Roar News - Spring Issue 2021

SPRING ISSUE NEWS FIT FOR KING’S SINCE 1973 @roar.news

@roarnews

APRIL 2021

@roar_news

PAGES 8 & 9

KCLSU Spring Election Results Followed By Voter Harassment Allegations

One year later, King’s Accommodations STILL in crisis

King’s Students React To Sarah Everard’s Murder

Page 3

Page 6

Pages 14 & 15

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roarnews.co.uk

MEET ROAR’S EDITORIAL TEAM 2020

Editor-In-Chief

Deputy Editor

Marino Unger-Verna

Shuprima Guha

News Editors

Podcast Editors

Sport Editor

Asher Gibson Imogen Dixon Samuel Teale Chadwick

Matthew Seaman Samy Moschella

Alfie Wilson

Comment Editors

Culture Editors

Features Editor

Hanna Pham Sam Pennifold

Ally Azizi Alex Blank

Ishaan Rahman

Print Design Lead

Social Media Lead

Nicole Soh

Nikita Dahiya

president@roarnews.co.uk

news@roarnews.co.uk

podcast.roarnews@gmail.com

comment@roarnews.co.uk

culture@roarnews.co.uk

sport.roarnews@gmail.com

editor@roarnews.co.uk

NOTES FROM THE

2021

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

2020 has easily been one of the most academically and personally challenging year of our lives. Through the inevitable chaos of remote learning and lockdowns compounded by the uncertainty that comes with a global pandemic, we’ve all staggered, dead-beat, often failing, to the end of this academic year. But there’s always a silver lining: you made it, and you’re much stronger for it.

For me, an additional silver lining is this newspaper. When I first came to university, the entirety of Roar comprised of around 15 people. It is with immense pride and gratitude that I can say our team now consists of 13 editors and 100+ writers spread around the globe. My time here has been nothing short of inspiring. From Sunday nights agonising over print fiascos in the newsroom to Tuesday mornings spent pitching articles, each moment has been incredible and every story has been close to my heart – including the ones that made me want to sob at the time of writing. Moreover, Roar has undergone a massive transformation since I first joined in 2018. Perhaps the biggest change is our adoption of a streamlined means of communication through Discord, which has enabled us to be more in sync with our writers while enhancing transparency in operations. We have also launched a plethora of new projects and global partnerships, producing more niche content through the establishment of a podcast, comedy section, creative corner and advice column – all of which have been received well by you, our readers.

This academic year, despite the challenging circumstances, each of our sections has witnessed substantive growth. In terms of numbers, we have been read in 143 countries and seen a 93% increase in viewership. On Instagram, our followers have increased by over 120% since March 2020. Additionally, during February’s Student Publication Awards Regional Conference, every single one of our nominations was highly commended or the winner in its category, which remains one of our proudest achievements.

Roar’s goals have always been to hold the university and Students’ Union accountable while providing a platform for students to reflect, engage with one another, and debate. This year, however, we hoped to do more than that: we hoped to foster a sense of community, not least because of the inherent isolation that comes with remote learning. After many sleepless nights with my very own administrative dream team, Matthew Ader and Virjinia Vassileva, I’m proud to say that we were able to do so. Roar, in all its bizarre shapes and forms, means more to me than I can put in words. It is one of the main reasons I chose to study at King’s and remains the single best part of my university experience. Two years of being Editor-in-Chief make it incredibly hard to say goodbye, so in an attempt to come full circle, I am going to finish with the King’s motto:

Sancte et Sapienter (with holiness and wisdom)

editor@roarnews.co.uk

I hope this beautiful paper manages to give you the comfort and knowedge that it has given me, especially in difficult times. To reiterate: you made it. You will always make it. Have faith in yourselves. Celebrate your grit. After all, that’s what this final edition stands for – celebrating our readers. Celebrating you. Onwards and upwards!

Tara Sahgal C L A R I F IC A T IO NS & C O R R E C T IO NS Roar aims to have the highest editorial standards in the paper and on digital. You can help us by letting us know if we’ve made mistakes. You can email us at editor@roarnews. co.uk or write to us at Roar News, 7th Floor, South East Wing, Bush House, Strand, London, WC2R 1AE. We aim to correct errors, factual or otherwise, as soon as we can.

In my personal experience, the phrase “big shoes to fill” has never held more meaning than when I was appointed Editor-in-Chief this February. Roar has been a part of my King’s experience since day one, when I ran into Tara at Freshers’ Fair and pestered her into letting me write for the paper.

In hindsight, I’d imagine I must have come off as more than a little annoying, but what’s the point of being a journalist if you can’t be pesky every so often?

When this pandemic began, I was forced back to my home country for a frighteningly indefinite span of time - an experience I know many of you will have shared. During that long summer, Roar became far more than my lockdown obsession; it, and the amazing team behind each and every story you read on our site or in these pages, became my second family. Amidst a truly unprecedented time of separation, we did our best to connect the scattered members of the King’s community, and I am immensely proud of what we were able to accomplish.

While stepping up to the role of Editor-in-Chief is immensely daunting, I cannot express how excited I am to share all the projects we have in the works, and to continue growing this wonderful paper beyond the heights we have already reached. Our editorial team has grown to accommodate our ever-expanding platforms and operations. We’ve developed new methods of gathering student opinion and sharing your points of view with the greater King’s community. We’ve hosted live events with industry professionals and Students’ Union election nominees, and expect to host similar events of both types next academic year. The first episode of our new podcast series launches in just a few days, and we have plenty more new endeavours planned that we’re confident you’ll enjoy just as much as we have preparing them.

We don’t just want Roar to be the place you get all the best News Fit for King’s. Whether your time at King’s College London began before Covid, or you join us as a Fresher once lockdowns are finally a distant memory, we want to help you connect with the wonderful group of people we’re proud to call our fellow students. With the UK’s third lockdown nearly at an end, a return to campus for next academic year seems in the cards. I can only ask that you stick with us as we emerge from the other end of the tunnel.

Marino Unger-Verna

WE WANT YOU!

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Did you know we recruit new writers year-round? If you didn’t, now’s a perfect time to join us in our mission to provide News Fit for King’s! Whether you’re just starting out or have been writing for years, consider joining our multi-award-winning team.

RUNNER-UP FOR BEST PUBLICATION IN THE 2021 LONDON SPARC AWARDS

NEWS KCLSU SPRING ELECTIONS RESULTS ANNOUNCED Sayali Marathe Staff Writer

The KCLSU Spring Elections have come to an end after two weeks of virtual-only campaigning, for the first time, due to Covid restrictions.

Following an initial delay announced by the KCLSU Facebook page, results were announced roughly 90 minutes after the initially announced time.

The students have chosen the following candidates to run the Students’ Union (SU) for the upcoming year (2021-22):

ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER HARASSMENT DENIED BY KCLSU Marino Unger-Verna Editor-in-Chief

Multiple students have submitted reports to the KCLSU and Roar regarding voter harassment during the 2021 Spring Elections.

The allegations focus on campaign representatives and officer candidates messaging students privately to ask for their votes and, in some cases, for a confirmation of their vote via text or screenshot. Many of these students claim the representatives and/or candidates in question received their information via society group chats.

In an email sent to Roar during the elections process, KCL Intersectional Feminist Society (IFemSoc) asserted that these instances were in violation of the KCLSU's "Election Principles", the second point of which reads: "Elections should be free. Voters must be able to cast their (and no others') ballot freely, privately and without any interference."

President: Zahra Syed Vice President Activities & Development: Arslan Zafar Vice President Education (Arts and Sciences): Hamza Lone Vice President Education (Health): Fatimah Patel Vice President Postgraduate: Heena Ramchandani Vice President Welfare and Community: Daniyal Ubaidullah

Multiple students who felt harassed submitted complaints to the SU's Returning Officer. Each complaint was denied by the Officer, who responded to one student: "I have conducted an investigation and concluded that no further action be taken. Candidates were asked not to send messages to individual's phone numbers gathered from groups not specifically set up for the purposes of elections, but only part way through the week, as this had not been clear beforehand.

This year 3,233 students voted in the KCLSU elections according to SU sources. The race for the President was close - with only 82 votes separating Syed and Jacques. All the other candidates won by a landslide.

"Receipt of one or two messages asking to vote or to confirm this has been completed does not constitute a breach of the election principles, in fact it would be considered a standard campaign practice. Consideration will be given to issuing clearer guidance in future elections."

Good luck to all the newly elected candidates!

Roar has contacted the winners for comments.

In a statement made via email, the KCLSU Elections office told Roar: "We can confirm that no guidelines were changed during the course of the elections, but a clarification was issued as to the interpretation of such. Requesting confirmation of polling, even in screenshot for-

mat, does not specifically breach the elections guidelines. All KCLSU elections processes were followed accurately and the deadline for complaints has now passed. We cannot comment on allegations that are collectively raised outside of this process."

In an anonymous statement, a King's student who had received similar messages told Roar: "Someone from my course pressured us to vote for a member without even mentioning their manifesto. The person also messaged me privately on Instagram and asked me to vote for them, again not even mentioning their manifesto. It all felt very high-school 'VOTE FOR ME!!!', like a popularity contest. I ended up purposely voting for someone else just for that reason because I found it so undemocratic doing this is actually illegal in my country!"

In a similar vein, a first-year student at King's told reporters: "I do not know much about the workings of the Students' Union. However, I felt extremely intimidated and [like my privacy has been] invaded. My friends and I were sent Personal Messages (PMs) on WhatsApp as well as Instagram asking for confirmation of votes. It’s fine if you PM me to campaign but what motivated me to make a complaint was asking for confirmation of votes. I think I have every right to secrecy of ballot and maintaining a democratic process which is what the point of the whole elections was. [...] The returning officer didn’t take the complaint seriously. From what I understand, asking for screenshots directly breaks the rules."

When asked her view on the matter, IFemSoc co-president and KCLSU President-elect Zahra Syed told Roar: "I just am so incredibly disappointed with the climate at university and the flawed

THE

NEWS TEAM EDITORS Asher Gibson Imogen Dixon Samuel Teale Chadwick

CONTRIBUTORS Javier Rodriguez Jonny Gleave Justine Noble Marino Unger-Verna Samy Moschella Sayali Marathe Shuprima Guha

democratic procedure. I wish we could do better. I myself have filed a complaint and understand the role of student societies in these elections is different, but even as a running candidate the hostility I received was so incredibly unpleasant. Action could not be taken in this case as a result of insufficient information, but the KCLSU wanted me to discuss possibilities on how they could improve it for the future, to which I have agreed."

Similar allegations were raised in the KCLSU's 2019 Spring Elections. It is currently unclear to what extent the Elections team will alter regulations for subsequent elections to address student complaints.

4 News

PM ANNOUNCES COVID ROADMAP, EXPECTS MAJOR EVENTS TO RESTART BY JUNE Shuprima Guha Deputy Editor

In an announcement to the House of Commons on February 22, PM Boris Johnson unveiled a “roadmap” detailing the nation’s path out of Covid-19 lockdown.

PM Johnson has previously mentioned that he wanted the lifting of restrictions to be “irreversible”. Today’s announcement confirms speculations that the lockdown will be lifted in stages.

Between each stage of easing, there is a minimum five-week gap.

There are four conditions that must be fulfilled at each phase of lockdown easing in order to proceed to the next step. They are:

1. The vaccination plan goes according to plan.

2. There is evidence which shows vaccination is reducing hospital admissions and death.

3. There is no surge in hospital admissions.

4. New variants do not alter the course of lifting restrictions.

PM Johnson warned that one couldn’t rule out restrictions on regional and local level. He also emphasised that the vaccination program had “dramatically changed odds in our favour” before optimistically saying that the “end is in sight”.

The lockdown, which began on January 4, placed strict restrictions on the movements of citizens around the country, encouraging people to “not leave, or to be outside [their] home except when necessary”. During this period, all non-essential shops shut and hospitality services were also closed. With over 17 million people in the UK having received their first dose of the vaccine, the government has been devising a plan on how the lockdown will be lifted.

Step 1: The first priority was given to schools and educational institutions, including universities, which were allowed to gradually return to in-person classes from March 8. However, institutions had the liberty to make their own decisions regarding starting in-person classes. King’s has already announced it will continue most teaching remotely for the remainder of this academic year. The decision to open all schools together has been met with significant concern from both teachers and teaching unions.

From the same date, it was announced that people would be able to meet one other person from outside their household outdoors for outdoor recreation. Care home residents were allowed one regular visitor each from March 8. People who have been recommended to stay at home were requested to do so until the end of the month.

From March 29, the "rule of 6" returned outdoors. People are able to meet 6 people from a maximum of two households outdoors. Outdoor sports facilities reopened and organised outdoor sports will be allowed to resume. People are no longer legally required to stay at home.

Step 2: Step 2 of the Covid roadmap will begin five weeks after Step 1, no earlier than April 12, with one week’s notice given beforehand. Non-essential retail, as well as personal care businesses such as hairdressers and nail salons, will be able to open. Indoor leisure facilities such as gyms and holiday lets will open, provided they only accommodate individuals or household groups. Pubs and restaurants will open for outdoor seating, with no curfew nor a requirement that they provide customers a “substantial meal”. Cinemas, public libraries and community centres are among those places allowed to reopen in this step.

Step 3: Step 3 is scheduled to begin on May 17. Restrictions to meeting outdoors will be lifted, but there will be a limit of 30 people per group. The “rule of 6” will come into place indoors. Pubs and restaurants will reopen indoors. Outdoor events, including those in stadiums, will return at a limited and fixed capacity. Indoor venues such as cinemas as theatres will also reopen at set capacities of 1000 people or 50% capacity (whichever is lower).

Step 4: Step 4 is to begin on June 21. This step will attempt to remove all restrictions on contact. It involves lifting limits on wedding and funeral attendance. It also involves opening nightclubs and removing limits on performances in theatres and similar venues.

This step, however, is dependent on the outcome of four new reviews: 1. Review of how long social distancing and face masks are needed.

2. Review of the resumption of international travel.

3. Review of potential Covid status certification or mass testing.

4. Review on the safe return of major events, such as theatre and musical events.

5

CORONAVIRUS AND HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH: IS IT DEPRESSION AT FIRST SIGHT? SIGHT Samy Moschella Podcast Editor

The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) February-March 2021 survey shows students’ Covid-induced lonesomeness is overwhelming, negatively affecting their mental health.

On Wednesday March 10, the ONS published a report on its survey conducted between February 19 and March 1 on the effects of the pandemic on young adults enrolled in Higher Education (HE) in England. The results show that mental health issues are on the rise during lockdown.

As Tim Gibbs of the ONS’ Public Service Analysis Team states in his analysis, “over a quarter are feeling lonely often or always, a significantly higher amount than the adult population.

Nearly two-thirds still report a worsening of

their well-being and mental health since the beginning of the autumn 2020 half term."

According to the survey, the latest lockdown did more bad than good to university students' mental health, with 26% of students reported feeling lonely “often or always". Moreover, 63% of students disclosed that their well-being and mental health "had worsened since the start of the autumn term 2020". However, it appears as if levels have remained constant since January 2021.

The report mentions that a comparatively smaller number of adults were feeling as lonely as their younger counterparts (8%).

Average adult life satisfaction over the surveyed period was recorded to be at 6.4 out of 10. The students' average increased from the previous survey in January, from 4.8 to 5.1.

With regards to living arrangements, the study revealed that 85% of students were still living at the same address as they had been since the beginning of the term in September 2020. Of

those who had moved address since then, figures showed that 43% were thinking about going back home before June, whilst more than half (55%) were not planning on returning at all.

Together with the rent strikes that plagued university accommodations and HE institutions’ yet unannounced plans for academic safety nets, students from all years saw their future plans waver amidst all of the uncertainty surrounding them.

Overall, the lack of support given to students was made crystal clear all over the British Isles through a number of social media outlets - as well as through the ONS report. At the time of the survey, the 4-step roadmap out of lockdown had not yet been announced, and strains of Coronavirus popping up around the UK and worldwide had crushing effects on students especially, as their university experience appeared to be all but tarnished. With lockdown in the UK dissuading or prohibiting friends and family from meeting up and comforting one another, the ONS’ study seems to confirm that mental health crises among students were at the order of the day.

KING’S POSTPONES 2021 GRADUATION CEREMONIES Sayali Marathe Staff Writer In a February 26 email from Lord Christopher Geidt, Chairman of King’s College London, final year students were informed that 2020/21 graduation events will be postponed.

The e-mail cited “ongoing restrictions and uncertainty around travel restrictions” as the main reasons for the postponement. However, students have been assured that issued degrees will not be affected in any way.

The administration is exploring virtual ways to

celebrate the occasion and assures that they remain “fully committed to inviting [students] to celebratory events”. Students will receive their certificates three months after the date of their award.

Alanna, a final-year History student, expressed her disappointment at the news, telling Roar: "England is going to host the Euros, but a couple hundred history students can't graduate?"

Arran, a fellow History student, expressed similar views: "If the Reading and Leeds festivals can go ahead, so can graduation".

Another final-year student, Nash, welcomes the postponement: "At this point, I don't want to be near any senior leadership senile slugs, thank-

ing them for giving me a piece of paper and pretending it's all good. They haven't given any heed to our wellbeing (the dissertation deadline was being held by them while the Department wanted to go ahead with it).

They just concern themselves with keeping their nice 6 figure salaries and scamming more students.

"If I want to celebrate my hard work, I'll get with my mates and have a lovely time and we'll organise it ourselves. I don't need the affirmation of some old white dude/lady who will probably pronounce my name wrong anyway, because they didn't care to check the list before".

6 News

READ THE ROOM: KING’S REINTRODUCES RENT PREPAYMENT IN RESIDENCES Shuprima Guha Deputy Editor

Students wanting to live in King’s accommodation during the academic year 2021/22 will have to pay a rent pre-payment to secure their rooms.

The university, which previously prided itself on having a 0% accommodation deposit, made a U-turn on this decision by asking students to pay £450 to secure their rooms. Mentioned on their “How to Apply” page, King’s Residences states that “You will now be asked to make a rent pre-payment of £450 in order to secure your room, but this pre-payment will be offset against the first instalment of rent due in October 2021.

If you have been approved for the King's Affordable Accommodation Scheme (KAAS), you will not be asked to make this pre-payment.”

The last time King’s students had to pay a deposit to secure their accommodation was before 2015.

In that time, the deposit was £300. Since then, King’s has implemented the KAAS alongside zero-deposit in order to reduce the financial burden on those experiencing monetary hardship.

Adding this hurdle to the process of applying for student accommodation contributes to existing difficulties students have faced while applying to King’s Residences. These include a variety of technical issues with the accommodation portal, the unfeasibility of portal opening timings for students living in different countries, and post-booking issues that arose last year.

This year’s King’s Accommodation applicants have already faced issues, with the applications portal opening on March 16, a day after the officially announced date of March 15.

The addition of rent pre-payment could be a cause of concern for the student community as a whole. Incoming first year students do not receive their maintenance loan payments until university begins, and students who have conditional offers from King’s will have to pay this sum before they even know if their place is confirmed. Although

King’s mentions that students will get a full refund if they do not meet the entry criteria for their course, the pre-payment represents a significant sum of money.

Whilst students eligible for the KAAS do not have to make this payment, KAAS rooms are allocated on a “first come, first serve” basis. Students can be eligible for KAAS and still have to pay the £450 if all KAAS rooms are already allocated before they can access the booking system.

This change comes as the world is still facing the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of jobs available in the UK at a record low. Unemployment in the UK is also at its highest since 2016, with 1.7 million people jobless in the 3 months to the end of November 2020.

On being asked about the pre-payment, an anonymous student told Roar they “find it disgusting that King’s are so blind to the fact that a lot of families can’t afford £450 and the fact [that] they

neglect to mention that KAAS is quota-based”.

In an official statement, KCL Rent Strike also expressed their stance on the pre-payment: “For the next academic year, students are being asked to make a payment of £450 to secure their rooms.

This payment, during a pandemic or not, is a PREPOSTEROUS ask for mostly freshers and international students who are either paying RIDICULOUS prices for fees among other things or are just leaving secondary education and getting used to the price shift. This payment will disproportionately affect students from working or lower class backgrounds alongside international students who are paying huge prices for student fees. We will not tolerate it, and will fight to get it removed.”

King’s has not yet commented on student feedback regarding the issue. Roar will continue to update you as the situation develops.

RENT STRIKE SURVEY TARGET OF CYBER-ATTACK Asher Gibson News Editor

A survey run by the KCL Rent Strike committee to collect student feedback on accommodation was targeted by a cyber-attack on 15 March between 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm.

A bot corrupted data by generating 555 responses at intervals of up to 10 seconds, each rating the university 10/10 on every measure and declaring Wolfson House Apartments as the current residence. The attack was discovered by the survey designer Dan Bisset, who interrogated the data when they found the number of responses far exceeded what they expected and discovered 75% of them to be fraudulent. They closed the surveys pre-emptively but had received an adequate number of non-fraudulent responses by the time of the attack, so could salvage the data with “some very fancy arithmetic”.

As of now, KCL Rent Strike do not intend to try and investigate who executed the attack. Dan said that “I would have been in a much angrier, solution-finding situation [had the bot been more effective] …it was so glaringly obvious that it was an attack. All we had to do was look at the times.”

The survey was intended to investigate King’s management’s claim that the evidence of dissatisfaction among students in university accommodation skewed negatively because strikers were “only hearing the negative stories [and] the positives outweigh the negatives”.

The data collected, however, suggested this to not be the case. Dan told Roar that “on all fronts,

when asked to rate the university out of ten, 70% [of students surveyed] rated it less than 5.”

The data was presented in full to KCLSU on 22 March in the morning, then to students via Instagram (@kcl_rentstrike) in the afternoon once the fraudulent responses were removed.

In a press release to Roar, the organisation said, “this attack on our research not only jeopardises our own integrity as a ‘for student, by student’ organisation, it also calls into question the motives behind the attack. Who wants to stifle the voices of angry students?”

Dan, however, was not phased. “I didn’t feel that…our campaign…was threatened in any way. I don’t feel discouraged. We’re still going to go into negotiations. We’re still going to keep our student body updated. We’re still going to try and represent our accommodation students as well as we can”.

“There is somebody out there that clearly doesn’t like the dissent amongst students and that’s something we’ve had for a while. We’ve had a huge amount of support from the vast majority of students but there have always been a few outliers who can’t see past their own experiences and don’t understand why the strike would have happened”.

They believed that, rather than the attack being a cause for worry, it may be a sign that the campaign is gaining influence. “Now that we’ve gained traction and leeway … it seems that the knives are coming out”.

Dan has been co-ordinating the rent-strike surveys with one other person since January and said that they were under a lot of pressure to

co-ordinate the project, which involves over 1000 students. Words used for the attack included “annoying” and “just an inconvenience”.

“I’ve got better [things] to do than sifting through all of this. But it’s fine, we have a really great and really compelling set of data to present to the uni when we next see them so it’ll be interesting to see how they react to it”. Their intention is to continue producing surveys “depending on what management decide to be blind to”.

They were surprised to find that, although KCLSU cannot support them directly, they had been “actually quite supportive” following the attack.

Roar were told that two Vice-Presidents had been facilitating negotiations with King’s management.

“The new slate, I think…seem to have a lot of the common goals that we have… which I think is kind of a testament to the general dissent amongst students”.

Dan did not know if they could reach out to anyone at a King’s level, given that KCL Rent Strike has no official affiliation with King’s.

However, KCL Rent Strike are one of 50+ organisations “in a perpetual conversation with one another”, so they had the option of contacting another university's group for support. They chose not to at this time because “it was something I could do myself.

“If it ends up happening at a different university, at a different level, then I will bring it up and try to support in whatever way I can.

“We will then investigate different

routes to go down, such as contacting IT if this kind of behaviour happens again, but to be perfectly honest I don’t see it happening again. I hope it was just a one-time incident because we’ve run surveys in the past and it’s never happened before”.

