Issue 87.1

ISSUE 87.1 FEBRUARY 2019

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Editorial

Olivia

Sam

Thank U, Next, 2018 and welcome to a new year of On Dit. My name is Olivia and my focus for this year’s magazine is to have a broader arts and cultural perspective. As an English and Creative Writing student, I believe it’s important to put a strong emphasis on the arts to introduce readers to new and exciting things happening around our city.

I am so looking forward to receiving any creative and artistic content and can’t wait to share your amazing work with the student body. If you ever want to chat anything creative, pop-culture, celebrity or Kim K, I’m always happy to share my thoughts over a cup of tea or a pint at the Ex. I want to get to know our contributors so that we can build a tight and positive community of amazing writers around campus! I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love, Olivia xx

Welcome to a new year of On Dit! I’m Sam, a member of this year’s editorial team.

We aren’t the only fresh faces you’ll be seeing, with campus life receiving a new makeover this year.

With sweeping renovations to the Unibar and the presence of the RCC on key thoroughfares around the university taking place without student consultation, it is no wonder on-campus protest turnouts are waning when it is obvious our grievances are falling on deaf ears.

However, this change may not bring about the kind of improvement in our best interest. The perils of widespread privatization have become an immediate concern, and the imposition of the establishment on campus life poses a threat to the genuine student experience.

As all proposed changes to on-campus venues are going ahead despite garnering lukewarm reception at best, rather than the kind of blind optimism they expect from a complacent student body, it begs the question where this leaves us in the university’s, and its stakeholders’, grand scheme.

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Imogen

Emily

Hello new and old readers, and welcome to a new year of On Dit. We’re so excited to be curating and working on our first edition, with all of our editor’s passions highlighted in different ways; mine being the growth of the Adelaide music and arts industry, and political writing. As we enter into O'week and the roaring Fringe season, my biggest concern is to what extent having the RCC on campus will impact students, both freshers and those who've been around the traps

Welcome to a new year of On Dit. Thank you to our contributors for issue 1 and all future contributors for 2019. In these pages you’ll find topics from a rundown on the university’s dealings with the RCC to a in depth analysis of your star sign as a Netflix original. If you’re reading this and wondering if you should contribute, dont hesitate! Whatever inspires, whether it be the need for institutional transparency or your last date that had some serious Joe Goldberg vibes.

Last year, under the direction of then SRC President, we saw an exposé of St Mark’s College and the hazing culture that is embedded in such an institution.

As students, we were forced to consider: does the University owe a duty of care to students, and will they take constructive action to combat and dismantle this culture?

So, let's start this new uni year with a bang and pretend this semester we really are going to Marie Kondo our lives before eventually finding ourselves in the new (and increasingly controversial) unibar.

In the words of legend Bob Ross (and my inspiration for 2019), “lets get a little crazy here”.

We now have to question if the University’s efforts to combat sexual harassment on our campus have gone far enough. As the standards surrounding music festivals and their links to sexual harassment are changing, we have to question: why on earth would a University, who already has issues with college hazing and sexual assault on campus, invite a music festival onto our campus which inadvertently encourages this behaviour?

So, welcome to the glory of O’Week – where we are dazzled by the neon lights, the international musicians and the influx of people on our campus.

But please, look after yourselves, look after your friends, and to the University - in the glorious words of RuPaul, “don’t fuck it up”.

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R U o h Y P P A th stUDen3-5PM WEEKDAYS PICK ANY 2 FOR

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NUGGETS FRIES SMALL DRINK *Offer includes kids’ size fries w/ a classic sauce *Fries can be upgraded to sweet potato for an extra cost * Valid in all stores - not to be used in conjunction with any other offer * Just present your student card

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Includes: Free Popcorn & Drink 6

Radio Correspondence What’s On? State of the Union SRC President Left, Right, and Centre Vox Pop

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RCC: The Newest Club on Campus EconDit Oxbridging the Gap Bandersnatched Unibar: Grime to Gastro Pub? Instagram Addiction Nazis on the Beach No Pride in Genocide: "Terra Nullius" to Now United We Are Heard, Disunited We Are Hearded Pill Testing Eyewitness to the Gilets Jaunes City Livin’ for this Country Boy The R Kelly Effect Let's Get Physical Mentally Stable Where have all the good live music venues gone?

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Preachrs Podcast Adelaide Fringe 2019 Interview Why Bohemian Rhapsody is Ruining Freddie Mercury's Legacy Movie Review: Glass Book Review: Educated Gig Guide They Speak (Playlist) Summer A Writer Must be Truthful beach MMXIX Your Horoscope as a Netflix Original Show

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Editors Imogen Hindson Sam Bedford Olivia De Zilva Emily Savage Design Emily Savage Subeditors Maxim Buckley Clare Dekuyer Felix Eldridge Ella Michele Dylan Rowen Cover Art Emily Savage

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We would like to Acknowledge that the land of The University of Adelaide is the traditional lands for the Kaurna people and that we respect their spiritual relationship with their Country. We also acknowledge the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.

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F

Hooley Dooley! Student Radio 2019! New year, new me (well us)! Us being Austin, Ellie and Jade, your 2019 directors. Before we dive in to what’s in store for Student Radio this year, we should probably introduce ourselves. Austin is a third-year media student who has probably seen one too many movies (But who’s counting?). Jade is a first-year media student who loves a good zombie movie and can’t turn down a veggie burger. And Ellie, who is a masters student, and is at the Exeter far too often considering that (feel free to have a beer with her though!). Together, we are super excited about Student Radio and what we have in store for it for 2019.

This is probably a good segue to tell you guys about what we do have planned for this year!

This year, Student Radio is moving on campus!

Since basically the beginning of Student Radio, it has been run off campus at Radio Adelaide, which while it has been lots of fun to be at Radio Adelaide, it’s time for Student Radio to leave the nest. This is for multiple reasons, but

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mainly we feel that SR has become disjointed from campus culture and we want to have more engagement with students! Hopefully offering more opportunities for students to become part of Student Radio throughout the year. We’re looking forward to having our own space that students can pop into and have a yarn with us about our shows, music or just stuff they’re interested in! We’re looking forward to having more of a campus presence and students maybe actually knowing what Student Radio is! Lol Holla at us on Facebook, if you want us to play a tune for you on air or if you’re interested in getting involved somehow.

Love, Austin, Ellie & Jade

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WHAT’S ON

FEBURARY AUU O'Week

RCC Fringe

AUES O'Party

25th February – 1st March

Adelaide University 15th February – 17th March Open: TuesdaySunday, 4 – 10.30pm Closed: Mondays

26th February, Neon Forest 6.30 – 11.30 pm

27th February, Maths Lawns 10am – 4pm

28th February, Hub Central 11am – 2pm

AUES Pub Crawl 29th February buy your t-shirt and tickets at the AUES stall during O’Week

Freshers Fest March 4th – March 5th 11 am – 2.30pm (both days)

Community and O’Week Volunteering Sports Day Day

Student Media’s Union Lazy House Party Breakfast 6th March, Level 5 Union House (Old Uni Bar) 6.30 – 11.30pm

1st March, Western Courtyard of Hub Central 11.30 am – 1.30pm

-MARCH

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STATE OF THE UNION Words by AUU Board President Oscar Ong

欢迎来到阿大! To all the first year students, on behalf of the Adelaide University Union I’d like to extend to you a warm welcome to our University! For everyone else, welcome back! I am your 2019 Adelaide University Union (AUU) President and currently studying a degree of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. My role is to lead the AUU board to make decisions about our services and events, and to represent the students of the University of Adelaide to the public. At the same time, I also serve as the director of the AUU, Student Care, Sports Hub, Campus Retail Services and Campus Services Holdings.

For many of the first-year students, university will be a big turning point in your education. Until now many of you have studied at high school, and some of you may have had a few years out in the world before coming here, but one lesson you will quickly learn is that your education and general experience at university will be exactly what you make it.

There is no one watching over you making you get out of bed to come to class, and there is no one pushing you to follow different opportunities and extra-curricular activities.

Having been the lonely guy walking through the hub not knowing a single face and feeling overwhelmed about enrolment and finding my way to class, I can completely relate to the feeling of being lost throughout the first few weeks of uni. But you know what, the easiest way to cut off those newbie feelings is by fighting off the impulse to withdraw and to get out there and connect with other students!

Over the course of your degrees you will each contribute to the vibrant life of this campus, whether knowingly or not.

Maybe you’re a friend, or maybe you’re a group project leader, maybe you’re a student organiser, or maybe you’re a sports team captain - no matter who you are, it’s important that you know that you’re a valuable part of this university, and a valuable part of the overall experience of all students here.

However, being a student in this uni is not only about what you do for others, it’s about what this uni can do for you, and my job is to make sure you receive all the support you need to make this experience into a memory that you’ll

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cherish for a lifetime. We are committed to deliver a rewarding and exciting university experience. As your student representative, I am here to listen to what you are interested in seeing on campus, what you want from the university and what you need while you are studying.

The Union runs a wide range of services including academic advocacy, welfare and grants; events on campus; On Dit Magazine and On Dit Radio; Clubs; Employment and Volunteering Services and so much more! We run and best events on campus, from the biggest event - O’Week to members lunch and other events, both big and small. With music, food, entertainment and much more across all campuses and throughout the year.

To make the most of your time at university, the AUU membership is the key to unlock the best part of student experience- the discounts you get for coffee in the hub, the merchandise you get from the General, the uni gym membership, etc; the giveaways; free access to specific events and so much more! Trust me, I used my Asian maths skills to prove that the benefits you get worth way more than your membership!

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our AUU staff, their countless numbers of hours to organise O’Week in the limited time due to unplanned disruptions.

Together, we are here to make your student life the best experience. If you have any questions, feel free to drop by at Level 4 Union House and while you are there, grab a free 2019 Diary from the AUU office!

No matter what you’re studying, or how you got here, I hope you all settle into university well and have an outstanding few years at Adelaide University. Here’s to your university experience in 2019!

Oscar Zi Shao Ong President, Adelaide University Union auupresident@auu.org.au

SRC PRESIDENT Words by SRC President Ali Amin

Hi everyone, My name is Ali Amin and I am the President of the Student Representative Council (SRC) for 2019. The SRC alongside the AUU is the peak representative body for all students, advocating and furthering the interests of its members to the University, State and Federal Governments. The SRC exists so that students at Adelaide University have a voice, welfare support and a vibrant community to thrive in; in order to support and enable members to achieve their education goals while at university.

It is more important than ever that students have their own organisations committed to fighting for student power and standing against cooked decisions by governments and (sometimes) the University administration. If you agree, I encourage you (new and returning students alike) to join your student union, the Adelaide University Union, by checking out their stall at O’Week or joining on their website www.auu.org.au. Or, get involved with one of our campaigns. I can guarantee there will be plenty of opportunities for budding activists to fight against the many injustices student face and have a say in the direction your education takes.

If you prefer to focus on the good things in life then jump straight into the social aspect of university life and suss out the clubs that are available across all campuses. Clubs are a great way to meet new people and socialise, especially if you’re transitioning to life at uni. If you ever get stuck or don’t know where to go just reach out to your relevant campus representative or come find a smiling face to answer your questions at one of AUU stalls.

All fun aside, there will be times when university life is a struggle or overwhelming – and we are here to support you if you ever need it. The AUU offers a free

advocacy service with a team who can provide you with free and confidential advice on a whole range of academic and welfare issues and their support has helped thousands of students over the years. The University also offers free counselling services and academic support designed to make your uni experience easier.

2019 will be a big year, but an exciting one. If you want to get involved, have a nagging problem at Uni, or perhaps great ideas for us come by the SRC offices (Fix Lounge, Union House), drop us a line by email or come to any of our meetings. We’re always keen for new ideas and or feedback because we exist to make the student experience the best it can be. Have a wonderful year!

