Lent Issue 1 by The Cambridge Student

The Thursday Magazine: Scandi-style edition The

Cambridge

19 January 2017 Vol. 19 Lent Issue 1

www.tcs.cam.ac.uk

Student

Reports of street harassment on the rise in Cambridge

• •

Over 385 reports made to Police in 2016 alone

University delay to establish new code of conduct

Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor

Wolfson College student was in for a rude shock last week when she was flashed by a stranger, turning what had been a normal afternoon into a distressing one. Following the complaint she subsequently made, Cambridgeshire Police is on the lookout for a “big white man in his early 50s, wearing a black scarf, a dark waterproof coat, blue jeans, and a dark woolly hat”. This is the latest addition to a spate of incidents of street sexual harassment reported by Cambridge students. Street harassment includes crimes such as stalking and unwanted sexual remarks and actions. In response to a query posed by TCS under the Freedom of Information Act, data provided by Cambridgeshire Police revealed that there has been a gradual increase in the number of reported cases of street harassment since 2006. Between January 2006 and November 2016, 3,386 cases of street sexual harassment were reported to Cambridgeshire Police. According to the data, 413 incidents were reported to the police in 2015 alone, up from 174 in 2012. In 2016, 385 cases had been reported before December. Speaking in response to the findings, a Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said that the rise in reports of sexual offences was by “no means a local issue. “There has been a rise in reports of sexual offences across the country

in recent years,” he said. “This is believed to be the result of victims being more confident in reporting crimes, knowing they will be treated seriously. It may also have been influenced by high profile sexual abuse cases in the media.” In Michaelmas 2016, CUSU representatives met with Cambridgeshire Police and submitted suggestions to bring about greater safety. “Our suggestions included allowing students to anonymously report instances of harassment to the police. This would provide them with data that could justify a full investigation of the matter,” said Audrey Sebatindira, CUSU’s Women’s Officer. “The onus shouldn’t be on students to constantly monitor and condition their behaviour,” she added. University authorities are taking these complaints very seriously in order to ensure students’ safety. “We are aware that violent crime and sexual assault in particular, is an issue for higher education establishments globally,” a University spokesperson said. They added that the University is in the process of establishing a new procedure and code of conduct to deal with student complaints of student harassment and sexual misconduct. “While it had originally been intended to implement this at the beginning of 2017, some late amendments to the detail of the procedure has led to a short delay and we now hope to implement it later in the academic year.”

Investigations page 4-5 →

“Uber for bikes” coming to University Joanna Taylor Over 400 yellow bikes will be introduced to the city in a scheme nicknamed “Uber for bikes”. Chinese company ofo has confirmed that preparations are underway for the scheme to begin in March, in which bikes can be hailed by a smartphone app and do not have to be returned to a set location. Bikes instead must be dropped off on any public land for others to pick up, and do not require docking stations. Ofo, whose bikes are manufactured in China by the company Pheonix, say that they want the scheme to be affordable to all Cambridge residents and particularly students. Each journey will cost under a pound, and the company is considering setting up membership plans in the future. The introduction of the scheme was announced by Hillary Holden, the Cambridgeshire Country Council Transport Officer, on Twitter. She called the move “further proof, if any is needed, that Cambridge is the biggest small city in the world”, as it is only the third city outside China to set up the scheme. Ofo, whose company name is supposed to look like a tiny bicycle, have five million registered users in China, the majority of which are at universities. Their company was recently valued at US $500 million by Bloomberg, and is now undertaking its first wave of global expansion. A company spokesperson told Cambridge News that they are “going to bring our successful experience from China to Cambridge”. The bikes they are manufacturing are purpose-built for British riders. A similar bike-sharing scheme was launched by City Council leader Simon Sedgwick-Jell in 1993, but had to be abandoned after six months as most of A crisp January morning in a Cambridge park as the sun rises over the River Cam. Image: Luke Naylor-Perrott the bikes went missing.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

News

Editorial Team Editorial: Curating and contributing to 19 January 2017

Volume 19 • Lent Issue 1

Editor-in-Chief

Will Tilbrook

Deputy Editors

Lili Bidwell Sophie Dickinson Joanna Taylor

News Editors Deputy News Editors

Reetika Revathy Subramanian Khushali Dodhia Matt Gurtler Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin Abby Watson

Science Editors

Ned Booker

Features Editors

Noella Chye Caithlin Ng

Comment Editors

Matthew Harris Molly Moss Harry Robertson

Theatre Editors

Joe Richards Gemma Sheehan

Music Editor

Pippa Smith

Fashion & Beauty Editor

Octavia Akoulitchev

Lifestyle Editor

Amiya Nagpal

Food & Drink Editor

Emer O’Hanlon

TV & Film Editor

Eliza Dickinson

Chief Sub Editors

Howard Chae Cait Findlay Dom Waters Dee Dee Lee William Grace

Sub Editors Staff Illustrator

Beatrice Obe

Directors

Stevie Hertz Jessie Mathewson Tom Patrick Urvie Periera Will Tilbrook

student debate

Will Tilbrook Editor-in-Chief

elcome back to Cambridge for a new year and a new term. It has been all change at The Cambridge Student over the Christmas vacation, with an entirely new senior editorial team at the helm and a group of keen new editors taking up positions on our sections. After a few difficult terms for TCS, I can happily announce which the fortnightly print run that we trialled last term has been properly established for the whole of Lent (and hopefully beyond). Everyone involved with the paper is extremely excited with this outcome, and even colleagues from other student news outlets are (reportedly) pleased, as we all benefit from a thriving journalistic scene, both in Cambridge and up to an international level.

Everyone involved with the paper is extremely excited with this outcome While it is undeniable that print journalism is in sharp decline, the political events of the past year make it clear that traditional media still has a responsibility to its readership to hold the authorities to account.

BEATRICE OBE

Positivity in the new year:

Although TCS cannot claim to be sitting on the next Trump ‘dirty dossier’, we think it has its place as a curator of and contributor to student debate, delivering high quality news stories, varied comment pieces, and unique feature articles. Previous Editors have worked tirelessly for almost a year now to ensure that the newspaper that you’re holding exists and without their continued dedication to the paper, none of this would be possible. A special mention must go to the outgoing Editors Stevie Hertz and Jessie Mathewson for being there to answer my stressed queries and for creating the hefty handover document of 17 pages. But most importantly, TCS is for the whole Cambridge student body, not just for the people who come into the office every week. If you want to start people talking on a topic which you think is important, TCS is the place to start that discussion, and we always welcome new contributors to the team and would love to know what you think we’re missing. There are some great pieces to look out for in this first edition of 2017 though, including the Features central spread with its ‘positivity in the new

year’ theme (p. 10-11). We also have the exclusive findings presented in the Investigations spread (p. 4-5) on sexual harassment which

The cool hygge vibe will offset the anxieties that come with the start of term have been a long time in the making, involving cooperation with the local authorities and a lot of persistent work within the TCS team. We hope that the resultant pieces are both shocking and engaging to read. Our theme for The Thursday Magazine this week is ‘scandi’, coinciding nicely with the chilly weather. Hopefully the cool hygge vibe will offset the anxieties that come with the start of every term and be sure to check out our scandi-style fashion shoot that took place over the vacation (TTM p. 18-9) too. All the photos from this can be found on our website and the same goes for the rest of this week’s content. I hope you enjoy reading through the paper.

The Cambridge Student takes complaints about editorial content seriously. We are committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation rules and the Editors’ Code of Practice enforced by IPSO, and by the stipulations of our constitution. Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent by email to editor@tcs.cam.ac.uk or by post to The Editor, The Cambridge Student, Cambridge University Students’ Union, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX. Letters to the Editor may be published.

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

News

Poverty major cause of education gap Cambridge study finds gender has less impact on education gap than poverty Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor Laying exclusive focus on eradicating gender inequality in education in the world’s poorest countries might not be the most ideal way to increase participation in schools, two University of Cambridge educationalists have warned. The warning has been issued in response to the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Last year, education experts lauded the UN for its push to improve access to higher education in the world’s poorest countries. It was the first time that the UN had given itself targets to increase participation in tertiary-level education. Formerly, it had focused almost exclusively on making sure that children around the world had the chance to gain a decent education

“equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university” as part of its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the UN is striving to boost university attendance across the globe, particularly for women. However, the UN’s focus on eradicating gender inequality in education – a cause championed by Michelle Obama, America’s outgoing first lady, among others – could cause governments to lose sight of more pernicious educational inequalities, two University of Cambridge educationalists have warned after a study. The study was undertaken by

Sonia Ilie and Pauline Rose, from remained substantial when income Cambridge’s Faculty of Education. was considered. For instance, only 2% of Ethiopia’s According to the study, educational poorest fifth of male 19-year-olds are The gender gap is getting in higher education, but 9 per cent of its poorest female 19-year-olds are. smaller whilst income Meanwhile, 22 per cent of the richest 19-year-old men and 30 per cent of inequality grows the richest 19-year-old women are at inequalities concerning poverty are far university. Income was also a key factor in greater than those regarding gender. Using data from the Young Lives Vietnam, where around 8% of the project, a University of Oxford poorest 19-year-old men are in higher longitudinal study tracking about education compared with 14% for 12,000 children born in 1994 over their women from low-income families, entire education, Dr Ilie and Professor the Young Lives data showed. In Rose found that women’s participation comparison, participation rates for in higher education often exceeded richer 19-year-olds stood at a fairly men’s, although the participation gap healthy 48% and 56% for men and MARIA GERSHUNI/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

5% Percentage of students enrolled in school progressing to higher education [Young Lives Project]

at primary or secondary school, while efforts around post-18 education were centred on technical or vocational training. By including a goal of achieving

Oxford rejection made into artwork Matt Gurtler Deputy News Editor Eighteen year old Claudia Vulliamy from Camden School for Girls received a letter last Wednesday informing her that her application to study Classics at Wadham College, Oxford had been unsuccessful. By Thursday she had cut up particular lines from the letter and turned them into a piece of artwork, a photo of which was tweeted by her mother, Louisa Saunders. The photo went viral, amassing over 159 thousand likes on social media and was retweeted by ITV News, the Wadham Student Union, and Frank Cottrell-Boyce. In his tweet, the Millions author said: “If you want to do anything worth doing you have to learn to embrace rejection – here’s a brilliant lesson in

“Not getting into Oxford ended up making my week”

how to do so.” Vulliamy said she was shocked by the sudden popularity of the painting, and hopes that it has helped other people in her position. “I saw this rather momentous letter and felt like making it into something. “I think it’s cheered people up, especially people who have also missed out on a place. I wouldn’t have thought that not getting into Oxford would have ended up making my week.” Her mother says that the artwork is not for sale, but that they will be getting it framed. Claudia, who said she hadn’t set her heart on Oxford, is now working towards meeting her offer from Durham University. She is also continuing to post artwork, including A-Level portfolio pieces and a portrait of her mother, to her Instagram account, which has gained almost 4,000 followers.

women, respectively. “We need to keep on focusing on gender inequalities, but it is clear that the gaps in educational outcomes are far larger when you compare different income groups,” said Dr Ilie, who presented her results at the Society for Research into Higher Education’s

The gaps in educational outcomes are far larger when comparing different income groups annual research conference in Wales last month. Those educational inequalities are particularly apparent at the primary school level, where income was far more important than gender in determining whether children went to school or not, said Dr Ilie, who added: “The gender gap is starting to get a lot smaller.” Offering quality universal education was particularly important for improving access to university as only 5 per cent of those not enrolled in school by the age of eight made it into higher education, the Young Lives information showed. “We also need to focus on what is happening in schools – it’s not enough to simply master basic numeracy and literacy as you need to acquire a good grasp of higher-level maths to improve your chance of getting into university,” she concluded.

Degree-holders swear more on Twitter Matt Gurtler Deputy News Editor A study carried out at the University of Pennsylvania has concluded that PhD students and degree-holders swear and use informal language more often than is commonly assumed. Participants in the study were shown tweets with all context, including name, username, and profile picture removed, and were asked to make assumptions about the author, including their age and level of education. The full study, which was published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, found that although participants were correct most of the time when making assumptions about gender, age and politcal views they frequently underestimated Twitter users’ level of education.

The study highlights the most common inaccurate stereotypes

Tweets containing swear words were often incorrectly assumed to be written by someone without a university degree, as well as those including slang such as ‘wanna’, ‘lol’ and ‘ain’t’. However, words such as ‘discussion’ and ‘summit’ were incorrectly assumed to have been written by Twitter users with an advanced degree. In a separate study carried out by researchers at Cambridge, along with colleagues from USA, Hong Kong, and Netherlands, it was revealed that people who swear more often are less likely to tell lies. Participants in this study were asked to write down their favourite swear words before taking a lie detector test. Those who wrote down more curse words were found to be more likely to tell the truth.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Investigations

Only 1 in 4 street harassment c CUSU Women’s Officer Audrey Sebatindira says we need to find new ways to protect students in light of figures.

Street Sexual Harassment Case 400

Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor

In some cases no suspects are identified by Police

the number of reported cases of street harassment has more than doubled, from 174 cases in 2012 to 385 in 2016 (as of November 2016). In 2015, the police recorded 377 cases in total. Alongside the rise in cases reported, there has also been a gradual increase in the number of cases investigated by the police. In 2013, the police detected 43 cases. The number increased to 89 in the following year and, by November of 2016, 79 cases had been detcted and solved. Since the beginning of this academic year, University students have received multiple e-mails from their College Tutors notifying them about new cases of attacks on students on the street, and asking them to exercise “constant vigilance”. “Due to the recent alerts about the incidents, coupled with how badly lit and secluded the streets are, I end up choosing longer, but safer routes quite often,” said Sauleha Kamal, a student of Lucy Cavendish College, referring to Queen’s Road.

“There are catcallers sometimes. I generally ignore them and walk ahead,” she added. The police authorities claim that they have been doing their every bit to ensure that the streets remain safe. “We have police patrols out in Cambridge to reassure the public and prevent crime. We also have teams dedicated to dealing with sexual offences and catching offenders,” said the spokesperson,. “Obviously, we would also advise people to take common sense precautions by avoiding isolated spots when out alone and, if possible, walking with someone else and keeping to welllit, public areas.” “Always go on the main roads and if you’re going out make sure you’re with someone, especially if you’re coming out of a club drunk. “It’s never the victim’s fault but it always pays to be cautious,” says Dee Dee Lee, a student from Homerton.

335

320

297

284

279 237

240

Number of Cases Reported

Since 2006, only one in every four reported cases of street sexual harassment has been investigated by the Cambridgeshire Police. Of the 3,386 cases reported over a span of ten years, only 793 have been closed. The data was obtained in response to a Freedom of Information query filed by The Cambridge Student, which requested data on the number of cases of street sexual harassment reported and detected by the Cambridgeshire Police between January 2006 and November 2016. Speaking about this disparity in number, a spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “There are many reasons why a case could remain undetected. It may be there was insufficient evidence resulting in no charges being brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, or there may have been a report and the victim subsequently didn’t want to press charges.” The spokesperson also added that in some cases, no suspects may have been identified. According to the data obtained,

358

236 174

160

2006

2008 2007

2010 2009

2012 2011

2013

Year

Cambridgeshire Police (FO

REETIKA

“I was too shocked to react”, students weigh in on dangers Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor Barely a month after coming to Cambridge in October last year, an MPhil student had an unpleasant encounter on the street near to Parker’s Piece. She was on her way back home from yoga class, listening to music on her phone, when she realised that someone had been following her for a while. “For nearly five minutes, he kept following me from behind. I didn’t pay much heed,” said the student, who asked to remain anonymous. “Suddenly, he spanked me...I was too shocked to react. He was certainly very drunk. I think he laughed and walked ahead like nothing had happened.” For some students coming to the University from distant corners of the globe, the dark alleyways and secluded corners are certainly a matter of concern, especially in the winter when it gets dark earlier in the evening. It is not unusual for students to find this email in their inboxes: “Students who travel on foot or by bicycle are urged to walk and ride in pairs whenever possible. All those who travel close to or after nightfall should

“Stay in bright places, do not walk down alleyways”

carry a torch, and an easily accessible charged mobile phone.” Through email alerts, posters, and focused discussions, colleges are also trying their best to also ensure that students feel fully equipped to report cases of sexual harassment. “The collegiate University is committed to dealing with any sexual harassment or misconduct, and it recognises the interest shown by both students and staff,” said a University spokesperson. Following the spate of incidents, CUSU representatives met with officers from the Cambridgeshire Police last term and submitted suggestions. “Our suggestions included allowing

students to anonymously report instances of harassment to the police. This would provide them with data that could justify a full investigation of the matter,” said Audrey Sebatindira, CUSU’s Women’s Officer. She also emphasised the need to find new ways to protect students. There are plans to create and publicise a map of college Porters’ Lodge across Cambridge, where students who might feel threatened could seek refuge in any of them, even in the small hours.

At an individual level, students have also been taking due care to ensure

that they are not caught in such unexpected, dangerous situations. “Stay in bright places, do not walk down alleyways,” said Monsicha Mint Pongrujikorn, a student of Cambridge Judge Business School. “Pay attention to where you’re going, not your phone,” she added. However, several students claim that Cambridge is much safer than their own hometowns. “Since it has such a large student population, you do end up seeing a lot of bikers even late into the night,” said a Jesus College student, adding: “You do encounter people drunk on the street, but it is not necessarily dangerous.”

Echoing this sentiment, Pui May Wong, from Darwin College said, “I feel safer in Cambridge than I do back home.” Wong also added that she stays very alert when she is on the street, “I keep my eyes and ears open. I have got pepper spray as well, but I do not keep it out since Cambridge seems fine.” In the midst of these discussions, others say that it is important not to get paranoid. “Fear will not solve the problem. We need to be on the streets and ensure that we tackle the issue head-on,” said Sociology student Sara Wong.

Clockwise from top: A graph comparing case House, a member of which has temporarily d cidents occurred, raw FOI data showing the

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

Investigations

cases are investigated by Police

INTERVIEW: Neil Franklin, spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police

es Reported

359

385

Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor

337

Neil Franklin, spokesman of the Cambridgeshire Police, talks about the findings of the FOI on street sexual harassment.

Cases Reported

2014

What are the reasons for the low detection rates of the cases? There are many reasons. It may be there was insufficient evidence resulting in no charges being brought by the CPS, or there may been a report and the victim subsequently didn’t want to press charges. In some cases, no suspects may have been identified.

