Cherwell - 1st week Hilary 2021

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Vol.293 No.2 | 1st week

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Friday, 22nd January 2021

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STUDENT NEWSPAPERS CALL FOR SAFETY NET

Daisy Aitchison

For the first time ever a joint editorial has been published in the student newspapers of the Russell Group universities, calling for the implementation of a “no detriment or safety net policy” in examinations this year.

Editors from across the different universities, including at Cherwell, have pointed out that “we are living through what are undeniably unprecedented times” and that the policy towards exams “does not match the reality of what many students have faced, and are continuing to face, this year”.

As part of this disruption the move to remote

teaching during the pandemic is cited, along with the fact that “students have repeatedly said they have not been adequately supported throughout this pandemic” by their universities despite the “hard work of teaching staff”.

Another of the concerns raised was the impact of the pandemic upon mental health and wellbeing. Figures from WONKHE and Trandence which suggest that students feel more lonely and isolated as a result of the coronavirus crisis are used to demonstrate what is described as a “mental health crisis among young

TOP STORIES Oxford study social media manipulation | 3 Drop in Oxfordshire COVID-19 cases | 4 New ICU planned for JR | 5 Oxford worst city in zombie apocalypse | 6

ALSO INSIDE Science & Tech: Emissions trading | 7 Comment: Dating in Southeast Asia | 10 Features: Hallucinogenic healing | 12 Sport: Oxford versus Lockdown | 14

people’’. The lack of resources within students’ home environments is also cited as a reason for adjusting exam requirements this year.

The newspapers are calling for a policy similar to that of the University of York to be adopted by all the Russell Group Universities.

There the weightings of the second and third year will be readjusted, with candidates able to choose the better mark. Those behind the editorial believe this will ensure students can “simply fo- cus on their st ud ies, confident they will not

be impacted by COVID-19, whilst preserving the value of their degrees to employers”.

The editors from the various newspapers have also stressed that they are in a unique position to put forward concerns given that “not only are we students ourselves but we are also in constant contact with the students at our respective universities, as part of the function of our extracurricular roles”. This means that they have a “unique insight” into the “attitudes, viewpoints and beliefs” of those studying at university.

T h e article was written in

response to a statement from the Russell Group published earlier in the month. The organisation announced that they “do not consider that using the same algorithmic approach to provide individual ‘no detriment’ or ‘safety net’ policies, which were introduced by some institutions as an emergency measure at the end of the last academic year, is necessary or appropriate this year”.

The universities claim that were they to take such action their degrees may not “command the confidence of employers and professional bodies”.

Continued on Page 2.

STUDENTS UNHAPPY WITH COLLEGE ISOLATION PROVISION Rachel Muir A Cherwell survey has found that 57% of respondents were not satisfied with their college’s handling of selfisolation last term. One student commented that they were “treated disrespectfully,” with “little support from the college.”

A key area of complaint was meal provisions, with only 44%

of respondents voting that the food they were given was “adequate.”

One student complained that they were given “slabs of boiled unseasoned tofu with peas,” while another, who got sent the same meals four times in a row, said: “I never ever want black bean chicken and rice again!”

Students also complained that their food

arrived cold due to it being transported from the main college site to external college accommodation.

The disdain for selfisolation meals even made it to Oxlove, with one post from November reading: “oxhate to the somerville isolation meals, the only food that makes you wish you had covid so you Continued on Page 3.

News | Friday, 22nd January 2021

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WHAT’S INSIDE LEADER When lockdown’s getting you down NEWS Oxford study into social media manipulation Oxford worst place to live in a zombie apocalypse SCIENCE & TECH Review: The Social Dilemma

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COMMENT A return to the roaring twenties?

Dating in Southeast Asia The UK’s decision to leave Erasmus

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FEATURES Hallucinogenic healing

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SPORT Oxford versus Lockdown

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Continued from Page 1.

However, a student backlash to the policy has grown, with various groups of students penning open letters while the Oxford Students’ Union has launched a “Fair Outcomes for Students” campaign.

Last year, the university instituted a “safety-net” policy for students. At the time the decision was taken “to reduce the risk that students may be disadvantaged by the conditions in which they revise for and sit their exams in the exceptional circumstances of the CV-19 pandemic.” Summative assessments taken prior to Trinity term could be taken into consideration in order to determine both grades and degree classifications. However, work undertaken in tutorials was not allowed to be included as it was deemed “not sufficiently rigorous or consistent”.

One of Cherwell’s Editors-in-Chief, Lucy Tansley, explained the aim behind the edito-

n the first jet off to Dubai and market (that English lockdown, we baked government U-turns degree isn’t looking banana bread and make any rule feel so good now – any watched ‘Normal meaningless, but there’s space in something People’. It was scary, also the impact of employable?), it’s easy yes, but exciting too; three lockdowns upon for students to feel causing there was the possibility mental stamina. In a neglected, of reinvention. And, study released by Ispos more damage to mental while I didn’t use the Mori, six in ten Britons health. Boris Johnson opportunity to turn admitted to finding it didn’t even deem us into a fitness guru harder to stay positive worthy of a mention or become fluent in during this lockdown. when announcing the Spanish, there was Mental health charity third lockdown. Instead, still hope. The second Mind has had a huge a 9pm letter from the lockdown was one of increase in calls during Minister of State for long walks in University January, with their Universities told most they’d be Parks, virtual bops and chief executive Paul students the threat of Christmas Farmer saying: “It’s staying at home for the beginning (and, it’s dinner in university now seeming, the kitchens. However, camaraderie once “The nation is facing a rest) of term.

This week, I’d again came through to - whether it was mental health pandemic” planned write something posts on Oxfess insightful and bemoaning college powerful, about Joe restrictions, the group chat being far no understatement to Biden and the hope more entertaining than say that the nation is for American unity the Zoom class or the facing a mental health after the horrors of the past weeks, about how absurdity of socially pandemic.” distant dating.

With scant face-to- Britain cannot exclude Lockdown three just face (or Zoom-to-Zoom itself from the outrage feels different. Partially this term) teaching and directed at America it’s pure pandemic the imminent threat – about how it isn’t fatigue, as influencers of an uncertain job an impossibility that

rial.

“We’re hoping that in joining together with students in a similar position at other universities that our collective voice may be listened to in making policy changes to exams that will ultimately have a significant impact on our future”.

Amelia Horn, the coEditor-in-Chief, added: “It’s really exciting to be working with the other papers on such an important project for the student body. It’s clear that across the UK there is a mood among students that they have been treated unfairly, and this is something that we felt was important to demonstrate.

“It seems the Russell Group not only consider teaching to not have been disrupted, despite having almost a year of remote or blended learning, but also that the general distress caused by living in a pandemic is not enough to require special circumstances.

This has led to a nationwide injustice for the 2021

graduate cohort as well as younger years taking exams and coursework.

“A joint statement between Russell Group papers is something never done before and we hope that this will platform student voices that seem to have gone ignored thus far.”

On 13 January 2021, editors of Cherwell, The Oxford Student and The Oxford Blue wrote a joint editorial calling for reasonable measures to be implemented for this year’s finalists, claiming that failing to do so would undermine “the University’s commitment to student welfare and academic success”.

It concluded: “the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a whole generation of students can not even begin to be graphed on a curve.

This crisis is, as we are so often reminded, ‘unprecedented’ - but extraordinary times surely call for equally extraordinary measures. A fair, robust nodetriment policy is one of those measures - and it must be implemented now”.

Leader

WHEN LOCKDOWN’S GETTING YOU DOWN

ABIGAIL HOWE far-right groups could storm Westminster and be peacefully policed while Black Lives Matters protestors were met with kettling, baton charges and pepper spray in London. But it’s hard to write about the big picture when our worlds have become so small. As each day blends into the next, action can seem futile.

Still, we have to find hope. We can dream of a Trinity with fewer restrictions, a time when heading to Fever will seem strangely fitting rather than the trigger for a

coronavirus test and every Merton student can access a desk.

Summer is coming, promising longer days and more opportunities to socialise.

We can’t control the government’s policy or its many failures.

Instead, we can only be gentle with ourselves and others, reach out to those around us – albeit virtually – and look ahead to the future, playing our small roles by acting sensibly and with kindness. Perhaps even the humble Zoom quiz will make a triumphant return.

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | News Continued from Page 1. couldn’t taste it.”

A spokesperson from Somerville responded: “Our catering team worked exceptionally hard during Michaelmas term to deliver three nutritious, affordable meals a day to those in isolation, and many students and staff expressed their gratitude to them for this hard work. We regularly review our provision and will ensure that all comments made are taken into consideration and balanced against our overarching priority to keep our students, staff and the wider

community safe during this difficult time.”

As well as the questionable quality of the food, there was also the overwhelming sense that colleges were charging their students an unreasonable amount for their meals whilst in isolation.

71% of respondents to our survey voted that they did not think that the amount they were charged for food was fair.

A student wrote on Oxfess: “Normally I spend £20 a week on food. In isolation it was £13 a day for food that wasn’t really up to standard. I wasn’t allowed to use my

3 kitchen so was left with no option than to receive the overpriced meals.”

The survey also called into question whether students were receiving adequate support from their college welfare teams whilst self-isolating.

Oxford University’s Covid-19 Response, published at the start of Michaelmas term, said in regards to self-isolation: “Your College’s Welfare team will already have prepared for this eventuality and will be ready to help and support you where they can.” However, the survey found that 42% of students did not get

any communication from their college welfare team whilst they were isolating.

This breaches the guidance produced

by Universities UK last October on best practice for supporting students who are required to self-isolate.

This guidance stated th at universities should stay “in regular, proactive and personal contact throughout the self-isolation period, to encourage them [students] to raise any issues or concerns and to identify those getting into difficulty.”

Despite generally negative feedback, some respondents did praise the support

they received during their self-isolation, particularly from the JCR welfare reps.

A student from Somerville said: “The JCR was amazing, always helping and checking in on me”. She added: “The principal also emailed me various times asking if everything was ok and if I needed anything in particular.” Another from Wadham said that the JCR welfare reps “were really good if you reached out but they didn’t initiate it too much.”

The University of Oxford and the Oxford SU have been contacted for comment.

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Oxford study finds social media manipulation in 81 countries Angela Eichhorst A report published by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) has found evidence of organised social media manipulation campaigns in all 81 countries surveyed in 2020, a 15% increase compared to last year’s report.

The study points to the rising influence of ‘cyber troops’. This refers to social media accounts that spread doctored images, use data-driven strategies to target specific sections of the population, troll political opponents, and mass-report opponents’ content so that it is reported as spam. These accounts can be either automated or human.

Facebook and Twitter revealed that they removed more than 317,000 accounts and pages from their platforms in a 22-month period (Jan 2019 to Nov 2020), but they are up against an industry that has become “professionalised, with private firms offering d i s i n f o r m a t i o n -f o r hire services,” says Dr

Samantha Bradshaw, a researcher at the OII. While social media companies were removing accounts, $10 million was spent around the world on cyber troop political advertising in the same timeframe and $60 million has been spent on private “strategic communications” firms since 2009.

OII’s report found evidence of government agencies in 62 countries using computational propaganda for their own ends. Examples include China-backed cyber troops who continue to launch smear campaigns against Hong Kong Protestors and the Libyan National Army who have used social media to shape narratives about the ongoing civil war.

Of the 48% of countries with misinformation campaigns that drive division and polarization, the UK and the US were counted among them.

In fact, the US and the UK both tested positive for interference from all five potential

actors – government agencies, politicians & parties, private contractors, civil society organisations and citizens & influencers.

During the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, fears of civil unrest caused by years of social media manipulation were harshly realised. “The day after the election, a group immediately pops up on Facebook called Stop the Steal,” says Sheera Frankel,

cybersecurity reporter for the New York Times.

“They’re gaining 100 new members every 10 seconds.”

After Facebook and Twitter removed their pages, the group reconvened on Gab and Parler, platforms that allow individuals to say whatever they want without fear of moderation or censorship.

“Now, more than ever, the public needs to be able to rely on trustworthy

information about government policy and activity,” said Professor Philip Howard, Director of the OII and co-author of the OII report. “Social media companies need to raise their game by increasing their efforts to flag misinformation and close fake accounts without the need for government intervention, so the public has access to high-quality information.”

Image Credit: Canva.

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News | Friday, 22nd January 2021

Study links supporting right-wing populists with climate scepticism Charlie Hancock There is a strong link between climate scepticism and support for right-wing populist political parties, according to a new study from the University of Oxford and Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The study combined the internet browsing history of over 9,000 participants in six countries including the USA and UK with survey data to establish whether there was a link between support

for populist parties and climate scepticism.

Over 15,000 website visits were tracked over three months.

The research was inspired by the rise of populist parties in the UK and USA, which often opposed efforts to put combating climate change at the top of the political agenda. The study defined climate ‘sceptics’ as people who denied anthropogenic climate change, which is caused by human activity. According to NASA, at least 97% of

actively publishing climate scientists agree that the trend of global warming over the previous century is caused by human activity.

Dr Pu Yan, the lead author of the paper, commented “Our research shows supporters of right-wing political parties favour policies to tackle climate change to a significantly lesser extent than supporters of other parties.

Whilst such parties might have a range of views, the common denominator is that they

distrust the scientific consensus.”

Unlike right-wing populist parties, no link between supporting left-wing populists and climate scepticism was identified. The study also found that non-populists who were less interested in politics were more likely to be climate sceptics than populists.

The study also found that right-wing populists were over twice as likely as their left-wing counterparts to visit “hyper-partisan news

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domains”, making up 20.83% of their most visited websites compared to 9.52%.

Professor Ralph Schroeder, another author of the study, commented “Our study shows that populists are highly interested in the politics of climate change. They seek a coherent worldview that bolsters their ideas about climate change and the science of climate change, so that it fits their overall political agenda.”

Full article at cherwell. org.

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Drop in Oxfordshire’s COVID-19 cases Jonny Yang Oxfordshire has observed a decrease in new coronavirus cases in the week ending January 14th as compared to the previous week.

Case numbers by local authority are as follows, with statistics from the week prior in brackets: Oxford - 532.6 (down from 564.1) Cherwell - 537.5 (down from 901.6) Vale of White Horse - 289.7 (down from 400.7) South Oxfordshire - 304.1 (down from 435.7) West Oxfordshire - 294.6 (down from 385.0) The total number of cases in Oxfordshire in the week ending January 13th was 2832 with a rolling rate of 409.4.

This constitutes a total decrease of 1113 cases or -28.2% compared to the previous week.

The Thames Valley Police, the largest nonmetropolitan police force in England and Wales serving 2 million people across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire

and Oxfordshire, has warned that event organisers “could be given a substantial £10,000 fine and those attending will face enforcement through a fine,” fixed at £200 for a first offence, doubling at further offences up to £6,400.