KCL Rent Strike do not have a set date for when they expect to go back into negotiations with King’s management. Dan explained that, up until now, negotiations have been “friendly and cordial”. However, they “don’t plan on that continuing for much longer "They’re either going to listen or they’re not and they’re going to lose £600,000 in rent – it’s either one or the other”.

King’s came under fire this week for reintroducing rent pre-payments of £450 to secure rooms in its residences for 2021/22. King’s accommodation has been criticised throughout the year for issues ranging from its booking system to its needing to evacuate students from Champion Hill over fire safety concerns in January.

7

KCL ANNOUNCES EARLY ‘DIVESTMENT' FROM FOSSIL FUELS Samuel Teale Chadwick News Editor

In an unforeseen news article posted on 30 March, KCL announced that as of the start of 2021, the College "has fully divested from all fossil fuels" nearly two years ahead of the target of the end of 2022. This goal was first endorsed in 2016.

The statement continued: "Since making a commitment to our full divestment target in 2017, we have steadily reduced our exposure to fossil fuels from 7.3 per cent in 2017 to zero in 2021.

Our journey towards divestment has been guided by calls from our students and staff for King’s to take action. We formed the Socially Responsible Investment Review Committee following the Fossil Free KCL campaign in 2016 and made a commitment to partial divestment and full divestment the following year.

"As an institution that is committed to acting in service to society, we recognise that maximising our positive impacts is as important as reducing our negative impacts. Reinvesting our endowment in funds with socially responsible benefits is therefore an important part of our Ethical Investment Policy."

Professor Evelyn Welch, Interim Principal and Provost (Arts & Sciences), said: "I am delighted to announce that King’s has fully divested from fossil fuels, two years in advance of our original target. This is a remarkable collective achievement and demonstrates our commitment to taking climate action. This is all part of our mission of being in service to society and ensuring a positive future for our university and our shared planet".

Victoria Turner, chair of the KCLSU Sustainability Committee, told Roar: "Regarding the divestment news I think it's a huge achievement to have fully divested from fossil fuels ahead of schedule and brings King's in line with other institutions practicing sustainable finance. This achievement is testament to the student and staff groups that campaigned or helped facilitate this divestment. The milestone also helps King's towards their target of net zero by 2025 which is a great step in the right direction.

2019, the endowment fund added new funds "Northern Trust World Green Transition Fund" and "SV7 Impact Medicine Fund" (in addition to "HarbourVest Great Dover Street X Fund"). As the March 30 announcement stated, Northern Trust World Green Transition Fund "screens out fossil fuel producers and the worst 10 per cent of companies by carbon emissions intensity [and] has a positive ‘tilt’ towards companies that generate ‘green’ revenue, such as energy efficiency and alternative energy."

"However, I do think more can be done. I know that Kings has a policy of 40% 'ethical' investments and we would like to see this quota raised.

Additionally we would like to ensure all divested money is properly reinvested into sustainable initiatives and funds with the help of staff and student scrutiny".

It concluded: "The King’s Climate Action Network (CAN), established in October 2020, is also looking at how we can align our investments with our target to be net zero carbon by 2025, as part of its Responsible Investment subgroup. The King’s CAN builds on our existing work to reduce our carbon emissions. We have so far reduced our scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 54 per cent since 2005-06, exceeding our 43 per cent reduction by 2020 target… The King’s Climate Action Network (CAN) is currently working on the development of the King’s Climate Action Strategy, a collaborative plan to reach our target to be net zero carbon by 2025.

The network and its seven sub-groups are open to all students and staff at King’s."

Furthermore, it is not yet known which funds the College has selected for its endowment fund for the next financial year. A freedom of information request sent on 13 October 2020 and followed up in November, revealed that some combined £37,119,303, or 15.5%, of the endowment fund (a decrease from years before) was invested in the GiltTrak Fund (£4,406,009) and Developed World ex-tobacco Index Fund (£32,713,294) of Blackrock during the 2020/21 academic year. In the wake of KCL's recent divestment announcement, questions remain over Blackrock's place in the endowment fund, when the latter has been widely criticised for having failed to exert positive influence over the climate emergency.

However, the same set of data also showed an uptake in the endowment in funds with socially responsible benefits. In 2018, KCL newly invested in "Accolade Partners Growth 1 Feeder L P Fund", "Maj Invest Global Value Strategy Fund", and "RobecoSAM Sustainable Water Fund". In

On the question of how KCL can increase sustainability further, Victoria Turner says: "Although not strictly within the realm of KCL, the [Sustainability Committee] would like to see the removal of all single use plastic cups on sports nights and any events at KCLSU venues to be replaced with reusable eco-cups. Not only would this reduce our reliance on disposable plastic, and consequently the fossil fuels used to produce them, but would also reduce the waste from KCLSU venues. The return to campus is the perfect time to trial new initiatives and we don't think Covid-19 should halt new, sustainable development".

KCL BRASS BAND SEES SUCCESSFUL COMPETITION DEBUT Jonny Gleave Staff Writer

This week saw King's College Brass Band (KCLBB) win multiple awards at the 2021 Corey Band Online Championship.

The results were announced March 29, 2020, with KCLBB coming in 3rd place overall.

The society formed in September of 2020 as a collaboration between KCL Jazz Society and KCL Modern Music Society, and the championship was KCLBB's first time competing at an event. The contest saw them win 5 awards, making them one of the most successful bands there. For an ensemble which has been around for less than a year, their debut performance was a major success.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic forced the competition online: competing bands weren't able to perform live, so instead submitted a video recording of their performance. Furthermore, being unable to practice in person changed the nature of the performance. Without being able to practice together, the band's 15 members recorded their parts separately, using a click track to keep them in time. Once the musicians were happy with their performance, they sent off the files to be edited. Jake Fletcher was responsible for editing the video; Alex Baker and Michael Tasker edited the audio. Photos that were used in the performance were taken by Oscar Eastman and the project was managed by Will Douglas.

Keeping an audience excited is difficult for many bands to do live, let alone over the internet. KCLBB overcame this problem by creating a performance more cinematic in nature than your typical Zoom call. The band's committee took inspiration from Hollywood films such as La La

Land (2017) and New York, New York (1977).

The viewer goes on a journey through London, stopping off at London landmarks such as Ronnie Scott's world-famous Jazz Club. This jazz theme continues with the pieces chosen by KCLBB: Caravan by Duke Ellington, Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael, and Putting on the Ritz by Irving Berlin were the songs performed.

On being asked about the experience of competing online, Jake Fletcher, the Creative Director of KCLBB, said: "In an online competition, all the preparation work contributes directly to the final performance. When the premiere of the performance starts, you have already played ...

It's both strange and a relief ”.

KCL Brass Band will be performing at the Foden's Virtual Whit Friday Competition on May 17, 2021. They hope to begin in-person concerts in September, and are looking for new members to join.

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR OUR NEW PODCAST! With a rotating series of hosts and a wide range of fascinating subjects on offer, Roarcast will offer something new to listeners each and every time you press play.

Our first episode will be available on Spotify on Friday, April 9. Subscribe to the show now so you don’t miss a single installment!

YOU’RE NOT GETTING YOU’RE STILL GETTING Sayali Marathe

Staff Writer

Staff Writer

On Wednesday afternoon, KCLSU Officers held a Town Hall to address students’ concerns over tuition fees, rebates, online learning, and assessments. The Officers, present with King’s Staff, informed students of the College’s policies and listened to students’ concerns and questions.

The session started off with KCLSU Officers introducing themselves and the King’s staff.

KCL Provost and Senior Vice Principal Professor Evelyn Welch then took the stage to explain the College’s position: King’s cannot afford to provide students with any form of refund for their tuition fees. She went on to justify this statement by noting that running the university online is, in fact, more expensive for the College than prior to the pandemic as they have had to hire new staff, ensure old staff have jobs to return to, as well as suffer extra costs Covid-proofing campuses. After this, the stage was open for students to make their comments heard. Students were encouraged to speak

and Professor Welch promised a written report in reply to all the students’ concerns.

As Professor Welch was speaking, the chat was already active with blunt and confident replies from unamused students picking apart her arguments as she made them, with one student stating: “We don’t really care that King’s is making a deficit.” Once she finished speaking, Microsoft Teams hands shot up and the chat continued to be flooded with comments and questions.

One large issue at hand was the fact that, in many students' eyes, the quality of their online education does not match the price they are paying for it. Students complained fervently about technological issues with KEATS, the inability to contact lecturers, timetable clashes, lecturers uploading material from one-two years ago with audibility issues, and what they feel is an overload of demands as the UK faces its third national lockdown. Many noted that this is even worse for international students, who face much higher tuition fees annually whilst also being those who suffer the most at home during lock-

down as they have to attend lectures and seminars at strange times of the day. Angered by the response that King’s cannot afford tuition rebates, students eventually demanded a report of the College’s financial situation as proof.

Another major point of contention between frustrated students and the representatives in the call was the fact that while students were initially promised a blended approach to learning, as campus facilities remained open, multiple lockdowns have made this impossible.

Several international students explained that as a result, they spent time making arrangements and paid thousands of pounds for travel and London living arrangements, only to arrive and quickly be forced into isolation. As a result of financial hardship and year-long contracts, many students now claim to be trapped in London with no way to go home, feeling entirely isolated as well as ashamed for asking their parents for what they now see as unnecessary funds.

Students additionally acknowledged that although the College is doing its best to make students happy while following government guidelines, there should have had a plan in place in case the situation changed - as it did.

While students made their points, the Town

Hall emerged as a problem itself. Many students, discontented with the answers received from both the College representatives present and the KCLSU officers, began to make statements such as "I’m not sure listening to our stories is going to make any difference when strong statements denying any rebates/discounts have already been made?" Another said: "This meeting is a joke.

What is the point of saying 'we hear you, we understand your experiences' and just talking over all of these points without addressing them?" The tone of the meeting was tense and emotional: one participant shed tears while another told the KCLSU president, upon suggesting a five-minute break, “I’m not sure we need a break, King’s hasn’t given us one when it comes to tuition”.

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I’m not sure we need a break, King’s hasn’t given us one when it comes to tuition

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Justine Noble

The Town Hall finished with many thank you’s to KCLSU Officers, yet many felt the conversations had today are not anywhere near over. It is likely more discussion will ensue when responses to the many questions and complaints raised today are released by King’s representatives.

WHO IS EVELYN WELCH, KING’S INTERIM PRESIDENT? Helena Kudiabor Staff Writer Roar writer Helena Kudiabor gives a brief biography of King's controversial Interim President, Professor Evelyn Welch.

Following the departure of the King's College London President Sir Edward Bryne, Professor Evelyn Welch took on the role.

Her position as President is temporary; in June 2021 she will be replaced by Shitij Kapur, who will occupy the role indefinitely.

Aside from her role as Interim President, she is also the Senior Vice President for the department of Arts & Sciences, and a Professor of Renaissance Studies. Once she graduated from Harvard in 1981 with a BA in Renaissance history and literature, she received her PhD from the Warburg Institute in London.

Following this, she taught at various universities in the UK including the University of Sussex and Queen Mary University of London. Her interest in Renaissance history led her to working with the Victoria &

Albert Museum as they developed their "Europe, 1600-1800" gallery. She also sits on the British Library advisory board. Aside from her academic work, she is the mother of Florence Welch, the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Florence and the Machine.

Welch first came under widespread criticism following the report published surrounding the 2019 Bush House security incident. At the time, Queen Elizabeth had come to visit King’s, however many student activists were unable to access campus during the visit, leading to allegations of discrimination. Welch was acting Principal at the time and formally apologised. However, she was criticised by many students for only doing so four months after the incident took place, and for prioritising royal over student welfare.

Welch became the interim President during the Coronavirus pandemic, and her handling of the situation has further angered many students. Numerous students have reported their frustration about the fact that tuition has not been reduced despite the poor quality of online teaching; these frustrations were shared at a town hall run by KCLSU. Welch stated that the university can-

not afford to provide tuition refunds due to the added expense of online learning.

Many students shared personal stories of feeling isolated and stuck in London, technological issues with King's online learning platform, Keats, and even demanded proof that the university cannot support a tuition reduction. In response to these concerns, Welch said that students are "not getting nothing" and "you're still getting your degree". The latter statement courted widespread anger, with over 85% of King’s students disagreeing with this statement in a survey conducted by Roar.

Welch’s latest brush with controversy came following her comments about the statue of Thomas Guy. Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, over 15,000 King’s students signed a petition calling for the removal of the statue of Thomas Guy, due to his links with the slave trade in the 17th century. Guy made approximately £400 million in today’s money through shares in the South Sea Company which sent slaves to Spanish colonies.

While speaking at a History Matters conference, Welch opposed the removal of the statue and said students who wanted it to be removed

should just "walk around the statue". 75% of the King’s students surveyed by Roar stated that they disagreed with this statement, with one student criticising her for reducing the work of King’s historians to "mere aesthetics".

Welch’s comments have been met with disgust from many King’s students, with over three-quarters of students saying Welch’s comments about the statue and student refunds made them feel negatively about King’s. Students described her comments as "dismissive, gaslighting’’ and reflective of her "small world view". Many pointed to Welch’s comments as reflective of King’s as an institution, with one student believing that Welch is "the reflection of what is hidden in the institution...a terribly racist [university]" and another calling Welch’s comments "illustration of the endemic apathy of its senior staff towards the welfare of students". The current pandemic has forced both staff and students to adapt to online learning, and King’s is not the only university to receive criticism for its handling of the situation.

One would hope that Welch takes the time to listen to student’s concerns to improve not just King’s response to online learning during the pandemic, but the university as a whole.

NOTHING G A DEGREE REGGIE-CIDE: KING'S COLLEGE LONDON MUST LISTEN TO ITS STUDENTS Editor-in-Chief Marino Unger-Verna examines how students at King’s College London have responded to Covid-19 policies and the university’s response to tuition fee refund demands.

What a year for students at King's. Just under a year ago, the Covid-19 pandemic sent an otherwise average academic year into a calamitous downward spiral. New students who arrived at our gates in September were met with a broken accommodations portal and a staff still rushing to recover its footing. The UK is at the tail-end of its third national lockdown, with in-person lectures a distant memory for most.

Of all these issues, however, the university's new assessment mitigation policies - and students' reactions to them - recently topped the proverbial cake.

Uni is meant to be a place for me to learn and thrive, not a place for me to be crushed by work.

“

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Following months of silence from King's, the issue was one numerous organisations campaigned for. The KCLSU Student Officers' team signed a joint letter with other Russell Group Students' Unions demanding an adequate "safety net" policy, and Roar banded together with fellow Russell Group student publications in a joint editorial to the same end. The policies, when finally released, were met with mixed reception.

In a blog post published on the KCLSU website, the Officers' team told students that their attempts to negotiate with King's administration had borne no fruit. To quote them directly: "At no point in this process can we see that the university conducted meaningful student engagement, particularly with elected academic programme representatives, in a policy that directly affects them and their academic attainment, has knock-on effects on mental health and wellbeing, and about which students have been wanting assurance and consultation on for the duration of this academic year."

Shortly following the policies' official announcement, Roar ran a poll to collate direct student feedback to the new measures, and their responses lar-

Reactions to general support offered by King's this year were similarly weighted. 36.6% found support to be "very negative", with two groups of 24.4% finding the administration's approach "negative" or "okay". 14.6% of students found support this year to be "good", while, once again, no students described their experience as "very good". Perhaps most concerning, however, is the acknowledgement rate of the new policies.

Of the students we polled, over a quarter were unaware that a new set of policies even existed.

more help when lecturers are also struggling to adapt to the whole situation too, as I don’t want them to think anything’s their fault and cause any ill feeling. Better mitigation could have solved so many fears and worries, especially for third years, so it’s just so saddening that King’s won’t give us the reassurance that so many other unis are providing for their students."

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I lost half my head hair, lost 5kg of weight, and had to go to my GP where for the first time in my life I asked for antidepressants. All this in the space of a month due to the extreme stress.

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A second-year Liberal Arts student echoed this view, stating that "[King's] mental health support has been much worse than their academic support" The sentiment that King's could have reduced the already overbearing strain this pandemic has placed on students' shoulders was widespread among respondents. As one thirdyear Politics student who wished to remain anonymous told Roar: "I had 10 deadlines in the last two weeks of semester two, and the final deadline was on Christmas Eve. And then I had barely two weeks 'off ' university to have three exams in one week. So no break, because those two weeks were obviously spent revising. [...] The amount of assessments, especially one after another with no break, is absurd.

Even for this student, however, some aspects of the King's experience have been less than ideal: "I also feel like the pass/fail does not resolve all issues I had, because I was planning on applying for a bursary with my first-year grades, but I am expecting them to be average as we weren't prepared for our assessments very well."

Second- and third-year students at King's are far less pleased overall. As a second-year History student told Roar: "I’m just beyond devastated by the lack of empathy and support we’ve received from the university. It’s really becoming clear why King’s has such a low student satisfaction rating. It feels so difficult to reach out for

Given this data, the Student Officers' assertion that King's is reluctant to engage with students seems well-founded; and such behaviour couldn't have come at a worse time. According to mentalhealth.org.uk's latest figures, 54% of the adult UK population felt "anxious or worried" in the two weeks leading up to Christmas as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic - the exact time when King's students were preparing for their various exams, essays, and assessments.

At a February 18 Town Hall meeting organised by the KCLSU, King's Provost and Senior Vice President Evelyn Welch told students that King's could not justify any form of tuition refund - an issue organisations such as Liberate the University. Liberate the University have been campaigning for over the past several months.

Professor Welch told students: "You aren't getting nothing. You're still getting a degree". As a King's student told Roar via an Instagram

Breaking the data down further, first-year students seem happiest with the new measures but, having never experienced life at King's pre-Covid, what points of reference are such responses based on? One first-year student told Roar they were very happy about the update, but that "I am quite biased as I studied online last year and had a much worse experience than the one I am having in my first year at King's. I also live in a privately rented accommodation of nine students, meaning I don't get too lonely during times of lockdown."

This would be unacceptable in pre-Covid times, and now we have all of this during a worldwide pandemic too? No consideration to our wellbeing in relation to assessments whatsoever.

“

Editor-in-Chief

gely mirror the Officers' sentiments. Of the polled group, 75% of students who were at King's before the pandemic find the university's new measures worse than those offered last year. 22.2% found the new measures "okay", while only 2.8% found them to be better. No students found the measures to be "much better" than previous offerings.

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Marino Unger-Verna

poll run shortly after the Town Hall: "We're getting a paper. Even academics recognise the education is subpar". Almost in summary of the entire event, another student commented: "They want to give us a voice and then get angry when we say something they don't like".

As for Professor Welch's claim that King's does not have the funds to refund tuition, that may well be the case - but according to KCL's 2020 financial report, the President's total salary amounts to £463,000 - 10x the median salary at King's.

It is uncontroversial to say that, by most metrics, King's College London is a worldclass institution. Times Higher Education (THE) currently lists King's as the 35th best university worldwide, and The Complete University Guide (CUG) states it to be the 20th best in the UK. Casting a glance at these rankings' student satisfaction ratings, however, reveals a wholly different side of the story: In that category, THE lists King's as 137th in the UK, with the CUG ranking following closely behind at 122nd.

This much is readily evident: Students at King's are not happy... and King's will only remain a "world-class institution" as long as its students and alumni believe it to be one.

Alumni, in particular, are a major source of both advertisement and revenue for the university. King's own "Give Back" page, directed at prior students, opens with the sentence: "Service is in our DNA at King's". My question is this: service to whom? With an entire year of dissatisfied and disheartened students graduating in just a few months, can King's truly afford to continue ignoring their persistent, collective voice? And if it does, just how valuable will that "piece of paper" we're getting really be?

10 Fancy some statistics?

HOW DO KING’S STUDENTS FEEL ABOUT EVELYN WELCH? To what extent do you agree with Professor Welch’s statement that student oppposed to Guy’s Campus’ Sir Thomas Guy statue could just “Walk around the statue”?

When questioned regarding tuition fees and Covid-19 regulations, Professor Welch told students: “You’re not getting nothing, you’re still getting a degree”. To what extent do you agree with this statement? respondents in %

0%

respondents in %

of polled students felt Professor Welch is performing “much better” than predecessor Ed Byrne.

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A perfect example of the lack of care King’s has towards the education of its students - the perfect example of the endemic apathy of the senior staff towards the welfare of its students.

WHAT, MORE? SCAN HERE

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As bad as Evelyn Welch is, she’s definitely not as bad as Ed Byrne.

There’s a bicycle accident

& then

there’s a mid-air plane collision.

COMMENT THE

COMMENT TEAM EDITORS Hanna Pham Sam Pennifold

CONTRIBUTORS Sayali Marathe Danielle Jones Ela Podgórska Violeta Fernandez Dieguez Amaaya Nath Alin C Luca Natalia Vasnier Aman Patel Charmaine Tan Alice Delhaye Scarlett Yu Maimuna May Youmna Warda Elsie Todd Ishaan Rahman Dania Quadri Gideon Coolin India Dunkley Theodore Nash Kenza Essalama Samy Moschella Marino Unger-Verna

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“ 1%

WHEN IS A PAY RISE NOT A PAY RISE?

Danielle Jones Staff Writer

Roar writer Danielle Jones on the proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff.

The government has proposed a 1% pay rise for all NHS staff on the Agenda for Change pay scale. The pay scale applies to all NHS staff aside from GPs, junior doctors, and dentists. While most public sector jobs have been subjected to a pay freeze, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has proposed a 1% pay rise for the NHS to come into effect from April 1.

So with most public sector workers subject to a pay freeze, what’s the big deal with NHS staff getting 1%?

Firstly, the Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that inflation will rise by 1.5% this year, making a 1% pay rise a real-term pay cut by 0.5%. NHS staff are extremely sympathetic to other public sector workers whose pay freeze means they are suffering a real-term 1.5% pay cut, however NHS staff have worked tirelessly throughout the last year fighting Covid-19 while continuing to keep other critical health services running.

Economist Gavan Conlon, a partner at economics consultancy London Economics, has declared: “When assessing whether the proposed pay increase represents a real-terms increase or cut, it is not sensible to compare a cash increase

in 2021 with a measure of inflation in 2020. The proposed 1% pay increase in cash terms represents a real-terms reduction of 0.5%”.

The public lined the streets throughout the United Kingdom for weeks every Thursday night to clap for NHS workers who diligently caring for the sickest victims of Covid-19, risking their own health in the process. To be presented by a real-term pay cut after this display of thanks and affection is nothing more than a slap in the face.

Most of the NHS workforce falls under the “Agenda for Change” pay scale, which standardised the pay for different bands and positions across the NHS. When you see hashtags such as “Fair Pay for Nursing”, please remember that if one group of healthcare professionals sees a pay rise, every other worker on the Agenda for Change pay scale will too. Nurses are not calling for an increase only for themselves, but every allied healthcare professional, cleaner, healthcare assistant, and administrative team member, that has kept the NHS running throughout the pandemic.

Boris Johnson himself thanked the nurses who cared for him in St Thomas’ hospital by name when he contracted Covid-19. I previously had a placement on the ward the Prime Minister was treated at, and my heart swelled with pride hearing some of the nurses I had worked with being thanked for the amazing work they do every single day.

Healthcare professionals are increasing burned out, and consider leaving the NHS or even healthcare in general. To be presented with a real-terms pay cut after such a difficult year may be the final straw for those already overworked and stressed.

Doctors, dentists, and senior-level management do not have their wages set by the Agenda for Change pay scale. The majority of the NHS workforce is extremely sympathetic to the conditions junior doctors in particular work under, and stood in solidarity when they chose to strike back in 2016.

The government has claimed a 1% increase in pay is all it can afford, but in recent days it has been announced that it will lift the cap on the number of nuclear warheads within the UK as part of a ten billion pound rearmament campaign. It is clear that the “magic money tree” shakes only for certain issues.

So, when is a pay rise not a pay rise? Quite simply, when it does not keep up with inflation.

When you see headlines about NHS staff receiving a pay rise, bear in mind it is actually a pay cut dressed up in nice wording, and that most see it as a slap in the face after a year of dealing with the sickest people during a global pandemic.

