The Badger Week 7 Issue 6

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news 1 | feature 6 | letters and comment 7-8 |misc. 9 | students’ union 10 | arts 12 | what’s on 16 | science 17 | sport 18

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FREE WEEKLY 21.02.2011 Funded by the Students’ Union

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Interview: Elected union president David Cichon

Review: Is True Grit a hit?

9>> Egypt protest: A student at the University of Sussex travelled to Cairo this month and gives the Badger a first-hand account of her experience of the protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo, which ultimately contributed to the long-awaited resignation of former President Hosni Mubarak. Photo: Suzy Martin

Cost cuts hit nursery Ellen Willis

Students and staff whose children use the University of Sussex Pre-School and Nursery have been informed that

the facility will close if it is unable to secure funding from an external provider.

The letter sent to parents on 8 February stated that childcare provider

Bright Horizons has withdrawn its proposed takeover following “a combination of factors, rather than any one single factor, which meant that [providing funding] was ultimately

not an option for their business.”

Bright Horizons had been negotiating with the university since November 2010.

The university’s nursery has been

open since 1966, benefitting children of all backgrounds, aged between 33 months and five years.

Continued on page 3 >>

Come to The Badger open writers’ meeting on Fridays, 1.30pm, Falmer House, room 126

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The week in photos: Raising and Giving (RAG) week kicks off

Left: Held at Red Roaster Coffee House on St James Street, Floetics supported RAG week by donating the evenings procceeds to Childreach International. Top Right: Entertainment at Floetics included acts of Spoken Word. Photos: Anna Evans Bottom Right: RAG society also put on an Open Mic Night at Falmer Bar on Tuesday evening. Photo: Polina Belehhova

Top Left: The fundraising events included international acts, the poet (pictured) came from Sweden to perform. Bottom Left: As well as booking acts, Floetics opened the floor allowing spectators to perform. Photos: Anna Evans Right: A student from Brighton University performs at Open Mic Night. Photo: Polina Belehhova

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Editors-in-chief Juliet Conway Eleanor Griggs badger@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

News editors Raziye Akkoc Jamie Askew Inês Klinesmith Sam Brodbeck

badger-news@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Features editors Kieran Burn Joe Jamieson badger-features@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Comment editor Marcelle Augarde badger-opinion@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Letters editor

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Nursery forced to find new funding provider << Continued from page 1

The University of Sussex’s website advertises that “the nursery’s aim is to develop children’s self confidence, self-expression, sharing and caring and to give them social experience with other children and adults in preparation for their introduction to the formal education system, as well as sufficient visual, auditory and finer co-ordination skills to begin reading and writing.”

The university’s overall goal is to secure funding from a new external provider, following the decision by Council, the university’s governing body, in July 2009 that all trading services on campus should operate without subsidy.

If a funding agreement can be reached, the university will negotiate the transfer with the relevant trade unions, and this will guarantee the maintenance of the childcare facility, as had been envisaged with support from Bright Horizons.

In a statement issued to parents using the services, and online to the wider campus community, Charles Dudley, the Director of Residential, Sport and Trading Services, said “we recognise that parents with children at the facilities wish to be able to plan their childcare arrangements for 2011-12.

“So we will ensure that, by 1 April, we provide parents and childcare staff with a clear statement of the position we have reached.”

However, if an agreement cannot be reached by 1 April 2011, the nursery service will be forced to propose that the university-run facility, as it is currently operating, close its doors.

By this date, the nursery hopes to have secured funding from an external provider, and be able to contact parents using the facility with good news regarding its future.

Mr. Dudley stated that the University of Sussex would now “take forward discussions with alternative providers with serious intent”.

He added: “The detailed discussions and preparations which have been undertaken to date will enable us to engage with other potential providers on a sound and well-prepared basis, and in a timely way.”

Welfare Officer for the Students’ Union Jo Goodman commented: “The pre-school and nursery are vital facilities at Sussex, without which many students and staff simply wouldn’t be here.

“The Students’ Union is committed to doing everything we can to secure the future of childcare on campus and will be pushing for the university to hold open meetings with students and staff who make use of the services to discuss the harsh realities of what their removal would mean.

“We urge the university to extend the current arrangements for a further year to allow for a more realistic time frame to find an alternative private provider and secure the future of childcare on campus.”

Rosie Pearce badger-letters@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Arts editor-in-chief Olivia Wilson badger-artspages@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Visual arts editor Joseph Preston badger-arts@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Music editor Louise Ronnestad badger-music@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Film editors Lucy Atkinson Lily Rae badger-film@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Performance editor Wanjiru Kariuki badger-performance@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Science editors Natasha Agabalyan Thomas Lessware badger-science@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Photo editors Anna Evans Polina Belehhova

Listings editor Olivia James

badger-listings@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Sports editor Matt Stroud Ben Denton

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Sub-editors Luke Guinness Sydney Sims Barnaby Suttle

Students’ Union Communications Officer

Sol Schonfield communications@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

The Badger holds weekly open writers’ meetings Fridays, 1.30pm Falmer House, Room 126

The nursery on campus faces possible closure if it fails to secure funding in the future. Photo: Polina Belehhova

Students dig into their pockets for RAG week Emma Harrison Last week Sussex RAG (Raising and Giving) kept the momentum of generosity high as it hosted a range of events including an open-mic night and film marathon to raise money for charity. Its success follows the union-organised Jailbreak last term which collected more than £4,500 for Diabetes UK. The week began on Monday 14 February transforming the lively Falmer Back Bar with a relaxing movie marathon showing ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and ‘The Hangover’.

This event raised a total of £116.

The venue was decorated with fairy lights, paper chains and confetti and

there was also a steady supply of popcorn, homemade cakes and biscuits.

A raffle brought an end to the event and gave two lucky winners wine and chocolate. All proceeds will go to Link Community Development (LCD), a charity working to improve education for children in Africa. LCD run the Hitch challenge through Sussex and joined forces with RAG in this event.

A Hitch representative, Jenny Munday, said she was “delighted with how much a little event had raised – the generosity is incredible, one kind person gave us £6 for a cupcake!”.

The laid back comedy open-mic that has started in Falmer Bar on Tuesdays was complimented by the

RAG Week drink deals, in conjunction with the RAGtails on offer on Thursday.

Wednesday saw a charity film showing of the classic “Diamonds Are Forever” put on by the Free the Children Society in conjunction with the University of Sussex’s Film Appreciation Society. All donations went to the Kono District of Sierra Leone, after the region was completely destroyed by a brutal civil war over blood diamonds.

Also on Wednesday was a special RAG edition of Floetics, hosted by the Red Roaster Café, on St James Street.

The candlelit evening brought a mixture of planned acts and open mic; an array of genre and tastes were

catered for with music, drama, poetry from a wide variety of backgrounds.

There was face painting running throughout the evening.

Topics varied, from little noticed things about human nature, to the revenge on a rotten landlord, to how Kant makes Philosophy rather a difficult read.

During the evening it was announced that there would be an art competition for next month’s Floetics flyer.

Sussex alumni and ex-RAG members Rebecca Thomas and Clare Karslake joined with the current Sussex RAG team for this event and expressed “enthusiasm in working with Sussex RAG again”.

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New campus parking scheme continues to confuse drivers

Harry Yeates

The university’s new parking scheme, introduced to make life easier for students and lecturers alike, stalled last week, amidst complaints that the new way to pay for parking scratch cards was ineffective.

In a statement released earlier this month, the university claimed to be ‘acting on feedback from drivers who wanted the option to pay electronically’ and that ‘a simpler payments system and new charging structure’ would make the whole parking process easier.

However, concerns raised by students that the new scheme would leave them out of pocket were not helped, when, unable to obtain parking scratch cards, they were forced to place signs in their windows stating they could not get hold of a pass.

The university website states that ‘the start date of 1 February was set to allow a period of time for staff and students to apply for permits and purchase scratch cards, and to start

the new charges at the beginning of a calendar month, rather than partway through’.

The scheme, saw a 10% rise in the cost of parking, the first rise since 2003 when the charges were introduced.

Drivers must now pay £55 a term or £165 a year. The daily rate has risen from £1 to £1.10; a fee which the university are quick to point out is ‘one-150th of the annual rate for students.’

Despite these seemingly small numbers involved, many drivers are still unhappy with the new situation.

Third year contemporary history and politics student Grant Byrne had this to say: “With the university making cuts in so many areas and attempting to generate income in new ways at the same time, it came as no surprise that parking fees would increase.

The 10 pence increase to me, was not particularly unreasonable but the now tedious task of buying tickets before hand makes no sense and surely the money spent on printing the new

the now tedious task of buying tickets beforehand makes no sense

‘scratch card style’ tickets is a waste of money and resources and would have been cheaper to recalibrate the existing parking machines.”

In response to car park users’ concerns, senior communications officer Alison Field told The Badger that “In the first few days after the introduction of new parking charges on the 1 February, there was initially a high demand for scratch cards.

The advice to drivers who contacted the Transport Office on the 1 and 2 February was that, if on arrival on campus they had not already purchased scratch cards, they should place a note in their car windscreen and then buy the scratch cards.”

If the university was initially unprepared for the number of motorists requiring scratch cards, it has now got itself in gear, with Field said that “all campus cafes now have adequate stocks of scratch cards to meet demand.”

She also added that “in addition to picking up the cards at campus cafes students and lectureres can now pay for scratch cards using debit or credit cards, and that this facility is now possible at the Security Office in York House.”

Over and above the existing changes, motorists paying a daily rate may yet encounter further grievances as the university plans to review the charging hours.

This review may mean that the current hours of 9am-5pm Monday-Friday would be extended to 8am-8pm Monday-Saturday. As

Carpark confusion Photo: www.sussex.ac.uk yet, no decision has been made. If approved however, the new charging hours would not take effect until at

least 1 August 2011.

Council aims to reach students and defend cheap uni housing

Sam Brodbeck News Editor The first meeting of the Students’ Union Council after the full-time officer elections took place last Monday and addressed several pressing issues from across campus and the student world.

Union Council is made up of full-time officers (such as President, Communications Officer), parttime officers (such as Postgraduate Students’ and International Students’ Development officers) Union Councillors (representing academic schools), representatives from Students’ Union Liberation Groups (for example, LGBTQ) and Activities Committee members.

David Cichon, who will take over as next Union President in the summer, currently chairs the meetings and is Engineering and Design Councillor.

Welfare Officer Jo Goodman announced at the start of the meeting that the Union will be responding to the Coalition’s recent proposals to limit the number and

employment rights of non-EU students by sending a video made by UniTV (the online video channel run by Sussex students) to the government’s select committee.

She said that University officials would not yet make their stance on the issue known to the public.

Goodman also updated Council on the launching of a campaign to ensure that the University replaces East Slope accommodation with a similar, low-cost alternative.

‘Hope Beyond the Slope’, a facebook page, has been created to collate student experiences of East Slope and gather views on affordable campus accommodation.

With the securing of a ‘yes’ vote on the referendum to change the structure of the Students’ Union, the format and nature of the Union will be debated and decided upon over the coming weeks and months.

In that context, Martha Baker ­Councillor for Mathematics and Physical Science – proposed the formation of a dedicated group to assess how students could be made more aware of the work of Council

and get more involved in its processes.

“People have no idea what Council is,” she said. “We should be held accountable.”

Members of the Council agreed that efforts should be made to better

for: the Sussex Language Institute; Brighton and Sussex Medical School; Media, Film and Music; the Institute of Development Studies; Education and Social Work and the School of English.

Danielle Oxenham, Councillor for

people have no idea what Council is... we should be held accountable publicise the time and place of meetings and to highlight that Council is an open event, not a private group.

President Cameron Tait commented that more Union resources should be spent on promoting the elections for representatives from the academic schools.

There are currently vacant positions for student representatives

Global Studies, suggested further using the University’s facilities to involve more students, perhaps using UniTV to broadcast Council meetings.

Jo Goodman updated Council on the problems facing campus childcare. There has been a nursery at Falmer since 1966 but its future has been made uncertain as a potential

financial backer pulled out of a deal at the last minute. The nursery has until April to find an alternative source of income or it will close at the end of the academic year.

