debate issue 18 2012

issue18 2012

FEATURE: Following up on Education, the budget and the economy + Why We Should Give a Damn

ARTIST of the week | SPORTS | NEWS | Politics | REVIEWS

CONTENTS

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CONTENTS

5

Editorial

6

Social Media Highlights

Sports 10 Who are the real olympic heroes?

8

11

Artist of the week Victor Cham Article SBW: All hail the greatest sporting acronym

12 HISTORY OF DESIGN AND WORLD 15

RecIpe corner on the cover:

AuSM 16 Prez sez

AuSM update

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editor Nigel Moffiet nigel.moffiet@aut.ac.nz

Article The flow of society

Feature 20 Education, Economy, Budget 22 Open access to education

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26

sub editor Matthew Cattin

Article Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover : Syrian regimes dying days POLITICS Caution: Education and Politics can be a potent mix.

Column All time list of drop outs inspiration for all

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designer Ceapum Kaushish ceapum.kaushish@aut.ac.nz contributors Matthew Cattin| Scott Yeoman | Nathan Bromberg | Jarred Williamson | Brendon R. Steen | Ben Hill | Deanna Berry | Tarik Al-Diery | Carl Ewen | Nigel Moffiet | Ceapum Kaushish | Jennifer Choat advertising contact Kate Campbell kate.campbell@aut.ac.nz

32 Reviews

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Auckland City Photo by Annupam Singh

STUDENT PROFILE Cameron Leslie

printer PMP Print Ltd. publisher all rights reserved

debate is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA)

This publication is entitled to the full protection given by the Copyright Act 1994 (“the Act”) to the holders of the copyright, being AUCKLAND STUDENT MOVEMENT AT AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED (“AuSM”). Reproduction, storage or display of any part of this publication by any process, electronic or otherwise (except for the educational purposes specified in the Act) without express permission is a break of the copyright of the publisher and will be prosecuted accordingly.

Inquiries seeking permission to reproduce should be addressed to AuSM.

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disclaimer Material contained in this publication does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of AuSM, its advertisers, contributors, PMP Print or its subsidiaries.

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPS

AUT University has a commitment to fostering postgraduate study and research.

Our full-time Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarships offer a fantastic opportunity to work in one of the country’s most progressive and expansive research environments. The scholarships include tuition fees and an annual $25,000 stipend for up to three years at one of New Zealand’s most innovative universities.

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To find out more about AUT’s research areas or to apply for this scholarship go to www.phdscholar.ac.nz or contact the Scholarships Office on +64 9 921 9837.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE 24 SEPTEMBER 2012.

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EDITORIAL

reception

Earlier this year, I wrote about student loans in the lead up to the May Budget day announcement. It was clear there were going to be some impacts on tertiary education that would be hard to swallow for many struggling students – as it turned out, the Government’s “austerity” measures were met with strong protests around the country, including a blockade on Symonds Street. Opinion was divided, and overall, I got the sense many students, although feeling the pinch, were willing to trudge along, take the hit, breathe in the nerves, and hope all turns out well in the future. Now the dust has settled.

So what measures did we see? Well, if you’ve been following the debate you’re no doubt aware that, as of 2013, loan repayments will increase from 10 per cent to 12 per cent of your income once you start earning over the dismally low wage of $19,084 a year. One of the more controversial changes was reducing the availability of the student allowance to the first 200 weeks of study thus making it harder for students wanting to carry on with post graduate study or for those undertaking longer courses such as dental or medical students. More to the point, critics have slammed this measure as it will severely restrict certain degrees to those who can afford them – what chances do those children have who are growing up in poor households? Can they still dream of being a doctor? A lawyer? A dentist? Yes, they can. But how realistic are those dreams? Also, there is a four year freeze on increases to the parental income threshold which at the moment is helpful, but really makes a small difference for those under 25 – an age I’ve thought was quite high to still consider the income of parents. And currently, your student allowance is affected once your parents start earning $55,027.96 combined– a very low family income to say the least.

It’s difficult to talk about these things without putting you all to sleep or boring you to death, but being a student mag and being one of the biggest student stories this year, it’s an important topic and one that needs

discussing. I also feel it’s worth taking a considered approach and listening to the debate on both sides – but students should be taken seriously, and in certain respects you wonder just how much of the ‘student voice’ is really heard without the usual ‘spoilt brat’ reaction or media seeking to fuel this sentiment with the most cringe worthy of quotes.

But this isn’t a debate that solely affects students; it will determine the future of New Zealand. Will the rising costs in education reduce the amount of skilled workers in our country while New Zealand graduates flock to countries like Australia to earn higher wages and better themselves financially? Will an average Kiwi graduate be able to realistically look at owning a home without crippling themselves? What impact will the rising cost in education have on the future of young families in the country? Certainly, a lot of graduates are putting off starting a family until much later in life to get themselves into a better situation. What impact will this have on the overall fabric of New Zealand society in the future?

Certainly, young people now have a lot more difficult financial decisions to make than a generation before.

We don’t want to sound like a spoilt generation and I’m sure the overall majority of us don’t take things for granted – in a certain respect higher education is a privilege, but what opportunities are there these days if you haven’t paid thousands of dollars in course fees for some form of degree or certificate? It would be sad to live in a country where the barriers get so big that it is no longer worthwhile for young people to dream because their families simply don’t have the money or resources to get ahead.

The cuts to tertiary education were made with the justification that we are living in financially difficult times meaning that savings and measures need to be taken to move forward safely and secure our economy. This might seem like a reasonable explanation, but at what cost socially? What is the ultimate benefit? Who will get left behind? Overall, I have more questions than answers when it comes to these issues.

- NIGEL.

Manukau Campus MB107 921 9999 ext 6672 Mon-Thurs; 9am-3.30pm

governance & leadership Kizito Essuman AuSM Student President 921 9999 ext 8571 kizito.essuman@aut.ac.nz

management

Sue Higgins General Manager 921 9999 ext 5111 sue.higgins@aut.ac.nz

advocacy

Nick Buckby Liaison Manager 921 9999 ext 8379 nick.buckby@aut.ac.nz

marketing

Kate Campbell Marketing and Communications Manager 921 9999 ext 6537 kate.campbell@aut.ac.nz Carl Ewen Student Life Manager 921 9999 ext 8931 carl.ewen@aut.ac.nz

Dear debate,

What is up? We don’t care. Produce something we care about and you might get a better response. I know other students who feel the same.

We need something we can relate to. In one issue you had a recipe for quinoa mushrooms. Wtf?

North Shore Campus Level 2, AS Building 921 9949 Mon-Fri: 11am-1pm

events

LETTERS

Dear debate,

City Campus Level 2, WC Building 921 9805 Mon-Thurs: 8am-5pm Fri8am-4pm

media

Thanks for the movie give aways. Keeping my eyes peeled for more promos. Keep up the good work!

TK

Nigel Moffiet Publications Co-ordinator 921 9999 ext 8774 nigel.moffiet@aut.ac.nz

sports

Melita Martorana Sports Team Leader melita.martorana@aut.ac.nz

vesbar

Zane Chase Vesbar Manager 921 9999 ext 8378 zane.chase@aut.ac.nz

Disillusioned.

volunteers & clubs

Letter of the week wins two movie tickets for event cinemas debate letters policy: Letters need to make it into debate’s mailbox before Wednesday, 3pm each week for the following issue. You must give us your name when submitting letters to be eligible for letter of the week, but you can use a pseudonym for publication if you wish. Any letters longer than 250 words may be subjected to editing. The editor reserves the right to decline without explanation. Most importantly, the views contained on the letters page do not necessarily represent the views of AuSM. Send your letters to debate@aut.ac.nz or if you want to kick it old school, PO Box 6116, Wellesley St, Auckland.

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Deanna Berry Volunteers Coordinator 921 9999 ext 8911 deanna.berry@aut.ac.nz

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SPORTS

ISSUE 18 2012

WHO ARE THE REAL OLYMPICS HEROES? IT'S NOT WHO YOU THINK

By Scott Yeoman

One Olympic article wasn’t enough.

Like everybody else at the moment I feel inspired, but by the wrong guy.

Y

(IOC) Tripartite Commission, who really speaks to the hearts of the fans and the media.

ou see, I’m a big supporter of the little guy. That ‘insignificant’ character that captures a person’s imagination and human spirit, not by winning, but by failing miserably.

The IOC has said the objective of such wild card invitations is to “strengthen the principle of universal representation at the Games by allowing a number of National Olympic Committees, without or with few athletes qualified, to participate in the Olympic Games.”

Unfortunately those stories seen in Hollywood films like Cool Runnings hardly ever happen; in fact they never do. But at every Olympics there is one example, sometimes more, of what it means to compete and give your best, even if your best does not result in a hell of a lot.

Yet each year the controversy flows on as people question if athletes like these deserve to compete at the Olympics.

I’m not talking about Usain Bolt breaking world records as he casually jogs across the finish line with his arms raised, or Michael Phelps emphatically slapping the water as he racks up another gold medal. These are moments that will always be remembered and considered as some of the greatest in sporting history. Athletes that produce moments like these are rewarded generously for their achievements; they are our all-time greats.

This year we had Hamadou Djibo Issaka, or as different media outlets have now named him, ‘The Sculling Sloth’, or ‘Hamadou the Hippo’.

Representing Niger in single sculls rowing, and having only started the sport in May this year, Djibo Issaka finished last by a long way in his first heat race, one minute and 40 seconds behind the winner - our very own Mahe Drysdale.

But I want to talk about moments like when ‘Eric the Eel’ from Equatorial Guinea struggled to finish the 100m freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics after his only two competitors were disqualified. The moment where he raised his head, alone in the pool, exhausted and totally spent, his time more than two times that of the heat winner, yet grinning ear to ear as the crowd roared around him.

