December 2018

The Boomerang | December 2018

The

Boomerang December 2018

A long overdue makeover Review of the new and improved Voltaire study area

by Thomas Scassellati Sforzolini

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hile originally timetabled to take only two weeks, renovations to our beloved Voltaire study area have officially been completed more than a month later. During that time, many UCU students were caught off guard and left distraught by the fact that their favorite study building had left them, even if it was just temporary. Alternatives such as the Voltaire classrooms, the two other academic buildings, dining hall, Spinoza, the two UU libraries off campus, some random cafe with wifi, or even your very own rooms or units were not suitable substitutes for some of you during the time that Voltaire was undergoing its long overdue renovations.

A look at some of the frustrated confessions from our fellow students is evidence of this deep-rooted sentiment. For example, #winteriscoming4k856 claimed that CAR was “taking down [his/her] GPA hard with their Voltaire renovation” while #winteriscoming4k906 exclaimed, in all caps for dramatic effect, “I. NEED. VOLTAIRE.” Anyways, Voltaire is back so everyone can get back to pulling their grades up after apparently not studying at all for the month that Voltaire was gone. This should not be a problem, however, now that Voltaire has a new sleek and sexy look to it to help stimulate

your mind on your future academic endeavors at UCU. To say that the new Voltaire is an improvement upon the old Voltaire is not saying much.

Frankly, the old Voltaire was perhaps the ugliest, most despondent, most stale looking room I have ever seen. Add to the fact that you’re not allowed to talk in Voltaire, and you might as well have spent your time studying for midterms and finals in a morgue; the décor and ambiance of the two would have been on par at least. However, I will say this: the renovations to Voltaire far

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You might as well have spent your time studying for midterms and finals in a morgue

exceeded my expectations since, to be honest, I thought that only the diarrhea-stained carpet would be changed and the sickly looking walls would be repainted. Instead, CAR blesses us with a completely new and improved study area.

Gone are those old beat-up tables and those two nasty-ass crack den-looking couches. Gone are those hideous bookshelves and those archaic computers that really belong in a museum, next to the dinosaur fossils, rather than in an institute of higher education. Those computers were so slow, I once took a 15-minute nap after logging onto one and when I woke up, it still had not finished loading (true story). I’m pretty sure my 88 year-old grandma wrote her Art History dissertation on one of those computers.

Anyhow, the new Voltaire study area looks great, and I imagine everyone else who has seen it would agree with me as well. The computers are new, the tables have charging ports, there are study cubicles with comfy seating, and the whole area has a sleek and modern feel to it.

My only critiques are that there are not nearly enough chairs and that the two large tables in the middle suggest that they were designed for group work; the problem now remains that there is no talking in Voltaire. For me, that will always be the biggest issue with Voltaire which is why I rarely ever go there. However, for those of you who need peace and quiet, I suggest you stop

by Voltaire if you have not done so already. It really is a massive improvement on the - excuse my French - piece of crap we had before.

Illustration © Amu Endo

Being hard of hearing at UCU Major identity, major crisis Bar Brawl: FocusCo vs UCStudios

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Review of Bohemian Rhapsody 7 Teaching with video games

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Behind the scenes of The Boomerang 10

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The Boomerang | December 2018

BUBBLE

Read my lips bJacqueline Rivas Blaring alarms snoozed for ten more minutes, the trrrring-trrrring of bells on the bike path, the crunching of the garbage truck doing its weekly rounds.

Life at University College Utrecht is alive for 99.99% of its residents.

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ola Albarral Bravo, 21, is the only individual that can see and feel, but not fully hear this typical day on campus. At least not hear what the average student can hear.

“Hard-of-hearing.” Lola motions to her ears. “I can still hear, just a little less.”

Born in Spain to deaf parents, Lola has experienced what she describes as a divisive academic life. At the age of 16, she began her studies abroad because she knew she would have to learn English eventually.

For Lola, learning another language was a means of survival. Although she grew up speaking Spanish, learning Spanish Sign Language and English were necessities. Her eyes; trained to follow the curves of lips. Her hands; an additional way of mending her broken tongue. She slips in cracks through English and Spanish, finding words that she hopes somebody will understand.

She started her university career at Whitman College in the state of Washington, studying biology. At Whitman, Lola was the only hard-of-hearing student on campus.

State laws required that she be provided access to a tape recorder for lectures, transcribed notes, and notetakers. For two years, she studied here before deciding to transfer to University College Utrecht in the Netherlands. Homesickness was a huge factor for this move, as she wanted to be closer to Spain. More importantly, she was not satisfied with the resources provided to her as a

Illustration © Meike Eijsberg

student. She felt a lack in extra support and school was too expensive. She felt out of place.

Now in her third year of college, Lola struggles to find a balance between her academics and her disability. UCU, a liberal arts school, has not offered enough support in helping her succeed.

In comparison to Whitman College in the United States, UCU offered nothing. “Me quería regresar a los Estados Unidos.” She explains. I wanted to move back to the United States.

Lola had to make her own accommodations.

She was at a loss for words upon arriving, to discover that she had no tape recorder, microphone, deaf interpreter, or notetaker. Despite approaching her tutor, and other staff, it seemed that she was on her own. The idea of a transcriber was not a feasible option for the school, because that would mean paying 60 euros an hour.

“I’m not like this.” She squeezes her hands over her ears. “I’m like this.” She releases pressure from her ears. Hearing is a range. From being able to fully hear to being deaf. Lola stands in the middle, in a gray area. “ P u e d o aprender las mismas

cosas que los demás aprenden.” I can learn the same things that others learn.

In class, she finds her unofficial seat at the front of the room. As close as possible to the professor. It’s the best she can do, if she wants to learn. Regularly, she meets with her tutor in the hopes that something will change, but instead she is met with, “Did you get a new hearing aid?”

Living on campus is no different.

She spends most of her time making up for all the information that she couldn’t comprehend in class. While she would like to engage in social life on campus, Lola finds that she is excluded because not everyone understands her disability.

On some days, Lola hopes that her unofficial notetaker will show up to class. Maybe, today they won’t spend the whole time on their laptop.

“I have to do everything, myself.” Lola shrugs.

“Lo doble.” Double. The responsibility of academics, having to communicate, and having to make her own accommodations have taken a toll on her mental health.

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She was at a loss for words upon arriving, to discover that she had no tape recorder, microphone, deaf interpreter, or notetaker

Lola lies asleep, door locked as it would be on any other night. Outside her window, a boy leaves a cigarette unattended and the smoke signals the fire alarm in the unit next door. Lola continues to sleep, door stays locked. What would wake her up, if this was in her own unit?

“What, you can’t hear?” the Landlord responds when Lola asks for a new fire alarm.

“No,” she explains. “I don’t.” So, she asks for a fire alarm with bright, flashing lights.

This way, her eyes will read the danger in the room.

Like all her requests, she is met with a half-agreement. It is considered.

“Meanwhile, your friends can take you out.” Dutch directness, they tell her.

Everyone around her can hear these comments, so why is nothing said?

She acknowledges the struggles that other disabled people have, but she argues that the deaf community can be even more stigmatized. She explains that a conversation must be held. If her grandmother, who comes from a different generation, can understand, then everyone else should be able to as well.

Now, she looks towards transferring to a university in Zurich. There she has heard that more resources are available for her disability.

Like routine, she will learn another language and adapt. In this journey, she finds that college will never be “the best time” of her life.

She hopes to find a place that meets her needs. A place where she can say “finally.” Yet, the places she leaves behind will continue to be silent to her needs, as well as those coming after her. *Lola has officially left her studies at UCU and returned home to Spain.

A University College Student Association Magazine

BUBBLE

Major identity, major crisis

by Rafaella Karadsheh

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f you told me a year ago that I would be typing this sentence, not having a single clue what I want to do with my life because I let go of my ambition to study biology, I would have laughed in your face. While I may not be the most organized person on the face of this planet, I have always liked to have a plan, regardless of how small the matter may be. Naturally, I always had a plan for my future, even as a child- never have I had to answer an adult’s question of, “What do you want to be when you’re older?” with a small shrug and an, “I don’t know,” until I came here. Funnily enough, I

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My future is now like a block of clay; I can mold it into a cup, and if that doesn’t work I’ll have the tools to turn it into a sculpture

came to UCU with a plan I was determined to follow: major in biology, do my masters in marine biology, and spend the rest of my life doing field work on a boat. This plan that I had drilled into my brain for the past few years of high school completely fell apart in a matter of weeks.

I still can’t pinpoint when exactly my plans started to fall through, but I do know that it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized biology might not be the best choice for me. As dramatic as it sounds, I felt

like I had completely lost myself at that point- I let go of the one thing I wanted to build my future identity upon and had no clue what to do next. My entire school education had been based only off sciences (except for the compulsory language courses), and until I came to UCU the mere thought of studying something outside of the science department was both unrealistic and foreign to me.

As terrifying as it may be to not have a single idea on what I’m going to be doing three years later, I have never felt more liberated- for the first time ever I have the freedom to take courses I would never have dreamed of being interested in. My future is now like a block of clay; I can mold it into a cup, and if that doesn’t work I’ll have the tools to turn it into a sculpture, or into whatever I desire until I find the shape I am most satisfied with.

Allowing myself to step out of my comfort zone and open myself to new experiences has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. UCU is the place to be for such opportunities, with nearly any course imaginable within reach. It might have taken me awhile to realize it, but to be unsure of your plans for the future does not lead to an inevitable plummet to a bottomless pit of failure. The truth is, everyone’s a little unsure of what they’re doing, but beauty of this, is that you can use this uncertainty to transform every obstacle life throws at you into an experience that builds your character. So go ahead, embrace whatever difficulties life is going to throw at you, and make it a piece of who you will be tomorrow.