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LEFT RIGHT & CENTRE Centre

Left

Jack Crawford Socialist Alternative Adelaide University

Ali Amin Adelaide University Labour Club

1. I love Pussy Riot as much as the next person. But the uni giving such far-reaching control over the campus to RCC is a worrying development. For all the radical advertising, the uni has revealed corporate priorities, giving priority to RCC money-makers over students. Indeed the partnership was announced before the student union, or any students, could have a say in the matter.

nuclear waste dumps.

To top it off, Australia’s national day commemorates the opening of an epoch of genocidal wars. It is a giant middle finger to Indigenous people. I support resistance to these racist celebrations and demands to change the date. But if the date is changed, I still won’t celebrate this country. Oppression and inequality remain entrenched. There’s nothing to celebrate.

There’s nothing wrong with universities being centres of mass culture. But students’ right to control space, have club events, or even just hang out on the Math Lawns shouldn’t be trampled by a private company at a penstroke.

3. By reading history. Radicals have dedicated their lives to fighting for change. They’ve often faced extreme repression, impoverishment, imprisonment. But this didn’t stop them. Think of those who organised against South African apartheid, those who fought for civil rights in the US, those like Rosa Luxemburg who resisted WWI and fought for the socialist vision that humans can do better than endless butchery. We should let these legacies inspire us to confront the ascendant far-right, defend the planet from destruction, and pursue a vision of equality and decency in our world of abundance.

2. The state still forces massive rates of Indigenous children from their families – new Stolen Generations.

If you’re Aboriginal, you’re three times more likely to be unemployed than the average Australian.

You’re fifteen times more likely to be in prison. Across the continent, corporations and governments wage a war on land rights in the hope of establishing coalmines and

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1. We think it’s great that the University is opening up the campus and wants to allow more innovation. The core issue for us is ensuring students and student groups are going to be afforded the same opportunity to take advantage of this. So far the answer seems to be no.

In the bigger picture there is no vision or evidence that we are aware of as to how the presence of the RCC will improve the orientation and University experience of students. No estimates, research or data. The only current argument seems to be that more and larger events on campus that are available to students at a cheaper rate than the general public will improve the overall student experience. While there are obvious benefits to some areas of the University, it’s difficult to see how this will directly benefit students?

2. Right now, Australia Day is not a celebration for everyone. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

1. Is having the Royal Croquet Club on campus in our student body's best interest ?

2. Do you think the 'change the date' campaign for Australia Day is merely symbolic, or will it make a significant difference to the livelihoods of Indigenous Australians ?

3. As a busy student politician, how do you combat burnout and practice ~ self-care ~ ?

Right Kian Rafie-Ardestani Adelaide University Liberal Club people, it marks the beginning of hundreds of years of suffering and inequality. Just like the same sex marriage debate this is of course symbolic, however it’s about respect and by taking action on these things you refuse to normalise an entrenched inequality. So let’s change the date so all Australians can celebrate together.

3. The best thing in my life is my friends and family and giving myself a break to see them is the best self-care I can have. The Counsellors at Student Life have also been an incredible service and I urge all students to call 8313 5663 if they’re having issues affecting their study and life.

1. No. The RCC is significantly impacting O’Week which is a vitally important time for Clubs who rely on the week for garnering a large portion of their membership.

The AUU is already struggling to organise and run O’ Week due to the substantial changes the RCC has had. The changes to O’Week also impact new students who could greatly benefit from a traditional O’Week as opposed to a watered down and barricaded version. Having a large volume of intoxicated punters waltzing through campus alongside students will not end well and disaster will inevitably occur.

2. I struggle to see how changing the date will be of tangible benefit to Indigenous Australians who face far greater issues than Australia Day. As an example, Indigenous Australian females are up to 35 times more likely to experience domestic and family violence compared to nonIndigenous Australian women. It appears that the vast majority of those advocating for changing the date are not Indigenous and

these individuals ought to focus on improving the livelihoods of Indigenous Australian’s in ways other than adding a border to their Facebook DP. Australia day is about celebrating all it means to be Australian, the day does not celebrate genocide. The First Fleet arrived on January 26 1788 and changing the date we celebrate Australia Day will not erase the significance of the First Fleets arrival to Australia.

3. Far too many students who are involved with student politics feel the need to extend their degrees for double the time necessary. Student politics is a start, you don’t need eight years to finish an economics degree. The people who deem it necessary to do one subject a semester in order to achieve BNOC status will receive a rude awakening if they ever make it into real politics. Combat burnout with regular exercise and healthy eating rather than just marching down King William Street waving flags. I’m sure one can hack their way up the SDA food chain without taking six years to finish a three-year degree.

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Vox Pop

Ethan

Law/Economics (Advanced) 1. It’s good, but the camps should be closed and the detainees should be resettled in Australia.

2. Mostly excited.

3. Hard hitting opinion pieces.

4. Fred Paterson.

Riley

MPhil (Philosophy) 1. Treating injured people who are in our custody and need treatment should absolutely happen, this is a small step in the right direction.

Are conditions in Nauru or Manus Island might be so bad that people deliberately injure themselves to get to live in humane conditions? I guess that’s a little inflammatory, but we should really consider our how we are treating asylum seekers.

2. I’m actually pretty excited. I get to spend time thinking about strange and marvelous philosophical things that I’m fascinated by. Researching in philosophy is great. No more silly core courses. No more course fees.

No more job prospects.

3. I may be alone in this but what about a column for exploring weird ideas. Do colours exist? What does it mean for anti-matter to move backwards in time? Is it ever permissible to eat something nonvegetable?

4. Peter Singer

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1. What is your take on the recent Medevac bill being passed to allow ill asylum seekers to receive medical treatment in Australia?

2. On a scale from ‘zero’ to ‘receiving my Student Start Up Loan’, how excited are you for the academic year to begin?

3. What would you most like to see in On Dit this year?

4. Most iconic Australian in history?

Maxim Nursing

1. I think good health care should be available to anyone in need, so bring them here if they need it!

2. $1,066 3. Definitely just a wide variety of great content from creative people 4. For me it would have to be Gough Whitlam. Investing in education always pays off!

Hanna

Masters of International Trade and Development (MITD)

1. Human rights should always be put first. The legislation still contains procedures which allow them to be put first without undermining the entire policy.

2. Zero. Bitch, I started back two weeks ago.

3. Anything but horoscopes.

4. The child of Kel-Day Knight and Russell Coight, obvs.

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RCC:

The Newest Club on Campus Words by Daniel McLean

RCC: The Newest Club on Campus I’m sitting in the Art Gallery Café across the table from the University of Adelaide’s Chief Operating Officer, Bruce Lines. “Hindsight’s a wonderful thing,” Bruce says. “If anything like this happened again, we would do it differently.”

Six months earlier, on 28 August 2018, the University announced that it would be sponsoring the Royal Croquet Club (RCC). Under the arrangement, the University would become a major Fringe venue, opening its historical buildings and spacious lawns to the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the RCC for live performances and bars.

After hearing the announcement, the Adelaide University Union (AUU) was shocked. The AUU had “been in no way consulted”, even though the RCC’s presence on campus would inevitably clash with O’Week and the first two weeks of the academic semester.

The current SRC President, Ali Amin, told me that the lack of consultation was unusual. “The University sends big financial decisions to the AUU months beforehand, especially if they affect O’Week,” he said. “That didn’t happen this time. There was zero communication, zero consultation.”

Back in the Art Gallery Café, Bruce Lines says that, if faced with the same decision again, the University would

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consult with the AUU. He explains why, in this case, the University chose not to consult with the AUU. “Other Fringe companies might have been interested in sharing or impinging on what the RCC wanted to do, and so we had to be sensitive to the RCC,” he says.

“If we’d involved the AUU or a large number of people, that would have leaked, or potentially leaked, so we made the decision that we needed to deal directly with the RCC until we had got to an outcome that could be supported.”

But the decision not to communicate with students meant that it wasn’t until after the sponsorship had been finalised that the AUU and university students were able to voice any concerns about the event.

It’s not the first time an event such as the RCC has taken place on a university campus. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, uses the University of Edinburgh’s open spaces and buildings.

“When the RCC approached us, they talked quite a bit about Edinburgh”, says Bruce.

With the popularity of Edinburgh in mind, it made sense for the RCC to use Adelaide’s campus space in a similar way. It was the perfect model, except for

one thing.

“Their festival is done during the holidays rather than O’Week and the start of the semester,” Ali pointed out.

The clash between a major arts festival and the opening of the university semester has appeared particularly troubling to student clubs.

In a 2018 survey conducted by the AUU, 78 percent of clubs said that they recruit at least half of their members during O’Week, with almost a third of clubs reporting that they recruit as many as 80 percent of their members then.

Spaces that were reserved for clubs alone during previous O’Weeks will now be occupied by the RCC, jeopardising their capacity to attract new members.

Outside of the lecture theatre, university clubs are a vital organ in student life.

“O’Week is the primary chance to engage with students,” said AUU President Oscar Ong. “There’re no certainties, but what I would predict is that we’re going to have less engagement, less members in the AUU numerically speaking, less club members.

“RCC is sort of a setback to us and one of the things that people are not aware of is the

after implications of the RCC.” One of those implications will be the availability of the Goodman Lawns, Barr Smith Lawns and Maths Lawns. After previous O’Weeks, the lawns were closed section by section, allowing students to use designated lawn space while the grass elsewhere recovered. But with hundreds of thousands of feet trampling over them in the space of a few weeks, the lawns will be out of action until after April.

Since the initial announcement, the University has worked with the AUU to try to minimise the effect of the RCC’s infrastructure on clubs. As well as sharing the Maths Lawns with the RCC, clubs will now occupy space in Hub Central. On top of that, AUU will be able to run Freshers Week for the first time, in the week after O’Week, to make up for any reduction in recruitment numbers.

But the concerns extend beyond the potential effect on clubs.

David Elliot, a student who created an online petition last November urging the ViceChancellor to expel the RCC from university grounds, described the RCC as “a nightclub.”

“You’re going to have substances and intoxicated people roaming the campus at night,” he said.

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It’s not the first time that the RCC has been described in this way. In 2017, The Advertiser’s Colin James called the RCC’s incarnation at Victoria Square “a giant nightclub, complete with cover charge, on prime public space.”

Even though Ali said that “the RCC is going to be the best event on campus throughout the entire year,” he pointed out safety was an important issue.

“If you’re going to have thousands of additional drunk people coming to a small venue, naturally it’s going to be more risky,” he said.

“The University is trying to really mitigate that. All it takes is one single incident to destroy this event and cause huge embarrassment and negative press attention for the University.”

While the University can’t eliminate risk, several arrangements are in place to keep students safe.

As well as receiving a security plan from the RCC, which has been endorsed by the campus security team, the University has been working with SAPOL to maximise security for the event. Hub Central will be accessible after 5pm only by using a valid student or staff ID card, with security also monitoring its entrances.

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The RCC will be restricted in its operating hours, opening at 5pm on weekdays, when most students and staff members have left the campus.

“We’re trying to have the best of both worlds,” says Bruce, “in that we’ve got our objectives of trying to bring the community on campus, provide an experience to students and staff that other universities don’t offer, and maximise the facilities that we hold on behalf of the public.”

“We’ve also got academic outcomes of students and staff to think about as well.

We’re trying to get the right balance. And people will tell us after the event whether we got that right.”

Offering the University’s grounds to the RCC seems like a kind of experiment, a gambit that could work well but could also have a cost. Nobody can really know whether it’s a good thing until after the event, when the grass on the Barr Smith Lawns has been resurrected, and the University and the AUU sit down to weigh their gains, or their losses, hopefully this time in the same room.

Words by Stasi Kapetanos

EconDit

People with conservative outlooks on political discourse, in particular economics, love to suggest that the views they hold are solely due to the wisdom of life experience, as opposed to the supposed naivety underpinning of the world views of young people. This is the assumption that most attacks on young people like American congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez are made on, probably because when it comes to actual economic policy, the part-corporate consultancy firm, part-fundamentalist insurgency that is the Republican Party, doesn’t really have a leg to stand on considering the overwhelming popularity of her policy proposals.

