount from the store. Most of us generally trust our friends more than any advertisement, and therefore, Tipgain can revolutionise the way people do recommendations”, the Tipgain CEO tells me. Together with his co-founders, he then executed a proof of concept with a franchise coffee chain and has been establishing a business rapport with larger restaurants and retail chains throughout London. Tipgain now has several stores onboard with exclusive offers at Busaba

Martin with co-founder Toledo Hung collecting the London Entrepreneurs Challenge award

a competition organised by University College London with support from the London Business School. The competition placed over 100 candidates through a series of workshops to produce and pitch a business plan. It was here that Martin’s latest venture was born – Tipgain. The Tipgain team successfully won the first round securing £1,000 for their new venture. Continuing their dominance, the team completed their twenty five page business plan, delivered an exemplary pitch, officially established Tipgain as a company and beat the competition in the final round to secure first place and a further £5,000 of funding. The business focuses on an idea that allows people to tell their friends about good promotions that they encounter at a specific store or restaurant. “It all comes down to passion. A customer of a retail store or a restaurant shares his/her tip for a great promo that he/she is excited about, and in return,

Eathai at Store Street, Polka Gelato “Most of us and a collabogenerally trust ration with our friends more Gourmet than any B u r g e r advertisement, (GBK) at and therefore, Brunswick Tipgain can shopping cenrevolutionize the way people do tre where sturecommendation dents can get s.” over 40% discount. I ask Martin to tell me more about his experience of competitive racing. I’m particularly interested in hearing what concepts he has applied to the world of entrepreneurship. His response doesn’t disappoint. After a pause, he tells me “I vividly remember a race I had in Lohsa (near the Polish border), during the training sessions I had multiple setbacks including inadvertently leaving the track several

times which lead to my father getting really mad at me and even asking if we should go back home. Perhaps the reason was because I was too fast on the corners, those failures made me realise my limits and instead of leaving I found the focus and motivation needed so that on the race day I actually won the final, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. This experience helped me build character as racing is a risky sport but entrepreneurship even more so. So I have learned to deal with the ups and downs and respond in the best way possible”. Martin is aware that a university is a great place to try new ideas and meet potential founders or business colleagues. He mentions that many entrepreneurial students often think that someone will steal their idea – however, he believes that it’s important to talk about it to get feedback and valuable tools. “I found the focus and moIn addition, he tivation knows that it’s needed so vital to find cothat on the founders who race day I accan complement tually won the the team early final, ahead of on. Sebastian Vet“It is difficult to tel.” find the right colleagues. We all have different interests and not many of us are willing to take bigger risk. I was actually the only one from my undergraduate class who decided to start a business,” Martin affirmed. He advises universities to play a key role in facilitating an enterprise culture, as well as supporting the student run enterprise societies as an important pillar of meeting other entrepreneurialminded people and developing relevant skills and ideas.

“When you are a student, you have the freedom to try different things; but when you are done with your degree, your parents might tell you to get a stable job. Therefore, it becomes harder to get back to the entrepreneurial route. I have a couple of classmates from my undergrad studies who discussed several ideas and I urged them to start something together, but now, they are used to flying all around Europe with a high paying job and their bosses attract them with the next promotion.” Martin stated. Martin tells me that he has high respect for a 9-5 job, but thinks that if one has a passion for entrepreneurship or one has great ingenuity then one should pursue it. It is a route with many uncertainties and roadblocks, but the result and impact on our society could be much greater than initially anticipated. I am left to contemplate his final words as Martin tells me that he believes we are all responsible for our own happiness and our own legacy. An entrepreneurial approach indeed. Martin tweets @mposchenrieder. www.tipgain.com is also offering internships for entrepreneurial-minded students.

Type www.tipgain.com into your mobile phone browser in order to get the vouchers

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

RESEARCH IN BRIEF

Golden Glass KCL [PHYSICS]

The way we watch flat-screen TV and view LEDs in watches and alarm clocks could soon change – just by using a little bit of gold. Results published by King’s College London physicicsts in Applied Physics Letters showed that by covering glass with a thin film of gold, the amount of light reflected off of the glass can be controlled at nanoscale proportions. Applying this to LEDs could allow you to view your alarm clock, without reflection, from many more angles.

Research Revolution

ROYAL HOLLOWAY [RESEARCH]

A revolutionary new research technique has tested 5,000 people in 3 months without requiring any of them stepping foot in a lab! Scientists at Royal Holloway published the astonishing achievement in the journal PLos One. The free app called ‘Science XL: Test Your Word Power’ allowed them to access a large demographic, on a truly global scale. With results strikingly similar to lab obtained results, this could dramatically change the way in which human social and psychological research is conducted.

Beauty Boost UCL [GENETICS]

New research published by UCL in Nature demonstrates that the active agent ‘resveratrol’ (found in anti-wrinkle creams) has been targeting the wrong gene. The ‘longevity gene’, produces sirtuin which was believed to significantly increase the lifespan of yeast and fruit flies. During experiments, the only difference between control and test worms was the elevation of sirtuin levels and in these instances neither lived longer than the other. This implies other genetic factors must have caused the original longevity and scientists now think the ‘longevity’ gene has nothing to do with extending life.

Canny Crowds

ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE [BIOLOGY]

In Biology Letters the statistical phenomenon known as ‘crowd wisdom’ has been investigated by the Royal Veterinary College. It used prospective students to guess how many sweets were in a jar, and examined how accurate the crowd’s guesses (wisdom) were - the average being highly accurate. When they provided students with access to public information, the crowd’s wisdom plummeted. However, when provided with the current best guess, removing the likelihood of extreme predictions, the crowd was wiser. This may help to explain why people have a bias to recruit and follow successful individuals in team settings.

Chrissie Jones

The Science of...MUSIC

LS SCIENCE ONLINE

Tweet of the Week

Writer David Simpson

Have you ever wondered why a chord sounds so ‘right’? Why is it that certain sounds, at specific pitches, can group together to form something harmonious and pleasing to the ear? European physicists suggest the answer lies in the firing patterns of certain interneurons in the auditory system of our brain. ‘Consonance’ and ‘dissonance’ are terms that describe the experience of perceiving a stable harmony or an unpleasant sound, respectively. Around 500 BC, Pythagoras created one of the oldest theories for consonance and dissonance. He suggested small frequency ratios between the sound waves of two tones, a dyad, creates a strong feeling of consonance. For example, a middle C and an E creates a major third that has a ratio of 5/4 - and sounds unmistakablyharmonious.Dissonant dyads often have larger frequency mammals apratios, such as pear to have an the minor second innate ability (e.g. C and C#), to make which has a ratio distinctions of 6/15. between harBernardo Spagmonies which nola, of the sound nice University of and harmonies Palermo, says which are dismammals sonant appear to have an innate ability to make these distinctions. “Previous research has already shown that animals and babies react more favourably to consonant chords, compared to dissonant ones, and this is due to an underlying neural functionality.” The brain interprets sound waves by converting the auditory stimulus registered in the cochlea of the ear, into a sequence of electrical signals known

60 seconds with...