Cases Detected

2016 (upto.. 2015

OI data)

A REVATHY SUBRAMANIAN, EXCEL

DAVID DIXON, CREATIVE COMMONS

“There has been a rise in reports of sexual offences across the country... it’s by no means a local issue.”

Why have the number of cases reported on street harassment increased? There has been a rise in reports of sexual offences across the country in recent years. We notice this every time

crime figures are released and it’s by no means a local issue. This is believed to be the result of victims being more confident in reporting crimes, knowing they will be treated seriously. It may also have been influenced by high profile sexual abuse cases in the media. What are the measures taken by the police to ensure safe streets? We have police patrols out in Cambridge to reassure the public and prevent crime. We also have teams dedicated to dealing with sexual offences and catching offenders. We would also advise people to take some common sense precautions like avoiding isolated spots when out alone and, if possible, walking with someone else and keeping to well-lit, public areas.

Comment: We must find new ways to protect students Audrey Sebatindira CUSU Women’s Officer

CMGLEE, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

JOANNA TAYLOR, EXCEL

es reported to Cambridgeshire Police versus those detected (investigated), Senate delayed new guideline proceedings, Parker’s Piece in which one of the alleged inincrease in number of sexual harassment cases reported between 2006 and 2016.

Although many remain unaware of their existence, the University’s new procedures for dealing with complaints of sexual misconduct and harassment have been causing a lot of buzz. Existing drafts show it to be one of the most progressive guidelines in the sector. One unfortunate shortfall is the delay in its implementation. Originally set to be published on 1 January of this year, we must now wait until later in the academic year. This is due to concerns raised in the Regent House (the governing body and principal electoral constituency of the University) that the policy doesn’t do enough to protect the rights of those accused of sexual misconduct. Frustrating as this is, a new draft has been produced and CUSU remains cautiously optimistic that there will be no more need for delays. It’s worth noting that this policy must be accompanied by a change in culture. The University must also support CUSU’s preventative efforts, such as consent workshops, as well as innovating some of its own. Our gaze should also turn to instances of assault and harassment outside of college walls and on Cambridge’s city streets. With a surge in the number of cases

The sexual harassment guidelines were delayed over concerns for the rights of alleged perpetrators

reported, we need to find new ways to protect students. The CUSU team met with the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire in Michaelmas to discuss the issue. Our suggestions included allowing students to anonymously report instances of harassment to the police. This would provide them with data that could justify a full investigation of the matter. It’s also worth noting that students are able to seek refuge in any Porters’ Lodge of any College should they feel unsafe. With that in mind I plan to create and publicise a map of college ‘plodges’ across Cambridge, thanks to the suggestion of a concerned student. I also plan to begin talks with JCR and MCR women’s officers at colleges that shut their gates at certain hours to see whether new rules can be made allowing any Cambridge University student to seek refuge after-hours. These are, however, band-aids on a gash wound. The onus shouldn’t be on students to constantly monitor and condition their behaviour. We continue to consider the matter and any suggestions from students are more than welcome. You can reach me on my CUSU Facebook account or via email at womens@cusu. cam.ac.uk.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

College Watch

Images: Jessica McHugh

Jesus

Queens’

On Tuesday 17 January, the recent opening of a new underground bar at Jesus, known as the Brewery Room, was celebrated by a Kaleidoscope-themed bop. Codeko, who performed at Electric Zoo festival in New York City in 2016, was the DJ. The basement bar is part of the new West Court development, the ‘topping out’ ceremony for which was held on 11 January. The Master, Professor Ian White, laid the final stone on the roof parapet wall. This marks the end of a project which began in 2014. Other features include a lecture hall, a dedicated events space, and a terraced café with a projector for film nights. There will also be 30 hotel-standard bedrooms, which will be available throughout the year. Professor White commented: “We are delighted that the chance has arisen to restore the college site to its original boundaries and excited by the opportunity it brings to take the facilities we can offer to students, fellows, alumni, and the wider world to a new level of excellence.” Abby Watson

After the success of Aristbople, Le Bop Sportif, and Mary Boppins, Queens’ is beginning to get a reputation for the most brilliant and inventive bop names. This term is no exception, kicking off with ‘Attenbop’ on Friday night. “In order to celebrate the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, and to celebrate the world […] becoming a bit of a jungle, let out your wild side.” Quents asks. On 11 February, Queens’ students can also look forward to ‘Harambop’, the theme of which is memes. This has also garnered interest amongst other meme-loving students, after Memebridge posted “Queens’ is doing a meme bop!” on its Facebook page which currently has over 12,000 likes. Other Queens’ bop themes this term includes ‘Boptails’ on 24th February and ‘Think Outside the Bop’ in March. Queens’ student Miranda Imperial commented that Queens’ bops are “so much fun” and that because “some people go all out with costumes” that the meme one should be “interesting”. Joanna Taylor

Emmanuel Pembroke

New Buildings and Services officers, David Thorp and Frankie Tamblyn, have arranged with the catering staff at Emmanuel College for two themed formals to take place this term, following a noticable absence in previous years. These will be a Chinese New Year formal on Monday, 30 January, and a Pancake Day formal on Tuesday, 28 February. “The head chef and the catering department were very keen to get on board, which was nice. We will decorate too (with advice from the ethnic and religious equalities officer where needed).” Thorp and Tamblyn pledged to organise these formals when they were campaigning to take up their positions in November 2016. Both themed formals were fully booked within 24 hours of their announcement on ‘ECSU Committee Posts’ Facebook page. The formals will cost no more than the standard price of £7.85. Students at Emmanuel are also allowed to invite up to four guests. Tickets for a first guest are priced at £10.90, rising to £16.50 for third and fourth guests. Matt Gurtler

Although Queens’ bops are getting better than ever, Pembroke students received some disappointing news when they were informed that they are no longer allowed to serve their infamous ‘boptails’. This is due to licensing issues with students serving other students alcohol. Whilst the bar will remain open, and drinks will be as “boptail-y as ever”, the tradition of JP members serving other students plastic cups full of cheap Cola mixed with strong spirits now seems to be no more. Oliver Hulme, President of Pembroke’s JP fought valiantly for the tradition to be kept and secured the compromise that boptails will still be served at the bar. Pembroke student Dan James commented: “It did seem like the end of an era but there do seem to be ways around it, so watch this space.” The theme for Pembroke’s first bop, which will take place on Friday 20 January is ‘New Year’s Resolutions’, in which College members are invited to “welcome 2017, Pembroke style”. Joanna Taylor

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

News

University are set to gain £10m more per year after Brexit Abby Watson Deputy News Editor changes were outlined by Oxford

Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, expressed these fears in a recent statement following Theresa May’s speech outlining her Brexit strategy. “By admitting that she will take Britain out of the Single Market, she will severely damage places like Cambridge, which rely heavily on students, academics, and workers from the EU, as well as broader cooperation with our European partners.” Meanwhile, Professor Catherine Barnard, Head of EU Law at Cambridge, has advocated a “bespoke” Brexit deal for universities, allowing free movement for academics. Magdalene Fellow Nicholas Boyle, on the other hand, branded Leavers the “lager louts of Europe” and claimed that the Brexit result “does not deserve to be respected” in The New European.

University’s head of Brexit strategy, Professor Alaistair Buchan, when publicly speaking for the first time to the Education Select Committee. He said he supported the creation of a so-called “Erasmus Plus Plus”, which would expand the current parameters of the European exchange programme. This would in turn result in a global network of student programmes. The proposal was unanimously backed by a panel of experts. However, the panel warned the Committee that the impact of a ‘hard’ Brexit is nonetheless worrying. Stricter visa controls and an end to freedom of movement might jeopardise a tradition of collaborative research, as well as the UK’s future as a global leader in higher education.

The Higher Education Policy Institute has predicted that, in the aftermath of Brexit, a 57% fall in EU students will be partly compensated Theresa by 14,500 more non-EU students each year. Oxford and Cambridge have also May “will been forecasted to make an extra £10 severely million a year in fees, whereas less damage prestigious institutions will lose out on places like £100,000 a year. However, University Cambridge” representatives maintain that a ‘hard’ Brexit could threaten research. Three of Cambridge’s pro-vice chancellors raised such concerns in submissions to the House of Commons Education Committee. These included the future immigration status for university staff, the reduction in EU applications and the subsequent economic impact if numbers are not made up by non-EU students. Applications from across the EU have already dropped by 14% for undergraduate courses this year and this trend is likely to continue. The University is now preparing for admissions of EU students to fall by two-thirds after Brexit. The financial implications and the threat to academia were also demonstrated. The University revealed that in the year to July 2016, over 536 EU nationals received job offers from the University. The cost to the institution of administering employment visas for EU staff is estimated to be around £1.25 million a year. Possible solutions to these likely Theresa May outlining her “hard” Brexit strategy on 17 January

The University Education Committee has asked for students’ opinions on a proposed change to how BA Tripos degrees are classified. Under the new proposals, a cumulative classification would be given, although this would not be considered the degree’s overall ‘rank’. Different years of Tripos would also continue to carry different weightings. The model for which years of Tripos are most significant is currently being considered. Possible models are a 50/50 or 33/66 split between second and third year, a 20/30/50 split between all three years, or for third year to carry the entirety of a degree’s weighting. The Careers Service is said to welcome the change as Cambridge’s

current unique system of classification, in which each Part of Tripos is selfcontained, confuses employers and has led in some cases to job offers being withdrawn when a student’s credentials have been checked. Cambridge is currently the only university in the UK not to give out an overall degree classification. The Education Committee foresees both benefits and possible problems with the new system they are proposing. In support of the possible changes, the Committee notes that a cumulative system could help to ease the pressure of third year and create a more consistent ranking process across different faculties. However, they have also raised concerns such as the possibility of reduced willingness to get involved

Education Committee proposes cumulative degree grades

Cast and crew of student play sleep rough for charity Ten members of the cast and crew of Stuart: A Life Backwards will be sleeping on the streets of Cambridge on the night of Saturday 21 January to raise money for Jimmy’s Hostel. Jimmy’s Hostel is a homeless shelter where Stuart himself was a resident. It provides homeless men and women with accommodation, support, and resettlement. The director of the play, Dan Sanderson writes: “We saw [the sleepout] as a great opportunity to raise some money for Jimmy’s, raise awareness but also for those in the cast to gain an insight, albeit a limited one, into the conditions those sleeping rough face”. The play is showing at Corpus Playroom next week. The team aim to raise at least £1,000 through JustGiving.

Cambridge inspired jewellery on display on King’s Parade London-based Jeweller, Vicki Ambery-Smith has made two silver gilt salt pots resembling windows in King’s College. They can be seen and purchased in Primavera gallery on King’s Parade along with many other handmade items. She has been making jewellery inspired by Cambridge architecture, particularly bridges, for over ten years and has made cufflinks, earrings, and lapel pins. Ambery-Smith makes tableware with detailed representations of famous buildings from all over the world, but the Primavera Gallery specifically stocks the Cambridge inspired pieces. The salt pots have not yet been given a price as they are new additions to the collection at Primavera.

Lego professor to be employed by the University

THERESA MAY VIA FACEBOOK

New system of classifying BA degrees proposed Joanna Taylor Deputy Editor-in-Chief

NEWS BULLETIN

with extra-curricular activities in first and second years. Roberta Huldisch, CUSU Education Officer, commented that “issuing a cumulative classification, in addition to the current system of classing each year of the Tripos separately, would bring our practice in line with what the world beyond Cambridge already does and understands, while preserving Cambridge’s historical particularity. “It is, in my view, a fundamentally sensible and uncontroversial idea.” CUSU will be passing on students’ views whilst decisions are made. These proposals come amidst fears over “grade inflation” as classifications, particularly those of BA degrees, have shot up in recent years with record numbers of firsts being awarded. The Cambridge Student awaits comment from the University.

There is an exciting job on offer at the University: the Lego Professor of Play, Development, and Learning. It is the first of its kind and applications for the role close on 20 January. The Lego Foundation will fund the professorship but will have no say over the appointment. It hopes for someone with a ‘childlike mindset’, so that the professor can imaginatively expand research into play and playful learning, to encourage that instead of testing in schools. Commanding a possible salary of £83,981, the Professor will lead the recently established Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (Pedal). According to Professor Anna Vignoles, interim director of Pedal, “the value of play is relatively under-researched”.

Cambridge students to attend Women’s March

On Saturday 21 January, the first day of Donald Trump’s Presidency, a strong contingent of Cambridge students will attend the Women’s March on London in a show of solidarity in the light of recent political events. 370 marches will take place across the world, with the largest expected in Washington D.C. In London protesters will congregate in Grosvenor Square at 12 pm before marching through Park Lane, Piccadilly and Pall Mall to protest Trump’s misogynistic remarks. A rally will then take place in Trafalgar Square at 2 pm. The slogan is “women’s rights are human rights”.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

News

The news roundup THE OTHER PLACE

MP criticises Oxford for “unconscious bias” Labour MP David Lammy has lambasted Oxford University for failing to deal with an “unconscious bias” against minority applicants. “We all tend to recruit in our own image”, he said, and suggested training for interviewers. He was subsequently accused of misrepresenting Oxford’s admissions process by academics.

ROYALS

MP David Lammy has called for “unconcious bias” training for Oxford interviewers

STUDENT POLITICS

HAVE MISSED FROM TCS.CAM.AC.UK HEALTH

University dental practice sold

10% Brooks was accused of attempting to oust the NUS President

The University has sold its dedicated dental practice after concerns about its financial position. Under the new contract, any patient can register at the surgery, not just those associated with the University. Some students have reported that they have been subject to lastminute changes and cancellations at the practice.

STUDENT POLITICS

Gen Z students gloomy about job prospects

NUS V-P involved in plot to oust President

Only 10% of finalists believe they will secure their dream career, a survey conducted by accounting firm EY has found. It also revealed that nearly half of students don’t think their degree has made them more employable. Most undergraduates agree that it’s “who you know, not what you know”, with “background” considered one of the most common barriers to finding employment.

NUS Vice-President Richard Brooks has been accused of being involved in a plot to oust President Malia Bouattia, after being secretly filmed by an undercover reporter. He has since referred himself to the NUS for an investigation under its Code of Conduct. In an open letter, he denied the claims and said he hopes that a “swift and thorough investigation” will clear his name.

1986 The year Christopher Steele, alleged author of the Trump dossier, graduated from Girton

ALUMNI

CUSU urges boycott of Girton grad allegedly National Student Survey behind Trump dossier Prince Charles’s book is part of a new Ladybird series for adults

Holiday roundup

JOBS

Cambridge University Press is teaming up with Indian ‘design university’ Avantika, to provide students with educational resources and development programmes. Ratnesh Kumar Jha, Managing Director of CUP’s South Asian division, said that the collaboration will “ensure an enriching academic journey for students of Avantika.”

DAN MARSH / WIKIMEDIA

Work has begun on a sculpture for Parker’s Piece to commemorate the original rules of football. Some people suggest that the park is the birthplace of football, after Cambridge students devised the rules there in 1848. The sculpture will be cut into nine pieces, each engraved with the first set of rules for the game in different languages.

The percentage of finalists who think they will secure their dream career

CUP to collaborate with Indian university

Prince Charles has co-authored a book on climate change with Tony Juniper, a former Friends of the Earth director, and Emily Shuckburgh, a University climate scientist. The book, which will be about climate change’s challenges and possible solutions, is due to be published on 26 January. It is part of a new Ladybird series for adults.

Work on Parker’s Piece football sculpture begun

NEWS YOU MIGHT

BOOKS

Charles writes book with Cambridge academic

SPORT

_EVANTHIA_

CUSU has encouraged finalists to avoid filling in the National Student Survey (NSS), whose results could be used to justify fee increases. Graduating students are invited to fill out the NSS, which asks about their learning experience. Under the new Teaching Excellence Framework, high levels of student satisfaction will allow the University to increase fees at the rate of inflation.

Girton graduate and former Union President Christopher Steele is revealed to bethe alleged author of the Donald Trump dossier, which claims that Russia owns compromising material about Trump. It had been dismissed by the President-Elect and Putin. Steele, an ex-MI6 intelligence officer who graduated in 1986, went into hiding, after asking his neighbour to look after his cat.

SECRETLONDON123, FLICKR

17 November 2016 • The Cambridge Student

Science

‘Glue’ in plant cell walls could hold Water freezes strangely when sucked up nanostraws the key to wooden skyscrapers Ned Booker Science Editor

Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin

new study, led by a father and son team at the University of Warwick and University of Cambridge, has solved the mystery of how key sugars in plant cells bind to form strong structural materials. Scientists have known for some time that two polymers in the cell walls of materials such as wood, xylan, and cellulose must somehow interact and stick together to form the strong walls, but did not know how this occured until now. Published in the journal, Nature Communications, this new research explains how the long and winding carbon chain, xylan, with its socalled ‘decorations’ of other sugars and molecules attached, adheres so strongly to thick, rod-like cellulose molecules. “We knew the answer must be elegant and simple,” explains Professor

Paul Dupree from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, who led the research. “And in fact, it was. What we found was that cellulose induces xylan to untwist itself and straighten out, allowing it to attach itself to the cellulose molecule. It then acts as a kind of ‘glue’ that can protect cellulose or bind the molecules together, making very strong structures.” The structure of the xylan-cellulose bonds was examined using an imaging technique known as solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR), which works similarly to hospital MRI scanners, just at a nanoscale. This was carried out by Paul Dupree’s father and co-author on the paper, Professor Ray Dupree, at the University of Warwick, to allow them to see, for the first time ever, how the two polymers slot together.

