Issue 23: February 6 2023

SOAS SPIRIT 6 FEBRUARY 2023

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YOUR INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

18 DAYS OF UNIVERSITY STRIKES

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ISSUE 23

CLEAN GIRLS, CLEAN UP

JENIN MASSACRE: 9

PALESTINIANS KILLED

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YOUR ACT

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SOAS: The School of Occupation and Apartheid Studies

SOAS students protest the University’s complicity in Israeli Apartheid – November 29, 2022. (Credits: Sam Landis)

Sam Landis, BA Social Anthropology and International Relations On November 29, 2022, over 50 students gathered outside SOAS for a rally held on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people. Organized by the SOAS Palestine Society, the group called attention to the recent violence experienced

by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. According to the Middle East Eye, 2022 has been the West Bank’s deadliest year since 2006, with 167 Palestinians murdered by Israeli forces.

With a banner labeling SOAS as the ‘School of Occupation and Apartheid Studies’, protestors also criticized the university’s relationship with the Israeli state and resisted recent efforts by SOAS management to crack down on Palestinian activism. For years, SOAS students of Hebrew were offered spots at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an institution responsible for racism against Palestinian students, as well as the dispossession of countless Palestinians from their territory. SOAS students were also allocated accommodation in Israeli settlements located in occupied East Jerusalem. In

2020, SOAS switched partners to Haifa University, built on colonized Mount Carmel and home to three military colleges and a military base where students planning to join the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) can train and receive degrees.

According to the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, as of 2019, SOAS had invested £1.8 million in companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, although questions have been raised Continued on page 3

Letter from the Editor

Contents SOAS: School of Occupation and Apartheid Studies

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Welcome to Intersectional AI: The Launch of the SOAS Centre for AI Futures

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Union Rage as Government Legislates for Minimum Service Bill

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Public and Private Opinions on Strikes

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Clean Girls, Clean Up Your Act

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The Evolution of Gossip

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Agony Aunt

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A Moroccan Family Recipe

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Medinian Blues

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Tiktok Activism

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Running on Empty: A Jordanian Running Experience

Dear Spirit readers, In the Spirit of new beginnings, I’d like to take this opportunity to lay out our aspirations for the new year. Firstly, we aim to double down on the tireless work that went into the production of our first two editions, producing original, high quality content which is both of and for the SOAS community. Secondly, we’re looking to broaden our digital reach, moving into new arenas of content creation with the revamp of our podcast series “That’s the Spirit”, and breathing new life into our digital reporting - a project which has been diligently led by our Executive Digital Editor, Millie Glaister. Thirdly, we want to hear more from you, having a diverse range of contributors in an asset which we are increasingly looking to draw upon. As the pool of experience available to us grows, our news coverage will grow alongside it, allowing us to create News which is truly reflective of all our experiences, not just the mainstream.

To conclude, I’d like to end this letter in a slightly different way than I have previously. The coming months will undoubtedly be trying for us all. With the cancellation of teaching time, and disruption to all our daily lives, it may seem like an easy solution to turn on those around us. I implore you both as an Editor and fellow student to resist this fallacy, and instead aim your anger at those with the power to remedy this situation - the institution. This may seem like a bizarre request for an Editor to make, after all, journalists are meant to remain impartial in the face of tumult. However, Journalism at its core has always been about the relentless pursuit of justice through the discovery and distribution of the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. In this instance, the truth we are faced with is a binary one, either we stand with the staff who seek to act in our mutual interest, or we play into the divide and conquer mentality of those who seek to sow discord amongst us. We at The Spirit know where we stand, and we hope that you’ll stand with us.

Looking to our first edition of the year, I believe we have created an edition which truly reflects our push for greater

Toby Oliver-Clarke Editor-In-Chief of the SOAS Spirit

Your SOAS Spirit Team

Amelia Casey-Rerhaye • Managing Editor • 681085 Toby Oliver Clarke • Editor-in-Chief • 686196 Millie Glaister • Executive Digital Editor • 668292 Sanna Hamid • Creative Director • 680367

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Vivienne Westwood

A Bright Future Ahead for the SOAS Drama and Music Society

participatory diversity. This issue is one which covers the length and breadth of the current political, social, and economic landscape. With several revelatory, exclusive investigations, heartfelt opinion pieces, and a punchy dose of cultural commentary, the issue is one which I believe we can be proud of. Of particular note is our International News section, an area of the paper which has only gone from strength to strength under the skilled editorship of Viandito. For the first time since I began my tenure as Editor, this issue will be accompanied by the release of a series of interviews, the first of which will take place with SOAS Director, Adam Habib. Whilst the outcome of any interview is never certain, we pledge to continue to hold those in power to account, and voice the questions and concerns which matter to you the most.

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If You’re Shocked, You Haven’t Been Paying Attention

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Amelia Casey-Rerhaye • Managing Editor

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Eleanora Catenaro • SOAS News Editor • 670940 Madihah Najeeb • National News Editor • 670968 Viandito Pasaribu • International News Editor • 679304 Naeema Mahmood • Co Opinion Editor • 686194 Emily Holdcroft • Co Opinion Editor • 672228 Naaz Hussein • Features Editor • 681486 Anisah Mahamoud • Culture Editor • 688334 Hala Haidar • Sport & Societies Editor • 691541 Unzeela Manzoor • Contributing Designer • 692007 Lulu Goad • Contributing Designer • 685698 Amy Kan • Contributing Designer • 690182 Lulu Goad• Senior Sub Editor • 685698 Eman Baasti • Sub Editor • 679630 Clayton Barrington-Russell • Sub Editor • 679437 Danyal Sabir • Sub Editor • 678361

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Sophia- Fai Roche • Digital reporter • 6859991 Olivia Vallada • Digital reporter • 693931 Unzeela Manzoor • Digital reporter • 692007 Senior Editorial Team• Millie, Sanna, Amelia and Toby

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6 FEBRUARY 2023 News Editors: Eleanora Catenaro, Madihah Najeeb & Viandito Pasaribu

SOAS News

News

Continued from page 1

regarding the accuracy of this figure. In 2019, SOAS had £405,914 invested in Albemarle Corp – a U.S.-based chemicals manufacturer involved in the production of weaponry sent to Israel from the United States and used against Palestinians.

SOAS also had £668,544 invested in Barclays, which invests over £1.1 million in companies supplying the Israeli military with weapons, and £775,754 invested in Sony, which provides

surveillance equipment to Israel. Last spring, SOAS students occupied the Main Building for nine days confronting SOAS management on a number of issues, including their harmful investment practices and relationships with Israeli universities. Management responded to the occupation through various brutal methods of suppressing student activism which culminated in a violent eviction, a cost which amounted to

£200,000. As students continue to fight for the Palestinian cause on campus, SOAS has responded with an ever-increasing security presence, all while marketing itself as an institution which prides itself on social justice. Students may question whether ‘The World’s University’ has some thinking to do.

SOAS Greenlights Extensive SU Renovation, At What Cost?

Toby Oliver-Clarke & Millie Glaister, Editor In Chief and Executive Digital Editor

A fresh renovation of the downstairs area of the main building - including the Russell Room and the former refectory - has been greenlit. The joint venture between the Students’ Union and the SOAS institution is expected to be ready by September 2023. In a statement to the Spirit, SOAS stated: ‘We (SOAS) are working with the SU to design a new space for students that supports positive student interaction, well-being and experience. The SU are leading on a consultation and engagement piece with a wide range of stakeholders, the outcome of which will inform the final scheme. Preparatory works are currently underway to clear the area of unused equipment, installations and services.’

The SU has opened a consultation project with students.

Initially the SU invited Society Committee members to contribute; following this, they released a survey on Friday 20 January (made available until Monday 23 January) providing an opportunity for the wider community to communicate their desires for the project. The results of this survey are supposed to inform the design brief for the space. However, it is unclear if the results will be made available publicly. When approached by the Spirit, the SU commented: ‘The SU is delighted to be working with the School in developing the former refectory space into a

purpose-built Students Union. Investment in the SU infrastructure is very w elcomed, and this refurbishment will enable us to meet the rising demands for our services. From September 2023 SOAS Students can look forward to a modern, accessible Students Union that enriches their extra-curricular experience on campus.’

The survey has sparked controversy surrounding what will happen to the Prayer Space that occupies part of the area planned for renovation. Members of the Islamic Society shared their concerns for the future of the space. In a message shared in the ISOC group chat members stated that, ‘The SOAS population consists of hundreds of practising Muslims.

We should be able to use our rights and privileges in the western world to have a safe place where we can practise the freedom of religion, while also completing our well-earned Islamic (and this is emphasised deeply) and British right of education.’

Thus far, the details of the project are limited, with students only being provided a modest timeline and a general idea of what the space may be. As of yet there has been no mention of the budget, nor the source of funding, though this aligns with standard practice at SOAS. This project is separate to the previously confirmed renovations of the SU Bar and the JCR, which was supposed to have happened before the start of the 2022/23 academic year, but has faced multiple delays. The Bar/ JCR project has continually raised questions from

students concerned about a sanitisation of student spaces.

This was discussed in the SU Trustee Board Meeting on 13 October 2022, in which it was stated that the murals were to be maintained, but the ‘graffiti’ around the bar was a separate issue. The minutes for this meeting note CEO of the SU, Irfan Zaman, stating that ‘we have to take into account the institution’s desires of what the space should be as they are funding the refurb.’ This has brought to the fore the relationship between the SU and the institution’s management. There is seemingly a conflict between the idea of the SU prioritising students and their experience, whilst being dependent on the funding of the institution, whom many students feel do not reflect their interests.

Against the backdrop of ongoing union action over real terms pay cuts and working conditions, students are struggling to reconcile the idea of multiple new projects with the institution seemingly taking no action to solve disputes resulting in the loss of 18 days of expensive education in the classroom. One such student, Archie Thomas, told us, “It feels like our priorities and those of the institution are in two completely different places, why are we spending money on this extensive refurbishment when our teachers are forced to strike for fair pay, - it doesn't feel right.” With the refurb already underway and strikes set to begin imminently, time will tell whether the renovations’ popularity will itself soon be in need of maintenance.

Credits: Sanna Hamid

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NEWS

6 FEBRUARY 2023

PRALER supports Asylum Claim of Ovaherero Freedom Fighter Emily Dickinson-Holdcroft, BA Social Anthropology Florence Mbahupa Handura is a powerful freedom fighter and rights defender from the Ovaherero Indigenous Nation of Afrika currently fighting for reparatory justice for the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama people, committed by Germany in 1904.

This act of genocide, one that Britain is deeply complicit in given their integral involvement in the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, caused the death of 110,000 people, and is one instance of the Maangamizi* (Afrikan Hellacaust). Mbahupa has been campaigning with the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (OGF) and traditional indigenous authorities throughout Afrika.

The history of the Ovaherero people is centuries old, but it is believed they first migrated southward to what is now called Namibia from central Afrika during the 16th century. It was only in the 19th century that the European colonisers arrived and applied their name of what was then ‘South West Africa’, allocating what is now Namibia to Germany. There were many occasions of resistance, with alliances between the Ovaherero and Nama people and an army led against the German troops by Samuel Maharero. This led to the regained control of much of the region but was followed by German colonialist’s ‘Extermination Order’ where 75% of the Herero population was killed.

Those who survived often fled to neighbouring Botswana, yet when many people of the indigenous nation desired to return home following ‘independence’, the Botswanan and Namibian governments made it a requirement to leave herds and possessions behind when doing so leaving my Ovaherero stranded.

Mbahupa’s work has pushed for the recognition of Ovaherero communities, who like many indigenous Afrikan communities have been written out of the syllabuses we study from, her work continues to further self-determination, reparations and international justice for the atrocities committed then and continuing on in forms of social injustices now.

In 2004 Germany ‘apologised’ for what they recognised was a genocide against the Ovaherero people, negotiations further took place between 2015 and 2021 with how to move forward yet these were with the Namibian government and not descendants of those who were killed. In 2021, an offer of $1.3 billion was made to provide financial reparations over 30 years for development projects but the Herero and Nama people have openly rejected this proposal as inadequate; despite this, the Namibian government is considering an agreement. The focus on ‘development’ projects also speaks to perpetuated imposition of profit-making opportunities masked as ‘reparations’. There has been a complete lack of legal precedent set by Germany regarding reparations, and the ‘Reconciliation agreement’ does not discuss the fact that Herero and Nama land is still ‘owned’ by German Namibians.

Mbahupa’s work disrupts the legitimacy of neo-colonial control, in a country that only gained ‘independence’ in 1990, and brings light to crimes against humanity that have not seen justice and still heavily impact the Ovaherero and all Indigenous Nations fighting for liberation and sovereignty. As a result, she has faced persecution and violence, leading to her now submitting a political asylum claim here in Britain. Campaigning for Planet Repairs, the struggle for the reparatory justice liberation of the Ovaherero and other indigenous nations around the world, bringing pressure to the colonial state authorities in Namibia by demanding a plurinational assembly and solution to the colonial partition of Southern Afrika by European Countries and the UN. This could look like what has been achieved by Indigenous communities

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in Bolivia where the Plurinational State of Bolivia was won by popular demand and support allowing the majority indigenous communities to collectively secure their own self-determination and sovereignty and restore their leadership. This possibility has an impact for the struggles of freedom fighting communities everywhere to better organise together in internationalist solidarity.

However, as submitted in a support statement by the PRALER Law Community Lifelong Learning Study and Action Group (COLLSAG), these arguments naturally threaten the government in Namibia. They also threaten the whole constitution of Namibia, which makes Florence liable to the charge of treason risking her life and those of her community. The UK Home Office’s failure to secure a reparatory justice stay for Florence violates domestic and international law.

Despite the two attacks she has been victim of, her first asylum claim was rejected. The Crown court ‘did not accept that the account provided by the appellant in respect of being

‘Mbahupa’s work has pushed for the recognition of Ovaherero communities, who like many indigenous Afrikan communities have been written out of the syllabuses we study from, her work continues to further self-determination, reparations and international justice for the atrocities committed then and continuing on in forms of social injustices now.

given she is highly at risk if she were to return to Namibia, it is a case that reaches into the heart of discussions surrounding decolonisation. A win would mean recognition in the legal sphere that Mbahupa’s work - rejecting the colonially implemented borders and the acceptance of genocide - is valid, and is effective, as evidenced by the reactionary violence she has endured.

This is one thread of the many global battles being fought to recognise, stop and repair the Maangamizi (Afrikan holocaust).

