Issue 14: 7 December 2020

SOAS SPIRIT

7 DECEMBER 2020

FREE

YOUR INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE 14

SU FACES 70%

T&C: WHO IS

RACISM ALIVE AND

ANNUAL INCOME LOSS

MANAGEMENT SAVING?

GROWING IN THE UK

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Canteen Staff Cut Due to SOAS Policy Change

Luis Carlos outside SOAS campus where he remains employed after turning down a voluntary severance offer from SOAS. (Credit: Lara Gibbs)

Lara Gibbs, BA Chinese (Modern and Classical) On 30 June, SOAS canteen staff were threatened with involuntary redundancy should they not take a voluntary severance offer. The deadline for accepting was 17 July. Although involuntary redundancy did not transpire, there is much anger over SOAS’s handling of the situation.

According to UNISON Branch Secretary Sandy Nicoll, catering staff who took voluntary severance were offered around six months of pay. He went on to explain that staff could have been furloughed, which would have lasted until March 2021.

Nicoll has described SOAS’s actions as ‘unacceptable’ and questions what this means for the future of SOAS catering services. He fears SOAS will return to outsourcing, which Nicoll believes will lead to a higher risk of exploitation. In speaking with the SOAS Spirit, Nicoll raised the question as to what would happen when students return to campus, explaining that SOAS catering services are much more affordable for students than alternatives in London.

Luis Carlos, who previously worked in SOAS’s Main Building refectory, decided not to take voluntary severance as advised by UNISON. Carlos, along with some other staff,

was redeployed to work in a different role. In talking with the SOAS Spirit, Carlos described the mood amongst former catering staff as one of anger and desperation. He feels that those who work in sectors such as cleaning or catering frequently risk change in their working conditions, as opposed to those in senior positions.

Carlos emphasised the complexity of this situation, saying those who left had received money from SOAS but believed ‘it is not enough money if you have children or a family.’ In regards to his former colleagues, he claimed ‘it is very bad for Continued on page 3

7 DECEMBER 2020

Letter from the Editor

Contents News

SOAS introduces additional student p4 support initatives Brexit: Deal or No Deal?

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Human Rights of Black Britons: Another Damning Report

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Covid-19 vaccines spark optimism p9 but don’t provide silver bullet

Opinion Public Art: To Divide or Unite?

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Corbyn’s reinstatement: antisemitism acceptance?

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Muslim Pro and the American Security Apparatus

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Features Linguistic Puzzle: Standard Zhuang

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Crossword: Beyond Voting

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Leek & Potato Soup Lockdown Recipe

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Dear Spirit readers, The last issue of 2020 has arrived! I’m grateful to my Editorial Team and writers for the efforts they’ve put in these past few weeks – this issue has shaped up to be a great one.

This issue we’re thrilled to announce the return of our podcast in collaboration with SOAS Radio. You can ‘That’s the Spirit’ over on SOAS Radio’s SoundCloud. For this episode, myself and the Co-Editors, Louisa and Basit, were joined by Pickle (SOAS News Editor), Anna (Opinion Editor) and Artemis (Sports & Societies Editor) for a discussion on all the highlights from Issue 14.

But the great news doesn’t stop there: The SOAS Spirit is the most recent member of the Student Publication Association! If you’re part of the Spirit team in any way – either as a member of our Editorial Team or as a writer – you can head over to their website to make the most of all the perks available for members, from training schemes and resources, to events and awards.

This issue’s front cover story takes a deep dive into the consequences of a SOAS policy that forced SOAS canteen staff to choose between voluntary severance and involuntary redundancy. Luckily, nobody was made redundant

Maliha Shoaib • Managing Editor • Louisa Johnson• Co-Editor-in-Chief • Abdul Basit Mohammad • Co-Editor-in-Chief •

The Problem with Harry Styles’ p18 Non-Conforming Aesthetic p20

Louisa Johnson • Co-Editor-in-Chief

Russian Doping: The Saga Continues

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Top Society Picks

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Frances Howe • SOAS News Editor • Fakhriya M. Suleiman • National News Editor • Josh Mock • International News Editor • Anna Fenton-Jones • Opinion Editor • Ella Dorn • Features Editor • Destiny Adeyemi • Culture Editor • Artemis Sianni-Wedderburn • Sport & Societies Editor • Jia Ying Ailsa Gan • Layout Editor • Maxine Betteridge-Moes • Layout Editor • Annie Loduca • Layout Editor •

Sports & Societies

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Maliha Shoaib Managing Editor

Your SOAS Spirit Team

Culture Inclusive Christmas Movies

against their will – but this policy has caused a lot of outrage in the SOAS community. This article is packed with exclusive content from interviews carried out by our regular contributor, Lara Gibbs – and it’s not one to be missed.

On a more positive note, I wrote an article highlighting all the support schemes available to SOAS students from Student Advice and Wellbeing and the SU. These are difficult times for us all, so I urge you to reach out and make use of all these amazing initiatives.

National News is packed with some amazing articles (and amazing headlines too): everything from Covid, to parliament, to Black British rights. International News covers an equally broad range of topics, extending our coverage of the crisis in Ethiopia, Covid vaccines, Peru’s impeachment and human rights in the Western Sahara.

An article I’m particularly intrigued by is Millie Glaister’s insightful Opinion piece on SOAS’s Transformation and Change process – which was ostensibly put in place to save SOAS, but has had adverse affects on the SOAS community. Weronika Krupa’s article on the Abortion ban in Poland serves as a poignant reminder to stand in solidarity with each other in the face of injustice.

Features has some really fun pieces this issue – along with a recipe for leek and potato soup that looks delicious, our Features Editor, Ella, has created a linguistics puzzle, and our Culture Editor, Destiny, has created a word search.

Speaking of which, in Culture we have some articles that are festive yet critical (in the spirit of the Spirit!). Head on over to discover some inclusive Christmas films and read Chiara Stennett’s excellent analysis of the racist outrage over Christmas adverts featuring Black families.

Yet again, our Sports and Societies Editor, Artemis, has truly outdone herself. This section is about so much more than it seems – Artemis has curated a section that uses sports and SOAS societies to tackle really important social, political and global issues.

As always, we love to hear your comments and thoughts – please reach out to us on social media @soasspirit or by email to get involved in the discussion, or if you’d like to join us for next issue!

Lyla Amini • Copy Editor • Sajid Abbas • Copy Editor • Adela Begum • Copy Editor •

Abdul Basit Mohammad• Co-Editor-in-Chief

Jia Ying Ailsa Gan • Online Editor • Anneka Shah • Online Editor • Erum Nazeer Dahar • Online Editor • Alice Filiberto • Social Media Co-ordinator • Kahdijah Jihad • Social Media Co-ordinator •

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7 DECEMBER 2020 https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/news/ News Editors: Frances Howe, Fakhriya M. Suleiman, Josh Mock

SOAS News

News

Continued from page 1

them at the moment, many are worried about the situation and are still looking for jobs.’

SOAS’s Transformation and Change policy has contributed to the cuts. It was formulated in a bid to save money for the school, aiming to lower spending by £17 million for their 2020/21 budget. SOAS claims such action will create foundations for a ‘financially sustainable academic institution’, while ‘simultaneously advancing social justice.’ Nicoll, on the other hand, argues the policy is based on fallacious arguments. He added, this was exacerbated by including projected losses that eventually did not materialise and in themselves were based on erroneous numbers.

The SOAS Spirit reached out to SOAS for a comment in response to this article. The institution said: ‘In the summer,

the Board of Trustees reached the very difficult decision to undertake a widespread transformation and change project in response to Covid-19 and the serious financial position the School was in at the time. The catering service was making a loss, and closing it allowed us to reduce the number of jobs lost in other parts of Campus Services and elsewhere in the School.

‘As with every change that took place across the School during this period, we undertook a full School-wide consultation and consulted formally with the trade unions on both the proposed changes and the processes for restructuring. We understand that Transformation & Change has been a very difficult time for many people, although we are pleased to report that every member of Catering staff who was identified

as being at risk, was either successfully redeployed to another role within SOAS or decided to take voluntary severance.

‘We have had some early discussions with the Students’ Union to look at new food service options to provide on campus, and will return to these alongside our plans for reopening campus further, when this is possible.’

On 4 August 2017, it was announced that SOAS catering services would be brought in-house. This came into being on 29 August 2018. It was seen as a victory for catering staff, who had previously been outsourced. Carlos sees the Transformation and Change policy as an excuse for SOAS to go back on the progress made in 2018 and claims ‘all of that means nothing now.’

Students’ Union faces 70% annual income loss

The beloved SOAS Students’ Union amenities remain closed (Credit: Jasper Newport, The Tab)

Katherine Brown, MA Chinese Studies The Students’ Union bar and shop normally generate 70% of the Students’ Union (SU)’s annual income. Government announcements on 1 November excluded universities and schools from closing during the National lockdown. However, the majority of on campus amenities, including the student union bar and shop have remained closed since March.

In speaking to the SOAS Spirit, Anna Dodridge, General Manager of the SU, said the loss was ‘detrimental to a certain degree,’

but not as detrimental to the functions and aims of the SU as not being able to facilitate interactions with students in person.

Dodridge has said that there are savings from the reduced expenditures going out, which has softened the financial impact. The SU merchandise shop continues to sell products online.

According to the SU, most of the staff at the SU bar were on yearly contracts, with only two staff members on permanent contracts. The staff on yearly contracts were furloughed until the end of their contracts.

Those contracts have not been renewed.

The last update on the SU website from 30

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September indicated their hopes to reopen the JCR and bar dependent on SOAS’ return to campus plans. The SU have affirmed that if they cannot guarantee the safety of staff and students, the bar and shop will remain closed. Yasmin Elsouda, the co-president for Welfare and Campaigns at the SU, emphasised that this was a moral stance the SU held, regardless of the financial loss they will face.

SOAS has made the decision to solely deliver online teaching for the remainder of the academic year due to the enduring pandemic. The library services and study spaces remain open with an online booking system

in place. This is despite the fact that several other London colleges including Imperial and LSE, alongside other universities across the UK, have been able to have some form of face-to-face campus contact.

The closures will also no doubt be a loss to student life, along with the closures of the UCL and Birkbeck student bars near Russell Square. With students continuing to pay full tuition fees this year despite completely online delivery, students will be looking for alternative social activities from the SU, who in turn will be looking to regain some lost revenue.

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News

7 DECEMBER 2020

SOAS introduces additional student support initiatives

Student Advice and Wellbeing and the Students’ Union have been working to provide additional support for students (Credit: SOAS)

Maliha Shoaib, BA English and World Philosophies Due to a projected increase in students struggling with mental health and wellbeing, SOAS has introduced additional support initiatives. These initiatives are being made available as England emerges from a second lockdown and the winter months arrive.

Both events are predicted to have a detrimental effect on students.

While SOAS’s Student Advice and Wellbeing (SAaW) team have always offered mental health and counselling services, they have introduced a number of additional initiatives to support students during these distressing times. Any student who completes a Covid-19 form to inform the university that they have tested positive receives an email from Lydia Pell, Head of Student Advice and Wellbeing, to address any practical and emotional needs.

In an interview with the Spirit, Pell said, ‘We’re in discussion at the moment about launching a specific counselling group for people who have Covid in January. We’re aware that students might have more issues post-Covid, including the long Covid impact, shame and stigma associated with their diagnosis, and long-term disabling impacts that they might not be used to.’

SAaW received an influx of students seeking support in October and November. Pell explained, ‘over the past 5 years the counselling service has seen between 500 and 600 students a year - with the higher numbers usually between January and March. So we have seen an increase this term compared to previous years, but we also saw a lot less March to August than we would have

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usually. This is similar to national figures in mental health services and universities, where during the lockdown period many less people were being referred/self referring for support.’

Regarding counselling, Pell urges students to seek help: ‘Students often think their problem isn’t big enough for counselling. But we don’t want them to wait until their problems feel big enough for counselling – we want to see them just as it starts to feel stressful.’ Pell also encouraged students to make their needs known to SAaW so they can continue to adapt and offer new support schemes for the changing issues that arise in these unprecedented times.

“Students often think their problem isn’t big enough for counselling. But we don’t want them to wait until their problems feel big enough for counselling – we want to see them just as it starts to feel stressful.”

SAaW have recently appointed a Black Students’ Counsellor, Abi Gordon, and are planning to appoint an International Students’ Counsellor and a Trans* Counsellor. The SU also has a Black Student Support Coordinator, Lucia Kula, who emphasised that ‘from the way wellbeing/mental health support is offered, to the way teaching and

learning can become more inclusive with a focus on decolonising and accessibility for all students, it is an opportunity to shape the culture and make sure that initiatives such these continue to be possible to create a positive learning environment.’ James Hallet, SAaW Administrative Officer and former SOAS student, described SOAS’s intersectional approach to counseling as ‘cutting edge,’ explaining that SAaW ‘offer support in a way that’s mindful of the student demographic.’

Hallett and Reverend Claudette Douglas, Multi-Faith Advisor, created an international students group called ‘Let’s Chat’ in response to the many students who remained in London during lockdown. Details of how to join all SAaW events are made available in an email newsletter sent to all students every Friday. In these newsletters, the administrative staff members, Hallet and Hannah Penn, also make clear which time slots they are available for phone call check-ins. The SAaW team is also currently creating a handbook to distribute to students during the winter break which will signpost the support initiatives and events made available by the SU and the SAaW team.

Along with Student Advice and Wellbeing support initiatives, the Students’ Union is also offering a number of support schemes.

In particular the SU and SAaW are working together to offer anxiety workshops.

