Concrete - Issue 176

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Issue 176 · Wednesday, April 20th, 2005

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CHARLIE RAVING HIGSON WRITES ON JAMES BOND Page 6 Page 4

FILMS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED Page 5

UNION KICKS BUTTS Simon Sheridan It’s official – the vote held on March 17th to decide whether The Hive should remain a smoking area has resulted in a ban on smoking, with the exception of times when alcohol is being served.

This means that smoking a cigarette in The Hive will only be permitted during gigs or LCR nights, not during the day. The ban comes into effect on 18th April 2005 meaning it is already in action as you are reading this.

Clearly there are a number of differing views on this topic, from the obvious health issues to that of public freedom and the election process itself. The fact that the date of the smoking vote, March 17th was also the penultimate day of the Spring term meant many students would have been busy finishing work or otherwise indisposed.

The Hive was also one of the last remaining haven for smokers on campus – UEA is now almost completely nonsmoking and come the winter there may be a backlash against the ban as smokers

All stubbed out: student voters extinguish smokers’ hopes of enjoying a cigarette in the Hive will no longer be able to enjoy their habit standing outside in the sun.

However, many feel that the ban is justified, as those who choose not to smoke should not have to suffer

those that do, particularly considering the increased public awareness of the health risks associated with passive smoking. Up to 50 people can be working in Union House at any one time

– from box office staff to the Surf society administrator and they should not be forced to endure the second hand smoke emanating from The Hive. As one member of the security staff points out,

the brand new air-vents in The Hive do not work as they should, meaning smoke is allowed to hang in the air rather than being sucked away.

The LCR on the other

hand possesses a better system which deals with the smoke satisfactorily, a state of affairs that has made some call for The Hive to be completely non-smoking.

Others feel that the ban in The Hive is completely unjustified as apart from the Red Bar, it was the last remaining place for people to smoke on campus during the day. Many students use The Hive as a daily retreat from university work, with a cigarette being a key part of this process. How are they to get through the long hours of coursework and revision without a 15-minute fag break?

The answer, it seems is they are not. While this may compel many smokers to feel outraged in that they are not technically allowed to enact a basic civil liberty; it has been considered that passive smoking is a health risk, and therefore it should not be too much to expect smokers to forego their luxury ‘indoor’ cigarettes in favour of smoking outside.

While Norwich’s weather is not the most conducive to this practice, the democratic nature of the vote (and the fact that the majority of people are not smokers) means the ban is now in place and here to stay.

HIV INFILTRATES FISHING TOWNS PM WAKES UP TO TRADE JUSTICE Clare Bull A recent study at UEA commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has shown that fishing communities are between five and ten times more vulnerable to HIV/Aids than other communities. The report comes

as part of a new multi-disciplinary Aids development group within UEA, spread between the schools of Development, Medicine and Allied health professions.

The findings include shocking statistics. Up to 20% of fishing boat crews in Thailand tested HIV positive compared with 1.5% in the population as a whole, while in the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia nearly a fifth of

fishermen are HIV positive, making the second worst affected group after Brothel workers.

The report says that this is due to a number of different factors; the availability of cash income, time amount of time spent away from home, a low standard of education and the availability of commercial sex in fishing ports.

More statistics See Page Nine

Michael Roberts Tony Blair was given a rude awakening at 4am on Saturday morning by a crowd of 6000 people, including staff and students from UEA, shouting “Wake up Tony… Tony wake up!” outside 10 Downing Street.

The trade justice vigil began

with those in attendance filling Westminster Abbey at 10pm last Friday for the opening of a series of events that occurred throughout the night across central London as the culmination of the global week of action on trade. While more attendees thronged outside, Westminster Abbey was treated to a host of celebrities, music and international speakers. Many influential

advocates were there to add voices to the throng, from key religious leaders like the Dean of Westminster, to celebrities like Ronan Keating.

The campaign for trade justice is part of the wider call to Make Poverty History.

Speakers explained how unfair trade rules keep billions locked in poverty.

Vigils through the night See Page Seven

WOMEN’S ROWERS CRACK LONDON SEE SPORTS PAGES

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QUESTION TIME Politics is open to questions at the university and in the city in the run up to the general election. Events have been organised by Debating Soc, the Union and church group, Churches Together.

The first event, organised by the UEA Debating Society, takes place in Nelson Court Common Room A on the 26th April at 6pm in which student representatives from the political societies will answer questions, comments and heckles about the forthcoming election.

Following a motion passed by council to promote greater student participation, the Union has arranged for candidates from the major political parties to address students directly in a question time debate that will be held in Lecture Theatre 1 on the 29th April between 5 and 7 pm.

In the city, Norwich South candidates will be quizzed by the general public on the 28th April at Holy Trinity Church, Essex Street, at 7.30pm, in an event chaired by David Ingham. The candidates for Norwich North will be chaired by Revd John Marsh at the Norwich Central Baptist Church on the 29th April at the same time.

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WEEK 12 PROGRAMME FOR LIBERATING FACTS Fiona Roxburgh and Frances Stapleton Most students, when they hear about the role of ‘Liberations Officer’, can be more than a little perplexed as to what this title actual means. After all, what do students need to be liberated from?

The tutors?

Coursework? The burdensome hours during which we are held in captivity by the Big Bad Union Pub? Probably not.

In fact, Liberations Campaigns are the NUS campaigning groups for those students who belong to a minority which still faces discrimination or prejudice.

The Liberations Officer at UEA is appointed to run these campaigns in order to raise awareness about the surrounding issues, to help represent those students’ rights and needs, and to work towards achieving equality, respect and the dissolution of prejudiced attitudes and treatments.

So who are these student groups? The NUS has four major campaigning groups; Students with Disabilities, Black students, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) students and Female students. At UEA our liberations officer oversees the campaigns for Black and LGBT students and

Students with Disabilities.

We have a separate Women’s officer. Campaigning work is ongoing all through the academic year, but come Week 12 this term, we’ll see the arrival of the 2005 Liberations Week.

This is all well and good, you might be thinking, but if you don’t fall into a liberations group, how does it affect you? After all, we are consistently presented with good causes that we’d like to be more involved with, if only we had the time. But the reality is, you are involved! The trouble with the term minority group is that it suggests a very small percentage of people who are rarely noticed by the rest of the community. But in fact, at UEA we have a very diverse student body. The LGBT, African Students Society and Afro-Caribbean Society are a strong and active part of the Union’s peer support groups and societies. More than 50% of the student body is made up of women. UEA welcomes disabled students but at present the University’s Disability Officer has to work flat out to make the improvements necessary to the university, to ensure that it meets and maintains standards set out by the Disability Discrimination Act. As well as this, students with mental health difficulties are included within the SWD (Students with

Disabilities) campaign and it is estimated that one in four to one in ten students are affected personally by mental health difficulties. This means that the likelihood is that either you or one of your close friends is directly impacted by mental health issues.

Even if you don’t belong to one of these minority groups that is likely to be subject to prejudice, the fact remains that these groups are a very big and very real part of the community and dynamic that surrounds us and involves us every day.

And any attitudes and issues which affect such a

proportion of any community must necessarily have an impact on that community’s dynamic as a whole – which means they involve you too.

We’d all like to believe that we live in much more openminded world these days, but racism and homophobia are still very much rife, as we can see when we open a newspaper, or look at what’s included in (or what’s left out of) news coverage. Even the legal system has a lot to answer for; the NUS LGBT recently campaigned against a loophole which allows outlets to refuse service on the grounds of sexuality. Our University still has no men-

tal health policy, meaning that there is nothing to protect vulnerable students against ignorant and damaging responses to their state of health. Thankfully, this looks set to change.

The only way we can start to think about really redressing the balance and making sure that the university environment we’re living and working in on a daily basis is genuinely one of equality and inclusion is first to get ourselves clued up on the facts. And Liberations Week starting on Monday 25th April has been planned to shed light on the reality of these issues.

and 40 “super casinos” under its much-vaunted Gambling Bill to just 1.

Other bills lost sadly included beneficial measures such as the painstakingly created and desperately needed Charity Law reform, Road Safety measures, tightening up of the Consumer Credit laws and the Equality Bill.

The Government was also forced to concede its proposals for laws on Incitement to Racial Hatred for the second time, in order to ensure the safety of its Serious Organised Crime Bill.

Ministers such as Charles Clarke and Patricia Hewitt have stated that bills such

as ID Cards and Equality will be attempted again if Labour are voted in for a third consecutive term in power.

Having said this, some Bills have been saved. The Disability Discrimination Bill was successfully passed, albeit without the inclusion of depression as a registered disability. However, the definition of disability will now include those suffering from HIV, Multiple Sclerosis and Cancer. It will be unlawful to discriminate against a disabled person relating to employment, provision of good, facilities and services and the disposal and man-

agement of services. The Finance Bill, the formal term given to the Budget, was also successfully passed.

However, some Conservatives have complained about the limited parliamentary time available to debate it.

Criticisms have also extended to the amount of legislation seemingly left to the last minute. In response to Charles Clarke’s attack on the Conservatives lastminute objections to the Bill (meaning that it could not be passed), Shadow Home Secretary David Davies said “This is of Labour’s own doing. They misused parlia-

ment, trying to rush through a bill that wasn’t properly debated, and paid the price.

They knew May 5 was on its way and yet they only gave the Lords 26 sitting days to debate the bill and make amendments.”

Considering the date of the general election was rumoured to have been known by some MPs for up to a year beforehand, criticism has been levelled at politicians for spending the last months before the announcement of the election electioneering rather than concentrating on their main function of passing laws.

Week 12 will raise awareness about diversity issues amongst students of the UEA.

SEATED RESPONSE LOST LEGISLATION LEADS TO LABOUR CAMPAIGN FIASCO Plans for restructuring at the Chelsea college of Art & Design have prompted many students to protest the reforms.

A sit-in protest by students is expected to take place on the 23nd April in a response to a restructuring proposal that is similar to that which has taken place at UEA over the last year.

Students are protesting about the college's intention to place admissions and college governance under the control of managers that will be chosen, not elected. They feel that this will compromise the quality of their course delivery and may marginalise applicants.

Juliet Harris Legal Editor Labour has suffered much embarrassment by losing key pieces of proposed legislation when Parliament was prorogued ahead of the general election on the 5th May. In the rush to get bills approved by both MPs and Peers and also given Royal Assent before the fall of Parliament, Labour was forced to sacrifice some of its flagship bills, including the highly publicised Identity Cards Bill. Furthermore, it was forced to drastically reduce plans for between 20

Inside Concrete This Week Page 2: Liberation week and Labour loses Legislation.

Page 4: Programme for Libs week and Nexus win awards Page 6: Exercise over tablets Page 7: The influence of the Student vote Page 9: Stop Tesco Campaign and Research into Vikings Page 11: Earthquake known to scientists

Page 12: Opinion Page 13: Italy when the Pope died Page 14 -15: Interviews with Fergal Keane and Jeffrey Sachs Page 16: Election Commentary Page 17: Interview with Craig Murray Page 18-19: Turf - Millennium Ecosystem Assessment & The Broads Page 20: Enquirer

Page 21: Travel - Alton Towers Page 22: Fashion - Bargain Ball Gowns Page 23 Lifestyle - ME Page 24: Horoscopes and Letters Page 25: Sport - Hooliganism Page 26: Sport - Norwich City Page 27: Sport - Tae Kwon Do Page28: Sport - Rowing. Xword

TOP-UP FEES THREATEN PART-TIME STUDY Jessica Fielder Education Editor As election manifestoes are published, voters will be comparing different parties’ plans for the future of higher education. Whilst both theConservative and Liberal Democrat parties would abolish tuition fees entirely, under Labour, top-up fees would simply be capped at £3000 a year.

Full-time students will be eligible for a loan in order to pay for fees and will not

start repayments until they are employed. Until recently, however, there has been little discussion regarding just how this will affect the numerous part-time students throughout the country.

Part-time students normally pay a fee proportionate to the amount of the fulltime course they are taking.

This is currently about £600 for those studying half of a course each year. Top-up fees, however, could increase the cost to as much as £1500. Unlike their full-time

colleagues, part-time students are expected to pay up front.

The group Campaigning for Mainstream Universities (CMU) has prepared an open letter highlighting the problems this will cause. More than twenty vice-chancellors have signed the letter insupport. They claim that 40% of undergraduates study parttime. This increased fee is likely to put off prospective students whilst Government still keenly touts its goal to get 50% of school leavers into Higher Education.

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DOUBLE SCOOP FOR NEXUS AT AWARDS UEA’S TELEVISION SOCIETY SCORES TWICE AT THIS YEAR’S NASTA

Programme for Liberations Week (Week 12) Monday 25th April Physical Disabilities Campaign Have you ever had difficulties with the accessibility of our campus? UEA’s university and union buildings are legally required to meet the specifications of the Disability Discrimination Act. We have numerous lifts all over campus but how many actually work in a fire for students unable to use the stairs? Why, in all these miles of steps, do we not have one continuous wheelchair ramp?

Our University and Union do cater well for students with physical disabilities, but there are certainly areas that need development. Monday of week 12 will take a look at this issue with a visual campaign to highlight problem areas.

There will also be a stall in the Hive where you can sign up to further disability campaigns and read more about the Disability Discrimination Act. Any questions or for further details please contact f.stapleton@uea.ac.uk Tuesday 26th April Mental Health Awareness Campaigns The Mental Health Awareness Campaign group was started this academic year. So far, the group has lobbied the university to produce a mental health policy and worked to raise awareness and reduce stigma of mental health problems and difficulties.

On Tuesday, we have professional guest speakers coming in all day to offer one-on-one sessions and give talks to anyone who wishes to attend.

If all goes to plan, there will be drop-in sessions from 12-2 in Room 1.33 of Union House. Here, students can seek information or advice privately. The concerns you wish to discuss can range from anything to worry over a friend or dealing with stress at this time in the university year. There will then be three separate talks, each lasting an hour and taking us through to 5pm. The speeches will be primarily about coping with stress and maintaining health and well being, and what to do when you are worried about peers and family.

Any questions or for further details please contact f.roxburgh@uea.ac.uk Wednesday 27th April ‘The Laramie Project’ ‘The Laramie Project’ will be shown in the LCR from 6pm.

The play, directed by Eric Fehne, looks at how a terrible hate crime perpetrated on a 21yr old University student in this small Wyoming town changed Laramie and influenced the attitudes of its people forever. This play focuses upon homophobia and there will be a panel discussion that follows with members of the LGBT committee and those involved with the play. ‘The Laramie Project’ was recently awarded its own funding, which is a testament in itself to how powerful this play is. To buy tickets now, or for any questions or for further details please contact fehne@dickinson.edu or su.liberations@uea.ac.uk Thursday 28th April Guest Speaker for Black Students Campaigns This Union’s liberations campaigns are supported by the National Union of Students, for which, Pav Akhtar is the Black Students Officer. We thought it might be a good idea for Pav to come and speak to students about black student’s campaigns that have been successful and could be implemented at UEA. There will first be a presentation before a workshop session on the best way to run campaigns and how to get students involved. This will be taking place in Room 1.28 of Union House during the afternoon. All students are welcome.

Any questions or for further details please contact f.stapleton@uea.ac.uk Friday 29th April Women’s Campaigns Friday will be the day of women’s campaigns, where the new and old women’s officers will be working alongside each other to campaign for and address issues specifically relevant to female students.

Any questions or for further details please contact su.womens@uea.ac.uk

Nexus’s committee team in their gladrags for the NaSTA awards, where they picked up two awards.

Helen Pike News Editor

Nexus, UEA’s television society for budding broadcast journalists scooped a double victory in the recent annual NaSTA awards.

Held this year from March 31st to April 2nd by Loughborough University, the National Students Television Association Conference and AGM is the most important event of the Student Television calendar as it gives the opportunity for student journalists to be recognised by the professionals, leading to a much desired career in broadcast journalism. Held over three days, Nexus, along with

other student television stations, were challenged to create a ‘Golden Bodge’, a 3 minute film from scratch, with no editing allowed.

Nexus’s film, “a Samurai film in the style of a car review programme about a 200lb woman’s quest to lose weight”, was said to have received the most cheers from fellow students and judges.

Nexus were victorious in two highly rated award categories: Best Drama and Best Comedy. Nexus received the Highly Commended award for Best Drama, for their show Nomad: The Lost Hour.

Prozac, a comedy sketch show featuring everything from structured multi-part storylines to short surreal skits was victorious in the

Best Comedy sector and received praise from judge Nev Fountain, a writer on hit comedy Dead Ringers, who said of the clip, “a quirky title sequence…good enough to be on Drop the Dead Donkey…Expect to see this on TV soon”.

This was the best result for Nexus in ten years and members were ecstatic with the news. Karen Milam, President of Nexus, talked of her appreciation to the dedicated Nexus team. “We never expected to do this well, taking home two awards is a real reward for all the amazing teamwork and commitment show throughout this year from all the members”.

She continues by saying that “maybe now Nexus will get the recognition and support

it deserves”.

Adam “Darkemann” Ottaway, co-writer and producer of Prozac was also elated. “This is my third NaSTA and my favourite to date. Not only that, it was our most successful. I only hope Nexus will be supported more next year so that they can build on their success”.

For more details about Nexus contact nexusutv@gmail.com to join, or watch out for their stall at next year’s Socmart.

There is an opportunity to view the winning entries for this years NaSTA awards.

The next Nexus will be broadcast on 25th, 27th and 29th April in the blue bar between three and four pm.

RINGING IN FINANCES FOR STUDENTS STUDENTS TRY RINGTONES FOR FREE AND EARN CASH FOR THEIR STUDENT PAPERS THANKS TO THE STUDENT MEDIA NETWORK A new company will be helping student media supplement their incomes by splitting the profits from ringtone sales to students. The Student Media Network is giving half of the money it makes from selling ringtones via the MyFone application to the university publications that are helping to spread the word.

MyFone is the easy way to get ringtones. It is a java application which sits on your phone and can be used for free to browse and preview a vast content library of compatible ringtones, wallpapers and java games.

MyFone is sent to your

phone for free when you text the word STUDENT to 87878, or can be sent free from the web at myfone.com/student.

“We’re really excited to be able to bring MyFone to the student market,” says Simon Hogg, 26, a director of Student Media Network and a former student journalist.

“MyFone puts the student in control - you need never again buy a ringtone that sounds useless or is not compatible with your phone handset. Even better, every time you buy a piece of content for your phone, money will go back to students.”