Being friends with a racist

by Florentine Röell Being friends with a racist makes you complicit to the systemic oppression marginalised groups must deal with every day. The same goes for being friends with a homophobe, or a sexist. This is a phenomenon that I noticed is surprisingly present on this campus.

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icture this: you are a seemingly very nice, polite person and would profusely disagree with anyone accusing you of being racist. However, your friends may make us reconsider. Those friends are the kind of people who use slurs or make discriminatory, and plainly rude, jokes. They are the kind of people who would stand by Zwarte Piet in all its blackface, and the kind of people who have a track record of misbehaviour towards others in the bar. “But they’re nice people, deep down!” I hear you say. The problem with looking “deep down” is that you must sift through layers of a fragile ego, an inferiority complex, and a conservative upbringing to find out they are only really nice to people who look, talk and act like them. And this is the root of the issue. If you were not a man, or white, or straight, they would do one of two things: either never be your friend

in the first place, or still be discriminatory behind your back. This realisation is a tough pill to swallow, but it is also very necessary. Because being friends with a racist is a prime example of white privilege, and being friends with a sexist an example of male

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By egging them on with your laughs, you are allowing them to continue saying racist, sexist and homophobic things

privilege. By egging them on with your laughs, you are allowing them to continue saying racist, sexist and homophobic things. You are giving them a platform for their outdated, bigoted views, and so, you are complicit to the power-oppression structure as a whole.

However, this also means you are in the perfect position to dismantle their power from within. So please, when your macho friend says something you disagree with, speak up for your values and for the people who cannot defend themselves. Make them understand that what they said was not acceptable.

They might start thinking twice before talking again.

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Dear Campus, You’re almost there! While you type away those final words on that dreaded essay or drink the last sips of coffee during that sweet 4AM study session, just think: ‘I am almost finished’.

Soon you’ll be relieved from this sleepless and stressful week that we call finals. Think about the Christmas dinners, about seeing your family after being away for a long time, about snow (or sun).

Think about doing nothing…

This issue is a special one. Those of you who immediately flip the Boomerang around to look at the quad queries might have noticed: they’re not there! Don’t worry, you can still laugh at your friends’ faces, you’ll find them on page 6 (Blackout side). Instead, the back of the Boomerang, and four other pages, have been dedicated to The BlackOut: anonymously written articles. Not even we know who the culprits are. This little journalistic experiment was first introduced last year and thanks to its success, we decided to do it again. And you, whoever you are, have not disappointed us! Read about the intriguing Renes culture, or relate to a particularly stressed out unitmate on page 5. We even received a piece about last week’s SuperSticky’s performance!

Of course, we also have some regular articles in store for you.

Since this is a take-home edition, we’ve gathered some lengthier pieces: a fascinating feature about development and democracy in an East African context, and a profile on a hard-ofhearing student, amongst others.

As the semester ends, we must say goodbye to three of our board members: Saskia, Maya and Lise. You will be missed, but I hope you have a wonderful time on exchange! In their place, we welcome back Charlotte Remarque as managing editor (was she really gone? #WhatWouldCharlotteSay), we open our arms to Iris Beijer Veenman as our new talented Art Director, and last but not least, we gladly receive Jamie March as official PR Manager.

I’m looking forward to next semester. It’s my new year’s resolution to make it the most memorable one yet.

Sincerely yours, Meike Eijsberg Editor-in-Chief

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The Boomerang | December 2018

LOCAL

Viva la trash: from rubbish to dish

by Pina Haas and Risa Iizuka Saturday morning. Freezing in front of a Lidl in Kanaleneiland, waiting for Luigi. Our mission is to get food for the weekly vegan dinner offered in ACU. The twist is that we don’t enter the Lidl, nor any of the supermarkets right next to it. Luigi arrives, we introduce ourselves and walk around the building complex, where new deliveries arrive and where the trash is stored. That is what we are going for: the trash.

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e decided to join the dumpster-diving group the Barriccoons for a weekend. Since two years, the group of volunteers provide free vegan food for around 80 people every Sunday in Utrecht’s political cultural centre ACU. The name says it all: dumpster diving is the act of diving into dumpsters, with the aim of finding items that can still be used. Dumpster diving is a growing phenomenon; some people do it to get furniture, some people do it for clothes, and some people - like the Barriccoons - do it to save wasted food.

Luigi, who is one of the founders of the volunteer group the Barriccoons tells us: “I think this is a good entrance point to take political actions for people who have problems with the society we live in but don’t know how to act on it, it shows that you don’t have to be a chef to feed 100 people.” Besides, he added, “It’s better to eat here than to eat expensive trash elsewhere.”

Wasting food is clearly morally wrong - most of us feel bad when we have to throw away food. We have all heard the phrase “how can you throw away your food, when kids in Africa are starving?”

But especially in richer countries, we throw away perfectly good food because of our arbitrary aesthetic preferences and unreasonable best-before dates. This is what the Barriccoons wants to raise awareness about.

They are not merely interested in solving the single issue of food waste, but they see food waste as one of the symptoms of a bigger problem - capitalism.

Back in Kanaleneiland: we are eagerly-awaited by four other dumpster divers. Introductions are made and only seconds later we find ourselves in a container searching through mountains of food, picking out the least damaged mushrooms. It smells, it is not the most pleasant activity but somehow it brings out the inner hunter Illustration © Lise Derksen

gatherer in us. We forget everything around us, the smell, the cold, and the prying stares of the supermarket personnel. Every salvaged mushroom feels like a big success. The occasional shouts of joy when somebody finds something particularly delicate fuels our motivation. Pineapples, blueberries, mangos and mushrooms are high up on the list. We visit three different supermarkets that morning, we store all the food in big bags, boxes and backpacks and heavily loaded, we slowly make our way to ACU. On the way back from Kanaleneiland, we cycle along Vredenburg. We see helpless victims of consumerism with shopping bags, eating fastfood in the streets, and sitting in fancy cafés.

We feel surprisingly good on our bikes, in our dirty clothes and with our backpacks full of food.

When we get to ACU, we clean the food and sort

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Every salvaged mushroom feels like a big success. The occasional shouts of joy when somebody finds something particularly delicate fuels our motivation

it into different boxes. Looking at the gain, it is easy to forget that just minutes ago this food was trash in a mouldy container waiting to be dumped into a landfill.

Every Sunday, the food that got saved by dumpster divers on Saturday is prepared by members from the Barriccoons as well

as many volunteers from the neighbourhood - including ourselves this time. After a quick introduction round, Michela explains what is going on. “Here’s the food we have,” she points at about ten crates, five cardboard boxes, and a few shopping bags full of food. “And we will make dishes out of these. I think our main dish today will be stuffed pepper, we found so many peppers yesterday!”

Since the Barriccoons work with whatever food they get and in whatever quality and quantity, noone has any idea of what dish they will make until they start cooking it. This day, we end up making around 100 portions of stuffed pepper with a wok of random veggies on the side, some pasta with tomato sauce, a dessert with plums, and a smoothie with every kind of fruit you can think of. Michela tells me with a big smile on her face, “this is the part I love the most about cooking for the Barriccoons. You start with a huge mess of food, and I get to slowly turn them into decent meals for so many people. And for free!”

At 7 o’clock the food is on the table, the small bar-room is packed with people, the table bending under the weight of the pots and pans full of food. After a short announcement of the menu, people are lining up to get food and then with their plates loaded with vegan delicacies, they find a place to sit and eat. Luigi is happy: “it is nice to see that the dinner attracts more and more people. In the beginning, we served food only in the smaller of the two bar-rooms, then the dinner got so popular that people had to sit on the floor. A few months ago, we started opening the big room too and now again, people have to sit on the floor.”

Carole, a French-Japanese student tells us at t h e dinner table: “I identify with the idea of saying fuck capitalism through your food consumption. I would like to depend as little as possible on this system of food production and consumption, and ACU is a perfect way of doing that.”

Of course, dumpster diving every weekend won’t solve capitalism on its own - but the Barriccoons truly believe that it’s important to keep acting upon the problem they have with society so that they change the world little by little.

If you want to support the Barriccons in their battle against capitalism, they’re always looking for volunteers. Or if you have no problem with capitalism but still want free food, you can go for their dinner every Sunday at 7PM at ACU.

A University College Student Association Magazine

BUBBLE

“Are you FocusCo?”

Focus on what’s important here

by FocusCo

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f there’s one committee on campus that will always be there for you, in moments of success or more presumably, in moments of stupidity, it’s FocusCo. Sure, in the heat of the moment your face might reveal annoyance. But it belies how you truly feel. Once the pictures are uploaded, you love them, don’t lie – Instagram says it

all.

We do like UCStudios. Last semester both committees successfully organized a Black&White-themed party together where the disposable cameras made their annual debut- they reappeared later this semester for our Trash Prom collaboration with ArtsCo. And also, we genuinely like everyone on the board. But for FocusCo, a committee that is present for literally all the highs and lows at UCU, we are salty, my friends. Salty indeed.

UCStudios managed to squeeze out a bigger budget from UXA for their handful of video productions. While we pride ourselves on maintaining a (mostly) high level of quantity AND quality, our other camera-carrying friends seem to maintain only the latter. Yes, the introweek video was good. Really good, in fact. But did you see the Introweek photos? And although hundreds (hundreds) were uploaded, people still messaged us to ask if there were more.

Focus on what’s important here (see what we did there)? Talk about underappreciated.

Yeah UCStudios, you’re okay. But also, low-key, the salt remains.

Illustration © Meike Eijsberg

Thank u, UCU, next

by Mai Thai de Rijk

To be frank and to the point, I came to UCU thinking it was the worst decision of my life. On the third day of IntroWeek, I walked out mid sports day, and crawled into bed crying. I called my dad and I said “I want to drop out, please. I want to go anywhere but UCU. I hate it here.”

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y mind changed shortly after, when I got to know a few very special people. I don’t speak to any of them much anymore, but will always be thankful for them.