Roza Atac, SU Equality and Liberation co-president, has been working with Rev Douglas and CBT trained counsellor Jerome Dawes to provide open forums for students, particularly in university accommodation, who are feeling isolated. These sessions are held monthly.

The first session was held on 19

November via Zoom, and was based on the theme of loneliness and connectedness. The next session will be focused on supporting students who will be stuck in accommodation over winter break.

In an interview with the Spirit, Atac said, ‘We’re just trying to give people tools for selfcare and their own wellbeing. It’s not group therapy or anything that replaces the services in SAaW – it’s complementary. We’re trying to build a space for people to connect and feel a sense of community.’ Atac also urged students to reach out to the sabbatical officers for support or just an ‘informal chat’ if they ‘feel lonely and need a buddy.’

Hasan Zakria, SU Activities and Events officer, has been offering speed-friending events every Tuesday and Thursday from 11am-12pm and 5pm-6pm to ‘combat social isolation and loneliness.’ During the sessions, students are placed in randomized groups of 3-4 people with prompt questions to encourage conversation. These groups are changed every 15 minutes with a 2-3 minute break between.

According to anonymous feedback forms provided at the end of each session, 30.2% of students felt nervous going into the session, with 27.9% feeling comfortable after Zakria introduced the session, and 23.3% feeling comfortable after the first breakout room.

The events have been popular amongst the students who have attended: 100% stated they would return for another speedfriending event, and 79.1% left with another student’s contact details. The events have been described as ‘a true blessing for mental health’ and ‘the most efficient way to make new friends.’ The event details are available in the Monday SU events newsletter.

Lydia Pell, Head of Student Advice and Wellbeing at SOAS (Credit: SOAS)

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National News

7 DECEMBER 2020

National News

Easy Cummings, Uneasy Goings

A dejected Dominic Cummings photographed leaving 10 Downing Street on 13 November. (Credit: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls)

Fakhriya M. Suleiman, MA Global Media and Postnational Communications Dominic Cummings, the now bygone Chief Adviser to Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson, resigned from his post on 13 November. According to the Financial Times (FT), Cummings' premature departure followed a meeting of 'intense exchanges' with the PM. Therein, Johnson accused Cummings of 'destabilising' the government.

Also present during the bitter exchange of words was another now former top aide to the PM who has also quit.

Lee Cain, the ex-communications director, followed suit and resigned the same day as Cummings. The two were said to have 'briefed against' the PM. Cummings and Cain are not strangers to one another.

They were close allies and worked together during the Brexit campaign. Cummings is in fact credited for the 'let's take back control' slogan - as seen on 'Brexit busses' during the run up to the 2016 referendum vote. The Cummings-Cain exit is reported as being welcomed by some within the Conservative party as a 'reset' to enable smoother leadership amid struggles to grapple with the country's Coronavirus woes and looming end of the Brexit transition period.

The FT went on to describe the week leading up to Cummings' and Cain's resignation as 'acrimonious'. ITV's Political Editor Robert Peston cited the troublesome pair as creating an atmosphere of 'toxicity' for having failed to 'handle

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personal relations within government optimally'.

In his personal blog, Cummings wrote of his time at No. 10 as being marred by 'grotesque incompetents,' 'dysfunctional egomaniacs' who got in the way of his Vote Leave campaign strategy. And, subsequently, a 'conspiracy network' that sought to tarnish his image following the success of his triumphant Leave strategy.

While Cummings and Cain have been booted, the PM will seek to reboot government. The FT's Whitehall Correspondent, Sebastian Payne, suggested Munira Mirza as being Johnson's likely choice for Cummings' successor. Mirza is currently the head of Downing Street's policy unit. Payne foresees Mirza shifting Tory focus to the issues of first-time voters from Northern England.

Payne highlighted that whereas under Cummings, the style of operations were 'aggressive [with a focus on] pugilistic campaigning,' this revival will see a more 'consensual' Downing Street. Payne suggested that Johnson will reach out to a broader scope of Tory MPs and ministers, as well as the media - who afore felt 'out of step'.

Payne further noted 'levelling up' (tackling England's regional inequality) as being atop of Johnson's priority list.

According to Payne, the PM will 'find himself back in favour with the general public, as well as his own party,' if he succeeds in 'levelling up' in a more consensual style.

However, all this does not necessarily spell the end of the love story between Johnson and the ousted pair. According to

the Times, Whitehall insiders said the PM spoke of someday 'getting the band back together.' The source hinted that the two may re-emerge at No. 10 in the run up to the 2024 general election to work on the Conservative party's election campaign.

Cummings first became a political strategist for the Conservative party in 2002. He soon quit his post eight months into the job, citing former leader Iain Duncan Smith as being 'worse than Blair.'

He did not become a household name until March of this year when he took the infamous 264-mile long trip from London to his hometown of County Durham. He did so when the country had only just been put into lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. He and his wife were also confirmed to have contracted the virus at the time.

He initially cited the reasoning for going against the PM's advice to 'stay at home and protect the NHS' on grounds that he needed family help to look after his children while he was unwell. Later on 12 April, Cummings and his family took a 30-mile drive from County Durham to Barnard Castle. He stated he had wanted to test whether his vision was good enough to drive back to London the day after.

Amid national outrage of a senior figure within government seemingly getting a slap on the wrist for having gone against lockdown rules, Cummings gave a public statement on 25 May. Therein, he expressed having 'no regrets' for what he did.

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National News

7 DECEMBER 2020

Brexit: Deal or No Deal?

Charlotte Paule, MSc Politics of Asia 23 June 2016 saw Britain vote to leave the European Union. More than four years later, the Brexit fiasco still seems far from over.

While the withdrawal agreement was signed and enforced on 31 January 2020, effectively ending the UK’s membership to the EU, it also included an 11-month ‘transition period’. The aim was to give enough time for both parties to negotiate new deals on areas such as trade, competition, and security cooperation. The transition period is set to end on 31 December 2020, and a deal has yet to be signed.

In September, Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson remarked that if by 15 October no agreement had been reached at the EU Summit meeting, the UK would step away from negotiations and accept the fate of a no-deal departure. No deal was signed, but Johnson did not make good on his word aforementioned and negotiations continued. Negotiations later faced more gridlock following an EU negotiator testing positive for Covid-19 on 19 November - forcing EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, to go into self-isolation. As a result, the negotiation process has now moved online, with less than six weeks to go before the end of the transitional period.

It is, however, reported that EU ambassadors were told a trade and security agreement was close to being finalised, and that contentious issues were slowly being resolved. Namely issues surround the levelplaying field provisions on state aid, environmental and labour standards, and access for EU fleets to UK fishing waters. While these issues remain unsettled, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen stated that

recently there has been progress on these important matters.

Time is, however, running out. Both the European Parliament and every member state need to review and ratify the Brexit document. This could lead to an accidental no-deal if the agreement can not be approved by all before 31 December due to lengthy bureaucratic procedures.

In preparation for such an outcome, officials in France, Belgium, and The Netherlands have called on the European Commission to step up its contingent plan in case of a no deal, as the three will be most affected by the UK’s departure.

Divisions on Brexit are also to be found in London, as aides to the PM and staunch pro-Brexiteers, Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, recently resigned, in part over the direction of the country’s departure.

The Coronavirus pandemic may also put into question the PM’s willingness to accept a no deal departure. No deal would arguably be a lot harder to sell to the population in the current state of crisis than it was in 2019, especially given that many jobs in Northern England and the Midlands would be threatened as a result. As explained by the Financial Times, this time round, the argument of reclaiming Britain’s sovereignty ‘might not be enough’.

Analysts cite the best case scenario as being: come 1 January 2021, Britain and the EU’s relationship will revert back to how it was in 1993. Under John Major’s premiership, the Maastricht treaty came into effect, establishing the EU. Britain was not committed to the monetary union, but had a free trade agreement with the bloc.

In the worst case, the relationship would fall subject to the World Trade Organisation’s rules, with each side putting tariffs on

Labour MEP Richard Corbett on 29th January 2020 as the European Parliament debated and voted on the withdrawal agreement, formally ending the UK’s membership to the EU. (Credit: European Union)

key sectors of the economy. This would be incredibly damaging to the UK as it would then lose open access to one of its largest export markets and source of imports.

As of 22 November, officials in the EU and the UK reassured the public that a deal was close to being signed. However, the threat of an accidental no deal is still very much present as the end of the transition period draws to a close. The EU Parliament,

EU member states, and the UK will need to examine and ratify this deal.

With reportedly too little time to translate the document to all 24 EU languages, this race against the clock is made even more complicated by the pandemic and the move online of negotiation talks. As the worst economic crisis in modern history is already unfolding, we can only hope it will not be made worse by a no deal Brexit.

They Knew it Would Burn, Reveals Grenfell Inquiry Frances Howe, LLB Evidence provided to the Grenfell Inquiry in November revealed several construction material suppliers knew about the combustible nature of the cladding years before the fire would claim 72 lives.

“Suppliers knew about the combustible nature of the cladding years before the fire would claim 72 lives.”

Fire safety tests performed on the cladding were overengineered and ‘dishonest’ revealed ex-project manager, Jonathan Roper of Colotex. Colotex supplied the foam

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insulation panels for the Grenfell Tower block.

Roper gave evidence to the Inquiry that the panels had initially failed a fire safety test in 2014, performed three years before the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017. Despite this, the company marketed the cladding as fire safe after adding magnesium oxide before a second, and this time successful, test. On 19 November, former technical supervisor at Celotex, Jamie Hays, gave evidence that it was his idea to add the magnesium oxide in order for the insulation to pass the second test. However, he claimed to have no knowledge that the product would be marketed and sold without disclosing the use of the added material.

Roper told the inquiry that this marketing tactic was ‘intended to mislead’ and that he felt ‘incredibly uncomfortable with it.’

Evidence has been presented to the Inquiry in regards to three construction suppliers involved in providing the combustible cladding that set alight on the Grenfell Tower. The companies, Celotex, Arconic and Kingspan, have all denied wrongdoing.

During the inquiry, emails from Arconic, who supplied

combustible aluminium composite material panels used in the cladding system, revealed senior executives had prior knowledge of the ‘VERY CONFIDENTIAL’ combustible nature of the product.

The Arconic panels were chosen by the Kengington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) in an attempt to reduce the cost of construction on the refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower. Emails from a senior executive at Arconic, Claude Wehrle, shown to the Inquiry, revealed knowledge of other cases of high-rise buildings with similar cladding catching on fire. Wehrle’s emails dated as early as 2009, eight years before the Grenfell Tower fire.

These hearings are a part of the second phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry which began on 28 January 2020. The first phase investigated the events of the fire on 14 June 2017 whereas this second phase aims to investigate wider causes behind the event. The Inquiry was established under former Prime Minister, Theresa May. On 29 June 2017, May published a statement in which she affirmed that ‘no stone will be left unturned by this inquiry.’ The Inquiry will continue to hear evidence against the cladding suppliers.

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National News

7 DECEMBER 2020

Rashford Strikes Back at Government

Marcus Rashford ‘scores’ for a second time in his campaign against child hunger in Britain. (Credit: The Metro)

Esme Bateson, MA Cultural Studies In a roller coaster of events, English striker Marcus Rashford celebrated as £170 million has been granted to English councils to prevent children going hungry over the Winter Holidays.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced that the money will support families across 2021 too, and help increase Healthy Start payments, a scheme aimed to help low budget families buy fresh fruit and vegetables.

The U-turn followed the shocking decision earlier in the year, where Rashford’s Labour supported motion was initially rejected by 322 votes to 261. Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson stated that poor families were already being supported by the benefit system.

Subsequent provision from English businesses and local councils in the wake of the Commons’ rejection to ensure children did not go hungry over the October half term demonstrated national anger towards the decision. England’s Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield OBE, highlighted that ‘hunger does not take a holiday when schools close and a long-term solution to the growing number of children in poverty is urgently required.’

However for Kate Green, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, the timing of the government’s u-turn, which fell after the autumn break, was appalling. Green stated that ministers had ‘created needless and avoidable hardship for families across the country’. Nevertheless, Javed Khan, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s, believed it to be a win, stating ‘this new scheme is a lifeline for vulnerable families who are struggling to feed their families and heat their homes this winter. It will also help prevent ‘holiday hunger’ throughout 2021.’

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Rashford was quick to offer praise of the government’s change of heart: ‘following the game today, I had a good conversation with the Prime Minister to better understand the proposed plan, and I very much welcome the steps that have been taken to combat child food poverty in the UK’.

He continued by saying that ‘there is still so much more to do, and my immediate concern is the approximate 1.7 million children who miss out on free school meals, holiday provision and Healthy Start vouchers because their family income isn’t quite low enough, but the intent the Government have shown today is nothing but positive and they should be recognised for that.’

However, the debacle uncovered another food issue.

Members of Parliament (MPS) voting down free meals for the nation’s impoverished children has been argued as ‘farcical' since taxpayers subsidise the daily lunch of MPS and Peers. Currently, £57,000 a week is how much taxpayers subsidise the food and drink, including alcohol, across the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Following their snub of food vouchers for kids, costing just £15 a week in comparison, a new campaign arose proclaiming the need to end subsidised meals for MPs and Peers.

One supporter stated ‘MPs have had a pay rise, and they have subsidised food. They have voted against the NHS nurses and the poorest of us from getting these things too. They are utterly shameless in denying children food during this very difficult time, yet continue to benefit from the privileges of their office.’

With Ribeye steak on sale for £9.19, considerably lower than the commercial price, it is estimated that the general public fund £7.60 for every £10 an MP spends on lunch.