“We’re going 50:50 with

the student newspapers that agree to promote the application. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” says Hogg, who previously worked on Bristol’s student paper, Epigram. “I know that the difference between a good student paper and a fantastic, award-winning student paper is usually the money to afford better printing and equipment. Over the coming year we are planning to offer student media a chance of making money from 118 numbers, other mobile apps, the Internet and ad sales.”

“MyFone is great, it’s very straightforward and

does exactly what you tell it to do. It’s a good way for you to check out ringtones and other content for free. You are in control, you only ever buy something after you have asked for it and you know what it costs. We are really pleased with our progress so far - we have already had negotiations with many of the largest university publications in the country and student newspaper adverts will be appearing later this month.”

For further details about the MyFone applications and all their features, see the advert on page 11.

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STOPPING WAR 150,000 people attended the Stop the War Protest which took place on the 19th March. 100 people from Norwich travelled to the event in a coach, organised

by Norwich Stop The War Coalition. The figure comes from SKY TV, but was disputed by the police, who claimed only a 50,000 attendance.

Nevertheless, turnout surprised supporters, police and the media, and the protest kept Trafalgar Square full between 3pm and 6pm as the march proceeded around the capital, taking in US embassy in Grosvenor Square.

The atmosphere was the usual carnival of different ages, races and nationalities. Music (ranging from samba band to a choir) was prominent and a huge range of placards and many different campaigns were evident on the march.

Protestors hoped that the response would help to affirm that Iraq is still an election issue and needs to be kept in the headlines.

Over Easter the STW conference agreed that they would send a questionnaire to all candidates asking their views on the war, occupation, future wars and the attack on civil liberties. It was sent out shortly after Easter they are asking that local candidates are quizzed on their view. Groups are also being encouraged to organise hustings where the different candidates can be asked about their views.

The next big planned mobilisation is to the G8 summit in Scotland over the first weekend in July. World leaders, including Bush, will be there and the intention is to ensure that the anti war message is too. Details are to be posted up soon, but the group intend to mobilise before that if there are any rumblings of an attack on Iran, Syria or anywhere.

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PRESCRIBING A RUN ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY NEW STUDY REVEALS THAT FLEXING MUSCLES IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN TABLETS Clare Aitchison Health Editor

The Mental Health Foundation is urging doctors to begin to think about treating depression with exercise rather than drugs.

Evidence is mounting that, in some patients, supervised exercise programmes can be as effective at treating depression as antidepressants, and a call is being put out for more doctors to actually prescribe exercise as an alternative.

At the moment, more than half of GPs use antidepressants as the first line of treatment in mild or severe depression, even though around a third of them feel that this is not the most effective form of treatment, and that the patients would benefit as much from a placebo as the real medication. In fact, government guidelines say that antidepressants should not be the first line treatment for mild depression, and that antidepressants like Prozac should never be prescribed for the under 18s.

Prozac is a selective seratonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI. Seratonin is a hormone which makes you feel happy, and SSRIs work by preventing seratonin from being degraded in your brain. This leaves the hormone hanging around for longer, so you feel happier for longer. Since in many forms of depression there is an imbalance of these hormones in the brain, in numerous cases of depression, particularly the more severe ones, SSRIs are extremely effective medica-

tions, and can even be lifesaving. This quick, easy and effective way of treating depression has become increasingly popular over the last decade and in the last 12 years the cost to the NHS of antidepressant medications has risen by over 2000%. That means that we are spending 2000 times as much on antidepressants as we were in 1993.

The problem is, the more we use them, the more side effects become apparent, with one particularly unfortunate one being that it seems to make some people suicidal. Certainly not the desired effect when treating the depressive. Coming off these drugs can also produce unpleasant withdrawal effects in some people.

Therefore, as government guidelines suggest, it is not always appropriate to go in with all guns blazing, to treat a first event of mild depression in a young person with these drugs.

More and more research shows that exercise can reduce the symptoms of depression, although at the moment it is not entirely clear how it works. It is believed that it increases the release of some of the chemicals which affect mood, thereby acting as a natural antidepressant. Certainly one of the chemicals suspected to play a part – phenylethlamine – which is at low levels in depressed patients, rises more than 70% after exercise. This chemical is very similar in structure to amphetamines so basically it is like getting your body to supply you with speed. Of course exercise also has physical benefits such as reducing your risk

of heart disease, and it does not have the same range of side-effects as the antidepressants or other drugs. So why don’t more doctors prescribe it?

Part of the problem is, whilst 78% of GPs who prescribed an antidepressant last year thought that an alternative treatment may have been more appropriate, in many parts of the country they simply aren’t available or they have very long waiting lists. Only 42% of GPs currently have access to an exercise referral scheme.

But that isn’t the whole story, because the other part of the problem is attitudes.

Many GPs do not believe that exercise is an effective treatment, and of the 42% of GPs who did have access to an exercise referral scheme, only 15% actually made use of it. However, attitudes do seem to be changing, and doctors who qualified within the last 10 years are more likely to use alternative treatments to antidepressants as a first line treatment, so hopefully the ‘doctors of the future’ that UEA is promising will think of it as a first line treatment in mild depression before reverting to drugs.

But even if the doctors are enthusiastic about exercise on prescription, that is only half the problem. It takes two to tango, and for a patient, an exercise prescription is a lot harder to take that a couple of tablets a day. Particularly as one of the symptoms of depression is lethargy and tiredness. It is hard for anyone with the best intentions in the world to stick to a regular exercise programme (including the doctors who should know

Beth Parker demonstrates two approaches to medication Photo: Sarah Watson better) so how much harder again, it is very difficult to is that going to be if it is all persuade any government you can manage to get yourwith a four-year vision to self out of bed in the morn- invest in anything long term. ing? That is why it is not However, if exercise can enough to simply tell the begin to be taken seriously depressed patient to get out as a treatment by the more and do more exercise. patients, the doctors and the The programme needs to be people who hold the purse tailored and supervised. To strings, it is possible that be structured and to pro- people will be saved from mote regular attendance. excessive drug use in the And this costs money. treatment of depression, So once again it boils whilst getting countless down to the fact that you other health and social benhave to spend money in the efits from their exercise prefirst place to save money in scription. Now how many the long run, and as history drugs can you say that for? has shown over and over

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Early on Saturday morning thousands turned out to oppose unjust trade laws

Unequal Trade Laws From Page one Producers in the developing world cannot compete on the world market where crucial areas, such as agriculture, have heavy subsidies in the rich world. Make Poverty History and others aim to highlight the glaring international contradiction, whereby poor countries are prevented from protecting their markets while the rich world is allowed to do as it pleases. Trade Justice challenges this dogma by calling for the elimination of unfair trade policies in the rich world and recognising the right of poor countries to choose whatever policies best suit their interests.

By 11pm, a 25,000 strong crowd joined the procession from Westminster Abbey to Downing Street.

The crowd was hugely

diverse, with young children marching alongside old men and particularly large throngs of college students.

Amidst much shouting, whistle blowing and chanting, candles were lit to signify the start of the night-long vigil on Whitehall. At midnight the noise suddenly died for a one-minute’s silence in honour of the 30,000 poor that die every day as a result of extreme poverty.

From midnight onwards, Trade Justices had a wide choice of activities, cafes and clubs were open especially for the night. Every event seemed to have more people queuing outside than those actually in. There was an hour or so of confusion with people walking to different venues in the hope of getting a warm shelter. A lack of organisation, which is

uncharacteristic of events of this type, meant that many people were unable to secure a place for the night, leaving many feeling despondent.

At 4am there was a mass candlelit vigil as the crowd gave Tony Blair the wake up call. Other forms of musical entertainment were provided, such as “Oh Tony! Ooh, ah! I wanna kno-o-ow if you’ll make trade fair” and many even shook off their tiredness to join a conga.

The event culminated at 5am with fairtrade breakfast and the few thousand who made it through the night saw the sun rise over the Thames on the final gathering. The event was co-ordinated with similar actions involving 10 million people across 84 countries. To find out more about the campaign visit www.tjm.org.uk or makepovertyhistory.org.

STUDENT VOTE LABELLED ‘ESSENTIAL’ BY NUS UNION URGES STUDENTS TO EXERCISE THEIR DEMOCRATIC RIGHT IN MAY Isabel Dyson Student votes are thought to have the potential to sway up to 27 key seats in the coming 2005 general election. At the National Union of Students annual conference, President Kat Fletcher told over 1000 attendees that the NUS aim to encourage students to cast “an informed and empowered vote.”

Recent Liberal Democrat studies have revealed that the current 5.2million British students, who make up 13% of the electorate, have the ability to sway Parliamentary seats. The party have declared that in 14 constituencies student votes could give them the swing to take currently held Labour seats and 13 constituencies where Conservative seats could be taken. The research is based upon students voting in their university towns.

Although Norwich was

not included in the Liberal Democrat findings, students in nearby Cambridge and Cities of London and Westminster could influence the election results.

The coming general election brings worries that people will not turn out to vote at all, due to lack of preferable choices or general apathy. Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell was quoted as saying: “If only 50% turn out, we’ll lose.”

However, following the strong reactions provoked by issues such as the Iraq war and university top-up fees, the exercising of democratic voting rights are more likely to be utilised than the 2001 general election.

The NUS campaign to get the student vote out is accompanied by the current craze of wristbands, the NUS choice of maroon is intended to encourage voters.

President Kat Fletcher also announced the financial trouble that the union has faced in the past year after failing in its campaign to

stop top-up fees.

A deficit of £500,000 was announced with an added £200,000 as a result of delays in moving to new Manchester headquarters.

Fletcher took the opportunity of emphasising that the NUS is not simply a “feefighting” union: “We’re concerned with a wide range of issues, based upon policy as diverse and dynamic as the students we represent.”

Campaigns against rogue landlords, better benefits for students up to 19 years old and campaigns for women, gay and bisexual groups were also announced as important issues that the NUS plan to tackle.

A poll carried out by The Daily Telegraph revealed that first time voters today are increasingly less inclined to vote at all, claiming an inability to distinguish or connect to party leaders.

Politicians are failing to attract or connect with the mentality of first time voters who claim to be “bored and switched off by the rhetoric

VOCATION, VOCATION, VOCATION SURVEY SHOWS BUSINESS DEGREES ARE THE “MOST POPULAR” Olly Haywood Deputy News Editor Recent reports show that that over 10% of students in the UK are opting to study business, placing it first in a list of most popular degrees recently compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Over 350 undergraduate students are currently enrolled on the Business Management degree course at UEA, with around 250 more enrolled on accounting and finance related courses.

A number of students also

choose to do one of the University’s joint degrees, such as French with Management Studies, which offers those enrolled the chance to develop skills that may be needed in the world of work.

The figures showed that in 2003 China had around 47,700 students in the UK – a figure which had grown by an astonishing 35.8% in just one year – making it the country with the most overseas students in the UK. India and the US send an additional 28,005.

At the other end of the scale, veterinary science had

the smallest number of students, approximately 0.3% of the student population, followed by agriculture with 0.6% and mathematics with 1.9%.

A report by the Guardian in 2002 showed that students’ reasons for choosing business degrees usually relate to the huge employability factor after graduation.

The interdisciplinary nature of the courses – placing them somewhere between science and humanities – also means that students achieve a broad intellectual training.

of party politics.”

Research of over 700 1824 year olds revealed that 56% did not know what a constituency was (a designated geographical section where people vote for the same Member of Parliament to represent their area) and celebrities were placed above politicians in the “hero” stakes, although 57%

c l a i m e d Oxfam Save the Children was held in high regard.

Most eligible voters are automatically listed to vote if they are registered to a British address. Students are normally registered to vote at their parents’ address and can often forfeit their vote if they study away

from h o m e .

Deadlines to apply for postal or proxy votes are 26th April for the election on May 5th. The deadline for registering to vote has passed.

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ANTI-TESCO CAMPAIGN STILL DEFIANT FURTHER PROPOSALS FOR THE UNTHANK ROAD SITE ARE REJECTED BY CITY COUNCIL

If the new store is built, local businesses could face stiff competition from the industry giant.

Sarah Smith

A couple of months ago Concrete informed you about the plans for a Tesco Express store on Unthank Road on the site of the old Arlington Service Station. At

that time Tesco were re-looking at their plans following large-scale opposition from many residents, including many of the large number of students who live on or around Unthank Road.

On March 31st Tesco put their case to the City Council Planning Committee at Norwich City Hall. Over a hundred supporters of the

Stop Unthank Tesco campaign attended the meeting.

The council had already received 220 objections to the proposals with only eight people in favour. After nearly two hours of discussion the proposal was unanimously rejected.

From the beginning issues had been raised against the campaign with

Photo: Sarah Watson concerns over the environment, local businesses and health and safety.

There were problems with the proposed design of the store; lack of car parking, risk of accidents in an already difficult area and the problems caused by extra cars as well as two or three lorries a day.

There are also already two Budgens stores on the road

as well as several local businesses.

Tesco now have two options if they wish to try again for planning permission for the site. They have six months in which to apply to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister who may appoint an independent inspector to look into the case.

If appointed, the inspector would look at the original reasons for refusal, the applicant’s case and the position of other interested parties. A report will then either grant or refuse permission.

This can be appealed at the High Court but this is rare. However, with so many appeals being lodged it would probably take at least ten months before an inspector could even get started. The alternative for Tesco is to submit a new request for planning permission but they could not do this for another two years. This means that there will be no Tesco on Unthank Road in the immediate future.

For further information on the plans visit www.stopunthanktesco.com.

Do you want Tesco Express to open on Unthank Road? Email us your views to concrete.news@uea.ac.uk.

VIKINGS WERE HOME MAKERS NOT HELL-RAISERS UEA STUDY REVEALS THE Rosie Chance Science Editor

The Vikings that colonised Scotland may have preferred a trip to IKEA to looting and pillaging, according to new research by a UEA scientist.

Research published this month by Dr Sara Goodacre from BIO suggests that Scandinavian settlement in Shetland, Orkney and North West Scotland was family based, with equal numbers of males and females.

Dr Goodacre and colleagues in Oxford and Reykjavik scrutinised hundreds of DNA samples collected from modern day inhabitants of North Atlantic countries. The team looked for evidence of Viking ancestry in mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited through the maternal line, and also on Y chromosome DNA, which is only passed from father to son.

In regions close to the Norse homeland, such as Shetland, the contributions of maternal and paternal Viking DNA to the gene pool were nearly identical, suggesting that there were as many female settlers as male.

This may indicate that Viking families came to

the new territories of Northern Scotland to set up home.

Meanwhile, at the wild frontier of the Viking empire that was the Isle of Skye, the genetic evidence suggests colonisers were mostly male, and that they had children with local women. In Iceland, an even more remote island with no native population, it appears

DOMESTIC BLISS WITH NORTH ATLANTIC VIKINGS that Viking men arrived with women from Britain and Ireland.

The pattern matches what one m i g h t expect of a n

expanding empire; cosy families settling in the safe colonial strongholds and male marauders pushing the boundaries at far flung outposts.

However, Dr Goodacre points out that it is not possible to know about the actual behaviour of the Vikings from DNA alone. The presence of Viking women does not necessarily mean a more

peaceful society, and it is possible that they were taking local men as partners rather than forming Viking family units - as Dr Goodacre says “I don’t know who fancied who!”

Viking exploits in the British Isles are thought to have begun with the sacking of the monastery at Lindisfarne, Northumbria, in AD 793. Vikings soon ruled the sea-routes and coastlines from Norway to Ireland, establishing a political and cultural influence that lasted until 1472.

Dr

Goodacre’s work backs up the archaeological, linguistic and place name evidence for complete Norse dominance in Shetland and Orkney during the Viking period.

Dr Goodacre’s work has attracted a lot of media attention, as she says “we all want to know who we are and where we come from”.

The work was done while Dr Goodacre was at Oxford University. She is now at UEA using similar techniques to ask questions about the evolution of spiders, snails and beetles.

Fishing communities From Page One The study also suggests that within fishing communities there tends to be an atmosphere of ‘hyper masculinity’, the exaggerated belief in the importance of typical male values the result of which is increased sexual activity.

Females within fishing communities are also faced with a superfluous risk level. This can be attributed to a lack of women’s rights within the communities, which are stereotypically traditional in the values they uphold. So it seems that within fishing communities the traditional values held by both sexes about sexual activity leaves them at a disadvantage as far as HIV/Aids is concerned.

The high level of mobility within fishing communities also contributes to the spread of Aids. People move around according to the season, the location of markets and processing factories constantly causing them to come into contact with a wide number of people.

Dr Edward Allison said of the project “the plight of fishing communities has been neglected for far too long and the consequences have been devastating’’. The findings of the report should mean that more treatment can be directed towards fishing communities across the world.

GUIDE GROUP CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY In March, UEA’s branch of the Student Scout and Guide Organisation (SSAGO) collected books for charity as part of a challenge issued by the County Commissioner.

The event took place to celebrate 95 years of Girlguiding UK. The local group managed to collect a commendable 115 books and donated them to the Big ‘C’ Appeal Charity Shop in Norwich City Centre.

The student organisation exists to support Scouts, Guides and others who are students in the UK and are interested in the workings of the Scout and Guide Associations.

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INDONESIA EARTHQUAKE NO SURPRISE TO SCIENTISTS WE ROCK SEVERITY OF EARTHQUAKE WAS PREDICTED BUT SCIENTISTS FAILED TO KNOW WHEN

The Easter Monday earthquake didn’t create a devastating wave but nevertheless caused further damage to the area.

Rosie Chance Science Editor The devastating Earthquake in Indonesia was expected by scientists, though sadly they were unable to save lives by predicting when it would occur.

Just eleven days before the massive tremor on 28th March, a team of geologists warned that a major seismic event in the Indian Ocean was likely and urged for the

rapid implementation of a tsunami warning system.

Research published in the prestigious journal Nature described how the earthquake that caused the Boxing Day tsunami increased geological stresses in the region, making a subsequent disaster almost inevitable. Author of the research, John McCloskey, said that there could be a second Earthquake of up to 8.5 on the Richter scale: last months quake notched up a

gigantic 8.7.

Both earthquakes originated in the Sunda trench, a submarine meeting of tectonic plates that runs from Aceh, Indonesia, to the Andaman Islands. Here, in what is called a subduction zone, the Indian and Australian tectonic plates are forced beneath the Sunda plate, which carries Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Unfortunately, although scientists were able to accu-

rately pinpoint the location of the earthquake, they were unable to say whether it would happen in months or years. As McCloskey says, “we got the location and the size bang on, but not the timing.” Despite sophisticated models of fault zones, it remains almost impossible to predict exactly when the rocks will finally break under the strain.