The next day, during the repechage, he was 14 seconds slower.

Yet in both races he was spurred on by a cheering crowd, finishing to the biggest cheer of the day, even though his competitors were already warming down and stretching in the warm up area. As for his own expectations, he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “It went well. I passed the finish line. It was great.”

Or ‘Eddy the Eagle’, representing England, who finished dead last in Ski jumping at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988 after some woeful performances, but whose positive and proud sporting spirit won over supporters worldwide.

When asked about his second performance he said: “I tried, I tried to make a good time.” And the thing is, you believe him. You could see the pure pain in his eyes as sweat poured down his face, the oars barely making it out of the water, his face scrunched

Every year there is someone, often invited as a wild card from the International Olympic Committee’s

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SPORTS

up urging himself to the finish line.

This, in my eyes, is the true essence of the Olympics.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but what makes the Olympics so much greater than any other sporting event in the world is the wide variety of countries, cultures, beliefs, religions and traditions, all competing together and living in the same Olympic Village, no matter what’s happening in the outside world. Where else is that possible? Everybody is represented and respected. If this means including an athlete who does his very best to represent his country, then I don’t see what the issue is.

From a country ruled by a volatile dictator in North Korea, to Syria - a country currently all over the headlines due to a bloody civil war, to devastated and dirt poor nations suffering from famine and drought like Haiti, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, everyone is there, and everyone is equal.

The pride in their faces as they enter the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony gives me goose bumps every time. No kidding.

Djibo Issaka is one of six athletes in London representing over 15 million people in Niger. At the end of the three weeks he will return to a country consistently ranked at the bottom of the UN Human Development index.

So when the 35-year-old’s competitors chose to miss the opening ceremony due to the first race commencing early the next morning, he refused.

No way was he going to miss out on anything during the best three weeks of his life. As for what he thought, “It was magnificent, he said. “I had never seen fireworks before in my life!”

As far as I’m concerned Hamadou Djibo Issaka is an inspiration to us all, no matter where we are from.

So I was wrong.

I am inspired by the right guy.

WORTH $4.50 7

“...what makes the Olympics so much greater than any other sporting event in the world is the wide variety of countries, cultures, beliefs, religions and traditions, all competing together and living in the same Olympic Village...”

Interview by Ceapum Kaushish

ISSUE 18 2012

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

VICTOR CHAM

Born in Hong Kong, Victor Cham grew up as an avid user of the internet and digital media. Graphic novels and storytelling always fascinated him.

► Who influenced your work the most?

Cham, 24, recently graduated from AUT with a Master of Art and Design degree (first class hons). In his thesis he specialised in animation and film design and gained an award for the highest scoring practice-led design in 2011.

“Films such as The Triplets of Belleville (Chomet, 2003), Basin Street Blues (Monkmus, 2006), and La Maison en Petits Cubes (Katō's 2008) really influence my work. The absence of dialogue in these films calls for the use of exaggerated actions and reactions. I use this approach in my work to create distinctive character and environment designs.

Bad Faith is a film I created as part of my thesis.

It shows my influences quite clearly. It is a short animation that I designed, illustrated and animated with minimal dialogue. The film is an amalgamation of animation, hand painting, photography and digital art. These together create an extraordinary world where a child embarked on a journey to relocate her true identity. Bad Faith constructs its voice through the creative interweaving of image and sound.”

Now working for Images & Sound (Auckland), one of New Zealand’s largest post production facilities, he is applying his curiosity to what he loves the most - digital design. He talks to debate about his work

► How would you describe your personal style?

“Although my graphic style draws on Chinese traditional painting, Japanese Manga and Marvel comic art, my work is diverse. I specialise in creating mysterious, darkly surreal, contemporary illustrations using acrylic paint, photography, and digital colouring.”

► Can you tell us a little bit about projects you have worked on?

“One of the major projects was being able to work alongside Professor Welby Ings, in producing film trailers for his short films 'Boy' and 'Munted'. And as an adjunct to this work I also designed an animated 'pitch' for his new feature film 'PUNCH'.

One of the current projects was working at Images & Sound on designing graphics for a game that is about to be released on iphone platform.”

► What would be your dream job?

“My dream job would be to become a director and to produce my own feature-film, through which I can share my imagination with others.”

► What are your thoughts on the current state of the digital industry?

“The design industry is definitely evolving. I think as technology becomes more advanced and accessible to everyone, there is a growing need of designers as well.

This is especially true in the gaming industry where iPhone apps are becoming increasingly popular and many NZ developers are looking for young artist to collaborate with.”

► Is there any advise you would like to give to students?

“My tips for students is make sure to keep a good balance between creativity and rigour.

I think AUT is improving and continuing to upgrade its courses and facilities every year to meet the demands of students. I'm really happy and proud of where AUT University stands today and what it has to offer to students. I think students should make the most of the resources the university has to offer and just follow their dreams with patience and perseverance.”

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK

See more of Victor’s work at: www.victorcham.co.nz

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Article

T

he nation’s most controversial acronym stunned nobody last month with the confirmation of the worst kept secret in sport. Sonny Bill Williams is to quit New Zealand rugby to make a gazillion yen (approximate figure) playing for the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan, before returning to Sydney to play rugby league, most likely for the Sydney Roosters. The second All Black to take up a contract in the land of the rising sun this season and leave New Zealand in his prime (following Jerome Kaino), Williams’ decision nonetheless attracted extraordinary criticism. Many felt that signing to play in the relatively weak Japanese Top League was a decision driven solely by greed, and to turn one’s back on the All Black jersey was a sign of a lack of respect, and distinctly “un-Kiwi”.

SBW’s foray into boxing was also viewed with disdain, with the questionable abilities of his opponents not helping the general consensus that Sonny Bill’s pugilism was an unneeded and pointless distraction from his duties as an All Black. Williams’ history, notably 2008 when he walked out on a contract with the Bulldogs in the NRL to chase the euro for the then Tana Umagacoached Toulon, compounded with these recent events has seen Williams’ earn the nickname ‘Money Bill’, and it seems that this image of Williams’ is the one that is dominantly presented to the public. However, Williams is arguably the most freakishly talented footballer ever produced by this country. Before leaving the Bulldogs, SBW was one of the games’ most valuable players, at the tender age of 23. He won an NRL Premiership with the Doggies in 2004, and such was his prowess that many esteemed league commentators were calling for rules regarding State of Origin eligibility to be relaxed so that SBW would be allowed to play. Not content with his achievements in league, Williams then turned his unique talents to rugby union, starring with Toulon before returning to the land of his birth to fulfill a dream to play for the All Blacks. Within three months of ITM Cup rugby for Canterbury (who won that competition), he had achieved this, and last year played a key role as an impact player during the World Cup. The mighty triumph over the French on that day in October saw Sonny Bill add another mammoth achievement to his already impressive track record. Still not satisfied with being an NRL champion, ITM Cup champion and a Rugby World Cup champion, he turned his hand to boxing, and in five fights became the official New Zealand Heavyweight Champion.

SBW

All hail the greatest sporting acronym!

By Ben Hill

Williams is obviously a man who craves challenges, and has an exceptional ability to achieve goals once he sets them. Those who slander him fail to recognise the fact that he is his own man, and any decisions made regarding what he does with his life should be his and his alone. To deny someone the chance to chase their dreams and achieve what many would have considered impossible is ludicrous, and is potentially a symptom of the underlying feeling of tall poppy syndrome that exists in New Zealand. Although financial reward surely plays at least a small part in Williams’ decisions, to criticise someone for succeeding financially for their hard work and talent is very pigheaded and makes no sense.

Anyone reading this column who feels differently should consider whether or not they would be prepared to turn down the opportunities of a lifetime with the bonus of raking in the Benjamin’s simply because people who you don’t know feel you should. Any New Zealander that has achieved as much for this country as Williams has should be celebrated. Thus I for one wish Sonny Bill all the best in Japan, and wait feverishly to witness his sure to be spectacular return to the NRL.

“Williams is obviously a man who craves challenges, and has an exceptional ability to achieve goals once he sets them.”

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Art Deco Art deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s and into the World War II era.

The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and jewellery, as well as the visual arts such as painting, graphic arts and film.

Bauhaus The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence.

Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together.

The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.

The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

1916 CE

Futurism Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane and the industrial city.

1909 - 1916 Futurism

Einstein’s theory of relativity published

1908 CE

1920–1930 Art deco

1916-1922 DADAISM

World War I

1904 CE

1903 CE The Wright Brothers - First Flight

1898 CE Radium discovered

1876 CE Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell 1886 CE

Statue of Liberty construction started

1875 CE

Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 11, 1854 – October 28, 1899) was an inventor who has been called a second Gutenberg because of his invention of the Linotype machine, the first device that could easily and quickly set complete lines of type for use in printing presses.

Franklin Gothic Designed Franklin Gothic and its related faces, are realist sansserif typefaces originated by Morris Fuller Benton (1872– 1948) in 1902.

“Gothic” is an increasingly archaic term meaning sansserif. Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers.

First mass-produced car introduced - the Ford Model T.

Linotype Machine Invented Linotype machine, it became the world’s leading manufacturer of book and newspaper typesetting equipment; outside North America, its only serious challenger for book production was the United States-/Englandbased Monotype Corporation.

Dada Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. “Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I. This international movement was begun by a group of artists and poets associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. The name ‘Dada’ was reputedly arrived at during a meeting of the group when a paper knife stuck into a French-German dictionary happened to point to ‘dada’, a French word for ‘hobbyhorse.”