Goodman suggested that the Union ask the University to step in and help fill the funding gap.

Despite the University’s policy not to back loss-making enterprises, she stressed that the role of the nursery was important enough to give grounds for consideration on exceptional circumstances.

Council closed with President Cameron Tait and Communications Officer Sol Schonfield reporting that the National Student Survey (NSS) had gone live and that the Union was neither promoting nor denouncing it.

Last year the Students’ Union encouraged students to boycott the NSS in response to the threat of job losses among University staff.

The results of the survey – itself a dubious way of measuring the success of universities - are used by universities to determine future policy.

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Campaign to start Oxbridge to for water fountains charge £9,000 Eleanor Whalley

A new campaign is set to begin to ensure that students have access to drinking fountains on campus by the end of next term.

The campaign will coincide with Green Week, 5-11 March, Week 9 of Spring Term.

The founders of the campaign want to have drinking fountains available in areas that are easily accessible. They also hope to get the union shops to stock cheaper, environmentally responsible, reusable bottles in union shops.

Tom Chadwick, one of the minds behind the plan to bring drinking fountains to campus explained that the campaign hopes to “provide an easily accessible alternative to buying bottled water – currently bottled water is the only easily accessible source of drinking water on campus.

Tied to this is to draw attention to the unnecessary financial burden of buying bottled water.

“We don’t think it’s very fair that students and staff are made to pay so much money for bottled water just because it is the only available source of water on campus. It is currently sold at an average of 2,000 times the price that it costs to produce. Basically that’s like buying a £1.50 sandwich for £3,000.

“In more general terms we would like to improve the univer-

sity’s general environmental policy regarding this issue. Finally we want to try and publicise the absurd environmental consequences of the bottled water industry.”

At Green Week, Chadwick added that they “are going to sell large water bottles which are made of reusable recycled aluminium at about two pounds each to try as an alternative to the ones in the shop.

“We are going to have lots of stalls and posters to try and publicise the issue. We are also going to have taste tests of shop-bought water versus

In the motion, it was suggested that the union would resolve to “gradually phase out bottled water from its shops”.

The motion passed at the AGM but was not implemented for technical reasons at Council, though it has informed the union’s current policy on drinking fountains.

Biz Bliss said of the campaign: “Students and staff have long been asking for drinking fountains on campus. The union, on instruction from students, has got the ball rolling by installing drinking

we want to provide an easily accessible alternative to buying bottled water tap water to see if people can actually tell the difference. So please come along and try it out.”

The issue of water bottles and water fountains came up in 2009, in a motion proposed by Jethro Gauld, and seconded by Biz Bliss, the current Operations Officer for the Students’ Union for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) entitled, ‘Motion on the removal of bottled water from sale in the Union’.

fountains in Falmer House. The university should now follow suit by dramatically increasing the accessibility to free, quality drinking water on campus.

“Until adequate provisions are made, demand for bottled water won’t cease. With practical action and education, this campaign could have a significant impact on our environmental footprint here at Sussex.”

Sussex students get involved in local radio

Edyta Bryla

Students from the University of Sussex are involved in a growing local radio station, Radio Free Brighton (RFB).

Former Sussex students Tom Wright (Technical design), Jez Dresner (Treasurer) and Seph Bradfield (Secretary) put their minds to making a radio station that was accessible for inexperienced presenters.

In its first year of existence the community internet radio station, has recruited 102 volunteers to its ranks.

The station’s founders set out to get the people Brighton talking to each other and dissecting the news - local and global.

They also encourage debates over environmental and human rights issues, hoping to keep youth away from a life of crime and apathy, to mention just a few of their ambitions, all washed down in a melee of Brighton’s finest original music played live.

Several University of Sussex students were involved in the conversion of the premises at Under the Bridge Studios 7 Trafalgar Arches (just under Brighton station), from a dilapidated old coach house to a fine set of rehearsal and recording studios with a good sized community meeting room and radio booth.They teamed up with community activists, educationalists, anti-war campaigners, environmen-

tal campaigners, and those generally interested to make programmes for Brighton by Brighton.

Tom Wright said: “I got involved in Radio Free Brighton after seeing how many interesting people there are in Brighton. I was fascinated by the stories our city has to tell and the radio is the perfect platform for sharing them. I think it’s important that our aim isn’t professional polish, but inclusion and diversity - if someone has a message, I don’t want intimidation to stop them from doing a show.”

“By making it very simple to make a show, and free of charge, we can empower far more people and a wider spectrum of opinion and give everyone a feeling of ownership of this station,” says Jackie Chase, a local music teacher and human rights campaigner who manages the station.

As issues arise, city locals and university students get a chance through the programming to give their response – an opportunity which students at Sussex are keen to take.

Among many, RFB already lends space to programmes such as the Student Campaign Show by Martha Baker, and Sussex Stop the Cuts by Nathaniel Cross.

Cross said: “The show touches on nationwide student activity concerning education. The show also delves into the idea of education as a whole, and how the current educational systems are capable of failing to fulfil

individuals on several levels.

“RFB is a great medium for publicising upcoming student events, and trying to engage those who have been ‘out’ of education for some time.”

On the radio station, programmes are provided in Polish (hosted by the Sussex Polish Society vice-president) Hungarian, French Dari and Spanish for those whom English is not a first language so it can help them to settle in to Brighton, and give a more global perspective to discussions.

University of Sussex lecturers, alongside their City College and other academic counterparts, have added a wealth of information to indepth news analysis programmes.

Joining them have been people of all ages and cultures from around the city, with experience and specialist knowledge to share.

In the time when economic crisis and government policies both on domestic and international fronts are leaving people disillusioned and frustrated, the RFB team is adamant that people’s voices must be heard.

“Consult the schedule and you’ll see a wide range of interests covered.

If what you are into is not there give us a call and come run a programme yourself or just volunteer to help. It’s that easy. And curl up on a chilly Saturday afternoon and listen to a range of bands going out live”, added Jackie.

To listen, visit www.radiofreebrighton.org.uk.

Aiden Aitken

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are set to charge the full £9,000 a year in tuition fees, following the coalition government’s raising of the tuition fee cap.

According to a leaked consultation paper from Cambridge “the level of tuition fee charged from 2012 entry should be the maximum permissible, i.e. £9,000 per annum with any subsequent adjustment for inflationary increases”.

Tony Monaco, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Oxford explained that to charge anything less than £8,000 would cause the university to lose money due to massive education cuts.

A report from Cambridge goes so far as to state that even £9,000 is not enough to prevent the university from losing money and that “to charge less than the maximum would be fiscally irresponsible. Most if not all of our peers will charge the maximum”.

The prospect of many universities charging the maximum allowed fee is not unopposed however, with ministers on Thursday 10 February publishing guidance which warned that if it becomes clear that large numbers of universities are “clustering their charges at the upper end of what is legally possible”, then “changes to legislation” may be considered according to ministers.

Universities minister David Willetts said: “The closer the price gets to £9,000, the more we demand of the access proposals.”

Nick Clegg, when questioned at a BBC debate about the universities which seem eager to charge the maximum, stated it was “not up to them”. He named Oxford and Cambridge specifically as he said universities could

“say what they like, they can’t charge nine-thousand unless they’re given permission to do so.”

He went on to claim that permission would be dependent on their ability to demonstrate that efforts are made to ensure greater access available to students from poorer backgrounds.

In November 2010, students at Christ Church College, one of the colleges of the University of Oxford, passed a motion in favour of the government’s plans to increase tuition fees.

It was passed by 21 votes in favour to 14 against.

When asked about their plans for tuition fees and how it would affect prospective students, the University of Sussex said that they would not make any decisions until they had received full details of the Government White Paper, and that in compliance with the timetable set by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), people can expect to see detailed information published on the university website by June this year.

The university explained that “over 20 percent of our current intake is made up of talented students from poorer backgrounds. It is important students like these understand that they can take advantage of the education and opportunities offered by Sussex.”

On Wednesday 16, Imperial College London announced that it would also charge £9,000 a year for its degrees.

Aaron Porter, President of the National Union of Students (NUS), commented: “It comes as little surprise to us that Imperial College has decided to charge at least £27,000 for a degree.

“My instinct is that many universities outside the Russell Group will also charge £9,000 to send a price signal of quality and the government has put in place no incentive to stop it.”

Sussex student needs tweets Raziye Akkoc News editor In a bid to get a summer scholarship with one of the largest advertising agencies, Jamie Ivory has created a Twitter account for which he needs followers.

The 22 year old University of Sussex student needs as many people involved in the venture, as part of the application process for Saatchi and Saatchi.

Ivory chose to create the persona of an old and opinionated granny, @the_granny.

Studying an MSc in International Marketing, he is hoping for a graduate position as account handler with the advertising agency.

This is only the first phase of the application process.TheTwitter page of applicants will be scored on the number of followers, updates, retweets and @ mentions. He has also had an interview with Brighton Journalist Works which was published in the Argus.

Ivory added: “I was actually with my Nan when I was given the first brief and was trying to come up with a good Twitter idea. “I decided to create an exaggerated version of her because

she is truly hilarious, opinionated yet totally loveable. The more I started to think about the idea the more I liked it.

I think deep down we are all a nation of granny lovers, and everyone can relate to a ‘granny’ in some way.

“My aim on Twitter is to break all the misconceptions people have about grannies.” Phase 2 will be launched today and will run parallel to Phase 1.

Those fortunate enough to get through the first two phases will only have one more phase until they learn whether their application was successful.

Photo: simplyzesty.com

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Interview with future union president David Cichon

The Badger interviews the union President-elect, David Cichon, about his landslide victory after a competitive election campaign, and his plans for the future of the Students’ Union

Jamie Askew News editor In your campaign, you pledged to increase democracy,transparency and representation and to create a more inclusive union. What have you done for union democracy so far, as Chair of Council, and what are your future plans?

At the council meeting [Monday 14 February], we discussed areas we can change to make the union more accessible and improve the election system. In the next meeting we’re going to make concrete decisions on how we publicise meetings, communicate with the students and get more of them involved in promoting union democracy. We also set up a working group to look at union democracy to solve current problems, like there being a closed set of people who have become involved and the difficulty for those who stand in elections to know how they need to represent. Lots of students know council is making decisions for them but not that they can propose motions and attend meetings if they want to. It’s not meant to be exclusive; anybody can propose ideas for the agenda and we need to ensure students know this.

But as someone who is highly involved with the union, aren’t you part of that exclusive set?

I got so involved as I realise how hard it is to get through to students and how neither my role nor responsibilities were clearly defined. We had feedback meetings and allowed students to come and see what has been discussed at council which didn’t work so well, so we’ve definitely been trying to improve the situation and address the problems that I have seen over the last few years.

Do you think that students want to see these changes? Do they care enough to go to meetings?

Are there better ways they can get involved?

I think people want to be more aware of how they can contribute. If they don’t want to, that’s fine but that there are people who want to but can’t is really terrible. In my election campaign I said that the many areas of the union – support staff, advice staff, sports and societies and obviously the campaigns and representation – all seem to be quite disconnected from each other and people don’t seem to realise that all these things are coming from the same democratic organisation. It’s important that people who play sport and people who are campaigning realise this.

Interesting that you mention sport as during the campaign there were rumours that you plan to get rid of it. Is this the case?

As I said in my email to the sports societies, of course sport will be on the agenda. It is a very important part of student experience and well-being.

set of officers like they’ve dealt with year after year. The only way that we can make an impact is if we’ve got the students on our side so that we are pushed into getting the best for them, showing management that we are not just another group officers who’ll be gone soon.

The Badger news editor Jamie Askew (left) spoke to David Cichon last week. Photo: Polina Belehhova Sport will be improved if anything.

This comes back to trying to integrate the union, as an organisation that facilitates sport, to integrate them into the decision-making process. It doesn’t matter what part of the union you are involved in, you are still affected by the decisions made and it is important that you are part of them.

Whatabouttherumoursaboutyour rival, Jian Farhoumand? Was your campaign group responsible?

