Concrete 372

28 January 2020 Issue 372 The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk

Striving for Truth Est. 1992

UEA paid out more Interview:

than £140,000 to

student data leak victims Chris Matthews Editor-in-Chief

Concrete can reveal UEA has paid student victims of data leaks more than £140,000 in compensation over the past five years. In comparison the universities of Bristol, Durham, Exeter, Warwick and York have all paid out £0 over the same time period. A Freedom of Information request by Concrete discovered while UEA itself has not directly paid data leak victims in the past five years, its insurers have paid out a total of £142,512.16.

UEA has had close to 20 data leaks in the past five

years, which have affected hundreds of students. The largest, in early 2017, saw hundreds of American Studies students receive sensitive information detailing the reasons why individual students were granted extenuating circumstances.

Ian Callaghan, the chief resource officer and university secretary at UEA, told Concrete: “This figure [£142,512.16] relates entirely to a single breach in June 2017, which

Continued on

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Felix Brown & Ella Rowdon The UEA graduates directing a stirring play about male suicide

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28th January 2020

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Editorial

New Year, new you?

Jess Barrett Deputy Editor

Photo: Unsplash

Concrete at the dawn of a new decade Chris Matthews Editor-in-Chief

Welcome to Concrete’s first issue of the new decade. We’re happy to be back, and this issue is packed with content. From Piriyanga Thirunimalan’s dissection of the media blackout in India (pg 9) to Ted Tuthill-Jones’ report on UEA’s postponement of a talk by feminist speaker Prof Kathleen Stock (pg 4), this edition is sure to captivate you.

A new year always brings a bundle of promises and resolutions.

I started the New Year fairly sober, sitting in A&E in Cardiff of all places, looking after a friend who’d taken a tumble. It was the first day of the New Year, I wasn’t hammered, and so I thought I’d give Dry January a go. Sadly my birthday falls right in the middle of the month and so I may’ve failed. No need to dwell, there’s always next year.

The other option is Veganuary.

To be honest, I’m not even going to pretend I tried. As I jumped on my coach home from Cardiff I was holding a bacon bap and a sausage roll. Apologies to the environment.

I’ve been wondering whether in a few decades’ time students will view our generation with disgust.

‘They actually ate animals? I thought that was a myth’. Maybe that’s what they’ll say Norwich. It’s fairly progressive here.

Talking of progress, the Concrete Mental Health Crisis campaign has achieved so much already and I believe that’s something to be proud about. There have been obstacles but at last we’re starting to see some real change at the top. In December UEA announced a raft of initiatives including one to inform a nominated third party about a student’s mental

wellbeing if that student consents.

It’s exactly what our campaign has been calling for – if students consent to it, parents or guardians should be told. But more than this, we’ve seen a shift on campus in terms of the way our community is approaching mental health. For too long a number of people have buried their heads in the sand. People tried to tell us this isn’t a crisis and that we shouldn’t talk about mental health.

As if hushing things up would solve the issue.

"Solid journalism, finding stories that matter and publishing them for you to read" Last week we saw students come together for STIGMA, an event organised by SU welfare officer Amelia Trew to reduce the stigma around the conversation about mental health. The day was a success, and I’m glad to say Concrete teamed up with Headucate and UEATV to run a 24-hour mental health chat show– it was a great team effort.

Looking ahead to our next issue I’m sure many students will be excited to hear we’ll be publishing the results of our Sex and Drugs Survey. So far we’ve had a record number of respondents, with more than 1,400 people taking the survey.

We’ve got the team working on the special edition already – photos have been taken, articles pitched, and we’ve even had a peak at some of the survey’s statistics so far!

I’d like to take a moment to say thank you and good luck to our Lead

Photographer Roo Pitt and Senior News Reporter Samuel Woolford.

Both have done a stellar job and are now heading off for their semesters abroad, and we wish them all the best. Harry Chapman will take over from Roo as Lead Photographer and we will announce the new Senior News Reporter in the coming few weeks.

Finally I’d like to touch on another new addition to Concrete.

I may have failed my New Year’s resolutions, but as the name would suggest, Concrete is made of tougher stuff than I am. Phrases such as “post-truth” and “fake news” have eased themselves into our everyday vocabulary, but there is still a place for dedicated journalism. At UEA that place is Concrete. We don’t pander to anyone. We are UEA’s unbiased and official student newspaper, and we have been for close to thirty years.

We are delighted to announce our new motto is “Striving for Truth”.

It’s what we have always and will always aim to do: solid journalism, finding stories that matter and publishing them for you to read.

Scan this code with your camera to join Concrete today

With the new year has come a new decade, and it has made me feel incredibly old.

It is already my 4thyear here at UEA and I am constantly reminded by my peers that being 21 is practically elderly.

However old you may be at university, it is still a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and share new experiences.

If you haven’t already joined a sports club or society, I would urge you to.

It is a great way to find a community and find your place within university.

For anyone who is interested, the su are currently running a survey for those who are not a member of a club or society, so please take a look if you can spare the time.

Another survey that you should definitely fill out is Concrete’s own Sex Survey!

It is full of questions about your sexual experiences and relationships at university, but this year we have included a few questions about student relationships with drugs too.

So please flip to our ‘Home of the Wonderful’ section on page 14 to be directed to our famous survey, but also have a gander and read about what we have achieved with our Sex Survey previously.

The Sex Survey is something that we at Concrete are very proud of.

Our radio show ‘A Week in Concrete’ is back for another semester! We’ve changed our time slightly and are now on 4.30-6pm every Tuesday so tune in to hear us chat about the paper and the articles we have written, then join us for a pint in the bar afterwards.

Follow Concrete on social media! concrete-online.co.uk ConcreteUEA ConcreteUEA

The University of East Anglia’s Official Student Newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 28th January 2020 Issue 372 Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ 01603 593466 www.concrete-online.co.uk @ConcreteUEA

Editor-in-Chief Chris Matthews concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor Jess Barrett concrete.deputy@uea.ac.uk Online Editors Alec Banister and Jack Oxford concrete.online@uea.ac.uk News Bryan Mfhaladi concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Senior Writer: Samuel Woolford Global Global Editor: William Warnes Senior Writer: Piriyanga Thirunimalan concrete.global@uea.ac.uk Features Features Editors: Paige Allen and Leelou Lewis concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Comment Matt Branston concrete.comment@uea.ac.uk Science Science Editor: Jake WalkerCharles concrete.scienv@uea.ac.uk Travel Sam Hewitson concrete.travel@uea.ac.uk Sport Sport Editor: Jamie Hose concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk Chief Copy-Editors Nerisse Appleby Reeve Langston concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk Social Media Amelia Groves

Front page photo: Concrete/ Harry Chapman Cut out: Concrete/ Leia Butler

Editorial Enquiries, Complaints & Corrections concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk

No part of this newspaper may be reproduced by any means without the permission of the Editor-in-Chief, Chris Matthews. Published by the Union of UEA Students on behalf of Concrete. Concrete is a UUEAS society, but retains editorial independence as regards to any content. Opinions expressed herein are those of individual writers, not of Concrete or its editorial team.

News

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28th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/news/ | @ConcreteUEA

UEA paid out more than £140,000

to student data leak victims Chris Matthews Editor-in-Chief

continued from front page involved personal data being sent in error to a student group email address. This was paid in full by the university’s insurers on UEA’s behalf.

“We immediately informed the Information Commissioner as soon as we were aware of the breach and put support in place for all affected students.

“Since this incident we’ve reassessed a number of information security measures, including holding a full review of all data on UEA hard and shared drives, introducing mandatory data protection training and refresher training for all staff (whether permanent or temporary) and reviewing access to group email accounts and redacting this access in cases where it was deemed unnecessary.

“We take data protection very seriously and, with help from the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), we have made great strides as a workforce in raising the awareness of

the importance of good data management.”

However, since the American Studies leak in early 2017 there have been two further leaks. Later in the same year around 300 social science students received an email that divulged sensitive information regarding a staff member’s health.

In a statement, the then SU Campaigns and Democracy officer Jack Robinson called the breach “breathtaking”.

He added: “Students are rightly questioning whether their personal data is safe in UEA’s hands and we’ll be demanding action at the highest levels in coming days.”

Additionally, only three months ago a UEA lecturer mistakenly sent sensitive data about a student’s failed master’s dissertation to hundreds of their peers. The data included wide-ranging and specific feedback on the dissertation as well as personal information about the student. Concrete was unable to contact the victim, and it is unknown whether they will seek compensation from the university.

A poll by Concrete found that 66% of students do not trust UEA to keep their confidential data private.

A former student who had their personal details disclosed in

Photo: Unsplash the American Studies leak of early 2017 told Concrete “to have my personal information shared was hugely violating”. The student was off campus at the time of the leak and only found out when her friend saw the leaked email and messaged her about it.

The student said: “After it happened, on the advice of the SU I submitted an academic complaint – they were actually really helpful as I didn't know the process at all. This got forwarded to UEA's lawyers and I eventually received a payout offer of £1,100 in November [2017]. At the

time it felt like ages but in hindsight it was only a few months. I think it felt like longer because there was such a lack of communication from the university.”

She added that the amount of compensation students received was relative to how severe the data was that was leaked about them, and that others had received more than she did.

When Concrete asked Uea(su) whether students today can trust the university to protect their confidential data, a spokesperson responded: “The SU understands

how hurtful it can be for students to have their data leaked and following [a] leak in 2015 we lobbied the university to improve its processes.

“We know the university has worked hard to improve their systems and put new processes in place to prevent this from happening again, and they are in a much better place now. We will continue to work with them to make sure this situation doesn’t happen again. If it does the Union will be there to support the students and hold the University to account.”

University of Sheffield announce student racism team Bryan Mfhaladi News Editor

The University of Sheffield has announced that it will be launching an initiative to recruit ‘Race Equality Champions’ to change the way they tackle racism.

The university is set to train the chosen students, train them to lead healthy conversations in University residences and across campuses.

The initiative is part of the University’s Race Equality Strategy and will see the champions also provide optional training to student society leaders to ensure students know the support available to them.

The discussion content has been developed through consultation with a wide range of students and academic experts at the University and is designed to encourage students to have “healthy, open discussions” as well as expressing their opinions in the process.

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: “Here at Sheffield, we think it's important to be open and honest about racism, which is why we listened to our students and worked

closely with our Students' Union and our BME committee to develop the Race Equality Champion roles to change the way people think about racism.

These Champions will give our students the skills to challenge microaggressions now and in the future.

They will also ensure students are aware of the support available to them at the University of Sheffield.”

A comment from Tshepang, a student at the University of Sheffield, said: “The university's dedication to tackle issues of racial intolerance, inequality, prejudice and discrimination is highlighted in all its efforts to recognise and correct it where it can.

The important area of focus that is often neglected is that of translational impact of these type of projects as there are rarely ever timelines in place for impact analysis of these "progressive approaches to these challenges".

Evaluating whether people's lives on campus are being influenced by these well intended programmes is important in recognising whether priorities should be realigned to.”

Photo: Geograph

28th January 2020

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News

UEA postpones 'controversial' feminist speaker seminar Ted Tuthill-Jones News Reporter

The University of East Anglia has postponed a seminar by feminist speaker Kathleen Stock, a professor in philosophy at Sussex University, following threats of protest from transgender activists.

The seminar, which was due to take place on Thursday 23 January, has been postponed due to what the university described as “issues of academic freedom”.

Prof Stock, who has been labelled a “TERF” by some transgender activists, said she had been told that the university grew concerned after activists threatened to protest at the event.

TERF stands for TransExclusionary Radical Feminist.

It is used as a derogatory term to describe those who object to trans women having access to women only spaces on the grounds that identifying as a woman is not the same as being born a woman. It can also be used to refer to people who are deemed to hold transphobic views more generally.

The University, in correspondence with Stock, suggested that a transgender speaker should be invited the following week in order to respect “the views of members of the transgender community".

This comes as the latest row over transgender issues and freedom of speech on university campuses. In November, artist Rachel Ara, had a planned talk at Oxford Brookes University cancelled after she was accused by students of holding transphobic views.

In a statemnet UEA said: “As a university we are proud of our reputation for thinking without borders and welcome debate from all points of view.

“This was a genuine deferral rather than a cancellation and we are hoping to reschedule the event.

We have contacted Kathleen Stock to apologise for the late notice of the deferral and have offered to pay compensation for any pre-booked travel costs.

The visit, and the media coverage it has generated, raises questions concerning academic freedom and the rights of people to self-identify.