1914 CE

gn

esi D F RY o d O T S hI orl w e & th

1919-1933 Bauhaus

The Arrival of Webfonts

Japan Earthquake

2010 CE

2011 CE

HTML 5

2007 CE

1998 CE

1996 CE

1988 CE

HTML 4

2001 CE 911 Attack on World Trade Center

Challenger explodes

1986 CE

1984 CE

1981 CE IBM introduces 1st personnal computer 1982 CE

1970 CE

1957 CE

Sputnik 1 launched October 4, 1957 7:28 PM

1948 CE Mahatma Gandhi assassinated

1941 CE

Pearl Harbour bombed

1939 CE

World War II

1904 CE

International Typeface Corporation (ITC)

iPhone arrives

OpenType A font technology that combines TrueType and Type 1 fonts into a common format for cross-platform operation between Windows and Mac. OpenType provides advanced support for glyphs and ligatures that harks back to the days when elegant typography was set by hand.

With thousands of TrueType and Type 1 fonts available in OpenType format, OpenType also supports international character sets and Unicode.

Macintosh Computer On January 24, 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh to its Board of Directors - and to the world.

The tiny computer was a radical departure from the large Lisa with it’s 12” screen, just as the Lisa itself had been a huge departure from the Apple II series and the growing family of MS-DOS computers on the market.

AIDS Virus Identified

Times Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in 1931, created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype. It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated.

The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times.

Adobe Computer Software founded

continued from issue 17

HELVETICA Designed Helvetica (Haas Grotesque) was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, its design was based on Schelter-Grotesk and Haas’ Normal Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.

Apple Computers TrueType The TrueType format, designed

by Apple Computers, provides a complete language for the description and processing of hinting commands. In this language, font manufacturers are responsible for specifying outline fonts and associated hints.

» www.counterspace.us

ISSUE 18 2012

Correctly identify the five differences in the two photos then circle them and drop your entry into your nearest AuSM office, or the box on the side of the red debate stands, or post to debate PO Box 6116 Wellesley St before 12pm Thursday.

What’s up for grabs? Two “squawk burgers” vouchers for Velvet Burger on Fort St, Auckland CBD.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

to our issue 17 winner

Teena Tejwani City Campus

1. Which is the only US state to begin with the letter ‘P’ 2. What is the national currency of Egypt?

3. What was the first Disney animated film that was not based on an already existing story?

4. The Daiquiri cocktail was named after a village on which island country?

5. Which hero’s arch enemy is Dr. Robotnik?

6. The name of which American rock band was also the term used by Allied pilots in WW II to describe UFO’s?

7. Which American city has sporting teams named the Lions, Tigers and Red Wings?

8. How many squares/spaces on a chess board?

9. What kind of mixed drink takes its name from the Hindi or Sanskrit word for five?

10. Seventy five percent of the dust found in a home consists of what?

WORD JUMBLE NLEOIV

Name Phone # Email Campus

How many words of three letters or more can you make during your lecture from the letters above?

(6-8 average, 9-11 good, 12 or more - excellent) *Answers on page 30

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Updates Interactive Art – Rollercoaster by Unguarded Intersection

Beauty from the inside out takes on a whole new meaning with this dish of the week. Your skin, hair and even the twinkle in your eyes can be affected by what you eat. Save yourself from buying expensive creams and make-ups and tell your friends you have been using a new product called ‘good food’. The best approach is to maintain a balanced diet with lots of raw fruits and vegetables, avoiding processed sugars and deep fried foods.

Try adding the key ingredients* below into your diet.

Tuesday 3 July to Friday 24 August, Level 2, Aotea Centre, Auckland Head down to the Aotea Centre to check out this live digital art. In keeping with carnival and video gaming tradition, Rollercoaster proposes a collective, interactive and playful experience. While the audience’s faces become imprinted on the screen, they create their own ride by moving their body to determine the direction and speed of the car. The abstract graphics and the immersive sound enhance the experience of being on a rollercoaster, creating a truly visceral experience.

Unguarded Intersection is a collaborative group that specialises in exploring new and innovative ways of presenting moving image through large-scale public installations.

Pretty Pasta INGREDIENTS: ► 2.5 cups uncooked whole wheat pasta or gluten free vegetable pasta ► 2 chicken breasts, chopped into cubes ► 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil ► ½ tsp dried rosemary ► 1 medium onion, finely chopped ► 2 garlic cloves, minced ► ¼ tsp paprika ► 1 tsp turmeric* ► 1 medium butternut pumpkin*, peeled and cut in pieces ► 1 roasted red pepper* (I used jarred), sliced ► 1 can diced tomatoes* with juices *Turmeric has strong antiinflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer and anti-microbial characteristics. It also helps purify blood which is essential for clear skin.

*Butternut pumpkin is rich in Vitamin C with anti-inflammatory benefits. It also contains omega 3’s which help create soft skin and healthy complexions.

The Inaugural Bishop Sir Paul Reeves Memorial Lecture

Friday 17 August, 7.30pm, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland Sir Paul Reeves was the former Chancellor of AUT and a great New Zealander. You are all welcome to attend the inaugural Bishop Sir Paul Reeves Memorial Lecture given by Dame Anne Salmond, New Zealand’s foremost historian and anthropologist, on New Zealand’s evolving legacy: Grow, Child, in the Days of Your World – E Tipu e Rea. Tickets $30 at www.ticketmaster.co.nz *Red Peppers have vitamin E for cell repair and collagen stimulation and Tomatoes contain lycopene which protects against free-radicals and environmental pollutants.

The importance of wellbeing and positive, healthy work environments

Wednesday 22 August, WF711, AUT Business Building, City Campus, Auckland Professor Stephen Teo from AUT Business School is giving a public lecture on ‘Paradox and Hypocrisy in Change: Managerialism and Managers in the Public Sector’, followed by the launch of the new Wellbeing and Performance Research Group.

If you wish to attend, please RSVP to nzwalmi@aut.ac.nz by 4.00pm Monday 20 August.

This is a free event.

METHOD: Step 1:Boil your butternut in enough water to cover the pieces.

Maintain a steady boil, lid off, until the pieces are soft. Do not discard the water.

Get to know your new precinct

Find out how it will all look when it’s finished, see how the construction is going, what’s going to be in there and more. There’s a lot more to come, including videos, photos and more information on the facilities and features being installed: www.aut.ac.nz/about-aut/ Phone-numbers,-contacts-and-campuses/newwg-learning-precinct

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Mix the chicken pieces with 1 tbsp oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and transfer to a baking pan.

Cover the pan with foil and cook for 20 minutes.

Step 3: In a large saucepan, sauté the onion in 1 tbsp oil on medium heat until golden. Add the garlic and paprika, roasted red pepper, and tomatoes with juices. Now add the pieces of butternut and mash into the sauce mixture. If the sauce is very thick, add the water from the butternut. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes or until reduced to the desired consistency. Stir in the turmeric and salt and pepper to taste.

New shuttle bus timetable

The new timetable increases the number of semester services to and from the Manukau Campus from five to 12 per day effective from 16 July 2012: www.aut. ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/292006/ Shuttle-Bus-July-2012.pdf

Step 4: Cook the pasta (according to directions on package). Add the cooked pasta and cooked chicken to your pasta sauce. Garnish with parmesan cheese if you have it on hand.

Enjoy! http://www.flavourfiesta.com/recipes/beauty-eats-pasta-with-herbedchicken-and-butternut-squash-sauce/

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ISSUE 18 2012

AuSM Student President

SPCA Cupcake Day: 27th August

Hi debate readers, I am sure most you have been closely following the London Olympics. For your information, Vesbar is showing all the live games and the highlights during the day so come in at your leisure to watch the games with us. It’s quite disappointing to hear that two of our great sports women Valerie Adams and Lucy van Dalen were left off the original start list in their respective competitions due to an “administrative error”. NZOC secretary general Kereyn Smith has come out to apologise saying; “this is a regrettable human error and we are very sorry it has happened.”

All the same, New Zealand’s medal tally is not looking bad at all. As of Wednesday, 8th August, New Zealand has grabbed 9 medals in total (3 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze medals) putting us 17th on the overall London Olympics medal count. We wish the New Zealand Olympics team all the best for the remaining days in London. “Every Moment is Gold.”

I will be catching up with Auckland Mayor Len Brown as your student president very soon. There is always an issue to talk about when it comes to students and young people’s involvement and participation in the plan of the city council. I will be raising issues on student traffic, transport and parking; water fountains on the public streets

around campus and the Auckland Council’s support for AUT students’ Rec and Cultural centre projected to be built on or near the city campus by 2014.

I was having a chat with some of my mates during a mid-lecture break for an MBA paper lecture last week and surprisingly, none of them knew about the special after hours parking deal for AUT students at Wilson Car Park, WL Block on St. Paul Street.

Parking is available between 4:30pm and 9:30pm, Monday to Friday. The cost is $100 per semester and $200 per year. This is a very good deal for the night class students especially the MBA and other postgraduate students. Get your application form from AUT Security, WA Building, Wellesley Street. You will need your vehicle registration number and student ID number to complete the form. AuSM has started lobbying the University for the service to include later hours and weekend access as well. Unfortunately, because of the high demand for parking in the central city, AUT cannot provide onsite parking for city-based students during the day. Parking in the city usually costs from $8 to $16 a day.

Until next edition, enjoy your week!

Kizito

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You can look forward to morning tea Monday, 27th August. AuSM will be hosting SPCA Cupcake Day in the Hikuwai Plaza. If you are interested in getting involved, we are still looking for cupcake bakers to donate their goods. In addition to this, we will be needing hungry bellies to buy cupcakes and help raise funds for the SPCA. Calories don’t count when fundraising for our furry pets is involved! If you would like to be a Cupcake Cook for AuSM, please email : deanna.berry@aut.ac.nz Visit www.ausm.org.nz for more info and cupcake ideas!

Game On at Vesbar

Get your game on at Vesbar with Jenga, Monopoly, Connect Four and Scrabble! Then join us for the weekly pub quiz on Tuesday nights at 6pm, bring a team and show off your smarts.