Writer James Lloyd

On September 22, the scientific world was rocked by the announcement that neutrino particles had been observed travelling faster than the speed of light. If true, this would mean rewriting our understanding of the universe. But will the findings stand up to further scrutiny? I contacted Dr. Yoshi Uchida, a particle physicist at Imperial College, for his expert opinion on this unexpected result.

LS: Could you tell me about yourself and your research? YU: I am an experimental particle physicist who, as a PhD student in the States, worked on the Large Electron–

Mythbusting: heard about NASA's special space pen and the Russian astronuaghts that saved millions by using a pencil? Well...NASA did use pencils but the tips broke off, and in microgravity they could potentially harm an astronaut or equipment (and they're flammable!) Follow us @LS_science

Life After A Science Degree

“first time that physics, and biology have been combined to form a valid theory” Elizabeth Eisner

as neural ‘spike trains’. Spagnola and his team devised a simple theoretical model - of three component neurons to represent the initial nervous activity that follows the playing of either a consonant, or dissonant dyad. Two of these neurons represented ‘sensory neurons,’ that receive their own distinct audio frequencies from the ear. The third represented an ‘interneuron’, which connects the nervous activity of the sensory neurons to the rest of the brain. The physicists were able to show that, during interneuron output, inharmonious signals from a dissonant dyad gives rise to blurry and disordered spike trains; whilst a consonant dyad produces more regular and rhythmic spike trains. Quantifying their results, the team also applied information theory, which states that the less random a signal is, the more information it contains. “We found with our calculations that harmonious chords display high regularity and high information in

the interneuronal signal, compared with dissonant chords,” explains Spagnola. This research represents the first time that physics, and the biology of neurons, has been combined to form a valid theory. Spagnola acknowledges that the theoretical model must now be tested in other fields. “I hope that at some point the neuroscientific community can take what we have found and apply it to functioning neurons.” However, he does not believe the work of the biophysicist stops there: “There’s billions of neurons in the brain. We need to further verify that what we have found, in two neural layers, occurs in different neural layers or with greater numbers of layers in series.”

Positron Collider (LEP). This was the big particle collider of its time, but now tends towards experiments that push our knowledge of the universe, without using particle colliders.

revolutionary consequences, but needs to be verified and repeated, for it to be called a true discovery. What they see, if taken at face value, is neutrinos travelling slightly faster than the speed of light.

LS: How would you describe a neutrino to a particle physics newbie? YU: The neutrino is one of the most common objects in the universe, and is like a very light version of the electron, but with no electric charge. Being such a lightweight particle means an infinitesimally small kick will send it going very fast, at a speed limited only by the speed of light – or at least that’s what we thought! In this experiment. they arrived at their destination faster than expected, which can only mean they travelled faster than the speed of light.

LS: What has been discovered by the physicists working on the OPERA experiment underneath Italy’s Gran Sasso mountain? YU:It can’t be called a ‘discovery’ yet – it’s a result announced by the physicists at OPERA that has potentially

LS: How are these neutrinos produced? YU: The same beam in Geneva that feeds the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is slammed into a solid rod, producing a huge number of neutrinos, with the whole set-up pointed in the southeast direction, towards Italy.

LS: Could there be other explanations for their findings? YU: OPERA measured the accuracy of the distance their neutrinos travelled [730 km] to about 20 cm, and the time taken to 10 billionths of a second. Both are built on many complicated steps, each of which could harbour unknown problems, so yes – there could be other (more mundane) explanations. LS: If proved to be true, what would

Greg Talbot studied at UCL and went on to work in the City at a Lloyd’s syndicate. To find out how he got into it, and what he REALLY thinks about his day job go online to read his post.

Change needs to start from within

Read Salman Ghani’s fantastic blog about the ways hospitals could change in order to change their patients: A recent review carried out by Dr Rachel Thompson, Deputy Head of Science at the World Cancer Research Fund, targeted “junk” filled vending machines in hospital waiting areas. She argued there “was no mystery about what needed to be done,” as all too often the effort put in by healthcare professionals is undermined by these machines... Continued at london-student.net NEXT ISSUE

Look out for our interview on the recent trial of Italian seismologists for manslaughter. Also- find out which London University discovered that your phone is covered in poo! the result mean for Einstein’s special theory of relativity, in which the speed of light is a universal speed limit? YU: We would have to think of it as a pretty theory, that doesn’t quite apply to the universe we live in.

LS: What is your personal feeling about this result? YU: I happened to be in Japan with my fellow physicists and students on the ‘T2K’ project, so we watched the live OPERA web-cast together from 11pm last Friday – there was much anticipation and a party-like atmosphere. We appreciated the impressive effort that went into the study, but we raised numerous questions that we’d like answered before we’re going to be convinced – that’s the nature of the people who pursue experimental physics!

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

Lightweight? Blame your genes! Writer Maria Botcharova

We all know how alcohol affects us when we’ve had too much to drink. First, we tend to feel more relaxed about things, and then perhaps after another drink or two, we might feel a bit unsteady on our feet. Scientists have now found evidence to suggest that our immune system plays a part in how we behave after consuming alcohol. Our immune systems normally protect us against disease, but its function in alcohol tolerance is poorly understood. “It’s amazing to think that despite 10,000 years of using alcohol, and several decades of investigation into the way that alcohol affects the nerve cells in our brain, we are still trying to figure out exactly how it works,” said Dr Mark Hutchinson, from the University of Adelaide. Dr Hutchinson’s research group, at the University’s School of Medical Sciences, tested whether blocking a specific component of the immune system in mice lessened the animals’ responses to alcohol. For the study, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, researchers targeted proteins called Toll-like Receptors, which have been found to play an essential role

in our natural immunity. Scientists were able to block them in two different ways. Firstly, they gave mice a drug to chemically block the receptors, and see how their response to alcohol changed. And secondly, they looked at mice whose genes had been altered to produce the same effect. In both cases, they found that blocking this part of the immune system allowed mice to recover their balance and coordination more quickly, after alcohol. The conclusions suggest, not only that our genetic make-up plays a key role in how alcohol affects us, but that we also may be able to do something about it with the right treatment. “Alcohol is consumed annually by two billion people worldwide with its abuse posing a significant health and social problem,” said Dr Hutchinson. “Over 76 million people are diagnosed with an alcohol abuse disorder.” This study could be crucial in understanding how to identify individuals most at risk from the more harmful effects of alcohol, as well as in treating those with dependencies and alleviating overdose reactions.

