Issue 2: December 2017

SOAS SPIRIT

4 DECEMBER 2017

FREE

SOAS RECIEVES £5 MILLION WINDFALL

YOUR INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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HUMANS OF SOAS RANI PERINPARAJA & PETER BARAN p12-13

ISSUE 2

DECOLONISING OUR UNIVERSITIES

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Students and Staff protest the reshaping of student support Ali Mitib, BA Law and Politics.

On the 24th November, hundreds of students and staff walked out of SOAS en masse in protest of changes proposed by SOAS Senior Management to reshape administration departments to achieve the aim of improving the student experience by creating the ‘One Professional Service.’ Representatives from the Students’ Union, UNISON, the University and College Union (UCU) addressed the protestors on why these proposed change will be damaging to the student experience.

The proposed changes would restructure how student support is provided. In the current system of departmental-based support, departments employ officers who have in-depth knowledge about the degrees programmes of the faculty. This in-depth knowledge allows officers to answer inquiries from students. If the new proposals are enacted, in place of departmental-based support, student support would be moved to Hubs, where all students will go to receive advice and have their questions answered. The proposals state that there will be three Hubs with each hub being staffed by five student support officers who service three to four departments.

Students and staff alike have stated that this proposal would not adequately support students, as those employed in the Hubs would only be able to provide general and not specialised support if you have a question about your degree. The proposed changes are set to be in place by September 2018. The creation Hubs has been heavily criticised, as many believe that it will not achieve Manage-

Staff and students protesting in front of the Main Building. (Credit: Ali Mitib)

ments aim of improving the student experience. Many critics point to the difficulties students have faced with the Weston Student Hub, which students have said offered inadequate advice and support.

In October, a SOAS Academic Senate Motion calling for the physical co-location of administrative support staff within each department was passed by 91% of participat-

ing academics and was co-sponsored by 10 out of 11 Department Heads. When the vote was reported to the Academic Board, Valerie Amos, the Director of SOAS, is reported to have said, “Academic staff had no formal standing to decide matters pertaining to administrative support.”

In a Students’ Union (SU) petition calling to ‘Save Academic Student Support at

SOAS’, the SU stated that Amos’s response is demonstrative of a “serious institutional gap in governance.” The petition also states “the Students’ Union was not consulted (at all!) until after the School-wide formal consultation was launched on 12 November.

Despite Students’ Union participation in activities organised for ‘staff conversations about the Student Experience’ the Students’ Continued on page 3

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Contents

Letter from the editor

News SOAS Budget Deficit: Alternative Financing and restructuring

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SOAS recieves windfall of £5m for languages of the Global South

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Features Black Flags in Iraq: Arba’een Pilgrimage Humans of SOAS: Peter Baran & Rani Perinparaja

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Comment Why Decoloning our Universities is Important

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Aladdin: Disney’s Orientalist Fairytale?

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Reviews p20

The Lady Dandies of the DRC come to SOAS

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Your SOAS Spirit Team

Ali Mitib · Managing Editor · 611359@soas.ac.uk

Ahmad Watoo · News Editor · 625576@soas.ac.uk Hannah Somerville · News Editor · 266256@soas.ac.uk Zain Hussain · News Editor · 594404@soas.ac.uk Marta Perez Fernandez · Features Editor · 628547@soas.ac.uk Amelia Storey · Features Editor · 636016@soas.ac.uk Uswa Ahmed · Comments Editor · 638268@soas.ac.uk Holly Sampson · Sports Editor 638061@soas.ac.uk Abigail Joanna Moselle · Reviews Editor · 630182@soas.ac.uk Peter Smith · Senior Layout Editor · 629625@soas.ac.uk Khadija Kothia · Junior Layout Editor · 637933@soas.ac.uk Sudha Palepu · Junior Layout Editor · 656024@soas.ac.uk Uswa Ahmed · Junior Layout Editor · 638268@soas.ac.uk

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Ali Mitib Managing Editor of the SOAS Spirit

Ashutosh Nagda · Co-Editor-in-Chief · 656310@soas.ac.uk Arooj Sultan · Co-Editor-in-Chief · 611281@soas.ac.uk

Call Me By Your Name

Women’s Football

Welcome to the second edition of the SOAS Spirit! We are happy to bring you another edition packed full of informative, interesting and entertaining articles. We at the Spirit aim to hold those in positions of power accountable and produce content which students will find informative, thought provoking and entertaining.

One of our goals at the Spirit is to expand our online presence. To achieve this, we have recently relaunched our website. Check https://soasspirit.co.uk for the latest news on SOAS and the wider world in addition to the latest reviews, submitted poetry and updates on our sports teams.

In our second edition, we cover the SOAS budget with regards to restructuring and external funding. We also cover the walkout of students and staff in protest of proposals

to reshape student support. Following this we discuss the visit of U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the windfall of £5m awarded to SOAS to improve teaching languages of the Global South. Elsewhere, we examine the EU withdrawal bill, the earthquake on the Iran-Iraq border and the uncertain Japanese political future.

Our Features section includes two Humans of SOAS features, which will focus on Peter Baran–the SU General Manager who has been at SOAS for 20 years–and Rami Perinparaja–the famous book seller of SOAS. This section also includes a selection of poetry, a feature on animal abuse and a feature on Arba’een–one of the largest peaceful gatherings in history.

The presence of sexual predators in Hollywood, the importance of decolonising our universities and the orientalist picture created by the Aladdin Musical are amongst the topics discussed in our Comments section.

Our Reviews section covers the a theatre review of ‘Oslo’, a film review of ‘Call My

By Your Name’, a book review of ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’, exhibition coverage ‘The Lady Dandies of the DRC’ and a food review for The Bow Belly at Bloomsbury Farmers Market.

In our sports section, we enclose a list of SOAS Sports fixtures and coverage of the the Women’s football team.

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Tom Matsuda · Online Editor · 652408@soas.ac.uk Sumayyah Lane · Social Co-ordinator · 637349@soas.ac.uk

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4 DECEMBER 2017 Continued from page 1 Union have not been given the opportunity to formally feed into and shape the proposals that have been put on the table by Senior Management.”

Speaking at the Walkout, SU Co-President for Democracy and Education, Nisha Phillips, said “When we were up there earlier (working group meeting between the SU, Management and academic support staff) so many support staff kept raising

issues that they haven’t been asked properly or that they haven’t been listened to in this discussion and that they haven’t had the opportunity to make their voices heard or to shape any proposal.” Nisha Phillips stressed the need for “better support for our staff and better support for our students and academics”. She expressed the desire to achieve this but states the current process and the dismissal of concerns of the SU, students and academic staff will not allow these goals to be achieved.

At the walkout, Sandy Nicoll, SOAS Unison Branch Secretary, stated that staff try and deliver service that students deserve but that management are an “obstacle” to this. Nicoll emphasised that there has been no consolation of students, staff or academics on the issues in the support provided to students.

Nicoll states that instead of formulating a consultation document with a working group, Management “start from a proposal that suits them, then they send it out to consultation meanwhile they have a discus-

sion on what they will implement before that consultation has concluded. Nicoll emphasised that the consultation process is a “farce” and “absurd”.

Francesca Floris, SOAS SU Women’s Officer, stated that “Senior management want to talk about improving student experience but they have not consulted the students about our experiences. That is why we are walking out–management do not want to hear nor do they care about what we have to say.”

SOAS Budget Deficit: Alternative financing and restructuring Arooj Sultan, BA Economics and Politics Hannah Somerville, MA Arabic Literature There are currently five principles that form SOAS’ financial strategy and therefore mould the school’s corporate objectives, and the way in which those objectives are achieved. A reading of those principles makes it clear that the university’s primary objective is to move from a deficit to a surplus. Currently SOAS is operating with an approximate deficit of £5 million, and as per its financial strategy it is looking to reduce the deficit by £3 million by 2020. As per the aforementioned principles this will be done through cost reduction; external funding/financing; income growth; and the establishment of distance learning programs. Although it will primarily be done through cost reduction and external funding— as properly setting up and operating the distance learning programs will take a considerable amount of time, and the income growth may not be as substantial as hoped (e.g 5% yearly inflation increase in all unregulated fees yet enrolment numbers, particularly international students, were the lowest this year since 2011). And to that end, the ‘Questions Worth Asking’ campaign was launched in September 2016. Though the university hasn’t explicitly linked this campaign with its budget deficit combating strategy.

The Questions Worth Asking campaign is the largest fundraising drive by SOAS to date. The campaign aims to answer some of the most complex sociopolitical and economic questions the world is currently facing, such as ‘Is there a solution to the world’s refugee crisis? What happens after war?’ and ‘Should we all speak the same language?’ etc. This campaign aligns completely with SOAS’ unique brand and has been met with great enthusiasm by the SOAS community, as for many SOASians it extends their engagement, further, with the issues that drew them to come study at SOAS in the first place. Questions Worth Asking had already managed to secure £40 million of its £100 million goal around the time of its launch, and has since continued to receive generous donations. However, it is still not close to meeting its ultimate goal and some of the funding received has been conditional, meaning that this campaign may not be as viable a source of external funding as it may initially appear to be. The fact that different portions of the funding are conditional constrains the university from spending the money as it sees fit, for example, on decreasing the budget deficit or investing it in its current departments. The major donations to the campaign in the last few months have been earmarked for specific,

rather niche, projects such as the £5million for Zoroastrian studies or the £173,000 for Jewish Music. So while these are important projects that are now getting the attention and development that they require, the university doesn’t seem to making much headway in financing its deficit via this avenue.

All this then leads back to cost reduction being the most likely financial course of action for the school. And, as it has even been stated in their official financial strategy, there will

be a greater emphasis on staffing cost reduction. This has led to fears of pay cuts and redundancy among SOAS staff, though the university has previously stated that there are no plans for compulsory staff redundancies. The university plans to save on costs by opting for a sustainable growth design, which it will follow through building all budgets from the ground up (zero-based budget) and major restructuring through the One Professional Service.

The proposals have drawn stinging criticism from the Students’ Union, which claimed the One Professional Service would drive ‘yet another wedge of middle management and bureaucracy’ between students and their departments.

A sweeping programme of restructuring took place at SOAS last year and saw the school’s former three faculties transformed into 11 departments. This year a further set of changes, known as the ‘One Professional Service’, is on the cards and is due to affect all professional services underpinning the work of academic staff and students.

The broad framework for One Professional Service was rubber-stamped in summer 2017 and the changes are due

to be in place by September 2018. On November 10 a SOAS staff consultation, running until December 11, was launched proposing that the Student and Academic Experience Directorate – which encompasses support services, careers, wellbeing, registry, housing, finance and immigration – be split into six new structures.

It was initially thought that administrative support staff would be physically co-located within the 11 new departments, an idea supported by both the Students’ Union and the SOAS Academic Senate.

But instead student and academic support is set to be split across three ‘hubs’ in strategic locations – alongside the Weston Student Hub, which dealt with 26,000 queries in the past 12 months–with each one servicing three to four departments, staffed by up to five Student Support Officers.

The document states: “Whilst a sense of belonging to an academic home is acknowledged as being very important, we also wish to avoid students attending multiple offices when seeking answers to various questions. We know that this particular aspect of SOAS provision is one which causes a high degree of frustration and dissatisfaction amongst both students and staff.”

The proposals have drawn stinging criticism from the Students’ Union, which claimed the One Professional Service would drive ‘yet another wedge of middle management and bureaucracy’ between students and their departments. At the Union General Meeting on November 12, co-president Dmitri Cautain said: “All of it has been proposed in the name of improving the student experience. The most important caveat is that no students have been involved in drawing up any of these proposals.

“They are very disrespectful towards the staff and also very disrespectful towards the students. They are top-down, imposed by management, and this consultation is an absolute hoax.”

The SU has set up a petition opposing the changes, and demanding that all reforms dealing with academic and student support require approval from the SU and the Academic Board. In response a SOAS spokeswoman said a ‘working group’, including some students, would be formed to sit through the consultation process. She added: “The particular focus of the group will be on the student and academic support elements of the proposal. We are working with the Students’ Union to develop wider opportunities for student engagement with the student body – including surveys, focus group works and a workshop building on the interactive approach adopted at the staff workshop earlier this term.”

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University rows back on attendance policy after backlash Hannah Somerville, MA Arabic Literature A ‘draconian’ attendance policy for PhD students on Tier 4 visas has been put on ice by SOAS after being roundly criticised by the Students’ Union. On Tuesday, November 14 international students received an email of a new policy requiring students to check in with the Doctoral School in person once every three weeks. Students were told that they would also be required to seek approval from the Doctoral School when leaving the country, regardless of the length of time they plan to spend abroad.

There is no specific UK Visa and Immigration or Home Office guidance requiring this change. The policy appeared to have been This is also not in the developed unilaterally spirit of SOAS and we

by SOAS management believe it’s a demeaning and according to the SU falls quite outside the scenario for PhD norm for UK universistudents, who feel they ties would be ‘particularly inflexible and are being criminalised.” burdensome’. Although the policy was dated August 17, students were not notified until November. At the Union General Meeting on November 16, research student Kathryn Nash said it had come “pretty much out of the blue.”

She added: “This is a big change from how we are currently kept track of. Normally we use logbooks and have a supervisory committee.

“We feel this is a change completely outside the norms of the sector, implemented very quickly, five days before the holidays, when many of us had bought tickets to go home. This is also not in the spirit of SOAS and we believe it’s a demeaning scenario for PhD students, who feel they are being criminalised.”