"These viewpoints are not in conflict.

As a community and as a society we need to find a way for

“find a way for these opinions to be debated in a respectful way” these opinions to be debated in a respectful way, while being mindful of the impact on individuals.”

Prof Stock’s told Concrete: “I think UEA postponed it because they panicked, and because views like mine (which respectfully question the political and social primacy of inner feelings of gender identity over fact about biological sex, in some contexts) are wrongly thought to be offensive to trans people - when in fact an increasing number of trans people agree with me.

"But Universities are heavily influenced by trans activist

“I think UEA postponed it because they panicked” organisations such as Stonewall tend to obstruct critical academic discussion of gender identity.

Stonewall have proposed a complete

redefinition of womanhood and manhood - which has serious implications for women - as well as redefinitions of sexual orientation in terms of being attracted to gender identity, not sex - which has serious implications for lesbians and gay men.

"Academics need to be able to discuss these without it automatically being thought of as offensive.

"UEA is a Stonewall Diversity Champion and has stated its ambitions to be in Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.

"I expect this has played a role

Photo: Kathleen Stock

in the panicked reaction, and the requirement of having a speaker with a different view the week after.

This is not a normal requirement for a talk.”

A spokesperson for Uea(su) said: “As far as the SU knows, the talk by professor Kathleen Stocks has been postponed for security reasons.

"The Student’s Union is here to represent students no matter their gender or sexuality, and we support our trans students.

"We believe the UEA community should be inclusive and diverse, and we will continue to lobby and work with the university to achieve it.”

Local bus prices increased Bryan Mfhaladi News Editor

As of 11 January 2020, First Bus increased their Norfolk and Suffolk bus fare prices.

The increase sees the price of annual tickets increasing by between 5.8 pence. and 14.4 pence.

The price of the Norwich Zone day ticket will remain the same on the bus, but will be cheaper than before if bought on the First Bus app.

High5 ticket prices remain the same on the app but increase on the bus.

The other change announced

by First Bus was that, in all zones, the 10-trip ticket, which allows for travel 10 times within a month period, will now be only available on the mobile ticket app in order to “speed-up boarding times”.

Return tickets will no longer be available in the Great Yarmouth Town Zone, Lowestoft Town Zone and Explorer Zone to speed up services.

Their website explained the

price increases as follows: “In simple terms it is to reflect the changing costs of operating our buses which increase each year.

As we've said above, in some cases, it has been a number of

“This is the first increase in three years” years since we increased the price of many tickets and, despite this, we have kept the increase to as low a level as possible to cover these cost increases, many of which (such as fuel) over which we have no control.”

Chris Speed, head of operations at First Eastern Counties, said: “Over the past 18 months we have expanded our bus networks and invested in upgrading our fleet to improve public transport provision,

with further plans to develop our offering to bus users over the coming months. To balance the everincreasing costs incurred in running a business, and to further improve services and links to community hubs across the city, towns and county, we need to revise some of the fares we charge for travel.

However, many single and return fares have remained unchanged, but some will see a 10p to 20p increase dependant on the route and location being travelled.

Some of our day tickets have seen an increase of 10p, and our week tickets [an increase of] £1 to £2 dependant on ticket type.

This is the first increase in three years that some of our mTicket prices have been revised.”

“It is great to see how people are moving towards our digital platforms to pay for their travel, with over 60% of all transactions now being made by contactless or mobile phone payment.

"These methods vastly improve boarding times and help with making services more reliable,” he said.

Photo: Concrete/ Bryan Mfhaladi

28th January 2020

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News

Comment Box: It just won't work Matt Branston Comment Editor

The issue with Sheffield’s new policy is that, firstly. It assumes that being called out for these microaggressions will change anything. Not to be cynical, but I doubt having some guy in a ‘University of Sheffield’ shirt walk up to a racist and saying, “stop your racism” will make that racist even blink, let alone change their actions.

A black friend of mine once told me a story about a group of white guys in their flat hallway saying the ‘n-word’ and as above, I don’t think being told to change one’s language is going to make them feel anything other than that they’ll need to hide their racism, which doesn’t solve the problem.

And for the people who it might help, why wouldn’t an email do the same thing? The people who would be willing to change their opinions and actions don’t need to feel publicly called out. That just breeds further negativity. There’s a huge difference between a close friend saying, “this is actually bad” and actually trying to help you to

understand, and a stranger who says, “well, actually…” and imposes their opinion upon you. It’s difficult to learn in that situation.

The problem with this job is that it further makes the side that wants to stop hate speech look bad. It’s the

“It further makes the side that wants to help look bad”

students to help each other for good reason; to be good, not for money, but by killing with kindness, rather than ostracising and making a public show of it. When you do something like this for money, it just makes you feel like the thing is cheap, but when you do it because it’s right, it changes the whole game. Those who don’t understand the microaggressions aren’t going to feel like they’re learning, they’ll feel like they need to hide and stop participating in campus life. You

teach with heart, not fear.

And this isn’t to say that this isn’t an issue which needs to be solved, it really is, but you don’t solve it like this. It just breeds contempt for a good idea, attaching a negative connotation.

Please do help your friends, help me know when I make a mistake, help me learn, but please don’t do it like this. It only makes people think the worst of those trying to help and we need positivity and kindness more than ever.

News in brief: NSFT has "room for improvement" Eliza Jack News Reporter

The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) was rated as ‘requiring improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report published earlier this month, a step up from their three consecutive ratings of ‘inadequate’, most recently in September 2018.

The NSFT provides mental health and learning disability service in the region. The trust provides services

“it still has a

long way to go”

actions of a university that wants to appear to be doing something, even if that thing is ridiculous, because it’s easier than actually finding the cause of the issue. I think it gives the idea of the University ‘policing thought’, when really the aim should be to change the culture.

That isn’t done by paying people to harass fellow students, it’s done by positively promoting fair thoughts and fair actions, encouraging

Photo: Flickr

Universities divest amid protests

for adults and children with mental health needs throughout Norfolk and Suffolk, including work within the criminal justice system and specialist services, such as the Community Eating Disorders Service (CEDS). It is the only mental health trust in England to have been placed in special measures with the step first taken in February 2015.

Chief executive of NSFT, Jonathan Warren, who recently took up the job, admitted it still had, “a way to go”.

Based

on

an

inspection

in

“a shift in

approach after concerns” Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Ted Tuthill-Jones News Reporter

About half of UK universities with shares in fossil fuel companies have committed to selling their shares in these companies after sustained pressure from eco-conscious students who have occupied buildings, carrying out hunger strikes.

Seventy-eight of the UK’s 154 public universities have joined the divestment campaign, either divesting, or pledging to divest hundreds of millions from the fossil fuel industry. In 2014, the University of Glasgow became the first to divest following student led protests, and similar campaigns have since taken place on more than 100 campuses across the UK. In the past year Russell Group universities such as Exeter, Liverpool, York and University College London

have also pledged to move their investments away from coal, oil and gas companies.Almost all of the 24 Russell Group universities, which

“78 universities have cut ties with the fossil fuel industry” are traditionally considered to be the most prestigious in the country, have pledged to at least partially divest from fossil fuels following years of campaigning by students, staff and local communities.

Of the 24, only Imperial College London and the universities of Manchester and Birmingham are

yet to join the divestment campaign.

In 2017, a PhD researcher at King's College London went on hunger strike to demand the university stop investing in the fossil fuel industry. As awareness of the industry’s profiteering from the global climate crisis has grown, it has come under increasing pressure, with leading institutions facing calls to end their sponsorship deals and protesters targeting individual companies.

Private investors are also starting to look elsewhere as the future of the once safe fossil fuel industry looks increasingly bleak.

The Seventy-eight Universities that have cut ties with the fossil fuel industry, with the University of East Anglia among them, represent around £12.4bn of endowments that have now been divested across the fossil fuel sector, as part of what campaigners say is an accelerating process of delegitimisation of the

industry. Student protesters have also called into question their universities' banking practices, as many still use banks with links to the fossil fuel industry, such as Barclays.

The move towards divestment in higher education has been boosted by last year’s climate strikes that were inspired by teenage activist Greta Thunberg, and involved hundreds of thousands of students.

UEA Environmental Science student Laura Taylor said: “I think it's brilliant, but it needs to go further and quicker. All universities need to listen to their students and their academics when considering the real reasons they want to hold onto these investments in favour of divesting quickly. Universities such as UEA are teaching students about the climate crisis and by not following the teaching of their own academics, universities risk looking unwise to their students, staff and the public.”

Autumn last year, four out of five criteria for the trust were found to ‘require improvement’.

The community mental health services for children and young people (CAMHS) was mentioned specifically as having issues with staff and waiting times. Most concerning, was the deeming of the learning disability inpatient service as unsafe. Despite this, the report states that, to their observation, “there had been a shift in approach and foundations had been laid to improve the direction of travel”.

Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Prof Ted Baker, said there had been a, "shift in approach" after concerns over safety, culture and leadership.

"Most staff felt more listened to, empowered, and believed the trust is moving forwards. We saw early improvements in almost all areas and a feeling of optimism from all staff, but there had not been enough time to judge if these changes would be sustained", he said.

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28th January 2020

News

News in brief:

Unorthodox 'singing lecture' explains SU

continue pro-Palestine boycott Union Council has voted to continue the SU’s boycott and divestment sanctions to support Palestinian interests. During the debate the Council’s Vice-Chair said Uea(su) should show it does not align with the Israel state. Jewish Society’s Daniel Burns called the policy “antiSemitic”. Later in the same night Council voted in favour of formally adopting the IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism.

SU newspaper ban remains Photo: Ted Tuthill/ Concrete

Ted Tuthill-Jones News Reporter

UEA nursing lecturer Stephen Smith, who specialises in nursing neuroscience and specialist care for patients with neurological diseases, has been making headlines with his unusual twist on the usual teaching methods. Smith uses songs in some of his lectures to help his students remember course content.

“They have a lot to deal with, so I think that we have a duty as lecturers, if we can, to make the learning a bit lighter and to help memory, to save reading the same books so often” says Smith.

“The thing about songs, you’ve got a lot of things that help you remember stuff, you’ve got repetition, you’ve got rhyme, rhythm, that’s all stuff that lends itself to remembering.”

Music has long been a part of Smith’s life, and he describes how “It’s something I’ve always done, I come from a big family. It seems

Sugar daddy websites are on the rise in universities Leia Butler News Reporter

With the high prices of accommodation and tuition fees that come with university life, students are now looking for ways to get extra cash to fuel their lifestyle habits.

This includes becoming ‘Sugar babies’.

a strange thing but ever since being young I would get up at weddings, funerals, birthdays and do something about the people and the occasion.

“I learnt

"To make the learning a bit lighter and to help memory" to play the guitar at about the age of 14 at school. I always ended up at a birthday or a wedding doing a rhyme, and by the time I learnt guitar it was a song.”

As well as helping with memory, Smith’s songs also help to express to students the human side of what they’re learning.

“Over the years, when I’ve nursed and engaged with families, people have told me their stories – and I’ve always asked permission ‘Seeking Arrangement’ dating site has over 500,000 British university members, and advertise that students can earn up to £2,900 a month on the site. The site is the world’s largest sugar daddy site and claims that students would also receive other benefits such as

"Advertise that students can earn up to £2,900 a

– but I’ve put songs together that are what people have told me about their experiences,” Smith explains.

“So, some of the songs are quite emotive, and I can’t really take credit for the fact that they are emotive, it is just what people have told me and I try to stick fairly faithfully to that.

That sticks in people’s minds.

“What you’re trying to convey is not just the academic facts, but that this is how it hits people, and that you need to be aware of that when you go out there to practice.”

Lectures haven’t been the only outlet for his musical flair, and recently Smith has been performing at local folk clubs. ‘I’ve been surprised how well it’s gone down,’ he said. “At folk clubs I keep the range of topics really broad.”

Smith believes though that in a casual setting his more academic songs can still be relevant. “everyone knows somebody who has dementia, most people know of someone who’s had a stroke, a lot of people know people with Parkinson’s,” he said.

The recent flurry of media attention is a welcome change for

the long serving UEA lecturer, who explained that, in cooperation with his son: “We’ve made a couple of CDs, and we’ve had a bit of success, they’ve been played on quite a few radio stations. I’ve been doing songs in lectures for 20 years, but I don’t think anyone’s ever taken much notice except the students!” His songs have also attracted attention from within academia though, and Smith explains that for the past 20 years: “I’ve never had a year when I wasn’t invited somewhere internationally to give a talk. It’s caught on that I’ll play a song at the end too, so I tend to do that, and it’s got me around the world!”