They turned my first year around- especially my first semester. They made UCU bearable. Admittedly, this year, I miss the memories. I miss them everyday. I was constantly cracking jokes and surrounding myself with positive energy.

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by UCStudios

his is the question all of us had to endure whilst filming the Fall introweek shenanigans. I understand the confusion folks.

After all, both boards are carrying cameras. However, UCStudios is, in fact, a separate committee which takes up different projects. Allow me to explain in this semi-serious bar brawl.

UCStudios is the film committee. We film all the plays, SSS performances, dance shows, etc. FocusCo will also be there, taking the fierce pics that you’ll end up sharing on Instagram. But we tape the entire event, allowing you to share it with friends and family that were not able to attend.

In addition to taking on a variety of requests, we aim to produce our own content. The first years might not have seen us yet, since we haven’t had the time, but last year we filmed a bunch of Buzzfeed-style interview videos in the bar. The first one, ‘What makes you happy?’ has become a legend and a meme. The monthly Dean updates are created by us too. A photo of James couldn’t tell you much, now could it?

What I’m trying to say is that filming, selecting, and editing a variety of shots gives a much more accurate vision of the event that took place. They always say a picture is worth 1000 words. If this is true, then shouldn’t a video tell you an entire story? For instance, what would introweek be without the annual aftermovie? A copious amount of pictures and blurred but happy memories.

Another, perhaps more recent example: there is without doubt a photo of your friend, drenched and slightly embarrassed, seconds after being ice-pitchered. But a video filmed by a certain GoPro carrier (you know very well who) captures all the action (of course we will NEVER include such shots in aftermovies without consent).

So there you have it. UCStudios is just as essential to campus as our friendly rival FocusCo. But all things considered: FocusCo, I love you. You take beautiful pictures, freezing all of our memorable moments in time. Campus really cannot do without you. Can we collab again soon?

These friends taught me so much: one taught me love, one taught me patience and one taught me pain. Ultimately, it was a ‘thank u, next’ kind of moment. Nevertheless, I still felt a void inside.

I would cry every other day, sometimes for a minute, sometimes for an hour. At one point, I ran out of tissues and had to blow my nose into my towels and shirts. It was grim and ugly. Not cute. My courses were not improving the situation. I wanted to pursue a Pre-Med track, but realised I was quite incapable of the sciences. I felt that I was not worthy of going to UCU. UCSA elections came shortly after. While running for CAO, I put my heart and soul into my campaign. Regardless of my hard work, I lost, and that’s okay. I am not one bit bitter about it.

It was only a pity that others did not genuinely believe in what I stood for. During that week, I learned so much about myself and UCU, more than I could ever describe. I now understand that no matter how I feel or how I express myself, not everyone will sympathise and understand what I want to convey. It taught me to be more vigilant, more calm, and made me immensely more mature. The only thing I wish people knew is that I wanted to help make everyone else’s experience better than mine was. I wanted people to have fun, nothing more, nothing less.

Although I may have come across as a tad ‘intense’, I wanted everyone to enjoy that week not only for being election week, but because everyone deserved it. I am thankful for everyone that supported me and wished me well. I would run again in a heartbeat, regardless of winning or losing. That week opened my eyes up to realising why the void inside me grew, and what I was missing.

I have always been, and probably always will be, a people pleaser. I want to be a positive influence in my friends’ lives. I never realised that trying to keep myself away from UCU was the major reason that my year was so hard. Being involved in the community, with friends, committees and now the UCSRN is exactly what makes me happy. Though it may not be for everyone, this is the void I needed to fill. Of course, it did not fill the void in its entirety, but it went a long way.

As cheesy as it sounds, what I’m trying to say is: whether we enjoy UCU or not, we have to give it a chance - multiple chances even. We’ve all had our burnouts and stressful months, but in the end, it helps us grow. It will make you grow. No pain you feel is for nothing; it helps you become a better version of you. UCU is just one of your exes, so say ‘thank u’, love yourself, and wait for the ‘next’.

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The Boomerang | December 2018

ARTS & CULTURE

Music Roundup

Have yourself a hipster little christmas

by Stanley Ward

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h, Tis’ the season! The Christmas period is upon us, and in the midst of finals, I, the former husk of a person, sit behind my laptop at 12:35 am, compiling a list of my personal top 5 Xmas tunes. Now, personally, I don’t think Christmas music is all that bad. My issue is simply the fact that every year, we endure the same tepid selection of average Christmas songs - with the exception of All I want For Christmas is You, which is a certified Christmas banger and altogether great musical accomplishment, big up Mariah Carey, absolute legend. (As a side note, her latest Blood Orange-produced, non-Christmas album isn’t half bad). I’m talking about the washed out Michael Bublé covers, lukewarm, heartless cash-grabs which soundtrack the elevator ride to my own personal hell. As an antidote, I offer my top 5 alternative Christmas songs, to freshen up holiday playlists everywhere. Oh, what’s that? You like Michael Bublé?

You think giving my opinion as an antidote to cultural hegemony is unbelievably arrogant and self-absorbed, and Christmas music is allowed to be commercial, fun and innocent, and it doesn’t matter because my choices are only picked from the Pitchfork top 50 Christmas tracks anyway?

Well, to that I say, maybe.

5. Another Lonely Christmas - Prince Love. Death. Heartbreak. Face-melting guitar solo. Prince drinking Banana Daiquiris till he’s blind. This song has it all. A sexy sad sexy Christmas, courtesy of the Purple One. It’s just so Prince. Enough said.

4. ‘A Christmas Album’ - Bright Eyes (Yes it’s an album and not a song, but I make the rules now) It is 2025, December 25th. Brexit has reduced my home country of England to a medieval apocalyptic hellscape, in which tribes fight to survive in a never ending winter. This nightmare is appropriately soundtracked by Bright Eyes’ ‘A Christmas Album’ which plays on a dusty gramophone in the middle of a dark forest. If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Bright Eyes, this conveys the mood of this record. Taking on a mix of classic biblical carols, and jazz standards, the innovative production makes the album feel as though it is coming apart at the seams. This record can be twisting, haunting, and ethereally terrifying, but in its lighter moments it’s undeniably beautiful. ‘A Christmas Album’ sounds like it’s been made as a last ditch effort to capture some holiday cheer by people who sound like they hate Christmas almost as much as they hate themselves, and for this reason, I love it.

If it were up to me, this album would play on a constant loop in every shopping mall on earth to remind people it’s alright to be sad at Christmas.

3. My Favourite Things - John Coltrane Is John Coltrane’s 14 minute take on my favourite

things technically a Christmas song? It’s not a song, nor is it about Christmas.

The answer is yes, yes it is, because it just sounds damn Christmassy, it’s timeless, and it’s perfect to drink yourself into oblivion à la Don Draper in Mad Men, or gorge yourself on Christmassy treats without guilt, in the aim of forgetting the trauma of finals week at UCU. This track summarises the emotional chaos of the Christmas season, and it does so in style.

3. Christmas in the Room - Sufjan Stevens There are two number 3’s? Yes there are. Why? Because Sufjan Steven’s Christmas in the Room is a beautifully produced ode to an anti-commercial Christmas, delivered with his signature wispy vocals and folky production, to remind us of the value of a low-key Christmas with the ones we love. If you liked that song from Call Me by Your Name, you’ll like this one too.

2. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town - Bruce Springsteen Based on the version featured on Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You (often referred to as the greatest Christmas record of all time, which I didn’t include on this list, as you really should know it already), this classic gets the E Street Band treatment, in this live recording from just after the release of Born to Run in 1975, and it’s all the better for it. I can’t listen to this song without smiling. Not only is the band’s sound so full of joy, but Bruce’s stage banter is hilarious.

This track only further cements Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in their status as some of the best performers of all time, and all around nice guys. It’s just heartwarming Christmas fun.

1. Fairytale of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl) - The Pogues Fairytale of New York is the perfect Christmas song. It just is. Why Celtic punk band the Pogues decided to create a Christmas classic, I have no idea, but I’m not complaining. Fairytale of New York is more than a Christmas song, it’s a Christmas epic. Shane MacGowen’s rough whiskey- inflicted voice complements MacColl’s perfectly in this duet which chronicles a doomed relationship, complete with tempo changes and a fire uptempo Irish folk drop, at about a minute and a half in. This is a song about contrast and broken promises, and

the lyrics reflect this, switching from beautiful lyricism to intense bouts of swearing, which help make this song as funny as it is heartbreaking. In my objective opinion, this is the best Christmas song that could ever be written.

Honourable Mention. Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio I couldn’t write about Christmas music without at least mentioning Christmas Time is Here, which is taken from the soundtrack to the beautiful A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s just so gorgeous; every aspect of it. The gentle instrumental, the soothing hiss of the analogue recording equipment, the way in which the melody perfectly evokes the melancholy feeling Christmas can have. Whether it’s the version with the children’s choir vocal, or the instrumental take, never have drums, double bass, and piano encapsulated the complex feelings of Christmas, nostalgia, and perhaps even being human, better than in this song. The reason it isn’t on the list is because Christmas Time is Here supersedes lists - it supersedes everything. Even after the last star in the universe has burnt out, the fading piano notes of Christmas Time is Here will ring out across the empty cosmos, forever.

Illustration © Lise Derksen

A University College Student Association Magazine

ARTS & CULTURE

7

sweet svensationsby Sven Bosma The things I love about christmas Being of both Dutch and British nationality, I had the pleasure of growing up celebrating both the Sinterklaas as well as Christmas festivities in an over-the-top manner, at least to the extent that presents were in abundance for essentially all of December. With my birthday being in November, I was happier than a pig in shit, and my parents were massively creative. However, Christmas wins out for me, especially now that Sinterklaas has become somewhat...unfashionable.

Since my fellow board members think a 50-item list “isn’t a column”, I present to you a piece on my favourite things in December.