When such low prices were questioned in 2010, it was promised that the subsidy would be cut by £500,000. In reality, it has risen by nearly 20% since then. In an era of layoffs and pay cuts due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis,

it seems that MPs still continue to gain, despite directly going against aid for lower income members of society, who need the support the most.

“In an era of layoffs and pay cuts due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis, it seems that MPs still continue to gain, despite directly going against aid for lower income members of society, who need the support the most.”

Further, during the summer, the paint job to Johnson’s prime ministerial aircraft cost the taxpayer a staggering £900,000. In an interview with LBC Radio, Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, stated that it was in fact ‘good value for money’.

However, with Rashford on their side, Britain’s struggling youth have a hero both on and off the pitch. ‘These children are the future of this country; they are not just another statistic. And for as long as they don’t have a voice, they will have mine. You have my word on that’, Rashford stated.

Rashford has since announced he will be setting up a book club for all children to experience the joy of reading and appreciate the value of education. Within the book club, Rashford will emphasise the importance of female role models and promote literacy in lower socio-economic groups.

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National News

7 DECEMBER 2020

Human Rights of Black Britons: Another Damning Report for the Pile, Changes Yet to be Made Eliza Bacon, MA Media in Development The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has released the report ‘Black People, Racism and Human Rights’.

The report unpacks racism in Britain across issues of health, criminal justice, immigration, and democracy.

In what the Committee described as ‘a damning indictment of our society’, it found that 75% of Black Britons do not believe that their human rights are equally protected, including the right to liberty, free trial, and a family life. In response, 22 points of action were proposed to tackle racism against Britain’s Black community.

The report highlights the lack of ‘sustained political will’ to implement recommendations from previous reports concerning racism and inequality. Report such as the Windrush Lessons Learned Review (2020) and The MacPherson Report (1999) both found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist following the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence.

The committee reiterated that the promises made by the government in response to the Windrush scandal must be enacted ‘as a matter of urgency’, with focus on ‘securing the cultural changes needed to ensure that people are treated with humanity’.

Baroness Lawrence, a racial justice campaigner and Stephen Lawrence’s mother, told the committee: ‘I am not sure

how many more lessons the government needs to learn. It is not just the government of today, but the government of the Labour Party. How many more lessons do we all need to learn? The lessons are there already for us to implement.’

Recently, the relationship of Black communities and the criminal justice systems worldwide have fallen under scrutiny this year following global Black Lives Matters protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the USA. This report has found that Black Britons continue to be overrepresented at every stage of the Criminal Justice System. A situation that has in fact worsened since the 2016 Lammy Review, from which only 6 of 35 recommendations were implemented thereafter.

The report also called for a robust response to the Angiolini Review into Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody (2017), as Black Britons continue to die at a disproportionate rate in police custody. A recent poll also found 85% of black participants surveyed did not believe that they would be treated the same as a white person by the police.

The widespread distrust that burgeons in response to Britain’s criminal justice failures was stressed upon by Lord Woolley as a major factor in the discrepancy of voter registration. Woolley, founder and director of Operation Black Vote, told the committee, ‘Part of the problem is that we have hundreds of thousands of young people, particularly black and minority ethnic, who still see our institutions,

particularly the police, as against us and not for us. They do not see the policies of central and local government working for us, so they say to me, ‘Why bother? Why engage in this rigged system?’’

25% of Black voters in the UK are not registered to vote, compared to a 17% average across the population. The committee recommends implementation of automatic voter registration as a means of increasing democratic participation.

In the healthcare sector, the report found that 47% of Black men and 78% of Black women do not believe their health is equally protected by the NHS, compared to the majority white population.

In November 2019, a report into maternal morbidity in the UK from researchers at Oxford University found Black women are five times more likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth or in the postpartum period, compared to their white counterparts. A statistic which has been found to continually increase for years.

More recently, research from Public Health England found Black and other Minority Ethnic groups are disproportionately at greater risk of dying from Covid-19.

For the Runnymede Trust: ‘This new report reinforces what we already know: Black and Minority Ethnic people are not given the same privileges and rights as the rest of the population as a result of systemic and institutional racism.’

Government in Hot Water Over 'Cronyistic' PPE Contracts Samia Majid, MA History The National Audit Office (NAO) recently published a report on the UK government’s procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), highlighting chronic mismanagement of public funds.

The report revealed that ‘high-priority’ suppliers with political connections were 10 times more likely to be awarded PPE contracts than companies using standard channels. Whilst the government awarded a total of £18 billion in contracts in the first six months of the pandemic, £10.5 billion was awarded without competitive tender.

Government auditors stated that there was ‘no documentation on the consideration of conflicts of interest, no recorded process for choosing the supplier, and no specific justification for using emergency procurement’.

Adequate checks were not carried out until after contracts were signed, with missing paperwork increasing the risk of underperformance and negligence. The NAO highlights potential conflicts of interest and emphasises a lack of transparency regarding supplier decisions.

The government now faces accusations of cronyism and corruption from The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor, which have brought court proceedings against the Department of Health and Social Care.

They assert that the government is guilty of unlawful mismanagement of public funds,

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violating rules stating that contract notices must be provided within 30 days in order to mitigate the risk of fraud.

The Prime Minister has since asserted that he is ‘proud of securing PPE supplies and any government would have done the same’.

Appearing on BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show in November, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a similar vein asserted that during the desperate time on the onset of the Covid crisis in Britain, he and the government ‘had to act very quickly’.

In the first virtual Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson added that all government contracts will be made public.

The PPE crisis continues to unfold in light of news that the government awarded multimillion pound PPE contracts to businesses with little or no experience. These include a £252 million contract to Ayanda Capital and a £32 million contract to Crisp Websites; it was later revealed that 50 million supplies obtained from Ayanda were unfit for purpose due to safety concerns.

The UK’s precarious dependence on outsourced PPE has highlighted an urgent need to invest in domestic manufacturers. It was revealed that a Spanish businessman received £21 million of British taxpayer money in return for secure PPE equipment. Gabriel Gonzalez Andersson worked as an intermediary for the British government and Michael Saiger, owner of a Florida-based jewellery company, Miansai.

Miami court documents show that Mr

The UK government is facing a PPE crisis. (Credit: Simon Davis, DFID, UK Department for International Development via Wikimedia Commons)

Andersson was awarded ‘a number of lucrative contracts’ to supply protective garments to the NHS. Although the Department of Health maintains that proper checks were in place, court documents claim Mr Andersson ended his work with Mr Saiger shortly after the contracts were signed, prompting a massive delay in PPE deliveries to frontline workers. Despite this, Saiger LLC was poised to receive an additional three PPE contracts in June.

More recently, a Guardian investigation exposed the government’s dependence on PPE manufacturers that have been found using forced labour. Chinese factories in Dandong, keep North Korean women in conditions akin to modern slavery, according to the UN. They toil under 18-hour workdays with little or no breaks. And, subject to constant surveillance, labourers are prevented

from leaving work.

Dandong factories are a hub of PPE production, exporting supplies to the U.S., Germany, Italy, and the Philippines, among others. North Koreans form the bulk of the workforce in Dandong factories, which are situated on the border between China and North Korea. Workers earn as little as 2,200 (£240) to 2,800 (£310) yuan a month, but the North Korean state appropriates around 70% of wages.

This is not the first instance where the British government has faced backlash over its PPE procurement practices. In September, it sourced PPE from Top Glove, a Malaysian medical glove manufacturer accused of using forced labour. The company allegedly forced labourers to work 12-hour shifts and provided no protective measures against hazards or risks to its employees.

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National News

7 DECEMBER 2020

England versus Lockdown: Round 2 Nahidah Khan, BA Development Studies and Politics The end of October saw Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson announce the reimposition of lockdown measures in England, lasting from 5 November to 2 December. This followed confirmation that the infection rate had reached one million Covid-19 cases in the UK. Amid Covid-19 cases increasing rapidly, the second round of restrictions included a ban on both domestic and foreign travel, except when needed for purposes of healthcare, education, or work. Holiday-goers travelling during this lockdown period could have faced fines ranging from £200 to £6,400.

England’s pubs, restaurants, gyms, and other ‘non-essential’ shops were also met with mandatory closures to reduce social contact, but click-and-collect and delivery services were still permissible. In general, the public health advice was that social meetings should not take place, however exercise in a public space with members of one’s ‘support bubble’ (where a household with one adult joins with another household) was allowed.

On the day of the announcement, the PM’s press release was delayed by three hours. Whitehall insiders suggested it was the result of the ministerial meeting leak that occurred the day before - causing the timeline of the announcement to be pushed up.

The decision for a second lockdown provoked an internal rift within the Conservative party, splitting Tory’s into ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ and ‘Lockdown Proponents’. The former got their moniker from leading lockdown opponent and the Conservative party’s very own Steve Baker MP. Baker runs a WhatsApp broadcast list, aptly named ‘Lockdown Sceptics,’ where 95 Tory MPs receive updates regarding lockdown prospects.

Despite the Sceptics’ rebellion, there was an overwhelming majority of 516 votes across the House of Commons that approved the second lockdown, with only 38 MPs defying their whips and voting against the motion.

Recently, Tory ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ launched the ‘Covid Recovery Group’ to fight against future instances of lockdown, with former Tory chief whip Mark Harper at the helm of the initiative. The group sees England as being capable of ‘living with’ Coronavirus and for Harper, lockdown as a ‘cure’ has ‘the risk of being worse than the disease’ itself.

On the other hand, there are government officials, including Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland, who said in an interview that the four-week imposition is the ‘right thing to do’. Buckland went on to address the idea of possibly even extending restrictions past 2 December, saying that ‘you can't rule anything out.’

However, Boris Johnson insists ‘without a shred of doubt’ that there will not be an extension to the lockdown.

If the PM’s above-mentioned promise is broken, there could be serious repercussions on university students, whose varsity experiences are now being negatively shaped by the pandemic. A survey by Save the Student showed that since the beginning of this academic year, more students are experiencing ‘issues with their mental health and feelings of loneliness’ due to prolonged self isolation.

Their survey found 66% of students report that their mental health had been affected as a result of the crisis. Of the participants, 42% have had to self-isolate which could be contributing towards the rising mental health issues. This is further evidenced in the survey as ‘Loneliness’ is listed as the third most prominent issue that worries students, possibly an unfortunate by-product of lockdown.

Fortunately, the government has ordered 40 million

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Infographic by savethestudent.org, breaking down how 94% of students surveyed say they have been affected by COVID-19. (Credit: savethestudent.org)

vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, which has been found to be 95% effective.

The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, also made an announcement that the UK has secured 5 million doses of Moderna’s Vaccine, which thus far has had an effectivity rate of 94%. On 20 November, Hancock stated in a press release that ‘if the regulator approves a vaccine, we will be ready to start the vaccination process next month.’ In the meantime, Hancock urges members of the population aged 50 and above to get a flu jab. 30 million people are eligible in the

largest immunisation scheme to be seen in England.

24 November saw Johnson announce to the Commons that a three-tier system will be put in place at the culmination of lockdown. Johnson’s announcement sparked outrage over the decision to put the majority of England in either of the two tougher tiers, thus plunging England into yet another round of stringent restrictions.

Amid both Tory and national backlash, Johnson defended his decision, saying that while he knows it ‘frustrates people, we’ve got to get the virus down.’

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International News

7 DECEMBER 2020

International News

Human rights activists in hiding amid outbreak of war in Western Sahara Maxine Betteridge-Moes, MA Media in Development Several Western Sahara human rights and media activists have gone into hiding from Moroccan forces, who they claim are targeting those involved in a border protest that sparked the end of a decades-long ceasefire and the outbreak of war on 14 November.

The homes of two Saharawi journalists from the Nushatta Foundation for Media and Human Rights were reported to have been raided. Other members say they fear retaliation for their work reporting on the conflict, documenting human rights abuses and campaigning for self-determination in what is known as ‘Africa’s Last Colony.’

‘I’m hiding … to avoid the launch of an aggressive campaign by Morocco, which targets those who document and report on what’s going on in Western Sahara,’ said twenty-seven-year-old activist Mansour, a member of the Nushatta Foundation. ‘This is not the first time. It’s something we have been experiencing for many years, and now it’s getting worse because of war.’

Since the outbreak of war, Mansour says he and at least 10 other members have been sharing footage of the violence using social media from their places of hiding, as well as reporting on the police raids and targeting of Saharawi protesters. ‘We have different

correspondents on the front in the war right now and also in the city who tell us what’s happening. We are reporting everything,’ he said.

Nearly 30 years after the establishment of a UN-brokered ceasefire between Morocco and the disputed Western Sahara, the proindependence Polisario Front declared a ‘return to the armed struggle’ after Moroccan troops launched an operation in the demilitarized buffer zone at the southern Guerguerat border. Rabat maintains that it is committed to the ceasefire, but that its army would respond with anti-tank weaponry in self-defence.

‘It had been coming,’ said British journalist Toby Shelley, author of Endgame in the Western Sahara. ‘Guerguerat ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back.’

Western Sahara is an approximately 250,000 square kilometre swath of desert on the Atlantic coast of Africa. Rich in phosphate reserves and off-shore fisheries, Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975. It became the site of brutal conflict between Morocco and the indigenous Saharawi people, led by the Polisario Front and backed by Algeria.

In 1991, the UN established the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) tasked with maintaining the ceasefire agreement and carrying out a vote to self-determination. But the referendum has been repeatedly postponed, and today

most Saharawis are divided among refugee camps in Algeria, the Moroccan-occupied territory, and the liberated ‘Free Zone.’

Meanwhile, the human rights situation has gone largely unreported as human rights monitoring is not included in MINURSO’s mission. Human Rights Watch has said the situation is characterised by Morocco’s firm repression and use of violence against Saharawis expressing their opposition to Moroccan rule and favouring self-determination.