“One of the biggest barriers to ‘digesting’ plants – whether that’s for use as biofuels or as animal feed, for example – has been breaking down the tough cellular walls,” said Paul Dupree. “Take paper production – enormous amounts of energy are required for this process. A better understanding of the relationship between cellulose and xylan could help us vastly reduce the amount of energy required for such processes.” Along with allowing the breakdown of matter to be more efficient, this discovery could also pave the way to more sustainable wooden buildings. According to the University of Cambridge, there are already plans in place to use stronger wood in new houses in the UK, and Paul Dupree is involved in an initiative that is exploring the possibility of using modified wood to build skyscrapers.

arbon nanotubes are manmade forms of carbon, something like the sheets of carbon that make up the graphite used in pencil leads rolled up to form tubes with diamaters as small as 0.4 nm in diameter (about a million times thinner than a human hair). These tubes have enormous strength along the length of the tube and have found use in composite plastics, greatly enhancing their strength. They have other potential applications as they can change the freezing and boiling point of liquids contained within them. This is because the interactions between the walls of the tube and the water molecules enclosed therein can cause the water molecules to line up in different ways and change the energy of different arrangements. Recently, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have grown single carbon nanotubes on a silicon substrate by decomposing methane on the silicon using an iron catalyst. These tubes were cut open using a plasma (charged gas) made

Carbon nanotubes are sheets of carbon rolled up to form tubes a million times thinner than a human hair

ALEXANDER SYNAPTIC

Boozy mice brains hold answers to binge eating Ruairi MacKenzie

ICHTERTZ AGNES

ver wondered why ordering a ‘Double Chips with Extra Chips’ at the Van of Life is so tempting after you’ve had a few pints? Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London have identified a potential explanation in the brains of drunk mice. The researchers found that these mice had increased activity in AGRP neurons, which are usually stimulated by starvation. Shutting off these same cells meant that the mice were able to resist alcohol-induced overeating. The scientists gave a group of 10 mice alcohol for three days over what they called an “alcoholic weekend”. The amount of alcohol the mice were

The mice’s food intake increased 17 %, equivalent to a human drinking 18 units of alcohol dosed with was equivalent to a human drinking 18 units of alcohol, which was noted to be an amount drunk at least once a week by over a quarter of young people in the UK. The food intake of these mice increased by an average of roughly 17 % over this boozy period, before returning to normal levels on the three days after the mice were given saline.

from air, and water was allowed to infiltrate the tubes. When water freezes, the water molecules join up to form a rigid crystal structure, which means the vibrations which are able to occur in the material change. The vibrational states of a material can be

To identify what was causing these mice to get the munchies, a specialised protein which enabled the researchers to visualise the calcium surge that occurs when neurons activate was injected into the mice’s brains. Increased activation of AGRP neurons and increased electrical activity in the brain was seen after alcohol. Finally, the researchers bred a genetically modified group of mice which had inactivated appetitestimulating neurons. These mice were resistant to the alcohol-induced hunger previously seen. Whilst the authors agreed that there is more work to be done in uncovering the networks in the brain that control alcohol-related hunger, this finding is a step towards understanding dangerous overeating. It does not mean that you can claim “It’s not me, it’s just my AGRP neurons” during an ill-advised 3AM visit to Gardie’s. .

probed with a technique called Raman spectroscopy. When tubes of various diameters were filled with water and heated with a laser, the team took the Raman spectra of the nanotubes at various temperatures which allowed them to determine when the phase transition

Different diameters of nanotubes changed the freezing point of water in it differently. Some suppressed it to -35 °C and some increased by as much as 156 °C while some had no effect from disordered liquid to crystalline water took place. The researchers found that for different diameters of nanotube different changes in the freezing point of water could be achieved. For some diameters no freezing was observed, whereas some showed suppression of the freezing point by up to 35 °C below the normal freezing point, and some showed the freezing point increased by as much as 138 °C. This is a demonstration of another potentially useful application for carbon nanotubes: phase change materials. These nanotubes may allow energy to be stored in the high temperature phase and release the inherent energy difference between the solid and liquid phase when the water melts. By being able to engineer the temperature at which this phase change occurs these water filled nanotubes may allow us to design more sophisticated energy storage solutions. MSTROECK, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Features

New Year, Same Me Caithlin Ng Features Editor

ew year, new me – or, at least, that’s what they say. The beginning of a new year heralds the inevitable influx of New Year resolutions and, subsequently, the pressure for a change in calendar to mark the change in responsibility and maturity of a person. I began 2017 flying back to England for the new term – the first time I have ever flown alone. It is a seemingly small milestone, to be sure, but as I traversed the corridors of Heathrow myself, I wondered whether this precedent officially made me the independent, capable, jet-setting university student that I would like to imagine being. Yet, these are more words on a page than fleshed-out truth. While I may have successfully made it back to Cambridge in one piece, checking off a list of ‘todo’ things, things that are supposed to represent increased maturity and wisdom, does not necessarily equate to feeling it. This, at least for me, is the footnote on growing up: no matter how much you go through, how much you learn, there are times when I still feel so inexplicably young. Eighteen, of course, is no great age, but eight-year old me used to think that when I were a decade older, I would finally be responsible, collected, sophisticated, in a way befitting my age. But, still, there are times when I feel like I am eight again, navigating a world as nebulous and confusing as ever. 2016 was a year for growth and change, a year when starting university, in particular, meant having to learn to adapt. But while I did, it was also a year for insecurities, old and new, for uncertainty

and for consternation. There were times that I found the courage to push my boundaries, and then there were – more often than I would care to admit – other times when I did not, when I retreated instead into comfortably familiar territory. As the past year drew to a close and demanded a period of introspection, I wondered how much I really had changed between its New Year and now. Insecurities and childhood uncertainty are not shed as easily as leaves in autumn; some things are infinitely more immutable. But I am learning to come to terms with that. The New Year is not a timer waiting to be reset, a piece of mechanic allowing you to switch like clockwork from one person to another. Eight-year old me thought that I would be put-together when I was eighteen, but eight-year old me was forgetting that we two are the same person, that I would still be growing as much now as I was then. A completely sophisticated and mature person, in retrospect, would have felt more like a distant, fictional character than a future self. Growing up and maturing does mean learning and becoming more capable, but it is also about being afraid and unsure. People, after all, are composed of contradictions, can grow while remaining the same, can be brave and still retreat. So I’m throwing the “new year, new me” adage out of the window. 2017 will probably be as perplexing and terrifying as 2016 often was, but if the latter year has taught me anything, it will be that fear is nothing to be afraid of. Even if nothing changes, that is not an issue, I am happy where I am right now.

17 Questions for 2017 Noella Chye and Caithlin Ng Features Editors

t is impossible to predict exactly what each year will bring, but here are 17 questions - from the political to the cultural, the technological to the environmental - that 2017 might hold the answers to. 1. The hope and number of reasons for Trump’s impeachment have continued to rise, yet will the new President be able to weather both old and new controversies this year? 2. Will Theresa May’s ‘hard Brexit’ strategy bring about the unity it seeks, or prove to be even more divisive for an already divided country? 3. Which way will international attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers, such as those from Syria, sway in 2017? 4. The growth of Chinese wealth was a head-turner in 2016, but many predict that this won’t continue in 2017 - with considerations like friction with the US, will the Chinese be able to adapt? 5. 2016 often seemed to be propelled by ethnic and religious intolerance, but did

Did the world see the climax of ethnic and religious intolerance in 2016, or was last year merely a catalyst for 2017?

the world see the climax of this last year, or was 2016 merely a catalyst for 2017? 6. With Mark Zuckerberg’s AI home assistant Jarvis, and greater involvement and investment of major companies like Google, will we finally have the collaboration we need to achieve the transition of sophisticated AI from screen to mainstream consumer reality? 7. Augmented reality: will it finally become a mainstream form of gaming? Pokemon Go dominated the gaming industry in 2016, so what more can we expect from this line of technology in 2017? 8. With computers, like Amazon’s Echo, steadily seeping into our daily lives, robotic journalists already employed by the Press Association, and AI set to grow 300 per cent in 2017, will this year see the battle between white collar and robotic workers for jobs, and, if it does, who will triumph? 9. Cybersecurity: how will we respond to increasing threats to our online privacy? Will we have to redefine privacy and security? 10. Will SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft

successfully deliver humans to the ISS? 11. Until gene-editing tool CRISPR, “there has never been”, according to The New Yorker, “a more powerful biological tool, or one with more potential to both improve the world and endanger it”. Will this be the year we see swifter progression towards the eradication of diseases like Lyme disease and malaria? 12. NATO is set to launch the Cold Atom Laboratory to the International Space Station in April, so what laws of the still-mysterious quantum physics will this help uncover this year? 13. Will Trump pull the US out of the Paris global agreement to reduce emissions? 14. The Bornean orangutan, the giant otter, the Amur leopard, the black-footed ferret, and Darwin’s fox are amongst the most alarmingly endangered of species: which of them will make it through 2017? 15. Given the mainstream success of musical Hamilton, and the fact that the onslaught of mediums for political discourse is making it harder to make yourself heard, will we see a greater politicisation of the entertainment

industry this year? 16. Filming for Star Wars Episode 9 is set to begin this year, but how will its producers manage with the loss of Carrie Fisher while giving due respect to the absolute legend she is? 17. Finally, will Eleven return in Stranger Things??? JIMIVR

2 4 10

Varsity Trip: Exclusive or Accessible? Interview with a Scandi blogger January Pick Me Up Recipes

The Thursday Magazine

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Politics and Desire: Food in Zola’s work Rachel Rees-Middleton

s any French person will tell you, France has some of the greatest gastronomy in the world. For every bloody steak, garlicky snail, and slab of horse meat, there is a buttery croissant, a hunk of Camembert, and a glass of Champagne. Émile Zola was no exception, and as his literary fame grew, so too did his waistline. Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle, a 20-novel œuvre which traces the lives of two branches of a family under France’s Second Empire, is peppered with literary feasts. From the cries of the hungry miners on strike in Germinal, to pages of descriptions of food in his ode to Paris’s Les Halles market in The Belly of Paris, one cannot help but wonder if Zola was more than a little peckish when he wrote some of his novels. Yet Zola’s feasts are ideologically charged. In Germinal, one of the miner’s wives is proud of the hotchpotch

homes of the workers and so the hungry miners have women as their dessert. In Pot-Luck, (the French title being Pot Bouille) has both a social and a culinary meaning. Slang for a large cooking pot used to prepare casseroles or stews, the word also conveys a sense of unplanned mixture; a melting pot similar to the house in which the novel is set, that along with its inhabitants embodies the greed, ambition and hypocrisy which lie behind the façade of bourgeois respectability. The Josserand family, living beyond their means, dim the lights so their guests

Nana purchases quicker than she can consume, causing her lover to suffer from indigestion meal she pulls together: bread, leeks, potatoes, and sorrel. While the wealthy mine owners gorge themselves on freshly baked brioche and other treats from their overflowing larders, there’s nothing sweet to eat in the

COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

won’t notice the stale brioche and cannot afford to dismiss their underpaid domestic servant, whose kitchen cleanliness leaves a lot to be desired.

The bourgeois gluttony in Les Halles only emphasises the hunger of the starving Desire too is significant: in Nana, the story of an eponymous prostitute turned actress who works her way around Paris’s men, lavish banquets turn into all-night parties. Alone, Nana snacks on cold meat, pralines, and radishes with no bread, but still manages to spend 5000 francs a month on food. She purchases quicker than she and her many guests can consume, causing her lover to suffer from indigestion at least twice a week. Food is also intensely political. In The Belly of Paris, people are divided into the fat and the thin, the haves and the have-nots. The bourgeois gluttony which can be indulged in the piles of meat, fish, cheese, and vegetables in the excesses of Les Halles only emphasises the hunger of the starving. For Zola, Paris under the Second Empire is a malfunctioning digestive organ: a corrupt, capitalist machine which swallows up the poor and vulnerable, spitting them out the other side. It is far from the image of culinary refinement which it serves up today.

Varsity Trip: Exclusive or accessible? Lili Bidwell

he annual Varsity Ski Trip is arguably one of the best ways to blow off steam after an intense Cambridge term. This year’s trip consisted of roughly 4000 Oxford and Cambridge students descending upon the mountain resort of Val Thorens in France. An intense week of partying and skiing, it was an excellent opportunity for students to consolidate friendships, as well as to get to know those in other year groups, colleges, and Oxford University better. Yet, it is worth asking whether or not this tradition excludes those whose parents have not been taking them skiing since the age of four. In some aspects, this does not seem to matter. The number of beginner skiers on the trip is large, and there does not seem to be any stigma attached to being a first-time skier as people are happy to muddle along and ski with whomever. Moreover, the trip is very affordable as far as skiing goes, with the base price starting at £339 for the 2016 trip, although this price is likely to increase when lessons, food, drink, equipment, and accommodation upgrades are accounted for.

It is worth asking whether this tradition excludes those whose parents have not been taking them skiing since the age of four The tension over cost is what can often split groups apart. For example, with regards to accommodation,

some may be willing to pay as much as £199 extra for a top-tier chalet with a sauna and more, versus those who are happy to settle for a cupboard-like room in a standard building. This may make certain aspects of the trip less accessible to some students. Plus, the very idea of a ski trip can prove intimidating to those from less well-off backgrounds where people may not be as familiar with the activity; people attach a certain stereotype to the activity of skiing, something which could perhaps be adressed by the trip organisers.

The tension in cost is what can often split groups apart Negative connotations of posh ski holidays can be enough to put many off the idea of the trip as an option. People are not familiar with skiing as a holiday and therefore are nervous or sceptical of the trip. This is a shame because such divisions ought not to occur within these Universities which strive to be inclusive and accessible to all. The popularity of the trip amongst Oxbridge students must be taken into account. The trip is often featured in national papers, attracting much more attention than ski trips at other universities, which are comparitively unpopular. This shows that it is evident that there is a massive response to the trip, but there needs to be a certain sensitivity when it comes to potentially alienating elements of it in order to ensure that students are not left out of what has become an Oxbridge tradition, dating back to the 1921/22 season.

FLORIAN PÉPELLIN

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Hygge vs lagom: a culinary battle?

Jessie Mathewson

ygge, for those unfamiliar with the lifestyle sensation, is all about savouring the everyday. It promised a life of contentment and simple pleasures. Often associated with cosiness, it certainly has an appeal in the grim grey cold of a Cambridge January – embracing hygge could be anything from lighting a candle, to lingering under your duvet with a cup of tea. And in the world of food and drink, it’s all about comforting soups and stews, hot drinks, and homely baking. Over the holidays, with the New Year looming, and the pressure of self-improving resolutions on the horizon, this felt like my route to happiness. But it turns out it’s too late to jump on the bandwagon. According to Vogue, the Danish philosophy is being pushed aside this year in favour of its Swedish counterpart – lagom. This is an approach to life based on moderation and balance – not too much, not too little. And with term kicking off, and deadlines on the horizon, a little lagom in our work lives has its appeal as well. But there’s something a little bit off about the Scandinavian ERIC PETRUNO

PETER BECKER

trends sweeping our lives and our kitchens. Lifestyle philosophies built up over generations have become the buzzwords of a season, only to be pushed aside in favour of something new. So why hasn’t hygge worked for us? It’s the same reason that lagom isn’t going to bring us contentment in 2017, and why the #cleaneating you got so obsessed with in 2015 fell apart during your first essay crisis. None of these approaches to our lives or our stomachs should be absolutes – in their original forms they allow flexibility, encouraging us to savour the things they advocate and prize when we can. But converted into social media sensations, we’ve lost the give – from lifestyle bloggers who seem to live in a constant state of gladness, to Instagram accounts crammed exclusively with virtuously healthy, gorgeously presented meals. Constantly bombarded with these highlights, we’re tricked into thinking that we can live and breathe hygge or lagom all day every day. What about the days when you don’t feel hygge at all – when morning sunshine and a cup of fresh coffee isn’t enough to dispel those dissertation worries? Or when you’re really angry, or sad, or tired? We can’t live our lives feeling constantly glad any more than we can live them in constant moderation or a constant state of good health. Trying to

live your life like your Instagram feed is never going to work, and we shouldn’t try. So what can we do instead? This year, as almost every year for as long as I can remember, my New Year’s resolutions have centred around food. I’ve been looking for the thing that all these lifestyle movements claim to offer – a sense of lasting contentment. But the shifting trends show that none of these quick-fix solutions are working. A few months later, still feeling rubbish about our inability to be oh-so glad, or oh-so balanced, we’re looking for something new. This year, I’m going to try to eat well, and listen to what my body wants. Sometimes, that’s going to mean the home comforts of hygge. Sometimes a simple lagom balance. And sometimes it’ll mean a fresh salad worthy of the cleanest eating lifestyle blogger. But no doubt it will also mean a quick sandwich from Sainsbury’s between supervisions. Or a whole bag of cookies, because it’s cold and miserable and that’s what I want. And it’ll definitely mean chips after a night out, or even after a night in. But it’ll also mean eating for me and not for my Instagram – and hopefully, some real happiness along the way. DAVID BOTE ESTRADA

Review – Bowie: The Last Five Years Sophie Dickinson ‘Look up here, I’m in heaven’. It is a year since the release of David Bowie’s Blackstar, and death two days later. For a die-hard fan, the loss of the man was overwhelming: as artistic as anything he did in life, it was difficult to find anything new to add to the chorus of voices beatifying him. Remarkably, director Francis Whately has managed to do just that. The Last Five Years had the potential to romanticise the man, and it is certainly complementary. However, the interviews with Bowie’s session band, and contemporary musicians such as Gail Ann Dorsey, make this less of a spot-the-celeb and more of a candid character analysis. The documentary was interesting in that it focused on aspects of production, rather than adopting the eulogising, and indeed advertising, tone these post-death programmes tend to use. The interview with Jonathan Barnbrook, designer of the cover of The Next Day, was genuinely insightful and relatively unexplored. The filmmaker commits to the stylistic reasoning behind the art: if the philosophical musings of the affable graphic designer seem somewhat contrived, the preceding footage of Bowie obscured by a white square quietly reinforce comments

about the distortion of his legacy. In fact, the overall production values of the programme are startling, and genuinely moving. Importantly, the music choices accompanied segments perfectly; the attention to detail making it a beautiful piece of filmmaking. Bowie’s vocals over a bleak Berlin, for example, is a scene much more effective than a description of a time, or even a feeling. Similarly, the use of interviews with the singer added poignancy without sentimentality: the commentary was reflective and thorough; less tied to a period of Bowie’s career, and more to a segment of his personality. The repeated use of video collage, stuffed with grasping hands, light, haze - sound and vision, perhaps - again elevated the documentary to something beyond that of an obituary. Clips of Bowie in his youth avoided being cliched through this more thematic approach; the documentary was not chronological, or even categorisable in a noticeable way. Instead, we saw ourselves in those grasping hands: the voyeurism of the fans somehow made more understandable as we peer at the screen to learn, fundamentally, about a dying man. The Last Five Years does not judge celebrity culture, however, and celebrates the diversity of Bowie’s fans

throughout. The film was accessible to those who loved the hits and nothing more, but also rewarding for those aware of the canon - passing references to ‘China Girl’ and even ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ are gems for the well-versed. Perhaps most affecting, though, is the footage of Bowie’s health decline. Seeing him appear onstage in a dishevelled hoodie feels realistic, not romantic. Whately shows us our alien was a man after all. In light of this decline, his stamina astounds. We realise he never lost the energy of the Diamond Dogs choreography, or the audacity of his androgynous youth. Whately ends the documentary with the isolated vocals of ‘Lazarus’. The trembling wail of “everybody knows me now” feels all too pertinent; the effect is astounding. The combination throughout of noise and quiet, of rock and roll and aesthetic theory, reminds us to reassess the decades of artistic contribution. Altogether, this image of the last five years doesn’t need to romanticise. Whilst the image of an ailing man is somewhat sobering, what is more lasting is the life of a creative unlike any other. David Bowie: The Last Five Years is available on BBC iPlayer until 2 February.