First off, step outside real quick and breath in DEEP. Smell that? It’s the sweet smell of crisp, fresh air. Walk into the neighbourhood nearby campus and breath even DEEPER. That, my elf, is the sweet smell of open fires. Burning wood. Nature consuming nature. I’ll happily freeze through the night if it means I can leave my window open for a whiff of Winter.

Next up is the lights. The lights are everywhere. People complain that it gets too dark too early in Winter. I, on the other hand, see it as necessary to bring the lights out in their full effect. Head into town, get yourself a Christmas-themed drink from Starbucks, and walk around to truly experience the brilliance of the lights. I know that most of the lights are in stores, who use the holidays to fill their coffers, but at the same time, I don’t care. I’m entranced in some Winter wonderland and happily play the game of late-stage capitalism, as long as I get to behold my damn lights. These lights and their tacky commercial value are secondary to cash-grab Christmas movies, that I enjoy to no end. Love Actually, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, Die Hard, Polar Express; all greats. I recently saw the Grinch in the movies and you should too. Not afraid to admit that shit’s cute.

Bohemian Rhapsody’s use of Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis is completely disappointing

by Rhiannon Du Cann

T

his week, I went to see the heavily anticipated Bohemian Rhapsody film and I can’t say that it wasn’t an enjoyable cinematic experience.

I mean, who doesn’t love Queen’s music? Credit given where credit’s due, Rami Malek’s depiction of Freddie Mercury was spot on from the teeth to the “darling” littering every sentence.

Freddie Mercury was an incredible person, led an incredible life and there are lots of incredible things to be said about it. (Dwarves running around with plates of cocaine on their heads at his legendary parties being at the bottom of the list). But in this film, his life was glamourised and oversimplified.

Worse, however, was that some things were categorically wrong, with the depiction of Freddie

Christmas roast and leftovers for funsies. December 25th, at 3pm, I am to be found at the head of the dining room table back home, carving a turkey, about to carve a honey-glazed ginger-ale Christmas ham, having cut up a beef Wellington the evening before. Yeah, there are vegetables and stuff somewhere on the table too. But the important part is that all this meat is going to keep me alive for days, being transferred to sandwiches and pies and whatnot. This has to happen at 3pm of course, because at 4pm the Queen’s speech commences, after which it’s straight onto the post-Christmas dinner family walk. This is the classic Christmas Day, and I start looking forward to it in late September or early October. I REALLY love Christmas.

The only thing that can make the classic Christmas Day better, would be a white Christmas. Snow is the icing on the cake for my Christmas.

Now yes, I am fully aware that the odds of a white Christmas are miniscule, but a boy can dream, can’t he? Anyways, because everybody wants an iPhone and bleached jeans, a polar bear died and now it snows in April for some reason, so my white Christmas is unlikely. Oh well, I still have the memories.

Finally, for anyone who doesn’t like cold air, lights, Christmas dinners (looking at you, vegans) or slushy snow, find refuge in this last piece of Christmas that makes it onto my shortlist: the merry spirit with family, friends and even strangers. Take time to really sit down and appreciate your family: your spoiled sister, mentally absent brother, musically “gifted” cousin, odd uncle with the boxed wine, or whoever else. These people are family. That means you can count on them for anything. Take a moment to realise that over the holiday.

Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis being particularly disappointing. Wearing a baseball cap and aviators, Mercury is inexplicably asked “do you know what that means?” by his doctor. This, then, is portrayed as his motivation behind getting the band back together, after the rest were alienated by his partying antics and ‘selfish’ solo career attempt. The band seems hesitant: “they just need a bit of time” his manager tells him, “what if I don’t have time?” Mercury responds… In the Americanised, chirpy mood of the film, the band are quickly convinced and come together for their one final Live Aid performance.

As nice as this all sounds, it is a total fabrication. According to his partner Jim Sutton, Freddie Mercury was not diagnosed with AIDS until late April in 1987 - 2 years after the Live Aid performance in 1985. As a result, we see the film sensationalise his AIDS diagnosis for the purpose of the plot. During the rehearsal for Live Aid, Mercury tells the band about his illness but says: “I’m not going to be anybody’s victim, AIDS poster boy or cautionary tale.” This is ironic following the montage of Freddie’s sex party lifestyle complete with an abundance of leather-clad men.

The nitty gritty of Freddie Mercury’s life was airbrushed, with the whole film feeling very PG13, driven by an attempt to appeal to the masses. Don’t forget, Sasha Baron Cohen allegedly dropped out of the project for this very reason; he had hoped for a more warts-and-all approach.

While this film was not supposed to be about

AIDS, and I am not arguing that it should have been, it’s uncomfortable in the way that it was brazenly included. It is slightly irksome that the arguably most famous film about AIDS is Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas Buyers Club which is from the perspective of a straight, white man. 2017’s Beats Per Minute is centred around an AIDS activist group in Paris in 1990 but it’s in French so went, naturally, unheard by the

“

We see the film sensationalise his diagnosis for the purpose of the plot

majority. “Wish it was in English” deplores one commentator on the YouTube advert – doesn’t that just say it all?

We may be in the 21st century, but let us not forget that some people seem to find AIDS an awkward topic. It’s still used as the butt of people’s jokes, as insults and even in the darker corners of the internet, in memes. This attitude might be diminished if it were to be presented properly, and people are aware of how harrowing an experience it was and can still be, for few would even dream about mocking cancer.

Of course, no one’s life should be diminished to or defined by their illness, certainly not one of a true great like Mercury. Do not, however, twist events and a serious illness for some plot device; either properly depict it or leave it out altogether.

8

WORLD

Teaching with video games

by Jamie March

The Boomerang | December 2018

Keeping it lightheart-ed

by Edward Barber

If you haven’t had the pleasure of following the International Relations course, or had the displeasure of witnessing it second hand from your friend who won’t shut up about their exploits in a video game (I openly admit this was me last year, especially after a few beers). Then you probably hadn’t considered the possibility of games and simulation in your classes. Tom Overmans is Assistant Professor at the University School of Governance (USBO). Previously, he was a financial analyst for the Dutch parliament and for private consultancy firms. His area of expertise? Public finance and Public Management. With that kind of CV you might not expect that from 2014-2016 he led a team of researchers from the UU to produce a report on The Value of Simulation and Games for Tertiary Education. I sat down with Tom to find out how he got involved, and what the impacts of this study were.

“T

he younger generation it means to be appointed as the manager of learns in a different way a hospital. But we also collect information compared to 20 or 30 by measuring the time it takes for students years ago, and yet most of to make certain decisions. This shows which the academic courses are decisions are more difficult for them. We can still organized in the old fashioned way. That’s then focus on those decisions in our lessons. why we asked ourselves, ‘Do we need to rein- It’s both interesting for teaching, as well as terpret how we teach?’ We noticed that big for our own research in the fields of perforconsultancy firms were using business simu- mance management.” lation games to teach their own staff valuable “We are continuously developing the skills, and that our kids were playing games project. My colleague Scott and I promoted because they were fun. To connect these the game by playing it at an international two worlds, we proposed to the University conference for performance management board of executives that we needed funding scholars last year in Budapest. What we said for a serious project on the values of simula- there was ‘please use this game, it’s free to play tions and games in at performancemacademic teaching.” anagementgames.

Everybody thinks the “The main aim com’ It’s now being was to find out to used in 15-20 relationship between what extent are courses across five learning objectives coungames and the learning different better achieved. tries which is really objectives is strongly We conducted a amazing.” rigorous literature “The debriefing is positive review, starting essential, that’s why out with over 1500 we established a academic articles. Our conclusion was that teaching guide. There is some technical help there was a positive effect on these learning on how to get the game working, but also on objectives, but if you want to achieve these how to incorporate it into your curriculum. benefits you had to do a number of things. The students like the game because it helps These were: make sure the game is contextu- them understand the dynamics of the theory ally specific, make sure it is embedded within and because it’s fun. But it’s important to help the course, and the teacher has to take an teachers and students evaluate it beyond ‘was active role in reflecting on it.“ it fun?’ After all, we want students to learn “Everybody thinks that the relationship from these simulations.” between games and the learning objectives is “We can also use the backbone of the game’s strongly positive, but we were really cautious code to create comparable ones in different in being caught in the positivity bias. That is settings. One idea is to transform the hospital why we tried to use papers that used quanti- game into a judiciary game. By contextualtative data with large sample sizes to analyse izing it to different settings we can adapt it if there was a correlation.” for students from different disciplines.”

“With the help of IT students from the “Learning around games and simulations science department we created a hospital isn’t institutionalized, there is no fixed group simulation game. What we do now is use it to or fixed way to do it, but we’re giving it a start teach, but also to conduct research. The main here, and hopefully this way it’ll grow.” aim is teaching, as students can grasp what

“

SADIQ HAS IT SORTED Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was born and raised a Londoner and knows the ins and outs of his native city. He knows its many strengths and its pressing flaws. One of these flaws is the pernicious public health hazard that is totally invisible to the human eye – air pollution.

An inevitability in any sprawling metropolitan area, one may say, but it is not an issue that can be ignored. A 2017 Lancet report found that 9 million people across the world died in 2015 as a result of breathing in poisonous air.

That is a frightening three times higher than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria put together.

In London alone, that figure is said to be 9’000 per year. This is a global, man-made pandemic and needs to be taken seriously. What is more, this is not only a public health issue but a social justice one too, as Khan highlights. The poorest Londoners suffer the most, evidenced by a study published under Khan’s administration that found that there are over 400 schools in London in areas where the air quality is technically deemed illegal. Within these schools, 80% of the pupils are on free school meals.

Khan poses the question ‘if pollution were visible, would the issue itself be more visible’?