Positive feedback from both current and ex-students are what encourages Smith to carry on singing. “I think I’d really think again if I ever got a bad reaction or even a non-reaction,” he explains.

“When we were on radio Norfolk somebody phoned in and said to them, ‘I am now a qualified nurse, some years ago I was there [at UEA] and Steve was a lecturer. I can still remember the choruses and it really helped me learn’”.

allows sugar daddies to search for potential ‘babies’ by age, body type, ethnicity, height, hair colour, smoking and drinking preferences, whether they have children or not, and whatever language suits them.

right network and opportunities.”

The ‘fastest growing sugar baby school’ for 2019 was the University of Arts London, with a ‘new sign-up growth’ of 218 people in 2018 A total of 845 students being signed up to the site by the end of 2019.

Seeking Arrangement describes itself as the world’s largest dating website that "facilitates open and honest relationships on your terms". The University of Manchester and University College London are apparently in second and third position respectively.

With the average cost of university life rising from 2018 to 2019, alternative means of making money, such as engaging with sugar daddies, are rising.

This is owing to the ease in terms of time and effort for students.

It is also down to the 'get rich quick' factor of fast income.

"World's largest dating website that facilitates open and honest relationships"

month" mentorships, business opportunities and career advantages, on top of their earnings.

‘Seeking Arrangement’ also

The site claims that “Students registered on Seeking Arrangement get help paying for fees and even more benefits.

"Finding the right Sugar Daddy can help students gain access to the

Union Council has also voted in favour of retaining a ban of the sale of The Sun, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Star in SU outlets. Councillor Lewis Martin called all three papers “racist”, “transphobic” and “trash”.

Martin did not provide evidence for any of these claims. 88% of Council voted to maintain the ban.

UEA reassures students after Coronavirus outbreak Jon Sharp, the director of Student Services, has attempted to reassure students worried after an outbreak of Coronavirus made global headlines. In a university-wide email Mr Sharp wrote: “the health and wellbeing of our students and staff is of the highest priority, and we are continuing to closely review the situation.” He added: “We know that Chinese New Year is a time of celebration for many people but we understand there may be students have concerns around family and friends in China. Please contact Student Services by email at studentsupport@uea.ac.uk, call us on 01603 592761, or come and see us in person if you have any concerns.”

Mental health toolbox for councillors Mental Health Crisis Union Council has backed plans for "mental health awareness sessions for those councillors and club and society committee members wishing to partake”. 95% voted in favour, 0% against and 5% abstained.

28th January 2020

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Heathfield Norwich

A Welcoming Diverse Community of 44 Students Your university experience is shaped by the people you meet and the friendships you make.

Here at Heathfield we welcome both home and international students, studying at NUA, UEA and other institutions. We offer affordable accommodation designed to foster lasting and enriching friendships among our student residents.

The 6 flats have 6, 7 or 8 bedrooms (one is a women-only flat), and each flat has: ç 2 showers ç 2 toilets ç a large well-equipped kitchen and lounge There are 39 standard rooms, 4 large rooms and one studio (with its own bathroom). Each bedroom has a bed, desk, chair, noticeboard, bookshelf, chest of drawers, large wardrobe and washbasin.

Shared and communal facilities include: ç secure bike sheds and private parking ç a library room with access to the sunny enclosed garden ç the Heathfield Centre, a common room which offers space for meetings, seminars, conferences, exhibitions, parties or other events, and equipped with two pianos, a table tennis table and a home cinema ç a studio where you can do messy work without harming your deposit ç a token-operated on-site laundry

Heathfield stands in 1.4 acres of private grounds.

For more details, FAQs, a gallery, and to apply for a room, see our website.

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8

Global

28th January 2020

Fears grow that new Chinese virus may be more widespread

Brexit Box Piriyanga Thirunimalan Senior Global Writer

Photo: Wikipedia Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Marco Rizzo Global Writer

There have been several reports of disease outbreaks which have surfaced since late December last year, mainly from central China.

A never seen variation of Coronavirus started plaguing Wuhan, in Hubei province. So far,

“More than 200 confirmed infections and at least 17 fatalities” authorities have confirmed at least 2000 close contacts with more than

200 confirmed infections and at least 17 fatalities. While the disease seems to have originated from Wuhan, there have now been cases from at least 13 Chinese locations including Shanghai and Beijing. The virus has made its way overseas with reports of infection coming from Thailand, Japan and even the USA. As a strain of Coronavirus, experts so far believe the virus originated from live animals or seafood. The virus is reported to initially cause coughs, fever and breathing difficulties culminating in Viral Pneumonia. Experts have confirmed the ability of the virus to transmit human-to-human via the respiratory system. So far, the main suspect is the Wuhan seafood market which often contained live animals.

While 217 cases have been acknowledged by Chinese authorities, the government is known to downplay infection numbers and so the figures must be taken with a grain of salt. This was the case in their previous Coronavirus outbreaks such as the 2003 Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) which infected more than 8000 people and killed around

750. In fact, some residents have been prohibited from speaking to the media and Wuhan police are dealing with Weibo users spreading so-called misinformation.

Li Bin, deputy director of China’s National Health Commission, has

“Experts so far believe the virus originated from live animals or seafood” expressed his concerns about the spread of virus, especially in light of upcoming celebrations and tourism that will see hundreds of thousands of people entering and leaving the

city. Additionally, the World Health Organization met on Wednesday and temporarily delayed a decision to label the outbreak as a global health emergency and will continue the meeting on Thursday.

So far Chinese authorities have taken measures to limit the amount of people at risk of being infected.

Wuhan residents and tour groups have been prohibited from leaving the city and no outsiders are allowed in. The outbreak is being treated as a Class A disease, a categorization that allows authorities to put entire areas on lockdown and quarantine patients. The WHO has advised people to completely avoid contact with live animals, be more careful when cooking animal products and stop close contact with people affected by cold symptoms.

The response from foreign nations has varied.

Countries such as Taiwan have discouraged nationals from travelling to central China while North Korea has announced a temporary closing of the border for foreign tourists. Countries such as Australia, Japan and Singapore have increased screenings for air passengers coming from Wuhan.

Following the general election of December 2019, and the victory of the Conservative party, many efforts have been underway to negotiate a finalised Brexit deal. The extended deadline of 31 January 2020 still stands, and the UK are due to officially leave the European Union on this date.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill, also referred to as the Brexit Bill, has finally been passed through the House of Commons successfully and has been assessed by the House of Lords. The passing of the bill would cement the EU withdrawal agreement into legislation, but holds several clauses that have caused dispute.

A key change from the previous edition of the bill is that the transition period, in which the UK would no longer be a member of the EU but would still be subject to EU laws and be part of the single market, cannot be extended. The transition period is essential to the UK as it provides them with time to negotiate trade deals and future relationships, however the passing of the bill would prohibit the UK from requesting any form of extension to this period.

Although the bill had successfully passed the House of Commons with no amendments with a 358 to 234 majority, the House of Lords had reviewed it and set forward five amendments to the Brexit Bill. These amendments were further passed back to the House of Commons for MPs to vote on.

On 22 January the Conservative MPs voted against all five amendments presented to them.

This has caused widespread debate in the House of Lords as one of the amendments, named the Dubs amendment, was regarding the safeguarding of unaccompanied child refugees in Europe by allowing them to unite with their relatives in the UK. Regardless of the defeat of the amendments passed down by the House of Lords, both houses have come to agreement on the terms of the bill and the Brexit Bill has successfully passed in parliament.

The Queen’s Royal Assent is now all that needs to be awarded in order for the Brexit deal to be ratified ahead of the official departure of the UK from the EU on 31 January.

It is predicted that the bill will be ratified by 29 January.

The UK will officially depart from the EU at 11pm on 31 January 2020.

The Royal Mint are circulating commemorative Brexit 50 pence coins.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

9

28th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/global/ | @ConcreteUEA

Confusion over black boxes in Iran Sam Gordon Webb Global Writer

Iranian forces recently admitted to ‘unintentionally’ shooting down a Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran, killing all 179 passengers. But still, few are aware of the exact location of the aircraft’s black box, causing fresh concern.

Canadian President Justin Trudeau has promised ‘justice’ for the

“Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, suggested ‘a harsh retaliation is waiting [for the US]” victim’s families, insisting the black box be sent to France, making the case that Iran lacks the technology to carry out its own thorough

investigation. 57 Canadian citizens were on board the doomed flight en route to Dubai. On Monday, Iran made it clear its intentions to send the black box to Ukraine for further analysis, the head of the crash investigation probe told reporters the next day that all recordings would be examined in Iran, and

by Iranian officials. According to Hassan Rezaifar, director of accident investigations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, Iran were seeking “to read the (flight data recorder) in Kiev”.

Mr Rezaeifar told the official state news agency the next day that “we are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran. Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country.’

The United States has called for ‘swift action’ over the issue, with transportation safety board chair Kathy Fox saying ‘“The issue here is we don’t know if the data has been damaged. I think the Iranians still prefer, if they can, to download the recorders in Iran. Under ICAO they’re supposed to dispatch those recorders under their custody and

control to another state who can do it without delay.”

But Iran are in no mood to hand America the black box, instead asking France and U.S aviation authorities to provide the equipment necessary to decode the aircraft’s data recordings, adding both ‘have not given a positive response to

sending the equipment.” Iran has also refused to hand over the black box to the aircraft’s American manufacturer, Boeing, widely regarded in the west as reversing the norms of accepted investigative practice. “We will not give the

“The eyes of the international community are on Iran today” black box to the manufacturer and the Americans,” the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation Ali Abedzadeh told local media. This all comes in the wake of increased tension between U.S and Iran, after Trump administration carried out

the killing of Iranian major general, Qasem Soleimani, on January 3.

Iran’s supreme leader, suggested “a harsh retaliation is waiting”, while Trump threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites “very hard” if Tehran attacked US citizens or assets.

In the context of hostile relations between Iran and its western adversaries, no one could expect a quick fix.

“The eyes of the international community are on Iran today”, Canada’s foreign minister, FrançoisPhilippe Champagne, told a news conference in London recently.

“We are here to pursue closure, accountability, transparency and justice.’’

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

News from around the world Blackout in Kashmir begins to ease Rallies as Iraqis demand Piriyanga Thriunimalan Senior Global Writer

India has announced that the media blackout that suspended all internet services throughout Kashmir and Jammu on 4 August 2019 will finally be partially eased.

The media shutdown is the longest blackout recorded in any democracy, and despite recent slight easing, the communication restrictions still remain largely in place.

The blackout was deemed essential by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in August last year following his use of the presidential decree to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution of India which granted Kashmir its own constitution.

Kashmir and Jammu, which were previously part of the larger region of Kashmir, were divided into two union territories following the passing of the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act’ of October 2019.

The blackout was declared following rising tensions and protests within Kashmir for selfdetermination, ensuring that the Indian government’s violent reactions remained hidden.

On 18 January the Supreme Court announced they would revise the restrictions placed on Kashmir as the higher court stated that the “suspension of free movement, internet and basic freedoms” cannot be exercised in a democracy and is unconstitutional.

However, the government has made clear that the ease will not restore all media connections and that messaging applications such as WhatsApp will not be reinstated.

Social media connections will also not be restored, and internet lines will only be run in institutions for which internet is deemed necessary, such as hospitals and

government workplaces. Bans on mobile networks are not to be lifted and only a few “white-listed” sites will become accessible.

The Hindustan Times reported that the government has decided that the easing of restrictions in the Kashmir Valley will only be granted in phases.

Many foreign governments and the United Nations have condemned the prolonged blackout, urging India to review its media shutdown, with Human Rights Watch expressing concern that India is failing to protect Kashmiri human rights.

The Indian government has attempted to justify the lockdown by claiming that it is essential in countering radical insurgencies and violence in the region.

The region holds a Muslimmajority and tensions over selfdetermination in the region has lasted since the end of British colonialism in India and Pakistan.

Regardless of very slight lifts on communication restrictions, hopes of a return to normalcy for the much-disputed region does not seem near.

Although efforts to ease the communication restrictions are being made, there is still a long way to go to instil peace in Kashmir.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

US troops to pull out William Warnes Global Editor

Amidst growing tension between Iran and the United States after the US killing of top Iranian military commander, General Qasem Soleimani, on January 3, large crowds have taken to the streets of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad to denounce the US military presence in Iraq.

