Concrete - Issue 175

PEOPLE & PLANET: YOUR GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH THROUGHOUT THE ISSUE

Issue 175 · Wednesday, March 9th, 2005

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Event The

UEA’S AWARD-NOMINATED STUDENT NEWSPAPER

RED NOSES THROUGH TIME Centre Spread

MARVIN GETS RE-MADE Page 6

Free - Please Recycle

ART FROM AFRICA Page 7

THE FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT AT UEA IN 2005

UNION PLANS TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY

Sarah Smith

Clare Bull

Most people know a bit about Fairtrade products and what the aim of the various fairtrade organisations is. However to raise further awareness about just what fairtrade products and organisations are out there every year there is Fairtrade fortnight.

Various events have been organised this year by SEED and have been very popular.

Events kicked off on March 1st with the debate society holding a discussion on fairtrade and whether people were in favour of it.

In a hand ups vote more people were in favour of fairtrade by the end of the session than were at the beginning. Many questions from the floor were directed at and challenging the opposition. A Fairtrade LCR on Thursday also proved a successful evening. Fairtrade Fair Trade Events See page 10

2005 is the year of the ‘Make poverty history campaign’.

Endorsed by many celebrities, charities and faith groups, and with the university promoting a campaign from the 14th of March, UEA is set to contribute substantially in the coming weeks, with Publicity Officer Rowena Boddington and Welfare Officer Jo Wright heading the campaign.

The campaign’s manifesto highlights the fact that blame for world poverty can be attributed to three factors; ‘injustice in global trade; the huge burden of debt; insufficient and ineffective aid’. The campaigners feel that joining all these issues together will aid people’s understanding of the depth of the problem, and this raised level of awareness should ‘kick’ people UEA’s plans for MPH See page 2

GOVERNANCE BECOMES POLYTECHNICAL FOR UEA ‘SENATE’ Philip Benjamin Wednesday 2nd March saw the final round in the move to a managerial University as the senate voted against an amendment to the proposed changes. The amendment would have given all schools

a proportionate, and elected, presence on senate and were designed to change an approach to governance that has in the past been labelled “undemocratic”, “medieval” and “insane”.

Dr. Rupert Read, Senior Lecturer in PHI and AUT rep who proposed the amendments has said of the decisions "This is a sad moment

in the history of UEA, and of British Universities in general. Senate has discarded the legacy of hundreds of years of democratic academic governance procedures in Universities in this country, in favour of an untested topdown ersatz replacement. As I and many others have warned from the start: We have now adopted gover-

nance procedures that resemble closely those of polytechnics. That is a shameful abdication of the proud traditions of the University."

Academic Officer, Chris Ostrowski, was concerened over the move, but remained positive, “I was pleased to see how many academics were prepared to speak up

against the proposals to streamline senate. I think the university executive definitely saw how some members of staff felt alienated by what had been going on during the restructuring process.”

A second amendment was not voted on as it was agreed that the process of nomination would be re-

drafted. This was partly because senate felt that 12 academics were too few. A vote to increase the number of academics from 12 to 16 was carried by majority.

“It's good that senators demanded an increase from 12 academics to 24. It's a shame they won't be proper representatives.”

Mr. Ostrowski concluded.

FOOTBALL HELPS TACKLE HIV AND AIDS - SEE SPORTS P.25

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SPEAKING OUT Craig Murray will be coming to the UEA on the 16th March to talk about his time as the Ambassador to Uzbekistan, human rights in the country and the British Government’s treatment of him.

Craig complained about the Government of Uzbekistan's record on human rights and democracy. As the former ambassador to Uzbekistan, he will be offering a unique insight of a country that is is a key 'ally' in the war on terror.

As a critic of British and American Policy on terrorism and of the hypocrisy of fighting terrorism, Craig will be responding to the Government’s consistent attempts to silence him.

The talk will take place in Arts 2.03 from 12pm 2pm in the S.U. building.

MARCHING ON Norwich Stop the War Coalition are gearing up for the next big march on the capital on the 19th March to demonstrate against the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

Meetings at coalition centres across the country are reporting a high attendance, with Bristol having to turn 150 people away. The march in London is expected to attract a record number. Police have now acquiesced to let the prcession march round Grosvenor Square, via the US embassy and Downing Street.

Families of Britich troops in Iraq are proposing to establish a week-long Peace Camp on Parliament Square in the week before the demonstration on march 19. Muslims are also expected to take part in the march, with the intention to demonstrate being announced at Friday Prayer.

As a precursor to the event, local musician James Frost has recorded the song Not In Our Name as a testimony to the biggest marches for peace in British history.

He will be performing the song at The Music House, Wensum Lodge, Friday 11th March, 8.30pm For more information, about both events, contact the local office at www.norwichstopwar.org.uk or email them at info@norwichstopwar.org.uk

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SYSTEM’S A LOAD OF BALLOTS IGNORANCE OVER UNION VOTING SYSTEM MAY HAVE LED TO UNDESIRABLE SUCCESS Kevin Rowe With the Student Union elections now complete and the winners announced some issues about the voting system have been raised and caused contention amongst some of the candidates.

The Union uses a Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, which allows the voter to choose their preferred candidate for the position but also allows them to choose a second, third and fourth choice. This system is supposed to create a fairer result as the winner is effectively decided by not just how many people want that person to win, but also how many people do not want that person to win. The STV system takes into account not the just the amount of 1’s the candidates have, the number of 2’s, 3’s and 4’s they have are also taken into account.

The STV system is used in Government elections in

Australia and is viewed by most to be the fairest system available. This view is shared by outgoing Academic officer Chris Ostrowski, he told Concrete: “There is no fairer system, students want certain candidates to be elected but they also do not want certain candidates to be elected, the Single Transferable Vote system allows them to express this.”

Concerns about the nature of the voting system had been raised due to a controversial result in the running for Finance Officer.

Ben Williams came away as winner but Coll Faragher had the most votes as number one choice. The theory behind Mr. Farragher’s defeat is that more students did not want him to get into the position than Ben Williams. The result has left some students fuming. Mr. Williams has only been at UEA for a year and the resentment caused by his election has even caused some to begin mounting a slur campaign against him.

Central to these con-

cerns is the question of whether the students fully understand the system and cast a sensible vote for 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices.

Hannah Walker, a second year student, confirms the suspicions of some, “I just vote for who I want to win, the others I just choose at random.” If this is the case with other voting students then the candidates elected were not the choice of the people.

Andy Higson, however, would have succeeded in his candidacy for Communications Officer, regardless of the voting system. While explicitly “suspicious” of <<Concrete>>, Mr. Higson offered the following comment regarding the STV system. “It is the best system to use, and every University uses it for that reason.” Mr Higson, an active Liberal Democrat who is running as the candidate for the County Council seat in May 2005 has also had some criticism directed at him, suggesting he would not fulfill his duties as Communications officer

by working a 4 day week and would dedicate too much time to his political party of choice. Mr. H i g s o n responded to this speculation, saying “I will complete my 36 and a quarter hours a week and I am fully committed to my position.” Bur he did not state whether or not he would be conducting a 5 day week which is required and is stated in the contract for Communications officer.

Some students have voiced doubts about Mr Higson’s ability to juggle these responsibilities.

Both candidates are eager to put any contentions behind them when they take on their respective roles next year, but the question of a fullyinformed student voting populace remains.

As

Communications Officer, Mr. Higson will be responsible for ensuring the students are fully aware of the voting system. Starting the year with an overtly negative attitude towards the UEA’s most popular media will not help.

FROM ONE BILL TO ANOTHER PREVENTION OF TERRORISM BILL CAUSES HEADACHES FOR CLARKE’S TERROR FIGHT Juliet Harris Legal Editor Universal opposition to the Prevention of Terrorism Bill has caused Home Secretary Charles Clarke to drastically rethink the Government’s plans to detain suspected terrorists under House Arrest.

The Prevention of Terrorism Bill, currently on a tortuous path through the House of Commons and the House of Lords respectively, lays down a series of provisions known as “control orders”. These are designed to prevent future atrocities from taking place rather than punishing offenders for crimes that they have

already committed.

Derogating Control Orders amount to what Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights describes as a “deprivation of liberty”.

However, where such a measure impairs an individual’s right to Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Assembly or Right to a Family and Private Life under the Convention, the measure must be prescribed by law, proportionate and in pursuit of a legitimate aim. It is these requirements that have seemingly caused Mr Clarke the most problems, not least because the granting of control orders as described in the Bill are by the Home Secretary on grounds of his “reasonable belief”. Both the House of

Inside Concrete This Week Page 2: Elections and Terrorism Bill Page 4: Concrete Comment and Parachuting Scientists Page 6: The Arrival of Top Up Fees Page 7: Top Up Fees Ctd. Page 8: Women in Science and Creative Writing Prize Page 9: Election Pledges Page 10: International News

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Page 11: Union By-Elections and Opinion Page 12: Drugs Page 13: Sweatshops Page 14 -15: Refugees Page 16: Because we are too many Page 17: Climate Change Page 18-19: Turf - Battery Farms, FairTrade Page 20: Enquirer

Page 21: Lifestyle - Alternative Therapies Page 22: Travel - New Zealand Page 23 Fashion - Hair Page 24: Horoscopes and Letters Page 25: Sport - TackleAfrica Page 26: Sport - Canaries Page 27: Sport - BUSA Misery Page28: Sport - Derby Day. Xword

Lords and the All Party Joint Committee on Human Rights, led by Labour MP Jean Corsten, have expressed strong concerns at the apparent lack of judicial involvement in this process. Even hasty amendments to the Bill allowing judges to decide at the outset have failed to satisfy the Joint Committee that Convention requirements have been complied with.

Despite this, ministers stated that they were satisfied that the new proposals comply with human rights legislation and strike the right balance between protecting the security of the nation and observing civil liberties.

Mr Denham, a former Home Office minister, said the human rights committee

was wrong. “There are other jurisdictions and other legal systems that operate within the European convention on human rights that restrain people’s freedoms far more than this government is proposing to do without disclosing all the evidence to the suspect.

A further headache was caused when the Government’s majority was slashed to just 14 during the second reading of the Bill in the House of Commons. In a desperate attempt to ward off a humiliating defeat in the already-unhappy House of Lords, the Government is preparing a series of concessions to the bill. This might include giving Judges more powers in the process and even introducing a previous-

ly-rejected “sunset clause” into the Bill, which would mean that the legislation would expire when the present Parliament finishes in May. This would allow the next Government to effectively start from stratch.

Clarke’s parliamentary private secretary, Stephen McCabe, said he was ‘optimistic’ a compromise could be reached by Wednesday, giving time for the bill to return to the Commons before next weekend. ‘I think there is a genuine mood for compromise,’ he said. ‘If that’s the case, the government may be willing to go a little further.’ With the Bill due to expire on March 14th, the Government faces an increasingly-frantic race against time to fcompromise.

Make Poverty History Continued from page 1 into action.

2005 was chosen as the year for this campaign as it coincides with plans for Britain to hold the G8 summit in Scotland, and Britain taking over presidency of the EU. The co-ordinators feel that 2005 is the year that Britain is in a strong position to influence global policies towards poverty. On choosing 2005 Bob Geldof said “This is about firing the starting pistol to the year of 2005 when Britain is the chair of the G8 and the president of the EU. The reality is that only politics created this dilemma and only poli-

tics can resolve it.”

UEA will be organising events throughout week ten with the intention of bringing together societies within the university to ‘kick start’ a year-long campaign. The aim is to raise the profile of the campaign within the university. ‘White bands’ will be on sale, and there is to be a stall in The Hive promoting the campaign all week.

Organisers are keen, however, to encourage people to look at the website and take part in petitions, rather than use the white band simply as a fashion statement.

Wednesday the 16th of March is the key day for the campaign. There are plans

to adorn the front of Union House in a large, white ‘make poverty history’ banner and organisers are also keen to collaborate with efforts being made in Norwich outside the University. This is a huge campaign, and the more people involved, the more effective it becomes. Other strands of the campaign are set to include the $2 a day challenge, where students will be challenged to live off the equivalent of £1.30 a day. $2 a day is recognised as the global poverty line and people who live below this are deemed to live in poverty. The Union are welcoming any support given.

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COMMENT Feed the world Charitable activities abound at UEA over the next two weeks before the Easter holidays. Norwich has now been conferred with FairTrade status and the FairTrade Fortnight proves to be as popular as ever. The Union’s decision to back the national campaign to Make Poverty History culminates next week with Make Poverty History Week and students will be helping to keep pressure on the Government as it represents our citizenry as president of the G8 and the EU. All this comes from an ever-expanding notion of the term ‘community’ resulting from increased access to information about the world in which we live. Communities are no longer simple constructs that emanate out from the local post office or pub, they now have global reach.

The 21st Century has great potential to be remembered as the century in which these global communities finally started to co-exist and co-operate for the benefit of humanity worldwide. Yet the greatest challenge that faces us is to move beyond considering the needs of our fellow humans and to start being mindful of the state of the planet in general. If we don’t start extending our notion of community to encompass all the inhabitants of the globe on which we live, including plants and animals, then we could be left without a world in which to enjoy the many relationships we have worked so hard to establish and maintain.

Pledge Allegiance As the general election looms, the political parties take to the streets to start kissing babies and addressing real issues with the kind of hyperbole usually associated with the shopping channel. We become witness to a daily assault of pledges and party politicals that attempt to gloss over what they actually intend to do were they to get in power.

Voting is an incredibly important part of our society and expressing political opinion is one of the greatest rights we have; it should never be taken for granted. But to assume that voting is all that is necessary to ensure a valid and productive democracy is to be greatly deceived. In order to avoid descending into a society that resides purely on gesture politics, we all have a responsibility to ensure that our political opinions are consistently expressed to those elected to govern us. Without such mindful attention to the activities of our government, we could soon find ourselves losing the rights that are so intrinsic to our lives.

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UEA BIOLOGISTS TO MAKE GREAT LEAP UEA SCIENTISTS MAKE PARACHUTE JUMP FOR “BIG C” APPEAL Rosie Chance Science Editor Biologists from UEA have been falling over themselves to fall out of a plane, all in aid of a local cancer charity.

30 scientists from UEA, including the Head of Biology Professor John Turner, will take part in a mass parachute jump in July. They hope to raise money for The Big C Appeal, Norfolk and North Suffolk’s premier cancer charity.

The Big C Appeal has donated more than £900,000 towards the cancer research department in the School of Biology. So, when the charity suggested researchers take to the skies, it was payback time.

Dr Caroline Pennington took on the task of recruiting volunteers, and was surprised to find herself inundated with enthusiastic requests – in her words, “it will be raining scientists!”

The skydives will be made in tandem, and Dr Pennington thinks the

30 UEA scientists gather together to take part in a parachute jump for charity. prospect of being “strapped to a burly chap” has been quite an incentive for some of her volunteers.

Professor Dylan Edwards, Head of Cancer Research at UEA, will also be taking the plunge. He hopes the money raised will allow the Big C Appeal to continue supporting UEA scientists making great leaps of another kind: in research on preventing tumour growth and the links

between genes and cancer.

Like most of the potential parachutists, Professor Edwards is nervous but keen, he says, “it is something I always wanted to have done, but I will be glad when it is over.”

The Big C Appeal was started 25 years ago to benefit local people affected by cancer through funding treatment, equipment, care and research. So far over £7 million has been raised, all

of which has been spent in Norfolk and North Suffolk.

The charity is actively involved with research at UEA, making monthly visits to the Edwards’ group laboratories, and is supporting the construction of a new Biomedical Research Centre on campus.

To support the School’s fund raising efforts contact Dr Caroline Pennington on 01603 593245 or by email at c.pennington@uea.ac.uk

KELLY RETAINS GCSE’S AND ‘A’ LEVELS Jessica Fielder Education Editor The political spotlight has been on Education over the past few weeks as Ruth Kelly delivered her long-awaited verdict on the Tomlinson report.

In his report, Sir Mike Tomlinson proposed a fairly extensive overhaul of the 14 - 19 education system. In order to overcome the huge gulf between respect ascribed to traditional aca-

demic qualifications and newer vocational ones, he suggested replacement of GCSEs and A-Levels with a single diploma. The diploma would be composed of a number of modules (mostly built from existing GCSE and A-Level units). Pupils would be able to choose some modules whilst other elements of the course, including more vocational aspects such as work experience and voluntary work, would be compulsory.

Much of Tomlinson’s report, however, has been

shunned by the government in its responding White Paper. Ruth Kelly confirmed that GCSEs and A-Levels will remain as they are, with the introduction of more vocational diplomas as an alternative.

Maths and English results will be published independently in League Tables in an attempt to counteract growing concerns that the basic numeracy and literacy skills of school-leavers prove insufficient in the work place. A new diploma will be awarded to those who achieve 5 A*-Cs

at GCSE. Some believe Kelly’s decisions to stem from fear at proposing anything too radical so close to the upcoming General Election. At a question and answer session with the Secondary Heads Association on the 4th March, Kelly faced uproar from disappointed Head teachers who expressed their concern at this lost opportunity to overhaul 14 - 19 education. The changes will do little to reduce the emphasis on academic qualifications over vocational ones.

UEA STREETJAZZ DANCING IN THE WEST END STREET DANCING SOCIETY PREPARES FOR WEST END DEBUT Louise Horner Two years after the launch of the UEA StreetJazz Dance Society, the members are facing their biggest performance yet, at Sadler’s Wells theatre in London.

On Good Friday, the 25th of March, forty of the society members will take part in the Mardi Gras show in the West End, an event put on every year to raise money for children’s charities.

Over the past 2 years, led by their president and teacher Tina Gleadall, StreetJazz has performed

several times at Union events, including LCRs and the 3000-strong Party in the Square. The dance troupe have also performed for the Speechless campaign, and recently taught at the InterVarsity Folk Festival. This new occasion, however, is a little more daunting, putting them in front of other dance schools, and possibly dance scouts.

Previous dances have included LCR classics such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, the Black Eyed Peas and Girls Aloud, but with the increased scope of a West End stage, more theatrical songs have been chosen for this upcoming performance – firstly with Janet

Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and then with a challenging, fast-paced routine to Prodigy’s “Firestarter”.

With 9 out of 11 existing committee members leaving the University next year, and the new committee now elected, the last few events of the year are a great occasion for new members to build up their confidence before the takeover.

Fortunately for those nervous about performing in the West End (many members had never learnt to dance before joining the society), a dress rehearsal will take place at the CASAs, the annual Clubs and Societies Awards on the 17th of March, where, last

year, the society received an award for “Outstanding Achievement for a Society”.

If you won’t be in attendance at the CASAs, look out for StreetJazz performing at and LCR next term, and hopefully again at Party in the Square, where the founding committee will bid a fond farewell to their society.

If you are interested in joining the Street Jazz society then feel free to pop along to the dance sessions being held after the Easter holidays. These are on Mondays 5:30pm-7pm and Thursdays 6pm-7:30pm. Otherwise do go along to the Socmarts held next year and look out for the Streetjazz stall.

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TOPPING UP THE COFFERS AS THE ELECTION LOOMS Laura Palmer and Isabel Dyson When the first universities were set up in Britain, undergraduates had to pay their own way entirely but towards the end of the sixteenth century some colleges at Oxford -University found benefactors to provide scholarships in an effort to appeal to poorer potential students.

Butler’s education act, which was passed in 1944, sought to make the education system fairer and more accessible to students from all backgrounds but it wasn’t until 1964 that student grants were introduced.

Grants were available to nearly all full-time students and covered the living cost and tuition fees. Students over 25 could receive higher grants as they were considered independent from their parents and students under 25 who had been in employment or lived away from home for a substantial amount of time were also thought to be independent and entitled to higher grants.