It’s not just politicians that live in a world of almost wilful ignorance when it comes to dealing with economic ideas that challenge the orthodox consensus of business and political interests. Anyone who paid attention to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos would have surely seen Dutch historian Rutger Bregman destroy the American tech billionaire Michael Dell over the latter’s objection to a 70% marginal tax rate. Dell suggested the idea was bad for the economy and that no country could develop with it in place. Little did he know that the world’s leading economic global super power experienced its greatest boom period following World War II, with a top marginal tax rate of 90% including under Republican president Dwight Eisenhower.

If you don’t know what a marginal rate is then don’t worry, no one is judging you, it’s just the tax one pays on earnings over a certain amount of money. The fact that someone at Davos, a member of humanity’s global elite didn’t know this, suggests that, alongside clowns like Clive Palmer and Donald Trump, our entire economic system gives too much wealth and power to people who aren’t quite fit to wield it.

This is why capitalism is failing to deal with everything from climate change to war profiteering, to even antibiotics. It is also why anyone foolish enough to put their hopes on businessmen turned politicians like Emmanuel Macron,

Malcolm Turnbull or Mitt Romney is always left bitterly disappointed (unless their sole patriotic hope was to pay less tax of course).

This is just one example among many about how the economic fallacies and misunderstandings that benefit the interests of the rich are being spread by the media and think tanks, from lower taxes equals more wealth to the idea that the minimum wage destroys jobs and that balancing the budget is necessary or else we’ll run out of money, are absolutely everywhere in the economics of armchair intellectuals and short sighted boomers. Of course all of this is encouraged by fake news - not just Russian trolls on social media, but the Murdoch press and its ilk.

Above, just one example of how classical economics gets things wrong, two maps comparing the 2016 minimum wage (left) and the 2016 unemployment rate (right) showing that claims that higher minimum wages lead to higher unemployment is ungrounded. In actuality, the correlation is almost the inverse, likely contributing to the ‘anxiety’ that had President Donald Trump elected. Credit: Time Magazine (Left) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (Right) There is an interesting phrase that boomers like to throw around to justify their political ideas in contrast to those of young people; “if you aren’t a socialist when you’re young, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a middleaged conservative, you have no head.” The irony of headless middle-aged conservatives, including billionaires, running around constantly falling for fake news on the internet, unaware of the economic history – even that which happened during their own lifetimes, and believing whatever Donald Trump said while looking down on young people, shows that these this attitude is a lazy deflection from those unwilling or unable to pay attention to reality.

Remember this the next time someone tries to tell you they know better than you because they’ve been around longer.

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Oxbridging the Gap Words by Samantha Bedford

Feeling the pressure of commencing or returning to study is a common experience for many tertiary students. With the jarring sound of the Centrelink on-hold string concerto ringing in our ears, we repeatedly refresh seek.com, waiting for an appropriately ‘unskilled’ job advertisement in the hope of supplementing our meagre fortnightly youth allowance payments and possibly being able to afford a textbook.

Financial independence often comes at a price to young academics, most of whom have greater aspirations than the demands of their current menial employment.

While concessions are available to students, financial assistance is usually provided as a loan to be later repaid, or like youth allowance, is difficult to engage with and payments are often stopped without justification.

As such, student welfare recipients often deal with the added burden of severe financial insecurity, and the resultant stress has further implications on academic performance. It is no secret that poverty is one of the main contributors to the high incidence of mental illness in young people.

Many well-respected, prestigious, and high performing educational institutions require students to relinquish part-time employment as part of their ‘conditions of

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membership.’ To compensate, Cambridge offers its undergraduates holding UK or EU citizenship a generous bursary of up to £3,500 per annum if they are of a lowincome background, defined as “a household income of below £42,620”.

Cambridge has stipulated that this is intended to allow students to devote themselves completely to their studies, promoting better learning outcomes and enhancing examination performance, which can compete on a global scale. This also allows for students to become more immersed within the university’s strong culture of extracurricular activities, from highly competitive sporting to creative pursuits, providing relief from academic commitments, and thus an overall more manageable work-life balance.

Meanwhile, Australian students are often forced into demoralising and precarious casualised work with below-award wages, little security, and often unsociable hours. The student demographic is highly exploitable, and most people (including parents) are aware of the type of worker’s rights abuses that occur in these environments – including wage theft, sexual assault, and workplace bullying.

While many excuse these conditions as temporary, the lower GPA that many achieve due to this added burden casts much doubt on the future employment of young workers, especially those from a low-income background who lack the safety net of nepotism. The assurance of social mobility through education become less achievable when one is unable to commit as much time as they would need in order to attain their goals.

The currently inept financial support provided by the University of Adelaide and the federal government privileges students of the upper class, who are either supported by their parents or work for pocket money, rather than subsistence.

It wasn’t always like this – under the Whitlam government, university fees were scrapped in 1974, with the Labor government professing the belief “that a student's merit, rather than a parent's wealth, should decide who should benefit from the community's vast financial commitment to tertiary education" two years prior. However, with sweeping revisions to the Student Assistance Act, the impoverishment of students is now broadly tolerated, and it seems that the common attitude toward education has shifted away from equity and academic rigour. Today we experience a more ‘means to an end’ model, wherein the hope conferred by the promised payoff of a future higher wage should be enough to get us through another

day wondering where our next meal will come from, and ideally the next 3 years (at a minimum).

Institutions which have committed themselves to supporting undergrads throughout their enrolment thereby prioritise academic achievement and a well-rounded student experience, unencumbered by extraneous pressures. The University of Adelaide however, has a very different campus culture to Oxbridge, one hindered by increasing commercialisation, which emphasises purely vocational knowledge over all else. Having suffered through many uninspired courses which made me feel as though the skipped meals, chronic fatigue, and existential crises were all for nothing, my curiosity and drive to acquire knowledge for its own sake have been quashed, lowering my estimations of what I can achieve. It is no wonder that Cambridge, as well as Oxford, produce so many prolific and impactful academics, (and perform so well in the global rankings) when they have the best interest of students, and the community, in mind.

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Bandernsatched (A Spoiler Free Review)

Words by Maya Tlauka Picture this: after an exhausting workday you collapse into bed, ready to fall down a Netflix rabbit hole. You prepare to binge the entirety of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in one sitting when the title of a film on your home screen catches your attention.

Bandersnatch.

Intrigued, you click play. Unbeknownst to you, this is the first of many increasingly emotionally and morally challenging decisions you will make that evening.

Bandersnatch, released late last year, has been shown front and centre in the news since its debut on Netflix. The film is affiliated with the popular television series Black Mirror. However, Bandersnatch can be described as even more left field than its predecessor, which has previously been heralded for illustrating a jarring vision of the future.

The film adopts a unique interactive interface in which

the viewer is periodically presented with decisions regarding the protagonist’s actions. The decisions progress from seemingly trivial in the beginning to outright absurd later in the film.

Set in the nineteen eighties, the film follows protagonist Stefan (played by Fionn Whitehead), who hopes to develop a ground-breaking ‘choose your own adventure’ video game based on his favourite novel, Bandersnatch. Throughout the film, Stefan becomes an increasingly unreliable narrator. The viewer is drawn into a narrative which explores realities within realities and on occasion, dares to break the fourth wall.

Viewers are given choice, yet are still confined to the pre-determined story branches, creating a maze-like effect. This creates the illusion of free will, when in fact much of the storyline is fixed. Consequently, audiences are prompted to consider the transactional nature of modern media forms such as streamed television.

Bandersnatch, in both format and content, hints at the blurring boundaries between the online and ‘real’ world. It addresses notions of free will and questions whether our decisions are unconsciously influenced by the online world.

In true Gen-Z style, a friend and I made a pact to

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Illustration by Angus Smith stream Bandersnatch at the same time, albeit in our own homes. Each time we were confronted with a decision we informed the other of our choice via text. This arrangement became quickly tiresome as our differing decisions set us on wildly diverging story paths. During the film it became apparent that if you make a ‘wrong’ decision you reach a ‘soft ending’. At this point an unfavourable plot outcome for, Stefan is reached and you are returned to the last major decision and therefore, be inclined to pick the alternative option. I’ll be honest, I became a little frustrated when after an hour my friend messaged me to say that she had reached the ‘end’ (one of the socalled ‘hard’ endings) of the film. I continued to delve deeper into the plot and make what seemed to be the wrong choices long after I received this message.

My only criticism of Bandersnatch is that it was a little tedious. At times I felt as if I was going around in circles and my progression in the storyline became increasingly confusing. I struggled to piece together how each scene fit into the overall story, especially as the subject matter became increasingly bizarre. Despite this, I cannot help but be impressed by how truly clever the film is. Additionally, I concede that this confusion, in

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part, contributes to the film’s exploration of the theme free will. Bandersnatch gets four stars out of five.

You’ve finished reading this review, what do you do next?

A) Drop everything and watch Bandersnatch immediately.

B) Remember how much you enjoyed watching Bandersnatch and subsequently watch it again.

Photo by Rhys Morgan

UNIBAR: GRIME TO GASTRO PUB? Words by Rhys Morgan The 2nd of November 2018 might go down in history as the worst day on campus; the day the UniBar closed down. The end of a 30 year era, and gone with it the promise of a cheap, inclusive and casual university bar.

Over the years, the UniBar had come to symbolise the true essence of the University. Seeing so many cheerful faces after a day of study was a sight to behold, and your dog tag could open up a world of discounted bargains. Whether it was bingo games or discounted chicken schnitzel combos, you could spend time with your mates without having to worry about the assignments due the next day, or the exams around the corner.

Though the old, treasured UniBar of Level 4 has closed, there is some solace in the knowledge that it will be replaced on the lower level of Union House, in what was once the Mayo Cafe. However, with new proprietors and the upcoming presence of the Royal Croquet Club on campus, students and staff alike are beginning to question the University faculty’s decision. In the University’s strategic plan, Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen has outlined his vision for the public to interact on campus, creating a more open space. The new UniBar seems like the perfect addition to encourage this intermingling. However, we have to question whether the University is prioritising profits from the UniBar’s privatisation over the interests of students.

The big question is, what will the new UniBar and its proprietors offer? General Admissions Entertainment, the new UniBar owner, is a reputable company run by three dashing young blokes. Their promise is to keep a local

focus and deliver quality events like those they have run in the past, including Groovin’ the Moo, the Adelaide Beer and BBQ Festival and The Kings Head. The promising theme of these events is the goal of bringing South Australians together for the benefit of the local hospitality and entertainment industry, but their proposal raises a lot of questions. Namely, will the University’s attempt to appeal to the wider Adelaide market disenfranchise its core student demographic?

With the presence of the Royal Croquet Club on campus throughout February and March, it may feel like a takeover as the contemporary ‘hipster’ vibes of the RCC intermingle with the new UniBar. The ‘alternative’ atmosphere evoked by RCC headliners ‘Beach House’ and ‘Pussy Riot’ do not align with the University’s traditional pub culture. This culture is developed by the students, not by faculty staff who dictate what is hot and what is not. I’m sure everyone can agree that the last thing we need is another gastro-pub with a high price point and too many gimmicks. The UniBar needs to both maintain its affordability and draw in a larger audience.

The new UniBar is going to be a ‘hit or miss’ story.

Without the nostalgia necessary to ingrain it in university culture, will the UniBar be replaced with another transient trend? The new UniBar will either hit it off with the University population, or fail to rake in numbers and suffer from the initial backlash.

Personally, I have full faith in the new UniBar. Hit or miss, I’ll be there after a long day on the books.

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Words by Annabelle McKinnon

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Every Sunday around 3pm I receive my screen time report for the week. This is closely followed by a conversation with my boyfriend that goes along the lines of:

Instagram broke down a wall of privacy in my life, and like a wrecking ball, knocked it the fuck down.