Iranian backed militias are thought to be amongst those protesting and Iraqi shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for a million people to join the marches. 5,000 US soldiers are stationed in Iraq as members of the international coalition against the so-called Islamic State.

Tensions between the US and Iran arose in the region after the assassination of General Soleimani.

According to the BBC, ‘the United States regarded Soleimani as a terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops and was plotting “imminent” attacks’. The general was assassinated during a targeted U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on January

3 2020. Many Iraqis responded to the assassination by taking to the streets of Baghdad waving Iraqi and militia flags chanting “death to America”.

Earlier this month, a nonbinding resolution was passed by Iraqi lawmakers that called for the departure of all foreign troops. As the world watches with great anxiety and anticipation, these protests provide yet another example of increasing t e n s i o n s in a region growing in further instability.

Features

10

28th January 2019

Are New Year’s resolutions pointless?

Ellie Robson Features Writer

I never give much thought to my New Year’s resolutions until that weird time between Christmas and New Year when no-one’s quite sure who they are or what they’re doing. It seems this week, the idea of resolutions pops up more and more. On my Instagram feed, in my YouTube subscriptions, in the mutterings of family and friends about what challenges they’re going to begin on January 1. By New

Year’s Eve, I’ve usually decided that I’m going to make my own.

From my understanding, New Year’s resolutions are goals that people set themselves for the following year to improve their life in some way. The most common ones are usually related to health: eating better, losing weight, doing more exercise. They tend to be about selfimprovement. Generally, I think New Year’s resolutions can be a fun and positive thing. However, I don’t treat mine too seriously or put too much pressure on myself to achieve them, which I think is where others can

Photo: Unsplash

struggle. For example, I would like to eat generally healthier this year.

For a lot of people, this resolution also comes with the goal of losing weight, and I think people can get lost in trying to see a huge physical

“The key to New Year’s resolutions is to be realistic” change rather than appreciating the good eating healthy does for their body, regardless of weight or physical appearance.

I’ve only set myself three goals, or New Year’s resolutions, for 2020.

The first two of these go hand in hand – I would like to eat better and do more exercise. However, I’m not too interested in seeing a physical change in myself, I just want to feel that I am caring for my body.

Realistically, I feel so much better when I’ve eaten a healthier dinner rather than a takeaway but am often caught out by the ease of just

picking up my phone and ordering food. We’re nearing the end of January and so far, I’d say that it’s going well. I think one good thing about resolutions is that you can keep returning to them throughout the year. I try to have mine in mind when I do a food shop. If I buy healthier food when I shop, I limit the amount of unhealthy options I have easy access to at home.

I think the key to New Year’s resolutions is to be realistic. My third goal is that I want to read 52 books this year. I am an English Literature student, but I’m graduating this year and want to keep up my habit of reading.

Currently, I’m reading three texts a week for my course, and would smash my goal if I was doing this for the whole year.

However, I acknowledge this pace probably won’t be sustainable when I graduate and enter the working world, so the goal of one book a week is kinder to my future self and provides far less pressure.

I think it really helps to create goals with positive language for yourself.

Personally, I find New

Year’s resolutions beneficial. They act as small nudges for me to make better choices throughout the year, and slowly build something into a consistent habit. I’m currently ahead of where I need to be to hit my 52 books for the year, and so far, have maintained healthier eating choices.

We’ll have to see how well I’m doing by summer though.

Photo: Unsplash

Is it easy to do Veganuary at UEA? Leelou Lewis Features Editor

Veganuary has boomed since it first started back in 2014, increasing with participants worldwide each year.

It is a non-profit movement which encourages people to go vegan throughout the month of January, a challenge of great popularity but how easy, or difficult, is it to be vegan for a month (or longer)?

What opportunities do we UEA students have on campus?

Today it is easier than ever before to cut out animal products f r o m your diet,

with increasing options substitutes for dairy and meat.

of

“It is easier than ever to cut out animal products” The quality of the multiple options obviously differ but none of them can be expected to be absolutely accurate to the product which they are resembling.

To succeed throughout veganuary you have to make sure not to compare the p r o d u c t s you have substituted for but rather see them for what they really are.

Oat milk is made out of water and oats and will obviously therefore not taste like cow’s milk.

The texture of cheese will be very different.

The trick here is to try not only different substitutes but also try different brands.

Now veganism can seem expensive, and it is if you decide to live off of substitutes rather than wholefoods.

Maybe you have to rethink how heavily you might have depended on milk, eggs and meat as the main components in your diet.

So what should you focus on that is actually affordable? Beans and lentils are great sources of both fiber and protein and are way cheaper than meat.

Fresh veggies are easy to get a hold of as is fruit, but they can feel too expensive.

There is however the option of buying frozen and do not worry, they still contain an adequate amount of nutrition.

Also remember, Google is your best friend, you can find literally any information and recipe with a quick search. When you walk around UEA campus whilst keeping the word vegan in mind you will suddenly see all the opportunities to help you through your veganuary journey.

Also, Ziggy’s do not only offer vegan flatbread with chickpeas and other goodies but also the best vegan brownies available around UEA as well as vegan croissants.

The Unio café offers different

options for milk substitutes in your latte AND vegan syrups to sweeten and spice it up. They also provide sandwiches and several sweet treats ranging from flapjacks to brownies and energy bars.

If you feel low and need some chocolate to cheer you up, try Vego chocolate bar which is sold in the SUshop, or go cheap and buy ordinary dark chocolate as it will satisfy your cravings without breaking the bank as much as the vegan branded products might.

Photos: Unsplash

11

28th January 2019

concrete-online.co.uk/category/features/ | @ConcreteUEA

Why grades are not the be all and end all of university Leia Butler Features Wrtier

Mental Health Crisis It can be disheartening to work so hard on an assessment, only to receive a ‘bad’ grade and for many people, it can make them question why they are even at university and why they should continue.

However, a hack to university life is to stop putting so much emphasis on the grades and pay equal attention to the other opportunities and experiences that you can gain outside of the course.

Graduating with a top degree is

undeniably amazing, however this does not guarantee you will have the right experience and skills in order to do better than an individual who is less academically successful yet has a wide breadth of people skills and has experienced all other

“Take advantage of all opportunities university has to offer” parts that university has to offer them.

One of the best ways to leave university as a well-rounded, happy

and employable individual is to engage actively with societies, get some form of part-time job and take advantage of your universities career service advice.

Engaging with societies can be a brilliant way of getting good experience in a field you are interested in. For example, if you want to go into journalism, joining the student newspaper will not only look great on your CV as it is real life experience, but you’ll be interacting and building connections with real people and forming lasting relationships.

Any form of part-time job, whether that be on campus, online or in the city is a great way to show future employers that you can manage time well, even if it just for a few hours a week. Part time jobs

earn you some money and give you lots of useful practical experience that you can take into job interviews and use as

“Societies can be a brilliant way of getting good experience” communication enhancement.

Getting to know and use your campus career service is another brilliant way to start building up the best version of yourself. They often offer practice interviews, and always give out helpful advice about

where to find opportunities you may be interested in. Some even offer award programmes that you can use to enhance your CV. By no means is this an encouragement to completely drop your studies, but a guide to what you could be doing alongside your education.

There are other important things you can focus on rather than simply a number.

So next time you feel down that you have not got a first, remember all the other things you can do to not only improve your mental health and well-being, but employability too.

Don’t be defined by a number, get out there and take advantage of all opportunities your university has to offer.

Photo: Pixabay

nominations open now uea.su/vote

Interview

12

28th January 2020

‘People will leave the theatre feeling Leia Butler chats to the UEA graduates Ella Rowdon and Felix Brown are the directors of Wasp, a play responding to the discussion of mental health at UEA after a number of suicides and student deaths at the university in the past year. The pair have invited me to the dress rehearsal of their play, which showed at the Maddermarket Theatre 23 – 25 January. We’re perched on some antique chairs strewn in a corridor adjacent to the stage. Rowdon, who graduated from UEA last year and studied English Literature with Creative Writing, tells me “there was a lot of political attention” around the approach to mental health on campus and that “everyone had a lot to say”. She wrote the play in her final year at UEA, before approaching Brown, who also graduated last year, about getting on board.

Brown tells me he “wanted to do something that was about the suicides, that was not just taking a very simplistic view.” He adds, “Somebody who we talked to previously about this said something very insightful, which is that usually when you see a play about suicide it will be about people coming together in the aftermath, and I think [Wasp] is the complete opposite.” In the play, Brown says that the characters are “disagreeing on causes, on the reasons and even what they knew about the person who died.”

Brown

adds this was what made him want to do the play. “It didn’t have that sort of very simplistic message, and it lets the audience make up their mind and agree or disagree with characters rather than feels like the play is a scaffold to project a single message”.

When initially writing, Rowdon put research and conversation as the focal point. She says, “I spoke to a lot of people about what they thought, what their opinions were about what was going on. I spoke to advisers, I spoke to students, I spoke to people who are directly linked to some of the suicides – that have known people. I spoke to people that themselves had struggled with mental illness and suicidal thoughts. So I managed to gain a lot of information.”

She emphasises to me the importance of portraying all elements in the most “honest and authentic” way possible. “It was hard to approach [the topic] sensitively because there are going to be people that find it controversial and that won’t like what I’ve put in my play. And there’s some things I don’t even like. But it’s not about that, it’s about being honest.”

When discussing the effect on university life on mental health,

Rowdon says “University isn’t an easy time for anyone, especially the massive changes that you go through. So I think that a lot of people struggle.

And I was definitely one of those people in first year.

But the play is not about me. It’s hard because you don’t want to betray your own opinions.”

Brown says there have been some tough moments for the cast.

“We’ve had like really interesting discussions as a cast about how or what we think ourselves about these issues, about how we’ve kind of been affected by them and while we have certainly had those moments of sadness and of back and forth between us about what exactly it is.”

Rowdon adds, “People will come into the rehearsals and they’ll have lots of energy. And then by the end of the play it’s zapped because they’ve been acting and it’s emotionally intense.

It’s very exhausting to act.

Some of them find it very hard to do those scenes over, and over and over again. But the actors all individually care about what their character has to say, even if they don’t necessarily agree with that. I think a lot of the audience will see a reflection of their opinions in some of the characters.”

Although the play focuses on grief and suicide, Brown says the play was still “a lot of fun to make”. He tells me, “People that make horror films are sometimes thought of in terms of like, ‘oh, was it really scary on set?’

But no, this is really different.” Brown says there is a difference in “experiencing a work of art versus making it”. He also found it easier to distance himself from the more draining elements of the play, by focusing on the play as a job. “It’s sort

of just something that you that you do. It’s something that I think affects you at the beginning, and when you think about it, and we certainly hope it will affect the audience. But the play can still be really thrilling to create.”

“There are going to be people that find it controversial and that won’t like what I’ve put in” Rowdon says it took her a year to write the play. She says her tutor, Michael Lengsfield, was “an enormous help”.

“He was encouraging and I think that’s why he’s an amazing teacher, because he does let people explore their own ideas.” Rowdon adds, “I started writing it for my final piece in third year and it’s changed

so much. Felix and I had a lot of discussions about how I wanted it to be presented on stage. Originally, it wasn’t going to be in the round, but we realised because it’s not a very physical play, it’s not very visually stimulating, we wanted to create something that the audience find interesting to look at. And we realized that I think [a] therapy circle would be a very interesting way of doing that. So the characters actually act in the circle. They sit down with the audience in the circle. And then in scene six, they all act from where they are sitting, with the audience next to them around them. I think that a lot of people will hate that and a lot people will like that. It’s going to be one of those plays, it’s very up and down, very Marmite.”

Brown’s past experiences with UEA’s Drama Society helped him in to direct Waspbut admits it feels like “a further kind of step up” in his and Rowdon’s careers. The pair crafted the final play outside an academic sphere of influence, and Brown says “it is just us two essentially creating

13

28th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/features/ interview | @ConcreteUEA

very drained and probably fairly upset’ directing a stirring play about male suicide

and producing as well as directing this. There’s no company, there’s no other kind of oversight. We hired them at Maddermarket, they didn’t approach us or anything.” Brown adds, “What’s very good about this is the fact that it’s not going to be graded. We don’t really have to worry about what a professor or someone might think of this. We have a lot of creative freedom, so we can make something that we hope will appeal to the audience.”

Rowdon tells me, “I don’t necessarily agree that plays are supposed to evoke high spirits. I think a lot of plays I’ve seen have been amazing but have also made me drained to watch. I’m passionate about theatre because it’s a very personal display because you’re so close to the actors, and every single show will be different. It is not a film where we can watch over and over again. Every single show is different and that’s what makes it so unique as a medium.