From 1984, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government modified the grant system and removed student entitlements to Income Support, Housing Benefit,

access to Vacation Hardship fund and a Special Equipment grant for certain courses.

In 1990 the Student Loans Bill became law and John Major dismantled the grant system by reducing the average grant by 10% each year from 1994 until 1997.

By this time the grant offered to students was less than half of what it had been in 1979. In the same year students were collectively in more than £1 billion debt.

During the run-up to the 1997 election, Conservative and Labour parties joined to set up The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, chaired

by Sir Ron Dearing. The report was released in July of that year and recommended universal tuition fees for students.

Tony Blair’s Labour government welcomed the report and in September of 1998 the yearly tuition fees of £1,000 maximum were introduced.

In July 2000 the “Greenaway Report” was published.

Compiled by Professor David Greenaway and Dr Michelle Haynes of Nottingham University, it called for differential fees, allowing universities to set their own undergraduate fees.

In October 2002 Imperial College in London hit the national headlines when it

declared that it planned to charge Home undergraduate students up to £10,000 a year.

The college says that it loses £2700 per undergraduate per year and can not survive, performing to the same standard, on the money it receives from the government.

The government’s proposal on top-up fees has resulted in widespread furore. Politicians, students and the general public are sharply divided on the topic, with fierce arguments coming from both sides.

One poll carried out by the higher education union AUT in 2003 found that 78% of people are opposed to the introduction of top-up fees and yet the government plans to implement the policy next year.

So what exactly are top-up fees and how do they affect students?

The government maintains that top-up fees mean that individual universities decide what students must pay in tuition fees, but that this amount can not rise above £3,000 per year, at least in the foreseeable future. Students from lowincome backgrounds will be eligible for a £1500 grant and will continue to be sup-

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THE APPROACH OF TOP UP FEES RECALLS THE DIVISIVE NATURE OF THE BILL AND ITS EFFECTS ON THOSE IN AND APPROACHING HIGHER EDUCATION ported by their local authorities. The fees will be paid after graduation, which the government says will provide some relief for cashstrapped students and parents.

Proponents of top-up fees argue that paying for education is to be looked at as an investment for the future as a degree is a valuable asset.

Some commentators note that if universities do not receive the financial support they need, they may choose to become independe n t

a n d could then c h a r g e anything.

T h o s e against topu p f e e s argue that their introduction will produce a two-tier system whereby the best universities charge t h e highe s t fees

and thus attract only the richest students.

Liberal Democrats say that the money universities need to survive should come from taxation rather than from students, as an educated workforce benefits the whole society. Opponents to top-up fees argue that education should be free, and that it is a right and not a privil e g e .

Average students could face debts of £10,000 or more.

K a t Fletcher, who is president of the

N a t i o n a l Union of

Students s a i d : “Despite ongoing concerns a b o u t increasing levels of debt in our society, the gover nm e n t h a s

been attempting to sell topup fees to students by spinning a line that being in debt is acceptable. This comes from ministers and politicians who enjoyed full grants and benefits and are reaping the rewards by owning their own house and providing for their own children and family. Such a life will be out of the question for the next generation of graduates, who will face the burden of years of debt repayments reaching tens of thousands of pounds.”

Loans of up to nearly a quarter of a billion pounds were approved in the last academic year for undergraduates.

T h e Students A w a r d Agency for Scotland granted 91,000 university students more than £223 million to aid their studies.

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish National Party Shadow Minister for Education, has now called for the student loans system to be scrapped and for the government to reintroduce the grant system. She reported in The Scotsman that: “Money that is being used to pay back student loans is disposable income which would otherwise be driving the economy forward.

Student loans are economic illiteracy.”

Since the scrapping of student grants, by 2003 over £1 billion had been loaned to students, almost doubling the average student debt in just four years.

The mixed debate surrounding tuition fees and the introduction of top-up fees in 2006 has caused Liberal Democrat leader,

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Thousands of students congregated in London in December 2002 to march against the introduction of top up fees. It was the biggest event of its kind!

Charles Kennedy to suggest that students could control the fate of some MPs in the coming general election.

Based on the assumption that students vote in their university towns – and vote Lib Dem – the Liberal Democrats claim that student votes could win them 27 new seats, defeating the current Labour and Conservative holders. Towns named by Charles Kennedy included Cambridge and Oxford East, though it appears students at UEA would not have an impact on Kennedy’s revolution, as Norwich was sadly not named.

If voted into power the Liberal Democrats profess to replace student fees with the restoration of maintenance grants of up to £2,000. The Conservative party also plan to get rid of tuition fees and offer increased student loans with commercial rates of interest.

Meanwhile Labour has allowed universities the option to charge up to £3,000 fees for undergraduate students, with the possibility of less well off students being entitled to non-repayable support.

Universities UK, the group representing university Vice-Chancellors, claim that the new system of deferred fees, due to begin in 2006, that offers bursaries and grants for poorer students will encourage more of them into further education.

Though the National Union of Students argues that the situation is “likely to get much worse, with poorer students being restricted in choice and having to make decisions based on their financial situation rather than aspirations.”

The common suspicion of the top-up fee system is that more people will be discouraged from going to uni-

versity, however the Higher Education Funding Council for England Chief Executive, Sir Howard Newby, suggests that more people went to university in 2000 than 1994 and the percentage of poorer students had hardly changed with tuition fees and student loans making no major difference.

A study for Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society has estimated that with the introduction of top-up fees, graduates in 2023 will have student debts of up to £43,825, a massive 83% of their first salary and an amount four times that of the debt accumulated by today’s graduates. This would mean that if 10% of 18-21 years olds continued with further education, graduate debt would extend to nearly £90million.

It is not only students who suffer the side effects of higher education as thisismoney.co.uk have revealed in a recent research that 45% of parents will have less money to live on and smaller pensions as a result of helping their children through education.

Most parents are prepared to sacrifice retirement incomes to aid the cost of their child’s education. thisismoney.co.uk reveal that 81% of parents support their children on basic university living costs, such as food, books and transport, 49% contribute to housing payments and only 11% of parents surveyed had any type of savings or plans to save to fund their children’s higher education.

Based on the current tuition fees of £1,250, at an average student debt of £10,000 after graduation and an initial salary of £14,000, it would take 27 years and 10 months to repay loans at the minimum

monthly repayment of £30.

On a salary of £22,000 and monthly minimum repayments of £90, student loans would leave you in debt for over nine years, not including added debts of mortgages and bank loans.

Prospective Student: “The thought of borrowing over £5,000 a year just to go to uni is not appealing but then the chances of getting a decent job after is much higher and you only have to pay off debts if you’re earning enough – plus the stories I’ve heard about uni make you not want to miss out! I think it would be worth it, especially if your parents help you out.”

Undergraduate Student: “I am currently studying at UEA in my final year andthroughout my degree have had trouble keeping up my cash-flow. Last week it got so bad I had to apply for an emergency loan because I’ve run out of money and as I pay my tuition fees monthly last month I had to put it on my credit card. I’ve had real difficulty this year so if I had to pay three times the amount of fees I just wouldn’t be able to cope and might not have been able to study for a degree which I’ve always wanted to do.”

Graduate Student: “I graduated in 2001 from Leicester University with roughly £7,500 debt. I just missed out on paying any fees at all and didn’t really make the effort to work at university. I’m paying about £127 a month off my student debt and have about £5,000 left to pay though I don’t particularly notice the money coming out of my bank as it has been ever since I’ve been working – but obviously it would be nice to have that little bit extra! If I had had to pay the £3000 a

year fees I would be paying off debts well into my 30s and it’s definitely an off putting thought, especially due to the fact that my parents paid for my rent and I still ended up with a lot of debt.

In spite of that, the time I

had at uni doesn’t compare to anything since so I don’t particularly mind paying a bit extra a month for it now.”

Parent: “I went to York University and graduated in the ‘70s.

Back then we had grants

and no fees and I graduated without any debts at all but now with three children I would have to totally re-evaluate my way of living if I had to help pay these topped up fees and would definitely find it a struggle.”

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PHOTOTASTIC Applications are invited for the Visions of Science Photographic Awards, sponsored by Novartis and The Daily Telegraph.

There are five categories for entry: Action, Close-up, People, Concepts and Art; and a further four special prizes for Arts meet Science, Medicine and Life, Einstein Year and Young Photographer. A first and second prize will be awarded for each category; with only one winner for each of the four special prizes.

Submissions are asked to challenge the way the world is perceived, either by showing something never seen before or by putting a new twist on a well-known object.

Application is by post or online, further information is available at www.visionsof-science.co.uk.

Information about the Telegraph’s science writer awards are available on the concrete website.

VERDI GOOD UEA Symphony Orchestra and Choir will be performing Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces and Schubert’s Unifnished Symphony at St. Andrews Hall on March 12th in its first concert of 2005.

The concerty starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from UEA Box Office on 01603 508050 or on the door.

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THE (UN)FAIRER SEX* NEW SURVEY SAYS MEN STILL ON TOP IN SCIENCE breeds success.”

Women were less likely than men to feel valued by their departments, and 44 per cent felt disadvantaged in terms of promotion.

Meanwhile higher proportions of men than women experienced high profile roles and responsibilities.

These trends are evident in the Science Faculty at UEA, where shockingly only 17 per cent of lecturers and a miniscule 9% of Professors are female.

advancement of women scien!tists. Just such an iniRosie Chance tiative already underway at UEA is ResNet, a network for female researchers working Women scientists are more at UEA, the John Innes ambitious than their male Centre and the Institute of counterparts, but feel Food Research. undervalued and lacking in Dr Gill Malin, Advanced the support needed to rise to Research Fellow and ResNet the top jobs, says new committee member says the research from UEA. findings of the survey will The online survey of come as “no surprise to 6,500 UK scientists was conResNet members” and sugducted by UEA’s Survey gests UEA could appoint Office in collaboration with someone to look at the issue. the Athena project, Dr Malin advises an initiative set up young women sciin 1999 with the aim entists to be confiof the advancement dent about putting of women in science, themselves forward engineering and and to “try to push technology. Initial for an opportunity findings were prein cases when there sented at the annual appear to be none.” meeting of the The long term A m e r i c a n target of the Athena Association for the project is for the Advancement of proportion of Science on February women at each 18. career level to Despite more reflect the proporwomen than men tion at the level having ambitions to Female scientists want the recognition they deserve below, going all the move up a rung on way back to underthe scientific career ladder, graduate students. At UEA less than half the female It is hoped that the surand elsewhere there is clearrespondents felt they were vey will help address this ly a long way to go, but these encouraged to do so. imbalance, by enabling uni- challenges should not disHowever, as Jan Anderson, versities to make changes courage the female scientists leader of the research, says, that improve the recruit- of the future. “we know encouragement ment, retention and *MEN

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NEW PRIZE FOR CREATIVE WRITERS Clare Bull On the 1st of March a new and innovative competition was launched for participants of the prestigious UEA creative writing MA. The prize, sponsored by Curtis Brown literary agents, is a generous £7500. Curtis Brown previously sponsored a bursary for MA students,

Tracy Chevalier but in an attempt to renew the relationship between Curtis Brown and the university, the new competition has been developed.

Cutis Brown is an extremely influential agency dealing with some of the most renowned actors, writers and presenters. The relationship between the university and Curtis Brown was formed by one of the founders of the creative writing MA, Malcolm Bradbury,

who was also a client of Curtis Brown. Many famous alumni of the UEA creative writing courses have gone on to become clients of Curtis Brown, among them, Tracy Chevalier and Ian McEwan.

The prize is specifically in honour of Giles Gordon (1940-2003), who worked as director of Curtis Brown. He has been described by his colleges as “an agent at the height of his powers,’’ with an insatiable appetite for the discovery of new, talented writers.

The strong relationship between Curtis Brown and the university, alongside its dedication to a man so committed to the cause of young writers, makes the prize a wonderful demonstration of the strength of the creative writing course at UEA, and is a fantastic incentive for students.

Ian McEwan

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PROMISES, PROMISES, PROMISES

MEET ‘N’ GREET The Union Housing Event takes place tomorrow (10th March) at 6 til 7.30 pm in Lecture Theatre 1. Valuable housing advice will be offered and the Housing list will be released.

There is also a social to meet potential housemates on the 8th and 14th March in the Advice centre at 5.15pm.

FIRED UP The Game’s Afoot Sam Webber Political Editor It is hardly surprising with a general election expected in May, but the new policies of the three main political parties have dominated much of the news for the past few weeks. Sadly, for the majority of voters, this means that Blair, Howard and Kennedy will continue to be on television screens and in newspapers across the country until polling day.

Tony Blair recently launched Labour’s snappy new pledge card which contains six pledges on which they want to be judged at the election. The card outlines Labour promises to make families better off, make children achieve more and give them the best possible start They also want to ensure that people are treated better

The Jacket’s Off and faster (presumably by the NHS) and to make the community safer by effectively protecting the country’s borders.

Labour has faced criticism that these are particularly vague promises, but they nevertheless form the basis of the full manifesto which will be published once the Prime Minister calls the election. The promises do give the impression that there is still a lot for Labour to accomplish in a third term. The prospect of a win for the Conservatives’, however unlikely that might seem, would simply stop the progress of the last eight years and take the country back to the days of boom and bust. That is what Tony Blair wants us all to think.

Consequently the Labour posters all contain the quote, “Britain is working. Don’t let the Tories wreck it again”.

Michael Howard set out

the stall for the Conservatives at last year’s party conference when he said that there were ten words which easily explained what they stood for. These pledges continue to be the basis for their manifesto and adorn the Conservative Party website to this day, they are: Lower taxes, School discipline, Cleaner hospitals, More police and Controlled Immigration.

Much has been written about the controversial immigration policy, which includes setting a quota each year for the number of skilled immigrants we admit into this country.

Consequently only those people who have the relevant skills are allowed into Britain in order to take up their employment. Michael Howard has made much of the fact that Australia has a system similar to this which works very well. However

Where Am I? whether the success of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who recently won his fourth election, will rub off on Michael Howard at the next election remains to be seen.

Finally Charles Kennedy is hoping that this will be a momentous election for the Liberal Democrats following their recent by-election successes. He has set out ’10 reasons to vote Liberal Democrat’. The Lib Dems hope to win by putting patients first, with free personal care as soon as it’s needed, to scrap Tuition fees, and they will not introduce top-up fees, addtionally, they are promising more investment in children’s early years. National security is also on the agenda, with 10,000 more police on the streets and the grey army will be rallied with £25 more on the pension every week for the over 75s and free off

peak travel for pensioners and the disabled. They also plane to axe the council Tax and replace it with a Local Income Tax and to ‘take the Environment seriously’.

The Liberal Democrats also put emphasis on their belief that Britain should not have gone to war with Iraq.

Now all the political parties have set out their policies for the forthcoming election, it is well worth studying the manifestos once they are published and then making sure you exercise your democratic right. Whether people are content or dissatisfied with the way the country is being run, they cannot make their voice truly heard if they stay at home on polling day.

Students make up around 13% of the electorate. The NUS website has set up the ability to register to vote, go to www.nusonline.co.uk to register your vote for this years election.

The LCR was the victim of a serial fire alarmist last Thursday.

The regular club night was ruined by the activities of one student who was so inebriated that he felt it necessary to use fire doors to leave the building, rather than the alotted exits, activating fire alarms as he went.

The student was eventually cornered by Security Guards, who ejected him from the venue. His penchant for trouble-making did not end there, however, as he was later admitted to the N&N with a cut and bruises to his head. The origin of the injuries are unknown.

Falsely activating a fire alarm can be illegal under certain circumstances. The student has been temporarily banned from Union House as a result of the incident and his case comes before committee this week, to decide if the exclusion should be permanent.

10 concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Fair Trade Fortnight Continued from page 1 Fairies manned a stall in the Hive during the night handing out leaflets and samples of fairtrade foods as well as fielding a lot of questions from interested students.

And there is still more to come. There will be films shown on Thursday 10th March and Tuesday 15th in Union House and Lecture Theatre 1 respectively at 7pm with free entry. On Monday 14th there will be Banana Splitz where there will be comedy and banana splitz (fairtrade of course) from 12 till 2 in the square or Hive (dependent on the weather). There will also be a session of discussion and presentations on sweated labour organised by the group Labour Behind the Label.

This will be held between 2 and 4 in room 1.40 in the School of Education and Lifelong learning. There will also be a pub quiz at 8pm on Sunday 13th in the union pub.

Another major event is a fashion show being held on Sunday 13th from 2 till 4 in Congregation Hall.

All clothes modelled are from eight or nine companies that provide fair conditions for all workers involved in their making from materials to manufacture. As well as a catwalk show there will also be trade stalls. And no we’re not simply talking kaftans.

These ranges also include jeans and hoodies. Tickets are £2 from the union box office.

The aim of Fairtrade fortnight and the events organised is to raise awareness about exactly what fairtrade is and just how many fairtrade products are out there. It’s no longer just coffee and chocolate but now extends to clothes, footballs and hundreds of food and drink items. It is hoped that these various events will provoke people to think about their consumer choices.

Concrete would like to apologise for the confusion created in the Fair Trade Fortnight article last issue which said that the events started on 26th February, when they started on 1st March. Concrete apologises for any inconvenience caused.

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A POST-COLONIAL YEAR ABROAD TRAVELLING ABROAD: UEA REPRESENTATIVE MIKE ROBERTS VISITS WESTMINSTER COLLEGE, MISSOURI Jacqui Burgoyne Missouri Correspondent Mike Roberts, UEA’s International Officer, visited Westminster College on the 2nd March as part of a four week trip promoting UEA abroad. He had been traveling through the Southern and Mid-Western states of the U.S., “America’s heartland,” recruiting transfer students and also students for the American Studies exchange agreement. After today he travels to Washington College, MO, and then on to Australia.

UEA’s year abroad system is very successful at present, and future improvements look likely despite the fact that, as Roberts said, the fees situation in England is a potential threat because of the jump in costs of obtaining a degree. Roberts mentioned the possibility of a “post-colonial year abroad, with one semester in

America and one in Australia” – an exciting development, although at present only a conception.

The exchange agreement with Westminster College had been dormant for around 10 years. However this year two students – Richard Dowdeswell and myself – decided to attend, and there has since been a surge in interest among Westminster students of studying in Norwich.

Danielle Becknell, an interested 3rd-year student majoring in Sociology, said, “”It’ll be a great experience to live in a country I have only briefly visited before.”

Although the number of visitors to the table was a little low (due to classes being cancelled on this day), almost 50% of those students that entered the building approached. Most questions involved whether credits gained in UEA would count towards their American degrees, and also what courses were available

at UEA. Tonya Veltrop, Westminster College’s Director of International and Off-Campus Programs was able to answer both of these in the affirmative.

Mike Roberts said that on his trip one of the main concerns American students had was over “the cost of living, due to the current exchange rate.” This is, he said, one area where UEA has the advantage over London universities, another area being that “as a campus university, American students are really part of student life.” Norwich is also popular because it “is an easy-going, cultural, medium-sized city,” which is close to London, Cambridge, and also Europe.

In terms of the return journey, Missouri does not seem to be the most appealing destination to most British students, however this college has a lot to offer.

Roberts said that it was included in the exchange scheme because UEA wants

to offer “a range of geographic, academic and campus life diversity”. Missouri is rarely touched in international news, or portrayed in films, so this experience is a more different one than many of the Year Abroad students are currently enjoying.

Furthermore, the Liberal Arts College style, with small classes and small campuses, is, as Roberts said “more intimate, friendly and personal, with faculty

completely focused on the undergraduates.”

Missouri State Capital

HELP FOR HARMERS CURRENT EUROPEAN AFFAIRS WITH A GLASS OF WINE Tom Hutchings The 1st March saw an important day for an issue that affects around 1 in 10 teenagers in the UK. National Self-Injury Awareness Day is calling for young people to come forward with stories of self harm and how it has affected both their lives and that of their families.