While most of those campaigning for a re-

ANTI-LOCKDOWN PROTESTS HOW SHOULD WE REACT? Samuel Pennifold Comment Editor

Comment Editor Samuel Pennifold on the recent anti-lockdown protests.

The most recent anti-lockdown protest in the UK raises an interesting question: how do we react to the disenfranchised?

It would be all but easy to laugh at the protestors and label them stupid, but if we are going to rightly defend those who protest in the name of women’s rights then we must also support those who fulfil the promise of democracy for a cause less righteous.

Protesting is a fundamental right for any citizen of a democracy, and if one person or one thousand choose to protest any issue, no matter how unfounded, then we should support that right. I would not stand with anyone protesting a proven life-saving vaccine, but I will defend their right to do so to the hilt.

It is often some of the most disenfranchised, the poorest and the furthest left behind in society who are ‘blamed’ by our generation or the liberal-minded anyway, for seemingly unpopular policies or events like Brexit or the election of Trump. However, these are the same people who are right to be angry about the world. I, like so many others, was angry after the Brexit vote, but that does not mean my anger was any more well-founded than those angered by our EU membership in the first place. I was angry

about what I felt was a future being stolen away from me; what I did not consider was the future stolen away from those who have been left behind by a modern and globalised world.

The UK’s small towns, once hubs of mining, industry and thriving societies, are now black holes of despair, similar to America’s Rust Belt or the diagonale du vide of France. These are the areas that lost jobs as they moved around the world to lift others out of poverty. These are the people who lost their jobs when steel from China became cheaper. These are the areas where the benefits of globalisation did not reach.

Yes, more people have been helped by globalisation than those who have lost out, especially if you look on the global scale. But how do you

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al-terms pay rise for the majority of NHS workers are sympathetic to the pay freezes other public sector workers have been subjected to, one must understand that it is not a race to the bottom. We all need to stand together to campaign for fair working conditions and pay, rather than criticise one group calling for such changes.

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tell that to the white working-class boy who is the most unlikely person in this country to go to university, and one of the most likely to need free school meals? If this person is given someone to blame for their grievances and told to support a cause like the anti-lockdown or anti-vacation movement by someone who says they will help them, can you begrudge them believing that?

If these people are angry about a lockdown that adversely affects those from a working-class background or hesitant about a vaccine not produced in the factories they or their family once worked, in regardless of race, religion or creed, we have no right to dismiss them out of hand. There is a duty to educate and alleviate all those who are left behind, regardless of the reason.

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Comment

HALF OF MY UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE, GONE: GONE REFLECTIONS OF A GRADUATING STUDENT Sayali Marathe Staff Writer

Roar writer Sayali Marathe reflects on her university experience.

As final-year students approach the end of their teaching period, I feel melancholic. As a member of the class of 2021, I was not only robbed of my final year at university but nearly half of my degree was spent learning remotely. The last time I attended in-person classes was during the UCU 2020 strikes, my professor deciding to still continue classes as she couldn't afford to lose out on pay.

After that, I was too paranoid to attend in-person classes but remained in the United Kingdom with the hope that some sort of normality would return. It didn't.

For the first half of my third year, I thought that not going into classes was fine. But, the dissertation came around, and things started to feel like they were not going to be fine. Even now, I am troubled with the knowledge that I have to write two essays and sit for exams—on top of writing a dissertation. Assessments feel so pointless; I feel like I hardly learned anything this year. If History

was once partially a self-taught degree, the pandemic has made it an entirely self-taught degree.

The History Department's rankings in the QS World Rankings has not changed. I am happy for my Department as most of my professors and tutors deserve recognition. However, our College has failed both its students and faculty. The King's administration has tried to make us feel bad for them. They want us to feel bad that they still get the same 6-figure salary. They want us to feel bad that they had to suspend rent retrievals.

When I look towards the future, I don't know what to expect. Interim President Evelyn Welch said that we should be happy we are getting our degrees, but what does a piece of paper mean anymore? I don't understand why those in charge of our education are treating us like we owe them.

We gave them our money, we should be expecting them to treat us as their top priority. Does the King's administration think they're doing us a favour by giving us our degree, the one thing we've been working towards since we dreamed of getting into King's?

All I see is e-mails from companies I applied to, saying I am not a fit for their company. I see all the money my mother has put into my education.

I see all the ways I failed at taking my degree seriously when things were still normal. I feel lost, and unsure of how to feel that my university experience has almost come to an end.

To some extent, the point of these musings was to let final year students know that you're not alone.

If you read this and it resonated with you, I'm sorry. I wish I could say things would get better, but I am struggling to find the light within this whole scenario as well. It's okay to feel lost and frightened. To not know what the future holds. I don't want to romanticise melancholy (I am not Keats), but it's okay to wallow for a little bit. You're allowed to feel like things don't make sense. Sometime in the future, they will and we'll be thankful then. But, for now, try to make the most of your last few months at King's College London.

Go to online events and classes, or contribute to the many petitions that are trying to demand justice from universities. Make these last few months count, even if it feels pointless. Regardless of the changed circumstances, you'll still have your friends. Reconnect with those that you've lost touch with, or make new acquaintances. It's never too late to make friends and keep learning.

Good luck to the class of 2021.

A REPORT OF SILENCE SIGNED BY THE ONS Samy Moschella Podcast Editor

Podcast Editor Samy Moschella on the state of mental health in universities. This is an attached comment to the related news article.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) February-March 2021 survey is useful to inform us of the conditions of young adults around the country, yet gravely lacks the proper context needed to explain why students’ mental health is deteriorating. In summary, the results reported confirmed everyone’s oblivious suspicion: mental health issues are on the rise once again, as lockdown exacerbates conditions and casts a shadow over an already-gloomy England. No one is pointing fingers, but someone needs to be held accountable.

In my news article, I had opened with a sad banger: Tim Biggs, an ONS statistician in charge of reporting the survey results, opened his report by saying that 26% of students were feeling lonely “often or always”, with worsening mental health conditions.

All in all, it comes to no one's surprise that the latest lockdown (lockdown 3.0 as dubbed by users in the net), called by PM Johnson on January 5 as cases skyrocketed over the short-lived month of liberty England enjoyed after lockdown 2.0 came to an end, did more bad than good to university students' mental health.

But the math Gibbs writes about on behalf of the ONS is chilling. Not only because it depicts the reality of youths like you and me, broken into isolated, insecure versions of ourselves in a moment where impeding people from coming together for comfort and support regardless of age would be the most inhumane decision to make.

But also because there is no contextual interpretation, vital to statistics. The public cannot possibly think, or be led to believe, even by mistake, that students are unfortunately suffering this much by their own hands. Writing that universities and the government have been neglecting their end of the bargain during the pandemic is more about contextual interpretation from Intro to Stats than a partisan accusation.

Truthfully, the study’s figures depict a frightening image for students’ mental health.

To provide the context the study lacks, December saw England’s restriction measures relax, as life flowed back into students’ existences and a façade of normalcy reappeared. Many of the students that had flocked into their university’s city in September went back home for the holidays.

Furthermore, international students were given a travel window to leave the Island devised by the government to allow enough quarantining time in the students’ home countries to spend Christmas with friends and family.

However, with regards to the mental health situation, neither the government nor universities seem to have done enough during the winter holidays. Effectively, early January saw panic and anxiety peak amongst students as their return plans were put into jeopardy because of the

newer lockdown restrictions mandated to fight the perilous new Coronavirus mutations that were plaguing the UK. Home and international students alike saw their university lives and friends upended: many young adults in Higher Education (HE) from both demographics either delayed or annulled their plans for the new years to come back.

Together with the rent strikes that plagued university accommodations and HE institutions’ yet-unannounced plans for academic safety nets, students from all years saw their plans waver amidst all of the uncertainty surrounding them.

Moreover, it ought to be remarked that many amongst those enrolled in HE in England decided not to move in for Semester 2 either, as Coronavirus restrictions around the world tightened and mental health issues corroded their hope for a well-deserved university experience.

With no friends, no classes, and no support, how could university students’ see the light at the end of the tunnel? Effectively, the study’s report should be a powerful wake-up call to authorities to do something about this crisis.

As a result, it is hardly surprising, regrettably, that students have been the hardest hit by the pandemic. In fact, Instagram has been the battleground for students enrolled in HE in the UK for many of the issues that were contributing to the deterioration of their mental conditions.

Rent rebate strikes and calls for more government actions to stop invoices from accommodations were the most backed up. Hot on their heels instead, were pressures for greater support for

students struggling with economic and mental health problems to the-powers-that-be inhabiting 10 Downing Street. Lastly, always lurking in the background, is the hot and steady boil that is the issue of university fees not equating to the worth of the services being provided.

At the time, none of the above requests had been granted immediately - almost appearing as if speculating on university attendees was something even remotely ethical. In fact, it took the Urbanest scandal and KCL student pressure to get King’s Accommodations to offer the penalty-free, opt-out clause to its residents. The mental health situation is still being handled with kid gloves, with government aid nowhere in sight.

Refunding, on the other hand, won’t even be remotely considered.

Overall, it is appalling that the ONS won’t call a spade a spade, not even producing an integrated or companion reportage. All that those wronged or neglected by the authorities want is a chance to be recognized and compensated with what they rightfully deserve.

Now, with the prospect of a vaccination rollout plan as efficient as the media and government appear to be portraying it, spirits are back on the rise, a “normal” summer holiday season starting to materialize. Will AstraZeneca be the cure to the variants and a return to our lives, or is Covid still an uphill battle? Will we ever get back to normalcy?

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AGAINST A CONSERVATIVE FEMINISM

Tara Sahgal Staff Writer

In political theory, feminism and conservatism are viewed as dichotomous in nature – probably because of the historical differences in left-wing and rightwing ideology. Feminism has largely been affiliated with the Left (which is seen as more prone to equality), while conservatism has been affiliated with the Right (which is seen as more prone to inequality).

However, in recent years this dichotomy has been questioned, most notably by conservative female leaders who claim to better represent women than feminists. While it is undeniable that the presence of these leaders in the political sphere automatically enhances women’s descriptive representation, it’s important to understand that this does not necessarily translate into women’s substantive representation (or the promotion of women’s interests, which is a key feminist objective).

A Feminism of Choice?

Feminism, in its third wave, is defined as gender equality between men and women and the emancipation of women in all spheres. It has historically been associated with left-wing politics, with women pushing for the legalisation of abortion and paid family leave as key identifiable policy goals (among others). Social conservatism, on the other hand, has been associated with anti-abortion stances and a strong belief in femininity and the traditional role of women in society, while economic conservatism has tended to promote individualism and reject identity-based politics.

Conservative "feminism" is largely understood in terms of "choice" feminism, or the idea that women should be able to make their own decisions – even if traditionally anti-feminist – and

should not be discriminated against for the same. Despite many conservatives disassociating themselves from the feminist label, they often act as gender-conscious actors, and this is reflected in their politics – for example, a large focus is placed by many female conservative leaders on the gender pay gap and the need for an equality of opportunity.

This brings us to the crucial question of why certain issues are promoted while others are overlooked. Arguably, these gender-conscious interests are advanced because they align with conservative interests (and broader market-based neoliberal values), and not necessarily with the interests of women. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that in the conservative mind, emphasis is perpetually placed on individualism rather than structuralism. There is a sense of dismissal of systemic discrimination and structural inequalities that hinder the fair attainment of equality of opportunity. This directly contradicts the values of feminism, and in particular third-wave feminism, which focuses on dismantling oppressive structures and the inequalities perpetuated by them while simultaneously adopting an intersectional approach to politics and policy ideation. Conservative female leaders thus end up representing conservative interests rather than the larger interests of women – their politics are exclusionary, ignoring the role of power relations and resource allocation in society, and can make it difficult to address more radical feminist concerns.

Contemporary examples from conservative female leadership Across the globe, conservative female leaders attempt to address "women’s issues", sometimes even claiming the feminist title – but is that claim enough to make them feminist? Is it a sign of a newly emerging "conservative feminism"? No, primarily because these leaders are not intersectional in their approach: Ivanka Trump and Theresa May are prime examples of the same. Intersectionality forms the core

of third-wave feminism; Trump and May have both called themselves feminists, yet their political actions imply otherwise.

Ivanka is, of course, closely tied to her father and his views – which are already inherently problematic and anti-feminist, to say the least. She has also rallied alongside political candidates who openly deny women’s right to abortion. Conversely, Theresa May has had an actionable impact on furthering women’s interests through her various roles in the British Parliament: she has notably supported gender pay gap reporting, shared parental leave and the expansion of laws against domestic violence. However, she has also supported the Democratic Unionist Party (which has archaic views on abortion) and MPs accused of sexual abuse. Most importantly, in line with her harsh immigration policy, she has led the indefinite detention (and alleged abuse) of pregnant women at Yarl’s Wood. It is evident that Trump and May only promote women’s interests when they fit into conservative ideals, and are arguably examples of a conservative appropriation of feminism in the name of self-interest, rather than of leaders shaping a new feminism.

Do they want to be Feminist?

Unlike Trump and May, most conservative female leaders are averse to the feminist movement, its history and successes, and the feminist label itself. Among others, Smriti Irani (part of the Hindu-right in India) is an example of this: despite breaking gender stereotypes and voicing support for victims of sexual abuse, she openly rejects the term "feminism" and continues to espouse various discriminatory and anti-feminist views. This reveals a pattern: female conservative leaders either disassociate from feminism as a whole and disregard the need for structural change, or fail to be intersectional while placing their focus on individualism in response to collective problems – which goes against traditional feminist goals and beliefs. It is therefore more fitting to view them as "gender-conscious actors" (an idea put forth by various scholars) rather than feminists, only representing the interests of certain women.

To put it simply, there are various factors that make it problematic to conflate conservatism with feminism. The nature of conservative politics is inherently exclusionary (and thereby anti-feminist), and its leaders are often averse to the feminist movement in its entirety. It is better to study conservative beliefs and actions as an attempt to analyse differences among women and women’s interests, rather than to re-interpret feminist history and contemporary goals – which could potentially dilute the power of the movement.

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Comment

HAVE YOU EVER FELT UNSAFE WHILE OUT AFTER DARK?

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Flatmate and i got followed by 6 guys in waterloo and the cops had to come to us

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My partner and i were once cat-called by men in a car who then tried to hit us with it when rejected

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THE POLICE AND P STONE STATUES OVE Amaaya Nath

I actively avoid making almost any plans that would involve me being alone after sunset

Staff Writer

Roar writer Amaaya Nath on the UK governments 2021 Police and Protest Bill.

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All the time. I usually take Ubers but have also been sexually harassed by my driver

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Call me entitled, but something about being forced to learn the UK’s struggle to achieve democracy through A-level history made me expect certain standards within the UK to uphold these treasured institutions. Coming from India, where women’s rights are non-negotiable, freedom of expression is constrained and the right to peacefully assemble is often anything but peaceful, I looked up to the UK for its progressive attitude and the freedoms it offered me. These were further cemented with Britain's apparent support for protests all across the globe. While at first being able to walk the streets on my own was liberating, the reality of being a BAME girl became all too real for me.

The reality stands in a 10 pm curfew as it's too unsafe to walk on my own afterwards, constant location tracking and fear of others, and a police force filled with institutionalised racism. The latest Police and Protest Bill is just another nail in the coffin that proves the UK still values the establishment and old elite over its women and anyone who challenges them. To most, this hypocrisy is far too real and surprisingly, unsurprising.

The new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, which passed its second reading by 359 votes to 263, is designed to give more power to the police and government to crack down on protests. In particular, the bill allows the government to impose start and finish times and maximum noise limits on protests, and grants the police

powers to give harsher penalties and convictions for those who ignore conditions. This bill extends to “one person protests'' where the police would be enabled to end a demonstration if the "noise generated by the person carrying on the protest may result in serious disruption to the activities of an organisation”. It further allows Home Secretary Priti Patel powers to decide when police should step in to stop a protest she deems to be disruptive. While these measures are supposed to allow protests to be safer, in effect they will ensure the opposite and have come under criticism from human right groups such as Amnesty International and other MPs. Gavin Robinson, an MP with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party, says “The loose and lazy way this legislation is drafted would make a dictator blush”.

One of the reasons the bill doesn't work is because of the vague language surrounding it. It states that demonstrations and protests should not "intentionally" or "recklessly" cause "public nuisance”. The ambiguity of the bill allows the police to make a normative judgement on the nature of a protest and stop it. This would in essence allow almost any protest to be stopped. Because of their very nature, protests are intended to be loud for the authorities to hear the concerns of their citizens. Protests are meant to cause disruption. By limiting the very intention of protest this bill threatens to curb any voice challenging the incumbent, which is against the institution of democracy. Protests hold the government accountable. They ensure a system of checks and balances that this bill takes away. While we all can sit and talk about issues such as women rights, LGBTQ issues and other social problems, protests show action; they show a de facto mindset change which this bill halts. This casts doubt on the type of democracy that the UK has turned into.

The modern foundations of British identity have

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WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS AN APPARENTLY RADICAL TAKE Imogen Dixon News Editor

News Editor Imogen Dixon discusses the Sarah Everard case in relation to rape culture and women.

The week of International Woman’s Day began with celebration and ended with the tragic identification of Sarah Everard’s body after she was reported missing at the beginning of March. Along with fear and anger, I feel complete exhaustion. When will women be able to exist without fear?

According to a survey by UN Women UK, 80% of women of all ages said they had been sexually harassed in a public space. This figure rose to 97% for women aged 18-24. The vast majority of our female and feminine-presenting peers have been sexually harassed, have some tale of being catcalled on the street or groped in a bar. After I got the notification confirming the identification of Sarah’s body during a walk around Hyde Park, I noticed a man cycling past give me the once over before turning round to follow me.

PROTEST BILL 2021 ER LIVING WOMEN been forged in a history of protest and anti-establishment feelings. Following the post-war period, UK citizens have been able to use the freedom of expression and right to assembly to pressure the governments into action and the traditional mindsets to forge a new identity.

This is seen with the birth of the teenager in the 50s followed by the swinging 60s, the stonewall protests, the green activists and the hippies, the anti-nuclear protests and other more liberalising movements that have advanced the UK into the country that it is today. Citizens have always been allowed to voice their concerns and progress the democracy of the UK, which has helped it veer away from its reputation of being old and elite and allowed it to be a modern soft powerhouse.

Even democracy itself was fought through many demonstrations by both men, like the temperance movement, and women like the suffragettes, highlighting the important role protests have played in UK history. So why now is the government using this bill to quash this and lean into the democratic backsliding seen elsewhere?

This is especially pertinent since this bill gives power to the police, a body that the people time and time again have expressed distrust in an institution embodying institutionalised racism and misused power. The bill comes after Sarah Everand’s vigil where the police were shown to use unnecessary force after they tried to disperse the crowds after dark. The vigil, which was initially cancelled by the police ended with 4 people arrested and many more man-handled. This was a vigil for a girl allegedly murdered by a MET police officer, and these are the people the government is rewarding with power. If this is the response by law enforcement, it is hard to imagine what the post-bill scenario would look like.

Women have it doubly as hard, where they are not only constrained in their liberty of where and when they can step out, what they can wear

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and constant fear and anxiety, but also in trusting police enforcement. In the latest changes to introducing measures for women's safety, use of more plainclothes officers have been suggested as a measure. This is known to be problematic as undercover officers often abuse their positions to such an extent they have long-term sexual relationships with women under false identities. It is saying something that the bill did not once mention crimes against women.

Do we really live in a democracy when women cannot step out of their own houses without fear?

Another section in the bill covering damage to land or property makes specific mention of damages to "monuments" in a clear reference to statues of colonialists being damaged during last summer's BLM protests. This is clearly in opposition to the government's support for BLM, and shows that while on the face of it the government wants to appear progressive, policies like this undermine. The double standard is also apparent when we see the government condemning China for the Hong Kong protests, yet carrying out similar policies. It shows that the government is still supporting the old establishment made up of white men over women and people who hold them accountable.

The purpose of protest is to take action. Yet this government has made it clear that they are reluctant to do so. They will only carry out actions such as tweeting from the comfort of their beds and forget about social justice when it affects them. They will continue to prioritise dead men over alive women because the progress we have made is far from what is needed, and the establishment still thrives. This bill threatens the very fabric of democracy that the UK has fought for.

It stifles the progress we have made so far and limits what we can make in the future. The question stands – can we still fight for this country?

I laughed it off when I called my dad in an attempt to get him to leave me alone (thankfully he did), but my hands were shaking until I got back to my accommodation. The saddest part is that it isn’t even the first time a man has harassed me in public – and I know other women have multiple similar stories.

Clearly, women are not the problem. From childhood we are taught to take precautions when walking alone: keep your keys in your hand, wear sensible shoes in case you need to run, don’t wear earphones. Sarah Everard did everything she was supposed to in order to ensure her safety. In the end, it still wasn’t enough.

But this is what frustrates me about the narrative we perpetuate as a society, whereby a woman is made responsible for her own safety. What about the responsibility men have to not take advantage of someone’s vulnerability?

In 2017, when the latest figures on sexual offences were released, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 20% of women have experienced some form of sexual assault since the age of 16.

This is compared with around 4% of men.

“Not all men”, the tone-deaf hashtag whines. Okay, maybe not all men are predators, but almost all predators are men. I feel there is some sort of entitlement many men feel, whereby they have an automatic right to a woman’s attention. Or her body.

Even if we are taught to take preventative mea-

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sures to avoid assault, we don’t always have the chance to implement them. I know I didn’t when a man sexually assaulted me as I slept in my bed when I was volunteering in Chile in 2018. It was at a Halloween party. He had decided, it would seem, as he helped my friend put me to bed, that my consent was unimportant and came back after she had forced him from my room.

It was not an isolated incident. The older brother of the man who assaulted me had done the same thing to another woman previously. Our society is steeped in rape culture.

So, while it is wonderful that men are asking on Twitter what they can do to make a woman feel safer when walking down the same street, to me, this is almost putting a plaster on a gaping wound. Of course, reducing women’s anxiety by giving them space in the street is brilliant. Leaving them alone is great – but it isn’t the root of the issue.

Men need to challenge the potentially harmful behaviours they see in their friends. Rather than attacking a predator after the fact – prevent them from feeling comfortable enough to commit sexual assault in the first place. You would never hurt a woman? Good. But do you speak up if you see one of your friends, or even a stranger for that matter, exhibiting dangerous behaviour?

Another British volunteer I had gone to Chile with – a man – told me the morning after my assault that he had come upstairs to go to the bathroom and had seen my door open and someone inside. He didn’t do anything about it.

I doubt that my friend would ever hurt a woman on purpose. But he could have prevented, or at least stopped, the man assaulting me before my other male friend came upstairs, immediately noticed something was wrong and went to get help.

So, if you see a friend wolf-whistle at a woman in the street or ply a woman with a bit too much alcohol, or even notice them say something to a woman they would never say to a man, call them out. If you’re not actively helping tackle rape culture within your friend groups, then you’re part of the problem.

In order for women to be able to expect safety – the bare minimum – when they walk down the street, rape culture must be nipped in the bud. How hard is it to understand that women are human beings who have a right to walk home safely, at any time of day and in any state?

A serious overhaul needs to take place, from teaching boys in school about consent to calling out misogynistic behaviour in friends and family. Until then, I will be walking with my keys in my fists and my phone’s emergency alarm on, holding my breath every time I walk past a group of men. I am fed up with it.

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THE RACIALISED MISOGYNY OF THE ATLANTA SPA SHOOTINGS Hanna Pham Comment Editor

Comment Editor Hanna Pham on the Atlanta spa shootings and racialised misogyny towards Asian women On March 17 Robert Aaron Long, a white man, went on a killing spree at several spas in the Atlanta area resulting in the death of eight people, six of whom were Asian women. Long was a sex addict and claimed that the reason for the rampage was to eliminate temptation.