Nearly 1,000 fines have been handed out by the police force since the start of restrictions last year for offences ranging in severity from not wearing a mask to mass gatherings.

The Oxfordshire case rate remains above the national average. On Tuesday, it reported a further 17 deaths as the country as a whole recorded its largest ever death toll from coronavirus.

Nationwide, new daily cases have started to decline, although deaths and hospitalisations continue to increase. 37,496 people were hospitalised with COVID-19 as of January 17th.

Over four million first-doses of various COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far.

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | News

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Oxford researchers trace COVID-19 through genomic epidemiology Dania Kamal Aryf Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh have recently published a comprehensive genomic analysis of the Covid-19 transmission.

The full report was released on 8 January 2021, presenting detailed insights into the behaviour of Covid-19 transmission chains since the outbreak of the pandemic in the UK. The study is based on data from the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020, when the virus was first introduced into the region, and has found that the highest number of transmission chains had been introduced from Spain at 33%, France at 29%, and Italy at 12%.

Transmission chains of

the virus from China, meanwhile, accounted for only 0.4% of imports.

The researchers drew on more than 50,000 virus genome sequences, in which 26,000 of these sequences were obtained from the Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium.

The results of the study offer a crucial context to what is happening now in the current wave of the pandemic in the UK. The same team have hence incorporated the genomic factor in identifying the latest variant (termed B.1.1.7) that is currently growing at rapid

rates throughout the country.

The team of scientists have suggested that a detailed comparison of the new variant’s behaviour with that of the first wave lineages will be crucial to understanding why the B.1.1.7 variant is spreading so quickly now. Before the March 2020 lockdown, high travel volumes a n d lax restric-

tions on international travel led to the circulation of more than 1,000 identifiable UK transmission lineages which had persisted into the summer of the same year.

In a news article published by Oxford University, Professor Oliver Pybus, colead author based at Oxford’s Department of Zoology and the Oxford Martin School, said that by reconstructing where and when COVID-19 was introduced to the UK, we can see that earlier travel and quarantine interventions could have helped to reduce the acceleration and intensity of the UK’s first wave of cases.

Another co-lead author, Louis du Plessis, also from Oxford’s

New ICU unit planned for the John Radcliffe Hospital Flora Dyson Plans for a new intensive care unit in the John Radcliffe Hospital have been submitted.

It would triple critical care capacity from 16 to 48 intensive care beds.

This new capacity would also serve Buckinghamshire and West Berkshire.

The Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Trust believes the building is an “urgent requirement” as the John Radcliffe’s critical

care unit is currently stretched by a large number of patients ill with Covid-19.

The trust told the BBC a new unit would “support further pandemic and seasonal pressures” and “given the nature of the pan-

demic, the increase in critical care capacity must happen at speed”.

The OUH NHS Trust have said they are facing double the number of patients ill with Covid-19 than in the country’s first wave.

The John Radcliffe Hospital are dealing with a large number of patients ill with Covid-19 in intensive care, mounting pressure on staff and the hospital’s services.

This has forced the trust to cancel all nonessential surgery.

Oxford are facing a high number of coronavirus cases with rates at 531.1 per 100,000, higher than the national rate of 520.4 per 100,000 as of 18th January.

Pressure on Oxford’s hospitals has increased, which in turn has

Department of Zoology, added that the UK shares large volumes of virus genetic data publicly on a weekly basis, and that “if you don’t have this level of surveillance, you won’t know the real situation of virus evolution and transmission.”

Co-lead author, Verity Hill, PhD researcher, based at Edinburgh University, said, “This kind of continuous, nationally coordinated genomic sequencing not only allows the high-resolution analysis we present, but also helps other countries to place their genomic data into context and assists the global pandemic response.”

The UK currently hosts the world’s largest COVID-19 sequencing consortium.

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created a shortage of intensive care beds.

A new ICU would include 32 more intensive care beds set out in a “race-track” formation.

This layout, used in many world-class critical care units, places nursing in a central area with hospital beds around the ward’s perimeter.

It increases patient visibility to staff and facilitates their movement around the unit.

The new formation intends to optimise natural light on patients.

The plans also involve demolishing the existing Barnes Care Unit in a 5-story building connected to the central hospital.

Image Credit: Jackie Bowman / Children’s Wing, John Radcliffe Hospital / CC BY-SA 2.0

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News | Friday, 22nd January 2021

Oxford worst city to live in during zombie apocalypse Jonny Yang A groundbreaking report published by SaveOnEnergy ranks Oxford last on a list of most ‘survivable’ places to be in the event of an undead invasion, raising concerns for residents and students.

It may further distress some of our readers that Cambridge ranks first with a score of 348 out of a possible 700. However, Cherwell would like to remind any concerned citizens that it would hardly be sporting if Oxford was better at everything.

The paper is the latest in a series of studies conducted

by SaveOnEnergy, a UK-based firm that provides consumers

with price comparisons for a range of energy, personal finance, insurance and communications services.

While the study does not consider the impact of zombies upon the local population, it instead focuses upon ‘survivability’ - or the capacity to live independently within the city once national communications and power grids have been cut off.

The study ranked 40 of the UK’s most populated towns and cities in order based on their self-sustainability and ‘greenness’, awarding points on eight different factors: solar energy produced per year, farming area, the number of farmers per city, air quality, outdoor space, recy-

cling centers, wind farms, and t h e number of electric vehicle charging points.

Marks were sub-

tracte d instead of added for air quality, bringing the total number of available points to 700.

Oxford scored a mere 82 points, separated by a large margin from Preston, which came in thirtynineth position and scored 104 points.

The study notes that “despite having some of the most farmland

of all cities studied, Oxford was let down by its lack of onshore wind farms, lack of outdoor space, and clean air.”

The city is one of eight in the UK to house zero wind farms and ranks 38th and 23rd on its proportion of farming land and air quality respectively.

Zombies aside, there is clearly much room for improvement in Oxford on the sustainability front. Better recycling and more solar energy production are just some other ways we could make the city a more environmentally friendly place to live.

For example, the Oxford Zero-Emission Zone, which has

Dire wolves: not just from Game of Thrones?

Issy Kenney-Herbert Dire wolves were real creatures, not just created from the mind of George R.R. Martin.

They, alongside a range of massive creatures known as megafauna, disappeared from America in a mass extinction during the Pleistocene Period.

However, a research project involving Oxford archaeologists as part of a near 50-strong team have uncovered further information about this extinct species: enough information to successfully sequence the DNA of a dire wolf.

Professor Greger Larson, Director of the Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network and one of the academics involved in this project, told Cherwell: “There were a lot of

unanswered questions about dire wolves and we wanted to see if we could apply an ancient DNA approach to generate dire wolf DNA to answer those questions.”

Dozens of remains of dire wolves were located and examined with limited success. Yet the close collaboration of this global academic team was able to generate partial genomes from five specimens in the US. Nuclear DNA testing established that they had evolved separately from other canids.

The study found no indication of matings between dire wolves and other canid species, which could be a reason why they went extinct and other North American canids, such as wolves, survived the extinction.

In response to a

further inquiry into what the next stages of this research might look like, Professor Larson said: “Ideally we’d like to get a much better genome or two so that we can address questions about selection and population size and how the dire wolves responded to the changing climate at the end of the Pleistocene.” The University’s announcement mentioned the idea of “a ‘Pleistocene Park’ of towering megafauna may one day be a possibility”. When questioned about this, Professor Larson said “Well, never say never.

We can get DNA from dire wolves and we now know how closely they are related to modern canids so if cloning becomes a thing, maybe we can resurrect dire wolves.”

Professor Larson

spoke of this collaboration as “a joy to be a part of”, especially with “so many young academics taking the lead”. Speaking further to Cherwell, he elaborated: ‘The past is a foreign country. The more we know about it the more we know about ourselves and the more empathy we can generate for each other and our planet.

The more young scientists that are involved in these studies the greater the likelihood that science can continue to make the moder n world a bett e r place.”

Lead author, Dr. Angela Perri

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entered its final consultation phase, would implement a road user charging scheme for vehicles with emissions, aiming for cleaner air in the city.

Oxford University has been approached for comment on whether SaveOnEnergy’s reveal about Oxford’s anti-undead security (or lack thereof) might cause prospective candidates this year to choose Cambridge instead.

We can only hope the university is hard at work on emergency measures to protect its members and compensate for the area’s overall vulnerability.

Otherwise, a zombie apocalypse might leave Oxford’s survivability dead last, and its inhabitants just dead.

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from Durham University’s Archaeology Department, said: “Dire wolves have always been an iconic representation of the last ice age in the Americas and now a pop culture icon thanks to Game of Thrones, but what we know about their evolutionary history has been limited to what we can see from the size and shape of their bones and teeth.

“With this first ancient DNA analysis of dire wolves we have revealed that the history of dire wolves we thought we knew — particularly a close relationship to grey w o l v e s — is actually much more complicated than we previously thought”.

Science and technology Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Science & Tech

Review: The Social Dilemma

Anna Volk discusses Netflix’s new documentary and whether social media is a threat to our freedom.

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he Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, depicts the rise of social media and personalised online services.

Deepling unnerving, it shows us not only their power over each and every one of us, but also their damage to society.

Despite being a documentary, truths are revealed through help of a fictional plot. We follow teenager Ben (Skyler Gisondo), who falls under the spell of an algorithm (Vincent Karteiser). We can relate as he tells himself that, if he wanted to, he could give up his phone. Yet instead, and to the worry of his older sister (Kara Hayward), social media gradually helps draw him towards the ‘Extreme Center’. But the plot is only secondary. The true messengers are Tim Kendall, former president of Pinterest (and Director of Monetization at Facebook), Justin Rosenheimer, inventor of the ‘like’ button, and a whole cast of other really, really big fish. The testimonials of these experts - ranging from the cocreators of Google Drive to the

author of ‘You are not a gadget’- are as personal as they are alarming.

That big social media and tech companies aren’t actually offering their services for free isn’t news to anyone. After all, “[if] you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”. But it’s not just that they’re selling your data.

The creators of the platforms explain that it’s not really about learning about you - your data isn’t actually worth that much - but about changing you. The aims are those little changes that occur within you that make you more likely to keep scrolling, more likely to buy a product. “We want to psychologically figure out how to manipulate you as fast as possible”. The most alarming element is not just the facts. It’s seeing the fear in the creators of Facebook, Google and co. some of which have since left the respective companies. When even the people who have helped build the platforms, who know them and their aims better than any outsider can ever hope to, are worried, how can you not be?

The UK’s new Emissions Trading System Gabriel Ng explains the government’s new scheme for lowering carbon emissions outside of the EU.

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s part of the UK government’s “Energy White Paper” released in December, the UK has unveiled its own Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which has been in effect since the start of the new year, replacing its participation in the EU ETS. The ETS, also known as the cap-and-trade system, is a mechanism used to reduce CO2 (or equivalent) emissions. The government sets an emissions target called a ‘cap’, which is the maximum total amount of emissions to be released per year. This maximum is then reduced over time, in line with the UK’s 2050 net-zero emissions target. The government divides the cap into permits, which are allowances to emit a fixed amount of emissions. It then allocates or auctions these allowances to businesses, who can trade them amongst themselves in the market.

Economists love discussing the pros and cons of a carbon

tax versus the cap-and-trade system. Both the carbon tax and the ETS reduce emissions by putting a cost on carbon emissions. However, they do it in slightly different ways.

Essentially, a carbon tax sets a fixed price for carbon emissions, while the ETS sets a fixed quantity of emissions instead.

A cap-and-trade system is attractive for environmental reasons, because the risk of emissions exceeding the cap is low. However, in cap-and-trade the price for permits fluctuates according to market demand, making it harder for firms to budget in advance. Currently, it would seem that cap-andtrade has won favour in the UK. Many other countries are also adopting a similar policy, including China, which will be launching its own ETS system in February this year.

The UK ETS applies to energy intensive industries, the power generation sector and aviation, as was the case under the EU

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But the queasy feeling in your stomach after watching The Social Dilemma is not really fear. It’s a much more sober worry about the implication of these massive tools of public manipulation for democracy. It’s a worry about the increasing division in our society, the rapid spread of false news, without our being conscious of it. It’s a worry about the massive power held in the hands of a few powerful, unelected, individuals.

That non-fiction can be dramatic is nothing new to Director Jeff Orloski. In 2014, his award-winning documentary Chasing Ice visualised the terrifying effects of the climate crisis. Yet in The Social Dilemma, he didn’t seem quite ready to let the power of facts and narrative speak for themselves. Instead, music, base and cuts made it less classic documentary and more action film.

But instead of increasing the intensity, this forced dramatisation took away the impact of the testimonials themselves.

That the short-term joy of a ‘like’ is based on quasi-withdrawal symptoms for the remaining period of

time, has much more impact than bombastic music. Instead, The Social Dilemma could have spent a little more time on presenting possible solutions.

Yes, it reminded me to be critical upon my own social media consumption. It reminded me to ask not just if it makes me happy, but also to question if those emotions may be the product of algorithm engineering. And I would definitely recommend The Social Dilemma to anyone looking for the tools to better understand and question their own behavior.

But, if I’m honest, it doesn’t seem enough to simply give people 10 reasons for deleting their social media accounts. So long as startups and organisations continue to be run on Facebook, this cannot, and will not, be a viable option for everyone.

The Social Dilemma highlights that social media is far from being a purely private phenomenon.

It is political. And so long as we live in a democracy, it should be us, and not a few individuals in Silicon valley, deciding how we want to use these powerful tools.

ETS. Around a thousand UKbased businesses are affected.

However, the UK government has stated in the Energy White Paper that they are “committed to exploring expanding the UK ETS to the two thirds of uncovered emissions”. This policy is now possible with the UK having its own ETS. In addition, the UK ETS will continue to use auctions as a means of introducing allowances into the market.

However, certain sectors such as operators of installations and aircraft operators will be eligible for free allocation of allowances.

The UK ETS is in many ways a continuation from the EU ETS system, but is stricter and slightly more ambitious. A tighter annual cap is proposed, which is around 5% lower than the UK’s notional share of the EU cap it held before. In addition, the fines that are imposed for emissions that exceed allowances will be increased from EUR 100 per tonne to GBP 100 per tonne. Compensation to energy-intensive industries will also be lower under the UK ETS. This is all in the hope that the UK ETS will be the “world’s first net-zero emissions trading scheme”.

SCIENCE SNIPPETS

Read the full article online at www.cherwell.org

Image: Mitch Ames, Wikimedia Commons

The only two viable embryos we have will be implanted into the last two remaining northern white rhinos this year.

Solar cells that have been treated with capsaicin, the chemical that makes chilli peppers spicy, have been shown to be more efficient at converting solar energy.

It has now been revealed that the Australian lungfish has the largest genome of any we know, with 14x more genetic material than humans have.

Editorial | Friday, 22nd January 2021

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Amelia Horn | Editor-in-Chief

T

he Trump era has ended.