Your Online Diary

Have you checked out the AuSM smartphone app “AuSM Connect”?

You can store all your classes, find local discounts and keep up with what’s going down on campus every day. Download AuSM Connect from the iPhone App store or Android Google Play.

Need Help?

The AuSM Advocacy team can help you with any difficulties you are having while at AUT. They can also help with general legal info. If you’re in a bit of a mess, contact AuSM advocacy by making an appointment at AuSM or going to www.ausm.org.nz “Advocacy”.

come to the AuSM office and grab your sticker

its FREE!!!

futsalChamps_sports_2012.pdf

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ARTICLE

ISSUE 18 2012

The flow of society:

why we should give a damn.

By Nathan Bromberg

W

e are very fortunate here in New Zealand, and in particular at AUT, and I’m not just talking about the free feeds every week! As a university, we pride ourselves on the diversity of our students and staff – people from all sorts of different cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, different ages, religions, sexual orientations, and so on. Perhaps more importantly though, is that we are accepting of it, a first true step into the world of the global village. I am always delighted and inspired to meet so many different people as part of my job, and one in particular stood out. Last year, I attended a function at the Business School where I met a graduating MPhil student in his eighties (which goes to show it is never too late to study). I remember thinking ‘Wow! I can only imagine how exciting it would have been to witness so many changes over the years’. This, in turn, got me wondering, for all of our great inventions and advancements as a civilisation, are we really that better off?

How we got here Although, clearly, our path through time can be traced back to the very birth of the universe, for the purpose of this article, I am looking specifically at our journey through the last 70 years of post-WWII society. If I were to pose the question ‘name two influential changes, one technological and one sociological, of the last century’, I would guess that most people would immediately think of computers and civil rights.

And, of course, you would be correct in saying that (they are two core concepts in my current research thesis). However, there have also

been other, more covert or even sinister changes that have played an unprecedented role in the forming of the modern society, such as, globalization and capitalism. You see, capitalism in itself is not evil (disclaimer: I’m a Marxist) – as long as we have a monetary economy, capitalism must exist in order for basic survival. The problem is that some people, the small minority (hey, I’m an optimist), cannot be trusted to live and work ethically within the system. That is why we [should] have regulation.

So, on the one side of the societal coin, we have the rise of modern technology that has supported (and been supported by) the civil rights movements, and on the other are people who would use this as an opportunity for personal gain. It is this seemingly dichotomic existence that has led to the rise and fall of economic and political powers all over the world. These ebbs and flows, which academics might refer to as punctuated equilibrium (that is, periods of calm broken up by times of chaos or change), are by no means a new phenomenon and have existed since the beginning of organised society. What has changed, however, is the speed at which these changes occur. If you think back to the time of the Roman Empire and the building of the colosseum, its construction from conception to the final stages took the best part of 25 years. In the same time, personal computers became a widespread commodity and the internet became available to people in the billions, and with that, issues of time and distance between people reduced to a minor inconvenience. The internet was heralded by its supporters as a platform for a new, more democratic, political sphere. So, why then, with all of this readily available technology, is (particularly youth) political participation falling overall?

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The inter-generational war

Chances are, for most of you reading this article, your parents will have fondly described their experience with the “swinging” sixties and seventies.

Perhaps your grandparents discussed their experience of the war? As a kid, these kinds of stories were fascinating (at least the first 10 times your granddad described the good ol’ days), and you came to realise how lucky you were. But those feelings quickly disappeared the moment you saw that Robocop toy you wanted. We have all stood in a shop and heard some little brat shriek at the top of his voice when they didn’t get their way, and we thought to ourselves, kids these days are spoilt brats. This generation is surely a privileged one, with its overdeveloped sense of entitlement! And to an extent, that is true; however, your parents said the same thing about you, and their parents about them, and so forth.

That is the clincher – although we may have all of this amazing technology fed to us on a silver spoon,

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we are not necessarily better done by than the generation before us. Most of us are inclined to think about life before new technology and dismiss it as a backwards world that we should never return to. Things took so much time to do, talking to people was compulsory *shudder* and Kiwis were birds. But, actually, because things took so long, they not only had to be meaningful but there was time to enjoy them. We actually have fewer disposable hours (and less disposable income) now than ever before! Why is that? Well, firstly, you cannot trust those damn machines, and secondly, there is so much more competition for resources.

You will have no doubt heard arguments in recent months about how our parents got free education.

Whilst that is true, there were also considerably fewer people looking to get a degree. Since those days, the number of enrolments has literally increased tenfold, and with that, free education became unaffordable. Now instead, we have an aging economy and no money (and those who have money are getting richer). When those baby boomers hit retirement age, pressure on the superannuation scheme will become unsustainable.

But hey, at least there will be jobs again. Whether or not this is fair is irrelevant; only YOU have the power to change it.

Politics and why you should care If this were the US, I would probably be writing a different article. It would most likely be apocalyptic in nature.

Fortunately, this is not the US and we still have some civil liberties left.

One of those is the right to vote and have it counted. Although MMP (our electoral system) is certainly not perfect, it has one major advantage over a first-past-the-post method – it uses proportional representation.

What that means is that even if you live in an electorate that, say, votes predominantly left, your vote for the Nats would still count at a national level for list-MPs. Therefore, the argument that “my vote won’t make any difference” is franking bullshit. If every single eligible voter made a vote at the last election (about one third didn’t) then the political landscape may have looked quite different.

Fair democracy relies on the willing contribution of every citizen.

But the problem is that in this

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These things become the catalyst for major and revolutionary change.

New Zealand is a prime example of a protest culture, as anyone who regularly walks past Aotea Square will agree. One possible reason for this is that we have one of the lowest power distances (the theoretical separation between decision makers and the public) in the world, ranking next to Denmark and Austria. It is almost in our genes to go on a Hikoi or protest every time the government does something that we don’t like. country so many young voters feel disenfranchised from the system and the politicians. However, what many people do not realise is that when you cast your vote, you don’t have to pick a major party, or any party for that matter. A protest vote, or spoiled ballot is actually still counted in the statistics. What would have happened if a third of voters had cast a non-confidence vote? It would have been simply unprecedented. It really doesn’t matter who you vote for, so long as you get your vote counted.

The fact of the matter is the future is going to be decided with or without your input. Many changes get made in our lives without us even batting an eyelid. Companies like Facebook have turned our very lives into a commodity to buy and sell to the highest bidder (but that is for another day). But sometimes, there will be occasions where choices surrounding your future are taken from you, and it is then that we must take action.

Many would argue that we protest too often and too readily, a point that I shall concede, but it is nevertheless our civil right to do so. At least protesters are taking some kind of meaningful action. It has become all too easy in our technological age to simply join a Facebook group or sign an online petition and then sit back, content that we have made our contribution. But the reality is, the effort that politicians will put in to resolve your gripe is about as much effort as you put in to like that Facebook status.

A brave new world If you want to be noticed in this overcrowded digital space, you are going to have to get off your computer, step outside and do something meaningful.

“...although we may have all of this amazing technology fed to us on a silver spoon, we are not necessarily better done by than the generation before us.”

Taking action One of the qualities that typifies punctuated equilibrium is a sharp increase of discontent in a society at the apex of the flow, which gives rise to social movements and protests.

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Nathan Bromberg is currently AuSM vice president

ISSUE 18 2012

FEATURE

In That Order.

by Brendon R Steen

T

his year’s Budget introduced a range of changes to expenditure on education, the three main ones being increased loan repayment rates, restricted access to student allowances, and a freeze on the parental income threshold for allowances. There’s been a lot of talk about these changes since May. But now we’ve had a month or so to take stock, it’s time to step back and see what this all means in its proper context.

What we’re talking about here, or at least what the most obvious issue is, are the cuts to student allowances and the increased student loan repayments rates in the 2012 Budget. Everyone gets that. But I think, before we start talking about numbers what we should start by talking about is education. There are a few things, I believe, that are important to understand about education.

The OECD’s 2011 Education at a Glance report tells us that adults with a higher level of education have a higher level of satisfaction with life. They’re more likely to volunteer, more likely to vote, and more likely to feel good about their health. But we didn’t need the OECD to tell us that did we?

That same report tells us a bunch of other stuff about education that we

probably already knew:

For everyone.

The difference between employment rates for men and women is lower when you look at educated people compared to those less educated. So education has a levelling effect on that important social division.

Education is a really good thing.

It gives us the tools that we need to make the greatest possible contribution that we can to society.

It gives opportunities to those whose less privileged backgrounds might have denied them those opportunities. It helps us earn more money, and pay more taxes. It’s a good thing. For everyone.

Educated people are of course more likely to be employed. But they’re also more likely to maintain employment through times of economic downturn.

In other words, they have job security.

Benefit to society Educating people to a tertiary level has a net positive public benefit for society. This bit is really important to understand, so I’m going to have to use some numbers.

If we look at the OECD’s figures for New Zealand, and we’re going to have to take their word for it because the calculations are well beyond me, the net present value to the public (i.e. the country – this is additional to the obvious benefit that the individual gets from higher income) of a man achieving a tertiary education is $46,000. For a woman it’s $14,000.

Those are net figures, meaning after allowing for all the money that the state spends on education, the result is still an economic benefit to the country. The return is net positive.

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If we’re going to look at some of these issues for what they really are then it’s important that we understand what we’re dealing with. Let me share a few more things you probably already knew: Our productivity rates – that’s the amount of money we make for every hour we work as a country – are comparatively low in New Zealand. The Ministry of Economic Development tells us, in their Economic Development Indicators 2012 report, that the key to turning this around is what they call “innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Or what I would call, doing cool things in cool ways. The Ministry tells us some other stuff too. Like that our investment in Research & Development is comparatively low. It tells us that medium- and high-tech products, as a share of exports in New Zealand, are the lowest in the OECD.