The March earthquake came as a savage blow to communities struggling to

recover from the Boxing Day tsunami, but the effects could have been far worse had it caused another giant wave. Scientists are still puzzling as over why this did not happen.

Despite being ten to twenty times smaller than the gigantic Boxing Day shock (the Richter scale is logarithmic), the second quake was still fearsomely large and easily enough to trigger a tsunami.

However, for a wave to be generated, the sea floor must rupture in a way that pushes water upwards. It is possible that this time the plates slipped past each other horizontally, with minimal disturbance to the ocean above.

Great earthquakes have been known to occur in pairs, however some geologists are concerned there may be more to come in the Indian Ocean.

Phil Cummins, a seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said “the next segment further to the southeast could rupture sooner than we expected, but we can’t predict the time. It could be 100 years or three months. While the people of South East Asia try to put their lives back together, the grim possibility of further disasters must be faced.

Concrete enjoyed success at the recent Clubs and Societies Awards (CASAs), held by the Student Union on Thursday 17th March.

The society won the Society of the Year category, picked up by Concrete Editor Philip Sainty who delivered a memorable speech, followed by a double peace sign for the 700 strong crowd.

VOTE DOPE The Legalise Cannabis Alliance candidate for Norwich South is urging voters to choose the right to use cannabis at the coming May 5th election.

Don Banard believes that the vote will “send a strong message to the next Norwich South MP that many are fed up with ministers and MPs continuing to censor discussion and debate on issues that affect us and our children.”

The Alliance believes that cannabis is a victimless crime, increasing the use of natural medicine and has enjoyed opportunities to gain support throughout conferences like the recent one held in the Elizabeth Fry building at UEA. Mr Banard hopes that people will recognise the positive benefits of legalising the drug, notably its health benefits.

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Opinion JEN MARCHANT

THE “GREAT” POPE JOHN PAUL II

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he media has been swamped for weeks, as I’m sure you’ll have noticed, with articles about the late Pope John Paul II. He has been proclaimed as the “people’s Pope”, the great-hearted man leading the Church forward into the 21st Century. It’s been impossible to turn round without getting a face full of just how great the Pope was, and how much everyone loved him. Is it just me, or has every news reporter suddenly turned into a fanatical Catholic?

Everyone’s ranting about how he travelled the world (indeed more than every other Pope put together, but to be fair in the 5th Century getting to Asia was a bit of a trek), passionately fought poverty (fair enough, he did), was against the US war on Iraq (erm…who wasn’t?) and aimed to rec-

PRIYA SHAH

CHINESE: NOT JUST A GREAT TAKEAWAY

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n a globalised world, the emphasis placed upon foreign languages in schools has become more pronounced. For most secondary school pupils there is little or no choice. French is steadily disappearing as an international language, yet it dominates the timetables at most secondary schools in the country, followed by German and Spanish. While we should not ignore the languages of our fellow European Union counterparts, in order to ensure peace and stability in the 21st century it may be advisable to offer more choice in the languages taught in British schools.

Foremost among these should be the language of China, the country that Chancellor Gordon Brown claims is emerging as the new leading world

JOANNA LAMBERT

OUR HOUSE, IN THE MIDDLE OF SOME STREET

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here has always been a cliche surrounding student houses, which is perhaps why the subject has been lingering around campus since January. Many try to convince us that the famous rat-infested, multiple box-room houses do not exist – but there is always the worry that they actually do.

A few days into the new term the wise words of the UEA advice centre staff convinced first year students to calm down and stop worrying about housing for next year. Some students simply ignored the advice and carried on looking, myself included. Others waited…and waited, until our beloved welfare staff decided to publish the housing list – a week and a day

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ohn Paul II maintained the Church’s outdated views on abortion, stating that it is morally unacceptable even in cases of rape, incest, and even to save the mother’s life. You would have thought that a man so against abortion would be positive about contraception, but according to John Paul II, contraception too is evil and should not be used. Even sterilization is out, and is unavailable in some areas where the hospitals are run or strongly influenced by the Vatican.

Euthanasia of course, is unacceptable; apparently nobody has the right to choose to have a pain-free death. Divorce is forbidden, and John Paul II refused to lift the insistence on celibacy for priests. Oh, and stem cell research, which offers breakthroughs in treatments for numerous diseases, including Parkinson’s, which the Pope himself suffered from, is also evil and dangerous.

Perhaps the most shocking of John Paul II’s statements was concerning priestly paedophilia. He claimed that “salvation and forgiveness” should be used to treat the criminals involved, insisting that they be examined in special, secret Catholic courts. Referring to these criminals, he stated, “a great work of

art may be blemished, but its beauty remains.” Right.

So why, I ask myself, has the world fallen in love with this man?

Everybody is lining up to say how fantastic and caring he was, and how much he did for the Church, and the world in general; the media has gone wild, ranting on and on about him, without much sign of objectivity at all!

If George W. Bush suddenly died, would the media proclaim him to be a linguistic genius and political mastermind? I seriously doubt it. If JeanMarie Le Pen, leader of the xenophobic Front National in France, died, would he be remembered as warmhearted and open? I think not. So why is the Pope an exception? Fine, write about the good deeds he did. Talk about his travelling, his devoutness, his humility. All I ask is that his more controversial actions are mentioned as well; to give the full, honest picture.

As the media is constantly insisting that it tells the truth, it should do just that; tell the truth, and the whole truth, even about someone as powerful and world famous as the Pope. Don’t the public deserve to know the full story, so they can decide for themselves whether or not they like him? Me, I still prefer Ghandi.

will resent the fact they have to learn it. There is not enough emphasis placed on learning foreign languages in our schools, so students believe they do not have to make the effort. If there was a choice about which language to learn, a choice that isn’t ‘French’ or ‘German’, then kids will not only want to learn the subject more as a result of greater interest – they will also develop a better sense of other parts of the world; of countries that take longer than a 90 minute train ride to get to.

Language can be viewed as the ‘gateway into culture’. It is so much easier to comprehend another culture if one can speak the language. We also need to understand the culture in order for better communication and trading links, and to avert any future political turmoil between China and the West, particularly the European Union. It is healthy to increase the language variation in schools for motivating student participation levels.

While learning a European language no longer seems exotic, learning Chinese opens up a doorway to another side of the world. Its language and culture are unknown and

therefore may prove to be exciting territory.

China is the largest growing economy in the world today. Although there is much progress to be made, that achieved so far is designed to allow China to resume its role as the regional power in Asia and to make up for the humiliations and mistakes of the past. Such a view of China does not stop the United States from regarding it, in President Bush’s words, as a “strategic competitor”. It appears inevitable that the expanding Chinese market is one Britain and the EU will want to exploit, and language is essential in this process. Whilst Chinese is the world’s most spoken first language - purely because of China’s huge population of 1.3 billion - English is the global language. The reasons for this are simple: the British Empire once stretched across the globe, and it was therefore important for all members of the Empire, or at least their rulers to speak the same language.

In a globalised world Empires no longer exist, but surely it is still prudent to be able to communicate with our trading partners. Economic ties

also lead to more civil and political agreements which could prove invaluable in tackling China’s abysmal human rights record. The Taiwan issue, one that would seem to pit the United States against the Chinese in a conflict over Taiwan’s independence, will also need to be addressed in the future. The ability to communicate with the Chinese will make crisis prevention an easier task in the future world politics.

The government recently declared that it would be spending another £115million on providing foreign language teaching in British schools. Britain has constantly been viewed as ‘laggards’ in Europe, as most just speak the mother tongue and nothing else. Learning Chinese will prove imperative for any nation that wants to take full advantage of the wider global economy. It will expand our cultural horizons, invaluable in the current nationalist climate.

It will not only allow one to interact with over a billion people, but will also ensure that the Friday night takeaway ordering is never an exercise in controlled restraint as it is now.

students rushing the stage, grabbing the list and stealing away into the night. Such desperation is understandable, but not justified. It might seem like a stunt like this is the only way to guarantee a house, but what everyone needs to remember is that there are plenty of houses in Norwich - more than enough for all those who cram into the lecture theatre once a year.

Looking through the list, my flatmates and I noticed several houses that we had already seen – and rejected.

“An immaculately presented semidetached house...”

There has to be a law against landlords blatantly lying. This house was not immaculately presented, unless the landlord is referring to himself. In fact this house was nothing short of scary. Upon entering we were all equally overwhelmed by the Hyacinth Bucket-style pink flowery wallpaper with matching carpet and a not-so-matching sofa; not even “Ah, a house of boys!” was valid as an excuse. Upstairs was even worse; one boy had moved out, mysteriously leaving his moderately sized room as a study. Then, as we were informed, his

mattress had been moved into the box room. This box room of theirs was probably not used for storing boxes, or even a poor student who had picked the shortest straw, because (once you had managed to push the door open enough to poke your head around the corner) all that could be seen was a carpet-less room with two bare mattresses placed side by side. We didn’t ask…

Something else we didn’t ask, but had explained to us by a grinning member of the current household, was why the conifer trees at the bottom of the garden appeared to be verging on charcoal. Unfortunately, during their first week at the house some local school kids had decided to throw petrol bombs into the garden.

Nice.

could probably be explained by the pungent smell of weed throughout the house.

Fortunately, after seeing a series of properties not quite as bad as that one, we found a house we felt we could call home. And, after rushing around sorting out contracts, deposits and letters from guarantors (“No, it’s not that I won’t pay the rent, it’s just in case I disappear or something”) in time for Easter, there is something inside me that still wonders whether this is really the end of the great housing kafuffle.

After you get over the fact that you’ve got a room in a house, you start thinking about the other people living with you. We had been warned by the Advice Centre, and every now and again I do wonder about the dearly loved housemates that I have chosen to be my own. One keeps mentioning something about adopting stray cats, and the other two have talked about renting a spare room out to squatters and/or tramps on a weekby-week basis to make some extra cash. They must be joking. It must be illegal. Oh please God, please may it be illegal.

oncile the Jewish people and the Catholic Church. And when he was shot in an attempted assassination, he visited and forgave the would-be assassin (how nice).

But he also refused to use the Royal “we”, and never wore the Papal Tiara, to show that he was God’s humble servant (or maybe he was just worried about looking camp). So although he did good things in his lifetime, everyone is failing to mention his other activities and opinions. Nobody is bringing up his stance on homosexuality, sexual equality, AIDS, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, divorce, celibacy or priestly paedophilia. So let’s just recap on those subject areas shall we?

Things were looking up for the homosexual community in the 1970s, when it appeared the Vatican were becoming more liberal minded; even suggesting that homosexuals deserved compassion and understanding. John Paul II wiped those hopes out when he declared in 1986 that homosexuality was “an objective disorder” and that special attention should be paid to homosexuals, but only to ensure that they were not “led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexuality is a morally acceptable option. It is not.” Then, in

1992, when gay rights initiatives started to appear on US ballot papers he re-affirmed his position by stating that the “practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives of a large number of people”. As if his position were not already clear enough, he announced in 2003 that gay marriage was an “ideology of evil”, threatening the very fabric of society.

How about women? Well since becoming Pope in 1978, John Paul II declared repeatedly that men are made in Christ’s image, while women are just there for breeding, and he was firmly against the ordination of women throughout his Papacy; that’s a check in the sexist box as well.

Although the Vatican helps AIDS victims worldwide, the only advice that they will offer to avoid getting HIV is to abstain from sexual activity altogether.

John Paul II refused to condone the use of condoms to stop the spread of this awful disease. Not only this, he announced publicly that condoms don’t stop the transmission of HIV, claiming that there are tiny holes in condoms, which allow the virus to pass through. Not only was this declaration scientifically inaccurate, it no doubt led to hundreds more innocent people being infected. Thank you, Mr Pope.

economy. The country has recently become the EU’s largest trading partner, and this is set to continue. By 2007 Shanghai will possess the world’s tallest building, one that will not look out of place in an already clustered skyline. The arms embargo that currently exists to prevent China stockpiling weaponry, as a result of the Tiananmen Square massacre, is being re-negotiated by the European Commission in order to further our trade ties with China, despite U.S. pressure to uphold the sanctions.

However, will children be learning Cantonese or Mandarin by 2010 - the time the Chancellor anticipates our exports to China to quadruple?

With only 4000 GCSE students entered for Cantonese or Mandarin in the last year (and most of these are people of Chinese descent, learning the tongue of their ancestral country) the alleged failing popularity of the French language still boasts 320,000 entries, many of which are taking the subject merely because it is compulsory. The stereotypes that exist within our society about the French are hardly conducive to making a subject interesting for pupils, many of whom before the end of the Spring Semester.

The majority of first years will have attended the housing meeting, and sat for nearly an hour and a half through one particularly ‘unique’ fire safety video – obviously created back in the day, when videos were the modcon – purely to get their hands on the precious list.

When the list was eventually handed out those not involved in the preceding riotous event will have witnessed something only expected when free beer or food is offered to students. Herds of house-less students bombarded the stage of lecture theatre one – a few even turning and jubilantly waving the precious list in the air, presumably in the direction of their prospective housemates, kindly waiting at the back of the room. (I’m not sure what the scenes were like in Lecture Theatre two – perhaps we could ask the Eurovision-presentertype bloke who had kept us up-to-date beforehand?)

We were quite proud of the fact that we had managed to hold on for 90 minutes and get and our hands on the list. There are stories of terrified

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ot only did we not want to rent the house, but we did not even want to be in it for a second longer. The four of us looked around with wide-eyes and made a dive for the front door, whilst the bemused tour-guide continued to describe how the lit conifers had looked like “pretty candles” in the garden. This comment

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A day of mourning in the Vatican The death of Pope John Paul II saw millions of people descend on the minute country of Vatican City to glimpse his body for the last time. Laura Cobb was among them. In an emotional few days she took in the sights and sounds of the millions who went to mourn, and those who just went for the show.

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djacent to the Church of St Peter stands the Vatican Apartments.

In comparison to the pomp and splendor of San Pietro, the building is modest, bare and even basic in its appearance. It is lined with thirty or so windows, each equipped with its own unique Italian style shutter.

It was directly below these windows that the thousands had flocked, and it was here that we stood for hours under the fading spring sun, on the first weekend after Easter, awaiting the death of Pope John Paul II. We walked to the Vatican through the back way, attempting to avoid the crowds which stopped and started, pressing their way into the square in orderly, British queues. The media had already marked its presence on what was surely the saddest days in the Catholic calendar in a long time. We broke through crowds of T.V. crews, some standing atop crumbling walls, making reports and taping the commotion with fervour.

Some let their cables pass over the shoulders and wind through the legs of The Virgin Mary, who stood in stone. There were rows of rancid portaloos and clumps of squashed little cameramen trying to peer up my skirt.

The streets heaved with pilgrims and natives alike. The traffic was disrupted by people trying desperately to tame the throngs of beeping cars and shouting pedestrians. On the smooth, paved path leading to the Vatican, stalls were selling memorabilia. One had a stack of china plates displaying fading prints of the Pope with a full head of hair. Another had strings of rosary beads, swaying in the wind.

The Pope had fallen into rapid decline since February 1st, and images of him in fading health and flagging ability were frequently pictured in the worldwide press and television. For Catholics the death of the Pope is like that of a family friend, and watching him become increasingly infirm must have been incredibly painful. The Pope had communicated to his aids that he wished to confront death in the same manner as Jesus, who struggled until his last breath and did not surrender.

I have been to the Vatican City before and the tourists usually gather like small colonies of ants, collecting in the corners of the square or under the shade of a pillar. It is always busy, but discreetly so, and offers itself in a way that makes the visitor feel entirely alone, a tiny tinny voice reverberating off the thundering walls. On the weekend of the Pope’s death it seemed every Roman had left their homes and brought their families to offer a last farewell to the Papa.

The crowds spread like the sea, and on tiptoes all I could see was a wash of dark heads.

The only space was a thin ring which spread directly below the apartments; this was avoided by the crowds as it was the only place where it was impossible to view the Pope’s window.

People stood tightly in compact clusters, all with heads tilted up, watching for the slightest flutter of a drape, or passing of a distant shadow.

The mood in the square, although unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before, was not as the media described. The pictures that would flash on rotation across the news that night would show crowds in tears, or silent awe. Of course some were stood in silent prayer, a few were quietly weeping, but many were laughing, chatting, texting and smoking, stopping at the Vatican laden with bags after spending the day shopping.

The crowds were split with those silenced and in admiration of the occasion, and those a bit indifferent. A woman stood weeping beside me and lifted her son above the crowds to face the Pope’s window, asking him to bid “Ciao” to “Papa“. Close by nuns stood in constellation, draped in grey and giggling with a group of monks; seemingly the most nonchalant about the whole affair.

Unlike in Britain where middle-aged women howled in the streets in memory of Diana, the Italian tone of mourning was discreet. Although many sat in groups and did not pray, no one felt

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obliged to pay their respects through tears or loud expression. Most of us watched and waited and the atmosphere became almost festival-like, groups of every sort of person, sitting in appreciation of the same occurrence. A group of

American students were even seated with sleeping bags and flasks. From living in a country swamped in a superficial obsession with celebrity, it was remarkable to be part of a worship and adoration of someone so removed from vanity.

he Vatican was awash with those eager to pay their last respects to “Papa”, and hordes of people spilled over and into each other, squashing toes and elbowing ribs in the process. However, a soft and peaceful hush seemed to cling to the spring air, until around four o’clock, when the stillness was punctuated by the waves of chants. I’ll never forget the way the crowd shivered with the words, “Oh Karol”, the Pope’s real name, followed by a thunderous ripple of applause over and over again. Later we would hear that the Pope had communicated to his assistants that he had heard the chants and was thankful for the enormous attendance. No one was told this at the time.

Cameras were prohibited from the square, yet reporters crept in, eager to find a unique angle or voice with which to capture the moment.

Those from the Vatican press listened anxiously for an articulate Italian tongue. English journalists haggled for quotes with their fellow speakers.

Italy is a catholic country and their religion is shared by young and old. Pictures of Pope John Paul II hang in restaurants and shops between photos of footballers and Coca Cola icemakers.

In the hours we spent in the St Peter’s Square, it was incredible to see men in their tight jeans and waxed leathers, eyebrows plucked and hair coiffured, praying for their Papa.

Word had spread that when the Pope passed, a tolling of bells would sound through the Vatican and then reverberate through the city by means of the many churches. Frequently the bells sound to indicate the time, and all eyes would leap theatrically from gazing at the Pope’s apartment window to momentarily staring at the clock. The ambience was threatening and tense, as though a dark cloud was looming over Rome, and there was a sense that we were all naively waiting for something that had already happened.

Vatican City is the world’s smallest country, with its own government, police force and media.