Choral Fix Kasia Ruszkowski

horal evensong is one of the longest-standing and most unique features of life in Cambridge. With an abundance of chapel choirs to choose from, and with many of them offering free entry, there is no better place to experience this time-honoured tradition. Choral evensong typically consists of a selection of hymns, two sung canticles (the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis), a musical anthem, and a sermon. Whether you’re religious or not, the sermons are generally thought-provoking and enjoyable. Most colleges carry out evensong in candle light which, combined with the exquisite setting of a college chapel and world-class choral music, makes for a very relaxing and atmospheric evening.

World-class choral music makes for a very atmospheric evening King’s College is the place to go for an introduction to choral evensong; the service is among the most traditional in Cambridge, and the choir is widely considered to be one of the best in the city. King’s Chapel itself provides a stunning backdrop, and there’s an evensong every day of the week, so you can pop along whenever suits. The mixed choir, King’s Voices, perform evensong every Monday, while the all-male Chapel Choir sing evensong the rest of the week. The only disadvantage is that it’s so popular, you’ll probably have to queue right around Main Court to get in… Trinity Choir is an equally-renowned mixed choir offering three services a week, so Trinity is a good place to go if you prefer the sound of female voices on the top line. The choir has just been awarded the Limelight Recording of the Year Award 2016, and has one of the best sounds of all the Cambridge college choirs.

If you’re willing to go slightly further afield, Jesus College choir offers excellent services If you’re willing to go slightly further afield, the much-admired choirs of Jesus College offer four excellent services a week. The chapel, completed in 1245, is the oldest college Chapel in Cambridge, and produces a wonderful acoustic sound. Jesus has an all-male Chapel Choir which perform two evensongs a week, in addition to a mixed College Choir which also performs two weekly evensongs. For something more alternative, the Girls’ Choir of St Catharine’s College performs a “scaled-down” evensong every Tuesday. The service, dubbed ‘Luminaria’, was created especially for the choir, and uses the imagery of Christ as the light of the world as its basis. The choir was the first all-female college choir in the UK and remains the only all-female chapel choir in Cambridge. Expect music from modern female composers such as Judith Bingham, Sally Beamish, and Joanna Marsh. For a more traditional choral fix, Catz’ student choir offers an intimate and friendly evensong every Sunday evening. Catz offers all the atmosphere and tradition of King’s and Jesus, offset by an alternative and interesting choice of music. The choirs in Cambridge are of such a high standard , you’ll likely be very impressed wherever you go for evensong; the opportunity to see these choirs and have a moment to reflect while living in Cambridge is simply one too good to miss.

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

The Scandi-Style Tribe Helen Baron

t all started when Instagram followers began to ask Sophia Roe where her clothes were from. She has since started a fashion blog, and has taken some time out to speak to TCS about what she does for a living, her inspirations, and Scandi-style philosophy. In three words, how would you describe your style? In three words, I would say classic, chic, with a bit of rock’n’roll. What would you count as your wardrobe essentials? What I own most of are leather jackets, white t-shirts, and black jeans. Boring but very comfy! What inspired you to start a blog? Two years ago I was contacted by Christina, who is now my blog manager. She had seen me on Instagram and noticed that many of my followers where asking about my clothes and where I got them from. She invited me to a meeting and raised the idea of having a blog. At that time I thought it sounded interesting so I just began. From that time on things just got going quickly! I never actually thought it would turn out to be big, but I said yes and now I’m here. What does your typical working day look like? I wake up in my apartment in Copenhagen and cycle to work (Copenhagen is so much easier by bike) where I arrive at 9 am. I work at an interior design company owned by my mother, called Louise Roe Copenhagen. I do all of the media content and assist our PR manager in the company. At 4 pm I cycle back home and I usually schedule all my meetings after work with PR agencies or brands. What’s your favourite place to go? It is so hard just to choose one! Atelier September is definitely one of my favourites for coffee. They serve it in a bowl and have perfect crispy and super delicious croissants.

I usually go there if I’m meeting a friend for breakfast. Restaurant Pluto is a great place for dinner. They have an excellent menu and over-the-top service. It is a good place to go to before going out with friends but also a place my boyfriend and I eat at, when it is just the two of us. If you could only shop at one place for the rest of your life, where would it be? Easy, Saint Laurent! Shoes, bags, clothes – everything is perfect. Why do you think “scandi-style” has become so popular in the past few years? Does it have a certain philosophy behind it? I guess Scandi-Style is very laid back and simple. A cashmere coat, a warm knit, black jeans, and a good pair of boots or sneakers is a classic sSandi outfit in my eyes. We also like to invest in something classic, timeless, usually greyscale. For me, the philosophy is: ‘Quality over quantity’ and to invest in good and classic styles. Then you will have a wardrobe that lasts. Style: is it something you learn or that you’re born with? Some people can just see things that others can’t. I have never seen myself as one of them but I think it’s definitely something you can learn; I did myself by studying it on the street and from magazines. What does 2017 hold for you and roediary.com? I’ve very much looked forward to 2017. I have created my own company and had a lot of exciting campaigns to do. But a thing I have looked very much forward to is to launch my own jewellery collection in March with a cool Danish jewellery brand. Things are going fast already, but it is fun learning and meeting new people!

Taste test:Basics Wine Emma Plowright

or the table, not the cellar”, the orange and white label on the Sainsbury’s Basics wine optimistically reads. After drinking it (in the name of journalistic purity). I can confirm that the table, or even the house, is still a bit of a push. While the white is chilling, we start with the red (N.B no Pinot or Shiraz here, your choices are red and white). It has nose like the alley at the side of a Wetherspoons but is somehow drinkable. This is the first thought that springs surprisingly to mind when I sip it, but it isn’t praise: it’s the minimum requirement really. You do get the red berry flavours promised, in the same way that as fruit winder could be described as tasting like a freshly picked strawberry. If it’s your second or third bottle of the evening, or you are just beyond caring, this could be a solid choice. The white was another story. It didn’t have a nose as such, but burned mine when I inhaled it. I would keep a good distance from this one if I were you. I’m reluctant to even use it in cooking for fear that the ingredients will coil up in horror when it touches them, as I did. I now have sympathy for doctors who used to taste their patients urine to diagnose diabetes mellitus, because we now have in common lived experiences. This wine is only really suitable for fifteen year olds who have a fake ID and a pocket full of their mum’s cigarettes heading off to get smashed at the park.

The wines were nothing to rave about but the most unsavoury thing was the cost: The Sainsbury’s Basics range is about noodles you can buy with a penny and a bit of lint. A bottle of Basics wine will set you back £3.85. Considering you can get a decent bottle (at £5, made of glass that doesn’t bounce) from the wine merchant’s on King’s, I feel robbed. BAS LEENDERS

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Reflections on life in La La Land

Ryan Blake

onestly, were any of us surprised by La La Land’s excellent performance in the Golden Globes? The film, by Damien Chazelle, provided a welcome dose of sun in an otherwise rather dreary end to 2016. On the surface, La La Land is an excellent reinvigoration of a musical Hollywood reminiscent of classics like Singing in the Rain (1952), with the vibrant colours of West Side Story (1961), and the innocence of Gigi (1958). Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s performances were captivating and as they literally waltzed on air, tap danced on park benches, and sang their way into our hearts, they paid a moving tribute to a decadent Hollywood romantic

in heavy L.A. traffic. Unknown to them, but obvious to any spectator, Mia and Sebastian have a sufficiently modern adaptation of the traditional ‘meet cute’, where, in keeping with a Hollywood musical tradition, they give each other the bird – this time literally instead of figuratively. As we follow first Mia through a work day in a coffee shop on the Warner Bros. Studio’s Lot, an unsuccessful audition, and finally to one of those awful Hollywood parties where after narrowly dodging the misogyny of self-absorbed musicians, she leaves and finds herself captivated by Sebastian’s playing in a holeLIONSGATE MOVIES VIA YOUTUBE

“A welcome dose of sun in an otherwise dreary end to 2016” movie musical tradition we’d been missing. The score, by Justin Hurwitz, Justin Paul, and Benj Pasek, was at once deeply touching and sweetly sappy; however, more interesting than the delightful but superficial plot is the decadent portrayal and glamorisation of the struggle of the artist. La La Land begins with Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) separately driving to work

Bould Brothers Sophie Dickinson

his brand new café next to the Round Church is full of charm, and suitably chilled for some morning reading. Walking in, I was met by the oh-sohip coffee shop staples: men in black turtlenecks; white tiles; barbershop lettering. For a coffee addict, this is the dream. Creamy flat whites and perfectly rich mochas are the ideal accompaniment to a last minute worksheet, and the cheery staff make the experience a delight, despite slightly expensive prices. The pastries are divine. The almond croissant is large enough to leave you stuffed, and is arguably the best in Cambridge. More surprising are the Scandinavian cardamon swirls, which sound more fragrant than tasty. However, they were a revelation: the chirpy staff informed me that they are a Swedish classic which are certainly going to become a morning staple. Eating these whilst reading a rather dull eighteenth century tome quickly became a brilliant start to the day. The tiny room upstairs is quiet; Bob Dylan covers and alternative R’n’B played quietly over an otherwise hushed room. Working to music might not be ideal for some, but the combination of coffee and quiet chatter felt perfect for an early working session. The low lamps and tables for two do seem to prioritise style over convenience. As the coffee shop is slightly out of the centre of town, however, it is not filled entirely by students trying to out-work each other: the vibe is definitely relaxing, rather than hectic. By the time I was leaving, the café had begun to fill up, and the downstairs chatter began to float up to the top floor. Whilst this wasn’t disturbing- in fact, reading interrupted with laughter was rather comforting- it might have become too loud over lunchtime. Nonetheless, this series tries to find alternatives to the hushed, traditional workspaces, and this cafe certainly fits that description.

in-the-wall jazz bar. What follows is an almost Wes Anderson-esque movie about the love for one’s art which sustains them both through brutal auditions, terrible jobs, and personal crises where they contemplate ‘selling out’ to get a real job.

“An almost Wes Anderson-esque movie about the love for one’s art which sustains them both” The key to the musical comes in Stone’s swansong ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’ where Mia lands a successful audition. In the song, Mia describes her aunt’s experience in Paris but the lyrics are clearly about the experiences which make an artist, the glorification of persistence in the face of rejection, and a reminder that the world needs artists for their fulfilment. Coming out, as this movie did, at the end of 2016, one can’t help but wonder if this self-aggrandising yet introspective depiction, designed as it was to speak to Hollywood’s stars, is out of touch with the populist and antielitist culture that brought us ‘Brexit: a Tale of Two Britains’ and ‘Trumped’. Regardless, the sheer beauty of the cinematography, the shimmering score, and the delightful duo of Stone and Gosling make this movie a must see.

Review: I See You India Harris

rguably, no band have changed the landscape of pop music quite like The xx. Their startling Mercury-Prize-winning debut back in 2009 expanded the genre’s potential, claiming a space for sparse electronica and minimalist lyrics expressed in barely-there whispers. For such an unassuming trio, their influence cannot be understated, and it doesn’t take particularly careful listening to hear the reverberations of their sound in subsequent artists. Following their debut, the band released Coexist (2012), a nice, though essentially underwhelming and unmemorable album too close to Xx to be anything new, yet too devoid of the former’s magic to be anything particularly special. Thus, it was with some trepidation that I listened to The xx’s latest album I See You. Confident and bold, the album announces itself with a Caribbean horn fanfare in ‘Dangerous’, signalling a completely new territory, miles away from the twinkly xylophone of early single ‘VCR’. These opening sounds are not misleading; I See You depicts a movement beyond former shyness, into something more assured. Lyrically, the band have retained their youthful simplicity. They express recognisable feeling, and all-toofamiliar romantic dynamics, though the sentiments are more audible, and expressed with greater energy. he influence of Jamie xx is more pronounced, in the inventive yet meticulous arrangements that flicker and skitter in the background, carrying clear traces of his debut In Colour (2015). Overall, it is difficult to identify a weak song. The album’s conclusion – ‘Test Me’ – walks the borderline of

blandness in its reminiscences of Coexist, though even this is still pretty great. I See You is so seamless, so carefully constructed, that it is difficult even to identify standout moments; every song is illuminated in the context of the album. The recently released singles — ‘Say Something Loving’ and ‘On Hold’ — are both gorgeous, shimmering tracks, that only improve with repeated listening (I dare anybody to listen to the latter without having repurposed Hall & Oates lyrics swimming round their head for days). If Xx broke new ground, and Coexist was baby-steps back over it, then I See You is a beautifully executed leap of faith. 2017 is still young, but The xx have already set this up to be one of the greatest albums of the year. JAREED

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

“Fabulously dark”: Crimes of the Heart Ben Freeman

his dark comedy set in Mississippi follows the conflicts, desires, and foibles of three sisters. Lenny is the eldest, stuck at home caring for her granddaddy, whilst middle-child Meg is out in California, aiming for stardom, and Babe, the youngest, is shacked up with husband Zachary. Babe has just shot Zachary (she didn’t like his looks!) and the play follows the sisters attempting to deal with this fact, though it is often farcically overshadowed by their other problems. The sisters have had a difficult life – Daddy left home and their Mom hanged herself – and we get blackly comical glimpses back into their old lives. The three actors (Molly Stacey as Lenny, Isla Iago as Meg, and Jasmin Rees as Babe) were at their best when together onstage, lost in nostalgia with a vibrant, sparkling chemistry. Stacey’s performance as Lenny brilliantly brought out the vulnerable anger of a downtrodden woman constantly oscillating between adult responsibility and childishness. Isla Iago as Meg was dramatic and confident – and yet, as with all the characters, unguarded moments reveal elements of the past of which she is not proud. But these moments always conveyed something about their present situations, and were played with poignancy or humour as necessary.

The mood of the performance turned on a sixpence The lawyer, Barnette (Josh McClure), got some of the biggest laughs of the show when playing against Rees’ Babe. Their prospective romance was played with great comic timing, though corpsing did appear to be a problem during some of the routines. Rees gave a standout performance as a

troubled, naïve, child-like woman who is nonetheless carnal and violent. Amazingly, all these elements were brought out in turn, often within one dialogue. The versatility of the actors was most impressive. The mood of the performance turned on a sixpence, and the great cast drew sparkling humour out of desperate situations, brilliantly aware of comic timing and bathos. Chick (Ellie Cole) is a great villain, and Peter Chappell as Doc Porter, a small part with no real laughs, created a sombre and poignant character in contrast with his old flame Meg and her sisters. Also admirable were the finer details. Rehearsal of the more slapstick elements, such as spilling the coke or dropping the phone, was pleasingly well accomplished, and the music carried us wholly to the southern states in the mid-twentieth century. The lighting was oppressively domestic and bleak when it needed to be, forcing characters into dark extremities at times of strife, although the red flashing lights overdid a scene which did not need such additions when the actor’s performance was so consummate.

Music carried us wholly to the southern states Not that the lights spoiled it - this performance is highly recommended. It was a perfectly pitched production which everyone bought into, lifted by three brilliant central performances, and great supporting roles too. Any fool who believes that idiotic idea that women aren’t funny needs to see this, and spend an evening laughing at these fabulously dark comic performers who enjoy arguing, sex, mocking each other – and cake.

8/10 IMAGE: PETER CHAPPELL

“Highly energetic” E Catherine Tran

resh from its European tour, the Cambridge University European Theatre Group brings to the ADC stage a highly energetic, emotionally-charged performance of Shakespeare’s classic, Hamlet. This cut-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare’s longest play (in its entirety, the play would take around four hours to perform) barrels along at breakneck speed, making for an eminently watchable production, although the swift pace results in certain moments feeling rushed, unfortunately compromising their dramatic weight, such as the murder of Polonius and the crucial moment in which Claudius’ guilt is exposed in the ‘play-withina-play’ scene.

A hauntingly poignant expression of grief Music adds vibrancy to this production, and is effective in helping to establish mood and tone, which one imagines would have been instrumental when putting on this production in front of European audiences with limited understanding of the language. For instance,

the reprise of the ‘I’ll See You Again’ song following Ophelia’s death allows us to both witness and share in a hauntingly poignant expression of Laertes’ grief for the loss of his sister, as we are inevitably reminded of the initial rendition of the song – a sprightly duet between Laertes and Ophelia that captures the playful affection of their relationship – and thus cannot help but strongly feel Ophelia’s absence. From a purely musical perspective, some beautiful moments worth mentioning are the duets between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and between the gravediggers. However, time spent on song and dance presumably must come at the expense of dialogue, to prevent the production becoming too long, and this consequently results in a Hamlet that feels unusually action-packed Hamlet is normally known as the ‘hero’ who spends more time thinking about what he must do than actually doing anything. This Hamlet is different, though: Sam Knights’ Danish prince is less contemplative, and, instead, strikingly angry. His flamboyant comic turns, reminiscent of David Tennant’s Hamlet, are greatly amusing, but his rendition of the iconic ‘To be or not to be’ speech – perhaps the measuring rod against which every actor who

The Cambridge Student • The Thursday Magazine • 19 January 2017

ALL IMAGES: ALAN EGAN

“Truly clever comedy”: Ken Cheng: Best Dad Ever Laura Cameron

t said a lot that the theatre was packed out. People kept flooding in, some having to sit on the stairs, and it was definitely the most excitable audience I’d seen at a late show thus far. Clearly, Ken Cheng was is a pretty big name around here. Big enough, in fact, to have his own supporting act. Colin Rothwell came on to warm up the (already very warm) crowd and gave us a short and sweet set. This was enhanced by the presence of the PowerPoint screen behind him sporadically switching between the titles ‘Best Dad Ever’ and ‘Get fuckin hyped for Colin Rothwell’, to which Rothwell appeared genuinely oblivious. Then it was time for ‘the best’ and ‘only comedian [he’s] ever opened for’ to take to the stage. As Cheng briefly explains in his Preview interview, the narrative of the show stems from the Toblerone packet he once found in his dad’s room with the words ‘Best Dad Ever’ written on it. He began with what appears to be a signature opener: ‘A few problems with this…’ and went into a brilliantly pedantic analysis of said phrase being written on such a ‘transient product’. Structurally, he also dropped in key points within this section that he would recall later and the PowerPoint was a constant source of entertainment (which is a sentence I never thought I’d say).