At the UGM an emergency motion was unanimously passed calling for the immediate suspension of the new Tier 4 research student lobby, demanding that the school consult students on change to regulations and be transparent about the rationale behind them. It also noted that school policy should be ‘in line with the sector norm within the UK’, adding: “SOAS should seek to facilitate the inclusion of international students and resist efforts to place ever more restrictions on students from abroad studying in the UK…as such, the School needs to be as flexible as the Home Office allows and not impose further burdens on students.” The policy has now been put on hold ahead of proper consultation with students, who have also warned it could exacerbate the stress already on PhD students at SOAS. A SOAS spokeswoman said: “The School has written to all PGR students to make clear it has paused the operation of a new attendance policy for postgraduate research students. This is in order to enable consultation on the policy, as requested by the Research Students Association and the Students Union. The School has apologised for any concerns caused by introducing the policy and recognises that prior consultation would of course have been helpful and appropriate.”

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Fighting for Free Education The National Demonstration Against Fees and Cuts Indigo Lilburn-Quick, BA History and Politics

Although the government has claimed the rise in tuition fees has not discouraged students from poorer backgrounds from going to university, campaigners have argued these statistics are skewed as they are only based on those going straight from secondary school.

Twenty-four per cent of SOAS undergraduates are mature students. Tom Ana, a mature student studying for a BA

On November 15th, many SOAS students joined the National Demonstration Against Fees and Cuts following the rise in tuition fees to £9,250 a year. Although the number of students that marched is unclear, with organisers claiming 10,000 and police giving an unofficial estimate of around 2,000, all those who attended were determined to “Since the government scrapped make their voices heard.

SOAS protesters, many of whom are facing more than maintenance grants, the poorest students £60,000 of debt, assembled outside the main building will be graduating with the highest debt. before joining the main congregation in Mallet Street. The This is what injustice looks like.” procession then moved through central London to the Houses of Parliament, where rallying speeches continued until 5pm. Marching along to the beats of the SOAS ‘Sambatage’ group, there was a celebratory atmosphere with History of Art, said: “Mature students who are in work many dancing, singing ‘solidarity forever’ and repeating become discouraged from entering university when they chants throughout. are faced with the prospect of getting into a lot of debt.”

Hasan Patel, a 14-year-old school who helped organise He added that they often look to alternative forms of the demonstration, told crowds he was “not just angry but education instead such as the Open University and apalso inspired” due to the genuine prospect of free educaprenticeships. tion that has put on the table by Jeremy Corbyn and the fact so many were marching together to fight for this goal.

Support for Corbyn was widespread amongst the protesters with the chant ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ repeated many times, including in front of 10 Downing Street where the march came to a standstill for several minutes. Fiona Lali (BA Law and Development), from the SOAS Marxist Society, said that to achieve free education “We need a Corbyn lead Labour government […] elected on a radical programme.” The protest was backed by Momentum and also had Corbyn’s personal backing.

The Marxist Society were not the Students protesting at Trafalgar Square. (Credit: @LondonStudent) only ones protesting on an anti-capitalist agenda. Almost musical cries of “A-anti-anti-capitalista” were a crowd favourite and The SOAS SU has played a key role in organising encapsulated the feeling that it was not just this policy but students within SOAS as well as in the national campaign, the whole system that needed to come down. While the but co-presidents seemed dissatisfied with the narrow chant “eat the rich” was largely satirical, many protesters’ definition of free education put forward the NUS and othconcerns were based around economic and class injustice. ers. Welfare and campaigns officer Dimitri Cautain said: As NUS executive member Ana Oppenheim pointed “Fighting for free education is not simply about tuition out, “Since the government scrapped maintenance grants, fees, which is sort of what the reductionist arguments the poorest students will be graduating with the highest of the NUS can sometimes be, but are very much about debt. This is what injustice looks like.” changing universities and university curricula.”

The £16,907 a year fees SOAS charges international stuHe noted the Justice for Workers campaign, a fight dents are even more daunting than the debts of those from against outsourcing and privatisation, as well as campus the UK or EU. More than 50 per cent of SOAS students cuts and inequalities as examples of issues that are ‘part of are international and without access to student loans from the problem’. the UK government, amassing debt in order to study in The demonstration was linked to a planned walk-out the UK is not even an option for many, who are automatiat SOAS on November 24, which the SU said was also cally locked out. Hansika Jethani, an international student opposing the marketization of education. Democracy and co-organiser of the event, said there was ‘very little and education officer Nisha Phillips said this trend was support’ available. She said issues included ‘isolation and ‘a measure to pit people against each other and to really worrying about disappointing your family’, visa issues, and kind of create silos of universities and also to create being ‘thrown out of the country immediately after gradumarket and create an environment in which universiating’. She told the crowd: “Students from New Zealand are ties are set up to fail as well.’ In a statement, SOAS said marching hand in hand with those from Newcastle, those it was ‘committed to promoting equality and celebrating from Brazil with those from Bristol, united in the belief diversity’ by providing ‘vital financial support’ supportthat education is a public good, not a commodity to be ing ‘over 150 socioeconomically disadvantaged home bought or sold.” students’ each year.

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Windfall of £5m awarded to SOAS to improve teaching languages of the Global South Ludovica Longo, BA Politics and Geography A £5m grant has been awarded to SOAS by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to improve and preserve engagement with the Global South through language. The money, from HEFCE’s Catalyst fund, will be invested in a project to safeguard UK provision in strategically important and vulnerable languages (SIL) of Africa, Asia and the Middle East such as Hausa, Somali, Swahili, Zulu, Urdu, Burmese, Khmer, Thai and Tibetan. As the only higher-level institution in the UK teaching 22 African and Asian languages, 13 of which are exclusively taught in our university, SOAS’ key role in this area might prove even more relevant at a time in which the UK is shifting its focus from Europe and positioning itself outwardly to the non-European world.

Professor Lutz Marten, Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Cultures, who led the bid, said: “Knowledge and understanding of these languages and associated cultures

is becoming increasingly important for the UK and its wider international interests – for critical understanding of geopolitics and diplomacy, and of global cultural dynamics, for international development, international business and trade, and social cohesion within the UK. The project aims to maintain and strengthen provision in these languages in the future.”

In order to protect the country’s strategic position as a global leader in free trade and international relations, British language institutions have been called upon to resolve the language skills deficit, which is estimated to cost up to 3.5 % of national GDP. The education system must take on a fundamental role preparing a generation of linguistically proficient graduates to replace EU officials’ functions of negotiating trade deals with the Global South. To further complicate the picture, SOAS and other language centers in the country will have to overcome a predicted teacher shortage as a direct effect of Brexit.

The £5m may be of value to SOAS’s plans to renovate and refurbish the infrastruc-

ture surrounding language teaching in the existing SOAS estate. Alongside physical improvements, SOAS plans to start a fundraising campaign to ultimately raise £10m to underpin staff costs and fund both the teaching of current languages and languagerelated scholarships.

British language institutions have been called upon to resolve the language skills deficit, which is estimated to cost up to 3.5 % of national GDP. An ambitious reform of the curriculum has also been tabled that would allow every student enrolled at SOAS to learn a language as part of their degree. The latter would match our institution’s main historical reputation of dominant institution in terms

of cultural and linguistic expertise of the Global South. As well as being of strategic importance many of the languages on the list have historically been ‘vulnerable’ and still are subject to pressure and competition with European languages.

Professor Marten added that the creation of a hierarchy of languages traces back to a colonial narrative in which the language of the colonizers was imposed at the expenses of original languages local dialects. He said “a paradigm of linguistic equality” is now the ultimate goal, adding: “To study Burmese or Thai is exactly the same as studying English and French in terms of academic and intellectual value.”

Despite the fact that none of the 22 languages in the list are in danger of extinction, the majority of the latter group are spoken in the areas covered. Knowledge of a Catalyst language is therefore needed as research tool in order to work with local communities for the common goal of protecting endangered languages.

UN Secretary General visits SOAS Noor Mehmood Mandviwalla, LLB Law The 16th November marked the visit of the ninth Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres. It was a remarkable day for SOASians, students and teachers alike. Guterres was appointed as the Secretary General of the United Nations in January this year. His relationship with the UN has been a long and substantial one, having held the position of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Guterres was also the Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002. The evening’s topic was on “Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights”, with the focus on how to win the fight against terrorism whilst upholding principal values of all human rights.

Mr. Guterres began with a thought-provoking speech followed by a discussion with the audience, moderated by SOAS director Baroness Valarie Amos. At the outset, he said: “Nothing justifies terrorism.” He spoke about the pattern of terror attacks around the world over the last three years. Just last year, approximately 11,000 attacks took place in more than 100 different countries.

Mr. Guterres explained that this exponential increase is due to a change in terrorism’s nature, for example with its spread through cyberspace, and the newfound method of

U.N. Secretary General, António Guterres, speaks at SOAS (Credit: Creative Commons)

randomised truck attacks.

He added that his visit to London was to deliver one simple message: “Terrorism is the outright denial and inevitable destruction of human rights”. He then said the protection of fundamental human rights is the only

weapon that will combat terrorism at its root.

Guterres that traditional military schemes alone will not end terrorism. He proposed five key counter-terrorism strategies: 1. Stronger International Cooperation on Counter-Terrorism

As there is still no universal convention on countering terrorism, Guterres spoke of his efforts to unify international bodies in the fight. These have ranged from commencing the first UN summit on counter terrorism agencies to coordinating 38 international

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2. Sustained focus on prevention Guterres explained this goal has a wider meaning , addressing factors that radicalise young people. He proposed to do this through the creation of jobs and vocations for young people. The role of teachers, academics and social workers were pushed to the frontline regarding this topic.

3. Upholding human rights and the rule of law as being the best way of terrorism prevention Guterres warned that without a firm base in human rights, counter-terrorism policies may have a reverse effect because lack of attention to human rights breeds terrorism.

4. Lifting the voices of the victims of terrorism The Secretary General gave the example of Manchester’s response to the monstrous terrorist attack it faced earlier this year and said

4 DECEMBER 2017 that it showed an ‘amazing example of unity’.

He also discussed a potential proposal for the 21st of August being ‘International Day of Remembrance for victims of terrorism’.

5. Prevention also meant winning the fight online.

With new technology constantly being developed, the fight is no longer purely physical but also technological. The development of better technology is therefore necessary to combat any way that terrorists may want to cause harm. Conversely, Guterres admitted that principles and policies are never enough; he said that the fight may only be won by ‘upholding the dignity of the human person’.

Following the speech a Q&A session was held. Many students from SOAS’s Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy were present. One asked: “We see members of the UN violating its charter and ignoring the maintenance of human rights. What do you think of this and what does the UN plan to

do about it?” In response, Guterres said the UN would use human rights bodies to bring their actions to light. He then conceded that he had been reluctant to taking decisions on issues regarding the conflict between national sovereignty and the human rights agenda.

Another student asked what the UN plans to do about members who make large profits and run their economies based on arms dealership. Guterres firmly stated his belief in disarmament. But he added that the arms dealership business has become a ‘cruel reality’ in the world. The president of the UN Society, Yatana Wynn, asked how students could play a part in helping to combat terrorism. Guterres responded that they may do this by fully assuming citizenship and realising that there is not weakness, but strength in diversity. He stressed that terrorists can be recruited from any community, and a way of preventions that students may also get involved in is by creating an inclusive society.

In response to a similar question, he stated the UN needs to have the world’s youth play a larger part in meeting their goals. He stated that the organisation fails to do this because of two reasons: the generational gap between those in power and those who aren’t, and the fact that the UN’s means of communication is not very youth-friendly. In response to the Guterres’s statement that “the power of human rights to bond is stronger that the power of terrorism to devastate”, Ms Wynn said: “We need to break the vicious cycle of destruction by taking preventative measures; and this means to build communities to be more equal.” Guterres acknowledged that it would be an illusion to believe that terrorism can be eradicated in the near future. However, he is optimistic that one day it may be.

Cambridge University slammed for ‘censoring’ as SOAS academic barred from BDS Palestine event Mahnoor Chaudhry, BA Politics and Economics Cambridge University has been criticised after a SOAS academic was stopped from chairing a controversial event organised by its Palestine and Middle East Society. Dr Rubah Salih, who herself is Palestinian, was due to chair the discussion – entitled ‘BDS and the globalised struggle for Palestinian rights’ – on November 8. The event featured a panel of pro-Palestinian speakers to discuss the developments around the Palestine-Israel conflict and cite possible solutions. Umar Barghouti, a resident of Israel and founder of the BDS (Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment) movement, which campaigns for international economic and political sanctions on Israel, was among those invited to speak. Malia Bouattia, former President of the National Union of Students, and Asad Rehman, Executive Director of anti-poverty charity War on Want, were also present.

However at the eleventh hour Dr Salih was disinvited.

Citing not only the students’ request for a security presence, but also “the subject of the meeting” and opposition to the meeting proceeding, Cambridge University threatened to cancel the event on health and safety grounds if the chair was not removed. She was replaced by Cambridge University’s Director of Communications, Paul Mylrea.

Dr Salih told the SOAS Spirit: “These biased academic institutes are the enemies of democratic debates, not myself.”

Dr Salih added “I wonder whether the reasons for my suspension from chairing were linked to my Palestinian origin?

Or to my critical scholarly work on refugees? Or perhaps to my gender, not robust enough to facilitate a passionate Q/A debate, or perhaps to a mixture of all of those positions?”