Definitely not. No one in my team was making any allegations. Jian and I discussed that as there were only two of us running, there was a possibility that it’d get heated so we said we’d keep it clean. I’m upset that things were said as it brought the week down and made things personal.

Your majority was quite large.

Why do you think this was?

I think there are multiple reasons. I had an incredible team of people who were always knocking on doors or talking to people so there was a constant presence on campus which is really important.

Also, it was a choice between two very different approaches: Jian and I had two very different ideas about where the union should be.

Jian offered proposals about how the union can raise extra revenue.

With the decision on Bramber House supermarket looming and possible financial insecurity, how will you secure the future of the union?

I think we need to look at alternative ways of generating revenue. One of the obvious ways to do this is through the proposal that is being pushed forward at the moment about a union letting

Is damage to property is acceptable when it comes to fighting fees?

It depends. I wouldn’t condemn the damage to Millbank Tower; broken windows are nothing compared to the damage to higher education. But physical violence by both the protesters and the police is unacceptable.

is not disrupted while raising support of the whole student body for union campaigns?

That’s a very interesting question.

With some of the occupations and some of the big protests after the suspension of the Sussex Six, the levels of support were much larger than just a small percentage of radical activists.

We had 600-700 at the protest outside Sussex House; lecturers, students and support staff, resulting in 300 people occupying Arts A. It was not disruptive to people’s education and was a creative way of protesting. I think that was incredible and must be supported.

With changes in government policy, I think there will be more people getting involved and interested in what’s going on. Some tactics may alienate some students and we need to take that into account. On the other hand, I have been involved in protests and in actions against the cuts and I honestly believe that it is the right thing to do. I obviously want to represent everybody but I am going to continue supporting those people and hopefully find a way to get more and more people involved.

One of the ways we can do that is by opening up as these cuts are affecting a lot of courses. For me, it all began with the Save Linguistics campaign in my first year which included a lot of students who weren’t political activists and just wanted to save their course.

They were willing to fight for their department.

Campus protests often involve occupations. There seems to be a small group of extreme activists taking part in these protests, alienating the main student body.

How do you propose representing everybody,ensuringthateducation

What role will negotiations with management play during your tenure as president?

They will be very important, but what will be even more important is that the student body is behind us. For management, we will be just another

agency. It’s also important that we continue working with management on the block grant. It’s our biggest source of revenue and we need to uphold it.

But you could inherit an unfortunate financial situation.

It might be that we have to make some really quick decisions about what to do and our budget might look very different to how it looks now. That would mean a very difficult start. Let’s hope not.

You’ve a history of involvement in student activism. Do you support all demonstrations or do you draw the line at certain tactics?

When we look at student protests it’s important we recognise the incredible recent wave of student action.

Obviously there’s a line to be drawn at physical harm to another human being and even intimidation. But if students stand against the government when it makes decisions that they don’t agree with, it’s important that as a union we support them and are on their side.

The international student visa legislation is a big issue. As an international student yourself, how are you going to escalate the voice of the union to a national level?

There are two sides to this. There’s door knocking and walking around.

I spoke to two international students who have a lot of discontent with the government’s plans and would also like to see things change at a local level.

It is important to get international students involved more locally as we can’t represent international students on a national level if they’re not involved in the union. But of course we want to go national with it; Sheffield has a big campaign running currently and we want to link up with them.

This is an attack on international students for no apparent reason. It is a right-wing ideological move which is threatening the diversity of the student population. It could create a situation where we have a lot less international students and the ones we do have aren’t allowed to assimilate because they are unable to work whilst they are studying and they are no longer allowed to stay here after they have finished their degree. The whole idea of building up personal relationships becomes harder if they know there is no chance they will still be here after their degree. It is damaging to higher education and student life.

Will it be much harder to mobilise mass support for that issue as opposed to rising fees?

Yes, definitely. It will be very hard especially with everything else going on. From a students’ union point of view, the international student’s cause is something that we are definitely going to take on. Also the union can cooperate with the management of the university as they are angry about this legislation too. It is a good chance for us to work with management and a good way for international students to get involved in the union.

What will your legacy be?

I can only hope that I deliver on the promises I made during my campaign.

I really hope the international student campaign, which I have already started working on, will be successful.

I hope the student body and union continue to stand against things they see as unjust. That obviously involves all the lecturers, support staff, porters; it involves working with the staff as well as the students. We need to make sure that we have an opposition to the changes that we are seeing nationally and locally.

response

Student Media Office Falmer House University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QF

21.02.11

Telephone: 01273 678875 Email: badger@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Advertising: BAM Agency vb@bamuk.com

Views expressed in the Badger are not representative of the views of the USSU, the University of Sussex, or the Badger. Every effort has been made to contact the holders of copyright for any material used in this issue, and to ensure the accuracy of this week’s stories.

Please contact the Communications Officer if you are aware of any omissions or errors.

letters and emails

Officer elections

The Big Lemon

Dear Sir/Madam,

Dear Sir/Madam,

During the officer candidates’ question time, a question was asked about a past venture of one of the candidates, following an ex-student having contacted several groups on campus and raising concern.

Although not insinuating anything in its composition, the question potentially brought into disrepute some of this candidate’s views on issues of equality and respect. A minority of the candidate’s supporters have deemed the question posed to be a “personal attack,” but I do not see how bringing to attention and allowing a response to an issue which could potentially affect some students can be condemned.

This displays a lack of consideration and duty towards student welfare.

The question was fair and the person who asked had a responsibility as an elected representative of a group of students to ensure that their welfare would not be compromised.

No election rules were broken, and the candidate was given the appropriate opportunity to respond.

If the matter had not been brought up then, the existing gossip would have continued and the issue brought to light in a much less favourable way, given that most people in the room already knew about it through other means and harboured grievances.

I believe there were unfair attacks from other parties following this, which the person who posed the question has vocally condemned, and it is clear that this was never the intention of those who agreed that bringing it up during question time was the best course of action. Unfortunately, there has been no written response from the candidate in question to student concerns, much to the dismay of some students who were hoping to achieve clarity on the issue.

In response to the article ‘Brighton buses go head to head in bid to win student popularity’ [07/02/11], I would like to put forward my view which I know is shared by many other students.

I am a loyal Lemon bus passenger that believes the Lemon bus offers a far superior service to the B&H buses.

The temporary reductions in the price of B&H bus service are a perfect example of predatory pricing which is often seen in bus services.

B&H buses offering £8 weekly bus tickets is a ploy to match the cheap services of the Lemon bus in an attempt to drive the competitor out of the market. If B&H were successful, prices would soon rise to even higher than their original fares as they would monopolise the bus service and students would suffer as there would be no alternative.The Lemon bus provides competition which keeps both bus prices low and without it we have no choice but to fork out for high fares.

Furthermore, in my experience the Lemon bus offers a much friendlier and personal service, which is nice at 8.30 in the morning.

Therefore in my opinion the Lemon bus wins student popularity, not only for offering a unique and friendly service, but by providing competition which keeps bus travel relatively cheap.

Yours faithfully, F.P.

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Yours faithfully Emily Pilkington Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing in response to the articles ‘Brighton buses go head to head in bid to win student popularity’ and ‘Big Lemon sees red’ [both 07/02/11].

I fully support the goals and ideals of the Lemon bus, but the very fact that it is running on top of an existing

bus service is undermining the striving for a greener city. In fact, not only are more buses running than usual at some times, but the fact that the buses are in competition will no doubt make it even harder for one company to find an optimal number and frequency of buses. I see that either one of three things should happen to help make a difference to the environment.

The first option is that the Lemon stops all buses, and allows the Brighton and Hove buses to take over and find the optimal number of buses to both get everybody around, whilst minimising the number of buses as much as possible.

The second option is to remove the Brighton and Hove buses and instead allow the Lemon bus to pick up the slack.There would probably be turmoil at first, however it would not take too long to settle down. This may then set an example to other cities, and allow the green revolution to spread.

The last, and best (in my eyes) option, is to fuse the Lemon and Brighton and Hove buses together.

Not literally, but in a business sense.

So perhaps the Lemon would take over the students and late night partygoers, while the Brighton and Hove buses would handle most other customers.

In conclusion, I sincerely hope that my suggestions are read by executives in each company, and are acted upon immediately.

Yours, Chris P. Bacon

Student housing Dear Sir/Madam, I’m writing about a situation which is surely very familiar to most second and third year students, and perhaps a few unlucky first years – off-campus student housing.

Whether you choose to go through a lettings agency, an independent landlord, or one provided by the Sussex

comment and opinion

service Studentpad, finding a decent student house in Brighton is a very difficult task.

It all starts around the middle of the Spring term: you have known your current housemates long enough either to a) love them and want to be BFFLs, as well as housemates next year too, b) think they are noisy drunks who will do nothing but disturb your peace and academic success if you live with them next year or c) have realised that you don’t actually have much in common with them, and you’d rather live with your course friends.

Whoever you choose, it’s time to embark together on the adventure that is finding a house. As a second year now, I regularly regret my group’s choice to take the easy way out by searching through a lettings agency.

In fact, I regret this choice every time I slam my poorly-hinged front door, step into my mildew-ridden bathroom and stand under my shower, with water spraying everywhere but in my direction. All of these issues which, of course, have been reported to the agency many a time.

However, the main issue that I know to be a problem in the student houses of Brighton is damp. That slowly (or in the worst of cases, rapidly) expanding stain that moves across your ceiling until one day you find yourself being woken up by your housemate taking a shower (and not because of his loud singing, but rather in a more “physical” fashion).

The worst thing, however, is when this undesired shade of grey on your wall turns to an even more undesired shade of green. I myself have tried countless different products to fight off the mould that lives (and constantly revives itself) in the corner of my bedroom, but have been even more sickened by the thick layer of green in my housemate’s room, with its accompanying stench spreading through the house.

What I mean to ask with all this is why? Do landlords and agencies think that the word student is synonymous with rat, pig or scum? While some students are exceptionally untidy,

why do the rest of us deserve to live in such conditions? Why should nothing be done to fix the decaying state of student houses? I, for one, don’t feel it’s acceptable.

Yours, from a cold and wet room near Lewes Road, Lizzie James

Cost of education Dear Sir/Madam I write in response to Harry Yeates’ feature article about protest and increased university tuition fees [‘Everyone is a loser when it comes to politics and protest’ 14.02.11].

After telling us that he is “angry at the broken promises and angry [that] the powers that be were seemingly so unwilling to listen to the students...,” he then continues, “I am neither naive nor idealistic enough to suggest a university education should be free - but to triple the cost?” There is no recognition that higher education in England was free a little over a decade ago, nor that it still is today in other European nations. As such, one is left to wonder where the real naivety lies.

Yours, Sam Waterman

Valentine’s Day Dear Sir/Madam, I want to thank the Badger for printing the Valentine messages on its pages last week to celebrate the occassion.

I received a lovely message from my partner and it was such a nice surprise to flick through the paper on Monday morning and stumble accross it.

Yours, Anonymous

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badger | badger-opinion@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Brighton roads still unsafe for cyclists Lucy Meek

Lewes road sees an estimated 2,000 cyclists every day, and the number is increasing. But despite being one of the UK’s most popular cities for cycling, Brighton’s cycle lanes still leave a lot to be desired for its residents.

Chosen together with Hove as a ‘cycle demonstration town’ in 2005 and awarded a large annual budget, Brighton and Hove City Council receives around £5 per head every year in government funding to promote cycling and improve provisions for cyclists. As a result the city boasts numerous cycle paths and lanes, but in many places they are unsuitable or even unsafe.

Adam Pride from Brighton organisation ‘Bicycles’ has called Brighton a “demanding place to cycle” with little “infrastructure to safeguard cyclists”.

Despite the extra funding spent on kitting the city out with cycle lanes and paths over the last six years, the

number of cyclists injured on the roads continues to increase. In fact, 131 were hurt in 2008 compared with 145 between January and November 2010.

Unlike in other European cities famous for cycling, such as Amsterdam or Berlin, our council doesn’t have the luxury of wide roads which can easily accommodate large cycle paths; instead it is tasked with squeezing extra lanes into already narrow spaces. The results are undersized cycle lanes which often start and stop, forcing cyclists to repeatedly rejoin the traffic.