In 1952 this was certainly the case as the ‘Great Smog’ paralysed London for several days on end until politicians took action and passed the pioneering Clean Air Act. Skip forward 66 years and we have an impassioned mayor of London who has placed air pollution high on his agenda. In October of last year, he introduced the T-Charge which charges the country’s most polluting vehicles, those registered from 2006 or earlier, an additional £10 on top of an existing £11.50 to enter central London. This pioneering effort was not designed to produce revenue, but to alter attitudes. According to Khan it has already had a noticeable effect with fewer harmful vehicles making their way into central London.

What this is geared towards is eventually, in 2019, having the world’s first ultra-low emission zone. What that means is that no car will be able to drive in central London without an additional fee, unless it’s a Euro 6 car (meaning it is a post-2015 diesel car or a clean petrol car). Crucially though, this is not limited to central London. By 2020 the aim is to extend the ultra-low emissions zone to the whole city for HGVs and lorries, and by 2021 to branch the zone for regular vehicles out to the north and south circulars. There are estimates that these measures will remove half of the harmful matter in the city’s air.

Additionally, all buses purchased now are electric or hybrid, transport for London fares have been frozen and there is unprecedented spending on bike lanes. Has Sadiq got it sorted or what? Let’s now push for other big city polluters to follow suit – there’s still time!

A University College Student Association Magazine

WORLD

9

Should there be a trade-off between democracy and development?

by Annabelle Willeme

T

he East African region has seen its share of questionable democracies over the years. From Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Kenyatta in Kenya, Museveni in Uganda and Kagame in Rwanda, many leaders in East Africa have had their political and human rights record questioned both internally and by the West. Despite this, leaders such as Museveni and Kagame were initially and still are (by some), hailed as saviours of their country.

Having taken power in their countries following years of brutal dictatorship in Museveni’s case, and genocide in Kagame’s case, they brought their country much needed stability and development. Should then, the human rights abuses, and lack of political freedom be overlooked for this economic development? Should there ever be a trade-off between economic development and democracy?

Under the umbrella of authoritarian rule, both Kagame and Museveni have stabilized their counties and set it on a path towards development. Since the genocide of 1994 decimated its economy and the population, Rwanda’s GDP has grown by 6-8% annually. Rwanda has been a leader in East Africa for both women’s rights (parliamentary elections In September saw women fill 64% of the seats) and in the ICT sector. Rwanda is striving to develop as the ICT and knowledge centre of the continent, aspiring

Civil Conflict in the Congo

by Maya Homsy King

I

t is a little known fact in the Western world that the Eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been the center of the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II. The continuing Ebola outbreak in the same region is definitely not helping the situation, nor is the political instability stemming from the region’s mineral-rich soils. Even for me, having grown up in Uganda, a neighboring country, the details of what exactly was going on were never clear.

What finally made me start paying attention was the Ebola crisis- ever since 2014 when Uganda was affected, just the hearing ‘Ebola’ has become sort of a buzzword, and now the bulk of my father’s job concerns the current outbreak in the Eastern Congo. I finally decided to do some of my own research to understand what the situation is, and am going to inform you lucky readers of my findings.

The roots of the conflict in the region started with the influx of Rwandan refugees into the Congo, as a result of the genocide in 1994. This caused the Rwandan army to invade the Congolese, then Zairean, border due to the continuous threat of genocide that existed on the border.

Rwanda proceeded to remove the dictatorial President Mobutu and installed Laurent-De-

to become the ‘Singapore of Africa’. The Kagame regime has become the first country in Africa that provides 4G LTE internet capability to almost 95% of its citizens, as well as being the first country to use drones to deliver blood to hospitals.

The reason behind this development is the leadership of Paul Kagame, its current president. Having effectively run Rwanda since 1994, Kagame faces many accusations of an abysmal political freedom and human rights record. However, Rwanda is still troubled by simmering ethnic tensions, and Kagame argues that introducing western style democracy in this environment would be folly. Kagame has called out western human rights activists as ignorant utopians who are blinded by the rights of the individual over the rights of society. Heavily critiqued by the West for his often repressive government Kagame has replied: “Who told anybody we actually want to be like the West?

We have been making progress, but we are not moving towards being western because we can’t be western. We are moving towards being better Africans.” Perhaps a single mould of government does not fit all countries, and forcing countries ruled by ethnic division and crippled by years of misrule into a democratic model only harms them.

Kagame is currently on his 18th year of presidency, while Museveni is on his 32nd year as

president. The society where both these leaders once stepped into has changed radically. Museveni’s democracy is increasingly questioned, especially by those who do not remember a time when he wasn’t president, nor the warfare that preceded it. Not only the West, but also an increasing amount of Ugandans are calling for urgent governmental reform. Although a trade off between development and democracy

sire Kabila in his place. This turned out as many elections have; a leader that promises hope, security, and prosperity quickly disappoints his people. After Kabila, his son, Joseph Kabila, stepped into office. His presidential term expired in December 2016, but he is somehow still in office. Elections, which were originally supposed to be held in November 2016, were postponed until December 2017 when President Kabila simply deemed them ‘too expensive’ and are now supposed to be held on December 23, 2018.

The postponement of the elections only intensified the violence and dissatisfaction amongst

can be transmitted by simply touching an infected person, their clothes, or anything they have recently touched. Because of this, most of the infections happen in the treatment units, as these are the places with the highest concentration of infected persons. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are working to manage the outbreak, but to do this, they must track the contacts of every confirmed case, to make sure they haven’t contracted the infection, but this is a nigh-impossible task. Imagine Emmanuel walks into a shop, greets the shopkeeper, walks around, says hello to his neighbor who’s also there, touches a packet of flour which he then decides he doesn’t need, and finally pays for his cassava. He then goes home to his wife and children, where they receive guests for tea.

The CDC must then track down the shopkeeper, Emmanuel’s neighbor, his wife, children, guests and anyone else he was in contact with during the time he is estimated to have been infected.

This is very difficult, often near-impossible, to do, which is how the disease spreads so fast and so effectively.

Owing to historical and political mishaps, mismanagement of power and resources, and the resulting inability to manage the Ebola virus, what is happening in the Eastern Congo is truly is a tragic situation; lives have been lost in horrific ways and the quality of life is dismal.

This area needs help, and as with most occurrences in the continent still often referred to as a country, not much is being reported on major Western news platforms. So, now you know, and if you are taken with a desire to lend a hand, consider the Eastern Congo.

“

This area needs help, and as with most occurrences in the continent still often referred to as a country, not much is being reported on major Western news platforms

the inhabitants of the country. Currently, it is believed that at least seventy armed groups are operating in the Eastern Congo and control some of the more rural areas, profiting off of the abundance of minerals in the soil and terrorizing communities.

The cherry on top of this messy political situation is the unrelenting Ebola outbreak in the midst of the rebel-conflict zone, the epicenter being the town of Beni. Although an experimental vaccine is being used for those most at-risk, the outbreak has proven exceedingly difficult to control. The problem is that Ebola

“

Rwanda is striving to develop as the ICT and knowledge centre of the continent, aspiring to become the ‘Singapore of Africa’.

could potentially be imagined in a post-conflict society, the largely peaceful Uganda of today is ready for change. Establishing economic development as an excuse for human rights abuses or autocracy gives many leaders a free pass for their violations. Leaders should continue being held accountable for their human rights abuses and bad governance, but the trade off between development and democracy is a revealing debate, and very relevant to many nations around the world

A University College Student Association Magazine

BUBBLE

10

Behind the scenes of The Boomerang

by The Boomerang Board For the final edition of this year, the Boomerang board wants to give you a look behind the scenes. What happens in that little office downstairs in Voltaire? What is discussed in our group chat? Read these two stories and find out…

O

Mistake #1: The October fiasco ctober 22nd. 19:03. The midterms are finally over and the fall break just started a few days ago. All seven board members are spread across Europe. Everyone would have been minding their own business, if it weren’t for that one text message from your proletarian layout director whose peripheral position at the very bottom of the board hierarchy grants her no choice but to perform hard labour over the break: “Guys we don’t have any quad queries.” - Lotte How could we forget those pixelated photos of (usually) mirthful and blissful inebriation?

They’re the backbone of our little newspaper, they brings us humour and fill us with inexplicable jubilance. Panic strikes.

“Hey, isn’t Meike in Stockholm with the hitchhiking group? She can take them,” - Sven A would-be tragedy was averted. Or so we thought. As it turned out, we were missing quite some articles. Not one, not two, no no, we had THREE EMPTY pages. This is quite a problem, since any printed publication can only exist in sets of four pages (take this one apart to see for yourself). Not to point any fingers, but some people are slugs who don’t follow up on their commitment to write. To solve this, we went about the traditional method of nepotism, and got everybody on the board to manufacture an article. This isn’t protocol, or even a common occurrence, but Sven messaged in the chat “Blurt out a topic and I’ll give you 600 words on it,” so we took advantage of this generous offer.

Thomas and Maya soon followed suit.

We should also mention that, in the midst of this conundrum, we were trying to get our board sweaters designed and printed. Sven was in charge of this, and between coordinating articles and quad queries, we had to convince him that we can’t have Gucci G’s on the sleeves of our board sweaters. Looking back though, Gucci G’s would have been pretty baller. We were only brought back to reality by Lotte’s comment on the editing programme that crashed more frequently than the British pound in the past few months of Brexit negotiations, “InDesign makes me cry… a lot.”

As the day continued, a slow stream of quad queries came pouring into our Google Drive. A fortuitous combination of UCU hitchhikers and truck-stop WiFi meant that every stop, we’d add another 2 pictures and quotes to our collection.

The extra articles were written, and sweaters were dropped off for printing. We seemed to have things under control.

But then disaster struck. One article had the wrong author. Not a misspelled last name, or even two articles getting mixed up, but a completely random name that no one in the board seemed to know the origins of. And as for the cherry on top, an article had been left out -

Illustration © Lise Derksen

one that had actually come in on time, and was a crucial addition to the paper - the infamous battle between one of our very own, and a figure of quite significant authority. Unfortunately, this happened once the paper had already been sent to the printer.