We got an endearing insight into Cheng’s childhood

ETG 2016: Hamlet undertakes this seminal role must be held – feels disappointingly same-y compared with all his other soliloquies. Each of his long speeches follows a pattern of crescendo, culminating in an explosion of bitter rage, which becomes somewhat predictable as the play advances. Perhaps this is where character interpretation falls slightly short. Or, alternatively, where

This Hamlet is different: less contemplative, more strikingly angry it brings something new to the table. The absence of any real display of tenderness or vulnerability from Hamlet has the effect of shifting the audience’s sympathies more firmly to the female characters of the play (which, in this production, include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played by Lucy Dickson and Ashleigh Weir). Dickson’s Rosencrantz and Weir’s Guildenstern are an endearing, delightful duo who, whilst maybe not being the brightest buttons in the box, seem to genuinely want to help Hamlet, and so it seems cruel of Hamlet to mock Guildenstern so for

supposedly ‘think[ing] I am easier to be played on than a pipe’. Similarly, Ophelia’s understated ‘madness’ is a welcome contrast to Hamlet’s overblown theatricality, and ultimately more moving in its unaffected simplicity. Matilda Wickham is in fact a refreshingly 21st-century Ophelia, shying away from the meek and mild type to give us a believable modern young woman, not afraid of her father (nor Hamlet either, in the nunnery scene), but merely going along with his plans out of an exasperated love for the old man (excellently comically portrayed by Colin Rothwell). The difficulty with putting on a play such as Hamlet is trying to carve out a new route through Shakespeare’s so well-known and widely-performed text – one that feels fresh and individual. In this, I think the ETG are successful: original music, a contained setting, and intriguing characterisations combine to offer an intense, intimate and innovative vision of the play, which is well worth watching.

7/10

There was a great balance of material, from the bit about ‘things colour-blind people can’t enjoy’ to the sugar vs fat debate, though he always came back to the theme as we got an endearing insight into Cheng’s childhood. Namely: his relationship with his mum, described as a hoarder who’s always keeping things that ‘might be worth some-

thing someday’; his ‘weird hobby’ of enjoying Microsoft Excel – it being weird that he enjoyed it from an early age/at all; and that he had a childhood obsession with lambs. Specifically lambs, yep. He brought on his favourite lamb toy ‘Dirty’ and we were even privy to an exclusive extract from his novel ‘Lambs and Teddies’, which I’m now really hoping will materialise into the franchise he once dreamed of.

You knew that you were being told something real and important This then led us seamlessly into the more serious part of the set. You realise how expertly Cheng had been hinting at it throughout, and this is all with no cues, no prompts, just a beautifully natural sense of structure. Whilst still obviously making jokes, classing his Dad’s sudden move back to China as one of those ‘events that just pass you by – like the super moon’, you knew that you were being told something real and important. So I suppose my only criticism here is that there occasional lulls, and the fact that it did run on a bit longer that planned owing to the self-confessed ‘riffing’. But, disregarding that, Ken Cheng: Best Dad Ever was one of the more brilliant shows I’ve seen. Ever. Truly clever comedy delivered with integrity, individuality, and with a direction that was both meaningful as well as side-splittingly funny. So if you weren’t a member of the sell-out crowd, then you should be next time because I predict now, without a doubt, that those tickets will ‘be worth something someday’.

9/10 IMAGE: YASEEN KADER

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine• The Cambridge Student

The New Wave of Scandi Style

ith its monochrome palettes, sealed within clean lines and boxy silhouettes, Scandinavian fashion is indubitably distinctive. Strolling through Copenhagen, it sidles past you in the form of flat, satisfyingly chunky shoes, simple cropped trousers, and soft but mannish tailoring. Due to its slickly minimalistic style, loud patterns are hardly ever worn, and, when there is colour, it’s subtle. That’s not to suggest an ascetic puritanism – far from it. Quality cuts and fabrics feel luxuriously modern, and even their grunge looks clean. Take Acne Studios – we’d recognise that shearling, black leather jacket, those pistol boots, and that paper-thin tee anywhere. Which is fortunate, really, because it is everywhere, revered from its base in Stockholm to boutiques in LA. Acne may be the behemoth of luxury daywear brands, but it’s clear from the international cult following of bloggers like Pernille Teisbaek and Veneda Budny that the allure of Scandinavian style reaches far beyond the marketplace. It seems that we all, transfixed, want in on this trend. But doesn’t it all seem a little too perfect? Are we missing something? Scandinavian cities are distinctly separate from

fast-paced fashion capitals – they are, in short, smaller and colder – and they’ve had to establish a distinct fashion microclimate as a result. The population may be relatively small, but it is fashion-conscious, adhering to trends to an almost uniform degree and so establishing a coherent ‘Scandinavian style’ that simply wouldn’t be tenable in a metropolis like London, bursting with diverse style tribes and trends. Perhaps the Scandinavian look, so impeccably and consistently contained within its clean-lined frame, can only function if sudden, colourful aesthetic developments are resisted. Fashion is, however, inherently dynamic, and the Scandinavian designers leading the pack are not those adhering to every Nordic style dictum, but those bending the rules, conscious of the need to move outwards into a globalised network. Take Christina Exsteen, creative director of By Malene Birger, who has been moving the Danish high-fashion brand towards a thriving terrain of relaxed cuts, colour, and embellished details. As she put it, “I felt we needed to play a bit more with contrast. We have beautiful products with quality, but we needed to add an edge. It’s no longer just

about creating something that’s polished and neat.” Things become more interesting when they have a contrast.’ Other designers are following in her wake: Cecilie Jørgensen, finding that she had nothing to wear one night, transformed a keffiyeh scarf into a tunic and was so inspired that she set up Cecilie Copenhagen. The brand, focused on the traditional keffiyeh print, pays tribute to Scandinavian style heritage with relaxed silhouettes and soft quality fabrics. Renegade designers such as these are showing that maintaining the Scandinavian aesthetic isn’t tantamount to dull conformity. In fact, crossing boundaries seems to be the perfect counterbalance to Scandinavian style’s clean lines: when London-based Brown’s started selling the Cecilie Copenhagen Spring/ Summer collection, it sold out on the first day.

Director and Stylist: Octavia Akoulitchev Photographer: Vincent Hasselbach Makeup artist: Lucy Wright Models: Lia Johansen, Lily Spicer, Phoebe Wallwork, Elise Limon, Issy Grace

The Cambridge Student • The Thursday Magazine • 19 January 2017

Interview: Scandi questions with the models That clean-lined, contemporary Scandinavian aesthetic, as the manifestation of hygge, is clearly more than a passing fad.You express it through your clothes, but also through every other creative outlet available, from furniture to architecture. Which Nordic architect resonates most strongly with you? Elise: Well, Aalvar Aalto, being one of the most influential architects of the Nordic modern movement, has to get a mention. But also the Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn (1924-2009), and in particular his Nordic Pavillion in Venice, which is a great proponent of the Scandinavian design principals in relation to simplicity, materials, and nature. I think it’s important to know that the clean aesthetic in Scandinavian architecture that is so popular comes from a motivation to create something highly functional with a relationship to its environment. The bright, light, practical interiors are inspired by the long winters and few hours of sunlight in that area of the world. There are also lots of young Nordic practices that are continuing the current principles with an increasing focus on sustainability, such as Marge Arkitekter and Elding Oscarson. The idea of being highly functional without the need of unnecessary design is something that I think should always be the basis of design –

making beautiful things that improve your life. From Skam - that has Norway so uncharacteristically hysterical that over a fifth of the country are watching it – to Nordic Noir like The Bridge, what do you think accounts for Scandi TV’s massive following? Lily: Probably the darkness? I’d binge watch television if it was only light for 2 hours a day and it was legitimised by hygge. Scandinavian gender orders are among the most egalitarian on Earth. Women have arrived en masse in party politics, corporate boards, and the Nordic countries are now leading the world in women’s representation in the public realm. Do you think the gender equality of Scandinavian geopolitical identity influences how women dress? Phoebe: It is definitely likely that the simplistic, androgynous style dominating women’s fashion in Scandinavia stems from the increasing gender equality. Women feel empowered to dress how they wish, not in an overtly feminine or sexualized way for the sake of pleasing men. I suppose this is because having women in positions of power means that other women do not feel forced to exploit their femininity to excel their career. The increasing blindness to gender appears

to have transcended the workplace into the fashion world, seeping into women’s wardrobes all across Scandinavia. In fact, H&M just launched an autumn campaign promoting gender neutrality! Is the appropriation of hygge, by girls who Instagram their coffee and consider ‘avotoast’ the ultimate aspirational breakfast, starting to piss you off? Issy: Out of all the concepts that could stem from the inspiration of hygge, I think people could be slightly more original than coffee and avotoast. Is the current tumultuous political climate responsible for our drive towards soothing Scandistyle? Lia: Sitting down with nice candles bedecked in Monki and sipping a hot chocolate can make difficult news easier to swallow, and the appealingly continental nature of Scandinavia may even be a response to the perceived isolationism of the Brexit vote. Still, I wonder if there’s any real productivity in pretending nothing’s going on in the real world and creating a personal bubble where the most immediate problems are about candles and fur throws instead.

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

How can music January Pick-Me-Ups Recipes be Hygge? Emer O’ Hanlon Food Editor

Pippa Smith Music Editor

anuary is a bitterly cold and gloomy time of year – so why not try these recipes to keep you warm and sharp?

Masala chai Dry roast 8 deseeded cardamom pods, 1 clove, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 ½ tsp coriander seeds over a high heat until the coriander seeds begin to darken. Add 1 tsp loose leaf black tea (or 1 tea bag), ½ roughly chopped fresh chilli (or a generous pinch of dried chilli), a slice of chopped fresh ginger root, and 1 ½ cups of cold water (not ‘official’ cups; just use the mug you’ll be drinking the tea in). Bring to the boil over a medium heat. Meanwhile, heat some dairy or non-dairy milk (however much you’d like) in a separate DINESHRAJ GOOMANY

mug, either on the hob or microwave. Strain the tea into your mug, leaving room for the milk, and a little sugar (optional). Two-bean North African inspired vegetable hotpot Toast 2 tsp cumin seeds and once they darken, transfer to a bowl. Fry one chopped aubergine in salt and olive oil for around ten minutes. Add one chopped onion and continue frying until the onion goes brown; then add two cloves crushed garlic and one chopped red chilli (optional), and fry for a further minute. Add the cumin seeds, 2 tsp sumac and 1 tbsp paprika, and stir to combine, then 1/3 cup chopped olives, two chopped peppers, and the chopped peel of one preserved lemon (optional). Continue to cook on a medium heat until the peppers begin to soften. Then add one tin of cannellini beans and one of borlotti beans, stir to combine, and after a couple of minutes, a packet of tomato passata. Allow it to come to the boil, and then turn onto a low heat. Continue cooking on a low heat for at least half an hour more; essentially, the longer, the better. Serve with brown rice, bulgar wheat or flatbread. A dollop of yoghurt doesn’t go amiss either. Stewed apple Place two peeled and chopped Bramley apples into a saucepan with ½ cup water, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 ½ tbsp maple syrup or honey, 3 cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon and ½ tsp ground ginger. Cook on a medium heat for around fifteen minutes, or longer if you’’d like it more broken down. Remove cloves before serving.

The Other Side of Hygge Eliza Dickinson

ygge’ and Scandinavian cosiness are totally ‘in’ right now. But only focussing on warmth and contentment means that some other aspects of Scandinavian culture start to fly under the radar – including ‘Scandinavian Noir’. This dark and thrilling TV genre sprung up a few years ago and is set to stay for the long run. You can install as much atmospheric lighting as you like, but these shows serve to remind you that there’s still danger out there... Scandinavian thrillers actually have a big cult, especially in the UK. When the first series of ‘The Killing’ was shown SWEDISH NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD

on British TV, it gained more viewers than ‘Mad Men’, and has since been bought by over 120 countries. ‘The Bridge’ has been similarly popular, in part because of its genuinely original plotline, following the investigation of a body that was found in the exact centre of the Swedish-Danish border. Part of what makes these shows so popular is the way that they combine these twisted storylines with dark humour. When you’re following the same murderer for an entire series, you definitely need some comic relief. The popularity of this genre has led to attempts to recreate it elsewhere, in some places even remaking the original shows. There’s an American remake of ‘The Killing’, and both American and British-French remakes of ‘The Bridge’, as well as a British remake of ‘Wallander’ (which is still set in Sweden). Although these remakes are decent in their own ways – especially ‘Wallander’, which stars Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hiddleston – they are missing a certain something, and rarely (if ever) match up to the standard of the originals. Perhaps it is the change in setting that is the problem, as relocating the stark landscape of ‘The Bridge’ to sunny Texas in the American remake takes away a whole layer of the darkness of the storyline. Even if the remakes seem tempting due to the lack of subtitles, it’s really worth watching the originals, if only for a glimpse of the other side of the cosy Scandinavia that we see so often.

sychologists have been studying the effect of music on the way we think, feel, and act for years. Some studies suggest even the difference between a perfect fifth and a tritone could affect our cognitive function and that listening to music we enjoy actually decreases our productivity. But we don’t need experiments and theses to tell us music has a powerful impact on our mood and perception. We naturally associate certain songs with the emotions we felt when we first heard them; the lyrics draw forward similar episodes in our own life and the melodies shape our music tastes and preferences. After all, memory and emotion are much less about the past than about a present stimulant. Developments in music such as iTunes and Spotify have allowed us to start using music as a mood-maker, even if we do not realise we are doing it. The humble playlist lets the listener have complete control over what they hear, obviously. But if you think about it, most albums contain a mix of happy and sad songs. Even Adele throws in a song not about a break-up from time to time. Playlists allow us to iron out such variety and neatly sort the music we enjoy into packages ready to be opened up when the mood strikes us, or when we want a certain mood to strike us. I am undoubtedly the no.1 follower of the playlist way of life. From party playlists to songs to listen to in the bath,

Playlists allow us to iron out variety and neatly sort music from summer anthems to essay writing playlists; you name it, I’ve probably made a playlist for it. Streaming websites now make this even easier. You can easily search your desired mood and are presented with ready-made playlists to explore. Spotify now even suggests playlists based on the sort of music you listen to frequently - the day I scrolled down to see ‘Sad songs’ and ‘Life sucks’ picked just for me confirmed that I’m not sure how much I appreciate this recent development. In fact, the power of the playlist is a gift, but it can also be a curse. Sometimes it’s nice to have a little wallow but I’m not exactly sure how healthy or useful ‘Life sucks’ playlists are in the grand scheme of things. I certainly have a tendency to try and wind down from the stress of uni work with a chilled out playlist, and most of these songs seem to have very depressing themes. I sometimes wonder whether exposing myself to uninterrupted music like this is good for my state of mind, or whether compartmentalising music in general is a sensible approach. It’s probably equally damaging to force yourself out of a reverie with saccharine pop playlists when you’re feeling low. One thing experts agree on is that music causes the release of dopamine in our brains and makes us feel

It’s damaging to force yourself to be positive with saccharine pop relaxed. With lifestyle trends such as hygge taking over the UK, music is surely therefore a powerful tool in helping us heighten the everyday – if it can enhance the most poignant moments of big screen blockbusters then surely it can work wonders on our own lives. What is important is to appreciate the music you love, not for what it reminds you of, but for the way it makes you feel today. In this spirit, I’m making a new playlist – one that grows every time I come across a song I love, regardless of the mood it creates.

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

The next big sound: 2017 Top Picks Pippa Smith Music Editor

hat is going to be the next big thing in music over the next year? I’ve shortlisted a few emerging artists set to do great things in 2017.

The Big Moon: Interviewed by TCS early in Michaelmas, this slick, all-female line up is beginning to take the world of indie rock by storm. They combine laid back electric with ‘tropical rubicon courage’ lyrics to create a compelling sound reminiscent of Wolf Alice. The Big Moon supported Mystery Jets at the Cambridge Junction in 2016 but with new single, ‘Formidable’, released on Friday, it won’t be long before they return as headliners. AFFAIRS: This Manchester based band originally formed at Hull University have had success with their first few singles, drawing comparisons with Foals, The Smiths and even David Bowie. ‘Life of Leisure’ and ‘Runaway’ were released in 2016 to a warm critical reception and with a band promising another new record early this year 2017 could be the year this emerging band break into the big time. Ray BLK: As BBC Introducing’s official sound of 2017 Ray BLK had to feature on our list. BLK stands for Building, Living, Knowing, tying in with the lyrical focus on Ray’s Catford roots, dysfunctional relationships and the artist’s English Literature degree. Her latest single ’Patience’, as well as ‘My Hood’, signify a talent for street-

A very Cambridge Caper Octavia Akoulitchev

ave you always dreamt of wearing a poncho but have always resisted the urge thanks to the very real fear of looking like someone from the 70s? Be not woeful, the fashion world brings you aid in the form of the blanket cape, bringing both mental and physical comfort, being on trend and tremendously cosy. What more could any fashionista want than an excuse to wear a blanket outside without judgement nor rebuke? This warming, wintry accoutrement is key to the winter wardrobe, creating an instant outfit when thrown over some boots and skinny jeans. More to the point, it’s the perfect accessory for any Cantab, essentially letting you feel like you’re wearing a gown every day, the guilty wish of every student. There is little more satisfying than cycling down King’s parade cape a-billow, vindicated by the fact that it’s essentially a blanket and thus actually really down to earth. Moreover, even if you don’t have time to carefully assemble an outfit this will cover up many an early morning lecture outfit sin, making it perfect for those of us that have 9am The same boon, paired with some oversized sunnies and broad-brimmed hat perfectly disguises the potentially hedonistic activities of the night before. There are however, some minor flaws, chief amongst which is that they’re not always that practical (Edna Mode hates them for a reason). With a Cambridge gale having the potential to whip your cape into a frenzy that can leave you tangled on bicycles, people and Tudor stonework. Then again, isn’t fashion all about suffering for our art? I revel in my cape and its potential hazards, I hope you’ll join me.

smart soul which can only see more success in 2017. Fickle Friends: With fresh female vocals and a chilledout, Two Door Cinema Club-style vibe, Fickle Friends are perfectly pitched to do great things in 2017. The single ‘Swim’ has already gained the band attention, and they are rumoured to be currently recording their debut album. Other highlights so far include the catchy vocals of ‘Brooklyn’ and trendy, upbeat tones of ‘Say No More’.