“I think that the play in itself will definitely divide people up,

which I’m ready for, but also I don’t think that it will necessarily make people not enjoy listening to what the characters have to say. I think it’s very thought provoking, which is what I wanted. And of course, people will leave the theatre feeling very drained and probably fairly

“It’s really not a problem if some people come out loving it and some people come out hating it.” upset depending on what it evoked for them personally. But I also think that you don’t go to the theatre just to come out feeling good. I think people go to the theatre to awaken their thought processes, to see something different. Our play is definitely different. That’s what is so

good about it, is that it is different and it’s a different way of doing things.”

Brown says theatre is “one of the most intimate art forms because you’re in the audience and in there with the actors there’s no there’s no escape, there’s no pausing it. There’s no getting away from it. So it’s one of those things that can absolutely challenge you and make you think and that’s absolutely what we want to do with this.”

He tells me, “It’s really not a problem if some people come out loving it and some people come out hating it. The only problem would be if people don’t feel anything.”

Rowdon says, “I don’t necessarily want to tell people how they should feel because I think that every single person that has been acting and working on this play feels something differently about the play. So I don’t want to say ‘this is the right way of feeling, this is the wrong way of feeling’ because then that would be very dependent on us having a fundamental message, which we don’t have and worked so hard to not have.”

“I think it’s going to be a very diverse reaction,” she adds.

Rowdon’s choice not to have a specific fundamental moral was down to the enormous nature of the topic. She says, “I feel like it is such a massive topic, and there are so many things to explore and we don’t necessarily have the tools or the knowledge to explore all of them. I wrote it based off the conversations I’ve had with other people and my research, but we don’t cover everything. There’s no way to do that in an hour and twenty. But as far as people’s reactions and how they are going to feel after the play,

I just want them to feel like they’ve seen something worthwhile.”

Brown adds, “You will get a lot of plays about issues that are meant to give you a completely package message of ‘this is what you should think and believe’, presented via a drama, but the drama almost becomes secondary to conveying the message and that’s not something we wanted to do at all, but to make something that was entertaining as a drama but then leaves something up to the audience.”

Rowdon wants to make it clear theWasp isn’t the start of a discussion on mental health, but a continuation. She tells me, “[With] male suicide, mental health, stigma, toxic masculinity – those doors have been opened and it’s great that that discussion has started. I don’t want people to think ‘they think they started the discussion’ because we don’t. We want to continue that discussion and make it more diverse. I think a lot of people don’t really know what the right thing to think is, and we basically are just here to say there isn’t a right thing to think; you never know how you are going to feel. We don’t even know how we would feel in that situation, so I just make the

point that we want to utilise what has already being given to us by the progressiveness of student thinking and social media trying to promote positive ways of conveying how you are feeling mentally.”

UEA mental health factbox Mar 2019: Another student death brings the tally to four in ten months at UEA. Three of the students were found on university grounds.

Mar 2019: In less than 24 hours more than 3,000 students sign a petition demanding the university to take action against UEA’s mental health crisis.

Sept 2019: Concrete launches the Mental Health Crisis campaign, calling for a number of changes at UEA, including informing parents or guardians about students’ mental health, with their consent.

Dec 2019: UEA announces a raft of new initiatives, including informing third parties about students’ mental health, with their consent.

Jan 2019: Uea(su) holds STIGMA, a day of activities aiming to reduce stigma surrouning mental health.

Photos: Concrete/ Leia Butler

Phot

Jame

28th January 2020

14

HOME OF THE WONDERFUL

A history of The Sex Survey

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1

Last year we found out that 22 percent of UEA students don’t use contraception. 38 percent have had sex when they did not want to. 2 percent agree with cheating. These are just several statistics collected in Concrete’s Sex Survey. The survey gained responses from ten percent of UEA’s student community in 48 hours, highlighting the importance of sexual identity on campus. In the wake of Warwick’s rape chat news we felt it our responsibility to address concerns of consent on our campus, tailoring our survey to question students on their online interactions. Our innovative publication destigmatises conversations about sexual health by curating a collection of inclusive content to represent and educate our diverse student body.

Articles ranged from investigative features, to confessional columns, interviews to comment pieces. Our interview with asexual student Gus Edgar Chan offered unique insight into the lifestyle of 1.5 percent of UEA’s students.

This sensitive interview was possible through the editorial team providing a safe space for everyone’s story. Other content included, having a healthy sex life while living with a disability, fighting toxic masculinity, ending an open relationship, long distance dating, and using dating apps and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. We integrated statistics, graphs and survey quotes amongst the pieces to create an accessible, data driven publication.

of UEA’s student community responded to 73

questions on sexual health, relaionships and taboo’s

scan the barcode to

answer

the

survey!

The distinctive tabloid design used images of fruit and emojis By sharing our findings with to present a modern publication. We used suggestive images the SU, the specialist publication of fruit to reduce the focus on bodies. Too often physical created tangible change on campus; targeted resources on appearance is conflated with a healthy sex life and as only sexual health, increased accessibility of popular contraception 21 percent of respondents said they were confident methods and specialised advice for common issues. naked we wanted to convey that sex shouldn’t be all about a person’s looks. Our creative The Sex Survey was first established as a layout reflects the content that champions seperate pull out publication in 2015, as fun, consenting, sexual relationships. it was perviously included as a double page spread. The 2015 issue talked We launched a vibrant digital campaign about masturbation, sexual partners alongside the publication, engaging and abstinance. The 2018 issue of The with our student audience across our Sex Survey featured the disucssion of social media using gifs and promotional taboo’s such as ‘friends with benefits’, material. This was important to hype up oral sex and cheating. It is important to the publication and ensure the survey note that the sex survey also discusses reached as wide a community as possible. sexual helath and the different ways We also developed relationships with you coan protect yourself from STI’s, societies such as UEA Pride Soc and the SU unwanted pregancy and which the to get the survey shared across platforms. kind of contraceptives that are available.

Following the publication’s release we were It is key to recognise that UEA’s Sex survey approached by UEA’s student union, to share our helps to sidssolve the stigma surrounding data with their Sexperience campaign tackling sexual relationships, sexual activity and sexual health. health. The comprehensive data covered topics from contraception to fetishes, asexuality to open relationships. Publications like The Sex survey are key at institutions such as university, where students may not be aware of the facilities and products avaialbe to help them.

28th January 2020

15

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Comment

16

26th January 2020

‘People don’t care about issues facing men’

Matt Branston Comment Editor

In early January, Crown Prosecution Service jailed the most prolific rapist in British history. Police think he may have attacked up to 190 men. One common theme was that victims were scared to speak up over fears of questioning their masculinity. It’s a serious issue right now that men are sexually assaulted, and then either do nothing about it or are terrified of revealing it because they don’t want the police to disregard them, or their friends to joke about them.

The average male sexual assault victim takes three decades to come forward. That’s three decades dealing with pain and trauma and even then, what support could they get?

There’s not even a specific government strategy for male rape,

it’s folded into the government’s ‘Violence against Women and Girls’ agenda. How can men feel supported when the government doesn’t even seem to care?

It’s also a serious problem when even when men are sexually assaulted by women, it can’t be legally called rape because rape is considered penetrative.

It affects many men when they find out that what’s happened to them can’t even be called rape because it doesn’t fit the nonsense legal definition.

Yes, I’m aware that women are raped and sexually assaulted at a higher rate, but that doesn’t invalidate what happens to men.

It’s genuinely horrifying that you can’t talk about men being raped without having to qualify it by pointing out what happens to women too.

This is a genuine criticism people use, it’s not something that

I’ve made up. Even when discussing this article with people, I’ve heard ‘oh but it’s not like what happens to women’, and that’s just not relevant.

One group’s suffering doesn’t invalidate another’s.

One of the worst elements is the treatment that young men and boys

“One group’s suffering doesn’t invalidate another’s” get when an older woman sexually assaults them. Just this week, I heard a group of men laughing about young boys who were assaulted by a teacher, and saying they should be thankful for the “opportunity”.

Even when the numerous stories

come out about teachers assaulting boys, the conversation always turns to how attractive the woman is.

It’s absolutely disgusting and contributes to the prevailing opinion that men have to want to have sex, and aren’t allowed to not want it or say no.

So, when they think about going to the police or for support, the shame and stigma is so intrinsically within the male psyche that most people can’t do it. They can’t bring themselves to do anything.

It all links together, people just don’t care about issues facing men. You can say it’s because of the ‘damn patriarchy’ and that men rule the world so who cares about men having issues, but one in six men in the UK face sexual violence and it seems like almost no one cares.

When the most prolific rapist in British history is finally jailed, it gets talked about for a week, probably less.

Photo: Oliver Shrouder

But no one is going to care in a Photo: Pikrepo month or a year. It’s despicable.

As much as people want to claim that life is simply fantastic for men, it’s just not. Three-quarters of all suicides are men, it’s the biggest killer of men under 45. 84% of homeless people in the UK are men, and they receive much less sympathy and support than women.

Men work longer hours, are 22 times more likely to go to prison, are less likely to receive custody of children. 35% of domestic violence sufferers are men, but there is massive underreporting and almost no help or support. The fact is that a huge percentage of the population has internalised sexism against men.

It’s very easy for me to say in this article: “please support people, please help change the culture around male sexual assault”, but I just can’t see inherent disregard for the male victims of rape changing. I hope it does.

UEA needs to support international students Callista Tjitra Comment Writer

There are always one or two barriers that threaten the smoothflowing process of transition and adjustment.

This is especially true for international students who go abroad for university but find themselves quite unable to establish a grounded identity, both in their academic life and their social life.

There is a constant balancing of scales where one side is weighed down by identity, values and norms unique to a specific cultural influence, and on the other side is the struggle of needing to adapt to an alien environment.

It’s my second year here at UEA and I still catch myself in situations where I am reminded of my minority status as an international student and unfortunately, to say that more than half of those experiences made

me uncomfortable would be a big understatement.

Whether it is receiving a backhanded compliment from a member of staff marveling at how my English is, “so good… for an international student” (I still remember her comically shocked face as she said this), or a warning that came with a concerned expression at how, “extremely competitive” it is when I asked a Professor about the upcoming summer internships at an international students welcome event.

I have to admit I would always feel a strong urge to bolt out the door at lighting speed whenever these things happened.

Several weeks ago, I sat in a seminar class surrounded by local students and had the opportunity to discuss two proposed solutions for racial discrimination and racism: multiculturalism or colourblindness?

As an international student and a member of an ethnic minority

group, I felt compelled to speak but I also remember a dreadful feeling of being the one to provide a spotlight on the elephant in the room.

A spotlight that felt too small for a problem that’s too big because it’s been allowed to brew underneath our noses for too long.

To this day, I still haven’t got the answer but after some thinking and

“I would always feel a strong urge to bolt out the door at lightning speed” a series of hushed conversations with other international students, this is what I can offer for now.

Colour-blindness is just another coat of fresh paint that gives a layer

of protection to those who wish to continue to live in their bubble.

It bestows upon them more power and reason to cling onto their right to remain silent.

All that for what?

Perhaps to spare them their blushes.

In addition to individual efforts to bridge the gap between international students and local students, I also call upon the university to address the issue that is very well within their reach.

Although it is impossible to hold the university accountable for the way people socialise, I strongly support the view that the university plays a crucial role in creating a safe and harmonious learning atmosphere from which international students are expected to work alongside local students.

Photo: Matt Branston

17

26th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/comment/ | @ConcreteUEA

Should we ban cars in cities?

For

the

Erica Thajeb Comment Writer

Hoping to tackle air pollution and reduce congestion, a Birmingham transport plan has been released which will ban private cars from driving through the city centre. The goal is for travel within the city to be public transport-oriented, not car-oriented According to a resident of an adjacent village, the current public transport system is so unreliable that people choose to drive because they don’t trust local public transport. Banning cars with the hopes of increased use of public transport is therefore ridiculous, considering the current reluctance for many to use it. The idea behind the ban may be noble, but if it’s to be implemented, shouldn’t the system first be fixed so it can regain people’s trust? After all, they are the ones who will have to use and rely on it.

200,000 vehicles pass through the city every day, and reducing that number to 0 is simply unrealistic.

Those who live inside the city, on one end of it, but work on the other must then endure longer commute hours.

This is also unfair for outof-city drivers who will need to

drivers

drive around the city, adding even more hours to their daily commute.

It’s unreasonable to eliminate all traffic for privately-owned cars, but maybe they could try a timed limit and allow access to public roads only during certain hours.

