QMessenger Issue 72

Q

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013 ISSUE 72

QMESSENGER.CO.UK

THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF QUEEN MARY STUDENTS’ UNION

Online; the next big step for education?

E

VERY YEAR Queen Mary University hosts conferences for delegates, staff and student body of the university. This year’s conference “reflected on the challenges the university faces in current times of change in higher education, exploring the issues and priorities bearing in mind increasing competition, globalisation and technological transformation”.

To clarify, the sessions intended to review the progress of the university and to outline future directions in which our education may transform.

The lectures included discussing Queen Mary’s role for education on a global scale; a showcase of recent tools that are being updated to the systems and included in student programmes; evaluating the use of E-learning with mention of QM Review and QMPlus; and finally the lecture from Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor of the Open University.

The highlight of the day, for many, was the last lecture from Martin Bean. As a public event this had a large audience comprising of many teaching related staff from different universities including representatives from UCL. Mr Bean introduced MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses), and “the Tyranny of Conventional Wisdom”.

Bean outlined the first success-

NEWS Jules Evans Interview

ful space mission to the moon, seemingly for little reason but his choice of example became clear shortly after.

The spaceship team’s main challenge was to have enough fuel on-board the shuttle to get to the moon and back, however, the more fuel in the spaceship, the heavier it was and so the more fuel was needed to complete the journey.

To solve this, scientists removed unnecessary weight where ever possible and at one stage this included removing the heavy ladder from the door of the spaceship to the moon surface.

In practise, though, it was difficult to climb down from the ship from inside a big and “clunky” spacesuit. Someone suggested removing the seats. By convention, seats were always used but by taking a step of innovation, the seats were removed and the spaceship was able to complete its mission.

The ladder was put back on the ship. As Bean suggested “Neil Armstrong was saved the indignity of a small dangle for man, and a giant swing for mankind!”

The courage to innovate was definitely worthwhile.

This exact concept, Bean applied to education. “The internet is wonderful and destructive.

Change comes with great opportunity as well as great challenge.”

Bean asked why it is that because

Image by Lloyd Ramos

QMPlus is just a taste of open, online courses for universities to come. things have always been in the wish to merge the “camps” of past, we think they must, there- education that have fees and that fore, always be in the future. So don’t so that some resources can can’t education move to new lim- be accessed completely for free. its too?

Using “The Open University’s Bean and The Open Univer- unparalleled expertise in deliversity are launching new course ing distance learning … Futureprogrammes under the title “Fu- learn will bring together a range turelearn” that are based around of free, open, online courses from resources that can be accessed by leading UK universities, in the millions of people globally. They same place and under the same

image by lloyd ramos

brand.”

One such course from The Open University was related to the programme “Frozen Planet”.

Here the university had materials about the science and the makings of the programme that were free and some that you paid for which turned out to be a success.

The materials are said to be par-

Continued on Page 3

COMMENT

CULTURE

SATIRE

SOCIETIES

SPORTS

EU Membership Referendum

Our Oscar Tips

Shoebill Sues Attenborough

Raise and Give

Guardiola goes to Germany

02NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM: Executive Editor Kashmira Gander

Editor in Chief Isabelle Leach

Creative Director Lloyd Ramos

Photography Lloyd Ramos

Sub Editors Jasmine Virhia and Sarah Power

News

Joseph Flaig and Bethany Moffett

Features

Preston Abell

Comment

Stevie Rankin and James Tory

Culture

Belphoebe New and Rhiannon Evans

Satire

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

The news on campus this week The new cafe ‘Foyer’ is to open in the People’s Palace on Feburary 4th. The coffee shop is part of the People’s Palace refurbishment and will offer Fairtraide Eros coffee. Whilst the university already has an extensive number of food and drink outlets, this venue will focus on it’s coffees, cakes, pretzels, popcorn and a range of ‘retro’ sweets such as ‘Liquorice Allsorts, Cola Cubes, Jelly Babies, Rhubarb and Custards, Dolly Mixtures and Gummy Bears’. Another food outlet ‘The Curve’ has also changed by starting new initiatives. These include encouraging students to eat seasonal vegetables, and holding monthly themed events throughout the year.’

Russel Kane will be performing in the Great Hall as part of the Peoples Palace re-opening on 11th February at 7pm. The event will be part of his ‘Posturing Delivery’ Tour. Russel Kane has already won an Edinburugh Comedy Award, written a play performed in Soho, and his own novel. He has appeared on ‘Live at the Electric’ and has been the star of BBC Three’s ‘Unzipped’. He is still an up and coming star, amusing the public with his bad boy turned good style.

This event will attract attention to Queen Mary and proves the university can provide more entertainment and revenue. Tickets will be £8 for students and £10 for staff.

The new Drunken Monkey restuarant has now opened on our campus. It is placed behind Santander where World Marche used to be. Their popular free taster lunches have created a good buzz on campus and has kept the restaurant busy in its first week.

Known for it’s ‘Dim Sum delights’ and ‘kung-fu kitsch’, the restaurant also offers a wide range of cocktails, wine and beers. It will provide a buffet style lunch men from 11-3.30pm. There is a regularly changing daily lunch deal of four dishes, including all the classics. An a la carte menu will be served from 3.30-10pm for those who prefer to miss the lunch rush.

New research will illuminate CCTV blind spots thanks to researchers at Queen Mary. A new model can link ‘distant and disjointed camera views to follow individuals in a large CCTV network’.

This would be particularly useful in large and busy areas such as train stations, airports and shopping centres, predicting the movements in invisible areas. This model can also be used to guide redesign of buildings to guide the flow of people around an area, making successful evacuations easier.

‘Writing Women’s Lives’ is the next Queen Mary Graduate Panel part of the English Department’s Postgraduate Research Seminars. The event is at the Lock Keeper’s Cottage on the 24th of January. The first event is about ‘Girl Soldiers and Girl Citizens’ with Emily Hogg. In the memoirs of former girl soldiers, ‘childhood and girlhood identities are fixed in time and made static in order to retain the symbolic value associated with the girl child.’ The other event is on ‘Virginia Woolf’s 1932 “Cook Sketch” ‘ with Clara Jones.

This focuses on Virginia’s Woolf’s lost “Cook Sketch” that was located in a manuscript in New York.

The paper addresses the question of Woolf’s use of a working class woman’s voice and anxieties about writing, class and gender.

A new ‘Spotted’ Facebook page has emerged, but for ‘Good Samaritans’. Previous pages were asked to be shut down for their offensive posts about students and their actions on campus. It is hoped that this website would be a more positive representation of students on campus. The administrators of the page ask for students to give recognition to those ‘kind Samaritans’ who are ‘nice to others’. Despite there being many different variants on the more negatively viewed ‘Spotted’ pages, more positive ‘Spotted’ pages are sparse.

The university exclusive versions of these pages are particularly popular, and last much longer. Currently Facebook reports that ‘8 people are talking about this’ and that the page has 17 ‘likes’. The page launched on 13/01/13 so it is still early days for this new type of gossip to take off.

Lucretia McCarthy

Societies

Becky Adkins

Sports

Hannah Clarke and Jeremy Baily Special thanks to Tom Sutton and Melissa Snyder

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Station Manager: Chris Smith www.questradio.co.uk QMessenger is printed at Mortons of Horncastle Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, LN9 6JR. Tel: 01507 523 456. Each issue has a print run of 1,000 and costs £445 to print and deliver.

Established in 2008, QMessenger is the free weekly newspaper of Queen Mary Students’ Union. We are proud of our editorial independence and endeavour to always hold the College, Union and external bodies to account and to provide the best news and analysis to the students of Queen Mary, University of London.

QMessenger is created entirely by students and the publication retains all copyright of design, text, photographs and graphics, along with the individual contributor.

Any views expressed in QMessenger are those of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the paper, the editorial board, Queen Mary Students’ Union or Queen Mary, University of London.

A ‘social’ chromosome in red fire ants is just another discovery made by Queen Mary Scientists this week. The knowledge of ant’s social and behavioural patterns is determined by chromosal variants similar to those that explain butterfly wing patterns and cancer in humans. The research will develop new pest control strategies to break up the colony by chemically inducing social anarchy. The red fire ant in renowned for its painful sting, as a native of South America.

Fruit flies have been the source of jet lag reasearch on Queen Mary campus this week.

Our body clocks are tuned by manmade changes in temperature, noise and light. The researchers subjected fruit flies to daily temperature changes to understand how temperature afffects the circadian clock. Research into clock synchronisation could be used to develop treatments for those with sleep disorders or who work nights.

St Benet’s Chapel is to again become a free cinema as well as a place of worship. For January and February they are putting on the programme of ‘Mondo Movies’. The programme is as follows: January 30th - Troll Hunter February 6th - Dead Man Walking February 13th - The Return of Martin Guerrre Christian Union has started Text for a Toastie awareness campaign. They follow in the footsteps of many other societies that have used the promise of toasties or even the washing of dishes in return for questions (sometimes about God). People who text their number will recieve a toastie with a filling of their choice and the answer to their question. The campaign has been used to raise awareness of the Christian Union and ‘spread the love’ that they strive to do by spreading their message.

NEWS03

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Teaching and Learning Conference at QM Continued from Front Page

Caroline Page

tially based on the Napster music download system in style, only for a whole library of long-distance teaching resources.

Future Learn is designed for a global audience, with courses that are run at the highest standards.

The argument is that, the UK has many international students, especially at the higher educational levels. Many of whom have been put off by the fee increases. Here the concept is to provide education for students, regardless of their background.

Millions of people view online resources from the Open University each year so this is an expansion of the company which could be invaluable to many in the future. In their own words: “Futurelearn will increase the accessibility of higher education,

opening up a wide range of new online courses and learning materials to students across the UK and the rest of the world.” The first Futurelearn courses will be available in 2013 but who knows?

How will this affect the lower levels of education? What will hap-

pen to the tutor lead programmes we are used to? Maybe the ease at which we can access the internet from out portable devices will be the source of our education in the future? Only time can tell but this is definitely something we should seriously consider.

University of London Union comes under pressure

Bethany Moffet

T

HE UNIVERSITY of London Union will hold its next Senate meeting on the 24th January.

With a review at the end of November reportedly concluding that at least one college would be leaving the Union in the next academic year, its future is still relatively unstable. The review itself brought

mixed reports of the value of ULU. With some praising its facilities, whilst others being less enthusiastic about its performance as a students’ union.

Indeed, the review is not the only part of the Union to lack stability.

After the resignation of Sean Rilo Raczka in the Summer, and the election of new President Michael Chessum, there have been new

controversies and difficulties for the Union.

The West London institution, Heythrop College, has in particular had problems with the new leadership of the Union.

Alex Hackett, one of the founders of the University’s student paper, The Heythrop Lion, put forward a motion to decline support and recognition of the new President.

This was after the acting-President, and current Vice President Daniel Cooper, had allegedly been circulating emails to try and gain support for Chessum from his official email. Something Hackett argues was against the fairness of the campaign.

The motion was passed unanimously, with the President of the Heythrop Students’ Union calling

for an investigational tribunal into the election.

Hackett stated that he ‘wasn’t happy with the way the elections were conducted.’ But assured that the reason for complaint was not due to the loss of Heythrop’s candidate for the election, Gala JacksonCoombs. But that instead, it was about regulations and a free and fair democratic process.

image by understanding animal research

QM Chairs Animal Replacement Science Tom Parrott

A

NIMAL TESTING has been a crucial part of scientific research for decades, responsible for the development of antibiotics, anaesthetics and medicines which go on to help cancer patients.

Furthermore research on animals is also involved in the production of shampoo and soap which keep all of us clean and dandruff free. In fact, according to Sky sources, every Nobel Peace Prize bar one over the last 40 years has used animal testing to achieve their ground breaking results.

However, it appears that, finally, human ears being grown on the back of lab rats is finally coming to an end which will be pleasing news

for animal lovers and the RSPCA. These are groups who have objected to animal testing for some time, with Radio 5 Live reporting that 1 in 3 adults wanted a complete government ban on animal research.