She expressed fear that the move may result in “policies in the future in the UK, with proscription lists similar to the

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Cambridge University (Credit: Creative Commons)

ones redacted in the US, where scholars who have political or biographical positions, as well as research interests, which inform their public and academic opinions in relation to the Palestine question will be deemed unfit not just to chair a panel, but to teach on these issues.”

Speaking on the topic in the aftermath, Mr Barghouti declared the decision ‘ludicrous’, stating that the university was moving towards “McCarthyism on campus.”He added: “It is

shameful that a reputable academic institute like Cambridge would fall for the intimidation of the Israeli lobby. After failing at grass root level, Israel since 2014 has resorted to heavyhanded bullying, intimidation, cyber war, legal war fare and even using intelligence services to sabotage BDS.” In response to Cambridge’s decision, an open letter has been launched criticising “intolerable violation of academic freedom.” It stated: “[Cambridge] risks being seen to side

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4 DECEMBER 2017 with those who seek to silence the voices of the marginalised, and raises questions about the extent of its commitment to free speech.”

Prominent academics all over the world have signed the open letter, including Noam Chomsky from MIT. A Cambridge University spokesman told the SOAS Spirit: “The University is fully committed to freedom of speech and expression.”

“In this instance, following calls from the organisers for extra safety measures, a neutral chair was provided to ensure

that all sides were represented in what is an important and often emotionally charged debate.” The spoeksman went on to say “we believe it is important that staff, students and visitors to the University can participate fully in legitimate debate, partly so that they are able to question and test controversial ideas.”

Asked by the SOAS Spirit what made Salih particularly biased and incapable as a chair, the university did not respond.

Ed McNally, the Cambridge student who organised the event, told a media organisation that the university was “violating”

Priti Patel forced to resign over meetings with Israeli officials

Uncertain Japan's political future following elections

Zain Hussain, MSc International Politics

SOAS Spirit Contributor

From the 13th to the 25th August 2017, Priti Patel, The British Secretary of State for International Development visited Israel on a family holiday. However, during that time she met a number of politicians, businesses, tech start-ups and humanitarian NGOs, to learn more about the Israeli approach to technology and development. The meetings were arranged by the Lord Polak CBE, the longtime head of the Conservative Friends of Israel. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) were aware of the meetings while they were underway. Patel was summoned by PM Theresa May and forced to resign on 8 November 2017.

The UK government website lists some people and organisations who the Secretary of State met with, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom she allegedly spoke about the Israeli domestic political scene, India, the Netanyahu’s then forthcoming visit to the UK and prospects for closer collaboration between Israel and the UK. She also met with Yuval Rotem, the Israeli Foreign Minister, with whom she discussed British Politics, Israel’s approach to development and humanitarian issues, and prospects of partnership work between Israel and the UK on development and humanitarian issues. Her discussion with Gilad Erdan, Israeli Minister for Public Security, involved a discussion on the growing anti-Semitism within the British Political scene and a cultural festival in London.

In a statement by her published on the 6th November 2017, Patel states “I can see how my enthusiasm in this way could be misread and how meetings were set up and reported in a way which did not accord with the usual procedures. I am sorry for this, and I apologise for it.” Interestingly, however, she has allegedly received support from some members of her conservative constituency, Witham, while attending an Armistice Day service the week following her resignation.

Although Japan's general election, which saw Abe Shinzō's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (in fact the conservative establishment choice, despite the name) and its Komeito junior coalition partner barely retain their two-thirds control over the House of Representatives, was held over a month ago, it is still very unclear what path the LDP will decide to take in the next few years and what will become of the country's fractured opposition.

November saw Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko resign as the co-President and spiritual leader of the second largest opposiThe Japanese Lower House (Credit: Creative Commons) tion force, Kibō no Tō (Party of Hope), after an initially hopeful election campaign turned into a publicity disaster. took effect in 1947 and which has not been altered since. In Koike first declined to resign as Tokyo Governor in order to particular, Abe has made it his aim to revise the much-lauded run for Prime Minister, then excluded many members of the Article 9, which “forever renounce[s] war as a sovereign right Democratic Party – the previous opposition force – from her of the nation” and forbids “war potential” [a military] to be new party. The departure of Koike has left Kibō no Tō with maintained. something of an identity crisis.

Although the article is celebrated by pacifists, Abe and other hawkish politicians see it as a national humiliation imposed by American occupation forces after the war, and The most important issue facing the seek to amend it or even remove it entirely. As Article 9 is supported by most of the Japanese population, winning a country and its government at the referendum is trickier, and so the most common proposal put moment is that of the Constitution, forward by conservatives is to amend the article to allow for which took effect in 1947 and which has the existence of Japan's Self-Defence Force (SDF), ostensibly a purely defensive institution but which now contains an not been altered since. aircraft carrier branded as a “helicopter-destroyer” thanks to Abe. Polls show the amendment is still unpopular. It is not It is even possible that Kibō will effectively morph into even certain that Article 9 will be included in Abe's amendsomething along the lines of the old Democratic Party, which ment proposal. Negotiations on the subject of constitutional was a very loose coalition of anti-Abe forces from all along revision restarted on the 16th November and are set to be the political spectrum when its Lower House contingent long and arduous. was dissolved in September. In stark contrast, Edano Yukio's Despite Abe's rhetoric, it is not certain that Article 9 will Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), Japan's largest opbe included in any future constitutional referendum. Being position party, is experiencing rising popularity. After seeing the first Prime Minister to amend the Constitution in any its seat count rise from fifteen to fifty-five in the election, wel- way at all would still be a political victory in a country noted coming Japan's first ever openly gay Lower House member in for forgettable Prime Ministers. the process, it seems in a better position than Kibō no Tō to challenge Abe in future elections.

The most important issue facing the country and its government at the moment is that of the Constitution, which

Priti Patel (Credit: Creative Commons)

their aim of promoting freedom of speech.

He said: “Removing a respected Palestinian academic as chair of a panel event based on an unsubstantiated assumption about her lack of ‘neutrality’, and in doing so bowing to external pressure from a pro-Israel lobby group, cannot be construed as anything other than a naked attack on free speech and, more particularly, academic freedom.”

Not long ago Cambridge also banned its Arabic students from travelling to the Palestinian territories, following a spate of interrogations and deportations by Israeli security.

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NEWS

4 DECEMBER 2017

Deadliest earthquake of 2017 hits Iraq-Iran Border

Questions hang over EU Withdrawal Bill Edna Mohamed, MA Postcolonial Studies After the Brexit vote in June in which voters chose to leave the European Union, the intensely debated outcome of the vote has introduced questions of how this will work both legally and economically. The EU with-

are sentient creatures, but MPs have voted against adopting this piece of legislation into UK law. The government has argued that their refusal to adopt this law does not mean the rejection of animal care, but that after Brexit it will guarantee animal protection, under explicit UK law.

But this has not appeased everyone, no-

Destruction from the earthquake on the Iran-Iraq border (Credit: Creative Commons)

Julia Frances Everett, BA International Relations and Development Studies On 12th November, the border between Iraq and Iran was hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, leaving citizens desperately searching for signs of life amongst the rubble. The earthquake struck 20 miles south of the Iranian city of Halabja at 9:48pm on the 12th November, killing at least 530 people, and injuring an estimated 9,400. Reports suggest that the quake could be felt as far as the Mediterranean coast of Israel, as well as Turkey and Pakistan.

According to the Red Crescent, the impact of the earthquake left around 12,000 collapsed residential buildings and affected 500 villages.

A frantic search for survivors ensued whilst the electricity supply was lost, and roads were cut off as a result of landslides. The majority of victims were Iranian as the province of Kermanshah was hit the worst. In the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, over 236 people are reported to have died, but the city's hospital was said to have remained partially running after the impact to help casualties.

The day following the earthquake the Iranian Foreign Minister said: “Heartbreaking images from the earthquake damage and loss of life in Kermanshah (and in Iraq). We are grateful for global expressions of sympathy and offers of assistance. For now, we can manage with our own resources. Many thanks for all offers and we will keep you posted.”

This rejection of international assistance has left the Iranian Red Crescent and other organisations to handle relief efforts, leading to reports that aid was slow to arrive and

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there was a struggle to help the injured–even 48 hours after the impact. According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, more than 70,000 emergency shelters are needed to house victims as a result of the quake. A spokeswoman for the Iranian Red Crescent

According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, more than 70,000 emergency shelters are needed to house victims as a result of the quake.

Society did, however, report that the organisation was working with sniffer dogs and debris-removal teams, whilst also offering emergency shelter and treatment in the hardest hit areas. There have also been reports of Iranian citizens in Tehran lining up to donate blood after the earthquake struck.

Meanwhile in Iraq, a state of emergency was declared and the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tweeted the day following the earthquake that he “instructed civil defense teams and health and aid agencies to do all that they can to provide assistance’ to the victims of the quake.” Earthquakes are frequent in this region as the Iraq-Iran border sits along a fault line. Fatal earthquakes have hit the region before in 2003 and 2005. In 2012, a double earthquake in Northern Iran killed around 300 people. The earthquake was the world’s deadliest earthquake this year, and will have long lasting effects as the surviving victims are forced to rebuild their lives in the wake of this disaster.

Brexit negotiations (Credit: Creative Commons)

drawal bill, formally known as the ‘Great Repeal Bill’, aims to end the power that the European Courts of Justice had within the UK, including the laws that the English parliamentary body still abides by as a result of membership of the EU. In a report by the House of Commons library, the withdrawal bill is “one of the largest legislative projects undertaken in the UK…[with] major swathes of the statute book” having to be examined in close detail.

Considering that a sizeable amount of implemented British law is derived from EU law, the inspection laws as they stand will be a laborious job. The government’s white paper for leaving the European Union stated “there is no single figure for how much EU law already forms part of UK law. According to EUR-Lex, the EU’s legal database, there are currently over 12,000 EU regulations in force.”

The EU Withdrawal Bill now set to be debated on by parliament on the 4th December. The debate will set out how the UK will leave the EU with the least amount of difficulty. Members of Parliament have currently proposed more than 470 amendments to the bill asking for changes before it reaches both the House of Common and House of Lords.

The bill setting out which EU laws will be adopted into British law and which will not. This decision will face a lot of controversy. Most recently, the question of animal sentience has questioned the dependability of the government by animal rights activists. The Lisbon Treaty sets out that animals

tably the leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas. She told the House of Commons: “The government have rightly and commendably committed to transferring all existing EU law on animal welfare into UK

This is only the beginning of the decision to accept or reject EU law in the Brexit process. It is likely that it can only get more contested on as the amendments mount; especially with questions on what role EU law is to have in postBrexit Britain. law under the bill, but because the text of the Lisbon treaty is not transferred by the bill, the wording of article 13 on animal sentience will not explicitly be incorporated into UK law. The UK has no legal instrument other than article 13 of the Lisbon treaty to provide that animals are sentient beings.”

This is only the beginning of the decision to accept or reject EU law in the Brexit process. It is likely that it can only get more contested on as the amendments mount; especially with questions on what role EU law is to have in post-Brexit Britain. As it stands, the UK is going to be leaving the European Union two years to the day that it triggered Article 50, on March 29 this year, unless the UK and other EU member states agree on an extension.

NEWS

4 DECEMBER 2017

Paradise Papers reveal tax evasion of billions of dollars Izzie McIntosh, MSc Migration, Mobility and Development At the beginning of November outlets around the world, including the BBC and the Guardian, released reports on the ‘Paradise Papers’ on offshore tax havens to which they relate. The papers are comprised of 13.4 million records, leaked to German paper Suddeutsche Zeitung, who shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The papers details that billionaires have used offshore tax havens and shell companies which has helped them avoid taxing billions of dollars. Included in the reports is the Queen, whose estate – managed by the Duchy of Lancaster – has invested at least £10million in offshore interests.

Another high-profile individual was Lord Ashcroft, who has donated over £10million to the Conservative Party. BBC Panorama estimates that Ashcroft’s tax avoidance

amounts to around £200million. Other high profile individuals implicated in the papers are Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce, and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

British author and journalist Nicholas Shaxson, told BBC Panorama that it could be costing the global economy $300-600billion per year.

An important focus of the papers is the legality of the aforementioned activity, most of which is tax avoidance rather than tax evasion. Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the law to reduce the amount of legally payable tax. Tax evasion is the illegal evasion of tax.

Lewis Hamilton, for instance, used complex system of leases between the Caribbean, the Isle of Man, and himself to avoid paying tax on his private jet. While this is not illegal

activity, it leads many to question the morality of both the wealthy individuals manipulating the legal systems. British author and journalist Nicholas Shaxson, told BBC Panorama that it could be costing the global economy $300-600billion per year.

The issue of tax evasion has plagued the UK for years. David Cameron, under pressure to show that budget cutting measures were not only targeting the UK’s poorest, announced in 2013 that there would be a public register of all tax-paying UK bodies.

This never materialised and Cameron backed down after a meeting with representatives from tax haven authorities like Bermuda and the Isle of Man. Those involved in tax avoidance also blocked the measure through use of the Human Rights Act, Article 8 of which enshrines a person’s right to family and private life. These people and their legal teams argued that their privacy would be violated by a public register.

Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable has joined Jeremy Corbyn in calling for a public

inquiry into the Paradise Paper revelations.