RAY BLKVEVO VIA YOUTUBE

More music in the year to come can only increase their popularity. Cabbage: Leering vocals and an insistent, slightly grungey guitar line place Cabbage somewhere between the Libertines, Slaves, and Nirvana. Their brazen lyrics and songs such as ‘Terrorist Synthesizer’ and ‘Uber Capitalist Death Trade’ confirm the Manchester boys certainly don’t shy away from a statement. They also make a remarkable amount of noise – perhaps not one to listen to in the bath, but a band tipped by many to soar high in 2017. Mamas Gun: Named after Erykah Badu’s album, Mamas Gun have released 3 albums since 2009 with modest success. However, slick production and catchy melodies mean that ‘Red Cassette’ and ‘On a String’ hidden gems. The band are said to be recording their 4th album for release soon. Perhaps this will be the one to garner Mamas Gun the recognition they deserve.

The Magic Gang: The no-nonsense melodies and stripped-backed guitar of this Brighton-based foursome have attracted critical acclaim over the past year. Tracks such as ‘Jasmine’ and ‘All That I Want Is You’ were blasted out at countless festivals across the country, perfectly encapsulating a laid-back summer atmosphere, and recent single ‘All This Way’ strengthens the band’s identity.

AJ Tracey: And finally, something for the grime fans AJ Tracey has attracted attention in recent months with ‘Thiago Silver’ and ‘Buster Canon’. This London based artist received recognition from The Guardian as one of the UK’s most exciting new artists. With the fast-paced evolution of grime set to follow the same trajectory this year, Tracey can only go on to bigger and better things. Visit the TCS Spotify page to listen to our Top Picks of 2017

Escape the Bubble: Mill Road Amiya Nagpal Lifestyle Editor

discovered Mill Road by accident. It’s not that I didn’t know it existed, but it’s that I never bothered going there. Being at Corpus meant I never had reason to venture further than the golden triangle of Sainbury’s – lectures – my room. It was in second year, on the promise of cute animals to cuddle, that I made my first journey to Mill Road to visit a friend of a friend’s rabbits and somehow ended up house/bunny sitting for the weekend. That trip felt so far removed from what my experience of Cambridge had been like up to that point. Over there, I no longer felt simply like a student, but rather someone who lived in the town. and just happened to also go to the University. The insularity of Cambridge is such that you don’t recognise the way in which it becomes a part of your identity until you take a breath of academia-free fresh air and recognise how stuck in the so-called bubble you were. I still live smack in the centre of town. The first thing I see when I open my curtains every morning is good old Sam Smileys (RIP) smiling back at me. Sometimes it gets suffocating, but Mill Road is now my go-to sanctuary. It’s a 10 minute cycle pilgrimage on days when Cambridge as I know it feels too much. It’s refreshing to see real people going about their real lives, lives that don’t involve essay deadlines, stressy supervisors, and one too many this-ismy-reward-for-writing-a-whole-sentence cookies. It’s not that there’s expressly stuff to do there – it’s mostly a regular high street with shops and restaurants – but it’s the way in which they’re different to what King’s Parade and Petty Cury have to offer that makes all the difference. It’s somehow more vibrant, more diverse. The bridge that

cuts the road in two is painted in bright colours. It’s not beautiful in the old, architectural way that the centre of the university town is, but it’s beautiful in its lack of polish. Its rawness makes it all the more pulsing. It’s worth going there in the morning; Black Cat Café is a strong contender for the best brunch spot in town. You could equally head there to work at a coffee shop you’ve never been to before, to trawl the charity shops for clothes, or explore the food shops for fruit Sainsbury’s definitely doesn’t keep. Have an ear out for their events too – Mill Road has fabulous fairs with great food and live music, and every so often a café there will host something funky. Make the effort - Mill Road is the cosmopolitan high street haven you didn’t realise you were lacking until you went there. Trust me, once you go, it’ll become the place you think of first when you think about getting out of ivory tower Cambridge for a while. MARTIN ADDISON

19 January 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Judging a book by its cover The TCS staff show off their prettiest bookshop finds

A brilliant midday read

Orwell, always asking the big questions

The best minds of a generation...

Berger’s basically asking us to judge the cover

Feeling positively pink

Ever so shocking

An absolutely ‘roaring’ design!

The best modernist front cover?

‘Laden with flower and fruit’

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

Features

Chinese New Year Timothy Tan

or any Chinese community, Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivities each year. Much like New Year’s celebrations on the Gregorian calendar, it is a time to reunite with old friends and family, to share experiences from the past year, and to hope for an even better year in the future. This year, the first day of Chinese New Year falls on the 28th of January. The date of celebration varies from year to year (on the Gregorian calendar), and is based on the Chinese lunar calendar. Each year is associated with a corresponding Chinese zodiac sign, this year’s being the Rooster. The Rooster is an important zodiac as it symbolises discipline and timeliness, since its call signifies the beginning of a new dawn for agricultural workers. As with any other festival, Chinese New Year is entrenched in age-old rituals. For any adolescent, receiving ‘Lai See’ (Red Packets) is the highlight of the holiday; it is customary for children to pay their respects to married elders during this time of the year and, in exchange, receive decorated little red envelopes containing a sum of money. Traditionally, the Red Packets are meant to ward off a mythical ‘Nian’ monster, which is said to haunt villages every New Year, but for

children and teenagers, it is seen more as an important supplementary source of income atop the meagre allowance received from our parents. But if you’re unlucky like me, and have to spend Chinese New Year abroad, then there goes hundreds of pounds worth of allowance. It is also customary to decorate the house with Fai Chun, which are red banners with celebratory messages written on them. Popular phrases include Gung Hei Fat Choy (“Wishing you a prosperous New Year”) or Sun Tai Geen Hong (“Wishing you health and wellbeing”). Spending Chinese New Year in Cambridge has other downsides too. You miss out on the chance to wine and dine with family and friends on the customary New Year’s Eve reunion dinner. The feast is comparable to the ones found on Christmas or Thanksgiving in Western culture, except we eat dumplings instead of turkey and sweet glutinous rice balls instead of mince pies. Of course, the Chinese community is so big in Cambridge that you’re bound to be able to find some friends to celebrate the holidays with you. Even if you’re not Chinese, it might be fun to experience the festivities once with some friends familiar with the customs of Chinese New Year. ALEXANDER SYNAPTIC

BEATRICE OBE

That’s Genius: Staying Inspired this Year Noella Chye Features Editor

t’s a new year, and new term. For those who fear they’ll lose any semblance of mental capacity recovered over Christmas a week in, we may be able to help. This week, we’re looking at the ways that writers, artists, and scientists in history have stayed inspired. Write in a car. Gertrude Stein found that her productivity blossomed when running errands, in the privacy of her Model T Ford, while letting her mind wander and jotting down a few lines. Imagine the stillness within a parked car, with the chatter and tête-à-tête of busy Paris streets just outside, along with the periodic stopping and starting of the automobile matching the rhythm of her thoughts. Daily commutes proved particularly effective too. Joseph Heller famously stated that the closing line of Catch-22 came to him on a bus. Woody Allen found his everyday New York subway rides the perfect background for his budding comedic genius, saying “I’d take out a pencil and by the time I’d gotten out I’d

The quirks of famous thinkers could hold the key to invoke genius

have written forty or fifty jokes…fifty jokes a day for years.” Read work you hate. Richard Siken, poet of Crush and War of the Foxes, advises: “When I read work I hate, I get motivated to make something in opposition to it.” Perhaps before you start your next essay, read one of your old ones. Get into a strict routine. Haruki Murakami advocates a lifestyle of strict order. When writing a novel, he gets up every morning at 4 am, works for five or six hours, runs 10 kilometres or swims 1500 meters (or both), reads for the rest of the day, and then goes to bed promptly at 9 pm. The stringent routine rids him of distractions, such that, he says, “I mesmerise myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” Put yourself under extreme physical stress. Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu has patented more than 3,300 inventions in the 74 years of his life, one of which was the floppy disk in 1952. Several of his greatest ideas hit him when he was close to drowning; he says: “To starve the

brain of oxygen, you must dive deep and allow the water pressure to deprive the brain of blood. Zero-point-five seconds before death, I visualise an invention.” After which he jots his idea down on an underwater notepad and swims back to the surface. Maybe it’s time to give rowing another shot. Write lying down or standing up. Truman Capote wrote lying down, as did Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, and Woody Allen. In a 1957 Paris Review interview with Pati Hill, Capote explains: “I am a completely horizontal author. I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I’ve got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis. No, I don’t use a typewriter. Not in the beginning. I write my first version in longhand (pencil). Then I do a complete revision, also in longhand.” Attempt polyphasic sleep. (Do not try this at home.) The list of polyphasic sleepers includes Dalí, da Vinci, Edison,

Tesla, Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and even Bruce Lee. Dalí used napping as a creativity technique. He would fall asleep sitting up, holding a metal key over a plate. When he started to drift off, the key would drop with a clatter and wake him up immediately. This allowed him to access the brief transitional moment between waking and sleep, which some believe makes us more susceptible to hallucinations. Da Vinci also turned to irregular sleeping hours, but in the name of productivity - he took 15-20 minute naps on a cycle of every four hours, adding up to a total of just two hours per day, so that he could work 22 hours a day. I’ve always been interested in the quirks of famous thinkers, as if they hold the key to invoke genius. Realistically though, I can adopt any number of these and still just scrape a 2:1 - they don’t hold the secrets to a mysterious cognitive state. If anything, it’s clear that the path to great thinking is the acceptance of one’s own quirks.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Features

The Long Read:

Out With the Old, In With the New? Using Morocco as a case study to question the state of traditions in a rapidly evolving world EXIT 1979

Caithlin Ng Features Editor

here is no denying it – we live in a changing world. People, practices, societies evolve continually, and there is value still in the old proverb, “Change is the only constant”. But as we watch the world evolve and adapt, it is inevitable to feel the pull between modernity and tradition; the clash between longestablished cultural practices and beliefs, and modern sensibilities and sentiments. This is a grey area – should we be adhering to and protecting cultural traditions, or should we be learning to adapt them in an increasingly diverse yet interconnected world?

France has banned “overt religious symbols” in government buildings since 2009. Reports that Morocco had recently banned the manufacture and sale of burqas out of security concerns seemed to me, in particular, to highlight this war between the modern and the traditional; although the government has yet to formally confirm this move, local Moroccan media reported that manufacture and retailing of the conservative Islamic garment had been banned in the country, with certain news outlets speculating that this was a bid to promote a more temperate form of Islam. Although it is a minority of Moroccan women who actually don the burqa – most prefer the niqab or headscarves without veils – the New York Times suggested on 11 January that, “Morocco, a majorityMuslim country and former French protectorate where the influence of Western secularist ideals remains, has been trying to foster more moderate expressions of Islam and subtly warn Islamists not to go too far, though acts

of extremism remain rare.” If the ban, as the New York Times speculates, is intended to reduce Moroccan associations with religious terrorism, then it comes as less of a surprise given the current political climate. The burqa has arguably come to be one of the pieces of clothing most associated by Western societies with the Islamic religion and culture, and are considered by some to be overt religious symbols. Such bans on Islamic dress are not new; France has banned “overt religious symbols” like Islamic head coverings in government buildings and public schools since 2009, Azerbaijan since 2010, Tunisia since 1981. easoning for these bans lie in their ties to political Islam, or friction with secular governments. Some, too, would argue that the banning of religious head covering would liberate the women of those cultures, but is all this an example of other religions accommodating a Western way of thinking, and a Western culture that has become ubiquitous with the growing interconnectedness of our world?

What is left could be a government attempting to tailor the image of a religion to fit what is deemed “acceptable” What a ban on the manufacture and sale of burqas in Morocco represents, even if the ban does not extend to the wearing of them, has sparked a fierce debate between Moroccans, with some arguing that despite the security rationale, little evidence exists to support the claim that the burqa represents a security threat. Others, like Moroccan journalist Ali

Some argue little evidence exists to support the claim that the burqa represents a security threat.

Anouzla, take a more understanding approach: “The Interior Ministry didn’t ban the hijab or niqab but banned the burqa, and the burqa isn’t part of Morocco’s culture,” he wrote on his Facebook page. Although women who wear the burqa are a minority in Morocco, it is still a tradition practiced by a sector of society. As some critics have pointed out, there is little evidence for the association between the burqa and extremism in Morocco, so what is left could be a government attempting to tailor the image of a religion to fit what is deemed “acceptable” by another culture. The issue of a ban on burqas in Morocco is certainly a complex one; there are, of course, other implications to consider, including the possible violations of freedom of speech, religion, and female expression. Perhaps it does make sense in a political context, a move that will allow Morocco to adapt to the changing modern world better, but it might a be move that requires the sacrifice – however small – of its culture or practices. Other examples that illustrate the clash between modernity and tradition

can be cited from around the world; in Asia, for instance, debate has long existed over whether shark’s fin soup – a long-established dish and symbol of wealth in Chinese and Vietnamese culture – should still be consumed given the modern unsustainability of shark finning. he European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages exists to preserve the use of certain languages in the name of tradition. The adoption of English as a main speaking language in many originally non-English speaking countries is a symptom of globalisation, a means by which countries have joined the flow of modernisation, a means of keeping up with the economic and social movements of the rest of the world.

and age-old culture. But culture is not static, and culture will change. The pull between tradition and modernity might one day come to characterise the cultural identities of such countries, and perhaps the most important question for the present is how much tradition should be relinquished to modernity. There is no simple or clear answer; as I mentioned before, this is a grey area. Ideally, we would one day live in societies where we can, and do still, appreciate traditional practices and beliefs, but still be dynamically engaged with a globalised world. The world will come to a standstill if we do too. But it is difficult to strike the right balance between tradition and modernity, and we might find that some traditions will inevitably slip from us. The interconnectedness away I do believe that it not need be a of the world has been at dichotomy between them, but it is impossible to control exactly the expense of tradition perhaps where the compromise is to be.It is a divisive and debatable topic, and while, and age-old culture for now, we may only try to preserve Again, the interconnectedness of the and speculate, only time will tell how world has had its many benefits, but it tradition fares in the long conflict with has been at the expense of tradition modernity.

A minority of Moroccan women wear the burqa – most prefer the niqab or headscarves without veils

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages exists to preserve the use of certain languages in the name of tradition

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

Features

When self-care becomes self-destructive Why I’m thankful for skylines

Juliette Charis

elf-care was the name of the game for me over the festive period. I had become so utterly exhausted by my first Michaelmas that I wholeheartedly abandoned my studies in favour of a life of relaxation. Though I began the holiday with abundant plans to catch-up with the ceaseless Michaelmas workload, choosing not to do this, and instead electing for respite, seemed like a better idea. Well, at the time, it did. But right now, less than a week before term begins again, I can’t help but feel consumed with guilt over the lack of effort I displayed over the holiday. I did nothing over the past six weeks except lethargically patting the snooze button for the 82nd time; being apathetic towards my absorption into the sofa; and returning to the cocoon of blankets on my bed for yet another nap, whilst the mountain of unread Renaissance literature beside me continued to breathe down my neck. I would be lying if I claimed this period of relaxation wasn’t useful; it helped me rejuvenate for next term, which I’m perfectly aware I need – but I am now panicking about my lack of progress. I took rest in the name of self-care, because I thought I deserved it; now I think that I owed myself more. Self-care is any action you take to improve your health; it can be a little act, or a big one: trying a new activity or focusing on the things you already love; something you do alone, or with others. Whatever the act may be, it

should have an underlying goal of fostering positivity; indeed, we mostly hear this term said during discussions on how to improve our mental health. Yet, sometimes our choice of action, though taken in the name of self-care, can produce the opposite effect. And self-care becomes even more difficult when complications with physical health are also thrown into the mix; one of my dearest friends, Georgia, suffers from the excruciating condition of chronic costochondritis, which has developed into nerve damage in the spine. She told me that her illness makes self-degradation too easy; she repeatedly criticises herself for her inability to cure her ailment, whilst also denigrating herself for her desire to stay in bed when the pain is too much to bear. But she acknowledges, that sometimes selfcare is about doing what your body tells you, regardless of the extent to which this might go against every sense of self-reproach you possess. It is ironic that self-care can make you feel bad about yourself, but we must learn to accept that. She says you have to deal with what you can, when you can; self-care is ultimately about being kind to yourself, but this should take place at your own pace: you ought to do things when you are ready to, and remember not to push yourself if you are not. But even so, self-care is notoriously difficult; so difficult, in fact, that most people struggle to practise it

It seems taking care of yourself, is a choice fraught with danger

at all. I know that I am perpetually wondering whether my actions in this department are examples of me being gentle on my mental health, or simply being lazy; being aware of my needs, or just being selfish. Self-care really is a matter of trial and error – as Georgia rightly says, it all depends on the day in question. I am reminded here of the quotation: “Never regret anything, because at one time it was exactly what you wanted”; maybe we should treat our acts of nurture as isolated necessities, regardless of our later criticism of such deeds. Unfortunately, the dissection of our past actions, particularly when our mental health is concerned, is never simple. It seems taking care of yourself, and putting yourself first, is a choice fraught with danger. But (and this is a big but) it doesn’t mean we should abandon doing this. I know that even if I had completed vast quantities of work over the break, I would still feel guilty – and this is precisely why I need self-care! Yes, sometimes we may look back at our actions with shame and disgust and horror; but, equally, we might look back with pride. And it is that possibility that makes actions of self-care absolutely, undeniably, totally worthwhile. At the end of the day, it’s all about finding a balance, and constantly facing decisions about whether pushing on or taking a well-needed break will benefit ourselves more in the long run. There is a learning curve to self-care.