Soon, I was letting it dictate my social connections and how I presented myself.

I was stuck in a lose-lose situation. Like most others “So, how much time did you spend on your phone users, I dressed my profile in a glittery fiction; one this week?” that concealed the blemishes and imperfections that I regularly went through in my life. The odd thing “Almost averaged 4 hours a day. What about you?” is that I loathed people who did this. I’ve watched people who took 30 photos of themselves before “I’m about the same.” finding their ‘best’ angle to post. I can see how curated our virtual worlds are, yet I still notice that “No wonder my attention-span is so short.” niggling anxiety deep in the pit of my stomach when I see a person I went to school with achieving their My relationship with social media is complicated. goals. Oh, they’re overseas? That’s lovely. They Instagram in particular, submerges me in a sense scored their dream job? Wicked. They graduated of both comfort and anxiety. The platform itself acts uni with distinction? Cool. as the scaffolding around my life in that I can climb freely and comfortably inside. It’s safe, familiar and But, you see, that’s what Instagram does. The platunknowingly always supporting my usual mundane form instils a casual narcissism in us all. I go through activity. It’s with me on the bus, at uni, and while I my own stories and posts more than I would like to brush my teeth, just to name a few. The entirety of admit, carefully critiquing my aesthetic that best rethe platform is in my hand at the break of dawn and flects the identity I throw out into the social sphere. I the moment before I shut my eyes. scan my own rose-tinted achievements, submerging myself in my own cosy and safe identity.

My addiction to social media crept into my life.

Initially, I thought of this as an utter delight. I had It’s true, we are all submerged in this false realiinformation at my fingertips that I didn’t know I ty. But, no matter how much we scroll through an needed. It provided me with a sense of relief. A few endless cycle, sometimes we look up and veer scrolls across a meaningless void and I was ready away from the current in search for experiences we to continue my every-day activity. can hold onto. In 2019, I hope to lean against that current more.

Mostly, through my life as a young adult, I have managed to steer clear of substances and behaviours I know are toxic or potentially harmful. I’ve successfully coped with removing toxic conversations and friendships from my life, in the meantime letting Instagram nestle my comfort levels. But that’s the thing with social media; it disguises itself as a useful and necessary tool.

Like a cigarette, I began to use Instagram as a reward system. Have you studied for at least half an hour? Have a break. Completed a whole uni tutorial without looking at your phone? Better treat yourself.

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Nazis on the Beach Words by Sage Jupe

Earlier this year in an event organised by leaders of the far-right white supremacist group United Patriots Front, 200 out and proud racists congregated in St Kilda to take the beach back from so-called “African Gangs”.

Among the crowd, mostly draped in their beloved Australian flag, were SS helmets, sieg heils, and a special guest appearance from Senator Fraser Anning.

This is a horrifying glimpse into a growing movement in Australia and around the world, but it didn’t just spring out of thin air. It’s no coincidence that the cry of “African Gangs” is what extreme racists decided to mobilise around, as opposed to other common targets like Muslims.

For the past few years outrageous media headlines have focused on the exploits of the supposed “APEX gang” of African youth. Channel 7 for example tweeted, “Barely a week goes by when they’re not in the news. African gangs running riot, terrorizing, wreaking havoc”. Programs such as A Current Affair have increasingly had long race-baiting ‘exposés’ on the subject, and in Victoria it has become a common topic for talkback radio.

Mass media is well known for theatrical racism, and politicians are no better. Instead of opposing these

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racist lies, major party politicians have done all they can to back them up. These are not just known racists kooks in parliament such as Peter Dutton or Fraser Anning, but by the federal Liberal Government and, appallingly, the so-called left of the Labor Party.

Daniel Andrews, seen as the most progressive premier in the country, has responded to the situation, not by calling out the racism of the Liberals and the media, but by enhancing it and embracing a “tough-oncrime” agenda. Andrews has pledged his support to the creation of a ‘national gangs database’ to further victimise and intimidate African youth. His government also announced a 3,135 increase to the police force, “the biggest increase ever” Andrews boasted on Twitter.

These trends once culminated in the 2005 Cronulla riot against the Lebanese residents. This was inspired by leading racist radio jock Alan Jones, but the groundwork had also been laid by Bob Carr’s NSW Labor government, which for years had been demonising the Lebanese as criminals and rapists. The media and the government push racist agendas, and far-right thugs ride the waves that follow.

The extreme right seem to be coming back in vogue in Australia, and it’s not hard to see why. Australia is the

perfect example of a country rife with racism. We have bipartisan support from our major parties for some of the most barbaric anti-refugee measures in the world.

We are in a situation where our government and media are fighting tooth and nail to glorify “Australia Day”, a day based on the genocide of First Nations people in this country. We have a situation where an Australian Senator, Fraser Anning, called for a "final solution" to immigration in parliament, and was photographed at a Nazi event, standing next to Neil Erikson, a known violent white supremacist.

Racist far right groups may be growing more confident in Australia, but thankfully that’s only one side of the fight. Anti-fascists can rejoice in the fact that opposition to these vile shitheads is also growing.

The rally in St Kilda attracted around 200 anti-fascist counter protesters who went toe to toe with the white supremacists. They chanted slogans like “migrants are welcome, racists are not” and “Nazi scum off our beach”. A week later, hundreds of protesters also gathered outside the Victorian State Library to express their opposition to white supremacy and fascism.

When Channel 7 ran a story on Sunday Night exposing “African gangs: Terrorizing our Streets”, anti-racists stood up against their race baiting bullshit.

Hundreds of protesters lead by Sudanese student activists gathered around Channel 7’s headquarters to protest in response to the news story, but also the impact it had: the increasing violence and murders of African youth by white supremacist vigilantes. The protest was labelled ‘Enough is enough,’ and speeches at the event made it obvious that if you’re going out on a racist attack, you can expect resistance.

People who are concerned by the images of St Kilda need to act. Anti-racists need to oppose and outnumber fascists wherever they show their rotten heads. We need to oppose all racism, regardless of whether it is shown on the streets, in the media, or by our own government.

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N V A S I O N

No Pride in Genocide: "Terra Nullius" to Now Words by Amy Dungey On the 26th of January every year, Australians celebrate the arrival of the first fleet in 1788, the beginning of colonialism and consequently, the ongoing genocide of Aboriginals in Australia.

Originally the British government sought to completely wipe out Aboriginal people, with their murder being actively encouraged. This was so wide spread that records of Aboriginal deaths were generally not kept.

From invasion to the early 20th century, the Aboriginal population declined from over a million to just a few thousand by our closest estimates. Once Aboriginal labour was seen as more useful than extinction these people were worked to death. Their stolen work is responsible for early expansion of Australian industry.

Endless and ongoing atrocities have been committed against Aboriginals in the some 230 years since invasion.

Australian history is soaked in blood - the celebration of invasion reflects a brutal character of Australian nationalism. Australia Day is often thought of as a special day that all Australians have always observed, but it was not celebrated until 30 years after invasion.

January 26th was named 'Australia Day' 100 years after the first celebration, and was not a public holiday until Paul Keating's Labor Government in 1994.

Australia has had a many national holidays, but it has only been relatively recently that the Australian government has made a real effort to unite Australians around a single national day commemorating the violent invasion.

In the last few years the celebration of Australia day has met a growing political challenge. Many people are waking up to our dark history and questioning exactly what it is about Australian society that is worth celebrating. This year we saw the largest invasion day protests in history. Almost 80,000 people gathered to protest in Melbourne, growing dramatically from last year’s 25,000 strong rally. There were 50,000 people at invasion day in Sydney and sizeable protests across the country. #Changethedate is becoming a much more serious demand and we have seen quite serious backlash to this growing resistance over the last couple of years.

Much of this backlash has come from the Australian

media. The talking points of the right are echoed in much of Australia’s mainstream press (especially the Murdoch press). It is no surprise that Australia day is championed by the Right, enthusiastically supported by the likes of Pauline Hanson and the Liberals, with the loudest supporters bearing a striking resemblance to the fascists who attended the recent St Kilda rally.

The history of Australian colonialism is far from behind us; the oppression of Aboriginal and Torres strait Islanders continues to this day and is arguably escalating. The life expectancy of Aboriginals has held steady over the last few decades at just shy of 60, while White Australians can expect to live into their 80’s. The Stolen generation still horrifically impacts upon many people’s lives, with children being stolen from their families well into the 1970’s.

Despite this government policy being removed, a ‘new stolen generation’, has emerged over the last decade. Aboriginal children have been removed from their homes in greater numbers than ever before.

The numbers of children stolen have risen 400% between 1999 and 2014. Last year In the Northern Territory 100% of children locked up were Aboriginal.

Aboriginal people face greater rates of incarceration than anyone else in the population, reflecting a deeply racist society with the most common so called “crimes” being swearing in public, failing to pay parking fines, or other minor infractions. These are all things white Australians would never face incarceration for. Last year Indigenous people were 28% of the prison population despite making up only 3% of the population overall.

Measures like the basics card and efforts to keep Aboriginal communities separate are examples of the states concerted effort to keep Australian society divided along racial lines. The government and the media work together to ensure we blame each other for the ills of society instead of them. Aboriginal people are often used as scapegoats when the government cuts essential services, circulating the myth “there's not enough to go around”. It is never the billionaire tax breaks, military spending, politician’s travel expenses, or the billions spent imprisoning refugees that gets blamed for rampant inequality. Instead, the created divisions in society are used to distract us.

Not only are Aboriginal people more likely to be locked up, but crimes committed against Aboriginal people are not given the same consideration as those committed against their white counterparts. When Elijah Doughty was run down and killed in 2016, his murderer was acquitted on his original manslaughter charge and instead charged with dangerous driving.

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IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE NO PRIDE Recent abuse at the hands of the system is responsible Our true history can't matter because it's important to for the suicides of 5 Aboriginal girls under 15. This the current narrative of Australian nationalism that this just scratches the surface of institutional racism in isn't seen as a problem.

Australia; we're currently living in the age of the basics card, massive rates of black deaths in custody, Reparations would undermine the logic on which this unsafe drinking water in Aboriginal communities and system rests, and would also cost the state a fortune. hopefully, a growing resistance to the entire rotten It's difficult to accept that working hard is what makes system. you rich when it is so clear that wealth is handed down from or created by stolen land and labour. It Last year some councils initially responded to the rising would also undermine all the built-up rhetoric the demand of #changethedate by shifting the day of government has spent years cultivating. It would show festivities. The Liberal party reacted by banning them that Aboriginal people are not to blame for their own from doing so - such a dictatorial measure shows oppression and experience of the system. Instead it the importance of January 26th to the establishment. would show that the system has been built this way.

Recently, Scott Morrison announced a $6.7 billion project to memorialise Captain Cook with a replica of #Change the date has challenged the popular view of the Endeavour. This is a clear attempt to further assert Australian history. There is no single day in Australian the celebration of Invasion and rewrite Australian history that isn’t soaked with blood. I support the history. demand to change the date, but believe that we should get rid of Australia day all together. A country founded There has always been resistance against colonialism. on dispossession, genocide, and exploitation does There are many incredible examples of early not deserve to be celebrated on any day of the year.

Aboriginal resistance. To acknowledge the 26th as a There is nothing progressive about Australia day or day of invasion would mean accepting that land was Australian nationalism, and this is proven with every violently dispossessed. By celebrating Australia day effort against this growing movement. as the founding of a nation and the beginning of a multicultural society this brutal history is glossed over.

Sovereignty was never ceded.

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Take the survey on organ donation and go into the draw to win a $300 Coles Myer voucher here: https://is.gd/Donate2019 Survey closes Friday 15 March 2019 Give hope to all young Australians waiting for an organ transplant

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United We Are Heard, Disunited We Are Hearded: The decline in student protests Words by Felix Eldridge

Student protests are a means to demonstrate opposition to something, a method for generating support, an outlet for information sharing, and an opportunity for developing a group spirit amongst likeminded individuals. They were once a powerful tool in the community’s participation in university and civil life. However, they are waning in influence on campus because of declining turnouts.