Or they could use the odd-even rule temporarily employed in Delhi and Jakarta, where only cars with odd-numbered plates can drive on odd dates and vice versa. This will reduce traffic and increase the use of public transport without completely taking away people’s freedom of driving.

A complete ban is also impractical when people need urgent hospital assistance.

Yes, ambulances are cleared to use the road, but what about patients whose conditions aren’t threatening enough to receive immediate response, yet too unwell to navigate the busy public transport?

Obviously, having to line up, get in and out of buses, walk between stations and endure the crowd won’t help them feel better.

Nor will it help people who have to get to seriously ill loved ones at a moment’s notice.

Unfortunately, this plan just seems incredibly short-sighted in the current situation.

For the environment

29k

Henry Webb

miles of roads

Comment Writer

39

m

vehicles in the UK

Vs. 34m full licence drivers

1commute 7m to

work

The fewer cars there are in a city, the better that city is for people.

They are bad for health and the environment, as well as being one of the most space inefficient modes of transport.

It’s no surprise then that cities around the world are planning for what a car-free future might look like, and Birmingham is the latest to offer a proposal.

As expected, it’s proving controversial. The plan would limit private vehicle use in the city centre and ban through-journeys, instead directing traffic onto the ring road.

One major argument against the proposal is that it would increase congestion by forcing all traffic onto the same routes. This at first sounds reasonable, until you realise that it’s the reverse of the flawed argument used to justify road expansions.

If the number of people choosing to drive was constant, increasing road capacity would reduce congestion. But when roads become less congested, more people choose to drive, and soon enough you’re exactly where you started.

In the first few months of Birmingham’s plan it’s likely traffic will get worse, but when people realise this they will adapt.

If the city makes the necessary investments in public transport and cycle infrastructure, this will result in more people choosing to travel Photo: Pixabay by bus, tram, bike, or foot.

The benefits of this go far beyond just reducing carbon emissions. Air quality will improve, reducing the 900 premature deaths each year linked to air pollution in Birmingham alone.

Removing cars also makes cities safer and allows necessary traffic, like buses and ambulances to travel faster.

Cities have also found increased spending at local businesses in areas where pedestrians and cyclists are prioritised.

This could be invaluable as brick-and-mortar businesses continue to lose out to online companies.

In the next decade cities like Amsterdam and Oslo, that have already taken steps to reduce reliance on the car, must become the new normal.

There will be resistance, and it won’t come cheap, but it’s the bare minimum of what’s required to future-proof our cities.

Emily Webb: ‘I pity Harry and Meghan’ In this dismal time, our country is facing a plethora of real, unavoidable issues: climate change, racism, a failing healthcare service, and a buffoon as prime minister (subject to opinion), to name a few.

However, issues of immigration laws and Brexit consistently rise to the top of our headlines. Therefore, I was shocked to see that some Brits seem worried about an immigrant leaving the United Kingdom as opposed to complaining about their presence in our society. The immigrant in question is Meghan Markle.

This is due to Prince Harry and Meghan’s decision to move away from their royal duties by spending half of their time with Meghan’s family; independent from the “soul crushing” royal protocols they described to the press, a n d

the vast amount of public money received by the royal family that they both disagreed with. While this was all the couple wanted, the decision to strip the two from their HRH duties was made final last week. This was a shock to Harry: “Our hope was to continue serving the queen, the Commonwealth and my military associations without public funding. Sadly that wasn’t possible.”

Harry followed with: “I’ve accepted this knowing it doesn’t change who I am, or how committed I am. But I hope that helps you understand what it had come to, that I would step back from all I have ever known to take a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life.”

The decision was surprising, however, the response from the British public was far more displeasing. The keyboard warriors of Facebook were quick to jump on the topic, using a litany of racist and sexist slurs.

Reading through the comments of a Facebook post from The Daily Mail, I felt disgusted. Among the

“They are people with feelings and with love” biggest criticisms is the money the couple received for the wedding and the refurbishments to Frogmore C o t t a g e ,

refurbishments they claim they’ll pay back the cost of.

But, of course, we don’t care.

Us Brits always want something to blame, and a feminist, mixed race, strong woman seems a good target.

We love to be angry and we will not consider how Harry may have had a part to play in this decision, by simply wanting a “peaceful life” for himself and his family. We will turn a blind eye to the prospect of having a child under surveillance of the public, the journalists at their doorstep, the sadness it must cause.

We will ignore the real sexism within the royals, the claustrophobic protocol and how Meghan may have disagreed with it (as most the public say they would too) and quite rightly so.

We will not mention how Harry may have been affected growing up in a family that ultimately caused the death of his mother – not in terms of the conspiracy but the press following her as an ex-royal

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

before the crash. We will ignore the fundamental traits of two caring people and we shall blame them for all of the financial issues of our country, of course as the fellow royals continue to be publically funded.

Why? Because we are British, we are Royalist and we hate change.

We shall destroy the life of one family before we take into account the wider issues in our society, in our royal system, and in our care for one another as human beings.

I pity Harry and Meghan and I hope their move sparks peace and privacy for themselves and for their child.

They are people, with feelings and with love, love they would like to keep out of the public eye and the front pages, and with how they’re being treated, can you blame them?

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

Science

18

28th January 2020

Are we made of stardust?

Photo: Pixabay

Mali Hitchcock Brown Science Writer

New research, published in ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, conducted on a meteorite that struck Australia has found evidence of stardust that formed over five billion years ago, before our solar system formed.

It is believed to be the oldest known material found on our planet.

At the beginning of the universe only the elements hydrogen and helium existed.

Stars started to form from clouds of dust and gas, that collapsed under the force of gravity. Stars act like a nuclear reactor, converting hydrogen into helium, and helium into carbon, and eventually everything we are made of.

When stars get to the end of

their lives, they swell up and fall together, throwing off their outer layers. If a star is heavy enough, it will explode in a Supernova.

“Effectively, all the material we’re made up of comes from dying stars” It is mainly these large and ancient stars that release tiny granules of stardust as they die and explode.

When studied, these granules can reveal clues about how stars were formed in the Milky Way.

The Australian meteorite accumulated the stardust during the billions of years it spent soaring through space before it crashed down to Earth near the town of Murchison, Victoria in 1969.

Results showed that the granules had absorbed many cosmic rays over the eons.

The oldest grains were dated to about 7 billion years ago, with the majority dating to between 4.6 billion and 4.9 billion years ago, and a small handful dating to 5.6 billion years ago. So, all the interstellar particles found in the Murchison meteorite originated before the formation of our Sun and solar system.

Scientists can infer from these results that star formation was not a constant in our galaxy.

The relatively high number of

particles dating to 4.6 billion - 4.9 billion years ago, suggests these grains originated during a time of intense stellar formation. This was labelled as the key finding of the study.

So, what does all this mean in terms of you and me?

Effectively, all the material that we’re made of comes out of dying stars.

We even contain a small amount of stardust from the estimated beginning of the universe 13.8 billion years ago!

In fact, a study in 2017 proved this. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) in New Mexico, analysed the composition of 150,000 stars using a method called spectroscopy.

Humans and the milky way

share 97% of the same atoms, and the elements of life appear to be more prevalent toward the galaxy’s centre, the research found.

Jennifer Johnson, professor at The Ohio State University states that, “this allows us to place constraints on when and where in our galaxy life had the required elements to evolve, a sort of temporal galactic habitable zone.”

Although the new research helps answer some more questions on the stellar formation of the Milky Way, there is still much to be discovered.

Scientists believe even older granules could be present in the Murchison meteorite, as well as others.

It is hoped that additional research might help further map the changes in rates of stellar formation in our Galaxy.

You used to call me on my shell phone Erica Thajeb Science Writer

Photo: Peakpx

Neanderthals shared 99% of the DNA of Homo sapiens, but the 1% difference in DNA has led to the species being characterised as a somewhat inferior species to Homo sapiens. A recent discovery however, now indicates that Neanderthals may have been able to swim, and even dive.

A new discovery validates the claim that Neanderthals were in fact capable swimmers. Grotta dei Moscerini, a cave in Italy that was once home for a group of Neanderthals, was previously excavated in 1949, but recent study has concluded that the seashells found there might have come from

the seafloor as far as 4 meters deep, meaning the Neanderthals had to swim underwater to collect them.

“The last of this ancient species is believed to have died out 37,000 years ago” The cave had over 170 handmade cutting tools dating from 100,000 years ago, which the inhabiting Neanderthals shaped from a species of smooth clam that can still be

found in the area today.

An archaeologist from the University of Colorado, Paola Villa, a shell specialist Carlo Smriglio, and colleagues analysed these tools from museum collections.

They realised dead clam shells that washed up on the shore look different from live ones collected from the seafloor.

The former are opaque, abraded, crusty and marked from being knocked against pebbles, while the latter are smooth and shiny. Out of all the shells found in the Neanderthals’ dwelling, one quarter of them had a shiny exterior, suggesting they were gathered from the seafloor.

The previous understanding was that Neanderthals were primarily hunters of large mammals. They

were the apex predator of their time, and hunted deer, wild boar, ibex and occasionally woolly mammoth.

Sometimes they’d collect mussels and fish in shallow waters, however there has been little evidence of swimming until now.

Like our ancestors, Neanderthals also originated in Africa, but migrated and spread across Eurasia.

The last of this ancient species is believed to have died out 37,000 years ago.

Archaeologist Francesca Romagnoli applauded Villa’s research, and said this provides evidence of the complex behaviours of Neanderthals, as well as their ability to adapt and exploit the resources in their surroundings.

It turns out Neanderthals weren’t so different from us after all.

19

28th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/science/ | @ConcreteUEA

Aborigines may have the answer to wildfires Jake Walker-Charles Science Editor

Australian bushfires have so far scorched over 18,000,000 hectares and over 60 fires continue to burn in the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season, which commenced on the 5th of September last year, has been one of the worst in recent history. It is believed that up to one billion mammals, birds and reptiles have perished.

There has been a growing belief that the answer to preventing such devastation occurring in the future may in fact lie with the Aboriginal people.

Prior to European colonisation, the Aborigines practiced fire management techniques known as cultural burns. The logic behind this controlled burning, is to

purposefully start knee-high blazes in order to rid the area of leaf detritus and kindling, so that in the event of a natural bushfire, there would be less fuel to spread the flames. Although some animals would inevitably be killed in these controlled fires, this worked as an effort to prevent mass destruction. There is even a system of creating wildlife corridors; strips of preserved natural habitat that would allow animals to escape the fires. Aboriginal culture is about working with the Earth, which they believe to be a mother.

Shannon Foster, a knowledge keeper’ for the indigenous D’harawal people, said: “The bush needs to burn”, and that “the current controlled burns destroy everything. It’s a naïve way to practice fire management and isn’t listening to the indigenous people

who know the land best”.

There is a scientific logic to this practice. Foster states that “soft burning encourages rain [as] it warms the environment to a particular atmospheric level, and once the warm and the cool meet, condensation - rain - occurs, helping mitigate fires.” In addition to this, “cool burning replenishes the earth and enhances biodiversity - the ash fertilises and the potassium encourages flowering”. It appears the logic here is that, by being fine-tuned to the environment, it is possible to maintain an equilibrium and effectively prevent catastrophic natural disasters. So, why has the indigenous way of fire management been disenfranchised? The issue is that the knowledge of cultural burning was suppressed through the displacement of the Aborigines

from their homelands, the programmes of forced assimilation, and the banning of indigenous languages. Only after decades of legal battles have the Aborigines seen any form of a return of control of their land.

Today the indigenous people control 67 million hectares of Australian soil. This reclamation is in part a scheme to potentially revitalise traditional cultural burning methods. Some scientists, however, have claimed that the landscape is very different from its pre-colonisation state. Colonisation led to development, and humancreated climate change, so there are fears that the cultural burning techniques may not be applicable to the current situation. In terms of the current situation, Associate Professor Noel Preece, a former

national parks ranger, believes that “nothing could have stopped these fires”. However, it could have potential preventative uses for future fires.

Looking towards the future, Foster raises concerns about how all this fire-cleared land is going to be utilised. She states: “It terrifies me that so much land has been decimated, developers could move in and say we might as well put this estate here; the land is cleared.” She describes the situation as ‘devastating’, and is awaiting the day that there will be proper communication between the government and the indigenous people, so that the Aborigines (who are the oldest surviving civilisation in the world and have been around for roughly 50,000 years) can finally make their voices heard.

Photo: Flickr

Nuclear weapons: who still has them?