The Labour leader said those involved in offshore investments should apologise to the British taxpaying public. Corbyn stated: “It undermines every one of us… who pays our taxes properly and diligently. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell echoed these sentiments, adding: “Either the Prime Minister or the Chancellor needs to explain. Every pound avoided in tax by the super-rich is a pound desperately needed by our NHS, our schools, and our caring services.” Ana Caistor Arendar, Head of Inequality Campaigns and Policy at Oxfam GB, also stated: “There’s an often overlooked but very real human cost to tax dodging – it deprives poor countries of billions each year needed for life-saving healthcare and life-changing education.” At time of going to press, Theresa May had yet to call for a public inquiry or any meaningful action.

Is Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption purge just the beginning?

Ahmad Jamal Wattoo,BA Economics and Politics In the space of only two weeks, the new Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, has disrupted the balance of power in the Middle East with a series of decisions that have left observers awestruck. Dozens of Saudi royal figures, ministers and businessmen have been arrested in what has been termed as an ‘Anti-Corruption Drive’.

Planning Minister, Adel Fakeih as well as the former head of the royal court, Khaled al-Tuwaijri among others. All in all, 11 princes, 4 ministers and dozens of ex-ministers have been

The Arab world's richest country is undergoing seismic changes almost unprecedented in its 85-year history as a sovereign nation.

The list of those arrested includes the billionaire member of the Royal family, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal who has invested heavily in U.S. corporate giants like Citigroup, 21st Century Fox, Apple and Twitter. The anti-corruption committee led by Prince Mohammed bin Salman was also responsible for arresting Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, the former head of the Saudi Arabian National Guard and son of former King, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, former Economy and

Mohammed Ibn Salman shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson (Credit: Creative Commons)

detained, albeit in relative comfort, being moved to five-star hotels in the country, where it is believed that they are being interrogated by authorities.

A finding by the Financial Times last Thursday further complicates matters, as it found that it was possible for the

hotel detainees to buy their freedom by surrendering 70% of their accumulated wealth to the state, making the anticorruption drive appear less like a crackdown and more like a tactic aimed at paving the way for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to assume the role of King after the retirement of his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz who is expected to step down soon due to his increasing senility.

Frank Gardner, BBC’s security correspondent, avers that the political atmosphere in Saudi Arabia is heady and unpredictable. The Arab world's richest country is undergoing seismic changes almost unprecedented in its 85-year history as a sovereign nation. The idea of dozens of familiar pillars of the establishment all being publicly and humiliatingly removed from office and detained, albeit in great comfort, would have been unthinkable just three years ago. However, the conservative, stodgy, risk-averse Saudi Arabia of old is under new management these days. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who is leading the official anti-corruption purge, appears determined to take on all comers in his drive to both modernize the country and eliminate all opposition, both secular and religious.

He is popular with young Saudis but critics say he is playing for high stakes, risking a dangerous backlash in the long term.

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FEATURES

4 DECEMBER 2017

https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/features/ Features Editors: Amelia Storey, Marta Perez Fernandez

In Conversation with Daniel Levin

The author of “Nothing but a Circus: Misadventures among the Power” discusses his journey in the development industry.

Ali Mitib, BA Law and Politics What do you do in the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance?

In the past, institutions have come in, conducted diagnostics on a need of a particular country and then just brought experts in. The core of the foundation is tackling development in a different way. We have a knowledge platform that includes a toolkit for local class of professionals and the general population at large. The idea is that very often development fails because you spend too much time debating what the country needs.

We believe that whether we are talking about civil war, poverty or lack of property rights, problem doesn’t requires a lot of debate on what the proper solutions are. For the

most part it lacks committed stakeholders on the ground, committed funds and, most importantly, an absence of properly skilled professionals. To give you an example, the DR Congo is debating how to hold elections; only talking about the importance of free and fair elections is not enough. If on the other hand you have modules ready for voter registration and voter education… it’s a totally different approach to development.

In your view what is the biggest obstacle to financial development?

People want to know: is it corruption at the core or an absence of capacity to act at the core? There is a direct correlation between the two. We have seen 30-40 years of the World Bank and the IMF deploying a very similar financial development model based on expert diagnostic. That’s not always

Features

useful. In Angola in the 90’s, World Bank advisors were trying to implement the most sophisticated payment systems in a country that did not even have functioning phone lines, where the prevailing payment system was cash!

The chapter on Angola describes a surreal and enlightening experience. What was it like?

Angola was one of my Eureka experiences in the mid 90’s. We were asked to develop a financial and capital market in Angola and we started as always by training a select group of 50 people at the Ministry of Finance for seminars. I saw this huge commodity barter market. I realised very quickly that they knew a lot more about price formulation than I did–I had absolutely no business teaching them anything! What they didn’t know is how to formulise, make it fair, regulate it properly and bring it into the mainstream population. It was one of those original experiences that said we had to do development differently.

You really have to allow a country to develop economically, just like any other stock market, over centuries with many mistakes and fraudulent schemes. In Zambia, we realised that certain particular market laws were copies of U.S. law! It was nonsensical that the law would work for Zambia so we had to essentially undo it.

What has surprised you the most from your experiences being behind the closed doors?

In the introduction of the book I write that “what surprises or shocks me the most still today is the self-righteous indignation and justification you witness of people making unscrupulous choices but still want to be revered in the public for fulfilling their commitment and oaths.” Whether you are in Luanda or Washington, you encounter the same phenomena everywhere.

credit: Uswa Ahmed

My first time: Fangsheng

V. A. Douglas As soon as I stepped over the threshold of my apartment and walked into the courtyard outside, I smelt the familiar musk of summer heat, exhaust fumes and dust. I walked out onto the street–and something caught my eye. It was about the size of a desktop computer, and it hung suspended in mid-air from a bicycle. It was bound in red cord and – it was moving. It was a turtle, bound and suspended. Next to the turtle was a man who sought shelter in the shade whilst the turtle hung in direct sunlight. I was, for a moment, so shocked that I couldn’t move. I asked the man what he was doing but he ignored me, shooing me away. I felt an anger rise from within me, so I started to film our interaction. I asked him, on film, if he could at least let the turtle’s legs touch the ground, and this time he agreed, staring aggressively at me.

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In the entrance of the supermarket down the road was the turtle (and house plant) section where turtles sat lifelessly in tiny plastic containers that were stacked on top of each other.

Most of them were between the size of a £2 coin and a credit card. I knew that it would be pointless to buy these turtles and release them, as they would just be replaced in a vicious cycle.

I had tried to help in several ways; I contacted animal rights’ groups (of which there are many in China), I talked to shop owners, I even joined a support group myself, but I became exasperated: it happened too often and I felt powerless to help. Towards the end of my stay in Beijing, however, this changed; it had been a year of attrition and I knew that I needed to do something. I decided to go to the supermarket and buy the turtles.

There is a cultural practice in China called fangsheng (放生), a word that literally means ‘to release life’. It is a Buddhist concept that involves setting captive animals free.

It’s commonly practised. It is, however, very contentious. According to the Guardian, two Londoners were fined £28,000 this year after they released crabs of a non-native species into the sea off Brighton. Research is key – there is a big difference, for example, between releasing a non-native salt-water dwelling fish into a clear water pond and releasing a native turtle species into an appropriate habitat. And what’s better?

To be held captive or to be free?

On my last day in Beijing, thoughts of fangsheng were on my mind. Of the seven turtles displayed in the supermarket

entrance, only two were still living, but only just – their shells were flat and pale from malnutrition. I bought them both for a total of 50 Yuan (£5.69).

I had chosen the northern section of the Olympic park. It is a vast park, full of ponds and rivers with lush, green areas in between. Or so I thought. As we arrived, the green of the park appeared a grey khaki through the film of pollution that clung to the air. I consulted a park map and walked towards the first body of water. It was stagnant and brown and there was no animal life to be seen–just blobs of putrefying algae and a scattering of plastic bottles. The second was in much the same condition, as was the third and the fourth. The heavy heat of the midday sun was beating down upon us.

An hour later I found a small stretch of river that looked a little better; there were fish, ducks, reeds and other signs of life, despite there still being a few plastic bottles. I lifted the turtles gently out onto the grass. They seemed hesitant at first, but then waddled into the water and began to swim around, occasionally poking their little heads just up above the surface for air. I knew as soon as I released them that they were where they belonged. I knew that my actions were no means a solution to the problems of pollution and cruelty to animals, but at least two lives had been spared. I took the plastic container and threw it into a bin as a small act of defiance, took one last look at the turtles playing in the water and ran towards the exit of the park.

FEATURES

4 DECEMBER 2017

Black Flags in Iraq

Arba’een: One of the largest peaceful gatherings in history Ali Mitib, BA Law and Politics This November again witnessed, one of the largest peaceful gatherings in human history take place in Southern Iraq. An estimated 20 million-plus people travelled to the region in the space of two weeks to observe the day of Arba’een, commemorating the brutal killing of a seventh century Arabian nobleman.

Millions flock to the region to participate in the observance, a pilgrimage of sorts, choosing to walk for approximately 90 km under the heat of the Iraqi sun, from the desert shrine-city of Najaf to the centre of Karbala–until they reach their destination, the tomb of Hussein bin Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Many of these pilgrims have saved up for years to be able to afford to travel to Iraq and commemorate the martyrdom of Hussain. In his name, local villagers set up thousand of tents with makeshift kitchens to serve the pilgrims and provide them with everything they need free of charge, ranging from water, space to rest and medical attention. The care of pilgrims is considered an entrusted duty and service to humanity in its communal glory is on full display here. Locals from the war shattered villages of the Iraqi countryside, stand side by side with foreigners from wealthier backgrounds asking the visitors to stay with them to take rest, and eat the food they prepared. The road to Karbala is lined with a black flag quite different to the one that was raised in the Mosul from from 2014 to 2017.

Once at Karbala, pilgrims visit the Shrine of Hussain and his brother Abbas. Both Shrines are known for the beauty of their glistening golden domes, striking minarets and the interior courtyards covered with intricate glass mosaics. The tomb of Hussain is encased within a steel structure, lined

with silver and gold, fitted with portals. Many pilgrims grip the bars of the mausoleum and recite lamentations to Hussain. They call out his name, often tinged with a sense of deep felt pain and implore God to give them the strength of Hussain in the face of tyranny, injustice and oppression in their own lives.

The pilgrimage reflects the diversity of the Islamic world.

Pilgrims hail from a plethora of countries ranging from Iran, Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, to the UK, Denmark, and South Korea. A majority of pilgrims are Shia Muslims but there are also Sunni Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and Zoroastrians.

Why do people perform the Arba’een Pilgrimage?

Hussain is remembered for being defiant in the face of oppression. The Ummayad dynasty was established and Yazid ibn Muawiyah ruled with an iron fist oppressing all who opposed him, killing who did not accept his rule and crushing who refused to pay allegiance to him. Hussain was one such person. He openly expressed his disdain to such an oppressive and ruthless tyrant.

Hussain received letters from the people of Kufa asking for his help and leadership and he set out to answer their call. However, an ally of Yazid brutally murdered Hussain’s representative and cousin, creating a climate of fear. Yazid also imprisoned the rest of Hussain’s supporters to ensure the obedience of the people of Kufa. Despite this, Hussain still proceeded to Kufa with his family and loyal band of 72 companions. Hussain was forced to change direction and arrived at Karbala. He was met by the forces of Yazid, approximately 30,000 troops, and forced to make camp in the desert, banned from accessing water which marked the beginning of three days of thirst. No exceptions were made for the women and children.

On the tenth of Muharram (known as Ashura) Hussain and his 72 companions, including his six month old son, were brutally murdered by the forces of Yazid. Their bodies were beheaded and defiled. The tents of the women and children were burnt and their possessions looted. The heads of Hussain and his companions were paraded around the Caliphate as the surviving women and children who were tied by the hands and dragged along through the deserts of Iraq and Syria as prisoners of war. This battle was not about access to water. This battle was the result of a refusal of a just man to give allegiance to a tyrant and maintaining the desire to establish a social order based on truth, justice and egalitarianism. For this cause, Hussain not only sacrificed his

life but the lives of his companions and his family. The day of Arba’een marks the fortieth day post Ashura, forty days being the traditional mourning period following a bereavement in Muslim society.

Hussain may be remembered and revered by Shia Muslims specifically as their Imam, a divine leader placed on earth to guide the human community, and although he lived over 1,300 years ago, his defiance of tyranny in the face of death serves as an inspiratory exemplar to many others striving to create a better world based on truth, justice and egalitarianism. The road from Karbala to Najaf is lined with photos of civilians and soldiers killed in the campaign by the Iraqi Security Forces to rid the country of ISIS militants, who have stated their desire to end the Arba’een pilgrimage and destroy the Shrine of Hussain. Many soldiers find inspiration in the sacrifice of Hussain and in his memory are willing to sacrifice their lives to create a better world free of the oppression of ISIS and whoever else threatens peace.

SPOTLIGHT: SOAS Dance Society What: Dance Soc is active and prominent on the student arts and entertainment scene. Aiming to be an entry point to the world of dance for students of whatever level, we host beginners’ workshops in a variety of forms such as Ballet, K-pop, Contemporary and Hip hop. We take part in competitions and events organized by prominent universities like UCL, King's College London and Kingston University. For the 2016 UCL show we won awards in the following categories: Best Male performer, 1st in trio (Hip Hop), 2nd in Solo (waacking) category and 2nd in Wildcard (contemporary/jazz) category. We also take part in big non-university dance shows and festivals such as 'Ignition Dance Festival' hosted at the Hammersmith Lyric Theatre.

Where: Off-site, but normally close by!