Events under the microscope

Science Showoffs! EVENT REVIEW Alexandra Ashford The Wilmington Arms, Clarkenwell

Raise your pints for science! The first evening of Science Showoff featured talks on art in medicine, making bread and dubious usage of MRI scanners. What sets it apart from any other evening of science lectures is that, by combining these talks with songs about phonetics, stand up comedy, a space shuttle music video, and lots of orange goo, you end up with a diverse evening of thoroughly entertaining acts - brought together by talented presenter Steve Cross. The premise is that anyone with an interest in science can sign up, get on stage, and share their science-related act for ten minutes.

What effect does alcohol have on our brains? Elizabeth Eisner

As wonderful as it was, I couldn’t help feeling the humour was a bit too safe, and could have been a bit ruder, cruder, and a little more offensive to really get people laughing and set it apart from the science of lecture halls and television.

“It’s amazing to think that despite 10,000 years of using alcohol, and several decades of investigation into the way that alcohol affects the nerve cells in our brain, we are still trying to figure out exactly how it works”

Science Showoff is back again on November 1.

Is your glass half full? The ultimate delusion

Writer Helen Brooks

Why do people continue to smoke, despite overwhelming evidence that it causes cancer and heart disease? And why is it that so many of us yearn for marriage? The statistics are hardly favourable - 45% of marriages end in divorce. Despite the

evidence, many people are convinced that ‘it will never happen to me’. New research, from University College London, may shed light on this conundrum. Their study showed very optimistic people only learn from information when it reinforces positive views. They dismiss, or only partially change their view-

point when confronted with information that contradicts it. All of this is due to the optimists’ brain processing information differently; the frontal lobes of the brain are ‘faulty’. Nineteen participants were assessed for their levels of optimism, by presenting them with a series of possible negative scenarios, such as getting cancer or being involved in a car crash. At the same time, the participants were monitored in an MRI scanner, which measures activity in the different regions of the brain. They were asked how likely they thought these scenarios were for them. They were then told the actual probability, and asked to reassess their answer. Generally, people did alter their assessment of a negative event, but this was dependent on whether the probability of it occurring was better, or worse, than they had expected. Dr Tali Sharot, the lead researcher, described the result when the risk of cancer was stated as 30%. If a participant had predicted their risk being 40%, they would reduce their estimation to about 31%. Conversely, if the participant had been very optimistic and thought their risk was only around 10%, the news that the actual risk was 30% only increased their perceived risk marginally. The stronger the optimist, the more

likely they were to ignore the negative information when it was presented to them. The MRI If a researcher scan may hold explained the the clue to risk of cancer why some peowas stated as ple are more 30% and a optimistic. Inparticipant creased activhad predicted ity was seen in their risk the frontal being 40%, lobes of the they would rebrain in all the duce their esparticipants, if timation to the informaabout 31%. tion was better than expected. This region of the brain has been previously shown to be involved in negative estimation errors. If the information was worse than expected then, with an optimistic spirit, less activity was seen in the frontal lobes, which suggests the brain was picking and choosing the information it processed. Of course, being an optimist can be good for our mental health and wellbeing, by lowering stress and anxiety levels, but as Dr Sharot puts it, “it can also mean that we are less likely to take precautionary action, such as practising safe sex or saving for retirement”.

Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins BOOK REVIEW Poppy Hollom

"While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe."

That quote is from Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites, and has always amused me greatly,as well as making me think. The Magic of Reality does so equally, and is a fine illustration of the above quote! Dawkins’ book first addresses common myths, and misconceptions in an attempt to answer questions such as: 'When and how did everything begin?’ - each chapter is headed with a question. He then follows with science's answer, which invariably leaves the reader wondering about the 'magic' of the universe. Aimed at children, the book is beautifully illustrated on every page, and worth purchasing for the artwork alone. In spite of its target audience, it is still an engaging and rewarding read for any inquisitive adult.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Higher Education cuts revisited: does the Government really care about Academia? Writer Alireza S.Nejad

It was a year ago when two youngsters were chatting about higher tuition fees in the UK while I was travelling on the tube: “They could cut finances in military sector rather than cutting the university funds! I don’t want to live in debt!...” uttered one of them. But is it easy for the government to change its strategic plans? Which one is more important - providing a safe and secure society or a well-satisfied education system? The answer is both. And we all know that security is linked to the education, and education is linked to the Gross Domestic Product. So, this argument that government can cuts its budget or raise the tax in another sector does not have a strong logic. However, there is no doubt that the education sector needs more in-

triple university tuition fees in England was broken. NUS tried to mobilize the public support against the cut in Higher Education sector. In November 10, over fifty thousand students crowded on streets of Westminster. At the end of the day

Clegg said the government's plans were "the best possible choice we could have made at this time", after approving the new policy by MPs on December 9. But why the new policy became controversial? The truth is that both

nomic growth? The prospect is that higher fees will push students to act not by the heart but by the head, choosing option that promise security and financial stability. What is more, it may lead to the mismatch between opportunities in the job

“They could cut finances in military sector rather than cutting the university funds! I don’t want to live in debt!...” uttered one of them. But is it easy for the government to change its strategic plans?

vestments to enrich its research plans and develop its services. But, in October 2010, during the time that world was struggling with a serious financial crisis, and leading countries on education such as US and UK were concerned about their business forecast, the UK chancellor announced the 40% cut to teaching budget, from £7.1bn to £4.2bn by 2014. This controversial policy has faced with a strong opposition from NUS, Student Unions, Associations and many other organizations. The tension between students and policy-makers has become on one of its highest level during the last decade. Especially after the promise by Liberal Democrat Party regarding their support for MPs vote to

London faced an angry protest, leaving no sign of the peaceful evening: “Today is just the beginning. If the government goes through these cuts, we are going to see what we have seen in Greece, and in Paris, and in Ireland. And I think there is going to be a nationwide wave of occupation,” – reported Clare Solomon, the former president of ULU, after the violence at Tories’ HQ at 30 Millbank. This opposition from students, lecturers, and universities did not convince the MPs to vote oppose the HE cuts in the UK. Deputy Minister Nick

former and coalition governments did not submit a clear strategy for this wide reform in the first place. It was ambiguous how government was going to manage social mobility caused by this new proposal. Why should English students pay more than Scottish, for example? What are the details of scholarship scheme? And more importantly, how can government guarantee that the quality of teaching is still high and the research plans are not affected? Particularly in courses such as history or music, which are not stereotypically linked with eco-

Photo: Chris Wright market, and skills that graduate students can offer, resulting in mutual dissatisfaction. Surely, politicians are under pressure to fix the rate of unemployment in this economic crisis era and do expect to see the services of high skilled people in their country. Last Thursday PM David Cameron during his visit to BP said: “what we desperately need in our economy today a high-skilled, high quality jobs to give people a career, a livelihood, a worthwhile stake in our country”. Even though some negotiations

WHAT’S ON: Public events, talks, and more brain food for you around UoL WOW YOURSELF

Your Days Are Numbered: the maths of death

An evening of comedy, mathematics and debate as part of the Ba1le of Ideas satellite events. Be amazed how numbers can actually be as meaningful as never before! Time: October 25, 7-9.30pm Place: South Ken Campus,Imperial

STAY FOCUSED

Is There A Future For Multiculturalism?

