On Dit Issue 89.3

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89 Y.3 R 9 A 8 U RY BA FEM

The scoop on poo

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DR seuss: Yay or NAY?

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auu secrets

contents editorial whats on? src president state of the union vox pop econ dit rural student voice international student voice sex and the small city LEFT RIGHT CENTRE CLub Spotlight sustanabili-dit Articles & creative writing

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a different way to deal with dr seuss? perhaps dan tehan should have read on dit the job drought here’s to the survivors a dream that stays why you should read borges knock knock... Poo’s there? winners and losers of trump running again telenovelas: more than a guilty pleasure dear society what’s going on in secret Auu board meetings what’s happening in myanmar? why does australia lock up refugees? how the government punishes jobseekers and students pho/pho 4

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the tragedy of syria student representative council crushes opposition to military junta but who will listen to the students? editors isobel Moore Stasi kapetanos michelle roylance ivan jankovic

28 design isobel Moore 30 “rundle st” 32 34 cover art 36 ‘ By isobel Moore 38 40 SUBEDITORS GRACE ATTA 42 LAKEISHA WATKINS TOM WOOD 44 MIRCO DI GIACOMO 46 HABIBAH JAGHOORI NGOC LAN TRAN 48 MAYA TLAUKA RORY SPEIRS 50 LIA DEVETZIDIS FINLAY EDWARDS 54 KIRSTY KITTEL TIAH BULLOCK BECK ROWSE 56 GEORGia PENGLIS 58 DEAN PLESA

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W

e wish to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Kaurna people and their

elders past, present and future as the traditional custodians of the land on which the University of the Adelaide resides. Their cultural and heritage beliefs flow deep and steady through the land

and burn bright within the Kaurna community to this day.

LIKe what you see? GET INVOLED!

Interact with our socials, read our digital issues and articles, or send us a pitch at onditmag@gmail.com

Submissions for Issue 5 (Elle Dit) close June 2nd, 11:59 pm 6

Dear readers, If you haven’t been able to sink your teeth into On Dit before now, third time’s a charm. Welcome to issue 3!

Potter around campus this time year and you will start to see tell-tale signs of uni work amping up. People abandon smart casual for daggy sweats and heavy looking eye bags to complement their heavy looking actual bags stuffed with binders and textbooks. Tables become crowded with loose papers, and too many empty coffee cups and Redbull cans than could have been healthy.

Conversations become reduced to, “What have you been up to?”

“Just uni. You?” “Yeah, pretty much just uni.”

Beware: if you find yourself drowning in thoughts of the human race inevitably becoming dust and drifting into oblivion, wondering what it’s all for, it’s time for a nap and a hug. Stop staring at your text cursor until you begin to think it’s actually some form of morse code. Exit the philosophical realm and delve instead into an On Dit. We have plenty of articles for you to zone out on, to cheer you up, and the best part is there is no grade to be gained here. Enjoy the scoop on poo as two scatologists/comedians explain why you should keep a log of the logs you drop (pg 40). Inform yourself on the toxicity of ciggy butts to our marine ecosystems, and, holy smoke, what you read will shock you (pg 26). Learn of the tragedies occurring in both Myanmar (pg 50) and Syria (pg 60).

Whatever philosophy you may have been stewing over, or whatever tickles your fancy, I’m sure there will be something for you to gain out of this month’s issue. Whilst it feels like whatever is on your laptop becomes the most important thing in your universe, just a glance up will change your perspective and you will be surprised at the depth of the world around you. These pages will show you people and places beyond our uni, and beyond your laptop screen.

I hope you enjoy, Issi.

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13th MAy

Event: Rotaract Cooking Class: East Turkistan time: 2;3opm-4;30pm host: Adelaide University Rotaract Club

whats on?

things to do @ adelaide u

where: Central Market Community Kitchen, Near Zuma Caffe

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Event: Think and Drink: The Plastic Pollution Solution P2 time: 5pm-6pm host: Ecoversity UofA where: UniBar Adelaide

19th May

Event: AGtivate Your Career time: 5pm-8PM host: Adelaide University Agricultural Students Association where: Beltana Cafe, Waite Campus, UofA

event: SFP Launch Event & Panel Talk 2021 time: 6pm host: University of Adelaide Finance Society where: Hub Central

Things To Do Adelaide U puts all Adelaide University events in one Facebook group for your convenience. Our creation was inspired by our clubs, who work tirelessly to enrich the UofA student experience for all of us. During this time, we have witnessed how deeply you can be part of the community here, but you can’t engage with what you don’t know about. So when you wonder, “What’s On?”, we hope to be there with all the Things To Do At Adelaide U.

22nd May

event: Blessed Herman’s Blessed Biff! time: 12pm host: Adelaide University Society For Creative Anachronism where: Maths Lawn, UofA

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Oscar Zi Shao Ong SRC President It’s no doubt that sexual harassment and assault is a serious issue in Australia. Based on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, it was found out that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 men have been sexually harassed/threatened since the age of 15 in 2018. This needs to change. One of the important works that I have been able to contribute to was the Consent Matters Online Training in MyUni. New students, you would have been invited to complete the course in MyUni and continuing students I encourage you to enrol and complete the course here too: https://myuni.adelaide. edu.au/enroll/B9J8LE. While l was the AUU Clubs Committee Chair which sat in the Respect. Now. Always. Taskforce, we reviewed recommendations made within the Change the Course report, as well as several other reports to prevent and respond to any form of sexual violence. As part of the taskforce, we have developed the following recommendations: • As of 2020, training in responding to disclosures of sexual assault has been made mandatory for all elected members of the SRC and AUU Board (fully implemented and in action now).

• As of 2020, training in responding to disclosures of sexual assault has made mandatory for all committee members of AU Sports Clubs and AUU Clubs and Societies (in progress of being fully implemented).

src President

In an effort to provide more training for student leaders to recognise, speak up, and offer support to victims that are abused, your SRC members and myself participated in The Motivating Action Through Empowerment (MATE) Bystander Training Program recently.

I understand that the gross misconduct of the former Vice-Chancellor is still on people’s mind. I have worked closely with the university on the ICAC response to ensure the university takes all possible steps to ensure this does not happen again. We represented you in a workshop and had valuable discussions and provided suggestions around improvements of the current sexual harrasment policies and anti-sexual violence measures. With the range of consultations now concluded, KPMG are now drafting the final report. The report will continue through the appropriate governance process, including consideration and endorsment by the ICAC Response Steering Committee, the People and Culture Committee and University Council. The final report will be released in full to the University community.

If this has raised any issues for you, please contact: Lifeline: 13 11 14; Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636; Sexual Assault Hotline: 1800 737 732; Yarrow Place Rape & Sexual Assault Services: 1800 817 421; 1800 Respect: 1800 737 732.

Check out the SRC’s Counter Guide: https://bit.ly/3tD6fff! Questions/suggestions about the SRC/university? You are always welcome to email me or send me a message through social media!

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oscarzishao.ong@adelaide.edu.au WeChat ID: oscarong1997

state of the union

Hi all, The new term is well underway alongside with chilly autumn wind. Hope everyone had a relatively productive break and are ready for some more learning!

You would have all received an email from the university explaining the proposed examination plan for this and next semester. If not, here’s a quick recap: invigilated exams start for some this semester, and face-to-face exams will return for next semester if the current CoVID restrictions hold. If you will be doing an invigilated exam, you should have received an email with further details. Have a read, do ample practice to make sure that you are familiar with the software, and when in doubt, visit https://www.adelaide.edu.au/ covid-19/student-information/exams#what-is-online-invigilation-and-proctoring for an extensive list of FAQs or contact your student reps.

As usual, the Adelaide University Union will deliver our famed Stress-Less event on the 12th of May at Barr Smith Lawns. Come down and give yourself a rightful reason to procrastinate among the various events and activities, including massages, patting a therapy dog, mini golf and always more. If you are an AUU member (if not, it is highly recommended), the member’s lunch is also on the same day, at the same location. Convenient!

On top of that, I am proud to have co-moderated our very first Vice-Chancellor student forum with the SRC president. A genuine thanks for all who expressed an interest, submitted a question, and came in face-to-face or online. Your contributions made this possible! Given an extensive number of questions were asked, those not answered during the forum will be answered via email in the following week. For those curious but busy individuals who missed the event, visit https://www.adelaide.edu.au/student/forums for the whole livestream (you’ll have to log in with student ID and password).

Finally, I’m sure you would have seen the news on the recent development of COVID in India. To say that it is unfortunate would put it too lightly. This again reminds us that we need to be mindful, not only of COVID restrictions and hygiene, but also of others. While we continue to scan QR codes when entering places and maintain social distancing whenever possible, we should also consider and reflect on our fortunate situation, and hence be very, very kind to everyone. We never know what others might be going through, and it is definitely worth it to reach out and be caring. Take care of yourselves and those who you care about!

Stay warm, keep dry, and stay safe and happy as always.

Angela Qin 2021 AUU President 11

VOX?

pop!

Raphail Spartalis Bachelor of Arts (Advanced) 1st year

Lily Horner Doctor of Veterinary Medicine DVM II (5th year) 1. Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology — love the process and the outcome ;) 2. Little Women, Louisa Alcott. Both the book and the 2019 film are beautiful!

3. Tough one! I’d probably have to say summer — can’t complain — early morning sunshine, late evening picnics, sunset watching, and the possibility of being an absolute beach bum.

4. Dressage. Not only is it lovely to watch but the bond between rider and horse, and the hours of work they’ve put in together, is admirable.

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1. I really love animals and bugs so probably something along the lines of zoology, or entomology... or maybe palaeontology? One of the “ologies”, for sure.

2. Back to the Future- I always wanted a time machine when I was growing up, and I thought Marty McFly was about as cool as they came. Also those selflacing shoes were tight.

3. I like them all. But that sounds like a cop-out answer, so I’ll say summer.

I have a lot of happy memories associated with summer, and the weather is perfect for beach days!

4. Sprinting. Maybe I’ll make it to my classes on time then. Just kidding (not really), I’d love to be an Olympiclevel gymnast; I think their physical and acrobatic prowess is just mindblowing. And I’d love to be able to do a flip, like, whenever I felt like it.

1. If you had the choice to transfer into any other degree what would it be and why?

2. What’s your favourite classic (film, book, play etc.)?

3. What is your favourite season and why?

4. If you could be Olympic-level at any sport, which would it be and why?

Georgia Walker-Roberts Psychological Science 1st year

Rhiannon Simpson Psychology (Advanced) with Honours 1. No, I’m currently very happy with my choice in degrees and electives.

2. Grease.

3. I love autumn because it has the warm summer days mixed in with cool nights.

4. I would love to be an Olympic level high jumper. I just love high jump!

1. If I had the choice, it would be Bachelor of Music (popular music).

The course overall seems really interesting and would allow me to develop so many new skills. It also could lead to multiple career pathways.

2. My favourite classic film would be The Silence of the Lambs.

3. My favourite season is summer since I associate it with the holidays and spending time at the beach.

4. I think it would be awesome to be at an Olympic-level at surfing since I admire the courage and patience of surfers and it would be a really fun hobby to do on the weekends!

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econ dit

Words By Shan Jayawardhana

Climate Climate Change Change and the the and Free-Rider Free-Rider Problem Problem

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There is near consensus among economists that a carbon tax is the most efficient method in reducing greenhouse emissions. It is therefore puzzling that political leaders around the globe remain stubborn in their opposition to such a tax. Take, for example, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recent comments during a speech at the National Press Club in which he announced that his Government ‘will not tax our way to net zero emissions’ and that ‘getting to net zero … should be about technology not taxes.’ As sympathetic to the idea of progress through technology as one might be, an open letter signed by over 3000 economists stating that a carbon tax ‘offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary’ should hold more weight than a guy who brought a lump of coal into parliament.

Unfortunately, it appears that the future of our planet is not significant enough to overcome what economists would refer to as a ‘free-rider’ problem, one that is typical in the provision of public goods.

Let’s define these concepts. The free-rider problem is a type of market failure in which an individual or group benefits from a public good without

contributing to the costs. Think back to any group project you have suffered through in which one person contributed nothing to the end result but shared in the final grade — that person would be a free-rider. A public good is characterised by two key properties: (1) anyone is able access it; and (2) any one individual’s use does not prevent another from simultaneously accessing it. A lighthouse is the typical example given by economists. Consider the work of those group assignment students as a public good — everyone in the group receives the grade regardless of their contribution.

Recent work by William Nordhaus, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to the economics of climate change, elucidates how these and other game theoretic concepts can be applied to the current problem of curbing greenhouse emissions.