Only last summer a woman was killed on a cycle path near the Sussex campus, hit by the wing mirror of a van after swerving to avoid another cyclist. Her family blame the width of the path for her death, claiming the accident could “easily have been avoided”. Last year a new 20mph limit was proposed for large areas of

Brighton and Hove, aiming to cut traffic levels and improve road safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The scheme has already been very successful in Portsmouth, with similar proposals popping up in cities such as Bristol, Edinburgh, Norwich, Newcastle, Leicester and as of last week, Sheffield.

However in September the plans were put on hold by Brighton and Hove City Council, frustrating the city’s cyclists and Green campaigners.

Research shows that a person struck by a car at 35mph has a 50% chance of being killed, whereas at 20mph their chances of survival jump to a whopping 97% - a significant safety improvement for bikers.

The current limit for residential areas is 30mph, but according to an RAC report around half of drivers “admit to regularly driving significantly above” the limit. For information

Cyclist struggles to move in traffic Photo: dailymail.co.uk about current cycling conditions in the Brighton and Hove area, visit bricycles.org.uk. You can also see

examples of dangerous or just plain bizarre sections of local cycle paths at: www.weirdcyclelanes.co.uk.

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badger| badger-opinion@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Restricting Coca-Cola and Nestlé products reflects students’ freedom, not limitations Will Rees There has been a lot of talk recently about a phenomena which I was quite unaware of: Sussex’s ‘baneverything culture’ (‘Can’t we all just get along?’, 17.01.2011). I believe that this phrase is a misnomer and is based on the incorrect and yet widely held view that certain consumer products are banned on campus and that this constitutes a limitation on the freedom of students at Sussex.

I wish to expand on the points raised in a recent letter (Liam Sabec, 31.02.2011) to explore these two points in an attempt to show that they are both false.

In starting, it is important to emphasise the fact that Coca-Cola and Nestlé products are not banned on campus. The limitation imposed on these items is not at the level of the consumer, but the retailer.

In other words, you can still buy them, however the Union has resolved not to sell them. This does not amount to a ban. It does not even amount to a ban on their sale; McColl’s can and do still sell them.

It amounts to an internal decision by the Union and as such cannot

be a ban; it is absurd to consider an organisation banning itself from doing something.

It is worth noting that, assuming it does not have infinite shelf-space, every shop makes many such decisions; the difference is that they are not usually the result of an open democratic process.

The decision of the Union not to sell Coca-Cola and Nestlé products is widely seen to be a direct limit to students’ freedom. However this is simply wrong.

In fact, the reverse is true; it is a direct result of students’ freedom.

Each year, every student is invited to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at which anyone can propose a motion.

If a motion is proposed suggesting that the Union stops selling products of a particular company then it will be discussed openly.

At this point any student can voice their opinion. Eventually students are asked to vote and the majority ruling is upheld. This is an example of a direct democracy.

I repeat this does not amount to a ban on certain products; it simply amounts to them not being sold by the Union as a result of a democratic

vote by its members. This does not mark a limit to students’ freedom but rather actually gives students more freedom; the freedom to participate in the decision making process regarding the products their Union sells to make money.

Assuming you are a student at the University of Sussex, unless you have specifically asked not to be a member of the Union, you are one. As such, you have the right to propose motions for discussion and to vote on them.

The decision to abstain from the retail of these products is not a decision that has been handed down to you from above, but one that has been decided collectively by your peers.

You may well disagree with the decision, however, for better or worse, it is one which reflects the collective will of Sussex students.

Seen in this light, it is hard to understand how anyone can have a problem with the process. It is certainly valid to lament that if one wishes to purchase aerated chocolate in the Union shops they must buy a Wispa instead of an Aero. Or that if one wishes to purchase sugary, carbonated brown liquid in a Union

bar, they must buy Pepsi instead of Coke.

It is valid to be of the view that the Union should sell Nestlé and Coca-Cola products. However it is the unfortunate result of living in a democracy, rather than an autocracy with yourself as despot, that sometimes you will be affected by decisions which you disagree with.

If you disagree with the decision of your peers that the Union should not be funded by the sale of Nestlé and Coca-Cola products then attend the AGM and make this known.

If you have the support of the majority of your peers then, by virtue of the democratic process, your view will be upheld.

Lastly, in response to Rachael Finn’s recent letter (“Ban everything culture”, 07.02.2011), I’d like to ask: to what extent is a meeting to which every student is invited to attend and vote on policies not a series of referenda?

Finn correctly notes that few students participated in the vote, but fails to recognise that this is a result of their own volition. Democracy does not work by forcing people to vote.

Does not selling Coca-Cola products inhibit our freedom?

Photo: EQ Post

Are international students working for an education, or just government approval?

Charmeil Joseph I am a second year student from a breathtakingly beautiful island in the Caribbean.To say the least, I feel immensely blessed and privileged to call it ‘home sweet home’.

By virtue of my immigration status in the UK, a few weeks ago I received an email from the International Office drawing my attention to a document titled ‘The Student Immigration System Consultation December 2010’ by the Home Office.

I read it with keen interest and found myself quite upset by the notion that undergraduate international students (who are the focus of my article) are desperate to leave their home country to seek residency in the UK and that this ambition of theirs is fulfilled under the disguise of furthering their education.

For a while now, this is a view I have felt was somewhat indirectly propagated but has now been qualified in the above document stating that “the government wants to ensure that those who enter on a student visa genuinely come here to study, not to work or with a view to settling here.... and on completion of their studies, students will be expected to return to their countries of origin”.

To clamp down on what I think may be deemed by the government as being some sort of false misrepresentation, some proposals in the introduction of the document by the Home Secretary Theresa May include “ensuring students return overseas after their course, limit-

ing the entitlements to work and sponsor dependants and simpler procedures for checking low-risk applications...”

Excuse me for relating the well known, but international students do pay on average £11,000 a year for tuition, approximately £5,000 in accommodation costs and the additional food, travel expenses and the seemingly never-ending list of costs.

Actually, the document cited that in higher education alone, international students contributed some £2.2billion in 2008/09 to their

environment is by my experience an incredibly hard feat to initially overcome.

So why take this great leap of faith and embark on this journey?

Personally, I was always intrigued by the accounts of my parents who pursued undergraduate and postgraduate degrees here and wanted to have the unique experience of partaking in pleasures that are for the most part not offered at home.

Admittedly, a few of us do from the onset hope to work here upon graduating but notably most of us only intend to live here for a few

The UK government are focussing their efforts on the immediate departure of intelligent, hard-working international students institutions in tuition fees, and if personal off-campus expenditure is included we estimate the figure approaches £5 billion.

In my opinion, international students definitely make the greatest sacrifice when choosing to embark upon undergraduate studies at UK institutions because our families face the greatest financial burden as a consequence and moving thousands of miles to endure the unknown and adapt to a totally new

years and then return home having broadened our knowledge not just academically but upon acquisition of a well rounded learning experience.

After all, the world is meant to be our oyster so why not capitalise on this time, while at the peak of our youth to explore its wonders while learning from people from varied backgrounds and grasp the opportunity to expand our horizons?

International students here gen-

erally just want to have had that experience. Lest it be forgotten, we greatly contribute to the British economy during our academic tenure and harbour no ambition to remain here illegally and be a liability on tax payers instead of utilising our acquired knowledge.

Most international students with whom I have spoken, claim to stand a very strong chance of immediate employment upon completion of their degree.

To explain in my country’s colloquial terms, the mentality I perceive to be exhibited is “well international students know the fees are high, despite that they have the audacity to willingly choose to come here so obviously they can afford the exorbitant costs, so just take their money and as soon as they are done ensure they are shipped back to wherever they came from”.

Admittedly, many other international students and I sometimes feel like a commodity only to be used and promptly discarded of.

The UK government is evidently concentrating its efforts on the immediate departure of international students who are intelligent, talented, hard working individuals who can do nothing but enrich society in all its facets most notably culturally and economically.

I would advise prioritising the issue of illegal immigrants who contribute nothing to society and are leaches on the benefits system, the NHS and ultimately a burden on tax payers.

We are young people with the same ambitions as all others. That

being to do well academically, get a ‘good’ job and give of our ultimate best in our respective roles.

The world over seeks people who demonstrate those ambitious qualities regardless of nationality and are willing to embrace us with open arms and value the contributions we could make to society.

Consequently, if the UK does implement their new proposed policies and disallow post study work, I am convinced that international students may potentially excel even more than they may have by remaining in the UK. Because we would have settled in places where our talents are embraced. My advice to other International students is simply to embrace this experience whole heartedly and enjoy its challenges and joys. It is indeed one which will avail you to many possibilities in the future.

Wherever, your ambitions lie then pursue them always with honest intentions. If home is where your heart is, then return home, serve your country. If like me, you feel your life is destined elsewhere, then follow your dreams.

Venture to where you will be happy and can fully blossom into what you want to be, doing what you love to do. Despite imposed free movement and immigration restrictions, at most, the world is still your oyster!

If nothing else, our time spent at UK institutions of higher education can always be remembered by gracing the list of notable alumini.

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Eye witness: Tahrir Square

The King’s Speech It deservedly won everything at this year’s BAFTAs

Bourbon biscuits

We can’t get enough of them in the office

The Loop

A lovely new cafe on Marine Parade

Going up...

Going down...

Suzy Martin As we drove towards Tahrir Square tranquillity filled the streets of Cairo, not the usual hectic hooting you would expect to hear in heavy Middle Eastern traffic.

Two small children were leaning out the car window proudly waving their Egyptian flags and singing as it drove alongside us. Egypt’s national anthem ‘Biladi, Biladi’ (Our country, our country) repeatedly played on the main radio station. This was patriotism of an anti-governmental kind.

It was day fifteen of a protest aimed at bringing down a political regime that had stood strong for 30 years and which, to the people in the square, symbolised corruption and repression.

I was in Cairo with my father, an international journalist, but he had just jumped out of the car to meet BoutrosGhali, a former Egyptian foreign minister and former UN Secretary

General. I was taken to Tahrir (Liberation) Square by an Egyptian student, Yosr, and members of the Faddly family whom my dad hadn’t seen since he lived in the flat above their household when he was a BBC radio reporter in Cairo 30 years ago.

On the drive down to Tahrir square I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would not be like any other protest I had experienced at home.

“No Foreign Press,” said the soldier checking ID cards on the way into the square which was barricaded and protected by military tanks. (My visa described me as a journalist because when he bought the visas at the airport my dad explained I was his assistant.)

The soldier chuckled and decided that I hardly looked like a press reporter, more like an Egyptian, and let me through. This remarkable sense of good humour was what I think made this protest movement uniquely Egyptian.

1. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year.

But they were not twins. How is this so?

2. A woman without her man is nothing. (Punctuate this sentence so to reverse the meaning ) Last week’s answers: 1. He said, “You’ll sentence me to six years in prison.” If it was true, then the judge would have to make it false by sentencing him to four years.

If it was false, then he would have to give him six years, which would make it true. Rather than contra-

sound system blared out. But this was a creative gathering to affect real change of enormous magnitude and a vision of an alternative way of life; Government for the people, by the people.

History in the making! I joined many other people in taking our own footage on mobile phones, each capturing personal fragments of the revolution.

It was nothing like the “day of rage”, the notorious day of Friday 28 January when not only did the Egyptian authorities shut down internet and mobile phone services, but the police brutally opened fire in the square killing many civilians. If your government shuts down the internet, shut down your government!

The people of Egypt were issuing Mubarak the red card. Two days later, they triumphed against all odds. The Pharaoh was gone! What now? In the words of Wyclef Jean, “this is more like the genesis, this is the beginning of freedom.”

General knowledge quiz

Brain teasers This week’s riddles:

Within moments of entering the square I could feel the electricity that connected everyone there, people of all ages from all walks of life; the youngest child to the oldest pensioner. It was an exhilarating communal event and I got swept up in the excitement and the tension.

Some impressions: A man picked up litter, another laid down a blanket for a woman and her children to rest upon.