Long story short, by means of careful diplomatic correspondence with the Scary Printer Man, Lotte fixed the two issues and sent the new Boomerang to the printers. We could breathe once again.

Thank the heavens they had not started printing yet. But they had already made a template for the old-mistake-filled issue. Making them change this ended up costing an additional 80 euros. Good thing @UCSA covered our asses and paid the 80 euros, which technically means you all paid the 80 euros. Whoops¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

T

Mistake #2: Our prized board sweaters he entire Boomerang board prides itself immensely on its fashion, obviously. Just look at us; We are walking Instagram fashion bloggers.

It would be obvious, then, that our board sweaters needed to be in line with this high standard we have set. This is, of course, why it took us a whole semester to get our board sweaters. They had to be perfect. Three of us

have only been in possession of a board sweater for a couple weeks, and we are leaving the board this Christmas. But beauty is pain, and the ideal board sweaters had to be found. We sent off our cheapest, most easily exploited labour force Lotte to traipse through the Hilversum Primark (aka the depths of hell), twice. The whole store was unrecognizably rearranged in the time between the two trips, and so our working class protagonist got very lost and a little (a lot) frustrated. In the end, we ordered the sweaters online. This was week six of the semester.

The sweaters arrived and were brought to the logo-printing store all within week seven of the semester. Talk about efficiency! We were ready to be even more stylish with our matching board sweaters with the Boomerang logo emblazoned on the back. But then, once again, disaster struck.

The store had messed up: apparently, there are two Mayas in the board, and zero Meikes.

And so it was that our editor-in-chief didn’t have a board sweater, and consequently was extremely unfashionable, until just a week ago.

We don’t even have a board picture yet, because we have been waiting to take one when we would be at the peak of our outfit game. At this rate, we reckon the board sweaters are cursed, and that we probably will never have a board picture with them at all.

The

Blackout December 2018

Tear down the wall in our classrooms

by Disillusioned Third Year

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t the recent Open Day, potential prospective students and their parents got to attend a mini-lecture.

Sat in the U-shape of tables that is so familiar to all of us, they watched a teacher pace back and forth and listened to what she had to say about a topic that they had not even been interested in before walking into that classroom. I myself went to an almost identical Open Day years ago. The U-shape mini-lecture was a big part of what made me decide to come to UCU. The promise of a classroom where everyone had to participate, where a good teacher would pace back and forth and ask for students’ opinions was what lured me in.

Now I sit in one of those U-shapes almost eight times a week and this is what I see.

Opposite me, where there should be a row of students eagerly waiting to dispute the point I just made, I see a row of black and silver shields. Illustration © Harry Mills

I see apple logos, stickers of sororities and rowing clubs; stickers with political messages (that are ironically meant to show how engaged these students are)

“

u

“Robert Renes is normie culture”

by Anonymous and Annoyed

N

o, I’m NOT roasting Professor Doctor Robert Renes the man himself. This is nothing personal.

I barely know the guy. I’ve never talked to him, never had a class taught by him, and generally never had him in my life. It is the culture surrounding Robert Renes that annoys me on a level that is suffocating. That picture of ASC-Marco and him

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He could definitely NOT be your dad, so what even is the point?

advertising the afternoon with teachers at the bar. I hate it. People tagging him in posts. I hate it. Him being in UCU students. Why? The meme about him. Love it. Him showing the meme to his class? What even, Robert. Chill, please. It wasn’t about you. The meme, too, was a critique

I see apple logos, stickers of sororities and rowing clubs; stickers with political messages (that are ironically meant to show how engaged these students are). Behind those shields I see twelve pairs of eyes clung to the screens, twelve pairs of hands vigorously typing or scrolling. To my left, I see the Abercrombie & Fitch webshop.

To the right, the constant switching between UCU Confessions, Whatsapp Web, and the article that should have been read for (actually, before) this class.

Don’t get me wrong; there are some holes in this phalanx of indifference. About five or six students are engaging with the teacher, asking critical questions about the readings and responding to each other’s points. A fifth of us have come to live the promise of the U-shape, to reap the benefits of studying at a small-scale honors college.

But the five of us cannot make that promise come true. I am constantly distracted by the gossip to my right and the dull

on the Robert-Renes-worshipping culture at this campus, as I will prove in my thesis.

You might think my perspective on this matter is that I believe teacher-student relationships are gross and illegal and inherently undesirable and messed up. You couldn’t be more wrong. I love teachers! I’m actually here to defend real teacher-crush culture. See, there are countless students (mostly girls) out there who crush on their teachers and professors all the time, and write about it in their diaries because no one else understands them. So do I. I guess I just love men that are at least twice my age. Can’t help it.

But just because I can’t help it, doesn’t mean I’m actually out to get these people. It’s like having a crush on Tom Cruise: you know it’s not going to happen, but at least here’s the DVD of Top Gun that you can watch over and over again until your eyes bleed.

So I completely understand it if you’re in love with your teacher. Don’t do anything with

This article continues on the next page

it, though. Just endure it, undergo it. Leave them alone. Personally, I myself am very bad at following my own advice. But that’s besides the point. The point being: CRUSHING ON ROBERT RENES IS NOT THE SAME AS CRUSHING ON A TEACHER. It’s too easy. There’s no challenge, no thrill, no AGE GAP. He’s literally… thirty?

Thirty-five? I don’t know. Don’t care, either. But he could definitely NOT be your dad, so what even is the point? If you’re going for an older man, at least go for an actually OLD man who has a house and a car and a wife and a mortgage.

Not some postgraduate who is like 5% smarter than you and willingly hangs out with students at the bar and gets tagged in memes. It’s like saying Brad Pitt is your favourite actor. Or that sushi is your favourite food. Or that you would like to drive a Mini Cooper in a quirky colour.

Or that Beach House is your favourite indie band. Or that Canon in D is your favourite classical piece of music. Or like giving someone a box of Happy Socks for Christmas. I can think of a million other tedious habits that exactly resemble thinking Robert Renes is hot.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Robert Renes is normie culture.

Is the Voltaire building racist?

2

I’m tired 3

A review of SSS’s The Appocalypse

2

I hate my unit 5

UCU is North Korea

4

I have an STI 5

2

The Boomerang | December 2018

BLACKOUT

clothes to my left. The teacher, who was once an enthusiastic expert, has lost her fervor after talking to a wall for years. The five students who have to answer every single question will tire, waiting for someone new to challenge their perspective. And you, giggling at a meme while the teacher is talking about genocide, will complain at the end of the semester that the course is too demanding, the workload too high, the material incomprehensible, even though you would be perfectly capable of understanding all this if you listened in class.

The solution is simple: tear down this wall, break up that phalanx. We need to ban laptops from our classrooms, or at least from lectures and discussions. You do not need them. Researchers from Princeton and UCLA have shown that even when a laptop is used solely for taking notes, students take in less information than when writing notes on paper. And I hope I do not have to explain the effect of social media distraction or online shopping on your learning process.

We all at some point liked the idea of going to an honors college where the classrooms were small and the teachers engaging. We all chose to not sit in big lecture halls where you can take naps, watch movies, or not show up at all. If we have any sense of respect left for our teachers, our fellow students, our own learning process, and the promise of the U-shape, we need to get laptops out of the classroom.

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If we have any sense of respect left for our teachers, our fellow students, our own learning process, and the promise of the U-shape, we need to get laptops out of the classroom.

S.W.I.P.E.

A review of UniLife and The Appocalypse

by Let’s have it be anonymous

“T

here is no life but Uni-Life” classrooms –hello there, video lectures- essays, – although this line was people altogether will be forsaken for the irrea highlight of the Super sistible pull of that blue-lit screen…

Sticky Surfaces production And here is a nice segue into the SSS perforon Thursday, the Uni-Life mance: Uni-Life takes over UCU. There were app hasn’t taken off to quite this extent yet on some funny lines here and there, the approcampus. When I volunteered to write this, I’d priate stripping (although it was slightly more opened Uni-Life exactly one time. In an effort to awkward than usual this time) and bashing of try and be fair in my reviewing, I decided to open Primus/Equites and the classic- the needlessly it again. I unlocked my phone, prolonged and absurd, overand my finger hovered over that the-top ending. Some highgeneric-looking app icon, my lights included the repeated heart pounding with trepidamention of James’ nudes, tion. To my intense dismay, it ‘hi friend’, and the reference Apart from the had logged me out and would not to the infamous Primus-cofaccept my username and/or pass- ritual insulting, I fee-head biting incident. The word. I tried the many different‘swipe’ joke cut right to the understand the but-the-same passwords I use on core of the UCSA’s effort to all my accounts, and that aggres- reasoning behind try and familiarize us with sive, red screen with that friendly this app- the number of times the introduction of but wannabe modern, sans serif, I have heard them refer to excessively rounded font spelling this app Uni-Life as ‘just like Tinder’ UNI LIFE stared me in the face is more than I can count on and I just wanted to punch it. both hands. Why must the pioneering technoAfter waiting 7 minutes for a password reset logical wonder that is Uni-Life be compared to email to arrive, I was hit with a New Uni-Life that app for lonely young millennials who can’t Feature. Well, this is exciting I thought, I can socialize? now add events from Uni-Life to my own Other than that, things got weird - as they tend calendar! Obviously, it is insufficient to have to - and I found myself wondering how such these events yelling at me through Facebook, intelligent young people find themselves imbued Instagram, Uni-Life, my email, and pinned up with a desire to yell stupid jokes, scream, sweat, around campus. Why yes, I do need the Improv and tumble around on a stage in front of a crowd Open Sesh and the UCSA/ASC’s Dog Petting of tipsy, overstressed and equal parts overly event in my own personal calendar as well. Why enthusiastic, and disillusioned students. I can’t not. say I didn’t laugh though- I did, and some comic Apart from the ritual insulting, I understand relief is appreciated in these dark December the reasoning behind the introduction of this days, no matter what form it may come inapp. We, UCU, need to get with the times. We the current failings of Uni-Life, or my fellow must swim in the slipstream of the technolog- students making a spectacle of themselves in an ical revolution! First, we got rid of Workspaces, overcrowded, overheated auditorium. now it’s Facebook’s turn to go, next it will be

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Is Voltaire too racist to have a building named after him?

by Anonymous The first thing I noticed when I came to learn the names of the academic buildings was how Eurocentric they were. Locke, Newton, Voltaire, Descartes, it is as if we are stuck in the 19th century where all we do is read the work of old white men who wrote that stuff with feathers. Feedback sessions of politics, history and sociology classes are filled with “why are we only looking at the Western stuff?” To this, the teacher vigorously nods their head, but nothing ever changes. I want to learn about the ethnic violence in Myanmar, and would it kill anyone if one of our non-level one history courses were not about the Western 20th century?