Concrete reported on the rising problem 2 issues ago and rates of self-harm have increased so much that the UK is now the highest affected area in Europe with more than 24,000 teenagers admitted to hospital each year after deliberately harming themselves.

In response to growing concern about the increasing rates, the Mental Health

Foundation and the Camelot Foundation are running the first Inquiry into self-harm amongst young people.

Chair of the Inquiry, Catherine McLoughlin CBE, says “Too many young people are harming themselves in silence. The Inquiry wants to hear from young people, their friends and families.

This research will help us to understand why more young people seem to be harming themselves, and what we can do to help.”

The Inquiry aims to educate and raise awareness of self-harm, shift attitudes to create a non-alienating culture for people who self harm and provide training and guidance for people who work with young self-harmers.

If you are affected by this issue the Samaritans can help. Please call 08457 90 90 90.

EUROPEAN GUEST LECTURES TO BE HELD AT UEA Nadja Bennich Inter national Editor Have you ever fancied having a seminar with some nice red or white wine, snacks and comfortable chairs? Would you like to learn more about Europe and what is actually happening in the era of the European Union? Do you want to engage a debate with academics from outside UEA or practitioners working for European institutions for instance?

If yes, how about popping into the European Forum which takes place almost every second week on Fridays?

The European Forum series of guest lectures is a venue open to everyone whether you are a member of faculty, undergraduate, postgraduate or even member of the public.

The seminars cover a wide range of topics related to European integration, international relations of the EU, the development of the EU and much more.

The European Forum is an initiative by CREST (The Centre for Research in European Studies) which was launched by Vassiliki Koutrakou. They are partially financed by the Jean Monnet project and by CREST. Guest lecturers, such as academics from different

Universities in the UK and in Europe, experts in European affairs or practitioners who work, for instance, for European or international institution come to hold a talk and debate with the attendants about current European affairs. Previous European Forum guest lecturers have included Dr Michael Emerson, Lord David Owen, Dr Jonathan Hopkin and Dr David Phinnemmore. They come from a wide range of institutions and the topics are both complex and widely pertinent with the last two discussing ‘Corruption, Party Politics and the Economic Role of the State’ and ‘The Changing Dynamics of EU Enlargement’.

Dr. Nieves PérezSolórzano, lecturer in Politics at the School of PSI, explains that the seminars aim to inform the public about current European affairs and to enhance debate with experts. “You can learn more about how

the EU actually relates to your daily life and how it affects domestic policy as such”.

Moreover, the seminars take place in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, where you can discuss and exchange opinions about current European affairs not only with experts but also with fellow students.

The seminars are held every other Friday at 5.00 pm in the Arts Building rooms 3.26-3.27 and admission to all of the European Forum Seminar series is free.

For further details, please contact Dr. Vassiliki Koutrakou at v.koutrakou@uea.ac.uk or Dr. Nieves Pérez-Solórzano at n.perezsolorzano@uea.ac.uk .

Alternatively you can check the CREST website for further information about different activities and the programme of the European Forum Seminar Series. http://www.uea.ac.uk/psi /Crest/index.htm

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UNION BY-ELECTION CANDIDATES

NUS CONFERENCE DELGATES

WOMEN

ROWENA BODDINGTON

HELEN DAVIS

JAMES BURLEY

TIM RIDGWAY

These NUS elections are important. NUS Conference is the place where national campaigns are decided that will impact our union, either positively or negatively. Use your vote to tell the NUS what issues matter to students. I'm informed about NUS but more importantly what matters to students at UEA.

Hi, I'm Helen Davis, your Union Sports Officer and a 2nd year ENV student. I have the confidence and experience needed to effectively represent YOU at NUS Conference, the sovereign body of NUS. I will take the views of OUR Union and make them National. Vote Helen: Conference Delegate.

Hi, I'm James Burley, Vice President and co-founder of the UEA Baseball Team (Black Sox).

I have a genuine enthusiasm for sport, and I hope to, if elected, build a good relationship with all the sports teams, helping to support and encourage their hopes and aspirations for the whole year.

An effective sports officer should be about promoting all that is good about sport.

I hope that you will give me the opportunity to do this.

I want everyone who enjoys sport to know that there are no boundaries to participation and enjoyment.

Remember: "It is the participation that counts."

DAN CONNOR

During my time at UEA I have been quite active within the Student Union. If elected, I will work hard to make sure UEA is properly represented, especially since this next conference is where the NUS card may be changed forever. VOTE DAN FOR NUS CONFERENCE! Thanks

SPORTS OFFICER

SALLY HAMMERTON

I’m a Second year PHI student and I will offer representation to overcome discrimination in student life, and provide confidential advice and information.

Amongst other things I want to promotewomen's health and safety issues and encourage more women to participate in sport at UEA.

UNION PUBLICITY OFFICER RUTH STONE

ONE UNION, 1500 VOICES, LET YOURS BE HEARD! Do you want a friendly, approachable publicity officer? Want someone who will create a forum about students for students? Want someone who will help you publicise campaigns and clubs’ and societies' events?

Want your voice heard?

Vote Ruth Stone

STEVIE ALTMAN

Awareness of everything that is going on in campus is a key issue, and as Publicity Officer I will endeavour to make sure that you are aware of all the activities and campaigns there are to get involved with. I will have regular office hours to help you get the best from your university experience.

OPINION being forced on to a larger group of people who this said individual has come to lead as a result of democracy, violence, or, in some cases, accident, and in that sense it resembles communism also.

SIMON SHERIDAN

THE POPE – IS HE A F***ER?

W

hat is it about the Catholic Church?

They seem to be constantly embroiled in controversies of one kind or another and yet, instead of trying to placate their critics, the Pope has written a book in which he compares abortion to the Holocaust! In itself strange because, at the time, Catholics didn’t seem to think the Holocaust was a bad thing.

The new volume, Memories and Identity, is the fifth book written by John Paul II. In it he makes this claim as part of his general belief that God’s laws (and, therefore, the Laws of Nature) are being broken by…wait for it…democratic values!

The Pope cites Hitler as an example of a twentieth century politician who was democratically elected by his people. Although true, the fact that he was a fascist never seems to enter the argument. The Nazi system

H began democratically, but as soon as he had taken power Hitler was anything but democratic. However, the Holocaust happened, and it is a tragedy no-one acted to stop it. This should not mean that the West panders to Israel’s every wish as it does at the moment, but our collective conscience should be aware that nothing of that sort can ever be allowed to happen again.

So fascism… Interesting subject fascism. The basic tenets involve aspiring to a universal race, which somehow is deemed superior to other humans. To do this, one must abide by a set of rules that are the same for everyone and non-negotiable. It involves an individual’s will

itler was one such individual; Stalin was another. Both can in some way be held directly responsible for murdering approximately 20 million people, and both are vilified by history as a result of their actions. When he passes away (which could be a while from now) the Pope should be added to this list.

Maybe not for murder, but certainly for some degree of manslaughter.

What else is it when you preach to the poor of the world that contraception is a sin? Instead of using a scientifically proven method to reduce the Aids crisis in Africa and elsewhere, the Pope feels these people would be better off without it. If this isn’t a death sentence then I don’t know what is. We have not even begun to understand the nature of this crisis because, Aids being Aids, it doesn’t kill instantly. However, the fact that people are now living with the disease as a result of better medicine means they are free to pass it on to even more people. Many children now being born in sub-Saharan

Africa already have the disease. A small, cheap, readily available rubber device would make so much difference, but instead the Pope would rather we followed the advice of a two-thousand year old book.

The Pope believes abortion represents the murdering of an innocent human life. Well if that’s your opinion then fine, but why force it on to everyone else? It should not need the usual ‘what if the girl has been raped?’ contention to persuade someone. This comes up all the time, but it just ridicules the argument and, by the way, the official position of the Pope in these circumstances, is that rape is the woman’s fault. No-one should have the right to control what a human does with their own body, especially someone who has the same degree of democratic legitimacy as Saddam Hussein had. Abortion should be a personal choice, not one that is already decided. It should DEFINITELY not be compared to the greatest scar on the conscience of humanity in the twentieth century.

I would have thought anyone of Jewish persuasion would be rather offended by that comment, and they would have good reason to be.

Although Jews are guided by an even older book than Catholics, the fact that a homosexual couple is wel-

come at Synagogue should prove the ludicrousness with which other religions treat the subject. The Pope, like President Bush believes that homosexuality is a sin worthy of an eternity in hell. Let’s forget for a second about the fact that hell might not exist, and question what exactly John and George are so annoyed about.

Apparently freedom is only applicable to those who have used their freedom to be mindless. “You’re free, as long as you do as I say.” Lovely little paradox that isn’t it? We are free to do absolutely nothing.

The world’s largest autocrat is nothing more than a religious zealot.

He is sexist, racist and ageist, and yet he is held in perpetual esteem by his followers. He has Parkinson’s disease, which surprisingly has not led anyone to question his authority, despite the fact that his physical state now means that he cannot walk or talk. He symbolises all that is wrong with religion and nothing that is right about it. Everyone should be free to worship as they choose; just as a woman should be allowed to have an abortion if she wants one; or a man to have sex with another man if he wants to. Nothing and no-one should be able to take those rights away from us, but it doesn’t stop people from trying. Amen.

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SMACK MY BLOW UP

“Not all drugs are good...some are great.” So said the American comedian Bill Hicks. For thousands of years humans have altered their consciousness with all kinds of substances, some good, some great, most now illegal.

We look at where two big drugs come from and what they are doing to the people and the planet Talking Smack “Take the best orgasm you’ve ever had, multiply it by a thousand, and you’re still nowhere near it.” (Trainspotting)

H

eroin is the most addictive and expensive of all the known ‘street drugs’. It is a natural opiate that is considered one of the strongest painkillers available – morphine is a synthetic version of heroin and is used in hospitals the world over. However, unlike cannabis, which can be grown in your own home, or ecstasy tablets, which can be made in a garden shed, heroin needs to be refined from a flower that is grown in Afghanistan, a place so isolated from the rest of the world that there is no suitable explanation as to how it is also the world’s largest heroin producer. Every year the trade is worth from $25 to $100 billion. How can a war ravaged country, which is currently experiencing an occupation of sorts by the U.S. army supply many of the world’s smack heads with their daily shoot?

It must be quite nice to be a poppy. You get to sit around all day, blowing slightly in the breeze.

The weather is obviously warm – you would not be growing if it wasn’t, and if someone picks you your magical powers somehow create a thunderstorm worthy of Hurricane Ivan. However, this does not matter to the people of Helmand or Nangarhar Province – unfortunately for you, they are Afghanistan’s main poppy growing areas, and they need you in order to get paid. The process starts when your petals begin to fall off…

Your petals are gone, and to add insult to injury, you are about to be decapitated by a Pashtun tribesman. He will do this to thousands of your brethren too, and once all your brothers and sisters are lying headless all about you, the fun really starts.

A hole is made to allow the opium gum to ooze out of your head. This shouldn’t be too

Blow it out your arse

C

ocaine, like most drugs, has plenty of catchy nicknames. Coke, the white stuff, blow and Charlie are popular ones, but whatever you call it, cocaine is a drug that has destroyed countless lives in the countries that harvest it and in those that import it.

We all know the image: Cocaine is a white powder that is divided into thin lines on a flat surface (a mirror if you’re cool) and then snorted up the noise with a rolled up bank note or a straw. It can also be smoked or turned into a liquid and injected. Either way the effect is devastating and costly.

A gram of the stuff costs £40-£60 and will produce about a dozen lines.

One hit will make the user feel alert, sharp and on top of the world. They will feel more energetic, their temperature will rise and their heart will beat faster.

It’s a euphoric feeling, but it only lasts for about 20-30 minutes. Because it is so strong, the feeling when it wears off is dramatic. To avoid this downer a user will just keep taking more coke.

Cocaine has been in the news quite a bit recently. Last year the former Chelsea and Romania striker Adrian Mutu was banned from football for seven months after testing positive for the drug. A similar fate met the former Man Utd and Australia keeper Mark Bosnich. Former ‘Have I Got News For You’ host Angus Deaton was fired for a scandal involving cocaine. As these three high profile cases show, wherever cocaine goes, scandal and sorrow are not far behind.

But it is still an immensely popular drug. The

painful a process, it is opium after all. Once empty you are discarded, but your opium’s journey has only just begun. The first leg of it comes a few days after, when the gum is completely dry.

You are sold to a trader or nomad who transports the gum to the nearest refinery. If you thought the puncturing and beheading was painful, just wait until the refinery has had its way with you. Here you are boiled for hours to allow the gum to dissolve. This often takes place in 55 gallon barrels, an indicator of the sheer magnitude of the process. Once the gum is liquid, you will be strained, filtered, stirred and strained again until you are pure dry opium. Now there is only one more thing to do before your epic journey continues…

Opium is not heroin – although it performs some rather entertaining functions of its own it is considered even more dangerous. It is also rather unfashionable nowadays, being the drug of choice in the Victorian era but not so much afterwards. Therefore, it is necessary for you to go through some chemical changes in order to make you sell in the Western marketplace. Still at the refinery, you will be mixed with acetic anhydride, along with sodium carbonate, activated charcoal,

chloroform, ethyl alcohol, ether, and acetone to produce the finished article. The two most commonly produced heroin varieties are No. 3 heroin, or smoking heroin, and No. 4 heroin, or injectable heroin. Heroin and opium refinement has become perfected in Afghanistan so that most of the heroin is at least 90% pure. You won’t stay that way for very much longer though.

Office for National Statistics estimates that 475,000 people in Britain use it, making it the second most popular illegal drug in this country. Only cannabis is more popular. It’s increased popularity can be attributed to the fact that unlike cannabis, huge quantities of it will not produce a distinct odour, making it easier to smuggle. And

In February the newly appointed Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said he wanted to tackle the casual attitude people have when they take cocaine. He said he was not concerned about the physical harm it was doing to dinner party guests, but about the trail of blood from London estates to Columbia.

Unlike cannabis, cocaine, like heroin, cannot be made just anywhere. It requires a special plant, the Erythroxylon coca. This plant is only found in the tropical mountainous regions of South America. Three countries – Peru, Bolivia and Columbia – are responsible for the vast majority of all cocaine.

In any discussion of cocaine, Columbia is indispensable. It produces 650 tonnes of the white stuff a year. The two have been intimately linked for hundreds of years, but in the 20th century the economic power of cocaine began tearing the country apart. It remains in a state of violent unrest today.

In Colombia civil unrest of one kind or another – fuelled in every case by the cocaine trade – has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the past decade and has forced millions of Columbians from their homes.

For every gram of cocaine snorted in the UK, someone in Columbia will die.

People who buy Fair Trade coffee, who don’t eat meat and profess to do other socially responsible things might not think twice about snorting cocaine. But there is blood on the hands of everyone who snorts it. If you can’t stop snorting it for your own health, then think of the 25,000 Columbian who were murdered last year as a direct result of the drugs trade. And if that still doesn’t make you quit, then you should talk to Frank (www.talktofrank.com)

retailers can bulk it up with just about anything, making it a very profitable drug to deal in. It has positive social affects such as chattiness and increased zeal and sexual arousal. It’s a lot more risqué than weed, but does not have the harsh junkie image of heroin.

Now for your first visit to a foreign country, but don’t worry about booking the return ticket – this is a one-way trip. You also don’t know where you are going yet, as there are three main routes for you out of the country.

The northern route is probably the most likely path you will take. Many of the Afghan people have close relationships with those in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, and therefore smuggling you over the border represents no significant problem for the traders. It will be an uncomfortable trip, some on donkey, and some in the boot of a car or lorry. The political upheavals in the region at the moment make it relatively easy for dealers to trade heroin – a prime reason why in the year 2000 1.8 metric tonnes was exported via this route but in 2001

this had risen to 4.2 metric tonnes. Eventually you will arrive at one of the more Westernised cities, such as Moscow or St. Petersburg where you will be sold off in smaller quantities to various dealers for consumption on the European markets, particularly the United Kingdom and Italy.

Alternatively, you may get to visit the Balkans on your trip to the syringe. You will get to see Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia on your travels, not to mention Iran. As usual the travelling will be gruelling, but at least it’s not cold like it would be if you were going the northern route. Once again, you will be sold on to the European market and eventually just one hit of you will be worth at least £50.

Or, you could get lucky. You might be some of the auspicious heroin that will get to spend its days in the Playboy Mansion or some other such party in America. On your trip to the U.S. you can take in Nigeria and Pakistan before reaching New York, or you may be especially fortunate and get sent in a courier package on a DHL jet.

So finally, you get off the plane, survive customs and get over the jet-lag. There is only one purpose left for you now, and that is to make someone feel really good about themselves. 90% of the heroin in the U.K comes from Afghanistan, so we can assume that is where you ended up.

You have also been mixed with some rather disconcerting substances, such as brick dust, chalk or even nutmeg in order to make you more profitable. As a result of this process, when you are sold you will only be 40% pure.

There is no nice way to take you, but the chances are you will be dissolved and then injected, or simply smoked. Once inside the human body, you will instantly act on the nervous system, subduing it and ultimately making your host immune to the effects of pain. You will release them some hours later, at which point your epic journey finally comes to an end. It has been an experience for you but all good things have to come to and end.

Simon Sheridan

A note on this page...

S

ome of you might have been hoping for a drugs page filled with funny drug stories a la Howard Marks, or some new ideas on how to get high, or perhaps a page that was just a bit more colourful and lively.

But that’s all been done before.You probably know everything there is to know about marijuana and magic mushrooms, and so we said nothing about them. Mushrooms and weed don’t do much to this planet. You can grow both in your house and/or backyard. The effects can be heavy, but not devastating, and a lifetime of use will probably not mean a life cut short by illhealth or a prison sentence.

That is not true of heroin or cocaine. These are the two most dangerous drugs in the world because of the international trade that spreads them. It is a trade that kills junkies in European cities and villagers in Columbia. These drugs fuel warlords in Afghanistan and cartels in South America. There is evidence that North Korea keeps its ragged economy afloat by dealing in cocaine.

There’s no point having a serious discussion about marijuana or mushrooms because both are socially acceptable, weed particularly.

We see people smoking spliffs all the time and feel nothing. Most of us are more disgusted by the pungent odour of tobacco than by the sweet smell of weed.

So there are no gimmicks and gags on this page, no old jokes and no obligatory cannabis leaves. We were going for the dramatic angle.

Coke and smack are murder.

So if you need a new frame of mind, stick to the fun stuff, not the death.

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Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat Imagine being huddled over a sewing machine for thirteen hours a day, seven days a week in a hot factory with no fan. For thousands of people in the developing world this is the only way to earn a living. No Sweat member Pat Yarker helps explain what can be done to stop the global injustice of the sweatshop.

I

t’s an issue that is literally woven into the very fabric of our society. Sweatshops. The term burst onto the political and social scene in the 90s as Nike, Gap and other gargantuan global garment makers made billions from the tired and worn hands of sweatshop workers. This global injustice has been zealously protested by millions in the west for over a decade, but sadly it is still a global reality.

Before you read on, and without breaking public decency laws, take a moment to examine ever y item of clothi n g you’re weari n g .

describe a sub-contracting employment system in which profits were “sweated” from the employees who worked long hours for low pay.

We use the term nowadays as a label; obviously a factory boss would never say he is in charge of a sweatshop. It describes jobs that are low paid and unsafe, filled by people who work long hours and who do not have the chance to form a union.