When: Beginners’ workshops will be continuing in Term 2 Coming up: Check us out on our Facebook page for events: https://www.facebook.com/SOASdancesoc/ and take your first steps (no pun intended!) into the wonderful world of dance! Email: soasdancesoc@gmail.com

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FEATURES

4 DECEMBER 2017

HUMANS OF SOAS

Peter Baran, SU General Manager You’ve been here at SOAS for twenty years, where were you before?

This is the first university I've worked at. Before that, I worked for MTV for about a year as a production assistant on a show called The Real World, which was like a protoreality TV show. It was like the fifth biggest

for a bit…we used to come to the bar here on a Friday night for a drink and I saw it on the job board and thought, I could probably do that. Part of my motivation was "Oh, it would be nice to work in this place cos it's got a nice bar”. And the rest is history. Quite a lot of history. When I started, the Union didn't have a shop, didn't run the bar, I had two sabbatical officers, no staff. I very, very, very rarely drink in the bar now because it's hard to be the licensee and relax there.

Was there a lot of student impetus to do that: open a bar and a shop run by students?

Not at all. The students at the time hated the idea of having a member of staff, but they owed the school about 40 grand, so I had to make sure they at least were returning clear audits. And luckily, we ended up getting on and they saw how it was important to have our own income stream and be delivering services to students that they wanted, and are run by them in the way they want. It was partially just to make sure we paid that money back, and also to give us independence because we're always going to be at the whim of the school.

Credit: Uswa Ahmed TV show in the world at the time. The one in San Francisco was probably the more famous one because a guy in it had HIV, and died just afterwards. That was '94, just at the point when HIV and AIDS were becoming much more normalised. The fourth one was in London, and I was one of the few British staff that worked on it. I kind of fell into it when I came out of university; it was really interesting and for a while was really cool.

But I got disillusioned quite quickly. So after that I worked for the University of London

I hear you love films?

I've got a Masters in History of Film and Visual Media which I did at Birkbeck about 12 years ago. On average I at least see a new film a day. Yesterday I saw three films in the cinema, just a way of getting my jet lag back…Ingrid Goes West, Marjorie Prime and Justice League. I go to quite a lot of film festivals, occasionally I present some stuff at them; there's a silent film festival that I presented at in Scotland.

compare a new release to a silent film on a similar subject. It's called Sound Barrier, it's on SOAS Radio. I mean I just like films. I've always liked them. I did think about doing a PhD a few years ago but it would probably just be for vanity's sake, really…nothing much would come out of it except a bit of knowledge about musicals in the sixties or something. Maybe when I retire I'll do a PhD then!

Do you have a favourite cinema in London?

It depends what you're looking for. I really like the Cinema Museum in Kennington, which is under threat of closure actually; there's a big petition. Every two weeks they do a thing called the Kennington Bioscope which is a silent movie night where they show a feature and then a couple of shorts.

Is silent film an area you're particularly interested in?

Is there anything you want to send out to the student body?

I'm interested in all types of films but I do see maybe more silent films than most people. You can in London because London's got a good silent film scene. I present a podcast with a friend of mine where we

Just keep being SOAS students, you know, keep making my life interesting…not too interesting, but interesting enough.

Interview by Amelia Storey

Credit: Uswa Ahmed

Do you feel like you've been an effective mediator between the students and the staff?

It always changes. I've tried to make sure when we do training with them we teach them that a conversation is better than no conversation. It doesn't always work as on both sides they can be combative. There've been years when I've thought I could have done more, and there've been years when it's been great. It's still a relatively rocky relationship, but I think that's not due to either side not talking to each other. And that's the other thing about money: if you're always talking about money, then you can't have conversa-

Do Not Read By: Rumplestiltskin or whatever Why do I do this to myself?

It’s the time, folks. The sky is gloomy, the hot drinks expensive, and I’m rolling my eyes so hard that it’s the second time someone in this class asks if I’m okay.

No, kind comrade. I’m not okay. This trenchcoat I’m wearing is too hot when I’m inside.

Also, I’m taking a macroeconomics class, and this month’s hair-pull-out has been caused by Y, who enthusiastically rejects any form of supply side policy in favor of Keynesian demand-side ones.

Right. I’m treading on eggshells on this one, I know, so I’ll tread lightly.

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tions about other things. The less you talk about money, the better the relationship is, and here we rarely talk about money. Or we very rarely talk about money that we need to survive; we talk about money for new things we might want to do. Touch wood that will continue.

In this country supply side policies are associated with Margaret Thatcher. I may have a pencil mustache and twitchy hands (that’s how you see me, isn’t it? Admit it!), but I don’t light candles in a shrine to her. Not my favourite, old Maggie T. I’m disenchanted by her approach to governance and her implementation of policies- but the policies themselves? Let me explain.

The economy is built on an intersection of supply (what people make) and demand (what people want). Supply side policies aim at increasing everyone’s income through the production of goods and services- they try to get things to be less expensive to make, so companies have to pay less to make more stuff, and everyone gets more, cheaper stuff. Supply side policies try to make markets more flexible, and more efficient. Medicine to the economy.

Why does everyone hate them? Unemployment- a massive cost to businesses is employing workers, and supply side economics is about cutting costs. The good news is, the idea behind it is that if workers aren’t being efficient in one sector of the economy they ought to be more efficient elsewhere -

all you need is a good reeducation program and identifiable transferable skills, and you’ve got a flexible work force with a variety of useful skills.

The bad news is, governments rarely get it together on this front. Obviously with coal mining in the 1980s, Thatcher’s government didn’t pay much attention to taking wasted potential and reinvesting it. The implementation of the policy is flawed. People deserve better than to be taken from their jobs and left on the streets. Obviously again.

But unemployment as a side effect of supply side policies doesn’t have to be scary.

When done correctly it could be curbed, and with a good enough welfare net and job creation rate, who’s to say it would last? This isn’t any more idealistic than a Marxist utopia, friends. Neither has solid proof of success.

Crunch. Whoops. Broke the eggshell.

Anyway, my message of the month is- don’t be scared of examining Thatcher’s policies. At the very least, how will you dismantle the liberal agenda if you only listen to the people you agree with?

FEATURES

4 DECEMBER 2017 HUMANS OF SOAS

Rani Perinparaja Tell us about yourself.

My given name is Mano-Rani il-ankkaren. It means Great Queen of Lanka. The stall is to raise money for Sri Lankan refugees. As a South Asian I’m one of every three people on the planet; I don’t feel like a minority. But at SOAS, even the nice people say, “I want to go backpacking in India to visit an ashram.” And I think, which part of ‘I’m Sri Lankan’ did you not hear?

There are some people here who study Tamil but they don’t study Sinhala because SOAS isn’t good at outreach.

They should put up adverts in ethnic areas! Anybody reading this should think about studying Sinhala because it’s a language of London.

Credit: Uswa Ahmed You’re wearing a Sri Lankan cricket shirt?

This is not a shirt, it’s a uniform. This is the uniform of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, a land like no other, and it signifies 25 million people. I have 5 fingers: they signify the Sinhalese, the Tamil, the Muslims, the Burgher, and the Malay. With 5 fingers you can throw a cricket ball and do some glory for your country, or with 5 fingers you can throw a bomb. And I’d rather people throw cricket balls.

When the England cricket team was playing against Sri Lanka, I flew home to wear my uniform and fly the flag, as I do. But the irony is that a lot of the English team is from anywhere but here. It’s like Sri Lanka vs United Nations.

I just came back from Sharjah. We went to support the Pakistan Women’s Cricket Team. Forget gender equality in books; support the Pakistan Women’s Team.

We hear that your uncle is on the wall of the SOAS JCR? My grandfather was Post Master General of Jaffna- people still pay respect to him; respect is a tradition in Sri Lanka. My dad’s cousin is George Aligiah who reads the news on BBC One today. In my family I’ve got the left-y thing happening on both sides; my father and my uncles were in the LSSP, the Socialist party.

My uncle, Ambalavanar Sivanandan, who’s on the wall of the SOAS JCR, was the first person in his family to go to university because my grandfather decided to take a job from the British. My uncle’s third book, ironically, has an elephant, because they never forget, and it’s called ‘When Memory Dies’–but the elephant’s a symbol of the Conservative party in Sri Lanka. So I always joke with my uncle that he is sponsored by the Conservative party.

You seem very passionate about Sri Lanka!

I left my country when I was young, but I classify as Sri Lankan–for the racist people in my country, if I’m just a Londoner, they win. On our flag, the first stripe is for the Islamic people–the third biggest group in our country. Orange is for Hinduism. It’s kind of meant for Tamils but Tamils can be Christian or Hindu. This symbol I wear on my chest is the lion of Kandy, the last part of Sri Lanka to ever be occupied by the British. The nationalists, they have the lion without the stripes, in the deep South.

We had a war out of self-hate. The ancestors of many of the most racist people normally have my blood. I don’t mention my suburb to everyone because it’s known as a Tamil area. One day I went to Hikkaduwa, and I didn’t wash my feet so these 4 guys stood up looking very angry. I could tell that they were ex-army. So they said to me “koheda,” which means “Where are you from,” in Sinhala, but it’s also like “Where are you from,”–they already had an idea.

In South Asia in general, if you don’t know your parents’ and your grandparents’ village people think you’re very strange because you’ve known your parents your whole life. A lot of people say, “My parents are this,” they don’t say “I’m half this”, which is more respectful to parents. It’s better for people to chase their roots- in the modern day, you can have it all!

How did you end up at SOAS then?

Purely by mistake, just serendipity. Serendip is the Arabic word for my country- it means discovering a beautiful place by accident...I’m following the traditions of my country.

I had been the president of the Students Union at the

Credit: Uswa Ahmed University of Kent–the first Sri Lankan to be elected in a UK university, I think. My friend said “There’s a place in London where students go, you love students,” so I went to Student Central…and the coolest people consistently were from SOAS. What do you love about SOAS? Officially? We’re open, we’re inclusive, we’re multicultural, multiracial... I think the problem with SOAS is we don’t have a critical mass anymore. What I love about it is, consistently it’s a great place for people from the developing world to come. SOAS is all about culture, language, internationalism, history–you learn something new every day. That’s the trouble with selling books: you read the bloody things!

Have you read all your books?

If I read all the books I’ll be even more boring than I already am. Three things that Tamil people do is study, study and study. My uncle’s books sells one a day in Colombo. Education is highly valued. We have free education even now. So we’re actually ahead of England, long may it continue.

I don’t have second hand books on principle. I try to get in the Christmas trade just to let people have something nice!

Do you have a message for the students of SOAS? Yes, a very ancient Sri Lankan saying which is important for Tamil people. “Money is for now, books are forever”. People reading this are welcome to come and see me, pick up a book, and give it a spin.

Interview by Amelia Storey

LONELY SPIRITS To the Italian sunflower, I didn't know it was humanly possible to stand in the sunshine every hour of everyday. The golden beams that pour from your smile shine even brighter when you're dancing. Swinging around with you in your sundance made my year.

Anon To a certain SOAS raven, The peace you bring flows in the wake of your long black skirts. Being unceremoniously taken under your wing was the blessing I needed last year. Many a Somersby later, the intricate colours of your black feathers seem evermore iridescent. I am so grateful you're my friend and ‫ امحلد هلل‬you stuck around.

From the one who's read War and Peace.

(P.S. Is this nepotism or despotism?)

To the guy who wore a poppy in his hair to the library the other day, It looked great.

Anon To the sister with the warm smile in the smoking area, Your presence is really grounding. I would love to know you more but hey, it happens if it happens.

Anon Send in submissions to: soaslonelyspirits@gmail.com, share the love!

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FEATURES

Poetry Is Peng

4 DECEMBER 2017

Purest Land My motherland was born from the fractures of an Empire.

It was born on top of the skull and bones of those who lived there.

My motherland was the salvageable piece of paper after it's ripped in two, But what is in a motherland if you're estranged.

A stranger there, a stranger here too white to be brown...too brown to be white, what is the motherland if you can't speak the mother tongue, for what is use in not knowing from where you come.

We get told stories from different times, what they did to my motherland is a hidden crime, so we pretend we don't know and we pretend we don't care, we remain blind to what we don't want to see, so blissfully unaware.

Long division, life lasting partition.

Unsafe in your home, unsafe in the streets, your friend is your enemy, you'll never be complete. Memories can be haunting laced in nostalgia, would it ever leave you seeing your land on fire.

My motherland is unstable, new country old feud, a nation built on a bloodstained foundation.

My motherland divided forced histories largest migration.

My motherland will always be mourning because wounds left over years become scars.

What can you say when something dreamed up as an image of purity becomes little more than a graveyard.

Saleha Latif

F*cking Hilarious Last laugh in the bath Immodest as a French headscarf Sipping a glass of Super Malt Sugarless like table salt Tussock and tuft, concrete and brush All aboard a TFL bus Looking through a close window Country push by The war lies tired on its side The boys and girls split open their uniforms To slide Nude white flags, down the hill Into the nettles Omnilateral loss, all sides The nuns, imams and slags Nights of failure stitched on faces, bags Now the rifles are full of earwigs, Kabir’s doe is done dodging arrows My big toe is twirled in foam Last laugh for an audience Of toothbrushes Arse on porcelain, sat alone Cheeks sunk and crushed Soaking in the pleasure of finishing first Consolation prize, Sweet kisses, not without the gristle though, Brittle bristles of tinsel, thistles and mistletoe Needing a nondescript Him As the wrestler needs the gym For a life predicated on gains The fight, salt and ring For the body you’ve been renting

Last laugh, The suds are sparse, The water tepid The bulb burns harsh Farcical, the tennis ball unhit By another racket Trails on Came home melon-heavy Thought in pyjamas, Magic wanded it, gift wrapped it Congealed like blood in the packet, Nobody expected, made no racket Tired from pulling splinters, resolved to attack it Like really shrapnel and flak it He came and left, grin buckling, You left the money Decided to go I love to say 'I-told-you-so', God knows, Watch you gorge on crow I pull the plug, Hear glubglubglub Wave home the soap, skin and suds I held them in, was sympathetic Spared them from hearing, Traded Nos for anaesthetic, The tap ran sloshing, Low-key cheering Home alone, Out the bath Dripping still I force a laugh Mohammed Zaahidur Rahman

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You're not white, why bother?