Popular demonstrations reflect widespread sentiment and awareness, so a lack of coordination will produce unimpressive results. Given the numbers of tertiary students and their higher level of education, one could expect that a significant number would feel strongly about a range of social, economic and political issues: contentious issues should produce crowds.

However, poor turnout is not necessarily the result of lazy organisers. In fact, it is very difficult for protest organisers to communicate with students.

Many campus protests are organised by the Student Representative Council (SRC) or by clubs. These groups do not necessarily share the same views on issues- they have their own individual agendas and wildly differing levels of organizational skill and resources. Moreover, since none of these organizations are entitled to use the

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‘all student’ email as a method of advertising events, they must do so by mere word of mouth, social media, and posters. This curtails the audience and therefore the total number of potential participants.

While people may say that social media makes advertising easier, at a campus level it really doesn’t.

For instance, the SRC represents over 26,000 students, yet their Facebook page only boasts 1,700 likes. Of these, even fewer people follow the page, fewer still would be current students, and only a tiny fraction would be willing and able to participate in protests.

Turnout is further stunted when long term protests are eschewed for so called “snap protests” where potential participants are given only one or two days’ notice. In simple terms, if you don’t know someone who shares your passion, and don’t regularly check the posters, you probably won’t know about a protest that’s going on right outside your lecture theatre.

Some organizations find common ground, which not only helps build bridges between those organizations but also sets a positive example for others on the campus. Even some of the most bitterly divided student political figures are willing to stand side by side in the pursuit of common goals. That being said, some

Source: Adelaide University Archives of the groups drawn to this form of political activism create a bad image for the rest. In 2014, an anti-Tony Abbott protest crowd broke through the police cordon and several were injured. Groups that condone this behaviour contaminate otherwise peaceful events and give protests a bad name.

home if they involve themselves politically overseas.

The lack of participation in student protests mirrors Australian society’s apathy towards politics in general.

The last few tumultuous years in federal politics, with multiple prime ministers, policy U-turns, and various damning reports from Royal Commissions have lead many people to write off politics altogether. However, these crises have the potential to inspire larger and more frequent action from university students as more and more issues affect them.

With the demands of coursework and time divided between university and conflicting work commitments, it is clear that students lead busy lives. Standing around on a hot day with a cardboard sign may not be their highest priority.

Some of the lacklustre numbers for student protests are due to demographic changes. While the total number of Adelaide University students continues to increase, the composition of those students has changed. In 2003 18% of students were international students, in 2017 the figure was nearly 30%. As the international student body increases, so may indifference to what are seen as purely domestic issues. Furthermore, some international students are afraid of consequences at

The rise in enrolled students who are studying externally (off campus) marks another demographic change. These students would be unlikely to enter the campus as most, if not all, of their study is online.

At the end of the day, protests may no longer resemble the glory days of old, but that in no way signifies their irrelevance. Protests are still an effective way of demonstrating displeasure toward a government or institution. What this generation of students choose to do about it remains to be seen.

So, is the role of student protests doomed to asphyxiation by apathy? Potentially. Is it reversible?

Probably. Will the number of protests increase in the future? Weather permitting.

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Pill Testing Words by Sib Hare Breidahl, MBBS. Over the summer our eyes and ears have been continuously barraged with debates and opinions on pill testing. Politicians nationwide have misrepresented the evidence for pill testing and gone up against such heavy weights as the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Public Health Association of Australia, the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, The National Union of Students and the Australian Medical Association, among others. While we wait for this battle to play out, more young people are dying for drug related reasons.

Putting aside the fact that pill testing has been used since 1992 in Europe, and that pill-testing has not been linked to an increase in drug use, we know from a pill testing trial at Groovin’ the Moo’s 2018 festival in the ACT that pill testing is effective on our shores. Out of 85 samples tested at Groovin’, 50% was pure MDMA, 50% contained adulterants like sweetener or paint, and two samples were deadly. Only 43% of samples matched what punters were expecting. We know from European studies that faced with the knowledge that pills didn’t match their expectations, more than

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2/3 of pill takers do something other than consume them.

So what does pill testing actually involve?

As a summary, there are two types of pill testing kit. The first is the cheaper, order from the internet, colour-change test, not dissimilar to your year 7 science experiments. The second, is the serious, and scary sounding Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometre, which uses an infrared beam to sample the substance and match the results against a library of known active ingredients and adulterants. The results using the colour-change kits vary massively depending on who interprets the tests, only tests for some known adulterants and can’t assess purity of components, while the FTIR machine gives empirical evidence, can give researchers ideas about potency trends and test for previously unseen toxins.

So we know pill testing can directly save lives by stopping people from unknowingly ingesting poison, but there are other, less obvious benefits. One, is a direct and massive benefit to research, and another is the impact on primary prevention and drug safety. These benefits both stem from the fact that people taking party drugs are

a really hard to reach population for health care professionals and researchers. These are generally pretty healthy young people, who rarely seek help, or even advice about drug use and generally don’t disclose their use to a doctor, if they see one at all. This is so unlike other drug users. As an example, heroin users, use needle exchanges, safe injecting rooms in some states, or come to have opioid replacement therapy prescribed, and as a result have contact with doctors and other professionals regularly.

Pill testing, means we finally have a captive audience, that we can reach out to and give drug safety information in a trustworthy and confidential environment.

The benefit to research and public health is also massive, and helps collaboration between partiers and researchers. In Europe when particularly pure MDMA pills have been detected by pill testing, or drugs sold as MDMA turn out not be, messages have been given out at pill testing tents and even

The irony of these persistent lectures from the political class is that, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the highest rate of life time use in Aus is in 30-39 years olds (~55%) and the second highest in 40-49 years olds (~55%), the age group that the face of the anti-pill testing campaign, NSW Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian herself belongs to.

In 1746 Sweden attempted to ban coffee, in the second world war the allied powers fed their soldiers amphetamines to stay alert and the axis powers countered with methamphetamine. At some points in history, MDMA was available over the counter and amphetamines were marketed as diet pills. The drugs that cause the most harm in Australia, tobacco and alcohol are largely freely available. It is clear that regulation of substances is not done based on harm, but follow idiosyncratic and arbitrary political will. Even if you morally

"The highest rate of life time use in Aus is in 30-39 years olds (~55%) and the second highest in 40-49 years olds (~55%), the age group that the face of the anti-pill testing campaign, NSW Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian herself belongs to. " displayed on big screens across festivals.

Without pill testing, this sort of warning would not be possible without overdoses first occurring, as researchers don’t have real time access to drugs, leaving them always playing catch-up. European pill testing has also been shown to modify the market, with certain adulterants no longer cut with pills, as consumers began to discover them via pill testing, and no longer buy the product, harming the producer’s market.

While politicians have been treating young people like mindless, pill-snuffling zombies, sophisticated, peer-led networks of drug users have sprung up to warn others about bad batches or pills sold as one thing, and tested to contain another. While these methods are great, they are by no means reliable, and young people deserve better.

disagree with recreational drug use, you can see that those that choose to use a (in essence, relatively safe drug) should be able to do so in the safest way possible. I don’t agree with recreational hunting, but I would never advocate for the “safety” switch to be taken off all guns, and would be devastated if a mate died in a hunting accident. Nobody is saying pill testing is a silver bullet, but we need backing from politicians so we can invest in high quality testing devices and public health measures, and stop unnecessary deaths from pills.

NB: Your GP is always impartial and will never report you to the police (unless they fear you are going to harm others).

University GP practices are good places to start if you are worried about the harms of drug use.

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Eyewitness to the Gilets Jaunes Words by Nix Herriot

‘Solidarity with all of the oppressed’. ‘Dare to change everything’. ‘Prepare the guillotines’.

The slogans scrawled on the streets of Paris bear witness to a radical rebellion. Sparked by rising fuel prices in November, the dramatic gilets jaunes (yellow vests) demonstrations have exploded onto the French political stage. Hundreds of thousands of protesters have threatened to bring Emmanuel Macron’s government to its knees.

The gilets jaunes is no traditional social movement. This is an amorphous rebellion with many participants: students, the unemployed, small business owners, workers, retirees.

Many have never protested before, yet they are united by one thing; accumulated anger and alienation.

Neoliberalism President Emmanuel Macron’s career as an investment banker and his actions in office help us understand why so many French denigrate him as a ‘President of the rich’.

As Minister of the Economy under President François Hollande, Macron’s project was to deregulate industry and erode workers’ rights. Nonetheless, the liberal media applauded his election in 2017; The Economist praised Macron’s “ability to revive confidence and turn France around”, while The Guardian simply questioned: ‘Progressive and Pro-European. What’s not to Envy?’

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In reality, Macron commenced his presidency with an economic onslaught which had been delayed by decades of resistance. Privatisations, labour reform, austerity - all were poorly masked by neoliberal jargon, entrepreneurial propaganda and a discourse moulded by market forces. Macron declared his contempt for working-class ‘slackers’ and for ‘people who are nothing’.

The problem, he asserts, is that ‘too many French don’t know the meaning of effort’. It’s understandable then, that the most audible cry of the gilets jaunes is ‘Macron, resign!’

Confrontation Today, ‘Macronism’ has encountered a situation it cannot control. Every Saturday, French cities are engulfed by a sea of yellow vests. A banal clothing item carried by French motorists has been appropriated by popular struggle and reimagined as a symbol for those excluded from power. Take a walk through the streets of the working-class Goutte d’Or neighbourhood in Paris and you’ll find North African street vendors modelling yellow vests over their denim-clad mannequins. Local graffiti further articulates the movement’s creativity and humour: ‘No Christmas for the bourgeoisie!’

Macron’s response? Tear gas that blankets the ChampsÉlysées every week and tanks in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe. To approach Place de l’Opera, you must

"Today, ‘Macronism’ has encountered a situation it cannot control. "

pass through police checkpoints, where gendarmes (paramilitary officers) with machine guns search bags and frisk passersby. I witnessed first-hand the corralling of protesters by a militarised police force which has injured thousands and arrested thousands more.

Despite the aggression of his mercenaries, Macron remains on one knee. He faces a movement with many strengths. Significantly, the demonstrations are not confined to Paris, the pickets having erupted across regional France. The rebellion has also demonstrated resistance towards recuperation - a product of decentralisation and lack of leadership. Mainstream commentators may decry the movement’s ‘inability’ to be represented, but the gilets jaunes possess a determination to make their voices heard through their own collective strength. This helps us appreciate how such energy has been sustained across several months.

Dégagisme Revolts possess a momentum which exceeds the political demands that were their original cause. The gilets jaunes are no exception. When the lives of ordinary people feel dictated by forces outside of their control, they must reclaim a sense of agency. You can see this newfound confidence on the smiling faces of striking railway workers pouring out of the Paris metro to join the protests.

Their struggle goes beyond the demand for Macron’s resignation. A slogan is spray-painted on a boarded up bank – “the people want the fall of the regime”.

It catches my attention because, eight years ago, the same words echoed through the Middle East as millions of protesters brought decades of dictatorship crashing down in just a matter of weeks. The revolutionary slogan is as relevant today for France as it was during the Arab Spring of 2011, because the gilets jaunes speak to a truly international dégagisme - a rejection of today’s governing classes.

The gilets jaunes raise the spectre of a profound political crisis for the establishment. Over the past months, tremendous political energy has been unleashed on the streets of France. It cannot survive without a future. For the movement, the challenge ahead is to reach radically new social horizons.

More than a decade on from the Great Recession, inequality is increasing around the world. We find ourselves choosing between two paths. Laced with barbed wire, the first leads to authoritarian nationalism.

This is the lair of Trump, Le Pen, and Bolsonaro. For our rulers, this is the preferred path. We can discern the second path, however, in the spirit of the French protesters - a democratic and progressive rejection of neoliberalism.