Nordhaus points to two different types of free-riding: one of an international nature in which countries rely on others to reduce their emissions without taking part in their own abatement; and a generational one in which the present generation benefits from goods produced by high carbon emitting production technologies, while future generations are forced to pay for this through more intensive emission reduction strategies or a deteriorated environment.

What makes the free-riding problem with respect to climate change so thorny is the global nature of the problem. Individual countries have an incentive to act in their own self-interest, collectively resulting in inaction.

This problem can be related back to the most famous game theory concept — the Prisoner’s Dilemma. A Prisoner’s Dilemma is a strategic interaction in which agents are incentivised to act selfishly

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an open letter signed by over 3000 economists stating that a carbon tax ‘offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary’ should hold more weight than a guy who brought a lump of coal into parliament.” at the expense of others, resulting in an outcome where everyone is made worse off. When viewing the problem through this lens, it is easy to see why such little progress has been made.

In saying this, there certainly have been efforts towards international cooperation.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took the first tangible steps toward international cooperation in 1997 with the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, which came into effect in 2005. This agreement introduced an international cap-and-trade system for emissions in which countries were assigned limits, but were able to trade ‘rights’ to emissions to achieve efficient outcomes.

Though ambitious in scope, the protocol was weak in implementation. Due to the voluntary nature of the agreement, advanced economies such as the US and Canada withdrew without any penalty.

The Kyoto Protocol was superseded by the Paris Accord of 2015, though once again the prescriptions of the treaty fell short of their intended outcomes as participation was entirely voluntary (as was made abundantly clear when the Trump administration noisily withdrew in 2017).

To combat these free-rider problems, Nordhaus forcefully suggests restructuring the very nature of these agreements so that countries have stronger incentives to participate. To this end, he promotes the

idea of a climate ‘club’, wherein a club is defined as ‘a voluntary group deriving mutual benefits from sharing the costs of producing a shared good or service.’ A successful club would have the following properties: 1.

The gains to membership are large enough such that members are willing to pay their dues and adhere to club rules; and 2.

Non-members and members that violate club rules are able to be penalised or excluded without cost to members; and 3.

Membership is stable in that members do not choose to leave once they have joined.

Nordhaus’ views set a uniform price on carbon as the central rule for membership.

He recommends an initial carbon price of $40 per tonne, which is to be increased in real terms by 3% per year. This is in stark contrast to the current price which the World Bank estimates at $2 per tonne, as of late 2019.

With regard to penalties, the most simple and effective solution is a uniform tariff on all imports from non-participating nations.

It is about providing just enough incentive to participate so that the cost of not participating is greater than the carbon tax itself.

Tackling climate change will require a multifaceted strategy where both tax policy and advances in technology should play part. Given the time critical nature of the problem, however, it is imperative that the most effective policy levers are utilised immediately. Setting an international price on carbon through taxation will be central to this strategy, and such a tax will not be possible without the right alignment of incentives. Establishing a climate club, sooner rather than later, will go a long way to resolving these issues.

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Rural Student Voice

AUU AUU – It’s a thing AUU – – It’s It’s a a thing thing at at Roseworthy at Roseworthy Roseworthy again! again! again!

Those playing along at home last year might have read articles, viewed Facebook posts, and seen petitions speaking out against the AUU’s decision to close the Roseworthy AUU shop — an essential service to students studying at Roseworthy Campus. Fortunately, these messages did not go unnoticed and soon after the situation was brought to light Roseworthy student leaders had been contacted by student representatives from both the AUU board and SRC. Meetings were held, visits to campus were made, and the Roseworthy student body was consulted by the AUU board, SRC members and AUU executive staff.

Eventually, after months of negotiations, the decision was finally reached to keep the AUU shop open in a different format to how the shop was run previously. This new brand of AUU at Roseworthy would be student-driven, kept in the same space as the old shop and would still have enough stock to meet the needs of the Roseworthy Campus community. It was decided that two student ambassadors would be appointed and they would begin their roles in 2021.

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We are now well into semester 1, 2021.

The AUU shop at Roseworthy is well and truly back and filling the needs of the student body who fought so hard to get it reopened. The student ambassadors have put in a great deal of effort to work in conjunction with local businesses to provide member discounts, to ensure that Roseworthy members can get the most out of their memberships. Giveaways and student lunches are coming into the fold, to a level comparable with that of North Terrace students. The shop is consistently stocked with essential course items such as thermometers, dissection kits, stethoscopes, and hard-toed boots which students need to be able to participate in practicals.

All in all, Roseworthy spoke, and North Terrace listened. The AUU shop was an essential part of student life at Roseworthy and the student body is glad it’s back.

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WORDS BY rory spiers

international Student voice Ricky Fernandes: Taking Adelaide by storm StudyAdelaide’s summer program for international students featured a Students Got Talent competition hosted at Her Majesty’s Theatre. It was a night for international students to showcase their incredible array of talents to an audience of friends, family, and the broader public. Dazzled by his rendition of Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down at Her Majesty’s Theatre, I sat down with contestant Ricky Fernandes, and wanted to know more about who he is as an artist, a student, a volunteer, a friend, and a star.

Hi Ricky! Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey in Students Got Talent?

Hi! My name is Ricky Fernandes and I am from Indonesia. I’m currently doing a Master of Education specialising in research. I’m also one of the International Peer Mentors here at the University, and it’s been a wonderful four months volunteering with them.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a real artist cause I don’t have any background in music. But I do love singing. Students Got Talent was my first time on a big stage, as well as being livestreamed, so the pressure was on. It was still very exciting because a lot of my Indonesian friends were there.

So were my classmates and fellow International Peer Mentors. So I thought when I was on stage, I just wanted to dedicate my best performance to all of them.

Even though I didn’t win, I had practiced really hard, I believed that I truly performed my best… It’s just an incredible feeling to have a lot of people supporting me.

With other contestants, it’s shocking

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that we didn’t even talk to each other at first.

But then after seeing each other practice during rehearsals, we started to connect and bond. I became good friends with four other contestants: Estee Evangeline, who won first place; Marjorie Tacsanan, who won the people’s choice award; Shanice Aw, who sung Dance Monkey by Tones and I; and Mehrdad Aghamohamadi, who played a Persian string instrument, blindfolded! We’re still in touch and plan to collaborate later on.

Overall, my time here in Adelaide is just amazing. I feel that joining this competition is only the beginning of what I can achieve.

That's wonderful! But you said that you didn't have a background in music.

How exactly did you get into singing?

Well, I always knew that I could sing, even when I was a kid. My parents didn’t know about this, and it can be quite challenging living in Indonesia when you have a talent. The environment, the people in your community, many of them don’t support you.

Also, my go-to genre is R&B, with riffs and runs, that sort of thing. Back in 2006 or 2007, R&B wasn’t at all popular and even sounded kind of weird.

The first time I sang was when I went to Senior High

fiction

WORDS BY Jialun Qi

ed singing and practicing and making music since.

We’ve been playing for a few months but still have difficulties with renting a studio to rehearse. It’s hard for us as students because the studio can be expensive, so we have to split the bill amongst each other. But for now, it’s just about having fun.

Yeah! I just wanted to perform and that’s it.

I wanted to let people know that I could sing.

It didn’t hurt me that much that I didn’t win.

I gave my best, and I didn’t do that bad on stage either.

I never thought about having an audience, you know. I just wanted to prove to myself, and it always feels so gratifying and cathartic and astounding to sing your heart out. It’s all about making music. If people like it and appreciate your voice, that’s a bonus. Getting famous is a bonus. But it’s not a must.

I get that you want to share your singing with your friends. I noticed that you frequently sing with your Indonesian friends and upload videos on social media. How did this group come about?

In November last year, there was an event called Back for Good for Indonesian students who have completed their studies. I was the coordinator for that event and got to perform as well. Later on, one of our mutual friends, Lucia, asked if I wanted to form an Indonesian acoustics ensemble. I said, “Okay! We can give it a go!” We didn’t even plan for this, all of us only accidentally came together through this occasion. But together we start-

interview by ngoc lan tran

I loved that your mom encouraged you to join competitions, and it didn’t matter whether you won or not. Was that how you feel when you joined Students Got Talent?

Photo: Ricky Fernandes singing Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down. Credit: Adelaide Festival Centre

School.

In 2013, my mum found out about this singing competition in the city (in Indonesia). She encouraged me and said, “I know that you can sing. It doesn’t matter if you win or not, but you must join the competition.” That was the first time I sang publicly, and I won 3rd place!

One of the judges even said, “Wow, where on earth have you been!? We have never had any singers like you here.” From that, I moved on to singing at cafés, hotels, weddings. Oh, and also, I signed up for The Voice Indonesia, though I didn’t get through the audition stage (nervous laughter).

Regardless, that was a big moment for me, knowing that I could begin reaching my potential.

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Sex and the (Small) City What What do do men men really really want? want? Mental Mental Illness Illness

WORDS BY emelia haskey

The emergence of the “softboi” in the year of our lord 2021 has given me pause to consider if, finally, my comorbid mental illnesses have finally become attractive to men. As defined by the Guardian, a softboi is “anyone who has any unique or alternative interests that make them feel superior to other people”.

My personal definition is anyone who plays guitar in a bad Doors cover band, listens to Radiohead, is unemployed, and enjoys a spot of gaslighting. They seem to have a penchant for mentally ill women who they can prey on with their façade of gentleness and genuine interest in arthouse movies – before becoming every woman’s nightmare. But since Scott Morrison has kindly ended sexism with a quick chat to his wife, is there hope for women like me hoping to score a partner?

2020

Usually, dating with a mental illness involves jumping through the hoops of deciding how early into a relationship to disclose the fact that you’re unwell, dealing with how well they take that, and then bitching to your psychologist about it. It makes dating a pain and genuinely disturbs your friends and relatives. It also, as I found out, disturbs whoever runs the Adelaide Love Letters page on Facebook. They have rejected swathes of my applications because I keep describing my crippling,

rapidly-shifting depression as a fun aspect of dating me. I will be suing the page for discrimination later. I’m also in recovery from anorexia and I’m also a coeliac – so I’m the life of the party at dinner dates! Now excuse me while I weep into my (gluten free!) dessert.

Now, we’ve already established settling as an STI, but it’s especially common for those living with mental illness. Staying in a relationship because your partner does the bare minimum to aid you and live with your illness does not a good lover make. In the words of fictional literary genius Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t help but wonder…how do you date well when you’re not well yourself?

I’ve dealt with a number of truly strange and fascinating responses to my disclosure of having mental health issues. One man asked me if my anorexia was contagious. Another referred to me as having “bad vibes”. Though, my personal favourite was after spending the night at a Tinder date’s house, he asked me to leave because I was “too depressing”. This is occasionally very funny but mostly very irritating. In regard to whether to bring up your mental health issues early on in a relationship or even on a first date, my advice is to always get to know the person a bit more before you do the

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since Scott Morrison has kindly ended sexism with a quick chat to his wife, is there hope for women like me hoping to score a partner?” the grand reveal. Once you’ve established that they are a fairly normal and open-minded person, mentioning that you see a therapist once a fortnight shouldn’t disturb them. And if they freak out within the first few dates? Then they’re usually not worth pursuing.

No one deserves to be told they have bad vibes.

But being in a relationship whilst dealing with your brain’s bad vibes is also a challenge even if your partner is understanding.

Cancelling date night, explaining why you’ve done nothing but sleep all day, and bursting into tears while watching a particularly moving Harvey Norman advert can be somewhat awkward.

Providing the context that you’re having a rough day with your brain and need a little extra TLC can be a helpful tip. It can also be good to work out a ready-to-go action plan for when you’re in a crisis – mine involves ice cream, all six seasons of Sex and the City, and some horse tranquilizer.

But if you’re ever really unsure whether someone’s right for you, if they visit you in the psych ward and tell you how sexy you look in your pyjamas and unwashed hair,

they’re usually a keeper.

Like Tinder, mental health issues are something you have to learn to live with. It certainly gets easier with time, and it’s wonderful to feel like an expert at being a bona fide crazy bitch. And remember, if he sleeps on a mattress without a bedframe, he’s probably far crazier than you are.

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LEFT CENTRE

RIGHT

TRIGGER WARNING: SExual Assualt and rape

1. What should be done about Attorney-General Christian Porter?

2. Why do we have a shortfall of ambulances and beds? How should we deal with this?

3. What should we make of President Biden’s foreign policy in the Middle East, specifically his ending of support for Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemen and his latest offensive against militias in Syria?