Speakers: Dr Jonathan Chaplin, Claire Fox, Professor Tariq Modood,

This event asks whether we are right to bury state multiculturalism, having once praised it so energetically. Time: October 20, 6.30-8pm Place: Old Theatre, LSE

RELAX AND ENJOY

UCL CHAMBER MUSIC CLUB Concert Series

It is time for another concert! This time London Student recommends a joint concert with Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club, including Handel’s aria “Va tacite e nascosto” from Giulio Cesare with horn obbligato Time: November 2, 7-10pm Place: Haldane room, UCL campus

between the government and HE institutions take place, none of the professional organizations or asso-

“Today is just the beginning. If the government goes through these cuts, we are going to see what we have seen in Greece, and in Paris, and in Ireland.”

ciations suggested a planning proposal to government on how to avoid the cuts. Some people claim that UK educational system is moving towards the US system and becomes more private. According to the article in the THE magazine, “a private equity firm or private higher education provider will buy a UK university in whole or part "within the next six months". The plan on higher tuition offers a more fair graduation tax system rather than the current system approach, as noticed by Areon Porter, the president of NUS. MPs are also funding 250,000 more apprenticeships over this parliament, improving careers advice and transforming university finance, as well as trying to meet students’ needs and expectations. That is why many universities such as King’s College London have already started to renew their buildings, lecture theatres, IT services, and refreshment areas to provide a better experience for their students. But enhancing the learning environment in the universities is not a difficult job; students want to be taught by world-class lecturers. They want a tutoring system that really works for them. They want to work on research-led projects. And lectures expect to work in secure and research-rich institutions.

Can the present government meet these expectations?

Want to voice your opinion? Add your comment about HE on our website at www.londonstudent.net

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LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

London Listens

Dr Saul Hillman works as a psychologist at The Anna Freud Centre/ University College London. He also has his own practice as a hypnotherapist/life coach/NLP practitioner.

Saul can be contacted on 07939 523 025 or saulhillman@blueyonder.co.uk. For more information and resources visit www.saulhillmantherapy.com

On being a shrinking violet

Self confidence is one of the most banded about expressions in popular psychology with few people disputing that it is pivotal in paving the way for success, happiness and goal accomplishment Indeed, possessing self-confidence will be useful in just about every facet of life whether it’s with exams, interviews, personal relationships or performance in sport or drama.. Social confidence is perhaps one of the most common offshoots and covers formal and informal encounters with different-sized groups of people. Social anxiety, o5en labelled as shyness, is the distress felt over being evaluated by others. There is o5en a misconception that social confidence is an unmovable trait that we have to endure rather than something we can change. Indeed, the reality is most socially confident people intentionally learn specific skills including displaying friendly body language, understanding the predictable format of conversations with people and focusing on the topic rather than how they are perceived. Shyness is There is often a thought to affect misconception up to 50 per cent that social conof adults to some fidence is an degree. Nowaunmovable days, the prestrait that we ence of shyness have to endure is perhaps even rather than more prominent something we in current can change lifestyles with reduced face-toface communication and an intolerance with the slow way in which social relationships have been formed in the past. Whilst much research suggests that shyness develops through our experiences, there is increasing evidence of a genetic component. The brains of shy people have been shown to behave differently in social situations compared with the brains of confident people; when placed in unfamiliar situations, “shy brains” show more electrical activity on the right side of the frontal lobe. It has been interpreted as an ex-

aggerated fear response, and is o5en accompanied by the physiological hallmarks of terror, such as a racing pulse and muscle tension. Social anxiety can of course vary in severity from mild (evading invitations) to severe (agoraphobia) which can imprison people in their homes. Of course, some social anxiety is expected to afflict everyone for high pressure situations such as job interviews. There is now a real shi5 in understanding what anxiety is. In the past, we were maybe encouraged to fight it and perceive it as purely obstructive whereas now its presence is something we have to accept and channel creatively in what we do. In most disciplines, whether it’s in sport, drama or academic studies, increased physiological arousal can of course be an advantage. What can I do? There are of course many strategies that can be adopted to help ease social situations. 1. Body language - focus on your body language so walk tall, don’t slump, and don’t let your eyes or head drop. You can almost ‘fake’ how you feel through making changes in your physiology. 2. Visualisation - we walk around with pictures in our mind so if you can draw on an experiences where you were at our most confident, this could be valuable. You can also mentally rehearse a ‘performance’ going well, whether this is talking in a seminar or holding people’s a6ention at a social gathering. 3. Positive self-talk - if you use affirmations (i.e. I am such good company), you will believe this and are more likely to fulfil them, whereas if you walk around with negative beliefs (i.e. I can’t speak in public), you run the risk of acting on this belief.

Being uncomfortable in social situations isn’t something you have to live with. Mick Yates

4. Why am I special? – we are used to thinking about our shortcomings so this exercise involves making a list of the things you and others like about yourself. Why are you worth knowing? Keep this list around as a reminder. 5. Prepare topics prior to meeting people that might come up and that you may feel you want to talk about or have an opinion about, whether it’s about the Arab Spring, X Factor or a recent assignment. Remember, if someone ends a conversation, don’t assume that they find you boring. There are many more logical explanations (e.g. the person had someone else to meet). Even if you may feel snubbed or rejected, remember that this happens to everyone. 6. Come out – the more private we are, the more inhibited we are likely to feel, so though it can mean going outside one’s comfort zone, try to reveal truths and aspects of yourself to others. Humility can involve sharing our frailties, weaknesses and mistakes. 7. Humour - .Stress depletes serotonin so try to do things that may allow you to have a big belly laugh! Humour is well understood as a way of making oneself and others feel comfortable. 8. Choice - it is important to find your comfort zone and act according to your choices and needs, so you may feel happier going to Pilates than going to a bar or nightclub. There are of course a whole range of therapies including counselling, hypnotherapy, and cognitive behavioural therapy which can address low confidence, but if you can focus on some of the above, you may be able to make some progress by yourself.