Over the past few years British scientists have been working on research methods, particularly 3D simulators which are able to accurately mimic the effects of medication without the need to test on bunny rabbits or human volunteers.

This has all come as a result of work pioneered by the Dr Hadwen Trust, which works closely with Queen Mary in establishing a science discipline free from animal research. Queen Mary’s role in championing animal replacement science has come from our

very own ‘Blizzard Institute’ which specialises in growing human cells and tissue where effective testing can be undertaken.

This method of research has become more widely accepted amongst the scientific community, especially as producing real cell structures allows better cancer research to be undertaken.

Due to the success of the research within the Blizzard Institute the Dr Hadwen Trust are basing the professional chair of animal replacement science in Queen Mary, a great achievement for the researches there.

Kailah Eglington, the Chief Executive for the Dr Hadwen Trust, also praises the work of Queen Mary stating how these research breakthroughs are a big stepping

stone towards animal free science.

With 2010 seeing 3.7 million tests on animals it is no wonder that Eglington is so excited by the progress made over the last few years describing: “in terms of the public at large it will mean we’ll find better medication and better ways of doing things”.

Clearly it is a revolutionary move where scientists are able to produce human tissue to test on which will not only provide more accurate results but will also put an end to the long standing practices of animal testing. Good news all round.

This advancement is also good for the country as a whole, being the leading innovator of animal replacement science and once again showing that we are the best at what we do, making us proud Brits

able to say that not only did we invent football but we championed the replacement of animals in scientific research.

Animal research has reached it is final days as a method for testing, whether that be shower gel or cancer treatments. However it is important to recognise the work established from animal testing during a time when current technology was yet to be invented.

Now that we are able to reproduce human tissue, which seems all too sci-fi, the usage of animals is almost at an end. The work achieved

by Queen Mary’s Blizzard Institute is ground breaking and will reinvent practical research as we know it, as highlighted by Kailah Eglington this research will see improved results from humane testing.

04NEWS

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Jules Evans on philosophy for life Joe Flaig

J

ULES EVANS is an author and journalist who has, in the last few years, become an important figure in the discussions of philosophy, both in London and further afield. His book, Philosophy For Life And Other Dangerous Situations, has been widely celebrated for showing the links between ancient philosophy and its manifestations in modern life, especially within the field of psychology. He helps to run the London Philosophy Club, which is approaching its hundredth meeting, and is the largest philosophy club in the UK. At Queen Mary, he is the policy director for the Centre for the History of the Emotions, which is ‘the first research centre in the UK dedicated to the history of the emotions’. He is also the convenor of a new six week course at Queen Mary called ‘Philosophy for Life’. The course is free to attend and starts on the 5th February at the Lock Keeper’s Cottage on the Mile End Campus. Jules contacted QMessenger last week, and we met up to discuss his engagements with the university, his book and his general philosophy.

Q: What is the Centre for the History of the Emotions?

A: I believe it was started in 2007, and as far as I’m aware there’s been a growing interest in history in the emotions, and the constructions of different emotions at different stages in history, and how that has tied into things like culture, economics and medicine. I’m the policy director, which means I liaise with thinktanks and the media. We look at various different things like the history of psychiatry and psychology, and I’m quite interested in ancient philosophy and how that feeds into what I call ‘the modern politics of well being’, as in government initiatives for the well-being of their citizens. The centre as a whole is quite cross-departmental though, especially with the Drama and English departments.

Q: Could the title of the Centre be slightly misleading, with the idea that you could create a history from something as subjective and seemingly static as emotion?

A: Biologists could say that emotions are universal and timeless, that there are certain fundamental emotions that all humans have always felt, and these correspond to facial movements and things like that. But I would suggest that that’s quite a naïve view, insofar as our emotions and even our experience of our bodies is always mediated through language and our culture.

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image provided by jules evans

So different countries mean different things by happiness, and even in different parts of London we mean different things by happiness. I’m very much interested in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Therapy, which is partly what my book’s about, and how they come from the ancient Greek idea that we construct our emotions through our interpretation of the world. What that means is that you can look at the constructions that are involved in different emotions. For example... melancholy was a huge thing during the renaissance: people thought you could die of it, it involved the heart turning to stone and literally breaking. Now, we don’t talk about melancholy any more, we talk about bipolar disorder, or depression. We’re haunted by the ghosts of emotions that no longer exist. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), for instance, used to define homosexuality as an illness. In our culture, there was even a time when theft, ‘lack of respect for people’s possessions’ was considered a mental illness. I don’t think its a hard argument to prove that our thinking about emotions, or even about the emotions that we think we have, changes over time, and you can trace those changes, which I think is interesting.

Q: So you have a strong belief in the practical applications of philosophy, but to what extent does this come from your personal experience?

A: Very much so. I didn’t study philosophy at university, I did English Literature, but then I was quite miserable when I was an undergraduate because I’d basically done a fair amount of drugs when I was 16 to 18, and that had led to panic attacks and mood swings and depressions and so on... I didn’t really have the capacity to understand what was happening to me or what I could do about it.

I’m

quite

interested

in ancient philosophy and how that feeds into what I call ‘the modern politics of well being’ After university, my degree or my tutors hadn’t been much help to me, which is understandable. There used to be this idea that a humanities degree would make you live more wisely, become more emotionally intelligent and well-rounded, but I didn’t find that, although I did really enjoy my course. After four or five years, I came across this therapy that helped me, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

I didn’t go to a therapist, I went to a support group that met every week. There were ten nervous people sitting around a table, and... we helped each other. That helped me

quite quickly to stop having panic attacks and then a while longer to clear the depression.

I was curious about CBT and who invented it, so I went to interview the people who had invented it, and discovered they were directly influenced by ancient Greek philosophy.

This led me back to read people like Socrates and Plato and the Stoics and the Epicureans, and it was a real pleasure to read these people for the first time and to discover how incredibly accessible, relevant and useful they were.

Their model of philosophy was that it is very much a practical form of therapy for the self, or the ‘psyche’.

Lots of their very practical ideas are now at the heart of modern psychotherapy, the most important of which is the idea that our emotions are deeply involved interpretations of ourselves and the world.

The inspiration for CBT is a quote by the stoic philosopher Epictetus who said ‘it’s not events but our interpretations about events that causes suffering’.

Q: Could you not argue that a view such as that perhaps leads to repression of real emotions, if you understand a situation to be bad but then try to feel differently? Could that not be unhealthy in itself?

A: Sometimes, we will find we get stuck in certain emotions beyond the point where they are useful, and it important to understand this

so we can get ourselves out of it. I should say that because I’m talking about philosophy as a sort of practical therapy, I have to be careful as a teacher and say that this isn’t therapy for people with serious emotional problems, because if you do have serious problems you should see a trained professional therapist, and I would put you in touch with the university counselling services.

I’m not a trained therapist so it’s more of an everyday thing, about things that can be used in life, but I’m also about being clear about the limits of your abilities. This isn’t professional therapy.

Q: What will you be discussing in your new course?

A: The course will be structured in a similar way to my book, and we’ll be focussing on different philosophers every week.

Basically, all the philosophers have different ideas, but they share what I call the ‘Cognitive Theory of the Emotions’, the idea that our emotions involve judgements about the world and we can use our reason to become aware of those judgements, and change them if they are not wise.

The course is not trying to lead people towards one kind of ethical vision, it’s more kind of trying to create a space for people to discuss and challenge these ethical visions.

It’ll be quite interactive, but you don’t have to stand up in front of other people if you don’t want to.

Q: As a young person, it seems that there is a sort of vacuum of belief, and topics like philosophy and politics are sidelined, and that’s how I feel after going to university for two and a half years. It seems like young people who are interested in these topics are in a minority, and the people that actually engage with these ideas are an even smaller minority. Why do you think this is?

A: I think sometimes people are actually afraid to talk about this stuff because they don’t want to look pretentious, and that’s what I found at my university.

I was surprised by how little deep, meaningful conversation there was, and that was exactly what I was hoping to find at university. I hope that if there’s a space provided, then people might feel more able to bring up their questions about life.

‘Philosophy for Life’ runs from Tuesday 5th February, 6pm in the Lock-Keeper’s Cottage, and is open for all. Jules’ website is http://philosophyforlife.org/.

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Mending Broken Hearts Returns to Barts Caroline Page

W

ISH YOU knew how to mend a broken heart?

How about the real ones? If yes, this event is for you!

With guest speakers Professor Roger Corder (author of the “The Wine Diet”) and Mr Wael Awad (Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon), the evening will be focussed on heart surgery and health, including a live heart surgery demonstration!

Professor Corder will talk you through his ground breaking research about the benefits of wine and chocolate in our diets. Yes you read that right: benefits of wine and chocolate!

He will “reveal” the secrets of living well and for longer as well as giving us all an excuse to open

another bar of galaxy…

Mr Awad will explain the do’s and don’t’s of heart procedures such as in coronary artery bypass surgery, valve replacements and heart transplants.

I have heard his wealth of knowledge is definitely worth hearing and the computer graphics and video footage should be able to assist any up and coming medics out there!

All littered with chocolates and wine, the evening will finish with a raffle for the box of anatomical heart cupcakes made by celebrity baker Lily Vanilli to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

Specimens from the museum will also be on display, as restorations taking place in the museum have limited the viewing recently. It will be a wonderful evening of surgery, drinking and mending hearts! Who would want to miss all this?! Tickets are only £6 and include refreshments!

They can be purchased through the Queen Mary E-shop! See you

NEWS05

T.S.Eliot Treasure Archive at QM Bethany Moffet

A

LETTER written and signed by the poet T.S. Eliot has recently been discovered in the Jacob Isaacs Collection, which has gone through a cataloguing process of late. The letter was found amongst Professor Isaac’s research notes.

The treasure was written in 1957 to Isaacs from Eliot, and has survived in the Professor’s papers until its discovery. Its letterhead indicates that Eliot wrote the letter at Faber and Faber Limited – the publishing house where at the time he was Editor. Eliot’s work holds many poems, including ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. He was also known for his plays, including ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, which was first performed in 1935. In 1948, as a display for his work and writing, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The letter itself asks Isaacs for

help in understanding and remembering what Eliot meant in one of his essays – ‘Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Göttingen’. A Professor had asked the writer to know the identity of Webster, which Eliot was unable to recall. He ends the letter with a rather glum conclusion: ‘Incidentally, I do not even remember whether I meant Sam Johnson or Ben Jonson. It is Jonson in my text, but is this a misprint? No-one will ever know.’

Jacob Isaacs, who was friends with T.S. Eliot, was also a writer of over thirty books and articles.

He was also a University lecturer, and held the position of chair of English Language and Literature at Queen Mary College from 1952-64.

His particular interests included Shakespeare, with a special interest in Elizabethan and Restoration theatrical history, Sir George Etherege and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

image by chris drumm

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MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

COMMENT07

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

The British Prince of controversy Sarah Power

A

FTER BEING back in the country for only a few days Prince Harry has once again been causing controversy.

In an interview done at the end of the Prince’s latest four month tour of Afghanistan the royal has been quoted making seemingly flippant and offhand comments about killing members of the Taliban.

For many these comments may be considered a soldiers way of dealing with the horrors of war, a young man attempting to make light of a harsh reality. But Prince Harry’s comments have caused outrage as he appears to be extremely proud of killing other men.

It seems wrong that a highly respected member of the armed forces, let alone a member of the Royal family can show such little regard

for the loss of human life.

The Prince went on to say that it was necessary ‘to take a life to save a life’: an unrealistic view if there ever was one when it comes to the war in Afghanistan. It would be interesting to know how Harry can distinguish between genuine Taliban insurgents and innocent civilians as he fires missiles from his Apache helicopter - a skill he credited video games for developing.

Comments that liken war to a video game only demonstrate the Prince’s continued ability to make public faux pas, which he openly blames the media for. With regular headlines involving naked photos and drunken mischief the British media clearly struggle to take the Prince seriously. For months Prince Harry’s presence in Afghanistan has been questioned by the

British public. Capturing a British Prince would surely be a Taliban victory of epic proportions - even more so now that he has bragged about his ability to kill them off.