Inauguration was two days ago, and I get a little emotional every time I see a photo of Kamala Harris on Instagram. It was a day to celebrate; Biden might have not been your first choice, but watching the ex-President leave the White House, unable even to grumble about it on Twitter, is a victory for truth and democracy.

Trump is out, but is Trumpism over? The Republicans increased their number of voters in the 2020 election, and the act of domestic terrorism on the US Capitol on January 6 made it abundantly clear that the Trumpian brand of fascism has gripped a large portion of the nation.

It’s easy to mock when we see the viking hats and face paint. But our biggest mistake would be to laugh at these people who already feel as if progressive politics doesn’t care about them. Like it or not, Trumpism resonated with the white working class, and in order for the Democrats to win in two and four years time, we cannot dismiss this. I am not trying to justify their behaviour or beliefs; this is a political reality.

Biden must prove that he is not another establishment figure, and instead provide meaningful change to improve workplace

EDITORIAL

rights,healthcare,unemployment and living conditions.

The Republicans will try to pin the blame on their former leader for the riot, but Trump is not solely responsible for this. The GOP have facilitated four years of misinformation. The Party’s silence was deafening while their President fed his supporters lies about election fraud. It remains to be seen whether the Republicans will return to conservative libertarianism, or continue with the hypernationalistic “America first” mentality. I predict it will be the latter; already the old Republicans are a minority in the Party, and the momentum of this quasifascist ideology doesn’t seem to be slowing.

A political chameleon, the exPresident succeeded in falsely blaming poverty and unemployment on immigrants, embracing social conservatism, and guaranting tax cuts to appease the more traditional Republicans. His disregard for truth and incessant stream of discriminatory language desensitised and legitimated open hatred for marginalised groups, climate denial, and attacks on democracy. The effects of such harmful narratives haven’t been erased with his leaving the Oval Office.

C

Editor-in-Chief | Lucy Tansley

herwell is now in its hundredth year, and it certainly feels like I’ve been on staff for about ninety-five of them.

I’ve been rejected at every stage of the newspaper hierarchy which means, somewhat embarrassingly, that I’ve had no less than seven Cherwell interviews.

While I wouldn’t have changed how things turned out, life has imitated art (if we can refer to Cherwell as such) in making this sort of regular rejection uncomfortably familiar.

With the end of my time at Oxford looming in six months’ time, any attempts to secure a job for after I leave have so far been fruitless, and the sting that companies ‘won’t be taking my application further at this time’ has become depressingly normal. I applied for my ‘dream job’ this week and was rejected within three hours. In moments like that it’s hard to remember that ‘everything happens for a reason’, when instead the overwhelming feeling is annoyance and despair at my job prospects. I have on more than one occasion googled off-grid living and considered taking up residence in an eco

cabin in the woods rather than trying to navigate a job market that coronavirus has all but eviscerated.

Most of the students who make it to Oxford will probably never have experienced rejection in any meaningful sense in their lives before, and I am certainly guilty of coasting through on the naive hope that everything would be alright and I would manage to find a graduate job somehow despite the pandemic.

Now this has, unsurprisingly, turned out to be more difficult than I thought, perhaps it is time to accept that young people now are simply not going to have a normal start to their careers.

As university students would be the first to tell you, we cannot define productivity in the same way that we did before the pandemic; every level of society has ceased to function in a recognisable way, and we shouldn’t expect it to go back to ‘normal’ any time soon. Maybe I’ll find an incredible job in 2021, maybe I won’t, but I am certainly trying to trust that, just as my career on this newspaper, everything will turn out how it’s supposed to be.

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CUL CHER

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Vol.293 No.2 | 1st Week

CulCher | Friday, 22nd January 2021

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INSIDE

CULCHER page 2 | Cultural Nostalgia page 3 | Something Wicked THE SOURCE page 4-5 | Sunlight BOOKS page 6 | The Romantics aren’t just for Summer STAGE page 7 | Backstage takes centre stage FASHION page 8-9 | Bridgerton: Blunders amidst beauty MUSIC page 10 | Remembering MF DOOM FILM page 11 | The Crown’s unspoken words LIFE page 12-13 | Michael(mas): Everyone’s toxic ex page 14 | Hair today, gone tomorrow FOOD page 15 | Fusion Food: The Real McCoy? PROFILES page 16 | In conversation with Alma Deutscher

COVER ARTIST

LIZZIE DALY Hello, I’m Lizzie and I’m a 4th year medic at Univ. I am lucky enough to be back in Oxford for Hilary, so I am enjoying the chance to take plenty of photos as inspiration for my drawings. I often base my drawings on Oxford, as well as the natural world. Line drawing is usually incorporated into my work – although recently I have been experimenting with digital art and watercolour to add a bit of colour to my drawings!

CULTURAL NOSTALGIA

T

he past is now a major industry.

Whether that’s because making more of what people already like is an efficient way to earn money, or because in times of instability we enjoy returning to the safety of fond memories, nostalgia is inescapably part of how films and TV are written and advertised. Now, we all know about the compliment sandwich––the idea of putting something difficult to hear between two compliments–– and as a metaphor to understand this new age of the old, I’d like to suggest that we think in terms of a nostalgia sandwich, or how references to the past become a vehicle for the new.

An obvious issue with the idea that nostalgia sells is how so many revivals of the past fail critically and financially—they’re criticized for using nostalgia to mask lazy writing, for meddling with franchises which have become sacred, or for being inferior to the original.

The best example of this is the Star Wars sequels. Fans were split about the proportions of the films’ nostalgia sandwich—should they have focused more on established characters? Or did they need more new content? That’s before dealing with whether Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi was admirably original or if it desecrated established canon for shock value, or whether J.J. Abrams’ story decisions in The Rise of Skywalker were justifiable, or whether they were nonsensical events existing solely to reference previous films.

The fandom remains schismatic, with volatile debates continuing regarding even the most minute details of the story. And then came The Mandalorian.

I was skeptical when word of mouth painted The Mandalorian as a show course-correcting to the style of the original trilogy after the sacrilegious decisions of films like The Last Jedi, a movie whose merits, in my mind, outweigh its flaws. I worried that the show would rely on the nostalgia factor of familiar story beats and a Boba Fett lookalike, instead of forging its own path. But the show’s popularity was skyrocketing, as evidenced by its record-breaking streaming rates, and I was intrigued by behind-the-scenes details, such as the involvement of stars like Pedro Pascal and Werner Herzog, the show’s pioneering use of digital sets, and Ludwig Göransson’s soundtrack, an eclectic combination of everything from recorders to synthesizers to trap beats, strikingly

BY W.S. LUK

original but also a homage to the music of classic Westerns.

Gradually, I began seeing the show not as a capitulation to, but a clever manipulation of, nostalgia. It was full of references to the Star Wars canon, but I didn’t need to know the details of Operation Cinder or the backstory of the Darksaber to understand the plot.

It drew on classic films, from Westerns to samurai movies to thrillers like The Wages of Fear, but these homages were integrated into a new, exciting storyline.

The show isn’t perfect, but its issues are comparatively minor, and I’d rather celebrate how The Mandalorian is a rare success in using a nostalgia-heavy storyline. Factors such as strong performances, directing and writing, and a very merchandisable baby Yoda undoubtedly helped, but I think it’s crucial that the show chose to draw on the style of the original trilogy, instead of overtly reusing its story, a frequent criticism of the Star Wars sequels. The show explores new facets of familiar ideas, such as providing better characterization for Stormtroopers and alien species; while the sequels took steps towards this, their more complex stories, not to mention behind-the-scenes conflicts, meant that these ideas were never fully explored. And, while Rian Johnson in particular was seen as being flippant or even disrespectful towards the Star Wars canon and fans who took those details seriously, the show rewards die-hard fans with an abundance of Star Wars continuity details woven discreetly into the plot.

It’s a masterful balancing act, and finishing the second season, I began to hope that Hollywood would learn from this nostalgia sandwich—only to realize that, in a way, it already had [...]

Perhaps the nostalgia sandwich isn’t a great metaphor—it draws a line between nostalgia and originality. Remaking, changing, and indulging in existing stories is human nature, and when done right, nostalgia isn’t a crutch to prop up an unoriginal story, but a vital ingredient. The Mandalorian isn’t great because it has lots of callbacks to classic Star Wars or because it references old movies—it works because it finds new frontiers to explore in a universe we thought we knew everything about. In an age where originality seems nonexistent, seeing something like this feels like a new hope.

Read the full article online at cherwell.org.

Artwork by Lizzie Daly.

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | CulCher

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SOMETHING WICKED

I

n 35BC, the Roman poet Horace depicted witches with ‘false teeth’ and ‘tall wig[s]’ of ‘dishevelled hair’, howling at the moon and ‘tearing a black lamb to bits with their teeth’. Over two thousand years later, however, the art of witchcraft is far from forgotten. Along with banana bread baking, Zoom call outfits, and home workouts, the practice of witchcraft has surged in the past year, with modern paganism trending across TikTok and Instagram.

The witch has long been a figure of curiosity both in the UK and across the world.

As well as the famous Salem witch trials in the U.S., instances of witchcraft have been found across the globe. Some African tribes claim to be protected by the witchcraft of their clan, whilst in Japan the fox-witch or ‘kitsune-mochi’ is capable of shape-shifting, possession, and illusion. In England, arguably the most famous witches are found in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, chanting ‘Double, double, toil and trouble’, an incantation that very few people can claim to be unfamiliar with.

Even if you don’t spend your free time perusing the works of Shakespeare, the phenomenon of the witch is impossible to avoid in the twenty-first century. From hit shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch (re-made in 2020 by Netflix as The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), to the cultural sensation that is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the human obsession with magic and witchcraft has manifested itself throughout art and society.

Within politics, also, the correlation between world events and the interest in witchcraft is telling. During women’s suffrage, in the nineteenth-century, the witch figure was portrayed as both a wisewoman and a devil worshipper. Meanwhile, the publication and sale of occultic books rose during the second-wave of feminism. More recently, the #MeToo movement coincided with an increase in the number of people identifying as witches. It’s fascinating that predominantly women – though studies have shown that minority ethnicities and the LGBTQ+ community also – identify

BY CAITLIN 0’SULLIVAN with the world of witchcraft, particularly during moments of political struggle. In the face of patriarchal resistance, witchcraft seems to provide a sense of power and community to those who are so often marginalized and oppressed.

On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, a witchcraft community called ‘Magic Resistance’ formed in the U.S., and has continued to meet throughout his presidency. The group perform ‘binding spells’ and gather together Tarot cards, feathers, and candles, amongst other items, alongside unflattering photos of the President. This ritual is performed each waning crescent moon so that Trump’s ‘malignant works may fail utterly’. As of today the ‘Magic Resistance #BindTrump’ Facebook group has 6.6k members, and performed their final binding last week on 12 January 2021 at the last waning crescent moon before Joe Biden’s inauguration.

How, then, has the current global pandemic affected the witching community? Just as, historically, the practice of witchcraft has been shown to increase during moments of social upheaval, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown has resulted in a flourishing of modern witching activity. On TikTok, the ‘WitchTok’ community grew exponentially, with influencers posting tarot card readings, manifestations, and good luck spells that their followers could watch from home. As of today the hashtag #WitchTok has received 8.3 billion views, while hashtags like #witch, #witchcraft and #witchesoftiktok have received 8.9 billion views between them. There is even a teaching element to the community, under the hashtag #babywitch, where anybody new to the world of witchcraft can learn more about the spiritual practice. The WitchTok community also actively participates in the world around them. Last summer, during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, many WitchTok accounts posted tutorials for spells that could be used on people for protection before they went out to protest.

CULCHER EDITORIAL I listen to a lot of music which falls under the category ‘noise music’, and something I’ve heard more than once when others have (by design or otherwise) been exposed to it is ‘this isn’t music’ or ‘did they think this was good when they wrote it?’ Past any immediate, stinging insecurity regarding my own taste, this kind of statement is very interesting as an indicator of what we generally ‘accept’ as music, and how we approach art and creative work as a whole.

Landing on a concise, encompassing definition of noise music is essentially as impossible as dissecting any other generic label; for the sake of this article, noise music is music which features noise as a sonic feature (defining noise itself is, again, difficult, but the first thing which comes to mind is probably apt- heavy distortion, ‘unmusical’ sounds like that of a blender full of nails, a feline yowl, etc.)

This isn’t intended as an encyclopedic appraisal of noise music as an artistic field, and especially not as a justification or apology for noise, but instead an (insultingly) brief look at how it might work and what it might be saying in itself, and how this might reflexively inform or illuminate our critical habits.

One thing worth addressing is the inherently contrarian nature of noise.

Artists create deliberately; the abrasive, venomous sound of noise is not included in a piece as an accident, a failure of sound engineering; it is employed for a reason. So what is the point of making music which sounds unmusical, which is unpleasant? Isn’t music supposed to be ‘enriching’ in our lives, a form of emotional self-indulgence where we are willingly coerced into feeling a certain way? Surely none of that works if the sonic quality of the music itself is this abrasive, this inhumane. I’d argue that this is the point.

Read the full editorial at cherwell.org.

– Gbenga Chesterman w

Read the full article online at cherwell.org.

Artwork by Emma Hewlett.

WHAT’S ON Luminous: Showing until November 2021 An online exhibit showing the multi-disciplanry works of seven artists with learning disabilities, exploring ideas about changing industrial landscapes, experiences of bullying and historical portraiture. Buy tickets online at the Old Fire Station.

One World New Year Festival: Sunday 24th 2:30-4pm A cross-cultural event featuring a multi-faith panel, a classical Indian dance performance, and the opportunity to create your own ‘window of kindness’. Free online on the Ashmolean’s website. Photo credit: Sarah Casey

Stargazing Oxford 2021: Thursday 28th 3pm-9pm Attend talks from scientists, join Q & A panels and learn tips for stargazing - all from the comfort of your own home! Register free on the Department of Physics’ website.

CulCher | Friday, 22nd January 2021

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As the days gradually start to get longer, The Source reflects on sunlight and the memories it evokes.

THE SOU

RC E

It is the light Bianka Petrova That engulfs me Its fingers of dust waltzing ever so softly Treading air and falling, falling, falling to the sound of Footsteps It is my grandma’s smile And her laugh And her light It wraps around me Sheltering me from a reality that melts away With the leaded pace of these summer days There is a place on earth at the end of time Which seems to be all mine Not a home But a place Where I can hear my mother’s voice Still travelling, crossing spatial barriers, carried by light beams Tracing the timeline of her ephemeral youth It is a place where I can breathe And with every watercolour landscape I tread through Past and present converge But they do not clash They are two temporal tones, dashing and clasping Waves in a precarious confrontation Instead, the two linger in the air Those there feel their honey-soaked stare Carried by the smell of salt and warmth Their hearts are filled somewhere in the North It is a place where I clutch at the lucid light Where remnants of my own voice Will soon be trapped between wooden beams Fixing in place a time It is within these realms that I exist boundlessly

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | CulCher

Rosa Mundi Josh Booth ‘Oh, my rose of the world!