In October, the UN Security Council extended MINURSO’s mission, citing ‘the need for a realistic, practicable and enduring solution … based on compromise,’ but has yet to update the mission’s mandate or appoint a new personal envoy to the region.

A spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he ‘expresses grave concern regarding the possible consequences of the latest developments’ and ‘remains committed’ to avoiding the total collapse of the 1991 ceasefire.

But young activists like Mansour, frustrated by years of inaction, say they have no choice but to resort to violence.

‘One of the biggest concerns that we raised as a civilian society is to enable MINURSO to monitor the human rights situation,’ said Mansour. ‘They didn’t do this in 30 years. So how can they do it in the time of war? Peaceful activism is not an option.

That is what we’re understanding now.’

The conflict threatens to further

destabilize the Maghreb region, which is grappling with insurgencies in Mali and Mauritania and the longstanding war in Libya. Shelley says that a lack of widespread media coverage has also contributed to the diplomatic, governmental and UN inattention to the situation in Western Sahara.

‘If there had been vigorous attempts to get something done [by] the Security Council … then we would have seen more coverage of the problem. It’s that lack of attention that underlies the return to conflict,’ Shelley said.

The Western Sahara Campaign, an advocacy group in the UK, works in solidarity with the Saharawi people to generate political support for self-determination and promote human rights. Shelley says the group is putting pressure on the Foreign Office as a Security Council member to push forward with the peace process and prevent a return to full scale conflict.

‘I have to maintain optimism buoyed by the confidence and determination of Saharawi activists in Western Sahara that have never shown any signs of giving up.’

But after days in hiding alone in Layoune, the future looks less hopeful for Mansour.

‘We are stuck. The Security Council didn’t do anything and will not do anything, and same for the United Nations,’ he said. ‘It’s a tragic ending and I feel so sorry for what’s happening.’

Government based in Addis Ababa.

The TPLF believes Ahmed is trying to take away their power. In August, he called for the postponement of regional elections due to the spread of Covid-19, which the TPLF ignored. In response to the National Government’s refusal to recognize these elections, the TPLF attacked an Ethiopian Army base in Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region.

Following the attack, the Ethiopian Defence Forces have been trying to push the TPLF out of the northern cities and have recently seized numerous towns in the Tigray region, including Alamata and Igada Hamus. Meanwhile, Ahmed’s government has appointed their own leader of the Tigray state. The government has also issued arrest warrants for several Tigray politicians ‘trying to erode the constitution,’ as reported by state media.

Both the Ethiopian Army and the TPLF are accused of committing atrocities involving civilians. Amnesty International has reported that ‘hundreds of people were stabbed or hacked to death’ by the TPLF in the southern Tigray town of Mai-Kadra.

The TPLF have hit back with accusations of Ethiopian forces ethnically profiling and

killing Tigrayan civilians.

Regional experts are worried that the recent escalations will turn into a damaging international conflict, just as peace was on the horizon. In 2018, Abiy Ahmed finally established relations with neighboring Eritrea and formed a friendship with Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki.

Despite the Tigray making up approximately 55% of Eritrea’s population, the TPLF accuse 16 divisions of the Eritrean Army of supporting Ethiopia. On 14 November they carried out a missile strike on Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, which was strongly condemned by the United States.

As a result of the recent tensions, the UN reports 30,000 civilians have fled Ethiopia to Sudan, with many more waiting at the border. Already heavily reliant on humanitarian aid, it is likely that the recent conflict will only worsen existing food and water shortages in refugee camps across the region.

Life for those in Um Raquba and several other camps across Sudan’s Kassala province looks bleak and many refugees have arrived with no belongings. As the conflict shows no signs of ceasing, many are waiting in anguish, uncertain of when and how they will be allowed to return home.

Tigray crisis threatens regional stability

Refugee living in Sudanese camp (Credit: Frank Keillor)

Clayton Barrington-Russell, BA Arabic and International Relations 20 years after its closure, the Um Raquba refugee camp in Eastern Sudan has re-opened its doors to an influx of refugees from Ethiopia. According to the United Nations, ‘up to 200,000’ Ethiopian refugees are expected to cross into Sudan, fleeing what could potentially be the latest devastating conflict in the region.

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The recent skirmishes are between the Ethiopian Defence Forces and the regional government of the northern Tigray Region, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

The Tigray make up only around 6% of Ethiopia’s population, but the TPLF have always been a powerful force across the country, including seizing control of Addis Ababa with Eritrean-backed forces on 28 May 1991. However, in recent years Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has tried to unify the state by giving more control to the National

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International News

7 DECEMBER 2020

Peru: protests turn violent after President’s impeachment Maria Sole Campinoti, BA History & Politics

The impeachment of President of the Republic of Peru Martin Vizcarra on 9 November has led to weeks of turbulence and protests. The country saw the dismantling of its elected government and three Presidents take charge between 9 and 17 of November.

After taking office in March 2018, Vizcarra obtained nationwide support due to his political credibility. Before becoming president he had served as Vice-President, Minister of Transportation, and Governor of the region of Moquegua. He was also admired for his tough policies aimed at ending Peru’s crippling corruption. After being elected, the centrist Vizcarra held a nationwide referendum to challenge corruption that was approved and hailed as a milestone for Peruvian democracy.

Despite support for Vizcarra, there was fierce competition between him and his political opponents. On 18 September 2020, Vizcarra was impeached for the first time. The accusers, made up of lawmakers and captained by Edgar Alarcon, failed to remove Vizcarra from office with only 32 votes out of 130 cast in favour.

Vizcarra was accused of moral incapacity following concerns regarding a contract between singer Richard Cisnernos and the ministry of culture, for which Cisnernos was hired to perform speeches. The accusation stated that Cisnernos’ $50,000 salary was inexplicably high unless the singer had some ties with the government or if the contract included hidden bribes. Vizcarra denied these claims.

Though Vizcarra survived the first impeachment proceedings, attacks on his government continued. The COVID-19 pandemic hit Peru particularly hard, with almost 36,000

people having died from the disease. The country faces an economic recession, as its GDP is expected to shrink 13% compared to the previous year. In the metropolitan area of Lima, more than 3.2 million people have become unemployed.

Subsequently, lawmakers of nine opposition parties accused Vizcarra of accepting bribes up to 2.3 million Peruvian Soles (about £487,000) when he was Governor of Moquegua. Claiming ‘moral unfitness,’ the accusing lawmakers asked once again for his impeachment. While Vizcarra maintained his innocence and claimed that he was a victim of false accusations, on 9 November 2020 Congress voted for his removal from office with 105 votes in favour and just 19 against.

The impeachment of Vizcarra triggered Peruvians to mobilize and to protest in the name of their President and their democracy. Protests took place in cities throughout Peru including the capital Lima, Cusco, Cajamarca, and Trujillo. There were also demonstrations in New York and London.

Protests further intensified after 10 November when Manuel Merino was named new President of Peru. In addition to supporting Vizcarra’s impeachment, Merino is regarded by many Peruvians as corrupt and anti-democratic, leading to the escalation of mass protests.

On 14 November, in the capital Lima, peaceful protests became violent when a group of protestors began to throw rocks and fireworks at the police. This resulted in the death of two young men, aged 24 and 25, and many injuries.

Merio resigned from office on 15 November due to increasingly violent protests and a lack of credibility. Francisco Sagasti became President 17 November, vowing to unite the country after the days of civil unrest following Vizcarra’s

Demonstrations against the new President Manuel Merino on November 14, 2020 (Credit: ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP)

impeachment.

Sagasti is now faced with an extremely challenging task; not only will he have to restore order after the protests, but he will also have to prove to Peruvians that he will be the right man to guide them through an uncertain future for the country.

Covid-19 vaccines spark optimism but don’t provide a silver bullet Lyla Amini, MA Migration and Diaspora Studies, Persian Preliminary findings suggested that two vaccines are 90-94.5% effective at preventing Covid-19. Though developing a new vaccine takes on average 10 years from initial research to mass production, the pandemic expedited the process and vaccines have been produced in record time. The findings came just a year after the first documented case of the disease.

There are currently 13 vaccines in the third and final phase of testing. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna recently released preliminary analyses of their efficacy trials. The two vaccines are proof of principle that a vaccine can be created for the SARS-CoV-2 genome. No vaccines were successfully developed to combat outbreaks of other coronavirus strains such as SARS or MERS, making this a groundbreaking achievement.

The rapid development of these Covid-19 vaccines were greatly aided by the fact that a new method of vaccine development was ready and waiting to be tested when the pandemic hit. Furthermore, high infection rates accelerated the pace of clinical trials. Governments are supplying an endless cash flow that eliminates any financial roadblocks in the process.

These vaccines are both based on an mRNA molecule that encodes the spike protein, which is how the Covid-19 virus fuses to and enters cells. Both vaccines essentially contain part of Covid-19’s genetic code. When administered, the

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body produces viral proteins that train the immune system to effectively identify and respond to the Covid-19 virus.

Though the preliminary findings are hopeful, as of 22 November they are not yet peer-reviewed nor licenced by regulatory bodies. If proven safe, it could still be several months or even years before a vaccine is widely available.

“Though the preliminary findings are hopeful, they are not yet peerreviewed nor licenced by regulatory bodies. If proven safe, it could still be several months or even years before a vaccine is widely available.”

A significant hurdle to overcome for this vaccine is the mass immunisation campaign required. Both vaccines must be stored at subzero temperatures, raising serious logistical questions around administering them. Furthermore, both vaccines require two doses per person and must be administered at two separate times. It still remains unknown how long immunity to Covid-19 lasts after receiving the vaccine.

Wealthy countries like the UK, US, and Canada are entering into their own deals with pharmaceutical companies, ordering and buying up millions of doses in advance.

78% of the 1 billion doses Moderna reports it has capacity to produce by the end of the year have already been sold

off to countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Japan, and EU member countries.

Countries unable to do so are entering into a mechanism called COVAX Facility, a multilateral agreement created to support an equitable distribution of a vaccine. The agreement remains ineffective at confronting profit-driven pharmaceutical companies, patents, property rights, and technological information barriers that prevent these vaccine breakthroughs from truly being a ‘great day for science and humanity,’ as declared by Dr. Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO. As soon as the preliminary testing data was released, stocks for both companies skyrocketed. Pfizer could make as much as $13 billion in profits next year from the sale of their coronavirus vaccine. Moderna, despite having received $2.48 billion from taxpayers, has announced it also intends to make profit from its vaccine sales.

Though news of effective vaccine trials adds a dash of optimism to the emotions of this pandemic experience, scientists are warning against premature relaxation of restrictions, as a vaccine does not offer the end-all silver bullet in making it through this global pandemic. Public health experts continue to advise that much of how the pandemic will play out in the coming months will be determined more by the adaptive behavior and decisions people make to abide by precautionary measures than by the prospects of a vaccine on the horizon.

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7 DECEMBER 2020

http://soasspirit.co.uk/category/opinion/ Opinion editor: Anna Fenton-Jones

Opinion

Public Art: To Divide or Unite?

more modest representation from artist Martin Jennings, who wanted to portray Wollstonecraft in her 18th century dress, leaning on a pile of books. This was widely felt like an erasure of her achievements and silencing of Wollstonecraft by emphasising her modest appearance.

What should we be focusing on when it comes to public art? Has Hambling captured Wollstonecraft’s rebellious spirit? Has she proved her point that public art is open to debate? Is public art there to fulfill the artist's vision, rather than to please the critics? As

“As Oscar Wilde once said, ‘when critics are divided, the artist is at one with himself ’.”

Maggi Hambling’s statue of Mary Wollstonecraft is sparking debate in feminist art circles. (Credit: @girlhermes)

Kat Brown, MA Chinese Studies When art occupies public space, it is prone to being picked apart. For Maggi Hambling’s statue, dedicated to the ‘Mother of feminism’, 18th century gender equality activist Mary Wollstonecraft, the debate centres around Hambling’s depiction of the vindication of women’s rights.

It is important to bear in mind that the statue, located in Newington Green in North London, was not funded by taxpayer money.

It was entirely funded by the voluntary ‘Mary

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on the Green’ campaign, and took 10 years to reach its goal. The organisers have said they did not want to go down the path of deifying an individual with direct portraiture.

The organisation has also emphasised that this statue was made for Mary, rather than a depiction of Mary herself. But when less than 3% of statues in the UK depict non-royal women, and over 90% of London’s statues depict men, why does this one have to be so small and unidentifiable? Has Hambling crudely centred the statue around herself instead?

A recent episode of ‘The High Low’

described the statue as a ‘GCSE barbie doll spray-painted silver to say something about Feminism,’ referencing her tiny proportions coupled with a generous mound of pubic hair. She does indeed have doll-like proportions, which for many does little to legitimise such a feminist icon.

This isn’t the first time Hambling’s work has been the focus of public discussion. Her piece ‘The Scallop,’ dedicated to Benjamin Britten, is regularly vandalised - and yet, in 2006, it won the Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture. Hambling’s design for Mary on the Green was chosen over another,

Oscar Wilde once said, ‘when critics are divided, the artist is at one with himself.’

The public discussion of Wollstonecraft and her achievements has certainly been reignited, and is this not the goal of the sculpture? However, at a time when the notion of womanhood is being systematically (and institutionally) separated from the female body, many agree that using a very literal female nude feels aggressive.

This year has seen a significant change in public discussion on who we choose to memorialise. In Bristol, the toppled statue of slave owner Edward Colston was quickly replaced by ‘A Surge Of Power’ by Marc Quinn and Jen Reid, her fist raised in defiance and celebration. One argument to have more statues of minority figures in public was so that marginalised groups could see themselves reflected and celebrated.