For more information about the case: Mbahupa Action Support Team (MAST), PRALER Migrants Action Learning Support Internationalist Link (PRALER-MALSIL) Email: Praler@riseup.net Tel: +44 7737 602 484 linktr.ee/PRALER; stopthemaangamizi.com; And for more updates on Florence’s case FB: PRALER MALSIL *The Planet Repairs Action-Learning Educational Revolution (PRALER) was launched at SOAS in October 2022 as decolonial revolution taking back education for community empowerment. PRALER is brought forward by the Majority World Internationalist Solidarity Coordinating Council of Communities of Resistance (MWISCCCOR) building internationalist solidarity through educational action-learning.

stabbed sufficiently demonstrated that the Namibian authorities were behind the attack’, leaving the question of how Mbahupa is supposed to provide satisfactory evidence for this whilst seeking refuge from her attackers. In addition, the courts ‘found that the appellant delayed in seeking asylum until after being in the UK for 4 months and considered that this damaged her credibility.’ This doubting of her ‘credibility’ highlights the issue of how those arriving in Britain are expected to immediately understand the deeply inaccessible layers of bureaucracy, whilst facing immense hardships. Context such as ‘The Caprivi Treason Trial of Namibia’ also provides vital evidence of the danger Mbahupa faces on return to Namibia, given the Caprivian freedom fighters have been imprisoned with claims of torture. Mbahupa’s campaign efforts also make her liable for treason, a fact which shall be emphasised in the fresh claim PRALER recently submitted.

PRALER, argues the previous lost appeal was also in large part due to the failings of the Law Lane Solicitors that originally filed her case but refused to allow Mbahupa to submit signed statements of support and did not provide the courts with a true understanding of her position of political gravitas.

In addition, this rejection of the asylum claim only further highlights the failure of the Vienna Convention in aiding refugees, as well as the systematic issues of a defunct legal system that only works to perpetuate the racist politics of Britain’s elite.

Beyond the case being essentially a fight for Mbahupa’s life

Credits: Global Afrikan Peoples’ Parliament Facebook

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NEWS

6 FEBRUARY 2023

Welcome to Intersectional AI: The Launch of The SOAS Centre for AI Futures

Credits: Toby Oliver-Clarke

By Toby Oliver-Clarke and Bernardo Monteiro, Editor In Chief & MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies.

Wednesday 25 January marked the opening of the SOAS Centre for AI Futures. A joint venture between the SOAS Department of Anthropology, The Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, and Quilt AI, the centre aims to develop new ways of integrating machine-learning into academia, and equally seeks to place AI within a more global, non-western setting. On the eve of the launch, Bernardo Monteiro and I met with the Co-founders of the centre Dr Chowdry, Dr Matti Pohjonen, and Sonmath Batabyal, to question them over the aims and implications of the project. Beginning with the ways in which SOAS has influenced the development of the project, Quilt AI founder Anurag Banerjee, told us that “machine learning models have often not had autocritical abilities, SOAS brings that critical theory which can help us in building more inclusive tech models.” His was seconded by Dr Matti Pohjonen of Helsinki who added “SOAS has unparalleled regional expertise in Africa and Asia, this expertise can help us to build ground up, people centric models of AI.” Moving onto the wider debate over the implications of AI’s rapid growth, we challenged the panellists on the potential of AI to embed already existing societal inequities and power structures. In response to this, SOAS Alumni Dr Chowdhry told us, “the idea is not to replace bias with unbias, AI should

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increase the researcher’s ability to see how people self- represent online, in this regard, we can better translate the realities of the global south.” In recent times, there has been a concerning increase in the use of AI as a tool of repression and subju-

“AI undoubtedly has the power to change the material reality of our daily lives, with the potential to revolutionise healthcare, education and the economy, it’s undoubtedly a force that will shape the world in which we live.”

gation. The controversy surrounding AI reached its peak with the uncovering of Pegasus spy software. The software, which was developed by the Israeli military, has been used to track the movements and communications of several high profile Journalists, politicians, and activists, including Jamal Khoshoggi, the influential New York Times Journalist who was surveilled using the software before his eventual murder by the Saudi state. Speaking on his personal experience working

in Saudi, Banerjee told us that the nature of the collaboration matters more than the partners engaged in it. “It’s the nature of the work that enables power, if the work is empathetic, understanding, and learning focused, you’re actually enabling the creation of new narratives which decentralise power.

Once you open up space for new narratives, even in supposedly closed societies, you inevitably see the rise of democracy, after all, one single interpretation is the autocrat’s wet dream”.

AI undoubtedly has the power to change the material reality of our daily lives, with the potential to revolutionise healthcare, education, and the economy; it’s undoubtedly a force that will shape the world in which we live. Spaces like SOAS have the opportunity to discard their legacies of collaborative colonialism, and instead work towards a world in which we prioritise the creation of inclusive, people led societal models. Dr Sonmath Batty bal, Chair of the SOAS Centre for AI, and Lecturer of Anthropology, told us that the centre’s creation is part of a wider to move to integrate digital practices into daily life at SOAS. In the light of the historic hostility between students and the administration, and recent moves to both sanitise and securitize campus, students may question who really stands to benefit from the digitization of campus.

The SOAS Centre for AI Futures is now open.

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NATIONAL NEWS

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National News

18 Days of University Strikes to come as Vice Chancellors Laugh off Workers’ Demands

University staff on strike back in November (Credit: Sam Landis)

Archie Thomas, BA Politics and International Relations University staff will go on strike for 18 days between February and March after vice-chancellors refused to meet demands over pay, conditions, and pensions. This round of strikes called by the UCU (University and College Union) will see 70,000 staff from 150 universities across the UK, including SOAS, take to the picket line. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) have ‘laughed off ’ the demands branding them an ‘April fool’s joke’.

UCU’s demands span many areas. On pay, staff are demanding a rise of 2% above RPI (retail price index) inflation. RPI is currently around 13.8%. University staff are also wanting an end to the use of insecure contracts in the sector. Currently, around 90,000 university workers are on temporary contracts; many have to reapply for their jobs every year. Pay gaps are also an issue, with a 16% gender pay gap, a 17% race pay gap, and a 9% disability pay gap. Another issue is pensions; last year, the average university worker had their retirement income cut by 35%.

The first confirmed date for this round of industrial action is Wednesday 1st February. Joining four other unions on the Trades Union Congress’ ‘Protect the Right to Strike’ day. Designed to bring maximum disruption and resist the Government’s plans to introduce new anti-strike legislation. The UCU has also committed to a marking boycott from April onwards, disrupting summer graduations. All 18 days of strikes are listed below:

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“Dwemand for an inflation matching pay offer was labelled an ‘April Fools’ joke’ by vice-chancellor body UCEA” Week 1 - Wednesday 1 February Week 2 - Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February Week 3 - Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15, and Thursday 16 February Week 4 - Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22, and Thursday 23 February Week 5 - Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 March Week 6 - Thursday 16 and Friday 17 March Week 7 - Monday 20, Tuesday 21, and Wednesday 22 March On the 19th of January, the joint unions representing university staff (UCU, EIS, GMB, UNISON, and Unite) met with the UCEA for negotiations. The UCEA made an offer of up to a 7% pay increase and a minimum of 5% for those earning up to £51,000. The UCEA claim that their offer ‘recognises that costof-living pressures fall disproportionately on the lower paid staff,’ adding that ‘these are significant financial risks for many HEIs [higher education institutions] who are unable to forecast

with certainty their income for 2023-24’. The association that represents university employers also criticised the fact that tuition fees have not risen. UK universities have £40 billion held in reserves and have recently spent £3.4 billion on new buildings.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady responded to the pay negotiations by saying that: ‘[the] UCU went into pay negotiations yesterday hoping university employers would look for ways to help staff through the cost of living crisis.

Instead, our union’s demand for an inflation matching pay offer was labelled an ‘April Fools’ joke’ by vice-chancellor body UCEA. Employers might find over a decade of falling wages a laughing matter, but we don’t, and nor will the students who are faced with the prospect of 18 days of strike action in February and March.’ In a tweet, the UCU pointed out that while staff pay has fallen by 25%, the average vice-chancellor has seen an increase in pay of £315,000.

This new round of industrial action follows a three-day walkout in November which was the largest-ever higher education strike. It also comes in the context of an unrelenting wave of strikes across sectors. This wave of strikes is a result of 14% inflation and stagnant wages in many sectors since the 2008 financial crisis. Additionally, the casualisation of work and privatisation of public services are also issues of contention. In response to these strikes, Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government has sought to introduce more severe anti-union measures, despite the UK already having some of the strictest anti-union laws in Europe.

University strikes will take place between February and March, and marking boycotts after April unless unions and university vice-chancellors can come to a settlement.

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NATIONAL NEWS

6 FEBRUARY 2023

Effects of Grenfell Continue to Emerge: Dozens of Firefighters Diagnosed with Terminal Cancer Genevieve Hack BSc, Development Economics Up to a dozen firefighters who dealt with the fire at Grenfell Tower have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The cancers diagnosed thus far mainly consist of digestive cancers and leukaemia. Survivors from the event have called for medical screenings, as they still remain susceptible to other illnesses including strokes, heart disease and kidney failure.

The people of London and the rest of the UK were left horrified on 14 June 2017 as the 24-storey block of flats in North Kensington caught alight. The fire was believed to have originated from a faulty fridge freezer.

More than 1,300 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade attended the scene, with the fire claiming 74 lives.

The tragedy that occurred at Grenfell Tower is said to have exposed the neglect on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which a High Court judge found liable for the deaths of five people. The severity of the incident can be traced back to the aluminium cladding, which was chosen in order to reduce the cost of the renovation work, despite the fact that it lacked sufficient fire-retardant properties. This was brought to the attention of the Council in the form of numerous complaints from residents, yet the council still failed to act. Sadiq Khan, th e Mayor of London, expressed his anger towards the ‘years of neglect from the council and successive Governments,’ implying that the events which transpired in June 2017 reflect wider social inequalities that remain embedded in governmental institutions. The Mayor went on to detail the people and communities affected by the tragedy, ‘some of them are poor, some may come from deprived backgrounds, some of them may be Asylum seekers and Refugees’. Grenfell Tower was mostly occupied by social renting tenants.

Five and a half years later, the stinging effects of the tragedy can still be felt. The overall physical impact on the firefighters and survivors of the fire is yet to be confirmed, as the longterm effects of exposure to smoke and chemicals may take years to present themselves. The fine particles that are found

in smoke can lead to aggravated chronic heart and lung disease. Moreover, dust and oil deposits that were found 160 metres from the block of flats were analysed, and it was found that they contained particles that can lead to respiratory complications including asthma. Studies show that the presence of these toxic contaminants found in the vicinity of Grenfell Tower could pose ‘serious, long-term implications for the health of emergency responders, clean-up workers and local residents.’ Responders outside the tower days after the blaze were also reported to have not been wearing protective kits, which experts have argued could have exposed them to toxin levels which might have been far worse following the blaze.

bereaved families, survivors, evacuated residents and the wider local community. A public inquiry is ongoing, and is set to conclude its findings in the Autumn of 2023. The Building Safety Act was passed in April 2022, outlining the safety requirements of landlords of higher-risk buildings.

The long-lasting effects of Grenfell remain prominent five years later and serve as a stark reminder of the failures of the systems on which so many people depend.

The affected communities are now striving for greater understanding and action on behalf of the government.

“The events which transpired in June 2017 reflect wider social inequalities that remain embedded in governmental institutions.”

Presently, up to 12 firefighters have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The long-lasting effects of the Grenfell tragedy have not only been reflected in the physical toll on firefighters’ and survivors’ bodies, but have also manifested in the deterioration of mental health. Suicidal thoughts have been reported among Firefighters who attended the scene, as well as the psychological effect on bereaved families also affected by the fire.

The events surrounding the fire in Grenfell Tower have sparked movements of a national scale in aid of those affected, ensuring that the right support is available and that this situation will never be repeated. Riccardo la Tore, a Fire Brigades Union national official spoke of the inaction on behalf of the Government and fire bosses ‘The Fire Brigades Union is commissioning further research to help us demand proper protection and support for our members who attended Grenfell, and for firefighters all over the UK.’ A community-led organisation called Justice 4 Grenfell has also been established to ‘obtain justice for the

Credits: Creative Commons

Union Rage as Government Legislates for Minimum Service Bill Toby Oliver-Clarke, Editor-In-Chief The coming months are set to witness an unprecedented wave of nationwide industrial action, with strikes planned across all major industries. In return, the Government has put forth plans to legislate for a Minimum Service Bill - colloquially known as the ‘Anti Strike Bill’. If passed, the Bill would raise the threshold needed for workers to withdraw their labour, and would strip unions of the legal safeguards they have long enjoyed, exposing them to legal action taken by employers affected by strikes. Additionally, the bill would legislate for the implementation of ‘Minimum Service Levels’, restricting the ability of those in key public services such as healthcare, education, and transport to take industrial action. Those opposed to the Bill have argued that it represents an attack on the civil liberties of workers across the country, and have equally questioned whether the bill would even achieve its stated aims.

Labours’ Angela Rayner, labelled the bill ‘One of the most indefensible and foolish pieces of legislation in recent times.’

The Bill would impact workers across 6 main industries:

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Health, Fire and Rescue, Education, Border Security, Nuclear decommissioning, and Transport. Business Secretary Grant Shapps, the Minister responsible for the bill’s passing, has argued that the new powers would bring an end to an ‘unacceptable postcode lottery of public services, restoring the balance between those seeking to strike, and protecting the public from disproportionate disruption to daily life’.

The bill sits against the backdrop of an increasingly protracted stalemate between the government and the unions, with little progress being made towards a negotiated settlement. Unions have stated that they are open to discussions with the government; Pat Cullen, General Secretary of The Royal College of Nurses, asserted that she was willing to ‘press pause’ on strikes, if the government was willing to discuss a pay rise for her members. The government has consistently reasserted that pay is not up for negotiation considering the current pressure on public finances, and claims to have given the National Health Service its biggest funding increase since New Labour.

In light of the government’s apparent intransigence, those opposed to their stance have questioned whether they had purposely drawn out negotiations to lay the groundwork for

the passing of the Minimum Service Bill. Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress - a body representing the majority of union members across the country, called the proposed legislation ‘an attack on working people’, adding that he and his members would ‘fight the legislation every step of the way’. Similarly, Secretary General of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers, Mick Lynch - a figure who has risen to prominence recently for his combative defence of workers’ rights - added ‘this latest legislation is an attack on civil rights, and an attack on human rights, there can be no freedom without free unions’.

With the recent announcement that the UCU has agreed to 18 days of industrial action on campus, and the escalation of action on the part of Healthcare workers, it appears that the current wave of strikes are set to extend long into the spring.

The Minimum Service Bill represents the biggest attempted restriction of workers’ liberties in recent times. Whilst it remains uncertain whether the bill’s stated aims will be converted into a working reality, it is without doubt that industrial relations have reached their lowest point since Thatcher.

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NATIONAL NEWS

6 FEBRUARY 2023

Is The NHS On The Verge of Collapse?

Hiba Ul-Hasan, BA History The National Health Service (NHS) has been experiencing one of its most serious crises since its founding in 1948. Along with rising living costs due to inflation, the NHS is on its last legs, attempting to meet increasing demands.The NHS has had a shortage of medical professionals, a lack of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, increased A&E wait times, cancellation of scheduled surgeries, and longer waiting lists in recent years.

During the pandemic, the NHS bore the weight of the Coronavirus. Due to the large number of patients who required life-saving treatment and support, entire hospital wings were filled with patients infected by COVID. The development of the seven Nightingale hospitals, with the ExCeL convention centre providing 500 intensive care beds, was intended to relieve pressures on the NHS and to alleviate the struggle for hospital beds.