In Conversation with the Doctor

PT is a first year female student doing a MSc at University College London. PROBLEM: I get really nervous every time I go to seminars. I go red and hate talking in front of tutors and my course mates. The problem is ge6ing worse and I keep feeling like an idiot. Saul You’re very hard on yourself. PT Sure, I know, but I feel anxious the whole time when I’m at college, even when I’m not necessarily doing a presentation. Saul Tell me a li6le about what brings on these feelings you describe? PT I guess it’s when I walk into a room, that’s when it all starts. Well, I am thinking about it even beforehand Saul What comes ﬁrst? Is it something physical, a thought or feeling? Just close your eyes now, that may help you recall. PT I suppose I start to feel agitated, like palpitations, and then the thoughts start to bounce around. Saul Negative ones about yourself? PT Yes, like I start to dread it and think I’m going to mess up. Saul And what happens in reality? I bet you don’t mess up! PT Sure, it’s okay but I still hate talking and when the spotlight is on me. Saul But you do it, that’s the important thing, and nothing goes wrong, remember that. PT I know, I know. Saul So make sure you tell yourself that beforehand. Make it into a li6le mantra ‘I am conﬁdent’ or ‘I am going t o be calm’. PT I can try that. Saul Remember, that you are not alone, most people in that room will also be feeling a bit nervous. And we o5en think our anxiety is visible to others. Well, the truth is that this is not the case! PT Okay, but it doesn’t seem like that. People must notice. Saul I doubt it, you’re not that important. They have other things to

notice and think about. What are you like when you’re out and about meeting friends in other situations? PT That’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that. I weirdly like being the centre of a)ention so it doesn’t add up! Saul Well, maybe you can remember that and even picture yourself in these social situations and realise you can take that with you into the seminars. Why not? PT (laughs) well they’re not the same situation but I can try! Saul Good luck! Just believe in yourself. Are you shy?- Test yourself to see how shy you are in this short quiz. Do you feel anxious around new people? A Not in the least B Depends on who it is C A li6le D A lot Is it diﬃcult for you to keep a conversation going once it's been started? A Never, I don’t stop talking B Rarely C Sometimes D O5en, I usually run away What are you like at parties? A I am a party animal B I’m ﬁne as long as friends are around C Depends D Quiet, I try to leave early Do you have trouble making as much eye-contact as you feel you should? A Never B I always look into people’s eyes if I like them C I need to concentrate to do this D Making eye contact is something I can’t do If you have scored Ds, you are exhibiting signs of shyness. If you have scored As, you are not shy in the least. NEXT ISSUE

We will be looking at winter blues and how the change in season can affect our mood. Please email me with any letters or experiences you have in this or any other area

LONDON LOVES with Aphrodite

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Hunter, 20

Cara, 20

English

Physics

A lovely literature student from

An interesting mix of the intellectual

Llantrisant in the sheepy depths of

scientist and the arty type, his degree

South Wales, Cara loves going out and also runs the

in physics means he and Cara have never had the

KCL Art society.

chance to cross paths at King’s.

Send us your

The night started a little scarily as I'm not all that used to big expensive restaurants, but it quickly grew easier and far more relaxed when we got

lent, life becomes awesome.

The Date Cara’s report

‘No there’s definitely not a table under any of these names’: Certainly the most embarrassing thing a blinddater ever wants to hear. After a few vague allusions to the London Student, I came clean and admitted that no I didn’t know the full name of the other person. To make things more awkward the manager had to be brought down - by now the entire restaurant must have heard that I was supposedly on a date, (with no table and no date). A table was eventually found, at which I sat tragically for 20 minutes gulping a large glass of wine and desperately trying to call Jess. I finally managed to contact Hunter, who had been stuck outside the whole time. The manager heroically brought him to me and found us a new table by

Cara and Hunter went to Dishoom, a stylish Bombay cafe in Covent Garden. They currently have a festive range of Diwali treats and offers. 12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, WC2H 9FB bers Snogg

ged hag dS

The Date Hunter’s Report

our table and started chatting. Cara was brilliant company, we spoke of our interests, degrees and lifestyles, and then delved into deeper territory. It was brilliant to be able to discussmany of the more intricate points of our lives respectively, especially as such new acquantances. The conversation never ceased, and then the food came.... Our meal probably tasted a thousand times better because it was free but the food was just beyond words, and there was little left on the menu that we didn't order. The drinks were even better, and by dessert there were tears of joy in my eyes. Cara and I are to be married next week and no one but my dog and her cat are invited. I'd recommend the experience whole-heatedly. It's daunting at first but everything's alright with enough Jack Daniels, and when the food is good and the company is excel-

Swapp ed

A match made loosly over their shared knowledge in tea and mutual interests in the arts . Tentative, you may well say, but not too far off for this week’s couple. After a crazy week of playing location location location, success was found at Dishoom in Covent Garden. An unfortunate miscomunication on the night set the evening off to a confusing start for Cara, but it seems the cocktails soon rectified that. The intruiging Bombay Café promised something a bit different for our datees, and it seems they thoroughly enjoyed what was on offer...

LOVE-O-METRE

the window. We were given two cocktails and told we could order as much as we wanted off the menu - free of charge. So naturally we ordered some of the most expensive dishes, including calamari. I have never eaten authentic Indian food before, but luckily was given a large bowl of raita by a very understanding waiter. We made intelligent conversation over starters: places we’d travelled to, Virginia Woolf, music, the Grayson Perry exhibition etc. before lapsing into raucous conversation and laughing and joking about the most ridiculous things which I dare not mention here after our ‘agreement’. The lady with the biryani on the next table was certainly not impressed. I had such a lovely evening; Hunter was brilliant company and so much fun to talk to. I will hopefully be seeing him (and his husky, Porridge) next week for a drink.

chat up lines whether outrageous or outrageously eﬀective: ‘You’re single. I'm twenty four years old and I've never paid for my own drink. You can't say that any of your ex girlfriends boobs are THAT great.’

‘I got passion in my pants and I ain't afraid to show it. I'm sexy and you know it.’ He sent me a Microsoft outlook meeting request to get up and close with him in the storage room at work...I had to accept.

Afterthoughts from Aphrodite

After the initial hiccup at Dishoom, I was relieved to hear that the restaurant staff were helpful and the date flurried long into the evening. The spices clearly stimulated conversation rather than leave them coughing all the way home, and both were as taken with the restaurant as with the company. A late end to the evening,, detail swapping and promise of another meeting in the very near future - A London Loves success story I think we can safely say!

If you are a Lonely Londoner and fancy some good old fashioned company and a free meal, do contact Afrodite at: love@londonstudent.net with your name, age, university and 3 words to describe you. Go on....