LEFT: Socialist Alternative 1.

The Attorney-General is a misogynist pig and should be sacked for that (along with his countless other crimes against workers, refugees and welfare recipients). Porter must go, but we can’t stop with him. The sexist culture of the entire ruling class has been laid bare. From parliament to the public service, big banks to the military, capitalism is riddled with deeply sexist institutions.

And, it couldn’t be any other way in a society of sickening power imbalances. The Liberals and their media mates are closing ranks, desperate to stop Porter being held accountable for his actions. The elite want to protect themselves and their privilege, wealth and power. Let’s build the momentum from the #March4Justice and channel our outrage into the streets by disrupting business-as-usual. The whole system has got to go!

2.

Hospitals are chronically under-resourced and ambulance ramping is at catastrophically high levels. Steven Marshall has cut over $11 million in funding to the ambulance service since coming to power. The current crisis of the South Australian health system is nothing new. Let’s be clear: decades of attacks have taken their toll. Labor has governed in the same neoliberal mould and created a perfect storm of funding starved hospitals. The 2010 Weatherill/ Rann budget slashed almost 4000 public service jobs, attacked ambulance worker

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leave entitlements and was compared to John Howard’s anti-worker agenda by unionists at the time. Workers fought those attacks and it’s good that ambulance officers have been taking industrial action, including refusing to charge patients. More funding and resources are desperately needed. But why should anyone have to pay for an ambulance in the first place? To take the profit motive out of public health, we’ll have to organise collectively and hand the bill to the Labor and Liberal politicians who laid the groundwork for the current crisis.

3.

Biden’s airstrikes in Syria will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his career as a war hawk. This latest offensive signals that the White House is pursuing an aggressive foreign policy by reviving Obama-style aggression to compensate for the relative decline of American hegemony. Biden has withdrawn support for the Saudi assault on Yemen. This comes after six years of a war which has left Yemen devastated and on the brink of the biggest famine in modern history. It’s sickening to see ‘progressive’ apologists for the Democrats rush to Biden’s defence. The left should stake out a clear position against Biden’s project of imperialist restoration and demonstrate solidarity with workers and the oppressed in all nations: time to disarm Uncle Sam!

CENTRE: Labor Club

RIGHT: Liberal Club

1.

The allegations made against Christian Porter were handled with a shocking level of disregard and disrespect for the courageous survivor who spoke up about her experiences. This case is entirely reflective of the disgusting culture that our society has fostered when it comes to sexual assault – survivors are disbelieved, dismissed and experience gaslighting while perpetrators are defended at face value. The narrative needs to change – survivors need justice. As for the Christian Porter situation, a more robust investigation is needed.

The Adelaide University Liberal Club chose not to submit a response for this issue.

2.

The current shortfall persists because the SA Liberal Government has consistently overlooked the importance of a well-funded healthcare sector. Since gaining power in 2018, we have seen nothing but the cutting of costs and staff. In any given situation this is inexcusable, let alone during a global health pandemic. It should never be “difficult” to find adequate funding for the health sector – both in regards to physical and mental health. Especially when the Liberal Government manages to find enough money to fund a privatisation agenda that appears to cost more than government run services.

3. It is excellent to see the US withdraw support for Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemen, which has officially been labelled the largest humanitarian crisis in the world by the United Nations. Saudi Arabia’s involvement in this conflict has done nothing but exacerbate the social, economic and political instability for the Yemeni people. Out of a population of 30 million, 20 million have been labeled as in need of humanitarian assistance, with 12 million in acute need.

As for the offensive against militia in Syria, this decision is unsurprising given America’s track record in foreign policy.

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University of Adelaide Chess Club

Who is your club targeted at?

Everyone and anyone! We appreciate all ranges of chess players coming through to play.

Be you a beginner or expert there is always something you can bring to the board.

What sort of events do you hold and what can we expect to see this semester?

The Chess Club in the Hub is our main event that draws a lot of people in. Most come for a casual game against a friend, and some come through to play a bit more competitively. This is my personal favourite event as you make some new friends.

Currently there is the Australian University Chess League (AUCL: https://www.facebook.com/AustralianUniversityChessLeague) which is a combined effort from some lovely people from universities around Australia to hold online tournaments. This is the first year it is being run, with some great input from the other universities involved. And currently Adelaide sits tied first, so keep an eye on our Facebook for more updates on that one.

Another great upcoming event is the South Australian Chess Association’s (https://sachess.org.au/) interclub tournament. This is an over the board tournament that the Adelaide University teams

ANSWER: Qxg7+ Rxg7

WORDS BY Naomi Williams

University of Adelaide Chess Club University of Adelaide Chess Club

CLUB SPOTLIGHT

have done well in over the last couple years with a couple wins under our belts. And we hope this year we can spark those winning ways again.

Why should students join the chess club?

Chess is only half the fun we have. It is really about the people you meet along the way. Some of my best friends today I met in my first weeks of coming to the chess club, and last weekend I went to one of their weddings.

We aim to have a really fun atmosphere at the chess club and hope you can form relationships past chess.

Does anyone inspire you to play chess?

Initially it was my dad. He wasn’t a great chess player by any means, but we had fun playing.

Of course, there are a wide array of great players past and present to look up to but currently my friends inspire me. The commitment and passion some of them have towards chess keeps me on my toes and makes me study it a bit more so I don’t lose to them too often.

What is the best way to get better at chess?

As with most things in life practicing is a sure-fire way to get better. Everyone learns in different ways, you can read some chess books, learn from a teacher or friend or with the surge in online content you can't really go wrong. You put effort into getting better and it will show.

I think the recent exposure for chess has been great for the most part. Inspiring people to play is what it is all about.

I have seen a surge in people playing chess online and in person. We also have some great female chess players and more have come forward to play online and in person. It is really great to see everyone getting alonvg and having some great games of chess.

Playing different people is also good. You get an understanding of how different people play and think. How they form ideas and plans and discussing these things with them can really open your eyes.

This game is from one of the highest rated new chess players in the want have fun, meet people What If areyou the different waysto of apHe is currently a university proaching a game of chess and their thisstate. and try comedy, club is for you!” student doing his honours. benefits? (eg. Pre-planned moves,

“

winging it, etc.)

Being prepared in a chess game is important if you are trying to win. Creating a plan in chess and then executing it, even if it's not the best plan, is still better than no plan. No plan and moving pieces aimlessly gets you in bad positions and you quickly get in trouble.

It is white to move.

The answer to the puzzle below is in the botton left corner of the page.

You can always create new plans and ideas and see how they work out.

What are your thoughts on the Queen's Gambit’?

No spoilers, I have not finished it!

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sustainabili-dit

`v

II hate hate littered littered butts butts and and II cannot cannot lie lie Tobacco consumption in Australia declined from around 30% to 14% between 1990 and 2018, with Australians last year smoking an average of 900 cigarettes per capita. We’re not leading the world in this respect, but it’s a far cry from Greece’s 42% smoking rate, the highest of any developed nation in the world.

As far as the stress-relieving benefits of exercise and meditation go, and as cigarette prices continue to outpace wage growth, smoking makes little sense as both a lifestyle choice and an economic decision.

WORDS BY Ivan Jankovic

However, tobacco consumption, for all its evils, will probably not go away in the foreseeable future. On this point, I will defer to the novelist Leo Tolstoy who wrote this passage 130 years ago that still resonates with every smoker: “It was always at moments when I wanted not to remember what I remembered… I have placed myself in an awkward position, I have done something wrong, and I must recognize my position in order to escape from it, but I do not want to do so – I blame others and smoke!”

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It does us no good to pretend smoking is a totally senseless habit, as harmful as it is. You may as well argue prohibition is the best solution for alcohol abuse.

The question we should ask is not how to eliminate the damage done by smoking but mitigate it.

Let’s talk about what sort of damage cigarettes do, but not to the human body.

A common misconception is that plastic straws are the most littered single-use item. It’s actually cigarette butts, which account for 30-40% of the waste items collected in litter clean-ups annually.

That’s 4.5 trillion cigarette butts every year that end up on the street, in canals, and many eventually in the ocean.

The problem isn’t just that marine life often mistake ciggie butts for food.

Filters do a very good job at capturing many of the carcinogens naturally found in tobacco. So much so that the average tar and nicotine yield of marketed cigarettes has decreased by a combined 70% since 1950, mostly due to the widespread marketing and improvement in the design of cigarette filters. Essentially, a used cigarette filter dropped into the environment is like a dirty bomb. Scientists know that just one used filter in a litre of water is enough to kill all aquatic

life and freshwater fish in the tank. What they’re unsure of is how the chemicals are dispersed in a marine ecosystem.

In other words, it’s not a question of whether damage is being done, but how much and what the long-term effects are. Biodegradable filters don’t solve the problem either. In effect, they simply accelerate the secretion of toxic chemicals, which can also inhibit the growth of plant life on otherwise fertile soil.

a specialized process. Companies like TerraCycle exist, which repurpose filters for use in everything from shipping pallets to furniture. But while TerraCycle has been embraced by big tobacco’s environment programs and municipal governments around the world, the company itself relies on the cooperation of local government to continue operating. The more support and subsidies they receive, the more they’re able to recycle.

The only way to ensure used butts don’t

“Just one used filter in a litre of water is enough to kill all aquatic life and freshwater fish in the tank.”

end up in the environment is to recycle them. Unlike other single-use items, cigarette litter has two unique properties which make recycling a challenge.

First, flicking a cigarette butt, for a lot of smokers, just feels right. A 90s study by tobacco company Philip Morris found a number of reasons why. Most smokers weren’t aware of the environmental damage caused by cigarette butts.

Some felt flicking the butt was a natural extension of the rebellious nature of the smoking ritual. Some felt guilty about smoking and sought to get as quickly away from the scene of the crime.

Some – incredibly – thought it was poor etiquette to leave a used butt in an ashtray.

Secondly, it costs more to recycle a standard cellulose acetate filter than it does to manufacture a new one. It’s the same story with most items that you put in your yellow bin (except tin, which is almost always picked out of the landfill), since the amount of recyclable waste greatly exceeds the capacity of recycling facilities. Moreover, the chemical properties of the filter have to undergo

The reality is that recycling is not a profitable industry. Someone needs to shoulder the cost of recycling programs, which is where the conversation needs to start for increasing government subsidies to the recycling industry. Not only that, but to make cigarette recycling a normal practice, filter collection points would need to be frequently available in public spaces to quash the temptation to flick or send to the landfill. Expecting smokers to take their butts to a local recycling depot instead of doing what’s more convenient is a serious case of blind optimism.

But to transition to a renewable society, we ultimately need to stop worshipping at the altar of convenience. The market has failed to insure us against environmental catastrophe because it is a better measure of what human beings desire, not necessarily what we need.

Recycling needs to be understood not as an economic burden, but a necessary step to ensure we don’t irreparably ruin this planet. If we don’t take it seriously enough, we might just end up the butt of the joke.

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A Different Way to Deal with Dr Seuss?

A Different Way to Deal with Dr Seuss?

WORDS BY LAKEISHA WATKINS

WORDS BY Charlie Gilchrist

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Most people are probably aware by now of the controversy surrounding the decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to cease publishing six Dr. Seuss (A.K.A Theodor Seuss Geisel) titles as they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” Among the books that will no longer be published are And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. Publishers often decide to discontinue books, and they have every right to do so. Without a doubt, the books in question contain numerous harmful depictions of non-white people that needed to be addressed urgently. However, the decision to cease publishing these six titles altogether raises important questions about how to best deal with instances of racism in books, films, television, plays and music, to name a few. It also raises important questions of how, if at all, we should immortalise well-known figures who espoused bigoted views.

The decision to discontinue these books seems to be primarily based on a journal article published in Research on Diversity in Youth Literature in 2019, titled “The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Seuss’ Children’s Books”, although it is almost certainly also a part of the broader movement to address racism in society after the horrific murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in 2020. In the article, authors Katie Ishizuka and Ramón Stephens examine Dr Seuss’ body of work through the lens of critical literacy and critical race theory, arguing that Dr Seuss created an “extensive body of explicitly racist published works dehumanizing and degrading Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and people from other marginalized groups (including Jewish people and Muslims)” and that those “[m]inimizing, erasing, or not acknowledging Seuss’ racial transgressions across his entire publishing career deny the very real historical impact they had on people of color.”