Alec Banister Science Writer

Nuclear arms are the most powerful explosives created to date, with the ability to completely destroy a large city. A nuclear explosion is created by either splitting atoms (Fission), or merging tiny atom particles together (Fusion). The most commonly used isotope to create nuclear weapons is uranium-235 and plutonium-239.

Within a second of detonation, a nuclear bomb creates a deadly fireball that instantly kills anyone within its radius. This is accompanied by the release of thermal energy, in the form of a

“The US and Russia each have over 4,000 warheads” blinding white light that can cause skin burns and eye damage. Further, radiation is produced that can cause damage to human cells, resulting in death or long-term implications such as cancer.

The first nuclear bomb was developed at the end of the Second World War in 1945 by the United States, and subsequently two bombs were dropped on Japan that killed over 150,000 people combined. In response, the Soviet Union quickly

developed its own nuclear bomb and an Arms Race started. The number of nuclear warheads peaked in 1986 with an estimated 64,000 spread across the world, which had the ability to completely destroy the world’s surface 3 times over.

It is arguably this Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), that prevented either the US or Soviet Union from ever actually using nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and consequently created global stability and peace to some extent. Although there were some close occasions such as the Cuban missile crisis (1961), and the NATO War Game codenamed operation Able Archer 83 (1983).

Fast forward to today, eight countries (US, UK, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea) have nuclear weapons. Plus, Israel who is suspected of possessing nuclear arms, but has neither officially confirmed nor denied having them.

Estimates put the number of active warheads today at roughly 10,000, with the US and Russia each having over 4,000, while the other individual countries have between 100-300. The main reason so few countries have developed nuclear capabilities is due to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that was signed in 1968 and stated that non-nuclear weapon countries would not ‘receive, manufacture, or acquire nuclear weapons’ in return for peaceful nuclear power

information. Only North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty (2003), while India, Israel, Pakistan and South Sudan never signed it.

Iran signed the treaty in both 1968 and 1995 when the treaty was extended indefinitely.

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported in November 2003 that Iran had breached the terms of the treaty, by failing to follow its safeguards and not declaring its uranium enrichment program. Since then there have been high tensions between Iran and other nuclear countries. The Iran Nuclear deal in 2015 had partly de-escalated the tension, but President Trump criticised the deal, and subsequently withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

In 2018, the US also withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that banned missiles with a range of 500-5500km.

The Treaty had been an important agreement in ending the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, which was still in effect after Russia inherited it.

The end of the Treaty has caused speculation of another Arms Race, with countries continuing to invest billions researching and developing nuclear weapons.

This suggests that Nuclear arms will most likely continue to be a debated issue for the foreseeable future.

Photo: Flickr

Travel

20

28th January 2020

Christmas in Copenhagen, Denmark Sam Hewitson Travel Editor

Most people during deadline season, especially the week before essays are due, hunker down in the library and forget about the outside world.

I, on the other hand, take off on a weekend away and ignore all the stresses of university for 48 hours.

It was my Grandma’s birthday, and one of her favourite cities in Europe is the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, so naturally I was up for going to celebrate there.

All I knew of Copenhagen was the steep prices attached to almost everything, the statue of the Little Mermaid, and some of the best Christmas markets the world has to offer.

The whole city was magical.

Elaborate lights were strung across the cobbled streets, large festive centrepieces decorated the squares and the markets were everything I hoped for.

The sights were spectacular, the smells were sensational, the sounds were special.

Everyone was drinking mulled wine and hot chocolate, snacking on hotdogs and pretzels and buying Christmas decorations.

It truly is a shame about the

“Living abroad meant that we always made the most of visits to England” high prices, because I would’ve eaten enough for a year if I had the chance.

Obviously, we explored more than the markets on this trip. It was my first time in Denmark, and I wanted to make

the most of it.

My parents and I made the trip to see the Little Mermaid statue, which although ridiculously busy, was worth the visit.

We clambered down to the rocks closest to the statue for the best view, and some family selfies - a nice touch after not seeing each other for months.

Nyhavn harbour was also high on our lists to see, where multicoloured buildings line the water and quaint independent restaurants have been set up within them.

This was possibly my favourite destination in the city, because it was the most quintessentially Scandinavian place in Copenhagen.

Lastly, we visited Tivoli Gardens, a theme park in the middle of the city.

At Christmas time, it was breathtaking, but also visiting at night was a

brilliant decision - the lights of the rides were beautiful on their own, but with festive decorations also, it was all the more magical.

There was even a 20 foot Christmas tree with Swarovski crystals glistening in the centre, a sight which made my mum act like a 10 year old.

The indoor food markets, however, were one of the highlights of the trip.

There were thousands of pastries in the displays on one side, and the biggest, ugliest fish on the other.

Honestly, the sight of a fish the size of a small child with its teeth bared and creepy eyes is forever etched into my memory.

Although, I could have easily spent an entire day there alone sampling all the food and drink on offer.

Copenhagen is a fascinating city, especially during the Winter. I believe it is one of the best festive destinations available and a city with lots to offer all year round, and I would gladly go back to explore more.

Maybe look elsewhere if you are on a budget though.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Antarctica: tourism in the white continent Erica Thejab Travel Writer

Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth and effectively uninhabited.

But travellers are increasingly determined to visit this glacial continent, resulting in Antarctica’s

“Travellers are increasingly determined to visit this glacial continent” tourism almost quadrupling in the last two decades.

Antarctica can be reached by air or sea, though sailing is the more popular choice as many

claim the journey through the Drake Passage is a part of the unforgettable Antarctica experience.

The most common departure port is from Ushuaia, Argentina, and the cruise can last anywhere from six to 18 days.

There is also the option to fly in from Southern Chile.

Though flying will save you more time, it’s also more expensive and has limited departure dates.

While there, there are plenty of things in Antarctica to keep you marvelling, including the abundant wildlife it boasts.

You can see emperor penguins belly sliding and jumping out of the water, migrating killer and humpback whales meters away from your kayak, or finding seals tucked away in a hidden corner of an iceberg.

Not to mention the unique landscape of ashy glaciers and steaming beaches produced by Deception Island, an active volcano, massive cliffs around the ocean, the surreal colours bouncing off glaciers, the Southern Lights and even several historical buildings.

If you’d like to experience all of this, the best time to visit is between November to March.

Though it’s becoming more and more accessible, a trip to the white continent is still quite expensive.

“There's plenty of things in Antarctica to keep you marvelling” The flight and cruise will take up most of your budget and depending on the cruise length, operator, route and room type, this ranges between £6,000 and £15,000.

Good travel insurance covering travel delays, emergency evacuation and baggage issues costs around £70 to £100.

Adding to those costs, clothes, equipment and other miscellaneous expenses, an overall budget trip to Antarctica can cost £7000, while a luxurious getaway can go as high as £20,000.

However, with the increasing popularity comes some subsequent negative impacts.

For example, the unintentional introduction of non-native plant and spore species by unsuspecting carriers.

Antarctica has a limited tourist season due to the harsh weather and ice movement, which unfortunately coincides with the wildlife breeding season and may be a potential disturbance.

There’s also the threat of pollution, like the cruise ship oil spill that occurred in 2007.

Some people would say to visit this southernmost continent as soon as possible, before climate change or overtourism make the site unavailable for public.

But what do you think? Is Antarctica in your travel bucket list?

Photo: Flickr

21

28th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/travel/ | @ConcreteUEA

An Amster-damn good trip Jess Barrett

myself and my boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed our stay. It was my partner’s first time in the famous city and I rather enjoyed playing tour guide.

Both times I have been to Amsterdam Prior to the trip, we had booked it has rained, however during my most of the must-see attraction such trip in early January, the rain was as the Anne Frank haus, A’DAM accompanied by wind and fog. Lookout and the Van Gogh museum.

Although we had not been given I would strongly advise anyone the best weather for our city break, going to a busy city to book anything you really want to do, it makes the trip so much less stressful knowing you have to be at a certain place at a scheduled t i m e .

Sometimes when you’re on holiday it is easy to lose track of time, especially when you’re having fun w a l k i n g around and exploring your city.

Paying for appointments is a sure way to organise y o u r s e l f whilst away.

Another benefit to b o o k i n g Photo: Jess Barrett Deputy Editor

your tours and trips is ensuring that you are able to go and see what you want to, as a lot of these attractions are overbooked.

In Amsterdam we would have had to queue for hours if we had not booked our tour in advance.

Another amazing aspect to our trip was the amazing bars we visited during the nighttime.

Our hotel was situated underneath the famous Sky Bar. The bar was filled with giant blue balloons in various shades which added to the atmosphere within the room. The drinks were delicious and presented beautifully in funky ceramic glasses, however they were expensive at just under 20 euros each.

The next night we went to an amazing, small and intimate bar called The Flying Dutchman, their cocktails were delicious and

“I rather enjoyed playing tour guide” included liquors I had never heard of before. My boyfriend got their whisky platter which came with Coca Cola’s signature Smoky flavour.

We made friends with some people on a date next to us, one

of them lived in Amsterdam and recommended that we go to this bar at the top of the W Hotel complex.

We didn’t have another night in Amsterdam so decided we

“Another amazing aspect to our trip was the amazing bars we visited” would go there around lunch time the next day, their drinks were expensive again with a Heineken costing around five euros however the view was amazing.

They had a real log fire pit in the centre of the bar’s entrance and had some modern art placed starkly within the seating.

The best element of our trip was something that we stumbled upon by accident, we were walking along the canals near the Anne Frank house when we saw a dozen cats inside of a boat.

We found out it was a sanctuary and it was free to go in so we spent around 15 minutes stroking cats.

We had planned to go to a Cat Café, but this was miles better as were able to donate and directly improve the quality of life of the cats, rather than contributing to a larger business.

A guide to the Northern Lights Jess Trowbridge Travel Writer

The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are a natural phenomenon occurring in the Northern hemisphere, where glowing lights appear in the sky during the night usually in shades of green and blue.

It is a rare, breathtaking spectacle, and because of this it is a popular activity on many bucket lists.

To make sure you can complete this activity, there are a few elements to take into account before going to chase the Northern Lights.

The lights frequently appear from September to April during the night (specifically 9pm to 1am).

Some tourists recommend using an Aurora forecasting app, as it can accurately predict when and where the lights will appear.

Although, it is important to note that they are not always accurate, so it is advised to go out every night regardless of the forecast!

Every year, many travellers return disappointed after trips that are made with the sole purpose to view the Northern Lights.

Therefore, it is important to pick a destination that provides alternative

activities and sights that interest you.

The top three countries to visit when wanting to see the Northern Lights that have both the perfect conditions to view them and a multitude of activities to get up to during the day are Tromso (Norway), Reykjavik (Iceland) and Abisko (Sweden).

These three cities all have their attractions, with some overlapping, but others being very specific to the country. Tromso is rated as the third best destination by TripAdvisor for its historic monuments like the Arctic Cathedral, as well as being a popular retail destination.

The Norwegian city offers activities such as sailing, fishing, whale watching and reindeer sledding as its top tourist attractions.

or visiting one of the three National Parks, it might be more rewarding for you to stay at Reykjavik.

Activities such as whale watching and horse riding are also popular in Iceland.

Abisko is popular for those interested in both the natural and cultural splendour of a country, as it offers frozen

waterfalls and landscapes as well as dog sledding, reindeer tours and the infamous Ice Hotel.

It has been hypothesised that with the changing climate the appearance of the Northern Lights will become less frequent.

If witnessing them is on your Bucket List, waiting to be ticked off, the sooner you go the better!

“It is important to pick a destination that provides alternative activities ” Iceland is known for its self heating lakes and springs, so if you are more interested in glacier hiking

Photo: Pixabay

Preparing for a Semester in Malta Roo Pitt Travel Writer

For those students across UEA who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to study abroad for a semester or year out their degree, I’m sure the same thought has crossed your mind, what is it really like? Is it worth it?

A quick introduction, I am currently a second-year International Relations student here at UEA, for my semester abroad I will be travelling to the University of Malta, which is situated just outside the capital city, Valletta, in the smaller town of Msida.

I am at that stage in the process where everything has been sorted and I’m just trying to catch all my UEA pals before I disappear into the unknown.

I’m going to rewind though and try to talk you through how I reached this point.

When you first apply to study abroad, most people tend to pick somewhere they either have fond memories of, or have romanticised over for some time, for me both applied.

Malta was one of the best places I’ve visited, it’s local enough that I can pop home if need be and family/friends can visit, and I’ve very much romanticised the Mediterranean lifestyle.