Do you ever sit & wonder that you're always feeling inferior That despite everything you do, others will always be superior You do everything in your power to make your mark Yet in an instant you're left out there, alone in the dark Do you ever feel that you could do nothing more But the only reward you get is a finger to the door Have you ever sat and wondered how little some people need to try They make an impression from their very first hi Do you ever think about how far you could go If you manned up & grew a bit of an ego There must've been times you thought you've given it your all For someone to sweep in & make you feel oh so small If you've never felt this way I'll tell you why You're a product of the reality of white privilege We live in a system which goes beyond unfair Where the colour of your face determines your welfare If you've never felt this way & you're not even white It's because your Dad's reached for himself a special height The chances of that are one in a million So count yourself lucky for you're no ordinary civilian White privilege is so true & so rude Us people of colour are just quite simply screwed Do you ever sit & wonder that you're always feeling inferior That despite everything you do, others will always be superior White privilege is real & will never end–accept it, period.

Muhammad Gangat @torturingthoughts

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COMMENT

4 DECEMBER 2017

Comment Editor: Uswa Ahmed https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/comment/

Comment

Why Decoloning our Universities is Important Halimo Hussein, Co-President of Equailty and Liberation Decolonising the curriculum recently hit the headlines again with the uproar from right wing media in response to comments made

by Lola Olufemi, the Women’s Officer at Cambridge Students Union. Lola was scrutinised because of a letter she put forward to academic staff calling for the decolonisation of the English Faculty. Of course we are well aware of the tendency for right wing media to misrepresent and distort narratives, particularly those of women and people of colour.

We know it all too well, SOAS students union was subject to harassment and abuse just last year. The Daily Mail headlines read “students demand white philosophers be dropped from their reading lists!”. Decolonising as framed by the media promotes an message of exclusion as opposed to the real aims and objectives of decolonising the acad-

emy which is obviously more complex than just the trading of black theorist/academic in the place of white ones. It’s more to do with a question of value: who is valued and devalued within the realm of academia and what are the reasons/practices that allow this to happen?

Decolonising as I understand it is much more nuanced. It is a call for epistemic, economic and political justice. In addition to this, it is about the development of critical consciousness. By this I mean a critical engagement with the texts by placing them in context. In most cases when we talk about decolonising our reading lists and our language can often duplicate that of diversification and as such come off as tokenistic.

Whilst the presence of writers of colours is symbolically important and necessary, there is a wider discussion that has to take place, one that interrogates forms of knowledge production and seeks to subvert the western canon.

Today we are lucky to be at a relatively

progressive institution that acknowledges the importance of decolonising. In 2015, ‘Decolonising the curriculum’ was voted the

Decolonising as I understand it is much more nuanced. It is a call for epistemic, economic and political justice. number 1 priority by students in the strategic priorities referendum which of course reflects a positive engagement with the concept of decolonising from students, but how do actively go about decolonising the curriculum in a meaningful way? It is a question we often ask and there is a committed effort to producing an answer.

Some of you may be aware that SOAS has a history that is deeply intertwined with colonialism, it was a institution created for the purposes of furthering the colonial project. The university’s mission was to

credit: Creative Commons

‘Decolonisig the cirriculum was voted the number 1 pripority by students’

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educate future colonialists who would go on to expand the vast British empire. SOAS’ motto is ‘knowledge is power’, when linked to its colonial past it evokes questions of how knowledge can be used to reinforce and uphold power structures. It is a history that makes the work of decolonising SOAS all the more important.

However, the discussions around decolonising SOAS can seem very focused on academia. Decolonising the university requires much more than a focus on reforming curricula, there should also be a conscious effort to challenge the structural inequalities that permeate the university, from racialized hierarchies amongst staff to racialized attainment gaps that exist amongst students.

When it comes to challenging such injustices discourse won’t get us very far, radical organising and activism needs to be at the heart of our endeavors to decolonise the university. In the words of Robin D G Kelley “The university is not an engine of social transformation.

Activism is.”

COMMENT

4 DECEMBER 2017

Aladdin – Disney’s Orientalist Fairytale?

Yasar Ohle, LL.M. Law and Gender After arriving in London this fall, and while exploring the exotic and hidden world of the London underground, an advertisement for Disney’s Aladdin Musical caught my eye.

What crosses the minds of (white) people going to this musical? Are they aware of all the Orientalism in the room? Do they think about European colonialism and the still ongoing destructive influence of the ‘West’ in the ‘East’? Or are they just relaxing while letting their thoughts wander over shishas, spices and carpets?

This musical resembles a picture of something that is perceived as ‘the Orient’ in Europe, but this picture is by no means close to any reality. Generally, the stories told in musicals, or also movies, do not really have to be connected to any reality, so why start to flap about this one? It is because musicals like this one, especially the story of Aladdin, have a long history of creating and reproducing the picture of ‘the Orient’ in Europe.

The key word here is Orientalism, which describes the western or European discourse on the so-called ‘Orient’. (see info box for more details). Even nowadays, Europe still is proclaimed as the enlightened and progressive continent. Thus there is always a need for someone else to be less progressive. This is where the Orient comes in – its production played a big role in constructing ‘the Occident’ as progressive etc. How else are you going to be progressive, if you do not have anyone to compare yourself to?

One example of so-called European progress is the celebration of Europe as a sexually liberated place. This manifests in the hoisting up of rainbow flags in front of government offices. In the same breath the finger is pointed to other states calling into question the situation of, for example, samesex marriages there. Using this differentiation, it gets very easy to appear as sexually ever so liberated. Instead of using such a comparison to differentiate between oneself and some other place, it maybe could be also an option to deal with one’s own problems for a minute. Especially in countries that not

INFO BOX: Orientalism as a term and concept was coined by Edward Said in his book with the same title published in 1978. The term describes the “western”, Eurocentric view of the so-called Orient along with clichés, prejudices and ideas. Orientalism constitutes a knowledge system that was used to establish the imperial and colonial rule. This means that all the ‘knowledge’, which consists of these fantasies, clichés and invented pictures helped to build a cultural dominance that was one basis of colonial domination. Fuwrthermore, Europe was only able to gain its own cultural identity by “setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self”, as Said puts it. This means that the Orient and the West (or Europe) are man-made concepts that are interdependent and mutually produce each other.

While we enjoy much-needed historical explorations and acts of broadening the suffocatingly narrow canon, we must demand those are not used as excuses for not dealing with black artists in the present. so long ago criminalized homosexual sex, mostly amongst men.

Furthermore, through this oversimplified differentiation the influence of European colonial and imperial rule on the sexual morals in various places of this world is not taken into account. Besides that, the assumption is made that the ‘western’ way of sexual liberation, for instance holding pride parades everywhere, is the only right way. Thus, other ways of sexual liberation are made invisible.

Coming back to Aladdin: what’s the matter with reproducing a certain orientalist picture? The problem is, as we have seen, that the picture reproduced is part of this bigger knowledge system that continues to inform our western societies about the so-called Orient. Or the Migrant, Muslim, Arab, Mid-

dle East and so forth. Through these pictures the Orient as Europe’s ‘Other’ is perceived as totally different and in the end as mismatching. This perception leads to the assumption that the ‘oriental culture’ (whatever that’s supposed to be) is not compatible with ‘European values’ (again, whatever that’s supposed to be). With arguments like this racist debates about who belongs in Europe are conducted and asylum and immigration laws all over the EU are tightened. Bearing this in mind it becomes quite clear why the continuous depiction of the Orient in a certain way is highly problematic. Some reflection on one’s own orientalist fantasies would probably be less of a waste of time than chasing rainbows in this orientalist fairy tale.

The Hollywood Syndrome Inès Rodier, BA Politics and Development Sunday the 12th of November in Los Angeles, women and men marched to support the victims of harassment from the now infamous figures of the entertainment industry. At the heart of where it started, Hollywood, people asked for the end of the unpunished sexual harassment in the show business.

Indeed, these crimes have not just started happening now as in the 1950s Marilyn Monroe (American actress) was suffering sexual abuses from her MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) supervisors while Darryl F. Zanuck (American film producer) was having ‘afternoon breaks’ where he invited actresses in his office (named at that time ‘casting couch’). This was the usual treatment for actresses at this time, as the obtention of their roles generally depended on their potential to meet the producer/ film director’s sexual desire. Marigold Russell (English actress in the 1950s) actually put out a set of rules to prevent sexual harassment “One: When you have to talk business, stick to offices — and office hours. Two: Refer invitations and offers to your agent. Three: Don’t give your home phone number, give your agent’s,” she said.

So the situation was known, but mainly in this circle and only by women.

Nowadays, far from having improved, these situations are still happening-- the sole difference is that the whole world is aware of it. According to the CNN, Twitter reports that more than 1.7 million women and men have used the hashtag in 85 countries. But why sexual crimes that sometimes happened more than 50 years ago are only coming out now?

The main cause finds its roots within the lack of labour relations laws. Film producers such as Harvey Weinstein (accused of harassment or/and sexual proposition by 80 women according to Tylt) have made their employees sign contracts promising not to make statements that could harm the reputation of the firm or its top executives. Those confidential clauses are forbidden since the Wagner Act of 1935, which prohibits employers from restraining employees in the exercise of their right to engage in « concerted activities » for the purpose of « mutual aid or protection » . Still this Act is ignored by most of the employers; and to add to its inefficiency, it does not apply to domestic workers, independent contractors, or individuals employed as supervisors, so if you are part of these exceptions, you are not allowed to have the right to officially speak to the other employees you are working with.

Only the sudden impetus of solidarity happening these days among victims of

the ‘Hollywood syndrome’ have been able to destroy this widespread silence. And the surprised presume the perpetrators of sexual crimes have been reacting homogeneously.

For the most part, they denied the allegations. Their other option has been to downplay their acts, as Michael Winner did about the declaration of Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren, accusing him to having treated her « like a piece of meat ». He replied that he didn’t remember acting like that -but “if I did, I wasn’t being serious.” He even discredited her as a person « her memory of that moment is a little flawed. ».

Anyway, the result has been the ending of the career of a few: Harvey Weinstein was removed from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and fired from his own production company while Kevin Spacey has been fired from the TV series “House of Cards” and replaced by Christopher Plummer in the once completed film « All the Money in the World ». The question is now, what will the entertainment industry look like in the future? Will this scandal stay for a while and then disappear to let the disaster happen again? Not if the improvement of the labour law combines with people’s way of thinking.

For the first element, California already passed a law in 2016 that prohibited « the use of confidentiality clauses in civil settlements

if the factual foundation for the allegations involves acts that could be prosecuted as felony sexual offenses ». But the second element needs deeper work, as still nowadays, making light of harassment is current and rape victims are for the most part silenced both institutionally and societally.

The improvement has already started thanks to the courageous women and men who took the risk to reveal a part of their lives, and also the ones who followed them.

Yet there is a need to encourage and to foster that new established practice of not keeping to oneself any harassment and sexual misconduct lived.

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COMMENT

4 DECEMBER 2017

The Disease of Dark Skin Uswa Ahmed, BA World Philosophies Being a South Asian woman on the darker side of the spectrum, you tread on very dangerous waters. Our community appears to be plagued by a disease of self-hate hightentend by a strange fact. The sufferer is unaware of their sickness.

For those unfamiliar with this problem, skin whitening creams are all the range in South Asia. Giant adverts plastered on billboards with the promise of fair skin, litter the landscape. Generations of women are fed the sustenance of low self esteem. Told to resent their tanned skin tones. Fair skin is desired, dark skin is the devil! In a society obsessed with fair skin, we are told to lather on every crevice, every crease a strange miracle cure: Whitening creams. Fear not ladies, for this miracle cure is for all the claustrophobic darker skinned women out there trapped in the shadows of their dusky complexion. A malignant cure, a corrosive liquid success serum if you will, now available in a store near you!

The problem of colourism has penetrated so deeply into South Asia that it has become a ritualistic practice unquestioned by a vast majority of the population. Women and Girls are taught to equate their self worth with the fairness of their skin. This serves

Capital Punishment: Should we re-legalise it in the UK? Hasan Almusawi, LLB Law Since the abolition of capital punishment in 1965 (which had been a well-established custom of English criminal law for centuries), the public have generally remained opposed to the practice. This is due to progressive social attitudes as well as increased recognition of human rights and human dignity. Despite this, it is not uncommon, now, for members of the public to advocate the return of the noose in English criminal law. It should

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only to perpetuate a vicious cycle of stigma and shame. From infancy to adulthood, we’re submerged and systematically bathed in an ocean of self hate. This obsession is a residue from an inferiority complex which hovers above the clouds of the subcontinent, inherited and ingrained in her people after years of oppression at the hands of her Colonial master.