Oh, you are so, so beautiful!’

Night stains the leaves with fat drops of ink, slicks each stem with a tincture of cold toxins.

The air is dyed with vats of blood-dark indigo, and the pond is hardened to glass, reflecting all.

I want to hang it up in my wardrobe. It’s something I’d wear for him. He’d get it for me.

He’ll give me a cockroach encrusted with diamonds and let it crawl over my neck, and I’ll be happy.

I am the rose of his world.

He likes to keep me in his garden, where I am safe and warm inside four walls.

I never have to open. No one has to know if there’s a worm in the bud, or not.

They can keep gazing at me from behind glass panes, eating my petals with their eyes.

‘Be careful you do not prick your finger, my love.’

Outside is dangerous.

But when I think about it, the walls bend and twist away at a thousand different angles, as if someone’s spliced them up inside a kaleidoscope.

That’s what the force of metal can do to a body.

I wear chains for him, around my neck and around my wrists. They keep me safe.

I’m following a way out, which I know is really only a way in.

Deeper into the maze, I find where he keeps his other roses.

They bloom in beds of pink and white, dripping nectar, bearing every bee sting and bite. My heart is the same colour: white fat and pink muscle strung tight as a harp to play his favourite tune.

I push my finger down onto a thorn, sticking the venom inside myself.

He’d killed the core and frozen the outside of the rose in stinking varnish, so inside, it’s all hollow. I’d found something forbidden.

I spill out all at once, and all the faded petals drift.

Image by: Katie Kirkpatrick.

Submit your creative writing to The Source at: culturecherwell@gmail.com

5

CulCher | Friday, 22nd January 2021

6

BOOKS

‘Ah, bitter chill it was!’

URSY REYNOLDS ARGUES THAT THE ROMANTICS AREN’T JUST FOR THE SUMMER.

U

nlike Agatha Christie adaptations or reruns of Doc Marten from 2009, the works of a 19th century Romantic poet seem an unlikely match with the dreary winter months. Rather, the mainstream approach is to view the Romantics through the lens of an eternal summer. The movement’s cornerstone ideology appraises nature, growth, and the freedom of roaming the Great Outdoors. Yet reading the Romantics with such a limited seasonal perspective denies

I

n a time when most of us must stay home, writings on travel offer welcome escape from our collective yearlong cabin fever; we hope that these recommendations take you to unknown destinations and n e w worlds of culture, geography, and perspectives.

Eastern Horizons - Levison Wood Jess, Deputy Editor Taking trains, boats and buses along the antique trading road, a cash strapped 22 year old Levison Wood relies on fearlessness, the hospitality of strangers and occasionally a little touch of crime to make the epic journey from England through Russia, Georgie, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India.

A humanist portrait of the people and countries he meets along the way underlines the book, and the clever conceit of travelling a

them the complexity their work begs. If anything, the bitter British winter was a source of great inspiration for some Romantics, hardly a period to be discarded as a fruitless literary realm. If we simply read the Romantics as summer poets, we limit their work to a one-season run of flowers, lutes, and half-naked women, disconcertingly like the sole lucky break of many onehit-wonder indie bands. So to what extent can we really read the Romantics as winter poets?

Or would it be better to leave

them frolicking in meadows as traditional opinion would prefer?

One of the clearest examples of a winter Romantic is one of the contemplative and melancholic John Keats. At the time considered inferior to his more famous contemporaries in both literary and social status, Keats offered a new approach to the movement that shocked and abhorred peers. Lord Byron, a figurehead of the era not known for his subtlety, once declared that Keats wrote ‘piss a bed poetry’. But poems like ‘Bright Star, would I were as steadfast as thou art’ are indeed consistent with the Romantic reverence for the ‘eternal […] priestlike’ elements of nature.

In addition, works such as ‘O Solitude! If I must with thee dwell’ condemn the ‘jumbled heap’ of Keats’ industrial world with appropriate Rousseauian distain. In Keats’ arguably most famous poem, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, images of ‘beechen green’, ‘embalmèd air’ and ‘fruit-tree wild’ align neatly with the general concept of the Romantics as summer poets.

Summer is found not only in Keatsian settings, but also in plot: consider ‘Ode to Psyche’.

Although many of Keats’

central works coincide with the view of Romantics as summer poets, he remains one of the best examples of the counterargument.

‘The Eve of St Agnes’, for example. is a wintery Keatsian masterpiece. It lacks the summertime brilliance of his simpler and shorter poems, drifting instead into the frosty realms of a medieval dream-state. Keats also draws heavily on unsettling winter images including ‘icy hoods and nails’ and ‘chill, silent as a tomb’, forging a dark and uncomfortable atmosphere only emphasised by ominous, seemingly deliberate overemployment of sibilance.

Poets like Keats understood the dark depths of the British winter, and the human longing for the summer to come. And so as we knuckle down for some tough months ahead, put aside your fears and delve into a bit of Romanticism.

Indeed, a bit of Keats will certainly remind you that whichever shore you stand upon, you certainly do not stand alone.

Read the full article online at cherwell.org Image Credit: Culture Club/ Getty Images.

Cherwell Recommends: Travel Writing

THE BOOKS SECTION OFFER THEIR TOP PICKS

millennial old trading path is done justice to by this former his- tory student. His style is witty yet unpretentious; I first read this on my gap year (sorry, didn’t I mention my gap yah?) and found this the perfect combination for inspiration.

Anything by Bill Bryson Ella, Deputy Books Editor If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, forget the great and good of the world, and choose Bill Bryson,. He has the unique talent of exactly situating you in the remote terrain of the Appalachian trail or University Parks (‘really

just one park but so good that it had evidently awarded itself a plural’) as an equally intrigued explorer. Descriptions of these places interweave with their history and his own experiences and interactions with locals to build up evocation pictures of each location and culture. With humour at his own ridiculous actions, he can build up the scene of trying to walk to a restaurant in an American town completely built for cars, hopping over barriers and running over three-lane roads, and then on the next page tear down the impractical and alienating architecture taking over Middle America.

A Bittersweet Journey Through Culture - Yu Qiuyu Irene, Books Editor I was glad to see that this collection of essays by Yu has been translated into English: from interpretations on poetry and art to explorations of cultural geography, Scholar and author Yu Qiuyu takes readers on a tender and meditative journey through China and beyond. Yu’s style draws from multiple genres to create an effortlessly candid voice,; this collection is a thoroughly approachable starting point for anyone curious about China’s physical and cultural terrain.

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Friday, 22nd January 2021 | CulCher

STAGE

BACKSTAGE TAKES CENTRE STAGE Holly Bostock offers us a look behind the scenes.

W

hether you have acted in the Olivier Theatre, or taken part in the school nativity, any actor will be all too familiar with the organised chaos commonly referred to as ‘backstage’. Perhaps an aspect that audience members rarely consider whilst sat happily in the stalls. Where would Cinderella be without her glass slipper? Could Romeo and Juliet have lived happily ever after if Romeo had been cued a bit late?

Perhaps Lady Macbeth wouldn’t have felt quite so guilty if she hadn’t had time to apply that fake blood in-between scenes?

It may be, that the seamless performance audience members witness onstage, is in fact, only the tip of an iceberg.

It all begins, of course, in the rehearsal room. After weeks of eyeing up your opponents during auditions, you are finally sat in a dark room sitting cross legged in a circle; some feeling pretty chuffed with their solo and others less so with the role of Villager No. 2. Meanwhile, the director is becoming increasingly stressed as cues are missed, lines are shaky and ‘NO-ONE. I REPEAT NO-ONE IS WHERE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE!’ is screamed over a microphone. The famous phrase, ‘it’ll all be ok on the night’ does, however, always seem to pull through when you finally have something worthy of performance. It is at this moment that it becomes obvious just how important backstage is; it can quite simply carry the play or allow it to flop, making the phrase ‘break a leg’ cut a bit close to the bone.

That isn’t to say, however, that a few technical hiccups during a production don’t add to the charm and fun. During one particularly memorable school production of A Christmas Carol, a yoyo, crucial to the scene, was not in the coat pocket it was supposed to be in. This resulted in having to perform an overly detailed, ‘off the cuff’ mime of said yoyo in front of a live audience: great sport for them, rather humiliating for me.

During another production of RSC’s ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’, an actor not being able to make it in time to the stage meant that drastic improvisation had to take place, resulting in the contents and length of the scene changing dramatically.

I’m fairly confident that the audience didn’t notice, the actors, however, most definitely did and, safe to say, the post show adrenaline levels in the dressing room were running much higher than usual.

Then there is the pre-show dressing room tension that every actor craves. From the wardrobe malfunctions being sorted out last minute to the soundtrack of tongue twisters and scales being sung in the background.

Meanwhile, seeing fellow cast mates in their underwear no longer seems strange; in fact, no-one bats an eyelid. It is maybe these small moments that are most missed by actors during the pandemic, not the dramatic death scenes, or passionate declarations of love onstage, but the little trials and tribulations that go on unseen which really bring a cast closer together.

Ultimately, it doesn’t seem to be the centre stage limelight that actors are missing during lockdown, but rather the backstage community and dressing room drama that all contribute to the feel-goodfeeling drama can achieve. It seems that now, perhaps more than ever, the show truly must go on in order to preserve this precious sense of ensemble.

REVIEWS/SHORTS

M

Becoming Hir

y belief in the wide scope of family dramas drew me to see Hir in London’s Bush Theatre in 2017. I was surprised by such an innovative approach and felt it would be a great play to write about (particularly in the current global climate) in relation to necessary change. Hir is a subversive and radical take on the dysfunctional family drama.

For one, it is a comedy on queer theory and gender fluidity in which potentially overtheorised concepts, which do not necessarily enhance the visibility and representation of transgender people, are brought to life in a chaotic family context.

All that should probably not be said or done, is eventually said or done. The play’s cathartic nature hinges on New York playwright Taylor Mac’s darkly playful approach to gender issues. Mac introduces the setting as ‘the kind of home that, no matter how hard you clean, will always seem dirty… a starter home that never really got started and can’t seem to end.’ Hir

takes place in a ‘house built by a first-time builder in the early ‘70s’ (mainly in the kitchen) during a particularly hot summer in rural California. The play begins with a homecoming: Isaac, a marine, returns to find the home he grew up in completely transformed.

While Isaac’s sibling Maxine now identifies as ‘hir’ and is injecting testosterone, the previously abusive patriarch is being fed oestrogen and dressed as a woman by Paige (the mother). Paige’s actions reflect her rejection of subjugation by a violent masculine force; she refuses to clean anything (so the house is an absolute tip). In the opening scene, Paige wastes no time in shocking her son Isaac, as soon as he returns, with her repudiation of gender norms, roles and social practices. Full of joyful rage, she proclaims: ‘We’re getting rid of things and stopped caring’. Essentially, Hir is a striking family tragicomedy about holding our oppressors accountable by embracing radical changes.

Words by Cosima Tiffou.

CulCher | Friday, 22nd January 2021

8

FASHION

Bridgerton// Blunders Amidst Beauty Three watchers of Netflix’s new hit show comment on the costume missteps and triumphs.

Bridgerton is indeed the perfect combination of Jane Austen novels and Gossip Girl, “Regency with a modern twist”. It is a period drama like never seen before. The show is a joyful painting of the 1813 society – exit dull beiges and welcome to a colourful debutante season! Bridgerton’s costumes were the creation of designer Ellen Mirojnick, who had worked with Shondaland (the show’s production company) in the past. Part of her philosophy was to stick to historical foundations and silhouettes, while offering a modern colour palette. The styles are more luxurious, more sumptuous and reflect the fashion of our current time. Who would have expected garish yellows and pinks amongst the Ton? Colours carry an important meaning for the shows characters.

They hide clues about their stories and personalities. Let’s start with an outlook on the Bridgertons. Their wardrobe is dominated by pale hues of blue, purple and pink. The muted pastel palette is a symbol for the older, classically upper class family that the Bridgertons are. The more traditional and delicate gowns of Daphne, Eloise and Lady Bridgerton radiate elegance and grace. The family is mostly defined by Wedgwood blue. It is a nod to the fine china porcelain founded in 1759 and illustrates the level of status and luxury held by the family. The pastels are juxtaposed with the Featherington’s bright, almost gaudy color scheme. The Featherington’s are new money, and thus seek stature and attention. Lady Featherington wishes her daughters to be seen and courted by the most noble men of Mayfair. The family is loud and proud, although the vivid hues are verging on the vulgar. The colour scheme also cover up a deeper secret. Lord Featherington is severely indebted – a scandal that would have destroyed any family’s reputation.

The bright colours are an effort to hide the stain covering the family. And what better way to distract the town’s, and, crucially, Lady Whistledown’s attention than wearing bold colours?

Larissa Koerber

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | CulCher Check us out on Instagram: @Cherwellfashion

9 It is not unusual for a popular television show or film to have an effect on fashion and beauty trends; Jennifer Aniston’s hair on Friends prompted over 11 million women to chop their locks into ‘The Rachel’ cut, and headbands were no longer only primary-school cool after Gossip Girl’s Blair wore them as her signature accessory.

The only difference is, we are not talking about a revival of headbands here. The characters of Bridgerton wear (mostly) era-appropriate empire-waist gowns, corsets and bonnets, items you are unlikely to see on the Zara website or wear on your trip to Tesco’s.

How 19th century and 21st century fashion came together somewhat mirrors the music of the show itself. Pop songs by the likes of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift were ‘Austenised’ with a string quartet makeover and surreptitiously slotted into scenes, marrying the classical and the modern. The 2021 fashion equivalent is ‘Regencycore’, a trend which combines elements of Regency and 21st century fashion into a wearable version of the dreamy clothes seen on the show.

For this lockdown corsets have made a comeback, although not as the debutantes of Queen Charlotte’s court knew them. Corsets are now being styled over crisp white shirts, paired with jeans or layered over a t-shirt dress, making for cool and savvy outfits not too out of place for a walk down the high street. Swirling floral designs, romantic flowing skirts and capped sleeves will no doubt be popular in Spring too, a wistful departure from the comfort of lockdown-chic trackies and old freshers week t-shirts. A Victoria’s Secret corset top has gone viral on Tiktok because its delicate floral pattern, fussy lace and sweet satin ribbons practically scream Bridgerton, without being a full-blown ballgown. If a singular clothing item encapsulates the essence of Regencycore, this top is just that: a piece of lingerie that is somehow also demure and rather elegant.

Artwork by Alessia Daniels

The portrayal of corsets within Bridgerton is, unquestionably, historically inaccurate.