The image that springs to mind when we hear the term ‘sweatshop’ is of a dark, dank factory in a developing country filled w i t h workers huddled o v e r sewing machines putting trainers together. While this is a common setting, a sweatshop does not necessarily mean a factory, nor is the practice limited to the developing world. The US retailer giant Wal Mart (which owns Asda) has been repeatedly accused of exploiting its workers, as well as selling merchandise made by sweatshop labour.

But while the exploitation of workers is a concern no matter what the circumstances, it is the abolition of sweatshop labour in developing world factories that is the most challenging problem.

Here’s an example of what No Sweat is fighting: In 2003 33-year-old Pearly Gonzales (a pseudonym used to protect her from retaliation) was working in a garment factory in the Philippines. It was a typically hot day in the tropical country and the industrial fan was broken.

Pearly was suffering through a 13-hour shift when she collapsed from heat exhaustion. She had been working frantically through sweat and exhaustion to try to finish assembling as many bundles of bras as she could. She had to – her wage was on a set piece rate scale.

Pearly needed a year to recuperate, but she was able to return to the factory and her old job.

She had hoped that a year would have been enough time for the company to make some changes, but things remained the same. Pearly still has to work 13-hour and sometimes even 22hour shifts. So low is her piece rate that even after 13-hours of long, hot work she earns less than the Filipino minimum wage. There is no overtime pay, no night pay, and the heat is still unbearable, especially in the summer when the temperature outside the factory regularly exceeds 30-degrees Celsius.

Infections the workers have acquired include smallpox, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, scabies and HIV.

Chances are that at least one of those items was made by someone working under conditions that, if they existed in this country, would be deemed illegal and immoral for any number of reasons.

The things that employees in Britain and other industrial nations are used to are dreams for the people who suffer to make our trainers and underwear. Things like maternity leave, holiday-pay, a minimum wage, a clean, well-ventilated workplace and sufficient breaks are non-existent in the worst factories of the developing world.

Workers there work long, gruelling hours for low wages, and female workers in particular must also deal with physical and sexual harassment from their bosses.

But the most stifling injustice occurs when exploited workers try to challenge this exploitation. Attempts by employees to solidify and form unions are undermined, sometimes violently, by factory and corporate bosses. A unified workforce is the last thing they want.

No Sweat is trying to change this. No Sweat is, in their own words, “an activist, campaigning organisation, fighting sweatshop bosses, in solidarity with workers, worldwide.” They want a living wage, safe working conditions and independent trade unions for all workers in every country in the world.

What is a sweatshop?

W

hile everyone has doubtless heard the term ‘sweatshop’, few of us have been to one and the image one has of a sweatshop varies from person to person.

The term was coined in the 19th century to

The factory is owned by Gelmart Industries, Inc, an American company based in New York City that manufactures and distributes intimate apparel. They generate annual revenues of around US$150 million by selling its products to discount retail shops like Wal-Mart. Their sweatshop factory is just one example of the brutal world of sweatshop labour.

Here’s one from the developed world: Angelica Textile Services is a US company that owns laundries that linen from hospitals and care facilities such as nursing homes. It is an important job, but one that is needlessly dangerous for its employees.

By not having in place health and safety training, exposure controls and emergency plans, employees have contracted diseases from handling linen that has been infected from blood, excrement and other bodily fluids. Infections the laundry workers have acquired while working for Angelica include smallpox, salmonellosis, hepatitis A, scabies, Q fever, hepatitis B, and HIV. Not only does the company’s lack of responsibility endanger the life of their employees, but they make it as hard as possible for the workers to form a union and fight these violations. They have stated publicly that they are neither “ p r o union, nor a n t i union”. They have been known to spy on union activists, to deny information on representation and bargaining and they have threatened retaliation against union activity.

another job. When the competition for factory jobs becomes great as the result of layoffs the bosses, knowing the desperations of those seeking work, are able to lower the standards even further.

So a boycott, far from helping the workers, can often be their downfall.

The Power of the Union

N

o Sweat believes the key to ending sweatshop labour lies in the power of unions.

They work primarily to allow workers to form unions and to maintain them. People often wonder why people in developing countries work under the awful conditions of sweatshops. The answer is that the alternative is much worse. The millions of people in China who migrate from the rural hinterland to the cities reason that they would be better off taking their chances in a city factory than stay in the poverty of the countryside. But just because the workers are stuck in terrible jobs does not mean they submissively accept their exploitation.

The corporations know the power of organised workers and the damage they could do if they were able to form a union and go on strike.

This is why companies intimidate or sack anyone who tries to form a union. This happens in factories in countries like Mexico and the Philippines and in McDonalds restaurants all over the world.

The Golden Arches are notorious for quashing attempts by workers to form unions, and were found guilty of this in the famous McLibel trial.

Helping workers form strong unions is the key to ending exploitation because the strike is the only language fat-cat bosses will listen to.

Not only does a strike immediately hit production and profit, but it shows that the workers have power in the system. Bosses fear all of these things and will do everything they can to prevent them.

And because of the climate of fear created many companies, strikes are hard to organise.

Workers trying to organise strikes face sacking, assault, imprisonment or even being raped or murdered. There are numerous examples of such dangers.

On the 22nd of February Cambodian police fired assault rifles and used electric batons to break up a protest by 1300 workers demanding redundancy payments from a garment factory that was shut down.

On the 4th of January 55-year-old Hadi Saleh, an Iraqi trade unionist, was murdered. The killers, widely believed to be former security-servicemen, broke into Saleh’s home and tortured him before ending his life. His union files and membership records were ransacked. The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) said that his death was part of a growing trend of intimidation and violence against trade unionists.

Since it was founded five years ago No Sweat has raised thousands of pounds to help workers form unions. The money helps fund strikes, sustains strikers’ families and provide resources for independent trade unions. They participate in email-campaigns in solidarity with unions to put pressure on companies. They also bring union leaders and organisers to events in the UK. They believe that UK workers can learn a lot from the struggles of workers in the developing world and the tenacity they show in the fight for justice.

For more information on sweatshops and to join the fight against them visit:

No Sweat is fighting sweatshop bosses, in solidarity with workers, worldwide.

Boycott or not?

T

here is genuine concern from many in the west about the plight of sweatshop workers.

Ethical shopping has become a key tool in the fight against exploitation. The Fair Trade logo has become a familiar sight on many supermarket items, organic food that “doesn’t harm the Earth” is becoming increasingly popular, and sweatshop-free clothing is more widespread than ever.

But one of the seemingly logical ways to fight exploitation is to do nothing – to boycott.

Concrete ran a centre-spread earlier this year calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart , Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Starbucks, Nestle. A boycott of a company like Nestle makes sense because they make chocolate. The manufacture of their product relies more on machine than man and so an effective boycott would not mean large lay-offs.

That, unfortunately, is what happens when a company like Nike is boycotted. The centrespread on companies to boycott was done with good intentions. The companies named do make enormous profits from exploited workers and go to huge lengths to hawk their products, and because of this Concrete wanted to show their contempt for this corporate malpractice by calling for a boycott. But a successful boycott often hits the exploited workers first – the very people the boycott was trying to help.

This is because when large companies have a dip in their profits it is the workers at the very bottom of the chain that feel the affects first. They will be sacked or laid-off. When this happens they receive no redundancy payments and have no social-security to sustain them until they find

www.nosweat.org.uk www.behindthelabel.org

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Nowhere to Run to; Nowhere to Hide

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Sarah Swalheim and Natalie Northam explore the plight of the world’s refugees. They flee war, persecution, genocide, torture and abuse and come to the developed world seeking refuge. But with humanitarian crises causing misery around the world, millions of refugees are fighting political opportunism as well as fear. ‘Asylum seekers’ has become a familiar term in the run-up to the election as some politicans drum up the myths about refugees.

Examined here are the myths and truths of refugees, their origins, their fears and what can be done to help them.

Who’s who? - Definitions A refugee - Under international law, a refugee is a person who is outside his/her country of nationality; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; is not protected by that country, or is unable to return there, for fear of persecution.

An asylum seeker - Those who seek refugee status are known as asylum seekers, and the practice of accepting such refugees is that of offering political asylum. The most common asylum claims are based upon political and religious grounds.

A displaced person/internally displaced person A displaced person is the general term for someone who has been forced to leave his or her native place. If the displaced person has crossed an inter-

The Top Ten Hosting Countries 1. Iran: currently 1,300,000 refugees Iran takes first place for hosting the largest number of refugees. Last year it took one hundred times more refugees than Britain. Around one million of the refugees are from Afghanistan, and the majority of the rest are from Iraq.

2. Pakistan: currently 1,200,000 refugees Pakistan also takes a considerable number of refugees, and most have fled from Afghanistan.

There are around 200 refugee camps across Pakistan housing the refugees. Since March 2002, around 1.8 million refugees returned home, partly due to the widespread hostility shown towards them in Pakistan.

3. Germany: currently 980,000 refugees Most refugees that flee to Germany are from former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Germany has the largest refugee population in Western Europe, although the restrictions that were imposed in 1993 led to the number of asylum seekers decreasing by half.

4. Tanzania: currently 690,000 refugees Most refugees that flee to Tanzania are forced to live in camps and are not permitted to work. Like most countries with a high number of refugees, Tanzania’s location is a prime factor. It shares a border with Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Kenya.

5. United States: currently 485,000 refugees The United States tightened its asylum laws after 9/11, yet it still accounts for half of the resettlement of refugees worldwide. The immigration policy is similar to that of Britain, given that an application for asylum must be made within one year of arrival in the country. The asylum seeker is not allowed to work until the application has been processed and accepted.

national border and falls under one of the relevant international legal instruments, they are considered a refugee. An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has been forced to leave their home for reasons such as religious persecution or war, but has not crossed an international border.

Illegal immigrant - An illegal immigrant is a person who either enters a country illegally, or who enters legally but subsequently violates the terms of their visa, permanent resident permit or refugee permit.

There are a number of terms that refer to illegal immigrants. The terms undocumented immigrant, and illegals are roughly synonymous, while illegal alien includes those who do not intend to settle in the country, and undocumented worker includes legal residents and even citizens with defective papers who may or may not intend to stay in the country.

Recently, in March 2003, the US policy on asylum seekers changed, and any asylum seeker coming from Iraq, or the 33 other countries where Al- Qaeda are believed to be operating, will be held in custody throughout the processing period.

6. Serbia and Montenegro: currently 350,000 refugees Most refuges fled to these countries from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Balkan Wars and most are ethnic Serbs.

7. Sudan: currently 330,000 refugees Refugees flee to Sudan from Eritrea, Uganda, and Ethiopia. However, due to twenty years of war in the country, humanitarian conditions in Sudan have for a long time been considered among the worst in the world. The plight of refugees was a major issue last year as the situation in Darfur became a scar on the world’s conscience.

8.

Democratic Republic of Congo: currently 330,000 refugees The DRC is a country you would expect to find people fleeing from rather than fleeing to. However, despite civil war, ethnic violence, the presence of foreign troops and an economic crisis, the DRC has hosted around 400,000 refugees and asylum seekers. They mainly flee from Angola, Sudan, Burundi and Uganda. The sheer size of the country is a prime reason in the presence of so many refugees.

9. China: currently 300,000 refugees The majority of refugees that flee to China are from Vietnam and North Korea. China has no domestic laws on refugee protection. It will only grant the refugees temporary residence and they are not permitted to work.

10. Armenia: currently 250,000 refugees Virtually all of the refugees in Armenia are ethnic Armenians who fled Azerbaijan during the 1988-93 war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Afghanistan In 2003, more than two million refugees, the largest number in the world, came from Afghanistan. The country has been devastated by civil war for over twenty years. In 1979, it was invaded by the Soviet Union and became a battlefield of the Cold War. Soviet troops withdrew in 1989, but fighting continued between the communists and the opposition forces, the Mujahedin.

Conflicts between factions of the Mujahedin also broke out, and the escalating situation sent many refugees fleeing into neighbouring countries.

The civil war enabled the radical Islamic movement, the Taliban, to gain power. They introduced strict policies denying women education, employment and health care. In 2001, the terrorist attacks of September 11th turned the world’s attention to Afghanistan, as Islamic radical Osama Bin Laden was blamed for the attack. Consequently, the US invaded Afghanistan in October, and brought down the Taliban regime, believing it to be linked to Bin Laden.

Transitional governments have since been set up to govern until elections can be held. They are supposed to be taking place this May, but it now seems unlikely. Under Afghanistan’s new constitution, any poll must be announced 90 days before it is scheduled to take place, and due to security concerns, this has not been done. Therefore, the country remains politically unstable, and the human rights situation continues to worsen.

Democratic Republic of the The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Central Africa had 453,400 refugees in 2003.

The DRC has always experienced either conflict or dictatorship since independence from Belgium in 1960, but the recent troubles originated in 1994.

Genocide was taking place in neighbouring Rwanda, and around 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Some of the Interahamwe militias responsible for the killings fled to the DRC, and launched attacks from there.

Rwanda wanted to stop the Congolese from allowing this, and twice sent its own troops into the country.

Then in 1997, Rwandan-backed rebels brought the Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko, and Rebel leader Laurent Kabila proclaimed himself president. The following year, troops from Rwanda and Uganda invaded in hopes of removing him from power. They were halted by Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean troops allied with Kabila.

Since then fighting has continued, despite several peace agreements. In July 2003, a new powersharing government was set up, but despite this, and despite the presence of several hundred UN peacekeepers in the area, the conflict continues.

In January of this year, fighting broke out again in the east of the DRC, and an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people, mostly women and children in poor health, made their way across Lake Albert by boat to Uganda.

Sudan In 2003, the second largest number of refugees came from Sudan, a number reaching 606,200. This is mainly due to the conflict in Darfur. Since February 2003, agricultural ethnic groups such as the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa have been killed or wounded by armed nomadic groups, later joining together to form the Janjawid militia. Over 50,000 people are believed to have lost their lives since then.

The Sudan government, led by President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, has failed to give any protection to their people, allowing the Janjawid to continue to kill, torture, rape and loot certain groups in the region. Former United Nations coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, believes this targeting of certain groups is evidence of “ethnic cleansing”, as the Janjawid attackers are mostly Arab and those attacked mostly black Africans.

Since the start of the conflict, over 1.5 million civilians have been internally displaced, and 200,000 have sought refuse in neighbouring Chad.

The Sudanese government seems unwilling to address the humanitarian crisis and appears to be encouraging the actions of the Janjawid. It has even placed restrictions on access for humanitarian relief agencies, making it difficult for the international community to send in aid. The harsh climate has also hindered aid efforts.

Burundi Burundi, in Central Africa, produced a total of 531,600 refugees in 2003. The country is 85 % Hutu, 14% Tutsi and 1% Twa, and has been subject to great ethnic conflict since 1965. The current troubles began in October 1993, with the assassination of the first elected (Hutu) President, Melchior Ndadaye, in an attempted coup.

Since then, some 200,000 Burundians have been killed in widespread ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced or have become refugees in neighboring countries.

In November 2001, a new transitional government was introduced under President Buyoya.

This appeared to be the first step towards holding national elections. However, the inability to enact a cease fire that includes all factions is delaying the proceedings.

How Can You Help?

Congo

STAR stands for Student Action for Refugees. It is a national campaign group, and made up of thirty-five groups across the UK. If you would like to help to raise awareness about refugees then get involved right here at UEA! Membership is only £3 and you give as much time as you feel you can spare. Getting involved also means that you will meet a variety of open-minded people, and gain skills and experience that will help you in the future. If you would like to get involved email norwichstar@yahoo.com or if you would just like to find out more information about the national STAR check out www.star-network.org.uk/

Palestine In 2003, there were 427,900 Palestinian refugees. The troubles began in 1947, when Palestine, a British colony, was partitioned into two separate states, one Arab and one Jewish. The Jews, who were less than one-third of the population and owned only 8% of the land, were allotted 56% of the territory. The Palestinians saw this as immensly unjust, as most Jews in Palestine were recent arrivals. Consequently, fighting broke out between Jewish forces and Palestinian militias.

In May 1948, Britain withdrew from Palestine, and the Jewish state of Israel declared independence. War was waged on the new state by Palestine and several other Arab countries, and when it ended in 1949, Israel had captured 78% of Palestine. Over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed and nearly 800,000 Palestinians were made refugees.

Since then, fighting has continued between the two states. Palestinians have been waging their second national uprising (Intifada) in an attempt to end Israel’s 38-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In response, Israeli forces have shelled Palestinian neighborhoods with US-supplied attack helicopters and destroyed homes, hospitals and infrastructure for water and sanitation.

Thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and poverty rates have soared.

Iraq In 2003 Iraq hosted more than 130,000 refugees, but produced many more as a result of the US-led invasion in March. There are currently more than 600,000 Iraqis refugees around the world.

Under Saddam around 100,000 Palestinians had received subsidised housing and special privileges, but after his overthrow Iraqi landlords reversed these policies and the Palestians became refugees within Iraq.

In the first few months after the invasion there was widespread looting and lawlessness throughout the country. This compounded the problems for those Iraqis trying to return to the country they had fleed during Saddam’s regime.

In 2004 some 40,000 Iraqis applied for asylum in other countries, with 25,000 of these applying to live in Europe. Britain received the largest number of applicants of European nations with 5,300.

HOWARD YOU LIKE IT There has been a lot of criticism recently over Michael Howard’s proposals on immigration. They include the following: * Setting an annual limit to immigration, including a quota for genuine refugees * Putting in place 24-hour security at ports to prevent illegal immigration * Introducing an Australian-style points system for work permits- giving priority to people with skills Britain needs Criticism arose over Howard’s idea of a quota, as this could mean the refusal of genuine asylum seekers, putting many lives at risk. This proposal also gives out the wrong message to poorer countries that host the majority of refugees, for although the UK has been taking more than most other industrialised countries, it is Iran that hosts the largest number in the world (hosting 1,300,000). The UK does not even appear in the top ten hosting countries. This challenges the myth that the UK is being over-run by refugees and taking more than its fair share. There are other myths surrounding immigration that have led to negativity towards refugees. It is important that these myths are cleared up and that we do not start refusing genuine asylumseekers in dire need of protection.

Myths and Truths Myth: Britain is over-run by refugees Truth: Britain takes a number of refugees, but does not even appear in the top ten hosting countries. Also, according to the annual figures published by UNHCR, the number of asylum seekers coming to the industrialised world fell 22 percent last year to its lowest level since 1988. In fact, the majority of immigrants that come to Britain are not asylum seekers or refugees, but those entering on work permits. It is reported that, in 2003, “20,980 asylum seekers were granted permission to stay, in comparison to 119,000 people on work permits” (TIME magazine). These professionals are needed and welcomed by the UK, helping sustain many institutions such as the NHS. Myth: Refugees exploit our benefit system.

Truth: Refugees are not allowed to claim mainstream welfare benefits and are barred from working. An adult refugee only receives £38.96 a week, 30% below the poverty line. In contrast a single pensioner gets a guaranteed minimum income of £98.15 a week. The accommodation allocated to refugees is not paid for by the local council. It is nearly always ‘hard to let’ properties, which other people do not want to live in. Many refugees are desperately poor. 85% of organizations working with them said that their clients experienced hunger, while 95% said their clients could not afford clothes or shoes.

Myth: Asylum seekers bring diseases into the country Truth: TB testing has started on arriving asylum seekers, and more than 5,500 people have been tested, with no positive results. Generally, asylum seekers who arrive in Britain are healthier than those they leave behind. In 2003, Dr LeFeuvre said: “I’ve seen more refugees who are doctors than refugees who have HIV”.

TIME magazine recently reported that the British public believes 24% of those living in the UK are foreign-born - the actual figure is 8.3%.

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Because We Are Too Many Charity is all well and good, but do we ignore the real problems by continuing to focus on the plight of humanity? Philip Sainty looks at the problem of overpopulation and how the issues surrounding it are often confused by the media.