But a poll of 1007 participants performed in April 2020 revealed that two-thirds of staff respondents thought there was a shortage of PPE accessible and that only half believed frontline workers had received adequate training. 90% of interviewees felt that a call for a lockdown early would have reduced the spread of the virus.

Even before the pandemic took place, the NHS had a huge number of staff vacancies, and millions of people were on treatment waiting lists. There were few GP appointments available due to a shortage of medical staff, prompting individuals to go to A&E in the hope of being seen by a medical expert. According to the RCEM, the average reported waiting time at the A&E is 12 hours before being discharged, affecting 4.3% of patients seeking emergency care in 2021.

As a result, according to the most recent BSA study, public satisfaction with the NHS declined by 17% between 2020 and

2021, reaching 36%. This was the lowest recorded score since 1997, as well as the largest year-on-year reduction in history.

the first time, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is going on strike, and ambulance workers are expected to join them.

However, this did not imply that the public did not value the work of the NHS. The weekly ‘Clap for Carers’ showered public appreciation on frontline employees. According to the Common Public Account Committee, 80% of the general public recognised the NHS as having a ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ financing problem.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded that the Prime Minister bear some responsibility for the NHS crisis during one of the Prime Minister’s Questions sessions in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accused Labour leader Keir Starmer of opposing anti-strike legislation, claiming the government was ‘rapidly implementing measures...to relieve pressure in urgent and emergency care departments.’

The report also alleges that the government has been

“Prime Minster Rishi Sunak … claimed the government was ‘rapidly implementing measures…to relieve pressure in urgent and emergency care department.” underinvesting by not financing the NHS in accordance with the growing demand and by making jobs unappealing by overworking and underpaying employees. According to the Common Public Account Committee’s research, the UK health department was too quick to give Covid contracts, citing the £37 billion failed test-and-trace system as an example, which is attributed to the Conservative Party’s intention to privatise the health care system.

Multiple strikes have occurred in recent months as the GMB and UNISON unions demanded pay increases above inflation. Despite the government’s provision of a 4.75% pay increase for all NHS employees, the latest figures show that it is less than half of the current inflation rate. As a result, for

‘Pieces on a Chess Board’ - Prince Harry Discusses His Time Fighting for The Military Sophia-Fai Roche, BA Social Anthropology and Global Development

Prince Harry has been under fire recently for revelations made in his autobiography ‘Spare’, regarding his actions during the time he spent fighting in the military. Amongst other revelations, Prince Harry spoke of how he killed 25 people while fighting for the British Armed Forces. ‘My number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me.’ Even more chilling, Prince Harry went on to explain that you cannot hurt an individual if you don’t see them as a human being in the first place. The army uses tactics to help its soldiers detach from their actions while fighting by pushing a narrative of them and us. They are trained to look at their targets as the ‘other’ and dehumanise them to enable them to carry out their orders effectively.

Prince Harry goes on to explain that he saw his missions as a chess board, and the people as the chess pieces, slowly eliminating them as he went. Harry explains that ‘it’s not possible to kill someone if you see them as a human being’ and that the dehumanisation that occurred in the fighting on behalf of our armed forces also feeds into the gamification of war and how warfare is dangerously becoming similar to video games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield.

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Sir Keir told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that it would take at least a decade for his party to repair the current NHS crisis and tackle the economic catastrophe. He stated that in order to continue the public service that the NHS delivers, the private sector may need to be used.

Credits: LBC/Alamy

The gamification of warfare has been a long-discussed debate in recent years surrounding the military increasing physical and psychological detachment from fighting that now occurs, alongside the extent of the realism some video games emulate to real-life war experiences. Warfare technology is now so advanced that the shooter and insurgent could be half a mile away from each other and still administer a lethal weapon. This distance between the shooter and insurgent makes it easier for individuals to pull the trigger and detach from their target and, therefore, their actions. No longer is combat-led fightin g a predominant feature in warfare, and with this, the grasp of the extent of their actions, of taking a human life, is more dehumanised.

actions while fighting for the British Armed Forces. Former U.K military officers like Richard Kemp have criticised the revelations in his publication as it could ‘provoke the Taliban and their followers to carry out attacks against the UK.’ This comes after the Taliban swiftly responded to Prince Harry’s statement saying: ‘The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return.’

The former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, told the Sunday Mirror that Prince Harry was putting the future of his Invictus Games into jeopardy and that his revelation was ‘very stupid.’ There are potential real-life security ramifications for Prince Harry’s revelations, and this is the reason why individuals in the army do not publicly discuss their kill counts.

Video games and actual warfare interactions have become close to indistinguishable, the army has revealed how they use this technology as part of their military training. The Red Cross has noticed the increasing realism that these video games are emulating and are working with producers to enhance their compliance with International Humanitarian Law. We know the impact these video games have on young people’s psyches, so the chilling realism they depict regarding their similarity to real-life warfare is a worrying revelation.

However, on the flip side, Jessica Wolfendale, a professor of philosophy at Case Western Reserve University’s Inamori International Centre for Ethics and Excellence, says that there are bigger questions to be asked regarding Prince Harry’s revelations. She believes that the attitude that he has presented is one that is representative of the entire British Forces and is not an anomaly. She maintains that this publication brings to life the type of training members receive, and emphasises the increasing physical and psychological distance that individuals experience from their targets thanks to the almost gamification of warfare. Individuals can build up a natural human resistance to killing.

Prince Harry’s shocking revelations have led to a division of opinion when it comes to how candidly he spoke about his

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

6 FEBRUARY 2023

International News

Anti-goverment Protests in Israel Mahir Ahmed, MA Global Media and Communications

Credit: Getty Images

The previous Israeli government was characterised by various anti-Netanyahu factions such as Yesh Atid, Labour, and Blue and White, all of whom sought to oust Benjamin Netanyahu from office.

This alliance was not without its problems, as inner political turmoil caused the Bennett–Lapid government to collapse.

Israel has been marred by government instability for the past few years. Five snap elections were held in 2019 alone, contributing to the rise of Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, who largely served as an alternative to Likud and Netanyahu.

However, the anti-Netanyahu coalition collapsed, and Yair Lapid was forced to dissolve parliament as political differences between the various anti-Bibi factions became untenable. This outcome ultimately led to a fresh set of elections that were held in November of last year.

As a result, Netanyahu came back to office, partnering

with various far-right parties in order to regain a majority in the Knesset. Many left-wing parties suffered losses. The parties involved with Likud’s right-wing bloc are Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) and Religious Zionist Party, which are led by figureheads such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Yoel Smotrich.

Both have expressed intensely bigoted, anti-Palestinian views.

Newly appointed Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir has previously expressed anti-Arab sentiments, saying, ‘Arab citizens of Israel who were not loyal to Israel must be expelled.’

Meanwhile, Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, has said, in response to Arab Israeli lawmakers, ‘You’re here by mistake, it’s a mistake that Ben-Gurion didn’t finish the job and didn’t throw you out in 1948.’ Ben-Gvir was recently implicated in a provocation at Temple Mount, where the al-Aqsa Mosque is located. Many critics have accused him of further inflaming tensions. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry stated in a recent statement, ‘Jordan condemns in the severest of terms the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and violation of its sanctity.’

Many other nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Turkey, had also condemned the visit for similar reasons.

In Israel, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef criticised Ben Gvir for the visit, ‘As a minister representing the government of Israel you should be acting according to Chief Rabbinate instructions, which have long forbidden visiting the Temple Mount,’ writing in a letter to Ben Gvir. However, the Prime Minister’s Office maintained that they would be ‘strictly protecting the status quo on the Temple Mount without any change.’ The statement also said that Israel ‘will not surrender to Hamas directives.’ It is not uncommon for MKs to have visited the Temple Mount in the past, including former public security minister Gilad Erdan.

However, the lurch to the far right has been characterised by democratic backsliding. Justice Minister Yariv Levin newly announced plans to overhaul the Supreme Court system, which would allow rulings to be annulled by a majority in the Knesset.These changes would enable the Israeli government to pass legislation without it being impeded

by the judiciary. As a result, protests have erupted across Israel, and huge crowds gathered in Tel Aviv to protest the proposed reforms to reduce the Supreme Court’s powers.

These reforms come in the midst of Netanyahu’s ongoing trial over corruption and fraud - something he strongly denies.

Some fear this judicial reform would scrap the trial. The government has stated that it wouldn’t interfere, while others worry that these reforms would allow for the government to directly control judicial selection and eliminate ministry legal advisers appointed by the attorney general. Justice Minister Yariv Levin has said that ‘unelected judges have too much power.’

Justice Minister Yariv Levin newly announced plans to overhaul the Supreme Court system, which would allow rulings to be annulled by a majority in the Knesset.

Opponents of the plan say the proposed changes will undermine Israeli democracy. Yael Lotan and Avner Gvaryahu, the heads of Breaking the Silence, a non-governmental organisation that specialises in recounting the experiences of discharged Israeli personnel and reservists in the Occupied Territories, told protesters on Saturday: ‘This evening, friends, we have built a new democratic camp. One that includes Jews and Arabs, men and women, straight people and LGBTQ people, secular and religious — united against one evil government and for the sake of a better future in this place.’ If these reforms come into effect, it would allow for the Israeli government to legislate in favour of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank without facing legal challenges in the Supreme Court.

Pele: How the World Mourned Naaz Hussein, Politics and International Relations

Brazilian football fans hold up banner hoping for Pele’s recovery from colon cancer (Credit: Getty Images)

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, also known as Pelé, passed away on 29 December 2022 after a long battle fighting colon cancer. The three-time Brazilian World Cup champion will

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always be remembered for his large contribution to the game of football. Andy Warhol famously said: “Pelé was one of the few who contradicted my theory, instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.” Known as O Rei (The King), a name that will eternally be tied to his formidable career due to his influence in not only the football world but the empowering figure he was through being a voice for the lower classes and the black community. International tributes have continued to flood media platforms, but will the international community memorialise his name?

In the wake of Pelé’s demise, Brazil fell into 3 days of mourning marking the prestige of his influence. In his memorial, a 24-hour wake was held at the stadium of Santas, his hometeam where he began playing at the young age of 15. At his memorial was FIFA president Gianni Infantino who was accompanied by Ednaldo Rodrigues, the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation. In light of memorialising the late player, Infantino has requested the 211-member FIFA association to hold 1 minute of silence before every game and for each member to rename a stadium in their country.

Amongst the first to do so are Columbia and Guinea-Bissau,

expressing that future generations must continue to carry his blazing torch and remember his contribution to the game. Following this, Syria is also said to be renaming an inoperative stadium that was formerly used by the Syrian military and originally home to the Syrian national team.

Many remember the first football stadium they stepped into, an arena where all individuals can rejoice or mourn the loss of their team. Now, Pelé’s weight in the football world will be earmarked for future generations. For the football world, Brazil and Pelé are synonymous, as the Brazilian government notes: ‘he took the name of Brazil wherever he went.’

“Pelé was one of the few who contradicted my theory, instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries”

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS - THE BIG READ

6 FEBRUARY 2023

The Blockade of the Lachin Corridor – An Azerbaijani Powerplay?

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Mia Jin Haagensli, MSc Politics of the Middle East Since 12 December, the Lachin corridor, a mountain road linking Armenia and the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, has been blocked. The corridor is the only road connecting the region, also known as Artsakh, with Armenia. Thus, it is considered ´the lifeline´ of its residents. With a supply of food, medicine, gas and other necessities only lasting a few days from when the blockade began, we are now looking at a humanitarian crisis. The vast majority, around 99%, of the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh are Armenian. With the corridor blocked, the situation will get more challenging by the day for the 120,000 Armenians, 30,000 of them children, 20,000 elderly and 9,000 suffering from disabilities, living in the enclave. According to Mesrob Kassemdjian, a doctoral researcher at the Politics and International Studies Department at SOAS, “Azerbaijan is trying to coerce Armenia into making a major territorial concession which would see Yerevan relinquish part of Southern Armenia. This would allow Baku to have a land bridge connecting Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan exclave while cutting Armenia off from Iran. That way, Armenia, already a landlocked country, will be completely surrounded by a hostile Azerbaijan and Turkey, and also their ally and client Georgia”. Kassemdjian fears that the blockade will not be lifted until Armenia accepts this deal – a scenario he predicts could spell the beginning of the end for Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh is located within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. However, the contemporary psycho-political borders of the South Caucasus were, as stated

by Kassemdjian, “imposed upon the region by the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union” resulting in Nagorno-Karabakh’s predominantly Armenian indigenous population being excluded from Armenia and placed within Azerbaijan. Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan entered into a conflict over the disputed territory. Over the years, there have been various conflicts, two of the most notable being a war from 1988 to 1994 as well as one in 2020.From 1988 until 1994, the majority of the Armenians of NagornoKarabakh were in an ethnic, territorial conflict with Azerbaijan. This conflict, The First Nagorno-Karabakh War, took place as the parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh voted in favour of uniting with Armenia. A referendum was held, one which

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the Azerbaijani population of the region boycotted. As Azerbaijan wished to suppress the separatist movement and Armenia was in favour of it, a ´full-scale war´ broke out in 1991. At one point, Armenian forces gained control of Artsakh and its seven adjacent territories. For almost 30 years, the Lachin corridor was the source of free movement of people and goods.

This changed in 2020 with The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, an overload of weaponry from Israel and a military budget more than three times the size of their adversary’s, defeated Armenia and seized territories previously administered by them, including the Lachin corridor. When Armenia lost, they insisted on not giving up control of the corridor in fear of Azerbaijan using it as a means of control. As Celine Hovanisjan, an Armenian-Norwegian IR student in Norway, stated, “it seems the common consensus was that if they were to gain control of the corridor, they could use it to control Armenians of NagornoKarabakh at any time. What we feared could happen is now happening”. What is now happening, in the words of Kassemdjian, is an Azerbaijani state-sponsored initiative where soldiers, portraying themselves as eco-activists, are blocking the corridor. According to Kassemdjian, what is said in the media to be a way of protesting the illegal mining of natural resources in the region is, in reality, the Azerbaijani state showing that it can terrorize the Armenian population at any time.

Amidst this, there is also the aspect of Russian involvement. With disputes over territory, Russia came in to function as a mediator. Set up through a trilateral agree-

“Since 2022, Azerbaijan has exported over 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe and as of July same year, an agreement doubling these exports by 2027, was signed.” ment, Russian peacekeepers were given the job to control the corridor and prevent an illegal blockade. As such a blockade is now in full bloom, it seems, as Hovanisjan stated, “the peacekeepers are not doing an adequate job.”

Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, stated in late December, ´The closure [of the corridor] has the potential to cause a significant humanitarian crisis´. With the corridor having been blocked for well over a month, it seems the damage is already done. As explained by Hovanisjan, ´the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh have not had the most advanced systems of producing food, medicine, and other necessities as they have been able to rely on their close ties with, and proximity to, Armenia, even more so after losing an extensive amount of land as a result of the 2020 war´.