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

State of the Union Part II

Sport Editor Natalie Khan looks back on the Rugby World Cup as it draws to a close - page 29

Race in Sport

Jonathan La Crette considers questions of race in sport - page 30

Encouraging signs for ULU women’s hockey They may not have won, but not all is lost - page 30

KCLA Games

Current students at King’s College, their medical colleagues GKT, and King’s Alumni battle it out at the KCLA games page 31

The State of the Union Part II

Following England’s exit and Wales’ foiled heroics, London Student looks again at the Rugby World Cup . Writer Natalie Khan Sport Editor The dust has settled at Eden Park following the resounding defeat of the Wallabies by the All Blacks on the 16th of October, bringing the second and last semifinal of the Rugby World Cup to an end. The land of the long, white cloud now anxiously awaits the ultimate reckoning, in the final against France. There is a sense of suppressed optimism, as the Kiwis don’t want to tempt fate with hubris. The evidence of France’s real capacity, or rather lack thereof, was laid out in the open for all to see during the

the lackluster Les Blues only narrowly beat a more deserving Welsh side. And that with little help from the referee, some will not hesitate to inject. The now infamous red card against the Welsh skipper Sam Warburton for spearing or tip tackling winger Vincent Clerc is just another example of the inconsistency with which the IRB judges this particular type of dangerous play. When watched again, it is obvious that Warburton is aware he would be committing an offense should he drive Clerc to the ground and as such lets go of him instead. The laws do state that the tackler is responsible for putting the tackled player to ground safely once he has been lifted clear off it.

Despite bowing out, Wales gave their fans a lot to celebrate. Photo: Flickr user Sum_of_Marc

previous game. In their semifinal against Wales,

Even so, the apparent lack of malicious intent and Warburton’s attempt to rectify the situation should

The prestigious Web Ellis Cup. Photo: Ryan Pierse

have landed him with a yellow card rather than a red one. Taking place in the 18th minute of the game, prop Gethin Jenkins was absolutely right in saying the send off changed everything for Wales, as it would for any side. Les Blues kept it together through a narrowly held defensive line and that bane of existence know to all rugby spectators as the penalty kick. Wales fought bravely but Lady Luck and the weather did little to help James Hook find the posts, who was replaced after having missed two attempts. At least the Welsh scored a try and could have made it all the way if the conversion had been successful. As it played out, the RWC final was not to be for the exciting new Welsh side, who will certainly dominate the coming Six Nations tournament. The trouncing of the French in the pool stages also serve as kindling to the flame of hope now growing in the Kiwi nation, where people can without a doubt sense victory is at hand while at the same time berating themselves for even entertaining the notion. Celebrating in advance has proved very costly indeed for New Zealand, who has come up short time again and again in every tournament since the founding of the World Cup. This year finally they have proved unstoppable, completely dominating in the pool stages and going into the knock-outs undefeated and in front of a home crowd absolutely dying to hold the Webb Ellis Cup once more. Blood will flow at Eden Park on the 23rd as France take to the pitch galvanized by the fierce opposition they have met in the press and the All Blacks prepare to lay

Now there will be those who sit down in front of the telly on Sunday morning with a cup of tea (and an added glug of Grand Marnier... seriously, try it) looking forward to an exciting game and then there will be those grumbling that one of the teams on the pitch ought to have been England. The latter are delusional.

down their lives if necessary (and they mean that literally, make no mistake) to win this all-eclipsing glory for their nation. Now there will be those who sit down in front of the telly on Sunday morning with a cup of tea (and an added glug of Grand Marnier... seriously, try it) looking forward to an exciting game and then there will be those grumbling that one of the teams on the pitch ought to have been England. The latter are delusional. If anything, at this World Cup the English team has demonstrated the reeking sense of entitlement with which they approach the tournament and how poor team unity has become with players looking after themselves and their paychecks rather than their teammates. A fatal mistake in rugby which does and always should depend on a team excelling together rather than individuals excelling separately. The evident lack of trust and the constrictions of a rigorously enforced framework on the pitch made for unimaginative play throughout, which proved not only ineffective but astoundingly boring as well. The over-reliance on penalty points as a means to win

Dodgy dodging at the LDL

Emma Hill talks us through the ins and outs of dodgeball - page 32

games and the practice of kicking away possession for no reason whatsoever has made England fans up and down the country bang their heads against any hard surface available. If England wants to retain some form of credibility on the world stage, a clear shift in attitude is needed. Reverting back to a purer form of rugby is crucial as well as giving way to new and younger talent. There is truly no time like the present for England, if they wish to win against the massively impressive Welsh and Irish sides in coming tournaments. However, the socalled scandals that have been blow up by the tabloids should hold no one’s attention for any extended amount of time. Little has been said about the All Blacks, the Wallabies and the French excursions so it’s not as if England isn’t in good company. Whether drinking and rugby goes hand in hand is a rhetorical question, but it is self-evidently irresponsible for players to completely incapacitate themselves between games. There has been none of that level of irresponsibility from the England team however and it certainly wasn’t what cost them the game against France or what made them play so poorly in the pool stages. No, the public and the players themselves need only examine what was happening on the pitch to find the reason as to why England was booted out of the World Cup during the quarter finals. In spite of this disappointment, the Rugby World Cup 2011 as a whole has been a thrill to experience, with some absolutely marvelous rugby on display from both the world’s top ranked contenders and the tier 2 underdogs. While the kick off times couldn’t have been more inconvenient for those of us watching in Europe, the performances of the die hard Romanians, the fiery Welsh, the stealthy All Blacks, the unrelenting Blossoms, among numerous others have been worth waking up for. The talent across the board, especially in the teams not amongst the top ten of the IRB ranking, has been surprising and exciting, while the warm welcome to all teams and the whole world by New Zealand has been heartfelt and joyous. It has served as a credit to the game we watch and the game we play. Hopefully this World Cup will serve to spread that game and gather even more of the world in union.

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Race in sport: where do we stand today? Writer Jonathan La Crette It’s hard enough trying to picture ten minutes of sports news coverage without the name or picture of a black sportsman or woman popping up at some point. But to imagine a time when black athletes were excluded from playing sports, or ridiculed when they did, is far harder. When Jack Johnson became the first African American Heavyweight champion in 1908- some 6 years a8er the o8en forgo9en first black boxing champion Joe Gans - the press clamoured for a “Great White hope.” Undefeated champion James J Jefferies summed up public opinion best when saying: “I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race. . . . I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all." So strong was his desire, he fought Johnson despite having to lose over 100 pounds for his first fight in over six years. Inevitably he lost. Such was the disgust and embarrassment felt by white spectator’s riots broke out with several lynchings having being reported. Jackie Robinson, the first African America to play in Major league baseball since the 19th century, was subjected to anticipated racial abuse. On signing for the Brooklyn Dodgers from the Negro leagues- a black only league set up to combat the National Association of Baseball Players’ exclusion of any team with black players - the then president, Branch Rickey, asked: “would he be brave enough to turn the other cheek.” Whether Rickey appreciated Robinson’s talent, or saw the commercial opportunity - many African Americans stopped following their Negro league teams to watch Robinson play – the colour barrier was broken in 1947 when he first played in the Major leagues. In December 2010’s edition of Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed podcast, Ben Car-