The books in question are undeniably racist in their depiction of nonwhite people. For example, in And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Seuss depicts a Chinese man with yellow skin, slanted eyes, a long ponytail and a conical hat who is using chopsticks. The text reads, “A Chinaman Who eats with sticks…”, although it was later changed to read “A Chinese man Who eats with sticks…”, and the yellow skin and ponytail were removed. If I Ran a Zoo has several racist depictions of Middle Eastern and Asian people. For example, one cartoon depicts what appears to be a Middle Eastern man in a turban riding atop a camel. The protagonist, who is collecting animals for his imagined zoo, states, “A Mulligatawny is fine for my zoo/ And so is a chieftain. I’ll bring one back too.”

It is clear that the racist depictions in these books needed to be addressed, however, whether stopping publication of them altogether was the best approach remains uncertain. One common argument against doing so is that it could set a bad precedent. For example, Roald Dahl was well known for his anti-Semitic views, which are especially apparent in his novel The Witches. But, should we stop reading Roald Dahl altogether. Similarly, Pablo Picasso was a serial misogynist. Does this mean we should stop appreciating his art? Perhaps

your answer to these questions is yes, however, it will mean giving up a lot of our most cherished artists, musicians, authors and even directors.

Another way Dr. Seuss Enterprises could have dealt with instances of racism in the books is by censoring or replacing the offensive text and images. This has been a common way of addressing similar instances of racism in the past. For example, Charles Dickens edited parts of Oliver Twist after a Jewish woman complained that his depiction of the antagonist, Fagin, as “the Jew” would fuel anti-Semitism. A film, whose original name contained a racist slur, was later renamed The Legend of Black Charley when broadcast on television.

As for Dr. Seuss’ overall legacy of racism, it is a little more complicated. He certainly produced many xenophobic stories and cartoons in his career. However, he is well known for his anti-Hitler cartoons and some of his books also promoted racial tolerance. One such book is the Sneetches. The book features two birdlike creatures, one with stars and the other without. The birds with stars bully the birds without stars until a salesperson comes with a device that can change the number of stars. Soon enough, it is so hard to differentiate between the two birds that they decide to live in peace and tolerance. Whilst this book has been criticised for promoting colour-blindness, this was in line with how activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. sought to combat racism at this time.

Unfortunately, this whole issue has been politicised by conservative politicians and right-wing news networks in the United States and Australia in the hope of starting a “culture war”. This must be rejected wholesale.

Furthermore, this discussion should not distract from other more important issues such as preventing a climate disaster nor water down the need to combate white supremacy and any other forms of racism.

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You are reading this article in the third On Dit issue, well after census date (25 March), when students either unenrolled from courses or have become financially liable for them.

Normally there would be nothing unusual about census date or paying student fees.

It’s a standard process most students go through twice a year. However, this year’s fees are somewhat special, as they mark the introduction of the Job-Ready Graduates Package. The Liberal government’s decrease of Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) student contributions for a number of ‘job-ready’ subjects (including STEM), marked an increase in the cost of students enrolling in social sciences, humanities, law, creative arts, economics and communications courses.

Some degrees have seen a price hike as much as 100%. While new students are affected in a number of ways by these reforms, the impact on Permanent Residents (and New Zealand citizens residing in Australia) is especially disproportionate.

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In issue 88.4 of On Dit, I wrote a piece called “Australian Education System: Don’t Forget your Future Citizens”. I detailed how (non-Humanitarian) Permanent Residents (PRs), Australia’s ‘future citizens,’ are having an increasingly tough time accessing education. A blatant example of these growing obstacles, which I highlighted in the article, was excluding – since January 1, 1996 – PRs from accessing Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) loans to support their studies. Essentially, PRs who are unable to pay their student fees in full by census date are unenrolled from their courses, regardless of circumstances. Similarly, PRs have not been made eligible for the New Colombo Plan (NCP) grants, which allow Australian citizens to travel abroad for study. The previous ‘NCP-like’ grants, the Endeavour Leadership Program (which used to be available to both citizens and PRs for studying overseas), was discontinued in 2019. The message of the article, in essence, was simple: PRs, which as per government definition, are the future citizens of Australia par excellence, are not getting a fair go.

“The [...] government’s decrease of Commonwealth Supported Places [...] student contributions [... means] Some degrees have seen a price hike as much as 100%.”e

Due to the 1996 reform, PRs commencing their degrees in 2021 in the affected fields will pay the fees upfront. A PR student enrolling in an Arts degree for instance will need to pay A$14,500 instead of A$6,684 every year, and this might mean the student is unable to enroll in their desired field of study.

It’s disproportionate because because most students are able to defer their fees to the taxation system (i.e., citizens, PR humanitarian visa holders, and some New Zealand citizens) the change in student contributions, while still significant, does not fully preclude access to more expensive courses, while PRs unable to pay in full are simply unenrolled after census date.

Moreover, PRs – while having to pay upfront – do not benefit from the 10% reduction in fees HECS-eligible students receive when they choose to pay at least $500 up front. This observation in no way diminishes the harm this reform has had across the board - it simply notes the government has exacerbated its effects on Permanent Residents, and that process began 25 years ago.

is now easier to access education. It would however be fallacious and unfair to use this rationale to argue that it means the needs of PRs has been considered during the rollout of this legislation. The introduction of this package should have highlighted the challenges PRs face and, in view of this disproportionate impact, ignited a debate on how access to higher education for PRs is being hamstrung. But it didn’t despite the fact that 1 in 26 of your PR classmates (over 37’000 domestic students) will now pay more to study what they want.

Finally, it suggests further reforms affecting PRs would proceed unopposed and perhaps even unnoticed. Dan Tehan should indeed have read On Dit as this reform was being introduced unless, unexempted from moral responsibility, we choose to conclude PRs’ access to education does not matter.

After all they are not eligible to vote in or out our politicians.

WORDS BY mirco di giacomo

One month after the publication of the article, the now former Minister for Education Dan Tehan announced the now legislated Job-Ready Graduates Bill, which as I mentioned earlier has a disproportionate impact on PRs, including on their access to education.

it

Admittedly, prior to the reform, PRs seeking education in the fields whose student contributions have now been reduced used to face relatively higher costs, like PRs now seeking education in the ‘fee-hiked’ courses. For some PRs,

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Am I naive when I say we’re experiencing a job drought? Is it silly to say it feels harder than job seekers before me? I have watched others navigate this unsettling period - maybe they just whinged less?

The unemployment rate in Australia is huge at the moment for obvious reasons.

Alarmingly, it is highest for people between the ages of 18-34. Although I have not been keeping tally (that would be way too depressing) I must be comfortably in the double digits of rejected job applications.

vourite questions is, “Tell us about THREE extra-curricular activities you do that contribute to your community”. Apparently, drinking with mates does not count (rude).

Nor does hanging out with Nana, cleaning my house, or that one time I volunteered at Salvos in year ten… (double rude). I add volunteering to my to do list.

It is, statistically speaking, so much harder to get a job right now. Last October, I had a one-on-one with a delightfully optimistic university careers counsellor. What began as a cheery chat slowly divulged into a gloomy conversation about alternate pathways. Even university career counsellors know the market is saturated.

People with great answers to community-based questions, are people with time and resources. Students who live independently and work to support themselves through university are unlikely to be as fortunate. How does the system account for this? I do not doubt that the corporations I apply for are equal opportunity employers. The way hiring software tries to give equal opportunity is probably great.

I hope they work. I wonder how equal opportunity is reconciled with employee referrals.

With each application, I start by nervously refreshing LinkedIn a few times, hoping there are not too many applicants in the race. Inevitably, with each refresh, the number increases. I wonder if the hours I will spend on the application are worth it.

What is the ratio of time spent on applications vs. chance of an interview? I decide to have a pint. Online application forms are my nemesis. One of my fa-

Where the demand for a role is so much higher than the supply, I need a referral. I understand why recruiters like them. The numbers show that employee referrals have the greatest return on investment, reduce the turnover rate, and improve the quality and retention rate of new hires. So, despite the highly specialised, automated nature of the application software, recruiters like referrals better. If this doesn’t show

32

the system is broken, I do not know what else does. It is disheartening to think that the time I spend wiring my cover letter and the countless unpaid hours I have done are potentially worthless against a referral.

an unread CV sitting in an inbox. In all likelihood, only the top 1% of applications are being read by a human being. Similar to Walt Disney and JK Rowling, I am not the top of my class.

Unlike Walt Disney and JK Rowling, it appears there is less I can do about it.

“I am just an applica-

tion in a talent bank, an unread CV sitting in an inbox.”

Stories of perseverance are unrealistic in today’s process. The inspiring stories of Walt Disney, who was rejected and fired from multiple jobs before he formed his own company or JK Rowling’s persistence in presenting Harry Potter to book publishers are relics of a simpler time.

Today, Walt Disney is unlikely to have gotten his foot in the door. JK Rowling might have been more successful because her work is likely still read by humans, not software. These anomalies are supposed to inspire. But they are as realistic as fairy-tales in the internet age.

I am just an application in a talent bank,

words by Charlotte Andersen

Further, the frustrating part of the job drought is not the lack of offers, it’s the lack of feedback. In 2020 I applied for a few dozen clerkships with law firms over the summer. I did not receive any response. I do not know if it was because I was not a final year student, if it was my grades, or if it was because others had done double degrees. Maybe it was because they chose people with more experience in a firm, or if maybe I had made a spelling mistake. Maybe the successful candidates were referrals. Likely answer?

All of the above.

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t

Here’s to the survivors Here’s to the survivors Here’s to the survivors Here’s to the survivors

My innocence does not exist. Not anymore.

You took that away from me.

Now the light is no more.

Thrown away and forgotten about.

Did I mean nothing to you?

Did I do something wrong?

Is that why you thought you could treat me the way you did?

I felt betrayed and angry and confused.

I blamed myself. You blamed me.

I wondered what I did to deserve this.

Looking back, I don’t know why I ever trusted you.

I thought I loved you and you loved me.

Well, I guess I was wrong.

Others wonder why I have trust issues. It’s because of people like you.

I was once a very bright person, but you took that from me.

You took so much from me.

It feels like my light is gone.

You treated me like I was nothing, And over time, I started believing it myself.

It was once you that kept me imprisoned, But now it is my mind that keeps me imprisoned.

I wonder if I will ever be worth it, Or did you take my worth as well?

I never thought that this would happen.

Especially by someone like you.

You broke me, and I had to figure out how to fix myself and go on living.

I never thought it would be possible to love again.

Not after everything that you did to me and put me through.

Because of you, I am broken.

I am no longer all put together.

I’m moving on from you And rebuilding my life.

I am slowly getting my light back, The one you took from me.

And I will never let anyone take that from me again.

I am a strong independent woman, And I am a survivor!

This is dedicated to all the women out there who have been abused by someone and survived it- here’s to the survivors.

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WORDS BY lucy flower

A Dream That Stays A Dream That Stays A Dream That Stays

I dreamt that I was surrounded by lilac silk When your hand brushed my thigh it sparked with static heat That should have ended this little fantasy but Guilelessness was its own force, a reckoning of Hands tangled in your hair as I breathed in the scent Of the [sweet] jasmine perfume you wore in the spring And one time in winter when you asked me to stay

Ask me again, darling, and I would never leave I’d bury my pride, golden and worthless, with those

WORDS BY Jeniece A. Van Heer

Dead geraniums you keep outside your front door

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With dirt-stained knees, I’d beg in bent benediction For the privilege of picking up wasted vows The vivid shades of your soft sighs mean more to me Than dignity. If we’d curl up on lilac sheets…

Then all my dreams from dawn till death would be peaceful Shades of black and grey; quite happily given up.

37 37

WhyBiden You Should Why Won Read Borges

About halfway through last year I read Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece of magical realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude, having heard rave reviews from members of my extended family. Strange, haunting, and beautiful, it is absolutely one of my favourite books I read last year. However, in terms of strangeness, it pales in comparison to another deeply weird South American book I read last year: Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths, a collection of some of the Argentinian writer’s short stories and essays. The tales in this collection mirror its title; within their twisting passages of sentences one becomes blissfully lost.

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was born in Buenos Aires in 1899. When he was 15, he and his family moved to Switzerland where he completed his secondary education. Before returning to Argentina in 1921, his family travelled widely all around Europe, and so Borges became involved in the Ultraísmo movement in Spain. Back in Argentina, Borges quickly started to distribute his poems in surrealist journals. Fast-forward to 1944, when Borges published arguably his most significant work, Ficciones, a collection of short stories including “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, “The Garden of Forking Paths”, and “The Library of Babel”, three of his most famous stories (all of which are also contained in Labyrinths). Ficciones was translated and published in English in 1962, the same year as Labyrinths, and was one of the forerunners of the South American magical realism movement (hence the mention of Gabriel Garcia Marquez earlier).