With so few statues of individual women, the Wollstonecraft statue seems to have missed something important. It feels like it wants to triumph over the dominance of masculinity in the name of Wollstonecraft, or at least challenge depictions of female statues by showing a subdued figure. A tiny, naked, unidentifiable woman atop a silver wave seems to miss this.

One can argue that if you hire Hambling for a commission like this, then you should know what you’re getting. It is important that such a statue was designed by a woman and privately funded.

Insisting that public art should be acceptable to the masses often means conforming to social standards over artistic license.

Public art should occupy its own space - to provoke conversation and generate a discussion. If Hambling’s intention was to provoke, then she has achieved what she set out to do.

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Opinion

7 DECEMBER 2020

Transformation and Change: Who is management really saving and at what cost?

Millie Glaister, BA Politics and International Relations While the institution posits the Transformation and Change (T&C) Process at SOAS as necessary to save the university, I have begun to wonder what it is exactly that they are trying to save. SOASians have a clear understanding of what SOAS means to them. Over time, SOAS has transformed from a colonial institution to one valued for its socially conscious, inclusive, and progressive environment.

Never more clearly have we seen these characteristics undermined by senior management than over this past summer. Despite facing a pandemic and a recession, some of the most vulnerable in the SOAS community have been the targets of its most recent cuts.

In Issue 13 of the SOAS Spirit, I wrote an article with an update on the T&C process. I spoke to a number of people fractionals, union reps, departmental officers, and lecturers - who truly opened my eyes. While I learnt about the severity of the financial situation, what I found more shocking was the desperation of those subjected to the ruthlessness of senior management.

The process of bringing about the £17 million cuts was inherently flawed.

Dr Feyzi Ismail (Department of Development Studies)

and Maia Holtermann Entwistle (PhD student and de facto fractional representative for the Department of Politics and International Studies) spoke about how responsibility for academic cuts was left up to individual departments in a way that ‘devolves accountability.’ Holtermann Entwistle spoke of the way the ‘decision-making was dressed up as grassroots or bottom-up decision-making,’ when in reality it ‘opens up space for prejudicial treatment.’

Unison Branch Secretary, Sandy Nicoll, said that, in reality, the union’s suggestions were ignored in the decisionmaking process.

It is also important to mention that the jobs most at risk also happen to have the greatest concentration of BAME and female staff. In turn, this lack of communication resulted in departments across the university, both professional and academic, being understaffed and overworked.

“The jobs most at risk also happen to have the greatest concentration of BAME and female staff.”

One of the most frustrating aspects here is that while senior management are pulling the strings with little regard

for the wider community, blame is being dissociated from them. They have willfully leveraged the safety of their workers against the desires of the students - letting resentment fester on both sides, counting on the pandemic to reduce the communication and solidarity we have shown in past rounds of cuts.

We are seeing modules and programmes being cut, fractionals and professional services put at risk, lecturers and administration overworked, and ultimately, the quality of education provided at SOAS being diminished.

So, I pose this question: if we are all taking a hit ‘for the institution,’ who are these cuts actually benefiting? The answer begins with the people that are yet to take a pay cut alongside everyone else, and those who are more concerned with their future profit margins: the senior managers.

Are we willing to relinquish everything we have fought to establish at SOAS? Are we willing to let fractionals and professional services be unfairly targeted? There is no question that SOAS is in a problematic financial situation, but we must demand better from the senior management and address these institutional biases before even more people are sacrificed in such uncertain times.

We must stand together as a community to ensure that while we fight to keep the university afloat, we do not surrender all those who make SOAS what it is.

‘A forest of red flags’: a warning from Poland Weronika Krupa, BA International Relations and Chinese

Protesting is the daily bread of Polish citizens. Practised for generations, once against the communist regime, today against a fascist government. We know what it feels like to lose - to lose your rights, your freedoms, your pride, or your hope. Even the youngest of us bear the burden of national trauma, fed to us in history lessons ever since childhood.

When politicians want to suppress us, control us, divide us, we should be prepared.

On 22 October 2020, the Polish government delegalised

abortion for almost all cases. The scraps of rights we have left make up a very pathetic consolation. The fanatic and corrupt government officially took charge of our bodies and left us hurt and devastated.

For a country that seemed to be on the verge of embracing modernity, I can't help but wonder what went wrong.

They say Poland is a woman, and I believed she was promising and ambitious. A woman that was ready to step up and claim what’s hers, to love, to cherish and protect. So what went wrong? I spoke to Magda, one of the activists from Dziewuchy London, a feminist collective fighting for the protection of reproductive rights run by the Polish diaspora

in the UK. She told me, ‘I remember one day when I was representing Dziewuchy at the Women of the World Festival at the Southbank Centre. It was February 2017. I remember, backthen I was saying that we should pay attention to the situation in Poland because it doesn’t matter to Poles solely. It’s a dangerous process for Europe as a whole. I think my point back then was that the attack on women’s rights goes hand in hand with those narratives of hate, which were fully present back then. I think at that time I compared this with Brexit. We need to be extremely careful about this, and how it will affect politics within the EU.’ I asked her what advice she had for people who live in socalled progressive countries.

‘First, I would pay attention to the new laws and legislations implemented during some sort of crisis, in moments of turmoil or chaos. You need to react to those tiny changes despite the circumstances. Secondly, we need to recognise the connections between the individual struggles of different groups and stand in solidarity with each other. When we fight for women’s rights we should also fight for migrants rights, racial justice, and against the discrimination of LGBT+ communities. We need to stay in this together, in solidarity. I think the strikes in Poland are so popular right now because it is not only about women’s rights, it’s about so much more – democracy, rule of law, free media altogether.”

After my conversation with Magda, I felt fearful for what could be coming. We took it all for granted. We were the post-communist dream of a better future. For better or worse, change happens gradually.

But before we wake up in Gilead or in Poland or without any sort of rights, we will always walk through a forest, signs popping up like mushrooms or flowers, until it’s just a forest of red flags.

Protesters in Poland (Credit: Reuters)

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Opinion

7 DECEMBER 2020

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: The World's Biggest Trade Pact

Leaders from 15 nations signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the virtual ASEAN summit on 15 November. (Credit:

Javier Vidal Cano, BA, Chinese Studies On 15 November 2020, 15 nations (among them China, South Korea, Japan and Australia) signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the virtual ASEAN summit. The advent of such a symbolic deal in the current global climate may have groundbreaking implications for the economic and strategic future of the South East Asian region and for American foreign policy towards China.

It must be acknowledged that the RCEP is not as comprehensive as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the agreements that the European Union is spearheading for economic integration in the region.

Despite this, it is economically noteworthy as it will serve to further reduce the already low tariffs on trade between members and push for an economic recovery in the post pandemic world. This is crucial to some of its lower-income and exportdependent signatory nations such as Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia that were devastated by the collapse of international demand and logistics networks this year.

However one must not forget that this is merely an agreement regarding tariffs; it is not an extensive trade agreement or a customs union. The potential of this agreement to develop into something more substantial still remains a far-fetched fantasy.

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The RCEP includes a range of more and less economically developed countries that possess different trade systems, institutions, norms, standards, and systems of governance. Any form of an advanced treaty still seems inconceivable. However, this is a small step in the right direction.

For the time being, the RCEP is enough to support mutual interests in the region and expand possibilities for future negotiations. Unfortunately, India was not part of the agreement due to domestic opposition to increased foreign competition. Given the potential of the Indian market and the role that it plays in transnational trade, its exclusion is a significant drawback to the potency of the pact, but doors are open for its inclusion in the near future.

On the other hand, the symbolic ramifications of the RCEP are much more significant.

It encompasses 30% of the world’s population and boasts 30% of global GDP with China at its forefront. Additionally, it forms the biggest trade bloc in world history and taps into one of the worlds largest potential markets.

It is important to note that in the current stalemate of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the RCEP is yet another example as to how plurilateral negotiations are increasingly replacing multilateral ones for short term gains. China is the only major economy in the world that is projected to have net growth this year, and this deal solidifies its

stance as the dominant force in the southeast asian region. It allows China to portray itself as the torchbearer for plurilateralism and international cooperation, and gives it a greater influence over governing the rules of trade.

It is important to note that Japan and Korea are also not part of any other similar economic agreement, so this is a historic achievement for their foreign policy. As a whole, this deal demonstrates that Asia remains committed to multilateralism and free trade arrangements as the key to prosperity, and will accelerate trade flows amongst the two billion people that inhabit the 15 nations.

One must also consider the strategic significance of this development in the context of growing Sino-American tensions.

Repeated visits by American diplomats to Taiwan, coupled by sanctions on Chinese exports by the Trump administration, have strained relations. President-elect Joe Biden has shown no signs of relaxing this hardline approach.

However, contrary to Trump, he will push for multilateralism within the Southeast Asian region and create a strong international response to contain China’s growing ambitions in order to protect global interests.

Therefore, some experts believe that the RCEP may indeed be a veiled warning from China to the West as it marks its territory.

The RCEP serves to expand China’s growing presence in the region as it conveniently increases the incentives for nations to rely on Chinese imports, thus strengthening their own economy and creating further dependence on China.

With regards to economic power, in the past China has not been afraid to weaponize its economy to enforce its narrative and punish dissidents with sanctions or trade embargoes. It is not difficult to imagine that it may abuse the RCEP as strategic leverage to ensure compliance from member states.

As of right now, it is difficult to say how the RCEP will affect Biden’s policy in Southeast Asia, but China seems to be sending a direct message against foreign interference within its sphere of influence.

Regardless, the RCEP is a symbolic achievement for the region due to its sheer scale. It will no doubt have implications for the geopolitical future of Asia and help bolster a post-COVID economic recovery for nations that suffered with the loss of consumer demand.

It serves as a reminder of the importance of ASEAN (Association of SouthEast Asian Nations) for plurilateral trading and assisting in future post-pandemic recovery efforts. On a more ominous note it demonstrates that the Southeast Asian region might indeed be the next battlefield in the growing SinoAmerican trade war.

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Opinion

7 DECEMBER 2020

Is Corbyn’s reinstatement furthering acceptance of anti-semitism?

Diva Sinha, MSc Environment, Politics and Development On 17 November, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was reinstated to the Labour Party. Corbyn was suspended in October after he commented that the scale of antisemitism within the party had been ‘overstated.’ This came after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released a report that detailed ‘unlawful harassment, including using antisemitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of antisemitism were fake or smears’ in the party under Corbyn. After his suspension, some British Jews might have felt vindicated, but the victory was short-lived, as in less than three weeks Corbyn’s suspension was lifted.

The decision to reinstate Corbyn is controversial at best. While Corbyn has a long history of being a champion of human rights, he has repeatedly been embroiled in situations which some in the British Jewish community have found to be alarming and discriminatory.

From laying wreaths to Black September terrorists, to referring to Hamas and Hezbollah as his friends, expressing support for the Freedom of Humanity mural, as well as aligning himself with fringe organisations who openly call for the destruction of Israel, it was his comments on the report that were the last straw for many in the center of the party.

Corbyn has acknowledged that antisemitism is a problem within the party and has issued statements and apologised. He said: ‘People who dish out antisemitic poison need to understand: you do not do it in my name.

You are not my supporters and have no place in our movement.’

Appearing on ‘This Morning,’ he was asked to apologise to the British Jewish community. He said, ‘anti-Jewish racism is wrong and vile and Labour would not tolerate any form of racism in the future Labour government.’ He added that internal procedures for dealing with antisemitism were under review and his doors were open to rabbis and other leaders from different faiths to discuss such challenging issues.

However, in a different interview, while discussing the issues surrounding antisemitism and Labour, Corbyn declined to apologise to the Jewish community on four occasions. He said that society is safe for all faiths.

The controversy surrounding Corbyn did not end with his return. Current Labour Leader Keir Starmer made it clear that while Corbyn has been welcomed back into Labour, he has not been reinstated in the parliamentary Labour party.

He tweeted, ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s actions in response to the EHRC report undermined and set back our work in restoring trust and confidence in the Labour Party’s ability to tackle antisemitism. In those circumstances, I have taken the decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn.’ He added, ‘I will keep this situation under review.’

Nevertheless, this does not sit well for those who believe in Labour and its ethics.

For a party that has always stood for the working class and seeks to remove racism and discrimination from society, the reinstatement of a man who has overseen a painful period for Jewish people in the Labour party paints an unwelcoming image

The former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. (Credit: Garry Knight)

for anyone affected by antisemitism.

Corbyn's suspension and subsequent reinstatement seem at odds with what the EHRC addressed in its report. Corbyn’s comments on the findings of the EHRC report speak to his unwillingness to acknowledge that antisemitism was becoming institutionalised and normalised. Corbyn has the right to defend himself, but offering an apology and acknowledgement of the problem after the report was published could have

resulted in a peaceful resolution.

Dismissing complaints of antisemitism, refusing to acknowledge the blurring lines between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and treating the complaints made by Jewish Labour members as weapons of a smear campaign are Labour party attributes Starmer is keen to be seen leaving behind. In time, Corbyn may prove to be too much of a ghost of the party’s past to keep around.

Muslim Pro and the American Security Apparatus Samia Majid, MA History The U.S. has an unsavoury history of leveraging surveillance campaigns on its unsuspecting Muslim populace. On 16 November, Vice’s Motherboard revealed that Muslim Pro, a popular Quran and prayer app, has been selling its user data to third-party brokers, and by extension the U.S. military.

With over 98 million downloads, Muslim Pro is widely used

by Muslims across the world.