2

005 may well be remembered as the year in which the people of Britain began to eliminate global poverty.

Current British interest in the plight of the developing nations has arguably come about as a result of two defining moments in global history, both of which occurred in the last twenty years. The first was the epoch-making BBC report on the 1984 famine in Ethiopia that gave rise to Live Aid and sparked a global charitable phenomenon. The donations and interest managed to turn around a death rate that was threatening to take 300,000 lives a month. The second was ten years later, in Rwanda, when the global community turned a blind eye to four months of genocide between warring factions that were originally created by colonial interference. Subsequently, the Governments of the (western) world have been condemned for the deaths of nearly a million people.

Both events would probably have gone unnoticed by the West were it not for media intervention. Both were the epitome of the ‘human interest’ story, guaranteed to grab headlines and provide moving pictures that we can all relate to – because we, too, are human. All coverage of the events, at the time and since, have always sought to focus on the ‘human angle’ and so they should, as both resulted in such an inconceivable number of deaths.

From a charitable aspect, Ethiopia, like the Tsunami appeal, benefits from being ostensibly caused by environmental factors. Rwanda, unfortunately has no such luxury, having been caused by the tribal tension between Hutus and Tutsis.

But the situations are resistant to such simplification because both countries share a common environmental problem: overpopulation. Ethiopia is one of the most overpopulated countries on earth, having cleared more than 90 per cent of its once-extensive woodland. Rwanda, prior to the massacres, was the most overpopulated country in Africa with a density of 275 people per square kilometre. The Belgian colonists, who originally created the notion of ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’, were also responsible for the systematic pillage of the country’s resources. It might seem common sense to report on all the factors that led to the resulting tension, but both were explained in largely sociological terms and while the ecological facts may have been stated from time to time, they were never related directly as a cause for the problems. For the media to bring these ideas in to play would be to talk about something contrary to the echelon of the ‘human interest’ story because, by condemning these cultures for the exploitation of their surroundings, it would put the ‘rights’ of the planet above the ‘rights’ of humanity.

Being reluctant to condemn humanity on these grounds is indicative of a long-standing cultural arrogance towards our natural environs and the planet we inhabit. It is inherently contradictory as it ignores the most basic fact: that our existence (currently, at least)

depends on the planet. Conversely, the planet could only benefit from an atrocity such as Rwanda, were it to occur on a global scale. Yet our attitude towards each other is only equalled in its flippancy by our attitude to the planet. Our recognition of each other as human beings seems to be engrained on our behaviour, but the

logical knowledge would be much higher. A typical estimate of land area needed to represent and protect most elements of biodiversity is about 50%.

Conserving Biodiversity requires two basic requirements: protection and preservation.

During the last week in our developed nation, two

it often, are often only referring to human development. A recent example of this contention is on the BBC next week. ‘China week’ is a celebration of the world’s largest growing economy. This is relevant to the African issue because China used to manufacture a lot of Western goods. Sadly, along with most of Asia, they are now becoming more educated and not content to work for pittance in a sweatshop. Africa, however, is just starting to move into the Economic stage of development (known as an Economic Processing Zone) necessary for sweatshops and the like. At this point that many western powers realised that the strong African youth that would be needed for this workforce are dying from AIDS and Malaria and they’d better do something about it. And this is where the Commission for Africa comes in.

The only problem with all this is that, once again, the emphasis is very much on the ‘sustainable development’ of humanity. When we endeavour to Make Poverty History we should ensure that the money and processes that are going towards achieving that aim are ensuring an end to the poverty abundant in our conception of the world.

Our existence (currently, at least) depends on the planet.

Conversely, the planet could only benefit from an atrocity such as Rwanda, were it to occur on a global scale perception of our environs never seems to extend beyond the instrumental. If we aren’t chopping it down for firewood; we’re swinging on it.

According to the UN, the global population is set to rise from 6.5 billion to 9.1 Billion by the year 2050. Virtually all this growth will be in the developing world. Development, the ever-touted right of ascendancy, usually walks hand-in-hand with environmental destruction and degradation. This is largely because an economy relies on natural resources to give it a kick-start; a country first sells what it has, then what it can manufacture. In this process, it is the environment that suffers most. Many developing cultures are envious of the affluent West. They want Coca Cola and Nike and TV sets, who wouldn’t? But the developing countries are also those with the largest abundance of our greatest asset, the range of living organisms that exist on the planet, our Biodiversity.

B

iodiversity is not just about keeping creatures alive for our entertainment. A diverse ecosystem is required to ensure the health of the seas, rivers and forests and, therefore, to combat climate change. Stress placed on the world’s Biodiversity by an ever-increasing and developing human population is rapidly accelerating.

Economic demands are appropriating an increasing amount from the planet, depleting fishing stocks right through to acres of forest. A figure from Vitousek in 1986 cites 40% of global primary productivity (the annual growth of plant life) is used or co-opted by humans, mainly through land use. Additionally, in 2001, Rojstaczer et al. calculated that 32 % of terrestrial primary productivity (animal matter harvested from the land and water) is appropriated by humans. This is quite an achievement for a species that is but one amongst 5 to 30 million types of animal on the face of the earth.

If we were to apply this to the UN’s population forecast, then by 2050, 60% of this planet’s base natural resources will be completely absorbed by humanity. The convention on Biological Diversity recently put a target of 10% of the world’s ecological regions effectively conserved by 2010. However, 25 conservation leaders said that this goal was largely political and that targets based on eco-

things happened in direct correlation with these criteria, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (or John Prescott, Ltd. as it is more affectionately known) granted National Park status to the New Forest and DEFRA introduced the Entry-Level scheme that moves farmers and landowners away from agricultural subsidy and towards a future of environmental stewardship. The latter step, particularly, has the potential to ensure the required 50% conservation. But even in our highly developed country, we are only just implementing ideas that, in order to ensure Biodiversity, conserve as much land as they can. What chance, then, does the Developing world have?

Sustainable Development is, apparently, the solution and is certainly the byword of Blair’s Commission for Africa: the promised Shangri-La for African poverty. Yet the majority of people who are familiar with t h e phrase, e v e n those w h o use

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concrete.features@uea.ac.uk 17

Is it hot in here, or is it just... the globe? A member of the Bush administration would say no. Global warming is not high on their agenda. The Kyoto treaty which came into force this year was missing the signature of the world’s biggest polluter. So will it make a difference? Alyssa Morrisey turns up the heat on global warming sceptics.

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fter years of heated debate, the Kyoto Treaty went into effect on February 16, minus signatures from the United States and Australia. While a collective international effort to combat global warming is hailed by environmentalists as one of the century’s greatest victories, it is uncertain what sort of gains the treaty will make by its 2008 through 2012 deadline.

‘It would be a dangerous mistake to believe that Kyoto provides a solution to the scale of the problem our world now faces,’ says the Independent on the day of its initiation. ‘The reality is that the cuts required by the Protocol are inadequate in the rapidly worsening situation. In addition, the focus on Kyoto over recent years, and whether or not it will come into force, has become an excuse for inaction.’

The treaty aims to monitor green house gas emissions in 141 countries and, in the next decade, to have decreased them by around 5% of the levels recorded in 1990. In order for recognizable effects to take place, the agreement must be signed by industrialized countries responsible for at least 55% of the world’s carbon emissions in 1990.

Developing countries were exempted, allowing them a chance to catch up with the economic development of industrialized nations.

But without cooperation from the United States, responsible for 36 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and consumer of 25% of the world’s oil, the goal seems almost unattainable.

The Kyoto Protocol began negotiations nearly eight years ago, when several countries met in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto to discuss global warming and its overall effects on the planet over the next century.

The possibility that global warming is responsible for the Earth’s climate change is now widely accepted. Last year, Tony Blair said that global warming was the single most important

issue faced by the world. Many people have said that it is a bigger threat to international stability than terrorism. At the World Economic Forum in 1998, chief executive officers of the world’s largest

already reduced the depth of the polar ice cap by 40 percent since the 1970s, and glaciers are rapidly retreating.

Computer models predict that a five degree Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit)

opposes any treaty or policy that would cause the loss of a single American job, let alone the nearly 5 million jobs Kyoto would have cost,’ says James Connaughton, chairman of the White House

Over-priced, oversized, over here: The truth about Yank Tanks.

the shops, or, if you’re a single, insecure bloke it just feels good to drive around in something so vast.

This culture of “compensating”, as Shrek would say, was compounded with the arrival of the

Hummer. The vehicle that began life in the US army became commerical in the 90s and has been guzzling gas ever since.

Sports Utility Ve h i c l e s quickly became popular in

B

y the end of 2005, the UK could be flocking with them. Yet, with the devastation that they have caused in the US over the past ten years, one wonders why anyone would consider this a good

idea.

Here are some facts that everyone should know, whether or not you plan on purchasing a 4x4.

The main argument against SUVs today is that they waste energy by guzzling an astonishing amount of petrol. Many get thirteen to fifteen miles per gallon (about 6.79 kilometres per litre).

Someone struck by a large sports utility vehicle is more than twice as likely to die as someone hit by a saloon car travelling at the same speed, says the New Scientist. Though few plan on striking pedestrians with their vehicles, it has been known to happen.

They create a false idea of safety, though statistics have continuously proven that SUVs are just as they say, Sports Utility Vehicles.

They were meant for driving in rugged, off-road conditions, not for highway or city driving.

And they seem hugely ostentatious when you consider what most people in Britain use them for; dropping the kids off at school, going to

1,000 corporations declared that global climate change was the most critical problem facing humanity.

S

tudies show that clim a t e change has

increase in average temperature is expected within the next century, the same increase the Earth has undergone since the previous ice age.

A small increase in temperature severely changes rainfall patterns and increases the intensity of storms around the globe. Similarly, when ocean temperatures undergo an increase of one degree, coral reefs die triggering a chain reaction that then wipes out other ocean life.

Council on Environmental Quality.

White House officials hold that the measures in pollution reduction proposed by the treaty would have cost nearly $400 billion and almost 5 million jobs, while other countries like Russia can decrease pollution substantially with a positive rather than negative impact on its job market.

Bush also rejects the treaty based on its bias toward developing countries like China and India,

While not an immediate answer to global warming, Kyoto may be the first to set new international standards that reward pollution reduction The effects of climate change are already visible. In 2003, Europe suffered from the hottest summer on record, with temperatures in the west as high as 37.8 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). Monsoon rains in Asia that are important to agriculture have been irregular, and Florida witnessed hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan within the summer of 2004.

Though reluctant to sign, most nations recognised that global warming will have a significant long term effect on the agricultural and business economies. The historic treaty which was signed by Vice President Al Gore, was later dismissed by the Bush administration for economic reasons.

‘President Bush strongly

who are not required to reduce emissions, yet account for nearly 14 percent of the world’s green house gas emissions.

Instead, the Bush administration encourages private means of climate control, and efforts toward developing cleaner, more effect energy sources, rather than working under strict international regulation.

While the United States has been aware of the harmful effects of green house gases on climate change for the nearly 20 years, a study done by the International Energy Agency shows the US has increased carbon emissions by 15 percent since 1990, mainly from burning fossil foils in power plants, factories and cars.

Though signs of global warming are clear, and accepted by a majority of scientists in every nation around the world, the US has seen a wealth of scepticism. A report in FoxNews.com regards the Kyoto protocol as more of a “global economic suicide pact” than as an “international treaty,” dismissing fears of climate change as ‘scientific and economic infamy.’

Doubts cast a negative shadow over the victory of the Kyoto treaty, yet environmentalists call it a tiny first step to slow global warming. While not an immediate answer to global warming, the treaty may be the first to set new international standards that reward pollution reduction and inspire nations and corporations to pursue cleaner forms of growth. the US, where six lane freeways and vast road abound. Though, when exposed to narrower European roads, where street parking frequently imposes on driving space, the flaw is far too great to miss. One recalls countless times they have seen these vehicles brush the sides of parked cars as they drive.

Of the worst problems, SUVs also breed a menacing culture of selfishness and gluttony on the road. The main concern of a potential buyer of a 4x4, is that they will be the safer party during an accident, obviously unconcerned for the safety and wellbeing of the other party involved.

Recently the Ford company introduced the Escape Hybrid SUV, making the first company to make hybrid 4X4s available to the mainstream market. The Escape Hybrid will achieve up to 35 to 45 miles per gallon in stop and go city conditions, more than a 50 percent achievement over its other lines SUVs. Several companies subsequently took the hint, and produced Hybrid 4x4 vehicles of their own, though this does nothing to address the issue of the cumbersome presence the vehicles have on Britain’s narrow streets.

Though Ford will produce 25,000 Escape Hybrids vehicles by the end of the year, it produces over six million vehicles annually. The Escape SUV will make up less than half of one percent of the 2005 model year production.

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CUT SHORT It has emerged that the firm employed to collect the empty bot tles from the university and union outlets will no longer be able to do so. The com pany had been making a loss from its UEA contract due to the high costs of recycling. It is claimed that the University offered to make up the cost difference, but the deal was rejected. It is not clear what will happen to all of UEA's empty bottles and the issue remains vague.

YOUR MOVE

U

EA at night is like a shiny concrete beacon, the lights of Waveney Terrace casting a mysterious and alluring glow over the wintry landscape. But behind this picturesque scene lies a monster, known only asâ&#x20AC;Ś The Guzzler.

I'm not talking about the mysterious twat of a flatmate who steals your margarine.

Oh no, it's far worse than that. I'm talking about the '60s monstrosity that is our entire campus, eating energy like a fat kid eats a lorry-load of Ben and Jerry's. This means that we're responsible for pumping a huge amount of unnecessary pollution in to our atmosphere. So smite that evil Guzzler, wherever you may find him.

SHELL OUT FOR BETTER A campaign has begun to halt the selling of battery farmed eggs on campus, but there are warnings that it may be a long process

Lights It's a commonly held myth that if you are going in and out of a room frequently, it saves energy to leave the lights on.

This is complete bull: if you're leaving a room for more than a few seconds, save energy by turning them off! The same goes for lecture theatres and labs: if you are the last to leave- turn the lights off.

Computer Being a great fan of the late night work binge, I often find myself in a deserted computer lab. Turning a computer monitor off once you've finished with it can save around 50% of the energy used, so turn a few more off on your way out. If you have your own computer: don't leave it on standby all day, as this still uses loads of energy.

Heating If your lecture room or bedroom is hot, don't open the windows straight away, first look to see if you can turn the radiator down. Turning your thermostat at home down by 1°c can save 10% of your heating bill.

Cooking Cooking meals with friends saves on gas/electricity and is way more fun than being a loser and eating on your own.

Always put lids on pans, you can turn the stove down and save a huge amount of energy. When boiling water, only use as much as you need to save electricity and water.

COMPOSTING AT UEA Mucky behaviour in the LCR

L

ast Tuesday a meeting was held in the LCR about composting at UEA. Paulo Mellet (a 3rd year DEV undergraduate) gave a talk about how and why to compost. 50% of waste that currently goes to landfill could be composted and used instead of harmful artificial fertilisers to feed gardens. Composting also helps reduce global warming.

Kate Willett (UEA Green Party president and organiser of the meeting) told Turf after the meeting "any food going to landfill can't rot down properly because it's mixed with non-biological waste. It results in a toxicy sludge, which release methane, a potent greenhouse gas".

Paulo described how easy it is to compost. All you need to do is collect food scraps and crumpled paper/ card (non-recyclable) in a container in your

kitchen and now and again empty it into an outside composting bin. After about a year this waste will decompose to a rich soil.

Any student can buy biodegradable bags (from Rainbow foods in Norwich City Centre, or the Green Grocers on Earlham Road) and start collecting kitchen waste. This can be brought to the UEA permaculture society's allotment (a 15 minute walk off campus, contact k.willett@uea.ac.uk for details). Students living off campus can also get an outdoor composting bin from the City Council by calling 01603 212302.

Kate talked to Turf after the meeting about what she and her compost activists want to achieve. She said: "Our aim is to increase awareness about how easy it is to compost and why we should be doing it, and also to work towards getting the University to take composting more seriously as an environmentally friendly and sustainable waste option".

The group aims to increase voluntary composting in halls and are looking into the feasibility of creating a compost scheme for biodegradable waste for the Blend and the Hive. If you want to get involved with this campaign, please contact Kate at k.willett@uea.ac.uk.

If you would like to know a little more about composting, visit: www.ecodyfi. org.uk/waste or www.communi tycompost.org Report by Lucy Hellier

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here has been a growing resentment among students who do not feel that it is appropriate for battery farmed eggs to be sold on campus. The Catering Services say they have researched the option of switching to a free range supply, but that the switch would be too expensive.

Issues like this are always convoluted, because while the sale of battery chicken eggs may be unacceptable to most, the university may equally face complaints from students who want the cheapest deal no matter what. There is the possibility of a dual system, whereby individual students could choose which they wanted. But a system like this would be very difficult to implement, and just as costly in the end.

A pressure group headed by Jack Guest, a second year politics student, is calling for the situation to be readdressed. He is not happy with the excuses given for selling battery chicken eggs in Mango and The Diner.

The Catering Department seems ready to cooperate, and say they are willing to work with any students who wish to

resolve the issue. However, until there is enough pressure from outside it is unlikely that any change will happen. Jack Guest is calling upon all interested students to make their voices heard, either by making a complaint in person or by emailing Johan Bolling of catering at J.Bolling@uea.ac.uk. It is not going to happen over night, but if there is enough active demand then battery eggs will have to be banned from site.

Battery chickens are kept in horrendous conditions, as it is legal for farmers to keep up to five chickens in a cage smaller than an A4 piece of paper. What with the demand for cheap eggs in big quantities, farmers are encouraged to keep tens of thousands of chickens in one shed. Until people show that they a willing to pay a little bit more for an egg to prevent this treatment, the circumstances are unlikely to change.

Norfolk is renowned for its quality farming, and free range organic farms are plentiful all over the county. A free range egg supply would be not be hard to obtain, so long as there is a call for it on campus. If you want to see this change happen make sure your voice is heard.

MARKET MATTERS Sales remain steady as refurbishment continues

T

he multi-million pound market regeneration project is finally underway after a slightly jumpy start. Demolition of part of the market started a few weeks late allowing market traders to remain in their stalls for a bit longer.

Since the project has commenced only a few of the old stalls remain.

The market is still fully functioning with temporary market stalls on Gentleman's walk attracting business much as usual. There is a current wave of media instigated by Norwich City Council raising awareness that the market is still fully functional. This is well needed adver-

tisement as it is deputed by traders that their trade will slow down slightly as people are put off by the development in progress.

Although not happy with the market being refurbished, the market traders are taking it all in their stride. The wooden "temporary stalls are fairly accommodating for our needs" the trader of a clothes stall granted.

But looking ahead to when the market will be completed the new stalls will have 20% less floor space than the old market stalls; it is aspects such as this which are the traders main cause for concern as they have a limited influence over the new market design.

The overall outlook for the market is still a promising one maintaining Norwich's historical standing as a market town.

Report by Hannah Newton

New figures show that over the past five years police have had to fork out more than £10m protecting firms from animal rights protesters. Lots of it has gone towards policing controversial pharma ceutical company Huntingdon Life Sciences, the country's biggest research centre. Suffolk police have been badly drained, but Cambridgeshire have spent £5.4m and nearly 400,000 man hours protecting the notorious testing centre and staff from animal rights extremists.

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www.concrete-online.com

Concrete Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 The heavy snow of the last fortnight saw a series of accidents and forced dozens of school closures today in Norfolk.

Drivers were left stuck or struggling in the stormy blizzard white outs but high way officials insist the gritting pro gramme has coped. Police have reported several serious accidents all over the region and warned drivers to take extra care and avoid unnecessary journeys describing the roads as a "complete nightmare".