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If we put that knowledge together with some things we hear all the time – that primary production is really important to our economy – we can start to see where all of this might be relevant to education. Remember, education is good. Good for everyone.

If we accept that primary production – farming – is going to be an important part of our export portfolio for the foreseeable future, then we need to be doing everything we can to protect it. The biggest risk to primary production is the increasing concern around the world – our export markets – about carbon emissions, particularly from cows. Imagine if we could figure out a way to make cows fart less.

If we think putting all our eggs in one basket isn’t a great idea, and that some of these high-tech industries we hear so much about might be worth looking into, then what are we doing to support them? The kinds of companies we’re talking about here are the ones that make medical equipment – MRI machines – and stuff like that. Imagine how smart you have to be to design that stuff.

So education is good for our people – it makes them happier and nicer.

It’s good for society because it gives people opportunities and levels out social divisions like gender and ethnicity. It’s good for the economy because it gives us the tools we need to innovate and grow and change.

Education is good for everyone.

Voice to the voiceless For me, I think the best thing about education is that it gives a voice to the voiceless. It brings as many different people as possible, from a whole range of different backgrounds, into the public debate. That, if you ask me, can only be a good thing.

And that’s why what the Government is doing in Budget 2012 really upsets me.

First of all it shows that they don’t see education in the way I’ve been talking about. They see it as some sort of ‘nice to have’ – something that you can cut back on when you’ve got something else you’d rather spend the money on. Like $2 billion in tax cuts for the rich. The rich who can already afford their education so aren’t bothered.

But beyond that it shows that open, accessible and equal education

FEATURE

for everyone isn’t part of their thinking. The restrictions to student allowances go to the heart of this.

The whole point of allowances is to enable people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds engage in the public education system in the same way that financially luckier students can. We’ve got to remember here that students are the only group in society that are routinely expected to borrow money just to live. Student Allowances are an alternative to debt.

And debt, we are told, is a terrible, terrible thing.

When you say students can’t get allowances for postgraduate study, what you’re saying is that poor kids aren’t worth the money. You’re saying that only rich kids or people prepared to take on crippling debt should be allowed to get a higher education.

And that, in turn, limits the range of people who have access to the public debate that I think is so important.

When you deny some groups the tools to engage, you cement an existing inequality in society. You shut them out.

A WEAK RESPONSE The Government’s response to this is that because postgraduate students eventually end up earning more, they should just take on more debt.

Which is frankly quite an astonishing message from a bunch of people who have spent the last four years telling the country spooky bedtime stories about the evil dread of debt every night on the six o’clock news, but we can put that aside for now. What’s more, it seems from the information we have so far that for some it’s not even possible to borrow as much as they could get from allowances.

So the debt option might not even be there for everyone.

But why should we be accepting the debt option anyway? Remember how tertiary education has a net positive benefit for society? Sounds like something the Government should be happy to spend money on.

Add to all this increased debt the higher repayment rate for student loans – which kicks in at well under the minimum wage – and you’re in a position where a student who had to fund their studies through debt gets considerably less cash-in-hand from employment after graduation than a student who, as an accident of birth,

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“If we want our people to be happier, more employable, more productive and more engaged in society, we should be funding education to achieve that. If we want to build up our national skillset and grow the economy, we should be funding education to achieve that. ” had the independent means to pay their course fees up front.

If we want our people to be happier, more employable, more productive and more engaged in society, we should be funding education to achieve that. If we want to build up our national skillset and grow the economy, we should be funding education to achieve that. If we want to make sure that everyone, no matter their background, gets a fair go at being the best they can be, we should be funding education to achieve that.

This Government has talked a lot of the past four years about taking the rough edges off the recession. What I want to know is, what happens after the recession? What sort of position do we want to be in as a country when things finally pick back up? I think we want to be smart, qualified and ready to do the best we possibly can. Together.

ISSUE 18 2012

FEATURE

Open Access to Education A National Treasure

by Brendon R Steen

I love my country. I feel privileged and proud to have been born here in New Zealand, and I’m grateful for all the support that I’ve received by virtue of my birth in this fine place.

I’ve enjoyed free healthcare, (mostly) free primary education, (slightly less free) secondary education, and an excellent state-subsidised tertiary education. My grandparents continue to enjoy the benefits of a state housing programme that provided affordable home loans to thousands, and now live off their universal superannuation. My granddad is in hospital right now, having just had a state-funded operation for cancer.

In a couple of weeks my grandma goes in for a minor operation on her throat. My dad was an apprentice in the 1970s and has built his life on the opportunities that this country has provided him.

These are things that make me proud of my country. They’re the things that make me want to stay here.

They’re the things that engender in me a sense of ownership – a sense of duty – that means I will stay here and do all I can to build on the solid foundation my country has provided me.

It’s that feeling of pride that causes me the most hurt when this country that I love so much begins to erode away from the foundations of equality, fairness and opportunity that make it such a great place to live and grow up. I was born well after the upheavals of the 1970s and early 1980s, when some of the great social structures that had been built on those foundations were swept away: the mass sales of state assets, sweeping market deregulation and the abandoning of the welfare state.

From what history has taught me, they were dark days for the values that I think our country stands for.

But today we have our own struggles.

They’re in all sorts of areas, but what I want to talk about here are the struggles we have for the recognition of tertiary education as fundamental to our present and our future. They might not be on the same scale as they were in the 70s, but they have the same ideological impact on those of us who love our country for the reasons that I do. They are a betrayal of those values.

Not long ago one of the great hallmarks of this country was free education. We still talk about free education, but what we really mean is free primary and secondary education. And we don’t really mean free either, but, well… close enough. Somehow the meaning of free education has shifted to a point where it no longer includes tertiary education. It has become unacceptable to ask why that is.

I think we should be asking why. I think we should be asking why we provide free education at primary and secondary levels, but not at the tertiary level. I think we should be asking why we have a universal superannuation system that puts us near the top of OECD rankings for senior citizens, but that we expect our students to pay their own way. To borrow just to live.

Education should be a talking point Even if the debate about truly free education is so far lost that it’s not

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even worth talking about, there are still questions we should be asking. Questions like why it makes more sense to provide a Student Allowance to someone doing a threeyear Bachelor of Communications degree than it does to provide the same to someone doing a three-year post-graduate diploma in clinical psychology.

Or questions like why we think it’s right that graduates with student loans should face what is effectively an extra marginal tax rate of 12% on income over $19,084. Or, to put that in more specific terms, why a graduate earning $40,000 pa should be paying 23% of that back to the Government in their first year out of university.

Part of the conversation that we have when we’re asking these questions should be about who these structures are designed to support. Are they aimed at creating a level playing field where everyone has the opportunity to excel and to contribute to the country that they love as much as I

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do? Or are they cementing existing inequalities in our society by shutting the door on those who are already at the bottom of the pile?

People like to frame questions like this as binary ones. If you want free education, what do you give up to pay for it? But that’s not the real question. The real question is, if you value free education highly enough, how much are you willing to pay for it? These are big questions, and they shouldn’t be constrained by a starting point that presumes nothing else can change.

Inequality is rising

Tax rates have come down a lot in the last 30 years or so. That might be a good thing. But we also know that inequality in our society has been increasing rapidly (now at one of the highest rates in the OECD).

That’s probably not a good thing.

The way we know it’s definitely not a good thing is that we can walk down Queen Street and see people sleeping in bus stops. We know it’s not a good thing when we have 270,000 children living in poverty. We know it’s not a good thing when families are living in caravans because there’s a shortage of state housing, while the state’s response is that they’re in breach of their tenancy agreements.

And you and I both know that when 15% of students are living in absolute financial distress, this creeping plague of inequality cannot be a good thing.

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whose only option for financing study was the student allowance, which has now been taken away from them.

Restricting allowances to the first 200 weeks of undergraduate study will shut out underprivileged students from the vital tool that is post-graduate education. Freezing the parental income threshold for the next four years will gradually decrease the class of people who are eligible even for an undergraduate allowance. Increasing student loan repayment rates widens the income gap between those who could afford to fund their own education and those who had to borrow.

The education policies announced as part of Budget 2012 are about closing down the public forum, and entrenching the positions of those already in control.

I’m not joining the thousands heading to Australia, because I still believe in New Zealand. But the New Zealand I love is one that values fairness. The New Zealand that I refuse to abandon is one that believes in building the foundations for tomorrow, today. That New Zealand is slowly becoming a thing of the past. It doesn’t have to be.

The people who are running our country at the moment have failed to fix these problems. Their backgrounds, their politics, their educations and their ideologies are clearly not up to the task. What we need are some new ideas. We need to open up the forum of public discourse to people with different backgrounds, politics, educations and ideologies.

That’s what education does – it opens up the conversation. It gives a voice to the voiceless and we are all better off for that.

I may have complained long and hard about exams and assignments for the past five years, but I have loved my experience of University.

It’s taught me things I couldn’t have learned any other way, and it’s made me the person that I am. It makes me sad and angry and sick when I think that, from next year, there’s a class of people who will no longer get that opportunity. They’re the people

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“The education policies announced as part of Budget 2012 are about closing down the public forum, and entrenching the positions of those already in control.”

ISSUE 18 2012

ARTICLE

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad

“if we were to read the Syrian Assad regime like a book, it’s cover would say one thing, but the pages will reveal something altogether different.”

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover : The Syrian regime’s dying days By: Tarik Al-Diery Syrian Solidarity New Zealand

L

ike every other tyrant, dictator, and oppressor, Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad awaits the same fate that his predecessors such as Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Gaddafi faced. History has been unkind to those who left deep scars on this earth.

While the Syrian regime fights for its life in its last dying days, few know its true reality and the great deception that the Assads have so greatly displayed.