Possibly the most identifiable direct influence on Borges’ writing is the works of Franz Kafka, of whom Borges was a big fan and prolific translator. In Borges we can see both the exploration of the unusual and the mastery of short fiction present in Kafka’s writing, however Borges took both of these concepts even further. In Borges’ fiction, reality is never clear-cut, and he often inserts different levels of reality (or non-reality) in his work, deliberately blurring the lines between each. For example, in his story “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, narrated by the character Borges, ‘Orbis Tertius’ refers to a fictional organisation (created by the author Borges) that seeks to invent a new country, Uqbar (though whether this country exists or not within the story’s reality is debatable), of which residents then go on to develop the idea of a mystical planet, Tlön.

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Though complex, this seems reasonable enough, until Borges later describes in a postscript anachronistically dated 1947 (though the story was originally published in 1940) that objects from Tlön begin to bleed into our world until our world becomes Tlön.

What?

In the latter half of his life, as he became increasingly blind, Borges’ style grew more towards even shorter fiction, many of his works towards the end of his life being only one or two pages. About half a dozen of these micro-stories or “parables” are collected at the end of Labyrinths. My personal favourite of these is “Borges and I”, a peculiar meditation on the concepts of identity and authorship.

Borges is not by any means a straightforward writer. His writing style is stilted and academic, and there is a general air of intellectual superiority. Borges has read everything. You – the reader – have not. However, despite the difficulty and unusualness of his writing, you keep coming back for more; his prose never really leaves your mind, even long after putting the book down. Labyrinths is much like the Zahir (from his short story of the same name), an object such as a coin that once perceived (or in this case, read), it slowly consumes one’s thoughts until nothing else can be known. A mild exaggeration, possibly, but I certainly find myself from time to time picking up this book and reading, even for a short while, before I am aware of doing so. The final sentence of “The Zahir” is the character Borges’ rumination that “Perhaps behind the coin I shall find God.” I’m not sure if you would find God in Labyrinths, but I am certain that you would find something.

WORDS BY Finlay Belfrage Edwards

This kind of story is typical of Borges. Also typical of him is his tendency for his short stories to have as their protagonists a fictionalised version of Borges himself, which adds to the sensation of being told tales of a metaphysically misspent youth by an insane old man (a term in this case I use with the highest reverence).

Also similar to Kafka is his enthusiasm for short fiction, as Borges never wrote a novel in his life. “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” is in fact one of his longer works at 17 pages.

39

Knock Knock...

Talking Shit with Resident Scatologists Caitlin Battye and Liam Johns

Poo’s There?

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Have you turd the latest trend sweeping through the University of Adelaide? We have, so we are here to recommend you check out one of the many Poop Tracking apps available and start logging your logs.

Poop Trackers are the greatest niche on the App Store! They let you keep track of the time of each poo, its consistency, its colour, and any additional notes you may deem fit to add - and displays your poop history in a convenient calendar! Nifty!

IBS. Crohn’s. Dysentery, or whatever killed all those World War I soldiers. Celiac disease. Gluten intolerance. Lactose intolerance. Late stage bowel cancer. Sepsis.

Other intolerances. What do all these illnesses have in common? That’s right.

They can kill you. And also? Poop.

Now, wouldn’t you want to avoid these horrible illnesses? That’s why you should log your logs. If you have a poop tracking app and log your logs, you can show your log history to your doctor and get some top notch medical feedback on the health and quality of your poop to see if you will develop any concerning poop diseases.

(Disclaimer: poop tracking will not prevent lactose intolerance and will merely assist in the diagnosis.)

And now, for what’s really important... the social benefits of logging your logs. Allow us to propose a simple question: how can logging your logs (because that isn’t an overdone comment yet) improve your ~clout~ on campus?

First of all, can you think of a better conversation starter than your own personalised poo annals? Nor can we! Not only is it a great conversation starter, but it’s one that can also lead to some funny hijinks.

For example, the last party the two of us went to (at which we were the only sober ones, fyi!) culminated in us chanting “track your poops!” at people until they eventually caved, downloading the app and joining our chants! We then got to add all our new Poop Homies into a special exclusive poop-dedicated group chat (or, poop chat). This all culminates in a newfound sense of commpoonity now that you and your new poop homies have completed the empoowering task of shedding that cultural tapoo together.

41 41

Winners and Losers of Trump Running Again President Trump recently made his first post-presidential appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It was much of the same.

Boasting about his popularity, discrediting election practices, attacking Biden for a disastrous first month due to the mess he inherited, launching a variety of simple, boorish political attacks and of course, claiming he’d won the 2020 Presidential Election. As he did this, he left open the possibility of a run in 2024, stating ‘I may even decide to beat them for a third time’. This far out from the election, all anyone can do is speculate. Trump seems to genuinely believe that he is deserving of the office and may decide to reclaim it. Or he may be soaking up the limelight and flexing his muscles within the party, desperate to avoid being forgotten after five years of dominating public attention, before ultimately passing.

His intentions remain unknown for now, but regardless of whether he runs or not, various groups win and lose with this announcement.

WORDS BY Sebastian Andrew

who wins?

Democrats. Despite their constant condemnation and declaration of him as a threat to the country, his closer than expected loss in 2020 despite the ongoing COVID pandemic, economic turmoil and polls consistently projecting a Biden landslide, I believe Democrats have reason to welcome Trump’s remarks for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, Trumpism and Trump himself are proving to be increasingly toxic in relatively higher income, well educated, suburban counties and regions. Running against Trump has either allowed Democrats to flip and solidify their standing, or come within striking distance in historically Republican territory. These suburban gains allowed Democrats to flip Georgia and Arizona, and come close to flipping Texas. As these states are all projected to gain electoral votes for 2024, and their respective suburbs are growing in population, running Trump again could allow Democrats to retain and gain some of

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these electoral vote-rich states. Additionally, Democrats could flip congressional and state-legislative seats held by Republicans due to this further suburban erosion resulting from Trump atop the ticket.

Secondly, Trump has higher disapprovals than any other of the potential candidates. The argument can be made that approvals ≠ votes, but Trump has remained consistently unpopular among the public and over the course of his presidency, has shown little desire to try and improve his own popularity, instead relying on a dedicated base of support, and turning every contest into an unpopularity one. Naturally, campaigning against someone who’s deeply unpopular and does little to remedy it and is more favourable than potentially facing someone more likeable and approved of. Even if Trump decides to excuse himself from running, his presence in the field prevents these potentially stronger candidates from establishing themselves earlier and could lead to party infighting that damages them going into a general election.

who could go either way?

Republicans representing swing districts likely have mixed thoughts, as running with Trump atop the ticket poses both its rewards and risks. Trump has demonstrated an ability to inspire unprecedented loyalty from his supporters, and to translate this loyalty and excitement into votes. Naturally, Trump voters are likely (although not guaranteed) to vote for Republicans up and down the ticket, and a turnout boost from Trump could make the difference in a close race. Running with Trump also provides a less-spoken about advantage for swing-district Republicans. Voters don’t always vote straight party-line and may vote one party for president, but occasionally favour the other party for congress to serve as a ‘check’ or may wish to punish the party but still feel uncomfortable voting entirely for the opposing side. Having Trump on the ticket allows these voters to vote against Trump, but still feel secure in this choice by voting Republican down the ticket. This was observed in the 2016 and 2020 House elections, where swing district Republicans significantly outperformed Trump. On the other hand, having Trump atop the ticket could disadvantage vulnerable Republicans by minimising their ability to distance themselves from him, and as ticket-splitting declines, and voters in these areas trend increasingly Democratic, all the enthusiasm from Trump’s base may not be enough to save them.

who loses?

The biggest losers are the many Republicans angling for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Paradoxically, this category includes many of the president’s most vocal supporters. But while they trumpet his cause, they would much prefer him to step aside – after anointing them his heir to his legions of supporters. Naturally, Trump being in the race, or at least being thought to be so, complicates things. A majority of Republicans believe that Trump won in 2020 and he overwhelmingly outranks any potential challengers in opinion polls. Therefore, until he outright states that he is not running in 2024, he is assumed to be running, and he is already the frontrunner for the nomination. To even hint at running now would be to challenge Trump when he enjoys enormous levels of support amongst the party’s voters. To challenge him would be to incur his wrath, and essentially kill any prospective presidential campaign.

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Telenovelas

WORDS BY Abby Oakey

More than a guilty pleasure

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Learning a language is hard. Grammar and conjugations are frustrating, making errors or speaking with a noticeable accent can be embarrassing, and practicing it outside of class is terrifying.

All that said, a passion for the language can override any worries you have. In my case, my passion for learning Spanish has been reignited by telenovelas.

ning some 30 years of production, they are released between 6 months and a year, with daily episodes. This allows for a quicker progression of plot than soap operas. However, compared to a standard Western TV series, telenovelas are able to flesh out characters, relationships, plot points and themes over a longer period of time.

Imagine it’s early evening in 1988 in Colombia and the streets are bare. Why? Everyone is inside watching the evening program of Amar y Vivir. Now it’s 2004, and former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner supposedly postponed a cabinet meeting to view the finale of Pasion de Gavilanes. Fast forward to 2020 and my dad, who is constantly voicing his opinions about the ‘crap’ I watch, spent the summer holidays fervently viewing all 188 episodes of a telenovela with me.

I am not alone in my obsession, and it’s worth thinking about why.

When expressing my enjoyment of telenovelas, I do get some strange looks as I feel some associate them with dramatic and unrealistic acting and plotlines.

While there is truth in this, it is precisely what makes telenovelas so fun. I love the fountains of tears, the slapping, and exciting reveals. Telenovelas thrive on dramatic irony. There is nothing more satisfying than the release of a secret after a long wait. It’s all about waiting to see the reaction of the character, whether it be a would-be widow finding their husband has been alive the whole time or the main couple finally getting together. However, the waiting is a reason why, at the same time, they are the most frustrating thing to watch. I always find myself yelling at the characters, astounded at their lack of communication skills.

Telenovelas are often described as the Latin American equivalent of our soap operas. While this is a somewhat accurate observation, telenovelas definitely have their differences. For one, they have an ending. Instead of span-

A good telenovela has a fine-tuned balance between fantasy and reality. Many of the most popular explore everyday realities of the viewer. For example, La Reina del Sur or Amar y Vivir explore how organised crime affects people’s personal relationships and way of life. This has the potential to generate social discourse, especially if a whole country is talking about the same thing the next day at work. The fantasy element is crucial to facilitating the escapist elements of the genre, and can be summed up as organised chaos.

Themes of honour, love, and revenge are widely explored, perpetuating the narrative that the good guy always wins. The fatal combination of the fantastic and the real absorbs its viewers in the story. At this point, I am sick of the narrative that the media we consume must be sophisticated, thought-provoking or high-brow. To some extent we need escapism now more than ever.

improved greatly.

There are arguments that the golden age of telenovelas is in decline. This is mainly due to the portrayal of women, lack of diversity, and classism in some series.

Many watching telenovelas now (including myself) have a love-hate relationship with the genre as they are an important part of Latin American culture but still problematic. Every telenovela I have seen has a couple that exhibit these issues in some form. No doubt this reflects social issues in Latin American society. But ironically, if there is anything that could get people talking about how to change the genre for the better, it would be telenovellas themselves.

The universality of the themes explored in telenovelas means that they are easily understood internationally, despite their apparent localisation. I think that is what particularly engaged my dad with the series: the differences in storytelling, the cumbia music and culture all in conjunction with satisfying themes everyone can relate to. In my case, watching telenovelas is like a pseudo-cultural experience that replaces experiences I am unable to have (like studying abroad) because of the pandemic. It has worked wonders in my language learning. I can better understand grammatical structures, nuances in word connotations, and my comprehension has

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Dear Society, I would like to lodge a formal complaint concerning your behaviour. Yesterday, I passed you on the street while undertaking my daily doings, and upon smiling in your direction, was somewhat displeased to discover that you rewarded me with as much charm as a dead slug. Now, if I were seeking an apathetic response, I would have aimed my pleasant expression at a brick wall - although I must compliment you on your fine impersonation of one. Had it been a warm, birds-chirping, sun-shining sort of day, I would not be so bothered by your lack of benevolence; however, it was a rather gloomy, ducks-huddling, clouds-covering kind of day. My discontent was only further exacerbated as I witnessed this behaviour the day before yesterday, and the week prior to this, as well as the previous month and year preceding that too. It would appear that you have not been informed of this possibly unintentional - yet unnerving, all the same - attitude, and so being one of the few honest people I know, I have taken the time to do so myself.