While law enforcement is hesitant to call this a hate crime, as an Asian-American woman I am unfortunately not very surprised about this tragic event. This senseless killing presents itself as the culmination of increased racial violence as well as historical racism against Asian-Americans.

Crimes against Asian-American have been on the rise, often linked to the incorrect presumption that all Asian people are to blame for Covid-19. President Trump fueled the flames of racism towards Asians by referring to Covid-19 as the “Kung Flu” or the “China virus” which civil liberty groups warned could lead to increased racism and violence towards Asians.

It has.

A Filipino-American man was slashed across the face with a box cutter. An elderly Thai man was pushed down violently, resulting in his death. An 89-year-old Chinese woman was slapped and set on fire. According to the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate, last year there were 2,800 reports of hate incidents. Who knows how many more hate crimes occurred but went unreported.

However, the tragic murder of six Asian women is not just another tragedy that stems from the inflammatory, racist rhetoric of Trump—it encapsulates a very sinister history that goes beyond general racism against Asian-Americans. Asian women in the United States hold a precarious position in society. The racism they experience being Asian-American and the sexism they face as women evolved into a unique strand of racialised misogyny. This can be traced back to US military operations in the latter half of the 20th century in Asia. Following the conflict in both Japan and Korea, brothels had a constant stream of American servicemen and sex workers were frequent visitors of bases.

The American military hero essentially conquers the savage enemy by using their women as objects of pleasure. The gendered perception that Asian women are subservient sex objects was brought back to the United States and remain prevalent today. As a result, there is a delicate balance between the two main themes that emerge as a result of this racialized misogyny—purity and hypersexuality.

“ME SO HORNY, ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME.” This line from a Vietnamese prostitute in the Vietnam war film Full Metal Jacket memorialised on screen and generally encapsulates the hypersexuality that has been forced upon Asian-American women; whereas the musical Miss Saigon pushes forth the idea of a helpless, pure Asian woman whose livelihood revolves around being subservient to American military men. In popular culture, racialised misogyny is a tool used to strip us of our individuality and identity to accommodate the male gaze and fit into recycled tropes whether that be “lotus blossoms” or manipulative “dragon ladies”.

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reasoning was unfortunately proven true with the Atlanta spa shootings. There is no doubt in my mind that this crime was racially motivated. When taking into account the shooter had a sex addiction and targeted spas one of which is named “Young’s Asian Massage,” as well as the pervasive narrative of the hypersexuality of women, it is clear that this was a hate crime against Asian-American women.

At the end of the day, I am either a nameless prostitute or Madam Butterfly. A whore or a virgin. I am fetishised and dehumanized.

As an Asian-American woman, I am perceived solely based on how my sexuality can serve the gaze of the White patriarchy. When I walk down the street I wonder if yet again I will be cat-called and told that I am exotic beauty. In dating, I am forced to confront the same dilemma over and over again: does he like me or does he like that I am Asian? Now more than ever is it possible that I could get killed because my race and body represent sexual temptation that needs to be eliminated.

Naturally, when you objectify an entire group of people and their bodies, they hold no value.

They’re inferior and undeserving of the right to live. Once you’ve been completely dehumanized by a group, killing becomes easy, almost like a natural response. This line of

THE CIRCULAR ARGUMENT OF AMERICA’S GUN DEBATE MUST END Marino Unger-Verna Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief Marino Unger-Verna on the issue of gun regulation in the US, urging for actionable solutions rather than perpetual debate.

In the past seven days, eight mass shootings occurred in the United States, including one in Boulder, Colorado which resulted in ten deaths. Thus far, there have been 104 such shootings across the US since 2021 began - an average rate of 1.22 shootings per day. At such a rate, it is statistically unlikely that these numbers will still be up-to-date by the time you read this article.

I spent ten years of my life living in America.

My elementary school was across the road from a small bank that serviced our town and others nearby. In my seven years at that school, we were forced to go into "lockdown" a total of three times when robbers, armed with handguns, attempted to make off with the bank's funds. Large metal shutters would lower over the tall windows of our cafeteria, and if we were in class at the time, our teachers would turn off the lights and tell us to hide in our cubby-holes so these criminals, were they to enter the build-

ing, would think the room empty.

This is no way for a child to live and, thankfully, not a life children in the UK are faced with. Following a mass shooting at a primary school in 1996, a tragedy now referred to as the Dunblane Massacre, the then-Conservative government banned the private ownership of handguns. A combination of public outcry and swift action, alongside a necessary re-classification of what constitutes a "gun crime" in 2003, has led to a relatively consistent drop in gun crime across the country ever since. As politics.co.uk puts it, "there is a general public consensus against ownership of handguns" in the UK. So why, after so much death, has the US government not taken similar steps?

According to the Centre for American Progress, 44% of Americans know somebody who has been shot, while another 23% say they have been threatened at gunpoint. A 2019 survey conducted by ABC and the Washington Post found that six in ten Americans feared a mass shooting in their community and that 89% supported increased gun control regulations across the nation. Clearly, then, there is support for increased gun regulation in the US. According to Senator Cruz, however, calls for gun control are nothing more than "ridiculous theatre", with the Senator adding: "What hap-

pens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats proposed taking away guns from law-abiding citizens because that's their political objective.

"The jurisdictions in this country with the strictest gun control have among the highest rates of crime and murder. When you disarm law-abiding citizens, you make them more likely to be victims. If you want to stop these murders, go after the murderers."

For starters, Cruz's statement regarding crime rates is patently false. According to Statista, the five US states with the highest crime rates in 2019 were New Mexico, Alaska, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Arkansas. As reported by the World Population Review, four of these five states ranked an "F" in gun control strictness, with New Mexico only rating a "C". The evidence would seem to indicate that guns do make a tangible difference.

Similarly, Cruz's comment about "going after the murderers" instead is out of touch - though this is perhaps unsurprising coming from a man who reportedly fled his home state to vacation in Cancun amidst a power and climate crisis earlier this year. The argument is definitionally circular, in that the premise of Cruz's statement is in need of just as much evidence as his conclusion.

A study on the efficacy of gun control policies conducted by RAND was unable to find strong scientific evidence that proposed regulations on who may buy new guns would lead to tangible outcomes. Despite this, the study concludes by noting two flaws. Firstly, US statisticians have only researched marginal possibilities, without fully examining more extreme measures such as a full ban on handguns and/or assault weaponry. Secondly, the large number of guns in US circulation - just under 400 million in 2017 - mean actual change would likely necessitate such extreme measures. Looking to the UK, it would seem these measures work; almost as if taking away a criminal's tools does, in fact, make it more difficult for them to commit a crime.

US President Joe Biden recently stated that he would endeavour to ban assault weapons in the country. This is an important first step, but to achieve it, politicians such as Senator Cruz must realise that the solution to a violent gunman is not to hand other people guns - it is to disarm the gunman himself. As a child sitting in my cubby-hole at the mature old age of eight, I would not have wanted my teacher to be handed a gun and told to defend us at the potential cost of her life. As with most things in life, prevention should be the first step, rather than a flawed, patchwork attempt at treatment.

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND SAME-SEX UNIONS: A BAN ON BLESSINGS Ela Podgórska Staff Writer

Roar writer Ela Podgórska on the Catholic Church's recent ban on blessing same-sex unions.

In 2020, Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary about Pope Francis revealed he believed in the right to have same-sex civil unions. The revolutionary statement by the head of the Catholic Church emphasised the seemingly obvious need for equal treatment of everyone, regardless of sexuality. By calling homosexual people “children of God”, he sparked a ray of hope amongst homosexual Catholics. However, those hopes have been recently crushed by the statement of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The controversial decision was presented in a rather brief document that addresses the question of whether the Church has the power to give blessings to same-sex unions. The Con-

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gregation sums up the answer as “negative”.

As written, the Vatican worries that same-sex unions may not fit into God’s plan for marriage and starting a family. Gay marriages are considered a deviation from God’s plan behind the sacrament of holy matrimony. Furthermore, the “explanatory note” underlines that God “cannot bless sin”, concluding that the Church is left with no option but to refuse the blessings of same-sex unions.

gregation underlines that the decision is by no means meant to discriminate against homosexuals; they are still welcomed by the “Christian community and its Pastors” who offer “to proclaim to them the Gospel in its fullness.’ Nevertheless, being excluded from one of the sacraments, marriage, which is considered one of the channels of God’s grace inevitably entails being excluded from full participation in the Catholic Church.

Catholic homosexuals feel betrayed by this decision and the explanation behind it. The important issue that is worth consideration is the question of how is it possible that same-sex relationships are not a part of God’s plan if he created us and the world we live in? The matter of this dispute seems to be connected more with the institution of the Church rather than God himself. We have to ask ourselves: to what extent can Church interpret the ideas of God’s plan? And why should we abide by the Church’s laws and decrees when they are so unfair?

Furthermore, some people aptly notice that it is just disgraceful, considering the sadly reoccurring problem of paedophilia amongst priests that has yet to be clamped down upon. Yet blessing the union of people who love each other and simply want to live their lives in a marriage blessed by God through the Church is refuted.

Going further, the argument stressing that those same-sex unions are not inherently capable of fulfilling God’s plan of procreation seems not entirely legitimate.

Of course, the explanatory note from the Con-

If the willingness to have offspring was the compulsory requirement for the blessing to

take place, the Church would have to reconsider allowing the matrimony of people who are infertile or after the reproductive age. But why should we deny the sacrament to the people who cannot change anything about their conditions?

Should we punish them for who they are? I don’t believe that “yes” would be a plausible answer in that case. Therefore, why should we exclude people whose sexuality is also not a matter of choice, but a part of who they are? Or to say in more Catholic terms, a part of the way in which they were created by God? Following the initial statement against samesex unions, Pope Francis proposed the need to introduce a new law regarding the topic. This once again raises hopes for the introduction of new rules, or requirements behind the Church’s sacraments. However, the proposal of such an idea is not enough and until we see it in force, we should focus on how to support Catholic homosexuals on their way to securing equal rights within the Church.

CANCEL CULTURE IS ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY

Features Editor Ishaan Rahman argues cancel culture is a reasonable method of holding people to account in a free and democratic society.

context or blown out of proportion. The Farenheit 451-eque purge of older movies and TV shows that were deemed to be insensitive, such as Gone with the Wind and Little Britain after the summer Black Lives Matter protests, is also an example of unhinged cancel culture. It is also clear that meaningful change cannot, alone, be achieved by simply expressing outrage and alienating anyone who does not agree with you.

“Cancel culture” has been the subject of controversy over the last year as high-profile celebrities, politicians and writers found themselves being reprimanded for undesirable behaviour.

Many books, movies and television shows were also take out of circulation due to their content.

This phenomenon has been met with an equal backlash, with many arguing that it infringes on free speech and creates an intolerant environment.

However, it is important to separate outrageous examples of cancel culture from the underlying principle. The reality is that people should be held accountable for what they say. If individuals engage in behaviour that is broadly reprehensible then they should be denied the privilege of appearing on national television, giving speeches at prestigious institutions, being paid to act in movies and TV shows and spreading their deplorable beliefs on social media.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February ran under the headline "America uncanceled". By the way, this was slightly ironic given that, in his speech, former President Donald Trump said to "get rid of " Republicans who voted for his impeachment, which sounds a lot like cancelling. Though opposition to cancel culture is not isolated to the political right, former US President Barack Obama also criticised young people who he accuses of mistaking activism for being "as judgemental as possible".

This idea is neither "woke" nor pernicious, "communist" censorship; it is common sense.

No one is suggesting that the government be involved in holding people to account, so this is not a violation of free speech. In fact, even the most ardent defenders of free speech, including the 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill, acknowledged people's right to shun or ostracise distasteful people from society.

Ishaan Rahman Features Editor

To be clear, Obama is not wrong. There are certainly examples of remarks being taken out of

Furthermore, expressing outrage is a key method of forcing change in a capitalist, not communist, society. Social media companies, movie studios and other corporations feel obligated to hold their users and employees to account be-

cause they fear consumer backlash that will cost them profit. So cancel culture is actually a natural product of living in a free-market, capitalist society. Hence, right-wing, free market conservatives have brought this cancel culture reality on themselves.

Obviously, there have to be limits on cancel culture, which begs the question: what behaviour is reprehensible enough that it deserves "cancelation"? Well, polite debate is clearly not cancel-worthy. People who disagree can have civil arguments over whether to raise or lower taxes, increase or decrease immigration, how to tackle climate change, Israeli-Palestinian issues and the extent (or existence, at all) of systemic racism. One may disagree with a tax-cutting, anti-immigrant conservative who believes systemic racism is nonexistent, though, if they express their views politely and without malice then they should be allowed to use platforms to spread their ideas.

But there is some behaviour that is cancel worthy and we can look at through the lens of recent events. Actress Gina Carano's idiotic comparison of conservatives being suspended on Twitter to Jews facing genocide at the hands of the Nazis, among other comments, is definitely cancel-worthy. Disney should not be paying someone with Carano's character to act in their television shows and their fans made that abundantly clear to them. Again, to be clear, expressing one's views is an undeniable right, but being paid tens of thousands of dollars, as Carano was, to act in a television show is a privilege that can

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be taken away as quickly as it was granted.

Another obvious example is former US President Donald Trump's permanent ban on Twitter. The social media giant cited Trump's role in the January 6 storming the US Capitol as the primary reason for his ban, though his continued insistence that the election was stolen from him is inarguably false and damaging to American, and frankly global, democracy. Even without the violent insurrection, Twitter was right to ban Trump, and he does not have a right to a platform from which he can spread his anti-democratic, traitorous, terrorist-sympathising bile.

To be clear, accountability is not and should not be isolated to the political right. The UK Labour Party has a serious problem with anti-semitism that its former Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, utterly failed to take adequate action on. On the surface, it seems that the new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is taking stronger action on this issue, which should be commended. He rightly sacked Rebecca Long Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet after suggesting that Israelis were somehow responsible for George Floyd's death.

Cancel culture is a complicated business and there will inevitably be disagreements on what is cancel-worthy. However, the central idea is virtuous and fully compatible, if not wholly necessary, in a free, democratic society. It follows a simple premise that most are taught in preschool: words and actions have consequences.

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BUT WAIT...

THERE’S MORE!

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I JUST TELL PEOPLE THATSURVIVORS I’M HOLOCAUST ARE AN URGING BORIS JOHNSON TO PUT ACCOUNTANT HUMANITY BEFORE TRADE Dania Quadri

US VS CHINA: FIGHTING FOR ALLIES IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION Violeta Fernandez Dieguez Staff Writer

Roar writer Violeta Fernandez Dieguez on the rivalry between the US and China in the Indo Pacific Region.

The Indo-Pacific is the region in between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. However, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly what countries it consists of since different countries have different geographic views on its expansion. The US and Australia consider it to be the original Asia-Pacific region plus India. Meanwhile, Japan and India include Asia and Africa with both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This dispute is representative of the complications this body of water brings.

The Indo-Pacific is extremely relevant given that it’s composed of the most populated country (China), the biggest democracy (India) and seven of the ten largest armies worldwide. That is why, even if not physically in the region, the US government considers it the “most consequential region for America’s future.”

US-China rivalry This brings us to the heart of the issue: the Indo-Pacific has turned into another US-China dispute. For both parties, this is a great opportunity for profit, since twothirds of world trade passes through this region. With the Belt-and-Road initiative, China looks to bind the geopolitical space and lead the economic partnerships of the region. With the rise of China, the US has lost its presence both in the region and worldwide. Some signs of this decline include the unilateral withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump claimed this was because free trade agreements promote inequality since cheaper goods would

be imported from low-wage countries, thus taking away low-wage jobs for Americans.

Moreover, The Indo-Pacific is a key player in the US-China rivalry since it points out each of its strengths and weaknesses. While the US has a strong military and diplomatic presence, China can leverage its economic influence. The two countries must recruit allies in order to work more effectively.

This conflict can be seen in two dimensions: a peacetime competition for influence or a military conflict. While the conflict can just be seen as a fight to “win” in obtaining partner support, there is an unavoidable military dimension that threatens the peace in the region. This military dimension is increasing with the Biden administration. US military officials have called to maintain a “competitive edge” over China with, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, naming China a “pacing threat”. Simultaneously, President Xi Jinping said China must increase its military spending to prepare for the “Thucydides trap”. This represents the idea that conflict is inevitable when an emerging power threatens to displace a great one.

Who are the key players?

Not every Indo-Pacific country has the same stance regarding the US-China conflict. Competition is more intense where priorities overlap. These countries are Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. In these countries, China can use economic influence as leverage to weaken US military influence. Even though many countries have shared interests with the US, China has economic leverage to sway partners their way.

Australia also plays an important role in the region. It argued in favour of the US having a stronger engagement in the region, Australia’s economic ties with Bejing might undermine their concerns towards Chinese military presence. The Australian government stated that they are “concerned by the

unprecedented pace and scale of China’s activities”. At the same time, their bilateral trade is estimated at over $100 billion in 2016 and Chinese investments in Australia rounded over $15 billion in the same year.

India has also become a key player, favouring the US. For the past few years, however, New Delhi has struggled to find the balance between both global superpowers. India doesn’t want to be perceived as a “member of a containment strategy led by the West”.

Still, China presents itself as a rising threat in the neighbourhood.

Japan’s stance is more clear. Former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo unveiled the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy in 2016. This approach aims to ensure “peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the Pacific Ocean”. In this way, Japan can achieve strategic autonomy while creating a favourable economic, diplomatic and military environment. This approach is limited since China’s maritime expansion intrudes Japan’s territorial waters, leading to land disputes. In response, Japan has set a strategy of strengthening its military and deepening its alliance with the US.

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LONDON MAYOR SERIES:

SHAUN BAILEY’S DESPERATE CAMPAIGN Gideon Coolin

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UNIVERSITY FREE SPEECH: THE LAW IS A EUPHEMISM Asher Gibson

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ARE BLACK AMERICANS LIVING IN LOCKE’S ‘STATE OF NATURE’?

Laura Maxwell

Biden’s stance A change in foreign policy is due to arrive with the change in administration. Under Biden, US Indo-Pacific policy is expected to reach beyond a military approach. There will be a stronger focus on protecting democracy and human rights. By advancing policies gradually and forging meaningful partnerships, Biden will be able to ensure an enduring foundation in the region.

His outlook on the region is very similar to Obama’s, but times have changed. Attitudes towards China have become increasingly hostile, especially inside the US. To combat an increasingly powerful China, Biden’s strategy must adapt to the circumstances.

READ HERE

CULTURE THE

CULTURE TEAM EDITORS

‘ WE WANT TO CALL IT AS WE SEE IT ’ INTERVIEW WITH CHIME OUT Samuel Teale Chadwick News Editor

Alex Blank Ally Azizi

CONTRIBUTORS Alice Delhaye Amaaya Nath Amiya Johar Aparajita Ray Chaudhuri (Guest) Arjan Arenas Bébhinn Cogen Bianca Jituboh Camilla Alcini Charmaine Tan Dania Quadri Dinh Nguyen Elena Veris Reynolds Helen Kursten-Holmes Jessica Smith Joseph Israel Karen Ng Keval Nathwani Laura Saracino Matthew Seaman Manya Sareen Natalia Vasnier Nikita Dahiya Sayali Marathe Scarlett Yu Youmna Warda

News Editor Samuel Teale Chadwick interviews the creators of Chime Out, a new music review website.

Launched early this year, Chime Out set out to approach music discourse differently. Reminiscent of the likes of VAN Magazine, it accentuates the nuances and debates in an accessible way. Critical, provocative, incisive, and casual, Chime Out is a smorgasbord of esoteric references and fresh perspectives, created and compiled by Mattie and Marie, two music graduates from the University of Glasgow: “The music scene is diverse and exciting," their website says, "but too much of media continues to have the same conversations over and over, side-lining certain artists, genres, and politics. We want to talk about the sidelines”.

In autumn 2019, they noticed that criticism which doesn’t take an academic tone is often not valued: “This is the kind of the space we were hoping Chime Out would start to crack a little bit”, Mattie says. On the accompanying memes, he comments: “It doesn’t always have to be a profound intellectual conversation. If classical music is policed so people can only

talk about it if they’re super-knowledgeable or academics, then you’re already making it limiting and potentially an intimidating space to inhabit. It’s engaging, it’s concise – I admit it’s a very certain niche”. As for music criticism, “objectivity is great to a certain degree, but also you do have to recognise that you are a person with lived experiences, and you do have biases like absolutely everyone”. The conversational tone, Marie adds, aims “to have those nuanced discussions in a way that’s more inclusive to engage with readers and the wider public, and trying to shift the discourse so it’s not so exclusive”.

Would Chime Out have happened were it not for the pandemic? Yes, “but a lot slower” says Mattie. Even until live music resumes, Marie remarks, “there’s still a lot to be commenting on”. Indeed, there is - in the pipeline are articles about the sustainability of streaming. 24/7 accessibility is “wonderful” in some ways, says Marie, “but in other ways it’s just not sustainable because that amount of energy is such a demand on our natural resources that in, say, twenty years’ time, it’s not going to be possible. How do we navigate that? Also, due to this constant accessibility, the value of music in monetary terms is being driven down. How do we go forward having artists that aren’t being paid enough and the Big Tech companies that are obviously being paid very well? It’s a very big web which I’m looking forward to attempting to untangle… The innovation is great, but it’s not enough on its own. You need to have an innovation that is sustainable. On that note, advertising in streaming we should take more seriously”.

“It would be remiss not to talk about articles we have in the works,” Mattie says. “I’ve been very conscious of trying to spotlight artists that I think are doing something really good or representing communities that aren’t really represented, including Indigenous artists. A lot of the time, the responsibility for representation can be misplaced onto the people who are not in the position of privilege, when they have less power to enact these things. If you’re only looking out for yourself, it’s very slow progress, whereas if you work more as a community then you can effect more change”.

“Absolutely," says Marie, “The people run-

ning the programmes have the power to bring about change. It’s important to acknowledge that equality – and having the opportunity for diverse thinking from different perspectives – makes for better problem solving, better art, and better productions. It’s also more inclusive, as when this happens, people will see themselves more represented. When I repeatedly heard someone saying: ‘This opera isn’t for me, I’m not interested”, it’s because they don’t see themselves in it [and] can’t relate to it. But if we had that diversity, more people would feel welcomed into this wonderful world of music that is really exclusionary, for not a very valid reason, and there’s never a valid reason. Including a queer love story in Marriage of Figaro should be possible, but it seems so entirely radical. Shakespeare is relevant, because the way people present it is constantly changing, but the former isn't”, As Mattie points out, “Music is a creative subject, how you engage with it should be creative.

Creative license is seen as valid in plays, whereas with opera it is taboo, it’s very jarring”. I wonder, is classical music undeniably relevant today? “I’d really want it to be,” says Mattie, “but the reason I ended up not going into classical singing is that I couldn’t express myself creatively even if I absolutely adore it – it has very strict confinements to it, I find”.

Marie adds that, due to the cuts to education, music “is not accessible. People not even able to play music at school, that does lead to it becoming more exclusive and the group becoming smaller and smaller. There are so many benefits, and yet we seem to be cutting it out for more and more people”. Although he doesn’t like to pigeonhole, Mattie adds that “any attempt to be more accessible and demand accountability [is not equivalent] to saying inaccessibility is this box you can’t escape from; it’s saying there is room for improvement compared to other genres we see. That’s a bigger statement to say. Inaccessibility is challenging, but it’s important to bring it up because the last thing I want to do is see classical music go from inaccessible to completely irrelevant”.

Although some headlines and articles give the “depressing” impression that this is an intractable problem, Mary points out that “if you’re going to talk about inaccessibility you’ve got to talk about the things that are being done and can be done (such as outreach programmes and schemes). It can’t just be a blanket statement; it has to lead to a conversation”.

Chime Out UK, artist Jack Magee

20 Culture

STAN CULTURE: A LOOK INTO THE PEDESTALISATION OF CELEBRITIES AND INFLUENCERS Nikita Dahiya Social Media Lead Social Media Lead Nikita Dahiya on the toxicity of stan culture.