VoxPop: “Favourite thing about Cambridge?”

Noella Chye Features Editor

o be as small as a human being is to be a slave to perspective: we are and will always be particularly susceptible to changes in scale of the places around us. That’s because the world is so much bigger than we are, and as our minuscule selves move from one place to another, the differences in how big things seem are often jolting. This can be a pain, since our environments have developed a greater power over us than would be ideal, but it also sets us up for changes in perspective to have all the more effect on us; while we inevitably feel suffocated by the hunks of concrete all around us, the moment we escape the denseness of the city, we can feel resuscitated. In a way, I’m thankful for us being precisely the size we are. It’s given us a whole lot of opportunities for the incredible sights and experiences that come with a constantly shifting viewpoint. I’m also thankful for skylines. Every skyline is a testament to human engineering and beautiful because it is both frightening and unnaturally perfect. It leaves you to imagine the hustle and bustle of everything it holds, and how you seem to see it all at once but also not at all. In other ways, it’s haunting, in the way a corpse is – eerily still, and doused in emotionless shades of grey, blue, and more grey. Really it depends on what you choose to see, but there is one thing we can count on: it lets you see a city all at once, and all of a sudden, the issues you’re facing might seem distant and more manageable. We respond to different skylines in unique ways, just like a painting or sculpture - here, the artwork is an entire city. Take Las Vegas, for example; with its faux Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty, and even a pyramid. It’s like a louder, obnoxious sibling of the Earth. Or New

There are so many to see, and so many perspectives to hold. York, from which the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, One World Trade Centre and so many more “Friends.” “The architecture.” “King’s formals.” sprout into the sky, forming a single image of ambition Lauren, King’s Tessa, Fitzwilliam Freya, Homerton (and, less romantically, unfailing pursuit of wealth). There are so many to see, and so many perspectives to hold. Most spectacular of all, though, is looking at the city you call home. For me, that’s Singapore, with its ferris wheel alight with painfully neon shades of the rainbow, and the bizarre, but irritatingly comely Marina Bay Sands. Here, I don’t see concrete or steel. I see a silvery haze of nostalgia, dotted with warm amber lights. When we’ve been in one place for too long, it gets easier and easier to forget about its radiance. Very quickly, buildings take on associations with our experiences, and the monotone of normalcy clots our sense of wonder. Yet “The creative community. ” we should be thankful for skylines; they’re a reminder of “Despite what the outside world thinks, most an ability we as a species are lucky to have: to take a visual Savannah, Fitzwilliam people are actually low-key normal.” breath of fresh air. Rica, Jesus

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Interviews

Interview: Co-founders of Girl Talk speak to TCS

Will Tilbrook

So, Girl Talk: give a brief overview of who you are? We are Kitty Grady and Alina Khakoo, fourth-year MMLers at Jesus and Emma, best friends and co-founders of Cambridge Girl Talk, an initiative that holds free talks by inspiring female figures for audiences of self-identifying women at the University. What is the aim of Girl Talk and why did you set it up? We came up with the idea for Girl Talk while we were having dinner together last term. We felt fed up with the way talks at Cambridge are so often given by men, and the way the Union is so expensive to join but people never feel like they are getting their money’s worth. On the notes section of our phones, we starting furiously brainstorming lists of inspiring women who we would invite and from there Girl Talk was born. To the rest of the restaurant we must have just seemed like screen-happy millennials. It was so uplifting just to write down all the names of all these incredible women. The aim of Girl Talk is principally careers-focused. With frank conversations about how these women got to where they are today, discussing their successes, challenges and aims, we want to inspire our female peers to become the highachievers and go-getters we know they will go on to be.

What can we expect from this first term’s events? We have three exciting events set up: ‘Women in Journalism’ with Penny Martin, editor in chief of The Gentlewoman, Poppy Noor, who writes for The Guardian and The Times, Catrin Nye, senior BBC reporter; ‘Women in the Art World’ with Louise Jeffreys, director of the Barbican and Alice Black director of the Design Museum and finally ‘Women in Fashion’ with Jane Shepherdson, former CEO of Whistles, Ellie Pithers, fashion features editor of British Vogue and Kerry Taylor, fashion historian and auctioneer.

“The media are running to catch up, all the time.” We have also recruited some very talented students and academics from across the University to chair the events. Have you been disappointed by the lack of inclusivity of other Cambridge societies when it comes to speakers? Absolutely. While we think what TED stands for is fantastic, when their two main speakers were announced last term and they were both men called Andrew – well, we just knew something was wrong. When you’re a student at Cambridge you are always told that you are destined for big things, but when 95% of the College Masters and Presidents are male and every single portrait hung in your Hall is of a white man, women

are subliminally being told that the top positions aren’t meant for us. It’s so important to have role models we can fully identify with and opportunities to network and seek out success.

“I never think students aren’t old enough to get used to things” We know we will get criticism for making our events female-only, but it’s so important to have spaces and forums exclusively for self-identifying women. That’s why we love the name Girl Talk – it’s fun and lighthearted, but it encapsulates the woman-to-woman discussion that

forms the core of our initiative. Men don’t always understand this but as a woman, when you are in a room surrounded by men, you just feel that bit more reluctant to ask a question. We want the female voice to feel totally uninhibited. The speakers you’ve chosen seem to be very much successful within their own industries rather than being big celebrity names. How did you choose the speakers for your events? We sort of started, somewhat selfishly, by exploring the areas we are interested in. Alina hopes to work in the art world one day whilst I want to work in fashion and we both have a general interest in journalism so it sort of came naturally

that those were the people we wanted to hear speak. Next term we hope to invite women from business, sport, science and other diverse areas. What do you see as the future for Girl Talk? Do you want it to become a permanent fixture on the Cambridge speaker scene? We hope there is a long future ahead for Girl Talk! We already have some extremely exciting speakers lined up for Easter term. It’s mine and Alina’s final year but we hope to recruit a new committee for the next year. We also have some dream speakers – Michelle Obama presumably has a bit of extra spare time on her hands these days…! AYDUA

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

Comment

Theresa May: not good, just lucky Harry Robertson Comment Editor

o become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom takes a certain amount of skill and a good deal of luck. To do so as a woman, it must be said, is a particularly commendable achievement. In Theresa May, however, the scales are so heavily balanced towards luck that one might be induced to laugh at her long career of cons and flukes. Or at least one would laugh if it were not so terrifying that a politician who nobody chose to be elected as PM is leading the most important negotiations this country will face in our lifetime. Those who peddle the threadbare myth that Theresa May is a capable, no-nonsense ‘safe pair of hands’ often use as evidence her six years as Home Secretary. There must be something in this argument, and her resolve in the face of the daily sexism of the tabloids and the political establishment deserves respect. Yet May’s time as Home Secretary was near-disastrous. She set herself a plethora of targets, and missed them all. For example, she failed to fulfil the “no ifs, no buts” pledge to get immigration down to the tens of thousands by 2015, explaining it away with some almighty ifs and buts. And let us not forget the Big Brother-esque mobile billboards

telling illegal immigrants to “go home” (“not a success”, May later admitted). Or a judge finding her in contempt of court over her draconian refusal to free an Algerian national from a detention centre. Or her distaste for the European Court of Human Rights. I am perplexed as to why six years of cruelty and gaffes have been collectively forgotten by the British people. What of her more recent record? Showing more talent for the Machiavellian than policy, ‘Submarine May’, as Cameron’s team bitterly dubbed her, managed to keep stealthily below water except at opportune moments during the referendum. This may have been clever politics, but for someone who claimed Britain was better off in the EU, May did a remarkable impression of a person who really didn’t care what happened, as long as their career benefitted. Had the Most Spineless Politician of 2016 Award not seen such stiff competition (Gove and Johnson outdid themselves), the honour would surely have been hers. After those pantomime villains had destroyed each other’s chances, May and Andrea Leadsom were the only ones left in the running for the PM’s job. Having Andrea Leadsom as your only opponent—someone who spent a large part of her first hustings talking about massaging babies’ heads,

Editor-in-Chief: Will Tilbrook Founded 1999 Volume 19

and thought attacking May for her childlessness would be a good idea in 2016—is perhaps the crowning glory of all the flukes of May’s career. Once Leadsom’s whoopee cushion of a campaign deflated, May was free to become Prime Minister unelected. With the Labour Party in complete disarray, she remains unopposed. May and her disunited cabinet are making a complete mess of the EU negotiations, having only made a limp plan this week, six months after the referendum. At PMQs, the paltriness of Labour’s general opposition has allowed her almost every time to reach for a flippant, ready-prepared retort. Even when Corbyn’s questions are serious and important, she knows she won’t be held to account for her replies. And the same applies for her actions, be they her rash decisions on grammar schools or her inane “red, white and blue” plan for Brexit. A Tory government with such a slim Commons majority overseeing crises in negotiations with the European Union and in the criminally underfunded NHS should be suffering under relentless Labour attacks. But the charmed life of Theresa May continues, and despite never having proved that she’s much good, she has free reign to realise her reckless halfvision of Britain’s future outside the EU. DILIFF

Homelessness in Cambridge Anybody who has walked past Sainsbury’s will undoubtedly have seen the person selling the Big Issue outside the store. Some students will bow their heads and plug in earphones, desperately trying to avoid making eye-contact, while others are more inclined to stop and buy an issue of the magazine. Neither reaction is correct. Both behaviours can be backed up by valid reasons, but the fact of the matter is that homelessness continues to be an issue in Cambridge, and it is not something to be ignored. Some students may feel that the best way to help the homeless is indeed by buying a copy of the Big Issue, while others prefer to focus

on the source of the problem. The organisation Streetbite distributes food to the homeless, and many Cambridge students are involved in this scheme. Individual colleges have their own different ways of helping the homeless; a food bank donation box or a fundraising day, for example. We have by no means done nearly enough to combat this issue, but at least it is a start. And it is essential that students escape the University bubble from time to time and keep in touch with the real world and the issues that the less fortunate confront. Congratulations to those students who work hard to help the homeless, but let us not forget how much more there is to do to help these people.

Call for greater student safety Climbing sexual harassment figures revealed in Investigations confirm what the majority of women and non-binary people already know: that street harassment is a commonplace and normalised problem faced when coming to university and in our everyday lives. Although the statistics presented may be upsetting, it’s a really positive step that more people feel able to come forward to the police and report what has happened to them. Street harassment occurs in many different forms, from wolf-whistling and catcalling to sexual assault, and it’s worth remembering that although there are strong trends – such as

women and trans people being more likely targets — harassment can happen to anyone, and is a deeply troubling experience to undergo. It’s also worth remembering that, although Reetika’s investigation focusses on street harassment, the most common perpetrators of sex crimes are people a victim knows and likely trusts. With this in mind, The Cambridge Student welcomes Women Officer Audrey Sebatindira’s calls for greater student safety. It is also essential that the University act quickly to implement new guidelines.

Why Facebook is the Millennial’s Domesday Book

Joanna Taylor Deputy Editor

If you type “why are millennials—” into the Google Search bar, the first few suggestions Google makes are ‘important’, ‘so dumb’, ‘so lazy’, ‘so boring’, and ‘so anxious’. Millennials never do seem to get an especially fair, accurate, or in any way flattering portrayal in politics or the the media. I am setting out to answer that first

question — why are millennials so important? — across the course of this column. In order to make sense of the millennial, there is no better place to start than technology. We are a generation who once probably owned a tape player and Home Alone on VCR, but we now live in a world on the cusp of virtual reality, robots doing our jobs, and Amazon delivering our weekly shopping by drone. What I find perhaps most fascinating is the fact that social media has made each of us a historian, documenting and preserving pieces of our lives and personalities on Timelines in a far more thorough and scrupulous effort than the creation of the Domesday Book. We’re obsessed with publishing our social lives and doing research

projects into others’, which begs the age-old question: if a tree falls in forest and no-one is around to Instagram it, did it ever really happen? The digital biography we have each inadvertently created from around age twelve does, of course, have its major drawbacks: private companies have decades’ worth of dirt on us (and so do friends when they scroll back and drag up your old Facebook statuses) and can trigger major FOMO and even isolation. Snapchat is interesting because it contradicts my above point about our constant need to make moments tangible and permanent: every video and photo posted on there is, if you think about it, an admission of our own ephemerality and the transience of our

memories. It’s also interesting because the moments captured are often more authentic than on other forms of media, since we don’t pretend to be living in some hazy, edgy filter-world with fairy lights in the background. That same authenticity is what I love about the videos on Vine and YouTube: one thing I think millennials can be properly proud of is how well we do comedy. BME people dominate Vine, or at least did (RIP), while almost anyone can make YouTube videos, making technology a great equaliser in that respect. Although the BBC struggles to book its token panelshow woman each week, and Pointless has a primetime spot, millennials are already on at least post-post irony and are taking comedy in new directions.

Perhaps the best thing about technology is the extent to which it’s aiding our political awareness and engagement (‘woke’ is now in the dictionary), however. While many politicians are happy to turn a blind eye to the views of young people because there are few political repercussions for doing so (elections aren’t won on housing prices or tuition fees), social media offers platforms on which to discuss and debate ideas we wouldn’t otherwise come across. This does risk the simplification of ideas, the creation of echo chambers and — most crucially — the danger of political polarisation, but it also means that millennials are becoming galvanised on issues we care about, and shouldn’t be written off.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Comment

Debate: Are Cambridge courses too traditional and irrelevant?

Miriam Longman

’m not against traditional subject material. As someone who studies ASNaC (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic), it would be extremely hypocritical for me to take against esoteric knowledge with limited contemporary relevance – I have to believe there’s still a place in this world for learning for learning’s sake, rather than as a means to an end, or my degree starts to look painfully useless. Although, as my mother, who is a careers advisor, is always telling me, it’s all about the transferrable skills. But perhaps the ability to slowly and painstakingly translate medieval Irish poetry is not one of them. So maybe the relevance of a degree to modern life isn’t that big a deal. Maybe it doesn’t matter if you emerge from it at all prepared for the ‘real world’: if you chose an academic rather than vocational course, it’s because you wanted to learn, not because you thought it’d get you a job, right? However, I’d argue that Cambridge courses are too traditional, too focused on the roots and history of a topic to explore its more modern or unconventional developments. The speed at which we churn out essays leaves little time to

explore different angles of a topic, after all: you end up covering the essentials in great detail and then moving rapidly on. And that’s skimming over the limitations of a heavily essay-based system in the first place. I’m fairly sure you could graduate from ASNaC barely able to use a computer beyond a word processor and some online dictionaries, though maybe other courses are more high-tech. Sometimes, while reading for an essay, I encounter tantalising articles about contemporary aspects of the topic, like film interpretations of Arthurian material or the use of medieval Irish heroes in children’s books. Now and again I let myself read those chapters, hear critics writing seriously about Monty Python And The Holy Grail, and allow myself a moment to imagine a world where academics do not see everything that happened after the fourteenth century as extra-curricular. Oh, don’t get me wrong, you’d be hard pressed to find an ASNaC who didn’t at least appreciate the BBC’s Merlin or A Knight’s Tale, but the idea that it would ever be acceptable to write an essay on them is laughable. But I’d love to do that. It was

An archaic system of essays and exams, as well as a style of learning that hasn’t changed in fifty years, is part of what makes Cambridge the place it is

modern fiction borrowing from medieval material that got me into ASNaC in the first place, and the chance to explore it from that angle would be far more fascinating than reading another ten articles on using linguistic analysis to date a text. Maybe it’s a peculiarly ASNaC backwardness that I could never discuss a film in a supervision (I imagine it’s slightly more acceptable in MML): maybe all I’m doing with this article is proving everyone right who said my degree was irrelevant and outdated. But I really don’t think it’s the material that made it that way. After all, an archaic system of essays and exams, as well as a style of learning that hasn’t changed in fifty years, is part of what makes Cambridge the place it is. And if that doesn’t suit you, for most subjects you could opt to go somewhere more flexible – with ASNaC, we are somewhat more limited due to the subject’s total non-existence at almost any other university. The opportunity to take a more contemporary approach simply doesn’t exist for us: it is the Cambridge course or nothing. DAVID ILIFF

No: Traditional courses equip you for life

Molly Moss Comment Editor

e’ve all heard the claims that MML degrees don’t focus on the spoken language, that current political issues are rarely covered in HSPS, and that traditional Cambridge courses are irrelevant for day-to-day life. Are these myths? Is it true that students studying ‘traditional’ courses have to head into the working world without any useful knowledge at all? Studying English, I’ve been told many times that my degree is pointless. What’s the use of being able to translate Middle English texts? Why bother trawling through an ancient and boring text like Piers Plowman? What can I possibly add to the body of criticism that already exists? I would say, however, that it’s easier to crawl out of bed every day knowing I’m studying something I enjoy. There’s not only pleasure to be found in a traditional course, but also a sense of satisfaction. The intense amount of reading

can be incredibly rewarding. Equally, my degree is helping me appreciate the texts I read and, as an avid poet and writer, I know that understanding how a text is constructed is integral to my own writing process. But what, I hear you cry, can you do with an English degree? Are traditional degrees ‘irrelevant’ to big employers? The answer is no. It’s reasonable to say that many graduates are in ‘non-graduate’ jobs anyway so, rather than choosing a degree which guarantees you a job, why not choose a degree that you will actually enjoy? It can’t be denied that the skills I’m developing in my degree are central to many jobs in the real world: employers value communication skills, a way with words, an ability to argue, and an analytic mind. English is, far from restricting my possibilities, widening my horizons. Any degree at Cambridge teaches you to balance a ridiculously heavy workload, extracurricular activities, and a social life. At times I’ve felt like wrestling the Green

Wrestling the Green Knight and his axe would have been easier than reading

Knight and his axe would have been an easier option than reading anything else on top of the mountain of work I had already. It is unsurprising that these ‘traditional’ courses have a reputation of being academically rigorous and challenging. With a traditional Cambridge degree under your belt, you are equipped for life. In December last year it was announced that Cambridge University will be running a short course, called ‘Changing Times’, The course, led by by poet and novelist Jem Poster, and guitarist and musicologist Stephen Ferron, will focus its attention on two giants of modern songwriting, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. While it can’t be denied that ‘modern’ courses such as these look entertaining, they should never replace the current courses at Cambridge. Traditional degrees provide you with invaluable skills, and will always remain relevant to modern life in one way or another. It would be such a shame for Cambridge to lose this traditional style of teaching. After all, it is unique in this way.