As a close acquaintance of yours, I believe that addressing this issue will prove to be for the greater good of yourself, together with several other individuals. I understand that demanding transformations to your routine demeanour may be asking a bit much, but as such a prominent figure in everyday life, I request that you consider my statement of dissatisfaction with an open mind and willingness to act on that which I

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You may ask: Why is it that I have taken so long to express my concern?

The answer: As an optimistic being, I had hoped that the odds would be in my favour and you would become enlightened to this problem by your own means at some point during these past 17 years.

I must question you though, for it strikes me curious as to how one so communal like yourself appears unable to manage even a mere upturning of the corners of you mouth. Is that Herculean effort for you? Has it never reached your constantly plugged ears that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile? In my opinion, it is utterly incomprehensible that you strive for minimal exertion on a daily basis, and despite this, resort to practicing an expression of increasingly strenuous effort over one of a calmer and kinder nature.

WORDS BY ria agarwal

have revealed to be true of your nature.

Whilst my accusations may sound severe, I am told that you never understand a person until you climb in their shoes and walk around in them. On this note, I must raise another source of grievance. On numerous occasions during which I have attempted to converse with none other than yourself, I have found myself wishing for the magical appearance of duct tape. Whether it be to diminish communicative means or obstruct auditory abilities, I remain unsure. What I am sure of is that I find no pleasure in absorbing 9 and ¾ of the voiced remarks accompanying your presence. Were you to display slightly more value in food and cheer and song above wealth, it would be a merrier time for all. Nonetheless, your obsession with brown bread and money prevails over discussions of higher interest – which most certainly excludes politics, politicians, political parties and petty people’s problems.

Might I propose something to correct the evident deficiency of good advice you seem to have been offered in your time? Firstly, I will have you know that I give very good advice. Although much like you, Society, I very seldom follow it. While it affects you little more than eliciting a cruel snicker, while it sounds like a single grain of rice invisible among the tiered paddies of a clouded mountainside, here is what is what I propose: Smile back.

As I pass you on the street while undertaking my daily doings, upon smiling in your direction… smile back. Whether it be a warm, birds-chirping, sun-shining sort of day, or a gloomy, ducks-huddling, clouds-covering kind of day… smile back. Simply returning my gesture is all I ask. Perhaps in a future letter of complaint I will address one of my other grievances, as I have several more that require your attention.

And so, whilst I am at present driven to bite my thumb at your misconduct, I truly hope that my words do not merely wash away as watery ink on paper… after all, tomorrow is another day; life starts all over again, bringing with it an opportunity for change.

Best of luck in the future, Outsider

DEAR SOCIETY DEAR SOCIETY DEAR SOCIETY

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what’s going on in secret Auu board meetings

Over the years, there has been intense speculation about what Adelaide University Union Board Directors do during the secret ‘In-Camera’ board meetings. As per AUU rules, the Board may meet without visitors to discuss certain matters such as commercial in confidence. According to the rules, minutes and other in-camera documents are not to be released to the public and as the directors themselves are bound not to disclose details, no one outside the Board (and some staff) actually know what goes on in them.

On Dit asked several students for their views as to what they thought was going on inside the meetings. Here are the wackiest answers:

“Definitely brewing moonshine. I mean, c’mon, why do they keep a room to themselves every month for comparatively long periods that they all need privacy to attend to?” – Dave, Electrical Engineering

WORDS BY Felix Eldridge

“Probably still shredding Hillary Clinton emails in monthly inconspicuous batches.” – Donald, Commerce

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“Probably a mass orgy. Think about it, student politicians can never get involved in romantic entanglements with other factional figures in public because it would ruin their image, so they call these ‘in camera’ meetings just so they can have it off with one another.” – Sarah, Dentistry “Maybe it’s just for them to check each other’s moles.” – Cecilia, Health Sciences “I reckon they’re just contacting their overlords, the lizard people for their monthly check in about how the alien invasion is progressing.” – Posadas, Psychology

“Surely they’re running an illegal cockfighting ring in there. – Natalie, English Literature “Um, hello. Clearly they’re there doing the paperwork for Yemen arms trafficking to help the CIA.” – Derrick, Arts Advanced

“I reckon it’s got to be something super embarrassing, like they’re all into My Little Pony or Play School or still read Twilight.” – Stuart, Law

“They clearly go there to smother baby animals to death and sacrifice them to the old gods. Why do you think Roseworthy campus keeps losing 1 lamb a month? Coincidence? I think not!” – Emily, Veterinary Science “I believe that the members of the AUU Board merely conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the rules and policies of the organisation to a high standard of efficacy and efficiency. They merely use the ‘secret meetings’ as a means of engaging in fully frank and robust discussions, tempered by a consensus based bipartisan approach to motions with no dodgy behaviour present whatsoever.” – Greg, Sociology When asked about these suggested theories, an AUU Board Director, who wished to remain anonymous, audibly gulped and said:

“You might think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment.”

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What is happening in Myanmar?

WORDS BY Go Suan Pau

Thank you to On Dit Magazine for offering me the chance to present this report, and also their support to Myanmar students at the University of Adelaide who are highly stressed with the situation in Myanmar where family, relatives, and friends fear for their lives daily.

The Myanmar military continue to commit grave human rights abuses, including

war crimes against civilians every day and night. This includes raids and unlawful arrests during night curfews, as well as extrajudicial shootings of unarmed protestors and bystanders on the street, sometimes even firing randomly into homes. To avoid these atrocities being broadcast to the world, the military has shut down civilian internet communications.

Based on their current actions, the military junta has no intention of allowing Myanmar to return to democracy in a secure, dignified, and peaceful manner. Since February 1, tens of thousands of mostly young college student have been protesting around the country in opposition to Myanmar’s military coup. Freedoms of speech, association, and assembly have all been banned. Human rights defenders and other nonviolent demonstrators have been illegally arrested and detained by authorities. Human rights

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violations by the military and the police continued to go unpunished as there is no internal authority that can bring them to account.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 570 people have been confirmed dead due to the actions of the military. As of April 5, a total of 2,728 people have been detained, with 38 of them

sentenced to imprisonment. Arrest warrants have been served to 443 protestors.

At this stage, the world is watching and there is growing disappointment that the United Nations seems hopelessly paralysed and unable to act because of the Security Council vetoes of Russia and China. Consequently, the Council has proven to be ineffective and unable to assist in resolving the situation in Myanmar. The calls to action by many nations and organisations around the world pleading for the UN needs are going nowhere. The UN are not able to enact the right to protect (R2P) doctrine, which would allow it to mandate economic sanctions or take humanitarian intervention to restore democracy to Myanmar.

The following is an address I gave to a rally of students and staff of the University of Adelaide on the March 17 on the steps of

the Barr Smith Library:

detained and martial law prevailing.

“I would like to start by acknowledging the wide range of support from the members of the public of SA with respect to our efforts to bring this troubling situation in Myanmar to the attention of the wider Australian and world community in their efforts to promote the re-establishment of democracy in Myanmar.

Another explanation of the coup appears to be less about the notion of a ‘fraudulent election’ but more about the personal interests of the military commander-in-chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, who is due to step down because his tenure as commander-in-chief expires in late July of this year. Him, his corrupt generals, and the military are now in effect holding the nation to ransom.

As a student at the University of Adelaide and a member of the Myanmar Community of South Australia and the Myanmar Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Peace, I express my deep concerns to the Students and Staff of the University of Adelaide and members of the public about the military coup and detention of the country’s top political leaders in Myanmar on February 1, 2021. This concern extends to the hundreds of Myanmar protestors who have been arrested, killed, or injured in the peaceful demonstrations based on the Civil Disobedient Movement in Myanmar.

The military of Myanmar has tried to justify their takeover by coup d’état by alleging that the election was “fraudulent”, but no evidence has been provided. The people and our civil parliamentary leaders know that they won the election by a landslide victory!

Alas, the Myanmar government has been closed down with key pro-democracy figures

We note that the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, United Nations, and several international communities have imposed sanctions against the Myanmar military government. Our local organisations do not have that sort of power, but we are similarly seeking the support of the local organisations such as the Student Representative Council of the University of Adelaide and the general student and academic population in condemning the military coup in Myanmar.

As you may be aware, Myanmar has a histo-

ry of military coups, evidenced by the takeover of the government and imposition of an authoritarian military dictatorship in 1962. As recently as 2010, the country initiated a transition to civilian democratic rule. In the 2015 elections, more changes were made, leading to the election of a government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National

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League for Democracy (NLD). We were looking forward to a bright future.

The Myanmar community of SA and the Myanmar Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Peace have asked the military-led

government, with the support of businesses and all stakeholders, including the voters, to release all those who have been detained unlawfully and respect the rule of law for the restoration of the legitimate democratically elected government.

As Students and Academics of the University of Adelaide, you have a unique opportunity to promote democracy and human rights by endorsing and hopefully promoting our democratic cause. We also ask you to take any appropriate action to condemn the military coup in Myanmar. Our local community has done its best to further the cause through demonstrations in major capital cities in Australia and by corresponding with national and international organisation to attempt to remove the Military Junta and restore democracy to Myanmar. Your voice and endorsement of our cause would be a valuable contribution to our fight for democracy. Please endorse our democratic cause for Myanmar.”

Before the Myanmar military further tram-

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ples on our democracy, the global community must take concrete steps to hold these criminals accountable and avoid a further deterioration of the human rights situation.

I would like to urge everyone to take this mo-

ment to draw global attention to the urgent need to bring an end to Myanmar’s killing spree, as the military escalates the use of military arms against unarmed civilians. The military authorities are attempting to mask their growing crackdown on media rights and access to information from the rest of the world, which includes shutting down the internet, arresting journalists, revoking media licences, raiding, and damaging newsrooms.

The military is relying on the international community’s continuing silence, as it did during the military’s atrocities against Rohingyas and other ethnic minorities in 2017.

We must join hands with Myanmar’s people to show that we are concerned, that many more countries are watching what is happening, and that we will not stand silent as Our Committee has widely reported on the Myanmar military’s massacres and gross human rights abuses against its own people through our Facebook page and group, including mass executions, torture, and village burnings. They are continuing the cycle of

violence and impunity, emboldened by years of inaction from governments around the world.

Go Suan Pau, Second Year student in Bachelor of International Relations at the University of Adelaide Myanmar National, Permanent Resident of Australia on a Humanitarian Visa Coordinator, Myanmar Committee for the Promotion of Democracy, Human Rights and Peace.

If you want to see what the future of Myanmar looks like if the junta persists, follow the Myanmar Committee on Democracy Human Rights and Peace on Facebook here:

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Words by Ramon O’Donnell

Why does Australia lock up refugees?

Australia leads the world in anti-refugee racism.

Beginning in the 1990s under the Keating Labor government, Australia has locked up over 3000 refugees in mandatory detention centres in both onshore and offshore camps.

Subjected to a horrific regime of torture and abuse, people in detention on Nauru are 200 times more likely to commit selfharm than people in Australia, and over 30 percent have attempted suicide, including children as young as 9 years old. Australia has drawn condemnation from independent inquiries and human rights groups around the world for their treatment of people whose only crime is coming to Australia by boat. It comes as no surprise then, that in a phone call in 2017, Donald Trump told Malcolm Turnbull he admired the Australian approach to asylum seekers, and expressed wishes to do something similar in the US. The European far-right also takes inspiration from Australia’s anti refugee messaging. Around the world, Australia is the gold standard when it comes to locking up and torturing refugees.

The cost of this program to the Australian government comes to over 10 billion dollars since 2013, spending about 1 billion dollars each year on average, and 1 million per refugee. It would only cost $12,000 to process asylum seekers to live in Australia. All this despite that over 60,000 asylum seekers that arrived by plane have been settled in the same period.

For the average person, none of this makes any sense. Why does Australia continue this barbaric system of detention and torture for seemingly no reason? For Marxists, this is a simpler question to answer.

Capitalism is a system where a minority of bosses, politicians and other elites rely on the exploitation of the masses of working people. Because of the imbalance in numbers between these two classes, the ruling class needs structures in place, like the parliament and the police, to maintain their rule.

But alongside this, the ruling class uses any means necessary to divide ordinary working people, to prevent them from coming togeth-

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er and overthrowing the system. Racism and nationalism are two such dividers that the ruling class actively fosters between ordinary people to do this.

In fact Marx noted the way that capitalist class created resentment towards the Irish in England in the 1860s stating: ‘...this antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short, by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes’. Nationalism is ‘the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And [they] are quite aware of this’.