The empire-line dresses worn throughout the series would not necessitate the smaller waist that a tight-laced corset would create, as the dress falls from the bust, almost completely obscuring the shape of one’s figure. Yet, just because they are historically inaccurate, does not mean that they don’t have a valuable role to play within the series. Tight corsets have come to be a shorthand within period programming – they are there to emphasise the tight restrictions placed on women’s lives during these periods, the ridiculous societal expectations thrust upon them, the lack of control they truly had over their own lives.

In this, when we watch Lady Featherington demand that her daughter’s corset be tightened beyond reason, the scene is not about the corset, but rather acts as an introduction to the character dynamics that we will be seeing throughout the series: Lady Featherington is a woman who cares about what people think, often to the detriment of her own children; she cares about appearance beyond reason (in fact, the fact the corsets are seemingly useless only further contributes to this, as she is needlessly hurting her daughter); and she wants to ensure her daughters are perfectly moulded to fit in with cultural expectations.

Lily Kershaw

Bridgerton is neither ground-breaking nor deeply thought-provoking but nevertheless charming and oh-so pretty to watch. The show temporarily transports the viewer to a world stuffed with dances, picnics, and nights at the opera, the kind of thing we can only yearn for in the midst of a lockdown. The characters look consistently stunning, primped and preened in case a suitor might show up at any minute.

Sitting on the sofa in our pjs you cannot help but want to go to the ball with them draped in feathers and satin, if not just for the chance to wear real clothes and not loungewear for once. Since this is not obviously possible, imitation is the next best thing. After all, if we dress like Daphne, maybe a hunky duke will land in our laps too?

Hannah Goode

CulCher | Friday, 22nd January 2021

10

MUSIC

REMEMBERING THE SUPERVILLAIN

Oliver Hogg celebrates the career of MF DOOM.

I

t is a convention of English that proper nouns are capitalized so to signify their importance; this is why cities and names are capitalized.

So, when MF DOOM tells us to, “remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man’s name”, why should we listen?

Because he holds more weight than just capitalizing one letter.

He is the super villain, he is Metal Face, he is a three-headed extra-terrestrial dragon – he demands your respect, and he has earned this respect with one of the most legendary careers in music who has had unparalleled influence. However, on December 31st we were told of Daniel Dumile’s death which had happened 2 months earlier on October 31st, ironically the day where people wear masks like he did all his life.

‘Your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper’ is a title that is given almost exclusively to DOOM; and for good reason. His lyricism is one-of-a-kind; he is one of the only artists to be able to form whole verses with internal rhyming within the bars to create dizzying flows. The entirety of the underground in the 21st century is built upon DOOM’s lyrics, but to limit his influence to just the underground is a sin, as there is a reason why huge artists like Tyler, the Creator and Drake cite DOOM as their favourite rapper as well as those in the underground.

DOOM’s production is

criminally underrated. I would place him alongside Kanye West as one of the greatest rapper-producers. His production style is one-of-a-kind with its abundant use of old Marvel cartoon samples that DOOM uses to tell his own story through the music first and then his lyrics. Albums like Vaudeville Villain, MM… FOOD, Take Me to Your Leader, and BORN LIKE THIS are some of the best produced albums ever, and DOOM produced them all, and rapped on them all like no one else ever.

Even prior to putting on the mask, DOOM was one of the most influential producers under the name Zev Love X as a part of the group KMD with his brother DJ Subroc (RIP).

Their debut, Mr. Hood in 1991 was littered with production from DOOM that most definitely went on to influence the Wu-Tang Clan a couple years later through DOOM’s revolutionary use of sampling. Further down the KMD rabbit hole, their sophomore effort, Black Bastards is, in my opinion, one of, if not, the most underrated hip-hop records in history with supreme production, again from DOOM, as well as superb hooks and bars from DOOM, Subroc, and Onyx the Birthstone Kid.

DOOM is one of the most mysterious figures in music, and that all comes down to the mask. The mask is worn so as not to detract from the music, DOOM was sick of rap becoming a beauty pageant or a fashion show, where the way you looked and dressed seemingly mattered as much as the music.

DOOM wanted his music to speak for itself, and it did, as most people cannot recognise Daniel Dumile’s face, but they most definitely recognise his music.

And that leads me to his most recognizable album, his magnum opus; Madvillainy.

Madvillainy, the collaboration of DOOM and Madlib, is undoubtedly one of the greatest hip-hop albums, and one of the greatest albums of all time. Madlib and DOOM were both in their creative prime, where they both could not make anything that wasn’t genius, even if they tried.

While the passing of DOOM is crushing, we must also be grateful we got to exist during his reign as one of hip-hop’s most beloved and respected artists with, in my opinion, the greatest discography in rap. May he rest in paradise with Subroc and Malachi.

Image Credit: The Arches via Wikimedia & Creative Commons

BODLEIAN BANGERS Alan Rusbridger, LMH Principal and former Guardian Editor-in-Chief, picks a selection of his favourite music.

Find on Spotify @cherwellmusic and the full interview online.

Image credits: Rodin77 & Infernemland

WOLFGANG MOZART The Marriage of Figaro Act I

THE GRATEFUL DEAD Friend of the Devil

EDWARD ELGAR Symphony No. 1 in Ab Major

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | CulCher

11

FILM

T

he release of Series 4 of Netflix’s The Crown in November of this year has provoked conversation about the level of truth in the depiction of the royal family; the history which lies behind the drama. In fact, articles abound online questioning the accuracy of the show and purporting to reveal “The Real History” behind what The Crown shows - as if the category of “History” is stable and immutable, and not a subjective and superfluous concept.

The main problem (or strength perhaps) of The Crown lies in its setting in recent history. Series 4 covers a period spanning from 1979 to the early 1990s; depicting events which many viewers will have experienced firsthand. For example, the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana is carefully re-enacted, as is the death of Lord Mount-

batten in 1979. But it is not the depiction of these well-documented events which is causing the controversy; it’s what lies behind these famous weddings and funerals, the undocumented words of the royals, which the writers have had to guess at, and then dramatise, that seems to have caused a problem. Did Queen Elizabeth really go about seeking out which child was her favourite (as in episode 4)? Did Michael Fagan (who broke into Buckingham palace in 1982) really give an impassioned speech about the effect that Margaret Thatcher’s policies were having on the working class?

The question I want to ask though, is do those details really matter?

I think, when it comes to any biopic, “real history” has to be deprioritised. If an accurate and chronological rendering of history is what you’re looking for, watch a documentary!

The historical events depicted act more as metaphors for the interactions between the royal family that we’ll never be privy to. The fights between Charles (played

by Josh O’Connor) and Diana (played by

THE CROWN’S UNSPOKEN WORDS

Maebh Howell writes on the dichotomies of the biopic, asking which is to be prioritised; accurate truth-telling or entertaining storytelling.

Emma Corrin) may not have happened as depicted, but the actors do a brilliant job of bringing out the instability in the relationship, and how unalike and unsuited Charles and Diana were, showing both of their flaws (Charles’ long-standing affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, and Diana’s lack of understanding of Charles’ aversion to publicity stunts). Neither vilified nor sanctified, Charles and Diana are represented solely as humans with problems of their own. Despite criticism that The Crown depicts Prince Charles as cold and uncaring towards Diana, the writers also can be sympathetic, leaving out the ‘Tampongate’ scandal between Charles and Camilla.

The writers do an excellent job of taking into account both sides of the story, with three previous series of exposition and context as to why certain characters act like they do.

What The Crown succeeds so well in, then, is taking a subject matter which is as simultaneously secretive and publicised as the royal family, and presenting them as what they are: a family with problems, arguments, affairs, divorces, laughter, jealousy (the list goes on) just like our own family.

And if it makes for good television, does it really matter that there’s a bit of exaggeration?

Art by Emma Hewlett.

Read the full article online at cherwell.org

MUST SEE STREAMING: MLK/FBI

Sam Pollard pieces together archive footage to tell a fascinating story of propaganda and protest.

CLASSIC: WATERSHIP DOWN

If you’re looking for something to be sad about that isn’t current affairs, this beautiful animation will do the trick

STUDENT FILM: ANDROMEDA

Watch Beth Simcox’s retelling of the classical Andromeda myth through paintings hung out in the backyard at https://vimeo.com/416889708

12

LIFE

Life | Friday, 22nd January 2021

MICHAEL(MAS): EVERYONE’S TOXIC EX Brittany Perera, perhaps understandably, compares Michaelmas to childbirth.

I

t’s weird isn’t it, having more than one kid.

I love kids (not in a weird way, you creep) but, you’d think that after the pain of childbirth and having your vagina stretched to the size of a small melon, if someone was like, “You wanna go for round 2?”

You’d be like, “I’m good.”

But my mum’s one of six, which means her mum either has a vagina of steel or a taste for masochism.

Turns out she has neither.

After childbirth your brain releases some hormone/ chemical (medics come at me) that makes you forget how painful it actually was.

And how on Earth can you be upset about the pain when ‘awhhh cute baby! It looks like literally every other baby on the planet but let’s pretend it has your forehead!’ *pinches cheeks.* Oxford is Childbirth. See, I got to the point eventually. I’ve never given birth (shocker) but they say that it’s the 2nd most painful thing that a human can endure. Number 1?

Michaelmas.

Scientifically proven, I swear.

Michaelmas is Childbirth and the baby is your shiny, gleaming Oxford Degree.

My point is, you spend 86% of term stressed, depressed and formally-dressed. You put up your paper shield for your tutors’ machine guns, you fret over deadlines, you look at everyone else who all finish every problem sheet 10x faster with 10x more ease and think “why the fuck am I here?” All of your other friends at other unis seem to be on the sesh every other night, posting Instagram posts that you double tap out of courtesy but, really, you’re looking at them thinking: Are my 10 lectures, 6 hours of labs and 24 hours of imposter syndrome worth it for a fancy gown that’s only going to make those friends think ‘god they’re a prick’.

You see the library more than you see your own bed and you count the days until your mum can cook you a meal, without charging you the price of a small island for it, preferably telling you how much of a little clever clogs

you are as she serves up the plate.

And yet.

Somewhere between the 2nd and 5th week of the 80000-day vac, you find yourself yearning for your gal, Hilary.

I mean, sure, your ex, Michael (surname: Mas) wasn’t perfect and, yes, you loved the first 2 weeks of detox... but he wasn’t that bad, right?

The first week, when things where Fresher(s), he was the life of the party. You guys were happy together partying, drinking, meeting new people, staying up til dawn and sleeping in til noon.

After that? I mean, sure he stressed you out during the week, but maybe it was just you, overreacting. And, come on, during the weekends it was just like old times! He treated you like a gentleman should. You explored the city together, milked that Free Pret Subscription,- other (less free) coffee shops also availabletook romantic walks around the Meadows. A couple shots down and you’ve forgotten the bad times altogether.

Nothing beats your Dad’s stir fry... but suddenly you’re

thinking about that Najaar’s falafel, hummus and tabouleh wrap. And your living room couch is like being hugged by a cloud... so why is the dirty JCR sofa calling your name?

The childbirth chemicals have done their trick and suddenly you can’t wait for round 2. You’re ready. You’re raring to go. Come at me, Hilary, I’m a new person, I’ve learnt from my mistakes and it’ll be different this time, I swear.

Then, the letter came.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage: Cockblock COVID. She’s your textbook villain; sickeningly evil, hates fun and an absolute buzzkill at parties.

We are unfortunately having to ask you to restrict the number of students returning to university.

10 more days added to a vac already longer than a year on Jupiter and you’re wondering if you’ll ever meet Hilary. That Najaar’s wrap floats from your fingertips.

10 more days.

Thank god I bloody love a stir fry.

Artwork by Rachel Jung

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Life

Abi Howe Magdalen English

13

Cherpse

How were you feeling before the date?

Honestly I was bricking it!

How were you feeling before the date?

V v nervous - what if my wifi crashed?

First impressions?

She seemed very chilled and had a great outfit

First impressions?

Fab jumper, put me at ease immediately Did it meet up to your expectations?

My expectations for a zoom date were very low - but it was great :) What was the highlight?

When he offered to bring a cow into the house for dinner.

What was the most embarassing moment?

The call running out and not being able to rejoin... Fortunately, he came through with another link!

Describe the date in 3 words: Wholesome, chilled, fun.

Did it meet up to your expectations?

Yes! Lovely chat What was the highlight?

Working through our respective psycho-attachments to various animals.

What was the most embarassing moment?

Scrambling to make another meeting (Cherwell could have at least splashed out on a zoom subscription :/) Note from the eds: we made you host, it’s not our fault...

Describe the date in 3 words: Fun and relaxed

Is a second date on the cards?

Assuming we ever make it back to Oxford, sure!

Is a second date on the cards?

Hopefully, Corona permitting!

Horoscopes...

LEO

23 July - 22 August Ah, the lion. Watch out for lions, Leo, you really do never know what’s around the corner. It could, in fact, be a lion..

CAPRICORN 22 Dec - 19 Jan Get ready for a hectic term! I know it’s easy to stress when deadlines are piling up and lectures are going unwatched, but you’re smarter than you give yourself credit for, Capricorn!

I predict all that hard work paying off and those grades soaring…

ARIES 21 March- 19 April Impulse buying is your biggest vice, and you’re finding yourself overrun by weird Wish products, books you’ll never read, and a massive Djungleskog.

But if it brings you joy, Aries, carry on – a little Depop splurge might be what we all need to get through living in unprecedented times…

SCORPIO 24 Oct - 21 Nov Just try to forget that collection happened, Scorpio. My crystal ball is telling me it went better than you think but there’s no point dwelling on the past when such a bright future is ahead of you this Hilary…

Nick Bonsall St Anne’s English

CANCER

21 June - 22 July You’ve been feeling the love recently, Cancer – people around you have really come through with the support, and it’s helped you get back into the swing of things. Show them you appreciate them in whatever way possible, whether they’re a parent, a tutor, the cashier who puts up with your maincharacter supermarket moments, or your college dog.

AQUARIUS 20 Jan - 18 Feb If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You’ve made it this far in your degree through Nescafe instant, Tesco iced buns and the wonders of Wikipedia, and, frankly, you’re doing a great job. Keep doing you.

SAGITTARIUS 22 Nov - 21 Dec Well virtual Hilary may not be ideal, but you’re a whiz at Teams tutes and Zoom socials now! Your lighting is flawless, you’ve got those camera angles down to a fine art and you’ve even trained yourself to stop admiring your own face and look at everyone else instead!

LIBRA 23 Sept - 23 Oct We all know you’re the sign of balance, Libra, but why not implement your astrological constellation in your day to day life?

The stars implore you to spend at least two hours a day on one leg. Bring balance to your life AND to your living room this January.

PISCES 19 Feb - 20 March You’ve downloaded apps for water tracking, focus, workouts, screentime and meditation & you’ve got your lectures in your planner, but this term is still feeling like a struggle. Be sure to take care of yourself, Pisces, and go at your own pace.