Before the blockade, around 400 tons of food and medicine were delivered to the region daily. With roads blocked, most markets are closed and pharmacies and shops are nearly empty. In addition, the blockade hinders around 1,100 people from returning to their homes in NagornoKarabakh, separating almost 300 children from their parents.

With the crisis becoming more critical by the day, it is concerning that many major news outlets have yet to comment on the event. When asked why this may be, both Hovanisjan and Kassemdjian pointed towards oil and gas investments. Since 2022, Azerbaijan has exported over 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe and as of July same year, an agreement doubling these exports by 2027, was signed. British Petroleum alone produced over 20 million tonnes of oil in the country in 2022. As Kassemdjian stated, “is it unlikely we will see anything negative about Azerbaijan in the British press, even in Western press. When it comes to business, human rights fall short”.

The humanitarian crisis happening in Nagorno-Karabakh will have devastating consequences. Much damage is already done, but not to the point of no return. According to Kassemdjian, “solidarity, support and, most importantly, acknowledgement, could result in Azerbaijan backing down.

Remember, we are all human beings.

We are better than this.”

A longer version of this article will be available online as a digital exclusive at www.soasspirit.co.uk

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

6 FEBRUARY 2023

Protests Erupt in Peru Against Unelected Government Amber Hamed, BA Politics and International Relations

On 7 December 2022, a parliamentary coup occurred in Peru ousting the democratically elected President Pedro Castillo through Congress, making Dina Boluarte President. This occurred as Article 113 of the Peruvian Constitution gives Peru’s Congress the authority to dissolve the presidency. If the right-wing oligarchy in Peru are able to bribe the majority of congress members to vote for presidential vacancy, they can overthrow the democratically elected President which is what happened to Pedro Castillo. This is reminiscent of Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship, in which according to Peru Reports ‘a bribery scandal emerged involving Fujimori and Vladimiro Montesino over illegal wiretapping and embezzling government money to bribe politicians and public figures to support his 2000 re-election campaign’, as well as in 2018 when there was video evidence of his son, Kenji, bribing Congress to vote for presidential vacancy. This comes as Castillo sought to implement left-wing policies, and is the first Peruvian president of indigenous descent, majority of whom make up the working class population, meaning Castillo’s policies would not align with the economic and political interests of right-wing elites in Peru, who have long been accused of alleged collaboration with foreign governments.

Boluarte’s presidency comes as she formed alliances with right-wing parties and was expelled from the leftist ‘Perú Libre’ party to which she later admitted that she “never embraced the ideology” of. Moreover, she was sworn in by the right-wing controlled Congress as she called for truce and unity with right-wing parties requesting “a political truce to install a government of national unity”. A statistic produced by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) shows an overwhelming number of Peruvians (71%) are reproachful of the unelected President, Dina Boluarte.

Since the beginning of Boluarte’s term as President, demonstrators, mostly emerging from working class rural areas and indigenous communities, have had 5 main demands. This includes her resignation, the closing of Congress, new elections, releasing Pedro Castillo after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison with no trial, as well as establishment of a Constituent Assembly to create a new Constitution and a plurinational state.

These protests have been met with violent repression by military and police forces controlled by Boluarte. For instance, on January 9, a massacre occurred in Juliaca, an indigenous Aymara town in which 17 peaceful protestors were killed by Peruvian police after participating in anti-Boluarte protests.

Despite this repression, many demonstrators and organisations continue to mobilise as part of the national strike called the ‘Takeover of Lima’ in hopes that their demands are met.

Thousands of Peruvians from all over the country continue to arrive in Lima, amongst them; workers, farmers and students in a call to unite against Boluarte’s US-backed, right-wing regime. The takeover of the city alongside the national strike, called by the workers’ unions, also comes as an outrage as since the protests began, there have been murders of over 50 Peruvians, mainly being of indigenous descent, by police and military.

Additionally, there is much speculation within and outside Peru of US involvement in the coup. This speculation arises as the US has a history of supporting regime change in Peru.

It is essential to highlight Peru’s history in its struggle with US imperialism, interventionism and neo-liberal policies in order to understand current events. For instance, during Fujimori’s dictatorship, he sterilised more than 300,000 Peruvians, mainly of the poor and indigenous Peruvian community. This was supposedly funded by the US government through groups like USAID and UNFPA. The US’s alleged

culpability in ethnic cleansing and genocide of the indigenous and working class population in Peru is prevalent to this day as it continues to directly involve itself in Peru’s affairs.

For example, the US has been accused of involvement in the coup as Lisa Kenna, former CIA officer turned US ambassador to Peru, met with the coup regime’s minister of energy and mining on December 19th where they discussed themes ‘linked to the expansion of natural gas and mining investments’ as well meeting with Peru’s defence minister the day before the congressional coup on December 6th in which she shared tweets of reprimand against Castillo’s attempt to temporarily dissolve Congress. This is further evidenced by her meeting with Boluarte where she ‘reiterated her country’s full support for democratic institutions in Peru’.

Moreover, it is significant to again highlight article 113 of Peru’s Fujimori constitution which states that “The President of the Republic may vacate his office if his permanent physical or moral incapacity is declared by Congress.” This illustrates how Fujimori’s constitution and neo-liberal policies directly caused Peru’s constant political deadlock that led to Castillo’s attempt to dissolve Congress and ensured that democratic leadership could not be maintained.And is the reason for Peruvians participating in the strike and taking to the streets demanding that congress be dissolved and for a new Constitution to be made.

With Peru being rich in copper, gold, silver, zinc, iron, lead and natural gas, it comes as no surprise that the US is interested in Peruvian affairs. Peru is the world’s secondlargest producer of copper, silver, and zinc and Latin America’s largest producer of gold. As working class and indigenous Peruvians continue to lead the struggle in resisting the unelected coup government and US hegemony over Latin America, their demands for sovereignty, control over their natural resources, dignity and justice intensify.

Jenin Massacre: 9 Palestinians Killed By Israeli Occupation Forces Amber Hamed, BA Politics and International Relations In the early hours of the morning, 26 January 2023, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided Jenin refugee camp without warning and opened fire on camp residents.

This resulted in the killing of 9 residents of the camp leaving many more injured, making it the deadliest massacre in the West Bank since 2002, during the Second Intifada, which resulted in over 50 deaths. Eyewitnesses say the IOF, operating illegally under international law in the West Bank, proceeded to open fire on ambulances near Jenin Government hospital preventing aid to the injured and used tear gas in the children’s ward of the hospital.

Just a day after the Jenin massacre, Khairi Alqam, a Palestinian civilian from Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem killed 7 Israeli settlers in a settlement in East Jerusalem. Subsequent international condemnation of the operation followed, but little to no condemnation of the Jenin massacre was to be seen.

This was claimed by armed Palestinian groups to be a retaliation for the killings in Jenin. Later that day, thousands of Palestinians gathered to take part in the funeral of the victims of the Jenin massacre and protests erupted across the West Bank.

The Israeli cabinet consequently decided on a number of counter-measures including the demolition of Khairi Alqam’s home as well as arming settlers, issuing more firearm licences and expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank. Increased violence by settlers followed with 144 settler attacks being reported in South Nablus, including the smashing and burning of vehicles and attacking local shops and uprooting over

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“The UN reaffirms ‘the legitimacy of the struggles of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle’” one hundred olive saplings in Aqraba. World leaders, such as French President Macron, condemned the operation in Jerusalem, yet kept their silence on the Jenin massacre. This lack of widespread condemnation against Israeli violence and settler colonialism has been interpreted as another example of Israel’s impunity from international law and moral exoneration for its brutal policies against Palestinians.

occupation seem to run counter to the UN’s historical stance on the matter. Following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the UN reaffirmed ‘the legitimacy of the struggles of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle’.

They also recognised ‘the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and all peoples under foreign and colonial domination to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without outside interference’. As repression by the occupation increases, attention is further drawn to Palestinians’ moral and legal right to resistance against Israeli occupation and settler colonialism.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process is one of many who have downplayed Israel’s violence against Palestinians. He expressed his deep sadness for ‘the continuing cycle of violence in the occupied West Bank’ whilst not holding Israel accountable for their role in increased violence in which over 35 Palestinians have been killed at their hands, since just the beginning of 2023.

The mainstream media and international community’s reprimands against Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli

Credits: @wahaj_banimoufleh on Instagram

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Failed Bolsonarista Coup in Brasilia Jacob Winter, BA Politics and International Relations On 7 January, supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attempted to overthrow the government of newly elected President Lula da Silva (commonly known as Lula) by storming Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and Presidential Palace with suspected collaboration from police and military figures sympathetic to Bolsonaro, calling for a coup d’etat.

Supporters of Bolsonaro crossed police barricades with little resistance from police, although some attempted to pepper spray protestors. The BBC has verified a video showing protestors entering Congress with police officers standing by. One police officer waved at protestors and gave them a thumbs-up.

These police officers were wearing the uniforms of the Policia Legislativa, the Federal Police that work inside the Congress building. Protestors destroyed property and assaulted icons of Brazilian democracy, such as paintings of former presidents.

It is not clear when the Governor of Brasilia asked the national government for help, but it took several hours for the protestors to be arrested and for the seized buildings to be cleared. When the army arrived, a widely circulated video on Twitter showed protestors cheering, believing the army was there to assist, only for the protestors to be arrested by the soldiers shortly afterwards.

Lula promised to purge the army and police command structures of Bolsonaro supporters, with the former security chief of Brasilia arrested, and Bolsonaro was also named in a police probe into the event. Lula blamed the attack on ‘vandals, neo-fascists and fanatics’, while also stating that ‘anyone involved will be punished.’ The minister for institutional relations, Alexandre Padilha, claimed that many of Brazil’s institutions, including the army and police, have been ‘contaminated by Bolsonarista hatred’. Due to Bolsonaro’s own lionising of the former military regime, the Brazilian left has accused him of organising the putsch in an attempt to return to Brazil and remove its democratic institutions.

Bolsonaro denied responsibility for the coup attempt, but stopped short of fully condemning it, claiming that ‘peaceful demonstrations, within the law, form part of democracy … invasions of public buildings like those that happened today, as well as those practised by the left in 2013 and 2017, are exceptions to that rule.’

Several figures, such as US Representative Ilhan Omar, drew comparisons to the January 6th storming of the Capitol in 2021 in the US, where supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Bolsonaro was a significant ally of Trump and made

“Lula blamed the attack on ‘vandals, neo-fascists and fanatics’, while also stating that ‘anyone involved will be punished’” statements claiming that the election results were falsified.

Lula was elected by a slim majority of 50.90%, after previously holding the Presidency from 2003-2010. Lula has been a veteran of Brazil’s left wing since the military dictatorship of the 1980s, hosting major strikes and being jailed for his activities. Lula is a member of the Workers Party (PT), a centre-left party, which currently leads the Brazil of Hope coalition, which also includes the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) and the Green Party (PV).

During his first presidency, he funded social programs which led to Brazil being taken off the UN’s world hunger map and assisted in raising 20 million Brazilians out of poverty. However, Lula also drew criticism from the left in Brazil for compromising with the right and moving to a moderate position in politics. By the end of his presidency, his reputation had been tarnished due to several scandals, including accusations of buying votes in

6 FEBRUARY 2023 congress and influence-peddling. In 2017, he was convicted of money laundering and corruption but these charges were annulled in 2021 and he was allowed to return to politics.

Bolsonaro, in contrast, is a former army captain and strongly conservative, seen as a stalwart of Brazil’s far right.

He advanced economically liberal policies, as well as a pro-US foreign policy during his presidency. In his election campaign, he promised to arrest or banish ‘reds’ and ‘petralhas’ (supporters of the PT). He has spent much of his political career attacking or provoking the left, even dedicating his impeachment vote against former president Dilma Rousseff to Colonel Brilhante Ustra, who tortured her when she was a guerilla fighter.

While he was president, Bolsonaro advocated for extensive rearmament of Brazil’s military and appointing military figures who were sympathetic to the former military dictatorship.

He was widely criticised for his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of violating international law in the Hague for inciting genocide against indigenous peoples, with widespread accusations of corruption and intimidation.

The legal attacks on both Lula and other leftist presidents have been accused by leftist outlets such as OpenDemocracy of being an attempt by a right-wing Brazilian establishment and economic oligarchs to delegitimize and harm the left wing. The coup attempt likewise suggests that the far-right in Brazil may not be as populist as previously assumed, due to significant Bolsonarista infiltration into Brazil’s institutions and the expectation of the insurgents that the military would come to their aid.

This attack against Brazilian leftism comes at a time of a resurgent Latin American “pink tide”, with much of the continent currently having centre-left to far-left governments. This coup attempt currently coincides with the deposing of the left-wing President of Peru Pedro Castillo, with mass protests against the new interim government that has replaced him. In recent years, attempts to depose leftist governments in both Venezuela and Bolivia have also met failure, with the US’ reliance on its policy of supporting regime change against leftist governments, waning.

Taliban Rule Strips Afghan Women of Their Right to Education Genevieve Hack, BSc Development Economics The Taliban have ordered women across Afghanistan to stop attending higher educational institutions with immediate effect, in its latest step to restrict the freedoms of Afghan women. The announcement has made Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls and women are denied access to education.

On 20th December 2022, the Minister of Higher Education, Neda Mohamed Nadeem, ordered the indefinite ban in a letter addressed to all government and private universities, ‘you are all informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice’. This latest announcement follows the ban of teenage girls from secondary education in March 2022; the right to an education for women is becoming increasingly strained.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, two decades after being removed by a US-led military coalition. The Taliban finalised its control over the nation after seizing the capital, Kabul, on the 15th of August. As a result, the government collapsed, and President Ghani fled the country.

The conflict in Afghanistan saw the breach of several international humanitarian laws. According to Amnesty International, ‘human rights defenders, women’s activists, journalists, health and humanitarian workers, and religious and ethnic minorities were among those targeted by the Taliban and non-state actors.’

Before the takeover, women and girls already endured gender-based discrimination and violence, which only

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worsened following the implementation of the Taliban’s policies. The refusal of education for girls and women across the nation is just one example of the many infringements of their human rights. Many women were dismissed from their jobs under the guise of ‘ensuring their safety’ according to a Taliban spokesperson. According to Geneva Solutions, fears of sexual and gender-based violence skyrocketed following the closure of several support mechanisms for women, in particular women’s shelters, which provided a valuable refuge for women escaping domestic abuse, sexual violence and forced marriages. Moreover, on the 29th October, a Taliban spokesperson said that LGBTI rights would not be recognised under Sharia law, marking the continuation of the criminalisation of consensual same-sex relations.

Removing access to education for women not only marks a clear disregard of human rights but also represents an attack on the future of women. Education was used as a tool by Afghan women for the development of their ambition and power. In the absence of this, many women are left stranded, afraid, and in fear of what their future holds. Meena, a 52-year-old lecturer in Afghanistan claimed this decision is “now killing the future of my students”. A journalism student, Madina, epitomises the view of many female Afghan students in her harrowing remark. “They buried our dreams”.