Afghan officials have also reportedly noted that Harry’s interview has been a propaganda victory for the Taliban. Prince Harry has successfully presented himself as a trigger happy, video game playing idiot who cannot be trusted to speak in public without putting his foot in it.

All of this begs the question, why is a member of the royal family being sent to fight in an unwinnable war? Harry’s interview points towards an attempt to glorify a war that is widely considered by the public as morally wrong. By portraying Harry as the brave British Prince fighting for freedom in a

far off land the powers that be are surely attempting to romanticise the continued slaughter of both Afghan civilians and our own troops.

Because surely if a member of the Royal family can go out and fight then we should continue to send our own loved ones to die out in the desert. It seems like a very poor attempt to increase public support for a war that has no end in sight despite the governmental promises to pull out British troops by the end of next year. Of course in a later interview Harry attempted to backtrack on his previous comments.

He avoided any direct references to killing members of the Taliban and stated his role simply as ‘supporting the Afghan people’. Obviously a much more diplomatic answer which was no doubt orchestrated

by Palace officials.

Michael Gove, (right) meets with US Education Secretary Arne Duncan

image by walking with the wounded

A-Level reform is risky business Stephanie Relf

B

Y 2015, A Levels as we know them will be extinct. The AS Level will be a separate qualification and modular exams forgotten. Michael Gove is presumably trying to restore the good old days with two years of grafting, one exam, and only the top pupils at the elite schools accepted into our precious Russell Group Universities.

By no means are A Levels perfect. Most students will admit that their 6th form education did not nearly prepare them for University. The essays were formulaic, most of the work was from a text book, and yes some people re-sat exams because they screwed up the first or second time.

However, the overly dramatic response to this need for reform

just further supports the fear that Gove is incompetent as Minister for Education and is trying to divert our attention by looking as though he is achieving something.

While this “high-quality option” will be great and challenging for the Hermione Grangers of this world, for those who already find A Levels too much work or too difficult, it leaves what? Low-quality options? Higher levels of youth unemployment?

The Russell Group will be working with Ofqual to ensure that A Levels are structured in a way which better prepares students for the University experience .This sounds like a sensible idea, though it seems to assume that all A Level students want to go to University, a somewhat unfounded assump-

image by us embassy london

tion considering the rise in fees has put off huge numbers of potential undergrads.

Surely businesses also need to be involved in this process to ensure that students are not only able to write essays, but improve skills like public speaking or proper grammar to make them more attractive to employers without the necessity of a degree.

It seems that students are always the main focus in these debates, and rightly so, but I wonder how many have considered A Level teachers?

Most are extremely passionate and would love to teach students to become well-rounded people (“History Boys” style) but they receive so much league-table pressure from Head Teachers that teaching a formula is all they have

time for.

The added pressure of having to change teaching tactics and marking which most won’t be familiar with, while still being expected to produce good results seems a lot to ask.

The changes also beg the question, how many students will make the grades? Most of the top Universities require you to have at least 3 A’s if not a few A*’s. Will these boundaries be lower as a consideration or will Oxbridge become even more elitist that it already is?

The question of re-sits is a difficult one. There are some students who can proudly boast that they didn’t re-sit any exams, and others though no less able, had to re-sit almost every exam. Everyone will mess-up at one time in their life. It

seems unfair that just because this generation of students was born a few years later than their older siblings, they should be subject to much harsher conditions.

It is possible that these new measures begin the golden age of students who know how to write and structure good essays, who know how to reference and spell properly, they may even be a superhuman race of academics who will dazzle and outshine their predecessors (aka ... us).

However, there appears to be a worrying possibility that a few will shine, but the greater majority will fall behind because the school system needs to be strengthened as a whole, not just from the age of 16.

These reforms will not cover up the cracks for long and surely we are putting futures at risk.

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08COMMENT Referendum crisis looms in Egypt for Morsi

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Nadine Mariah

T

HE EGYPTIANS have voted in a referendum on their country’s new blueprint constitution.

Preceding Mr Morsi taking office, the Supreme Council of Armed forces issued a constitutional declaration amending the post Mubarak declaration drawn up on the 30th of March 2011.

Following his succession Mr Morsi moved to subvert the council’s authority. On the 12th of August he nullified SCAF’s amendments,

transferring power to presidency, including absolute legislative authority. Despite appearing almost altruistic in quitting the Muslim brotherhood upon presidency, the movement continues to permeate state institutions, culture and the press.

Mr Morsi had also continuously ignored calls to widen the variation of members composing the constitution, in light of concerns that the Brotherhood and members of the former National Democratic party were favoured.

Liberals, Secularists and Chris-

tian leaders then boycotted and resigned from assembly sessions, leaving the majority of Islamists in control.

Morsi responded with a decree on 22 November, granting him absolute legislative, and presidential authority, immune to challenge. The declaration also restricted powers assumed by the judiciary, especially in disbanding the Constituent assembly, taking pre-dominance over any ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court on the legitimacy of its members.

Following mass protests Morsi then revoked the absolutism of his decree but maintained and insisted power over the constituent assembly.

Members of the assembly then began a degenerate, over-night, race to establish a quick fix draft after the Supreme Constitutional court threatened assert regulations. The draft was approved despite concerns over its composition body, and it is this referendum voters have voted ‘Yes’ to.

Parliamentary elections will take place shortly; although it is

unlikely the new constitution will bring about democracy or stability. Given how ardent the Brotherhood are of infiltrating national and individual freedoms, it comes as no surprise that Sharia is to be the main source of legislation.

Further until the People’s assembly is elected, the Shura council, already expected to vote on laws restricting the right to demonstrate, will assume temporary legislative powers. Egypt is simply waiting like it has always done, for its next Islamist macho catastrophe.

image by antonin remond

France’s Same Sex Marriage Issue

Romain Giraud

O

N JANUARY 12 2013, hundreds of thousands of French citizens rallied to the capital to protest against the new legislation introduced by President Hollande granting same sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. Estimates of participants ranged from 340,000 to 800,000.

Even if one defers to conservative statistics, this is still a considerable number.

But it’s a good thing! Yes you read this correctly. The protests are an excellent thing and before you start sending any hate mail, allow for an explaination.

We are talking about a law that will dramatically affect and transform the social fabric of the French society; which, despite its history of volatile militancy, is a very conservative nation at its core. We are talking about a law that sees the nation clearly divided with recent polls showing only 55% of French citizens

in support of the law.

We are talking about peaceful demonstrations; done in a democratic manner and civilised manner; done to promote and protect a right granted to them by the current French civic code of law.

Now don’t get me wrong: I am an ardent supporter of this legislation!

I believe that ‘marriage for all’ (as it has been coined in the recent political and media discourse) is an obvious right in our time and age.

I’d even be so forward as to claim that, from my ideological standpoint, marriage altogether should be abolished, as it is archaic institution originally designed to keep women from owning property and has no place in this time and age; the civic rights should be enjoyed by all, and marital union should only be civic.

For example, I find it ludicrous that the church believes it has any argumentative power in this debate.

Moreover, what is often lost in the

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jibber-jabber of politicians are the pragmatic consequences of such legislation: although homosexual couples in France can enjoy civic union and share a fiscal status with their heterosexual homologues, they cannot adopt.

The law, if it were to be passed, would hence allow for adoption by homosexual couples: and I verily believe that a child will fare far better with 2 mommies or 2 daddies than with no parents at all.

Why I believe the protests are a great thing is for a completely reason different to my opinion on the debate itself: it has to do with democratic process. As stated, this issue is a national societal issue and there is no clear consensus to speak of.

Moreover, when looking back at the history of Civic rights in the US, the democratic success in passing of laws in the South often veils the monstrous and disastrous failure in the north to implement the policy.

The reason now proposed by his-

torians, is that there was no democratic process because there were no laws against civil rights in the north; de facto segregation. This resulted in a far more violent conflict in the north than in the south.

In contrast, Paris, with its notoriously gay mayor - Bertrand Delanoë- in power for over 10 years, just saw a peaceful protest.

I’d rather see 800,000 people protest - even if it is against my own prejudice - and have their voices heard; have a public debate on the issue, even at the risk of looking like intolerant fools to the rest of the world (quite hypocritically, I might add, since most modern countries see same sex marriage and the subsequent equality of civil rights as a social taboo).

I would rather see banners labelled with naive messages than pitchforks and fire torches. I would rather see public discrimination easy to target and work with - than private and implicit profiling; which

is today still the source of many ancient evils. I’d rather escape the scenario where a muted opposition sees itself out-did by the bureaucratic process of legislation making and follows a more brutal method to have its voice accounted for.

On this note, I will end on president Hollande’s handling of the situation. Although I condone him for launching the initiative, I condemn him for his method.

He left no time for a public debate to take place. It seems he had hoped this legislation would skip the democratic process and fed it directly to the bureaucratic machine of law making: a terrible mistake in my opinion.

Hence, I end by commending the civic virtues of the thousands of protesters who, in spite of having a rather naive view on human and civic equality, find democratic grace in the handling of the situation; a first step perhaps towards more peaceful democracies.

COMMENT09

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

The Great Debate

Is the media ever an acceptable outlet for hatespeech?

image by frustration

L

Sam Doherty

NO

YES

Complaints Commission going to launch an inquiry into the affair The article was written in defence of her colleague Suzanne Moore who made a comment in another article about how women were angry among other things about “not having the ideal body shape- that of a Brazilian transsexual” and received abuse over this comment through sites such as Twitter. Burchill’s method of hitting back certainly was provocative with “To have your cock cut off and then plead special privileges as women- above naturalborn women, who don’t know the meaning of suffering” Firstly, Suzanne Moore was not writing a hate article against transgender people, she was actually writing about how women themselves were being treated poorly and this has a certain edge of irony towards the whole matter.

Secondly, Burchill has a tendency (like Enoch Powell or Morrissey from the Smiths) of making controversial statements saying on the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death that she was pleased by it describing him as a “wife-beater, gay basher and all-round bully boy”.

So if anyone in the media promotes hate speech, we don’t send torrents of abuse (hypocritical) back towards them. No what we do is take the moral high ground and ignore them or even tolerate them like someone playing their music too loud on the tube or a general twat such as Piers Morgan.

James Tory

N

OW I could easily have written a bullshit libertarian article about how curtailing the media over “hate speech” would be limiting freedom of the press and political correctness has gone mad but the truth is that there are organisations such as the BNP and the Westboro Baptist Church who do preach hatred and intolerance while simultaneously hiding behind the democratic right of freedom of speech.

The media (primarily in the form of the internet) has been used by these groups to promote their views but only a minority (probably less than 0.01% of web users) follow these webpages and believe in them; the main issue is when the mainstream media promote views which can be considered “hate speech”.

Sure, a lot of us have at one time or another read the Daily Mail and the Sun whose articles talk about how Britain is being flooded by immigrants, “strange” people and all the jobs are being taken up by “that lot”. What separates the Daily Mail’s views (which I find personally quite amusing) to ones which can be interpreted as “hate speech” can be a very thin line.

Take for example Julie Burchill’s article in the Observer which was titled “Transsexuals should cut it out”. Within 24 hours of publication of the article, the reaction was that of outrage from the transgender community and eventually the article was removed from the Observer website with the Press

AST WEEK, in a haze of procrastination, I stumbled across an article in the Guardian written by Suzanne Moore. In this, she attempted to defend an article she had written in the New Statesman the previous week in which she disparagingly described the ideal female body type as being that of a ‘Brazilian transsexual’. This caused understandable grievance in the transgender community and, in reaction to this, Moore’s Guardian column appealed to the transgender community to leave their ‘identity politics’ behind and instead focus on resisting cuts and other more pressing issues.

The dispute, while neither side conceded their argument, seemed to be nearing its end until, last Sunday, The Observer printed a bilious article by Julie Burchill entitled ‘Transsexuals should cut it out’ which appeared to be nothing more than a disgusting series of slurs targeted at trans people with no purported purpose other than the ‘defence’ of Moore.