The internet world as we know it is one abundant in a lot of things, be it instant fame, instant wealth, or instant “cancellation”. One thing internet discourse does tend to lack in, however, is nuance – particularly when it comes to one’s favourite celebrities. The rise and fall of celebrities is quick and unpredictable and quite often the only thing that can save them from being banished to the deep, dark depths of “cancellation” is fan favour.

Despite popular belief, the emergence of fandoms has little to do with global connectivity.

Celebrities have always had large masses of fans clamouring for them, appraising their every move, passing judgements on all choices they make. The only difference the internet has made – and admittedly, a significant one at that – is the intensity of fan accruement and the subsequent celebrity worship that is garnered.

Perhaps it’s the Latin etymology of the word “fan” (fanaticus) that best describes the pres-

ent-day fan culture as “insanely but divinely inspired”, referring to the idolatry status awarded to these celebrities. It’s this pedestalisation of (and overfamiliarity with) celebrities that originally gave rise to Eminem’s 2000 hit, Stan – a moniker which worryingly enough has now been adopted by millions of young fans on the internet. Now, granted, not every fan is an individual willing to drive into a river with their pregnant girlfriend in the trunk of their car, but the anonymity of the internet does offer them a certain leeway when they bully, or even go as far as to issue death threats, to any critiques of their idols.

Sure, there are a few light-hearted incidents instigated by these stans, the mass-buying of tickets for a Trump rally by K-pop stans and TikTokers comes to mind – but what also comes to mind is the unabashed hate comments meted out to any critics of their (worryingly named) “idols”. This toxic adulation isn’t limited only to K-pop stans, however. Instead, it stretches out to occupy a small section within every single fandom.

tional celebrities would generally be viewed upon as “unattainable” and “untouchable”. Any interaction with them via movie or television screens was the most intimacy one could get with them. Innovations in technology, however, have completely changed the game.

With celebrities now being much more accessible to fans through social media, particularly the younger generations, the aura of mystery shrouding them has thinned to a relative degree.

Instead of being viewed as unreachable entities, they are now regarded with a much greater level of intimacy, almost like peers or friends. This is heightened even further when we turn to social media influencers – young adults who have shot to fame in the matter of a few months (or a global pandemic).

But what does this unquestioning, idolising obsession stem from?

With celebrities and influencers just a click away, replying to their fans’ tweets, posts, or DMs, there is a sense of faux intimacy nurtured between them and their followers. These fans often give in to the illusion of these “relatable” celebrities, viewing themselves in their idols and defending their actions to other people, regardless of whether those actions align with their personal morals.

Preceding the rise of influencer culture, tradi-

This takes a worrying turn when we take a look

‘OPERATION VARSITY BLUES: THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL' Bébhinn Cogan Staff Writer

Roar writer Bébhinn Cogan on Netflix's “‘Operation Varsity Blues’- The College Admissions Scandal”.

In 2019, the College Admissions Scandal made headlines worldwide. The scandal saw wealthy and influential parents illegally buy spots for their children in prestigious universities across the United States. This is distinct from the legal, albeit morally dubious, practice of donating large amounts of money to a university with the hopes that this wins good graces and guarantee your child admittance. The scandal was made all the more intriguing by the complicity of celebrities Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives and Lori Loughlin of Full House; tabloids ate this up. Netflix’s new documentary “‘Operation Varsity Blues’- The College Admissions Scandal” offers an in-depth look into the scandal and its mastermind, Rick Singer.

THE “SIDE DOOR” Under the direction of Chris Smith, who brought us the popular documentaries "American Movie" and "Fyre", the ambitious, sharp character of Singer is brought to life. In a series of dramatic reenactments, Singer, played by Matthew Modine, is seen negotiating with wealthy parents and college sports coaches. What he sells is a “side door” admissions scam which includes photoshopping the students’ head onto water-polo players or rowers and/or paying an ex-

pert to sit SAT and ACT exams. He explains that “a side door at Harvard is about 1.2 million”, a bargain compared to the tens of millions donated to elite universities via the “back door”. And crucially, this side door, according to Singer, is a guarantee. This hooks anxious parents for whom admittance of their child to a “top school” carries great social caché.

WIRE-TAPS While dramatisations in documentaries are often cringe-worthy and fail to add greater insight, Smith has struck gold with his primary source material. The dialogue featured is directly adapted from FBI wire-tap recordings. In fact, the title of the documentary is inspired by the witty name for the FBI investigation: “Operation Varsity Blues”. This makes the revelations made on the phone all the more shocking. A former prosecutor interviewed admits that “it truly is amazing what people will say on the phone when they don’t know that the feds are listening”.

This contrasts with other depictions of white-collar crime, most notably acclaimed television series "The Wire", in which all characters are very careful not to reveal too much over the phone and so use codes and burner phones as a precaution. The candid nature with which the parents speak of their children’s ability cause audiences to wince. “My younger daughter is not like my older daughter,” Michelle Janavs reveals, “she’s not stupid.” Here, we are reminded of the place of the child in this, some of whom are let in on the scam, others left completely oblivious.

OLIVIA JADE Perhaps the most talked-about character in this saga is influencer and daughter of Lori

at how far certain “stans” are willing to go to protect the (media-manufactured) image of their “fave”. Would it be too much of a stretch to imagine that large groups within fandoms often tend to overlook problematic actions (and sometimes, crimes) committed by their idols?

I think not, especially since we have seen this very behaviour, time and again, when fans rush to save their favourite celebrities from “cancellation”.

My intention is not to discourage anyone from being a fan of a celebrity - that is not the aim of this piece. My sole reason for writing this is to look at why certain fans (/stans) feel so attached to a commodified image of someone famous because that is what you really see – a media-manufactured image designed to be liked by the masses. The truth remains that while celebrities (and influencers) might choose to share certain areas of their lives with their followers, this does not grant anyone an all-access pass to their life. And most importantly, it does not make you their friend.

Remember, they are the performers and we are the audience. They choose what they put up on the screen – that doesn’t mean that’s all there is to it.

T U B D E T IN O P P A S I D D E S I R P NOT SUR

Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, Olivia Jade.

Her story, which stirred up a huge media frenzy in 2019, makes for an interesting case study in the documentary. While other characters are played by actors with a spooky likeness, Olivia Jade plays herself.

Clips of her vlogs uploaded to YouTube while she was in high school are included. She appears on screen posing on a rowing machine for fake, altered pictures. Later, she is seen lamenting her return to school; “I’ve gone to one class, and I already want to die”, admitting that her parents “made me go to college”. Smith contrasts this with real footage of students being rejected from dream schools. It is no mystery what conclusion the audience is encouraged to draw.

While this scandal has been adapted several times already; the Lifetime television film "The College Admissions Scandal" (2019), the Granite Bay High School musical "Ranked" (2019), and the novel "Admissions" by Julie Buxbaum (2020); this documentary provides the clearest, most revealing look into all the salacious details.

The wire-taps and interviews with admissions experts and journalists add to the piece’s credibility. Smith is adept, as seen in his other work, at building tension through slow zoom-in shots of Singer on the phone and an ominous score throughout. The high-stakes, cut-throat world of college admissions is laid bare. It is a story that infuriates and disappoints, but are we really surprised?

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STAGE DESIGNER ES DEVLIN EMBEDS NATURE IN SOMERSET HOUSE TO CALL FOR GLOBAL CHANGE Scarlett Yu Staff Writer

Roar writer Scarlett Yu on stage designer Es Devlin and her upcoming project in Somerset House taking place this summer.

It isn’t a common landscape to see nature being incorporated into a setting of medieval grandness in present society, especially in the conspicuous hub of one of the world’s most bustling, exhilarating cities. Excitingly, in 2021, the global community is able to witness a striking, visual transformation, enacted through the creative power of design as one of the most lavish sites of London is infused with a refreshing stream of natural wonder and greenish vigour.

This Summer, renowned stage designer Es Devlin will be showcasing her artistic talent with an anticipated vision, bringing potent social impact in times of crisis at a global scale.

A 400-tree forest will be moved into Somerset House’s central courtyard, reconstructing a historical background with the liveliness of an “enchanted woodland”. It is highlighted that the trees would be picked from 23 types of timber from across the UK and northern Europe, gearing towards the authentic depiction of a national imagination which feeds on rich inspirations generated from artistic innovation

and creative strength. Devlin sees the spatial potential of Somerset House to be visually transformative in order to break through historical boundaries of tradition and conservative thought.

Many years ago, upon visiting Somerset House, Devlin noticed how the building, which was built on Enlightenment principles, ironically prohibited the inclusion of trees into the spacious setting of the house. She felt the spiritual need to overturn the stagnant situation surrounding Somerset House, which is constrained and transfixed by a conventional rule appointed by the standard systems of society. Long standing as a representative site of Europe’s historic richness and sublime beauty, something needed to change in order to correspond closely with the erratic changes and fluctuations of globalisation in the modern era.

Thus, a bold, unprecedented thought pierced through Devlin’s mind where she seeks to utilise nature as a creative sign of change in tackling main global issues and challenges people are currently facing. She explains her ideas: “The first thing we wanted to do when considering this year’s Biennale was to counter this attitude of human dominance over nature by allowing a forest to overtake the entire courtyard.”

In an unsettling age of crisis, society desperately needs a novel force of motivation and inspiration in order to move forward. This is where

the effective role of design comes in, providing people with numerous ideas and perspectives that could potently drive them to think and act in unprecedented ways; potentially offering a different outlook on their relationships with the surrounding world, and the contemporary issues that inhabit it. Responding to this global design call to address revolving social issues, Devlin uses the theme of Resonance as the central ideology of her design project. She explained the significance of identifying how works of design could profoundly affect and transform ways of thinking as well as the societies that thrived upon these shifting thoughts: “We live in an age of hyper resonance, the consequences of which are both exhilarating and devastating. Everything we design and everything we produce resonates”. She continues, “attitudes can evolve and lives can be improved when new ideas resonate and are adopted by extended communities”.

Aware of the amount of potential art has in generating a tremendous impact on people’s lives and their worldview, Devlin integrates the idea of resonance into the Somerset House design project, anticipating that the art she presents to the world could reach into people’s hearts with sensational moments of impact. Her plan to place an opulent forest in the middle of the courtyard is tied to a movement called “Forest for Change”, where, in partnership with Project Everyone, she aims to invite the perceptions of UN’s Sustainability Development Goals into

spotlight; this includes eradicating worldwide poverty, raising awareness of inequality, and sustaining plans for climate change. Devlin believes that “forests are a place for transformation” in literature, and by placing the presence of trees in the midst of historic significance, it serves as a bold yet transformational move to interact with the goals of the UN. Conclusively, Devlin hopes that this green, conspicuous landscape will help people think about how they could demonstrate roles of support and strength in tackling global challenges and concerns. Her efforts to call upon global issues worldwide through the stimulative effects of radical design serve as an innovative force in eliciting global societies about how many of the social problems we are facing could be approached in a different angle — sparking the theme of Resonance within the wider design community.

In a determined note of belief, Richard Curtis, co-founder of Project Everyone, asserted the creative landscape as a means to converse with communities of possible future visions about opportunity and hope. The combined visual experience of historic architecture and nature prompted a bold and thorough attitude in facing these goals; crucially, “the goals are the answer to the challenges we are facing, and a pathway towards building a better and brighter future for everyone, everywhere”.

THE IMPORTANCE OF

REPRESENTATION IN CHILDREN’S TV SHOWS Aparajita Ray Chaudhuri absorb all and any information like sentient Guest Writer

Guest writer Aparajita Ray Chaudhuri discusses the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in children's TV shows.

Over the last few decades, the consumption of entertainment and media has become quite an overarching and shared experience, often bridging the gap between cultures and generations. To some extent, when Marina, from Marina and the Diamonds, sang “TV taught me how to feel, now real life has no appeal”, she was speaking about a generation of children, teenagers, and young adults growing up in this media-saturated world. She was speaking words of resonating truth - that somewhere between the mindless consumption and active engagement of entertainment, there are things we absorb, learn, and then apply to our respective worlds.

This conscious and subconscious process exists within all of us, so why can’t it be said for children? At an age when they almost literally

sponges, why would their interactions with television, the internet, YouTube and Netflix be any different? Of course, the thought process is slightly more sophisticated than “Child see, child do,” but barely so.

So, if a child doesn’t fit into social expectations, is unable to connect with the narratives they see and interact with on the big screen, and finds themselves invisible in a space where it feels as though their peers are validated, then there is a disconnect. Imagine that this disconnect keeps happening, over and over, and that child moves from watching children’s television to popular shows for teenagers to crime-thrillers to cheesy romances, and yet there’s still a dissonance that seems to chase them and their forming identities.

Then one day, this person who is no longer a child comes face to face, for whatever reason, with two-dimensional animated characters that look like them, talk like them, and surprisingly, even act and love like them. When "Adventure Time" confirmed the romantic relationship between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, showing tender moments of hand-holding and

even a kiss, for a lot of people within the queer community this was a moment of quiet victory and a collective sigh of relief.

The reason why it is essential for children’s television to represent the queer community aside from the more obvious reasons - is that there is a creation of a new normal. Other children’s television shows and cartoons that show this include "The Dragon Prince," "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power," "The Owl House," and "Voltron: Legendary Defender”. The Dragon Prince gave Rayla, one of the protagonists, queer parents. Similarly, She-Ra has several queer relationships and couples between several characters, ranging from comfortably domestic and long-term partners to slightly more volatile and sensitive dynamics. Shows like "Gravity Falls" and even "DuckTales" have similar yet subtle moments of representation.

Of course, this current rise in light-hearted, subtle, but nonetheless important queer representation is an extremely recent phenomenon; this can be said about the representation of most, if not all, marginalised groups within international and western spheres. Not to mention this rise in representation is not nec-

essarily a global phenomenon, which means that the influence of these cartoons can only go so far. However, LGBT+ History Month is not only a celebration of the Pride of the bright and bold, but also the Pride of baby steps, and the Pride of quiet victories, subtle nods, and tender movements.

Representation in children’s cartoons allows for the current generation of children to grow up not only seeing themselves, but seeing difference and diversity as something that can co-exist. It raises awareness and allows for exposure in a friendly and, most importantly, accessible way. Granted, the journey of self-discovery and personal identity is not limited to any age, but there are no drawbacks to starting Pride young. So instead of the dissonance of being unable to see yourself in the media you consume, you get a discourse on representation and identity instead.

This article was written by a KCL LGBTQ+ Society member. You can reach them on Facebook and Instagram.

22 Culture

EASY ASIAN DISHES FOR BEGINNERS LET’S START WITH THE EASIEST!

Ally Azizi

Thai-style fried omelette with rice and cili padi (bird’s eye chilli) drowned in sweet soy sauce Let’s start with the easiest! You’re going to laugh at me, but it’s probably one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten in my life.

Culture Editor

You’ll need: 2 Eggs, 3 Cili padi (you should buy them from either of the above Asian supermarkets, because local supermarkets overprice them, ugh), 1 Tablespoon of sweet soy sauce (ABC Kicap Manis), Salt, and as much rice as you want.

Steps: Cook your rice – as you prepare your omelette, your rice should be cooking.

Crack the two eggs, beat them and add some salt.

Firstly, you should pour a lot of oil (vegetable or sunflower are the best, and for God’s sake, no olive oil) into your pan or wok. The oil should be an inch up from the base of your pan/wok.

Heat the oil until you see steam coming up – if you’re still unsure, you can dip the rear end of a wooden spoon and if there are bubbles surrounding it, that means your oil is hot enough.

While waiting for your oil to heat up, chop your cili padi and place them on your plate. Then, pour some soy sauce over it and kacau (stir) the two ingredients with a teaspoon.

Once your oil is ready, pour the eggs into the pan / wok and watch it sizzle. It’s literally the most satisfying thing to watch.

Over the next few minutes, you should flip your egg every 30 seconds and wait for the omelette to brown (don’t let it burn!).

Place that beautiful omelette onto your plate. Hopefully, your rice should be cooked by then and you can scoop some of that onto the dish.

Et voilà, that’s your simple and fulfilling meal which should take about 10 minutes to prepare and cook.

Culture Editor Ally Azizi shares her recipes for easy Asian dishes.

Before I started university, I was too afraid of being near a stove and I would cower behind my mum each time the oil spat at us. Fast forward a year and a half later, I’m known as the MasterChef among my friends and they're always begging to dine at Chez Ally. So, naturally, I knew that I had to share my recipes and combinations with the public (thanks mum for the tips and lessons!).

While these dishes are easy to cook, the ingredients are harder to get, but thankfully I’ve been saved by two online supermarkets (MaiFresh and Thai Food Online) which sell all the required ingredients.

Before I begin, I would like to say that although it’s not necessary, I recommend that you invest in a wok (it can be purchased for about £10 on Amazon) because it’ll make things easier and more flexible. I also have to warn you that I don’t have the exact measurements for every ingredient, because in Malaysia we agak-agak (estimate) them. Not everything will taste delicious if you always do it by the book.

Ayam Goreng Kunyit (Chicken Fried in Turmeric) This is a childhood favourite. My mum used to cook it on lazy days with leftover chicken breast fillet and it tasted absolutely divine. This dish takes a little longer to cook – about 30 to 40 minutes - but it is worth every second. A Thai-style omelette would be a lovely accompaniment, but it might take too much work. If you have the time, do try them together!

You’ll need: 6 Garlic cloves, 2 Onion shallots, 1 Large red chilli (can be found here), 2 Cili padi, 1 Chicken breast fillet, Turmeric powder, Salt, And of course, hot rice.

Preparation: Peel and chop the garlic cloves and shallots into halves.

For the red chilli and cili padi, remove their stems.

You can leave the cili padi as it is.

The red chilli should be cut into smaller pieces.

Chop the chicken breast fillet into really thin and small pieces. This way, there will be more flavour in them!

Once you’re done cutting your chicken, marinate them in salt first, then turmeric powder. You should use loads of turmeric powder – the chicken pieces need to be completely covered in them.

Yes, you should also start cooking your rice.

Steps: Again, pour loads of oil into your pan/wok (an inch up from the base) and wait for the oil to heat up (refer to steps 3 and 4 of the preceding recipe).

Add your marinated chicken into the pan/wok and wait for it to cook. The surface of the chicken should brown which indicates that it’s well done.

Take the chicken out of the pan/wok and allow them to cool off on a plate lined with kitchen roll to absorb the oil.

While your chicken cools off, add garlic, shallots, red chilli and cili padi into the pan/wok (with the oil still in it obviously!) and allow them to cook. You can tell that they’re ready once your garlic looks crispy and slightly weathered.

To make it tastier, you should add some turmeric powder into the oil.

Add your chicken back into the pan/wok and kacau them with the vegetables. Do this for about 2-3 minutes.

Pour your food into a bowl. You should even pour some of the oil in – it adds that extra kick into the taste.

Finally, scoop some rice onto a plate and present that dish to your hungry friends and family.

And there you have it! I hope this turns out well for you, and if it doesn’t, well then, I’m sorry. You’re just not cut out for cooking, so you should get someone else to cook this for you.

Dinh Nguyen Staff Writer

Roar writer Dinh Nguyen shares his recipes for easy Vietnamese dishes in this second instalment of “Easy Asian Dishes for Beginners”.

When I was a kid living in Vietnam, there was no better feeling than arriving home after a long day to a piping hot bowl of whatever my mum had whipped up ready for me to sink my tiny face into.

The pleasant aromas that always filled the house whenever my mum was in the kitchen inspired my love for all things food. Moving over 10,000 kilometres away has certainly not been easy, but I soon found out that replicating the tastes of home is an easy pick-me-up. Here are two of the easiest recipes that’ll bring Vietnam to you.

One thing to note, these recipes heavily rely on arguably the most quintessential ingredient in Vietnamese cooking, the fish sauce. The pungent, yet homely (if you grew up with it), sauce adds a lovely note of umami into any dishes. My mẹ always says “Fish sauce is the backbone of all dishes,” seriously, that woman will add fish sauce to spag-bol if she could.

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Camilla Alcini Staff Writer

NOW ON TO THE FIRST RECIPE: Thit Kho Trung (Vietnamese caramelised pork and egg) (50 minutes - 1 hour) This is the definition of comfort food. No frills, easy to make and the ingredients are easy to find.

It will take a little while to cook, but you won’t have to do much most of the time. Pop Netflix on and just keep an eye on the bubbling pot from time to time.

What you’ll need: 500 grams of belly pork 3 eggs 3 teaspoons of sugar 1 teaspoon of pepper 1 teaspoon of salt 1 tablespoon of fish sauce (I highly recommend Squid Brand, available in most grocery stores) Shallots 3 cups of water Steps: Hard boil your eggs (this should take around 10 minutes). Once cooked, peel the eggs and put them aside.

Cut the belly pork into bite-size pieces of around 5 centimetres. Transfer them into a bowl, toss in pepper, fish sauce, salt and finely, minced shallots.

Place the pot onto the hob and set it at medium heat. Toss in sugar and a dash of water. You’ll have to constantly stir the sugar here as it caramelises. Keep stirring until the sugar turns into a dark amber colour, at which point you should add the rest of the water to prevent it from burning.

Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, at which point add the marinated pork into the pot, along with the eggs, reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for about 30 minutes, or at least until the meat is tender and the water has reduced by two-thirds. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve this on a bed of fluffy white rice. Remember to spoon in some of that delicious sauce. Bon appétit!

Bún Bò Nam Bo (Southern beef noodle) (20 minutes - 30 minutes) Now there’s a bit of history behind this mouth-watering noodle dish. It is believed to have originated during the Vietnam War, at a street-side eatery where the Communist North troops passed through on their way to South Vietnam, hence the name Nam Bo (Southern). Here you’ll also learn one of the mother sauces of Vietnamese cuisine, the nước chấm.

What you’ll need: For the noodles: Rice vermicelli noodles (I recommend getting them from Longdan) 300 grams of rump steak (Or any cheap cut you can find, the marinade will make the meat tender anyway) A head of sweetheart lettuce 1 whole carrot A bunch of coriander A handful of toasted peanuts (optional) 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce 1 teaspoon of pepper 1 teaspoon of minced garlic

For the nước chấm dressing: 1 tablespoon of fish sauce 1 tablespoon of sugar 1 tablespoon of lime juice 3 tablespoons of water 1 teaspoon of minced garlic Chopped bird eye chillies (If you’re up for it)

Steps: Slice your beef into small, thin strips. Marinate the beef in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and pepper.

Shred your veggies (lettuce, carrot, coriander) into strips.

Mix the fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, water, garlic and chillies to make the dressing, and set it aside.

Put a pan on high heat and add some oil. Toss in the beef and stir fry for a few minutes until it’s cooked.

In a big bowl, add in the veggies, then the noodles, and finally the beef on top. Sprinkle in some toasted peanuts and spoon in plenty of the dressing, mix it all up like a salad and enjoy.

These are a great first step into the wonderful and diverse world of Asian cuisine. Tune in next time for more recipes!

RICHARD ZARZI, ZARZI THE RENOWNED POP ARTIST INSPIRED BY LOVE AND CARA DELEVINGNE Roar writer Camilla Alcini interviews pop artist Richard Zarzi on his work and inspirations.

Born in St. Tropez, Richard Zarzi is an explosion of dynamism and pop culture. Influenced by his career in the fashion industry, he later established himself as one of the world’s most renowned pop artists. Playful juxtapositions of characters and backgrounds, along with a sophisticated touch and particular colourways, distinguish his style. For him, his art is an opportunity to imitate and counteract the work of nature, as well as a celebration of the glam of modern society. Roar asked him about his art, his inspiration, the pandemic and advice to young artists.

Roar: You are considered one of the five best pop artists in the world. How would you describe pop art and what is fascinating about it from a contemporary perspective?

Richard Zarzi: Pop art, for me, is the reflection of societies today. Consumerism system created consumerism art. Today the evolution of art is ultimately pop art. The “Conceptionnel Art” is castrated art.

If you asked me to define pop art, I would say it is composition, beauty, spirit, technic, qualities and messages from and for consumerism. Artists from the past were talking about the same things through the filter of their time and society.