Aside from the problematic nature of building beauty standards around western-

ised ideals, the horrendous side effects of using these so-called miracle tubes don’t seem to deter us. The grand talk of cultivating self-confidence is in all the range from celebrities who endorse the very products they otherwise claim to despise. These products are endorsed by the rich and famous, talked about daily on tv shows. The topic of the day is a pressing question: how do we can rid ourselves of the disease of dark skin? Adverts for these creams remind me of laundry powder ads, take something stained, use our miracle product and make your load whiter and brighter today! As though the brown can be scrubbed out of us and washed down the sink. Call it far

fetched, but I won’t be surprised if we start finding whitening labels on food packaging.

It’s strange and utterly mind boggling how much of a hold this trend has on our community. How mightily it’s suffocating hold grips our throats!

But Brown people aren’t the only ones to blame here. Take a look at a place closer to home: Hollywood. People of colour are replaced to make way for their Caucasian counterparts. Their skin is lightened, the texture of their hair changed and with that a whitewashed version of history is dolloped onto our plates for us to consume. Sadly, I am not aware if they make creams for institutionalised regression.

‘Giant adverts plastered on billboards with the promise of fair skin, litter the landscape’ (credit: Creative Commons)

come as no surprise that the public are outraged by terrorists such as Salmen Abedi, the perpetrator of the attack at Manchester Arena that killed 22 and injured over 250, many of whom were children and teenagers.

For some Britons, the only just penalty for such individuals is death. The same attitude applies to perpetrators of other abhorrent acts, namely paedophilia. Famous cases include once loved comedy figure Jimmy Savile as well as former rock star Ian Watkins. Such acts were also carried out by groups such as the Rotherham child exploitation gang, who systematically sexually abused nearly 1,400 young girls. Some Britons claim that such culprits are deserving of the noose despite its abolition over half a century ago, not just to achieve retribution but also as a means for deterrence.

The reintroduction of capital punishment could be easier than many would think. A petition with enough signatures may well force Parliament to at least debate the controversial issue. However, in 2011 a public e-petition calling for parliamentary debate on the reinstatement of capital punishment actually received less signatures than a counter-petition opposing the move. Which casts some doubt on how much demand there really is for the hangman’s return.

Interestingly, while the public seems to oppose reinstatement on home soil, there seems to be no opposition to its use abroad.

When Burmese migrant workers Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were sentenced to death for

the murder of Britons Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in Thailand in 2015, David’s brother commented that on the day ‘justice is what has been delivered’. Similarly, Lindsay Hawker’s family were outraged when her convicted rapist and murderer Tatsuya

The lack of debate shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the fact that such an action would trigger an alarm from the European Court of Human Rights as well as other EU member states, both staunch opponents of capital punishment.

Ichihashi received a life sentence as opposed to the death penalty they had requested in Japan.

A supporter of the reinstatement of capital punishment will find it easier when campaigning, as it is unlikely that members of the public will oppose him when he challenges whether the Yorkshire ripper, who murdered 13 women the 1970’s, or Michael Adebolajo, who slaughtered Drummer Lee Rigby in 2013, deserve the death penalty. On the other hand, the opponent of the reinstatement of capital punishment would be put in an awkward position as he is forced

to defend such individuals as not deserving of the death penalty. This was displayed in November 2016 as voters from California, Nebraska and Oklahoma voted overwhelmingly in favour of retaining the death penalty in state referendums.

Such a debate was more prominent in the UK perhaps 30 or even 20 years ago as far-right political figures would occasionally suggest the reinstatement of capital punishment but there has been little debate in recent times.

The lack of debate shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the fact that such an action would trigger an alarm from the European Court of Human Rights as well as other EU member states, both staunch opponents of capital punishment. The UN and academics alike have also opposed the ‘deterrence’ argument. Statistics show that the murder rate is higher in the US state of Texas, which executes the most murder convicts of all U.S. states, than in other states that abolished the death penalty long ago.

Indeed, a return to capital punishment in Britain is now almost unimaginable due to the country’s various treaties and international commitments. But apart from the legal deliberations, it seems that public calls for the hangman’s return seem to subside after the emotional trauma period following appalling events, when the wider implications of his return are brought to light.

COMMENT

4 DECEMBER 2017

Let Children ‘explore gender identity’, says Church of England Nayon Ahmed, BA Politics In a 52 page long document titled “Valuing All God’s Children” on the 12th of November, to coincide with anti-bullying week, the Church of England has advised teachers to allow and encourage children to explore gender identity. The report offers 12 recommendations to schools; including faculty and staff training on how to recognise bullying; accessible policies on how to report cases; and support for victims of transphobic, homophobic, and biphobic bullying.

According to new guidelines, ‘Pupils need to be able to play with the many cloaks of identity and to explore the possibility of who they might be’, as nursery and primary school is a time of ‘creative exploration’.

Whilst this recent development is undoubtedly motivated by a sense of guilt due to the Church’s history of marginalising LGBT+ identities, it is a step in the right direction.

A step worth celebrating.

In today’s secular society, the Church of England is widely regarded as an outdated institution which does not embody the more tolerant attitudes we expect to see in a 21st Century democracy. Now, the question of just how far this holds true is open for debate. When the largest religious institution in the UK, one which to some is infamous

for being socially conservative and intolerant, is encouraging trans positive practices in schools, people in the UK gain a sense of hope for change. The reach of the Anglican Church’s authority, with the guidance given to 4700 schools attended by over a million pupils, means these more welcoming attitudes towards trans people may permeate into wider British society. The significance of this change to their guidelines therefore should not be dismissed.

Allowing children to explore a central aspect of their identity at such an early age gives them the opportunity to get to know who they are without fear of ostracisation, bullying or even discrimination. This can help minimise the harmful effects of gender dysphoria as people will be made to feel more comfortable about themselves. The words of the Archbishop of Canterbury demonstrate an awareness of the serious harm that transphobic bullying can cause. Even those who can explore their gender safely and comfortably but do not find that they are trans can benefit from this as they can learn more about who they are. Questioning one’s gender is a healthy practice and should be facilitated by educational institutions, not discouraged. The Church of England’s advice not only challenges the notion that gender dysphoria is a mental illness or defect, it also has the practical effect of giving people the confidence to experiment with their gender

without judgement or derision. For nursery and schoolchildren, this can include acts as simple as dressing up in clothes not commonly associated with their assigned gender.

The discussion generated helps to break the taboo on trans issues. This needs to become something we can have a mature but respectful and sensitive discussion about, at home, within friendship groups, and in public. The initiative taken by the Church of England has caused trans issues to be talked about more. Hopefully, recognition of the urgency of such issues will be an additional effect. The long list of names of those who

Allowing children to explore a central aspect of their identity at such an early age gives them the opportunity to get to know who they are without fear of ostracisation, bullying or even discrimination were violently murdered in transphobic hate crimes (as well as those who have not been named) presented to us on Monday’s (20th November) Transgender Day of Remembrance is a sobering reminder of just how important these issues are to us today.

As always, there are critics. People have raised concerns that individuals who opt to identify as genderfluid or gender neutral are simply following a trend. This is a claim made in ignorance. Nobody chooses to risk losing their friends, being outcast from their family or society, being discriminated against in the workplace, experiencing suicidal feelings or being subjected to hate crimes. It is true that some children may not necessarily understand the meaning or the implications of labelling themselves as trans or gender

Finally, Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring Maya Alsughaiyer, BA Politics and World Philosophies The current Saudi king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is 81 years old and suffers from Alzheimer’s. But this is anything but representative of the Saudi society where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30 and roughly 25 percent are unemployed.

The pressure on the government to enact reforms stems from the fact that 200,000 students (including myself) are studying abroad; 35,000 men and women are coming home with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and not finding work. The system, which caters to mostly relying on expats to do the tough jobs, is no longer sufficient for the increasingly changing society. The government so far has been depending on its savings to purchase stability, but with the unstable oil market crashing more and more, today it seems like this won’t be the case any longer.

Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud (credit: Creative Commons)

nonconforming. However, the perceived risk is far greater than the actual risk, and those making these claims are often informed, whether or not they are conscious of it, by transphobic prejudices and the assumption that being trans is incredibly rare and to some extent abnormal. To many, “transgender is a new thing”. I myself have heard this exact sentence spoken by someone. In reality, there is evidence of trans people dating back thousands of years. All that has changed is that more people are openly trans, terminology has been developed, and there is greater awareness. The fact that the Church of England has to offer guidance on how to deal with transphobic bullying at school, and even more so the fact that this has been controversial, shows how, far from being something which young people aspire to in order to impress their peers, trans people are of a marginalised identity which needs greater acceptance and protection.

Nevertheless, whilst the decision of the Church can and should be celebrated, we must not allow ourselves to be convinced that the UK has suddenly become a fully trans inclusive and positive society. The reports of transphobic hate crimes in the UK have been increasing, but the prosecution rates decreasing. Both societally and politically, there is progress to be made and this is only one step forward, which we can hope encourages further change. There is work to be done but the Church of England has started to help pave the way towards a society which is supportive of the trans community and allows children to question their gender without the added fear and shame that religious institutions can make them feel. Whilst I expect continued backlash against this move made by the Church, I remain convinced that this is an important, and potentially historic, development for trans awareness and acceptance in the UK. The Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, who also goes by M.B.S., is currently the next in line to the throne.

M.B.S made international headlines by introducing reforms such as; allowing women to drive; and arresting high-profile Saudi billionaires and former government ministers on the basis of corruption charges, something that has never happened before in Saudi history. M.B.S’ various interviews with the news media depict him as a reformist with hopes of changing Saudi Arabia. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has a very long way to go before it would vaguely resemble anything similar to Western standards of women’s rights and free speech -- some of the reforms are way overdue, such as Riyadh (the capital of Saudi) finally allowing music concerts to take place. Toby Keith held an all-male concert last September for the first time in Riyadh and Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji will hold an all-female concert on December 6. These changes come along with broad educational reforms, such as sending Saudi teachers to Finland to receive training in order to match their teaching with the highest educational standard and public schools finally allowing Saudi girls to have an hour of daily physical education classes. These reforms may sound ridiculously late, but better late than never.

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REVIEWS

4 DECEMBER 2017

Review Editors: Abigail Moselle https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/reviews-features/

Reviews

The Lady Dandies of the DRC come to SOAS Exhibition Review Khadija Kothia, BA History On the first floor of the Brunei Gallery, The Lady Dandies of the DRC have come to SOAS. Dressed in flamboyant and vibrant glory, the ladies stride confidently, overwhelming the canvassed frames they’re enclosed within. This is very much central to the story of ‘The Lady Dandies.’

Inda Garbie, ‘The Minor’, 54, market trader; photographed by Junior D. Kannah at her stall in Ngambela market, Kinhasa, 2015 (Credit: Khadija Kothia)

Initially beginning as a male-dominated resistance movement at the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the 1920s image of the anti-colonial Congolese men taking to the streets in European ‘masters’ clothing, has recently transformed into a statement of female strength and power; titled “Les Sapeuses.”

Spread across the whitewashed wall, Congolese photojournalist, Junior D. Kannah’s work etches from corner to corner.

Upon each frame stands a Sapeuse, dressed in male clothing, against the backdrop of the hustle and bustle of Congolese daily life.

For these women, their long jackets, top hats and ruffled shirts mean much more than dress-up play. For these proud women, it’s a lifestyle.

Barbara Kasande heralds this attitude. Standing directly opposite the exhibition door in a bright red coat and tartan scarf, she recalls her idolisation of her brother, a Sapeur, and the wonderful feeling she cherishes of her first Sapeuse outing. Inda Garbie, with her arms outstretched in a pink tartan-printed long coat and head towards the sky, describes the same pride, “La Sape is a calling, and a gift.”

But for all the delight and strength captured of the Lady Dandies, the political importance of their role is not undermined. Within their voices, which have been immortalised into captions that lay tall besides their photographs, the collective hope of transforming attitudes towards a society that celebrates the diversity of women runs strong. “Many people

think that Sapeuses are lesbians. Being a lesbian is a big taboo in Africa”, says 45-year-old, bar-owning Kimbondo Dumbo.

She is free, independent and happy. Like all these women, she is ready to lead Congolese, and arguably all African women, away from the shackles of the social taboos that restrict their freedom.

“Standing tall, proud, and most of all, outlandishly happy, the bravery and courage of the Sapeuses brings with it a story of optimism and strength.”

In capturing and bringing to life the greatly inspiring accounts of The Lady Dandies of the DRC, Junior D. Kannah does a brilliant job of transforming the first floor of Brunei Gallery into that of a Congolese catwalk. Standing tall, proud, and most of all, outlandishly happy, the bravery and courage of the Sapeuses brings with it a story of optimism and strength, leaving one undoubtedly inspired and uncontrollably heart-warmed by the portrayal of what can be achieved through the determination of individual human spirit.

(The Lady Dandies of the DRC is a Brunei Gallery exhibition, running from 13 October 2017 until 16 December 2017)

Oslo: The Calm Before The Storm Theatre Review

Sumayyah Daisy Lane, BA History 1993. The world is watching. Two enemies stand across from one another about to make history, and yet only a handful of people know the story of how they got there. This Tonyaward winning play is that story, depicting the tension and thrill of the nine months leading up to this ground-breaking handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in the Rose Gardens, Washington.