Burchill’s article, which has been removed from the Observer website, caused uproar, leading to protests from transgender lobbyists outside the Observer’s headquarters and calls from Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone calling for the sacking of Burchill and Observer editor John Mullholland. Whatever the consequences (and they could be severe- press regulatory body the PCC has begun an investigation), the affair

raises the question of how and to what extent freedom of speech can be used as an excuse in an incident which clearly infringes on another group of people’s right to live their lives safely, without prejudice or discrimination.

The left is often tarnished with the brush of being oversensitive to the needs of minorities while neglecting those of ‘ordinary people’. This is an issue that must be tackled within the left but Moore’s insensitive approach is one that will only lead to yet more divisions within the movement. The task of the anti-cuts movement is to build a new working class identity which, while keeping economic issues at its heart, stands determinedly side by side with feminist and LGBT struggles. This must be dealt with soberly and with a good deal of common sense. Moore’s remark was ill-judged and offensive, but was it tantamount to hatespeech? Probably not. The question The Observer and all media institutions should ask themselves when dealing with material that could be deemed ‘offensive’ is this one- ‘Could the publication of this material lead to serious emotional distress or incite the persecution of an already oppressed minority?’ With Burchill’s column, the answer is a definitive yes. The Observer, the country’s largest liberal Sunday newspaper, often giving support to LGBT issues over others, and this article breached the trust of its readership- a breach of trust which is rightly condemned.

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10COMMENT

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

City sludge is no winter wonderland P Tom Parrott

ICTURE THIS: Christmas day, 3pm, and you’re watching the Queen on the BBC addressing our nation telling us a load of heart-warming drivel about the festive season and how next year is going to be so much better than this one.

The tree is well decorated in front of the window where snow is gently (emphasis on GENTLY) falling in the background to produce a magical, picturesque scene which one can only imagine is from a film or TV show. This readers, is the one and only time that snow is ever magical and actually wanted on the streets of Britain.

The recent bombardment of snow has created a sense of youthful enthusiasm, with children and adults alike wanting to go out and “play” in it. This positive feeling towards the white stuff is entirely misplaced and any comment, status or snow-based activity should be regarded with heavy criticism.

First and foremost, it is cold!

Throwing snow in people’s faces may seem really funny and a good thing to do but after 5 minutes you’re hands and feet will become uncomfortably cold leading those who participate in such acts to spend the next half an hour complaining about the inability to feel

their own hands whilst furiously rubbing them together in a pitiful attempt to warm them up.

Snow, after a few minutes becomes no better than rain. It is cold, wet and miserable and should be exclusively reserved for the Alps or Rockies where it is actually enjoyable. You may accuse me of being a Scrooge, however the fact is that a pair of jeans and trainers does not stop the cold or wet and no one is going to wear long johns under jeans.

It’s not just the fact that snow is cold and wet that is the problem but also how it gets everywhere!

The transport problems caused by our countries inept inability to cope with a relatively small dose of snow are pathetic.

Go to the French Alps where you can’t even see the tracks and yet the trains, buses and cars are still working as normal. Why are we so incapable to organise ourselves to prepare and cope with snow which has become a yearly occurrence?!

For those of you who perhaps disagree with my cynicism then please try and travel around London during these periods of disaster.

People who go around making snowmen in general good cheer should turn a thought to those who, whilst they are supposedly having a good time, are stuck in traffic trying

to get home or to work yet are prevented.

Look around your lectures, how many fellow students have been unable to arrive on time preventing them from participating and thus falling behind in the studies which will shape the rest of their lives.

Furthermore football fixtures, amongst other sports, are heavily hit by the snow preventing actual entertainment and real physical activity from taking place which causes a great amount of inconvenience and money.

What those of you who seem to enjoy snow need to realise is that you are no longer a child who has no understanding of how the world works or the effect of snow past a few extra days off. Snow as a whole is awkward, cold and wet. It is not fun or cool or even exciting.

It is a particular type of precipitation which should be reserved for Christmas day and places where you can go skiing.

It has no other purpose except to act as a general hindrance and hazard to those who are trying to get on with their day to day lives, not wanting to have to turn the heating up or fall over after slipping on an icy patch. The only real hope is that global warming picks up and snow is a thing of the past. Fingers crossed.

image by ian wilson

Owen Jones’ Les Mis Revolution

Charlie Pullen

I

N AN article for i newspaper on the 21st Owen Jones made a call for a ‘movement uniting all those desperate for a coherent alternative to the tragedy of austerity’ and this set me to thinking: How could this be done? What would it look like? Who would do it? And, naturally, it wasn’t long before my mind drifted whimsically onto thoughts of a more sassy kind - namely, musical theatre.

It then occurred to me that these two seemingly disparate matters could actually be very much partners in a coalition (against the Coalition that is). After all, who hasn’t seen the new wonderful Les Mis and not felt the urge to take to the streets in revolution and song? It’s not just me...

Now while direct action and melodramatic musical epics don’t seem to be entirely compatible on

initial consideration, there are pragmatic arguments to be made.

Protest would be a lot more popular if it involved beautiful figureheads, chorus lines and heartwrenchingly tragic songs.

I know we’ve been plagued by apathy, hapathy and general laziness in our recent times which means people are very much unlikely to take to the streets in the way that we’ve seen Marius, Eponine and Gavroche do on the big screen.

However, I can’t think of a better way to solve this problem because, let’s face it, no one really wants to wander about miserably outside Parliament mumbling something angry at the corridors of power.

What people really want is song and dance on a protest, literally.

The melodious revolutionaries, Marius and Enjolras, showed us how it’s done, simultaneously

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holding a note and a rifle, while still managing to look beautiful.

Let’s look at the similarities here: the 1832 June Rebellion was a student led movement (and we’re all students, right?) and we’re all pretty miserable (well, at least I am) so we should hear the people sing on the streets of Mile End. There’s anger out there and, as Stanislavski would implore us, let’s harness it, incorporate it into our performance and sing our way out of austerity.

Sadly the revolution spectacular in Les Mis wasn’t exactly successful but many political figures have secured their fame with show-stopping performances (Jesus, Hitler, Evita) and the politically left, anti-austerity groups must do the same.

There’s a new world to be won and it’s not going to be handed to us on a plate; we need to take

it, change it and win in it in our own gloriously choreographed fashion.

I’d like to see empty chairs at empty table at The Curve – although there usually are – but this time because we’ll be out singing and changing the world.

If my argument hasn’t quite convinced you, I’ll leave some words to Boublil and Schonberg and you can imagine a weepy Anne Hathaway warbling them if it helps: I dreamed a dream in time gone by when hope was high and life worth living – I’m dreaming of post-war consensus Britain, by the way. But the tigers – that’s the Tories - come at night with their voices soft as thunder as they tear your hope apart, as they turn your dream to shame – i.e. by dismantling the welfare state. So, Owen, I’ve got your alternative and it’s called Singing Socialism. To the barricade!

image by harshlight

COMMENT11

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

EU membership puts UK at heart

Silk factories in China have not suffered as a result of the economic downturn

Zubair Suleman

T

HE ISSUE of Europe has haunted Conservative governments since the Thatcher era and continues to divide the Conservative Party to the present day. Conservative backbenchers are pushing the Prime Minister to hold a referendum on the powers of the EU, however they appear to be oblivious to the potentially damaging effect it could have on the UK Economy.

The debate over European Union membership contributed partly to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s.

However, since the early 90s there has been a rapid increase in global trade. Therefore having a voice in the EU becomes ever more important in an increasingly integrated global Economy.

Emerging Economies such as India and China have been to some extent resilient against the pressures of the global economic crisis. In 2011 alone, EU countries imported nearly 300 billion US dollars worth of goods from

this week

image by joriz de guzman

China (EU stats).

In light of the increasing competition posed by economies such as China, it is imperative that the EU has a coherent and cohesive negotiation platform to trade with other economies around the world. It is also important that the UK plays an important role in this as a loss of negotiation power can weaken the UK’s position in the global Economy.

Hence a UK in Europe is stronger in comparison to an isolated country with decreasing global economic leverage.

The growing debate over an EU referendum can potentially cause rising uncertainty in fragile economic climate. Business Secretary Vince Cable issued his concern claiming that it was a “terrible time” to create uncertainty considering the vulnerable state of the UK economy.

1: Prime Minister troubled by EU divisions within his party.

Furthermore Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also highlighted the devastating impact an

EU exit could have on domestic jobs and growth. Many UK businesses trade with other EU countries on a daily basis and an exit could create a barrier to trade.

Small and medium size businesses are already struggling in difficult economic times but an EU exit could prove unbearable for pressured UK firms. Although current employment figures have improved in the recent quarters, an EU exit could have a negative impact on job creation.

As trade opportunities decrease, the jobs in the production process become less secure. Overall a referendum will create huge uncertainty among investors, deterring investment in the UK Economy.

Former Prime Minister John Major was no stranger to the divisive effect of the EU debate in the Conservative party. He saw the importance the UK being in the “heart” of economic activity and leadership in the EU. However, many EU sceptics

such as current Foreign Secretary William Hague remain cautious about the transfer of sovereignty to the EU. Major failed to create consensus among his party and

suffered the consequences with a damning defeat in the 1997 general elections.

Similarly Prime Minister David Cameron is becoming increasingly ambiguous with his position. In some interviews he states the importance of the UK’s membership, whilst at other party speeches he promises repatriation of powers to help please his fellow backbenchers.

Such conflicting views resemble the weak leadership

by John Major in the 90’s ultimately contributing to his downfall.

Overall a potential referendum on powers of the EU will effectively have the same impact as an “in or out” referendum causing uncertainty over the UK’s Economic position. Therefore it is important for Britons to keep feelings of patriotism to one side, accepting that the UK must play a major role in the EU if it wishes to compete successfully on an increasingly competitive global economic stage.

Emily Eyre

tion Tom Parrott showed undying commitment to his listeners.

The Quest Radio awards recognised some of our most popular shows with Ali Roberts picking up the Best Music award and The Demise of Modern Society winning Best Show.

The next few weeks promise to be just as exciting with the continuation of Quest at Drapers and our Comic Relief fundraising spectacular! If you’d like to get involved with our charity work find us on-

line at Questradio.co.uk and fill in our contact form. If you’d like to find out more about how you can contribute to student radio at Queen Mary or become a Quest DJ you can fill in our contact form or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Starting from the 21st of January you can listen to all of your favourite shows from 12pm onwards Monday to Friday. To find our new schedule, listen live and check out some of our new videos, head to Questradio.co.uk.

This week’s show of the week is The Emily Eyre Show. Usually full of rock and indie music, you’ll hear anything from The Clash to Arcade Fire. The show follows a different theme each week and includes various features such as quote of the week, the top five and some of the worst jokes ever heard.

For all of this, some great tunes and bizarre chatter, tune in each Monday at 7pm to Questradio. co.uk.

2013 has finally arrived, bringing with it a jam-packed second semester for Quest Radio. Armed with a new website and a long list of upcoming events, our student radio team are back on air with your old favourites and a few new shows! Last term saw the debut of Quest DJs live at Drapers, some charity ice-skating and a whole lot of milk being poured over library square as our YouTube sensa-

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12FEATURES

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Portrait of mural artist Phyllis Bray (pictured far right)

courtesy of queen mary press team

Grand re-opening for People’s Palace A Preston Abell

VERY EXCITING event is taking place at Queen Mary in the next few weeks.

On Sunday, the 3rd of February, the Water City Festival Orchestra will take to the stage of the newly renovated People’s Palace at Queen Mary’s Mile End Campus to kick off a two month long programme of events to celebrate the reopening of the Historic People’s Palace after its £6.3m refurbishment.

While the two month long programme will feature a diverse range of events, from standup comedy shows to classical music concerts, it is incredibly fitting that the Water

City Music Festival Orchestra is the opening act to usher in the reopening of this significant East End landmark, for it tells the story of the Lower Lea Valley through the mediums of both music and film, combining the rich and varied history of the East End with its noted artistic roots.