Ivanka Trump us in a distort Molly Moss Comment Editor

he US election results sparked a burning question: why did 53% of white women vote for a man who who is turning his back on their rights? Post-election, my Facebook flooded with posts giving solidarity to those shocked (but not surprised) by Trump’s election. No-one could actually believe it. Trump has labelled women pigs, openly boasted about assaulting them, and has no regard for their rights, so why did he appeal to so many women voters? The election statistics are dangerous: in the face of protest, they are being used to argue that women love Trump’s policies, and to cover his sexist beliefs. Trump’s most dangerous shield, however, comes in an even more concrete form: that is, his daughter. It’s easy to see that Ivanka Trump, with her glamorous looks, embodies a feminine ideal. Her father has even (creepily) claimed that if she weren’t his daughter, he’d probably be dating her. She presents herself as more than a symbol of femininity, however: on top of her physical looks, she is a strong, well-educated woman. As both the woman responsible for launching the #WomenWhoWork campaign, and a supporter of her father’s maternity leave proposal, Ivanka seems to view herself as a feminist role model. Sure enough, as a glamorous working mother, it’s easy to see why some women are putting her on a pedestal. But is she really a glowing picture of womanhood? We cannot deny that the idea of a successful daughter is easy to relate to and, while her empowered presence allows Trump to seemingly embrace modernity, he maintains an old fashioned and traditional role for his wife. This empowerment of the daughter – rather than the wife – is perhaps something that people are more ready to accept. Thanks to Ivanka’s presence in the media, we imagine Trump is more likely to support women’s rights than men who don’t have daughters. Ivanka conceals her father’s sexist and

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

MICHAEL VADON

Comment

Debate: Does celebrity ‘offence’ help? No: fewer words, more action Aleks Griebel-Phillips

p is trapping ted feminism offensive beliefs. With her fake flourishing of empowerment and feminism, she acts as a shield for her father’s misogyny, clouding the odious plans his administration has to further infringe women’s rights. So far she has supported all of Trump’s questionable views, even going as far as to call him a champion of women. It’s clear that the mainstream understanding of feminism is becoming increasingly hazy, forsaking politics, and instead pushing forward the vague idea of ‘empowerment’. Of course, depoliticizing the movement and changing it from dull to desirable makes it marketable. Corporations have long used feminism to sell beauty products because it (unfortunately) works: think of the ‘feminist’ rhetoric such as L’Oreal’s ‘Because you’re worth it’ or the slogan, ‘You can be anything’ (apart from plus-sized), used to sell Barbie Dolls to young girls. The problem with this redirection of the feminist movement, is that almost anything to do with women can be labelled as ‘emancipating’. Ivanka is trying anything to appear relevant to women, and is (unfortunately) appealing to an elite class who, afraid of being stereotyped as the undesirable ‘bra-burning feminist’ or ‘lesbian man-hater’, are keen to embrace feminism as long as they can steer away from the politics. Ivanka, presented as the ‘respectable’ ideal of white womanhood, is acting as the face of this glamorous yet distorted ‘feminism’, which has helped to reel in 53% of white women’s votes. The ideal of feminine beauty that Ivanka represents is not only difficult for a lot of us to achieve, but dangerous for us to want! With women like Ivanka as role models, the future of feminism is at risk: a depoliticised soft-feminism hasn’t helped achieve our rights in the past and certainly won’t begin to now. Real power is the result of diligence and tenacity and, in the face of many more battles to come, this is something we cannot forget.

n 9 January 2017, in a Golden Globe speech, Meryl Streep used her acceptance of a lifetime achievement award to criticise Presidentelect Donald Trump and his mocking of a disabled reporter on the campaign trail. Trump took offence himself and responded stereotypically through Twitter, calling her ‘overrated’ and a ‘Hillary flunky’ (despite thinking her an ‘excellent’ actress according to an interview in 2015). The whole Trump-shaped fiasco, another in a long line of Trump-shaped fiascoes, begs a whole number of questions surrounding offending and being offended. I think it has never been wrong to attack any figure, especially a political one, as long as what you are saying is either funny or has a point. Otherwise, my copy of Private Eye would be very thin. We, the media, and our elected representatives must constantly hold to account the people that shape our lives. ‘The Donald’ of course doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to hurling abuse at Streep for calling him out on

Your offence doesn’t count as action

something he had said that she didn’t agree with. That being said, it wasn’t necessary to lambast him, particularly in such a public way: did the problem really need a privileged Hollywood voice taking an easy moral win against a man who’s hard to shoot at and miss when it comes to ethical victories? Offence is an entirely subjective thing. Anyone could be offended by any statement, so we shouldn’t censure or censor people for having alternative views to our own. If you are offended by something, you have every right to be offended, and every right to voice that, but your offence isn’t something that should necessarily always be acted upon. Nor is it something that is sufficient to count as action. Streep misses these points. I don’t know what she was expecting to come out of her derision of Trump’s actions. Her speech was not going to get him to apologise, that boat had sailed when he refused to immediately after it had happened. Instead, we should challenge others’ views and actions not because we are offended, but because they are inaccurate, flawed, or demeaning. And

we should do so not simply by stating our distaste, as Streep did, but through analytical debate and cross-examination. The only reason to censure someone for a statement is if it incites violence, hatred or discrimination, in which case Trump would have to retract a lot of things he’s said. In the past year he has told supporters to ‘knock the crap out’ of protesters, ridden a wave of Islamaphobic sentiment, and has been caught on tape saying some very degrading things about women. But being offended by these things simply isn’t enough. Nothing Streep could say now would change the mind of someone who saw what he did then, but voted for him anyway. We need to be more serious in the way we challenge people like Trump; for example, through debate and serious journalism, not just through feel-good celebrity speeches. If we were all serious in how offended we are about Donald Trump and his disability mocking, someone would have challenged him in a meaningful way by now, rather than simply pointing the finger. AGROPYRON.

Yes: Meryl Streep was right to speak out Matthew Harris Comment Editor

f Donald Trump’s campaign was anything to go by, we can expect a lot more controversy after 20 January. As we face four years of Trump holding the most powerful position in the world, we must recognise the danger of his rhetoric and do our best to lessen its damage. It will be impossible to keep the best values of American society alive if we are afraid to condemn the future president. At this year’s Golden Globes, Meryl Streep delivered a speech criticising Donald Trump for mocking Serge Kovaleski, a disabled New York Times reporter. She described how Trump’s performance “sank its hooks in my heart”. Her willingness to condemn Trump’s cruelty is admirable; she responded to his discriminatory comments with intelligence and integrity. If we are to survive a Donald Trump presidency with our morals intact, we must follow the example Streep has set

us – to condemn what we see as hateful. The words of a man as powerful as the President filter through society and affect how we talk to and about each other. If we learn to stay silent and accept the President-elect’s cruel and vindictive rhetoric as normal, we face a much harsher and uncaring society. As Streep reminded us during her speech, “This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life… Disrespect invites disrespect. Violences incites violence.” The biggest threat to our values is the possibility that Trump’s rhetoric starts to be seen as normal. Mocking the disabled, making derogatory comments about women, and victimising minorities should seem as deplorable in January 2021 as they do in January 2017.

Her willingness to condemn Trump’s cruelty is admirable

This process has already been set in motion: in the four years since the 2012 election, when Mitt Romney’s poll numbers took a hit because of an offhand comment about ‘binders full of women’, political rhetoric has changed dramatically. Donald Trump was able to win the 2016 election, despite his bragging about sexual assault on tape. While political correctness is certainly stifling and often serves to shut down debate, we have veered to another extreme: a world in which no view is too extreme to condemn. We are in danger of seeing every view as acceptable. But all of us are capable of reducing the damage. If we make our voices heard, we might survive the next four years with our values intact. Streep has done us a service and set an example which should be followed in the future.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Sport

Puzzle Column

Fitness technology for 2017 Lili Bidwell Deputy Editor

etting fit - it’s one of the most common New Year’s resolutions. After the Christmas break, people are often full of renewed motivation to dive into an exercise routine and shed that winter weight. With the rise in popularity of fitness apps and sporting gadgets that allow users to track their progress and keep up with new training programmes, this is becoming increasingly easy. So, what are the best sporting gadgets and apps of 2017? Waterproof headphones: As all swimmers know, in spite of the many health benefits of this low impact sport, it is nevertheless difficult to overcome the repetitive nature of swimming lengths in silence. This is where the Finnis Neptune comes in handy, as it allows swimmers to listen to music while swimming. Thanks to these waterproof headphones, pesky cords are no longer necessary, since the Finnis Neptune secures any device onto the swimmer’s goggles and transmits sound to the ears via bone conduction audio. Fit Radio: for those who cannot even consider working out without Down Across 1. A proverb about a vehicle stuck behind a 1. Executed and edible sheep, a hoof, a pike music, this app can be very useful. This music-streaming app puts together a perpendicular junction has the upper hand … Really moves damaged people (9) workout playlist for you, allowing you (9) 5. Most of the truth found by an organised to explore different genres of music. 2. Usefulness at the end of hopefulness (7) set of data is a strong intensifier (9) Furthermore, the app ensures that 3. No imbibe, lies alternate snack (6) 6. Evidence of tent mates mingling (9) the beat of the music is consistent 4. Leave it on, stir, promotion (9) 7. Far off sympathetic grunt and a pirate’s throughout the playlist, making it easy 8. English prefix from French preposition (2) assent (4) to keep your rhythm while exercising. 9. Canvas is a sound deal (4) 11. Two eights twice around bulb gives The music mixes can be browsed by 10. Story starts my yearly travelling hiatuses improved understanding (9) genre or even type of workout, for (4) example Zumba, Yoga, and HITT. The app is availiable to download for free Compiled by Cameron Wallis on Apple and Android handsets, but users have to pay for upgrades.

Cryptic Crossword

So, what are the best sporting gadgets and apps of 2017?

Nike + Run Club App: this app is a favourite this year for people who want to track their sporting progress with as much accuracy as possible. Users can monitor their heart rate and track the distance of their runs, while their routes and personal records are all catalogued by the app in meticulous detail, allowing users to view their progress and compare sessions. The app also boasts a coaching feature that advises you on how to best structure your training schedule to achieve your stated goals, making it an ideal app for anyone looking to train for a marathon, for example. For the more athletically competitive, the app allows users to compare their sporting records and achievements with those of others all around the world. Misfit Shine: this app is perfect for people who are less into mainstream sports, and more into the kind where it might not be appropriate to take your phone along with you, like diving or surfing. This little waterproof gadget can be worn as a pendant, or attached to yourself very easily, and tracks your every movement. It is possible to keep track of your progress by tapping the LED-lit face. The device also doubles as a watch, and can run for several months at a time with each set of coin batteries. With the increasing appeal of fitness apps and active lifestyles, people are undoubtedly seeking to procure the latest and best sporting gadgets. All in all, it seems that technological advances have set us in good stead for all our sporting endeavours for the upcoming year. GLAETHAM

Sudoku

by Thomas Prideaux Ghee

Solutions from Volume 18, Michaelmas Issue 4

The Cambridge Student • 19 January 2017

Sport

Weird and wonderful Scandinavian sports S

HIMANISADAS

Lili Bidwell Deputy Editor

ports vary in different cultures, and the traditions are always bound to be different. But the unique climate of Scandinavia means that there are many weird and wonderful sports that us Brits might never have imagined. The snow and ice have largely influenced the sporting culture of these countries, which are in fact the birthplaces of many winter sports. Ice Yacht Races: Ice yachts were originally designed to race across the frozen lakes and fjords of Sweden. The sport originated in 1901 at the Stockholm Ice Yacht Club, and has developed over the years, becoming increasingly modern. It all started with a skater being pulled across the ice by a kite, but today ice yachts can hold up

“Wife Carrying: perhaps the strangest of all sports”

to six or seven people, and are specifically designed to reach top speeds of up to 90 miles an hour in good wind. Handball: A sport that has recently become more popular worldwide, which in fact originated in Scandinavia. The Danish men’s handball team recently won Gold at the Rio Olympics, and are highly celebrated in Denmark. The Fitness craze: Due to the fact that sport is not the same as it is in Britain, in Scandinavia, there are rarely opportunities to play team sports at school, which means that the majority of young people who pursue sport do so through external clubs and organisations. However, in recent years there has been a trend among young people to quit organised sport altogether and to focus instead on their fitness. This has led to many more commercial gyms popping up in the region, as people

are increasingly interested in working out at the gym. Wife Carrying: Perhaps the strangest of all sports, Wife Carrying originated in Sonkajarvi, Finland, where the world championships have been held since 1997. This sport is fairly self-explanatory, and consists of men carrying their wives across an obstacle course, with the fastest couple winning. The wives’ weights are measured in beer, and prizes are dispensed accordingly. Cross-country Skiing: This sport is at the heart of Norwegian culture. While it used to be a means of transport, skiing has now become a sociable sporting activity in Norway, and there are trails for cross-country skiing all over the country. Bandy: Bandy, another traditional Scandinavian sport, is most popular

“Bandy is the second largest winter sport in the world”

in Sweden, where the hockey-like game enjoys a large public following. In terms of the number of licensed athletes, Bandy is the second largest winter sport in the world, and Sweden has won the international championship multiple times. Speed Skating: This sport consists of ice-skating athletes racing each other over various distances, there are shorter sprints but also marathon distances. This sport originated in Scandinavia and the Netherlands and remains very popular in these countries, particularly Norway and the Netherlands. It acheived Olympic status in 1924, when the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix.

It is clear that the Scandinavian sporting scene is not as similar to ours as we might have expected, but nevertheless, some of these exciting sports are becoming increasingly popular worldwide. ERIK W KOLSTAD

Varsity football match location controversy TCS Sport Team

t seems that the Varsity Football Match is under threat. Complications have arisen because of conflicting opinions about the locations of the matches. For the first time, there has been a drive for the Oxford and Cambridge men’s and women’s football matches to happen at the same time and place. This would be beneficial to all teams involved, seeing as it would increase the number of spectators and consequently the revenue for the matches. However, there have been difficulties concerning this arrangement because the men’s match is traditionally held in London, where booking the stadium is clearly much more expensive. Whilst this is less of an issue for the men’s matches, whcih tend to generate

ALBERT JANKOWSKI

more money thanks to their better attendence, the women of Cambridge are unsure as to whether or not this will be financially viable for them. The tension is made even worse by the fact that whilst it is Oxford’s turn to host the men’s football match, it is Cambridge who are hosting the women’s match and they are less likely to want to travel away from Cambridge for the second year in a row, after going to Oxford last year. The benefits for the host are that it is much cheaper and easier for those playing, and it also means that the players’ friends and family are more likely to attend. This is obviously a good boost for the team, as feeling supported is very important for these dedicated players.

Nevertheless, it seems a shame to risk missing out on the opportunity to see both the men’s and women’s teams play on the same day at the same place. Unfortunately, the matches made a loss last year, and so the teams are reluctant to commit to a more expensive event: travel and pitch hire would cost so much more were the match to take place in London. Due to all of this, there have been rumours of some players being so dissatisfied, that they are considering not playing the match, but it is hoped that the issue will be resolved. The Varsity Football Match is the longest running match between Oxford and Cambridge, and is a major event for many football fans, not just those who are associated with or who have links to Oxbridge.

19 January 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Sport www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/sport

See inside for more about the Carsity ski trip and Scandinavian sports

Photo: Lili Bidwell

Cambridge ladies hockey team face Oxford

Cambridge 1 - 1 Oxford Matt Coote

he recent CUHC ladies BUCS match ends in 1-1 draw against Oxford. Wednesday night’s BUCS fixture saw Cambridge University Hockey Club’s ladies take on Oxford in what would be their final opportunity to test themselves against the dark blues before the varsity match. An earlier, friendlier fixture between the mens first and second teams (which ended 4–1 in the firsts’ favour) gave way to a more hotly contested encounter. Spectators included the mens teams, enthusiastic players and friends of the Cambridge squad. A high-tempo opening put Oxford under early pressure, and Cambridge quickly secured the lead with Molly Buxton scoring for the light blues from a penalty corner.

“Cambridge quickly secured the lead with Molly Buxton scoring from a penalty corner”

For all their possession, Oxford struggled to sustain threatening play in the face of persistent defensive work. Harried when they were on the ball, Oxford’s efforts to equalise saw them send a speculative shot high over goal; when Cambridge recovered possession, Emily Thorpe dribbled past several opponents to take the light blues into a threatening position. Towards the close of the half Oxford began to hit back. The strength of their attacking play won them a penalty corner, which Cambridge defended at the cost of another. Oxford’s second short corner came to nothing, allowing Cambridge to cling on to their lead. Before the half-time whistle, a third penalty corner was awarded to the dark blues, but Cambridge were unperturbed

by threat and carried their 1 — 0 advantage into half-time. Freezing temperatures did little to dampen the spirits of the crowd. Despite home-side encouragement, and whether as a result of fatigue or the stakes of the rivalry behind the competition, Oxford were able to win a further penalty corner in the second half, but again they failed to make opportunity count on the scoreboard. With a remarkably high press they made territorial gains and were awarded a fifth short corner. Although Cambridge continued to defend successfully, the ladies team looked decidedly less secure in possession than they had in the first half of the match. In a momentary lapse of concentration, the Cambridge defence slipped,

and Oxford, from a probing attack not dissimilar to those whichthey unsuccessfully attempted in the first half, were able to equalise with a goal from open play. From then on Cambridge fought hard to keep the scores level, and full time was called with the ball in midfield. Although the team were disappointed to have lost their lead having defended five short corners, the overall result (1 — 1 at full time), their sudden and cutting attacking play and maintenance of a slender lead sustained throughout much of this BUCS match will give them confidence going into the varisty competition.