The Green party are to urge the City to push for major changes in the East of England Plan. It has been noted that the development plans far outpace any natu ral growth and will put unnecessary strain on local services, the environment and infrastructure. Even more shocking is that the EERA accepts "climate change will be inevitable over the period of this strategy" and is merely 'adapting' the region to it with out any emission cutting strategy being included.

The New Forest in Hampshire has at last become a National Park, and it is the first in England since the 1980s. The decision was made by the ODPM back in June 2004 following a seven month public inquiry. The last few months have witnessed further hearings as the exact boundary of the park was defined. Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael welcomed the official designation on march 1st, describing the park as being "acknowl edged as a national treasure for nearly a thousand years"

FAIR-TRADE FORTNIGHT After another year of increasing FairTrade sales is the UK, Turf joins the Debate Society to discuss its benefits

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he concept is simple.

Farmers in impoverished parts of the world have to work sixteen hours a day producing coffee and selling it to the affluent West. But where as we may pay a few pounds for a bag of coffee in the UK, the farmer only sees a few pence of that.

So, charge the people of Britain a few pence more and make sure it gets straight to the growers. While the increase to consumers here may be negligible, the difference to the farmers may be the one between feeding their family or not.

It is a concept that has found great appeal in the UK, and especially at the University of East Anglia where even the first year students will have noticed the recent growth in the range of FairTrade products on campus. As the events of FairTrade fortnight peak the recent trend will have seemed even more prominent.

And yet, the FairTrade developments have their share of critics, around the world and at the University. There are some who feel that the whole process is undermined by corruption in the developing countries associated with FairTrade critics, and that efforts should be spent on looking at the deeper problems of world poverty.

Turf went along to a Debate Society special, where the issue was discussed by a panel of four and an open audience. The opening motion saw the idea of FairTrade stretched to its limits: "Europe and North America should trade fairly with the developing world, even if this would result in a reduction in the standard of living enjoyed by us in the West." Of course in

reality FairTrade does not damage the Western lifestyle, it merely raises the price of a of couple of items. But even with this extreme interpretation, the vast majority of the audience was in favor, with 20 for, 1 against and 10 abstentions.

Arguing for were Tim Grover & Dave Vincent, who focused on the huge wealth difference between developing and developed nations, claiming that the West is responsible for the state of the Third World. Arguing against were Christian Ancliff & Owen Bryant, trying to persuade the audience that Fair Trading does very little, and that extra profits are just lost to the corruption of local governments.

Predictably this stance got a lot of people's backs up and audience members starting reciting examples where FairTrade co-operative had worked perfectly.

TREE OF THE FORTNIGHT All trees posses a beauty that is unique to the rest of the life on this planet. But there are beautiful trees and there are bee-yootiful trees! And then, of course, there is the Pinus sylvestris.

Some people call it a Scots Pine, but either way this tree just had to be this issue's Tree of the Fortnight. This is tree you can trust.

This is a tree that cares. This is a tree that teaches you how to love. If you are so overwhelmed that you don't even know where to start when first admiring this tree, here is a tip. Begin by admiring the way it harbours a myriad of multicolours in such a subtle way. It's brown braches grow into a redish-orange orange uppertrunk, accentuating the turquoise needles with such a humble delicacy you may be fooled into believing that until that moment you had only ever seen in black and white. And when, such as of late, this is set against a back drop of bright white snow then - oh!....I'm sorry, I have become quite lost for words…

Height: 30-80 ft Spread: 20 - 50 ft Shape: Pyramidal while growing and flat topped when mature Foliage: 1 to 3 inch green/blue pines Flower: Small dull bud Fruit: 1.5 to 3 inch cones in groups of up to three

Amount of money allocated by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for councils to improve their recycling facilities =

S

ure enough there are schemes in place that stand as direct proof of the benefits of FairTrade. And this doesn't always mean that it is only the odd farmer that gains. There are active projects where the increased profits of local farms are put back into the community. The extra income has been used to build schools, hospitals and housing improvements.

However, Christian Ancliff & Owen Bryant had some very good points to make, and there are often two sides to success stories. Putting a logo on a chocolate bar that tells the consumer that the farmer is getting a better deal can be misleading. For one, there will never be a solution that merely involves Westerners dumping some money and running.

Successful schemes take careful plan-

Pinus sylvestris

SUMMED UP

The sales of fair-trade goods in the UK in 2004 = Fifteen days worth of the UK's military expenditure in Iraq =

ning, and once they are implemented they need careful maintaining. Some of these farmers are living in countries that are crippled by corruption and more money to the area does not equate to more money to the producers. Charities of all sorts need to be wary of this, and only grass route schemes can guarantee that help reaches the people that deserve it.

That's not to say it can't be done on a mass market scale, but it will also require a massive body of volunteers to direct the flow of income appropriately.

There is another more radical criticism against FairTrade. Some people believe that the problem of poverty is so immense, and so much part of the global economic structure that a much more drastic plan is needed. There is an opinion that FairTrade does too little while distracting consumers from the wider issue.

In short, rather than adapting to a corrupt system there should be a move to restructure the way the entire world does trade.

It may very well be that poverty will always exist in the current political environment, but when it comes down to it this is a very poor argument against FairTrade. Although it would be nice to create a new world order from scratch, this will not happen over night. But FairTrade can make a real difference right now in visible ways.

The debate came to a close with opinions much as they were at the start, with pro FairTraders taking four of the abstentions and three going the other way. One point remains clear. FairTrade is a powerful tool and its benefits are important, but ten pence more on a bar of chocolate are not going to end poverty.

£140 million

The percentage of the nation's 30,000,000 chickens kept in battery farms = The percentage of the world's population that live in developing countries = Percentage of drink driving offenders who are male =

85%

Number of products affected by the Sudan 1 food scare = The average number of traffic accidents that take place everyday in south korea (with a daily average of 21 fatalities) = The number of different bird species in Hong Kong =

474

(Shown here actual size)

INSIDE: FOUR PAGE SPECIAL ON WORLD’S LARGEST GOLF BALL

FALLING DOWN

Your Problems Solved Prof.

Roderick Mulhapton Filkington-Phipps, Rodders to his friends, senior economic adviser to the World Bank and the IMF gives informed counsel to your personal problems.

BEFORE

AN ENQUIRER RECONSTRUCTION

AFTER

Student falls over; usual chaos ensues

Not for the first time, UEA was on the verge of declaring itself an independent communist state last night, as a student fell and hurt herself in the arctic conditions.

Though she stood up immediately and was not hospitalised, witnesses reported a grazed elbow. Faint embarrassment is also thought to have occurred.

With the next Ice Age now all but a certainty (in some areas the snow is reported to be drifting up to three inches deep), many had predicted an incident of this magnitude was possible. Now it has actually happened, however, few are sure how to proceed.

Displaying their usual, adorable reactionary sensibility, the Union quickly drafted

a policy banning winter from campus.

Unfortunately, their proposed method to carry out such a scheme - catching winter in a big net - was just as quickly dismissed as ‘costly’. Until a more workable policy is devised, students are advised to crawl around on their hands and knees so that, should they slip, the distance to the ground is lessened.

In the absence of a solution to the snow menace, political groups are busying themselves in allocating blame. Far right conservatives are using the fall as vindication for their commitment to industry. A spokesperson said: “With rampant global warming, none of this would have happened. Give them damn

Greens what they want and no one will be able to stay on their feet.” The Green Party have already issued a counter-statement pointing out that, under their plans, “everything would be green and not white.”

But by far the most damning verdict came from science fiction enthusiasts who are clamouring for UEA to be arrested for “endangering the future of the human race”.

“What if,” a representative demanded to know, “the student had been pregnant? We can’t be certain that that child wouldn’t have been destined to lead the survivors of nuclear holocaust in a final desperate fight against an evil super-computer.”

If this was the case, UEA has indicated, it is very sorry.

For years the top scientists have been bickering over the precise date of the total destruction of mankind. Finally the world’s leading climatologists have collaborated on the most extensive study to date, and though the findings have been unanimously agreed upon, the results are shocking. Yes, it has been proven that devastating global warming will take place in a matter of minutes. Starting now.

In fact, the details show that the next time somebody drives a car, leaves a light bulb on in an empty room or remains in the shower for thirty seconds longer than they should do the entire planet will be plunged into apocalypse. As we at The Enquirer fear that this may already have happened by the time the

papers hit the shelves, we would like you all to know that it has been a pleasure reporting to you all these years.

The belief in climate change has always suffered at the hands of sceptics due to the uncertainty of the time scale of events. In an attempt to prove their point once and for all, the International Climate Research Institute, led by Professor Wee R. Phucked, organised a project to combine all the data available and calculate the precise time of the end of the world.

“At first we just came up with the same old boring result,” explained the Professor, “the stats showed that the severe effects wouldn’t occur for another fifty years. I just left the files by my desk and thought nothing more of it.” Later that week the Professor’s wife

happened to see them while she was cleaning, and as she was glancing through the computations she saw that he had neglected to carry the 1 on one of his sums. “We recalculated the data after correcting the error and low and behold, we had been out by 49 years, 364 days, 23 hours and 15 minutes”.

When questioned, Professor Phucked denied that the report has been adjusted in an effort to ‘sex up’ the global warming issue.‘Look,’ muttered the professor, ‘just because no one thought our evidence was strong enough it doesn’t mean we’d just go and make up a forty five minute claim! The proof is right here!…somewhere…hold on, I know I had it in this office…”

Although the Institute denies that this report is a publicity stunt, they acknowledge

Dear Rodders Very soon, me and my new friends from University will be leaving the comfort of the UEA’s Halls of Residence and moving a house of our very own. In expectation of this seminal moment in our lives, we have dispensed with the microwave, kettle, and toaster and taken to cooking our own meals.

This did not prove to be as easy as we thought, however, as tin openers are deceivingly complicated things to use. Even once these implements had been mastered, we discovered that no one of us has a mastery over the wide variety of culinary implements.

Further arguments ensued when it was discovered that one of the guys down the corridor was capable of boiling an egg. This prompted demands for instruction that resulted in a three-day siege.

Having remained firmly dependent on our proverbial mother’s teet for so long now, I am beginning to think that we will never be capable of adopting this most basic of social niceties.

Yours Starved Dear Starved You predicament is not unusual for one inclined towards higher study. I myself was 52 years of age before I realised I had been donning my underwear upside down. What you and your housemates need to do is focus on individual tasks in the kitchen. By specialising in certain functions, you will hone particualar skills and master the kitchen.

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, TODAY

that as a side effect of the press release their book sales may increase.

The Enquirer suggests that you don’t panic, and try to implement as many global warming prevention techniques as possible, such as holding your breath.

What the 45 minutes might look like

Concrete Wednesday, March 9 , 2005

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LIFESTYLE

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF DOING IT

As the range of health products on the market seems to be ever-growing, Laura Cobb examines the range of alternative medicines now available to help us in our medicinal predicaments

ractitioners of Chinese medicine believe that a human is an organic whole. Removed from the values of Western medicine, they view the body as a system whose elements must connect and co-ordinate in order for it to function affectively. If disease and emotional distress disturb the fragile balance, the entire system will be disrupted. Alternative therapy treats the sufferer of the disease, rather than just the disease.

Herbal Medicine:

P

Although many argue that the potential placebo effects of ther-

apy have not been subjected to clinical trials, 1 out of 3 cancer patients are now using alternative therapy in addition to the radiotherapy and chemotherapy they may receive. There are some devout believers that are opting out of conventional medicinal treatment altogether and accepting solutions which are completely complementary.

Alternative therapy is often met with opposition by some groups, most predominantly those involved in scientific professions. However many people unwittingly enjoy the benefits of complementary medicine with-

out realising. Those who apply tea tree oil to spots, bathe in lavender scented water or treat colds with herbal balms, are all reaping the joys of alternative therapy.

The focused and personal approach to health which alternative therapy offers us has convinced many to abandon conventional Western attitudes to medicine and go alternative. But in the student world at UEA, does alternative medicine have anything to offer us?

What is it?

Herbal remedies involve removing the goodness from an entire plant, and not just taking an extract, as done in traditional medicine. The extract can be combined with cream and applied in this way, or it can be ground to powder and diluted in water. Vitamin and mineral supplements can also be used in this manner.

What can it treat?

Experts believe it is possible to cure almost any minor ailment with a herbal remedy, from common skin afflictions and migraines to depression and insomnia.

Cupping: What is it?

Observing much the same rules as acupuncture, cupping is actually not an interesting sexual practise, but the ancient Chinese art of releasing toxins from the body. A glass jar is applied to certain areas of the back and through means of pressure and heat, poisons are said to be extracted from the system.

Does it work?

Jen, LAW 2, says it does: “I went to a Norwich Chinese Clinic when the local pharmacist couldn’t treat my earache. I was extremely cynical at first, but was keen to try something that didn’t involve filling my body with chemicals. The lady was lovely and from looking at my tongue she told me I had a variety of other complaints, such as poor circulation and constant thirst - she was right about all of them! After taking the prescribed herbal powder only once, my earache went instantly. I don’t care if people say they’re con artists, my earache has never bothered me again.”

Does it work?

Unfortunately no UEA cupping fans were available at the time of going to press. Although weirdy celeb types such as Gwyneth Paltrow swear by the healing powers of this technique, she even attended an elusive bash with large circular bruises on the back – the marks of one who has been cupped.

Not the sexiest thing in the world (see photo!).

What can it treat?

The painful art of acupuncture - but does it really work?

Acupuncture: What is it?

Tiny, almost thread-thin needles are inserted into specific points across the body. The piercing of skin releases trapped energy and life force, called qi. The flow of qi can slow and even stop when the body is unwell or in a state of unhappiness.

Once this flow is realigned the body can return to a harmonious state. If resting in a relaxed and peaceful state, the patient should not be able to feel the needles. Practitioners liken acupuncture to taking a deep breath and releasing old and stagnant air from the body.

What can it treat?

Acupuncture most commonly treats addiction, but sufferers of many other illnesses such arthritis and asthma claim that acupuncture has helped them as do those with blood pressure and digestive system disorders.

Gwyneth models the latest high-fashion look - the treatment of cupping Does it work?

Opinion is divided over whether acupuncture works or not. Whilst some patients argue that its effects are far better than any conventional medicine, UEA student Alisha BIO 1 is more cynical. “I sought acupuncture after experiencing menstrual cramps and headaches quite severely every month. I wanted to see if I could overcome them, without anything more serious. Once the needles were inserted she left me, and directed a heat lamp, at my (uhum) womb area. She left the room and told me to relax, but this was pretty impossible with almost twenty needles sticking out of me. This was made even more horrible by the fact that every time I moved my hand or leg I could feel the needles through my skin. When she came back I asked her to remove the needle in my neck as it was hurting me. Eugh! She then gave me a rather weird and painful massage afterwards.”

Initially my symptoms got worse, and on the bus home my head was throbbing. It did go eventually, but I think to get the best out of it you’d need a course of a few, and at £25 a time, I just couldn’t afford it.”

It is thought to promote the circulation of blood through the body, diminish swelling and pain, and also diminish everyone’s favourite party trick – trapped wind.

Meditation: What is it?

Sometimes described as listening to the silence between thoughts, meditation is said to stimulate creativity and empty the mind of everything, enjoying a sound and stable peacefulness. To meditate you should sit cross-legged on a flat surface with a straight back and closed eyes. A chosen mantra is then repeated until the mind is entirely blank.

What can it treat?

Meditation is said to bring serenity and calm to the stress of modern living. It is possible that it could therefore treat your mental well being and find a cure for things like depression, anxiety attacks and addiction.

Does it work?

Many people insist on the calming benefits of meditation, one student Sarah, HIS3 says: “I once tried meditation as part of my yoga class. It’s quite hard at first to make your body relax, especially in a room of strangers. But the hardest part was emptying my brain of all thoughts. I had to really concentrate on this part. But afterwards I did feel more relaxed and less stressed. I think I would definitely try meditation during revision.”

22 concrete.fashionlifestyle@uea.ac.uk

FASHION NOBODY’S STRAIGHT ANYMORE LAURA COBB

S

traight hair is so Riverside Saturday night. Let your GHD’s cool, make like the A list and get kinky.

Hair that is straight to the point is undeniably beautiful.Using straightners gives hair gleam, gloss, tames frizz and can look well cared for long after it’s due a cut. But since Argos started selling ceramics, every chav and her dog own a pair, and streamlined locks are no longer cool, but a bit common. Not to mention the damage the heated plates can do. Some of us can’t leave the house without dragging irons over our ends and an appliance addiction is bad news for our tresses. Split ends, and brittle, broken lengths are the typical traits of a ceramic-addict. No matter how much serum, conditioner and heat protector you lavish on your locks, once it’s split – you just can’t fix it.

This season those with the best dressed locks will be weened off their ceramic straightners and start embracing the natural flow and curl of their locks. Hair should look devoid of attention and messed-up-stress free styles will see us through spring and well into summer.

Chic chicks are all springing

Concrete Wednesday, March 9 , 2005

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into sixties hippie style, and slick locks just don’t equate with the laid back layered look.

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hair to the top of the head and tighten with a hair band, Boots do good quality ones, £2.00 for 12.

3. Take the pony and tuck it under itself, in a loose bun, secure it with another band.

4. Tighten the two sections and allow random layers to fall down.

5. Sienna likes to add glam and sparkle to simple dos like this by tying golden pieces of thread around the head.

Ribbon looks just as good.

Remember to fix it at the nape of the neck with some grips.

6. It’s also possible to snatch a clump of hair from beneath the bun, then braid it across the face, Maid-Marionesque.

1

Here are three ways to breathe life into locks that are dated and done in. Who better to lead our locks into spring than Sienna? So, make like Ms Miller and go natural.

1.

Back in the summer of 2004, when we were all still hailing Victoria Beckham as our style icon, Sienna already had sixties chic sussed. Attending Glastonbury with Mr Law, she wore her hair long and loose.

Her festival garb was so well publised and admired, it apparantly sent fellow fashionista Kate Moss into a rage of jealousy!

Here’s how to create the same levels of admiration, and achieve Sienna’s laid back locks (drooping cigarette is optional): 1. Wash hair with a shampoo that gives extra shine, Charles Worthington Moisture -Seal Glossing Shampoo (£4.49), should do the trick. Apply conditioner to the ends alone. Too much will much leave hair flat and lifeless.

Volume and

2

With thanks to Hanny, always the addict.

3

bounce is essential for this look. Baby blondes like Sienna love John Frieda Sheer Blonde’s range, in Honey / Caramel Conditioner for £4.29 2. Allow hair to dry naturally.

When it is 90% dry, take random sections and twist round your finger tips. This should create soft flicks.

3. Secure the twisted strands with a spritz of a good quality fixing product. Mark Hill Finishing Spray, £7.49, promises to maintain styles without compromising on shine and softness.

4. Take tiny sections of the lengths and braid into thin plaits, secure at the ends with a clear elastic, Claire’s Accessories does a great range. Apply more spray to the plaits to avoid stray pieces.

2.

Little known fact: Sienna Miller nicked her enviable “individuality” from sixties beauty and serial Stone’s shagger Anita Pallenberg (ask your Dad), This half up–do is one of hers (and Anita’s) favourites. It’s an ideal night time style, that’s simple and pretty enough to also wear in the day. To get Sienna’s evening elegance: 1. Before bed, wash hair with a cleansing shampoo Trevor Sorbie does a basic one, at a bargainous £1.59, called To

Go Cleansing Shampoo. This should rid hair of the residues that constant product abuse can create.

2.When it is completely dry, part the hair down the middle and braid each section into French plaits. If this seems a challenge two simple plaits will do. Don’t worry if hair escapes from the plaits in the night. This will add to the justgot-out-of-bed look.