That weekend the Vatican press office was kept in constant demand with journalists requests for information. The crowds too were desperate for insight into the Pope’s condition, and there were constant whispers both in the press and through the square that he had passed and the masses had not been told.

It was difficult to know when to leave. It was as though we feared moving from the tiled stone we were set in, in case the moment we squeezed our way through the crowds and into an endless toilet queue, would be the moment the bells rung sincerely.

The tube trains for San Pietro were swamped with those citizens eager to bid a final goodbye to their Papa. In our hotel room, CNN covered every detail of what would become the Pope’s final hours and the particulars of his ailments.

That evening, after hours of waiting and watching, Pope John Paul II died at 9.37pm. The bell was rung and the city raised its head to the sound, then offered it down in praise.

Roman legend has it that the night before Julius Caesar was assassinated, the city quaked with a thunderstorm. As a consequence, Italians view extreme and unexpected weather with suspicion, associating it gravely with death. On command, the night before the Pope passed away, Rome had shook and shuddered with thunder and rain.

The next day we watched cable television and the professions of grief were remarkable.

MTV offered a text service allowing viewers to express their feelings of grief. Teenagers as young as fourteen declared their sorrow for a Father who had changed their lives, touching upon the well-being of every young person.

The following day we flew home. Tired and depleted I switched on local radio, anticipating a similar, sympathetic, agreement in sadness. The DJ tells me to expect a “slowed down show”, as “we’re grieving“. Apparently the attorney who saved OJ Simpson from jail had died.

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The Conceptions of Poverty The Economics of Poverty One of the most acclaimed BBC correspondents, Fergal Keane has witnessed war in Sudan and genocide in Rwanda, while his recent autobiography addresses his personal conflict with alcohol. On a recent visit to the literary festival, he talked to Philip Sainty about his concerns for the future of journalism and of Africa.

Photo: Philp Banks

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aving started his career in journalism on the Limerick Leader and Chronicle in 1979, Fergal Keane went on to work for the BBC in Northern Ireland, Africa and the Balkans. He has earned many awards for dedication to his trade, including a BAFTA and the Index on Censorship Award for Outstanding Commitment to Journalistic Integrity. The latter alone would qualify him to comment on the direction of the modern media; when it is combined with a career that spans more than twenty-five years and has involved all aspects of journalism, from print to broadcast, he is an undisputed authority. His latest book, ‘all of these people’ signals a departure from his previous works, focusing on the relationships that have been forged throughout his life. The lucid style that enabled him to provide salient comment on atrocities like Rwanda has facilitated an approach to personal issues that many writers would probably avoid.

While the focus is on the alcoholism from which both

he and his father suffered, there is no glamour or condemnation, just a fluid account that moves

journalists, the lack of engagement with the news as a source of information is potentially damaged, not

people with great expertise, but we now live in an age with instant decisions and instant deadlines, and all in a 24 hour period, so that the space for the portal of the informed is diminished. You can’t subcontract all the expertise, there’s go to be space for the informed opinion.”

When he went to Rwanda in 1984, it was a pivotal moment in his career. The atrocities were overshadowed by the culmination of apartheid and, while at the time he was working for BBC radio, he found himself reporting on Rwanda for Panorama. “I knew ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ – you know Sigourney Weaver – I’d been listening to Focus on Africa, for the Beeb, but it was background noise. When the genocide started, I remember going to the news office that was next door to us and seeing bodies going down the river. I thought ‘God, that looks bad’, but we didn’t really pick up on the significance of what was going on.” His presence in Rwanda was purely circumstantial: “I was a radio reporter and I told them that I was a radio reporter. So, at the time, when Panorama approached me I just thought it was a chance to prove myself on TV. I didn’t think ‘there is a genocide and I’m going to go and cover it’, which was very naive of me.”

Since Rwanda, he has persevered with raising issues relating to Africa and development. With the current interest surrounding campaigns like Make Poverty History and the charitable actions that awoke from the Asian Tsunami, he has clear ideas on how to ensure that knowledge of these issues gets better and we don’t start to suffer from ‘compassion fatigue’. “You get into this business of making people feel awful by presenting them with a particular image on television, but no understanding of what the problem actually is. Darfur, for example, seems to be perceived as one of these things that just happens in Africa and there’s no attention paid to the political and economic ideas that make these things happen and they have got to be addressed.”

He is clear about the relationship the media has when it comes to raising awareness of issues and people’s apparent lack of engagement with them: “I don’t think people are unwilling to understand these problems, I think we [the media] have failed to make them understand. I talked to a lot of people in Nairobi at a conference about African Identity and they all think that Make Poverty History and The Campaign for Trade Justice are great things, but we’ve got to understand why Africa’s in the state it is in and what we’ve done to contribute to that. We’ve also got to understand that Africans are remarkably talented and ingenious and if we keep going with these images of the fly-speckled baby and the white angel of mercy always having to descend into the middle of it, then we’re never going to allow Africans their proper dignity and proper dignity is at the root of allowing Africans to rebuild their continent.”

Patronising, pre-Apartheid notions of the childlike African occur throughout his various works, a notion that people were reluctant to let go of and a perception that has to be addressed. He feels that his role in this process is to start portraying the Africa with which people in the west can relate to equitably. Economic development must adjoin conceptual development amongst the rich world. It is not just the new generation of journalists that are intrinsic to this process, but all of us: “It is critical that this generation, that grows up in the shadow of global terrorism – which is out there and is very terrifying, but not as terrifying as people are led to believe – realises that there’s got to be space for a new idealism. Don’t shy away from that word. People go on about ‘realpolitik’, I believe in ‘real idealism’: pick up small things that you can achieve something on and build on them. To set out to change the world means you will be defeated at the first hurdle; but to win little battles is certainly achievable.”

“You find if you go into a remote African conflict, every warlord will have a satellite phone; they have the numbers and the people to call, so they can get their side of the story across first.”

between the pleasurable experiences in life and those that are potentially destructive.

Despite an ostensibly dark subject matter, he continually asserts that he is an optimist and this is in no way contradicted by his approach to questions about his experience. His responses are always future-orientated and never dwell on problems, only solutions. In an account of his first job, as a junior on the Limerick Leader and Chronicle, Keane tells how his first Editor threatened to throw him out of the window for misattributing a quote. Such attention to the craft is, Keane feels, being lost amongst the revolutions of the new media, “A lot of people now aspiring to the industry – and I don’t want to sound like an old phogey – seem to be motivated by the drive to be famous.

They’ve lost the intellectual curiosity and there’s an absence of an engagement with the world of words, which I really think has to be addressed.”

Possibly, this is derived from the way(s) in which the media is perceived by many people.

In career terms, it can seem a glamorous solution to the often perplexing question “What do I want to do with my life?”

Without the initial stimu“Proper dignity is at the root of allowing Africans to rebuild their continent.” lus of clarified enquiry for

least because of the ingenuity of the modern world “The emerging crisis, as I can see it, is in information. There is a phenomenal amount of information coming in and the problem is twofold. We’re more susceptible to propaganda, not just what people on the left or liberals might see as Big Government propaganda; small guerrilla groups are now incredibly sophisticated; lobby groups are now remarkably attuned to the 24 hour news cycle, if you consider the recent events involving the hostages taken in Iraq and the easy way they managed to get their images aired.You find if you go into a remote African conflict, every warlord will have a satellite phone; they have the numbers and the people to call, so they can get their side of the story across first.”

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is first Front Page story at the Limerick was about a group of African men who had been refused entry to a local nightclub because of their colour. The story was portentous of a career that was to be entwined with the African continent. Keane’s first encounter with Africa was the ‘Ladybird book of Africa’, which he read as a child. It was the first time he had encountered segregation and it instilled in him an interest of the country.

He first visited the continent in 1983, when he went to Sudan and “glimpsed one of the longest running conflicts in the history of that country”. He was also there for the dissolution of Apartheid. He found that the problems of revealing the crisis in Sudan were akin to his later experience with Rwanda: “Similar to Rwanda, there was a massive knowledge deficit. I think that’s my main critique now of foreign news; I’m not saying it has always been done by

Fergal Keane’s book all of these people, published by Harper Collins, is available to buy now.

Putting an end to poverty is within the grasp of this generation, argues Special Advisor to the UN and esteemed development economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs in his new book The End of Poverty. He spoke to Philip Sainty about what it will take for the rich world to meet their commitments to the poor.

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onceptualising the suffering of the 30,000 people who die in the world every day as a direct result of extreme poverty is not an easy task. Surprising then, that a book entitled The End of Poverty: How we can make it happen in our lifetime, which suggests a brevity of information, is so approachable, concise and genuinely uplifting.

Taking a moment to relax from an arduous publicity tour that incorporates an address to the LSE (which sold out of 450 tickets in four hours), Professor Jeffrey Sachs tells us how he hopes the book will “…clarify what I think is a pretty confusing situation for a lot of people.”

Potentially confusing, yes, but Sachs’ succinct style conveys the technical details of global economics with remarkable clarity. Beginning by charting the various economic careers of the world’s countries, Professor Sachs’ book provides an engaging account of why some countries have fared better than others and highlights the limitations of development economics, both in the way it is taught and the way it is employed. By drawing parallels with his wife’s medical training, he recommends a clinical approach, where problems are assessed individually in order to ‘prescribe’ a cure.

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is employed throughout the book as a touchstone for this process. Widely accepted as the ‘Father’ of economics during the enlightenment, Smith is largely remembered as the pioneer of free trade and open markets – the idea that trade should occur without intervention from governments or the hindrance of legislature – and, as such, was heralded during the economic boom of the 80’s. Free Trade is now regarded as the current bugbear of the developing world and, in such a light, citing Smith in a work about ending poverty – a goal that necessitates global financial intervention – may seem an anachronism or, at worse, irrelevant.

Sachs’ motivation for citing Smith could be regarded as an attempt to appease his academic audience, but as the book progresses, Sachs highlights just how much of Smith has been forgotten and, just as Smith was seized on during the 80’s for advocating free trade, Sachs uses the work to provide lessons from the enlightenment that are just as pertinent to the issue of development. Remarking how fitting it is that this year’s G8 summit should be held in Scotland, the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment, he answers the question of relevancy with great enthusiasm: “Adam Smith said many wise things and he was generally remembered for things he didn’t believe, rather than what he did believe. Yes he did believe in free-markets; but he was wiser than this simple belief that free markets could solve all the world’s problems. He tells us right at the beginning of the Wealth of Nations, how some regions are really disadvantaged compared to others. That’s a very basic point, because we like to pretend that everyone’s running the same race, but some people are facing challenges that we don’t have to face, and we should acknowledge that and help them to do it.”

Challenges that are faced by the developing world are clearly encapsulated in the notion of the ‘ladder of development’. Sachs takes us through the various stages on the ladder that the different regions in the world are on and explains the factors that have put them there. The most impoverished regions of the world are hampered by their location, endemic to which are diseases, such as AIDS and malaria, and geographical situations that support only meagre agriculture with the result that they do not even make it on to the first rung. Without getting this first foot on the ladder, there is no hope for ascension, which means that there is no hope of developing the kind of industry they would need to cure their problems; they are truly ensconced in the poverty trap.

Geography is one of the key elements of poverty and a notion to which Sachs continually returns.

Far from an opponent of free trade, he emphasises how other factors must be taken into consideration: “Free Trade is not enough; markets are not enough.

Even if you are a believer in free trade, don’t believe

that they are the miracle solution. I am a believer in open trade and I think that it can do a lot of good but it doesn’t reach places where the poorest of the poor live with any regularity. It certainly doesn’t reach them fast enough and powerfully enough to reach them out of the poverty trap.” Not only does he explain the importance of geography and how it has shaped the successes and failures of countries to

signifier of a larger problem: “What concerns me more than Mr. Wolfowitz is the position of the US Government, which I regard as no part of the global consensus right now on how to help the poorest countries and is not doing the job that needs to be done especially around development assistance.

They are not making concrete efforts towards reaching 0.7% of GNP, which is just what they promised

sometimes rather casually accepting the conditions of the poorest countries, is because the countries are judged mainly by macroeconomic sustainability.

If prices in a country are stable, then they [the IMF] say that the country is doing well, even if the country is suffering from hunger and disease. To me that’s not enough. Let’s not judge the IMF by price stability, let’s judge the IMF and the World Bank and the other institutions by achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In other words: force them to confront the real situations of these countries. We need accountability; we have a set of goals that all 191 member countries of the United Nations have adopted, that the IMF and World Bank – at least rhetorically – have adopted, that the UN agencies and the donor agencies – in principal – have adopted. If we took those goals seriously as benchmarks, so that the IMF stopped thinking only about price stability in Ethiopia but thinks about all the children that are dying; that the World Bank stops thinking about specific projects, but asks whether extreme poverty, hunger and disease are being bought under control, then behaviour would change and the recognition that we need more financial help from the rich world directed at the practical investments that could help to solve very practical problems. The more we have a consensus on this, the more we are going to have a coherent approach.”

These practical solutions form the core of Sachs’ recommendations, which, in honour of the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers he admires, he has termed “Global Enlightenment”. By doing so, he has synthesised Smith’s approach with the new era of global development, an era which needs to rise up to many new forms of cooperation and understanding.

“What concerns me is the position of the US government, which I regard as no part of the global consensus right now on how to help the poorest countries.” get on the ladder of development, his experience has made it of central concern to his clinical approach to economic assessment. During his twenty-five year career, he has tackled Bolivia’s hyperinflation, Poland’s graduation from a socialist to a market economy and the dissolution of the USSR. He advised the Bush Snr Government to aid post-Cold War Russia in its rise out of economic stagnation, but the advice was rebuffed due, in part, to a defence administration led by Paul Wolfowitz, that continued to see Russia as a threat, despite the end of the Cold War.

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olfowiz was recently a controversial appointment as head of the World Bank. Considering the history, was Professor Sachs concerned about the appointment? “I haven’t spoken to Mr. Wolfowitz since he got the nomination and appointment. I have sent him a copy of the book and I hope that he’s reading it. We don’t know how well he’ll do with the World Bank, as this has never been his area, which concerns me a lot because I don’t think this is the kind of job where one should appoint people without experience and he doesn’t have the right kind of experience. But he’s there; so I’m hoping that he will come to some accurate ideas.” For Sachs, though, the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz is not the most concerning thing, rather it is a small

to do and they’re not living up to it. This is a very serious problem for the US and for the world because the US thinks it can solve all the problems through military approaches and this is going to make the world more dangerous for everybody.”

Committing 0.7% of a country’s turnover (GNP) to fight poverty is something which each of the 191 UN member countries have pledged to do. The aim is to halve extreme poverty by 2015 and eliminate it by 2025. At the moment, the US, Britain and others are not on target for fulfilling this quota. In one of the most resonant chapters, Sachs describes how the Bush tax cuts (which have been of the greatest benefit to households earning in excess of $200,000) would have fulfilled the US’ commitment to the MDG on their own. Likewise, the Iraq war cost as much in the first year as the 0.7% commitment required. For Sachs, commitment to the MDG is the binding promise between the member states, the obligations of which must be fulfilled if extreme poverty is to be eliminated.

Currently, however, the criteria for economic assessment and changes in policy need to be addressed: “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) tells these countries to hold down their spending on health and education because that’s all they have, without realising that what it should be doing is telling the rich countries to help those countries do a lot more and the reason the IMF takes that view,

The End Of Poverty: How we can make it happen in our lifetime is published by Penguin and is available now.

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Vote or Die...from MRSA When we found out that the election was on the 5th of May, we had to wait a couple of weeks before Tony Blair officially announced it. Now that campaigning is in full swing, Simon Sheridan tries to deflate the balloon of apathy with the needle of importance in an in-depth look at all the election tid-bits.

Labour * The economy speaks for itself. Labour will be strongest in this area, as there is much evidence of improvements in public services. * Therefore, the campaign focuses on more compassionate issues, namely Africa, arms control and HIV treatment.

The International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, has been vocal in his desire to make poverty a cen-

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tral issue of the next Labour government, and Blair’s Commission for Africa is also a response to public concern over poverty. * Labour is also keen to cite its reputation for education, with its ‘parents as partners’ initiative aimed at persuading sections of the middle class to vote for them. * Labour and the major parties are keeping quiet about the EU during the campaign. Quite simply the EU does not strike a chord with voters.

eeing as the General Election is only just around the corner, it would be useful to highlight what we should be voting for, and what we should be wary of when casting our ballot.

The next general election is looming ever closer, and it is therefore imperative for everyone to assess what it is they want from their representatives. The political field has been awash with controversy and debate for a number of years now, yet it is somewhat disheartening for some to find Tony Blair is still Prime Minister, despite being proven to have lied about Saddam Hussein’s WMD, or more pertinently, the lack of them. While this is a subject the PM continues to distance himself from, any victory for Labour will allow him to finally brush the whole sorry situation under the carpet, as George W. Bush has done in America.

The fact that he will win as a result of a disgracefully inefficient Conservative Party or a ‘nice, but not fit for governing’ Liberal Democrat Party will not make a jot of difference to Blair himself. The jumping on the bandwagon of Michael Howard’s latest gaffe is evidence enough of this happening…

Howard Flight, now ex-Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party, was not at his most astute when he told a private investors group about Tory plans to cut money from mainline public services.

Their election campaign is based on a tax cut, but this will be mainly funded through reducing the civil service and not by taking money from health and education. The British public will not stand for that. It is for this reason that Michael Howard’s reaction in sacking Flight was so desperate, but it is also the reason for Labour’s hypocritical yet politically judicious move to criticise the Tories for all they are worth. A succession of Labour MPs, from backbenchers to Cabinet ministers appeared on television in a state of amused vigour, condemning Conservative lies and proudly expounding their view it was all part of the Tory plan – essentially to lie to the electorate in order to regain power.

However, there are some notable flaws in this line of argument. Firstly it is somewhat dubious to claim that the Tories, despite their history of annoying the public, would ever tell such a baldfaced lie. The difference between Howard Flight’s tax cut and the actual Conservative manifesto is

Conservative * Crime and immigration are the Tory Party’s major electoral issues. Rising crime rates in inner cities and ‘yob’ culture across the country will be sure to persuade some voters that Michael Howard can make their neighbourhoods safer. * This leads into immigration policy, with the Conservatives proposing a points-based system allowing only worthwhile immigrants into the country.

some £30billion, and this is based on policy over several years, not one massive cut as soon as they take office. It hardly seems likely the Party would raise the cut by some 500% upon seizing power, although some changing of the figures is inevitable. However, the whole issue throws up a number of questions about elections in general, namely the habit of politicians to deceive the public. Labour has wasted no time in criticising the Tories, but they can hardly claim to be any more honest than the Conservative Party.