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Photo by Melanie Gunner

Australia

City Livin’ for this Country Boy Words by Maxim Buckley

Moving From

Rural

Moving from rural Alice Springs was possibly one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done both logistically and mentally. For me, the closest city with a university was either 1600km north or 1800km south.

Your city has a river running through it, like Melbourne.

You even have trams, like Melbourne. The only things I could come up with that were uniquely Adelaidean were the disgusting orange brick houses, enjoying places that are open 24 hours, 7 days a week and of There were a few things I noticed about people living in course, the memes.

Adelaide very quickly that I found extremely funny. First of all, so many of you wear RM Williams. The store that But eventually I got there, I started to see why I do love I only ever really saw at the Alice Springs show makes this city. Your beach is so close regardless of where a boot that has become the must-have item of clothing you live and all of them are amazing. You have these for any law or medical student. Secondly, you all seem spectacular vistas with vineyards, wonderful small to dislike this wonderful place you live in. towns offering up some of the best home cooking you could ask for and a sporting, music and arts culture I can understand wanting to leave your home that is second to none. Sure, the latter mostly happens town, but Adelaide is arguably one of the in March, but beggars can’t be choosers. best cities I have lived in since leaving Alice Springs.

Moving from the country is hard, do not get me wrong.

You will feel alone often to begin with. The silence of I moved to Adelaide in July of 2016 to chase my then not being at home can be suffocating. You will have to dream of becoming a hotel manager. My mum, dad, meet a whole bunch of new people and get used to the grandma and grandad all trained as teachers and I so way they act, but it is not impossible. The one thing to desperately wanted to be something else. July 2016 remember is that what is going on at home will continwas a chaotic time in my life. My mum and step-dad ue to go on at home regardless of if you are there or had split only a few weeks earlier, leaving me wonnot. Whilst living away from home I lost my sister and dering whether I would have a home to come back to one of my good friends, but my being there would not during the holidays. This feeling of guilt sat in the back have changed that. I just felt so happy that I was able of my mind almost constantly. to go back and be surrounded by all the people that mean so much to me. When in doubt, try and think of Was I selfish for moving here to do someall the reasons why you are here. Perhaps you are the thing else besides work in the casino? I was first in your family to attend university. Perhaps you’ll constantly reassured that I wasn’t but some return home with fresh knowledge to develop and feelings you just can’t ever shake, not even grow your community. Perhaps you’ll make so many three years later. great new friends that this becomes your new home.

For those of you who do not know, Alice Springs is somewhat of an oasis in the desert. If you drive from Adelaide to Alice Springs, the sides of the road progressively become more beautiful. Salt flats are replaced by native shrubs and red rocks. Gum trees tower over either side of the Stuart Highway and the West MacDonnell ranges, representing Yeperenye caterpillars in the local dream time, peak over the horizon as you drive into town. The place is truly special, with scenery that is second to none.

Though I still say I’m from Alice Springs and the Northern Territory, I call Adelaide my home. Just give it a chance, the city will surprise you.

Moving to Adelaide from a place like this was weird to say the least. The beauty here is not so distinctly evident. Your buildings are old and Victorian, like Melbourne. Your city streets run in a grid, like Melbourne.

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The R Kelly Effect Words by Ashleigh Trenwith Illustration by Angus Smith

In the wake of the ongoing Harvey Weinstein case of 2017, the #MeToo movement has exploded across social media. The aim of the #MeToo movement encourages victims of sexual assault to speak out against abuse and bring attention to the underlying issues of power and exploitation surrounding today’s entertainment industry. Among the people who spoke out under this hashtag were celebrities such as Lady Gaga, America Ferrera and Alyssa Milano.

Since the launch of the campaign in 2017, the message of #MeToo has continued to grow and still remains prominent nearly 2 years later. Among others, several cases of sexual assault by public figures have come to light including that of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh and Academy Award winning actor, Kevin Spacey.

several sexual assault and domestic abuse allegations, was shot dead in June of 2018. Immediately following his death were many conflicting views on Twitter, with several of the rapper’s fans defending him and claiming that the allegations were never actually proven true. His death aroused a stream of victim blaming, despite his fans never witnessing any of the alleged incidents.

Would people be this quick and passionate in defending someone with the same allegations who wasn’t a famous, wellknown celebrity? It’s quite unlikely.

However, it can be argued that while issues of sexual assault are undoubtedly more talked about and more condemned than they were as little as 10 years ago, there are still instances where abusers are defended by die-hard fans and nostalgia.

On January 3rd 2019 the six-part documentary Surviving R-Kelly debuted on Lifetime TV. The documentary went into detail over the shocking sexual abuse allegations made against Kelly by several women, many of whom were underage at the time of abuse. The documentary involved not only alleged victims of R-Kelly, but also celebrities, including singer John Legend who had worked with him and had witnessed his behaviour.

This was brought to the forefront of public attention when 20-year-old rapper XXXTentacion, who had

After the documentary aired, Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx confirmed that the office had

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received several new calls from people coming forward with sexual allegations against R-Kelly which were being investigated. Past collaborator Lady Gaga opened up to the press stating that she regretted working with R-Kelly in 2013, while also voicing intentions to remove their duet Do What U Want from streaming services.

Kelly’s label ultimately dropped him after the docuseries aired.

Popular female rapper Kehlani also spoke out about R-Kelly’s allegations, with viewers criticising the documentary for its defamatory nature and promotion of cancel culture, a term referring to the rejection of a person or thing after negative press. Of Kelly’s cancellation, Kehlani stated: "Let's be real, real, real. Nobody ends up getting cancelled. These people that we go in on—and it becomes heartbreaking sometimes—their streaming goes up, their views go up, they get more followers; they're still booking shows. It's disheartening as f**k…

It's not even the act of the cancelling itself that I support. It's the act of if you are feeling unsafe and you are feeling unheard and someone has made you feel absolutely just low as hell, then you have every right to express your anger about that, and you have every right to set a boundary between yourself and this person.”

The outcome of Surviving R-Kelly has shown a quick decline in Kelly’s career. His now negative perception in Hollywood demonstrates the far-reaching impact of the #MeToo Movement and the case of turning a blind eye toward beloved public figures. Considering the scope and brevity of his abuse, Kelly is finally getting the damning publicity he deserved spanning back to the 1990s. The documentary has proven the importance of speaking out against power and illustrates why now more than ever there should be a platform for victims of abuse.

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Let’s Get Physical Mentally Stable Words by Lani Gerbi

Anxiety and depression are fast becoming the most common symptoms of the millennial condition, coming in a close third and fourth after renting forever and being chronically somehow both overworked and underemployed. We’ve become known as the Burnout Generation, with a mounting pile of societal stressors contributing to the more everyday sources of misery, but that doesn’t mean we should just get used to feeling awful. So, while I can’t do much about the rise of fascism, the fact that the US President might legitimately be a Russian spy, or the rapidly-approaching heat death of the planet from behind my little desk here, I can get help you navigate the well-intentioned chaos of the uni’s mental health services! Yay! First things first though: if you’re feeling unsafe with yourself, call 13 11 14 now. It’s the number for Lifeline and it’ll get you through to someone who can talk you through this. The lines are open 24/7. Call them. If you struggle with phone calls, they have a texting service that operates from 5:30pm to 9:30pm, seven days a week.

You can reach them on 0477 13 11 14. Text them. They even have a chat service; it’s available at their website, www.lifeline.org.au, from 6:30pm to 11:30pm, every day.

Message them. Now. The university also has its own Crisis Line, but it isn’t open 24/7. It’s open 5pm-9am on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday. You can call them at 1300 167 654

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or text 0488 884 197. During uni hours (9am-5pm on weekdays), use the Student Life Counselling Support line, 8313 6553. If you’re on campus, or coming in anyway, they’ll get you to come see them and put you in front of a professional as soon as possible. If you’re not at uni, they’ll be able to direct you to another support provider. It’s worth keeping these numbers on your phone, along with a note about their opening hours, so you can get help immediately if you or someone you know needs it.

If you’re not in danger, but you’re definitely not coping, then we turn to the other uni services. One of the difficult things about depressive episodes is that, even once they’ve passed, they tend to leave a bit of administrative chaos behind them - especially at uni. The best thing you can do when you’re spiralling is make sure it doesn’t come back around to smack you on the other side, so let’s talk about what you can do to look after future you.

In the Short Term? Move Your Deadlines.

Stress undoubtedly contributes to the already rotten experience of having a mental illness, so do what you can to minimise it. Get yourself some extensions and give yourself a chance to recover. Whatever your teachers say, uni work is not a helpful distraction from your other miseries.

Now, tutors used to be able to give you a few days grace on assignments but that’s increasingly rare these days,

which means you’re going to need to do some paperwork - heinous, I know, but still better than that 2500-word assignment right now hey.

Mental health is counted as a medical condition under the extension rules, which is great because mental health is just health! But it does mean that you’re going to need to get your extension form filled out by a Medical or Registered Health Professional - a psychologist or a doctor, basically.

If you don’t currently see a psychologist, go to a doctor; the wait for new patient psych appointments can be ridiculous.

If you’ve got a regular GP, great! If you don’t, you can book online at the Gawler Place Medical Practice or the University Health Practice. They both bulk-bill for students, so they’re free for any student with a Medicare card. The UHP is down in the Horace Lamb Building, so it’s more convenient to get to, but it can get very busy so you might need to wait a few days for an appointment. The GPMP is - you guessed it - on Gawler Place, just off Rundle Mall; it’s a little further away, yes, but you can often get a sameor next-day appointment if you need to see someone stat.

You’ll want to book a Mental Health Plan appointment, specifically.

Here’s what to expect from that appointment: You’ll be asked to describe what you’re feeling.

Now is not the time to be circumspect. Your symptoms are valid and relevant. Have your eating or sleeping habits changed? Have you gained or lost weight? Lost motivation or interest in hobbies? Are you thinking about death or self-harm? Have you been denying yourself wants and/or needs? E.g. refusing to wear a coat when it’s freezing out, working yourself to the point of exhaustion, avoiding food until you start feeling faint, hiding from friends or family that would offer you comfort? All of the above are forms of selfharm, and you can tell your doctor about them. This will help them figure out how best to help you.

You’ll be asked to fill out a DAS. DAS stands for ‘depression, anxiety, stress’ and it’s essentially a Buzzfeed quiz except super miserable. No longer will your taste in Disney movies reveal your regular coffee order; instead, a doctor is going to figure out how anxious you are based on whether you experience dry mouth ‘some of the time’, ‘most of the time’, or ‘all of the time’. This is nothing to worry about; it’s basically so they can get a quantitative figure from your qualitative data.

You’ll have to sit there for about 5-10 minutes while they fill out paperwork. This will result in you being given a Mental Health Plan, which will get you up to 10 sessions with a relevant mental health service provider (usually a psych). Protip: don’t read it. It’s putting your experience in clinical terms so that other doctors/psychs will be able to get a good idea of where you’re at as quickly as possible, which is a bit weird because mental illness is a very private, personal experience. So it’s logistically

necessary, but makes for a somewhat unnerving read.

They’ll ask if there’s anything else you need to discuss. Here, you should explain your circumstances re: assignments and ask them to fill out an extension request form. You can find these on the uni website if you want, or they generally have some in the office if you go to one of the uni health practices.

And that’s it! As soon as you have the extension form, either drop it into the relevant Faculty office or email it to them.

Next step is to go book an appointment with a psych; when you get it, go in armed with your Mental Health Plan.

In the Long Term? Become a Doomsday Prepper.

Ideally, you’ll be able to sail through the rest of your degree on a cloud of good vibes and serotonin, but on the off chance that life doesn’t go exactly according to plan, you’re going to want some procedures in place. A metaphorical bunker, if you will. That bunker is Student Life.

Student Life Counselling Support Counsellors are the bomb. I highly recommend the counselling service, which can be found hiding out on the ground floor of the Horace Lamb Building, opposite the 1022 Lecture Theatre and just around the corner from the University Health Practice. Going to regular appointments can help keep you on track, give you the tools to manage your mental illness, and catch downward spirals before they derail your life. So go.