In response to the backlash, Muslim Pro denied any wrongdoing, asserting that it has never sold the personal data of its users. The Muslim Pro team announced that they have terminated their relationship with all third-party data partners. Although they pledged a commitment to protect user privacy and investigate their data governance policy, this is too little, too late. Omar Suleiman, a Dallas-based Imam and spiritual leader stated: ‘This is wild and unacceptable. Download a Quran/prayer app and end up with your data sold to a counterterrorism unit of the US military. No Muslim app should be selling data, especially not like this.’

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that ordinary Muslims have been targeted by an indiscriminate mass surveillance operation. The New York Police Department has a notorious history of spying on its Muslim citizens. In 2001, a newly created covert Demographic Unit within the NYPD sent informants, or ‘crawlers,’ into Muslim neighbourhoods,

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student associations, and businesses. These individuals were encouraged to gather information on vaguely termed ‘persons of interest,’ infiltrating ethnic minority neighbourhoods, with no prior evidence of wrongdoing.

Despite the fact that this initiative failed to produce a single lead, neither the NYPD nor the City of New York ever admitted any misconduct. Lawsuits directed at the programme contended that the NYPD’s unconstitutional surveillance of Muslim Americans presented a civil rights breach for overt discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion.

Lest we forget, the Patriot Act was passed by Congress just weeks after 9/11. The Uniting and Strengthening America

by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act sought to ‘deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes.’

The act effectively sanctioned the surveillance of ordinary Americans. The FBI was authorised to obtain phone, computer, and banking records of any individual even suspected of engaging in international terrorism. So much for innocent until proven guilty.

The Snowden leaks revealed that the National Security Agency had used Section 215 of the Patriot Act to harvest the phone data of millions of unsuspecting Americans. Eventually, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board declared that there was not ‘a single instance involving a threat to the

United States in which the telephone records program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation.’

In June 2002, the Attorney General John Ashcroft drafted a list of Muslim and Arab countries from which all males were required to submit fingerprints to a government register upon entering the US. This regulation programme lasted until 2011, and unsurprisingly never generated a single terrorism-related conviction.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, hate crimes based on race, religion, and ethnicity proliferated. Muslim women became overt targets of abuse, harassment, and discrimination based on their outward appearance. Civil Rights groups like the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor and the Islamic Society of Portland reported that attendance numbers saw a sharp drop due to fears that the Patriot Act would be used to obtain its members’ personal records. The federal government had carte blanche to wiretap any device it deemed suitable.

Against a backdrop of civil liberty erosions, the vaguely defined Muslim ‘other’ caused a spike in fear of homegrown terrorism, a suspicion based more on state sanctioned Islamaphobia than rationale. From Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, to the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, the criminalisation of Muslims across the world is following an unsettlingly Orwellian pattern. We don't need seemingly benign apps like Muslim Pro joining the insidious surveillance apparatus.

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7 DECEMBER 2020

http://soasspirit.co.uk/category/features/ FEATURES EDITOR: Ella Dorn

Features

BBQ in the Eye of a Storm Anonymous *Names have been changed to protect the identities of the protestors.

I have a lot of memories from Hong Kong’s year of chaos. I vividly recall the pang of being tear-gassed for the first time, and the surprise I felt when it induced nausea. I also remember being petrified when an explosion shook the air around me in Mong Kok. The strongest memories, however, were not of conflict but hope. Following one protest, as I was standing waiting for a ferry, I found myself humming Glory to Hong Kong. Upon hearing this, an old Hong Konger turned to me, smiled, then nodded his head in appreciation. During the siege of the Hong Kong universities, a cry went out for people to donate provisions, and whole blocks of Kowloon were filled with people contributing everything from tampons to petrol.

For me, the protests were not about violence, but ordinary people fighting for the future and soul of their home.

Nothing highlighted this to me more than a BBQ restaurant in Mong Kok. On Saturday 2 November, with Mong Kok swamped as it ever was with angry residents demanding democracy, I met Richard, a Hong Konger who introduced me to Kowloon BBQ and helped me understand his home.

Richard, like most protesters, is not only brave and intelligent, but unflinchingly kind. Having been involved from the start of the protest movement, he trained as a medic, hoping to aid injured colleagues. He was well acquainted with Kowloon BBQ, having helped to save the life of the chef many years ago - a bond that unsurprisingly lasts to this day.

Kowloon BBQ is the smallest restaurant I’ve ever been to. The kitchen is open and no larger than that in a dai pai dong, the chef is always buzzing about, in a vest and sport shorts with a cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth, making the sort of things that Hong Kongers live on - noodles, barbequed meats, and fried vegetables all smothered in sweet or spicy sticky sauces. The smells and sounds of sizzling Cantonese food are ever-present in the humid air of the restaurant.

The couple who run the restaurant greet everyone with a smile and a joke. Customers often stay put for hours on end, eating a little too much, drinking a lot too much, and discussing life. The restaurant like many in Hong Kong belongs to the loosely formed yellow economic circle. Yellow being Pro-Democracy, blue being pro-China. It was in this sweaty, chaotic, and friendly place that I began to understand what Hong Kong means to Hong Kongers.

Drawn in by the support the owners had for the protests, the restaurant was always full of interesting characters and buzzing with the latest gossip about the movement. The walls displayed protest slogans and sketches of mascots and activists. Writing on the wall compelled customers to ‘add oil’ and fight in ‘the revolution of our times’.

In this setting, I’ve had my most human interactions with ‘professional’ protesters. Richard introduced me to a protester, Wong, who was in charge of a ‘troop’. His responsibility was to command a small band of protesters, who would be asked to vandalise certain Chinese owned businesses or create roadblocks on specific streets. Being caught involved

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Hong Kong protests (Credit: Studio Incendo via Flickr)

using such aggressive protest tactics would inevitably lead to a long prison sentence. Many of Wong’s colleagues have been arrested or fled to Taiwan.

Through conversations with Richard and Wong, I realised the intricacy of the protest movement. Wong was part of a small telegram group, in which targets were chosen and plans laid out. The protesters were leaderless, like a school of mackerel guiding each other. Telegram groups became the nervous-system of the movement.

As I raised concerns about elements of the protests, I realised they were more considerate than if viewed externally. One day, after a large protest, I witnessed an old man in a wheelchair trying to enter the MTR. Protesters had firebombed the elevator leading into the station meaning disabled access was no longer available. The man waited a long time and had to be physically carried into the station.

Even though I supported the movement, it was hard in that moment to internally defend actions that had disproportionately impacted the elderly and disabled.

I retold this story to Richard, ‘I agree, actually this is very sad’, he admitted. He explained how a message was circulating on many telegram groups imploring people not to damage disabled access points. The protesters' focus was to improve people’s lives, and he said, where possible, protesters made each other aware when they hurt their fellow Hong Kongers too much.

Often, late at night, tables would be pushed together

as customers and staff shared a hot-pot. It was not angry thoughts that focused the conversations on these nights.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions would deplore how the Hong Kong governments responded to the crisis. However, talk would quickly move to how those in the restaurant could assist the elderly in finding masks or help street cleaners, who were often wearing the same mask for days on end.

More often than not, conversations led away from protesting and politics altogether. Conversations would float to pop culture, or even my failed attempts at Cantonese - I would often provide entertainment by cursing loudly “Diu Lei Lou Mo!” “Puk Gaai”. Despite arrested friends, and an increasingly strict hand of the law, the sound that emanates from Kowloon BBQ most nights is not shouting or crying, but laughter.

On my last visit there I discovered that the young delivery boy and girl, both only 14 years old, were out on bail having been arrested for protesting. More recently, I found out that the owner of the establishment was being harassed by the authorities due to the restaurant’s yellow ties. In truth, it will be harder for restaurants like Kowloon BBQ to exist and continue to have the character for which they are known. Vocal satire and dissent are now all but banned in Hong Kong, but as long as bars and restaurants like Kowloon BBQ still exist, Hong Kong’s soul will continue to live on.

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7 DECEMBER 2020

Linguistics Puzzle: Standard Zhuang Ella Dorn, BA Chinese and Linguistics

Features

Beyond Voting Destiny Adeyemi, BA African Studies

Here’s a word search featuring some ways in which people can engage with political conversations and educate themselves on current issues - beyond the rhetoric of voting.

Standard Zhuang is a language spoken by some of the Zhuang minority in Guangxi province, southern China. It is a member of the Tai family of languages along with Thai and Laotian.

Since 1982, it has been written in an adapted Roman script under guidance from the People’s Republic of China.

Q1: Can you use your skills of deduction to match the following Zhuang sentences to their English translations?

1. Gou yaek bae Namzningz.

2. Mwngz yaek bae gizlawz?

3. Ngoenzcog mwngz bae Namzningz.

4. Mwngz ne?

a. Where do you want to go? b. I want to go to Nanning. c. What about you? d. Tomorrow you are going to Nanning.

Q2: Now that you’ve worked out the first sentences, can you translate the following words into English?

1. Namzningz 2. yaek 3. bae 4. gizlawz

5. mwngz 6. gou 7. ne

Q3: How would you write the following phrase in Standard Zhuang?

Where am I going tomorrow?

Sentences adapted from Sinj and Loz (2008) ANSWER KEY Q1: 1=b, 2=a, 3=d, 4=c.

Q2: 1. Nanning, 2. want, 3. go, 4. where, 5. you, 6. I/me, 7. what about...?

Q3: Ngoenzcog gou bae gizlawz?

Lockdown Recipes: A Comforting Leek & Potato Soup Elizabeth Edwards, BA English Cooking in lockdown can either feel like a chore or a comfort. I can’t be the only one who has found my days revolving completely around the three meals a day that offer such respite and gratification, as well as the simple joy of cooking and eating with my flatmates. As the days get colder and shorter, I have found myself craving steaming hot soup for lunch, accompanied by thick chunks of bread and cheese. Making your own soup can feel like more effort than it’s worth, given that you can buy perfectly decent soups in almost any corner shop, but I find that once you dedicate yourself to the soothing and surprisingly simple process, the outcome is so incredibly satisfying that you’ll never go back. I now make batches of soup multiple times a week with random leftover vegetables and I promise it will make you feel productive, even if you’ve done barely anything else that day. This particular one, a deliciously creamy leek and potato soup, was a favourite of mine when I was younger, and so I have tried to recreate my mum’s recipe in order to share it with you.

Ingredients (serves 2):

Method:

2 leeks, chopped into half moons 4 potatoes, peeled and chopped One large white onion, chopped Thyme, oregano, and rosemary, fresh or dried Mustard seeds 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped Salt and pepper Olive oil Chives, chopped Whole milk (or non-dairy substitute) 850ml stock (whatever kind you like)

1. Put your chopped onions, garlic, thyme, sliced leeks, and mustard seeds in a large pot with some oil or butter (whatever you have) and cook for about 5-10 minutes without letting them burn.

2. Add your potatoes and stock and simmer until the potatoes are tender and beginning to crumble. This will probably take at least 25 minutes, but feel free to cook for longer.

3. Season with salt, pepper, and chives and add a few glugs of milk.

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4. Let cool until you are comfortable handling the contents of the pot.

5. To blend the soup, you can use either a blender or a handheld blender. Whichever you choose, blend the soup until smooth and creamy. Add more milk or stock if you find it too thick.

6. Garnish your soup with lots and lots of chopped chives and season with salt and pepper to taste.

7.

Enjoy!

Leek and potato soup is a winter time classic (Credit: lovingitvegan.com)

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7 DECEMBER 2020

http://soasspirit.co.uk/category/culture/ Culture Editor: Destiny Adeyemi

Culture

The Problem with Harry Styles’ Non-Conforming Aesthetic Maliha Shoaib, BA English and World Philosophies When Harry Styles’ December Vogue cover was revealed on 13 November, all hell broke loose. Every corner of the digital sphere suited up for the latest internet war over the ostensible crisis in masculinity.

Harry Styles is the first man to appear solo on the cover of US Vogue – and in a Gucci gown, no less. Unsurprisingly, the right wing was in bits. Candace Owens, an infamous pro-Trump Black female activist, criticised Styles on Twitter, saying that ‘there is no society that can survive without strong men’ and that we should ‘bring back the manly men.’

Good old Ben Shapiro followed suit as he complained that the category of masculinity is being feminized. Across the board, right-wing criticism hunkered down on the idea that men should be manly, and women should be womanly.

Numerous celebrities and fans rushed to the One Direction singer’s defence, praising him on social media as a revolutionary – a complete visionary when it comes to gender neutral representation and kicking toxic masculinity to the curb. Clearly, it is a historic moment for Vogue, the most prestigious fashion magazine in the world, to feature a man in a dress (especially after they called Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid sometimes swapping t-shirts ‘gender fluid’ a few years ago – not their best move). It highlights the shift in male fashion norms – the desired openness of the modern age.

These days, the essence of masculine and feminine energy is being debated more than ever: from YouTube channels on how to harness your feminine goddess energy, to debates about the role of a provider and the death of masculine stoicism. Gender roles are constantly being renegotiated in today’s landscape, and the shift in gender expression has followed suit. The world of high fashion has prided itself in pushing the limits of gender boundaries. Androgyny is in.

But what are the political implications of this fashion trend, and who benefits from it?

At the core of this debate lies the question of whether aesthetic expression is intrinsic to gender identity. In other words, can a guy be simultaneously ‘feminized’ on the outside, and masculine on the inside? It would be wrong to suggest that clothes don’t play a part in how we perceive gender and how we feel about our own gender – otherwise trans people and other non-conforming folks wouldn’t feel gender dysphoria in certain clothing. Fashion can be used to tell a story about who we are. For some people, it is essential to an expression of identity and status. But for others, fashion is just a game that can be played, and the rules are increasingly blurred.