For example, in the 2001 Labour election manifesto a small but highly important sentence illustrates this point rather nicely. It says, “…we remain committed against the introduction of university top-up fees…”. This one has already been broken, and the Iraq War of 2003 represents

Once again this will bode well with many voters across the country as the tabloid press grossly exaggerates the ‘problem’ of immigration. * As far as education is concerned, the Tories are trying to strike a chord with the current school discipline crisis. They will also introduce a voucher scheme which will allow some families to reclaim their state education tax in order to go private. A similar scheme may be introduced for healthcare as well.

Liberal Democrats * The Lib Dems once again are using tax as a key issue. They will scrap council tax, instead introducing a local income tax, making the system fairer. They may also raise the level of national income tax to facilitate investment in health and education. * This money will be used to fund over 20,000 new teachers and

New Labour has certainly made our lives better – when we vote we must decide whether these improvements were worth the cost.

It’s a tough question. A democratic government should not have to appeal to the public’s sense of perspective, as Peter Hain, Labour MP and Leader of the House did in a recent article in The Guardian. He feels it proper to not vote for the Liberal Democrats as doing so will mean a Conservative victory. Let us forget for a second about this gross breach of the democratic standard and reflect for a minute on why we vote in the first place. We vote for a party who we deem will meet our needs and wants in the 5 years to come. We should not have to ‘weigh up’ the options as we are constantly compelled to do.

Why should we be forced to choose between one

classroom assistants, in order to cut class sizes. The Lib Dems will also repeal tuition fees for university education. * In the foreign policy arena, the Liberal Democrats will be distinctly European in their approach. Their Foreign Affairs spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell was essentially the only MP to mount a full and consistent criticism of the Iraq War in PMQs and it can be expected they will be highly sensitive to public opinion when dealing with any such issues again.

particularly those involving guns. Although the criminals themselves are clearly the most responsible, it must be remembered that they operate in an environment that allows them to do so, whether it is lack of decent policing or the fact they have no other way to make money or entertain themselves. The current ‘Yob’ culture in many British towns and cities is a result of New Labour policies. Ignoring issues such as crime will cost the party dearly, and is perhaps the only area where the Conservative Party can claim to be ahead of their rivals.

Once again the Tory party’s pandering to those of a nationalist persuasion is evidence that many within Britain are not comfortable with foreign people living and working here. It can and has been argued that the recent ‘chav’ phenome-

Labour has done much to improve inner city areas, but the question is how much difference have they made? Crime is perhaps the only area where the Conservatives can claim to be ahead of their rivals. another issue in which Blair and his Cabinet lied in order to force through an unpopular policy. This is the most interesting parallel to the current Tory predicament. Those Labour MPs who tried to highlight the lie, or opposed the war on other grounds, were summarily forced away from the public view. Robin Cook resigned as Leader of the House; Clare Short tried her best to persuade MPs but failed. These are all people who were vilified for ‘telling the truth’ by their party, something Howard Flight will be very familiar with. These are the officials we should be trusting.

Of course, the Iraq War was a massive issue in the politics of this country, but only insofar as it was highly visible, as war generally is. The criticism over the war has taken much away from the success of New Labour in other social areas, particularly in the economy. The days of Thatcherite ‘boom and bust’ seem over thanks to Gordon Brown’s skilful yet compassionate handling of the economy; the NHS is now finally beginning to improve, having been static or in decline for many years since the Conservatives were in power; school grades continue to increase; and Britain as a whole is improving on its position as a world leader in scientific and technological research.

thing or another? Hain’s article suggests we should vote for Labour because in general they have done a good job. Try telling that to the 100,000 Iraqis who have been killed since the war started. The £10 billion or so we have spent so far on the war would have been much better spent on, well take your pick: better school meals for children; more NHS beds; better homeland security; more policeman on the street; tackling general poverty in inner-city areas and university top-up fees.

The point is that with a few exceptions, each party will simply maintain the country, with either a few improvements or blemishes, depending on their luck in office. Our concern should be choosing a party who will not neglect social institutions (democracy is not about what you as an individual want; it is also about those who are less fortunate than yourself receiving the political support they need). This would rule out the Conservative party almost completely – their harmonising about being the ‘party of the poor’ is a rather naïve attempt at chasing votes. As mentioned, Labour has done much to improve the inner city areas, but the question is how much difference have they made? In 8 years crime rates are up,

non is a response by many young British working class people to the rise in the visibility of other cultural manifestations, most notably hip-hop.

While this is not simple racism, it should be remembered that the current nationalistic tone of the country is one that, for various reasons, has flourished under Labour. Far from being egalitarian in their approach, Blair’s government has been socially divisive, whether this is between various classes, races or religions. The War in Iraq has alienated many Muslim voters who would ordinarily vote Labour. Constituency seats such as Bethnal Green are under threat because of this.

The MP George Galloway, expelled from the Labour Party for protesting the war, is running for this seat as a Respect candidate, and the Muslim population in this area may well put him in office as a result of one botched Labour policy. This phenomenon will be apparent in other ‘swing’ constituencies, such as Cardiff Central, which has the highest percentage of student voters in the country.

Young people will be a key factor in the election, and it would do us all good to make our voices heard.

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Teeing off in Tashkent Concrete’s Sam Webber recently met one of the most iconic British ambassadors for many years. As the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray tried to reverse decades of inequality and human rights abuses in the resource-rich, but desperately poor central Asian country. But some were adamant he not succeed... fed”. There is no pay at all to those under age, so child labour is basically insisted upon by the state.

Murray insists that much of the cotton in our clothes would be Uzbek cotton, but adds that it is not written on a clothes label where the cotton is from, consequently the consumer cannot boycott a particular brand if there is no way of telling the origin of the cotton. Apparently all cotton pur-

of his dead body, which Murray had analysed.

The wife was later given a sentence of 7 years hard labour for talking out. He later negotiated with the authorities and had her sentence reduced to a fine that the British Embassy paid.

Murray’s willingness to speak out about the horrific conditions in Uzbekistan did not impress his bosses in Whitehall. He immediately telegrammed the Foreign Office once he discov-

“All staff and students are forced to pick cotton for three months. 80 kilos a day or you simply don’t get fed.”

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he former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, visited UEA at the end of last term.

Having risen quickly through the ranks within the Diplomatic Service, it was a shock when he was suspended from the post in November 2004, before finally being laid off in February of this year. He is now standing as an Independent candidate in the seat of Blackburn at the general election to try and get rid of the sitting MP there - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw but more of that later.

Murray spoke at a packed meeting on campus, before going to Livewire to be interviewed, and then talking to Concrete’s Political Editor. He gave an incredible insight into the little known country of Uzbekistan, and highlighted the human rights violations taking place within it.

He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1984, after graduating with an MA in Modern History from Dundee University. Journalists have described his career within the Foreign Office as a “model of upward progress”, and one brief glance at his CV would show how successful his career had been up until his recent dismissal.

Having briefly worked on the South Africa desk at the Foreign Office in Whitehall, he then went to Lagos in Nigeria, and later to Ghana and Poland.

His appointment as an Ambassador, whilst still only in his early 40s, clearly marked the start of even bigger opportunities.

Upon arrival in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, he quickly discovered that very little was expected of him in this new and exciting post.

He states, quite seriously that, “If I’d done absolutely bugger all except play golf, the Foreign Office would have had no difficulties with me at all”. The powers that be clearly picked the wrong man to while away his years on the golf course, because Craig Murray immediately wanted to get to know Uzbekistan and the apparent problems there.

He quickly discovered that the then government comprised of exactly the same people as the government of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan, pre 1989. President Islam Karimov came to power in 1989, and he remains head of state today. Murray learnt that the major industry

chases must go through the Liverpool cotton exchange, so the former Ambassador hints that pressure could be exerted through this channel in the future.

Gold mining is briefly mentioned as the other main industry within Uzbekistan, although Murray stresses that President Karimov, “takes about 10% of gold sales revenue for himself, as his main source of personal income”. Karimov’s daughter, who works in government assisting the privatisation of state owned industries, has also managed to acquire a decent living from simply stealing large chunks of these companies. She now owns the Coca Cola bottling plant in Tashkent, as well as a half of a mobile telephone company. It appears from our far off perspective that corruption is rife within Uzbekistan. Indeed, in their annual Corruption Perception Index, Transparency International ranked Uzbekistan as the 114th most corrupt country in the world along with the likes of Honduras and Zimbabwe.

in Uzbekistan is cotton production, with almost all of the citizens helping out for three months of the year when the cotton is harvested. They are paid roughly $2 per month and have to work 12 hours a day. The numerous cotton farms have never been privatised, so therefore are state owned, with the product being sold for only about 3% of what it actually should be. In neighbouring Kazakhstan where the cotton industry is largely privatised, this is not a problem at all.

Murray spoke movingly about how schools and universities are shut during the cotton harvest; “All staff and students are forced to pick cotton for three months. It’s worse than Dickensian”.

He went on to explain that a police stamp or exit visa is required to leave the cotton farm, so consequently many children born on the farms are unlikely to leave them. He added, “Kids as young as seven are out there picking cotton. 80 kilos a day of raw cotton each or you simply don’t get

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ue to Uzbekistan’s proximity to Afghanistan, the United States set up an air base there in 2001, as the war on terror commenced shortly after 9/11. Prior to the establishment of the air base, the US donated about $30 million each year to Uzbekistan in foreign aid. The annual donation now exceeds $500 million per year.

Murray highlighted that this amount of aid is more than the US gives to the entire region of West Africa. Whether that amount is justified or excessive is a matter of opinion.

As word spread throughout the country of Craig Murray’s genuine concern for the plight of the Uzbeks, he learnt about several horrific cases, many of which he is putting into a book to be published later this year. One such case involved a 69-year-old man who had been boiled alive and had his finger nails removed as a punishment. His wife had taken several photographs

ered that the CIA and MI5 were using intelligence which had been obtained under torture, which proved connections Uzbeks might have had with Osama Bin-Laden. Murray insisted that this was obtained under threats of death, but was told by his bosses that the intelligence was not illegal and indeed, that it was very valuable to the war on terror.

Murray’s Scottish determination never deserted him, and he continued to remind the Foreign Office about this intelligence, until they started to brief against him to the British press.

Clearly by the summer of 2004 everybody in the Foreign Office from the Foreign Secretary down wanted Craig Murray out. When a telegram from Murray was ‘mysteriously’ leaked to the Financial Times in October 2004, Jack Straw had the perfect reason to suspend him from his duties.

Murray does not appear bitter about his predicament, as he sips his coffee in the Blend, immaculately fitted out in a three-piece suit. He is however hoping, perhaps forlornly, to oust Jack Straw from his parliamentary seat of Blackburn.

Murray explains his candidacy further, “It is really just to highlight that Jack Straw took the decision that we should use intelligence material which is obtained through torture. He took that decision.” When asked whom this message is being pitched at, Murray clarifies- “I’m pitching my message at Labour voters who are sick of this government’s foreign policy. These people may have been Labour all their lives, but they don’t like following George Bush” Murray is highly unlikely to become the next Member of Parliament for Blackburn, but he is keen to raise awareness about the plight of the Uzbek people he tried to help whilst he was Ambassador. “Central Asia is a blank one for British people and there are fewer than 100 Uzbeks living in Britain.” Explaining the horrific situation within this far off country is certainly going to be a challenging task.

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CUT SHORT Norfolk County Council could receive £20 mil lion from central gov ernment to encourage improvements in both primary and secondary education; reducing crime; cut ting domestic waste; improving road safety, public transport and much more.

The grant will come as a reward if key goals, which the county is already on target for, are achieved by 2006.

SAVE OUR SPECIES

YOUR MOVE

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he end is drawing near. Soon most of us will have to undertake the ordeal of stripping our walls naked, tippexing over bluetac marks, cunningly positioning furniture over a couple of particularly nasty Baileys and Ribena stains (or maybe that's just me) and lugging our precious belongings to a new address or back home for summer. At this time I ask you all to consider the timeless beauty that is Feng Shui. Yes, dispel from your life the trapping of rampant consumerism! Give your life-force room to roam!! Rid yourself of unnecessary belongings and bestow upon them a new and fulfilling life serving some person needier than yourself!!! Here are some ideas…

Charity shops are always looking for decent quality items, from furniture and appliances (which they might even offer to pick up for you if you ask nicely), to books, bric-a-bric, clothes and shoes.

There are loads of charity shops scattered around Norwich, so pick your favourite!

UEA bookstore will gladly take your books off you for a couple of quid. But you might get a better deal for your old beloved textbooks by advertising them in your department's common room. Or you could just give them to a friend in the year below.

Ebay is an excellent way to get some money from all the random junk you have lying around while trading magazines (available in all newsagents) are better for anything larger like bikes, stereos and microwaves.

Old mobile phones can be taken to any Oxfam shop where they will be recycled and the profits (£5 on average!) used to help fund their campaigns.

Alternatively you can send them freepost to: Oxfam Bring Bring Scheme, Freepost LON16281, London. WC1N 3BR.

There's a very self-centred reason for caring about life around us

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he Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), called for by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, published a mammoth report on March 30th which maintains we have been using ecosystem services unsustainably, and if we continue to abuse these services, the benefits we gain from them will diminish.

Unlike other conservation reports, the MA looks only at how humans can get the economic maximum from ecosystems, ignoring biodiversity's inherent value. Despite how we distance ourselves from the natural world we are heavily reliant upon it and the services it provides. The wood that made this paper came from a forest, the clothes we wear come from cotton plants, the water we drink is biologically regulated and the composition of the air we breath is maintained by biogeochemical cycles.

The report, written by over 1,300 scientists from 95 countries, contains few new findings - everyone already knows we're abusing the planet’s resources, but it is the scale of the report, as the first comprehensive 'earth health-check', that makes its impact far greater than the sum of its constituent parts. The gloomy findings confirm that if we continue with business as usual, the future is not somewhere we will want to live.

The MA highlights the discrepancy between the importance of ecosystems to our economy and the lack of protection for them. It is as if the imagination required to connect the economy with the natural world is just not there. But as the economist Herman Daley said 'the natural world is the envelope that contains, sustains and provisions for the economy, not the other way round'.

Scientists estimate the total value of earth's ecosystem services at $33 trillion,

but few governments have been able to make more concrete values for i n d i v i d u a l resources.

For example the cost of food does not represent the cost of water pollution caused by the nutrients needed to help grow it.

The value of a clean water system, both above and below ground is unknown and often ignored.

Consequently ecosystems continue to be degraded. The MA showed how 60% of all ecosystems investigated are being damaged and their ability to provide us with their services eroded. As the report starkly concludes "Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted". Fisheries are a particularly strong example. Cod stocks in the north Atlantic crashed after having been fished unsustainably. The worrying factor is that since they crashed in the late 1980s the fishing has stopped but the fish populations have not recovered, suggesting the ecosystem has been changed permanently. The number of examples of other nonlinear changes is increasing.

There is also a mismatch between short-term electoral politics and the longer time-frames over which ecosystems operate. The ultimate impact of a particular policy may occur years after the party that created it has left power. The effect of climate change is a case in point.

If more is not done to mitigate against the long term impacts of climate change any short term ecosystem remediation will be worthless.

TREE OF THE FORTNIGHT There are some who may believe that a rainy day prohibits us tree lovers from enjoying our favorite pastime. However, anyone who has a genuine interest in the arboreal world knows perfectly well that the rainy month of April merely serves to enhance the beauty of many a splendid tree. Never mind your umbrella. Walk down to the broad, stare across the lake and see how the Salix Babylonica basks in the delicate drizzle.

What matter the rain running down your face? For how will you distinguish the rain from the tears of delight as you weep with compassion for the Weeping Willow? There is something so melancholic about the broad in April, and the Willow just loves it. Mirror it. Swoop your arms in the misty water, sway and stroke the silvery surface - be the Weeping Willow!

Height: 30 - 50 ft Spread: 20 - 40 ft Shape: Short trunk, broad crown with weeping branches Foliage: 3-6 inch, narrow yellowy-green leaves Flower: Fuzzy upright catkins Fruit: 1 inch cluster of capsules, containing cottony seeds

Salix Babylonica

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The authors note that neglect for ecosystems has been a major road block to the Millennium Development Goals on poverty. "Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem 'services' on which humanity relies continue to be degraded" the report says.

But despite the gloomy prognosis the

Scientists estimate the total value of earth's ecosystem services at $33 trillion MA has a positive conclusion: if we change what we are doing now we can undo much of the damage that has been done. By recognising the importance of ecosystem services, and acting to maintain them we can successfully avoid the doomsday scenarios, and allow mankind to coexist productively with the natural world. The challenges to policy makers

are significant however, demanding them to think across larger areas and timescales than they have previously. The report asks them to slowly start putting in place sustainable mechanisms that are beneficial to ecosystems and so to economies and so to people.

Some governments have already started. European Union countries have recently signed up to an Emissions Trading Scheme that turns the right to emit carbon dioxide into a commodity that can be bought and sold. A similar scheme to limit nutrient use in agriculture is underway in the US. However these are only the start of what is needed to turn the situation around.

There is no requirement however for politicians to act as a result of the MA report. But if the report shows anything, it shows that following its recommendations is the clever thing for policy makers to do if they care about the health of their economies and the health of their people.

Above all, the report is a call to action. The information and tools we need to act are at our disposal. If we fail to do so it is a conscious decision, but it will be a decision for which our grandchildren may never forgive us.

Report by Sweet Sweet Pete

FREE RANGE EGGS

efore Easter , Tu r f reported that students were becoming increasingly concerned over the sale of battery eggs on campus.

Jack Guest, a second year politics student leading the free-range egg campaign, had approached the UEA catering department on the matter.

On April 5th

Guest met with head of catering, Johan Bolling, to discuss the issue.

Bolling, responsible for bringing fairtrade coffee into Zest and the blend, was keen to accommodate the students concerns, but explained that there were a number of hurdles preventing an immediate change. "I would love to be able to put a sign on the door saying 'Free-range eggs only', but I would have to be sure that we were doing it properly." And that,

unfortuanlty, takes time.

Bolling explained that if he does anything, he wants it to be done properly and that means finding the right supplier, someone who can secure over 100,000 free range eggs a year.

A compromise was reached when a promise was made to start with all the egg sandwiches on campus. This step will help the department test the water, with the ultimate goal of sourcing all their eggs from free-range farms.

Jack Guest said he was pleased with this outcome and appeased by the fact that the UEA catering services were so willing to co-operate. "I'm glad that we've achieved an immediate result," Jack told Turf, "and I'm hopeful that this reflects continued progress in the future".