The actions of the Taliban have been met with an international response, at both a personal and institutional level.

The UN tweeted, ‘A door closed to women’s education is a door closed on the future of Afghanistan.’ The Taliban have

responded to these criticisms, in which Taliban officials are claiming that the secondary education ban is only temporary.

This is not to say that the women of Afghanistan have remained silent. The policies recently imposed by the Taliban have been met with several protests and walkouts, in solidarity with the girls and women who have lost their right to an education. Across several days in late December, women have taken to the streets with banners and slogans that voice their outrage and concern regarding Taliban rule. The protests have been understood to have taken place in the Takhar province of Kabul. Several women involved have told the BBC that they were beaten or arrested by Taliban officers.

The recent protests exhibit the strength of Afghan women in the face of oppressive Taliban rule. While the loss of education is symbolic of a dwindling sense of freedom, the power and energy of women both in Afghanistan and across the globe are continuing to resist the efforts made against their rights.

Kuchi girls inside a village school in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

(Credit: Creative Commons)

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6 FEBRUARY 2023

Opinion If You’re Shocked, You Haven’t Been Paying Attention Opinion editors: Emily Holdcraft and Naeema Mahmood

By Millie Glaister, BA Politics and International Relations It’s been a rough few weeks for the incels that troll among us.

First, Andrew Tate, a social media influencer and a self-proclaimed alpha male, was taken into custody by the Romanian police alongside his brother over sexual assault and human trafficking charges. Then Justin Roiland, the co-creator of Rick and Morty, was charged in court with Felony Domestic Violence and False Imprisonment, and with the attention on him, many DMs have surfaced purportedly demonstrating him interacting with minors in a predatory fashion.

However, I am not here to discuss the nature of either of these men’s content or really their charges at all. Especially with regards to Andrew Tate, I don’t think it’s beneficial to anyone involved for me to sit and write about why I disagree with a man that is openly misogynistic and pro-violence against women. What I do want to talk about is the responses to all these allegations coming to light and the willingness of people to admit they are surprised by any of this.

My initial idea for this article was going to be following the chronic online takes that emerged following Tate’s interactions with Greta Thunberg on Twitter. My personal favourite was that Thunberg’s implication of Tate’s ‘small dick energy’ was problematic by means of body shaming and was evidence of her stooping to his level. Additionally, there were claims that she was ‘clout chasing’ and the classic line, ‘they’re both as bad as each other’, was parrotted across many Twitter takes on the situation. But quickly my attention was drawn away from trivialities when I saw Jess Phillips’ tweet in response to the situation. Phillips wrote, in a since-deleted tweet: ‘To date, I avoided all knowledge of Andrew Tate, I mean I got the jist that he was an internet misogynist people talked about, but decided didn’t have the bandwidth for another one, so never looked. Glad I looked today. Perhaps he should have let a woman be in charge of his output.’

“The ease by which people brush off Tate as a joke or a punchline to the stories of crazy online incels is enabling demonstratively violent misogyny to rear its head in society.”

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Putting outside the honestly outrageous claim that somehow if Tate let a woman run his Twitter, his heinous views and sex-trafficking ring would be far improved, Philips serves as the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding in Keir Starmer’s Opposition government. The choice to not take on board knowledge of Andrew Tate and his prominence is precisely the opposite of what her role entails, and to me, is emblematic of the issue that is evident across our society.

My sister is an English teacher in a secondary school in Lewisham, and from her, I’ve heard first-hand accounts of the prominence of the Andrew Tate - alpha-male - hustler school of thought on young and impressionable minds. Schools have safeguarding policies which require reporting any views that are perceived as harmful, and recently Tate’s influence has massively increased not only the commonality of violent misogyny but also the confidence with which kids as young as 11 are spouting these beliefs.

it’s the ‘Matrix’ coming for him, and not the consequences of his actions, shows this. Similarly, I raise the point of Rick and Morty’s fans having a sect that is renowned for being online misogynistic incels; when we see the product of the content these men create and the way they influence their fanbases, we should not be surprised when the realities of their actions come to light.

So no, I am not shocked about Andrew Tate, Justin Roiland, or any of the men who profit off denigrating women and are then shown to *gasp* act in accordance with their views towards the women in their lives. What I am shocked by is the way people across society are willing to write off these occurrences as one-offs, rather than a veritable insight into the continual acceptance of violent misogyny.

My sister herself has attempted to engage with some of the kids about why they shouldn’t support Tate and his views.

On one of these occasions, the 13-yearold boy responded, ‘Of course, you think he’s bad, you’re a female.’ Tate’s effect is prolific; his message of individualism, and the ability for his fans to get rich and be successful like him, works in conjunction with peddling a victim narrative that places the blame on women for any shortcomings of a man. This message is resonating far too well with young boys and is creating a toxic and violently misogynistic environment within schools and beyond.

The ease by which people brush off Tate as a joke or a punchline to the stories of crazy online incels is enabling demonstratively violent misogyny to rear its head in society. The severity of Tate’s crimes, and the fact that he has openly talked about the means by which he trafficked girls while simultaneously convincing an entire genre of people that if anything happens to him,

Andrew Tate on ‘Anything Goes With James English’ in 2021 (Credit: Anything Goes With James English)

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OPINION

6 FEBRUARY 2023

Solidarity Statement with the People of Peru and assaulted students, graduates and protesters who were peacefully sheltering at the university campus and arbitrarily detained nearly 250 students. They also broke the University’s legal right to autonomy. We see similarities between this criminality and that perpetrated by Adam Habib at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, who had students shot on campus for calling for free decolonial education; he now works at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. The Ghana Educational Service is another culprit as it used scare tactics to silence and expel school children from the Chiana Senior High School in Ghana for exercising Internationally, students and popular educational institutions should celebrate the heroes that are advancing our peoples education and condemn the criminals that try to impede it. It is for this reason that we hold up the brave students of the University of San Marcos, who liberated their campus in service of the people and the construction of a new democratic Peru, as exemplar students and call on student bodies and educational institutions everywhere to do the same. Globally universities are being privatised and their campuses militarized in order to isolate students and academics from the masses, this must be stopped.

Praler 1 Mayimbu (Credits: Wikipedia)

PRALER To the people of Peru, Today, we extend a fraternal and combative greeting to the masses in Peru that are rising up against the civil-military dictatorship of illegitimate president, Dina Boluarte, who removed president Pedro Castillo from office on the 7th December 2022. Backed by the Peruvian oligarchy, the majority conservative congress, the military and police forces, mainstream media and Western Imperialist forces like the U.S. Government.

We emphatically condemn the assassinations of over 60 of our siblings in Peru, who have been brutally murdered by the Peruvian elite and this military dictatorship. Their only crime was expressing their legal right to protest, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly that are enshrined under international law.

We express our full support for the Peruvian people, as they defend their peoples’ rights to self-determination, sovereignty and true democratic process that has been stripped from the majority of Indigenous, Andean, Amazon, worker and peasant peoples since the foundation of the Peruvian state 200 years ago. A state that, from its conception, was antiindigenous and excluded the Peruvian masses, maintained a white-supremacist and classist system, in order to ensure that the territory would continue being subordinate to the interests of global capitalism and imperialism, for its continued plunder, extraction and political, social and cultural subjugation. It is for this reason that we back the popular push for a constituent assembly to draft a plurinational constitution in affront to the current neoliberal 1993 constitution. This would enshrine indigenous nations like the Quicha Nation,Aymara Nation, Awajun Nation, the Wampis Nation and the ShipiboKonibo Xetebo Nation amongst others, in decision making processes and protect Peoples and Mother Earth rights.

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We also see what is happening in Peru, as a symptom of the lack of sovereignty that our people have continentally, and thus the need for inter-communal action learning and dialogue between communities of resistance internationally and continentally in order to build up effective communities for self-defence that are capable of defending our rights to selfdetermination. Until there is an interconnected power-base, our struggles will remain isolated and be picked off as we have seen in Bolivia and now as we see in Peru. We can learn from examples like the Pan-Afrikan movement that are pushing for continental unification with a plurinational framework, which has been conceptualised as Maatubuntumaan in Ubuntudunia.

Finally, we celebrate the necessary Planet Repairs stance that students and educational institutions have taken up, acknowledging their role in serving the people, such as the National University of Engineering (UNI) in Lima and the General Assembly of the University of San Marcos that took over the university campus on the 18 January 2023. Both of these committed to providing refuge to communities that had mobilised to Lima from indigenous and rural communities across the country, to carry out their legal and democratic right to protest.

We strongly condemn the violent decision by director, Jeri

“We express our full support for the Peruvian people, as they defend their peoples’ rights to selfdetermination, sovereignty and true democratic process”

We also subscribe to the demands of students from the Professional School for Anthropology at the National University of Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza in the Amazon, that necessarily call for an integral education that recognises our peoples’ histories and knowledges, and that is committed to advancing practical solutions to the crises we are experiencing today with the recognition of the active role educational institutions need to play in social change but also in producing knowledge, in line with communities, for the construction of a new social fabric towards true intercultural, participatory democratic processes. This is a necessary demand for all educational institutions everywhere.

Globally, reactionary violence is increasing, corrupt mis-leaders remain in power and our Mother Earth is under attack. But from Peru, to Colombia, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Mali and Palestine we are seeing our people rise up pushing forward new peoples plans for liberation.

Siblings in Peru, we stand with you. Every drop of blood spilled is felt as though it were our own, and every sibling imprisoned must be freed. We will never forgive nor forget.

We join the calls for Dina Boluarte to be removed from office, for a Plurinational Constituent Assembly, the Resignation of the Board of Directors of Congress and new elections now! ¡Hasta que la dignidad se haga costumbre! ¡Nunca más un mundo sin los pueblos!

Planet Repairs Action Learning Educational Revolution Majority World Internationalist Solidarity Coordinating Council of Communities of Resistance Signed On: Global Majority Vs. Campaign Somos Semillas Institución de Educación Popular

Ramon, of the University of San Marcos, who betrayed the educational role of the institution and the physical integrity of the students, as she called on police forces to militarise the campus. We condemn the violence with which the National Police of Peru (PNP) intervened with tanks and armed forces in the campus on 21 January 2023, where they brutalised

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OPINION

6 FEBRUARY 2023

Public and Personal Opinions on Strikes Hala Haidar, BA Global Development As strikes have been occurring across different sectors—from teachers to nurses and train drivers—there has been a lot of discourse on the public’s opinions on strikes, or to what extent people are willing to support strikes. I have heard the sentiment, ‘I support the strikes, until they become disruptive,’ quite a few times. The problem with that is that strikes are supposed to be disruptive! If a strike isn’t disruptive, then the employer is probably not going to care. And while public support is great, it’s not necessary to win a labour dispute.

With the UCU strikes for example, employers care because their students, who the modern neoliberal university considers to be customers, are affected. This, in turn, impacts the university as they have promised to deliver a certain standard to their customers in exchange for high tuition fees (even higher for international students).

Therefore, our teachers’ best leverage is to withdraw their labour, which is what the institution uses to make a profit, in order for their demands to be seriously considered.

I’ve learned a lot from picket lines at SOAS. The sentiment I have gotten from speaking to striking staff is that while they appreciate how supportive the majority of students are, they also understand students’ frustration and anger because it is an unfair situation to have their studies disrupted. However, they want students to direct that frustration at the employers, who are underpaying academic staff and cutting their pensions.

The neoliberalization of higher education is a problem for everyone. Students and teachers are facing the same fight.

It’s important to recognise that and stop thinking in binaries of worker/customer. Students are paying higher and higher fees, while simultaneously, our teachers are losing 25% of their real terms pay. Teachers are also fighting for us. At the end of the day, this is the workforce we will be joining when we graduate, and we are seeing the same issues across most, if not all, sectors.

“How can we expect our teachers to be able to teach us well if they can’t afford to meet their basic needs or are worrying about 35% of their pension being cut?”

Students and staff at a teach-out during SOAS UCU and UNISON strikes in December 2021 (Credit: Gabriel Rahman)

You may have heard the phrase ‘their working conditions are our learning conditions’—it’s completely true. How can we expect our teachers to be able to teach us well if they can’t afford to meet their basic needs or are worrying about 35% of their pension being cut? The neoliberalization of higher education also means an increasingly casualised workforce, resulting in the precaritization of working conditions. When Aimée Lê was finishing up her PhD while working as a lecturer, she was forced to live in a tent for two years because

she couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore on her research and teaching income. Lê isn’t alone; other academics reported having to sleep at their universities or in their cars to save on rent. Unions are the reason we have eight-hour workdays, weekends, and regulated labour conditions. All of these rights had to be fought for. Furthermore, picket lines are places of learning, solidarity, and community. Visit a picket line. Talk to workers. Learn about why they’re striking.

traditions of a particular group or culture, by somebody from a more dominant/powerful group in society.’

than those of white women; it was a way of pushing back against Eurocentric beauty standards. ‘When it was on my sisters or my mum, and in Black and Latino communities, it was seen as ghetto… now that it’s on white bodies, it’s seen as ‘fashionable’,’ said Sir John in an interview with Diet Prada. To see a style that’s rooted in assimilating into western society become a ‘trend’, where white women are glorified, is hurtful. To see creators profit from appropriating culture is unacceptable.

Clean Girls, Clean Up Your Act Amran Abdiqadir Mohamed, BA Global Development and Social Anthropology

You’ve probably seen videos on TikTok with tutorials on how to attain the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic. I’ll give you a breakdown of how to achieve the look - slick back your hair (probably with a gel brought from a black hair shop) and put on a pair of gold hoops; your skin must be beautifully clear and glowy, pair it with lip gloss, and you’ve got yourself a ‘clean girl’. The whole point of this style is that the makeup is so minimal and ‘natural’ that it almost looks as though you aren’t wearing any, in other words, you look effortlessly gorgeous.

This look is not new; women of colour have been wearing this style for literal decades. Many (not all) women slick their hair back as their natural texture/hair type is considered ‘unprofessional’, ‘not well managed’ or ‘uncivilised’.

Women of colour have been called horrible and derogatory terms for wearing the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic; ‘greasy’, ‘ghetto’, and ‘trashy’. Somehow when a white woman does it, the look becomes ‘sophisticated’, ‘elegant’... ‘chic’?

Original Clean Girl Collage (Credit: Pintrest)

Like most people these days, I’ve spent a great deal of time scrolling through TikTok. Not too long ago, the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic and ‘brownie glazed lips’ trend kept popping up on my for you page. Now, my first response was confusion as I was certain that I’d seen these looks before, just on people who looked slightly different to the white women who were dominating this trend. Among many other TikTok trends, the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic and ‘brownie glazed lips’ are clear examples of culturally appropriating Black, Brown and Latina women. So that there’s no confusion, let me begin with a definition of the term cultural appropriation. The Oxford Dictionary has defined it as follows: ‘The act of copying or using the customs and

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Now the ‘clean girl’ is just one trend, let’s have a look at ‘brownie glazed lips’. In a recent TikTok, Hailey Bieber described how to attain the ‘brownie glazed lips’ look with one of her new products. This involved putting on lipstick and then outlining your lips with a darker shade…not exactly revolutionary. There was an uproar on TikTok of white women recreating the look and attributing it to Hailey Bieber.