Harry Styles seemingly belongs to the latter group. Styles told Vogue, ‘I like playing dress-up in general.’ For this attractive, white, rich, cisgender man, playing around with gender boundaries is a fun experiment. While women’s departments have always had more options for clothing – brighter colours, more prints, more variation in cut – it is clear that Styles’ statement reeks of privilege.

Although Styles is generally seen as an ally to the

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Harry Styles is the December cover star for US Vogue (Credit: Tyler Mitchell/Vogue)

LGBTQ+ community, and his own sexuality is unknown, his blasé attitude fails to hit the mark. He misses the opportunity to say anything particularly meaningful about the implications and influences of his clothing choices. While the concept of freedom within fashion is alluring, fashion is not and has never been without political implications.

Non-conforming aesthetics carry a trendy status in the fashion world, but this status is not retained when nonbinary and trans people engage in similar fashion choices.

Ideally, fluid dressing would be just as fun for everyone else as it is for the rich and famous, but we all know that this is not the case. It’s not all fun and games for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans and non-binary people of colour, who continue to face harassment and stigmatizations for engaging in similar aesthetics.

Styles’ fluidity here isn’t the real problem; it’s the assertion that he’s the trailblazer of a cultural shift. Harry Styles can’t be crowned a gender-bending icon if he hasn’t actually addressed the concerns of the communities on the frontline

of the so-called fashion revolution.

“Harry Styles can’t be crowned a gender-bending icon if he hasn’t actually addressed the concerns of the communities on the frontline of the so-called fashion revolution.”

Without addressing the concerns of the LGBTQ+ community, gender nonconformity in mainstream fashion will continue to be nothing more than a profitable trend. When we speak about this topic, it is essential to be aware of whose experience is being represented, and whose is being erased.

Regardless of its problems, one thing is for sure: Harry Styles’ vogue cover is bringing mainstream attention to a critical conversation. And isn’t that what art is all about?

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Culture

7 DECEMBER 2020

Racism is Alive and Growing in the UK

‘Gravy Song’ Christmas Advertisement (Credit: Sainsbury’s)

Chiara Stennet, BA Politics and International Relations Online Responses to the Sainsburys’ Christmas advertisement featuring a Black British family reveals the harrowing racism that is damaging our society. Some white tweeters went so far as to say the ad was ‘absolutely sickening’ and ‘horrific’. How can the gathering of a happy family at Christmas cause so much resentment?

Sarah Beckett, the organiser of the Voice of Colour British Instagram account posted a thread of responses from a large group of white users on Twitter titled ‘For those who say racism isn’t a problem in the UK anymore…’

When looking at the advertisement itself, we must try to understand why there is so much hatred and resentment towards it. It is extremely difficult to empathise with this feeling when observing a family reminiscing of happy times and presenting authentic English traditions such as roast dinners, Christmas hats, baking, and dressing up for Christmas day.

We must remember that Britain has created a hierarchy through colonization where white Europeans have systematically been promoted superior to Black and brown people.

Racism is embedded into the fabrics of our nation and this is

not easily cured.

We must remember racism and discrimination were only made illegal in Britain in 1965.

Some white social media users said they feel alienated and unrepresented with the influx of Black people in advertising, stating ‘Every single tv ad this evening is black ... I’m going to take a stand & not buy from these companies until they show more white people.’

This is a feeling Black and mixed-race people are far too familiar with. The lack of representation they have faced for hundreds of years is astounding. This year’s Black Lives Matter Movement has been a call for recognition as well as fundamental rights worldwide. Thus, white people should be aware that there is now an emphasis on pushing this representation.

Symbolic annihilation is a term used to describe the absence or erasing of a certain group of people, a certain minority, in this case, Black people. It describes the underrepresentation leading to the upholding of social inequality.

This advert aims simply to represent this minority which have been erased for far too long.

Many racist responses have also argued that because ‘Britain is a majority white country’ Black people should not be

representative of English values and in this case an ‘English Christmas,’ Yet, surely one must look at the presence of Black people in British history before we deem them as ‘un-British’.

Let us not forget that Black Caribbean’s, Africans and Asians were persuaded to come to Britain in the 1960s by government schemes, only to be met with racism, bigotry and resentment which would last their entire generation and has continued for generations after.

Many white people on Twitter questioned whether the family was ‘British’, despite the evidence that Black people have been a part of British culture throughout history as early as 668 AD; a Black bishop in Canterbury or the huge influx of Black Africans arriving in England in 1589, to name a few.

Racist comments such as ‘Christmas in Nigeria’ and ‘Good advert, looking forward to seeing the UK version’ reveal worryingly nationalist responses which are based around the myth that black people are not truly British.

So why is representation important?

The media has always influenced a lot of what people understand about communities they do not know and for rural Britons who do not live alongside Black people, information about this group comes in the form of media representation. Harmful stereotypes which ‘other’ Black people, showing them as criminals, as ‘backwards’ perpetuate these stereotypes allowing racist views.

This advert provides a representation of Black people showing them enjoying something which is a beautiful part of British Christmas tradition.

However, what these adverts do not address is the systematic racism which is still very prevalent in England. Systemic racism in the UK this year manifests itself by the disproportionate policing and arrests enforcing the lockdown; the Stop-and-search rate indicates that Black people are nearly 10 times more likely to be stopped than white people.

Alongside this is the disproportionate rate Black people are dying from coronavirus; being four times more likely to die of it than white people. Social inequality in housing, deprivation and lower-income front line jobs reveals the terrifying reality of the structural racism in the UK. This Sainsbury’s advert does not solve this issue, nor does it shed light on the devastating reality of structural racism in the UK today. However, it is an attempt to say ‘I notice you and I stand with you,’ and that’s a start.

COARSE: The Edges of Black Ingenuity Zhanhui Jiang, BA Social Anthropology COARSE: The Edges of Black Ingenuity is a virtual exhibition that aims to explore the meaning of hair beyond the realm of the cosmetic. Through photographs, Jawara, the artist behind this exhibition, interprets Black hair culture as a space of simultaneous vulnerability and freedom.

In this exhibition, hair is the medium. ‘It encompasses the vastness of spiritual, social, cultural and historical realms that intersect with crucial conversations regarding gender, class and race,’ Jawara states. In the photographs, hair conveys narratives. It defines the contextual moment in which hair not only expresses the personal, it is also symbolic and manifests the social. ‘I feel like the hairstyle is

telling a story of the person,’ fashion communication student Lei said.

Jawara intends to transform hair as a space of torment and renegotiate the status quo. ‘Hair is also a performative space,’ he states. Indeed, hair is sculptural at COARSE, it expresses. At COARSE, hair is the focus and pivot point of narrative; however, COARSE remains more a great celebration of Black culture rather than the negation of existing narratives. It lacks the disclosure of alternative realities.

‘It just a bit strange the way women are represented here’ Lei said. ‘Men can just be themselves with their own emotions there, but not women’. At COARSE, the faces of men with their emotions are often the only one component of the photograph. Viewers see men as ‘Men with their own expressions’.

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A look at female and male representation from Jawara’s virtual exhibition COARSE: The Edges of Black Ingenuity. (Credit: Art Partner)

They act according to ‘themselves’. With women, however, their expressions are not just their own sentimentality. Here, women appear. They were always filmed within a certain sense of space where they were surveyed,

women’s expressions and sentimentality were offered as the surveyed. COARSE ultimately reconfirms the narrative of females and femininity as the surveyed ‘other’.

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Culture

7 DECEMBER 2020

Bookshop.org Boosting Bookshop Business Elizabeth Edwards, BA English This November has seen the launch of the much anticipated Bookshop.org. Having launched in the US earlier in the year to tremendous success, Bookshop.org has landed in the UK and offers booklovers an alternative to Amazon when browsing and purchasing their latest literary fancies. Initially scheduled to launch in the UK in 2021 or even 2022, the immense success of the American launch made founder Andy Hunter see no need to delay his UK plans.

Stateside, Bookshop.org now works in partnership with more than 900 bookshops and has raised more than $7.5 million for independent bookshops across the United States. In the UK, the site has launched in partnership with more than 130 independent bookshops and, if the success in America is anything to go by, the sky’s the limit.

Now more than ever, it is imperative to support our local sellers whether that means coffee shops rather than the big chains, local fruit and vegetable shops rather that the supermarket or an independent bookshop rather than Amazon.

For many, Amazon’s appeal has transcended its many failings purely due to the ease and convenience of the service.

Now that this convenience has been replicated by a selling platform that has the support of independent shops at the very heart of its identity, it has never been easier to offer our support to the shops that need it the most. It goes without saying that Covid-19 has been a disaster for our local stores, especially as Amazon continues to expand.

Hunter believes a major reason for the success of

A London bookshop at night. (Credit: Creative Commons)

Bookshop.org’s launch has been customers’ awareness of the strain local booksellers are under. Furthermore, Bookshop. org has captured a charmingly personal shopping experience and replicated the buying experience of an indie bookshop in this new online platform.

The homepage of Bookshop.org is made up entirely of recommendations, sorted into different categories, ensuring something will be found to suit everyone as well as mimicking the suggestion table one often finds in a physical shop. As well as these directions, the consumer is also able to access

selected recommendations from particular shops from all over the country. This gives the distinct impression of engaging with an actual person, a feeling we are surely all craving amongst the social impact of the coronavirus restrictions.

So, this year for Christmas, turn your attention to Bookshop.org for all of your Christmas present needs. This fantastic initiative has already raised more than £250,000 for our local bookshops and, with all of our support, that’s only the beginning. Happy browsing.

Inclusive Christmas Films An LGBTCheesy Christmas Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Movie Esme Bateson, MA Cultural Studies Comprised of a star-studded cast, Jingle Jangle has been heralded for portraying a Black family in all their glory. Inspired by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, director David E. Talbert wanted to make a similar film which featured people like his son, so he too could feel inspired. Jingle Jangle is the result, a joyous, seasonal film, full of upbeat songs, costumes, and sets. It is a story which does not focus on white narratives of Black people, but rather is a heart-warming Christmas film about believing in yourself and your dreams.

It is colourful, exciting, and uplifting, packed with gizmos, gadgets, and nonsensical language which create a fantasy land where everything is bright, jolly and, most importantly, extremely Christmassy. It follows Journey as she tries to help her grandfather retrieve what he lost when his invention book was stolen many years ago. The power of family, friendship, and love is a central theme throughout the film, and reminds viewers to stay close to those nearest and dearest to us, as well as reminding us that we are brilliant and can do whatever we set our hearts to.

Generous and warming, I’ll be singing Impossible for weeks to come, a catchy tune performed by the talented Madalen Mills

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Kristen Steward and Mackenzie Davis star in Happiest Season. (Credit: Sony)

Deirbhile Ní Bhranáin, BA Media and Development

The Jingle Jangle movie poster (Credit: Netflix/ Jingle Jangle)

as Journey, as she reminds us that ‘Whether you think you can or think you can’t. You’re right.’ A powerful message for people of all ages, Jingle Jangle is one of the most exciting and wholesome Christmas movies you’ll see this year!

There’s nothing like seeing yourself on screen. Whatever your views on representation, it matters for many reasons, and the thrill of seeing an accurate media portrayal after years of stereotyped characters is a present all its own. This year, there will be some exciting new LGBTQ+ characters taking up the mantle of the cheesy Christmas romcom, and there is no better time to do it than this winter when we could all do with some festive cheer.

The first one that has to be mentioned is Happiest Season, starring Kristen Stewart and San Junipero star Mackenzie Davis.

Although it’s the first mainstream Christmas rom-com to centre a queer couple, it’s already under a bit of fire for a plot centred

around a coming out (again). But you know what, we will love it anyway.

Hallmark is delving a bit deeper, with the plot of just-released The Christmas House centring a cis gay male couple looking to adopt their first child. Again, an LGBTQ+ movie is the first of the channel’s kind.

Maybe we are screaming about the length of time it took the rom-com gods to recognise us, maybe we are just glad we won’t have to watch three Vanessa Hudgeonses attempting different accents.

Friendsgiving and I Hate New Years, out now, can fill in the holidays next to Christmas with stories of chosen families. Or we could return to Carol, already a classic, although a dubious addition to the ‘cheesy’ category.

These movies may have been late in the making, but at least we might finally have a queer Love Actually on our hands.

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7 DECEMBER 2020

Sports & Societies

https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/societiesandsport/

Sport & Societies Editor: Artemis Sianni-Wedderburn

Russian Doping: The Saga Continues WADA's ban meant Russia would be excluded from the upcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev denounced WADA's decision as a symptom of 'chronic anti-Russian hysteria' and cited the ban as unfair to his nation's athletes who had 'already been punished in one way or another'.

Conversely, others have cited the international sporting community as not being tough enough on Russia for its string of doping misdemeanours - citing the likes of the IOC as being ‘too soft’.

The saga, now in its sixth year, sees Russia still vying for a spot on the international sporting stage. The summer of this year seemingly saw Russia turn a new leaf. In August, the Russian athletics federation (RUSAF) announced it had paid a £5m fine ($6.31m) for doping offences. WA had stated no Russian athlete, clean or otherwise, would be able to compete internationally if the fine was not paid.

Speaking in 2017, Beckie Scott, chair of WADA's Athlete Committee, during a BBC interview said fining in Russia’s case ‘was not substantial enough for athletes’. Prior to being chair of the Athlete Committee, Scott was chair for WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC), but stepped down from her post after WADA reinstantated Russia in 2016. For Scott, a ‘country involved in state-sponsored doping should not have the right to wave their flag at Olympic games’.

Jonathan Taylor, also a former chair of WADA’s CRC, in 2019 cautioned against an outright ban on Russia, citing that ‘it would be unfair on younger, innocent Russian athletes’.