Developments will continue and tals take place throughout the next year.

A new survey is underway to find out how people travel to the university. The infor mation collected will help in the develop ment of the Univeristies transport plans.

So whether you cycle, drive, walk or crawl let the University know how they can adapt to your needs. Find the survey at http://www.portal.uea.ac.uk/Survey/. It will take around 15 minutes to complete and to encourage participation there will be a draw after the closing date of April 29th April, with a top prize of £100 shop ping vouchers and three £50 vouchers.

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Concrete Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 The energy provider Powergen is inviting local community groups, schools and non-profit organisations to apply for sup port of up to £25,000 from the Powergen GreenPlan Fund. The funding will be allo cated to community projects that sup port renewable energy generation.

Michelle Meldrum, Powergen's Community Project Manager, said: "We're always amazed by the range of projects that request support - from solar panels for community centres to wind turbines for schools."

Adopt a whooping crane. Why not?

Today this beautiful bird is extremely endangered, with fewer than 400 surviv ing in the world. But you can help by adopting one through the National Wildlife Federation and for $35 you will get a personalized adoption certificate, a Whooper Travel Mug and an online whooping crane Course. Your gift will help NWF protect critical habitat for the last wild flock of migrating whooping cranes on the planet.

As 5/5/5 gets ever nearer, election fever is now well established. Students are par ticularly feverish over the chance to unseat Mr Charles "I like top-up fees and locking up Muslims without public knowledge” Clark. In 2001 he had a majority of 8000, but he faces strong opposition, including ex UEA student Adrian Ramsey for the Greens. If you are registered to vote here in Norwich make sure you make your voice heard in May. To find out if you are, or for any details email elections@norwich.gov.uk.

SUMMER ON THE BROAD You can’t afford to soar abroad before you’ve toured the Norfolk Broad!

As summer arrives, Howard Constantine reveals one of Europe’s greatest attractions and it’s right on our doorstep!

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o you chose to come to the UEA. I know, for all those reasons you gave at the interview: great course, respected lecturers and a very pleasant campus (if you look away from the nuclear bunker style architecture). But guess what, you’re also on the edge of the newest national park in Britain.

I know you've heard of them, but apart from the obligatory walk round the Uni broad to get to know your classmates, have you seen the real broads? If you haven’t, and your already planning your Mediterranean summer cruise, I suggest you take a look closer to home first.

The Broads began life as peat diggings, for fuel, which was a growth industry between the 9th and 13th centuries, and they where always close to the river network for transportation to the villages and towns of Norfolk and beyond. Sea levels rose (sound familiar?). The peat industry literally sank, was abandoned, and nature took over. Lakes, reed-beds and eventually marsh woodland, soon replaced the bare peat scrapings and a unique interlinking system of some 6 rivers and over 60 lakes was created.

A new industry sprang up harvesting the reed for the chocolate box thatched cottages that give such a sense of timelessness to the area. To ensure the harvest continued the reed beds were managed and the broads maintained to slow the encroachment and natural succession of woodland, and thus a wonderfully diverse landscape emerged.

Progress and wars changed the importance of the Broads. Much of what had been a vital source of marsh grazing, for the many horse drawn Hansom cabs in London, and reed and sedge, for thatching, became abandoned marsh and woodland. The railways replaced the river network for local transport and many of the traditional Wherry boats were simply scuttled by their owners.

However a few enterprising souls saw the unique landscape and the slow tranquil pace of life on the rivers as an experience to be shared and began the boating holidays.

The Broads cover an area from Norwich to Yarmouth, and from Stalham to Beccles, and are lined by footpaths for most of that distance. They are also an extremely important habitat for many species of flora and fauna, some of which are unique to this area. One of our natural treasures is the Swallowtail butterfly, which lives only on milk parsley as a caterpillar, something only the unique habitat of the Broads can provide. Both the caterpillar and the butterfly are spectacular sights throughout the summer but you need to get out there to see them. ow, then, do I get to this natural wonder? Well there are hundreds of miles of footpaths, all well

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marked, well maintained, and well trodden, and all shown on the OS maps. The Broads even have their own OS map, OL40 in the Explorer series. A multitude of events are organised by parish councils, wildlife organisations and the Broads Authority and throughout the year there are guided walks, "try sailing" days, dawn chorus walks, evening bat watching, canoe trails, historical walks, and the opportunity to sail on an original restored Wherry boat. These are just a few examples and many more are listed in the Broads Authorities free visitor guide, the "broadcaster", which you can get by telephoning the Broads Authority on 01603 610734 or emailing them at broads@broads-authority.gov.uk. They also have a website at www.broadsauthority.gov.uk with lots of useful information.

A highlight for me in the yearly events is the "walk on the wild side" which allows you access to the Woodbastwick marshes, one of English Natures best sites in the area, and one normally closed to public access. For 3 hours English Natures top man in the region guides you around the site explaining how and why the site is managed and identifying the plants and wildlife they are safeguarding.

Best of all it’s free. You just need to call the Broads Information Centre on 01502 713196 to guarantee a place.

This year the dates are 11th June and 2nd July and it's well worth the trip, not least because when its over at about 1pm you are only a short walk from the Fur and Feather Inn, the home of Woodfordes real ales and so long as your not the one driving you could try a pint of all the ales - all seven of them!

To see the best of the broads you really need to be on the water and the easiest way to do this is to hire yourself a day boat, and they even come in environmentally friendly electric. An example is Broads Tours, who hire day boats out of Wroxham and the costs range from around £25 for a couple of hours, up to around £70 for the full day. With a maximum of 8 people on board its not as expensive as you might have thought.

They also do a larger boat that takes up to 11 people, which works out even cheaper if you fill it.

To get to Wroxham from Norwich takes just over half an hour on the 54 bus from the centre of Norwich. With a car, get a map, but it's the A1151 through Sprowston and keep on going.

Once on the river the idea is to cruise along appreciating your tranquil surroundings whilst honing in on the next riverside hostelry, of which there are many. Coltishall, Horning, and Ranworth offer the kind of country pub fare that makes it all worthwhile.

If you head east from Wroxham, you are in one of the largest areas of wetland woodland in Europe, and either side of the river will more than likely be either national reserve or SSSI status. Walks and

SUMMED UP Percentage of the 30 million mobile phone owners in the UK who have composed their own ring tone (59% keep the default ring-tone) = Percentage of the UK electorate that are Muslim = Percentage of students who cycle to university according to the 2004 travel survey =

4% Average April rainfall in East Anglia (the driest region in the UK) = The minimal size of the erect penis before penile augmentation surgery should be allowed, according to guidelines set by the University of California San Francisco = The wingspan of the Assassin Fly, also known as the Bee Killer, which is capable of eating spiders =

75mm Total length of time that Cliff Richard has been at number one in the charts =

The Broad in all its glory - photo by Mike Page information centres can be found at a number of these reserve sites such as Hoveton Great Broad, Cockshoot Broad and Ranworth Broad, all with free mooring available.

If you want to just get out on the water without taking the whole day then there are many tours and short trips available. At Barton Broad the Ra is a solar powered boat and it takes just over an hour to tour the broad and give excellent views of the reed beds. Barton Broad is a good example of the work being done to improve water quality, wildlife habitats and public access.

Improvements to water quality have lead to the return of otters to the area and a new boardwalk through the Carr woodland means for the first time you can walk through the swamp without getting your feet wet.

Closer to home and just on the edge of Norwich at Trowse, bus 58 from town, is Whitlingham Country Park. While not one of the original Broads it is easy

to get to and has a number of activities such as canoe hire, sail boat hire, and a very pleasant walk around the newest of the Broads. It's a great example of restoration landscaping - just a couple of years ago it was an aggregate quarry and is now a open access recreation area and nature reserve. A new information and visitor centre will be opening shortly.

So that's a taste of the Broads, but the best way to experience it is to go and see it for yourself.

Length of time since the UN security council unanimously approved a USBritish resolution backing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government = Length of time it would take to get to the moon traveling the motorway max speed limit (70mph) =

45 weeks

PI SOLVED “we rounded it down to three” says top mathematician

OUTRAGE

INSIDE

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.

Dear Rodders We have just moved into a new house and we are already arguing about who gets which room. Can you suggest anyhting to help?

their baked-bean stained sheets is another slap in the face of everything this fine country stands for."

Building to a crescendo he bellowed, "In fact, the next time I have the gross misfortune to meet a student in the street, I'm going to spit on their damn trainers and smash their bloody I-pod into their smug, under-nourished face. And I invite every like-minded person to do the same. Maybe after several years of personal assaults they'll get it into their ridiculous heads that they're not wanted 'round here and bugger off somewhere else. Like the sea."

A spokesperson for the NUS said, "This isn't what we were hoping to hear." Mr Barrel's party has released a statement suggesting the MP's remarks were taken out of context.

Dear Roomy, The allocation of rooms in a new house shares a lot of features with the allocation of any resource within an economy. Each resource is scarce - a room can only have one user, and there are competing users that often have different valuations for using the resource - housemates will value the rooms differently. An allocation will ideally give each room to the housemate who values it most, so that the final 'efficient' allocation of rooms maximises total house satisfaction.

The capitalist approach would be to simply auction off the rooms so that the housemate that valued a room the most would win the room by willing to pay the most for it.

This is likely to bring an efficient allocation, but some would likely say this would not be fair.

Secondly, the planned economy or communist approach would try and achieve a fairer allocation by giving a central body the chance to try and decide the best allocation.

Finally, a mixed approach, and one that I would perhaps favour would be based on drawing lots. Drawing lots from rooms is very inefficient, but a better method would be to draw lots for the right to choose a room, at least housemates win the right to choose the room that they like most.

ous Easter. The rise has been attributed to her brother’s new girlfriend trying to ingratiate herself with his family.

record profits. Mrs. Sarah Battenburg, the director of the company, said the recent success was thanks to a lot of animals dying.

A Norwich man is suing the BBC after a news report on the radio announcing troubles with Rover led to him having his dog put down. Rover, a once-healthy four-year-old labrador, is now buried at Earlham pet semetary. Please send donations, not flowers.

A team of UEA geographers have confirmed that Britain is an island. One said, “we’ve been all the way round the edge and every time we tried to go further we got wet.”

NORWICH MP DOESN’T LIKE STUDENTS BILLY Barrel, Norwich's controversial, opinionated MP landed himself in fresh trouble yesterday after expressing an uncharacteristically controversial opinion regarding the city's student population. Appearing at a press conference to launch his campaign for re-election, Mr Barrel was asked how he intended to pander to the student vote.

Taking a deep breath, Mr Barrel replied, "Students? Students? I'll tell you something about students. Bunch of no good, leeching, foul-smelling, selfish bastards, that's what they are.

“Swanning around in their long coats with their filthy scarves, paying for everything with piles and piles of 2p coins. All they ever do is sodding complain: 'oh, why are things so expensive? Why should I have to pay

tuition fees? Why won't anyone give me a job, even though I've got no talent or skills and I've spent the last 3 years filling my fat arse with beer and crisps?'"

He continued, "I mean seriously, who do these mounds of scum think they are? Do they really think we, the decent, hard-working people of Britain owe them anything? It's not enough that we have to spend billions paying for lectures the little shits are too lazy to attend, they then have the gall to blow all their loan on I-pods and trainers and then demand more money from anyone in their immediate field of vision. There are single mothers who work 18 hours a day down mines in order to care for their hordes of MRSA-infected, ADD-riddled offspring, and these students struggle to get up at noon.

Every minute they continue to sprawl in

NEWS IN BRIEF Stuff you missed over Easter

There was panic followed by swift action during the holiday, when the University of East Anglia completely burned down - and was then completely rebuilt. A spokesperson for UEA said, “we’re quite glad it happened really, we had all these sacks of money lying around and we didn’t know what to do with them”.

It has been revealed that a counting error in the Student Union elections has rendered the results void. To rectify the error, the first four students who hand their name and phone number on a piece of paper to Union

House reception will be awarded the fulltime sabatical positions.

Students with classes in the Arts building are asked not to attend seminars on horse back until sloping floors can be introduced.

It is thought that cleaning staff want to be able to wash the animals’ manure into drains at the side of the rooms, instead of it “collecting in the middle like a little shitty pond”.

Former workers at Norfolk's second largest car manufacturer, Tiddles Motors, are suing a Norwich man after he announced in his local paper, the UEA Enquirer, that Tiddles was dead, causing them to liquidate the company. Tiddles, a once-healthy 11-yearold tabby cat, is now buried at Earlham pet semetary. Please send flowers, not donations.

Amy Fitzpatrick, SOC2, got six easter eggs this year, a total one higher than the previ-

STOCKMARKET UPDATE: Shareholders in Earlham Pet Semetary PLC. are celebrating

ROVER 2001 - 2005

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TRAVEL

A GRAND DAY OUT

Katharine Clemow and Philip Sainty embrace their inner children and go thrill seeking at Alton Towers...

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head first with your torso facing the ground and feet dangling out the back (see picture below). The fast speed, g- forces and mega twists and turns mean some people had to take their shoes off so they didn’t fly off and hit innocent bystanders.

ave you ever felt the need to abandon all common sense, commit your safety to the unknown powers at a theme park and put your body through all manner of stress and strain for a couple of minutes of thrills? If so you’ll already have a good idea what this feature is going to be about, if you haven’t don’t fear, Alton Towers isn’t just for reckless dare devils, it’s actually a good day out for everyone. Now, you’re getting this from someone who has thrown up on car journeys of 10 odd miles and who never approaches an aeroplane without that wretched sinking feeling. Machines full of people leaving the safety of the

being bandied around is testament to the huge success story of the park which started as a stately family home that transformed into what we see today when times got tough.

The house, more of an incredibly impressive gothic castle, is still standing and its missing windows and cobwebbed interior add to the sense of atmosphere it has.

There’s also a ride which takes place inside the house and whilst not the scariest or best known, it guarantees lasting memories for everyone who goes ‘where nothing is what it seems’! It begins as a tour of the property that claims to explain the legend of the curse, or Hex (the ride’s name) put on an Earl of Shrewsbury that, to cut a long story short, resulted in him hiding the branch of a tree in the

This isn’t just for reckless dare devils, it’s a good day out for everyone. ground you say? No bloody way.

But it was in the call of duty that Concrete’s brave Editor Phil and I, his girl’s blouse of a Deputy, set off to sample the delights of the Staffordshire land of dreams.

Standing in the queue for a seat in the park’s oldest ride, the Corkscrew, that I swore I’d never set foot on but then did (peer pressure I tell you, shouldn’t be allowed) we heard someone saying the park, which is currently owned by the Tussaud’s corporation, had just been sold for £800 000000.

Whether that’s the correct figure or not, the fact that such sums are

house which you end up sitting opposite. The story isn’t ever concluded and it doesn’t matter, the ride consists of a couple of rows of benches that face each other across the glowing branch and swing backwards and forwards, which sort of becomes up and down, in a darkened room until it seems as though you’ve moved full circle and are looking at the floor which is now an enormous lit up tree face. No one quite knows how it works but it’s a feat of design wizardry that everyone can enjoy. Very weird and very very brilliant.

You’ll never be able to do every-

thing there is at the park in a day.

This has prompted the range of overnight options that are now on offer including a waterpark resort, a spa, a hotel that has suites such as the Cadbury sponsored Chocolate Suite (oh yes!) and various packages to suit couples, families and corporate events. But most people still just go for the day and try to cram it all in and, depending on the ages and tastes of your party, there is plenty to do without it being overwhelming.

do it again….

After 16 years the Black Hole ride has sadly closed but for fans there is a memorial shrine where you can lay wreaths and remember what Phil calls ‘the most evil thing of its time’. Despite the hesitations

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e started off gently with a trip in the cable car that gets you to where most of the rides are and gives you a really good sense of the scale and nature of the park. The gardens are absolutely fantastic, beautifully kept and huge and a lovely peaceful space to go to escape from the madness of the shops and queues.

Having said that, there were none of the screaming kids or over-wrought parents that theme parks bring to mind. The visions of murder on the Runaway Mine Train disappeared as we came across nice groups of people representing all sections of society including several multi-generational families enjoying The Haunted House (which involves big white ghost buster style guns that you shoot at the various spooks that Phil loved) or Squirrel Nutkins Nutty Acorn Ride (or something) that was one of my favourites.

As the day progressed the inhibitions decreased and having survived the infamous Corkscrew, we proceeded to Air, the Towers’ penultimate new ride. It’s a monstrous device that can only have been designed to scare the living daylights out of those stupid enough to submit themselves to its devious loops and swoops. Part of the horror is being strapped into seats that tilt forward so you’re

The Air ride Sheer insanity that required seriouslyclosed eyes but it’s one of those things that once you’ve done it and come away in one piece makes you feel an overwhelming joy at being alive, and that’s nice. If you’re not too old, overweight, short or tall (seat size restrictions), don’t have heart, back, neck or anxiety problems and aren’t pregnant, it’s a terrifying but nevertheless exhilarating way to spend a couple of minutes and some thrill seekers may want to

and initial fears of this lily livered chicken we had a great day. The rides are designed with the whole family in mind and it really has something to suit everyone, even if you’re any of the things that make Air inadvisable. And as far as Rita: Queen of Speed, which goes from 0-100 kph in 2.5 seconds and reaches G forces of 4.7 - that’s all you need to know. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Uh oh

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FASHION T

is the season to be…melancholy with exam stress! But at the end of it all Cinderella will go to all the summer balls however, without a fairy god mother we’ll need a little help from else where. Here are a few tips on how to get the dress you want without bruising your pockets. For those of you shopping on a budget (all of us) the time to get dresses and suits is now to get them cheap. Our best kept secret is T.K.Maxx off Saint Benedict’s street, and of course the many

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charity shops across the city should also be your first port of call. If all else fails buy some fabric from the market and get sewing, add beading or sequins to a cheap dress to funk it up. If you’re not that adventurous then treat yourself to some flashy accessories, our favourites are the feather hair pieces from Debenhams or a pair of elbow length gloves.

Lady In Red Red dress with beading £20 T.K.Maxx Red hair accesory £25Debenhams Miss Peacock Pink dress £15 T.K.Maxx feather head piece £25 Debenhams Photographs by Beverley Fry.

Model Anna Steward

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!

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Now, with your outfit sorted, you can practice your smooth talking and concentrate on more important matters at hand – who will you be taking home from the ball?

While you’re dreaming about being part of the Her Majesty’s Secret Service and sipping martinis with a mystery woman, we have a competition to giveaway £25 worth of Burton vouchers. For a chance to win, simply answer the following question.

How does James Bond like his Martinis?