A young man handed me a falafel and a packet of biscuits (with a Winnie the Pooh logo) in case I was hungry.

The square was peppered with witty banners and posters: “Come on Mubarak, go … I need a haircut.”

Another, protesting against corruption, stated it was a tale of “Ali Baba and the 40 Thousand Thieves”.

Behind the carnival-esque atmosphere there was a sense, not just of firm solidarity, but also an iron determination. People sang and danced as a giant

dict his own word, the judge set the man free

1. In which sport do they contest the Stanley Cup?

2. Fill the 3-gallon container with oil and pour it into the 5-gallon container.

Then fill the 3-gallon container again and use it to fill the 5-gallon container the rest of the way. One gallon will be left in the 3-gallon container.

2. Eric Arthur Blair used what pseudonym when writing?

3. Five. There are only four colours, so five socks guarantee that two will be the same colour.

4. In 1985, who became the first ever artist to sell over 1 million CD albums?

4. It’s part of his job - he’s a Reverend.

5. Dmitri Mendeleev is generally considered to have been the inventor of what?

5. Seven. The four daughters have only one brother, making five children, plus mom and dad.

3. What links Edgar Allen Poe, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Marylin Monroe, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Laurel and Hardy, Karl Marx, James Dean and The Beatles?

6. Former Prime Minister, Sir Arthur Wellesley, was better known by what

name?

7. What is the name of Oscar Wilde’s only published novel?

8. Which two mountain ranges separate Europe from Asia?

9. This is the flag of which country?

10. A 1938 Orson Welles radio adaptation of which novel led people to believe the world was being invaded by aliens?

Pick up next week’s Badger (out Monday 28 February) to find out the answers to the brain teasers and the quiz.

Please send in any pictures, cartoons or contributions for our agony aunt column to badger@ussu.sussex.ac.uk.

Using ‘it’s’ instead of ‘its’

Come on guys, we’re at university

Rude shop assistants

I come in and give you money, and still you insist upon being obnoxious

Flowers dying

Fake ones last longer

cool wall

A protestor holds a number of Egyptian flags in Tahrir Square, a flag that Mubarak has not wrapped himself in during his presidency. Photo: Suzy Martin

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badger | communications@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

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students’ union

NUS Annual Conference nominations now open Stand to be one of four Sussex representatives to the NUS

NUS National Conference in Newcastle, April 2010 Photo: Drew Stearne The NUS’ (National Union of Students) annual conference takes place this year from Tuesday 12th - Thursday 14th April at The Sage hotel in Newcastle.

You can nominate yourself to be a Sussex delegate by emailing returning@ussu.sussex.ac.uk with your name, registration number and university email address.

Every year over 1,500 delegates arrive at the conference from institutions across the United Kingdom.

National Conference is the sovereign body of the NUS, it sets policy for the year ahead in each of the 5 zones (Society & Citizienship, Higher Education, Further Education, Welfare and Union Development) and elects NUS President, Vice Presidents and Block of 15 representatives on the NUS National Executive Council. It is also where the budget for the year ahead is decided through the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

We at Sussex are entitled to send four delegates to vote on behalf of our

Students’ Union. If you’d like to put yourself forward, you can nominate yourself from Monday 21st February

You can nominate yourself from Monday 21 February until 4pm Monday 28 February until 4pm Monday 28th February. If there are more nominees than places we will hold an election in which all our members can vote. Campaigning will start on Monday 7th March and voting will be on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th March.

The Students’ Union is hosting an open meeting with students about the restructuring of hoildays and exam times. Mandela Hall Tuesday 22 February 1:00pm - 3:00pm

NUS National Conference 2010 Photo: Gareth Jenkins

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students’ union

35th birthday for country’s oldest student radio station URF celebrate birthday in style and continue the search for a new logo

The new URF Breakfast Show is now online Photo: urfonline.com Nicola Alexandrou Station Manager, URF University Radio Falmer (URF) celebrated its 35th Birthday on Monday 14th February, the team at URF marked this event with a live broadcast of the Breakfast Show in Library Square as well as the weekly DJ night in East Slope Bar taking place in the evening.

URF is the country’s oldest student radio station; set up in 1976 it was the creation of successive elected Union officers, including Lindsay Thomas and Keith Yaxley, who persuaded the Union to provide funding for Sussex to join the select few unions with a campus radio station.

In its primary year the station could only broadcast 312 metres to the Park Houses, as the years progressed the radio updated its technology and licences to become an AM station on 1431. As a community radio station it served the campus’s of the University of Sussex and Brighton polytechnic as well as the residents of Falmer through its AM frequency.

The station ceased to broadcast on AM in 2008, but continues to broadcast online via www.urfonline.com.

In 1997 URF won two Radio 1 Student Radio Awards for best radio station in the UK and best music presenter. At the time, the station manager, Dipesh Mesuria said that they “won because students run the

station and we appeal to our student roots by excluding playlists and commercials.” This continues to be true today as URF proudly maintains its non-playlist and non-commercial status. This gives the presenters the freedom to create a show that is completely their own as they get to play the music they want.

URF was very much at its height in the 90’s but in 2000 the studio suffered a break-in and most of its essential equipment was stolen, in the years that followed immediately after the station’s primary concern was re-equipping the studio rather than broadcasting, by 2001 URF had recovered substantially and celebrated its 25th Birthday with a 3-week

stint broadcasting on FM radio and the launch of a new logo.

In 2009 URF won the Student

Set up in 1976 it was the creation of successive elected Union officers, including Lindsay Thomas

Radio Award for technical achievement, exec members Kris Lipscombe and Daniel Cooper revolutionised the station’s website to make it more accessible to members and listeners alike.

Many people who used to be heavily involved in URF have gone on to work at many national and local radio stations including Kiss 100, Juice 107.2 and the BBC Wales. They all thank their experiences on URF student radio as providing them with a launching pad into these prestigious media careers.

The current exec are currently searching for a new logo and hope to continue in the successful footsteps of the previous alumni of URF.

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arts THE MAIN EVENT Page 12 VISUAL ARTS CENTRE STAGE UNIVERSITY APPAREL Page 13

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The main event

film

The Badger previews this year’s Brighton Documentary Film Festival

ON THE BIG SCREEN ON THE SMALL SCREEN FILM MATTERS Page 14 GIG REVIEW MUSIC ROOM FOOD FOR THOUGHT Page 15

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WHAT’S ON...?

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The documentary film festival See will deliver four days of screenings, premieres, workshops, seminars and special events Photo: seefestival.org Margot Tenenbaum Now in its sixth year, the documentary film festival See has comfortably established itself as one of the most exciting events on Brighton’s festival calendar.

This year won’t be an exception to the rule, either, with four days of screenings, premieres, workshops, seminars and special events due to kick off on 24 February.

Head down to the Duke of York’s on opening night to catch a screening of ‘Donor Unknown’, which tails 20-year-old JoEllen Marsh – raised by two women in Pennsylvania – as she attempts to track down her sperm donor father, an anonymous figure Marsh knows only as ‘Donor 150’.

The film, which was officially selected

by Sundance, International Film Festi-

val Amsterdam and Sheffield DocFest, promises to tell a moving tale of identity, family, fatherhood and genetic connection.

Also tipped for this year’s festival is ‘On the Streets’, due to be screened at Komedia on 26 February. With a running time of 85 minutes, the film documents eight months in the life of the homeless, as witnessed by filmmaker Penny Woolcock. Yet the problems facing those on the streets aren’t quite what you’d expect, and as the film demonstrates, many of them are not so easy to resolve as finding a bed for the night.

If that doesn’t sound like your thing, why not pop intoThe Old Court Room on 27 February to see ‘Enemies of the People’? The 95-minute film will lift the lid on the Killing Fields of Cambo-

dia, offering testimonials from the very men and women who perpetrated the massacres. It’s a unique opportunity to follow Thet Sambath, who not only co-directs the film but also lost his own family in the Killing Fields, as he sets out on an emotional journey to discover why the closest people to him lost their lives.

The festival will also be screening a number of short films, including ‘A Wild Hide’ (a 24-minute look at a local artist who builds dens inspired by nature on small pockets of land), ‘Heal OurWomen’ (a 32-minute documentary about a community struck by poverty in CapeTown’s Lavender Hill), and ‘Exit to Beach’, as directed and produced by University of Sussex students Saul Abraham, Henry Degnin, and Callum Cameron.

If it’s documentaries produced by university students that you’re after, make sure you don’t miss the University Docs Showcase at Komedia on 25 February. All films in the line-up are directed by students at Sussex and Brighton and the screenings will be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers.

See is reasonably priced, too. Early bird weekender tickets are just £55, but if you’re too late, students can pick up a weekend ticket (Saturday and Sunday) for a mere £30. Tickets for the Saturday are priced at £20, and Sunday tickets are available for just £18. What’s more, ticketholders will also be eligible for exclusive discounts at a number of food outlets in Brighton.

To find out more about the festival, visit http://www.seefestival.org.

Sussex success: Short films by our students showcased this weekend...

arts

Stork Agnes Strikaite, 25 mins Komedia, Friday 1pm FREE

New Members Welcome Jackson Ducasse, 12 mins Komedia, Friday 1pm FREE

Facing Faith Daisy Whicheloe, 25 mins Komedia, Friday 1pm FREE

EXIT to beach Abraham, Degnin, Cameron, 37 mins Komedia, Sunday 10am FREE

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badger badger-artspages@ussu.sussex.ac.uk University apparel

Visual arts

The price of art

Samantha Graham

Weiwei’s ‘Sunflower Seeds’ Photo: www.artnet.com Madeline Trimmer What is the price of art? This question came to mind on hearing that Ai WeiWei’s Sunflower Seeds are to go on sale at Sotheby’s this month. Ai WeiWei’s ‘Sunflower Seeds’ or ‘Kui Hua Zi’ is the eleventh commission of the Unilever Series and can be seen at the Tate Modern up until the 2nd May this year.

The piece consists of millions of, what appear to be sunflower seeds.

However on closer inspection you discover that they are in fact individually handcrafted porcelain seeds,

each one made in a small studio in China. The seeds currently fill half the Turbine Hall and though it was originally possible to walk through them, visitors are now restricted to viewing the piece from the overlooking bridge, due to health reasons.

The sunflower seeds are certainly not a one off so even the 100 kilograms that they will be auctioning off on 15 February will not greatly diminish the piece yet how do you go about valuing something so artistic when there are millions of them?

The estimate being bandied around is anything up to £120,000 for one

hundred kilograms of the seeds yet there is a grand total of one hundred million seeds altogether.

Juliet Bingham, curator at the Tate Modern, says the work poses many questions such as ‘What does it mean to be an individual in today’s society?’ and ‘Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together?’ In the same sense I would question whether the seeds would be worth anything if they were separated? Surely the power in WeiWei’s piece is the sheer volume and vastness that overwhelms you on seeing the seeds as well as the fact that each one was carefully produced

their work with such an enthusiastic crowd. A short film portraying a ghostly encounter at the Royal Pavilion was quite disappointing; however the range of performances, all unique from one another, portrayed an array of thought provoking ideas and emotions that were all interconnected around the loose theme of ‘Hearth and Home’. A selection of brilliant illustrations was projected onto a screen during performances, a celebration of the visual arts too. A light-hearted short story by Neil Baker about an incident with a trampoline was thoroughly entertaining while Catherine Smith, one of our own from Sussex, read a great poem that strongly related to the theme of the night. Felstead and Waddle encouraged lots of laughter with their flash fiction double act and amusing props about strange and bizarre things in relation to the home while Jacqueline Downs brought a more serious side to night, with a touching short story named ‘The Museum of Childhood’. Story Studio is running again on 10 April, and makes a real change to the usual student antics. So, if you’re looking for something new to do or perhaps in need of some creative inspiration, get yourself down to Komedia’s Story Studio.

Story Studio is returning to Komedia on10 April Photo: tsfi.net

by hand.

On the other hand by buying a part of the piece or even by owning one of the seeds it is as if you are making contact with another fellow human being, the individual who created the porcelain seed. And in that sense it would be truly magical and priceless to own one. In a world where people have hundreds of friends on Facebook maybe one is more beautiful.