VIRGO 23 August - 22 Sept New term, new you Virgo! At the very least, try to make new mistakes, rather than repeating old ones! I also know you’re a fan of a schedule - but expect the unexpected this week…

TAURUS 20 April - 20 May Now that Blue Monday is out of the way, why not give your new year a slightly more exciting colour palette, Taurus?

Orange Thursday? Cerulean June? Notquite-mauve mid-April? The next twelve months are your very own Pantenestyled oyster.

GEMINI 21 May- 20 June Your chart fortells communication issues this week, Gemini. Prepare for shaky Teams meetings, Zoom timeouts, and perhaps even fainting spells. Take it easy for the next few days, you deserve a break.

Life | Friday, 22nd January 2021

14

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW Khadijah Ali on hair as an integral part of our personal identity.

B

londe, brunette, black, ginger.

Each hair colour has different connotations and characteristics attributed to them throughout history or due to popular culture, playing a huge part in how a woman sees herself and how she is perceived by others. I’m sure we’ve all heard blonde jokes or can think of ‘dumb-blonde’ movie characters. One of the most blatant Hollywood characters that springs to mind is Poppy Moore from Wild Child. As a blonde, she is reckless, rude and shallow-minded. As soon as she has her hair dyed brown, she somehow instantaneously becomes a different person. Another character whose hair plays an integral role in her identity is Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. When her boyfriend breaks up with her, she asks him if it’s because she’s “too blonde?”. Elle later discovers that he’s engaged to a sensible, high-status, soon-to-be-lawyer who, you guessed it, just happens to be a brunette! Elle grows to become a successful law school student, in spite of being a blonde female. Why should the colour of someone’s hair be a determining factor in their capabilities?

I’ve been asking myself how much hair colour plays a part in my identity. Over the past years, my hair has been through a (rather concerning!) number of changes, all of which have coincided with major life decisions or personal crises I’ve had. I’ve realised that one of my ways of coping with stress is to change my hair. At the beginning of 2019, when I was stuck in a rut about what I wanted to do with my future, I cut myself a fringe 15 minutes before I

needed to leave the house. Before my 18th birthday, I trimmed a few inches off my hair as I no longer wanted to be seen as a child. During exam season in Year 13 I cut, then dyed, my hair after two horrendous exams that left me feeling despondent. By changing my hair in these situations, I felt that I was able to move on from a situation and feel like a new person who could tackle whatever I was facing.

I have (sadly!) been gifted the gene of a baby face, and, even at the age of 19, I am regularly told that I look 14, 15, or (to my absolute horror) 12 years old. I find that when I’ve got longer hair or leave it down people tend to think I’m much younger, and that I’m naïve or immature because I look ‘more girly’. It surprises me that the length of a woman’s hair can affect how she is treated by others, whether she is treated as a girl or a woman. In a male-dominated work-world, if I want my voice to be heard and respected, I have to tie up my hair and get the job done. I don’t think that girl’s hairstyle should determine the level of respect she receives. But the world we live in means that, sometimes, she has no choice.

At the end of the day, even though I’ve been through a plethora of hair styles and colours ¬–long hair, short hair, fringe, no fringe, brown hair, blonde dip-dye, slightly ginger, black hair, and burgundy hair – I’m still the same girl underneath: no matter how much my hair changes, I remain the same person with the same brain and heart.

Read the full article online at cherwell.org.

STUDENTS ABROAD Cherwell reaches out to students on their year abroad. This week, Eve Bennett discusses her travels in...

I

’ll never forget how soul-crushing it was to see my year abroad plans fall apart overnight. From the moment I received my place at Oxford to study German and Spanish, I’d been fantasising about a wellearned break from academic pressure in my third year. Thoughts of road-tripping around Latin America helped me push through many essay crises, while the prospect of living my best European life on the continent before Brexit seemed to make the prelims slog that little bit easier. And yet three months before I was supposed to make the big move to Argentina, I found myself sat in front of my laptop in my childhood bedroom, watching international travel come to an effective standstill.

And so, an online Trinity term was made even more stressful by weeks on end of uncertainty about what lay ahead. Would I be trapped in my hometown for a whole year? Would I have to do sit my finals early?

Thankfully, as the warmer weather arrived and case numbers began to drop, I was able to escape the West Midlands and travel to Berlin.

My internship there was half home-office, half in-person, which offered me a welcome

amount of freedom and flexibility to explore what the bustling capital had to offer. When I arrived, cases in Berlin were incredibly low and restrictions were comparatively lax. Pair that with soaring temperatures and endless things to do, and it made for a pretty lovely couple of months. Looking back on those summer evenings spent in restaurants overlooking the river, or lazy days exploring flea markets with my newfound friends, I didn’t realise just how good I had it. Apart from the obligation to wear a mask and social distance, it was easy to let the pandemic slip your mind and immerse yourself in Berlin’s culture.

But sadly, it wasn’t long before I received a pretty brutal reality check. The start of November saw a new ‘part’ lockdown, and I contracted coronavirus from another intern after just three days at my new work placement. Having to isolate from everyone, including my flatmates, for two weeks whilst being bedridden in a foreign country was pretty rough, and I’m still struggling with the fatigue and loss of taste two months later.

John Evelyn

T

here was an Old Man at Oxford, under whom the Union prospered…

The Price is Right has this week unveiled his termcard, which John Evelyn can report contains an unprecedented number of events. However, John Evelyn fears that this means the termcard’s spine will be substantially broader than usual, putting it at risk of being backstabbed by our hacks.

Yet maybe John Evelyn should look at the recent peace and harmony as a sign of better things to come. Indeed, The Late Etonian’s most loyal comrade seems to have put her double-crossing days behind her. Although, John Evelyn suspects this is down to The Late Etonian having a charm over The WannaBea that Definitely Not an Aussie certainly did not.

In addition to peace and harmony, John Evelyn has seen a flourish of love.

Flirting between The Runner Up and The Second Year Seccie has not gone unnoticed. John Evelyn would like to warn The Runner Up that, to avoid having to run a third presidential bid, he must focus his efforts on the election. Though he is no spring chicken in comparison to his peers, The Second Year Seccie is not on his way out yet.

Yours til the Cat Meows, John Evelyn x

Flying home for Christmas also turned into a financial nightmare, with cancelled flights, changing government regulations and a botched ‘test to release’ system forcing me to rebook multiple times, only to have to isolate for another ten days.

Now I’m stuck in my childhood bedroom once more, unable to fly to Spain due to the new ban on UK nationals despite having finally managed to get a long-stay visa (thanks Brexit).

But despite the fact that everything’s gone a bit pear shaped, I’m so grateful for those summer months. I may not have achieved the language immersion I expected, but hey - my healthrelated vocabulary is much more extensive than when I arrived! Here’s hoping that the second leg of my year abroad, whenever that may be, will be worth the wait (and a little less stressful).

15

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Life

FOOD

The Power of Food FUSION FOOD: THE REAL MCCOY? Jade Calder on curry and cultural heritage

W

hen I was in sixth form, I auditioned to represent my college at a public speaking competition. As I awkwardly stepped in front of the audience of nonplussed students and teachers, I began my spiel: ‘I am the human equivalent of a Greggs Katsu Curry bake’. The audience continued to look nonplussed.

What I had been attempting to do was to convey my feelings about being caught between two different identities: my Japanese heritage on the one hand and my Northern English upbringing on the other. The katsu curry bake is sadly no longer available - probably because it had been marketed as a ‘healthier’ pasty - but my awkward attempts to reconcile my dual heritage remain.

For those who are unaware, Japanese curry is a common family dish with chains across the land serving up plates of meat (typically chicken, beef or pork) and vegetables in a brown stew and served with a generous mound of steamed rice. Think of it as the Japanese equivalent spaghetti Bolognese in terms

FOODSPIRATION Column: How to cook the perfect … (Felicity Cloake in The Guardian) Veg of the week: Celeriac Initiative: The Orchard Project

of ubiquity.

Its origins are, as you might have suspected, rooted in colonialism from the Indian subcontinent via British sailors. By the late 19th century, it had begun to take root in a form that had been distinctly transformed from anything which resembled anything Southern Asian and thus, from this perspective, it is funny to see the dish once again be adapted for the British palette.

The katsu curry one can find in Wagamama is not really much like the kare raisu (curry rice) I loved when I lived in Japan, but rather an Anglicised concoction which

“

I am the human equivalent of a Greggs Katsu Curry bake...

has more in common with the curry sauce available in a fish and chip shop. Despite the inauthenticity, I appreciate it (arguably perhaps a little too much if you’re looking at my bank balance). Yet it isn’t quite the Katsu on which my Japanese mother raised me, but rather the one I enjoy in public, with my western friends. However, in lieu of having some sort of identity crisis whenever I go to Wagamama, I have decided to appreciate this suspicious sauce for what it is: a delicious intersection of my multiple heritages.

If you want to make authentic Japanese curry, pick up some roux blocks from an Oriental supermarket (Golden Curry is a popular brand) and melt them into a stew of some meat and vegetables, then serve over rice or udon noodles; the ease of preparation is probably one of the reasons why it is pretty much the most popular dish in the country. As a vegetarian student who tries to make the most out of limited means, I have taken to substituting the deep-fried meat cutlet for Quorn nuggets (I am a classy lady) whenever I am craving my ultimate childhood comfort dish after a day at the library.

There are numerous curry recipes available online for those looking to create the sauce from scratch, but nobody in Japan making the dish at home would bother with the effort; even if one was so inclined it would almost certainly not be much match for the pre-made stuff (as I have found from my own disappointing experimentation). Done right, it is a big bowlful of that e v e r- m y s t e r i o u s adjective of ‘umami’ - dark and rich, harnessing the perfect mix of salty and sweet with honey and apple being common ingredients in the sauce mix. Unlike traditional South Asian curries, the spice is rather tame so don’t be afraid to give it a try!

Image credits: Triplecaña and FotoosVanRobin via Wikimedia Commons.

/ recipe FONDANT AU CHOCOLAT

200g dark cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces 150g butter + 20g for the mould 160g caster sugar 3 eggs 50g plain flour Method Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, in short bursts, stirring well.

Alternatively this can be done in a bain marie. Tip into a big mixing bowl.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until moussy.

Add the flour and egg mixture to the chocolate and whisk quickly until well combined.

Scrape into 24cm circular springform tin (or whatever similar-sized tin you have available), well greased with butter.

Chuck in the oven at 200° for 15 - 20 minutes, depending on how gooey you like it!

Life | Friday, 22nd January 2021

16

clamorous noise

PROFILE

the music of everyday life Alexander Haveron-Jones speaks to musical child prodigy Alma Deutscher.

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orn in 2005, Alma deconstruct the clamorous noises Deutscher has been of everyday life, she based the composing since the waltz on the sound of the Austrian age of four: she is that police sirens she was so struck by rare breed known as a child when first moving to Vienna; prodigy, touted to mystified they begin the piece, before television audiences quietly orchestrally-recreated car horns envious that they could never and sirens disintegrate and a hope to be a prodigy, let alone melody emerges. ‘Most sounds of a few years after having learnt everyday life are not particularly to walk. Few things would see pleasant or beautiful,’ she says; adults jealous of a child, though ‘so it’s certainly not easy to find it is easy to see how Deutscher’s beauty in them. But it’s worth innate musical excellence trying because it’s worth trying might be an exception. Born to to find beauty in everything.’

Cambridge graduates Janie and A mantra perhaps appropriate Guy, a literature professor and amidst the sustained devastation linguist, Deutscher’s intellectual of the pandemic into the New Year, predisposition was nurtured from I wonder if we all ought to practise within the family home, after Deutscher’s skill of searching-out attending a school orientation day beauty in ordinariness—though and resigning herself to forever perhaps this might feel a little resist the apparent boredom of lacklustre with her orchestral an ordinary education—she has version playing in mind. been homeschooled since. Having Influenced by the newfound learnt the piano aged two and violin the year It’s worth trying to just after that, she can find beauty in everything. thank her musical talent for having saved her from show-and-tell. stimulation of the city to which Living in Oxford when she she’d recently moved, Deutscher was young, some of Deutscher’s took the ‘police sirens, the beeping earliest musical memories were of the closing underground doors, formed in the city. She would play car horns’—sounds wearily in her garden with a skipping rope, metropolitan to the rest of us— twirling it around and allowing and ‘tried to transform them the melodies to flow forth, into uplifting melodies,’ trying before writing them down in her to ‘compose it in a way that the notebook—later providing useful listeners could follow the gradual material for her first studio album, transformation from ugly into titled—straightforwardly—From beautiful.’ Deutscher considers My Book of Melodies. ‘When you’re that the effects of music are a young child, everything is a ‘probably much stronger than game. And music was a game for painting’, and its power to evoke me—a wonderful game. As I grow profound emotion is perhaps up, it becomes more serious.’ what explains why so many Countless interviewers have asked have turned to music to Deutscher selfsame questions, drown the noise of endeared curiously at the talented the past year’s news little girl… I wonder if all the headlines. adult awe became a little dull. Or But Deutscher patronising. But Deutscher is truly says she is sometimes remarkable: aged five, Deutscher criticised for the lack completed her first piano sonata; of ugliness in her at seven, she wrote her first music—as though to short opera; at nine she wrote a seek charm in an often concerto for violin and orchestra, unpleasant world is a and a full-length opera at twelve. naïve romanticisation Winner of the European Culture of modern existence— Prize (2019), Deutscher is certain or for reproducing to join the musical greats of the the chirping tunefulness coming decades, perhaps familiar familiar to the musical of a young Daniel Barenboim canon of past centuries. (the child prodigy pianist and Her musical aesthetics conductor born in 1942). certainly forefront the If anything asserts importance of melody Deutscher’s transition from established in musical child to professional composer, history, but she insists it is her Siren Waltz, performed that ‘melody is the to a sold-out Carnegie Hall in essence of [all] music 2019. Deutscher endeavoured to – this is not just my

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own musical aesthetics, it’s the aesthetics of almost everyone, young and old. It’s not a great secret that the most loved pieces of music are the ones with the best tunes.’ Indeed, Deutscher cites her second opera, Cinderella, as containing numerous examples of willingly ‘unpleasant’ passages: ‘they are there to make a specific point—for example to convey a storm of anger and pain […] these short bits of ugliness are only there to highlight the beauty of that comes afterwards.’

A child prodigy though she is, lockdown has affected Deutscher just as it has everyone else. Just instead of cancelling concerts she’d planned to attend, the pandemic cancelled concerts she herself had organised. ‘A new production of my opera Cinderella was supposed to open in Salzburg in December after I had spent months on months last year revising it. We even started rehearsing for it in November.’ She remains fairly positive despite the impact on her work, ambitiously hoping for its opening in January.