With 300 days of sunshine, stunning coves and bays to be explored, Malta really does sound attractive.

So, I know where I’m going, what’s next? What seems like mountains of paperwork and discussions with the Study Abroad office (who are actually fantastic at guiding you through the various things you need to do) then start thinking about insurance, flights, accommodation and money.

You’d think most of these would be easy, but faced with the uncertainty of Brexit, at the time of applying, Erasmus funding was hanging in the balance amongst other uncertainties around visas and what have you, but luckily all these seem to have been ironed out, for now.

I booked flights first, as I figured accommodation could be worked around when the flights were cheapest and being flexible with dates (and times) for flights certainly reduced the cost. I managed to secure flights for just £20 out and £14 return. What a bargain.

Accommodation was actually secured through AirBnB in the end, which provided more security than local agents and allowed me to pay in GBP (saving exchange or risky international bank transfers).

It is not only significantly closer to the uni, but also about £200 per month cheaper. So as with any form of purchase, shop around, you will have plenty of time to plan.

Next time I will be writing to you from Malta itself!

Sport Are footballers more at risk of developing dementia?

28th January 2020

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Photo: Flickr

Jamie Hose Sport Editor

Dr Michael Grey, of UEA’s School of Health Sciences, has a list of expertise matched in length only by the number of universities at which he has conducted his research, ranging from Aalborg and Copenhagen in Denmark, to Jyvaskyla in Finland, and Birmingham, before joining UEA in 2017.

His field of expertise dips its toes in non-invasive electrophysiology, transcranial magnetic stimulation and neuroimaging techniques, but his interest in the impact of mild traumatic brain injuries (concussions) has led him most recently to the football pitch.

Dr Grey leads a research team investigating the link between mild tissue damage obtained from heading the ball in football with the onset of dementia.The study follows in the wake of research carried out by the Glasgow Group, released in October of last year, that matched ex-professional Scottish footballers against a sample group of people the same age and socioeconomic background to see if there were different patterns of brain degeneration.

“What they found was that there was a three and a half times increased rate of neurodegeneration compared with the

control group,” Dr Grey says.

“And if you look specifically at something like dementia then, depending on the type of dementia, it varied. It’s still about three and a half but Alzheimer’s disease specifically was a five times greater risk… if you played professional football compared with if you didn’t.

“So that right there says there’s a link. Now the question is what do we do about it, and that’s where my study comes in.”

“The question is, what’s the rate of decline?”

The new study focuses on learning exactly what goes on inside the heads of ex-footballers and what shape their decline takes.

As Dr Grey explains: “Everybody declines. Now, the question is, what’s the rate of decline? Ideally we decline at a slow rate until we get really, really old and then we decline really quickly and we die. That’s the ideal case.

“Of course, it’s not that way with most of us. You know, there’s a shallow decline but it’s steepness

of that decline that’s important. And our question with the footballers is really: is the decline in footballers different on average than the decline that we would see normally.

“So, that means is the rate of the decline steeper and/or is the onset of that decline earlier?”

But he remains clear that he has no expectations regarding the results of the study.

“The hypothesis is that there will be a steeper decline and the onset will be earlier than the general population, but that’s the hypothesis that we’re testing.

“Now that’s a scientific construct. That doesn’t mean I necessarily believe this will be the case. That’s how we do science: we make a hypothesis and we test the hypothesis. We then either accept the null hypothesis or we reject it.

“I have no expectations.”

In its current setup, the study’s focus remains within the Norfolk region. It deals with a group of 50 ex-professional footballers, and matches them against samples taken from an online survey of the Norfolk population, with researchers harvesting results every six months.

However, the aim is to complete the regional study by January 2021 at the latest, and then expand the investigation first nationally, and then internationally.

“Down the road it’s going to

be hundreds of footballers and thousands of control people,” Dr Grey says.While there is little, as of yet, revolutionary about the investigation, an aspect that he is excited by is the inclusion of women.

“The women angle to this story, I think, is really, really important because the vast majority of studies in this area look at men. Nobody looks at women,” he explains.

“Everybody in this industry knows what we need to do.”

But supposing the research proves the hypothesis, and it becomes accepted that football headers lead to brain degeneration earlier or more rapidly than normal, what would the result be? Dr Grey asserts that his study is not aiming to make any rule alterations to the game of football.

“This study is about… looking after the people that are still alive,” he says. “In our group of people we’ll see some people who are not performing quite as well as they should be, and it will allow us

to signpost them to get a proper clinical diagnosis and, if needed, then treatment.”

Nevertheless, he explains that the damage caused by minor head traumas like headers is widely accepted, and he believes investigation should lead to a reduction in the number of headers per game, both professionally and in practice, especially with young children playing.

“Everybody in this industry knows what we need to do. It’s no secret. We need to stop kids from heading balls at a very young age,” he says.

“We’re not getting rid of heading from the game, nobody’s suggesting that at the minute. We’re suggesting that we look at what do we do with kids and bringing them up to a stage where they could be heading balls. Once we get to sort of teenagers and adults then what we need to be doing is, I think, is really minimising the contact time, minimising exposure during practices and spending a little bit more time practicing keeping the ball on the ground.”

He points to plummeting incidences of heading per game in recent years as a promising trend.

With more and more studies being conducted into the effects of subconcussive injuries, it may be that the game is taking notice.

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28th January 2020

concrete-online.co.uk/category/sport/ | @Concrete_UEA

Hat-trick from Pollard sinks Scole Oli Povey Sport Writer

Photo: Oli Povey

The UEA Reserves dispatched Scole United Reserves with ease thanks to a hat-trick from striker, Luke Pollard.

An electric first half saw UEA race away with the game; Pollard scoring two goals from close range after lax Scole defending.

His quick hat-trick was intercut with an own goal from the Scole keeper after a powerful cross from winger Rohan Bunger, who was a threat all game.The fourth goal was a scrappy scramble in the box, but Pollard did not care as it finished off his first hat-trick for the club.

The U’s kept pressing for more before the break, with Oscar Pettit lashing a shot from 20-yards out, firing just wide of the top corner.

The attacking quality fell away in the second half with few chances for both sides.

With victory all but assured, UEA brought out the party pieces.

Bunger pulling off a roulette around a defender, and Pollard flicking the ball over one defender before being clattered by another.

Scole had their only chance of the game mid-way through: a tame shot that was easily caught by UEA keeper Callum Honess.

The best chance fell to full back Lawrence Paxton who drove down the wing from right back before smashing the ball across the keeper

and wide.

A good victory overall with some great individual performances.

But there was action for the other UEA teams as well, with the first team surviving a late scare to beat Hellesdon 3-2.

After going three goals up, including a chipped finish from Mo Hassan, the U’s nearly threw the game away late on in a ferocious final 15 minutes.

Despite scoring a late penalty

“With victory all but assured, UEA brought out the party pieces” to reduce the arrears to a single goal, Hellesdon could not find the equaliser and the UEA 1s squeezed out the result.

For the UEA ‘A’ team, it was a defeat at home to Hethersett Athletic.

Despite producing the better chances, the first half ended 0-0 but it didn’t take long after the break to open up the visitors.

Captain Viwath Tan’s goal was not enough however, as a mistake from the UEA keeper let Hethersett get the equaliser from range.

A second counter-attack sliced open the home team again but no response could be found as UEA

Inside the car: what it’s like to rally Laura Cooledge Sport Writer

I’m a third year Physical Education student, a degree that naturally means I participate in all the usual sports.

But I’ve also been heavily involved with Motorsport my entire life.

I started driving in trials at 14 years old, then rally co-driving at 16.

Both my parents have been rallying since they were my age, so it was just natural that I would get involved as soon as I was old enough.

Rallying has got to be my favourite sport, and it’s one that not many people know about.

Nothing can beat the feeling of adrenaline on the start line and reaching those high speeds throughout the stages.

I’ve got a couple of exciting rallies coming up that I will be competing in – the Snetterton Stage Rally on the 15th of February, and the Corbeau Seats Tendring & Clacton Rally in April.

I’m particularly excited about

these as they are my most local rallies.

Snetterton is only a half an hour drive away from UEA, and there’s always such a fantastic atmosphere at both these events with thousands of spectators coming out to watch.

Although next month’s Stage Rally will use the race circuit at Snetterton, rallying is different to racing.

You do not just do laps around the same circuit, each stage is different and can contain different terrains, tight corners and chicanes.

My role is vital in guiding the driver through the stages and making sure they know exactly what is coming up, so we can complete the stage in as fast a time as possible.

It’s a great sport that I’d love to see more young people, particularly girls, get involved with.

At the moment there are only so many rallies I can compete in alongside uni, so I can’t do quite as many events as I would like to.

Coursework, clubs and other commitments all need my attention.

But hopefully once I graduate I will have the time to compete in more!

Photo: Laura Cooledge

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28th January 2020

Sport

Photo: Flickr

The changing climate of sport: how the Australian wildfires have affected world sport Luke Saward Sport Senior Writer

The recent Australian bushfires have made the country hotter than ever before, even more so than the European heatwave that killed thousands in 2003.

Continued drought, extreme heat and forceful winds have formed a deadly concoction of fires that have raged at a speed more than twice that at which the average human can run.

Ensuing smoke clouds have caused medical timeouts, match suspensions and even player retirements aplenty at the 2020 Australian Open, with the air quality causing one tennis player to collapse on the court.

Slovenian world number 180 Dalila Jakupovic abandoned her qualifying match after exclaiming that she, “couldn’t walk anymore.”

What makes this even more remarkable is that Jakupovic does not suffer from asthma, nor has she ever had any prior issues with playing in intense heat.

With Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority warning civilians to stay indoors due to the

“very poor” air quality, the decision to proceed with the tournament is farcical.

Calls for rescheduling were largely ignored, yet wind projections indicated that the smoke would have drifted sufficiently for delayed qualifiers to have still been completed before the main draw began.

“All sports contribute to the problem” Tennis Australia may release statements prioritising the health and safety of the players, staff and spectators alike, but their actions are a direct contradiction to this.

Unfortunately, this reflects poorly on tennis as a whole and only adds to the organisation’s troubled history.

Novak Djokovic’s 2009 quarterfinal retirement due to heat stress will live long in the memory of many fans, with the defending champion relinquishing his crown due to

almost unplayable conditions.

More recently, in 2018, court surface temperatures reached 69°C. With Tennis Australia receiving major sponsorship from one of the largest investors in coal and gas in Australia, calls for greater participation from sporting bodies in the fight against climate change will surely only grow.

Yet it is not an issue that has only recently emerged. Studies have suggested that, since as recently as the 1980s, the winter sporting calendar has shrunk by 34 days on average in some areas.

The need for change has been ever-constant; hopefully this most recent tragedy will finally make this realisation sink in.

Sporting men and women can make a difference. Their wellreported donations to provide relief to those displaced by the fires, which have in turn led to millions more being raised by the general public, only serves to prove this point.

Tennis maestro Nick Kyrgios, F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, and football goalkeeper Matthew Ryan are just a few amongst those to have contributed. Larger sporting organisations must follow suit.

All sports contribute to the problem. Motor racing is the

obvious example, but the migration of spectators in seemingly harmless sports, like football and athletics, carry significant carbon footprints with them. As such, sport must help to provide a solution.

League Two Football Club Forest Green Rovers, as the world’s first United Nation certified carbonneutral football club, is a shining example of what can be achieved.

“Calls for rescheduling were largely ignored” The team uses a solar-powered robotic lawnmower to maintain its organic pitch, collecting the rainwater that falls on it for recycled use instead of the club’s mains water.

Their stadium charging facilities for electric cars, and Vegan Society-approved trademark both encourage sustainable living from their supporters too.

However, the United Nations initiative on climate change, of

which the Forest Green Rovers are a member, has attracted the attention of just three other UKbased professional sports clubs or associations in the year since it was unveiled.

Support needs to be more widespread, or these changing conditions will irreparably damage the sports that we love.

Baseball player, Gavin Cecchini quitting his contract with the Canberra Cavalry after just a month, due to fears over the smoke caused by the Australian bushfires, only serves to prove this fact.

Formerly a player for the New York Mets, Cecchini was expected to raise to profile of the Australian league. Any prospect of that has now gone forever.

Such decisions will surely only become more common.

With one journey from Norwich to Australia emitting as much carbon dioxide as is sustainable for one person in an entire year, it is true that fans must do their part.

However, clubs should act as role models for supporters in the battle against climate change, showing fans the way.

As of right now, this path to a more sustainable future is very much unlit.