The seeds will be auctioned off alongside work by Anthony Gormley, Chris Ofili and Anish Kapoor as part of Sotheby’s ‘Contemporary Art Evening Auction’.

Centre stage Sophie Moonshine When being asked to review a ‘spoken word’ literature event, I will ashamedly admit that the word ‘pretentious’ immediately sprung to mind. Having never seen poetry or short stories read aloud live before, I was rather sceptical. However, I can now declare that I am a new woman, and will definitely be attending more of what Komedia has to offer.

Story Studio, held at Komedia, is a cabaret-style live literature event hosted by Tara Gould and Louise Hume. This night is a continuation from what used to be Short Fuse, and enables writers and performers, both recognised and emerging, to share their work. Performances include monologues, dialogues, live graphic stories, short films, poetry, playlets, vaudeville flash fiction or anything else that engages with words and human experiences.The relaxed and comfortable atmosphere eradicated the stigma of poetry readings that I had held for so long. I would gladly attend another ‘spoken word’ event, and will even admit that I was quite inspired to experiment with writing some of my own stories.

While some of the performances were clearly better than others, it was great to see people sharing

Although we live in a city as vibrant and diverse as Brighton, where individuality is embraced, we are still targeted and influenced to dress a certain way.

Spring is apparently well on its way. In the fashion calendar, spring started last September and the high street is already dominated by next season’s trends. Where else to start than with a brand that suggests a change of season is as an excuse to bring out another catalogue (or ‘handbook’) and that we should buy a whole new wardrobe because it’s ‘Spring Term 2010’. That’s right…Jack Wills. We can spot their logo tees and slogan hoodies a mile off, but is this ‘fabulously British’ brand really worth the money?

We university folk seem to have similar opinions of the brand. Most of the people I asked said that it is over-priced, and for preppy wannabes. It is ironic that a company selling high-priced clothing target British university students, when we have the least money to splurge!

It does seem like a waste if you’re only buying it to try and fit into the idealised Jack Wills student lifestyle. This is just emphasised by the fact that younger people who don’t even go to uni are stamping WILLS across their chests!

Even when asked if money wasn’t an issue, people said they still wouldn’t shop at Jack Wills, because of the negative connotation of seeming like a pretentious clone. This aversion to the brand just proves the power of the stereotype. We students much prefer to invent our own style, with a combination of high street and vintage clothes.

In Jack Wills’ defence, the clothes are of a very high quality and are well worth investing in if, for example, you want a hard-wearing shirt. Also, their cardis, jackets and jeans are more discreet if you’re worried about seeming showy!

It all depends on how you choose to spend your precious loan. To be fair, similar looks can be pulled off elsewhere for half the price. Maybe that’s the way to go, if it’s just going to be out of fashion next season!

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badger badger-artspages@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Film matters

On the big screen

Lily Rae Film editor

Hailee Steinfeld plays a girl on the hunt for her father’s killer in the new Coen Brothers offering. Photo: crashlanden.wordpress.com True Grit Joel and Ethan Coen John Attridge The western has never exactly reached the height of popularity it enjoyed back in the middle of the twentieth century, and even now you never know exactly what to expect walking into one. So to be confronted with a western by the Coen brothers (whose films usually elude any kind of formal classification) is somewhat surprising. Nevertheless ‘True Grit’ (a remake of the 1969 film) proves a strong and admirable film, one that is surprisingly truthful and affecting; and while it doesn’t quite match-up to the brothers’ own 2007 modern-western masterpiece ‘No

Country for Old Men’, it certainly shows that, not only is there life in the genre yet, but there is actually something new worth saying about the stories we find there.

Set in Arkansas sometime in the late nineteenth-century, ‘True Grit’ tells the tale of fourteen year-old Mattie Ross, a young girl who is trying to enlist the help of US Marshall Rooster Cogburn so she can track down her father’s killer, the petty crook Tom Chaney. In her screen debut newcomer Hailee Steinfeld delivers a virtuoso, Oscar-nominated performance as Mattie, full of spirit and vigour and yet firmly grounded in the reality of her situation. Without Cogburn she is sure to get lost in Indian territory, but at first he is unwilling to take the girl seriously.

Jeff Bridges (also Oscar-nominated) balances his portrayal of the Mar-

shall somewhere between a revered soldier and local drunk, and isn’t taken kindly to by another of Mattie’s helpers,Texas Ranger LaBeouf (Matt Damon), who has his own reasons for pursuing Chaney.

The film is littered with moments of the Coens’ quirky, trademark humour (although not nearly as much as diehard fans are probably hoping for), but for the most part ‘True Grit’ remains an exercise in straightforward storytelling. Although you might suspect a ‘buddy film’ to emerge between the trio the Coens manage to curb the sentimentality to keep the real story in check; Mattie is set on her quest to avenge her father’s death with or without these men’s help. Revenge is what drives her, and by avoiding any soul-searching the directors make the tale grittier, more realistic.The period detail is impecca-

ble too, with particular praise for the cinematography by Roger Deakins; instead of feeling like a film-set every frame of ‘True Grit’ simply exudes another place in time.

Historical films too often these days transpose modern values into eras where they have no rightful place, and in ‘True Grit’ too I was expecting Mattie’s journey to involve a sense of regret, a newfound appreciation for what it means, both psychologically and emotionally, to finally have her revenge. But it doesn’t quite work out like that. Times were different back then, and the Coens know it. By sticking to their guns they have woven a gripping tale of the Old West that doesn’t compromise, and in refusing to accommodate political-correctness the brothers show they have ‘true grit’ in a whole different way of their own.

the hero, or rather antihero, of Martin Amis’ 1984 satire, Money.

It is difficult to be convinced by Faulks’ insistence that Self is a hero, or that Vanity Fair protagonist Becky Sharpe’s ruthless quest for social advancement inspires admiration in the reader. Faulks also has a tendency to draw hasty conclusions (‘the hero of the British novel is dead’), but this is perhaps a necessary evil; reducing the hero of an entire national literary canon to a neat hour-long programme is no mean feat.

Nevertheless, this programme is a fascinating take on the development of the British novel, particularly as Faulks links the evolving depiction of the fictional hero to social and ideological change. Orwell’s Winston Smith, for example, hero of Nineteen Eighty-Four’s monochromatic misery of a world, emerged from the bloodbath of world war; the first conflict had subsumed the idea of individual heroism, as mass slaughter ripped through society and people lost faith in humanity.When the hero returned to the British novel, he was ‘a prisoner’, claims Faulks. With this in mind, Faulks selects disgruntled everyman Jim Dixon as his second

post-war hero, whose constraining Middle England existence as a lecturer at a provincial university is one of ‘real, overmastering, orgiastic boredom.’ Faulks charts the continuing influence of social change on the Romanesque hero, as Lucky Jim injected a much-needed dose of dry wit into austerity Britain.

Several other programmes dedicated to literature are to be broadcast over the coming months. In The Birth of the British Novel which began last week on BBC Four, Henry Hitchings goes back to where it all began, exploring the lives and works of the practitioners of the radical new art form. 18th-century greats, Swift, Richardson and Frances Burney, who inspired Jane Austen, are all discussed.

In Their Own Words is a series of programmes currently being repeated on BBC Four. A complement to Faulks’ character-driven approach to literary theory, the series charts the story of twentieth British fiction from the authors themselves. In Their Own Words: British Novelists Among the Ruins (1919-1939) aired last week and features original interviews with and radio broadcasts

by authors such as Jean Rhys, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf and other prominent figures of the inter-war years. Of particular amusement are the featured authors’ opinions of fellow literary figures. Evelyn Waugh, for example, lambastes modernist Woolf in a televised interview for ‘reducing prose style to gibberish’, then criticises Joyce for writing ‘absolute rot.’ The Age of Anxiety (1945-1969) is to follow, as authors continue to speak about the influence of the century’s political and social upheaval on their work.

The Beauty of Books also began last week on BBC Four with an appreciation of two ancient illuminated Bibles, testament to the book’s value as a work of art as well as a sacred text. The programme will go on to look at the medieval manuscripts of Chaucer. My Life in Books, discussions with authors and academics about their favourite books, is to begin later on in the year. A programme dedicated to Tolstoy and a small-screen adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectations will wrap up this year-long bookish bonanza in time for Christmas. For book-lovers everywhere, this is your year.

On the small screen Rebecca Loxton Some of the people we feel we know best in the world are merely creations of a novelists’ imagination, existing only between the pages of our favourite fictional works. Such is the musing of novelist Sebastian Faulks in the new literary documentary, Faulks on Fiction, which began last week on BBC Two. The Birdsong and Charlotte Gray author chooses to tackle novels from the point of view of their characters, rather than the people who penned them. For the first installment, The Hero (to be followed by The Lover, The Snob and The Villain), Faulks plucks examples of the characters he feels best represent the changing depiction of the hero of the British novel, from its origins to the present day. Beginning in 1719 with Defoe’s castaway Crusoe, he sweeps through the centuries, remembering familiar faces from the fundamentally moral Tom Jones to Victorian London’s superhero Sherlock Holmes who took on a life of his own, to more unlikely heroes such as Thackeray’s loathsome Becky Sharpe and cashsplashing, post-cultural John Self,

One-hundred and twenty-three metres of red carpet, 8,500 canapés and 3.7 kilograms of bronze that filmmakers the world over are desperate to get their hands on. Ladies and gentlemen: held in London’s Royal Opera House and hosted by the oh-so tasteful Jonathan Ross - The BAFTAs. In a not unpredictable victory swoop, The King’s Speech reigned (sorry) triumphant at the BAFTAs this year – winning seven awards in total for Best Film, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham-Carter), Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Outstanding British Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Music. Natalie Portman won the well-deserved award for Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan, but was not present to receive it at the ceremony: director Darren Aronofsky collected the award on her behalf. However, it was a disappointing evening for Black Swan, which had 12 nominations and only one win.

The deserving producers of the King’s Speech made sure to emphasise the point that the multiple award-winning film had been backed by the (now axed) UK Film Council. In this sense, the victory of The King’s Speech – a British film winning seven awards on its home turf – was a reminder of the wonderful creative output made possible by state-funded institutions such as the UKFC. Tanya Seghatchian, head of the UK Film Council’s Film Fund, commented: “The King’s Speech represents a great validation for the UK film industry as a whole.”

The Harry Potter films won the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema, while Sir Christopher Lee – at 88 years old – won a much deserved BAFTA Fellowship, and earned a standing ovation from the audience. Sir Christopher is renowned for his long and prolific career, including performances in Dracula, The Lord of the Rings, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Man with the Golden Gun and The Wicker Man. Chris Morris won the award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for Four Lions; somewhat surprisingly, The Social Network only garnered three awards for Best Director, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo received the award for Best Film Not in the English Language. Finally, Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Film, beating Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon.

If you’re one of the ten people left in the UK who hasn’t seen The King’s Speech – you now have no excuse.

A well-deserved selection of awards following a year of exceptional films.

Bring it on, 2011.

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badger badger-artspages@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Food for thought

Photo: flickr.com

Gig review

Hannah Meaney

Man Like Me performing at Jam Photo: Polina Belehhova Louise Ronnestad Music editor Man Like Me Jam 9th February 2011 is certainly a heatwave year for the venue Jam when it comes to club nights. Jam is run by a devoted team bringing not only, the best emerging, but also – well-established talent to its stage. One of these acts is Man Like Me. Yes, oh my gosh, you can really groove to the music coming from Johnny Langer and Peter Duffy that makes

up Man Like Me. And it’s not just me.

The audience was jumping or slightly bouncing along to some well-rehearsed, yet spontaneous, exotic carnival beats.

One can understand where they’ve got inspiration for the tropical rhythms.