This look is also not new. It grew in popularity during the 90s and was mainly seen on Black and Latina women. Sir John, a makeup artist to the stars (Beyonce, Erykah Badu and Zendaya to name a few), explained how the beauty industry was not inclusive and there was a lack of products for women of colour. Eyeliner was often used instead of lip liner because the right shades weren’t available. The concept of using a liner was so that you accentuate your lips, which are often fuller

Now that I’ve discussed the problems with the individual ‘trends’, let’s talk about an issue they both have, their names.

Firstly, the ‘clean girl’ as a name is absolutely ridiculous.

It implies that acne, hyperpigmentation, blemishes or ‘too much makeup’ makes you dirty. This is because the aesthetic has placed a lot of emphasis on expensive skincare. Influencers are encouraging women to go out and buy these products to make their skin look clear and clean, so they fit into the aesthetic. In doing this, skincare brands are making a huge amount of money at the expense of women of colour.

It’s also important to point out that the style that labelled Black, Brown and Latina women as ‘ghetto’, ‘greasy’ and ‘trashy’ is considered ‘clean’ when worn by a white woman.

Onto ‘brownie glazed lips’! It’s very ironic to label a makeup look appropriated from women of colour as ‘brownie’.

Let me be clear, the issue isn’t Hailey Bieber (or other white women) wearing the look. The problem is that she’s appropriating a culture that does not belong to her in order to promote her brand and generate profit without giving credit. The difference between appropriation and appreciation is credit, and I promise you, the name does not count.

Claiming that these styles are trends completely diminishes their history and value. Aesthetics are things you pick up and drop depending on your mood. The appearances of Black, Brown and Latina women are not an aesthetic, not a trend and do not belong to white women.

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Features Editor: Naaz Hussein

Features

SOAS Agony Aunt: Your Problems, (Occasionally) Helpful Solutions

Kit King, BA Languages and Cultures and Linguistics Welcome to the SOAS Agony Aunt! You submit your burning questions, hot gossip, or darkest secrets to my little Google form and I respond via this column. If you want to see your issues addressed, please complete the form at https://tinyurl.com/SOASAgonyAunt or scan the QR code! Please note, this is only meant to be semi-serious, and I am not responsible for the consequences of your actions.

As Gwyneth Paltrow once said, ‘I have a very highly developed sense of denial,’ and I believe we should all be a bit more like Gwen.

Stay hot, Agony Aunt

Love and Lust

Dear Agony Aunt, My boyfriend only wants to have anal sex. What does this mean for our relationship?

PG1 Gender Studies

attracted to you. If he wants to explore having sex with men, then that should be an honest and open conversation that he brings up with you, but until that happens, you shouldn’t worry about this.

Speaking of honest and open conversations, I sense some negative emotion in your question. It sounds to me like you and your boyfriend need to have a chat about this because it is something that you are worried about. Everybody has preferences as to what they like and dislike in bed, and I suppose it just so happens that he likes doing anal. But you must make sure that he is doing the things that you especially enjoy as well, and that can only happen if you ask. Mind readers don’t exist. Though he should be able to tell by your responses to what he’s doing as to what you’re enjoying, if it goes on too long, you must tell him.

Anal sex is difficult, can be painful, and is definitely not something that everyone enjoys. There are ways to make things easier, like using poppers or teasing it in order to relax, but at the end of the day, the only thing that can make you feel comfortable with doing anal is open and honest communication with your sexual partner about what does or doesn’t give you pleasure.

Gwyneth Paltrow aptly puts it, ‘I say what I think, and I stand behind what I say.’ Sounds like he’s already behind you, so you need to start the talking.

Wholeheartedly wish you the best of luck, Agony Aunt

Dear Reader, First things first, if you don’t enjoy anal sex, do not compromise your comfort, as this can only lead to an imbalance in power. Unless you’ve discussed power play, this is not conducive to a healthy sex life.

Secondly, there is a stigma that if a man likes anal, then that makes him gay. However, this is not true. If he’s wanting to have sex – of any kind – with you, it is because he is

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Lifestyle Dear Agony Aunt, I don’t know how to adjust to moving back home to a different country after uni.

-

UG4 Korean studies and Development studies

Dear Reader, Changing the setting in which you live is always stressful and confusing, which takes a lot of adjustment and mental reorganisation in order to adapt to your new surroundings.

And then adding the extra pressure of switching cultures makes this all the more difficult. However, moving back home, whether that’s in the same country or internationally, allows you to show everyone around you how much you have grown and developed. This will be tough to begin with as those around you start to pick up on how you’ve changed, but with time it will make you the talk of the town, a microcelebrity if you will. It was said that Gwenyth Paltrow moved to New York at the age of 11. Though she was initially seen as a ‘California girl’ and didn’t feel very popular, she felt confident. As should you. The other thing I would say is that you have to make sure that you restore the balance in your life as soon as possible. Moving will throw your balance off, but in order to start actually living, you have to recalibrate your mental scales so that you can prosper again. The three main things I would say to prioritise are: home, relationships, and finances.

Home – Make your living space (whether that’s moving back in with your parents or living on your own) all about you. It is essential to personalise your living space as soon as possible because once you start to see yourself and your personality reflected in the physical space around you, you will start to feel settled and comfortable.

Relationships – It can be difficult to have to interact with people from your childhood all over again, as they will have one idea of you from when you were younger, but you know that that person is now in the past. It is your job to present this new version of yourself; however, it is their job to embrace and accept these changes within you. If there are people that don’t love you for who you have become, then they are not worth your time because they should love you unconditionally, no matter how wildly you change.

Finances – This is probably the hardest one as the job market is tricky to navigate at the best of times, but don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t go your way straight away because nothing ever does. Open yourself up to accept financial help from those around you because they wouldn’t offer it if they didn’t mean it. Equally, avoid committing to financial deals that you are unsure you can live up to. For example, if a friend offers you a loan to get you started, but you think there’s a small possibility you won’t pay them back on time?

Don’t do it. It can damage your relationship beyond repair!

In summary, when you get there, you must do two things: 1.

Show off the new you, unapologetically.

2.

Restore your life’s balance. To quote Gwyneth Paltrow, ‘You know, I use organic products, but I get lasers.

It’s what makes life interesting, finding the balance between cigarettes and tofu.’

And to be fair, 99% of my diet is cigarettes and tofu, and I’m thriving, so she must be right!

Good luck with the move babe, Agony Aunt

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FEATURES

Peas, Carrots and Potatoes the kitchen, or, in mine and my mother’s case, while trying to scratch the yummy crispy bits of the potatoes from the bottom of an oven dish. With these vague descriptions, I’m allowed to make it my own. When it’s successful, that success came from me. Often it’s never quite what I want, and I probably won’t make a tagine that tastes like my grandmother’s for years yet. My father only just managed it last Christmas, and he’s 56. But I try.

The absolute keys to this tagine, and pretty much every other tagine too, are preserved lemon, harissa paste and coriander. On top of those, need I even mention the holy trinity? Cumin, paprika and turmeric. Often these are abbreviated to ‘the spices’ when I ask “Which spices?” I receive a stern look. Silly question.

The fresher the veg the better. Unfortunately, preserved lemons are a bit of an investment piece, but they last a long time and really can’t be skipped. Harissa I have yet to find in this cold country, the closest I’ve come to is ‘Tagine Paste’ (the name kills me every time) from Waitrose (you can make it if necessary, just look up a simple recipe online). If anyone knows a good Moroccan grocery shop, hunt me down and tell me, pretty please.

This recipe makes a lot. Like, a lot. Why make things in small quantities? ‘Cook once, eat twice’ is my mother’s mantra. It is best to make this in a big pan with a lid.

Ingredients 1 white onion 4-5 swirls of olive oil (about 3 tablespoons) + extra to drizzle Some garlic (a lot? No idea how much I use, maybe 4 cloves) 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp paprika (not smoked!) ⅓ tsp of turmeric 3 large carrots, peeled and diced 4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and diced A mug full of frozen peas (the more peas the sweeter it will be) 1 small preserved lemon 1 tbsp of harissa A small bunch of coriander

Amelia Casey-Rerhaye, Managing Editor, BA Arabic.

I don’t know the name of this dish, I never have. When we refer to it at home we just call it ‘carrots, peas and potatoes’, and if that isn’t enough to jog the memory of sweet peas, thick sauce and tangy preserved lemon, we stick ‘tagine’ on the end for good measure.

All the recipes that stay with me have been told to me by my family. For some reason, the memory must be stored in a different part of my brain. Maybe because I recall the exact taste of the dish, I know the smells that are supposed to fill the kitchen when it’s being cooked. Maybe it’s purely because of the sentimental value, but I have never forgotten a recipe that has been described to me by a family member. Getting exact instructions from anyone, be that my English mum, my Moroccan dad, his mother, or even my Italian uncle, is nearly impossible. Often I leave with a mental list of ingredients rambled at me, scrabbling to remember if they said coriander or parsley?

Red or white onions? Occasionally I’ll be lucky enough to get some vague cooking instructions, but God forbid I know any timings or measurements.

There is, though, something magical about the recipes gathered in passing comments at the table, or cleaning

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Method Put the olive oil, onions and spices into a pan. Let them come to a sizzle, and once you can smell the spices, turn the heat down, add a splash of water and put the lid on. Cook for around ten minutes, check to make sure the onions aren’t sticking and add water if they do. (Optional but yummy) Once the onions are very soft, grab a fork or potato masher or something of the sort and smush them into a paste. Once the onions are soft add the potatoes. The smaller you cut them the quicker they will cook.

But don’t go too small, you still want to be able to distinguish them as

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potatoes. While the potatoes cook, prepare the carrots. After about ten minutes of the potatoes cooking with the lid on, add the carrots. Throw in a cup full of water, chopped-up preserved lemon, and the harissa. Put the lid on and cook until the carrots and potatoes are almost ready. If it looks too dry, keep adding water. Throw in the peas about fifteen minutes into the carrots being in there. Stir and taste. Add salt, pepper and more harissa as you see fit. Chilli as well if it is to your taste.

Once the potatoes and carrots are soft, and the peas have melted into sweet deliciousness, sprinkle on the chopped coriander and drizzle a bit more olive oil on top.

Serve authentically with bread, or brown rice if you’re looking for more nutrition.

Enjoy!

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FEATURES

6 FEBURARY 2023

The Evolution of Gossip Drago Nuić, BA International Relations ‘If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all’, but who can say they have never done a little bit of gossiping? Gossip is generally understood as informal talk about other people’s private lives. To some, the definition ends there, but to many others, it is synonymous with the exposure of secrets, the revealing of thoughts that are unkind, and malicious lies. Gossip gets a bad rep, deservedly so in some cases, but gossiping is far more complex and nuanced than it is generally thought of. Only after knowing the full story of gossip can we properly judge it. Ironic, isn’t it?

Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Oxford, pioneered the theory that gossip is a form of ‘social grooming’, a major social activity that can create bonds and reinforce social relations – a key element for groups to cooperate and survive. Primates do this by picking dirt and fleas off of each other, and humans gossip.

In this view, gossiping creates an intimate but casual atmosphere, you implicitly signal to the other person that you are willing to open the door to your social circles, that you wish to entertain them, and that you trust them by sharing secrets.

It turns out spilling the tea is a useful evolutionary icebreaker.

Today this process has been magnified, with mass media we are constantly exposing ourselves to talk of celebrities’ lives.

Whole online communities form around following a celebrity’s life, and these celebrities become a common touchpoint for many people. You can meet a stranger from the

other side of the world and bond over gossiping about Prince Harry’s life.

As society developed from its earlier, more small-scale group forms, gossiping evolved as more complex social structures and hierarchies of power started to coalesce. It is here that gossiping was identified as a serious social tool, in particular to feminist scholars, who argue that it became a way for the disadvantaged and marginalised to level an otherwise systematically asymmetric social field. Journalist, Christina Scott, stated that ‘gossip gives us a fighting chance to decode the motives and intentions of people who affect the quality of our lives’. Lisa Tessman, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, describes gossip as a ‘burdened virtue’, an act that becomes virtuous and necessary in the context of oppression. Unable to turn to public channels, institutions, or figures of authority when suffering under the consequences of an oppressive patriarchal system, gossiping became a way to resist.

In this way gossiping was a subversive act, it was a way of defining one’s own experiences in a system that won’t consider it; a safer means to jointly ostracize oppressors, exploiters, and abusers in otherwise more dominant positions; and warning others of them. Gossiping is often denigrated, deeply tied with misogynistic implications as feminist scholar and activist Silvia Federici points out. However, as put by Scott, this hostility to gossip is indicative of fear, and angst at the inability to control what subverts domination.

A darker side to gossip, however, does exist. Commodification goes hand-in-hand with gossip in this era of mass media and the internet, gossip is gold for professional tabloids

and a whole network of forums, social media accounts, and internet personalities driven by delivering the latest gossip – the more controversial it is the more attention it garners, the more attention there is the greater the potential for profit. Images of legions of paparazzi hounding celebrities, hidden photographers voyeuristically invading people’s privacy for salacious photographs, and insultingly audacious front-page titles about people in their most vulnerable state are embedded in pop culture memory. Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Meghan Markle, and Princess Diana are a few famous examples in which the lives of people, with all their complexities, difficulties, and ambiguities, were reduced and re-shaped at their expense into a product to be peddled by rumour mills. This situation is not limited to the lives of the famous, but also in more intimate settings such as workplaces, schools, and friend groups. There is an edge to gossip, one that reveals the ugly side of curiosity, where the callous and malicious use of gossip can cause a great deal of unjust and dangerous harm.

Gossip may be likened to a tragic figure – both loved and despised. Fun, cruel, intriguing, vacuous, empowering, suffocating, many words could describe gossiping. What is clear however is that the value of gossiping, or its potential for harm, depends on whose hands it’s in. For the disempowered, it is a way to punch up at their oppressor, for those in positions of power it can be twisted into a source of harm to others. Gossip is certainly important and cannot be dismissed as mere idle talk. Like a double-edged sword, gossip can cut both ways, and it cuts deep.

Spilling the Tea, Why do we gossip?

Aminah Hashmi, BA International Relations and Politics Gossip is perceived as an inherently immoral act, and the people who gossip are untrustworthy and shallow. Still, everyone wants to know the latest gossip despite themselves and finds themselves with the urge to share juicy information about other people all the time. Statistically, everybody gossips for about 52 minutes a day. So why is it that we demonise the ‘gossiper’ while still being captivated by the latest gossip and gossiping ourselves?

At its core, gossip is the act of sharing information about other people. So it goes that society, functioning on social relations, needs it to keep itself going. Humans are a social species so it’s in our nature to care a lot about what’s happening in our communities. Evolutionarily, that’s how we were able to survive - knowing what kind of people were in our social circle and what they were up to was the difference between life and death. While it is important, it isn’t quite as dramatic now although gossiping still holds a vital role in our social structure.