Strike a pose: Tiger Woods is one of the most successful sports players in the history of golf. Photo by Flickr user Keith Allison

rington discussed the change in public perception of the mind and body relationship. Ben believes that following decades of black sporting achievement, large segments of society no longer think that a healthy mind equals a healthy body, or that strong in body equals strong in mind. Instead, as a means of explaining how an inferior race could exhibit such superiority in the sporting ﬁeld, blacks are considered to be physiologically athletically gi8ed but hindered intellectually. “Whites up the middle” is a well known American Football phrase expressing managers’ racial preferences for whites in more cerebral, central positions and blacks being employed as running backs. NFL Statistics support this, with only one white starting running back in 2010 and ﬁve of the thirtytwo teams having black starting quarterbacks - this in a league where non-whites account for 61% of players. Jimmy ‘the Greek’ Snyder, former

“Whites up the middle” is a well known American Football phrase expressing managers’ racial preferences for whites in more cerebral, central positions and blacks being employed as running backs. NFL Statistics support this

ESPN sports commentator exhibited fear comparable to white spectators in the Johnson era when he told reporters: “The black is a be9er athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way, the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid.” He was promptly ﬁred. Despite people of African descent par-

Encouraging signs for Watson a(er defeat Writer Daniel O’Donnell

ULU’s Women’s Hockey team were unfortunate to be beaten last weekend by Ashford (Middlesex) in Middlesex League Two. The newly-promoted side were hindered before the game began, with two players pulling out through injury so close to kick-oﬀ, which ultimately provided the platform for victory for the Greater Lon-

don side. In fact, the ULU side only managed to ﬁeld eight players yet still managed an impressive 4-8 score line, with many believing the result would have been reversed had the sides been more equally matched. Captain Kate Watson was full of praise for the team’s ﬁrst outing of the season: “We have some really talented fresher’s this year and everyone who turned up on Saturday did a great job.” Rosie Thompson, who got on the score sheet for ULU, also shared her captain’s sentiments: “the team

worked hard, especially Jo Courtice our goalie, and it was a shame about the result as it didn’t reflect the effort, we are all looking forward to next week and hopefully having a full team.” Transport across London is o8en a factor in university teams travelling to fixtures and for players ge9ing to training, but Kate insists it’s a problem that can be overcome: “we don’t train, because it’s too difficult to decide on a location that suits everyone, though we play on Saturdays and it’s a relaxed

ticipating and succeeding at the highest levels of some sports when given the chance, black performance in some previously ‘black dominated’ sports has fallen. The great West Indian teams of the 1970s and 1980s; with the fearsome foursome of Michael Holding, Joel Gardner, Malcolm Marshall and Colin Cro8, led the West Indies to a then world record of 24 tests undefeated; three world cup ﬁnals; and famously “blackwashing” Tony Greig’s England in 1984. The current West Indian side is currently ranked 7th out of the 9 test playing nations in the world with one Semi ﬁnal place in 28 years. Although the history of Heavyweight champions has been heavily shaped by black athletes like Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Louis, Tyson, Johnson, the heavy weight division currently belongs in the freakishly large hands of the Ukrainian born Klitschko brothers who have made a career- and millions of dollars-

and fun atmosphere so we won’t be put-oﬀ if people can’t make every week.” To help bed in the new players or as an opportunity for those who may not have been able to commit previously, the ULU skipper has organised a training session on Sunday October 30, and encourages anyone to come down. Watson even cites her favourite athletes as inspiration for the season ahead: “My old coach, Julian, taught me how to love hockey again, and Usain Bolt shows us that you can enjoy

ba9ering African Caribbean opposition like Kevin Johnson, Shannon Briggs and David Haye for the past 6 years. In fact, the last undisputed Afro Caribbean heavyweight champion was able to defeat Vitali Klitschko in May 2003Lennox Lewis. When Sepp Bla9er announced that South Africa would historically be holding Africa’s first footballing finals, inevitably questions were raised as to how to a country with one of the world’s highest HIV infection and crime rates could stage the world’s most watched event- 715 million people watched the 2006 final. A8er the successful German World Cup, newspapers reported that FIAdelegates had voiced their displeasure at South Africa’s third world transport system, and some reports had suggested that the FIA had drawn a contingency plan to hold the 2010 world cup in Germany or Australia. German footballing legend, Franz “the Kaiser” Beckenbauer, claimed the problems facing South Africa are African problems with people working against each other. Despite a massive security error involving a reporter breaching security to reach the England dressing room, and thousands of empty seats in the group matches, the final went as planned with the 85000 capacity crowd at the Soccer City Stadium. However, the financial impact was less than desirable; with only 323 million being raised from tourism to offset the three billion in cost. Sepp Bla9er hailed the World Cup a success and said: “South Africa would be a plan B for future tournaments.” No surprise that the head of an organisation charging 8000 US dollars to vendors within 2 miles of each venue for the privilege of selling would be pleased. This tactic priced out the local small vendors much like Rowing, Tennis and Golf clubs price out the majority. It is price and not race which is acting as the modern day colour barrier, preventing young blacks from following the Williams’ sisters and Tiger Woods into elitist sports.

every moment in sport, and still be good at it. Last season we got promoted and this year, provided we have the full eleven, I think we can do really well again.’’ With that a9itude and the right amount of players – we could see a very interesting and potentially successful season for Kate and the team.

To contact Kate Watson about ge9ing involved in Women’s Hockey for ULU contact her by email at kjmw_branthamplace@talktalk.net.

LONDON STUDENT VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3

King’s College earn early season glory at KCLA Games

Writer Charlotte Richardson

The King’s College Alumni Games is an annual tri-tournament fiercely contested between current students at King’s College, their medical colleagues GKT, and King’s Alumni. Teams from rugby, football, netball and hockey took part in this year ’s contest, all hoping to contribute to their side’s success - and get their hands on some early season silverware. On a crisp and chilly Saturday morning, over 200 sportsmen The day did and women not fail to complete with live up to a host of supexpectations port - made , with all the trip to teams S o u t h -We s t putting on a fantastic London to be display of part of the commiment day’s action at and Berrylands endeavour s p o r t s grounds. The day did not fail to live up to expectations, with all teams putting on a fantastic display of commitment and endeavour,

but it was King’s College who managed to retain the Profumo Cup, taking her back for yet another year at the Strand. King’s Alumni were not going to accept defeat so easily, and with Principal Professor Sir Rick Trainor officiating, they earned the consolation prize of winning

KCL Alumni both the men’s Netball fared and women’s the worst on tug of war the day, competitions. suffering Other awards some emphatic were prelosses sented by Anagainst drew Parrish, King’s first Principal and and second KCLA Chairteams man, including The Veteran’s Cup, won by the Alumni Hockey team, having the oldest average age in the competition. Awarded to the team with the youngest average age, the Greenhorn Bowl went to their competitors KCL Hockey. The most successful team of the day was KCL Rugby who, in the absence of a GKT outfit, beat their Alumni opposition by the largest margin in the competi-

tion 50-26. KCL’s Alumni Netball team fared the worst on the day suffering some emphatic losses against King’s first and second teams 23-6 and 19-10 respectively. They took home the UCL Wooden Spoon; which