Since Man Like Me had been entitled the “best damn live act in the UK” (Loud & Quiet) they embarked on a never ending World Tour. From L.A. to Estonia, Cape Town to Stoke, Man Like Me arrived pockets filled with their music. At Jam, the men had two additional members added to the band and started off with the question: “Do you want a man like me?” With hands in the air and occasional robot moves,

the band was jamming out their quirky hot stuff.They delivered songs like “Oh My Gosh”, “Donut”, “London Town”, “Single Dad”, “You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen”, “Carny” and “Lovestruck”. They finished off with a Man Like Me medley: mixing all the songs played during the night.

There were two options to continue the night. With 2 minutes walk to Brighton’s famous seafront, the night continued at Life for a midweek bashment. Dagger was back with their first rave of 2011 with London’s hottest Bashment outfit...The heatwave!

The launch party in December was a road block event with over 600 people

braving the snow and making it out for one The heatwave’s unmissable sets!

However, you could easily have stayed at Jam to join Club NME. NME Brighton has moved to this Live Music Hotspot. The team is making sure that there is something new every week to come back to. Tonight you could catch the popular and unescapable headline act Nimmo and the Gauntletts together with The Tenth View, Poor Little Pierrette, and Fiasco Thieves. This is just an example what awaits Jam’s basement venue this year.You can begin your night here and move on. Or you can stay for the whole evening in to the early hours of next morning.

ant punk-metal of Funeral Party.This may be a deliberate act on the part of the band, who openly state that they “don’t care to be associated with any particular scene”.

This wilfulness and disinclination towards being pinned down clearly goes over well with the audience, who shout along to incomprehensibly screamed verses and crowd-surf while the bouncers look on and grumble.

Half-way through the gig the ceiling is dripping with thrown beer and both those on the stage and in the audience have the flushed, excited look of children who have just eaten too many sweets and been told they can stay up late by their parents.

This childishness is present throughout the performance, both literally and through the music. A sizeable proportion of the audience look as though they wouldn’t be allowed to be doing this on a school

night – it’s one of those gigs where one receives a special stamp to prove that they are among the chosen few allowed to buy beer – and the band’s music reflects this.When asked about the idea behind their debut album, The Golden Age of Knowhere, the band describe the idea of a scenario ‘similar to Lord of the Flies...building a society from nothing’. Ignoring the fact that the children’s society in Golding’s book was filled with violence and superstition, one must remember that by the end the children had to be saved by the adults.

For those willing to let their inner child free, Funeral Party can be an enjoyable night out.

However, those looking for music with a little more depth will be disappointed, and these guys have painted themselves into a corner as far a musical sophistication goes.

The music room

James Torres, Chad Elliott and Kimo Kauhola Photo: oxfordstudent.com Douglas Clarke-Williams Funeral Party Audio 12th February Despite taking their name from a song by The Cure, Funeral Party display little of the self-conscious melancholia which characterised those kings of 1980s goth-pop.

Rather, they have taken on board the self-righteously angsty lyrics of Robert Smith and married them with an aggressive post-Rage Against the Machine instrumentalism which, when done right, makes their music a breath of fresh-air in an age of easy overproduction.

Taking to the stage to strains of what could almost be ambient electronica, the band at first strike one as a another collection of the overly trendy young men who populate the stages of small

venues on both sides of the Atlantic (Funeral Party hail from California); skinny jeans, black leather jackets and a couple of moustaches which bring to mind a Brazilian pimp.

To be honest, they do nothing to disparage this initial impression. The guitarist plays staccato chords or fiddles around at the lower end of the fret-board, the drummer hammers away while showering everybody nearby in sweat, and the singer alternately mumbles or screams his way through each three minute track.

It is no wonder that the band cite The Strokes as an influence along with other Pitchfork.com favourites like Dance Disaster Movement, Rat-a-tat and Girls (a band which is impossible to Google, incidentally).

Interestingly, the band also claims to be influenced by Radiohead, although it is difficult to draw a line from Thom Yorke’s orchestral rock to the exuber-

When I first moved to Brighton as a budding foodie from London, it took me a long time to search out the best places to buy ingredients. I’ve done the hard work so you don’t have tohere are five of the best food shops in Brighton.

Taj The Grocer on 95 Western Road, Brighton BN1 2AD. Taj offers an enormous range of Middle Eastern and South Asian ingredients. The spice range is excellent and much better value then in supermarkets- they mostly stock TRS spices .The vegetable range almost makes up for Brighton’s lack of a vegetable market and has some pretty obscure stock for the adventurous. If you don’t feel like cooking, they have a counter with freshly made curries and snacks. They offer a meal for two for £10, so it’s good value as well.

Yum Yum Oriental Market on 22-23 Sydney St, Brighton BN1 4EN. This shop has almost everything you need to make authentic East Asian food. They have a huge range of products and stock all the more obscure ingredients. This is the only place I’ve found pea aubergine and palm sugar in Brighton and they do frozen lime leaves too, which are brilliant in Thai curry. The staff are really friendly and knowledgeable and it’s not expensive either. Also, they have the most incredible range of instant noodles I’ve ever seen if you’re feeling lazy.

Archer’s of Brighton on 128 Islingword Road, Brighton BN2 9SH. This butcher’s has been in the same family for four generations and it shows. The master butcher trained at the now closed Smithfields’ butchery school and is incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. The meat is excellent, they offer a good range and they have seasonal specials.

Le Cave à Fromage on 34-35, Western Road, Brighton BN3 1A. This is a new branch of a quality cheese shop in London of the same name. There’s more cheeses than even the most addicted cheese freak could get through and you can try before you buy. The staff know what they’re talking about and they also offer regular cheese and wine tastings. It’s not cheap, good cheese isn’t, but it’s awesome. For a sample, they offer a cheese and charcuterie board with two glasses of wine for £20 served at the fancy tall tables at the back of the shop.

Brighton Fishing Quarter on King’s Road Arches, near the East Pier. Brighton has surprisingly few fish monger’s for a town by the sea, but this little area on the beach is a hot spot. There are plenty of little shops to choose from, all offering a selection of wet and frozen fish and shellfish at excellent prices.

Also, while you’re there you can get a delicious hot smoked mackerel sandwich from the tiny traditional fish smokers.

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badger

What’s On...?

| badger-artspages@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

If you want to see your event on these pages, contact Olivia James with the venue, date and time of your event, a short description, and any relevant images. Send your request to badger-listings@ussu. sussex.ac.uk by the Tuesday of the week before your event is happening at the very latest. * Tickets available from the Union Box Office in Falmer House

Monday Film

Comedy

Pub

Comedy

Club Night

True Grit

Stand Up

Pub Quiz

IOU Comedy

Subsplash Presents

The Coen Brothers Re-make with Jeff Bridges. Expectations are high, so go see for yourself if it lives up to John Wayne’s.

Comedy from several professional comedians including Robert White - Winner of Comic originality at the Edinburgh Festival.

Thinking caps on after a mindless weekend... Get ready to board the good ship laughter Rose Hill is under new management and has a with another tip-top show with the headline brand new vibe. act Simon Evans.

Datsik, Andy C and Dynamite MC. Dubstep on a Monday?

the duke of york’s

falmer bar

rose hill tavern

the jam

concorde

1pm, 6pm

8pm, £3

7pm, free

8pm, £3

7.30pm, £10

Charity/music

Comedy

Pub Brighton After Dark Ukulele Session

2

Tuesday Film Gas Land

Charity Band Night

Brett Goldstein Grew Up in a Strip Club

This hard-hitting documentary exposes the devastating impact of gas drilling in the US.

In aid of Link Community Development ‘4 bands will be covering your favourite indie/pop/chart/soul/rock songs of the last decade.

Goldstein tells the 100% true story of his time An informal gathering of ukulelists, so in Marbella as a young man, running a strip bring yours along to play with some fellow club. enthusiasts.

falmer bar

the jam

upstairs at three and ten

walmer castle bar

5pm, free

Time TBC, £3

8pm, £7/5

8.30pm

Wednesday Exhibition

Performance

Music

Club Night

Laboratory Life: Open Labs

Antigone

Glasser

Itchy Feet Launch Party

Laboratory Life is a unique, interactive art-science laboratory, exhibition and talks programme, exploring the use of new technologies in biomedicine.

Jean Anouilh’s thought-provoking play, originially produced in nazi-occupied France as an allegory of resistance, is a modern retelling of Sophocles’ original Greek masterpiece.

Come and be transported by minimal melodies and rapturous vocals into the ethereal world of one-woman electro orchestra Cameron Mesirow. Not be missed!

A totally unique night of Swing, Soul, Funk, Rhythm & Blues, Rock n Roll and Ska is finally coming to Brighton!

lighthouse

debating chamber wednesday-friday

the hope

concorde

12pm, free

7.30pm, £5/4 suds card

8pm, £7.50

10pm, £5

Thursday

brighton university, grand parade, room

2

204

7pm

Societies

Comedy

Music

Pub

Illustrated talk by Paul Garwood

Comic Boom!

Venetian Snares

Cocktail Night

Death takes a holiday: time and transformaton in Early/Middle Bronze Age funerary practices.

The best rising stars of UK comedy plus more established headline act Ginger & Black, hosted by the fantastic Seann Walsh.

Canadian electronic artist will be appearing in Brighton to blend brutal noises with cutting edge dance from his new album.

Get down to falmer bar between 6-8pm and grab 2-for-1 cocktails.

arts a2

komedia

coalition

falmer bar

7pm, £3/2

8pm, £9/7

7pm, £11

from

6pm

Friday

the

badger

Societies

Live Music

Club Night

Club Night

The Badger writers’ meetings

East Slope Live

Greg Wilson

James Blake and Joy Orbison

Want to write for the Badger? Come down and meet our friendly editors every Friday; pick up a story or share your ideas.

Live music from 900 spaces and the Last Carnival! With cheap drinks as well!

Legend Greg Wilson is coming to Brighton.

For some funky house, head this way.

Newly populariszed James Blake is playing a DJ-set of his new album alongside UK producer Peter O’Grady (JO).

falmer house, room

126

east slope bar

audio

life

1.30pm

9pm, free

11pm, £8/7/5

11pm, £8

Pub

Fashion

Pub/music

Pub/music

Club night

Ale Festival

My Swish’s ‘Spring Clean Clothes Swap’

The Big Chill Handover

Reggae and Roots

Devotion

Live country music for barn dancing, dance lessons, hay bales and cheap ales!

Bring 1-15 items of good quality, clean clothing and leave with a whole new wardrobe! See myswish.co.uk for more info.

Dave Smeaton and Suisse Tony (from Bristol) take over for the night.

Roots, reggae and ska in a lovely pub!

DnB legend DJ Hyoe, Original Sin, Benny Page plus more.

Saturday

hobgoblin

brighton friends meeting house

fortune of war

rose hill tavern

concorde

2pm,

1pm, £5 Adv / £6

9pm, free

7.30pm, free

11pm, £10

free

2

Sunday Music

Pub/Sport

Comedy

Pub

The Swing Ninjas

Six Nations

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A Brighton original busking band, they blend guitar, sax and helicon tuba and turn the venue into a toe tapping feast of lively harmonies.

Watch the Rugby in the comfort of a pub with a pint.

You could be the contestants in the biggest With the Rosehill Jazz sessions every Sunday interactive music contest! Arrange yourself with Remember April. into teams of 6(or less) and be prepared to be tested! Plus comedy and music!

mesmerist

fiddlers elbow

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rose hill tavern

3.30pm, free

free

7.30pm, £4

8pm, free

21.02.11

17

science

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badger

| badger-science@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Mathematics meets medicine Using fractal geometry to combat cancer Tanja Hoffmann For a long time Nature’s structure was believed by to be based on a Euclidean system; Cezanne described it as everything can be viewed in terms of cones, cylinder and spheres. In 1975 the French American mathemati-

cian Benoît B. Mandelbrot however disagreed: “Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.”

As a response to his scientific predecessors, Mandelbrot introduced

The Romanesco broccoli is made up of hundreds of thousamnds of Fractals Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

the term ‘fractal’ which stands for a fragmented shape which shows self-similarity, meaning that if this particular shape would be cut into pieces, each part, though in a reduced size, would equal the shape of the object it was cut from.

By developing the principles of fractal geometry, he created a new mathematical branch which has found many applications in Nature ever since.