Fast forward to 2023 - gossip is a tool that shapes what we value in our community by establishing boundaries on what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. It acts as a social warning system, identifying problematic behaviours and ostracising untrustworthy members of our community. For example, if you hear that your friend is interested in someone that you know has been aggressive or misogynistic- by warning your friend you’re protecting both them and the community at large. SOAS is a relatively small university community, maybe making it more inclined to gossip.

Gossiping is a social skill that has to be built and maintained and by signposting what behaviours aren’t acceptable, we also figure out the people who uphold the values of the group and identify ourselves with

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them. In fact, research has shown that the most moral, generous people are more likely to pass on rumours about untrustworthy people because of their concern for others. Gossiping is also a way for society to manage negative emotions, as an outlet for frustrations about deviant behaviour. It doesn’t just tell us about the person being talked about - it tells us a lot about the person spilling the tea. What did they think was important enough to share? Was it maliciously shared and can you trust them with your own secrets?

As for all, this ‘whisper campaign’ keeps communities close-knit and undesirable behaviour at bay - when did we start conceiving it as useless and immoral?

This started, as things often loop back to, with the patriarchy. The word ‘gossip’ comes from the old English word for ‘god sibling’, which in practice was used to refer to women’s closest companions. The fact that these women might prefer the company of their closest friends over their husbands caused outrage. With this, the perception of ‘ gossip’ as a women’s talk was demonised.

SUDOKU

The fact is everyone gossips. We all inevitably talk about the other people in our social groups - the act of sharing information itself isn’t morally wrong but what and how information is shared makes it good, bad or neutral. If you’re still concerned about gossiping, there are a few main tenants to make sure you’re doing it right.

Firstly, don’t get caught. Secondly, people who gossip for personal gain aren’t well-liked - the best (most entertaining) gossip is about rogue people or events. And lastly, think before you speak. If on reflection you find that by spreading this information, you might be backstabbing a friend - don’t.

SOAS, keep gossiping - xoxo gossip girl

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Culture editor: Anisah Mahamoud

Culture

6 FEBURARY 2023

Medinian Blues Zaynab Noor Mufti, MSC Political Thought We visited, we prayed, and then we were asked to leave And now we know what it’s like to grieve Face me with misfortune or losing a limb I’d take it any day over leaving him But we will return and walk the land Smell the heat and the musk in our hands The scent of the Messenger lingering through time We will return with the permission of the Divine We will walk in the footsteps of the man Who held with him the hearts of mankind Who’s legacy preserved we find Etched in the city’s cracks and crooked lines Who played in markets with his boys As his laughter echoes with the sweetest noise We will taste the salt in the air From his tears that constantly cared About men and women, he’d never met About children to come and better yet We will rest in the places where he laid his head Under tall date trees where he broke his bread We will follow in the path that he tread As he walked to the Almighty in the life that he led And we will prostrate where he too placed his head

We will return to the land, the city lit up by the stars; His companions threw themselves in harm’s way To protect his life and ensure his message remained till today We will eat from the trees that he planted with his own hands In gardens so vast, where his legacy stands We will climb the mountains that he made shake Stand on the rocks that couldn’t take the weight Of his blessed character, because he was Muhammad the Great (Peace and blessings be upon him) And we did We visited, we prayed, and then we were asked to leave And now we know what it’s like to grieve To be in the land where his close ones died Where victories were won and celebratory cries Were heard through the streets And the faithful ones weeped For the oneness of God was proclaimed And His commandments were ordained We will return to the city where we watch the sun set between minarets [The Garden of Salman al-Farsi which contains 300 date-palm trees, the seeds of which were planted

And the call to prayer is loud and clear Rung with pride all these years Where it wakes up the sleeping one so that he may stand in line To attest to the greatness of the Most-High and the Messenger as a sign Where the community of the faithful hold him so dear Where we send him Salaam (Arabic, lit: peace) standing so near

(Photo Credits: Sanna Hamid)

We will return to the land built on his blood As he fought for our faith, for we are his beloved As he braved the trenches and the swords and the battle scars

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by the Prophet (pbuh)] (Photo Credits: Zaynab Noor)

And we did We visited, we prayed, and then we were asked to leave And now we know what it’s like to grieve So, oh pilgrim who makes his way Know that there will come a day Where you’ll leave this all behind And as you exit the city with him in mind

Where our tears drop in the same spots as his Where our voices ring in the same air that his did Where we seek the same closeness to God as him Where we whisper to God in our prayer, following his actions to the tee

Just take a piece back in your heart So that you can bare the pain of being apart

We will return so that we may see His legacy as it stands today

We continue our journey and build our lives And upon whose wisdom our faith will thrive

And drink from the spring that he also sipped And walk under the sun where his blessed sweat dripped

Because if the trunks of the trees couldn’t help but weep When the beloved departed, my Lord, what about those like me?

From the one who filled the city with light And by remembering his strength and might

So, dearest pilgrim In your own town when you prepare to leave Pack your bags, but just be ready to grieve.

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CULTURE

6 FEBURARY 2023

A Catch Too Good to Miss: The Rise of Queerbaiting Toby Oliver-Clarke, BA History With the rise of Queer representation on the big and small screen, queerbaiting is a term which has become a fixture of our modern pop culture vocabulary. Whilst the term can mean different things to different people, it can loosely be described as ‘when a celebrity or public figure feigns sexual difference for monetary gain’. It’s a phenomenon which is only growing larger, with Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Nick Jonas all recently being accused of queerbaiting. With those accused defending their right to sexual ambiguity, and the accusers defending their right to truly authentic representation, queerbaiting has quickly become a cultural minefield.

For many, the term entered the public imagination following the screening of ‘Sherlock’, the BBC’s wildly successful remake of the classic detective story. The show’s two protagonists, John and Sherlock, are locked in a constant will-theywon’t-they, with the audience left in the dark over whether the two truly hold feelings for each other. The underlying attraction between the two is a constant throughout all four seasons, and yet the two never share so much as a kiss. With the show’s principal producer Mark Gattis himself a gay man and many of the less prominent producers on the show also identifying as Queer, one has to question their hesitancy to portray a queer romance. The answer is as predictable as it is lamentable; for major production companies, the priority has always been profit. Sherlock is a drama with an audience which is just as complex as its storylines. On the one hand,

its viewership is composed of young, socially progressive under 25’s, and on the other, it’s viewed by older fans who hold nostalgia for the older, more conservative iterations of Sherlock. For the show’s creators, the sexual ambiguity of John and Sherlock allows them to seem up-to-date, whilst also being wary of the more conservative sensibilities of its older viewership.

Of course, queerbaiting is a phenomenon which has extended itself far beyond the big screen, with many celebrities falling foul of accusations in recent times. One such star is Harry Styles, the singer-turned-actor who recently starred in the queer romance ‘My Policeman’. Styles caused controversy when he made the claim that his role would bring “tenderness” to an industry dominated by raunchy, unaffectionate sex.

“In a media culture which refuses to speak equally for all, our only option is to speak, or be spoken for” At best, the comments seem lazy and ill-judged, and at worst, they feel like a reflection of age-old stereotypes of queer deviance and promiscuity, either way, the star woefully misses the mark. Evidently, criticism of Styles should differ from that of Sherlock or any other TV series, after all, he is

himself a human being with the right to both sexual fluidity and anonymity. However, his ambiguity feels forced, particularly when viewed alongside his controversial comments, it seems as if his queerness is merely a constituent part of a carefully crafted identity; the diamond atop the crown of a pop culture prince.

In the face of the evident harm that queerbaiting continues to inflict upon LGBTQ+ communities, we should remain vigilant in not falling into the trap of gatekeeping an identity which so many fought so hard to make visible. At the heart of queerness is the desire to embrace abnormality, deviance, and difference in all their forms - including those whose queerness seems opaque and unintelligible.

For many Queer people, the burden of representation is one which falls upon our own shoulders. With a media that can offer us ambivalent representation at best, it’s on us to embody the characters that we wish to see. This means living our queerness in a way which is both visible and personal, mundane and eccentric, and unafraid to discard the stereotypes that have long defined the Queer experience. In truth, legacy media will never reflect our experiences the way that we can ourselves, in a media culture that refuses to speak equally for all, our only option is to speak or be spoken for.

A retrospective in Punk: The Life and Death of Dame Sarah Cotte, BSc Politics, Philosophy and Economics The fashion world has lost one of its most forward thinking, brilliant figures. Dame Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer, climate, social justice activist, passed away on the 29th of December 2022 at 81 years old. Her work, spanning over 50 years, defined by anti-conformity, intense creativity and trademark punk aesthetic, has left a permanent mark on fashion. Westwood inspired a generation of alternative, punk designers to pursue unconventional, political, and sometimes ugly creations.

In many ways, fashion’s enfant terrible, Westwood’s career can be retraced by going over some of her most iconic pieces and moments. Interested in sewing from a young age, her career picked up when she opened her shop, ‘SEX’, with her then-partner Malcolm Mclaren. The shop sold rock-androll-inspired fetish wear, supplying London’s underground, sexually deviant punk scene with provocative pieces designed to make the conformist masses shudder. Westwood also created clothing for the punk-rock band Sex Pistols, furthering her visibility.

As punk died down and the Sex Pistols broke up, Westwood took her career and creative focus elsewhere.

Her Autumn/Winter 1981 collection, ‘Pirates’, launched the Westwood brand into the world of high fashion, with the collection first shown on the catwalk as a collaboration between her and Mclaren. Westwood drew inspiration from the romantic historical dress of the 17th and 18th centuries, but always kept her subversive edge. The Autumn/Winter 1982 collection, ‘Buffalo Girls(Nostalgia of Mud)’, drew on elements of Native American dress, rooted in the belief that Western aesthetics find their origins in other cultures and

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societies.

Later, as her brand expanded, Westwood dedicated her attention to cultural and fashion exchanges between England and France. She produced in Autumn/Winter 1993 the ‘Anglomania’ collection, which she offered as a reinterpretation of the past. Concerned with giving her creations a sense of elegance, Westwood the ‘ugly casualness’ of contemporary commercial fashion.

Even at the height of her career, Westwood remained committed to her rebellious and anti-establishment spirit. In the 1992 Birthday honours, during which Westwood was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), the designer showed up in what initially seemed to be a modest suit and skirt. It was later revealed as she twirled in front of photographers that all she was wearing underneath were sheer tights.

the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. In 2012, she designed an ‘I am Julian Assange’ unisex T-shirt, with 100% of the profits going to Wikileaks and its members. In 2020, she suspended herself in a birdcage, dressed as a canary, to protest Assange’s extradition to the US. Again, in 2022, she designed the suit and dress that Assange and his wife wore at their wedding. Fashion and politics always went hand in hand for Westwood, a designer who continuously used her platform to direct people’s attention to the causes that mattered to her.

A cultural icon and fashion genius, Westwood’s passing is a tremendous loss for the fashion world. Either way you look, the arts has now become a less interesting place, it is up to new designers to take up the mantle.

Deeply political, Westwood also involved herself in a variety of causes, from climate change to the Julian Assange case. Westwood appeared on the front cover of Tatler dressed as Margaret Thatcher, emblazoned with the caption ‘this woman was once a Punk’, the cover was subsequently included in the Guardian’s list of best-ever UK magazine covers.

In 2015, she drove a tank to then-prime minister David Cameron’s home in an anti-fracking protest. Both the ethos of her brand, and the beginnings of her career were built on sustainability - Westwood was brought up in a working-class home, and would take apart second-hand garments to study how they were made.

(Photo Credit: The Gentlewoman)

The designer has consistently shown her support for

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CULTURE

6 FEBURARY 2023

Tiktok Activism: A New Dead End Jacob Winter, BA Politics and International Relations Social justice being co-opted for the purpose of profit is not a new phenomenon. One of the most prominent anti-capitalist revolutionaries of the 20th century, Che Guevara, has had his likeness turned into a product, with millions of t-shirts, hoodies, keyrings and zippo lighters. A once powerful image for the liberation of the oppressed around the world has been turned into a product, with the vague notion of “rebellion” being attached to his image.

The same thing occurred with the Black Lives Matter movement, particularly following the racist murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin. After millions took to the streets to protest and demand justice, products branded with the terms ‘BLM’ or ‘ACAB’ became widespread. Along with an Instagram trend of posting just a black square on your Instagram, the movement to end racist injustice in the United States became little more than a product and an Instagram trend. It is even now occurring in modern anti-capitalist politics, with this trend of commodification also being shown on video platforms. There has been a rise of anticapitalist “influencers” mostly occurring on Youtube and Twitch, with anti capitalist Youtubers and streamers being lumped together to a genre known as ‘BreadTube’ (named after the seminal work of anarchist Pytor Kropotkin, the Conquest of Bread).

The shortcomings of Youtube and Twitch in spreading these ideas became very apparent very quickly, as most of these influencers predictably “sold out” in order to make a career out of their work. Whether it be through a Patreon or through selling merch with trendy anti-capitalist slogans, as twitch streamer Hasan Piker does. On his ‘Ideologie’

merch store, he sells hats adorned with the words ‘Class War Veteran’ or sweatshirts with the word ‘Unionize’ on the front.

Now, concepts such as class war and trade union membership are cultural items worn to show your dedication to a cause and purchased at extortionate rates. Piker sells hoodies for upwards of $70. The idea itself has become a product and has been rendered harmless to capitalism.

sort of subjectively assumed belief.’

This idea can be applied to anti-capitalist TikToks and other cultural outlets as well, such as the anticapitalist Youtube videos and Twitch streamers particularly mentioned.

TikTok, a platform for short videos primarily aimed at Gen-Z, has become a main avenue for anticapitalist activists to spread their ideas, and as it is much harder to monetise, has been seen as an alternative to the easily commodified world of Youtube video essays and Twitch debates. #Anticapitalism has over 240 million views, #Communism has over two billion, and #BLM has over 340 billion. Ultimately, it still falls into this trap of social movements becoming nothing more than trends. Tiktok, due to its short video format, relies on catchy and easy-to-remember slogans and ideas.

Although Youtube, and especially TikTok, cater to a Gen-Z audience, I do not believe this is a unique product of Gen-Z bandwagoning. This is emblematic of a larger issue and one that has been documented for a long time. Even Vladimir Lenin commented on this as long ago as 1918 in his seminal work ‘State and Revolution’: ‘During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them … After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them … while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.’

“the movement to end racist injustice in the United States had become little more than a product and an Instagram trend.”

Capitalism breeds anti-capitalism, and for capitalism to survive, it must commodify and render anti-capitalist ideas inert. This has been happening since Lenin and Che Guevara, and it is not a new phenomenon. Anti-capitalism is prevalent within all forms of capitalism, and TikTok is merely the most recent representation of this.