Student Life Disability Support.

I’ll admit it; this one threw me too the first time ‘round. After all, mental illness isn’t usually classified as a disability (and honestly I still don’t think of mine that way) so it really didn’t occur to me that this service was here to help me too, but damn if it hasn’t saved my anxious, anxious ass on several occasions. If you’ve got an ongoing health condition that’s impacting your studies, visible or invisible, the DS is here for you.

You’re going to need one of these forms: a Verification and Impact Statement, or VIS. This baby will have to be filled out by a medical practitioner so switch tabs now and book an appointment to go see your doctor. Once you have one, request an appointment with the DS to set up a Disability Access Plan. Depending on your circumstances, you’ll be able to use this to get a few days of leeway on assignments for when your condition makes things difficult for you, amongst other things. Just make sure you get it to all your teachers at the beginning of semester, or as soon as you receive it.

That’s all for now, folks. Take care of yourselves; take care of others. You got this.

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where have all the good live music venues gone?

Words by Melissa Griffin

Where have all the good venues gone And where are all the gods?

Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?

Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?

Late at night I toss and I turn And I dream of what I need I need a…. live music venue that supports Adelaide’s local music scene and offers cheap drinks.

So where have they all gone?

Over the past few years Adelaide’s live music scene has been thriving with local and interstate acts playing weekly in iconic venues across the CBD. Old pubs such as, The Crown and Anchor, The Exeter and The Grace Emily Hotel, have been packed with live music lovers on both weeknights and weekends, supporting some of the best bands Australia has to offer.

However, an unsettling trend has begun to take place. A trend that has seen the likes of Adelaide’s oldest licensed

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pub, the Edinburgh Castle, and other iconic venues close its doors. So why now, when Adelaide’s live music scene is blossoming with bands like West Thebarton, Horror My Friend, TKAY Maidza, and Bec Stevens, are we seeing the closure of so many of our beloved venues?

Owner of the Edinburgh Castle, Tony Bond, blamed the ongoing construction of a high-rise student housing development and subsequent limited street access for the closure of the iconic hotel. In a recent Facebook post, the Edinburgh Hotel stated “Sorry if you can’t get a park anywhere near our pub, [...] sorry if you expect any empathy from the … building company making … millions upon millions while your little pokie free live music venue slowly dies”. Adelaide University’s own iconic UniBar closed after its final last call in November, making way for the newly managed and relocated $1.6 million refit

by General Admission Entertainment, to be launched soon on campus. Similarly, Fowlers Live on North Terrace closed its doors in December 2018, which has been taken over by Five Four Entertainment for a refurbishment and reopening as Lion Arts Factory.

It seems development is at the heart of the recent increase in live venue closures.

Image by Kate Bunker

In the grand scheme of things, developers don’t want the growing live music scene in Adelaide affected. The new Lion Arts Factory already has a steady line-up over the coming months, including sold out shows for Brisbane artist Eves Karydas and Adelaide band West Thebarton in their opening month. Owners of the venue have said live music will still be the focus of the venue, with the addition of an extra stage area to cater for more diversity in what gigs the venue can offer. Five Four Entertainment are a dominating force in the local music scene, with a strong dedication to supporting both local and national musicians coming to Adelaide. One has to question whether the reception to the refurbishment of Fowlers Live would have been received so positively had it been another company.

contrary, we need to fight to bring back live music and keep the spirit of the UniBar alive. A tonne of money has been invested in bringing the RCC Fringe to our campus, whether we agree with it or not. So, I say we keep the momentum going. Use the Fringe events as a stepping stone, and campaign for the continuation of live music even after March Madness ceases.

We may have lost some of the well-loved venues, carpets soaked with cheap beer and decades of memorable nights, but hey…. where there’s beer and good tunes there’s spillage.

Fresh new carpets beware.

Even though we’re saying goodbye to the sticky carpeted nostalgia of many venues across the city, are we really saying goodbye to the live music scene as we know it?

Or are we welcoming a new era of gigs? Albeit with a less classic setting.

Back on home turf, and it appears we have less say in the relocation of the UniBar we had once hoped. But that doesn’t mean we should give up on it all together! On the

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Editorial

Preachrs Podcast Adelaide Fringe 2019 Interview

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We interviewed Benjamin Maio, of the PREACHRS PODCAST, The Great Detectives 2 and the #BunnyPastards, three amazing shows featuring in this year’s Adelaide Fringe lineup. Ben talks to us about his experience in Fringe and how he has adapted radio into a festival friendly medium: Can you tell us a little about your creative background and what inspired you to produce such a broad range of content?

I fell in love with the creative arts when I first saw Anthony Warlow in Phantom of the Opera many, many years ago. Since then I’ve always known exactly what I wanted to do and have trained with various teachers/schools, graduated AMEB Drama & Speech with honours and performed in over 80 shows. I’ve also directed around 10 shows, written a handful of shows, produced about 10 and toured across Australia. I was very honoured to also do some work for ABC Radio Extra hosting programs there and my podcast Benjamin Maio Mackay’s Talk 2 Me! is also one of the most listened to arts podcast with millions of listeners worldwide - so my creative background is hugely varied! I’ve chosen to produce such a diverse range of content because I love to be creatively challenged and I’d go crazy if I did too much of the same thing! I also love so many genres of theatre/art that it would kill my soul to limit my output.

What drew you into participating in the Adelaide Fringe?

I’ve been working on shows in the Adelaide Fringe since 2012, with various dramas, musicals, live podcasts and a range of other content. The city comes alive during Fringe and audiences are suddenly more willing to go see a show they wouldn’t outside this time. It’s a great place to also debut/refine new works and I love the support that the artistic community has for that brief period.

Is there anything about Adelaide that is particularly different to the other cities you’ve visited when presenting your show?

I’m answering this from Fringe World (Perth’s version of Fringe and the 3rd largest in the world) and being here has really highlighted to me the scale of Adelaide’s Mad February/March. There really is nothing like it and as hectic as it is it’s nice to participate in the craziness.

Outside of Fringe time I’m reluctant to perform shows in Adelaide, unlike any other city, as audiences are less likely to take a gamble on something out of the ordinary.

So, without Fringe you wouldn’t be seeing a whole lot of

Preachrs Podcast OnLine & OnStage productions.

Great Detectives has thankfully built up a nice following and is somewhat of an established brand, so I’m very lucky that presenting it all over the place it often elicits the same enthusiastic reaction. I can’t wait to share Great Detectives 2, a brand-new show to audiences who loved the first this year.

How does bringing broadcasting to the stage work? Is it something audiences can still enjoy and participate in?

Well, radio broadcasting in the 1950s was actually in front of a live audience and Great Detectives 2 always has a little bit of improve. The fact we as actors are able to acknowledge the audience definitely makes it an enjoyable and engaging show for audiences.

What other shows are you presenting at Fringe this year?

These two are the shows I’m producing, but I’m also appearing in Sex and the Musical (a musical version of Sex and the City) and Tales of Adventure (an improvised children’s show being performed in Mt Barker).

Are there any other things you’re working on for future festivals? Can we have a sneak peak?

I’m working on bringing to Australia an exciting new UK production starring a famous TV actor, as well as a tour of Great Detectives 2. I’ll also be assisting bringing a couple of major Fringe World shows over from Perth in 2020 too it’s going to be a busy time ahead (keep in touch via www. preachrspodcast.net or on Facebook to be in the official loop)!

Lastly, do you have any words of advice for people who might be thinking about creating and presenting their art in Adelaide?

It’s not easy and to expect to succeed on your first production is an unlikely pipe dream.. This industry comes with a crippling pressure, stress and never ending workload that is relentless. I love what I do, but even I struggle to remember why I do this sometimes. If you’re going to do it you must love it and if you love it go for it.

Fail, try again, keep going and never, ever give up!

Catch Ben throughout Mad March in his shows Great Detectives 2 and #bunnypastards featuring at the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

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WHY BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY IS RUINING FREDDIE MERCURY’S LEGACY:

Before he succumbed to the AIDS virus in November 1991,

ailing Queen front-man Freddie Mercury had one final request for his manager Jim ‘Miami’ Beach. Staying true to his flamboyant persona, Mercury stated that he [Jim] as well as the remaining members of Queen, John Deacon, Roger Taylor and Brian May could do “…whatever they wanted with his memory as long as they didn’t make him boring…” Now over 21-years since his passing, Beach, as well as the two remaining members of Queen, May and Taylor (Deacon has since forfeited the spotlight), have ensured that Mercury’s presence in popular culture has stayed significant. With the release of the critically panned yet universally loved west end musical, We Will Rock You (based on the Queen song of the same name) and Queen + guest tours featuring singer Adam Lambert, Mercury’s image has been left anything but boring.

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Illustration by Emma Agars

WORDS BY OLIVIA DE ZILVA

However, with the release of his biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018, many are starting to wonder whether his legacy has been overshadowed by the constant rumours of feuding, sexual assault allegations and awards season drama circulating around the tumultuous Fox studios set.

In development hell since 2010, Bohemian Rhapsody had had a troubled inception. With Borat-star Sacha Baron Cohen set to the helm the role of Mercury in a gritty reimagining of his promiscuous and drugfuelled lifestyle in the early to mid-80s, production was constantly reshaped and reimagined to approval of May and Taylor. Claiming that Baron-Cohen’s previous roles in comedy would “be too distracting for the film”, the band parted ways with the star, with May later calling him an “arse” during a press release in late2018. Now missing the lead-star and director, David Fincher (who exited the project shortly after BaronCohen), studio executives scrambled to find someone willing to play a more sanitised portrayal of Mercury.

In May 2017, Mr. Robot star, Rami Malek signed onto production with new director, Bryan Singer. Now, with an exceptionally talented, yet suitable star and seasoned director telling Queen’s story, Bohemian Rhapsody seemed destined to fulfil Mercury’s final request.

However, as production began in mid-2017, rumours of a bitter feud between Malek and Singer became public. With Malek claiming that his time with Singer was not a “pleasant experience because of creative differences” and rumours of his co-stars walking from set due to the unhealthy working environment, more audiences became invested in the happenings off-screen rather than the film itself. When Singer was eventually fired in December 2017 after studio executives became “tired of his non-showings and clashing with Malek”, director Dexter Fletcher was left to finish the uneven remnants of the production.

When finally released to the public in November 2018, it seemed that audiences had started to turn a blind eye towards the drama, as the film became the 7th highest grossing movie of 2018 with $834.7 million being made at box offices world-wide. However, as it began to top the lists at awards shows after winning Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Actor at the Golden Globes, many started to take more notice of the shocking contradictions and allegations stemming

from the production.

With critics and viewers alike complaining that Mercury’s image was too sanitised and censored to be realistic, the film was accused of straight-washing due to the depiction of his “pure” heterosexual romance with Mary Austin in comparison with the “depraved and often ignored” relationships he shared with men. Furthermore, many questioned the way the film handled Mercury’s diagnosis with HIV. Historically, it is known that Mercury contracted the virus in early-1987, almost three years after the events shown in the film.

Many called this manipulation of the truth to instil emotion was extremely disrespectful, with UPROXX’s Mike Ryan claiming that: “…the movie wants to punish Freddie Mercury. His [Mercury’s] tragic death from AIDS was a defining movement in the early ‘90s fight for AIDS awareness. To retcon his illness into his Live Aid performance (1984) seems flippant and cruel...”

To add more unpleasantness, allegations of sexual misconduct began to swirl around Singer, who for many years, had been battling rumours of acts of indecency towards young men. In January 2019, The Atlantic released a report detailing alleged incidents of abuse by Singer onto underage boys at private parties or on film-sets. In the wake of these allegations, Singer was removed from the best director nomination at the 2019 BAFTAs and Bohemian Rhapsody’s nomination for the GLAAD Media Award was withdrawn. When the film won Best Drama at The Golden Globes, there was no mention of Singer and his contribution to the production became more of a hindrance rather than a commodity.