ULU Football League Tables Footbal Men’s Division 1 Pos Team P 1 LSE 5th 2 2 UCL 5th 1 3 LSE 4th 1 4 Imperial 4th 1 4 SOAS 2nd 1 6 St Barts 2nd 2 7 SSEES 1st 2 8 Imperial 5th 1 9 St Georges 2nd 1 10 KCLMS 3rd 1 10 QM 3rd 1

Pts 6 3 3 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0

Footbal Men’s Division 2 Pos Team P 1 RHUL 5th 2 2 KCL 3rd 1 3 KCL 5th 1 3 RVC 1st 1 5 RHUL 4th 2 5 UCL 6th 1 7 QM 4th 2 8 RUMS 2nd 1 8 UCL 7th 1 10 Goldsmiths 2nd 2 11 RUMS 3rd 2

Pts 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0

failed to reflect their considerable efforts and contribution at the games. After a few celebratory beers and burgers at the after-games BBQ, a great sporting and social occasion came to a close. One

Footbal Men’s Division 3 Pos Team P 1 KCLMS 5th 2 2 KCL 4th 3 3 QM 5th 2 4 RUMS 4th 2 5 LSE 6th 2 6 KCL 6th 2 7 ICSM 3rd 2 8 Imperial 6th 1 9 Goldsmiths 3rd 2 10 St Georges 3rd 2 11 KCLMS 4th 1 12 RH FC 6th Team 1

Pts 6 6 4 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 0 0

thing is for certain: if the sporting year that follows proves to be half as enthralling, competitive and fun as the KCLA Games, then it promises to be a real treat.

Footbal Men’s Division 4 Pos Team P 1 St Barts 3rd 2 2 RSM 1st 1 2 SSEES 2nd 2 4 BPP Law 1st 2 4 Heythrop 1st 1 4 ICSM 4th 1 7 RVC 2nd 0 8 LSE 7th 1 8 St Georges 4th 1 10 CSSD 1st 1 11 St Barts 4th 1 12 Imperial 7th 1

@LondonStudent

Pts 6 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0

Share your opinion and keep up to date with all ULU news live

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 3 LONDON STUDENT

Dodgy Dodging in the LDL

Writer Emma Hill

10 pm on a Friday night and the David Tuckey Gym is packed with 100 spectators, 18 players, 9 dodgeballs and 1 Ball of Shame. The noise of metal music, screaming fans and dodgeballs smacking the wall of the gym is deafening. The cheering gets louder when an unfortunate girl gets a face-shot and has to run off the court clutching her stinging face. This is the Lister Dodgeball League (LDL) where ‘Dodgeball is everything to everyone’. The Lister Centre is student accommodation at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. The league was created by students in 2003 and quickly became more than just a sport in Lister, more of a way of life. It may be difficult to believe but dodgeball is played as a highly competitive sport with around 36 teams, an All-Star tournament, complete with LDL merchandise and a very detailed rule book (for example: ‘Rule 2.2. Traditionally, the only music allowed to be played during LDL games has been classic and modern rock. However, other

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genres may be allowed at at the discretion of the LDL Executive and the LDLPA’). Students are allowed to stay in Lister for their entire degree, which in Canada is often 4, sometimes 5 years. This means that people can stay year on year and improve their dodgeball technique, and makes it possible for the culture that revolves around the LDL to thrive. I spent my year abroad at the U of A, and at first I thought the LDL was a bit of a joke, but I quickly realised that it wasn’t to be laughed at. A frequent injury towards the end of the season is boys breaking their arms from throwing the ball too hard. They throw and throw and throw and put so much pressure on their arm it snaps. In the film ‘Dodgeball’ the coach says to Vince Vaughan and his team ‘If you can dodge a monkey wrench you can dodge a dodgeball’. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if one day I had been made to dodge a monkey wrench by our overly enthusiastic but totally wonderful captains Tim Chan and Ben Schaffer. The basic rules are to throw dodgeballs at the opposing team, hopefully hit the opposing team with said dodgeballs, and the side with most players left wins. This

Photo by Sam Brooks

is ‘Classic’ dodgeball. There are several other variations, such as Doctor, Double Doctor and Assassins. Generally, the boys throw and the girls ‘shag’ the dodgeballs. I’m not quite sure how ‘shagging’ got its name, but basically the balls bounce off the back wall and the girls stop them rolling back to the other team. As such, it is a sport where people often break their arms, get hit in the face with the ball and say ‘great shag’ to each other.

Across

4 - Capital of Slovenia (9) 7 - Philosopher who wrote The Republic (5) 8 - Principal of King’s College London (4, 7) 9 - Colonel Gaddafi’s place of birth and death (5) 10 - Third code name in the title of a critically acclaimed novel and 2011 film (7) 13 - Northern terminus of the Picadilly Line (11) 16 - Protein catalyst (6) 17 - Author of The Magus (6) 18 - Philosopher put to death with Hemlock (8) 19 - Deoxyribonucleic acid (3)

The game begins with each team lying down with their feet on the back wall, preparing to run for the dodgeballs which are placed in the middle of the gym. The referee shouts go and the craziness begins. Each dodgeball has to be touched against the back wall to ‘activate’ it. The team who has got more balls throws first, with all the boys charging up to the line and throwing together. Unfortunately, they target shaggers first. It’s terrifying to have 10 aggres-

Down

1 - City in which you would find outside geothermal swimming pools (9) 2 - British Prime Minister at the end of WWII (7, 6) 3 - Brothers Maurice and Charles _____ (7) 5 - Latin name for Descartes’ famous statement “I think therefore I am” (6) 6 - “The _____ is always right” (8) 9 - NaCI (4) 11 - Wizarding school (8) 12 - Volcanic rock (7) 14 - New location of the Blue Peter garden (7)

Leave a space in the crossword grid between answers with two words. You’ll find some of the answers in this issue!

SUDOKU

sive dodgeball ‘bros’ lined up, about to aim a ball straight at you. Your only hope is to throw yourself on the floor and scrabble around trying to avoid being hit, hoping you manage to shag some of the balls while you’re at it. The pinnacle of my dodgeball career, in fact probably of my entire sporting career, was in the LDL semi-final against 1Mac. Right before the game started I thought it might be a good idea to count the number of people watching. I counted 150 and then freaked out at the thought this many dodgeball enthusiasts had come to watch me potentially humiliate myself in front of them. The first thing I did was get a really bad face shot and ended up being sat down for most of the game waiting for our ‘Doctor ’ to free me. I made up for it in the next few games, or so I like to think. I didn’t get hit in the face, I didn’t team-kill anyone, I didn’t get hit by the Ball of Shame and I didn’t break my arm so I like to think of that as a success. Dodgeball is a really challenging and exciting sport, taken dead seriously by those who play it and I found it to be one of the highlights of my year abroad.