3. In the morning undo plaits, and add a liberal squirt of fixing spray. DO NOT BRUSH. The brush is the enemy of the common curl, as it will obliterate waves and leave a layer of nasty looking frizz.

4. Part hair in the centre and, with your fingers, gather the top layer of hair, and secure with a clasp or several Kirby grips, pushing from the bottom to create a low bouffant, as adored by Sienna.

3.

Sienna is also partial to an updo or two. As Matthew Williamson’s muse she has to ensure that her party look is as picture-perfect as her day do’s. Bringing hair away from the face also has an anti-ageing affect (just in case you need it). Attempt as follows: 1. This look works best on unwashed hair. Which is great if you’re running late for lectures. Create a centre parting with a fine comb.

2. Thrust the whole head of

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TRAVEL

Heaven on Middle-Earth

Sally White

N

ew Zealand, with its staggering countryside, wholesome people and vibrant cities is exactly how I imagine Utopia.

Now, this may sound a touch gushing but if you’ve been you’ll understand. I went this summer which was their winter but out of the five weeks there it only rained once and the sun was glowing everyday. Hard to imagine as we sit in Norfolk’s perpetual drizzle. I flew into Auckland, rightly called ‘the city of sails’ as the streets are teaming with beautiful sailors and the harbour’s teaming with beautiful boats. Having just come from a month in the blistering heat of Vietnam I now found myself in minus temperatures so I went into the city centre to deck myself out in fleeces and Gortex.

After a few days acclimatizing and sight seeing in New Zealand’s largest city I was ready to move on. Next stop Rotorua. This was the only town that I have ever been to that I could see and smell before I’d arrived. I could see steam belching forth out of the ground, creating an image of Dante’s hell and I could smell something that only the Devil could produce. Like evil rotten egg farts. Bleugh. After a quick scoot around the national park taking a moment to admire the impressive but vile smelling geezers and bubbling mud I was again ready to move on. I arrived in Waitomo at night and presumed that the town must be in darkness and not just minutely small. I awoke refreshed and ready to explore, pushing back my curtains to take a peek at the town. Town?

What bloody town?! There was the hostel I was staying in, a bar, a house, a post box and a sign reading ‘Welcome to Waitomo. Pop. 13’. I consulted my map.

Waitomo was on the map, in capitals and underlined, suggesting to me this would be a big town. However, not one to be disheartened I set off to find what I came seeking, the glow worm caves.

What this place lacked above ground it made up for below. The caves themselves were stunning, like massive cathe-

drals, totally breathtaking. Our tour guide took us by rowing boat onto an underground lake and into a small nook hollowed away where we stopped.

Looking up it was like a beautiful clear night sky, totally aglow with stars. It was beautiful. Now, I’ve googled glow worms and they are one ugly looking bug but from a distance, when they’re all lit up, they’re amazing. As Waitomo had little else to offer I moved on the next day.

I was keen to get to the south Island so I did a whistle stop tour of the north island through all sorts of peculiar little ‘towns’, including my favourite bizarre place of all time, Bull. I stopped here to refuel and smile at the locals’ desperate attempts at word play; the antique shop being called ‘Sue’s Collectabulls’, the bakery ‘Eat-aBull’, toy shop ‘Lovabull’. All of which was amusing but pretty terribull. Sorry, couldn’t help it. I arrived in Wellington, the capital, a few days before I was due to take the ferry to the south island.

Wellington is called ‘the windy city’ by locals and guidebooks alike and oh my god is it windy. Walking down the high street is like being on a tread mill, my feet were moving but I wasn’t getting anywhere against the eye watering wind, it’s exhausting! I really enjoyed Wellington, there’s absolutely loads to do. I ate out every night, drank cocktails every night, and subsequently got trashed every night. Ahh, a true Brit abroad. Although, the best piece of advice a hostel worker has given me was

do not drink before the Wellington Picton crossing, so I impart it to you.

Abstain before you sail. So I arrived in the south island feeling smug and excited. I headed straight to Nelson which is a small town with a real aged hippy population. The next morning I went quad biking in the hills behind the town. Quad

the glacier where they dropped me off. A tour guide helped us put on our crampons and jackets and we set off down the glacier. It was a really sunny day and the glare of sunshine off the ice was blinding but the whole experience was brilliant but fairly hair raising as we slithered around on knife edges. It was all made especially scary as me and my travelling friends had decided that the night before was a great time to drink a bottle of tequila and watch ‘Touching the Void’. With the memory of ‘Simon!’ still in my mind and a quart bottle of Jose in my stomach I was feeling pretty rough but I still had the best time. Still shaking and definitely aching, I set off for Queenstown the next day.

Queenstown is the extreme sports capital of New Zealand or something, I didn’t pay attention as it doesn’t apply to me being the first class wimp that I am.

I was sharing a dorm with a brilliant bunch of people who’d get up in the wee hours of the morning to go sky diving, bungee jumping, whatever. Me and my equally pathetic friend decided to go play mini golf instead. It’s far cheaper and just as extreme [?!]. After my dramatic stay in Queenstown I went to Dunedin where I promptly fell in love. Dunedin is a university town with loads of clubs, theatres, cafes and penguins. My whole life through I have been sceptical about the existence of penguins, totally believing them to be fictional characters so

‘Franz Josef boasts both a very impressive glacier and New Zealand’s highest STI rate.’ biking is a brilliant way of being vaguely adventurous and getting to see amazing views without being at all energetic.

Perfection. As I sat, straddling my bike with the farm’s Border Collie dog on the back, gazing at the view I have never felt so contented. The view was the kind that staggering, makes-you-want-to-write-apoem kind. That’s when I knew the south island was going to be everything I’d hoped for.

F

rom Nelson I drove down the West coast, stopping in a few towns over night until I arrived in Franz Josef. Franz Josef boasts both a very impressive glacier and New Zealand’s highest STI rate. Fortunately, I intended to mount the glacier not the natives. I was pretty extravagant and decided to do the helihike which entails jumping into a helicopter from a field at the bottom of the glacier and been flown into the middle of

when I saw my first real penguin totter out of the sea I was delighted. They are the most hilarious and endearing animals in the world and it made my day to see them. After living it up in Dunedin I went on to Kaikora which is a really fun but expensive town. I went whale watching where the boat leaves from the Whaleway Station [ha!] and took us, at great speed, out to sea. In one trip I got to see three beautiful sperm whale, dozens of albatrosses, several dolphins and an awful lot of vomit. The sea was extremely rough and it was freezing cold but seeing the whales rise up and slip back into the sea, tails disappearing last, was surprisingly moving. Eventually I got the bus back to Christchurch where I had two days before my flights onto Fiji.

When I arrived it was snowing and all the gorgeous parks in the capital were covered in snow. I visited lots of impressive museums and art galleries and went on a fantastic wine tasting trip. Leaving New Zealand was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, my only consolation was that I knew I’d be back, and back to stay. I’ve done all the research, filled out all the forms all I need to do is raise the money and I’m off to live out my life happily in the little utopia of New Zealand.

For more information or advice about where to go in New Zealand contact sally.white@uea.ac.uk

24 concrete.editorial@uea.ac.uk

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HOROSCOPES Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19 You can’t keep eating ready-meals for dinner honey, Sort your cullinary deficiency out with a few days spent slaving over a hot stove, Invite everyone you know to partake and you’ll soon forget that you’ve even got a mircowave.

Cancer Jun 22 - Jul 22 Stop being so selfconscious cherub!

You need a healthy dose of Dutchcourage and for some nearest and dearest to point you in the direction of the nearest karioke bar. Sing all your frustration away!

Libra Sept 23 - Oct 23 Late night television may be alluring and informative, but it’s no substitute for sitting down with a bit of required reading and getting stuck in.

There’ll be plenty of time for Countdown and TV-movies in the summer.

Capricorn Dec 22 - Jan 19 It’s time to get your dungarees on and do some decorating honey, You might not be able to wallpaper, but you can certainly brighten up the place. Force friends to make you home-made ornaments to save time and cash.

Lucky Words: finer diner

Lucky Words: Kari-okay!

Lucky Words: remotely bizarre

Lucky Words: lick of paint

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 There’s only so long you can be content to sit all evening with only textbooks and a PC for company.

Before you go completely do-lally, find a few hours of ‘me’ time to go and play in the snow. The stars will reward you with good fortune.

Leo Jul 23 - Aug 22 Just like the typical Leo that you are, you’ve been hiding yourself away in your room day in, day out. Make the time to shoot the spit with your beloved housemates who you’ve been neglecting in recent weeks.

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 21 The good-deed frenzy seems to have caught you at your least generous this fortnight sweetie. To get yourself in the giving mood, walk around with a huge bag of two-pence pieces and pop one in every charity bucket you see.

Aquarius Jan 20 - Feb 18 The stars will be putting you through your paces this fortnight, so be prepared for every eventuality!

Look thrice before crossing the street and boot any black cats you might be unlucky enough to see. Keep this up and you might just make it.

Lucky Words: frosty relations

Lucky Words: the little people

Lucky Words: charity ends at home

Lucky Words: paranoia is your pal

Gemini May 21 - Jun 21 You may have scrimped and saved all year, but that doesn’t mean you need to blow it all now. Save poppet, save and you’ll feel all thrifty come the summer sales!

Virgo Aug 23 - Sept 22 Playing hard to get is a dangerous game sweetpea. Make sure you don’t put off your potential new squeeze by ‘accidentally’ posting them naked pics of yourself.

Sagittarius Nov 22 - Dec 21 You’ve always been partial to letting your inner-child run wild, but you’re a grown-up now! Don’t wear any primary colours, and stop watching CITV.

Pisces Feb 19 - Mar 20 You’re in high spirits and nothing is going to get you down this fortnight. Good for you luvvie! Your smiley demeanour will provide good luck for the rest of the fortnight.

Lucky Words: pockets and holes

Lucky Words: candid camera

Lucky Words: age, not shoe size

Lucky Words: grin when your winning

Letters...

Please send letters attention of the Editor, Philip Sainty, to: Concrete, Union House, UEA, Norwich, NR4 7TB, or email: conerete.editorial@uea.ac.uk

WHAT A LOAD OF GOBBLERS

PUT IT OUT

Dear Sir or Madam

Dear Sir,

Over thirty years of experience working in this company has taught me to be tolerant but I have to say I found the article referring to our company ill informed and insensitive.

Our company was founded on an investment of £2.50 in 1950 and today employs over 7000 people and has a turnover of approaching £500 million. Most of that turnover rests here in East Anglia. We source as many of our raw materials locally and are, for example, the largest single buyer of East Anglian wheat. We would be the largest customer of East Anglian transport companies, Packaging companies, etc.

Nearly all our workforce live in rural areas. In fact we would be the largest rural employer. Were it not for our fleet of personnel transport the vast majority of our people would not have any possibilities of living in isolated areas and having full time wolr earning one of the highest rates of pay in the agribusiness area.

Average earnings in 2004 were £17,405p.a.

Without our earnings, where would our people work? Who would use the East Anglian wheat? Packaging? etc. etc.

As your students are studying at The University of East Anglia, doesn’t this matter?

Turning now to the welfare of our turkeys, none are caged. All are looked after for by country people who care about livestock. All our farms are open to inspection at any time, without appointment, by the RSPCA, The Farm Animal Welfare Council, The Farm Welfare Officers, DEFRA, etc.

When complaints were made against us both the RSPCA and The Farm Animal Welfare Officers found no basis for complaint whatsoever.

When we complained to the Broadcasting Standards Commission (now OFCOM) it was because turkey house doors were smashed open, the turkeys panicked and were damaged (Veterinary Surgeon opinion).

Finally, when we were asked to help you build your swimming pool, we gave £50000.

(Last year, as the year before we gave over £400,000 to East Anglian charities). Our gift, to the University, received local publicity but we had no complaints in the paper then?

I merely wished to provide a balanced view Yours Sincerely for BERNARD MATTHEWS LTD.,

I am writing in support of the proposed ban on smoking in The Hive, and rest of the first floor of Union House, during day time hours. I am a regular of The Hive – given the opportunity I will happily spend many hours there, eating lunch, having a coffee with a friend, or working on a piece of coursework.

Many students however, including myself, find it a great nuisance that smoking is allowed in almost half the area of The Hive. I feel this undermines the inclusive atmosphere that the Union tries to create. Asides from the health risks, the smoke that regularly drifts across right into the non-smoking area is very off-putting when you’re trying to sit there and enjoy a few minutes of relaxation with your friends, or get on with an essay.

It also puts many people off using the seats in the smoking area, despite there often being spaces there in the mornings and afternoons. Banning smoking here would allow many more people to enjoy this vibrant hub of student life.

During most of the academic year, when the weather in Norwich is not conducive to spending more than a few necessary minutes outside between lectures and the library, The Hive is the centre of student life on campus. Hundreds of us use it every day, not just as a place to meet friends but also on our way to buy tickets at the Box Office, to go to a CD sale in the LCR, or on our way to the Union Offices upstairs. Making this a non-smoking area would make it much more accessible to the majority of students at UEA who don’t smoke and find this atmosphere uninviting.

Making the first floor of Union House a no smoking area won’t exclude smokers, they’ll just have to go elsewhere if they want to smoke. It’s important to remember that a ban on smoking in The Hive isn’t anti-smokers, it’s anti-smoking. So, if like me you’ve had enough of putting up with the unpleasant, smoky atmosphere of The Hive, the policy ballot on 17 March is your chance to help ban smoking here, and move this Union into a more healthy, inclusive and welcoming future.

D.J.JOLL, Managing Director

WWW.CONCRETE-ONLINE.COM Project Manager: Philip Sainty concrete.advertising@uea.ac.uk Advertising Sales: Ben Millar Web Team:

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concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Editor: Philip Sainty concrete.editorial@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor: Katharine Clemow Contributing Editor: Jamie Swannell Copy Editors:

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concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Editor: Helen Pike Deputy Editor: Olly Haywood Education Editor: Jessica Fielder Health Editor: Clare Aitchison International Editor: Nadia Bennich Legal Editor: Juliet Harris Political Editor: Sam Webber Science Editor: Rosie Chance Reporters: Clare Bull Isabel Dyson Jane Douglas Kevin Rowe Laura Palmer Sarah J. Smith concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Editor: Ross Grainger Deputy Editor: Simon Sheridan Writers:

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concrete.turf@uea.ac.uk Editor: James Conway Deputy: Hannah Newton Writers:

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concrete.fashionlifestyle@uea.ac.uk Editor: Anna Steward Deputy: Donna Boam Traveller: Fashionistas:

Sally White Kathryn West Laura Cobb

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Post Production Distribution Manager: Joe Dunthorne

Yours sincerely,

Concrete

John Peacock

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Concrete is published by UUEAS Concrete Society ©2005 Concrete.

ISSN 1351-2773 Letters should be addressed for the attention of the Editor, Philip Sainty.

Letters must include contact details, but we will consider anonymous publication. We reserve the right to edit

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concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk 25

Tackling The Threat of AIDS Sponsored by the FA and PFA, UK charity TackleAfrica has developed a unique way of bonding with people in Africa to confront them about the danger of HIV/AIDS. Philip Sainty Reports

The best seat in the house, taken from the trees.

I

t’s that time of year again when students right across the country start thinking about what to do over the long summer break. If you are getting tired of the boring summer jobs and ever thought that you could have do more with your time off, TackleAfrica, a UK registered charity, that uses football to tackle HIV/AIDS in Africa just might have the answer.

The Charity will run two 6-week tours this summer to Uganda and Ethiopia respectively, both giving people from the UK the chance to do something amazing with their summer break.

More and more students are realising the benefits of doing something completely different with their summer holidays.

Not only in the eyes of future employers, whatever field they may be in, but also in their own lives.

The change in a person’s outlook may be surprising when they have actually made a difference to literally thousands of others who are infinitely less fortunate than themselves.

Gap years and adventure breaks are now more popular than ever, and the choices get broader every year, but TackleAfrica certainly seems to have hit on something that combines both adventure and the opportunity to do something remarkable. There are plenty of opportunities to go away, travel a bit, and have a laugh. But

to do all that and play football in Africa, while actually changing young peoples lives, is certainly a unique experience.

TackleAfrica takes the universal language of football one step further, building on the already popular sport and the meaning it has for the African poor. They take volunteers on football tours through Africa as a means of raising aware-

the children of Africa and all the countries in the world learn the causes and effects of HIV and AIDS.” It’s easy to get blasé about AIDS and Africa.

It’s on the news every other night but sometimes you need to remind yourself of the scale of this problem: there are 29 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are 22 million A I D S orphans living in s u b Saharan A f r i c a .

There is no cure for AIDS and preventing more young people becoming infected is a huge challenge facing the continent.

The charity’s first tour saw them lead a group of 20 intrepid young footballers from around the UK on a trip across West and East Africa. The team was not only trying to win the matches on

working alongside the local charities that TackleAfrica partners with in every country. The volunteers took part in all sorts of events to raise awareness of the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS from half-time entertainment to workshops in schools.

During the course of the tour more than 50,000 people turned up to these events.

Young men, in any country, are notoriously difficult to reach with information about sexual health and contraception. But they are crucial to the fight against AIDS in Africa. These are the guys you have to persuade to wear a condom – or ‘suck the sweet with the wrapper on’ as many of them prefer to describe it. Teenagers the world over are pretty similar: none of them believes they are mortal and they are pretty embarrassed to be asked to talk about their sex lives. Changing behaviour is a tough challenge but TackleAfrica believes that getting young people talking to young people about these issues is a good place to start and football is a great conversation opener.

TackleAfrica is a fast-growing charity with big ideas. Encouraged by the success of the first tour, and confident that they have found a way of talking to young men in a way that stands a chance of getting through, they have planned three six-week tours in 2005. The first two are to Uganda and Ethiopia respectively and leave in mid July. The charity is currently recruiting volunteers for these tours. They are looking for adventurous people who love playing football but are looking for something a bit more challenging than a Sunday morning kick-around.

If you are looking for a memorable summer, to meet lots of other like-minded people, not to mention having something truly remarkable to put on your CV and actually make a difference then one of these tours may just be for you.

For more information contact TackleAfrica: www.tackleafrica.org E-mail: info@tackleafrica.org Applications are invited for this summer, deadline is the 31st March 2005

Young men, in any country, are notoriously difficult to reach with information about sexual health and contraception. But they are crucial to the fight against AIDS in Africa. ness, encouraging behaviour, chance and promoting acceptance among the young people they meet.

Managing Director Phil Tydeman explains, “the power of football is amazing in its ability to reach young people with vital messages about HIV/AIDS.” The FA and the PFA couldn’t agree more and that’s why both organisations are fully backing the charity, as are some of the major stars of the game.

Cameroon and Arsenal defender Lauren says “I am proud to support TackleAfrica’s HIV and AIDS awareness work. It is fundamental that

The Games’ afoot as the volunteers close down the opposition

the pitch, but were also aiming to use the popularity of football to increase the understanding and awareness of HIV/AIDS off it.

D

uring their tour of 11 different countries, the TackleAfrica team took part in 16 football based HIV/AIDS awareness events, playing more than 40 matches along the way. The matches were competitive, played on rock hard pitches in soaring temperatures. The opposition ranged from full time professionals, and even internationals in Burkina Faso, to school children and farm workers. But once off the pitch the team was busy

A volunteer talks to students about HIV and AIDS

26 concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk

IS THE PREMIERSHIP DREAM FINALLY OVER?

Six points from safety may prove too much for Canaries in their bid to survive

Marc Dudley Sports Editor With all City's relegation rivals picking up points over the weekend, Worthington's men are in serious trouble in their bid to save the teams Premiership status.