With the release of Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018 and its ongoing negative coverage in the press, I begin to wonder whether Jim Beach and the remaining members of Queen really did enough to honour the final request of Freddie Mercury. My fear is that his legacy will become the onset feuding, sexual assault allegations of Bryan Singer and doomed production. One thing Mercury valued was his image, his relationship with fans and of course, his music.

And with all this going on, I begin to wonder if people have lost sight of that.

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Movie Review: Glass Dir. M. Night Shyamalan, 2019 (Blumhouse Productions) Words by Maxim Buckley

M. Night’s latest super hero universe is his answer to ‘The Avengers’. ‘Glass’ is a movie that seemed to promise so much. Four incredible, world renowned actors, each playing a character that is the antithesis of the other. A plot that began in 2000 and ended three movies later in 2019. Twists that would leave you on the edge of your seat.

But none of this happened.

The movie is just a confused mess. Each actor, except for James McAvoy, is criminally underused to the point where you begin to wonder why cast them at all?

Samuel L. Jackson doesn’t say a single word until half way through the movie. Although I understand that this is done intentionally to make the viewer believe that Jackson’s character ‘Mr. Glass’ isn’t doing anything nefarious, it ends up being such a boring reveal that you laugh rather than gasp. While Bruce Willis’ character, ‘The Overseer’ says as many lines as Tom Hardy when he played ‘Mad Max’. But where Hardy’s character was a welcome change to a male dominated series, Willis’ lack of dialogue just leaves his character open to being criticised as boring

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and underdeveloped. Lastly, James McAvoy’s character ‘Kevin Wendell Crumb’ has by far has the most screen time. The character first revealed to us in ‘Split’ is back again and this time they’re prepared to reveal ‘The Horde’ to the world! But only when ‘Hedwig’, one of Crumb’s more annoying split personalities, has had more screen time than all other actors combined.

Lastly, I would just like to complain about the fight scenes, since this is a super hero movie after all. The fight scenes are shockingly bad.

For some reason, a few weeks earlier I had decided to catch up on all Marvel movies that had passed me by, which there are many of.

But instead of reaching Avenger type levels of action, the sequences in ‘Glass’ tended to fall flat and were too superfluous for even Shyamalan levels of melodrama.

To finalise a review that could go on forever for a movie that feels like it goes on forever, I’ll say this. ‘Glass’ is not the cross-over that gets it right.

Glass gets 0.5 out of 5 James McAvoys flexin’ in a no flex zone.

Book Review: Educated

by Tara Westover Words by Clare Dekuyer

Tara Westover’s coming-of-age memoir Educated is a gripping story of family loyalty, religious extremism and liberation through education. Born the youngest of seven children to survivalist Mormon parents in rural Idaho, Westover had never visited a doctor, obtained a birth certificate, taken medicine or stepped foot in a classroom during her childhood.

Her father’s fundamentalist beliefs, fuelled by undiagnosed bipolar disorder, kept the family in a state of constant fear of the government and fears that hospitals were a socialist conspiracy, and that the end-of-days would come at the turn of the century.

Westover entered college never having heard of the Holocaust, or Martin Luther King.

If Tara Westover can make it from the junkyard to a PhD at Harvard, you know you’ll be able to get through Semester 1.

4.5/5 stars

When Tara, completely uneducated, sits a college admissions test at age 17, she is wrenched away from the delusions of her father and propelled into a world of questioning and reason.

I devoured this book and I think that readers will not be able to look away from Westover’s shocking childhood and reluctant rebellion against her family. As we all (perhaps grudgingly) re-enter our academic endeavours for the new year, Educated reminds us of the power in learning. For those who feel like a stranger in a strange land at university,

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GIG GUIDE Beach House

When: 27th April Where: Adelaide University (RCC)

When: 6th March Where: Adelaide University (RCC)

Tash Sultana and Ocean Alley

Tim Minchin

When: 28th April Where: Thebarton Theatre

When: 7th March Where: Thebarton Theatre

Haiku Hands & Heaps Good Friends & Flex Mami

Venice Queens When: March 16th Where: Lion Arts Factory

Vance Joy & Amy Shark

Luca Brasi

When: 1st March

Where: Adelaide Street Circuit

When: March 15th Where: Lion Arts Factory

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Gang of Four

When: 3rd March Where: Adelaide Street Circuit

When: March 25th Where: Lion Arts Factory

Dance Gavin Dance & Veil of Maya

Jesus and The Mary Chain

When: 4th March Where: Jive

When: March 15th Where: The Gov

M AR C H

Pussy Riot

When: 1st March Where: Fat Controller

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Words / Imogen Hindson

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WORDS / IMOGEN HINDSON

Need something to get you through the first week of uni? We have you covered.

RISE AND SHINE

01

02

03

This Is The Day The The

Smile Durand Jones & The Indications

Can’t Deny My Love Brandon Flowers

CHOO-CHOO-CHOOSE YOU

04

05

Sunsetz Cigarettes After Sex

Lovefool The Cardigans

06 Now & Then Sjowgren

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YOUR MONTHLY MIX

BIG BOPS

07

08

09

Stay (feat. Dana Williams)

When I’m Around You Running Touch

Can’t Help The Way That I feel Sneaky Sound System, Smokin Jack Hill

10

11

12

7 rings Ariana Grande

Sundress A$AP Rocky

Boredom Tyler, The Creator, Rex Orange County, Anna Of The North

13

14

15

Make Time 4 Love The Goon Sax

10 Minute Drive Bec Stevens

Footscray Station Scott & Charlene’s Wedding

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17

18

The Aston Shuffle RM WILLIAMS

AUSSIE TALENT

Fault Line Jack River

Not Like You The Pinheads

(Hear You) Sweater Curse

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Summer

by Michelle Roylance Summer…

It’s a powerful word isn’t it? A name, a season, and so much more. It’s your favourite ice-cream, a fridge full of Zooper Doopers and Cottees Cordial.

It’s breaking your arm skateboarding and your mum lecturing you for not wearing a helmet when she’s looking for the first aid kit. It’s sand and beach towels, sunscreen, thongs and BBQ’s while listening to your mate’s “rad” mixtape. It’s your first kiss on the jetty and bike rides with your friends. It’s wasting the money you earned at the summer job on jugs of beer at the pub. It’s strawberry picking trips and picnics and sleep-ins and a hell of an aircon bill.

It’s forgettable days the melt into unforgettable months.

Even if you prefer to get rugged up in front of the crackling fire with your favourite blanket and a cup of steaming hot Milo to escape winter’s chilling touch, you must admit that there’s a certain energy that makes an appearance in summer which is otherwise hibernating throughout the rest of the year.

Maybe because summer holds so much hope; everything seems to happen in Summer. Ever notice how all those teen dramas start with ‘it was the summer before senior year’ or ‘it all started that summer’?

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Summer is that dream-like period between school and work terms that, like a dream have no time or foreseeable direction; they feel like they might never end and because of that we feel invincible. It’s not a new thing either, even Shakespeare realised just how powerful summer was and set one of his most famous plays in the middle of Summer; A Midsummer Night’s Dream. How does said play end? With the main character excusing any offence or mischief caused, merely as a dream.

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream.

a writer must be truthful

by Dylan Rowen

As an obsessive dreamer, I nourish my sentences with manure from pain and love and past hurt (and I find it hard to lie).

Writing this, you seeing this, is akin to rubbing a sore not yet healed.

These words are an on-going project in sowing seeds with tentative, anguished gestures, imbued with a type of mental indigestion that leaves me incapable of going forward— a writer must be truthful This page acts out an artifice of infinite tenderness, though weary I am, renewed I will be.

I hope I find poetry that is equal part ferocious and excessive, a renewed exercise in redefining passages that have been trod on before.

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beach MMXIX

by Olivia De Zilva

i can feel you lather sunscreen onto my back like i am a cake that if you cut me into slices

you can taste the different layers

skin, blood & bone the sand is a condiment peppered into the nooks and crannies of the body, perfectly dusted sprinkles baked lovingly by this summer sun coerces me into the water splashing amongst the children in fluorescent vests and floaties

swim between the flags

swim between the flags swim between the children i won’t get lost or float away because their mothers are always watching

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drifting

our naked legs are intertwined

like seaweed grappling towards the surface

pushing through the salt water for a breath of fresh air the beach is a lazy dot on the horizon

we are closer to the sunset now warmed by its orange glow could it be like this forever?

could we be driftwood floating aimlessly

towards nothing?

found by sailors and tossed overboard

when they find out we are useless bodies of matter without consequence?

place my head under the water and baptise me till i float until you tug on my leg it is time to go

because the families are congregating around the deli for the $2 pasties

and you are hungry. we can be driftwood another day

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WORDS / OLIVIA DE ZILVA

Your Sign as a Netflix Original Show: ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

“Riverdale” Like the characters on Riverdale, your curiosity will get the best of you this month. Try not to get tangled in a web of lies and deceit and stay true to your principles when it comes to petty drama.

“A Series of Unfortunate Events” Although things may be looking a little grim in the present, try to be crafty in the way you approach your life. When bad things happen, try to see the bright side, or, if that fails, dress up in your best disguise and run away.

“You” Steady on, Gemini. Although your crush for this person is strong, you mustn’t take too far. Passion can be dangerous and you must remember that you can be obsessive. Instead of pursuing this person and potentially murdering their friends and family, take up a hobby. Maybe jogging?

March 21st – April 19th

CANCER

April 20th – May 20th

LEO

May 21st – June 21st

VIRGO

June 21st – July 23rd

July 23rd – August 23rd

August 23rd – September 23rd

“Sex Education” Be prepared, Cancer. Although you’ve always shied away from your sex life, people will be relying on you more than ever for advice and tips of the trade. Embrace your knowledge, share your passion and maybe, you too will be satisfied with the outcome.

“House of Cards” Your domineering personality may be useful to you this month, Leo. For once, you are in power, but use it wisely or regret the consequences.

Control what you do, say and think before you make that big decision.

“Tidying up with Marie Kondo” Take advantage of your officious personality and start to declutter the mess which keeps on piling up in various aspects of your life. Clean the loose dishes and rid yourself of fair-weather friends to keep your year as tidy as possible.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

“Queer Eye” It’s all about balance this month, Libra. Utilize your various talents in cooking, dressing, interior design and life coaching to create a better you. These ingredients are a sure-fire recipe to get you starting on the right foot in 2019.

“The Ted Bundy Tapes” You tend to take things to extremes, Scorpio. Watch out this month, however, because people are looking more closely into your intentions. You are not as crafty as you may think.

“Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour” You’ve changed a lot in the past year, Sagittarius, and you want the world to know it. You’ll make a grand display with theatrics, vivacity and some desperation to prove that you are no longer petty or vindictive. This may work in your favour, or you might keep the people around you wondering when the jig is up. Either way, you’ll be enjoying the attention.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS January 20th – February 18th

February 18th – March 20th

“Black Mirror” This year, you will choose your own adventure. However, don’t get trapped with the first option you are presented with. Think logically and you can win the game of life.

“13 Reasons Why” You’ve got a lot to contemplate about the people who’ve wronged you in the past. You either have the option to forgive and forget or go full momentum with your revenge. Either choice will end with some consequence, but it’s up to you to decide what is best.

“Stranger Things” Your year is about to get weird and there’s nothing you can do about it, Pisces. Ride the wave and see how you can thrive in these uncomfortable and challenging situations. Be appreciative of the people around you and be wary of the fact that nothing may be what it seems.

September 23rd – October 23rd

December 22nd – Jan 20th

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October 23rd – November 22nd

November 22nd – December 22nd

PISCES

ss, Grab your O’Pa stuff! jump on board, get free Meet at the Union stall in Hub Central

Cookies

Slushies

6 March 11:30am – 1:30pm

Coffee