R: Your art spaces among different fields, but your special focus is fashion. In your opinion, what kind of possibilities does the fashion industry offers to artists?

RZ: My art is all about societies. Icons, religion, fashion. I have been working for many years in fashion and luxury industries and I was impressed by the beauty and quality of these items. As a consequence, I decided to create a new kind of art, which can be seen as a continuity of pop art. Indeed, pop art talks about consumerist products and consumerist icons, but I am talking about luxury. But the evolution of societies brought luxury into consumerism, and eventually art as well. Before, these two things were exclusive to the wealthier, now many people can afford some luxury items and some pieces of art. The ability of being affordable gives everyone a chance to grow in this perfect system, which is made to grow with qualities for ourselves.

R: What would you say to young artists who are trying to express their art in such a difficult moment for the whole sector?

RZ: Art is for people who have something to express from their heart. Art is all about Heart and Love, it has nothing to do with money. These times are difficult, not just for the artist, but for everyone else. What we need is to stand together, because life is all about Love.

Artists, they are struggling… What I really recommend is for them to find a small job.

With that small job, you learn so much about life and develop all the qualities necessary for life to put yourself together. Only when yourself is together, you can make great Art. R: How has the pandemic affected your art, if it has?

RZ: Yes the pandemic considerably affected my art. It brought to me to the deepest part of myself and I believe my art grew so much.

R: What are your proudest works of art?

RZ: My achievement is that my career has reached this level which makes me proud of myself. It was and still is, a long journey.

But I haven’t achieved what I really want to achieve yet.

I would love to channel this very strong message that I have in myself, to share and understand the true meaning of Love. The biggest purpose we have is to work and develop qualities in ourselves to achieve the next level of consciousness, to be proud and eventually, achieve true happiness.

R: What is your inspiration? Do you have a particular place, memory, person, era, from which you get inspired?

R: Take us through the process of creating your art. How long does it take, from the idea to the realisation?

RZ: I am the luckiest artist in the world for the inspiration. Love is my inspiration!

I tend to work like an artist from the past.

Perhaps the artist from the Renaissance, who channelled love through their brushes.

Where have I found Love? In the Muse! My Muse, Cara Delevingne.

RZ: I don't really have a process to create art; I work with intuition. The technique is to paint with acrylics, oil and diamond dust on canvas. I do sculpture as well and Conceptionnel art sometimes. I have two kinds of art, pop art and fine art, each have a different process always led by my intuition.

Richard Zarzi is represented by the Whitehall Galleries in London, with galleries in Kings Road, Westbourne Grove and all around the UK.

24 Culture

WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE GRIEF? Alex Blank Culture Editor

In this personal essay, Culture Editor Alex Blank reflects on the inability to prepare for grief.

I seem to haunt my childhood home like a ghost these days. When a loved one is on the brink of something final, we seem to stick around with them, in a figurative waiting room where we drink stale coffee and forget about technicalities such as the expired lettuce in our fridge.

This may sound insensitive, but after a year of going through the pandemic - a year of luck due to not having lost anyone - a question arose in my subconscious: “Is there anyone else to die?”

When it turns out there is, we are unprepared.

When, after a year of “luck,” the charm fades, we realise we had been in the waiting room for the past year, and it’s now finally catching up with us.

How to grieve a potentiality? Do we ever prepare for it? Hearing the distant coughing coming from the phone as I try to read my book, hearing my mum saying: “Dad? Dad? Are you there? Can you hear me?” while trying and failing to write an essay for my degree; these are polaroids whose film hasn’t dried yet, and I still can’t see the whole picture. In a week, a month, a year, what will these snapshots look like?

I’m sitting in my childhood room and I hear my mum speaking loudly into the phone. She’s relating a tennis match to the blurry figure on the

other side of the country. Her tone is animated, she speaks and speaks without leaving any room for breathing, as if she was trying to give him some of her breath, along with the occasional, “She won the first set!” or “Do you want to get a drink of water now?”.

Tennis is something my mum used to force on me, something I grew to dislike as a result. Back in the days when I was not yet afraid of human interaction, I used to charm tennis coaches with my storytelling abilities, so that my never-ending narratives could take their attention away from making me play. My mum used to tell me that her dad had forced her to play tennis too, and she hated it too, until she returned to it in her thirties. Now she plays almost every day, and she’s more than willing to get up in the middle of the night to watch a live big-deal match.

Tennis, a game without words, both intimate and disconnecting. Two people standing on two sides of the court, yet bound by a constant back and forth. It may be about winning or losing, like any other game, but it’s also about the assurance that no matter what happens, you’ll throw the ball back. It’s an enclosed universe that feels like an eternal loop until the hour is over and you need to leave. But unlike life, the two figures leave together, chatting on the way back. No one is at a loss (unless one fancies playing for points, that is).

I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know the protocol: am I allowed to pause now, am I allowed to drop responsibilities? Do I want to?

And if I do, would it be for the right reasons? If everything ends well, is this time wasted? And what if it doesn’t?

There are many books and articles written about

grief, and I’ve always instinctually avoided them.

I didn’t want to be prepared for something that, personally, seemed too abstract. What about pre-grief, then? What about the hours and days in-between, when we feel guilty for not being able to predict or control the outcome? We begin to unpick the memories, feeling shameful at their scarcity, not knowing whose fault it is that the two of us never got to know each other deeply enough. Maybe it’s that damned tennis court again: we might have been throwing the ball, but we never got close enough to have an actual conversation.

Again, I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know the guidelines for this, and although I know myself very well, I don’t know my own patterns around loss. Mourning might be seen as yet another form of morning, an often painful awakening of sorts, and now I’m in the middle of a sleepless night; restless yet static, impatient yet resigned. It feels like forever, though does it even exist if the light is not there to shine on it?

Apparently, the only way to deal with the unknown is through these abstractions.

I recall a conversation with a friend I had back in August, and her scepticism around the virus was very clear. “After all,” she said, “it seems as though no one actually knows anyone who’s been ill. It seems a bit tricky.” I didn’t know how to respond. Even then, though I did not take it personally at the time, I was not comfortable with that approach. And now I’m angry. Because now I do know, and that knowledge is only a burden.

You can send your short stories, poetry or creative nonfiction to culture.lifestyle.roarnews@ gmail.com.

‘THE HANDMAID’S TALE’S’ RELEVANCE TODAY Alice Delhaye Staff Writer

Roar writer Alice Delhaye on the similarities between Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and society today.

"The Handmaid's Tale" was written by Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. Through the character, Offred, it tells the story of the Gilead Society, an oppressive and totalitarian society that replaced the United States. Gilead, inspired by religious puritanism, is notably characterised by its extreme patriarchalism.

What is especially striking in this book is its realism. This might be surprising to some but in fact, everything that happens is factual: in the prologue, Atwood explains that everything she wrote did happen somewhere, sometime. She only brought every event together. This makes "The Handmaid's Tale" not only a science fiction novel, but also a speculative fiction. Atwood defines it as literature that deals with possibilities which have not yet been enacted but are latent.

When it was published in the mid 1980s, the novel seemed very far fetched and was regarded as a distant dystopia; after all, was it really possible for a developed society such as the US to significantly regress in civil rights? We didn't think so.

However, the past few years have proved that nothing is impossible and that individual rights remain fragile and complicated to maintain or even improve. While we are not living in "The Handmaid's Tale" universe, recent events reminded us that a Gilead-like society is plausible.

As Atwood underlined after Trump's election in 2016: “We’re not living in Gilead yet, but there are Gilead-like symptoms going on”.

Indeed, we can draw a frightening number of parallels between the novel and today's international society. Starting with the idea that in "The Handmaid's Tale" women are first and foremost considered as the mothers of society. They are categorised and defined by their biology which is reduced to the possibility of them bearing children. Women who are fertile are handmaids; they are assigned to a couple in which the woman is sterile and their sole role is to get pregnant and give birth. Their function is to go from couple to couple and serve as a surrogate. As a result, birth control and abortion are prohibited so that as many women as possible can have children.

This oppressive organisation of society can be linked to the broad issues of abortion and contraception that many regions are still facing worldwide. Examples range from contraception deserts as well as the appointment of Justice Amy Barrett in the United States, to extreme cases such as Poland's stance on abortion.

Indeed, contraceptive deserts are counties where women lack access to a health centre that offers the full range of contraceptive methods. This incites women to opt out of contraception methods, even if they want or need to opt in.

Furthermore, the recent nomination of Amy Barrett as Supreme Court Justice has sparked debates about women's rights. Although she denied that she wanted to overturn Roe vs Wade, she did qualify abortion as "always immoral" and confirmed that "specifics on access and sanctioned restrictions [on abortion] could change". Her nomination can thus rationally be perceived as a danger of a setback in women's rights. Furthermore, the fact that Barrett took the place in the Supreme Court of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg is deeply disturbing. While Ginsburg, the first woman to ever be a Justice, was the "Supreme Court’s feminist icon; she is being replaced by a conservative woman. This rotation in the US Supreme Court feels like a regression.

A more extreme and concrete instance is Poland's near total ban on abortion. What is especially frightening is that Poland's regulations on abortion are not old rules that have not yet been changed, but in fact new ones. Since October 2020, abortion in Poland is only allowed "in cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother". The 1993 law that allowed abortion when there were foetal abnormalities was deemed unconstitutional. According to the

BBC, in 2019 "98% of abortions were carried out on those grounds" which explains the expression "near total ban".

This is an explicit setback for women's rights that is not even being sanctioned by the European Union.

Another parallel is the systematic lack of accountability of men for sexual violence. In the UK, the huge majority of rape victims are women. In 2019-2020, the police recorded 55,130 rapes. Of those, only 2,102 resulted in prosecutions and 1,439 in convictions in England and Wales.

Moreover, another trait of resemblance is the power of men over women which can be illustrated by the recent example of Princess Latifa. In February, she accused her father of having held her hostage since she tried to escape Dubai in 2018. These accusations of oppression, abuse and control against her father Mohammed ben Rachid Al Maktoum entailed questions about women's rights in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In fact, while women do have rights, "some of them are dependent on the formal approval of a male guardian", usually the husband of male next of kin.

All of these instances underline that women's rights, and in general individual and civil's rights, remain fragile and we should not take them for granted.

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REGGIE RESPONDS Welcome to Reggie Responds, Roar’s advice column! Our columnists are here to provide you helpful, or maybe not so helpful, advice. Tune in on Fridays to see what they have to say about your problems.

YOU TOLD REGGIE...

This term I’ve been getting unsatisfactory grades despite the amount of hard work put into my essays and it sucks to see other people do much better than me.

‘A TALE OF SPRINGTIME' ERIC ROHMER (1990) Joseph Israel Staff Writer

Roar writer Joseph Israel reflects on Eric Rohmer's "A Tale of Springtime" and the upcoming Spring season.

The first opus in the saga of the “Tales of the Four Seasons”, "Tale of Springtime" opens the ball of a hyper-sensitive cycle characteristic of Eric Rohmer's cinema. Released in 1990, the film offers impeccable aesthetics: a backdrop for the inter-subjective theatre that we are used to, but never tired of. When this month's Culture theme was announced, I couldn't help but muse on the ambiguous flavour of a change of season, from the gloom of a downpour to the appreciation of a ray of sunshine. Yet, the weather is not alone in trying to order itself, to regulate its cycle, and to renew its spice.

As the grey of Winter fades, the first glimmers of Spring remain timid, a feeling of latent expectation reigns within our consciousness. This expectation inevitably generates the illusion of a conversion idealised in its linearity; in the poetry of the first shoots; in the blossoming of cherry trees and other symbols. In reality, this transition is always messy, and we experience false hopes, meteorological surprises and disappointments (but not only), dodges and blows of the weather as if it were a long joust between the moribund winter and the vigorous spring.

Rohmer makes us feel this disorder on several levels. First, the pictorial and architectural space, but also the intersubjective space, and that of thought. It is the chattering confusion of thought and relationships, a reflection of capricious weather, alternating sunshine/freshness, and Paris/country that fascinated me in this film. To illustrate, let's linger for a moment on the character of Jeanne.

Jeanne lives in two flats. The first one, her boyfriend's, is quite messy. On top of this mess, a blue and orange light filter through the curtains is applied. This slightly stifling complementarity contrasts with the other flat, which lets

the light in openly. The latter is obviously very clean, and the white of the walls predominates.

Jeanne, who is rather inconstant, tries in vain to tidy up the first apartment, but escapes to the second, in the same way that she escapes from Paris, preferring the idyllic countryside for a few days.

The jumble to be sorted out is not only material but also relational, sentimental, and existential.

Thus, the wave of spring upsets and transcends, making Jeanne float erratically from the closedin winter to the relief of spring. This volatility echoes well the title of “A Tale of Springtime” One of the songs in the film, a sonata to be precise, which caresses and plays, intrudes and unleashes, accompanies everything. It is not the only musical moment in the film, but Beethoven's Sonata No. 5, known as the "Spring" Sonata, is heard when the heroine returns home and we see, through the windscreen, the landscape passing by. This sonata is a festival of sensations, at first homogeneous, light and round, then the violin and piano dialogue, even confronting their jerky discourse, and then, after a longer response, they come into agreement. At the same time, we notice on the screen open perspectives, a rather large depth of field, and a green nature that announces a certain serenity, the calm after the storm.

"Spring Tale" finally recalls elegant days when the end of the school year is already upon us. We allow ourselves weekends with friends when the city is more peaceful; but also, the relational tumult that the new season tends almost magically to engender. The film has the flavour of renewal, of a gentle breeze, of a budding.

Receiving a low grade on an essay after having put in a ton of effort — and being so sure that you’ve done well — feels like an absolute punch to the gut. And it’s particularly heartbreaking when seemingly everyone you know has done well on that very assignment.

But getting stuck on that does absolutely no good to anyone involved. Pick yourself up and learn from your mistakes! Talk to your course mates and ask them for any study tips they might have. Reach out to your tutors for advice and detailed feedback, ask them for recommendations for secondary material you can reference in your essays, and discuss your future essay plans with them. Despite it being Easter break, quite a few professors are still reachable via email so do reach out to them if you can (and in case they’re not, you always have Revision Week to clarify any remaining doubts before exams). Remember, these professors are here to help you so don’t be afraid to reach out!

Understanding why you got low grades is very important, but focusing only on your failures will only serve to demotivate you. So get up, dust yourself off, and start afresh with a positive attitude, and while you’re at it, remember to cut yourself some slack — you are knee-deep in a global pandemic, after all.

Nikita Dahiya Social Media Lead

YOU ASKED REGGIE...

How can I stop being so stressed? Everything is so serious at the moment and I don’t know how to have fun anymore.

I really feel you! Too often I feel as though the fun gets sucked out of situations because every single thing we say or do is overanalysed to the point of misery. This is why I love walking around Central London, alone, listening to music in my earphones - there’s no responsibility and no judgement. Sometimes it’s so important to just shut the rest of the world out (ironic considering London couldn’t be a busier place). It’s the reason I think social media is so dangerous. If we aren’t following the crowd, it’s very easy for our opinions to get shut-down by the overwhelming majority, who make us afraid to express ourselves.

This seriousness that you mention really limits our uniqueness. In the post-pandemic era, I really hope we all learn to love each other for our individuality, and just let everyone be. It’s a tough life as it is, and a little bit of kindness would allow us all to have some more fun and let go. Because ultimately, most of us are good people, and if we all trusted each other that little bit more, and focused on prioritising our happiness, it would be a much more pleasant existence.

Matthew Seaman Podcast Editor

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‘MODEL MINORITY’ MYTH CONCEALS HISTORY OF RACISM AGAINST ASIAN-AMERICANS

EDITOR Ishaan Rahman

CONTRIBUTORS Ally Azizi Aman Patel Andrea Tonon Chloe Ferreux Dinh Nguyen Hanna Pham Helena Kudiabor Jonathan Gleave Laura Saracino Marino Unger-Verna Sam Moschella Sam Pennifold Samuel Teale Chadwick

Dinh Nguyen Staff Writer The world woke up shocked to the hate crimes of Robert Aaron Long, who brutally gunned down eight people in two different spas across Atlanta, Georgia in the United States; six of them of Asian descents. The attack followed a series of violence against Asian-Americans, who were blamed for the spread of Coronavirus by the likes of former President Donald Trump, who branded the virus the “Chinese virus”.

The incident also exposed a long-forgotten culture of hate against Asian-Americans in the United States. Ever since the first Chinese immigrants arrived in America in the mid-nineteenth century, they had faced alienation, discrimination, and racial persecution. However, the popular media and the emergence of the “model minority” myth have swept Asian violence under the rug and replace it with a thin veil of admiration.

Sure, if we look at the statistics, Asian-Americans seem to be doing pretty well. The median income for Asians is the highest amongst all ethnic groups, standing one-third above that of White Americans and over double that of African-American households. Stories of Asian successes are also popular in mass media, often presenting them as a “model minority”. Popular stereotypes portray that all Asians are doctors, lawyers, and engineers or that all Asians are good at maths and are hardworking people.

This is especially problematic. The narrative that all Asians are successful fuses the diverse group into a singular monolith of characteristic and hinders socioeconomic supports, especially considering that Asians see the greatest income inequality. The top 10% of highest-earning Asian-Americans make 10.7 times more than

the lowest 10%. By showing a single narrative of success, lower-income Asian households are underrepresented and will likely receive less social funding.

The stereotype has also historically been used to discredit arguments that racial discrimination exists in the United States. By presenting Asians as a group of successful minorities, the US could get away with not addressing the institutional racism that prevented many others from doing so. Pitting people of colour against people of colour paints the US as a colour-blind paradise where people could succeed regardless of race, while the truth is far from so.

The model minority myth also served to cover up the racial injustices that Asian immigrants and Asian-Americans have had to face throughout history. Chinese immigrants who came to America in the nineteenth century to work on the railroad had to live in fear as angry mobs roamed the street under the idea of a “Yellow Peril”. The discrimination against Chinese was then institutionalised with the introduction of the Page Act of 1875, banning entry to Chinese women, and subsequently The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning entry to all Chinese people.

Feeling justified by the acts, anti-Chinese Americans went on a crusade to drive these immigrants out of their lands, massacring many in the process. The bill then continued to stand unchallenged for another sixty years, only being repealed as the US sought to improve its relationship with China during WWII. Even then, a quota of only 105 Chinese immigrants a year could enter.

Treatment of Asian-Americans worsened during the Second World War. In 1942, over 100,000 Japanese descendants were taken from their homes and forcefully relocated into internment camps. America effectively turned an entire ethnicity into enemies of the state, further

A racist 19th-century advertisement showing Uncle Sam holding a bottle of Magic Washer and kicking a Chinese man off a cliff as others flee to the sea, referencing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

heightening racial tension and tearing apart communities.

Modern America is no stranger to Asian hate either. Soon-to-be husband Vincent Chin was beaten to death in an attack that shocked the Asian American community. His attacker’s reason? They thought he was Japanese. More recently in 2017, two Indian men were shot in a restaurant: one died. The last words the man heard was: “Get out of my country”. The historic mistreatment of Asians in America is then often overshadowed by the overrepresentation of their success in a manufactured narrative where Asians managed to achieve the American Dream, completely disregarding the turbulent history they had to endure. In this narrative, Uncle Sam created opportunities for them to rise when, in reality, Uncle Sam tried time and time again to bring them down.

Violence against Asian-Americans was always there but was outshined by the idea of a “model minority” and by the stories of successful doctors and lawyers. The senseless killings of the Atlanta shooting once again shocked the public into recognising the hateful culture against Asians once hid away by popular media portrayal.

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WILL CONSPIRACY THEORIES BE THE DEATH KNELL FOR DEMOCRACY? Chloe Ferreux Staff Writer

Roar writer Chloe Ferreux on the threat conspiracy theories pose to democracy and how our institutions should respond.

Often considered harmless and a source of humour, those who believed in outrageous conspiracy theories were the first in line at the Capitol Insurrection on January 6. Indeed, since the Coronavirus pandemic, more conspiracy theories have emerged. How has this happened?

Fear and hatred. What is the price? Democracy and national security. As Alex Kaplan stated, "2020 is the year where QAnon has become a problem for everyone". At the very heart of the Covid-19 crisis and the fear it has inflicted, conspiracy theories have been pushed even by elected representatives in the US Congress.

Conspiracy theories have political consequences. To function in a democracy, there must be a shared reality, there must be agreement on a certain number of principles and basic beliefs.

Positioning themselves as true purifiers of biased institutions, they appear in the public debate as whistleblowers. When former President Donald Trump condemned "fraudulent" elections, it called into question the possibility of a base of shared values, on which we can build a healthy, democratic debate. With this structural change in societies, there is a real danger that people will no longer have any common refer-

ence. At that point, there is no longer any way to discuss or debate with each other.

From Covid-19 to the US elections Donald Trump is an example of what conspiracy theories could do to democracy if we feed them. For weeks he has argued that the results of the 2020 Election were tainted by fraud, a claim that is unproven. The conspiracy theorist group "QAnon" has seized this opportunity to gain members. And although it only represented a few at first, the movement has gradually evolved into an extremist politico-religious ideology that can become a danger to democracy.

Why have elected representatives supported these conspiracy theories? First, because it's almost impossible to contradict a conspiracy. These theories have become impervious to fact-checking - they are spread at high speed on social media and can go viral on platforms where confronting incorrect opinions is challenging. The rhetoric is effective; the people who spread these theories have no hesitation and no doubt. As the French political scientist Clément Viktorovitch likes to remind us: "Someone who seems very convinced immediately becomes very convincing".

Furthermore, the theories play directly on emotion, an extremely effective political tool to convince the electorate. Indeed, the pandemic has played an important role in the popularisation and acceptance of QAnon in the United States.

On Facebook, the number of people joining the movement since the beginning of 2021 has increased by 581%. It has offered its adherents

comfort in uncertain and unprecedented times.

These times are ripe for the spread of fear and anger amongst people: fear towards Covid-19, and anger towards the government and its institutions. This rhetoric is not only effective but also challenging to refute. QAnon becomes then the master of the narrative, able to explain complex events in a simplistic way.

It only takes a few seconds for conspiracy theories to spread, but hours to fact-check them.

As conspiracy theories become more and more popular, they become a golden opportunity for politicians; but in a democracy, avoiding legitimate debate by playing on fear and anger risks leaving a detrimental legacy. By undermining trust, by ruining any possibility of a shared "common world" - a factual reality around which the debate of differing opinions can be organised - conspiracy theories transform the democratic debate into a dialogue of the deaf.

In this sense, it constitutes a permanent danger for the democratic system.

The time to bury democracy has not arrived. The time to improve it has.

Conspiracy theories are not a recent phenomenon. Certainly, they have proliferated with the help of social media and fear that Covid-19 has caused, but democracies have always had to face up to these types of argument and beliefs.

As Leibniz stated in the 17th-century: "Everything conspires”.

Our knowledge, scientific or otherwise, remain a social construction. It is therefore a mistake to represent the followers of conspiracy theories as

simply people who do not know anything. We need to understand a phenomenon in order to combat it effectively and we must urgently abandon the false idea that conspiracies are silly ideas that we do not need to worry; that it is merely the expression of a thirst for justice or an allergy to political lies. Conspiracy not only provides the wrong answers to legitimate questions, but also avoids, denies, and negates all of the real solutions to people's problems.

Our response should therefore be to stop finding excuses to dismiss conspiracy theorists and to acknowledge the crisis of confidence in our institutions. While conspiracy theories are outrageous and wrong, people resort to them for a legitimate reason: a need for comfort in uncertain times and a feeling of abandonment by the establishment. Instead of being complacent that democracy is going to be buried by these beliefs, our institutions need to take them on board in order to improve themselves and to better respond to the problems that affect the people.

Knowing who controls the public debate could, then, become a solution to hinder the growth of conspirators. Whether it is in the United States, where the most extreme cases of conspiracy are manifest, or in Europe, answering this question is becoming an increasingly vital issue for democracies. Indeed, should we give a voice to those who propagate fake news? If so, how do we regulate it, and how can we reconnect these people to a system they desperately want to abandon? Once again, these are questions that only the political future can answer.