Much of the issue with new anticapitalist cultural trends can be described using the term ‘interpassivity’. Best defined by cultural theorist Mark Fisher, he used it to describe how anti-capitalist films can actually serve to harm an anticapitalist movement: ‘‘interpassivity’: the film performs our anti-capitalism for us, allowing us to continue to consume with impunity. The role of capitalist ideology is not to make an explicit case for something in the way that propaganda does, but to conceal the fact that the operations of capital do not depend on any

It is for this reason that figures like Dr Martin Luther King can be celebrated by the FBI, the men who allegedly killed him, or why the Black Panthers and Chairman Fred Hampton can be depicted sympathetically in a film that took the Academy Awards by storm. Anti-capitalism can’t rely on existing forms of culture to radically change the state of things, the challenge now is how we get around that.

The Best Albums of 202

The Year in Music – Featuring Björk, Kendrick Lamar, Charli XCX, and more

Mahir Ahmed, MA Global Media and Communications 2022 was a turbulent and chaotic year unlike any other, however, many of us finally got to experience live music again.

With the music industry escaping the malaise of the Pandemic and venue restrictions, many artists finally delivered long-delayed, highly anticipated albums. Big names such as Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Björk, Alvvays, Rosalía, and Mitski returned with records that were worth the wait. I’ll be counting down the most prominent and noteworthy releases!

10. Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter Ethel Cain merges the world of gothic dream pop. In just a little over an hour, songs such as American Teenager hold the ferocious energy of youth, epic synths, and booming drums drive the powerful hooks and shadowy obsessive love. Also, I saw her live recently, and she is phenomenal!

9. Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There London’s Black Country, New Road sophomore album marks the departure of frontman Isaac Wood. The album is a masterclass in technicality and frenetic melodies, jazz-meets-post-punk. Standouts include tracks such as Good Will Hunting, a breakup song that sees Wood’s narrator clinging to a former flame and Chaos Space Marine, which features wistful saxophone passages and flamboyant piano keys.

8. Charli XCX - Crash Charli XCX’s return this year with her biggest album yet, Crash, an album reaching number wwwwone for the first time in her career, with music that solidifies her pop icon status. The album has incredible features such as

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Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek on New Shapes only aided its success, as well as a reworking of September’s ‘Cry For You’ on Beg For You with Rina Sawayama.

7. The Weeknd - Dawn FM I have to admit, I wasn’t sold on this album at first, but on multiple relistens, it’s clicked for me. A bit of background first: The Weeknd’s fifth studio album is produced by a relatively small group, comprised of Max Martin and Daniel Lopetin of Oneohtrix Point Never, the latter of which is a ‘Warp Records’ alumni and architect of the Uncut Gems soundtrack. This is the perfect retro pop classic, filled to the brim with 80s synth and city pop highs without being drowned in sub-bass.

6. Bjork - Fossora A personal favourite artist of mine, Bjork has used lockdown to craft an exceptional avant-pop record infused with techno beats and flourishes. Plus, features from Emilie Nicholas, Serpentwithfeet and Icelandic electronic trio side project. Then there are the tracks, Ancestress, Her Mother’s House and Atopos, which remain highlights of the album. Bjork is back on top form.

5. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Easily one of the most anticipated albums of the year. The first words uttered – ‘I’ve been going through something’—instantly set the mood for the album. From the bombastic chorus on N95 to the dramatic journey that is We Cry Together, which features Florence Welch and Taylour Paige. With an artist like Kendrick Lamar, it’s guaranteed that every song will be purposeful and deliberate.

4. Taylor Swift – Midnights Swift’s tenth studio album is her best collection of pop songs.

While it is a bit of a step down from the interpersonal songwriting

of the folklore/evermore era, she more than makes up for it with her collaboration with Jack Antonoff. The restrained, stripped-down production puts into focus her refined songwriting skills and pop mastery. Midnights is thematically cohesive and sonically engaging, even if Taylor is no longer writing songs like Cardigan or Last American Dynasty.

3. Beyoncé – Renaissance Six years after Lemonade, Beyonce switches everything up with 90s club sound, with songs such as PURE/HONEY ALIEN SUPERSTAR paying homage to 90s club classics whilst being produced by today’s pop innovators such as Honey Dijon, A.G Cook, Syd, Tems, who offer reinvigorated view of electronic music and beyond. The music speaks for itself.

2. Alvvays – Blue Rev Alvvays aren’t your typical indie pop band. Every song is a feast for the ears, with memorable hooks, such as the swirling chorus and feedback on Easy On Your Own?. To the witty, self-aware lyricism on Very Online Guy. This is one of those albums to come home wanting to unwind with some sweet melodies that are immediate and sublime.

1. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You Probably my favourite release of 2022, we have a 20-song double album titled ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You’. Pushing the boundaries of traditional folk instrumentation, Adrianne Lenker and company experiment with trip-hop grooves and wistful harmonies on Spud Infinity to the loose, distorted groove of Little Things. The album is a delight for the ears.

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6 FEBRUARY 2023

Sport & Societies Editor: Hala Haidar

Sport & Societies

A Bright Future Ahead for the SOAS Drama & Musical Society Jordan Naddaf, BA Politics and International Relations When I arrived at SOAS in September 2021, I was ecstatic to be travelling abroad to attend university and begin a new chapter of my life. However, due to the pandemic and its impacts, I had been away from vocal and performing arts for a couple of years, and the lack of a creative environment was starting to take its toll on me. One day, scrolling through Instagram, a post caught my eye: Auditions for West Side Story at SOAS. Filled with anticipation and nerves, I signed up, joining the newly reborn SOAS Drama and Musical Society (DAMS), and embarking on a journey that has been as unpredictable as it has been fulfilling.

At the conclusion of a tumultuous first year consisting of our acquaintance with many of the obstacles faced by new societies, I was hearing my own complex relationship with performance echoed by the voices around me: everyone was afraid of losing the joy and exhilaration of stage performance to the stresses of a student-run group, and thus from the woodwork of a hectic year, a new committee began to emerge. I threw my hat into the ring for Musical Director and held my breath, once again unaware that this simple decision would have such a deep impact on myself and so many others.

I vividly remember the first meeting of our new committee, where we each talked about our hopes and plans for our areas of expertise and promptly discovered that our goals aligned entirely. Every single member expressed a desire to prioritise the protection of DAMS as a safe space for students who find joy in performance. Director and Acting Coach Lizzy Cox described a group with permission not to take themselves too seriously as actors, while Choreographer Aaliyah Ismail echoed goals to help people fall in love with dance. I spoke of the moments of pure joy that I’ve only experienced while creating music as a group and that my priority was creating the space for our members to experience this.

“Every single [committee] member expressed a desire to prioritize the protection of DAMS as a safe space for students who find joy in performance.”

Our second year has been, thus far, a huge success. In December 2022, we hosted a variety show in the BGLT, performing an array of skits, duets, dances, and group numbers. Co-presidents Sara Solari and Eboney Pearce stole the show with a haunting ukelele rendition of Steven

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The Drama and Musical Society poses for a picture after their variety show in December 2022. (photo credit: Clodagh Pearce)

Sondheim’s ‘Losing My Mind’ and a beautiful performance of Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Dream a Little Dream’ respectively, and student Suhaylah Yusuf performed her original story-telling monologue exploring Christmas time as a Muslim woman.

Vocal coach Izekial Mihai became a crowd-favourite with his drag-influenced delivery of ‘Adelaide’s Lament’, featuring an inconsolable woman with a vintage Brooklyn accent. The final line-up included a K-pop random play dance, a sneak peek of our upcoming musical, and even a collaboration with the Desi Society to stage a Bollywood dance.

Looking back at the year we’ve had, I know one thing with certainty: without the dedication and focus of our committee on preserving and fostering a love of performance, none of this would have been possible. As we make plans for the rest of the year, we encounter financial obstacles, scheduling conflicts, and the complex task of balancing the workload of a full-time student with managing a society, but as long as we continue to prioritise finding joy and fulfilment from sharing the stage with each other, I have no doubts that our success will continue. I feel privileged to work not only with my fellow committee members but also with so many students who have invested their time and talents in DAMS and

continue to show up every week. Most of all, I feel incredibly lucky to have found a space with so many others who understand the longing draw of the stage and the spotlight, and who are willing to share and celebrate it together.

Looking ahead, DAMS has some exciting plans, with plenty of opportunities to get involved. The ensemble for our upcoming performance of Rent the Musical in May always has room to grow, and our backstage crew is similarly expanding. On 10 February, some of our members will be performing Valentine’s Day-themed duets and solos in the JCR, and we’re in the planning stages for a unique and interactive rendition of Frozen the Musical. Our group is always looking to welcome more students, whether you are a singer, actor, dancer, or you prefer to stay backstage and help out. Every single member of the team helps shape our group dynamic and society.

So if you’re missing your days of high school choir, the production of the Wizard of Oz you did in fourth grade, or even the dances you learned in gym class, please join us and help us protect performing arts at SOAS!

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6 FEBRUARY 2023

Running on Empty: A Jordanian Experience

SPORT & SOCIETIES

Oscar Stapleton & Sophie Kirkby, BA Arabic and International Relations & BA Arabic and International Relations The SOAS Running Society has organised a running camp in Aqaba, the South of Jordan, that will take place during Ramadan. For 10 days this March, athletes from Jordan and SOAS will train and live together.

Activities will include cooking together, especially the infamous Maqloobeh, whilst also cooking dishes that the Jordanian athletes might not have encountered before, such as cottage pie. Food is a key part of refuelling in training, and a central way of sharing cultures, especially within the context of Ramadan.

Fasting isn’t something that is correlated with high-level performance. However, Hicham El Guerrouj, the Moroccan 1500m and mile world record holder for the last 20 years, fasted every year whilst carrying out the most strenuous training and praised its benefits. The science, according to Razan Al-Najjar, a Jordanian athlete and student of counselling and mental health, specialising in the 400m, backs up El

Jordanian middle distance runners celebrating after success in recent national competition. (credit: Mohamed Al Matary - Head Coach of Qadasiya Running Club)

Guerrouj’s success. Al-Najjar states, ‘practising sport is really useful because the process of burning fat becomes faster whilst you fast, and it improves the attraction of insulin to the body and growth hormones. Bashar Al Selawi, the Jordanian 200m and 400m champion and student of sport science, seconds his compatriot’s analysis and poetically compares the rest given to the liver, stomach and pancreas whilst fasting to the breaks needed by students from their studies.

“In essence, the idea of the camp in Aqaba is to support and bolster the running community in Jordan. We know the passion is there. What needs to happen now is funding, encouragement, and recognition...”

Running is often associated with being an individualistic sport. Despite this, Eliud Kipchoge, the marathon world record holder and the first man to run under two hours for the marathon—that’s 66 seconds per 400m; try doing that once at your local track—is the biggest advocate of group training. Kipchoge humbly proclaims, ‘100% of me is nothing compared to 1% of the team.’ Whilst sounding slightly like a quote from a self-help guide, coming from Kipchoge’s mouth gives it credence. Teammates before, during, and after training are key to Kipchoge. The camp adopts this philosophy too, and believes that living together will benefit athletes throughout the training.

Aqaba, in the eyes of Jordanian athletes, is a hidden gem

for runners. Mohammed Al-Mimi, the regional 3000m youth steeplechase champion, trained and raced in Aqaba alongside teammate Rakan Al-Jabarat. They both claim that Aqaba is perfect for a training camp, citing the small population that leads to quiet, open paths for running. The paths of Aqaba, according to Al-Mimi, contain the perfect variety for middledistance training, with long flat sections and short sharp sections excellent for hill training, all in close proximity.

The forms of training throughout the camp will be inspired by various methods. The infamous Kenyan Fartlek (Swedish for ‘speed play’) will be used, as well as Moroccan interval training. The athletes will take part in long runs, intervals, and hill training, whilst recovery will also be aided through swimming and cycling. The training will not only be physical; talks will be given by Jordanian students on physiotherapy, nutrition, preventative work in the gym, and types of stretching.

Running is an up-and-coming sport in Jordan. Whilst the community is small, it’s also strong, and runners encourage each other, perhaps because they realise the rarity of it.

The running community in Jordan mostly consists of men.

Female runners are extremely strong and determined, yet it’s not as widespread amongst women, possibly due to cultural and religious reasons. That being said, more women are beginning to take up running personally and professionally.

In essence, the idea of the camp in Aqaba is to support and bolster the running community in Jordan. We know the passion is there. What needs to happen now is funding, encouragement, and recognition, which is exactly what the camp will show to the running community and Jordanians.

A Brief History of SOAS Martial Arts Casey Trowbridge, BA History and Politics SOAS Martial Arts, luckily, have a well-defined beginning.

In 1985, the first martial art to take place on campus was Nippon Kempo, brought to SOAS, and the UK, by a student called Luther De Gale, who had learnt the discipline after spending a year in Japan. It was first agreed upon that a modest-sized room, found between the boiler rooms in the basement of SOAS was to be converted into a dojo. The dojo, a fairly humble place in a relatively obscure part of campus, started with just one martial art club at the time but quite quickly grew quite the roster of martial arts, all operating out of the gym based in SOAS. Airenjuku Aikido began just four years later and continues to this day, being, to our knowledge, our longest-lasting martial art at SOAS. The martial arts club, of which I am president, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, began at SOAS in 2011 and quickly became one of our, if not the largest martial art at SOAS in terms of membership. We began to grow a wide roster of martial arts, from striking and weapons training, such as boxing and Kali, to grappling martial arts, such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The basement closed in 2019, locked up by SOAS and enforced by security. On to why it was closed and remains so; many rumours surround this. According to the security staff on campus, it has been ‘temporarily closed due to an intermittent electrical fault,’ which is likely referring to the air conditioning unit that broke down due to disrepair. However,

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no official statement has been made by SOAS on its closure.

It is now coming up to the fourth year of SOAS not having a dedicated training space for sports and martial arts.

“Whilst SOAS has been reluctant to continue accommodating us, the Students’ Union has been particularly helpful in helping us secure alternative spaces for us to continue our long history of teaching and training on the SOAS campus.”

Between the closure of our main training space, locked with much of our equipment and mats still inside left to collect dust, and the COVID-19 pandemic that halted all training, with many graduating and moving on, the basement gym that was bustling with life before the turn of the decade is now only remembered by the martial arts societies themselves. The combination of the closure of the gym and the pandemic meant that some of the smaller martial arts societies were forced to close, with our roster reducing from a dozen different societies to five.

SOAS Martial Arts are slowly rebuilding again with the

Brazillian Jiu Jitsu drills in L67 (credit: Fahed Rahman)

establishment of L67 and L62 as our new training spaces, with members slowly joining and traction building up again.

Fahed Rahman, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt and SOAS BJJ instructor, says: ‘We’re ecstatic that we have so many people on the mats at the moment. It’s especially exciting that so many of the new people on to the club are women.’ Furthermore, Rahman adds, ‘It’s lovely to see people nervous about martial arts growing in confidence and being able to grapple with complete strangers.’

Other SOAS martial arts are also reporting a marked increase in the number of people joining in on their classes and trying all of the martial arts out. Other societies are continuing to be cultivated, with an expected return of the Capoeira society. Whilst SOAS has been reluctant to continue accommodating us, the Students’ Union has been particularly helpful in helping us secure alternative spaces for us to continue our long history of teaching and training on the SOAS campus.

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SPORT & SOCIETIES

6 FEBRUARY 2023

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