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Renaming Voltaire will be our very own version of the removal of confederate statues

More importantly, we need to consider the legacy of these people. Voltaire was an anti-semite and a racist. “The race of the Negroes is a species of men different from ours … we can say that if their intelligence is not from another species, she is much lower.” How can we accept this viewpoint in 2018? And don’t give me that bullshit about it being a different time and whatnot. I’m not saying we have to stop reading Voltaire, he is obviously a great philosopher, we should learn about his virtues and faults.

But naming a building after him deifies him in a way that is not compatible with our norms and values. And don’t give me that “oh it’s a slippery slope” argument, “if we stop honoring racists what will happen next?” I don’t know but it sounds great.

It will be our very own version of the removal of confederate statues. We’re not erasing our history, we’re just selectively honoring the parts that deserve to be honored, and criticizing the parts that deserved to be criticized. Rename the academic buildings to people who deserve to be recognized. I’m not sure if the UCU curriculum or its students have gotten the memo, but there is a world outside of Western Europe, and why are all these buildings named after men?

It is such an easy change, like when we changed the academic buildings’ toilets to unisex ones. Much ado about nothing.

All these complaints and drama, and then when someone finally went and did it?

Nothing. Don’t die on a hill you don’t even want to stand on. You don’t actually care if Voltaire is called Voltaire you just hate the idea that not everything belongs to you.

The question of whether the buildings and their names are too archaic for 2018 seems answered to me. Now the only issue we have, is what do we rename them to?

A University College Student Association Magazine

BLACKOUT

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Constant tiredness, numerous mental breakdowns, but we are all fine?

by Rei Silver

I’m tired. How often have you answered ‘How are you?’ with the following sentence, ‘Oh, I’m stressed, but everything will be fine.’ How often have you received this answer? Everybody hears it, everyone says it, but it is downplayed too much to leave room to care.

T

here is a very particular social mindset at UCU about matters such as depression, mental breakdowns, and generally just not feeling well. The first thing people answer when you ask them how they’re doing is that they are tired. It is commonly accepted to be tired all the time. Even worse, mental breakdowns have become such a normal thing that people don’t even bat an eye at this experience. People will say ‘oh yeah, I had like several mental breakdowns last night, but I studied until 4am. I didn’t have any breakfast this morning, but I am fine.’ In normal circumstances, in different environments, hearing something like this is incredibly worrisome. But at UCU, people will just accept this and consider it normal, something everyone goes through. However, to be honest, this is ridiculous and messed up. We don’t worry anymore about our friends going through rough times, because ”everybody does”. This makes it particularly hard to tell people that you are actually really not doing well because it is something everyone goes through; everyone is either ‘tired’, ‘having a mental breakdown’, or depressed’.

I am not saying that these phenomena are not real problems; in that case, read again.

I am saying that these phenomena should be something to worry about and should not be accepted. Instead of admiring people for studying all night, maybe ask them how they’re doing and for next time, help them so they don’t have to go through a night of

mental breakdowns and study stress again.

Instead of normalising mental breakdowns, we have to understand that these are not normal, that they are something to worry about and that if someone tells you ‘I am tired’, ‘I am not feeling well’ or ‘I had three mental breakdowns last night’, we try to support them.

The difficult part is our culture of halfsharing. When someone downplays a statement that is meant to be a cry for help, it can make it so much harder to realise that something is actually wrong. But especially in those cases, we should pay attention and realise that people are actually not as ‘fine’ as they might seem.

I hope that after reading this article, people will consider going up to someone that seems not to be doing all too well.

Sometimes, a simple offer of a cup of tea and a conversation can be enough. In the end taking care of yourself is also taking care of others. Neither should outrank the other, but both are essential to the wellbeing of a community such as UCU, or any community for that matter.

Illustration © Anne van Wendel

Maarten Diederix and the Landlord: a tragedy

by Stephanie M. Ros

If you have ever suffered any housing issues, chances are that you’ve met Maarten Diederix and the Landlord.

Both are not really known for their friendliness nor helpfulness, and I think it is about time someone calls them out.

Maarten Diederix is an icon, inseparable from UCU. What would life be without a grumpy old man on a bike screaming at you? I did a small calculation and I’ve got some news to share. I know that it is impolite to guess someone’s wage, but let me take a very wild guess for the sake of the argument. Let’s say the best man earns around €30.000 per year. Let’s also assume there are 750 students at UCU. That would mean Maarten Diederix costs €40 per student per year. Now, you could do a lot of fun things for €40 (read: 40 beers). But more importantly,

for €40 per year I would like to be treated with at least a grain of respect. I mean, service is included in the price, right? This has, however, been shown to be too much of an effort, as I am still yet to encounter his friendly version. Every conversation I’ve had with him so far was loaded with sarcasm (from his side), leaving me with a feeling that reminded me of how Roald Dahl’s Matilda must’ve often felt: “I’m big, you’re small, I’m right, you’re wrong, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Putting myself in his place, I’m not surprised that he acts in this way. Think about it, being available 24/7 for a wide range of bullshit must be tiring. Just like moaning about how dirty and incompetent UCU students are all day must be very tiring. Therefore, I have some advice for you, Maarten. Try to approach things a bit more positively, please.

Sadly, I have had equally bad experiences with the landlord and his employees. There hasn’t

been a single time that I’ve contacted them and they actually came and solved it. Every time, they either make me solve the problem myself or they just fiddle around with some tools, don’t fix it and tell me to email again if it’s not fixed.

Once, after I’d moved in over Spring and the showers weren’t draining, the guy from Lekstede unscrewed the drains and let me clean them. In Kromhout, they let me stuff all the holes in the unit with toilet paper (I repeat: toilet paper), instead of with coming up with an actual solution. Not to mention how they always disproportionally fine you at the end of the semester for a dirty microwave or a missing screw or whatever they can write down to make you lose your deposit. Given that I arrived in Spring and never actually saw a clean unit (news flash: they don’t clean units over winter break like they do in summer break), I was fined for the damage done before I came. Is that fair? No. Do they care? Not really.

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The Boomerang | December 2018

BLACKOUT

UCU’s political culture is like North Korea, but without the propaganda

by An Observational Girl

I

am a little shocked at the climate here at UCU. Apparently, if you don’t hate Trump and don’t think that all white people should feel guilty for their ‘privilege’, you’re a racist asshole. Feminism has come to the point where if you don’t praise every single girl and woman for having a vagina, you’re a misogynist pig or something. I’ve experienced the forced chivalry of a guy trying to be overly nice just so people know he’s not sexist.

I’m being treated differently based on my gender, not being treated equally. It’s the same issue, but backwards.

None of these things are the biggest problem though. The biggest problem is that nobody wants to listen to each other. Nobody is trying to talk to somebody as an individual, find out their story. Nobody is trying to at least understand where the other side is coming from. People go with the easy argument, Every. Single. Time.

Why did Trump win the Presidency? “Duh, obviously cause all the white people in America are racist, and all the poor people hate immigrants”.

Well, maybe. Alternatively, the opposition was calling 50% of a country’s population deplorable racists while proposing plans what would leave many people unemployed. So what happened?

They voted for the guy who didn’t accuse them of being white, and promised to bring employment to places that needed it. I was too young to vote back then, but to me the choice wasn’t as clear cut as people claimed it to be.

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You say anything that goes against the political current in class and people gasp

And wow is it impossible to talk about the downsides of some cultures. I’m lucky to have been born a girl in the West, and not a girl in Saudi Arabia. People say that all cultures are equal and depend on if you understand and live it, but I disagree. A culture that excludes 50% of its population from education is backwards, and that’s the truth of it. How do you expect to keep up economically? How do you expect other countries to find your country even slightly attractive and safe? Then when we offer these people safe passage to migrate to the West, we don’t make sure they integrate properly and assimilate. And

then people are surprised to hear about places like No-Go zones in Sweden, where police don’t even dare to go.

People just aren’t willing to look objectively at these things, and fear to speak against the group. UCU has the same culture. You say anything that goes against the political current in class and people gasp. You mention crime statistics in Criminology and people look down.

Nobody is willing to admit to problems. And the problem within UCU is that everything has to go according to the “young, free-spirited, left-wing” fashion trend. Well that’s the reason nobody listens to other people. Instead of asking questions as to why someone believes something, everybody just goes “Oh he must be racist”. Or “Oh she’s definitely from a rich family”. Stop judging people’s thoughts based on their background and just listen and consider and ask. You might learn.

Anyways, I guess my point is that UCU just has too many comparisons with North Korea. Don’t speak out against the current belief system. Don’t disagree if you want to remain socially relevant.

Don’t try to understand anybody who disagrees, because we’re right anyways. This really has to change.

Are we incapable of loving another culture?

by Medusa

I remember vividly my last year of high school. I had to start deciding where I wanted to go next; did I want to study in Dutch or in English?

Would I prefer to immediately choose one specific bachelor or do Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS)? I quite quickly decided that I wanted to do LAS, and at a university college.