But, for Lord Sebastian Coe, WA President, this was a step in the right direction. Coe, himself an Olympic medallist, commented that this 'breakthrough' showed Russia had finally 'accepted the severity of the situation'. However, according to Travis Tygart, head of America's Anti-Doping Agency, 'Russia hasn't changed one bit'.

A cartoon depicting the attitudes towards Russia’s doping problem. (Credit: Perry GREG PERRY / PERRYINK)

Fakhriya M. Suleiman, MA Global Media and Postnational Communications The Russian doping saga was set in motion by the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. The Games saw the host nation initially achieve 33 medals - 13 were later expunged amid the federation's doping scandal. The following year, however, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) 'non-compliant'.

WADA had launched an independent commission to investigate claims from a documentary made by German broadcasters ARD - ' The Secrets of Doping: How Russia makes its Winners'. The documentary implicated the Kremlin, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now known as World Athletics (WA) as well as Russian athletes, coaches and doctors.

ARD's documentary alleged RUSADA and a band of Russian coaches devised a 'selective testing routine' to 'protect doped Russian athletes'. This clandestine partnership meant coaches would be tipped off by RUSADA officials of 'surprise doping control tests' - giving coaches ample time to 'cover up' test samples.

ARD's accusations were confirmed in 2016 by former director of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory, Grigory

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Rodchenkov. In an article by the New York Times, Rodchenkov, who became a whistleblower, explained how members of the intelligence service were able to override the security at anti-doping centres and tamper with urine samples.

Although ARD, WADA and Rodchenkov had brought to the forefront the endemic nature of doping in the Kremlin, 2016 saw the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decide against the imposition of a blanket ban on Russian for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Despite Rodchenkov exposing the fact that dozens of Russian athletes qualified for the 2014 Sochi Games under the Kremlin's state-run 'doping programme', 271 athletes took part in the 2016 Games under the flag of Russia.

2018 saw the IOC change its stance when it banned Russia from competing at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. This decision followed WADA chief Olivier Niggli's findings that Russia was not doing enough to tackle its systemic doping problem. Yet, 169 'clean and vetted' athletes were permitted to take part under 'Team Olympic Athletes from Russia'.

To add to their sporting woes, 2019 saw WADA pass a four-year ban from all major sporting events on Russia.

Russia was found to have tampered with laboratory data in January 2019.

“According to Travis Tygart, head of America's Anti-Doping Agency, 'Russia hasn't changed one bit'.”

Following an investigation by British and American intelligence agencies, in October it emerged that Russia had launched cyber-attacks to disrupt the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Further findings from the UK and US' investigation indicate that operatives from the federation's military intelligence branch were beginning attempts to target Tokyo's upcoming Olympic Games, too.

Russia blames the 2018 Winter Olympic cyber-attack on North Korea and spokesman Dmitry Peskov charged the international sporting community with being 'Russiaphobic', asserting the federation 'has never carried out any hacking activities against the Olympics'.

In light of this revelation, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Katsunobu Kato, said 'mounted efforts' would be put in place to protect the Games. Reuters reported that Kato also told a press conference that Japan was working with British and American authorities to '[gather and analyze] information, but gave no further details'.

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Sports & Societies

7 DECEMBER 2020

Trade Trumps Truth: SOAS Uyghur Society

The Uighur are a Muslim group located in Xinjiang. (Credit: Kemal Aslan/Rex/Shutterstock)

Artemis Sianni-Wedderburn, BA Politics and Arabic Northeastern China is home to the theoretically autonomous Xinjiang province, with a Turkic-Muslim Uyghur cultural and religious minority since the province’s 1949 incorporation into the People’s Republic of China. As one of the 55 nationally recognised minorities, they are legally endowed to group-specific rights as they have a group-specific language (Uighur) and religious beliefs (Islam) differing to primarily Buddhist China.

Xinjiang, in addition to being a geographical key for expanding Chinese economic imperialism - spearheaded by the 2013 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - has also been subject to government galvanised migration of ethnic Han. The deliberate destruction of Uyghur cultural sites, as well as persecution on the basis of ethnicity suggests genocidal behaviour, catalysed during the 2020 pandemic through the abuse of emergency powers. Moreover, as of 2017 there are over a million Uyghurs in government ‘re-education camps’, locally and accurately known as gulags.

Chairman Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ (GLF) (1958-62), identified religion and ethnicity as ‘obstacles to progress’.

Hurried land reform and collectivisation led to the ‘Great Chinese Famine’ (1959-61); as the Xinjiang province was slightly more self-governing, the GLF was not as catastrophic compared to the rest of the country. This resulted in the widespread migration of Han Chinese who make up 92% of China’s population. Migration heightened in 1980, as people fled the ‘One-Child Policy’, enlarging the Han population and subsequently ‘othering’ the Uyghurs.

Of recent, 42% of Xinjiang is Uyghur, compared to 76% in 1949, which gave the Uyghurs a minority status in the

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early 2000’s. Despite the supposed autonomous nature of Xinjiang, it is still party to government policies - the repressive national security law passed in June 2020 is only the beginning. Additionally, reduced numbers make it harder for Uyghurs to facilitate revolt; this works in the favour of the government who wants to Sinicise the region - and the country - with the Xi Jinping school of thought. Indoctrination presented as political theory has already begun to seep into the public schooling system.

Furthermore, by aligning the Uyghurs with the 9/11 attacks, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has effectively branded them as terrorists affected by “the virus” of Islam.

The camps are justified as necessary measures to prevent separatist violence, claiming that the Uyghurs are detained willingly. As the primary method of sinicisation, inmates are beaten, forced to learn Mandarin and banned from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. There have also been several reports of live organ harvesting for public hospitals.

Unfortunately, China has succeeded in making human rights about subsistence and development of the country, rather than the individual freedom of its inhabitants.

“Raising parliamentary and public awareness will help classify the Uyghur situation as a genocide. The ‘Foundation for Uyghur Freedom’ and the ‘SOAS Uyghur Society’ attempt to aid in this process.”

A genocide is defined as the ‘deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation and ethnic group’. Raising parliamentary and public awareness will help classify the Uyghur situation as a genocide. The ‘Foundation for Uyghur Freedom’ (@foundation4uyghurfreedom) and the ‘SOAS Uyghur Society’ (@soasuyghursociety) attempt to aid in this process. Branding the situation as a genocide will make it possible to implement international sanctions and reprimands (e.g. Magnitsky sanctions), which are key to stopping the abuses of human rights occurring.

The persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar serves as a warning to the dangers of non-acknowledgement ethnic cleansing, government-sanctioned rape and persecution on the basis of religion have been ongoing since 2016.

There are sad parallels between the Uyghur and Rohingya genocides, demonstrated through the ‘pair up and become a family’ campaign. Han men forcibly marry and subsequently rape Uyghur women with the intention of diluting bloodlines - acts that are sanctioned by the CCP. However, genocide designation will hinder China. The BRI would be called into question, and with it the growing influence of economic imperialism based in China.

By forgiving national debt of weaker countries in exchange for interconnected Chinese trade routes, China is successfully, and somewhat quietly expanding its sphere of influence. The cost is Uyghur livelihoods. In an ever capitalist world, it is important to distinguish whether trade trumps truth and how far the international community is willing to let China free, as regional domination turns global. The Beijing 2022 Olympics will bring publicly, hopefully accompanied by scrutiny. The rest is up to us.

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Sports & Societies

7 DECEMBER 2020

Our Top SOAS Society Picks!

British Red Cross on Campus: Impartiality in Ethiopia?

Youth volunteers take to the streets to mobilize against COVID- 19 in Ethiopia (Credit: UNICEF Ethiopia)

Georgia Goddard, BA International Relations & Mala Dutta, MA International Studies & Diplomacy The birth of the ​International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, today the largest humanitarian network in the world, can be traced back to a battlefield in Solferino, Italy, in 1859. It is here that its founder, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, saw the horrors

of war and recognised the need for a new kind of humanitarian aid, one which held itself to seven values: humanity​, ​impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. Over decades to come, the ethical and organisational framework of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) became a crucial source of inspiration and guidance for the humanitarian sector. As Michael Barnett and Thomas Weiss recount, ‘for many the ICRC’s

definition of humanitarianism is the gold standard’. Yet some of these values are more contested than others, especially impartiality and neutrality in the face of war crimes.

The ongoing conflict in Ethiopia provides a contemporary case study. Fighting began in early November 2020 between armed forces of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TFPL) - which has dominated the political landscape since 1991 but now control Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray - and the new national government led by Abiy Ahmed. In 2019, Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his essential role in ending the 20-year territorial dispute between Ethiopia and neighbouring country Eritrea. Conflict between regions and ethnicities in Ethiopia is not new - many Ethiopian refugees in the UK are Oromos who fled the Tigrayan regime after decades of harsh repression. However, with diplomats in Addis Ababa calling the outbreak of violent fighting a ‘civil war’ and Amnesty International reporting war crimes, the situation has certainly escalated. The ICRC warns that the risk of a humanitarian crisis is high.

The answer to the question posed above is found in the small print: while the ICRC is committed to upholding its core principles of impartiality and neutrality, and thus cannot and will not get involved in the politics of the situation, it will ​fight for the protection of human rights of all those involved.

Indeed, impartiality and neutrality are the exact principles which allow the ICRC to protect these rights in practice. The ICRC’s long standing reputation as a humanitarian aid network that will neither pick a side nor discriminate against anyone has turned the organisation into a player with unique features. The respect shown towards the ICRC

is reflected in the stories told in volunteer training sessions in the UK: in Afghanistan, the British Red Cross was allowed to stay at a Taliban compound for the night when no other accommodation could be found.

Over its long history in Tigray, Oromia, Amhara, Benshangul-Gumuz and the Somali Regional State, the ICRC has provided access to water, sanitation, and financial aid, as well as seeds and animal vaccinations. In the recent conflict, the ICRC has activated a family links hotline that Ethiopians can call to report a missing family member. The hotline had been contacted by over 1000 people as of 18th November, remaining key in the telecommunications blackout. Due to its neutral stance, the ICRC is also allowed in detention centres and to visit healthcare centres, donating medical and non-medical items. It calls for respect for people's lives and property in all of Ethiopia, facilitating ambulance access to all regions of conflict.

The Ethiopian Red Cross society has transported hundreds of injured people to healthcare facilities using said ambulances.

As a neutral intermediary, the Red Cross stands ready to aid the release and return of detained people across the country. The Sudanese Red Crescent are currently helping Ethiopian refugees crossing the border operating clinics, shelters, emergency provisions all while providing temperature checks to those crossing.

This could not be done without the fundamental principles guiding all Red Cross/ Crescent movements in the world, consolidating the notion that people are more important than politics. If aiding refugees this Christmas appeals to you, please donate to the ‘Wrapping for Refugees’ campaign, alternatively drop us a line (@brcsoas)!

SOAS Palestine Society SOAS Uyghur Society

SOAS Netball Society

NOW is the time to join the SOAS Palestine Society – with increasing crackdown on Palestinian activism on campuses, it is more important than ever to resist and fight back! The struggle for Palestinian liberation from occupation and colonialism is deeply symbolic of the fight for liberation for all indigenous and colonised peoples. We’re here to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people to advocate for freedom, justice, and equality. Sounds like a lot? Don’t worry!

We want campaign work to be accessible - we know it can be intimidating doing something new, especially this year.

All you need to take action is your enthusiasm! We have weekly Zoom meetings on Wednesday evenings where we learn together through political education and practise our campaigning skills. There is plenty to do and something for everyone, so we are eager to know what YOU want from the Palestine Society! Please feel free to drop us a line!

Connect with a caring community and actively make a stand by joining us at SOAS Palestine Society! Follow our socials (IG: @SOASpalestinesociety; FB: @BDSxSOAS) and pop into an event or a meeting – we can’t wait to meet you!

We’re the Netball Society! Before lockdown, we’d aim to meet and train twice a week, and we hope to be back on the courts when we can. We are an all-inclusive society and encourage students of all abilities to join us, whether you’ve played before at any level, or you’ve never seen a netball in your life.

Moving online has been very challenging, especially considering we are a sports society. However, we have something exciting in the works, so keep an eye out! If this interests you, please join our Facebook group ‘SOAS Netball 20/21’ and follow our Instagram page to stay updated (@soasnetball).

The SOAS Uyghur Society is a new society aiming to increase awareness of the situation of the Uyghur community in East Turkestan, in hopes of fighting the injustice currently taking place. Like any other society, we encourage people to join and connect, to make friends and combat this issue together as a team.

This year it has been tough launching a society completely online, especially when bearing in mind the collaborative nature of our society; ideally we would have liked to attend protests and have discussions in person but we look forward to doing so next year. However, virtual interaction has its perks - thanks to the online platforms available, we have been able to connect with organisations from all over the world to organise talks and plan on how we will fight this together.

We look forward to hosting online webinars soon, which will cover a series of important topics in regards to the Uyghur, as well as some in-person events hopefully in the future.

Please do not hesitate to reach out on our Instagram page @soasuyghursociety

@soasnetball via Instagram

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Sports & Societies

7 DECEMBER 2020

Join your student-run newspaper!

Interested in journalism, writing, design, or photography? Want to gain valuable experience to pursue a career in the media or publishing?

Want to express your opinions?

Email spirit@soas.ac.uk to find out about your student-run newspaper!

The SOAS Spirit is your independent student-run newspaper; an on campus presence since 1936.

We publish monthly throughout the term.

We have opportunities to join our team as a writer, photographer, and much more

: @soasspirit

SOAS SPIRIT