Since 1970 when the late Hafez Al-Assad took over, the Syrian regime prided itself as the champion of Pan-Arabism, and leaders of the resistance against the imperialist powers of the West. They boldly claimed that they would liberate Palestine from river to sea and would never let the Palestinian cause die out. Such claims to mandate their existence would only be proven with the passing of time, for the so-called guardians of the free Arab world would reveal a different reality to what they preached.

The Golan heights, the rocky plateau province that marks Syria’s South Western border with Israel was captured from Syria in the 1967 war when Syria was defeated by Israel. The region is of strategic importance to both the Syrians and Israelis, as it contains the 9000 feet tall Mount Herman which overlooks cities as far as the Israeli stronghold of Tel Aviv. Occupied for over 40 years, the Syrian government didn’t fire a single bullet across the border since the 1973 Yom Kupur war. Instead, Hafez Al-Assad agreed to a truce with Israel in 1974 regarding the Golan Heights, which effectively cleared the way for Israel’s annexation of this conquered Syrian land in 1981.

Consequently, the Assad regime’s policies have protected Israel’s borders and posed them no threat.

Both father and son were adamant in their speeches that they would not follow Egypt’s footsteps and ever normalise relations with the Israeli Zionist regime. Nevertheless, in the late 1990s, Hafez AlAssad was determined to achieve peace with Israel and held a series of talks with then Prime Minister, Benyahmin Netanyahu. In a 2007 interview with one of Israel’s top newspapers, Yedioth Ahronoth, Netanyahu described how Assad was willing to give up Mount Herman, so Israel could continue the security of its eastern border, in exchange for peace with Israel. Netanyahu would remark “He gave me the Hermon. I must say that I was surprised, but he gave me the Hermon and I was pleased.” While this piece of negotiation did

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WWW.AUSM.ORG.NZ break down in the end, it was a stark shift from the principle of “liberating Syria and Palestine”.

The games of those in power Persisting on achieving peace with Israel, Hafez Al-Assad’s younger son and successor to the throne, Bashar, put pressure on Turkey to be the mediators of a series of peace negotiations between Syria and Israel. Through numerous secret talks between 2008-2010, Syria was willing to denounce its support for both Hezbollah and Hamas, the two militant organisations labelled as terrorists by Israel, as well as weaken its ties with Iran. This illustrated a perfect picture of how the Assad regime used these organisations as bargaining chips for their own interests. While the talks did fail once again, it disproved the notion that Syria was the leader of the resistance against oppression.

While both countries were still determined to achieve peace with one another, the Syrian revolution struck a bolt of fear into the hearts of Israel’s politicians. Many Israeli politicians shivered from this “catastrophic nightmare” and did not want to see the man who has actively kept their borders secure disappear. Israeli and American diplomats referred to Assad as “the devil we know”, and in a UN vote to condemn the Assad regime for the violence and atrocities against the Syrian people, Israel, along with Syria’s allies Iran, Lebanon, and Venezuela, was one of only 12 nations to vote no for the condemnation, a task that should not be viewed with scepticism.

Syria’s relationship with the United States is just as intriguing to the one it shares with Israel. While constantly denouncing the US and labelling them as aggressors and murders, their actions spoke differently and with a different tone. In 2003, SyrianCanadian Maher Arar was detained in an American airport and accused of being an active member of Al-Qaida.

Arar was transferred to Syria where he was tortured for two years before being released back to American Intelligence officers in 2005. This transfer occurred during the height of the supposed tensions between the two countries in which Bush categorised Syria as linked to the “Axis of Evil.”

ARTICLE

of Islamists and were willing to fully work in exterminating these threats. Consequently, George W. Bush vehemently opposed the Syria Accountability Act, as he saw the Assad regime as an important ally in the “War on Terror”, despite his continuous labelling of Syria as the enemy.

While the US’ Republicans secretly backed Assad, the Democrats were very open in their support of the Syrian tyrant. In 2009, numerous Democrat members of Congress including Speaker of the House Nancy Peloci paid a visit to Damascus.

Leading members of the Democratic Party would label Assad as a “reformer” and a breath of fresh hope.

Former presidential candidate John Kerry visited Syria six times between 2009 and 2010, clearly demonstrating a great working relationship between the US and Syria. It was not until June of 2011, three months into the Syrian uprising, that the Democrats were willing to admit that Assad was not a reformer and merely a shadow of his father.

Pro-Palestinian / Pan-Arab illusions The biggest illusion that the Assad regime attempted to play was their stance as being “Pro-Palestinian” and “Pan-Arab”, an idea that is confusing at best. After the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, Palestinians wanted to take matters in their own hands, and so, the Palestinian resistance was born. The Assad regime repeatedly waved the banner that it will liberate Palestine from river to sea, but only to come back and weaken the Palestinian resistance.

One such example was the Assad regime’s crippling of the Palestinian resistance movement in Syria in 1970.

Sa’iqah, the Palestinian wing of the Baath party, was given a mandate

by Syria’s Pre-Assad government to create a commando unit that would eventually face Israel. By 1970 when Hafez Al-Assad took over, their numbers were 5,000 well trained

The cooperation between the Syrian and American intelligence agencies only highlights the level of confidence that exists between both parties. Syria saw eye to eye with the US in combating the rise

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soldiers. Fearing that they may disrupt his plans of total control in Syria, Assad had the main Palestinian leaders arrested, a move that would end the Palestinian resistance in Syria forever, and one that Syria’s Palestinians would not recover from.

Al-Assad’s moves against the Palestinian resistance did not end in Syria. In 1976, the Lebanese civil war began, and on the brink of defeat, Lebanon’s Christian militias called upon Assad to assist them to defeat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The Assad family’s army would then be responsible for the Tel Az-Za’atar refugee camp massacre in which 3500 innocent Palestinian civilians were murdered. Al-Assad played the game of divide and conquer and switched his allegiances numerous times in his campaign in Lebanon by also attacking the Christian parties and severely weakening them. By 1982, Syria’s catastrophic actions in Lebanon would pave the way for Israel’s invasion of Beirut, and the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon to Tunisia, effectively also ending the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon.

In August of 2011, Palestinian refugees in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia stood in solidarity with their Syrian counterparts, only to be bombarded by the Syrian navy and artillery units.

Over 25 Palestinians were murdered and 5,000 Palestinian refugees were displaced from their camp.

While the Assad regime may have never been direct allies of the West and Israel like the Egyptians, they still enjoyed a strong working relationship that served the interests of all parties.

While continuing to deceive the world that they were the champions of freedom and guardians of the Arab and Palestinian cause, their actions have helped to cripple and destroy any Arab resistance. As a primary school student, we are often told “don’t judge a book by its cover”, if we were to read the Syrian Assad regime like a book, it’s cover would say one thing, but the pages will reveal something altogether different.

ISSUE 18 2012

POLITICs

Caution: Education and Politics can be a potent mix.

Original image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/socialistworkernz/5660114541/

Jarred Williamson

“Apathy is something all too common in the younger generations nowadays as many simply don’t care.”

T

he life of a university student: sex, drugs and rock n roll, with the occasional hour hitting the books - yeah, not quite.

What ‘drives’ a student nowadays is something interesting to think about.

Looking back to past decades it seemed a larger percentage protested on a large scale, they were more politically active. Maybe they just had bigger issues to protest over.

Apathy is something all too common in the younger generations nowadays as many simply don’t care. I know of people who don’t know who the leader of the opposition is. Is this a bad thing? Well, part of me worries that they won’t make informed decisions and another part thinks, well it’s their choice.

If you’re still with me, thank you.

Back to the here and now, what drives many of us today? It appears as if only a minority of students nowadays openly expresses an interest in politics or political issues. Many are just at university to get their degree and get into the workforce, for the social scene and to learn. Fair enough, I guess.

EDUCATION & Political FRICTION

Amid tough times, this year’s budget demonstrated the friction between education and politics and the unfriendly bond between the National Party and the education sector.

Let’s be clear. Student loan schemes and allowances are bloody expensive for governments worldwide to fund. I supported the prime minister’s decision to keep loans interest-free for fees. It most certainly is not the soundest economic call, but it means less personal debt in New

Zealand. But, some people need to realise we can’t just hand out free money, there needs to be some rationality considering the world’s financial gloom.

So, were “students” (the media grouping all students as one) against the cut backs in the budget made against the student loan scheme? Largely, many weren’t or didn’t really care enough to protest over it. People I spoke to admitted that the government needed to make some tough calls.

disagree with the government?

From different numbers thrown around in the media of attendees, the protests were a loud minority. When the likes of UNITE union get involved it makes you wonder whether the cause is being hijacked, as the usual suspects appear in front of the protest groups. Yeah, help a brother out but the fact remains that they’re not actually “students” per se.

Blockade the Budget started up to protest against the cuts to the tertiary sector. The usual “screw you John Key” and “John Key is an evil corporate” came out. At the beginning of the two protests there was a fair turnout, hardly a majority, but from hearing different accounts from friends it seemed like many were watching the protest.

STUDENTS REMAIN SILENT

I remember a student against the cuts being interviewed on Close Up and was asked were the days of a ‘free lunch’ over? His response was:

I think we can all agree education is vital. Having struggled at primary and intermediate and simply falling through the cracks, I absolutely support National’s policy on national standards. Parents and their children need to know where they sit compared to other children at the same level and thus supporting to improve.

“Why should they be?”

Laughable and sort of shocking really, money sadly doesn’t grow on trees. There needs to be some return to the taxpayer and government who fund a lot of education.

The woman who was trying to find a job with a doctorate in rare or extinct birds was, well, a tough one.

I had issues with the media putting all students in the same boat. There was a genuine group that supported the cutbacks who got no representation. All we saw on TV was police trying to contain protestors and cries of police brutality. I have a student loan and I agree that parts of the scheme need to be contained. So do “students”

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That all being said, maybe a lot of students do care deep down, yet the apathetic factor silences many of them.