“Roger’s thriller draws comedy out of a highly controversial topic” JT Roger’s fast-paced script makes for a gripping play that revolves primarily around men in suits, smoking, arguing and sharing drinks. The issue of the play offers a unique perspective in that it allows for a fairly neutral perspective, Oslo follows a Norwegian couple, diplomat Mona Juul (Lydia Leonard) and social scientist Terje Rod-Larsen (Toby Stephens), who return home after witnessing violence in Palestine first-hand with a wish to initiate peace in any way possible. Their wish comes to life as they attempt to construct a back-channel through which the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Israeli representatives can negotiate constructive, and highly secret, peace talks.

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Leonard as Mona is a fleeting presence, acting both the diplomat and narrator. It is through her that the audience is introduced to characters and given brief but necessary overview of historical events. The reality of the situation is emphasised through visual aids (primarily war victims of the Intifada), yet simultaneously the audience is left in suspense, forgetting that the conclusion of the story is one known to us.

Roger’s thriller draws comedy out of a highly controversial topic, with a strong, dynamic cast and an excellent script. The talks are both career- and life-threatening to those involved; alongside this men from both factions bond over waffles and scotch. At one point, tensions rise sky-high: Uri Savir (Philip Arditti) does an impersonation of Arafat and Terje responds with a disturbingly good Rabin. Instead of the threatened conflict, it results in a moment of emotional bonding as the group begin to see one another as human beings rather than enemies.

The play attempts to end on a hopeful note with speech from Terje advising the audience to look at how far we’ve come since the beginnings of the conflict. This optimistic note rings false to an audience aware of the ensuing violence in a shrinking Palestine, especially in the wake of the 100 years since the signing of the Balfour Declaration with no possibility of another Oslo on the horizon. Despite this, Oslo is successful in provoking thought regarding the achievements of the peace process; while the Oslo Accords did not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its accomplishments

cannot go ignored. The PLO were finally recognised as the official voice of the Palestinians, and Palestine recognised the existence of the Israeli state. It is out of this that Rogers fashions heroes of the Middle East, making for a spectacular and riveting production.

Running time: 2 hrs 55 (including interval) Oslo is open in the Harold Pinter Theatre until 30th December.

Credits: Creative Common

REVIEWS

4 DECEMBER 2017

Call Me By Your Name Film Review

George Loftus, BA History

Credits: Creative Commons

There is a scene in Luca Guadanigno’s film Call Me By Your Name in which the two main characters, Elio (Timothee Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer), stop and consider a World War One monument. Situated within one of the many brilliantly realised locations of Lombardy during the Summer of 1983, the scene illustrates much of what makes the film so wonderful. Using a series of long tracking shots, Elio and Oliver’s conversation drips with the anticipation of a relationship soon to be realised. The camera pans toward the ever-present crucifix above a church, highlighting those wider societal elements that make such a relationship so difficult.

Much has been said of Call Me By Your Name’s depiction

of love and loss as universal, but in fact the film is uniquely queer in the ways it depicts the love between these two men.

Cinematic depictions of homosexual relationships usually portray their dynamics as identical to heterosexual ones, or the relationships themselves as doomed and traumatic. In contrast to these established models, Call Me By Your Name chooses instead to let its characters engage in a free, equal and openly sexual and loving relationship, limited by the obvious constraints of said love in a homophobic society.

The film’s continuing focus on, and subversion of, audience expectations of the power dynamics of such a relationship, heightened by Elio’s precocious intellectualism and the age gap between the two men, is key to its depiction of a sympathetic, realistic and understatedly tragic gay love.

In many ways Call Me By Your Name recalls 2015’s Carol, directed by Todd Haynes. Whilst sharing its outlook on the nature of queerness, Haynes’s film also shares the aesthetic qualities of Call Me By Your Name. Guadanigno and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom beautifully recreate a 1980s summer in a semi-deserted corner of northern Italy.

The soundtrack evokes this well realised world; specifically wonderful is the use of The Psychedelic Furs song ‘Love My Way’, an audible of motif of the central relationship.

Above the thematic and aesthetic qualities though, Call Me By Your Name is a deeply moving story of a fleeting but passionate love. Elio and Oliver’s romance is both deeply emotional and sensuous, the tension between the two seductively drawn out and isolated by their setting. Call Me By Your Name is fantastic and well worth seeing.

Running Time: 2hr 12min, currently playing in Cinemas.

The Disaster Artist

a masterpiece about a disasterpiece Film Review

Azeem Rajulawalla , BA History Movies about movies are hardly new, but The Disaster Artist is something special. Much of this stems from its obedience to and sheer love of the source material, a memoir by Greg Sestero about the making of The Room. For the uninitiated, The Room is a tragic story about betrayal, lust and friendship.

It also happens to be the greatest bad film ever made. This might sound strange, but Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 ‘disasterpiece’ has popularized the so-bad-it’s-good genre, with sold out screenings of the cult favourite being shown around the world. This is the basis for James Franco’s comedy-drama. It follows the earnest attempt by Wiseau (James Franco) and Sestero (Dave Franco) to create “a real Hollywood movie” and become real stars.

James Franco boasts a phenomenal performance, capturing the essence of Wiseau (a man whose entire persona is bafflingly wooden and lacking in self-awareness) perfectly whilst subtly conveying his vulnerability. Between all this, Franco’s delivery makes each line funny and, much like endless viewings of The Room, never stops being hilarious.

Dave Franco has the difficult job of playing the straight man to Wiseau’s eccentric character and he succeeds whilst also showing great compassion and naïveté. Together the Franco brothers are electric onscreen, convincingly portraying two dreamers drunk on their ambition (though Tommy’s com-

Credit: Creative Commons

pletely hammered).

Franco’s direction remains character-focused throughout: the actors are predominantly framed in mid-range, and Brandon Trost’s handheld cinematography captures the behind-the-scenes feel. Indeed, many scenes are long takes where the camera swings back and forth, like Birdman on speed. Neustadter and Weber’s script is razor sharp, and the exchanges between the characters never feel forced or clunky.

Being aware of The Room and its idiosyncrasies isn’t a necessity to enjoy The Disaster Artist, but if you are, it could be the most fun you’ll have at the cinema in 2017.

The Disaster Artist is in select theatres 1 December and nationwide 6 December.

The Bow Belly at Bloomsbury Farmers’ Market Food Review

Lucy McCall, BA History With a motto like “delicious food filled with joy to make your belly happy”, how could I resist digging in to some warming, scrumptious and soul-satisfying food from The Bow Belly on a wintry Thursday lunchtime? After spending my morning slowly turning into an icicle in the SOAS library, I popped over to the Bloomsbury Farmers’ Market in search of a tasty, warming lunch that wouldn’t break the bank.

Several laps of the market later (there’s far too much choice for an indecisive foodie), I was eventually enticed by the rich aroma of shakshuka simmering away at The Bow Belly’s stall.

A delicious fusion of poached eggs in a rich tomato and pepper sauce served with potatoes and homemade bread…

Credits: Lucy McCall I didn’t know it before, but this is exactly what I’d been searching for. I opted to add feta (for £1 extra), which added a most satisfying zing. Sitting in the sunshine, I lapped up every last bite in my takeaway box (regrettably made of plastic–sorry eco-warriors!).

The hearty portion was a reasonable £7, fuelling me well for an afternoon of essay-writing. With friendly staff and a plethora of healthy, (and notso-healthy), options, I would definitely recommend this place!

They also serve veganfriendly mezze boxes of colourful salads, couscous, hummus and roasted veggies, and a delectable selection of cakes and buns for all you sweet tooths out there–you will not be disappointed!

The Bow Belly are Credits: Lucy McCall Hackney-based, and use local British produce to create their sensational treats which they sell at markets across London. I think many would agree that eating out is extra satisfying when you’re supporting a local, independent business.

This weekly fixture is sure to become a staple of your Thursday lunch breaks! You’ll find the market on Thursdays, 9am-2pm in Torrington Square.

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REVIEWS

4 DECEMBER 2017

Sport Editor: Holly Sampson https://soasspirit.co.uk/category/sport/

Sport

Women’s Football: creating connections on and off the pitch Holly Sampson, BA Middle Eastern Studies and World Philosophies Zealous, tenacious, exuberant.

SOAS Women's Football team has kicked off this season with two wins, one draw and two unfortunate losses. Every game has been played with impeccable sportsmanship and team spirit, which makes any game a pleasure to watch and play–no matter the final score. This year the football team has acquired a new coach, Mani. Mani's dedication, immense effort and undying faith in each and every member of the team makes his coaching unique and incredibly special to the girls. With such a hardworking and dedicated team, as well as a supportive coach, it is no surprise that the SOAS Women's Football team have had such an amazing start to the season.

However, it is not just this that makes the team so special.

Vicky, Captain of SOAS Women's Football, emphasises that it's the fierce women that make up the team that truly make it incredible: "We're a strong, motivated and enthusiastic group who play with a love for the game and each other, which surpasses any win or loss". The pride that the team have for themselves and the game truly demonstrates their professionalism and demands the respect that they genuinely deserve.

However, it's not just what happens on the pitch that makes this group of women so special. Off the pitch the team often enjoy a post-match pizza date and regularly meet up.

They've hosted many of the Sport's Nights so far with great success and place great value on cultivating the relationships that they have with one another. The friendship between this group of women can be seen as clearly on the pitch as off with jokes flying back and forth, hugs and, most importantly, a feeling of unbridled support. This incredible team perhaps owes much of this sense of friendship, respect and support to their captain, Vicky. A firecracker on the pitch, Vicky attacks each game with professionalism and pride that inspires the

Credits: Holly Sampson

team to do the same. Never underestimating her team, she leads them from success to success, on the pitch and off, all whilst demonstrating her strength and genuine care for every team member. She makes them all feel valued and helps to bring out the best in what is already a fabulous bunch of women.

In the near future SOAS Women's Football team take on King's GKT on Sunday 3rd December at home as they

progress in the LUSL Cup. You will also see them battle it out with LSE 2nd team before the Christmas Break. Further along in the year you can look forward to Women's Football representing SOAS in the much anticipated Varsity match against London Met. If you are interested in joining Women's Football it is not too late–feel free to come along on Wednesday 2-4pm! Wednesday 2-4pm!

Credits: Holly Sampson

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REVIEWS

4 DECEMBER 2017

SOAS Warriors Fixture List Come and support the SOAS Warriors at our home games! All information is accurate at the time of printing.

Please check https://www.bucs.org.uk/BucsCore/InstitutionProfile.aspx?id=146 for accurate information closer to the time of the matches.

British Universities and Colleges (BUCS)

London Universities Sport Leagues (LUSL)

6/12/2017

4/12/17

21/1/18

SOAS MEN’S BADMINTON

SOAS WOMEN’S SQUASH

SOAS MIXED HOCKEY

1st Team v Canterbury Christ Church University Men’s 1st Team

1st Team v Royal Free University Women’s 1st Team

1st Team v St Mary’s Mixed 1st Team League – Intermediate Division 1

League - South Eastern 4B Time and location: TBC

SOAS MEN’S BASKETBALL

1st Team v Kingston University Men’s 1st Team League - South Eastern 4A Time and location: TBC

SOAS WOMEN’S BADMINTON

1st Team v Brunel University Women’s 1st Team League- South Eastern 3B Time and Location: TBC

SOAS MEN’S RUGBY UNION

1st Team v Reading University Men’s 4th Team League - South Eastern 5A 14:00 @ The Hub (NW1 4RU)

SOAS WOMEN’S NETBALL

1st Team v University of Greenwich Women’s 2nd Team League - South Eastern 10B 17:00 @ Highbury Fields (N5 1QN)

2nd Team v University of Greenwich Women’s 4th Team League - South Eastern 11B 18:00 @ Highbury Fields (N5 1QN)

13/12/2017 SOAS MEN’S BADMINTON

League – Intermediate Premier 19:00 @ Sobell Centre (N7 7NY)

Time TBC @ Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre (E20 3AD)

9/12/17

22/1/18

SOAS MIXED TENNIS

SOAS WOMEN’S NETBALL

1st Team v LSE Mixed 1st Team

1st Team v Royal Veterinary College Women’s 3rd Team

League – Competitive Premier Time and location: TBC

League – Intermediate Division 2 17:45 @ Highbury Fields (N5 1QN)

20/1/18

SOAS WOMEN’S SQUASH

SOAS MEN’S FOOTBALL

1st Team v UCL Women’s 1st Team

1st Team v Queen Mary Men’s 1st Team League – Competitive Division 1 12:00 @ Market Road Football Pitches (N7 9PL) 2nd Team v Royal Veterinary College Men’s 2nd Team League – Intermediate Division 2 16:00 @ Market Road Football Pitches (N7 9PL) 3rd Team v LSE Men’s 7th Team League – Intermediate Division 3 16:00 @ Whittington Park Football Pitch (N19 4RS)

1st Team v University of Essex Men’s 2nd Team

League – Intermediate Premier 19:00 @ Sobell Centre (N7 7NY)

28/1/18 SOAS MIXED BADMINTON 1st Team v Royal Free University Mixed 1st Team League – Intermediate Premier Time and location: TBC

SOAS WOMEN’S FOOTBALL 1st Team v Royal Veterinary College Men’s 1st Team League – Intermediate Premier 12:00 @ Market Road Football Pitches (N7 9PL)

League - South Eastern 4B Time and location: TBC

31/1/18 SOAS MEN’S RUGBY UNION

1st Team v Royal Holloway Men’s 2nd Team League - South Eastern 5A 18:00 @ The Hub (NW1 4RU)

Credits: Creative Commons

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