‘Compared to most musicians, I’m extremely lucky, because as a composer, I’m not wasting my time. I’ve been working on my next opera, Des Kaisers Neuer Wa l z e r (The Emperor’s New Waltz). It’s a romantic comedy about a rich girl

falling in love with a poor boy, combined with musical satire inspired by Andersen’s fairy tale.’

This being her third opera, it has already been commissioned by the Salzburg State Theatre for performance in 2022. ‘If Coronavirus had not left so much quiet time,’ she says, ‘I would never have managed to get anywhere near finishing in the short time I still have.’

I wonder if there’s any adolescent typicality underneath the songbooks and melodies and operatic daydreams… ‘when I’m grumpy I rarely get inspiration’, she admits. But the attention and diligence required of serious composing demands a certain sophisticated devotion: ‘putting ideas together, developing them into a larger structure and telling a coherent story with the music’ is more about technique and experience ‘than just about mood’.

Does Deutscher listen to pop music? Can classical and popular genres coexist? Apparently so: ‘At least melodic pop music speaks a similar language to classical music in terms of harmony and melody.

Just to pluck a completely random example from the air, Irving Berlin’s song “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” is a stunning melody, based on the chords of the lament bass. And I’m sure any of the great classical masters would have been extremely proud if they had come up with this tune.’ When a friend— who is not a fan of classical— started humming a song by the singer Dimash Kudaibergen, Deutscher identified it as being from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. You’ll likely recognise its famous “Der Hölle Rache”—the aria sung by the Queen of the Night. ‘So Mozart passes the test of being a good pop

composer.’

I’m sure he’d be relieved to hear it.

Being so young, I wonder what success Deutscher will see in the next decade, by the end of which she will not yet even be in her thirties. Though if sustained confinement were to be a reality, I daresay musical history would be grateful for the countless operas, sonatas and concertos composed in the quiet it allows her—and if she retains that integrity of musical beauty, things may yet remain a little cheerful.

Read the full article at www. cherwell.org Photo credit: Chris Lee

9

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Comment

Wes Beckett On... Post-Brexit Britain

A R ET U R N TO THE

2O‘S

Rochelle Moss reflects on what life post-pandemic could look like...

2

020 was a difficult time. We’re no strangers to the stories of the roaring 20s. Flapper girls symbolised the culture of this decade, with jazz and dancehalls entertaining the youth who had been starved of such activities the decade before. Consumer spending skyrocketed with new cars, in particular the Ford Model T of 1924, providing young people with the freedom all young people desire.

Of course there was also a sexual revolution, spurred on by all the freedom and fun the 1920’s had to offer.

Perhaps, with the hope of the three vaccines which the British government have approved, and the millions who have already been vaccinated we can look forward to a 21st century version of the roaring 20s?

An economic boom does look to be possible considering the current climate. With governments purposefully suppressing the economy in order to in turn suppress the virus the current economic slump is quite unique.

Many middle class families are fortunate enough to have acquired large unwanted household savings - having been unable to spend on holidays, dinners and activities.

When life goes back to nor-

mal these savers will want to spend.

However, perhaps bigger than the economic boom could be the cultural one.

The young have been told not to party, the middle aged not to go to work, and the old not to see their family members.

The end of the pandemic will throw us back into socialising just as quickly as we were pulled away from it, and with it may come a cultural explosion.

The things we missed most this year might just come back the biggest. With a surge in demand for ‘fun’ these sectors are likely to deliver, and come back to life almost as fast they disappeared. At the very least there will be a renewed appreciation for culture and the importance of it within our society.

Perhaps, we could also see a revolution in attitudes.

The 1920’s did not just see a sexual revolution but also a political one. Women became more equal members of society, able to vote and with more free time following the creation of household gadgets, changes which resulted in a gradual shift in attitudes. Maybe our 20s will see something similar. The pandemic has made us alter our attitudes about lots of things, from appreciating

moments spent with friends and family, to having more time to self-reflect and pursue personal interests. Maybe this will see a change towards a more caring society, which is more accepting than it has been in the past.

One of the most significant changes in attitude is perhaps towards a renewed understanding of the need for the welfare state. As a society we have collectively faced a global crisis, creating a renewed empathy towards strangers.

Just as World War 2 forced people to recognise the need to support all members of society, hopefully the welfare headlines of this pandemic will do the same. From the recent free school meals scandal to stories of an overwhelmed and overworked NHS the pandemic has highlighted some of the problems which have been present for years.

However, just as the original roaring twenties was brought back down to Earth by the depression, we must make sure we aren’t blinded by the 21st century version of Gatsby-esque glamour.

Unemployment may remain high, and many will have had to eat into them as a result of lost jobs and economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic. The psychologi-

cal effects of the pandemic will also be severe. Many will continue to struggle from grief or will suffer from the after-effects of such intense social isolation. Developing countries may continue to battle the virus with vaccine roll out dates a distant dream for many.

Children and young adults are one paticular demographic which have been hit particularly hard, with effects that could last a lifetime.

School students have been thrown into a year of Teams lessons with exams cancelled and grades changed.

Such an experience has undoubtedly affected the most deprived students the most, with restricted access to study space and technology. What will be the effect on these children in 5 or 10 years?

Whilst the British education system is certainly not perfect, education does have the power to act as an equaliser, however the pandemic has highlighted its gaping inequalities. Will we see a swing towards a more unequal society as the Covid-19 generation grow up and their educational disparities grow in importance?

Read the full article online

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COMMENT

Comment | Friday, 22nd January 2021

DATING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: THE WORK-LIFE IMBALANCE Lily Kershaw discusses dating culture in Southeast Asia and its consequences.

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hina faces a dire situathe possibility of tion: a population inhaving children. creasingly turning away But what does from dating, marriage this mean for the and having children. China, Janation?

Unsurpan and South Korea are all facprisingly, large ing a similar problem: the priorswathes of the itization of their economy to the population facdetriment of their population. ing the prospect Meanwhile, deeply rooted culof being alone for tural sexism pushes women into their entire lives situations in which they are exhas led to a menpected to choose between their tal health crisis, careers and the possibility of a with high rates of family, a situation which, unfordepression to be tunately, exists globally. found amongst China’s case is a rather exsingle men. The treme one. With just under 34 gender imbalance million more men than women, has also led to a it is no wonder why so many crisis of mascustruggle to date and marry. Since linity, as tradithe one child policy was introtional manhood duced in 1979 as an attempt to is represented by tackle impending overpopulabeing a father and tion problems, millions of fea provider but, male foetuses were aborted, as when you’re sinmale children were more highly gle, there is no one to father nor prized. Having a male child was provide for. traditionally seen to be an inAdditionally, housing pricvestment in one’s own future as, es are rising drastically while not only would he continue the China’s trade surplus is growfamily’s line, but his wife would ing. This has occurred as many be expected to take care of her men, rather than spending in-laws as they grew their income on cheap into old age. consumer As such, this goods, are “While the econoimmense saving their my is valuable, we gender money to should not forget disparity purchase that it is built by peo- a house in has come to exist, ple and built to benefit order to atleaving tract a wife. people.” many men As a result, (known as household “bare-branches” for saving rates have their failure to expand the famskyrocketed since 2000, making ily tree) to face the prospect of the market increasingly more being single for their entire lives. difficult for new owners to buy This is only further cemented by into. the cultural expectation that Furthermore, costs more diwomen should practice hyperrectly related to marriage have gamy and “marry up”, seeking skyrocketed as, in China, it is out wealthier, more established traditional for the husband to men; this practice, however, pay the wife’s family a “bride goes both ways, with men aimprice” (much like a dowry), howing to marry less established ever, because of the deficit of women, and thus older, wealthpotential wives relative to their ier, more educated women often demand, bride prices have shot find themselves rejected on the up significantly from a few hunmarriage market. Since China dred dollars around ten or twendoes not allow women to freeze ty years ago, to nearly $30,000 their eggs, despite the fact that today in some parts of China. their most fertile period lines up Alongside the pre-existing exwith the most important periods pectations of financial stability, for growth in their career, many this further adds to the signifiwomen choose their career over cant economic barrier on men

wishing to enter the marriage market, and thus further perpetuates the intense work culture.

Ironically, this all means that many parents who once opted to have sons over daughters to ensure their own future are now left to sacrifice their own limited income in an attempt to aid their sons.

A more serious consequence of the difficulties in finding a spouse is the rise in human trafficking. Tens of thousands of foreign women immigrate to China, seeking work and the prospect of marriage. Oftentimes these women, who usually come from less affluent nations such as Vietnam, arrive knowing little to no Mandarin, enticed by the promise of well-paying jobs (which often don’t actually exist), so they can send money back home. They are then bought by their husbands as part of a human-trafficking scheme who pay the middle-man a fee.

It is common for the woman to then go on to be treated very poorly by her husband and her in-laws, as she is an immigrant and is sometimes viewed more so as property than as family.

There continues to be a rapid decline in births in China, dropping by 2 million between 2018 and 2019, and the number of weddings has fallen for 5 years straight. Despite many companies trying to implement “dating

leave” to encourage workers to find love, andthe government itself attempts to paint leftover women as unfulfilled and alone, these trends are showing very little sign of slowing down. In fact, by 2050 it is estimated that there will be 150-190 men for every 100 women on China’s marriage market. The economic implications of this could become even more serious in the future as the population ages, and there are fewer people to replace those who are no longer in the workforce.

If any of the countries affected by these issues want to see any improvement to their marriage rates, let alone their birth rates, they need to encourage a change in perspective regarding well-educated women, so women no longer feel they have to choose between acareer and a family.

Furthermore, while it may seem counterintitive, encouraging people to work less and to have more free-time truly is investing in one’s country’s future; while the economy is valuable, we should not forget that the economy is built by people and built to benefit people. If your population cannot profit from their own economy, what’s the point?

Artwork: Justin Lim Read the full article online www.cherwell.org

11

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Comment

SO LONG, FAREWELL: THE UK’S DECISION TO LEAVE ERASMUS Lucy Thynne condemns the UK’s departure from the exchange scheme.

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n Christmas Eve of 2020, it was decided that students and young people from Britain will no longer take part in the Europe-wide Erasmus exchange programme, following the UK’s departure from the European Union. It’s a sad loss, but let’s face it, an expected one. The replacement: the Turing scheme, ostentatiously unveiled as an opportunity whereby UK students can have their ‘pick of the world’, and travel to countries beyond Europe.

The main reason cited for leaving the scheme is financial. The Erasmus Programme, which was established in 1987 and named after the Dutch humanist philosopher, was deemed ‘too expensive’ by Boris Johnson in negotiation talks prior to the new year. The Turing scheme, in the words of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, will instead ‘deliver real value for money’ and focus on being ‘truly international.’

While Erasmus membership was certainly costly, reports have shown that leaving the partnership deal will blow a hole in the UK economy. ‘Inbound exchange students contributed £440m to the UK in 2018,’ pointed out Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International. ‘There are real concerns as to how the UK will replace that.’ The £100m that has been flung at the Turing scheme may sound impressive, but by comparison, is a paltry investment in young people’s futures. Like a parent disguising a plate of vegetables as a dessert, Johnson desperately promises, in true Trumpian fashion, a ‘bigger and better’ programme. See previous claims

on a ‘world-beating’ track and trace scheme, if you need reminding of how boasts work out in this government.

The greatest loss, however, has never been concerned with money. Living abroad, working in a new environment, appreciating the language and culture of a different country – each of these are invaluable in their own right. How lucky we were to have access to a programme that brought all of these together, opportunities otherwise out of reach to low-income students. Bursa-

been caught amid this public-school boy football match in which the main players seem to only be scoring own goals.

I never got to benefit from the Erasmus programme, but the effect of living abroad as a young person is not lost on me. Taking languages for A level, I spent a week in Madrid and Montpellier. It was my first time away from home and navigating a foreign city was hard, but I will treasure the memories and friendships made there all my life. It was a gift.

Students there, from across Europe, were inquisitive. Brexit was often brought up in our first conversations. ‘But none of us want to lose you, either,’ a friend from Belgium pointed out, most likely after I’d lamented about our own losses. At first, it felt like a curiously undeserved kindness, but in retrospect it suggests more plainly what was undeserved for them – a ‘referendum’ that ultimately gave no choice to a union of

“How lucky we were to have access to a programme that brought [...] opportunities otherwise out of reach to low-income students.” ries from Erasmus made such experiences possible: small worlds made big; confidence made even bigger. No doubt will Erasmus’ opponents defend the decision by framing it as a ‘gap yah’ holiday for the privileged few. Really, however, it has opened doors for those who would never be able to open them.

A report published last year found that BAME students who studied abroad were 17% more likely to be in graduate jobs six months after graduation. For a portion of the population who were never able to vote on this decision, the outcome is more than frustrating.

And it comes a whole three years after Michael Gove’s declaration that May’s Brexit deal would see ‘the final whistle blown, and the prime minister having won.’ Gove would be proven incorrect timewise, but the analogy still speaks volumes – young people have

17,000 British young people are predicted to lose out on Erasums

those friends will struggle to find funded places at UK unis.

Up our fences go, as if our nation could not already be more insular.

Perhaps hypocrisy is only to be expected here, but it’s still difficult not to feel hard done by. The prime minister told MPs in January that there was ‘no threat to the Erasmus scheme and we will continue to participate in it.’ It hasn’t taken long – at all – for people to show their anger over this broken promise. SNP MP Douglas Chapman accused the prime minister of ‘lies and bluster’, following on the words of his party’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, who said that such a decision would be ‘cultural vandalism.’ Labour’s shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said that pulling out of the scheme was ‘needless.’

Needless for everyone but the self-serving, of course.

Johnson himself is notably fluent in Italian and French.

The latter he most likely picked up during his stint as the Brussels correspondent for The Telegraph, where he was able to work abroad as a young journalist ( a n d spread an- t i - E U stories, even then). The irony is clear.

It is tricky to express grief over something you’ve never had, especially when the Erasmus Programme is small fry in comparison to trade deals and fishing agreements. But make no mistake in dismissing this de-c i sion, which seems to be the greatest revenge of the Tories yet: the blinding of future generations to the beauty and life of European cities abroad.

Read the full article online www.cherwell.org

“‘But none of us want to lose you, either,” a friend from Belgium pointed out, most likely after I’d lamented about our own losses. people just as implicated in the decision. A generation of those students I met, who also would want to visit a country and have an equally formative experience: to study in London, Liverpool; to enjoy the quirks and delights of a country that I have long since forgotten. None of us want to lose you either. It’s a comment that resonates now that

£243m £100m Predicted net loss from lack of inbound students from Erasmus scheme Source: Universities UK International

Further UK expenditure on replacement Turing scheme.

Features | Friday, 22nd January 2021

12

HALLUCINOGENIC

HEALING

Mara Ciuntu explores the precedents and possibilities of using psychedelic drugs and ketamine with psychotherapy.