In the primary sector of education, national standards remain controversial and so too was ranking and comparing schools.

The outcry over “league tables” was amusing. Endless debate on how they didn’t work and how primary teachers opposed the move. A supporter summed it up as teachers not wanting to be critiqued. Either way teachers have an important role at school, but is it really that bad to measure their success?

The education minister called for schools to keep political messages out of newsletters and to an extent she is correct. The mix of education and politics can be explosive, to say the least.

ARTICLE

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www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/newzealand

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ARTICLE

David Shankbone / blog.shankbone.org

All time list of drop outs

Natasha Baucas / Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-2.0

inspirAtion for all

Matthew Cattin

Failing that media comm class?

Catering concepts going over your head? Not sharp enough for hair dressing? Maybe it’s time you realise that you’re just not good enough. But never fear! Dropping out isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least you’ll cut down on your student loan AND you’ll have way more spare time. Here are some inspirational dropouts the yearbook predictions would never have guessed.

Guillaume Paumier / Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-3.0

ISSUE 18 2012

1. Steve Jobs Steve Jobs, godfather of Apple and filler of student pockets, dropped out of college six months into his degree. Rather than bum around and do nothing however, he spent the next 18 months sitting in on various lectures, sweeping dorm floors, trading coke bottles for food money and eating free feeds at the Hare Krishna temple – all the while dreaming up the company that has so dominated the 21st century.

2. Richard Branson Richard Branson seems like a legit guy. I love it when big guns carve a name for themselves and then use their millions going all adrenalin junky, extreme sports, bachelor on it.

But I imagine the future didn’t seem so bright when Branson (who has dyslexia) dropped out of school aged 16 with terrible grades. After that, he started a record label before going onto start up an airline and a spacetourism company.

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3. Peter Jackson Our very own shining knight of cinema, Sir Pete dropped out of school at 16 to pursue his film making dreams. He never had any formal film training so most of what he did in the early years was trial and error. Living with his parents, Jackson saved as much money as he could to spend on his low budget productions such as Braindead.

Now he rubs shoulders with the biggest names in Hollywood.

Heck, he is the biggest name in Hollywood!

4. Mark Zuckerberg The IT industry moves so damn fast therefore the minute you come up with a bright idea, or steal one in this case, you drop what you are doing and pursue it. For Zuckerberg, the idea was Facebook and he dropped Harvard like it was hawwwt.

Nowadays, Zuckerberg not only rules the world, he also has more dollars in the bank than there are people in it.

6. Ellen DeGeneres Lovable Ellen ditched after her first semester of communication studies to work in a law firm.

Perhaps it was the media comm or the interpersonal communication that put her off but it’s rather ironic that she went on to host a talk show.

It wasn’t straight to the top however; Ellen worked various sucky jobs such as a door-todoor vacuum saleswoman.

7. Simon Cowell The wit, the accent, the plunging V necks – Simon

Cowell hasn’t always been a raging success but apparently he’s always had quite the mouth on him. By the age of 16, Cowell had been thrown out of 16 schools before finally ditching to work at EMI. I guess with that much experience in rejection, he is more than qualified to cut people in half on his talent shows.

8. Every selfrespecting rock star Elton John, Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Van Morrison and Ozzy Osbourne, to name a few, all felt the call of the wild and ditched school to do what they did best. Sure some of them would have benefited from the drugs, alcohol and sex education talks you get in school…but meh!

With songs like Nevermind and Crazy Train I’m not even mad.

9. Julie Andrews Have you ever watched the Sound of Music? That scene where Julie Andrews dashes

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across the hills singing? It could well have been because she was pulled out of school aged 15.

Since then she starred in The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and had her own show The Julie Andrews Hour. Good work Mum. 10. Albert Einstein I think it’s fantastic that the greatest mind of the 20th century was a high school dropout. Albert Einstein ditched high school simply because he hated it. When he decided a few years later to go to college, he then had to sit special exams to get in, which he failed the first time. Perhaps he was too preoccupied with nuclear physics to remember his times tables…

BFlatOctava at the English language Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org

5. Bill Gates Like Zuckerberg, dropping out of college was more an issue of timing than grades for Bill Gates; in fact, he was a model student. Afraid that if he waited, somebody else would beat him to the mark, Gates left college to dive head first into software development – eventually developing Microsoft. Heard of it?

David Shankbone / Wikimedia Commons

Matthew Yohe / Wikimedia Commons,

© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com

Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons

Wiki edit Jonny / Wikimedia Commons

WWW.AUSM.ORG.NZ

ISSUE 18 2012

ALl PHOTOS BY Annupam Singh

QUIZ ANSWERS: 1. Pennsylvania | 2. The Pound | 3. The Lion King | 4. Cuba | 5. Sonic the Hedgehog | 6. Foo Fighters | 7. Detroit | 8. 64 | 9. Punch | 10. Dead Skin WORD JUMBLE: novel, olein, olive, ovine, liven, voile, love, lone, noil, loin, oven, veil, vein, vile, vine, vino, evil, line, lion, live, one, oil, lie, nil, in

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REVIEWS

Marley

Invisible Stars

Bob Marley, family and friends Director: Kevin MacDonald | Run Time: 144 min

Everclear

Nobody quite does it like Uncle Bob. He’s my go to man for happy times, sad times, stressful times and party times. He’s been an inspirational figure in my life since the day I bought Legend, his greatest hits album. Since then, it has come on every road trip I’ve ever been on. I even have my own little ritual – a bubble bath at the end of each semester with Marley playing in the background.

But for all this affection and companionship I feel for the legend, I realise in hindsight I knew very little about him. And like so many gone-too-soon giants like Cobain, Lennon and Presley, I feel their legacies are often exaggerated, putting the personas on an unsurpassable pedestal. So with the release of Marley, I was excited to see an authorized and legitimate depiction of the man I’ve come to love, my Uncle Bob. Glasgow Director Kevin MacDonald has had huge success in both documentaries and motion pictures, namely the riveting climber doco Touching the Void and the haunting biopic Last King of Scotland. So with him at the reigns, I don’t think there could ever have been any doubt that Marley’s precious legacy was in the wrong hands. The film was marketed as the definitive Marley documentary due to the fact it had interviews and blessings from his family, his friends and remaining members of the Wailers. But does that make for a wonderful watch?

In this case, yes.

Like the man himself, Marley wasn’t flashy or egotistical, it was just a group of personalities sharing their thoughts on the man they loved, respected and most importantly, knew. This straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth

approach supplied the majority of the emotional weighting which delivered some touching moments of reflection. Narration or re-enactment techniques simply cannot compare to seeing the twinkle in his wife’s eye as she reminisces about the man she cared so deeply for. Nothing else can quite capture the rejected sadness of Marley’s daughter as she yearns for the proud fatherly affection she never had.

These intimate interviews were often shot on location and juxtaposed with archival footage of the man we all bought tickets to see. And in terms of seeing fantastic concert footage and interviews with Bob, I definitely wasn’t disappointed. There are moments of such startling clarity that I couldn’t help but be inspired.

Hearing Bob ask a reporter “what is wealth?” when quizzed on his income, watching him play on after an arena was tear-gassed and hearing how he always left his keys in his car because he had faith in people – these were all special moments I’ll never forget.

If you are a fan of Marley, a fan of music history or even if you just need a pick-me-up, Marley is a beautiful depiction of an icon like no other. It’s filmed honestly and vibrantly, showing both sides to Marley through the eyes of his very closest with an abundance of humour, colour, emotion, philosophy and of course, the music. So won’t you help to sing…

Matthew Cattin

Everclear frontman Art Alexakis has never shied away from the fact he likes to write a standard three chord, grunge-punk song over the top of reminiscent lyrics. The band (which Alexakis has kept together over the years with a changing line up of musicians) are most famous for the 1995 hit Santa Monica which evoked memories of a breezy summer and a longing for freedom which could be found past the West Coast surf breaks.

Since the late 90s, Everclear had fallen off most people’s radars despite releasing a number of averagely received albums.

Everclear’s latest effort, Invisible Stars, has been described as a string of songs that look to gain the attention of audiences once more with heavier riffs and louder choruses. Most likely, it’s Alexakis’ desire to get back to the glory days of his band’s sound as he takes control of a second line up of musicians since the band’s last main album – 2006’s Welcome to the Drama Club.

The fact that the band is new shows; there is nothing exciting on this album in terms of sound. From the ring of the guitars to the predictability of the songs, Invisible Stars is an album that sounds very formulaic. The band plays each tune without any sense of experimentation or chemistry.

But playing it safe does work on a number of these tracks. It’s simple but fun. Santa Ana Wind is a pretty good example of this. With a soothing, gravelly voice Alexakis sings his trusted theme of longing to find a better place in the world as he walks along the same old streets.

Whereas songs like Volcano have some sonic sounding synth intros mixed with the distorted guitars. Over the course of the album, these tracks get a little tiresome as it’s all very similar sounding.

A more interesting song on the album is Wishing. It takes a more mellow approach with a clean guitar and reduced tempo – it is a refreshing track nestled in the middle of the album. The laid back sound also allows the listener to pay more attention to Alexakis’ lyrics which are, yet again, full of reflections and longings.

Despite running over the same old themes on most of the tracks, Alexakis’ lyrics are captivating and really stand out on the song Jackie Robinson. It’s his song writing and his ability to tell a good story that keeps this album interesting.

With the release of Invisible Stars, Everclear are attempting to capture the magic of the grunge-punk glory that had them high on the charts in the mid 90s (They’re currently reliving this with a US summer tour alongside artists from the same era including Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, Lit, and Marcy Playground). Each track off the album is short and steady – there are no surprises. Overall, it’s not a bad collection of catchy rock songs if you listen to the album without any high expectations.