Supported by the London Legacy Development Corporation, the concert will showcase the endless range of talent that resides in East London, bringing together musicians of all ages, from professional musicians to students at Queen Mary. Through their performance, the Water City Festival Orchestra

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will trace the inside story of the Olympic Legacy, as well as its relationship to other developments in the Lower Lea Valley now that the games have concluded. This unique narrative and format will give the audience a clear-sighted glimpse into the Olympic Legacy through the eyes of those who live and work in East London.

The Orchestra will be headed by professional violinist, Michael Bochmann. In addition to touring and preforming across the globe, Bochmann is a Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. For the last forty years, he

has produced over 50 recordings for the BBC with the Bochmann Quartet, as both concert master of the English String Orchestra (ESO) and as a soloist. When asked about this exciting project, Michael Bochmann explained, “The Orchestra continues to grow and showcase musicians and artists living, studying and working in and around the East End. We are aiming to inspire creative talent in the area and promote that talent in years to come. It is an educational music experience for the players, and one that an audience from all backgrounds can enjoy.”

Excitingly, the Queen Mary

Music Society Orchestra are heavily contributing to the event, and Queen Mary’s Director of Music, Alan Wilson, will preform of the People’s Palace’s newly refurbish Rutt Organ.

In addition, the show will include excerpts from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Sibelius’ Karelia Suite, Saint-Saëns’ Dansemacabre, and Debussy’s La Cathedral Engloutie. There will also be a pertinent performance by Bangladeshi vocalist Akash Sottar, who lives and works in the East End. For a bit of history, the music

FEATURES13

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013 of the Water City Music Festival Orchestra will be accompanied by a film describing the nearly 50 year regeneration process of the Lower Lea Valley. It will be fittingly narrated by Stepney born actor Roy Marsden (The Sandbaggers, Anglia TV’s P.D. James Series, OnlyFools and Horses). The film is directed

by Assistant Technical Director for Film, Athena Mandis, and produced by Queen Mary’s Firm production unit, Mile End Films.

The Water City Festival is chaired by social entrepreneur Lord Andrew Mawson, who has worked in the Lower Lea Valley for almost 30 years. Mawson has seen first hand the radical and exhilarating changes and improvements that have taken place in the area. By putting on the festival, he hopes to celebrate the unmatched artistic spirit of East London, which is home to an estimated 12,000 artists, and is, as Mason says, “home to the largest cultural quarter in Europe.”

As Mawson sees it: “The area was neglected after the closure of the docks and the industrial decline in the 1970s. Now a new Water City is growing around these six miles of rivers and canals stretching from the 02 Arena and Canary Wharf in the south of the Valley to Hackney Marshes and the Olympic Park at Stratford in the north. The Water City Festival Concert will tell, through music, film, and narration, the story of the Lower Lea Valley. It will give an inside view of Olympic Legacy as seen through the eyes of people who live and work in east London.”

To top all of this off, in the foyer of the People’s Palace, guests will be greeted by an oil painting exhibition by local Water City artist, Frank Creber (‘the Lowry of the East End’). His work explores and focuses upon the architectural, social, and cultural revival that the East End has seen in recent years.

Frank Creber, who is the Director of Visual Arts for the Water City festival, was born in 1959 and trained at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, receiving his Bachelor’s in Painting in 1981. Creber then continued his education at Chelsea College of Art, receiving a Master’s degree in 1987. Creber has worked within deprived and underprivileged areas in Bow for the past 20 years. For this work, he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and now serves as the official artist in residence for Water City, a new redevelopment programme centred around a network of local waterways in East London.

Since 2005, the artist, who has

collected many prestigious awards including the Herbert Read Fellowship at Chelsea, the Picker Fellowship at Kingston, and the Barclays Bank Young Painters Award, has been documenting the East End as he embarks upon his newest creative project which focuses upon artistically portraying community life in the Water City Area.

His pieces on display at the People’s Palace, beginning the night of February 3rd, are ‘Three Mills’, ‘Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road’, and the ‘East Indian Basin’.

The large scale oil paintings each uniquely depict revived and regenerated areas of East London, from Olympic Park to East India Dock.

As interesting and entertaining as the Water City Music Festival is sure to be, throughout the entire renovation of Queen Mary’s People’s Palace, there was perhaps no event more surprising, or thrilling, than the surprising discovery of a lost 1930s mural by a lauded London artist that lay beneath the building’s paint.

After an enquiry from the Tate Britain, the mural was first uncovered by Eoin O’Maolalai, the Senior Estates Project Manager at Queen

Mary. Upon locating the covered mural, he realised that the bottom half had been destroyed during construction of a lecture theatre, but that the top half remained salvageable in a storeroom just above the lecture theatre. He recounts: “I found the wall and ran my fingers over the painted surface. What I felt wasn’t plaster; it was more like fabric. I looked more closely, found a tear in the fabric, peeled off some of the paint and below it I could see the vague outlines of what could be one of the murals. I peeled off some more of the paint and realised that I had found the top half of the murals. It was clear that the bottom half had been removed, possibly in the 1950s when a suspended ceiling was installed in the Small Hall.”

After this unorthodox discovery, paint specialist Catherine Hassall was called in for her help and expertise. Millimetre by millimetre, she carefully used a scalpel to remove every last speck of paint covering the artwork.

The painting was found to be

by Phyllis Bray, who was born in 1911 in Norwood, London, and was a member of the critically acclaimed East London Group. For over 40 years, she painted murals

in churches across the whole of Britain, and had her work exhibited in the UK as well as Australia.

Originally, Bray painted three murals depicting drama, dance, and music, each 12 ft by 10 ft, to decorate the original Stern Hall when the People’s Palace opened as a progressive centre for education, entertainment, art, and culture.

According to documents recently found, Bray had wished to paint directly onto the walls, but the architect refused, and she accepted a canvas instead. The canvas was then painted over several times before Queen Mary purchased the Palace in 1954, covering the hidden gem that lay underneath.

Professor Philip Ogden, Senior Advisor to the Principal at Queen Mary, commented: “The discovery of this mural is hugely exciting. The installation of new technology has made the People’s Palace an exciting modern venue for the arts, but we have also managed to preserve its history, retaining important links to its past. The restoration works illustrate Queen Mary’s commitment to its listed buildings and give us first-class public space, for the benefit of both the university,

and our local community – as was the building’s original purpose.”

The painting, which has not been touched up, was lined and stretched and will be unveiled and displayed in the People’s Palace alongside the opening of the Water City Music Festival. It will be accompanied by photographs which show the original building and the mural during the height of the People’s Palace’s cultural influence and popularity in the 1930s. So while many new, restored, and enhanced aspects will return with the reopening of the People’s Palace, there will still remain a bit of old history in the foyer to remind all visitors of the long and storied tradition of artistic striving, excellence, and resilience that characterises not just the People’s Palace and Queen Mary, but the all of the East End. For More Information About Events at the People’s Palace go to: www.qmul.ac.uk/peoplespalace The Water City Music Festival Concert begins at 6:30pm on Sunday the 3rd of February. Tickets are £4 or free for under 16s. Tickets can be booked on www.seetickets. com by searching ‘Water City Music Festival’.

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MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

CULTURE15

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Top 5 things to do on Chinese New Year Alan Jeffries

O

NE OF the most important dates in China’s traditional calendar, Chinese new year marks the end of the winter season and the beginning of spring. Although the end of winter might be hard to fathom when you’re wrapped from headto-toe on your way to lectures, QMessenger gives you the top five ways to celebrate the coming of the year of the snake.

Chinatown New year in Chinatown is a total must see, especially for unexpecting Freshers. The celebrations surrounding Trafalgar Square and Soho are the largest outside of Asia and attract hundreds of thousands of people every year. falling in 2013 on 10th February.

Scrape yourself out of bed to make the parade starting at Trafalgar Square at 10am and follow the procession of colourful floats

to the backdrop of beating drums to Rupert Street. Taking the stage in Trafalgar Square from 1pm onwards will be acts including singer-songwriter Emmy The Great and the Flying Lion Dance from the world-renowned Chen Brothers. The day will be wrapped up with an “ooh-aah” inducing fireworks display from 5.55pm.

Rich Mix If you can’t face the crowds in Chinatown, take refuge in the East End. Tucked away at the top of Brick Lane, Rick Mix is presenting a day of cultural delights which is free and open to everyone.

Spectacles will include a Lion Dance, martial arts performances, a traditional music ensemble led by world-famous musician Dr Cheng Yu and Music from Snapshots, an autobiographical work composed by multi-instrumentalist Liz Chi Yen Liew. There will also be Chinese food to con-

vert you from the usual takeaway grease as well as arts and crafts stalls.

Website: www.richmix.org.uk/ whats-on/event/chinese-newyear-celebrations-2013/ Opium Bar If you are in search of an evening of elegance, make your way to Opium Bar in Soho. Step behind the jade door into the cocktail and dimsum parlour where the eclectic furnishings perfectly set the mood.

There you will find a host of entertainment including astrology readings, face painting, magic and a snake show. Guests are encouraged to embrace their inner reptile and dress up as a snake.

Events will be running from 7th - 11th February and cost £10, including a red packet, a delicious Chivas punch and entertainment at your table.

Drunken Monkey If snakes are a bit Slytherin for

you, head over to the Drunken Monkey in Shoreditch. As QMessenger mentioned an issue or two ago, the Drunken Monkey has opened up shop on campus at Queen Mary. The original dimsum eatery and bar will not only be celebrating new year but also their tenth anniversary on 12th February. Stock up your student belly with complimentary Dim Sum canapes and cocktails between 5pm and 7pm and prepare yourself for the excitement of the Lion Dance at 8pm.

Cutty Sark Having filled yourself with dimsum and bubble tea, make your way to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich to learn about British East Asian heritage.

On 23rd February, the historic tea clipper will host a variety of workshops and performances revealing how trade by sea brought ideas, culture, language and people from Asia to Britain.

New Zealand Coffee Shop Belphoebe New

A

TINY EAST End coffee shop which serves freshly made food and coffee to the soundtrack of bands such as Arcade Fire might typically inspire some excessive eye rolling from the seasoned hipster,

but the Zealand Coffee Shop is more than just a place to be seen at. Barely 15 minutes walk away from Mile End Campus on the famous East End hotspot Roman Road, this coffee shop is a wonderful place to go for a post lecture drink if you fancy something other than what campus has to

offer. Their Mint and Honey tea is a great choice, served in a glass with mint leaves sprouting out of it, and would make any obsessive instagrammer weak at the knees.

If the place isn’t quite enough of a representation of East End cool for you, it has an antique shop straight behind it. Visit next

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Les Misérables

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Rhiannon Evans

T

OM HOOPER’S much anticipated $61 million big screen adaptation of the West End’s longest running musical has received wide critical acclaim over the last couple of weeks, including a host of Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, amongst others, the much coveted ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actor’ tips for Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of the piece’s hero Jean Valjean.

As someone who has been to see Les Mis on stage countless times and holds the happy memory of being part of a year 9 production, (I landed the role of one of the ‘Lovely Ladies’, as well as the horrid factory worker who is largely responsible for Fantine’s demise - good times…)

I’ve kept a keen eye on IMDb for the best part of a year, waiting with trepidation as the cast list was released.

My initial thoughts were ones of relief when I discovered that the best

female role in the musical, that of the feisty and perpetually heartbroken Eponine, was to be played by Samantha Barks; a West End sensation who has certainly earned her credentials playing Eponine in the 25th anniversary performance of Les Mis at the Albert Hall, and, more recently, portraying an absolutely kick-arse Nancy in Oliver!. My approval pretty much ended there; the rest of the cast decisions made me nervous. Crowe as Javert? Not sure.

Bonham-Carter and Baron-Cohen as the deliciously vile Thernadiers?

Predictable at best. Seyfried as Cosette… actor and character are as dull as one another so maybe that’ll work. Eddie Redmayne, the most boring ‘rising star’ in Hollywood as brave and heroic Marius? Nah. And Hathaway as Fantine. That was definitely the worst news. Ever since ‘One Day’ (the worst film I’ve seen, well, ever.) with her dodgy

English accent and decidedly wet portrayal of what could have been a really interesting character, I’ve not been a fan of Anne. The idea of her delivering ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ in accents fluctuating from Scouse to Queen’s English in the same breath a la ‘One Day’ made my heart sink.