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ecent years have Likewise, it has been seen a surge of re- demonstrated that, while search into the ef- there is a lot more research fectiveness of psy- needed , LSD-associated psychedelic drugs in treating chotherapy can provide sigmental illnesses such as de- nificant and long-lasting pression, anxiety and PTSD benefits to patients suffering when assisting psychotherapy. from anxiety associated with Since 2010, a number of stud- a life-threatening disease. Paries have shown the potential of ticipants in this study expeMDMA-assisted psychothera- rienced ‘insightful, cathartic py in treating PTSD. They have and interpersonal experiencobserved that MDMA-assisted es, accompanied by a reducpsychotherapy consisting of tion in anxiety (77.8%) and a two or three doses of MDMA rise in quality of life (66.7%)’. provides long-lasting treatThe medical use of other ment – with patients being in psychedelic drugs has been PTSD remission for up to six increasingly researched, years – with no side-effects. with DMT-assisted psychoThis year the FDA is set to ap- therapy having been approve MDMA-assisted psycho- proved to be trialled as a therapy, with similar prognostreatment for depression in tics for the UK, Netherlands, the UK as recently as 2020.

Germany and the Czech ReKetamine, although not a public. Surprisingly, a study psychedelic, has also enjoyed comparing the use of MDMA considerable amounts of reand SSRI medication (currentsearch in the past years due to ly the most common drugs for its antidepressant properties. treating a plethora of mental health issues) in the treatment PRICING AND COST of PTSD found that patients Among the above-mentioned treated with MDMA-assisted drugs, ketamine has a unique psychotherapy reported fewer legal status, as it is officially side-effects due to the small licensed as an anaesthetic/annumber of administrations of algesic, which makes researchthe drug, and that the drop-out ing and using it for medical rate of MDMA-treated subjects purposes comparatively easier. was considerably less than in It is currently available on the comparable NHS for the SSRI trials.

Psychedelics are t r e a t m e n t They also neither addictive nor of severe found that medically unsafe d e p r e s s i o n the issue of that has not patient comresponded pliance is not to 2-3 other present in MDMA-assisted psytreatments. It’s pricey, though, chotherapy because the mediwith the initial assessment cation is administered only a and standard treatment of few times and under clinical three infusions costing a pasupervision, while SSRIs rely tient in Oxford £365, followed on the patient independentby £195 per subsequent infuly taking the drug daily. sion. One could possibly ex-

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pect similarly high prices once psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy becomes available.

However, while these prices might seem high, some scientists argue that the use of psychedelics can drastically cut medical costs by generating a shift in psychiatry from the current palliative approach towards a curative one. Dr Ben Sessa makes the bold claim that ‘with psychedelics, we can take a person in their 20s or 30s with a history of severe childhood abuse and a severe mental disorder like PTSD, and we can completely cure them and send them on their way’. A recent study speculated that ‘for 1,000 individuals, MAP [MDMA-assisted psychotherapy] generates discounted net savings of $103.2 million over 30 years […], compared to continued standard of care’.

That being said, there are other, less enthusiastic voices than Dr Sessa’s, especially when it comes to ketamine-assisted treatments. In early 2020 The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) decided that, despite the need for new ways of treating drug-resistant depression in adults, there is not enough evidence of the long-term effects of treatments with nasal esketamine spray (a form of ketamine) to justify its use by the NHS due to the high costs per course of therapy (of £10,000). Moreover, both ketamine and esketamine have ‘potential neurocognitive and urologic toxicity’ and require close clinical monitoring prior

to, during and after treatment.

HISTORY OF RESEARCH AND LEGISLATION So if psychedelics and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy treatments have the potential to be both more medically effective and (depending on whom you ask) more financially desirable than what we currently have, why have they largely been neglected by psychiatrists over the past few decades? Psychedelics are neither addictive nor medically unsafe. Surprisingly, the scientifi c

community has been aware of psychedelics’ potential as mental health drugs ever since the first decades of their discovery; during the 1950s and early 1960s, their therapeutic potential in treating alcoholism was advanced by

SERUTAEF

Friday, 22nd January 2021 | Features a number of respected scientists. That being said, there are very few studies into the subject between the early 1970s and the twenty-first century.

The answer to the question seems to lie neither in the leading researcher, Timothy Leary, whose studies had poorly controlled conditions and non-random selections of subjects, and who promoted the recreational use of the drugs among his students and purportedly pressured some of them into taking psychedelics.

At the same time, the association between psychedelics (especially LSD) and the counterculture of the 1960s further e n c o u r a g e d legislators and the public

to view those drugs with distrust.

While modern laws prohibiting the use of certain drugs have been around since the late nineteenth century, the current obsession with the prohibition of recreational drugs, particu-

larly those prevalent in marginalised communities, has its roots in President Nixon’s ‘War on Drugs’, which he began in the early 1970s. The questionable reasons for Nixon’s actions are well-known nowadays; years later, his rationale was best expressed by John Ehrlichman, his own Assistant for Domestic Affairs: “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

In addition to the effects it has had in perpetuating racial inequality in the US justice system, the ‘War on Drugs’ continues to cost the US government an incredible amount of money and resources (over $7.8 billion a year). There wwwwww been clear social and economic disadvantages to the heavy criminalisation of recreational drugs, especially when compared with the efforts made to decriminalise drugs in Portugal.

This is not to mention the fact that it shifts the focus of political discourse and diverts public attention from more effective social policies. Most importantly is that the War on Drugs, which is not only limited to the US, has been impeding psychopharmaceutical research into psychedelics and ketamine for decades, in spite of having little logical basis for existing in the first place.

Professor David Nutt express-

FEATURES

13 es this best in an interview with Metro, where he argued that the illegality of synthetic psychedelics ‘has caused about a million excess deaths a year, due to the failures of being able to access medication’, with the War on Drugs having set back research into the medical use of psychedelics by at least 50 years.

ingly difficult for academics everywhere. If someone wants to undergo research into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the UK, they must go through a complicated and costly process. Because the substance is a Schedule I drug in the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, researchers, along with all production sites and disSLOW PROGRESS tributors, must obtain a Home When it comes to research- Office licence, which Morgan ing psychedelic and ket- observes is a very lengthy amine-assisted psychothera- and pricey affair involving repy, there are peated police a number of inspecimpediments The War on Drugs has tions and that will set back research into the c r i m i n a l be encoun- medical use of psychedel- r e c o r d tered. Louics by at least 50 years c h e c k s . ise Morgan Whethdiscusses er one the presentation of MD- takes the enthusiastic apMA-assisted psychotherapy proach of Dr Sessa or Morin peer-reviewed studies and gan’s more cautious one, it publications such as The In- is clear that the use of psydependent and The Guard- chedelics and ketamine in ian. She argues that misre- psychotherapy is a promising porting on recent research by field of research and holds the media could ‘potentially a lot of hope for the world lead people to believe that of psychiatric treatment.

MDMA will “cure” them of One conclusion that should psychological trauma’. She most definitely not be taken wants to make it clear that, away from this article is that in all studies on the benefits those struggling with menof using MDMA on treating tal health issues should take mental health disorders, ‘it is matters into their own hands the psychotherapy that is the and attempt to self-medicate. treatment and that the MDMA Apart from the fact that one facilitates the psychotherapy’. can never be sure of the purity The misleading reporting she (and thus safety) of what is on mentions risks tarnishing the street, the substances in the reputation of this all-im- all of the studies mentioned portant field of research and above were taken under close creating clinical suunrealispervision, in tic expeccontrolled tations.. microdoses As Morand in congan puts junction with it, ‘MDMA psychotheramay propy. This field vide a of research b r i d g e is still in its to efinfancy, and fectively overcome the gap there may be some time between psychotherapy before such therapies beand psychopharmacology’. come widely available and By misreporting, the media affordable, but it just might risks generating a stigma in be worth the wait, given the a field that is already heavily promising results obtained censored. The illegal status thus far. Only time can tell. of the drugs being studied is making the research exceedArtwork by Charlotte Bunney

“

Sport | Friday, 22nd January 2021

14

SPORT

Oxford versus Lockdown

Mauricio Alencar

2

021 has unfortunately kicked off with another lockdown. With Iffley Sports Ground, pubs and Park End closed for the time being, athletes, socialisers and clubbers alike are having to battle through the Covid circumstances, trying to keep fitness levels and morale at a high albeit from home. Oxford University’s sports clubs are actively finding ways to keep up involvement, in the hope they will be able to compete in a Varsity fixture against Cambridge and shoe the tabs in this academic year.

Oxford University Sport are bringing the ‘Blues Performance Scheme’ Facebook group back to life in lockdown 3.0, providing Blues teams with different stretching and bodyweight exercises, as well as providing athletes with advice on how to eat healthily. Some sports clubs, such as Oxford University Rugby Football League Club, are also holding small Zoom sessions on nutritional eating, as well as on how to maintain strength through

83

the lockdown.

Some sports clubs’ training plans have not been as heavily impacted by the pandemic. As exercise is still able to occur outdoors with a member from another household, the university’s cycling club has been able to find a way to keep its club members active. Toby Adkins, the men’s captain for Oxford University Cycling Club, told Cherwell that they are planning to “implement a ‘buddy-system’ to allow two person rides to occur in a Covid-19 safe manner”, as they prepare to hopefully compete in the Varsity 25-mile Individual Time Trial as early as April.

Other clubs’ Varsity plans have also been severely affected by the current circumstances.

Most of the sports clubs’ Varsity fixtures would have occured this term, so Oxford’s sports clubs are having to postpone their long-awaited Varsity matches, as Oxford’s swimming club have done. Clubs are also likely to have to hold those fixtures “behind closed doors”. Students from Oxford

Oxford University sports clubs

and Cambridge will have been disappointed to learn a month ago that The Boat Race would be a ‘closed’ event, and that it will be held on the Great Ouse at Ely in Cambridgeshire instead of the River Thames in London, due to safety concerns regarding Hammersmith Bridge. The Boat Race is a televised event every year, letting students and alumni enjoy the world-famous race from home.

In fact, the university’s football club, as they closely work with Cambridge’s football club to arrange a fixture for June, is using this strange year as a chance to build upon the way in which their Varsity match normally works. Erin Robinson, president of OUAFC, exclusively told Cherwell: “For the first time in our history, we will also provide a high-quality live stream with commentary which will ensure that all our fans can enjoy the games safely from the comfort of their own homes.”

An important aspect of university sports life are social events, and things are no different in the times of corona.

100m

worldwide audience of The Boat Race

Varsity fixtures are normally a key opportunity for social events, unforgettable crew dates, and forgettable club nights. Drin ing at home on Zoom can be a lonely experience, so clubs are innovating new ways of keeping everyone happy and engaged. Ellie Nako Thompson, captain of the women’s lacrosse Blues team, emphasised the importance of this. She told Cherwell that “the main goal has just been to keep up the presence of lacrosse, especially as it’s such a great support network in these times.”

Elsewhere, Blues captains for swimming, Matty Johnson and Zoe Faure Beaulieu, have found creative antidotes to the stress of working from home.

They told Cherwell: “Whether it be through Among Us zoom socials, virtual HIIT sessions or a great OUSC bake-off, we’re ready to face the challenges that this term will bring.”

To say that corona has brought sports to a halt would be an understatement. 2020 brought enough challenges to the Oxford sports, yet clubs fought through adverse circumstances, and found ways to keep competition levels high.

The start of 2021 has levelled up the challenges sports clubs face, but a return to sports is near. Sports clubs across Oxford are also increasingly hopeful that Varsity matches will take place in the coming months.

Innovation has also been needed in order to make sure sports clubs survive through the pandemic. Oxford’s athletes will be eagerly awaiting their return to the green grass of Iffley Sports Ground and the drink-spilled dancefloors of Park End. But for the time being, they must fight on from home.

Image credit: Steve Daniels via Wikimedia Commons.

300%

surge in VK shares once Park End reopens

Friday, January 22nd 2021 | Sport

15

Football circuit breaker: a sacrifice worth making?

Matthew Cogan

W

ith the current increase in coronavirus cases around the UK, it raises the question: should elite sport, specifically football, see another lockdown like it did in March last year?

The last few weeks have been plagued by stories of footballers failing to follow lockdown rules, with the period around Christmas and New Year seeming to have a new story everyday about a top-class player who had attended a party or gone on a trip to Dubai.

This, of course, has had a knock-on effect on the pitch, with games being cancelled left, right, and centre due to entire squads having to isolate after a positive case. Just last weekend I watched my team Derby County lose in the FA Cup to Chorley after fielding a team made up of predominantly under 18 players due to our squad isolating. This was the same in the case of Aston

Villa and begs the question: how much further does it have to go before sport has to be cancelled? There have been suggestions within the last few days that players just need to be reminded of the rules and prevented from celebrating as a team once a goal has been scored; in reality, that takes so much of the passion away from the game – at a time when it is already lacking due to no crowds – that it may as well just be cancelled (without even mentioning the limited likelihood of a player not celebrating).

Clubs themselves have acted recklessly. Celtic went on a warm weather training trip to Dubai, which whilst not illegal when they went, did lead to positive cases and game cancellations. Just this week, it came to light that several players in the WSL took a “business trip” to Dubai; resulting positive cases have thrown the fixture schedule into doubt. I understand that football is an escape for

SPORTS SHORTS

FA CUP MEMORIES Zak Angel Many Portsmouth supporters think fondly of the FA Cup, following our 2008 triumph and 2010 Final appearance. For younger supporters like myself, however, more recent memories live stronger in the memory. A notable recent win was away at Norwich in the 2018-2019 third round, with the game epitomising the glory of an away day in the cup. An upset was clinched with a 94th minute winner for Pompey, that sent the away end ecstatic and made sitting on the floor on the train back to London well worthwhile.

Image by author.

many people, offering a sense of normality when the rest of the world is anything but.

However, in a time such as this, with over 1000 people dying of Coronavirus daily in the UK, it seems entirely irresponsible for football to continue, especially when so many footballers have shown complete disregard for the rules time and time again.

Furthermore, with so many games being cancelled due to positive cases at clubs, fixture congestion is only going to get worse in this already shortened

season, increasing the risk of player injury.

I want football to continue as much as anyone else, and the sooner fans can be back at games the better, but at the moment, with the country facing possibly its toughest struggle against coronavirus to date, the continuation of elite football seems like a luxury and a risk that we cannot afford to have.

Image credit: Katie Chain via Wikimedia Commons.

Find more sports coverage online at cherwell.org/category/sport

THE MAGIC OF THE CUP Fred Waine The story of this years’ 3rd round came from the Broadfield Stadium, home of serial giantkillers Crawley Town. Despite being forever doomed to be only the second best team in Sussex, the League Two side turned over Premier League opposition in Leeds United, after Marcelo Bielsa paid the price for making a bizarre triple substitution at half-time. The underdogs added insult to injury by handing reality TV star Mark Wright a debut in the 87th minute – for Crawley, The Only Way Is Up. Image: Roger Templeman via Wikimedia Commons.

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