Through the demonisation of refugees and migrants, the ruling class can deflect real concerns about decreasing standards of living and public services away from themselves and onto this scapegoat. So, when the trains are overcrowded and insufficient, there are too many patients per nurse in the hospitals, and wages and benefits are being undermined, it’s not because of the privatisation, cuts to funding and deregulation of these sectors carried out by politicians and CEOs. Rather, according to the ruling class, it is the result of Australia taking in too many people and placing an added and unnecessary strain on Australian society. Welcoming refugees into the country would only exacerbate these issues, or so the story goes.

The intended result is a consciousness that is de-classed, and causes workers to sympathise more with the ruling class based on a constructed ‘national identity’, rather than identifying with other workers and oppressed groups. In reality, the average Australian has far more in common with a refugee fleeing persecution or war than they do with Gina Rinehart or Scott Morrison.

This consciousness prioritises beliefs that are most beneficial to capitalism -- a reactionary set of values that can easily be turned against other groups that threaten a perceived notion of ‘Australian values’, be that people on welfare, indigenous people or the LGBT community.

This nationalist consciousness is also used to legitimise Australian imperialist conquests. Denying the humanity of refugees,

casting them as ‘economic migrants’, ‘queue jumpers’ and worst of all terrorists, deflects attention and criticism away from imperial conflicts such as the invasion of Afghanistan by coalition forces, or Australian support for military interventions in Syria that have created these refugees.

But racism isn’t the only reason the Australian ruling class continues its program of detention.

The Australian ruling class, like other ruling classes, has a shared interest in maintaining militarised borders and manipulating them to serve the interests of capital. Socialists want open borders and believe freedom of movement should be a human right. While capitalists also want migration to drive economic growth and source skilled labour, especially in the case of Australia, they require strict borders such that migrants and refugees that do arrive are permanently in a state of limbo and under the threat of concentration camps or deportation, and will be willing to accept the extra-exploitative work conditions which famously provide a massive boon to capitalist profits.

A local example of this is the Adelaide FunTea worker who was recently assaulted for demanding to be paid. Not only was she brutally intimidated by the boss and his mate, but the pay she’d been promised was a mere $10 an hour. This is typical for students and workers from overseas, whose insecure visas coerce them into accepting horrible working conditions for fear of being forced back home if they kick up a fuss.

As borders are a construct of the capitalist class, the way they are encountered by people also depends on their class. For capital and capitalists, borders don’t really exist. The ruling class and commodities can move anywhere in the world. The poor and disenfranchised, on the other hand, feel the full brunt of the state when they attempt to do the same.

The ruling class also has strong interest in strengthening the repressive conditions of people perceived to be a threat to the status quo.

As poverty grows in an era of extreme wealth inequality and the poor and working class become increasingly prone to revolt and rebellion, the capitalist state requires strengthening of its coercive forces to maintain its rule. The treat-

ment of refugees sets a precedent for those who go against the interests of the Australian state and their rights in relation to it. After all, if refugees can be locked up indefinitely without access to legal representation, then so too can other criminals or political dissidents.

One only needs to think back to the initiation of the war on terror. Invasive surveillance legislation was justified in the name of fighting Islamic terrorists. But the result was widespread curtailment of civil rights for all Australian citizens.

Today we are under more surveillance and have fewer liberties when it comes to dissent.

The question of refugee rights will only become more relevant to ordinary people as our planet continues to be wracked by climate change.

As the severity of the climate crisis unfolds in the coming years and the prevalence of natural disasters, extreme heat and food insecurity become a global phenomenon, an estimated 2.1 billion people will be displaced from their homes. The Australian state and other capitalist governments around the world are preparing for this crisis -- but not by addressing the causes of climate change, or opening societies to those who will have lost everything, but by pumping up army budgets and hyper-militarising borders.

As the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg famously stated, society will either progress to socialism, or regress to barbarism. It is only by tearing down this barbaric and inhuman system and replacing it with one built on solidarity and human need that refugees and all the oppressed working people of the world will be able to win their freedom.

It is important that we stand in solidarity with the refugees in detention who have never given up their fight for justice and freedom. Join the weekly protests outside the Immigation Transit Accommodation on Garland Ave, Kilburn at 6pm Friday evenings. These protests are part of a national weekly campaign to free all refugees and grant them full citizenship rights in Australia upon release. Find a member of Socialist Alternative on campus, or follow the Adelaide Campaign Against Racism and Fascism Facebook page for more information.

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On Friday March 19, on the steps of Parliament House, a broad alliance of the unemployed, students, unionists, migrants, and low-income workers rallied together to say no to the federal government’s latest round of welfare cuts.

The Morrison government has made a big deal with what it describes as a permanent raise to JobSeeker. Welfare recipients on JobSeeker will receive an extra $25 per week from April.

However, they will receive less money overall due to the end of the coronavirus supplement, a top-up payment for more than a million welfare recipients. This decreased from $125 per week to $75 on January 1. It will disappear entirely on March 31. This is an attack on welfare recipients’ livelihoods, most of whom are already struggling to make ends meet.

I helped organise a rally with Anti-Poverty Network SA as part of a national week of action coordinated by LIFE (Living Incomes For Everyone), GetUp! and the AUWU (Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union). We gathered under the banner of a “A Living Income for All”. That it is even necessary to make this demand in a rich country like Australia in 2021 speaks volumes about the extent of systematic inequality in Australian society, and the failure of government to devise a long-term strategy to end poverty.

A strong contingent of Adelaide University students attended the rally. Arabella Wauchope, the National Welfare Officer for the National Union of Students (NUS), spoke of her campaign with the NUS to lower the Centrelink

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age of independence from 22 to 18. This will give thousands of young Australians access to Youth Allowance support, which they are now denied. Even though there are many valid reasons why they live independently, such as an abusive home environment or estranged family ties, the government still recognises them as dependents.

Nix Herriot, a member of the Student Representative Council, condemned the cruelty of Australia’s punitive welfare system and reflected on its capitalistic motives. In particular, it supports bosses’ interests by forcing jobseekers to live in poverty unless they compete intensely with thousands of others for the chance of getting a job with the worst possible pay and conditions. He also criticised the weakness of the Labor Party opposition, who have supported raising the rate but nonetheless refused to give jobseekers certainty by committing to a dollar figure.

The JobSeeker payment is now at 41 per cent of minimum wage, the same level that it was during the Howard government’s reign (1996–2007).JobSeeker has been falling further behind relative poverty lines for the past two decades. In fact, the last time it was raised in real, adjusted-for-inflation terms (with the exception of the short-lived coronavirus supplement) was in 1994.

An image I won’t forget soon is that at the rally, sixty attendees, representing jobseekers, formed an orderly queue across the Parliament House steps with their CVs in hand. This action

Australia’s unemployment crisis is compounded by a global economic downturn, sluggish wage growth, and growing underemployment. There simply aren’t enough jobs for everyone who wants one.

Despite this, the government’s policy has been to punish jobseekers for being in poverty With the pitiful base rate increase comes an increase in “mutual obligations”.

Face-to-face appointments with job services providers, which were paused during the pandemic, will once again be required. Plus, from April, people on the payments will need to look for at least 15 jobs a month, up from 8. In July, that will rise again to 20.

The government also announced it would launch “an employer reporting line” to “refer jobseekers who are not genuine about their job search or decline the offer of a job”. Business leaders and welfare advocates alike have blasted this policy, calling the measure out of touch with small business owners who believe that “most unemployed people are not dole bludgers”.

Unions have been even more critical of what they see as a “dangerous” hotline, warning it could force women into accepting jobs from employers who treat them poorly or who make “sleazy propositions” to them in an interview.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions president, Michele O’Neil, suggested it could lead to women accepting jobs they feel unsafe in, referencing the multiple workplace sexual assault allegations that have dominated political discourse recently.

The Australian Council of Social Services chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, said the hotline “is about the tired, old politics of demonising people simply because they’re not able to find paid work. We already have one of the strictest systems

Words by Tom Wood

of income support compliance among comparable countries. Tougher mutual obligation requirements will just make life even harder for millions of people without improving their job prospects.”

None of these new punishments for the unemployed are a fair trade-off for the government’s pathetic $25 a week raise.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said the raise was not enough. “It’s a complete and utter joke. It makes a mockery of the government saying that they care about those that are doing it tough in this country.”

Scrapping the coronavirus supplement also means that there will be a net decrease of $100 to students’ fortnightly welfare payments. In a recent statement, the NUS said “it is clear that this so-called new chapter is one of renewed disregard for students and young people.

There are eight Australians on JobSeeker for every job vacancy. Effectively, the Government is ensuring that 243,770 people are institutionally kept in poverty.” Not raising the rate to $80 a day is not just appalling, it’s dehumanizing. It is the bare minimum that students and others need to not have to forego food, medication, or rent.

In a rich country like Australia, no one should have to live in poverty. No one should have to skip meals or medicines.

If we raise the corporate tax rate, we can return jobseekers, students, and others to the COVID rate of $80 a day ($550 a week) and lift them out of poverty. This figure is in line with the AUWU’s #80aDay campaign, which seeks to raise unemployment payments above the poverty line.

The Morrison government showed last year how easily it can eliminate poverty.

There’s no going back from that realization. Now it is throwing people back into the gutter. What this shows is that the ball is in their court. Poverty is ultimately a political choice, and the Liberals have made their’s crystal clear.

How the government punishes jobseekers and students

represented the shocking fact that there are sixty people competing for every entry level job in Australia.

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WORDS BY Ngoc Lan Tran

Three years ago, I touched down in Adelaide for the first time after an agitating fifteen-hour flight from Hanoi. The first thing I did was to get a bowl of Phở. Wretched and miserable from the flight, disappointed that Adelaide was not what I envisioned (it wasn’t quite as bustling as I imagined), and shuddering at the then-foreign Adelaidean winter chill, my heart yearned for a taste of home. There was nothing I wanted more than to be pulled into the warm hug of Phở. I wanted to be soothed by warm broth like a tonic, slurping delicate, white flat noodles like a ritual, and savouring my carnivorous hunger with slices of slow-cooked beef brisket soaked in the umami and delicacy of East Asian spices.

But there was something wrong with my bowl of Phở. The broth wasn’t clear as it was at home, the noodles broke easily, the beef was chewy. Worse, it was served with hoisin sauce and bean sprouts! The horror!

Thạch Lam, a Hanoian novelist and writer, once wrote that Phở-eating is not simply just taking a meal. It is a tradition, a ritual, a form of art. What makes Phở great is time, the patience to simmer bones and sauces for eight hours to produce the complex flavour profile of a broth that is also as clear as water. It is the noodles that bend to the command of your chopsticks. It is the fatty pieces of broth-soaked beef brisket that smell like the beginning of cloves and star anise and the end of cinnamon and coriander seeds. And maybe, if one was feeling particularly possessed by a cautious sensuality, it is also the addition of lime and chili for a special zing on the tastebud.

Like Thạch Lam and most Hanoians, I too am a Phở snob. A bowl of Phở should be as good as it is. It does not need condiments. Anything less than the Hanoian standard of Phở-perfection, to me, was simply not worth the money and the time. Life is too short for bad Phở, I thought to myself, filled to the brim with snobbery, clutching a treasure trove of fond memories of Phở breakfasts, Phở lunches and Phở dinners in Hanoi. Why settle for something less than perfect?

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Recently, I had to let go of this selfish and egoistic judgment of what Pho is and how it should be. I have seen myself becoming a more jaded, unrestrained individual trying to make Adelaide my second home. Three years ago, I had not stayed abroad for more than two weeks at a time. Who was I to judge how Pho in Adelaide should be? How could I not comprehend the depth and complex history of Pho, and understand that the diaspora of Pho reflects the diaspora of my people?

Pho is a memory. The Adelaide Pho project encourages collective reminiscence by those who were forced or chose to leave home. The overwhelming popularity of Pho today is a testament to the forceful and eternal memory of their land and their ancestors. Pho is an aspiration, a means to acquire a dream of economic success for the legions of Vietnamese restaurant owners across the country. It is thus a symbol of the yearning for self-expression and self-determination of Vietnamese abroad.

I want to ask Thạch Lam and myself three years ago, “Isn’t Pho-eating in Adelaide, or Australia, or California where the second-largest Vietnamese community outside the country lives, also more than just eating?”

Thạch Lam had lived and stayed in Hanoi until the day he died. He could not have tasted the Pho made by the exiled, the refugees, whose denied aspirations made them flee from the motherland. How could he have written beyond what he knew of what Pho is and should be?