HAS BREXIT BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS? Aman Patel Staff Writer

Roar writer Aman Patel on how Brexit has upended political institutions and could spell the end for reasoned discourse.

If we're going to ask the question “Is British politics broken?”, we must first understand what British politics was before. By “politics” we mean the institutions that this country is built on and fundamentally intertwined with such as Parliament or certain economic structures. Much like my Xbox and I, politics and economics are inseparable; the economic landscape can lead to changing political dynamics and visa versa.

Our political institutions are built on what are fundamentally liberal ideas. When I say “liberal” I am not referring to its typical usage nowadays, that being to describe a left-wing political ideology. “Liberal” may also refer to the advocacy of freedom of choice, such as a representative democracy where individuals are able to vote equally and freely amongst their fellow Britons in order to elect their government.

Before we discuss whether Brexit did indeed break these political institutions, we must first reflect on how they were established in the first place. This may appear to be superfluous but I’d like to go back to the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. The Industrial Revolution saw a large proportion of the population transition from

working in agriculture to industry where wages were higher and more skill was required. As this process occurred, inequality initially rose and then began to fall.

This change in inequality following the industrial revolution is described by the Kuznets curve.

The process, in very simple terms, generated representative, democratic political institutions.

Interestingly, we're currently at the beginning of another sort of industrial revolution. This time instead of machines in a factory, we’re faced with Alexa telling us we’ve overslept (again), or playing that song when we ask her to (you know the one). With this "Infotech Revolution" people are now transitioning from the manufacturing sector to the highly skilled tech service sector, where, again, wages and demand are much higher. According to economist Branko Milanović in his book Global Inequality, we are again faced with our friend the Kuznets curve. This line of reasoning can be used to explain why inequality is once again on the rise.

Now remember how economic processes can lead to changing political institutions? Brexit did exactly that.

Brexit, I posit, was driven by this movement away from the manufacturing sector.

Whether it's the American Rustbelt region or British northern working towns, the forces of the second

industrial revolution has left millions disenfranchised. The brutal irony is that the “Vote Leave” campaign utilised that very disenfranchisement to sell Brexit to the communities that it had hit the worst. The campaign hired a cutting-edge technology company called Cambridge Analytica to create an algorithm that identified potential voters online and then utilised Facebook to bombard them with “fake news”.

70% of people identify as either "Brexiteers" or "Remainers", this being a higher proportion than those who identify as either "Conservative" or "Labour". Even worse are the negative perceptions that each side has of the other such as being "closed-minded" or "hypocritical", again those perceptions are more harsh than the cross-party perceptions. It is clear that Brexit has made Britain more polarised.

One of the selling points of Brexit was to strike back at the "liberal metropolitan elite", referring to Londoners who enjoy the fruits of the economic shifts at play. Here, we encounter more brutal irony in that this point was sold by those very members of the London metropolitan elite such as the Member of Parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg. Neither the hypocrisy nor the campaign's factual incorrectness actually mattered as those it targeted were driven by social media into impenetrable echo chambers.

I believe that political echo chambers are undermining healthy discourse and therefore British political institutions. This romantic idea of rational debate determining the candidate citizens choose to represent them in their democracy has eroded. Brexit, a symptom of economic changes, has been the watershed moment demonstrating that. I am not suggesting that rational democracy has been the norm until now as, after all, people were still somewhat polarised beforehand. Rather, I am suggesting that the situation has drastically worsened.

New social media technology has seen people across the political spectrum identify ever more personally with their political views, deaf to information from outside their respective bubbles.

Analysis of polls conducted by YouGov, Sky and BES shows that at least

Historically, moments of crisis have seen people resort to tribal political camps. Today, the crisis of inequality saw people resort to tribal Brexiteer and Remainer factions. Furthermore, the environmental crisis and Covid-19 are generating similarly polarised camps. It is moments of crisis that generate new political institutions that evolve to change the status quo. We are in such a moment of change as we speak. A moment where new political institutions and ways of organising and distributing power are forming as you read this. British politics are not yet broken, but they may soon be.

28 Features

2022 US MIDTERM ELECTIONS: AN EARLY LOOK

The House of Representatives

Ishaan Rahman Features Editor

Features Editor Ishaan Rahman takes an early look at how the 2022 Midterm Elections are shaping up two months into Joe Biden’s Presidency.

Believe it or not, many politically-engaged Americans are already taking a look at the 2022 US Midterm Elections just two months after President Joe Biden was sworn into office. With pollsters already making early predictions, candidates announcing their campaigns and eyes glued to Biden’s approval ratings, it’s time to take a premature look at some possibilities.

The 2022 Elections will take place exactly halfway through President Biden’s term in office.

There will be elections in all 435 districts of the House of Representatives and roughly onethird of Senate seats. Governors in 36 states and most state legislatures will also be holding elections. Currently, Democrats control both the House and the Senate. Republicans have 27 governors while Democrats have 23.

The House elections will be the first to take place after the 2021 census, which will be used to redraw house districts. There are concerns about partisan gerrymandering and voting restrictions taking place that will rig the election in one party’s favour. Though, since 2010, several measures have been put in place to mediate the effects of gerrymandering. In addition, a pending Senate bill, the “For the People” Act would fully ban gerrymandering ahead of the redistricting process.

Midterm Elections are historically tough on the incumbent party. In 2018, halfway through President Donald Trump’s term, his party lost over 40 seats in the House of Representatives and seven Governor’s races. Former Presidents also saw their respective parties suffer similar defeats. So what are the prospects for 2022?

Will this year buck the trend or not? Let’s take a look.

Congress’ lower house seems to change hands most frequently in US Elections. The President’s party has almost always lost the House in its first term. The only Presidents who bucked the trend are Ronald Reagan, whose party never controlled the House in the first place, and George W. Bush, who enjoyed high approval ratings after his handling of the 9/11 terror attacks – though [...] Republicans later lost control of the House in 2006 after Bush’s approval ratings sank.

So, this time, history appears to be on the Republicans’ side. Moreover, despite Joe Biden’s victory last year, Democrats lost seats in the House leaving them with a razor-thin majority.

Republicans would only need to gain six seats to take control of the chamber; for perspective, they gained ten in the last election and over 60 in 2010.

There is another possibility though. Former President Trump has said he will campaign for GOP candidates in 2022. While this will likely drive his supporters to the polls, it will also energise Democrats in opposition, possibly resulting in a stalemate. Trump is polarising and could also alienate moderate, suburban voters that the GOP needs to win back.

Control of the House is easily within reach for the Republican Party, as evidenced by their leader’s confidence. However, if Biden’s approval ratings remain solid, Democrats deliver on their campaign promises and Trump divides the electorate they may be able to hold the line.

The Senate Unlike the House, the ,Senate’s history during midterm elections has been less straightforward. In 2018, despite resounding victories elsewhere, Democrats actually lost seats in the Senate. Republicans managed to defeat several Democratic Senators who were in states that then-President Trump had won in 2016. The situation is reversed in 2022 with Republicans on the defensive despite a Democrat occupying the White House

Thus far, five GOP senators are retiring before the election, giving Democrats a better shot. The most obvious target for Democrats is Pennsylvania, a state Biden won in 2020. Several candidates on both sides have announced their bids, with the most prominent being the state’s Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, a Democrat. Democrats are also eyeing Wisconsin, where incumbent GOP Senator Ron Johnson is pondering retirement though has not announced his plans yet. Another Biden state, no major candidates have announced yet. Open seats in North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri are also potential targets though are more of a longshot.

Despite being on the defensive, there are pickup opportunities for Republicans too. Georgia and Arizona have been shifting blue lately but the GOP could try and reverse that progress by defeating Senators Raphael Warnock and Mark Kelly, though the Republican Party in both states is bitterly divided and dysfunctional. Nevada and New Hampshire are two other targets though the former has a large Hispanic population which leans Democratic and the latter voted for Biden by seven percentage points. It is worth noting that New Hampshire’s popular Republican governor Chris Sununu is considering a Senate run, though his anti-Trump stance may prevent him from getting the party’s nomination. GOP pickups will be tough but with the right strategy and candidates it could work.

Large changes in the Senate’s composition are unlikely. Democrats’ slim majority means that the GOP only need to gain one seat in order to take control. However, even that could prove challenging. At the moment, the Democrats seem to have more pickup opportunities.

The Governors The Governors’ races also appear to be more static this time around with only a handful of pickup opportunities on each side. First up, America’s four largest states will all be electing governors though these are unlikely to be competitive. New York and California will almost certainly re-elect Democratic governors, though perhaps not the incumbents. Florida and Texas will likely also re-elect their Republi-

can executives, despite the latter trending blue.

On the Democratic side, the pickup opportunities lie in Maryland, Arizona and Georgia.

Maryland, a solid Democratic state, is an almost guaranteed gain as Republican Governor Larry Hogan, an anti-Trump conservative, is retiring. Hogan had a strong personal appeal in the state which is unlikely to be replicated by another GOP candidate. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political newsletter that predicts US elections, currently rates Maryland as the only state likely to change hands as of now.

In Arizona, the incumbent Governor is retiring, giving Democrats a solid opportunity to field their candidate. As mentioned, Arizona is a former deep-red state that now has two Democratic Senators and voted for President Biden last year. Democrats will be looking to replicate that success. Georgia is a slightly different story; Republican Governor Brian Kemp is running for re-election though he has angered Trump by certifying Joe Biden’s election victory in the state last year. Trump promised to campaign against Kemp, severely damaging his re-election prospects. Trump supporters’ refusal to turnout for Kemp gives Democrats an opportunity.

Republicans targets are primarily in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Kansas. In Pennsylvania, the popular Democratic governor is retiring, giving an opportunity for GOP candidates. Wisconsin is another target though the incumbent Democrat is eligible for re-election and is reasonably approved of. Kansas, a deep-red state, is the Democrats’ most vulnerable seat. Governor Laura Kelly had the benefit of running against a highly controversial candidate in 2018. She may not get that advantage again though she is still a strong candidate in her own right.

Overall, there are two competing narratives on the midterm elections. History suggests that Republicans will make inroads as there is inevitable backlash to President Biden’s agenda.

Though, incumbent parties have bucked this trend before and with several GOP Senators and Governors retiring in battleground states as well as an energised electorate on both sides, there is no decisive favourite to win yet.

29

IS CHINA THE WORLD'S NEXT GLOBAL HEGEMON? HEGEMON Andrea Tonon Staff Writer

Roar writer Andrea Tonon argues that China is emerging as a challenger to the United States for the title of global superpower.

Today we could witness a return of a global power struggle due to the rise of China. After the Cold War the US became a global hegemony, and for many people the American machine is still the dominant force within the international community. But all of this could be questioned very soon, if it is not already being challenged.

The rise of China among the great powers of the world began in the late 1970s, particularly with President Deng Xiaoping. He started a series of reforms to drastically change the global position of China. Due to China’s size and potential economic and military power in East Asia, its hegemonic position in the region became clear. It is important to emphasize the clever strategy that Deng put in place in order to gain reginal power step by step: using the so-called “keeping a low profile” approach, meanwhile growing economically, militarily and geopolitically.

There is no doubt that China today is a superpower in every respect. According to several scholars China has already become a global hegemon in recent years, threatening the position of the United States of America and the entire Western world. The UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) believes that China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2028, five years earlier than as many scholars predicted. This acceleration is due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

What does it mean to be a hegemon?

The term hegemony was coined by the Italian Marxist politician and philosopher Antonio Gramsci. It derives from the Greek term hēgemonia meaning “dominance over”. According to the political scientist Joseph Nye: “The term hegemony is applied to a variety of situations in which one state appears to have considerably more power than others […] All too often, hegemony is used to refer to different behaviors and degrees of control […]”.

Gramsci developed the theory of cultural hegemony, in which an ideology is used to reflect the beliefs and interests of the ruling class or group that controls the rest of society. Control is achieved through hard power such as military

action, economic might, coercive diplomacy, and soft power like humanitarian aid, education, religious dogmas, cooperation and the use of international organizations. Nowadays there are four crucial components to be classified as a hegemonic power; military, economy, culture, and political/geopolitical hegemony.

Many believe China has achieved at least three of the four categories, namely military, economy, and political dominance. As we have already mentioned above it is only a matter of time for China to become the largest economy in the world. China is already one of the fastest growing economies among the BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).

In fact, Goldman Sachs estimates that all BRICS economics will dominate the global economy by 2050.

What about military and geopolitical power?

Even though the US spends more on its military than any other country in the world, it may not last. The aim of China’s Belt and Road Initiative is to connect more than 70 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, recreating a “new Silk Road”. The main goal is to build new, modern infrastructure projects in the three continents to promote new economic integration between strategic countries for China, with Beijing at the centre.

Though numerous critics argue that this initiative is only for infrastructural and economic reasons, because the real motive for the creation of this “new silk road” is to extend the military and geopolitical influence of Beijing abroad. The evidence are the several military bases built in Africa, for example the one in Djibouti and bilateral treaties signed to increase china's diplomatic influence in different regions of the world. Another example of Chinese military expansion is the activities carried out in the South China Sea, considered to be international waters by law.

For many political thinkers, a powerful economy and army is enough to make a country a hegemon in today’s world. Of course, we could argue the merits of this statement, but it is clear that China changes the balance of power-relations between countries and creates a new power struggle within the international community.

China has become an economic and political actor indispensable worldwide. In fact, last year China became the EU’s biggest trading partner, overtaking the US. Trade relations between China and the EU is worth $709bn. This means that China is increasingly playing a key role in Europe and a central one at the international level. During a conference of the ConnectIT series

2020-2021 organized by the KCL Italian Society, Federica Mogherini, a former Vice-President of the European Commission, stated that a stronger partnership between China and the EU could represent the most sensitive wedge issue between the EU and the US. Maybe today we are witnessing the transition from the United States of America to China as the new global hegemon.

Should we worry about it?

Specifically regarding human rights violations, the reputation of the United States is not pleasant for several reasons due to several social structural problems, such as institutionalized violence and discrimination. Historical events – notably the Iraq war, the Vietnam War and many others – also raise doubts.

But China has shown that it has no qualms in violating human rights. The world has witnessed their brutality in Hong Kong with the pro-democracy protests, the constant threats to Taiwan and the repression conducted under the guise of “anti-separatism” or “counter-terrorism” in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated areas.

Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang have been deported to “re-education centres”. There are reports that China has started a sterilisation program of women belonging to specific Muslim groups. The Chinese government has been largely silent on the issue but has denied such accusations. Despite overwhelming empirical evidence of the existence of such centres and programs.

Does Europe and the rest of the world want to see China as the new hegemony?

Between China and the US, Europe certainly has many reasons and interests to be closer to the US because they both share a liberal democratic framework. The United States has the potential to maintain a liberal attitude and respect for human rights internationally.

Perhaps if Europe would give up nationalist sentiments, it could play a much important and responsible role withing the international community. The same thought could be applied to South and Central American countries with the leadership of a more liberal Brazil and a stronger, less corrupt Mexico.

Today as never before we could witness a world that is not subject to a single power, but to many.

Or we will probably continue to see a power struggle between the US and China over the position of world hegemon. But as many believe, China is already winning this battle.

SPORTS THE

SPORTS TEAM EDITOR Alfie Wilson

CONTRIBUTORS Akshat Chandel Bogdan Pietrosanu Louis Jacques Navneet Ramloll Nica Andren

Alfie Wilson Sports Editor

After QPR started to do so in September of last year, fellow West London and Championship outfit Brentford, and, as of last week, Derby County, have decided to stop taking the knee after the referee’s whistle at the start of games. Triggered by the barbaric murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, players of all clubs in the EFL have taken, or at least had the option to take, the knee in support of Black Lives Matter since football restarted after the first Covid lockdown, with a wider purpose of showing solidarity with ending racial discrimination in football and society as a whole.

In all of the clubs' statements on the matter, they have stated that they will wholly support and respect clubs who continue to wish to do so, and have confirmed that it was a unanimously made club and dressing-room

DERBY JOIN WEST LONDON CLUBS QPR AND BRENTFORD IN NO LONGER TAKING THE KNEE decision. They concluded by saying they will focus on fighting racism within wider society through other methods.

There are two important facts to note here.

Firstly, many individual players and coaching staff involved continue to be active in the moment of taking the knee - for example, Derby forward Colin Kazim-Richards, of Turkish-Cypriot and Antiguan descent, raises his fist in the air before each game, resonating with the iconic 1968 Olympics Black Power salute. Secondly, these three aforementioned clubs are, like all clubs in professional football, racially diverse - it is not the case of an all-white XI stopping taking the knee. In fact QPR are notoriously one of the most leftwing clubs in the country, leading the charge against racism in the doldrums of the 1980s and 1990s, and are now the only club in senior English football with a black Director of Football (club legend Les Ferdinand).

Commenting on the club’s decision, Ferdinand stated “Taking the knee was very powerful but we feel that impact has now been diluted”, going on to analogise the action with

NHS Clap For Carers during lockdown - stopping it doesn’t mean you don’t support them, just that you feel the action has run its cause and ceased to be as effective. “Taking the knee will not bring about change in the game – actions will”, a clear statement in support of the argument that tangible actions are few and far between, if anywhere, with football clubs’ actions against racism. Brentford have propagated a similar view and have also developed their #BeeTogether initiative in addressing internal problems of all types of discrimination.

With Derby County, the situation is admittedly more harrowing - their decision being triggered by the racial abuse of Kazim-Richards online, and a horrific story of how he had to tell his kids that [some people in society will hate you for being black]. According to Ryan Conway of The Athletic, every player expressed their thoughts on the matter, with an underlying issue being the divide between those who took the knee before games, and those who stood with a raised fist (not out of a deep personal disagreement, but perhaps a lack of symbolic unity amongst the individuals of the starting XI). Ultimately, the deci-

sion was made to stop taking the knee, and for greater action to be made from their Community Trust once Covid restrictions are eased.

Either decision, to take the knee or not, is completely justifiable with the right intentions. Racism has slipped away from mainstream football discourse before, and can’t be allowed to again, and the knee is a persistent reminder of that - yet at the same time the Clap For Carers analogy makes perfect sense; at the end of the day, a symbol pales in comparison to a solution. But one thing is clear- whatever happens, the momentum that football has developed since the first Covid lockdown behind the charge against racism is something that mustn’t be lost, and clubs must continue to do their bit in the fight to show the progress being made off the pitch if indeed they do stop taking the knee.

Football can often be a sad reflection of wider society but can also spur society on to change.

The taking of the knee must, at least, be the seeds of that change.

INDIA VS ENGLAND SERIES: THE DATA DISCOURSE AND THAT OLD PROBLEM OF BATTING Alfie Wilson Sports Editor The direction of sport is data-driven; the days of romantic selection are making way in favour of a more statistically driven approach to every minutiae. Despite my sporting Calvinism, I, and anyone else, can recognise the undoubted success of this across various sports, as discussed in my debut piece for Roar discussing the successes of Brentford.

But in Cricket there are more foxholes in this process, exemplifying themselves clearly in England's recent Test match in India, losing the series 3-1 and failing to qualify for a spot in the final of the World Test Championship.

England have struggled with batting, for, well... let’s just say a very long time. An inability to find an effective middle order, coupled with regularly inconsistent form of openers in Dom Sibley, Rory Burns and now Zak Crawley have led to feast and famine batting totals in Test matches, exemplified no clearer than in India578 in the 1st innings of the first test, 134 in the 1st of the 2nd just 8 days later. Captain Joe Root has come on leaps and bounds with his own batting form, but perhaps in an attempt to resolve batting issues has chopped and changed the order around him. Jos Buttler, a particularly dependable batsman, has been the biggest victim of this, in some occasions being cut from the squad altogether.

The discourse surrounding the matter seems

to be pretty black and white; on the one side, traditionalists who believe in a consistent order to develop understanding and patterns; on the other tactical and data-driven to maximise runs in specific areas, at specific times, under specific conditions. People should be reticent to be too critical - India are, after all, probably the best side in the world - yet given the failures of the series the discourse should logically have intensified and diverged yet further.

However, there seems to be a vague middle ground consensus- either way is fine, but a “don’t take the mick” attitude seems most prevalent - tactical tweaks are fine, but not at the compromise of any sense of order cohesion, the (justified) main criticism of most of the old guard of cricket punditry. And, it surely gets the

tails up of bowlers knowing how unlikely it is that the top-order batsmen will be able to get their eye in.

It was, probably, the main factor for the series culminating in such a humbling manner for England, especially the 3rd test. The joyous mood of the country at being able to sink into test cricket not behind a paywall, after being put on Channel4, quickly subsided back to frustration at a fairly inexplicable collapse. Axar Patel in England's 2nd innings gobbled up Crawley and Jonny Bairstow with Sibley being dismissed for a pitiful seven, with Patel picking up a fifer by the end of the innings.

For future tests, hopefully Root can find the right balance.

31

SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE: THE MINDSET OF THE GREATEST IN FORMULA ONE Nica Andren Staff Writer

From high speeds to deadly crashes, Formula One has it all. Decisions made in split seconds determine whether a driver will enjoy a shower of champagne or end the day with gravel in his shoes. There is no doubt that it takes a special combination of mental, physical and technical skill to reach the pinnacle of motorsport.

However, it is the mindset of a driver that determines whether he will go down in the history books or merely forgotten.

“Winning is one thing, but out of losing I always learned more for the future.”

- Niki Lauda The difference between a good driver and a great one lies in the mindset. Having a fixed or growth mindset will determine your attitude and behaviour. A fixed mindset presumes that our abilities are ingrained traits that are impossible to change in any meaningful way. Individuals tend to avoid situations where their weaknesses could be exposed, viewing failure as the ultimate rock bottom with no return. This mindset has no room in Formula One, and a driver with an inclination for such thoughts will quickly realise that his doors are shut for any successful future in the sport.

A growth mindset, on the other hand, thrives on challenges and sees failure as a possibility for improvement. Lewis Hamilton would not have claimed his 7th World Drivers’ Championship if he did not possess a growth mindset. Despite facing financial struggles and racial discrimination, the 9-year-old Lewis did not let this affect his confidence, promising the McLaren team boss that he would become their future driver. After fulfilling his promise, he did not get used to the comfort and moved from McLaren to Mercedes, perceived by many to be a highly questionable and risky choice. Now, he is statistically the great-

est driver to date. He turned his setbacks into areas for growth, never satisfied nor settling. This is a growth mindset.

“It is not always possible to be the best, but it is always possible to improve your own performance.” - Sir Jackie Stewart Fundamentally, Formula One drivers feel the same emotions as ordinary people. A race weekend can trigger unwanted thoughts of underperformance, driven by promises made to the team, sponsors and fans. Unlike most racing drivers, who turn up and deal with situations as they come, the greatest learn early on how to regulate these emotions.

Kerry Spackman, a cognitive neuroscientist who helped world champions Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton expand their mental capacities, compares driving a race car to being chased by a tiger. It’s a completely unnatural and life-threatening environment, where a driver without mental training would enter a state of paralysis.

Sports psychologists have dedicated decades to researching the perfect formula to manage these intense feelings, agreeing on some common principles. First, slowing down the body will slow down the mind. Second, breaking a race down into fragments and studying the finest details will activate the same muscles as physically racing, creating a mental familiarity with the surroundings. Third, instead of fighting these emotions, the correct approach is to accept them as being part of a natural process and create a separate space for them in your brain. Doing this will put you one step closer to absolute control, working in a preparative manner rather than reactive.

“You can’t switch off negative emotions, but you can change how you react to them.

If you’re aware, you can slow them down and move your mind towards more positive thoughts.” - Nico Rosberg A phenomenon that sports psychologists recognise as being especially common with motorsport athletes is the flow state, commonly known as being in the zone. Bill Cole, a leading authority of sports psychology, describes it as entering a

psychological bubble where all external distractions are automatically blocked out. This allows athletes to focus solely on things that will help reach their goal. Some describe it as being in a vortex where time is a paradox. Although riding on a thousand screaming horses may seem an unlikely source of inner peace, as journalist Clyde Brolin put it, life at 200mph can lead to surreal effects, from slow motion to journeys out of the body.