There are many reasons that I chose to go to a university college, specifically UCU, but my main reason was the international environment.

I had gone to a school with few international students and really wanted to learn more about other cultures. I thought that at a university college, there would be many cultures and many other students that would want to teach me about these cultures. Well, I can now say that as a seventeen-year-old I was far too optimistic.

I

n my first year, I met so many students from all over the world. Some more open than others, and some cultures more unknown than others. I tried to not stick with only Dutch people (this is not because I do not like them) and really wanted to learn about these other cultures. However, even though I met all these people I still found it difficult to really get to know other people’s cultures.

And I feel that this is only becoming worse. Since I started my second year I noticed I was getting annoyed with people. Not because they didn’t want to tell me stories about their culture but because I constantly hear people bashing other cultures. And I don’t understand why.

The first time it happened, I just thought that it was one person who wasn’t really educated about, in this case, the Dutch culture. However, it happened many more times, and definitely not only towards Dutch culture. From Facebook posts about the Nazi flag hanging on campus and feeling as if it was implied that Dutch people were Nazis, to discussions in the bar about which party culture is better, or whose traditions are nicer, to the post about the new committee ExotiCo. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why ExotiCo wanted a committee only for non-Western and non-European cultures but why do you have to be rude to the organiser about that? All she asked was “why not do it for all underrepre-

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I constantly hear people bashing other cultures. And I don’t understand why.

sented cultures”? Is that not the reason that we all came to UCU? I suppose what I am trying to say with this piece is, I love that people are so passionate about teaching other people about different cultures (talking to you ExotiCo), but what I do not understand is that people at UCU have this constant need to knock down other cultures.

Instead of getting angry, just explain and try to learn something about the culture. Instead of arguing about which culture is better, compare what is similar and what is different and teach your friends about this. I believe that many more people would enjoy this, and the conversation would be much more pleasant! I came to UCU to have these kinds of conversations, instead of hearing other people knocking me down because they do not understand part of my culture. Is it really so difficult to appreciate, love and be proud of your own culture as well as appreciate and love someone else’s culture?

A University College Student Association Magazine

BLACKOUT

5

To my loving unit..

by Annoyed in Arkansas

W

ell fam, the unit’s officially dirtier than the bar after bartender’s weekend! Since our oh-so-fun little game of shade and finger-pointing doesn’t motivate anyone to be responsible adults and clean after themselves, I feel like it’s time to point some things out for everyone to keep in mind from now on. Some things might’ve been talked about countless times already, but from what I see none of y’all ever listen! I’ve thus decided to compile a short list of things to keep in mind next time you’re tarnishing one of the communal areas: 1. The counter is NOT the place for your dirty dishes. Obviously, you don’t always have time to wash your dishes right after, and it’s not like the beginning of the year anymore when we had a shortage of kitchen utensils. But for fuck’s sake, do NOT leave your grimy dishes on the counter!

Especially the part right next to the stove. If someone else is about to cook, it’s not their job to move all your dirty shit to the sink just because you were lazy or “forgot”.

2. Wash ALL your dishes. Apart from pots, pans and plates, don’t forget to wash all the other stuff you used. This usually entails cutting boards, knives, bowls, wooden spoons/spatulas, and F-O-R-K-S. That last one is obviously the hardest to remember, considering there’s always a fucking plethora of dirty forks in the sink.

3. Drain the sponge after using it and put it on the counter. Do NOT leave it in the sink, it just makes it disgusting and unusable. And if you don’t know what a sponge is, it’s that gunky brown square that smells like dog piss.

4. If the rack is full of dishes, put them away.

Don’t just put your recently cleaned dishes right next to the rack where the water’s always disgusting, make some damn space. It literally takes two seconds to put away two plates to make space for your pan!

5. If you get the hot plates dirty/oily, clean them. You obviously can’t always keep it spotless while cooking, it’s normal for food to splash around a bit. Some things you may want to keep in mind to avoid it: lower the temperature, put a lid on. I cleaned the hotplates two days ago, and today they were grimy enough to make me clean them again (of course, none of y’all hoes was gonna do it anyways!). Especially if you’re frying something and you get oil everywhere, just be a fucking adult and clean the hotplates.

The oil burns and creates crusty brown rims

STIs

around the hotplates (miraculously, ours have crusty scorched shit even ON them).

6. The chairs and floor are NOT viable alternatives to the trash can. We talked about this two days ago, but yet again in through one ear, out the other. If you see the trash is full, change the bag. Don’t just put your own trash on top, change the bag. Don’t put your trash on the floor, change the bag. Don’t leave it on the counter or in the sink, just change the damn bag! Don’t be lazy, CHANGE THE FUCKING BAG YOU TOSSERS! 7. This one’s my personal favourite: Do not

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The chairs and floor are NOT viable alternatives to the trash can

Illustration © Idalina Lehtonen

neglect your Tupperware! I can’t list all the times I’ve seen y’all’s dirty Tupperware lying around on the counters, in the sink or even on the tables.

After you’ve used it, clean it with the rest of your shit. Soaking it in water for a while can help you clean it, but only if you actually fucking clean it after! Don’t just leave containers with dirty water on the counter for days, I don’t give a shit if it you bought it!

8. Take the coffee filters out of the machine after making coffee. Seriously, this is what causes it to build up pressure. And if the cup is full of filters, the trash is two meters away! Not that hard to empty it, and way cleaner than stacking the filters to make a mouldy Eiffel Tower (you know, that always falls and makes coffee stains on top of the counter).

by That one girl you would never suspect to have written this

Now here’s a UCU confession: I’ve had chlamydia before. Pretty stupid for a UCU student, eh? Well, here’s the thing. No matter how eloquent your sociology papers are, odds are you’ve probably gone home with someone after having one too many 1 euro beers at the bar before. And because FemCo condoms are too small (or so I’ve heard), you guys just did it without one. Or maybe you were 16 and he was your first and neither of you

paid attention in health class and so it slipped or broke or whatever else can happen to a condom.

And you probably didn’t think much of it. I mean, that would never happen to you, right?

You’re not a dirty slut with dirty diseases, right?

Don’t worry, I’m not here to judge (not really my place as a dirty slut with dirty diseases, after all). I’m just here to tell you two things: if you have ever been sexually active, get tested. No excuses,

9. There’s a toilet brush next to the toilets.

Why? So you can scrub your literal shit crust away after you take a shit.

I’m sure all this isn’t that hard to remember.

Closing the windows, turning off the lights, not leaving the microwave door open etc still apply, but we’ve talked about those a lot already.

This isn’t just to say “no one cleans anything” which, although mostly true, doesn’t change shit. I’m genuinely annoyed that there’s always shade being thrown around everywhere in the group chat, fingers being pointed at someone constantly, when in fact everyone contributes to the abomination that we live in. If you think it’s “not that dirty” please, by all means, look at the floor in the kitchen and tell me it doesn’t make you cringe. I don’t want no “but I cleaned this that many times”, “but I always do this”, “this person never does that”, I don’t give a rat’s ass. You’re responsible for your own mess and if you make one, clean it! Whether or not other people clean after themselves is NOT related to whether or not you clean after yourself. One person not cleaning doesn’t liberate you from your own tasks. Be a fucking adult, try cleaning up after yourself and there won’t be any need to talk about cleaning, Every. Single. Day. Someone doesn’t follow this? Ask them to start doing it; don’t just shame them in the group chat, that just pisses them off and makes them less likely to clean after themselves.

Someone asks you to clean after yourself? Do it.

No excuses, just fucking do it.

Finally, regarding the communal areas, here’s a list of things that need to be done: a) Vacuum Kitchen b) Mop kitchen c) Vacuum Hallway d) Mop Hallway e) Vacuum & Mop Bathroom f) Get rid of “recycling” To set an example, I’ve already gone ahead and scrubbed the toilets, squeegee-ed the bathroom and cleaned the counter and hotplates. Someone evidently needs to take initiative, otherwise all y’all will just continue living in dirt like those mice in our couches. even if you are super duper fucking sure. Just go do it. And secondly, talk about it. UCUs hook-up culture is flourishing and it seems like everyone is totally comfortable with that, and that’s good.

But I’ve never heard anyone on this campus talk about the uncomfortable stuff outside of the sexual health workshop during Introweek.

Genital herpes might not be a sexy topic. But it’s one that must be talked about when you put 800 teenagers and 20-somethings on a campus. Sex isn’t taboo, so neither should STIs be. Cause shit happens. And that shit can only be treated if you know it exists.

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The Boomerang | December 2018

QUAD QUERIES

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19 December @ Kanunnikenzaal, Domplein 29 Descartes Centre Christmas Colloquium This special edition of the Descartes Colloquium will feature 7 short talks by HPS students and Descartes Centre members on a variety of topics such as “The history and philosophy of wine” and “Why Sinterklaas is not fat at all and Santa Claus certainly is”. Drinks will be served after!

19 December @ Tivoli Vredenburg Queer Matters #1 | diversiteit in films and series Dutch filmmakers will discuss the increasing attention paid on diversity in film and tv, and how as a filmmaker you go about portraying LGBT+ personas in film and what stereotypes remain.

19 december @ Parnassos Bar U jazz Wessie Sessi: Start afresh Stop by the parnassos bar to enjoy a jam session with a mini

concert, the jazz formation StartAfresh! Will open and afterwards you can join them to jam or just keep listening.

Saturday afternoons @ Domkerk Concerts in the Domkerk Every Saturday at 15:30 you can come for a concert in the Domkerk. The music styles range from renaissance to contemporary, and it is a great chance to hear quality music in a spectacular venue. Entrance is free but you are encouraged to give a donation.

December 22nd @ Geertekerk Scrooge – a Christmas carol For those of you staying in the Netherlands in the holidays and in need of a little festive joy, the Gijs Mueesen muziektheater is putting on a telling of the age-old Scrooge story complete with a full orchestra.

With support from Boomerang uses wind energy printers