(A: Shaken not stirred) Answers to: concrete.fashionlifestyle@uea.ac.uk by 27th April. (* plus £4 accidental damage waiver)

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concrete.fashionlifestyle@uea 23

LIFESTYLE A CRIPPLING CONDITION

S

tuart* had just completed his degree in Accounting and Finance. He had done well, got a 2:1, and had been offered a job to start in September as an investment banker. Over the summer he worked in a bank to earn a bit of cash, and while he was there, he decided that investment banking was not going to be the career of his dreams after all. He had always been a sporty guy. Last year he had run the London Marathon, and he was into sailing and skiing. So he decided to go out to Canada to work as a ski instructor for the season, and then travel round the world for a couple of years before deciding how to spend the rest of his life.

That winter, whilst out on the slopes, he began to feel unwell. He was tired all the time, and finding it harder and harder to get out of bed – not like him at all. At first he put it down to the fact he was getting a lot of physical exercise, and took a few days off work to rest. When this didn’t help matters he went to a doctor in Canada, who told him that it might be altitude sickness; because he was so high up in the mountains, his body wasn’t getting as much oxygen as it was used to and this was making him feel tired and unwell. The doctor said that as his body adapted to the conditions, he would start to feel better and would get more energy.

Except that he didn’t. He eventually came back to England early, before the end of the ski season, as he couldn’t cope with the unrelenting exhaustion any more. When he got home, he expected things would improve since he was nearer to sea level. However, three months went by and he was still constantly exhausted. He went to see his GP who, after consultations and referrals to specialists, diagnosed him with M.E..

Stuart was treated with antidepressants for over a year. Antidepressants had been shown to work for some M.E. patients, but not for Stuart. They didn’t help his exhaustion at all, and he carried on getting worse and worse. Eventually it became so bad that he could not summon up the energy to even leave the house. Remember this was a boy who had run the London Marathon only a couple of years earlier. His parents became desperate, and since they weren’t getting anywhere with the NHS doctors, they took him to a private hospital at their own expense. Here he was

Health Editor, Clare Aitchison, looks at ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a potentially destructive illness that has only recently gained official recognition. who wouldn’t be depressed in this situation? Confined to your bed whilst your friends carry on living their lives without you.

Stuart’s life has been ruined by M.E..

He hasn’t been able to go on to further education, and he has no job. He has not been able to travel as he planned to do, he doesn’t have a girlfriend, and most of his friends have drifted away.

He has now become so weak that he cannot even feed himself, wash himself or go to the toilet by himself. He lies in bed, awake, twenty-four hours a day, in the dark and in silence. His mother has given up her job to become his full time carer. However, since Stuart is not recognised as disabled, the family have to pay for all his treatment, and his mother gets no carer’s allowance. Because the hospital is so far from their house, and Stuart cannot cope with the travelling, they have had to rent a flat for him and his mother near to the hospital, all on just his father’s teacher’s salary. His mum and dad never have any time for each other, or for their younger son, and what was a strong, happy family is falling apart. Stuart is desperate to improve, not just for himself, but because the people who love him have so much riding on his health. He just wants to make his family happy, but the stress of knowing he is disappointing them only makes him more exhausted.

Since M.E. tends to follow a course of improvement and relapse, it is completely unpredictable for patients and their families, and there is nothing more depressing than to see someone getting better, to have all the hope which that brings, just to watch them collapse again – often to a worse state than they were in before. Most of the time M.E. patients seem to get better, but they don’t generally get back to being as active as they were before the illness. And since no one knows what does make them better there is nothing that can yet be done to speed this up.

So for now Stuart is stuck in his bed, with his mum feeding him, washing him, dressing him, shaving him and taking him to the toilet. He is confined in his body, but his mind won’t let him rest.

No one knows what his future looks like, but it won’t be anything like what he planned when he graduated from university, less than 3 years ago.

tested for a huge range of things, from allergies to nutrient deficiencies to see if there was any cause for this excessive exhaustion. He was given loads of vitamins, minerals and herbal medicines, but this did not stop him from getting worse, and eventually, two years after he first began to feel unwell in Canada, he

regulating body temperature, and an intolerance of light, sound or smell.

Ironically, although they are stuck in bed and exhausted most of the time, the majority of M.E. patients also suffer from insomnia, so they do not even get the oblivion of sleep to pass the time or to relieve their exhaustion.

became confined to his bed, twenty-four seven.

M.E., also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, affects about one in every 200 people in the United Kingdom.

There is no such thing as a typical M.E. sufferer, but about twice as many women seem to be affected as men, and although the age of onset can range from 7 to 70, most people develop it in their early 20’s. What is so incredibly cruel is that it seems to hit active and energetic young people at the prime of their lives.

No one knows what causes M.E., but often it follows an infection such as glandular fever or flu, and some people say they have developed it after certain holiday vaccinations. Whilst most people would normally feel run-down with an infection for a few days, this small minority go on to develop a total exhaustion, which can last months or even years. One theory is that the immune system overreacts to the original infection or vaccination and goes on to attack the body - this is called an autoimmune disease. Many people who suffer from M.E. have a relative who has also suffered from the disease, so there may be a genetic element.

The symptoms vary wildly from patient to patient. For some people it merely means a few months of being too tired, for others it means years confined to their bed, unable to read or listen to music because it tires them out. Some people are so disabled by the illness that they cannot even amuse themselves by thinking, as even this is too much.

However long these patients stay in bed, their tiredness doesn’t improve, and any kind of strain, physical or mental can leave them exhausted for weeks. As well as this chronic fatigue, patients complain of muscle and joint pain, headaches, strange sensations, poor memory, difficulty speaking, problems

and trying just makes you more exhausted. Physiotherapy programmes nfortunately there are no attempt to rectify this through graduated blood tests, scans or anyincreases in exercise. The problem is thing else that can be done that if you are not ready, trying the exerto diagnose M.E. - people cises can induce a disastrous relapse. just get diagnosed when M.E. patients need to become hyperthere is no other explanation for their aware of what their bodies are capable of symptoms. Partly because of this, sufferif they are not to descend into a spiral of ers have faced terrible prejudice for rehabilitation and relapse and this hypermany years; being told they are lazy, or awareness in itself can be counter-prohave ‘yuppie flu’, that their condition is ductive at times. all in the mind. Because some of the There has been some research into symptoms are similar to those of the benefits of cognitive behavioural depression, and because people stuck in therapy and counselling, and in some bed during what are supposed to be the patients these have been encouraging. best years of their life understandably However, there is understandably a lot of tend to get depressed, there is a school trepidation in accepting these results in of thought who say that M.E. is merely the M.E. community, as they are depression with people ‘somatising’, or focussed on M.E. as a psychological disconverting mental and emotional proborder. Certainly there is an amount of lems into physical symptoms. Being told * All names have been changed. depression in many M.E. patients, but that they are making their condition up is extremely depressing and WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! frustrating, and only adds to the stress and anxiety of the sufferer and their families, which in turn Sea Pearls™ are natural, reusable Atlantic sea sponge tampons. They are a safe, efficient, dioxinmakes the condiand rayon-free alternative to the ordinary single-use tampons. The average woman uses over 17,000 tion worse. tampons during her menstruating years. This has an enormous affect on landfill, so And just as why be an average woman? no-one underYou can buy Sea Pearls™ Natural Sea Sponge Tampons at your local chemist, stands how to diagnose M.E., nor most natural food stores and beauty salons. You can also contact the company do they know how direct, to order in quantities of 50 or 100, by phoning 01787 371527 or ordering online from www.seapearls.co.uk. If your local store doesn’t carry them, please to treat or prevent request that they do so! it. Anti-depresTo win a free trial pack of Sea PearlsTM, just answer the following sants work for some people, and question: not for others, and How many Tampons does the average woman use during her although a myriad menstruating years? of herbal remedies Answers to concrete.fashionlifestyle@uea.ac.uk by the and alternative 27th April therapies have their proponents, there is no evi-

dence for any particular treatment having a success rate any better than just ‘wait and see’. One of the problems with M.E. is that the longer you stay in your bed, the more your muscles waste away, until there is virtually nothing left. Then, even if you feel ready to move on the muscles simply aren’t there to allow this,

The symptoms vary wildly from patient to patient. For some people it merely means a few months of being too tired, for others it means years confined to their bed

U

24 concrete.editorial@uea.ac.uk

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HOROSCOPES Aries: Mar 21 - Apr 19 Yum yum! Take a few leaves out of Gillian McKeith’s book, and a few seeds, beans and sprouts too. Your radiant healthy-eating style glow will help you sail through the coming weeks which may be a bit harrowing, sweetie.

Lucky Words: eats, poops and leaves

Lucky Words: charge it!

Lucky Words: friendly fire

Lucky Words: XXX txt msg

Cancer: Jun 22 - Jul 22 Well this certainly will be a challenging couple of weeks for you my little roll mop.

What with all that time spent living the high life, you completely forgot to do any revision. You’ll be burning the midnight oil now!

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 23 Tempers are fraying this fortnight sweetpea, and you’re no exception. Learn to keep a lid on that rage of yours and you’ll avoid many a sticky situation.

Just keep thinking of all the frolicking you’ll be able to do once exams are over.

Lucky Words: stress fest

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19 An innocent picnic this fortnight could lead to something entirely more exotic, my lucky little rabbit.

Just remember to pack plenty of vino and sumptuous hors d’oeuvres and who knows where things may lead? My bet is back to your place!

Lucky Words: book binding Taurus: Apr 20 - May 20 Being such a typical Taurus, everyone has you pegged as cool, calm and completely in control.

Romantic entanglements that leave you hot under the collar will threaten to thaw your chilled exterior this fortnight, but don’t you let them poppet! You’ll regret not keeping your composure.

Lucky Words: fine dining Leo: Jul 23 - Aug 22 Getting the sniffles is nature’s way of telling you to take a rest, chicken. A few days in bed, being pampered and watching Doctors is exactly what the stars prescribe for you! TV cures all ailments.

Scorpio: Oct 24 - Nov 21 All those essays are taking their toll on your creative juices, cherub. Get yourself kitted out with a nice big easel, a smock and some canvasses then paint your heart away. You’ll feel rejuvenated and rather cultured to boot!

Lucky Word: cucumber

Lucky Words: preventative medicine

Lucky Words: picture of tranquility

Gemini: May 21 - Jun 21 When the spit hits the fan like it will do in this coming fortnight, you’ll learn just how therapeutic shopping can be. Just beware of the strain on the plastic, honey bunch.

Virgo: Aug 23 - Sept 22 This fortnight you’ll find yourself in the no-man’sland of two mutual friends’ bust-up.

Play it safe by deciding which of them you like better straight away, then taking their side.

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21 Snooping through a friend’s mobile phone messages you’ll come across some unsavory details you didn’t want to know. Let this be a lesson for the future, nosey!

Letters...

Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18 Oh petal, you don’t seem to be able to get cracking with the old revision. If your exams were on Easties or Hollyoaks you’d pass with flying colours! Take some action Lucky Words: TV literate Pisces: Feb 19 - Mar 20 You need some love, cherry-pie.

Nothing can beat the unconditional love of a good pet.

Steal nextdoor’s cat for companionship, at least until you have time to go out and buy a budgie.

Lucky Words: furry friends

WWW.CONCRETE-ONLINE.COM Project Manager: Philip Sainty concrete.advertising@uea.ac.uk Advertising Sales: Ben Millar Web Team: Production concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Editor: Philip Sainty concrete.editorial@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor: Katharine Clemow Copy Editors:

Dear Concrete, Well, once again Simon Sheridan dropped the ball on creating intelligent discourse and fact-checking in his last column. Apparently wanting to feel macho, he decided to berate a frail Pope who is in and out of his deathbed. If this was not sad enough, he had to make up his facts to do it.

First, Sheridan proposes that because of John Paul II’s position of condoms in combating AIDs, he should be categorized with the likes of Hitler and Stalin. This in and of itself is a blatantly ignorant and hateful statement. Yet, in addition, significant elements of the Catholic Church (such Spanish Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino) have actually endorsed the use of condoms in preventing the spread of AIDs, especially in conjunction with the extremely successful ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms) programs that have been used in nations such as Uganda. Even for those who still are convinced that condom promotion encourages more sex (and HIV transmissions), they are still working on a grassroots and personal level with those who have or are at risk of acquiring HIV. Second, Sheridan advocates that those who believe abortion to be murder should not promote their views. This is a logical fallacy that equates to killing one’s very conscience.

Let’s switch for the moment the word “abortion” for “ethnic cleansing.” Does Sheridan think that those who believe ethnic cleansing to be genocide should not promote their views? Slobodan Milosevic is in the market for a new lawyer. Perhaps he should hire Sheridan.

Third, Sheridan claims that both George W. Bush and the Pope believe “that homosexuality is a sin worthy of hell.” Once again, fact-checking would be nice. Bush, apart from holding no such belief, has actually resisted demands to discriminate against homosexuals and has said since the earliest days of his 2000 campaign that he refuses “to kick gays.”

Similarly, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexuals “be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” (2358) On top of that, homosexuals can “resolutely approach Christian perfection” as anyone else (2359).

Fourth, Sheridan makes up the complete lie that the Pope has said “rape is the woman’s fault.” The Catholic Catechism actually says that rape is “an intrinsically evil act” (no.

2356), and totally justifies a woman seeking contraceptive measures such as the morning after pill.

Respectfully, Colin Kerr

A GOOD IDEA Dear Concrete, Global warming is in the news all the time now, with desperate predictions from some extremist Greens of armageddon just around the corner. We must ignore the more ludicrous messages from these wild men, but sadly their extremist rants are putting off people and obscuring the real message of what we can do. There are simple, sensible ideas that are available to us all.

One I found was on a BBC web site and what really amazed me was that it was from a Norwich man, and I knew him!

On the BBC Video Nation website Nicholas Waters showed how global warming was affecting his garden and then came up with a simple way we could all make a change. He tells us of the rule in Sweden that if you are stuck in traffic for more than one minute you turn your engine off.

My instant reaction was to think of those jams in the City centre, with the cars and buses gridlocked. Oh how wonderful it would be if they all switched off their engines. It would suddenly go quiet, and those dreadful black fumes would stop pouring from the buses. And just a little less carbon dioxide would be put into the atmosphere. Every time.

Could it happen here? Should it happen here? I’m going to give it a go, but I wonder how many other Norwich and Norfolk people think it’s a good idea. Maybe being a “one minute wonder” could have a different, and better, meaning than it has now!

Yours truly, Bert Bremner

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concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk 25

UEFA must open their eyes before it’s too late

This year sees the twenty year anniversary of the Heysel disaster and after the disgraceful scenes in Milan last week it is clear to see that the problem of hooliganism is still a serious problem in the world of football. With UEFA and FIFA still not taking the problem seriously, Marc Dudley feels it is time they stood up and took some action before we witness another Heysel. least we are trying to deal with them. One little slip up and we face the toughest ban in history, whilst Italian fans can do whatever they feel like. Where is the fairness in that?

They have once again been too lenient on an incident that could so easily have been a lot worse. Would the punishment have been different if somebody had been killed by the many flares that were thrown onto the pitch? Probably yes, but

"It is just an isolated case and not something that is going to be repeated" FIFA Vice-president David Will on the events in Milan.

Flares are thrown as Juventus and Fiorentina fans clash during an Italian football league match

W

hat a disgrace. That was the first thing that popped into my head after hearing about the punishment Italian club Inter will face for the shocking scenes the world witnessed last Tuesday. Four games behind closed doors and a "massive" fine of £132,000.

"This is the largest fine in history and it is a hefty punishment" was what William Gallard of UEFA had to say about the incident and he seems very happy with the way the European football governing body have dealt with the situation. But who actually is getting punished here? Do the fans have to pay the fine? No. Do the fans care that the

match will be played behind closed doors? No, as they will just watch it on TV instead of going to the ground. Once again the idiots responsible have got away with their scandalous actions, and the club and the true fans have to suffer for something that they cannot control. Besides, playing behind closed doors affects both teams on the pitch, so whoever has to play Inter in those matches will also be affected by the lack of atmosphere in the San Siro.

The real issue here though is the way UEFA time after time fail to see how serious the problem is. Take the comments made by FIFA Vice-president David Will who said the trouble in Milan was "just an isolated case and not something that is going to be repeated". As we all know this is not the first time this has happened. In 2001, Inter fans caused their European UEFA Cup clash against Alaves at San Siro to be abandoned, leading to their next two ties being played behind closed doors and a £33,000 fine. A few months later, the same fans touched a visiting Atalanta fans scooter and threw it from the second tier of San Siro onto the area where the away fans were sitting.

Only last month, in the World Cup qualifier match between Italy and Scotland, Inter and Atalanta supporters once again clashed. Nothing was done in either of these incidents. So, why do FIFA threaten to throw England out of every international competition for violence that occurs away from the football field and not do anything to Italy when there are fights breaking out between their own fans in the ground? Because of the "false" reputation English fans have had ever since the Heysel disaster. Don't get me Some Juventus fans will never forgive Liverpool for Heysel 20 years on. wrong, we do have our fair share of hooligans too, but at

an innocent life should not have to be lost for UEFA to start seeing the seriousness in certain issues that face the game. Take the racist comments made by Spanish national coach Luis Aragones about Thierry Henry last year. His words undoubtedly led to the unforgivable abuse the English black players had to endure during the international friendly between Spain and England the following month. What did Sepp Blatter and FIFA do? They gave Spain a small fine of £44,750 and warn them over their future conduct. Jose Mourinho makes some comments about a meeting between now retired Swedish referee Anders Frisk and Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard, and he gets a two match touchline ban from UEFA. What sort of message are the football governing bodies sending out here? Making false accusations about something that actually turned out to be true is worse than being a racist? The fact that Aragones is still allowed to be a football manager is proof enough that UEFA and FIFA are being too lenient. This is why the problem is growing and not going away, AC Milan’s because fans know they can get away with it, so why worry about the consequences.

Racism and hooliganism are big problems and it has been for many years, and until something drastic is done, it won't go away and it will continue to destroy the game we love. As Mario Pescante, the Italian Sports minister, said "Some fans feel the closure of their ground as a victory, something that makes them feel more important.

What we need are quicker and tougher sanctions to cut down the incidents, especially since it is the boys in uniform who are hurt the most in these clashes." This is where the problem is. The crisis is not being dealt with in Italy, and the hardcore fans, the Ultras (as they are known), are allowed to do whatever they want as UEFA, the Italian FA and the clubs involved are not being tough enough. It has got so out of hand that even the police are refusing to get involved, as they can no longer ensure the safety of their officers. In most places in Italy, the Ultras don't even get searched when they enter the grounds, as the security officers are too afraid of getting attacked. This is why they can enter the ground with objects like the flares that rained down on the San Siro pitch last week, and get away with it. Two days before the Champions League Milan derby, the Italian government promised to crack down on the violence after 85 policemen were injured in skirmishes at

five different Italian football matches the weekend before. The move backfired spectacularly.