Ayrton Senna was notably the first driver in Formula One to practice with a sports psychologist.

According to rival Alain Prost, Senna would describe his race monitoring as being able to leave his physical body to look at how the car was behaving on track and adjust accordingly. This is exactly what happened during qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, where Senna continued setting shorter and shorter lap times despite long out-qualifying everyone on track. This lap time is now regarded as one of the greatest performances in the history of Formula One. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the inventor of flow theory, explains that achieving this state requires a combination of challenge, skill, confidence, and motivation. If the task at hand is not challenging enough, you will get bored. If it is too difficult, you will feel anxious. Only by reaching the perfect balance of possessing a high level of skill while feeling challenged will put you closer to the out of body experience described by Senna.

“First, you have to finish.” - Michael Schumacher Drivers can recognise a circuit simply by the sound the car makes. They know every corner, exactly when to shift the gear and how the g-force makes them feel. Yet no matter how skilled or confident they are, they know that there is no such thing as a perfect race. In order to win, you just have to be slightly better than the rest. If you aim for perfection, you’re going to set yourself up for failure.

Perfectionists see the world in black and white, where the only acceptable outcome is to win.

This mindset does not appreciate progress and

perceives anything less than winning to be a failure. Instead of striving for perfection, sports psychologists recommend striving for excellence.

Excellence focuses on the progress, achieving small goals and being a better version of yourself than you were yesterday. That way, the outcome will follow.

“I don't fear failure, I fear not living up to my potential. I take that passion with me and never stop learning.” - Sir Lewis Hamilton Accepting the inexistence of perfection means letting go of things outside of your control. For a racing driver, this mainly encompasses the ability to recognise that your surroundings do not always reflect your true potential. Take Pierre Gasly as an example. Promotion to the senior Red Bull team meant finally getting the chance to challenge the Silver Arrows for the top of the podium on a regular basis. But Gasly’s dream came to a sudden halt as he struggled from the outset to measure up to the exceptional Max Verstappen. Red Bull took action, demoting Gasly in the middle of the season. A few races later, Gasly went to score his maiden podium; and a year later, his first win. One can only speculate why Gasly and Red Bull did not mix, whether it was the pressure of matching his new teammate or difficulty of adjusting to the car. However, diving deep into such an analysis would be a waste of time. Gasly proved to his supporters, critics, and most importantly to himself, that his ability to push a car to its limits was never in question.

This is a clear cut example of the mindset needed to progress.

Lastly, reaching the pinnacle of motorsport involves accepting relentless suffering. The greatest racing drivers endure merciless training, the risk of death and will never accept defeat. They are prepared to sacrifice it all, including friends, family and relationships. And yet, their efforts may be in vain if the team suddenly decides that you no longer reach their expectations. That’s it in Formula One, you only get one shot. There are very few who manage to come back the second time around. And even fewer who do not possess the mindset.

32 Sports AN INTERVIEW WITH BELGIUM INTERNATIONAL

CHRISTIAN KABASELE Roar News participated in an interview with Watford centre back and Belgian international Christian Kabasele on the evening of the 9th of February, in association with the KCL Belgian Society and GKTFC. Special thanks to Louis Jacques, Belgian Society treasurer and fellow Roar writer, for putting it into action.

Alfie Wilson Sports Editor

EURO 2016 Louis begins the interview with an introduction, following with undoubtedly the most exciting thing to interview Christian about - being part of the 23-man Belgium squad at Euro 2016 in France: “It was just amazing to get the call up, I wasn’t even in the provisional squad to begin with and had made my holiday plans for June.

I remember my last game for Genk was the day before I got the call up. It was so unexpected, and I had to change my mentality from being on holiday. I had a suspicion because the Genk goalkeeping coach (Erwin Lemmens) was also the Belgian National Team goalkeeping coach, and so had some inside knowledge. Nevertheless, I didn’t finish the dinner I was eating at the time when I got the news as I was so shocked!”

I follow up on this by asking about his relation-

ship with the Belgium manager at the time, Marc Wilmots, where the common consensus among fans and pundits alike was that he was at fault for wasting a generation of talent in 2014 and 2016 - but Christian disagrees. “I had a really good relationship with Wilmots. He gave me my chance, so I owe him a lot. He was always really open with players”.

Belgium, albeit in a tough group, suffered a chastising 2-0 defeat to Italy in their opener, outdone by a savvy side under Antonio Conte: “The defeat against Italy wasn’t the end of the world, and we knew that. Afterwards, we put three really positive performances together; 8 goals, 0 conceded in 3 games at a Euros is very impressive and every team you play is strong”.

Confidence certainly seemed to be restored after these wins (3-0 vs Rep. of Ireland, 1-0 vs Sweden, 4-0 vs Hungary (last 16)), and they went into their quarter-final against Wales with confidence, albeit going on to suffer a surprising 3-1 defeat. “With the Wales game, sometimes you just come up against a side who plays out of their skin. They were so well-organised; we couldn’t break them down and they deserved to win on the day”.

Wilmots was subsequently sacked, with Roberto Martínez replacing him: “The biggest thing Martínez has changed is the system, to a 3-4-3 from Wilmots’ 4-3-3. It served us well in the World Cup”. This links to a more cultural question that Louis asks with his Belgian hat on,

prompting Christian to confirm that most team talks are done in either English or French, a continual source of interest with one of the few multilingual national teams in Europe.

Bringing the conversation into the contemporary, “for Belgium, it’s definitely time to win something now. I think our squad is more balanced and stronger than in 2018, where we made the semi-final. We have to finally do it. There are a lot of leaders in the squad, so the change of captaincy from Vinny [Kompany] to Eden [Hazard] wasn’t too big. [Jan] Vertonghen is a really good leader as well”.

EARLY CAREER, BELGIUM, WATFORD, AND ENGLAND Christian completed his transfer to Watford in that summer of 2016 too, joining the relatively large contingent of Belgians playing in the Premier League. We move on to to the listeners’ questions: “There’s a WhatsApp group with all of us in. Whenever we have a game against each other we like to spend 5 to 10 minutes catching up with each other and having a little joke, but it’s difficult with the intense fixture list. I’m especially close with [Timothy] Castagne, who is now at Leicester, as we broke into the national team together and we played together at Genk, and too with [Christian] Benteke from our time at Mechelen”.

With references made to his early career, we move on to talk about a seminal move in his career, going to Ludogorets in Bulgaria in 2011: “Moving to Bulgaria was a difficult decision but I had no other option. Eupen didn’t want to extend my contract. But I thought it could be a good opportunity and it worked out in the end.

It was my first time living alone so it was good for me to grow up, and enjoyed my time there, although unfortunately I’m no longer in contact with anyone there”.

Going back even earlier, Kabasele “only knew I’d be a professional late on in my career, it was just a leisure activity and something for fun when I was a teen. My youth coach at Eupen was influential”. On his time spent playing domestically, he told us “Eupen was a totally different experience to Genk; Eupen is a very small, family club.

Despite being in the German-speaking part of Belgium, most people spoke French, which was good for me, as my Flemish and German is really bad”. Knowing Belgians, we’re sure that’s not true. “I had to get used to a larger mixture of languages at Genk, but French was still mostly spoken”.

His position changes are of much interest, moving from a centre forward, to a winger, to a right back, to a centre back: “I was converted into a centre back during my 2nd spell at Eupen (2012-

14)- a defender got injured and the gaffer gave me a go, I did a decent job and managed to stay there. I definitely had doubts about it originally though, I hated my first training session there.

Maybe I’ll revert to being a striker at the end of my career!”

phasis on fitness. However, no one manager was the most influential on me personally; every single one has given me something to make me the player I am today. I was surprised with (Walter) Mazzarri at Watford, he was a very typical Italian manager, and I wasn’t expecting that”.

His time at Watford is of interest to the audience, and questions about his time there are in abundance: “I managed to escape my initiation song at Watford. But for Belgium I had to do one, and I chose One Dance by Drake as I know the lyrics well. The best one I’ve seen though was Ken Sema’s for Watford, who chose a Michael Jackson- he did some dancing as well as some good singing”.

We talk more about the individuals within the Watford squad, and their personalities and skill sets. “[Troy] Deeney never showed us his semi-final goal in the playoffs. But it’s one of the most memorable moments in English football - I saw it at the time in Belgium.” More talk about the marmite figure Troy follows his seemingly hit-and-hope penalty technique is of special interest. “Deeney never takes penalties in training, but he backs himself against the keeper and that’s the most important thing with penalties.

He plays mind games with the keepers. He’s a better penalty taker than Fernandes or Jorginho.

The stats show that”.

After talk of the transfer comes talk about the debut: “It was strange that I made my Premier League debut vs Arsenal, the club I supported when I was a kid. However, it’s impossible to still be a supporter of a club once you’re a professional. Loyalty must take over. It happened with Liège and with Arsenal. My idol was Thierry Henry, and I had the number 14 shirt growing up. It was an incredible experience to work with him for the national team (where he was assistant manager between 2016 and 2018). I think he has the potential to go on to be a top manager. It was also my last Premier League game.. I remember the morning of the game where I was told I would be starting. It was a dream come true”.

“The best part of my time so far has been the FA Cup run (2018-19), and definitely the semi-final vs Wolves. It was an incredible comeback and it really showed our strength as a team.” This prompts talk of the character of the squad, and why Javi Gracia was the most successful manager to be with them. “The squad had some unexpected leaders in the squad. [Étienne] Capoue and [Abdoulaye] Doucouré are good leadersthey led with their quality on the ball. Javi Gracia was most successful because he found the perfect balance in the team, and he had a key em-

On the rest of the current batch, “I find it normal playing with technical players because I’m one myself! Ismaïla Sarr and João Pedro are good players in the current squad, but Roberto Pereyra was exceptionally talented. He definitely has that magic that can win a game. (Gerard) Deulofeu showed that too against Wolves in the semi-final. I feel I am one of the most underrated players at the club, but I don’t mind that. Femenía is really underrated too- he’s always the first player in the gym.”

The 2019-20 was a crushing one for Watford, suffering relegation under the blanket of behind-closed-doors football of the Coronavirus pandemic. One of the few bright spots was their 3-0 win over Liverpool at Vicarage Road, ending the over-a-year-long unbeaten run when they were Champions-Elect. “The 3-0 win over Liverpool was an incredible atmosphere. As soon as we went into the changing room after full time, we were very quiet- I don’t we understood what we’d just achieved at the time. It was just three more points at the end of the day”.

Within a month, the first Coronavirus lockdown in England came into effect, grinding even elite football to a complete halt. “At the beginning of the (first) lockdown, it was really hard to stay motivated. Kiko Femenía did a lot of work to be fair- he put a topless photo of himself on social media, but I’m not that guy, I prefer to do my work in the shadows.”

Despite their efforts, relegation was confirmed on the final day of the season at The Emirates.

Talk turns to the psychology of suffering relegation, and how it affects your first season in The Championship: “It was really difficult to pick ourselves back up after it. It was such a shame because the quality in our squad shouldn’t have got relegated. There has been a lot of change over the summer, but the quality is still there. We needed to adapt to the physicality of the Championship initially, but I’m confident we’ll get promoted”.

One of the talking points of this season has been the quirk of veteran goalkeeper Ben Foster’s YouTube channel: “I like Foster’s YouTube channel: It’s funny and it shows a human side to him- he dealt with the Swansea goal very well”.

So too has VAR: “The refereeing is much less pedantic in England; the referee allows the game to flow more which I like. But, if I can speak honestly, VAR has been a f***ing disaster. I hate it.

It’s removing the joy and the passion out of the game. If referees are still making the same mistakes even with VAR, then we need to make a step backwards”. Hear hear. “I’m very glad that in the Championship we don’t have it”.

Talk of this leads to discussion of his special feelings for Hornets fans: “The passion of the fans in England and Belgium is massive, but Watford fans are the best, and I’m not just saying that - I realised it with relegation last season. The fans don’t deserve to be in the Championship. I believe in the power of football. It really is an escape for a lot of people from their daily lives which maybe aren’t going so well”.

33

AN INTERVIEW WITH MATT WALKER, AUTHOR OF THE EPIC EUROPE UNITED. Matt Walker is the author of one of the most epic football globetrotting books. In my mind, Europe United is in the same league as the Indiana Jones journeys of James Montague, Up Pohnpei by Paul Watson and many more. Europe United recounts Matt's epic footballing journey across Europe and beyond, watching a game of football in all 55 UEFA nations, the first man to do so, including Kazakhstan, Israel and more, between June 2017 and April 2018. I sat down with Matt to discuss the book in more detail, ahead of the upcoming paperback release on 13 May.

THE FUTURE & FUN TOPICS On whether he would want to return to Belgium to play for his boyhood club Standard Liège, Christian told Roar: “it’s difficult to say. I have a contract with Watford running until 2024, and I love being there. It is of course becoming increasingly difficult to predict with the coronavirus. At the moment, I have no real ambitions beyond Watford.

I’m happy here, I’ve never stayed so long at a club before, and to get 100+ plus appearances for a club feels really special. My family are very happy here too. After football, I’m still not sure what I want to do, but I have a lot of time. I’m trying to follow the badge courses to become a coach with the national team, and I’m trying to finish off the A and B licences in 2022”.

There’s also some talk on his Belgian teammates: “The best player I’ve played against is definitely Eden Hazard; his close control is so good, and you have to be at your best to stop him. It’s a shame that injuries have stopped him at Real Madrid so far, but I’m glad he got the big transfer he deserved.

Vertonghen actually does have the most tekkers.

It’s true!” The 2014 World Cup postcard campaign for Belgium didn’t lie then. “He also showed it in (2018) World Cup qualifying against Greece with a really good, clean strike to win our most important game. It’s maybe less the case now with (Kevin) de Bruyne!”

We talk too about his life outside football: “I watch a lot of NBA, and I’m and Knicks fan. I’ve watched a few games live but it’s difficult to watch them too often in Europe as they’re on late at night”. A bit too on pets. “Dogs over cats. I have a bichon. My wife had it but now we take care of it together”.

We finish off with some advice for GKT players: “It’s all about the timing of the jump with headers” is his response to a sly question on timidity in aerial duels.

His response to the “can we have a friendly with Watford?” question over the summer is worryingly and excitingly promising. It finishes off a very enlightening interview where we can’t thank Christian enough for his time.

THE BIRTH OF THE IDEA, AND THE EARLY HURDLES Matt tells me that he came up with the idea in late 2015, telling his boss soon after: "That's going to cost a lot of money", was his first and quite reasonable response. He continues that this was one of the biggest early hurdles, having to watch his budget especially closely in the first few countries with an expensive Nordic first leg involving Iceland, Faroe Islands and Norway. Closer to jetting off, the logistics and the practicalities defining which games could be watched became clear: "I was lucky that Brann were playing at home", he tells me, Brann being the side from Bergen, Norway, one of only 5 cities with flights to Vágar Airport of the Faroes at the time.

AN EPIC SUMMER JOURNEY, BEER STICKS IN LITHUANIA, AND THE FINNISH LEICESTER His choice of IFK Mariehamn for his Finnish side was of particular interest to many readers.

"I came across their story in 2016, the season they incredibly won the league, obviously in the same year as Leicester's miracle achievement in England." Mariehamn is the capital of the Åland Islands, the autonomous, Swedish-speaking set of islands in the Baltic Sea. Capital could perhaps be misleading - it's no larger than a medium-size English village, and the stadium holds no more than 1,650 in beautiful, wooded, Finnish glades. Getting a ferry to a game was a particular joy. A near two-week long trip in Kazakhstan followed - needing a 9 hour train journey to the dusty town of Taraz as Kairat Almaty weren't at home. Belarus and Lithuania signed off this leg - the delicious beer sticks of Vilnius a polar opposite to the grim domestic beers of Belarus. "A bottle of Paulaner never tasted so good".

CAUCASIAN ADVENTURES, GRUELLING LOW COUNTRIES, AND FOXHOLES IN THE BALKANS Retrospectively, Matt thinks international breaks were a blessing: "One of the things the book doesn't really convey was just how tiring the travels were”. Matt recounts how he was offered an invitation to a wedding whilst travelling through the Azerbaijani foothills to watch Gabala. He's still in contact with a few people from Trabzon in Turkey - "they were definitely the best set of fans I came across on my travels". He had difficulties paying for a bus ticket between Niš and Kruševac in Serbia, and later on would have to bluff his way into a game behind closed doors in Albania. "The trick is confidence" he says; also, in avoiding grumpy locals in wintery Corfu: "The landscape of Meteora monastery was spectacular", however, one of his favourite of the trip, making up for it. A nice mountainous, scenic change to the tedious driving across the Low Countries in November.

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, NEEDED WARMTH, AND HIS OWN MEDITERRANEAN ODYSSEY Inverness to Dingwall is a stunning train journey - the Far North Line from Inverness to Thurso through Sutherland and Caithness is one of my favourites in the country: "It was brilliant to see a corner of the UK that I had never been to before, and maybe wouldn't have had the motivation to without football. It was pleasing to tick off the most northerly top flight UK side in Ross County too". But Scotland was cold, and January's trip to Israel and Cyprus provided much needed warmth, the 20 degree temperatures feeling like summer in the Sahara. Malta, to Sicily via ferry, to Calabria and Crotone via boat-train was an epic reconstruction of the 9th-century Islamic conquest by Euphemius.

The Mediterranean in February allowed him to avoid the Beast from the East, which caused carnage across Northern Europe, postponing countless fixtures. "One of the moments where luck was on my side", says Matt. To me, it was good planning.

VISEGRÁDS, ALPS, AND FINISHING THE JOURNEY Matt had to deviate from his theme of avoiding capital cities, ticking off Prague, Vienna and Bratislava in one mad weekend: "It was one of those times where logistics reared its ugly head", Matt says. However, he slowed down to enjoy beautiful Alpine scenery in St. Gallen and Liechtenstein, where we converse over football shirts, more beer chat with the epic Schützengarten Brewery , and the epic Ernst in Liechtenstein. "One of the most incredible men I met on my travels". Matt finished off with rural travels in Hungary and Slovenia, "a real throwback to the 90s, the EU road scheme was nowhere to be seen in Southern Hungary". The epic Pancho Aréna was one of Matt's favourite stadiums. The final destination of Montenegro was a lovely choice.

We finish off with some general questions, before signing off entirely. Matt was a fantastic interviewee, and the book is a must read for all travel lovers, and all football lovers, which, for me, is a match made in heaven. I can't thank him enough for his time and the amazing entertainment the book has given me.

Keep an eye out for the paperback release of Europe United on 13th May. Alternatively, buy the hardback, available in all of your usual places. The 55FootballNations website provides yet more entertainment and depth, and features all the videos mentioned in the book and our full chat.

Alfie Wilson Sports Editor

IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHELLE DONELAN, MINSTER OF STATE FOR UNIVERSITIES In a March 25 interview, Roar spoke with Minister of State for Universities Michelle Donelan about Covid regulations, as well as the options available to students who wish to petition for tuition refunds.

R: And is the government also committed to continuing to support universities even once all stages of the roadmap have been completed and we get back to, dare I say, the old normal?

Roar: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. To start off: students haven't felt their expectations have been met this year. At King's, we were promised in-person teaching, which for the most part wasn't possible due to case surges and subsequent lockdowns. Could you set some expectations for students returning to London after the April holidays, and for the coming months?

MD: Yeah, absolutely. I work extremely closely with all universities. I have a higher education task force that we kept throughout this pandemic, and we continue to meet at least every two weeks to discuss these issues. And one of the things we've been working on with universities and with Universities UK - that's the largest sector body - is not only how universities will potentially add in some additional face-to-face teaching to compensate [...] but also how they will address the "catch-up" of the university experience.

Minister Donelan: As students will know, we got back, from January, those on critical key worker courses - allied health, social work, teacher training, etc. - and then from March 8 we said that practical and creative can go back, so right through from art to STEM subjects. The rest of the student body, we are currently reviewing. We always said that we would review it at Easter and that we would give at least one week's notice to both students and universities.

We're as eager as students are to get them back as quickly as possible, but we've got to do it based on that health data, and we've got to be cautious. It's part of the Prime Minister's roadmap, and we've said throughout that we want this current lockdown to be the last one. So it's important that we go at the right pace - but we will be giving clarity within the next couple of weeks.

R: And with the Prime Minister's new road out of lockdown, how is the government committed to keeping students safe when they return to campus and halls, be that in the coming weeks following the break or in September for next academic year?

MD: You'll know that universities have a great deal of Covid-secure measures in place, from one-way systems to hand sanitiser, et cetera, and they've invested heavily in that. But what's different, and what has been different this term to the autumn term, is the robust testing system that is in place.

And we are offering all students that are back at their university accommodation to test a week with lateral flow tests.

My key message to all students would be one of urging them to engage with that testing programme as a key way that we can break the transmission of the virus and prevent outbreaks.

Students' unions have done a fantastic job over the last year trying to make up for that, but it hasn't been the same. And we're working with universities in what more they can do to enrich that university experience when those restrictions allow for it.

I'm very passionate about mental health provision for students, and that was the case before the pandemic, but it's even more important now. We have a working group on this with the higher education sector; we also have a mental health action group across all education areas. [...] We will continue to urge universities to prioritise mental health, wellbeing, and ensuring that their communications to students assist with that.

R: What would your advice be to students to help them stay safe as lockdown measures continue to lift? You've mentioned that you'd urge students to make use of the testing facilities at their halls once they come back, but there are many students living elsewhere in the UK or internationally who are attending seminars via Teams.

MD: Well, first of all, I would just acknowledge how difficult and challenging it has been for students over the last year, whether they've been studying remotely overseas or remotely in the UK. And it hasn't been, as we've said, that normal university experience. My advice would be to engage in a testing programme if you're here, or if you're in another country that is offering that testing programme, and to abide by any restrictions that are in place in the location that you're at. [...] We're already vaccinated over 20 million individuals across the UK. We're on a good track, but we're not out of the wood. I think there's about five thousand individuals in the hospital [with Covid]

still. So we have to be cautious throughout. But my message as Universities Minister is that, no matter what, our priority is to ensure that you have a good quality education, that quality, quantity, and accessibility doesn't drop - and we will continue to work with universities to facilitate that.

R: Speaking to quality of education, many students, especially at Kings, have been calling for either full or partial refunds to their tuition fees this year as the result of reduced or fully cancelled in-person teaching. You recently told the Evening Standard that students who want a refund should complain to their university or the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA). I wanted to ask: do you believe a refund policy should be introduced or discussed? What is your opinion on the matter?

MD: Yes, so there is that process in place that you pointed out where students can make a formal complaint to the university, and if they're not happy they can go to the OIA, which can lead to a fee refund. We saw some case studies published by them a few weeks ago - one student got £5,000 refunded, for instance. Also, if a student doesn't want to do that, they can go onto the Office for Students (OfS) website. There's a notification process that they can put in, and the OfS are doing deep dives into universities and asking some questions and follow-ups on those and concerns that are raised [sic].

But in general, on the tuition fee issue, it has been a really difficult time. I can't say that enough, because it has, but one of our sort-of missions throughout this entire year has been to prioritise education, and we've managed to do that, including in higher education, where teaching and learning has continued throughout this year. Yes, it's been different, but we've also seen some innovative and amazing ways of using technology, some of which actually improved learning and will enrich the way that higher education is taught in the future.

And I must thank all of the higher education staff, from the lecturers to the support staff, for the work they've done in this area. But we don't set the minimum level of tuition fees, we set the maximum as a government. Universities have all chosen, however, to continue to charge that maximum. So in return, we do expect that the quality of teaching is there, that the quantity is there, and that it is accessible.

And like I said, if a student feels that isn't the case, there is that process in place they can explore and go down, either via the complaints process and then the OiA, or they can do a notification to the OfS.

Marino Unger-Verna

Editor-in-Chief