They may have been the first team to score against Chelsea for seventeen hours, but there was still a big gulf between the two sides as the mighty blues ran out 3-1 winners. With the worst goal difference and six points up to Crystal Palace, City must get a least seven points from the remaining nine matches and hope Palace don't gain any points before the end of the season. With tough away-trips to Bolton and Arsenal and Manchester United visiting Carrow Road, it is hard to see where points are going to come from.

There is also the six-pointer in April to come, when Palace and City go head-tohead at Selhurst Park. That game may make or break the Canaries’ season.

From a neutrals point of view City are already down, and even the die-hard

Concrete Wednesday, March 9 , 2005

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Will Worthington be able to keep City up?

Norwich fans must be feeling that their chances of survival are very slim.

The Canaries can't seem to solve the one problem that has cost them so many vital points in the second half of the season. As ex-City star Neil Adams said on BBC Radio Norfolk last week, "it wouldn't be a problem if the

VIEW FROM THE STREET We ask students what they think about the burning issues.

I can’t see how we are going to survive to be honest. I don’t see many points being picked up in the next couple of months, and the confidence has long gone.

The Palace match is the big one, but I can’t see us getting anything from that, so how will we stay up if we can’t even beat them?

City must take a good look at themselves and sort out their problems before it is too late. Yes, they may be bottom now, but it only takes a bit of luck and they are right back in with a shout. If they manage to win at Palace, then who knows? Its never over until the fat lady sings.

Proud City Fan

Ryan BIO 2

goals we conceded were created by sheer class, the problem is that most of them are down to bad errors by the City defenders, and until this stops happening City won't stand a chance of surviving."

What Adams says may not be rocket science, and it has been said by many a fan, but until they sort out their fragile defence, City will not pick up any more points this season.

What is also apparent now, is that those matches at the start of the season that City should have won, including the 0-0 draw with Villa and the 2-2 draw with Portsmouth have come back to haunt the Canaries. If you look back over the season, City could count the number of times they should have won, but couldn't score, on one hand. Now, the problem

seems to be the opposite.

The Canaries just can't defend anymore. At least at the start of the season City were picking up points, but now they can't pick up anything, which has resulted in Norwich falling to the bottom of the table.

A lot has to be done in a very short space of time, and Norwich have some very tough games remaining.

They will have to play better than they ever have this season, and it may seem City have just about counted their last egg. They need a lot of luck and determination from the whole team to stand even a slight chance of survival, and even then they have to hope all the teams around them don't pick up points. Maybe Wothington should look to the future and start thinking about trying to bounce back from the Championship next season.

Fans that have called for his head, are not true football fans. With the resources he has, it is amazing he managed to even get promoted to the Premiership, let alone survive. Selling Mackay may have been a mistake, but Worthington is the right man to guide us back next season, if we do go down.

However, it looks like, for now anyway, that Worthington's Premiership honeymoon is finally over.

Remaining Fixtures 19 Mar 2 Apr 9 Apr 16 Apr 19 Apr 23 Apr 30 Apr 7 May 14 May

Bolton (a) Arsenal (a) MAN UTD (H) Crystal Palace (a) NEWCASTLE (H) CHARLTON (H) Soton (a) BIRMINGHAM (H) Fulham (a)

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BLACK SOX OF TO WINNING START Newly formed UEA baseball team impress in first ever match James Burley On a cold and grey Saturday morning, the UEA Black Sox baseball team set off on a four-hour minibus journey to Southampton University to play their first friendly against the Southampton Mustangs.

The Mustangs, a European-league caliber side comprised of students and former students, presented a somewhat daunting prospect to the Black Sox, and many of the team were palpably nervous as they took to the field for the game. This nervousness translated itself into a number of early defensive miscues as the Mustangs beat out five runs in a frustrating first inning.

Confidence grew, however, as the Black Sox answered with several runs of their own. The infield tightened considerably as the game

went on, giving the Mustangs very little opportunity to build on their initial gains. As the team piled on the offensive pressure, the Mustangs gave away their lead and the Black Sox capitalised in style: a resounding 18-10 victory was just reward for hard work and great team spirit.

Sox starter Dan Magee had a stellar outing, allowing only two earned runs over six innings of work. Centrefielder Hoffman Wolff and right-fielder Alan Holliday were the offensive stars, Wolff going 5-for-6 with multiple RBIs, while Holliday confounded the Mustangs pitchers with an incredible six stolen bases. Second baseman Martin Sawyer pulled off the play of the game, making a brilliant behind-the-back snare of a hard grounder to right field.

Overall, an excellent start to the Black Sox season!

Black Sox Stars Batter Hoffman Wolff (Left) and Pitcher Dan Magee (Right)

STUDENTS NEEDED TO RUN FOR A LIFE If anyone is interested in joining some members of the Union for the Race For Life at the showground on the 8th May they should please contact Tina Wilsea in the

Post Office either by e.mail at postoffice@uea.ac.uk or extension 2670. They need about 15 people to make a team and it will be a great experience for all involved.

REYNOLDS KEEPS COOL TO SEAL QUALIFICATION Close 8-7 victory for seconds in final match sees both UEA teams qualify for BUSA 8-pool championships in Spondon Kevin Middleton UEA’s finest pool players travelled up to Spondon, just outside Derby, on Saturday 26th February in an attempt to qualify for the British Universities 8ball pool championships to be held at the same venue later this month.

The two teams were extensively rebuilt from the previous year with only two remaining players amongst the twelve, which left them short of big match experience, but full of confidence.

The A team soon had reason to celebrate.

With Nottingham Trent pulling out the night before, this meant only one of the A teams present would be

knocked out, but when University College Northampton failed to show, all A teams present qualified without so much as striking a ball. This took the pressure off, and a hastily arranged tournament between the remaining teams was seen as a good way to simply enjoy the afternoon. The B team had no such luck. With neither of the Northampton teams turning up, this left them with just three teams in their group and a top two finish would see them through. However, they got off to the worst possible start against a much more experienced Warwick, who had also had much more practice beforehand, and UEA lost 8 frames to 3.

Whilst the A team were off enjoying their “no pressure” matches, the B team went to practise, knowing that they needed results to go their way if they were to be joining the A team in the actual championships.

Warwick, without doubt the strongest side in the group comfortably won their remaini n g game against Nottingham leaving the Nottingham vs UEA game effectively as a knock-out game, with the winner qualifying.

UEA got off to the perfect

start, racing into a 3-0 lead before Nottingham began to peg it back to 3-2.

However, with the next four frames going UEA’s way, the score became 7-2, and with only one frame needed for victory it seemed only a matter of time before victory was completed.

H o w e v e r,

Nottingham had other ideas and stormed back to tie the match at 7-7. With the A team having completed their games, finishing 3rd out of

five, they were back to cheer on the B team in the deciding frame. The whole hall seemed to be training their eyes to this table. It was left to Chris Reynolds, a late call up to the team, to play the deciding frame knowing that UEA’s participation in the tournament was at stake.

Lose and UEA were out.

From the break he was in charge of the match and kept his cool superbly and once his opponent fouled and gave him two shots on the black, the game was his and he was mobbed by ecstatic team mates. The game was won 8-7 and the UEA B team had joined the A team in qualifying for the championships.

It was a tough day for both UEA sides, and although the

A team didn’t play any competitive games, it was a valuable scouting mission, they know what they have to do to win. Both sides will be back, stronger, more focused and more experienced for the actual championships which begin on 19th March.

UEA Teams A team: Kevin Middleton (Capt.), Kevin Thrower, Matt Bolton, Adam Pfeiffer, Dan Harris.

B team: Iain Ringer (Capt.), Andrew Mead, Nem Chidyausiku, James Guy, Chris Reynolds, Sam Bedder. * Both teams qualify for BUSA 8-pool championships on 19th March in Spondon, Derby.

Concrete Wednesday, March 9 , 2005 th

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BAD WEATHER WRECKS UEA’S BUSA HOPES Teams forced to pull out after snowy conditions cause havoc in BUSA knockout fixtures Marc Dudley Sports-Editor

It has been a frustrating fortnight for some of UEA's sport clubs, as the winter weather has caused many games to be postponed.

The fencing team had their good chances ruined after their match was moved due to bad road conditions. They had little time to prepare for their trip to Hull when it was moved to a Sunday, and the team was left disappointed with their early exit.

Both rugby teams were forced to pull out, after both their games were moved to the weekend and due to other commitments could not travel to their matches in

the North of England. This was also the case for the tennis team, after their game against Warwick was moved to a Saturday.

The netballers were forced to pull out because they could not afford to travel by train to Plymouth. After an impressive 42-27 victory over UCL, they must have fancied their chances of going all the way, but due to road conditions being bad, they would have had to travel by train, but lack of funds meant they could not afford the over £100 per person train tickets.

The men's badminton team was one of the few that managed to get their matches underway with few problems and beat Bristol UWE 8-0. However, in the quar-

The women’s rugby team were forced to pull out of the Shield.

ter-finals, Northumbria proved to strong, with UEA ending up on the wrong end of an 8-0 scoreline.

The women's hockey team also fell at the quarter-final stage, losing 2-1 to Southampton. They had managed an impressive 5-3 victory in Brighton the week before.

The men's basketball team felt hard done by after losing 70-61 to Leeds, and UEA were close to putting in a protest after they felt they had been treated unfairly.

So, after all the problems UEA now only have three teams left in the BUSA knockout. The men's football seconds had a dramatic win in the BUSA Vase match last Saturday after it had been postponed four times. Before

going to print the women are scheduled to play their Last 16 match against Northumbria on Monday 7th March whatever the conditions, and will have to travel to Stirling on the Wednesday if they progress to the quarter-finals. The golfers are also ready to get their BUSA Shield campaign underway, but due to the weather, they will have to wait.

We will never know how our sports clubs would have done if the games had gone ahead when they were supposed too, but it is fair to say that the weather and the poor organisation by BUSA to get all the fixtures played before Easter, might have ruined UEA's chances of getting any silverware this year.

Poor organisation by BUSA might have cost the fencing team

DRAMATIC VICTORY FOR BLUES

UEA’s 2nd XI progress into final 32 of the BUSA Vase after Yeomans last touch saves the day Ross Grainger The Men’s football second team moved into the next round of the BUSA Vase on Saturday with an epic win over the Leicester thirds.

It was a match that had been postponed twice already because of the weather, and it looked like the weather, as well as a total lack of minibuses at UEA, would derail the match again.

After having won the Midlands 5D league with ease, the second’s were eager to show the league title was no fluke as they moved into the big time of the BUSA Vase. There was also an added incentive for the clutch of third-year players in the side. BUSA glory has eluded them all since they joined UEA, and they were determined to make the most of this final crack of the whip.

Captain Chris Westwood, winger Chris Raggy and centre back Louis Bardwell was out with a bout of flu. The marauding Spaniard Jose Gomez came in on the left with Norwegian Tom Donnelly – who was forced to wear tracksuit bottoms because of a lack of shorts – alongside Chris Sharp in midfield.

The conditions made for a passionate, and at times fierce first half.

UEA came flying out of the blocks and over matched Leicester in midfield as the snow p o u r e d down. The b r e a k through came after twenty minutes when a dangerous corner from winger Rob Evans was met by the head of centre-back Grant O’Donnell. The match ebbed and flowed, with both sides moving the ball about well on the increasingly muddy surface. The sheer will to win from both sides was visible throughout. It was simply a question of whose will was greater. After UEA took the lead they looked briefly like they were in the driving seat, but a slick move down the left wing split the UEA defence and Leicester equalised. It was 1-1 at the break.

Although the snow held off in the second half, the muddiness of the pitch made for some heavy legs as the tie wore on. The second half

was as evenly balanced as the first, and the passion never abated.

UEA were made to rue several missed first half chances as Leicester got the breakthrough. A dubious penalty was awarded with twenty minutes remaining and Leicester converted. There looked to be no way back for the seconds. The last crack of the whip, it seemed, was going to fizzle away on a cold midlands afternoon.

Then up popped Dave Yeomans, who is usually starting striker for the UEA fourths. Yeomans was drafted into the squad at the last minute to fill the striking void left by the ill and the missing. With the words “five seconds left” being uttered from the referee Evans floated in a corner. The ball was pinged around in the box by keeper Nick Gaskell amongst others, and then fell out to Yeomans on the edge of the box. With the last touch of regular time, his shot flew into the box, hit a

defender, and crossed the line to scenes of unrestrained, almost manic celebration from the seconds.

And so the match went to extra time. UEA had the momentum and the feeling that fortune was on their side. Leicester, for all their loud-mouthed motivating rhetoric – and a biased linesman running every flank – bore all the marks of a team defeated.

Their mental anguish was compounded two minutes in as they conceded a penalty. Chris Sharp stepped up and coolly converted to give UEA a priceless early lead.

It was 3-2 as the first half ended. In the second half, with cramp and fatigue setting in amongst the seconds, Leicester pressed forward but could not break down the stubborn back line. Fullbacks Chris McDonald and Marcus Jones showed remarkable fitness to press forward and frustrate Leicester as time ticked away. When the final whistle blew there was barely enough energy amongst the players to celebrate a truly magical victory. The round of the last 32 awaits UEA now, and hopefully this is the start of something special for the undefeated seconds.

concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk 27

Dudders Speak

Sports-Editor, Marc Dudley talks about the burning issues in the world of sport.

It was with great anticipation that I stayed up until 3am in the morning last Sunday to watch what I hoped would be a new exciting season of F1. In the past I had been left bitterly disappointed (and p*ssed off!) with the red Ferrari of Michael Schumacher crossing the line in four of the five last years. However, due to the weather and the new "bizarre" rules in F1, the arrogant German found himself in 19th position on the grid. There were two Italians on the front row for the first time since 1984 (or to say it in another way the first time in my whole life!) Jaques Villeneuve was on the second row and the new team of Red Bull Racing had both cars on the third. The best cars were at the back and I, like many F1 fans, had no idea what was going to happen.

Would the slow cr*p teams at the front get run over by the fast and furious cars from the back and cause the biggest manslaughter case in the history of mankind or would Fisichella actually manage to win for only the second time in his 132nd career race!

Everything got off to a nice start; with half of me left a little disappointed (as big crashes in F1 are half of the reason you watch those "killer" machines drive around for two hours!)

Even though it felt like a lot happened in the race, not much did. Alonso drove up from 13th to 3rd, which was very impressive, and the Renault team looks like they could finally kick the annoying Ferrari team of the top of F1.

Schumacher making a mistake too, which saw him and Heidfeld crash out was also a highlight, although when the "cheeky" b*stard wanted to be pushed back onto the track I thought one of the stewards should chuck a lighter into his petrol tank and maybe then he would get out of the bloody car!

Barrichello loved every minute of his race, with him now a full eight points ahead of his Ferrari team-mate after finishing in an impressive second place. Red Bull Racing had a great race too, with good old David Coulthard finishing in 4th place on the teams maiden race. He would also have loved the fact that his former team McLaren could not live up to their pre-season expectations, as Raikonnen and Montoya never really got going. The Finn stalled and had to start from the back of the grid, but did manage to snatch 8th place, whilst Montoya could only finish in 6th, as he was being outpaced by both the Williams and Red Bull cars.

However, Williams did have problems keeping up with the front runners, which means they might struggle to challenge the top teams this season. BAR were also disappointing, with Button dropping many places and Sato never really doing much (other than drive of the track, Kamikazestyle, a few times!) Yes, the weather had much to do with the race results, but it does not hide the fact that the new rules will cause this season to be more exciting. The choice of wheels is one of the major factors in determining who do well and who ends up in the ditch. McLaren struggled with their choice of wheels and they were struggling to keep the car on the track towards the end of the race, whilst Renault had a perfect day, with their wheels looking brand spanking new when they finished the race.

Either way you look at it, this season is going to be a lot more interesting, as Ferrari and Schumacher will not get an easy ride. There are many drivers in F1 with a lot of potential, and the new rules will show us who the best drivers are.

Renault looks like they have a good car, and a lot of talent in both Fisichella (who is 32!) and Alonso, and they could be the surprise package of 2005. Ferrari will be there, as they always are and McLaren will have sorted themselves out before the next race. Williams will have to find a way to get some pace under the bonnet or they won’t mount a challenge to the best, which is also the case for BAR. Red Bull seems to have a good car and with the experience of Coulthard could be a dark horse in future races. There are another 18 races to go, and they will all hopefully be as open and undecided as it was in Australia. F1 needs a lift after last seasons "dull" Schumacher show, and it is too early to say whether the new rules are good or bad for the sport. The F1 cannot afford anymore setbacks, and if last Sunday is anything to go by, then we could be in for a new era in F1!

Is this the first of many victories for Giancarla Fisichella?

INSIDE Epic win for UEA footballers in BUSA Vase

SPORT

INSIDE Are City Down?

UEA PREPARE FOR DERBY DAY

UEA welcome Essex to the annual Derby day, as universities go head to head to find out who is the pride of Anglia is

Marc Dudley Sports-Editor The pride of East Anglia is once again up for grabs as Essex University travel up from Colchester to take on UEA’s sports clubs.

A record number of teams will compete, as UEA will try to defend the title they have won for the past few years.

The Pirates vs Blades american football match is one of the highlights of the day, with Essex hoping to finally get one over UEA. The crickets will also finally get their season off to a start. “We are going to kick their asses” says Wayne from AMS, who is hoping for an exciting day.

Hopefully, the weather will not ruin the day, as it has being causing problems

allover the country in recent weeks. It may have to be moved to Essex or re-scheduled for after Easter if the weather does not improve.

“It will be a shame if Derby Day doesn’t go ahead, as it ias always a fun day out,” says Patsy, a BIO student.

The day is finished off with the ever wonderful Chav LCR, with sports club members getting free entry and students getting their “chav” gear on for a night to remember.

“Derby day may be about sport, but it is also about strengthening the good relationship between the two universities,” says one UEA lecturer.

Hopefully, UEA can once again show Essex who rules the east when Derby Day gets under way this Wednesday.

Clockwise from top left: Crickters; LaCrosse; the highly successful UEA Squash team and AYE-AYE, the Ultimate Frisbee team.

GOT A SPORTS STORY FROM YOUR CLUB? E-MAIL US AT CONCRETE.SPORT@UEA.AC.UK Concrete Prize (Cryptic) Crossword #65 ACROSS

DOWN

1. Funny deliverance is for good cause (5,6) 8. Start awesomely but end with dread (3) 9. Short career for nanny (5) 11. Glide on snow for strange endless kiss (3) 12. Ice or gold, it’s old (3) 13. Riot ends at Brazilian town or river (3) 14. Small amount of child (3) 15. Lock rig round lent (7) 16. Symbols on about (sic) (5) 18. Chilly island or supermarket (7) 20. Acted in riddle (3) 21. V. upset reef appears when ill (5) 22. Odd end gives shelter (3) 26. Chef uses ire, jam and olive wrongly (5,6) 30. __way (4) 31. Rag coin is free of chemicals (7) 32. Given access to door, say (5)

1. Imagine a drink of male hen and its rear maybe (8) 2. Long lasting race (8) 3. Healer, usually spiritual (5) 4. Seep vixen back, not cheap (9) 5. Dine and lust wrongly has offended (8) 6. Honestly, sell! It’s for the best in both worlds (9) 7. Done in lame for drink (8) 10. Broken egg to illustrate (Abbr.)

(2) 17. Meats are better as vapour (5) 19. Cut dill and cover (3) 23. Play pool and find horse or mint (4) 24. Depressed in colour (4) 25. Battle or play with red toy is a city Brad knows (4) 26. Nudge as he runs slowly (3) 27. Either __ (2) 28. Hostel holds less than nine squabbles (3) 29. Vatican pays its tax first (3)

Set by Abi

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Solution to crossword #64

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