Of course it’s not only in Italy that there are problems. In Greece and Turkey, minor incidents are always reported, but two fans being killed in an Istanbul derby between Besiktas and Galatasaray can hardly been seen as a minor case. In Spain a few years ago one fan threw a pigs head towards Real Madrid star Luis Figo, after the player made the "unforgivable" move from Barcelona to rivals Real. Numerous phones, missles and even umbrellas have also been chucked onto the pitch.

S

o, what can be done? After the Heysel disaster twenty years ago, English clubs were banned from Europe, and this led to the English FA finally taking the problem seriously. The English Premiership is also the only league in Europe that has all-seater stadiums as a requirement, which has helped in the battle against hooliganism.

Maybe UEFA should make this a requirement for

keeper Dida after he was hit by a flare last week.

all the top European leagues? The first thing that has to be done is to sort out the security issues, so the Ultras can no longer bring whatever they want into the ground, and also the police must be given more protection to deal with the violence. It is time for the authorities, including UEFA, FIFA, the Italian FA and Italian government, to take back the control of the game of football from the Ultras who have been given too much power in recent years. If the fans still resist the authorities, then a European ban can be the only option. Personally, I feel Inter should have been banned from taking part in Europe next year. It may be harsh, but at least it sends the right message out to not only Inter, but all Italian clubs that hooliganism is not accepted. Maybe then the authorities would finally start to try and sort the problem out, as they would not want the same fate to happen to all the Italian clubs. It is time to start getting tough on the people who are damaging the game, before it is too late. We don't want another Heysel disaster to rock the world of football, and if something is not done soon, it is only a matter of time before we once again see innocent football fans losing their lives.

As Milan's Gazzetta dello Sport put it in the aftermath of the Milan derby: "Words are no longer enough."

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26 concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk

View From The Street

UEA Students give their views on the issues in the world of sport Who will survive the drop to the Championship?

There is no doubt City have got a lot to do and to be honest, I feel they blew their chances on Saturday. All they can do is win their remaining matches and hope their rivals don't. I think West Brom are going to be the team to beat the drop. They are the team in form at the moment and I think that game in hand will just be what separates them. It is all down to them now and I think Bryan Robson will not throw a chance like this away.

Lee BIO 2 Southampton have blown it big time and the morale in the dressing room must be so low that I can't see them surviving from this. (Andy) Johnson seems to be the man who Palace are counting on, but their lack of ability in other areas will let them down. West Brom have tough matches against both Man Utd and Arsenal and also travel to Tottenham on Wednesday. They have the quality and I feel they have a great chance. However, I feel it is City who may surprise everyone, as they don't have too many tough matches left. The trip to Southampton will be huge, but I think they may just win that one. I therefore put a surprise bet on Norwich to beat the drop.

Gary MGT 1 West Brom must be the team most people fancy. Only a couple of months ago after they lost at Carrow Road, everyone was saying they were down, but look at them now. City have got a class player in Dean Ashton, but their unreliable defending will cost them a place in the Premiership. The same is to be said about Palace, as Johnson can get the goals, but they tend to let in too many goals to get them the points. Southampton have to travel to Bolton and Portsmouth, and after Saturday's performance, Redknapp and the players must be feeling terrible. I fancy West Brom to do it, as they have an all round good team and after being relegated last time they were in the Premiership, it will be harsh for them to go down again.

Katy ENV 2 As a Palace fan, I fancy AJ and co to keep us up.

Southampton and Norwich are too shaky at the back and their goal leaking ability will see them travel to Luton next season. Our main rivals are West Brom, but I feel we have easier games than they do, as they have still got to play Man Utd and Arsenal. We do have Liverpool to play and a tough trip to St.James Park, but Liverpool will be concentrating to much on their Champions League clash with Chelsea, whilst Newcastle are struggling with injuries at the moment. The Southampton clash will be the big one, but I just can't see Redknapp and his men manage anything after that morale draining defeat last weekend. AJ will score a penalty on the final day at Charlton to secure our Premiership spot, that's my prediction.

Andy CMP 1

CITY’S PROUD RECORD STANDS FOREVER Norwich City football club remained in the history books, without even kicking a ball. After Bayern Munich defeated Chelsea 3-2 last week and with the German side moving to a new home next season, City will remain the only English team to ever beat Bayern at the Olympic Stadium.

Canary fans will remember the amazing match in October 1993, when Norwich travelled to Germany as big underdogs in their second round UEFA Cup tie against Bayen Munich.

Few at the time considered City would return with a decent result due to it being the Canaries first venture into Europe compared to the German squads regular appearances.

The result sent shock waves around the footballing world as goals from Mark Bowen and Jeremy Goss gave Norwich a 2-1 victory. With the home tie at Carrow Road finishing 1-1, City progressed to the third round 3-2 on aggegrate.

However, that is where their good fortune stopped as the eventual winners of the competition, Inter of Italy, ran out 2-0 aggerate winners after two goals from Dennis Bergkamp. However, Canary fans didn’t care as they had recorded one of the all time results in European football, and their record will forever stay in the history books.

Concrete Wednesday, April 20 , 2005 th

The relegation battle hots up in the Premiership as City hold onto slim hopes Marc Dudley Sports-Editor

THE BARCLAYS PREMIERSHIP CURRENT LEAGUE TABLE

P W D L GD PTS Portsmouth 33 9 8 16 -14 35 Fulham 32 9 7 16 -14 34 West Brom 32 5 13 14 -21 28 ---------------------------------------------------Southampton 33 5 12 16 -18 27 C Palace 33 6 9 18 -21 27 CITY 33 4 12 17 -31 24

City fans are once again in disbelief after yet another three points are dropped after Palace come back from 1-3 down to draw 3-3.

The lack of discipline saw Norwich lose two vital points in their battle for survival and the draw may come back to haunt City at the end of the season when the points are counted. With four points up to West Brom, who have a game in hand, the Canaries can no longer afford to lose any more points if they are to achieve their unlikely goal of premiership survival.

There were some positives though, as the partnership between Ashton and McKenzie is starting to take shape at just about the right time, as both have been banging in goals with McKenzie scoring three in five and Ashton with an impressive three goals in his last two games. Even if the Canaries do go down, the team must fancy their chances of bouncing right back with the quality of McKenzie and Ashton upfront. Keeping hold of Robert Green will be more of a problem though, as many clubs including Arsenal and Manchester United are chasing the highly rated goalkeeper and a transfer is likely in the summer even if City

do stay up.

With an injury struck Newcastle side at home tonight, Norwich must go out with all guns blazing to build up a lead like they did against Crystal Palace, only this time they must try to keep the lead. City do have a weak defence, but the midfields lack of awareness against Palace was equally, if not more, at fault for the Canaries surrendering a two goal lead with quarter of an hour to go. Looking for another goal when you are 3-1 up is not the way to secure the points, especially with the defence so vulnerable. Still, Norwich do have an easier run in than their relegation rivals with the trip to St.Mary's on the 30th April being the must win match. Of course, all the matches are must win matches, but defeat in this match would almost certainly leave City preparing for trips to Luton and Hull next season.

West Brom have still got to play Man Utd and Arsenal, but they will fancy their chances at home against Blackburn and Portsmouth. They are the team on form at the

Norwich City

Crystal Palace

(Remaining Fixtures) 20 23 30 07 15

Apr Apr Apr May May

NEWCASTLE (H) CHARLTON (H) Southampton (a) BIRMINGHAM (H) Fulham (a)

Man of the moment Dean Ashton is settling into his role at City.

moment, and they would love to become the first team in the Premiership to be bottom at Christmas, but manage to beat the drop.

Southampton suffered a huge morale loss after throwing away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 at the weekend, and whether or not they can recover from this remains to be seen. Their ties against Palace and Norwich seem to be the only matches they can take points in and many, including me, feel Southampton have run out of steam and the sinking ship has been dealt it's final blow.

What happens to Palace is all down to the form of Andy Johnson, as his goals,

West Brom

(Remaining Fixtures)

20 23 30 07 15

Apr Apr Apr May May

Blackburn (a) LIVERPOOL (H) Newcastle (a) SOUTHAMPTON (H) Charlton (a)

or lack of them, will determine their fate. Liverpool and Newcastle will be tough games and their encounter with Southampton is a real six pointer.

West Brom have it in their hands now and are favorites to stay up now.

Also, with Southampton having to play both Norwich and Palace, Albion must fancy their chances, as their rivals will drop points in these matches.

City must sort their defence and discipline out quickly, as Ashton and McKenzie's goals will not save them if they can't defend a lead. If they don't, then the drop to the Championship is inevitable.

Southampton

(Remaining Fixtures) 20 23 26 02 07 15

Apr Apr Apr May May May

Tottenham (a) Middlesbrough (a) BLACKBURN (H) ARSENAL (H) Man Utd (a) PORTSMOUTH (H)

(Remaining Fixtures) 20 23 30 07 15

Apr Apr Apr May May

Bolton (a) Portsmouth (a) NORWICH (H) Crystal Palace (a) MAN UTD (H)

...AND IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP Darren Bent’s 89th minute equaliser keeps Ipswich’s automatic promotion dream alive after a dramatic 2-2 draw against league leaders Sunderland.

However, the Canaries’ East Anglian rivals have to hope their promotion rivals drop points if they are to avoid the dreaded promotion playoffs.

Sunderland are almost certain of a place in the Premiership next season with home ties against Leicester and Stoke and a visit to West Ham United, whilst Wigan most also fancy their chances with two home

matches against QPR and Reading and a tough trip to fourth place Preston. Like Norwich, Ipswich cannot afford to drop any more points as they travel to Leeds and Brighton and take on Crewe in their last home game of the season.

It is likely Ipswich will have to settle for the playoffs, if results go as expected, which is something the THE COCA-COLA CHAMPIONSHIP

CURRENT LEAGUE TABLE P W D L GD PTS Sunderland 43 26 7 10 32 85 Wigan 43 24 10 9 42 82 ---------------------------------------------------IPSWICH 43 23 11 9 25 80

club have grown to dread.

With many in-form teams fighting it out for a playoff place, finishing third does not guarantee success in the playoffs.

Canary fans will be hoping Ipswich stay in the Championship if City do go down, as the East Anglian Derby will once again be on the calendar, and also because City don’t want their suffolk rivals above them in the league pyramid.

Whatever happens, one of the most exciting promotion battles in football history will go down to the wire.

Concrete Wednesday, April 20 , 2005 th

www.concrete-online.com

concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk 27

UEA FIGHTERS DOMINATE IN DRAYTON COMPETITION Talented Tae Kwon Do squad take home six trophies from the annual Eastern Region Grand Prix

Sam Fagence The UEA Tae Kwon Do club stormed the Eastern Region Grand Prix, picking up the Gold, Silver and Bronze trophies in the Women’s Intermediate Sparring and the Gold and Silver trophies in the Men’s Intermediate Sparring.

The Eastern Grand Prix is a sparring tournament held at the Bob Carter Centre in Drayton which is open to martial artists of all kinds but mostly attended by competitors from Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Kickboxing backgrounds. The rules are closely based on those used in Shotokan Karate with competitors scoring points by punching and kicking their opponents with protective equipment on both their hands and feet. This was a “Light Contact” competition meaning that the techniques used should aim to hit the opponent but not to hurt or injure them in any way. This was enforced well by the judges on the day and when a competitor used a dangerous technique or too much power it was rarely scored.

The competition opened with the Female Intermediate division in which UEA was represented

by Hollie Bainbridge, Helen Duncan, Nicola Thomas and Gemma Wilks. UEA’s women quickly showed the quality of their training and secured both places in both semi finals, guaranteeing that UEA would take all the prizes for that section.

Having already proved herself with a victory in the internal club competition, Nicola was the definite favourite and her swift roundhouse kick was the decisive factor in the final.

Thomas took first place, whilst Wilks took a close second. Bainbridge and Duncan shared a joint third place.

Such success in the women’s category immediately put pressure on the men. UEA had entered Paul Chase, Rob Cook, Alex Dunn and Mark Tobin in the intermediate category, and Sam Fagence and Stuart Hills in the black belt category.

Again, UEA’s entrants in the intermediate category achieved the best performance with Alex Dunn and Mark Tobin all getting through their early heats to get to the semi-finals. Mark is known in the words of club president Rob Cook, who he had knocked out of the competition by a single point in the first round, as a “cagey fighter” and used backfist strikes and reverse punches to counter-attack

well, winning his place in the final. Meanwhile, when Dunn used extended flurries of quick side and turn kicks, his opponent had difficulty staying inside the ring.

Now the two of them squared up for an all-UEA final. Dunn’s technique was excellent and he took the victory, scoring enough points to win the fight before the time limit. However, Mark fought harder than the final score line would suggest and did achieve an impressive head kick, which is doubly impressive considering Dunn’s height.

UEA Tae Kwon Do is not a sports club that gets to show its competitive side very often. Unfortunately for it, and doubtless many other student Tae Kwon Do clubs across the country, the BUSA Competition is only open to clubs of a certain affiliation. However, this win has shown that the Club has the ability to go out and win regional open tournaments and is planning to attend more in the near future.

Club President Rob Cook said that, “I was incredibly pleased with the size of the squad we got together.

Everyone was on good form, and the haul of six trophies was excellent reward for some great sparring performances”.

LACROSSE CLUB IMPRESS The UEA men’s team reach semi-finals in National event in Reading

Simon Murphy Just before Easter UEA’s Lacrosse team travelled to Reading to compete in the National men’s Tournament The tournament consisted of ten teams divided into two pools with the winner and runner up from each group qualifying for the semifinals. UEA, captained by goalie Andy Browning, and showing of their new kit started off with a strong performance against Northampton running out 61 winners. For their second match the new kit had to be forsaken in favour of a, possibly cursed and defiantly sweaty, Northampton strip, in order to face a star-studded Cambridge team who played in the same colours as UEA. The “cursed” shirts may definitely have been a factor in the 8-1 loss which followed. To be certain of progressing UEA had to win

the remaining two group games against Loughborough and Gloucester, and in a textbook demonstration of concentration and team spirit UEA defended exceptionally well, keeping two consecutive clean sheets. Chances are well-taken up front by the ever-suave attacking force of UEA and both games are won 2-0.

In the semi-final UEA were up against a Bath squad whose ability and squad depth enabled them to dominate the other group. Now on their third game without a break the energy and determination shown by UEA was magnificent, although not enough to achieve victory. The play off game for third spot was a similar encounter, and some of the biggest checks of the tournament were made; The play overall was hard but fair, and the genuine sportsmanship continued almost all the way to the final, where Bath thrashed Cambridge.

The tournament was a great success; establishing UEA as a strong men’s team despite their absence from a league this season. More impressive still was the overall performance shown by the entire squad in the mixed league throughout the season. UEA won almost every match they played, by some considerable margins, only loosing the league due to a last minute decision made by a deluded groundskeeper, which forced us to concede the game and the points. This season was good, but next year will hopefully be even better for the club.

Are you one of those people who stand in the shadows; would you like to step into the light? The lacrosse club is a dedicated, but funloving outfit who would always love new members of any standard, so come along next season and have a go.

Contact Nat (n.davis@uea.ac.uk) or Andy (a.browning@uea.ac.uk) for details.

The UEA Tae Kwon Do winners show off their silverware after great success in Drayton

INSIDE Tae Kwon Do club in Total Domination

SPORT

INSIDE The Premiership relegation battle hots up

FEMALE ROWERS WRITE HISTORY

Hard work pays off as the womens boat team become the first UEA crew to win annual race in London Jess Terrell The women of the University of East Anglia Boat Club made history last month becoming the first crew from the UEA to win at the prestigious Women's Head of The River Race in London.

The girls raced a grueling four and a quarter miles from Mortlake to Putney, beating off fierce competition to come 1st out of 47 other Senior 4 status crews and finishing 78th of 256 overall.

Despite an unlucky crash before the start, damaging the boat, the UEA Womens' B crew were16th quickest Novice status crew out of the 50 entered, finishing in 200th place overall.

Unlike many of their opposition who are supported through corporate sponsorship and large pots of university money, the UEA Boat

Club relies on funding from the Students' Union and the UEA Sportspark. Women's Captain Francisca Neethling said: "We are extremely grateful to our Students' Union and the UEA Sportspark for supporting us.”

Rowing is an expensive sport and Neethling says without their help they could not have afforded to keep the club going. “We have been training hard for this, practising on the Yare at 6.30am, battling through the snow and cycling back from Trowse at breakneck speed for our 9am lectures, but it has defiinitely been worth it.”

The UEA captain would also like to thank coaches, Alan Wells and Steve Whitfield. “Without them none of us would know one end of an oar from the other.

They have both put in so many extra, unpaid hours into helping us. I hope we have made them proud."

GOT A SPORTS STORY FROM YOUR CLUB? E-MAIL US AT CONCRETE.SPORT@UEA.AC.UK Concrete Prize (Cryptic) Crossword #66 ACROSS

DOWN

1. Great Macedonian king with good posture (9) 6. Bat back a strip of material (3) 8. Position on jury or chair (3) 9. __ long, goodbye! (2) 10. Urges MP lies to return (6) 12. Due to lettuce (3) 13. __algesic (2) 14. Captain Lip in love returns formal request (11) 16. Endless cast fills pouch (3) 17. Mythological bird is stone hard, I hear (3) 18. Contact Reykjavik to get lawful agreement (8) 19. Back in the shire they inherit (5) 21. Sea sum is how he entertains (6) 23. Warped net, to one is very probable (3) 26. Insert men in tent rap to catch something (10) 29. Sitting or era returns for signing in (12)

1. Rough sea saints to murder (11) 2. Brave cat (4) 3. __cetera or __ tu brute (2) 4. Provide equipment for limb? (3) 5. Study sources again or for first time? (8)) 6. China’s attic is a strategy (6) 7. Personal or commercial activity (8) 10. Mischievous child or sprite (3) 11. Pet ails wrongly for exercise (7) 14. Description of experience with bank service (7) 15. Carry a betting system (4) 20. Might be harmful when unwell? (3) 22. Charles and John, say (3) 24. Tom I wrecked and exclude (4) 25. Sing out to gesture (4) 27. Raise money for charity programme with old cloth (3) 28. Add up young child (3)

Set by Abi

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