Nigel Moffiet

REVIEWS

The Cabin in the Woods

ANTENNAS TO HELL

Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison Director: Drew Goddard | Run Time: 95 min

SLIPKNOT

I’m a huge fan of the horror genre so it’s a pity the genre isn’t a huge fan of making good films. And it seems cowriters Drew Goddard (the director) and Joss Whedon (the producer) have taken notice, describing the film as a “loving hate letter” to the genre.

Irritated (as we all are) about horror’s debilitating downgrade to the so-called “torture porn” style of Human Centipede and the Saw franchise, Goddard and Whedon decided to hold a mirror up to the genre and make a statement. The result – The Cabin in the Woods.

Is it possible for a cliché riddled film to be distinctly original?

Well this film points to yes.

Five young friends heading out to a wood cabin to get off the radar? Check. Ominous man at an isolated gas station? Check.

Stereotypical characters?

Check. But the clichés don’t stop there – and nor does the originality. I feel bold enough to say that any preconceptions you may have about this film are most likely wrong.

I won’t give away any plot details but to say you are dropped headfirst into the story and left guessing all the way to the end. Goddard uses clichés so advantageously, providing chainsaw sharp wit and hockey mask suspense. I think the first big surprise for me was the humour. You see I wasn’t a huge fan of The Avengers as a film, but I was impressed by Whedon’s witty scriptwriting which I have to say is on a whole new level in The Cabin in the Woods. Perhaps it’s the

fact it doesn’t take itself as seriously as the big budget fan boy’s disasterpiece. It actually pokes fun at the absurdity of the genre, rather than celebrate its own cleverness.

The actors all do a good job portraying their stereotypical roles; keep an eye on the ‘slut’ played by New Zealand actress Anna Hutchison (you may be rewarded with breasticals). And also, cameo alert!

A genre-bending film of such originality is hard to ascribe a rating to. It was ridiculous, hilarious, gory but with a story, intelligent and idiotic all in one, suspenseful and surreal… everything really. The ending wasn’t quite what I hoped for but in a film that intends to defy expectations, I guess it couldn’t have ended any other way.

Matthew Cattin

It is only appropriate that the first words that hit you while listening to Slipknot’s recently released retrospective are “here comes the pain” from the song (SIC). It has been over 13 years since the Iowa natives released their self-titled debut album, and they changed the face of metal for the better.

The latest release from the nine piece masked behemoth that is Slipknot is a greatest hits album, but it’s not your usual greatest hits. The 19 tracks on this CD were carefully selected by the band themselves, and was pieced together purely for their millions of fans worldwide, affectionately referred to as Maggots.

The selection of songs on Antennas to Hell, start right back from 1999’s Slipknot, through to IOWA (2001), Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses (2004) and closing up with cuts from All Hope Is Gone (2008).

While Slipknot have not released any new material since 2008, during this time they have risen to the highest of the highs, by cementing themselves as one of the top selling metal outfits on the globe, headlining numerous festivals and selling out numerous stadiums and arenas the world over.

But during this time they have also hit the lowest points possible, with the tragic loss of bassist and founding member Paul Gray.

Following a series of tours, including Soundwave Festival, Australia in February 2012, Slipknot announced the release of their retrospective of tracks for the fans, accompanied (in the deluxe edition of the album) by a live audio CD of their now legendary Download Festival performance from 2009, and a DVD featuring 20 music videos and 10 new short films created by the bands custom percussionist, Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan.

Slipknot is an unstoppable force.

They have always done things their way, and do not follow any trends or fashions laid out before them. Many people say they have ‘sold out’, when in reality, the only thing they have sold out are stadiums and festivals.

The ‘Greatest Hits’ CD of Antennas to Hell, is a perfect representation of the evolution of this band. From their early Nu-Metal beginnings with fan favourites, (SIC), Surfacing and

breakthrough track Wait and Bleed, continuing through to their heaviest album IOWA, with choice cuts like People = Shit and The Heretic Album.

Their third album, Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses is well represented with Duality, Pulse of the Maggots (a track written in gratitude of their very loyal fans) and the Grammy Award winning Before I Forget (Best Metal Performance, 2006).

Rounded out with tracks from the last ‘Knot record All Hope Is Gone; Psychosocial, Sulfur and Slipknot’s genuine attempt at a power ballad Snuff.

All of the tracks that a die-hard Slipknot fan would expect are included on this best of, with only a few tracks that still could have been included. Combined in the deluxe version of this release is an audio CD of their Download 2009 headlining performance, previously made available as a concert DVD, released in memory of their fallen brother Paul.

The intensity of a live Slipknot show is captured as well as they possibly can on this recording. Slipknot is a truly intense live experience, so to have it captured so well on a piece of plastic is astounding. The live cuts are basically a live version of the greatest hits package, with only but a few tracks difference, but provide the listener with a completely different experience.

Rounding out this spectacular package is a DVD complete with 20 different music and live videos, plus 10 specially directed broadcasts focussing on the nine individuals that make up the band, directed by Clown.

I am a Maggot, and damn proud of the fact. I can still vividly remember the first time I heard Slipknot, and how my live was forever changed for the better. This nine headed beast has forever changed the face of music and has helped to keep heavy metal alive in the 13 years they have been in existence. Slipknot are forever, no one can stop them, and “You cannot kill what you did not create”.

Carl Ewen

ISSUE 18 2012

STUDENT PROFILE

Interview by Nigel Moffiet

“You have to be part of the system first in order to fight against it.”

Mark Wu 22, Product Design, AUT

What is your disability?

“My disability is a congenital one from birth that has left me with no legs below the knee, one thumb on my right side, and half a forearm on my left. Basically my other limbs never formed for some unexplained reason.”

You are a gold medallist swimmer from the 2008 Beijing Paralympics in the men’s 150m individual medley in which you also set a world record.

How long have you been swimming competitively?

“I’ve been swimming competitively since 2001, so about 11 or 12 years now. Half my life. Seems like ages when you put it like that!”

What other titles do you have in swimming or other sports?

“In swimming I’m hoping to add a Paralympic medal of some sort in 50m backstroke to my achievements but at this stage I’m a one trick pony in the pool.

Although I’m also part of New Zealand’s wheelchair rugby team, the Wheel Blacks.

We narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Paralympics.”

Leslie carries flag in 2008 Beijing Paralympics (photo: Facebook)

CAMERON LESLIE 22, Journalism, AUT Graduate 2012

Cameron Leslie, 22, is Paralympic gold medallist swimmer, a world record holder, a recipient of the New Zealand Order of Merit and a recent AUT graduate with a degree in journalism.

He is all set to take the world stage once more at the 2012 London Games and repeat the success he achieved in Beijing. He talks to debate about competing at the top level and what it’s like to win gold.

Is there any way to describe the feeling of winning gold?

“It’s a feeling of pride and honour. Pride in the sense you have just won a gold medal for your country. And honour that you have been able to follow in the footsteps of past medal winners. It’s a bit of a cliché but after winning in Beijing it really was a case of ‘it was worth it in the end.’”

Do you have a home trophy cabinet where you display your medals?

“No actually I don’t. Most of my early medals, ones not quite as spectacular as a Paralympic medal, are just at mum and dad’s place in a big box. My Paralympic medal comes with me and I often bust it out at presentations so that people can see the results of hard work and perseverance.”

How do you feel going into the London Paralympics? Are you feeling confident about bringing home more medals?

“Definitely feeling confident. Last time around I wasn’t even a chance at a medal, this time I’m the favourite and with that I guess comes a degree of confidence. Also this time around I’m confident in the training I have done and the way my coach has prepared me.”

What races are you entering? Is the medley your strongest race?

“200M freestyle, 150 medley, 50 backstroke which take place on the 1st September , 2nd September and the 6th of September. Yep, medley is my strongest.”

What sacrifices have you made to compete at the level you’re at?

“I’ve made countless sacrifices over the years. I don’t know whether sacrifices is the right word for it or whether decisions is a better term, because I’ve chosen to compete internationally with swimming and wheelchair rugby and it’s a matter of making decisions that will ultimately help you achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself. One of the hardest decisions I’ve made in my sporting career was probably in my first year at AUT in 2008. People say your first year at uni is supposed to be the best in terms of going out partying and meeting new people and so on. I had to choose to stay home and sleep as I had training at 5.15am the following morning.

For me, and me being someone who is partial to a few brews, that was a hard call to make but ultimately it has helped me get to where I am today.”

How have friends and family helped you along the way?

“It’d be hard to find any athlete who didn’t have a support network behind them that had a nucleus that consisted of their friends and family. They play a huge role in keeping you going on the hard days and also giving you something to look forward to at the end of a hard training day no matter how wrecked you are.”

Can you tell us about all the work you’re carrying out to promote yourself and find sponsors? You have made some Mr Vintage Tees.

“I’m very fortunate that I have a couple of loyal sponsors behind me, Sudburys Limited who’ve supported me since my first trip overseas in 2001, and ANZ Bank have joined my team this year. The tees I’ve done with Mr Vintage came from an idea a friend and I had of making supporter’s tees. We’d done up a design but something was missing, so we decided to hit up Mr Vintage as we knew they were a funky company who’d probably be keen to at least hear us out. We did that and Mr Vintage took on-board our concepts and made another design, a better design.

And yeah, Mr Vintage has been selling the ‘Team Cameron’ tees on their website for a couple weeks now. The whole idea behind it is to get people to buy a tee who’re keen to support me in my journey, kind of like wearing a Team Cameron shirt around and knowing that others are wearing it too. While I’m overseas I like knowing that people are keen to hear my results. The tees are part of that, knowing that people I may not even know are following me and my results. I really do appreciate the support.”

You can support Cameron by buying a Mr Vintage tee here: http:// www.mrvintage.co.nz/results. html?q=cameron

debate is looking for some super interesting AUT students to profile. Do you know someone at AUT who we should profile? Is it you? Email debate@aut.ac.nz with your suggestions.

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