How wrong one can be. Hathaway’s performance is devastatingly good, with her heartbreakingly raw performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ standing out as the scene everyone will remember (probably because they were sobbing into their popcorn; I’ve never cried in the cinema before. Not even in ‘The Notebook’. On several occasions in Les Mis my poor friend Mike had to actively calm me down.) Jackman’s Jean Valjean was a perfect example of Oscar worthy acting, earthy and deep and real. In fact, the entire cast worked perfectly as the ensemble that a musical adaptation needs.

The only caveat for me is a slightly below par performance from Crowe, whose voice simply wasn’t strong enough to contend with his colleagues, but nothing was ruined.

The new technology that allowed for the musical pieces to be recorded live on set is to be celebrated here; it is what facilitated such moving and realistic performances and allowed the excitement of the West End to merge brilliantly with the beautifully shot, expensively set blockbuster that Les Miserables undoubtedly is.

My final thought: it’s long. Really long. The best musical number ‘One Day More’ is a culmination of songs in Act 1 that reaches an epic crescendo just before where the interval should be, and I felt like it was needed. However, its length meant that nothing was cut, and this allowed Hooper to do the true love of my musical life the justice it deserves.

Django Unchained Steve Brainbridge

T

HERE HAS been considerable controversy over Quentin Tarantino’s new film, with the highly individual director sparking opinions in the UK and US. The film covers the more than touchy story of Slavery in the United States set just before the Civil War. Tarantino’s approach is liberal with modern obscenities which was bound to question the limits of his stylised approach.

The film revolves around a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) and his emancipated slave (Jamie Foxx) as they partner up to pursue wanted men and lost loves across the Deep South. With a cast that also includes bad guys Leonardo Di Caprio and Samuel L. Jackson,

Tarantino has certainly brought his angle to a saturated genre.

Tarantino has brought artistic license to this film that is certain to annoy history students. The gladiator style fights and excessively dramatic gun battles cannot claim realistic representation but do treat the subject with a tongue in cheek edge that I found thoroughly enjoyable. Waltz certainly steals the show with his superb performance as Dr. King Schultz, bounty hunter extraordinaire, and is worthy of his Golden Globe.

That’s not to say that Foxx’s performance was disappointing but on this occasion he had to take a backseat to Waltz’s sinister magic which provides a polite yet terrifying presence to anyone who he is

after. Where Tarantino’s approach is daring is in the juxtaposition of his brand of comedy and the treatment of such a controversial issue in a genre that is part of the foundation of cinema.

More recent takes on the Western have looked to expose some truths of the issues that defined life in the West, Tarantino puts a stick of diamond underneath this and somehow is able to find an element of glitz and glamour that adds a different flavour to the idea of a postmodern Western.

Criticisers of this production who have highlighted Tarantino’s take on this subject include Spike Lee who tweeted; ‘American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My

Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honour Them.’ This is a question of both content and style, but, if art is there to explore issues then Tarantino’s film is a success.

With its acclaim at this year’s award shows and having taken over $130 million at the box office already, this is certainly a hit for Tarantino, which, may not rate as highly as his previous classics, it is still a production that is trumping all others in the cinema at the moment. This is an enjoyable film and tests the viewer both visually and mentally. To those that are easily offended this may not be an easy watch, but if you are a fan of Tarantino or a cinema aficionado then this is a must.

Hobbit Bradley Hillier-Smith

A

N UNEXPECTED Journey: quite a misnomer for one of the most expected and anticipated films of the year. Without doubt it met, if not exceeded, the expectation.

A little slow to start, there are perhaps some superfluous scenes overindulging the beginnings of the tale,

but this is Peter Jackson directing of course. Short films are not something he concerns himself with. Once the adventure swings into action, it truly rivets in the same enticing style of The Lord of the Rings films. ‘An Unexpected Journey’ proves a worthy first instalment of the prequel to that unsurpassable fantasy trilogy.

This film displays the greatest use

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of 3-D technology to date, the 48 frames per second enhances the already stunning visual landscapes, through which, the incredible shots travelling over middle earth amaze the viewer.

The increased frame rate and improved computer generated imaging technology adds a greater definition to the epic and intricately thought

out and choreographed battle scenes that made the Lord of the Rings so memorable.

Martin Freeman holds the title role well, presenting an endearing and charming hobbit. His scene with Andy Serkis as Gollum is perhaps the most gripping, a grounded respite from the epic action that bookend this scene. Plus the improved CGI

ensures Gollum’s expressions are creepily detailed.

I always thought the Lord of The Rings was untouchable, but the Hobbit is more than in keeping with the grandiose spectacle. A vivacious visual feast with spectacular sequences, all enhanced by tantalizing technology. What Peter Jackson has done here is nothing short of wizardry.

CULTURE17

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Life of CGI Aaron Parr

E

MPIRE MAGAZINE hailed Life of Pi as one of the most aesthetically stunning films ever to be released. With posters everywhere and the original novel brought back to the attention of the public, the hype generated to promote this film would suggest that the final product would be magnificent. But when a film enters the market with such expectation, it takes something legendary to live up to the promise. So as I entered the cinema, I anticipated something extraordinary from Life of Pi, but as I left, I was disappointed.

So how can a film that disappoints still be nominated for the biggest awards ceremony in the world?

I would love to write that I hated the film but it was still entertaining, only I expected more. Aesthetically, the vibrant saturation of colour is mesmerising, but the ultimate downfall that pushes Life of Pi over

the platform of transcendence is the film’s reliance upon CGI effects.

Where some critics hailed the use of CGI in Life of Pi as something miraculous, when a real tiger can be distinguished from his artificially designed counterpart, the whole magic of animation disappears.

Most annoyingly, the meerkats are lazily unrealistic; ruining any element of fantasy conjured from the vivid colourisation.

A redeeming feature of Life of Pi comes in the form of the sound and the sound track. An epic score accompanies the imagery, rendering the film considerably more palatable. On scenes that do not rely on CGI effects, such as the highly publicised section where the whale leaps over Pi’s boat, the stunning score complements the visually spectacular to create the most emotionally impacting and awe inspiring scenes within the film.

It is just a shame that these scenes are counterbalanced by the poor utilisation of 3D. The third dimension only accentuated the poor animation – one aspect sound cannot revive.

Despite leaving me feeling deflated, I do not dispute that it deserves an Oscar nomination. Most credit must be given to Suraj Sharma’s performance of Pi, bringing the audience back down to a level of realism and out of the clouds of CGI imagination. You could not describe him as a sensitive actor, but he is most certainly sensitive to his character. Sharma is utterly believable, allowing the audience to invest wholeheartedly in his exhausting journey. It brings true life into an animation dependant blockbuster.

Neither does Life of Pi forget its literary roots, contemplating the meaning of life: what it means to exist in a world that can take so

much away. Nevertheless, through a narrative of mind expansion to spiritual ideas, the film brings the audience back down to earth with a mind fuck of an ending.

Without giving too much away (some potential viewers may enjoy this twist) it resists any aspect of resolution, leaving the entire perspective of the film subjective to individual interpretation.

It was not as if Life of Pi was a bad film, in fact, quite the opposite. It was an enjoyable experience, but was certainly not an Oscar winning film.

I am certain that if Ang Lee, director, did not use CGI to directly represent the real world, or even if there was not so much hype and advertisement, the film would have been an outright success. But while the film was enjoyable, there were flaws that left me emitting one deflated sigh while I left the cinema.

Silver Linings Playbook I

F

ILMS THAT brand themselves as ‘based on a true story’ always grab a lot of attention – in Ben Affleck’s Argo we have a film that definitely merits it, and Affleck can count himself unlucky not to have gotten a Best Director nod for this gripping espionage-esque thriller.

In Tehran, 1979, a group of six

Kumari Tilakawardane

’M NOT going to lie, I wasn’t particularly excited about seeing Silver Linings Playbook. It was billed everywhere I looked as a ‘romantic comedy’, and when it comes to these lovey-dovey things I’m… let’s just say I’m not a fan. In saying that, the cast of Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver and Jennifer Lawrence convinced me and I’m glad, as David O Russell’s ‘rom-com’ has warranted a bunch of Oscar nominations (8 in fact), with the 4 main actors each grabbing one for themselves.

History would suggest that at least one of them has a great chance at a statuette – Silver Linings Playbook is the 14th film in Academy Award history to nab a spot in all 4 acting categories (and the first for 31 years), and only one of the preceding 13 didn’t manage to win

at least one. As is probably obvious, the cast of Silver Linings is fantastic: along with the 4 main stars, notable performances from Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles and Anupam Kher ensure it is a team effort – an apt analogy for the film, which halfcentres on Pat Solitano (Cooper) and Pat Sr.’s (De Niro) strained relationship with the Philidelphia Eagles football team. This is also a film about mental illness, grief, divorce and familial-angst. Admittedly, not particularly romantic themes. However, as Tiffany (brilliantly played

by Lawrence) says, “there’s this dance thing.”

Pat, just out of a mental institution after attacking his wife’s lover, finds some solace in Tiffany, a former sex-addict and young widow.

The two bond over shared eccentricities, and the leads share a particu-

larly memorable scene over Raisin Bran, where Tiffany agrees to pass a letter to Pat’s estranged wife (violating a restraining-order), if he will be her dance partner. Cue explosive fights, laugh-out-loud comedy from Tucker, Kher et al, and some heartwarming dance scenes (I write this with gritted teeth).

The screenplay is fantastically adapted by Russell from Matthew Quick’s eponymous novel. The Solitano family-dynamic is played beautifully by Weaver, De Niro, Cooper and Shea Whigham (as Pat’s idolised brother), but the film’s realism and charm largely come from the brilliant script. Russell will face stiff competition from the likes of Tony Kushner (Lincoln) and Chris Terrio (Argo) in the Adapted Screenplay category, but this is a fizzing adaptation that brings the book’s story to

US embassy workers manage to escape the embassy as it is attacked by a pro-Ayatollah mob. They soon find refuge in the Canadian Ambassador’s home, and live there under extreme cover, living in fear of being discovered by the angry mob. It’s up to Tony Mendez (Affleck) to sneak them out of the hostile country and get them home.

After a series of doomed ideas, Mendez convinces his CIA bosses to let him execute what seems like a ludicrous plan – to create a fake movie, fly into Tehran with 6 fake passports and manages to smuggle the six out as a film crew.

The film’s race against time climax literally had me on the edge of my seat, even though I knew how

the story ended. Admittedly, the frantic ending was exaggerated for the sake of Hollywood, but Affleck and his crew handle it so delicately and professionally that it doesn’t seem overdone. Indeed, Affleck’s direction was brilliant throughout, with one sequence inter cutting between a Hollywood read-through of the bogus script and a scene of

life and has a fighting chance.

Russell is also up for directing and the film’s editors are nominated too, showing the technical prowess of a movie which might go unnoticed compared to big blockbusters like Life of Pi and Les Miserables. 2013 seems to be a year for special-effects and epic sagas, and you might be forgiven for thinking a realistic liveaction romantic-comedy may be out of place.

I think, however, this is an important film – not only for demonstrating Cooper’s acting chops (The Hangover is good, but not Kodak Theatre good), but for bringing issues of mental health to the primetime. I ended up loving this film, - even the romantic bits - and if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth it for Lawrence’s incredible performance alone.

Argo

Kumari Tilakawardane American embassy hostages being held captive and tortured by their guards. The breathless action of the film has been justly awarded (for the most part, eh Ben?) with nominations for Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Score and Adapted Screenplay,

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18CULTURE

MONDAY 28thth JANUARY 2013

When in Amsterdam...

N Anna Thornton

ow, I’m sure we’re all aware of the standard ‘ladsontour’ style holidays to Amsterdam that occasionally pop up on your Facebook newsfeed.

The alternative view on holidays in Amsterdam is a stoner session which aims purely at destroying as many brain cells as possible over a weekend. However, I would like to portray Amsterdam somewhere far away from these stereotypes, as a beautiful and exciting city, rich with culture.