But I could.

For the past year, I wallowed in the Hanoian sorrow of being stranded away from home. I missed my family and friends who were still waiting for me in the city where I had spent the first seventeen years of my life. It cuts my heart with a knife that I could not fly home for Têt Nguyên Đán.

Unexpectedly, I found comfort in Pho. The same thing served to me now is not unlike the one I first got the day I came to Adelaide three years ago. The whole package, plus bean sprouts, and hoisin sauce. Yet it was the best thing I have eaten for a long time. As someone whose presence is here but whose heart aches for home, I got more than a taste of the umami in the broth. I felt more than just the texture of the noodles. I caught a glimpse of the Vietnamese diaspora whose stories were censored and denied under a communist regime, and felt a longing connection between my circumstance and theirs. I dare not compare these circumstances, but I strive to understand and sympathise. I caught a reflection of my transformed identity, one that has opened up to Adelaide and intertwined with this place.

I had Pho again just yesterday. It did not matter whether it was from Hanoi or Adelaide. It comforted me, like my grandmother’s hugs. And for this reason, this bowl of Phở/Pho should be more than enough.

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The Tragedy of Syria A Geopolitical Hotspot 60

Syria. A beautiful country, enriched in a culture of beautiful music, food, art and landscapes abided by a hearty people of talent, of wonder, and of promise. Or so the story goes. Syria. A geopolitical hotspot. A country ravaged by dirty hands. A country and a people suffering from war. On August 31st in 2013, Barack Obama, the then President of the United States announced his plans to launch a military attack in Syria in response to the blame apportioned to the Syrian government for using chemical weapons against its own citizens. Like many fake promises, Obama assured this wasn’t a regime change tactic or a measure to participate in the so-called ‘sectarian war’ occurring in the country. Because, as we all should know, the presidents of the U.S have an immaculate track record of keeping the balance and justice alive. *cough, cough* Of course, Obama’s announcement was merely performative, as the U.S empire has been pushing imperialism since its founding and has been on that imperialistic train headed to Syria since 2011.

Fast forward to February 2021. Joe Biden is in his first month of office and surprise surprise, he is bombing Syria. All the headlines came out with the script of ‘Biden launches attack on Iranian Backed Militias in Syria.’ *sigh* This politically spun narrative has become too old now.

Biden bombed the people that defeated ISIS. Biden bombed these people before he gave stimulus checks to his own people in the face of a crippling pandemic all thanks to tyrannical militaristic capitalism. Biden murdered Arabs before he did anything for climate justice and Texas freezing over is a sign of it, before freezing rent or giving healthcare.

But hey, keep up the tradition, eh? As promised by little Joey, nothing will fundamentally change…

The truth is, this destructive hegemony has specific interests in Syria.

This is because the country is not only equipped with natural resources they can plunder for their sadistic crony capitalist growth, as former president Trump admitted. The reason the troops are being kept in Syria is not ‘only for the oil,’ but also because geopolitically, a captured Syria is a hotspot. It’s a hotspot to not only further Israel’s imperialist agenda but because it gives way for the U.S. to wage war

WORDS BY Ngoc Lan Tran ted on Iran. Anybody that has a fair understanding of history, not mentally infiltra

by CIA talking points, will understand why as long as the U.S is outwardly attack y, ing Syria and inwardly backing and funding terrorist groups inside the countr Iran will be actively involved in combating it. If those two entities did not exist, then Iran has little reason to be there and Syria has less reason to work with them.

So HOW is the US still bombing the Middle East?

They use tools such as waging a war of disinformation to sway the opinion in favour of regime change. They fund and arm opposition groups in Syria or the apparently ‘moderate rebels’ who turn out to be openly affiliated with Al Qaeda block and all sorts of ‘Jihadists’. They illegally occupy Syria’s oil fields so they can the nation’s revenue from being used to actually help it. They burn down Syria’s e wheat fields. And now they have turned to sanctions. All in retaliation becaus their little terrorist lobbyists in the field got smashed. e It’s time to realise the root cause of these murderous wars and it’s well overdu to do something about it. is ‘Anyone can say, I support universal healthcare and a wage increase. There nothing brave or controversial about catching up to the rest of the industrialized the world. But how many will expose and stand up to American imperialism? Or coup Zionist occupation in Palestine? How many will call out the Western-backed in Syria? The UK’s theft of Venezuelan gold? A handful, at best.’ – Richard Medhurst, independent journalist & political analyst. .

Repeating slogans such as ‘End the Wars’ has never and will never be enough We have to oppose economic sanctions that brutalise and kill the working class and everywhere. Work for defunding the military-industrial complex. Talk about n protest police brutality and racial inequality. And ALWAYS, ALWAYS questio ream mainst and critically analyse what the mainstream media tell as news. The media is another tool of the elites and they will use it to suppress the reality. l I long for the day where there is peace in the Middle East. Where the colonia state is dismantled and replaced by a system of equity that advocates for human dignity.

Dear Syria, you will see better days.

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photography by tiah Bullock

Workers and students across Myanmar have been involved in increasingly large protests and strike actions since the military seized power in a coup on February 1st. The military has met this inspiring movement for democratic rights with violence, mass arrests and murder. The use of live ammunition by police and soldiers on demonstrators is becoming more frequent.

In the face of this people have heroically continued to defy the military. On International Working Women’s Day (March 8) a second general strike took place across the country as workers tried to use their industrial power to bring the regime’s economy to its knees. Students and workers’ unions are heavily involved in these actions.

Students at Yangon University have been calling for solidarity from their counterparts internationally.

Here at Adelaide University, General Councillor Nix Herriot, from Left Action, attempted to have a motion tabled at a SRC meeting on the 9th of March. The motion called: 1) For the SRC to take a position condemning the military coup and repression of protesters in Myanmar; 2) For the SRC to take a position of solidarity with the students and workers of Myanmar demonstrating for democracy, and 3) for the SRC to organise a photo in solidarity with the movement in Myanmar.

This is the bare minimum that should be expected of a democratic student organisation. However, the Student Representative Council showed itself to be far from democratic. The president of the SRC Oscar Ong, decided that this show of support for democracy was “Irrelevant” and blocked the motion from even appearing in the meeting agenda.

After Nix’s motion was censored the Myanmar Committee for the Promotion of Democracy, Human Rights and Peace and the United Myanmar Community of South

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Australia gave a statement to Nix for the SRC. The statement concluded with this appeal to the council.

“Our community has done its best to further the cause through demonstrations in major capital cities in Australia and by corresponding with national and international organisations to attempt to remove the Military Junta and restore democracy to Myanmar. Your voice and endorsement of our cause would be a valuable contribution to our fight for democracy. Please endorse our democratic cause for Myanmar.”

Nix tried to have this statement tabled and read at the meeting, but this was also blocked by the president.

Student unions across Australia and the Adelaide University Union have a long and proud history of taking stands for issues of human rights, democracy and social justice. These have often been issues of central importance to student union campaigns. One would be forgiven for forgetting these traditions when looking at the SRC today. The current council is dominated by a coterie of right-wing hacks who since coming to power, led by President Ong, have relentlessly pursued a right-wing agenda under the guise of “apoliticism”.

President Ong seeks a cosy relationship with the University administration and VC and to do everything he can to back-up the status-quo. In order to achieve this, he has sought to purge the Union and SRC of all opposition to his political agenda. The SRC and Union remain political bodies, but the only politics that are allowed are those that help further the ambitions of Oscar Ong; everything else is “irrelevant”.

Whilst I and many other students take inspiration from the brave defiance of the masses of workers and students fighting in the streets in Myanmar, clearly our SRC president draws much more inspiration from the military coup that preceded it.

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WORDS BY Edgar Daniel-Richards

Student Representative Council Crushes Opposition to Military Junta

But who will listen to the students?

WORDS BY By Lazaras Panayiotou We are at a pivotal moment for student consultation. Following Faculty Board elections, we will see the imminent return of the Student Engagement Committee. For context, the governance of The University of Adelaide stems from a twelve-member University Council. This Council has an elected postgraduate student representative, Mr Dan Osei Mensah Bonsu, and an elected undergraduate student representative, Ms Leah Schamschurin. Academic and general staff also enjoy one representative each in the Council, and this arrangement is the same across Faculty Boards for both students and staff.

Unfortunately, by the end of 2018, we lost our Student Affairs Committee. This committee existed as a “conduit through which student concerns can be directly communicated to senior academic and administrative staff of the University” (Governance, advisory committees, student affairs committee 2018). Although this committee only met three times a year, it provided an avenue to connect with the Vice-Chancellor about student matters in an environment devoted to that cause.

In the fallout of the Student Affairs Committee, the Student Engagement Committee was born. This new committee met with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) instead and continued to meet every quarter until the start of the lockdown resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Then, throughout 2020, a larger student consultation group was formed that met with the Faculty Executive Director. Encouragingly, this group met weekly, although it moved to fortnightly meetings later in the year.

Beyond established committees, our university sometimes recognises the need for third-party conflict management, as seen

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following the unenthusiastic reception of RCC Fringe on campus by both students and staff. A third-party met with three distinct interest groups on campus following RCC Fringe 2019—students, staff, and presumably upper management—with myself involved in this process. Unfortunately, what had yet to dawn on me was the tokenistic nature of this one-off consultation, which came after the fact. Since then, I wrote my thesis on youth political engagement, exploring the City of Salisbury’s incorporated Youth Council, and now have a new perspective to offer. Students deserve better, ongoing opportunities to influence the significant decisions made by their university.

Kara (2007), in the journal article “Beyond Tokenism: Participatory Evaluation Processes and Meaningful Youth Involvement in Decision-Making”, outlines five necessary ingredients she had observed from her 15 years of experience on this topic. They are the following: 1. “resources and training”, regarding the financial flexibility of the program, allowing for the training of committee members in how to best approach university business and the rewarding of members for their time within reason; 2. “legitimacy”, through stipulating consultative processes, term limits, and accountability with the body politic (those who the committee members represent); 3. “youth-friendly meetings”, identified through the tone of meetings and how well they accommodate diversity; 4. “effective meetings”, as determined by transparent procedures and outcomes; and, 5. “shared decision-making power”, as realised through the weight of the voting power of committee members, their access to people with broader decision-making

power, and how well their impact is visible within the governing of the University (Kara 2007, pp. 575-8).

Importantly, these ingredients should not be measured against policy but, instead, how “policy commitments are operationalised” (Kara 2007, p. 564). Meaning, even if something sounds good on paper, we can only measure it against the facts of its implementation.

So, how does the emerging Student Engagement Committee stack up? Well, we are yet to see. So far, on promises alone, its prospective revival heralds the return of a legitimate body meant for student consultation. Further, the Manager of Student Affairs confirmed that the frequency of meetings is increasing from quarterly to monthly, and its size will extend beyond the scope of its previous iteration. These changes are attributed to the success of the larger student consultation group temporarily formed last year.

synonymous with being an activist. Tertiary student culture has become embedded by activism, and unionism, as a response to the lack of meaningful student consultation within many universities, reinforced by a lack of interest in responding to issues important to young people unless there is a clear ulterior benefit. For proof, look no further than how our university refuses to divest its fossil fuel assets and our enduring defiance of this decision, reinvigorated by student-led success after success across Australian universities.

As things stand, our participatory governance only exists in our university’s policy.

Often, noteworthy consultation is after the fact, invoking the proverb of it being easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission. So, right now, I am locking in my answer to the title as ‘fundamentally no one’. I challenge the university to prove me wrong.

Nonetheless, we are yet to hear if this committee will be joined by the Vice-Chancellor, unlike the defunct Student Affairs Committee. We cannot settle for anything less than what we once had—the Vice-Chancellor meeting with our representatives for the sole purpose of hearing from us—when it comes to our healthy access to people with broader decision-making power. Anything less constitutes a deterioration of what once was student consultation at our university.

This reimagining of the Student Engagement Committee represents an opportunity to create meaningful student consultation by listening to prominent and innovative research. Forgive me for being sceptical.

Governance, advisory committees, student affairs committee 2018, The University of Adelaide, viewed 14 March 2021, <https://www.adelaide.edu.au/ policies/625?dsn=policy.document;field=data;id=921;m=view>.

Nevertheless, regardless of what consultation universities provide, tertiary students will continue to protrude their influence on significant decisions. Even at this univer sity, being an active participant has become

Kara, N 2007, ‘Beyond Tokenism: Participatory Evaluation Processes and Meaningful Youth Involvement in Decision-Making’, Children, Youth and Environments, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 563-580.

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