Besides coastlines, rivers and mountains, trees are a good example of irregular structures in Nature which can be easily measured with fractals. The structure of a tree is not randomly arranged but confined to a certain form of discontinuous geometry.

A tree is composed of a stem which will divide into boughs at a certain point. Such boughs will then branch off into shorter units which will again branch off at another point.

Interestingly, the same pattern of branching will be found at any formed branch of the tree so that every piece of the tree structure will eventually equal any other part of the tree: one bough will equal the entire tree, a branch will equal its bough, and the structure of a leaf will equal its branch.

Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles Last year Mandelbrot passed away as a consequence of cancer. And even in this area of research, fractals have recently been proven useful in providing a mathematical basis for the development of a system capable of recognizing breast cancer at an early stage.

By providing an ideal platform, fractals have been used to develop a computer software which detects the structure of ducts within breast tissue.

Since ducts in a healthy person are structured in a fractal fashion, the computer program aims to detect any irregularities of that pattern from taken MRI images.

The new technique provides physicians with an alternative to conventional tools spotting tumor development in patients. Compared

to Mammography, the computeraided MRI technique produces three dimensional images of the ducts instead of two dimensions and has furthermore been proven to be successful in spotting invasive cancers at an accuracy rate of nearly 100% in clinical trials at the Center for Breast Care at Boca Raton Community Hospital.

The innovative detection method which takes advantage of Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry has the potential to facilitate a clinicians’ life and improve the patient’s chance to successfully fight the cancer.

It would also lower hospital costs as the number of surgical interventions such as biopsies could be reduced with a high accuracy of detecting breast cancer non-invasively.

Learn a language to fight dementia

A second language can help delay the onset of Alzhemiers Katarzyna Pietrzykowska Being able to speak a foreign language has various advantages: from broadening one’s horizons and giving the ability to communicate with people from a different country to improving employability. However, bilingualism can give one much more than just better social life and few lines on a CV: according to Canadian researchers, it can delay the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by almost 5 years.

AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder mostly diagnosed in people over 65. It is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly and is the fourth leading cause of death in developed nations (after heart disease, cancer, and stroke).

Although the course of this disease is unique for each individual, there are some common symptoms. The earliest ones can be easily mistaken for age-related issues or thought to be caused by stress. They include inability to acquire new memories, such as difficulty in recalling recently learned and observed facts. Later on symptoms become more explicit: the individual becomes confused,irritable and aggressive; experiences extreme mood swings, language breakdown and memory loss. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, finally leading to death. The mean life expectancy following diagnosis is approximately seven years and fewer than three per

cent of patients live more than fourteen years after diagnosis.

A healthy brain contains millions of interconnected nerve cells (neurons) that communicate with each other using electrical impulses sent across the synapses. The key event leading to AD appears to be the formation of amyloid beta (Aß) protein which aggregates on the blood vessels and on the outside surface of brain neurons forming amyloid plaques.

This event impairs the signalling between the neurons, which leads to their death. As a result of the latter the brain shrinks, especially its regions responsible for thinking, planning and memorising.

It was recently found, that people with more cognitive ability (which includes language skills) are likely to develop asymptomatic AD – they develop the brain lesions, plaques and tangled neurological-tissue fibres that are hallmarks of AD, but they do not exhibit the memory loss and confusion that typically characterise this disorder. Such individuals have also enlarged neurons when compared with patients suffering from dementia.

This phenomenon might be explained using the brain reserve hypothesis. On an everyday basis one uses only a small part of one’s brain. Every time one learns a new language, however, new regions of one’s brain are activated leading to the brain reserve formation. Once a

You may stave off Alzheimers but the time you saved has been used up to learn Russian Photo: etsy.com/people/ RubyBeets part of a brain degenerates, another one that is already activated can make up for the loss. In a nutshell, people who have more cognitive ability and more neural tissue to start with (i.e. sharper minds) may be more able to endure damage of some of their

neural tissue.

It is not clear yet whether the later onset of AD’s symptoms in bilingual individuals is purely due to their language skills or whether there are other mechanisms involved. No one knows yet for sure either how much

of the risk of developing AD is hidden in one’s DNA and how much of it is due to environmental factors like social activity and physical exercise but learning a language while the conflict is being solved certainly will not hurt.

Electric Einstein? Roving Rutherford? Fancy writing for the Badger science page? Write a 500-1000 word article on whatever excites and inspires you in the world of science and email it to badger-science@ussu.sussex.ac.uk.

18

SU sport with

badger | badger-sports@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

the

sport

21.02.11

Sussex win yet again Convincing win for Swallows Irene Morgan Sussex 47 - 10 Canterbury CC

University of Sussex women’s rugby team were undeniably nervous as the date of their first cup match against an unfamiliar team loomed, though as soon as they set foot on the pitch, their dominance was obvious. Within the first few minutes, blindside winger Robyn Winton side-stepped through a number of Canterbury’s players and placed the ball down over the try line with apparent ease.

Sussex were putting to use their powerful forwards in scrums, rucks and mauls, stealing possession on a number of occasions, allowing Marcelle Jennings and Irene Morgan to both score tries between the posts in quick succession. Sarah Keeling then took advantage of an opening off a maul 15 metres from the try line, sprinting past a bemused Canterbury team and bringing the score to 22-0.

The few key players on the opposing team demonstrated their determination and despite the fact that Sussex rugby were a number of points ahead, Canterbury took advantage of penalties and their number 13 stormed through Sussex’s defensive line to score their first try of the match.

However, quick-footed backs Jess Forbes and Naomi Passley hit back and pushed forward, resulting in two spectacular tries for Sussex.

Canterbury then sporadically kicked the ball towards the posts, causing another lucky try as a player jumped on the ball and barely grazed the dead ball line.

In the second half in particular University of Sussex women’s rugby proved their command of forward moves,though consistent injuries from the opposing team meant that Sussex were prevented from displaying their full potential; two ambulances were called due to injuries.

The continuous stop-start play due to the imjuries to Canterbury players was beginning to grate on Sussex, but Naomi Passley took a forward ball and smashed through several of the defensive team’s players, scoring the 4th try of the game. This was shortly followed by an aggressive scrum 5 metres from the try line, and Andina Brown to spotted an opening and burst through a number of strong opposing forwards, bringing the score to 42-10.

Megan Ingham set up Jess Forbes wonderfully in a well timed pass near the try line, though Canterbury seemed in particular to have problems with keeping tackles low; one player wrapped Jess Forbes around the neck as she was placing the ball down, and the referee finally decided to take action, awarding a deserved penalty try.

Although the game was cut short due to Canterbury’s injuries, Sussex feel that they played to the best of their abilities and every single player contributed to the win, and are in particular very proud of the handful of players that are new to rugby; they displayed astonishing levels of raw talent which will undeniably benefit the University of Sussex Women’s rugby team in their pursuit for the league title and the cup once again this season, and in the years to come.

New Year loss for women’s football

One of the many close fought encounters in the Swallows’ important win Photo:Bex Yates Bex Yates Sussex 135-82 Essex Last Wednesday saw the women’s fencing team take on Essex at home.

With the Sussex team consisting of eight skilled fencers the outlook was positive from the onset. Sussex were looking to seal victory over a talented Essex side.

Beginning with foil, Sussex was represented by Penny Woznicki, Celine Boest and Captain Bex Yates.

The first nine bouts were, predictably, hard fought. By the end of the nine bouts the score stood at 45-33 to Sussex.

The Essex team had clearly improved but they were more than evenly matched by the Sussex team.

Next up in the match were the Sabre bouts, where Sussex hoped to extend their overall lead.

Sussex were strong in this discipline, with Gillian Stone, Holly Deegan and Phoebe Coghlan taking to the piste.

Their performance was incredible, with Phoebe not losing a single point to the opposition and Holly obtaining a 5-0 score in only 9 seconds. The final score for Sabre stood at 45-11 to Sussex.

Sussex were well ahead by the start of the final weapon of the day, epee.

The Sussex epee team comprised of

Lily Walsworth, Tereza Kaplanova and Bex Yates.

The bouts were all closely fought, with Essex pushing Sussex all the way. Some skilled fencing meant that Sussex held off the Essex fencers to a score of 45-38 to Sussex.

The overall final score was 135-82 to Sussex, a convincing win for the Sussex Swallows against a talented Essex side. There was a really great atmosphere throughout all the matches with both the Essex and the Sussex team having a fantastic day.

The women’s fencing team take on Kent in their next BUCS match. We welcome all supporters, and a list of our upcoming fixtures is available at www.bucs.org.uk.

Sussex bounce back with victory Last week’s Alex Nightingale appearance from Tiff Ansari, who within the first thirty seconds had to results...

3-1 KCL S be reminded that she wasn’t playing ussex

Sussex clear their lines in tough first match of 2011 Photo:Alex Nightingale Alex Nightingale Sussex 3-7 Middlesex Sussex were eager to get back to action after enduring an extended winter break. Sussex continued to train hard through the break, and were confident that their hard work would play off when they returned to action.

Women’s Football team finally got round to playing their first match of 2011 at the start of February. Surprisingly, given the extended break, the match started very well. Sussex’s Jaonie Belza and Molly Evans were on fire, securing an early 2-0 lead that Sussex fully deserved.

The early comfortable lead suggested that this could be a simple victory for Sussex. Middlesex had other ideas though, as they fought hard to get back on level terms. It quickly became clear that the game would become a long drawn out battle.

Middlesex came back strong equalising with two quick goals. This was swiftly followed by a well-worked third to put them into the lead.

To their credit Sussex managed to come back with another, pulling level in what was becoming a see-saw encounter. It seemed one moment might change the course of the match.

This moment predictably arrived, and Sussex were on the wrong end of it. A penalty shout was turned down, despite the challenge being clearly inside the area.

This seemed to give Middlesex confidence, as they poured forward with several quick breaks through Sussex’s defence. This was despite Captain Anna Benjamin’s crunching tackles which left their mark as Sussex sought to cling on for a draw.

It was not to be however, as Middlesex surged into the lead and held on for full time. Overall not the best result, but an incredible effort for the first game back.

Sussex had been disappointed to suffer a dispiriting loss at Middlesex in their first game of 2011, and were keen to make sure that they quickly returned to winning ways.

The team enjoyed a relaxed train ride up to London to attempt to claim victory against a talented King’s College team. King’s proved to be adept hosts, with homely changing rooms, they even provided a welcome sunny day. Just about perfect conditions for a game of football.

Sussex showed creditable composure on the ball in the early stages, and made King’s do much of the early running as they eased themselves into the game. This possession was not without a cutting edge, as Sussex’s midfield skilfully moved the ball into the right place at the right time.

Sussex were boosted by a guest

Netball, her usual sport at Sussex.

However Ansari proved to be an inspired new signing, she ended up scoring twice and being voted player of the match.

Sussex were determined not to repeat the problems of last week, when they threw away a two goal lead.They fought hard to ensure they stayed solid in defence, while looking for that crucial third goal that would surely secure victory. This almost came with a sweet header just over the cross bar, but still Sussex waited to make the match safe.

Finally though a smoothly placed penalty goal put Sussex into a commanding lead. Despite a late shot being cleared off Sussex’s own goal line they held on to secure a much needed victory.

Let’s hope the win marks the start of a winning streak for Sussex Women’s Football.

Badminton

Sussex Men 5-3 Hertfordshire Basketball Sussex Men 1sts 66-71 Brunel Sussex Women 54-39 St Mary’s Fencing Women’s 1sts 135-82 Essex Football Men’s 2nds 3-2 Royal Medics Women’s 1sts 3-1 KCL Hockey Men’s 1sts 7-0 Roehampton Men’s 2nds 8-0 Imperial Women’s 1sts 1-0 Surrey Women’s 2nds 5-0 Roehampton Rugby Men’s 2nds 56-14 LSE Squash

Men’s 1sts 2-3 Imperial Men’s 2nds 2-3 Hertfordshire Women’s 2nds 83-79 Swansea An accomplished performance brought Sussex victory Photo: A.Nightingale

Tennis Men’s 1sts 12-0 UCL

Spring 2011

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