The legal purchase of cannabis has always been a massive draw to the city, but due to a new law, this could all change. Even at the loss of all those dark, smoky coffee shops there is a huge amount to see in Amsterdam.

Having travelled there myself in June, I was lucky enough to have gone with an architecture student who was a fountain of knowledge in relation to the Neo-Gothic style

buildings that line the city’s canals and narrow streets.

As well as the saturation of gorgeous architecture, Amsterdam is home to one of the world’s largest museum collections, the grand and imposing Rijkmuseum.

This museum not only tracts the history of Holland but provides the visitor with an insightful and aesthetically pleasing traverse through different cultures assimilated with their imperialism.

Another gallery worth visiting is the Rembrandt museum; a museum made in the house where the artist lived and worked, with a vast collection of his art.

It would be shocking to visit Holland without visiting the Van Gogh Museum, a comprehensive and insightful look at the life and work of one of the worlds greatest painters.

The collection is huge and varied, starting from his early sketches to his pointillist masterpieces.

And last, but oh so very not least, is

the epic Stedelijk Museum, a striking modern building opposite the Rijkmuseum and hosting a very different collection.

The collection is one of the best modern art ones in the world and is home to works by: Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Judd, Lichtenstein and Warhol.

The nightlife in Amsterdam is also great, especially in bars slightly outside the city centre, where there are more locals and a more relaxed atmosphere.

As well as all the art galleries and musuems, there are some beautiful parks and stunning post-modern architecture by the port to the North of the city.

So, as well as the appeal of those hazy, weed filled smoking dens that are so infamous (and fun) I hope I have portrayed the beauty and interest of Amsterdam- a city worth so much more than its smoky reputation.

Mastering the fine art of blogging Belphoebe New

M

ASTERING THE Fine Art of Blogging Blogs have become something of a revolution in identity enhancing and marketing of the self over the past few years.

They allow you to present your interests, your writing style and your various talents to a huge readership, ranging from doting fans who hang on your every word (if you’re that amazing) to possible employers.

Yes, in today’s media obsessed world having a blog is like having a CV or portfolio, and it’s something that a lot of people have cottoned on to.

Last week we talked about some of the most influential blogs out

there, and if that has inspired you to start thinking about how a blog can benefit you, whether it be on your political views of your fashion sense, then this article should give you some starting points.

•Think of a brilliant title.

Sometimes ‘My Blog’ isn’t enough. Infact, it definitely isn’t. As with a piece of creative writing or a work of art, a good title is going to get you noticed.

But it’s also got to be a reflection of what you want to write about.

Generally this step can be a tricky one, so it might help to make a mind map of everything you want your blog to incorporate and what inspires you, and see what keywords come out of that. And make it snappy! Whether it’s alliteration or

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a pun, if it rolls off the tongue then it can only enhance your blogging genius.

•Find your niche.

Ask yourself: What is your blog doing that is different? Look at other blogs for inspiration, sure, but think about exactly what you want to add in to your space in the blogosphere. If you’re talking about politics, then what makes your blog different from the thousands of political opinion blogs out there?

It helps to see it from the perspective of your readership, think about what might appeal to an audience who are constantly hungry for something new.

•Engage with other blogs So you’ve just produced the most incredible layout, the most fantas-

tic blog name and your first post is top notch. But what next? Without page views the effect of your work is going to be something like virtual tumbleweed.

This is where a good understanding of other blogs in your genre of interest can be crucial. Comment on your favourites, and if they’re so popular that your comments becomes consumed by a sea of others, then look at the people who engage with their blog either in their comments or in their followers sections.

Leave thoughtful, complementary thoughts on posts, and feel the effects of good karma.

•Be consistent.

As a blogosphere frequenter myself, I’d be the first to admit that consistency is something I need to

work on. When the oil well of inspiration dries up, bloggers experience writers block in a big way. Being constantly interesting and hilarious is hard work y’know.

Maintaining great quality in each post might seem like a chore to someone who has a pile of reading on the side, but it’s not completely impossible.

Decide how many times you want to post a week and stick to it. Think about your posts for the week in advance (this might be a little more difficult if you’re a current affairs blog) and draft them accordingly.

If you can post constantly and keep your reader’s attention, then this is easily the most important factor in making your work seem worthwhile.

CULTURE19

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Let it rain...inside?

Christina Trujillo

T

HE RAIN Room is an art installation currently showing in the Curve gallery at the Barbican Centre.

Random International is the contemporary art group responsible for its creation. The installation mixes art, science and technology to create the mind-bending effect of walking through rain without getting wet.

If you can weather the lengthy queue, you’ll emerge into a dark, curving hallway with a white light shining out from around the cor-

ner. The mysterious entrance opens out onto a room containing a 100 square metre raised platform onto which the rain pours. As visitors walk through the rain, sensors detect where they are standing, stopping the precipitation from falling on them.

Random International list the materials involved in making this possible: ‘Water, injection moulded tiles, solenoid valves, pressure regulators, custom software, 3D tracking cameras, steel beams, water management system, grated floor 100sqrm’. This makes it no more apparent how the feat is

achieved.

‘It is very different to having an umbrella as you don’t have the sound of the rain battering on the umbrella,’ said Hannes Koch, a member of Random International, explaining the unique experience of The Rain Room.

The hype surrounding the installation could easily lead to disappointment. However, if you allow it to, the real magic of the work transpires when the first millimetre of your skin breaches the rainfall. Walking into the rain is an exercise of trust and the magic occurs when the trust is reward-

ed and the promise of protection from the rain is fulfilled. The miraculousness of such an unprecedented phenomenon verges on Biblical, provoking a multiplicity of reactions from those stepping onto the wet platform, from awed breath-holding to beaming grins.

For now, this is as close as you’re going to get to parting the Red Sea. The intital awe wears off gradually. Also, sudden movements break the illusion of invulnerability, getting you wet and revealing the flaws in the installation’s technology.

It is an exciting prospect to

consider the possibility of a more refined version of this illusion emerging in the near future. Nevertheless, the experience is worth the queue.

Although admission is free, the queue is seldom less than 2 hours long, so to get the most out of the exhibition go with a friend when you’ve got ample time to spare.

Grab an overpriced cup of coffee from the nearby café and when you go in, do so with a mind clean of expectations.

Until 3 March 2013. For more information see http://www.barbican.org.uk/.

Things to do in East London Belphoebe New

Light up in Canary Wharf If you haven’t already seen it, art collective Aether & Hemera’s art installation Voyage is a wonderfully seasonal piece of work that encourages wanderlust and escapism. Three hundred lit up paper boats line the dock for an impressive aesthetic show of different coloured lights in different sequences. Best experienced between dusk and 2am, this show is worth seeing if you’re pining for the Christmas lights or simply have a love of experimental art.

See it for free until February 15th at Canary Wharf Dock.

Soak up your hangover …At the Breakfast Club. Taking inspiration from John Hughes’ cult film, this famous Central East End café attracts a young crowd.

It’s tucked down a lane on the backstreets of Spitalfields, so easily missed, but definitely worth a look. Though closer to central, it’s verging more towards reasonable than outrageously expensive, so ideal for a group trip after a heavy night out. If you like the atmosphere, it’s also worth looking out for their regular film nights too.

Take the 25 bus or walk down to 12-16 Artillery Lane.

Death – A Self Portrait At the Wellcome Collection until 24th February. Over 300 works of art are on show, exploring our relationship with the iconography of death through time. Curated by Richard Harris, an antique print dealer, the exhibition ranges from rare prints by Rembrandt and Goya, to twentieth century installations that celebrate Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Expect to see ancient Incan skulls alongside Renaissance paintings. Definitely worth a look! Take the Hammersmith and City line to King’s Cross and continue up Euston Road.

Camp out at the V&A Take a trip out west to the gentrified streets of South Kensington to have a look around the V&A’s exciting new exhibition ‘Classic, Camp and Cult: Queer Film at the V&A’. From Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd February, join the LGBTQ network for a weekend film festival and exploration of queer cinema from around the globe. Includes introductory talks by curatorial staff and explanations of links between the museum’s objects and LGBTQ culture in film. Taking place at the Sackler Centre for education at the gallery itself.

The Great Spitalfields Pancake Race 2012 Register in groups of four for a fancy-dress pancake race down Brick Lane in aid of London’s Air Ambulance (pancakes provided).

If anyone needs extra persuading, a ‘beautifully engraved frying pan’ is up for grabs for the winning team, as well as consolation prizes for the runners up, the best behaved team and the best dressed team. E-mail info@alternativearts.co.uk or call 020 7375 0441 for application forms. Tuesday 12th February.

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societiesqmessenger@gmail.com

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

SOCIETIES21

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

28th

Debate Society weekly meeting FB 1.13 6-8pm

29

th Big Quiz at Drapers!

Literature Society and Athiesm, Secularth ism and Humanism Society present Nick Cohen

30 31

Islamic Society event – Jesus: Can man be a God?

1st

Mixology night at Drapers

2nd

QMUL MUN Conference

3rd

QMUL MUN Conference

4th

History Society Book Club 4pm

5th

Big Quiz at Drapers

st

6th 7

th

QM Anime Society weekly meeting, People’s Palace, 2-6pm

Launch of the Centre for European Research, QMUL 6.30pm

8th

RAG Itchy Feet

9th

Well-earned day off!

10th

Chinese New Year! Happy New Year

Re-Union Fair Review Hannah Lewis

A

S MANY of you may have realised, last week was a time for Reunion at Queen Mary. This saw the first complete usage of the new Students’ Union hub, with events going on such as Monday’s fun day (with free popcorn and mini golf!); Tuesday’s State of the Union address by the SU President Babs Williams; and, perhaps most importantly, the newly christened Re-Union Fair (formerly Refreshers.)

This year, the Union took the decision to rename the fair, which is my first point of contention. I’d say that pretty much everyone gets the gist of what Refreshers’ Fair is all about and it is a pretty much nation-wide occurrence. Not only does it ingeniously play on the fact that we will all be refreshed by it, but it is a name fondly remembered (if somewhat hazily) by the majority of the older students at QM. Whilst I understand that the main point was the promotion of the newly updated Union, I missed the concept of Refreshers! It just doesn’t seem the same with the name change.

Now that I have spent rather a long time ranting about the name change of the fair, onto the fair itself. Having been there, I can safely say that the majority of people were

not there to sign up to new societies, or even to check in with ones they have already signed up to, but, in fact, to run the stalls. Yes, nearly all of the people at Re-Union Fair were already part of societies and were determined to be faithful to them. Indeed, there were clear outbreaks of friendly competition between societies, especially History and Geography who were both certain that their society was best.

So QM students, why weren’t you there?

Was it the confusing name change that threw you? Was it the timings of the fair? Or was it simply that you took one look at the apparent chaos in the room and decided that you would rather look up your chosen society online?

This brings me onto the aforementioned chaos. Each society, no matter how large, was given only one square table (think primary school desks) on which to place all of their promotion material, their society decoration and, most importantly, their free sweets/goods.

This left societies squashed in, often not next to societies which were related to them in any way. Therefore, when people did come along, societies had to figure out whether they wanted to talk to them or their neighbours, which sometimes resulting in the crushing moment

when the prospective society member said “no actually, I want the society next door.”

Finally, although I agree that the fair should be done on two days to ensure that people can make it to either one or both of the sessions, I don’t think that holding it on a Thursday evening was a great idea.

Yes, barely anyone has a class that late on a Thursday, but also they just want to go home and build up the strength to face Friday (or to head out to the New Globe.)

Even the society presidents had lost much of the gusto which they had shown on Tuesday at the fair, meaning it really can’t have been the ideal time to host it.

Whilst I am aware that the fair did not need to be as grand as that of Freshers’ Fair way back in September, I feel that Re-Union is the time when people who have properly settled into university life decide they will join societies – especially new associate students eager to become part of QM life. However, unfortunately, I think that if I were a relatively new (or completely new) student here, and I went along to the chaos of Re-Union Fair, I would have been slightly disappointed.

QMessenger are interested to hear what you thought of ReUnion Fair. Send your opinions to societiesqmessenger@gmail.com.

RAG’s got Itchy Feet Ellie Covell

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ELL IT’S a new term and this means there’s a whole new set of events being set up by RAG to provide you with guilt-free, for-a-good-cause, fun.

The event everyone’s talking about: Itchy Feet on the 8th of February. Many of you may have experienced the insatiable highs of a night with Itchy Feet , in Concrete (Shoreditch), but for those of you that haven’t…(in their own words) they “are looking for new ways to get your hips shaking” with a fusion of Funk, Soul, Rock n Roll, Swing, Rhythm & Blues, Reggae and Ska. Essentially it will be a night of exquisite QM mayhem, everyone together, but for once, outside of Drapers!

Check out the Facebook event page, posters around campus and

the Itchy Feet website for further details about tickets and the like. Spread the word. Invite your friends!

We also have upcoming opportunities to get involved with SKYDIVING. Yes, correct. We, your devoted RAG team, are giving those of you that dare, the chance to sky dive for charity.

Think of the status you will achieve on campus after this great feat, this defiance of nature! Admirers will flock around you for years to come.

If you think you’re up to the challenge and can raise 395.00 in sponsorship (don’t worry we will help you plan ways to fundraise) please inbox the RAG Facebook group by the 30th of January latest.

This year official RAG week will be the 4th-8th February, and there will be ludicrous amounts of fun for you all in and around campus.

Stayed tuned for finalised events, but just to wet your appetites, expect RAG’s own Man v.s Food, flash mobs and a whole lot of cake.

Of course in March we hold the infamous QM JAILBREAK. Starting from Uni, you have 48 hours to get as far away as possible in teams of 2 or 3 with no money whatsoever. In previous years teams have reached the sunny climes of southern Spain, the grimy urban city of Berlin and the snow dusted peaks of the Alps.

Indeed here’s your chance to have the holiday of a lifetime FOR FREE. Keep an eye on the RAG Facebook page for sign up dates.

Join the RAG Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ qm.rag And buy your Itchy Feet tickets as soon as possible to avoid disappointment and depression!

societiesqmessenger@gmail.com

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MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

SATIRE23

MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013

Murder: Fun for all the Family Keumars Afifi-Sabet

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WARDS, HONOURS and world-wide recognition seem more easily drawn to Sir David Attenborough than insufferable morons to a late-night re-run of ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’. But a strange career-first for the world-famed Naturalist (not naturist) has come to light this week as a family of Shoebills, who briefly featured on BBC’s ‘Africa,’ have confirmed their bizarre decision to sue Attenborough for gross misrepresentation.

The programme itself, which was first broadcast on the 13th January, included a short, contravening segment on the allegedly poor parenting skills of the prehistoric-looking species of bird. The eldest of the Shoebill chicks was initially shown to ruthlessly attack its younger sibling. Striking a more chilling note with viewers, however, was the callous reaction of the chicks’ mother as she not only completely sunned the starving chick but added her own sour variant by refusing to feed it water from the nearby canal.

Shoebills are traditionally known to only raise a single chick at a time, and while this fact wasn’t denied, a spokesperson for the family came out to furiously slam allegations their ‘youngest chick’ was in fact a member of the family at all. Although the family were not only unavailable, but entirely unable for comment, a statement was released on their behalf main-

taining “it’s typical of reality television these days to misrepresent the thoughts and actions of its stars through misleadingly fraudulent video manipulation in order to widen a rapidly dwindling viewership.”

The Shoebills, who bear a striking resemblance to a psychotically charged Ed Miliband on the verge of cleaving the face off a tory voter, mainly reside in large parts of East Africa and were looking forward to making their television debut. Celebrations were cut short, however, on around the 20th minute mark whereon they realised the extent of their damning portrayal.

Sir Attenborough, who’s yet to respond to the lawsuit, or any of our e-mails, was similarly unavailable for comment. It’s said the naturalist (not naturist) is thought to be busy planning his next BBC documentary series, entitled “Moon,” to be set on the Moon. The exciting new series, filmed in colour, is earmarked for a late 2014 release with Attenborough embarking on his voyage to the drearily lifeless surface, which closely resembles the English city of Manchester, within the coming nine months.

As for the Shoebill family, it’s said in wake of their detrimental television portrayal they’re now striving with far more gusto than the combined tax-dodging efforts of Lewis Hamilton, Jimmy Car and Starbucks to restore their positive image while the confusing legal battle ensues.

Reunion Weak Matthew Walsham

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he other week I was chatting to the ghost of a young Jewish man by the name of Adam, who I saw fluttering ectoplasm over the atheist society stall.

On his way back from Drapers, his usual haunt, he had become lost looking for his resting place in the cemetery. My initial reaction was to mock the transparent fool, but looking around it was an understandable mistake. He had wandered into refresher’s fair, where good societies came to die, filled with endless disinterested presences floating in and out. Disinterest on campus had become such an issue that even the undead like Adam could not tell apathetic undergraduates from his ethereal brethren.

The societies themselves began to resemble a Belesconi-esque bunga bunga party with the mass circle jerking involved, pity flung around like the fake swords of Kendo society. The wholesome folks at knitting society garnered five times as many sign ups as Labour society, indicating that the provision of a safe place to knit would have possibly avoided the Kent State shootings. Politics just isn’t important to us it seems, we’d rather create a scarf for these wintery months or crush a hopeful party as a merciless tabletop dungeon master. Yet apathy on campus sticks its indifferent stumpy fingers in all areas. Considering popular opinion seems to be that Drapers is a steaming pile of ‘Ground coffee’ , we in true British fashion seem to content to stand back and giggle like Richard ‘The Hamster’ Hammond

(not a real hamster) or Mutley from wacky races. But it’s not all bad, apathy even stopped us catching the University Meme plague, garnering only 6 likes compared to Leeds 5000. From hotbeds of political activism and radicalism to a place where turning up for that one early lecture at 10, or that time you took the course feedback forms to the office decided by my proximity to the tutor, counts as major participation in your University.

During reunion week the twittersphere was spinning, a grand total of 26 tweets ending with #stateoftheunion yet not a mention of refresher’s fair. To be fair to the anonymous twits of QMstudent union page, there was juicy hot information that needed to be disseminated from the Principal all over the student body. ‘I’ve been told that QM is the most exciting university in the UK at the moment.’

Now, I don’t assume to know the sort of company that catches the ear of the principal, but it is nice to know they don’t openly insult the University he is a part of, at least to his face. Perhaps it was a sugar rushing student who over winning at mini-golf against that one friend, who isn’t really a friend but a smug acquaintance, declared QMUL to be the most exciting university in the UK probably while literally leaping for joy. More likely though, it was somebody who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I’m aware that I’m being preachy (perhaps the Christian union next to our stall had an effect), but just give a night a week to a society and QMUL can be one of the most exciting Universities.

Image by nao-cha

Finance for Fools Lucretia McCarthy

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HE NOTORIOUSLY frugal Kerry Katona has become the face of a new payday loan company called ‘cash lady’. Despite having little resemblance to a ‘lady’, the usually drug addled mum of four is determined to spread the word on quick cash and prove that she has cleaned up her act as a normal working mum. It is not clear what lady Katona does when ‘working’ since Iceland declared her too base for their sumptuous fare. This has proven to be a wise decision with the news their party snacks contain up to 29% horse meat, up to 29% more meat than their food was previously thought to contain proving they are rising up the echelons of society faster than you can say ‘Katona who?’ since letting her go. It is unlikely she would be entitled to the modest 2670% interest loan but is seemingly unperturbed in encouraging her many fans.

Unfortunately Katona will be competing with Wonga’s slightly more personable wrinkled puppets and the trustworthy aquatic ‘loan sharks’ prevalent on estates nationwide. The kind of demographic that will take financial advice from a bankrupt accused of assaulting their accountant are unlikely to be eligible for loans either but perhaps the rallying is all in aid of driving money back into her beloved Iceland, winning back their favour.

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MONDAY 28th JANUARY 2013 QMUL BUCs League Standings

Badminton Men’s 1st – 2nd/6 (10 points) Badminton Women’s 1st – 4th/6 (4 points) Basketball Men’s 1st – 3rd/6 (6 points) Basketball Women’s 1st – 2nd/6 (9 points) Fencing Men’s 1st – 1st/7 (15 points) Fencing Women’s 1st – 1st/6 (9 points) Football Men’s 1st – 4th/6 (4 points) Football Men’s 2nd – 6th/6 (0 points) Hockey Men’s 1st – 5th/6 (1 point) Hockey Women’s 1st – 2nd/6 (6 points) Netball Women’s 1st – 3rd/6 (9 points) Netball Women’s 2nd – 1st/6 (9 points) Rugby Men’s 1st – 5th/8 (9 points) Rugby Women’s 1st – 4th/6 (3 points) Rugby Men’s 2nd – 6th/8 (6 points) Squash Men’s 1st – 1st/8 (14 points) Squash Men’s 2nd – 7th/8 (2 points) Table Tennis Men’s 1st – 8th/9 (-3 points) Table Tennis Women’s 1st – 4th/4 (-3 points) Tennis Men’s 1st – 2nd/6 (7 points) Tennis Women’s 1st – 1st/8 (6 points) Tennis Men’s 2nd – 3rd/7 (6 points) Volleyball Men’s 1st – 7th/10 (0 points) Volleyball Women’s 1st – 5th/6 (6 points

Pep Bound for German Giants Jeremy Baily

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ust when everybody thought that the Premier League would be graced with a manager whom some consider to have built the best team ever, he pulled out a shock almost as big as that of him quitting possibly the easiest managerial job in football. Yes, I’m talking about Pep Guardiola, of course.

Rumoured to be being courted by all of the top three clubs in English football, and with mega bucks on offer if he were to take the plunge in the Prem, it was thought almost inevitable that he would be plying his trade here at the start of next season. Guardiola, however, had other ideas, and will instead take up the position as Bayern Munich manager at the beginning of the 2013/2014 campaign.

Personally I think that he has made a brilliant decision. I am shocked at some of the media reaction to the announcement, some

saying that he may be scared of ruining his reputation by coming to manage one of England’s top teams, or that he has gone to a smaller club with Chelsea and Manchester United so keen to recruit his services.

This, with all due respect, is nonsense. Bayern Munich are easily one of the top 5 clubs in the world, with arguably only Barcelona clearly having more quality than them.

They made it to the Champions League Final last season, and were only stopped by a team that probably had no right to be in that final.

They are also four times European winners, so not even history can argue that they are not a worthy recipient of his talents.

But who will miss him the most?

The obvious answer is Chelsea, but even if he had have gone to Stamford Bridge, who is to say that he would have been a success? And if he got off to a bad start, I am not

sure that Abramovich would have been patient even with a man who delivered Barcelona two Champions League trophies. Chelsea have a lot of young talent, particularly in the shape of Mata, Oscar and Hazard, and although Guardiola could quite possibly have brought out the best in them, they will undoubtedly flourish with time. There is still a chance that he could end up at Manchester United, with Sir Alex Ferguson looking like he is not tiring of his time at the helm and Guardiola being on a three year contract, who is to say he won’t still be the great man’s successor?

Manchester City were the third of the clubs to be linked with Guardiola, so his decision was clearly not one that was motivated by money.

They may just be the club that will miss him the most as well, because few would argue that their squad is the best in the league. With the sort of attacking talent that Silva,

Toure, Aguero, Tevez and Dzeko offer you, Pep could just have been the one to find a system that made all the parts of the puzzle fit together, probably in a dramatic and stylish fashion.

We will have to wait to see the great man strut up and down the touchline of an English club. He seems the type of man who, whilst not totally obsessed with management and could happily live without it, has an urge to write his name into the history books as one of the greatest managers of all time. This is why I have no doubt we will one day see him in England, and am almost certain that when we do, it will be as the manager of Manchester United. It just makes sense.

Who knows, maybe in a few years time Manchester United v Chelsea might see Guardiola and Mourinho pit their wits against each other once more.

sportsqmessenger@qmessenger.co.uk